Make Acrobat Reader Start Faster... (k3nshi)

Its all a question of moving some plug-in files around, and voila - it starts up much faster. Full details here. Check it, innit.

If only he knew (the_debaser)

So some guy who I was auditing with today started telling me about this bird who he's just started seeing. Anyway, he kept on talking about her to me, as if I was i) interested, and ii) a bird. He showed me a pic of her off his phone, and my God, she is one ugly munter. However, he's convinced she's gorgeous.

So he starts asking me for advice and stuff about their relationship. He asked ME. If only he knew that in the past I've been so rubbish that I've had to get advice off some random internet witch, namely Wickedkit, who, at the time, could have been some bloke for all I knew.

Anyway, I gave him some seriously rubbish advice, like 'take her to a resteraunt - she'll love that, it's definitely not gay AT ALL'. I expect he'll be crying on my shoulder by the end of the week, asking where it all went wrong.

Currently Playing... (k3nshi) (k3nshi)

• Lumines has taken over my PSP to the point where Wipeout Pure doesnt get much of a look in these days. Hmm I suppose I should blog about the PSP at some point (in short: it's AMAZING).
  
• Wario Ware took over from Donkey Kong vs Mario on my GBA for about 2 weeks. But I completed it the other day, so it will be back to DK vs Mario (also almost complete). Wario Ware is fun, but too short and massively overrated.
  
• Speaking of massively overrated, I've been playing more RE4 lately. It's fun but hardly the best game of the year. Halo 2 > RE4. Anyone who says otherwise is a retro gamer.
  
• Halo 2 - I had to update my credit card details for LIVE, just as Bungie did their update. So I had a quick go on the Rumble Pit last night. New maps tomorrow too. I forsee Halo 2 in my future gaming plans.
  

So what have you lot been playing then?

Wright's Spore (k3nshi)

"Putting two and two together, Wright concluded that there had to be some way where users could create content, instead of armies of developers, and a way to make a game craft itself around the user's contribution.

For inspiration, Wright looked to the "demo scene," a group of (mostly European) coders who specialized in doing a whole lot with a little bit of code. Their procedural programming methods were able to, for example, fit an entire 3D game in 64K, using mathematics to generate textures and music, etc. "I just found this incredibly exciting," Wright confesses, describing the kinds of work that he saw come out of the demo scene.

So here's what he did: he recruited an elite strike team of coders (who, if you were to believe his slideshow, dressed like ninjas) and put them in a "hidden facility" to experiment with new ways of giving the user powerful tools and generating tons of dynamic content without armies of content creators. Best of all, he fired up a demo and showed his audience the results..."

Will Wright shows off the AMAZING sounding Spore, details here.

I went out tonight! (Van123)

So check it. I left the house for social reasons. Went to a gig, with some local bands playing.

The first band, I'm not sure what I can say. It was a cross of nu-metal, emo, and shit. So anyway, I was in this Church Hall, right, with all these nu-metal gimps, emo-fag pussies, and wanabe h@rdcore metallers. I stood at the side, cos I'm not really a big fan of pits, and theses here pits were lame! If I go pitting, it's got to be to decent music. Yeah, so I stood at the side right, and this guy walked passed me and brushed my shoulder. I was about to have a go at him, but saw he had blood dripping down the side of his head, and his hair was all maroon and shit. "OWNED" I shouted, really loud. It was funny, slipping a geek thing in there.

But anyway, this band were all like screaming and stuff. Think Avenged Sevenfold vs Three Inches of Blood. Now think of that gone badly, badly wrong, that's what this was. They were jumping around, and swinging their guitars like monkeys on speed, and I said to my friend, I said "Jesus, they're gonna take each other's eyes out".

Yeah, so at the end of their set, this band smashed their guitars onto the stage (idiots), but the spacker bassist only went and clocked himself in the head! What a n00b! Well, the ambulance came, and took him to hospital to get patched up.

Then I spent the rest of the night out side in a bloody mood. I have my reasons.

2Gs, Daz.

Ah home again (Wickedkitten)

And so, Tuesday night we got back from Scotland, that being the first time I've really been away from the flat since we've moved in (bar the overnight at the York Meet which isn't really the same). To say the least, it was damned odd being back in Arbroath in that I wonder how the hell did I stay there so long without losing the plot. Ross' parents live way out in the country where it is a good 30-45 minute walk to the Morrisons and you can actually go for weeks at a time without seeing another person if you choose to do so.

As bad as it sounds, although I did enjoy seeing everyone again, I was very happy to get home.

Tempted by the spaz side (k3nshi)

So I've had a couple of incredibly tedious days at work. And when that kind of crap happens the urge for some games related retail therapy usually kicks in HARD (never mind the fact I recently got RE4). So what has been tempting me for 2 days solids? The Nintendo DS - the most spastic piece of hardware released since the original GBA. Yes yes yes... "the games are so fun", "the touch screen opens it up to non-gamers". Shut up. I've read it all over the last two days. Fortunately due to various stock shortages (be it for the DS or for Polarium) in shops where I work, I have managed to avoid buying one. Long may my reign of sanity continue.