Exto's blog thingie

My Christmas Present: RROD

Wed, 24 Dec 2008 13:43:28 -0100

Yep, it's one of those days.

I was quite happy because you know, it's Christmas and all, the season to be jolly.
I'd decided to play some GTA4 so I boot my 360. Everything works fine, it boots and all and then it happened...
The screen went blank and the horrible 3 little red lights appeared on my 360.
If you've seen Revenge of the Sith you'll get me when I say:
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!".

Off course my first reaction was to call Microsoft Support to see if maybe there was something I could do, but no.
The verdict was: busted, you have to send him in.
They'll send me the shipping papers, I have to put my 360 into a generic box (they were quite firm on that), and call UPS to have him picked up.

I heard UPS so I thought "oh, that's not to bad, it won't take that long" but no, when I asked how long it would take, the customer support guy (with an unmistakable dutch accent, but hey, still beats Indian support when you're English/American) told me it would take around 15 business days once they receive it.

15 business days + Christmas/new year's eve means a whole while if you ask me.
Great holiday so far!

On a brighter note I'm finally going to get a new cellphone for my Christmas/birthday (Sony Ericsson G502, google it yourself if you're interested), and I'm turning 20 next week.
Although I don't really consider that as something positive, because it makes you wonder what you've achieved these last 20 years and the verdict is: nothing.

I could become real emo right now and wear black stuff and such, but I'm not like that.
I see this as an opportunity for me to say: "I'm going to make sure I take control of my life, and that in the coming few years I'm going to achieve more than I have the last 20 years!".

That was it for today, quite a rant and such but I just needed to get it off my chest, even if noone actually reads this.

A new beginning

Sun, 30 Nov 2008 12:57:00 -0100

Man, has it really been this long since I updated my blogω
How times can fly when you're busy...

Ok, updates:

I'm now in my second year at college, and can you believe it that some classes are even more boring than they were last yearω
Exams are starting again. Wednesday I have Datacommunication, which is actually just CISCO Network Fundamentals. I've already passed my Cisco exam so I'll be getting my certificate soon!
I started playing WoW again (while I always said I wouldn't), because with all the WoTlK advertising and reviews it was hard to escape the feeling WoW used to give me.
I'm thinking of adding more features to my blog, and maybe start writing my own blog system in the future (once I get some time to do that).
Looking for a new theme for this blog as well, kinda getting bored of this default one.
The Shadys are back up, but I've decided not to join them this time around. I've finally come to terms with it closing and my life's a lot easier for it. It may not seem like it, but a community like that can be quite stressful (Uber and I had lots of chats about the direction we wanted to take the Shadys, and I know he always tried his very best).
Anyway, Good luck UberMensch with the newest iteration of The Shadys.

That's about it for today, expect more updates soon (if I don't forget it...)

Indiana Jones 4

Sun, 25 May 2008 20:56:56 -0100

So I went to see the new Indiana Jones this friday (was soo excited :D) and I just loved it.
In my eyes the people that complain about it either:

Expected too much out of it
Didn't get the subtle references to the other movies or the series
Should've gone to see whatever Disney movie is playing

It's easily the third-best in the series (yes, it's still better then the Temple of Doom, which wasn't the worst movie ever but wasn't really what IJ is meant to be) which is saying alot after 19 years of absence.

The best review I've seen online (and most of them are just shit people comparing apples to oranges) is this one, from an IGN user comment by "CaptainWicket":

Wow, I can't remember the last movie that received such mixed reactions.

I'll admit, at first I was slightly disappointed with the ending. But ever since I left the theater after the midnight showing, I've been wanting to see it again, which just shows to me that it will probably have the same level of re-watchability as the originals. The sense of adventure that made the originals so compelling is still there in Kingdom.

Yes, there are a few cheesy/outlandish moments, but didn't all of the originals tooω If you first watched them when you were very young like I did, you may not have realized the unlikelihood of a mine cart flying off the tracks and back on again, or people surviving a freefall from a plane in an inflatable raft. But that's kind of the whole idea; Indy movies are supposed to mimic B-movies of the decades they take place in.

And yes, Kingdom used a little more CG then I would have liked, but at least it didn't go completely overboard like the new Star Wars movies. There were still a lot a real sets and real stunts (I don't know about you, but I wanted to cheer when Indy climbed out of the car window onto the back of a moving motorbike, totally CG-less). Not to mention, some of the special effects in the originals looked equally as cheesy as the CG bits in Kingdom. The lead antagonists getting their head exploded and face melted, although more interesting to watch than CG, still probably elicited some groans from audience members in 1981.

In short, I think Kingdom did all of the important things right, and I can't wait to see it again.

Net neutrality?

Sat, 26 Apr 2008 18:38:29 -0100

First:

Now, why do we need to save itω Ask yourself: Why would big companies deserve prioritized connections because they can afford itω
This is why they should be STOPPED!:

Virgin has been trying to calm the internet revolt against them for saying they would limit users' internet access for commercial ends, stating "We're not suggesting there will be any denial of access to those who don't want to pay." and then going on to confirm their previous anti-net neutrality statement: "VM could offer content providers deals to upgrade their provisioning if they want to ensure best access to to broadband subscribers.". They did not comment on their earlier statements about putting non-premium content providers on their slower "bus lanes".

A BT spokesperson gave us the following statement:
"... Unlike Virgin, we think the bandwidth we provide our users should be equal for all services and if services like the BBC iPlayer put too much strain on the bandwidth, both ISP's and content providers should educate the users on that issue so that users know when and why they may have to upgrade their account for more bandwidth if it exceeds 'fair use' terms. We always bear the consumer in mind first and have no plans to prioritize traffic from third party companies. We welcome all the Virgin customers who left because of the net neutrality issue and offer 'neutral' bandwidth."

Update: Sky has now also responded to us with a somewhat vague statement: As video usage grows, it's natural that there will be a debate about the best way to invest in additional capacity. We want to be one of the UK's biggest and best ISPs so we'll always be guided by the desire to meet customers' needs for a high-quality internet experience."

Keep Virgin from destroying the internet...

The new CEO of Virgin Media, Neil Berkett, has openly stated in an interview that they think net neutrality is a load of bollocks and claimed they're already doing deals to deliver some people's content faster than others. They would then put websites and services that don't pay Virgin in the "slow lane", meaning those sites would load slowly and cause most users to give up using them, feeling forced to use whatever Virgin wants to push through their network.

This is not the first time an internet provider infringes upon net neutrality, but it is the first time that an ISP so brutally states that they simply plan to limit internet access to a television-like system in which the access provider completely regulates the content you have access to.

Virgin Media has over 3.5 million customers in the UK and the real danger is that when they start applying this system to their network, all major internet providers around the globe will soon follow the trend. Because this is exactly what major ISP's have been wanting to do for years.

Forums - why? Boredom!

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 23:51:28 -0100

So yeah, I got bored and lonely (now that the Shady forums are down) and decided to put up my own (small) forums to fill the void.

As you might've heard/read, the Shady forums are down. Yes there are rumours of a revival, yes I'm well aware of what happened and what's happening and no, I'm not going to tell you what might be happening.
Just today I got 3 people asking me what's going to happen in the first 10min after I booted my PC.

On another note, finally downloaded BF: Bad Company beta for X360. It's fine, not that great (controls still need tweaking, every non-sniper gun feels like spray-n-pray, ...) but it has some good potential though, especially the destructable environments.

That's it for now, I'll try to keep this blog updated a bit more.

Waste of time

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 14:28:36 -0100

Woke up at friggin 5.30 in the morning to catch my bus to the station, take the train to college for my second exam (Java OO).
Now, I usually don't have too much problems with getting up that early, if it wasn't for the fact that the train ride to and from college took me about 3 times longer then my actual exam. Damn that thing was easy!

On another note, I saw the Ark of Truth last night.
Man, it was just awesome! It feels like 4-5 episodes worth of story all in about a 1.45 movie!
It's job was to end the Ori storyline, and it did just that. It didn't add a whole side story, it didn't introduce new enemies, it just dealt with the Ori.
I've got high hopes for Continuum (the second direct-to-dvd movie), it being a standalone story with Jack returning!

Oh yeah, and my mom checked in the hospital today for her foot surgery (just one foot now, the other one will be in a few months or so).
Basically they have to realign some bones that got distorted, so they break the bones and put a metal pin in them to realign. Quite creepy if you ask me.

So that's about it, got another exam tomorrow that's gonna be easy (Server 2003 and general OS/Network stuff).

Great day so far

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 08:46:19 -0100

The best way to wake up is when you find out that everything is going as planned, or even better!

Woke up, heard the door bell ring and my mom opened the door. 2 minutes later I'm running down the stair asking what it was, and YES it's what I was waiting for: Stargate SG-1: The Ark of Truth!
1 day after US release thanks to super fast 2 day shipping (EU people will have to wait for at least April 14th, like hell I'm going to wait that long!)

Another great treat I have in store for myself today is going to my favorite Chinese restaurant, the occasion being that my dad just got back from more than a month in Ethiopia.
So yeah, everything going smooth today!

UPDATE: I've finished the page script. I can now add and edit pages through the built-in FCKeditor, which is quite nice and easy to use.
The only thing I need to do now is just fine-tuning it a bit.

First exam

Tue, 11 Mar 2008 13:11:25 -0100

It's that time of year again, exams. Subject of the day: Computer Architecture (Hardware course basically).

Well, to be honest I've never studied much in my life which has resulted in some close calls, but I'm rather positive about this one.
I only needed 1/3 of the exam to pass that course so that was a bonus. The teacher asked some nasty assembler questions we hadn't seen before though.
Reminds me of what happens when you have a midget whose idea of teaching is just copying the book we had to buy...

Blog-wise I'm making some modifications to the code. Basically, there are some features I'd like to see implemented and EggBlog lets me do that myself without any hassle.
Things I'd like to see implemented in the long-run:

Comment posting without registration, but with CAPTCHA.
Static pages (Yeah, stole this one from Uber, but I would want to use the "New Article" tool to add and modify those pages)
If possible, I'd want to do this in OOP, 'cause I've never used that before in PHP. Would need to see how to do it though.
Polls, just create my own poll system. Question is, do I do it with txt files, XML files or just in the databaseω
Some smaller things that aren't worth mentioning.

I hope this can occupy me a bit, and who knows, even add to my PHP skills.

Blog installation

Tue, 11 Mar 2008 10:54:01 -0100

So after months of not knowing what to do with all that webspace I had lying around, I decided to get my own domain name.
Yeah I know, it's .org but hey, .net and .com were taken, so I had to go with something better then .info.

After looking at Uber's blog I got the idea to get my own blog up untill I get a proper portfolio website. I even shamelessly copied Uber's blog software, so I hope he forgives me for this ;)

I guess you'll have to check back later for more updates.