Happy 2013! 2012 wasn't a great one for me but I'm giving this year a real good go. Stop smoking on Tuesday, am looking for a part-time job to boost my spare income from good to great and have applied to volunteer at the local animal sanctuary (the free cats are on me lol).
I've also bought a new domain, andybeans.com, which I'll be temporarily forwarding to Whinge World until I get some hosting and content sorted. I've been dithering about this for ages, but since I've been signing all my recent Android prototypes as com.andybeans.* it's become more and more pressing to get on and actually buy said domain.
So Whinge World will slowly be decommissioned as I build AndyBeans, not that too many people will notice (I can count my visitors on the fingers of one elbow) but it's something to say anyway. If you want to know anything about my recent forays into Android then watch this space...
Anyway, it's lunchtime and I'm starving, so off to the level of purgatory called Tesco for some chicken! TTFN :)
PSN Portable ID
Friday 4 January 2013
Thursday 1 March 2012
Trophy whoring update
Recently I've managed to get two shiny new platinums, taking my total to 11!
After watching the kids playing Skylanders on their Wii and a recent price-drop for the starter pack I finally bought the PS3 version for myself and boshed out the platinum a couple of days later. Although this is probably the cheapest platinum in my collection it still isn't as embarrassing as some I've seen, the game itself is well designed, enjoyable to play and isn't intrinsically broken like many of the games being shoved out for the kids market these days. Despite the obvious pester-power marketing by Activision, creating a range of 29 other figures for kids to nag their folks into getting on top of the starter pack's initial three, you can get all the trophies without forking out for any others. A couple of the trophies even proved a bit tricky and required a couple of restarts but sympathetic way-point design prevented even these becoming a drag. Well worth getting, especially if you've got a few sprogs to share in the fun.
The other one, which I got last night, is for Assassin's Creed: Revelations. This is obviously a much more involved affair than the aforementioned Skylanders and has taken me quite a few weeks to wrap up. The online side put me off initially as it has for the previous in the series, Brotherhood; however Ubisoft seem to have realised their mistakes since first introducing multiplayer and have lowered the requirements for the online trophies. The multiplayer has been significantly improved and once you get into the flow it's actually no bother getting to Level 20 and is quite enjoyable in it's own right... I might be forced to buy the DLC so I can carry on playing (whilst getting trophies of course). There have been many complaints about the direction the single player game has taken, specifically regarding the proliferation of side-quests and mini-games, however it has become obvious that those complaining are not the brightest sparks in the gaming world, with a little bit of forethought many of the more onerous aspects (such as Den Defences) can be avoided almost entirely. Similarly for the 100% synch trophy, keeping an eye on the secondary/optional objectives during your first playthrough can vastly reduce the time subsequently spent reacquainting and replaying "memories" (read: missions), and you only need to 100% the main sequences for the trophy.
I think my next platinum will be Uncharted 3: Drakes Deception, although I am considering bunging Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood in and whoring that platinum for the hatrick...
After watching the kids playing Skylanders on their Wii and a recent price-drop for the starter pack I finally bought the PS3 version for myself and boshed out the platinum a couple of days later. Although this is probably the cheapest platinum in my collection it still isn't as embarrassing as some I've seen, the game itself is well designed, enjoyable to play and isn't intrinsically broken like many of the games being shoved out for the kids market these days. Despite the obvious pester-power marketing by Activision, creating a range of 29 other figures for kids to nag their folks into getting on top of the starter pack's initial three, you can get all the trophies without forking out for any others. A couple of the trophies even proved a bit tricky and required a couple of restarts but sympathetic way-point design prevented even these becoming a drag. Well worth getting, especially if you've got a few sprogs to share in the fun.
The other one, which I got last night, is for Assassin's Creed: Revelations. This is obviously a much more involved affair than the aforementioned Skylanders and has taken me quite a few weeks to wrap up. The online side put me off initially as it has for the previous in the series, Brotherhood; however Ubisoft seem to have realised their mistakes since first introducing multiplayer and have lowered the requirements for the online trophies. The multiplayer has been significantly improved and once you get into the flow it's actually no bother getting to Level 20 and is quite enjoyable in it's own right... I might be forced to buy the DLC so I can carry on playing (whilst getting trophies of course). There have been many complaints about the direction the single player game has taken, specifically regarding the proliferation of side-quests and mini-games, however it has become obvious that those complaining are not the brightest sparks in the gaming world, with a little bit of forethought many of the more onerous aspects (such as Den Defences) can be avoided almost entirely. Similarly for the 100% synch trophy, keeping an eye on the secondary/optional objectives during your first playthrough can vastly reduce the time subsequently spent reacquainting and replaying "memories" (read: missions), and you only need to 100% the main sequences for the trophy.
I think my next platinum will be Uncharted 3: Drakes Deception, although I am considering bunging Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood in and whoring that platinum for the hatrick...
How many beans make one?
After a year or so trying to settle down it looks like I'll be my own man again fairly soon. As well as trying to get on in life I'll have a little more time to start blogging about my endeavours again, so expect to see a flurry of posts in the near future as I get back into the swing of single life.
"He is his own best friend, and takes delight in privacy whereas the man of no virtue or ability is his own worst enemy and is afraid of solitude." - Aristotle
"He is his own best friend, and takes delight in privacy whereas the man of no virtue or ability is his own worst enemy and is afraid of solitude." - Aristotle
Monday 15 August 2011
Refried Beans
I last posted about my defunct PS3... well I'm happy to say that I've done a little more cooking to wondrous effect; I've managed to reverse my YLOD using the hair dryer trick!
The trick is detailed in the following Youtube video posted by terminator2u4:
If you fancy trying it out yourself please look at the full description for the video as it contains specific instructions not covered during the video, such as exact timings for heating, cooling and pausing.
I first tried it using the first of the two heat settings on the hair dryer (thanks to my housemate Laura for lending it to me) but that didn't work so I tried again using the maximum setting. I also used a desk fan on maximum to cool the system down for the full 40 mins recommended before trying to boot it up (thanks to my other housemate J for lending the fan). The PS3 is now working, I've copied all my savegames to the cloud, restored it to factory defaults and will be trading it in this afternoon!
As someone for whom this trick worked (there seem to be plenty of people who haven't been successful and are calling the technique a fake in retaliation), I've got a few pointers/observations:
The trick is detailed in the following Youtube video posted by terminator2u4:
If you fancy trying it out yourself please look at the full description for the video as it contains specific instructions not covered during the video, such as exact timings for heating, cooling and pausing.
I first tried it using the first of the two heat settings on the hair dryer (thanks to my housemate Laura for lending it to me) but that didn't work so I tried again using the maximum setting. I also used a desk fan on maximum to cool the system down for the full 40 mins recommended before trying to boot it up (thanks to my other housemate J for lending the fan). The PS3 is now working, I've copied all my savegames to the cloud, restored it to factory defaults and will be trading it in this afternoon!
As someone for whom this trick worked (there seem to be plenty of people who haven't been successful and are calling the technique a fake in retaliation), I've got a few pointers/observations:
- Follow the instructions to the letter; don't get lazy/bored and skip anything
- You may get a funky smell and a haze forming as you heat the system, this is (hopefully) the solder melting.
- Keep moving the hairdryer constantly, if you don't then the system case will melt and the RJ45 (network) and HDMI ports will deform, thus rendering the system useless.
- Cool the system THOROUGHLY before testing. It takes at least 40 mins.
- DO NOT move the system until it is totally cool; you've melted the solder, moving it whilst still warm may cause more dry joints than you had before!
Wednesday 3 August 2011
Cooking
I've been baking recently in both a good and a bad way. Last Friday I cooked my PS3 but last night I cooked my very first pie!
My PS3 went pop straight after updating a game. It was our usual games night and we had a new member Salty, who like shooters. So it was decided we'd jump onto the old classic Modern Warfare 2 and do a split-screen private match so everyone could have a shot (at Loz, who's notoriously bad at shooters). I haven't played MW2 in yonks so I was asked to update to version 1.12. However when my old PS3 tried to reboot I saw a glimpse of the dreaded YLOD (Yellow Light Of Death) before a parting beep and a flashing red light. So now I've got a new PS3 but no savegames; 15 hours of Uncharted wasted, 12 hours of Uncharted 2 wasted and days worth of DiRT3 to catch up on. Methinks it's time to start cloud-saving my priority trophy-whoring games!
My successful baking experience was a lot less distressing and a whole lot tastier:
This is the very first time I've tried to make a pie and I'm so impressed with myself! It tastes lovely and as my nan used to make apple pies all the time I feel like I've got back in touch with my childhood, just need to get onto scones now! :)
My PS3 went pop straight after updating a game. It was our usual games night and we had a new member Salty, who like shooters. So it was decided we'd jump onto the old classic Modern Warfare 2 and do a split-screen private match so everyone could have a shot (at Loz, who's notoriously bad at shooters). I haven't played MW2 in yonks so I was asked to update to version 1.12. However when my old PS3 tried to reboot I saw a glimpse of the dreaded YLOD (Yellow Light Of Death) before a parting beep and a flashing red light. So now I've got a new PS3 but no savegames; 15 hours of Uncharted wasted, 12 hours of Uncharted 2 wasted and days worth of DiRT3 to catch up on. Methinks it's time to start cloud-saving my priority trophy-whoring games!
My successful baking experience was a lot less distressing and a whole lot tastier:
This is the very first time I've tried to make a pie and I'm so impressed with myself! It tastes lovely and as my nan used to make apple pies all the time I feel like I've got back in touch with my childhood, just need to get onto scones now! :)
Thursday 30 June 2011
Step on...
After 15 years of stepping to Drum and Bass I've decided today that it's time to step back and let it pass me by. I'm not saying that I've fallen out of love with the music, rather that I should stop following the scene and concentrate on more important things in life. I still love breakbeat, I just don't see myself as one of the scene any more.
The main reason I've reached this decision is due to Hospital Records. They've been a main player in the D&B world for many a year but over the last year or so I've felt that they have been concentrating more and more upon the youngest section of the raving community and to the exclusion of long-time fans such as myself. This impression has been exacerbated by their involvement on new technologies like podcasting as well as social networks such as Facebook and Twitter.
When I first started listening to the Hospital Podcast it was really amazing, instead of reading about up-and-coming tunes in Knowledge or other D&B magazines I could hear those tunes straight away, I could hear the great Tony Coleman telling us which tunes he liked and I was comforted in the knowledge that there were people like me around. However Hospital has attracted a lot of young "casual" fans in the last couple of years, middle-class students and emo's who are more interested in getting plastered and moaning about how terrible their cosseted little lives are than actually following and understanding the music which underpins the scene. Every episode of the podcast has more and more emails read out from kids who think that the odd exam and finishing a month-long relationship is cause for utmost depression and that "D&B has saved their lives" rather than being what it really is, a distraction from life's troubles; instead of being interesting and uplifting it has become more and more onerous to listen to as Tony panders to the little kiddies rather than tell them to stop whinging! (yes, this is me whinging about whinging)
Twitter for me isn't social networking, I don't follow that many of my real friends and instead use it to keep up with the gaming and D&B scenes I love through the eyes and ears of the main players in those scenes. However I find that those working in the music business find it hard to differentiate between their professional and personal personae, I've faced a constant barrage of irrelevant, personally motivated tweets from DJ's, producers and even record labels when all I want to hear about are tweets related to the business. I'm not interested in hearing that DJ Friction was up til 5am and overslept, that London Elektricity was put in a three-star hotel rather than the four-star ones to which he feels accustomed or that Goldie is watching some football match, I just want to know which tunes are out, which are coming and what they're all playing in their sets.
I recently "unfollowed" accounts used directly by individual producers and DJ's and instead stuck to those run by the labels themselves. However even this tactic has failed, every tom, dick and harry working for the label seems to use their label's accounts to have conversations with their mates or play TT (trending topic) games such as "Food DJ's". So rather than have to winnow through the crap I've decided that I'll stop following the scene entirely and become a D&B "casual" rather than the "head" I have been since 1996.
So it's time I sold the decks, uninstalled all of the music production programs from my PC and concentrate upon more important things in my life: my family, my job and my future. I'll still listen to my back catalogue of amazing albums from Hospital Records, Shogun, Metalheadz and other great labels, but I'm throwing in the towel in thinking I'm still the sort of person who labels, DJ's and producers consider to be their fans. Sounds extreme but I know where I'm not wanted. Maybe when D&B ceases to be flavour-of-the-month with the little teeny boppers and proper fans are again seen as the true supporters of the scene I may start listening again, but I won't hold my breath... we'll just have to see...
The main reason I've reached this decision is due to Hospital Records. They've been a main player in the D&B world for many a year but over the last year or so I've felt that they have been concentrating more and more upon the youngest section of the raving community and to the exclusion of long-time fans such as myself. This impression has been exacerbated by their involvement on new technologies like podcasting as well as social networks such as Facebook and Twitter.
When I first started listening to the Hospital Podcast it was really amazing, instead of reading about up-and-coming tunes in Knowledge or other D&B magazines I could hear those tunes straight away, I could hear the great Tony Coleman telling us which tunes he liked and I was comforted in the knowledge that there were people like me around. However Hospital has attracted a lot of young "casual" fans in the last couple of years, middle-class students and emo's who are more interested in getting plastered and moaning about how terrible their cosseted little lives are than actually following and understanding the music which underpins the scene. Every episode of the podcast has more and more emails read out from kids who think that the odd exam and finishing a month-long relationship is cause for utmost depression and that "D&B has saved their lives" rather than being what it really is, a distraction from life's troubles; instead of being interesting and uplifting it has become more and more onerous to listen to as Tony panders to the little kiddies rather than tell them to stop whinging! (yes, this is me whinging about whinging)
Twitter for me isn't social networking, I don't follow that many of my real friends and instead use it to keep up with the gaming and D&B scenes I love through the eyes and ears of the main players in those scenes. However I find that those working in the music business find it hard to differentiate between their professional and personal personae, I've faced a constant barrage of irrelevant, personally motivated tweets from DJ's, producers and even record labels when all I want to hear about are tweets related to the business. I'm not interested in hearing that DJ Friction was up til 5am and overslept, that London Elektricity was put in a three-star hotel rather than the four-star ones to which he feels accustomed or that Goldie is watching some football match, I just want to know which tunes are out, which are coming and what they're all playing in their sets.
I recently "unfollowed" accounts used directly by individual producers and DJ's and instead stuck to those run by the labels themselves. However even this tactic has failed, every tom, dick and harry working for the label seems to use their label's accounts to have conversations with their mates or play TT (trending topic) games such as "Food DJ's". So rather than have to winnow through the crap I've decided that I'll stop following the scene entirely and become a D&B "casual" rather than the "head" I have been since 1996.
So it's time I sold the decks, uninstalled all of the music production programs from my PC and concentrate upon more important things in my life: my family, my job and my future. I'll still listen to my back catalogue of amazing albums from Hospital Records, Shogun, Metalheadz and other great labels, but I'm throwing in the towel in thinking I'm still the sort of person who labels, DJ's and producers consider to be their fans. Sounds extreme but I know where I'm not wanted. Maybe when D&B ceases to be flavour-of-the-month with the little teeny boppers and proper fans are again seen as the true supporters of the scene I may start listening again, but I won't hold my breath... we'll just have to see...
Monday 6 June 2011
Wanna ride on camera?
Well I've finally been able to upload a video to YouTube from DiRT 3, I've been waiting to do it since the game came out the other week but have had to wait until the PlayStation Store opened to redeem my online VIP pass.
So the bottom line is that it's not the most impressive video, especially as there are tons of similar videos from others who're equally impressed with their own performance, getting a World Record on the same track with the same car! I don't care, I'm pretty pleased with it and will be posting some more soon. Hopefully the next one will be a little more exceptional ;)
Now that I've posted from two different games (see here for my COD: Black Ops upload) I fancy messing about with some captions and audio stuff, so check back soon if you want to see a version with occasional "VRRROOOM" captions and a comedy soundtrack haha
So the bottom line is that it's not the most impressive video, especially as there are tons of similar videos from others who're equally impressed with their own performance, getting a World Record on the same track with the same car! I don't care, I'm pretty pleased with it and will be posting some more soon. Hopefully the next one will be a little more exceptional ;)
Now that I've posted from two different games (see here for my COD: Black Ops upload) I fancy messing about with some captions and audio stuff, so check back soon if you want to see a version with occasional "VRRROOOM" captions and a comedy soundtrack haha
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