So, yeah first post this month and it’s been more than 2 weeks since my last post!  I could has sworn it was at least a mont, but there you go.  Anyway, I guess I should be mentioning that’s been going on in my world since I last updated (though I really need to start writing in my LiveJournal again instead!).  First of all, I’ve been looking for a job, and out of the 3 places I’ve applied to, I’ve gotten 2 rejections so far.  The third company (which coincidentally is the first one I applied to) has yet to respond to me, but I’m told by my employment advisor that’s a good thing, so I’m going with that now, even if I am a little on edge over the whole affair.  Oddly enough, the last company I applied for is actually the first to give me a response, which is quite amusing.  The second one has had the most progress, but alas I didn’t get an interview.  I’m gonna start looking for more work opportunities when I’m next out, so it should be interesting to see what comes up.  Just as well I’ve a handful of CVs to give out now as well.  Anyway, with all that out of the way, I’d like to mention some recent things I’ve noticed.  First of all, as you may have noted by the random word placement, this weekend is the one which International Speak Like A Pirate Day will occur on, tomorrow in fact.

This pretty much means that I’m going to spend a lot of time in Guild Wars (GW), hunting for treasure and also collecting copious amounts of grog, go me!  On a related notw, I’ve also gotten myself a second account, which works out cheaper than buying 4 more character slots, especially given that I got Guild Wars Prophecies (Prophecies) for 99p, after my Reward Card discount, which was quite nice indeed.  I coincidentally, by sheer luck managed to get a copy of Eye of The North cheap (second hand with an intact code) off Amazon so I can bring my characters up North and get them reserved for Guild Wars 2 (GW2).  Unfortunately, this means I’m only limited to the entire Tyria continent, which is by no means a bad thing, but I tend to like exploring the whole world.  All that said though, I’ll most likely get the other campaigns over the next while, when they are cheap enough.  I’m working on a few different title tracks for all the characters over two accounts at present, most notably Survivor (as the name suggests, it means you are not to die), of which I have 4 characters over all 3 campaigns marked for.  I also have a couple of characters going for Defender of Ascalon (reaching L20 in the starting area).  Before I continue, I’d like to reassure readers that this isn’t just going to be about GW, I just want to mention it now, as I’ve never really mentioned it before and it ties in nicely with the grog and loot collecting!  Anyway, with that aside, I’ve been working on all of this for quite a while now, though the second account only has been around the past month.  Still, there’s plenty to keep me going till GW2 comes out.  Coincidentally, if anyone ever wants to ever hang out on GW, let me know and we can do so.
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So yeah, it’s nearly the end of August and being completely honest, I haven’t had a lot to write about up until now.   For starters, I’ve finally managed to pick up DJ Hero, Guitar Hero 3, Lego Rock Band and Beatles Rock Band, all of which I’ve been wanting for ages.  The Rock Band games were brand new though the DJ Hero was second hand (and much cheaper than anywhere else!).  where possible, I am trying to buy second hand, but the issue is that sometimes brand new is cheaper than second hand, so I have to save my money.  Rock Band 3 is on the horizon, and there will be no doubts as to me getting it, especially with the fact it now includes a keyboard controller, which quite honestly has me drooling like a hungry dog in a butchers.  It’ll be great to be able to play another game that lets me learn on a keyboard, given I have plans to learn it.  Synthesia is a good thing, but I do think I might need something a little, well… easier to start with, plus I think I need some additional support, though that said having a 25 key keyboard is a good thing on the basis that I can start off with a handful of keys, then work my way up.  Besides that, I also have plans to start up a band with a friend of mine, though it’s not likely to take off properly for some time; more details on this later on.

I did also manage to pick up a few PC games as well, for quite cheap.  I got myself Evolva, Mass Effect, Star Trek: Borg and Space Empires V and with the exception of the ST game, they were all new!  I ended up spending a lot on games the past week or so nut they were so cheap I couldn’t help myself!  Staying on the subject of PCs, my desktop has developed a slight issue where one of my SATA power connectors has broken so I can only have one hard drive going at a time, which quite frankly sucks.  Thje laptop isn’t fareing well either, given that the screen has gone all funny on it.  I do hope it’s just a loose connection because otherwise I’m going to have to shell out for a new laptop, given the gfx card replacement is a good 200-odd Pounds!  Thankfully, my desktop problem is only a couple of quid to fix, though I might get a spare one, in case it falls down again.  In case you’re wondering how it fell, it was simply a case of me getting tangled up with my mouse lead and pulling on the desktop and knocking it down.  Thankfully, it was just that which was damaged… the hard drives seem to be fine which I consider a small miracle.  Not that I could afford to replace them at all.  Not the best week for my computers, is it?
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Yes, it has been a while since I’ve updated, hasn’t it?  I don’t have anything to blog about in particular but figured it’s always good to at least check in.  Most recently, I’ve managed to get my desktop back up and running, so I’m rather happy about that although on the flipside, my laptop has a problem with a URL filter, which I didn’t install!  Additionally, I seem to have issues with my router crashing occasionally, which leads me to believe someone has been DOSing my router and has hacked my laptop somehow!  Additionally, I have hadmy WoW account hacked, and thus I’m locked out from it.  Granted, I’ve not touched it in ages, but it’s the principle of the thing!  Not only that, someone hacked one of my GMail accounts!  I feel quite violated actually and becuase of this, I’m tightening up my security across the board.  Seems like a good opportunity to install Windows 7 while I’m at it as well.  Other than that, I’ve built myself a new computer (for the first time ever I did it all by myself!), which I’m proud of.  This now means I can save myself a few quid by building my own PCs instead.

All that’s missing on this new PC is an internal speaker and a couple of hard drives; my system has always been to have a smaller drive for the OS, then at least one larger drive to install games, put downloads on, etc.  I have some spare drives for the job, but one which was connected to the board I’m using in the “new” system has a corrupted partition, which is a bugger.  I’m working on fixing it and downloaded a utility to help me recover the bad sectors, if possible.  The worst thing is that I might have to just give up on the drive and get a new one, which isn’t cheap, especially as it’s an IDE drive.  And when I went looking on the Maxtor site (it’s a Maxtor drive), I found out that Maxtor and Seagate have merged!  That one completely passed me by!  Anyway, another problem with my laptop, coincidentally is that the speaker wire’s become loosened while it was bieng fixed, so I no longer get sound from it, apart from the sub.  However, this issue is easily repaired by the tech, but I figured I should add it as it’s leading to something and related to PC issues.  My laptop also now has a fly lead in place of the DC jack (though the DC jack is a part of it), which makes it a lot more resiliant and robust (do they mean the same?).  I was told that not everyone likes it as it doesn’t look as good (costs the same price as a replacement, which are rare for Acers I might add!), but as I value function over looks, it was perfect for me.

Oddly enough, it seems that the DJ jack gets the most strain of laptops and I can see why!  I was told my DC jack was cracked and that luckily I nipped it in the bud… even though I had to be creative till I could afford to get the repair and even then the contacts were a bugger, I smelt burning and the unit heated up round the DC jack.  It sucks when you can just about afford to do it… fact is, it needed to be done, so I did it.  Anyway, I hope to get all my PCs up and running properly again soon, so I can finally start on my websites.  I have a new idea for the radio site I want to implement and my Gamed Up project now has a look, but I can’t afford it, and need sections to come up with.  I’ll mention some stuff I’ve done in a later blog entry and where possible, even without the layout, I’ll be adding in a games blog to write to, so as always watch this space.

And lastly, before I forget, I’m gonna be using Google AdSense on this site.  I’m hoping to make sure it doesn’t get in the way, but I’ll have to see.  I also plan on opening up 2 more Zazzle stores as well; one is for the Radio site(s) and another is most likely for the paranormal group I’m setting up.  I may actually set one up for Gamed Up as well, but we’ll see what happens.  I have somany ideas, I find it hard to focus on just one, lest I forget about the others.  I’ll get something sorted eventually, but I’ll take things slowly.  I hope to have things mostly run themselves eventually, which is why the DiggerCast is being moved back to the Radio site, as it cuts down on multiple logins.  One day soon though, I plan to sit myself down and dedicate a whole page to each site and domain so I know what is going where, as frankly I need it!

Anyway, I’m just rambling now, so I’ll stop.  I’ll try to have an update on my sites for the next post, though it depends on what else comes up between now and then.

It seems that this blog has now become my main blog about personbal things though really my LiveJournal should be used for that although it’s good that I get my tweets sent to it as well, so it’s not like I totally abandoned it, though I’m due for a megapost soon. Anyway, things have started to settle down now; I’ve gotten used to this place, finances are improving, I’m starting to find and organise stuff properly (though list my headset and DSi – doh!) though it’ll all take time. I still have to deal with the shower from hell, although I’m rather happy to report that I have a decent bed and also have my double bed back so I can use it myself now! I’ve been on my laptop the past 6 weeks or so given I haven’t properly setup my desktop, seeing as it needs some work. There’s a slightly more urgent need to get my development/music PC up and running now, seeing as I am getting a tad annoyed keeping everything on the one PC; it would be a good idea to have anything production-wise on the d/m PC so I dont bog down the main desktop with a lot of stuff; a portable/USB webserver would be another great idea too, although I do need to keep in mind that certain software requires MySQL, so I might just use 2 USB sticks to do that. The less I bog my system down the better although I want a new one soon. I’m still at a loss as to why my desktop refuses to play any of the HL2 engine games as well, though I’m hoping a reinstall will help things. I also need to put Windows 7 on this laptop too. Another of my great ideas is to get myself a 1TB drve and backuo everything across my main network drive and PCs onto it so if things go tits-up on anything, I have a recovery point. I should make a driver repository too so I don’t need to go online to locate the latest drivers. So many possibilities though I’ve yet to plan them out.

Anyway, just to mention about the DiggerCast, I have an episode awaiting production but because of the move, I can’t record any more episodes until I find my headset. I also plan to get some new Skype call recording software as well, though I forgot the name of it… I think it’s called Pamela. PrettyMay served me well, but Pamela seems to be more suited to my needs. Well, it’ll tide me over at least until I get a mixing deck and other podcasting gear! Other than that, I’ve been getting into Guild Wars and playing about on the PS3 occasionally. Sadly though, my Band Hero drum-kit refuses to work with Rock Band 1, thinking it’s vocals and if it’s one thing I don’t do it’s sing while sober or around people >.> Erm, anyway, the Guitar Hero guitar works well with RB, so it’s not a total loss… need a second guitar though. I also need to get into learning the piano/keyboard as my friend has an idea about setting up a band at some point. On that note, I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned seeing Assemblage 23 who were quite frankly, awesome. One funny thing about one of the supporting acts that I didn’t realise till last week was that one of the blokes in Tenek was also in The Nine, who did one of the songs I remember hearing at least 10 years ago, most likely more; that song being My Fallacy. Was pretty crazy. I uploaded a pic of Tom Shear on my Facebook, with plans to do the same on Flickr; in my opinion the pic is perfect; perfect lighting and no blur… it was a great shot.

My mum was over for a few days last week and we went to the Science Museum and checked stuff out then we went to see Tangerine Dream (the point of her visit), at their Zeitgeist concert which celebrated their 40th anniversery of their first album and 35th of their performance at the Royal Albert Hall. It was impressively massive, but by god the seats in the middle were uncomfortable; my arse was really sore from prolonged sitting on them! Of course, between the lack of sleep (I have trouble sleeping before daybreak at present), the lighting and their music, I ended up closing my eyes and zoning out completely, because I’m cool like that. To be fait though, after about an hour of doing that and towards the end I felt well-rested and stayed wide awake for the last hour and a half! I remember during the intermission there was this bloke saying stuff and he literaly had the house in stitches and recieved a huge applause! I wish I had recorded it now so I could upload it to YouTube, but alas it never occurred to me. Anyway, heading home was really fun; we missed the last train from London Bridge back to mine, meaning we had to go to Lewisham on the final-final train, where I think cattle-class was an understatement… this was sardine class! To make matters worse, there was an incident, meaning the Met had to be called in. It took us quite a while before we moved. We eventually got to Lewisham and hung around for the N89, then when that finally came, we went upstairs where there was this bloke who was spitting on the bus… charming. Of course, it doesn’t end there… he starts getting confrontational with the guy behind us, which caused his phone to side under our seats… by this point, my mum decided it was best to go downstairs! I’m fairly sure I’ve now caused her to worry about me whenever I get on a nightbus, with drunk people. Anyway, it was nearly 3am when we got back to mine in the end… totally crazy!

I actually plan to go see a Tangerie Dream event in East London although I’ll have to see if I can make it, given 2 days before I’ll be having 3 of my wisdom teeth out. In theory I don’t see why I couldn’t do it, but I’ll see what happens on the 13th… for which I have to be up really early for, like 5am >.< I am not a morning person! Although I’l have to do it, so the sooner it’s done, the better. Hopefully next time I write, I’d have found my DSi or my headset… don’t hold your breath though.

Oddly enough, I’m not actually sure what exactly to talk about for this entry as I haven’t thought about any specifics.  I expect it may not be till near enough to the New Year, or after that I get to keep some consistancy.  Either way, it won’t hurt to mention any stuff I’ve seen, done or are going to do.  I’m also thinking that I may end up keeping my random style of writing to a degree, as it wouldn’t be random randomness if I didn’t!  Anyhow, I went into Central London yesterday to pick up a lab coat (I’ll explain later) from Foyles bookshop and ended bup buying a few books too!  This is by no means a bad thing to be honest, as the books will have some benefit.  Two of the books are talking about games design or project management regarding games projects.  I figured that these would be good for me to get so I can brush up on this subject in preparation for university/college.  Granted, design is my strongest skill, but it never hurts to get help with improving techniques.  I also finally managed to get a book on wolves; this too was one of my medium-term aims along with the lab coat.  I had to aquire an extra large one because of my broad shoulders, although that said, I could do with a little toning round the stomach, so it’s a good thing I’m going to the gym!  As for why I wanted a lab coat… well, I’ve always wanted one and I think it completes the scientist look although there’s the practical purpose that it keeps my clothes clean!

I also paid Maplins a visit as well and got some books on robotics, soldering and electronics, as well as a book on oscilloscopes, which sparked my interest since I studied at Greenwich.  I also got another set of LED Safety Glasses (which are gonna be modded, leaving the first ones I bought intact) and also an Audiophile 2496 audio card, which I was hoping to use for helping me with music composition at a later date, although it would be more nice just to have something professional to use with MIDI.  The problem is however that it needs audio cables, and while I do have them, I don’t have the space for them, so I’m either going to have to locate an external version of the card or make the space.  It’s occurred to me that I have also lost my reciept so I need to goo looking for it, damn.  That aside, I may have to just accept that this may be the best card for my price range (I don’t want to pay a lot more to be honest) and get a Game Port to USB adaptor, which to be honest may not be a bad idea, seeing as they’re cheap enough at 8 quid each!  I really only wanted that expensive card for the built-in MIDI port, and considering I can have a decent audio card with a cheaper separate bit, it may be best off just going down this route.  I have too many game controllers that require Game Ports to just drop the idea; I didn’t realise till much later that I had no MIDI port on my soundcard!  Another bonus as well is that it has some composing software with it, as well as some loops, so that’ll help me some more.

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I recieved a rather interesting request in my LiveJournal not too long ago:

Need to download XRumer 5.0 for free!
Huh… I want to get software pack XRumer 5.07 PALLADIUM for free. Have you any url?
I’m so need this magic program! It’s can break captchas automatically! Activate accounts via email automatically too! Absolutely great software! Help me!
And did you hear news – price for XRumer 5.0 Palladium will grow up to $540 after 15 may 2009… And XRumer 2.9 and 3.0 – too old versions, it’s cant break modern catpchas and cant break modern anti-bot protections. But XRumer 5.0 Palladium CAN!!!!
So help me for download this great soft for free! Thanks!

Whoever that person is must have assumed that I know my way around my computer, or rather more than that and to be honest, they got it right.  However, there’s no way in hell I’ll be accommodating such a request.  First of all, I don’t officially* condone not paying for software and secondly, why the hell would I accommodate someone wanting to break a captcha?  It’s bad enough that I have to use them so my sites get spammed, so why would I go and help someone break something I have to use?  For all I know, he could eventually use it on my website!  Anyway, the fact a piece of software can break captchas automatically concerns me.  Granted, not all of them are easily broken, but if this has been proven to break them, does this mean that the spammers are catching up?  It always seems to be a game of cat and mouse with spammers to be honest.

I’m very much anti-spam because it screws up things for me, and others.  My forums get spammed a lot, as do my blogs.  Either way, I won’t be responding to him, and if he sees this, my response is a big, fat NO.

*I accept the use of not paying for software for educational purposes, only if it’s hideously expensive.  If someone intends to make a profit using the software, then they should purchase it.

A friend of mine showed this request in an IRC channel I own: http://www.getacoder.com/projects/programming_c_87390.html

For those of you reading this request, and it’s no longer there, it says (emphasis his):

Description
I need someone to program me a new OS (Operasting System) that looks different than Ms Windows XP etc. but has the same style. It does not need to run on a mac but all the other PCs. It’s supposed to have a stylish look with clear edges etc. And ITS NOT SUPPOSED TO BE JUST A REDESIGNED WINDOWS as I’m going to sell that operating system later on.
These are some important points :

It should have ALL THE FEATURES that Windows Xp Professional has.
ALL the files that run on Windows XP ust also run on the BlueOrb OS.
It must have a very user-friendly interface (like MS WINDOWS XP)
When it gets Installed, the user needs to insert a serial number.
It HAS to be HACKER SAFE!
It must be quick and good looking.

So yeah, that’s what he’s asking for. Bad spelling aside (what’s an “Operasting System”?) $100 for developing an OS, which he plans to sell though? I could think of stronger words than “what the hell?” to describe his request. Frankly, if I could program in C++, I’d be asking for a hell of a lot more than the equivelent of £75 for a product someone is going to sell and make at least 10x the amount on (most likely more!). Additionally, what is this Blueorb OS he’s on about? Someone told me it could be the Mac OS, but isn’t that an apple? I really wonder about people sometimes… they truly worry me.