Blog

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

Geekery

Aus. Government Abandons Internet Filter Plans

Categories Geekery, Rants, Technology

It was 'shelved' as a policy prior to the last Federal election, but now the Australian Government has finally publicly abandoned its quite stupid policy of implementing compulsory internet filtering. I have been a quite vocal opponent of the policy since its announcement in 2008, and am not surprised by this backdown.

Since Julia Gillard's toppling of Kevin Rudd, following the 2010 election the implementation of the filter was never going to happen. Poll after poll showed its unpopularity, and internet experts and technology industry insiders' continuous criticism on whether it could be practically implemented, let alone be effective … Read more →

A New TA Successor on Kickstarter

Categories Gaming, Geekery, Internet

Planetary AnnihilationThe idea of crowd funding has really taken off in the past year or so. Headlined most prominently by US-based Kickstarter, it enables people who want to raise money for something to easily pitch their idea to anyone on the internet, who can in turn pledge a certain amount of money often in return for some rewards once the project gets off the ground. It's a great way to raise early capital for a project without having to go to banks, or relinquish part-ownership to venture-capitalist firms.

I hadn't yet previously supported anything on Kickstarter or on other crowd funding … Read more →

Getting Back Into Reading & Kindles Everywhere

Categories Geekery, Life, Technology

Kindle TouchWhen we got married over 6 six years ago, I stopped reading books. I'm not totally sure why - maybe it was being more busy and more tired - but other than a select few non-fiction books, I haven't read a single fiction book in the last six years since.

Recently, after going to bed at night it has started taking me a while to get to sleep, and I've realised that previously I would have used this 'non-sleeping time' to read a book.

So I decided to get back into reading.

I bought a Kindle Touch e-reader direct from … Read more →

Transforming Tablets

Categories Geekery, Technology

Asus Transformer PadLast week I gave in to the tablet culture and got one.

I've been increasingly using my phone to access the internet whilst watching TV for various live social and sporting events: recently I've been posting on Whirlpool while watching live Euro 2012 matches, and also used SBS's great social media effort for this year's Eurovision.

In my opinion this is where tablets or iPads really shine: as a couch-based internet access device. Where laptops are too clunky and cumbersome, and phones too small and finicky, a tablet is the perfect tool for quick internet or social media access … Read more →

LucasCosti.com Overhaul & Welcome to WordPress

Categories Geekery, Internet, Technology

Well I finally did it. Goodbye old site (pictured).

After mulling over whether or not to convert my trusty old blog to the WordPress platform for years, and recently actually thinking seriously about doing it, over the past few weeks I've spent a lot of time actually getting it done. It was about as painful as I expected it to be, which was unsurprisingly quite very.

Other than the drastic improvement in look,  the regulars will notice a lot of changes as I've simplified the whole site down to its core. Gone are the Gallery, Intros, Games… Read more →

Geek Parties & Eurovision

Categories Geekery, Life

Me dressed up with a lightsaberThis entry is a little belated, but still fun to make nonetheless.

Last week was one of my cousins 21st birthday party, and very awesomely, the theme for the party was cocktail dress but with a geek-themed accessory. Some people went full-on costume, but I went for a classy vest-with-lightsaber look. I didn't take on of my top-of-the-line Master Replica lightsabers, but opted for the safer option of one of the plastic ones. Yes, I know it's sad that I have many different lightsabers to choose from :P.

Secretly underneath the vest I was also wearing my Star Wars: Episode … Read more →

To WordPress Or Not To WordPress?

Categories Geekery, Internet, Life

It's been many a year since I last did a redesign of this site, and even then it was really only some minor-ish changes from when I first began this blog in 2004. As the web has moved forward in the past 8+ years, the layout and structure of this blog has largely remained the same.

Although (in my opinion), this site doesn't look 'bad', I wouldn't really say that it is that 'good' either. So i'm planning on bringing a whole new look to this site.

However, what I must first decide on is what to do with … Read more →

NBN Rollout Announced & Giving DD-WRT a try

Categories Geekery, Internet, Technology

As fate would have it, there are two loosely related things to blog about today.

NBN MapFirstly, in the past week NBN Co. has announced it's schedule for stage one of the wide-scale rollout of connecting areas. I was of course clamouring to see whether I could expect fibre-based internet within the foreseeable future. Luckily for us, our area is included in this three-year plan, and is due to "commence work in your area from Jun 2014 in phases with last work scheduled to commence in Jun 2015".

The news could be better (Ipswich and north-eastern Brisbane start getting … Read more →

Modern Borefare 3

Categories Gaming, Geekery

Modern Warfare 3I've finally started to catch up on the gaming season releases, and the first that arrived in the mail: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. After being largely disappointed with Modern Warfare 2, I wasn't really expecting much at all from the latest in the series.

After playing through the game over the past week or so, I wasn't at all surprised that it didn't exceed those expectations.

The game isn't "bad" per se, but it isn't all that good either. It really is just more of the same continued on from MW2. The graphics are mostly identical … Read more →

Windows 8 Beta: Upcoming MS Disaster

Categories Geekery, Rants, Technology

As I've done with Windows 7 and Vista previously, I like to get my hands on the public betas or release candidates of upcoming Windows releases to have a bit of a play.

Right now I'm having a play of Windows 8, and to be frank I'm still trying to comprehend what's sitting in front of me. Some would say this beta is a revolution in Windows interface design, others would say it's a catastrophe. I'm more inclined to the latter. But before I get into it, here's the obligatory screenshots.

Win 8 logon screen Win 8 Start Screen Win 8 task manager

With Windows 8, Microsoft is attempting to develop an … Read more →