Something quite silly, this happens when you get bored you know!
Browse to a website with some images on, eg http://news.bbc.co.uk
Copy and paste the following into your address bar, its perfectly safe, i have tried it
javascript:R=0; x1=.1; y1=.05; x2=.25; y2=.24; x3=1.6; y3=.24; x4=300; y4=200; x5=300; y5=200; DI=document.getElementsByTagName("img"); DIL=DI.length; function A(){for(i=0; i-DIL; i++){DIS=DI[ i ].style; DIS.position='absolute'; DIS.left=(Math.sin(R*x1+i*x2+x3)*x4+x5)+ "px"; DIS.top=(Math.cos(R*y1+i*y2+y3)*y4+y5)+" px"}R++}setInterval('A()',5); void(0);
You get different effects in IE and Firefox....
Enjoy
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Laptops and the January Sales
Well following on from my post below, i've been out and bought a 16Gb USB drive, so there you go.
On to the matter at hand then, a new laptop...
I've been hunting round for a new one for a couple of weeks, and managed to stumble across a sony one which i thought was quite decent for the monetary outlay. However, news came my way that sony's are about as stable as a wooden chinese house in an earthquake, and tend to break a bit too often for our liking, so that was put on the shelf and the hunt resumed.
I then found an acer one, exactly the same spec as the sony one, but cheaper. Wonderful i thought, and then did some research and found that the graphics chip in it is woeful. So now the hunt has once again resumed with my budget increased, as i don't want something that is good now, but a year from now can't run anything at a decent speed, when i could have paid an extra £300 and got another 3 years out of it....
On to the matter at hand then, a new laptop...
I've been hunting round for a new one for a couple of weeks, and managed to stumble across a sony one which i thought was quite decent for the monetary outlay. However, news came my way that sony's are about as stable as a wooden chinese house in an earthquake, and tend to break a bit too often for our liking, so that was put on the shelf and the hunt resumed.
I then found an acer one, exactly the same spec as the sony one, but cheaper. Wonderful i thought, and then did some research and found that the graphics chip in it is woeful. So now the hunt has once again resumed with my budget increased, as i don't want something that is good now, but a year from now can't run anything at a decent speed, when i could have paid an extra £300 and got another 3 years out of it....
Saturday, November 01, 2008
Flash Memory
I've just noticed you can buy a 16Gb Play.com USB drive for £16.99. Thats quite mad, quite, quite mad...
KIS 2009 Review Part 3
Conclusion
Basically to sum up this review as i think I've pretty much covered everything and my attention span has started to wander...
KIS is a very good Security Suite if you are unsure of all the technical terms and just want something that works without asking complicated questions and requires no skill or expertise to setup.
Its far from perfect, although the slowdown on the system deserves another mention, as its hardly anything at all, memory wise a bit big, but these days, who cares, 2-4 gig ram is becoming the norm and if you can't squander a little bit of memory for your computer protection, you should be ashamed of yourself!
The regular updates are good, and more and more security firms; Symantec, Mcafee et al are taking notice and increasingly putting these into their new products.
In summation then, worth buying if you don't fancy the more complicated route, but not the hands down winner overall compared to other software out there.
Basically to sum up this review as i think I've pretty much covered everything and my attention span has started to wander...
KIS is a very good Security Suite if you are unsure of all the technical terms and just want something that works without asking complicated questions and requires no skill or expertise to setup.
Its far from perfect, although the slowdown on the system deserves another mention, as its hardly anything at all, memory wise a bit big, but these days, who cares, 2-4 gig ram is becoming the norm and if you can't squander a little bit of memory for your computer protection, you should be ashamed of yourself!
The regular updates are good, and more and more security firms; Symantec, Mcafee et al are taking notice and increasingly putting these into their new products.
In summation then, worth buying if you don't fancy the more complicated route, but not the hands down winner overall compared to other software out there.
Sunday, October 12, 2008
KIS 2009 Review Part 2
Here we go then, hold on to your tonsils, its part two of my review...
Living with it
Arguably the most important part of any background software on your computer: how is it to live with day to day? You don't want something that jumps in your face every time you do something, or it thinks you need to be alerted that your firewall has just noticed a stray packet and is mildly alarmed that your system may be compromised. On the other hand you don't want it to sit there and do nothing and then when queried responds, 'Oh yeah your system is infected with xyz, do you want me to get rid of it for you?'.
With that in mind then time to see how KIS shapes up. Very well is the answer to that, unsurprising given that they have been in the field for some time, and should have a firm grasp of how users prefer things to act, and what they want from security software.
The software sits quietly in the background, alerting you whenever it finds something infectious or requiring some input from you. It could do everything automatically, but likes to check with you first, in case that suspicious file is something you perhaps know about but are sure is clean. If it does find a virus though, it deals with it and removes all trace from your system with the minimum of fuss or interaction.
The one caveat to that is the firewall that loves to automatically classify everything into one of four categories, Untrusted, High Restricted, Low Restricted, and Trusted. It scans the application when its first ran and the firewall determines from that where to place it. Helpful yes, not always entirely accurate though. Also is slightly less secure than manually asking you to allow traffic and certain types of traffic to and from an application, aka Zonealarm for example. You can manually move the applications freely around the four categories, but its still not giving you total control over how that application accesses the internet.
For the layman though overall the whole system is very good, very little interaction means they are less likely to be confused by security warnings and accidently click the allow instead of the deny button and render their system a little less secure than before.
Updates are regular and are done without any loss in system security or speed. You can ask the software to alert you when its updated if you wish, but as its done every hour, they can get a little annoying and the default is probably best, of not telling you, just doing it. You can manually update them if you wish, however its not the end of the world if you just leave it alone.
The Antispam element deserves special praise from me though, as its the only one that i have used that actually has a plugin for Mozilla Thunderbird. All the usual emails clients are covered, Outlook, The Bat etc, but Thunderbird usually gets missed off.
Training the system is as easy as training the inbuilt Thunderbird filter, class mail as spam or not spam, and the system learns what constitutes a spam message. KIS also has some inbuilt databases to give it a head start, and these are very good for avoiding the dreaded false positives that plague most antispam software.
Overall then the software (minus the firewall) has been very good and can be reccommended for both casual users, those that browse the web and get email, and proper ardent users of a computer, those who know what a kernel, spyware and keyloggers actually are. In the final part of the review i shall focus on system performance, and once again review the good and bad points of the suite.
Till next time, don't do anything daft, unless you have a permit.
Living with it
Arguably the most important part of any background software on your computer: how is it to live with day to day? You don't want something that jumps in your face every time you do something, or it thinks you need to be alerted that your firewall has just noticed a stray packet and is mildly alarmed that your system may be compromised. On the other hand you don't want it to sit there and do nothing and then when queried responds, 'Oh yeah your system is infected with xyz, do you want me to get rid of it for you?'.
With that in mind then time to see how KIS shapes up. Very well is the answer to that, unsurprising given that they have been in the field for some time, and should have a firm grasp of how users prefer things to act, and what they want from security software.
The software sits quietly in the background, alerting you whenever it finds something infectious or requiring some input from you. It could do everything automatically, but likes to check with you first, in case that suspicious file is something you perhaps know about but are sure is clean. If it does find a virus though, it deals with it and removes all trace from your system with the minimum of fuss or interaction.
The one caveat to that is the firewall that loves to automatically classify everything into one of four categories, Untrusted, High Restricted, Low Restricted, and Trusted. It scans the application when its first ran and the firewall determines from that where to place it. Helpful yes, not always entirely accurate though. Also is slightly less secure than manually asking you to allow traffic and certain types of traffic to and from an application, aka Zonealarm for example. You can manually move the applications freely around the four categories, but its still not giving you total control over how that application accesses the internet.
For the layman though overall the whole system is very good, very little interaction means they are less likely to be confused by security warnings and accidently click the allow instead of the deny button and render their system a little less secure than before.
Updates are regular and are done without any loss in system security or speed. You can ask the software to alert you when its updated if you wish, but as its done every hour, they can get a little annoying and the default is probably best, of not telling you, just doing it. You can manually update them if you wish, however its not the end of the world if you just leave it alone.
The Antispam element deserves special praise from me though, as its the only one that i have used that actually has a plugin for Mozilla Thunderbird. All the usual emails clients are covered, Outlook, The Bat etc, but Thunderbird usually gets missed off.
Training the system is as easy as training the inbuilt Thunderbird filter, class mail as spam or not spam, and the system learns what constitutes a spam message. KIS also has some inbuilt databases to give it a head start, and these are very good for avoiding the dreaded false positives that plague most antispam software.
Overall then the software (minus the firewall) has been very good and can be reccommended for both casual users, those that browse the web and get email, and proper ardent users of a computer, those who know what a kernel, spyware and keyloggers actually are. In the final part of the review i shall focus on system performance, and once again review the good and bad points of the suite.
Till next time, don't do anything daft, unless you have a permit.
Sunday, October 05, 2008
KIS 2009 Review Part 1
I think its probably time to give you some idea of what i think of KIS 2009. This will be part one of several, not sure how many yet, but I'll try and keep them reasonably condensed.
Installation
Could have been easier, lets put it that way. I don't honestly believe Kaspersky intended it to be quite as difficult as i made it but still...
Started off quite promisingly, uninstalled Nod32 and Comodo Firewall, did the normal reboot that is required when you do that sort of thing, and then all hell broke loose.
Windows arrived back on the screen and immediately i knew something was amiss as i got a huge pop-up "Your System is INFECTED!". Blimey, just a minute, let me get a cup of tea and a biscuit and you can fill me in on the details.
In the four seconds it took me to launch the Kaspersky installer, i had been infested with something called MicroAV. Annoying little bastard it is too, pops up every time you try to do anything, which hampers trying to install the software to get rid of the thing. I even tried to do it in safe mode, but as installations of software can only occur in 'proper mode' according to the vista message i got, that didn't help me much.
Finally managed to get Kaspersky installed and it went a bit downhill again then. Having installed it and restarted (again) it duly informs me that its not activated and needs doing. No problem, i have me key handy, so i click on Activate Now and wait....and wait....oh...its crashed. That's handy then. Try again...nope crashed again...repeat ad nausem...
I then had to become slightly counter productive, and uninstall the program that should have cleaned my system up, restart and install it again. It then occurred to me that when i installed the first time, i had disabled the internet to try and avoid a massive spyware invasion. The second time i left it connected and hoped for the best. Turns out this was a very good idea as the installer told me there was an updated version of Kaspersky and did i want it, much clicking of yes and it downloaded a 37meg update which actually activated and worked properly.
Turns out however that KIS 2009 is more prevention than cure, as trying to conduct a scan that would remove the infections whilst it was sorting out the firewall and working out which programs were safe and which weren't is quite hard. I dare say it would have removed the infections, but i was that pissed off with pop-ups by this stage that i just downloaded other spyware removal software that i know works, removed what bits i could, and sorted the system out that way.
Once i had removed the obvious stuff and got a computer that worked properly, i did conduct a full system scan, and it did find some stuff hidden away in temp directory's and other places and removed them. Whether it has caught the lot i don't know, but everything seems fine up to now.
And now we arrive here, everything is installed, everything is working and the system is ticking along as it should. So what do we draw from this early foray into KIS? Once installed it seems good, if my system was clean, I'm sure the install would have been smooth and painless, but alas. Based on that though, so far I'm quietly impressed, time will tell if i remain so...
Installation
Could have been easier, lets put it that way. I don't honestly believe Kaspersky intended it to be quite as difficult as i made it but still...
Started off quite promisingly, uninstalled Nod32 and Comodo Firewall, did the normal reboot that is required when you do that sort of thing, and then all hell broke loose.
Windows arrived back on the screen and immediately i knew something was amiss as i got a huge pop-up "Your System is INFECTED!". Blimey, just a minute, let me get a cup of tea and a biscuit and you can fill me in on the details.
In the four seconds it took me to launch the Kaspersky installer, i had been infested with something called MicroAV. Annoying little bastard it is too, pops up every time you try to do anything, which hampers trying to install the software to get rid of the thing. I even tried to do it in safe mode, but as installations of software can only occur in 'proper mode' according to the vista message i got, that didn't help me much.
Finally managed to get Kaspersky installed and it went a bit downhill again then. Having installed it and restarted (again) it duly informs me that its not activated and needs doing. No problem, i have me key handy, so i click on Activate Now and wait....and wait....oh...its crashed. That's handy then. Try again...nope crashed again...repeat ad nausem...
I then had to become slightly counter productive, and uninstall the program that should have cleaned my system up, restart and install it again. It then occurred to me that when i installed the first time, i had disabled the internet to try and avoid a massive spyware invasion. The second time i left it connected and hoped for the best. Turns out this was a very good idea as the installer told me there was an updated version of Kaspersky and did i want it, much clicking of yes and it downloaded a 37meg update which actually activated and worked properly.
Turns out however that KIS 2009 is more prevention than cure, as trying to conduct a scan that would remove the infections whilst it was sorting out the firewall and working out which programs were safe and which weren't is quite hard. I dare say it would have removed the infections, but i was that pissed off with pop-ups by this stage that i just downloaded other spyware removal software that i know works, removed what bits i could, and sorted the system out that way.
Once i had removed the obvious stuff and got a computer that worked properly, i did conduct a full system scan, and it did find some stuff hidden away in temp directory's and other places and removed them. Whether it has caught the lot i don't know, but everything seems fine up to now.
And now we arrive here, everything is installed, everything is working and the system is ticking along as it should. So what do we draw from this early foray into KIS? Once installed it seems good, if my system was clean, I'm sure the install would have been smooth and painless, but alas. Based on that though, so far I'm quietly impressed, time will tell if i remain so...
Friday, October 03, 2008
T-Shirt
Just whilst you're waiting to get the low down on KIS 2009, im a fan of wild and amusing t-shirts, and thought this image would look superb on one:
I'm Back
Well yes, after over a two year absence, i have finally found something worth writing about!
Hold on to your hats, cos depending on your interests, this may or may not be of interest to you.
Recently i have managed to legally (crumple) acquire a 100 day free trial key for Kaspersky Internet Security 2009. Which i found quite intriguing...
Stay tuned for some facts, pros & cons, and general impressions of the software that numerous experts think is one of the best security suites out at the moment.
Hold on to your hats, cos depending on your interests, this may or may not be of interest to you.
Recently i have managed to legally (crumple) acquire a 100 day free trial key for Kaspersky Internet Security 2009. Which i found quite intriguing...
Stay tuned for some facts, pros & cons, and general impressions of the software that numerous experts think is one of the best security suites out at the moment.
Saturday, March 24, 2007
Playstation 3 sir? Don't mind if i do...
Yes indeed, i was one of the sad people that ordered the playstation 3 for the launch date, mass spending abound, what with my new television to enjoy it on as well...
Having hooked it up with the mighty HDMI cable, for full High Def pleasure and sensory orgasm, i sat back and turned it on. Having filled out the required basic setup (what language do i speak, name, time, date etc etc) all was going wonderfully, and in all, i can't find fault with it. All these nay sayers who dismiss the ps3 as overly complicated and too powerful for its own good have obviously been inhaling the fumes of the adhesive variety. It is damn heavy though, and slightly on the large side, but heavy is good, heavy is sign of reliability, if it does not work, you can always hit him with it. As someone once famously said...
Complicated my derrière, its as easy as prodding a few buttons and watching the smile break across your face. The wireless controller is stunningly light, and has everything in exactly the same place as the old ps2 controller, so those familiar with that won't have any problems whatsoever in getting to grips with it, although the R2 and L2 trigger buttons have been redesigned for some reason or other and feel very rubbery, although im sure with time it will become second nature to bounce your fingers off them just as you did on the old buttons. One lovely feature that must be mentioned is the magical Playstation button in the middle of the controller. This marvellous brainwave button allows you to turn the console on and off without having to touch the actual console at all. It also allows you to turn the controller off, thus saving precious power, and will also tell you how much charge you have left in the pad, so you won't be reaching for the usb lead until you absolutely have to.
I have yet to fully test out the ps3 capabilities, as i have not got a 1080p tv, nor do i possess a BluRay disc, but dvd's play superbly, albeit a little noisily due to the hdmi being so damn precise, but the built in noise reduction options of the ps3 and my tele soon sorted that little problem out, and i watched the modern "War of the Worlds" film without a problem.
I have only one game at the moment, "Resistance:Fall of Man" so game playing tests can't exactly be conclusive at present, although as shooters go, bugger me its good, hard in places but damn good, and graphically stunning. Those in the know will recall that the ps3 graphics chip is the nvidia 7950GTX, exactly the same as you can buy for your home pc, not as powerful as the 360's ATI effort, but to be fair to it, its not lagging too far behind at present. Interesting to see how the graphics develop throughout the consoles lifespan though, most consoles tend to enjoy their best graphics toward the end of the span, as developers wring the last little drops of performance out the hardware, so we shall see...
I hope i haven't bored you too intensely with my waffle, and if i have, then tough, you read it...
I shall end with a couple of rather amusing jokes.
What do you call 100 nuns in a shop?
A Virgin Megastore
And finally this one, its long, but stick with it, it's worth it...
A german man was on holiday in America, and decided that he needed the attentions of a hooker. Pulling his rental car over to one, he leaned out the window and said
"I vant to have sex vis you"
The hooker replied "No problem, i charge $100 an hour"
"Ja, dis ist gut, however, i must warn you, i am ze little bit kinky"
"Not a problem, i can do kinky"
And off they go back to his hotel room. Whence they arrive he presents her with four bed springs and a duck caller, "You vill tie zees bedsprings to your hands unt knees"
She does this, a little confused, but intrigued never the less. When she has done this she is told "You vill put ze duck caller into your mouth, and blow it vhilst i am ravishing you from behind"
She duly does this, and enjoy an hour of bouncing round the room, quacking away as loudly as she can, whilst enjoying the best sex she has ever had in her life.
When it finally ends, she is exhausted, but very satisfied, and enquires of the german "That was fantastic, but what's with all the equipment?"
To which he replies
"Zat is the Four Sprung Duck Technique"
See, i told you it was worth it!
Having hooked it up with the mighty HDMI cable, for full High Def pleasure and sensory orgasm, i sat back and turned it on. Having filled out the required basic setup (what language do i speak, name, time, date etc etc) all was going wonderfully, and in all, i can't find fault with it. All these nay sayers who dismiss the ps3 as overly complicated and too powerful for its own good have obviously been inhaling the fumes of the adhesive variety. It is damn heavy though, and slightly on the large side, but heavy is good, heavy is sign of reliability, if it does not work, you can always hit him with it. As someone once famously said...
Complicated my derrière, its as easy as prodding a few buttons and watching the smile break across your face. The wireless controller is stunningly light, and has everything in exactly the same place as the old ps2 controller, so those familiar with that won't have any problems whatsoever in getting to grips with it, although the R2 and L2 trigger buttons have been redesigned for some reason or other and feel very rubbery, although im sure with time it will become second nature to bounce your fingers off them just as you did on the old buttons. One lovely feature that must be mentioned is the magical Playstation button in the middle of the controller. This marvellous brainwave button allows you to turn the console on and off without having to touch the actual console at all. It also allows you to turn the controller off, thus saving precious power, and will also tell you how much charge you have left in the pad, so you won't be reaching for the usb lead until you absolutely have to.
I have yet to fully test out the ps3 capabilities, as i have not got a 1080p tv, nor do i possess a BluRay disc, but dvd's play superbly, albeit a little noisily due to the hdmi being so damn precise, but the built in noise reduction options of the ps3 and my tele soon sorted that little problem out, and i watched the modern "War of the Worlds" film without a problem.
I have only one game at the moment, "Resistance:Fall of Man" so game playing tests can't exactly be conclusive at present, although as shooters go, bugger me its good, hard in places but damn good, and graphically stunning. Those in the know will recall that the ps3 graphics chip is the nvidia 7950GTX, exactly the same as you can buy for your home pc, not as powerful as the 360's ATI effort, but to be fair to it, its not lagging too far behind at present. Interesting to see how the graphics develop throughout the consoles lifespan though, most consoles tend to enjoy their best graphics toward the end of the span, as developers wring the last little drops of performance out the hardware, so we shall see...
I hope i haven't bored you too intensely with my waffle, and if i have, then tough, you read it...
I shall end with a couple of rather amusing jokes.
What do you call 100 nuns in a shop?
A Virgin Megastore
And finally this one, its long, but stick with it, it's worth it...
A german man was on holiday in America, and decided that he needed the attentions of a hooker. Pulling his rental car over to one, he leaned out the window and said
"I vant to have sex vis you"
The hooker replied "No problem, i charge $100 an hour"
"Ja, dis ist gut, however, i must warn you, i am ze little bit kinky"
"Not a problem, i can do kinky"
And off they go back to his hotel room. Whence they arrive he presents her with four bed springs and a duck caller, "You vill tie zees bedsprings to your hands unt knees"
She does this, a little confused, but intrigued never the less. When she has done this she is told "You vill put ze duck caller into your mouth, and blow it vhilst i am ravishing you from behind"
She duly does this, and enjoy an hour of bouncing round the room, quacking away as loudly as she can, whilst enjoying the best sex she has ever had in her life.
When it finally ends, she is exhausted, but very satisfied, and enquires of the german "That was fantastic, but what's with all the equipment?"
To which he replies
"Zat is the Four Sprung Duck Technique"
See, i told you it was worth it!
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
New Monitor!
Darn, it would appear my posting powers have let me down again...
Never mind though, chin up soldier, cos all is not lost. I have purchased a nice new Flat Panel monitor from Dell of all people. (Mainly cos me dad got a discount off, but there we go).
Its a 20.1" Wide Aspect jobby, so nice amounts of space to do stuff, max resolution of 1680x1050, so it's rather good at game playing, as 1280x1024 is no problem. Not that i go much above 1024x768 usually, but you get the idea.
It has four usb 2.0 ports built into it as well, so you can plug cameras and stuff in, although it looks a bit untidy with usb cables hanging out the sides, so i haven't really bothered with that just yet. It also has the capability to rotate from landscape to portrait, which although is a nice gimmick, i don't think i shall be using that very often.
Here's a couple of piccy's for your viewing pleasure:
Never mind though, chin up soldier, cos all is not lost. I have purchased a nice new Flat Panel monitor from Dell of all people. (Mainly cos me dad got a discount off, but there we go).
Its a 20.1" Wide Aspect jobby, so nice amounts of space to do stuff, max resolution of 1680x1050, so it's rather good at game playing, as 1280x1024 is no problem. Not that i go much above 1024x768 usually, but you get the idea.
It has four usb 2.0 ports built into it as well, so you can plug cameras and stuff in, although it looks a bit untidy with usb cables hanging out the sides, so i haven't really bothered with that just yet. It also has the capability to rotate from landscape to portrait, which although is a nice gimmick, i don't think i shall be using that very often.
Here's a couple of piccy's for your viewing pleasure:
Thursday, August 03, 2006
Firmware
By the way, just in case you were wondering what version of firmare my psp came preloaded with, the answer is 2.60.
Some research on the net produces the following results, downgrading is very hard, nigh on impossible, very risky, best to avoid and ebay one if you wanna homebrew.
Plus the games i had brought wouldn't run until i'd updated to the latest firmware anyway, which i duly did cos there didn't seem much point taking the risk and downgrading to do some homebrew and leave the £80's worth of games i'd bought getting dusty on a shelf.
So a little bit of advice for all you budding homebrewers, if thats what you want to do, then i've no problem with it, but you would be better off scouring ebay for a cheap psp with 1.5 already preloaded onto it to save you the hassle, and then you can brew away to your heart's content.
Some research on the net produces the following results, downgrading is very hard, nigh on impossible, very risky, best to avoid and ebay one if you wanna homebrew.
Plus the games i had brought wouldn't run until i'd updated to the latest firmware anyway, which i duly did cos there didn't seem much point taking the risk and downgrading to do some homebrew and leave the £80's worth of games i'd bought getting dusty on a shelf.
So a little bit of advice for all you budding homebrewers, if thats what you want to do, then i've no problem with it, but you would be better off scouring ebay for a cheap psp with 1.5 already preloaded onto it to save you the hassle, and then you can brew away to your heart's content.
All good
Well i've had it for a couple of days now and i have to say it's a great bit of kit. Looks damn good as well, which is always a good thing.
Bought a screen protector for it, which is basically just a sheet of plastic, sticky on one side to place on the screen to stop the dirt and more importantly any scratches from appearing on the screen. During appplication, i dropped it onto the bed (ahem) and thus covered the sticky side in fluff...
Oh dear... however, all is not lost, as A: i've ordered another one, and B: later on i managed to get all the fluff off with sellotape. So i'll use the second one as a spare, and use the one thats on now, as its ok, and scratch that one up.
I'm also thinking about buying one of these, cos its a good idea, a good price, and cos im a geek and its the sort of thing a geek would buy. Good for holidays too... (clicky)
Anyway, thats quite enough excitement for one day, please leave a comment if you think the above link is a silly idea, and i'll ignore you anyway. Have fun
Bought a screen protector for it, which is basically just a sheet of plastic, sticky on one side to place on the screen to stop the dirt and more importantly any scratches from appearing on the screen. During appplication, i dropped it onto the bed (ahem) and thus covered the sticky side in fluff...
Oh dear... however, all is not lost, as A: i've ordered another one, and B: later on i managed to get all the fluff off with sellotape. So i'll use the second one as a spare, and use the one thats on now, as its ok, and scratch that one up.
I'm also thinking about buying one of these, cos its a good idea, a good price, and cos im a geek and its the sort of thing a geek would buy. Good for holidays too... (clicky)
Anyway, thats quite enough excitement for one day, please leave a comment if you think the above link is a silly idea, and i'll ignore you anyway. Have fun
Monday, July 31, 2006
Ahh
Ah yes, im back, only to smarm about my latest and greatest waste of money. A PSP!
Yes thats right, i've taken the plunge and ordered me a sexy black number, cos white ones remind me of apple & ipods and they are so gay its just not funny.
So i've ordered meself a psp giga pack 5 games, in car charger for saving on the leccy, and screen protection for all the little scratches it'll pick up and a psp protective sleeve thingy that came with it to stop the sweat out me hands reducing the console to a useless pile of dribble. Well thats the idea anyway.
And how much did this set me back i hear you cry....
£350, give or take a few pounds, it was about £343 i think, but 350 will do.
Having looked into the hacks and homebrew aspect of a psp it becomes apparent that i will have to see exactly what version of the firmware i have preloaded when i get it, as homebrew apps will only run on 1.5 firmware, and the latest one that sony have released is the 2.80 version. In order to backtrack to the 1.5 firmware, you need to have a modchip installed, as you can't just flash it like you can with a pc. bugger. I watched some chappy on the net "brick" 4 psp's before he managed to get this modchip working, and for what? a snes emulator pretty much, cos i dunno what else is available but that seems to be the main thing people are going for, loads of emulators. I think its safer to say if mine is not 1.5 i'll run the emulators on the pc and save myself the hassle.
By the way to "brick" basically is exactly what it says, you turn it on, and nothing happens, so it really is as useful and as technoligically advanced as the average house block.
Best not to do that then....
Have fun, and i'll try and post more frequently than twice a century
Yes thats right, i've taken the plunge and ordered me a sexy black number, cos white ones remind me of apple & ipods and they are so gay its just not funny.
So i've ordered meself a psp giga pack 5 games, in car charger for saving on the leccy, and screen protection for all the little scratches it'll pick up and a psp protective sleeve thingy that came with it to stop the sweat out me hands reducing the console to a useless pile of dribble. Well thats the idea anyway.
And how much did this set me back i hear you cry....
£350, give or take a few pounds, it was about £343 i think, but 350 will do.
Having looked into the hacks and homebrew aspect of a psp it becomes apparent that i will have to see exactly what version of the firmware i have preloaded when i get it, as homebrew apps will only run on 1.5 firmware, and the latest one that sony have released is the 2.80 version. In order to backtrack to the 1.5 firmware, you need to have a modchip installed, as you can't just flash it like you can with a pc. bugger. I watched some chappy on the net "brick" 4 psp's before he managed to get this modchip working, and for what? a snes emulator pretty much, cos i dunno what else is available but that seems to be the main thing people are going for, loads of emulators. I think its safer to say if mine is not 1.5 i'll run the emulators on the pc and save myself the hassle.
By the way to "brick" basically is exactly what it says, you turn it on, and nothing happens, so it really is as useful and as technoligically advanced as the average house block.
Best not to do that then....
Have fun, and i'll try and post more frequently than twice a century
Sunday, June 04, 2006
Its one week
One week to go before dubai and the tension is mounting somewhat. Hopefully me panama hat should arrive sometime next week, and no doubt the postman will bugger off before i have a chance to get to the door, or he'll come whilst im not in. Typical.
All other items for said holiday are ready, money, clothes, documentation, suncream etc etc. These are all safely awaiting the arrival of the suitcase to pop them in, and then you really start getting goosebumps. Until that point im remaining very calm about the entire affair, with the odd occasional thought popping in from time to time about how good its all going to be.
And with that short blog entry im off to do something i like to call "medicating", cos if i don't then i won't be going on the holiday at all
All other items for said holiday are ready, money, clothes, documentation, suncream etc etc. These are all safely awaiting the arrival of the suitcase to pop them in, and then you really start getting goosebumps. Until that point im remaining very calm about the entire affair, with the odd occasional thought popping in from time to time about how good its all going to be.
And with that short blog entry im off to do something i like to call "medicating", cos if i don't then i won't be going on the holiday at all
Saturday, June 03, 2006
Taking pity and piling it up in the corner
Here's a little song i penned last night, only took me 5 minutes to write, then about another 5 to refine it a bit, not all of it makes sense, but it gets the general mood that i was in when i wrote it across. (Warning: Do not read if you are liable to hate it)
All these things i don't know why
they just seem to make me cry
with the time that i spent
waiting for your embrace i never felt
When i looked into your eyes
i saw dreams are pure as skies
but i can only find the lie's
without your kiss
living life is just as hard
as making love to you that night
knowing you'll already be gone when i wake up
tell me why you had to leave
and all those things you said to me
i know why, you hate me, in your heart
forgive me please
i don't know where you are right now
but i hope you can hear my cries
and as i try to make you
fly upon the breeze
come to me and let me see
exactly why you had to go
and all the things you took
you left me so alone
and as i wait for you my dear
sitting here beside your chair
always daring to think you
might just come back here
always daring to think you might just come back here
always daring to hope you might just come back here
always daring to pray you might just come back here
All these things i don't know why
they just seem to make me cry
with the time that i spent
waiting for your embrace i never felt
When i looked into your eyes
i saw dreams are pure as skies
but i can only find the lie's
without your kiss
living life is just as hard
as making love to you that night
knowing you'll already be gone when i wake up
tell me why you had to leave
and all those things you said to me
i know why, you hate me, in your heart
forgive me please
i don't know where you are right now
but i hope you can hear my cries
and as i try to make you
fly upon the breeze
come to me and let me see
exactly why you had to go
and all the things you took
you left me so alone
and as i wait for you my dear
sitting here beside your chair
always daring to think you
might just come back here
always daring to think you might just come back here
always daring to hope you might just come back here
always daring to pray you might just come back here
Sunday, May 14, 2006
Picture time boys and girls
No no, put your crayons away, im gonna show you some pictures...
After a unrewarding day in the house, dougal was going out to get some fresh air and see if he could find anything to take a picture of on his spangly SLR, so i suggested a quick trip to cannock chase and have a wander round there for a bit.
And so we went, and took a few pictures, dougal got some snaps of jumping bikes, and we came home again.
These are my two contributions to the day, i took more, but these are the two best as far as i can make out.
Some gorse
An early pine cone
After a unrewarding day in the house, dougal was going out to get some fresh air and see if he could find anything to take a picture of on his spangly SLR, so i suggested a quick trip to cannock chase and have a wander round there for a bit.
And so we went, and took a few pictures, dougal got some snaps of jumping bikes, and we came home again.
These are my two contributions to the day, i took more, but these are the two best as far as i can make out.
Some gorse
An early pine cone
Friday, May 12, 2006
(Wibble)
Yes im still here, i've not kicked any kind of bucket just yet. You can make your own mind up as to whether thats a good thing or not.
Been looking for travel insurance for the upcoming dubai trip. Not that difficult you would think? No, i didn't think so either, having had no trouble before, but no, nobody wants to even consider me because of my ailments. If i was travelling within the EU i could have some at the drop of a hat, but because im not, you end up with a phone conversation ending with a "...er....oh...um.....ah....sorry Mr. Walker, it would appear we can't cover you for those, but er it would still cover you if you broke a leg or had a heart attack..." oh well thats ok then, i'll just aim to have part of me drop off on the first wednesday i'm out there, and possibly have an organ failure on the friday...
Still got a couple of people to try but its looking more and more likely i'll have to travel under a policy that covers my diabetes, as well as leg snappages as that doesn't seem to be a problem, and make sure my chest is in good shape before i go. In truth it shouldn't be a problem, the worst i would get is a cough, which i could pop to the hospital when i return and get treated. So that shouldn't be too bad, lots of exercise to keep me chest clear, and the hot climate should help too, as well all me medication, plus hopefully some spare antibiotics in case of any coughs. Damnit, i'm bloody going, insurance or not, and i'll make damn sure i'm ok whilst im out there as well.
Does make you angry though, that just because of a condition i have no control over, i should be a good cripple and die quietly in my bed. I reckon if they had their way, i wouldn't be allowed out the house, let alone the country. Well if a specialist doctor has no concerns over me going, then neither have i, and neither should they. It would appear it doesn't work quite like that, which, to be blunt, is fucking wank, and the FSA who regulate these things should fucking sort it out, cos i'm sorry, but as far as its concerned i think thats discrimination, and i've sent them an email stating so. It'll probably get lost in the system and i'll never hear anything back from them.
And now i think i'll go and be a good cripple, and die quietly in my bed. At my funeral, please play "My immortal" by Evanescence for which the following lyrics can be found
"When you cried, i'd wipe away all of your tears
When you'd scream i'd fight away all of your fears
And I held your hand through all of these years
But you still have all of me
I've tried so hard to tell myself that you're gone
but though you're still with me
I've been alone all along..."
Been looking for travel insurance for the upcoming dubai trip. Not that difficult you would think? No, i didn't think so either, having had no trouble before, but no, nobody wants to even consider me because of my ailments. If i was travelling within the EU i could have some at the drop of a hat, but because im not, you end up with a phone conversation ending with a "...er....oh...um.....ah....sorry Mr. Walker, it would appear we can't cover you for those, but er it would still cover you if you broke a leg or had a heart attack..." oh well thats ok then, i'll just aim to have part of me drop off on the first wednesday i'm out there, and possibly have an organ failure on the friday...
Still got a couple of people to try but its looking more and more likely i'll have to travel under a policy that covers my diabetes, as well as leg snappages as that doesn't seem to be a problem, and make sure my chest is in good shape before i go. In truth it shouldn't be a problem, the worst i would get is a cough, which i could pop to the hospital when i return and get treated. So that shouldn't be too bad, lots of exercise to keep me chest clear, and the hot climate should help too, as well all me medication, plus hopefully some spare antibiotics in case of any coughs. Damnit, i'm bloody going, insurance or not, and i'll make damn sure i'm ok whilst im out there as well.
Does make you angry though, that just because of a condition i have no control over, i should be a good cripple and die quietly in my bed. I reckon if they had their way, i wouldn't be allowed out the house, let alone the country. Well if a specialist doctor has no concerns over me going, then neither have i, and neither should they. It would appear it doesn't work quite like that, which, to be blunt, is fucking wank, and the FSA who regulate these things should fucking sort it out, cos i'm sorry, but as far as its concerned i think thats discrimination, and i've sent them an email stating so. It'll probably get lost in the system and i'll never hear anything back from them.
And now i think i'll go and be a good cripple, and die quietly in my bed. At my funeral, please play "My immortal" by Evanescence for which the following lyrics can be found
"When you cried, i'd wipe away all of your tears
When you'd scream i'd fight away all of your fears
And I held your hand through all of these years
But you still have all of me
I've tried so hard to tell myself that you're gone
but though you're still with me
I've been alone all along..."
Monday, April 24, 2006
If I hide under here, you can't halt my wibblings
And what's more, its true as well.
Next time you get pulled over by a copper, and he wants to know your name, tell him "Yamak Hunt". He'll love you forever and let you off scott free, honest!
Dougals been getting creative with photoshop and creating popart style pictures of himself, and damn good they are too, he's gonna be a cs2 beard too.
The latest cs2 thingy i've done is join some maps together to create a coherent image.... not exactly creative, im gonna have to get wibbling
Been thinking about what car to have next lately, and then got into the family saloon market, so before i decide for definite i'm gonna wait to see what happens in the future, there's over a year to wait first, so plenty of time for stuff to change. Best to wait and see i think, wouldn't want to settle on something and then have to change suddenly due to the circumstances, i've done that too many times already and its not much fun...
Have fun, i'm gonna go and hide under me duvet
Next time you get pulled over by a copper, and he wants to know your name, tell him "Yamak Hunt". He'll love you forever and let you off scott free, honest!
Dougals been getting creative with photoshop and creating popart style pictures of himself, and damn good they are too, he's gonna be a cs2 beard too.
The latest cs2 thingy i've done is join some maps together to create a coherent image.... not exactly creative, im gonna have to get wibbling
Been thinking about what car to have next lately, and then got into the family saloon market, so before i decide for definite i'm gonna wait to see what happens in the future, there's over a year to wait first, so plenty of time for stuff to change. Best to wait and see i think, wouldn't want to settle on something and then have to change suddenly due to the circumstances, i've done that too many times already and its not much fun...
Have fun, i'm gonna go and hide under me duvet
Friday, March 17, 2006
Bit early
I would have posted this last night, but the bloody website wasn't working, ee's straining at the pulpit, straining i say Brian, straining....
Right, the purpose of this visit is just to impart three things to you, cos im good like that.
1: I have invented a term for a certain type of weather. This type is "Dog's Nose", and can be used thus "It's a bit Dog's Nose out at the minute".
Now you are sitting there thingking, dog's nose? what the hell is he on about? Simple really, a dog's nose is cold and wet, and perfectly sums up the same type of weather.
2: A small joke i was told today, a very old one no doubt but it had me going.
What do you call a Welshman with a stick up his arse? A Taffy-Apple!!
hahaha...............oh dear..........well i thought it was good
3: And finally, to finish off, something you might want to say to yourself to cheer you up a bit on a dog's nose day. In a strong german/belgian/austrain accent repeat the following and imagine a klaxon going off as well in the background
"Warnung!!! Warnung!!!! Chesty-waren booby floppen!!"
you can add "Meine dashund mit ze flatten" if you wish, its entirely up to you
And with that im gone. Keep taking the pills son, keep taking them
Right, the purpose of this visit is just to impart three things to you, cos im good like that.
1: I have invented a term for a certain type of weather. This type is "Dog's Nose", and can be used thus "It's a bit Dog's Nose out at the minute".
Now you are sitting there thingking, dog's nose? what the hell is he on about? Simple really, a dog's nose is cold and wet, and perfectly sums up the same type of weather.
2: A small joke i was told today, a very old one no doubt but it had me going.
What do you call a Welshman with a stick up his arse? A Taffy-Apple!!
hahaha...............oh dear..........well i thought it was good
3: And finally, to finish off, something you might want to say to yourself to cheer you up a bit on a dog's nose day. In a strong german/belgian/austrain accent repeat the following and imagine a klaxon going off as well in the background
"Warnung!!! Warnung!!!! Chesty-waren booby floppen!!"
you can add "Meine dashund mit ze flatten" if you wish, its entirely up to you
And with that im gone. Keep taking the pills son, keep taking them
Thursday, March 16, 2006
Who's idea was this then?
XP is a funny fucker, I swear. Yesterday the beast was refusing to boot, at all, ever. Nothing. Zip. No BSOD, just sits there staring at me with a blank expression on its silly face. So I thought, right, you there, have a format. Sadly I needed some files off me hdd, and with it not booting there was not a chance in hell of that happening, so I thought, ahh I'll do a repair so I can boot up into it, copy all me files off, then do a proper format and get back to a nice clean XP.
Errrrr no, refused to get past 34%, installing devices, sit, stare, hdd stops chuntering, all goes deathly quiet.... darn, right, restart.
Setup is restarting, goooooooooood away we go then, sit stare, quiet. Bugger, a swift google reveals that this is usually down to some hardware going pop, fiss, smoke and windows can't identify it and stops. Ok.... which bit has gone bang then? Removed card after card after card, disabled everything I could lay my sweaty mits on in the BIOS and no, XP still wasn't having any of it.
More googling reveals it may be a CD drive or hdd that's failed. CD and DVD I don't mind, I get a bit twitchy when hdd's start going clunk behind my back though. So I disabled first one drive, then the other keeping one going for the XP installation, nothing. Unplugged my second hdd, nothing. Bugger this I thought, there's only one other thing it can be, and that's the first hdd, and that's not clunking so I refuse to believe its that.
Plugged everything back in, enabled all the gubbins back in the BIOS and went to bed, confused, annoyed and rather upset XP had managed to beat me.
Got up this morning and turned the computer on, restarted setup from scratch and errr it works... still a repair jobby though, not a full format, just so I can grab me files off. Blasted thing. God I love XP. (mutter)
Errrrr no, refused to get past 34%, installing devices, sit, stare, hdd stops chuntering, all goes deathly quiet.... darn, right, restart.
Setup is restarting, goooooooooood away we go then, sit stare, quiet. Bugger, a swift google reveals that this is usually down to some hardware going pop, fiss, smoke and windows can't identify it and stops. Ok.... which bit has gone bang then? Removed card after card after card, disabled everything I could lay my sweaty mits on in the BIOS and no, XP still wasn't having any of it.
More googling reveals it may be a CD drive or hdd that's failed. CD and DVD I don't mind, I get a bit twitchy when hdd's start going clunk behind my back though. So I disabled first one drive, then the other keeping one going for the XP installation, nothing. Unplugged my second hdd, nothing. Bugger this I thought, there's only one other thing it can be, and that's the first hdd, and that's not clunking so I refuse to believe its that.
Plugged everything back in, enabled all the gubbins back in the BIOS and went to bed, confused, annoyed and rather upset XP had managed to beat me.
Got up this morning and turned the computer on, restarted setup from scratch and errr it works... still a repair jobby though, not a full format, just so I can grab me files off. Blasted thing. God I love XP. (mutter)
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