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The death of Domainbuster and Fast24As an ex-customer of Domainbuster/Fast24, I seem to be getting lots of hits from people searching about them. They went bust recently, and there seems to be a lot of traffic being generated by their users who didn't manage to jump ship before they sank, so to speak.The Register have been covering the story (more) and have posted advice on how to recover your domain if you're trying to move it to a new provider, plus feedback from other users, plus what to do if you were an adsl subscriber.
At this point, I'd like to highly recommend Bytemark Hosting who have been faultlessly hosting grapefruitopia since 2004, and have always been quick to answer mails (and panicked phone calls when I really needed assistance!)
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benjymous
09/11/06 13:06
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(comment: 1)
Trick or Treat?We had our first Trick or Treaters yesterday. Two weeks before Halloween, and this isn't even frigging America!I've been reading Steven Poole's book Unspeak recently, and it's dawned on me that the whole Trick or Treat phenomenon is effectively organised anti-social behaviour sponsored by American corporations. Quick, let's invade and liberate them, or at least slap the whole country with an ASBO and be done with it!
[T]he person has acted, [...], in an anti-social manner, that is to say, in a manner that caused or was likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress to one or more persons not of the same household as himself (Crime and Disorder Act 1998) |
PlayInProgress : Enchanted Arms : Xbox360
When I first started this site, one of my original plans was to have lots of reviews, mainly of games and movies. However, the problem with games reviews is that it often feels like it's hard to give a game a fair writeup when you haven't experienced it to the full.To help rectify this, this is the first post in a series called "PlayInProgress" where I'll discuss the games I'm currently playing (or have played, but not completed adequately enough to feel happy to review them) Enchanted Arms is what is known in "the biz" as a J-RPG (Japanese Role Playing Game.) The genre was made famous in the west by the Final Fantasy series of games, which typically consists of long conversations, lots of running around, and turn based battles that pop up at random. If you've played any of the Final Fantasy games in the past, you'll know what to expect - the game's influences are very clear. My first impressions are that the game is very linear - after about 6 hours play I've only found one extra "branch" I can visit that isn't tied into the main storyline (and that contained monsters that kill you instantly, anyway, so will need to be returned to once I've levelled up my characters a bit!) This feels very constrained if you're used to the total freedom that games like Oblivion offer. The character/party system works quite nicely in EA - you have a mix of human characters, and what are known as Golems - artificial animated dolls (basically magical robots) that fight for you. As you progress through the game you earn and buy more advanced golems that improve your chances in battle, whilst the human characters gain new attack moves and skills. Another frustration is that the game forces itself into wide screen (on a 4:3 TV it letterboxes) which causes some of the menu text to be pretty unreadable if you haven't got a huge TV. This seems to be a common problem on 360 games, and it surprises me that Microsoft don't test for this, considering most people in Europe don't yet have huge Hi-Def TVs.
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Google code searchGoogle Code Search lets you search all the open source code that litters the internet. This has been found by some people to allow all sorts of faults to be found.
Myself, I'm reassured that I'm not the only one who sometimes finds they type "widht and heigth" then wonder the next day (when their fingers decide to press the keys in the correct order) why their code doesn't contain any of the functions they were expecting
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Random linksI haven't done a random links post for a while, so here's a selection of thought provoking ones:
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Goodbye, old friendYou've been with my for some time now, and seen plenty of highs and lows, good times, and bad.You weren't my first, and I'm sure you won't be my last, but I earned every part of you. You certainly had quirks, and were prone to pack in on the worst of times, but on the whole you got me where I needed to be when it mattered. You travelled with me a fifth of the distance to the moon, and have taken me places I might never have otherwise been to. I know I probably didn't care for you as much as you deserved, so your failings were certainly my fault, so I have no hard feelings. I hope you feel the same. When I see you next, zooming past with your new master, I hope you remember me, and that they're not too confused at the random guy waving happily with a teary look in his eye.
It's the end of an era, my little Seicento, you will be missed.
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Attack of the phonebox[via The Register] |
Conversations on a busAt the back of my morning bus, Posh Boarding-school Girl (PBG) was having an unlikely conversation with Mouthy Charva Girl. (MCG) Our scene starts with PBG discussing her days in boarding school. MCG: Did you have to wear uniform?
PBG: We did, although in the sixth form we just had a dress code.
MCG: Whassat?
PBG: Well, we could wear anything we liked, but it had to be smart - tops couldn't show clevage, skirts had to be below the knee, sensible shoes, stuff like that.
MCG: Did you wear silly hats?
PBG: You mean a straw boater with a ribon around it? No, we didn't have to wear hats, thankfully.
MCG seems perplexed for a few seconds. Presumably trying to work out the connection between boats and hats. MCG: Did you watch Big Bruvah?
PBG: No, we didn't have TVs in our dorms.
MCG: Gawd, didn't you get bored? What did you do all the time?
PBG: We'd mostly read, or play musical instruments.
MCG: Don't do reading, gets in my eyes, gives me headache.
PBG: What's your reading distance?
MCG: My Wha?
PBG: How close do you have to hold a book to be able to read it? It might be worth having an eye test.
MCG: Nah, I don't like reading anyway.
She quickly changes the topic. MCG: So, you've never watched Big Bruvah or 'Stendas?
PBG: I was on an exchange trip about two years ago, and they had a TV there. I saw an episode of Eastenders where there were these guys in a car, and it exploded.
MCG: Grant and Phil?
PBG: I don't know their names. There was a baby involved, although the baby got out, somehow.
MCG seems to realise at this point that it's a lost cause. PBG: It was a really good explosion, though.
MCG: Where ya from?
PBG: Derby.
MCG: Where's 'sat?
PBG tries to consider how to explain geography to somebody who's never ventured south of the Tyne. PBG: It's halfway down the country.
MCG: I had boyfriend in Sunderland. I don't know where that is. My parents wouldn't let me see 'im anyway.
MCG: It costs me a fiver to get intah town every day. You've got some speshal card aint ya?
PBG: It's a weekly pass - £20 all week, so you're paying for four days and getting one day free.
MCG: Mum gives me the fivers. Don't think she'd afford twenty for the week.
At this point my bus arrived in the bus station, and I made a quick getaway, wondering how the conversation managed to start in the first place. |