Before I’d even heard of Tron, or seen another one of the 8962398146238 game clones of the Tron Light Cycle sequence, I had this – Light Cycle (Light Cycles on the title screen, for some reason) by PSS.

It was awesome. Looking back now, it looks basic even by Spectrum standards, but the gameplay is still there. I also don’t remember any other variant having the little “blips” around the edges, making edge-hugging impossible but opening up more chances to make the other player crash.

The emulator used is Qaop.

OK, so I managed 200 miles in the first month, then took 3.5 times that long to go just 1.5 times that far, but bear with me and my excuses. Firstly, I have tried to go out – honest. Nearly every week I’ve at least gone out a few times, although the glory days of a daily ride are long gone. However, I have generally been cycling further and faster when I have been out, so that makes up for it a bit.

The problems I’ve had include the weather (in particular, half of February was dreadful), my bike (the rear axle snapped, so I was without it a week while it was repaired) and two bouts of illness (including a lengthy spell of labyrinthitis – which wasn’t nice). However, where I couldn’t get out and it was practical, I did hit the exercise bike instead. Sure, it’s not the same, and I opted to not let the mileage from that count towards my goal, but had I done so then I could add another 120 or so miles to that 500, making it around 120 miles a month rather than 85-ish.

Anyway! Excuses are excuses.

Some good news: the weather is (generally) improving now, so I’m getting out a bit more often again. As I said, I’m also riding further – in January I’d usually go 4-5 miles a day, now it’s 8-10. I’ve also cycled 12 and 15 miles a few more times, and last Saturday I really went for it and managed 25.7. I was very pleased with myself. My general fitness has really improved too, with my “recovery time” after a ride now being virtually nil, and I’m able to maintain average speeds of 13.5mph+ rather than 11.5/12. Yes, it’s still not fast, but these are comfortable rides, not races. I’m also coping much better with hills.

Finally, there’s the fact that this Sunday I’m doing a charity cycle ride. It’s 19 miles, and even though I did 25 last weekend, I’m still not sure it’s going to be easy. Not least because the forecast is wind and rain, but also because I suspect the 25 miles one was a bit of a fluke. We’ll see!

In terms of “spending” my miles, I’m doing well. As in, I’ve only spent half of them. At the time of writing this means I have £250 in the cycle bank for my Wii U, if it comes out this year. Unfortunately, my Xbox 360 is slowly dying a painful death so I might need a new one of them sooner than that!

You'd think that having 32GB of RAM on your PC would be enough to run Chrome and iTunes, right? Apparently not.

Posted via email from deKay’s posterous

It is, of course, completely broken. Like everything else on xbox.com, whenever I’m asked anything about what I use my Xbox for, I’m careful to point out “Games”. And nothing else. No films, TV, music, social networking, chicken farming or strategic planning. Or Kinect.

So I answered with:

Which gave me this profile:

Um. Right.

(I’ve removed the picture because it had kids in it).

However, the system is locked so that only people on the work domain, with work email addresses (lets say, @work.com) can email it. This was intentional, so it didn’t pick up spam and so staff didn’t email it from their home email accounts and so on. If this is the setup you’d want for a user (that is, so they can only receive ”internal” email), it’s simple enough to configure:

In the Exchange Management Console, navigate to Recipient Configuration > Mailbox, and open the properties of the mailbox user you want to set up. In the Mail Flow Settings tab, choose Message Delivery Restrictions, and tick “Require that all senders are authenticated.”.

If, however, like us, this user needs to also receive email from an external email address, or domain, then you need to change something else. Make sure the above tickbox isn’t ticked, and then:

Navigate to Organisation Configuration > Hub Transport and choose the Transport Rules tab. Create a new Transport Rule here.

Work through the wizard, with these settings:

In Conditions, choose “sent to people”, and add the email address of the user you want to configure.

In Actions, choose “Delete the message without notifying anyone”. Panic not, we’ll add some exceptions in the next step.

In Exceptions, choose “Except when the message header matches text patterns”, and edit it so that “except when the FROM matches @work.com$ or @externaldomain.com$”. Change @work.com$ to your local domain, and @externaldomain.com$ to the external domain you want to accept email from. Of course, you can just specify a single address (e.g. johnsmith@externaldomain.com$) if you like, as well as add more than just these two addresses if necessary. The “$” is important, as without it, “@externaldomain.com.uk”, and similar, would also match and be allowed.

Note: You can’t use the “Except when the from address matches text patterns” for this rule, as the From Address, in local Exchange communications, doesn’t contain an email address.

That’s it! Save the rule and test it by emailing the user from both allowed and denied email addresses.

However, I have now found my new Mac laptop is pretty decent at playing PC games, and, with a HDMI connector and an Xbox controller, I can play it on the TV sat on the sofa, with a joypad.

Then I saw Batman: Arkham City for £11.60 for the PC. And I bought it. Here is a chronicle of the events that followed. Disclaimer: I have rubbish broadband, which didn’t really help matters.

On Wednesday, I installed Origin (which was a 10 minute download) and bought Batman. I set it to download. 70+ hours later (constantly!), on Saturday morning, it was done, so I excitedly ran it. Up popped a message from Games for Windows Live saying I needed to sign in. So I did. Then it spent over an hour downloading my Live profile. Then it told me an update for Games for Windows Live was necessary, so I set it to download.

It finished downloading about 20 hours later, on Sunday morning. At no point did it tell me how much it needed to download, so I had no idea how long it was going to take. Once the update had installed, I then had to sign in again, and it decided to download my profile again. It “only” took about 20 minutes that time.

Finally! I can play Batman, right?

No. There was another update – this time for the game itself. So I left that to download and install. And, at 9pm, eventually, I could play the game. Just 100-odd hours after I bought it. Hurrah for digital copies and their super-fast delivery mechanisms! Saved me the minutes I’d need to buy it from Asda, at least. Oh, wait.

Sure. My connection is rubbish, and yeah, this is just one game, but I’m wishing I’d bought the 360 version instead. In fact, I still might. I’m not sure slightly shinier graphics is really worth the hassle.

As a related comment to this, I have tried Steam too. I quite like Steam, for what it is, but when you forget to update your games for offline play, then try to play offline (as I have to because my connection is so rubbish Steam keeps detecting I don’t have one) – you can’t. Which is more than a pain.

At least I’ve not had to fiddle with graphics drivers and controller configs (Batman just switches to Xbox Controller Mode, which is nice) yet. I did have to turn the virus killer (Microsoft Security Essentials) off though, as 20 minutes into the game the framerate dropped to nothing as a scheduled scan kicked in…

Kid Icarus: Uprising brings the action and adventure of the beloved series to new heights – and new visual dimensions – on the Nintendo 3DS system.

5. escapeVektor (Wii)

Criminally overlooked, this WiiWare gem is a fantastic Painter-type arcade game. I played it from start to finish in almost a single sitting, and although it’s pretty short, it was excellent fun with a perfect difficulty curve. There’s a 3DS port/update/sequel coming, and I’m really looking forward to it!

4. Red Dead Redemption (360)

GTA with horses. That might sound like I’m putting it down, but in fact, I’m praising it. And, somehow, Rockstar managed to make a world which is 99% wilderness interesting and varied. It’s not without problems  - not least the controls, which is a hanger-on issue from GTA – but it’s a great game with a great story. Yes, even the bit right near the end where the MASSIVE SPOILER. And horses.

3. Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars (3DS)

In the run up to the 3DS release, when I still wasn’t sure if I was going to get one or not, I pretty much ignored launch title Shadow Wars because it had yawn-snore-tedious-soldier-game-klaxon-trigger “Ghost Recon” in the title. Then I found it was, in fact, a turn based strategy game from the creator of X-Com. Just like that, my thoughts went from “meh, whatever” to “OMGNEED”, and with my 3DS in my hands (I’m weak) it was swiftly bought. It’s still my most played 3DS game too!

2. Mario Kart 7 (3DS)

The best Mario Kart. I think that’s all that needs to be said, yes?

1. Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood (360)

It was just a chance lull that caused me to pick up Assassin’s Creed II at some point last year. I’d picked it up cheap a while before, but never really thought about actually playing it as although I’d mostly enjoyed the original game, I wasn’t impressed enough to leap on the sequel. I’m glad I did – it turned out to be one of the best games I played all year. So impressed was I, that I desperately needed to carry on with the story, so grabbed Brotherhood. Which was even better.

At first, I wasn’t so sure though. It was too different from ACII. There was only (really) one city. I didn’t like that I’d been “nerfed” and had to regain most of my weapons and skills, although I did like how they achieved that in-game. I didn’t like having to train assassins and send them on missions. And I didn’t like having to buy all the houses and buildings.

Then, of course, everything changed as I played and I started loving those things. Getting to OCD levels with them. Spending longer collecting things and buying things and managing my assassins than actually playing the game. And it was all glorious.

And the rest:

Just a quick mention of some of the other great games I played in 2011. First off, the 5 Back to the Future episodes on PSN. Despite struggling with the controls (partly because of the PS3 pad, partly because they’re just awkward in the game anyway), the story was brilliant and the puzzles better than those in other Telltale games, like Tales from Monkey Island and Strongbad. I’d be more than happy if they turned the story from these 5 episodes into a second BTTF film trilogy, actually.

Pullblox was a surprise bit of downloaded awesomeness for the 3DS. A clever puzzle game with a billion levels and a level designer (which you can swap levels with others via QR code), and, most importantly, Super Happy Fun Blue Skies. Yay!

Then there’s another game that needs a mention, but shouldn’t really appear in the top 5 even though it’s probably better than anything else I played in 2011: Fallout New Vegas. I played through all the remaining DLC, and spent another 60-odd hours with it. I just couldn’t make it the best game of 2011 since I already made it the best game of 2010. Hmm.

This looks even better though! Apart from the voice acting. Not too sure about Lego games with voice acting yet…

Now that we have erased them from all of time, let us instead look at Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD – the second best thing that could ever happen(*). A remake of levels from THPS games, in HD. On XBLA. Yes.

NEED.

* The best thing would be a 3DS compilation of THPS1-4, but this’ll do for now.

Because he’s walking in the air. And in the wall.

Got this bug last night. It’s odd, as I didn’t get anything this bad in the previous two AC games.

The Sonic Cycle wheel, of course. I will not be suckered again (you know I will) after the disappointment that was Sonic 4. And Sonic Colours. And two versions of Sonic Generations. I think that word pretty much sums up Sonic games these days – disappointment.

A single play of the Sonic 4 Episode 2 trailer already shows some obvious problems. Firstly, most importantly, and most obviously – Tails. Gnnh. Just kill him off already. Then there’s the “fixed physics”: Sega reported a while ago they were retuning the broken Episode 1 physics. Blatantly they have not. Just look at it – a mess.

One of the problems I had with Episode 1 was how most of the levels were made up of graphics from previous Sonic games, and it’s clear there’s more of the same here. Remember Aquatic Ruin? Sega are hoping you don’t. Looks like Marble Garden in there too.

In addition, why is Sonic still running through walls, destroying them with his face? Stupid. And homing attacks are still in. STOP IT.

Excitement level: blurrgh.

Not only that, but I’ve also forced myself to cycle every day so far this year. OK, so one of those days was on an exercise bike due to my inner tube literally EXPLODING and I didn’t have a spare, but still. And I didn’t even count those exercise bike miles in my total. I am, frankly, utterly amazed with myself.

In addition, my best time for 10 miles has dropped from a 52m16 to 44m02, I’ve increased my average ride in the week from 4 miles to almost 7 a day, and have managed my first 15 mile ride (on the 21st of January). I’m feeling much fitter for it as well, and my recovery time after most rides is now virtually nil. I’m even managing hills much more easily than previously, to the point where the gentler of inclines may as well be flat now.

I’m also signing up for a couple of organised rides later in the year – certainly something I never imagined myself doing! And last week, I bought wet lube. Really. For my chain, if you’re wondering.

Thing is, allowing other browsers on your network is fraught with technical support issues, especially if you use other systems that insist on only working properly in IE (like some Sharepoint stuff). You can’t rely on users to always use the right browser for the right task.

We had this problem recently, as we wanted to start using the excellent Codecademy but it blows raspberries at IE users and tells them to go away. My first thought was to install Chrome, but for the reasons already given (and the fact the more-easily-locked-down Portable Apps version doesn’t work from a network share) I didn’t really want to do that.

My next suggestion was Chrome Frame. It’s an extension for Internet Explorer which you can configure to replace the IE HTML renderer with, so although the web pages open in IE, they’re actually rendered by Chrome. This means that, to the user, there’s only one browser. Of course, it needs to be configured to only trigger Chrome’s renderer for those sites you need it for, rather than all sites, otherwise you may as well just replace IE with Chrome completely.

There are two issues here then – how to deploy Chrome Frame on a network, and how to configure it centrally to only trigger when needed.

Deploying Chrome Frame

Luckily, Google provide a useful MSI package of Chrome Frame here. You can roll this out in a group policy like other MSIs, or run it on each machine either manually or with a script. Unfortunately, it tries to update itself when you do so and invariably (if you’re in an internet-restricted environment like a school) will hang for ages then probably crash. You can stop this, however.

To do this, you’ll need an MSI property editor such as the free Orca (which you can find here) and open the Chrome Frame MSI in it. In the Tables column, choose Property, and then the right-hand pane right click and choose Add Row. Enter the Property field as NOGOOGLEUPDATEPING and the value as 1. Click OK and save the MSI. Now you can deploy it!

Configuring Chrome Frame

The best way of doing this is with a new group policy. Firstly, download the Google Chrome ADM/ADMX files from here (you want the Zip file, not the Mac stuff, obviously). If you’re using the ADMX files, you’ll need to copy them to %systemroot%\PolicyDefinitions before the group policy editor will see them. ADM files can just be opened as normal with “Add/Remove templates”.

These group policy files will actually let you configure all sorts of things for Chrome as well, but some of the settings are specific to Chrome Frame. In particular, you want to look at:

User > Configuration > Policies > Admin Templates > Google > Google Chrome > Default HTML renderer for Google Chrome Frame

The first setting, Default HTML renderer, determines whether web pages are rendered by the host browser (i.e. IE) or Chrome by default. For my purposes, I wanted IE to render except on certain pages, so chose Host.

The other settings are the exception sites to the above. Since I have Host as the default, I only need to configure the Always render in Chrome Frame options. You do this by providing URL patterns to match.

For example, I want all of Codecademy to render in Chrome Frame, so chose *.codecademy.com* as my pattern. See here for more pattern examples.

Remember to assign this new group policy to your users, and once Chrome Frame has rolled out, you should find your chosen sites now render in Chrome!

You can, of course, just swap your old card for your new one, but then any pictures you’ve taken and games you’ve downloaded and “extra data” and stuff won’t be on there unless you swap cards again. And we all know that swapping SD cards is the worst of all First World Problems.

Using this method, you can transfer everything from your old card onto your new card:

1. Mount your old card on your computer.
2. Create a folder on your computer and copy EVERYTHING from the card to it.
3. While it’s doing that, put your new card in your 3DS and turn the 3DS on. It’ll initialise the card for you.
4. When both these have finished, mount the new card in your computer.
5. Open the folder you made on your computer, and copy everything to the root of the new card. If you’re asked to overwrite folders, or merge folders, say “yes”.
6. When the copying has finished, you’re almost there. Next, on the new card, open the folder called “Nintendo 3DS”. Inside there will be folder with a huge string of letters and numbers for the name – open that.
7. Inside that folder will be two folders with long random names. One of these is the folder tied to your old card, the other is the one tied to your new card. Simply copy the contents (not the folder itself) of the old one (it’ll be the one with the larger filesize) into the other one – merging and overwriting again if necessary.
8. Put the new card back in your 3DS, reboot it if necessary, and you’re away!

However, despite all this, I took my “miles cycled to date this year” figure to just over 100 miles. That’s 103 miles in 17 days – and yes, I’ve managed a bike ride every day so far. I’m also way ahead of the target 17.5 miles a week, coming up to around 45 instead, which is way better than I could have imagined.

Of course, I’ve been pretty lucky with the weather up to now. Very little rain, and certainly no snow as yet. When that happens, I’m not going to be out on the bike for obvious reasons. At least I’m building up a decent bank of miles now, anyway.

There has been a physical effect on me for all this cycling. I expected it, but not so soon. My legs have… changed. My calves, and to a lesser extent my thighs, have become rock solid. There are muscles where muscles didn’t used to be. My recovery time (in terms of breath, rather than leg-ache) after a ride has now dropped to virtually nothing – even after cycling in the cold. And, of course, I’m finding it easier: I’m able to ride a bit faster, and am able to cover longer distances more frequently.

As an example, there’s a regular 4.7 mile route I take. Last year, it was taking me about 26 minutes to cover, and that was in the light and nice weather. I can now do that route and an extension to it (taking me up to about 6.3 miles) in the same time – in the dark, cold, and wind. If that’s not an improvement, I don’t know what is.

Yes, I’m only just over a couple of weeks in, there’s plenty of time for things to all go wrong, and I’m still a long way off “properly fast” and such, but I’m astounded on a daily basis of how much I’ve improved so quickly.

Oh yeah, and Super Mario 3DS Land was well worth 22 Miles

Sorry, not Mario Kart. Some other game that’s nothing like it.