Author: admin

ESPN app for Windows 8 debuts

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I know, us geeks aren’t usually huge sports fans… but I have a few things I like to stay caught up on. A little while ago, I showed you the fully featured ESPN ScoreCenter app for Windows Phone 7. I explained how it had features the iPhone app was lacking, it was several apps under one roof. It’s time to do it again, with the ESPN App for Windows 8!

The Windows 8 application is available for your PC or Windows RT tablet. The app has everything you need to keep up to date on your favorite sports, including multi-sport Gamecasts, ScoreCenter, video highlights and articles from ESPN Magazine and ESPN.com.

The real-time Gamecasts help you follow along with a game, even when you can’t watch it. Unfortunately, they weren’t full screen at my resolution. I was able to click in to a news video clip, press play, and almost immediately the clip began playing. It was very fast and seamlessly played inside the app – it even allowed me to full screen. One other issue I had, as pictured above, was some text formatting in the articles. On my computer, I’m at a 1920×1080 resolution, and I see text overlapping pictures and a lot of whitespace at the bottom of articles. I haven’t checked the app on my Surface for RT tablet, it likely displays correctly at that resolution – but I feel like the 1920×1080 resolution is a pretty widely accepted standard these days, and the app designers should be on the lookout for issues at that resolution.

All in all, it’s got a few kinks to work out, but what a great addition it is to the Windows 8 app library. Go download ESPN App for Windows 8 right now, and see for yourself.

Setting primary, secondary and more DNS addresses through command line – how to

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Have you ever noticed that, sometimes when you’re on DHCP, you can have more than 2 DNS addresses? Perhaps you have a need to set 3 or 4 – or maybe, you need to set your primary and secondary DNS servers statically through command line. Well, don’t you worry, there’s a command to do just that.

Even if your primary is already set, I’ve had the best luck setting it again, then setting your secondary DNS. For this example, I’m going to use Google’s well known public DNS servers, but you can use your own internal IP addresses, your ISP’s DNS servers, OpenDNS, whatever works for you. Simply open a command prompt, and enter the following commands.

This first command sets your primary DNS server:
netsh interface ip set dns "Local Area Connection" static 8.8.8.8

Here, we set the secondary:
netsh interface ip add dns name="Local Area Connection" addr="8.8.4.4" index=2

If you need to set a third, fourth, and so on, all you need to do is change the index number at the end of the line:
netsh interface ip add dns name="Local Area Connection" addr="208.67.222.222" index=3
netsh interface ip add dns name="Local Area Connection" addr="208.67.220.220" index=4

To verify the settings took, you can check your DNS settings with a quick command of ipconfig /all and check how many and what DNS servers you are showing. If you show a strange hexadecimal value, try resetting the primary DNS entry with the different command at the top again, then the second, third, and so-on…

2010 – Alien Anthology

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During their “Black Friday deals week” deals, Amazon had the BluRay Alien Anthology on sale. I couldn’t resist.

I haven’t sat down and watched an Alien movie since I was much younger. In fact, most of the time, I saw them on TV, and don’t know if I ever saw the full version. Now I have all four movies, directors cuts, audio commentaries, deleted scenes… just so many options, all packaged in an attractive book of DVDs. The quality of the BluRay videos is excellent. The designs that made Alien bridge the gap between cult-classic and cinematic masterpiece stand out in this beautiful hi-definition collection.

I kept eyeballing the “Alien Quadrilogy” when it first came out – but I’m glad I found this glorious Anthology collection. Each movie has one BluRay disc which contains the original, and a director’s edition, as well as BD-Live features and deleted scenes. Then there are two additional discs, one is a making of the anthology, and one is basically a media archive – fan service to the highest degree. Pictures, pieces of scripts, history, backstory, set design, sketches… just a true collection of everything that makes the Alien saga great. Whether you’re a huge fan, or just someone who wants to see all of the movies, the value of the Alien Anthology is hard to ignore.

Know your Xbox 360 controller… guide, bumpers, shoulders, triggers?

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When the Super Nintendo Entertainment System made its debut in 1990, it introduced the “L” and “R” buttons on the top of the controller. The PlayStation took it a step further with the “L1” / “L2” and “R1” / “R2” buttons. The Xbox 360 continues that tradition, but the buttons are clearly marked “LB” and “RB” – and then a pair of triggers.

The confusion comes in because different games use different names for these buttons. Generically, you may hear “LB” referred to as the Left Bumper, or the Left Shoulder Button. Same goes for the right side. The Triggers are generally called by the name left or right trigger, but are sometimes simply designated as “LT” and “RT.”


You can press in or “click” each of the analog sticks, as well. In games, these are sometimes referred to as “L3” for the left analog stick and “R3” for the right analog stick.

The face buttons are all well labeled, including the Back, Guide, and Start buttons, and of course the main X, Y, A, and B “skittles” as they’ve been nicknamed. One more button worth pointing out, found only on wireless controllers, is the Sync Button. The Sync button is pressed only when you need to synchronize a controller with an Xbox 360, for instance, if you just bought a new controller, or are taking your controller to a friend’s house.