A quick Change, For the better.

Well Tracker was quick (Very Quick) to point out that I missed the 3rd’s post, true. However I have been looking at the two posts I’v done and I will be honest, I feel I must apologize for them, they are not the quality that this site deserves! So iv decided that instead of a 2-a-day post schedule to make it 2 a week. Now I might do more depending on how much free time I have. But I promise that these posts will be of much higher quality and you can be sure that they will be much more useful. There is also the podcast to look forward to, me and Tracker will be definitely doing that. So here is what I have in store for you guys right now:

1. Setting up an CS:S server from a control panel, complete with reviews of different plug-ins and add-ons. Screen shots will be there of course, and if I can, ill be doing a video on it as well. Videos are new to me so it should be interesting.

2. Game mods, lots of them! Lots of reviews, This will include Ratings, Screen Shots, and hopefully game play videos! (This one is my favorite)

3. Nuking your media library into shape!

4. Live Video Streaming! Me and Tracker have found a variety of video streaming sites, where one can stream themselves playing games, or making mods! We both plan on doing this very soon, and I also plan on reviewing the different services and how to set up your own stream.

Well I hope this makes up for missing one post on best teether, and I hope you will be able to understand the need to down step our post count, we want to make sure your not bombarded with crap, here at TMS its all about doing it cause we can, and hopefully cause its useful.

-Dark

Info on an HDTV

First off id like to point out the resolution differences I found this handy chart and it should explain to you whats the best resolution, and how to read about them. http://www.cnet.com/1990-7874_1-5108580-3.html Scroll down and take a peek, you can also read the article if you want its got some good information in there. One thing I learned is that up-conversions from DVD players do not really do all that much, I can’t say I expected it to, but now I have a reliable source. Another interesting find on my search was this screen calculator that finds just how much picture you would be missing if you have a wide-screen TV, or a 4:3 (Full Screen) you can find it on this page: http://www.cnet.com/1990-7874_1-5108580-4.html?tag=hdtv;hdtv_l  . Next Cnet even had a fabulous price range chart, which you can view here: http://www.cnet.com/1990-7874_1-5108580-1.html . I was only looking for a 32 inch set, and now I know that it shouldn’t cost me more than about $500.00 US . Now if you continue on through Cnet they have loads of information, but I didn’t just check Cnet. zdnet Told me something I didn’t know, there are actually rear projection LCD TVs that use a “LCD chip” as they called it to project an image on a screen, Now how that works I don’t know, but its good to know so that I don’t get one, because I’m really looking for a flat panel. One thing that zdnet also confirmed was that I definitely don’t ever want a plasma. Apparently they have bad burn-in problems, and for someone who will probably leave a game on for a long time, I’m more than likely to be a victim of it. Now this article is out dated, but its not completely useless, check it out : http://blogs.zdnet.com/Ou/?p=458 .Well Hope that helps you guys out, I learned some new things, and I hope a gathered some good information to share.

-Dark

Looking into HDTV’s[Part 1]

So guys I want to get a Playstation 3, Because I hear there are a lot of neat tricks for them, such as linux and emulators. The problem is that I don’t want to own one without having an HDTV to play it on. Now I’m not talking some 64″ monster, I’m looking for something simple yet high quality, a 32″ should do just fine, so I was thinking about going with a Sony but that might break the bank, Samsung I hear are also good quality but I think they too are out of my price range. One thing I defiantly don’t want is a VIZO, why? If its that cheap it must be for a reason, I have been comparing them in the store and the color difference is pretty distinguish able. No that’s not to say that maybe they are not calibrated right, but then again I doubt that a $250 set can out perform a $500 set. So I’m hoping to get some more information on them tonight and ill be ready to show you guys my results in tomorrow nights post! In the man time I’d love some feed back on how your HDTV set is doing! Please share with us in the comments!

-Dark

Where was Dark?!?!?

Welcome one and welcome all! Welcome to Darks Carnival!

Heh, ok guys I have been away for far to long, but not without good reason!  For starters I got a job! That means I can buy new consoles and equipment! Also I finally upgraded to my new custom built PC! Actually its time for a story, because I should have had this PC up and running for about 3 months. When I fist got all the parts from newegg I was going to make a PC building tutorial, however I didn’t have my camera and I was so excited that I built it in just under 2 hours, but at the time I had no operating system disc so it sat there doing nothing for 2 weeks until I got a Vista 64 Bit Ultimate CD and CD key. All went well, I downloaded steam and counter-strike: source started up and joined a server, BAM, Crash. Turns out the card was bad, then I RMA’ed it and got another one, It worked… for about 5 days then the same problem happened again. So now I’m waiting for it to return, in the mean time I bought a temporary card and I like it alot more. More information on this card fiasco later but for now I’m just glad to be back!

Game Mods: Part 1-Intro

Borrowed from :http://afarawaytangent.blogspot.com/2008/09/controlling-modding.html
Barrowed from :http://afarawaytangent.blogspot.com/2008/09/controlling-modding.html

Today’s topic is game mods. Are game mods good? or are they bad? In my opinion they can be both. As a modder I love taking something and making it do something else, or make what it does better. To be honest I love gaming. I’m a huge PC gaming fanatic. I rarely play consoles for the sole reason of no third party mods. Now I’m sure your thinking “DLC” or down loadable content. And your right that is technically a mod or some sort of add-on but that completely by passes why I love mods. I love mods because they are third party originals that regular people have thought up and put together. This always gives the game some openness because the mod creator isn’t on a pay roll and therefore can experiment all he wants. Then again he can drop the project at the tip of a hat or something can come up and the source code may never be release. That is always a shame but its how the game modding scene works.
Not all mods are good mods and probably not for the reason that you think. Its not that some mods suck, if they suck then no one will use them and no one cares. No the bad mods are those made by talented individuals for the sole purpose of giving you — or themselves — a advantage over another player. This is a kinda touchy subject for me. For me modding is supposed to give you a some sort of advantage, but should you use morals and make the mod but swear never to use it? Then that defeats the purpose. Its a touchy subject but I for one will never use a mod that gives me and advantage, I prefer to earn my advantage.
Soon I intend to do a full and complete write up on some of my favorite games and the mods for those games. Complete with videos, commentary, Screen shots, links to all of the mods I play, and finally a tutorial on how to install all of the mods and play them. So be ready for a barrage of content!
-DarkWarrior

Fan Mail!

First of all me [Dark] and Tracker work hard on making original posts as often as we can. Today Tracker has sent me a rather awesome piece of mail from a user who likes our posts. We [Dark & Tracker] would love to thank this user for his or her support! And I want everyone to understand that this site is not run by one person, but by two people with very busy lives. All we want is to push hardware and software to new limits and get as much for our money as we can! Without further adieu I present to you this very awesome letter:

Hello TheModShop,

An email has been sent from djakku. Here's the message:

   I've added your site to my bookmarks a while ago, back when
the eeepc701 was really new and not on the market on europe/usa yet.
You had a really nice resolution hack for the small screen.
Anyways, since then frankly whenever I opened my
{Tech/Mods} bookmarks in tabs, I always found sad that you
didn't really update you blog often.
Yet each of your update was significant, you weren't rambling about nothing
new to report.
I'm an computer studend and I've visited various scenes, mostly homebrew.
I really respect the effort/time motivated people who seriously take the
responsability, or the goal, to keep a site up to date.
Yes, writing to mainstream site is great, of course, but beyond that,
the personnal touch, the expressions or ideas about
general programs or mods, is more honnestly expressed
via 'underground scenes' site like yours.
I just wanted to tell you that since you said that your site will
be more often updated, i refresh my browser more often,
and I'm glad to read your articles.
Keep them coming!

We here at the TMS would like to thank the writer for his praise! Me [Dark] and Tracker are very surprised and are happy to have the honor of the sender. So Keep on moddin’!

-DarkWarrior

[From Tracker]

I am glad that the eeepc mods brought you to TMS. However sadly the eeepc has no new stuff that can be done to it that I know of. [Thinks for a second] Well maybe not… ;). Anyway as I type this I have a server sitting next to me getting a new OS install done on it and I am going to do a os load to another server I have here at home and I am getting 2 more in tomorrow. As soon as I get them in I will be working on them. What are all these gonna do? Well I am going to mod them to do new things! So hopefully we can keep you in your seat checking the site every day.

I am pleased to get this kind of mail from people and welcome it from all we love this kind of mail even tho it is rarely sent. Well rather than rant on and on about random stuff now I am going to end this post.

-Tracker

[P.S. If you would like to send us an email feel free to click the Contact Us link in the side. From there you can fill out the form and it will get sent directly to both inboxes [Mine and Dark’s] we may post your fan mail on the site. If it is a mod idea or a mod that you did and posted to your own blog we might post that as well. If you want just email us to say “Hi” we like hearing from you guys]

Team Disscussion!

Well seeing as this is only me [Dark] and Tracker, its kinda funny that I call us a team. We don’t generally work together. Sure we discus mods, news, tech, and even game together, but we don’t exactly work as a team. We each do our own thing and try to mash it all into this site. Its interesting and I’m happy to be along for the ride. However I would like to post more original content, as would Tracker, this we have discussed many times. Our forums should be filled with tutorials and we should have many more active members to even expand our little two man team. We have tried to find new other writers to help generate content but we have had no real luck. So I’m proposing that me and Tracker attempt to make every post from now on, a real post. What I mean by a real post is that we actually write our content. I have in the past posed stupid things from engadget and even Gizmodo, but the time for foolishness is over. Tracker is ordering 2 very nice personal servers and will have them set up soon. I’m hoping to do some fun networking mods and tricks with him and his new servers. For example, me and Tracker had at one time a nice VPN set up, however things got hectic and the project fell apart. So here is to a hopefully much more interesting future on TMS!

Also we are STILL looking for writers / modders to simply generate more content, if you have a mod we would love to showcase it, or if you love to talk about modding we would love for you to post your content either here or become a full time writer!

-Dark

Building a new Desktop PT.1

I love building computers. Not only do I love building them, but also taking them apart. Tracker and I [Dark] have striped an entire computer down to nothing in just 1 minute flat. Thats no joke either. When building a new Desktop there are many things to consider. These are just some of the ones on my top priority list.
1. OS
An OS is a very funny thing. If your like me you want a Hack-n-tosh. At the same time you want to run Windows 7 and a Linux distro. OSX is very picky I hear about running on special hardware, atleast if you want it to run well, so maybe you really want to get an Intel processor with an ASUS motherboard because I hear they work best. Now for Windows 7 your also going to need a decent card, not to mention OSX. Linux is happy on almost any system so really if you wanted to you’d be fine getting lower specs.
2. Uses
Different uses of a computer are also important to me. Can I make this computer a Home server? Or will it only be able to surf the web? Will it be an HD movie machine or a gaming PC perhaps? I love all of thee above so my new machine is going to have to be powerful in many areas. But if maybe I wanted to make a simple computer for lets say, Boxee? Then I would be able to not spend so much money.
3. Lifespan
Lifespan is important because even if your computer is outdated before its even shipped (and it is) it still should last you a good 3 to 4 years, hopefully more, but that is very unlikely in these times where everything it obsolete the moment its created.
4. Hardware release dates
If you buy something the day it comes out its extremely expensive, but if you wait to long then its outdated and worthless. So your pretty much playing russian roulette and hoping you don’t shoot yourself later on down the road.

-Dark

Thoughts on planing a project.

laptop

Well Tracker and I [Dark] are starting to get more active on modding everyday items. I’m coming up with a few ideas but I am always restricted. Some of my ideas are easy and really not at all hard. Others will require me to do extensive research and cost me oodles of cash. Those are tw0 things I don’t have, Time and money. We [Dark and Tracker] want to make something we know everyone will love. It has to be unique and it has to be “kool” so to speak. On top of that we are attempting to make our posts and future podcast, much more interesting and to the point, no longer about stupid products, but we will probably keep posting *Fail of the day* Because well, everyone needs some humor.

Now to the topic at hand, Modding. Im going to go ahead and tell everyone my plans for modding my ol’ Toshiba Satellite M45-S169 (Amazon page)
First off, yes this is my main computer. Yeah get the laughs out. It has barely more power than most net books. Yes I know this. I’m getting a new one soon, and because of that I have to find some use for this one. This is step one in my planing, Make sure you have something that you can lose and not be in deep shit! Modding is something for experienced users in electronics and programming. I am a novice at best. So I picked something I can mess up and not really care about. Next is now that I have this object, what can I do with it? Well this is a 4 year old laptop. And seeing as it travels almost everywhere with me, it has gotten its fair share of wear and tear. So now I something to do, Fix or upgrade my object. Now as a modder I’m going to try and kill 2 birds with 1 stone. Not only am I going to fix this worn out thing, but I’m going to give it a few perks. First, a new paint job. Then add an internal USB hub, for more USB ports and internal USB goodies. Now this is the fun part, what goodies can I add? Well here are some of my ideas. Some extra internal storage?, Bluetooth?, a built-in wireless mouse receiver? Multi-card reader? The sky is the limits. Then there are some of my more… wishful ideas, like a built-in small lcd that can display pictures? or maybe even system data? or even better network info? Any way I’m still in the planing stages and can’t even start on this project until I get my replacement laptop.
-Dark

Send in your mods!

Well seeing as me [Dark] and Tracker are kind of in a tight spot with this economy we don’t exactly have all the necessary equipment that we love to have. So with that in mind we would love for anyone who is working on a mod, or hack, or any sort of really neat project to go ahead and shoot us and email with some pictures and what ever data you got on your project. We would love to show case your mods, and you can even use the TMS forums as a base for your updates. If you need a specific topic or what ever you can simply email either I or Tracker.
Dark: zechtech[at]hotmail.com
Tracker: tracker[at]themodshop.net

Now eventually me and Tracker are working on a delivery system so that you can simply fill out a form and send us content to show case, but for now email is the way to go!