Blog - September, 2009 - Page 2

Cool Modding Stuff #1

Posted on 17th Sep 2009 at 12:07 by Antony Leather with 7 comments

Being a modder at heart as well as an IT journalist, I'm always on the lookout for new and interesting hardware or gadgets that might be part of a future mod. I thought I'd share my findings here on bit-tech, just in case I've come across something you might find useful!

I hope to do this regularly too and I'll be bringing five or so cool things I've found on my travels on a monthly basis (hopefully!), so if you're planning a mod or a scratch build or you're thinking of improving the cooling in your existing PC, make sure you watch this space!

The Most Annoying Crapware

Posted on 16th Sep 2009 at 11:23 by Richard Swinburne with 67 comments

What makes companies think it's OK to install extra crap you didn't ask for by default? There are numerous examples of this, from store-bought laptops that are preloaded with bloatware to toolbars that come included with your chosen browser. Even the most trusted sources and manufacturers have become involved with this crapware epidemic.

"Security" companies seem to to be most notorious offenders of all, constantly trying to weasel their way onto your PC when you don't want them to. Once they've invaded your registry and (previously) clean startup procedure so that they're nigh impossible to remove they begin their main task - pummelling you with notifications and subscription requests.

It's not limited to Microsoft (probably one of the worst facilitators of this) either; ATI, Adobe, Asus and Gigabyte are all guilty parties too and that's just off the top of my head. I'm sure many of you will fill me in with your experiences too, so go ahead - name and shame them!

Below, I've listed some of the worst and most annoying examples of bloatware and their carriers that I've found in the past few weeks.

Games I Own: The Prince of Persia Series

Posted on 15th Sep 2009 at 14:05 by Joe Martin with 11 comments

The Prince of Persia series – by which I mean the Sands of Time trilogy and not either the older or newer games – are a run of games that I have a serious ambivalence with. Like the Monkey Island games, the Sands of Time saga includes both some of my favourite and some of my most hated games.

The Monkey Island game I hate is Escape from Monkey Island, by the way. That game is about as likable as Satan’s mother in law and just thinking about it makes me angry. Likewise, I hate one of the Prince of Persia games so much that I practice thinking about it in the early morning when I can’t be bothered to get out of bed – I hate it so much it gives me energy.

Let’s start with the good news though – The Sands of Time. The first game in the revitalised trilogy, SoT was the one which had the most input from franchise creator, Jordan Mechner – and it shows. Mechner is a truly interesting guy and is currently publishing his old journals from the time when he developed the older PoP games online, which makes for some good lunchtime reading.

Need for Speed Shift Impressions

Posted on 11th Sep 2009 at 17:45 by Antony Leather with 7 comments

When it comes to racing games on the PC, I'll freely admit that I demand a certain amount of realism. The hole Fast and Furious wannabe culture just doesn't do it for me. So, when I learnt that EA Games had invited us to see the latest title in a long line of Need for Speed games that are traditionally a bit tongue in cheek when it comes to realistic driving, I was pretty underwhelmed.

Morph tries to build a PC

Posted on 10th Sep 2009 at 12:41 by Antony Leather with 18 comments

For those of you not familiar with Morph, he's the plasticine creation of the late Tony Hart whose art-focussed kids TV shows were aired in the UK in the 1980's. I thought they were great and recently I received a 'kit' as a present that allows you create your own Morph. If you have no idea who Morph is then check him out here.

Of course as soon as I made him he was up to mischief and with lots of PC bits hanging around, he soon caught the bug. I've hidden my Dremel for the time being in case he fancies and bit of modding. I dare to think how quickly a circular saw attachment can cut through plasticine, pretty quickly I'd imagine.

Tags animation, cartoon, modding, morph

Series 3, Episode 7 - OnLive, Game Testing and Team Fortress 2

Posted on 7th Sep 2009 at 17:36 by Podcast with 15 comments

In the third gaming-only CustomPC and bit-tech podcast we talk about the theory behind OnLive, Sony's new PlayStation 3 reality TV show 'The Tester' and the controversies that have broken out around Valve's new anti-cheat measures in Team Fortress 2.

Moving on from that we recap on what we've all been up to lately, from playing with the Novint Falcon to taking a look at the much-delayed Battlefield 2 patch.

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Do enthusiasts get ripped off?

Posted on 7th Sep 2009 at 10:40 by Mark Mackay with 22 comments

As just about every bit-tech reader will know, hardware that falls into the ‘enthusiast’ bracket often carries a fat price tag. People who take hobbies seriously are - more often than not - willing to invest serious amounts of money in them and hardware enthusiasts are no different. But are manufacturers taking it too far with their pricing of enthusiast products?

Games to play with your children

Posted on 3rd Sep 2009 at 15:16 by Joe Martin with 36 comments

I don’t have children, but I do have a lot of younger siblings and nephews and nieces, and we've played a lot of computer games together. A lot of the experiences we’ve shared have been through the medium of joysticks and mouse clicks.

Looking back on that recently I’ve come to think that parents should definitely play computer games with their kids, even though a lot of parents are of the opinion that "games are bad for you" and "all games are violent". Absolute rubbish, every word of it.

Of course, some games are violent and there’s a huge amount of games out there which aren’t at all suitable for children – but violence, if handled responsibly, isn’t always bad and there are a lot of games that are good for kids. My parents had an inkling of this and I spent a lot of time playing either with my Dad or talking about it with him. It’s something I plan to do with my children too, heaven forbid, and something I reflect on every time I go into a shop and see a parent blindly buying Grand Theft Auto for their seven year old. Grrr.

This isn’t new thinking obviously – any number of child-rearing programs or handbooks will tell you it’s important to get involved and find experiences you can share with your children. The problem though is that if you’re not someone who’s ‘into PCs’ and your kid is then it can be hard going. Thus, here are some recommendations for games that are suitable for most children and which open themselves up to this kind of activity.

Make your own Dvorak keyboard

Posted on 2nd Sep 2009 at 08:10 by Ben Hardwidge with 16 comments

Patented by August Dvorak in 1936, the Dvorak keyboard layout proposed a new way of typing based on the way that humans typically work, as opposed to the needs of mechanical typewriters (the reason QWERTY was originally designed).

Dvorak places the most commonly used letters on the second row, referred to as the ‘home row’ because it was where a person’s fingers typically sat. All the vowels are on the second row, while the sparsely-used Q and Z keys are placed on either side of the third row.

The layout was also designed on the principle that people should type from the edge of the keyboard inwards, as it’s apparently easier to switch from your little finger to your index finger than vice-versa.

If you’ve ever wondered whether the Dvorak keyboard really is the superior layout that it was claimed to be, then there’s an easy way to try it out for yourself. After all, your keyboard is just a mechanical rack of buttons that’s controlled by Windows. If you have a spare keyboard up on the shelf then it’s usually easy enough to transform it into a Dvorak keyboard.

The Dvorak keyboard layout

Using the iPhone as a sat nav

Posted on 1st Sep 2009 at 10:36 by Antony Leather with 19 comments

Previously, I've mainly used GPS for marine navigation rather than pointing the way on road trips. Having navigated busy areas off the south coast of England, I don't tend to find A-roads such a problem. That said, having had TomTom on my HTC TyTN II Windows Mobile PDA for the last few years I'm all too aware of how much of a boon it can be.

I've therefore been waiting patiently for a similar app for my iPhone 3GS. The iPhone 3G - which has a dedicated GPS chip - has been with us for what seems like an age but it's only with the release of version 3 of its OS that true Sat Nav apps, with turn-by-turn directions, have been able to start appearing. The latest of these is the much anticipated TomTom app but having used this and also CoPilot Live, I have to say I'm not just disapointed, I'd actually rather use a compass and a sextant to navigate as they're far more reliable.

bit-tech.net

Cool Modding Stuff #1

The Most Annoying Crapware

Games I Own: The Prince of Persia Series

Need for Speed Shift Impressions

Morph tries to build a PC

Series 3, Episode 7 - OnLive, Game Testing and Team Fortress 2

Do enthusiasts get ripped off?

Games to play with your children

Make your own Dvorak keyboard

Using the iPhone as a sat nav

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