NFS:Underground & LittleBigPlanet

Published on 28 November, 2008 in Life and Technology. 0 Comments

Those are the best PS3 games ever! :)

Bought LittleBigPlanet first thinking it would be a bit of a laugh as it’s clearly designed for younger children, but maybe just because I am childish, I find it great! :) The fact that more or less the whole game is user generated content makes it exciting, sure there is built in levels that you can work up on if you don’t have online access but once you have signed in to PSN all the other user designed levels show up and you can play and even edit them yourself. If you wish you can choose to start with a blank canvas and create you own level, this can be played alone, shared with only friends or shared to the whole world if you wish. It so creative and you can spend hours just playing around with it. Totally recommend the game! :D

My Audi TT in NFS:Underground.

Secondly I pre-ordered Need For Speed Underground from Tesco with my staff discount, it came last Friday and since then I haven’t been able to put it down. It’s the most addictive game I have played to date. It’s a basic story line that you are an undercover cop that is trying to take out a network of smugglers. You take part in events and races to gain their trust but ultimately you have to take them down. The amount of car modifications you can make is dazzling and every car can truly be your own, it’s much better than the previous NFS (ProStreet). Physics also seems a lot better with cars actually moving them in the way you expect rather than tapping the control and you car goes flying into the nearest wall. Races and such are rewarding and you get cars and other points that gets you discount on parts. Overall a very good and addictive game, I have only been playing it for a week and I am at 70% complete already.

MacBook

Published on 7 November, 2008 in Life and Technology. 4 Comments

Got my new MacBook on Monday, have been using it almost non stop for the past 4 days and I have to say it’s a good laptop that seems to be built well however there are a few issues with it.

First the good points:

The looks, as usual it looks great, the aluminium is a great material and the way it’s manufactured (UniBody) makes for a sturdy laptop that can be picked up from the edge with the laptops weight placed on that edge and there is no flex at all, same with the display, it’s really thin thanks to the LED technology and has no flex as it’s all one block of aluminium.

The power, thanks to the 2.4Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo processor and 4GB of DDR3 RAM the laptop is nippy and does everything quickly. The new 9400M means that it also plays 1080p without any hassle which was a no go on the old MacBook with stuttering and stuff.

The trackpad, this thing is great, although it’s made of glass don’t be put off, it feels nothing like glass and is nice and big. There is plenty of space to move around in and this makes Drop ‘N’ Drag easy to do with one finger. There is also no button as the whole trackpad is a button, personally I never used the buttons anyway preferring to tap to click so this hasn’t really affected me so cannot comment how it feels to people that have always used the button. Right click is much better to as it can be assigned to the right hand corner meaning that you simply click or tap where the right hand button should be and it works rather than the unusual two finger tap like the old MacBook’s had. However under Bootcamp the trackpad is a disaster and multi-touch is not supported, right click is also nearly impossible. This seems to be a driver issue that Apple hopefully resolves sometimes soon.

Now on to the bad:

The screen, this is quite disappointing considering the price, I was expecting it to have the same screen as the MacBook Air which by the way is excellent. Unfortunately this is not the case, they have put in an LG screen which doesn’t have good viewing angles and out the box looks washed out, when this has been calibrated it does look much better and is defiantly usable but for the price I was expecting better and it can be done as it’s clearly done in the MacBook Air. However I didn’t get any dead pixels so I was quite happy about that aspect of the screen.

The keyboard, the black keyboard on the aluminium body looks the part and the backlighting is nice, the white is a good choice of colour unlike some tacky keyboards that use colours that are dull and useless. The backlighting is quite bright and is spread evenly with no bright or dull patches, the ambient light sensor is also quite good as it adjusts the screen and backlight brightness to make it look best in the current light. However the keyboard also has two major problems, all the F (F2,F4 for example) are slanted to the left with the right slightly raised, this is really annoying and shows to me that Apple just don’t have decent quality control. Also the spacebar squeaks from time to time which can be annoying when typing in a quiet environment, it appears that it is rubbing against the aluminium body, this may cause long term ware of they key but that will have to be checked in the future.

Overall the MacBook is a decent laptop and I would say even with it’s few problems that is still worth the slightly higher price, the new aluminium body seems more stable and resilient than the old plastic MacBook’s. However the slanted keys and the not up to par screen is annoying for a laptop the price of the new MacBook, I chose the highest model and added 4GB RAM which brought the price very close to the Pro range which apparently have a much better screen but still not as good as the Air, as the Air is a 13.3″ display I don’t see why Apple didn’t use it in the new MacBook. I am happy with my laptop and it ticks all the right boxes for what I use it for.

Would be happy to hear from any one that has the new MacBook to see if my problems are universal or wither I got the dodgy laptop. Hope this review helps people that are looking to purchase the new MacBook, best advice to anyone that is, try and get to a retail outlet and have a look at it before purchasing it.

New WordPress Plus Extra Goodies

Published on 24 October, 2008 in Technology and Website. 0 Comments

Firstly that’s the blog updated with the latest version of WordPress. After this I had noticed that the pages were taking a little while to load mostly due to the large amount of PHP scripts running in the background, I think began looking at a way to solve these problems, it turns out most of these outputs were not changing from hour to hour hence the PHP scripts did not have to be run every hour.

I began looking at caching pages, this seemed OK but didn’t want to cache the pages for too long as they would not show up comments and new posts until the cache had been re-built, however after searching I found the handy little plugin WP-Cache, this is now installed and setup, the main blog and all the PHP stuff is cached for an hour then renewed whenever someone visits again, I may increase this time as the blog ain’t that busy. However we will see how it goes with an hour and how many times it expires without visits and make changes over the next few days, if you notice anything weird going on even if you think it’s not related, leave a comment or use the contact me form and hopefully I will be able to get it fixed. :P

In a bid to make the blog more search engine friendly I have also installed the All In One SEO pack, I have used this before but never managed to get it working the way I wanted, however this time everything seems well and it has made some subtle changes to the blog, hopefully this works and I make my way up Google! :)

New MacBook!

Published on 19 October, 2008 in Life and Technology. 3 Comments

Well resisting the temptation went well, I have placed my order for a new MacBook! Read on to find out more! :D

I choose the flagship MacBook and added choose the 4GB RAM option, that should make it snappy. Was up at the Apple shop ordering it and it looked really nice, if you are thinking the thing was ugly (like I was) believe me it’s just the pictures, in real life it’s much smaller and thinner than you expect and the backlight keyboard is really nice, also comparing my old MacBook the screen is 100000x better, gone are the weird gradient issues and uneven backlighting, the screen on the new one is very, very bright and good quality.

While I was up at the Apple store I also bought an AirPort Express, this is to create a Wireless N network for my Mac devices and also to share the printer with Windows clients, what a pain to, it fried my first printer (no, really) and I had to acquire an E setup pson R300 which works well but Jamie & I tracked the problem down to Vista, all went well until we tried to print from Vista and then the printer suddenly powered down and when we powered it back on it had fried the chips on two ink cartridges meaning the printer didn’t even think they were inserted. We tried the new R300 with Vista and although it didn’t fry the printer it caused it to display the “Paper Jam” error even although it hadn’t even took the paper in yet! :(

So now we have removed Vista from the equation and shared the already shared printer (confusing eh?!) from my sister’s PC that is running XP, so when the Vista laptop prints it goes to sister’s PC which then sends it to the AirPort then to the printer, this is working fine even although it is a tad complicated.

Unfortunately since I bought the MacBook at University to receive the HE discount which you cannot get in-store I will not receive my MacBook until the 5th of November so better start the waiting game, will promise some unboxing pictures and a mini review once received. :)

Woo! MacBooks!

Published on 16 October, 2008 in Life and Technology. 4 Comments

Well yesterday the new MacBooks were announced, they didn’t look too hot in the grainy pictures coming from live blogs and I was quite worried that they wouldn’t look nice in real life, I shouldn’t have doubted Apple as once the website was back up and there was some high quality images up it looked quite good, took a bit getting used to like the aluminium iMac did but I think I have got used to it already and find it really sexy!

Due to the weak dollar, the countries that have a good currency (ie the UK) have suffered in the pricing with it being hiked right up, this is disgusting and Apple need to have another look at international pricing and stop basing everything on USA. The top end MacBook costs $1,599 over in the USA, a direct currency conversion makes it £928, but Apple actually charge us £1,149. A £221 difference simply for living in another country! :(

I also find it really stupid that they are keeping what is now old generations still on sale, they have done this with MacBook (with the white plastic model still being on sale), the MacBook Pro (the 17″ old style case still one sale) and the new Cinema Display (with the 20″,23″ & 30″ with old casings and display technologies still one sale), why do this, it has baffled most people and I personally don’t see the point in it.

Lastly after that rant I am actually going to buy a MacBook, top of the range for the extra processor power, bigger HDD and of course the backlight keyboard which is useful. However because the RAM is DDR3 the prices from Apple and other memory sellers such as Crucial is actually about the same for once, the extra 2GB RAM will cost me £84 (due to student discount), would love to hear from readers if they think I should or not as I am really undecided? :)

Also get free iPod Nano (£54 extra for 16GB), 3 Years Free AppleCare, £60 towards a printer. To go well with the MacBook I am going to purchase the AirPort express to create a Mac friendly wireless network as the current Netgear doesn’t actually work with AirPorts and the whole experiment with Linkys devices has went disastrously wrong with both devices now been returned to the sellers, thanks to William though who did help even after I had bugged and bugged him. :) The AirPort express will also allow wireless printing, does anyone know if this works with Windows as I would love to use it with the two Windows machines in my house? :P

New laptops tomorrow!

Published on 13 October, 2008 in Life and Technology. 2 Comments

After long, long waits plus a bucket load of rumours the new Apple laptops will finally be revealed tomorrow, hopefully Apple do something real good with them as I am looking to purchase one and want a good bit of computer for my money.

My wish-list is as followed:
+ Option of BluRay drive.
+ Do away with the Combo drive (come on it’s nearly 2009).
+ Decent graphics chip, away from the Intel integrated rubbish.
+ Fingerprint scanner (having a laugh with this one).
+ Multi touch touchpad (keeping in line with the previous pro releases.
+ More RAM as standard (2GB?) and decent amount of HDD space.
+ Lastly, a decent LED display.

Also since my Netgear doesn’t work with AirPorts of any kind (tested with MacBook, iMac & Mac Mini) I have been on the lookout for a new Wireless Router, after trying out some new Wireless N Belkin & Netgear routers which were rubbish since they didn’t allow some advanced configuration to be done, I then seen William’s post about running a Linksys WRT54GL with the Tomato or other (DD-WRT etc) firmware on it and that looks amazing, I have since purchased said router which is coming tomorrow in time for the Apple announcement so will have to play about with that and get it all setup and hope the AirPort likes it.

So plan for this week is as followed:

Tomorrow, press F5 until the button has been wore away watching live blogs of the Apple event, meanwhile configuring my new Linksys WRT54GL router.
Then if I like what Apple have done go and purchase the laptop on Friday. :)

Ibiza & Stuff

Published on 11 October, 2008 in Life, Technology and Website. 1 Comment

The title kind of says it all, I am all booked up to go to Ibiza next July with Jamie, this was a secret arrangement as Jamie’s ticket to go was for his eighteenth birthday but unfortunately due to all the flying regulations now he has to sign all the paperwork himself meaning I had to tell him a month before his birthday but I am certain he is still happy! :)

Managed to get a good deal at the travel agents, one week all inclusive to San Antonio Bay, Ibiza, the all inclusive will be good as it allows us to save all the money for going out at night to the notorious night clubs as we will be spending no money at the hotel during the day. :P The woman at Thomas Cook also chucked in free travel insurance for both of us as it was a birthday! :)

Hopefully have a great time, and while were on the subject might as well say Happy Early 18th Birthday Jamie! :)

Now onto other less exciting things, I have updated the theme slightly and removed some harsh whiteness away which should be easier on the eyes, contact form seems to be working again but please don’t be angry if you don’t get a reply as it’s still temperamental, simply send an email to pr(at)declan(dot)biz as it goes to the same address anyway. :P

Also bought myself a new iPod Nano 4G, I choose the Blue 8GB version, to say it’s thin is an understatement, almost too thin and feels quite fragile but the Apple’s build quality is still great, got some new earphones to go with it, the V-Moda Vibe in Chrome (pictured above), these are not as good as the ER-6i’s I have but make good on the go earphones and cut out all the in-ear fuss the ER-6i causes.

One more thing, (Steve’s favourite sentence), the date has finally been announced for the new Apple laptops. :) Thank god, have been waiting for the new MacBook since forever, Aluminium enclosures sure look sexy, I have the money waiting and will order as soon as they become available, as my mum is at University doing a degree in Nursing I will be able to take advantage of the Back To School offer, firstly as it’s HE I will get 14% off the purchase price of the laptop, plus a £95 rebate towards any iPod (looking to upgrade to a 16GB) and a £60 rebate towards a printer, not to mention the free 3 year Apple Care warranty. :)

Logitech RMA's

Published on 22 September, 2008 in Life and Technology. 0 Comments

Recently the scroll wheel on my Logitech MX Revolution mouse has went wonky and the rubber band round it has come off completely making it impossible to move the wheel, this is really annoying and since the scroll wheel is a major selling point of this mouse with it’s SmartShift feature I really wanted this fixed. I contacted Logitech and got a real quick reply telling me to take a picture of the defective item and send a copy of the receipt. This was a problem as I had got the mouse from Logitech in a previous RMA for a G7 Gaming Mouse, so emailed them back explaining the situation. Then the email I wasn’t expecting came back, they said this was not a problem as long as I smashed up the mouse and sent them a picture of it. Here is the exact quote from the email:

If you do not have the receipt for the device, then you need to send us the pictures of the device clearly written on a sheet of paper and kept next to the device, showing the mouse in such a state, that it cannot be reused by anyone.

However the best part of the email has to be:

Please ensure that you do not hurt yourself physically during this process.

I will be glad to proceed with the shipment of new mouse only after I receive the above pictures of the destroyed mouse.

I think we are seeing a secret violent side to Logitech. :P Who’s complaining, I am getting my mouse replaced and have had nothing except first class customer service. The emails also give me a laugh, it’s certainly the first time a company has asked me to smash something up. :)

Here is the final result which was sent to Logitech:

Google Chrome

Published on 3 September, 2008 in Technology and Website. 0 Comments

As you may, or may not know Google has released a new browser called Chrome. I downloaded this today for a look and I am thankful I did.

Not only is the interface cleaner than Firefox and even Safari it is also noticeably much faster, the software is currently only in BETA but so far I haven’t seen any bugs and it’s managed everything that I have thrown at it.

A couple of things I like about it are:

Built in spell checker, yes I know there are plugins out there for other browsers but it’s great for it to come for one.

Every new tab is a separate process, even the plugins within a webpage are separate processes, this means that if a tab or a plugin within a tab crashes your browser window is unharmed with only the crashed plugin or tab getting closed.

The interface is mega clean, there is nothing to interrupt your browsing experience, all the loading bars fade onto the screen when something is loading and then fade out again when done, there is not windows for downloads etc with them also using the same fading technique as the loading bar.

It’s very, very fast, it’s based upon the same WebKit technology as Safari but it’s put to better use in Chrome and it shows with the speed that pages load, even those with intense plugins such as Java is not an issue anymore.

Sadly like most good things there is down sides, the only one being that it’s not available for OS X yet, I don’t know of Google’s plans, hopefully it does intend to release the browser for OS X as expected due to it’s WebKit roots.

Overall this is looking a promising piece of software, I will be happy to use the BETA for the weeks coming as it looks much nicer than Firefox and I just refuse to use Safari on Windows. I hope there is some more features to get added with coming versions and I also look forward to the Mac version if there is ever going to be one. :) To have a go yourself download it here.

To show what I mean about the pure cleanness of the browser window here is a screenshot of Chrome with my blog loaded within it:

Been Busy

Published on 28 August, 2008 in Life, School and Technology. 0 Comments

Sorry for the lack of posts this month, been really busy.

Let’s start with the basics, I am now back at school studying the following subjects:

Higher English
Higher Business Management
Higher Administration
Higher Product Design
Higher Modern Studies

Pretty good subject choices that cover a range of different university courses meaning my choices are not restricted to anything in particular which is a good thing since I secretly change me mind all the time! :)

Plus since Tesco is quite low in staff just now I have also been getting a lot of overtime which is a great bonus meaning my wage will be quite large this month and allow me to buy lots of gear, currently thinking about upgrading my network to Wireless N since my current router is not playing too nice, at the start of the post you can see the nice Belkin N1 router I am looking at but Jamie does not approve saying it looks like a toy. Looks OK in my opinion but your comments are welcome! :P

Since Tesco are looking for a few people to fill spaces that have became available I managed to get Jamie an application form so good luck to him! Might be working alongside me soon. God that will be scary, might not actually get any work done with the amount of talking we do.

On the laptop front things are good, it finally came back from Comet for the second time all fixed up and the dead pixel gone, thankfully I choose to send it back again because it would have done my head in as-well as lower the resale value when I finally get round to replacing the machine later on.

Finally on the random side of things, I have updated all the pages on the blog to the new education and desktop pictures which had fell behind a few months, I did actually have the images sitting just not had the chance to upload them. I have also moved to the iPod Touch 2.0 firmware which I said earlier I hated and I now actually like the AppStore and can’t stop playing Bejeweled 2. :D