Download AutoSaver (beta) here

Ok, so I’ve been playing spore alot lately even though I can’t play online do to EA’s DRM issues, never the less I’ve happily logged many hours into the game saving when I would stop playing, other wise not giving saving any thought, thinking it was auto saving, as you know every good game has for like 10 years now. Well, I crash to the desktop after about 5 hours of game play and boom, all gone, nothing saved, nothing.

this worked my nerves, so I figured surely there is a way of turning this feature on or something to the effect, long story short, nothing I could find.

I figured I would solve the problem myself, but how ?

well after reading a few forums here and there, I found that in spore if you hit CTRL + S it will save your game, ok step one, a hotkey combo do get the job done.

from there the rest was a little bit of coding, I’ll save you the details but basically, through the user32.dll api in windows I send the hot key combo to save to the game based on a timer, I figured there would be times when I wouldn’t want to autosave (like when testing out planet destroying missiles ) but didn’t want to have to alt tab out of the game, so after some thought, I figured I’d use the numlock key to turn it on and off, why you might ask, well, firstly it does nothing in the game that I have been able to tell, secondly, the numlock key has a light on most keyboards that tells you if its on or off, so that would make it easy to tell if I was autosaving or not.

I also wanted to make sure this app wouldn’t randomly be spitting CTRL + S if I left it running when I wasn’t in spore, so I added a feature that makes sure that spore is running before it sends the combo.

I made it easy to configure by double clicking on the tray icon (a big floppy disk) or right click on it, and select configure.

if you want to try it out, here is a link.

A few more details, the app is written in C#, if uses a config file and has default setting but also saves its configuration file per user in microsofts default location something to the effect of “C:\Documents and Settings\bruce\Local Settings\Application Data\autosaver” there will be some random crap after that and each version of the apps saves its settings in a different folder.

the program has gone through limited testing but has worked well thus far, in the future, I may added the feature to set up a config, per processname that way your settings such as key sequence, and timer can be changed per game.

anyway, try it out and let me know what you think

Lately, more than usual I have been hit with an unending series of request for tech support, normally I don’t mind helping people with their computers, but as of late I feel people are starting to abuse this. If I haven’t talked to you in six months, you probably shouldn’t call me because your computer isn’t working. If our relationship isn’t one that we can talk about things on a regular basis, than it just feels like I’m being used. With that said, I’m not likely to turn you away if you need help, but it doesn’t make happy about how you see me, or treat me.

I’ve also found that a lot of intelligent people would rather call me, and have me figure out what is wrong, than to do it themselves, many of the people I’ve helped in the last few weeks could have easily solved their problems by putting the error message their system gave them straight into google and searched for a solution.

I know when a computer work its frustrating, and I know there is a lot of crap to know when it comes to fixing a problem, its just when you feel like you are running a business and not seeing any return for the work, it after a while starts to get old, I don’t think everyone should become a computer expert. But at least have some consideration for the person you turn to, to solve your computer problems, even more so when you don’t offer them any compensation for the time they spend on you.

(and before some of you go haywire, this is a general feeling and not directed at anyone, its not the straw that broke the camels back, its the load itself)

Well I noticed that this is only like the second time I’ve posted this month, I’ve just been happy and enjoying life, haven’t really stopped to post about the goings on. Recently I got a new graphics card for my aging agp system (by aging I mean 3 years old) but with this really cheap upgrade from newegg I got a 512mg card for less than $80, well worth the price. with the new upgrade I’ve been playing Bioshock and plan to finish The Witcher, both are great games that previous my system choked on.

As for as social life goes, well mardi gras is quickly on us, the traffics building in the streets, and the spirits filling many people, I’m looking for to Endymion on Feb 2nd, and Vieux de Crewe was nice, but other than that I think I will be forgoing the parade madness, I went every year as a kid, but once catching plastic beads and cups lost its charm, so did mardi gras, you see if you don’t drink, and don’t have kids I really don’t get the draw. In fact, mardi gras for many people in New Orleans now seems the time to go to other places in the country many of my friends now enjoy snow skiing during this time of year, I guess you get tired of anything after a while.

In sadder news, a distant friend of mine passed away recently, she was a beautiful charming girl and only 26 years old, she was struck by a train after an auto accident, from what I have been able to piece together she wasn’t struck while inside the vehicle, a few people have told me its because they believe she was trying to make sure her badly injured boyfriend made it out of the car. I can totally believe that about her, and though it is sad that she is gone, there is some honor in a death like that in my option.

I’ve always been one to put myself in a bad spot those that need me, and today I did it big, I feel things will work out, but I can’t help but wondering if this is how its going to be for the rest of my life. It seems that when people see they can lean on you, they tend to. I’m just hoping this works out for the best, and honestly even that is gonna be shitty.

In other news, SLU sends me a letter telling me I’m on academic suspension, so naturally I’m thinking WTF, being as I’m not in school, so I call the school and of course they are closed till after the new year, so I login to the school site, and not only do I find that they have me enrolled in a class, but they are also saying I owe them $600 for the favor. I so now, because of their fuck up, I have to prove myself innocent, I’m so tired of this sort of shit, in a country who touts “Innocent till proven guilty” it seem there is a whole lot of the reverse going on. The same sort of shit is going on right now with my bank, long story short my account gets over drafted, this is the first time this has ever happened to me, I’m not happy about it, but its my fault, I trusted my landlord and he fucked me hard, to compound this, my bank failed to send me an alert that this has happened so I now have like 6 nsf charges on my account for shit like a red bull, a burrito, a pack of undershirts. None of those cost more than $10, but each get the $32.50 service charge, needless to say this doesn’t help me with the savings I’ve been trying to do, so now, my only hope on recouping that money is convincing the branch manager that this isn’t my fault also.

bah…I guess in all our lives its gonna rain shit sometimes, I get past this, but this is my blog and I’ll cry if I want to. On a more up beat note, xmas was a great deal of fun, Vanessa met the family and charmed the pants of them, they all lover her to bits, and she seemed to be able to hang with them as well, so thats a real good thing. Another good thing was last night on Orleans ave for the midcity new years eve bonfire, no kiss at mid night, but still good times. I took the camera, but most of the stuff didn’t come out to clear, I know if I would have change my exposer and used a flash they could have come out better, but I don’t really like using the flash, so suck it.

anyway heres the link.

I guess its pointless to come here and write about things I can’t change, but sometimes its good to get it off your chest, Lately my girlfriend hasn’t been feeling well, I’m not talking down with a cold, I’m talking really sick. She handles it like a trooper, but it kills me inside to know that nothing I can do makes her feel any better, I try to be funny, and usually I know I just come off corny and cheesy, but she plays along and I at least feel like I’m doing something. With that said, My life is good, I know that, I as of late can’t really complain, I’ve been living my life and enjoying it instead of writing about it.

I know that life isn’t fair, I can except that, I’m almost to the point where I don’t mind getting shit on by life a little. But for me the hardest pain to endure has always been watching someone else go through it.

74%

See I know it says 78% but I thinking I could probably muster a few more percentile points out of the situation, I know I don’t have months of food stocked up here, but there is no way I’m staying here if shit goes down, I live in mid city, aka where nola stores its dead, but I also life close to 3 major exits out of the city, and also currently most of this area is still abandoned, I’m not saying I would make it, hell odds are stacked against us all, but I think my years of study have readied me for the Zombies, I know my enemy, and I do not fear them.

Last night I went to La Chat Noir to watch the Bingo Show, and as always amazing show, they are easily the best group to go see if you want your spirits lifted, its modern day vaudeville, and showman ship. Vanessa and I had a wonderful time. I had the chance to take pictures, most came out horrid, but I am still having issues with the SLR in the dark with no flash, regardless it was a great time, Below is a link to the gallery

As of late there has been many different groups touting the message “Wake up (target audience here)” . At this point I’m sick of seeing it, stop telling me to “wake up” as if I don’t know there are social injustices in the world, as if I can’t see that we are all being fucked. I think the better message, and something more worthy of focusing on, is giving me a solution, the reason, I and many like myself haven’t taken action, is because no realistic course of action is available.

I currently can’t do shit about the corruption of the World Trade Organization, I can’t stop homelessness in America, I can’t stop racism, sexism, or any of the other problems that have plagued man since the beginning of time. And frankly I have my doubts that anyone else can either. You may have the money to print out stickers, and the time to smear them all over the landscape but you aren’t doing shit to help anyone by doing this, you are wasting money and time, to what end ? Do you think the single message of “Wake up (target audience here)” does anything? Do you think when people see this, they go “Oh shit here I’ve been sitting completely unaware of how fucked up things are, but now that I’ve seen this sticker, I’m gonna get right on unfucking this world.”

Not in a million years, Stop smearing your shit all over the streets, stop sending out useless messages, start coming up with solutions and using the funding and time you seem to have to implement that course of action. Your movement will likely fade long before the stickers will, and then its just one more piece of clutter on the streets.

If you are trying to cause civil unrest I think you are failing, you aren’t getting people to take action, you are just getting people to learn to ignore one more in the millions of propaganda messages we are exposed to daily. While at the same time wasting resource that could possibly make the situation you are fighting a bit better, or perhaps this will make more sense to you.

WAKE UP PROPAGANDA MACHINE

I love that in this city, Halloween is a grand youth holiday, people fill the streets, till the wee hours of the morning, good times are had, costumes are worn, last night was no different. I spend much of my time down there with many of the people I knew from raves back in the day, many I still talk to actively on the “Disco Forum I didn’t end up getting home till around 4 or 5 I was really tired lastnight but felt the need to put the pictures from lastnight up as quickly as possible. I really need to spend a lot more time shooting at night, its a far greater pain in the ass to get good results at night from an SLR than my little coolpix 885. you can see the results here

For so long I’ve felt I didn’t have a home, I’ve bounced from place to place for most of my life, never anywhere long enough to be a native anywhere. But lately I’ve been feeling a strong bound with NOLA after moving back after so long, and living in the city and not metairie makes such a difference. This was made really clear this weekend at Voodoo fest, I found myself spending 90% of my time in the Bingo palour. There I saw people playing with soul and a uniquely New Orleans feel, it wasn’t the tourist Jazz iconry of New Orleans, but the influence of Jazz and its history is clear in this music, while still being its own style.

I just can’t say enough about the how the local acts made me feel at peace, and have grounded my desires to leave, this video helps sum up a lot.

Tomorrow is Halloween, and this will be my first time on frenchman in many years, I’m really excited about it, and feel myself being drawn into old social circles, that I haven’t been a part of in a long time, I’m going as a dumped body, and plan on bringing the SLR so hopefully I’ll get some good shots of the madness that is this night.

This weekend left me with these thoughts, this is the best that I can some it up, these words some like they are someone elses so if I am biting off someone and you know who it is comment on it, but the quote goes something like this.

“Its not about the events you experience in life, but how you experience the events in your life”