tomburgoyne

Comet Ison

2013-11-26T11:41:00.000-08:00

December is always an awesome month (for obvious reasons). However the first 17 days are going to especially interesting if a tail does form from Comet Ison. If this does happen it will visible to most of the northern hemisphere, especially at night.

Truly a once in a life time occurrence if you consider the chances of detecting a comet that also has an orbit that takes it through the Sun's corona. However, it is not certain that we will have the outcome we all hope for and it may explode during its passage, meaning no tail across the sky. I for one though will be keeping an eye on the unfolding events.

If you are interested in this further, give the following article a read http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-25052236. If you've got a spare hour to kill, I recommend watching this episode of Horizon http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03k3881. Some of what we are trying to achieve in Space is incredible. It's just scary that we have barely even scratched the surface of the potential infinite things to discover in the Universe.

What's going on in my world:

Currently listening to: Periphery – Periphery II - groovy.

So it's been a while...

2013-11-25T13:45:00.000-08:00

It was funny to look back over posts I wrote a few years ago, whilst also reflecting that a lot has changed for me in that time. My last post was on the 7th June 2011. Since then, University has turned into full time work and I'm slowly moving up in the world (so they say). People have come and gone along the way (some more significant than others), but life goes on.

I'm feeling like I want to give blogging another go, so who knows what will come of this. I've not got any set plan on what the content will be on. I'm not as big a gamer these days so it will most likely be general musings. However, hopefully you may find some of it interesting!

What's going on in my world:

Currently listening to: A Perfect Circle – Three Sixty - an amazing band with such an incredible back catalog of material.
Recently started following: @BBCAmos - everyone needs more science in their lives. Specifically what is going on above us. Space is awesome.
Currently playing: Feed the Beast - this mod really got me back into Minecraft again, I just seem to always come back to this game.
What game I want to play next: Kerbal Space Program - watched a lot of game play for this and played the demo, now with a career mode in the latest release I'm definitely thinking it's worth some dollar.

StarCraft II

2011-06-07T04:14:00.000-07:00

I bought this the other day after spending much time (whilst I should have been revising) procrastinating and watching lots of StarCraft II live streaming (mostly by Total Biscuit TotalBiscuit YouTube Channel ). I bought it mainly to see how well I could do in the online laddering system (plus it looked fun and I do enjoy a good strategy game). Having never really played StarCraft, although I've always been aware of the hype surrounding the original and the build up for the sequels, I was glad to find it very refreshing and a nice change to the usual strategy games I have played, such as Age of Empires and Command & Conquer. However, like I find with most games I play, I can play really well one game and then absolutely suck the complete proverbial behind the next. For this reason, I have not played as much online as I thought I would have because of my irrational fear of either winning too many of my ranking matches and getting put in a way too difficult league, or embarrasing myself and losing all these ranking games and then my motivation towards playing the game evaporating (although being put in lower league can always do wonders for your confidence). Either way, I'm sure I will get round to it and will no doubt blog about it. This game is also stopping me play L.A. Noire which I'm not sure why because I have been wanting to play it since I saw the first release trailer last year (yes I have no idea what is going on with my motivation at the moment!).

Glad that I bought an Xbox (who would have thought it!)

2011-06-06T09:24:00.000-07:00

Before the Xbox 360 came out I had always been a Sony person. However, since purchasing a 360 a few years back this view has changed quite substantially. Sure, if I had the money I would probably have both consoles (why not) but the security issues the PlayStation Network has been having really have put me off wanting to give any sort of details away to Sony. As I blogged before and with the news that again Sony are having to investigate another security breach (see: BBC News - Sony investigating another hack ), I am glad that Xbox Live seems to be on the whole more secure. I also found today that Nintendo are also the victims of a hack attack by the aptly named group 'Lulz Security' (see: BBC News - Nintendo server attacked by hacking group Lulz Security ). It will be interesting to see if any/many reasonably serious crimes can be linked to data stolen from these security breach's (i.e. stolen credit details being used etc.), or whether these people carrying out these attacks are literally just doing it 'for teh lulz'.

Motivation failing...

2011-05-23T13:07:00.000-07:00

This pretty much sums up my motivation towards my final 3 exams for my degree...

Hopes for Battlefield 3

2011-05-16T08:01:00.000-07:00

So far, from what I have seen of this game, I am very impressed by how this game is shaping up. The 12 minute gameplay video released not that long a go (found at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zw8SmsovJc ) is definitely one that caught my eye. So much so that I really hope I have the money to afford a new high-end PC by the time this game officially comes out (November 2011). Having played the original Battlefield games (1942 etc.) on computer and having very fond memories of them, I really feel this is a series of video game that is best suited to the computer, rather than the console.

The Call of Duty series has become very predictable and generic. I still think that the overall gameplay and multiplayer experience are good and Zombies is always there for an occasional laugh. However, the rush to get a game out every year with the COD series has meant, in my view, the quality suffering (hence with all the problems Black-Ops has had and the multiple of patches being released since its launch). I think that I will definitely be purchasing Battlefield 3 and probably won't be getting the next COD game, purely just for a change and to try a game that appears to have been a lot better made.

-Update- Current Minecraft project so far

2011-05-14T11:02:00.000-07:00

Updated a previous post the other day, however, when Blogger went down yesterday, for some reason that part disappeared off the face of the planet. In hindsight I very much doubt anyone would have seen it so making a whole new post seems more logical now! I tried to get a screenshot from the same sort of angle as the last one (if you scroll down on my home blog page you will see what I mean). I have added a ship to this project, as well as an indoor rollercoaster of some sorts. If anyone is interested I can try and post some more screenshots or even attempt a video guide for it. Just drop me a comment!

L.A. Noire Anticipation

2011-05-14T10:55:00.000-07:00

I for one am very excited by this game and can't wait to play it. As soon as I saw the first trailer for it last year I knew I was definitely going to be buying it. Having been largely disappointed with GTA IV, Rockstar then clawed it back (in my eyes) with the awesome Red Dead Redemption (which I swear is the longest game ever!). The concept of L.A.Noire is intriguing. Rising through the ranks by solving different forms of crime sounds cool, however I do worry this may be overly linear and predictable but I hope that I will be proved wrong and still thoroughly enjoy it! Red Dead Redemption did get a little repetitive after a while, but I'm sure L.A.Noire will not suffer with that problem because every crime case is going to have a different story to it. Definitely looking forward to playing this game after finishing my final exams as a treat to myself lol.

BlogCatalog

As I'm more than likely going to be unemployed for some time shortly (I refer you to: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-13361769 ), I will probably try my hand at doing a review of the game just to pass the time as I trawl through job websites and hope I get somewhere with job applications!

The recent 'trend' of hackings carried out against various companies...

2011-05-11T09:37:00.000-07:00

To all those who have noticed (or more likely not), dissertation time came around meaning this blog has been rather neglected. So apologies firstly for that.

Moving on, the main topic of this post (which has been floating around my mind for some time) is towards, as I see it, the recent 'trend' of notable/major companies websites or services being hacked. Since the turn of the year, the number of website hacking happening to various companies has become a worrying trend. I had the delight of having to cancel my debit card after being told by Lush Cosmetics (I used them to get a Christmas present for my girlfriend, I swear :p) that their whole website had been compromised and all credit card details and the like had been taken. A few weeks later, I was then contacted by play.com informing me that I was more than likely about to receive more spam than I already do because all their customer contact details (held on a company affiliated to them I must add) had been hacked. The Lush hacking gained a reasonable amount of press interest purely because some customers (they may not be anymore) actually had money stolen from their accounts.

An interesting article by Davey Winder (in PC Pro Issue 199, which links to the online article at: www.pcpro.co.uk/links/199security) is quite damning of the company and highlights the vulnerability of companies who are unable to afford greater online security. The bigger companies, such as Amazon and play.com seem a lot more capable of resisting such in-depth attacks, although Amazon were subject to DDoS attacks last September by the Anonymous group.

However, nothing compares in magnitute to the on-going situation over at Sony, which really does take the biscuit. Roughly 77 million people's details compromised and still no answers yet. If something on this scale is possible then one wonders what, or whom, is next. Personally, having an Xbox Live gold membership, I would like to think with the amount of money people have to plough into Microsoft to use this service that they would be able to cope better than the free PSN has done. Nonetheless, I wouldn't be surprised if something did happen (in my experience of Microsoft related things).

To finish this post, I wonder if the people who hacked into the PSN left this as little calling card....

Another Minecraft post...

2011-04-17T07:32:00.000-07:00

Just thought I should post this screenshot of my most current project. Using the word 'Glacier' as a seed for the map generator, this is by far one of the coolest worlds I've played on.

A pizza made of win

2011-03-23T12:41:00.000-07:00

A heart attack waiting to happen

I just thought that this fine specimen of a pizza deserved some recognition. Including double pepperoni, jalopenos, roquito sweet chilli peppers, some tandoori chicken and not to forget some ham and meatballs too, this bad boy certainly could win some pizza awards. For this I say god bless you Dominos Pizza Southampton, god bless you (and your voucher codes that make your pricing slightly more reasonable).

Disclaimer: many pigs were harmed in the making of this pizza.

So...Minecraft...

2011-03-21T11:13:00.000-07:00

A screenshot from one of my latest worlds

Minecraft is an interesting paradox. It could quite easily have been a game that was, dare I say it, revolutionary in the early part of the last decade (circa 2000-2004 or so), yet it is, arguably, a revolutionary game, even by today's standards. Simplicity is sometimes all that is needed for a game, or indeed like most things in life, to succeed. Graphically speaking, Minecraft just works in its current format. Although many of the skin patches made by players do add nice elements to the game, I for one prefer to stick with the basic default skin simply because it just keeps the game as basic as possible, which is why, personally, I enjoy it so much. It is a game that you just never know what you may end up trying to make or do. Something in your day might trigger some thought and make you think 'I really want to try to make such and such when I get home'. I can't say I have felt that with many other games. Possibly the only other examples I can think of are Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas or maybe an SI Games Football Manager that have actively come up in my thoughts and I felt compelled to do something when I got the chance to play them at later time.

My only main concern about Minecraft is whether it will ever become a full game, and if so, will it lose some of its charm? It is always interesting when you log in and it starts downloading a new update because you instantly become curious as to what new features have been implemented (unless you already know what to expect, of course). I would hope that element would not be lost because the possibilities for this game are almost endless (for instance the announcement today that Wolves are being put in is very cool. See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9Lp9p5yjuo&feature=player_embedded). Youtube has also been instrumental in this games success. Personally, I have found people like paulsoaresjr channel (http://www.youtube.com/user/paulsoaresjr) highly useful and fun to just watch.

Anyway, I'm sure there are plenty of other blogs or whatever on Minecraft, however, much like the game, I just felt like I needed to at least write something about it lol. If you have never played Minecraft, I strongly urge you to at least try the free creative mode available on the website and if you like it purchase it whilst its still relatively cheap!

Any comments or questions just simply fire them away!

Why on earth do shockingly bad songs make people rich?

2011-03-20T05:12:00.000-07:00

I point to: Rebecca Black - Friday (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CD2LRROpph0) as my prime example of this happening. I don't blame her for this, who wouldn't give it a go knowing how many things easily become viral on the internet? My main struggle is I just can't understand how something that is so barren of any lyrical depth or imagination can become a 25,000,000+ viewed video, plus be selling by the bucket load on iTunes? I genuinely think anyone with a few quid spare and a decent know-how of some sort of music recording technology can make a terrible yet 'catchy' song and become an overnight 'musical' sensation, setting themselves up financially for a good many years (or for life) if they go market it sensibly. This is very sad, considering that the parodies of these songs usually are more creative and deserve more credit than the original song! This may just sound like I am jealous, which is wide off the mark, I just can't fathom the logic of people who actively go out and purchase these songs and feed into this 'crap-song-economy'. There are way too many talented people who spend their whole lives creating music that is only ever enjoyed by a minimal number of people, yet some plucky teenager can make one terrible song and make more overnight than someone else in their whole entire life!

Anyway, that is just the world we live in where there are way too many more important and terrible things happening that make things like this more than irrelevant! So I shall stop here with my insignificant rant lol.

Tom

So my first proper post...

2011-03-19T14:33:00.000-07:00

Where to begin? I suppose I should say a few things about myself (the boring part). I'm 21 and am in my final year at the University of Southampton studying Criminology (BSc (SocSci) Applied Social Sciences: Criminology if you must know). I enjoy playing and watching football (as well as destroying myself mentally on Football Manager 2011) and also playing electric guitar amongst other things.

Erm... I also enjoy gaming (sometimes, when it doesn't raise my stress levels to head-exploding point), with my final year dissertation project focusing on violent content in video games. My current games of choice are Football Manager 2011, as mentioned a moment a go, Minecraft (until unexpected lava death puts me off for a few day due to huge amounts of rage), and on occassion Call of Duty: Black Ops and Fifa 11 on Xbox 360. However, I own many other games which I seem to have bought but really am yet to play (Mass Effect 2 a prime example)! Curse you impulse buying! Anyway, that will do for the time being, will just wait and see if anyone finds any of this interesting lol!

Tom

First blog!

2011-03-19T13:52:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

This is just a blog for me to mull over anything that springs to mind. I'm not entirely sure what will be discussed, will just have to wait and see what comes up! Any comments/questions/discussions welcome!

Thank you,
Tom