Great film quote: "I have dreamed a dream and now that dream is gone"
It's by Morpheus is The Matrix:Reloaded and is totally nothing to do with the topic of this post - but the idea behind it is. As humans what do we crave, truely? Notice, affection, desire, acceptance. The last one is always tough, many people are different in our world and having the bottle to accept and understand them is hard.
I would say very few people understand or accept me - one of my greatest and oldest friends the other day told me she would never really understand who I was. So that leaves me without one of the things we crave.
How do we deal with a situation like this? My way is to lose myself in a world of anger and danger - the cracking underground. If any of you have ventured to some of the darker parts of the Web you will understand what I mean, out there are people with real real hate for all sorts of things. People, nations, countries all sorts. If you are able to handle that sort of pain and anger and not be drawn in yourself (think very carefully about it) then I would advise you trying to find your way there. It can be quite invigorating.
Anyway back to the topic proper. I've been thinking long and hard about what the friend said (as I am apt to do) and decided it was probably all right that people do not understand me. I mean isn't it better to be who you wish to be than to play to the desires of your peers? I think it is.
The ultimate truth is that we are shaped by the people we see around us - there are very few people at the moment I want to be shaped by, this Emo streak is surfacing again in me and like before I do like it. I've received quite a few emails recently from people who have begun to feel the same thing - the next step they say is to think "what is the point".. I refuse to go that far (I know some of you are and I don't advise it, you will hurt more people than you think you can save) but I can se where they are coming from.
At the end of the day (and the end of this diatribe) you should understand one thing: you are the only one who understands you! Not the friends who think they do (or think they don't) or the lovers who cry for you, or the religious who pray for your soul, or the bastards who play with your life like a toy. If there is only one thing you can take from my posts take this.
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This week I've also been getting lots of emails from people talking about being scared. I don't wish to be harsh (and so far I have not been after nearly 3 years of posting here week in week out)but believe me you don't know the meaning of the word. Have any of you ever had a gun held to your head, been kicked in the balls, beaten and told you will be killed? I know people who have (I've had the gun at the head before) and they can tell you real fear. What you need to do is over come any fear, once you accept something you are scared of then you can face it - faced my gun with coolness and calmness because I was not afraid of the consequences, or at least I new the only consequence of showing fear was severe pain. So take your time to think about what you are really scared of and you will be fine - I promise :)
Saturday, May 12, 2007
Wednesday, May 09, 2007
Your gonna love this
I keep forgetting about this place... gah. This week I've decided to spend the week doing 1 crazy thing every day - up until next Monday (after that I have exams so meh). Today I bought a new computer - for £400 :( which isn't so much crazy as stupid but there you go. I'm not sure what tomorrow brings but I'm a bit scared. There is an aim at the end of this - a couple of things I'm building myself up into doing :) but they will take a big dare to myself so this was a small(ish) start.
The question is how far can I go, ok so I have an idea of how far that is but I want to try and explore this. The further we can push ourselves the greater the reward - we'll I don't totally believe that but it will do for now.
If I achieve anything decent I'll be sure to let my 'public' ;) know...
In other news people have been moaning about my Facebook status's and how cryptic they are. If your bothering to read this and your a Facebook friend (lucky you :P) then the whole fun is trying to work out what the hell I'm on about. It's like MSN status's; they can be a great way of getting across a subtle message without just blurting it around. I try and write stuff that means something and relates to how I'm feeling.
Ok so it's a bit crazy I agree, but if you didn't like crazy then you wouldn't be a (Facebook) friend right?? :)
The question is how far can I go, ok so I have an idea of how far that is but I want to try and explore this. The further we can push ourselves the greater the reward - we'll I don't totally believe that but it will do for now.
If I achieve anything decent I'll be sure to let my 'public' ;) know...
In other news people have been moaning about my Facebook status's and how cryptic they are. If your bothering to read this and your a Facebook friend (lucky you :P) then the whole fun is trying to work out what the hell I'm on about. It's like MSN status's; they can be a great way of getting across a subtle message without just blurting it around. I try and write stuff that means something and relates to how I'm feeling.
Ok so it's a bit crazy I agree, but if you didn't like crazy then you wouldn't be a (Facebook) friend right?? :)
Saturday, April 28, 2007
Da Lone Streak
I got told tonight I was getting hung up on a girl... pretty annoying when that happens (not an expert I promise) I find. Truth is its probably true. There is a girl, I do like her but I don't think anything's gonna happen - either because I don't have the words or she doesn't have the feelings (still not sure which though). In a way now I am going along with the idea for the kicks, as well as the feelings. Regardless for the moment I cant let her drop.
Admitting that last line about kicks to myself made me realise something; I still haven't changed. I promised I would (a long time ago) leave off being a loner and a thinker and become a social and people person. Its a tough change, really tough. When your on you own stuff is os easy, you are the most interesting person there, you are right etc. etc. Being the highly educated, highly considered and highly opinionated person I am being a loner sits well with my personality.
I have changed alot though, I have a friend who thinks much the same way as I do but is still up for a good discussion about it. I just can't get on with people who don't stimulate or interest me any more.
Which leads me back to the first point, being hung up on a girl. Ok so I can't let her drop just yet but the friends evidence was the fact I nnever really go out with 'the lads' anymore and never really tried to 'pull' anyone. But the truth is it is the lone streak shining out still - very few people stimulate or interest me at the moment, the few that do I am already at the stage of closeness where it doens matter or I just know them from online. Im not sure if I am happy with this situation or not, probably a bit of both. If nothing else it gives me a chance to bitch (and to write a page of self indulgent pap like this :))
Admitting that last line about kicks to myself made me realise something; I still haven't changed. I promised I would (a long time ago) leave off being a loner and a thinker and become a social and people person. Its a tough change, really tough. When your on you own stuff is os easy, you are the most interesting person there, you are right etc. etc. Being the highly educated, highly considered and highly opinionated person I am being a loner sits well with my personality.
I have changed alot though, I have a friend who thinks much the same way as I do but is still up for a good discussion about it. I just can't get on with people who don't stimulate or interest me any more.
Which leads me back to the first point, being hung up on a girl. Ok so I can't let her drop just yet but the friends evidence was the fact I nnever really go out with 'the lads' anymore and never really tried to 'pull' anyone. But the truth is it is the lone streak shining out still - very few people stimulate or interest me at the moment, the few that do I am already at the stage of closeness where it doens matter or I just know them from online. Im not sure if I am happy with this situation or not, probably a bit of both. If nothing else it gives me a chance to bitch (and to write a page of self indulgent pap like this :))
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Dare to dream
All of us have done it - many times. Dream of that girl, the promotion, that life you could have. Call it fantasy or ambition whatever - we've all been there. I get it alot when I work late into the night - or as tonight AVOID work late into the night. I've been sat here for several hours supposedly writing a website that was meant to be finished weeks ago. I like to listen to quite dark music while I work, to blot out the noise and distractions. Stuff like Linkin Park, Creed, Within Temptation and so on.
I just caught myself sat staring contemplatively at my laptop screen - with the same song on repeat over and over again - dreaming. I think sometimes it's good to get lost in those fantasies. Mine usually consist of heroics, secrets, betrayals and war - kinda reflecting the music I'm listening to :) The moral? Dare to dream, it is worth it. But (and this is where I'm going to go against what your mother would tell you) don't forget that truly anything IS possible if you try hard enough. She will say yes, you will be the hero, you can save lives, destroy bad men, save the world. But only if you never give up.
Of course in the true spirit of hypocrisy I do it all the time (pretty much every day in one case) which either puts me in the perfect position to preach this or makes me a stuck up prick (please don't tell me which ;-) )
Oh and that song? One of the finest ever written. "Easier to Run" by Linkin Park. Look to the lyrics:
It's easier to run
Replacing this pain with something numb
It's so much easier to go
Than face all this pain here all alone
We are sent into this life to be trialled, if you face up to it you can do anything
(PS I hate 4am..)
I just caught myself sat staring contemplatively at my laptop screen - with the same song on repeat over and over again - dreaming. I think sometimes it's good to get lost in those fantasies. Mine usually consist of heroics, secrets, betrayals and war - kinda reflecting the music I'm listening to :) The moral? Dare to dream, it is worth it. But (and this is where I'm going to go against what your mother would tell you) don't forget that truly anything IS possible if you try hard enough. She will say yes, you will be the hero, you can save lives, destroy bad men, save the world. But only if you never give up.
Of course in the true spirit of hypocrisy I do it all the time (pretty much every day in one case) which either puts me in the perfect position to preach this or makes me a stuck up prick (please don't tell me which ;-) )
Oh and that song? One of the finest ever written. "Easier to Run" by Linkin Park. Look to the lyrics:
It's easier to run
Replacing this pain with something numb
It's so much easier to go
Than face all this pain here all alone
We are sent into this life to be trialled, if you face up to it you can do anything
(PS I hate 4am..)
Sunday, April 15, 2007
Back 2 Leeds
Short post today. Firstly because Im off out to dinner in about 30 seconds and secondly because I have a hangover :( drank WAY too much last night so I am sworn off booze.. maybe
I moved back up to Leeds yesterday which was pretty frentic - and was greeted upon opening the door by a dead rat. Lovely. My mother went ape shit over it..
I've been listening to the Frays début album again today. I bought it a while back but never really listened to it. Second time of listening it is VERY VERY good. Rich and varied and a great addition to any collection.
That's it for now. Food time!
I moved back up to Leeds yesterday which was pretty frentic - and was greeted upon opening the door by a dead rat. Lovely. My mother went ape shit over it..
I've been listening to the Frays début album again today. I bought it a while back but never really listened to it. Second time of listening it is VERY VERY good. Rich and varied and a great addition to any collection.
That's it for now. Food time!
Friday, April 13, 2007
The Myspace invasion
I've been away for nearly a week with no internet and it has been HELL :) I got back to a flood of emails from people I forgot to tell I was away... so 80+ of them to go through in a second. Luckily my gaming clan hasn't exploded again in the last week so most of it is mundane business type stuff.
The time away has let me catch up on some reading, which is one good thing I suppose. I've been looking through 2 good references on Javascript and CSS to brush up on my skills. I've also been reading the latest .net magazine.
Which leads me to the crux of this post. The mag runs a regular feature with 3 designers competing to design a website - this week for it was a website for an MP. The thing that got me was that one designer used Myspace. I get his point about it begin such an essential advertising tool nowadays but I disagree it can be a legitimate base for a full website. At the most it is a separate interfacing tool to a different genre of people or at the least a backup web presence.
Regardless I think using it as a base for a site design in a 'competition' can hardly be legitimised! To me it shows a lack of vision and expertise.
However it seems this is the way people are going nowadays - using reams of similar templates and designs to reel out mounds of boring faceless sites.
The time away has let me catch up on some reading, which is one good thing I suppose. I've been looking through 2 good references on Javascript and CSS to brush up on my skills. I've also been reading the latest .net magazine.
Which leads me to the crux of this post. The mag runs a regular feature with 3 designers competing to design a website - this week for it was a website for an MP. The thing that got me was that one designer used Myspace. I get his point about it begin such an essential advertising tool nowadays but I disagree it can be a legitimate base for a full website. At the most it is a separate interfacing tool to a different genre of people or at the least a backup web presence.
Regardless I think using it as a base for a site design in a 'competition' can hardly be legitimised! To me it shows a lack of vision and expertise.
However it seems this is the way people are going nowadays - using reams of similar templates and designs to reel out mounds of boring faceless sites.
Sunday, April 08, 2007
"Got the sexual frustration..."
Before you start nodding sagely the title is a song lyric from a fantastically cool band called Arcaica - punk rock to the extreme (the song is called sex on a hot tin roof and is worth a listen). No I am one of those apparently weird breed of men (and probably women too) who don't simply live for sex - it's so boring how the topic of conversation in a group of men always ends up on that topic.... ANYWAY...
My own oddities aside I just read a really funny sex related group on Facebook. Te group was something like "Top things men should not do in bed to women". Some of the stuff was pretty funny and scarily true (considering it was written by a teenage girl who - lets face it - was mostly making it up). That sentence was ever so slightly pretentious considering I am only 2 years senior but ah well :). Regardless the funniest bit was one guys response - to post a list for women to consider. It was very tongue in cheek and highly rude dealing with threesomes, anal and hand jobs - you get the picture (some good tips there as well though girls ;)).
The interesting thing was actually the responses. Ranging from outraged women, through outraged blokes (at the women), some guys with posts like 'yeh suck my dick bitch' and the level headed sensible people who realised it was a joke. The really interesting one was a girl who made the point "all you girlies outraged at the idea of anal first should try it and then stop pretending you represent the whole female sect". Its a fair point (a similar one was made by a guy soon after) and one that shows up alot about peoples image of sex. The poster of that last message seemed a very sexually open person and talked about exploring new things - she seemed a rarity in the entire thread, the women defaulted to "ugh" and the men to the nodding "uh huh.. (but we've never dared try it..)".
Its not just the topic of sex - people have such strict boundaries regarding all sorts of things. And it's really annoying! Going back to sex, people will say hey I hate anal - what they mean is I'm scared of trying it and don't know who I can trust to try it with. Did that kind of attitude invent the light bulb????
Ok so I'm not trying to say lets get back to the hippy idea of free love and stuff like that but why not explore your boundaries rather than just set them! When you reach something you don't like, stop... I mean I've never eaten snake but I'm not going to tell you I don't like it! I don't like the idea but if I get the chance I will try it - I might miss out on something really good otherwise.
Ultimately my point is we have got REALLY boring as people (leaving the sex aside here and looking more generally). Lets stop being prude, uptight, scared and sensible and go mad a bit. I have some friends who go half way there and their the most fun people I know!!! It can't hurt really can it?
Were not monkeys any more.
I'm going to start posting blogs a bit more too (and send the personal stuff to blogger too) seeing as this is getting a bit of interest beyond the occasional good tutorial. So look out for some more regular snippets and personal stuff alongside the usual PHP / deisgn stuff :)
My own oddities aside I just read a really funny sex related group on Facebook. Te group was something like "Top things men should not do in bed to women". Some of the stuff was pretty funny and scarily true (considering it was written by a teenage girl who - lets face it - was mostly making it up). That sentence was ever so slightly pretentious considering I am only 2 years senior but ah well :). Regardless the funniest bit was one guys response - to post a list for women to consider. It was very tongue in cheek and highly rude dealing with threesomes, anal and hand jobs - you get the picture (some good tips there as well though girls ;)).
The interesting thing was actually the responses. Ranging from outraged women, through outraged blokes (at the women), some guys with posts like 'yeh suck my dick bitch' and the level headed sensible people who realised it was a joke. The really interesting one was a girl who made the point "all you girlies outraged at the idea of anal first should try it and then stop pretending you represent the whole female sect". Its a fair point (a similar one was made by a guy soon after) and one that shows up alot about peoples image of sex. The poster of that last message seemed a very sexually open person and talked about exploring new things - she seemed a rarity in the entire thread, the women defaulted to "ugh" and the men to the nodding "uh huh.. (but we've never dared try it..)".
Its not just the topic of sex - people have such strict boundaries regarding all sorts of things. And it's really annoying! Going back to sex, people will say hey I hate anal - what they mean is I'm scared of trying it and don't know who I can trust to try it with. Did that kind of attitude invent the light bulb????
Ok so I'm not trying to say lets get back to the hippy idea of free love and stuff like that but why not explore your boundaries rather than just set them! When you reach something you don't like, stop... I mean I've never eaten snake but I'm not going to tell you I don't like it! I don't like the idea but if I get the chance I will try it - I might miss out on something really good otherwise.
Ultimately my point is we have got REALLY boring as people (leaving the sex aside here and looking more generally). Lets stop being prude, uptight, scared and sensible and go mad a bit. I have some friends who go half way there and their the most fun people I know!!! It can't hurt really can it?
Were not monkeys any more.
I'm going to start posting blogs a bit more too (and send the personal stuff to blogger too) seeing as this is getting a bit of interest beyond the occasional good tutorial. So look out for some more regular snippets and personal stuff alongside the usual PHP / deisgn stuff :)
Thursday, November 09, 2006
Thursday, November 02, 2006
Restaurants should be banned
Today I went for a great curry with some mates. About £7, bring your own beer, traditional Indian fare! Actually I had to wait ten minutes after everyone else to get my Rogan Josh as they 'forgot' about me! Seriously restaurants need to be banned. Still, can't complain. It was cheap and tasted gorgeous.
On the more positive side it was only 2 minutes walk from our flat. My friends had a 20 minute walk to get home, and it's freezing tonight. *evil laugh* In fairness last year they used to live as close in to Leeds centre as I do now whilst I lived nearly 5 miles out. The times they laughed over me (and Dom) walking home (well smiled to themselves then!) makes up for the times I am ribbing them this year :)
Exams!!!!
I had the first 2 exams today! The first was OK (control systems) as I remembered most of the Laplace transforms (ugh!) and the rest was common sense. Maths was harder. The first half was vector calculus which is really tough stuff. But fortunately the second half was A-level standard statistics (or at least could be solved by those methods) so that kinda rescued it.
These exams are worth 20% of the marks for each module this semester so 60% plus would be a good marker and take the heat off in January.
Tomorrow I have programming (easy), embedded systems (simple) and Electromagnetism (*cries*). I hate that last one - really it's physics not Electronics. I sit through the lectures and it seems like a foreign language. Those first 2 are great though, my type of 'bespoke' electronics. Programming I find especially easy, I tend to soak up these computer languages and my good knowledge of PHP really helped with this module!
I say, Extraordinary film!
I watched The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen again tonight, with Sean Connery starring in it! (he really is the best Bond) not bad but a little corny :) although I found out too that it is based on a comic book series so I might have to check that out - though Wikipedia does say it's very different to the film..
People seem not to like the film incidentally, I really don't know why. Sure it's corny and the special effects look a bit archaic at times but it's a wonderful romp through 1899 Europe! The only let down is the ending (from when Venice gets bombed onwards) which isn't so much weak as predictable and drab. They could have pepped it up a bit!
At least the bitter end is suitably tear jerking!
And tomorrow?
Tomorrow I will have to get my flatmates to clear up the flat. I went away for the weekend (3 days) and they 'trashed the place. Tonight one sloped off out with some mates and the other went to his (apparently not but blatantly so :) ) girlfriends house. Tomorrow they won't escape....
Today I have been...
... Watching - The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
... downloading - District 13 (interesting looking French action film)
... buying - A card for my Mum's 50th!
... hating - My flat being a complete mess (not my fault)
On the more positive side it was only 2 minutes walk from our flat. My friends had a 20 minute walk to get home, and it's freezing tonight. *evil laugh* In fairness last year they used to live as close in to Leeds centre as I do now whilst I lived nearly 5 miles out. The times they laughed over me (and Dom) walking home (well smiled to themselves then!) makes up for the times I am ribbing them this year :)
Exams!!!!
I had the first 2 exams today! The first was OK (control systems) as I remembered most of the Laplace transforms (ugh!) and the rest was common sense. Maths was harder. The first half was vector calculus which is really tough stuff. But fortunately the second half was A-level standard statistics (or at least could be solved by those methods) so that kinda rescued it.
These exams are worth 20% of the marks for each module this semester so 60% plus would be a good marker and take the heat off in January.
Tomorrow I have programming (easy), embedded systems (simple) and Electromagnetism (*cries*). I hate that last one - really it's physics not Electronics. I sit through the lectures and it seems like a foreign language. Those first 2 are great though, my type of 'bespoke' electronics. Programming I find especially easy, I tend to soak up these computer languages and my good knowledge of PHP really helped with this module!
I say, Extraordinary film!
I watched The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen again tonight, with Sean Connery starring in it! (he really is the best Bond) not bad but a little corny :) although I found out too that it is based on a comic book series so I might have to check that out - though Wikipedia does say it's very different to the film..
People seem not to like the film incidentally, I really don't know why. Sure it's corny and the special effects look a bit archaic at times but it's a wonderful romp through 1899 Europe! The only let down is the ending (from when Venice gets bombed onwards) which isn't so much weak as predictable and drab. They could have pepped it up a bit!
At least the bitter end is suitably tear jerking!
And tomorrow?
Tomorrow I will have to get my flatmates to clear up the flat. I went away for the weekend (3 days) and they 'trashed the place. Tonight one sloped off out with some mates and the other went to his (apparently not but blatantly so :) ) girlfriends house. Tomorrow they won't escape....
Today I have been...
... Watching - The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
... downloading - District 13 (interesting looking French action film)
... buying - A card for my Mum's 50th!
... hating - My flat being a complete mess (not my fault)
Tuesday, October 31, 2006
DirectX the 'fight' to Vista
Interesting thread on the Micro Mart forums today. I guess it was started by this Inquirer article rumouring that DirectX9.0L was to be a version of DX10 for XP (remember DX10 will be Vista only). Even before the retraction got 'printed' here I was dubious about this - really it was too good to be true that Microsoft would allow the exclusivity of Vista for modern gaming to be blown away like that.
Rather I remembered that when the DX10 specifications were announced it was mentioned the DX9 would be emulated through the new API - and I guess this is essentially what is going on here. This is an upgraded version of 9.0c to go with Vista. And it seems that the only reason it got made was to support the fancy aero features of the new OS!!!
Isn't that a little odd? Why not make it DX10 compatible? sigh..
Another good point raised later on in the thread is that OpenGL was not initially going to be supported in Vista! Now I'm not a Microsoft fan or hater but that does sound like bad manners! And if the EU is kicking up a fuss over Mediaplayer being included then surely making Vista solely use DX10 over OpenGL over games is even worse - yet no-one seems to have really said much about it.
Although maybe I missed that argument a while back :) Apparently it will be included now..
Too fast for it's own good!
I watched the third "Too Fast too Furious" film, Tokyo Drift, today. It was shit. The other 2 are pretty good, fairly original stories and hard 'n' fast car action! In this one we have new characters (which is a load of BS) and a really really pointless story of bad kid gone good etc etc.
I nearly cried! Although the love interest (she was hot!) kept my attention long enough to finish the film.
In a film about cars there were hardly any cars and NO car talk!!!! That says it all really...
(Incidentally this is about the first time I've posted twice in a row. Lets hope I can keep it up.)
Today I have been...
... watching - The fast and the furious 3: Tokyo Drift
Rather I remembered that when the DX10 specifications were announced it was mentioned the DX9 would be emulated through the new API - and I guess this is essentially what is going on here. This is an upgraded version of 9.0c to go with Vista. And it seems that the only reason it got made was to support the fancy aero features of the new OS!!!
Isn't that a little odd? Why not make it DX10 compatible? sigh..
Another good point raised later on in the thread is that OpenGL was not initially going to be supported in Vista! Now I'm not a Microsoft fan or hater but that does sound like bad manners! And if the EU is kicking up a fuss over Mediaplayer being included then surely making Vista solely use DX10 over OpenGL over games is even worse - yet no-one seems to have really said much about it.
Although maybe I missed that argument a while back :) Apparently it will be included now..
Too fast for it's own good!
I watched the third "Too Fast too Furious" film, Tokyo Drift, today. It was shit. The other 2 are pretty good, fairly original stories and hard 'n' fast car action! In this one we have new characters (which is a load of BS) and a really really pointless story of bad kid gone good etc etc.
I nearly cried! Although the love interest (she was hot!) kept my attention long enough to finish the film.
In a film about cars there were hardly any cars and NO car talk!!!! That says it all really...
(Incidentally this is about the first time I've posted twice in a row. Lets hope I can keep it up.)
Today I have been...
... watching - The fast and the furious 3: Tokyo Drift
Friday, October 27, 2006
On life in general
Wow long time no post. I am really gonna try and get this updated more. At least till I get the LIVE blogging software written. Ah well.
The last few weeks have been weird to say the least! Getting settled in to my new flat has been fun and, though we still haven't worked out a way to avoid the washing up, I am getting along fine with my 2 new flatmates / friends. I think I've pretty much got my room sorted out too now. Most importantly got the PC's all set up and folding (albeit intermittently)!
As to my course, well this week we have the first round of exams for this semester - worth 20% of these set of modules :( I think 3 will be OK but the other 2 need some work to pass them. The 2 culprits? Maths and Electromagnetism. A.k.a Statistics a PHYSICS!!!! Neither of which appeal to my style of Electronics. On the other hand the Embedded Systems and Control Systems lectures are going well (the Control's guy explained all last years maths in a single lecture!) so we shall see.
In other techie news I have just upgraded to FireFox V2.0, and it's superb! The best bit? Inbuilt spell checker that red-underlines any miss-spelt words and then (on a right click) presents various corrections. My only gripe is that the customise Google extension doesn't yet work - but I guess that will all change soon (or at least I hope!). On slightly different note I finally got a regular column in MicroMart - writing the Folding@Home column. Although the first instalment struck discord with one forum member it seemed to go down well. Plus I get £60 a month for it which is always nice!!!! On the same tack I also have another article lined up in the next few weeks - stay tuned!
Life news? hmm how long do I have? Although something did occur to me today whilst my flatmate was taking the piss (long story). It was this! I have been (along with the other flatmate) helping to form and control his relationship with a friend for the better part of 2 months (and am starting to do the same to the other flatmate / another friend). Funnily and against the grain of my usual life advise things seem to be turning out OK for him despite my often inane involvement!!!! However he aptly asked today "What happened to your love life?". Which is a good question but I hadn't thought about it till now! Ok so it's not that I hadn't 'thought' about it I just never tried to get anywhere......
The point of this? I realised I am actually more short sighted than I thought. It sounds big headed to say I can read people but generally I can do quite well, one of the few things I am good at (ironic in a way considering my social skills). But when it comes to the subject of me I'm totally lost! Which can be kinda scary....
So now I get to say something poignant - which isn't entirely inappropriate and might be useful to some people:
"Talk to me, tell me your name. Let us bare our souls so we can be free"
Doesn't it piss you off that we play these games with ourselves and others. I really wish everyone could come out and say - without fear what we all want to say (and I don't mean just in matters of love here!). I suppose I should lead by example but I got good at playing the game, so why stop!!!
Hmm more tomorrow? maybe if your lucky you'll get some techie stuff!!!
Today I have been....
... listening to - The Kooks, Oh La
... downloading - The fast and the furious 3
... buying - WinAVI Converter (to get rid of that annoying watermark on the films)
... hating - My flatmate (not really)
The last few weeks have been weird to say the least! Getting settled in to my new flat has been fun and, though we still haven't worked out a way to avoid the washing up, I am getting along fine with my 2 new flatmates / friends. I think I've pretty much got my room sorted out too now. Most importantly got the PC's all set up and folding (albeit intermittently)!
As to my course, well this week we have the first round of exams for this semester - worth 20% of these set of modules :( I think 3 will be OK but the other 2 need some work to pass them. The 2 culprits? Maths and Electromagnetism. A.k.a Statistics a PHYSICS!!!! Neither of which appeal to my style of Electronics. On the other hand the Embedded Systems and Control Systems lectures are going well (the Control's guy explained all last years maths in a single lecture!) so we shall see.
In other techie news I have just upgraded to FireFox V2.0, and it's superb! The best bit? Inbuilt spell checker that red-underlines any miss-spelt words and then (on a right click) presents various corrections. My only gripe is that the customise Google extension doesn't yet work - but I guess that will all change soon (or at least I hope!). On slightly different note I finally got a regular column in MicroMart - writing the Folding@Home column. Although the first instalment struck discord with one forum member it seemed to go down well. Plus I get £60 a month for it which is always nice!!!! On the same tack I also have another article lined up in the next few weeks - stay tuned!
Life news? hmm how long do I have? Although something did occur to me today whilst my flatmate was taking the piss (long story). It was this! I have been (along with the other flatmate) helping to form and control his relationship with a friend for the better part of 2 months (and am starting to do the same to the other flatmate / another friend). Funnily and against the grain of my usual life advise things seem to be turning out OK for him despite my often inane involvement!!!! However he aptly asked today "What happened to your love life?". Which is a good question but I hadn't thought about it till now! Ok so it's not that I hadn't 'thought' about it I just never tried to get anywhere......
The point of this? I realised I am actually more short sighted than I thought. It sounds big headed to say I can read people but generally I can do quite well, one of the few things I am good at (ironic in a way considering my social skills). But when it comes to the subject of me I'm totally lost! Which can be kinda scary....
So now I get to say something poignant - which isn't entirely inappropriate and might be useful to some people:
"Talk to me, tell me your name. Let us bare our souls so we can be free"
Doesn't it piss you off that we play these games with ourselves and others. I really wish everyone could come out and say - without fear what we all want to say (and I don't mean just in matters of love here!). I suppose I should lead by example but I got good at playing the game, so why stop!!!
Hmm more tomorrow? maybe if your lucky you'll get some techie stuff!!!
Today I have been....
... listening to - The Kooks, Oh La
... downloading - The fast and the furious 3
... buying - WinAVI Converter (to get rid of that annoying watermark on the films)
... hating - My flatmate (not really)
Friday, September 15, 2006
Itooooooons!!
Last night I downloaded the new version of Itunes (V7. whatever). Ive been using Itunes 6 for a while and I really like the way it organises and looks after my music. I also like being able to buy online relatively cheaply. Whatever the arguments against Apple and Itunes it does work and it is the best solution on the market - end of story.
Actually V6 was getting a little old - or at least the competition was meeting it. So along comes Itunes 7, and my god its pretty cool.
The flashiest addition was the new CD browse view - where you can flick through your album artwork like they were actually Cd's. It needs to be seen to understand what exactly this is but it is really really cool. There are some bugs but essentially it works good. As a sort of compliment to this you can now tell the software to download cover artwork for all your music (not just purchased ones) this does take a bit of fiddling to get right (and might mean renaming some albums) but again it essentially works.
Actually that second feature is really cool as it is a feature I have wanted for a while - and for the most part it finds them automatically.
Other new bits n bobs include movies and TV shows in the store (and sub folders for them in the software). I got all excited over this till I found out that currently only US customers can access this. I don't know if Apple plans a UK roll out but I really really hope so - I love movies and a download system as good as Itunes for my films would be brilliant (and cut down on shelf space in my room!!). As to the TV shows I was hoping to get Prison Break series one - but again no UK version.
Another neat new feature is an upgrade to the backing up tool. So now you can back your entire collection and playlists to CD/DVD(s) and restore them at a later date. You can also do incremental backups - which is really useful (I did it straight away!!).
Other than that it just looks nicer. SO well done Apple, another good Itunes release means I'll be sticking with you for the future :P
(In other news I am downloading Vista RC1 as we speak - actually it has been going on and off all day!! so some time next week you should get a review - if it doesn't destroy my PC)
Actually V6 was getting a little old - or at least the competition was meeting it. So along comes Itunes 7, and my god its pretty cool.
The flashiest addition was the new CD browse view - where you can flick through your album artwork like they were actually Cd's. It needs to be seen to understand what exactly this is but it is really really cool. There are some bugs but essentially it works good. As a sort of compliment to this you can now tell the software to download cover artwork for all your music (not just purchased ones) this does take a bit of fiddling to get right (and might mean renaming some albums) but again it essentially works.
Actually that second feature is really cool as it is a feature I have wanted for a while - and for the most part it finds them automatically.
Other new bits n bobs include movies and TV shows in the store (and sub folders for them in the software). I got all excited over this till I found out that currently only US customers can access this. I don't know if Apple plans a UK roll out but I really really hope so - I love movies and a download system as good as Itunes for my films would be brilliant (and cut down on shelf space in my room!!). As to the TV shows I was hoping to get Prison Break series one - but again no UK version.
Another neat new feature is an upgrade to the backing up tool. So now you can back your entire collection and playlists to CD/DVD(s) and restore them at a later date. You can also do incremental backups - which is really useful (I did it straight away!!).
Other than that it just looks nicer. SO well done Apple, another good Itunes release means I'll be sticking with you for the future :P
(In other news I am downloading Vista RC1 as we speak - actually it has been going on and off all day!! so some time next week you should get a review - if it doesn't destroy my PC)
Thursday, September 14, 2006
Vista come vista go
So what exactly Will vista bring to us? Apart from a long beard after all the wait of course!
At inception Vista was meant to be the next big stepping stone in OS's, Microsoft's answer to its critics. And at the start the feature list proved it! Most prominently a new file structure to replace the current NFTS format. That sounded pretty useful - especially considering the features MS promised for it. Considering how going from FAT32 to NFTS format made XP an 'evolution' it was a promising start for Vista.
The best bit was we were getting an evolution in the next version of Windows! Something that has never happened before. Not only that but it was to be released soon after XP...
Then it got delayed - really delayed. You could argue for hours over whether that has been a marketting ploy to maximise sales of XP (Personally I suspect that played a part) but no one really knows. What is certain is that our amazing new OS to play with was not going to be around as soon as. Ah well we said - think of all the new features - it must take time to write them all!
Then of course news that most were being dropped or re-worked as add-on's for release after Vista (like the new directory format). So now what is Vista, as far as I can tell it is just XP with all the security patches applied (OK so totally rewritten but feature wise...) and a flashy new GUI.
And you know what my XP Corporate already looks like that thank you very much, that's what mods are for. And the mods improve all the time. So do I need Vista, no. Will I buy it. Yes because it will bring benefits in the future and will save me messing with shell upgrades to XP (plus I like to have the latest stuff. But I will be keeping my current XP on all my other PCs, Vistas will only go on my main rig.
Now when is that release date? Changed again?
(PS I'm now using Blogger Beta which is all very nice :D go google go)
At inception Vista was meant to be the next big stepping stone in OS's, Microsoft's answer to its critics. And at the start the feature list proved it! Most prominently a new file structure to replace the current NFTS format. That sounded pretty useful - especially considering the features MS promised for it. Considering how going from FAT32 to NFTS format made XP an 'evolution' it was a promising start for Vista.
The best bit was we were getting an evolution in the next version of Windows! Something that has never happened before. Not only that but it was to be released soon after XP...
Then it got delayed - really delayed. You could argue for hours over whether that has been a marketting ploy to maximise sales of XP (Personally I suspect that played a part) but no one really knows. What is certain is that our amazing new OS to play with was not going to be around as soon as. Ah well we said - think of all the new features - it must take time to write them all!
Then of course news that most were being dropped or re-worked as add-on's for release after Vista (like the new directory format). So now what is Vista, as far as I can tell it is just XP with all the security patches applied (OK so totally rewritten but feature wise...) and a flashy new GUI.
And you know what my XP Corporate already looks like that thank you very much, that's what mods are for. And the mods improve all the time. So do I need Vista, no. Will I buy it. Yes because it will bring benefits in the future and will save me messing with shell upgrades to XP (plus I like to have the latest stuff. But I will be keeping my current XP on all my other PCs, Vistas will only go on my main rig.
Now when is that release date? Changed again?
(PS I'm now using Blogger Beta which is all very nice :D go google go)
Tuesday, July 18, 2006
Online Software
Is online software the next big thing? Maybe it is.
Sure the big software companies will be rubbing their hands with glee over the prospect of more easy money to be made but the impact may be much further ranging - and not quite what those companies expect. For the Linux and Open Source communities this will be a big step in trying to convince users to switch to 'free' products. Imagine a user who doesn't want to use OpenOffice becuase he finds the idea of getting something free just too overwhelming - or he just doesn't trust it to be safe. Or perhaps he is worried that it won't do what his copy of MS Office does.. Online software can change that
Creating an online version of OpenOffice is not as hard as it sounds - depending on the technology you can use, the new Web2.0 standard *spit* creates a much more user friendly environment in the browser. Now you can use AJAX (a mix of advanced javascript, xml and php) to, for example, save a document whilst the user is still working on it.
As to file formats that is easy to. OO documents are saved using the fairly new Open Document standard - which is essentially just all of the data stored in XML format. Handily PHP5 pretty good XML handlers.
So it is possible to create a convincing online word editor thats saves documents in a standard that a fully featured offline word editor can open and use - so why have the OpenOffice team not done it yet?
Well I cn't say for sure, certainly when I suggested it they were very dismissing and seemed almost scared of the idea. Maybe it is because it is a new thing and they are not yet used to the idea, or maybe they are afraid it will detract from the actual OO software. Whatever the reason I think they are missing out on a BIG opportunity - I am sure if they developed OO-Online and released it inside 6 month's (which they could do) then it would be a big blow to MS and other software companies. It is not too often that a free Open SOurce alternative gets the chance to be one major step ahead of commercial competition in the way this could be.
Could they develop it in 6 months though? Well yes I think so. Built into the grand scheme of things for my LIVE! project is to have an online office suite based on OpenOffice, so I decided to look into the idea in more depth. As a result I think that I personally could develop and online version in 8 months - so for a team of developers 6 months is easy.
Regardless I have begun to play around with ideas for an online version, there is still at least 2 to 3 months of primary LIVE! development to do as yet so it wll be at least 12 months yet before I could release anything like a working copy of LIVE!OpenOffice (or more likely OpenOffice!Live). So it really is a shame that they wont do it themsleves...
Sure the big software companies will be rubbing their hands with glee over the prospect of more easy money to be made but the impact may be much further ranging - and not quite what those companies expect. For the Linux and Open Source communities this will be a big step in trying to convince users to switch to 'free' products. Imagine a user who doesn't want to use OpenOffice becuase he finds the idea of getting something free just too overwhelming - or he just doesn't trust it to be safe. Or perhaps he is worried that it won't do what his copy of MS Office does.. Online software can change that
Creating an online version of OpenOffice is not as hard as it sounds - depending on the technology you can use, the new Web2.0 standard *spit* creates a much more user friendly environment in the browser. Now you can use AJAX (a mix of advanced javascript, xml and php) to, for example, save a document whilst the user is still working on it.
As to file formats that is easy to. OO documents are saved using the fairly new Open Document standard - which is essentially just all of the data stored in XML format. Handily PHP5 pretty good XML handlers.
So it is possible to create a convincing online word editor thats saves documents in a standard that a fully featured offline word editor can open and use - so why have the OpenOffice team not done it yet?
Well I cn't say for sure, certainly when I suggested it they were very dismissing and seemed almost scared of the idea. Maybe it is because it is a new thing and they are not yet used to the idea, or maybe they are afraid it will detract from the actual OO software. Whatever the reason I think they are missing out on a BIG opportunity - I am sure if they developed OO-Online and released it inside 6 month's (which they could do) then it would be a big blow to MS and other software companies. It is not too often that a free Open SOurce alternative gets the chance to be one major step ahead of commercial competition in the way this could be.
Could they develop it in 6 months though? Well yes I think so. Built into the grand scheme of things for my LIVE! project is to have an online office suite based on OpenOffice, so I decided to look into the idea in more depth. As a result I think that I personally could develop and online version in 8 months - so for a team of developers 6 months is easy.
Regardless I have begun to play around with ideas for an online version, there is still at least 2 to 3 months of primary LIVE! development to do as yet so it wll be at least 12 months yet before I could release anything like a working copy of LIVE!OpenOffice (or more likely OpenOffice!Live). So it really is a shame that they wont do it themsleves...
Tuesday, June 20, 2006
Web 2.0 - 2 standard??
Is the web becoming too standard. Ok let me rephrase that - is the web becoming too HIGH standard.
You see the first 'version' of the web was a collection of arbitary, badly supported technologies. Then we got some standard and everything ran nicely - almost anyway could make a website and stic it online. Ok so it wouldnt have been flashy (probably was pretty crap) but at least it was there.
No we get the phrase 'Web 2.0' bandied around - which basically means 'lets make it a bit more complicated'. A prime example is CSS, nowadays a table based site is frowned upon. Now I understand CSS and it's positioning coding but does the average Joe? Dreamweaver and other WYSIWYG programs can create CSS driven sites but you still have to have some basic knowledge to get it right - and even then the code the produce is hardly the best and cetainly not cross-browser.
Then we have PAS-78 which is a good idea to some extent but will end up stifling cretivity on the web, not a good thing.
The result of this is a bland boring looking web that takes twice as much effort to code, looks exactly like it did at the start and requires a degree in CSS to build.
We have come a long way in terms of creativity, desing and accessibility on the net - I hope that it now doesn't get screwed up by people trying to make it all too standard.
Well what a farce!
Well the England match was pretty bollox, Joe cole had a great game and it all started well but Owens injury and Sven's poor subs made it an abysmal ending. Ah well...
And some more
Ive been busy playing ablivion this week and am really getting into it! Im at level 10 already and it's now beginning to get difficult. I think it's time to move on to Episode 1 though (which I still have hardly played). I have way too many games I never play!!
You see the first 'version' of the web was a collection of arbitary, badly supported technologies. Then we got some standard and everything ran nicely - almost anyway could make a website and stic it online. Ok so it wouldnt have been flashy (probably was pretty crap) but at least it was there.
No we get the phrase 'Web 2.0' bandied around - which basically means 'lets make it a bit more complicated'. A prime example is CSS, nowadays a table based site is frowned upon. Now I understand CSS and it's positioning coding but does the average Joe? Dreamweaver and other WYSIWYG programs can create CSS driven sites but you still have to have some basic knowledge to get it right - and even then the code the produce is hardly the best and cetainly not cross-browser.
Then we have PAS-78 which is a good idea to some extent but will end up stifling cretivity on the web, not a good thing.
The result of this is a bland boring looking web that takes twice as much effort to code, looks exactly like it did at the start and requires a degree in CSS to build.
We have come a long way in terms of creativity, desing and accessibility on the net - I hope that it now doesn't get screwed up by people trying to make it all too standard.
Well what a farce!
Well the England match was pretty bollox, Joe cole had a great game and it all started well but Owens injury and Sven's poor subs made it an abysmal ending. Ah well...
And some more
Ive been busy playing ablivion this week and am really getting into it! Im at level 10 already and it's now beginning to get difficult. I think it's time to move on to Episode 1 though (which I still have hardly played). I have way too many games I never play!!
Thursday, June 15, 2006
England Expects
Original name huh? Well Im in a rush so we will have to live with corny for now! I meant to post this before the first game, then before the second - funny how time runs away with you :D, anyway I think the 2 games we have seen so far back up what I am saying (or at least I hope so)
England expects alot from the world cup this year. I mean there is much at stake but also much in our favour. 40 years exactly since our last triumph and were in Germany again. As long as the group stage placements work out we may well meet them in the final.
So far the 2 games we have seen have been less than average, compared to argentina we are rubbish. BUT, and it's a big but, Sven actually made good substitutes in the last match. With proper wingers (as oppose wing-backs) we absolutely anhialated T&T.
Tonight I believe we will finally play to standard, and hopefuully thrash Sweden. We can do it, and we will.
I still believe in them and I hope that is enough..
In anticipation.....
England expects alot from the world cup this year. I mean there is much at stake but also much in our favour. 40 years exactly since our last triumph and were in Germany again. As long as the group stage placements work out we may well meet them in the final.
So far the 2 games we have seen have been less than average, compared to argentina we are rubbish. BUT, and it's a big but, Sven actually made good substitutes in the last match. With proper wingers (as oppose wing-backs) we absolutely anhialated T&T.
Tonight I believe we will finally play to standard, and hopefuully thrash Sweden. We can do it, and we will.
I still believe in them and I hope that is enough..
In anticipation.....
Sunday, June 11, 2006
A time for reflection
So tomorrow I start the long road home for the summer. It's wierd it hardly seems like yesterday I started university, time has flown, I have seen and done many things and not done many more. But one of the overidding memories for me of this first year will be tonight; all my friends have left (or are just about to) so I am essentially "on my own". I should be panicked - desperately trying to make use of the super fast internet I will be losing tomorrow - but I cant. I just want to chill.
Ive been staring at the pile of crap in my room for ages, really really don't want to have to pack it up. Mostly because it's a chore but partly because then it will mean I am truly finished.
Year 1 has been great, I dont think that I would change very much of it at all. Regrets? one major one, and of course it is 'women' related but maybe thats just for me (you never know she might read this sometime). Apart from that probably that I didnt get to know my 'neighbours' better. I hardly know anyone in Barbier house (my accommodation) as most of my friends live elsewhere and I am sure they regard me as a bit of a wierdo.
On the other hand I cant wait to get home for the summer and see my family properly again (although I will probably be fed up of them within a week - guaranteed). It feels like a new beginning, a chance to refresh, with plenty of new challenges ahead. Hoping for adminship on Wikipedia, maybe write some articles for Micro Mart, expand my business and start my new project. And thats just the main things! All in all it's gonna be a great summer.
Hopefully I will be keeping up these posts. So far it's been kind of fun trying to get into the habit of writing (something I love) and slowly I'm getting there. Just hoping that a summer or sporadic posting will not break this newly formed obsession.
Ive been staring at the pile of crap in my room for ages, really really don't want to have to pack it up. Mostly because it's a chore but partly because then it will mean I am truly finished.
Year 1 has been great, I dont think that I would change very much of it at all. Regrets? one major one, and of course it is 'women' related but maybe thats just for me (you never know she might read this sometime). Apart from that probably that I didnt get to know my 'neighbours' better. I hardly know anyone in Barbier house (my accommodation) as most of my friends live elsewhere and I am sure they regard me as a bit of a wierdo.
On the other hand I cant wait to get home for the summer and see my family properly again (although I will probably be fed up of them within a week - guaranteed). It feels like a new beginning, a chance to refresh, with plenty of new challenges ahead. Hoping for adminship on Wikipedia, maybe write some articles for Micro Mart, expand my business and start my new project. And thats just the main things! All in all it's gonna be a great summer.
Hopefully I will be keeping up these posts. So far it's been kind of fun trying to get into the habit of writing (something I love) and slowly I'm getting there. Just hoping that a summer or sporadic posting will not break this newly formed obsession.
Saturday, June 10, 2006
AM2
I was reading the Toms Hardware report about AM2 and it had a really short
section on NF5 from Nvidia.
This
looks really exciting. Especially as they have taken the plunge and got
rid of one ATA connector - now you can only connect 2 ata devices! Im
not sure but I seriously suspect Nvidia would have done away with them
entirely except that most DVD drives are still ATA. NF6 will almost
certainly see the death of ATA connectors.
To be perfectly honest
thats the most exciting part of the article for me. At the moment AM2
looks fairly generic, ok so it has potential but all AMD have done
(with the exeption of the FX-62) is port all of their current catalogue
to AM2. So we have all of that potential and the last gen technology
just doesnt fill the shoes.
Maybe Im being a little harsh but I
cant help feeling AMD have introduced this new socket way too soon,
unless they can pull out some good FX or A64 chips in the next few
months people are going to start to feel that this is a little bit like
a gimmick, K8L isn't going to be around for a good while yet!
I
see AMD's strategy, getting punters to upgrade to AM2 now so that when
K8L chips appear they will be an 'easy' upgrade but I really dont think
thats going to work. AM2 MB now will not make full useof the potential
of the socket. NF5 is a great example, sure they have dropped one ATA
socket but by this time next year I fully expect ATA to be real legacy
with DVD drives mostly using SATA. Thats especially likely considering
we should have Vista by then
which will bring full native SATA support.
All of this asks an interesting question. What can AMD do to meet the
threat of Conroe. And is Conroe even a threat. People talk about the last 5 or 6 years being AMD's golden era beating Intel of at every post. In a way thats true, AMD did produce some excellent chips for a ,uch lower price than Intel . They also pulled of some technically brilliant feats, but there is another side to that. The lasy few years havn't been so good to AMD. Really they hit a dark era - one that is peaking now with the premature release of AM2. Ok so Athlons, Athlon Xps and Durons were excellent chips and A64 looked set to follow nucely in their footstpes. But then we had the move to S754 (which AMD openly admitted was a transition socket) and S939 - which they claimed to be sticking with for years to come. Unfortunately it seems 939 just did not have enough potential for AMD so now we get another new socket. Thats all very well - we want progression but there has been so many changes in such a short time punters don't know which way to turn. Do they go for chaep 939 chips now when chances are that it will become less and less supported or do they cut their losses and hit AM2, meaning an entire new rig! I sympathise with AMD, it was never going to be an easy transition.
Conroe is going to be AM2's big competition (in a way). So far tests show that Intels new chip is pretty good - much faster than anything currently produced by either company. It's also a great technical acheivment with some new tweaks and enhancements. On the other hand when you consider that Intel have named this a next generation chip the performance margin doesnt looks so good. Compared to the current generation of chips you would expect Conroe's to speed ahead of them (well I would anyway). I just don't understand that. The GHz wars are over but speed is still king and these operating systmes are getting more and more hungry (ahem).
The other thing is that K8L (AMD's next gen chip) is looking much better. Ok so it doesn't bring much technically (except for L3 chche which will be useful and Double Floating Point Operation) but it is a real redesign with potential for expansion. As far as I can see with conroe Intel have sacrificed alot of space for the huge L2 cache at the expense of upgradibility. Conroe will last a good long time but when it comes to the next next generation Intel may have to go back to the drawing board. I hope Im wrong, I wont pretend to fully understand how the Conroe architecture works but I get the feeling it is a case of: "good now but the future; well....".
Again I hope I'm wrong and Conroe doies go from strength to strength, Intel deserve it, they have put a hell of a lot of effort into this chip and it's failure would hurt them badly.
Similarily I hope AMD can deliver in K8L and AM2. If both sides had excellent chips on offer we could see some great leaps in chip design.
One final thing. L3 cache is an interesting and probably important idea, but despite AMD mentioning it in an IET (then IEE) and an IEEE journal interview a year or more ago Intle havn't incorporated it into the Conroe design. Again I see no spac to add it on the designs either - which is very odd!
Thursday, June 08, 2006
Episode1 (damn steam) and Kata's
I bought Episode1 on Tuesday FROM A SHOP, seeing as steam only accepts credit cards!! Something that keeps annoying me (If anyone knows where i can buy Darwinia from then tlet me know I will be very happy). So far i have managed to avoid playing on it for very long (a quick half hour when I installed and thats it), seeing as next week I will lose my net connection for 3 months I have been trying to get as many CSS hours in as possible - so I will save it for next week.
First impressions says it's good though. I really like some the opening sequence and the bit where dog practices his shotputting *ahme* well I'll let you find all that out.
Another game I got the other day is Hitman:Blood money - its crud. TYhe other games were good, apart from their clumnky movement and interface the gameplay was good and made up for it. In the latest game we still get the clunky way opf movement and a shoddy game. I may be biased as i have only played the training mission so far but it is way to nit pickerty, and the weapon selection is abysmal (as is the inventory). Its not that they have done it badly just completely different to any other game I have played - and it's hard to get used to.
And the Kata bit? A reference to Equlibrium, Ive watched this a few times now in the last week and all I can say is wow. I love the Matrix but tis is actualy better. Ok so the story drags at times but it doesn't get too holed up in the emotional side, then again it doesn't go too action heavy either. In reality it's as bland and unemotional as it's storyline (about a 1984 style world with peoples emotions suppressed and matrix style gun kata's to control the masses) and yet somehow it works. I think the movie is really made by the excellent acting, I mean when you consider thet Christian Bale went on to make the superb Batman begins you get the idea of the caliberin this.
Most cool of all is the final scene where Christian Bale's hero character confronts 'The Father' in a brilliant hand to hand gun battle - it really is hard to describe how cool that looks till you see it!
My rating: 9.5/10, really worth a watch.
(This post was a day late because I ams a lazy bastard and forgot to hit send, I might post some more later on today but things are busy at the moment, only 3 more days of living Leeds then 3 months back home!)
First impressions says it's good though. I really like some the opening sequence and the bit where dog practices his shotputting *ahme* well I'll let you find all that out.
Another game I got the other day is Hitman:Blood money - its crud. TYhe other games were good, apart from their clumnky movement and interface the gameplay was good and made up for it. In the latest game we still get the clunky way opf movement and a shoddy game. I may be biased as i have only played the training mission so far but it is way to nit pickerty, and the weapon selection is abysmal (as is the inventory). Its not that they have done it badly just completely different to any other game I have played - and it's hard to get used to.
And the Kata bit? A reference to Equlibrium, Ive watched this a few times now in the last week and all I can say is wow. I love the Matrix but tis is actualy better. Ok so the story drags at times but it doesn't get too holed up in the emotional side, then again it doesn't go too action heavy either. In reality it's as bland and unemotional as it's storyline (about a 1984 style world with peoples emotions suppressed and matrix style gun kata's to control the masses) and yet somehow it works. I think the movie is really made by the excellent acting, I mean when you consider thet Christian Bale went on to make the superb Batman begins you get the idea of the caliberin this.
Most cool of all is the final scene where Christian Bale's hero character confronts 'The Father' in a brilliant hand to hand gun battle - it really is hard to describe how cool that looks till you see it!
My rating: 9.5/10, really worth a watch.
(This post was a day late because I ams a lazy bastard and forgot to hit send, I might post some more later on today but things are busy at the moment, only 3 more days of living Leeds then 3 months back home!)
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