Movies...

I just noticed 2 very cool (and 1 ok-ish) movie trailers, as I was trawling the apple trailers website.

First up, and the most exciting of them all is Transformers - The Movie! by Paramount and Dreamworks (exec. producer Spielberg). I hope this one's cool! not out till 07/04/07 though. I'm not sure if that's 7th of April or 4th of July (stupid American dating).

Next, is a very clever mix of real acting and anime, and I don't mean in Kill Bill style. The whole of A Scanner Darkly is filmed in real life, but then coloured in to make it look like anime. It's very difficult to explain unless you see the trailer, but it sure looks very very interesting. It has that Sin City never-seen-before-style kind of feel to it. Just watch the trailer please :)

Finally, Pulse looks like a stupid horror film, but the reason it gets a mention here is cos it's a bit geeky. Someone dies, but stays in touch via email/IM to spook his friends out. It might turn out to be rubbish, but it's geeky so I'll watch it.

Superman Returns soon in the UK, and as an added treat they're releasing it in the Imax too, but not just as big 2D! the film has 30 minutes of 3D action in it! imagine watching Superman wooooooosh above your head. I've booked our tickets already, and me and Kelly are going to watch it wearing our Superman t-shirts.

Lastly, other films I want to watch this year are: Fearless, Hard Candy, The Omen, Monster House, Cars, Thankyou for Smoking, Water.

SoB out.

PS: am in London since Wednesday. My mum has had major surgery to her back and is recovering in hospital now, so am here to help her out. Donations accepted :p

Shame really

Wikipedia is really cool. A free encyclopaedia online, great interface, great articles.
Problem is, it's editable by anyone. You can change and submit articles and do all you want. Which makes it not so very accurate.

Today, I was checking it for something and the front page had an article about Uma Thurman. Clicking on it produced this:



Sad really. Abused by some kiddie who'll now boast that he's hacked Wikipedia.

Prey

The Prey demo was released yesterday. For those wondering WTF Prey is, it's an FPS that was surprisingly announced by 3DRealms last year (yes, we're STILL waiting for Duke Nukem Forever, so instead they make a new franchise!). It's based on my favourite engine, Doom 3 (albeit an enhanced version).

The game has you playing Tommy, a cherokee indian that doesn't believe in it all. When the world is invaded by very organic enemies, guess who has to save the world (and figure out his beliefs too!). So the story is nothing original, but the gameplay sure is! Trying to create something new with FPS, the game feels like Doom 3 and Quake 4 mixed, but also adds something very interesting, which is gravity-shifting portals and walkways. So you might find yourself being shot at by someone walking on the ceiling, or you could revisit an old area but while walking on the wall.

The game also has "spirit walking", where your spirit leaves it's shell and wanders around. A bit like Geist on the gamecube then. This, added with the portals and gravity trickery, creates some very tricky (and sometimes nauseating) puzzles and a whole new gaming experience.

The demo lasts about one hour and IMHO is really good. I think i'm biased though, cos I love the Doom 3 engine (and the game of course!). Oh, and when the enemies invade you're in a bar, and quite appropriately the jukebox starts playing the cult "Don't Fear The Reaper" just as the can of whoop-ass opens up. Classic.

Grab the demo here. You won't regret it.

USB powered.....

.....everything. You can get USB powered everything these days.
But this creation, by an ex-Sony technician has got to take the cake. It's a USB powered.... SHIRT!

Equiped with 2 fans on each side, the shirt plugs in to your PC and fans away your sweat :) Reminds me of that coat Marty McFly had in Back To The Future 2 (Autodry enabled....)

If there isn't a USB port close by (come on, as a geek you can't be further than 5 metres away from the closest USB hub), then you can run the shirt off 4 AA batteries, or worryingly enough, off your car lighter (it comes with an adapter!)

So it's official - the Japs are mad. Saying that, I still want one :p

NINTENDO SIXTY FOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUR!

Can you get ANY HAPPIER than this lucky SOB...

Exam Games...

Ok, I've just spent UNHEALTHY hours playing Rockstar Presents Table Tennis online. I'm actually quite good at it, which is amazing seeing that I suck at everything else!

Which reminded me of my university years. Every set of exams I had a game I played in between revision. The most memorable one I played (and finished in the exams!) was Terminal Velocity (remember that? 3DRealms, those of Duke 3D fame). And since then, I've always had a favourite game to de-stress between revision. Quake 3 favours highly cos it's great to just go online and kick some ass (or get your ass handed over to you).

This time round, it's Table Tennis. Great game.

Is it just me that does this? or is this natural in those people of the unique Book-Game geek personality....

The exam is coming soon. I finished the main book that's regarded as the bible of PACES, I gotta re-read it again in the next 3 days. Friday is for practicing the examination routines on Kelly.

Exams SUCK. Games in between revision don't. And Voodoo People (Pendulum Remix) is a great track... listen to it...

I sleep....

Page Unavailable

Get this: a university internal website project for Philosophy students went down cos one of the managers there took a uni xbox back home for his son to play on!
That's right, they were using an xbox with linux running on it as a cheap server for the project!

Quote from maxconsole.net:
The administrator went down to the new manager’s office to report the missing X-Box. The new manager was quiet for a moment and then sheepishly informed the administrator that it was he who had removed the X-Box. The manager had thought the X-Box was just a games console that the IT departments staff used for recreation when it got quiet. Noticing that the X-Box hadn’t been moved from the server room for some time and that his son was going to be at home on school holidays for the next two weeks, the manager decided to take the X-Box home so that his son would have something to entertain himself with. The manager then drove home and retrieved the X-Box. The administrator got a labeling machine and plastered the words “This is actually a server” all across the console.

He he! how awesome is that :o)

In other news, Namco is releasing point blank for the DS with touchscreen support, and the new mario bros game (which rocks, I imported it) for DS is dominating the jap sales charts with over 1 million sold in 3 weeks. The DS continues to lead the sales too, just going to prove some cynics that doubted it's powers :p (yes that's YOU India :p)

I for one have always backed it up, check here and here and here!

SoB out

PS: MRCP PACES on Saturday 17/06. AWOL till then.

Pee & poo :)

I forgot to mention this earlier.
As a good luck gift, the ever amazing Kelly decided to get me a Pee&Poo set!
If you remember in this blog entry, Pee&Poo are Swedish soft toys that come in a set. They've "escaped from the bathroom" and are looking for a home.

How someone could get away with designing toys about poop and wee is amazing. What's even more amazing, is that Kelly has actually read the whole blog, and ordered these from the Pee&Poo website (Sweden). They're quite big but very cute.

In true geek style, these are staying in their box forever. You never know, they might become famouse one day :o). There's a picture down there of them (and Kelly, who didn't know I had included her in the view!).

So thank you so much Kelly, not only for these, but for everything else you've done for me. Including kicking my ass in both MarioKart and Table Tennis :p

I should get her playing Quake 3.......

The busiest week of my life

I'm back from London, to a very sunny Colchester. I finished the 4 day course I took there in preperation for the PACES exam.

Two days ago, I received my entry slip for the exam. It's going to be on the 17th of June (Saturday), at 9:15 am in East London :( The exam dates were to be within 15/06 to 02/07, so I'm relatively in the very beginning.
Two days before that, ie on the 15th of June, I've got an interview for a job in Oxford too!

So, next week is gonna be really busy and also life changing. Just like December, when I got the results of the written exam and a job within 2 days, then maybe just this time history will repeat itself. I desperately need both the exam and the job, but to be honest the exam is more important. If I do pass it, I'd have fulfilled all the requirements to become a member of the royal college of physicians of london, ie MRCP. This will let me move on to registrar posts (ie train to become a consultant).

Wish me luck... I need TONS of it.

I'll be MIA for most the coming 2 weeks. Have fun you lucky SoBS.