My First Skyrim Mod

The new game in the Elder Scrolls series, Skyrim, has been a fabulous success since it’s release a few weeks ago. A true RPG, it is set in the frozen world of Skyrim, home of the Nords. You play as a person who is ‘Dragon Born’ with the ability to generate a range of magical shouts, in an effort to thwart the return of the deadly dragons.

This isn’t a review, as there are a bunch of those on the internet better than I can create. I just wanted to share with you my first game mod for Skyrim. If you’re unfamiliar with mods, or a (HA!) CONSOLE player, then let me explain.

Many PC games have the ability to be modified in various ways. Talented people (and sometimes the game companies themselves) come up with various bits of software which allow a person to extract and modify the game’s files. From simple texture replacers to full blown new worlds and quest lines, mods allow the game to live on well after the original stories have been told.

Personally, I like mods of two categories. First I like fun mods. Importing bits and pieces from other worlds and environments to give myself a bit of a laugh, and just because I can do it. Secondly I like adding things to the world that make my characters life easier. Often in games you have an inventory of items, which you collect over time. You have a weight limit usually, or a ‘slot’ limit, but you can carry items which don’t show on your character’s body at all. You can steal a giant golden urn and it fits in your back pocket… or somewhere. So, I enjoy making things like backpacks to put my stuff in. It just seems more natural to me that way.

Anyway, the first bit of tinkering I’ve done for Skyrim is in the fun category, and it adds in a shield styled after Captain America’s famous red, white and blue shield.

Not a great deal can be done with modding yet, until the creators release some software to allow adding in of additional items. From what I’ve (briefly) read it should be coming some time in January.

Captain America's Shield for Skyrim

My Month In Internet Re-Hab

Chapter One – Broken Arrow

It was a dark and stormy night. Rain was lashing the windows and flashes of lightning were crashing through the sky like …whatever. It was a storm. You’ve seen one before.

The house was hit and lightning knocked out the oven, my TV and my internet. Normally I unplug it, but decided to just turn it all off. There’s a lesson for you, dear reader.

Once the storm blew over I tried all the usual things you do to get Internet working again. Unplugging it, leaving it a while and plugging it back in and so forth. None of that worked and since it was a storm I figured it had struck the cable and knocked it out. My phone was also out, so it seemed the logical answer.

Calling Optus, I spoke to the first of many tech support representatives. He was from the phone support section, and while I was talking to him via mobile, my Optus phone decided to resurrect itself and start working again. He put me through to cable support.

This is where the fun began. Indian Tech Support.

Now… Before you jump to conclusions, let me clear this right up. I don’t get annoyed with foreign tech support because they are foreign. I get annoyed because when you’re trying to fix a problem, you need to be able to understand what the person is telling you, and they need to understand you. It doesn’t make a difference that they are Indian or Filipino or Martian. The same thing would apply if they were speaking in a strong Cockney accent.

It’s just hard to communicate with them. Not racist. End of story.

So, I’m talking to the first guy and he tells me to do all the standard stuff. Unplug the modem, turn off, reconnect and so on. I’m just getting no signal at all from the modem to the computer. At this point, I’m thinking it could be the actual outside cable, the modem, the Ethernet cable or the motherboard. I didn’t have a network card, just on the board.

Optus Guy says that from his end, it’s all working perfectly and there’s no problem. I ask if it’s the modem and he tells me that it can’t be, because he’s getting good signal from his end. It must be my computer.

Fine. It’s not the modem.

The next day I go to work and buy a network card from a guy there for $30. Expensive, but I had no internet. It’s like crack, brother.

At the end of the day I take it home and connect it up, and the card is as dead as a dodo. No lights come on or anything at all. I guess it could be the Ethernet cable…

Next I go to Jaycar, a shop that sells various electronics and such. I took the cable down and they ran it through a tester, which came up fine. I bought another network card and tried again.

Still nothing.

Having nothing to lose I called Optus again, to make sure the first guy wasn’t just on Work Experience.

Indian.

I explain what I’d done last time and that I’d already spoken to them and had replaced the network card and so on.

He goes through exactly the same thing again and tells me the modem is fine. He says to me, “Do you have a laptop to plug the modem into so that you can see it’s working?”

“I don’t have a laptop, sorry.”

“So you don’t have a laptop you can plug it into so you can see it’s working?” He suggests.

“No, I don’t have a laptop.”

“Oh.” A pause. “Can you get a laptop so you can plug it in to see if it’s working?” He suggests.

“I don’t have, or have access to a laptop.”

“If you have access to a laptop you could plug it into that to see it is working.”

I sighed, and reached for a weapon.

“I don’t have a laptop, and cannot access one. Look, I’ve checked the cable and it’s fine and I’ve now used two different network cards. Are you sure it’s not the modem?”

“It is not the modem, It is fine from here.”

I bid him farewell and hung up the phone.

 

Chapter Two – Not Without Supervision

Buzz Lightyear Tron

This is awesome.

Created by http://iamclu.deviantart.com/#/d35f8uh

Returning to the old Google Images

If you’re like me and loathe the way that Google has changed it’s image search, this post is for you. Unfortunately you need to be using Mozilla Firefox in order for this to work. There may be ways with other browsers, but I don’t use them and so I wouldn’t know.

Google’s image search used to bring up a bunch of tiles when you search, saying the web site and sizes of the images. They would display maybe twenty at a time, with a 1 – 2 – 3 – NEXT page listing at the bottom. Sure, you had to click through a few pages to find the perfect image, but it was uncluttered and loaded quickly. A few months ago they changed the system to display many more images, and to see more, you’d just scroll down. While that may sound easier, it was crowded and made the images more difficult to see. What’s more, is if you’d click in the search form again but move your mouse away after clicking, it wouldn’t let you type in the search box again.

I searched around the net to find a way to return to the old search, and there were only a few solutions. You could type into the URL and add “&sout=1” but you had to do that for every search. You could also scroll to the bottom and there was a link to return to the old search, but again that worked for just the first search.

Eventually I found a tech blog called http://www.ashout.com and it had my preferred solution. I’ve put it here for you. a-shout contains other solutions if this one isn’t for you.

Install Redirector Add-on for Firefox browser

After installing it, we need to add a small redirect in Redirector add-on. For that open that Add-on and click Option button

Now click Add button which is available below of this add-on

You will see new window, in that enter the detail as given below

In Include pattern enter http*://www.google.*/images?*

In Exclude Pattern enter http*://www.google.*/images?*sout=1*

In Redirect to enter http$1://www.google.$2/images?$3&sout=1

and select Wildcard option and click OK

Now go and search in New Google Image search, it will automatically show result in Old Google Image Search Layout.

Thanks to the developers of the Redirector add-on and to a-shout for the tips.

Computer, Idol Map & Tolkien Hobbit Map

Finally, I’ve got the new computer and can get on with finishing some of my projects.  The computer arrived in two huge boxes, and actually didn’t take  very long to set up.  Windows was already installed so I simply had to register it and begin the tedious process of installing all of my own programs, games and so forth.  It took a while because I like things set up in a particular way, and I tend to save a lot of things both on the desktop and in the Documents folder.  Both of those live on the C: drive, but because I bought an SSD (Solid State Drive) for the main disk, I was worrried I’d fill it up pretty quickly.

To that end, I moved my Documents and Desktop locations to one of the three 1TB drives I have inside.  Only the core OS will stay on the SSD to keep it as tidy as possible.  After that I installed a few games and my essential programs and began to tinker with everything else.

A great choice I made when I bought the PC was to pick up a Vantec SATA/IDE to USB adapter.  This little gizmo plugs into a hard disk and allows you to plug it into a USB port.  I used it to copy all my old hard disk files to the new 1TB disks so I’d have some access to my old files.  It’s only USB2.0 so the transfer takes a while, but it’s so handy to be able to do that without having to install them inside the case.

Vantec USB Adapter

I’m also really impressed with the case.  The amount of airflow is ridiculous.  It’s got all the cable tied up against the back wall and if you look in the front vent you can see right through the computer out the back vents.  It stays so cool too. I’m really happy with it.  The one annoying thing is the amount of lights.  They don’t need all those damned lights.

Epson is my printer manufacturer of choice, and I bought an x710W photo printer.  It was pretty cheap considering all the different stuff it can do. It’s also getting really hard to find a printer than prints on CD/DVD. I’m really happy with it.

Having the printer set up allowed me to finally frame up the maps I’ve talked about in earlier entries.  The frames only cost me $19 each but they’re really big and decent quality.  I picked up some coloured and black card from the newsagent for a backing and printed out labels to describe each map.  I still need to work out what I’m going to do with the huge Middle Earth map but I’m happy with the results of the other two.

Finally there’s the pepakura or papercraft models.  I’ve only done a K-9 model from Dr Who and it turned out ok. I’m not 100% happy with it though so I’m not posting it here.  I’m not really happy with my folding ability yet.  That sounds kind of stupid, but getting crisp lines and neat edges so you can’t tell it’s paper is really hard.  More practice I suppose.  Cutting out the shapes is tedious so I tend to work slowly.  Impatience is usually how I mess things up so I must force myself to go slowly.

See you next time.

Raiders Temple Map

Thror's Map

Checking Videos Before Downloading & Other Stuff

Downloading videos is a big part of my internet usage.   Living in Australia, and being an active internet user and very much into pop culture, Sci-Fi and tv is extremely difficult and it’s really for no good reason as far as I can tell.

When awesome new shows appear on US networks, it often takes weeks or months before they are played on television here, and if it’s anything other than a lose weight series or some variety of CSI show, then sometimes it never airs at all.   Star Trek was ruined in Australia because the channel that aired it would put it on late at night, at different times and on different nights of the week.  They end things mid-season and they never return.  Star Trek Voyager ended in a two-part episode and the end was never aired, nor were the last few seasons.  If they were, it must have been at some ungodly hour.

For fans, this means you either wait for DVD, or you download.

Lately the main series I’ve been into is Dexter, and as usual Australian TV is lagging behind the rest of the world and not showing it until weeks later.  If you’re a forum goer or internet user, you already know what’s going to happen and can’t participate in the discussion groups because you’re months or weeks behind.   With a series with as many plot twists as Dexter, waiting to see it is frustrating and ruins the entire show.

Sadly, when downloading tv these days, it’s a massive gamble due to the Internet’s population of idiots and jerks.   For some unknown reason (and if you can explain why, please do) people upload fake episodes, old episodes and rename other shows so that when you download them and open them up, they aren’t the one you want.  Frustrating.

When each episode is 350mb or in Dexter’s case, 550mb then that’s a lot of bandwidth to waste.  Yes, Australian internet has a monthly allocation of data.  Again, it’s retarded.

Luckily I’ve found a way to preview the episodes after they’ve downloaded only partway, so that I can at least save some bandwidth limit if it’s a fake.

To do it, you need VLC media player , an open source player by Videolan.

When you download the file, make sure it’s a single link and not a multi-part .rar file.  There’s no way in Hell I’d trust those because you have to download the whole thing and extract it before viewing.

When you’ve downloaded part of the .avi file, go to the location and you’ll see two parts.  The first will be FILENAME.avi and the second FILENAME.part

Right click the FILENAME.avi and choose Open With > VLC Player

The player will open, but it won’t play.  Then, drag the FILENAME.part into the VLC window, and you’ll be told you need to repair it.   Do so, and the part that’s downloaded will play.

Having said that, make sure you watch until the actual episode is playing because some Internet Dirtbags just re-name old episodes, so you can’t judge by the credits alone.

There are no doubt other ways to preview, but that’s the one I use.   Hopefully it’ll help you save some bandwidth too.

I Did It

Cooler Master HAF 932

I spoke about it in a recent post, and I ordered the new computer.  I was pretty much geared up to go on the 22nd, when Windows 7 came out, but got cold feet for a while.  It’s probably just as well I did, because I saved a hundred bucks on the final price.  Damn, hardware prices fluctuate so much that you can wait a week and some whole new product is out.  Do you wait?  Do you buy now and be disappointed?  It’s a bit of a toss-up.

 

So it’s done anyway. I sent away the order early this afternoon and it’s sitting at Scorptec waiting for review.  It’ll cost me a little over budget, but not much. Over all I’m pretty happy.  I also bought a gadget which will let me plug-in my old hard disks externally into the new PC so backing up all my crap from the current computer shouldn’t be a problem. I’ve got a couple of external disks anyway, so it should all be good.  I guarantee I’ll forget to back up SOMETHING, I always do, even if I make a checklist.  The ability to plug-in the old drives should make anything I’ve forgotten easily recoverable.

The only thing that bothers me is that I’m at a bit of a loss with what to do with the old computer.  It’s a giant silver Lian-Li case, so not many people would want it, even though it’s pretty kick arse. It has a window panel etc.  If I had room (and the power) I could run it as a networked storage computer or something, but I don’t really need to.  It’ll probably go out with the rubbish.  Sad.

Anyway, the new one should be here in a week or so, and the whole process of loading up my software will begin.   The pic I’ve put up is the actual case.  I’m not really into blinky lights and so on, but it’s apparently a really cool (as in temperature) case, which is critical to the longevity of any good fast computer.

The Computer

It’s time for a new PC.  This one, Jennifer, is getting past her use-by date and she’s getting a few problems that would be expensive to fix.  Something hard to track down is wrong with either the RAM or the Video card, and by the time I spent all the money finding out what it is and replacing it, I’d be out more than a $1000 anyway.   I’ve been looking to update for a while now and I’ve decided to go with Scorptec Computers in Melbourne.  They’re a little more expensive than most places, but they apparently have top-notch service.  Waiting for Windows 7 was also a part of the delay in purchasing a new system.  Upgrading is dirty and a pain in the arse, so I wanted to install clean.  I have all the parts picked out.  I just have to press ‘Add to Cart’.  Naturally, on the day I finally decided on the components, the postman delivered my car insurance.

CPU Intel – BX80601950

Motherboard Gigabyte – GA-EX58-EXTREME

Memory Corsair Micro – HX3X12G1600C9

Video Card XFX – HD-587A-ZNF9

Hard Disk Corsair Micro – CMFSSD-128GBG2D

Optical Drive LG – CH08LS10

Sound Card Creative – SB0820-XFI-XAUD

Case Cooler Master – RC-932-KKN1

3x Hard Disks Western Digital – WD10EADS

Power Supply Thermaltake – W0171

Memory Card Reader Apacer – APAE100B

Cooler #1 Thermalright – ULTRA-120EX-RevC

$4,978.00

Expensive, but top-notch.  My budget was $5000 and so with shipping I’ll be a touch over.  I don’t care though, she’s going to fly.  I haven’t decided on a name for her yet.  I’ll have to meet her face-to-face first, but I’m already in love.