No longer relevant

You know some games have an idle animation, so the main avatar does something if you don't move the controls for a while? Sonic should kneel down and pray to the camera and say "please let me die".

Classic 5 for £30 title review 1: "The 39 Steps"

This "late 30s Hitchcock masterpiece" regards the tale of a guy who encounters a spy who is killed in his house, and for which he is pursued to Scotland and back for murder whilst trying to get to the truth behind what she was killed for. Basically it's a bit fucked up, there is a lot of artistic license, but it's pretty funny even if most of the things we found funny were probably not intentional. Not too long or overly laboured at any point, it's quite undemanding. It will probably remind you of Miles Cholmondley-Warner from Harry Enfield's Television Program.

We enjoyed it, I'd certainly watch it again.

Next up: CITIZEN KANE.

Zipping compressed data

Why the hell do people insist on zipping up already compressed data?

I am just downloading the 1up show, a zipped quicktime video. Idiots.

The UK's independent music labels want internet providers to become liable for illegal file-sharing by their users

The UK's independent music labels want internet providers to become liable for illegal file-sharing by their users

I want bus drivers to become liable for carrying pickpocketers.

Let's hold car manufacturers responsible for drunk drivers too.

Please post in the comments section any more stupid but equal comparisons.

Merkdot submits to corporate greed

This post left intentionally greedy.

IBM: Sony strict on Backwards Compat

IBM: Sony Hard-Asses on Backwards Compat:
"Sony is very concerned about quality and backward compatibility. They want to get this right. They tested game after game after game. When there were about 40 Playstation 1 games that didn't work properly, that didn't pass their criteria for quality."

Sounds pretty neat to me.

Console war over, two declared dead

I traded in my last UK Xbox games today (I have a couple of Australian titles that I doubt I could get rid of). The Xbox has been pretty much dead since the 360 came out, so I don't really anticipate ever needing it again, so I lobbed it in the cupboard. It said hi to the Gamecube in there. PS2 survived due to the party games, but I just don't use it either.

Portables rule all now, no taking up valuable TV time ftw!

I've bought a lot of new games for my portables recently, and making lists is fun, so here we go:

• Mega Man Powered Up (PSP)


• New Super Mario Bros (DS)


• Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (DS)


• LocoRoco (PSP)


• Pac-Pix (DS)


• Trauma Center: Under the Knife (DS)


• Sonic Rush (DS)


• Ouendan! (DS)

There's still some other stuff I want to get, but I am happy to wait for the prices to drop a little more, while the backlog clears.

Apple slowly swipes Dell's market advantage

Apple slowly swipes Dell's market advantage: "New research shows Apple as number two consumer choice, while Dell's lead slowly slims.

Interesting news if completely true. This would definitely put Apple on the radar of a lot more people. Of course in the grand scheme of things it's still barely a scratch on Windows.

Apple's MacBook may be 'best-selling Mac'

Looks like MacBook is going to clean up!

"Our checks indicate pent-up demand and strong orders. On Amazon.com, the top three selling PCs are MacBooks beating out Toshiba, HPQ, Sony, and Acer."

Apple's MacBook may be 'best-selling Mac': "American Technology Research analyst Shaw Wu thinks there's plenty of pent-up demand for the new MacBook, but warns that the high-end black configuration may be too highly priced."

(Via Macworld UK.)

Blogosphere stuff

Just re-installed NetNewsWire, noticed it had a blog thing implemented, and my serial key gives me use of MarsEdit too, so I hooked it into the merkblog. Using it now, not too shabby.

Installed dircproxy too, now get to use colloquy at home, no terminals open, clickable links, bouncing dock icons, nice.

Next generation gaming expectations, volume one. Fighting games.

A fighter with real-time ragdoll of body parts - not just when falling etc., but properly controlled but dynamic body action physics is my dream fighter.

A fighter where moves are affected by the angle/nature of terrain, and what the consistency of the terrain is - smaller jumps, unsure footing and even slipping over in mud, for example.

More damage from falling on certain parts of the body and on certain materials like concrete. Proper clipping would be essential, this is the very essence of the combat method. Speed and method of contact would determine damage. Concentrated attacks on certain body parts would limit its effectiveness as a combat tool. A certain level of damage to a single limb (for example a broken arm) would actually cause damage to the self to use offensively.

In light of the Mirror reprinting a four year old story and pretending it's news, it reminds me that when I'm rich or retired, one of my hobbies is going to be debunking bad journalists.

Long time no post.

So anyway, I hit 59 with my Paladin, 40 with my Warlock, played a lot of Xbox 360, and just ordered a DS Lite (white).

The house just got painted too, and now the bathroom doesn't totally suck. Good!