End Of Level Boss
My random ramblings. The world seen by a middle aged gamer who's been blasting pixels since Spacies. Desperate to get back into the game industry. A mortgage keeps me in a real job!
Friday, May 04, 2012
Forfeit and Injuries... SIGH!
Our previous game against Rocket Boys was a hostile one. Things were said. Ego's were bruised. So when a new match up against the Rocket Boys was announced I for one was keen on getting a chance to hit out at them again. But when Rob sent me and Blackout's latest recruit, Kevin, out to open in the batting we did so knowing that only four players were present. We march out and were ready to put on a big total in the hope more troops would arrive. However I was to face trouble on the first ball. I struck the ball downwards into the ground and thought a run may have been on. Kev sent me back to avoid a stumping. But in my effort to dive back I fell heavily onto my left hand with my bat in the right hand and injured myself. I played on not having known the seriousness of the injury and played out the rest of the match with a "mallet finger". Basically it's a bone fragment that has dislodged itself in my ring finger.
We managed to finish off our opening stint with a total of 45 runs on the board. Not a bad knock with only the single wicket falling... mine! Next out to battle were Rob and Langy. Slow and steady lead the race. This was proven with a total of 33 runs with only one run out to play against that pair. However Blackout's biggest worry here... and one that actually cost us the match, was the distinct lack of players in Black. In the end only four players showed and as a result we had to forfeit our match.
Rocket Boys were good enough to play on knowing that they had already taken out the win by sending both batting partners out in turn again. We notched up another 45 runs with three wickets this time round and the Hammer/Langy combo snared 34 runs on their second outing with only one wicket to speak of. Talk about consistent.
The fielding innings for Blackout was made up of four Blackout players with four Rocket Boys but Rob refused to let the Rocket's bowl to make things more interesting. What resulted was a thrilling match despite the circumstances which led to a draw! 157 runs a piece! There were some awesome bowling, catches and tight fielding to speak of. But the fact that it was all for nothing left a bad taste in my mouth. The fact that I ended up with an eight week injury made that fact even more hard to take.
Friday, February 18, 2011
Waze Around Traffic
I stumbled onto an app for the Android (also available for that other phone… the iPhone!) which promises to help duck around traffic jams with a social network system of people reporting roadwork's, speed patrols and other hazards on the roads. Living here in Sydney can be testing at the best of times when it comes to life on the road. Our silly government put up roads that are half as efficient as they ought to be and as a result roads become parking lots real quick!
Waze promises a social GPS navigation experience with user built maps, user built warnings and user built social experience. I downloaded this in a heartbeat! You start off as a baby “wazer” and the more dots on the road, more traffic reports you upload and basically more interactions you have with the software the higher up the ranks you go. You start by telling the program where you wish to go. Unfortunately, as with most GPS programs, this is where you’ll encounter your first problem. Admittedly the developers website do state that Australia is only a recent addition to the Waze network but for the time being, finding your address can be a nuisance as the roads are still being entered into the program by the users themselves. Once entered though you get to start driving and when it works, the system is great. It tells you that there are speed traps ahead, displays on the screen when you have stopped of locally reported hazards from other users… LIVE! But the navigating is so unreliable at present it’s almost better off at this stage to simply not use this software for that. Simply using it to warn of problems on the road is where this system is currently at it’s most usefulness.
You can have the software report to Twitter or Facebook of your events with the software (eg; Just reported a hazard on Marsh Street. m5 tunnel is closed eastbound. My mood: happy, http://bit.ly/hoJmvr using @waze - Social GPS) or you can check into locations via Four Square from within the app itself.
Here’s my wish with this software. I had so much fun using this app. Seeing other peeps using the software with me in real time is cool. Having little neat touches like a tag left behind in your trail on the map showing your speed at that point or if you’re stuck in slow traffic getting to see your app upload that live to the network. So much at promise with this app it’s cool. Things I disliked immensely with the app was it’s reliance on cutesy games like collecting on screen chocolates for points and dots on the map for Pacman style scores was a little too left of field for me despite the fact I once imagined a GPS program having this feature one day!
Currently I don’t believe that there are enough users on this network here in Sydney to show the programs full potential. Being able to warn the masses about a closed road really gives you a sense of being a good do’er doesn’t go unnoticed! Entering in the updates while driving though should be so so simple. Currently I’d need to bring up the menu screen, click REPORT and then select my type of warning and then click the field to type the message and then hit ENTER and then hit send. TOO MANY CLICKS! Admittedly I do use voice recognition with mixed success but having said that the program does need to cut down on this procedure and stream line it to make it safer to use.
One last problem was that once you’ve reached your destination you need to quickly shut down the program or it will falsely report the road you are on as a stand still as you are not moving.
This app has so much potential and despite all its many current flaws (such as Botany Bay taking up most of the St George area in a virtual tsunami) I believe if this was an add on for current top named GPS programs then we could be onto a winner! Imagine Tom Tom or Navigon where you, the drivers, could contribute to the traffic reports. One day me thinks!
Monday, February 14, 2011
My Samsung Galaxy S Upgrade
Good so once you’ve gone and done that you need to get the scary business of resetting your phone to factory settings. There’s a heap of different advice out there but the one that got me one the way was this video:
The benefits? Well not only does 2.2 run so much smoother than 2.1 but it has many improvements in speech recognition commands, better lay out in on screen design and improved design. But also Samsung offer a free GPS program from Navigon. Overall the Navigon program is actually quite good and runs better in many ways than even Tomtom does. It displays ultra smooth maps on the screen and has the added bonus of being able to Google your destination direct from the phone to the Navigon program. This saves you time in setting your course as most people don’t even have their address they’re going to when attempting to plot their course!
Google have recently released Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) and this update should be available to the Samsung Galaxy S as soon as Samsung OK this. But till then this is a must do update for all owners of the Galaxy S. It may be a hassle for the average user but the benefits are worth it!
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Movember 2010 in Full Swing
Monday, November 01, 2010
Word Press Bites The Big One
Back to the topic at hand though. I figured that maybe with this terminal stop by Microsoft that Word Press would try to do as much a humanly possible to make the landing into a new blogging site as smooth as possible. Not so. The feeling I got when I seen my blog in this new home was that of being stopped off in some form of vast barren wasteland! All my themes, GONE! All my widgets, GONE! The themes they had on offer were so... so... 1990's! Yuck!
So it was soon a mission to get my long running, totally uninteresting to anyone else but to yours truly blog to a nicer home. Blogger! I've had a good experience with Blogger with my indoor cricket site. It handles new entries with ease. There's a great range (although more would be nicer) of themes to choose from. Having multiple bloggers is also not a hassle.
So what I want to know is... why does everyone rave so hard about Word Press? I found it to be a immensely dull site with little offered in the way of innovative. Kinda like Yahoo. They were once a power house in innovation and offering cool new features. But then they just kinda put their feet up and pat themselves on the back and said "we've made it". Google at least are releasing new stuff all the time. Although Google reminds me of a child with attention span issues! LOL
So after being booted out by Microsoft I have found a nice new home with Blogger with my old entries. Anyone wanting to get out of Word Press to move to Blogger just remember that you can do it. Just Google your heart out on the issue. There are apps out there that goes through your entries. Turns it into one big dirty file and then you simply use Bloggers Import feature. Good luck!
Tuesday, June 01, 2010
Mee Mee
For the past few years the question of getting another cat has been raised on and off many times. We were scared of the extra burden it would have on us in resources. Space, time and money. Kittens do cost a lot in many ways you don’t imagine. But a post on Facebook from an old work mate got me ignoring all that and now we have an addition to the family. Introducing Mee Mee!
So far we’ve been having problems with getting Foo Foo to accept Mee Mee. She hisses at her and basically is anything but nice to her. But we half expected this. Foo Foo has had a troubled up bringing and is generally a non trusting cat. Suspicous of everyone and anything! But she still has her moments!
Mee Mee is the complete opposite of Foo Foo. A very happy cat with loads of energy. I’ve been having trouble keeping up with her. So far (and it’s only day three!) she’s broken my Xbox 360 headset cord. Chewed clean through it! She’s a pretty little thing. Part Persian with little white whiskas and white eye brow whiskas to boot.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Blackouthouse Homepage Update
- Time Till countdown for next game
- Scrolling java script news feed which now shows images from the team blog
- New improved youtube feed box
- Cruiser font (yes I found the team font!!!)
- Time widget... I figured you lot don't have watches!
Check out the new look site now and come back here to leave remarks!