One More Tourist

It’s been so long since I’ve blogged but I’m now back and ready to bore you with my findings

I’m going to be fixing the site up soon, the design needs a little work but for those few readers who stumble upon this site every now and then, expect some fresh content very shortly.

I’ve been using the MacBook pretty solidly over the last few weeks and have pretty much come to the conclusion that Apple really do have something good going on here. This laptop is the first contact I’ve ever had with an Apple machine / OS, and I must say I like LOTS!

There are a few things that I prefer on a Windows machine. First off Application Management is a pain in the arse. There is no ‘Start Menu’ OSX has an Applications directory / browser which is in my view crap. There is no simple ‘Uninstall’ in OSX I had to download a third-party application to do my uninstalling. I’m not even sure that it works properly… meh!

Julia has been using this laptop quite a bit, at first she was a little confused with how everything works but she has gotten the hang of using OSX and things apparently are pretty good.

I love the battery life on this laptop, 3 to 4 hours of usage is not uncommon.

Bleh, I’m tired and a little drunk…

… End Transmission!

Well it’s been quite a whilst since I’ve updated this blog, but I’ve decided that the time was right for a bunch of updates. First off the topic of gaming. EB Games Australia are currently having their massive June game sale so I decided to purchase a few new games to waste even more of my time away with. The 2 titles I picked up were Splinter Cell: Double Agent and Smackdown Vs Raw 2007.

I’ve been playing SVR a whole bunch and it’s a great game, but from the 20 or so mins I’ve spent with Splinter Cell I can already see that it’s shaping up to be a very in depth and enthralling experience.

A few weeks ago I purchased Spiderman 3 and Earth Defence Force 2074. Reviews around the web for Spiderman 3 are pretty shocking, for some reason a lot of people don’t like the game. My own experiences differ from the revierers. Personally I’m really enjoying the game, yes there are a few framerate issues but honestly it does not detract from the overall game. I never played any of the other Spiderman games so that could be the reason why I’m enjoying the game so much!

Earth Defence Force is a crazy crazy game, its like Ninety Nine Nights on crack, oh and replace generic human opponents with giant Ants, Spiders, Robots, Explosions and oh so much more. The game has been a massive party favorite tonight and it really has paid for itself with the laughter and enjoyment everyone is getting out of it.

Most of my time these days is spent with Lord of the Rings Online, whilst I do have many console games to occupy my time I find that I enjoy playing online with others, especially since LotRO is so story driven. Turbine really have hit a goldmine with this game, reviews have been amazingly positive, the game launched with no major issues, the servers are filled to the brim with eager gamers carving their own names into Middle Earth!

Recently I’ve been reading up a lot on my first MMORPG love Dungeons and Dragons Online. Seems like the DDO team have made some positive improvements to the game and have added even more content to the game. I’ve reactivated my account for 1 months to check everything out. It’s pretty stupid to play 2 online games but since I have a lifetime membership to Lord of the Rings I can go back to DDO every now and then to play.

Blah, anyway this lost has been much too long

Well I thought this day would never come, but after going to a few drum and bass gigs, and how my band recorded at the studio I decided to purchase myself a MacBook! The straw that broke he camels back was that Apple released a new upgraded MacBook for a lowered price. What did I get for $1400?

Core Duo 2 2.0ghz
1 Gb RAM
80 Gb Hard Drive
13.3′ Screen

I’d say that this little PC is the fastest (sans video card) in the house. The sheer responsiveness of this little MacBook is really amazing, XP/Vista is fast, but damn this thing is snappy.

I’ve downloaded a few pieces of software but really am not sure what the best OSX applications are. Anyway so start my Mac adventures, I’ll be sure to continually update this blog with my experiences and frustrations.

I’ve had my N800 for a couple of weeks now. I love it but I’ve been having an issue with the Applications Manager. Basically I cannot update the package list or install packages from the web. It just freezes on 1kb and times out. I checked the log out and I noticed the strange IP Address 1.0.0.0, I chucked a message up on the Maemo.org user mailing list and didn’t get much of a reply which sucked.

There are a few unsecured wireless networks in my street so one day I decided to test on out and see if it would run and IT DID! The wireless router that I connected too was a NetGear whilst at home I’m using a DLINK. After a little bit of googling it seems that the DLINK series of routers have a few issues with DNS and this is the cause of these problems.

From what I’ve read instead of letting the modem automatically configure my ISP DNS settings I need to manually enter them in. Hopefully this will fix the problem and everything should work fine.

I’ll update my progress later tonight if it works fine, and write up a step by step guide.

Wish me luck!

The last few days I’ve been suffering from some kind of allergic reaction. At first I thought it may have been from my girlfriend’s rats but after waking up not being able to see properly from one eye I headed down to the doctors for a quick visit.

Apparently I now suffer from Hay Fever or I’m allergic to dust! The Doc advised me to grab some tablets from the chemist and see how I go, if it lasts longer than 2 weeks I need to head back for a few blood tests. Hopefully it doesn’t come to that because I hate blood tests!

Moving along… Being sick for the last few days hasn’t really helped my productivity, I still have a huge amount of stuff to do at work and my websites have been left idle for the last week or so. Not a bad thing tho as they are still earning a small amount of cash.

Agh! This is gonna be a short one, I’ve got a whole bunch of stuff to do in such little time.

For quite some time now I’ve been following the development of the new MMORPG Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar. The game has gone through a name change, a developer change and a whole host of other crazy adventures. Finally LotRO is going to be released in a couple of days!

I got chosen to beta test a few months back and my time with the game was very favourable. Previously my online game of choice had been Dungeons and Dragons Online: Stormreach; DDO is unlike any other MMO on the market, it’s completely quest based and rather than click and watch combat you have full control over when you swing your weapon. Unfortunatly no mtter how much I personally love DDO there are a few flaws which really hurt the game. I understand that Dungeons and Dragons is a party based game played with friends but this doesn’t mean that it will work out well in an MMO. The lack of solo content (and for some content in general) was really a mood killer. Because I’m australian the hours I play are a little strange to those in the USA finding a group became nearly impossible. I’ve moved to a more populated server but really dont feel like going through all of the starting quests once again.

So, I’ve cancelled my DDO subscription and just pre-ordered and paid for Lord of the Rings Online from the local EB Games in the city! Playing the beta really helped me decide that this game was the right one for me. I’ve played World of Warcraft and got bored with the constant need to grind for experience or run through boring quests. Lord of the Rings Online is rich with lore from the books and as soon as I’d gotten a few levels in I was immersed in the game.

If your looking for a very good MMO give Lord of the Rings Online a try, it’s filled to the brim with fantastic content and you won’t find a better virtual world to spend your time in.

Today I finally have gotten my hands on the Nokia N800 and it surpasses my wildest expectations. This device ROCKS!

I’ll have more of a review soon but currently I’m just converting some video over to it. Quite a few people are having issues with converting media over so here’s a short tutorial on how it can be done.

DVD to N800

Now I use 2 pieces of software to get video from DVD to my Nokia N800. This is a dual method as I also encode the video to be played on a Video Ipod.

CloneDVD mobile - Link

CloneDVD mobile converts your movie DVD easy and quickly into a format your portable devices like Sony PSP, Apple iPod Video, iAudio X5, Creative Labs ZEN Vision etc. can show.

Media Converter - Link

This is what you need to convert from CloneDVD mobile to the Nokia N800 Format.

Ok so what I do is rip the DVD from the disk with CloneDVD mobile. I use the Video IPod 5th Generation ripping option and have found that it compresses most DVD’s to around the 400Mb mark.

After this is done, I open up Media Converter and set it to N800, select the file that was ripped with CloneDVD mobile and then let it create a new file for the N800.

Now for me this is a good method, the video looks and sounds fantastic. Even thought the IPod rip’s the video at 320×240 it seems that the Media Converter does a good job at up scaling when it re-rips the file for the N800. The video is fluid and looks great running at full screen.

Ok, so that’s how I encode my DVD’s to watch on the Nokia N800; expect to see a few more thoughts about this wonderful Internet Tablet shortly!

My excitement at making a whole bunch of money selling links on my websites has kind of all fallen through. Basically the people who wanted to purchase the links have just dropped off the face of the earth. It’s strange but kind of expected I guess, personally if I decide in the end that I don’t want to go through with a purchase I’ll tell the person not just leave them sitting there in the dark. Anyway it’s a small frustration that occurs quite frequently on the internet and I’m sure many publishers go through the same thing every day!

I’m going to keep trying to sell a few links and hopefully I’m met with some success.

On an unrelated note my Nokia n800 arrives on Thursday… Woohoo!

The great thing about having a few established websites is that you can find many ways to make money from them. I’m currently in a bit of a tight spot with too many bills and my car which is has been costing me a small fortune to fix; so I decided to see if I could sell a few domains that I don’t use anymore. Along with this I’m trying to sell a few 6 month links on Wander the World and The Gamers Network. I’ve been pretty successful so far and if the payments go through I’ll have made around $150US in the matter of a few hours.

Figuring out how much links and domains are worth can be pretty tricky. Being so new at this game I tend to overprice because I love my sites and believe that their easily worth the prices I’m offering. Today I decided to step back and take the mindset that every dollar I make off the websites is money I won’t have if I over price things out of pride.

Anyway Fast Money is great, but definatly not where I want to be in 6 months!