In the 21st Century, we have become married to our electronics. Speaking with a business partner on the phone during the recent blackouts in New Hampshire, I learned that losing power was uncommon to him, having originally come from the Midwest. When I asked him how he fared during the blackouts, which lasted a week or more for many New Hampshire residents in the middle of the holiday season, he replied that it was not a problem because he had a generator. The reason he bought the generator? He had lost power back when he first moved to New Hampshire and it was, "really scary." How long? Three hours.

When the power goes out, it is no surprise that many people call an electrician. However, you may not need an electrician. Some basic troubleshooting may get your power either back up without assistance, or significantly reduce your electrician bill if you need to call in a professional.

Electricity can be deadly if misunderstood. If at any time you feel uncomfortable, you should call a professional.

Electricity Super-Basics
Electricity is just like water in almost every way. Regardless of whether you are using a battery, car, or home source, power flows from positive to negative, just as water flows downstream from up (high potential/positive) to ground (low potential/negative). Put a battery in your flashlight, and the charge flows from the positive (+) end of the battery to the negative (-) end of the battery. The light bulb between is a "resistor," and that resistance creates the power to turn the light on, just as a dam can be used to turn a waterwheel when placed in a stream. Just like a stream, when a resistor requires more power, it requires more "current," and the larger the current, the larger the wiring required to power that resistor, just as a larger stream is required to accommodate more water to power a waterwheel. Connecting the positive (+) to the negative (-) discharges the battery, just like connecting a stream to itself stops the water from moving. anywhere.

Never connect positive directly to negative, and definitely do not cross the streams. It would be bad. Try to imagine all life as you know it stopping instantaneously and every molecule in your body exploding at the speed of light.

Total protonic reversal.

The Breaker Box
Electricity is generated using unicorn horns and fairy dust to power turbines at the electrical company, which is then distributed to homes and business through power lines either above- or below-ground depending on your neighborhood. The power is extremely high voltage in those wires, meaning high potential, as mentioned earlier. That high voltage is more dangerous than what is in your house, because the power is "transformed" to 220 Volts before going into your home. The power cable goes through your home's outer wall and inside directly to the breaker box. NEVER mess with the wiring between the breaker box and the street. You work downstream from the breaker box within your home, or not at all.

The breaker box protects you and your home from electrical fires and shorts, and distributes power throughout your home. The breaker box is typically a rectangular box filled with two rows of either circuit breakers or fuses. If your home is very old, it is filled with glass fuses. The circuit inside the glass fuse will explode - requiring replacement - if you draw too much current with your 1,000 Watt PC and home theater system, or if you inadvertently create a close circuit, meaning you accidentally connected your positive to your negative, which can happen many different ways through accident or intention. Make sure if it happens it is by accident.

Most homes have circuit breaker boxes, however, which can be reset by flipping a switch rather than replacing a fuse. If your home is old enough to have a fuse box rather than breakers, you may want to consider the expensive task of upgrading to breakers and having your wiring inspected for safety.

Before you lose power, familiarize yourself with your fuse or breaker box. Each fuse or breaker should be labeled with a corresponding room or rooms. If you have breakers, it might even be worth checking by flicking off each individual breaker and checking the wiring in your home to make sure it is labeled correctly if you did not label them yourself. A mislabeled breaker can create hours of additional work diagnosing a problem.

You, too, can master the power of electricity

First diagnosis
If and when you do lose power, check your circuit breaker or fuse box to ensure no fuses have blown or that no breakers have been, "tripped." If they have, turn off any high-powered electronics on that circuit, then try turning it back on by replacing the fuse or flipping the breaker into the, "on" position. If the fuse blows immediately or the breaker trips again, you have what is called a, "short" in the power line somewhere. This is generally something you have plugged in that has a short inside itself somewhere, because you have been rewiring, a child has inserted a fork in the outlet, or similar situation. Try unplugging everything on that circuit (you did label the circuit correctly, right?), then try turning the power back on again.

If the power comes on, congratulations, it's something you either plugged in or turned on. For example, if every time you flick on the ceiling light it trips a breaker, the problem is between the switch and the light, so you need to focus on those areas. Take the wall plate off the switch and check the wiring. You can also check the lamp or light to see if something has shorted.

Second diagnosis
If the circuit breaker does not trip but you do not have power, the problem is an "open" circuit, meaning a wire is either split or disconnected somewhere. Most commonly is when a GFCI (ground fault circuit interrupter) clicks in a bathroom socket, the one with the red and black buttons on it, and you are left unsure what happens. These are like mini-breaker boxes, and most often trip because your hair-dryer is drawing more power than the breaker can handle, causing it to trip. The second most common is when a bulb has blown and power is actually still going to a socket. Replace the bulb, dummy.

Test equipment
Pick up a GFCI Tester at your local hardware store; everyone can use one. It is extremely easy to plug a tester into your wall to determine if that outlet is wired properly, and quick to move from one plug to another with the tester rather than carrying a light fixture around with you.

If you are a serious Do-It-Yourselfer (DIY), learn to use a Digital Multimeter, which can be used to test and diagnose a range of issues, such as how much current is going to a socket, and the breaker panels themselves to see if you have a bad breaker, current is being supplied to the house, etc.

Read a book
When the power goes out, you will not be able to reference the internet! In addition, you will need to read a book rather than a blog; you can easily do much, much more in your home to diagnose and resolve electrical problems than are listed above, but I want neither the liability nor the responsibility of imparting more detailed knowledge when so much is readily available. Get yourself a solid homeowner DIY handbook for reference; you'll use it for a long time and probably save yourself a lot of money. The Home Depot and Black & Decker standard home repair books go a long way towards helping you take care of your home.

10 Things Everyone Should Be Able to Do
If you do not already know how to do the following, pick up a reference book so that you will be able to if and when the need presents itself:

1 - Check the breaker box to see in a fuse or breaker has tripped
2 - Check outlets to determine extent of power loss
3 - Replace an outlet
4 - Replace a light switch
5 - Install a dimmer switch
6 - Read voltage on a multimeter
7 - Check an outlet with a GFCI tester
8 - Reset a GFCI outlet
9 - Install an overhead light
10 - Replace any mounted lights inside or out

When I mentioned to one of my brothers in passing that Dr. Boz (my wife) needed a new laptop at Christmas, he offered the one he was using that day to play World of Warcraft, stating that, "It had been sitting in a closet anyway." The new acquisition inspired me to post one of my recent entries concerning cleaning out an old or new PC, but the fact that World of Warcraft was already installed on the computer got me thinking...

Who's that sitting next to Boz's new warlock?

Day 0 - 12/30/2008 - "Bozanimal has sent you a FREE ten (10) day trial of World of Warcraft." Dr. Boz, we have several days you can actually give it a try between New Year's day and this weekend. Come on, it's free for ten days and if we pay for two months, we get one month of my account free! We've got two PCs now, after all! At worst we have ten free days of playing together, and you can chat to (both brothers who already play) if you create an Alliance character on the Scarlet Crusade server (this will make more sense when you try to log in and create a character).

Day 1 - 12/31/2008 - "Can I make a hot elf that kicks ass?" Dr. Boz eventually decides she wants to try being a paladin due to their survivability, and in order to eventually talk to her brothers who are Alliance, goes for a human rather than an elf. "I can see myself enjoying it for the 10-day trial, but I'll probably be done after that."

(One hour into playtime) "Hey, I got new boots!"

Day 2 - 01/01/2009 - "This hammer is awesome!"

"Hey, there are some herbs I can pick over here, hold on a minute."

Day 3 - 01/02/2009 - Boz is at work and receives a call at about 1:30PM.
"I'm lost."
Boz, "Where are you? Did you get the oil change?"
"The map says I'm at 'Forest's Edge'."
Boz, "Wait a minute, are you playing World of Warcraft?"
"I logged in and went back to the city to train, but the trainer offered the same stuff as the trainer in Goldshire."
Boz, "Hold on, why are you logged in? I'm not playing."
"I wanted to level my sword skill and visit the trainer. I'm trying to get back to the spot we logged off last night."
Boz, laughing now, "Alright, head west to the road, and follow it south to Sentinel Hill; you can log out there. I'll log in and run down there when I get on with you tonight."

Day 4 - 01/03/2009 - Boz, "Honey, I think the babies are crying."
"Well, they're just going to have to wait a minute!"

Day 5 - 01/04/2009 - "I don't think we should attack all four of those orcs."
Boz, "We'll be fine."
"I'm not as good as my brothers, you know."
Boz, "We'll be fine. I'm sending in my Voidwalker, you go for the one I marked 'x'."
(We both die surprisingly fast)
"This is why I'm supposed to lead!"

Day 6 - 01/05/2009 - We discovered yesterday that Drboz was no longer leveling up. Having hit the Level 20 cap on her trial account, we did what any sane person would have done: Started a new character. Now Bozette the Night Elf Warrior needs to level a bit to join my Level 10 Draenei Priestess, who is meanwhile keeping Bozette alive while she levels to enjoy the benefits of the refer-a-friend program.

"You're a chick."
Boz, "Yeah, so?"
"She's ugly."
Boz, "It's my role-play character, and she's evil, not ugly."
"She walks funny."
Boz, "That's because she's a space cow."

Computers become slower with use as software is added and removed. As such, programs such as Disk Cleanup and Disk Defragmenter are required to keep the hard drive and desktop clean, as well as regular software running briskly.

The following suggested methods of cleaning up your PC and improving performance applies to PCs running Windows XP, though several programs may be available for Vista. Every program and method listed below is free. Be sure to differentiate between the freeware and trial versions of the software when you visit the below links (you want the freeware).

Side note: If you are considering a new PC, you may want to delay if possible until the release of Windows 7, which is the next iteration of the Windows operating system software. It will replace Vista and, supposedly, offer a number of performance and compatibility improvements.

Step 1 - If you have never run the following program, do so once per PC, particularly new PCs including those with Vista. It is completely free and very simple:
http://www.pcdecrapifier.com/

Step 2 - Install and run Spybot Search & Destroy once every month. The program will also ask you if you want to install, "Teatimer," a utility that monitors changes to your system registry. Depending on the user, it can be either annoying or informative. You may want to forgo its installation to save on system resources and pop-ups:
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/

Step 3 - Install and run RegCleaner whenever you run Spybot. It cleans your system registry of old and unused entries for programs that have been uninstalled or have become outdated. Running this program should boost your boot-up time:
http://www.tweaknow.com/download/RegCleaner.exe

Step 4 - Defragment your hard disk(s). This will improve disk reading times, and should therefore decrease the time it takes to load programs:

a) Go to your Start Menu -> Accessories -> System Tools -> Disk Defragmenter
b) Click to highlight the disk you wish to defragment (if there are more than one, defragment each one, one after another)
c) Select, "Actions" from the Window drop-down menu, then Defragment
d) Allow the program to run, it can take quite some time (sometimes as long as an hour or more, depending on the size and speed of your drives, how fragmented they are, and other factors)

Step 5 - Turn off visual effects you do not need (XP only). Removing effects like menu fading will improve overall Windows performance:

a) Go to your Start Menu -> Settings -> Control Panel -> System
b) Click the, "Advanced" tab
c) Under, "Performance," click the "Settings" button
d) Click, "Adjust for best performance," Then hit okay.

Step 6 - Increase your page file size (XP only). When your memory runs out, programs write to files called, "page files" on your hard drive. While you want to limit the use of page files in general by installing as much memory as possible in your machine, when you do use page files you do not want to run out of room:

a) Go to your Start Menu -> Settings -> Control Panel -> System
b) Click the, "Advanced" tab
c) Under, "Performance," click the "Settings" button
d) Click the, "Advanced" tab
e) Make sure that both boxes for, "Programs" are checked off.
f) Under Virtual Memory, click, "Change"
g) Double the Initial and Maximum size; do not round: Literally multiply the current total by two. If the, "System Managed Size" box is checked, leave it. If "No Paging File" is checked, check, "System Managed Size" instead.

Additional Tips
Turning off your background and screen saver will also save some system resources and speed up your PC a bit.

Installing the latest drivers for your graphics card (if you have a card available ) may also improve everything from operating system to game performance. Check your system manual for the type of graphics card you have installed, if any, and visit the manufacturer's home page for an updated driver.

If you need an Antivirus software, try AVG Antivirus, which is completely free, not to mention uses less system resources than competing antivirus software:
http://free.avg.com/download?prd=afe

Enjoy a faster computer.

Happy Festivus!

If you do not think a recession affects video gamers, think again. Poor economic conditions inhibit new game and existing project development, reduce title selection, degrade support, and limit discretionary spending.

The video game marketplace has been resilient in the face of worldwide economic hardship largely due to its primary demographic: young adults. Young adults have few liabilities, such as a house and children, and a large discretionary budget. Unfortunately video games are not completely immune to the effects of global equity and debt market fluctuations.

The Dad & Mom Effect
This is probably the most obvious of the economic effects on gamers, affecting mostly young gamers and adults living in the basement of the parents. In tough times parents are giving their offspring less money to spend, or buying them fewer games (if any) because they have less money themselves to spend on what are called, "discretionary items;" anything other than food, water, shelter, clothing, and debt. Dad is not able to shell out $50 for a new game when his 401(k) - an employee-sponsored retirement account that invests in the equity (stocks) and debt (bonds) markets - has dropped 38% this year alone. Many firms are also cutting wages of their employees, such as recently happened at Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.

Fewer Games
Despite being less affected than many other markets, game makers are going to have to cut costs as credit, venture capital, and sales shrink. This means fewer employees and a focus on producing profitable titles. The effects of cutbacks today will for the next several years affect games you have never and will never hear of as they are scrapped at conception. Games take years to develop, and cutting back on development today will affect product releases several years down the road. A poor economy will not stop the release of Starcraft II or Killzone 2, but there is going to be less money budgeted to inventing original titles like Spore and Bioshock.

Further, the cost to develop a new title and risk of funding innovative content is higher than pumping out sequels to popular franchises like Final Fantasy and Grand Theft Auto. Established franchises are likely to break-even at worst and turn in a steady, predictable profit based on prior sales. In good times you are likely to see seven Star Wars titles for every Supreme Commander that is released. In tough times you might get two Star Wars titles and a movie tie-in, and God help you if one of those titles is Yoda Stories.

One of two things may also happen: Smaller studios and independent developers may get squeezed and bought up by larger firms such as EA. Given the lack of available credit, however, firms getting bought out might be the lucky ones, as smaller firms struggle to make ends meet. Then again, as larger firms layoff employees and cut costs, those employees may start smaller studios of their own to create the kinds of games they have always wanted, rather than those mandated by The Man. It is too early to tell which way things might go at this point, but it could be either or a combination of both.

Take the Ghostbusters game, for example, that was dumped by Vivendi before being acquired by Atari (now a subsidiary of Infogrames). Or Midway (Mortal Kombat), which announced plans to lay off 25% of its workforce recently. Look also at Warner Brothers, who bought more stock in Eidos just a few weeks ago. Electronic Arts (NASDAQ: ERTS) stock has been absolutely hammered this year and, whether you love them or hate them, it is a bad sign for the video game marketplace for EA to be getting pummeled.

More Expensive Titles and Hardware?
So far this has not been a major issue, and what is otherwise a worldwide financial crisis has benefited video gamers at the register, at least in the short term. Fuel price increases, which raise shipping costs and therefore the cost of everything to just about everyone, have largely subsided (for the time being). Electronic retailers are slashing prices to get every dime from consumers in the hopes that they can outlast competitors. Circuit City in particular is grasping at straws in the midst of bankruptcy to capture holiday shoppers, which in turn reduces prices at competitors both online (Newegg, Amazon) and off (Best Buy). Circuit City stock was delisted from the NYSE (New York Stock Exchange) in November and now trades OTC (over the counter) for less than 20 cents. As a result, prices of games and hardware are likely to remain in the same range they have for the past several years, though it might be wise to avoid giving Circuit City gift cards anytime soon, and to make any gaming purchases you are planning before year-end.

Web Gaming Communities
It is no secret that several Gamespot employees have been laid off recently due to restructuring at CBS Interactive (condolences to user Donkeljohn among others). This is a difficult environment for any business, and firms reliant on advertising dollars - such as Gamespot.com and its parent firms - are having a particularly tough time. The result is fewer people sitting on the other side of your monitor when you log into Gamespot and similar sites; and rest assured many other sites are being affected. Potential problems include prolonged site downtime, outstanding issues going unresolved for longer periods, less content such as Game Guides and game portals (example), and unforeseeable items. This is not to say that there are or will be issues, as gaming sites retain their critical employees such as programmers and content developers, but that these are possible consequences of reduced staff levels and budgets going forward stemming from a difficult economic environment.*

Reduced Service and Support
As unemployment rises and employers cut costs, support and service centers are going to be understaffed, have reduced hours, and return policies are going to be curtailed, as both Wal-Mart and Target did during the last bear market in the first half of the decade. The result would be reduced service quality for gamers across the board; whether it is trying to return Hello Kitty Island Adventure without a receipt or connecting to a server that seems to be perpetually down in your favorite MMORPG, service and support is a popular expense to cut because it is very expensive.

The Government Puts Its Hand in Your Pocket
New York State Governor David Paterson wants to tax "digitally delivered entertainment services", which is government code for taxing added game content. Expect more creative Government tax solutions to revenue shortfalls that have resulted from resident companies that have gone out of business, moved overseas, or consolidated.

-Disclosure-

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*This is a good place to mention that the opinions and speculation of and by Bozanimal are his own and not those of Gamespot.com or its affiliates.

Bozanimal is a business professional of seven years, and holds Series 7 and 63 licenses. However, this article is not investment advice. He is not an economist and is not responsible for investment decisions made on the basis of this article. For investment advice please contact a qualified financial planner such as a CFP, and for tax advice a qualified tax professional such as a CPA.

Several links within this article lead to external sites. Neither user Bozanimal nor host Gamespot.com or affiliates are responsible for the content of those sites, particularly Kotaku, because those guys are, like, crazy and stuff.

More disclosure should probably go here but Bozanimal cannot think of any at this time.

I wanted to share a few pictures of my kids with my family and community of Gamespot for those that are interested. It's been awhile since I updated images, but two from Halloween, and a test picture for Christmas cards:

From left to right, Luigi, Princess, and Mario

Why Luigi never gets top billing: Mario threatens cannibalism.

Thing 1, Thing 2, and Thing 3

I started playing World of Warcraft almost exactly one year ago, and on or about that anniversary - it's tough to remember the exact date - I hit 70 with my Dwarf Hunter (link to view Bozanimal). The achievement is bittersweet, however, given the recent release of Wrath of the Lich King and the increase of the level cap to 80.

In those days my beard still had its color, I had not met Iorek, my lifelong companion, and had naught but the clothes on my back

In a year I have seen things that would turn your hair white

Next step: actually purchasing Wrath of the Lich King.

No, it's not difficult to see because it's blonde and yes, everyone notices. It's not like wearing mismatched socks, it's on your face. Those wisps of hair on your upper lip are staring at us like a lazy eye that follows us around the room. Unlike the aforementioned, however, you can take care of the problem - and it is a problem - if you would only acknowledge that you do indeed have a Lady Mustache.

My apologies to Stacy Prammanasudh

Maybe you truly are oblivious to the hair that has grown in on your upper lip as you've gotten older, to the darkening shadow below your nose that is not the result of the sun reaching its zenith. You produce more androgens than other women (male hormones) or you're simply getting older, but the fact is that you have hair on your upper lip and, unless you plan on moving to an Eastern European nation, you need to take action: permanent action.

Sure, lip waxing will get you by on the cheap for awhile, but we both know that in a week or two your body is going to fight back by making more hair. There is hope, however, in modern technology. Either Electrolysis or Lasers can permanently remove your facial hair.

Electrolysis has been used for years and requires running a current through each hair as it is plucked. Needless to say, it is not a fun process, but it is relatively inexpensive and guaranteed to work.
Lasers are relatively painless and permanent, but may require multiple sessions and can get very expensive.

The good news for us men is that women that produce an abnormal amount of androgens, typically resulting in additional body hair such as the wispy Lady Mustache, also typically corresponds with an increased sex drive. So while she may curse the need to pluck errant nipple hairs, there are fringe benefits to dating The Bearded Lady.

Then again, maybe you will never be able to look at grandma in quite the same way.

For men, sex is always good. No matter how old they get, a man is pretty much always ready to go. At least, he is if his body is as ready as his mind.

For most women, however, sex is like driving a car. If you remember the first time you got your license, you were all excited. You wanted to drive all the time. Some women like driving so much when they first get their license, they want to drive everywhere all the time, and try out every car that they can get their hands on, sports cars being the preferred method of transportation. When they first get their license, however, they can rarely afford them. So they try out a beater, something practical, maybe an off-roader or something compact. However, all women are different and some are timid drivers and careful with their rides and others put off getting their license until they are older or have a job, preferring to stick to walking or (ahem) riding their bike for awhile.

Still, when you get your license you are usually really excited. You drive everywhere. You drive during the day, you drive at night, and sometimes you even wake up in the middle of the night and take your car for a ride. A small number of drivers even try out different transmission. Women that drive stick are hot, though most drive an automatic.

As they get older, driving becomes less of a pleasure for most women and more of a chore. The daily grind to and from work is just another part of the day instead of something to which you look forward. Some days you might have trouble starting the engine or even have mechanical problems. You start to look for excuses not to drive, or figure out some way to avoid driving if at all possible.

Driving is, for most women, a very complicated thing. They become emotionally attached to their cars. The car has no choice in choosing its driver, and does not get to decide when it is driven, but is always ready to perform (as long as its parts are in working order). Eventually it has a tougher time starting and runs a little harder (ahem). Sometimes it will get a flat tire or needs a push start, but an old ride just needs more love.

Just like people.

"Be excellent to each other." -Bill S. Preston, Esq.

The hype leading up to the release of The Wrath of the Lich King, the second expansion to the MMORPG WoW (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game World of Warcraft), is almost guaranteed to result in the best-selling expansion to any video game ever released; no small feat. For every one of the 11 million gamers that are excited about the forthcoming content, however, there appears to be many gamers disparaging the title and its gamers.

The polarized view on what is arguably one of - if not the - most popular game of all time is difficult to understand because of its broad appeal.* Take a look at the comments in the Gamespot Wrath of the Lich King Launch Center and you will quickly realize that users are going out of their way to voice their distaste for the title and its patrons.

The most popular reasons given for hating the game tend to fall into any one of the following categories:

1. - "It makes some people into friendless and fat nerds, who have no social life," "11 million people with no lives very sad"
2. - It's addictive
3. - It's old and its graphics are terrible
4. - Blizzard is milking its patrons with recycled content
5. - It just sucks; sucks, sucks, sucks, sucks, sucks!

If you believe there are counterarguments coming for the aforementioned, prepare to be disappointed. The real issue is not the comments themselves, but the desire of users to voice that negativity to the people that actually enjoy the game when there is no material benefit for any of the parties.

"E-L-E: Everybody love everybody." -Jackie Moon

Hating any game is a waste of time on the part of the user and has zero benefits. It makes no sense to intentionally belittle or berate a game, a platform, or those that enjoy them either online or off. It is juvenile, a waste of space on the server, and serves only to spread negativity or retaliation from others. Unfortunately, these are also some of the very reasons many users post such inflammatory threads and comments in the first place. Flamers, trolls, and griefers exist because, for many people, hate and vandalism is fun, and the internet makes this type of behavior easy and relatively without consequence.

To those internet vandals the topic begs the question, "Why not go and enjoy another game? You are obviously someone that enjoys video games, or would not be registered and commenting on a video game site like Gamespot. If you do not like World of Warcraft, why not go play Halo 3, Super Mario Galaxy, Little Big Planet, Dead Space, Bioshock, Spore, or any one of thousands of great titles that have been released over the past several decades rather than wasting the time of other people that are just here to have a good time and chat about their favorite titles?"

Let your fellow gamers get excited about their respective loves; be they Warcraft, Halo, Smash Brothers, or any other title.

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*Personally, the author believes either Tetris or Pac-Man have the most universal appeal due to their accessibility and ease of play; but that is another editorial.