Nintendogs Official Podcast

Get the cast from Carl's blog Here (Nintendo doesn't have a central site yet). It is clear that this is going to sell very well, especially with young families without pets.

Random Fact

The Original XBox was built with off the shelf hardware. So instead of a custom CPU it used a 733MHz Celeron.

Blue Shift High Definition Models

Valve Have Added the high def models, but you have to open STEAM and then click on This Link to get STEAM to download and use them.

My Phishing Attack Adventure

This is only like the third time this has happened to me, but I thought I would mention it here in the hopes that if it happen to you then you will recognise the attack and not fall victim.

If you don't know, phishing is a type of attack where somebody will send you an email pretending to be a Bank, PayPal, or in this case eBay and ask for personal information. The best phishing attacks will forward you to a very convincing functional website that collects this information, that is then later used by the attacker fraud or identity theft.

This is the email I got:


This is the site it linked to:


This is the page it sent me to after I provided a false login (u:Bob p:password):


For referance this is the real eBay.com login page as it looks now:


This particular attack was very convincing because if details need updating in someones profile then sites will often ask you to signin and update your details. The only differences I can see between the two login pages is that the fake one has a Microsoft Passport login button image, where as the real one has a text link, and there is two addresses in the address bar on the fake page (I think that might be because I am running XP SP2). After I logged-in with a fake username and password it asked me to enter in my credit card details. And after putting fake information in there, it send me to the real eBay help page. So very convincing on the whole and I have reported it to eBay, but there isn't much they can do because these emails are sent from zombie networks (that topic for another time).

First Sign Of Christmas

Yesterday I seen Christmas cards, 155 days until Santa.

Gaming Industry Insider Podcast Idea

After listening to so many podcasts of late I have this urge to do one myself, but I know it would be a huge mistake. I am an introverted guy, so me talking about stuff would be dull and make me feel very awkward, but podcasting seems like a great way to get a message out there. This has put me in a difficult position because I have a desire to tell the world what is wrong with gaming and how it can be better. Even talk about stuff that I haven't posted about because it is too indepth that I can't be bothered typing about it. Like the whole innovation in gaming post I have wanted to do for so long, but realise that it wouldn't be an accessible read for anybody.

Me doing it would be a mistake because I would say a lot of unpopular stuff too, but then I would only be saying what developers around the world already think now anyway. So it would be so cool if an industry person was to do an anonymous show riping the industry and telling everybody how it is, and should be. Currently the only time developers do this is at the GDC and that isn't accessible to all, so the greater gaming population don't know how angry developers are, and it doesn't have any community following outside the industry.

Revolution On The 16th

Apparently Nintendo president Satoru Iwata will be doing a very long speech on the 16th at the Tokyo Game Show about the Revolution's hardware, controller and the controller mechanics.

Odd UK Chart Entry

I just got thismorning's post (I know, what the hell am I doing up before noon) and I get sent the UK games charts (might go into that some other time) and Sonic 3D for the PC is at #13!!!

Sonic 3D is like OLD, never played it myself, but WTF!

New Doom Movie Trailer

Before I seen This I wasn't sure about the Doom film, but now I know I want to see it at the cinema.

It shows some of the FPS sections of the film and wow, looks fun.

DivX Problems

There is something wrong with the new version of DivX's codex because I was unable to hear any audio from some of my Anime's earlier. Yet they would work inside DivX, but when I uninstalled the new versions everything was fine. And that made me discover something interesting. If you have XviD installed then it will decode both XviD and DivX encoded videos. So I never needed DivX in the first place.

Pixar's Lighting Preview Tool

Traditionally guys who do CGI lighting have had a hard time because they will set all the points to light a scene, and then have to wait for a preview to be generated so they can see if what they have done is right or not.

Well Pixar has a New Tool that generates a realtime preview of the scene.

Penny Arcade Made Me Laugh

Penny Arcade made me laugh again with This Strip about Nintendogs.

Considering they are one of the biggest webcomics, I think they should do that more often. Cuz too many of their strips are about video game company politics and that just isn't funny.

Blue Shift Available On Steam

Just as I Posed About Sunday, Half Life Blue Shift is now available on STEAM.

And to think this has had almost no news coverage. Yet this is great news.

Additional: No high polygon models, but load times are good.

X3 Screenies

3D Gamers has some screenshots from X3 The Reunion and although I can't get the first game to run correctly, the second one has issues, I find myself looking forward to the third instalment.

Right Now

This is the problem I am dealing with right now. And it isn't getting better.

Revolution Details Tomorrow

There are rumours that tomorrow Nintendo will talk more about their revolutionary black box.

My best guess is that the controller will have a spinning gyroscope inside so it can jolt itself around in specific directions.

EDIT: Nope, Apparently it is next month now.

Random Fact

Audio files bought from iTunes are encoded at 128Kbps.

Podlisteners Anonymous

*stands up*

Hi my name is Brook and I have a podcast addiction

*polite clapping*

It started six weeks ago when I downloaded a copy of iTunes to manage my .Net Rocks subscription.

I then subscribed to a few other podcasts like the Rock and Roll Geek Show, Dawn And Drew and thats when things got out of hand.

*quiet mumbling*

Since then I have been trying to keep the number of podcasts I subscribe to down, but there so so many good shows that I couldn't do it. I even tried ruthlessly unsubscribed to great podcasts like Yeast Radio, but after going cold turkey for a few days I always resubscribe.

Now I am spending all my time listening to podcasts, even going to the extreme of staying up until three in the morning writing blog posts just as an excuse to spend more time listening to my beloved subscriptions.

*sits down, polite applause*

Thankyou for coming here today Brook, I know myself and the others appreciate your honesty and...

Brook, I can see a pair of white headphones hanging out of your pocket!

*Brook runs out crying*

Half Life Blue Shift For Free

Apparently if you have registered your copy of Half Life with STEAM or bought Half Life 2 over steam in the Gold or Silver pack. Then you will be getting Half Life Blue Shift for free in the next few days.

For me however that means I will be able to play a game I already own.

Doom Movie Query

So there I am watching the Doom Movie in Insane Quality and I have a question.

Why didn't they just do a story about some scientist opening a hellgate and demons taking over the Mars research facility?

On one hand America is a very religious country and doesn't like anything that is seen to be a subversive occult influence on the population like Harry Potter or Dungeons & Dragons, but it would have made it a better film and I don't believe that the outrage would hurt sales at all. Infact I think it would help a great deal, so why the crap about the human genome!?