After sticking with a fairly default template I’ve updated to a new one – Kubrick. It’s still fairly simple and straightforward and I’ve not deviated much (at all) from the standard look but that will come in good time. Much prefer this look to the old one.
Blog
BBC to drop Real
Scottish House Prices
If you live in Scotland and looking to buy a house (or are just nosey neighbour) then you’ll have heard of MyHousePrice.com which allows you to find the price of a recently sold house for £1. While good, it still costs money. For a free alternative try HousePriceScotland.com. While it doesn’t allow you to search and find local houses if you know the exact address your looking for it works a treat. Even better, use the postcode searching at myhouseprice.com to find the pucker local addresses and then use that info at the other site to get the house prices for free. Joy.
Service Pack 2
Downloaded and installed Windows Service Pack 2 last night. This is the much trumpeted update to Windows XP which should make the OS much more secure than it currently is and also explain to the masses just how vulnerable their machines are to virus and trojan attacks. A hefty 260Mb download and half an hour install time later and the service pack was installed.
On rebooting, before Windows was fully loaded an option screen encouraged you to ensure Automatic Window Updates were selected. Once past that screen XP loaded as normal. What was noticeable straightaway was the length of time XP took to get up and running. Slow as a dog. When it eventually loaded (3 mins against 30 seconds) there was a new icon in the sys tray – a red shield. This was the Security Centre telling me my machine was vulnerable. On opening it up fully it said I was fully firewalled as the new XP firewall is enabled by default. It also said my Windows Updates were good as they were set to automatic. However anti-virus was amber as Nortons was running but the software couldn’t detect if it was active or not. Doh. Disabling the windows firewall set that option to red also. But I’ve got a hardware firewall – no need for software. So Security Centre would also say I was open to attack as I didn’t have a software firewall. Nice.
I tried a reboot to see if the startup was any faster. It wasn’t. A quick trip to the services panel and Security Centre was disabled. One reboot later and the speed was back. On talking to others they haven’t seen an issue with speed so maybe it was another setting or bit of software slowing things down but I didn’t need a bit of software telling me I wasn’t secure when I was. However it’s a good tool for the great unwashed who don’t have a foggy about the nasties that can harm their machines. Pity the Security Centre didn’t nag the user into doing backups though – far more useful especially with the increase in DVD writers.
Other updates include improved support for Bluetooth (worked a treat with the T610) and Wireless networks and also some updates for Internet Explorer. Pop-ups blocked and an add-in manager to see what has attached itself to IE. Also mail will no longer download images by default and there’s a few other security related fixes. Windows Update is now at version 5 (seemingly doesn’t work with known dodgy keys used in non pucker copies of XP) and annoyingly it will also install Windows Messenger. To remove it follow the instructions here.
Finally there seems to be a lot of new drivers and compiled XP code. Certainly feels slightly more spritely in use. So a worthy update – just don’t believe the hype around Security Centre.
Manhunt Update
This article from GamesIndustry.biz put a new light on the Manhunt caused murder issue.
UK retailers Dixons and Game both pulled the title from their stores’ shelves last week after the parents of the murdered boy, Stefan Pakeerah, alleged that his murderer, Warren LeBlanc, 17, was “obsessed” by the grisly game and that it had inspired has murderous actions. The victims father dubbed Manhunt “a manual for murder”.
It was widely reported by the mainstream press, online and TV media that the game had been found in LeBlanc’s bedroom. However, today it emerged that Leicestershire police found the game in Pakeerah’s room, not LeBlanc’s, GamesIndustry.biz reports.
“The video game was not found in Warren LeBlanc’s room, it was found in Stefan Pakeerah’s room,” a police spokesperson said today. “Leicestershire Constabulary stands by its response that police investigations did not uncover any connections to the video game, the motive for the incident was robbery.”
Police believe LeBlanc murdered Pakeerah, whom he knew, to obtain money to pay back a drug-related debt.
LeBlanc’s assumed possession of Manhunt raised the questions as to how a 17-year-old was able to get hold of the game. The game carries an 18 certificate, so it is illegal to sell it to anyone under that age. Now it has emerged that the game was owned by the 14-year-old Pakeerah, that question has not gone away.
Doom 3
So I acquired Doom 3 on Sunday night. The verdict. Astounding.
The graphics are the best I’ve seen in any game. The lighting is amazing and really helps draw you into the game. Firstly it’s not like any Doom game where you constantly run and shoot. This is more Resident Evil crossed with Aliens. I don’t think I’ve played a game which has sent shivers down my spine and makes you jump as you play as much as this does. Opening a door to find an Imp leaping at you is a shock to the system. There’s also some adventure elements to the game – finding PDA’s of dead people and looking for clues in e-mails and voice recordings. Theres even links to the real www mentioned in the game.
The surround sound really works. You can hear a zombie creeping up from behind but the noise from the pistons and machinery running really disorientates you as you play. But compared to the graphic and sound engines the gameplay is pre-historic and doesn’t contain any new ideas. That said, what is there is very polished although there have been some frustrating ‘what do I do now’ moments when you can’t find a way out of the current level.
Still, I can see me playing this through to completion which is very rare these days. Hopefully Half-Life 2 (which I expect to surpass Doom 3) will deliver the goods next month on the gameplay as well as the graphical front.
Batman Begins Trailer
More of a teaser but available from here. Can’t wait.
Realplayer
Why oh why does the BBC insist on using Real formats for their video and audio. Real make the shabbiest software known to man. After installing Realplayer to access BBC radio my pc took an age to load. At the time I didn’t know if it was the Real software or something else as I had installed a fair wee bit. The pc was slow during ‘Loading your personal settings’ but I couldn’t tell what bit of software was slow. Cue golden tip:
Show Verbose Security Status Messages (Windows 2000/XP) This setting allows you to configure Windows so that you receive verbose startup, shutdown, logon, and logoff status messages. This may be helpful to in troubleshooting slow startup, shutdown, logon, or logoff behaviour. Open your registry and find or create this key:- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWARE -> Microsoft -> Windows -> CurrentVersion -> Policies -> System To enable verbose status messages create a new DWORD value called “verbosestatus” and set it to “1”. (verbosestatus REG_DWORD 0x00000001 (1)) An additional value called “DisableStatusMessages” forces status messages to be disabled, make sure this value does not exist or is set to “0”. (DisableStatusMessages REG_DWORD 0x00000000 (0)) Restart Windows for the change to take effect.
*Update – after taking advice from my IT industry colleagues I should point out that before changing anything in the registry back it up and if you don’t know what the registry or regedit is then do what you do with most of this site and ignore this post.
Preparing for Emergencies
The government has launched a campaign to inform the general public on what to do during an emergency i.e. stay indoors and switch on your TV or radio. Mmm – £8 million just to tell folk that. Anyway, there’s a website with more info and a cracking spoof one too. Class.
And yes, that was deliberate. Sigh.
The Nanny State
There has been a one sided assault on video games today. The game Manhunt has been given as a likely cause in a fourteen year olds death. The parents of the murdered boy have said that the game was played by the murderer – in fact he was ‘obsessed’ about it. Their logic is that the game should be banned before there are any more deaths.
My main beef is that it’s an 18 certificate game. The victim and murderer were seventeen and fourteen. Why were they even playing the game? Why didn’t the parents take an interest before the tragic events took place? Did they even know what their kids were playing? Current research shows no link between video games and violence. Same for DVD’s and TV. Yet tonights news cast a long shadow over video games and their influence on kids. The issue should be parental responsibility and taking an interest in what their kids do.
More laughable is certain companies response to the situation. Dixon Group and Game have both removed the title from the shelves. Well done. This game has been out on the PS2 since last November and on the Xbox & PC since April. It was an average game, sales were OK’ish but the market for that game had long since died. I’d like to see both companies now take that stance with any future 18 certificate games. Like GTA3:San Andreas. Go on guys, ban that one. Yes – ban the game that is likely to sell the most this year hence make the most money. Not likely, is it?