Ξ August 30th, 2008 | → Comments Off | ∇ |
“Ooo it looks so pretty”. That’s such a terrible argument - how can you design a game that plays perfectly through 90% of it then have to turn the visuals down to a fraction of what it was on the last mission because some level designer got carried away and made *everything* go nuts?
The game is continually filled with clipping errors, and bugs in the auto-sequences that meant I had to play through whole sections again because cutscenes didn’t play or things didn’t work right. Even a year after release and massive patching I had to play the last level dozens of times because I’d fall *through* the deck in half a dozen places (it’s even less fun when you quickload to fall straight through), things wouldn’t blowup correctly so I had to play it again, or the objects on ship suddenly aren’t physical so they don’t provide cover, or enemys went through the floor and attacked me from underneath, or it acts like he’s walking through glue yet everything else moves at normal speeds?
It’s bullshit like this that ruins the game and it isn’t the first time - I gave up on it last year half way through because it was a bug ridden mess, and it still is. PC Gaming has some problems but this is off the scale; talk about a tech demo.
Ξ August 28th, 2008 | → Comments Off | ∇ |
http://twitter.com/Bindibadgi
Add me if you like and let me know yours 
Ξ August 26th, 2008 | → Comments Off | ∇ |
After chatting to a few mates who are also (coincidentally) trying Boxee one of them let me in on the XBMC port to Linux: http://speedbump.ws/?p=31
So ill try it later/soon and let you know!
Thanks, John.
EDIT: And the Windows Alpha: http://xbmc.org/download/ Yay!
Ξ August 24th, 2008 | → Comments Off | ∇ |
The process of Ubuntu-ising a system was.. rewarding yet painful. The automatic update facility is exceptionally efficient, yet, everything feels limited compared to Windows because I either can’t find it or work out how to do it. You don’t just download and executable and run it, you have to sacrifice a fucking lamb whilst chanting code only the gods of Linux are aware of.
I just wanted to install some Cat 8.8 ATI display drivers, all I want is a widescreen resolution. And what smart arse thought it was a good idea to default to the maximum resolution it could detect? Great for a TFT no doubt, but shit if I’m using a projecter and it makes the text so small I can’t read it.
Anyway, it works in 4:3 even if it’s not exactly how I wanted it - so I download a file use terminal to access the Boxee website and tell it to install this file, and it did. Fair enough, I’m thankful for the careful direction on the website.
Boxee is a “social” media centre, currently in Alpha and while it’s stable it’s quite feature lacking. It’s built on a basis of XBMC which has been going a few years so I was sort of expecting more, yet there wasn’t - it’s still pretty basic.
It has some nice touches - the interface is nice, yet I was dying to use remote. Apparently it works with the remote in OSX though but I don’t own a Mac. It’s being designed in the right frame of mind - there’s tons of internet video feeds, you can rate and recommend stuff, you can surf SMB shares really very quickly and it builds thumbnails a whole load faster than Vista MCE but the interface is not as customisable, and there needs to be more video options, especially as I’m used to playing with the oodles of FFDshow options, and I really, really need the video acceleration of my AMD 780G’s UVD because an Athlon X2 4850e doesn’t cut 1080p video.
Also, I don’t “get” why everything has to be social. In one way they’ve made it work perfectly as it recommends watching stuff your friends like (assuming you like what your friends do), but I’ve no real desire to do the same to others. Any internet video I watch is not through my media centre it’s at my PC, usually when I’m in work. I sit down and turn on the projector because there’s something specific I want to watch, not because I feel like browsing around to see what’s new.
But that’s just me, and the whole point is everyone is different and some people love the social “web two point zero” side to anything.
For the most part, it’s too early to tell though. XBMC had a niche because the Xbox was a closed system, piss easy to hack and it was the only decent project out there at a time when HTPCs were just getting of the ground. Boxee falls into a sea of well established PC options and right now fails to really make much of an impact, but it will be worth watching, that’s for sure.
Ξ August 21st, 2008 | → Comments Off | ∇ HTPC |
I’m fed up with Vista MCE and it’s bullshit “one size fits all”. I want customisation, I want better network navigation not “watching folders”. Even the standard options are just plain wrong - you don’t bury video library as a sub-option behind picture library?
I don’t see how Microsoft could be so inept to make a potentially great piece of software so incredibly mediocre. I mean companies a fraction of its size pull out better stuff - the only thing that has prevented me using them is because I was too lazy not to use the remote anymore.
I’ve had enough though, I’m installing Ubuntu onto a second hard drive (the installation has already frustrated me, I can’t see this going well - I mean, what idiot decided it was good to set the automatic resolution to the MAXIMUM supported, not a standard 800×600 or 1024×768? I’m using a friggin projector - at 1600×1200 I CAN’T READ A DAMN THING!) and trying out Boxee. It may be painful. There will be tears and tantrums. I will try not to hurt the hardware and smash up the living room.
I’ll let you know how it turns out.
Ξ August 15th, 2008 | → Comments Off | ∇ |
Firstly, I’m referencing the Intel blog of Intel Product Manager and Engineer, Aaron Brezenski, here about the Intel DG45FC G45 motherboard.
Mr Brezenski calls his board “a thing of beauty”, but I have to disagree, in fact - I strongly adstain from calling any motherboard Intel makes “good looking”. The fantastically named, DG45FC, may be cute in its mini-ITX form factor but it’s the epitome of mediocrity with its blue PCB and uninventive looking components. Intel’s design team could learn a few things from the Taiwanese, that’s for sure.
At £90, it’s not a bad buy, but I’d probably still rather an AMD setup with an underclocked 4850e and a Jetway JNC62 or maybe something 780G. The good thing about the G35 was that by the time we tested it the video playback quality was excellent, however yet again Intel’s software seems to let it down for early G45 reviews. It does offer 7.1 channel LPCM passthrough which is missing from the 780G, but Nvidia’s 8200 has it, although I still prefer the software and performance of the 780G from AMD.
Intel could really use a special low power chip like AMD offers - it has its E2xxx series, but they are still classed as 65W chips - chuck us a 35-45W 1.8GHz with 1MB of cache and we’ll be happy for a HTPC. I can’t see it wanting to infringe on its mobile line though, where there is more monies to be made.
If you want Intel mini-ITX though it looks like Intel’s own is the only way to go - everyone else has done micro-ATX. That’s somewhat disappointing, I was looking forward to the Taiwanese bending the rules a bit on the small(er) scale.
Also - if anyone has a HQV disk I’d love to borrow it just to test G45/8200/9300/780G again. I can’t seem to find my own 
Ξ August 9th, 2008 | → Comments Off | ∇ |
Apart from the opening ceremony which I want to watch in HD, I can’t understand the desire to watch people who can throw stuff or run fast. Why is the Olympics so concerned with physical attribution and not mental? We do have the Nobel prize but that is awarding a lifetimes research. There’s no “here’s 100 math questions - how fast can you do them correctly?”
The Olympics is not a sporting event, it’s purely entertainment. Why is the 100M sprint “more important” than the 10k? Sadly because 10 seconds is how long people’s attention and excitement lasts. Freud would have a field day with that statement.
Ξ August 8th, 2008 | → Comments Off | ∇ |
No TV license for me! That’s a nice £100+ saving. Not that my housemate and I miss TV at all mind, but we still watch iPlayer which is TV license exempt - only things streamed in real time require a license and the iPlayer is post-aired content. Win!
We use a projector, Xbox 360 and a HTPC for watching movies - there’s not a single TV-receiver in our house.
What’s annoying though is we still need to organise to get a guy round and sniff the place out - the assumption is we do own equipment and we have to prove we do NOT own any. Some twisted logic there.
