Mobile PC Notetake

New to the market and has various uses. Mobile PC Notetaker is a pen with it’s own memory in it. It saves in real time the X,Y coordinates of the pen as you are writing. It also functions as a real pen, taking normal ink refills. When you are done simply upload the pens memory to the portable device with an easy to use LCD screen. From there you can upload the notes to a computer in JPEG form. You can also convert these notes into text which can be edited on the computer. This product features storage up to 50 full A4 pages, has a battery life of 100 hours using two AAA batteries, and the notes that you take are stored in flash memory. This product sounds great for anyone who has trouble typing with a keyboard, and don’t wish or are unable to dictate to voice recognition software.

For more information go here http://www.pc-notetaker.com/

Abletrack Trackball with two hand or foot switches

This is a tool aimed for those who have arthritis, carpel tunnel, or who are unable to use their hands and must use their feet. The trackball is similar to other trackballs on the market. It has a two inch diameter trackball, and comes with two 3 inch foot pads or hand pads to use instead of the left and right mouse buttons. The buttons on the trackball are disabled when the external pads are plugged in. This is a great product for anyone who wears splints when working with the computer, or lack the ability to use their arms completely.

For more information go here http://www.thehumansolution.com/abletrack.html

Natural Reader

This software is a great addition to anyones computer who has problems reading text. Natural Reader has natural sound voices that are easy to stay attuned to. Natural Reader can read text from MS word, Emails, Web pages, and PDF files. Another great feature is the softwares ability to convert words into audio files that can be taken with you on your IPOD or CD. I find this to be a great software. The best part is the ability to convert text to an audio file and listen to it at a later time, so your not confined in front of your computer for the duration.

For more information go here http://www.naturalreaders.com/

Dragon Naturally Speaking

A very high end voice recognition software that offers more than just converting spoken words into text. This software also allows you to navigate your computer by simply speakings words. Although it would most likely to go through the tutorials and learn how to do so, but they do offer on screen tutorials to aid you. This software can also be used via mobile device and a bluetooth microphone, so you can dictate and not be confined to the same room as your computer.

For more information go here http://www.digitalriver.com/v2.0-img/operations/scansoft/site/html/dragon/Preferred_9.htm

Zoom Text 9.0 Magnifier

This is a great software for those who have poor vision, but are still able to use most of the computer functions. Zoom Text supports magnification up to 36x and also features its own text-to-speech software. This software follows your mouse cursor when viewing anything on the monitor, and also the cursor when you type. This software is extremely easy to use and free trials exist for those who wish to see if they too wish to use the computer with more ease.

For more information go here http://main.enablemart.com/productDetail.aspx?store=10&pid=292&dept=20

]]> http://rpgguru.wordpress.com/2006/11/10/accessability-hardwaresoftware-reviews/feed/ 0 Trafalgar http://rpgguru.wordpress.com/2006/09/22/web-page-software-or-hand-coding/ http://rpgguru.wordpress.com/2006/09/22/web-page-software-or-hand-coding/#comments Fri, 22 Sep 2006 14:26:20 +0000 dldavies http://rpgguru.wordpress.com/2006/09/22/web-page-software-or-hand-coding/ ]]>             Having used Dreamweever, WordPress and some hand coding, I believe I have enough experience to distinguish the advantages and disadvantages of each.

            Dreamweever is a great program, a WYSIWYG application, that allows even the newest person to the web publishing scene seem like a guru.  At first glance Dreamweever appears to be a slight difference to Photoshop.  Making a page through dreamweever is the whole idea, then linking it to other pages you also create.  Within minutes you can have a fully functioning web page that looks very professional.  The drawback to Dreamweever is the things you can do are limited to the application.  Someone who learns to make web pages on Dreamweever and never learns to hand code may never grasp what they are truly doing, and may assume it is al magic.

            WordPress blogware is very simple and in many ways much more easy to use then Dreamweever. After registering a URL at WordPress you get your own blog site to do with as you please.  For those who just want to get their opinion or message on the net, WordPress is great.  With practically no hand coding experience someone could create a blog with little trouble.  Those who stick to the blogware’s available functions are very limited in what they can actually do.  Choosing a background, scheme, widgets, images, and editing seem to be the only functions they offer to those not able to hand code a web page.  Although WordPress offers you the chance to create your own CSS, they do not allow you to use one of their schemes as a template to build yours off of.  So unless you know how to hand code, you may be stuck with a surprisingly similar blog to that of your neighbors.

            Hand coding a web page is the key to success.  This isn’t to say you should hand code everything on a web page.  Use software available and get a good fast start on the page, then add in your own special aspects using hand coding.  You can do anything to a web page by hand coding, anything from making a music player interface with a play list, to putting a tracer logo on the curser in your site.  Although you are limitless on hand coding, you are limited by your knowledge of how to hand code.  Learning to hand code seems to be the only disadvantage of using hand coding.

            Hand coding is by far the best attribute someone can have for making web pages.  Although a lot of the things you need to do can be done on a WYSIWYG application.  If you ever need to do anything special for a client, then you have no worries because you can do everything.

Although the podcast is only three minutes in length, it pack a lot more content then other much longer podcasts that I’ve listened to.  How Ask a ninja works is, people send questions into a “ninja” that they would like answered. For example this weeks question was “What do you think about lines?”  Looking at that and not knowing what the podcast is about you might just skip it, but if you don’t then you’re definitely in for a treat.  A guy dressed in a full ninja outfit comes on the screen and begins explaining what ninjas do in lines and what he would do.  It usually consists of him killing people, but in a light and humorous way, nothing dark and evil about it.

The only downsides to this podcast are the length and the number of new podcasts that come out every week.  Three minutes seems short to me, but for those on the go, or for those who need a quick laugh it is great.  After listening to these podcasts I’m surprised how many ideas and original material they can come up with.

I would recommend this podcast to anyone who can spare a few minutes in their day and can learn what a ninja is truly thinking in the line at the bank.

Release:  unknown

            Ragnarok a game I stumbled upon while searching the endless supply of MMO games the net offers.  RO has a sort of childish theme to it, but don’t be fooled it has well balanced hardcore pvp and game play.

            RO has an adjustable overhead view, which is kind of odd, since it is strongly a 2-D game, but manages to bring 3-D into the world.  The classes are very extensive and the game has a wide variety of monsters to beat up on.  After you gain enough levels and join a guild, you can now participate in War of Emperium, WoE for short.  This is consisting of you and allies charging into a castle guarded by very strong NPC monsters that the guild who owns the castle higher.  Well to be honest it takes at least fifty people to charge into the room to destroy the emporium, because once you get in it’s a free for all.

            Ragnarok Online kept my busy for five months, but I would of stayed longer if other games were not piling up on the shelves.

Overall Rating: 9.6

Release: unknown

            I’m sure anyone who participates in the MMO world has heard of this title.  I’m not sure when the official release for RS was, but it has indeed come a long ways, and managed to keep a fan base.

            If you’re like the many underprivileged that can only afford the bare minimum PC then RuneScape just might be a game for you to try.  RS runs in java script, meaning you do not have to install a client or any sort of thing like that.  The game itself runs in the browser and requires very little PC functionality compared to WoW or Everquest.  RS at first seems like a very large and confusing place, luckily the creators were smart enough and they put in a tutorial to get you started. 

            RS has good qualities going for it.  The fan base for RS is huge. There are one hundred or so worlds that hold thousands of people at any given time. It is pretty much your basic MMO. You grind and such to advance in the world. Your character can do anything, there are roughly thirty stats to train, including: smithing, mining, fletching, thieving, cooking and many more that would make a new player rejoice.  With all of the things to do it is hard to get bored with RS unless you just can’t stand how it plays.

            RS is a sort of shunned game because of its lack of graphic support.  It is a choppy looking blockish 3-D world.  The movement is point and click, with a slight delay due to the sheer number of users on, but it is barely noticeable once you get playing.  The battle is a sort of turn base, which is uncontrolled by you or the monster, you just have to wait until you swing again.

            The game RS offers a free to play, so if you ever get tired of playing all of those Bot happy games, then try RS. From my experience I met no bots, and if I did they didn’t affect my game play.  RuneScape is definitely a game I would recommend playing once in your life, then wish they could make it better and retail it.

Overall Rating: 8.4

Release: 2005

            The game that we all thought would change the face of MMO market, as we know it.  It was unheard of, being able to play a MMO game that was FREE, or at least that’s what Arena Net said.

            I’ve played Beta, and a little under a year of the live game, and I can tell you from experience of a hardcore MMO and Diablo 2 fan, Guild Wars is not for me.  Sure some of the developers from Diablo came over, but does that mean we are going to get a game that has so many people entangled in game play years after release?  Obviously not.  Guild Wars started out to be the next Diablo 2 until they implemented the whole idea of making everyone equal, and well just taking the fun out of grinding hours on a game so you can obliterate the competition. 

            The second downfall of GW is the hopelessly boring storyline and how you proceed through the game.  When you first start you can see a huge map, unfortunately most of it is a path that lead you to places, not really the free roam you get in other games like Lineage 2.

            The third downfall came when the expansion Factions came out for it.  Usually we as gamers expect a lot from an expansions, and well Factions was lacking in the storyline department.  The two classes it offered were nice, but people will still use the ones that kill the most and die the least.

            The final downfall is the balance of the PvP, which is what Arena Net says, is the main point of the game.  If you’re a fan of MMO games then you know the term “cookie cutter” self explanatory when referring to an overused character build.  GW has so few of these and 95% of the population uses them, so if you think your going to be unique and bring in the unused, you’re just arriving at your own funeral.  Anet has tried furiously, or so they say, to remedy the overpowered and overused, but each in game update just seems to encourage people to play them, as they avoid the nerf.

Overall Score= 4.6 (mind you mostly due to lack of actual balancing ability from the developers. If it were balanced, then maybe a 8.0~)

Release: 2006

            A possible light shone in the crowded shelves of MMO games already out their, does RF online bring these other games to their knees.  To put it short… No.  Don’t get me wrong RF is a well thought out game, with plenty of things to do to keep you busy until the next big release, but is it worth your $15 a month?

            At first glance RF looks like a decent title.  It reminds me of Dark Age of Camelot with a mix of Lineage 2.  It has very good graphics and sounds.  Pretty much you choose a class, like any other RPG, but in RF you are useless to your race until you reach level 30, which is the point you can extend your class.  The grind in RF is definitely boring, the levels consist of a new quest each new level gives you a new quest, and that’s all you really have to do until you reach 30.

            The big seller for RF is the Chip War, or an all out pvp between all races, in the hopes of winning and controlling the center mine that holds the best mining spots.  Even though this occurs every eight hours the variety is still lacking as well as strategy.  Don’t get me wrong having the pvp every eight hours is great, but you tend to see the same classes and clans running over the new people who just don’t understand what the heck they are supposed to do.

            RF is still a good title to pick up if your tired of the unbalanced MMO market out there, just don’t go buying a whole years subscription, especially with up coming titles I don’t want to mention at this time.

Overall Score= 8.2

            Why should we hand over the power to these companies to sensor our internet viewing to a possible politically bias company?  Another downside is the fact that getting to content that is under the rule of an oozing NAP would be very lengthy and tedious.  If these companies were given rule over the networks, which is to say they can not charge us more for accessing content on another NAP.  It would be no different then cell phones today in roaming.

            The idea of net neutrality wouldn’t be a complete bust; there could actually be some advantages to be censored.  The internet wouldn’t be flooded with illegal sites and obvious harmful content.  Accessing content on the same network that you are on could actually be much faster, and sending files over the same network would be greatly improved as well.

            As a whole I think net neutrality would be a very bad idea.  The world revolves around money and giving these companies access to a medium that could allow them to bring more in could lead them to going further into limited our access or even raiser fees  for certain content that was free before.  As long as the internet was built by the people then it should never be given to a business as a means to extract money from the people.

Release Date: 2004

            Welcome to the world of Lineage; be warned you will die many times.  That’s the only warning I can really give to anyone who wants to pick up this game.  Lineage 2 is a MMORPG that gives grinding a new face. 

            When you first start out you get to choose between five races: Human, Elf, Dark Elf, Orc, and Dwarf. In each race you can choose between male and female and mystic (magic user) or a Fighter. Your choice on face and hair is limited, but still has enough variety to keep the population looking different.  Depending on your race you start in your starting town and your long adventure begins.

            Lineage 2 is one of those games where you craft pretty much everything, so the game itself has a pretty stable economy, and you can spend days just trying to find and buy the right equipment for your level. After you have gotten some armor and a weapon you can go out and kill some monsters.  Be warned that you can be player killed by anyone in game, even your own race. The good thing is that there are very strong town guards to prevent people who do this from coming into town.  The game play it self is a point and click movement with a hot bar to set skills and items on for easy use. The max level is 78 and along the way you will be given 2 class changes to improve upon your character. The classes range from support, melee fighter, casters, crafters, summoner and a little bit of the in between. Some classes are more suited for PvP player versus player then others, but with enough thought anything is possible.

            The main feature of Lineage 2 is the Castle Sieges that occur.  These events can have over one hundred people easy and consist of dozens of clans trying to take over a castle.  It’s not easy to charge into 50 or more people and kill them all to get to your goal, but that is why the game is so diverse, you never know what is coming at you.

            Overall the game has longevity to it, but that is if you like spending hours killing the same monster to get an item or material.  If you don’t like doing that, then maybe a more subtle game for you would be Guild Wars which has practically no grinding at all, but has the pvp action that most MMO players love.

Overall Rating: 8.7

Release Date:  1997

Developer: Square Soft

Style: Turn Base RPG

Presentation:

            Final Fantasy 7 (FF7) is the first of the Final Fantasy Series to be in a truly 3-D world. It is also the first to step onto the playstation console.  The publicity for FF7 is anything but great.  Very little acknowledgement of the game before we actually saw it on the shelf. The three discs definitely gave me an energy boast.

Score = 9.0

Game play:

            All FF series fans will be happy to see the old style of random battles, with the menu interface to do battle has been retained.  The big difference is 3-D battles with beautiful spells, summons, and limit breaks. The new system however is “Materia” which is basically an item you equip that allows you to perform that specific spell. With the wide range of material to obtain it will be days before you get your hands on all of them. Cinematic are breathtaking but with the very few that you get it is best to savor them as they last. Overall time to beat the game with minimal exploration is 72 hours. There many secrets to unlock that can make the game last for weeks.

Score = 10.0

Lasting Appeal:

            Well if you manage to finish the game and completing every side quest and quark in the game then FF7 doesn’t offer much else on a second time through.  That’s why FF7 is designed to last for a long time, and truly you can go without beating it for a very long time.  With all of the new secrets added to the American version such as the Ultimate Weapon and Ruby Weapon, which are unarguably the most difficult creatures in RPG history.  Lets just say the battle can last for 30 minutes or more, and that’s a long time in a turn base RPG.

Score = 9.5

Overall = 9.5 (Incredible)