It's Halloween In Guild Wars

The city of Lion's Arch in Guild Wars has a very distinct Halloween feel to it at the moment.

Mysterious Xbox360 Accessory

I was just watching This Video over at Team Xbox. The video shows off some of the 360's accessories. The video features several accessories rotating around a carousel and it stops to cover them individually, but there is an accessory on the carousel that is not covered by the video or that I have seen before.



Additional: This mysterious accessory also does not appear on Xbox.com's Accessory List.

Additional: Turns out that it is a battery recharge station.

.Net 2.0 Framework Is Here

The .Net Framework is the most significant product in Microsoft's recent history and version 2.0 is available for download right now (from the links below). It isn't yet available from Windows Update, but that should only be a matter of time.

Microsoft .NET Framework Version 2.0 Redistributable Package for (x86)
Windows 2000; Windows 98; Windows 98 Second Edition; Windows ME; Windows Server 2003; Windows XP

Microsoft .NET Framework Version 2.0 Redistributable Package for (IA64)
Windows Server 2003, Datacenter Edition for 64-Bit Itanium-Based Systems; Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition for Itanium-based Systems; Windows XP for Itanium-based Systems Version 2003

Microsoft .NET Framework Version 2.0 Redistributable Package for (x64)
Windows Server 2003, Datacenter x64 Edition; Windows Server 2003, Enterprise x64 Edition; Windows Server 2003, Standard x64 Edition; Windows XP 64-bit

Half Life 2 Lost Coast Completed

The level does not liveup to the hype, it is too Short for that and the technology doesn't inpact gameplay in anyway. HD looks nice in parts, but I think I prefer playing with it off because the light blooms far too much throughout the level and that makes a lot of my screen too white for too long.

The level is full of bugs, but it is also full of commentary icons like in Chronicles Of Riddick Escape From Butcher Bay which is nice.
2/5

Half Life 2 Lost Coast

STEAM has just updated with the HD Half Life 2 Lost Coast map and technology.

My CPU is just 0.1GHz below the minimum system requirements, so I think I should be able to run it. More on this once I have tried it.

Xbox, Xbox Live and Bungie On Channel9

I could link to Channel9 (Microsoft's effort to show that they are human) everyday, but usually the interviews are very long, technical and very ranting (these videos are no exception), but they have just posted three videos you might be interested in:

Xbox.com Forums
Larry Heyb (Major Nelson) shows off the new Xbox.com forums.

Xbox Hardware
Yet another video of the hardware. Nothing much new, but I didn't know about the merkury switch in the ring of light.

Bungie Programmer Interview
This is an interview with Mat Noguchi who is a tools programmer at Bungie. He talks about what it is like to work as a programmer for a games company.

I am SO Bad At Word Games

Anagrams, Scrabble or even crosswords I am hopeless. This isn't some recent revelation, I have always been bad at word games, but something just hit me after watching the new Path Of Neo Trailer. And that is, NEO is an anagram of ONE, as in The One. And to think I call myself a fan of the first film.

Perfect Dark Zero Website

It's launched and it's Here. Not that it seems very good.

Super Mario Brothers

Yahoo is some of the classic 80's Super Mario Brothers cartoons up for streaming Here.

I remember watching this as a kid. I also remember doing the dance at the end.

How much?

My blog is worth $1,129.08.
How much is your blog worth?

I just wish my recent content was better.

Store Wars

It is a sad day when organisations have to use a cheap Star Wars clown to make consumers change negative buying habits, but it's Here.

Look What I Just Made

Bill Said he wanted this. It will save text to wav file with a synthesised voice, but people pay good money for this stuff (I have seen £60). And it was coded in less than an hour. I could add support for previewing, changing the voice used, speed the text is spoken and stuff, but maybe later.

Text To Speach

I just got the text to speech working in a separate thread for my project. This is great because now I can get any application I want to say (with a synthesised voice) whatever I want. Now I just have to get the Lexicon thing to work so I can get it to say unique or made-up words.

One of the limitations with TTS is that it has to be taught how to say words. So when it sees 'hood' for example, it looks in it's dictionary and finds 'HH UH D' which it then says and it sounds like 'hood' to the user. I need to be able to add my own.

Sucky Sucky

I once knew a girl named Suchinda, but everybody called her sucky. Anyway my posting has been terrible of late and I am not just talking about the grammar. Most likely it is the fault of my university timetable, for making me go in everyday and getup too early.

I wanted to do some more prototyping on my project tonight, but I am tired and have a headache. I want to sitdown and just code, but stuff keeps getting in the way. I might force myself after having a look at the new Open Office 2.0 which is currently installing. This post sucks so bad. Am tired and it's only ten.

Additional: Open Office 2 looks more like Microsoft Office than any other previous version.

Xbox Live Downtime

Xbox Live will be down for 24 hours on the 24th (Monday) so the service can be upgraded for the 360.

Doctor Who Spinoff

Apparently the BBC is going to do a Doctor Who spinoff called Torchwood. Staring Captain Jack the series is supposed to be a very adult orientated drama with sex and stuff.

That Crazy Frog

Just when you think that stupid frog has gone for good, he goes and makes a Video Game.

Space Odyssey

The first two minuets and fifty seconds of 2001 A Space Odyssey is just a black screen with creeping music. Then you get the MGM logo and this great shot of the sun rising up over the earth.

I am only watching this because first time, I didn't think it was very good, but since then many years have past, I have watched many more films, my taste in everything has changed and I want to see if I see anything different.

Update: I enjoyed the film and this time I understood what was going on. That is until Discovery reached Jupiter and then everything fell apart in a mess of hippie colours.

Random Number Generation

Nothing much to talk about. Just me sitting here trying to understand random number generation for use in simulation (simulating processes like bottle factories and call centres).

Would be ok if it was just rolling a couple of D20 dice, but instead we are using statistical tables.

The Best Xbox360 Experience

Just watched an interview over at Channel 9 talking about the Xbox360 and XP Media Centre Edition and on that they said that if you are buying a new TV for your Xbox360 (not that you need to) then you should get one that supports 720p resolution natively (this is if you are getting an flatpannel that is). From what I have read this means that the flatpannel TV won't have to convert the resolution from the 720p resolution that the Xbox360 produces to what the TV uses to display the picture in, because this sometimes produces lag and that can effect gameplay.

Plus they mention getting Dolby Surround sound with optical-in, because the Xbox360 supports optical-out for reduced signal interference on the cables to your speakers.

They also mention that the Xbox360 only supports the 'a' wifi standard because it is immune from interference. Where as all the others ('b' and 'g' for example) can be effected by electrical interference like Microwave Ovens, 'a' is more reliable.