2010 started with a virus for me. And if you've visited this place these last few days/week, you might have done the same. I don't know how and where exactly, but I was infected with some fruity virus about 2 weeks ago. As a reaction, and counter-measure, I did a complete format of my PC and performed several scans hoping and thinking it was gone. However, while surfing to this lovely site, I received a message from Chrome stating it had found some malicious code on it. Appearantly, and this is somewhat of a guess on multiple sides, my FTP access details were obtained through the virus/trojan, allowing some party to put an extra javascript into my index.php, linking it to yet another trojan horse. Bit of a wooden horse orgy if you ask me.
I hope anyone visiting this site has a) found his/her browser objecting to the visit or b) has some proper security measures installed, which either found it in time or can get rid of it now. In either case I feel I must apologize for this, I feel like a turd for the possible risk anyone may have run. I do believe it's all ok now. With the emphasis on believe.
In case you're wondering how this virus manifests itself; a process (in my case svchost.exe) started taking up 100% processing power and would, even on numerous restarts, not let go of it. Also Chrome stopped functioning. Svchost.exe itself is just a collection of processes, so if you find this program in your taskmanager it does not simply mean you have it, I do believe the virus can hide behind other, completely legit, processes as well, but if anything unfamiliar is hogging all the system resources, the near future may hold dark things for you too.
Friday January 15, 2010 -- #115
» Tom Sachs thought; "fuck it. Lets make cool stuff". Boy, was he right.
If you don't find a way to get rid of those, physically, annoying glasses, and don't bother with a half-decent story (looking at you there Cameron), 3D is going to end up being a one-time technical showcase and nothing more. Show me why I need this in my living room. Without the glasses and possible headburst.
Speaking of other cool stuff, The Perry Bible Fellowship book is perhaps my best bookbuy these last months. All the comics are probably available on the web, through their own site even, but shaped in this hardcover bookly fashion it brings me even more pains of joy. Why, with utterly brilliant people such as Nicholas Gurewitch, do we still suffer trivial things such as violence, hatred, inequality and laws of physics!
By the by, the top 10 things for 2010 I desire...
- Buy many meaningless toys now I have a cashflow going.
- Get a house to call my own and stuff it full of meaningless hi-fi.
- Complete series such as Akira, Sin City, The Sandman, 20th Century Boys and The Dark Tower.
- Read the entire series of Akira, Sin City, The Sandman, 20th Century Boys and The Dark Tower.
- Buy a spinky new PC (new case, monitor, keyboard, mouse, everything).
- Get Uncharted 2, Gran Turismo 5, God Of War 3 and Braid for PS3.
- Get a job I really like going to each and every day.
- Get a better grip on coding and what I want to do with it, ie. write personal Code Convention, learn and use a PHP MVC framework and get kickass at JavaScript and associated brethren such as AJAX and jQuery.
- Bring memike.net and hiphopchicks.nl to a new version# and finally make them worthy of the internets.
- Become less materialistic.
- World Peace.
- Learn to count.
I'm aiming for 9 out of 12 right there.
Friday January 01, 2010 -- #114
» Kaneda + bike = plastic perfection. The best Akira toy ever?
» Note to self: at some point I need to buy, play and love Machinarium.
Paranormal Activity is creepy! It borrows heavily from The Blair Witch, duh, but if it works it works, so why not. The power of this type of movie, without the CGI 1billion polygon counting demons and in-your-face terror, is that while watching the movie you will perhaps find it just as scary as its aforementioned big type horror/thriller brothers, but once you turn off that TV, and the lights and move upstairs to get ready to sleep it really does come into its own. I could almost picture a videocamera clock counting the minutes and hours until someone, or something, would start wreaking havoc on myself while lying in bed. I did hate the movie characters at some level, such as the lack of natural despair until very late in the movie and not taking up the good advice they have been giving (deliberate dumming down of characters gets on my tits), but for the most part it's a very well done piece of cinema. Not something I'd watch over and over, and getting it on blu-ray for the DTS HD sound stream and the HD resolution seems rather beyond the point, but I will remember this experience with some... fondness. In a time of big-ass (triple sh!te) blockbusters it's a very welcome surprise. Let's just hope it won't, unlike The Blair Witch, have the suffer the evil that is a sequel.
Sunday November 29, 2009 -- #113
Woei! A couple of weeks ago I cried about seeing my digital coach being fired from Ajax in Fifa 10. After being laid off my only remaining option turned out to be Exeter City, well down the ladder of UK football. Today, however, after many many games (46) I saw my, sorry our, efforts bear fruits. We became champions of the Coca Cola Division 2! I feel I'm starting to get to know the basics and runnings of Fifa and can do what I want, rather than seeing stuff I'd like happen by accident. After thus season finished I received numerous offers, but nothing remotely interesting was among them so I decided to stay with my british friends. With some luck I get the team into the Championship! That would be swell.
Now if only I get to find out how I can buy players (nobody wants to come) and renew my players' contracts (they're running out and declining renewals) I'll blow the digital football world to kingdom come! So to speak.
Wednesday November 25, 2009 -- #112
As of 3 weeks ago I have found myself chained to a workdesk each and every day, thus being restrained from posting here and doing the many other things I enjoy doing so much. Gone are the carefree days of gaming and in are the, relative, careful days of work. The plus side of it all is of course the income. Eventually I will have gathered enough to buy myself a new computer, and the heaps of books, blu-rays and PS3 games need to be paid for as well.
The first few weeks of my new beginning are stuffed with "learning". Mostly learning their structure of working and producing, but also teaching myself the way of complicated SQL querying, producing light JavaScript functions and as of to today; creating sites in ASP.NET. While I don't know if this is the company and job I can, and will, dedicate my life (*BLARGH!*) to, this is the stuff experience is made of, so I'm sort of pleased with the way things are going. Even though I'm still hoping Guerilla Games will call me with a testing/webby combo type of offer. Keep on dreaming right?
Speaking of dreaming; Braid has seen the day of light on the American side of the PSN store. And I simply can't wait for the European release. Ever since that Steam demo I've had my head buzzing with this wonderful little game. Also Uncharted2 and Assassin'sCreed2 appear to be worthwhile. Awesome. Just as I'm away all day doing non-gaming related work. Humbug!
Monday November 23, 2009 -- #111
» Is Earth really doomed? Time and time again it does appear so.
» I concur; Kabouter Wesley may just be something very special.
Killzone2, Killzone2, Killzone2, Killzone2, Killzone2, Killzone2, Killzone2, Killzone2, Killzone2, Killzone2, Killzone2!! How often can I put that in 1 sentence? 11 times apparently. I mentioned before I had to playtest the demo a few times while trying out for a job, the job didn't come to me, but a certain interest in the game did. I'm not sure why I did enjoy Goldeneye on the N64 so much those many moons ago, but ever since FPS (First Person Shooters) on gameconsoles have never appealed to me in the same respect. Until Killzone2. I'm not gonna pretend it sets the world alight with innovation or that I was, emotionally, blown away by the demo. But it did seem to have some charm and, while hated and debated on the net by many, the controls didn't feel overly clunky in my virgin hands. Ever since I have gone the way of PC FPS games I never looked back to its console brethren. The reason why has become apparent to me in quite a few recent efforts on the PS3. I have thus far tried a number of FPS demos, including the other Sony-hit Resistance, and I was once again hit by the controls which just kept me overcompensating every aiming effort I attempted. The problem with trying to move your point of view in first person perspective with these ickle analog sticks is annoying, for some reason in that first person view I just keep moving a "little too much": a little too far to the right, back to the left, a little to the right, a little more, whoops too far, back to the left again. And so it continues. It just doesn't offer me the same feeling of control a mouse does.Trying to hit anything feels like an overcomplicated chore. And so when Killzone2 first came out I had absolutely zero interest in it. And even that is putting it mildly. I could appreciate its technical features and bravoure, but gamewise it just didn't have anything going for me. Until recently obviously.
I have bought the game about 2 weeks ago and finished it in a little under 8 hours, 800 kills, about 150 headshots, give or take 40 deaths and many hooie kablooies. The game is a graphical action powerhouse. About 3 quarters of the game sees you shooting nazi-like "aliens" with a range of handguns (machineguns, napalm spewers, grenadelauchers, rocketlaunchers). The other 25 percent has you driving a tank, commanding an exoskeleton, turning and firing a plane turret or 2 and more of the kind. The story isn't bad, which is to say it's completely absent. Make of that what you will. I've never played the first Killzone, which was out only on PS2, so I can only assume some part of the reason the human race has come to this dusty planet to start a shitstorm. It's a simple matter of keeping my own life safe, and ruining theirs, that's all there is to it. And that's ok. It's all about blowing stuff up. And people, people blow up nicely as well. And I enjoyed it. If you haven't noticed yet I really did enjoy it. The controls are pretty sluggish, which meant I could easily aim for the target I wished for. That is to say it was paced enough for me to feel like I was in actual control, a feeling I have lost in many a console FPS. Apart from the useful controls the game itself knows you can't turn and aim as accurate and swiftly as you might like and thus acts accordingly. Most of the time your enemies confront you from the front, you really don't have to worry about being attacked from behind and that helps. A lot. Knowing you don't have to be able to perform a 180 at any given point makes for a somewhat relaxed experience. There are parts where it's all about free roaming and securing a certain area, it's here that enemies can attack from virtually every and any side, which in turn shows perfectly why gamepad controls don't work as well all the time. You haven't really known frustration when you die time and time again being hit by that opponent in your back, which you just can't respond to quickly enough, quite simply because you have the turning speed of an elephant. An elephant with artritis, which has been shot . In all fours. And tied down with kryptonite. To a sinking submarine. It really is a frustrating affair feeling you're being beaten not because of lack of skill, but with a feeling of unfairness. I play games for a feeling of joy, not to be reminded I'm a total and utter spack. So I was very pleased to see those moments come in short supply, anything that moves right in front of me is cannon fodder.
The atmosphere is quite a thing to experience and really does bring life to this monster. Sure the colours are all about browns, dark greys and blacks, but they're nice shades of browns and greys, with excellent smoke, lighting and particle effects coming of everything and everyone your mowing down, and that's what this game is about. Your Gung-Ho Joe and these people piss you off. Kick ass. Kick Ass. Yes, it's a graphical prositute, you're paying money just to enjoy its looks and cheap tricks and sure its gameplay is pretty shallow with pretty much everything we've seen done so many times before. But it does do it all so very very well. Doing the old and prevail has got to be worth some kudos. Killzone2 may not be my new SuperMarioKart, LylatWars, Goldeneye or Windwaker, but it is my new console FPS game of choice, perhaps this has sparked some love for a genre I thought to be defunct for me and that's good enough. It was well worth the pennies.
Wednesday November 11, 2009 -- #110
» AMUSEMENT is France's answer to EDGE, only this mag goes even further with absolutely brilliant photography.
Your first steps into parenting.
They may be your last too.
Tuesday November 03, 2009 -- #109
I feel cheated. I was a happy and _GOOD_ coach of Dutch football club Ajax. Good damnit! The board set me 2 goals to achieve: 1) qualify for european football 2) reach the cup final, and I was well on my way to reach the first target! The top 4/5 teams in the league qualify for european football, and after a win on #3 I quietly snuck into second place, well on my way for glory and cake. Glory and cake! But apparently the board was not pleased with succes, not pleased at all, and I was fired. FIRED!
(._.;)
After my unsuccesful time at Ajax I only had 1 option: become head coach of Exeter. A club in the second division of the Coca Cola league. Coca freakin Cola league. So now I'm leading my team to victory infront of a handful of people. And they hardly even cheer when I score. Where's the cake now :(
I feel cheated and treated unfairly. I suppose Fifa 10 really is a sim.
Thursday October 29, 2009 -- #108
» Fear this zombiescum! Left 4 Dead 2 is coming!
» Moon: when will it hit the European shore, has it already landed, will it ever grace my eyes, where is it?!
What do I do when I'm slightly bored, don't want to sit at home the entire day, but do want to enjoy the last specks of non-employment freedom? I go see District 9 of course. District 9 is an part of a slum where stranded aliens are being held, for their own "sake", so that we, humans, can figure out what to do with them. We know not what they are doing here or where they are from, but part of the charm of the movie is that that isn't really important to us humans. What is important is if and how the 2 races will mingle on our little rock. Of all the places in the world they could, they have decided to stop their massive ship over Johannesburg, South-Africa. The link with slums, poverty, violence and crime is quickly made, and the directors easily borrow from that sentiment. Including those damned Nigerian scammers. And why not. The movie is all about creating a believable world/atmosphere where these extraterestials are treated as regular human refugees, stranded somewhere without a clue (perhaps even against their will) and unable to fit in with the indeginious crowd. The place, or compound, we humans keep them in quickly turns into a slum where crime and poverty is rife. This fact is established in the beginning of the movie and you can see very fast where that's heading. A foul tension between humans and aliens is made. The way the story turns out isn't really surprising, but very entertaining nontheless. A human being, a sort of tax investigator, is send into the slum, along with a decent size armed force, to make the aliens sign eviction notices so that they can be moved to a new and proper location. One further from human civilization and easier to keep your eyes on. Everything according to law right? Right! During his work, which includes searching houses for hidden weapons and stolen items from us poor humans, he accidentally manages to spray himself with some alien goo and this is where his life, and intestines, turn sour. Before long his body starts turning into one of them. Now it it possible to sort of make-up the rest of the story with just this info, but the missing bit here is that he's working for a company called Multi-National United, a big faceless company the movieworld so loves to exploit, which is in control of guiding our friendly aliens from one concentra... erm happy camp to another. Oh, and they're the second biggest weapons manufacturer in the world. Oh yes and the aliens have awesome weaponry, which we can't use because there's a sort of DNA lock on it, so they're looking for ways to burry into that DNA lock. Any way possible. I think you can pretty much draw a blueprint of the story from here on.
Despite the somewhat regularity of the story there's plenty going on to keep you looking. What kind of stuff you ask, well the "body disintegrating" kind of stuff. Never does the movie turn Bay/Bruckheimer'esque hideous in its form, but it is action that keeps the movie going. Well that, and the turnaround of the attitude of the protagonist against the aliens.
I can't say I disliked the movie, far from it, but it was missing that *oompf* to really remember it for. The action and nicely moving story keeps you on the edge as you keep wondering if it really is gonna pan out the way you think, but there isn't much more. Part of the movie is shot from the pov from a camera crew which is shooting footage for a sort of documentary or TV program. An issue I had with this is that you can't tell which parts are those and which aren't. So when are we the eyes of a cameraman, and when are we "not there". The colours, the shaky cam and the angles are the same, I feel some power in those scenes is lost because of it. Fortunately that means that there are no silky slick angles and sequences in the movie, giving it a nice raw feeling overall. You almost feel - here it comes.... - like it's really happening, did happen or could happen in our world, also because the CGI is done very well. We aren't quite there where it's impossible to tell the difference between real and faked, but they've done a good job, kudos where they are due. It's all very nice on the eyes and I was buying into the whole situation from the getgo. The leading characters, without exception, are very unlikable, even the main character is a bit of a douche, but of course it's all about him turning likable. Which sort of happens. The characters you do get some emotional attachment with is of course an alien. Not like ET thank goodness, but you get the idea.
Despite my disappointment in the story it doesn't quite finish the way I'd have imagined and that's also where some of the power in the movie is, it's all about creating a situation with a sense of "this was not made in Hollywood" (including the lack of over the top slickness) and the ending does live up to that feeling.
Monday October 26, 2009 -- #107
I wanted to try out Chrome and see if it was any good for use, but although it looks pretty it has trouble scrolling through my site - and others - nicely, making for some tough use. I do like some of the functions it seemingly has, like not needing a status bar to see where a link is heading. Instead there's a small translucent pop-up at the bottom of the screen telling you where any link, any link at all, is heading for. Really neat, the less bars I see, the happier I get. But because it seems to do rather poorly with the loading of some sites (although task manager is telling me it's hogging no more resources than FF3 is, while both are hogging a boatload), I shall return to my old new love FireFox for now.
Good to see a) my site looking properly in chrome and b) seeing more companies trying to give the browser market and its users some good options. I'm not sure if "the standards" are being respected, but I'm guessing (dangerous I know) Google does. Back to FF3 for now, but perhaps when I'm dragging this PC carcase back into the decade I may give Chromey a proper go.
update
I have decided to give Chrome a try after all, it looks decidedly good and makes FireFox look very... 2008.
Sunday October 25, 2009 -- #106