Cold Caller Games #1: Hello? Hello?

At work, I get a lot of phonecalls from those recorded messages offering me cheap mortgages, help with my debts, free international calls, discounts on badger feed and that sort of thing. You know the ones – you pick up the phone and say hello, then after a couple of seconds a recording kicks in explaining the offer then asking you to press a number. Of course, on my own phone I’d hang up before they even explained who they …

From the dawn of time: ugvm 02

Here’s another issue of everyone’s favourite free downloadable gaming magazine that no longer exists! [issuu layout=http%3A%2F%2Fskin.issuu.com%2Fv%2Flight%2Flayout.xml showflipbtn=true documentid=090519132541-2a1dabd8f46745198e1c2a6696c73c93 docname=ugvm02 username=deKay loadinginfotext=ugvm%20Issue%2002 width=420 height=297 unit=px]

Ace Attorney: Apollo Justice (DS)

I’ve had this for aaaaages, but haven’t played it. Then I forgot I had it. Then, this week, I was looking for something I could play for reasonably short bursts on my DS and I stumbled across it on my shelf. Game get! And, it’s more of the same. Only different. Sort of. The first trial is more tutorial than anything else, but it has some Phoenix Wright backstory, introduces Apollo, and implicates his mentor. So, quite a bit in …

From the dawn of time: ugvm 01

Remember that magazine I used to edit? Years and years ago? Of course you don’t. You probably weren’t born then. Well, using the great online service Issuu, I’ve brought them back from the dead! There aren’t any new issues, but you can “enjoy” reading all the old ones again, and shed a little tear for the time when we were at the forefront of online gaming magazine technology. Or something. Behold: Issue 01! [issuu layout=http%3A%2F%2Fskin.issuu.com%2Fv%2Flight%2Flayout.xml showflipbtn=true documentid=090519132449-5014c4483b584e24a4c4bfca9d657be2 docname=ugvm01 username=deKay loadinginfotext=ugvm%20Issue%2001 …

When did Google break?

Over the last few weeks I’ve been becoming more and more frustrated with Google’s search. It’s only really one complaint, but it’s a pain. In the olden days, when you searched for words that Google thought you may have misspelt, Google would provide all the matches for what you typed in with, additionally, a link to a search for Google’s spelling correction. That is to say, if I searched for the word ‘stuipd’, it would show me all the matches …

Animal Crossing (Wii)

My wife bought me this for my birthday yesterday. Doesn’t she realise I lost three months of my like to the Gamecube version, and a whole year to the DS one? Surely that means I’ll be old and dead before the Wii iteration relents? Anyway, I moved in, met everyone, got my mortgage, went to the city, watched Dr. Shrunk, and entered myself into the fishing competition. As I left it, I was winning with a Black Bass of 27 …

My 360 RIP, part VI

In an unwanted return to the “My 360 RIP” series, my lovely 360 Elite has just died, with the E74 one-red-light error. Bah. It seems this error is covered for repair even though my warranty expired only a few days ago, so I’ve sent off a repair request to Microsoft. Watch this space!

Wolfram Alpha: talking nonsense since some time this morning

Today, the new search engine come encyclopaedia come scientific calculator Wolfram Alpha became available to the public. Sadly, virtually everything I’ve asked it so far has come up with “Wolfram Alpha isn’t sure what to do with your input”. In one case, though, it managed a nice diagram: The question I asked was “Who is the richest?”. I don’t know what to make of the answer. You can try it for yourself here.

Domain name renewal scam

I got another one of those read-it-or-fall-for-it domain name expiry scam at work emails today. Like the last one, it relies on you panicking when you read it and think your company’s domain name is due to expire – today – and you hurriedly send off your pennies to this company in order to keep your site running. Of course, that isn’t what’s happening. This company are actually selling you a search engine submission subscription. Something which is pretty useless …