Hey, so I know that a bunch of us actually don’t have VR or are all that interested in getting into it, but that new VR Arkham Batman game looks pretty good, right? Shown off at Gamescom Opening Night Live 2024, Batman: Arkham Shadow seems like a pretty decent follow-up to the Arkhamverse, and one done in an entirely…
I was a little worried on Saturday. EVE University was doing an update to their wiki and my gut response to that was a deeply felt “please don’t break anything.” It is one of the EVE Online community resources I lean on regularly and its departure would be missed.
A core of the New Eden community
Also, it would leave a ton of dead links on my site, which is what happened when CCP shut down the game wiki they were running.
Fortunately, not too long later, there was a message saying that the update was a success. The wiki carries on.
Op success!
I should go donate some money at their Patreon. I probably won’t, but in the words of Todd Rosenberg, the fact that I seriously considered doing so will make me feel better about myself. (I bring him up because I found an Odd Todd sweatshirt in a drawer and I had to sit and think about which economic downturn and layoffs that was from.
Shout out if you have any memories of this…
It was the Dot Com crash of 2001, which was like four Wall Street induced economic crises ago by my count. Welcome to capitalism!)
As usual, I am off on a tangent, so back to the main thread here.
The Equinox expansion brought a host of new things, including new skills to learn, which meant that I was at least momentarily interested keeping an eye on my training queue. I remember a time when that was almost an obsession. In the days before the training queue you had to keep an eye on EVEMon to make sure you knew when to log in and start another skill because time subscribed without a skill training was time UTTERLY WASTED!
Old hands will remember being admonished to start training a long skill the day before an expansion as we never know how long the downtime would be or if CCP would do something wrong, like delete your boot.ini file. (And no, I am never letting go of that bit of ancient history.)
Things are better now, but I do still feel a bit of the old obsession to stare at some utility while not logged into the game to see exactly where current skill training stands.
This is especially dumb because my currently training skill is Jump Portal Generation V, which I am a good 68 days from learning as of when this post goes live.
The top of my skill queue currently
I want that skill because I need it to do the carrier conduit jump and I want to have that capability. I have a carrier, a twelve year old Archon that I bought back when we lived up in Delve and have never once used in combat to my recollection. That is largely because nobody wants a carrier in the fleet when every capital pilot has a super carrier and because I can never remember how to use fighters.
Seriously, I’ve been through three Imperium capital training ops on how to use fighters and I know how to used them when the class is done, then I don’t use fighters at all and six months later when I think about it I have totally forgotten how to use them.
Odds are I’ll never use it, or if I am in a situation where a fleet needs somebody to do this, there will be two dozen others ready to go who also know how to use fighters. But maybe, some day, Asher will need somebody in some set of circumstances and I’ll be the only one at hand who can manage it. Be prepared.
So I want to be able to bring up my training queue and stare at it, all the better to make the training go faster.
But what can I stare at?
I mean, we used to have an official app from CCP, the EVE Portal Companion App, which showed up back in 2019.
EVE Portal App
I was not a fan, the app’s primary purposes seeming to be allowing PLEX trading. But I had to admit that it did have some utility, including the ability to manage your training queue offline.
And I still have the app on my phone… the way I still have Harry Potter: Wizards Unite… because I am that kind of person. But tapping on it gets me nothing because CCP gave up on the app last November.
So no joy there.
But the EVE Online community provides! There must be some app out there I can use.
Except, there really aren’t that many other options.
There is the Neocom II app on iOS, the author of which lives in Belarus and went silent after the anti-Lukashenko protests after the last election there, so I was told.
This version is made with moon goo
As such, the Neocom II app, while a fine app and well worth the money I spent on it, has been slowly decaying as EVE gets updated. As such, no new skills show up in the skill queue in the app now and any sales transaction for a new item causes an error in the app.
But at least Jump Portal Generation is an old skill, so it appears in the app allowing me to stare at its progress on the couch, in bed, at the kitchen table, or any number of other household locations. Except, it is wrong. Look at what it tells me.
Things are thirteen days faster on the Neocom II app!
For whatever reason… CCP no doubt made some change with Equinox… the training progress in the app is somewhat more optimistic than what the in-game queue, pictured up the page, is telling me by nearly 13 days. Also, you can see the Upwell skills simply don’t show up the way they do in game.
Anyway, that seems to leave Neocom II out. I’ll still watch it to keep an eye on my PI and a few other things, but another aspect of it is now broken.
So my next stop is EVEMon. Good old reliable EVEMon, which has been around since just after I started playing EVE Online.
I mean, it is past its prime. It hasn’t been the same since Battle Clinic, which used to host its development page, went away back in 2016. But it gets updates now and then, though where it lives can be a chore to find. I think the link in the about page of the app is wrong, but the links in the EVEMon thread on the forums still seems good.
So how is that doing? Well, on the bright side, it at least puts in placeholders for the skills it doesn’t know about.
My skill queue in EVEMon
On the down side, it seems to have the same problem with the training time for Jump Portal Generation V… though the first of the Unknown Skills seems to have the correct training time for the skill listed. That seems odd, but at least I can see it somewhere I suppose.
Like I said, EVEMon does get updates now and then… and they even alert you and allow you to download and install them directly from the app… but there isn’t a lot of news going on that front. The last update I see was in 2021, which doesn’t give one much hope.
It could get an update I suppose… or it might never get one. So it goes.
I fished around a bit more and found EVE Skillplan.net, which is better in that it does get the time for the one skill correct, but then doesn’t acknowledge any of the new skills and it is about 6 million skill points shy of being accurate for my total skill points… which, now that I mention it, so is EVEMon… pegging me at 258 million SP when I am close to 265 million. It also doesn’t look like the site has been updated for a while, and his ISK tip jar has received zero ISK this month.
So I am feeling that gap in the EVE Online community that supports the game with the news and utilities and information that CCP has been consistently unable to supply on its own for the last 21 years.
This is the pain of depending on your customers to essentially do things for free. When they are done with your game anything they built tends to fall apart.
And that’s when I start worrying about things like the EVE Uni Wiki and DOTLAN EVE Maps and zKillboard, all of which support the community for a few donations now and then but mostly out of the goodness of their collective hearts and their passion for the game.
It is now officially summer. Yesterday, the solstice (Litha, as it’s known to some) brought us our longest day of the calendar year, and now we march on to ever darkening days. But right now, we’re just marching on into the weekend to spend that time off in some delightful digital realms.
Peacock’s selection of horror and sci-fi movies is quite good, but its genre library also has tons of titles you’ve probably never heard of, including overlooked oddities—and several outright howlers. We’ve combed through Peacock’s sci-fi category to find 10 of the most WTF titles you can stream. Are these…
What gift do you get this holiday season for the computer builder in your life?
Well, first of all, probably not computer parts! Unless they’ve asked for a specific component, there’s a good chance you’d be giving them something redundant or unwanted.
But don’t worry! There are still plenty of things that the average PC builder could receive that are almost never redundant (like additional storage space) or which a builder is unlikely to have bought for themselves (like an uninterruptible power supply). Good gift ideas for PC building enthusiasts are what this list is all about.
The following 10 gifts ideas cover a spectrum of prices, and are sure to find use on or near the desk of any friend or family member who’s into building computers. Of course, suggestions you get directly from the intended recipient should always be prioritized; but if you haven’t received any guidance from them, these ideas will surely come in handy. Let’s begin!
The first tier of gifts is the lowest in price and has the most examples. These gifts will find use by both novice and experienced builders alike.
A straightforward gift that is enough of an unnecessary nicety that most computer builders won’t already have one. Yet it’s useful enough to be used everyday, while being cheap enough to choose as a budget gift or to throw in as a stocking stuffer. By simply offering a place to safely store headphones, this gift clears up desktop space and provides a cleaner appearance overall.
*Headphones, of course, not included! Unless you also buy gift #9…
Despite their solid metal construction and aggressive, angular designs, computers are soft and temperamental on the inside, particularly regarding electricity. It’s important to ensure that any unexpected changes in the power supplying a PC are controlled by an external device so no expensive components are damaged or destroyed. A surge protector like this one from reliable power accessory brand Anker will prevent unexpected pulses of electricity from damaging computer components while also expanding the number of power ports near the PC, all for only $22! Help the computer builder in your life replace the little ratty power strip they’ve been using since 2014; it’s time for it to go.
Another gift idea from Anker is their all-in-one wireless charging pad. Having a wireless charger on my own desk has been incredibly convenient and keeps my phone charged up while working from home for evenings, where I don’t have access to another charger. Many high-wattage charging pads require special power adapters to maximize their charging potential, but they often aren’t included with the pad itself. This universal charging pad includes a full adapter built in for no-fuss universal charging straight out of the box. Whether they have an Android or an iPhone, they’ll appreciate having such a convenient location to charge their phone!
Working on computers doesn’t inherently require much more than a screwdriver and some resolve, but having this iFixit essential electronics toolkit would have made my days repairing laptops, computers, and smartphones significantly easier. Including both essential tools like various magnetic screwdriver bits and plastic separators, this kit also includes a variety of useful specialty bits for unique parts and electronics, as well as a couple cleaning tools that are sure to find use in any computer builder’s tool box. As I indicated a moment ago, these tools can also be used to repair laptops and smartphones—provided all appropriate safety and warranty measures are followed, of course!
This second tier steps up the price range and has two examples. They remain general enough to find use no matter the experience level of the recipient, while some of the next section is a bit more niche.
For many computer builders, their audio experience ends with a headphone cable. Speakers alternatively provide a more relaxed listening experience without the headgear, even at volumes low enough to avoid disturbing house- or room-mates. This speaker pair from Edifer features 2.75 inch drivers and a compact design that doesn’t dominate valuable desk space. They can even be placed anywhere thanks to their Bluetooth connectivity, whether that’s a desktop, a bookshelf, or a TV stand. Or they can be connected to a laptop instead, and used as a mobile pair of speakers for parties, elegant dinner events, and various other soirées.
External hard drives can store large amounts of data and can be transported anywhere, making them great gifts for computer-savvy travelers that like to watch media on the go. They can load the drive with shows and movies and bring it with them for direct playback on a laptop or tablet, keep it at home and stream directly from it over another service like Plex, or simply use it as a backup for their important data. This Western Digital My Passport drive is a reliable option with plenty of storage for most applications, but it would also be possible to scale this gift up or down according to your gift budget and how much storage you think your gift recipient could use! A lower-capacity 1TB version can be had for $50, or you can spring for up to a 5TB version for $120 if you happen to know a real data hoarder. For reference, to make more sense of what 1TB can hold, it is capable of storing ~158 copies of a 1080p version of the movie Scorpion King 2: Rise of a Warrior. That’s a terrible movie—but what they do with the drive is up to them, so we won’t judge. If the intended gift recipient really loves collecting media or really prizes backing up their work, it may be best to spring for 2TB or greater.
This third tier of gifts has three examples at a higher price range than tier 2: a DAC/Amp to boost audio experiences, a more premium storage solution, and a nice pair of headphones at a great price!
A Digital-to-Analog Converter, shortened to DAC, is a device that translates a computer’s audio output from digital to analogue, which increases the fidelity of the signal. This gift is a great idea for those with a particular interest in music or even movies and games, as it can increase the quality of computer audio dramatically while the included amplifier permits more powerful higher-impedance headphones to be used. Even “standard” headphones will see a benefit from this compact DAC that requires nothing outside of the box before use. If you’re okay with the gift being less than a surprise, then it may be worth checking if the recipient has a DAC already before buying… though that rule applies to pretty much any gift in this price range and above!
Most computer motherboards now have at least one M.2 SSD slot on them, and the Samsung 980 PRO EVO is a great drive that fits perfectly into that very space. Solid State Drives still command higher prices than traditional hard drives for a given capacity, but their significantly faster transfer speeds and slightly better longevity for most users ensure that any data loaded on the drive can be accessed quickly and reliably. This high-capacity SSD can store dozens of large games while also cutting down on loading times, or an entire library of movies and TV shows. No matter the intended use, this drive would be a welcome gift for any level of computer enthusiast with a port in their machine that can accommodate it. Looking to spend a little less but still want to get them a high-speed internal drive like this one? Select the 1TB option to bring it down to $80!
Alright, call me a little biased on this one since these are the headphones I currently use myself, but that just means I’m speaking from experience when I recommend these to anyone who may enjoy a nice set of wired, open-back headphones for their desktop at home. For the current price of $150, this luxurious set is a steal and has far surpassed the audio quality of every other pair of headphones I’ve tried in this price range (even without a DAC). They’re lightweight, comfortable, and have a great sound profile for a huge range of uses, from gaming to watching media to listening to music.
This is the final, most expensive tier of the list. It includes but a single gift, for those who can afford to provide extra stability to a desktop computer this holiday season:
An Uninterruptible Power Supply, shortened to UPS, is a power storage system which continues powering a PC for a limited time in the event of a power outage. The idea is that the power supplied by a UPS is enough to safely shut the computer down in the event of an outage, preventing both data loss and component damage in the process. This particular power supply from CyberPower features 12 outlets, half of them linked to the battery system, and all of them surge-protected at all times. This $165 model is capable of putting out 600 Watts of power, which is enough for most computers, but a few ultra-powerful builds may require the 880-Watt version for $200.
And that concludes our list! As always, these ideas are just suggestions and can be tailored to suit the needs of the recipient, such as tweaking the max output of the UPS or the capacity of the SSD, or as ideas for similar gifts. Have another idea for a gift that a computer builder would probably enjoy? Let us know what it is in the comments!
Thanks for reading!
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