Nuclear Monster

  • Under attack pleas stand by by heder

    Just a brief note to say that TimeDoctor.org is now NuclearMonster.com. You might see some stuff broken as the site moves over, if you have any questions please feel free to send me a message on twitter or via email. There are new Twitter, Twitch, and Facebook pages for following the site if you’re interested in those. They’re plural (nuclearmonsters) instead of singular because the /nuclearmonster URLs were taken on all of those sites.

    If you’re using the site via an RSS feed reader (or another app that isn’t going to timedoctor.org directly), you may need to manually update the URL in your feed reader to https://nuclearmonster.com/feed/

    My feed reader did not change the URL automatically, and will only work as long as the redirect works.

    I’ve been writing TimeDoctor.org for over 15 years, my hope is that moving to Nuclear Monster will provide a freshness that couldn’t be found on the old site.

    Who knows, maybe if you search the web for Nuclear Monster you’ll actually get this site.

  • When last I left you, 8 years ago, Dear Data, we were up to episode 24 of these disturbingly NSFW edits of Star Trek: The Next Generation by Gazorra. Please don’t view this at work or in front of people, or other animals. Episodes 1-15 are here. Though Episode 1 seems to have been lost in a transporter accident, or more likely, YouTube’s copyright robot.
    (more…)

  • It’s been a long time since I thought about putting together a 386. PhilsComputerLab has clearly been putting some work into the process. In the video above he’s got some wack-a-doo modern dinguses (dingii?) to emulate storage drives hooked up to this ancient hardware and amazing old sound hardware. That Roland MT-32 must have been expensive.

  • Let’s be honest. Ace Combat Assault Horizon was awful. Ace Combat is best when it is a goofy self-serious exploration of flying silly jets in the sky and menus that have cyberpunk military noises and briefing voiceover guy telling you about Oscetia’s latest invasion along with the inevitable pretend surprise at whatever the latest gigantic airship is that you have to shoot down. Also there is usually a ground base that you can literally fly your jet fighter through to blow up. Assault Horizon had almost none of this and felt like it was trying to be more like a Call of Duty spinoff than an actual Ace Combat.

    Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown looks like a return to the ridiculous Ace Combats of yore, and for that I am excited for when it comes out later this year on Steam for Windows and various consoles.

  • The AirPods box.

    There were a few things that I’ve noticed since I posted a review of Apple’s AirPods back in December, so here’s a quick update.

    1. The range is ridiculous. I can leave my iPhone downstairs and the AirPods carry on delivering audio to my ears.
    2. The sound the AirPods make to let you know they’re running low on battery is kind of surprising because it isn’t accompanied by anything onscreen to let you know what’s going on. Midcall I kept hearing the sound and trying to figure out what it was until finally the AirPod I had in turned off. Switching to the other AirPod is easy, and it’s a mistake you should only make once, but it seems boneheaded to not let people know what’s happening when they look at the device that their AirPods are connected to.
    3. There are a few tiny issues with the case. It’s too loud when it snaps shut. There’s an audible clicking sound when you close it and although it’s fine in many situations in a few it is absolutely not fine. These headphones are slick as hell but waking up a sleeping baby when you switch out one AirPod for the other and shut the case isn’t. You might think you could more gently close the case to prevent this, you can’t unless you have both hands free.
    4. The same goes for the charging status light inside the case. Way too bright in some situations without an ambient light sensor to detect that it should dim.
    5. As an incredible bargain compared to other truly wireless earbuds it feels a little like nitpicking, but, why does Apple include a charging cable without a wall adapter? These cost $159. Include the darn wall adapter.
    6. AirPods are very comfortable. I can forget if they are in or not. A few times I’ve gone to listen to them and wasn’t able to tell if I had them in or not without checking the charging case or my ear.

    Finally, there are silent firmware updates for the AirPods when they’re in their charging case and near an iOS device. There are a few issues I’ve had that might be fixed by this firmware but it is impossible to tell since there are no release notes. Of course these are tiny computers so getting updated software isn’t completely unexpected, but it sure would be nice to know what is changing when we skip through a few versions very quickly. This update went from 3.3.1 to 3.5.1.

    I’m still very onboard with our wireless future, there are far cheaper bluetooth headset options with better battery life, and some have better sound quality, but none are as smooth and they’re the best for calling our senators.