Check out my Badge

Yet another new feature in GoogleApps... Google Talk Chatback Badge, allows people to chat to someone, without having signed up for Google Talk/Chat/VidConf/Meeting Thing-a-me-jig.

A shiny new Chatback Badge is pretty similar functionality to those "chat with live support" widgets most retail sites have these days. Pretty nice being able to embed it anywhere you like, though... page footers, email sigs, blog entries... I'm not one of those people who deparately need to maintain active commlinks to the rest of the world... but anyway...

Antec Skeleton

I think they're allowed to use revolutionary to describe the Skeleton... not that it's really such a leap from what enthusiasts have already done... but to actually mass produce these is a pretty huge departure from "business-as-usual"... especially given the £100+ price tag.

That 25cm fan on top is blowing down... which makes me wonder if the relatively clean air would help prevent dust buildup. What about a breezy spill of air out the front? Nice for driving games, I imagine.

Desktop CPU Comparison

The guys at Tech ARP have some handy tables with complete CPU specs for the last few years. The "Desktop CPU Comparison Guide Rev. 5.1", offers a jaunt down memory lane, and handy info at the same time... remember, those 1100MHz Coppermine Celeron's? That was back in 2000!

The guide doesn't compare across platforms, but Tom's Hardware has a funky CPU comparison chart for that. It's not right up-to-date, unfortunately.

Kordau's Video Card Summary - April 08

Recent events mean SLI is looking even nicer than usual. First, nVidia release the nForce 700-series chipsets. Then, video cards prices take a long-overdue drop! Yay!

ASRock announced a new 680i SLI board to complement their 650i SLI board. These amazingly specced boards are the Penryn1600SLIX3-WiFi and Penryn1600SLI-110dB( only £60! ). Both feature solid capacitors, 1600MHz FSB, and support for Intel's new 45nm processors! Older 680i boards being discounted, too. How about an XFX nForce 680i for £64 inc delivery!

So, what cards are worth considering? Here's my choices...

• 9600GT - A great new card. Arguably, negates the Radeon 3850 as an option.
• 8800GT - Has finally plummeted to sensible prices!
• 8800GTS ( G92 ) - Dropped in price. The 9800 series all use the same G92 processor, oddly enough. The 8800GTS has become the new benchmark.
  
• 8800GTX - Ah, the good ol' 8800GTX. Prices have plummeted!
• 9800GX2 - The new top of the line, with the usual insane price to match.
• 9800GTX - Still hasn't been released. It was due on 25 March, so it's not far away. April 1st is the latest estimate.
  

Performance and features...

• Toms Hardware - Graphic Card Hierarchy is a great quick reference for comparative performance. The 9800 cards will require a new top tier on there.
  
• 9600GT - Slightly below 8800GT performance. HardOCP review has details. Power usage under load is excellent!
  
• 8800GT - Performance is a slightly below the 8800GTS. If you're not running 1920x1080 resolution, then this is the card of choice.
  
• 8800GTS - Performance is very slightly below 8800GTX performance. It uses far less power than the old 8800GTX, though. At 1920x1080 resolution, the 8800GTS becomes obviously better than the 8800GT.
  
• 9800GX2 - Performance is virtually identical to 2 x 8800GTS cards in SLI mode. Which is not surprising, since that's what the 9800GX2 basically is... two 8800GTS boards sandwiched together to form a single card. The GX2 gives you SLI performance in a single-slot. An nForce 7 motherboard offers the option of Quad SLI for true insanity! HardOCP 9800GX2 review.
• 9800GTX - Performance? I'm hoping around 1.25-1.5x the performance of the 8800GTS. Here's a pre-release test, which indicates it gets pretty close to 9800GX2 performance.
  

And finally... the prices!

• 9600GT - Just over £100... and even under £100! ( "Today Only" special for £99.86, until 31-Mar-08! )
• 8800GT - Can be found for £125. But, this EVGA SuperClocked 8800GT is an awesome bargain at £135!
  
• 8800GTS - Cards start around £150.
• 8800GTX - Prices for these are now below £200. Before Christmas you were lucky to find an OEM card under £300.
  
• 9800GX2 - Well, by insane, I mean £350 to £440!!!
• 9800GTX? - My guess is around £280. Although, some speculation says it'll be priced under the 3870 X2, which would put it in the £230 - £270 range. Nice.

All those prices are based on 512MB cards. The GX2 has 1GB ( 2 x 512MB ).

Blu-ray on Xbox 360?

Looks like Microsoft doesn't really know what Microsoft is doing... again. Lastest report is that Microsoft is denying Blu-ray might become available for Xbox 360. But, I guess Aaron Greenberg should know.

I can't imagine I'd buy a Blu-ray drive for my Xbox 360. There'd have to be a lot more incentive than Blu-ray movie playback. I'd rather put that £100 towards buying a whole new PS3.

Retailer swaps old HD DVD for new Blu-ray gear

Digital World Tokyo | Honest / insane retailer swaps old HD DVD for new Blu-ray gear

With all the news of HD-DVD being dead, it was this story that really made it official for me. It doesn't get much more final than a retailer acknowledging the gear they sold is obsolete, and allowing you to return it. That's pretty damn amazing customer service.

So, I wonder how many retailers in the rest of the world will have anything similar. I wonder if Microsoft will accept returns of their external HD-DVD drives. Nope, not holding my breath.

Bill Gates Loves Piracy

Bill the Futurist? Well, I hope nobody ever accuses him of that. A "lack of foresight", would seem to exclude him from being attributed with that particular attribute. Yep, this news is 6 months old, but I just saw it now. Ba, humbug.

It took 30 years but he's changed his tune...

How Microsoft Conquered China

"Today Gates openly concedes that tolerating piracy turned out to be Microsoft's best long-term strategy. That's why Windows is used on an estimated 90% of China's 120 million PCs. "It's easier for our software to compete with Linux when there's piracy than when there's not," Gates says. "Are you kidding? You can get the real thing, and you get the same price." Indeed, in China's back alleys, Linux often costs more than Windows because it requires more disks. And Microsoft's own prices have dropped so low it now sells a $3 package of Windows and Office to students."

Despite being a bit of a dickhead at age 20, Bill did almost redeem himself by suggesting that open-source software was a good thing. Although he did seem to think "hobby" software was available for all, while his "commercial" software was off-limits. In other words, "feel free to make software I can use, but don't use mine".

Since I'm on Microsoft turf, I'd like to, once again, point out Bill Gates is not some guru programmer who created an empire based on his amazing software. Technology-wise, he had nothing to do with the product that created Microsoft ( ie: MS-DOS ), or the software products that followed. Indeed, he made some great decisions as a businessman, but he's not some god-like programmer, goddamnit!

Sorry, but it just really pisses me off when people talk about him like he's some techno-wizard... it's like saying Rupert Murdoch invented the printing press.

Here's some more quotes from Bill, demonstrating his amazing foresight...

• We will never make a 32-bit operating system.
• The next generation of interesting software will be done on the Macintosh, not the IBM PC.
• I believe OS/2 is destined to be the most important operating system, and possibly program, of all time.

Bill Gates - WikiQuotes

And here's observations of others on Bill...

• The idea that Bill Gates has appeared like a knight in shining armour to lead all customers out of a mire of technological chaos neatly ignores the fact that it was he who, by peddling second-rate technology, led them into it in the first place. - Douglas Adams
• There never was a chip, it is said, that Bill Gates couldn't slow down with a new batch of features. - James Coates, The Chicago Tribune

Official XS Tiered PSU List

Over at XtremeSystems, they have their Official XS Tiered PSU Manufacturer Brand Listing. It makes a very handy starting point when considering a new power supply.

Rock Band: The Complete Licensed Track List

Ah yes, Rock Band will be awesome. Here's "The Complete Licensed Track List". I think "Go With The Flow" is still my favourite.

Halo 3 - Legendary Edition

I got one!

Xbox Division Posts $1.9 Billion Operating Loss for Fiscal 2007

Microsoft released fourth quarter results on July 19. Manufacturing costs are down, but the new extended warranty is costing them well over a billion dollars.

The installed base of 360 consoles is 11.6 million, and they expected 12 million by now... so that sounds like things are going pretty much according to plan... maybe not for Robbie Bach, though.

To put the loss in proper perspective, Microsoft also announced overall annual revenue in excess of $51 billion.

Xbox 360 Elite - European release date

August 24 is the official release date! Doesn't look like it's going to be 65nm, though... presuming they'd say if it was... I imagine that'd be a big selling point. But, at least it'd be safe to assume they come with the upgraded cooling system.

No announcement on pricing, but pre-orders are available for £330...
• eBuyer
• Play.com

Samsung SM226BW on Play.com

After spending a very frustrating 2-3 days looking for a retailer who would check for an S serial number, it turns out good ol' Play.com had exactly what I wanted all along... the Samsung SyncMaster SM226BW 22" not only with an S panel guarantee... but also at the cheapest price I've seen for the UK.

Xbox 360 and Playstation 3

Ben Kuchera at Ars Technica had a very interesting meeting with Microsoft where they looked at the Xbox 360 and PS3 on a 1080p TV.

Head start: the Xbox 360 and the next generation

I guess I should give up waiting for Xbox 360 with HD-DVD on board.

Microsoft stubbornly refused to admit a 20GB hard drive is completely ridiculous. FFS, can't they just put a bigger fucking drive in there? An 80GB 2.5" SATA drive only costs around £35... at retail!!! Morons!

Sony actually tells you how to install a new drive in the PS3, in the user manual. The guys at Daily Tech installed a 320GB drive in their PS3 soon after release... Xbox hackers are still trying to work out how to upgrade the 360's hard drive.

Wowhead - Thottbot Killer

Wowhead is a new database site for World of Warcraft... First impressions are excellent! It really makes browsing items a pleasure. It's really simple to do complex listings such as, "single-handed maces, over level 44, rare or better, usable by a druid, and part of a set" ... you can get even more complex than that!

The database is a little sparse at the moment. That's gotta be expected considering they only came out of beta, about a month ago.

New host for Christmas

Ah yes. Nothing has been posted for a few months because I'm such a lazy bastard when it comes to moving hosts. Well, actually, the posts have been stored in Blogger all this time, they just haven't been available on this site.

My new host has a very odd method of allowing FTP users to upload to the root web folder, without using admin details... anyway, I got around to doing it eventually but it took a while to work it out.

Here's what all the family needs for Christmas, ( besides a competent host ). And, if you're wondering what to do with all those crap presents, then here is your answer.

Xbox 360 console sales not red!

According to this Ars Technica article, drops in component prices mean that the Evil Empire is now making roughly USD$75 on each Xbox 360 sold, as opposed to losing USD$125 on each one back in November 2005. Poor ol' Sony is currently taking a loss of around $30o for every $500 PS3 sold. Ouch!

Anyway, this surely adds up to either;

1. A big drop is Xbox 360 console prices
2. Or, a HD-DVD drive being bundled with the Xbox 360
3. Or, a slight rise in price, for a HD-DVD bundle
   

My guess is the simple price drop, since blue-laser costs would mean option 2 or 3 turn a $75 profit into a $100-plus loss.

Space Rangers 2 is cool

Yeah, Space Rangers 2 is cool. The only thing that pisses me off is that it's not popular enough for there to be a guide to spacecraft purchases for it.

Airport Stupidity

My recent trip to Budapest showed me that sanity still hasn't returned to airport security. Somehow, I think sanity is an attribute we won't be recognising in airport security, for the foreseeable future.

I shouldn't have been surprised, but they still seem to believe in the fairytale of a liquid explosive attack. Here's a few articles about the feasibility of such an attack...

• Mass murder in the skies
• Peroxide Bomb, easy to make!
  
• Implausibility of the explosives plot
• Terror plot is 'fiction'

Basically, it is (was?) easy to get the components on-board. The biggest problem is combining the materials. The would-be bomber is far more likely to destroy himself before mixing enough to do any real damage to the aircraft.

Ignoring everything else, it's not a new scenario...

• 1995 Conspiracy
• Politicizing the threat
• What's new about the London Terror Plot?
• Terror Plot Deja Vu

Ah well... prepare yourself for that day when authorities realise clothes can be made explosive. Maybe it's all a conspiracy by the post-security airport shops.

End of Office? Who Writely knows...

Welcome to Writely... the new online collaborative word processor from Google... and another nail in the Microsoft Office coffin.

I just tried it out, and it imported my Microsoft Word and OpenOffice documents without problems. It could only "Save As..." for RTF and HTML, though. But, I'm sure the full range of save options will be working soon, though.

Yep, I don't think this alone is going to kill MS Office, but it's just another option for people to consider before installing Behemoth Office XP 2000 98.

Behold, the Flying Spaghetti Monster!

Everyone knows He is real, but now the sharp eyes of Boing Boing have spotted his influence among us... even the armed forces are touched by His Noodly Appendage!

Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords

It's been a while since I posted anything, so I thought I'd announce that the latest game I've bought is, Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords. It's supposed to be pretty similar to the Masters Of Orion series, which are some of my all-time favourite games... in the same class as Alpha Centauri.

Google maps are cool

I grew up in Lismore, Australia. It's a pretty old photo... I can tell because the shed in my backyard isn't complete in this photo.

Here's my house in Lismore.

This is the house of one of my school friends. In the top-left corner is the Macadamia Nut factory, where I learnt to ride motorbikes. The patch just to the left of that is a graveyard where we discovered a network of rabbit warrens under the gravestones... and tried to smoke them out using various incendiary devices.

This is where another friend used to live. That's the nearby pub in the bottom-left of the picture.

This is my high school... Trinity High School. It's mid-bottom in the picture when you zoom right in.

This is ( or rather, was ) the enemy... Woodlawn boarding school, just outside town.

This is Lismore Dog Racing track, right near my high school... nope, we never went there... I just like how it fits inside the river loop.

This is Byron Bay, where I ended up, most weekends. The various aspects nearly always provided great surf.

This is one of the "secret waterfalls" that we used to frequent on weekends... at least I think that is... it's a bit hard to see waterfalls from above, I guess. Anyway, it was awesome. It had these really cool caves that went back under the cliff face under the waterfall. There used to be all these really cool pinprick luminescent rocks in the caves, which looked awesome since it was pitch black under there... unfortunately, some bastard had chipped most of them out last time I went there.

Finally, this is Griffith University where I went to uni... look like it's in the middle of a forest right? Well, yeah, it is... but zoom out and you'll see the forest is in the middle of a city!

The End of Microsoft Office!

Well, that actually depends on how smart people are... and "people" are notoriously stupid.

Microsoft has decided ( read "was forced" ) to open up their Office XML standard. They've even submitted it for consideration as an ECMA standard.

Before you start thinking, "Wow, they've seen the light", let me hit you with some knowledge from the above article... M$ tried to patent some parts of their new Office XML format before all this. Luckily, the state of Massachusetts kicked them in the nuts for that, and it eventually led to current events.

Why my portent of The Doom Of Office? Because, opening the document format is going to overcome a major obstacle for OpenOffice. In fact, it's going to help out all non-M$ Office products, because Microsoft has always relied on keeping parts of the doc format secret to maintain incompatibility with competing products.

This is a good time to mention that OpenOffice 2.0 was recently released and it looks fantastic. It already seems to work seamlessly with MS Office docs, but opening the format up will allow them to implement ( and feature ) 100% Microsoft Office compatibility.

So, why the hell would anybody PAY for M$ Office when a svelte, free alternative exists? An alternative that doesn't try to embed itself in every nook of your OS? ... just read the first paragraph again.

The Cubinator

Everyone does rubber band balls... but this guy does rubber band cubes.

I'll be really impressed if he can do a rubber band pyramid, though.

Yeah baby! Shake those plates!

Tectonic, that is.

In an effort to make my blog more hip, happnin' and "with it", I'm going to see if I can remember to post some of the fun and crazy things I see.

So, to get the ball rolling, as they say, here's the USGS Recent Earthquake Activity page. Yeah well... I like it... so cool being able to see real-time earthquake maps. It also makes you realise just how goddamn unstable the planet is, even without human intervention. Next time you morph into your super-human persona you'll know exactly which hotspots to are most likely to need your mad superhero skillz.

"Ah yes, the earth's crust is quiet. Perhaps my 'mad superhero skillz' will not be needed, this day", thinks Kordanonator as he peers down at the majestic earth from near orbit.

Yeah baby! Shake those tectonics.

The shiny new Azerothian Album

I've finally got around to creating a photo journal of our fun times in Azeroth.

Head on over to Azerothian Album to check it out.

Last.fm ( aka AudioScrobbler )

Just what you always wanted. Now you can find out what music I've been listening to, and even what I'm currently listening to via my Last.fm profile page.

Probably of more interest to yourself would be the ability to sign up with last.fm and see what it offers. It's like most of the other learning/recommendation music systems that are around, except this one integrates with far more playback systems than others... and it even has a custom radio feature, ala LaunchCast.

Currently, I'm using the AudioScrobbler plug-in for iTunes and the built-in AudioScrobbler support in XBMC for my Xbox ( which serves as my home jukebox ).

Hubba Bubba

I like Hubba Bubba bubble gum... except for the Cola flavour.

Where the hell do you get Hubba Bubba Max, though? Or Hubba Bubba Jugs? Man, I'm so behind in gumtech.