Napalm Riot

So.

I've started another one. I'm going black and white this time. Pair of humbuckers, DiMarzio's again, (D Activator-X in the neck and an X2N in the bridge) Still working on how I'm going to wire them, the last one was a lot softer, I fancy something with a bit more 'bang' (Hence the X2N (One of the guys in Stone Sour uses an X2N), with the option for some more subtle sounds, D Activator-X (Well, by comparison)). Colour wise, I'm thinking (As the pickups are either going to be white or black) a gradiant of the matching colour out from the pickups out to the other colour. Hopefully the order will have been made correctly and I'll get the white, I really do not want to try and find white tuning machine heads, and I really don't want to get some powder coated. It'd also be a hell of a lot easier to paint the neck black and not have it look shit, thanks do the dark fret board. I'm also told that lighter woods make shit fretboards in terms of changing frets and so on.

Anyway, for a bit of flare I'm using clear acrylic for the pickup frames (Think Gibson Les Paul) and pick guard, lit from the top down (Or, looking at it on a stand, from left to right) with ultra bright white LED's. If I get the chance, I want to do something with the LED's so they react to the output, but I'll have to investigate that. I'm also contemplating laying something in the neck so the pearl inlays can be replaced with some opaque acrylic and lit from behind with either white or UV. I hear it's absolutely nightmarish to do without some insanely good cable-fu. Sounds fun.

The strings will be using a Les Paul styled mount system, because going through the body can suck my ass. Real PITA to fit them that way, and looks really weak.

I bet most of you are wondering whether I'm talking about a real guitar or a Guitar Hero mod :B

I bought a Gigabyte MA790FX DQ6, (Quad CrossfireX) and a Phenom X4 9950 Black Edition.

Been down for the count this evening, since I was out for about three hours working and on the phone for another two. Stupid phone.

Also stuck some more drives in, a pair of 500gb's. Thinking I might use the 250 for pratting about with Penguin.

Okay, so some of you might have noticed that I've been away for eight days.

It was only supposed to be seven, but hey. Go Spanish public transport (HAhahahahah)! Having spent nearly 36 hours traveling, now, I'm a little tired.

Anyway. Benicassim is a technological blackspot. Seriously. It's amazing they even have ATM's, the lack of anything else computer like is insane. There was internet in the Oxfam tent at the festival, but I was usually blotto by the time I got to those, so that'd have been useless.

Anyway. I have a little backlog of email (~2000) and most importantly, a fair few messages and things to reply to on here, so sorry if it's a bit slow (If you even noticed :B).

Anyway. I have a sun burn, a cigarette burn, a t-shirt tan and a bunch of dirty clothes.

So.

I was talking to my uncle today, he built his new rig. Absently looking over the drives he was cleaning up to stick in the new box, I noticed on the Seagates and Maxtors that were rated for 3gb/s and 1.5gb/s there was a jumper. If the jumper was on, then it was restricted to 1.5gb/s, without the jumper it worked at its full 3gb/s capacity.

If you're a performance whore and use 3gb/s rated drives, you might want to check for that.

The jumper was light grey, half height, near the SATA/Power interface on the back of the drive.

Of course, it's mostly academic, since drives bottleneck at pulling the data off the disk, but hey. Why introduce another potential bottleneck if your board/sata controller can do 3gb/s?

Weeeee.

I should have two of these badboys turning up in a week or so's time. I happy pantsed everywhere.

I also found out that EK are making some water blocks, hopefully for release in the next two weeks.

I happy pantsed twice.

Yay new graphics cards

Louis Ramey.

Go check him out.

Right now.

NOW!

Thanks ɤswordhorder

Some of you may know I have a tendancy to be a little off the rails when it comes to computers. I'll do anything to anything.

Has anyone seen a CrossfireX C2D motherboard that is DDR2?

Most of you who know what I'm asking are probably thinking "Yeah, you already have one you muppet"

However. I want four cards. I cannot find a C2D board that does that. My only choice seems to be an Asus M3A32-MVP Delux. Which is an AM2+ board. Which is Phenom. Phenoms are awful. I would really rather not go there, and I'm sure at least some of you understand my hesitance with that. Even the 9850 isn't particularly competetive.

http://seorant.ath.cx/police/ladybird.html

Read.

Read it now.

So. My beastly new case should be here in the next week or so :B

I am excited, sadly excited >.>

Got some more stuff for the W/C, too. Felt that needed a change, so I'm going with an XSPC res (The aluminium ones, that have the 'passive cooling' fins on them). Mainly for poops and giggles.

Also, somewhere in the mayhem, is going to be some of the Feser One coolant, the black stuff (Glows blue in UV light, but since I won't have any UV light in there..) to contrast with the red of the case. Should be fun.

Edit:

THE CASE ARRIVES TOMORROW. HAPPY GLEE FACE.

I'm playing it right now, and I can feel my muscles relaxing, everything is.

This is one of the best games I've ever played - It's relaxing.

Okay.

It's half three. There is nothing going on.

I've read all the news sites. All the regular forums.

I'm still waiting on my ATi case.

It's funny, you know, the less that goes on, the longer things seem to take.

Okay. So, it may well have been talked about for a few days by some of you, but the rest of you.

Have you seen this ACTA proposal? the full title being;

Proposed US ACTA multi-lateral intellectual property trade agreement

Basically, the entire point of this.. Thing is to kill piracy. Specifically sites like The Pirate Bay, where they don't do anything but provide the means to download copyrighted material, and search for it. Much like Google does with websites, but much more specific to piracy.

However, while most of the bill is pretty.. Normal for the government, there is one line that caught my attention, and caused alarm. Bear in mind, please, that this is under discussion by some first world countries so far the known ones being the US, Japan, Switzerland, and the European Commission (IE: The EU, give or take a few things).

"as well as measures restricting the use of online privacy tools."

That statement is so vague that it could well be taken as any attempt to use privacy enabling tools would be illegal. As in. Good by privacy in the world of computers.

While I agree with the need to can piracy, invasion of privacy is just downright ridiculous. There is no need for it.

Full proposed bill can be found; here.

Opinions?

So, I was in town doing some other less important stuff, and decided that I wanted CoD4 (I blame ɤLume for that).

So far, I much prefer it to the Ps3 version I played.

I think it's something to do with having a proper mouse, rather than analogue sticks..

Anyway, come back in about a month, I might have had enough by then.

Might.

So..

I got bored over the weekend, and decided that a new case would be the best way to resolve it. I got on the email train to my favored supplier, and placed an order.

Okay, so piracy is a big thing. You can’t deny it, and if you do, you probably need to get your head checked. Of course, the figures from developers and publishers are going to be rounded up, of course they are, exaggeration to prove a point. It is their product after all.

Over the years, piracy has become far more common. It’s become a hell of a lot easier. Knowing where to look provides people with a scary amount of information, places to find things illegally, the works. I can, within an hour or two, find the latest Holywood block buster and have it downloaded, of course, it will be sucky quality, but in a few weeks I can find a DVD rip of the same movie, and I still won’t have paid for it.

There are going to forever be companies working to try and be one step ahead of the pirates. They’re forever going to fail, too. Due to the platform on which games are released, they simply cannot keep up. I remember a program that would tell you what version of which ever given companies protection system is on the disc you asked it to scan. It was updated frequently, and was hosted using Rapidshare for the most part. For a pirate, it was an excellent program, it did all the leg work for you, all you had to do then was circumvent the security, and you’re done.

What does this mean for us, the legitimate consumer? Well, for a start, these security companies are going to get even more invasive with their systems, see the PC release of Mass Effect for the current wave of internet hate, and they’re going to take a harder line with potentially stolen keys. As a legitimate consumer, the chances of this being a problem for you are, well, next to nil. There are, of course, going to be teething problems with any system like this, because there is simply no way to replicate x million people trying to authenticate at once in a testing environment, see the Half Life 2/Steam problems at launch.

There are hundreds, if not thousands, of users saying “Well, if the game wasn’t crap, then it’d be okay”, or the ever popular, “If it wasn’t so expensive”. The former argument may well be true, but the latter. It’s the weakest argument I’ve ever heard. Cost is, though, an important factor. Buying directly from the developer is not always an option. However, take Introversion Software as an example. They’re indy, and Chris Morris has said numerous times, that they will remain indy. You can buy their games directly from them, no middle-men. They’re cheap, for the fun you get out of them, an example would be Defcon: Everybody Dies. I bought the boxed edition on launch, and was given a digital copy of the key, and a download link for the digital copy, as distribution of the boxed copy was taking longer than expected. I paid £15 for the game, and going by the number of hours I played it for, that boils down to me paying them something horribly low like 0.5 pence an hour. That’s pretty low, and they would need somewhere in the region of 1,000 people to buy the game before they even came close to minimum wage in this country, the country they work in. However, they’re indy, and very different to the companies who are not indy.

Let’s take Bioware, for example. They are selling a downloadable special edition of Jade Empire for $40, that means I might get some .jpg files and maybe some .mp3 files, but it’s not going to be much. Amazon are selling the boxed special edition for $15, which means I might get some bits of paper and plastic for my troubles, rather than the .jpg and .mp3 files. However, it’s half price (Assuming there are shipping charges in the region of $5), and I don’t have to worry about how to reinstall it if a hard drive dies. I just pop the disc in. So, when bought from the right place, the price should be a damned non-issue, and should not be a motivating factor behind piracy.

Regardless, there simply is no way to stop piracy. It simply cannot be done. The pirates, and I mean the determined pirates, will forever share things illegally. However, casual piracy is where the biggest problems lie. I have a friend, who given the opportunity, would rather get for free what would normally be a paid for item. However, he quickly gives up if he can’t find it fast enough. When people like this make it into the private torrent trackers, though, all hell breaks loose, until the tracker is shut down.

Of course, when you talk piracy, you have to talk about the RIAA, the MPAA, and whatever other people there are doing the same job. Their bulldog tactics earn them a bad name, sure, but they don’t have a choice. If someone thinks it’s okay to steal, they’re not going to stop because some group is telling them to, just like any crime, and it certainly wouldn’t have any effect if they were effectively Government endorsed cyber police. Criminals don’t stop being criminals because they’re asked to stop, they just don’t.

There is no ideal solution to the problem, except for everyone to discourage piracy. Which is unlikely, as apparently, piracy has become morally okay.

You want someone to blame for all these new irritating DRM measures?

Blame the pirates, it’s their damned fault.

Okay, I just reactivated my Eve account. I don't feel to dirty, but I am still horribly confused. I also think I cocked up when I made the character, I want to go the route of combat pilot (Bounty hunter plzk) and think I made a bit of a boo-boo, from what I'm reading anyway..

Also, Why the chuff must the download be so big?

Okay, there's a poll up on my page for Xbox 360 multiplayer games, the four most common ones I see on my friends list. Tell me what you play, online, the most. Oh, and CoD4, because apparently some people play that too :B

Don't worry, Ps3 owners, I'll be putting one up for you too in a few days.

Tell me and I won't eat that cute little duckling that waddles around your garden.

Okay. This article really does, in my opinion, hit the nail on the head.

Bit-Tech

Read it, and tell me what you think.

Developers, don’t you love ‘em?

I got thinking the other day about them, and the strange lack of good content these days. There are, admittedly, a few good ones still out there. No, I’m not talking about Rockstar. In fact, Rockstar are just as guilty of repetitive content as the rest of the larger developers.

First off, I best explain what I’m rambling about. It’s got to the point where these companies are motivated solely by sales. I know, I know, there are going to be these motivations in every company. However, it’s killing originality. Releasing the same game year after year is getting horribly frequent, and it’s starting to kill my previously invulnerable love of gaming.

I’m looking back over the last few years, trying to think of a new game that I’ve played that hasn’t been a re-hash of something else, be that a movie or another game, even a book. I’m struggling here, so please, help me out with that one. And please, no current generation titles, because they’re the worst for this.

Of course, when you have companies like EA ruling the roost in terms of being one of the biggest companies around, if not the biggest. It’s going to be hard to get original content out of them, because of their apparent ability to crush the creative soul of a project. Something I hope Riccitello can change, given his public opinions of the current state of EAs development teams.

In contrast to EA, with a monstrous employee base, you have companies such as Introversion Software. They're small, but their games are by far the best I've played for years. davidus and viscupelo have both, in their time, told me that Uplink is a fantastic game. First time I heard that I thought "Yeah.. Right" and moved on. In fact, I thought that until the later parts of 2006, when I got my hands on Defcon: Everybody Dies. I played that game for hours, literally hours, a time with age and a few other people from dA, and of course, solo. I've never had so much fun with a game. It was fantastic. Then, early on in 2007, I grabbed a copy of Uplink. It, too, stole hours of my days and nights. I tried Darwinia, too, but it wasn't for me. It's not bad, but it's not my cup of tea.

So, a small developer with three games released, have managed to capture the idea of fun, and kept it alive for the three games they've released so far, which have all been drastically different in terms of play style. Then you have the large, face less, companies throwing out game after game, with different titles, different graphics engines, but the same basic plot, the same characters with different names, and scarily similar areas of play.

The most entertaining games I've played recently are Burnout: Paradise, and Rainbow Six: Vegas 2. They're both retreads of other games. Burnout is guilty of trying to blend free-roaming city-scape with a kid-friendly rating. RS:v2 is guilty of being the same as RS:V, which is weakly (And I mean very weakly) explained away by the idea that it's in the same time frame as the first Vegas game. I'm pretty sure most of the story has been copy-pasted onto a new disc, with some more customisation features, some different T-Hunt maps, and some changes to the guns. Basic changes, might I add.

The most original game, in my opinion, of 2007 was Assassins Creed. Unfortunately, it's unlikely that it's going to be continued with its originality into AC2, and not because it's a sequel. I hope it will, but you never can tell with these games.

With the upcoming release of GTA IV (What is it now, eight days?), I'm sure at least one of you will tout this games originality, or superiority to everything else. Honestly, though, I know it's going to be the same as all the other GTA games in the series, slightly better looking, but all in all, it'll be the same. Don't tell me the story is great, because there is no story in GTA games. You always play a violent man involved with the 'wrong' people, drugs, and numerous other methods of breaking the law. Okay, so this time you're Eastern European rather than either a mute white guy, or a black guy, but that's hardly fantastic story, is it.

</rambling>

So.

Couple of things cropped up over the last few days (In my world anyway).

Ben Heck has been at it again, with another feat of madness. Readers of Engadget probably have seen this, but the rest of you with better things to do (Say, anything), probably won't yet.

Bloody hell, Ben. The guy is good, really good.

The other thing has actually happened a while ago. CoD4 players have probably noticed a N0M4D control set has appeared in an update, and probably thought very little of it.

However. This guy is the source of it. He is one of the most hardcore gamers I've EVER heard about. Read this for a little more info. I honestly haven't got anything else to say.

Except that he could probably kick all our asses.

Edit: I forgot the junk >.>

iPod touches are fun :B Sadly, mine did not come with a bee canon. Working on that, though. Also, I hate slow shipping. Where's my gosh-darn bending brake?!

I don't know how many of you have seen this, but it's really quite odd.

The guy who brought in such classics as The Shining and Cujo, has apparently bought himself some common sense.

He did an article about video game violence, now I know what you're thinking "Oh great, another person adding to the hate-pile", but damn it all if he hasn't come out with something that makes sense.

Here's the article in full.

"It was too easy for critics to claim — falsely, it turned out — that Cho Seung-Hui (the Virginia Tech killer) was a fan of Counter-Strike; I just wish to God that legislators were as eager to point out that this nutball had no problem obtaining a 9mm semiautomatic handgun."

Go Stephen King!

[213:38] [SBFS]Sangue[CA] says: TAKE OUT THE GODDAMNED TRASH TERRY. D:<
[2143] Terry says: TAKE IT OUT YOURSELF
[2149] Terry says: AND GET BACK IN THE KITCHEN
[214:39] [SBFS]Sangue[CA] says: ALL I EVER DO IS COOK COOK COOK
[215:23] Terry says: IF YOU STILL HAD A SEX DRIVE, MAYBE YOU WOULDN'T HAVE TIME TO COOK
[216:41] [SBFS]Sangue[CA] says: YOU ALWAYS PASS OUT DRUNK BEFORE ANYTHING HAPPENS
[216:49] [SBFS]Sangue[CA] says: I'M TIRED OF FINDING YOU ON THE BATHROOM FLOOR
[216:50] Terry says: BECAUSE YOU INSIST ON FOREPLAY
[216:58] [SBFS]Sangue[CA] says: I HAVE TO HAVE SOMETHING
[2172] [SBFS]Sangue[CA] says: GOD KNOWS YOU WON'T TAKE VIAGRA
[2176] Terry says: GET AJOB THEN
[217:24] [SBFS]Sangue[CA] says: FEEDING YOUR GIGANTOR ARSE IS A FULL TIME JOB
[217:32] Terry says: I DO TECH SUPPORT
[217:38] Terry says: IT'S HARD WORK
[217:44] Terry says: BUT YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND ME
[217:57] [SBFS]Sangue[CA] says: YOU SIT ON YOUR ARSE AND GIVE SARCASTIC/CAUSTIC REMARKS TO MORONS ALL DAY
[218:14] Terry says: IT PAYS THE MORTAGE DOESN'T IT?!
[218:46] [SBFS]Sangue[CA] says: I HAVE TO SELL CAKES TO HELP WITH THAT BECAUSE YOU BLOW IT ALL ON STRONGBOW
[219:10] Terry says: THAT'S A LIE
[219:15] Terry says: I DON'T BLOW ANYTHING
[219:18] Terry says: MUCH LIKE YOU
[21:103] [SBFS]Sangue[CA] says: IT'S HARD TO BLOW WHAT I CAN'T FIND
[21:10:16] Terry says: TRY LOOKING
[21:10:21] Terry says: I'M NOT THAT FAT
[21:10:49] [SBFS]Sangue[CA] says: TRY WAXING SO I DON'T HAVE TO BUY A MAGNIFYING GLASS, WOOKIEBOY
[21:11:15] Terry says: I'M NOT THAT HAIRY, YOU SLANDEROUS WOMAN
[21:11:25] Terry says: I JUST HAVE A REALLY GOOD BEARD
[21:11:58] [SBFS]Sangue[CA] says: IT SCARES THE NEIGHBORS
[21:12:30] Terry says: THE NEIGHBOURS WERE IN VIETNAM
[21:12:44] [SBFS]Sangue[CA] says: YOU MADE THE OLD MAN CRY
[21:146] Terry says: IT'S NOT MY FAULT HE'S A PANSY THAT ABANONED HIS PLATOON
[21:14:57] [SBFS]Sangue[CA] says: THROWING PAPIER MACHE GRENADES AT HIM WAS JUST CRUEL
[21:154] Terry says: IT WAS FUNNY
[21:15:14] Terry says: IF YOU WERE THE SAME WOMAN I MARRIED YOU'D UNDERSTAND THAT
[21:15:33] [SBFS]Sangue[CA] says: FUNNY IS DUCT TAPE ON THE CAT'S PAWS.
[21:15:54] Terry says: SO ARE PAPIER MACHE GRENADES
[21:169] [SBFS]Sangue[CA] says: YOU DIDN'T PAINT THEM PROPERLY
[21:16:16] Terry says: OH GOD
[21:16:22] Terry says: WAS OLIVE DRAB NOT GOOD ENOUGH?
[21:16:46] [SBFS]Sangue[CA] says: YOU FORGOT THE REALISTIC DETAILS
[21:16:55] Terry says: HE'S BLIND
[21:17:29] [SBFS]Sangue[CA] says: HIS WIFE ISN'T. IT'S ONLY HILARIOUS IF THEY BOTH PISS THEMSELVES.
[21:17:35] Terry says: HE DID
[21:17:38] Terry says: SO DID SHE
[21:17:44] [SBFS]Sangue[CA] says: LIES
[21:17:50] Terry says: JUST BECAUSE HE WETS HIMSELF ALL THE TIME
[21:17:59] Terry says: DOESN'T DIMINISH THE WIN

You know.

When I first played Motorstorm, I praised it for its fantastic looks, and its insane replayability.

What I forgot to notice was the music. I enjoyed it, yes, but I didn't think about it beyond that.

However. Certain tracks in that game made me really, and I mean really, happy.

Lunatic Calm - Leave You Far Behind. I swear, that track is the best thing I've listened to in.. Well, a long, long time. It's even better on racing games, and don't ask me to explain this, but I feel that I drive a shitload better listening to music like it.

Any music that has that effect with you guys and gals?

Well, misleading titles aside.

I really want a new iPod. I want some pointless gimmicks (Touch screen, making it a light saber, shoots bee's etcetc). However. Which version does one buy?

Is there one that shoots bees?

I always thought they were nerdy toys for the overpaid, see Steve Wozniak, and never thought about them from then on.

However, some crazy nerds have gone and made one that I want. It's, apparently, called the Centaur. I'm not sure why, but hey. Who's to argue with insane nerds.

This looks like WAY too much fun.

Seriously. I'd take that to work.

First things first. Go read that, if you haven't already. Bonus points if you get a camera and his address to Dawn.

Now, for the crazy. What the fuck. That's the craziest use of automation I've ever seen.

Back to the cruel.

What the fuck is wrong with people? Seriously What the fuck?!

I was perusing the NR forums, as you do, and was reminded of the friend code system in use on the Wii, and apparently, the DS.

Now. It all seems to be set up to help privacy, which initially sounds like a good idea.

However. I started looking into the system, and if I'm reading this right, you get a different friend code for every game you play. So, if you play a lot of online games, and that is your sole motivation for playing games, you have to add people several times over, for each individual game?

What the fuck?! You need a different 12 digit code for EVERY game? I'm all for privacy, the world needs a fair bit more of it, but this takes the biscuit of stupid, and eats the whole thing all to itself. Admittedly, a lot of younger users have a Wii, and probably play online. Well, it is a dangerous world out there, especially for kids. But this is just taking it too far.

The friend system on the other consoles doesn't exactly make it easy for someone to add you, what with the whole friend REQUEST thing, meaning it has to be mutual. If someone is that desperate to add someone, they will find a way around the system, so making it even more frustrating to add people is just a great way of pissing grumpy old bastards (like me) off.

I'm sure it doesn't do much for a fair number of normal people, either.

In short. Nintendo have taken privacy protection too far, and created a profoundly stupid system.


I am so bored

Julian Beever.

If you're not familier with him; here, click this and be cool

If you are familier with his work.

DAMN, is he good or what?

I'm sure some of you have seen that.

I want it.

Someone get it me now.

PUNISH AND ENSLAVE!

Edit:

You know, I know the Japanese music scene gets a lot of stick, and well, a fair bit of it is undeserved. However. There is also a scary part that's well deserved of said stick. That is one of those things. Goddamn. Who paid for that?

Man, not a day goes by that I don't get a good laugh based on the antics of the rest of the world. This is one of the most entertaining things I've seen for a while, and by far, the most idiotic thing I've seen this year. Go team!

This however, was pretty cool. Apparently, and I'm quoting here "The original Pac-man arcade game, implemented inside a single Xilinx Spartan-3E chip on a Spartan-3E Starter Kit. None of the extra hardware on the board is used, the chip in the middle implements the complete arcade board of the original game!"

Aaand this level of nerdery deserves some kind of medal or something.

Sources in order of apperance: Hawk of Applegeeks, Hacked Gadgets, Hackaday.

You know.

The last few days. I swear someone has taken my brain out, turned it over, and hit it with a bug zapper, and put it back in badly. I am so confused, honestly, it really does make me wonder what the hell I've done different.

How've your last few days been?

So. I know at least some of you are Fallout fanatics. There has to be at leas a small handful.

Those of you that aren't, you've either never played the games, or are broken. See a shrink, or buy a copy of the games. The first two anyway. Tactics was terrible.

Anyway. If you're interested, the whole article can be found here

As you can see, Emil Pagliarulo is attached as the lead designer. If you're not familier with the name, you might be familier with his work. He did the Life of The Party level in Thief II, and did the miscellaneous quests in Bloodmoon, a Morrowind expansion. He also worked on Oblivion, specifically the Dark Brotherhood quests/missions (However you want to refer to them) and the Arena.

There's been so much speculation, already, about Fallout 3. I've not kept up to date with the latest rumour-mill works of art, because frankly, it's likely to ruin the game (Either by being right or being so off the mark that the game becomes the shitpile it shouldn't). I am interested by the 'thirty-thousand lines of dialogue' part. I'm wondering how rounded that figure is, and how many will be with the same characters, or how many versions of the same line come from unimportant NPC's. It's going to be interesting - Fortunately slated for a Fall 2008 release, so it's not far (At the rate my days are slipping by) off now.

There is no point to this other than my rambling about Fallout 3, incase you were wondering.

Man, I'v really done eff all today (Except paint the plexiglass on my PC. That took all of half an hour :/) except watch movies and browse the web, where I saw one of the must fun looking OS addons I've ever seen.

Some of you may know it - It's called Beryl and it's a.. I hate to say skin, more, complete modification. It looks fan-fucking-tastic. Here, though. See for yourself. I enjoyed the video for two reasons, one, it's a sweet looking OS interface. Two, it has Metal Gear Solid 2 music :B

It's available on a few of the distros that're any good (Knoppix, Open Suse, Ubuntu) and installed as default interface on Sabayon (Which is annoyingly a buy-it thing, although, only seven euros).

Yeah, that was all I had to say >.>

Oh, and, since some of you are not linux geeks, you should try Project Looking glass :B It's a Sun Microsystems project that's been going for a few years. I've not used it for at least a year and a half, though, due to a number of OS changes >.>

It's pretty, and kinda fun too. Can be a pain in the ass to get working, but hey. It's fun when you get it there :B

So, I've been pratting around with the stuff installed on my rig, and I've come to the conclusion that I really fucking hate these obnoxious programs that decide to add themselves to the startup HKEY's to make it easier for you, and then when you tell it to stop doing so via the program, it just leaves itself in the startup group, even though it tells you that it hasn't.

Chief offenders so far seem to be Skype, MSN, Steam, xFire, and Blackhawk (My soundcards GUI that doesn't need to be loaded for the damned thing to work). Oh, and ATi's CCC. Like hell does that need to load on startup :/

I'm really irritable today

So, some stuff I've had on order should be arriving soon. The 3870 full cover blocks should be here today or tomorrow, which is going to be fun. They're coming with some more Feser one (Muts nuts of W/C fluid), and are going to be bastards to install, but hey. Wouldn't have it any other way :B

Also, my Sennheiers R130's should be here, which is going to be interesting. They're for the 360, because I can't be arsed with surround sound anymore, but being on my head, the 360 headset needs to be mashed in there, which is going to make it interesting.

The WiiM4 is on hiatus for now, due to a small combination of things. I can't get some parts I need/want, and I'm having real trouble focusing on it, and thus, can't do as good a job as I should, so it's being sidelined for a little while. It's still in the works, and should be finished by the end of next month, but right now, I can't work on it without getting frustrated at crappy soldering - So it's going to wait until I've calmed down a bit with the soldering iron :B

As some of you may have noticed, I've been playing Burnout a lot recently (I'm gonna have to take you down, jake, you damaged my Gamestop car!), I've got two of those last twelve smashes left, and 83 wins until I get my Elite license. I'm still peeved that I can't find those last two smashes! Eugh. Ahwell, its taken a back seat again, I'm stalking the Hitman world for now. Gotta get those five silent assassins on Pro. That achievement looks tastey. Just like 'Russian Hare' rating.. Which was actually the easiest mission I've ever done.. Possibly because it followed Flatline, which is an absolute bugger, but I finally got it :B

Ramble ramble ramble, I wonder how many of you I just bored to death :B

Never, ever, copy ~400gb of shit twice. Ever.

Very stupid thing to do, honestly.

That is all the advice I have. Now, I have to go to 'work' and find the last 12 smashes on Burnout Paradise.

This, and this alone, is the BEST demonstration of why I love airsoft. There could be no better demonstration than this, at all.

http://www.ta-events.co.uk/phoenixrising/

TA events are by far the best. They're organised by the best, they're played by the best, and they have the best sportsmanship known to man.

There is no immediate team difference, except the camo. Team killing is entirely a possability, because there is no 'yellow' or 'red' team.

These events are the pinicale of airsoft MilSim, and are by far the best damned thing I have ever played, and likely ever will play.

There's goddamn knife kills! KNIFE KILLS!

Those of you who've questioned my love of airsoft, there are two at least, this is the exact answer.

Okay, so today that wiring turned up, the stuff for the trigger.

After getting in, and taking my customary perusal of the forums, I set to work.

About half an hour later, I had the gun in pieces, and the appropriate bits attached, modified in a suitable manner.

And this, good viewers, is how lazy I am. Most people would see this picture and think "Yeah, I could take another one less stupid looking" but not me, oh no. Even if you don't understand the content, then you will at least get a giggle :D

It's another screenshot of le mac, with DarWiin remote and Photobooth open, and as you can see, the Wiimote is in the mechbox, and the battery has retained its temporary connections, but the more observant may notice the pair of red wires looping over the mechbox shell. Those are the two wires I needed for the trigger to work, which is also shown by DarWiin in that the B button is being pressed, and my finger is clearly on the trigger. So, now in between keeping my eyes on the forums, working, and eating, I can progress as fast as I feel the need to with this. The most work is going to be the other buttons, because of the modification to the grip, and the way I've got to do them. Fun times!

Anyway, here's that link to the awesomely timed picture.

Laugh time

Edit: Shortly after breaking away from Inverloch (Darn you, elsie!) I thought I'd do a dry run as far as I could, to make sure I wasn't cocking anything up. I took a picture, because I was raised on "Pictures or it didn't happen" give or take a few words.

pictar

All important tools, there. Beer, screw drivers, and cable.

Alright, so everything turned up as expected, and when returning from Springfields and the local electronics shop (Lovely shop that is) I got to it.

Bearing in mind that at the moment it's all being hardwired together to try and eliminate any problems that I really don't need to add to the already curious task.

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As you can see there, the battery is now in the magazine, albeit hardwired onto the board, which as you can also see, lacks the battery retention springs that should be on the underside.

You may also be wondering what the hell is with the switch that's got buttons 1+2 soldered to it. Well, I was testing the fitment in the mechbox, and couldn't get my fingers into the gap to push buttons 1+2, so I soldered this together, so I could push one button instead of two. Which made it a bit easier. I did try to take a picture of it in the mechbox, but thanks to a lack of another pair of arms, I couldn't hold it still enough, press the button AND take the picture at the same time. Ahwell, showing it at least working is probably acceptable for now :B

Also, the capacitor is no longer soldered directly to the board, as it used to be. I wasn't too concerned about the colour of the wire, because I don't intend to take it off again, so don't need to concern myself with pos/neg colouring. That said, white is positive, and black is negative :B

That is all for now! I must go and clean myself and get very, very drunk with a few friends. Because we rule. Or something.

So, the parts arrived as I said, and I've already assembled it for a dry run, of course pictures are taken.

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Numbers one and three are probably the most interesting, because I forgot to turn the reflex sight on for number two, and I'm tired.

As you can see, the theory is sound - The grip is massive (It even fits my monsterous hands nicely) so there's plenty of space for the buttons. As demonstrated by a previous journal, the Wiimote board fits nicely into the gearbox, which as you can see, still fits into the gun (As denoted by the trigger - Which is a really nice steel trigger, also very light to pull, so no worry of 'finger fatigue') The only thing that was missing in the order was the wiring looms for the normal airsoft switch - Doh!

However, as you can see from image one, I've stripped the contents of the mag out, and all going well, I should have the battery equipment fitted tomorrow. The battery cabling and special size caddy turned up, 2700mAh rechargables, 1.3v. A shade under the normal AA voltage, but since I won't be driving a motor off it, I'm not seeing it being a problem. Hopefully the soldering iron tip will turn up tomorrow (A 1mm Antex bit for a CS18) along with the lead free solder and flux, which should mean I can get on with stripping the IR and unchuck plugs tomorrow, assuming the magbattery goes well (I've been sizing up, and if I play my cards right I'll get no rattle, and have to do very little cutting into the main plug, which will be nice)

I will post more pictures (Assuming there's anything worth posting!) tomorrow, mostly going to be of the battery mag.

On the way home I also bought some white paint, for the Lian Li case frontage, and the magbattery. I've got some clear coat designed for motorcycle wheels on order, so that should withstand the mag catch with a few layers (I'm shooting for ten to fifteen layers of clearcoat on two layers of white. Sanding down the mag shell to bare aluminium if it's not anodised is obviously a part of the plan).

Consider yourselves updated!

Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got some computer parts to attach. Namely some more RAM (Useless until I install a 64bit OS, but my drives were delayed, so I can't do that until next week) and a Lachesis mouse.