Blog-b0ne

Skyrim - Download all the shiny!

2012-03-04T23:15:00.002Z

Okay it took me a while to do this blog post but gathering screenshots by loading Skyrim with no mods, take screenshot, quit then reload Skyrim with mods and screenshot again takes a while. Still I think it was worth it!

Skyrim is a great open-world RPG game that has some of the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen in a game but I felt the game engine was still holding the games potential beauty back. Three months later the Creation Kit with Steam's Mod Workshop appears on clients all across Steam and it is now easier than ever to make and share great community mods for Skyrim.

Now personally I don't like modding a game beyond fixing little things that annoy me and adding more shiny so with the High resolution textures DLC (Free) being released the same time as the Creation Kit I wanted to see what the modding community could bring to add more shiny to Skyrim and after much digging and testing I have found some really great mods that I want to share and compare to vanilla Skyrim that we all know and love.

If you want the list of mods I used they will be after all 26 of the pictures you are about to see.

*Whoosssshhh*

Near Riverwood - Before Mods

Near Riverwood - After Mods

Breezehome - Before Mods

Breezehome - After Mods

Near Solitude - Before Mods

Near Solitude - After Mods

Near Solitude - Before Mods

Near Solitude - After Mods

Septimus Sigmus's Outpost (North of Winterhold) - Before Mods

Septimus Sigmus's Outpost (North of Winterhold) - After Mods

Embershard Mine - Before Mods

Embershard Mine - After Mods

Embershard Mine - Before Mods

Embershard Mine - After Mods

Bleak Falls Barrow - Before Mods

Bleak Falls Barrow - After Mods

Bleak Falls Barrow - Before Mods

Bleak Falls Barrow - After Mods

Bleak Falls Barrow - Before Mods

Bleak Falls Barrow - After Mods

Bleak Falls Barrow - Before Mods

Bleak Falls Barrow - After Mods

Somewhere near Riverwood (I think) - Before Mods

Somewhere near Riverwood (I think) - After Mods

The Lady Stone - Before Mods

The Lady Stone - After Mods

You like the pictures? Want the list of mods I used on all the "After Mods" shots? Well here is your list:

High Resolution Texture Pack (Free DLC)
Better Dynamic Snow
Enhanced Distant Terrain
Kerplunk - Watery Rocks
Lush Grass
Lush Trees
That's Ice
Köttbullar
Vibrant Auroras
Terrain Bump
RCRN 2.0 - Realistic Colors and Real Nights (Legacy preset)
Torches for Realistic Lighting
More Village Animals
Adventurers and Travelers
Realistic Water Textures and Terrain
Detailed Outskirts
Detailed Cities
Improved Interior Lighting (For Pluto's Realistic Lighting Mod)
Realistic Lighting
Arrows Stick
RNG (Dynamic) Guards
Enhanced Blood Textures
Realistic Ragdolls and Force
Sounds of Skyrim - The Wilds
Sounds of Skyrim - The Dungeons
Tamriel Compendium
Birds and Flocks

*Word of warning one or two of these mods require more than just clicking subscribe on the mod page.*

Oh and if you were wondering how much of a impact on your system all this will be fear not because on my PC (i5-2500k, 8GB RAM, HD6870) handled it rather well with performance taking a little hit in loading times and only a minor hit in frame-rates until it snowed or rained. So give them mods a try and see how much nicer you can make the world of Skyrim for you. Trust me you will never want to swap back to vanilla after you have used even a few of these mods for a while ;).

Next post will be late due to my Birthday surprise starting on the Friday so maybe a post on Saturday? Ugh 21 years old . . .

-Mike

Pulp Shakespeare Hollywood Fringe

2012-03-02T10:53:00.001Z

Pulp Shakespeare, possible the best thing I have seen on YouTube in forever so had to post it here. If you have seen Pulp Fiction then this will have you in stitches.

Real post coming soon.

-Mike

I really hate formatting Windows

2012-02-19T10:00:00.001Z

Yes I missed last Fridays post and this post is a few days late, I'll do better next time. Oh and uLan 1 on Friday!

I hate reinstalling Windows and I'm sure most people don't like doing it but I really hate it. To me reformatting my PC feels like wiping all the hard work I spent building up over the time I've been using it and even though sooner or later its all back to how it was just with a cleaner install I just find it hard to bring myself round to formatting regularly to de-clutter Windows.

The last time I reformatted my PC was May 2008 or some point around then and currently I am running Windows 7 32bit. Why 32bit? Well because before I had to reformat last time I was running Windows XP 32bit that I upgraded to Vista 32bit then to Windows 7 32bit so it was the only copy I had at the time and I only had 2GB of RAM then so I figured it wouldn't make a difference. FOUR years later and 2 disc clones later I'm still running 32bit now with 4GB of RAM and I'm faced with the problem of me wanting to upgrade my RAM with another 4GB to bring it up to 8GB and to put a new 1TB hard drive in, what makes this worse is I've had this new drive and new RAM sitting on my desk for a good few months now (Since before the flooding that made hard drive prices sky rocket).

Now your probably thinking "Why did you wait that long you Muppet" well I dunno its just some kinda OCD thing I have I guess. My windows on my screen must be in certain places and my desktop icons must be in a certain order and this program must act just like it set it and reinstalling Windows destroys ALL that effort and makes me start from scratch. While I will be copying back over my files post install to get all those settings back to how they were, getting those windows positions back how they should be and re-downloading all the software and games I had (Thanks to slow Internet >__>) takes me months and then another month or two to get used to the little differences that will annoy me over and over until they become written in my brain.

Guess you could say I don't like change but I hope to kinda break that today because today is the day I will be reinstalling Windows 7 (64bit this time) as well as cleaning out the dust my PC has gathered since I last opened it, redoing the cable management that I did poorly when I build it a year ago, installing the extra 4GB of RAM and installing the new 1TB hard drive I've had laying around for a while now. Why today? Well for a while now the drivers for my graphics card have been fucked and after doing hours of troubleshooting and google'n the only fix is a fresh copy of Windows and I need the extra RAM I bought to play Battlefield 3 since it needs Firefox and itself open at the same time (No I don't want to swap to Chrome, I like Firefox). On top of that my current hard drive has run out of space and I've been making do by uninstalling not often used Steam games so yeah lots of good reasons why I should have done this ages ago . . .

Right-o time to get a clean install of Windows 7 done! See you on the other side!

-Mike

New Years Resolutions

2012-02-03T15:55:00.000Z

Yes this is February but hey who gives a fuck, lets talk about New Years Resolutions. Oh and word of warning I do have a bit of a rant later on in the post. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

New Years! Fun time of year that nearly everyone get absolutely wasted only to wake up hanging from the night before then make New Years resolutions to change something in there life by next New Years. Now I normally don't do this new years resolution thing cause as we all know very many don't get started or just don't get achieved but this year I have set my self two resolutions to complete by 31 Dec 2012 (No the world will not end on 21st Dec 2012) and they are very simple.

-Goal 1, Move out: I have been living in Somerset in my Dad's house for 4 years by May and while not having high living costs is nice and all living here isn't without stress. Stress? YES! Stress caused by a small issue of 2 little brothers who I share a room with and 3 little sisters (One whom sleeps in the front room) in a 3 bed room house. Most the time you don't have a room to your self, there is no such thing as privacy and anything you own that someone else doesn't have they want to use all the time i.e. My laptop, my TV, my PC etc. Right back to the whole moving out thing, now I don't have a great paying job but with budgeting and common sense I can pull it off thanks to Somerset's low rent price compared to Surrey but something more than money is hindering me moving out and weirdly its the type of job I'm in. I work as a landscape gardener and as I found out some people in Yeovil want "Suit professionals only" and this REALLY annoys me!

<rant>
Why do you only want people who work in offices or behind desks? While yes my trade isn't "clean" because I work outside, I don't roll around in mud and dog shit like a nut case, I just cut grass most the year and grass brushes off your trousers very easily trust me. People who work in manual / outdoors jobs should be given the same chance as any working person when it comes to accommodation, I mean you could quite easily come across someone in any kinda job who would treat where they live as a shit hole or wreak the place not just non "suit professionals".
</rant>

While this is abit of a issue there are places in my price range that I can move in to but when you find a good place then see "Suit professionals only" it does put a downer on things. Never the less by next year I want to be out of my Dad's house and in my own place whether I have to flat share or not! *Shakes fist*

-Goal 2, Post a blog post at least every Friday: While yes I did miss most of January on this I'm still going to continue and put out a post every Friday at least. I will also be trying to put posts that are more than just a paragraph or two long out so when I say put out a post I don't mean some bullshit tiny post that wastes your time I mean a quite long post that will waste your time ;D. Hopefully I will be setting myself some other challenges to keep me busy (Things like building my router) that I will no doubt post about as well ;D.

Well thats this Fridays post, fuck knows what next Fridays post will be about but I got a week to dream something up then all day Friday to type it all out.

-Mike

Homebrew ADSL Router Update

2012-01-27T14:11:00.002Z

Quick FYI: I've had many posts just sitting here in the drafts waiting for me to do things and to be honest I haven't had the will in me to finish them up and post them :(

PC Engine ALIX 2D13

Right! 2012 is here so lets try this blogging thing again (Hope to stick to it this time) and first up... an update post on my router build!

This update post and the project it self has changed alot since Oct 2010 and the idea has been neglected then looked in to then neglected again. This essence of the build is now not to be a collection of old hardware re-purposed (Thats my current home server) but instead a x86 based replacement for a "domestic wireless router" with pfSence 2.01 running to give it features that no BT HomeHub will ever have.

The way I see it the box must be roughly the size of a "standard domestic router", must have wireless, must have a HDD to cache downloads and hopefully Youtube so I can free up some of my limited bandwidth. Okay now to list the changes with it starting with original ideas that are now scrapped and what now is a must.

First change: ADSL modem built in to the box. This isn't going to happen due to the changes in components that I will detail later so the replacement is using a ADSL2+ bridge modem going in to one of the 3 ethernet ports to supply us with the Internetz. Kinda pain in the arse but with something this small I haven't found a way for it to work yet.

Second change: Must have wireless. At time of the first post the only thing on the wireless was my PC but now well . . . smartphones! We got 4 Android phones (No iPhones YAY) in the family and they would be pissed if I took away the Internet from their phones so wireless is a must now.

Third change: NICs. The plan was to add Gigabit PCI cards to plug in the computers but looking back on it that was silly. Now the build will have 3 NICs, one for the ADSL modem, one for LAN and one for DMZ or something else dunno yet.

Software change: pfSence. Although I never said the OS I was going to use in the first post it was going to be Smoothwall and with Smoothwall's inactivity on the development front I had to look around for something else and I got recommend pfSence. Can't tell you much about how it is to use yet but it looks good and I will do a post once its all up and running on pfSence.

Hardware changes: Well errr . . . EVERYTHING! The idea back in the day was to use old hardware found around my house, add some new bit to it and see if it works but now well I don't think a Micro ATX sized router would be acceptable. The board I will be using instead will be a PC Engine ALIX 2D13 (Pictured at the top) which has a 500 MHz AMD Geode LX800, 256mb RAM, IDE header and a miniPCI slot, perfect little thing for what I need.

There is no ETA on when this will be done and knowing me something in my plans will be changed and I will have to write another post like this one updating everyone else on my plans but I will keep you lot posted. A build log with links to all the parts I used and places I got them will be written while building since I now have a laptop so I can blog on the move or from the sofa while thinking of going to McDonalds like I am now.

Anyway thats the plan and I will try to stick to it and actually build it this time. Honest :P

-Mike

No! Steam NO!

2011-12-19T21:44:00.003Z

Is your wallet being abused by Steam?
No?
Well the Winter sales are here . . .


Picture from www.hejibits.com

Need I say more?

-Mike

Mario Marathon 4 Live Feeds!

2011-06-24T17:06:00.000+01:00

Mario Marathon 4 - Starts Friday 24th June

2011-06-21T19:14:00.001+01:00

Fourth Annual Mario Marathon Raising Thousands for Children's Hospitals Worldwide
On Friday, June 24, gamers in Lafayette, Indiana will host the fourth annual Mario Marathon fundraiser for Child's Play Charity. Since 2008, the group has raised over $125,000 for Child's Play. The charity provides games, books and toys to a network of over 70 children's hospitals worldwide.

Mario Marathon is a multi-day charity drive broadcast live online. The event starts with a group of gamers attempting to complete a list of levels from Nintendo's popular series of Super Mario video games. Viewers of the show add levels to the players. queue by making donations to Child's Play. This continues until all of the levels are conquered or the donations stop. The 2010 event clocked in at a whopping 108 hours and featured celebrity call ins, sing-a-longs, contests and raffles. Throughout the show, viewers connect with the team through the event's website and social media channels such as Facebook and Twitter.

"The support we've seen this year is unreal," says Brian Brinegar, Event Coordinator. "We've received contributions of prizes including games, original artwork, and thousands of dollars in donations." Donations are pouring in at triple the rate of previous years. With two weeks until the official start, the event's website has registered over $6,000. When asked what draws viewers to the event, Brinegar says, "Gamers share this common childhood experience playing Mario. The marathon lets us recreate that experience and leverage Child's Play to share it with thousands of kids who are spending part of their childhood in a hospital."

The Child's Play Charity (www.childsplaycharity.org) is a game industry charity dedicated to improving the lives of children with toys and games in a network of hospitals worldwide. Since its inception in 2003, the charity has distributed over $7 million worth of toys, games, books, and cash. "We rely heavily on community run initiatives such as Mario Marathon." says Kristin Lindsay, with Child's Play, "These fundraising events represent our greatest strength: the generosity and determination of gamers."

This year, members of the group volunteered at Riley Hospital for Children, Child's Play's Indianapolis partner hospital, to see the impact of their efforts first hand. Watch the event live on the web at www.mariomarathon.com beginning June 24th at 11 AM EDT.

When the Event starts I shall post the live feed AND a cool donation javascript they have so you can donate to this great event. I know I'll be watching!

-Mike

Sources: Super Mario Marathon

Busy few weeks

2011-06-05T13:35:00.001+01:00

Sorry for the lack of content blog wise it's just I've been very very busy past few weeks. Hopefully I'll get both my EVE Online accounts back online tomorrow and get some stuff rolling blog and life wise.

My parents want me to get my own internet connection due to how much I moan about it and how much bandwith I use and with current moving out plans set for after my 21st next March it makes some sence. Whats bad about this is it will cost me £130 one off to have the line fitted, £11 for line rental a month and the cost of a good net connection... ouch. It would be good for both me and the family but thats alot of cash for a 2nd line with nicer internet (It won't be a 8mb connection but It'll be faster than it is now and I'll get a better upload for the server). Will have to think about it, would mean I could moan to my ISP about the quality of the cable rather then my parents >:)

-Mike

Terraria - It's Not a Minecraft clone!

2011-05-21T16:55:00.000+01:00

Recently I started playing Terraria: a 2D adventure-platform game with randomly generated worlds. Now from an aspect of someone who hasn't played this game they would think its a 2D knock off of Minecraft but they would be mistaken. Terraria is inspired by Minecraft (No shit) with the random worlds, gathering of blocks to make stuff and crafting system but after that they are two different games. Terraria is more for adventure based than Minecraft which in my opinion is more creative based (for now) and even the aspects Terraria is using from Minecraft are used in different ways making it still feel unique to the player even when they have played Minecraft vigorously *cough cough*.

Boss Fights? Fuck Yeahh!

Now when I first bought this I was skeptical yes and with some random crash to desktop bug while loading worlds I was thinking "Well shit it won't even work...". After reinstalling all was working so I made my character (No long hair that didn't make you look like a girl so I went for the Mohawk), made a small world and dived right in! First thing you will notice is you are give a cooper pickaxe and copper axe as well as the wondering NPC "Guide". I knew from my Minecraft experience that wood would be my first port of call so I went to the nearest tree and started chopping at the base of the trunk when out of the edge of the screen came a Green slime. Now when you've just started playing those blasted slimes hurt and I did die once or twice while chopping trees, it was clear I needed a sword. Pressed Esc for the crafting menu and BAM workbench (10 wood), placed down this bad boy and made me a sword and hammer! Now with some means to defend my self well those slims were just fodder to my might wooden sword MWHAHAA! Good thing to note is that there is a currency in Terraria and all monsters drop coins and when you die you drop coins not items, kinda handy. Then this cute tiny pink slime came along so as you do I went to kill it and got my arse handed to me... that little fucker had 150hp and hit hard. *Bastard slime*

After dying to the smallest thing I've seen in Terraria so far it was getting close to sunset so time to build shelter from the dark, what ever it may bring. Found me a nice cave-ish place and got some stone and made some stone walls, went to place them and they went in the background so they didn't block anything... grrr fine, got the normal stone blocks out and made a REAL wall that stopped the zombies and demon eyes from having their way with me. Now with a basic shelter the dark closed in and I had no light sources so a quick look in the crafting menu and I could see Torches (1 wood, 1 slime gel) donked a few in the place and now could see that this cave I now called home was bigger than I first though. Before going to explore my home cave systems I wanted to see what else I could craft and made a 2nd workbench, donked it down and had a gander. In no time I had a table, chairs, clay pot with flower, doors and my stone house felt more like home. With furnishings done and dusted it was time to explore!

Ooooo Gold!

I was hoping for a medium/smallish sized cave just to poke in at night but to my luck it was HUGE. I found slimes, zombies, copper, iron, cool looking loot vases, cobwebs etc and by then end of my trip I had a nice collection of stuff that I had no idea what to do with, shweeeet! Go back to the surface and low and behold it was day, this was handy as I was on rather low HP and just as I got to my front door, Pinky came back for round 2 and again I got shanked... Now at spawn with a few coin dropped I found my way back, got my coin and got inside with out dying this time and started crafting right away.

I haven't even scratched the surface of what this game has to offer: NPCs that move in to your house, boss fights, grappling hooks, multiplayer, the "corruption" and much more I am yet to play with and I must admit, I am hooked. Although first impressions may give off it's nothing more than 2D Minecraft, as you dig deeper into the game you realise how much different it is and how it really doesn't deserve the same "Minecraft clone" label as Fortress craft (XBLA).

Terraria is a great 2D adventure game I would recommend it to anyone with Steam and only costing £5.99 ($10) it's a good buy. If you do get it when you play for the first time I suggest you talk to "Guide", watch out for slimes and water plus check out Terrariatory (a fan-site with a wiki and stuff). Hope you enjoyed this post, hope you give Terraria a chance and Happy Slime hunting!

-Mike

3 Years this month - Part 2

2011-05-20T23:35:00.000+01:00

Part 2

Where was I? Oh yes! So after being booted from the only class I was really there for (ICT) and hit my all time low moral wise and I took some shit when I was younger so this was a big deal. As time went on I just started skipping classes and it gradually built up to me missing whole days, I never felt like facing up to college no more. I started college with a hope to progress and complete the 2 years but that light in me just died over time. This all continued until when I was walking home from college one day to get a call from my Dad in Somerset, this was odd so I picked up. He was wondering how home was and how college was going and obviously I told him the truth that college was pretty much dead to me and that home life was the usual late night drunken abuse from Gerry. As normal Dad was concerned about it all but said something to me as I was walking under the Esher station bridge near Sandown: "Well a place at Yeoviltion just opened up so if you need a job bad just call." That though followed me home and stewed in my head for ages. Should I do it? What else would I do? I'm guess it can be a last resort?

I started looking for a job to fall back on after my exams which by this point was just a trivial act at the end of my college life but to no success. Many CVs sent and no reply at all from any, same shit over and over the more it got me down the more I though about what my Dad said about a possible job waiting for me. Could it be real? Could I really move away from EVERYTHING I know and love? Although my family life wasn't at its best at the time, relationship with my friends seemed stronger than ever and I really didn't just want to walk away from that in a hurry cause lets face it I'm a shy person. With these thoughts in my head I went to talk to my mum about the whole issue, I knew that if I moved she would be the most affected but she had mixed opinions about it all same as me and I knew that my friends would say stay. It seemed all down to me to make the most life changing decision of my life and I never felt so alone.

It took time but I made up my mind, I was going to move to Somerset and pick up the job from my Dad. First stop was to call Dad and see if I could still take the job, yes I could. Next was to talk to mum and say that I was moving away to Somerset, she took it in her stride but I knew she was hurt and I can still see that today when I visit. After mum was friends, they encouraged me to stay but I had made up my mind. Finally was Gerry, the proud owner of such awards as "Trying to axe his way in through the back door then burn my sisters clothes on the BBQ on her birthday and get arrested" award. I was really not ready for his reaction at all, I walked up to him and said "Gerry I've got a job. But it's in Somerset." He laughed... He laughed in my face thinking this was a joke. All I could do was take the hit and prepare for the move.

So the next few weeks I packed all I was taking with me in boxes until my room seemed bare of everything I owned and just though of what lied ahead of me. So much changed in so little time... The day came quick and after I put my whole life in the back of my Dad's car came the awkward goodbyes to my family in surrey, many tears were shed in those final minutes both from me and everyone else. As we drove away I just kept thinking of all that led up to this and whether it was what I wanted, whether it was right for me. I remember as we were driving on the M3 just before we went past the surrey border into Hampshire I had a kind of flash back, all the good all the bad just flooded my mind. I didn't break down right there, I didn't say nothing, all I did was cry one tear... that's how hardened to emotion I had become.

May 2008, I cannot remember what date, my life changed whether for the better we shall never know but that's how life works. You can't look back on life and think I could have done better because what ever decision we make as humans never sits right. 3 whole years since I just took everything I owned and ran in to the sunset and so much has changed: Gerry and my Mum have been apart for 2 years, my close friends life's all took major changes with girlfriends and jobs etc, even life down in Somerset has changed alot since I moved. The only thing I think that hasn't changed is me. Yes I can drive now and I have money to spend on what I want but I still see myself as that same person I was 3 years ago. To me I am still that same failed college student who left his life because of two things: Gerry (Step-Dad) and my misfortune with that one opportunity I had at further education.

Well that was the story of my college experience and how I have ended up in Somerset and I would like to say thank you for reading this little snippet of my very fucked up past. Hope it helps you understand me a bit better and for those who didn't know the story (Alain, really?) hopes it fills in some holes in what you knew already. Again thank you for your time in reading my blog, it took alot to write all this. I promise next post will not be so emotional :)

-Mike

PS: A friend of mine just started blogging and I said I would link her blog on mine here you go Christine! http://christinejanegoddard.blogspot.com/

3 Years this month - Part 1

2011-05-16T22:20:00.001+01:00

Part 1

May 2011 is very special to me. May 2011 marks 3 whole years since I moved away from Surrey where I grew up, when to school, college etc and moved down to Somerset where I am working now. I'm thinking back to the month before I moved when I broke the news to my family and friends, remembering their reactions and it really hits home how much has changed in 3 years things for me and the people around me both little and big... life is some scary shit! So here is the story of what lead me to where I am now and what has changed these past years.

So lets start when I just got my GCSE results back in August 2007 when things became a pain in the arse. The college I wanted to go to, Esher College, I needed 5 GCSEs at C or higher and trust my luck to get 4 1/2 GCSEs at C or above... Fun. So undeterred I went to the sign up day thing-a-ma-jig and they said I could take 1 A-level, 1 AS level, GCSE English because I got a D, another GCSE and some other thing so I looked at what I could do with my GCSEs and I really wasn't alot but I was told to come back the next day to confirm what I wanted to take. So next day come back and then get told they cannot confirm my GCSE in ICT so I had to go back to my high school and come back to the college again. Day 3 back at the college picked what I was taking but then they went to enter me on to the system and guess what, I didn't exist... WTF Esher College. Come back now Day 4 and the last time I could go and sort this out and get it all sorted, get my student number (6185), pick my classes (ICT A level, Enviro Science AS level, GCSE English, GCSE Sociology and Web Design) and head on to the rest of the college introduction where when I get to the library to log on and change my password says my account doesn't exist... Great work! I should have really seen these events as signs that I shouldn't go to college but hey hindsight is a bitch.

First month in college goes well, kinda. English, Sociology, Environmental Science were all fine but ICT and web design not so much... let's say me and the teacher a.k.a The Dragon didn't get on well, my learning style didn't work with her "teaching" style shall we say. In Web design which I had done during high school I did all my website in 2 lessons and include everything she wanted in it while ICT I completed a lessons work in half the time and spent the rest of the lesson helping those around with with the work because her "teaching style" was go read this book and leave me alone and I actually helped them out.

By the end of the first term people in my ICT class were asking me before her how to do the work once I was done and I was reading ahead in the book and doing stuff she hadn't taught in the class yet because it was all coming from this one book so as you can guess I got ahead very quick. Web design by this point I was teaching my friend Scott how to do each bit she was "teaching" and I had made me some other sites that I was going to do at home during class time and she didn't like what was happening in ether class but she couldn't really kick me out the class for it so she was stuck with me.

To me everything was going okay, we started on coursework for all my subjects and I was doing at quite well. Environmental science done, Sociology done, English done but then came round ICT and well that was just about done when the unthinkable happened... the motherboard in my PC blew and the only backup of the ICT coursework I had was 1 week old and no where near finished. Lori the head of ICT heard my situation and she said she would have given me time like the other 2 with out their coursework but in true dragon fashion she didn't give me a chance and got me dropped from the course. With ICT as my only A level it meant I only had one year at college rather than 2 years and that made me hit a all time low...

Part 2 Coming soon!

-Mike

Rant: The Rent is too DAMN HIGH !

2011-05-09T21:56:00.000+01:00

<rant>
Don't you hate how everything is so expensive! Electric, petrol, insurance, food, water, conical tax, clothes, rent, Internet that doesn't suck. All of this and more is whey over priced and in some cases taxed (Glares at petrol and conical tax) and why? We are told "inflation", what I read is "Greed". Big wigs are just can't get enough of our over stretched moneys and we can't do jack shit about it... but why am I ranting all of a sudden?

Well because the average cost of living for a single person in the UK is £14,000 a year! Now granted Many people live under this budget very well but some of these people get government help, what about Joe Blogs who works hard, can't afford to live on his larry tod and cannot claim off the state? In my eyes Mr Joe Blogs here gets a kick in the balls 3 times here. First from the overcharging companies that know we need them, second from the government for taxing high enough that what ever income is left after is just not enough to live and finally from society because being a good boy, not getting in debt, buying everything he owns outright, having a job and not asking our skint government for cash. Seems we get nothing for good behaviour! What happens if a non working couple really don't want to work and instead just make kids and claim cannot afford stuff... they get more money. What happens if hard working person living anywhere with no debt gets made redundant... that person loses everything. This is SHIT!

Now I do understand that some people need to claim to live, fair enough that is fine the benefit system was made for you, but what gets me is when people play the system so they can be lazy and benefit nothing to our country is when I get mad. Now I grew up in a poor working class family and all the time growing up I had always seen my mum and step dad working hard everyday to put food on the table and presents for Christmas under the tree. Nether were out of work for more than a month and what do they have for working their arses off for years and years, not much but if they had played the system and nether worked we would have been more better off life style wise. Now your asking "Well why didn't they just sponge like every other poor family in the UK? *Inset Snobface here*", well the answer is they have morals, wanted to work to earn their money and didn't want to get on their knees and beg. I wish more people were like this, I wish more people didn't want to just do nothing but beg for money because they can't hold down a job. If more people didn't beg then the money we would save from benefits would be huge but as time has gone on most people have become lazy, wanting everything handed to them.

Life isn't about hand outs, life is about working hard enough at accomplishing your dreams and doing what you want in life before it's all over. Life isn't about draining the pockets of every tax payer to have you live your unfulfilled, empty life. Get up, get moving and get motivated cause only you can change your life and make it better for you and that is what counts. Chase your dreams, not your next child benefit and job seekers money.

Like I said earlier I do understand that some people need to claim to live that is why the benefit system was made, to aid those who need it and not for those for whatever reason want to exploit it.
</rant>

Phew got that out of my system... and all this from looking to move out on my own? Kinda turned from a "WHY YOU COST MONEY" to a "WHY I GET NO MONEYS FROM GOVERNMENT" rant but my points stands.

Also my math says I could maybe afford to move out comfortable when I hit 21 or if I get a better payed job or find someone who will share a place with me (Hint Hint). Yeah no chance on that last one. Best get job hunting/aging! Hmm wait a second? Did I leave Starcraft 2 running while writing this post... Shit well I lost that match :(

-Mike

PS: Whoop next weekend!

New Domain!

2011-05-08T00:16:00.000+01:00

Just bought me a domain (backb0ne.co.uk) and I have made it so the blog now runs on blog.backb0ne.co.uk so it looks more pro in the address bar ;) My server will also run on the new domain once I get an ISP that doesn't suck and also gives me static IP so I don't have to run through an Dynamic DNS service that costs more than the domain.

That is all!

-Mike

LAN Curse broke my Graphics card right before LeachLan 7 >:(

2011-04-29T15:27:00.003+01:00

Well this blog post is late... Didn't I say I was gunna update this more...?

Let me tell you a story from my prep and trip to LeachLan 7. The day before LeachLan 7 I let my dear sister Laura on my PC to stop arguments in the home and some how that day my old HD4870 decided to eat it's own voltage regulator thus breaking the card to the point where Windows Aero was crashing it after 20mins. I had been having a few overheating problems with it from the past but no real signs it was dying. I spent all my spare time I had set aside to pack for the lan but all hope was lost, the card was condemned to silicone heaven after a good, hot and punishable 2.5yrs of service. Things were looking bleak for gaming at LeachLan 7 until Morgyn mentioned that there was a Novatech store enroute to lan so after a quick browse of their site and a phone call I ordered me up a ATI HD6870 :)

Now with little time to pack up my PC I had to rush to get out the door and get enroute so I was there for 6pm. Taking a slight detour off junction 19 (I think) to Portshead I picked up and payed for my new card then some how made it to North Leach before 6pm. Quickly unpacked the car, signed in then broke out the screwdriver to put this puppy in and see if it would work. Now even though my old car and the new one used the exact same drivers I had huge driver issues for a good few hours. First it was going "I dunno what the fuck that new hardware is" then Windows wanted it's turn to freeze on boot up so I had to do a system restore and it just when on like this for ages. It looked like it wasn't going to work at all and that I had wasted £180 on nothing but after one of many reboots it just worked. Fuck knows what changed, I think it was running Window generic drivers and then the ATI ones went "Oh THAT graphics card, why didn't you just say!" and all was and still is working *Touches wood*. For the rest of the lan I had no problems at all PC wise, I did have a bad curry Saturday night but from what I heard it was bad all round.

Still another great lan! I'm all booked up for LeachLan 8 in July/August and next time I won't have to spend out £180 on the day for a new graphics card. To be fair to the old one, it did well and it was the oldest bit of hardware in my PC because I really didn't wanna fork out for a new graphics card at the time and well that strategy worked out well for me huh? Hope to see you next lan! Curse free!

Next blog post is Dragon Age II, its about all the differences I observed in the story between each class, gender and also how the dialogue sets I used affected the story/party character relationships. So that will be a nice wall of text for you to read ;)

-Mike

Note To self: When replacing the inner workings of my PC, replace EVERYTHING!

Slacking

2011-04-19T09:21:00.003+01:00

Ok yes I am slacking on blogging, I have 3 drafts waiting to be finished and I will do them ASAP... oh wait Portal 2 is out today...

Okay these posts are going to be a bit more late now but eh, it's Portal 2!

I have a post about LeachLan 7 and the drama I had with that, one about Dragon Age 2 since I have nearly played all 3 classes with the 3 diffrent types of chat options and the last one is sekrit! I will blog more often promise :D
-Mike

LeachLAN 7 - Now mere DAYS Away!

2011-03-19T01:05:00.000Z

LeachLAN time has come around again !
*Whhhhhooooooooooooooooooooooooooooopp*

Is it that time of year again, ahh it comes round so quickly it seems but yes, LeachLAN 7 is 5 days away. Pulmonary event plan is up, second draft of the L7 seating plan is also up and I cannot wait for this one :) If your not already booked for L7 I urge you to come join the fun up in NorthLeach and have a blast!

See ya there people!

-Mike

PS: Anyone wanna buy me a drink @L7 cause my 20th birthday was 12th March and I still wanna celebrate ;)

C418 & Minecraft OST

2011-03-06T12:03:00.001Z

C418, famed for his involvement and creation of the music in Minecraft has just released "Minecraft - Volume Alpha". This is part 1 of the Minecraft OST to be released and contains every song that is available to date in Minecraft as well as unreleased music and in true C418 style it is all good! While I was buying "Minecraft - Volume Alpha" I went and had a look at what else he had going on Bandcamp and found he had 10 other albums with the earliest dating back to Dec 2007. Myself I have "little things" and "Minecraft - Volume Alpha" both very good and later in the month I will be buying his back catalog of tunes :) If any musician deserves his work to be bought and NOT pirated this is him!

If you are in to ambient music you should deffo check out his work and with all his albums going for $1 (you can give more) with the exception of Minecraft - Volume Alpha that's $4 you've got great music for a very low price, I mean you can go wrong with $14 for 11 albums now can you?

Again just another quick post, wanted to give credit to a very good artist. I bought Civilization 5 Friday and been a busy with that :) :)

PS: 6 days! Oh god less than a week :'(

Ugh 10 days...

2011-03-02T10:36:00.001Z

To those who don't know I am 20 in 10 frigging days and to be honest I'm not looking forward to it, nope not one bit!

10 days and I'm out of my teens, 10 day and my sister (Laura) will start calling me a old man alot more but all is not lost! Why? Because in 12 days my close friend Scott is 20 as well so I've only have to wait 2 days and I can rub it in :) Ah I can remember wanting to be 18 so much but 2 years down the line I want to be 17 again (17 so I can still drive).

Anywho this is just a quick personal post from ye olde Android, busy month ahead with birthdays, LeachLan 7 and Dragon age II coming out day before me birthday so expect posts about them as well as other things I said I would blogeth about.

-Mike

Nintendo Sixty-FOOOOOOOOOOUR

2011-02-16T23:55:00.000Z

The Start of gaming for me started right here with the legendary Nintendo 64. Ah I remember the Christmas I got my Nintendo 64 back in I think Christmas 1997 (1997! FUCK that was a long time ago.). I had Extreme G Racing and Turok on the day and even though it was the very first time I had played a video game and I had no clue what I was doing, I LOVED IT. From then on I guess you can say it has shaped how I've spent alot of my free time all from that old N64... Good times. The impact from the N64 was apparent straight away when with the money I got for Christmas I got Super Mario 64 and for my birthday in March I got Mario Kart 64, Goldeneye 007 and Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire. I was hooked in to gaming.

I've played on many consoles since the N64 dating from the third generation consoles right up to the current generation consoles but I have only ever owned 3 games consoles: Nintendo 64 / Game Boy Colour / Playstation 2 and while I never owned many games for them my close friends back in the day did and with the freedom of sleepovers (not at my house with my step "father") we could just play to our hearts content or at least till everyone else but me fell asleep. I used games as a form of escape from what was going on around me at the time, which we not go in to, and as well as a way to challenge and entertain me. Being a "larger" kid than normal meant sport was out the question and TV has no challenge so yeah video games it was !

Random memory: I remember my friend Craig having Command and Conquer for the N64 and every time my mum went to see his mum we would both take turns in playing and making cups of tea for our mums so they could yap and we could play, Oh those we're the days.

That old thing paved gaming in to my life and I still have the thing back at my mums place abit worse for wear but still working... think there is some Lego stuck inside it rattling in the bottom but anyway those games back on the old thing still bring back memories today when I play them on my N64 emulator (with real N64 controller converted to USB) also some how even more then 10years down the line I can remember certain things about a level in a game. Amazing really when i can barely remember a full week thats just gone past.

That's enough N64 talk for one night, now think back to your first gaming moment in your life and how it has affected you, were you young/older was it a Gamboy/PC/PS2 what ever just think back and enjoy, now time to play me some Super Mario 64 !

-Mike

PirateBox

2011-02-03T22:40:00.000Z

After finding out Monday that Sandy Bridge motherboard chips sets have a issue with SATA cancer (Fuck you Intel) I though I would browse Lifehacker to take my mind off it and I came across a cool looking ad-hoc file sharing network called PirateBox.

PirateBox is a self-contained file sharing device made from a Asus WL330GE Wireless router with DD-WRT installed and a Seagate Free Agent Dockstar with some kinda storage device (USB or a external HDD that sits in the Dockstar) with Debian Squeeze running a light-weight Python web server that automatically redirected to the PirateBox welcome page ready for people to anonymously share images, video, audio, documents etc. First thing I though was "Wow a easy, universal, portable way to share files with no setup or PC needed once it's built?!". My second though... "I gotta make me one of these !" The thing I think great about this is that you can quickly set up a network to file share anywhere with out the need for a power cable and that it's designed to be private and secure with no logins needed and no user data is logged so all users remain completely anonymous. Also while looking at the DIY section of the PirateBox wiki earlier today I had a brain wave: PirateBox could be used in a much wider area with other DD-WRT routers plus battery packs to make portable repeaters and extend the network.

I will be building and blogging My PirateBox and PirateRepeater builds after I finish my ADSL router which is going through a redesign at the moment due to some of the components I said I would use in the original post being no longer usable... hope to get that back off the ground this month.

I'll try to you posted.
-Mike

My i5-2500K Overclock

2011-01-30T15:20:00.000Z

Just a quick post here

There is quite a bit more I can do to this but as a first attempt I don't think its too bad. I'll keep you posted!

PC Specs:

Processor:	Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2500K
Memory:	Corsair XMS3 4GB DDR3 RAM
Cooler:	Corsair Hydro H50-1
Video Card:	ATI Sapphire Radeon HD 4870

Motherboard:	Asus P8P67
Computer Case:	Antec Twelve Hundred

New PC

2011-01-19T21:23:00.000Z

Last Tuesday thanks to a very nice delivery company I got me some new computer parts!

I haven't replace all the bits, still using the same HDDs, same HD4870 and my Antec 1200 just with new fans but this is got to be my biggest upgrade since July - August 2008. My old rig (Which is now my home server) consisted of a Intel Core 2 Duo E8200 (slightly overclocked, cooled by a Arctic Cooling Alpine 7 Pro) sitting in a Asus P5Q Deluxe with Corsair 2GB DDR2 XMS2-6400C4 RAM all powered by a OCZ GameXStream 600w PSU. It's done me very well over the past 2 years but I was feeling the age of it. Just so happens Intel's new "Sandybridge" range was coming out so I though I'd best try it out :)

I got me a Intel Core i5-2500K cooled by a Corsair Hydro H50-1, a Asus P8P67 with Corsair XMS3 4GB DDR3(1600MHz), two new DVD drives cause the old ones were IDE and a Corsair HX 650W Modular PSU. As i said earlier I had got new fans to put in my case since the old stock ones kinda died (I think i was down to 1 front fan, 1 fully working rear fan and the roof one) and i had been putting off replacing them but since my PC was getting new organs it was best to get off my lazy arse and do it while i was rebuilding. One week later and all is running smooth, haven't had much time to play around with the new EFI and overclock the i5-2500K but it will be done very soon plus I'll post the results, probably be this weekend so long the server doesn't crap out on me again >.>

More posts coming soon, promise ! Just maybe not Saturday, gotta be the family taxi driver, F U N !

-Mike

Minecraft & My family

2011-01-14T00:09:00.000Z

New Post? Madness?

Anyway here is a little story I like to call "Minecraft & My family", doesn't sound like a big subject right? Wrong! Minecraft has dug its simple yet addictive roots in to me and the younger members of my family so much so that we each have our own accounts and all play on our private family Minecraft server that runs off a dedicated PC.

So yes Minecraft, digital Lego, virtual crack, pure creative addiction, so simple yet so complex and so on. You can't deny it's caught on rather quickly for a game that just turned beta on 20th December. I tried Minecraft at LeachLan 6 and used Danda's account to have a go to see all the fuss and first of all I didn't know what to think of it but as time went on I dug a little deeper in to it and got hooked. Soon after LL6 I got my own account and started playing at home. After a few days my younger sister and brother (Alice aged 12 & Darren aged 11) wanted to know what I was playing so I explained it and like me they were sceptical, normally they see me play a game and ask what it is then straight after they wanna play it so long it don't look too hard. After a few weeks they kept seeing me play and wanted to play them self's, again normally the answer is no cause the game would only work on my PC and then have a habit of breaking things but since Minecraft could run on the family PC I installed java and let them loose. As you can guess they had no clue what to do but I showed them the ropes and the wiki and left them to their own worlds on my account.

As time went Minecraft became more developed and Darren and Alice got more hooked with a hint of competition between the two. Darren bragged that his tower was the tallest and Alice bragged that she found diamond before Darren and with Christmas coming up I though it would be nice to get them their own accounts. Luckily Notch got gift codes working so I got them a code each and come Christmas when they got their card with the code inside well, I've never seen them so happy! Later Christmas day I downloaded the Minecraft server and started it up on my PC told them the IP and let one of them on my PC just so they could play at the same time. Started off with no mobs on just so they could get their houses up and got their mines going but like I do, I turned on mobs without telling them... they hated me when they logged in but now they are use to it. ...sssssssssSSSSSSSS

More and more time on the family PC is devoted to Minecraft and even time out of Minecraft is spent thinking or talking about Minecraft that it's caught on to my little 4 year old brother. Ever since Darren and Alice got in to Minecraft little Ben has been watching them and me play, you would think that he don't know whats going on but this is wrong.

Little Ben has learnt ALOT about Minecraft and when I say ALOT I don't just mean for a 4 year old no no, I swear he knows more than Darren does just by watching us play on multiplayer! He knows each monster and animal plus what sound they make, he knows nearly all the items and blocks in game, he knows what each tool is used for and he knows quite a few recipes all from watching us play

How such a simple game hooked two non-gaming kids and a 4 year old who one day will properly own his own Minecraft account is beyond me and since the new update I can guarantee their will be a race to get a cake made and build a sandstone castle.

That's about it for Minecraft for now, hopefully I'll be expanding my dedicated server to host a second online server and I will proberly post about that when I get it going.

See you next post!

-Mike

www.minecraft.net
Markus Persson: @notch on Twitter

OH HAI . . . No I'm not dead

2011-01-06T21:29:00.003Z

Oh Hai !

There will be proper blog post soon it's just with life how it is, christmas and what little memory I have of new years I've been a tad busy to do anything blog wise... BUT MORE COMING SOON !

Sowwy but good shit coming

-Mike

PS: Next post topics - ~~Minecraft & My family~~ / Lans of 2011 / ~~Nintendo 64~~ / Ma Server(s) / Build Log of the ADSL Router - Plus anything kicking around my head when I've got spare time.

GT5 made me want a PS3

2010-12-13T20:00:00.000Z

Three PS3s by LoadingReadyRun

I haven't wanted any of this generations consoles although both families own a Wii and my brother owns a 360, I personally didn't want one. My last console was a PS2 and before that was the classic N64 (<3) and back in the day my mate owned a SNES before the N64 was made, that is about all my console gaming history from my youth and there were some games that I remember playing for hours on end, one of them being Gran Turismo 3. I have fond memories for spending hours racing the F1 car in the 200 lap endurance race (Took 50mins in the F1 car) to grind up cash as well as driving round and round the test track to get the gearing of my Jaguar XJ220 just right so I could hit its top speed... Good times.

I haven't played a good racing game in years and when GT5 was finally released I've wanted to test it out and on the Saturday just past I had such opportunity and I have fallen in love with it. If I was going to buy any of this gens consoles I knew it would have been a PS3 over any of the others but GT5 has tipped that over the edge to the point where I want one so badly! I don't own a HDTV but I can wire the PS3 to my second monitor and my headset will work in the PS3 so I will have sound too, all that’s left is the PS3 and the games I want.

I'm looking at this as a Christmas present to myself as a reward plus I got my Christmas shopping out the way in November so when I get the money people owe me near/after Christmas day I will be getting me a PS3 and a some games to go with. So far the list is: BlazBlue Continuum Shift, Gran Turismo 5, Final Fantasy XIII, Metal Gear Solid 4 and maybe some classic PS2 games. Oh yeah and before you say "PS3's can't play PS2 games" the 60gb Old style PS3 can and is the only one released in EU region that can so I have my eyes set on one of those.

Can't wait! Oh and just as a small note I will be trying to blog a bit more that twice a month *My bad*

-Mike

Iceland (The country not the supermarket)

2010-12-11T00:14:00.001Z

Fuck Yeah Iceland !

More specifically EVE Online Fanfest 2011 which is taking place 24th March - 26th March in Reykjavik. Now about a year ago me and some mates agreed to go for Fanfest 2012 and so far i know, we still are. Since I've seen the ticket prices for 5 days in Iceland, Fanfest Ticket, hotel and extra goodies I've been planning on going this year too.

Iceland to has always been somewhere I've in been interested in visiting cause it seems like my country. Volcanic activity, never too hot, embraces modern tech, love of hard liquor (Wanna try Brennivin so bad) and the language over there is just too cool! I mean can any non-Icelandic person say "Eyjafjallajokull"? Well people try but it just don't sound the same without the Icelandic accent. Anyway with Fanfest making it easy with one big package deal thanks to Icelandair and me being the legal drinking age (Just) I couldn't see any reason why I shouldn't go this year too. The only real things that can hold me back are money, spare days off work and some buddies to travel with, two of those won't be a problem it's just the third one that the hindrance so far. I'm just saying that it would be nice if it was a small group of us going on the plane.

Hmm yeah planes... How to put this... I've never flown before... Or owned a passport but I'm working on that. To be honest I don't know how i will react on a plane because well I've got nothing to compare it with and to me its a unique experience. Best thing I can do is try not to think too much and lay off the drink till we land, especially caffeine-free Diet Coke (Fuck knows what they put in that but it that stuff make me go blind with emotion... mainly rage)

If you want to come to Iceland with me on 22nd March - 27th March 2011 drop me a facebook message or tweet or any real kind of communication and go check out EVE-Online Fanfest 2011 page cause the more the merrier.

Hope to see you in Iceland !

-Mike

http://fanfest.eveonline.com/en/default.aspx

EDIT: Deleted a paragraph and re checked my spelling

Oh Snow, you wicked beast. How I do hate you.

2010-12-03T00:42:00.000Z

Ahh Winter, a time of year that has Christmas, New Years, parties, blackjack, hookers, endless Top 100 list shows on TV and the same old repeats every year (I'm looking at YOU "Charlie and The Chocolate Factory"). Winter is also a time where Great Olde Britain seems to come to a halt just by a light dusting of, you guessed it, Snow. Kids dream of snow-days out of school, parents dread a WHOLE day with hyper kids trapped at home and then you've got me.

I HATE SNOW, It may seem all fun and fluffy but it's a wicked beast.

I hate it's texture underfoot, I hate the crunch sound it makes when you compact it, I hate how dirty snow looks and how wet n cold you get just by walking to the shops if they are open, I hate how crippled our country get whenever we get any snow. I mean come on we only get like 1-2days of snow a year.

If we get 1-2 inches of the white stuff all of a sudden schools close, okay sure make sure the kids are safe and all that jazz. Parents then have to stay home to look after their kids, workplaces close. No one at work or school then there is sod all traffic (Most people don't know how to drive safely in snow conditions anyway). No traffic means the grit that was placed to help the snow disappear now cannot work properly but that's okay cause there isn't any snow forecast tomorrow right... right? Well think of the snow as just fluffy ice, whatever snow is left then refreezes over night and turns in to ice ! Hurrah for ice and the fun it brings \o/

Like I said this was only 1-2days a year but Britain is getting much much colder and it's time for us to change our snow habits cause we are going to get more snow more often (Thank you "Global Warming"). We are going to have to travel and go to work/school in the snow and just carry on with our daily lives. None of this "Snowed in" bullshit. I still have to work when the snow starts falling so why can't others? We are falling behind other countries that have the same climate as us... well maybe less wet but still, point stands.

Hmmm.. I think I'll stop ranting here and just leave you with a nice picture to think about :

OH YEAH almost forgot.
Congratulations Desert Bus 4 and the LoadingReadyRun crew for raising $207,540 for the children also Thank you for mentioning my tiny blog!

-Mike

Desert Bus 4 Live Stream !

2010-11-21T21:51:00.000Z

Better late than never right? Right? (Was busy this weekend...)

Watch, Donate, Challenge, Bid, Tweet, Join in ! It's for the Children !

desertbus.org

Desert Bus 4: A New Hope

2010-11-03T19:57:00.002Z

Ladies and Gentlemen.... Desert Bus 4 !

19th November, the 4th annual Desert Bus for Hope charity video game marathon will roll out – bigger and better than ever before. Last year’s marathon collected $140,449 and all proceeds were donated to Child’s Play, a charity that donates over a million dollars to Children’s Hospitals worldwide every year.

Desert Bus for Hope is a video-gaming marathon broadcast live on the internet by LoadingReadyRun, a sketch comedy group from Victoria, BC. In the Sega CD game “Desert Bus”, the player controls a virtual bus that drives an eight-hour-long strip of highway between Tucson, Arizona, and Las Vegas, Nevada, on an endless loop. The game is a “verisimulator”—a tongue-in-cheek parody of other simulation games—which attempts to approximate the real-life situation of driving a coach bus as closely as possible, including the associated tedium. The player is required only to ensure that the bus stays on the road: if they crash, they are towed back to the start and have to try again. Originally part of “Penn & Teller’s Smoke and Mirrors”, Desert Bus is considered by many to be the most boring video game ever created.

Viewers are asked to donate money via the desertbus.org website, and as the dollar total rises, so does the length of time the team must continue driving the bus. According to Paul Saunders, one of the founding members of LoadingReadyRun, “The mixture of generosity and spite is a really powerful thing.” Viewers are encouraged to participate by e-mail or by live internet chat, where they can ask questions of the crew, make requests, bid on donated prizes and become an active participant. Desert bus 4 starts @ 6:00PM PST on 19th November (2AM GMT 20th Nov....). To view the telethon, donate money, or find more information, please visit www.desertbus.org.

Also when Desert Bus 4 Starts I'll post the uStream on the blog.

-Mike

Links:
http://desertbus.org/
http://twitter.com/desertbus
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Desert-Bus-for-Hope/

LeachLan 6

2010-10-21T22:33:00.000+01:00

A week ago today I embarked on my journey to LeachLan 6 which when I said I would pick up my mate Dan from Surrey is quite a long ass drive but a well worth drive!

LeachLan is run by a nice group of people under the name of SouthWest LANs and LeachLan is more than just your average caffeinated gaming frenzy because a lot more goes on than just gaming at this lan, oh yesh indeedy. Although there is plenty of normal lan games are played (TF2, L4D2, SupCom: FA, UT2k4 etc) there is also a fair amount of card/board games (Munchkins, Carcassonne, Monopoly) plus emulated things (8 player N64 Micro machines, Tekken 3 on MAME) as well as the general tom foolery and for some reason, Nerf guns... EVERYWHERE. It has been know for an attendee of LeachLan to not set up his pc and just play card/board games for the entire LAN, and that was a 5day one too. So Much fun was had over the 4 days of lan and although Valve borked many SourceMod games all of us had a great time. During the lan I managed to play quite a bit as well as take part in the pub quiz and fire lots of Nerf. PewPew

Tis a shame that Rich "Shazz" Shirley is leaving the SWLans team and he will be missed but LeachLan lives on with LeachLAN 7, which kicks off at Thursday 25th March at 6PM and ends at Sunday 27th March. (Hint hint). I'll be doing my best to attend LL7 and I encourage you to book up and spread the word of this great LAN and hope to see you there.

PS: As for the ADSL router, I've been playing around with disros and working out the cost of parts and now just waiting for payday. Also Fallout: New Vegas comes out Friday so :)

-Mike

Links
Pictures
LeachLan 7
SouthWest Lans
A lolcat Pic

First Post & First Project: Home-brew ADSL Router

2010-10-12T23:39:00.000+01:00

"Whoop"

First post of my blog and my first ~~random brain ache~~ project I will be blogging about and that project is (As the title suggests) a Home-brew ADSL Router! This Home-brew Router is going to be made with old PC parts I've found around my house, some cool open source software (That I will talk about more later in the project) and other goodies.

This Home-brew Router will (Hopefully) have: 1x 10/100 Mbit Ethernet port, 2x Gigabit Ethernet PCI cards and 1x ADSL2+ PCI modem BUT I may drop one of the Gigabit Ethernet cards to replace with a 802.11n wireless PCI card. That all depends how well the build goes and if I need wireless in my home. All this I plan to run off a 150 Watt DC power supply to eliminate the need for a big boxy ATX PSU.

So far I've found a 80gb Seagate HDD and some random m-ATX motherboard from a Packard Bell with 2x256mb DDR RAM and an unknown Intel processor! I'm going to look for more parts tomorrow while I pack for LeachLan 6 and then make a list of parts I will need to buy to make this Home-brew Router. I Also have no clue what I'm going to put this in to, whether I put it in a nice case or mod a motherboard shelf and let it all hang out like some PCB porn flick, those details I'll work on later...

Fingers cross I'll have some progress between now and next blog post and some other pictures other than old pc hardware I found under my bed.

-Mike