Steam running on multiple PCs

The Steam gaming platform has a great feature called “Steam Cloud” for users with multiple computers that automatically synchronizes settings and saved games between your separate installs. You can save your Half-Life 2 game right before the big strider battle on your laptop and pick it up right at the same place when you fire up your desktop PC.

However, only a few games officially support this feature, meaning if you play one of the other games that isn’t supported on multiple machines, you’re officially out of luck. But by leveraging the power of Dropbox, you can synchronize your unsupported games just as easily by moving the files to your dropbox and linking to them from the old location. Here’s how I did it for the classic game Knights of the Old Republic, which isn’t supported by steam cloud.

Make sure you have Dropbox, Steam, and the game installed on both PCs. Then find your saved games folder. For KotOR, it’s located here:

C:\Program Files\Steam\steamaps\common\swkotor\saves

You’ll want to move the entire folder to your dropbox. Make sure you actually move it, not just copy it. You may want to create a new folder in your dropbox first just for game data to keep it clean. I put mine into a folder called Dropbox/Game Data/kotor. That will synchronize your save game files to all of your computers.

Next you’ll want to create a link from the original location to the dropbox folder. Open a Command Prompt (Start -> Accessories -> Command Prompt) and create the link with the mklink command:

mklink /J "C:\Program Files\Steam\steamaps\common\swkotor\saves"
"C:\Users\Eric\Documents\Dropbox\Game Data\kotor\saves"

This will create a virtual link from your steam app folder to the one you just moved into your dropbox. As far as the game is concerned, the files are right where they are supposed to be.

Repeat this process on your other machines and when you save your game on one machine it’ll be available on all of them for loading.

I’ve got Windows 7 installed on my machines so if you’re using XP, Vista, or a Mac the instructions for creating links may vary. See this article on the dropbox wiki for more details.

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Give him his fourth season. Give him a chance to come back and coach perhaps the most exciting player in College Football. Let him at least tie his predecessor’s record of four straight losses against Ohio State. I look back at my expectations from the beginning of the year and they were met. They beat the teams they were supposed to beat and lost to the teams they were expected to lose to. The losses sting, but were not that suprising when you look at them.

You keep him because churn at the head coaching position should be avoided whenever possible. When you yank him out after three years you set a bad precedent: if the next guy doesn’t produce in three years you have to get rid of him, too. Rodriguez’s first year was a waste to begin with, not having time to get his players installed and the cupboards short stocked, if not bare. Also, now is not the time to abandon the spread, if you want to keep advancing to the highest levels. The majority of the conference champions are running some version of the spread. The two best teams in the country, Oregon and Auburn, are both shredding opponents with the spread. I fully support gutting the defensive staff and revamping that side of the ball. But you don’t need to fire the head coach to do that.

Plus, he is a good guy. He doesn’t put his star QB on the field in a must win game when he might have a concussion. He doesn’t let his kids go straight from prison back
onto the field. He doesn’t oversign recruits then kick scholarship players off the team without even talking to them face to face. When his only decent kicker or his essential backup QB breaks team rules, he sends them home, not let them play in the big bowl game and hold off their punishment until next year. Any rule or contract he’s broken has never hurt his kids.

Finally, the reasons you DO get rid of Rich Rod: although he increased the win count, he never pulled the big upset. The offense sputtered down the stretch. He gets too emotional and plays sappy Josh Groban songs for the team.

One last game this year. I want to see more.

ADDENDUM: it’s nearing the end of the Gator Bowl, and this performance makes it hard to see him staying around for another year. Get ready for the turmoil.

For more awesome songs by Jonathan Coulton, visit http://www.jonathancoulton.com/. Check out his primer, general info, and listening suggestions.

First. Whew. That was a game that Michigan 2008 and 2009 loses. That was also a game that I didn’t think Michigan was going to win. So, 6-3 looks a lot better than 5-4, and now the Big Ten record is 2-3. It puts the brakes on some of the criticism that has been levied on the program over the past few weeks. Second, RichRod & the staff deserve to have something pointed out: in a very tight game they sat their biggest offensive threat (Robinson … Read More

via Our Helmets Have Wings

Yes, it’s disappointing. But not unexpected.

Two years ago, the Wolverines won 3 games. Last year they won 5. This year they have already matched that total halfway through the season. They need just one more win to get to that elusive “bowl-eligible” status. In my mind, a “successful” season means 7 wins. 7 wins means Rich Rod gets at least another year to continue to work his system now that he has his players. I’d love for them to win more, but 7 in my mind is the minimum.

After Michigan went 5-0, I looked at the rest of the schedule:

Sat, Oct 9 vs #17 Michigan State
Sat, Oct 16 vs #15 Iowa
Sat, Oct 30 @Penn State
Sat, Nov 6 vs Illinois
Sat, Nov 13 @Purdue
Sat, Nov 20 vs #18 Wisconsin
Sat, Nov 27 @#1 Ohio State

To get to 7 wins, Michigan needs 2 wins out of those 7 games. Those “must win” games to me are the first two games of November: against Illinois and Purdue. If Michigan can take care of business in those two games, they will be all set. That leaves 5 games against MSU, Iowa, Penn State, Wisconsin and Ohio State– all probable losses when you look at them individually. But if they can steal one of those five, they can get to 8 wins. If they can steal two, they can get a nice post-season showing with 9 wins.

They already failed the first of the five attempts at stealing a win. But there’s still four more chances, and even if they fail those, they can get to 7 wins for a winning record and get to a bowl game.

Let’s cheer on our Wolverines and root for them to rise up against these strong teams. There’s a lot of football left to be played.

MICHIGAN FOOTBALL FAN

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WANTS RICHROD TO SUCCEED

If you consider yourself a Michigan Football fan, you should want coach Rodriguez to succeed. End of story. Why?

Michigan fans show their support for Wolverines' head coach Rich Rodriguez.

The most basic reason is that if he succeeds, it means the football team is winning games. Which I assume all fans can agree on, right?

The second reason is that he’s the DAMN football coach. New Athletic Director Dave Brandon has supported RichRod throughout the NCAA investigations into practice time compliance, saying “Rich Rodriguez is our football coach, and he will be our football coach.” While the man is in charge of the gameplan between the sidelines and training those young men, he deserves support of the fans.

But the biggest reason I think all Michigan fans should want RichRod to succeed is this: consider the alternative. Think of what happens to the program if there is another losing season: national ridicule, further reputation loss, and another regime change. What do you honestly think will happen if Les Miles or Jim Harbaugh (or some other 2nd or 3rd tier coach) comes in next year? Another 3 or so years of struggle and turnover as the new coach tries to get HIS players into HIS system. Another coach on the hot seat with something to prove. A precedent of “produce immediately or we will have to fire you too.” For goodness sake, look at the recent coaching changes at Notre Dame. Is that the process you want to model yourself after?

If you care about the Michigan football program, get out there and cheer and support the man. This year could be the difference between a longtime regime and years of turmoil.

Go RichRod and Go Blue!