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.

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!

My Samsung Galaxy S Upgrade

I have finally got past those pesky Samsung Kies related problems in attempting to update my Samsung Galaxy S from the now outdated Eclair (Android 2.1) to the new slimmed down and more zippier Froyo (Android 2.2). My problem in getting the update was that Kies wasn’t recognising my Galaxy S when it was plugged into the PC. After many attempts using a whole plethora of techniques after scrounging through many online forums with frustrated users with the same problem I decided to bite the bullet and factory reset the phone. Now important that if you do this that you have your contacts, calendar stuff backed up via Google or any other online service (Google stuff works best I believe) and also that you have all your photos backed up too via Picasa.
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:

WARNING: THIS WIPES OUT PERSONAL DATA - Basically you need to dial *2767*3855#

Then after you’ve done that you should start to see your phone set about resetting itself. Once you’ve got this far you need to connect your phone to the PC with Kies running. You SHOULD see the phone connect now with no problems. Then you need to update the firmware from Kies.
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!

Movember 2010 in Full Swing

It's now day 16 of the Movember effort and being my third year into this shenanigans I'm finding it easier to tolerate the 'tache and also a little easier to raise awareness of the Men's Health issues at stake here. Now in the past I've never really been one to give much to charity. Not through being selfish. Just that I've been pretty much finding myself struggling to just pay bills etc. But as I'm getting a little older and hopefully wiser I'm realise it's not just money that helps a cause. Simple education is sometimes all it takes to be of help. Education in this case via a fun and trivial effort such as growing a moustache is proving to be very effective. Even if I encourage just one guy to go and get himself checked out medically rather than putting it off means that I have done my job. It's amazing how many people I have had come up to me and laughing at my dire mo and ask "why you growing THAT THING?". What's even more incredible is the number of people who have not heard of Movember yet! If you're one of those people that have yet to hear about the Movember movement and the good work that they are doing for Beyond Blue and the Prostate Cancer Foundation then you need to head to www.movember.com and get it started in your part of the world next time November hits.

On a personal note, the first year I donned the Mo for the movement I first did it just for the novelty of growing the Moustache. But in the following months after that November finished I noticed a bulge developing in my stomach. So what did I do about it? I did what any normal guy does... I ignored it. I put off going to the doctor. Why? I don't know. Laziness most likely. I hate waiting rooms. You go there to... well... wait! But eventually it got too noticeable and I decided I had my back to the wall and HAD to go. I then found out that I had a hernia. A bad one. TRIPLE! I had gotten it playing Indoor Cricket going for a catch. It's funny how when you hear about bad news regarding your body and you suddenly just KNOW how you got it. I remembered going after a diving catch (yes I held onto it!) and after coming down after the leap feeling somewhat uncomfortable.

Fast forward to now and I'm all healed up and jumping and leaping again. So all you guys out there. Don't be scared of the doctors waiting room. Bring a Nintendo DS or something to make it pass by quickly. But just don't put it off! And if you see a chap on the street during Movember with a less then perfect Moustache throw him a tenner. It'll be going to a good cause! Or head to my Movember page and throw the tenner my way! As I type this I have $119 raised and quite frankly would like to see that figure go much much further north!

Word Press Bites The Big One

Just recently everyone who had a Microsoft Live blogging site was asked oh so politely to vacate the premises. The party's over. Microsoft have a history of doing this. So much so that I no longer even get angry if a program or service that they provide gets axed and I was a fan of it. Xbox Live for Xbox (1), Microsoft Money, Microsoft Picture It, BOB... OK... BOB had to be aborted but in hindsight.... BOB was not such a bad idea. Just poorly executed.

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!

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.

LiveJournal Tags: Mee Mee,Cat,Pet,Jannali,2010

Blackouthouse Homepage Update

New major updates have been now made to the homepage. Added are:

- 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!

Shoulda, Coulda, Woulda

Blackout fronted up to the court last night with a very undermanned line up of five. But just as we were to hit the nets one of the five got called away in an emergency leaving us with half a team! Luckily the guys at Hooters are such a sporting bunch that they lent us two of their own players, leaving them one short themselves. This proved to even things up immensely. So with that out of the way Blackout were sent into bat first.

Brett & Mick were in first and after a couple of hiccups involving a run out and being bowled out they finally went on to make 26 valuable runs. Mark and Brian were sent out next and we managed to rack up a respectable 36 runs with no wickets falling. The two borrowed players went out to score 21 runs with a loss of three wickets. Bart was asked to stay on to bat again and the Hooters called on Brian to come out and face the music one more time. With the last pair we score 19 runs. So all up a pretty solid performance just managing to sneak over the century with 102 runs.

Fielding was tough. Holes in the field meant we were stretched to save any runs off the net. It wasn’t until Grumpy’s bowler, Peter C, we struck with two quick wickets but it was too late to win the skin. Their second pair smashed us but in all fairness it was our extras that killed us as all up in that partnership we gave up 28 runs as the majority of no balls and wides were in the Power Play overs. Richo reappeared at this point and it seemed that having that extra player on field had an immediate effect. Richo was unlucky not to get a hat trick and everyone else had a good result with their overs from here on. So we managed to win the last two skins. A special mention here goes to Mick who despite blowing his first over (19 runs off that Power Play over) he composed himself to comeback and had minus 10 to reward his blitz attack.

In the last over we were so close to winning the match it hurt. We only needed two wickets to win as we were defending 102 and they were on 107 at this point. However it wasn’t meant to be as they walked on with 14 runs off the last over to seal the match. This leaves us with only a few rounds left to keep onto our third place on the ladder and next week’s bash against the Spartans will need a full squad if we are to have any chance.

Windows 7 Installed!

Thanks to a friend who didn't want to mess around installing Windows 7 on her new laptop I now have a copy of Windows 7. Well the upgrade only. The draw back is that I can only install the 32 bit version and not go to the 64 bit version. I love how Microsoft squeeze every last penny out of you! So what's it like? Well for the most part it's pretty much the same as Vista appearance wise. But there are some minor changes which I am sure a thousand bloggers out there have written about in painfully minute detail. So considering that I am tired and need sleep I will just write for now about the installation. It was SO BLOODY LONG! I started this effort around midnight and was watching the screen not change much for three hours before I packed it in and hit the hay! It seemed to not require me at all except at the very start when I first attempted to install it was checking compatibility. It took 10 minutes before it decided that it was gonna need a re-boot before giving installation a crack! But I woke in the morning to find it asking for the Product Key to which I gladly oblidged. Then it awoke... looking pretty much like Vista but instead of a sidebar it simply throws the gadgets you had on the sidebar to the side of the screen as Windows 7 has foregone the sidebar.

 

So what do I think about Windows 7? Too early to tell. It seems lightning quick but I'll write more soon on this once I've done a few laps with it!

Windows 7 Release Cock Up

Microsoft never cease to amaze me. They succeed and progress in so many ways. Yet the more that things move forward the more it remains the same. Microsoft’s recent launch of Windows 7 was almost looking like it was going without a hitch. This was, after all, the OS that was to make or break their reputation if not their bank accounts. The idea to make their Release Candidate openly available to the ever hungry public was a terrific idea. Showing to the world that MS are a much more open company than Apple have been. Cynics may say that this was merely to test out their bugs on the bleeding edge market. They’d probably be right. But at least this gives the product a chance to be ventured out into the limited wild world of the ardent geeks out their who can go through any pains of error messages and failures before MR and MRS “I only check email” get to the OS. But this is another topic for another blog. Also the reviews coming back from the preview of their saviour OS was that this was pretty much Microsoft’s apology for Vista. Runs as simple as XP but with the bells and whistles of Vista. So Microsoft got the product right. All boxes ticked and even the biggest Microsoft haters had to agree that this was a good thing from Redmond’s biggest asset. But on marketing the goods… Microsoft… you’ve really dropped the ball big time! Here’s a snippet from www.cnet.com.au to highlight what I am talking about:

http://apcmag.com/windows-7-family-pack-for-australia-is-a-possibility-concedes-microsoft.htm

During the lead up to launch I kept hunting for someone to be able to give me a straight YES or NO on the question “can you install a single copy of Windows 7 on multiple PC’s?”. I mean it’s not the 80’s anymore. We don’t just have the single PC in the study these days in most homes. You’ve got the study alright but now there’s the laptop, netbook, kitchen PC and soon most folks will just get a PC to handle the main living room’s LCD (or LED) TV. But the answer is a complicated NO… unless you purchase a special pack of Windows 7. What’s so complicated about that? It’s not available OUTSIDE OF THE US. Fer fecks sakes! Windows 7 Family Pack allows the lucky owner to install Windows 7 Home Premium onto three PC’s in the house. Sounds great right? Especially when you see that it’s only US$149 as opposed to the US$129 single pack price. However MS Australia are hinting onto a big surprise to hit during November. Not sure what exactly this may entail but I’m hoping that this will be the Family Pack launch in Australia that is so much needed. Seems silly to me that considering MS are beating their chests about Window 7’s Home Networking capabilities are a major selling point that they wouldn’t have simply released this on day one as a big IN YOUR FACE to Apple. But if you’ve only got enough dosh to splash out on just one copy… WHAT’s THE BLOODY POINT?

LiveJournal Tags: Windows,Windows 7,Microsoft,Australia,Australian Market,OS,product,launch,2009,Windows 7 Home Premium Family Pack,Family Pack

Acer Aspire One (KAV60)

This is a quick run down on not only the Acer Aspire One but also of the newer breed of Netbooks that have appeared and how they can benefit the average user. First of all the Acer was not that expensive. $479 with a $50 cash back. Not too shabby. This baby has an LED (not LCD) screen with a sharp image on a 10.1" screen. Much better than other first generation Netbooks I've seen previously. It's also got it's own 160G hard drive. This is perhaps one of it's biggest draw cards. Other netbooks have a Flash internal drive or no drive at all relying totally on SD cards. Other features are wi-fi (g network not n network) and Bluetooth connectivity. Also it has a half decent webcam inbuilt.

For the most part I was happy with this unit. It's actually for the other half and not so much for me. It's main use will be for typing out essays. We've installed Open Office into it and it handles that with no problems. The Aspire One we purchased came with XP installed. We were warned to wait till Windows 7 comes out but the missus is only interested in writing documents out and not in the complex issues involved in other PC related tasks. So with this as it's main goal the Acer has hit all goals and then some.

Netbooks are the fast food variety of PC's with people lugging Laptops about with CD/DVD drives and 17" screens when all they want is email, Facebook, internet etc. You DON'T need the fastest PC to do all that. But this is where this netbook surprised even me. It takes one minute to go from a cold start to being on the net surfing away. I was so impressed by this speed.

I'm now sold on Netbooks. I wasn't too keen on them leading up to my wife wanting one but now I'm warmed to the idea of a machine that just does the basics well. With Google Chrome OS on the way these Netbooks are going to be more than a challenge for Laptop producers to compete with. Expect to see more mini sized PC's to be dragged out on the trains and bus stops across the city!

Pros:

• Crystal clear LED 10.1" screen
• Webcam inbuilt
• Inbuilt Wi Fi and Bluetooth
• Quick boot up time
• Ridiculously light and thin.

Cons:

• XP not Windows 7 (but that's only as it's still not officially out yet)
• Keyboard is small and takes getting use to
• Mousepad can be somewhat tricky to negotiate (USB mouse can be used though)
• Great battery life with approx 3 hours usage on full charge and possibly longer with Wi-Fi off
• No real software. You'll have to scrounge the net to install the basics.

Acer Aspire One Netbook

I got a new netbook PC. More coming up soon…

Top 5 iPhone Tips

The internet is flooded with tips and guides on most things technology. The iPhone is one that seems to get the most coverage lately. But despite the millions of bloggers out there teaching folks how to get the most out of their gadgets there are still loads of people roaming about with no changes made to their iPhone and they are missing out on quite alot. Personally it shows that Apple have still got to get it right out of the box but till then here is my top 5 tips to getting more from your iPhone:

1) Enable Cap Locks - Amazingly... most people still don't have this changed on their phones. It was driving me nuts when I got my iPhone way back at launch. I wanted to send an SMS but when an acronym came up I'd have to Shift (add letter) Shift (add letter)... etc. So do the following:

Go to Settings> Keyboard> Enable Caps Lock.

Now when you need cap lock you just tap twice on the shift button. It turns blue, you get caps lock! So so simple.

2) Get Gmail - Getting Gmail means you can divert ALL you emails to the one account. Now that Hotmail have enabled POP3 support you can also divert all the hotmail deliveries to your Gmail and then view them in turn on the iPhone. All of the HOW TO's are on the Gmail help pages.

3) Set Up A Google Calendar - One of the biggest discoveries for me in the last couple of months is the ability to sync the iPhone calendar with Google Calendar. I use Google Calendar for setting up Indoor Cricket games. Now with the sync ability I can see on my phone who has clicked in as available and who is out. Now you can finally ditch Outlook as this removes all the shackles of being restricted to your home PC!

4) Get Skype - My wife use to spend LOADS of dosh on the phone calling her relatives overseas. Now enter Skype. Free PC to PC calls and super cheap to home lines as well. But now that the iPhone has a Sype app you can save money on buying a Skype compatible handset. You already have one!

5) Tomtom - Watch out for the new Tomtom app and the Tomtom car kit. This will save you from buying a dedicated GPS device and in turn mean not having to carry multiple devices around. Plus you'll get the most up to date maps and LIVE traffic updates. This will be the BEES KNEES! LOL

Microsoft Gets Rid of Money

This is more of an update than a blog. I just read today that Microsoft are no longer producing MS Money. This was a program I switched to after having used Quicken as it offered easier access to your financial info through your pocket PC or Palm. So to hear that they are chopping it is a bit sad. But understandably so, they are axing it in an effort to narrow down it’s focus as it faces continuing challenges from Apple and Google in ways that have never been so threatening to the monopoly.

MS are also axing Digital Image Suite which should upset a few folks out there but let’s face it, Photoshop is king in that department. But one loss that I think must be hard for MS is to say CAIO to MS Encarta. This was a product of there’s that you could tell Bill Gates himself was really behind since CD-Rom’s first started becoming available to the everyday PC user back in the early 90’s. I remember using MS Encarta to sell some PC’s back at the Gamesmen as there was no real internet to use as a selling point back in 1995! But now with Wikipedia.com being everyone’s first choice for 99% of the info they want you could see Microsoft’s reasoning.

Downloading Hardware

Yes I know. Hardware is the actual device. Hard to stream it down the phone lines to your device. But what if you didn’t have to? What if the functions you needed were able to be just added on via a download? Well it’s already happening. I currently have an iPhone. It, like many other smart phones, does games (fairly well), makes calls, takes photos and has a map app. I also have a Pocket PC for GPS in the car. But I don’t like having to lug the two around. I’d happily give up one to have only one device. Well, TomTom just announced that they’ll be selling an iPhone adaptation of their software and also a stand to mount the iPhone on your windscreen. Big deal you say? Well actually it is. It’s a very important leap in a lot of ways.

GPS in a Smartphone is not new. But what is different about this is that the iPhone was once a GPS enabled phone unable to do turn by turn. Apple addressed this and corrected it with a patch. Yeah I know they don’t like that term but that’s what this is. So what we have is a piece of hardware being changed by a software download.

You all by now probably have a video camera? Also a dedicated digital camera? Home phone? Laptop or PC? But the way things are going these items won’t be needed. You’ll just have the one device that does the lot… well! If the iPhone had a 12MP camera with 10X zoom and the ability to tag every photo with GPS data, face recognition so you know who’s in each shot plus it could get you home thanks to GPS turn by turn directions… you’d want that right? Not to mention be able to watch TV, record shows, get email… you see where this is going right?.

The next 10 years is gonna get very exciting in this way. We’ll be seeing more advances in gadgets and how multitasking they can be. In the meantime the next update for the iPhone (3.0 OS) is to be released next week on the 17th June 2009. It’s biggest update feature is the ability to gain turn by turn directions with the GPS among other things. TomTom haven’t specified when their app gets launched but it’ll be in the US summer which is another way of saying in the next few weeks. Will be interesting to see how other GPS manufacturers (a term that may in itself become outdated) react to this.

Mega CD RPG on iPhone

I don't know how I managed to miss this for so long but last December a new entry to iPhone snuck in there which was an instant no brainer for me to buy. $5.99 will get you a complete port of an old Mega CD RPG called Vay. Now back in the day I was one of the few loyal hardcore Sega fans that raced out and bought the bulky add on. I sold my Teac player at the time to help fund it! LOL But games were few and far between. Sega did a rubbish job of distributing titles and once again it was up to my contacts at the time to help me out with grey importing. One title that escaped me all this time was Vay. If I had of known of it's existance I would have snapped it up immmediately.

Vay is your typical Japanese RPG. I say that in a nice way as this form of gaming is my bread and butter. The game starts off with a video manga intro (not the best animation by far) showing a prince marrying his mysterious bride. But the whole shebang is interrupted the land is under attack and you lose your bride to be and your parents. Bummer eh?

So we start by trying to work out the controls. The original game was brought out by a little known company called SIMs. But this re-release has been modified immensely to bolt onto the iPhone. Controls are now achieved by tapping to where you wish to move to on the screen. Sounds clunky but it works surprisingly well. All text is retained from the original game but is now displayed in the iPhone font. You tap the message to scroll through dialogue. Also all menu screens, such as weapons, inventories, etc, are displayed via iPhone menu screens. Kinda strange at first and yes you do lose that 90's retro feeling when you see the iPhones crisp text. The in game screens are all the original Mega CD screens but the battle screens (turn based btw) are totally reworked by SoMaGa (the company doing this port).

Check out Youtube and type in Vay, iPhone and I'm sure you'll find a review or two there.

Personally I am wrapped that a company has taken on such a project with some attention to detail. It's a shame thay they didn't revamp the graphics in any way but the music from the CD, which was always Mega CD games biggest drawcard, has been faithfully brought over to the iPhone experience which is a real treat. All the video animation sequences play out via the iPhones video capabilities. You get to quickly get out of the game (say if a call comes in) and you can pick up where you left off with no hassles. HOORAY! Save points have always been a gripe of mine with RPG's. But you still need to save often as you'll only be able to return to your last save point if you should die in battle.

I hope Sega take a look at this game and get motivated to re-release some old Mega CD titles. Also I hope Lunar (which I have!) gets the iPhone treatment and Lunar 2.

Top points to SoMaGa for bringing back the old skool!

So Much To Do, Which Project First?

I’ve got so many side projects going on it’s hard to work out which one I should focus on first. First there’s my Japan/China 2006 DVD that I am editing. I’ve also got my dining table that I need to paint (it’s a natural pine lacquer but needs to be deep brown). Also I have my Blackout site that constantly needs updating. We’ve got a skylight to be installed. A heater that also needs installation. A shower that needs re-tiling. Not to mention all those unfinished RPG's and other games in general sitting in the storage room.

This got me to thinking how do people just focus on one thing at one time? I can have up to 10 things going at once as my attention span just plain sucks! My wife was talking about how she has Chinese friends who already have career paths set out for their four year old kids! I can’t even plan out what I will do tomorrow! Studying has never been in my vocabulary. I get so side tracked that I feel occupied and not bored in what I am doing… it’s just that I end up doing something else that is so non-related to my initial project that you’d think that my motive was to simply avoid that first task!

Motivation has a lot to do with it perhaps. I need to see an end result. If I get too many hurdles or if there is no clear path to get to my desired result… I’ll just meander off to another task that has a more obtainable goal.

So… my question is this. How do you remain focused? Or what tasks do you have that remained unfinished and can’t see doing in the foreseeable future?

Black Books - Procrastination in a Nutshell!

New Laptop (HP Pavilion DV7-1212tx)

So we finally got our new lap top and I don’t have to tell you that I am impressed. It’s a new HP Pavilion DV7-1212tx with a chunky 1T hard drive (that’s 1000 gigs) to fill with junk. In getting the new PC I face two major challenges… OK… make that three. Overall these are just challenges that I need to face due to my rather large comfort zone! Generally speaking when it comes to monkeying around with PC’s (or computers in general) over the years I have pretty much been against making too many changes in the way I move my folders, store my files and run my programs.

But now I’m faced with how to manage all my data. Photo’s, music and all that other junk that fills up your C:, D: right through to Z:. With the photo’s I risk doubling up everything I have as I have two programs used to store files. Problem is that if I just rely on one of them then I may not carry over not just the photos but lose the tags and other related items that I have placed on them over the years. Then there’s my on going battle with audio. I like to use Windows Media Player as it syncs with my Xbox 360 so I can play the music through the big stereo. But I have an iPhone which doesn’t like WMA files. So I end up doubling up my music to accommodate both standards.

But before I could get into any of that I have the challenge of just hooking up the lap top to the wireless network. I would have figured that this would be the least of my hassles as most new PC’s have wi-fi built in so no need to install wi fi adapter drivers etc. But it took about 30 minutes of tweaking settings till finally (and for no real obvious reason) it just started working.

My other hurdle is more for the sake of me being too use to a “proper” keyboard. Hey this keyboard is still pretty cool. It’s just that I’ve been use to my hands being on the desk and having to raise up to get onto the keyboard itself. This keyboard has your hands typing down onto a flat surface as your palms/ wrist rest on the laptop itself. Then the mouse itself is something to get use to as well. Try playing Bejewelled 2 Blitz with this mouse, touchpad. You see there is a scroll bar on the right of the touch pad. This kicks in by accident quite often in games so a more traditional mouse is more desirable to me.

But niggles aside this is a beast of a machine. Mind you I’ve been use to Dell bought in 2004 so it’s been quite some time between nerd fixations! It features a metallic shine to the keyboard with responsive strokes made possible with the high quality keys. Being wider than most laptops it also houses a dedicated keypad. My old laptop I had in 2001 was missing this and it was painfully absent when using Excel. Above the keypad resides a long speaker grill with the touch sensitive quick keys above that with the usual suspects being present such as mute, play, volume etc. It has two extra buttons though that I’ve never seen before. One is for HP’s own MediaSmart program (sorry HP but I’ll give that a miss). Also a quick button to activate the Wi Fi access. The monitor itself is surrounded by a highly reflective black casing which smudges like crazy. The outside also is black with the same material and it sports a HP glowing logo ala Apple style on the bottom right hand corner. No prizes as to who HP looks to for design ideas here.

It’s no light weight. 3.4kg’s of fun here but due to the widescreen and all the features that this bad boy contains then this is a given. It’s screen is of high quality for the most part being very vibrant and crisp but the viewing angle on it is not the greatest. I find myself having to move the screen up and down to get the optimal angle. Also I find the the colour is just lacking slightly and this is more noticeable in photo editing programs. Sound is quite beefy for a laptop but the maximum volume could have been perhaps a little more beastly as it is meant to be a “entertainment” device. I was expecting more when I noticed the word “sub-woofer” housed UNDER the laptop itself!

The software that come installed with the HP is quite generous for out of the box. True I would have liked a FULL version of MS Office 2007 for the drachma I forked out on this thing. But that aside, HP try to fill in some voids with a HP MediaSmart suite. For an in house effort they have managed to really put together a great looking package with MediaSmart. But I find myself wanting to know why they bother with MS dishing out for free this stuff already. I am tired of swinging back an forth between different software for this so I will most likely stick to Windows Media Player and the Adobe software I already owned. But for those wishing to stick with HP’s offering you won’t be left in the cold as it’s quite big and bold in it’s looks with many features you’d expect from expensive software. One bizarre but cool software called HP MediaSmart webcam is quite fun. It allows you to superimpose a range of cartoon or fictional characters onto your face. When you talk, they talk. When you move, they move too. It’s very strange indeed but certainly a conversation starter. Speaking of webcams, the cam is of good quality with a crisp image that adequately does the job but not the most hi def image you’ll find.

I was disappointed to learn that my wife didn’t order the Blue-Ray enabled drive and she also left out the TV tuner. I was looking forward to hooking this up to the Samsung TV for HD goodness. But looks like I’ll have to hunt a drive down later. One plus side for the DVD burner included however was that it features Lightscribe. A technology that enables you to BURN the labels onto the disc itself. Neat! Problem though is that you need specially marked DVD discs to take advantage of this feature. More on that later as I hunt them down on eBay.

It comes with 4G RAM and is upgradable to 8G. The 1T hard drive is partitioned into two 500G drives which I’ve never been a real big fan of but has it’s benefits for those wanting to install other OS such as Linux. The laptop also comes with a remote control which is neatly tucked into the left hand side for easy storage. Neat! Speaking of ports and connections being tucked away… it has 2 USB ports and Ethernet connection on the right (yawn) but on the left is a large array of different connections such as eSata, HDMI (for connecting to big tellies!), monitor outlet, Multicard inputs and direct digital camera connectivity. No connections or ports of any description can be found on the rear of the laptop.

I’m still getting my head around Vista but overall I’m finding Vista to be OK. The amounts of criticism I hear of the system makes me weary but so far I’m finding it to be quite good. Years of XP has probably spoilt me. Let’s face it. XP started off bad but in the end proved to be a great system. Vista is already going to be phased out with Windows 7 so I guess I’m not going to get too comfortable with Vista as I’ll no doubt be one of the eager few to jump to the new system. Anyone looking at buying a new laptop should give HP a looking. There are some good specials on at the moment with the financial doom and gloom still gripping the economy. But if you put Kev’s $900 towards this laptop you’ll be doing yourself a favour me thinks!

Facebook vs Neanderthals

""Some people are simpletons. Stooges who don't like change. If it were
up to them we'd be all still on dial up. No... scratch that... we'd be
still using tin cans with strings... no... scratch that... we'd be
dragging our knuckles along the ground.



I SAY BRING ON THE CHANGES! GO FACEBOOK! Make it happen!""

Seem like Facebook really do have a challenge on their hands. They try to be nice and explain their changes that are coming up. Really simply, small changes like a minor modification of their homepage. But the reaction is nasty. It appears that most folks on Facebook are mutants. But I know that not to be the case. These are just the ones who are triggered to react and reply. I believe that there is not enough study on internet behaviour. How the masses react to change. It's only been THANKS to sites like Facebook that when a change now occurs it not only sparks a backlash but that backlash is now heard. When sites changed in the past. That was that. It just was a change and the radifications went unnoticed. But Facebook have had it tougher than most sites.  Their critics are some of the harshest on the net right now. In fact it was the first time that a site making a change to their layout made news headlines thanks to the reaction online. People starting up groups, protesting by changing their status to say something negative about Facebook. I personally think it's been unjust. But not totally. Facebook should offer people what they want. If there is a large group of slow adapters who resist change then Facebook should offer a "Facebook classic". If they bitch and moan that they like the way it use to be then give 'em that option to switch back to retro mode.

Facebook will continue to change. Just like the internet has done so since my time online. But maybe it's time the guys making these changes also listened to the general public and offered that option to keep 'em quiet?

Personally I am happy with what Facebook are doing so far and hope to see them improve things more. We'll see.

My Top 10 Xbox 360 Most Played

Not my usual style of entry but I figured it may either interest you or make you curious as to what your list would look like. Here is my top 10 most played games according to www.360voice.com and their fantastic stat tracking, 360 blog making website. Now I've been a member of that site since almost day one of me owning a 360 so it's 98% reliable for numbers.

Before you say something... yes I know, Halo 3 puppet. But it's mostly a social thing. All my mates play it and send me annoying Social Slayer game invites while I'm trying to slug through an RPG or something.

What would your top 10 be you think?

Halo 3 1/15/2009 2:05:56 AM 930/1750 (53%) 124 days

Pinball FX 12/21/2008 6:31:59 PM 140/250 (56%) 36 days

NHL 07 1/28/2009 5:31:53 PM 750/1000 (75%) 35 days

UNO 2/14/2009 1:22:42 AM 145/200 (73%) 29 days

PGR 3 5/12/2008 1:29:37 AM 525/1000 (53%) 28 days

Puzzle Quest 5/21/2008 5:25:49 AM 100/250 (40%) 27 days

Blue Dragon 2/25/2009 4:07:03 AM 60/1000 (6%) 25 days

NHL® 09 2/12/2009 12:03:13 AM 345/1000 (35%) 25 days

Bejeweled 2 8/24/2007 6:17:43 AM 0/200 (0%) 22 days

Bankshot Billiards 2 7/14/2008 12:49:11 AM 50/200 (25%) 20 days