From Amalur to DC Universe

This is a playthrough of the first level of DC Universe Online with Update 19 applied. It's mainly for Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning lovers who are shopping for an MMO to move on to, but also showcases the updated tutorial.

Jin Cheng Restaurant

Location: 142-38 Roosevelt Ave., Flushing, NY
Cuisine: Chinese
Prices: $10/person (dim sum)
Credit Cards: ???

Food: 7
Service: 8
Value: 8
Environment: 6

Frequency: Unique

Jin Cheng is right on the next block from my Dad's office, yet today was the first time we ate there. I've probably passed by it hundreds of times. So it's just odd that we never ate there before! It's probably the most convenient restaurant to go to. It's pretty comfortable for a weekday dim sum since it's away from the Roosevelt/Main St. intersection. The office workers on lunch break wouldn't make the effort to move past Union.

The dim sum didn't have the variety that competing restaurants do, but the taste was OK at least. Portions were average to large. Some thoughts...
- siu mai - tasted great, but poorly crafted. The meat kept sliding out of the skin
- shrimp dumplings - average
- pork ribs - poor... more fat than meat
- fish head - original and actually good... great sauce. I usually don't eat fish head.
- squid - average
- radish cake - very fresh

The only thing lacking in this restaurant was the environment. It's a little dirty with flies, which probably factored into the NYC "B" rating.

Raspberry Pi User Guide

During his talk at Maker Faire, Eben Upton mentioned his book, Raspberry Pi User Guide. I searched for it on my phone to find that Wiley published it! So I ordered it the next day with my employee discount. I had already gone through the basic setup and now I just need ideas on what I should do with it.

The first few chapters go over the basic setup steps that I got from the website already. They also go over wi-fi setup, which is my next step. Projects include using it as an HTPC, web server and basic productivity machine. There are also basics to Python and hardware hacking.

Raspberry Pi

The Raspberry Pi I bought yesterday was incredibly easy to get up and running. The $40 was good for just the main board, but I actually had enough spare parts lying around to cover everything else. Here's what was needed and where I got them from...

• 5v USB power = borrowed from by HTC Incredible
• SD Card = the default one that came with my camera... never used it
• HDMI = borrowed from my upconverting DVD player
• Keyboard = from my Mac mini
• Mouse = from my Mac mini

Besides that, I also needed to get the Linux image and install that on the SD card. I went for the recommended Raspbian Linux (based on Debian). Once that was setup, all that was left was to plug everything in. I didn't come across any problems at all. It just worked!

Cool... so now what? The next steps are to get a compatible USB wi-fi dongle. Without internet, this system isn't too useful. Getting connected will open up a lot more for me to do. I also need to rig up some kind of case for it. Because of its size, this device allows makers to pretty much use anything as a case. There's even a printable PDF. So I'll see if I can come up with something. To be continued...

Maker Faire 2012

This was the last event of my week as a NY tourist. I bought the ticket online about a month ago, finding out about the event during my search for Raspberry Pi. I missed Maker Faire last year, so wanted to be there this time. I was just lucky I found it in time.

My ticket was for one of 2 days during the weekend. Saturday had talks for both the Arduino and Raspberry Pi, so I went for it. I almost turned back because the 7 train went down with signal problems. Then I looked at Sunday's schedule and it just didn't have the same events. I ended up taking a crowded Q48 to 111 Street and got there 30 min later than planned. But I made it and got to see the 2 demos I was going for. I even got the Raspberry Pi main board!

Intrepid & Enterprise Part 3

Continuing my week as a NYC tourist, I went to visit the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum for the first time. I had a good view of the Enterprise flyby earlier in the year and then again when it was tugged over to the Intrepid. So I wanted to see the shuttle up close.

For its size and number of items to see, the Intrepid entry is not cheap... $30 for a combination of general admission + the separate Shuttle Pavillion entry. Other options include the concorde and guided tours. However, it is a unique experience and an important part of US history. So I think everyone should do it at least once. There's just no reason to be a repeat visitor like the other museums, unless there's something big... like the space shuttle retirement.

High Line

Last year, my first visit to the High Line was a spontaneous one, so I didn't have my real camera with me. Since then, I've been trying to find some time to get out there again and I finally did it today. It's probably not as nice as in the middle of the Summer, but a Sunday morning makes it easier to get some quality humanless shots.

Since my previous visit, the section after 20th street opened up and the path now goes up to 30th. All of the good stuff is still at the downtown end though. 20th - 30th is mostly just repetition. I'll go again when they expand further. To be continued!

9/11

YouTube Cleanup

I decided to cleanup my YouTube channel a little bit this week. My Batman vs. Bane video was getting too many views and comments that I couldn't keep up. So I decided to hide all of my non-RPG videos. I started the channel for Kingdoms of Amalur bugs, so I want to concentrate on the RPG genre which tends to have an older audience anyway. I also want to keep the content original, so my Kingdoms of Amalur videos won't cover walkthroughs or loot locations. Other people have already done that and done a great job.

If you want to watch some of my non-RPG videos, you can still get to them from this blog. Just click on "Video Games" in the right navigation. They're still up, just unindexed by YouTube's search engine.

Kingdoms of Amalur: Fatality Ed.

This is a pretty common bug, but no one has posted a video about it, so I went for it. I don't want to do walkthroughs since everyone already does that and I'm usually too slow. So I always check my subjects before planning the video to make sure it's unique enough. This one features a bugged weapon that causes all attacks in the game to draw blood... hence "Fatality Ed."