Did you know that the OnLive OSX app has its own built in drivers that work out of the box with your wired Xbox360 controllers? I found this to be fantastic, but I had already installed the tattiebogle.net controller driver it works, but it conflicts with OnLives use of the device so I couldn’t use it where I wanted to use it. There were no handy instructions on uninstalling them, so I did it manually. Here’s how: back-up and then delete the /System/Library/Extensions/360Controller.kext and /System/Library/Extensions/Wireless360Controller.kext directories from your mac (you’ll need to be root to do this.) after a reboot the driver is gone and OnLive will recognize it. hope this helps someone.
gaming
Linux AFP server going slow?
Recently I found that it was taking appauling amounts of time to transfer files to/from my debian file server setup with netatalks AFP. I upgraded to the latest version to no avail, but this trick helped out quite a lot — http://www.netafp.com/tn003-slow-afp-read-performance-90/
Incidentally I believe, unscientifically, that it also helped my OnLive game latency quite a lot (on OSX)
OnLive trolls
Man, trolls suck be they on forums, in blog comments, or, when playing video games. I just had an experience with the OnLive video game service which has me of two minds.
I was playing Borderlands ( I *LOVE* This game ) single player… And a spectator started watching me. As soon as he entered (before I could even do anything) he gave me 30 “jeers” (essentially its like sitting on the sidelines at a sports game and yelling “BOOOOOOOO YOU SUCK.”)
Now I know that I can go into my preferences and turn notifications of “cheers” and “jeers” off (it’s be nice if I could just turn jeers off, but thats another matter.) The online person being an ass isn’t what bothers me (I’ve run everything from IRC networks to Forums to Blogs, I’ve come to grips with people and their need to troll.) It’s that now someone can troll me when I’m not playing a game multiplayer.
I tend to play games for an escape, the same reason I read books. On my Xbox360 I can play a game locally, and nobody bothers me. On OnLive that’s not the case. Someone can randomly find me – whether im playing a network game or not – whether they own the same game or not – whether we’re friends or not – and give me an, apparently, unlimited number of thumbs down. Even were I to change my settings to not show jeers while I’m playing it still goes on my OnLive profile telling the world “this guy must really suck.”
I think that the technology of OnLive is AMAZING, though I wish their selection of games was bigger and/or more timely, but I’m not sure I like other people intruding on my experience in this way with complete impunity. It really only takes a handful of spoiled apples to ruin the bunch sometimes.
I wonder how prevalent this is and whether other people find it as subtly annoying as I have?
[ Edit: As it turns out I was completely wrong about the permanence of cheers and jeers, they are thankfully not attached to your profile (at least not anywhere that I or anyone else can see them.) In this I was wrong 🙂 ]