Category: Blog
The impending death of gaming
Yes, that’s an overstatement. Gaming is not going to die. It’s going to change, and if it changes how it looks like it’s going to, then it’ll be dead to me. Much of this concern stems from rumours (most of which have been rubbished), but where there is smoke, there is fire. Rumours come from ideas, and even if they’re not implemented now, or fully – someone, somewhere, thought they’d be a a good idea. Online only I don’t want my console …
Can’t upgrade Exchange 2010 – “The service cannot be started”
The time had come to install SP3 on Exchange 2010. Things hadn’t worked, with nothing useful in the logs, when I tried to apply all the SP2 update rollups, so I thought I’d skip them and go straight to Service Pack 3. I had a few odd issues to begin with: For some reason it thought I had Windows Update running. I didn’t. Then it got through the “readiness checks” but failed because “beremote” (Symantec Backup Exec was running – …
The 2012 Gaming Expenditure Horror
Unlike previous years, where I had a rule of not buying games if they cost more than a certain amount of money (£18, in 2011), in 2012 I followed the Pound-a-Mile Challenge – detailed here. This post is a roundup of where that money (and this year, miles) went. In all, I spent £834.48. Last year, it was £888.22, so I’ve spent 6% less on games and game related paraphernalia this year. Woo! 6%! Here’s the hardware/software split: Which is almost exactly …
The Pound-a-Mile Challenge 2012 – Final Scores
With 2012 at an end, and 2013 begun, it’s time to look back at how my cycling/game spending hybrid challenge went. Surprisingly well, as it turned out. My original plan was to cycle 900 miles in the year, to cover my expected game expenditure at a rate of one pound for every mile cycled. Hence the name “Pound-a-Mile”. I hit this early, and extended the target to 1000 miles, and then again to 1250. As of the 31st December, I’d …
Possible solution to Camptune X’s “repair disk” error
My Windows Bootcamp partition was getting a bit full, so I wanted to resize it. It seemed the easiest way of doing this was by using Camptune X, and, after solving the following problem, I think it was: Run app, use slider to resize OS X and Windows partitions, wait. That’s it. However, when I first ran it, it came up with an error – saying that my OS X partition was damaged and telling me to run a disk …
Let me tell you a story about a Wii U delivery
Twas a balmy day in September. The Wii U had been announced, and I’d been pedalling all year to afford it: one was ordered from Zavvi. Cries of “No! Not Zavvi! You’ll never get it on time!” abound. But a £75 saving, and therefore a 75 mile saving, was too good it miss. Although it nearly was missed. Read on! Everything went quiet. Nothing happened for weeks. After all, the release date wasn’t until November the 30th. I preordered Mario …
How to get rid of inaccessible extra mailboxes in Outlook 2010
It’s pretty common in an Exchange environment for users to have access to other users mailboxes. Permission can be given via the Exchange Management Console for users to access another mailbox from within Outlook (File > Open > Other User’s Folder), and, in theory, permission can be removed using the EMC as well. Unfortunately, even though permission is seemingly removed, it often leaves the now unnecessary mailbox in Outlook where it can’t be deleted, accessed, or even hidden from sight. …
Name that Tune
I’m not a piano player. I can barely read music. But in the process of testing Cubase today, I came up with this. Can you tell what it is yet? [audio:https://lofi-gaming.org.uk/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/untitled1.mp3] Answers on a postcard (or in the comments).
Eurogamer 2012
I haven’t been to a proper games show since, ooh, 2001? 2002? Whenever it was I went to ECTS, anyway. Ah, ECTS. Games show for people who like Gran Turismo 3 and steering wheels, and not much else. Good times. What did I think of the games? Well, a quick run through: New Super Mario Bros U (Wii U) Awesome. Going to be excellent playing this with my daughter on the screen. Sure, it’s mostly more of the same as …
Amazing eShop update this week!
Come on, Nintendo! Mole Mania? Where’s Sakura Samurai and The Denpa Men? httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7b6Twn7kr4
Pound-a-Mile Update
So, it’s time for an update, I think. How do you think things have gone? Well, a lot of things have happened. Most importantly, I bought a new bike. Oh yes. Even though my Apollo Highway hybrid was still under a year old, I was fed up with the shocking build quality and after a snapped chain, snapped axle, bent wheel, twisted cogs, and it never, ever, changing gears smoothly enough regardless of how much they were adjusted, cleaned, and …