The Best Gadget Ever – Part 2

Friday I received my replacement D-Link DHP-301 in the mail. It took may 3 weeks to get the replacement in the mail from when i mailed it, which is a reasonable amout of time. So I’m pretty impressed at how quickly they got it back to me, but of course I would have loved to have had it sooner.

Just like last time, I opened up the package, hooked the unit up, and right away I’m online. The install takes less then 5 minutes and its super easy. A 4-year old could this thing setup in no time.

In case you don’t know what this unit does, here’s a short description. There are two small units in the box that plug into a regular electrical outlet. Plug 1 in near your router. Plug the other in near your computer. Use any ethernet cable to connect the two units to each peripheral. One plugs into the router and the other plugs into the computer. What happens is the units communciate with each other by creating a network through your electric system in your house. The main benefit is you don’t have ugly wires laying over your floor and you save a bundle by not having to have your house wired with ethernet drops throughout the house.

So, I’ll let you know if i burn through this one really fast or not.

The best gadget ever?

For now i have a 50-ft cable running from my router to my computer to give me internet access. When i want to use the PS3 I unhook the computer and plug in the PS3 online.

I bought a nifty device from Best Buy. The device is made by D-Link. You have two small boxes that plug into electrical outlets. You plugin one by the router and then hook it into router using an ethernet cable. The other little box you plugin near the computer and then run another ethernet cable from the little box to the PC. This creates a signal from your router to your PC by using the electricity in your house to deliver the signal. Very awesome because it eleminated the long cables across the floor for awhile there. Unfortunately, I think i got a lemon in the bunch because it broke. Best Buy wouldn;t take it back because it was out of the 14-day return policy time. D-Link, however, is sending me a brand new unit. Really I hate buying things from Best Buy. I don’t think they serve the customer very well. I usually just go there to look and then if i want to buy any electronic equipment I’ll go to Circuit City. If you buy games you should definitely only go EBGames or Gamestop. They offer a much better return policy. You can return a game for any reason basically. Best Buys policy is you can only return it if it is broken.

My PS3 won’t connect to my Linksys Wireless Router…

I love my PS3. I know its not my PS3s fault. This is just the usual problems I have no matter what Wireless device I am using. With that in mind please read on and offer some suggestions if you happen to know any great tips.

So, I’ve had problems all over the place with getting things to receive a signal in my basement. It’s been an upward battle.

My Sirius Satellite Radio doesnt work in my basement.
My PC, my laptop can’t connect using wireless ethernet to my wireless router, though it works in every other location in the house.
My PS3 can’t connect to the wireless router either, so i have to run a 50-ft cable from the router to the PS3, which I’ve done, but i don’t like it.

Some things to know about the basement:

  • Double layer of sheet rock (soundproofed room) in the walls only.
  • Just above my bed part of the ceiling slants upward. The rest of the ceiling is flat.
  • My basement has a long, pole that extends the entire length of the ceiling to help support the rest of the house.

Does anyone have any helpful tips or suggestions that I might try to get a signal in my basement for all of these devices mainly my Satellite radio, my PS3? I think it would be great to utilize the wireless of the network in every sector of the house.

Oddly, a couple weeks later the PS3 began connecting to the router.  Not sure how or why, but we are all work now.

The Elders Scroll IV: Oblivion for PS3

So, when i got my Playstation3 I also bought The Elders Scroll IV: Oblivion. This game is awesome. I had never played any of the Elders Scroll games before so this is my first one. I read some reviews and it looks like other big game sites love this game. I’ve seen ratings as high as 9.5 – I think that was Gamespot.com that gave it the good rating.

If you have a PS3 and enjoy epic role-playing adventure games then this is the one for you.

The graphics are fantastic (i’m playing on a Sony 24″ TV and the games still look great!). Boy i can’t wait until i get that HDTV so these games really shine, I’m sure there are things about the games I’m not seeing.

The voice acting is top-notch too. Just about every character has something to say to you though it seems they got the same actor to do alot of the voices for different characters. I might be wrong.

The sound and music is excellent. You know when your in enemy territory because the evil music plays and when you are just wondering around the enormous, georgous land you’ll hear more peaceful music.

Overall the game is excellent and very polished.

Go buy it. Play it. and let me know how far you are.

I’m currently Level 4 after 11 days in game-time passed.

Lightwave Tip: Selecting Objects

If you’re new to Lightwave v9, like I am some of the basics in the program, are a little odd.

One of the commands that I thought should be a no brainer is how to select all the points, polygons, edges on an object if you have more then 1 object in a layer. I watched a video about performing the Speed Boolean operation to subtract a disc from a sphere. One of the steps in the video is selecting the disc. The disc is in the middle of the sphere surrounded by polygons. So how do you select all those polygons quickly?

Here’s the quick method…

  1. Draw a disc in the FRONT viewport and then drag it out in the RIGHT viewport so its a long disc. It’ll look like a cylinder.
  2. Next draw a sphere so it covers the middle part of the disc on all sides. What you should have is a disc poking out of the middle of the sphere on the front and back of the sphere. Make sure you click “MAKE” in the lower middle of the LW window. That sets your cylinder as an object. ( you can also hit enter).
  3. Its a quick 2-step process to select that cylinder. Hit the spacebar until the word “Polygons” is lit OR just hit “CTRL + H”.
  4. Click any polygon on the disc. The easiest one to get to are the two polygons at the top and bottom of the disc.
  5. Click simply hit the ” ] ” button on the keyboard. (This button triggers the View -> Selection -> Connected command. We are telling Lightwave select all polygons connected to this polygon. You can do the same thing for Points and Edges as well. First click a point and then click the ” ] ” key.
  6. Voila! all polygons are selected for this object.
  7. If you want to unselect all polygons just click the ” / ” key.

With this in mind, doing a Speed Boolean is so much faster then before. You can visit Newtek’s website at http://www.newtek.com/lightwave/tutorials/videos/index.php and watch the video tutorial on Speed Booleans.

I like the Lightwave buttons for Points. Edges, and Polygons so why can’t we get a buttons called “Object” to put down there too?
I’d love just to click the objects button and then click a polygon on an object to select all of the polys.

The whole cylinder is selected simply by pressing the ] button on the keyboard