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In February 2012, I will retire from World of Warcraft.

 Articles, Gaming, News, Random Ramblings, Software, Web Site Updates  No Responses »
Jan 272012
 

In Mid February, I will retire from World of Warcraft. My 10 Horde characters are currently at max level cap (85) and I cannot find anything else to do to keep my interest. I have done most achievements on my main Priest and experienced every character class at cap over the last 8 years with over 700+ days /played time across all characters. I have raided with guildies, I have pugged easy as well as difficult instances and trained many people on the in’s and out’s of the game. Now it is time to move forward.

I have since wandered over to Star Wars: The Old Republic and enjoying my time there on Soresu PVE server. I am also the GM of “Republic Exiles” with close friends and family. To say hi, just whisper BlackViper or BlackViperen in game.

It pains me to let WoW go, but after spending around $1440 on a single account over the years, I had to stop sometime. SWTOR is basicly a stopgap until Diablo 3 is released as I will be playing that game exclusively.

Thank you, kind reader, for all of your support with my gaming habbits over the years, but it is time to say farewell to a game that is #1 no matter how you judge it, but has just warn thin for me.

Have fun… that is what it is all about.

-BV

 Posted by Black Viper at 3:20 PM

Google Plus Invitations Available

 Articles, News, Random Ramblings, Software, Web Site Updates  No Responses »
Aug 112011
 

Update – September 20, 2011: Google+ is now open to everyone – http://plus.google.com/

I am offering all of my website readers an invite to Google+. Includes Video Chat, sharing of photos/video, etc. Just like Facebook without all the BS. I have 150 available to exclusively send out (first come, first served). The only thing you have to do is Email me with your email address in the text message and I will send an invite to that location.

After signing up with Google+. You can add your own friends! It comes with 150 invites by default to get a chunk or so of your friends migrated over. Come join the fun!

 Posted by Black Viper at 12:50 AM

Two More Cataclysm Characters Capped This Week

 Gaming, News, Software, Web Site Updates  No Responses »
May 212011
 

I updated my World of Warcraft character stats to reflect that my Paladin and Hunter are capped at level 85, bringing the total to eight characters at max level for me.

 Posted by Black Viper at 11:17 PM

PowerChute Personal Edition v3 dataserv.exe High Memory and CPU Usage

 Hardware, News, Software  No Responses »
Mar 212011
 

I use  an APC UPS, more specifically, a Back-UPS BX1500G and two services are installed as software (PSPE) to control this piece of equipment on Windows 7 64-bit.

This service takes care of testing and actually switching to battery power if needed and through my testing is required.

  • Service Name: APC UPS Service
  • Description: PowerChute Personal Edition service for managing battery backup power events
  • Path to executable: ”C:\Program Files (x86)\APC\APC PowerChute Personal Edition\mainserv.exe“
  • Startup type: Automatic (Started)

The second service takes care of calculating energy usage and sending it to APC. However, even if sending the data to APC is disabled in the options or not (even though if it is disabled in the options, disk writes stop), this service can go upwards of 80MB used and 15% to 30% CPU usage on both cores 24/7. A bit overkill for me as it can’t possibly be needing that much resources to figure out my average energy usage:

APC Data Service dataserv.exe

High CPU and Memory Usage

  • Service Name: APC Data Service
  • Description: PowerChute Personal Edition service for managing battery backup power events
  • Path to executable: “C:\Program Files (x86)\APC\APC PowerChute Personal Edition\dataserv.exe“
  • Startup type: Automatic (Started)

I disabled APC Data Service (Start -> Administrative tools -> Service and associated “dataserv.exe” and rebooted and my CPU and memory was reduced significantly and have not discovered any drawbacks other then an exclamation point in the system tray APC icon stating that the data service is disabled. I have had issues in the past with PCPE using lots of memory and CPU usage with previous versions, so the “memory leak”, if it can be called that, is not fixed.

If you are looking to reduce memory and CPU load, this would be a good start.

 Posted by Black Viper at 10:32 AM

What Happened To My Chrome Bookmark Bar?

 News, Software  1 Response »
Mar 072011
 

With the recent Chrome Beta version 10.0.648.127, I was having this nagging issue about the “bookmarks bar” appearing seemingly random and then going away. After a bit of observation, it looks like if you open a new tab, the bar would be there, then when clicking on a site link (say, on your “recent” home page thumbnail view), the bookmarks bar would disappear. This rapidly annoyed me, so I knew an option had to exist to stop that behaviour and it is in a strange (in my opinion) location (not in Options -> Basics or even Under the Hood):

  • Hit the wrench button
  • Select Tools
  • Select Always show bookmarks bar

There you have it, folks. A once again sticky bookmarks bar that, at least in my theme, takes up less space then the dynamic/random version does by default.

 Posted by Black Viper at 12:58 AM

Windows 7 Service Pack 1 Released

 News, Software  No Responses »
Feb 232011
 

Windows 7 Service Pack 1 is released and I encourage everyone to update their systems now. You can do this by going to Control Panel > System and Security > Windows Update and check “Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (KB976932).

 Posted by Black Viper at 6:35 AM

Adobe Adds Official Support for Full Screen Mode With Multiple Monitors in Flash Player 10.2

 Hardware, News, Software  No Responses »
Feb 142011
 

A issue that has nagged me for many moons with Flash Player Videos is not being able to keep the video full screen on my second monitor while working on the primary monitor. Now, accoring to Adobe’s Flash Player 10.2 release notes, it is included by default, without having to modify DLL files. Download the latest release to activate this feature or update Chrome by going to the options and selecting “About Google Chrome” to update the browser automatically.

Enjoy!

 Posted by Black Viper at 3:44 PM

Three More WoW Cataclysm Characters Capped

 Gaming, News, Software, Web Site Updates  No Responses »
Jan 162011
 

I updated my World of Warcraft character stats to reflect that my Shaman, Warlock and Mage are capped at level 85, bringing the total to six characters at max level for me.

 Posted by Black Viper at 10:39 PM

Happy New Year 2011 and Some Updates

 Gaming, News, Software, Web Site Updates  No Responses »
Jan 012011
 

Happy New Year 2011 from my family and I to you and yours.

With the New Year comes a couple of updates to my World of Warcraft pages:

BV EDIT: Another update: my Death Knight is now 85 as of January 2, 2011.

 Posted by Black Viper at 5:34 PM

WoW Cataclysm Character Stats Updated

 Gaming, News, Software, Web Site Updates  No Responses »
Dec 132010
 

I updated my World of Warcraft character stats to reflect that my main priest is level 85.

 Posted by Black Viper at 9:31 PM
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