Portal Update Released

Benjamin SchollnickNo Comments

Steam has just released a new Portal Update….

Portal Update Released: \”Portal Update Released Updates to Portal have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:

  • Portal Performance improvements
  • Fixed crash during offscreen rendering
  • Fixed overbright screen when rendering with Radeon X1x00 on 10.5.8
  • Fixed subtitle mode to not include sounds, use close captioned mode for that functionality
  • Fixed achievement awarding being delayed to map change
  • Fixed view jumping when coming back from the in-game UI to the game
  • Improved support for using the Command key as a key bind\”

(View the rest of the article at Portal Update Released)

So YOU want to cosplay: An introduction

Benjamin SchollnickNo Comments

You wake up in the morning, practically vibrating in excitement, with the thought in your head: Today is the day.
What day is it? Why, the day of your first convention of course!
As you approach the front of the convention center, wearing your favourite superhero\’s logo proudly across your chest, you suddenly are struck with a strange sense… because standing before you in the long line waiting for passes, is the living embodiment of the superhero you so love. For a moment you pause, unsure if you actually woke up that morning, so striking is this person before you. But after a swift pinch on the inside of your arm, you realize you are not dreaming and that very much is a flesh and blood rendition of your hero.
This phenomenon is called \”Cosplay deja vu\”, a term I just coined about five seconds ago. But if you are not familiar with the sensation that has been sweeping the Western geek world for the last ten years, you are soon going to find out more than you ever thought you needed to know. Cosplay is short for costume play, and as with most ridiculous things, it originated in Japan. The name is a pretty good indication of what is consists of: basically, a person attempts to replicate a character from some form of fandom, be it comic books, anime, live action TV, etc. At first it was not very big here in America, but as anime conventions became more popular more and more cosplayers began to pop up. Now the culture of it is huge, and it is uncommon to NOT experience cosplayers at a convention.
Read More via So YOU want to cosplay: An introduction.

News – New Release – F.E.A.R.

Benjamin SchollnickNo Comments

Steam / Valve now has the original FEAR trilogy available (FEAR, FEAR Extraction Point, and FEAR Perseus Mandate) available from the Steam Store for $9. This is a fantastic bundle, especially for $9.

One of the great first person shooters of all time is now available on Steam. This exciting package includes F.E.A.R, F.E.A.R. Extraction Point and F.E.A.R. Perseus Mandate!
Be the hero in your own cinematic epic of action, tension and terror.

News – New Release – F.E.A.R..

Steam has some preliminary Mac Hardware survey information…

Benjamin SchollnickNo Comments

Here\’s a sneak peak at some of the preliminary findings we\’ve gathered about Mac hardware since we launched on that platform just over a week ago:

  • Roughly two thirds of all Steam Mac users are running on a laptop.
  • Portal (with the same code base across platforms) is one fifth as likely to crash on a Mac than on Windows.
  • And one week after launch, already more than eleven percent of all Steam purchases are for the Mac.

You\’ll be able to dig deeper into those numbers sometime next month, which is when we\’re planning to ship the complete report. After that it will be automatically updated each month with new survey data.

So…  The first week there was only roughly 10-15 games available for the Mac, and yet 11+% of their sales were for Macintosh versions…  Or played on Macintosh systems…

Portal is 4/5ths more likely to crash on a Windows system…

Hmm..  I can\’t wait to see the full report…

(View the rest of the article at News – New Mac Games, Hardware Survey, and Portal)

Back Up Your Mac to Multiple Disks with Time Machine

Benjamin SchollnickNo Comments

Since the release of Time Machine, backing your Mac up has never been easier. If you want to back up different sets of files to more than one drive, though, this script will help you do so.

Time Machine, in typical Apple fashion, will seamlessly back up your data with little effort on your part. However, when it comes to doing something a little more advanced, Time Machine isn\’t quite wired to do so. It can back up to multiple disks, for instance, but you\’d have to change the preferences every time, which can be a pain. Thus, if you want to, say, back up your whole disk to one drive and only one subset of files onto other drive, you\’ll need to automate it yourself.

To start, open up Time Machine and configure it to back up to your first drive with your desired preferences. After it goes through the first backup, head into /Library/Preferences and rename the com.apple.TimeMachine.plist file to com.apple.TimeMachine.Disk1.plist (or whatever other name you want to call it instead of \’Disk1\’). Go back into Time Machine, plug in your second drive, set the preferences for it, and let it back up too. If you go back to /Library/Preferences, the com.app.TimeMachine.plist will have reappeared, and you can rename it to com.apple.TimeMachine.Disk2.plist.

Next, open up Applescript Editor and paste this template into the box:

property pth : \”Macintosh HD:Library:Preferences:\”
property d1name : \”Backup Disk 1\”
property d1 : \”com.apple.TimeMachine.Disk1.plist\”
property d2name : \”Backup Disk 2\”
property d2 : \”com.apple.TimeMachine.Disk2.plist\”
property active : \”com.apple.TimeMachine.plist\”
do shell script \”defaults write com.apple.TimeMachine AutoBackup -bool false\”
if (list disks) contains d1name then
tell application \”Finder\” to if exists (pth & d1) then
set name of file (pth & active) to d2
set name of file (pth & d1) to active
end if
else if (list disks) contains d2name then
tell application \”Finder\” to if exists (pth & d2) then
set name of file (pth & active) to d1
set name of file (pth & d2) to active
end if
end if
do shell script \”defaults write com.apple.TimeMachine AutoBackup -bool true\”

Time Machine can still only back up to one disk at a time, so the best way to do it is plug in the disk you want to back up and run the script. It will then automatically back up to that disk for as long as it\’s plugged in. When you want to back up your second disk, just eject the first one, plug in the second one, and run the script again. Time Machine will then back up to the second disk with those preferences until you disconnect it. It\’s not as perfect as being able to back up to both without fiddling with them, but it\’s still a heck of a lot easier than manually moving preference files around yourself (or resetting the preferences every time you want to back up a new disk).