Stuff On My Cat

Stuff On My Cat. It's like pictures of cats with like, stuff on them.

Spore - Best game in the world ever?

Spore is a new game like: Populus, Sim City, Civilisation, ECO (the old Atari ST game), all rolled into one freakin' awesome game. It's due out Q4 2006.

It starts with you creating your own life form at a microscopic level, and it evolving into a creature you control (like ECO), then you control a tribe of your creatures (like Populus), then you build a city (like Sim City), then you conquer other peoples (like Civ), and then you travel space setting up other planets and civilisations...

There's a long (35minute) walk through of every single mode in the game on Google video here from 2005 - it's definitely worth watching. For more recent videos see the links on the right to see how the graphics and interface have improved.

Is it a Mac or a light sabre?

Court rejects Apple bid to bust blogs - Engadget

Court rejects Apple bid to bust blogs - Engadget: "a California appeals court decided against Apple today in the company's bid to force bloggers to turn over sources who leaked information about the Apple product codenamed 'Asteroid' way in 2004 (remember that?). This follows an earlier ruling where the trial judge sided with Apple, after which the EFF intervened and appealed the case. Apple had argued that the websites in question, PowerPage and Apple Insider, were not entitled to the same rights as traditional journalists -- and even if they were, they still didn't have the right to protect sources who leaked trade secrets. But the appeals court roundly rejected both notions as contrary to California's reporter's shield law and the state Constitution, effectively stating that it wasn't Apple's place to decide what constitutes 'legitimate journalism,' and that Apple could have investigated the leak of trade secrets themselves without drawing the websites into the mix."

favourite comment about the above: "Apple now think that they're so special that we're all dying for leaked info.. Sorry to say but Apple is soooo insignificant in the PC market it's not even funny and the whole ipod craze will be a short-lived fad as mobile phones start having Gigs of memory.

They should be happy that we even bother."

Not related to the article above, but related in that it's apple related: Steve Jobs says: "Buy a new ipod every year" link.

PC World test the new black MacBook - pictured above - the comments are funny. Someone points out: (paraphrased) Why should we have to pay a premium for a black coloured laptop that looks just like a PC laptop?

Google coming to a Dell near you...

BBC News - Google have outbid Microsoft in order to win a deal to put the Google software and homepage on Dell computers... apparently the deal could have cost google billions of dollars. Good news for anyone who buys Dell, in my opinion, Google is the lesser of two evils when it comes to software and homepages. I'd much rather see a google page instead of MSNs site. Both Dell and Google can make money out of the deal - most likely through google ads - apparently this made firefox a load of money when people used the firefox google homepage search.

Happy Friday Everybody!

"There was a moment, as George Bush watched Tony Blair fielding questions on Iraq, when the president's eyes actually seemed to be shining with affection and respect. Of course, it may have been a trick of the harsh television lights." awww...

Windows Vista? Is it pants? How pants?

"Windows Vista Starter - Because of the unprecedented pirating of Microsoft Windows, this low priced version offers a legal alternative to using unauthorized copies. It will be severely limited, for example only allowing a user to launch at most, three applications with a user interface at once, will not accept incoming network connections, and physical memory is limited to 256 MB." From here.

Double-U-Tee-efff? In the words of Ali G: What the Chuff is that? (in reference to a wildebeast) Okay, I can accept that someone may only wish to use a couple of programs, say Email, Internet and Word maybe, although that would be majorly annoying, "sorry you can't open your mp3 playing software, because you already have too many programs open", but limiting phsical memory to 256mb? are they [microsoft] the most retarded company in the world? do they wish to make every computer in the world into the slowest thing ever?

And Windows Vista Beta 2 Sucks - I'm thinking that we need a pants rating like for example, seriously sucky, worst thing ever, would be a pants rating of 10, and a pants rating of 1 would be "this product is somewhat pants". 5 would be "this product is pure pants".

We're having a baby!

Here they are pictured with a digital camera. Click to make bigger. Baby name suggestions welcomed.

New MacBook

Available in black or white. Seems to replace the ibook. Link. 13" widescreen, dual core. From $1099/£749 (roughly more than double a basic (single core) Dell Inspiron 1300 from £349).

Apple Clones are Back

Dodgy ones made out of Pentium 4s and an Intel version of OS X. With fresh fun names: PowerPC G6 Macintosh and Apple G6 Macintosh-Clone Computer.

Guy Kewney interview

Oh wow. This is just the best tv. ever. The BBC interviewed someone who they thought was Guy Kewney, only it was "Guy Goma", a Business Studies graduate, in reception because he was applying for a high level IT job with the BBC - when a studio manager mistook him for the expert. He answers all the questions - he assumed the whole thing was some kind of initiation prank.
Anyway, head over to the bbc website and you can watch the video in realplayer or wmp.

wanted: sheep

Aparently the best thing for keeping grass short would be sheep. link.
Quote: It currently costs about £2,000 and takes up to 180 hours to cut the grass at the tidal barrage on the River Ouse.
By my powers of deduction the people that cut the grass are paid over ten pounds an hour before tax. I expect the farmer will not be paid so well for supplying sheep.

Skype is great skype is fab. It lets you talk to your mates on the internet for free. You can do video calls too if you've got a webcam. joshwa 429 is my username if you wanna look me up.

this post sponsored by youtube.

cool beatbox dude. avi file, right click, save target as, or alternatively watch it on you tube. really pleasing to watch with all the facial expressions. and have you seen the pokemon music video (10 million views) - it's very funny. did you know youtube spend about $1 million a month on bandwidth? great video showing the evolution of dance - features mc hammer, and big butts :)

random links disease

voices. carol vorderman is bad. mac dude gets enough donations, and buys his mac - it only took him 2 days less than a month!

Another independant Computer Manufacturer Dies

Silicon Graphics have filed for bankruptcy. I guess it's because people can do graphics on Windows / Linux generic boxes these days.

Pentax *ist DL Digital SLR Review

Matthew Waller has written a review of the Pentax *ist DL Digital SLR at DigiCamReview - the 6 megapixel digital SLR is one of the cheapest available, available for around £400 with kit lens. The Pentax is one of the smallest digital SLRs available, and has some of the smallest lenses available, including a pancake 40mm (~61mm equivalent) lens. With Digital SLRs available for around £400 - can you see yourself buying one in the near future? Or does the price, and size put you off?

Seti at Home Enhanced! What? Where? When? Why?

Official Details. What? - Key facts: Takes more processing power, ie work takes longer to do, as it is processing more data. "Credit" is calcuated differently based on "actual number of floating point operations done". Optimised versions will be available as it's all open source, BUT they aren't available yet. When? - the data / program will be dished out automatically. Why? - the eternal search for nothingness in space continues...

Where? - Post sponsored by: Waller Seti Effort (official stats), Onestupid Seti page, Joshwaller.co.uk Seti Benchmarks.

Acorn Computers to be reborn as laptop maker - Engadget

Acorn Computers to be reborn as laptop maker - Engadget - Four laptops from 12" to 17". Probably just rebadged, as per nearly every other laptop in the world, but cool name for Acorn fans.

Apple MacBook Pro Bad

Apple put too much thermal paste on, and now want to sue websites who provide evidence - whats worrying are the official instructions actually state to use a whole tube of thermal paste per cpu! Apple have faulty batteries as well. So there. ;)

Sell your old phone for money... (plus more thrifty-ness)

Martin's Money Tips tells you how to sell your old mobile phone for maximum profit.

Need an old/cheap/free computer? Build your own out of wood.