artiss.blog

Category: Life

Random thoughts on life

  • What is it with… PS3 downloads?

    The PlayStation Store is working again today so I took the opportunity to buy and download the game Pain. Great game.

    However, I wait for the over 1GB of data to download, then for it to install before I can run it… then I have to wait for it to download and install updates. Updates? When I’ve only just downloaded it. Quite obviously you only download the original version and then all updates are applied. But, why? If you download PC software from a website you generally (I can’t think of any exceptions) download the very latest version – no updates should be needed. Why can’t Sony do this for the PS3?

    The other bug-bear is that the updates, unlike the original download, can’t be downloaded in the background so the PS3 is tied up whilst it happens. And, again unlike the original download, the PS3 shows no indication of how long it will take.

  • Armageddon Riders – Zombie death for the PS3!

    Back in the late 90’s I was a huge fan of Carmageddon on the PC – driving cars around, knocking competitors out of the race and all while running over zombies (yes, it was a controversial game). Wouldn’t that be great now, on the latest generation of consoles? Well, it now is – Targem Games is set to release Armageddon Riders for the PS3 (available exclusively as a download via the PlayStation store).

    Targem Games are a Russian games company established in 2002 with a few console games already “under their belt”. However this game is the first project of the studio as a publisher on PSN.

    Here’s the official description…

    Drive and kill in a bloody car battle with no rules and no brakes on PS3.

    Armageddon Riders is a bloody car battle for fans of fast drive, with no rules and no brakes! You’re driving a killing machine on the streets of a dead city. Your enemies are zombies and marauders. Go get them!

    There has been a fatal accident in the Large Hadron Collider that plunged the nearby city into chaos, filling it with anomalies and turning the residents into zombies. The restricted zone became a Mecca for marauders and criminals who hunted for artifacts and thrills of dead city street racing. Outrageous speed, rivers of blood, brutal cars, equipped with instruments of destruction: spikes, saws and blades, and don’t forget the boosters. Hundreds of hungry zombies roam the streets, jumping on cars and trying to get to the drivers. To survive there and return to tell the tale is a real challenge.

    Key features:

    • A multitude of drivable vehicles and upgrades
    • Many ways to destroy zombies
    • The LHC campus is a complete city open for exploration, sandbox style
    • 8 game modes of racing and combat
    • Advanced collision and damage physics

    It runs at a 720p resolution and is Dolby 7.1 compatible.  It also has a 2 player mode. Also bear in mind that this game has an 18+ PEGI rating.

    The game is available now for just £7.99. I’m hoping to post a review in a few days – I’m really looking forward to playing it as it really looks excellent.

  • How to be a great website builder

    Making your own website takes time and effort, especially if you need your site to be user friendly, manageable and most importantly, look professional. With so many websites out there, trying to get yours ahead of the game takes time, skill, hard work and a bit of know how. First of all, you need to acquaint yourself with a good website building programme to ensure that the very fundamentals of your site are correct from the word go, otherwise trying to embellish a site which is poorly designed or constructed will get harder and harder as time goes on. This will hinder your website’s traffic, rankings and user interaction. Let’s look at a few things to consider:

    Use a good website builder

    There are plenty of website builders out there, but as easy it as it is to buy one, it’s hard to know which will give you a website you can be proud of. End product is everything. A particularly effective website builder is SiteMaker. Before buying your website builder, it’s advisable to try out a free download. Namesco offer a free download on SiteMaker so you can try it out before buying. SiteMaker is one of the best website builders out there, with numerous templates to choose from, up to 2000MB email storage, unlimited number of pages, widget libraries and up to 5GB of monthly bandwidth. It is user friendly – especially for novice website builders – and allows you to log on and edit your site anywhere in the world. Well worth investigating.

    Graphically speaking

    Another sign of a great website builder are the graphics used. The graphics you choose to implement are often ruled by your chosen website builder but you can make sure that what you put on your site is graphically great. Choose pictures and images that complement your site. Don’t use too many in fear of overcrowding your site and, if you can, embed them with appropriate search-engine friendly tags.

    Content matters

    Your website can look as professional and well-designed as you like, but the mark of a truly great website is the content which you put up. Although this comes as part of post-site production, content should be considered from the off. What content will you need? Will you write it or will you outsource it? Quality content is the key to a successful website.

  • ReTrak launch Worlds Smallest UK folding Plug

    Building on from their success in the United States and Canada, Emerge Technologies is bringing their ReTrak brand of all retractable accessories to the UK, launching in June.

    The entire 70 product ReTrak range comes with retractable cables and Emerge have found a solution to the bulky UK plug –  the world’s smallest folding plug named the “ThinPlug”.

    Products with integrated ThinPlug design will include a universal Laptop and Netbook charger and 4 and 5-in-1 products. These will offer wall, car and sync in one compact unit, such as the iPod and iPad combo charge unit.

    To me, these sound excellent – often the most bulky part of any “gadget” these days is the UK plug on the end of the charger!

    ReTrak products start at £9.99 for a set of retractable headphones up to £89.99 for a 90 watt retractable notebook charger which fits 7,000 different notebooks.

  • AV. A rant.

    I wanted to have a good rant about the result of the AV vote last week, but somebody else beat me to it. And it’s so well put, I’m going to simple quote them…

    For decades, Britons have voted using the first past the post system. And it’s crap. What sane electoral system requires you to look at the results five years ago in order to determine who to vote for this time? Not to mention the opportunities for splitting votes to allow an outsider to get in.

    So the UK are offered AV in a referendum. I’m the first to accept that AV isn’t perfect – it’s still subject to local geography, and it’s still more than likely that the government that you get aren’t the ones with the most votes, but at least your local politician is tolerated by most people. It’s not the system I’d like (multi-member constituencies with STV, thus avoiding the party lists of PR), but it’s about the best system for a single winner constituency.

    So what is the campaign like? Crap. Both sides play the man, and most of the population haven’t any clue about what the system actually is. No mention of alternatives such as approval voting or concordet. Lies about how many times votes/preferences are counted – and don’t argue, the academic analysis shows that votes aren’t counted more than once. Arguments that Nick Clegg wants it, so it must be bad (although conveniently ignoring that Nick Griffin didn’t want it). ‘It’s too complex’, people say, although putting 1,2,3,4 on a voting paper doesn’t seem hard to me. AV is instant run-off, and we can manage run-off elections for Strictly Come Dancing. If Bruce Forsyth can understand the concept, it can’t be that hard.

    If we had moved to AV, the outcome wouldn’t have been far different, but the mechanism for getting there would have changed. We could have had more inclusive politics. It would even be feasible that parties could field more than one candidate in a constituency, allowing greater voter choice. Candidates would have needed to engage with the electorate, rather than relying on a few swing votors.

    Despite all this, the UK has voted against it, in possibly the biggest case of cutting off your nose to spite your face. We won’t be asked again, we’re stuck with our miserable little system, and the rest of the world is laughing at us.

    For a normal election, I wouldn’t care. Other people have different views to me. For this, I’m depressed. It’s a no-brainer. So why the hell have 70% of the population voted no? Are these the people with no qualifications? They can’t all be MPs or media moguls. Would they have voted for a dictatorship if it was on offer?