Monthly Archive for November, 2005

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Joystiq’s 48 hour Xbox 360 marathon

Published on Saturday, November 19, 2005 in Gaming, Internet, Microsoft, PC, Technology, TV's and Wireless. Closed

With news being quite scarce this morning I have nothing interesting to blog about. But I remembered that last night Joystiq started their 48 hour, non-stop, Xbox 360 marathon. They have a retail version of the 360 to try out and play with. They will, step by step, build up their entertainment centre where the 360 will ‘live’ for this 48 hours. I have made a list of the posts they have so far. seen below.

This is all they have so far, but it has been interesting to read all the posts and see the good’s and bad’s of the 360 that they have found so far. I, for one, didn’t know that the special media remote in the 360 is only limited. I thought that came as a part of the premium pack. That was quite interesting to find out.

Joystiq’s Xbox 360 site

FREE WordPress.com invite

Published on Saturday, November 19, 2005 in General and Internet. Closed

About a month and a half ago I was selected to get a free wordpress.com blog. I entered into this long before I had this blog so it wasn’t really any use to me. I have already given away 1 free invite to Lisa so you can become the next person. This is good if you want a free wordpress blog but you don’t want to pay for hosting. Or if you really don’t like the ads on Blogsome or other free wordpress providers. Have fun with it. If you would like the invite shoot me an email.

Xbox 360 shortages are not deliberate

Published on Friday, November 18, 2005 in Gaming, Microsoft and Technology. Closed

We’ve all heard the awfull news that there could be 360 shortage, and it could last up to April. But Microsoft’s Peter Moore has said that they aren’t deliberately going to create a shortage to increase demand. He says “I’ve seen all of the conspiracy theories. Somewhere in Roswell, New Mexico, we have a hangar where we’re stockpiling it, creating false shortages. No.” Could this really be possible, yes. I never thought that Microsoft would really create a shortagr, but Joystiq had a good post on why they would want to do something like this. I hope that Microsoft don’t do this because come Christmas there will be some unhappy children, and adults, under the tree. The new ‘box isn’t even onsome people’s shopping list because they “have no need” for it when the Xbox is still perfectly good. For me, I have had my Xbox for nearly 3 years and I would like an upgrade to try out the 360 and see if it lives upto expectations. And of course play everything in that beautiful HD.

PS3 controller to stay the same

Published on Friday, November 18, 2005 in Gaming and Technology. Closed

A Sony executive has denied rumors that a redesigned PS3 controller would be unveiled at CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in January of next year. With all the attention turning to the Xbox 360 because of its launch some people have forgotten about the PS3. People have been mocking it for its shockingly different style and have used hards words such as ‘boomerang’. Though it may look weird maybe it is the most comfortable thing that you will ever use. A lot of people have the perception that if it doesn’t look good then it isn’t any good. Joystiq said, “since no one has experienced the controller hands-on, perhaps Sony knows what they’re doing.” This could be true, even I have though of it. But then again I have also tried to imagine holding it, but the shape looks so un-ergonomic it doesn’t seem possible. Maybe this is a merely a way of Sony trying to cover their tracks. Either way people want a good controller that is easy to use and is comfortable to hold. We shall see in due time…

Backwards compatibility for European 360′s

Published on Friday, November 18, 2005 in Gaming, Microsoft and Technology. Closed

BTW: The above image is totally unrelated, I just thought it looked cool!

I was not aware that European Xbox 360′s will have a different backwards compatibility list. However the games that I have that weren’t on the last list, are still not on this list either. I think the only differences will be that it takes out the games that were only released to the US. This is being updated as well so check back soon. The UK list has 156 games, while the US list has over 200 .
A good comment on the Joystiq post explains why the games list isn’t the same for the UK and the US:

Each game is not exactly the same for all regions. Especially in europe where the game has to be changed to the PAL system. Therefore the emulation is seperate for each version of the game as they don’t share the exact same code. A us version may run but a europe version will not necessarily.

Special Japanese 20th Anniversary Edition Windows XP

Published on Friday, November 18, 2005 in Internet, Microsoft, PC and Technology. Closed

Microsoft will be realeasing a special edition of Windows XP only in Japan to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the first Windows.

It will feature a special “20th anniversary edition” desktop theme. Err, does that even count? What’s most interesting about this edition is everything that’s not actually Windows XP: buyers will receive replica (e.g. not working) installation CDs of Windows 95, 98, Me, and 2000, Windows box origami, memorial stamps, memorial stickers, a memorial video from the man himself, and a special early “preview” version of Windows Vista, whatever that means.
Only 9999 packages will be available, so Microsoft is also handing out freebies to a few lucky individuals. Fifty people will be able to get in on the Windows Vista technical Beta, 20 will get their packages autographed by Bill Gates, 150 will be entered into a drawing for a frame for storing the discs, and 5 people get a free trip to tour Microsoft’s headquarters out in Redmond, Washington.

It will be released on December 9th for 28,140 yen (around £125.86) and is an upgrade so you will already have to have a version of Windows installed on your machine. Who the hell would pay that much for all that crap. The only partialy interesting thing is the Windows Vista Beta. Do you really want it autographed by Bill Gates, err no. Nor would I want a trip to Microsoft HQ. Now if this was with OS X 10.5 Leopard, autographed by Steve Jobs, I got to meet him and a trip to 1 Infinite Loop, then sure. But since it is all rebadged Windows crap then no. Sorry Microsoft, but this is a really poor way to try and get people to use Windows.

Screenshots from Xbox 360 games

Published on Friday, November 18, 2005 in Gaming, Internet, Microsoft, Technology and TV's. Closed

An article on CNET has tons of pictures from Xbox 360 games including Project Gotham Racing 3 (shown above), Perfect Dark Zero, Ghost Recon 3, Quake 4, Dead or Alive 4 and many more. There are lots of screenshots and from what I have seen they look pretty good. But I’m not going to judge just yet until I seen one for myself. You know how amazed people were to see how realistic the screenshots of the PS3 were, even though they were pre-rendered images, they have no idea what those are. I mean you wouldn’t be concentrating on a single bead of sweat in a game like Splinter Cell, would you?

Engadget receives their Xbox 360

Published on Thursday, November 17, 2005 in Gaming, Internet, Microsoft, Technology, TV's and Wireless. Closed

I really don’t get how everyone manages to get their hands on a 360 before launch. It is really annoying me, and I won’t get mine until Christmas (thanks Santa !) Engadget has lots of photos of them opening the box of the 360 and these are high quality pictures unlike that video of the 360′s box being opened. Photos include the shipping box, retail box, cables and other good stuff. I’ll leave you to drool on the pictures.
One thing to note is that after seeing the ‘box with the hard drive on it, it makes it seem a bit weird to me. The console and the controller is white and the hard drive is a grey colour that makes it stand out and seem unnatural, well to me anyway.

Counterfeiter sends printer to repair with money inside

Published on Thursday, November 17, 2005 in Random Stuff and Technology. Closed

I saw this on Engadget and I had to laugh. So these guys were printing fake dollars and their printer crashes. The money is jammed in so they send it off to be repaired but they didn’t remove the money jammed inside. So they got busted for printing $160 000 of money in Arizona. Now those are criminals who are stupidly dumb. Reminds me of the stuff I see on ‘America’s Dumbest Criminals’.

Office:mac has arrived

Published on Thursday, November 17, 2005 in Apple, General, Internet, Microsoft and Technology. Closed

So my dad is a doctor (anaesthetist to be more precise – that is anaesthesiologist for you Americans!) at our local hospital and Microsoft, strangely, is running an offer with the NHS to ‘give’ employees a ‘free’ copy of Office 2004 for Mac. I say ‘free’ because you have to order it from Microsoft through email (I think) and pay a ridiculous £16 for postage. CD icon in OS X Although it comes from Germany there is no way that for such a tiny package you would have to pay a postage of £15. It is is just probably Microsoft’s way of getting money and make people believe it is ‘free’. Anyway I have installed it and it was around 400MB. It’s not too much considering the amount of space that Office for Windows takes up. But this only contains Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Entourage (like Outlook for Mac). Well what can I say, at least it was ‘free’.
The DVD case that it came in was plain and dull, and inside it contained an extra EULA (End-User License Agreement) which I really didn’t bother to look through, nor would anyone else. Microsoft did make a mistake though, I’m not sure if you can see on the image above (the EULA is on the left) and at the bottom there is red text. Well it says “… OR AS A PART OF A MICROSOFT LICENSE PAK…“. So they spelled pack wrong. Though maybe that’s how Microsoft spell it, who knows. I will be using my Office for many things, mostly school work, doh!
I forgot to mention that it is interesting to see the Microsoft and Mac logo on the same CD and box. This normally never occurs. I bet Microsoft were so angry about that, they were probably swearing to Bill Gates .