Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Oy vey.

Okay, so here's the thing. I'm not going to have this be a blog in which I constantly blog about not blogging. That will simply not do.

I actually made it an Official Rule to myself back when I was writing the Greenspeak column in Computer Gaming World magazine that I would never, ever write a column about how I didn't have a topic that month. Whenever I see writers doing that, I always want to slap them. If you don't have a topic, then, hi, you don't deserve a column. You can't have NOTHING to say. If you don't, give the page to someone else, because plenty of us have plenty to say. Ya know? It's the weakest way out of actually applying yourself.

Having said this, which, now that I think of it, isn't really relevant to anything, but what the heck, it's midnight, I do want to apologize, again, for the infrequent posting. The thing is: We're in computer hell at my house. H-E-L-L. Or I suppose I could spell that V-I-S-T-A. You know what? Fuck Microsoft. I say that with all due respect to my friends who work there. I actually don't mean fuck my friends. They are cool. But good god what a P.O.S. Vista has been--at least for me. I have had nothing but headaches and blue screens and constant crashes (especially with Firefox) since switching over. And yes it was a clean install. Twice. So don't lecture me. And so now that I don't run their "official" goddang magazine that they never gave a crap about anyway--or even remember existed--until it was killed (at which point they then worried how to spin the closing so it wouldn't make THEM or "Games for Windows" look bad--yeah, thanks. Guess what? "Games for Windows" looked bad from the fucking start, morans!), I have no problem telling them to get bent for shoving such an unfinished, mediocre, unstable, buggy product onto the market. After all these years, I think I'm finally just about ready to go back to Apple. Good job, Microsoft!

Meanwhile, that isn't even the real hell. The real hell is that both my wife's and my daughter's PCs (yes, Windows PCs!) are out of commission. My daughter's is dead dead, as in kaput, with a fried motherboard, while my wife's Dell laptop is in endless Blue Screen of Death hell and so is now at a shop where we will get reamed out of a few hundred dollars just for the displeasure of having to use it again. The net result of all this? We now have two adults and one teenager and one PC in the house. Yeah. I don't know about your family, but my family isn't fully at home and happy unless we're all behind our respective screens, YouTubing and Facebooking and gaming and steadfastly not paying attention to each other. This is what creates harmony in our house. Now? Now there's a line to use the one PC, and let me tell you, stress is high! So this is the situation, and this is why the blogging has fallen off. BLAME MICROSOFT.

In other news, my work life has been equally crazy. One month in to my new career...and I am seeing some of the volatility of the game biz. I can't really talk details, but let's say that everything I did until now has been essentially rendered null and void, and I am now going to another project. The good news is that I'm excited about that project, too, as I was with the last one. So things are good. And maybe one day I'll be able to share all the details of what it's like at EA. Details like the fact that my mail has now twice been misdelivered to a fellow at EA named Jeff Brown. Like, hi, they color coded us for a reason!

In any event, I'm tired. Tomorrow I move to another floor, another team, and start all over again as New Guy. Let's hope I go through this rite of passage again without doing something horrible, like projectile vomiting on my new boss. If I can just have that not happen, we'll call it a victory.

Good night. And remember: Fuck Microsoft!

88 comments:

Anonymous said...

apple is your friend! and it runs wow beautifully :P. go pro!

Mystery White Boy said...

When my parents got divorced I blamed microsoft. Those bastards cause all the problems...

jaypeters said...

MACCCCCCCCCCCCCCC

ONEBUTAN

whatever7 said...

Dude, I been following your blog as an guesture of supporting GFW.

Have to comment on this. Stick with XPSP2 (not SP3) or OSX.

Get used to the way of installing OS with ghost. I will never have to worrying about reinstall again. Just ghost a good install and store the backup somewhere. Also, backup firefox with FEBE, nowadays a good "install" of firefox is just as important as the OS.

Anonymous said...

"Details like the fact that my mail has now twice been misdelivered to a fellow at EA named Jeff Brown. Like, hi, they color coded us for a reason!"

hahaha

Anonymous said...

Saying this as someone who has been fixing office computers since 16 years old, and fiddling at home long before. Yes. Get a Mac.

My girlfriend got us new iMacs recently when I punched my XP computer clean of my desk before leaving for work in the early, early morning. Before OS 10.3 you could not have paid me to touch a Mac, to a techie type OS 9 and below were poor jokes at best.

But 10.5 and onwards, wow. These are solid machines and I never seem to get angry when behind one. Never a reason to be. And at a pinch, they run windows fine if you find some odd need to.

Anonymous said...

Wow, I must be the only guy with Vista who doesn't have problems.. I bought my work laptop 18 months ago with Vista on it, and it's never gone wrong... being an IT guy, I've poked it a little to make it be how I want it to be, but yea.. it's been better than my memories of XP when it first came out... I'm not defending it here btw, so don't flame me.. just my experience.

darvoid said...

Come on back to the happy place. Mac will make you sane again.
The new Imacs look yummy.
Thanks for everything. You write good...funny, you are.

Unknown said...

No problems here

I have vista on 3 rigs and not a single problem. Im not sure what you ppl are doing but obviously your doing somethign wrong.....

Anonymous said...

I'd agree that to any of us who spend our lives making PC's work, Vista can not possibly be that bad. But the market of normal computers users is clearly saying otherwise!

If only Microsoft made their own hardware too, I imagine it would be a whole different story.

Anonymous said...

Spend a weekend and fix your goddamn PC you crybaby. You know exactly this has nothing to do with Vista and everything to do with shitty third party drivers and/or faulty hardware.

p.s.: I've had to reinstall OSX on my Macbook more often than Vista 64 which has been working like a dream. So much for anecdotal evidence.

lowlight said...

I can say with 99.9% certainty that your Vista problems are hardware related. There is no way the problems you describe have anything to do with Vista.

You have 3 dead computers, 2 of which you KNOW are hardware related. Don't BLAME MICROSOFT!

David Stretch said...

I have to concur, Vista isn't the problem here, I suspect hardware or dodgy device drivers, sorry!

Salaryn's Sword said...

Vista is the new "Millenium". being hand in glove with Microsoft for awhile, you should have known that, tsk. Plus...didn't you read all those articles in the game mags about how not-compatible Vista is/was with many games? What made you do it, we ask?

Good luck with the repairs.

Anonymous said...

Just wanted to drop by and say, it's ass-early, I'm at work, half-asleep, and you made me chuckle as you always do. Thanks a million.

Anonymous said...

Jeff. You just keep hitting on those touchy political issues.

And don't you worry about infrequent blogging. While it is nice to have a blog from you every other day. The fact that your doing a blog at all is something for which I am really thankful.

itsanobscureid said...

I hate to follow the crowd here, but when you're right - you're right.
OSX is the way forward - I've still got a windows machine - but that's for gaming and that is it - farcry 2 tomorrow :)
All other computer related activity is now spread between a mac mini and macbook (both of which can stream to either ps3 or 360 in lounge so no more MCE)

I went mac and i did never look back!

good to hear from you anyway, btw didn't Ryan ad the guys/gal do well on the new podcast?

dLindner said...

You are too stressed, with only one PC at home, you don't know what to do with your hands while your daughter is facebooking. And that's what's making you blame MS. Start some handcrafting activity, say... origami? Hmmm... you can play around with your iphone!
Good luck with the new project.

Andrew Josefchak said...

That sucks about Vista. I switched over from XP recently, and everything went perfectly smooth.

Anonymous said...

Well Vista works well for me (better than XP) and I've used it for 18 months. I'm not so keen on Mac's or their users - they seem so smug.

Anonymous said...

Keep on keeping on at work Jeff. I totally understand your situation. As a tester I haven't been moved from project to project as much but have switched roles on the project I was on constantly, at one point I think I changed roles 2 times in one week. Just keep in mind that when a game comes out that you can say you had a part in developing and can annoy your family and friends about your name being in the credits, it makes it worth it.

ICallItFutile said...

"Details like the fact that my mail has now twice been misdelivered to a fellow at EA named Jeff Brown. Like, hi, they color coded us for a reason!"

LOL

Oh Jeff, I feel your pain. I've been there with PCs before.

SPOD said...

Pity i'm getting jaded with Apple. Leopard and the new iPods, whilst snazzy, are way more unstable than anything before them.

And Apple are getting greedier... Fingers crossed.

Anonymous said...

*cough* http://www.tweakguides.com/TGTC.html *haaaaaaack*

Anonymous said...

We now have two adults and one teenager and one PC in the house. Yeah. I don't know about your family, but my family isn't fully at home and happy unless we're all behind our respective screens, YouTubing and Facebooking and gaming and steadfastly not paying attention to each other. This is what creates harmony in our house.

*sniff* That's beautiful, man. Beautiful. It's like Waltons in Space.

Rob Drimmie said...

Jeff, seriously. Despite whatever the click-hungry overlords used to drill into you, it isn't necessary to post a dozen times each day, especially for a personal blog.

I love reading what you write, but as you say, this writing about not having written anything? That's the weak part of what you're writing.

Lets just take it for granted from this point forward that you're sorry for not having written as much as you'd prefer. Now we all know, and we'll all forgive you each time you do write something for not churning out bland pablum in the meantime to get people to keep coming back.

The writing that you're doing in this space is no longer about selling advertising. It's about writing what you want, when you can.

Feeling like you need to apologize for not writing just makes it harder to start each time you sit down. Fuck apologizing, just write when you can and we'll be happy.

Jeff Green said...

Thank you, Rob. Point taken. :) And thanks for that tweakguide link--I should have thought to go there, as Koroush is The Man. Will investigate my Firefox problems there.

Also: to be fair, maybe I should have said "fuck Dell", as the two dead machines--and this Vista one--are out-of-the-box Dells. Yeah, I know, I don't learn. But that's what pisses me off: This Vista machine CAME this way. I didn't add new hardware. I should not have this much instability.

Also: didn't you people detect the undercurrent of loathing as it relates to the closing of my magazine? That's really what this is about. :)

Anonymous said...

Most of the times, in XP an Vista computer problems come from hardware and drivers, but always the blame goes to Microsoft, I mean the are no saints and there are problems with windows but hardwae reliablity is the most commom. Of course Microsoft has some blame in it and they should invest in reliable troubleshooting software, as everyone that has tried to discover the cause of some strange BSOD can relate is very hard to isolate which part of the hardware is failing, if they did that they could say hey this crashes because of this part that you PC maker was a cheap bastard and put the most cheap part he could find.

White Hamster said...

My laptop runs Vista Premium, 64 bit no less, and it goes through days where its fantastic and smooth and fast, to getting three blue screens in a row trying to launch Peggle (actual numbers) and i keep wanting to switch to Linux, but nearly all of my gaming is on Windows, so i end up toughing it out, and it ends up being ok, usually after a reinstall ... sigh.

Anonymous said...

My wife and I have been thinking about getting a new PC, but I really do't want to have to deal with Vista headaches. I think we'll just stick with our XP powered laptop for as long as possible.

Slapshot said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Slapshot said...

Only Microsoft could launch a "Games For Windows" campaign where so many of the games that garnered the logo don't always operate happily under Vista. Maybe it should've been called, "Games that won't be FUBAR under Vista"

Oh but wait it's not Microsoft's fault that you haven't upgraded to non-existent/non-working Vista video or audio drivers from nVidia/Creative Labs, etc. Shame on you people for not having the same acceptable rate of fuck-ups that Microsoft writes off.

Anonymous said...

Also: didn't you people detect the undercurrent of loathing as it relates to the closing of my magazine? That's really what this is about. :)

It's ok Jeff *hugs*...now let it all out big guy.

You know what would piss off those MS bastards! Get a Mac buddy. Trust me you will love it. Plus your iPhone will love you more for it ;)

A.J. said...

Haha. And the truth comes gushing out.

I hate to add to your woes, but I'm using a Dell with Vista and have had no problems whatsoever. So good luck, I guess.

Slapshot said...

Ajguy said...

"I hate to add to your woes, but I'm using a Dell with Vista and have had no problems whatsoever."

So you're the one!

;)

Anonymous said...

Why does an oldschool PC gamer have Dell's in his house? Build your own and use Vista 64, no problems here with stability or running any games or programs I throw at it.

For those saying get a mac you can just get Ubuntu for your PC if you want an operating system that's stable and allows you to do things like browse the web, listen to mp3's, and um...uh....check emails? Trying to figure out what else you would do on a platform that barely has any games for it.

Jeff Green said...

Well, yeah. I'm gonna keep playing games on my PC. I'm just venting. The reason for the Dell laptop is, well, it's a laptop. And the reason for the desktops, as opposed to building my own, is, well, they were hand me downs from a pal at Ziff. So I can't really complain. Well, I can, and I did, but yeah. Go Apple!

Leo C said...

I'm gonna pipe in to repeat what some others have said that the problem is likely that they have a 32 bit version of Vista on there or a 64 bit version of vista with very early drivers or with mostly 32bit versions of the software.

If you have a 64 bit processor, and 64 bit vista, always make sure you get the 64 bit version of software when offered, it will change your life.

tomsamson said...

Rob is right, you don´t have to apologize for not posting every day, just post when you can and feel like it :)
Up to around 6 months ago i always had windows pcs. Dabbled around with a Linux partition on some machines in between a few years ago back in school days but that felt like too much fiddling around with everyday common things to be worthwile for a full replacement of my windows partition.
I then used XP for many years and was happy with it like with no Windows version before. With the service packs and other constant smaller updates it had become a quite stable OS leaving me few reasons to moan (and already in launch version it was better than the previous windows version on many ends, so it felt like constant evolution, not dropping down to get back up again).
I was also never a guy supporting thoughts of the type that one giant company is seen as all cool and stiley and the other as all evil and ridicule deserving. But then i bought a new laptop for my sister with vista preinstalled and man did that change my mind.
You´re totally right, i feel like this is a huge step down from xp.
The performance is so bad that one of my 3 year old pcs outperforms her brand new dual core system with more than twice the ram amount and every other part (buss, hdd etc) being bigger and faster, even after having turned off anything that is meant to slow down vista (like the shiny gui effects).
Lots of hardware isn´t recognized, others works buggy at best and then the OS freezes often for a few seconds when doing basic tasks like opening a few windows.
The "security" approach of constantly asking the user if he wants to allow something and by default just blocking many common things and showing warnings for most things is ridiculous and a huge time waster when one sums up how many minutes one wastes with it per day.
Overall,yes, all these and many more things could be addressed with fiddling around with it more and installing several service packs as they come out, but why should one do that?!?
Isn´t the idea of getting a new OS that it should be better out of the box than the previous one?
MS seems to have the approach of sure: we change everything to the degree where the old drivers and all doesn´t work out anymore and then with time things get upgraded and patched and after around 2-3 years its actually in nicely usable form.
That´s no good way to do it.
I also know that it depends a lot on your hardware setup because out of all people i know personally who have vista installed it runs really nice for one on his particular box and all others have issues like my sister´s machine or worse ones.
Well, a few months ago i myself got an imac as my second work machine (making some mac games) and the OS is so much better its crazy. I now have a pc with windows with XP SP2 and next to it the Imac and yeah, i suggest everyone who can should have that combo (if he needs to he can also install a Linux partition on one box or a Windows one on the mac to save money compared to having two machines), its just combining the best of all worlds and leads to more comfortful, fast, stable and enjoyable workflow all around.
Again, i don´t want to talk MS down as company and hype Apple/the Mac in general, its justt MS screwed up with Vista really and they are of course aware of it if the rumors are true that the next windows version isn´t too far away now, i hope they get back on track with the next one again, cause after all its still the most sold/preinstalled OS and it would be good for the pc world if its in good shape.
Regarding your job: Yeah, sorry about being suddenly moved from one project to the other, i worked at various companies where such things would happen often so i know how it feels. Good thing though your new project is an exciting one,too :)

Anonymous said...

My household is currently doing the same thing as yours, Jeff. My three week-old Falcon Northwest gaming rig just cratered with a dead motherboard. Two grand to buy from a supposedly reputable company and it's just been a disaster. Out of the box, it didn't work and I had to call tech support. Three weeks and who knows how many saved games later, it's a $2000 paperweight. It's warrantied, sure, but how in the hell does anyone call this acceptable?

This has cut the household down to one laptop, with the result that my girlfriend and I are probably going to be broken up by the end of the month. Neither of us can use the machine for two minutes before the other one wants to check email or play a few turns of "Civilization IV" or "Peggle".

In all seriousness, though, I've been missing GFW a lot lately. The more I think about the few issues I got to buy before the magazine was killed, the more I wish it could have continued. I think you were on track to finding the way that a printed gaming periodical can play to its strengths. As a reader, the world is a poorer place for its cancellation. It was a distinct voice in a field that has too many nondescript, interchangeable publications.

Unknown said...

I'd say you've just had really bad luck... Mac is good for some things, but that's no full time rig to use, imho.

The Vista deal seems peculiar.. Some hate it as an abomination, I belong to those that have nothing but pleasure using Vista.

Thx for posting

Dtrescott said...

oh..caught the undercurrent there...almost caught pulled under there Jeff. :)

We have a Dell/Vista at my place, there are days I wish I had another XP disk, it hasn't crashed, but for the speed and memory size it has, it feels like its slow and I feel that mostly a Vista issue.

Is the new move in projects going to be a good thing or is it too early to tell?

Anonymous said...

I've had this Vista-running laptop for about a year now, and while I had some major headaches with it in the beginning (and there's still this one sound problem that annoys the hell out of me) it hasn't completely broken on me. Reading about your family's experience with it makes me afraid for the future of this machine.

Anonymous said...

Aaah and it's a Dell laptop, too!

Jim d said...

Jeff, please be careful.

Your first paragraph mentioned how you would not blog about blogging about not blogging on your blog. I read this paragraph out-loud and inadvertently created a small rip in the space-time continuum.

Fortunately I had some duct tape on me and I was able to patch it up. Next time we may not be so lucky, so let's be a little more careful out there, okay?

Unknown said...

Jeff:

Even though you're complaining about not being able to post as much as you'd like, we're all still enjoying the fact that you're still communicating with what I would call the Jeff Green Awareness Community. You're under no obligation to provide us troglodytes with any sort of entertainment-- you could have vanished into the giant corporate monolith of EA forever and been perfectly justified in doing so.

Your posts really should be "This is the meager offering you're getting today and you'll damn well thank me for it!" But they're not and for that we thank you.

Regarding the "volatility" you mentioned in the gaming world-- it sounds remarkably close to typical corporate volatility, but instead of reassignment to another project, that usually consists of the dreaded Thursday-right-before-the-end-of-a-pay-period-10-am-meeting type of "reassignment".

Ah, the corporate shenanigans we must all suffer through these days! Sometimes I envy my father's generation, where people worked the same jobs for 30 years right out of college. Those days are long past.

MrCHUPON said...

Idea. Maybe Ryan should choose Fuck Microsoft Go Apple as the podcast name. <_< >_> Maybe not. I'll go back into my hole now.

ICallItFutile said...

If you have time, I'd love to hear what you think of World of Goo.

Job and family come first though, as always.

Shabadage said...

Ah, I needed that laugh! Perfectly delivered rant!

Shabadage said...

Also, to the person who said Me was crap; I would have agreed with you mere months ago. I bought ME on launch and had it installed for all of 3 days before I went back to my lovely 98se.

Recently I aquired an old laptop (Gateway Solo 5300) and put 98se on it. Sound didn't work (drivers), USB was god awful slow (I just though it was because it was USB 1 or 1.1), so I took a chance and installed ME. USB is 5x faster, sound works, it boots up quicker, and doesn't crash.

I was as shocked as anyone.

Anonymous said...

A bit more anecdotal evidence that Vista isn't crap...

I installed Vista Ultimate on a 4+ year old Dell Dimension 8300 and it works great. I don't game on this machine much beyond TF2 because my 6600GT ain't exactly a rocket, but Vista seems perfectly happy and rock stable so far. I think the key to Vista is gobs of RAM and HD!

My next machine is so far out, though, it'll probably come with Windows 7 on it :)

Anonymous said...

I dunno Jeff, I have yet to have a problem with Vista, aside from a few old programs not working because their respective publishers refusing to patch them. I know it's popular to hate it, but the same thing happens with every revision they put out Win95 came out as I was escaping High School, and everyone loved it. 98 not so much right away. 98SE everyone dug. Then they pumped out ME (basically another 98 but worse) because (If I recall correctly) XP was going to be late.
When XP came out I was working at an OEM, and I could remember a lot of bitching about how terrible XP was too. So it hasn't phased me as much. I'm not saying I love microsoft or anything though. It's just another company that wants our money. Just like pretty much every company.

If you don't mind my asking Jeff, are the computers still under any sort of mfr wty? Cause if the laptop isn't I can say from experience if it turns out to be a motherboard you may as well replace it. OEM mobos go for $350 or more when our store replaces them, and then you have installation fees. So by the time your done you're up to an entry level system $500 or so.
Even an entry level system is Dual Core, 2GB or more RAM, and a hefty hard drive these days. More than enough power to run business software, surf the web, and play peggle.

Unless of course the laptop was like a $2500 XPS or something, then sure pay the money to fix it.

Anonymous said...

Jeffry (may I call you that?),

What you need to do is play some games on the 360.

(Is it just me, or am I detecting a slight amount of stress coming from your writing in these blogs - you seem a little stressed to me?) Fear not, the doctor is in. And what the doctor recommends is that you play some games.

How about Fable 2, for example.

This way we could all have a big Fable 2 discussion. I realize that I could participate in one of those by visiting the official Fable 2 forum. But I'd rather have that discussion here - you're so much more fun and articilate... aurticulate... aretickulate... a better writer than those other losers.

Damn it, Jeff... Jeffry... Jeffy... you're not writing about games enough!

You've got to at least get some gaming into these blogs - it's almost like you've retired from gaming or something? Was it all just a rouse at GFW? You actually didn't like gaming very much? Christ, what a deception?

Or are you just pissed off that you have to pay for your games now and have to play them on your own free time rather than on company time - I'll bet you're angry that you have to buy your own PC now too, rather than be supplied with a new one every two months?

Signed,
Anon E. Moose.

Anonymous said...

Just to balance the mac-love here a little I'm going to mention Ubuntu: Ubuntu.

Anonymous said...

I got Vista a couple of months after it came out and I installed the 64 bit version. After seeing all the internet hate, I thought to myself "I have Vista and it's 64bit, I must really be fucked!" Not so much.

Most of the problems I've encountered can be whittled down to 2 companies: Creative and Nvidia. There was a period where I had to switch back to integrated audio because of the instability/ failure to function of the Creative drivers. The same could be said with Nvidia drivers. Early on I was getting 'driver has restarted' notifications, which were a welcome change from a BSOD.

Things have improved since then. Now the only problems I get are from EA (don't tell your bosses). I recently upgraded my hard drives so I had to reinstall the OS among other things. Securom pwned me saying I installed Crysis:Warhead too many times (apparently 2>5). I'm afraid to reinstall Spore because I don't want to go through the same debacle.

Anyways, I'd hate to see you go over on to the Mac side, but if it's what works for you, then so be it. Just don't drink their kool-aid; nor start wearing black turlenecks and jeans.

JRH, esq. said...

Finally, something we can all agree on.

DLGroover2 said...

Now, I'm going to play devil's advocate here for a moment.

I've been using Vista for just over a year now, with minimal problems, and quite enjoying it. I am not saying that problems do not exist, mind you, just that I have not had them.

Up until recently, I was also a consumer-level PC repair tech, and have noticed one over-arching trend with Vista:
If you bought a computer with vista already on it, you're fine, but if you try to upgrade to vista, or downgrade to XP, you're fucked. It just doesn't like it. The drivers never quite get happy, and sometimes don't even exist. So it's best to stick with what you got, and wait till you buy or build a new rig.

I'm not saying this situation is okay, but it is what it is, and if you do get a working install, it actually does make things easier to use.

Good luck, Jeff!

TURB0 said...

I thought Vista sucked terribly until I upgraded my ram then it sucked slightly less. You may want to check that remedy as has probably been suggested already.

Hope the PC problems get fixed though!

Unknown said...

If it was an isolated incident then yes we are all a bunch of whiners. Apparently it isn't though so it is Vista. I have a Dell XP, Compaq XP, Toshiba Laptop XP, And a Toshiba Laptop Vista. All run except........ Toshiba Vista. I bought this steaming pile of turd when VISTA came out and this turd of a machine gave me a blue Screen of death 4 months in (I had to recovery disk) and 2 months ago it crashed and the recovery disk doesn't work it doesn't even get to the the loading Windows Vista LOGO. Luckily my Dell works fine I just need to perform some upgrades like more RAM & better graphics card & I am good. I need to find a Decent XP laptop though. Screw Microsoft Indeed.

Anonymous said...

Did you put SP1 on your vista install? It really makes it a lot better.

Leo Laporte told me that vista seems to work a lot better on machines it comes installed on, machines it was built for, and a lot of the problems are from doing a switch. Which it looks like you did.

You'll never read this. So farts and boobs!

Anonymous said...

So any chance we can get the recipe for this potato leek soup? You seem to eat it an awful lot, so it must be tasty ;)

Anonymous said...

Bread and cheese recommendations are welcome, too. :P

Anonymous said...

I always noticed that the people who have it pre-installed on new machines have way less problems.
I have a Dell laptop, and Vista Home Premium, and it works just fine, not a single crash for the year I've had it. Maybe you have a pre-installed one Idk, but mine works fine.

Anderson said...

As much as I loved you at GFW, you're impossibly more awesome now than you were then. Just sayin'.

Darius said...

Fucking right, Green. Fucking right.

Anonymous said...

Long time reader (aka Old Gaming Fart). I recently bought a laptop with Vista home installed. It had over a 1 minute boot. I "Downgraded" it to XP. 19 seconds from completely off to completely up (including wifi connections). What a bloaty POS!

Grant Gibson said...

Another really funny post, Jeff! This is one of the few 'personal' blogs that I regularly check out.

Anonymous said...

Microsoft doesn't take into account when creating a new Operating System the fact that most people don't upgrade they're systems that often. We live in a plug-and-play society, if the product doesn't work the first time said product will be rejected. Only the gear heads will frequently upgrade and tinker with they're new toys.

But of course since they've put a mini-monopoly on the PC we're stuck with an OS that barely works, and guess who gets the big bucks for it all. You guessed it. Geek Squad.

Anonymous said...

NOOOO. NO Apple Jeff. Times like these you just have to chuff it out.

Fuck Dell, Build it yourself PC + Windows XP for the win. Mac is over-priced and not as good as a PC.

Unknown said...

Jeff--

Long-time listener, first-time caller.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, I concur with the general sentiment regarding both GFW and its radio counterpart. I read many gaming mags every month, listen to most of the 1UP podcasts, etc., and I can say without a doubt that CGW/GFW and GFW Radio were and still are the absolute best things the 1UP/Ziff/whatevs network has ever put out. The stuff you were doing with CGW in its latter days was years ahead of its time, and GFW was no different. Every month, you guys put out writing that was great for its own sake, took risks with the layout, published honest-to-God investigative games journalism, and you gave truly fair scores. When you gave scores, that is. :P

A word about those scores (and I apologize in advance for making you feel old here, and also for any faults in my memory):

So I'm twelve, thirteen, maybe fourteen, right? And I realize, apropos of nothing, that I've never really thought about what my favorite magazine is. Now, I'm the archetypal geeky teenager at this point, so the only mags I read are game magazines.

Anyway, I can't dismiss this idea that I don't have a favorite mag, right? I've got a favorite everything else, so why not a magazine? And I turn it around in my head like that for a while. Because I have OCD and that is fun for me.

This is where it gets weird.

So I'm still chewing on that concept, right? And my mom walks into my room and tells me I got a couple of magazines in the mail. The mags are, surprise surprise, PC Gamer and CGW. Both have Deus Ex reviews inside.

Now, I check the PCG review first, right? And it's, you know, ninety-something percent, and I'm super excited, and blah.

Anyway, I check the CGW review after that. The score: three-and-a-half stars out of five. I frown. I immediately (read: without having played the game or even tried it for one second) decide that that is NOT the score the game DESERVES, and they're all a bunch of IDIOTS at CGW, and I'm canceling... what's this? "One of the year's best games?" Three-and-a-half stars? This does not compute.

And I read the review, and my whole outlook on reviews of any sort is changed forever.

The reviewer says the game is an absolute classic, but that it has many problems. Furthermore, these problems do not make the reviewer love the game any less, but says that the readers deserve to know about the problems the game has off the shelf. The reviewer goes on to say that the myriad problems with the retail copy dragged it down to three-and-a-half stars, but that the reviewer would be happy to give it five stars as a gaming experience.

I immediately decide that CGW is the gold standard by which all gaming publications should be judged, and that it is very much my favorite magazine.

See, as dumb as it sounds now, I didn't realize you could love something and hate certain aspects of it without loving it any less. That review was a revelation to me, and it is still the number one influence on my own philosophy as a reviewer (currently for my college newspaper, but that's neither here nor there).

Basically, from that point on, both CGW and PCG continued to earn my subscription money and my loyalty as a consumer.

However, of the two, only CGW ever earned my respect.

Now, if you're wondering why I'm saying all this to you, may I point out that this life-changing review I'm jabbering on about was written by none other that one Mr. Jeff Green? :)

(Well, it could've been Robert Coffey, but that torpedoes my point, so let's say it's you, 'kay? XD)

This blog you have here continues to prove your utter awesomeness as a writer and a person. This post in particular may have moved me to actually write in (great post, by the by), but every word of every post has upheld the standard of honesty and excellence I expect from you.

Also, it's damn funny. :D

Anyway, I'm honestly not trying to give you a prose BJ. I just felt like I owed you this one missive if nothing else. I hope you get some enjoyment out of it.

Good luck at EA, man. You are a gentleman and a scholar, and I salute you. :)

Also: why so low? XD

Cheers!

--Wright Johnson

Unknown said...

Oh, and I loved the scoreless issues, by the way. I can't believe that fell through. Well, I can, but... You know what I mean.

Anonymous said...

I've used Vista since the day it came out, and I've only ever had a single BOSD. And that was because Linksys couldn't get their asses in order to release proper drivers for their wireless adapters. Not only that, but my gamer friend and my Luddite mother both switched to Vista soon after me. And guess what? no problems, none, zip, zero and certainly less than the mess that XP could be (Oh would you like some random OS total failure with your games today sir?).

Now Macs on the other hand, I don't see the point of. They're more expensive, and you get worse hardware(and limited choice). Any of the software that used to make them "uber l33t" is now on the PC and works fine. They're gameaphobic, and natively only use one mouse button.

But my favorite pro-mac argument is that "WELL WE CAN INSTALL WINDOWS ON OUR MACHINES" AWESOME! skip the middle man, save yourself a good sum of money and stick with Windows, its not as bad as the mob trying to be "different" and cool wants you to believe it is.

Anonymous said...

ahaha jeff brown...does he look exactly like you, but with a goatee? are you two going to battle epically on the roof of the EA building for the name of jeff?

Anonymous said...

I love the suggestion that was advanced by that guy above, that Green should be building his own computers... if ever there was a perfect example of somebody who doesn't... you know... have the time on his hands to order all the parts and then assemble those parts...

Anonymous said...

Most of what I've read here has people saying the problem is hardware. While by the sounds of it that may be the possiblity, but my computer's hard-drive was corrupted for installing vista sp1! FUCK MICROSOFT!

Unknown said...

Dear Jeff Brown,

Does changing teams mean you'te on a new project within the Sims hierarchy, or are you no longer part of the Sims team at all? If the latter, can you say if you're part of another franchise?

Are you taking over for John Madden next year? I bet that's it, isn't it?

Paul Lucci said...

That sucks about your windows machines. <--Typed from a 5 year old Mac that still runs great.

Brain Blurbs said...

Recently I started to hear only good things about Vista. 'It's not that bad' or 'With a new machine made for Vista'. But yeah, it still sucks lol

And oh, I posted it on Digg.com
http://digg.com/gaming_news/And_remember_Fuck_Microsoft

so here, go digg it!

Anonymous said...

For all the Vista haters in here, you're doing something wrong if it's giving you problems. I've had Vista Ultimate 64bit for a LONG time now, and I've yet to see a single blue screen. Performance in games is excellent. There are drivers for all of my hardware.

Don't hate the OS just because you're retarded and can't set something up correctly.

Jeff's case is different, since a Dell should work right out of the box.

zumpiez said...

If you're having bluescreen problems under Vista I can almost guarantee you it's a hardware problem. I was having nasty bluescreens, the source of which was being reported as the nvdisp.dll video driver.

But it turned out I had a bad stick of ram. Fun! I haven't had a blue screen in like a year since I replaced it.

Anonymous said...

Jeff, try Ubuntu, seriously, you will never look back at windows. Super easy to install, works great, huge library of free software. Absolutely free.

Unknown said...

I do like Mac however Microsoft is can't live with em can't live without em. Gotta have windows to play all those games.

Have you met Will yet?

The Meehoo with an Exactlywatt said...

I wanted to get an Apple at one point. Then I realised I would need to buy a new printer if i did so. So I didnt. There is a good way to get back at MS though. It's called open office. : P

Anonymous said...

A classic Jeff Green rant.

Connor said...

I have vista running on my computer. It runs really well and I love it. Just CHUFF IT THE FUCK OUT JEFF!!!! CHUFF IT THE FUCK OUT

Anonymous said...

Dude, chill out, your letting your stress at work spill over onto your blog.

Jesse Greathouse said...

Don't hate me, I just don't understand how so many people are having trouble with Vista. I've been running it since release. Haven't had any problems for over a year. Maybe I should be making money from my ability to wrangle a Vista.

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