Internet

Redoing my sidebar links thing again, and considering changing how comments are done.

by ZombieSkittles on November 18, 2011

I got bored and thought it’d be fun to redo my little collection of links again, and change them up just a little.
Now, if you go to /links on here, you’ll end up at a page full of even tinier avatars, each linking to something I like. The idea behind it is they could be mundane little things, or websites I visit all the time. Every so often I’ll add a few to the list, and eventually it should become a page of hundreds of links (my goal is a thousand).
I’m mainly doing this because I think it’ll look really cool, and I love doing little tweaks now and again. By doing this as well, I’ll be able to clean up the main page a little as there won’t be so much in the sidebar afterwards.
For now, the sidebar links will remain until I can be bothered porting all of them over to the links page, as I’m lazy like that.

Onto another topic, I’m considering getting rid of Disqus on this site. I like the system, but I want something that doesn’t feel so out of place in my blog theme. If you’re reading this (Mr. Nunn?) What’s your opinion on the matter? Is there a better alternative? Should I keep it? Should I just stop typing this and get ready for work?

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Drama on my Google+?

by ZombieSkittles on November 10, 2011

Today I decided to look at the “What’s Hot” stream on Google+, where you see the most popular things people have posted lately. Apparently there is an uproar because some people are reposting other people’s public images without properly crediting them.
The claims are that it messes up ripples and “post stealing” is unethical.

While I don’t argue against the points Carter Gibson and other people are bringing up, I have to ask; why the fuck should it matter?

PostStealingLook at me, not crediting the original poster of this image. I am a rebel.

From what I’ve seen, the main person accused of this issue is a Mr. Jason Calacanis. I really don’t see the issue. The gentleman in question did not claim the images as his own work, he merely reposted them. He didn’t share them via the “share” button supplied by Google, but does that really matter?
To me, it doesn’t matter as long as I see it. I’d rather see the image than miss it entirely. Half of the things that get posted are things found on Reddit or elsewhere on the Internet anyway. I feel that claiming that because you posted it first everyone should just share your post is just narcissistic, or something like that.

Tumblr is a good example of a community based purely around reposting other peoples works. If someone makes something new and original that is loved by the community, it is reposted a billion times to the point that the original author is forgotten. Do they yell at the top of their lungs about post stealing? No, they don’t.

To me, it doesn’t matter if someone posts the same thing as another person does, as long as people can see it. I’m willing to bet that most of the time the person who originally posted the item didn’t even make the item themselves, but rather found it on another site and thought it was worth sharing.
Even in the event that the item is 100% original, they’re sharing it on a social network site like Google+ or Tumblr because they want other people to see it. If someone else posts it themselves, that just means more people are seeing it. As long as said re-poster doesn’t take credit for the image/post, there really shouldn’t be a problem.

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ZombieSkittles+

by ZombieSkittles on November 9, 2011

Well for those people who read the lame things I post here, ZombieSkittles has it’s own Google+ Page! Why? Because. What will it be used for? Not much beyond having another way to spam you.
Where’s the link? I suggest you click on that rather sexy logo on the left.

The only two things I dislike about the new Brand Pages on Google+ is the lack of a badge similar to the one I use for Facebook in the sidebar, and analytics. Lucky, both have been promised in the future, but how far away these features are is not certain. Hopefully it’s not a long wait.

Coincidentally, Rubenerd.com and Rex Havoc (An epic blog site and awesome story respectively) both have Google+ pages you should add to your circles while you’re there.

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Space Flight 704

by ZombieSkittles on October 19, 2011

Looking for something to do to kill some time on your journey through this wide open space we call the Internet? Well, might I make a suggestion? Yes? No? Get to the point? Okay.

Over at The Geekorium, my friend is writing a daily story called Space Flight 704. The story feels very much like a comic book, and daily chapters are bite sized, so it only takes a few minutes to read.
It’s a fun and enjoyable read, and I suggest you give it a look1 if you have a few spare minutes. Right now. Seriously.

  1. Though I assume most people who read this are friends of both of us, and therefore will already be reading the story, or at least know of it. Oh well.

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+1

by ZombieSkittles on July 21, 2011

google-plus-logo1Well thanks to an awesome person on Twitter, I’ve been having a fiddle with Google+. Suffice to say, I’m quite enjoying it’s simplicity over Facebook’s bloated feeling. There’s no applications, and everything seems rather simple. Furthermore, the site has some nice features.

I could go on and on, and talk about the various things in Google+ that set it apart and make it good, but I’ll leave that to other people who do it better. This is a much simpler post, targeting a single feature.

Plus One.

The +1 button is a simple idea that has seen many different versions with slightly different purposes. Facebook like buttons, Tweet This buttons and the like all have the same idea, but Google’s does a little bit more. The button can be used as a simple way of liking posts made inside of Google+ itself, but the best part is it’s use outside of the social network.
When you find an article you enjoyed reading, or a video on YouTube you thought was especially good, you can click a corresponding +1 button on the page, and that item will be shared. If enabled, it will show up on your Google+ Profile under the +1 tab, so other people can see what you liked. This makes it relatively simple to spread the word about something, and I really think it’s quite neat, as it doesn’t spam up anyone.

This is basically a vanity post, because if you can’t see it by now, I suggest you scroll down just a little bit. Yes, I’ve added a +1 button to this site, allowing you to +1 singular posts if you so feel inclined. I don’t expect there’ll be many things worthy of a +1 on here, but I figured I like the system, and it couldn’t hurt to incorporate it.

Is anyone else incorporating the button into their blogs or websites?

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Oh man.

by ZombieSkittles on April 25, 2011

I’ve known about the Slender Man for a while now courtesy of this thing, but started watching Marble Hornets, and now I’m fucking terrified. Even though this shit is fake, it’s messing with me.

The internet has invented some fucked up shit, but this is the first thing that completely and utterly unnerves me.

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Bitch be hotlinking!

by ZombieSkittles on April 7, 2011

Looking at the stats page for this very website, I was surprised to see that for the first time in a very long time, someone had linked to me. Curious, I visited that blog to see where they referenced me. Reading the whole post twice, I couldn’t see where they did it. That’s when I noticed it; they had stolen one of my pictures. The picture in question is this screenshot I took of Farmville when I used to play it.

I wouldn’t mind, except the person responsible didn’t just use my picture; he’s leeching off MY hosting. This of course, leads to potential trolling awesomeness. Observe this comparison of his blog post as I found it, then the blog post after I did some file editing on my hosting:

post1 post2

Much better, don’t you think? Hopefully he’ll think twice before leeching. Also, free advertising! If you want to see it for yourself, you need go no further than http://chronicdog.blogspot.com/2011/03/why-casual-games-arent-worth-playing.html

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Desura

by ZombieSkittles on March 23, 2011

I’ve come to have a bit of a love affair with Steam. It’s been a little over a year, and it’s helped cement my love with Valve as a game developer, having invested almost a thousand hours in it’s games and the sales they have always making me depart with my hard earned money.

However, while I love Steam, I’ve still got trouble convincing myself to depart with over fifty dollars for a game. This is where I’ve come to find myself searching for and enjoying indie games like VVVVVV, Onslaught Arena and World of Goo. Luckily, I invest the money pit that is PC PowerPlay Magazine1, and they pointed me in the direction of Desura.

desura_logo_blackWhat is Desura?

Well if you didn’t catch on from my dedicating a paragraph to a digital distribution system, and another to indie games, let me spell it out; Desura is a digital distribution system dedicated to mods and indie games.

The system was launched publically last year and while still fairly new, the community boasts over half a million users with several hundred joining every day. Created by the people responsible for ModDB and IndieDB, the social aspect of the program syncs with that of those websites, with a universal user profile over the three.

Why should I care?

Where Steam is an all round system, selling commercial games as well as the more popular indie games like World of Goo, Desura targets the complete modding and indie game creation community, and adds a more interactive spin to the whole experience. Going to a game’s or mod’s page, you’ll see news for the game, images videos and a threaded comments section in which community members and the developers can discuss the game.

This level of interactivity with the creators makes the experience feel a lot more sociable than the classic shop style of Steam. Imagine being able to walk into a games store, and have members from Bethesda Software on hand to talk with you about Fallout: New Vegas.
Games also can be ranked 1 to 10 by players and reviewed, so you know whether what you’re about to buy will be worth it. Luckily, unlike other indie-dedicated platforms like XBox Live Indie Games, Desura seems shit free; I haven’t seen a single bad game.

Desura IS a constantly changing beast though. Being so new, it gets updated at least once a week, and new features and enhancements are constantly in development (Unlike Steam, Desura is planned to have a Linux release).

Oh, the best part!

If I still haven’t convinced you, allow me to point out two more simple things. They have multiple free games on offer. That’s right, besides the array of free mods on offer for games like Half Life 2, Desura has multiple standalone games on offer that are completely free. Two fine examples are Warsow (A fast paced multiplayer FPS with an art style similar to Borderlands) and Alien Arena (A deathmatch style FPS built off of the Quake II engine).
The other thing? The games are DRM free. Unlike Steam, which binds your game to your account so you have to be logged in to play your games, Desura lets you play them without needing it. Sure, this means risking people pirating the games on offer, but it also gives a certain level of freedom which is much appreciated in this sort of community.

tl;dr

In closing, Desura is a new comer to the digital distribution scene, but being dedicated to a particularly large niche, and already having a big audience, it’s fairly established. There are plenty of free games so even if you weren’t interested in buying games, it’s worth it for the value you get for the sweet price of nothing dollars and nothing cents.

  1. I love you Hyper Magazine.

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Wow, Microsoft.

by ZombieSkittles on January 3, 2011

This entry is part 5 of 5 in the series James vs Xbox Live

I have completely lost faith in the company’s Support staff. Having asked the same question for the third time, I received this email from a ‘Joseph’.

Hello James,

Thank you for contacting Microsoft online support for XBOX. I am Joseph and I will be helping you today with this issue.

We have received your email and understand that you would like to cancel the auto renewal of your account.

James as you has been informed numerous times we cannot cancel the auto renewal of your account over email. This support line is for Xbox technical troubleshooting and Xbox setup only . As much as we would like to help we do not have the tools to process your request.

No matter how many times you email us we would be unable to cancel the auto renewal of you account.

If you need to replay to this email and, please reply ‘with history’ (include any previous email) or reference to Service Request Number 1145989902 so we can expedite our service to you.

For future questions on Xbox products or services, please be sure to revisit our web site xbox.com, as we are continually adding information to enhance our service.

Best Regards,

Joseph

Microsoft Xbox Support Services

It’s amazing how someone can be so up front and to the point yet completely miss the point by ignoring the question I asked. Needless to say, he did not help me today with this issue. In fact, he completely missed the issue, which is amazing seeing how completely up front and stern he attempted to be. While acting like he’d read my emails (“No matter how many times you email us”), he obviously did not read them, otherwise his email would of included a message explaining the answer.

Hi. I have been in contact with your support team, in which I have asked a very simple question which your team members "Rio", "Krafft" and "Joseph" all failed to answer, instead dodging my question. For a complete history of my emails you can look at the following page, in which the last few emails are in the last articles. http://zombieskittles.com/series/james-vs-xbox-live

I now have two questions.

1) Why is it that I -or anyone with or without my permission- can make purchases through my account on the Xbox or via the website with little to no verification, yet to do something as simple as stop Automatic Renewal, I have to make a phone call for "high security verification"? Should it not be the other way around?

2) In lieu of the way Support has responded -or not as it seems- to my question, I’ve moved from simply trying to cancel my Automatic Renewal to cancelling my account completely. If I do so, will I lose anything I have downloaded from Live? E.G. Games and demos.

If you could answer these two simple questions, that would be nice.

I’m actually a little sceptical as to whether or not they’ll actually answer this email properly. I do hope though.

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Are you even reading what I’m writing?

by ZombieSkittles on December 31, 2010

This entry is part 4 of 5 in the series James vs Xbox Live

After a few days, I received an email back from Xbox, saying nothing but the usual crap, and asking that next time I show all history so they know where to work from. Meanwhile, “Krafft” completely ignored my question.

Hello James,

This is Krafft, with Microsoft XBOX Support services.

We are sorry for the inconvenience and as I understand, you want to cancel the auto renewal feature of your account. It is advisable that you call Xbox Customer Support. Your concern requires personal information for verification which cannot be divulged over email.

If you need to reply to this e-mail, please reply ‘with history’ (include any previous e-mail) so we can expedite our service to you.

This is frustrating. I did not think that my question was so hard to answer. So, here’s my reply.

Hello. I have been in contact with several members of Xbox Support about stopping automatic renewal. In the process, no one has actually answered my questions, dodging them to spout the same thing every time as if off a template.

Here’s the last email I sent, in which "Krafft" neglected to answer my question, which I didn’t think was too difficult at all.

"If someone jumped on my Xbox, they’d only need to select my account, and they’d have full access to buy any number of things. On the website, the only thing separating myself or anyone from making purchases is a username and password.
I would like to know why I, or anyone, can jump on and spend my money with little to no "security" or verification, but if I want to change something as simple as auto renewal on an account that I at least for now, will continue using and purchasing things in, I am expected to- essentially -jump through hoops."

I have been asked to provide support with history of the past emails sent. I have been blogging my progress as we’ve been exchanging emails, and you can see them and all the sent and received emails at http://zombieskittles.com/series/james-vs-xbox-live

I’m looking forward to your reply.

I’m hoping third time lucky and someone actually answers the question I have asked. If they can tell me that, I feel this will be one step closer to finishing.

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