Tuesday 29 July 2008

Project Mojave... a slight rant

Project Mojave is a Microsoft inititive to prove just "how good" Windows Vista is.

They grabbed a bunch of "regular people"(1) who never used Vista before and made them try what they called was Microsoft's next operating system, Project Mojave. Then, they interviewed these people and put "some"(2) of the videos on this website:

http://www.mojaveexperiment.com/

Besides the clever "taste brand x versus our brand" approach, there are some things that really irritate me, probably because I am a bit opinionated as to the whole "Windows" and "Best Operating System" debate.
Some of the interviewees opinions on an [x,y] grid:

[3,4]"It seems like its really good for its time(3)... if its up against other systems, like a Mac system or something(4)... i would say this one has got probably the best features I've seen(5)"

[9,5]"Lets say Vista is a drink, what kind of drink is it? - Lets make it a Martini, its not too complex..."(6)

[7,3]"So what 3 words would you use to describe Mojave? - Easy...... (long pause)........ (longer pause)....Can i change it to convenient?"(7)

Seriously, you could go on for ages but dont get me wrong. I have seen it, tried it and its quite good, it was running on a core 2 duo 2 ghz with 3gb of ram, it's very pretty but... will it blend?


Notes:

1 - Regular people? As in... Americans? Didnt think you could check on the rest of the world about what they think about Vista? Maybe UK, France, Japan, some of the thirld world will most definitely have an opinion since they probably have barely been able to afford a Windows 3.1 license and are stuck with it?
2 - Not all the videos were published, I think they missed this one for example: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=3a2zqRc1jvs
3 - Yes, it requires 30th century hardware to run, and lots of it!
4 - Say it!!! Its called Linux and it kicks ass!!!
5 - Yes, because you have experienced so many operating systems, like... Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 98se, Windows 98me, Windows XP... so yeah, sure, its got lots more features and some of the old ones too, like that pretty blue screen of death... oh, and by the way, Mac's operating system is called OS!!!
6 - And it helps if you've had some drinks before using it!
7 - It shows the quality of the people chosen for this project...i mean initiative......... can i say .... publicity stunt..... sorry scrap that... waste of time...

Monday 28 July 2008

Troubleshotting port related errors on Windows

I was trying to install wamp on my relatively new Kohjinsha SA5. I thought that the portability of the machine was great for coding on the train and testing some stuff I've been trying to do for a while, namely, write a facebook app and take a look at the android platform. I kept running into an error message saying that apache couldnt bind to its listening port, which cleary means that there is something else using it. How to find out what applications are running and what ports they are using? Enter "PortReporter", a free app you can download from Microsoft's website. It installs itself as a service and outputs a log file to C:\windows\system32\portreporter.

You can download it from here.

Once you find out which app is causing trouble, close it down, disable it or uninstall it and restart the apache service.

Tuesday 22 July 2008

Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core

I have always been a follower of the Final Fantasy series. Because
those games were never released back home, i had to resort to using
emulators to play them. That was until FFVII came out. I remember
spending about 24 hours in a row playing FF with my brother because
we... ermmm.... didnt have a memory card back then. So I've played most
of them, even FFXI (a.k.a. Final Fantasy Online) where I spent hours
past my bedtime fighting ridiculously hard battles and trying to
communicate in languages I cant even speak... good times.



I was very happy to see that Square decided to expand the FF VII myth
by not only releasing a new FF movie but also a number of other games
revolving around the same storyline. Now, for one reason or another
(mainly the horrendous reviews they got), I decided not to buy any of
them. That was until FF VII: Crisis Core came out.

The game, released
for the PSP platform, features the new fighting system that will
apparently be used for the upcoming FFXIII series. The new DMW (Dynamic
Mind Wave) combat style is a mixture of a more real time and button
pressing skill based system but it also depends on a strange slot
machine situated at the top left corner. This slots machine introduces random power ups and special attacks that resemble the old "Limit Breaks".



Now, I cant say too much more about it because I have just started
playing it but, so far, i have found it quite fun, even when I've
always preferred the more "turn based" format (i like to take my time
with these things). The game does seem slightly more shallow than its
previous instances and it makes you feel like its lost a bit of the old
strategic quality it always seemed to have.



Nevertheless, I shall continue playing it and see where it goes. I am
slightly driven by curiosity after seeing the first Summon attack from
Ifrit... very impressive pre-rendered CGI!

Monday 21 July 2008

My first facebook app

Yes, I am going to try to write my first facebook app, tune in to read about how I pull my hair out and helplessly punch the monitor hoping that will make the remote server do as i tell it to do!