Virtual Surround Sound

It is popular belief that the best Home Cinema Sound Systems are the ones with the most speakers. Indeed the move from Mono to Stereo and Stereo to Tweeters/Subwoofers has indeed increased sound quality and this has all been very beneficial to consumers. I personally believe the advent of the Subwoofer is directly responsible for a radical change in rock music as many classic rock tracks including heavy metal from the 80's is mostly without base. Where as modern rock is mostly about thumping base and many genres like Trance wouldn't exist without the mighty base sound of a good sub. Surround sound has benefited films for many years now and as a result there is this thing called 3D or Virtual Surround Sound that has reared it's head that says you can get the same Surround Sound experience through two standard speakers as you can through five or six.

The idea of invisible speakers has intrigued me for a few years now. Our brains only receive sound in stereo, so it should be possible to have a surround sound cinema experience with just two speakers and there are systems out there that do this. Yet I have previously lacked anykind of 3D Speaker setup and haven't been able to play around with one. But have been eagerly awaiting the day when I could experience a Virtual Surround Sound Experience, until now.

So let me just step back a second and cover this a little. Most 3D Sound systems work by way of Head-Related Transfer Function which is a fancy way of saying that your Brain knows where some sounds are coming from because of the way the soundwaves hit your ear-drum. This is best heard for yourself and you can do that with This Dolby Flash Demo.

So anyway to explain this in english:
What the Virtual Surround systems are doing is taking a 5.1 surround output from a DVD player (or whatever device) and applying different sound altering algorithms to the different audio channels so that when all the speaker channels are played thought just two speakers the background sounds still sound like they are being playing behind the listener. The soundwave distortion effects that happen to the soundwaves as they travel from rear-speakers to the listener's ear-drum have been applied by the Virtual 3D Sound System's sound altering algorithms. So no the sound doesn't come from an invisible rear speaker, but it sounds like it does.

So that brings me to today and to cut a long story short yesterday I got a copy of PowerDVD7 that supports several types of Virtual 3D Surround Sound. I have played with it, and this now allows me to conclude some finding.

Virtual Surround Systems supported by PowerDVD7:

• TruSurroundXT with TruSurround, Digital Clarity Enhancement and TruBass
• Dolby Virtual Speaker
  
• CyberLink Virtual Speaker

To test this out I used the opening sequences from Lost In Space (talking followed by lots of deep explosions and general space ship dogfighting), Akira (musical sequence with bike racing) and I watched the entire Animatrix (just to check my findings). I tested with my 2.1 Creative set of speakers and a set of old Earbuds.

TruSurroundXT
All SRS Labs does is virtual sound technology and was the first company setup to specifically do this stuff so I was expecting this system to be the best. But it butchers the audio to an unacceptable extent. If I just talk about the individual features for a second. TruBass applies base to stuff that shouldn't have it, DCE which is supposed to make voices easier to hear dampens some background sounds and TruSurround's Base doesn't stand on it's own because it relies on TruBass. TruSurroundXT makes for a much better cinematic experience through the crappy Earbuds, but I would rather have the system turned off and listen to the standard Stereo audio than have the films audio track bastardised like it is with TruSurroundXT.

Dolby Virtual Speaker
The best system, I get that 'more sound' feeling when contrasting it with standard Stereo and the sound envelops me like when I am listening to a true 5.1 system.

CyberLink Virtual Speaker
Very good, similar to the Dolby, but some frontal sounds have more base applied to them than what is necessary.

Virtual Speakers aren't yet as good as having a true 5.1 surround system, the sweet spot from a 2 speaker setup is much smaller and somepeople will hear 3D sounds from strange places as everybody's ear channels are different with the 3D Sound Systems only mimicking the most common shaped ear canals and there are a few other things that the brain uses to locate where sounds is coming from that we don't understand yet. So all that is probably why DVD Stereo tracks don't come with 3D sound pre-applied. But for me I am going to leave my settings firmly on Dolby Virtual Speaker as I don't have the space required or the money for a 5.1 Surround setup. Also when I am watching a film at night I can now get a surround sound feeling, with just my earbuds!!!

Zelda Timeline

Joystiq just finished featuring a series of GameTrailers.com videos on The Legend of Zelda franchise. There are links to the other parts on Part Six's Page (I would link to the GameTrailers.com site, but the site sucks). Part six is separate to all the other parts so there is no spoilers in viewing Part Six first. And yes Part Six it solely concerns itself with The Legend of Zelda timeline as suggested by this post's subject line.

The proposed timeline sounds like it makes sense (not that I have ever played a Zelda game from start to finish), but Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages released on the GameBoy in 2001 where originally going to be representative of the Triforce and be three games, not just two.
I don't think Miyamoto has a grand scheme for all of this so I don't think any of this matters. What everybody should do is start asking real questions like, why does Twilight Princess still have MIDI music and why hasn't Nintendo moved to replacing the tedious text with voice acting!?

Told You So

I have previously talked about Damages Caused by Wii-motes and the possible business opportunities for for Nintendo to offer somekind of insurance package. And the first casualty has Been Dolled in the form of a 60" TV.

Wii UK Pre-Ordering

If you don't want to be left out queueing for a Wii come launch day in the UK. Get over to This Amazon Page at 9AM tomorrow (21st) and they will post one to you.

To me this is the intelligent way of buying a console, or maybe all those thousands of people who will be waiting outside in the old for hours on end not knowing if they will get one or not know something that I don't.

MIT Triforce Hack

Kotaku has information on an MIT Triforce Hack. If you want to know more about MIT Hacks then checkout This Presentation on the MIT World site which runs you thought when they started and a few of the cool ones.

The videos on the MIT World site requires Real Player, so I suggest you download Real Alternative instead.

Smash My Wii

Just like the other day with the PS3 launch the twats over at SmashMyWii.com have smashed a Wii for not other reason than to act like four year olds who have just rubbed shit on their fact and running around shouting "look at me look at me".

Wa!?

Been playing Gears of War, it is one of the top three best action games I have ever played and the best game I have played on an XBox platform. But whoever chose the end credit music deserves a good knee to the stomach. I happen to know that Megadeth after hearing about the game changed the name to one of their songs and called it 'Gears of War'. They even gave Epic permission to use it in the game.

So without any more of my subjective commentary I present the two YouTube links below. The first is Gears of War by Megadeth, and the second is the Gears of War end credits as it is (contains no spoilers).

Nintendo PowerGlove

The PowerGlove came out at a time where I wasn't concerned with gaming and I haven't really ever had much experience with the NES even. So the PowerGlove has remained a bit of a mystery to me. About how it operated, why Nintendo released it and why everybody hated it.

I have tried finding out information periodically about the PowerGlove, but always failed. Well Kotaku Came Through linking to a video that gave me all the information I was looking for and I am very surprised at how similar the glove is to the Wii-mote.

PC Vs PS3

I seen this earlier on a few news sites, but now a Video is up on the PC Gamer Videocast Site. And this whole thing kind of validates for me what I was saying earlier about the PS3 buying line waiter not being hardcore gamers.

Essentially what happened is PC Gamer went to a PS3 launch event (Phil Harrison was there, have met him, he is extremely tall) and asked everybody who was in line positions guaranteed to get a PS3, if they would step out of line, sign a contract saying they would not own a PS3 and all in return receive a $7,500 kick ass computer for free.

The spec on this monster:
CPU: ?? (must have been a Dual or Intel Quad Extreme)
RAM: 2GB
Video Card: Two SLI'ed Nvidia 8800GTX's with 768MB RAM (this is the worlds first retail DirectX10 compatible card, only came out a few days ago and only currently available in the US)
Case: Custom green flame design (I think this is a plus)

None of the people they talked to seemed to understand the enormity of what they where being offered and certainly none of them looked like PC gamers. None of them even bat an eyelid when the guy told them that the system had 2GB of RAM over the PS3's 256MB. Maybe he should have said 2,048MB Vs 256MB or eight times more memory. Well ok the PS3 shares it's memory between the CPU and GPU so technically the system has 2,816MB RAM in total, but needless to say anybody who turned the offer down was a fool or didn't understand what was being offered.

Personally I would be like "Hell yes, my system is four years old and I need an upgrade". Which is downplaying the whole thing because this is the most powerful personal computer money can buy, and you can't even build this thing without importing parts from the US. Plus it's 100% vista compatible and should run Crysis at a very high framerate with everything turned on.

Smash My PlayStation 3

There are some jerks that run SmashMyPS3.com who essentially setup a page asking for donations for them to buy a PS3 and smash it infront of people who can't have one or are waiting in line, just to be jerks. They will only smash said unit if they get enough money for two. Thus even thought they smash one, the hordes of detonators still pay for the guys to run away laughing.

Anyway their initial video of the act is up, expect another one with more of a documentary style in a few days.

A Series of Unrated Films

LionsGate has partnered with After Dark Films who do horror films, and they have both signed up a few cinemas that have agreed to show some unrated horror films. Normally cinemas as policy refuse to show unrated films as they normally upset people or don't comply with legal restrictions.

The big film fest is this weekend in the US and you can findout more at HorrorFestOnline.com. I am sure it is only a matter of time before something similar comes to the UK.

So anyway Apple is hosting six trailers of the eight films that will be shown and here are some links to them:

• Dark Ride
• Grave Dancer
• Penny Dreadful
• Reincarnation
• The Hamiltons
• Unrest

PlayStation 3 Launches in the US for MAXIMUM DANAGE!

I like the way Panney Arcade has put the US launch. But the idea of being left-out in the cold I think, is very symbolic of how Sony is treating the hardcore gamer in general. Although I do not believe that most of the people waiting in line are hardcore gamers, but instead normal consumer whores who will buy into any hyped product. I think most hardcore gamers going going to wait until early 2007 to get one or have already bought one off of Amazon months ago.

Gamasutra asked a shit load of developers Are You Buying a Wii or PS3, needless to say the vast majority say Wii and then give a slight jab at Sony's PS3 strategy/attitude.

Here is just one of the launch line interview videos:


And to be a bit more optimistic here is a launch that did go well:

Backflips

I wish I could do backflips.

Police Brutality

In the University of California Library students are asked to produce ID cards after 11pm.

Tabatabainejad was walking with his backpack toward the door when he was approached by two UCPD officers, one of whom grabbed the student's arm. In response, Tabatabainejad yelled at the officers to "get off me." Following this demand, Tabatabainejad was stunned with a Taser.

I think this is a clear cut case of police brutality, Here is the University Article on the Incident and below is the video:

Random Thought

Everybody has bad dreams where they are dieing or in a situation where they could die. These dreams are terribly unpleasant and I wonder wither it is the memory of these experiences from our dreams which create the so called survival instinct for when we are awake.

I justify this by the very fact that survival situations are very rare and that means experience with such situations and the knowledge to handle them is not given through day to day life. So to instill experience in us, our minds create dreams which forces us into those situations. Thus giving us the experience and it is in fact the memory of these dreams that gives us a survival instinct.

360 and Wii Going to do Just Fine

Been watching a lot of the videos of 150 people queues outside stores in America and I am thinking that come December the fact that Sony hasn't been able to provide is going to sell a lot of Wii and 360 units. I think that Sony will drive more customers away from their band and if they had of launched in 2007.

Hardcore Gammers Waiting to Shellout

So I am watching the below video of some American news footage on Kotaku and the news journalist said "Hardcore gamers are waiting to shellout for the PS3" (ok not EXACT words) and that got me thinking. Because I don't think many hardcore gamers will get a PS3 at launch because hardcore gamers know that there is little to play on the PS3 and are probably too busy with other platforms to bother.

Student Exchange Trip From Hell

It is said that when the apocalypse comes all the people who have taken Jesus into their hearts will be taken by god and freed from this world. That leaves everybody remaining to fend for themselves and somekind of anarchy. But after reading Michael Gromek's Student Exchange Trip to America with Christian Fundamentalist host parents, it makes me question wither the apocalypse is such a bad thing after all.

It should be noted that throughout history people have always believed that the apocalypse will come in their lifetime, still waiting.

PS3 Disassembly

Firstly if you haven't seen an XBox360 disassembled then you should have a look Here First.

Some Japanese folks took it upon themselves to quickly disassemble a PS3 and post the video on YouTube:
Part1

Part2

Part3

Part4


From watching these something becomes very obvious. The PS3 is a very difficult console to put together. There are a few silver cables that look like they need to be connected by hand and the whole thing has so many parts that it looks like production must take many hands.
Obviously the 120mm fan is why it cools so efficiently and quietly, it is a shame that the 360 doesn't have one too, but when you look at the 360's design you can clearly see that it has been designed for mass production with the arrangement seems to require little more than the motherboard to be fitted and it's case to be screwed on.
Sony said the PS3 was a complex system and that was an understatement.

Most Dangerious Road in the World

The MOST dangerous road in the world is the Yungas Road between La Paz and Coroico in Bolivia (South America). You can see that first link to read how dangerous the road is or checkout These or These images to see for yourself.

Here is a quote from the Wikipedia Page:

Because of the extreme dropoffs, single-lane width, and lack of guardrails, the road is extremely dangerous. Further still, rain and fog can make visibility precarious, the road surface muddy, and loosen rocks from the hillsides above. On July 24, 1983, a bus veered off the Yungas Road and into a canyon, killing more than 100 passengers in what is said to be Bolivia's worst road accident.

And I have found the road on Microsoft's Live Maps if you want to see exactly where it is. Which is really why I am linking to this because I think being able to fly around the earth with a 360 controller is cool.

Large Skate Ramp

If I went down this thing I would hurt bad:

Geometry Wars High Score and Five Rings

I have been reading The Book of Five Rings by Musashi Miyamoto (I actually bought a printed copy) and the other day I read "The Frame of Mind For The Martial Arts" from the book of Water and the first sentence of that section reads:

In the way of the martial arts, do not let your frame of mind be any difference from everyday mind.

and then he finishes the section by saying this should be investigated. So I being the gamer that I am fired up Geometry Wars.

I have been playing Geometry Wars fairly regally since I Got all the Achievements and Almost Beat My Highscore, but I have found myself struggling to get even one million points as my motivation to do better isn't there, but after reading Miyamoto's section on frame of mind I thought I would give it another go not thinking I would beat my very respectable highscore of 2,158,680 points.

Well after just one game I got 2,664,455 and I seem to be able to have a good run on my highscore now quite consistently. So the book might have been written in the 1600's but it's teachings are quite relevant.

New Levels of Internet Evil

First there was discussion boards, then IRC, then personal websites, then Instant Messaging, then YouTube and other personal video sites, but now something even worse and yet more time consuming called Stickam has emerged. It is essentially Video Chat rooms made easy which I am sure will bring new time wasting opportunities to many people.

This kind of stuff I actively avoid. I don't use IRC because you are just talking to complete strangers and conversations are always guaranteed to be dumb. I don't Instant Message anymore because that just wasts hours talking about mundane stuff with main the problem being that most people will talk about stupid stuff just for the sake of talking because obviously if you are logged on and not talking to someone you know, you are upset over something and actively ignoring them .

The site is also good for voyeuristic tendencies so I am sure many people with personal pages and rooms will end-up having a group of stalkers that watch, but never interact and that is socially very bad.

PlayStation 3 Launched in Japan and Resistance Fall of Man Reviewed Good

The PS3 has launched in Japan with the usual flair of Scalpers and Disorder, god help anybody queueing to buy one in the US on the 19th. Since the Wii is launched on the same day I suspect that will make things worse. Still the first guy in the world to buy a PS3 was Chinese, didn't speak Japanese, didn't buy any-games with his PS3 and was seen exchanging it for money just down the road, probably to some Japanese guy who will sell it for a big profit eBay.

Anyway Resistance Fall of Man according to IGN who has both a ">Written Review and Video Review is a killer app that is worth buying a PS3 for. Maybe they where drugged or maybe they have forgotten how much the PS3 costs, but IGN said they liked it and the 40 person multiplayer is sweet. I am a little-bit surprised by that because it looks just like any-other WW2 FPS, but with Aliens instead of Nazis.

Blog Labels

I have been putting some labels on some of my archived posts, but by doing that it makes them showup as new posts in the blog RSS Feed and pushes todays stuff off. So I have stopped doing that for the time being. This blog has a large number of posts (1,566) and I am not willing to add labels to them all in one sitting and I am not sure if that is worth it. But I would like them all to have labels for consistency's sake. So as compromise I will probably do a few everytime I go a few days without posting just before I post something new.

Non-newtonian Fluid

A Non-newtonian Fluid is a fluid that responds like a solid when put under strain. Such a substance can be created with a mixture of Corn Starch and Water.

With this knowledge I am sure you can imagine the hygienics that would ensue if you where to ever fill a pool with such a substance:

New Version of Blogger

I have just migrated the whole Blog over to the new version of Blogger and the right navigation bar is no-longer pushed down the bottom of the page when viewed in FireFox. However all my post titles are underlined and I cannot find where that is specified. Otherwise I am happy with the changes. Like I can now publish posts instantly, make template changes instantly (that used to take a good two minuets), editing the Blog template is now easier and I can add post category labels.

Spiderman 3 Trailer

Hmmm New Trailer.

Apethetic

Don't really feel like doing much right now (can't get a job depression related), but I thought these two bits where interesting.

Microsoft has released a closed survey (a copy can be found Here) asking people if they would pay for an Premium 360 Controller with rubber grip pads, a better D-pad and LED lights under the ABXY buttons. If I filled out that survey I would have ticked the "Hell yes, who have I got to sleep with to get one" box.

And Princeton has A Demonstration of Voting Machine Hacking which is presented very well. And even John Steward Has a Jab at the whole issue.

Hacking Democracy

There is a HBO documentary called Hacking Democracy which documents the crusade of Beverly Harris and associates to expose the issues with the American electronic voting system. And I just finished watching it on Google Video, but is also available as a Torrent.

There are several brands and type of electronic voting machine in the US. In the UK we still use hand counting and paper based voting because it is a known proven technology, but the electronic systems in the US are essentially black boxes. The voter approaches the machine, puts in their vote and then nobody knows what happens until the central tabulator declares a winner. It is even illegal to have a look into how the system works. To me this stinks because I don't understand how something that is unnecessarily secret, can be trusted. The voter's vote should be secret, but certainly not the counting process.

Anyway the documentary exposes several critical flaws in the electronic voting systems that would allow real-world vote tampering without detection and yet nobody in control seems to be concerned by this. To me voting systems should always be in a regular state of review, but this documentary shows officials actually showing distrust towards an open discussion of the process.

And another thing. Don't be put off by the opening line of the documentary "America, the world's greatest democracy" everybody knows that America isn't a true democracy so that statement is like saying that a Double Decker Bus is the greatest Car ever made.

Apple Fixes iTunes

Since as long as Last Year since I started using iTunes, whenever I clicked the update podcasts button iTunes would use up 100% of my CPU (Pentium 4 2.2Ghz) just to download the RSS feeds for my subscribed podcasts. Then in version 7 iTunes started to not only use up 100% of my CPU for updating the RSS feeds, but also 100% of my CPU when downloading new podcasts.

Well in version 7.0.2.16 they have finally gotten around to addressing the issue. I have always thought that it was somekind of unnecessary Do...Loop process running in the background, but I don't care now because it is fixed. iTunes still uses a lot of my CPU, but no-longer 100%! YAY!

Firework Fun

Just stuck my head outside and although I didn't buy any fireworks, the air is thick with the smell of gunpowder and there are sounds of explosions all around. There is stuff occasionally hitting the roof which must be the sticks from the rockets, but it's like being in somekind of warzone and I can even see a little bit of fog coming from the houses setting off fireworks.

Bonfire night fits in well with our modern consumer driven society, but the fact that it isn't a national holiday is a bit of a shame.

Happy Bonfire Night

I missed Halloween so I guess I can at least wish everybody a happy Bonfire Night, not that I am letting off any fireworks off or anything. Still Carl Franklin did an Amazing Halloween trick to greet Haloweeners coming to his house this year and he has a link to a video of his setup on his Blog Intellectual Hedonism. Essentially he used a projector and a clear projector screen attached to his door to achieve a very cool effect.

I went to the National Exhibition Centre yesterday to the graduates fair and talked to a few PR people. Nothing much to report on the job front, but I will do a big job hunting post when I find a job because there is a lot of boring stuff to talk about and I don't want to drag that crusade across these pages too much.

Random Fact

Ants don't sleep.

Bursting the Wii Controller Bubble

I know a lot of people have high hopes and dream about the possibilities the Wii controller represents. I have reserved excitement because those Wii ads with GAP Models hiding behind sofas, rolling around and generally looking goofy are obviously not people playing any games. I need to see this stuff working otherwise I don't believe it. And this I have unfortunately learned over the years the hard way by following the work of Various Designers.
Many people have envisioned a true sword fighting experience with the Wii across continents and very real possibilities for applications for Serious Games to do with training. Well I am about to deflate a few bubbles slightly because the Wii Remote isn't what you think it is.

What everybody seems to think that the controller will do is choreograph motion made by the player directly into the game, and this does happen on pointer games that require infared input with the controller bar, but games that use accelerometer data don't which is a surprise to a lot of people. What Wii games do is recognise the orientation input from the remote and translate that into in-game commands. So in a sword fighting game you can swing from the right, swing from the left, block and thrust, but you can't actually sword fight with the in-game sword choreographing every motion made by the real world remote.

Actions like swinging a bat in a Wii game are event triggered just like they are with a traditional gamepad's button press, analogue input through a stick or even an analogue trigger. The player performs a motion and the game activates the corresponding in-game event.

This is mentioned in Ryan Garside's bit-tech Preview where he talks about how quick wrist flicks respond to stronger arm motions than real strong arm motions like those with ball bowling. Matt Casamassina's IGN Blog mentions this too. He praises WII Sport's Bowling game, allowing the player to control when the ball is released and the ability to spin the ball, but I have watched videos of the game being demonstrated and it isn't possible to aim the ball in any diagonal direction direction. So again choreographed motion captured motion of the player bowling the ball isn't there. Motion is not translated directly into the game as you would think, but is instead a rasterized interpretation of the action being preformed.

So not what a lot of people had assumed, but still nifty. And Nintendo isn't marketing the Wii at hardcore gamers anyway so you got to give them a lot of credit for that. My Mum wouldn't buy one but someone else's Mum might.

Windows Media Player 11

I have just been playing around with Windows Media Player 11 which was released today and I can report that it is an improvement. The UI is much better and it has support for external subtitling files. So if you play a video file with subtitles, but subtitles that the author of the video has thoughtfully provided in a separate subtitle file, WMP11 will now play those subtitles with the film. I cannot find the option for this in WMP11, but when the subtitle file is moved to a separate folder WMP11 does not play them.

Because I cannot find any options for subtitles I do not know how WMP11 will handle video files with multiple sets of subtitles or files with multiple audio streams. And that being said WMP11 refuses to play any OGM or MKV files so I cannot even see how it will handle video files with multiple audio streams. But that being said WMP10 didn't support any of this so even a little improvement in the right direction is good.

XBox360 Fall Halloween Update

The latest XBox360 Dashboard Update should appear sometime tomorrow (yes Halloween) and there is a full list of changes Here, but below is 17 changes that I believe are interesting:

• 1080p output over VGA and component cables.
  
• HD-DVD Player support (UK release date 24th of November).
  
• Streaming WMV video from PCs running Media Player 11 (Download)
  
• Video playback from CD, DVD and USB Memory Units.
  
• Support for the new Wirless Headset and Wireless Racing Wheel (Both Released in the UK on 24th of November).
  
• An option to Automatically download new Arcade Titles as they become available.
  
• Faster loading of the list of Arcade games present on the system.
  
• View Leaderboard data from the Dashboard.
  
• 'Tell A Friend' option for arcade titles.
  
• Option to disable 360 notifications while watching films.
  
• Improved handling of unreadable DVDs (I thought this was already amazing).
  
• Added parental support to block unrated DVDs.
  
• Improved video playback from fragmented drives and playback while downloading from XBox Live (I haven't had that problem, but somepeople have had an issue with stuttery playback).
  
• Improved voice chat quality.
  
• Added ability to clear space from storage devices in download areas.
  
• Improved look and feel in XBox Live Marketplace and XBox Live Arcade areas.
  
• Removed system message at the start of new downloads. Messages will only be displayed for completed items.

Additional: Apparently the update will be seen sometime after 2AM PST (10AM GMT).

Cook Egg with a XBox360

So I was reading Evil Avatar and they posted to this video (below) where some guy actually cooks an egg on his 360 heatsink. I know it gets hot, but I wasn't expecting the egg to cook so quickly.

Warterboarding

Some comments have been made and Dick Cheney implied that the US was involved in Warterboarding which is a method of torture where the subject believes they are drowning but without permanent physical damage being left. If you want to know more about it watch This Video which has someone volunteer to be waterboarded.

The US is conducting this at detention centres. Now to put this into historical context in 1606 when Guy Fawks was found in a basement under the Houses of Parliament with loads of gunpowder after a tipoff. He refused to name his co-conspirators. The information was eventually given by him after he was tortured, but for that to happen in 1606 the King had to sign a special decree. In the US however this is going on right now without the president giving an express order. This is wrong and barbaric how superior the US claims to be and how low the reality is.

Huge Metal Gear Solid 4 News Maybe

XBoxic is reporting that MGS4 Might Come to The 360. Which is great because MGS4 represents the only excuse I have to get a PS3.

UNO! GDragons Vs NipponHam

This is one of thoes odd culteral things where to one person it's nothing special, but to someone else it's slightly amusing.

So I am watchign this Japanese GDragons Vs NipponHam baseball game (don't ask long story) and I see UNO written on a players back. Wasn't exspecting that, I thought.



Ye you can so tell I need a job. My god it's like 5am.
Will be applying for a Deli Counter job tomorrow because I need something to do instead of just looking for a job all the time. Which, would you believe in three months I haven't even had a single interview, yet plenty of praise from recruiters when I have asked them if there is anything wrong with my CV. But more on that and how to dramatically increase job prospects once completing an education stint once I get a job.

As Much JPOP Music as You can Afford

JPOP or Japanese Pop Music is difficult to get in the west. You might try inporting CDs or illegally download it using evil P2P programs like eDonkey, but it isn't easy to get hold of.

Apple has an iTunes service running in Japan with loads of JPOP music on, but you can only download from that if you have a Japanese account and to get registered in a region you need a credit card and no Japanese bank is going to give you a credit card if you don't live n Japan. But it turns out that iTunes Music Cards are region specific. So you might be able to top-up a US iTunes account with a UK iTunes music card, but by using a Japanese iTunes Music Card you can register a Japanese account and download as much JPOP as you like from anywhere in the world.

And it just so turns out that jBox sells them. WOW so that's at least one of life's frustrations sorted then.

Life is Better than Fiction

I think it's safe to say that I am a YouTube addict and it's not like I have anything better to do (hay I got out of bed at 4pm today). And one of the people who I subscribe to is RatFuckScrew who just posted a video response to all of the Lonelygirl15 videos. All her videos are all produced by some production company so it's all fiction, but RatFuckScrew's response had me chuckling because I subscribe to a lot of people's videos who just talk about what they have been doing or what they are feeling, but I haven't subscribed to Lonelygirl15 for the very thing RFS talks about in his video.

Six Million XBox360s Sold, Good or Bad?

Microsoft has said in it's Quarterly Sales Figures Press Release that they have sold six million XBox360 consoles to date. But then there is a lot of debate on forums as to wither this is a good or bad thing, so I did a bit of research and compiled a list of all the home console generations since 1972.

Please note that the list below covers all consoles that I could find sales numbers for. There are many other consoles that have not been included on the list because I could not find sales figures for them. And portable systems have also been excluded because they are a different market and do not compete directly with home consoles.

Console Generation One
Odyssey - Units Sold ??
Winner of generation Magnavox Odyssey.

Console Generation Two
Atari 2600 - Units Sold 25 Million
ColecoVision - Units Sold 6 Million
Winner of generation Atari 2600.

Console Generation Three
Master System - Units Sold 13 Million
Nintendo Entertainment System - Units Sold 60 million
Winner of generation Nintendo Entertainment System.

Console Generation Four
Mega Drive - Units Sold 35 Million
Neo Geo - Units Sold 1 Million
Super Nintendo Entertainment System - Units Sold 49 Million
TurboGrafx-16 - Units Sold 5 Million
Winner of generation Super Nintendo Entertainment System.

Console Generation Five
3DO - Units Sold 6 Million
Jaguar - Units Sold 4.41 Million
N64 - Units Sold 32.93 Million
PlayStation - Units Sold 102.49 Million
Saturn - Units Sold 10 Million
Winner of generation Sony PlayStation.

Console Generation Six
Dreamcast - Units Sold 10.2 Million
GameCube - Units Sold 21.2 Million
PlayStation2 - Units Sold 111.25 Million
XBox - Units Sold 24 Million
Winner of generation Sony PlayStation2.

Console Generation Seven
PlayStation3 - Units Sold so far 0 Million
Wii - Units Sold so far 0 Million
XBox360 - Units Sold so far 6 Million
Winner of generation ??

Microsoft said that they would sell 10 million 360s by now, but have only sold 6 million. This suggests that things are bad, but the average console sales unit of all the generations is between 24 (discounting Sony) and 30 million. And if Microsoft sells six million 360 units per year for the next five years they will have done ok and much better than the XBox did.

I believe that unlike when the PS2 launched early, a lot of people have held back buying a console this generation because of the big question marks surrounding the Wii and PS3. Who both have fairly weak launch lineups (who doesn't). So to answer the question as to wither 6 million is good or bad, well it's average as long as Microsoft doesn't sell more or less than they did this year in future years. But while doing this research I have learned that people don't like buying games consoles. Instead they seem to see it as a necessary evil in order to play the games they want.
Good games = good console sales.

Additional: Microsoft have said that they are still on track to sell 10 million by the end of the year. I think it's possible, but they still have a way to go.

Video The Vote (US Election)

It is no secret that the last two elections in the US for president haven't gone smoothly with lots of allegations flying around calling for re-counts and people saying that they where prevented from voting.

Well today I seen this (Below) video on YouTube promoting VideoTheVote.org which aims to get anybody with a camera involved in covering voting incidents. No need to stand filming all day, just register on the website and they will call if they want you to film something or interview someone at a local polling station.



I think it's an excellent idea, and this almost feels like open source documentary making.

Artistic Expression on Consumer Culture

This is a Video of a robot that searches for pools of coke on the ground, sucks them up and then sprays it onto itself causing it's own eventual destruction.

I would say this is an accurate description of a drug addict, but with the artists use of Coca Cola it's expression on Consumer Culture is clear. And then that begs the question as to wither drug addiction is so dissimilar to modern consumerism.

XNA UK Academic Events

If you are an Academic or Research Student (whatever that is) belonging to a UK University then you are eligible to attend:

Warwick Conference Centre for an overview of XNA studio featuring Chris Satchell, Peter Molyneux and Nick Burton.

Or Rare Studios, Twycross for a hands on workshop with XNA Studio.

It is first come first served so sign up early. I would love to attend these, but I am no-longer with a university.

Scott Adams Regains Voice

The guy who draws Dilbert, Scott Adams gets his voice back. I didn't know that he had lost it, but His Story is quite interesting.

Two New PlayStation 3 Adverts

Wouldn't you just know it. After months of mouthing off, having to admit to weak bloated/false claims and this recent thing with Li-Sang. Sony comes through with a good advert. Not sure if this will be on TV because the HD capacity claim is false so would invoke a lawsuit, but these are good adverts.

Advert 1


Advert 2

Sun's Project Blackbox (contains video)

So imagine you are an evil genius (maybe you are) and you have a lot of computing power and virtual storage that you use to coordinate your evil deeds, but the pesky secret services of the world keep finding your hidden lairs and forcing you to move. And everytime that happens you have to get into your escape pod and auto-destruct all your stuff including all your evil plans contained in your data centre.

Well that's precisely why Sun has created project Blackbox. It is a server room in a shipping container so can easily be hidden, moved and more importantly setup quickly because you know you got more money than you can possibly spend, but server rooms take three years from planning to completion to build.

Rainbow Six Vegas Demo on XBoxLive Marketplace

This demo for some strange voodoo reason isn't available in the US, but it is a lot of fun. I have always felt that the Rainbow Six games have had soulless level design, crappy graphics and too many tools for me to know what to do with. Vagas simplifies all that, has some cracking level design and makes it so easy to issue orders to teammates that I find myself firing very few bullets myself.

I would be seriously considering pre-ordering it if I had the money, but more than that I think this really does require a HD TV to do the game justice.

Blog Code Updated

Have updated the blog code so that ClearType in IE7 works. All I have done is remove the code which tells the browser what font to display and specified a font size so that the text doesn't look all tiny. And as well as looking a lot better in IE7 now, for some reason the font looks a lot better in FireFox too, so bonus!

I still have that problem where the sidebar on the right gets pushed down to the bottom of the page in FireFox, but it doesn't make the page less functional and I am hoping to fix that when Blogger releases the new version of Blogger because that has a new layout engine and a load of new templates, although I do like the one I have.

Michael J. Fox Has Parkinson's!!!

I didn't know, but Michael J. Fox has Parkinson's.

So anyway there is this video on YouTube (Below) of him talking about the need for America to stop banning research into Stem Cells which could offer a cure to Parkinson's.


And then there is this guy (Below) who is against Stem Cell research because it is taking away human dignity. For some reason he doesn't say it's a sin or killing, but he does seem to think that banning research will save Human dignity. And that makes me wonder if he has ever met anybody with Parkinson's or wither he is just some guy who is opposed, but unaffected by the issue.


At the moment the leaders in Stem Cell research is Europe and Asia, but America has a lot of well funded Universities who are the ones that make a lot of those first discoveries that then in later years are picked up by big pharmaceutical companies and turned into cures. So America can and they should do this research. Those embryos are human embryos, but are not yet people. I understand that by using them for experimentation they will never become people and it is probably somekind of crime for depriving them of that, but this research can benefit so many people it seems unethical not to try.

Musical Tesla Coil

This is a YouTube video of something that could only be dreamt up by an evil genius. It is also one of the best videos I have seen on the internet, right up there with Mentoes & Cola, Tony Hawks 900 and anything featuring Rodney Mullen or Karl Pilkington.

The First 10 Minutes of Tony Hawk Project 8 Demo

Maybe in my last post I didn't convey accurately how good the new Tony Hawks game is. So to try and rectify that Here is a Video of someone much better than me, playing for ten minuets. And yes it does seem o be the best Tony Hawks game thus far.

Tony Hawks Project 8 Demo

Tis very good. Would preorder now if I had the money.

CS:S Hitboxes Suck

I seen this video (above) earlier and was a littlebit shocked because it seems like a stupid thing for a game to do, but this would explain all those occasions where I have been shooting at someone and they haven't gotten injured. You know those occasions where you unload three shotgun shells at them, then they unload one at you and YOU die.

Anyway I just booted up SC:S and had a look for myself. Sure enough what I have just seen in the game for myself is exactly what is shown in the video. But the author says things have been fixed now and looking at the video comments suggest that this currently only effects offline botplay, so I am going to have a go at a few multiplayer matches, right now.

Additional: So I just finished playing a real multiplayer game instead of one against bots and ye the problem seems sorted, I fire directly at someone and blood spurts out of them. Still something that has always bothered me is the scoring, as I killed a few people and didn't have any points added to my score, but whatever.

Internet Explorer 7

Microsoft just released IE7 and it's great. Have been trying to crash it, but performance is excellent. Lots of nice stuff and everything just seems better. It even has truetype so all the text looks nice and squishy on CRT Monitors, but on LDCs it should look brilliant.



You can download IE7 from Microsoft Here, but to install it they first want to verify your copy of XP (this is built into the installer) so that takes a little while.

Podsafe Music Network Exclusives

The Podsafe Music Network has been running for a while now and it is essentially for sourcing free music for use on Podcasts. Just create an account, tell them you played it on your podcast and it's free. Personally I use it just to find random music when I am in a random kind of mood. Recently the network has been getting more commercial James Brown is on there. And Lacuna Coil has put their new single on their page so you can hear it online before anybody hears it on radio.

Incidentally I seen them last week, although I didn't manage to take any good photographs.


The photo I took of the queue to the car park ticket machine came out well though.

YouTube Posting is Working

Looks like YouTube has been fixed and I can blog videos from inside YouTube now. So instead of giving you a link to a video, the video will be included on the post page. Will check the RSS after I have posted this test post to see what happens there.

Random Fact

One Block of memory on the original XBox was 16KB.

Not Learning C# (I gave up)

I have had this C# book sitting next to me for the last few weeks and I haven't read any of it. The only reason why I want to learn C# is not because I want to learn C#, but because I want to use the XNA Framework. Last week I herd some rumblings that VB is coming to XNA and that the XNA Team chose C# has their initial supported language because of it's potential commercial adoption rate and the design changes that would need to be worked out in order to achieve C#'s unmanaged data types. I might still learn C# in the future or read the first two chapters of this book out of interest, but I am just not interested in writing programs in C#. I write code much slower in C# and not just because I am new to the language, the code doesn't flow from my hands to the screen like I would want it to. And that is mainly because of the weaker Intellisense support, poor code auto-formatting, curly braces and explicit data conversion.

So anyway this is a trait of mine that shows I am very selfish with my learning because unless I can actually use and see applications of me using something, I won't learn it. Another example of this is that I don't know how to connect to a database because I find storing data in text files to be sufficient. So sorry C# lovers, but i find VB to me more than sufficient for anything I wish to write today, tomorrow and probably for many years to come.

Star Wars Episode 1 - Balance of the Force

There has been a few fan edits of 'Star Wars Episode One The Phantom Menace', most notably 'The Phantom Re-Edit' which removed Jar Jar Binks. This resulted in twenty minuets of footage being cut from the film, but has resulted in much praise from fans and directors alike. Today I watched an edit called 'Balance of the Force' which dubs a lot of the alien dialogue with subtitles and includes the full pod-race sequence from the DVD. There is a mention and list of edits on the Wikipedia Page. It has been well over a year since I last watched The Phantom Menace so I thought I would watch it and see how I felt about it subjectively.

My control opinion of The Phone Menace was that Jar Jar is an unnecessary character and that the film isn't hard hitting enough. I agreed with Lucas's decision to shorten the pod-race sequence as it would have been a long dominating scene in the middle of the film. I thought Anakin was a very happy confidant kid and I didn't understand how the hell he would ever turn to the darkside.

After watching the edit I think Lucas's decision to cut the pod-race sequence was dumb as most of the scenes on Tatooine builds up the the pod-race so having a full length race actually makes it feel worth waiting for. With the edits to Jar Jar Binks he becomes an opportunistic selfish waster, but that is better than the goofy clown he was before. The conflict between the Trade Federation and Naboo is no over the outlawing of slavery instead of taxation. This is a brilliant edit as it makes me feel the Republic was moving towards a brighter more civilised future. Anakin comes across now as a confident, yet tense kid willing to fight as shown with a fight scene between him and another kid named Greedo. Put simply I loved this edit of the film far more than the original theatrical release. It adds depth to the story throughout and corrects a lot of story holes that was left by the original release. The glowing orb-thing that was given to the Gungans at the end of the film which was a mystery in the original edit, is now a Gungan artifact that the Humans stole and rather than them being simple neighbours it feel like the Humans and Gungans could have been on the verge of war. There are a few things about the edit which I haven't mentioned because I don't want to spoil it, but it is much much better edit than the theatrical release of the film.

The Best Game Nobody Played Now On STEAM

Psychonauts the best game that nobody played is Now Available on STEAM. I don't like forwarding you to Valve, but Psychonauts should have done much better commercially than it did. Apart from having excellent voice acting and characters, it has spectacular level design that will delight you from start to finish. Well worth purchasing if you haven't played it. I am not saying the game is perfect, but it should have done much better at retail than it did.

When I first finished playing through the game I wanted to write a review, but didn't want to spoil anything for anybody who hadn't already played it. So instead of a review I posted This Quote which sums up perfectly what I felt at the time and still do now for the game.

The Laughing Man

A few months ago I watched Ghost in The Shell Stand Alone Complex which is an exceptional prequel to Ghost In The Shell the film based on the Manga and the first Japanese Anime to be digitally produced (a combination of scanned cells and digital effects). The series explores the possibilities of terrorism and the phenomenon of Stand Alone Complex, I don't want to go into details and spoil the plot, but it is brilliant.

Anyway the series has a master hacker in it known as The Laughing Man who once assassinated someone is broad daylight by covering his escape and his identity by hacking every piece of digital equipment with his image on, including the cybereyes of the people witnessing the event firsthand. The story has a few noted references to Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger which just like John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men is yet another great American novel that takes it's title from a poem, but that is going off on a tangent.

I read Catcher in the Rye purely because of the reference to the book form the series and it is a good book. Not quite a page turner, but that would explain why the book didn't enjoy an immediate commercial success. It is instead one of thoes works of fiction that lingers at the back of the mind and is difficult to forget. After finishing the book I was doing some research on J.D. Salinger and discovered that he had written a short story called 'The Laughing Man' the same name as the hacker in Stand Alone Complex.

Well it turns out that the story is freely available on the internet from various websites like This One. It is about a group of kids and the adventures of The Laughing Man as told by their baseball coach. The story follows a similar theme to Catcher in the Rye in that they are both retrospective views of childhood events concluding in the loss of innocence and the transition from childhood to manhood. Catcher in the Rye does this with a declined invitation of a ride on a Carousel, and The Laughing Man does this with the death of The Laughing Man, a fictional character with "a hairless, pecan-shaped head and a face that featured, instead of a mouth, an enormous oval cavity below the nose".

I have completely forgotten where I was going to go with this, but all three fictions are very good, I might have been wanting to make a declaration that Ghost In The Shell is a better work of fiction. But the written isn't comparable to the visual, so to say one is better than the other is immature as eyecandy is always more immediately delectable than any book whoes true value is never rearlised until a retrospective viewpoint on the story is reached.

Regional Advertising

When the XBox360 was launched in Japan Microsoft had the Rolling Stones do a few commercials for them, but that didn't seem to connect with the Japanese Gamers. After learning their lesson they launched the DODODO AD Campaign which certainly has the WTF! factor from a western point of view so for the Japanese that is probably a good thing. The ADs uses some pop band that is supposedly very popular in Japan at the mo and is certainly seems centred for a Japanese audience which is what was missing from their first round of advertisements.

Microsoft has now done a similar thing with other regions like France with their Without Wires AD Campaign which reminds me of a few Jean-Pierre Jeunet's films who is also French so that is probably a good thing.

And the WTF! factor is also present in the Indian AD Campaign which just like Indian cinema is full of singing, dancing and not much else. Maybe they should add a love story to the ADs.

I hope to see more regional advertisement in the future because these are funny.

Whorecraft (NOT work safe)

I have heared of Warcaft porn, but to actually see it is kind of funny.
Whorecraft
BareMaidens

I don't know what's funnier, the fact it exists or the fact that it is actually good porn.

Totem Ball

Totem Ball the first 360 camera game that requires the camera to play because it uses somekind of hand recognition technology to move a totem around a level, is currently free. Not sure if that is going to be it's permanent price, but I have downloaded it. I can't play it because I don't have a camera for my 360 yet. And I won't until (A) I get a job and (B) I see value in having a camera.

On the job front I am still not finding much. My expectations have now dropped to an amber coloured 'get job' level, where I apply to any job which I believe I can tolerate. So telemarketing is a no, but everything else is ok. Still trying to get an IT job though and one that actually pays me in real money and not food token. Will have a nice writeup once I actually get a job on my experiences of being a graduate and finding a job, but not right now.

Designing the Wii and Future Battles

ArsTechnica has an article called How the Wii was born which talks about the design considerations the engineers had when designing the Wii.

The reason why I am linking to this article is because of the sales graph on the first page. I have seen this before, but I always failed to find it again when I wanted to talk to someone about it.

Just incase it gets pulled in the future here are the numbers:
NES 60 million sold
SNES 49 million sold
N64 32 million sold
GC 24 million sold

Sales with each new generation declines at an averages of 26% meaning that if the Wii follows this trend it will only sell approximately 18 million units over five years. As far as I can tell from searching Google not even the DS has achieved that number yet, so it's still a lot of machines. And even selling very well at the start of a lifecycle wont be enough to grantee that number of unit sales by the end of the lifecycle.

To get that number up consoles need Killer Apps which are traditionally made by first party developers. An easy way to think of the first part and third party developer model is that the first party development teams make games for people who don't own the console yet, where as third party developers make games for people who already own the console.

--Subjective opinions follow---

My problem here is that Nintendo is once again trying to get fans of their products to part with cash by buying games that they already own and none of the future games comming to the console that I have seen have interested me. If you pardon my very subjective opinion at this point I do not believe even that they have any Killer Apps in the works. Where as the 360 has had several titles this year like Saints Row, Dead Rising and coming titles like Gears of War, Viva Pinata that will act as a catalyst for gamers and none gamers to suddenly desire the console, run to the nearest shop and tell the shop owner that they desire to part with cash for a unit. I do not see this happening with the Wii as the most tantalising title Nintendo seems to have in the works at the moment is Rayman Raving Rabbids which from what I can tell is simply a party game. The new Zelda will probably be enough for Nintendo to sell 5 million Wii units without anybody first evaluating what they are buying, but I don't think it's looking good.

Then I have a big concern with the controller's need to be setup correctly. I know everybody keeps saying everything will be ok when you get one at home, but I haven't yet seen anybody demo a Wii console that has been properly configured, not at a presentation, behind the scenes looks at any titles or at presentations on the new controller to journalists that shows them how it works.
On the surface it simply seems very amateurish to demo a future product without taking the time to set it up properly, but that is what has been happening and I can't help but think there is a limitation with the controller that isn't being talked about, but yet will limit the designs of games that developers will make for the Wii.

Nintendo Fucks Themselves

Nintendo's new business strategy is to get non-gamers to enjoy their new console by creating original titles that don't follow the traditional genres. Nintendo's promotional videos of the Wii have all involved lots of people playing in a party atmosphere. And I agree that Nintendo could be going in a direction that could create many new gamers. And this is why I agree 100% with Kim Pallister's Latest Post on how Nintendo is missing a golden opportunity and in my mind, fucking themselves and this new strategy of theirs.

I would recap what Kim said, but I think he puts the argument across much better than I could.

Random Fact

When a country joins the European Union the first thing they do is resurface and upgrade all their highways.

Burning Down the House 2005 GDC Rant

I don't know why I haven't posted this yet, but there is a very good rant from last year's GDC over at GDC Radio.

The whole thing is a venting of the frustration developers where feeling and are largely still feeling with the games industry. Things have gotten better with the wider acceptance of digital distribution, but it is still upto developers to make change happen and for them to stop allowing themselves to be exploited by publishers.

The third speaker is Greg Costikyan. He has given me the best ringtone ever with his heart of a gamer quote and I recently bought his book even though it has probably cost me a days worth of food.



I only wanted to know what his book was about. The description I heard goes something like this: Some guy who is the CEO of a big technology has everything and things are going great with the company's new products, but then the worst thing in the world happens.. Aliens Make Contact! They start selling superior products to the world and this stock is worth nothing overnight. He looses everything and ends up on the streets. But there is hope, to get back that he has lost, he must create a product that he can sell back to the aliens!

After hearing that I had to buy it. It isn't still in print so I had to get it second hand, but I am looking forward to it.

Undecided (Defcon)

Still undecided as to wither I think it was worth buying or not. There are a lot of things (networking, functional display and game mechanics wise) which need fixing and should be fixed. So I guess time will tell.

Got Defcon

Introversion's website is fully taxed, but if you get the demo you can just enter in an key into that and get the full game.

I want to love Defcon, but at the moment it isn't really doing anything for me. When the Defcon forum is back up I will see if I can get some tips. Not that I am doing badly, but it doesn't feel very strategic as to me the strategies all seem too obvious. I hope that I am missing something with the game's mechanics, but it isn't looking good.

Defcon Demo

I should be getting an email any time now with a serial key and where to download the full game as I have preordered the full game, but FilePlanet has a Defcon Demo available if you want to see for yourself what the fuss is about.

Germany Invaded By Giant Insect

WOW!

Doom Doom Doom

Been checking out the Microsoft X06 event stuff on XBox Live and the new Bioshock trailer under 'Brining It Home' is a must see. I also really think it deserves a content rating because it's rather bloody. The Banjo Kazui teaser wasn't great. Show me something in game, something of the story or nothing at all, please.

Also have been playing the origenal Doom on Arcade and it is just like the origenal, I have a headache and everything. I did try playing multiplayer for a bit, but that made me feel even worse so I had to stop.

Sonic the Hedgehog 360

A demo of the newest sonic game is on XBox Live.
It's hard, looks good and I am undecided.

Worst Game on XBox Live Arcade

Crystal Quest SUCKS!

Random Fact

There is no Italian translation for the phrase "Fashion Victim".

Two Software Development Methodologies That Everybody Can Use

There are many different kinds of development methods from waterfall to circular, but in the past few months I have found-out about two which I wasn't taught at school, yet everybody can use. From large development teams to lone developers working on personal projects, both of these methodologies work and are very effective.

• Test Driven Development
  The core of this methodology is to create an automated test method that will actually give you a green light telling you wither your application works or not. This is very useful when you are writing an application that needs to conform to an input specification or automates a task that is difficult to check by human means. Large teams can use software on their build server to run use-cases against their codebase that provides feedback, but lone developers can use test driven development just as effectively.
  
  As an easy exsample, when I wrote my table compression algorithms for my Compilers Class I needed to know wither the data stored in the compressed table matched what was inputed from the source table. Obviously if the data retreived from my compressed table did not match the source table then there was something wrong with my algorithems. I tried checking by using my own eyes, but I was dealing with tables 1024x1024 in size so I soon rearlised that I needed to automate the task.
  
  I created a button on my form called 'Test'. This button called a method which in turn methodecally called every cell in both the compressed and uncompressed tables and looked to see wither what was returned from both matched. Obviously there was nothing wrong with the sorce table so any mismatches where the result of a bug in one of my algorithems. Thought creating this I was forced to spend an extra two weeks trying to get all the bugs out, but that is because I could find bugs quickly simply by the press of a button (I also had t create a lot of different test data, but that is a another talk).
  
  When I wrote my last Tic Tac Toe game I also added a test button which took the place of a player and played random moves against my AI for 100,000 games a time. Because of this I know that my AI is unbeatable.
  
  The trick is to have your test method provide useful feedback. In the case of my Tic Tac Toe game when the test method which is making random moves wins against my AI, the test method will append every move made in that game to a text file so I can easily replicate the game and see where the AI made a mistake.
  
  
• Burn Down Graphs
  In order to create a burn down graph you must first create a list of features that you want to include in yourr application. This should include all necessary and desirable features. Then each feature should be broken down into tasks and a time alloted to each task. This will give you a list of features, how long it will take to implement each one and indeed the entire application.
  
  With a burn down graph you don't need to choose how long you want to work on your application each day like with a gant cheart, but it is important to update the graph regularly otherwise it won't track progress. Update the graph daily, weekly or however often you feel is appropriate. This will form the time scale that runs along the bottom of the graph.
  
  
  
  So along the bottom of the Burn Down Graph you have a time sale running from when the project was started to your desired deadline. And up the left side you have hours until completion. As features are completed, added or removed the graph will reflect how many hours you have left to work on your application against your progression to your deadline. And over time you will see a nice line appear that will give a very good indication as to wither you need to put more hours in to complete the project on time, move the deadline or cut features to meet the deadline.
  
  In the picture above you see a nice smooth line, but real burn down graphs aren't like that. There will probably be a few occasions when the time needed to complete the project will increase as difficulties are encountered, that is ok because the graph will always communicates clearly where you are, where your deadline is and by looking at the line you can clearly judge wither you will meet your deadline or not by the work you have been doing.

So there you have it, two methodologies that even a lone developer making an application for themselves can find useful.

3D Tertis

Of all the Tertis clowns I have played over the years the 3D Version is by far the best. Still not as good as the original.

I have a similar version to this on my BBC so this is the first time I have played it in colour.

50GB Storage

Microsoft announced today that the next 360 dashboard update will add support for 1080p output. I assume this is just for HD-DVD playback. Sony then rebuttaled by saying that support won't be native (I don't know how they would know that if that is true) and that at least the PS3 still has 50GB game disks.

I was a little surprised they actually did a rebuttal, but everybody knows that all developers will use the extra room for is FMV.

Additional: I should have mentioned that it is eastern developers that will fillup the game disks with FMV. It has never been fashionable in western games to have gameplay broken up between long RPG segments and long FMV sequences. There have been a few western games that have tried to do the whole interactive movies thing that doesn't work. But Eastern gamers look on FMV sequences as a reward for their long hours of killings hundreds of whatevers so such a large disk capacity will only suite eastern developers, and not in a way that breads innovation or originality.

Going For "IT" (Good Rant)

Mr Bleszinski over on his 1UP Design Diary talks about working "IT" into Gears of War. That special thing that makes a good design something brilliant in the eyes of the player. Everybody has ideas on what "IT" it, but nobody is sure. Yet everybody agrees that "IT" can make an instant hit. So going for "IT" on a project is always good because if you get "IT" (whatever "IT" is) then you have an instant classic.

I mention this because there is a notion that games have lost the tantalising excitement that they used to give people with gameplay had "IT". I have heard a lot of explanations, but currently the notion that talent isn't maturing in the games industry is a good one. Most industry professionals carriers only lasts five years maximum and that takes into account all the moving around between companies that happens. People enter the video games industry enthusiastic about working on video games, don't have the maturity to produce a bonafide classic with "IT", their first few creations are lackluster and then they leave before reaching their potential after being burned out by the software development lifecycle and unrealistic expectations. Then their replacement comes in and makes the exact same mistakes.

Another idea about "IT" that I also agree with is that games don't have strong enough source writing material. The game designs that are being produced are good, but the story elements aren't there and the dialogue is terrible. Quentin Tarantino and Kevin Smith both say they are best at writing dialogue, both have produced several films that have "IT". In Quentin's case very few of his films don't have "IT", so to say game developers need better writers on staff is probably a very true statement.

So if "IT" can be bottled and worked into a game as suggested above by developing talent and hiring a good writer to write good dialogue then why doesn't "IT" happen more often!
The answer to that is simple when you look at games that have "IT". With Half Life, when it was nearing the end of development and became playable from start to finish. Gabe Newell sat down and played the game from start to finish. He concluded that the game sucked was not as fun as the team wanted it to be. So the whole team promptly redesigned the entire game from start to finish just a few months before release. In this instance the team had learned a lot from their first iteration of the game by effectively building an elaborate prototype and this allowed them to build "IT" into the release game because the playable prototype although exstensive (it was going to be the game) taught them a lot about the mechanics of what they where creating.

Publishers don't like "IT" because it doesn't necessarily sell more units as in the case with Psychonauts and can extend a development cycle beyond what was originally envisioned on a project. And a game from a marketing standpoint that can be described easily can be marketed better wither it has "IT" or not. Games with "IT" are sometimes very difficult to market and so fail without gaining the sufficient revenue to justify the added cost of working "IT" into the game. And that is why I believe all these things mentioned contribute to the falling standards of game design and by falling standards I mean the expectations of players isn't being raised by newer games.

CG Water

This Computer Generated Water is incredible.

Random Thought

I wonder if international negotiations would go better if politicians had small fifteen minuet breaks between discussions for kitten time, where each diplomat would be given a kitten to pet before continuing discussion.



By harnessing the relaxing power of kittens, diplomats could quickly destress and relax, putting them in a good frame of mind for more talks.

Retro-Encabulator

I have seen the Retro-Encabulator Video a few times, but never linked to it because I wasn't 100% certain that it was a joke, but I just looked at the Wikipedia Page which states that it is indeed a joke.

My thinking is that this is an internal video made by Rockwell Automation as something to be played at the Christmas party, much like Rainbow Twangers Video was.

Defcon Pre-Order

Defcon, Introversion's newest creation is a simple game of Thermonuclear War. And is now available for pre-order. A link to the pre-order site can be found on Defcon's appropriately named promotional site everybody-dies.com.

I know I don't have much money, but I have been waiting for months to get a copy of this and it's only £10. If you get it now you get the digital download copy for £10 and you get sent a free physical copy of the game too (should be £15). So it's a reasonable amount when you consider it is a modern interpretation of the game from the 1983 film WarGames and thus allowing you to recreate an authentic 80's atmosphere in your computer's vicinity if you so choose.

Defcon will be available to download and play to everybody who pre-ordered September the 29th at 6:00pm (GMT).

Additional: Defcon MIGHT be cheaper on STEAM, but I don't know because I am yet again having that login problem (started just now) that will require Valve to do something on their servers for me to be able to login again. Here is a pre-order link to their pre-order if you are interested. It says $9.95 on that page, but I don't know if that is before they add UK VAT if indeed they add UK VAT. So I don't know if it indeed cheaper from STEAM or Introversion. Still you don't get a boxed copy and I hate giving money to Valve.

Update: Valve go their ass in gear kindly enabled fixed my Steam account and I am still not sure if Defcon is cheaper from them, but from what I can tell it is about £2 cheaper. So if you want it dirt cheap you know where to go.

The Second Coming of The Monkey God

There is a new teaser animation on Microsoft's Comming Zune Site that is very nice. Zune if you didn't know will be part of Microsoft's attempt to gain some market share of the downloadable music market from iTunes.

I don't think that going after iTunes is a healthy distraction for Microsoft, but this is what happens when a company has all the available money it needs and a lot of share holders.

World of Warcraft New Dance Routines

For the Burning Sea expansion pack Blizzard is adding some new dance routines to the ones already in the game. There is a crappy video of them Here on YouTube. That is crappy until you watch the last elf dancing on the video. Then it becomes very cool.

EDIT: Blizzard has has asked YouTube to take the video down. I don't want to spoil Neapolitan Dynamite for anybody who hasn't seen it so I won't say any more here about what it was.

Skillz Hitch

Been trying to learn XNA, don't know C# too well, tried learning it quickly at a higher level, found stupid things that I don't get right because I don't understand some basic stuff. So it looks like it could be a few weeks before I will have a crack at XNA again and actually get something working as my working knowledge of C# programming is ass and I can barely make anything. Need to find a job too, will phone somebody Monday about that as my desire to see my 360 games in HD just won't relinquish.

PS3 Update (Diagnosis: Not good)

I have been off the RSS reader for a couple of days while I sort-out what i want to do with my life, but just reading the PS3 headlines today it doesn't sound good for Sony. Here are just a few things I read today:

• PS3 Blue-Ray drive 25% slower than the 360's.
  This shouldn't bee too much of a problem because of the massive hard drive the PS3 has, which gives the possibility of pre-caching, but this issue is compounded by the fact the PS3 only has 256MB of RAM compared to the 360's 512MB. Sony talks about bigger textures, but they have failed to provide the space to put them.
  
  
• Delayed Launch In Europe.
  Look for them on eBay sometime March 2007.
  
  
• Shortage of units for launch.
  There will only be 400,000 PS3 units available for the US launch. Microsoft sold 326,000 XBox360 units in their first week of the US launch. So if we assume that Sony will be doing large boated shipments like they usually do, then this is going to be a big problem for anybody trying to get one before 2007.
  
  
• No 1080p games at launch.
  The launch lineup is already weak so this won't come as a shock to anybody. But the odd thing about Sony's hyped HD resolution is that although the screen resolution has 40% more pixels on the screen than 720p, because the refresh rate is slower it makes it less suitable for watching fast moving video like sports and video games. 1080p is best suited for nature shows and Opera.
  
  
• No HDMI Cable In The Box
  One of those really annoying things about buying cheap electronics is that sometimes they don't include the necessary cables to use them right out of the box. You get your new DVD player home, open the box and then realise you have to go back to the shop you bought it at to buy the correct cable to connect the player to your TV. Well anybody wanting to use the PS3's HDMI connection right out of the box will have to do just that because Sony won't be including one. They will be including a composite cable, but because of the perceived cost of owning a PS3, I think many customers will feel a little ticked off.

The interesting thing I find in all this is that despite what is happening in the news analysts are still predicting a PS3 win. This all assumes Sony has market allegiance with many customers. I think that is a flawed assumption and that consumers don't care who makes their console as long as it has the games they want.

HDMI Is A Trojan Horse

I have read a few comments by audio, video, TV, HD film reviewers/engineers that content piped through a HDMI connection doesn't look or sound any better than a standard composite cable. They have all then said that it is probably still too early in the standard's implementation to properly tell, but I just found out about a feature that comes along with HDMI.

The extra feature is called HDCP which stand for High-Bandwidth Digital Content Protection. This means that the signal travelling along the cable from your HD player to your TV is encrypted. Thus preventing a signal recorder from being placed between the player and the TV to capture the signal. This is most certainly another serious attempt by the industry to stop high quality pirated rips of films appearing on the internet. My initial reaction was that this is a little bit subversive, so I did some more reading to findout more about HDMI.

The idea of HDMI is that video and audio is digitally transmitted along one cable to prevent electrical interference. I had some Creative speakers that where digital and could switch between a Digital and Analogue signal on the fly. When no sound was being played, I could turn up the volume and there was always much less static on the digital setting. Using the speakers at a standard volume setting however I never could noticed the difference just like everybody who has commented about HDMI so far. So that begs the question, was HDCP the catalyst for HDMI or was it is just an extra feature someone thought of when the HDMI standard was being written, we will probably never know, but I am fairly certain that the uptake of HDMI would be a lot slower if more consumers where aware of HDCP because this stinks of corporate capitalism.

Dangerous Ideas

For a long while now I have been trying to put into word what I think is wrong with American Politics and what could be done to fix it. I haven't come up with much, but that doesn't matter now because Roy Eidelson a PhD Physiologist has.

His Google Video Titled Dangerous Ideas talks about what is wrong with American politics. This video could be seen as an attack on right wing conservative politics, but they are just the subject matter of the video as they are the ones currently in power. This video talks about how core concerns of Vulnerability, Injustice, Distrust, Superiority and Helplessness are exploited by politicians to gain support from the public. I have always referred to this as keeping the American people is a perpetual state of fear that is used to makes them think their government is doing a good job, but this video shows that it is simply a mechanism politicians use to get support and not something they do purposefully do to make the public subdued or obedient.

The solution proposed by Dr Eidelson to solve the current state of American politics is for the American public to vote for politicians that don't spin phantom issues, but instead address real concerns that American society and individuals have. The threat form Iran for example is a potential threat, but there is little evidence that warrants action. Yet real social issues like the 46 million Americans that are without anykind of health insurance are ignored, which I believe proves that the politicians have stopped serving the people.

Left Behind Eternal Forces Demo

I have been playing the Left Behind: Eternal Forces Demo and it is broken bad.

You start with a Disciple who will convert Neutral characters to your side. You do this by walking up to them and preaching. This is where the demo has a fatal bug. If the path to a neutral character is blocked by whatever then the game freezes. Anyway once converting the neutral character they become a Friend who can be trained to be come several types of unit. There is however a strange qwerk of the game where women can't be trained as Builders or Priests. No reason is given and so I can only assume this a religious thing and sexual discrimination. From what I can tell there is nothing women can do that men can't in the game, so I actually found myself not recruiting women because of this.

All the left behind citizens have life stories and I found this to be the only interesting aspect of the game. Although the writing is fairly bad. Below are two which caught my attention.

Red Dwarf's Hidden Message

Tonight on YouTube as well as seeing a Stupid Cat and a Posessed Cat (mind your ears if you are wearing headphones) I found This Video from the Red Dwarf Episode Backwards where the crew go to an alternative dimension and everything happens backwards. There is a hidden message in one of the backwards tracks for anybody who took the time to play the episode backwards and it's funny.

Saints Row Rating

Been playing Saints Row which is a lot of fun and very buggy. Right now I can hear rain in the game and it is not raining, but anyway I was just reading the XBox Forum and there are a few teenagers talking about the game. I wouldn't let my kids play it, certainly not when the radio talks about banning immigrants religious costumes and has reference to burning fags. In the UK the game has a big 18 sticker on it so obviously parents are going to seriously consider the game before letting their kids play it.

However in the US it has an M for mature. If you read the Description of a Mature title then you know what you are in for, but when you look at the box it just has a little M in the corner and that doesn't communicate anything like the 18 sticker does in the UK. So there are going to be a lot of parents buying the game for their kids who aren't aware of the game's contents because the rating doesn't accurately communicate that at the point of sale.