Year: 2010

How not to apply for a job working for me

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I’ve been sifting through job applications for new IT technician this week. If you’re thinking of applying for a job in an IT technician role (or any role, in fact), please don’t follow some of my applicants by example by following these handy hints: Learn how to spell “Microsoft”. Don’t say you’re “an avid gamer” in your list of personal qualities, especially if it takes up half of your list. When you print out your application form, don’t include all …

Wonderful Microsoft Technical Support Fun

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Fairly recently, Microsoft added a “feature” to Live Mail (formerly Hotmail, remember that?). It’s a feed of all your “social” activity, called “Messenger Social”. I’m sure it’s lovely and all, but in a school where we block everything to do with Facebook and MySpace (remember that too?) and all other fun stuff like it, but still allow web-based email, it causes us a problem. How do we block just this bit of Live Mail? You’d expect that just filtering the …

Kinect is out today!

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Remember folks, if you’re getting Kinect today, don’t forget you need a warehouse to play it in, otherwise this might happen! Of course, this could be easily solved – just like Nintendo did with the Wii – by encasing the controllers in protective silicone. (video via @thebeamish)

Fallout: New Vegas (360)

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30 hours in now. This game just gets better and better. I expected it to be good, sure, but little did I know it’d actually be better than Fallout 3 was. There’s more variety, in both the quests and the way in which you complete them. There are fewer “shoot people” quests and more “do interesting things” quests. There are more memorable characters, even those who are incidental – Yes Man, Betsy, Keely, Old Ben, The King – all ace. …

NaNoWriMo 2010 #2

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Extract #2 James and Colin had known each other since primary school. Colin joined part way through the last year before “big school”, and due to an incident involving a hot glue gun and some toilet rolls on his first day he ended up in the medical room at the same time as James who was having another fake asthma attack caused by the onset of PE. They’d been friends, of varying closeness, ever since. They didn’t agree on everything, …

NaNoWriMo 2010

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Extract #1 The sky was dark. The sky was always dark, to some degree, but this time it was darker than usual. The clouds had returned, thicker and lower than they had previously. They’d come in from the south east, gathering above and seemingly lowering as they combined. They came in so slowly that nobody noticed the change, and besides, the darkness against the dark sky was hardly perceptible at the best of times. Nobody could remember when the sky …

Super Meat Boy (360)

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I’ve been waiting for this for ages, and if it wasn’t for New Vegas I’d have pounced on it the second it appeared on XBLA. As it is, I decided to play it last night instead of roam the Wasteland some more. In theory, it is fantastic. The graphic style is lovely, the funny touches (like the skit of the Street Fighter II opening sequence), and the blood OH THE GLORIOUS BLOOD everywhere are amazing. It’s a simple, difficult, precision …

Fallout: New Vegas (360)

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I’d not been this excited about a game’s release since Sonic 2 for the Megadrive was announced. I’ve been looking forward to it since it was announced two years ago. I’ve had it on pre-order for months. I even broke the £20 Rule to get the Special Edition. But was it worth it?  By hell, yes it was. At first glance, it seems to just been like an expansion pack for Fallout 3. It’s not, but even if it was, …

Let’s Play! Progress Bar Champion

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Since my last release was so well received, I thought I’d update it to make it even more realistic! The new version features a more accurate progress bar, which is not only green, but also pauses randomly for a random amount of time – for no reason! Just like the real Xbox 360 progress bar! Amazing. [swfobj src=”https://lofi-gaming.org.uk/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/Progress-Bar-Champion1.swf” alt=”<p>Progress Bar Champion needs Flash Player, fool!</p>” width=”400″ height=”140″ align=”center”]

Play Progress Bar Champion!

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I got so fed up with playing Progress Bar Champion on my Xbox 360, that I decided to write a version to inflict on everyone else. Have “fun”! [swfobj src=”https://lofi-gaming.org.uk/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/Progress-Bar-Champion.swf” width=”400″ height=”140″ align=”center”]