First you need to use Frost and fire spells to align the crystal to look like this.

Then use the buttons at the top of the ramp to rotate the 3 rings to match up.

When facing off against a dragon, one of my Mammoth friends decided to take to the air and meet the dragon head on.

My friends just started up a blog and this is one of his newest projects. I think he’s crazy (And am probably right) but impressive none-the-less.

Check it out!

http://blog.grambonet.com/

Watch this video on YouTube.

A couple weeks ago I finally got my hands on a Kindle Fire.

I am also an owner of an iPad, iPad 2, and Archos Android Tablet.

Overall I love the Kindle. But there is a major problem….no way to lock out the ability to purchase stuff without a password.

As you can imagine, the Kindle is highly integrated into Amazon’s various services. Having access to the Kindle store, Amazon Streaming (Prime Member FTW), MP3 Cloud, and Amazon App store is great. But it comes at a price. In this case, about $40 worth of UmiZoomi videos.

My 2 year old son is a pro at navigating the other tablets. After about 5 minutes, he managed to figure out the navigation on the Kindle Fire. He manged to find the Amazon video streaming section. Within seconds, he found the kids shows and started clicking the Buy Season buttons. By the time we caught on, he had purchased 2 seasons worth and was getting ready to purchase some more shows. Thankfully the customer service reps at Amazon gave us a full refund. (Thanks!) I was also told that a “kids mode” is in the works.

Other than that issue, we have loved the Kindle. I will tell you that it is NOT as good as an iPad…..but it is less than half the price. I was also concerned that the size might be too small. But it is perfect for sitting on the couch reading a book, surfing the web or my new favorite thing…reading magazines on it.

The one thing I wish Apple would steal….er…..develop, is the most recent app carousel. Just like flipping through album covers on an iPad, the front screen of the Kindle allows you to flip through your recent apps. This coupled with the Kindle is broken up into sections like Video, Web, Music, ect. make it a breeze to navigate.

I am surprised how substantial the Kindle feels. The glass on the front is smooth as….well…glass and the back has a slightly rubberized back to it. I checked out a ton of Android tablets that were twice the price and nothing has come close to the build quality on the Kindle.

Once they get the kids mode figured out, the kids will get to play with it more. But in the mean time, my wife and I get it all to ourselves….which is not a bad thing considering how awesome it is.

A couple years ago I had a huge scare. My hard drive failed…..and everything on it disappeared. Thankfully I was able to recover the drive and save our family pictures. (The only thing I cared about.

Fast forward to this year. I currently have 2 PC’s, 1 Media Center, 2 Laptops, 2 iPads, 1 Kindle Fire, and a couple various smart phones roaming our house.  We had pictures, music and the occasional movie spread all over the network. Trying to maintain a backup solution was becoming a nightmare. I was looking for an inexpensive and easy solution. After some research, I came across various Network Addressed Storage.

I came up with a couple things that I needed it to do:

1) Automatic backup to a second drive. (RAID 1)

2) At least 1 TB of space

3) DLNA access.

4) Easy enough to use to have my family use.

5) A device that did not need a computer to function

After a couple weeks, I found the Netgear Stora. (http://www.amazon.com/NETGEAR-Network-Attached-Storage-MS2110/dp/B002O3W2OI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1324178046&sr=8-1)

It didn’t seem to get great reviews but it meet all of the requirements I had above. In the $150 or so price range I was looking at did not have RAID 1. That is what really drew me to the Stora.

Installation was a breeze. The drives are “Hot-Swapable” which is pretty awesome in case of a failure. I pulled the 1 TB drive out and put in 2 X 2 TB drives. (Make sure BOTH drives are the same size or else it won’t work). After plugging it in to the network and waiting for a minute or so to double check both drives, we were up and running. The software that comes with the Stora is kind of useless other than to manage the settings. It also comes with a 1 month trial that allows access over the web….but I have yet to use it.

For a simple NAS RAID 1 box, it works great. If you are looking for more functionality, you are probably going to be disappointed.

Now if only Picasa and iTunes on multiple computers would play nice with the NAS box, I would be ecstatic.

The MechWarrior games bring back some great memories. So to say I am excited is an understatement. Right now there is not much info out there at the moment but reading the Dev blogs and any info I can find, here is what I know.

1) The game takes place in 3049 in the BattleTech timeline. This is when the clans start to invade the Periphery States. (Or when all hell breaks loose)

2) The game is a PC exclusive. That is not too surprising due to the Free-to-Play model.

3) No melee, no exiting mechs and no vehicles. I would also guess no Battle Armor unless they are going to include Elementals into the mix since Inner Sphere Battle Armor was not readily available around this time frame if memory serves me right.

4) They are looking to support all types of joysticks and flight controls. This leads me to believe that they are looking for a more advanced control options which might push it more towards the Sim versions of MechWarrior vs. the Mech Assault on the Xbox games.

5) They state that they do not have co-op support so that tells me that the game will be competitive game play. (PVP vs. PVE)

6) They state that the MechWarriors will have specialized “roles”. That makes me think that each “role” will offer different perks as you level up. I am not a huge fan of perks in competitive games but who knows.

7) The view is from in-cockpit only, which is AWESOME!

One of the most interesting things to come out of the announcement was what they are calling “Information Warfare”. This is a strategic layer to the game play that reminds me of the MechCommander series. There are not too many details on how they plan to execute this.  It could just be a map where “commanders” can plot waypoints or a full blown command structure with multiple battles playing out in front of commanders..

9) One thing I am concerned about is the lack of information on mech customization. They do talk about the look of the mechs being customizable but I am talking about completely customs designs.

10) The game will support Mercanary Corporations. These will in effect be the “guilds” of this game.

For an interesting interview, please check the article @ http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/10/31/mechwarrior-online-developers-share-details-explain-how-mwo-evolves-the-series/

First build a ditch at least 3 blocks deep from the path you want to cross.

On the right and left sides of the path, lay down some pistons.

In the center, dig a trench 3 blocks deep and fill it with pistons.

On both sides of the path, lay a redstone repeater next to the pistons on the side. They have to be on the same level as the piston base.

Then run redstone wire to each side like in the above pic.

Put a lever or button next to the redstone. When you pull the lever, the pistons on the outside should raise up.

You now need to dig below the repeaters on one side to place repeaters next to the base of the pistons in the middle and then run redstone wire to them.

Once done, you should then pull the lever which should extend all of the pistons. While extended, use gravel or sand to fill the pathway until it is level like above. (Should be one block on the side and 3 in the middle for each piston)

Make sure to cover all of your redstone wire and repeaters BEFORE filling anything with LAVA.

Here are the after shots.

Hidden

Exposed

A pretty simple solution for someone like me who is just starting to learn redstone wires. The next step is to wire up a lever for both sides of the moat.

I finally had my Xbox 360 PRO RROD on me after 4 years of service. I decided to go ahead and grab a 4GB new Xbox 360.

So far it has worked great until I got the following error when I try to play a DVD:

“A required storage device has been removed your console will now restart”

Right before the error I get a “Please re-insert memory unit”, then the controller turns off and I get the above error message.

After some digging, I think I found it.

I cleared the system cache and then made sure I cleared out any crap on the “drive”.

After doing that, I am back up and running!