Happy New Year 2011/2012

Happy New Year everybody.

If it's new years, it must be DJ Earworm mashup time.



Have a great party, wherever you are.

Supertools: Image Resizer for Windows 7

Image Resizer was super useful back in XP times... if I remember correctly it was part of 'powertools'.
An official version doesn't exist for Windows 7 / Vista, but luckily an awesome chap has taken it upon himself to replicate it.

This is truly a 'supertool', definitely a keeper. Super useful, saves loading up an image program or, God forbid, Abobe Bridge.

imageresizer.codeplex.com/

UPDATE: I have found this newer version (Image Resizer 3 preview 2) to be a bit slow... not sure if it's just me, but I recommend using the previous version (Image Resizer 2.1) - version 2.1 download

Early sales, any bargains out there?

I hoped to scour the net and find some great bargains on games / hardware.

Unfortunately I can't seem to find any. Our plucky chums in the US of A can grab a kinect sensor for $99 $106.74 (?!) which is a nice deal (from amazon.com), my British chums can grab one for £79.99 (from amazon.co.uk) which, depending on whether the economy has made another wild swing recently, is fairly similar but a bit more. Which we are used to.

Total War: Shogun II is a tenner at play.com which is a pretty decent price. Not sure why this game has been so hugely discounted so quickly, but let's not complain.

I'll try to add more as I find them.

Amazon UK was discounting Battlefield 3 (BF3) at £16 but they ran out in 10 minutes. And I didn't get one. Frowny face.

Merry Christmas everyone, and here's looking forward to a good new years party.

Last minute Christmas cards 50% off

If you forgot to get a clever card for your gran, grab 50% off at funkypigeon.com (they are a bit like moonpig, with a possibly more ridiculous name).

Enter the code 67648015 in the funkypigeon.com promo code box and you'll get your card hard price. Errr, half price. Freudian slip?

Anywah, cash bonus!

67648015 @ funkypigeon.com

Use Live Mesh to synchronise desktops

Windows Live Mesh is awesome. People usually prefer to bad mouth Microsoft products but it's just a ridiculous and pointless thing to do, especially when they are undeniably useful (and pretty darn neat).

I recently acquired a second laptop. It's more powerful and better in almost every way than my old one but it has taken me ages to migrate, just because my old laptop feels like 'home'. I just discovered the synchronise function within Google Chrome, which copies all your favourites (but not themes..?) using your google account, which is great. But I didn't find that early enough to stop me discovering Windows Live Mesh.

You see, I didn't know Chrome could do it. So I had used Mesh to keep the Chrome user data folder synchronised instead (which worked perfectly). Actually it works better than Chrome's own function, because it syncs your theme and your cookies too, meaning everything was already logged in etc etc etc. Anyhoo, I thought maybe it would be nice to synchronise the contents of my desktop. All my messy icons that I can't live without. And now that I've done it, I am glad I did because I suddenly feel at home here on the new machine. I could have just copied everything, but where's the geeky sense of discovery in that?

Also, I now use both machines (with Synergy - don't use the beta it's shite!). The only thing missing from Synergy is drag-dropping files. Now I just copy to my desktop, and in a few seconds the file is on the desktop on both machines! An excessive method, but it works.



I used the Windows 7 'Problem Steps Recorder' to take screenshots of the necessary steps. In case you don't know of this, it's another clever MS tool that they kept quiet about. Tap in 'psr' to the 'finder' bar (ahem..) and it will pop up at the top of the list. Every time you click it takes a screeny, then compiles them together in an (annoying) mhtml file. Great for troubleshooting someone elses machine!

Step 1 - load up the Mesh window. I guess step 0 would be to download and install it... it's part of the 'Windows Live Essentials' suite, so google that. You can choose whether to take the whole lot (which includes Live Mail, which is pretty decent, and Live Messenger etc) or just pick Mesh out of the selection.

Be sure to install on both your machines (duh) and log in to both of them with your same windows live account (or 'hotmail account' as us old folks call them).

Click on 'sync a folder'.

Choose your folder. In this case we are going to use 'desktop'.

At this point it will ask you where to share with. I had already swivelled over to the other computer at this point, so I clicked it afterwards (which works just the same).

Jump on your other machine. Enjoy my censored desktop. Just a couple of personal pictures I didn't really want to share. No, not those kind of pictures.

You should see that your folder has appeared here, waiting longingly to be synced! So to oblige its desires, click on 'sync this folder'.

You'll be asked where you want the files to go. For our desired effect of synchronising the contents of our desktops, we obviously want to put the items onto this computers 'desktop'.

Mesh starts doing its thang. At this point, it will combine the contents of the two folders. My 'new' desktop was totally empty, so it just copied from the old one.

Swivelling back to 'cartman' we see the window that I neglected to click on earlier. However we also see that Mesh has already worked its magic! Our icons have appeared on the desktop! Click on the machine you wish to sync with (I only have two connected to my live account but it could be more) and dismiss the window.

And we're done! You'll see I am also syncing a folder called 'Chrome' which contains three different user directories (for logging into three accounts... it's complicated, but Mesh makes it nice and simple to have my ridiculous setup on two machines at once!).

Remember now... if you delete something from one of these desktops, it will go from both! Recycle bins still work, of course, but just don't forget this important point.

So there we have it. Syncing your desktops across machines is very very easy thanks to this nifty tool.
Hating MS isn't fashionable any more anyway; we're supposed to be cynical of Google now. Or Apple. Or both...

Live Mesh is available for Windows (duh) and (what!!) Mac OS X. I believe you can also get at it on fancy mobile devices. The service uses your live-account-tied SkyDrive and has 5GB of storage set aside for syncing stuff. For most people that would probably allow for all your documents I would have thought.

It can also sync your IE and Office settings. Actually, I tried IE9 the other day and it's nice... nooo I can't become that much of an MS fanboy!

Windows Live Essentials @ live.com (download)

Windows Live Mesh @ wikipedia.org (background info)

Does anyone else remember 'briefcase' in Windows 95?

Synergy on daft double network setups

I thought networking was super duper easy these days. Guess not. This is a bit of a long rant so settle in.

I had a very over subscribed wireless network in my flat, mainly down to me downloading lots of torrents which I then move to my NAS, from which I'm almost constantly watching aforementioned downloads. The NAS was previously attached to the wireless router, and my two laptops and mac mini all connected to the router using these magic wireless rays.

I decided I'd have a little local wired network for my computers and hard disk (no-one else uses it). It was a bad idea.

This seemed simple. It was the only solution given the equipment I had at hand, so it was the one I went for. In fact, it works! However I have more annoying demands than this. I use 'Synergy' to use all three of my machines from a single keyboard and mouse. This was another compelling reason for a wired network as the wireless wasn't really good enough for it. This is also what caused most problems.

Getting Windows machines to talk to each other without a router (the DHCP portion of it, in particular) seems actually harder than it was with previous versions (XP / even 98). Windows insists that a network as such be given the 'public network' rules, which make some things harder. For some reason the machines can't ping each other while in this 'public network', and Synergy can't connect by ip either.

The way I got around it, in the bizarre event that anyone has the same problem, is to set the following options.
Machine 1: IP 10.1.1.1 subnet 255.0.0.0 gateway 10.1.1.3 (doesn't exist)
Machine 2: IP 10.1.1.2 subnet 255.0.0.0 gateway 10.1.1.3 (still doesn't exist)
Machine 3: IP 10.1.1.5 subnet 255.0.0.0 gateway 10.1.1.3 (...)
hard disk on auto (seems to work)

The weird trick seems to be that Windows 7 only lets you define a 'home' or 'work' network if you specify a gateway. Even if the gateway doesn't exist. Once I got this set up (finally), Synergy agreed to talk. Another point, don't use the Synergy 1.4.5 beta. It's shit. 1.3.8 is harder to set up but it works much better. The beta gave me very intermittent success.

Of course, the sensible solution would have been not to attempt any of this.

For the price of a 5 metre ethernet cable, everything could be on one simple automagically managed network. No hassles here, plus the hard disk becomes accessible to the whole network through the wireless, while [in theory] still maintaining a speed advantage for locally (wired) connected machines.

I felt like an idiot doing this, and it took many hours. But it works. And Synergy works much better wired than wireless. Plus with the static IPs, Synergy can start automatically and have no bother finding it's mate.

I will be buying a cable though...

BBC declares war on 3G bandwidth

iOS users (you flash gits) can now stream iPlayer content to their iPhones or iPads over 3G. iSay...

Ok that wasn't funny. Here's what the BBC had to say, although this is the BBC news report on the BBC released information, which is something slightly hard to get ones head around but means, in theory, it's an outsiders opinion of it.

The BBC said it had worked closely with network operators, but analysts fear it could put their systems under strain.
"One potential danger is that people are going to run up unexpectedly high data bills, and the other is the strain that this is going to put on the system if a lot of people start streaming in this way," said Neil McCartney, a telecoms analyst at McCartney media.
"The system would default to prioritise voice calls, so it wouldn't affect voice calls, but it would mean that people would be unable to use their data services."

The service comes to appleTV devices too, but no-one has those do they?

news.bbc.co.uk

Christmas / Holiday sale at gog.com

Finally, we’re starting our winter sale with a huge bang--we’re giving anyone a free copy of Empire Earth Gold Edition for 48 hours. Starting on Monday 12 December at 11.00 GMT and running until Wednesday 14 December at 10.59 GMT, anyone can add Empire Earth: Gold Edition to his or her shopping cart for free as a holiday gift from us to you!
Also, starting on Monday at 11.00 GMT, GOG.com is adding virtually every single game in our catalog for 50% off from now until 2 January 2012. Pick up games from fantastic publishers and developers like EA,Interplay, Atari, Activision, Sierra, and many more for half off this holiday season!

With an incredible 50% off Holiday Promo, we hope that we’ve solved all your holiday shopping needs, whether its an action-packed shooter like Painkiller for your cousin Timmy, a great thinking-man’s chess game like Chessmaster 9000 for your Uncle Bob, or even a restaurant-management simulation likeRestaurant Empire to try and encourage your crazy roommate to learn how to cook, you will be able to pick it all up from GOG.com at incredible holiday savings!

Not bad. Everyone loves a bargain, free stuff is even better.

New to Xbox 360 - roaming profiles! Finally!

No more 'recover profile' bullshit. This is good news, much easier to go round a mates house and thrash out some MW3 without giving the xp to one of your chump buddies or using their shite classes.

Using the new Xbox 360 cloud storage

Thanks major!

Christmas gifts from Apple for your iDevice

You and your friends can download a fantastic selection of songs, music videos, apps and books for free. Each download will only be available for 24 hours. Get our special 12 Days of Christmas app to make it even easier to access your gifts while you’re on the go.

Requirements: Compatible with iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPod touch (3rd generation), iPod touch (4th generation) and iPad. Requires iOS 4.3 or later.

Apparently it was alright last year. It's free, what can be bad?

itunes.apple.com

The future of xbox is now! (and in a bit)

From Major Nelson:

On Tuesday, December 6th the latest update to the Xbox 360 dashboard will be available to consoles around the world. In addition to new and updated features, if you have Kinect you’ll be able to say it and Xbox will find it with Bing Search.

Today we also announced the following partners and apps are coming soon to Xbox 360:
Dec. 6:
• EPIX. United States
• ESPN on Xbox LIVE (ESPN). United States
• Hulu. Japan
• Hulu Plus. United States
• LOVEFiLM. United Kingdom
• Netflix. Canada, United States
• Premium Play by (MediaSet). Italy
• Sky Go (SkyDE). Germany
• Telefónica España – Movistar Imagenio. Spain
• TODAY (MSNBC). United States

Later in December:
• 4 on Demand (C4). United Kingdom
• ABC iView (Australian Broadcasting Corp.). Australia
• AlloCiné. France (AlloCiné), Germany (Filmstarts), Spain (Sensacine), United Kingdom (Screenrush)
• Astral Media’s Disney XD (Astral Media). Canada
• blinkbox (Blinkbox). United Kingdom
• Crackle (Sony Pictures). Australia, Canada, United Kingdom, United States
• Dailymotion. Available in 32 countries globally
• Demand 5 (Five). United Kingdom
• DIGI+ (CANAL+). Spain
• GolTV (Mediapro). Spain
• iHeartRadio (Clear Channel). United States
• Mediathek/ZDF (ZDF). Germany
• MSN. Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, United Kingdom
• MSNBC.com. United States
• MUZU.TV. Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom
• ninemsn. Australia
• Real Sports (Maple Leaf Sports). Canada
• Rogers On Demand Online (Rogers Media). Canada
• SBS ON DEMAND. Australia
• TMZ (Warner Bros.). Canada, United States
• TVE (RTVE.es). Spain
• UFC on Xbox LIVE (UFC). Canada, United States
• Verizon FiOS TV. United States
• VEVO. Canada, Ireland, United Kingdom, United States
• Vudu (Wal-Mart). United States
• YouTube. Available in 24 countries globally
Early 2012:
• Antena 3 (Antena 3 de Televisión). Spain
• BBC (BBC). United Kingdom
• CinemaNow (Best Buy). United States
• HBO GO (HBO). United States
• MLB.TV (MLB Advanced Media). Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Columbia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Russia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, United Kingdom, United States
• Telenovelas/Sports (Televisa). Brazil, Chile, Colombia, France, Italy, Mexico, Spain, United Kingdom
• Xfinity On Demand (Comcast). United States

BBC! Finally! Can it be true? I notice it doesn't say 'iPlayer', but I don't think I should read too much into that... should I? The problem with iPlayer, as I understand, was always that Microsoft wanted to charge for it (i.e. gold members only) but that's very much against the BBC's code of conduct. Either it will be free (silver), or it will be some kind of two tier premium service, or the BBC will sell out...

It's a pretty long list of stuff, but most of it (unfortunately) is just playing catch-up with set-top boxes, blu-ray players and that big lump of Sony merchandise they call the 'ps3'.

The kinect stuff is pretty nice but I'm still not totally sold on the idea of talking to my television. Despite my reservations I do expect it will take off... it could be a nice technology to have built into televisions and computer monitors some time soonish (replacing traditional webcams). This update might also help push a few more kinects into homes (ooh and look, it's Christmas, how bloody convenient!)

majornelson.com

South Park: RPG (2012)

So, err, this sounds weird...

You'll play the silent protagonist; a new kid in town attempting to fit in. You'll be able to customise your character fully, with five classes to choose from - wizard, paladin, adventurer, rogue and an undisclosed class made up by Cartman at the beginning of the game. The combat system is likened to that of Paper Mario. Melee attacks will need to be performed with well-timed succession for multiple hits.
There will be melee and ranged weapons, all of which you'll be able to upgrade with various abilities; fire, electricity, posion, that sort of thing.
The game will run on the Dungeon Siege III engine and will remain in the same 2D style as the TV show - apparently a screenshot from the game looks like it could be from an episode.

http://ve3d.ign.com/articles/news/63172/South-Park-The-Game-Details-Emerge

Parker and Stone really enjoy rpgs and they do think that rpgs are the best fit for southpark.
-They were asked of how making a rpg story differs for an episode, they say that the learning curve was be bigger than anything they have done other then their Broadway musical.
-Visual and Visual style seen in episodes like “Good Times With Weapons”, or the live action hamsters in “Pandemic” will not be in the game they want to keep a simple 2D style.
-Parker has been a lifelong gamers, he really likes rpgs because he like the singleplayer nature of them so he doesn’t like or get MMO’s. His favorite game is Oblivion.
-Matt when he was young used to play the old Infocom game and Wizardry and likes open world games like Arkham City, Infamous, Grand Theft Auto, Red Dead Redemption, and also hockey and soccer games. He mention that he is more of a button masher and remember Serious Sam because he likes to shoot shit and blow shit up but he is now more interested in games like Arkham City and he hasn’t play a RPG in year because he got tired of walking everywhere. His favorite game is FIFA and he mentions getting his ass kick online by kids with English Accents.
-Lastly they joke how this Southpark game will be a cross between Obilivion and FIFA were “you gotta go kill a bunch of monsters and shit but you can only use your feet.”
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=454179

So uh yeah... sounds mighty odd.

I don't know if much more information is available in the 'exclusive' magazine article; besides I'm sure it will all be on blogs/forums within seconds of people getting it anyway. Let's hope it's good!

Thanks to a collaboration with THQ and Obsidian, Parker and Stone are writing the script, performing the dialogue, and overseeing the development of South Park: The Game. Unlike the cash-in Acclaim titles from over a decade ago, this ambitious project is a full-scale RPG for the Xbox 360, Playstation 3, and PC. As the new kid in South Park, it'll be up to you to make friends and defend the town from a wide range of threats. Be sure to check out our January issue for all the details, as well as an interview with Parker and Stone themselves.

gameinformer.com

New Xbox dashboard coming on the 6th

While many of you have been involved in the Xbox LIVE Preview Program and have been busy getting an early look at the next Xbox 360 and Xbox LIVE features, I wanted to let you know that the official release for the update for all Xbox LIVE members will be Tuesday, December 6th.  In this update, free to all console owners,  you will see:
New personal and social features including Cloud Storage for Game Saves and LIVE Profile
Beacons and Facebook Sharing
Enhanced Family Settings
Integrated voice and gesture controls across the dashboard and in apps
Bing voice search (Available this year in the US, UK and CA)
In addition to all these great dashboard features, starting on December 6th and continuing on an ongoing basis through the holiday months, a wealth of new content will be coming to Xbox 360. New, customized applications for television, movies, internet videos, sports and music will begin rolling out from world-leading providers in more than 20 countries.
http://majornelson.com/2011/11/22/xbox-360-dashboard-update-coming-december-6th/

The 'cloud storage' sounds like a pretty nice idea. As long as it's free (hotmail / spaces storage is free so I suppose it probably will be). No more using up your hard disk / internal storage for save games. Actually I get a bit annoyed on the new xbox that there are two places to save, and I always forget where my games are. It's only two tries to get it right, but one storage location would be nice. Plus loading games on another console will be a benefit (only to a select few people, granted, but I am one of those).

Voice / gesture, blah blah, I don't have a kinect yet like (I think) most people, but I can't deny it looks a bit fun.



Unsurprisingly it looks a bit Windows 8-esque. Which I think works here (and absolutely not on a Windows desktop, but let's not get into that...)


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