Opinion

Duke Nukem 3D pisses me off.

by ZombieSkittles on January 8, 2012

Well, not so much the game as the developers responsible for the port to Android, Machineworks Northwest.

I’m humming the theme song while I write this.

The game is fun, and a decent port given the restrictions of a touch screen. Sometimes the controls don’t respond to two simultaneous touches and the like.

As the title indicates though, I’m pissed off about something. What is it? Well, an update that has been released for the game today, which flat out ruins the thing.
It seems good at first, proclaiming the game is now forever free. I was lucky and managed to get the game for free about a month ago in a pre-Christmas sale, but it’s good more people are able to get it too.

Where it gets iffy is that the game now sports annoying advertisements at the bottom of the screen, for both free users and those who have previously paid for the game, which judging from the reviews on the application’s page makes them feel like the developers have “rested their balls on our chins and brushed our teeth with their dicks”.

What pisses me off most is that they don’t even give us all the episodes. We’re expected to purchase the other two remaining episodes for $1 each, regardless of whether or not we paid for the app or otherwise. Why not just give us the full game and charge $2 for the game?

This is complete bullshit. It feels like such a terrible thing for the developers to do. To deal a low blow to what were loyal customers and fans of the game is a dick move. The approach gives the appearance of Machineworks Northwest not giving a shit for those customers, or for the game itself.

I never thought a developer could be so stupid. Surely they should have kept charging for the game as it was, and released a separate ad-supported demo application. But hey, I’m just a hurt customer, what would I know?
I’m sending them an email, though I doubt that will do anything. Do not bother with the game, and if you have, avoid updating it.

Update: Apparently a follow up patch has been released removing ads for those who had paid for the application prior, or bought episodes. Those of us who got the game during the “two day” Christmas promotion however, are still stuck with the fucking advertisements.

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Evil Dead Remake, sans chin?!

by ZombieSkittles on January 5, 2012

I love Reddit, because it has taught me a lot of useless things I’d be no worse off not knowing. Like just then, I learned Mark Zuckerburg is red-green colour blind. I didn’t necessarily need to know that, but now I do I feel just that little bit smarter.

Reddit also reveals things that are actually relevant to my interests. For example, did you know the new Evil Dead movie in pre-production will have a…female…lead?

The resemblance is non-existent.

I’m not sure how I feel about that, honestly. Whenever Evil Dead is mentioned, I think of the chin in all it’s glory. Finding out that the remake’s replacement for the character Ash Williams is a pretty-girl called Mia confuses me as to the direction of the movie. I can’t see them recreating the original trilogy, so I assume it’s going to be a serious stand-alone. At least, I hope it’s a stand-alone. The only other option is a series of movies loosely based on the original series, but I don’t want to think about that.

I know I’ll still go and see the movie when it’s released, but I must admit, I’m a little nervous at this announcement.

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I want to love you Windows Phone 7

by ZombieSkittles on December 1, 2011

I really do, but you’re missing some things. Just a couple, but enough to sadden me deeply in the pants. I’ve listed some things that have bugged me before, but here are a few others that have cropped up and become really apparent to me lately.

GOOGLE, Y U NO PLUS?

There’s no native application for Google+ on Windows Phone 7 yet. The social network has been available to the public for a few months now, and has applications available for Android and iOS, but so far WP7 is very lacking in the Google+ front.
This wouldn’t be a problem if the mobile site looked decent, but it’s very bland and hard to navigate. I love using Google+, but this situation shits me.

In fact, GOOGLE Y U NO ANYTHING?

Focussing on Google still, I use most of their other services pretty heavily too. I use Google Docs when I need to write (I used it for NaNoWriMo this year), and I use Google Reader for almost all my online reading, and of course I have my GMail account.
When it comes to WP7, I’m able to sync my GMail account, and I can download and use an application specially made for Google Search. However, there are absolutely no other official applications for the company in the Marketplace. It’s ridiculous, and coincidentally these two points are the main things making me consider going back to android.

IT SURE WOULD BE NICE IF I COULD TAKE A SCREEN SHOT FOR THIS POST, WOULDN’T IT?

Unfortunately, that’s not possible. I would have taken one of the Google+ mobile site on my phone to display how ugly it is, but unfortunately Windows Phone 7 doesn’t have a simple way to take shots. Sure there are apparently long winded ways to do it, but honestly I just want a simple two button combination to do so, like both the iPhone and Android phones are capable of. This isn’t futuristic technology, it’s taking an image of the current screen.

Is this all really that much to ask for? I don’t think so. I’m giving the Windows Phone some more time before I give up, as I really do love the operating system, and it has a lot of pluses, which mostly outweigh the few negatives I listed above.

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The written word.

by ZombieSkittles on October 21, 2011

I’ve started writing in my journal again. I’ve been aiming to write in there regardless of if anything interesting happened that day, as a sort of exercise for myself, and just to record my life out of personal interest.

This along with my friend’s interest in calligraphy, has made me start thinking about something; how often do most of us write? When I say write, I don’t mean “writing” using a computer, as that’s typing. I also don’t mean when you grab a pen to scrawl down a quick reminder or a phone number. I’m talking about sitting down with a pen and paper and writing a page for any reason, whether it’s a letter to someone, for a journal, or even a draft for something that will get typed up later?

The more I think about it, the more it feels like it might be true, that handwritten articles and the act of handwriting itself is becoming a lot rarer. I remember in high school, I’d see the handwriting of many a classmate, and be absolutely appalled at their messy writing. I can only assume the teachers were as well, which is why it started being standard practice for essays and projects to be typed up and printed before being handed up. I mean, if the teacher can’t read it, how can he mark it?
At the same time though, how are people able to improve their writing skills when they’re taught to rely on the computer to make everything neat?

I’d love to see more people handwriting things. It would make me happy.

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Kindle ramblings

by ZombieSkittles on September 19, 2011

Well tomorrow marks my two year anniversary with my partner, but we decided to exchange presents early. I got her a really nice dress that looks amazing on her, and she got me possibly the greatest gift on the face of the Earth.

She got me an Amazon Kindle 3.

This is something I’ve wanted for ages. The want was amplified when my housemate himself got one, and I was able to hold it and check it out. The device itself is roughly the size of an A5 piece of paper, contains ~3GB for books (Which Amazon states will carry 3500 books) and yet is still freakishly light.
One fundamental difference the Kindle has in comparison with normal “Tablets” like the iPad is the screen; it’s designed in a way that it feels like I’m reading actual paper. There’s no glare, and everything is really clear and easy to read.
Furthermore, unlike the iPad, this device’s charge apparently lasts for two months. Amazing. Why can’t we have this for our phones and other battery powered devices? I hate having to charge things every night.

Reading and turning pages is easy, as the direction buttons on either side of the device are in the perfect position. One clever feature is if there’s a word I don’t know, I can highlight it and the Kindle will access it’s dictionary and tell me the definition of the word.

The thing that truly excites me about the Kindle is the same thing that I love about Steam; I’m sick of paying exorbitant prices for books. If I go to buy a hard copy of a book from my local brick and mortar book store I can be looking at paying anywhere from twenty to fifty dollars for it. On the Kindle Store however, popular titles are rarely over ten. Additionally, there are plenty of self published titles available on the Kindle ranging from prices of five dollars, to as low as one dollar, or even completely free. Why would I want to buy a book from Borders when I could get multiple times as many and most likely pay less altogether? That’s a rhetorical question, don’t answer it.

I’d been looking for something to get me back into reading again, and this little splendid piece of technology appears to have done the trick. I love it.

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HTC Mozart with Windows Phone 7

by ZombieSkittles on September 19, 2011

For a couple of weeks I have had a new phone. I knew for a little while that yes, the Samsung Galaxy S was good, but I wanted a new phone for various reason. Fate shined on me, and a HTC Mozart fell into my lap.
What surprises me is that, as the title of this post suggests, instead of an Android phone, this particular model uses Windows Phone 7 for it’s operating system. What surprises me even more, is that I fucking love it.

First, why I think it’s awesome, and why I needed to change phone.

It doesn’t crash. The one thing above all else that constantly frustrated me in regards to my Galaxy S was that the applications kept crashing. I’m not sure if that is specific to the phone model or if all Android users have this problem, but the official Facebook app, Runkeeper and sometimes even native apps like the Text Message stuff would freeze on me. I end up having to either “Force Close” them, or pull my battery out to force the phone to reset.
With my Mozart, I have had absolutely no problems. The Facebook application runs perfectly, as does every other application I’ve installed.
The presentation is different, and that’s nice. Ever since my iPhone 3G, I’ve gotten used to the idea of having a grid full of icons leading to all the various applications I have installed. Android phones are no different in this regards, but it’s nice to see that Microsoft weren’t afraid to change things up just a little, if not drastically.
The home screen –as you can see in the stock image I found in Google Images- features big clear square buttons in two columns. You can scroll down for more icons, and if you scroll to the left you get a list of everything installed on your phone. It’s simple, elegant, and easy to customize.
Applications all have a very simple and elegant style, unifying them and making them very easy to navigate and use.
Easy social networking integration. It may not include Twitter until the next version, but the phone features the ability to not only sync with my Google account and get all my phone contacts that way, but it links with my Facebook account, and adds all those people to my contacts as well. I can go into the People application (The equivalent of a Contacts app), see the latest things posted on Facebook, and in my contacts I can not only select to call or message someone, but post to their Facebook instantly, view their website, etc. It’s nice having a central hub like that natively.
Xbox Live. You can download free and dollar games from the Marketplace much the same as on Android and iOS device, and play them to your hearts desire, but what I feel separates the Windows Phone 7 from the other two is the implementation of an existing gaming service.
The phone’s Xbox Live links up with your normal Live account, complete with avatar and achievements. You can buy and download mobile games including Plants vs Zombies and Geo Defence, and play them on the go, unlocking achievements and the like.
I love my dollar games, but this feels…better, somehow.
What looks like a really fun development platform. I’m not the most adept when it comes to design and programming, but Microsoft have tried to ensure that you don’t need to be. Their system features drag and drop interfacing, preview images and everything to try and be as easy to use as possible. It is really inviting and I’m slowly learning how to use it myself.

That being said, there are a few things I’m not a fan of.

The first of these things is a lack of applications. Yes, all the great ones everyone uses are here including Foursquare, Twitter, Facebook and Angry Birds. However, the range is nothing compared to that of it’s sister systems Android and iOS. Looking for an application to help me organize my work roster turned up squat.
While popular things like Facebook are present, there is no application for Google Plus, nor any other Google products besides Search.
I’m forced to use Internet Explorer. It’s not the worst browser on the block, but it’s still a pain. The fact that I can’t seem to access the address bar when the phone is in landscape mode is particularly annoying. I wouldn’t mind being able to download a mobile version of Google Chrome or even Opera, but that looks to never happen.
The Twitter application is missing a few simple things. It’s the official application, and it’s coincidently the only option in the store. Besides not keeping me on the last read tweet (So if I leave it for a while I end up scrolling and scrolling and scrolling to get to the oldest new tweet), it doesn’t have push notifications or anything in the app to inform me of new mentions or messages. I don’t know I have them until I go to the tab they’re under. Additionally, mentions in the normal timeline don’t have anything to differentiate them from normal tweets, meaning sometimes I miss them.
These are things almost all other Twitter clients in the other platforms have, so why can’t this one? At the very least I’d like to see alternative applications.

If I had of ended up with a Samsung Galaxy S2 or some other new Android phone, I don’t think I’d of minded. However, I’m really amazed and enjoying how good this platform is, and when I get my head around the development kit, I’m going to try making one or two applications for it.

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Your zodiac/horoscope and if you think it fits your personality.

by ZombieSkittles on May 28, 2011

This entry is part 16 of 29 in the series Tumblr 30 Day Challenge

I’ve always been a bit iffy in regards to horoscopes; the idea that I am built around the time I am born and not the life I live or choices I make seems absurd. I have had an extremely passive interest in my horoscope since forever, now and again looking in the newspaper to see what they think life has in store for me. It’s always the same sort of thing though:

Things will happen or maybe they won’t and these will or will not invoke a feeling within you. You will maybe achieve something and money is used to buy things. You will also find true love one day. Or not.
You may be stubborn, or you might be extremely flexible in your position regarding something.

Above: Every horoscope ever.

As you go through your day you will almost always find a way to fit the horoscope around the events of your day. “Oh wow, money is used to buy things. I feel so enlightened.” you’ll say, and suddenly the entire world has condemned you. By the entire world I mean me, because seriously, if you believe a paragraph in the newspaper that changes every day yet says the same things to be something to live your life by, I worry about you.

That all being said, naturally I don’t really think horoscopes fit me. I do however, feel proud to call myself an Aries.

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How important you think education is.

by ZombieSkittles on May 20, 2011

This entry is part 10 of 29 in the series Tumblr 30 Day Challenge

It’s damn important.

Where would you be without doctors who knew what they were doing? What if you couldn’t read and this blog post was just a bunch of shapes to you? That last one in particular is the most terrible for me, as I like the idea that there may be someone out there who reads my ramblings.

I don’t know what to really say about this subject. Of course education is one of the most important things we have because without it, we would be unable to sustain our culture. What separates us from everything else apart from everything else is our ability to be rational and not give in to instinct. We’ve evolved over the years to be able to do amazing things, and it is only through sharing common knowledge of maths, science, language, and so on that we have been able to do them.

Without education, it would be a very different world, and this blog wouldn’t exist. That makes me sad.

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Your views on mainstream music.

by ZombieSkittles on May 17, 2011

This entry is part 7 of 29 in the series Tumblr 30 Day Challenge

How do you classify what is mainstream? More importantly, how do you discern that from what is not mainstream?

Mainstream, as far as I’m aware, means things available to the public through common channels involving commercial bodies, such as games being sold through big publishers, and the like.

My problem is, how can you apply such a big generalized label to something, then judge it as such? It is easy for me to say “R n’ B music is not for me,” or, “Jesus this Death Metal music is ridiculous, I don’t even understand what the fuck they’re saying. Are they just growling?”. However, mainstream isn’t a genre. Mainstream music could be any genre and can involve any theme. With that in mind, how the hell could someone just ask about your views on mainstream music and expect a simple reply?

Here’s my view; this fucking subject is dumb. Mainstream music can be good, it can be bad. The same way as anything not mainstream (Indie?) can also be shit. Musical taste is subjective, and mainstream is a stupid label to judge something on.

Next question.

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Something you feel strongly about

by ZombieSkittles on May 13, 2011

This entry is part 3 of 29 in the series Tumblr 30 Day Challenge

This is hard for me to say. I’m a stubborn person, but unfortunately I cannot think about anything I would consider myself passionate about. I’m pro-choice, for gay marriage, all those things, but I would in no way say I feel strongly about them. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, it’s when they force that view upon others and don’t take “I believe something else” as an answer that I get pissed off.

I guess as such, if I had to say I felt strongly about anything, it’s that people should be let live their lives as they want. It’s their life, not yours, so why worry yourself with what they choose to do with it?
All these people who fight other people’s views, from anti-abortionists to Christians hating on Atheists (and vice versa god damn it. We’re both as intolerant as the other.), I hate the whole thing. We all think differently, but in these cases there is no wrong or right answer. So what the fuck are you fighting about?

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