Ins@nity Complex

Remember when I said I was going to use this blog more often? Well it's only been just over a month since my last post so I think I'm doing pretty darn gosh good. The past month hasn't been that good from an online productivity standpoint, I've really got nothing done on any of the websites I own or participate on and for that I am deeply sowwy.

The reason for why I've been online so little in general is because as of 1st July I became a full time employee for my twelve month placement, which has been both a blast and a struggle. It's been a absolute blast because all the people I work with are young, enthusiastic and truly awesome. The company is a small but growing startup that runs multiple businesses. The primary focus at the moment is a beer and whisky online retail site, but they have plans to move into consultancy and other markets. The office I work at is located on a small industrial estate (previously a farm) just outside Tunbridge Wells, which is unfortunately were the struggle comes in.

To get there each day I have to catch a 7am train from Hastings (meaning I'm getting up at 6am) to Tunbridge Wells. From Tunbridge I then have to catch a bus which travels out into the countryside. Unfortunately due to the general crappness of public transport the nearest bus stop to my work (a mile's walk away) doesn't run at that time of the morning, meaning I have to get off at a bus stop two and a half miles away from where I work and walk forty minutes through country lanes. I then have to do the whole thing in reverse (fortunately I get a lift from a co-worker to the closer bus stop in the evening), getting back into Hastings station at 7pm. The sooner I get a driving license the better!

Fortunately, as I said before, the people I work with rock. During my first day of work me and another placement student who started the same day got taken to the local pub for stake burgers, while at five o'clock on a friday it was deemed nessacary that the whole office have beers to finish the week on. Several people in the office (including the boss) also enjoy making bets and wagers on just about anything, the most memorable being a wager that our boss couldn't rip a yellow pages clean in half with his bare hands in under ten minutes (it had to be a straight since rip, not just ripping the pages out one at a time). As you can see, he did it with twenty seconds to spare...


Photo taken using our photo studio setup

This past Friday our sales manager had a massive amount of meat delivered to the office which he let defrost in the kitchen sink. The best part of this was the revelation that it had come in a container full of dry ice which we "attempted" to use to take dramatic photos of our drink products.


It does indeed say that on his shirt

We also got to spend one morning moving a mountain of expensive glasses from one side of the office to another, which we succeeded in doing in record time by throwing the boxes across the room to each other. All this is without even mentioning the "how many pebbles can you trow into the bucket" game that we spent many of our recent lunch breaks playing (many of which seemed to hit our server more often than the bucket) and the rather odd fascination most of the office have with counting the number of deaths swine flu has taken o_O;

Obviously "some" work has been involved during all this I assure you. Most of my time has been spent between writing a php script that takes in a excel spreadsheet of words which it combines together to make variations on urls, find out if they are available, make records of them and (hopefully soon) automagicly register them. I've also been getting to grips with the SQL Server back end of the retail site, assisting in domestic PC issues such as installing operating systems, ip phones, monitors and networking equipment and giving my opinions on site designs, future changes and projects.

To be honest I can't believe I've already been working there nearly a month. At this rate I'll be back in lectures before I know it.

Oh, and I promise to get back on track with website updates. Honest! It's just taking a while to get into such a different sleeping/working routine.

EDIT: Oh, I almost forgot to mention that I passed my second year of University (good job too as I had to start my placement before I got my results!). I got a B+ in Web Application Development (ASP.NET), a B in Research Methods, a B in Authoring for Multimedia Applications (Flash), a C+ in Object Oriented Design and Implementation, an A in Scripting (Perl), an A+ in Databases, a B+ in Building Enterprise Applications (JSP) and a B+ in Business Environment for Internet Computing. Woot!

I'm am happy to announce that last Friday I finally upgraded the phone I've had for the last three years. I've never be a person onboard with the whole smart phone thing before, and certainly while I saw people with MP3 players, snazzy cameras and (lol) WAP internet in phones much better than mine, I was pretty content with the ability to... you know, phone people and send text messages at the cheapest rate I could find.

The iPhone in my mind is simply much more than a smart phone. It's basically a computer in your pocket, and as someone who has lugged a laptop around for the last four years, it's such a brush of fresh air. And God damn, at £440 with no contract, this thing better be amazing. I've been waiting some months for Apple to upgrade the iPhone 3G (because if your going to get a Jesus phone, it has to have a decent camera people) and while I wasn't particularly please that O2 upped the pay as you go price for the new hardware rather than lowering the price of the old model, there was little question about whether I would be in line to get one come launch.

In the UK only three retailers are selling the device; Apple (whose online store was not accepting pre-orders and closest retail location is London), Carphone Warehouse (who only accepted pre-orders on contract phones, and turned out to have no PAYG devices in stock on launch morning...) and the carrier themselves, O2 (who accepted no pre-orders). The line even for a small town like mine was surprisingly long, although nothing like say the release of the Wii, but what surprised me the most about the launch of the 3GS was the amount of people getting the phone on contract.

The biggest shocker though, was seeing an old man (who I suspect to have been at least seventy by his zimmer frame) who was not only so up with technology that he was getting a 3GS on launch day, but was prepared to buy out the rest of his previous iPhone contract so that he could start a new one. When I get old, I want to be that guy.

In fact, I was the only person in store that morning prepared to hand over the cash for the device on pay as you go. My experience once I got to the front of the line lasted no less than five minutes, most of which involving waiting for a cash register to become clear. I had previously watched the people ahead of me spends forever sitting with O2 staff as they signed forms, had credit checks and sat glum faced on the phone waiting for a response from head office, while I trotted out with my handset ready to go quicker than you could eat a sandwich.

It makes me laugh because in both the O2 store and in Carphone Warehouse (where I was previously told they only had contract phones), I was asked by the employee whether I was aware of the price of the PAYG device. In both cases this was an obvious lead in to trying to get me a contract phone, and while it would have seemed great not to spend £440 on a phone that morning, I'm sitting here now with the knowledge that I have a phone that has free internet access, 300 free text messages and that I will probably top-up £10 once a month. Those suckers who got their "free" iPhones on the other hand are stuck in a two year contract, paying at least £40 a month. I'm no mathematician but I think I know who got the better deal.

As for how is it? In a word, amazing. When I start commuting two hours to work next week (thats another rant entirely) I will have the ability to phone, send text messages, chat on instant message, check e-mail, use twitter and facebook, listen to my iPod, browse the Internet, take pictures and play games all from one little pocket sized device. I've never been a fan of the "all in one" device before, but I think Apple hit the nail on the head with this one.

It's awesome.

Website link via blueshinra.

The "Sony Defense Force" are bloody liars:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3355/3656113368_1a709a74b7.jpg

I also love the "SDF EXCLUSIVE" in that screenshot, which we all know didn't turn out to be true.

So at the very start of my two and a half week summer holiday...

It broke.

This amazing e-mail was sent to the Citadel address a few days ago. I really have nothing more to add than... wow. I'll clearly be getting on this right away.

You guys at The Citadel have done the most extensive research for any video game in the history of all video games, thoroughly detailing every single event in one of the largest, most complex games ever created.
This is, of course, my own opinion and I haven't played every video game in the history of all video games, but I have played Final Fantasy VII, perhaps 17 or 18 times through. I've found the game intriguing - far beyond any piece of literature, be it written or film. Each time I play it, I find something new that I haven't discovered before. Or something I'd forgotten I'd already discovered.

I don't know who you guys at The Citadel are, but have you conceived of talking to Square and writing a movie, 100% true to the game, and directing the movie and... everything?
A movie based on this game, if done right (right being exactly true to the game), would be astronomical!
Furthermore, you'd probably have a real fun time working on it (and i know i'd have a fun time watching it).

So what's taking so long?
Well, maybe the game was just meant to be a game, but it seems more to me like an incredible piece of literature which ultimately transcends the more obvious themes of corruption in government, the human psyche (a rather confused one, at that), magic, hope vs. despair, depression, loss... etc, etc, etc - to discover the more subtle and perhaps most important theme: the meaning of life itself! Friendship, love, life counter Villainy, hatred and death, and yet the contrast is not completely black and white. Each character has his or her flaws, and the characters' stories intertwine.
Obviously you know all this stuff about the game, I don't need to write it all out. These are terrific elements for Hollywood. If adapted properly, this game could become the most successful movie based on a video game.

And oh! It would HAVE to be a four film series. Even without all the nonsense random battles, a movie like this game would run well into eight hours. Scenes would have to be reconstructed to match the game's Full Motion Videos, most dialogue would have to remain exactly as written.
And make it with live actors. I'm getting sick of computer animated movies. I don't see the point of having played the video game only to watch a 2 (or 4, or 6 or 8) hour FMV. For animals like Cait Sith or Red XIII, get a good looking machine or a puppet or if all else fails, CG it, i guess. But make it good CG, yeah? And get Uematsu to re-play the entire score, obviously.
Oh and please, just stick to Final Fantasy VII. Leave out AC BC CC and DC.

All right! I'm excited I can't wait for this project to get started. If you need some casting picks, just ask. I've been envisioning this game to turn to a movie since 1997 so I've got some choice selections (although some people have grown too old for their parts so they'll have to be replaced).

- ian

It is with great pleasure that I welcome one and all to the best online video games blog in Saudi Arabia. In these ye ol' parts you won't find much in the way of breaking news and it's highly unlikely that we will actually put a review score on something (honest to God, it's not because we're lazy, it's just that we couldn't agree if our scale should go up to eleven). Instead we brush away the politics and fanboy arguments to concentrate on the only thing that truly matters; the pornography games.

Unfortunately, renting a beached oil tanker in the middle east as your head quarters isn't nearly as cheap as certain newspaper ads would have you believe, and as such we wouldn't quite describe our situation in the horrors of an economic downturn as "rollin' in bling". So you'll forgive us if we are a little behind the times, and don't be surprised if we discover an incredible retro game some decades after its original release. Secretly some of us might just suck at completing games in a timely manner, but whatever the reason for being a little "late to the party", it doesn't stop meaningful discussion being any less relevant.

You might even learn something. Unlikely, but it's nice to want things.

latetotheparty.co.uk

So I apparently acquired a life in the last three months? Who knew such world breaking things were even possible, besides Velma from Scooby Doo, who knows everything. If there was one thing I wish I had learned at school, it's time management. I swear I've been intending to write this blog post for the last eight weeks, but whenever the time actually comes to doing it my mind suddenly decides that there are at least fifty unrelated things I should do first. I'm thinking that it would be in my best interest to become a Hindu so I can get this practice right in my next life, but I doubt I'll get round to converting before this life ends.

So what's been up dawg as the cool dudes with their reverse baseball caps would ask? My major time sink as of late has been this whole University thing. Call me crazy, but who knew getting a degree would not only be hard, but that it would take up my valuable time? I was certainly surprised when it happened, thats for sure. The last six weeks have been deadline hell as the end of the semester rapidly arrives, causing me to even have to do work on a Monday. The good news is with my exams coming up at the start of June, all this will soon be over and I can finally enjoy my summer holiday!

All two and a half weeks of it.

Two things have happened to me recently that scare me quite a lot, because at the ripe old age of twenty I'm actually starting to do adult things. Adult things like getting a job. Come July 1st some insane company is actually going to employ me. If I were them, I'd be regretting that most biggest of lapses in sensibility, but as I am not I'm going to turn up and see how long I get away with it undiscovered. If I'm lucky, I might last three weeks.

I'm going to be employed by a little start up company, located in the middle of freaking nowhere, who sell personalised whisky and champaign. Having absolutely no expertise on either of these items (I know what whisky tastes like, and I hate champaign, so I think I have my basses covered), I'm obviously going to be doing web development for them. It should be a pretty cool experience, as they are also hiring a more experienced developer who I can learn from, as well as another placement student from the University of Brighton, so I won't feel completely lost down a river without a motor boat. The placement is going to last twelve months, before I return to university for my final year, so I'm kinda betting my apples and oranges on the job not being completely awful.

The other thing I'm doing that makes me feel like I'm actually trying to parse myself of as an adult now is learning to drive. This relates back to the comment that the company I'm going to work for is located in the middle of a field. Literally. For a modern startup, I find it quite bizarre that they set up shop in a converted farm building out in the country side. The resulting side effect to this is that my trip via public transport involves a fifty minute train journey to the closest urban center, a twenty minute bus ride to the nearest quaint village and a fifteen minute walk down a country lane. This not being exactly ideal, I elected to learn to drive. Way to go public transport, you failed me!

Driving is really interesting when you suddenly take notice of what the people that having been hauling you around for two decades are actually doing. For starters, it's much more complex than it looks. I mean really, in the twenty first century we operate cars like this? Really? It feels like it was designed by someone who still knew what a vinyl looked like. While I feel I'm making good progress in my lessons, I would quite happily give up on the whole driving idea and buy a Segway if it meant I could turn of half the brain cells I need to use while driving.

Oh, I also decided to close Fantasy World XD after nearly six years. Yeah, that was a shock to me too. I've explained my reasoning else where and people seem to universally agree, but really what it all boils down to is the fact that six years ago I was only half way through secondary school. A lot has changed since then (remember, I'm an adult now!), and FWXD really hasn't. The time needed to invest in it for the minimal results it made really just started to not add up, till eventually I decided it was time to call it quits.

That's not to say I don't still want to sit on the Internet and talk about games all day. I still have a lot of plans for the Citadel that I wan't to get rolling in the next few weeks, and I'm also opening the spiritual successor to FWXD, called Late to the Party, a video games discussion blog with multiple contributors that should be a lot easier to manage than FWXD ever was. I've already got five bloggers on board, but I'm still looking for more so if you like writing about games on a semi-regular biases, do give me a holla. As a sneak preview, here is the design I've come up with for the site's comment system.

Returning to the opening of this post, I suppose I really should make this whole blogging thing a more regular thing than a freak anomaly, but I won't promise anything just incase I raise someone's hopes. If you want to keep up with me on a more regular biases, and would just love to know exactly when I'm taking a number two, you could always follow me on twitter. This was a lot longer than I had anticipated so if you didn't read the whole thing I have just one word for you.

Biscuit

I knew the economy was bad, but I think Yahoo! Finance's widget might just be bwoke :P

Over the last couple days I've been using the short break between university semesters to re-organize the incredible mess that was my contact situation. As of my last count I now have more e-mail accounts than I do fingers and thumbs. You name a company, I probably have an account with them! I'm also trying to remove my need for my ancient AOL account that some people still use. The main issue with that one is that while its a good address, its tied to an ISP I may no longer pay for one day. I'd rather transition now rather than suddenly lose the account some time later.

The long and short of it all is I have another e-mail address! The important thing to note this time though, is this is my PRIMARY address and unless the message is related to a specific website (i.e. the Citadel) you should use this one.

joshuamarketis [at] clidus [dot] com

Clidus.com is my personal website, so it was kinda logical that I use that domain. It's also pretty simple and easy to remember. I'm going to note here that every single account (except my hotmail... because hotmail is stupid like that...) will be forwarded on to this address, however for future proofing sake, please use this one and this one only.

Everything eventually arrives in my MobileMe account which is read by Mail.app on my Mac. I'm pretty happy with how it all turned out and should make replying to e-mails much faster. I've also started using Address Boook and iCal and deleted over 150 people I don't talk to anymore on MSN and AIM. Cleaning out old rubbish can be fun sometimes!

ClidusCam is back in a whole new form to give you a quick preview of Resident Evil 5 for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, covering the controversial controls, a new inventory system, online co-op and more!

Update: Vimeo is having some serious issues with the video, so I've replaced it with the YouTube version. It's not as high quality, but it will do for now.

Happy Obama Day!

Here is the thirty-second opening video for the new and improved ClidusCam video podcast. Please let me know what you think and speculate, oh and feel free to see how many items of interest you can spot. ;)

"Agreed. ANd they better have a plain o' DVD version as well. Yes, I got a PS3, but I rather not go all out on Blue Ray yet."

I think someone missed the point behind a HD re-release...

The new Clidus.com is now online! Please tell me what you think ^_^

In related news, I can confirm a new, improved ClidusCam is coming to a Intertube near you very soon! While you wait, here is another video of Alex singing! This one features him playing a real guitar, as apposed to the fake music we used last time. Garage Band is fun no?

PLEASE STAND BY - Clidus.com

(yeah... I've been playing way to much fallout 3. More on that to come shortly, but I just wanted to note here that I found out today that my university database lecturer got, played and finished Fallout 3 over the Christmas break o_o; she got quite addicted apparently!)

In other news, Alex came over today and we ended up playing on my MacBook for an hour. He desperately wants to buy an iMac, but was disappointed that no hardware upgrades were announced at MacWorld. What we ended up producing was this humiliating video produced in Garage Band and iMove. Fun stuffs!

UGO.com can go suck Sputin's knob.

Following in the format of Reeve's post, here are the games I completed and didn't complete in 2008, with impressions of each. And just a note to the "people" who believe I don't complete many games, I actually beat twenty-one this year! So take that.

( Games played in 2008 )

Happy new year one and all. Noticed some folks compiling lists of what they played over the last year both here and on FWXD, so I suppose I should get on that. Not being the prepared guy you all clearly are, I'll be basing most of this on vague memory and xbox.com's tracking data.

Right now though I'm still surviving the aftershock of a hang over, so I'm going to withdraw to my crawlspace... if someone suggests I play a drinking game involving cards and bluffing again; remind me that I suck like a German pink tailed sheep at lying >_>;

OOH. MY. GOD.

I've played the introduction levels, got to Act 4 in the MGS download pack and started checking out the levels people have put online.

So far? LittleBigPlanet has blown me away. The presentation, the gameplay, the music, Steven Fry as the narrator. This game is the second reason to own a PS3 (the first is MGS4 obviously).

It's also the first time in sometime that I've used a PS3. It was nice to see trophies in action, the ability to see what others are playing and in-game XMB working nicely. Sony still has some way to go to make you feel as connected as you do on LIVE, but wow is it getting better.

LittleBigPlanet might not be the casual mainstream game Sony was hoping it would be, but God is it soooo good for us gamers.

Next up; why Fallout 3 is more addictive than crack.

Woo!