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There's always a new cryptocurrency popping up and claiming to be the latest thing. As long as you have the hardware you can get in on these immediately, see the prices go up at the beginning and then sell before it completely loses its value. Crypto won't go away as long as there are people who believe it's the road to quick riches. Which it can be if you get in early.

Although Ethereum has been around for a long time, it's easier to mine than bitcoin and is still being profitable. That's why miners don't really bat an eye at the prices.

Episode 5 was great and I hope it keeps up with the last half of the season. Having Boba Fett be the brains and

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Din Djarin

be the braun should make for good TV.

They also fumbled Lionhead Studios (Fable) which was admitted to in the Youtube documentary - Power On. (Which I highly recommend if anyone is interested in how the Xbox came to be and how Microsoft has handled their past failures.)

Based on that documentary I would say they learned their lesson about what to do with studios. In this gen, the studios they gobbled up are making highly anticipated games like Hellblade 2 and Starfield. Activision is different than Rare or Lionhead as in they have IPs that are much bigger than anything those studios had in their heyday and basically print money every year. Could they mess all that up? Yes, it's always a possibility but I feel they can actually keep this ship from sinking in this specific acquisition. 

It's nice but last time this happened crypto just rebounded back and nothing really happened. I'm really hoping it's different this time.

Mark your calendars, kids! Steam Deck releases Feb. 25th, 2022 for those lucky enough to get in the first batch.

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1675180/view/3117055056380003048

Steam Deck Launching February 25th
Hello, the day is almost here! On February 25th, we will be sending out the first batch of order emails to reservation holders. Customers will have 3 days (72 hours) from receipt of their order email to make their purchase, before their reservation is released to the next person in the queue. The first units will be on their way to customers starting the 28th, and we plan to release new order email batches on a weekly cadence.

In addition, we're sending out press units for full review shortly. Press review embargo on Steam Deck coverage will lift on February 25th, but keep an eye out for some preview coverage and impressions before that. In the meantime we're working to tie up the last few loose ends and polish some rough edges, and are excited to get these out to you at the end of next month!


Additional details for the curious:

    - We will start sending invites shortly after 10:00 am on February 25th, PST
    - Order emails are sent in the same order that reservations were made.
    - You can only order the Steam Deck model that you originally reserved.
    - Your reservation deposit will be applied to the final price of Steam Deck, and shipping costs are included.

Of course it is not the "Boba Fett from the original trilogy"; that rendition of Boba died in the Sarlac pit back in Return of the Jedi.  However, if you followed Boba from Attack of the Clones when Jango Fett dies and in The Clone Wars as he survives as a young bounty hunter, you see character development.  This Boba has faced death and survived beyond Jabba the Hutt.

I think that's the problem for me though (I haven't watched any other Star Wars shows besides the Mandalorian, so I believe you.) I have no problem with him having some type of redemption arc and having character development, but in D+ his character is inconsistent. He's talking about seeing too much death and bloodshed but at the end of the Mandalorian he just shoots Bib Fortuna dead without saying a word. Feels like they maybe had two different types of Boba Fett's in mind and possibly the show had rewrites since. Then again, the rest of the show might clear things up.

I wouldn't call it a bad show, but not one that I feel is doing the character justice. Din Djarin feels much more consistent as a character.

Having finally caught up, this show is not what I expected based on the way they portrayed Boba in the Mandalorian. I definitely agree with most of the internet right now, it's kind of boring and the CGI is some of the worse I've seen in a good while. However, the Tusken Raider storyline is pretty good.

I'll keep watching to see how it ends but this is just solidifying my opinion that Boba Fett should've just stayed dead in the Sarlac Pit.

Update:

Just saw Episode 4 and it was a much better episode. Hopefully this level of quality continues.

https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2022/01/18/welcoming-activision-blizzard-to-microsoft-gaming/

For almost $70 billion dollars. Holy crap, this is major and can have some deep implications/repercussions in gaming. Not sure how I feel about it yet although I'm leaning on not good since it's consolidating more of the industry.

I thought it was alright. Nothing amazing, definitely flawed but I did like where they went with the lore and why they're there. Still better than Thor 2 and I'm not just saying that for the memes.

Event though it's a fairly long movie, it still had trouble fitting everything in. I thought the actors did well with what they had. I personally thought it would end up centering around Angelina Jolie due to being such a big name but I was pleasantly surprised she's not the lead.

I did like that it brings up a lot of moral/ethical questions in regards to how to go about maintaining peace. I felt there was a lot more of a deeper meaning to this movie once you get past the spectacle.

The mid-credit scene is really the meat of what's going to drive the next phases and probably make the Eternals more relevant to the MCU.

Saw this opening weekend. Wife and I got our booster shots and took a day off of work so that we could watch the first matinee showing. Half the theater was empty which was a nice surprise.

If anyone wants to watch it in the theater, I would recommend waiting until the end of its theatrical run and watching it on a weekday at a matinee showing when most are in school or work.

I just want to say, it's by far my favorite MCU movie and Spider-man movie in general. But I'm also biased since he's my favorite comic character. Can't wait for the 4K Blu-ray!

I saw this back in early December in the theaters. Literally just myself and my wife with 4 girls a couple rows in front of us. No one else. It was quite nice.

I'll withhold my review until after more people here watch it.

Can't believe it's been 4 years!

Thanks @BLUEVOODU for keeping the site going. 

With the superhero attrition going on (downey, johansson, evans, et. al.), I think these D+ series are being used to introduce and/or flesh out new characters more than progress the storyline. Most of them seem like filler, all be it good filler. Same with Star Wars.

I also feel like your casual MCU viewer may not geek out on every character spin off imaginable so unveiling major events in a d+ series might turn some away. Instead keep pushing out bangers for the silver screen all the while converting some of those casual viewers into full blown geeks, who in turn subscribe to d+.

I would say you're spot on about the shows. The movies will always be the tent poles of the MCU.

I rewatched Endgame this weekend and realized how much darker Ronin was in the movie. I think the show should've been darker and I think being on D+ is a disservice to it. Especially with how great

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Kingpin was on Daredevil where it had a Mature rating.

@retro junkieI wish the Ps5 was able to (like the ps3) play ps1-ps3 games.

That's what I was referring to when I wrote about BC. Microsoft put together a team that made as many Xbox and Xbox 360 games compatible. And most not just run but they come with FPS boosts and higher resolutions. Sometimes both!

I get that the PS3 was a pain but they should at least try to get some of those running on the PS5. There are too many games trapped in old gen consoles that would benefit from the stronger hardware. Not to mention, I paid for those games already. Those old consoles won't last forever.

I am not sure at this point if this fits into Marvel's phase 4 at all.

You might be overthinking it a bit. Not every Marvel movie or show has immediate impact on the MCU. Some of the shows and movies do things that eventually have implications down the road and are basically just setup and exposition for the rest of the phase or new characters.

Age of Ultron is considered the lesser of the Avenger's movies but none of them have had the impact it has, especially in this phase in particular.

I think the issue is that they tried to fit everything in 6 episodes. I think at least 8 would've been better. 10 would've really been the optimal number.

Personally, I find Jeremy Renner's version of Hawkeye as exciting as cardboard. I'm really hoping they eventually move on from him like they've done with some of the other Avengers.

Yelena and Kate are so much better than him, in my opinion.

Welp, saw the finale. Was definitely disappointed. It tied up many of the loose ends but not really in a satisfying way. Will mull it over a bit before I decide where the series stands against the other D+ shows.

The more time I get to think about a PS5, the less I want one at the moment. Maybe later on in a couple of years once all of the cross-generation stuff is sorted and we're just dealing with PS5 only titles. I don't like the way Sony went about the PS4->PS5 upgrade path.

It's the reason I pulled the trigger on an Xbox Series X. They seem to respect backwards compatibility much better and I'd rather support that right now.

[for the fans,]

Sorry to be a deadbeat, but if their intentions are to make these series for the fans, then they are going to have to bring them up to the standards of the movies.

I'm not exactly sure what you're trying to say with this. Since it's very clearly for the fans. It's especially for those who are fans of the comics and MCU since they managed to take a beloved storyline and flesh it out on TV. Even if it wasn't pulled from the comics, everything is meticulously deliberate to move along the entire MCU storyline. Which is what the movies do as well. They are self-contained stories that end up being a part of the bigger picture.

You keep bringing up Kate Bishop like she's not important but it's very clear from the beginning why she's the focus. This show pretty much spells it out. Hell, I would even say it beats you over the head with it. However, since there's only 1 episode left, it's best to just let it reveal itself to you next week. (Assuming it ends here and there's no season 2. It's also possible more of the story threads are completed in other shows/movies. I don't know what will be revealed in the finale.)

It's also been one of the main themes of phase 4 in general which also makes it a little more obvious.

I will say this. It hasn't been perfect. I also think the writing can be underwhelming at times but the main beats of the story help move things along towards something grander, so it's fine with me.

Episode 5!

Not an exciting episode. Barely any action but it set up a ton for the final episode.

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Kingpin!! So glad they're bringing him back. He was so good in Daredevil. It would've been a shame if he was left there.

So I did some more research on this because I was curious as I don't have any HDMI 2.1 devices in my house yet. So what did I learn?

HDMI 2.1 is a still a spec that has a moving target. Meaning the full spec isn't even done and most cables probably don't meet them. Also, any 2.1 cable that is longer than 10ft will probably fail because the spec doesn't do well in those lengths.

The only devices that do HDMI 2.1 anyways are the PS5, Xbox Series X and Nvidia 3xxx GPUs. If your TV doesn't support the 2.1 features though, then a 2.1 cable is not needed.

The cables that I recommended work because they're 2.0, less than 10ft and are built well. However, the ultra slim cables that gave me trouble for a certain device was probably caused by the thin gauge of wires. They may be nice because they're slim but it's more likely to fail because of it.

I found a Linus Tech Tips video that goes into a better explanation than I did. And if anyone is interested, I'm posting a link to the forum post that has the spreadsheet of the cables they tested.

Link to spreadsheet forum post

Episode 3 was pretty good. Just wish the fight was better lit/choreographed but overall it worked, and of course -

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Yelena!

Only 2 episodes left! Can't wait for them.

[Devices]

The only issue I've ever ran into was an ultra slim cable that would be picky about what device it was plugged into. It just wouldn't send a signal. However, it still worked with 95% of my devices.

If the HDMI cable is well built, (eg. doesn't use metals that corrode easily, bad terminations between the cable and the plug, insufficient insulation, etc.) then it will just work as long as both the TV and the HDMI cable are up to spec. Yes, HDMI cables are backwards compatible.

@BLUEVOODU  I would recommend trying out that Monster cable on another TV and see if it works. If it does, then it's your TV that's picky and the HDMI input might not be up to spec. HDMI was fairly new back then and I would not be surprised if LG did not properly implement the HDMI input.

I tend to get all of my audio/video cables from Monoprice. They have a lot of great cables for reasonable prices. I've replaced all of my HDMI cables recently with these -

Monoprice 4K Slim Certified Premium High Speed HDMI Cable 6ft - 18Gbps Black



Here is a list of devices and TVs/Monitors I use these with:

Devices
- PS3 Slim / PS3 Ultra Slim / PS4
- Xbox 360 / Xbox One S / Xbox One X
- Nintendo Switch
- 3 PCs hooked up to a KVM
- Panasonic 4K Blu-ray player
- Elgato 1080p external capture card

TVs/Monitors
- 2010 Samsung Plasma TV 720p/1080i
- 2019 TCL 4K TV
- 2011 Asus 1080p monitor
- 2020 Dell 1440p 165hz monitor (cable only goes up to 60hz but it works)
- 2010? Sony PlayStation 3D TV

I highly recommend them. If you need something that can go higher than 60hz, Monoprice should have some. Do not get Monoprice 2.1 cables as explained in the video of my next post.

The other part I don't understand is ... In Avengers and other movies, Hawkeye melts through enemies like butter.  He had a more rough time in Age of Ultron... resting at the end.  As Ronin, he was doing the same thing.  Maybe he lost some of his care... but he seems to be having more of a rough time fighting in Hawkeye.

As I mentioned earlier, the man is not enhanced. He's aging and all of the battles are taking its toll physically and mentally. He's not infused with super soldier serum, or gamma rays. He's not a demi-god or an alien. He's just a normal dude that has higher than normal eyesight, reflexes and aim.

Tony Stark showed similar problems in Iron Man 3. He just happened to have powerful suits to help him out. Clint has none of that.

His hearing aid is the shows way of showing how human he is along with how difficult it is for him to balance superhero life with his family life.

I accidentally spoiled some things for myself but now I'm hyped for this series. This phase was moving kind of slow but now it seems it's about to be at full force again.

Enjoying it so far. It's nice to have a show that's based on the ground and shows perspectives of those who are not enhanced.

Played The Outer Worlds over the weekend. Finished the Peril on Gorgon DLC and now hoping to finish it within the week. Want to move on to Death Stranding.

Thought it was great. This had some of the best fighting choreography in a superhero movie. The only movie I think is better in that regard is CA: Winter Soldier. The only thing I think that I felt wasn't good was the introduction of the villain. It's the usual trope.

I love upgrading PCs. I think it's awesome that you're keeping it running regardless of the chip shortage. It's looking good! Should last you at least another 2 years.

I plan on upgrading my wife's PC from a 2 core Pentium processor to an i7 4770. Should give the computer a much longer life.

I will say this, once you get a contemporary CPU, that 2060 is going to fly. I went from a i7 4790 to a Ryzen 5 3600X and my GTX 1080 could do 4K in a lot of games all of a sudden.

At the very least, CPUs don't seem to be hit as hard as GPUs.

BOOOOOOOOOO!!!






I knew it was going to happen too. 
The chip shortage is just too much right now. I guess, this gives me more time to save for it.

These games to me were part of my Silver Age of gaming. The PS1/N64 gen was my Golden Age.

I had so much fun playing these games while listening to the in-game radio stations. The Soundtrack makes up about 50% of the memories for me. But the gameplay was just fun and there weren't many sandbox games at that time.