Planet Sillicon

119 Spam comments in less than 6 hours

By blog on Sep. 21, 2009.

That’s a new record, it seriously is. I’ve never had more than 33 at one time, before!

A new record… 119 spam posts all waiting for me to Approve, Spam, Delete, Edit, Quick Edit, or Reply… Yeah, I think I know what I’ll do there. I always mark it all as spam, and then usually I delete it all, but now I’m thinking of leaving it there for a month and seeing how many spam comments I have sitting there!

I was going to write more about the mortgage market news, and what it’s up to. You know, current prices on mortgage deals and so on. Something that did surprise me was the move back towards the more ‘high risk’ end of mortgages, as in the bad credit mortgage loans and whatnot. I pretty much hate the whole ‘credit’ industry. It’s been a shockingly good way for a few to make money, and a great many to bleed money out their you-know-what. That’s why there are so many of those cash for home businesses, and that’s a sad thing, if you ask me.

Spam and mortgages… seems to go together in a way. Constant source of irritation and stress, and the best news you can get about it is that it’s over! The sad thing is that all this spam is unavoidable, there are so many blog posts out there about hatred of spam, or the unfortunate amount of cheap foreign labour employed to spam Wordpress blogs. There are some ways of fighting it, but when you just want to jump on your blog and blog, well, you don’t really want to go through too much to actually get to why you were there in the first place.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. All you Russian spammers, I’m sincerely hoping you get a better job soon. I know what you do much suck, suck pretty bad, and I bet you get paid a pittance for it, too, and really, it’s not your fault so much as the moron who hired you to spam Wordpress blogs with links to their stupid website that sells pharmaceuticals illegally. So, to all those spamming my blog, I wish you better luck with your next job!

Winter is on it’s way

By blog on Sep. 20, 2009.

And I’m looking forward to it! I love Winter, the whole thing!

I know it’s still Autumn, and early Autumn at that, but I couldn’t help but smell that certain cold on the wind today that means Winter is on it’s way. It’s a certain icy cleanness, very fresh, almost smelling of nothing. Autumn is a lovely season, too, but I really do prefer Winter… especially after it’s started snowing!

In spite of seeing snow for my entire life, I always find it a little magical when those soft flakes start to fall from the sky. I love seeing how everything looks once it’s been snowed on for a while, to see an entire landscape blanketed like that, it’s breathtaking.

I’ve a friend who hates Winter. He plans holidays around the time of year when Winter hits hardest so he can avoid the cold. It’s always baffeled me as to why he lives in the U.K. if he doesn’t like the cold… but anyway.

Today he told me of the package he bought to spend two weeks in South America at the beginning of next year. He thinks those first few weeks of January are the coldest, but I’m not sure of that, to be honest. He’s got everything ready, months in advance, from travel insurance to money converted into the local currency. He always goes over there with some stupid excuse as to why he should be treated like a VIP constantly. It’s rather preposterous. Last year my friend went over there only to find that the phone he so desperately needed to use was occupied, so he told the hotel manager that he needed to use the phone because he had to call his accountant. He said he was going to be buying up a large portion of beach front land and property for sale there in Brazil, and wanted to know if the deal had gone through. The hotel manager saw him for what he was, and from what I understand, just nodded condescendingly and told him he’d have to wait! We all thought that was bloody brilliant!

Less Blood in Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2

By blog on Sep. 20, 2009.

There’s a bit of a brouhaha about this, but does there need to be?

So, yes, I’m sort of surprised that they can say with such certainty that there is exactly 57% less blood than Ninja Gaiden II, but there you have it. There is still blood in the game, still red cuts when you hit an enemy, still blood spatters on walls and floors, but when you cut off a limb of an opponent in game no longer is there a gout of red, but instead the exact same gout… but now in blue!

It was apparently done to appeal to a broader audience, especially in Japan where violence is frowned upon. That’s a hard pill to swallow, considering they are the home of the Yakuza, and have a history – right up to the first half of the last century – of being one of the most violent nations on the planet, and seem to have no qualms in completely and utterly objectifying women. Personally, I don’t care for the level of gore in the previous games, but I still find it strange nonetheless that a country that loves Dead or Alive games would have issues with blatant violence.

It’s a strange choice, too, to keep in some blood effects, but to alter others only in colour. Why not reduce them, or take them out, or make all the ‘blood’ blue? This half measure way of doing it is odd, and doesn’t seem right to me.

I’m all for maturation of the medium, but I would rather it was consistent throughout the entire game, not just some randomly chosen aspects being changed whilst others left the same. It’s a very strange approach, and I’m interested to see how people respond when they get their hands on the games.

So far the response out there is rather mixed. There are those like myself, who appreciate the reduced gore, but don’t like the approach, and there are those who think that both those aspects are fine, and then there are those who are now really aggravated about it. Those people I don’t understand at all!

Well, we’ll find out soon enough how it all goes, the game ships to us Brits at the beginning of October.

Not strictly necessary, but still intriguing

By blog on Sep. 19, 2009.

I actually find Cryptozoology to be intriguing. Oh I know that sounds a little strange, I mean, I don’t believe that the creatures exist, but I find the discussion and investigation of them to be quite intriguing!

I can’t remember exactly when I first became interested in cryptids, but I know I have been for some time. I love looking at the folklore stories, and how people still believe in these creatures today. Some of them seem more plausible than others, I’ll grant you that, and some are real unexplained phenomena, like the Bloop.

The Bloop is one of my current favourite cryptids, because there is actual evidence backing it up. We’ve got the ‘what’ in this case, but not the ‘how’ or ‘who’. You see, The Bloop is the name given to a sound picked up a few times by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration who use equipment that was originally designed to keep tabs on that part of the ocean in case of Soviet Subs. They aren’t listening for subs, anymore, and are instead using the equipment to evaluate marine health, oceanic weather, and general atmospheric conditions out there.

They’ve often picked up strange and – in my opinion – ominous sounds, most of which can be explained by ocean currents, volcanic activity , or the movement of Antarctic ice, but The Bloop doesn’t conform to any of these. It’s the odd sound out.

The Bloop’s sound profile suggests that it comes from a living organism. The sound was heard on multiple underwater listening devices, called hydrophones, about 5,000kms apart. Even a Blue Whale can’t manage that, the creature creating The Bloop would have to be much, much bigger.

Some people have speculated that a Giant Squid could be behind the sound, however that’s extremely unlikely because, according to Phil Lobel, a marine biologist at Boston University in Massachusetts, US they don’t have the giant gas filled sac that would be necessary for such a noise. He says it’s impossible to be certain at this point, because no Giant Squid has ever been caught alive, though Whales have been seen with tentacle ring marks on their bodies, but he believes it’s not the sound of the giant cephalopod.

Anyway, that’s a mystery I hope to see solved one day.

Review sparks interest

By blog on Sep. 19, 2009.

I’m talking about the new Uncharted game, Among Thieves, and the strong review it received from IGN.

When I was looking into whether or not purchasing a PS3 would be a good idea for me, personally, I found the first Uncharted game touted as being among the best on the system. I looked up videos and reviews and thought that it looked like a really great game, it’s on my list of games to get.

I was perusing IGN as I normally do, and then noticed that in the few minutes I’d been on the site, the Uncharted 2 review had gone up. I eagerly clicked on the link to the video review, and watched on rather happily, finding the game was even better than I’d expected.

I’ve yet to play it, so I can only work from the review and my impressions of what I’ve seen in videos, but this game does look really, really good. The graphics are mind bogglingly good, and the story looks to be a heck of a lot of fun. Seriously, trekking around the world in search of treasure? It’s like being Indiana Jones but without the cliché!

The voice acting seems nicely done, and the character models move really well. The locations look to be quite varied and lots of fun, from verdant jungle to icy mountain sides, it all looks really great.

The game received a 9.5 from IGN, a fantastic score, and is currently sitting at 10 even for the reader average. That’s a pretty amazing score, there, and I really hope the game is as good as they say.

My only draw back is that I’m a little disappointed by ten hours of single play. Co-op is fun, I’d like to try that, but I’m not hugely into online play, so this aspect doesn’t make up for only ten hours of actual story-mode gameplay.

Nonetheless I fully intend on picking this game up, after I’ve picked up the first one, of course!

Pleasant surprise

By blog on Sep. 19, 2009.

I’ve written before about my mother, and her move into a retirement community earlier this year. Well this weekend my SO and I finally made it out there to visit her.

When my mother moved into this community earlier this year, she sold her home. This has left her with an even nicer nest egg than she already had, which I’m rather grateful for. I like to know that she is set to live in the nice community she moved into for about two decades before there’s any concern about paying for everything.

Whilst visiting her, she told me that she had gotten a stack of forms in the mail asking her to sign off on the renewal of her home insurance and contents insurance. She thought this wildly funny, and even applied for a building and contents home insurance quote, though I think she just meant for a home and contents insurance in one package.

Once they got around to processing her quote, they soon realised their folly, that she no longer owned a home, and politely told her she didn’t need their services anymore.

So that was that, and my little old mother seemed to think this the best prank of the year! She has an endearing sense of humour. She then told me that I must close my eyes and put out my hands. She used to do this when I was a child and she was giving me a surprise. It didn’t matter what magnitude of surprise we are talking about, from my favourite chocolate bar to a SNES game I’d been wanting, it was our routine.

Sitting at her nice little table, with it’s white lace cloth, I put my hands on the table, palms up, with my eyes closed. My SO was grinning like a Cheshire cat at me, so I had a feeling they were in cahoots. My mother placed into my hands three smooth plastic cases, and when I opened them, I found to my utmost surprise that she had bought me three PS3 games from the list I just happen to keep on my computer of games I intend to get in the future. LittleBigPlanet, BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger, and Metal Gear Solid 4.

I knew then that she must have asked my SO for the titles of some games I wanted, and I was just stoked to get them back and try ‘em out. My mother told me that she had decided to do something nice for me when her insurance renewal came around, because it reminded her of how much I’d helped in selling her house for her and making sure it all worked out nicely.

Ahh, isn’t it nice with the generation gap can so easily be bridged? It doesn’t happen all the time, but when it does, it’s very refreshing.

Gollum creature…

By blog on Sep. 18, 2009.

That’s what this odd looking creature has been dubbed, Gollum… I knew the moment I saw this story I’d have to write about it here.

Okay so the run down is as follows. A group of teenagers where playing near a lake in Panama. There’s a waterfall and cave near this lake, and apparently this creature came out of the cave, and came up some rocks towards the teens. They felt threatened, describing the creature as standing 150cm tall, so threw rocks and used sticks to beat the creature to death. They then tossed the carcass back into the lake, and told their parents who went to have a look for themselves.

The parents found the carcass had washed up on the shore, and within a few days the body was showing signs of decomposition and having been eaten by buzzards…

Okay so now what I think of this whole thing. I think it’s a hoax. Reasons… the decomposed body sure enough looks like a sloth, but it doesn’t account for the body shown in the previous shots. First off, that decomposition looks fairly dry, yet we are talking about Panama, next to a lake… Tropical location, heading into Autumn, is not exactly going to dry the thing out. Not to mention, that’s an extreme level of decomposition for a few days, and if it had in fact been eaten by buzzards, then why was so much of the skin still in tact? No, this looks to be a sloth that has been decomposing for quite a while, in a dry place.

Now onto the freshly dead photos. This creature is supposedly three times the height of a regular sloth, which grow usually between 50 to 60cm tall. If you look at this creature, yes the hands look sloth like, but the face is too long for a sloth face, which have short faces with small pointed muzzles. Very different. The big kicker, the thing that screams fake to me about this thing…

If this creature was stoned and beaten to death, then why aren’t there any marks of such attacks upon it in the photos? Seriously, this is a major discrepancy, and all the other stuff could be explained, but that last fact is rather important. There’s no defence marks on the arms, no marks on the face, head, neck, chest, abdomen… Unless they managed to only hit the animal from behind, which seems rather unlikely considering they were throwing rocks at it because it was coming towards them.

Anyway, here’s a link to the Metro’s article, and here’s MSN’s.

Isn’t this how we got here?

By blog on Sep. 18, 2009.

I say that in reference to the financial crisis the world economy is still trying to pull itself out of and the prolific amount of fast loan places that are popping back up.

You see, what really sparked this entire collapse was a few people in the U.S. deciding it would be a grand idea if they gave people large loans, we’re talking house loans here, with no down payment. That’s right, loaning the full 100% of the total amount for a house. This of course lead to many people being the horrible situation of having a home and a home loan, but loan repayments too hefty to keep up with. They are referred to as high-risk loans. What then happened is other financial establishment went and bought those loans from the banks and so forth who originally issued them. Now, on the books, this looks like the company has a certain amount of assets, but if the person defaults, if they can’t keep up with their payments, that company that thought they had a few hundred thousand in assets suddenly has to write that off. Completely.

This is just one of the causes of the current financial instability – which seems to be somewhat on the mend – but it was a major factor in why so many companies lost so much money in such a short amount of time.

Anyway, what bothers me is that I feel people should have learned that quick credit, fast cash, short-term loans, all have a nasty way of coming back and biting you. I know it’s a pretty damn difficult time for most people, at the moment, but if they continue to buy into the cycle of loans, and then paying back at a minimum 20% – though you’d probably find it’s much more if you cared to check it on one of those loan calculator things – more than they borrowed, it’s going to be very difficult to break out of.

I suppose I also feel a sense of frustration with these loan brokers, that they are so happy to cash in, in spite of how it effects people. Bah! Anyway, if you are considering one of those short-term loans, please don’t if you can avoid it in any way!

Score too low

By blog on Sep. 18, 2009.

I don’t just play any game, most of the time, I tend to play ones that have been rated very highly by my peers and professional reviewers. When a game scores below a certain point, it’s almost certain I won’t play it.

So yeah, don’t have as much time for gaming as I used to, which is why I haven’t been playing LOTRO so much. That’s a little sad, because I think it’s a great game, but there it is. I’m still interested in MMOs though, so when Champions Online was coming up, I thought I may drop in and give it a go.

But then I saw the review today on IGN… 7.6 from them, but the reader review average is 6.7. Now, I usually don’t play games that got under 8.5, so this means that Champions Online is completely and totally out, unless they put out an expansion that dramatically alters the score for the overall game, I won’t be playing it.

The reader reviews are really interesting, actually. They seem to swing between scores of 3.5 through to 5, which basically talk about how buggy the game is, repetitive, animations aren’t working, skills aren’t working, and powers have already been nerfed. Then you have those who are rating this game around 8 to 9 saying it’s fun, especially once you’ve a few friends to quest with.

I have to say, though, that a quick look over of the reviews with the low scores, and the reviews with the high scores, that the low score reviews are better written and more in-depth, whereas the high score reviews are a little superficial and you sort of get the impression these people would be happy playing any game.

So, from what I’ve read, this game sounds unfinished, and it really doesn’t look all that good, either. Server downtime seems to be a big issue, which I find hugely frustrating when you’re paying for a subscription.

All in all, from what the reviewer on IGN said, I’m sort of surprised they reviewed this game as highly as they did.

Makes life good

By blog on Sep. 18, 2009.

I love coming home to those things which make life good, even with all the frustrating people around.

Today I went out food shopping, a very annoying task, I assure you. Wandering through the super market aimlessly is not my style, so it’s really annoying to be stuck halfway down an aisle behind just such a shopper. I calmly went about doing my thing, hoping this lady in front of me would hurry up, but no, it was like she was trying to win a race for being as slow as possible whilst still moving…

Anyway, by the time I got home, I was in such a foul mood, that I knew something must be done. But I didn’t know what… then I found that my SO had just run me a bath, with bubbles and the whirlpool jets going already, too. I was enormously thankful, and went into the lusciously steamy bathroom and sat in the nice hot bath. When I’m doing this my SO likes to sit and hang out and talk to me, it takes the experience from really good to oh I really love, love, love, this!

It’s amazing to me how something so very simple can really turn your mood around, to go from frustrated and surly to calm and pleasant in the span of half an hour is quite remarkable. When that bath is soon followed up by an extremely lovely slow-cooked stew with crusty bread, well, then I’m positively joyful.

I’m now full, warm, and pretty much ready to sleep. What a great feeling! I’m not the best sleeper, to be honest, so when I actually feel sleepy its a very pleasant experience… now to just slowly wander about locking up and turning off all the lights and I’m off to bed for a good ol’ sleep. Ahhh, the good things in life!