Blog

The thoughts, opinions, happenings, and just plain ramblings of a seemingly boring person.

Geekery

Remotes & MMORPGs

Categories Gaming, Geekery, Life

Logitech Harmony 650 remoteWe're still currently settling into the new house. Most things have found a place, but there's always those annoying items that you use, but not nearly often enough, that you can't throw away but have got to find a place for that is out of the way but still accessible for when you do on the odd occasion need it.

Anywho, one geeky thing that I have picked up recently is a new Logitech Harmony remote (I got the 650). Now that we have a AV receiver in addition to the TV, PS3, and WDTV, this remote is the best … Read more →

Moving In

Categories Football, Geekery, Life

Well we've finally done it: on Monday last week we began the process of moving into our house. The move has definitely been easier because we are moving the majority of our stuff from the house next door, but I really despise moving nevertheless. The intention is that we won't have to do this again for quite some time :).

The first few nights were a bit strange, but it really is already starting to feel like home. There is still a lot for us to do before everything will have settled down, but most of the important stuff is … Read more →

3D Star Wars, House Finishing, Ordinations

Categories Geekery, Life

Lots of big events this week!

The first big one was a Star Wars movie back in theatres and in 3D no less. Yes, I know it was 'only' Episode I, and how much that is the worst Star Wars movie (no arguments there), but I still nevertheless enjoyed it. I'll never pass up an opportunity to see a Star Wars movie in the cinemas, and this was no exception.

Although the 3D projectors at the cinema I was watching it in I don't think were aligned properly (it was a little out of focus in 3D), it was definitely … Read more →

Computer Cleaning & Rain Delays

Categories Geekery, Life

Like most people I really dislike the chore of cleaning, but it probably shows how much of a geek I am when I admit that I really don't mind, heck even partly enjoy, cleaning my computer.

Most people don't bother cleaning their computers, but I like to run a well oiled machine (minus the oil of course). Typically it involves at least pulling out the dust filters and giving them a vacuum, but if I'm really in the mood i'll get an anti-static cloth and wipe down the fan blades (there are four fans in the Antec 902 I own), … Read more →

The Best and Worst of 2011

Categories Gaming, Geekery, Life, Movies

So my traditional critical wrap of the year is once again upon us. As a result of all the house building, this year I haven't really played many games at all, so that part of this review might be a little underdone. Balancing that out, this year Des and I went and saw a lot of movies, both theatrically and at home. At my count (which I think is still a little short), we've seen 35 movies released this year.

Anyway, here we go:

Movies

The Adventures of TintinBest Movie: The Adventures of Tintin

This one was a tough one because no movie … Read more →

The Home Stretch

Categories Geekery, Life, Technology

It looks like we're entering the home stretch in the construction of our house (see what I did there? ;)). Although it didn't look like it two weeks ago, everything seems to be coming together and most will be done before Christmas.

I really can't wait for it all to be finished (it's looking like we'll be moving in in January), the early starts and now the increasing temperatures are starting to take their toll. Although, the past week has been awesome in terms of temperatures, apparently we've had one of the coolest starts to summer in recorded history, and … Read more →

Google’s New Look of Doom & On Virgin

Categories Geekery, Rants, Technology

Google has been busy rolling out it's new look, and even after using it on a few products for a while now, it isn't getting any better for me. As i've ranted about before, the grey-washing of colours across it's services (most eye-soringly in Blogger entries) is truly perplexing.

But I can live with bland and unlively colour changes; what is bugging me the most is basic usability impediments. Google used to be really good at this type of thing, making highly usable and accessible services. Just to use the new Reader look again as an example:

Google Reader snapshot

Other than the … Read more →

New Mobile: HTC Desire S

Categories Geekery, Life, Technology

HTC Desire SIn what is probably the shortest intervals between new mobile phones since I started using them, and barely a year since I got my last new one, I have a new mobile.

After going up to Bribie earlier this month for a break, my Vodafone based mobile had no access to data at all, and I found myself having to use the Mrs' iPhone to check emails. During the last year on my small Android phone, I have noticed a lot of developers neglecting the small screen size (and associated resolution) in terms of developing apps and features. Plus … Read more →

Terrible Reader Updates & NAS, Media Player Gadgetry

Categories Geekery, Internet, Rants, Technology

A few months ago I criticised Google's upcoming interface design for Gmail as being bland and not user friendly. It seems in the past week that in rolling out this design across all their products Google has taken the remodelling knife to my beloved Google Reader.

I've loved using Google Reader for over five years as my main web and RSS aggregator, but their recent update has really irked me. I was expecting the colour-washed interface (which is still terrible btw), but to the point of making link colours the same as normal text, terrible text-size scaling, and the … Read more →

Star Wars on Blu-Ray

Categories Geekery, Movies

Star Wars Blu-ray set coversThis week the complete set of Star Wars movies was finally released on blu-ray. Like the eventual release of the original trilogy on DVD all those years ago, I was of course quite excited.

As is usual with each new release, George Lucas had included a lot of mostly unobjectionable minor changes that might make a little sense, some ones that are completely unnecessary, but also at least one major change that has people scratching their heads in frustration and millions of geeks posting on forums their fury on how their childhood has been ruined (see the 'Han Shot … Read more →