HybridLogic Journal

Post Round-Up

Luke Lanchester — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 16:51:00 -0700

I've been meaning to write a few blog posts for months now, but it's reached such a critical mass I decided to lump them all together into one big post. Some reviews will be one liners, others might be longer on how much I remember about the topic at hand. So without further ado, in reverse chronological order, here is what I've been up to the past few months.

The Dark Knight

I went to see this yesterday and just loved it. Heath Ledger was brilliant, as everyone else has said a multitude of times, but I also found Aaron Eckhart's performance as Two Face very menacing as well. The story was top notch, the action fast and violent and definitely a far cry from the older Batman films that were always a little too childish.

Hancock

I actually really enjoyed this film. Will Smith was brilliant as the drunk hero of LA, and the action was great. The story seemed to go off a little sideways towards the end, but it was enjoyable nonetheless.

The Incredible Hulk

This is what the first Hulk film should have been (ignoring the even more abysmal attempts before that). Brilliant action, decent special effects and a plot that didn't confuse even if it wasn't the most original. At least it didn't devolve into a weird lightning/father punch-up towards the end.

Iron Man

A very good film, one that made me smile. The ending seemed a little hurried with the final battle seemingly over too quickly, but the rest of the film was very enjoyable. And not as depressing a film as the current trend of super hero movies. Can't wait to see Downey Jr in Tropic Thunder later in the year.

MacBook Pro

My biggest purchase of the year, a 15" MacBook Pro, my first Apple purchase outside of iPods. Absolutely loving it so far, using Windows less and less (what with most of my gaming on the 360 or via Cross Over Games). Getting more and more used to the Apple way of doing things as well, installing apps being one prime example that just blows my mind every time. Just reeling at how much everything for Mac costs compared to alternatives on Windows/Linux.

Time Capsule

A brilliant piece of kit for keeping myself backed up (a notoriously bad habit). However, I have had a few troubles with it not showing up on the network and/or not allowing access to an external hard drive attached to it. Seems to be better now, but nowhere near as smooth a process as the MacBook Pro.

iPod Touch

Got myself a 16Gb iPod Touch followed shortly thereafter by the 32Gb model as I really needed the extra space. For a start, this is what hand-held devices should be like. The multi-touch features are nothing short of superb and the explosion of Apps makes it more and more usable by the day. All without the contract (and admittedly the 3G connectivity) of the iPhone.

Xbox 360

What can I say? Had it almost exactly 6 months and it died on me. Waiting on Microsoft now to return it after a botched repair request (typical MS). In the meantime I'm making do with PC and Xbox games in between gaming nights at friends' houses. Need to complete GTA IV and Forza 2 when I get it back to grab a few more achievements.

Work

Well I finally got myself a job. Via Twitter no less. I'm now working for the brilliant team at 383 Project developing websites of all sorts. It's been great fun so far and I'm going to miss working with the guys (and gal) when I go back to Uni in September for my second year.

Phew, so that's a quick run down of what's being happening in my small corner of the world over the past few months. This would normally be the part where I promise to start making posts more regularly, but we all know how that will turn out. So until next time, enjoy the rest of the 'Net.

The Mash

Luke Lanchester — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 04:07:00 -0700

I know. It's been three, nearly four, months since I posted on HybridLogic. Heck, these are the first posts of 2008 going up. Life's been kind of hectic lately, between Uni, Web and 360, so here's a mach up of all my stuff so far this year.

Xbox

I had a good Christmas and a great new year, helped by the arrival of an Xbox 360 Elite. I'd been planning on getting a Premium bundle to replace my aging Xbox 1 and so headed into Currys on Boxing Day after reserving myself one over the phone. And guess what? They'd only gone and sold the last one. I ended up getting an absolutely smashing deal though; Elite, 5 games, 12 months on Live and an extra controller for about £200 under retail value. Needless to say I've lost many a night on it, fitting in time whenever I can around work.

On the games front, I've been absolutely loving Call of Duty 4. I've completed the game and am now replaying it on Veteran difficulty. The multiplayer's also been a blast, playing against friends for the first time practically (after only having system link before). Halo 3, another of the games I got, was a bit dull by comparison. The campaign seemed devoid of any story and I ended up redoing it on legendary simply for the achievements. It does have co-op though, something I sorely wish CoD4 had.

I also managed to find time to complete The Orange Box, Portal being my favourite of the lot with Episode 2 a close second. Finally, Forza Motorsport 2 has provided hours of fun as I slowly battle my way through it completing a race on hardcore difficulty last night (manual gearbox, hard AI difficulty and no ABS, TCS or STM). I've ordered GTA IV as well, so that'll come in handy once I finish Uni.

One thing I've been loving with the 360 is the idea of achievements and stat tracking. I'm always going on Forza or Bungie to see my stats and collecting photos taken in game. Comparing achievements on the Xbox Live website is also fun, if only to see how much of the game you've completed.

Films

I've seen a lot of films recently and I'm finally starting to put reviews online starting with 10,000 BC which I saw on Monday. It was a good epic film, if a bit off the mark in terms of accuracy. Cloverfield was another great film I saw, definitely one of my favourites for this year once you get over the camera (which a lot of friends had problems with).

Hitman was absolutely awful, but then again that was to be expected. American Gangster and Michael Clayton both left me numb from boredom; you'd think a Gangster movie could have some life to it but I guess that was beaten to death long before they began filming.

In future news, I'm looking towards Summer with relief. Finally a batch of fresh films and no more 'sequels only'. Iron Man and Tropic Thunder, two Robert Downey Jr. Films both look set to be awesome amongst a host of others.

Web

In web news I've finally broken even paying for my server at Dreamhost. Selling advertisements on the homepage netted me a nice little pay packet before Christmas and then a referral covered the cost of next years hosting. I've also been doing a lot of client work, finally bulking up my portfolio ready for my year as an Intern.

I've also started playing around with Django and Python in general. I haven't had the time I'd like to sit down and really get to grips with it, but so far Django has blown me away as a framework. The next version of HybridLogic (version 4 already!) will more likely than not use it, replacing the homebrew PHP/MySQL mashup I've had now for over two years now. There's no dates set yet, but it's likely to be some time after the Summer, look out for teaser screenshots on Flickr.

In Closing

In personal news I finally passed my driving test! I failed my first attempt but just got through on my second. And not a moment too soon with my 19th birthday approaching any day now, I thought it best to get a move on. I have a classic Mini that I'm tempted to fix up but that's if I can actually fit in the thing.

Hopefully this post will be the first of many this year, but I know how hollow those words can sound. I'm tempted to start a series about Django and also my own guide to getting it working on Dreamhost (third time lucky). Enjoy the site and I hope you come back for more.

10,000 B.C.

Luke Lanchester — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 03:16:00 -0700

If you were to read the reviews on Rotten Tomatoes you would get the impression that 10,000 B.C. is one of the worst films to appear this year. With an average score of 10% from the Critics it is well and truly in the rotten department. The Community score is higher at 35% but still undeserving in my own opinion.

Sabre Tooths make a brief appearence, shame really.

10,000 B.C. is one of the new generation of CGI films, where we’re moving away from silly effects to artificial landscapes and beasts that can almost begin to pass for real (I stress almost, they’re still not perfect by a long shot). The various mammoths, sabre tooths and giant birds (I kid you not, they’re the best ones in the film) are all well crafted and suit their environments if not the time periods. And that’s one thing 10K gets wrong, the times. It’s easier to say don’t try and understand what’s going on and just watch it than explain all the historical inaccuracies.

On the story side it’s full of prophecies, uprising and love. Admittedly this is where the film falls short, but I can hardly agree with some of the comments made by the critics, especially after seeing they’ve scored Jumper at 16%. The actual story is fairly good and kept me interested, a darn sight more than Lord of the Rings did. It’s nothing new or original, but this is more action film than Walking With Dinosaurs.

If you’re looking for a film to go and watch for a few hours of entertainment, I’d recommend 10,000 B.C. Ignore the setting, time and inaccuracies and just enjoy the ride.

My rating: 63%

I Am Legend

Luke Lanchester — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 12:46:00 -0800

I Am Legend left me feeling unsure of how I felt about it. On the one hand it's another basic action film from Hollywood with heavy use of CGI, big name actor and a basic plot. But unlike the vast majority of the other drivel out right now, it feels like a deeper movie, as if it actually has some backbone for once.

The overgrown ruins of New York have been beautifully realised.

The vampire genre has been done to death, but the original premise, a sole survivor left to survive in a hostile environment, adds a fresh breath of life. Indeed for the first part of the movie the only other humans seen are in flashbacks which help tell a slight narrative story in how not only the world came to be how it is, but how Will Smith's character ended up so isolated. Smith's pet dog adds much needed companionship to the film, allowing the actor to maintain some sanity while also providing a crucial plot point later on.

In fact, once you look past the vampires you can actually see a story underneath it all. I won't ruin the ending because quite frankly it's a great one, even if it does leave you a little lost afterward, but needless to say it's a great culmination. While the first half of the movie may feel slow you realise it's just building up a picture, showing how and why this man is doing what he does to survive.

The effects and the direction itself are also top-notch. Night scenes and darkened interiors are terrifying, unlike the awful 30 Days of Night, with only a small torch and quick camera cuts adding to the frantic scenes. The vampires themselves, even when seen up close look brilliant, not to mention the other animals dotted about the overgrown New York that has been brilliantly realised.

All in all, I Am Legend is a good film. It doesn't feel like a classic, nor does it have the sheer depth it could have done with, but it's still definitely worth watching.

Paranoia

Luke Lanchester — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 06:58:00 -0800

Paranoia is one of those unusual mods that seems to just spring up out of nowhere. While some mod teams for Half Life 2 delight in posting render after render, the old-faithful HL1 developers take decidedly longer but potentially release something worthy of even Valve itself. Paranoia, developed by a group in Russia, takes the Half Life GoldSrc engine and gives it a full makeover. The results are impressive.

Either enemies will go down easily or you will if you forget to don your helmet.

The first thing you notice about Paranoia is its size. Weighing in at over half a gig this is almost as big as some full games, the reason being that it is pretty much is a new game. It doesn't use any of the standard HL textures so for once you won't be wandering down another corridor wondering if there is only one building supplier for all secret laboratories. There are a host of new enemies, some of them straight out of an 80s horror film and the overall atmosphere is one of tense fear. Ammunition is often low, although I never actually ran out of bullets, but when your back is against a wall waiting for an elevator to arrive while squeezing off your last clip at an advancing wall of gas mask wearing zombies you'd be forgiven for thinking it is game over.

And that's something Paranoia does very well. It felt more like a mix between FEAR and STALKER than any Half Life game, despite its use of the undead. In fact, some of the tunnel levels, with their revamped bump mappings, reminded me so much of STALKER it was unnerving for a game eight years old. Only on the outdoor sections do you see the limitations of such an old engine.

The addition of a helmet to protect your head was very clever, adding to the claustrophobic feeling when you pulled it down. Try fighting without it and you'll be on the ground watching the world fade to grey in seconds, but with it you lose all sense of peripheral vision, trapped in a small box, listening to your breath echo as you fire at the approaching enemy.

There is a lot that's done very well in Paranoia. The translations from Russian to English are very nearly error-free, a rarity in foreign mods nowadays. The level design can be repetitive but it's varied and detailed enough to not matter too much. Two main points however conspire to ruin the entire thing.

An underground explosion drops you right into the heart of the abandoned labs. Lucky you.

The first are your enemies themselves. Zombies and all of the mutant creatures you meet later on are realistic enough, often taking a fair bit of damage before falling, but your human opponents are wholly unrealistic. Hit detection can feel way off at times, unloading an entire clip into a guys head only to have him shoot you once to end your crusade. If the accuracy were improved it would make the game much more enjoyable.

The second point is the ending. Having saved the base, fought off enemy insurgents and escaped to the surface you're treated to one last helicopter battle which feels like it's over before it's even begun. After the claustrophobic battles below you would expect a bit more use of the above ground space.

However, for all its faults Paranoia is still a brilliant mod. When you initially head underground you don't meet anyone for the longest time, leading to an increasingly heightened sense of tension. The use of HL2 animations with certain characters shows the lengths the developers have gone to to update the game and overall it reeks of a John Carpenter inspired atmosphere.

This is one mod you should definitely play in the dark with the speakers up loud. As usual, find out more about this mod on PlanetPhillip.

Residual Point

Luke Lanchester — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 06:07:00 -0800

To be honest, I should have finished this review a long time ago. I played this Half Life 1 mod back in October now and the only thing that's jogged my memory recently is the screenshots I put up on Flickr. And it isn't fair, because this is actually a pretty damn good mod with a lot going for it.

The obligatory Xen levels make a short appearence

Residual Point is a kind of reimagining of the original Half Life 1 story, following the same overall storyline and plot elements. You begin on a tram journey, participate in a disastrous experiment and ultimately face off in Xen with the big, bad alien baddies. All of the set pieces feel slightly familiar yet bigger and better with a few new enemies and areas thrown in.

There were a few downsides, some of the battles bordered on near suicide with enemies quite literally filling the screen, pushing the aging HL engine to its limits at points. The ending also felt rather stunted. Rather than have a final battle with the Nihilanth, you just sort of jump through a teleporter and finish, definitely anticlimactic.

This section was a right pain with the enemies running about

Having said that the rest of the game is brilliant. There isn't much new in terms of level design, more of a mishmash of HL and its sequels, but it works and you never get the feeling of just battling on for the sake of it. Confrontations are often reminiscent of previous games simply with more enemies, for example two Gonarchs to fight at once (the big spider things), vortigaunts teleporting in front and behind of you and an overall feel of a high quality polish to the whole thing. It took about six hours to complete overall, so definitely one of the longer mods released.

If you're looking for a bit more of the same for Half Life 1 then check out Residual Point, it's definitely worth it. The best place to learn more is probably PlanetPhillip, with a helpful walkthrough now posted.

XP vs Ubuntu

Luke Lanchester — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 13:57:00 -0800

This post is just going to be one long list, detailing all the things I love and hate about both Windows XP and Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon in an effort to help me decide which one to use as my primary OS. You can draw your own conclusions and feel free to criticise my choices, anything to help me find the better fit. So, on with the list.

Ubuntu 7.10

Cool factor. I will admit it, I installed Ubuntu purely to escape the monopoly that is Windows. The inbuilt Compiz effects are brilliant, adding a much needed wow factor as well.
The appearance. Ubuntu is ugly. Worse it is God awful, a mish-mash of styles from different groups that don't seem to follow any common design scheme. You can skin window borders and cursors but with a range of different window drawing systems there seems to be no standard way to template the entire system. Having said that it is more than possible to do so, the results limited only by your time and ability.
Installation. This is a polar point, synaptic makes installing and updating applications a breeze, but when you want to install something not in a repository? Downloading, unpacking, moving, running, compiling. Anyone coming from a Windows only background would be totally lost. And then where to install to?! The directory structure makes sense but only once understood. I love been able to update all my applications in one go, but there needs to be a wider reach.
Usability. Without a standard interface to work towards it seems every program in Ubuntu has a different layout in mind. Compared to Windows consistent setup this seems positively baffling. For example, every other program has a different arrangement of buttons in a save and close dialog forcing you to check each time you click.
General tweaking. I love the terminal. I've SSH'd into my server for a long time so I'm not afraid of dabbling in it, but to finally be able to do something useful (compared to Command Prompt) feels invigorating.
Open Office. I spend a lot of time working on my computer, between Uni and personal projects I need a good office suite and OO just isn't up to task. Writer lacks decent grammar detection and synonym support and don't even get me started with what Calc is missing, trying to do degree mathematics on that is a joke. And they are all so utterly, unbelievably, slow.
Functionality. Ubuntu wins this straight off. The ability to mount drives over SFTP, automatically detect bluetooth devices and a host of other features are brilliant. Windows can be customised to do similar but not without a lot of agro and external apps (XP crashes on shutdown because of my bluetooth drivers for example).
Small things. If I've deleted a file programs may pop up an error saying they can't find it, XP just defaults elsewhere. Some programs won't add a default extension to a file if none is set, not good for lazy typists like me.
Virtual desktops are integrated a hell of a lot better than most solutions on XP. Been able to switch between workspaces without the lag apparent with all the Windows solutions I've tried make them a much more natural feature to use.
Development cycles. Things are updated faster, fixed more quickly and new ideas turned into usable systems much more rapidly than on Windows. Admittedly a lot of it is pre-beta stuff but having a cutting edge feature before everyone else is great.

Windows XP

Familiarity. I've used some form of Windows for most of my life, I'm by no means an expert but I feel most at home in a Win environment.
Lack of virii. Everyone moans about the viruses that plague Windows yet in the past 5 years I've had two virus related problems, that's it!
Bugs. Windows loves its unexpected bugs. From programs that suddenly decide they don't want to start to blue screens it seems XP just can't help itself from throwing a wobbly.
Updates. Almost every update I have to do a restart, not a nice option when you have a dozen programs that need exiting nicely in case they lose data.
Programs. And not just games, Windows has Fireworks and Dreamweaver, the two most used applications on my machine. I can use a different code IDE easily but without Fireworks I'm lost. And GIMP sucks.
Speed. XP can get slow, real slow. Our old family machine takes upwards of five minutes to get working, enough time to make a cup of tea. A fresh install on my media centre however is up and working in less than 30 seconds, much faster than Ubuntu has ever archived.
Customisability. I've skinned windows, used Tweak UI a bit but there comes a point where you can do little more without resorting to more drastic measures (Litestep anyone?). Linux soars ahead here, anything and everything is fair game. I changed the transparency of menu items today, let's see XP or even Vista hit that.
Vista. Vista is a pile of crap. I've used it enough to see that. It's the death knell of Windows, the signal that the times are changing and Microsoft will have to do something to keep up. Vista will flatly refuse to do anything but the basic functionality on my machine whereas Ubuntu can play videos simultaneously while spinning like a cube without any performance hit.
Compatibility. Everything is made for Windows, everything works on Windows. My phone management software is Win only and so far no equivalent on Linux can support this particular model. Been able to buy something and know with reasonable certainty it will work in XP is invaluable. I got an old TV tuner card and managed to get drivers for Windows, Linux had no hope.
Undeletable files. These continually pop up when deleting folders and drive me nuts, so far I haven't encountered anything like this on Ubuntu.
Defragmentation. Despite what some say I can definitely tell when I need to defrag my XP machine, Ubuntu avoids this inherent instability saving me a few hours each month. And it remains consistent in terms of performance, unlike the rollercoaster ride of an XP life cycle.
Games. I mainly play a mix of Counter Strike 1.6, True Combat: Elite and Defcon. Two of these can be played natively on Linux with the first compatible under WINE. The performance difference though is noticeable in some points.

Overall both operating systems are about equal in my own opinion, I'm not going to add up the totals of both above because quite simply I've missed some points I'm sure are more important to others. Ultimately Ubuntu offers a myriad of advantages over XP but the sheer monopoly Windows has holds off any attempt to defect. Fireworks, Office and a slew of other applications either run better on Windows or just don't have equivalents on Linux. WINE has come a long way but it still can't fully replicate all the functionality I need.

I will continue to try and use both OSs side by side but I wonder how long it will be before Ubuntu falls into disuse. For all the advantages it brings to the table XP denies it the ability to compete fairly. I can live without compiz, without the inherent power of such an open operating system but I can't go a week without Fireworks. And there is always the Mac option as a last resort.

Ubuntu

Luke Lanchester — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 04:57:00 -0800

I'll be brutally honest; I've used Windows computers for most of my life, I use them at work and at home. I've dabbled in other OSs, using knoppix to partition drives, playing around on Macs and running many a live cd over the years. And yet none have ever really struck me as a viable alternative to Windows. Has the latest and great distro of Linux, Ubuntu, managed to shake that feeling?

Well yes and no. I installed the last version of Ubuntu, 7.04, a few months ago and got sick of it pretty quickly. It detected the vast majority of hardware but when I swapped graphics cards X threw a wobbly and defaulted to a CLI. Windows on the other hand recognised the lost card, searched for a new one and used that instead. Once I got everything working I realised just how slowly it ran, XP could boot in ~30 seconds whereas Ubuntu would still be chugging along a minute later. And once in it was like wading through treacle the entire time, programs would take an eternity to load, a single click could result in the program fading to grey and returning to XP was like a breath of fresh air.

But I battled on in vain. I went back to XP to await the next version, Gutsy Gibbon. After installing it on my secondary PC and encountering none of the problems I did before (mount tables I'm looking at you), I decided to put it onto my primary Dell machine for a real try. Again installation was quick and painless, with the familiar (and god ugly) orange and brown interface appearing quickly. Boot times were comparable to XP (but considering XP has been installed for two years now that's probably not a good thing). The new compiz effects were nice, something I never managed to get working before. But once more I was left feeling like I had downgraded. Firefox would regularly take upwards of ten seconds to load, applications would become slow to the point of non-responsive if I did too much at once and I couldn't stand the interface. But this time I wouldn't be beaten.

Firstly I disabled all file indexing systems, I don't need all this search stuff. Suddenly the interface was snappy, CPU usage down to a few percent at most and memory decreased by almost 50Mb (which is a lot on 512Mb). I could have rhythmnbox playing in the background with Open Office open and not worry about a slow down at all. For the firefox solution I stumbled upon Swiftfox, a brilliant program that simply optimises firefox for platform and processor. Now I can access the web in under 2 seconds, nearly as quickly as regular firefox on XP. Why there is such a delay is beyond me, not even preload could speed it up. With everything set up and working I could begin to use Ubuntu properly.

A week on I'm still here having delved back to XP only once to access a few required programs and features. And therein lies Ubuntu's biggest sticking point as my OS, it simply does not have the programs I need. Dreamweaver has been my primary code editor of choice for years now (none of that WYSIWYG stuff for me), but I can easily migrate to a new environment. It was Fireworks which I miss most. There's the Gimp but that's about it on Linux, and considering how much I hated Photoshop somehow I don't see myself using that. WINE currently doesn't support Fireworks so that leaves me with a great OS but no use for it.

And Ubuntu really is a great OS. I've messed about with themes, tweaked it to my likings and I could quite easily spend my days working in it, but without the likes of Fireworks I just can't stay. I am seeking out alternatives to my programs (expect many a post about that, music players first), but for web stuff XP is still my only option for design. I love the compiz effects, this Dell has just a basic integrated graphics chipset and yet it can handle playing two videos simultaneously while spinning like a cube, something Vista wouldn't even attempt.

There are parts of Ubuntu, and Linux in general, that annoy me, but considering I come from a Windows background that's not unlikely. I managed to get a LAMP system up and running in an half an hour (should have just got the Server edition I realised afterwards), but compared to the five minutes it takes me install it on Windows that's surprisingly long. Synaptic is great for adding new programs but for those that aren't available it can be a right pain to compile and install them.

I will carry on using Ubuntu, most of my services are web based already (Gmail, Google Reader, Google Docs (see a pattern emerging)), and I've set up mount points for my XP partition and media drive so I can access most of my old files. I'm looking for alternatives to Windows programs so throw in some suggestions if you have any. For now I'll switch between the two, enjoying the best of both worlds.

30 Days of Night

Luke Lanchester — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 08:14:00 -0800

The artwork is reminiscent of the graphical novel

For thirty days every winter the small town of Barrow in northern Alaska sees no sunlight, only perpetual darkness remains. It's the perfect winter retreat for a bunch of vampires looking for some good old fashioned fun. With the residents cut off from all outside help it seems like easy pickings, but then the prey puts up a fight. 30 Days of Night is one of those films with a fresh idea but that could have been executed so much better.

It's a good film, no doubt about it. It seems to have that air of 80s B-Movie gore about it, in no part thanks to production help from Sam Raimi, while still being fresh and modern. Casting a lesser well known lead role would have seemed like a better choice, but Josh Hartnett manages to pull off his performance well alongside a good cast of character actors.

The gore is brilliant, definitely not for the squeamish, while avoiding the over-the-top nastiness of Saw. The vampires themselves look suitably different enough not to be confused with those from every other vamp flick of the past decade. The camera work is fast paced when it needs to be and the action and effects are excellently shot. But then 30 Days of Night falters.

The breaks in time, as the film jumps from the first day to the seventh and onwards, are disconcerting. The survivors say they have enough food to last the month yet we never see any stocks or supplies in their hides. Perhaps the most annoying thing though is the lack of darkness. It's the dead of winter, the sun never comes above the horizon and there is no power to the town so surely it should be total darkness outside. Yet to help make it more obvious what's going on the director decided to cast a soft glow across the entire town, almost like a white night-vision mode. All this serves to do is ruin any possible tension. Is there a vampire in the darkness creeping up on the hapless hero? Well yes, because you can see it quite clearly climbing across the roof towards him.

This is supposed to be a night scene, totally pitch black to the characters

On the actors part they do pretend very well to be blind and I know it would have been much harder to do it in almost total darkness, but there just isn't the same level of fear when you, the audience, can see what's coming. If the only source of light was the actors torch beam, or perhaps a vampire-esque vision mode, then the encounters would have been much more sudden; evil jumping from the darkness only to vanish again just as quickly.

30 Days of Night is a good action film, the initial fight between the town residents and the invaders is excellent with some particularly beautiful aerial shots, but when the survivors hunker down and fear should set in all we're left with is a soft glow and the realisation that it's going to be a long wait for morning. The final battle is both unexpected and over far too quickly with the ending following on too soon. I doubt there'll be a sequel, but I'm glad. This is a good film worth watching, but I wouldn't bother picking it up on DVD.

My rating: 71%

The Bourne Ultimatum

Luke Lanchester — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 07:22:00 -0800

It's been a long time since I've read the original Bourne trilogy, started by Ludlum almost thirty years ago now. Here was a book with a plot so complex and characters so detailed you could be forgiven for thinking Ludlum had some inside knowledge of CIA operations. So when the films started rolling out I watched them with trepidation, hoping Hollywood hadn't butchered a masterpiece for some quick cash. I was not disappointed.

The first film was amazing quite simply. In a time when Bond was becoming increasingly ludicrous here was a young agent who didn't know who he was, where he was going or how he was going to get there. His progression throughout the first film was fresh and natural, the perfectly choreographed fight scenes organic and almost reflexive. Damon should have won an award for his role as the title character but the film received little attention from the awards ceremonies.

Naturally the films couldn't follow the books, the time difference would have alienated most viewers, but luckily a suitable replacement has been found. I still prefer the rich plotting in the novels, which if you haven't read are a must. Perhaps the biggest deviation between the mediums however was the death of Bourne's love interest in the second film, compared to their eventual marriage and family in the books. However the film used the emotions generated by such a traumatic event well, spurring Bourne on to seek vengeance against those responsible. The second film was good, but it didn't contain the same raw power the first portrayed, leaving me wanting more.

And so earlier this month I saw the third film and wondered just what they could do to push Bourne on to further escapades. The main storyline concerns Jason trying to find out where his life in treadstone began, alongside mentions of blackbriar and numerous other CIA black ops exploits. I think the story is the weakest part of this film, in the first two movies there wasn't so much a plot as a driving force, pushing Bourne on to find out who he was and how he could deal with the world he found himself in. Ultimatum seemed to contain a plot merely to keep Bourne moving between locales, which are as always beautifully realised. Tangiers was a particular favourite with the chase scenes full of the fast pacing which Greengrass seems to love.

Perhaps the best characteristic of Ultimatum, and indeed all three films, are the fight scenes. From ball-point pen, to rolled up newspaper, to a book in the final outing, Bourne takes whatever's at hand and puts it to devastating effect. Damon flows effortlessly through the fight scenes, with every move both artistic and brutal in form. Compared to Bond and his reliance on gadgets and guns (though Casino Royale was much better), Bourne is a breath of fresh air.

Ultimately Ultimatum is a great film, the ending intentionally reminiscent of where we first met Bourne cast adrift in turbulent waters. There may be a fourth film which would be welcomed but I can't help but feel if the writers had tried to more closely follow the books they could have created a much tighter trilogy. A great movie, but Identity is still my favourite of the series.

My rating: 84%

Comment Spam Follow-up

Luke Lanchester — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 09:55:00 -0800

I've written before about my troubles with comment spam and gave a few metrics as to how my system had been performing before but it's now been working for almost two months and I thought it high time to show just how well it's been holding up. Firstly some performance tables.

Name	September (Num)	September (%)	November (Num)	November (%)
page load	434	18.94%	2,974	23.57%
not spam	1,265	55.22%	7,615	60.36%
don't fill me in	1	0.04%	1	0.01%
language filter	360	15.71%	1,221	9.68%
link spam	230	10.04%	804	6.37%
flood prevention	1	0.04%	1	0.01%
totals	2,291	100.00%	12,616	100.00%
missed spam	4	0.17%	8	0.06%

As you can see I've had just four more spam slip through the net in the past month or so, and they've all been single word gibberish. The not spam checkbox has pulled even further into the lead with over 60% of all spam been stopped by it with only the direct page load prevention also rising percentage wise.

The overall data has become more normalised as well, the number of spam attempts per day has fallen from approximately 280 to 220 (that's still over eighty thousand spam a year). Perhaps I just wrote my first article during a particularly bust week, but hopefully it's a sign of the times.

In fact, the only reason I'm writing this little piece at all, besides making me feel all warm inside that I only get one spam in sixteen hundred, is that a friend recently complained about the excessive amount of rubbish he was having to deal with on a daily basis. And I can sympathise entirely. The last version of HybridLogic had only basic comment validation, there was no spam protection at all and I paid for it daily waking up to an inbox full of comment moderation links.

If anyone wants to incorporate the ideas mentioned here feel free to do so. I've been meaning to write a WordPress plugin to handle this but have yet to find the time so if anyone else wants to take up the challenge be my guest. I'll most likely do another follow up post in ten months time, it will be nice to see how my forecasts on numbers pan out a year on. Until then, just keep on trying different methods to block the rubbish.

Start Menu Clearing

Luke Lanchester — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 09:25:00 -0800

The start menu is, despite Microsoft's attempts to rebrand it, the starting place for most actions on Windows, with the Programs menu containing most of the programs installed on your machine. But is that long list of programs becoming just a bit too big to handle? Here's how to shorten it down to something a bit more usable.

First things first, the Programs menu is actually just a folder found in C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\Start Menu. One thing to note however is that there is a second start menu folder found in All Users, this contains shortcuts shared across multiple user accounts. This tutorial assumes you're a single user on your machine and as such uses the all users folder. If you're not the only person on the computer take a look at the note at the end. Now on with the customisation.

1. Open Programs folder. Right-click on start button and hit open or navigate to C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\Start Menu. Open the Programs folder.

2. Select all files and folders and cut (ctrl-x or Edit > Cut).

3. Navigate to the All Users Programs folder (C:\Documents and Settings\llanches\Start Menu). Go up three levels and navigate back down or right click on the start menu and hit open all users.

4. Paste your Program menu contents into this folder. If you get a conflict i.e. two files or folders named the same, choose to overwrite.

5. Create a new folder and call it Office. Select any application or folder that is related to office productivity, for example Microsoft Office, Visio, Dreamweaver etc and drag and drop it into this newly created folder.

6. Next make another folder called Games and move any games into it. Repeat for other general areas such as Internet, Utilities etc until you have just your newly created menus left.

7. Open your start menu and enjoy your freshly created sub-menus.

As a final tip you can add icons to the folders to aid in spotting them. Simply right-click on the folder itself in either Explorer or on the start menu, and go Properties > Customise > Change icon.

For those on a shared machine you won't be able to use the All Users program menu as it will affect everyone else using the computer. Begin by copying the contents of C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs. Now open the Program folder for each of the users on the computer and paste the contents in. Finally go back to the All Users programs folder and delete everything in it. Now you can open your program folder and follow on from step five above.

How To Rip A DVD To XviD

Luke Lanchester — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 07:14:00 -0700

I've recently set up a media centre and have begun copying all of my films onto an external hard-drive to save me having to swap discs every time I want to watch a film. I spent a long time looking for a good freeware app that can handle this but none could do the whole process. Eventually I settled on ImToo DVD Ripper which costs about £20, but the trial version rips the first five minutes showing what its output is like. Here's a quick and dirty guide on how to rip your (legal) DVD collection to your pc.

The default DVD Ripper screen, click for larger image

Download ImToo DVD Ripper Platinum here, the version used in this guide is 4.0.88. Once you've finished downloading, install and run the program and you should get a screen like this:

The section on the right contains all the settings for your audio and video output, as well as a video preview window. The bottom section contains your profiles, including the output type and location. Finally the main window will display your dvd title information.

To begin select XviD Movie from the Profile box at the bottom of the screen, leaving zoom and split to letterbox and infinite respectively. Change the destination folder to where you want your ripped movie to be saved. In the right hand window change the video size to 640x360 (assuming you are ripping a 16:9 widescreen film). Also change the bit rate to 900, you will have to type this in manually as the options are only general settings. In the Audio pane change the bit rate to 160, this time selecting it from the dropdown menu. These settings affect the quality of your outputted film with higher being better but at the expense of filesize. You can experiment with different values until you find a combination you're happy with.

Title information shown, click for larger image

You're now all set to rip your first film. Insert your DVD and hit the open DVD button (located just above the profile selection box). Select your DVD drive and DVD Ripper will load your disc, displaying each title found, for example the film Fight Club looks like this when loaded:

Some films may have many titles, so look for the one containing the main film, usually the one with the longest length. DVD Ripper will attempt to name the titles but don't rely on this as some films can be mislabelled. Deselect all titles using the top most checkbox before ticking only those titles you wish to encode. To rename a title press F2 or use the title box just above the DVD titles view window. Your ripped movie will be outputted using the title as its filename.

Now simply hit the red Start ripping button and sit back and wait. Depending upon your computer, the length of the film and the quality settings you've entered the ripping process can take several hours to complete. Once it's completed open the destination folder you selected and enjoy your newly ripped movie.

If your film will not play or only sound is heard etc try using the VLC media player which can handle the XviD codec along with many other formats. If in future you wish to simplify the process you can save your output format and settings as a new profile using the Save As button located next to the profile dropdown menu.

As a final note, the process of ripping ones own collection to their computer may be deemed illegal based upon the copyright laws of their respective country. Make sure you’re in the right before starting and I can not be held liable for any wrongdoing on your own part.

A Grindhouse Anthology

Luke Lanchester — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 09:03:00 -0700

I've watched a lot of Tarantino's films over the years. Pulp Fiction remains one of my all time favourite movies, Reservoir Dogs was excellent and he's done a good few roles in TV shows like Alias. When he announced his latest project, two films packaged as one my curiosity was piqued, perhaps he'd be able to break the Hollywood mould that's become increasingly prevalent recently.

Maybe I should have just stuck with the Hollywood films. Grindhouse just doesn't work, plain and simple. Perhaps it would be easier to break it down by each film to explain why though.

Death Proof

Death Proof, perhaps the least exciting car film since Tokyo Drift.

Kurt Russell, who's nearly 60 now and looks it, is a maniac stunt driver who likes killing women with his car. Not that that seems important to Tarantino who instead spends at least two thirds of the film following groups of girls chat, play stupidly and give lap dances. It seems Tarantino has a thing for sex seeing as how it seems to be one of the main driving forces in both films. It wouldn't even be so bad if it wasn't so overdone.

And when the plot does eventually come around to the action scenes they're not that much better. They either go by so fast you don't know what happened, so Tarantino helpfully replays it back a multitude of times, taking in every gory decapitation and death. Or, they last so long you become so bored you want them to die just to stop their idiotic jabbering.

There was nothing to like in this film. The plot was shallow, the characters pointless car fodder and the camera work slow at best, jarringly annoying at worst.

Planet Terror

Planet Terror, the range of leg based projectile weapons just keeps on growing.

This film should have made me happy, harking back to the old days of B movie small town zombie infestations. And maybe that's why it failed so badly. I came away thinking I'd just watched the new Scary Movie does John Carpenter. The first thing you notice are the overbearingly tacked on film effects to try and make the whole thing look older but merely serving to annoy. The fake 'missing reel' warnings just interrupt the plot, serving no purpose other than to satisfy Tarantino's quest for the perfect 70s B movie film.

The effects are either brilliantly realised as in the case of McGowan's fake leg, or awfully awful when it comes to the zombie make-up effects. I know Tarantino wanted this to be like an old school zombie flick, but not even Carpenter was this bad and the Thing can make most laugh now at its outrageous pieces. The whole fake leg with gun seemed unique yet distinctly pointless. The characters weren't even one dimensional and Tarantino's starring role was just sickening. I can't believe the stars attached to this flick decided to go along with it. This is definitely one of the worst films I've seen in a long, long time.

Grindhouse

I think the single worst factor in both of these films in Tarantino. His cameo in Death Proof was barely passable but in Planet Terror became downright wrong. When will he understand he works behind the camera for a reason? These films go beyond cheesy, beyond bad, to a whole new level of utter rubbish. How the critics could praise them I don't know, but at least the audiences know what they like as both of these films have flopped. Maybe Tarantino will go back to making proper films, just not another Grindhouse or Kill Bill piece of rubbish.

Now Coding, Not Suitable for Under PHP 5

Luke Lanchester — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 08:04:00 -0700

PHP; it seems to be the driving force behind a great many websites on the Net, from the humblest of blogs to some of the major applications we use everyday. And yet I'm flummoxed by the continued use of version 4. All of the code I've written recently requires PHP 5 or above, and the reasons are plain to see.

Firstly, PHP 4 is old. It was released way back in 2000 and has since reached version 4.4, but ultimately it's long in the tooth. It's missing many of the new features in 5 and can barely claim to be an object-orientated language. The final nail in the coffin however is that Zend, makers of PHP, are going to stop development come the end of this year, with support following eight months later. Hopefully this will force all of those slow web hosts dotted around the Net to update to the latest version.

The new and improved features of PHP 5 should have been enough to make most users switch without hesitation. I've recently started programming in OOP and as soon as I began I realised that PHP 4 just couldn't cut it. It fails in almost every regard when it comes to basic object handling, whereas 5 follows other languages much more closely. Even if you don't use OOP the new version has more than enough updates to warrant upgrading, with numerous functions added that just simplify code across the board along with performance enhancements on many common tasks.

As such, when I started my latest major project (still under wraps), I decided to forgo supporting PHP 4 in favour of making something that was faster, more powerful and much simpler in code. Of course I'm going to cut a slice of my possible market out, but at the end of the day the potential number of extra users just isn't worth the increase in time and effort it would take for me to use PHP 4. Sure some apps will stay behind to support PHP 4 for as long as possible, but I feel they're just holding themselves and their users back.

To all those who continue to run version 4, what are you waiting for? PHP 6 is slated to be released sometime around the decommission of version 4 showing just how far the language has come in such a short amount of time. Naturally it's going to be a few more years before everyone moves to the latest incarnation, but I'm just letting you all know, I no longer support PHP 4.

Moving Ever Onwards

Luke Lanchester — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 07:09:00 -0700

This is just a short post to explain what's going on in my life at the moment. You may find it interesting to read but ultimately I'm simply jotting down my thoughts so that come this time next year I'll be able to look back and see how far I've come. So, by all means read on if you are so inclined.

Firstly I've successfully completed my A-Levels in Maths, Physics and ICT receiving passes in all three. I'm now moving on to study a degree in Computing at the University of Central England which should be good fun and give me a great opportunity to continue my learning. I begin next week so updates to the site and side projects may become rather sporadic but don't worry, I'll always be here pulling the strings behind the scenes.

On a slightly related note, I passed my UK Driving Theory test with 49 out of 50 on the multiple choice section and 53 out of 75 on the hazard perception side. Now I merely need to learn how to drive and pass my practical exam. But it will be good when I've finally got my independence to drive around on my own.

On the technical side I've got several projects still in the works having taken a short break over the Summer. Recoil has taken a backseat while I work on another system that utilises its base, but I will hopefully be able to release it one day. And speaking of the aforementioned project, it has since passed its 0.1 alpha and I've begun to give it a proper test run on my development server. Still no details yet, there's a lot more work needed to be done to it (a name and website for one!) but it should definitely be useful to a great many people.

SnakeDust has been collecting dust for a few months but only because I haven't found the time to work on the new version. Expect the posts to continue though, between exams, holidays and UCAS we haven't had much time to continually update it. As a side note, if you wish to be a guest writer on SD you can find out more on the Guests page and follow the email link to send us your articles. We're looking for a whole host of new writers come version 2, so get mailing.

And that's basically what's happened and is happening to me in the next few months. I've got a tonne of backlogged games, books and films to review not to mention a dozen more tutorials for everything from Fireworks to PHP so stay tuned, it's all coming your way.

How I Beat Comment Spam

Luke Lanchester — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 05:08:00 -0700

In the 18 months this blog has been online I've received on average eight thousand comment spams each month, totalling up to almost 150,000 adverts to help me with my sex and financial situations. In that time I've implemented various methods to try and stem the tide while keeping clear of blocking the users experience. Here is a detailed explanation of each of the methods I use and the statistics for one weeks usage to show the success rates for each one.

Page Load

While not a method in itself, I found it odd just how many spam bots try to load my comment script directly and pass it data, both GET and POST. Maybe this works on blog systems like WordPress, but my custom system is immune to such attempts.

Not Spam Checkbox

This was one of the first spam-prevention techniques I introduced, based upon Neo-Geeks[URL] implementation on his own site. Overnight this cut the amount of spam appearing on my site in half and it's remained fairly constant since last August. Perhaps the riskiest of my non-user-intruding methods as it relies upon JavaScript to be auto-ticked, it has nonetheless been invaluable.

Don't Fill Me In

A recent introduction, this is simply a hidden form field with a label stating don't put anything in here. Any human (with styles disabled or using a screen reader) will naturally steer clear of it, but a bot, designed to pour its foul message into any receptacle would fill it up instantly.

Language Filter

I've always tried to avoid being overly restrictive here for the simply fact that a human can easily get a false positive against one of these. Block the word Viagra and anyone making a valid comment about getting spam for that product on their site will find themselves rejected. Blocking 'buy really cheap insurance online right now at this site' on the other hand is more than fair.

Link Spam

A lot of blog systems utilise this system, checking the number of links found in any comment message. I've set mine to quite a low threshold at five, but I found that in the entire comment history for this site the most links I've ever had made is two so five is quite high in comparison. As a final point I simply use explode on http://www. (after parsing links) to count the number of links found, rather than use a more expensive regex.

Flood Prevention

Alongside the language filter this was the first anti-spam method I introduced, mainly to combat actual humans abusing my blog. It very rarely sees any use though, it seems most visitors to this site are genuinely good people. It is also the last check on the line so will only work against genuine commentors.

A very important part of all of these systems is that they tell the user what they did wrong and give them the chance to rectify it. I don't like moderation queues, I don't like out-right rejection so I felt this stop off worked very well.

A final note needs to go to how I track the stats for each method. All comments get sent to the comment.php script which runs through the checks detailed above. Because of the hierarchal structure of this checklist, a comment could potentially fail multiple tests but only be recorded upon its failure. As such I've listed the tests in the order they would fail on i.e. if a comment would fail both the not spam and link spam tests it would only be recorded as a not spam failure.

The Results

These are the results for my blog for the week starting Sunday 2nd September 2007. These results are indicative of the past 18 months based upon average statistics collected.

Rank	Name	Actual Number	Percentage
2	page load	434	18.94%
1	not spam	1265	55.22%
5	don't fill me in	1	0.04%
3	language filter	360	15.71%
4	link spam	230	10.04%
5	flood prevention	1	0.04%
	Total	2291	100.00%

As you can see the not spam checkbox still keeps over 50% of spam away with the rest of the methods catching the rest. In fact, in the past few weeks using all of these systems together I have had four, read that 4, spam comments get through. That's less than 0.0005% of spam messages getting through per month!

So overall I think I've found a very good combination to finally combat the slew of advertisements. Naturally I expect some spam to still get through, no system is perfect and the bots will get increasingly smarter so no doubt more checks will have to be added in the future, but for now any respite is welcome. On the other hand false positives are becoming increasingly rarer as I've been able to relax my language filter, rather than relying on it as the sole source of protection. And all this without relying on an external service (askimet) or hindering the user (CAPTCHAs).

P.S. In the time it's taken me to write this article I've had six spam attempts. They just never stop.

The Simpsons Movie

Luke Lanchester — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 15:37:00 -0700

It's been a long time coming; it seems every other TV based show has eventually made the transition to the big screen, yet the Simpsons have held off for eighteen long years. So when the film was finally released I went to see it with baited breath. I'd heard negative reviews, criticisms that it didn't live up to the expectations set forth but I went on regardless. And I loved it!

Another mob after the Simpsons; will they ever remember where they live?

I'll be blunt, this film doesn't feel like a film. If anything it's more like an extended episode, but that's fine. The Simpsons always felt like an entire tale squished into twenty minutes of TV goodness, whereas now they have the space to expand, to breathe and fit in more and more of the fine humour. The film never faltered for a moment, there weren't any points that weren't funny or felt as if they had been added on. The jokes kept on coming, the references to episodes past bringing a sense of nostalgia and the slick movement between pieces fitting wonderfully into the hour and a half of film.

The plot is basic in terms of other movies, again more like an actual episode than film. I'm grateful the cartoonists didn't follow South Parks lead, a musical version just wouldn't have worked as well. The beginning, middle and end all felt tightly knit, the eventual conclusion just as unlikely as the events that inspired it. The direction was good, the jokes were great and I'd recommend any Simpsons fan going to see this film.

My rating: 88%

Five common PHP shortcuts

Luke Lanchester — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 16:48:00 -0700

Programmers are lazy. It's inevitable, it's what makes programmers program, the desire to reduce the work load down to its bare essentials. In the infinite wisdom, why say five words when three will suffice. As such I present to you a list of common PHP shortcuts that will help to cut down the amount of code you have to write while still retaining all the functionality and usability you would come to expect. Soon these will become second nature, as simple as an if statement.

1) The Ternary Operator

Instead of writing this:

if(expression) {
$variable = 'true value';
} else {
$variable = 'false value';
}

Simply write:

$variable = (expression)?'true value':'false value';

More information on the ternary operator can be found here.

2) The simplified IF/foreach statement

If you find yourself writing an if statement to perform a single operation why not condense it down to a single line, omitting the curly braces. For example:

if(is_array($array)) {
print_array($array);
}

Becomes:

if(is_array($array)) print_array($array);

This also works for the foreach construct.

3) Numerical operators

While working with loops you will often find yourself incrementing numbers to keep track of what iteration you're on. A small shortcut can shave off a few precious characters, instead of having to write:

$i = $i + 1;

You can simply write:

$i++;

Which achieves exactly the same thing. Also note that you can use double minus signs to decrement the value instead. As a final point if you put the signs before the variable then the value of the variable will be incremented (or decremented) and the new value used instead. For more information click here.

4) The Switch statement

A common task is writing a long list of if elseif statements to evaluate a variable. While this is effective there is a task that is more suited to this purpose, introducing the switch statement.

Instead of:

if($var == 1) {
    echo 'var is equal to one';
} elseif($var == 2) {
    echo 'var is equal to two';
} else {
    echo 'var is not equal to one or two';
}

Use this:

switch ($var) {
case 1:
    echo 'var is equal to one';
    break;
case 2:
    echo 'var is equal to two';
    break;
default:
    echo 'var is not equal to one or two';
}

Although it may appear longer (defeating the whole point of this exercise) it improves code readability and makes updating your code easier later on. More information on the switch statement can be found here.

5) Use a framework

Okay, I admit it, this isn't exactly a shortcut, however if you really want to cut down on the amount of code you have to write using a framework is the only logical answer. There are numerous options appearing everyday, you just have to find one you like the most. Some frameworks (such as CakePHP) can do almost everything for you automatically, however those craving a bit more control can choose the newly released Zend Framework which is merely a large collection of classes to cover your every need. There are numerous other choices, Code Igniter being another popular choice, but I suggest giving them all a shot and finding the one that suits you best.

Using a framework cuts out the tedious repetitive work that normally accompanies web app development. Handling form data, database access, user permission, can all be taken care of with a few simple lines saving precious hours in development time.

So that was my list of common shortcuts to aid in the development of your 'next big app'. Good luck.

And So It Ends; Harry Potter 7

Luke Lanchester — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 15:54:00 -0700

I put off reading the first few Harry Potter books for several years; I preferred science fiction, action, horror, not some childish notions of witchcraft and wizardry. I watched the first film and decided to give the books a go. Admittedly the first two were weak and childish but I found the third book very well written with a strong sense of character and plot emerging. Goblet of Fire started trailing towards the end and I all but gave up reading books five and six, feeling as if I were reading nothing but a prelude to the final chapter in the saga. I got book seven on the day of release but took my time reading it, not wanting to rush a good thing.

And the Deathly Hallows started off abysmally. Rowling could have cut the first five hundred pages and the sense of pace and urgency would have been all the more better off for it. Harry, Hermione, and at some points Ron, flit between hiding place to hiding place, doing nothing more exciting than talking and plotting, a few events spread out within the vast expanses of ultimately nothingness. Yes the writing is decent, yes the characters are believable, but this book is supposed to be about finishing a war, not sitting round in a comfy tent wondering where some objects are hidden.

They've come a long way since the first book; for better or for worse

It seems odd that while the first five hundred pages cover a period of several months, the final two hundred pages chronicle only a very short period of time, yet contain infinitely more involving action. Finally the battle we'd all been promised, finally the great confrontation between man and boy, even if it is one of the most anti-climatic fights I've ever read, could finally come to an end. Maybe it's because I'm coming down from action-only novels such as Temple by Matthew Reilly, maybe it's because it's been so long in the coming, but the book just feels to stop and start throughout, leaving the ending as nothing more than a neat summary of Harry's life.

The ending is predictable and J K has obviously left it wide open to continue writing, as if she needs any more excuses to milk the series for money. The fan community will undoubtedly love the ending, they have everything they need to carry on the tale, but for me the whole thing felt like Rowling grew bored and decided to just end it. Sure she wrote the last chapter ten years ago, it doesn't feel like it. I'm trying to tip-toe around the spoilers but anyone who's reading this will most probably have read the book by now anyway. It is good, but it could have been so much better. Plots are wrapped up almost too neatly, characters have changed, we're treated to memories taking in every aspect of Potter's life, but all of it feels unneeded.

The quests for various artefacts intermingle until eventually you don't care what the trio are looking for as long as they're actually out looking for it and not just sitting around and talking about things. The daring raids and narrow escapes are brilliant, but they're few and far between, feeling more like a Lord of the Rings film. The romances seem to have blossomed almost too quickly, deaths occur with no warning and no chance to reflect, by the end of the book you're left wondering whether any of the characters even remember what had happened to them such is their ignorance of the past.

Harry Potter has come to an end, now hopefully all those kids who think the world of literature consists of wizards and magic can reach out and find new avenues to explore. Potter will go down in history, parents will read it to their children for years to come, but as an example of brilliant writing and creative storytelling I think it pales in comparison to some of the better examples of classic literature.

And just think, we have another two films, countless games and spin off books to come yet.

My rating: 82%

Transformers

Luke Lanchester — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 05:17:00 -0700

What can I say. I used to watch some of the transformers episodes as a kid, had an Optimus Prime toy that I played with until all the wheels had fallen off and had basically forgotten about that lost facet of my childhood until I heard a film was in production. My hopes were bolstered when I learnt Michael Bay was at the helm, having loved his previous work. So last Saturday I went to see it and came away in two minds.

I was pretty young when I watched the TV series so I didn't really know much about the whole back story concerning the two warring factions, instead enjoying the action. The film however, helpfully explains the battle between the Decepticons and the Autobots. The robots themselves are beautifully animated, their unique characters and appearances amazingly real. In fact the effects are absolutely outstanding, the robots battling in a metallic deathmatch, the dust falling in a show as rockets smash into walls overhead. It looks incredibly real. And that is basically the only thing I liked about this film.

Armageddon, Bad Boys, The Rock; I've liked a lot of Bay's film but this one most surely falls into the blooper pile alongside Pearl Harbour. There are numerous points that irked me throughout, some more severely than others.

First and foremost was the humour. This film didn't know whether to take itself seriously or not. One moment the characters are running from a viscous battle, the next watching as Bumblebee urinates on a Government agent. Yeah, I suppose that would make anyone under ten laugh, but to me it just felt childish and pointless. Throughout the film there are instances of humour which just don't fit in my opinion. Maybe it's because a lot of Bay's other films are aimed at older audiences, but if he had just elevated the level of wit a few notches it would have made it all the more bearable.

Next up were the humans. This is a film about machines waging a war that spills over onto the streets of Earth, not an eighteen year old kid who goes by the alias LadiesMan on eBay while trying to get laid. The humans are undoubtedly the weakest characters in this film, the robots manage to show more emotion than some of the actors. The dialogue is ropey, the human stunts are practically non-existent (I guess they spent all the money on the effects) and overall the film could have been much better if they'd just animated the people.

And finally is the camera work. The action shots in The Rock are some of the best I've ever seen, Bay has a brilliant eye for the camera, capturing everything with a perfect frantic motion. I don't know what he was doing in Transformers though. The battles between the bots are shot as if you're a human standing at their feet, staring fifty feet up in the air, meaning that not only can you barely make out whose hitting who but you almost develop an imaginary crick in your neck. Where are all the long shots, taking in all the action so you can really watch the heat of the battle? This felt just like AvP all over again.

Don't get me wrong, this is my opinion of the film. I went to see it with friends and all of them came away loving it with not a bad thing to say against it. Perhaps it's just because I've come to expect great things from Michael Bay and Stephen Spielberg, but this film was a massive letdown. I will eventually get in on DVD, I'm sure the extras will be interesting to watch, but I can't help but feel this film could have been just so much better.

My rating: 63%

Heroes

Luke Lanchester — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 15:46:00 -0700

It has been a long time since I've watched something on TV that has so completely enthralled me. The most recent season of 24, usually more addictive than crack, seemed to have lost much of its earlier oomph and there aren't many other programs on TV that can keep me watching each and every week. Until Heroes started on BBC2 that is.

Looking at the premise for the series, ordinary people across the world finding out they have super-powers, doesn't really sound like something I'd normally be interested in. Sure it has some familiar faces and the ads looked nice but I was doubtful I'd find more than just something to fill up an hour of my time. By the end of the first episode however, with its cliff hanger ending, I knew my Wednesday nights for the next few weeks have been booked.

The first thing I noticed was the superbly written script, something I've found lacking from a lot of recent programming. The characters all appear believable and even though you're introduced to a lot of new faces very quickly each is individual enough that you can remember one before moving on to the next. Admittedly there wasn't much actual action in the first two episodes I've seen, a far cry from the breakneck violence of 24, but it created an excellent sense of just glimpsing the surface of the mysteries within. The current plot seems to be just the beginning of a massive story arc, the main characters having barely even met each other yet, but I can't wait for next weeks show already. And the inclusion of a cliff hanger at the end of each episode harks back to the old days of Doctor Who, waiting with baited breath for relief the following week.

I know the first season has been shown elsewhere and is already on sale in some countries so I'm doing my best to avoid any spoilers. I've heard about the season finale but no specifics and for now that's the way I want to keep it. So, if anyone else hasn't started watching Heroes, now's the time to begin. And if you have, please don't spoil it for the rest of us.

Customising XP

Luke Lanchester — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 08:31:00 -0700

I get a lot of questions about how I've got my version of Windows XP to look and work the way it does. Rather than me have to rattle off a list of applications/processes each time someone new asks I thought it would be much simpler to collect my most common tweaks into one central collection. By the end of this post you'll have windows looking and working just the way you want it to. And all without spending a penny.

Custom Themes

Windows XP after a fresh lick of paint. Shown here is the Tiger theme.

By default XP comes with three themes, each as ugly as the next, alongside Windows Classic. You can use third-party programs to skin windows; some, such as Windows Blinds, simply run on top of explorer whereas others like Litestep will fully replace the windows shell. The easiest method I’ve found though is to simply patch Windows so that you can run your own themes directly from within XP. This means you get no performance overhead and can easily switch back to the default theme should you wish to. To do this you will need the UX Theme Patcher, available here. Once you’ve run this small program you will be able to down and install hundreds of themes.

Yz Dock

YzDock containing some of my most commonly used applications. Ten points to those who know all.

Although a blatant rip off of the Mac’s dock, this little utility adds a helpful panel to your screen, containing your most commonly used applications. To add new links, simply drag a shortcut to the bar; what could be easier. With support for skins, transparencies and nice animations, this app will add an instant wow factor to your desktop. You can download YzDock here.

Launchy

Launchy also gets smarter, showing your most accessed files first.

Who wants to spend all that time clicking through menus, hunting through folders and searching for files when everything on your computer can be just a few keystrokes away? Launchy is a lightweight keystroke launcher, which in English means you can open any file, folder or application by simply hitting alt + space and then typing what you want. The latest version of Launchy also has support for searches on Google, Wikipedia etc all from your desktop.

The first thing you have to do after installing Launchy is tell it what to search for and where. Open the directories menu (right click on the main box) and you will see an array of fields. Enter the folders you would like to scan on the left and the file extensions you are interested in on the right. I commonly search for things like .mp3, .doc, etc in My Documents. It is also useful to search for .directory, which will allow you to open any folders as well as files.

Yod'm 3D

It might look like a handful but this program because very useful, very quickly.

What can be cooler than having your desktop rotate like a cube, giving you access to multiple virtual desktops? Well Yod'm 3d gives you that capability. A virtual desktop, in case you didn’t know, allows you to have multiple ‘virtual screens’ which you can then switch between, almost as if they were separate monitors. This becomes very useful when you have multiple windows open at once and want to switch between certain groups.

Simply install Yodm3D and then use the hotkeys to switch between desktops. The cool part is that you can also hold down a hotkey and click and drag with your mouse to move between screens. If you have a powerful enough graphics card (this may be overkill on slower machines), you can even enable transparencies, allowing you to see what’s on the other desktops as you rotate.

Rainlendar

Upcoming events, todo list and a calendar view. All the necessities of life.

Calendar, todo list, events, alarms; Rainlendar has it all. Fully skinable, you can move this little app around your screen or even hide it until you need it. Installation couldn’t be simpler, and once it’s going simply double click on a day to add an event or see what’s happening on that day. Birthdays, anniversaries, exams, holidays; set them all and let Rainlendar tell you what’s coming up in the next seven days.

To customise your copy of Rainlendar so that it is always hidden until you need it, follow these steps. Right click on the Rainlendar icon and select Config. Select the hotkeys tab and then look for the ‘Toggle all windows’ action. Set the action to something you will remember, but also something that won’t conflict with other windows shortcuts (i.e. don’t use ctrl+v etc). In my case I went for ctrl+shift+1. Hit OK and then press your hotkey. Rainlendar should now disappear/reappear at your whim! On the Layout tab, you might also want to specify that Raindlendar should be ‘OnTop’ so that it appears over any windows you might have open.

Command Prompt

My final customisation is probably one of the oldest, harking back to the days of DOS and command prompt. Running back ups, launching programs in a set order, copying/moving files. Batch files can automate a lot of the routine tasks that you do on your computer day in and day out. Too broad a subject to teach here I instead give you a few links which may help you to see the power these little programs hold.

The Best of the Rest

As with any best of list there will always be those that didn’t quite make it. Utilities and programs that make life just that bit easier but don’t give enough of a boost to make an entrance here. Below are some of my favourite applications that help lighten my workload.

TagScanner
Gone are the days of manually poring over hundreds of mp3’s, sorting out ID3 tags. TagScanner can auto-magically pour over a folder, saving both time and tedium.

7Zip
No matter what the archive format, 7Zip can extract it. It’s also a hell of a lot faster than Microsoft’s built in zip extractor/compressor.

Notepad2
Notepad is all good and well, but sometimes you just need a bit more. Notepad2 boldly fills the gap between basic text editor and full blown word processor/code editor.

VLC
iTunes won’t play this, Windows Media Player can’t play that. Show them the door with VLC, a video (and audio) player that can literally play anything you throw at it.

True Combat: Elite
Imagine a game that looks better than 90% of the games out today and is also completely free! True Combat: Elite is a brilliant game with a thriving online community, hard for beginners, but definitely good fun.

Backing up a remote server to Windows with Cygwin/Rsync

Luke Lanchester — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 15:28:00 -0700

Back ups. It's something all of us know we should do regularly, yet there just never seem to be enough hours in the day to do so. Not to mention the problems of transferring all that data, keeping various copies current, copying only modified files etc. The list of obstacles just grows, ultimately leading to you tearing your hair out when your server crashes, taking all your work with it. Luckily there's a utility designed to solve this problem; introducing rsync.

Aims:
This tutorial will show you how to use rsync (in combination with Cygwin) to make a local backup of a remote web server quickly and easily. Using rsync is advantageous as it will only download new or modified files, potentially saving you massive amounts of bandwidth.

Notes:
The web server needs to be running a flavour of Linux/UNIX otherwise this won't work at all. Sorry IIS, but you just can't join the party.
You must have shell access to your web server. This isn't the same as FTP, if your host doesn't offer you shell access then you won't be able to run rsync.
The local client (your computer) can run either Linux/UNIX (including Mac OS X), or Windows (which is detailed below). If you're running *nix then you can skip the installing Cygwin section and jump ahead to Synching Up.
Make a backup using an alternative method first, just in case something does go awry. If you do lose data I'm sorry but I can't be held responsible.

Installing Cygwin

Rsync is run from a command line meaning Linux and Mac users have it easy. Us Windows users on the other hand need to install some extra software before we can get around to using rsync. Head on over to Cygwin and download the setup file. Cygwin is a 'linux-like environment for Windows' that includes a powerful set of tools allowing us access to many common Linux features, such as rsync.

The Cygwin installation process is fairly straightforward. Follow the defaults until you get to the Package selection screen, show below. You need to expand the Net section and then select the rsync package, as it is not installed by default. Complete the rest of the installation process and watch as Cygwin downloads and installs itself.

You need to select the rsync package under Net.

Run the main Cygwin executable and you should be at the same point as any Mac/Linux users who just had to open their Terminal/Command Line.

Terminal Velocity

For the rest of this tutorial we're going to be working in the Cygwin Terminal. For those who are just dipping their toes into the world of command line interfaces, don't worry, it's scarier than it looks. When you first run Cygwin you will see the screen shown below.

The default prompt in Cygwin. Not as scary as it looks, honest.

At any point you can type 'pwd' (Print Working Directory, without the quotation marks), to see where you currently are. Assuming you wish to make a local backup to C:/websites/websitename type into the command line:

mkdir /cygdrive/c/websites
mkdir /cygdrive/c/websites/websitename
cd /cygdrive/c/websites/websitename

Making sure to press enter after each line. If you get an error make sure you haven't mis-spelt the path and you have left a space between the command name and the directory location. Typing in pwd again should show that you are now in the directory you've just made. The screenshot below should show where you are now at.

You could alternatively make the domains from within Windows. Either way is fine.

On Mac and Linux make sure that you are inside the directory where you wish to download your copy of the web server to. You are now ready to use rsync!

Synching Up

The rsync command may look very long and daunting at first but in all actuality is a very simple collection of bits of data. Firstly the entire thing:

rysnc -aze ssh username@server:path .

Now let's break it down piece by piece.

rsync: This tells Cygwin that you want to run the rsync utility.
-aze: These modifiers tell rsync what options we'd like to use. a tells rsync we are using archive mode, keeping file paths etc. z compresses the data, speeding everything up and saving bandwidth and finally e lets rsync know we're connecting to a remote web server.
ssh: We're going to use Secure Shell (SSH) to connect to our web server.
Username: This is your shell username, usually the same as your FTP username.
Server: This is the server address you use to connect to your shell. It can be either an IP address or a URI. A typical example might be server.dreamhost.com. The server address must be prefixed by an @ symbol and suffixed by a colon (:) to separate it from the username and path respectively.
Path: This is the full server path to the directory that you wish to back up. Anything below this directory will be synched to your local computer. An example might be /home/username/public_html/
.: This final period (separated from the path by a space) tells rsync that we want to download the files to the directory we are currently in. You could alternatively use an absolute path instead such as /cygdrive/c/websites/websitename.

An example rsync command for my own server would look like the following:

It might be a bit anti-climatic, but rsync does its job perfectly.

Once you have entered all of your details, and assuming they are correct, hit enter. If all is successful Cygwin will not show anything happening on screen while it is working away, however once it is complete the prompt will return. If you open your local directory you should see the downloaded copy of your web server.

And that is it. To update your local copy just run the same code again and rsync will only download the necessary files! What's more you could consolidate this code into a bash script, but that's a tutorial for another time.