Now that I have two weeks of freedom, I figured I’d do something very brave which could result in the loss of my social life, the loss of any future career prospects, and gaining the ability to pee in a bottle. Yep, I’m joining World of Warcraft, if only for a month or so (though people tell me I’ll get sucked in no matter how hard I resist… We’ll see…). You can see my progress from the little badge below. I’ve also added a small minibar to the side of the page now as well which shows similar stats.
You can also view my full profile from the WoW Europe armory here.
Other games I’m hoping to squeeze in amongst all the WoW’ing are Oblivion (Shivering Isles) [360], Super Smash Bros Brawl [Wii], Bioshock (again) [360], and Gran Turismo 5: Prologue [PS3]. Wishful thinking. I also would hope to get some work done on game development as well. Realistically, I’m pretty sure that isn’t gonna happen. But here’s hoping.
This video is both amazing and extremely exciting. Its from the 1up show, and it showcases the Korg DS-10 synthesiser for the Nintendo DS. I love the sounds from it, the fact that you can jam wirelessly, and just the general thought of having a handheld synth like that makes me want one a hell of a lot! Check it out.
Finally my big deadline for this part of the year has passed, and hopefully I’ll now be able to update this a bit more. Expect some posts next week, including a gaming update and some music I’m enjoying.
“My God, its full of stars!”
Here’s a little screensaver I kind of accidentally made while coding a prototype game. I’m still working on the game, I just thought this worked well as a nice serene screensaver. I’ll hopefully update the screensaver in future to allow adjustable options.
A low quality preview is available at Youtube here. Designed in the Microsoft XNA framework for Windows XP and Vista.
Requirements to run the screensaver:
.NET Framework 2.0
DirectX 9.0c (even if you have this, you may be missing files required for XNA)
XNA Runtimes 2.0
Download screensaver (.scr) here - Save to your Windows/System32 folder, then choose Stars as your active screensaver in Windows. Enjoy 
I still believe this may be my favourite guy on the planet. Never fails to cheer me up!
If you have no idea what this is about, this good old Wikipedia link will explain all.
It never ceases to amaze me what some clever geeks can come up with. I’m envious of both their free time and their mad-cat skills and ideas. Anyway, I saw this while checking out Engadget this morning and found it very amusing. I’m a sucker for useless, cool-looking toys that you use once and then sit on your shelf gathering dust; therefore, I want one.
On a different note, I’m still pretty busy with uni work, hence the lack of updates. You can keep up with what I’m doing at Twitter or on my FriendFeed if you’re really desperate to stalk me.
So last night, after completion of a small milestone of work (I mean, very minor, still got tons to do), I decided to have a go at loading linux on to the PS3. First it was a matter of choosing which linux distribution to go with. There’s a number of linux packages which work on the PS3, a list of which you can find here.
I decided to go with PSUbuntu, since I had a small tidbit of experience with using the standard distribution of Ubuntu within Virtual PC. I was lucky enough that I had previously partitioned my PS3 hard drive when I installed a fresh 250gb hard drive a few months back. If you’re interested in doing this yourself, all the instructions you need are here. So, having done this before, it was a matter of downloading the specific Ubuntu ISO designed for PS3 (again, the link and instructions can be found here) and burning it to a CD.
Once ready, I booted the PS3 into “Other OS” mode and followed the instructions from the PSUbuntu site. After a while (quite a long while) everything installed without a hitch (I should point out I used my USB keyboard and mouse, I think this is pretty much essential), including working sound and network support from the install. It was just a matter of fixing a few things like the resolution (instructions).
Et voila, Ubuntu on the PS3. I’m not exactly sure what to do with it, but using Firefox beats the hell out of the PS3’s built in browser. Just a pity I haven’t got the Flash support working yet. Still though, kinda cool!
Its also worth noting I’ve updated the blog to the latest version of Wordpress. It shouldn’t make any difference, although the admin panel is now a lot sleeker!
“Because no one can save the universe…”
As I’m currently embarking on my literature review, I’ve been blazing through various conference and journal papers regarding different aspects of my PhD. Last night I came across a very enjoyable paper entitled “Game Over: Learning by Dying”, by Dimitri Grammenos, from the CHI 2008 proceedings. The paper presents “the world’s first universally inaccessible game (i.e. a game that can be played by no one)” and is intended as an educational tool for emphasising the importance of adhering to game design rules when designing and developing a game.
The game is designed around a reversal of the stereotypical Space Invaders scenario, whereby you assume the role of an alien at the top of the screen, defending the universe from the invaders at the bottom of the screen. Each level is designed to stress the importance of a fundamental game design guideline, with the guideline being displayed (along with some humourous quotes) at the end of each level.
The game has a very light hearted feel to it, but was evaluated by users to be a very useful educational tool for game designers. You can download the game at UA-Games and try it out for yourself. I found it to be pretty enjoyable, even though it was (not surprisingly) ridiculously unfair.
Not often you hear the argument this way around is it? Well whilst having a trawl through Digg I found this interesting video, with researchers stating they have found that kids who don’t play games at all are most likely to get into trouble.
The researchers in the video are also the authors of Grand Theft Childhood.
Yes, I know, the page has gone somewhat quiet. The reasons for this are quite simple: the stresses of life. Between broken relationships and University workload, my life is quite the mess these days! So, just so you know, I will do my best to update the page with some worthwhile content in the near future, but expect a lower frequency of updates until maybe June time.
Hope all my readers are keeping well - both of you!
