Hi all. WhatÂ’s the first thing you do when you get in from work? Reach for the beer? Make love to the missus on the kitchen floor? Hug the dog? Well for me itÂ’s putting my hands into my pockets and emptying my change into my change bowl (thats the sort of exciting life I lead hehe)
The trouble is that while I pick a few bits of silver out in the morning the rest of it builds up and up - and what the hell do you do with it? When I couldn’t even palm it off on my kids any more when they came round (there’s your pocket money love - take £10 out of those coppers) I realised I needed to do something drastic before I drowned in a sea of 2p pieces...
By pure luck I discovered the answer last week while visiting a Sainsburys in Farnham - a change converter machine! Its got a great big hopper which you pour your sack of coins into - works out how much there is,rejects the foreign ones haha, takes 7.5p per pound for the privilege and then gives you a till receipt which you take to one of the checkouts and - bingo! Hard cash in the form of notes are handed to you! sorted!
Monday, 18 August 2003
DVD Movie Review; Jul/Aug 2003! [brit]
Yes, I've been watching rather a lot of DVDs recently; well, it's either that or wank myself to sleep, and I can hardly do *that* at lunchtime...
Star Trek : Nemesis
I was expecting a lot from this film, and it's spot on. This is the last installment of the Star Trek Next Generation franchise, with the Picard 'family' stretching their spandex jumpsuits for the final time.
It is *amazing* to see how they've all changed since the first episode of the STNG series (Encounter at Farpoint) - and this film has a number of good things going for it.
Firstly, it's not directed by Jonathan Frakes (Cdr. Riker) - it's directed by a proper bloke who has brought a fresh pair of eyes to the ST universe. Secondly, it's got a great storyline, which granted is typically ST (Good vs Evil blah blah) but it's rip roaring stuff and the effects are stunning.
7/10 - Grab this, if only to complete your collection.
Johnny English
'The only thing the French should be allowed to host, is an invasion'.
God this is predictable, and purchased for two readily identifiable reasons; #1 I'm in love (utterly smitten) with the Aston Martin Vanquish in the film - and #2, pity. Abject pity that people actually make this stuff.
It's actually quite slick in terms of 'feel' - but really, it's yet another film where the 'jokes' are only made 'funny' by the lead actor's amusing (hur hur) rubber facial features; in this case Rowan Atkinson.
John Malcovich raises a grin with quite the most obviously dismal French accent in the history of celluloid.
4/10 - Grab, if you're desperate.
Bloodwork
Our favourite moody mofo (Clint Eastwood) is in what promises to be an interesting crime caper; but let's face it, within 10 minutes you've sussed what the novel plot twist is (trust me, it's about as novel as sliced bread) and it then becomes a tedious foray into detective work and catching the 'evil' villain.
All in all, not exactly worth the effort if only because Bravo chucks out old episodes of Ironside and that thing with Raymond Burr in, and they are at least mentally taxing for longer than it takes to boil a kettle.
4/10 - Grab, if you can't find a copy of Johnny English, and you're desperate.
The Transporter.
This film is fucking awesome. The blokey in it can't act of course, but he doesn't have to - he's a hard as nails 'no questions asked' transporter of goods; and has the icy cool demeanour and er (required I guess) 'military background' to carry it off.
Snappy suits, cracking action (and I do mean cracking; EED will LOVE the overkill-house-destruction sequence) and lots and lots of car orientated chase stuff, and you've got yourself a winner.
8/10 - Yes. Get this. Ask NO questions. Get it now.
Phone Booth.
Mmm, this promised so very much, and in fact delivers about as much as a chinese firework; impressive idea, but fizzles pretty much from the moment he gets caught in the 'booth - nowhere near enough 'get inside the mind of the naughty sniper blokey' stuff, nor for that matter, enough of anything that makes you want to punch the air and scream for joy.
Fairly run of the mill film chucked out by Schumacher, presumably to fill a hole in the studio schedule.. nice to see Forrest Whittaker again though; a much underused actor I feel.
5/10 - Really, its a film that is best described as 'inoffensive'.
Dare Devil.
This film is incomparably shit. Do not buy this DVD.
1/10 - Ben Affleck cannot act. Another Marvel franchise, and it fucking sucks.
Star Trek : Nemesis
I was expecting a lot from this film, and it's spot on. This is the last installment of the Star Trek Next Generation franchise, with the Picard 'family' stretching their spandex jumpsuits for the final time.
It is *amazing* to see how they've all changed since the first episode of the STNG series (Encounter at Farpoint) - and this film has a number of good things going for it.
Firstly, it's not directed by Jonathan Frakes (Cdr. Riker) - it's directed by a proper bloke who has brought a fresh pair of eyes to the ST universe. Secondly, it's got a great storyline, which granted is typically ST (Good vs Evil blah blah) but it's rip roaring stuff and the effects are stunning.
7/10 - Grab this, if only to complete your collection.
Johnny English
'The only thing the French should be allowed to host, is an invasion'.
God this is predictable, and purchased for two readily identifiable reasons; #1 I'm in love (utterly smitten) with the Aston Martin Vanquish in the film - and #2, pity. Abject pity that people actually make this stuff.
It's actually quite slick in terms of 'feel' - but really, it's yet another film where the 'jokes' are only made 'funny' by the lead actor's amusing (hur hur) rubber facial features; in this case Rowan Atkinson.
John Malcovich raises a grin with quite the most obviously dismal French accent in the history of celluloid.
4/10 - Grab, if you're desperate.
Bloodwork
Our favourite moody mofo (Clint Eastwood) is in what promises to be an interesting crime caper; but let's face it, within 10 minutes you've sussed what the novel plot twist is (trust me, it's about as novel as sliced bread) and it then becomes a tedious foray into detective work and catching the 'evil' villain.
All in all, not exactly worth the effort if only because Bravo chucks out old episodes of Ironside and that thing with Raymond Burr in, and they are at least mentally taxing for longer than it takes to boil a kettle.
4/10 - Grab, if you can't find a copy of Johnny English, and you're desperate.
The Transporter.
This film is fucking awesome. The blokey in it can't act of course, but he doesn't have to - he's a hard as nails 'no questions asked' transporter of goods; and has the icy cool demeanour and er (required I guess) 'military background' to carry it off.
Snappy suits, cracking action (and I do mean cracking; EED will LOVE the overkill-house-destruction sequence) and lots and lots of car orientated chase stuff, and you've got yourself a winner.
8/10 - Yes. Get this. Ask NO questions. Get it now.
Phone Booth.
Mmm, this promised so very much, and in fact delivers about as much as a chinese firework; impressive idea, but fizzles pretty much from the moment he gets caught in the 'booth - nowhere near enough 'get inside the mind of the naughty sniper blokey' stuff, nor for that matter, enough of anything that makes you want to punch the air and scream for joy.
Fairly run of the mill film chucked out by Schumacher, presumably to fill a hole in the studio schedule.. nice to see Forrest Whittaker again though; a much underused actor I feel.
5/10 - Really, its a film that is best described as 'inoffensive'.
Dare Devil.
This film is incomparably shit. Do not buy this DVD.
1/10 - Ben Affleck cannot act. Another Marvel franchise, and it fucking sucks.
Friday, 15 August 2003
RSS - teh win! [slim]
I appreciate this isn't new tech, and you're all using this already and laughing at me. But I've just discovered RSS and by lord it roxors!
If you're in the dark like wot I was, it's basically just a standard (I think I've got this right) where websites put their headlines into an xml file. You get an RSS reader that picks the xml up and displays the current headlines/news/forum topics/whatever, and if you see anything you fancy, you click on it and get the page. Simple enough eh? Thing is, because its xml based, and you're only leeching headlines its very fucking fast. I'm using the fabularistic firebird browser, and it has a free RSS extension available that reads RSS from sites in a bookmark folder. As it uses firebirds own bookmark system it means you can set up folders in folders, all that jazz.
Then I found another leet site, newsisfree which is jam packed full of RSS feeds that you just drag into your RSS panel and get headlines soooper quick.
Now, shame you can't filter. I'd love a panel that'll have a settable refresh rate where I can get it to alert me on updates, or keep an eye out for keywords. Someone that's not as slack as me write one please, ta.
Oh, and if anyones been RSS savvy for a while, post up any good xml links, I'm on the hunt!
If you're in the dark like wot I was, it's basically just a standard (I think I've got this right) where websites put their headlines into an xml file. You get an RSS reader that picks the xml up and displays the current headlines/news/forum topics/whatever, and if you see anything you fancy, you click on it and get the page. Simple enough eh? Thing is, because its xml based, and you're only leeching headlines its very fucking fast. I'm using the fabularistic firebird browser, and it has a free RSS extension available that reads RSS from sites in a bookmark folder. As it uses firebirds own bookmark system it means you can set up folders in folders, all that jazz.
Then I found another leet site, newsisfree which is jam packed full of RSS feeds that you just drag into your RSS panel and get headlines soooper quick.
Now, shame you can't filter. I'd love a panel that'll have a settable refresh rate where I can get it to alert me on updates, or keep an eye out for keywords. Someone that's not as slack as me write one please, ta.
Oh, and if anyones been RSS savvy for a while, post up any good xml links, I'm on the hunt!
Small and perfectly formed [am]
Small, compact and perfectly formed, that's me. Well, strictly speaking, unless I get put in a car-crusher or have an attack of Fahey-virus (clinical symptoms; dramatic loss of body mass, tendency to slur after 122 grams of beer, frequent tenderness below the belt area) then I'm referring, of course, to my current loadout of my latest purchase (Jebus forgive me) - a spanko 10.4 inched centrino'd Sony TR1MP.
'Buy now pay later Mr Johnson' said the pe0n in Dixons, Gatwick airport. 'Stop talking dirty you slut and gimme one' said I. Bish, bash and slightly later bosh, I had a saving of some 300 quid off list price and the credit equivalent of the promise of a dose of clap next August.
So having spent a first week with it - here's the blog of first impressions.
For a while I had been bleating in the channel about how I wanted to get a small sub-notebook mostly for ultra-portable word processing, a little music, some wireless net access, a change of personality and a facelift. Despite a minor wobble on channel the other day post-purchase where I was slightly unsure if the TR1MP wasn't too small, I have come to the conclusion it's perfect for what I wanted and given myself a slap for wishing for the impossible. Truth be told I was lusting after portability but also huge mobile gaming performance which, let's face it, I do not need and moreover does not exist in this degree of trade-off. As I said to The Lurker on the channel the other day, this thing does what it does and does it damn well and it's not something else. In other words, if you say you want a cat, go buy a cat and come home to say 'that's a good looking cat', then don't expect to put a saddle on it and herd cows.
So - impressions? Well as the carrot-crunching ten stone weakling I am, it was important to me that the thing was space economical and easily portable. Well the TR1MP nails that down cold. At 10.4 inch screen and thin centrino profile it's smaller than an a4 book. Oh yeah. They called it a TR1MP - very imaginative. Sometimes the ubiquitous Vaio branding (more of which later) can get a bit over-itself. Nut this is not the sort of thing, believe me, which you would typically associate with a Vaio. Anyhoo - on with the blog.
So first impressions part 2 - Styling:- Next to certain titanium macs, this has to be one of the best looking laptops I've ever seen. I thought from photos that the case was in some rather perplexing formica white but in reality, it's a very attractive white-silver metal. It may not stop literally stop traffic, but it's certainly got an 'ooh' out of every single person who's come to my office. I have brokers who could buy this thing out of petty cash salivating out of all dignity and more than one female broker has said 'wow you could just slip that into a handbag and go'. Now granted, these are the sort of girls who'd probably pack a Magnum .50 rather than a Lady Remington .22 but they're more or less right. It's that small. The keyboard, also white, is quite flat in travel but to my fingers is significantly better than most of the loose laptop keyboards I've been trying out in the shops. The control key is where it is supposed to be, not parked in some outpost and because of the overall size, the wrist wrests are simply heel of the palm rests rather than half your arm which suits me and also provides a tactile way of keeping the whole thing anchored on bumpy train rides. When it comes to styling, Sony have got this tapped - of the five brokers who saw it and could afford it like that, five of them said they wanted one.
Next - The screen. Whatever the rights and wrongs of Sony, they have been doing something terribly terribly right in the basement of their development dungeons. Something so right and so simply lush that old man Kogyo would be chortling so hard over his rice bowl that there'd be wasabi all over the place. The technology which Rabido was blogging about the other day briefly and is called 'Black Onyx' is only available on 3 lappies to date. Now aside from the fact that Black Onyx sounds like a be-affroed porn star or some tight-trousered funk band, it translates into a screen that when it's off looks simply just the best looking erm black ever. Sounds stupid. Is true. Like a couple of clan members I guess. But it just is - explain that. Now clearly, looking at blank screens in the off position has limited appeal so on bootup it is worth reporting that it then transforms into a fantastically vibrant and sharp picture. The quality on DVD playback or Photoshop Elements (which comes bundled) is simply superb and is really a different kettle of fish from almost any other laptop I've seen. Only equivalent would, again, be monster expensive G4 Macs. 'Ooh' go the none-techy visitors to my office. 'Splooge' go the techy ones. They're both right. What together with the best-in-class screen on my iPaq 1910, I have inadvertantly become a bit of a screen-queen. And I like it. Although the screen estate is small, that was entirely the point of going for something like this and boy does it do what it does well.
So what to the meat and bones? It's a Centrino load-out with everything under the sun. The 900hz Pentium M is showing fantastic battery life at this point - getting 4+ hours in real-life - they claim 5+ in the spec and the battery icon on full charge promises 6. Put it this way - I charge at work, use all evening wireless and there's still enough for half an hour on the train in the morning and trawling for hotspots over a cappuccino.
USB2 ports? Check. Firewire? Check. Bluetooth? Yup. Wireless Lan? Oh yes and it works to thank you very much missus with the signal marked as excellent all over my house and garden. Both can be activated by a nice little slidey switch on the front edge of the machine which is one of many nice touches. Now, as a slight diversion, I may be preaching to the semi-converted reading this blog (well almost certainly the semi-sentient) but I can't say how impressed I've been with the wireless thang and particularly Lurks and Slim's recommendation of a netgear dg842m router. It was ridiculously easy to set up and I absolutely love being able to plonk myself down on a sofa with this sitting on my lap and do a little surfing while watching telly / doing some writing etc. Responsiveness on my desktops also seems sharper.
Anyway, continuingÂ….Memory Stick slot? Well yes but nevermind it's Sony and it's not like they pretend they don't want to sell you everything interconnected from cradle to grave so you just go with it. And then ignore it. And what else - oh well there's the integrated 370k pixel motion eye camera for stills and video conferencing. The audio speaker is weak but sound is really excellent through the headphone sockets. There's also external mic plug ins and an integrated cdrw-dvd player which is amazing considering how small the chassis is and burns at 4x so fine. There's a Type II card slot, it makes your bed, feeds you chilled beer and arranges for a horde of Buzby Berkley girls to can-can across your den. This thing has a shedload on board. Software bundle is a mix of the useful - like the Photoshop Elements and the Sony bundled total entertainment stuff including a bit of a weird thing called Sonic Stage which as far as I can work out thinks that you want to ignore netjuke et al but only by encrypting your burned cd's into a system which is incapable of distributing the copies to anything else that is not Sonic Stage. It's dressed up as security. To me it sounds like self-justifying monopoly. Anyway the freebies are just that (link to Everquest anyone???) so you bash on Office (thank you work), mIRC, winamp, a few bits and bobs and you're happier than Spiro in a bar.
So finally is there an urk factor? Well the screen estate is small but you basically fiddle with the dpi and use fullscreen and minimal menus. Second nature in a week and it's really ace thereafter. The larger urk generically is 'it's a Vaio' so reputationally there's a healthy level of suspicion with reliability and fall-apartability. Well we'll see. I'd have to say this is a markedly different kettle of fish from the two Vaio's my parents have (yes sigh) and I am hopeful for the future. It's clearly pitched at the frequent traveller and has been built, I think looking at it, with a clear concession to that. It's more pro than any Vaio I've seen by a long way. It's sturdy, it's cool and it's the best looking pc laptop I've seen which does everything I wanted it to. Apart from the impossible like high rate fps gaming and stuff. But as I said before, it's not made for it.
So in summary? Well, leaving aside the impossible, as I said to Kate Moss only the other day, you can feel pretty damn good about making do with a very hot little number in the here and now. You aren't going to be shouting 'look at my TR1MP' but you'll get a fair few looks and feel pretty good whopping it out whenever you like for an instant display of leetness. And that my friends, is the true spirit of Electric DeathÂ….
'Buy now pay later Mr Johnson' said the pe0n in Dixons, Gatwick airport. 'Stop talking dirty you slut and gimme one' said I. Bish, bash and slightly later bosh, I had a saving of some 300 quid off list price and the credit equivalent of the promise of a dose of clap next August.
So having spent a first week with it - here's the blog of first impressions.
For a while I had been bleating in the channel about how I wanted to get a small sub-notebook mostly for ultra-portable word processing, a little music, some wireless net access, a change of personality and a facelift. Despite a minor wobble on channel the other day post-purchase where I was slightly unsure if the TR1MP wasn't too small, I have come to the conclusion it's perfect for what I wanted and given myself a slap for wishing for the impossible. Truth be told I was lusting after portability but also huge mobile gaming performance which, let's face it, I do not need and moreover does not exist in this degree of trade-off. As I said to The Lurker on the channel the other day, this thing does what it does and does it damn well and it's not something else. In other words, if you say you want a cat, go buy a cat and come home to say 'that's a good looking cat', then don't expect to put a saddle on it and herd cows.
So - impressions? Well as the carrot-crunching ten stone weakling I am, it was important to me that the thing was space economical and easily portable. Well the TR1MP nails that down cold. At 10.4 inch screen and thin centrino profile it's smaller than an a4 book. Oh yeah. They called it a TR1MP - very imaginative. Sometimes the ubiquitous Vaio branding (more of which later) can get a bit over-itself. Nut this is not the sort of thing, believe me, which you would typically associate with a Vaio. Anyhoo - on with the blog.
So first impressions part 2 - Styling:- Next to certain titanium macs, this has to be one of the best looking laptops I've ever seen. I thought from photos that the case was in some rather perplexing formica white but in reality, it's a very attractive white-silver metal. It may not stop literally stop traffic, but it's certainly got an 'ooh' out of every single person who's come to my office. I have brokers who could buy this thing out of petty cash salivating out of all dignity and more than one female broker has said 'wow you could just slip that into a handbag and go'. Now granted, these are the sort of girls who'd probably pack a Magnum .50 rather than a Lady Remington .22 but they're more or less right. It's that small. The keyboard, also white, is quite flat in travel but to my fingers is significantly better than most of the loose laptop keyboards I've been trying out in the shops. The control key is where it is supposed to be, not parked in some outpost and because of the overall size, the wrist wrests are simply heel of the palm rests rather than half your arm which suits me and also provides a tactile way of keeping the whole thing anchored on bumpy train rides. When it comes to styling, Sony have got this tapped - of the five brokers who saw it and could afford it like that, five of them said they wanted one.
Next - The screen. Whatever the rights and wrongs of Sony, they have been doing something terribly terribly right in the basement of their development dungeons. Something so right and so simply lush that old man Kogyo would be chortling so hard over his rice bowl that there'd be wasabi all over the place. The technology which Rabido was blogging about the other day briefly and is called 'Black Onyx' is only available on 3 lappies to date. Now aside from the fact that Black Onyx sounds like a be-affroed porn star or some tight-trousered funk band, it translates into a screen that when it's off looks simply just the best looking erm black ever. Sounds stupid. Is true. Like a couple of clan members I guess. But it just is - explain that. Now clearly, looking at blank screens in the off position has limited appeal so on bootup it is worth reporting that it then transforms into a fantastically vibrant and sharp picture. The quality on DVD playback or Photoshop Elements (which comes bundled) is simply superb and is really a different kettle of fish from almost any other laptop I've seen. Only equivalent would, again, be monster expensive G4 Macs. 'Ooh' go the none-techy visitors to my office. 'Splooge' go the techy ones. They're both right. What together with the best-in-class screen on my iPaq 1910, I have inadvertantly become a bit of a screen-queen. And I like it. Although the screen estate is small, that was entirely the point of going for something like this and boy does it do what it does well.
So what to the meat and bones? It's a Centrino load-out with everything under the sun. The 900hz Pentium M is showing fantastic battery life at this point - getting 4+ hours in real-life - they claim 5+ in the spec and the battery icon on full charge promises 6. Put it this way - I charge at work, use all evening wireless and there's still enough for half an hour on the train in the morning and trawling for hotspots over a cappuccino.
USB2 ports? Check. Firewire? Check. Bluetooth? Yup. Wireless Lan? Oh yes and it works to thank you very much missus with the signal marked as excellent all over my house and garden. Both can be activated by a nice little slidey switch on the front edge of the machine which is one of many nice touches. Now, as a slight diversion, I may be preaching to the semi-converted reading this blog (well almost certainly the semi-sentient) but I can't say how impressed I've been with the wireless thang and particularly Lurks and Slim's recommendation of a netgear dg842m router. It was ridiculously easy to set up and I absolutely love being able to plonk myself down on a sofa with this sitting on my lap and do a little surfing while watching telly / doing some writing etc. Responsiveness on my desktops also seems sharper.
Anyway, continuingÂ….Memory Stick slot? Well yes but nevermind it's Sony and it's not like they pretend they don't want to sell you everything interconnected from cradle to grave so you just go with it. And then ignore it. And what else - oh well there's the integrated 370k pixel motion eye camera for stills and video conferencing. The audio speaker is weak but sound is really excellent through the headphone sockets. There's also external mic plug ins and an integrated cdrw-dvd player which is amazing considering how small the chassis is and burns at 4x so fine. There's a Type II card slot, it makes your bed, feeds you chilled beer and arranges for a horde of Buzby Berkley girls to can-can across your den. This thing has a shedload on board. Software bundle is a mix of the useful - like the Photoshop Elements and the Sony bundled total entertainment stuff including a bit of a weird thing called Sonic Stage which as far as I can work out thinks that you want to ignore netjuke et al but only by encrypting your burned cd's into a system which is incapable of distributing the copies to anything else that is not Sonic Stage. It's dressed up as security. To me it sounds like self-justifying monopoly. Anyway the freebies are just that (link to Everquest anyone???) so you bash on Office (thank you work), mIRC, winamp, a few bits and bobs and you're happier than Spiro in a bar.
So finally is there an urk factor? Well the screen estate is small but you basically fiddle with the dpi and use fullscreen and minimal menus. Second nature in a week and it's really ace thereafter. The larger urk generically is 'it's a Vaio' so reputationally there's a healthy level of suspicion with reliability and fall-apartability. Well we'll see. I'd have to say this is a markedly different kettle of fish from the two Vaio's my parents have (yes sigh) and I am hopeful for the future. It's clearly pitched at the frequent traveller and has been built, I think looking at it, with a clear concession to that. It's more pro than any Vaio I've seen by a long way. It's sturdy, it's cool and it's the best looking pc laptop I've seen which does everything I wanted it to. Apart from the impossible like high rate fps gaming and stuff. But as I said before, it's not made for it.
So in summary? Well, leaving aside the impossible, as I said to Kate Moss only the other day, you can feel pretty damn good about making do with a very hot little number in the here and now. You aren't going to be shouting 'look at my TR1MP' but you'll get a fair few looks and feel pretty good whopping it out whenever you like for an instant display of leetness. And that my friends, is the true spirit of Electric DeathÂ….
Thursday, 14 August 2003
Punting [beej]
I am realiably informed that when out punting, the punter should punt the puntees not from the flat platform but from the other end. The flat bit is for sunbathing and picnic baskets. Egads!
Wednesday, 13 August 2003
Bittorrent = Fileplanet's Nemesis [spiny]
Lurks posted a similar blog previously about BT & what he forecast seems to be starting to happen...
Fileplanet's days are numbered. How do I know this? Well, I've been getting a bit better at flying the planes in 1942 of late & when I saw 'IL-2 Sturmovik Forgotten Battles' in Virgin. I picked it up on a whim along with Raven Shield for a mate in a 2 for 1 offer, 30 notes. Bargain.
That very day the first patch is released, so I truck on over to 3dgamers to leech the zip. All the http & ftp links are saturated with me only getting a measly 3/4k per sec at my end. But 'ho!, what's this?' I cry 'a torrent for the patch too?'. Within seconds I'm saturating my ISDN at 7(ish) k/sec with 11 seeds & 16 peers.
Magic. No subscription fee, no queueing, no retrying busy ftp servers, no slow ftp servers. If game companies start seeding torrents for patches & videos themselves then fileplanet will rapidly become loneleyplanet.
Sturmovik FB's good btw, Looks very nice & you can set the flight model to 'Stuff all that flight sim anal crap, let me just shoot shit out of the sky and stuff rockeys into tank convoys'. It does eat PCs for breakfast though. I'm CPU limited on a 2200 Athlon XP & I've seen frame rates in single figures on some of the demo recordings.
Tata Till next time - Spiny 'Flying Freddy The Fokke Fukka' Norman :)
Fileplanet's days are numbered. How do I know this? Well, I've been getting a bit better at flying the planes in 1942 of late & when I saw 'IL-2 Sturmovik Forgotten Battles' in Virgin. I picked it up on a whim along with Raven Shield for a mate in a 2 for 1 offer, 30 notes. Bargain.
That very day the first patch is released, so I truck on over to 3dgamers to leech the zip. All the http & ftp links are saturated with me only getting a measly 3/4k per sec at my end. But 'ho!, what's this?' I cry 'a torrent for the patch too?'. Within seconds I'm saturating my ISDN at 7(ish) k/sec with 11 seeds & 16 peers.
Magic. No subscription fee, no queueing, no retrying busy ftp servers, no slow ftp servers. If game companies start seeding torrents for patches & videos themselves then fileplanet will rapidly become loneleyplanet.
Sturmovik FB's good btw, Looks very nice & you can set the flight model to 'Stuff all that flight sim anal crap, let me just shoot shit out of the sky and stuff rockeys into tank convoys'. It does eat PCs for breakfast though. I'm CPU limited on a 2200 Athlon XP & I've seen frame rates in single figures on some of the demo recordings.
Tata Till next time - Spiny 'Flying Freddy The Fokke Fukka' Norman :)
Netjuke [lurks]
Struck me that I'd quite like to stream some MP3s in to work. In the past I had this wicked Slimp3 which did exactly what I want - a front end to my MP3 collection, browse through it and click to play. Of course it played via the hardware player though - now I want something that I can stream over the LAN and the Net at large.
So I had a bit of a look-see around last night. I turned up NetJuke which is a PHP thing on SourceForge which looks bloody lovely. Although sadly because it's PHP it doesn't actually work of course. This may or may not be something specifically to do with PHP 4 installed on my Xitami web server. I'm reluctant to go banging on IIS purely as a security and bloat issue, I quite like Xitami. I managed to run the installer and set it up on MySQL but now I'm getting 404 errors on PHP pages. Weird!
So anyway, has anyone else seen stuff like this? I'm keen enough on this at the minute that I'll try a few to see how they shape up.
So I had a bit of a look-see around last night. I turned up NetJuke which is a PHP thing on SourceForge which looks bloody lovely. Although sadly because it's PHP it doesn't actually work of course. This may or may not be something specifically to do with PHP 4 installed on my Xitami web server. I'm reluctant to go banging on IIS purely as a security and bloat issue, I quite like Xitami. I managed to run the installer and set it up on MySQL but now I'm getting 404 errors on PHP pages. Weird!
So anyway, has anyone else seen stuff like this? I'm keen enough on this at the minute that I'll try a few to see how they shape up.
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