It's Time To Look at the Big Picture

I've put together a Steam Machine early this year, using windows for the games availability, and I wanted to use it with the AMD APUs to test out some really affordable hardware options  and I have been incredibly surprised by the quality of performance I've gotten.

There are some really big improvements I wish Steam could do that would push Big picture mode a long way. I wish I could be logged into both my living room PC and my bedroom PC without having to worry about whether or not I've logged off already and will need to re-type my credentials if I accidentally log in some where new while my old machine is still running. I can see needing to be told that a game is being played and not being able to play a game while the other profile is, but that looks like it's being addressed by game sharing.

One thing the Steam Big Picture can't do right now is have multiple user profiles logged in simultaneously. There are already some great games that support local multiplayer, Dungeon Defenders, and Monaco to name a few. This is something that consoles have been able to do this entire generation and I'm a little spoiled for it.

The ability to browse and play media from inside the client. Movies, music, etc.

The things I can tell you're trying to fix, and just need to improve on, fixing game launcher issues. Skyrim still requires a mouse to start the game and in game requires a keyboard to type things. Rocksmith requires a keyboard in game to type things but the big picture mode shell prevents the keyboard from working inside of it at all. Etc. Bugs in general.

Aside from that, Big Picture mode is making amazing strides, and I would be exstatic to play on it as my primary gaming machine in my household and to give my input during its development.

I Notice When You Don't Talk to Me

I'll tell you the story about the goblin that ate fire.

It was a rotten and greedy goblin. She'd snuck into a giant's house, and because of how giant things work the goblin found she had swollen up to giant size herself. However, the last meal in her belly didn't, because magic is funny that way, and so while she had been just a little bit hungry before, she was famished now that she had a great giant empty belly and only a very very small half digested smack in it.

So she found the dining room, and, sure enough, the giant's table was laid out with an enchanted never ending feast lit with torches and served on gold plates. Even though it was never ending she was so hungry that she tried to eat it all anyway.

The more she ate, the more sprouted magically from the table. The faster she ate it, the faster and quicker it erupted from nowhere.

The great hungry goblin was so ravenous that she was not discouraged, used both hands to shovel every morsel into her vast mouth, hinged so far open that she could no longer see her own hands tirelessly thrusting sustenance down her gullet. Suddenly she gasped and gagged and choked and sputtered, clutching at her throat!

Wheezing and gulping for air she failed about till she fell down on her back, striking so hard against the floor that it dislodged the obstruction in her throat and caused her to choke it down whole.

Still shocked and surprised and out of breath she kept tumbling backward and out of control right through the back kitchen door and out of the house, back to her normal size, and down the steps and off into the woods where she finally lay still.

When she began to feel herself again, she noticed she felt hot all over everywhere, for though she did not know it and had not reasoned it out yet, she had absent-mindedly swallowed the giant's torches .

And great fiery torches of fierce flame lit by dragons they were, though now she was just a very tiny and unassumingly normal goblin.

She went on to be the mother of all goblins, the fire in her belly always destroying whatever she ate, always leaving her hungry and angry, but forever cooking within her unlimited imaginings and ingeniously clever hatreds. And that is why all goblins are so bitter to the core of their bellies, and so clever as to work out any plot or trap or weapon.

Because from then on, all true goblins have had a bit of that stolen fire in their bellies. And it forever drives them to evil madness.

Sometimes it's Hard to Get the Message

Well, I've been doing my very best to keep myself occupied. Been doing a lot of small projects, such as building balsa wood air planes and working on coursera classes. I should be getting my grade soon for my most recent class on Startup Engineering. It was an engaging and challenging class that I really enjoyed a lot.

I've been doing a lot of reading in the past few months.

Name of the Wind
Wise Man's Fear
Boneshaker
Just a Geek
Spin
Big Jack is Dead
World War Z
Outlander

I haven't watched very many movies. I've gotten free screener passes to a bunch of them that I've just ended up not being able to go to because of being too tired from work or having to go alone. I may end up having to just go alone to most of these. I could have seen Kick Ass 2 forever ago. I really enjoyed watching the first one and the second looks like an excellent followup.

I did see World's End, however, and that was an excellent movie. Probably some of the best acting Simon Pegg has ever done, enjoyable jokes, endearing characters, fascinating storytelling. It really was not done justice by the advertisements for it, which sort of failed to capture the feel of how the movie really was.

I'm going to start taking some more in depth web design classes and learning more about payment gateways and how to set up a merchant website from the ground up. I'd like to see what can be done to really push some of the boundaries on this.

I'll have access to a level 3 VPS from HostGator pretty shortly that should let me play around and really see what I can do. It will be really cool having access to it. I guess I could also play around some with a VPS that George gave me access to as well.

I'm pretty excited to see what I can to to accomplish some new tasks. ALso, it's about time, but I'm going to start drawing again and playing around with some art to see what I can do. Little bit of photoshop, little bit of charcoal, maybe play with some color.