I admire computer programmers. I think it’s amazing that a bunch of 1’s and 0’s can be configured in such a manner that they create a 3d world brimming with life on a television screen. Those worlds are populated with virtual people who walk, run, jump, and sometimes get stuck navigating around small objects in this virtual world. All of this is created for the consumer’s amusement, and they pay their hard earned money for this experience.

Which is why it is so frustrating to see that these geniuses, these artists, don’t know how to program a clock that understands the concept of a leap year.

Click for Facepalm.

Dear Sony,

I was deeply affected by this outage.  For once, I had real, live guests at my house.  They wanted to play video games while we were all in the same room!  We decided to play Rock Band. For some reason, none of the songs I purchased for download would work. (Also, that free iCarly song I downloaded didn’t work. I guess that’s what you’d call a blessing in disguise.) The PS3 kept throwing error messages around about not being able to sign into the Playstation Network. Other PS3 owners had it worse. They couldn’t play an offline, single-player game because their console thought it should be February 29, 2010.  In response, the console freaked out and set itself to 12/31/1999, a simpler time for machines. 

I really appreciate that you fixed this problem that plagued so many PS3 owners within 24 hours. I don’t know if it’s fair of you to claim the flow of time as a fix.  But kudos for making folks think you were actually performing work for the last 24 hours.

In the future, please understand that leap years occur every 4 years. Maybe you programmed the clock to think that even numbered years are leap years. That is a wicked rumor! Perhaps you thought it wise to match leap years to Olympic years. After all, those occur every 4 years.  If that is the case, plesae disregard the Winter Olympics, as I did, and all will be well.

Sincerely,

–BrikHaus, iCarly karaoke king

I downloaded the new Steam UI Beta.  I like the slick, new look.  It makes Steam look and feel like a modern application.

That said, this is very clearly a beta.  I cannot recommend that others try it out.  It’s one thing to not be able to see the text in an instant message, or have difficulty quitting a game.  Those are understandable beta issues.

But if you still haven’t mastered the fundamentals of time, it might be more prudent to call the thing an Alpha.

–BrikHaus

Beware, these fancy new weapons may turn on you at any moment.

“Don’t eat yellow snow.” - Team TACO Slick

I got knocked dead backwards by the Pyro on the right, and I hung by my ankles on the railing. This was a few weeks ago and I still haven’t recovered!!

Teuf’s Rule of Warfare #3: Teamwork.  The reason Mr. Twitchy McGiggler is mocking your team with his 20 to 1 kill ratio and having to ice his index finger between rounds isn’t because he’s that good.  Nope, it’s because the lot of you got frustrated after the first three insta-kills, got spread out in respawn, and started jumping like lemmings into the front lines without backup.  Regroup and then recapture.

Teufels went down to Georgia

Combined arms will strengthen your defense and offense, and enough lead downfield guarantees that even the most talented players will be taking involuntary twenty second breaks.  Now form up and fight.

Best TF2 cartoon I have seen yet. Well done, Andrew Kepple (albinoblacksheep.com). Happy Valentine’s day!

You must watch this. It’s like Chuck Jones met John Kricfalusi and they played TF2 for a week straight and got inspired to make this masterpiece.

I would shoot him once more just to be sure….very creepy.

I thought the Gunboats were made for me - I love rocket jumping, and while I’m not great at it I can use it at times to gain a vertical advantage over fearsome foes.

However, I have since experimented with going back to the original combo of Rocketlauncher and Shotgun, and the shottie is getting me out of some tough scrapes. Forget lead-lined boots, I want to line the coffins of my enemies with lead. So, unless they update the boot-boats so that you can throw them at any luckless attackers, I’ll stick with more gun.

In other news, I’ve given up the Direct Hit.  When one cannot aim after playing FPS games for ten years, one must embrace the use of splash damage.