Monday Blues - DOGFIGHT!

So its Monday

For those of you who are at work and would rather be somewhere else...

Here's something to take your mind off things :)

WARNING: This is pretty addictive!!

Looking from the inside out.

This is going to be a bit of a difficult post to get right. The best way for all of you to really understand, is to start from the beginning. It might get long, but it is necessary to get the full picture.

As most of you know by now, I'm a gamer. I really love games. I love the challenges they put forward, I love the intricate story lines they have, I love the fact that I'm not just spectating, but I'm there making a difference in a plethora of  virtual worlds. And last but definitely not least, I love how today's games are all about the social aspect. Long gone are the days when most games were a single player experience. From terrible Facebook games like Farmville, to the constantly growing and evolving market of MMOs, social gaming is all around us.

Typical small LAN Party setup

Now, I recently got a house mate to stay with me, lets call him Mark We've been friends for quite a while, and have a lot in common. One of these things is the love of games. He might not be as avid a gamer as yours truly, but he still enjoys playing the big titles on his console. Mark, also has a lovely girlfriend that I get along pretty well with. We knew each other for a while before my house mate moved in. She knew I loved games, she knew I played games.

Around the end of October I had to travel to the UK for a week to take care of some work. It was a lot of hard work, and I was glad to get back home. My mates were also pretty glad I got home as my house had become the new place to meet up and game together. I have 3 pc's permanently set up, so quick LAN sessions are easily organised. The weekend after I got home had been set as a "welcome back" LAN Party. I was excited, they tend to be a lot of fun. Saturday morning, the first couple of guys show up. They knew I had pc's already set up, so they didn't get anything except drinks and munchies. The gaming began.

At some point, my house mate's girlfriend - lets call her Sharon - came over to visit her man. My mates and I were already deep into some dungeon, slaying baddies and co-ordinating  with what seemed to be a foreign language for Sharon. She just stopped in the doorway of the room we were in, and stared at us, confused. I smiled at her, she nodded and walked away trying to understand what was happening.

This is the sound of game talk...
 to non gamers

An hour or so later, a female friend of mine (we're calling her Velly) , also a gamer, showed up ready to join us. Unfortunately, she didn't bring her pc with her, so she spent the first 45 minutes staring at us, and giving tips and calling us names when we made mistakes. At this point Sharon was watching the usual Country's got Talent, Country's next Top Model etc etc with Mark. Occasionally I'd notice that she would be looking at us with the face of someone who had just seen a six armed monkey making sweet love to a pink crocodile. Then when Velly got up and announced "Fuck it, I'm off to get my pc" Sharon's jaw hit the floor. She looked at Mark with what I can explain best as an incredibly confuzzled look, and asked "did she just leave to get her pc?", "to join them?", "to play games with them?", Mark nodding as she asked each question.

The weekend went as planned. We all got our fix and had a great time together. But that look on Sharon's face has been stuck in the back of my head, and has made me think. First of all, how many people are completely ignorant to the fact that games even exist? Or what a LAN party is? And why is it that she was most shocked by a girl gamer? I do understand that I live on a tiny island where most people fit into the same box, but with all the media coverage games have been getting in the lately, I would think that at least people are now aware of this increasingly popular aspect of modern society!

This is where the argument starts to get difficult. You see, during that weekend, we, as gamers, were being judged. We were being looked at as if we were strange animals at a zoo. This has happened to me before, on multiple occasions, but for some reason I only started to think about it after seeing Sharon's reaction to it all. I tried to see what it looked like from the other side of the fence, and started to compare activities on either side.

So in my eyes, what happened was that I spent a great weekend, with great friends having a great time together. Working as a team to pass hard obstacles thrown at us. Learning how to better ourselves by constantly trying to tweak and perfect our method and style. All in all, a fantastic team effort that only made our friendship stronger. Now if you had to look at the last couple of sentences you could easily mistake it for a corporate "Team Building" session that people pay a lot of money to organise. Yet, adding the term "video game" suddenly makes it incomprehensible?

This is bad for your soul. Avoid it at all costs.
Ask your friends to help you stop playing it.
Seriously.

Last night I decided I would stand in their shoes for a while and see what its like on their side of the fence. I joined Mark and Sharon on the couch, and we started watching a movie which turned out to be not too great. We stopped it and changed to a Series that they watch regularly. I hadn't seen it before and I was open to new things. 10 minutes into this series and suddenly it dawned on me. I am watching, a staged Reality TV show. A show about mundane real every day life, that is not real. At this point I voiced my slightly harsh opinion about watching mindless TV and said that I'd rather be gaming.

This is when Sharon said "your games are a staged reality as well, so what's the difference?" Unfortunately I could only come up with some gibberish about gaming being interactive. I wasn't happy with that response and it kept on ticking in the back of my head, when it dawned on me that besides the interactive part, the whole point of gaming is  to break out of the of the mundane, real, and ordinary parts of life! ( This does not count for games like Farmville, where the whole idea of the game is to do the most mundane and shitty repetitive parts of life, perfect for people with addictive and compulsive personalities. I don't really consider software like that to classify as a game.)


Games are all about adventure, magic, exploring the unknown and in many cases, better yourself as a human being! Many studies have been done about this topic and now gaming is being used in medicine, teaching, and even physiotherapy. What I'm trying to say, is that there needs to be a little education here. The gaming community needs to start reaching out, beyond its comfort zones and showing that real gamers are everyday people. The stigma that the word "gamer" has picked up over the years, always associated with the zit-faced pre pubescent teenager with no life and no girlfriend, staying home alone to play some game all night is not correct.

If you haven't played it,
WTF are you waiting for?

Today gaming is a ridiculously ludicrous business. It is out selling the music industry, and also making big blockbuster movies change their release dates not to coincide with video releases. (Grand Theft Auto 4 seriously dented Iron Man's opening weekend box office income). When it comes to value for money, there isn't much better than gaming. Case in point: A game called Fallout 3 , you buy for 20-30 euros, and have at least 100 hours of gameplay! Never getting bored, never ceasing to feel that sensation of you being out there making a difference.


To try and conclude this longer-than-usual ramble, I want to send an open invitation to all of you non-gamers. There isn't any need to stand outside the window peering into our strange world, you are welcome to come inside. You don't need expensive gaming rigs, you don't need to go out and buy a console. You can start small and work your way up. Gaming is a great experience that deserves to be shared with others. There is a game for everyone, and I'm sure that once you find that game, you will wonder why it took you so long to realise! I'll gladly give out as many hints and tips you need to get started, all you have to do is ask :)

Thanks for reading!

*names are obviously all changed so i wont get a black eye from anyone ;)

Augmented Reality and Head Mounted Displays

We're living in a pretty exciting time when it comes to technology. The line between real life and digital life is blurring. We are constantly using technology to improve the quality of our lives and helping us make more informed decisions about whatever we need, right there and then. There is now more computing power in the palm of our hands than there used to be in a whole office building 15 years ago. It creeps up on us, and I think sometimes it really needs to be pointed out to appreciate it.

The latest smartphones on the market, be it an Android powered phone, an Iphone, a Blackberry or a Windows Mobile, as different as they are when it comes to style, design and feeling, they all have one thing in common. You have to hold them in your hand, and look down at them. At this point i guess that there are a lot of you thinking "well, duhh!", and I don't blame you for it. But I honestly think that in today's day and age, that is a really unpractical way of doing things. Let me elaborate.

Layar, its like having a personal guide! This might be
how we look at our surroundings in the future. 

As smartphones get more popular, so do that apps that come along with it. The first thing people ask me when they get a smartphone is if there are any apps they should download and try. And the best way to show off a smartphone, is by using the apps! Its useless having a fancy phone if you can't do anything with it. In all honesty, most apps are pretty useless, but there are some really good ones that can make a difference. Applications like Layar are brilliant when exploring a new city and you need to find out where everything is without buying a map or stopping every few minutes for to ask for directions. Just punching in what you're looking for, be it specific like "museum of fine arts" or a general search "restaurants", and holding up the phone to the horizon, will trigger the GPS on your phone so that it finds out where you are and shows you the way to your options! I've used it abroad (not much use in Malta unfortunately), and its amazing. Does exactly what you want it to do with pinpoint precision. The only problem is, that you constantly walk around holding your phone up in front of you, looking at it's screen, rather than what's in front of you.

The only reason to look down,
is to check your shoelaces

This tends to lead to embarrassing moments as you step into a huge pile of shit, walk into a knee hight bollard, kick some little puppy in the jaw etc etc. So do we really need to trade our dignity for this functionality? Luckily, some mad scientists have already picked up on this, and are working on it. Ladies and Gentlemen, please welcome the first Head Mounted Display for the average consumer. Now I can imagine how the more fashion concious of readers would cringe at wearing something like that, but bear with me, this technology is still in it's infancy, and has a long way to go to becoming an integral part of our life, but once it's there, there is no going back. These tiny projectors mount up on any pair of glasses, and project information directly into your field of vision creating a perfect augmented reality. No more looking down, no more holding the phone in your hands, no more stubbing your big toe in a step. This is definitely the future. With these little gems, you would theoretically be able to walk upright, staring directly at what you want to look at, and getting all the information there and then. The possibilities of this device is truly unlimited. Be it for the average Joe walking around a city seeing the sites, be it a professional architect looking at a building, relaying the information back to the office by means of a tiny camera mounted on the glasses, and instantly getting information back from the rest of the team. All without pulling out any laptops or any other bulky device.

I think that as the technology is refined, it will get smaller, and probably hook up to your smartphone wirelessly. I also envisage that the display will become an integral part of having glasses, dropping the projector completely.  Today transparent flexible displays are already being tested in various scenarios, so I wouldn't be surprised to see this a reality within 5 years. The only technology that really needs to step as I see it falling behind, is battery technology, but thats an article for another day.

Thanks for reading!

Surface Computing - A glimpse of what is to come

Sorry for the inactivity lately, been real busy with house!

Ok, so i'm not going to say that it always happens to be the case, but i'm pretty sure that they're somehow related. Sci Fi movies have a habit of making some very creative people come up with some amazing things. Old shows like Star Trek have inspired some pretty cool stuff! And a lot of these technologies that were not around a few years ago, are very much taken for granted today - cell phone? computer? Google?

Today i want to talk about surface computing. Most of us remember Minority Report, and those who have seen it must remember the "computer" that they used in the movie. A completely transparent multi touch interface device that wasn't restricted to a keyboard and mouse, but instead flowed freely with movements from your hands and fingers. It looked so futuristic and incredible, everyone spoke about it, everyone imagined a future with it. But in reality, people knew that it was just something out of a movie, and we would never really see it in real life. Please keep in mind that in 2002 (when the movie was released) we barely had flat screen monitors, let alone touch sensitive transparent displays!!

Only the wine glass, frame, and text areas are being rendered by the panel.
Everything on the cloth is sitting behind the screen and being shown through it.

5 years later, along comes the Iphone (as much as i dont like Apple, the Iphone set a standard and really pushed the envelope when it came to mobile / touch technology). In spite of the fact that touch screens had been around for a while on Point of Sales systems, some arcade games and some expensive computer peripherals, the multi-touch input of the Iphone was revolutionary. A mobile device with just 1 physical button and the rest was controlled by touch. It was the beginning of the touch revolution. Since the iphone was let loose, more and more multi touch devices are being launched, flooding the market with different shapes, sizes, operating systems and functionality. Besides this, a large number of display manufacturers are racing to be the first to release transparent displays. Although we are a bit far off Minority Report standards, it is going to be a reality pretty soon.

A tangible step forward has been Microsoft Surface. This has been in the works for quite a while, and to be honest, I thought it would be mainstream by now, but I guess they have had some setbacks, There are always new videos and snippets popping up on the net, and the one that inspired this article was someone playing Portal and a flight simulator. Although you can see that the controls and response are not yet quite as fluid as one would want, its a work in progress and will only be improving as time goes by.

At this point, the non-tech people might be asking "how does this affect me, and why should i care?". Well in layman's terms: Thin transparent multi touch displays. These will be displays that can be placed on any surface, actually these displays will become the surface. Picture this: you go to a restaurant and as soon as you sit down at your table, instead of having to wait for someone to bring you a menu, you just browse what the place has to offer using the display on your table! You can order your food, drinks and whatever you wish for without making any human contact whatsoever. You could be in a foreign country and with a simple tap of the screen, everything is translated to something you can understand making the language barrier obsolete. Once you're done with dinner, you wont even have to ask for the bill but effortlessly pay through the surface itself. There is no untrained impolite waiter getting everything wrong, there is no delay waiting for someone to take your order, it is you that controls your experience.

Coffee tables will never be the same again

This is truly just the beginning. Once these surfaces evolve and learn to incorporate current technologies, you will be able to view and transfer contacts from a phone, photos from a camera,. documents from a laptop, all through the surface itself. So your coffee table at home could be set so that as soon as you place your camera onto it, the recent photos taken will automatically be opened and displayed on the surface where you would be able to view / edit and even share them with another device by simply dragging them to the laptop or phone you have sitting next to your camera. Add the transparent factor to all of the above, and you can have your bedroom windows dim automatically letting a certain amount of light in, while telling you the temperature and weather forecast, or your bathroom mirror showing you the news as your brush your teeth in the morning.

The possibilities are truly endless and before we know it, we are going to be surrounded by this amazing technology. In the next couple of years we will start seeing more and more of these large touch screen computers (they were used in every US news show during the last US election), and as that happens they will slowly creep into our homes. Before you know it, we'll be taking them for granted too :)

So next time you see a futuristic sci-fi movie, never take it too lightly!! :)

thanks for reading :)

Tech Up!: DLNA

Everyday from every side, you come across hundreds of adverts about things you "should" have. From chocolates and ice cream, to the latest perfume from some designer company. But how many of these products do we actually need? How many of these products have you bought and shelved after a few hours use? (Nintendo Wii anyone??) 

Well, Tech UP! will have examples of technology that actually comes in useful, allowing you to be more mobile, more productive and possibly more relaxed

This is the logo you want to be looking for.

First of all, sorry for taking so long to write something else, been a hectic week! Today on Tech Up! we're going to talk about DLNA. I had mentioned this when we spoke about NAS but I think it needs some further explanation. 

When it comes to what technologies to use in our house, the main thing we want to look for, is something that is compatible with a multitude of devices, and is scalable. The idea is that we don't want to get tied down by some manufacturer's own software and end up having to buy every piece of equipment from now on from Sony or Samsung (nothing against them!). We want a "universal" communication language that can speak to any manufacturer's devices as it is a worldwide standard. There are about 250 companies that are using this DLNA protocol, and according to wikipedia by May 2010, there were over 8000 devices working with it. 

So what does DLNA do? Why do we need it? And why should i look for this functionality when i'm shopping for new technology?

I think its fair to say, that for most people, technology is always an afterthought when it comes to buying a house / planning where to put stuff. Noone seems to think about where to pass network cabling, where the computer should go, and how it would connect to your TV / Entertainment system. Actually, most people don't even know that a computer can be hooked up to an entertainment system in the first place! So when the afterthought happens, its usually a case of passing as little cabling as possible to do as much work as possible. But as your computer is next to the kid's room on the second floor and the TV is on the bottom floor on the other side of the house, a direct link between them, or a simple TV-Out cable from the pc's video card wont do it. 

A typical DLNA Setup

This is when DLNA devices come in handy. First of all, I hope you all remember when we spoke about the NAS. If you dont have a NAS yet, a computer running Windows XP / 7 / and if you must, Vista, (Vista is shit, if you have it, get rid of it) you can easily create a media server. Apple took the usual holier-than-though attitude and refused to work with a worldwide protocol, making MAC users have to install 3rd party software (that isn't free) to get their devices to talk to DLNA products. Once your media server is set up, then your DLNA stereo / TV / and even printer can all hook up to it to see your shared media. So from a completely different room in the house (as long as it is networked) you can access your music, photos, and movies that are shared by your server. This also means that you don't need multiple copies of the same media on different machines, but you can have 1 machine that is your media "server" and everything else can connect and share with it. 


So those movies you downloaded? You don't have to burn them to DVD anymore to watch them on your TV. Those mp3's you have, you don't need to run around with your ipod & speakers anymore to have some music in the other room. The bigger the household, the more people make use of digital media, the more sense it makes to invest in a similar system. Just make sure your network can keep up with all the traffic, and no, wifi CANNOT stream 1080p movies comfortably to multiple sources at once.


But we'll speak about networking another day.


Thanks for reading

DRM - The reality

DRM, also known as Digital Rights Management, has been around a long time. And because most people start a business to make money, i think its here to stay. But what has history taught us about prohibition? 

...this is not the Heimlich maneuver

Back in the early 20th century, Piano Player rolls were the new big thing. It was this amazing technology that worked with the most basic of elements - air. Air is free, but the time and effort that it took to make one of these rolls was definitely not. And this is when someone decided to make sure that no one should be able to just "copy" these rolls of perforated paper. The idea of DRM is born, and things have gotten ugly ever since then.

Most people over 25 should remember what a cassette tape looks like, and if you do, then you probably also remember how to press play & record at the same time. Since the digital age really kicked in, piracy has been flourishing. Mp3 technology, high internet speeds and huge capacity hard drives has made it very easy for people to copy and share their legally or illegally downloaded music & film. Some companies like Apple ( to be expected ) implemented an incredibly strict regime of anti piracy through their Itunes / Ipod platforms, but people have found a way around them too.

As the digital age evolved, so did technologies to create DRM, and obviously to break through DRM. The games industry has also been doing their best to make sure their IP is kept safe and makes them as much money as possible. But this is a cold war between corporations that want to make the money, and the millions of people that want the product to be theirs to do what they want with it. 

The problem with DRM is that in most cases, it becomes incredibly difficult and frustrating for the legitimate user to be able to use his / her digital media comfortably. Does anyone remember the Lenslok? A simple example: I have a pc and a laptop. My pc is my main machine, but i use my laptop to run around. I legally bought a game / mp3 with DRM on my pc. I installed / played it on that pc. I would like to put it on my laptop so that i can go wherever and do whatever i want with it in my own time. DRM says i cant. But, i paid money for it, and in most cases, quite a lot of money. But yet it feels like i don't actually own the product as I have to use it within incredibly tight restrictions. 

Scare tactics, used way too often

The latest example of horribly thought out DRM for a video game was Ubisoft's approach (this is after their Starforce fiasco). The concept is quite simple: if you want to play a Ubisoft game, you had to be online all the time. The game will only save if you have a connection to the Ubisoft servers, and if this connection is lost, so is your game progress. WTF were they thinking?? I know that today, most people have an "always on" internet connection, but what about occasional drops, what about people who want to take their laptop to some hut in the woods powered by solar energy and play a game over there? What about the fact that if your internet connection is down for whatever reason, you cant play a single player game?? What happens here is that the person that has forked out a lot of money is really and truly getting the bad end of the stick, but the people that pirated  the game and managed to hack it to prevent the DRM kicking in, are actually having a better experience. 

So what should be the motivational factor - besides wanting the game - for people to go out and buy it original? Why should someone hand over their hard earned cash for something that is going to make their life more stressful, especially when it is so easily available from multiple sources! 

Then on the other side of the spectrum you have Blizzard Entertainment which thinks about DRM in a very different way: “We need our development teams focused on content and cool features, not anti-piracy technology.” And i honestly think that this is the way forward. Blizzard know that their development team is extremely limited compared to the gaming community as a whole and even if they spend all their time and effort on DRM, it will be cracked anyway. They decided to look at the problem in a completely different manner as they saw the complete failure of pretty much all video game DRM systems (except the PS3). 

Instead of restricting and wagging their finger in your face as they take your money, they make you want to pay the price to be able to use all the cool features that come with having an original game. Its not about restriction and prohibition, its about incentive and reward. Luckily, Ubisoft have already decided to scrap their current form of DRM and stick with activation over Steam, which makes a lot of people hate Ubisoft a lot less. 

Personally I like trying before buying. I have downloaded games before I bought them, the same way i would take a car for a test drive or try on a pair of jeans before buying them. But if its a game you like, especially if its from an indie developer that probably doesn't have any DRM technology, its only fair that you buy it.I think that Blizzard's way is the way forward, but this is a completely new approach and it might take a while for all publishers to come onboard with it. 

In the meantime, i'm saving up for Fallout: New Vegas ;)

thanks for reading

Mother nature: The Sloth

This blog is mainly about geek stuff. Technology, games, software, hardware, and other stuff on those lines, but every now and then, you come across something mother nature put together that you cannot help but share.


Cute kittens don't do it for me, the sad dog eyes don't do it for me either. Seen them too many times and you kinda know its just evolution making sure these animals find some sucker human being to take them in.

The sloth on the other hand.... i like the sloth.
And after seeing this video, i really want to see one in real life.

Check out this link and watch the video.


Thanks to Asylum

From the Interwebs: Retro adverts for modern software.

From the interwebs is a section about random stuff I find on the internet that are somehow connected to the geek world, and that I thought are worth sharing.

First of all, I just need to say that I absolutely love these type of adverts, mainly because they remind of Fallout 3, but also because it was an era of incredibly loose marketing ideas and blatant lies about whatever product they were trying to sell, in most cases very very politically incorrect to say the least.

In the meantime, from the wide open space of the intertubes, i came across these :)

Couldn't help but share them :)

dot exe: PhoneAble

dot exe is a section that covers software. Mostly software for PC as that is what i own and am fluent with, but i'm sure i'll throw in a bone to the MACs every now and then.

The ipod changed the way we listen to music. There were other mp3 players before the ipod, there will be other mp3 players after the ipod, but their impact on the world is negligible compared.

The problem is, that is really hate Itunes. I am a PC. I run Windows. Windows is all about being able to choose what software you want to use for whatever purpose you want. There is no "you must use this software - and only this software" to do what you want to do. I dont like that. I like to be able to make a choice between equally good pieces of software and decide on whatever basis i want. I hate restrictions.

Unfortunately, when it comes to Apple products, those restrictions are a reality Apple users live by day to day. They might not know that they are in a velvet prison, it might not even make any difference to them as they are perfectly happy using what they are told to use, but for me, its an absolute deal breaker.

The problem I have with Itunes & Ipods is that they restrict you to synchronising with only 1 pc. They say that this is meant to reduce piracy, but what about people that have a home pc AND a laptop and would like their legitimate music on both these machines, by using the ipod to synchronise music between them? Apple doesnt want you to so this. I'm sure those people who have or have had an ipod at some point must have wiped their music by mistake on a couple of occasions.

Frustrating isnt it.

Well, as I mentioned before, I am a PC, and on a PC you get options.

Today i'm bringing PhoneAble to the spotlight. A tint piece of software that easily allows you to do what you've always wanted to do, but not been allowed to do. Following a couple of simple instructions, you will be able to use your Iwhatever to merge music from multiple pc's - as long as they're both running Windows, and not be worried about wiping all your settings by mistake.

Its great having a choice isnt it!

All Shapes & Sizes: Torchlight II

.. there was only space for one of us on that bridge. I tried to ask nicely.

All Shapes & Sizes is a section about games of all types, formats, shapes and sizes. I'll be talking about anything from board games, to hardcore genres on consoles trying to cover everyone's tastes.

13 years ago, an Isometric Action Hack & Slash RPG called Diablo was released to the gamer community. A community much smaller than today's. When gaming was exclusive to geekdom. Where the difficulty of configuring sound card IRQs was on par with building a space shuttle. Where having a hard drive of 400MB was some serious space, because mp3's weren't really the norm yet, and you did most of your research using M'soft Encarta, because the internet was still in its infancy.

13 years ago, Blizzard released Diablo to the gaming community, and things would never be the same. 3 years after, the much anticipated Diablo II was released, and it took 8 years after that to announce Diablo III which was revealed in June 2008, but as all Blizzard games - "it will be released when its ready". Something Blizzard fans have come to accept, for they know that once released, the game will be as close to perfect as humanly possible. But, that doesn't make the wait any less painful.

Luckily for us, in October 2009 Runic Games (founded by some ex - Diablo designers / creators) popped out of nowhere with an incredibly well thought out game called Torchlight, that seems to be a more colourful, somewhat cheerier version of the incredibly popular Diablo franchise. In simple terms, since launch, this game simply exploded and sold 50,000 copies in a matter of weeks, which is not to be taken lightly when you think that this is an indie developer with no DRM system of any sort for their games.

More levels bring more abilities, which bring more fun

Torchlight was awarded RPG of the year, game developers choice award, and even best debut game for 2009. Now, some of you might be asking, that was last year, why are you bringing this up now? Well, after its explosion onto the gaming scene, and 500,000 sold copies later, Runic Games was bought up by Perfect World, a publisher that is huge on free to play (F2P) and micro transaction based MMO's. Which means, a Torchlight MMO is in the works, which is an amazing concept if they keep the feel of the original game, and also because Torchlight II has been announced, and is to be released in Spring 2011.

This second iteration of this jewel of a game, is adding a few things that the community has been screaming for at the top of their lungs. Mainly, multiplayer: Online, or LAN (which is a nice treat considering so many big publishers are taking away LAN play from pc games). There are other features that include a bigger world to explore, day / night cycles, and even player customisation - which was a bit lacking in the first game.

While Diablo III is looking absolutely amazing its taking its sweet time, and there is no concrete release date announced yet. So i have a feeling that before we get our thirst for Diablo quenched, we can have a good time playing Torchlight II amongst friends.

In the meantime, you should give the original game a go and see how good it is for yourself.

You can find a review of the original here

Support indie developers!!

thanks for reading

Tech Up! :NAS

Everyday from every side, you come across hundreds of adverts about things you "should" have. From chocolates and ice cream, to the latest perfume from some designer company. But how many of these products do we actually need? How many of these products have you bought and shelved after a few hours use? (Nintendo Wii anyone??)

Well, Tech UP! will have examples of technology that actually comes in useful, allowing you to be more mobile, more productive and possibly more relaxed.

Today's article is going to talk about something that is useful for anyone that has a digital life. Do you have multiple mp3's and movies on your computer at home? Do you have multiple computers that have the same copies of movies / mp3 stored on their drives, technically wasting precious space? Wouldnt it be nice if you had a backup system that would automatically make a second copy of all your photos and documents so that you dont have to worry about them even if your computer instantly detonates??

Well, luckily for us, something like that exists, and its called a Network Attached Storage (NAS). First of all, you must make sure you have a network already set up at your house, but most people with a digital life already have one, in spite of them not knowing :P So thats not something you need to worry about. The picture above shows a basic home NAS that should do the trick for most casual users. What happens is, that once you hook up the device to your network and follow some simple instructions on how to set it up, you have a virtual drive show up on your computer. Once there, you can transfer all your media to it, and it will be instantly available to anyone else on the network. That way sharing between computers and other DLNA devices (i will go into that another time) will be instant and effortless. There are advance features allowing for security and permissions for separate folders giving privacy for stuff you don't want to share. You can even set the NAS to download your torrents so you dont have to keep your pc on all night.

Other features of entry level NAS's include acting as a print server, so even printers can be shared through all pc's, a remote login system for people who need access to their data when they're away from home (great for laptop users), although the speed of that is limited to your internet connection uplink, which could make it a bit slow for larger files. And to top it all off, you can even hook up network security cameras to it, so it can monitor, record and even playback.

I hope that made you start to imagine the possibilities with how easy it can be to make your digital life slightly easier on you. As i post more things on Tech Up! i'm sure i'll be adding more devices that can make use of the NAS, adding you all empowering feeling of having technology do the work for you, and not vice versa.

If you have any questions, feel free to post below, and i'll be glad to share the knowledge :)

thanks for reading

All Shapes & Sizes: Machinarium

All Shapes & Sizes is a section about games of all types, formats, shapes and sizes. I'll be talking about anything from board games, to hardcore genres on consoles trying to cover everyone's tastes.

As i've mentioned previously, i'm a gamer. I like games of all shapes and sizes, as long as they have heart. And this game i'm about to tell you about, is all about heart.

It was created by a tiny Czech company called Amanita Design that were the ones that brought us the cutest little flash games called Samorost and Samorost 2. Both of them were old school Point & Click games with astounding artwork and beautiful atmospheric music.

They took a system that works, and created Machinarium. Its the tale of a cute little robot as he tries to rescue his girlfriend from the clutches of a gang of wrongdoers. With some nerve wrecking puzzles and amazing atmosphere, i really think that this is a game everyone should try, but not everyone might have the patience to finish.

Well, if you're intrigued, you can try there game here, and if you like it, it is on sale for only 5$ till the 12th of August, and as a bonus you even get the whole soundtrack!

I really like supporting Indie Developers, as they are the ones that are not bound to push out mindless sequels just to cash in on the name of a product instead of making creative and different new ideas for games. So with your help, you could make a difference by keeping this little gem of a developer alive.

hope you enjoy it!

Webcomics & Webseries

The internet is truly a wonderful place, and I honestly think it gives so much opportunity to people who wouldn't otherwise have the opportunity to be published or seen by a large audience. Today its pretty common to hear of people that started something as an idea between friends or a small school project, and it ended up becoming a household name around the world, some examples - facebook - southpark - google. So when i come across something i like, i enjoy sharing it with others :)

A website I visit pretty often has to be The Escapist. Most gamers would know of this site, but there still are a lot of people out there who simply never heard of it. Besides the articles and the polls and the general game banter that goes on, my favourite 2 segments must be: Zero Punctuation by the world famous Yahtzee, and something i really look forward to seeing is Doraleous and Associates.

Zero punctuation is something for gamers, as they would really understand what he's talking about, anyone else would just be really confused in a real short time. Doraleous however is something anyone can follow, and is an incredibly entertaining story.

Another absolutely fantastic webseries must be The Legend of Niel. This is a really funny and brilliantly made Zelda parody that has just started season 3. So if you have half an hour to spare, you could probably watch them all and get up to date.

For those who prefer reading than watching and listening, i really enjoy following the story of Looking for Group. I fell in love with this series as it is loosely based on WoW and it also tickles my dark sinister side with Richard's humour. Its been going on for a while, and the story is getting better and better.

Now, for all those chauvinistic men out there, i got the perfect comic for you :). Its called Least I Could Do. I must warn you, if anyone gets offended easily by sexist jokes, this is not the comic for you, and its been going on since 2003, so there is a lot to read :)

And last but not least, some NSFW content ;) Oglaf is something by adults for adults. There is no recurring theme, no real plot, just a sunday evening treat :)

Thats if for now. There are some other webcomics i follow, but i'll give them a mention some other day :)

My new blog

So i've been wanting to do this for a while, but it has been shelved alongside many other ideas i wanted to get to work on. Today is the first day.

I'm not sure what this blog will consist of entirely, or if there will be a certain theme to it, but i will start it nonetheless.

Now for an introduction:

My name is Graham, and i'm a geek :)

I'm not the typical loner, acne faced, no social skills, never had a girlfriend, only watches Star Wars type of geek, i'm more the type of person that makes technology work for me. I like gadgets, and blinking LED's. I like keeping up with the phone wars, format wars, and console wars. I am a PC, Windows 7 was my idea. I am also an Android fan. I DO NOT like Apple's velvet prison. I am also a gamer. I do play WoW, and yes, spending a weekend at a LAN Party IS better than a weekend drinking.

But thats just me.

I work as a System's Administrator for EC English Language Centres, and its probably one of the best jobs i've had. I'm really lucky to have a great boss and a fantastic team to work with. We are based in Malta, and remotely take care of all our centres in Europe, South Africa and the US. Its not an easy job, but we get to play with the latest of technologies and really push the envelope when it comes to making stuff work for our incredibly demanding users. I've been here for just under 4 years, and have a feeling i'll be here for a while longer.

The other part of my lifestyle is my bike. I love 2 wheels. I really do. I think riding a bike is the closest you can feel to flying without actually being in the air. Its about the freedom. Its about not living in a box all the time. Its about taking chances and being alert. I must admit, riding a bike in Malta is probably more dangerous than Bruce Willis' scene with the placard in Die Hard. I have nothing against black people!! But the roads in Malta are terrible, the driving in Malta is even worse. So everyday brings new challenges and some very close calls that would be easily placed in one of those "horrible accidents caught on camera" videos on youtube :P

Well, i think thats enough of an introduction for now, i'll do my best to keep this blog alive!

See you soon :)