MechPilot524

Regarding the encryption, just as an fyi your game came out a few years after the AES Contest, so I imagine many companies were clamoring to say they were using the latest and greatest military grade encryption.
 
I am highly, highly skeptical about it being encrypted though. It might be an SQLite file?
 
Are you able to see any plaintext at all?  If I might suggest, make a copy of it, open it in Notepad++, and do a replace in regex mode
 
Use this as your search string
[^\0 -~]+ and replace it with nothing.  This should remove any characters that aren't ascii from the file, and let you see what remains.
 
 

The files could be "encrypted" with some key. For example let's say you have a 32 byte key. Take one byte from original file and xor with first byte from the key, save result,  loop for 32 bytes, then go back to first byte in key and so on.
 
Doesn't seem to be compressed with some common compression algorithm like zlib (deflate), 7zip etc
 
Could be some ancient compression algorithm like LHA for example, lots of Asian programmers wrote custom versions of such algorithms back then.
 
For funsies, I checked if it's a little endian vs big endian issue (assuming data is saved as UTF-16, two bytes per character, I imported the file into Adobe Audition as raw audio mono little endian and exported to raw mono big endian, basically same file just two bytes at a time flipped - no luck. Funny enough TRID thinks it found a 100% match on the new file and that it's a  PrintFox/Pagefox bitmap (var. P) (1000/1)  ... but most likely it's a false positive.
 
If the files had some kinds of records with a fixed structure and there's no compression or encryption, you should see a lot of same byte values while comparing English vs HK files for example (numbers would be the same in both files, and only text strings would be different).  The fact that both files have same file size (140428 bytes) makes me think there's no compression involved (because some Asian texts would use more bytes compared to English text if using UTF-8 or UTF-16, more code points, and Asian text would probably be less compressible).
So, I'm leaning towards using a sort of encryption... maybe some kind of bit flips/byte swaps or substitution cyphers
 
ps. Maybe try opening the game executable and search for string texts, maybe there's some text that looks like a password, then try something like an online xor decrypt tool : https://www.browserling.com/tools/xor-decrypt
 

Maybe. As pointed above though if they were gonna dismiss him wouldn't they just hire an interim director and dismiss him? And I guess the whole HBM2 situation wasn't pretty - Linus did point out in his Vega review that there were and still are supply issues on HBM2, like there's only one supplier. Maybe that doesn't explain some of Vega's other downsides. But he did good on the 480 and 580, the miners ruined it (no offense to miners).

Yeah, I honestly don't think they're sacking him. The only conspiracy to me that makes any sense is that if they fire him now AMD stock prices will be hurt, they may want to wait for a suitable candidate before officially sacking him. But like we mentioned earlier he's overall done good enough with the initial launch of RTG/Crimson and the 480/580.

Nah, I'm gonna keep using it in various builds. It's powering a frankensteined former IT PC with a 2500k right now, but it'll go in my next build which is gonna be Ryzen 5.

Club3D RoyalAce. It doesn't have the memory clock of the Sapphire Vapor-X, but it has a faster chip clock. The Hawaii chips were flagship, high-end cards of their time after all. Not quite on par with the 780 and 780 ti but competitively a good alternative price-wise. I don't remember prices being inflated by miners back then like they were again recently, even though Hawaii was also all the rage for that sort of thing, but that was my first real graphics card and I hadn't been watching the market that long.
 
*Edit: I also liked it because it had a metal shroud, not a plastic one, and it had a really nice backplate with an engraving as well as a painted design.

Club3D RoyalAce. It doesn't have the memory clock of the Sapphire Vapor-X, but it has a faster chip clock. The Hawaii chips were flagship, high-end cards of their time after all. Not quite on par with the 780 and 780 ti but competitively a good alternative price-wise. I don't remember prices being inflated by miners back then like they were again recently, even though Hawaii was also all the rage for that sort of thing, but that was my first real graphics card and I hadn't been watching the market that long.
 
*Edit: I also liked it because it had a metal shroud, not a plastic one, and it had a really nice backplate with an engraving as well as a painted design.

Well between DX12 and Freesync and how good a lot of these cards are, many cards won't be going obsolete soon. My R9 290 I mentioned before can still game pretty well and still likely has a future.

Well between DX12 and Freesync and how good a lot of these cards are, many cards won't be going obsolete soon. My R9 290 I mentioned before can still game pretty well and still likely has a future.

I looked into it and apparently he joined shortly after Vega development started. 

Hmm. Nvidia is very deeply entrenched in mobile products. AMD APUs have always been good because Intel integrated graphics have always been trash (I think someone ran a 1080p benchmark and a 4790k on IGPU was about the same as an A10 APU)*.
You had the 940M and now the 940MX, to which there was never really an alternative. And the 10X0 series desktop cards have been in laptops these days - no way Vega will be a good mobile card and Polaris can't touch a 1080 in a laptop.
 
AMD has a better chance on desktops, where you have things like FreeSync. AMD's had some good entries there - RX 4/580 were fundamentally good, it's just data mining got 'em. And my first true GPU was a Hawaii, an R9 290 I keep around to this day.
 
*Edit: Trivial but found it. Gamers Nexus tested a new Athlon chip and in their benchmarks included a 4790k running IGPU and an A10-7870k. The 7870k handily beat the 4790k in general, titles I noticed were GTA 5 Normal at 1080p and GRiD Medium at 1080. Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxukB3GZyMg
 

Raja Koduri was an important guy but back in 2013 RTG was technically still just AMD, it wasn't as autonomous as it is now. He was made the chief of RTG when the Fury X cards with HBM dropped, in the summer of 2015. At one of the conferences where they hyped Fury and revealed the Crimson software suite, RTG became sorta independant and he was the official chief. So he may not have had the level of influence he could have on Vega, depending on when they were R&Ding the chip and idk when they started that process.

Maybe so, but RTG is in a better position now vs Nvidia (they can actually sorta compete across the market) than what AMD had when Intel dropped Devil's Canyon (Haswell refresh with improved TIM and binning). AMD had the FX-9590, only capable of competing in heavily multithreaded applications, and overclocked in gaming (difficult to do because Vishera was a space heater!) couldn't even match an i5. And AMD was trying to sell them to compete with the i7 K-SKUs on price, though they eventually shifted it to match an i5. So yeah, compared to that market where you really were only gonna pick AMD processors on a budget and snag an 8350 instead of a pricier i5, Ryzen is a miracle and RTG can at least compete.

I'm thinking the same thing as well. RTG really need to rethink what they've been doing with the high-end market and position themselves better.

I think for Vega it's largely too late for anything really noticeable. Drivers, sure, but that's it aside from maybe improving HBM2 availability and fab deals. My hope is that Lisa Su might influence the next generation of cards (or the generation after), finding the right people and laying the right groundwork as she did for Zen.

Yeah, the 3258s were great.
 
But there's one problem with the 3258: it's officially "end of life" according to Intel's ARK page. They're not really in supply anymore, so you're paying extra for a new one. You're not gonna walk into a Micro Center or a Fry's and find one on the shelf.
So, ignoring the used market - where you can find just about anything if you look hard enough - you could go for an i3-7350k. It'll set you back $140 atm, but it's a more capable chip than Pentiums. And it's the cheapest up-to-date Intel chip that comes unlocked - the 3258 was and still is the only unlocked Pentium.
 
I know you're saying Intel, but don't forget Team Red in this one too. AMD's been trying to be overclocker-friendly for years. Pretty much all their chips are overclockable. I'd recommend an Athlon X4 (the 845 may not be a great choice, it's technically locked), or a lower-level FX chip like a 4300 or 6350. An 8350 might even be fun to play with. Those chips still seem to generally be in good supply still. I wouldn't recommend Ryzen for pure overclocking if you're starting out: most reviewers seemed to hit a wall between 3.9 and 4.1 GHz for all the Ryzen chips on basic cooling remaining in recommended core voltage limits. You might make some nice progress if you delid it or something, but not starter material for sure.
 
 
Don't forget that Kaby and Ryzen won't play nice with anything other than Windows 10. It seems to take some tweaking and workarounds to get windows 7 to work with them.
 
But being able to make a certain piece of silicon of a certain quality do more than it was rated to do can be a great hobby if it's what you're interested in!

Up until a few months ago, I was an install technician who subcontracted for Spectrum in the North Texas service area. Things can differ from service area to service area at Spectrum's discretion: for example, an install tech must dig under sidewalks in San Antonio but in Dallas can just call a bury first.
From what experience I have, there are perhaps two scenarios on Spectrum and their technicians' end, if this is persistent.
 
 
There's always the possibility of a line issue: deteriorating cable, poorly installed fittings and connectors. If your tap's far enough away to require the use of heavy-gauge RG-11, there's a real chance your tech didn't install his fitting right because they are more complex than the standard fitting. 
But I don't think it's a line issue, most Spectrum techs and especially subcontractors are paid more for proactively replacing wiring. Plus a failed quality control inspection can cost a technician his badge.
Signal to Noise Ratio seems fine for default Spectrum equipment, we were told to ensure it was above 30. The equipment we installed was rated to function properly between -10 and +12 dBmV down and between +32 and +51 dBmV up, so I think your signal's fine. If it weren't in that window, then you would experience significant packet loss.
 
I think it's your modem because:
- Spectrum modems suck. The very model you have, TG1672G, is classified as type PQ internally. We call it "the ps3". Every job I got sent to in order to "fix wifi", that ended up being a modem swap only without any work at the tap, ground block, or coaxial splitters, was with that very modem. I have that same model now in my apartment and I can feel it starting to go. Same/similar symptoms, and the customers I worked with all experienced that as well. Our modems can churn out pretty bandwidth because everyone knows how to Speedtest these days, but that doesn't mean they're good, or aren't cheap.
- You don't have the problem after immediately rebooting.
- Signal to Noise ratio and DS/US signal levels are fine.
 
I honestly recommend getting an aftermarket modem. If you just keep having Spectrum swap out the modem, you might see bad performance with multiple devices, and if they keep giving you that 1672G you're gonna run into the problem again eventually. The aftermarket modem will probably save you a bit on your bill as Spectrum likes to charge a monthly "wifi fee" instead of a modem fee. A router is also a possibility but IMO the modem's so slow and stupid, it bottlenecks the router - even the Speedtest numbers may show that part.
A modem I'd recommend is the Asus CM-32 AC2600. Maybe a bit overkill but it'll handle your streaming probably at high bitrates, and if you have others at the edges of wifi performance it's got features like beamforming to help you out. Plus it's certified for Spectrum, not just TWC.
Link to Asus' page, if you're interested: https://www.asus.com/us/Networking/CM-32-AC2600/

get the 1600 if you wanna save some money also 144hz  monitors are amazing i would go with the 1440p 

That's pretty much where I was in my head.  I'm thinking I'll give her integrated graphics for now and see how that goes.  I can always pick up a gpu later if necessary.

I think i would go with ryzen here, although i would save a bit of money and get the R5 1600 instead of the 1600X you can just overclock it the same