Reunited, well sort of

First of all, credits to HaniBoy and NileWarp for this. Hani once bugged us all to install something called "skype". I'd tried it before with a friend and thought it sucked. Anyhow, we installed it and it turns out to be a cool VoIP app that lets you conference chat. Cool. Then someone thought we should do this with video like them lucky mac owners, so Nile came up with vSkype, which is a video add-on for skype. It's beta, so there were hiccups but we got it working in the end! here's a pic of us happily conferencing:

Ofcourse, it's no fun if there's no fraggin', so I've setup the london pc as a private server for all our q3a/ut/doom3 needs, and just for hani's sake, I've installed the unlagged mod for q3a so he plays just like a LPB.... great times
if anyone wants to join in then just catch us online and come join the fun :)

Playstation thumb

Computer and Video Games reports here that a South African 13 year old managed to get an article published in a top medical journal about what she calls "Playstation Thumb", ie strain injury to people who do lots of gaming.
Though not dismissing it (my thumbs were way too sore after playing tons of virtual tennis on dreamcast), the fact that she made it into the journal after describing an injury known for centuries (sports men get them alot) is amusing. But not as amusing as the comment from C&VG about the matter, where they cleverly stated "Karim stopped short of positing that children who play videogames will evolve into superbeings with two huge, bulbous thumbs and a large, unblinking single eye designed for maximum screen soak-up"
:o)

I've GOT The Power!

So today the delivery man decided to come at 11:30, instead of 6 in the morning! I was at work, but I had a strike of genius yesterday and left him a message on the flat door asking him to call me on my mobile (another strike of genius, I took it with me to work this time :). Anyhow, I received my new PSU (Antec TruePower 550 EPSv1.2 or something). I felt bad for paying alot of money for a useless box of metal. I installed it and being atx2.01 compatible, it already has pci-ex and SATA connecters (ie without the need for adapters). I hooked everything up and alas, the system worked. I quickly ran 3dmark05 (to see if it survived it), and surprisingly it did, and scored an impressive 10017. Much better.
So, what next? well I could replay doom 3 (OMG! FORGOT TO SAY! EVERYONE HAS TO GET THE DOOM3 1.3 PATCH FOR EAX4.0 It adds AWESOME 7.1 surround sound to the game and you'll play it like never before. Oh and it runs on ultra mode for me now :), or I could finally get to finishing half life 2... who knows. Bring on the games....

I Want The Power!

Aha... I'm not having fun with my all new PC. First of all, it took me ages to figure out that I had to disable a few bios options for it to be stable with SLi (it was written in the manual, but who reads the manual?!). Now that I'm passed that, the system is fine 2D, go 3D though and a few minutes in it turns itself off! No warning, no bleeps nothing, just turns itself off. I've boiled it down to me having a crap PSU. Even though it's 500w, it's from someone called jeantech and they suck. Now I gotta shell out on a bigger, badder psu from antec or something. damn.
I can't blame the psu really... here's what's inside

Abit AN8 SLi-Fatil1ty mobo
Pioneer DVR-109 40x32x16x6x dual layer DVD burner
Samsung 16x48x DVD drive
Mistumi 7 in 1 Floppy + media reader
2x XFX Geforce 6800 Ultras in SLi
Western Digital Raptor 36gig
2x Western Digital Raptors 74gig
AMD 64 Fx-55 (San Diego) Processor

In total there are 3 fans on mobo, 3 on the case, 2 on psu, and 2 on the GPUs (total 11).
I don't think my crappy PSU is keeping up, and rather than blowing up (like my old one did when it didn't take the pressure of doom3), this one just turns off.

I'm gonna order one now, shower, play some resident evil 4, and sleep. STOP

Blog In Progress

08:29: Bloody hell!! those damn courier people. You spend all day waiting for them and they never show up, but on a Saturday when you're fast asleep (was playing RE4 till late, GREAT game), and the damn buzzer goes rrrrrrrrrrriiiiiiiiinggggggggggggggggg. It's the courier man, with 6 boxes. Hauled them in (lucky I live in ground floor), and here they are on the floor


08:54: Surfing around on the net with powerbook in bed. That's a great thing of having a wireless laptop, freedom! Was gonna go to sleep but who can resist all this stuff lying around eh? gotta choose something to listen to while I do this. Oasis or Coldplay? both perhaps. I go make a strong coffee and dive in.


09:29: Just unpacked everything, and *nearly* broke the case! I've ordered too much shit, and there's so many packets to get rid of. Oh and that abit mobo pack KICKS ASS! if only it didn't have the picture of that guy on it that's good at games.


09:40: OMG! This mobo is awesome! it's got a front panel, tons of options, some kickass fans and other crap I haven't heard of. My fault for not upgrading the pc since 3 years :s


09:44: It's very reassuring to say the least, to know that your spanking new cpu comes packaged in recycled egg cartons. Maybe I should've stuck with intel.



09:57: OK Mobo half installed. I've mounted it in case and I'm trying to make sure I wire all those awkward wires you only find out about AFTER you've installed all the cards..... You know the feeling


10:23: I BET YOU I've installed those bloody usb header wires wrong! why don't they just charge us 50p more and put a damn connector. Gonna try to figure out this SLi thing now.

10:57: Ok, so I've finally managed to connect those huge geforces and I hope set them up for SLi properly. oof. Right, problem is, is my sound blaster gonna fit in there, beneath them beasts? I don't wanna end up using the mobo's default sound card do I...


11:18: Barely fits.......


12:00: Had a bit of an interruption from brother calling me moaning about his set of nights he just finished. Trying to squeezy my hard drives in (should've installed them BEFORE the geforces). I'm cut and bruised all over

12:28: OK. I think I've finished assembling everything inside the case. I had to dismantle the geforces to get to some connectors, but everything seems to be back in place now. Gonna wash my hands and hold my breath, here comes the power!!

12:37: IT'S ALIVE! yeap it seems to be breathing quietly in the corner, stuck with nothing to boot from though. I wonder if I should risk closing the case or installing windows first then closing it just in case... I think I might just install windows


13:09: Please enter your regional settings. Same old BS.

13:26: It's crashed.

13:45: OK I'm stuck offline with a half working pc. Problem is that the LAN driver is crashing windows. This 64bit xp isn't as cool as they say it is, especially that it needs new drivers (remember Win95/NT?!). Thank God I have a powerbook that's online

14:34: Found out a few problems: first, my boot drive is G: That sux. second, I've connected the 2 76gig raptors on different RAID controllers. Works but would be better if they're on the same. So I've taken out the 2nd geforce (cos it's the one blocking all the connectors), reconnected the hdds and disconnected the media disk reader (it had become c:). Reinstalling windows now. I'm hungry. Only had that cup of MARIO coffee earlier. I go fry eggs.

15:03: Time for a cup of TOM tea ;)


15:22: PC is online now! got the network sorted out, problem is that it thinks it's got one GPU instead of 2. Let's see...

15:45: Ok, not sure if I'm reading this right, but apparantely SLi is NOT supported on windows xp64bit. Hmm weird that, what's the use of providing a 64bit mobo with SLi but no O/S to support it. I really can't be arsed to install windows XP home edition now though, or maybe I will...

16:03: I might just install H/E. This xp64 business sucks, and problem is I went and paid for the damn thing! I should've read around the net before buying it. I'm sure it'll be useful in the near future when complete drivers are out for it. In the meantime, I wait for all my old files to copy from the old seagate to the new raptors... 55% through of 120gig........ I think I go play some Alien Hominid while this carries on.....

16:56: I think I've heard Coldplay's X&Y album a million times now. It's a great album though, and I think they should carry on with the same style, rather than "evolve". Couldn't get SLi to work on xp64 at all, so I install H/E now. Damn

17:12: wow! H/E already installed. Time to do drivers then see if this damn SLi thing works

17:38: well at least now the computer says it's ready for SLi! Just going to do a windows update and update all drivers to new, then maybe try out 3dmark2005, or the ever great doom3...

18:07: Right. XP H/E is up and running... sp2 is downloading now (it'll take ages), and everything seems to be stable enough for me to pop out to the gym. I hope to come back and find that it hasn't crashed. Until now it's been blazingly fast, not only cos I just fresh installed but I think the raptors know how to dish the data out.
Gym time....

20:50: Back from gym, computer has managed to install SP2 relatively event-free. I also did some shopping for a BBQ we're doing now. The weather is cool but who cares when the PC is so more important than the sun... Installing the last windows updates now, and the latest creative sbaudigy 2 drivers. After that I'm gonna do a default run of 3dmark05 and see what happens.

02:40: done with bbq, and pc managed to get 9000 points on 3dmark05 (is that good? I haven't got a clue). Disaster struck when the damn case fell off the table onto a 10 point extension lead! Has a big dent at the top now (not very visible), but it wouldn't let me close the side slides without a bit of DIY. All sorted now. Seems to be working as well. No time to check games now, I'm feeling really sleepy.

Omed

The other on-call doctor has just popped in. He didn't believe that this blog was mine, so he wanted his own entry. Go for it:

I'm tired... have to go to Peldon ward to see patients. Expect a cardiac arrest any second now.

See, boring isn't he! Aren't you glad you read my blog instead of his.

SoB at work over nights.

Malaena

Sigh oh sigh
I type this from work. It's 3:43am. I'm tired. Just been cursing the A&E doctor for lying to me over the phone and getting me to accept a case that really shouldn't be under medical care, but should be surgical. I'm too numb from nights to call him up now and kick up a stink.
I've still got one more punter to see, A Mr Alan something or another, that according to the A&E doctor, had "central crushing chest pain". Don't they all do....

But there's light at the end of this way too dark (and long) tunnel! In 5 hours time I'ld be finished from my week of nights, and to treat myself for passing mrcp1 and for finishing nights, I've just blown around £2500 on a MASSIVE PC Upgrade! I damn you internet, and credit cards, for making shopping so much easier, and spending too much money just a click away.
I've jumped ships I must admit. I bought an AMD 64 FX-55, an abit fatal1ty an8 sli, 2 xfx 6800ultra cards with sli, 2xrapt0r 74 gig hdds and 1x36gig, 4x1024mbyte of corsair dual rams, a dvd-r/+r/dual layer, a dvd-rom, a floppy/media reader, and I'm sure some more stuff that I can't remember. Oh and a case.
I'll post all about the upgrade when I get the stuff (this saturday I hope. Paying a extra bob to get the stuff quick) and I'll take some pics (ala wolf)

Now, I feel bad for spending so much.... i go cheer myself up with the patient... SIGH OH SIGH

Oh My God!

I was dreading tomorrow... it was the day my results for MRCP part 1 come out. I've tried this exam twice already, and it's a bitch to pass with success rates of 30%. I was wondering how I'd pull through tonight's shift, while wondering about the results, and I knew I wouldn't sleep tomorrow until the website would be updated with results. Damn pressure I tell's ya.
Anyhow, woke up today around 17:15, feeling sort-of refreshed. Turned my mobile on and I had received a voice message from a guy called George: "hi Ali, it's George. Look the results came out early today, and there is an Alsawaf on the list, not sure if it's you or not! can you check and call me back when you get this message". SHIT.
Now, I know for sure that there are only 3 registered doctor Alsawafs in the UK (there's a public list you can check on, you see). One was me, the other was my brother (a surgeon!) and the other was some guy who is also called Ali Alsawaf (same spelling!) and he works as a GP in, guess where, Colchester! (it's funny getting patients from him to me. from A Alsawaf to A Alsawaf). So it had to be on the website right? I quickly jumped out of bed and checked the site, sure enough, it said that an AFB Alsawaf had PASSED!!! NO WAAAAAAAAAAY!
Man am I relieved!! a damn mofo exam that is the bottle neck of MRCP, is no done and dusted. Thank goodness for that. If only I wasn't working tonight, I'd definitely be out jumping up and down the streets of britain!

The Way To Do It

Lately, I got the latest mame32fx (0.97) and with it the complete set of roms available (12gig of 5800+ roms). I found out that there were lots of new games that didn't work before, including the excellent raiden series. Anyhow, I realised that if I tilted my monitor 90 degrees, I could get a great view of vertical scrolling shmups... then I thought I need an arcade stick for all this. Already having an xbox one, I just bought a cheap xbox2usb convertor, and hey presto! I'm playing some great classics on a vertical monitor with an arcade controller. It really is great fun, and these games are really frantic and pump your adrenaline!
X-Arcade it ain't (I'm not paying 100 bucks for a joystick), but it sure beats keyboard/mouse.

And I go off to nights today, starting today 9pm. So I guess I'll be MIA till next week. Have fun everyone...
SoB

No way...

My oh my, what this world has come to.
20 years ago, playing games meant being a nerd that stayed home alot, hunched over either a D&D board, an adventure book, or infront of the telly all alone in your room, saving some pixel in distress from another pixel on the loose. Bliss. Those were the days of typing tons of code from a magazine just to have your mum pull the plug on the computer cos it was time for tea. It was the time when things were 2D, and alot more simple.
That's why I love retro gaming. I can play r-type again and again and again, but just can't replay any new games. Don't get me wrong, 3D rocks, the FPS is a great genre, and action adventures never looked any better. Doom 3 and Half Life 2 changed the world forever, but still, nothing beats jumping up and down a 2D hill with your favourite mascot, or running across a desert with a commando and his trusty machine gun.
Then ofcourse came PlayStation. Dragging us gamers out from the dens, screaming and kicking into the daylight (damn that sun!) and the whole public found us out! Not only were we playing, but so was every Tom, Dick, Harry and their wives/sisters/grandparents... Sigh
Why the rant then? Well, cos some clever person has taken the idea of retro gaming WAAAAAAY to far for my taste. I'll explain
Pacmanhattan is a real-life pacman game. Players dress up as either pac himself or one of the ghosts, and run around a block in Manhattan. Connected via WiFi, mobile, and GPS with their "controller", they update him where they are and he in turn updates a custom made pacman program. This way, pac eats all the dots while the ghosts try to hunt him down (the ghost controllers and pac's controllers see the same game screen). If pacman eats a power pellet, his controller gets to see where the ghosts are and pac has 2 minutes to go and "eat them".
I don't know about you, but I'm not sure whether this is good or bad for the image of gaming. It might be a cool and bold idea, but imagine watching weirdos dressed as videogame characters running around your local high street..... Have a look at the site, watch the videos and look at the pics, then make up your own mind.
As for me, I'm off to play some MAME games.

See ya when I next find a mad http again, G-D

PS: Play DanDaDan!

Dan Da Dan!

Ok, this I HAD to mention...
Another Japanese nutter freebie game, this one's actually really good fun.
Playing somewhat like a hybrid of Ikaruga meets Mr Driller, DanDaDan! at first looks is a basic shmup. But delve deeper and you'll find this game very unique and original. Controlling your ship, you cruise vertically and have only 1 primary weapon. Your enemies are mainly blocks of different colours, some of which shoot bullets either randomly or when destroyed... The genius bit is that when you destroy a block of a certain colour, any adjacent blocks of the same will be destroyed as well. This makes for some really clever puzzles and VERY frantic game play (if you're ever played any japanese shmup, from gemini wing, to radiant silver gun, and recently the excellent Ikaruga, you'll know what I mean!)
The game is very easy to get in to and has that crucial (just one more go) factor. Being free makes it even more of a delight!
Grab DanDaDan! from here and relive your childhood!
Keys are:
arrows: move ship
Z: primary fire. Hold Z to shoot a spinning disk that can go past indestructible blocks
X: Hyper (fires like a mad-man for a few seconds)

Enjoy this Good-Delicious-Game!