Damn Vista

Lately my computers hard drive, all 220GB of it has been filling up. I thought 'hmmm, must be my games' deleted all of them and voila 70GB of free space. I go to sleep happy and wake up the next morning, go on my computer and lo and behold 55 MB of free space. So I was getting really angry at my computer at this point. I deleted my downloads, 1GB, deleted my old work, deleted everything I could find. And yet my space kept on filling up for some reason. So finally I went through EVERY SINGLE ONE OF MY FOLDERS looking for what was doing this.... And eventually I found it. This one file was taking up over 110GB of space somehow. My first instinct was to just delete it, but that might have been a bad idea, who knew what it did. So I looked online, and do you know what it was? It was damn Vista's error reports..... Apparently it keeps every single one and stores them somewhere. Apparently nobody thought of putting a max file size so my space was just constantly getting smaller and smaller. I deleted the file and suddenly I am barely using half of the space I have. This was really frustrating as I had just deleted a to of stuff. Well hooray to windows 7.

The Red Ring of Death

If you own an Xbox you know about the infamous 'red ring of death' as it is called. It means that your Xbox is basically screwed up depending on which rings are red. Now I think that is pretty cool, it tells you what is wrong with your Xbox. If the top left ring is red, its one problem, the top left another. Now although this is something you never want to see, I think it is pretty cool that Microsoft managed to fit this into their Xbox. I mean, your computer does not tell you what is wrong, it just says an unexpected error occurred, not even a mac will tell you definitively what he exact error is. In most cases with electronics you call up and try to describe for an hour what exactly is wrong with your computer, and then the tech people come over and tell you it is something else and they have to come over again. With the red ring system all you have to tell the repair men is one easy line, the top left quadrant is flashing.

Gadgets

So there are all of these new gadgets coming out that make life easier in any way you can imagine. However a large portion of these seem to be redundant or useless. But I think people are missing the point. Sure a lot of these new gadgets might not be needed, but that is not the point. Gadgets are there to make life that little bit easier, faster or better. Whether that is your own personal Internet in your pocket or showing your friends where you are with your oyster card.

Doomsday Machine or Doomed Machine?

"Fire the anti-matter guns" goes the cry in many science fiction movies. Are we humans coming close to making this a reality? The Hadron Collider is destined to throw atoms at each other at nearly the speed of light and see what happens. People worry a black hole could open up and destroy the world, in fact a woman killed herself over that worry. This is obviously a doomsday device from an old Bond movie right? Wrong. This machine is the largest and most expensive disaster in human history. It has been plagued by hundreds of errors which set in back years. The latest in a string of disasters was a bird dropping a piece of baguette on the machine. This caused the machine to short out..... A bird... Dropping a baguette. This machine is less likely to be finished before doomsday comes around. Of course another consideration is that it may indeed make black holes. The only problem is they would be too small to suck anything in and stay around for a short amount of time. This is machine is one of the least likely things to cause a doomsday. The stick which led to weapons is a much more likely to cause the end of the world than black holes the size of a thimble.

The Mail system

A lot of people think that the mail system is becoming largely obsolete. I mean what is the point of sending a letter which is expensive and takes a while when you can send a free instant email? The postal service is slow and unreliable, the postman are always on strike for one thing or another so why bother. Movies are available online so why order them? Yet the postal service is still necessary. Everyone always feels excited when you get a letter or a package, much more so than when receiving an email. Also think of a site like an Amazon, they can hardly email you a book or a computer. The postal service is one of the most important parts of society and yet it is always forgotten under a wave of technology.

Modern Warfare 2

This game had the largest of hype of any game since Halo 3 came out. I only got it a couple of days ago but it is definitely worth it. The campaign I have barely started and seemed not too fun. Especially the third level in the airport which sparked huge controversy. You are supposed to slaughter hundreds of innocent people. However the campaign is not what it is known for. The multi player. This is what the real hype is about. The multi player is a far cry better from any previous Call of Duty game, with many new weapons and advantages to be gained. The best 'perk' as it is called is one that allows two attachments on a gun. But I digress. The graphics are fantastic and the physics are perfect. The reactions the enemies have are perfect and they no longer run at you as if they are invincible. Even the grenade will roll back down if you throw them up a hill. Of course there are the annoying factors such as when you are stuck in the middle of a town and 20 enemies are shooting at you and you have to leave cover. But these bad spots are few and far between adding up to a truly superior game worthy for the hype.

Vista

Finally. Windows 7 is coming out on the 22nd of October. I am a vista owner and although there are several problems with it, it is overall, for me at least is fine. It is annoying having to give administrative access to everything sometimes and sometimes you have to do things completely differently on Vista as opposed to other operating systems. It is however, in my opinion, quite easy to use on a day to day basis. So overall although vista is fine I cannot wait to switch to windows 7 as I have read that it is much better.

New England Gangster

Just a funny little video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7peY_4Kr9SM

The Perfect Game

Oblivion, Fable, Civilizations, Sims, Pong and Tetris are all different types of games. Whether it is strategy or role-playing, action or puzzle it is a computer game. Some games are better than others; the newer ones are normally superior as they have newer technology available to make them. Some of these new games are really bad and some are good. So what makes a game good or bad? There are many parts that add up to make a truly fantastic game including modifications, replay value and variety.

Modifications or more commonly known as mods are user made changes to the game. These can add new quests, new items or even completely change the game. If a game can be modded and new quests be made then the game suddenly takes a giant leap in length and amusement. As these quests can be totally different from the games quests, they are always new and exciting to play. New items can also be added. These items could be armour that makes you look cooler or a sword that is much more powerful. Using these items can allow you to role-play which many people find fun or can allow you to beat previously invincible enemies allowing you to progress towards the more exciting aspects of the game. Mods can also completely change the game making it nothing like the original game. This adds an incredible amount of the length to the game making it more fun and exciting to play. New quests, new items and changes to a game are examples of mods that make the game far longer and exciting.

Replay value is also one of the most important aspects that game developers have to address. For if you play the game once and get bored you return it, however if you can play the game multiple times you will buy the other games this company made. There are several ways that a game can do this by allowing you start again after you finish the game, allowing you to continue to play after winning or by making the game fun enough you are willing to start again. There are two ways that a game allows you to start again, one, the creatures you face are the same as during the first play through or two, the enemies get harder as you get stronger. Both are fun in their own ways, although the second option is far more fun for extended playing. Coming back to the beginning of the game and easily defeating enemies you used to find hard is very satisfying. However fighting enemies which is still hard is also fun because your character that you worked so long on is still available. Another way this can be dealt with is allowing you to continue playing after the game has finished. This is fun because it allows you to complete any quests that you missed with the same character. This is also exciting because you normally get some sort of great reward for winning, whether it is money or items. The final way to add replay value is to make a game fun enough that you want to play again or by adding different choices which influence the game. Some games are pleasurable enough that you can complete them and go right back to the beginning and have it still be fun. This is very difficult however and few games manage it, an easier way is adding good and evil choices. If you were good then you would do all the quests that make you more angelic, however the next time you play, you are evil this adds an entirely new set of quests to achieve. Making a game have replay value is the most important aspect that game developers have to address whether by allowing you to start again, allowing you to continue after you win or by making the game fun enough and different enough that you will play again.

Variety is when a game has many different parts, for instance different quests, different enemies and different visuals. A game that has all of its quests the same or similar, kill a lot of X then take Y then beat boss Z is a game that gets boring fairly quickly. However if in the midst of those quests are also quests that involve puzzles, sneaking or searching for secrets, the game is much more enjoyable to play for extended periods of time. Different enemies is also very important, if all enemies look the same, act the same, and have nothing to differentiate between them the game gets repetitive. But if enemies look nothing alike, are scattered with bosses, have different armaments and are harder or easier to beat, then the game becomes twice as fun. It is important to have stunning visuals and different environments but not essential. If a game has amazing graphics you might just want to explore for the sake of exploring, and therefore find previously undiscovered quests. This can be exciting to do, however a game that is totally uniform in its looks will not encourage that. A game that has great variety in quests, enemies and visuals is a game that is much more fun.

All games are different, some are fun and some are not, some are old and some are new. But the core of what makes a fantastic game is the same. A game needs mods for new quests, items and changes. A game needs replay value for continued excitement, through starting again after winning, continuing play after winning or just be fun enough you are willing to start again. A game needs variety of quests, enemies and visuals to stop it becoming repetitive and boring. If a game were to combine modifications, replay value and variety it would be the perfect game.

Addictions

It used to be that an addiction was to something like drugs or alcohol, not any more. Now iphone apps are being compared to addictions, and I heard about WOW having all the symptoms of one. People losing jobs over it, people dying from doing it and even people having withdrawal symptoms to it. This is kind of sad. The most amazing is that people are becoming addicted to apps. How this is possible is beyond me.