It’s not really the return, but let’s consider the next couple of days one long Sunday so I can post this up.

It’s been a busy couple of weeks sorting through personal issues, avoiding crisis after crisis by the skin of our teeth and calling all sorts of service personell for a range of issues. And then there were the numerous deliveries, trips to any store with the word “Home” in it to pick up essentials.

Moving into a brand new house is busy work! Who knew?! Especially when starting with practically nothing.

The past few weeks have brought to light a few items that would have been useful.

Smartphone

Having access to a smartphone during our time of need alleviated us from the stress of waiting at home for answers. We were able to carry on with our lives while lawyers sorted through the torrent of shittiness.

Now that I have my own place, my Nokia 2610 has used up more minutes than the past 5 years combined — probably even more than that. It works and the battery lasts forever and a day, but it lacks the access to e-mail and the web which I seemingly can’t afford to miss nowadays.

Cable Crimpers and Testers

I should have seen this coming. I need access to Ethernet testers, crimpers and punchers in order to properly outfit my home with the wired connections I want. CAT6 is already running to the designated spots, but they’re currently being used for telephone landlines.

Please.

—

I’m glad I took the three weeks off from this and work. I needed it. I don’t think I’ll be done with appointments or deliveries until July but still. Let’s get back to the important things like Ascension on iPad which I’ve been playing a ridiculous amount of courtesy of the game’s quick and easy access.

I’ve been playing a lot of the asynchronous multiplayer and at this time of writing I have yet to purchase any of the additional expansions. Am I being cheap? A bit. But I’ve also been busy, so let’s blame it on that for awhile.

Oh hey! Diablo III is out.

Related posts:

1. Checkpoint: The Return of PSN Edition
2. Checkpoint: Olympics Edition
3. No_Style’s Checkpoint: Quad Day Weekend Edition

A big move is happening this week. I’ll be moving to my very own place. The logistics of moving will occupy all of my time so I’m going to pause QSF5.com and GameDealsCanada until things are a bit less chaotic.

QSF5 posts will stop immediately, but I’ll try keeping GameDealsCanada updated as long as I can.

Speaking of GameDealsCanada, this Tuesday, May 1^st will be the feed’s third anniversary. I have nothing planned for it except more deals which is really what that feed is all about. I would have launched the Google+ page but the lack of APIs from Google makes updating a real inconvenience.

Oh well.

Enjoy your week, folks! I’ll be packing belongings, stacking boxes, moving boxes and playing portable games when I get a chance.

Related posts:

1. Checkpoint: April Fools 2012 Edition
2. Checkpoint: A Look at Q2 2010 Edition
3. Checkpoint: New Games Cometh Edition

It just doesn’t make any sense to me. It’s not Battlefield when there’s so little “field” to play on.

Thankfully the patch that was released late last month provided a fresh coat of paint to the Battlefield 3 experience. It’s almost an entirely different game with player rented servers, the ability to turn off morphological anti-aliasing on the PS3 and a squad feature that actually works!

It’s not entirely bug free though. I’m still witnessing problems vaulting over certain objects, sound continues to cut off for no apparent reason and some weapon animations continue to not animate properly despite me redownloading the Back to Karkand map pack.

I hope another patch will land that will finally complete this game properly.

Related posts:

1. Battlefield 3: Close Quarters Trailer
2. Battlefield 3 PS3 MP Report #3
3. Battlefield: Bad Company 2 MP Trailer

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1. Bionic Commando: Rearmed Is Out Today
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3. AMD and NVIDIA Launch New Video Cards Today

It sure looks a whole lot like Crysis 2. Hopefully Crytek will achieve their goal of bringing “DX11 level” of visuals to these aging consoles. Also, too bad about the possibility of a Wii U version.

Related posts:

1. Crysis 3 Is Now Official
2. Crysis Warhead Incoming
3. Crysis 2 Leaked & On Going Promotion

They decided to dedicate a vast majority of their review on the integrated graphics performance. The HD 4000 shows a significant improvement over its predecessor which should make for better Ultrabooks and Macbook Airs. But as significant as an improvement the HD 4000 is, it could have been even more substantial if Intel didn’t hold back and dedicated a little bit more die space for their graphics processor.

A little faster, consumes less power, improvements to the integrated graphics and all without increasing prices? A winning product all around.

Related posts:

1. New Intel “Sandy Bridge” Processors Debut
2. Intel Nehalem Preview
3. Intel’s Sandy Bridge Chipsets Recalled

It’s done. I moved my parents’ home phone to a VOIP service. Their number and voice quality were preserved but most importantly, their monthly phone bill was drastically reduced. It could cost as little as $3 per month!

Billing

VOIP.ms comes with two billing options:

1. $0.99 per month for the number plus a “pay as you go” rate of
1. Value rate: $0.0105 per minute for USA48 & 0.0052 per minute for Canada
2. Premium rate: $0.0105 per minute for USA48 & Canada
2. $4.95 per month for the number which comes with 3500 minutes worth of talk time.

Do you want it cheap or really cheap? Domestically there shouldn’t be a difference in call quality with the Value or Premium rate. These two rate types determines how a call is routed. According to the VOIP.ms FAQ: Premium rate ensures calls are “routed through established and renowned tier-1 carriers always delivering the same level of quality”.

It’s nice to have options.

Features

We’ve always kept to the bare minimum when it came to phone features. We were paying $27 per month and getting the most basic services. Now we could be paying $5 per month and we’re receiving caller id, call waiting, voicemail, the ability to setup an IVR and even play call waiting music.

Lots of features for a ridiculously low price? Why were we paying for Bell again?

Caveats

There are several caveats and disadvantages to a VOIP service which can be mitigated if you have the know-how.

1. Not always on – Traditional telephone service will keep on trucking even without Ottawa Hydro electricity running though the house. Unfortunately without power, there is no internet and without internet, there is no VOIP home phone service.

   Solution: A UPS. A small UPS that goes on sale at Dell.ca should provide plenty of power for a cable modem, router and VOIP box to continue operating.

2. 911 - Dialing 911 doesn’t work right now. Due to the restrictions with VOIP, 911 call centers are not able to determine the location of my home anymore.

   Solution: I need to pay an additional $1.50 per month to enable the 911 service so they will be able to find our house without the caller having to explicitly state it. I’ll be enabling it at my parent’s new place.

3. Initial Start Up Cost - ~$60 for the VOIP box and $25 to port our existing number to VOIP.ms. That’s our initial start up cost and that’s because we already have an internet service and router.

   Solution: Look for deals on the VOIP hardware. Unfortunately there’s nothing I could do to avoid the $25 porting fee.

4. Installation – Setting up the hardware and the integrating it into an existing network can be a daunting task for the uninitiated.

   Solution: Read the documentation. Read the VOIP.ms Wiki and the documentation of the VOIP box itself. Also: try! Try plugging in different cables and ports and eventually it’ll work out. Steps on integrating the VOIP box behind my network router was not explicitly stated in any of the documentation I read. I had to do a bit of guess work. I didn’t know if it was my network or the fact that the DID wasn’t working so I had to keep trying and eventually everything was working.

Smooth Sailing Thus Far

It’s been a positive experience thus far and I would recommend moving towards this service if you can accomodate all the caveats outlined above. It’s not a difficult process but it isn’t for everyone.

Related posts:

1. Checkpoint: Home Phone Edition
2. Checkpoint: Restored From Backup Edition
3. Checkpoint: Amateur HDTV Calibration Edition