I have heard absolute nightmare stories about satellite, so I’m not going down that route.

I have been using Verizon Wireless 3G for the [...]]]> I live out in the country and out here, I don’t have any land-based options for high speed internet access. My options are basically satellite or 3G/4G wireless modems.

I have heard absolute nightmare stories about satellite, so I’m not going down that route.

I have been using Verizon Wireless 3G for the last two years. It is pretty good, but not great. I think that it would be a great option IF the area that you live in isn’t oversubscribed. I can get throughput of 800 kbps in the middle of the night. During peak times, I get more like 100 kpbs. That’s not much better than dial up! I’d say on average, I get around 200 – 300 kpbs. It is still somewhat disappointing.

I have complained multiple times to Verizon Wireless, but my complaints have fallen on deaf ears. I actually had someone from executive response call me because I sent an email to their chief of operations. He tried to pretend like he cared and was helping, but nothing has improved.

I have pretty much given up working with Verizon on this issue. My strategy is to hope for DSL to come out here or just wait until the 4G upgrade (supposedly by 2013). I’m thinking that the latter will fix my issues. I’m really praying for a WiMAX or DSL solution though.

Fingers crossed!!!

Dual core processors, each at 1 GHz for a total of 2 GHz processing power 512 MB RAM 4G Front facing webcam Rear facing 8 MP camera 4.3 inch display

It will be released in the second quarter of 2011. The price has not been determined yet. I [...]]]> Debuting at CES, this new Android phone from Motorola looks sweet!

Dual core processors, each at 1 GHz for a total of 2 GHz processing power
512 MB RAM
4G
Front facing webcam
Rear facing 8 MP camera
4.3 inch display

It will be released in the second quarter of 2011. The price has not been determined yet. I can’t wait!!!!

The companion wheel in Fallout New Vegas provides easier control over non-player companion characters in the game.

There are eight [...]]]> Fallout is an extremely deep game. For a game like this, you need a reference guide to maximize the enjoyment you get out of it. This five-star guide is a highly recommended add-on to this game:

The companion wheel in Fallout New Vegas provides easier control over non-player companion characters in the game.

There are eight sections on the wheel, each with a specified function:

* Toggle melee or ranged fighting

* Open inventory – This displays the companion’s current inventory, inventory weight, and weight limit

* Toggle stay close or keep distance

* Back up

* Toggle aggressive or passive AI

* Use stimpak

* Toggle wait here or follow me

* Return to normal dialogue

You can have up to two companions, one humanoid and one non-humanoid. One nice feature is that all companions default weapons have unlimited ammo.

* Humanoid companions:

* Arcade Gannon, a member of the Followers of the Apocalypse with a mysterious past

* Craig Boone, an Ex-NCR sniper with a grudge against Caesar’s Legion

* Lily Bowen, a friendly nightkin and former member of the Master’s army

* Raul Tejada, a ghoul mechanic and former gunslinger held hostage by Tabitha, the mad leader of the State of Utolbitha

* Rose of Sharon Cassidy, a caravan merchant and the daughter of John Cassidy

* Veronica Santangelo, a disillusioned Brotherhood Scribe

Non-Humanoid companions:

* ED-E a prototype eyebot designed for combat and reconnaissance operations

* Rex, a cyberdog belonging to the King

* Temporary companions:

* Neil, a disgruntled super mutant

* Sunny Smiles, a local ranger

* Trudi, mayor of Goodsprings

* Deputy Beagle, deputy of Primm

* Private Halford

* Victor, a Securitron robot

BUILT TO DESTROY ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Positive effects: +3% chance for all weapons to deliver a critical hit. Negative effects: +15% faster condition decay [...]]]> Fallout is an extremely deep game. For a game like this, you need a reference guide to maximize the enjoyment you get out of it. This five-star guide is a highly recommended add-on to this game:

BUILT TO DESTROY
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Positive effects: +3% chance for all weapons to deliver a critical hit.
Negative effects: +15% faster condition decay for all weapons.

This trait is best taken if you want to maximize your combat potential, and if
you like to rely on luck. The downside is a fairly big one: All your weapons
will last about 1/6th less long than they normally would, which brings a lot of
costs along. Should you pick this trait, be sure to quickly invest in your
Repair skill early on. I personally wouldn’t recommend this trait.

FAST SHOT
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Positive effects: +20% firing rate with Guns and Energy Weapons.
Negative effects: -20% accuracy with Guns and Energy Weapons.

A typical specialization trait, forcing you to choose between a faster firing
rate at the cost of accuracy. Its counterpart is the Trigger Discipline trait.

FOUR EYES
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Positive effects: +1 PER when wearing any type of glasses.
Negative effects: -1 PER when not wearing glasses.

To be honest, this one’s quite awful. It reduces your characters natural PER
by 1 point, and increases the bonus you get from glasses by 1 point (making +2).
This means that when taking perks, you’ll actually need one ADDITIONAL point of
Perception to be allowed to select the perk. Friend of the Nigh, for example,
will now require 7 PER instead of 6 PER. This Trait is therefore garbage.

GOOD NATURED
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Positive effects: +5 points in Barter, Medicine, Repair, Science and Speech.
Negative effects: -5 points in Energy Weapons, Explosives, Guns, Melee Weapons
and Unarmed.

A specialization in skill sets, laying focus on negotiation skills and problem
solving skills, while deteriorating weapon skills. Depending on how you’d like
to play the game early on, this can actually be a decent pick, but remember that
it’ll be more difficult to eventually create a balanced all-round (nearly)
maxed character build.

HEAVY HANDED
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Positive effects: Melee and unarmed attacks do more damage.
Negative effects: Melee and unarmed attacks do less critical damage.

Only important for characters who’ll focus on being a melee and/or unarmed
fighter, this trait increases the damage you do with each regular hit, but it
reduces the damage that your critical hits do. If you don’t like to rely on
luck all too much, this is a great trait to boost your melee/unarmed damage
with.

KAMIKAZE
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Positive effects: Grants you a extra whopping of +10 Action Points.
Negative effects: -2 Damage Threshold.

Arguably one of the best traits, this increases your V.A.T.S. with 10 AP! Since
perks such as Grim Reaper’s Sprint have been dumbed down, AP has become more
important, and if you find that you’re using V.A.T.S. quite often, you simply
can’t let this one slip away. The -2 DT is negligible, and a good armor will
more than make up for it soon enough.

LOOSE CANNON
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
Positive effects: +30% faster speed with throwing weapons.
Negative effects: -25% range with throwing weapons.

This allows you to throw faster, but also less far with throwing weapons. It’s
one of those traits that makes you wonder how the development went: “Hmm, hey
guys we only have 9 traits, shouldn’t we, like, make 10? Boss: “Yeah, ten’s a
nice number, what do you think?” Fat Joe: “Hey, um, why don’t we, like, reduce
the range of throwing weapons. Oh, and um .., we’ll just increase the speed!”
Boss: “Do it, the game’s deadline is in two months.” It *can* have its uses,
though. If you like to use grenades and/or dynamite in small corridors, then
range isn’t a big issue, but throwing one faster could save your hide.

SMALL FRAME
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
Positive effects: +1 AGL.
Negative effects: Your legs are more easily crippled.

Well, if you’re a stats maximizer, this one’s for you! It does require you to
be more careful around explosives, mines, grenades and the like. You’ll want
to invest more money in Doctor Bags and Stimpaks than you’d normally would, but
combined with a slight increase in your Medicine Skill, this can be a very
decent trait.

TRIGGER DISCIPLINE
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
Positive effects: -20% firing rate with Guns and Energy Weapons.
Negative effects: +20% accuracy with Guns and Energy Weapons.

The counterpart of the Fast Shot trait, this one reduces your firing rate for
an increase in accuracy. If you’re not into brutal characters with machine guns
and plasma rifles, but more a sniper kind of person, this could be a decent
choice for you.

WILD WASTELAND
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Positive effects: Adds some (random) events and (unique) weapons.
Negative effects: Removes some (random) events and (unique) weapons.

This Perk makes the game more ‘Wacky’. A notable change appears to be the
removal of the Gauss Rifle, being replaced by an Alien Blaster. It’s an
attempt to ‘add’ replay value.

Source: www.gamefaqs.com

Here is a listing of the various pros and cons:

Pros Easy to be [...]]]> The Vanquish (or Vanquis) credit card has received bad reviews pretty much all around. I would not recommend anyone to carry a balance on this card. I would only use it for those who can’t get another card and need to rebuild credit.

Here is a listing of the various pros and cons:

Pros
Easy to be accepted

Cons
High APR (like ~40%!!!)
Annual fees
Limited online account management

Weapons also slowly upgrade when you pick up the same weapon (with at least one round in it) that’s identical to one of the weapons that you have [...]]]> Weapons are upgraded when you pick up an upgrade chip (one of those green laser cubes). The active weapon will upgrade one level, and retain any experience chevrons.

Weapons also slowly upgrade when you pick up the same weapon (with at least one round in it) that’s identical to one of the weapons that you have and that identical weapon that you have is maxed out with ammo. The weapon you picked up becomes an experience chevron. Getting three chevrons will improve the weapon by one level.

If you die, you will lose experience from your weapons.

Click here for [...]]]> All indications are that Vanquish will NOT have multiplayer capabilities. This is a real shame. I’m not sure why game designers make games without multiplayer these days.

Click here for Vanquish deals: