9.6kbps. Just count 'em!

I'm now officially moved out of my old house, and into the new one. As a consequence, I've lost the 600k broadband I was so used to, and found myself connectionless and helpless.

But wait! Doesn't my Nokia 6310i have a built in modem?...

...of course it does! All I needed was a number to dial. Luckily, and after just a bit of searching around in my still somewhat chaotic bedroom, I found a redundant 3KB Personal Organiser with the magic number to allow access to Yahoo! Online. Wick.

I activated the phone's IR port, added a new connection type in Windows XP (which worked out to use the phone's modem automatically), and without even crossing my fingers it all worked! It is obviously much slower than what I'm used to, but it's better than nowt. So here I am, updating my long-overdue blog, with some uber-geek speak.

I'd better go. But first, a quick overview of the last week:

House move - fairly smooth, nicer house, room messy (but getting better)

Graduation - ceremony was fine, good food and drinks at The Weyside afterwards, fun time at the Uni Summer Ball (although sadly didn't last for the survivors' photo and fry up)

CNPS - finally looking for 10. 9 was a real bast to get, and I've seen 11 and 12 everywhere

I've also bought a stack of CDs and DVDs as a treat to myself for getting through 5 years of uni and obtaining the best grade achievable. Which was nice. Think Hed Kandi, Metallica, Chris Morris, LoG, and Python.

My first trip to IKEA, and my first attempt at CNPS

Today, well ok yesterday by now, I went on my first ever trip to IKEA (the Brent Park store) and I have to say it was very, very cool. If you've never been, you must go sometime: it has to be seen to be believed/understood. The whole reason for the trip was to get hold of furniture for the house I'm moving into tomorrow (well ok today by now.)

On the way, Rich and myself had a go at CNPS. I must admit I was absolutely awful and didn't even managed to leave the starting blocks, despite my frantic efforts and desperate sweep of the IKEA car park. Rich, on the other hand, swiftly sprung up to '4' after a crafty spot on the other side of the motorway. '2's were in abundance, closely followed by '3's, but were of no use to me without a '1'. =(

NOTE: Neither Rich nor myself were driving while spotting. Do not attempt to engage in CNPS while doing so.

XIII :: BAM ARRR DANGER! BAOOMM

I saw screenshots of this game a while ago and just loved the whole style. It reminded me of Fear Effect, a very cool (although highly frustrating at times) game for the Playstation.

Check out the official XIII website and have a look at the eye candy for yourself; I certainly can't wait for its Autumn '03 release...

Payne, again

Exactly zilch progress has been made on Max Python, an idea conceived over a month ago before my uni finals.

However, I've certainly not forgotten, and have been doing some research (when really I should be sleeping...zzzzz)

I've finally found out how to correctly load Max Payne models into Milkshape 3D thanks to an overlooked tutorial.

Setting File>Preferences>Misc>Joint Size to 0.025 makes the skeleton look less like a giant ball of fluff and more like an actual skeleton. Now I can get to grips with modelling and hopefully create some intial 3D concept graphics soon =)

On a Max Payne related note, I found www.maxpaynehero.com linked to from the 3Drealms website. It's a film project by Chris Chen, a student of a Film & Television course at Humber College (I'm guessing it's this course at this college, so do correct me if I'm wrong)

It's a 30 meg download, and although the film is (in my opinion) pretty cheesy, it's very well made and certainly kicks the arse of any cinematography I've ever attempted.

Torture? Fun, surely!

What would you say to this?

All together now: Exit light, enter niiiiight!

Thanks to Ledo for the link

Back to Reality

I'm now back from a relaxing holiday in Kos, which was nice. I can't be bothered to write too much just now, but a few things worth mentioning:

All inclusive is great
Kardamena is a hole
I got an MEng with distinction. woo!