Who ya gonna call?

Awesome news indeed is sweeping across the Intertubes. The December issue of Game Informer has an exclusive - Vivendi Universial will be bringing us a new Ghostbusters game! Variety have even more details on what will be coming our way.

Not only will the original cast - Bill Murray, Harold Ramis, Dan Ackroyd, Ernie Hudson, Annie Potts (Janine Melnitz the secretary) and William Atherton (Walther Peck) - be providing voice overs, but the original (and fantastic) writing team of Murray, Ramis and Ackroyd will be writing the script. This will be as close to Ghostbusters 3 as we're likely to see.

Behold the obligatory screenshot:

The title will be coming to ... well, pretty much everything. All the current consoles, as well as the PS2 and the DS, as well as the PC. And it will be coming soon - autumn 2008 apparently.

That's pretty quick for a cross platform release, which hints at one of two things:
1) it's going to suck. Nooooooo!
2) The video of a Ghostbusters game by Zootfly that appeared - and disappeared just as quickly - on YouTube earlier this year was a sign - a portent - of what is to come.

Personally I'm desperately holding out for option 2.

Technorati Tags:
ghostbusters, vivendi, bill murray, dan ackroyd, harold ramis, ernie hudson, slimer

Who needs a bouncy castle for a party?

That's right - why bother a boring old bouncy castle? AirWorks Inflatables have a wide range of .... different ... options for your party.

For example, how about this tentacle wielding ..... inflatable vagina? What?

I give this about a week before Orangina start using them on the streets in France to promote their drinks.

Technorati Tags:
inflatable vagina, orangina, tentacles, bouncy castle, freaks

Killer Bean Forever

This deserves a much wider awareness, if only to help out the guy who created it. Lead animator on Matrix Reloaded, Jeff Lew, has created a full-CGI movie - Killer Bean Forever: When Beans Go Bad.

The effects are great - this is very well done CGI - but more than that, he's done it all himself, on his own gear, using his own money.


"Several years ago, I was the Lead Animator of Matrix Reloaded. It was a great job. I learned a lot from it, but I wanted to make my own feature film. So I quit to pursue my dream. For the past 4 years, I’ve been working at my computer 14 hours a day, 7 days a week. I’ve spent my entire life savings and maxed out credit cards. After all this time and effort, my movie is almost done. I present to you a preview of my feature film directorial debut… Killer Bean Forever."




Killer Bean Forever - Official Trailer - video powered by Metacafe

You can check out the official site at http://www.killerbeanforever.com/index.html. Support Jeff and buy some merchandise from the online store - his instruction DVDs are well worth a watch.

Technorati Tags:
jeff lew, animation, cgi, killer bean

Those wacky French

This deeply disturbing video comes from France, and is supposed to be advertising Orangina.

"What the hell is *in* that drink?" I hear you cry. Well, a while ago a scientist managed to create oranges with THC in them, so I guess that's the answer.

Keep an eye out for the freakish octopus girl and her orgasmic expression as she squeezes her pert fruit.



Awesome. Clearly Disney need to hire these marketing gurus for a Bambi remake.

Also: bouncing panda boobs. That is all.

Technorati Tags:
orangina, french, freaks, furries, fetish, boobs, pole dancing, perversion

Jack Thompson Music Video!

I have to admit, I feel a bit sorry for Jack Thompson. He's yet to win any lawsuits against game companies, he emailed gay porn to a judge in Florida (who was overseeing a hearing to have Jack disbarred), and he's the constant object of ridicule from gamers everywhere.

At least, I feel a bit sorry until I realise he gets paid obscene amounts of money, and until I read the latest lawsuit/media stunt.

Then I laugh. Lots.

Helping the laughter is this awesome video from SarcasticGamer. Everyone sing along!

Technorati Tags:
jack thompson, lawyers, sarcastic gamer, music video, bad hair, baseless lawsuits, alleged paedophilia

More Half Life 2 fun

Following on from yesterday's daring reporting ;-) a friend has sent me a link to this excellent video on YouTube:

Half Life in 60 Seconds



Have a look at Rompkows other videos on there - fantastic stuff.

Technorati Tags:
half life 2, gordon freeman, black mesa, gman, strider

Half Life 2, slowly coming true

Cleverly photoshopped, or the true backup to eastern european riot police?

Is this the real reason anti-democracy protests in Georgia are getting so brutally suppressed?

Technorati Tags:
half life 2, riot police, democracy , protests, georgia

Awesome concept desk

Australian design student Marcus Curran has come up with a fantastic new concept for a working desk - the Eclipse Partition System.

Featuring a sort of folding leaf design for privacy, which can also have ambient images projected on to it, this looks fantastic. I'd certainly be tempted to buy one, the whole idea looks great for focussing you on your work and cutting out distractions.

Check out the video of how it would work:



Not sure if it would ever see the light of day, but it certainly deserves to be. Maybe some enterprising Scandinavian company would go for it?

Technorati Tags:
marcus curran, concept desk, design, eclipse partition system

Hybrid racing cars

I have a first generation Honda Civic hybrid, and I love it. I do a fair few miles for work, and being able to get over 600 miles out of a tank - that can only cost £30 to fill up - is awesome. The fact that it's a family sized car that can fit my wife, three kids, and all their junk, is also a huge bonus.

I predicted to a friend when I got the Civic, almost 3 years ago, that within 5 years we'd be seeing Formula 1 start to use hybrid technology. So I was pretty chuffed this week when the FIA announced an unprecedented 10 year freeze on engine development, in order to force F1 manufacturer's to invest in green technology.

With hybrid's giving a nice boost in torque and low end acceleration, hybrid motors in Formula 1 and performance cars make a lot of sense.

In related news, a team in the UK will be fielding a second generation Honda Civic hybrid in the Formula 1000 rally championship. This follows on the heels of a Honda Insight hybrid winning the Formula 1000 Class A championship last year.

A hybrid Toyota Supra has also won Tokachi 24 hour endurance race in Japan. The GT spec HV-R lead the entire race, finally finishing 19 laps ahead of the second place car. This success can only fuel the rumours (ha ha, see what I did there? :-) that the Toyota FT-HS concept hybrid is heading for production as the next Supra.

Interesting times ahead indeed. I'll look forward to swapping my hybrid Civic for a hybrid Ferrari 612 in the next few years :-)

Technorati Tags:
formula 1, fia, honda civic hybrid, honda insight hybrid, toyota ft-hs, toyota supra hybrid, formula 1000 rally

Weebl meets Weighted Companion Cube

Portal's Weighted Companion Cube is reaching a level of popular awareness that looks like it could rival that of Mario and Sonic. Cube and Portal references are popping up all over the place.

I first came across the Weebl on B3ta. If you haven't been browsing through the B3ta boards, now is the time to waste several hours laughing hysterically and compulsively clicking.

The latest Weebl flash animation features our friend the Weighted Companion Cube, and some portal gun antics that are predictable, silly, and had me laughing uncontrollably.

Head on over to http://www.weebls-stuff.com/wab/cube/ and enjoy the Weebl Flash goodness.

Portal's clearly a hit, and I hope Valve have the good sense to release longer versions, a level editor, and a multiplayer version - in short order.

Technorati Tags:
weebl, b3ta, weighted companion cube, valve, portal

Excellent TV ad for glasses

This is a real laugh-out-loud TV advert, highlighting the perils of not wearing your glasses. Fantastic stuff.

Technorati Tags:
tv, advert, glasses

Followup to the X-Wing

Well, they launched it, and it flew, and the wings moved to attack position.

And then it disintegrated :-(

But while it was flying it looked pretty spectacular:



Hats off to the team who built it for such an awesome job, and I hope they return to the design and improve it.

Technorati Tags:
x-wing, rocket, explosion

Rocket powered flying X-wing

A team of enthusiasts have build a rocket powered 21 foot X-wing. Really. Gizmodo have an interview with the team that have built this, along with pictures.

The X-wing has 4 solid fuel rockets, and the plan is to launch it, open the wings (they are motorised and controlled via a remote) and then deploy parachutes and recover the X-Wing once the burn is over.

Apart from this being a great achievement, purely from a construction point of view, the Star Wars fan within me is going mental over this.

The team who've built it have experience building other scaled rocket-powered craft, so there's every reason to hope that the X-wing will not only fly, but also make it back to ground successfully.

Who knows? Maybe some enterprising company will start producing these. How long can it be before we start seeing Star Wars craft competing in the Ansari X prize?

They plan the flight on the 10th October - here's looking forward to the X-Wing videos.

Technorati Tags:
x-wing, star wars, rockets, ansari x prize

Steel bikes making a comeback?

News from the Interbike 2007 show in the US is that an increasing number of manufacturers are coming out with steel framed bikes.

There's some coverage from Wired here.

To be honest, I can't see why. Steel is heavy, and brittle - it can't stand up to the punishment that a well built aluminium or carbon fibre frame.

My Cannondale F700 has covered over 40,000 tough, abusive miles in the 6 years I've owned it. The CAAD3 frame has put up with a lot of abuse, but apart from the usual scratches and marks it's absolutely fine.

Check out this excellent frame stress test: http://www.sheldonbrown.com/rinard/EFBe/frame_fatigue_test.htm Some very interesting reading there.

For mountain bikes, steel just doesn't give you the confidence and handling that aluminium does. I've yet to try a new Cannondale carbon fibre frame (my local shop recently stopped being a Cannondale dealer) but I'm eager to give them a go, even if I don't want to part with my trusty F700.

Any racing bike riders care to weigh in with comments on the viability of steel frames?

Technorati Tags:
cycling, aluminium, cannondale, steel, stress test

Will Apple suffer for it's iPhone arrogance?

I must admit, the whole iPhone thing amuses me. Apart from the touch screen, the iPhone is old tech - in Europe we've had phones with that level of functionality (and even more) for the last 3-4 years.

I suspect a huge amount of the hype over the iPhone's capabilities is driven by the appalling state of the US mobile network. It is an utter shambles, at a level that beggars belief.

All that aside (including Apple launching a device in Europe that isn't 3G - madness!) the news of iPhones being bricked by the latest update is astounding.

The thought of a vendor deliberately trashing your mobile device - and refusing to carry out warranty repairs if you've unlocked it - is astounding.

Apple's claims that unlocking your iPhone can cause damage to the machine, thus providing the reason for them refusing warranty service, is utterly ridiculous. Changing a software flag somehow causes battery failure, or the machine to stop reading memory cards?

This might fly on the desktop, but Apple need a swift kick in the nads so they can realise that this just won't work. Europeans have been merrily unlocked their phones for well over a decade - it's your device, it's perfectly legal, and it does nothing to harm the machine.

If somehow unlocking your iPhone caused service issues - then yes, there would be a point. But that would be one dealt with by the carrier, not the manufacturer. In the US, AT&T would be perfectly OK to push an update to the phone that re-locked it - if that fixed the problem, then job done. If not, send it in for a firmware flash.

Momentum is gathering in the US for a Class Action suit, and deservedly so. Apple are behaving in an unbelievably arrogant fashion. With a significant price drop coming so soon after the launch, and with the actual technology in the iPhone hardly earth shattering, Apple need to be working overtime to convince consumers that the iPhone is a better bet that a Nokia N95 or E90 over their 18 month contract.

Technorati Tags:
apple, iphone, class action, arrogance, nokia n95, nokia e90

Former nuclear bunker up for sale - ideal starter home

From the bizarre corner of Ebay, an ideal first time home for those looking to get a foot on the property ladder.

The Titan Missile Base in central Washington is up for sale. Currently up for grabs at a cool $1.5 million, it features all the mod-cons you could need:

• 57 acres of grounds
  
• 16 underground buildings
  
• with 3 160 foot tall missile silos
  
• 2 antenna silos
  
• 3 4 story equipment buildings
  
• and 2 control and power domes
  

The auction details are pretty comprehensive, with lots of links to even more information, and some great pictures of the layout. The seller claims it's still dry, with only minor spray paint vandalism, which is rare for a silo.



If you fancy a bid, you can find the auction as item number 190132455924.

A word of caution, though - it's probably still dialled in as a target in ex-Cold War guidance systems. especially given it's location. Buyer beware and all that ;-)

Technorati Tags:
titan missile base, ebay, missile silo, nuclear bunker

Nintendo is second largest company in Japan

Somewhat surprising news from Japan is that the big N is well on it's way to conquering all comers.

Based on market cap, Nintendo is now the second largest company in Japan, second only to Toyota.

That's right - a gaming company is larger than heavyweights like Mitsubishi, Panasonic - and, yes, even Sony. With Nintendo shares closing up 3.1% today the big N has moved into second place, usurping Canon.

The top three largest companies in Japan now stand at:

• Toyota - Y24,000bn (that's 24 trillion yen)
  
• Nintendo - Y8,390bn (roughly $73 billion)
  
• Canon - Y8,120bn
  

Citing Nintendo's historically conservative profit forecasts, the Financial Times and other analysts don't think Nintendo is overvalued - which means it's still got room to grow.

Having surpassed Sony and their market cap of Y6,540bn back in June, it's clear that Nintendo's strategy of innovating rather than competing head to head with Microsoft and Sony is really paying off.

It's a shame their innovation didn't pay off years ago when they got Silicon Graphics to help with the design of the Nintendo64. Both companies seemed to suffer badly in the following years, although the team from SGI left to form ArtX (who developed the Flipper chip use for the Gamecube's graphics). ArtX were then bought out by ATI, and used their technology to develop the R300 series of graphics cores.

Those R300 cores powering ATI's graphics cards for the last few years can trace their technology all the way back to the Infinite Reality graphics that gave Silicon Graphics machines the power to bring those famous Jurassic Park dinosaurs to life - which also formed the basis for the graphics in the Nintendo64.

Technorati Tags:
nintendo, market cap, japan, silicon graphics, ati, r300, infinite reality

US Navy swastika bunker to get makeover

The US Navy Exchange in San Diego is due to undergo $600k of landscaping and changes. Built in 1967 it achieved fame in 2005 when users of Google Maps found that the overhead satellite images of site bore more than a passing resemblance to a swastika.

You can check it out for yourself here.

Apparently the Navy noticed the building's shape when it went up 40 years ago, but did nothing about it because "it wasn't obvious from the ground".

Ignoring centuries of Buddhist use, and focussing instead of the Nazi overtones the building portrays, the Navy now plans to spend $600k to "change the walkways, landscaping and rooftop solar panels of the four L-shaped barracks". Scott Sutherland, deputy public affairs officer for Navy Region Southwest, confirmed: "We don't want to be associated with something as symbolic and hateful as a swastika."

Right. Good use of $600k there guys.

Technorati Tags:
us navy, nazi, swastika, buddhist

TOR admin arrested by German police

Germany recently passed some harsh computer security laws, and in the best tradition of governments the world over, the wording is so vague as to be utterly useless for catching real criminals, whilst putting normal users at risk.

The German police have since been busy raiding data centres to take down TOR nodes. Developed by people at the EFF, TOR (The Onion Router) is a way of tunneling your traffic to help improve your anonymity when using the Internet.

As revealed in his blog, German TOR server operator Alex Jansen was arresting by German police, over a bomb hoax posted on a forum by someone using TOR.

The police intimidated Alex and his wife, confiscated his personal possessions - and yet didn't shut down the offending TOR server.

Sadly the end result is that Alex has a pile of legal bills to foot now, and he's shutdown his TOR server. Clearly it seems laws aren't even needed - clueless police intimidating and arresting the innocent can cause enough pain and hassle.

Technorati Tags:
tor, german, police, clueless

Video conferencing

Email, IM and IRC are all pretty good ways of keeping in touch, but sometimes you just need face-to-face interaction.

Video conferencing has been around for a while, but everyone has their own idea of how it's done. For example, I have a built-in iSight camera on my Mac which will work with iChat. When working at home, though, I'm in front of an SGI O2, with very competent but incompatible video conferencing software. Neither of these will talk to Skype or MSN Video messenger or or or ... you get the idea.

MegaMeeting have come up with a great video conferencing solution that works entirely within the browser. No software to install, no hassle, and very much cross platform.

It's not just useful for video conferencing either - you can use it to create your own webinars or run a one-to-many video conferencing training session.

I found it simple and easy to setup, and within minutes had a video session going between my Mac and a colleague based in Eastern Europe, who has a Linux machine. Time to start exploring training provision via video ;-)

Technorati Tags:
video, conferencing, browser, sgi, mac, linux

Tories want to remove the stand-by button

In a latest attempt to appear green, the Tories have announced a crack-down on that nefarious pollutant, the stand-by button.

Their recently released "Quality of Life" report, at over 500 pages, seems a bit too full of waffle. However, buried amongst it is this gem:

“All new electrical items will require a functionality that switches them off after a specified period, rather than remaining on standby.”

UK consumer electronics retail giant Dixons tried this a while ago, pushing back on manufacturers and suppliers to do the same thing. Dixons got the cold shoulder - big time - and it was clear that manufacturers just didn't care.

How much impact this sort of policy will have - especially as it looks like the Tories aren't going to be forming any sort of government in the near future - remains to be seen. Is it just headline grabbing, or is there a real need.

Clearly, from research done, leaving modern devices in standby mode does unnecessarily consume power. HardCOREware carried out a review of the PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii to measure power consumption levels, with interesting results.

As long as politicians jet around the world for photo-opportunities, and drag around huge armies of staff in 4x4's, I can't see how lecturing everyone else to save energy and be green can come across as anything other than the rankest sort of hypocrisy.

Technorati Tags:
stupid politicians, green, standby, energy

meh, car insurance time

A friend of mine in the US - who is a complete technophobe - has been asking me about getting insurance quotes online.

I had a dig around several US-based sites, and ended up pointing her to the Advantageauto quotes website. The site is nice and simple to use - just make your selections from checklists and pull down menus, with a minimum of typing needed.

They also have a decent range of policy coverage, which is important as my friend needs a teen driver auto policy (she's only 19) and many sites treat teens as a specialist risk, and won't do online quotes for that age group.

She quickly managed to get a decent quote and sort out her insurance, which was pretty impressive considering how much of a novice she is when it comes to computers.

Technorati Tags:
car, auto, insurance, quote

Blogsvertise - interesting

Blogsvertise is an interesting service where you are paid for your blog posts. Sounds odd, but on further investigation it looks pretty legit.

Rather than having to wax lyrical and talk up a product, advertisers on Blogvertise want to generate 'buzz' and discussion of their product/site/whatever in the blogosphere.

You take on a 'task', which gives you a product or URL which you then need to blog about. No cheating here - you need to actually write something worthwhile, preferably with a few hundred words, showing that you've taken the time to look at what the advertiser is pushing, and have drawn your own conclusion.

As a traffic boosting mechanism, it's a brilliant idea. Advertiser's can sign up here and get bloggers to start talking about their products. I would think this would be a godsend for new startups who are trying to push the next big 'thing'. Using word of mouth social networks like blogs is a great way to get people talking, and the feedback - especially the negative - is a fantastic way to tune your offering and highlight any problems.

I'll be keeping on eye on Blogvertise - it could end up being a very interesting enabling tool.

Satellite hacking

I picked up a cheap satellite setup from Lidl at the weekend. I've always been interested in satellite TV - not just to catch up with stations from Eastern Europe where part of my family come from, but also there's just something very *cool* about picking up signals from satellites miles above the earth.

The whole kit was just under £60, and including an dish, LNB, receiver, all the cables, and a dish mount.

Fitting everything took a couple of hours - luckily my house has a south-facing single storey side extension with a flat roof, so there was a nice space to mount the dish there.

Hotbird 13E was very quick and easy to find - just kept the dish horizontal and roughly south, and bam, we have a signal.

Astra 28.2E was a bit more hassle, which was annoying because that was the main one I wanted to pick up, as it has all the channels you can get via Freeview in the UK.

I'd picked up a satellite tuner as well, which is a nifty box you plug inline in the cable between dish and reciever. It beeps and shows LEDs for signal strength, which was what I needed when the compass showed I was in approximately the right location.

Now I've got the 'Big 3' positioned, I think its time to pick up a motor for the dish. The receiver that came with the kit is a Silvercrest SL65, with has DiseqC support, so will work with any DiseqC compatible motor. Thanks to this it can also support multiple LNBs, although the receiver itself only has one co-ax in port.

All in all I think the set was a bit of a bargain, and has provided a cheap entry into the full world of satellites. Once the motor is in place, I'm going to have to run a co-ax feed into the office, and start playing around with satellite software on the computers.

Technorati Tags:
satellite, hacking, hotbird, astra, lnb

Major new iPod news

So Apple's media event "The Beat Goes On" has announced a complete refresh and overhaul of their entire iPod line, along with a few surprises.

The iPod Nano gains a colour screen, games, and increased capacity, as well as the CoverFlow interface from the iPhone.

The trusty old iPod is renamed the iPod Classic, and capacity has been boosted to 80gb or a whopping 160gb.

If you like the iPhone, you'll be pleased to see the new iPod Touch, which looks very very similar, and includes the natty touch screen interface.

Ars Technica have seen nice photos here. It'll be available in 8gb and 16gb versions.

In a move that'll please consumers but is pretty much guaranteed to piss off early adopters, Apple has also reduced the price of the 8gb iPhone by $200, and is going to drop the 4gb model once stock is out. It's clear they want to introduce a 16gb model inline with the iPod Touch, but with such a massive price cut coming so soon after launching the iPhone, I'm sure there are a lot of iPhone owners out there who are pretty steamed right now.

By far and away the coolest thing, though, is the launch of the iTunes Wi-Fi store. The iPod Touch comes with Wi-Fi, and will allow you to buy songs direct from the iTunes store. The next time you sync your iPod to your Mac or PC, these new purchases will be backed up.

This is really impressive - with the flood of wi-hi hotspots, especially in cities and large towns, this enables the sort of impulse purchase that was missing from the already slick iTunes/iPod experience.

On top of this, Apple have struck a deal with Starbucks. The iPod Touch will not only work seemlessly with Starbucks' wi-fi hotspots, showing an icon when you're in range, but can also pop up a "buy the song that's playing" link. Like the tune playing while you wait for your coffee? Just click a couple of times and it's yours, downloaded to your iPod.

This is the sort of slick integration of technology that has made the iPod so successful. Remove the hassle and barriers to the purchase, make it easy for the consumer to get what they want, and you're on the road to success.

When Microsoft announced the Zune would have Wi-Fi support, this is the sort of thing I was hoping they meant. Sadly they crippled the whole experience, and the Zune ended up as just another MP3 player - there's no advantage there that would eat into iPod sales.

With this latest announcement Apple have made it clear that they understand the consumer's needs perfectly.

The other music stores and MP3 player manufacturers must be more than a little worried this morning.

Technorati Tags:
ipod, touch, nano, iphone

Gordon Brown fails to learn from others

Given David Cameron's recent pronouncements about trying to crack down on violence in video games, it was only a matter of time before more confused and ill-informed politicians jumped on the bandwagon, desperate to they're doing something about this apparently terrible issue.

Naturally it's Gordon Brown, our un-elected Prime Minister, who has now spoken out about graphically violent video games.

According to The Inquirer and MCV, Gordon Brown is planning to launch a review on the advertising and sale of games to children (ie. anyone under 18). Apparently the Prime Minister mistakenly believes that "Parents are concerned about whether children are exposed to harmful violence and sexual imagery in games and on the internet."

Really? If they're that concerned, why don't they actually be parents, and stop their kids buying and playing games they think are inappropriate?

How about they follow the mandatory legal rating of the BBFC for some games, and the voluntary PEGI rating for the rest of them? You know, actually read the big age rating label, which is exactly the same as the one on DVDs and videos - and then actually follow it.

Why is it that some parents are so hopeless that they are shocked to find a BBFC classified 18 game like Doom 3 has strong violence and horror elements? What do they think the BBFC and PEGI ratings are for?

And how out of touch is the Prime Minister? Can he really be unaware that graphically violent videogames are rated by the BBFC, which carries the same legal weight and penalties as the ratings the BBFC gives to films? ie. if you sell an 18 rated game or DVD to someone under 18, you go to jail. Why would we need any more laws - it's already a crime!

I suppose it's much easier to blame the easy scapegoat of computer games, rather than focus on the real problem - irresponsible parents who seem to think the job of raising their children properly is someone else's problem.

Given how many similar efforts in the US have always been smacked down, we can only hope that the same sorry circus will get played out over here as well.

Always good to see our tax money hard at work :-)

Technorati Tags:
computer games, gordon brown, stupid politicians, laws, prime minister

Tube strike :-(

Bizarre.

If the company you're working for goes bankrupt, it means they don't have the money to pay the bills. Everyone loses their job, the place gets asset-stripped, it's game over for all concerned.

I thought that this was established wisdom - I mean, everyone knows how businesses function, surely?

Apparently not the Tube workers. Members of the RMT union have staged a 72 hour walkout because - get this - they want assurances that they will keep their jobs and pensions.

Right. So the company has folded, and they're inconveniencing everyone else in London, to demand that they keep their pensions and jobs.

Even more bizarre - they've been given assurances that they will keep their jobs and pensions. The other unions are happy with this - yet the RMT decided to stage a 72 hour walkout anyway.

Why? What on earth do they hope to achieve? They've already got what they've asked for, and now they've decided to inconvenience everyone who works and lives in London.

The RMT come across as nothing more than a bunch of obnoxious militants who want to flex some muscle and show their power. The last thing we need is a return to the 70s, where nothing got done because unions were more concerned with pushing around their employers than actually doing the work they were paid to do.

We can see what happened to the British car industry thanks to that.

The problem with Tube strikes is that, if you work or live in London, you're being held to ransom. Sadly, there's no other way to get around as quickly, unless you've got a motorbike or you cycle.

Luckily, where I'm working they have changed rooms and showes for cyclists. Despite the hassle of having to man-handle my bike onto an over-crowded commuter train, I've rediscovered the joy of cycling through rush hour traffic.

Plus I get to save on my Tube fare as well.

Maybe this is how they plan to improve the Tube service - by driving people away from it?

Could work ;-)

Technorati Tags:
cycling, unions, tube strike, slackers

Silicon Graphics

One of my favourite pieces of tech has always been Silicon Graphics machines. Ever since they popped up in a very prominent way in Jurassic Park, they've caught my imagination. I mean, who else makes really expensive, really powerful machines that look so damn cool? Bright colours, stylish looking cases - Silicon Graphics machines are just awesome through and through.

After I got exposed to UNIX and learnt a bit more about it, I was scouring Ebay for a decent workstation and was shocked to discover how cheap second hand Silicon Graphics gear can be.

I picked up an SGI Indy - those cool looking blue pizza boxes. Mine came complete with a big old 21" CRT and the cool looking IndyCam.

After some playing around I wanted to find out how to get some more software for the machine - things like GNU software, freeware, apps, that sort of stuff. Some googling around and I came across SiliconBunny

It's a help and information site for Silicon Graphics machines, and it's got an absolute tonne of information on there. As well as mirrors of old sites, there are links to other SGI related websites, model summaries, downloads of some nice apps - all sorts of stuff.

A few years ago they also started collating any Silicon Graphics related news items - mostly press releases and things, but I started to keep an eye on it just to know what SGI were up to. Slide on over to SiliconBunny News and see what I mean.

I picked up a second hand 1600SW LCD screen on Ebay, and then was stumped - as it was an SGI monitor I had assumed it would come with the 13W3 connector so I could connect it up to my Octane. I wasn't that thrilled to find out it came with some odd-looking digital connector called LVDS.

A quick browse brought me to the 1600SW FAQ, which pointed me in the right direction to find out what I needed to get this great screen hooked up to my Octane.

Although it's a bit old, this Wired article does a great job in explaining the attraction of these cool systems. I'm glad to see that there's still a solid community behind SGI, cos these machines will keep ticking on for years.

Technorati Tags:
sgi, silicon graphics, wired, siliconbunny

Greetings from z00t

Greetings and welcome to z00t's space on the web. Everyone keeps on telling me about the blogging revolution, so I've decided it's time to join the blogosphere.

So here I am! Keep an eye out for new posts and updates - I have some very diverse tastes so there should always be something interesting on here to read.