The Geek I/O Show: Episode 31 - The McNugget Clause

This week on the Geek I/O show, we were joined by our favorite Aussie, the one and only Dale Campbell!  The Boats were away, but the show must go on!

We discussed boring Daddy stuff, why is Dale watching shows for kids and using technology from the 90s, Dredd impressed Jaz, Apple's candy coated iPhone 5C, the very shiny iPhone 5S with a 64 bit processor, iPhone Crocs cases, iOS 7 (there was that apple announcement after all), Roku's Android app gets video streaming, Steam family share beta is opening up, a new humble bundle, and bomb-detecting lasers.  Plus!  Order Chicken McNuggets from your phone, fattie!

Join us on Geek I/O, won't you?  We promise not to put a creepy 3D-printed uterus model on our coffee table. 

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The Geek I/O Show: Episode 31 Show Notes

The Geek I/O Show: Episode 31 Audio Archive

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CJ's Boathouse :: Game Review! Splinter Cell: Blacklist (PC)

     That's right folks, Sam Fisher and Echelon 4 are back for more terrorist busting action! This time, they are up against a a terrorist group calling itself "The Engineers" assumes responsibility for the attack and announce that it was the first of a deadly countdown of escalating attacks (called "The Blacklist") on United States assets, declaring that they will halt the attacks only after the U.S. government accomplish the demand of calling back all American troops deployed abroad.

      Now, this is very similar to the previous 5 games' plot of "There are the bad guys Sam, stop them by any means necessary!"  This game is very much so formulaic of the rest of the Splinter Cell games, but that is definitely not saying that is a bad thing!  Sam gets some cool gadgets, and you are free to go completely crazy and murder every bad guy in the face, or you can knock them out, or you can even avoid them completely.  

      There are 3 types of "experience" in this game that reward each of those: Ghost, which rewards pacifism, and non-lethal methods.  Panther, which rewards players for stealthy kills and hiding bodies, and finally Assault, which is exactly what it sounds like; killing things dead, no one has time to be skulking around. Personally, I am a panther player, because I am a sniper rifle player, and frankly, they don't have any tranq rifles that I have come across yet.  

     They did  introduce a new gameplay mechanic called Killing in Motion, allowing the player to highlight targets and take them out in quick succession while on the run. This is very helpful, even as a sniper player, you can highlight up to three enemies and take them out without aiming at all (it even counts as a "from the hip" shot, which really allows you to rake up the cash) this can be pretty easily abused, but it never makes the game "too easy" as you have to either KO or kill a certain number of baddies before it refreshes.  

     They also brought back Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow's "Spies vs. Mercs" multiplayer, which makes me VERY HAPPY! I loved being a spy in SCPT and still do!

     Now, playing the game on the PC with a PS3 controller mapped as a Xbox 360 controller really gives you everything you need in this, the fine control of a controller while having the ability to play with AMAZING details of my PC.  That being said, I did run into an issue where DirectX11 crashed, and I had to bring it down all the way to DX9 in order for it to work at all, which makes me very sad.  

      Other than that, I am not having any arguments, and this game, outside of having a new VO for Sam (poor old Ironsides, I miss the grizzled old man, though the new guy isn't bad) this is carrying on with a great tradition set up from Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory (my first full playthrough of any SC game took place here), and I LOVE it.  I'm really liking the fluid motion, gameplay, music, and even the kind of odd and holey plot. Easily a 8/10, mainly because the DX11 issue and the holey plot.

http://www.geek-io.com/cjs-boathouse/2013/9/12/game-review-splinter-cell-blacklist-pc

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Random Geek Outings - The Geek I/O Network :: N.F.C. Tags and Phone Automation

On Episode 30 of The Geek I/O Show I briefly discussed NFC (Near Field Communications) tagsand a few things they can be used to accomplish. 

I didn't get to go into detail so I wanted to do a small blog post to cover it a bit more in depth. I hope you're in for a read!

(Boring?) Technical details:

In this post, my examples are using a Samsung Galaxy Note (ATT) running CyanogenMod 10.1.0 (Android 4.2.2) and Samsung's TecTiles, which use a MIFARE Classic NFC Chipset.

The Basics:

I should probably start with the very basic capabilities, those that don't require an app to read/activate a tag. These are features that any device, with NFC turned on, should be able to perform. You can create a tag to display a message (via a text "toast" message), display a contact (pulled from the creator's contact list), display a website, or send an email. (see Image 1-4) And this is just the beginning with NFC.

Advanced Use:

On the show, I briefly mentioned setting up a tag to automatically mute your phone and set an alarm, allowing you to simply set your phone down on your side table and be ready for a sound night's sleep!

Another example: Imagine sitting down to your desk, and setting down your phone and it turns on WiFi, turns your ringer down (it could even change the ringtone) , disables notifications, and check into a facebook and/or foursquare location. And a handy feature that some NFC apps (in my case I use Tagstand's  NFC Task Launcher) also allows you to have a second "task" saved, when you tap the same tag a second time it will activate. 

My Use: 

Currently I've setup a tag that is attached in my phone's car dock. It is setup to enable my hot-spot, turn my music volume to full and resume playing my podcast app of choice (currently Pocket Casts). I also have a second task setup to bring my volume down to a lower level, stop playback and turn off my hot-spot. (see Image 5) After you've setup all the actions you want performed, you have to write the instructions to the tag by clicking the arrow in the top right corner of the app, then tapping your phone to the tag (see Image 6).

Security:

If you leave a tag as is, any phone can re-write actions to the tag. Most tags can be "locked" to prevent them from being modified. In the NFC Task Launcher app, this is an irreversible action (think of it like burning a CD-R) . This could be used to create a permanent tag that can be placed in public without having to worry about it being changed. As a side note, the Samsung TecTIles app also has the option to "lock" a tag. The app states this is reversible, but from my testing I ended up wasting a tag in the process; so be careful if trying to create a temporary lock on a tag. 

The Downside:

The biggest disadvantage I've found so far is that your phone will read a tag every time it "wakes up". So in the car dock scenario, if I let my phone go to sleep, then receive a message/get a call, etc... the phone will read the tag again. This is solved by one of two methods:

  1. Place the tag in a such a way that your device will not read it when it is randomly awoken.
  2. Set a timer (if the app supports it) to disable re-reading a tag within a user defined time-span.

I've chosen the latter, mainly to test it out the usefulness of a stationary tag, like my car dock.

"Super Advanced" Uses:

Now combine the convenience of NFC to the power of an automation app like Tasker and you have practically unlimited possibilities in your hands. 

Screenshot_2013-09-12-01-36-09[1].png
Screenshot_2013-09-12-01-36-17[1].png

            Image 1            

Screenshot_2013-09-12-01-36-30[1].png

            Image 2            

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            Image 3            

Screenshot_2013-09-12-01-42-02[1].png

            Image 4            

Screenshot_2013-09-12-01-36-53[1].png

            Image 5            

            Image 6

http://www.geek-io.com/random-geek/2013/9/10/do-not-publish-yet-guest-post-nfc-tagging-jared-budlong

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Disney Geek I/O: Episode 6(66): The Villain's have gained control!

Welcome to Disney  VILLAIN Geek I/O, episode 666 recorded Sunday, September 8, 2013, I’m your host CJ Boat, and joining me to help you in your journey this week through the House of Mouse, Rachel Boat, Kirby Bartlett-Sloan, and from out west,  Lesley Victorine! 

Disney News


(BREAK TIME - Tweaked Audio, Geek I/O sting)


Kirby: TVListings
http://www.bartlett-sloan.net/tv

Fun Stuff
35 Signs You’re a Snarky Disney Fan
http://www.therotoscopers.com/2013/09/08/35-signs-youre-a-snarky-disney-fan/

CJ: Disney Tip of the week!

No tip this week - Top villains - Sept 13 is Unleash the Villains.

If you want to contact the show, please send an email to [email protected] with the word Disney in the subject line somewhere.

I want to thank our amazing sponsor (sponsor) for their support of the show, as well as our listeners, without you, we’d just be floating heads

Also want to thank the great and talented Darrell Shayler for his artwork for the site as well as our mascot, Mike T. Geek.  If you want more information, or want to get in touch with him, please email us at [email protected], and we can get you more information.

Finally, we record every OTHER Sunday at 10 PM Eastern, join us over at www.geek-io.com/live, or you can find the archive at disney.geek-io.com.

Disney Geek IO Episode 6



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CJ's Boathouse :: Magic: the Gathering: a almost 20 year old retrospective

This weekend, I  went to the Magic Celebration, which celebrated 20 years of playing the world's #1 trading card game, and as I was playing (and losing) I really started to think about my experience in the game.

I started playing in 1996, so 3 years after the came premiered in 1993, and started playing in September when I started school, so 17 years to the month I have been playing this amazing game, with breaks here and there.

My nostalgia was triggered when playing with a couple of new friends of mine, who were like me, who played old school MtG, and stopped playing in Mirrodin, back in 2003. I have played here and there online since then, but nothing major.

In this even, you got to choose a pre-built deck and got a M'14 booster pack of 15 cards.  As a person who likes control, and because I have historically played blue, that's what I chose.

You were allowed to put what you got in your booster pack into your deck, and add another color into the deck, I added 5 green cards in, because they were way tasty.  It created a control / stomp kind of deck that made up for the weakness in the deck, which was defending from attacks.  That being said, it was one of the weaker decks that was available.  The red and black decks stomped, but while a blue deck won, it's because he drafted (pulled from the pack) Jace, Memory Adept, which unbalanced his deck completely.

 As you can tell, that's what kind of brings up this retrospective, cards like that. There is such a thing called "Power Creep" that exists in all games, what that means is that powers on newer items will be MUCH stronger than older items.  While there are some really awesome older cards, like Dark Ritual

and Counterspell

Which are easy, and powerful, but then you have items like Jace which completely overpower and dominate.  Considering there are an average of 60 cards per deck in this, removing TEN of them every turn is insane.  Not to mention events like this where the average deck is 35-45 cards, it's complete face smashing.

All that aside, there is a release coming up this month, for a new set called Theros, which is an entire block based on Greek-type gods and mythos.  I think I'm sold on getting back into the game with both feet.  After 17 years, I'm still fully vested in this game...

http://www.geek-io.com/cjs-boathouse/2013/9/9/magic-the-gathering-a-almost-20-year-old-retrospective

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