Category: entertainment

Online Gambling Legal United States?

Posted onAuthorTips Of Tech

I am not a legal adviser or legal aid or an attorney so take this with a grain of salt. do not base your legal or financial judgments on what I state here. This pretty much is a place for me to post links to the information I need to take to work and say “I TOLD YOU JERKS!”.

Many ask, some think not to ask, and some are just plain stubborn stupid and deep in denial on the subject. (we can call them addicts)
If you want the short answer. No it is not legal. From Maryland to southern California it is not legal to transfer funds to make a payment for gambling Safe Port Act. That is one simple law. Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 (UIGEA)
There are many laws that support the ones who online gambling to stop.
In the state of Texas it is illegal to gamble.
It is illegal to obtain money from gambling
it is illegal to obtain money without reporting it to the IRS.
It is illegal to obtain money and falsely report it’s origin to the IRS.

It is illegal to wire money through phone line or internet. Safe Port Act

Those are the simple laws we know since we left the fifth grade. I see a Jeff Foxworthy joke coming in a minute.

See the other day I was eating lunch with my boss and his son. They brought up online gambling. I decided to keep my opinion to myself about the whole subject.

(at one time I signed up to 15 online casinos, all 15 of them had me download and install some extra safety and security software. All fifteen had at least one virus. I was going to do a report on them but realized…. these freaks could be mafia. so I never finished the report and will not post names of the online casinos)

So I sat with my mouth shut. You know it’s my boss and well. He is a bit addicted to that crap. Then they asked  the whole table ” Is online gambling legal in the u.s. ?” Everyone spoke their brown nosed opinion and I chimed in, I couldn’t hold it said “NO”. The whole table looked at me. The boss and his son decided to make fun of the fact that I said no.. . They where in some mockery event they decided to pull in my honor.

I ask ” Have you ever seen any online casinos advertised on tv?” Of course our office leeching mooch with his  nose so deep in the bosses wrinkle stink chimed in “I have” so I called him on it “BullSH&t” . It is illegal to advertise Gambling in the united states has been illegal since 2003. back in 2002 Yahoo and Google pulled the ads out of their system to prevent issues. Web designers and owners know this. The Sporting News (TSN) got nailed 7.2 Million Dollars for waiting three years to pull down the online Gambling ads. (the casinos paid lots of money so the 7.2 was squat).

I know what the law states about it. as I said I was doing a bit of a write up back in the day when I thought you actually had to be super thorough about everything. Thank god those days are over. Now I can just copy and past and link you to it. Lot less work that way. Us laws against online Gambling. So now I am the negative guy who does not want to agree with anyone. Of course i have to post a link from some gambling focused website that  dances some foolish way of making you think you can catch 22 the system.

Really it takes a fool to partake in that event. It is an electronic card. it is not a real piece of paper card that you would hold in your hand. just like you don’t gamble in a real life casino. They have cameras everywhere. The dealers have ear buds. You figure out what I am suggesting.  just like you can’t beat the Texas Lottery. FYI the Texas Lottery is not owned by the state of Texas. It is an independent company that gets taxed by the state of Texas.  Review and explanation of Texas lottery located on truxtertech.com.

If you know someone with a gambling problem or might have a problem take a moment to study the signs.

Check your state to see if you can gamble.

if you would like me to sacrifice my computer and do a virus scan of the first 15 online casinos I find in google or bing or yahoo. Please respond and I will just download and scan and post results. I will not post my opinions =-\.    Kinda scary stuff there.

Or if you have any requests or comments or disagreements please respond below.

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

Call of Duty Black Ops

Posted onAuthorGame News

If you think Modern Warfare has great graphics, Wait till you get a load of the next level.
The game has amazing graphics I have never seen before. The cutscenes are so realistic and suspenseful. In scenes where falling or swinging happens in a cutscene I myself actually felt it in the pit of my stomach.
Do not expect to have your hands on this game till November 09 2010.
Head over to the game’s page on the C.O.D site and see the trailer they just posted. Call of Duty Black Op Trailer

Call of Duty Black OPS, Out for Xbox 360 in November. Just in time for The holidays.

Let’s follow the Pc release rumors as they come.

More to read

Starcraft II Updates

Posted onAuthorGame News1 Comment

Raynor Here

Finally the release of Starcraft is just around the corner.
July 27th 2010.
Looks like I will have to dig up some old accounts of mine and put this on.
I will make the challenge a month after I get the game. until then, I will be re-learning
gonna be funny seeing a vet of the game 12 years later battling newbs.
do you have an edge because you already have some cool tricks? or do you risk excessive loss because you think slower and more methodical?

7/27/2010 We will see

If you are an ex Starcraft gamer from the oldschool, post your gamer tag. Maybe we can meet online and battle a few.

Sorry all, no LAN play this time. This means no local competitions. Korea is going to be upset, especially if everyone has to creat an account to be in the competitions. They played SCI like it was baseball in New York.

Get GTAIV Patch 1.0.6.0 Working

Posted onAuthorComputer Tweaker

On my original install I had the game running using live to download and install the game.
During the install I got an error
user posted image
but after I closed the error window, I saw that the install was still going on.

Well later I uninstalled the game and then just installed patch 1.0.4.0. (alternatively you can do this Roll back patch without uninstall )
Played for a while.
found a link in GTAForums.COM linking to the XBOX website that allows you direct download of the 1.0.6.0 patch.
download.xbox.com/content/5454083b/tu10000083_10000b83.cab?n=F1F2863FCD63C802
Use winrar.
and I tried it wondering if there would be any issues that it would resolve by getting it this way… I have no idea what I was thinking.
but.
In actuality something good did happen. I got the full install without an error. why? because the game was not running (I guess). No errors in the install.
so now I try the game and see a marginal increase in frame rates. but now I want to see more. Call me greedy.
I go to video settings for video card (nvidia control panel,ati has it under 3d setting [sorry work pc but sure they are similar throughout])

Nvidia Control Panel

Nvidia Control Panel

anistrop ati settings

and I go to the 3d settings and manually select GTAIV and turn off Anisotropic filtering.

LaunchGTAIV.exe

CODE
“C:\Program Files\Rockstar Games\Grand Theft Auto IV\LaunchGTAIV.exe” -availablevidmem=.8    


run the game from the Launch
Go to the Video settings and select “automatic”
Then go to aspect ratio and pick the size that fits.
turn texture filter to tri-linear

Setting for gtaiv defaultish

Now don’t change anything. Just save at this point and give it a try.
I would assume it will not work as well for others but it should for some
and should show a nice change for many.
The shadows look wonderful.
It will not stop the ped cars from dropping, but who cares. right? Just get the game flowing better.
It looks better than it did before the patch and plays about as good as patch 1.0.4.0 maybe a lil shakier.
I have no desire to crank the settings hire, heck it looks better already.

World War Android App

Posted onAuthorComputer Tweaker7 Comments

World War Droid

This game is addictive. You can play against your friends who have Iphones and the same game. I love cross platform games. Nothing more inviting to make me pick “do I want speed strengthy build and  good looks phone, or do I want reliability ease of button mashing phone” to make me decide what phone I want, than multi-platform games. would be cool if Xbox and Playstation would do this.

The World War app

I waited for a good while to play this game. While my co-workers had it on their Iphone, I was playing a similar game on Myspace called Mobsters. I knew that I was the one who could show these hipsters who’s boss……. but I just couldn’t get the dang game. it wasn’t out for my Moto, and it still wasn’t out when I got my blackberry. Almost five months after I got the G1, here is the game I have been wanting.  World War.

Great game. If you need invites post your gamer code here and let other readers add you.

GTAIV Patch 1.0.6.0 Review

Posted onAuthorTech Review Man

Well the latest patch for GTAIV is out.

The only risk free way to install the patch is to boot up the game. Anything else and you risk a virus from some jerk who may have manipulated the file. My machine locked up while trying the install. I had to CTRL ALT DLT  to crash the game so I could look on Rockstar’s website. There was no physical download, just a bunch of information about the patch. Well pretty much the same stuff you see below.

One of the members of Rockstar Torronto has come to the GTAFORUMS and posted us plenty of information of what the patch gives us.
GTA IV Title Update 1.0.6.0 \ 1.0.5.1 \ 1.0.4.2 (Patch 6)
Rockstar Games Social Club
• Remove Rockstar Games Social Club application
• Separate RGSC application no longer required to launch game
• Social Club login now occurs during the launch process
Shadows
• A new, less memory-intensive, and better-looking scalable shadow solution has been implemented
• Enhanced Night Shadows added with user-selectable level of detail (replaces Shadow Density)
Performance
• Rendering optimizations have been made to improve performance, particularly when enabling shadows
• User-configurable graphics settings have been added for shadow control
• Improved memory management
Multiplayer
• Enhanced security to isolate users from cheaters and hackers
Episodic Content
• Provide in-game support to purchase “The Lost and Damned” and “The Ballad of Gay Tony” (Not available in Russian/Japanese Versions)
Bug Fixes
• Vehicle shadows re-enabled between 8pm and 6am
• Fix floating street textures
• Pedestrians in vehicles appear further out from the player to allow for long range sniping
• The Moon has been implemented with simulated lunar phases
• Fixed garbled text in Japanese Multiplayer menus
• “RESC 10” error fix for specific hardware configurations

As you see here the moon is back and looking great.

There are some great features with the new patch. Video settings .

New video settings

With the new patch they remove the mandatory Social club sign in.

Social Club is stripped out

with the removal of social club, there was a removal of shortcuts from the desktop. I seemed to have gotten an error.

but it was meaningless I think.

Error during the update GTAIV

BYE Bye Social Club

We get a new splash screen after the install. The new splash screen shows Episodes From Liberty City.

New GTAIV SPlash Screen

I try to load the Episodes and see if I can buy it, but i think I was a day early. So i got a connection error.

Live not connecting Episodes

I will try again later after the sales level out.

They added market place as an option during boot of game.. Cool. I of course will be buying the cd copy.

Market place button for gtaiv pc

I have noticed a 7 degrees F difference  when the Game link is blinking at the top of the screen, and a seven degree drop when i finally click the dang thing and get windows live opened. When I exit back out, instant temperature drop and frame rate increase.

After driving around and tweaking the heck out of my video settings, Air cleaning my heatsinks, replacing fans, cleaning up my start up processes, I started playing the game with a desire to explore. I stumbled into something kind of not good.

Yep Tree shadows are flickering.
So I moved to the Video settings to check what I had the settings at. you tell me what you think.

I seem to be bogging down really bad. I just recently did a motherboard upgrade so I can actually run dual channel Memory. That upgrade I did to my machine did magic for me. I jumped from 22fps up to 45 frames per second. That is a huge jump. I could then change my settings to near max for my video memory, but this patch killed that. I am back down, way down. with the video settings as smooth as i can get it, 17 fps .
I am not one to bash Rockstar and I appreciate all of the work they are doing. So I will not bash. I will instead ask you for your tech support.

Dual 9500 gt 512mb (sli on or off it does this)
AMD 5600+ dual core
2 gigs pc6400
XFX 750 A mobo black edition

****Update****

There is a patch for EFLC Episodes From Liberty City for pc.

****update2****

Well I could not get the game to work anymore. The game crawled to  about 10-15 FPS after that patch. So I completely uninstalled teh game and reinstalled. Dropped back to 1.0.4.0 Patch (aka patch 5). Turned off Anisotropic filtering in video card settings. Also turned off Anti-aliasing. Both were set to run by application control. So for gta in the 3d settings, I turned it off. Getting an average of 45 Frames per second.

May not be fore you. but works wonders for me.

The link for patch 1.0.4.0

Now if you want to try and roll youyr current install back to that, you have to reinstall rgsc.

I can’t walk you through how to save your settings, I didn’t  take that step. I went with a full fresh install.

It seems like it would be easy. Good luck. Report back on how you did it.

****update 2****

There currently is no updated no cd crack yet for 1.0.6.0

I would like to put my game disk back in the case and keep it from getting scratched.

***update 3***

Ok, I found my answer.
I posted about about an error I got while installing.
but as I closed the error window I saw the install was still going fine.
I got my patch through live.
So this patch I just installed
is the exact same one.

Difference is, this time I did not have gtaiv running during the install.
And this time
The frame rates are a buttload better..

but I do have to say 1.0.4.0 plays much much smoother.

I still want to see if marketplace can be killed with xliveless and see if that speeds things up.

download.xbox.com/content/5454083b/tu10000083_10000b83.cab?n=F1F2863FCD63C802

direct link to the new patch ,copy link to browser, extract  with winzip, works for me.


Android Tablet Rumors

Posted onAuthorTech News

It seems as if people want Android to compete with Apple Ipad Tablet. As if there is this big battle waiting to happen. The problem is, the Ipad is a useless accessory that serves no other purpose than to do and be what Apple wants. That is, for the future to be planned and predetermined. Google makes their hardware and software with rules and laws protecting them to say ” this is what we are selling, this is what you can do with it. It is a Horse bit and Blinders future if you let the product manufacturers tell you what is good, as apposed to produce what you request.
There is no use in that tablet, otherwise people would have bought the many Microsoft tablets through the years. It’s not a question of quality, it’s a question of convenience and capabilities. If it is an E-book reader with app abilities Neat, so is a $200 laptop. I mean if sun glare is not a problem to you, Otherwise a Kendal migt be the better, lighter and cheaper rout.

You must always have the option of a mouse and keyboard. You should not force people to have only one interface option.

My only hope is everyone who makes gadgets, just ignores the Ipad and moves on in computer and telephone direction. That would prevent us from being forced into a touch screen only type of interface. That junk would get old fast. I would hate to write to the Tech News site on a touch screen. After about an hour, my finger tips would get sore. Imagen if it was your job. I actually freak out when people touch my monitor. Imagen if all we had was touchscreen. I would be forced to sit in teh corner chewing on the collar of my shirt staring off into space mumbling “amonia glass cleaners and key action, We used to be able to do what was called ‘over clocking’ and we could tweak our machines and linux was a real, it’s not a myth, it’s not a myth”.
Hopefully we get an Android system that competes with the Ipad, but is nothing like the Ipad at all. That would be our best hope and safest bet.

First PC Screens of GTA – Episodes from Liberty City

Posted onAuthorGame News

The screenshots look amazing

Game looks like it will be fun. I am ready for this. I just hope it has a few patches bundled. or is a newer modified version of gtaiv engine to run smoother. I have pure faith in Rockstar that it will all be fixed, and ready for game play. Just have to keep the trolls out of the gtaforums.com site and just let it be fun. Just wish they would give a list of specs of machines tested smooth. would give us a good idea of what parts to work with. :-)


Johnny squaring off against the LCPD in Chinatown.


Luis working security at Maisonette 9.


Johnny escapes from the scene on his customized heavy-duty chopper.


Luis hanging out in Yusuf Amir’s Algonquin penthouse.

RED DEAD REDEMPTION

EPISODES FROM LIBERTY CITY
SOCIAL CLUB

3d Tv, Greatness or a Headache ?

Posted onAuthorTips Of Tech1 Comment

Is anyone buying this? the prices are crazy high. The question to ask is ” is there a button to turn off  3d mode for just in case I have guests over and not enough glasses”. 3d videos are a great tech, but it kind of flops for me after about 10 minutes. I get headaches and my eyes feel crossed for days after.

I am sure that at one time some company was working on an LCD lens that worked kind of like a hologram and would produce a very three dimension looking image. What happened to that ?

Truthfully, not much is going to beat HD. LOL uselessness. somethings you have to say ” why would anyone fall for this?”. i mean come on. If you need some sort of glasses that allow you to see better definition…. See an optometrist.
I certainly will not be buying one of these to do the full evaluation. The price is way out of my budget and the possible out come and effects on me far outways my desire (minimal) to even try watching these.