BBC Cock up!

you might've seen this by now :)

In a historical moment, BBC News 24 interviewed LIVE ON AIR the wrong person, thinking thath e was an IT consultant! The poor victim was a guy from Congo (Guy Goma) who was very well mannered, and had come to the Beeb for a job interview (accountancy!)

Check out the look on his face when the camera is on him and the presenter is announcing his name and position!! Classic.

I have a feeling Guy is gonna turn into an urban legend, with the emo t-shirts and all... we'll see...

Nintendo and Microsoft Press Conferences

Yesterday, both Nintendo and Microsoft showed off their next-gen plans in special press conferences pre-E3.
I couldn't watch neither of them live (cos I have teaching every day after work until the darn exam!), but I gave Kelly my GameSpot user/pass and she watched Nintendo live.

Microsoft focused on the 360, and mainly on the games (with a bit about the new eye-toy-esque camera). The games looked really cool, with the long awaited official trailer of Halo 3 shown! Some other good games worth noting are Gears of War, Too Human, Virtua Tennis 3, Lost Planet, and many more (I can't remember!).
Personally, the best thing they announced is a slew of new games (18?) for XboxLive Arcade (for those of you without a 360, that's a great retro service from MS, where you download remade games for a small fee, most feature multiplay/hdtv etc), these include remakes of Mortal Kombat, Contra, and even the EXCELLENT Lumines for PSP (featuring music videos that are updated from time to time!). Playing Lumines in HDTV is going to be surreal.

Finally, MS have kept up to their promise that current 360 users will have a good deal, as everyone with a 360 get free xboxlive access over the e3 period, with downloads for ALL the trailers in HDTV, and even some playable demos (can't wait to play lost planet!). Great service if you ask me.

Then ofcourse there was Ninty. Their press conference started off with Shigeru Miyamoto (he should be knighted!) conducting a virtual orchestra using the Wiimote as it's now known. Reggie (kicks asses, takes names, remember?) came out then and introduced some really cool stuff: metroid prime 3, zelda wii, wario ware wii, excitetruck, wii spots, and more!. They then showed live action of how to use the controller and nunchuck attachment, and man does it look AWESOME! it looks like it's gonna feel really intuative and natural. The nunchuck has a motion sensor in it too, and the wiimote itself has a speaker!
They also promised some other secrets for the controller!

Ubisoft also showed off Red Steel, a Wii exclusive that gets you playing an underground life with guns and katanas!! the controller again shines here, making all very natural and realistic.
Loads more was announced, like new DS games (YOSHI ISLAND 2!!! WEEHEE! I love yoshi island and this one has dual screen support, and baby peach AND donkeykong!) and a new mario for Wii (mario galaxies) and GC (super paper mario).

And to end it all in style, they ended the show with 4 people (including shigeru and the big nintendo boss) playing 4 player tennis against each other, using the controller as a bat!

There's loads more that I'm sure I've missed out on! make sure you check gamespot where you can download the whole event, or just videos of the games I mentioned! The Wii official site has also been updated to reflect these announcements.

So, I got a 360, now what? Well if you haven't guessed yet, then I am definitely owning the Wii, but not the PS3. As much as the PS3 is great, it only focuses on resolution this, polygon that, sound this, reflection that. I already have a 360 for that. I want something new and fresh. And if Nintendo could get Kelly jumping up and down with excitement about "it looks really cool when they played wario ware and the tennis and it looks like it's really fun!", then am definitely getting a Wii, if only just so I can see her happily jumping up and down trying to beat a crazy wario minigame :)
And that, I think, is what Nintendo are trying to do, and are doing it well... very very well... getting other people to play, but also making sure us hardcore (or noncasual) gamers don't get too alienised, nor left out in the cold.

Let's see what the world's media think of the games today, now that they have a chance to actually play them...

Sony's E3 Press Conference

Wow the power of communication these days!
What with broadband and all, loads of people watched a live broadcast of Sony's press conference yesterday live! Something that's never happened (at least to my knowledge) before.

Anyhow, the conference started nearly one hour late (1 am our time) so I was too tired to finish it all, and it started off quite boring (figures and numbers and resolution and polygons bla bla). Today I checked out the highlights and there was nothing there for me, but loads for fans of Sony games, especially MGS4 :)

One thing worth noting though is that they also revealed the final controller specs. They've ditched the infamous "boomerang" that was shown last year, and gone back to the good old Dual Shock configuration. But this time there are a few new additions: no more Shock, analogue trigger sticks, wireless, a central button with the ps3 logo on it (guide or home button most likely), and a 6 motion sensor gyroscope!

Now I don't know about you, but the minute I read about it I was thinking about all the other controllers and how this is just a copy of all the rivals' best bits. I think no one summed it up better than GameSpot:

So if you wanted to be a cynic, you could say that this is a wireless PS2 controller with analog triggers like the Xbox, a central guide button like the Xbox 360, and internal motion sensors like the Wii.

Nintendo's press conference is in just under 8 hours time.... get it right please.....

My MacBook Pro Broke!

yes seriously!

Last night I was using it off battery power and boom, it shutdown suddenly. From them on, all I could do was use it while it was hooked to it's power supply.
Luckily, I was in London when this happened so I quickly went to the Apple Store's website and booked myself an appointment to meet the "geniuses" at the "genius bar".
Today, I went there at 14:30 and they diagnosed it with a dead battery. Luckily, they had one in stock and changed it for me. It's working great now!

I found out later that a few of the first batch batteries were faulty, and died like this... At least they sorted it out real quick, otherwise I would've been one angry SoB.

Peace-out

E3 2006

Just a quick note to remind everyone that the Electronics Entertaiment Expo (E3) kicks off in LA this Monday (May 8th to May 12th).
This one's gonna be a belter! cos the 3 big ones are releasing their next-gen plans, but more importantly the big N is showing us the Wii properly! So we can finally see the games in action, and that damn controller...
Ofcourse, Sony is showing off it's PS3 too. Microsoft I think are just gonna focus on the software and xbox live. Unless ofcourse they announce that rumoured xbox handheld :p

So, next week the web is gonna burn with new gaming goodies. My favourite place to follow the action is at GameSpot's E3 section, over here.

Have fun gamers.....

The 360 Blog

www.360voice.com have come up with a very clever idea. Utilising the Xbox Live's GamerTag, 360voice generates a blog on behalf of your Xbox! In other words, it creates a blog with the main editor being the 360, and it's entries are based on what you've been up to!

The language used is common English, and it also has a bit of wit to it, so it does a good job at convincing you that your 360 really is doing the blogging! I registered by GamerTag there a few days ago, and the resulting blog can be found here.

Thing is, today after lots of research, I found a way to incorporate the blog as an RSS feed into Good-Delicious' sidebar! (using the excellent feed2JS service)
So if you take a look there now, you'll see the 360's own little blog, as it tells you about my gaming adventures on it!

So there you have it. You now have two blogs to read while you're here ;)

Oh and could some of you please get a 360 already?! they're fucking awesome!!

SoB out

PS: I got the LAST exam of MRCP soon (well mid next month). It's called PACES and it involves alot of clinical skills (no more text questions!), so I gotta practice loads to get things right. Problem is, practicing is usually after work, as such I get back home tired, not to mention pissed-off!
So I'll be scarce on G-D from now till the big day. Cross your fingers everyone!!

Super Mario Bros done live

a student project, and a very very cool one at that :)
watch them perform super mario live infront of an audience here (google video)

The Nintendo Wii

Ok, I'm going to try REALLY REALLY hard not to make any funny/clever jokes about pissing.
First of all, let me say I think Nintendo have gone mad. I really respect and love the big N (anyone reading this blog knows that) but this time they've just crossed the fine line.

As you know, all consoles have a codename throughout their development cycle, and then an official release name. The GameCube for example was called Dolphin. So, today Nintendo renamed their Revolution to the Wii. Not W2, not W-eye-eye, but Wii pronounced "wee". Just like the nearly-universal word for "piss".
I kid you not. There's also an official website with a promo video here.

I don't know what to think of all this. I'm not even sure I still want one now.
I leave you with Nintendo's official explanation of the stupidest name on earth.

Introducing ... Wii.

As in "we."

While the code-name "Revolution" expressed our direction, Wii represents the answer.

Wii will break down that wall that separates video game players from everybody else.

Wii will put people more in touch with their games ... and each other. But you're probably asking: What does the name mean?

Wii sounds like "we," which emphasizes this console is for everyone.

Wii can easily be remembered by people around the world, no matter what language they speak. No confusion. No need to abbreviate. Just Wii.

Wii has a distinctive "ii" spelling that symbolizes both the unique controllers and the image of people gathering to play.

And Wii, as a name and a console, brings something revolutionary to the world of video games that sets it apart from the crowd.

So that's Wii. But now Nintendo needs you.

Because, it's really not about you or me.

It's about Wii.

And together, Wii will change everything.

The Simpsons Movie!

Yeap that's right, Matt Groening and co are preparing The Simpsons for their big silverscreen debut, ready for worldwide release summer 2007!
I hope this is good, I love The Simpsons, so a film can potentially be a classic, but can also potentially be a ruining movie. We just gotta wait and see.

Oh, and here's the teaser http://www.apple.com/trailers/fox/thesimpsonsmovie/teaser

Enjoy.

Sky Internet?

Yesterday my Sky (Satellite) TV broke. It would only display a few random channels, and couldn't get listings and stuff like that. I rang them up and after the mandatory (try this, do that bla bla) they decided that it was a hardware fault and needed an engineer.
So he showed up today, and managed to fix it in 10 minutes (The LNB was faulty). Anyhow, he saw the geeky things in the house and starting telling me about how cool HDTV is and if I saw it I wouldn't believe it. So I showed him a selection of movies I have in HDTV, and his jaw dropped :p But that's not why I'm blogging this (bragging is cool though sometimes). He was telling me that Sky recently purchased Easynet (a UK ISP), and are going to provide internet via satellite come December.

Ofcourse, the concept is ages old, but the last time I read about it you had to go to your ISP's website and request files from them, and then they would prepare them to be downloaded via your dish. He says that this isn't the case and it'll be dish2usb2pc directly just like any other connection. Exciting thing is, it'll be 50mbyte/sec UP AND DOWN!

Now, either I'm going to be very happy come December, or that said engineer will have to go in hiding to avoid my wrath. Watch this space :)

Am Back

from Prague. Great city, everyone has to see it :o)
but more about that later, I'll blog with a few pics and all that...

My Powerbook can be fixed, but the company offered me an upgrade (I had to pay the price difference but it was alot cheaper than seeling the pB and getting a mB) to the 2.0ghz MacBook Pro, so I've agreed and I get it on Wednesday! I hope it's as awesome as I think it is. It's also 15" which is what I wanted, cos as great as the 17" was, it's a bit too big to lug around comfortably.

Full report + blog later. Now I go back to Ghana to raid a few more tombs...

And............ THEY'RE OFF!

Good bye people. Am off to Prague tomorrow with Kelly for one week. We're staying in a 4 star hotel just out of the main town (3 metro stops away allegedly), and we're just gonna explore by ourselves.
Hope it's as fun as they say. Apparantly the beer there is good AND cheap :)

Good-delicious! See ya in a week.

Broken Laptop, Animal Crossing, Prague

Chapter 1 - Broken Laptop: Has anyone here ever noticed that when things go wrong, they go wrong with style and vengeance? Take hardware for example: it runs like clockwork for ages, and then suddenly goes out with a bang. Remember my machine_check_exception BSOD post? well that was cos my spanking new Maxtor Diamondmax 11 hard drive was a bitch, one that took out the mobo on it's way out. I had to do alot of firmware flashing and other crap to sort it all out.

That's all behind me now, but what happens this morning? The Powerbook decides to take a Powerslide down the chair and fall flat on it's screen (it was open at the time), rendering the damn thing USELESS, as you see in the pic.

Luckily, the computer itself (and hard drive) is fine, so today I networked it to the PC and transfered all the data over. I connected it to the LCD TV via D-SUB and it all went fine. When it was connected I was treated to a big 27" version of my favourite screensaver, the album art saver. Have a look at it in the pic below :)



I've also arranged for it to be repaired tomorrow (thank God for personal belongings insurance from HSBC, they rule!). If they can't repair it they'll offer me a new one (I'm secretly hoping they can't cos the new ones are better :p). But I bet they will...

Chapter 2 - Animal Crossing: remember ages ago I was going on and on about throwing my life away by playing Animal Crossing on the Gamecube? The nintendo game that can literally be played for YEARS without feeling boring, just cos it's a micro village that lives and breathes each day and night?
Well the Big N in all it's wisdom have released the game cor the Nintendo DS. Essentially more of the same, except ofcourse with the great addition of Wireless + wifi play! Me and Kelly have both got a copy and today we experimented with it over the internet. I got her to visit my village where she picked some fruits, met some of my villagers and so on. I visited her village and did the same. The cool thing is that these villagers are now my penpals and they send me letters and vice versa! Some of them even migrate to me if she pisses them off, and again my people can go to her if I annoy them!
I gotta admit that sounded really boring, but trust me it's alot more fun than anyone can describe. One of those games that if you don't play you just don't understand, and one of those games that's either loved or hated, nothing in between. Get it if you dare (or if you've got an NDS :)

Chapter 3 - Prague: And finally, this Sunday I'm taking Kelly to Prague. We're staying there for a week in the city itself. We're going alone (ie not with a tour) so we're just gonna do some discovering. From what I hear the city is a beautiful historic place with loads to see. So should be fun.

On that note, hope you're all having fun and good-delicious :)

PS: forgot to mention that someone finally got a ps2 emulator running on the pc, with moderate results. Grab PCSX2 from www.maxconsole.net if you want. Apparantly it runs Tekken 4....

A Geek's Dream Come True.....

I've got a new NintendoDS. It's the lite version that the big N released in Japan a few weeks ago. It's smaller, ligther, brighter, and just damn right cooler than the original DS. Tech specs are exactly the same though.
When this baby arrived, I gave the older DS to Kelly. I also popped over to her place and installed an old wireless router of mine there (for her DS and her laptop to use). I also convinced her to buy MarioKart (well, she took my copy and loved it so much she bought me another one and kept that one :).
This evening after a few hiccups (that old router I gave her is a crappy linksys, so the wireless signal on it is shaky. I'll get her a better one soon) we managed to go online and actually race each other remotely! I gotta say, it was AWESOME!
We had a few races and she's getting quite good at it, managing to whack me with a few shells and bombs here and there. All in all it was great. Nintendo, you rule!!

So, we've now also ordered (imported from the states actually) Tetris DS for both of us. Again, this supports local and remote multiplayer with frantic Tetris battling (she loves tetris). can't wait for it to arrive! We also play some local Yoshi Touch and Go races which are also really fun, with both players trying to out-race each other while blocking the other one's path by chucking eggs at them. Great Stuff.

So, that's my geek's dream come true. I have a girl friend that's beautiful, kind, really cool, plays games, and let's me do what i want, when i want, just cos she's great like that. Here's to her, a big LOVE YOU :)

and sorry for this sloppy post everyone, I just felt like it...... I'll be back to good-delicious SoB faster than you can say Koopa Troopa :D

Sigur Ros - Takk

First of all, one word of advice from the wise: DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT buy any MAXTOR crap if your motherboard runs an nforce4 chipset. NO MATTER WHAT ANYONE ELSE MIGHT CLAIM, they just don't work properly together. Anyhow, the last 4 days of hardware hell are now behind me, and the PC is ticking again.

Back to topic. Sigur Ros, an Icelandic quartet, who in their words perform (Art Rock). If you've seen Vanilla Sky (American version) they feature in that soundtrack. I had only heard those 3 tracks from that OST, but yesterday as I had a £10 off voucher from Virgin, I bought their new album Takk...

All I can say is PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE get it. Everyone. Buy it, beg it, steal it, pirate the mp3s, I don't care. Just get it. It's a mix between soft rock, hard rock, new age, orchestral symphonies, lullaby tunes, and haunting vocals that mean nothing (they sing in Hopelandic, just vocals that make the song sound good. Just like Adiemus or Era).

An album for ambience, an album for loud listening, an album to scream with, or just an album to listen too on the way to work. Enjoy it as you want, but just get it. Now.

Oh and don't watch Inside Man. Stupidest film ever. The fact that a friend of mine thought it was better than Slevin is criminal. Watch that instead.

machine_check_exception BSOD

is what I'm getting for the last 2 days

FUCK YOU MAXTOR

i'll be back

The First 360 Hack!

Why is it I always find out about such things IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT?
In a typical late-night-useless-browsing session, I discover that a guy called The Specialist and some of his very clever friends have managed to hack the DVD firmware of the Xbox360!
Just 4 months after the console's debut, the team have managed to hack the DVD firmware and let it fool the console by telling it that backup DVD is actually an original. The hack is not a modchip or anything, it's just a firmware flash to the DVD hardware.
And again in true first-hack style, they've released a video "just for fun", showing an open 360 booting a backup of PGR3.
The hack doesn't allow running of homebrew/unsigned code nor of out of region discs, cos all it does is make the DVD send the "original dvdxbox360" flag to the processor.
The team have not released the hack publically, cos they don't want it to be used for piracy (ironic cos they were running a pirated game on it). Even if they did, flashing it isn't easy, you need to disassemble your console, un-solder the DVD firmware chip, read it with a chip reader to get your personal DVD key, patch the firmware with your key, flash the firmware onto the chip, and then solder it back!!!

But, this definitely opens the door to all sorts of mods/hacks/cracks and maybe even just plain simple boot disks (like the good old Dreamcast). But in all honesty all of this worries me. As much as it's appealing to play free games (instead of paying £40 a pop), if the 360 were to be hacked succesfully (and with a modchip), then 2 issues arise:

1\ most likely you couldn't go online with a modded console, just like the original xbox. To go online you had to disable the mod, usually with an external switch. That in itself ruins half the enjoyment of the 360, the whole Live! business is amazingly fun and well done, so playing a pirated game offline and missing out on all the Live! options isn't worth it IMHO.

2\ Cheating! if the modded console could go on Live! then that marks the beginning of the end for fair play. All the spotty teenagers in the world would just cheat their way to high scores, and mega kills, and all that cos cheats are bound to be released for copied games, thus rendering both online games and the online leaderboards OBSOLETE.

I guess the best thing to do is sit tight and wait, oh and watch www.xboxhacker.net, www.xbox-scene.com, and www.maxconsole.net with a hawk's eye. How much longer till they release a public method of booting pirated games (be it modchip, firmware, or bootdisc)? anyone's guess but this SoB says sometime in the next 3 months. Prove me wrong Microsoft.

PS3 Release Date

Sony today has confirmed that the PS3 will launch worldwide in November 2006. Finally, they're realising that the .eu market is a significant one (last year video games made more money than movies in the uk!).
The console will also require a seperately sold 60gig hard disk that (not surprisingly) runs a linux variant o/s, and is used for retro compatibility, game saves/downloads, online functions, and as a home server (I presume for digital media).
Allegedly, Sony has told all it's developers to develop games "as if all ps3's have the hard disk installed".
So if you're thinking of grabbing the console in November, don't forget the HDD.

The PS3 will also feature an Xbox-Live! like function, that enables players to see their who's online and what they're up to, and can invite each other to games. VERY similar to Live! if you ask me, which IMHO is the best thing about the 360, it's Live! function is amazingly good.

So, excited yet? I for one am not. For some reason, I just don't like PlayStations. I know I've got a PSP, but that's a handheld, and to be honest I have yet to enjoy more than 2 games on it (Lumines, and Exit are the only good 2).
Do I get one? Do I not?
Well it all depends on May and E3 and what the big N has got to show us when it finally reveals the Revolution. I'm definitely NOT owning all 3, and last time I had the Xbox and Gamecube. So perhaps I should get the PS3, just for a change..... and to play those few classics I've missed out on from the PS2 era.

Decisions, decisions........

Sodom (whoever that is)

So Lik-Sang sent me an email the other day telling me that I had to redeem my "reward points". Turns out I was collecting some points without even knowing it, since 2001. Problem was, they were stopping the scheme and wanted me to use my points.
So what "rewards" were on offer? well silly things like mugs/mouse mats/cases/action figures etc, and some really cool things like consoles/games/mags that had already "sold out".
So I ended up getting a whole load of random shit, like the mug, a case for my nds and one for my psp, and a Sodom.
Sodom? yes. Apparently he's a character from one of the Street Fighter series. Beats me (pun intended :p). At least he looks cool guarding my PC from any potential threats (aka girlfriend).

My new Mickey Tie :)

Lucky Number Slevin

Have you seen Sin City? great. Have you seen Saw? great. And Pulp Fiction? cool. What about Leon? excellent. And finally, how about The Shawshank Redemption? very well.
So we've all seen those classics. Now go grab the proverbial blender, stick all those films in, and pour out the gooey mess. Add to that mess some big names, like The Freeman, Ben Kingsley, and Bruce Willis, and finally give them a cracking script and a very clever story.

The result? A master-piece called Lucky Number Slevin. I saw this film at the cinema today and it really is mind blowing. In trendy film noir style (becoming very popular this isn't it?), with enough violence to shame Sin City, Slevin tells the story of a man by that name that finds himself being mistaken as someone else by some very angry (and at war!) gangs. Within hours he has to not only assassinate someone, but pay off a big debt.

As stylish as Pulp Fiction, as breath taking as Leon, and as satisfying as Shawshank, this movie will really have you on the edge of your seat till the very last second. It's bloodily and graphically violent, but if you can stomach that then you're in for a beautiful treat. A must see movie by all accounts, 5 out of 5 sobstars.

And where does Saw fit in to all of this? well remember the last minute of Saw when you finally put all the pieces together and found out who really was The Jigsaw? if you thought that was clever, wait until you see Slevin, and find out who not only Slevin is, but who another 5 people are. It's that amazing.

Go see it. Please.

Baseball Cap

I just realised something (while reading Abdullah's "Come Get Some" blog) : I never talk about politics.
Not in real life, not on the blog, no where.
I don't even think about politics. Nor discuss it. Nothing.
It doesn't interest me the least. I don't even watch the news.
And I'm not talking about the local UK politics. I'm talking about Iraq.
People here are obsessed with it all, the Kurds vs Sunnis vs Shi'ites. All they do is talk and talk about it, and about the shitty state Iraq is in now, and about the violence and the terror and hunger and fear and the general hell. All from the comfort of their houses, in one of the world's safest and richest and most advanced countries.
It's easy to observe things from outside, but what about those inside. What do they have to say about it all? from the hell of their houses without electricity nor water nor safety?

Maybe that's why I don't do politics. Maybe it's cos when I decided to leave Iraq all those years ago, I decided to leave it for good, and just take with me the memories, but most of all, keep the friends that I made there.
Or maybe I don't do politics cos it's just damn boring.
It hurts me to see what's happenning to the place I spent some great times in. It really hurts. Maybe that's why I don't do politics - I just don't want to talk about something that hurts....

Xbox Live GamerTag

As you might've noticed, my ever-faithful sidebar has got a new addition to it, my Xbox Live GamerTag. This Tag business was created with the Xbox 360, in which you had an online identity (your live username, mine being DrSbaitso - for the old enough to remember what that is ;) and an online reputation and profile thingie.

Nice thing about this tag is that it tells you the last 5 games I've played (the icons at the bottom). So at the time of writing the last thing I played was Kameo - Elements of Power. Clicking on a game's icon takes you to the "achievements" page, as each game has got certain targets you try to reach, in order to increase your gamer score.

People with higher scores tend to be matched up when looking for online matches, in order to try and balance out skills (unlike the original live, where you nearly always got matched up with a geek that played the game 100s of hours and kicked the living shit out of you before you even started).

In other news, Sony have announced a tentative September release date for the PS3 (allegedly March 07 for .eu), but even better than that, they're also releasing a PS3 exclusive of a certain crap game, God Of War :D

Guess I'm owning all 3 mofo next-gens then.....

Where did you say you live again?

This I can't believe. But it's true nontheless. Was randomly surfing wikipedia tonight (am on-call for 24 hours, sucks), and searched for "fucking", to find out that it's not just a rude (and very pleasurable) activity/word, it's also a VILLAGE IN AUSTRALIA.
Seriously.
No Joke.
Just imagine living there. The embarassment of telling someone your address.
Hi, I'm Ali. I'm from Fucking. (Aren't we all LOL?)

I better go to sleep. I stayed up late last night, and this morning I found an email from Amazon in my inbox, thanking me for ordering (Learning Unix for Mac OSX) at some unholy after midnight hour. So I go sleep now, before I find an email tomorrow from Amazon thanking me for ordering (The Dummies Guide to the Net) or something like that.

SoB out.

Where?

Those of you astute enough might remember a post here called "When?", about a picture that I found of a friend of mine looking, let's say, rough....

Unfortunately, due to outstanding demand from said friend (well one text message, 2 emails, and a few lines on msn), I have removed the post. That said, I'll still sneak his picture somewhere online, most probably a gay dating service for frustrated Arabs. Or Something :)

Oh and kudos to Wolf who caught the post before it disappeared, and actually saw the funny side of it all. Here's some Smirnoff on me.

Space of Freedom Photobook

After alot of postal errors, delays, ex-girlfriend mistakes, and so on, I've FINALLY managed to get my hands on a copy of the offical Jarre Gdansk photobook! The damn thing was released in Poland only, and I asked my ex to get a copy for me.
She did, but sent it to the wrong address. It then returned to her parent's address, and she then sent it to the right one! Anyhow, it's great to see the offical photos of the event, shame i have no clue what they're saying. I might get her to translate it one day :p

In other news, I've discovered that Dead or Alive 4 for the XBOX360 is a great game! fluid, beautiful, fast, and easy to get in to, hard to master (cliche!!), it really is a unique title. Best of all, you can fight online against others, and when you join a session you hang around a virtual lobby, watching the other plays duke it out on a big screen, just like in the old arcade days when you were waiting for a machine to be free.... bless tecmo :)

Where are you baby....

.....we used to have so much fun

Hello. Best way to start this long overdue update is by the universally known word, HELLO. Hope everyone's been ok and kicking.
I for one have been fine. My friend Ziad (who came here in September from Dubai if you remember) decided to visit Britain again on a 2 week holiday. We had a great time, went clubbing, pubbing (:p), saw Cirque Du Soleil at the Royal Albert Hall (friggin' awesome! best circus ever!), and did loads of other things too. He's gone back to UAE now.

When he was here, my mum decided to give me a heart attack and actually buy me an XBOX360 as a gift for passing MRCP 2!! I was shocked! She gave me the cash and I had to hunt all over the place to find the damn thing (they're in shortage worldwide). I managed to get the last remaining "CORE" version from Virgin. I bought 2 games with it (condemned, perfect dark) and two wireless controllers. I had to order a hard disk from ebay (necessary to save games, download stuff and connect to xbox live), and a vga HDTV cable from lik-sang (yeap! hong kong!).

Anyway, all that arrived, and before hand I had treated myself to a 27" widescreen LCD HDTV television (DiBoss from amazon, dead cheap). I connected the xbox to it via analogue VGA and set the xbox to widescreen HDTV. DAMN THE PICTURE IS AMAZING! HDTV rules! it really has to be seen to be believed!

Next, I got the Sky people to install a Sky+ receiver in my room, and now i can watch tv here and rewind/pause/record live tv (it has a built in hdd that records the stream all the time). They will start broadcasting in HDTV mid this year, so that's another use for the tv.

The TV also has a DVI input which I connected to the PC as second output. The monitor is cloned onto it, and it's used as the fullscreen overlay device for videos. I watched HDTV Shrek 2 and Kill Bill on it the other day, and believe me, once you've seen it you REALLY can't go back to crappy "DVDS". Seriously. It's that amazing. Once HD-DVD or BluRay come to the market, we're gonna start watching films the way they're meant to be :)

Another use of this TV is that now kelly (and other friends that come over) can watch me do stuff on the pc, for example the poor girl would have to endure some quake 4 deathmatching online, watching it on the tv :p



As a side effect of the above things, I had to drag Ziad to HomeBase and get some cheap shelves and a TV unit to house all this crap. We spent a whole evening DIYing and sorting things out, but now after wobbling about for a bit, everything appears to be stable (I hope.....)

So as you can see I'm happy, and still wasting a ton of cash on crap. But this crap is awesome and last for quite a while. Also, playing X3 in the middle of the night with my 5.1 headphones on, the Cyborg Evo, and on the wide screen telly is a heavenly experience.... One day i'm going to lock myself in the room for 24 hours and do a marathon X3 universe session. Someone, get me a life (and convince my girlfriend not to dump me once she's read this :p).

SoB over and out for now, and back online for a long time to come...........

Games Clocked 2005

I guess it's the time of year again to list the games I managed to finish playing last year. Gotta admit, it wasn't the best of gaming years for me, what with the 3 exams I did (mrcp 1 twice, mrcp 2a once :)), my moving homes, and ofcourse meeting Kelly since July has kept me more company than video games. Ofcourse, she loves playing games and now that her initial welcome period is over (and me turning into normal SoB, not polite, caring SoB), I'm gonna start playing more games with her... am sure she won't mind (I hope :p).

Anyhow, here's a list of games finished last year, according to format:

PC
Doom 3 Resurrection of Evil
Half Life 2
F.E.A.R.
Quake IV
Call of Duty 2

GAMECUBE
Resident Evil 4
Metroid Prime 2
Killer7
The Legend Of Zelda : Wind Waker (AT LAST!!!!)

XBOX
Splinter Cell:Chaos Theory
Fahrenheit
Project Snowblind

Nintendo DS
Nanospray
Warioware: Touched!

PSP
Lumines (all skins unlocked)

ARCADE
raiden fighters

AMIGA
Battle Squadron
Prince of Persia

MAC
Doukutsu - Cave Story

And currently playing:
PC - X3/The Threat
XBOX - Prince of Persia Sands of Time (with Kelly), Stubbs The Zombie
GAMECUBE - Geist
PSP - Katamari Damacy
NDS - Sonic Speed (with Kelly)

And life has a funny way...

of helping you out when you think everything's gone wrong.

Speak to me two days ago about life and the future, and I'd of said that I had no future job, that things are looking grim for doctors in Britain, and everything sucks.
Just 2 days ago, I was sprawled on the sofa playing XBOX Psychonauts (really good game! ps2 and pc so no excuse not to play it), when my house mate came running down saying "MRCP 2 RESULTS OUT! I'VE PASSED! GO CHECK!!!" oh no!! So I checked, and sure enough there was my code number, and I had passed!! (got the confirmation letter today, got 64%, passmark was 59%). I had passed the damn exam from the first attempt, a miracle :)

Then, just yesterday was my interview for a job in Colchester (Oncology SHO, ie cancer), and there was one post and 3 candidates (one of which was the same house mate). I managed to do well in that interview too and was offered the post!!

So, within 24 hours I got an exam and a job! Life can sometimes really turn around quickly, and as Alanis sang, it sure has a funny way of helping you out when you think it's all beyond repair!

Next stop, the FINAL damn exam of MRCP, otherwise known as the PACES (practical assessment of clinical examination skills), July '06. Wish me luck :)

Lik-sang

The other day I was reading The Official Nintendo Magazine, and found out that the big N had released a special edition Gameboy Micro celebrating Mario's 20th birthday. The machine was designed to look like a Famicom (Or NES, or even Rakan if you're arab :p).

As I'd given both my old GBA's (the standard and SP) to my nephews, I thought I might as well get one of these. Problem was that I couldn't find them in the UK. So, off to good old www.lik-sang.com, my favourite import shop. There, I ordered the Micro and also a copy of "Boku no Watashi no Katamari Damacy" for PSP (don't ask).
The order was placed just after midnight on Friday 6th of Jan. Monday morning (9th) and at 8:30 the DHL man knocks on the door with the package, straight from HK, and with NO TAX! Great service eh?

Thing is, it didn't stop there. Not only did I get the GBA micro and the game, but I also got a whole bunch of very Japanese goodies:

A Gameboy capsule toy: you get these from vending machines in Japan, and are basically teeny weeny models of classic consoles. Mine was the original gameboy, complete with a cartridge and a connection hub!
A Lik-Sang Badge Holder, A Lik-Sang Mouse Pad

A Katamari Prince shaped PSP case: this I was really happy to get, cos these are uber-rare, and only came with pre-ordered games. For some reason, I got one :)

I know most these things are silly, but you should've seen the look on my face when I was discovering goody after goody between the pyrofoam filler! So, here's a big thanks to lik-sang, and again to the Big N, for making my life happier...
And here's some pics from the back of the micro, and the little capsule gameboy thingie :)

Western Digital Raptor X

Western Digital have today announced their new Raptor HDD, called Raptor X (lot's of imagination there then). Those that don't know, the Raptor HDDs are awesome things that give home computers near-SCSI like performance, and spin around at a godly 10,000 RPM. The only 2 sizes are 32g and 74g. Their also not cheap.

I've owned 2x74 and 1x32 since last summer, and the 2 big ones are RAID-0, and they make loading times a doddle.
The new X series has the same specs as before, but come in at a reasonable 150gig, and a crucial 16mbyte cache (double that of it's older brothers), and also feature a see-through case and leds, useful for anyone with a window in their case. They don't come cheap either, and can be preordered from the Raptor X website for just $349. Check the site for more pics and even a video.

Am I gonna get one? maybe...... :p

I wish I was a kid (or had kids!)...

...to get me (or them) one of these things...
A kids bedroom with this TV would look awesome.....

Hanspree Batman 15" LCD TV

Dolby Audistry...

Dolby have launched their new "sound enhancing" system, the Audistry. Claiming to make your music and movies sound better, the Audistry home page has several examples and demos on how it works.
Thing is, the technology and results are very similar to Creative's "Sound Crystaliser"! Essentially accentuating certain frequencies, making the music or movie sound better. It's a brilliant system (I can't listen to my mp3s any more without that function, it's awesome! anyone with an x-fi will agree), but I'm wondering who's copied who. Creative have allegedly said that they've been working on their product for 5 years, while Dolby hasn't mentioned anything.

Expect seeing "Audistry-enabled" products in the hear future, like speakers, players, etc etc. An Audistry enabled sound card would be interesting, and I bet you dollar to dime it won't be from Creative ;)

I Won A Quake IV Deathmatch!

Happy New Year!

Just wanted to say HAPPY NEW 2006! to everyone, especially those that take the time to read this boring blog :)

I've been working way too much these last two weeks, but today is my last 12 hour shift for some time, so I can't wait to get back home this evening and just chill......

In other news, I've decided that it's time for me to take the final leap, and start playing flight/space sims! So I've ordered a Saitek Cyborg Evo Force game controller (it's ambidextrous which is useful!), and I've also ordered a copy of X3 - The Threat (games looks gorgeous!)
These will all arive mid next week from ebuyer.co.uk and amazon. Seeing that I'm not working for the next two weeks, I know how I'll be spending my time!
Which reminds me, I'm currently playing:

PC - The Movies, Quake IV multiplayer
XBOX - King Kong, Prince of Persia - The Two Thrones
GAMECUBE - Geist
NINTENDO DS - Mario and Luigi Partners in Time, Mario Kart DS
PSP - nothing (sucks eh?)

I'll post about the games i've clocked last year later on

Have a good one people and salam!

Barbapapa!

Since my disney post generated more interest in barbapapa than the trip itself (bastards!), here's a picture of the barbapapa toy I bought. He's the pink cuddly thing by the way :p

Autobahn and The Penguins

March Of The Penguins is a French documentary about the life of the Emperor Penguin in The South Pole. Narrated by Morgan Freeman, this movie is an ABSOLUTE MUST for everyone. A captivating documentary into the very harsh and unforgiving life of a penguin, this film is about love, passion, survival, courage, and hope. Filmed more like a romantic movie than a fact-only documentary, and narrated by the Freeman himself, this film will really grab you by the balls and suck you in, only spitting you out 1 hour and 20 minutes later with a big smile and a fuzzy feeling inside. It's available as a DVD already, so you can't do harm in getting one of the best movies you'll own.

Autobahn is a 1974 album by German godfathers of music, Kraftwerk. I've had the album for quite a while but never really listened to it properly. Dominated by its 22 minute titled track, the music paints a picture of driving down a motorway (autobahn in German), everything from turning on the engine to passing big trucks and being overtaken by speedy cars. The music does an amazing job at recreating the image, and can only be listened to entirely to be believed. An electronic landscape of ups and downs, beauty and ugliness, it's amazing that 4 young men in 1974 could come up with such a masterpiece.
Don't listen to Autobahn at home, nor going to work on your mp3 player. Shove the CD in your car, go for a long night drive, and let the music trance you. It's an experience that you'll never forget. I seriously recommend this to anyone with a car.

The Disney Post

Right, suppose it's time to blog all about Euro Disney!

We (me and Kelly) left Colchester on Friday at some unholy morning hour (I hate morning travel!), and arrived at Waterloo International in London at around 8:30am. Our train was due for 9:39.
We got on the Eurostar and 1 hour later we were going through the channel tunnel. 2 hours after that we reached Marne La Val Chesse (the train station at Disney). Luckily the train had a power socket where we were sat, so we watched March Of The Penguins on the laptop on the way (great film!)
We then checked in to our hotel (Moevenpick Dream Castle) which as a big but very cosy 4 star hotel, 8 minutes away from the park (there's a free shuttle bus every 10 minutes). As we had arrived mid afternoon we didn't go to the park that day, and just spent the evening chilling (ie doing nothing)

The next day we went to the park, and decided to go to Disneyland Park (the resort has 3 attractions, Disneyland Park, Disney Studio, and Disney Village). The moment you get in to the park you are hit with a magical, childhood like excitement. The colours, the shops, the buildings, the characters wandering around just make everything feel like you're in a disney cartoon!
The park is split into a main area, and four lands (adventure, fantasy, frontier and discovery). Each is themed accordingly (adventure land is arabic themed! for alladin I presume). Each area has one or two "adult" rides (eg Space Mountain roller coaster, Indiana Jones coaster, scary mansion etc), and lots of kiddy things.

The entrance takes you in to "Main Street USA", which is full of shops and restaurants and stuff, and right in front of you is the magical kingdom itself, sleeping beauty's palace!







Mickey and Minnie and someone else's kids :)











One of the beautifully crafted buildings in Fantasy Land, the part of the park that's for the younger ones. Here the buildings and colours are just out of dreams.








Sleeping Beauty's Palace in all it's, erm beauty :p this must be the most famous palace in the world if you ask me!









Me and Kelly













The Magic Kingdom at night
















Later on that evening we left the park (closes at 20:00) after watching an AMAZING parade of lights and music called Mickey's Fantillusion. We went to the village to have dinner in one of those shows/food places which was called Buffallo Bill's Wild West Show, it was great fun!




The next morning we went the Disney Studios Park, which is a smaller, more spaced out park with lots of shows and a few rides (including a great Rock and Rollercoaster with Aerosmith! Each seat has stereo speakers with Aerosmith music while you whizz around the track!). Our day in the studios was more relaxed than the park, cos it's smaller and even though there's lots to do, it's not as stressful as the big park cos it's all grouped together in one place, and there aren't that many screaming kids!

Me by one of those brooms from Mickey's The Wizard's Apprentice.




Donald Duck, in a parade at the studios park.







On our 3rd and last day there (Monday) we went to a close by shopping centre (one metro stop away from Disney) called Val D'Europe. I bought a few things there (including Jarre's Live at Gdansk DVD (collector's edition)). As we were hunting for somewhere to eat, I found a shop called Album (just like Forbidden Planet). Wandering in to have a look what do I find? A big, squishy, and very soft Barbapapa!! the cartoon is very famous in France (well, it is french), and toys are still being sold! I bought a pink, papa toy which is great. He has magnets in his arms to help him keep his arms around something, and ofcourse that big infectious smile and innocent eyes..... I was so happy to find such a thing (I doubt anyone who's grown up in the middle east doesn't have fond memories of the Barba family)...

We left France that evening and reached Colchester around 11pm that day. It was great fun and a holiday to remember for life :)

I'm back! and I got the Jarre DVD!

hello everyone!!
I'm back from Euro Disney, a wonderful, magical place!
had tons of fun there, got loads of pictures, so later on i'll post all about it. Got lots of tacky souvenirs too, the mugs and t-shirts and fridge magnets and all that crap!

I also managed to find a fnac store and got the last remaining copy of Jarre Live at Gdansk (collector's edition) which was released on the 5th of this month there. It's great! been watching it today, and it's alot better than the tv broadcast, with no more silly overlays and lots of fireworks and crowd noise. The direction is generally better also, but still has less panoramic views than I'd hoped for. But at least it's a jarre dvd and one of a concert that I was proud to be part of (and very close to the stage too!).

I'll be back, with euro disney news and the best thing I found in france..... pictures and blog soon :p

OH NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Picture this: you've got an exam tomorrow. You're stressed, over-knowledged, and pretending to be revising at 23:30 at night, to save your ever-insistent mum's breath (for those (if any) non-arab readers, arab mum's interfere with their children's lives until their very last breaths, even if the kids are 60 year old grand parents!).
Anyhow, what do you do? well I for one had the senses to pack my Nintendo DS (that I'm officially in love with, remember?) with me and with it I got M&L, but also Mario Kart DS.

Everyone knows Mario Kart, the fun arcade racing game from the SNES era. It's been reinvented alot (N64, GBA, Gamecube) and now NDS. The thing that makes the NDS version so special though is it's dual screen (one for the game one for the important map) but also it's the first nintendo game to be officially internet enabled!! Yes that's right, now you can play mario kart against anyone in the world.

Nintendo has always promised to go into the online console market when they deemed fit. And their NDS is the first to do so. It comes with wireless built-in, so to go online you can either use your own wireless network if you have one, or buy a cheap nintendo USB wireless dongle, or (here's the best bit), go to any of 15,000 European hotspots, and join from there for free (eg McDonald's and a ton of other public places). Amazingly, 7,500 of those are in the UK.

Anyhow, so there I was laid in bed at 23:30 with my NDS, Mario Kart, and those crappy white iPod headphones on to make sure the boss (mum) doesn't hear. I connected to Nintendo WFC (wi-fi connection) and starting searching for opponents (that's another thing, going online and starting a game couldn't be easier! there's no lobby, there's no chatting, hence there's non of that famous abuse/anti-beginner attitude in nearly all online communities). A moment later I'm with 2 other people, and the race had begun!

I got 2nd place in the first race, which earned me 5 points. Midway through the 2nd race I was lagging behind. We were racing in Wario Stadium, a track full of ups and downs and boosts. I was just approaching a hill and my 2 opponents had already crossed ahead of me. Luckily, I had one of those kick-ass Blue Turtle Shells that zooms right up to the first racer and explodes with lots of proximity damage! I released at the exact moment when he was about to be overtaken, and the Shell blew up and toppled both racers! This happened just as I was jumping over the hill, and saw the carnage happen right beneath me, as I took the first place.

And as the battery ran out. NOTHING. BLACK SCREEN. ZILCH.

I hadn't realised that, due to a marathon M&L session (I reached the mothership, whatever that is!), I had abused the battery and it was in it's last minutes! just as I had bombed 2 rivals, jumped over them and laughed my evil laugh, and just as I took first place, the damn NDS decides to run out of juice, and just SWITCH OFF. And I wasn't sensible enough to pack the charger. HMV, here I come.

But you gotta give it to the big N for releasing the best version of Mario Kart on the DS, for making playing online so fun and easy, and for being the wonderful people that they are. Oh, and soon, Animal Crossing-Wild World is coming out for NDS too. Where you can invite people from around the world to your virtual village, and it's goodbye social life and everything else forever.... I just can't wait.

Wish me luck y'all. SoB out

The truth about 22mbit

Right, I'm in London now (was here since yesterday).
I've got the 2nd part of the lovely mrcp exam tomorrow... it's a 2 day exam so all fun and games!

But, on to more important things!

I installed the adsl 2+ router yesterday (netgear, looks great and works good too), and after a few teething problems I am now connected to the web at top speed. If you remember a while back I said it would be an estimated 18mbit/second, but the reality is that it's synced at 16mbit. That's exactly 2mbyte/sec download speed.

Web browsing has generally been the same since 512kbit, so no change there... but downloading stuff from fast servers is awesome. In reality, the "pure" data reaching my hard disks is 1.6mbyte/second. I tried downloading a full dvd just now which was 4.4gig compressed, and that took 45 minutes. So the original hope that I could download 1gbyte every 10 minutes has been fulfilled!

Now what?

Mario and Luigi : Partners in Time

I am officially in love with my DS (PSP go to hell, haven't turned it on in months!) why? cos of Mario and Luigi! The original M&L was a GBA game called (superstar saga) that I never really got to completing. Essentially a hybrid between RPG, action, platform and everything in between, M&L:PiT lets you play as all 4 brothers (what?! there's only 2 right? wrong! there's a time hole in mushroom kingdom and so the younger baby M&L are partnered with their older counterparts!). Now this makes for some very interesting puzzles and gameplay mechanics, including wonderful combo attacks. Using both screens is great too. The top screen is either a map or a chronicle of the younger brothers as they venture off in places only they can reach to (eg small holes, small platforms etc). But the best thing about this game is it's sense of humour! The game seriously is funny... very very funny. Not since the good old days of monkey island has a game made me laugh so much.... until now the funnies bit has been 2 hammer brothers that talk in l337, making for the funniest and freshest dialogue I've seen in a video game for AGES:
"AREA RESTRICTED. ALL NOOB INTRUDERS 2 B HAXORED BY US L33T HAMM3R BROZ.! WE R TEH SHROOB ALLIES. WE ROXOR U AND THEN ROFL. THEN U AM CRY. WE RECEIVE ORDERS THRU ANTENNAS ON THESE L33T HELMES. THEY R HOTNESS. WE MUST OBEY ALL ORDERS. WE LIKE 2 PWN NOOBS 4 TEH MASTER SHROOBZORZ."

Thank you Alpha Dream and Nintendo. Thank you very much.

My new iPod...

...has arrived today! As I was on a 24 hour shift yesterday, I came home earlier than usual today (1pm). I was waffling around when my house-mate gave me the box! It had come earlier today. I gotta admit I'm very impressed with the quality of this thing. It's thinner than my old 4g iPod, and has a beautiful and very clear colour screen. I connected it to the powerbook and it automatically synced all my songs, videos, pictures, contacts, and calender.

Playing videos on the iPod is nice and clear, but ofcourse less responsive than a pc (ie you gotta wait a bit when seeking for example, especially large files). But ofcourse this is trivial. Songs now show album art when playing, and I was watching a slide show of my pictures while listening to Gorillaz :)

Quite neatly, itunes optimises the pictures so that they are reduced in size for the ipod screen, rather than just putting the full size pics on the ipod and then post-processing them. This saves you space, and there is an option to include the full res pictures if you wanted (for eg to download them on another pc). As my iPod is mac formatted I won't need this option, so I'm using the space saving option.

I'm also going to start using the powerbook calendar, to put important dates and stuff on, so my ipod can be a semi-PDA. Now if only Apple would make a PDA, I'd finally be convinced to buy one ;)

Finally, more and more each day I'm realising that Apple make seriously good software and hardware. It's amazing the amount of integration between os x, itunes, iphoto, icalender and the iPod. I'm definitely going to invest in a desktop mac soon after I've invested in a wife :p

Oh and I made use of the free custom laser engraving option that Apple offers with new iPods, check the picture below for what's engraved on the back of my iPod ;)

9th of May 2006 - Revolution!!

Breaking: Mark this date in your diaries - Nintendo are revealing everything about the Revolution at E3 in just under 165 days...

Nintendo has alerted the world's gaming media with a final, definate date for when "all the incredible details about Nintendo's upcoming games and hardware, including [their] next home console, code-named Revolution" will be revealed.

It's unsuprising the company is choosing to unveil the Revolution at E3, the gaming world's biggest trade-show, but it's good to have a date pinned down. Nintendo's conference will begin 09:30 Pacific Time (which is 17:30 GMT).

Story taken from Revolution-Europe!
And I can't WAIT!

The Hunt For The Triforce

I have to warn you, this post is going to be a BIG moan.

It all started 2 years ago, when I bought The Legend Of Zelda - Wind Waker for Gamecube. Even though I'm very anti-openended and freeform gaming crap, I wasn't going to miss one of Miyamoto's finest moments. And to be honest, i wasn't disappointed. The graphics, the gameplay and the whole thing was well-polished. Until I had to find the Triforce.

A bit of explanation is due here:

The game is set in a vast sea with islands dotted around the place. You go around in your trusted boat and eventually gain the powers to "wake" the "wind", hence helping your ship sail to the direction you need to go. In true freeform gameplay style, there are hunderds of extra side missions, little quests, and secrets that you can engage in. But as any gameplayer would tell you, a good game has got to have a path to follow so you don't get too lost. That was exactly the case with Zelda, until it was time to collect the dreaded 8 pieces that formed a triangle, known as the Triforce.

To find a piece you have to go through what I can only describe as torture: First of all, you have to find a chart that tells you where to find a piece. This chart can be hidden ANYWHERE. Sometimes it's easy to get, and sometimes it's just down right annoying. eg, having to play hide and seek with 4 children, in a relatively big island. After finding them and taking them back to school they tell you it's their teacher's birthday, so you give her 20 gifts (yup!), she then gives you the deeds to some private island (it's just East of here she says). That "just" is actually miles away. When you find the damn thing you go in just to find yourself in a small but annoying basement maze. Once you've navigated that you get the chart!

Okay so we've got the chart. But we can't read it. So we have to go to some guy called Tingle who sits on top of a tall tower that you have to climb each time you go there. He then charges you nearly 400 rupees (!!!) to decipher the chart. Once that's done, what you get is a point on your map telling you where the Triforce piece is.

Then you have to sail to that point (luckily there's a warp function but unfortunately it has an annoying cutscene that you have to watch each time you warp), and then fish out the damn piece from the sea.

Now imagine having to repeat the above 8 bloody times. One piece was hidden at the bottom of a dungeon 31 layers deep! I kid you not, layer after layer of relentless enemies, and the bastards didn't drop any health at all. I was at level 30 and I had one quarter of a heart of health left (ie one fart and i'd cork it) and I was against one big mofo. Luckily I survived, but if I had died I would've been taken back to level 1! Yes it's that annoying.

After not playing the game for 2 years, I decided that tonight was the night. So, starting at 19:30, it took me 5 hours (and lots of walkthrough cheating, cos it really is annoying trying to figure out where the damn islands are, or those pesky kids) to finally form the completed Triforce. I took Link to the start of the last dungeon (Ganon's Tower) and saved the game........

Funny enough, Miyamoto himself admitted in an interview that he regrets this section of the game and thinks it's dull and boring. He blames it all on deadline pressure, and promises that the next Zelda would not have such crap. I'm not sure if I really want to put myself through this torture again, so perhaps I give the new Zelda a miss. Shame really, cos I'm sure it'll be a great game.

So call me old-fashioned, call me arcade-boy, or even thick - I don't care. For me, a game is about having fun, feeling an adrenaline rush and about reflexes. Give me a good old linear anything (shoot em up preferably) and let me blast my way through the pixels. Quake 4, I salute you.

The Pong Clock

I LOVE this. A great, geeky idea to say the least.
Some Dutch designers have made a clock that plays a game of pong, and when the time needs to advance one of the sides scores!
Very cool if you ask me and I'm definitely gonna hunt one down for myself.
Check here for a video of it in action.
Videogame playing geeks UNITE!

Dodge the ball

Warning.Very.Very.Very.Addictive.Stay.Away....

Icon's Story

When the MSN messenger icon gets bored, he decides to throw his head at the peaceful ICQ icon. What starts off as a small skirmish ends up as all out war between all the icons on a typical windows desktop!

A very clever and imaginative flash animation... go here and watch now :)

iDead

My iPod died yesterday!! (Damn you Madonna! for giving us such a good album that I kept listening to again and again!)
It started a few days ago when the iPod suddenly crashed. I reset it and all went ok. But yesterday in the car it crashed again and now all it shows me is the sad iPod icon, and tells me to visit Apple Support :(

So I did, and because I bought the damn thing just over a year ago I'm out of warranty! To get it sorted out they offer a replacement service which costs £160!! and you either get a new iPod or a refurbished one!

So, I've ordered a new black 60gig video ipod instead. It's £300 and I'm not gonna spend half that money to get a repaired iPod back. I also ordered the extended 2 years warranty (Ah, the benefit of hindsight eh?)
To be honest, I've always wanted one of those new iPods but couldn't justify getting one along with my 40gig (RIP).

And finally, Apple have been offering a free laser engraving service for a while, where you get to write a personal message at the back of your iPod. Mine reads "Property Of Ned Flanders" :)

For The Love of Dance

It's official! (well at least good-delicious official anyway), Brits love dance music!
The whole dance/club/techno scene is very popular here, and throughout western Europe.
Even game producers deliberately put dance music for games they want to market in Europe, while neometal/grunge/rock does the trick for the states and Australasia.

But why do I say all this on a Monday afternoon? Well yesterday me and Kelly got the new Madonna album - Confessions On A Dance Floor. And my oh my what an album!! 12 tracks of pure dance music, which really gets you buzzing. And I believe it's the first madge album that has continious tracks (ie one song merges into the other - true club style!).
I'm not a big fan of the abba-esque single (Hung Up), but every other track afterwards is sublime, especially the controversial "Isaac".

The album (and single) are number 1 on the UK charts (the single is no1 in 27 countries now). Since marrying Guy Richie I think Madonna has adopted alot of "Britishness", including their love of everything dance, and thank God for that cos she's given us a brilliant album to chew on!
A great album indeed, and one of a few that I can listen to without skipping any tracks, and I think that's the way you're meant to listen to it, cos it's a voyage in techno/dance/pop that no one can do better than the Queen Of Pop.

This year has given us some great albums, Coldplay's excellent X&Y, Oasis's Don't Believe The Truth, Gorrillaz Demon Days and now Madonna. Oh and mentioning coldplay reminds me that I'm going with Kelly to see them live at Earl's Court London, 16th of December! Can't wait!

Clever

PSP Lemmings

SCEA announced a while back that Lemmings is coming back to the PSP, in glorius 2D (well pseudo 2D, you know the one with 3D sprites but only move around in 2D). I'm not sure how to feel about this, cos I don't think Lemmings has stood the test of time as well as other classics. Anyhow, it should be a good game to mess around with when it eventually shows up.
Confusing thing is, it's being coded by Team 17, those of Worms fame... the original Lemmings was ofcourse by the excellent Psygnosis, whom SCEE lapped up back in 1997 or so, and got them churning one wipeout after the other for the then little known PSX....
So why Team 17 are coding Lemmings God knows, and let's hope they don't all shout KAMIKAZE before jumping off a cliff.

My day

I had a very consultant-like, office-worker like day today (well technically yesterday now)
It goes like this:

0730 - woke up
0820 - left home to drive to work
0900 - reached work
0930 - Outpatient Parkinson's Disease clinic (I like clinics!)
1215 - Clinic finished
1230 - Thursday afternoon seminar with free lunch from M&S :)
1400 - Ward meeting with boss and nurses to talk about all the patients
1530 - Ward round with boss to see all the above mentioned patients
1715 - Ward round and all jobs finished, off home

So as you see, there was no sitting around... but also lots of unnecessary things (ward meeting?!), just like an office manager pen-pusher person :)

Pee&Poo

I can't believe someone got away "designing" these toys. What's worse, they sold out really quick when they were released in their home country... Toys based on the products of human waste, whatever else? But kudos to that woman who designed them cos, ofcourse, there isn't ONE SINGLE human in this world that can't relate to these 2 :) Want one, get over to Sweden.....