tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-150422412012-02-17T03:13:21.159Zi rule on this throne by anarchy of circuitryPaul Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828871939234906810noreply@blogger.comBlogger1661100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15042241.post-75009903132398691272012-01-17T12:20:00.001Z2012-01-17T12:20:47.680Z

After stumbling across this trailer, I realised I'm looking forward to the last two Rebuild of Evangelion movies more than the first two; as the story is diverging more from the TV series, there seems to be more of a point to the whole exercise. I've still not gotten around to watching 1.1 and 2.2 back-to-back, so I'll have to rewatch them before sitting down with 3.0. I have to admit, though

Paul Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828871939234906810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15042241.post-50981759329279205702012-01-10T10:34:00.001Z2012-01-10T10:34:26.042Z

After months of speculation and even longer desperate hope, American on-demand video provider Netflix has finally launched its services in the UK. It faces an uphill struggle to gain a foothold on this side of the pond, facing off against the Amazon-owned LoveFilm (which also provides physical DVD, Blu-ray and game rentals), as well as on-demand TV and film services provided by Sky, BT and Virgin

Paul Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828871939234906810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15042241.post-54922077254512470902011-12-13T16:09:00.001Z2011-12-13T16:09:42.414Z

Honestly, I'd be more interested in a post-apocalyptic game that doesn't rely on monsters. The Road was so depressingly effective (and so effectively depressing) because it was just about society falling apart, without needing a zombie infestation to cause it. It would make a better game too, in my opinion, to leave the zombies behind; the use of (mostly) inhuman monsters as enemies in this

Paul Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828871939234906810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15042241.post-8236646047303686162011-11-20T22:02:00.001Z2011-11-20T22:02:21.477Z

via DestroyTwitter

Paul Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828871939234906810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15042241.post-33485576981884728932011-11-08T07:54:00.002Z2011-11-08T12:19:51.516Z

There are many moments in Uncharted 3 that exist to drive the fiction to a place of resolution, and they are barely played at all. It's nearly impossible to screw up the key moments in the game by making a wrong turn or messing up the timing. Those moments leave players with only the most rudimentary control: While running from deadly spiders, press down. While moving through a tight crevice with

Paul Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828871939234906810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15042241.post-71158365215972419452011-11-07T07:58:00.001Z2011-11-07T07:58:31.262Z

In the bag, as of last night. What a miserable chore of a game. It's got absolutely no soul, which I think was the only (vague, non-specific and ultimately quite useless as a metric) thing that rescued the previous games from this third installment's tedium.I liked the first game, preferred the second, but this one felt like a cash-in sequel farmed out to a different development team.

Paul Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828871939234906810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15042241.post-88234313704823055672011-11-06T11:45:00.002Z2011-11-08T12:21:58.955Z

Finished the Uncharted 3 campaign last night (final playtime clocked in at just over eight hours), and I think I'm ready to call this one as "not as good as Uncharted 2". I don't think there are any spoilers in this; I've been as vague as possible and have avoided mentioning any locations or plot points wherever possible. It's technically better than the previous game in a lot of ways, and the

Paul Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828871939234906810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15042241.post-6380216574986017572011-11-02T23:29:00.005Z2011-11-08T12:23:44.130Z

Man, Uncharted 3.Be warned: if, like me, you consider someone's vague, general opinion about a videogame to be spoilers for that videogame, LOOK AWAY NOW.I'd been on something of a blackout re: Naughty Dog's latest installment, avoiding everything I could - especially reviews. Some blogs endeavoured to defeat my embargo by posting articles with provocative headlines like, "Uncharted 3: totally

Paul Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828871939234906810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15042241.post-46577083780346511682011-10-18T16:09:00.001+01:002011-10-18T16:09:53.476+01:00

via DestroyTwitter

Paul Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828871939234906810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15042241.post-62692194785334064802011-08-09T10:57:00.001+01:002011-08-09T10:57:23.430+01:00

This seems specifically designed to traumatise children. "Beat Winnie the Pooh to death if you want chocolate!"

Paul Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828871939234906810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15042241.post-8063737513108327692011-06-29T15:41:00.001+01:002011-06-29T15:41:44.397+01:00

Based, allegedly, on a true story.

Paul Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828871939234906810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15042241.post-60289988391474544042011-05-31T22:34:00.001+01:002011-05-31T22:34:01.210+01:00

Paul Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828871939234906810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15042241.post-3441352191537677642011-05-25T11:40:00.001+01:002011-05-25T11:40:51.098+01:00

From a softer world

Paul Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828871939234906810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15042241.post-10278855914729645482011-03-12T15:45:00.001Z2011-03-12T15:45:45.636Z

Found in a shop full of weird toys and books in Edinburgh.-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Paul Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828871939234906810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15042241.post-78947717444786033512011-03-02T20:12:00.001Z2011-03-02T20:12:17.049Z

When I originally set up my Xbox Live account, I couldn't get my first choice gamertag. Someone had already claimed "aniki" as their own at some point during the original Xbox's lifespan, but as far as I can tell they've not used it on the newer machine. I could have added a string of numbers, and in fact ended up with "aniki2121", but that seemed kind of pointless - and I've never liked online

Paul Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828871939234906810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15042241.post-62540299130633509912011-02-19T11:22:00.001Z2011-02-19T11:22:57.462Z

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Paul Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828871939234906810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15042241.post-38649216200437789252011-01-13T12:23:00.001Z2011-01-13T12:23:43.674Z

I started playing Alpha Protocol last night, but haven't got very far yet. I've just finished the training section (although the achievement didn't drop, now that I think about it). The conversation "stance" mechanic is a pretty good idea -- probably the game's best -- but a bit off-putting. The fact that each NPC builds an opinion of you, that will affect your missions1, means that every choice

Paul Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828871939234906810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15042241.post-92138123505743111112010-11-21T19:04:00.002Z2010-11-26T09:53:42.656Z

Heading home after an excellent con, full of mild racism and explicit innuendo - can innuendo be explicit?Thanks to Andrew for giving me stuff to do, Dave, Bry and Claire for giving me normal(ish) people to talk to in the dealer's room, and the committee for throwing the whole shindig in the first place.Hopefully it won't take so long to meet up with people again next time!

Paul Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828871939234906810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15042241.post-61695484337851245922010-10-15T19:07:00.002+01:002010-10-15T19:10:56.236+01:00

The cartoon I was talking about in the last post was called Skywhales, and it's on YouTube: It's a little bit different than I remember, and rewatching it hasn't really gotten rid of that weird feeling I get when I think about it. It's just so alien; in how it looks and how it sounds - the "language" that the hunters use, and that dischordant music, which always sounds like it's

Paul Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828871939234906810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15042241.post-1312756751203940612010-10-15T16:50:00.001+01:002010-10-15T16:50:28.183+01:00

Something, I'm not sure what, just reminded me of a cartoon I saw years ago that's always stuck in my head. It was on Channel 4 in the late '80s; probably '88 or '89, 1990 at a stretch. It had a very minimalist art style and, as far as I remember, no dialogue - just music. It was a one-off animated short, not more than ten minutes long. Here's about as much of the plot as I can remember: it was

Paul Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828871939234906810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15042241.post-15579804963892288882010-10-15T13:35:00.001+01:002010-10-15T13:35:08.454+01:00

Yesterday was the PAL Dreamcast's eleventh birthday, which made me feel old. How must guys who remember the Spectrum feel? To celebrate the occasion, I dug out my old machine to indulge in some nostalgia, which is becoming a bit of a tradition by now*. The Dreamcast was the first console I ever bought with my own money, and only the second games machine we had in the house growing up (not

Paul Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828871939234906810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15042241.post-72947351312565868952010-10-06T13:24:00.001+01:002010-10-06T13:24:17.098+01:00

This is Hunter S. Thompson's cover letter for a job application to the Vancouver Sun, written in 1958, before he was famous. It's worth reading in its entirety, so I've not cut anything down. Vancouver Sun TO JACK SCOTT, VANCOUVER SUN October 1, 1958 57 Perry Street New York City Sir, I got a hell of a kick reading the piece Time magazine did this week on The Sun. In addition to wishing you

Paul Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828871939234906810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15042241.post-51702326275645073812010-10-01T09:40:00.001+01:002010-10-01T09:40:02.304+01:00

Third in a 5-part series. Here are episode 1 and episode 2. This should be familiar to anyone who's ever owned a cat.

Paul Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828871939234906810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15042241.post-67301795196545835852010-09-24T15:52:00.001+01:002010-09-24T15:52:35.552+01:00

Timur Civan is a director of photography for movies, and a photographer. He’s also a tinkerer, and he got his hands on an old Wollensak 35mm F5.0 Cine-Velostigmat, a hand cranked movie-camera lens from 1908. You see it above, wedded to his Canon 5D MkII. But where did it come from? Civan got a call from his friend, known mysteriously only as “a Russian lens technician”: He found in a box

Paul Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828871939234906810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15042241.post-61614112081518968792010-09-10T16:25:00.003+01:002010-09-10T16:25:36.119+01:00

Haven't bothered trying to get this close to the rig until now, but my engineer dad wanted to get a better look.

Paul Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828871939234906810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15042241.post-29743781533176796372010-09-10T16:25:00.001+01:002010-09-10T16:25:35.880+01:00

Haven't bothered trying to get this close to the rig until now, but my engineer dad wanted to get a better look.

Paul Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828871939234906810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15042241.post-88662552855634472162010-09-03T21:38:00.001+01:002010-09-03T21:38:27.818+01:00

I wanted to try and describe this band myself, but their poster does a better job than I ever could.

Paul Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828871939234906810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15042241.post-65716362242752436842010-08-16T12:34:00.001+01:002010-08-16T12:34:56.457+01:00

Paul Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828871939234906810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15042241.post-2314647043901569822010-08-15T22:55:00.001+01:002010-08-15T22:55:21.415+01:00

These names are getting more ridiculous, I think. Although this one probably isn't much worse than the "real" one...

Paul Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828871939234906810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15042241.post-26950024451375103882010-08-08T21:57:00.001+01:002010-08-08T21:57:47.303+01:00

Paul Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828871939234906810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15042241.post-75069120923562815152010-08-05T13:20:00.002+01:002010-08-05T14:10:28.702+01:00

Paul Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828871939234906810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15042241.post-65345758979189351812010-07-30T11:49:00.001+01:002010-07-30T11:49:15.686+01:00

The thing I've been working on for the last three years has finally been announced! We can talk about it, at last! What would it look like if Nintendo built Google Earth? Project: MyWorld turns the real world into a fun 3D social gaming experience. Project: MyWorld is a virtual recreation of the real world combined with 3D gaming and social media. It is the next-generation of

Paul Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828871939234906810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15042241.post-56264795902772990722010-04-14T13:48:00.004+01:002010-04-14T13:57:34.306+01:00

After waiting five days for a reply to my last email, I forwarded it to Stewart Hosie's main email address, as well as the SNP HQ email address.Within a couple of hours, I'd recieved this reply from Kevin, the same assistant who'd replied to my previous missives. The yellow highighting around "PEGI" is his, not mine; I'm still not 100% sure why it's there.Dear PaulFurther to our recent

Paul Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828871939234906810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15042241.post-19579071224111573862010-04-08T11:14:00.002+01:002010-04-08T11:15:53.854+01:00

Last night, the House of Commons passed the controversial Digital Economy Bill. For more information on why this bill is a useless piece of garbage, see here and a million other places online.Immediately after the debate, shortly before midnight, I sent an email to my MP, the SNP's Stewart Hosie, asking how he'd voted. I got a reply from one of his assistants this morning saying they'd look into

Paul Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828871939234906810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15042241.post-85154907446578322812010-02-23T10:43:00.002Z2010-02-23T10:45:30.128Z

From the excellent Savage Chickens.

Paul Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828871939234906810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15042241.post-23330615536253897542010-01-19T09:52:00.001Z2010-01-19T09:55:14.955Z

The most interesting thing I've been up to lately: I've made (and released) an app for the Palm Pre. It's a search app for the Wizards.com D&D 4e Compendium (if that doesn't mean anything to you, then you might as well skip the rest of this entry), which I put together for two reasons:I wanted to learn how to use Ajax and multi-scene apps in the SDK, andI wanted this app for myselfThe second one

Paul Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828871939234906810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15042241.post-72802928743856470292010-01-15T08:58:00.005Z2010-01-19T09:51:48.305Z

From Kate Beaton's fantastic Hark, A Vagrant.

Paul Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828871939234906810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15042241.post-59285515468389990042009-12-08T21:11:00.004Z2010-02-08T15:45:15.717Z

The Intelligence² Debate - Stephen Fry (Unedited)by Xrunner17This speech is utterly astounding.It makes me want to hug him.

Paul Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828871939234906810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15042241.post-57964421490763685022009-09-30T08:34:00.000+01:002009-09-30T08:35:06.069+01:00

I thought it was funny, but it seemed to miss its own point.At the beginning, Brooker seemed to complain that TV's traditional portrayal of games as unnecessarily violent or pointlessly boring was unfair; he then went on to spend the next 45 minutes showing how unnecessarily violent and pointlessly boring games have become, despite the technological improvements.The target audience is a mystery

Paul Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828871939234906810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15042241.post-62516760970192675262009-09-24T11:27:00.001+01:002009-09-24T11:37:51.694+01:00

The press release that finally confirms the UK release date and pricing of the Palm Pre came out this morning; these long months of speculation and guesswork from every gadget blog and forum with European members are finally over.Friday, October 16th - just three weeks away - is Pre day!The tariffs and pricing are more or less the same as for the recently-release iPhone 3GS, which is potentially

Paul Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828871939234906810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15042241.post-54622559479103716372009-09-12T09:59:00.002+01:002009-09-12T10:01:07.854+01:00

From the excellent Hark! A Vagrant.

Paul Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828871939234906810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15042241.post-35013947323593146882009-07-07T13:43:00.001+01:002009-07-07T13:57:18.064+01:00

The announcement was made this morning that O2 are going to get the Palm Pre in the UK, Ireland and Germany, with fellow Telefonica subsidiary Movistar getting it in Spain.But while this confirmation is nice to have, the carrier information was already more or less a given - very few people doubted, especially in the last few weeks or months, that O2 would be the one to take the Pre to market

Paul Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828871939234906810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15042241.post-13829239912626785312009-06-08T14:14:00.001+01:002009-06-08T14:18:02.513+01:00

So, the Palm Pre is out now in the US. Anybody got one (or tried one out) yet? I've read a whole bunch of reviews and forum posts, but the opinions of people I know online are always much better than random blogs and forum idiots.I'm dying to get my hands on a device to try it out for myself; even just so I can try out the keyboard, which seems to be the main area of complaints, and the only part

Paul Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828871939234906810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15042241.post-20191934601252525532009-05-17T09:38:00.004+01:002009-05-17T09:43:49.021+01:00

There's an online geek radio station called otaSCOTIA that I recently put together a WordPress skin for - it's just gone live, so check it out and let me know what you think (of the site, not the show - that's @otascotia's side of things).

Paul Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828871939234906810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15042241.post-26291530838463770422009-04-29T08:18:00.002+01:002009-06-08T14:19:50.530+01:00

All current rumours point to the Palm Pre getting a UK release sometime around September, which is pretty good, I guess. The American release is, according to the same speculation, coming out early July, so it hopefully won't be too unbearable a wait.Most rumours still seem to be pointing to Vodafone as the carrier here, so hopefully that one will pan out too, and I can keep my number and won't

Paul Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828871939234906810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15042241.post-8950766670268530192009-03-10T09:24:00.002Z2009-03-10T09:29:18.468Z

I don't know how to express how the news from Northern Ireland over the last few days makes me feel. The cynic in me wants to roll my eyes and think "it was only a matter of time", but Goddamn it I thought we were past all this shit.What exactly does this accomplish for anybody?Excuse me while I despair for my country and the people still living there.

Paul Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828871939234906810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15042241.post-77624352481775795382009-02-19T16:31:00.011Z2009-06-08T14:20:14.615+01:00

Since it was announced at CES in January, I've been following the new Palm Prē very closely. I don't think I've ever been this excited about a piece of gadgetry.(In case you've not seen it yet, here's a pretty decent 26-minute demo.)At CES, it was mentioned (probably in passing) that information about the UK launch of the device would be announced at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, which

Paul Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828871939234906810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15042241.post-72217403555939103522009-01-29T15:37:00.002Z2009-04-28T19:26:14.890+01:00

Some joker here at work (I'm pretty sure I know who) has started a Twitter feed for our cat.

Paul Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828871939234906810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15042241.post-56817166323319080422009-01-20T08:38:00.003Z2009-01-20T08:48:06.432Z

We got our new cat just over a week ago (on the 9th). She's settled in very well, and took much less time to get comfortable in the house than I thought she would. Then again, she's already six years old so we probably shouldn't have expected her to be as jittery in a new place as a kitten might have been.She looks fairly grumpy in most photos, though:

Paul Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828871939234906810noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15042241.post-3555685325045028312008-12-21T10:37:00.000Z2009-01-20T08:30:06.538Z

Since long before we bought this house, we've been wanting to get a cat, but since we've always been renting it's never been an option. Now that we own a house, there's no reason not to get one, so we went 'round yesterday to one of the cat adoption places here in Dundee to see what they had.There's a gorgeous silver tabby called Lucy that we're quite keen on getting. I kind of wish I'd taken a

Paul Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828871939234906810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15042241.post-1602948388265185722008-12-11T11:38:00.001Z2008-12-11T11:40:41.441Z

Apparently there's enough concern in the Japanese town of Toyohashi about drunkenness on trains coming up to Christmas and the New Year that they've started putting up these fantastic posters asking people to keep it at the bar:I love the expression on the face of the guy in the foreground. He looks like he's about to give a stern narration to the viewer.Via Gaijin Tonic.

Paul Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828871939234906810noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15042241.post-87454998481403231362008-12-10T14:06:00.003Z2008-12-10T14:07:51.615Z

Paul Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828871939234906810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15042241.post-52479171838854815952008-12-04T15:28:00.001Z2008-12-04T15:28:52.448Z

We were supposed to get six inches of snow last night, but none of it materialised, so we just have the last couple of days' slush. Part of me's glad I didn't have to excavate the car this morning, but I'm still a little disappointed.In other news, I have every Friday off between now and Christmas (only three of them, but it's three long weekends!), and our work Christmas party is this weekend.

Paul Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828871939234906810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15042241.post-14280467638578286572008-11-22T08:26:00.001Z2008-11-24T10:50:43.961Z

I don't know whether to be annoyed or happy about this.

Paul Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828871939234906810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15042241.post-74359853783489335552008-11-18T14:20:00.003Z2008-11-18T14:22:51.965Z

Via sonia-leongThis photo leapt out at me from a series of beautiful, yet tragic shots of the Californian wildfires. This one just took my breath away - I don't want to sound flippant but it looks unreal, pretty much exactly like a screenshot from Fallout 3. Which is supposed to be set in apocalyptic wastelands 200 years after a nuclear holocaust. Life imitating art. Very scary.

Paul Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828871939234906810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15042241.post-54520745975550831522008-11-17T16:16:00.004Z2008-11-17T16:26:47.010Z

On Friday evening (the night before I headed to Glasgow for two days to attend Auchinawa), I got into the preview program for the New Xbox Experience. I basically just had time to create my avatar (see below) and install a couple of games to the HDD before we had to leave, so I've not had much chance to get into the nitty-gritty details of the "experience", but it seems like an improvement in a

Paul Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828871939234906810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15042241.post-47641468452267377942008-11-12T16:11:00.005Z2008-11-12T16:22:17.264Z

We've now been in our new house for nearly two weeks, and it's still getting more messy rather than less. There's still a few things in the self-storage box that we've got to transfer out before the account runs out at the weekend, but I don't know if the living room can take much more.For instance, here's the change over the course of a few hours of yesterday:The box is nearly cleared out though

Paul Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828871939234906810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15042241.post-70886138213502104452008-11-11T15:29:00.001Z2008-11-12T16:25:00.181Z

I was pretty close to using "I'm gay for Keith Olbermann" as the title for this post, but it seemed a little too flippant for the seriousness of this issue.

Paul Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828871939234906810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15042241.post-20343444895293954202008-10-24T14:48:00.001+01:002008-10-24T14:49:38.418+01:00

I'm fascinated by "social networking tools" (which I think is a stupid name for them, but whatever) and blogging stuff in general. Which is really weird, when I think about how highly I regard my own opinion (that being, not at all), and how frankly pointless I think putting it online at all is (which, now that I think about it, might be a major contributor to the demise of my anime blog/news

Paul Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828871939234906810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15042241.post-18230694630970234512008-10-23T10:53:00.000+01:002008-10-24T11:26:38.192+01:00

The most recent Penny Arcade strip is spot on.I don't think I've posted my response to the LBP/Qur'an thing here, and I don't want to get into it here after the horrible clusterfuck argument it spawned on a forum that's full of normally reasonable people. Short version: Sony made the right call, and this isn't really comparable to the Manchester Cathedral thing last year.

Paul Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828871939234906810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15042241.post-24165963143591228172008-10-22T10:14:00.001+01:002008-10-24T11:29:21.852+01:00

This whole "default swaps" situation has us all fucked into a cocked hat to a much worse degree than I ever thought possible...Q. What are the risks posed by credit-default swaps?A. The first risk is their sheer size. Writing in Sunday's New York Times, Christopher Cox, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, estimated there were $55 trillion in credit-default swaps outstanding, which

Paul Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828871939234906810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15042241.post-84327651405543642532008-10-16T08:39:00.001+01:002008-10-16T08:40:44.703+01:00

During his furious post-"Zero" blinking session, I can almost hear the old Amiga disk drive churning away.

Paul Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828871939234906810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15042241.post-91369820673260500012008-10-09T11:18:00.002+01:002008-10-09T11:22:37.466+01:00

On the off-chance anybody hasn't seen this already, I strongly suggest you give it a read.Make-Believe MaverickI've been going through it slowly the last couple of days (it's ten pages long), and while RS are undoubtedly more left-leaning than centrist, if even half this stuff is on the mark I just got a lot more worried about the prospect of a John McCain presidency.

Paul Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828871939234906810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15042241.post-66846756038304700912008-10-07T14:29:00.003+01:002008-10-07T14:30:23.987+01:00

[S]imply from an engineering standpoint, I think this is by far and away the best [LBP level] yet. A user created a real-time working calculator that accurately adds and subtracts numbers. The level is said to use 610 magnetic swtiches, 500 wires, and 430 pistons. I didn't see what the big deal was until the camera panned up. That's when my mouth hit the floor.Via Kotaku.

Paul Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828871939234906810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15042241.post-51398069902991118332008-10-04T13:49:00.003+01:002008-10-04T13:52:46.822+01:00

Drawn by Björn Hurri at Gorilla Artfare.

Paul Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828871939234906810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15042241.post-65218654373906963542008-10-03T16:42:00.002+01:002008-10-24T11:31:40.868+01:00

Paul Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828871939234906810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15042241.post-48057114905444950652008-10-01T15:35:00.002+01:002008-10-01T15:41:30.365+01:00

I bought a wireless headset for my Xbox 360 and it just got delivered to work; I'd very much like to plug it in so it's charged for getting home, but I can't get the damn thing open.I really hate the space devil packaging they use to store videogame accessories these days. I realise it's possibly helpful as an anti-theft device - you can't pop the container open and steal the goodies, and there's

Paul Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828871939234906810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15042241.post-64196290031376964332008-10-01T09:00:00.003+01:002008-10-01T09:03:42.551+01:00

I don't know if his outburst at the end of this (~6.45 in) is scripted or ad-libbed, but he certainly seems genuinely angry.

Paul Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828871939234906810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15042241.post-72064793508687683042008-09-30T09:49:00.003+01:002008-09-30T09:52:56.467+01:00

Is there anything this man won't do or say to get a laugh? I think he's even ballsier than Colbert.

Paul Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828871939234906810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15042241.post-10011463655473326572008-09-25T15:57:00.003+01:002008-09-25T16:04:08.403+01:00

It's a little bit long, but it's hilarious in a lot of places.For those who haven't heard about it before, The Great Schlep is a campaign to get young, democrat Jewish voters to visit their grandparents in Florida (one of the big swing states) and dispel all the lies and rumours about Barack Obama.More information about The Great Schlep.

Paul Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828871939234906810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15042241.post-37961048313904139302008-09-25T08:51:00.003+01:002008-09-25T08:54:49.293+01:00

It's not quite that simple, and I'm not sure that it sets legal precedent, but it's undoubtedly a sign that even those outside the Kazaa/BitTorrent circles recognise how ludicrously out-of-proportion the MAFIAA fines are.In Capitol v. Thomas, District Judge Michael J. Davis has set aside the jury's $222,000 verdict and ordered a new trial, ruling that his jury instruction -- which accepted the

Paul Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828871939234906810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15042241.post-271485193288065632008-09-24T14:20:00.001+01:002008-09-24T14:22:27.521+01:00

This has to be the most potent harbinger of the internet's lack of purpose that I have ever seen.Live video chat by UstreamAn Oregon woman who wanted to let her neighbors know that she's endorsing Senator Barack Obama for president has had two Obama-Biden 08 yard signs stolen from her front lawn. So she made a third herself, and had her teenage son set up a live feed on Ustream.tv in the hopes of

Paul Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828871939234906810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15042241.post-40184570870242098462008-09-24T11:15:00.000+01:002008-09-24T15:46:20.375+01:00

This is a pretty interesting way of using YouTube to advertise your game.

Paul Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828871939234906810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15042241.post-68548071157658534412008-09-23T09:59:00.000+01:002008-09-23T10:00:02.511+01:00

If you had purchased £1000 of Northern Rock shares one year ago it would now be worth £4.95, with HBOS, earlier this week your £1000 would have been worth £16.50, £1000 invested in XL Leisure would now be worth less than £5, but if you bought £1000 worth of Tennents Lager one year ago, drank it all, then took the empty cans to an aluminium re-cycling plant, you would get £214. So based on the

Paul Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828871939234906810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15042241.post-89962476485624428762008-09-23T08:57:00.002+01:002008-09-23T08:59:19.139+01:00

Paul Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828871939234906810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15042241.post-2623114184437503622008-09-23T08:41:00.002+01:002008-09-23T08:43:59.236+01:00

I'm actually quite looking forward to the new "Xbox Experience" update, the more I see of it. I still can't figure out why this video focuses on the creation of a hobo, though.Now I'm off to listen to @hodgman's list of hobo names for the next hour.

Paul Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828871939234906810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15042241.post-24494356038988358682008-09-22T20:30:00.004+01:002008-09-23T21:25:18.261+01:00

I have two tickets to Jonathan Coulton's gig in London next month to sell.The lineup is Jonathan Coulton (the guy who wrote the Portal song, if context is required), with support from Paul and Storm, who were half of the excellent Da Vinci's Notebook a capella group until they split a few years ago.It's taking place at Shepherd's Bush Empire, in London, on Thursday, October 30th 2008, with doors

Paul Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828871939234906810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15042241.post-69825042007933545082008-09-22T13:18:00.000+01:002008-09-22T13:19:31.536+01:00

Going through an old Photobucket account, I found this excellent image of Pat Robertson rocking out and throwing the horns:I'm pretty sure I've posted it here before, but I still find it funny.

Paul Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828871939234906810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15042241.post-72609909067786967192008-09-22T09:52:00.002+01:002008-09-22T09:54:31.028+01:00

Because I know we all treasure his opinion so much...I don't know whether his complete failure to grasp the situation is funny or infuriating. Is he really that dumb, or is it all doublethink?

Paul Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828871939234906810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15042241.post-11134150751088039642008-09-21T23:31:00.004+01:002008-09-22T09:56:13.341+01:00

According to the latest installment of The Bugle, John Oliver actually met Tony Blair after the show; apparently it was a bit frosty.

Paul Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828871939234906810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15042241.post-40997870789551485452008-09-19T16:28:00.001+01:002008-09-19T16:31:18.763+01:00

Paul Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828871939234906810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15042241.post-37347468901927215062008-09-19T16:19:00.003+01:002008-09-19T16:20:30.746+01:00

This is the argument I've never been able to make effectively.

Paul Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828871939234906810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15042241.post-1747580963788463062008-09-19T11:32:00.001+01:002008-09-19T11:32:52.279+01:00

spEak You're bRanes is a fantastic blog that collects the most ridiculous comments from the BBC website's "Have Your Say" section.This particular comment comes from a thread about the Large Hadron Collider:Why was this ‘built’ underground? Simple, it does not exist. It’s a big con.It’s the same reason India/Pakistan allegedly conducted nuclear explosions underground simply because they never

Paul Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828871939234906810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15042241.post-69681468139959087542008-09-19T09:50:00.001+01:002008-09-19T09:51:06.474+01:00

I have tremendous admiration for Jon Stewart's interview technique - especially when he's up against politicians and the like. I could watch him interviewing Blair for hours; it seems so rare for someone (at least in American television - and even in the UK, Paxman isn't as personable as Stewart is and always puts people on the defensive) keep asking the same queston until they get an answer,

Paul Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828871939234906810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15042241.post-33587754634070983192008-09-19T00:09:00.002+01:002008-09-19T08:20:39.793+01:00

10:42 tinyurl.com/4lf2rc # 16:43 @maehara This comic reminded me of your ongoing Naruto marathon: www.chainsawsuit.com # 23:18 Started playing Shadow of the Colossus tonight, for the first time. I can't believe how good it is, although I am spectacularly bad at it. #Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

Paul Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828871939234906810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15042241.post-16135700753405546402008-09-18T18:45:00.003+01:002008-09-18T19:00:22.677+01:00

Paul Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828871939234906810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15042241.post-82122362672749199692008-09-18T17:01:00.006+01:002008-09-18T23:48:25.625+01:00

This whole story seems like an over-reaction. I've listened to the interview (the bit about Spain is ~2:58 in), and I don't blame McCain for getting confused. I'd read the transcript beforehand, and even then some of the presenter's pronunciation, especially across a phone line that fuzzy, could have been indistinct. If it had been a face-to-face interview in the studio, I seriously doubt there

Paul Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828871939234906810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15042241.post-22069140220127094962008-09-18T11:43:00.003+01:002008-09-18T23:48:57.149+01:00

Anonymous has allegedly hacked Sarah Palin's personal email account. Screenshots and other evidence is available at WikiLeaks.The suggestions now are that she used this account, gov.palin@yahoo.com, for official state business; emails to and from various government departments and drafts of letters to other governors were apparently found in the account.There are also suggestions on some blogs

Paul Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828871939234906810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15042241.post-45713743562774662942007-10-14T22:21:00.000+01:002007-10-14T22:22:13.832+01:00

This is a song an internet friend of mine - cavalcade from The Society of Gamesplaying Gentlemen and Womenfolk, the internet's premiere Victorian-themed videogame discussion forum - put together, fed up spending £35 for a year's Xbox Live just to get verbal abuse from American teenagers. He's hoping to gain internet notoriety from this, so I'm doing my part.Warning: contains lots of profanity.The

Paul Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828871939234906810noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15042241.post-38606286976666800532007-10-01T08:42:00.000+01:002007-10-01T08:43:34.418+01:00

Why is everything in my blogger control panel in German?

Paul Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828871939234906810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15042241.post-2530738987482322152007-08-31T16:47:00.001+01:002008-09-21T23:36:39.616+01:00

Paul Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828871939234906810noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15042241.post-24731994357810116702007-08-29T11:09:00.001+01:002007-08-29T11:10:21.656+01:00

This is one man's backlash at the "lolcats" phenomenon that's taken the internets by storm recently.Some of them are a hell of a lot funnier than some of the lolcats images, too.

Paul Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828871939234906810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15042241.post-36805385119280319632007-08-16T12:02:00.000+01:002007-08-16T12:07:29.371+01:00

In just over an hour, I'm heading to the airport to go to Scumdee Dundee. Flight's at 2.40, arrives at 3.30. I should be at the company apartment around 4.30 or 5.00, if everything goes smoothly. I doubt I'll have an internet connection there, and even if there's a port I won't have anything able to connect.According to the contract, I'm supposed to start work tomorrow at 10am, so hopefully it'll

Paul Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828871939234906810noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15042241.post-35609046620431053272007-08-08T17:14:00.000+01:002007-08-08T17:21:28.829+01:00

My jaw is on the floor. It starts off pretty slow, but if he's really playing all that stuff (on a modded version of GH2, obviously) then my God he's awesome.And, if other YouTube Guitar Hero videos are anything to go by, he's probably about eight.

Paul Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828871939234906810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15042241.post-54272938823170400782007-08-02T14:53:00.001+01:002007-08-02T15:02:55.778+01:00

Just had my exit interview at my old employer, which means - more or less - that I'm free to go whenever. I'll probably hang about til the usual time anyway, though; not in any rush to get stuck in rush-hour traffic.It's a weird feeling. I've been working in this building for four and a half years; the idea that I'm never going to be back in it after today is really quite alien.Two weeks from now

Paul Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828871939234906810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15042241.post-82846044017576161392007-08-01T14:47:00.000+01:002007-08-01T16:59:46.730+01:00

A pair of 18-year-old Canadians have designed and built an electric-powered unicycle with a top speed of 40mph, which uses similar principles to the Segway scooter to maneuver.Dubbed the Tango (or Uno, depending who's talking), the bike is based off a Yamaha R6 and was designed and built by the high school students for the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in New Mexico.It looks

Paul Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828871939234906810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15042241.post-9102226182896164882007-08-01T11:09:00.001+01:002008-09-21T23:36:54.131+01:00

...but John Oliver Olivier's Political Theatre review, of the recent Senate all-night debate over the Iraq War withdrawal, is still hilarious.

Paul Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828871939234906810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15042241.post-71121320941893415722007-07-31T14:56:00.000+01:002007-07-31T15:02:07.505+01:00

This article over at The Register is well worth the read, although I can't put my finger exactly on why.It's an opinion piece by William Davies, a sociologist, about the application of economic theory onto the internet, specifically how the theories of a guy called Gary Becker relate to Web 2.0.I realise that it sounds, from that description, very dry and boring, but in actuality it raises an

Paul Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828871939234906810noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15042241.post-54881321728346293042007-07-31T14:43:00.000+01:002007-07-31T14:50:30.647+01:00

Boing Boing's Cory Doctorow has a new column with Guardian Unlimited about copyright issues, which he admits is basically to discredit DRM (Digital Rights Management)-based sales models in a digital society, and promote what he calls "copy-friendly" methods.His first column is up today, and covers the most important stuff to know about DRM: why it will never work.The companies that sell [DRM] are

Paul Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828871939234906810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15042241.post-39265169142248171342007-07-31T14:08:00.000+01:002007-07-31T14:23:04.532+01:00

The flight to Dundee on Tuesday the 14th has apparently been cancelled - and if my previous experience with the airline in question is anything to go by, it's probably because I was the only person booked on the flight.On the other hand, it potentially gives me a couple of extra days to get stuff together for moving; what with this weekend being spent housesitting (well, really we're looking

Paul Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10828871939234906810noreply@blogger.com0