For those of you who've arrived hoping for the latest tips for growing good gear, I'm sorry to disappoint you but this post is about growing pipe-weed in the new Lord of the Rings Online game. It's a tale of illicit riches, scientific progress and discovery, hopes dashed and even a change in the laws of physics themselves! Well, biology, but somehow changing the laws of physics sounds more impressive (if no more epic as far as life on this planet goes...).
As always, please don't turn away just because I mentioned a computer game: the article is intended for a general audience, and will keep geekery down to a quaint and endearing level*. Besides, you made it this far...
* I wish.
As always, please don't turn away just because I mentioned a computer game: the article is intended for a general audience, and will keep geekery down to a quaint and endearing level*. Besides, you made it this far...
* I wish.
Via Matt, another wonderful web gadget: Websites as Graphs. Take a look at the following (it devolves into Geek-fu to some extent after the break).
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Yesterday, our sister-company's MD dropped by with a question. He wants to make his website sound good, and he was wondering whether quoting hits rather than visits was reasonable. I thought a little, looked a couple of things up, and decided that provided he doesn't describe them as anything else, quoting hits was fair; anyone with any right to be judging would know how poor an indicator that was, and ask for something else (at which point they'd be suspicious of the fact that he's too embarrassed to give figures for page views and sessions, even though he clearly has them).
When I first posted this it was called Wii, and contained only the first bullet. Since then I realised I wanted to ask for recommendations for a couple of other things, so I've cut&shut it.
- I have given in and ordered a Wii from one of the local game stores; should be with me in a week or so. Anyone want to recommend any games?
- Hoping to get a digital camera fairly soon (certainly before Better Half's sister's wedding in a few months). Currently the choice is between spending about £70 on one like the Better Half's, £100 or £130 on the same with progressively more pixels, or putting it off a while and saving ~£190 for similar with lots of pixels and more zoom. Also intrigued by things like RAW (forget who was talking about that, might have been Lyle). SD cards are preferable, for interchangeability with Better Half's camera and the Wii.
- Finally, I was wondering what MP3 players people recommend now. I'm after something fairly cheap - flash memory rather than HDD - but I can never tell from sales specifications which ones would have a decent interface and decent interpretation of ID3 tags, etc. Mind you, on the super-cheap end a quick trip to Google has revealed such delights as this SD card MP3 player, which might be enough since my normal requirement is to throw a few albums on shuffle anyway.
With my car being fixed (having a dent pulled and maybe some respraying; it's the damage that was caused before I went on holiday by the guy who liked to reverse blind) I have a courtesy car. A few people - unlikely to read this - will know what I mean when I say it's a Hire Car.
It's diesel. This makes it sound much like a two-tonne van. It's fairly powerful, but in a completely different range of engine speed to my normal car: as best as I can tell you cannot rush in pulling away, because the power simply isn't there until you get to 20mph.
Last time I had the wrong car like this, it took me two weeks to admit that maybe it wasn't gutless, just not as energetic as I was used to. Hopefully I won't be lumbered with this one for that long.
Update: It's not the revs: there's a substantial time delay between the pedal going down and the power arriving. I suppose it could be a mechanical issue (heavy flywheels or somesuch) but if feels more like it's not a mechanical link, which is new to me.
It's diesel. This makes it sound much like a two-tonne van. It's fairly powerful, but in a completely different range of engine speed to my normal car: as best as I can tell you cannot rush in pulling away, because the power simply isn't there until you get to 20mph.
Last time I had the wrong car like this, it took me two weeks to admit that maybe it wasn't gutless, just not as energetic as I was used to. Hopefully I won't be lumbered with this one for that long.
Update: It's not the revs: there's a substantial time delay between the pedal going down and the power arriving. I suppose it could be a mechanical issue (heavy flywheels or somesuch) but if feels more like it's not a mechanical link, which is new to me.
...falls mainly on my holiday. Apparently they needed it though; some were saying it's the first time that area had rain since December, and before that it was May. Mainly it just showed me how bad a certain tragic tourist resort on the east coast is at coping with rain.
Anyway, I'm back now, so there'll be more later. With any luck I can get copies of the photos from my girlfriend's camera (I need to get me another of those some day; mine is rubbish), and I should be able to find a few interesting things to say.
Anyway, I'm back now, so there'll be more later. With any luck I can get copies of the photos from my girlfriend's camera (I need to get me another of those some day; mine is rubbish), and I should be able to find a few interesting things to say.
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