Phara-CON

I can now drive a rear wheeled vehicle at high speeds! Manual helps a ton, because it causes your car to settle when you shift up or down. Also if you down shift while sliding around a corner it is doughnut time. I so good at my 370z I have upgraded to a Viper and with mild upgrades I'm hitting my 370z lap records, I believe the 600 hp and 150+ mph in fifth gear helps as well.

Why they do not allow vinyl placement via mouse I will never know, I'm going for a classic Mopar look on my Viper. I still have no figured out how to do screen shots but once I do I will share my cars with you all.

In other news I want a FFR Roadster MKII, if you need anyone killed and want to trade that persons death for the roadster maybe we can work something out. But my wife has to approve!

Yeah moving old servatron to a LAMP setup instead of the current WAMP setup. So like it might be down a few days starting this saturday. But I will upgrade the back end of the site and hopefully find an SMTP server that does not require a users logged in to work.

Wish me luck and say a prayer cause we are formatting Saturday!

Is GREAT! Also it is only 75 bucks at Fry's! What you get for75 clams is the wheel with 6 buttons on the wheel, two paddle shifts and one sequential stick shifter that can moved to the right or left. Along with the Gas and brake peddles that sits on the ground and connects via some sort of serial cable. Then you plug the whole mess into your computer via USB and power it by an external power supply.

The setup instructions could be better but once you read it 3 times while looking the pictures it becomes clear. I was so excited to be playing it took me about 10 minutes to get all hooked up and I'm sure it would be quicker if I was in a non-gleeful mood.

Playing in Need for Speed: Shift the wheel makes it a whole new game, so new I had to reset my profile and start from the beginning as I was unable to drive any of my cars. But after the reset I found a cool thing called wheel dead-zone, which cured what was forcing my cars into a uncontrollable donuts and crashes. For example: I would turn left, the force feed back would move the wheel right, without dead-zone the computer would read this as turn right! Then the force feed back would move the wheel left, repeat until you get upset. Once I adjusted the settings on the wheel and learned to drive again I switched from automatic to manual and my lap times started to decrease until I was running even with my gamepad driving.

Now after a few days with it I ask the question.. is it worth 75 bucks?

HELL YES!
I have only two issues with the MOMO wheel:
One is swapping it out of the way when it is time to play TF2, you got to pop off the cover on the top so you can get at the bolts to lower the clamps but this is easy enough.
The second issue is with the peddles, they do not stick to the ground if to hamemr down on them. Now your thinking but "Pharacon you are suppose to take your time nd feather the throttle and gentley apply brakes to get the best time." Which when doing this the peddles work great, but let us say your cruising down the back straightway doing a buck fifty on Laguna Seca and you are so happy with your last pass you forget the corkscrew turn is coming up in like 3, 2, 1 OMGQTFBBQ! You mash the brake, but upon mashing the peddle assembly moves away from your foot, hello advertising wall, goodbye 70,000 dollar carbon fiber hood. So Seeing how I got all these cool tools in the garage I built a T shaped brace out of wood and then wedged it behind the peddles so it holds it just where I like it.

I'll post some pics of my setup once I get a chance at home. But if you have a forgiving wife or you love driving games go pickup a wheel it is worth it!
Click the link below to view the pictures!

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OK! I admit it, I want a console. The reason for this irrational want? Racing games. It is sad I know, but then a game came out. That game is Need for Speed: Shift! I got a copy and have been playing it, SO fun. It is the perfect fit of arcade and sim driving, the sound and graphics make you think you are really in the car and I find myself leaning my head when I dive into corners going 150+.

I'm going to buy a wheel for this game that is how good it is. I'm going to try to convince the wife that I need a control that is built only for one type of game. I want to be able to go manual and drive as it will improve my times around the track! Needless to say bring your game pads and or wheels to the next LAN as we will be playing some NFS:Shift in the dead of night. Now if you will excuse me I will go back to wishing I was at home racing instead of sitting in class learning all about multi-mode vs single-mode fiber.

Yes, I love how they shove subnetting down your throat in a day at my Cisco class! Woohoo! I gotz 19 network bitz with 32 networks with 2048 hosts per network and I need to find the network and broadcast as well as the first and last usable IP's for the 13th network.. in 5 seconds! I'm averaging around 15-20 seconds with the help of ANDing and I'm almost able to write out IP's in binary from the top of my head. 2^N Mother Truckers!

But my favorite questions are the multiple choice questions where it could be one answer or the other, but the 3rd choice is more right than the other two so it is correct.

So if you are wondering why the hell my computer is idling in TF2 24/7 it is because I'm freaking cramming my head for the cisco tests (two a week.) Oh yeah BFG rocks they are shipping out my new card before I ship my old one back. I love advanced RMA.