Author: Computer Tweaker

GTA V Audio Analysis

Posted onAuthorComputer Tweaker2 Comments

Working on Analysis of the Audio track of GTAV

Here is the Audio Track
Used 7Zip to compress. Should open fine with Winrar

For those of you on the GTA Forums website and all of the others
who are just wanting to know what sounds they can hear in the gta v
trailer and see what they can detect as locations or hidden gems
in the next coming grand theft auto. I stripped the audio best I
could with what little software I have.

at 8 seconds in, I hear a dog bark in the left channel.

at about 22 seconds you hear seagulls in all channels. at about 23 seconds on the right channel, you hear what sounds like an injured dog. almost a yalp, but more like a whimper. This could mean there is more than one audio recording of a dog included in GTA V. Meaning that a dog could play some sort of role in GTAV. What this role might be, I can not imagine.
If anyone can filter the audio for this track a bit better and break off the next bit of 18 seconds audio, please leave a link here and on the gtaforums site for everyone else to find, so they too can listen and see what they can find hidden for the game in the sound bit. I will gladly download and serve up as an alternative server.

One thing for sure, this video game, will not harm, kill or hurt near as many animals as PETA kills in a month. In fact, I can say that this game it’s self will not harm a single animal.
GTAV Screen Shot Analysis.
Please click the like or share buttons on the left. :-)

Should You Overclock Your Nvidia 9400

Posted onAuthorComputer Tweaker

The question has always come up. “Should I overclock my video card?”.

We all want to know we are resourceful and frugal enough to make a good deal out of what we have. It’s in our nature.

Contrary to popular opinion.
Overclocking shows no actual performance difference.
It may show increase in certain feilds of benchmarking but will also show a hit in other fields. If the card makers made it so you could unlock magical sections of your gadget so you can save money, no one would buy better. The best you can get from overclocking is a cool score on a benchmark test.

Your video card is fine for what it is made for. I have seen some extreme benchmark scores come from that video card. Truth is though, once you put any weight on it like actually gaming and random processes such as gaming, you will see a drastic hit on it.

I have busted many video cards and processors and sticks of memory through the years (12 years) playing the cheap role.

For better performance buy a video card that performs better right out of the box. and then go back to your 9400 and overcliock the dogsquirts out of it and see what it’s full potential is. get benchmarks and play some games. Then toss it aside and put the newer better card in and see for yourself.

If you overclocked good enough the 9400 would have out performed a boxed 9600 right out of the pack. Low shader count means your video card will stop at the low number and not stress on drawing the greater shaders. In fact it will ignore them. So your benchmark scores could smear the 9500 9600 9200 210 video cards. but in actual game play. That’s a whole different story.

Just because a video card does not have certain features does not mean it will not perform as good. it just means it will look like crap and not have all of the image features. In some cases it will perform 1000 times better and faster when clocked like crazy, but you will not see what everyone sees in the game.

heck it was almost 3 years before I realized gtaiii billboards actually had crap on them. and that there was smoke coming out of the stacks at teh first safe house.

You do not want the video card with the first of a feature. you want the video card that came years later. The 9500 and the 9600 have huge shader counts yes, but they don’t have the nuts to use them.

move into the 200s or greater (which is the same processor as the 9000s) .. the freaking 500s are right around the corner.

Yank that card and stick it in a media computer. It’s great for dvd and 720p hd.

Is Pc Gaming Dying

Posted onAuthorComputer Tweaker1 Comment

I wrote Is Pc Gaming Dead 2 years ago, Now I recap.

I actually got tons of hate-mail from pc gamers. There was a ton of messages from console gamers saying stuff like “go buy a ps3/360 you cheap %%^#). but to get hate mail from pc gamers on a subject that bothers me. To get called a scare monger or fear monger or a poor writer with scare tactics. It threw me for a curve. So for two years I stayed off the topic. Now the consoles are a few years old. No news on a new Xbox or the next playstation. I do feel like I am cheating because this is a bad time to do an assessment. Then again, people are fanboys of stuff for a good long while. I am certain the fanboyism has petered out now that pc gamers have slapped the console kiddies down with “Nice out dated machinery, still calling it next gen?”

Okay lol that was so wrong of me. but it was right. Very right.

Ok to the work at hand.

I took a trip to the local gamestop to see if I could find a fun new game for my pc. I mean I did just upgrade my video card to dual Nvida gts 250 cards toting 1g memory, and I just upgraded my processor from a dual core 2.9g cpu to a tri core 3.0g processor. and I added two gigs memory to my motherboard. So you can see I am ready to game a bit. I get into the game store and look what I found.

Game stop Pc gaming

Pc gaming went from a small shelf, down to one of the outer edges of a small shelf. A small 4 foot shelf end-cap. so I was was shocked. all of the games so old and outdated, I tried to laugh at it but it came out distorted. It was disturbing. I was outraged. I walked to the cashier and said ” What the %^^&%^ is this %^$%^” or something really close. The cashier pointed at the pieces of paper hanging over the side.

It was three pages I think, front to back listed with  hundreds of pc games they have in the back. I was excited. I bought some games from the list and left there happy. Then I got all the way home and realized ‘dude, we are pc gamers, not paper gamers.”   They could just go ahead and remove that whole dang rack and that notebook on the side and just put us a computer there to select our purchase from. i could go for that.

a week or so later, I was shopping in Walmart for some screws or something. It was late and no hardware stores were open. So wally world was all I had. After I finally found something that might work, I walked to the electronics department so I can look at the fading pc games there and sulk at the three shelves of 9.99 games and a few two year old games. The pc games were gone. I mean completely and entirely gone from the spot they have slowly dwindled down to. They were gone. I broke out my cellphone to take a picture. I back up and bumped into some guy. I turned to apoligize. As i turned I winced because of the huge long glass cabinet of console games. My eyes moved from the furthest end. Nintendo stuff had to have had 300 different games. Counting hand helds and stuff. Then the next case xbox. Well over 100 games. Then playstation 200 or so. Then….. wait…. What????? IT’S A HUGE RACK OF PC GAMES AT THE END OF THE LINE. MORE PC GAMES THAN ANYTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Walmart Pc Gaming

The Humble Walmart has more pc games than Gamestop of Spring (on 45 and cypresswood).

so what the heck happened? is pc game dying? Is it on it’s last breath? Is it getting it’s second wind? It looks like pc gaming is coming to the forefront again. Quietly making it’s march forward.

What i am worried about is that most pc gamers are let down enough, they have been buying online only. so they may never even notice that this is going on. and by the time they find out about it, the games will be pulled off the shelf because it was a failed attempt.

Or someone will get the news out as well as they can that pc gaming is not dead or dying, we just have to find it and make sure the guy who sales knows he has what we want and that we will be there for him to profit from.

******Update*****
Well I talked to Gamestop.
Got the answer we needed to hear.
GAMEstop (lol their name says it all.)
Gamestop is reducing their pc games because gamestop tends to sell used games. Pc games, even though they do not get pirated any more or any less than Xbox and Playstation games, they have great deals of protection methods on them that prevent the RE-SELL of Pc Games.
Since GAMEstop sells a lot of used games, and you can’t use cd keys like you used to by “unregistering a cdkey”. Games now come with a limited amount of installs.
The pc gaming industry is killing it’s self

Get Detailed Page Rank Info

Posted onAuthorComputer Tweaker

Find information about your website. Find information about other websites. See page rank, web history, and whois information about websites.
SEO Tools
http://truxtertech.com/siteworth
http://truxtertech.com/siteworth/whois
http://truxtertech.com/siteworth/whois/pagerank.php

It’s a great way to see what you have done with your website and what you need to do to increase performance of traffic and readers to your website. These tools are a great combination of tools. This is a great way to solve issues or tweak your best techniques used in your web design.

Please post back some recommendations or suggestions.

Truth About Reverse phone Lookup

Posted onAuthorComputer Tweaker

In short, They are not what they used to be.
At one time you pull up that phone number that keeps hanging up on you when they call. At one time you could have proof that (insert name here) has called you. At one time you could get deep directions to the crazy place your child just called you from telling you they are staying at a friend’s house. All for free.
But now they make it creepy and weird. They make it seem like you are doing some strange private detective junk and want to sell you the information at some stupid monthly price.
There are no more sites that do it for free for that one time you need it. They sell you with “well you might need it again”.
You know, there is another way around this issue. Call 1411. It’s cheaper. and you stand a 99.9999% chance they will not steal your credit card number.
Now days there are so many cell phone carriers out there and well, the law is different about listing cell phone numbers. Why? because cell phones cost per minute. It’s pretty crummy when a company calls your cell phone and tries to solicit you.
So head to information, or your yellow pages phone book or what ever directory you can find and locate your kid. If you have to , look at their 4square page or gowalla page or twitter or facebook. You will find the lil tard.

Computer Parts Shopping

Posted onAuthorComputer Tweaker1 Comment

At a local electronics store in America. I am sure many have one in mind when I say that. I decided to go to the video card section and check out some of the video cards when a ( I am uncertain if they are sales associates or stocking clerks with a strange desire to sell you something slightly more expensive) walked up to me and offered to help me. I told him I was looking for an Nvidia GTS250 1gb, this card was right behind us about mid back. The guy reached up and grabbed an Nvidia 275 card.$70 difference. He began to suggest I needed a card that was more expensive, before asking me if my computer can even handle it. Like do I have a strong power supply, Do I have pci express? Do I at least have windows xp. So I chuckle and said ” Why you gotta call me out??? I don’t have that much money”. We both chuckled at how I did that. I then broke out with specifics. I told him ” I am looking for a match to my card so I can run SLI” He started to butt in with ” this will run SLI” I laughed and continued with ” I need specs like  ‘Shader Clock 1836MHz,Memory Data Rate 2240MHz,GDDR3,RAMDAC 800 total to match exactly what I have” He looked at me with his eyes glossed over and then muttered ” well if you need me my name is” blah blah blah I got glossed eyed. He walked away

While I was walking around in the video cards section, I noticed that one of the video card’s box had the shrink wrap open. The price was kind of ok, and the box was super heavy. This usually means a large card or a really heavy heatsink. I actually had that exact same video card. It was a BFG 250. It broke on me. I was trying to see if it was the same exact model as what mine is Or if it was going to be a low profile with no sli. Mine isn’t completely broke I wanted to see what I could do with mine in SLI. An employee of the store walked over to me an said that I needed to take that video card over to the manager’s station . I told him that I just wanted to confirm that the video card was what I was looking for. He said that he was (I’m paraphrasing) certain that was what i was doing then he assured me that company policy was the way it was. So I waddled up to the counter/command center (lol), and when I get up there I explain what the request was of the employee. By that time I saw all I needed to see. So I asked a question. I said ” I notice there are a whole lot of items on the shelf that had the “returned item” price marked down sticker, Why is that?”. The guy at the stand looked up and had a look in his face that I can’t explain and said “well a lot of people do not know much about what they are buying and what they have. They get home and that parts do not match so they bring it back to us certain that it is broken”. I tried to have no expression as I replied ” Wow that’s a whole lot of people”. I then walked back to the video cards section.

 

I then walk over to the motherboard section and start looking at the motherboards, I mean since I do have an extra Athlon II processor and brand new, non functioning motherboard.

I noticed it was the same thing going on in the motherboard section as the video card section. Tons of stickers (well not as many but quite a few) of returned items with prices being marked down.

while standing there , my favorite motherboard associate was there telling some story about a video game. So I started to tell my story of how games for windows live some add in code to my GTAIV told me that I installed the game to many times and the whole uproar it caused for a week. The dude looked at me odd and walked away. So I finished my video.

Now my big question is : Why are there so many products on the shelves like that? Is it normal for that many products to be returned? could that many people not know much about what they are buying ? Could it be an occasional bad item gets returned then reshelved, and no one wants to buy the returns, so they build up in time? Is it because they have been burned so many time they just figure it’s easier to let the customers test it, if it comes back they finally send it back to manufacturer? Is it cheaper that way instead of sending a truck back once a month like all other companies do ?

I asked Greg from “Greg’s Snippets” and he had a great answer. He suggested that you have to consider the foul customers and the not very knowledgeable, the random dysfunctional parts, display items and items just like the one I stumbled across that was on the shelf and already open. Each of those items have to weighed in as some factors as to why these products are back on the shelf like that. This is a guy who always sees the deep seedy truth about everything he hears and sees, so him giving that response was a bit out of character. but hey it made sense.

You tell me what you think it could be.

Frys Let Me Down

Posted onAuthorComputer Tweaker2 Comments

Ok, Story time.

15 days ago I was given $150 to upgrade someone’s computer. This computer was very old. pc100 ram. Max of less than 1g capabilities. It only had a 40 gig hard drive and the processor was a Pentium II. I take the $150 and go to fry’s and walk around in circles for an hour as I always do. The frys in Houston Texas off I45 and West Road. It hit me, I cam up with an idea. I put together in my head all of the parts that where on sale and with in a budget I could handle and a good enough upgrade to be near worth the change of parts.So I look at my son who has been on his Intel e2200 processor for 2 years. And I think about my Athlon 5600+. I see that you can buy a gigabyte motherboard and an AMD 440 for $59. Ok that is not bad, not bad at all. Below I see 4 gigs pc 6400. I grab two of the cpus/motherboard packages and the 4 gigs memory. I rush home and yank only $80 out of the pot that I was supposed to use to build this kid’s computer with, I stuff that money in my pocket. I yank my two gigs of memory out of my computer and my 5600+. Throw a triple core Amd 440 and 4 gigs of memory in my machine, chunk my memory and my old processor in one of the new boards, toss it into the kid’s computer and install windows from one of my unused disks. There he is set. I take the other mobo and cpu combo and build a triple core 3.0 gig CPU  and 4 gigs memory computer for my son. We all came out with very nice machines for under two hundred bucks.

The kid’s computer is running like a monster. My son’s computer however had gone through a huge series of bsod (Blue Screen of Death) . I go to return the motherboard and processor for his machine and forgot the dang backplate. They sent us back home to get that. We go back up there. A different person was checking us out the next time we get there. They said the box for the cpu did not match. Even though the processor I was returning had the serial code on it, and that serial code matched my receipt. ok I go home and get the box. I get back up there with both boxes. This time I am being checked out by a third person. He now says that the box for the motherboard does not match the serial code on the motherboard. Even though the serial code on the motherboard matched the receipt. 3 trips to that place. This is the last day of the 15 day Warranty. It takes me 30 minutes to get home, 30 minutes to get back. I am standing there in front of the dude and it is 30 minutes before they close. He walks to his manager and explains what has been happening. The  manager some skinny dude with a nasty comb over and a suite that is 4 sizes too big for him shrugs and laughs and says I need the right box.

I asked the manager to come talk to me and hear what I have as the situation. I just wanted to see if he would laugh in my face within kicking distance. As soon as he walks up he says ” there is nothing i can do without the right box” . I tell him it is my 3rd trip up there and it would have been helpful if someone would have covered all of this the first time I came up there. I explained that one of the boxes are at some kid’s house and I will not be able to get it back. He grins and stares at me with a “ok figure it out dude” look on his face. I grab my stuff and start to walk out the door. I turn to the guy and very angrily started to say ” this is how you satisfy customers” I have no idea what I was going to say with that. The dude doesn’t care, he is just there to stand in goofy poses and look important. I got half way through saying it and just stopped and walked away.

On the way out of the door, the door guy who is suposed to check your bag and mark your receipts stepped in front of me with his purple highlighter, I looked him in the face and told him to F off. I know it wasn’t his fault. I just didn’t want to have to go through  a hokey pokey of explaining that I am walking out of the store with a handful of parts and a receipt that already has a highlighter check on it from the last person who didn’t actually inspect my stuff. I just knew that this time I would be accused of something I didn’t do so I stopped him right there. He replied with a “woaaaah!!!???” . I continued to the car and left for home. I got home 5 minutes before they closed. I would never make it back.

If the lazy bunch had their act together (yeah I know I had the wrong stuff) they could have double checked all that i was walking in and out with to let me know what else I need. they were not helpful at all.

From now on I am buying everything I need from http://www.tigerdirect.com/ They have better deals anyway. You only have to wait a few days though. and I am not one to go around saying that Fry’s sucks, But they really let me down. The biggest  tech review site in Houston, and the most common writer here, treated like a nagging 12 year old.

Epic Meme Videos

Posted onAuthorComputer Tweaker

Over the years, the internet has given us some ftunny, yet weird, still kind of cool videos. Here are the all time favorites for this site. We hope you enjoy them as much as we do.

What is a meme

WEEEEEEEEEEE

Peanut Butter Jelly

All your Base


Star Wars Kid

UmaNuma

Banana Phone


Badger

Tech Tv Blooper

In the spirit of the funnies.
some of my oldest videos

The boss

The Run Away

What is a Phishing Scam

Posted onAuthorComputer Tweaker1 Comment

In short, it’s someone who contacts you pretending to be someone else, disguised as well as possible into fooling you into believing this. They will use mail,email phone call, or direct face to face contact. in an email they will make a fake website that looks just like your bank’s website. They will send you an email to their website and the email will look like it came from your bank, they will say “hurry we need you to sign in and change your personal information because we think you have been compromised” or they will tell you to just send them your information. next thing you know, you are out of money and in debt.

This video belongs to another person I liked it so I embedded it. It gets to the point

I will Never use gfwl Again

Posted onAuthorComputer Tweaker1 Comment

After tweaking my computer, formatting my computer, upgrading my computer, reinstalling windows, and then reinstalling Grand Theft Auto IV at least 20 times or more this year, I got an error while installing GTAIV. The error said that I have used my cd key to many times. So I posted a message in the GTAFORUMS.com pc help message boards.

I seem to have formatted without revoking to many times.
Is there a phone number I can call to get this straightened out?
I have full disk and booklets and all that.
but can not find where it offers that help.

I just don’t get it, same i.p. same email, same cd key and live does that ???? WTF is with M$ ?

neat spalsh screen

GTAIV Pc

After about an hour of searching I called Rockstar/Take Two interactive. Some guy with like an English accent answered. The tone in his voice sounded pretty sucky. He told me to go to games for windows live website and find their contact information. So I called it thinking ‘ Heck I’m an Adult I can handle this’

Nope.

I had to run back to GTAFORUMS and post another message.

Ok, well I called games for windows live.
The chump laughed at me because I said I didn’t have a 1 year old Receipt.
I asked “why can’t you just revoke all the ones assigned to my email account?”
“I’m sorry it don’t work like that”
Really? You mean to tell me that this cd key is registered repeatedly from the exact same address, exact same email account
every time I upgraded my Dang pc and this clown treats me like a teen age pirate?

He is just to big of an idiot and lazy PR*ck to try anything.

Clown.

Well as it seems they will not be clearing out all of my registrations prior to today. On the phone he told me it would be 24 hours. How in the blue hell does he expect to get my receipt within 24 hours, unless I faxed it to him or emailed it to him. In that case I could create a fake one. I won’t do that, but I could. I will never buy another game that has a microsoft logo on it, ever again.

After a year I have not had a chance to finish the dang game yet. I have been dealing with a crappy operating system with a pisspoor driver  process this whole time. Why do you think I keep having to format my pc?

I have had enough, I will be using Xliveless from here on out. I will do my next install on my Linux drive and run Wine. I hate to do this to Rockstar Games but I have to downloaded a cracked executable for GTAIV to make this happen. I have done it with previous GTA games I have purchased, I have to do it to GTAIV. And to send a big fat SCREW YOU to m$, I will place a how to online. I will of course not link to the crack. I may just crack it myself. For myself.

Or , I can just go back to Walmart and buy it again. Who knows.  oh and fyi, the GTAIV on linux, kinda just happened right now before your  eyes in this rant. i just will never call them and sit and get ridiculed by an angry little boy  again.

Dang straight I will not capitalize their name, they do that enough.