Getting ready for the return

Superman! Strange visitor from another planet! Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound! Faster than a speeding bullet! More powerful than a locomotive! Superman! Who disguised as Clark Kent, mild mannered reporter, fights a never ending battle for truth, justice and the American way!

I am now getting more excited about the summer! After Chris Reeve, I thought, eh, I won't care about another movie. Maybe I'll watch it if they decide to make another, but since I pretty much believed he was the one who made me believe a man could fly, I don't really care anymore if they make another Superman or not.

Well, that train of thought lasted till this year! I started looking at the new movie site, saw the teaser trailer, and then happened to channel surf while on the computer a few months ago when lo' and behold, ABC Family was showing an episode of Smallville.

I had never had an interest in Smallville, when it first started almost 6 years ago on the WB. This was my first exposure to the show and though I can't remember the episode that got me hooked, I liked it. So I started to watch it on ABC Fam chanel, and then was no longer satisfied with the commercial interuptions, that I bought the 4 seasons on dvd!

Then I read that the makers visited the movie set during it's shooting, and said there might be some surprises on the show next season. They didn't actually say anything other than hint that maybe there could be some lore connection with the series and movie! Now it's a must see for me!

I have always liked Superman, but Spiderman was always my favorite. That may still be true, but I can't stop loving Superman! It's just such a fantastic tale, so fantasy, sci fi, just plain imaginary, that I can't help but love it! I love the series, Smallville, now also! It's just so cool to see a different take on Clark growing up. A lot of the lore is different, but there are elements that remind me of the comic. I'm glad I bought it, and I am now getting very excited to see the movie! I hope I'm not spoiling it by anticipating and having such high expectations from it!

To pc or not to pc... on my Mactell!

Well, I couldn't wait any longer. My day started off with me feeling sick, catching a cold and all the fun that goes with that, met some friends for lunch, just wanting to sleep when I got back home, and decided, fine, I'll do the downloads.

Will I ever buy a new pc again? That depends on Apple. I love my MacBook Pro! Why ask about buying a new pc and how does that depend on Apple? Let's see if I can put this easily or not.

First off, I have to consider that the x1600 ATI card in my MacBook is obviously not the most powerfull graphics card, but it sure is sweet! It's a great card! Can I see the optimal settings in games, which is what I use a pc for? No, you can't get the frame rate of the desktop systems, but you can see a great looking game still.

My review is on Boot Camp. I did the download, which I also needed to update the OS and firmware, so an hour of downloads on my dsl line is not entirely accurate. It took less than 2 hours, then about another hour for XP to install and give or take 30 or so minutes for extras.

Dual booting is a snap, I can choose easily enough which os to startup in. The true test is not just running any app for me, but games. That is the only reason I have a pc. Games!!! I installed F.E.A.R., updated it, ran it came up with the question above. Will I ever buy another pc again?!

The long answer to the simple statement, it depends on Apple, is when do the desktop mactells come out? With the option of putting in the best graphics cards in those systems, I will never have to buy a pc again! Apple is frakin awesome! Not that I will be able to afford a new desktop system for a while, but if it for some reason takes Apple longer than next year to come out with a system, then I might, might, have to upgrade my pc because I do love games, and the pc is still the game machine that software companies write games for.

So how does F.E.A.R. play on my dual booting Pro? If I adjust the settings for a laptop, it is very playable. Turn up the settings, and obviously there is frame loss. But hey, a laptop is not a machine you buy when you want to play games, a desktop is. That's why my long winded answer is, no, I will never have to buy a pc again! A new mactell desktop with the ability to get any graphics card will be the only system I will ever need to buy from now on!

To end my bloated blog, this was written on my Pro using XP in Boot Camp. No connectivity issues using wireless, no crashes, so far, and a clean smooth feel during my testing of this historic day! Wow! Hats off to Apple! I love this company more and more! Now, back to rebooting into my favorite os! I'll come back to XP when I feel like playing F.E.A.R. in bed! If I'm not playing WoW on OSX that is...!

Krudd

Is the Quadro Really Necessary?

Last weekend I mentioned to Mark how Rob Morgan's Bare Feats review on Nvidia's Quadro FX card pretty much confirmed my conclusions on the consumer vs pro graphic card debate. The conclusion being is that well, you don't really have to shell out thousands more for a pro card for fast CGI interactivity.

It was interesting to find out that you can enable true hardware rendering on the Mac using the consumer based 7800 GT card without the need for special 3rd-party drivers like one would have to on the PC.