blueZhift Blog

So I’m happily running, riding, and teleporting all over Vana’diel when my gamepad starts getting all wonky. Suddenly I’m randomly healing, changing views, and opening menus. Needless to say, in battle this would be a big problem.

I’m playing Final Fantasy XI on my PC using a Logitech Dual Action gamepad because the game is designed for and plays best with a Playstation 2 Dual Shock style gamepad. I bought the controller about 4 years ago, but honestly never gave it a whole lot of a workout. Indeed, back then I spent most of my playing time on the Playstation 2 and later the Xbox 360. But now suffering a partial banishment from the TV due to my gamer kids, I’ve been playing more on the PC.

At first I thought a driver upgrade would solve the problem, but it didn’t. I also tried shutting down the profiler, since FFXI doesn’t need it. But that didn’t work either. Then I decided to Google to see if anyone else was having this problem. Yup, that was it. Many customer reviews of the Logitech gamepad claimed that the pads were failing after a few weeks of use. The problems generally showed up in the analog sticks, which is where the buttons controller healing and view changes are in FFXI.

Unfortunately, it looks like Logitech is the only big name making a usb gamepad for the PC these days, and seeing recent complaints about today’s Dual Action gamepad, did not fill me with any confidence that the problems plaguing my 4 year old, lightly used, one had been solved. Admittedly, most PC games don’t use gamepads, so it is probably a low volume product for Logitech.

I know there are other gamepad makers out there, but I didn’t want to trade one cheap gamepad for another. And I also didn’t want to spend $50 or $60 bucks for something like an Xbox 360 gamepad for Windows games.

In the end, I ordered a Playstation 2 to PC USB Gamepad Converter by HDE on Amazon. I’d read of others using this for FFXI with good results. And I know my Sony Dual Shock controllers are made to last!  Hopefully this converter will solve my problem. In the meantime, I guess I’d better learn the keyboard and mouse controls for FFXI, a truly evil notion…

Well, for the second time, I’ve quit World of Warcraft. I’ve really tried to like it, but I just don’t have time for two subscription based MMOs. And my heart really belongs to Vana’diel anyway. I may return to WoW in the future, especially if they ditch the subscription model, but that’s not likely to happen any time soon.

Until We Meet Again WoW

Yesterday, pocket full of enticing coupons, I browsed my favorite Borders looking for something interesting to purchase. As I wandered the increasingly sparse store, which is closing come January 2010 if not sooner, I felt a growing resistance to buying books printed on paper.

The problem for me is that I generally like technical books and read a lot of manga. Most technical books are obsolete the moment they are printed. So while I still love them, I refuse to pay $50 for a book that is out of date with no way to update. As for manga, with so much of it on the web, legal or not, it’s hard to justify buying anything beyond a few series I’m following right now.

These thoughts are not new to me, but a recent Borders ad had the Sony PRS 505 book reader on sale for $199, a tempting price. It’s not the Kindle, but still a good reader, though the reviews I read said it was prone to crashing on recharge and didn’t handle PDFs very well. Sigh, the Kindle is still too expensive for me… Anyway, I really want to fast forward to a time when all of the books and magazines I want to read can be bought and downloaded to my reader. And technical books can be updated when necessary. I have a Rails programming book that I bought the e-version of that went through a number of updates, for free. One of my favorite tech books ever and more than worth the extra cost of the digital version.

I cannot be the only person who feels this way. Let’s move on to digital books everywhere already!

Yesterday while working I received a chat message in Google Gmail from a colleague on a project I’m working on. These days, just getting a chat message is not a big deal, but as someone from *ahem* the dawn of email, the real time nature of chat still takes some getting used to. Nevertheless, I use chat along with a growing plethora of social network related sites and applications. As a professional and an enthusiast, I’m intrigued by the opportunities these tools present to create a new digital self. But do you create the person you are, or the one you want to become?

I used to joke that I come from the time when people used their real names on the Internet. But in an age of Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and soon Google Wave, it seems that that time has come again. While I have no intention of spreading my real name all over the net in anything less than a professional context, I am becoming more comfortable with the notion of embracing a digital self more identified with my real self.

It feels like a second chance to reach out in ways not limited by physical separation, or a dubious set of in-person social skills. Well, I’m not really all that bad in person, but I’m no social butterfly either. In any case, I’m excited by the possibilities and filled with a new courage to be who I am as well as who I want to become.