Where's that damn pointer

Did you know laser mice existed? I didn't either...
An evolution from the great optical mouse, a laser mouse uses a class 1 eye-safe laser to detect motion. What does that mean? well it's VERY sensitive and VERY accurate.
In a fit of shopping madness (like I always have, if you read good-delicious regularly you'd know!), I bought alot of unecessary things:

1\ xfx geforce 7800gtx: I hate SLi (henceforth known as SL-lie). It's a great idea that just doesn't work! If you remember my last big upgrade had two very big and expensive geforce 6800 ultras in SL-lie. The system is hot, way too noisy (you have to disable all eq options and leave all fans running max in SL-lie), vsync can't be turned on (leading to tons of teared images on my flat panel), and ofcourse it crashes. Check the nvidia forums for all the moaning. The only use of SL-lie is to give you a bigger virtual dick, and give you 10,800 points in 3dmark05. But in real life game playing it's shit, including the fact that the 7800gtx outdoes it in nearly every game at 1600x1200 res (my monitor's native res).
Anyway, it's installed now and even though my 3dmark score is just 8000, all my fps games are faster, cleaner, smoother, and quieter. Ebay, here I come!

2\ Razer Copperhead Lasermouse: at 2000dpi and 1000hz frequncy, this is a bad mofo! Ambidextrous design and cool glowing blue leds make this a beauty, and with 7 buttons there's no shortage. Problem is, it's too accurate and sensitive for me. My last mouse was a humble microsoft optical, and using the copperhead for a few hours today (in Guild Wars, CoD2 demo and others) I realised juts what I've been missing. The mouse functions PERFECTLY in all games, and really does improve your responsiveness (and scores!). It even has on-the-fly sensitvity changing so if it's going to fast just change it. And finally, it has 32k of ram to store upto 5 profiles. So if you use it on some other PC, it's all ready as you last left it :)
Also, the one I got happens to be one of 10,000 "first edition"s, it even comes with a certificate to prove so. I didn't know that when I ordered it, but is it a good thing? first edition things tend to be buggy... at least the firmware is upgradeable (no joke! mice with firmware, what next? consoles with magic wands..... wait a minute.....)

3\ Soundblaster Fatal1ty X-Fi FPS: still haven't got that.
4\ Saitek Eclipse Keyboard: still haven't got it either

5\ Speedlink Medusa 5.1 surround headphones: I have read so many good reviews and praise for these babies that I ordered them. I still haven't received them but they are apparantly very good, with 5.1 surround in games/dvd and music. I sorely need something like this since I'm sharing a house I can't play on 7.1 speakers all the time, so these headphones will come in handy for late-night Quake3/quake4/cod2/fear/ss2/hl2/cs:source (delete as appropriate)

6\ Konica-Minolta Dimage A200 camera: 8mpixel, 7xoptical zoom, Antishake (rocks! makes nearly all pictures clear and in-focus), and a ton of other options make this camera a great buy. It looks semi-pro too, so it's time to get rid of that stylish sony dsc-t1 (looks good, works ok)

I spend too much money, I hate it. I've decided not to impulse buy any more, and not to buy cutting-edge shit that costs too much. I decided this 5 years ago........

PS: and i know this has nothing to do with spending too much, but Golden Sun Team have finally released a universal NintendoDS rom patcher that makes all releases run on the neoflash backup system (which I have). I've been nuturing my labrador on the excellent Nintendogs recently. If you haven't got a clue what I'm talking about, google's your friend!

LEGO Halo

This is just way cool. Why didn't I think of this before. A very dedicated gamer known as saber-scorpion has created custom LEGO models of Halo and Halo 2 figures! Very cool if you ask me! Pictures below of the Warthog and a Master Chief driver.
Visit his site for some more LEGO figures, like D&D and Star Wars.
Why couldn't I come up with this? After all, I loved LEGO as a kid and I still love games as a, erm, grown-up kid :)

Videogame Chick

I'm very happy at this moment in time.
It's a Sunday evening. I've spent the whole of the day doing NOTHING.
My girl friend (yes, I haven't mentioned her before on the blog but she's called Kelly and we've been going out for 2 months) came around yesterday, and she stayed around. We woke up late and had some breakfast, then I started playing Splinter Cell : Chaos Theory (incidentally, I lost my original disk! -yes I own it! I had to download the damn thing to play it!) and Kelly was watching and giving me her useful(less) advice!
Next, we watched Gladiator (I haven't seen it believe it or not! great film) and then some dinner, and now she's playing Fahrenheit on the xbox!
The cool thing about Kelly is that she likes video games! When I first dated her I asked her about games and turns out she's played (and finished) everything from Sonic to The Nomad Soul!
For a girl to come over and spend the weekend at home with you while you play games and she plays game too while you surf the net (and blog) on your laptop is a great thing, worth sharing with the world!
She's now playing a guy called Tyler in Fahrenheit, looking at himself in the mirror going "you're a good looking guy". SO true :)

Late night surfing

I love the internet.

I've loved it way before I even knew how it worked, or what it did. Back in the old days of living in Baghdad, we had no internet. We knew there was an internet explorer with windows, and we knew the internet was a great place. PC heaven. But what did it look like and how did it work?

I was to find out in June 2000, the year I left Iraq. My first time so to speak was at an internet café in Jordan, when a friend of mine type www.hotmail.com in a browser, and from then on I was hooked.

It's not just the info, but the other main reason I love the web is communications. Thanks to the net I'm in touch with loads of friends all around the globe, some just emailing now and then, some chatting randomly, and others regularly voice/video conferencing and playing games.

And now, I'm laid on my bed, browsing the web for random tidbits at 2:30 in the morning on my laptop, and I'm enjoying it so much that I thought I'd blog it. Come to think of it, today was a good geeky day, cos my gaming buddy Dan came round and we played the Serious Sam 2 demo, and then played ALOT of Mortal Kombat : Shaolin Monks (Ko-op mode). Essentially golden axe but in the mk universe, the ko-op mode is so much button-bashing fun and arguing about screen-stealing and item allocation that it just takes you back to the good old 2D co-op games of yesteryear (double dragon anyone?). Great game. Great day. Great internet.

69 Love Songs

I don't know why I haven't mentioned this earlier. I've been bugging poor old anarki13 about this every other time I post on his blog.
69 Love Songs is a triple CD album by the not-so-known The Magnetic Fields. Why would a blog about computer games, medicine, and jarredom mention such a soppy album? Well, cos not only is it one of the best hidden nuggets of music around, but it's also got nearly nothing to do with lovey-dovey love, but more about betrayal, lust, passion, sadness, happiness, adultry, and anything else that no one else would sing about other than incomprehensible metal bands.

The 69 songs on the album cover a wide range of genres also, from folk rock, to electronic, to pop and even experimental, it's just a brilliant experience all together.

The main man behind the music is a Stephen Merritt, a genius at lyric writing and composing at the same time. With a dull, monotonous haunting voice like moby, he adds more meaning to his music by singing the majority himself (with a few other vocalists sometimes).

With song titles like The Cactus Where You're Heart Should Be, It's a Crime (To Fall in Love), and Let's Pretend We're Bunny Rabbits, you know that this is a special album that deserves recognition.

Worth mentioning is "I Don't Wanna Get Over You", a song about giving up on trying to forget, and about living in blue. Sung with Merritt's trademark dull and dark voice (that you wouldn't expect to be so sentimental and sad), to a bouncy sing-a-long tune that again contradicts the sad and sentimental lyrics, which are about living in blue forever, it's a great example of the genius behind this album.

My personal favourites have got to be:

Absolutely Cookoo:

don't fall in love with me yet

we only recently met

true i'm in love with you

but you might decide i'm a nut

All My Little Words:

you are a splendid butterfly

it is your wings that make you beautiful

and I could make you fly away

but I could never make you stay

Reno Dakota:

reno dakota I'm reaching my quota of tears for the year

alas and alak you just don't call me back

you have just disappered

it makes me drink beer

I Don't Wanna Get Over You:

I don't wanna get over you

I guess I could take a sleeping pill

and sleep at will

and not have to go through what I go throuh

I guess I should take Prozac, right

and just smile all night

at somebody new

The Luckiest Guy On The Lower East Side:

Andy would bicycle across town

in the rain to bring you candy

and John would buy the gown

for you to wear to the prom, with Tom

the astronomer who'd name star for you

but I'm the luckiest guy on the lower east side

cos I've got wheels and you wanna go for a ride

It's A Crime (To Fall In Love):

my mother said gently

syou can buy her a bently

but my son she'll only drive it away

I didn't listen

cos my brain was missing

and I only found it today

Yeah! Oh, Yeah!:

Are you out of love with me

are you longing to be free

do I drive you up the tree?

Yeah! Oh, Yeah!

though I need you more than air

is it true you just don't care?

are you having an affair?

Yeah! Oh, Yeah!

Revolution!

Not the Jarre album or track (both great), but Nintendo Revolution!
Tokyo Game Show started today in the Empire of the Sun, and Satoru Iwata (ninty boss for those on the wrong blog :p) did what the whole world was waiting for, he revealed the nintendo revolution controller!
On first impressions you'd be excused to think that you're staring at a TV remote control. Ditching the very thing nintendo invented 20 years ago, ie the 2-handed control method, the revolution controller is a one-handed simplistic affair with a few basic buttons, and the now trademark big A button in the middle. What's so revolutionary about that?
The revolution comes in with the sensors on the console and the controller itself. Using bluetooth, the controller can sense any kind of movement. Not just gimicky twist and turn, but full rotation and 3D spatial awareness! It's a something you've got to see to fully understand, but imagine a fully 3D mouse and you're nearly there!
Also, the controller can have wired attachments, the one displayed is basically an analogue stick, used for FPS games.
Confusing right? dwell on the pictures below but more importantly, get yourselves browsing here for Revo-Europe's story on the revealing, here for a brilliant trailer of the controller in action, and here for the full 60 minute webcast of Iwata's keynote. Watch the trailer to understand what I'm going on about!
My mind has been made up, Revolution all the way! I was initally on that opinion but thought I'd wait for the controller to materialise before making my mind up. I'm not sure how much the western markets will warm to this idea, but all nintendo needs is Japan, and knowing them they're gonna lap this up big time.
A very excited SoB signing out for now!

XBOX 360 Overload

Bizzare Creations (them of Metropolis Street Racer and Project Gotham Racing fame) are trying to Burn Out (Pun intended - Criterion's racer rules!) an Xbox 360 by putting 35,000 spectators polygon rendered spectators on a corner of a track from their next-gen racer!
The new game boasts realistic fans and crowds that react and take pictures etc, but Bizzare promise thousands (which is still alot) rather than 35,000 in the real game!
Check the pic, and count the heads if you don't believe it.
PS: No results yet whether the box has burned. Keep an eye out here.

Friends

I'm gonna be out of action for a week or so. Reason? My good from Zzz is coming over from Dubai for a week! We last met when I went there back in xmas 2003 and this time he's coming here for something called PLASA at London's Earl's Court. It's something his company boss and him are coming to attend. I'll be going to London today to see him (he arrives today), and will be spending the week over there. Wanna take him to all the great places, Oxford Street, TCR, Trocadero and Leicester Square, Westminster and Waterloo, Imax, Madam Tussaud's, and ofcourse Thorpe Park!!

SoB out for the week or so. Will be online from powerbook but don't think I'll blog.

They invented Tetris...

...and now Russia's biggest design agency has come up with what must be the coolest invention since Alexey Pajitnov's masterpiece.
Cue the Optimus Keyboard - where each key is actually a mini LED screen on it's own! A brilliantly cool idea, with endless possibilities. Push one button and your keyboard changes from English to any other language in the world. Pissed off at all those keyboard shortcuts you can't remember in photoshop? Optimus' keys will show you an icon of what each key is.
BUT, the main thing this keyboard gets a mention here? check this out:

The Da Vinci Code

I've just finished reading The Da Vinci Code, by Dan Brown.
I used to read loads of books as a kid, especially all the Roald Dahl novels - that man wasa genius!
But, recently, thanks to the internet and laziness, I've lost my passion for books. Having being persuaded by a friend to read The Da Vinci Code, I bought a copy and found myself transfixed! It's an amazing story that capitalises on the myth of the Holy Grail and secret societies, with enough riddles and twists to keep it more than interesting. It's also full of historically correct facts and serves up not just a brilliant thriller, but a lesson in history, art and geography of Paris and England.
The book is becoming a motion picture next year (with Tom Hanks), so now's your chance at reading the story. A brilliant book to say the least.

I've also finished reading The House Of God by Samuel Shem. A book about junior physicians, very true and very funny! Don't think I can recommend it to someone who isn't in the medical profession though....

Next Stop: Bill Bryson - A Short History Of Nearly Everything. I've had this book for ages and I've forgotten where I've reached. I'll start again.

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