Category: Blog

Who’d be a politician?

Two Scots politicians made the news this week. One told some lies, was totally back stabbed by his party but then gained respect in how he finally stepped down. The other has also told some lies (but no one can really prove when), has also been back stabbed by his old party and could only find respect by naming his new party after the word.

…just a bit of a dick.

So a well done and sympathies to Charles Kennedy who suffered a pretty messy execution by his own party. I actually thought he did well for the Liberals and took them to places they could only previously dream about. It’s also a ‘wish he would just go away’ to George Galloway who entered the Big Brother house this week. I remember when he was MP for Glasgow Kelvin – I thought he did nothing for his constituents then – how can he be serving those in Bethnal Green when he’s on a TV show bathing in his own self publicity. Murial Gray summed him up nicely in today’s Herald – just a bit of a dick.

Beta Invites

Windows Live Messenger

Been using this for the past 3 days – this is the new name and new version of MSN Messenger. Interface is much the same as before with a bit more polish and easier to use features. You can search from within Messenger to including one option to search ‘Near Me’. Enter Games and a search window for Glasgow (which is near me) will launch showing a map and addresses for Game related stores near me – hello CA Games. You can also search your desktop from here – maybe time to switch back to MSN Desktop Search as having the search box in Messenger makes more sense than on the toolbar especially as I always have Messenger running.

There are also extra options to be had when chatting. One is Music Mix which allows you to share a music playlist with whoever you are chatting with. Sounds OK but in practise was slow to download my currently playing track and also made the Messenger app pretty unresponsive. Another allows you to share a map search, another allows you to watch a video together from MSN. All tat in my book.

One feature I did like was Sharing Folders. Turn this on between you and a contact and a folder will be kept in sync on each contacts PC. Drag a file onto your contacts name and the file will be synchronised into yours and theirs folder. Makes file transfer so much easier and you no longer need to wait for the contact to say yes to the file.

Newsvine

Think of Digg with less geeks and more general news and you’ve got Web 2.0 (blah) app Newsvine. Three main activities – Read, Write and Seed. Read articles and comment on them to your hearts content but also control the content – the community keep alive the stories they like by voting on them.

You can also Write your own articles and they will appear like other news stories so users can comment and vote on their favourites. Seeding articles is basically linking articles from the web. They will appear within Newsvine as well and be subject to the same voting and commenting as the previous two. The main difference from other sites is that authoring and seeding can earn you money. If you add value to the Newsvine site then you earn some dollars. Interesting concept – open up journalism to the masses but surely it will end in tears as wannabe journalists write up misspelled articles in the quest for fame?

A video from CBC that can be grabbed via bit-torrent shows the very same online mechanism in South Korea – it’s amazing the amount of money an amateur can generate but South Korea is the most connected place on the planet. Still – shows the potential that this model has. I’ve been pretty impressed so far with the content and the news that I’ve found.

The above apps are still in Beta but I do have invites left for both of them – if your interested leave a comment and I’ll drop you an invite.

Best beat em up coming to Xbox Live Arcade

The features…

Online game modes
o “Quarter Match� – entirely new mode specifically created for Xbox Live Arcade
• This spectator-based system is a tribute to the title’s arcade roots, allowing online competitors to use a “virtual quarterâ€? to “buy intoâ€? heated two player matches
• “Quarters� are used to virtually represent players and pays homage to the arcade tradition of claiming the right to play the next game
• Recapturing the spirit of swarming crowds at arcades, onlookers can watch the current brawl in a game lobby as they wait to battle the victor
• Voice chat support allows players to discuss the battleand even trash talk the current fighters
• Competitors can highlight each other’s “quartersâ€? to check out their gamer tag data or add them as friends
• Before entering the game lobby, users can choose either the competitive or casual option which determines whether stats are tracked or not
o Quick Match – jump into a match quickly for instant action
o Optimatch – the best possible match is determined by sorting through a set of filters including number of rounds, turbo speed, chat on or off and friends only
o Create Game – the most popular method for coordinating invite-only matches among friends which allows you to choose among several settings and host games
• Offline game options
o Arcade Mode – simulates the single-player Street Fighter experience where gamers must work their way through a ladder of opponents until they face off against the final boss
o Vs. Mode – allows two friends to select characters and battle it out
o Training Mode – lets gamers practice their fighting skills against a CPU character
o CPU Battle – duke it out against a CPU opponent
• Comprehensive leaderboards
o Overall – the most coveted leaderboard showcases the best overall players from around the globe as determined by a simple point-based system
o Monthly – uses the point-based system to designate the best players in the past 30 days
o Best Character – rankings based on who is the best at using each game character
o Consecutive Wins – tracks winning streaks to see who has won the most matches in a row
• Achievements – complete more than 10 offline and online objectives
• Fully customizable control options – players can map attacks to any of the main buttons and have the choice to map all three punches and/or all three kicks to a single button which simplifies complex moves
• Updated menu screens provide easier navigation
• 5.1 surround sound
• Sound options control the volume of the music and sound effects

The game….Streetfighter 2 – this March. The features that Capcom have added sound amazing except for the lame map all kicks to one button nonsense. Can’t wait to play this and get royally humped. If this is lag free this will set the bar for future Live Arcade games.

Bye Bye F2S

3 months. That’s how long I lasted with Freedom2Surf. I’m so glad I took a monthly contract as it means I can get out easily. I should have known I would have problems when Pipex bought Freedom2Surf and Sky bought Easynet (who provide the LLU line) within a week of me moving.

Firstly – LLU. It’s just not stable at the moment. I can live with a drop in speed at night due to contention (which will affect more and more people as the speeds increase throughout this year) but I cannot live with a flaky connection that has a tendency to drop. Easynet’s solution was to drop me to 6Meg from 8Meg. This meant the SNR level was mostly respectable but even when high the connection would pop at odd times.

I mentioned drop in speed – at night it was dropping to less than 1Meg and a 150k upload. That’s the worse I’ve seen in a long time. Although I criticised Plusnet at least they kept the speeds at an acceptable level although they did it by shaping the connection and not telling anyone about it.

Support at F2S is also poor. They don’t respond to e-mails or any of the tickets raised on their website. You can only contact them through a support line that costs a fair whack…typically you will wait around 20-50 minutes in a queue although I found phoning at around 11-11:30AM got me through quite quickly. The support guys sound knowledgeable but out of the four promised phone calls I would get next day over the last 3 months I got one about 10 days after I logged a call. Just not good enough.

So – time to go. I want a fast but most importantly stable connection so who to turn to? My line looks to support 6 Meg max via ADSL so as the speeds go up over the next few years I’ll be stuck at that speed. Left me with one option – NTL. So this Friday NTL will be installing a 10Meg line. I’ve no doubt it will suffer contention in the same way that ADSL does but hopefully it will be more stable and also the 10Meg speed is very appealing even if it maxes out at 8-9Meg. I also feel NTL has a far better infrastructure in the long term than BT has – I blame Thatcher for that one.

So – out of the frying pan, into the fire?

Happy New Year

A bit late due to being down south but Happy New Year to everyone. Last year ended on a bit of a downer with some family deaths…in fact there were a lot of people I knew off who passed away and that sad fact can only be tempered by the amount of births with Roy already announcing another for this year. As per usual I have no resolutions for the year or major goals (although a little weight loss would be helpful) although I will try to keep in touch (and visit) more friends than I normally do. Be warned!

So – 2005. My best bits?

Music
MadonnaA close thing for my favourite album but Madonna just snuck it. I loved almost every track on the album and could listen to it straight through time after time. Not bad for a 47 year old. Other’s I loved included Amerie, Chemical Brothers, Franz Ferdinand, Gorillaz and Hard-Fi. Coldplay’s X&Y was also a grower – at first I wasn’t sure but it has turned into an essential album. KT Tunstall was also listened too loads this year but that was definitely a 2004 album.

Games
Project Gotham Racing 3Project Gotham 3 was my favourite game – there are very few that I try and complete but this was one of them. A strong single player mode and great online options make this an easy winner. Other greats – Geometry Wars, Call of Duty 2 (even I’m surprised at the quality of this game), GTA3:Liberty City Stories, Wipeout Pure and Halo 2 sneaks in for most played game.

Film
Batman BeginsThis year was a little weak for me with regards film. I loved Batman Begins although that is probably more to do with my Batman fixation than the quality of the film. Notable mentions – Crash, War of the Worlds, Sideways (maybe last year) and A History of Violence. Not seen King Kong or Munich though so this list will probably change.

Here’s looking forward to more in 2006.

 

The Child

Batman - Kotobukiya figureFor years I’ve always enjoyed reading and watching Batman. I remember ages ago seeing a Batman figure in the window of Forbidden Planet (sad sacks shop) and for weeks wanted to buy it but I was a poor student at the time and just never got round to it. Shakeel pointed out some vinyl figures made by Kotobukiya although they were mostly Star Wars.

However by the magic that is EBay I tracked down a Batman figure from the same firm – I now have it in the house and it looks great. Although it was pretty pricey I think it was worth every penny and goes nicely with the Matrix APU. The trick now is to not buy too many more – EBay is far too easy to use.

 

360 – The Games

The most important aspect of any console is the games themselves. Launch titles are notorious for being short on gameplay while focusing on visuals knowing that second generation titles on the same platform should look a lot better. I picked up three games for the 360 that returned mixed results.

Project Gotham Racing 3Project Gotham Racing 3 (PGR3) is the follow up to PGR & PGR2 which in turn were the follow up to Metropolis Street Racing on the Dreamcast. You know what to expect from this – fast city based arcade/sim racing with exotic cars. I loved the last three versions and this is no exception.

Graphics are lovely and show what to expect from the 360 in the future. Special mention to the actual cities themselves as the detail they contain is amazing. The cars themselves look great especially when you switch to in-car view – the level of detail is amazing but I find the game feels a bit sluggish in this view so I always race from the bumper view. The sound of the engines also gets special mention as it’s a real step up from previous games.

Importantly, handling feels just right with a great solid feel. You really can feel your way around the track and know after a few turns exactly how the car behaves. Like previous versions PGR3 concentrates on Kudos points – not just winning, but winning with style. I would have also liked to have seen lap times and other time based stats as well but they are missing unless you specifically race time trials.

Online works really well – little to no lag and most cars and all tracks are available from the outset meaning you don’t have to spend ours offline to unlock the fast cars. Niggles – no anti-aliasing for starters means the graphics can look ‘jaggy’ from time to time. Also the game is true hi-def but to be honest it’s hardly noticeable. There was a lot of fuss pre-release that the game ran at 30 frames per second and that this was an outrageous decision. Since release I’ve not heard one person complain.

Couple of gameplay flaws. There’s an online career mode that is enjoyable except for the cheats that ram into your car at every corner. Learn to brake people. At the same time learn to use manual gears as it makes for a far more enjoyable game. There is also a track build mode which allows you to design your own tracks within the 4 cities rendered in the game. Nice idea except the barriers placed by the game are transparent unlike the ones used in the real tracks – a fatal flaw which makes custom track racing difficult – patch please!

For a first day release this is an astounding game and well worth a purchase for any 360 owner.
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