Planet Sillicon

Oh yeah, I did it!

By blog on May. 22, 2009.

Huzzah! The other day I mentioned that I went out and bought Magician’s Quest: Mysterious Times (what the hell’s with that name? Generic much?) and I have this routine that I go through with all my DS games.

Whenever I buy a new one, I download the ROM for it, because I like to keep the majority of games I am interested in on my R4DS cartridge, which means I can swap between games without swapping cartridges, and my cartridges are kept nice and safe. Occasionally, certain games resist these attempts. Nearly everything from Square Enix does this, and it is really annoying to have a handful of games that I can’t just put on my R4 and go on my way.

So, I download the ROM to Magician’s Quest and guess what. I can’t load it up. This is a coding thing because the R4 isn’t the newest type of cartridge, and because games do this so people don’t bother illegally using the ROMs. Which I am all for, I only use ROMs that I already have the game of. I love games and want to support them!

Anyway. After downloading the ROM, I get the message, ‘The save data could not be accessed. Please turn off power and reinsert the DS card.’ Gah! I hate that! So I look it up online, and figure out there is a way to fix it, by patching the ROM in question with a new arm7.bin. This is one of those tech things I have no idea about. I hate those!

After leaving it and coming back to it for the past few hours, after reading, trying and failing, more reading, I have finally succeeded! I patched that sucker and now I can play! Pity it took so long I now don’t have the time.

Oh well, I have rectified one of the many tech things I didn’t know, that counts for a lot! I should have a list somewhere and cross off those things that I actually figure out how to do. And now, when I have spare time tomorrow, I can be playing my new game, knowing the cartridge is safe and sound.

Big Brother beckons UK

By blog on May. 22, 2009.

There has been a lot of talk in the media this week about the Home Office’s new set of surveillance tactics. I figured this is an important issue to Britain right now, I should weigh-in on the issue.

I sit here and look at the notion of the government tracking all my phone calls, oh I know call recording already goes on, but not of everyone in the nation, and all that information is not kept in one database. And let me tell you, no database, is entirely secure these days. I am not being all conspiracy theory believer here, I just know that slip ups occur, that hackers for some reason try their hand at breaking through whatever firewalls and security measures the government creates, and sometimes freak occurrences just happen. Also, people’s information could be used inappropriately, and that is something that ought to be considered.

When a government perceives a threat, they need to be seen (by the people) to counter it. In doing so, however, they often go further than they need to, in order to gain some extra power for themselves. In a climate of fear, people are more willing to have their civil liberties intruded upon, that’s why certain countries, *cough* America *cough*, attempt to create a climate of fear all the time. That should change with ol’ George W. out of the picture, but you can still see my point.

Now, a notion occurs to me… why not, oh, say, only monitor those who are suspicious or dealing with suspicious persons? Nooo, lets track everyone in the entire nation! As for call logging, I laugh at the thought of some schmuck logging the data from my calls. “Well, Sir, it seems he can order Chinese food in under 30 seconds, and that’s about it.”

I know that the threat to the UK has become more serious than ever before, but does the government really think we are going to fall for this? Go along with this sort of whole-scale phone, e-mail, and net activity logging? Did they not think that the Brits wouldn’t look to what has happened in the US, once that kind of power has been granted to the government, it is extremely difficult to retract. Frankly, I think the idea is preposterous.

Bought my mother a new phone

By blog on May. 22, 2009.

For those of us who have been designated the ‘tech’ person of our families, we often find ourselves in the position of trying to go against the notion of that old proverb, you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. I have spent considerable time over the phone attempting to teach my SO’s father how to use his mobile phone, or explaining to my mother how to use instant messenger online, and whilst I do know that you can teach an old dog new tricks, I have come to appreciate just how much effort it can take.

Last night, I received a phone call from one of the workers at my mother’s retirement community. It seems that she dropped had her old telephone and it no longer worked. I was actually surprised to hear this news, because it was one of those old analogue phones that weighs about a kilo and I think my mother has had it since before I was born. The lady politely informed me that the family was responsible for buying her a new one, but that they would provide her with a temporary replacement.

As a side note, the reason my mother dropped the phone is that she is a pace-talker. She doesn’t sit still when on the phone, she holds the phone in one hand, receiver in the other, and paces back and forth. With this in mind, I thought I would surprise her with a cordless phone. Of course I would go digital too, so over to PMC to check out their range of digital DECT cordless phones.

There was quite a bit of choice, especially considering I didn’t want to get anything too complicated for her. Though, the idea of my elderly mother pacing back and forth with a headset on was enough to make the thought of morning traffic palatable.

Anyway, I promptly picked out one of the BT Elements packs, the twin pack would just make it easier for her to have a phone nearby all the time, and I would like to think she can take it anywhere with her and not have to worry about damage to the phone. So armed with that knowledge, this morning I set off to go and pick up the pack, take it to my mother’s retirement community, install it, and show her how it works.

At first she was very nervous about using it, she said she wasn’t sure she could figure out how to answer it. I called it on my mobile about two dozen times, and I think she now has the hang of answering it. I also programmed in the numbers of all her friends and the rest of the family, but that may have just been naive on my part, because I am pretty sure she is still going to use her old rolodex to call everyone.

New DS game

By blog on May. 21, 2009.

When I first got the Nintendo DS Lite, one of the first games I got was Animal Crossing. Unfortunately, after a while, I just fell out of using the game, and didn’t feel like picking it back up. The game could become somewhat repetitive, but it was still fun.

Whilst filling in time, I was meandering over IGN’s latest offerings, and notice this little game. Now, I know the score isn’t that great, 7.5 is usually something I would give a miss. But something about this game just made me want to play it. So out I went and bought the game this afternoon. There was just something about those little bobble heads that I couldn’t resist.

So far, I haven’t had the chance to load up the game, but I noticed that if I really want to play a game, I will completely ignore the reviews of it. This game wasn’t panned or anything, it went alright over on Metacritic, but I am often deterred from a game if it score anything below 8.0.

I always love getting new games, I enjoy knowing that I have the game, but waiting until just the right time to start it up! I have no intention of playing for five minutes and then being interrupted by the needs of daily life, no, when I have a fun little game that I want to play, I wait until every other thing is neatly done and packed away. Ahhh, then it’s game time!

I am currently charging my DS, and when that is done, I will be trying out my new game. I will write about how it goes later this week. It is sort of fun to play a game that you aren’t expecting much from, it would be difficult to be disappointed whilst being easily pleasantly surprised! There is a time and a place for games with high expectations, Fallout 3 for instance was a great game, high expectations and it didn’t disappoint. But there are also occasions that call for a game that is just fun to pick up and play, that you don’t expect much from, save some enjoyable gaming hours. It’s a good feeling to know you have that lined up.

Why so many?

By blog on May. 20, 2009.

I was looking over the LOTRO forums today, and couldn’t help but notice the colossal amount of jerks on there. It seems that in each and every class forum, there are lengthy monologues about how each class has been nerfed and sucks now, and they are going to roll a Rune Keeper.

You read the threads and they just go on and on about how this has been done wrong, Turbine should have done this, Turbine shouldn’t have done that, and really, there is just a whole bunch of complaining going on. It isn’t even intelligent complaining, it is the bleatings of the belligerent and stupid.

Oh I know there are a fair few on those forums who are actually nice, thoughtful, intelligent people, but there is a disparate amount of the silly, facile, and immature.

Today I read a thread about those people who like to jump on the tables in the 21st Hall. This place is usually super packed, as it contains the auction house, crafting areas, and a few other things. There are people who find it enjoyable to jump around on the tables in this hall, or jump in between them. Some do it purely to alleviate boredom, or to just keep moving. Others, and this is a small minority, but they are there, do it purely to annoy others.

They get on the thread and rant about how some people get annoyed by them jumping around on tables, and yet state that they do it just to annoy people. I don’t know if they see the flaw in that logic, and I am not going to be the one to point it out to them. I don’t post on those forums, really, I am trying too hard to avoid the WoW-kids.

I sold, they bought, they sold, they rent

By blog on May. 20, 2009.

Some time ago, I posted about selling my mother’s house after she had moved into a retirement community. Yesterday when I went out to the supermarket I ran into the estate agent that brokered the deal. He told me something that I found very surprising and interesting.

The couple that bought my mother’s house, re-soled it within a few weeks, and are now renting it! Apparently this sell and rent back thing is a trend taking on in an attempt to end up paying less on their mortgages. I have to say, I am less surprised now that I got such a good price on the house considering this is the plan they had.

It seems that, whilst prices stopped falling so rapidly for the last few months, there is still a great degree of uncertainty in the market. People are looking to find extra money where they can, and being inventive about it too!

I saw this article the other day, and now it makes more sense. From my nice, secure position of being a home owner, with a small portion of my mortgage left over, it is very interesting to watch what is going on with the housing market. But for those currently within it, it is a very trying time.

I wonder at the choice of that couple who bought my mother’s house. I can see the logic in it, they will end up paying a smaller mortgage in the end, which leads me to ponder how many other home owners will do the same thing. I know there will be those who will miss the boat and sell too late, missing out on when the market hits rock bottom, and begins it’s slow climb back up. With the world financial situation being the way it is, I am all for everybody making it any way they can – as they aren’t negatively impacting others; that’s what got us here in the first place.

I suppose I should be impressed at the ingenuity of humans. We have all found ourselves hurting in some fashion from this financial crisis, but many are finding new ways to use the system to beat the system. Got to appreciate that!

Oh the humanity!

By blog on May. 19, 2009.

Soooo I just finished watching my box set of Seinfeld. Just watched the last episode. The finale. The full-stop. The end. What the hell was that!? I mean seriously, Jerry, Larry, what the hell was that!?

I was so disappointed! I couldn’t believe that Jerry and George were moving to California in the first place, I hated that idea, I always felt they should stay together, but to see them all go to gaol in the end, and for nothing!? I know that some thought that the show went out following the creed of being about nothing, by having all the main characters being tried and convicted of doing nothing, but come on, that was offal!

I can’t believe in nine years of writing the show they thought that anyone would want to see them all end up in gaol! And not even together, no Elaine would be off by herself, whilst the other three are in the same place. And the final scene being Jerry doing bad stand up at the gaol was offensive in its crappiness. Seinfeld would have to by my favorite series ever, so I can’t believe that that episode was how it went out. Way to blemish the record of a great show! So in this entry right now, I am going to vent my frustrations at the crapness that is too many series finales.

Sopranos: That ending was very anticlimactic, I mean, most of the Soprano crew ended up dead! And all because of snot-face Phil Leotardo!? Wha? I hated that guy, and analysis of the final episode suggest that Tony dies by Phil’s order too. I just felt so let down in the end, that was so blegh an ending for a series which had been very edgy.

Angel: What the heck was with that!? Most, if not ALL of the main characters DIE! What were you thinking, Joss!? I can’t follow this train of thought… ‘Hmm, I know the network is axing my show at the end of this season, better wrap it up… they all die!’ Ya moron! I was rewatching the Angel seasons not that long back, only to realise, I hated most of the series. All the stuff with Connor sucked, the fact that Cordelia disappeared after all that crap was really a punch to the show, and then it ends up with Angel becoming extremely morally ambiguous, and then they all die, well now that was just tripe. Serious rubbish there. In fact it was listed in Zap2it’s worst series finales ever, along with Seinfeld.

I am getting close to never ever watching the series finale of any show that I actually like ever again. I mean really, why is it that so many shows end on the stupid, the depressing, the lackluster!? Remember the final episode of Buffy? She saved the entire world and caused every potential Slayer to be activated, now that’s an ending. Take note, writers, take note!

Gold Farming: Part 2

By blog on May. 16, 2009.

Now that I have clearly outlined what Gold Farming is, I will go into my own personal opinion on the matter.

Firstly, an anecdote. When I was new to the world of MMOs, I tried Everquest II. I got into it, for a while, and was a member of a guild. I saw advertisements for buying gold, and being new to the whole thing, had no idea that this was an illegal in-game practice. So I paid to have 10 gold sent to me in game. With my new pile of gold burning a hole in my pocket, I bought a rather awesome set of armor off the Auction House.

One evening, I sat with my Guild members at a meeting. We sat, laughing, chatting, exchanging jokes and humorous anecdotes, when suddenly, my awesome armour started disappearing, piece by piece. A person sitting near me uttered the words “Oh no! You’ve been hacked!” and before I could log off, all my armour was gone. That same person from the guild gave me some spare armour, but it wasn’t nearly as good as my previous set.

A few hours later I received a letter in the in-game post. It was from one of the game moderators, in it they told me that I had been caught in the illegal practice of gold buying, and that everything that I had purchased with the illegal gold had been removed from my account. I was warned that if I did it again, I would face further, more serious, action.

This stunned me, I couldn’t believe that I didn’t know that buying gold was illegal, I couldn’t believe that the website I had purchased the gold from didn’t mention anywhere that this was an illegal practice. I felt as if I had done something wrong, but I had had no idea.

As I said, I was new to MMOs then, and now know much better. Some say that the effect to the in-game economy is exaggerated by game developers to try to deter the general game populace from buying gold, but I don’t particularly care for that argument. I believe that if this practice has any ill effects on the game, then I don’t want it going on. I feel that you are missing something of the game when you are buy gold. What do you play for if not to build up your character? If you find this too boring, then maybe you should alter your play style? Maybe you should alter your mental approach to the game?

As for the Gold Farmers themselves, I feel a minor sense of irritation when bombarded with their spamming advertisements, but little more than that. It is so easy in LOTRO to report and ignore them, so they don’t bother me all that much. I don’t want them to be there, I don’t encourage their illegal practice, but they don’t aggravate me most of the time.

Gold Farming: Part 1

By blog on May. 16, 2009.

Anyone who has played an MMO for longer than ten minutes will be familiar with getting messages – either in the form of tells or across public channels – advertising the purchasing of gold. In any MMO, there are going to be a few ways to make your own gold, or whatever the in-game currency is, which you use to purchase any item. In LOTRO, for instance, your main expenses will be your horse, your house, and any armour or weaponry you might purchase off the Auction House.

Turbine, the makers of LOTRO, are strongly against this practice, as it can severely effect the in-game economy. Gold Farming is against the user agreement that all LOTRO players have to agree to, and as such, many accounts that have proven to be held by those just farming gold have been deleted.

Gold Spammers are those who try to sell you their gold in-game, they stand about advertising their website where you can make the transaction, but Turbine have included a function in-game where it is very easy to report the offending character as a Gold Spammer, at which point they end up on your ignore list and you never see another message from them again.

Gold Farming has become an actual industry, current estimates for employed Gold Farmer range between 400,000 to 1 million, in China alone, with the revenues generated coming out somewhere between US$1billion and US$10billion. These are huge figures for something that is illegal in nearly all MMOs. World of Warcraft is the largest MMO in the world, currently, with over 11million subscribers. They are against Gold Farming, having clearly stated in their rules of conduct that it can lead to accounts being banned and other actions. Yet they are accused by some of not really enforcing this rule, which is part of the reason that they Gold Farming economy has the chance to flourish.

I am somewhat astonished that this issue is being treated as an up and coming industry when it is based on an illegal premise. But more of my opinion later.

Why do I do it?

By blog on May. 16, 2009.

I had to go out and buy food today. Apparently the cupboards don’t fill themselves. Okay, I thought, fair enough. I can do that. But it’s a Saturday… I figure it will be okay. How busy can it be in the city centre on a Saturday morning? Oh no, it seems my grade 4 teacher, Ms Redfern, was right all along. I am an idiot.

I get on the bus at 11:00am, my naivete still showing in my vapid, soon to fade smile. And fade it does, as I cast one long, forlorn glance down the bus. It’s packed to the rafters. Finding a seat and settling down, I notice the slack-jawed teen across the aisle is staring at me. I feel the onset of a social migraine. Why, I ask myself, why do you stare at me, slack-jawed teen? Telling myself that he’s probably just suffering the after-effects of his malnourished, chav diet, I massage my pained forehead and force my gaze ahead; jaw pumping. My early optimism is now as dead as the teenagers glassy-eyed stare.

As the bus gets closer to the city, some of the passengers decide they have to get off. All seems normal enough as the two chav-looking passengers get off, one of them even yells a thank you to the bus driver – isn’t that nice? – but a second before she can get off the bus, she pauses, seems to do something resembling thinking, then pokes her head round the edge of the door, to shout – and I mean a full hearty shout – “Ya f*** head”. I’m sorry, what? My mind quietly ponders why she would decide to say this to the driver, who seems to be rather unfazed by the whole thing.

Okay, off the bus, now it is just a matter of getting to the supermarket, then back on the bus, then home. I can do this. First step into the supermarket and I am greeted with dull roar that is two hundred people murmuring to one another and their screaming children attempting to break into that octave that human ears can’t quite hear, but instead falling short and causing a mild hemorrhage to the eardrum. I think of everything I could need for the next week, grab it, mercilessly pushing my way through the aisles to what I need, finding the shortest checkout line, forking over my cash, and getting out into the sweet fresh air. Luckily the bus ride home was in no way eventful. I’m home now, and will not leave again for quite a while!