Ye olde geeky blog

I've had my Galaxy Note 3 for just under two months now, and the wife and I just went to Europe on a Mediterranean cruise. I took my phone with, and took quite a few panoramas. I was very impressed with them, but don't take my word for it, have a look for yourself: I didn't touch up or edit any of them. Not too shabby at all!

I've been keeping an eye on this game since they started making it. It has just reached a whopping $24 million in crowd funding, the biggest crowd funded game ever. The guys are very clever in that they've kept the channels open for more people to help fund the game. The video below shows off one of the ships you can fly in the game, and damn that Cry Engine graphics is really looking amazing! I must admit, I've been a tad skeptical about this game, but after seeing this I literally found my jaw hanging open! It's absolute eye candy, and I can't wait to see the end result of this game. And at the rate they're going in terms of funding, I'm sure they'll meet more and more stretch goals as time goes by and make the game even bigger and better! Anyway, treat yourself to the awesome footage below: Pretty sweet hey! Check out there site here:  https://robertsspaceindustries.com/

Yesterday the wife and I got our hands on our awesome new phones - the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 - boy oh boy are we impressed! So far we've both been tinkering and playing with the phones a lot! And even the wife, who used to have an iPhone 4, is totally converted! One feature I'm really enjoying so far is the stylus, or S-pen as Samsung has dubbed it. It works very well indeed! One of the features you can enable for the S-pen is that you can write instead of type using the onscreen keyboard - it is a feature that you have to enable before it works, and here's a quick run down on how to do just that: Go to Settings (easiest way to do that is press the bottom left button (next to the physical home button) while on the home screen, and tap on Settings): Tap on Controls at the top, bringing you here: Here tap on Language and Input Then the cog next to Samsung Keyboard Scroll down, and toggle Pen detection That's it, now anytime you have the...

Got confirmation that the wife and I are getting our Samsung Galaxy Note 3's today. Believe me when I say I'll post a plenty of stuff on this blog about it - can't wait! WATCH THIS SPACE!!!

After Sony launched the Z1, I was very torn between that and the Galaxy Note 3. Before that, I really wanted to go big with the Galaxy Note 3, but the Sony was just such a sleek looking device, with a huge camera and all that, that I really was thinking of going that route instead. Yesterday I phoned CellC to get started, but typically they don't stock the Z1 yet. Vodacom does, but I'm never going back them. Also, my Galaxy S2 finally died yesterday. It just hangs at the boot up screen, no matter what I do. I'm now even trying to flash the firmware, but I'm struggling with that too. Factory resetting doesn't work either. Oh woe is me! Anyway, CellC is selling the Galaxy Note 3 already, so I decided to watch some online reviews of the device, since it was my initial choice. There were two videos that sold me on the device: and Both are about 12 minutes long, and goes into quite detail on the phone. It being an awesome device is the main conclusion...

This is one of the many many reasons I like Steam so much, just look at these awesome deals: BioShock Infinite - $40.19 Bioshock 2 - $9.99 BioShock - $9.99 Civilization V - $14.99 Civ V Gods and Kings DLC - $14.99 Civ V Brave new World DLC - $20.09 Borderlands 2 - $14.99 Borderlands Game of the Year - $14.99 XCOM Enemy Unknown - $9.99 (awesome deal, 75% off!!! get it NOW!!) The Bureau: XCOM Declassified - $33.49 X-COM: Complete Pack - $3.74 Spec Ops: The Line - $14.99 The Darkness II - $14.99 Mafia II - $14.99 Duke Nukem Forever - $9.99 There's some awesome value to be had there, check it out here  - Enjoy!

Yes, this post is about Terraria again. I just cannot seem to get enough of this game lately. I think it's mostly because I'm playing with my good good friend Jayson the whole time ( follow him on Twitter ) - we actually spent the whole day yesterday playing. This post might contain some spoilers, so don't read on if you want to experience everything yourself first. (this gap is deliberate...) We both started new characters, and rolled a new medium sized world. Our thoughts so far? Damn that is one huge update, and a great one at that! We first did some exploring to both sides, and we discovered our world was rolled to have Tin instead of copper ore, and that we have the snow biome. We built a small shelter to get started with, but soon decided how we want to build our main dwelling, and ended up with this (work in progress as you can see): Click on the image above to see the bigger picture. So far, it's been a blast, really enjoying the c...

My buddy and I really like to do coop games with Borderlands 2, but could never really enjoy it properly. It's quite a common problem that the game experiences LAG when you play over the internet. It turned out that to fix the problem, we had to get a VPN going, but trust me, it's easier than it sounds! At first I tried doing it with Windows 7's built in tools, but I don't think I did it right (it also included setting up port forwarding on your router and stuff like that...). My friend told me that they always used Teamviewer at his previous work, and he remembered something about it have VPN functionality as well... We both got that up and running, and without too much hassle he connected to me and our VPN was set up. We were blown away with the performance of the game now, it really made a huge difference! One of us (usually the guy not hosting the game) experienced hectic LAG (imagine shooting in the game, and the bullet only starts about a second later!), but...

GTA V is still very fresh on everyone's mind, it being just over a week since release. I must say, it's a bloody brilliant game! I've decided to share some of the things I like to do in the game (besides the main story missions and stuff like that...): Playing tennis So far, I've played two matches, and won both of them. It's a lot of fun, and can't wait to hit the courts some more! It's not too complicated and difficult, which I really like :) Just driving I always liked doing this in all the GTA games, especially San Andreas - I'm very happy that the map is so huge in GTA V too, that you can just hit the open road and listen to the radio (the radio stations are hilarious!). Plus, the cars handle really nice, not like GTA IV which I didn't like at all! I especially like to get one of those off road buggies with Trevor and ride off-road, that's plenty of fun! Heists So far I've only done one, and I'm busy in...

After Kalahari finally delivered the game at 16:55 (they said between 14:00 and 17:00 - close call...) last Thursday, I immediately installed it on my Xbox. I only installed disc one, and the other disc is used to play the game. I have played most of the GTA games - from the very first one, to GTA IV and one of its DLC's (the Lost and Damned - didn't get to Balad of Gay Tony). My favourite, before GTA V, was San Andreas by far. To be honest, although I played GTA 4, I didn't like it very much. The way Nico handled was just wrong. Also, driving a car wasn't fun anymore :( I was also not fond of Liberty City, no open country areas and stuff like that... Anyway, over the weekend I had plenty of opportunity to play the latest one, and I must say, I'm blown away! It's a gorgeous game, and they fixed all issues that irritated me in GTA 4! The cars handle better, normal walking is better, and we have the open road again! (helicopters handle a bit weird though, bu...

I have a 4mb Telkom ADSL line. Last year, Openweb had a special where you can buy a 2mb standard uncapped account for R297 per month, but the best part was that you can have 2 people using the connection at the same time. I have very mixed feelings about the Openweb uncapped package. Yes I did manage to download a lot, I usually start it after work, and leave it on overnight. My only problem is that if I have done a night's worth of downloading, the next day my internet is shaped into oblivion itself and I cannot even access Gmail without pulling the hair out of my head. Luckily, I've always had a 20gig Telkom account too, so for normal work time, we use that. With both me and the missus using it for work during the day, we easily use over a gig of data just with emails and regular work browsing (I'm a web designer, she a graphic designer). Usually around the 20th or so, the Telkom account is totally depleted. Just too bad I can't really effectively use my uncappe...

My AWESOME wife bought me GTA V. I just put the order through on Kalahari, and got this email: Ok, I'll get it in two days, not too unhappy with that, will only be able to play over the weekend anyway I guess... So, 45 minutes later, I get this email from Kalahari: Turns out I'm getting it today already! Ahh the joys of living in Cape Town. :) Edit: As my luck would have it, it's now the 18th and still no delivery. Not charmed with Kalahari at the moment. It's fine if it takes 2 or 3 days, just don't send me a email saying it's coming today, and then delivery is only 2 days after that - Kalahari.com - not cool guys, not cool! Can't wait!

I've had Logitech devices for years now, and lately I've been experiencing all kinds of crap with them, and I'm really considering shifting my loyalty elsewhere. I guess it started with the original G15 keyboard - now, I had that one for quite a few years before it started messing about, so I wrote it off as good old fashioned wear and tear. I liked it a lot - in the beginning. It has an MR button (stands for Macro Recording), you basically press that, and one of the left hand side G-keys, and then start typing. The keyboard then records what you're typing, and once you're done, you just hit the MR key again. Now, every time you press that button, it simulates all your key presses while you did the recording. I never actually used it for gaming, and mostly for regular work (I'm a programmer remember). Anyway, my gripe was that the MR button started getting stuck, making the use of the G-keys really a huge pain in the ass to use. Also, almost no game...

Yes, that's right. A gun that shoots knives. I'll maybe buy Saint's Row IV just for that!

Here's the latest Terraria version 1.2 gameplay trailer - yes, it looks awesome!

Look what I just finally got: Will blog about it some more when I've tested it. So far, the signal indicator is orange at my house, which means there's signal, but it's weak... I didn't really expect more though, since MTN's coverage in our area is a bit crappy anyway. I'll mostly use this for when we're on the road and things like that. And thanks Afrihost, for the extra 5 gigs for October! That will come in handy! Need fast, reliable local South African web hosting or a custom website? I host all my client builds on premium local SA servers. Check out my studio over at Snoot Web Design .

Steam announced that they will launch a new feature in a few days that will allow you to share your whole Steam Library with up to 10 people. That is freaking awesome! There are some restrictions though, while I'm sharing my library with a friend, both of us can't play at the same time. I have first dibs though, and if my buddy is busy playing a game, and I start one up on my side, then he'll get a chance to buy the game to continue, or his game will stop. Sounds fair! Your friends can then have their own save games and Steam Achievements. I think this is a really awesome move from Steam, I expect nothing less of them, they always seem to surprise me! It's starting the beta next week, and to participate, you need to join this group on Steam. And here is more info about the system on Steam's website. Don't get your hopes up though, it seems that they'll only select 1000 people to participate at first (and the group already has over 100000 members!...

If you've never heard of the Humble Indie Bundle - SHAME!!! It is this awesome platform where Indie game developers put their games up for sale, and the best part? YOU decide how much you're willing to pay, and then you also determine to who that money goes (the devs, charity or as a tip for the guys at Humble Bundle). It's a great way to support the Indie developers, and you get some really kickass games for an absolute steal! This time around, it includes some really awesome games: Trine 2: Complete Story (new for me, I've played Trine 1, and it's awesome!) Mark of the Ninja (this game is absolutely beautiful, and an awesome stealth-em-up!) Eets Munchies (no idea what this is, installing as I type this) Brutal Legend (Action RPG with Jack Black voicing the main character. Also, it has Heavy Metal, what's not to like?) FTL: Faster than Light (manage your own space station, and die a thousand times doing that) FEZ (I've just seen screen shots ...

It appears the map for GTA V have already been leaked on the internet, and it is absolutely huge! Other people who've posted it mentioned spoilers, but I can't see any that will spoil anything... That is freaking huge! Here is a comparison to San Andreas: They say there will be at least 100 hours worth of gameplay, and that the game cost $265 million to make, the biggest budget ever for a game, and second biggest for an entertainment product ($300 million went towards making the third Pirates of the Caribbean movie...).

A couple of weeks ago I saw the video with the girl doing some twerking (I weep for our youth!) and she goes up against the door, then someone opens it, and she falls on the table, which has some candles on it, and she catches fire. Turned out, the whole thing was fake hehehe! Here's the original: And Jimmy revealed he was behind the whole thing, and the girl is a stunt woman - epic! Jimmy Kimmel is a legend, I always laugh my ass off at his videos!

It is no secret that Terraria is my favourite Indie game, and back in May they announced a new update for the PC version, version 1.2. It has been waaay too long now, it looks like there's a huge number of additions on its way. Here are some of the screen shots I borrowed from Terraria's Facebook Page . Wow, those look amazing! Here is a summary of new features based on the above screen shots: Clouds with rain. LOTS more bricks and blocks to build with. Pets! (I see a turtle) New doors Bigger trees Slimes have umbrellas when it rains (it looks like) Rainbow thing? Waterfalls Better water Zombies with coats when you're in the snow biome Bunny gun? Much more backgrounds and wall tiles New Jungle Biome boss (Plantera) Underground trees and more plants Cannons! Minimap Lots more items Half bricks Stained glass Coloured water Lots more creatures Bigger variety of chests You can dye your armor! A beach ball ...