Saturday, April 30, 2005
Friday, April 29, 2005
Daleks The Supreme Race And How To Defeat One
I have rented a few episodes of Dr Who going from the McCoy years to as far as the second series with the Grumpy Dr. So I can now draw a few conclusions about how the Daleks changed over the years and it is blindingly obvious that they haven't, not from the way they more, or to the way they talk. So here is my survival guide in preparation for tomorrow's episode.
The Daleks are creations of Davros, an evil genius from the planet Skaro. During the nuclear war between the Kaleds and the Thals, Davros was the Kaled's top scientist and experimented with speeding up the mutation of the Kaleds, caused by the radiation (probably because he was fedup with trying to stop it), then he put the mutated Kaled in a tank like armoured shell, and called it a Dalek.
Obsessed with his creation, he helped the Thals destroy is own people and then set the Daleks on the Thals. Unfortunately at this point the Daleks turned on Davros, believing themselves to be superior form of life and refusing to take orders from an inferior lifeform.
The history of the Daleks spends about three million years and involves a 2012 invasion of Earth where they try to turn the planet into a giant spaceship and several attempts to obtain the Dr's TARDIS so they can destroy the TimeLord council.
Anyway first thing you need to understand about the Daleks is that they are neither scary or dangerous. I apologise to anybody who has a phobia of giant salt pots, but common!
So if you find yourself walking down a dark ally and you hear #EXTERMINATE#, run for cover. The Dalek weapon can kill with one shot, but it isn't rapid firing and neither is a Dalek a good shot. Next Daleks are vulnerable from behind, they can be pushed off cliffs, down lift shafts or stairs. And although they might be bulletproof, their eye pieces aren't, so they can be blinded easily by shooting that off or if you don't have a gun handy, slap some mashed potato, grease or mud over the eyepiece. Once you have blinded your attacking Dalek, stick something down it's laser attachment and it won't be able to fire it's laser.
Now you have incapacitated the poor thing, get round the back of it's head and push-up on the bottom of the top dome section. Once the hatch opens get a stick and hit the green blob inside until it shuts up, or get blanket and scoop the blob out, then stamp on it. And that is how you defeat a Dalek. Plus if you scoop out the green blob you can then climb into the shell and use it as a disguise from other Daleks.
Now Ciybermen on the other hand are a completely different kettle of fish, be afraid.
The Daleks are creations of Davros, an evil genius from the planet Skaro. During the nuclear war between the Kaleds and the Thals, Davros was the Kaled's top scientist and experimented with speeding up the mutation of the Kaleds, caused by the radiation (probably because he was fedup with trying to stop it), then he put the mutated Kaled in a tank like armoured shell, and called it a Dalek.
Obsessed with his creation, he helped the Thals destroy is own people and then set the Daleks on the Thals. Unfortunately at this point the Daleks turned on Davros, believing themselves to be superior form of life and refusing to take orders from an inferior lifeform.
The history of the Daleks spends about three million years and involves a 2012 invasion of Earth where they try to turn the planet into a giant spaceship and several attempts to obtain the Dr's TARDIS so they can destroy the TimeLord council.
Anyway first thing you need to understand about the Daleks is that they are neither scary or dangerous. I apologise to anybody who has a phobia of giant salt pots, but common!
So if you find yourself walking down a dark ally and you hear #EXTERMINATE#, run for cover. The Dalek weapon can kill with one shot, but it isn't rapid firing and neither is a Dalek a good shot. Next Daleks are vulnerable from behind, they can be pushed off cliffs, down lift shafts or stairs. And although they might be bulletproof, their eye pieces aren't, so they can be blinded easily by shooting that off or if you don't have a gun handy, slap some mashed potato, grease or mud over the eyepiece. Once you have blinded your attacking Dalek, stick something down it's laser attachment and it won't be able to fire it's laser.
Now you have incapacitated the poor thing, get round the back of it's head and push-up on the bottom of the top dome section. Once the hatch opens get a stick and hit the green blob inside until it shuts up, or get blanket and scoop the blob out, then stamp on it. And that is how you defeat a Dalek. Plus if you scoop out the green blob you can then climb into the shell and use it as a disguise from other Daleks.
Now Ciybermen on the other hand are a completely different kettle of fish, be afraid.
Kid Changes New Loony Tunes Characters
This Kid (Who is going to damage his eyes if he sits that close to his monitor for too long) started an online petition against the new Loony Tunes characters that I last talked about In March and he has successfully perswaded Warner Brothers to produce some new redrawn characters with softer edges for the series.
My problem with this is that nobody gave the new characters a chance, I mean the series hasn't even been launched yet. Personally I refuse to form an opinion of something until I have fully experienced it. So I can safely say that I hate Lord Of The Rings, I hate spectating at F1 Races and Collyflower & Cheese is a crap combination, but there are plenty of things that seem like a bad idea, but when you actually try them they are great, like Nintendo's N64 controller, films with subtitles or even the new Battlestar Galactica series. So although the article paints the kid as a hero, I think he is just being ignorant.
My problem with this is that nobody gave the new characters a chance, I mean the series hasn't even been launched yet. Personally I refuse to form an opinion of something until I have fully experienced it. So I can safely say that I hate Lord Of The Rings, I hate spectating at F1 Races and Collyflower & Cheese is a crap combination, but there are plenty of things that seem like a bad idea, but when you actually try them they are great, like Nintendo's N64 controller, films with subtitles or even the new Battlestar Galactica series. So although the article paints the kid as a hero, I think he is just being ignorant.
Star Wars Revelations The Fan Made Flick
A while ago I Talked About Star Wars Episode 3.5 and it is now Avalible For Download.
The special effects are good, but everything else from the script to the acting is just awful.
The special effects are good, but everything else from the script to the acting is just awful.
Thursday, April 28, 2005
Beyond Good And Evil (Completed)
I liked it a lot. Partly through the game I was getting sick of all the creaping sections and there was a few times where I died because of the camera, but its good.
The characters are good although more of a backstory would be nice and and voice acting is strong, although if you talk to anybody in the game you will be given some text to read instead of hearing voiceover.
I think this kind of episodic game with a self contained story, but one with possible sequals, is the future of gamming. That and making games cheaper to produce would catapult the industry forwards to a bright future, but that is NOT what is happening and it is a shame because there should be more games like Beyond Good And Evil.
4/5
Incidentally if you liked Beyond Good And Evil, you will like Psychonauts. I know it isn't out yet, but the demo was very positive.
The characters are good although more of a backstory would be nice and and voice acting is strong, although if you talk to anybody in the game you will be given some text to read instead of hearing voiceover.
I think this kind of episodic game with a self contained story, but one with possible sequals, is the future of gamming. That and making games cheaper to produce would catapult the industry forwards to a bright future, but that is NOT what is happening and it is a shame because there should be more games like Beyond Good And Evil.
4/5
Incidentally if you liked Beyond Good And Evil, you will like Psychonauts. I know it isn't out yet, but the demo was very positive.
Tonights Television Viewing
Tonight I will be watching:
Airport BBC1 20:00
A crate of Parrets arives at the airport in poor condition! And the airport pays tribute to the victims of the Tsunami disaster.
Question Time - Leaders Special BBC1 20:30
Leaders from the three main parties join to debate the big issues.
I will only watch half an hour of this because:
Super Size Me Channel4 21:00
Guy shoves face full with McDonalds for a month.
So rather than spend the whole night watching an intellectual broadcast on the future of our nation. I will instead be watching half an hour of lively debate and then switching over to a documentary about a guy who eats nothing by fast food for a month. And to think I consider myself cultured! HA!
Airport BBC1 20:00
A crate of Parrets arives at the airport in poor condition! And the airport pays tribute to the victims of the Tsunami disaster.
Question Time - Leaders Special BBC1 20:30
Leaders from the three main parties join to debate the big issues.
I will only watch half an hour of this because:
Super Size Me Channel4 21:00
Guy shoves face full with McDonalds for a month.
So rather than spend the whole night watching an intellectual broadcast on the future of our nation. I will instead be watching half an hour of lively debate and then switching over to a documentary about a guy who eats nothing by fast food for a month. And to think I consider myself cultured! HA!
Wednesday, April 27, 2005
Playing Beyond Good End Evil
Its good, but I would have liked more of a backstory (to connect with the character of Jade more) and less of the game spent sneaking past guards (there is always another sneaking section just around the corner).
I bought the game last week, but i couldn't get it to work. The thing just wouldn't stop crashing, but since I upgraded from my Geforce4, it has been sweet. So I guess the problem must have been on the card's BIOS or something.
I bought the game last week, but i couldn't get it to work. The thing just wouldn't stop crashing, but since I upgraded from my Geforce4, it has been sweet. So I guess the problem must have been on the card's BIOS or something.
Tuesday, April 26, 2005
*Sound of Cashregisters*
George Lucas Proves That It Is possible for someone to rape their own franchise.
An Upgrade
[mood| Tired]
[music| New Order - True Faith]
Just finished adding some new hardware to my main rig.
512MB Ram which gives me a total of 1GB, a Geforce6 (6800) with 256MB ram and another fan to cope with the increased heat, but I still have a replacement powersupply on order that hasn't arrived yet.
All is well and it was the smoothest upgrade I have ever done.
I didn't do much research before I bought the Asus 6800, so I was surprised that it came with a webcam and a CD case full of games.
[music| New Order - True Faith]
Just finished adding some new hardware to my main rig.
512MB Ram which gives me a total of 1GB, a Geforce6 (6800) with 256MB ram and another fan to cope with the increased heat, but I still have a replacement powersupply on order that hasn't arrived yet.
All is well and it was the smoothest upgrade I have ever done.
I didn't do much research before I bought the Asus 6800, so I was surprised that it came with a webcam and a CD case full of games.
A Theory of Fun
I have been reading A Theory of Fun by Raph Kostertoday and I was expecting more from a book that has so many industry supporters. It's just that so far he hasn't been insightful, but more that I don't agree with a lot of what he says.
For example he sees Tetris as a spacial awareness game, and I see it as shape matching. I can see where he would think of rotating a block to fit in a gap as spacial awareness, but this is not how most people simulate the game in their minds. Instead people see where the sape will fit, move it over the gap and hit the down key.
He says "There are no games that take just one turn", but I wonder about flipping a coin or even Rock Paper Scissors.
He says all games tech you something, but other than the two previous exsamples, he makes me wonder what jigsaws teach me. And wither or not I am getting my full educational value from them.
He even defines noise as "any pattern we don't understand", and he isn't even referring to visual patters specifically either, not after coming out of a musical example anyway.
He also seems very narrow in his definition of gaming by classing all games as mind exercising puzzles.
I really hope this book gets better.
For example he sees Tetris as a spacial awareness game, and I see it as shape matching. I can see where he would think of rotating a block to fit in a gap as spacial awareness, but this is not how most people simulate the game in their minds. Instead people see where the sape will fit, move it over the gap and hit the down key.
He says "There are no games that take just one turn", but I wonder about flipping a coin or even Rock Paper Scissors.
He says all games tech you something, but other than the two previous exsamples, he makes me wonder what jigsaws teach me. And wither or not I am getting my full educational value from them.
He even defines noise as "any pattern we don't understand", and he isn't even referring to visual patters specifically either, not after coming out of a musical example anyway.
He also seems very narrow in his definition of gaming by classing all games as mind exercising puzzles.
I really hope this book gets better.
Monday, April 25, 2005
Random Idea (Subscription Hardware Service)
A subscription hardware service where they send you a new piece of hardware every month to upgrade your computer with.
As a service it could be done for £50 a month (or less) because the organisation running it would be able to bulk buy in huge quantities, if you got enough subscribers that is.
I think AMD will ship directly to anyone, but they only ship in units of a thousand. So this is how the service could work. With one organisation, bulk buying on behalf of all its members. The discounts would be brilliant and everybody who subscribes would have really cool hardware. They might even have big manufacturers take interest in doing a promotion or competing for business from the club by offering better deals.
As a service it could be done for £50 a month (or less) because the organisation running it would be able to bulk buy in huge quantities, if you got enough subscribers that is.
I think AMD will ship directly to anyone, but they only ship in units of a thousand. So this is how the service could work. With one organisation, bulk buying on behalf of all its members. The discounts would be brilliant and everybody who subscribes would have really cool hardware. They might even have big manufacturers take interest in doing a promotion or competing for business from the club by offering better deals.
Sunday, April 24, 2005
Red Swingline Stapler
Think Geek has started to stock Red Swingline Staplers!
And if you have no idea why I am pointing that out, then you haven't seen Office Space.
And if you have no idea why I am pointing that out, then you haven't seen Office Space.
Saturday, April 23, 2005
Google Maps UK
I wanted to post this earlier, but I didn't want to take focus away from my XBox360 post.
Anyway the UK now has it's very own Google Maps UK.
This is great, but what is even better is Google Maps UK Local where you can type in your postcode and a keyword. Like Pizza, Library, McDonalds, Taxi, School, pub, museum or anything else you like, and it will locate the nearest relating destination, display it on the map, give you a list of all the ones it found in order of nearest first, WITH the telephone number!
Now if that isn't fun and useful, I don't know what is.
Anyway the UK now has it's very own Google Maps UK.
This is great, but what is even better is Google Maps UK Local where you can type in your postcode and a keyword. Like Pizza, Library, McDonalds, Taxi, School, pub, museum or anything else you like, and it will locate the nearest relating destination, display it on the map, give you a list of all the ones it found in order of nearest first, WITH the telephone number!
Now if that isn't fun and useful, I don't know what is.
Didn't Format My Computer
When I Last Posted About Visual Studio Express 2005 Beta2 I mentioned that I would have to format my computer. Well I contacted Aaron Stebner who I think works on the .Net setup program. Anyway after almost a week of emailing each other, it is all fixed. VS2005 B2 is working! So sexy!
And incidentally if anybody wanted a good presentation on what Refactoring was, the .Net Rocks guys have two videos (One, Two) available showing you what it is and how it works.
And incidentally if anybody wanted a good presentation on what Refactoring was, the .Net Rocks guys have two videos (One, Two) available showing you what it is and how it works.
Xbox360 Sightings
One Possible Sighting
And
One Official Pic From The Ourcolonly ARG
EDIT: It now looks like the first pic is real and I like it a lot.
EDIT: Another Pic
And
One Official Pic From The Ourcolonly ARG
EDIT: It now looks like the first pic is real and I like it a lot.
EDIT: Another Pic
Friday, April 22, 2005
A Film For 2006
A Scanner Darkly looks stunning. It is a film that has been put through somekind of anime looking filter, so that it looks computer generated! Now that's a first.
It is directed by Richard Linklater who did School of Rock, but even better it is written by Philip Dick who also wrote Blade Runner, Total Recall, Screamers (very underrated), Minority Report and Paycheck (ok not so good).
I know I am a sucker for Scifi, but WOW!
It is directed by Richard Linklater who did School of Rock, but even better it is written by Philip Dick who also wrote Blade Runner, Total Recall, Screamers (very underrated), Minority Report and Paycheck (ok not so good).
I know I am a sucker for Scifi, but WOW!
Two Identical Pices Of VB Code
Dim numIsOdd As Boolean = (num And 1)And
Dim numIsOdd As BooleanThey both find return True if they find num to be an odd number, but the first one is actually minutely faster.
If num Mod 2 = 1 Then
numIsOdd True
Else
numIsOdd False
End If
Old Squeely
One of the ball bearings inside my Thermaltake Purepower 480W Power Supply has broken and the thing is screaming at me. Now I have a splitting headache and the need to runout to buy a new powersupply.
Thursday, April 21, 2005
Last Day On Placement
My work placement is now over. I had a great time and after talking to the other guys it seems like I had a much better placement than most. Yet they mocked me when I said I was going to work in a primary school.
Look what i got on my last day!
So my holiday effectively starts now. I still have to read through my report I produced for the placement unit and hand that in as well as my work log. Plus I have an AI test on the 4th and I still have my Student Loan form to fillout for year 4, but YAY!
Look what i got on my last day!
So my holiday effectively starts now. I still have to read through my report I produced for the placement unit and hand that in as well as my work log. Plus I have an AI test on the 4th and I still have my Student Loan form to fillout for year 4, but YAY!
Wednesday, April 20, 2005
Random Film Trailer
The ultimate objective of any film trailer is to (1) make the viewer aware of the film and (2) make the viewer feel like they want to go and see it. So with that, I say these words, "Save The Green Planet looks good".
I haven't updated much in the past two days because I haven't been feeling particularly energised. I finish my placement tomorrow, so Friday is the first day of my four month summer holiday. Be assured that I won't be getting anykind of part time job over that period. So I will have plenty of time to update. Don't expect me to just going to sit around home and play video games for the next four months either (been there done that). More details on my plans after Friday.
I haven't updated much in the past two days because I haven't been feeling particularly energised. I finish my placement tomorrow, so Friday is the first day of my four month summer holiday. Be assured that I won't be getting anykind of part time job over that period. So I will have plenty of time to update. Don't expect me to just going to sit around home and play video games for the next four months either (been there done that). More details on my plans after Friday.
Tuesday, April 19, 2005
Random Fact
Melon Bread is an original Japanese recipe for bead. It consists of a bread core baked with cookie dow coated on the outside.
The bread was first sold in 1931 and has gained in popularity since then to become on of Japan's most loved foods.
The bread was first sold in 1931 and has gained in popularity since then to become on of Japan's most loved foods.
Monday, April 18, 2005
Student Loan Online Form
It's that time of year again and Once Again I have had a problem. Last month I got a letter telling me that the online application form would be up in April, and after a good experience with the passport office's online application form I thought I would give this one a go too. So I go there and tried to login, but it won't let me in. So I phoned up and it turns out that the system doesn't go live until the 27th (why it doesn't tell you that on the site I don't know).
Anyway the operator mentioned that the online application form was actually slower than the paper based application because with the paper based one you just fillout the form and send it to the LEA, but with the online one, it is sent to the LEA, then to you to confirm the details, and then back to the LEA. So actually the online form is slower than the paper based application.
I told her that I thought online applications where supposed to be quicker and she just laughed.
Anyway the operator mentioned that the online application form was actually slower than the paper based application because with the paper based one you just fillout the form and send it to the LEA, but with the online one, it is sent to the LEA, then to you to confirm the details, and then back to the LEA. So actually the online form is slower than the paper based application.
I told her that I thought online applications where supposed to be quicker and she just laughed.
Just A Note (Installing VS2005 Beta2)
The Visual Studio 2005 Beta 2 install is forcing me to formate my computer. I will do it at the weekend, but until then I can't develop anything or run any .Net apps.
Edit: The word is that it is imperative that you uninstall all the beta1 software before the 2.0B1 framework. Otherwise it screwsup your system. Unfortunately I did the framework, first.
Edit: The word is that it is imperative that you uninstall all the beta1 software before the 2.0B1 framework. Otherwise it screwsup your system. Unfortunately I did the framework, first.
CSS Editor
A few people have mentioned CSS recently (you know who you are) and I just came across EditCSS, which is a Plugin for Mozilla that will open up a CSS file in the sidebar and when you open up a page it relates to the CSS in the browser window (I haven't tried this myself), while you edit the CSS code in the sidebar the page you are viewing will update to display the changes. So none of that save CSS file and refresh browser rubbish, I assume.
Visual Studio Express 2005 Beta 2 Released
If anybody wants to have a go at developing with the .Net 2 Framework. i.e the now and future of programming, then you can get a free beta copy of the Express edition of Microsoft's Visual Studio Here. The Express editions are designed as cheaper one language alternatives to Visual Studio Standard edition and will probably retail at $50. Which will be ideal for students and anybody wanting to pickup programming as a hobby (those people don't actually exist yet).
I have been developing with Beta1 for a while now and I only downloaded it to see what it looked like, but it is so much better that I have ditched my £80 copy of 2003 Standard.
I have been developing with Beta1 for a while now and I only downloaded it to see what it looked like, but it is so much better that I have ditched my £80 copy of 2003 Standard.
Psychonauts - One Step Back, Two Steps Ahead Of Everybody Else
The Psychonauts Demo is out (FilePlanet, FileShack) and I did only download this because I know the developers have had trouble getting a publisher. Apparently it was too creative and original to be published, but actually I see it as a step back from what the industry is currently doing (low investment and high profit, tacky rubbish).
Basically you play this guy who goes to Physic camp training to be a psychonaut. Effectively it is just a third person platformer (kind of like the recent Harry Potter games), but what I see is a return to the day of Lucasarts adventure games with the quirky humour and exaggerated characters. The character design reminds me of Tim Burton, but the game has more of a driven feel, with more of an emphasis on story and character development (if you play the demo you will see the huge opportunity for sequels that this presents).
I know that it is fun because of the concept the game puts infront of me and the story it presents, but the game has a quality feel to it that I haven't felt in years and its just got that great gameplay feel about it that makes me want to play more.
My only hope is that the full game is longer than twelve hours because games seem to be getting shorter and shorter.
Basically you play this guy who goes to Physic camp training to be a psychonaut. Effectively it is just a third person platformer (kind of like the recent Harry Potter games), but what I see is a return to the day of Lucasarts adventure games with the quirky humour and exaggerated characters. The character design reminds me of Tim Burton, but the game has more of a driven feel, with more of an emphasis on story and character development (if you play the demo you will see the huge opportunity for sequels that this presents).
I know that it is fun because of the concept the game puts infront of me and the story it presents, but the game has a quality feel to it that I haven't felt in years and its just got that great gameplay feel about it that makes me want to play more.
My only hope is that the full game is longer than twelve hours because games seem to be getting shorter and shorter.
Sunday, April 17, 2005
Pixar's Parenting Advise
I noticed this last year, but Pixar's films (intentionally or not) can all be related to something that educates parents into being better parents. You can probably read something different to me for each film, but I think this might have some connection to why they are such good family films.
Toy Story
Kids give toys personalities and this can show you how they relate to other kids.
Toy Story2
Toys getting dirty is ok because at least they are played with.
Monsters Inc
Kids sometimes need to meet the monsters in their closet to overcome the fear of them.
Finding Nemo
Being too controlling as a parent is wrong.
Incredibles
Let your kids be who they are so they can shine as individuals.
Obviously everybody loves the characters from all the films, but kids and adults love different plot ideas and this is what makes targeting a family film difficult. Kids can't cope with complicated plots and don't like Drama or Romance films, but Parents don't want to be watching The Brave Little Toaster again either because they where subjected to these kinds of stories when they where kids and they have developed past that.
What Pixar seems to do is it to find somekind of middle ground that both adults and kids can relate to. You can analyse that yourself, but I think this kind of design idea will have big implications to games in the future for targeting difficult markets.
Toy Story
Kids give toys personalities and this can show you how they relate to other kids.
Toy Story2
Toys getting dirty is ok because at least they are played with.
Monsters Inc
Kids sometimes need to meet the monsters in their closet to overcome the fear of them.
Finding Nemo
Being too controlling as a parent is wrong.
Incredibles
Let your kids be who they are so they can shine as individuals.
Obviously everybody loves the characters from all the films, but kids and adults love different plot ideas and this is what makes targeting a family film difficult. Kids can't cope with complicated plots and don't like Drama or Romance films, but Parents don't want to be watching The Brave Little Toaster again either because they where subjected to these kinds of stories when they where kids and they have developed past that.
What Pixar seems to do is it to find somekind of middle ground that both adults and kids can relate to. You can analyse that yourself, but I think this kind of design idea will have big implications to games in the future for targeting difficult markets.
Saturday, April 16, 2005
It Didn't Suck
I was expecting the night out with the guys to suck, but it didn't. And it was kind of fun. Just a shame we didn't have better clubs to goto.
The guys are going out again in Leicester Monday night, but I have work 9am the next day and it is my last week on placement (i.e they are writing my assessment).
The guys are going out again in Leicester Monday night, but I have work 9am the next day and it is my last week on placement (i.e they are writing my assessment).
Friday, April 15, 2005
Here We Go Again
Its another night out with the guys from uni. This time I am determined for it to not go down the proverbial plughole like it usually does.
Thursday, April 14, 2005
That Bloody Advert
I don't watch much TV. The only thing I have watched today has been Cosmetic Surgery Live and I like to consider myself quite tolerant person, but that bloody Sweety The Chick advert is driving me up the wall.
Wednesday, April 13, 2005
Active Refresh Problems
The best RSS reader in the world is hogging my RAM. It uses 20MB minimum and I didn't notice when I first put it in, but its not sitting well now.
I only have 512MB, but 20MB! For an XML reader! What the hell does this thing need to store in memory anyway?!
So I have three options.
Option two is reasonable, but I want to do option one, and when I do any RAM I would have bought will just be chucked (ye like I can afford to wast money like that).
Option three sounds more like my kind of thing, but it will be a few weeks before I finish my Tic Tac Toe program that I am currently doing (top secret stuff here) and I still want to finnishup and publish my System Up Timer's source, but to do that I need to make it the best I can. I mean it is already far better than 90% of the stuff you find on those source websites, but I want to add some XML comments and make it just perfect (yes i am a Virgo, this is what I have to putup with).
I only have 512MB, but 20MB! For an XML reader! What the hell does this thing need to store in memory anyway?!
So I have three options.
- Overhaul computer (and it does need it)
- Just upgrade the RAM
- Make my own RSS reader
Option two is reasonable, but I want to do option one, and when I do any RAM I would have bought will just be chucked (ye like I can afford to wast money like that).
Option three sounds more like my kind of thing, but it will be a few weeks before I finish my Tic Tac Toe program that I am currently doing (top secret stuff here) and I still want to finnishup and publish my System Up Timer's source, but to do that I need to make it the best I can. I mean it is already far better than 90% of the stuff you find on those source websites, but I want to add some XML comments and make it just perfect (yes i am a Virgo, this is what I have to putup with).
RadioShack Is Confused
I will let This speak for itself.
Edit: It has been fixed now, but it was a replacement stylus pen for the PSP. Which doesn't have a touch screen.
Edit: It has been fixed now, but it was a replacement stylus pen for the PSP. Which doesn't have a touch screen.
Tuesday, April 12, 2005
Worst Bittorrent Client Ever
The worst client has to be BitCommet because when I seed something, like I am doing right now with an anime, and only connected to one guy (who is downloading from me). He can have all my bandwidth, but because he is using BitCommet he doesn't ask for any of it. The bloody client is crap at seeding too. I mean I can give him this file now, but he doesn't want it.
I did try BitCommet once because it is the next most popular client to Azureus and the thing is a leach-O-matic. Basically it allows you to queue a load of torrents and then set a download cap for the number of torrents you have simultaneously downloading, and a seed cap where a torrent is seeded to a specified ratio then disconnected, but what I found was that after I had downloaded two torrents (I am downloading one at a time), it was trying to see all three (including the one I was downloading) so nobody was getting anything fast, and neither was I because I wasn't sending anything out!
Ye it downloaded those two torrents fast, but then I hit a gridlock situation and its just stupid. The thing actually encourages leaching by its design and admins have reported improved seeding if they manually block BitCommet clients in the initial seed.
So I am now using Azureus as always and it is still the best bittorrent client out there.
I did try BitCommet once because it is the next most popular client to Azureus and the thing is a leach-O-matic. Basically it allows you to queue a load of torrents and then set a download cap for the number of torrents you have simultaneously downloading, and a seed cap where a torrent is seeded to a specified ratio then disconnected, but what I found was that after I had downloaded two torrents (I am downloading one at a time), it was trying to see all three (including the one I was downloading) so nobody was getting anything fast, and neither was I because I wasn't sending anything out!
Ye it downloaded those two torrents fast, but then I hit a gridlock situation and its just stupid. The thing actually encourages leaching by its design and admins have reported improved seeding if they manually block BitCommet clients in the initial seed.
So I am now using Azureus as always and it is still the best bittorrent client out there.
E3 2005 Lineup
IGN has posted a List Games Coming To E3 2005.
No mention of Quake4 or the HalfLife2 expansion.
All the Next-gen games listed.
No mention of Quake4 or the HalfLife2 expansion.
All the Next-gen games listed.
- The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion (Next-Gen, PC)
- Dark Sector (Next-Gen)
- The Godfather (PC, PS2, PSP, Xbox, Next-Gen)
- The Darkness (Next-Gen)
- Perfect Dark Zero (Next-Gen)
- Condemned (Next-Gen)
- Metronome (PC, Next-Gen)
- THQ Untitled Console Game #1 (Next-Gen)
- THQ Untitled Console Game #2 (Next-Gen)
- Advance Wars DS (DS)
- Animal Crossing DS (DS)
- Dance Dance Revolution with Mario (Cube)????
- Donkey Konga 2 (Cube)
- Fire Emblem: Souen no Kiseki (Cube)
- Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones (GBA)
- Geist (Cube)
- Kirby: Cursed Canvas (DS)
- Mario Kart DS (DS)
- Metroid Prime Hunters (DS)
- Nintendogs (DS)
- Nintendo Pennant Chase Baseball (Cube)
- Odama (Cube)
- Super Mario Bros. (DS) Again!
- The Legend of Zelda (Cube)
Monday, April 11, 2005
Google Recruitment Video
GoogleBlog has just Posted about a new Recruitment Video for women. And Google does look like a very nice place to work.
Odd Teaching Newspapers
Occasionally I will sit in the staffroom and read one of those teaching newspapers and I have to say first time I read one I thought it was a joke.
It was an article about how Roman Catholic primary school pupils, where less tolerant of other religions than the national average, and that the schools where failing to promote other religions. Duh!
Today was a cracker, apparently the Teachers Union has put together a list of 4,000 things they want sorted, and put into Labour's election manifesto. How the hell they expect to be taken seriously is beyond me. Of course number one is more money, but everybody is moaning about SATS so much, I would have though asking for the abolishment of SATS at primary school, just as Scotland and Ireland have done, would have been a more obtainable target.
There was also a stupid interpretation on the grades home tuitioned kids get. Apparently one in four kids in the UK have home tuition at some point and it says that it is a wast of time because those kids only scrape past the national average. And I think that's appalling because the paper failed to realise that people don't have extra tuition because they are GOOD at something, NO! I had tuition for my english and I bloody well needed it.
It was an article about how Roman Catholic primary school pupils, where less tolerant of other religions than the national average, and that the schools where failing to promote other religions. Duh!
Today was a cracker, apparently the Teachers Union has put together a list of 4,000 things they want sorted, and put into Labour's election manifesto. How the hell they expect to be taken seriously is beyond me. Of course number one is more money, but everybody is moaning about SATS so much, I would have though asking for the abolishment of SATS at primary school, just as Scotland and Ireland have done, would have been a more obtainable target.
There was also a stupid interpretation on the grades home tuitioned kids get. Apparently one in four kids in the UK have home tuition at some point and it says that it is a wast of time because those kids only scrape past the national average. And I think that's appalling because the paper failed to realise that people don't have extra tuition because they are GOOD at something, NO! I had tuition for my english and I bloody well needed it.
Sunday, April 10, 2005
Photoshop CS2 Preview
WinBeta has a preview of the new PhotoShop. Sounds good, but I haven't ever go along with PhotoShop.
Probable XBox2 Controller Revealed
Joystiq has posted some pics of what they say is a "white XBox controller with a nipple", but even I can see that there is a strong chance that this is an XBox2 controller.
It is wireless and has a track ball is how I know. Plus the left and right finger triggers have been brought forwards which will make it more ergonomically correct over the current Controller S.
I don't like the shininess.
It is wireless and has a track ball is how I know. Plus the left and right finger triggers have been brought forwards which will make it more ergonomically correct over the current Controller S.
I don't like the shininess.
Nobody Likes The Hitch Hikers Guide To The Galexy Film
I have read a few reviews of the HHGTTG film and nobody has liked it, but now Douglas's Biographer has comeout with a very lengthy, and damming review saying how bad it is.
Spoiler Free Version & Spoilers Toppings And All Version
His conclusion is that the film makers spent far too much time on the visual details and completely lost sight of the comedy. He even mentions that they fuckedup the 42 joke by not building it up! I mean that is the best joke in the entire play because of the anticipation, but if they weren't going to get that joke right they might as well have not have bothered making the film at all.
Spoiler Free Version & Spoilers Toppings And All Version
His conclusion is that the film makers spent far too much time on the visual details and completely lost sight of the comedy. He even mentions that they fuckedup the 42 joke by not building it up! I mean that is the best joke in the entire play because of the anticipation, but if they weren't going to get that joke right they might as well have not have bothered making the film at all.
Random Fact
Arrays in the .Net framework can go upto 32 dimensions.
Dim shoppingList(3,1,4,1,1,1,1,1,1,9,1,1,1,42,1,1,1,71,1,1,1,1,0,1,1,31,1,1,1,1,1,2) as string
Please nobody ever create something like that.
Dim shoppingList(3,1,4,1,1,1,1,1,1,9,1,1,1,42,1,1,1,71,1,1,1,1,0,1,1,31,1,1,1,1,1,2) as string
Please nobody ever create something like that.
Speed Coding - Hello World
Just for fun I thought I would time how long it would take me to program and run a graphical (i.e. not command line) Hello World application in Visual Basic Studio 2005 Express (Beta 1).
If you doesn't know, a Hello World program is the first thing you code in any language because it teaches you how to output text from code to the user.
In total it took me fifty six seconds.
Twenty eight seconds where wasted waiting for a blank project to load and so only twenty one seconds where used to code, compile and run the program once the blank project had loaded.
Then I tried the same thing in HTML and that took thirty one seconds, but I stumbled with a spelling error so it could be done quicker.
I would try the same thing in JAVA, but I think it would take more than a minuet even if I did know how to do it off the top of my head because of all the imports you have to do, and the wrapper you have to code to get a graphical window to appear on screen.
Now wasn't that FUN!
If you doesn't know, a Hello World program is the first thing you code in any language because it teaches you how to output text from code to the user.
In total it took me fifty six seconds.
Twenty eight seconds where wasted waiting for a blank project to load and so only twenty one seconds where used to code, compile and run the program once the blank project had loaded.
Then I tried the same thing in HTML and that took thirty one seconds, but I stumbled with a spelling error so it could be done quicker.
I would try the same thing in JAVA, but I think it would take more than a minuet even if I did know how to do it off the top of my head because of all the imports you have to do, and the wrapper you have to code to get a graphical window to appear on screen.
Now wasn't that FUN!
Saturday, April 09, 2005
Friday, April 08, 2005
The Official Microsoft Developer Forum
It's still in beta, but the MSDN Forum is seriously going to open up Microsoft to the raw opinions of developers around the world. I think it's an amazing move because it will become THE place to talk about developer related issues. I just hope they don't have to take it down because of flamewars, or because of too many Linux fatboys.
Photoshop Fun
I have been meaning to link to Worth1000 since January. Anyway it is a website that just does crazy Photoshop contests, I don't know if entry is free or not, but lots of the contests are great, like the Poor Products contest.
World Of Warcraft Problem Video
World Of Warcraft No Cookie is a video about the problems that still plague World of Warcraft.
I wasn't balled over by the game, but some people even with its faults, are still raving about it.
I wasn't balled over by the game, but some people even with its faults, are still raving about it.
Thursday, April 07, 2005
XBox 2 Alternate Reality Game
OurColony appears to be a team based ARG.
If you type in the word "create" you will be taken to a team creation screen. And it looks like the different colonies will be issuing challenges to each other in a bid to get points and win the game.
If you type in the word "create" you will be taken to a team creation screen. And it looks like the different colonies will be issuing challenges to each other in a bid to get points and win the game.
State Of The Blog - Posting Queue
I signed up to this amazing Visual Basic training site today and I would love to talk about it, even give links to a few of the free resources on it, but I really do run out of time to post some stuff (computer games and innovation post still waiting to be written).
I mean I am refusing to just give a title and provide just a link as a post body because that is just poor blogging, jet I actually have a huge backlog of posts to do and I don't have the time to typeup and post all this stuff, plus I don't want to overwhelm anyone who reads this or turn this into one of those blogs where every update is a huge long rant. I like doing limited amounts of small posts and that's the way it will stay, but I could rant for hours about University, Industry and Microsoft training standards right now.
The conclusion to that post would be that Academic institutions train people with crap they won't ever use like computer ethics, but it would be morally wrong for them not to teach ethics. Industry only trains for what it immediately needs, so a lot of opportunities are lost because people have very narrow technology views and Microsoft only teaches people how to best use Microsoft products.
Anyway it is late and I am going bed.
XX
I mean I am refusing to just give a title and provide just a link as a post body because that is just poor blogging, jet I actually have a huge backlog of posts to do and I don't have the time to typeup and post all this stuff, plus I don't want to overwhelm anyone who reads this or turn this into one of those blogs where every update is a huge long rant. I like doing limited amounts of small posts and that's the way it will stay, but I could rant for hours about University, Industry and Microsoft training standards right now.
The conclusion to that post would be that Academic institutions train people with crap they won't ever use like computer ethics, but it would be morally wrong for them not to teach ethics. Industry only trains for what it immediately needs, so a lot of opportunities are lost because people have very narrow technology views and Microsoft only teaches people how to best use Microsoft products.
Anyway it is late and I am going bed.
XX
SDJ Now With Resizable Text
I was looking at my Blog template and I realised that Blogger sets the text size by pixels, so if you have your browser set on large text it will look exactly the same size as it does on a browser with small text size set.
I didn't like that idea because there are a lot of people surfing the web with poor eyesight and it bothered me that sombody like that wouldn't be able to read my page. So I have replaces all the text sizes with percentages. And now the text on all my pages (including comments) resizes itself to the size set by your browser.
Give it a try
View > Text Size
Anyway below is a conversion table to help anybody else who wants to convert the px values to a percentage on their templates as I have.
43 Title === 270%
18 date header === 115%
16 post title / blog comments title === 105%
15 post / blog comments === 95%
12 Top right description / side bar ==== 75%
10 post footer / margin bottom === 65%
Example:
Old
font-size:15px;
New
font-size:95%;
I didn't like that idea because there are a lot of people surfing the web with poor eyesight and it bothered me that sombody like that wouldn't be able to read my page. So I have replaces all the text sizes with percentages. And now the text on all my pages (including comments) resizes itself to the size set by your browser.
Give it a try
View > Text Size
Anyway below is a conversion table to help anybody else who wants to convert the px values to a percentage on their templates as I have.
43 Title === 270%
18 date header === 115%
16 post title / blog comments title === 105%
15 post / blog comments === 95%
12 Top right description / side bar ==== 75%
10 post footer / margin bottom === 65%
Example:
Old
font-size:15px;
New
font-size:95%;
Wednesday, April 06, 2005
Conker Live and Reloaded Updated Web Content
No the game isn't out yet, but the Micro Site is up and xbox.com has an Interview with Chris Seavor, Lead Designer and Voice of Conquer.
Tuesday, April 05, 2005
Microsoft And RSS
Just incase anybody is interested, Microsoft has a Comprehensive List of all the RSS feeds that they do for MSDN. I mean they even have an XML Feed about XML at the bottom of that list.
Microsoft has Instructions on building your own RSS reader in C#.
And if that wasn't enough for you then have a look at blogs.msdn.com which has a comprehensive list of all Microsoft employee's externally viewable blogs, and they all have RSS feeds, but no Bill Gates does not have one, yet.
I like the Microsoft guys blog's because even the Human Resource guy has a good Sence Of Humour (at least I hope he is joking).
Microsoft has Instructions on building your own RSS reader in C#.
And if that wasn't enough for you then have a look at blogs.msdn.com which has a comprehensive list of all Microsoft employee's externally viewable blogs, and they all have RSS feeds, but no Bill Gates does not have one, yet.
I like the Microsoft guys blog's because even the Human Resource guy has a good Sence Of Humour (at least I hope he is joking).
Koorb Does RSS
Yet again something I have know about, even tried before, but this time I am jumping in with both feet and I just spent the last couple of hours converting my list of daily sites that I checked with WebMon which read updates by changes in the HTML of a specific page, to Active Refresh which is apparently the best RSS reader there is.
I will see how it goes, but its Looking Great. I check over 100 sites a day from blog entries, shops new product pages to gaming news and this allows me to do it quickly and cleanly.
I will see how it goes, but its Looking Great. I check over 100 sites a day from blog entries, shops new product pages to gaming news and this allows me to do it quickly and cleanly.
Monday, April 04, 2005
Sunday, April 03, 2005
Work Mode
Since High School I recognised that there is a certain mood I sometimes go into that makes me feel ultra proactive, and I get loads of work done. So for years now I have been looking for a way of getting into that mood whenever I wanted to.
Other than a fast approaching deadline I have found the best way to get into this homework zone is to go bed early (10pm I find works best) and work once I have waken. Distractions tempt me away from work so I find working in the morning means that I don't fully remember every task I could be doing from the night before and music helps to stop my mind from wondering.
Probably too simple, but I find it works. Now if I could just get motivated enough to go bed early.
Other than a fast approaching deadline I have found the best way to get into this homework zone is to go bed early (10pm I find works best) and work once I have waken. Distractions tempt me away from work so I find working in the morning means that I don't fully remember every task I could be doing from the night before and music helps to stop my mind from wondering.
Probably too simple, but I find it works. Now if I could just get motivated enough to go bed early.
Saturday, April 02, 2005
Koorb Does Podcasting
I have known of podcasting for a while now, but never bothered looking into it because I thought it was just people playing their kind of music, but I was wrong and I am making up for it now with this post.
I have tried out a few shows and the two only video gaming related ones I could find aren't as hot as I would have liked. ChatterBox needs to update more often, and in the current episode they have a big stab at the Microsoft's GDC coverage without understanding anything about what Microsoft is doing with .Net or Managed code or how that will be intergrated in XNA, so they do come across at a little amateurish at times. Lunabean on the other hand needs to talk less about what they are doing with the website and stock prices. I mean they have a whole section of the show dedicated to stock prices and it is wrong, but the sound quality is good and the first half of the show is a joy to listen to.
The two shows that I have really gotten into are .Net Rock! and Mondays which are both produces by Pwop Productions.
.Net Rock! is a weekly show dedicated to .Net developers, it is funny and informative (yes programming is now funny).
Mondays is the goodness of .Net Rocks, but without the geeky developer stuff and it is the highest quality podcasting talk shows I have hared yet. They have some great content and that is where I got the info on that Star Wars Episode 3.5, so please go listen to it.
I have tried out a few shows and the two only video gaming related ones I could find aren't as hot as I would have liked. ChatterBox needs to update more often, and in the current episode they have a big stab at the Microsoft's GDC coverage without understanding anything about what Microsoft is doing with .Net or Managed code or how that will be intergrated in XNA, so they do come across at a little amateurish at times. Lunabean on the other hand needs to talk less about what they are doing with the website and stock prices. I mean they have a whole section of the show dedicated to stock prices and it is wrong, but the sound quality is good and the first half of the show is a joy to listen to.
The two shows that I have really gotten into are .Net Rock! and Mondays which are both produces by Pwop Productions.
.Net Rock! is a weekly show dedicated to .Net developers, it is funny and informative (yes programming is now funny).
Mondays is the goodness of .Net Rocks, but without the geeky developer stuff and it is the highest quality podcasting talk shows I have hared yet. They have some great content and that is where I got the info on that Star Wars Episode 3.5, so please go listen to it.
Star Wars Episode 3.5
Episode three will suck and I know everybody will be disappointed by it, but some fans have got together to produce a fanmade film that will only available over the web and will fill in the gap between episodes three and four (hence the 3.5).
Now I point you to the Large Trailer and The Website because it actually looks very good.
Now I point you to the Large Trailer and The Website because it actually looks very good.
Friday, April 01, 2005
April Fools Day
I hate April Fools jokes and reading news on this very special day so I don't think I will do anymore updates today, but here are a few of the better ones.
- Bush Cancels Space Shuttle Program
- Queer Eye For The DS
- Natural Selection DS
- DIV and SPAN tags will be removed from the XHTML 2.0 specification
- SkyTag A ThinkGeek
This might need a little bit of explaining, but if you search an American news website for lasers tracking aircraft, you will find that for the past year the Aircraft industry and the US Government have been going nuts (banning laser pointer) over lasers following flying aircraft and nobody has yet foundout what is doing this. - Google Gulp
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
