Add applications to Windows 8 Startup

It really was not that difficult, but I was just used to the old method in Windows 3.1 up to Windows 7.

Here is how to add an application to the startup

Windows Key + R :

Then type shell:startup

And voilà ! Add the shortcuts you need.

Psychonauts - not saving Windows 8 - Solution

A few, or now many many moons ago, I contributed to the Humble Bundle to get a copy of Psychonauts. Although I have just realised that the I am not particularly in love with the audio, I do like the style of the game. There is a certain amount of character to it. Nevertheless, I was unable to save my progress under Windows 8. I am not sure exactly what was the problem but this is what worked :

- Move installation to root directory ( the path should be a problem, but sometimes it can be.)
- Set the game to Run as Administrator
- Delete existing profiles. I kept on getting the Dan profile that came with the download.

I restarted the game and saving is working fine. :)

Optical discs to make a comback! 500GB to 1TB

While bandwidth is increasing, there is no certainty that  everybody will be going "cloud" - not totally secure would a company go belly up, no access when there are connection problems etc.

Unless doing a lot of media, video and audio work, huge amounts of storage, large than a 1GB is unlikely, but some of us have millions of photos that we will never look at, or know what to do with them. So we may store them on a hard drive, or optical disk.

Earlier, I wrote about my dilemma about getting a blu-ray drive for my new PC. While it wasn't totally necessary, as the library's selection of films isn't great, at least I have the option of viewing blu-ray discs and writing to make backups. Preparing a few discs instead of 10 is also a plus.

However, it looks like the optical discs will take another twist : 1TB with 20 layers. As optics, laser and machining technology is researched, developed, standardizes and commercialized, we will have other options to store digital media.

AMD APU - Which one should I overclock? The CPU or the GPU?

It has been about a month now that I have been experimenting with the AMD A10 APU. Actually, most of the time I would be running it at stock speeds, as its performance is great without any changes.

(In many ways I am confident that this series of AMD processors will help the company rebound. Although I was wrong with my prediction about how tablets would take off, I remain convinced that they are not suitable replacements for computing devices. I like to write, I don't like having to look at my keyboard, or grab the mouse. The keyboard is the ultimate input device. That is why PCs, with all their complexity, will stick around. Cars are easier to fix for mechanics then they were 30 years ago. So are computers, however an understanding of the different systems makes the repairs possible.)

Anyways, when playing a game at 1080p with all the eye candy, I left AMD's System Monitor  operating in the background. It seems that the GPU is most taxed. That means that more frames per second (FPS) could be possible. I can't notice much of a difference above 30FPS. Will a higher FPS make the game any more fun? Well, that is another question. I was playing Need for Speed Hot Pursuit. Not a stutter or problem along the way.

As for the results above, it is clear that I should either a) get a better graphics card and disable the APU's GPU or experiment more with the overclock settings such that I can achieve a higher framerate.

The 7660D currently sits at 1050Mhz, but it can go much, much higher.

The Old Tool Google Trends Still has Much to Say

Indexed search engines like Yahoo and others were great. As much as it required people to physically index the internet, at least, there was some organization. Google is very very fast, it allows you to search for keywords and find whatever you are looking for, however there is often a lot of pages that you don't want to read, or would like to filter out. Still something that is on my list of things to do.

Nevertheless, I took a few minutes to see how popular are certain keywords in Google's search history with Trends. While I may look up things that I most often seek when reading the news, or other general searches, the results provided by Trends can be useful when planning a marketing campaign or other. Mind you, a good product or proper qualitative research cannot be substituted with web popularity alone, but there is definitely something that we can learn about Trends.

Enter a product, even if it is international, you may learn about how it travels through the web. "4k Video" seems to only be popular in North America and Italy. However the 4k could mean something else like a studio or a production team.

Foods wax and wane in popularity. You thought GMOs are bad. Well many environmentalists have shifted their positions when companies have changed policies. GMOs were less of a concern after the 2008 economic crisis as people had other things to worry about.

Try some words of your own. This made me laugh.

How good games ruin the rest

Over the past few months, I have played a lot of Bioware games such as the Dragon Age and Mass Effect series. They are simply stellar. Good writing, the voice acting is great, action is well balanced, faces are well drawn/modeled and the animation, while not always as detailed as I would like, is still quite good.

I am really let down with the games that I have tried since :

• The Witcher 2 - The voice acting is just horrible. I also find the game play a little repetitive.
• Kingdom of Armalur Reckoning - Is this a joke? 2012 games should not feel like ones from 2002. What frustrates me most about the games is the use of the mouse for everything. I want to hear the dialogues, but why do I have to click to each response. How about an option to make the different responses run smoothly.
• Saints Row The Third - Game is supposed to be fun. At times it was, but overall, it left a lot to desire.
• Assassin's Creed - The whole lot. Although the graphics are good, the story doesn't evolve that much. An interesting concept that is wholly underdeveloped. 
• Borderlands - I have yet to try the second instalment, however I was let down with the first as there were a lot of guns, but no story. The robot claptrap also annoyed me.  

I think I will go back to reading books. 

The Witcher 2 Enhanced Edition - Crash - By The King's Will

If The Witcher 2 crashes as you leave the tent in the King's Will part of the story, it is most likely that your installation is corrupt. That was my experience. Unfortunately, I cannot download it again until I am out of my region ( bandwidth is very expensive in canaduh).

Nevertheless, check the installation using Steam or other installer to verify the integrity of the game cache.

I thought that overclocking was my problem. But it wasn't!