I started to play around with Windows 8 this weekend and I came away liking what I saw, namely the Metro UI, Microsoft’s latest attempt at breathing new life into Windows.
The Metro UI is inspired by the tile-like interface that Microsoft introduced for Windows Phone 7 a few years ago. This interface is very fresh and unique approach to user interfaces that doesn’t simply ape what Microsoft’s competitors are doing.
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The views expressed in this blog entry reflect my own opinion and no one else’s.
So since last September I have been working as a video game tester, first focusing on Level Design , Gameplay and Multiplayer testing and later a combination of several areas with a focus on artificial intelligence.
The experience has proven invaluable and I’ve had enjoyed contributing and working with some amazingly talented people in the video game industry, but at the same time I feel like I can no longer enjoy games as I did before. Now whenever I do play games on console or handhelds (like the Vita) I will always notice some of those same issues I would come across in my work as a tester, but the funny thing is how often I will come across one specific bug, the dreaded LOD pop (or level of detail pop).
For those unfamiliar with the term LOD pop it refers to the level of detail on some textures of objects (in a game) appearing to change as you move towards and away from the object, giving the effect as though it is popping, thus the name. I’ve come across this issue in all sorts of games ranging from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 on the X-Box 360 to Valkyria Chronciles on the PS3 to even its sequel Valkyria Chronicles 2 on the PSP.
It sort of gets annoying after a while since I can’t help noticing the issue and thinking to myself how could the developers have not fixed this, how could they ship a game with such bugs present? Then I remind myself that at the end of the day they at least got the important bugs fixed.
Ubuntu's HUD smart menu in action
With the latest version of Ubuntu Linux only a month away I figured it might be high time that I discuss one of the most exciting features in the upcoming release, the Head-Up Display (otherwise known as HUD).
It’s been about half a year since Apple co-founder Steve Jobs passed away and nearly as long since the book chronicling the life of one of America’s greatest entrepreneurs had been released. The book, which quickly became 2011′s top selling book on Amazon, was released on October 24th, a short 3 weeks after Steve Jobs’ passing.
It was just two days ago that Canonical announced at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show unveiled their latest attempt to extend Ubuntu beyond the server room and desktop.
Canonical’s ambitious projects is none other than Ubuntu TV, their first foray into the realm of providing software for media consumption on HDTVs.
So I am unsure if any of you have heard of Octopress, it’s an alternative blogging software platform to WordPress and Movable Type.
I recently I came across a blog of an Apple technology enthusiast whose site was powered using this software and I got interested in what differences it has with what I am currently using to power this blog.
So far all I know about Octopress is that it appears to a very impressive open source blogging software powered by the Ruby programming language and that it isn’t as easy to install as the more popular WordPress.
The difficulty in installing WordPress is easily expressed in the title of one of their install guides, the Famous 5-Minute Install.
Octopress on the other hand has a little more complex guide since it requires installing and making use of different pieces of software to deploy Octopress to your website.
I’m still experimenting but when I get the chance to install and deploy Octopress I will be posting it to my beta blog page.
Regarding Error -10810 that happens when working with Network or External Drives on Snow Leopard
Snow Leopard has brought an annoying bug. Sometimes, when dealing with external hard drives or USB sticks, Finder crashes and does not automatically reopen. Trying to click on the Finder icon in the Dock does not help at all! It just causes a laconic message box that says: “The application Finder can’t be opened (-10810)”. Unless you want to logout and login back (or restart), the solution is simple but a little bit for the techie:
- Open up the Terminal application (use Spotlight if you cannot find it)
- Type: /System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app/Contents/MacOS/Finder &
- Press enter and… You’re done! You can close the Terminal
Waiting for a fix in 10.6.3… I hope this helps. Bye!
Sadly there has no been no fix made in Snow Leopard (I’m using 10.6.8) and I doubt it ever will. I am glad I came across this blog though since other sites, including the Apple Discussion forums, simply suggest restarting.
I am having a bit of a weird issue when using iCloud with Pages files that contains images on my Macbook via iCloud.com.
I am able to load up the documents on Pages via iCloud on an iOS device, where I am prompted that images need to be downloaded, but I don’t get any such prompt when accessing the documents on iCloud.com and just have two options: Delete Document and Duplicate.
It seems ridiculous that to get the images to load within the document an iOS device seems necessary. Kind of disappointing really, but at least it’s a workaround that I can make use of since I do have an iOS device handy.
I’ve been playing Disgaea 4 as of late after working out a little and got so into it that I forgot what time it is (it’s 2 AM), I totally lost track of time and wonder where the last 2 and a half hours went. It really felt like I had just turned on the game and played a little bit before it hit 2 AM.
What games have any of you dear readers played that you just totally lost yourself into and totally lost track of time?
It’s been