Dragon's Blog

If there’s one thing more annoying than losing at a game it’s being at a point where you cannot save for a while and then having the game itself crash, as I’ve experienced several times with the Dragon Age: Origins expansion. (Awakening)

Infact I was recently in a battle where I was coming close to winning (and then i could have saved) when the dreaded message stating that there was an error encountered and the program has been closed, it’s always happening at the worst possible movement also.

Having a quick look around, it seems there are several people reporting similar crashes, Can’t say i had this many problems with the original game, however the video drivers have probably changed versions several times since then.

Guess it might be worth checking the PC over just to make sure The drivers are up2date.etc But considering it only seems to happen on Dragon Age it’s probably a bug in the game itself… Sigh.

Unfortunately console games are not immune from such problems either, I recall bluedragon doing it in the middle of a boss fight at least once.

The downside is it seems the quality of recent games has gone downhill a lot, since most companies seem to have the mentality of release now, patch later.   Sadly this is now infecting consoles since again they can just issue an update via the online functions of modern consoles.

Rant over, Time to get some sleep.

So It seems due to a Volcano erupting in Iceland I shall be in Bulgaria a little longer than I was planning.

On the upside, I quite like it here and also beer is cheap so not a major problem for me

http://www.ispreview.co.uk/story/2010/02/27/uk-government-to-criminalise-owners-of-open-public-wi-fi-networks.html

Seems to me like a prime example of people who don’t understand technology making laws governing it’s use. If this is allowed to pass I suspect we’ll be saying goodbye to free wi-fi networks everywhere, a real shame….

I came across this when looking at i7500 section of android forums (Here), it appears that the user Mustymod over @ modco has been successful porting android 2.0 to the Galaxy.

The original thread (linked from the androidforums thread) can be found here

Whist quite a few features aren’t working yet it’s nice to see that someone at least working on Android 2.0 support, it’s just a shame that we have to rely on the kindness of android community members to keep our phones updated with the newer android releases since currently it’s questionable as to if Samsung themselves are actually going to bother supporting this phone with firmware upgrades.

I hope Samsung change their thinking behind this since by not releasing new android versions I feel they are going against the whole principle of what Android stands for.

Since the galaxy is my primary phone I shall not be upgrading at this point but I probably will once some more of the bugs are fixed and this is definitely something I’ll be keeping an eye on.

Please note using firmware from 3rd party sources will most likely Void your warranty.

Most trains out of Waterloo (At least the ones I use anyway) seem to call at Clapham Junction, yet I can’t recall it ever showing on the departure boards as one of the stops for the train. I wonder why this is?

We have a Logitech keyboard (LX710) that we’d had managed to somehow lose one of the support legs from the back of the keyboard.

I quite like typing on the keyboard (But I find it annoying not having the back raised) and that because the keyboard was otherwise fully functional I decided that I might try contacting to support to enquire if it’s possible to purchase a replacement plastic leg (which would be a lot cheaper than a whole new desktop set).

I contacted Logitech’s support via their online form and got a very polite response the next day stating that it is possible to get a replacement leg but unfortunately they didn’t have any in stock at the moment and asked me if I wouldn’t mind waiting a week or so and then emailing them again.

I emailed them again today as it was roughly a week since I last contacted them and they replied within a couple of hours of recieving my update  to inform me that they were shipping a replacement part out and it should be here in 10 working days.

I have to say I’m fairly impressed with the level of service, Other that the automatic acknowledgment emails all the support responses appear to have come from a real person rather than just someone copying/pasting some irrelevant script and it’s nice to see them supporting their products in such a way, this was not a particularly expensive keyboard /mouse set and it was completely our fault the leg went missing in the first place.

They didn’t indicate any charges for the replacement part or ask for any payment information so presumably it’s free, which if that is the case it’s certainly very nice of them, i’ve heard stories in the past about logitech support being pretty good and I’m glad to hear it still is.

Would certainly consider buying their products again in the future.

Edit:  26/11/2009

Got home from work today to find the replacement they’d promised had already arrived, and to my suprise they’ve not just sent a replacement for the little plastic leg they’ve actually sent a replacement keyboard/mouse set!

Blimey, I only needed a little plastic leg have to say that’s pretty amazing support!

Hell NO

This was the ridiculous proposal that’s being put forward.

http://www.itv.com/news/tonight/episodes/driversinthedock/default.html

I hope this never happens, it’s absurd the party responsible for the accident should be he one’s who caused it wether that be the driver the cyclist or both.  To say it’s always the drivers fault absolutely propostrious.

Btw why is cyclists don’t have to have insurance to use the roads yet other vehicles do, a cyclist smashing into something can still do damage, there is unfortunately a lot of crap cyclists out there who will only to happily go the wrong way up a one way street, cycle with no lights in the dark or jump red lights when it suits them (Arguably there is also a lot of crap drivers out there that seem to do similar) It’s a pity becuase it gives the sensible people a bad name.

Sigh, Rant over.

Mobile broadband, or rather HSPA (High speed packet access) has recently become a fairly popular way to connect to the internet, although In my opinion it’s not quite a rival for fixed broadband due to the low usage limits, and the speeds.

Either way Mobile networks are selling USB dongles for access by the bucket-loads, and they’re good for a certian purpose, although just how mobile they are really depends on how you use them.

I personally find that trying to use a HSPA dongle on a train for instance is rather hit and miss, the connection will drop several times throughout the journey, and in some cases it’s not even worth bothering.

I find the worst offending route that I semi-regularly use is from Waterloo heading south (covered by S.W.T)  Generally unless you want to hop on for long enough to fire off an email it’s probably not worth bothering as the connection will often drop shortly after connecting.

I’ve tried several networks so far and whist some are better than others it’s just not worth browsing whist travelling this route as you’ll spend more time trying to reconnect than actually doing anything meaningful. (Feel free to disagree, maybe it’s just my equipment, but that’s my experience anyway)

However the route between Reading and Paddington (operated by FGW) seems to be a lot better for mobile broadband, you will still get dropouts but no where near as many and it’s usually possible to maintan a connection long enough to actually do a bit of surfing.

Am I annoyed at this, well perhaps a little at the time.  Is it worth complaining to the mobile operator, probably not.

The reason is; The mobile network is wireless (Duh!) and we all know how variable wireless can be, data connections are also a lot more demanding than voice since a voice call using GSM compression will fit into 9.6kps (If i remember correctly, any telecoms engineers reading this feel free to correct me), try loading facebook with that bandwidth you’d be there for ages and then some.

Then if your on a train, your moving at high speed, this produces extra complexity for the network after all you’re probably not in the same place you were when you sent the request for the page, you may not even be on the same cell tower anymore.  The network has in the meantime handed you over to the next base station….

That is of course if there is a next base station, if there isn’t then this is likely to explain why the connection dropped.  In an ideal world the operators would be able to cover 100% of the route, unfortantly this isn’t an easy job, the operator has to get planning permission to build new masts and then even if they get that permission they still have to get some backhaul there (A mobile mast that’s not connected to anything would be pretty useless).

The cellular masts and the equipment required for them to operate isn’t cheap therefore if you’re passing though a largely unpopulated area then that may also explain the lack of coverage, after all the mobile operator isn’t going to spend a fortune putting new infrastructure in if hardly anyone is going to use it, and I can’t see everyone willing to pay a lot more on their bills so some of us can browse the interwebz on the train without interuption ;(

The geography of an area will often also determine the range and performance of a mobile network, hills can be a problem as can valleys and tunnels.

Abetatech posted this link in the chat over @ irc.bethere.co.uk #be*

http://open.spotify.com/album/07fmxBtmUJGrECyIFlM1Nh

I didn’t listen to them all, but it’s some of them are just priceless…

Update:

Actually if i’m honest after the first few it just becomes annoying.

I don’t know about you, but I bet most people have a set of core apps or services that they rely on almost everyday, The kind of apps that you will install either right after reloading your computer or shortly afterwoods almost without fail.

I thought I’d share some of mine with you.

1. Antivirus (Windows) – This is one of the first things I install Currently I use VIPRE on most of my own machines due to sunbelts licencing policy. (They offer an unlimited home licence)

2. Firefox – Love it or hate it, It’s still my browser of choice, namely becuase I love the ablity to customise it with plugins.  Feedly is a good one if you like to stay upto date on news.etc without visiting all the sites yourself.

3. Outlook (Windows) – Some people probably hate it, but I find it to be a very good PIM, it’s probably worth noting I do use it in conjunction with an exchange server, but having the calender sync OTA with my phone is quite litreally a Godsend.

Update: Since i’ve posted this, gmail has started supporting push email I’m converted especially as it seems to sync my calender just as well and it’s Free

4. Mirc (Windows) Xchat (Linux) – So I can talk to people, i tend be on the Be Usergroup (irc.beusergroup.co.uk) Irc quite a lot.

5. Spotify – Love it for the fact I can just decide I want to hear a song and then listen to it for free.

6. Livedrive – Online Storage Service, Very handy for working across multiple computers.

7. Jungledisk (Only tend to install on Desktop) – Backup to the rackspace Cloud (Or amazon S3)

8. Paint.net (windows) – Handy image editing tool, Simple yet  Powerfull

9. Msn Messenger – Alot of friends use it so it’s handy to have, Have used 3rd party clients in the past but quite like the UI of the official client.

I’m sure there’s probably a couple of other thing’s I’ve missed but that’s the ones I can think of from the top of my head. If anyone wants to tell me theirs feel free to leave a comment (That’s assuming of course anyone actually bothers to even read this)