Review – ɔimoɈɒ

Star Command

This isn’t a proper review at all. I’ve been really enjoying this game for the last few hours. I’ve built up my starter ship, upgraded nearly every component and maxed out the crew. I’m working my way through the scenarios to follow the plot, to arm up with upgrade tokens and to try and level up my skilled crew. So far I’ve fought brains in jars, insectoids, traitors and cold-war era Soviet zombies. I’ve lost a few crew to alien incursion, fires in my bulkheads and the icy void of space.

The game is real-time tactics (a subset of real-time strategy) mixed with roving adventure and humorous narrative. You get to name your own ship and your captain. You can also name each crew member as you recruit them (but, ye gods, who has time for that). And while the system seems easy to control, try this when you’re trying to direct a team of Security and Command down a hall, flanked by Science/Medical staff, repelling brain-in-jar robot invaders while also trying to evade missiles and direct engineers to repair vital systems.

My problems with Star Command:

You really need the sound on. The sound for incoming missiles and lasers is quite quiet and there doesn’t seem to be a visual telltale for it. As you only have a few seconds before a shield breach becomes a gaping, sucking hole in your hull, being able to hear when someone is shooting at you is vital.

The movement and shooting AI isn’t the best. But then if you manage it right, it doesn’t need to be the best. It just gets difficult when you’re involved in a firefight in a crowded room (filled with your precious upgrades).

It’s all about fighting so far. I know this is version 1.0 and there’s more content coming (including Contraband). I’m not fussed on trading but I would like to see more plot development.

For a couple of quid, it’s a no brainer. A universal app on iPhone and iPad and coming to Android soon.

A non-spoiler review of Avengers

The Avengers was always a weird combination. Captain America – possibly the greatest soldier ever living, but ultimately still just a man in a funny suit Hawkeye – possibly the world’s best archer, but ultimately still just a man in a funny suit Black Widow – possibly the world’s greatest spy, but ultimately a woman … Continue reading “A non-spoiler review of Avengers”

The Avengers was always a weird combination.

Captain America – possibly the greatest soldier ever living, but ultimately still just a man in a funny suit
Hawkeye – possibly the world’s best archer, but ultimately still just a man in a funny suit
Black Widow – possibly the world’s greatest spy, but ultimately a woman in a funny suit
The Hulk – one of the foremost minds on radiation science that turns into an enormous, invulnerable, superstrong rage beast
Iron Man – one of the worlds smartest scientist/engineers wearing a suit of armour that grants flight, super strength, armour and energy blasts
Thor – an alien god, with super strength and a massive hammer that allows him to fly and call down lightning

Just an observation.

Anyway – its action packed, sentimental, hilariously funny and a damn good romp through Marvel’s history. Go see it.

Exquisite Dining

I’ve been covering ‘food’ a lot while on honeymoon. Mostly because we’re gluttons who love their food. Anyway, this time around it’s the height of German cuisine. The dish ‘pommes’ consist of half a chip and a currywurst sliced up and drowned in spicy BBQ sauce and topped with a generous sprinkling of curry powder. … Continue reading “Exquisite Dining”

I’ve been covering ‘food’ a lot while on honeymoon. Mostly because we’re gluttons who love their food.

Anyway, this time around it’s the height of German cuisine.

The dish ‘pommes’ consist of half a chip and a currywurst sliced up and drowned in spicy BBQ sauce and topped with a generous sprinkling of curry powder.

OMG Taste explosion! Don’t let the pictures put you off!

The Dark Knight: may contain a spoiler

Last night a small group of blokes descended on Belfast to watch The Dark Knight, latest in a long line of Batman movies. Before I get into any specifics which the reader may want to skip – let me just say – that movie is LONG. I expected the credits to roll a couple of … Continue reading “The Dark Knight: may contain a spoiler”

The Dark Knight lacks the style of Batman Begins. It’s action packed to be sure but there’s much too much of it and not enough acting and dialogue. The only person who actually gets to do any acting is Heath Ledger and maybe that was a decision made on the cutting room floor; considering this was the actor’s last film it would seem they took the opportunity to give him the stage. Batman Begins was a character piece. The Dark Knight is a lot of explosions and fighting.

Continue reading “The Dark Knight: may contain a spoiler”

WordPress for iPhone: relegated

As I mentioned before, I think WordPress for iPhone really misses the mark. It doesn’t really add anything to the existing apps that are out there – look at iPhoneSlide which I’ve used a couple of times. It has much the same capabilities and works straight from your email client (and because it uses email, is available from within the Camera application on iPhone without having to take a picture, then switch apps. It also doesn’t have that nasty picture-attachment bug which causes crashing and means your post has to be recovered every time. In my opinion, this release from WordPress was not ‘rushed’ so much as it just needs a rethink about what features they were intending to put in.

I’d like to see an interface for comment moderation and replies. I mean, some of the web based mobile interfaces allow this. The software as-is is a posting machine. It needs to be a conversation machine. This part of it is completely missing and that’s somewhat inexcusable.

I’d like the ability to place an image (even just as an icon placeholder), center it if necessary and allow the user to place some text underneath the image. At this point it does no better than the email services as it just adds the content as an attachment at the bottom.

The app is now relegated to my back screens for “software I likely won’t use much” until there’s a significant update. The next step is simply removal.

HTC Touch Diamond

Earlier this week I promised a bake-off between the HTC Touch Diamond and the iPhone 3G but I’m sorry to say that I’m going to have to cry defeat. The Diamond is a lovely piece of hardware. It’s a ‘candy bar’ phone, very compact, sold-feeling, well put-together and with a gorgeous high resolution screen. The … Continue reading “HTC Touch Diamond”

Earlier this week I promised a bake-off between the HTC Touch Diamond and the iPhone 3G but I’m sorry to say that I’m going to have to cry defeat.

The Diamond is a lovely piece of hardware. It’s a ‘candy bar’ phone, very compact, sold-feeling, well put-together and with a gorgeous high resolution screen.

The TouchFLO software is very nice. It’s beautiful. It’s high-contrast, it’s touch-enhanced and the text ad email reading applications really make use of the screen. Others had said it was slow but the version we had was quite fluid. It was later that things bogged down.

It becomes apparent that the TouchFLO interface is just a veneer on the Windows Mobile software below which, if it had some sort of consistency wouldn’t be so bad.

HerIndoors was getting rid of her First Generation iPhone and getting into a Diamond because she wanted the best phone and it’s certainly the best looking phone out there. Phones, much like shoes and bags, are a fashion accessory. But after using it for 24 hours, she tearfully admitted that she hated it and wanted to go back to using the iPhone. Her reasons:

So slow when launching applications.
Not pretty once you get past TouchFLO
It needed the stylus because the menus were so small.
You needed to read a manual to use it.

Some things worked really well. As I mentioned, TouchFLO is really nice. And the camera in the Diamond really is very good, providing decent enough resolution, great autofocus and, in the end, some pretty great shots.

Muddling through and using MarkSpace’s MissingSync software we managed to get contacts and photos synchronised (though Music was a problem) and she set about using it. The browser in TouchFLO is not as fast and responsible as MobileSafari so that when you’re actually using the device, sure, it’s a 3G phone and downloading the information fine, but it’s too slow to navigate around.

Setting the date and time as well was a chore. Scrolling through a huge list to get to the United Kingdom just got us to another list. And if your ‘scroll swipes’ hit it wrong then you’d end up selecting another country at random and the process had to start again. There was no way to skip to ‘U’ which there might have been on a phone with a keypad. This isn’t a condemnation of ‘touch’ phones but of an underlying operating system that is designed for keypads.

The speed issue was considerable. Every application took a lot longer than the iPhone equivalent to load and you quickly got glimpses beyond the sleek TouchFLO interface and into the murky world of Windows Mobile. With every tap on the screen you could expect a pregnant pause as the tap was translated to the underlying hardware and the results computed. We’re talking about maybe the difference between half a second and 1.5 seconds but in a device like a phone, a sluggish interface is very noticeable.

Also, the inconsistency between hitting the TouchFLO OK buttons at the bottom of the screen and the Windows Mobile OK button at the top left of the screen made it all more confusing as I was scanning my eyes around trying to figure out where the next OK needed tapping. And, it uses a resistance based screen (not capacitance) which, as I understand it, means it works with a stylus and fingernail but not too well with fingers. That would explain some of the scrolling issues.

These may seem to be relatively minor things but when they add up, it was simply too much. As I mentioned, the hardware is beautiful and we can hope that HTC does something similar with an Android phone later this year. On paper, this phone is a lot better than the iPhone. In execution it is incredibly flawed. This may, on the other hand, suit someone who has low expectations on the usability of a phone, who is used to Windows Mobile (though TouchFLO isn’t anything like Windows Mobile and draws the ire of HTC critics who claim the company is breaking the standard interface.).

So, when she sat down and I suggested we do the bake-off between the Diamond and my new iPhone 3G, she refused and asked me to reformat the device to remove all of her details because it was going back. Boom, that’s that. I don’t blame her because, frankly, I found the whole experience to be a chore and it may be a real shame that I’m now spoiled and expect a UI for my phone that’s simple enough to use without a manual and is responsive to my touch. The HTC Touch Diamond is now repacked back in the box to be exiled back to the supplier.

Wii Karting…

I spent a couple of hours last night playing Mario Kart Wii against a few friends – one in Mallusk and two in London. I’ve written it up here on Lategaming. It’s a good game. You should try it. Related posts: Passively Multiplayer – Massively Single Player Nintendo redux: it’s not an either-or De-Makes John … Continue reading “Wii Karting…”

I spent a couple of hours last night playing Mario Kart Wii against a few friends – one in Mallusk and two in London. I’ve written it up here on Lategaming.

It’s a good game. You should try it.

Lunch

Considerably better than the school canteen out at $BIG_COMPANY is pretty much everything else. Even McDonalds (because they at least give you WiFi). Today I had lunch at Kainan Cafe, at the end of Royal Avenue. They have a blog as well which impresses me no end. What you can see there is Pork bellies … Continue reading “Lunch”

Considerably better than the school canteen out at $BIG_COMPANY is pretty much everything else. Even McDonalds (because they at least give you WiFi).

Today I had lunch at Kainan Cafe, at the end of Royal Avenue. They have a blog as well which impresses me no end.

What you can see there is Pork bellies with Black Pudding, Sour Soup (Yum!) and Pork Brisket. The Pork bellies were a little sweet for me but still very tasty. The brisket had some bones but was delicious. All very reasonably priced as well.

It was intimate, comfy, no-frills and very friendly. Me like.

Subnotes

I’ve got two ‘subnotes’ in the house here. An Asus eee PC and a MacBook Air. Yes, it’s true that the MacBook cost five times the cost of the eee PC but the differences are startling. Attribute MacBook Air eee PC Screen res/size 13″ @ 1280×800 7 inch @ 800×480 Screen border

I’ve got two ‘subnotes’ in the house here. An Asus eee PC and a MacBook Air. Yes, it’s true that the MacBook cost five times the cost of the eee PC but the differences are startling.

Attribute	MacBook Air	eee PC
Screen res/size	13″ @ 1280×800	7 inch @ 800×480
Screen border	<1 inch	1 inch+
Weight	3 lbs	2 lbs
Thickest point	0.76 inches	1.4 inches
Processor	1.6 GHz dual-core	630 MHz Celeron-M
RAM	2 GB	512 MB
Storage	80 GB (70 GB free)	4 GB (1.3 GB free)
Battery	4 hours	2 hours
Keyboard	Full size, backlit	Cramped hunt-n-peck
Software	Mac OS X plus iLife	Linux

The real question becomes one of why the MacBook air is now being touted as the “one to beat” as if the PC industry was poising itself for defeat just like they did with the iPod. It’s true that Apple tends to attract focus in terms of free publicity but the more apt comparison would be with the Lenovo X300 which is, feature for feature, relatively comparable to the Air, but a lot more expensive and a lot uglier.

I do mention the looks of the machine and, let’s face it, that’s not going to matter to someone who’s used to Linux or Windows. But I appreciate a machine that’s well put together, that doesn’t flex and creak when you lift it and which is easy to carry. Again – like Mac OS X, it’s more than just an aesthetic. The Air is very thin which means that if you’re carrying it with books/papers then it just fits in. The eee PC needs a bit more attention because it’s an awkward shape (half A4, 1.4 inches thick at the widest point) and in a bag, the awkward shape is liable to deform or damage other things in the bag. I’d certainly think twice about carrying the two together in a bag.

I don’t like the eee PC. It’s a perfect example of you get what you pay for. The plastic is cheap and ugly, there’s a strange amount of flex in the unit, sleep functions are almost entirely absent and how anyone can work on that keyboard with that screen. And it’s so sluggish. Yes, it boots up marginally quicker than the MacBook Air but then the MacBook Air has better battery life and very seldom needs rebooted (as Sleep works!) whereas the eee PC needs rebooted often. And the wireless? Is it just Linux? Can’t it ‘just work’. Can’t it automatically reconnect to my two different WiFi networks? Why does it need reconnected manually every time?

To be honest, I’d be more likely to wonder where the utility of the eee PC comes in when compared to the iPod touch, the Nokia N810 and other such devices. It’s the bare minimum of a computer – the UI, capabilities and portability of the N810 and iPod touch leave it far behind.

Henry Rollins at Vicar Street

Yesterday afternoon I visited the dentist. I hate the dentist. No, I don’t hate my dentist (she’s very pleasant), but I hate going because I fear it. But I broke a tooth in early January and I needed to get it sorted. Forty minutes later I’m walking out, feeling somewhat brutalised (at one point I … Continue reading “Henry Rollins at Vicar Street”

Yesterday afternoon I visited the dentist. I hate the dentist. No, I don’t hate my dentist (she’s very pleasant), but I hate going because I fear it. But I broke a tooth in early January and I needed to get it sorted. Forty minutes later I’m walking out, feeling somewhat brutalised (at one point I kicked out my foot in pain and made the “Nnnggggggggggggg” noise you make when someone gives you a stabbing pain in your skull and she said, “Did that hurt?”.

Quite.

Around five pm, I drove to Lisburn (Really. Would anyone miss Lisburn?), picked up my father and brother and drove to Dublin because we were going to see Henry Rollins for his Spoken Word 2008 Tour. He’s also in Belfast on 30th March and even though I’ve seen him this tour, he was that funny that I’d go see him again. Around the time the doors to the show opened, the anaesthetic wore off and I was reminded of the nasty pointy tools that had been poking in my mouth earlier with a dull ache that turned into a pounding headache by the time I got home after two in the morning.

Henry has excellent pacing. He tells heart-breaking stories intermingled with humour so you’re not immediately depressed by the subjects he talks about. This year he’ll tell you about his trips to Syria, Iran, Pakistan and Sweden. He’ll tell you enthusiastically about The Ruts and he’ll do his best to avoid talking about Dubya. (Indeed that section was the only bit of the gig I was unimpressed with. I know Dubya is an asshole. I’m tired and bored of hearing about it.)

Rollins’ enthusiasm for music is probably the best thing about his tours. Sure – there’s a lot this time round (I also saw him 2 years ago) where he’s constantly name dropping: David Lee Roth, huh, Dave Vanian and Captain Sensible, sure, Nick Cave and Jello Biafra, okay, Ozzy, right, UK Subs, uh-huh….and the list goes on. It’s okay Henry, we know you’re a happening guy and you’re in the thick of it during happening times and god knows you’re definitely one of the “Famous People I Admire”. The only thing I really took home from the name-dropping was that Van Halen have reformed with David Lee Roth and they’re on tour. Holy shit. If only it wasn’t US-only.

Rollins remains the only Rock Star who I’d not mind marrying my sister.