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January 11, 2010

Shut up woman, get on my horse!

Filed under: Internets, WTF — Tags: — Rob @ 7:05 pm

September 19, 2009

The Sims 3 World Adventures Expansion Pack – CHEAP!

Filed under: PC and Gaming — Tags: , , , , , , , — Rob @ 8:10 pm

You will have to be quick with this one!

I was recently browsing the EA Store when i found the new Exp Pack for the The Sims 3 was £29.95 on pre-order.

Expecting this to be more than retail as per usual, i found Game have it on pre-order for £39.99!

Which must be a worlds first!

Even better, if you go to VoucherCodes.com there’s 25% off! But only until 31st of August (unless a new one appears afterwards?)

Click Here To Check For The Codes!

The one i used was VoucherCodes.com25%

And i of course got 25% off and got the pre-order for £22.49! :D

Here’s the proof it works! But be quick for this one! Runs out on 31st August!!

The code goes in the box as shown, click Apply and the discount will appear! :D

image

The Sims 3 Crashing and Corrupt Save Files – Part 2!

Filed under: PC and Gaming — Tags: , , , , , , , — Rob @ 8:00 pm

OK… some good news ever since my original post relating to this! Which can be found here! Which a few people seem to have found useful through restoring at least some of your progress.

I have since updated the game to the latest version which is 1.4.6.00002, however the crashing of and corruption of the save files has not stopped!

So i decided to do a hunt myself through the interweb’s and came across the following information.

—————————
SET HIGH DETAILED LOTS NO HIGHER THAN 4
—————————
I say no higher than 4 because I’m using an ultra fast Intel i7 975 quad core processor with two nvidia gtx295 cards (not bragging – I didn’t design the dang thing, but it is the fastest CPU/GPU processor combo available at the time of this writing) and anything higher than 4 and it crashes to desktop, so I am assuming that 4 must be the max for most multi-core processors using nvidia cards (and more than likely ATI cards as well), and as usual this may not be the case for your computer so start at a low number – test – then if no crash take it up a notch to see if your computer can take it. If it crashes, take it back down a notch.
NOTE: Don’t attempt any fancy graphics card enhancements or overclocking, just leave your settings to default until you have stabilized the game. This also proved fatal when I tried some fancy-pants graphics card settings, though for you SLI’ers I am using with success an SLI setting of MAXIMUM RENDERED FRAMES 8 and 4 GPU ALTERNATE FRAME RENDERING 2, but only AFTER I got the game stabilized on its own.
The maximum HIGH DETAILED LOTS when stepped down from MAX (regardless of the power of your computer or graphics card), as well as uninstalling the EADM until a fix comes out for it, has successfully ENDED all crashing to the desktop and save errors.
I reduced HIGH DETAILED LOTS from 16 (max) to 8 this reduced, but did not eliminate the crash to desktop and save errors. I reduced it to 6 (even less crashing) and finally I set it to 4 and this seems to eliminate ALL crashing to the desktop and even the infamous SAVE ERROR 12 or 13). In fact, I got an ERROR 13 on a save when I had the high detailed lots set to 8, then set it to 4 and it saved the game without a problem. I also tried bumping high detailed lots back up to 8 and voila…CRASH in 30 seconds

Which i found at this link –> CLICK HERE!

I personally checked this out, and i can confirm.. it DOES work! :D The crashing and error 12 and error 13 messages have not appeared since i dropped the High Detail Lots down to 4!

The game now seems to run flawless and you don’t keep loosing data or have to keep saving every 5 minutes :D

OK, so some loss in graphics, which we can only blame EA for having crap programming as per usual, but at least you can enjoy the game much more! Trust me, it doesn’t bother the senses that much! As you spend most of your time looking at one building in particular :)

Happy playing!

September 1, 2009

Compare the idiots

Filed under: News, WTF — Tags: , , , , , , — Rob @ 5:49 pm

Picture this… you work for the advertising department for the insurance website, Compare The Market.

One morning you find yourself sat in the bosses office and your been given an ear bashing about the website not pulling enough hits, its either, get the numbers up… or get a new job!

You spend the morning, sat at a table, sheets of paper everywhere, laptops churning and the whiteboard is crammed with meaningless drivel… nothing is making sense!

Lets break for lunch…

Amongst sandwiches and cups of tea, a conversation stirs… “Hey… did you see that documentary on the telly last night about Meerkats?”

Everyone coo’s and aah’s about their apparent cuteness and how funny they are, then the joker pipes up.. “Hey, could almost be like us… only… Compare The Meerkat!”

The table falls silent… then everyone leaps to their feet and dashes back to the conference room! A flurry of activity! Meerkats! Selling insurance! Its genius! Give him a French accent! That’ll be funny! Nahhhh…… Greek? No… Russian… sort of? YES! That’s it! Eastern block sort of sounding critter? YES…!

The final draught is produced… the boss looks at the advertising team over his spectacles… with a sigh… “If this flops… I’m having your guts for garters!”

A few months later… Compare The Market has an 80% increase in Internet traffic!

I’m not here ranting about this… this is pure, and utter, genius!

Who are the most malleable people on the planet? Idiots…

What type of people like silly gimmicks? Idiots…

What type of people are likely to use the internet for associated rubbish, instead of using it for useful stuff like insurance? Idiots!!!!

Seriously… go on to Facebook if you use it, i guarantee, EVERYONE will have at least 1 maybe 2 people out of 100 that constantly spout the catchphrases of one Aleksandr Orlov, usually the stereotypically backward, “Simples!”

Idiots go on the Internet, have a jolly old laugh at the mock up Compare The Meerkat website, followed by clicking one of the links that takes them to the main website, where they just “try it out”… ooh that’s a good deal!

To top it off Aleksandr Orlov has a reported 500,000 “fans” on Facebook, and even worse, a supposed 22,000 “follow” him on Twitter. There is also a toy coming out for Christmas!

Hats off to the CTM advertising crew… seriously… hats off!

As for the brain-dead, idiotic Muppet’s that ALWAYS fall for this stuff! Your doing an excellent job at making some people very rich!

So… to conclude Part 1 of my Business Management Skills course… to make the big £££’s reel in the numbnuts with a cheap, annoying gimmick! PROFIT!

Source for figures, The Telegraph (shudder…)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/6020167/Meerkat-star-Compare-the-Market-animal-becomes-Facebook-and-Twitter-hit.html

July 8, 2009

The Sims 3 Update (1.2.7.00002) – Part 2

Filed under: PC and Gaming — Tags: , , , , — Rob @ 8:17 pm

OK, so EADM seems to have issues of identifying the difference between a Gigabyte and a Megabyte! Leaving me in a struggle to get the patch down.

So i decided to check the EA Sims 3 website to see if there is a manual download…

Sadly not! Plenty of news telling you about it, but nothing in the way of actually getting hold of it!

And while were on that subject here’s the proposed changes of the patch…

  • Addresses some issues with Speed 2 and 3 moving too slowly. Some machines will have better results when using Speed 2 and 3 now.
  • Fix to story progression on/off selection toggle.
  • Fix for a possible crash with audio code.
  • Fix for babysitter routing off lots with babies.
  • Addresses some issues with Vsync and refresh rate problems.
  • Addresses some issues with DVD authentication errors and drive compatibility on startup.
  • This update deals with some issues on Mac systems that can crash the game while connecting to AFP servers.
  • Fix for a freeze that can occur when Sims attempt to clean out bad food from the fridge.
  • Nothing about the saving issues naturally? But time will tell of course.

    What i did manage to do was use my head and after about 12seconds using Google there are plenty of places that you can get hole of the 1.2.7 patch.

    I used the following…

    http://games.softpedia.com/progDownload/The-Sims-3-Patch-Download-43741.html

    Downloads a small .exe file. Run it and the updater should appear and away you go!

    Looking at the launcher in TS3 now shows the latest update version.

    Ill report back soon!

    The Sims 3 Update (1.2.7.00002) – Part 1

    Filed under: PC and Gaming — Tags: , , , , — Rob @ 6:29 pm

    Ok so i haven’t played TS3 for a while. Mainly due to being busy. But I’ve been in no rush to carry on with the game, due to to all the problems it is currently having!

    This evening however i decided to give it another go. And low and behold there is now an update! Although I’m not sure if I’m late with the release of this!

    image

    However… straight into a series of problems!

    Clicking OK gives me the following message!

    image

    I can assure you EA… there is plenty of space on my hard drive!

    Clicking OK again just shows you the download progress… making no progress at all!

    image

    Now.. i read the numbers 20244448 in there… one would assume that is the number of bytes to download!

    So that equates to roughly 20megabytes???

    Yet the hard drive in my PC with the least amount of space still has 38gig on tap!

    Anyone have ANY ideas how to get this to download? Or a possible external link so i don’t have to associate myself with the crappy EADM…

    June 30, 2009

    iPhone failing to connect and sync with iTunes.

    Filed under: Mobile Phones, iPhone — Tags: , , , , — Rob @ 8:02 pm

    OK, over the last few weeks i have come to notice that my iPhone 3G has been having some serious problems connecting with iTunes. Put simply it doesn’t, except for the seemingly very odd and random times, such as when iTunes has been running for an hour or so and the iPhone has been sat in its dock for the same amount of time, it suddenly just decides its “there” and does a sync…

    Of course, no connection = no sync and no putting music etc. onto it, you know the drill… highly annoying to boot.

    So a hunt round the internet brings little joy, many people having the same problem it would seem, especially with the latest version of iTunes (8.2 at the time of writing).

    I found some possible solutions but no joy. From checking services are running to reinstalling iTunes.

    I consulted Apple and then promptly filed them back under, “utterly useless”.

    So this evening I’m getting a little fed up and decided on having a look round.

    The odd thing is, Windows (a proper operating system) quite happily detects the iPhone and will allow you to fumble around in its camera folders at will. So the PC can definitely see it.

    The strange thing is, when you look under the Device Manager, which you can find by doing the following (in Vista)…

    Before you check this, make sure your iPhone is connect and iTunes has failed to find it, but Windows knows its there.

    • Click the Start Orb
    • Right Click “Computer”
    • Select “Manage”
    • Select “Device Manager” in the left hand column
    • Click the + sign next to “Portable Devices”

    Portable Devices should then open out and you will see “Apple iPhone” in the list.

    image

    If you right click “Apple iPhone” there will be an option to Update Driver Software. Clicking this will give you the option to check the web for updates.

    This is not the solution however, but if you do attempt it, it may (or at least mine did) will tell you that the driver is “up to date” for your “Digital Still Camera”

    image

    This isn’t right, clearly!

    So… have a go at this, it seems to have worked for me so far…

    • Make sure iPhone is connected, iTunes has failed to find it, but Windows can. (You can make sure of this by clicking the Start Orb, followed by “Computer” and it should be listed).
    • Return to the Device Manager and locate Apple iPhone under Portable Devices
    • Right Click Apple iPhone and select “Uninstall”
    • You will get a warning that you are going to Uninstall your device… Click OK
    • Apple iPhone should then vanish from the Portable Devices list.
    • Now close everything, including iTunes
    • Disconnect your iPhone
    • Wait a few seconds and listen for the noise Windows makes when a USB device is removed.
    • Reconnect the iPhone
    • You should hear Windows make the noise that its found it, and with a bit of luck in the bottom right hand corner, a balloon will pop up telling you, “Installing New Hardware”, basically Windows is reinstalling the iPhone driver.
    • Give it a moment or two and cross your fingers…
    • Mine came to a stop and said “Finished Installing Apple iPhone” a few seconds later iTunes started automatically and there it was in the left hand column again, and it went straight into a sync.

    This has so far been a one off success. I have no idea if it will happen next time that iTunes has a fit, in which case ill probably be testing it again tomorrow!

    Good luck! Leave a comment if this has been a success for you :)

    June 18, 2009

    nVidia releases 186.18 GeForce drivers

    Filed under: PC and Gaming — Tags: , , — Rob @ 7:24 pm

    I don’t have anything hugely exciting to report about this, but here’s hoping it may potentially help with The Sims 3 problems i have been encountering ever since its release.

    There isn’t anything related to The Sims 3 in the release notes, but you never know! Ill be sure to report back with any findings!

    Drivers can be found at the nVidia website…

    http://www.nvidia.co.uk/page/home.html

    More tragic iPhone discoveries!

    Filed under: Mobile Broadband, Mobile Phones, WTF, iPhone — Tags: , , , — Rob @ 7:18 pm

    OK, so last night when 3.0 was released for the iPhone i may have got a little bit noisy, very quickly!

    I woke up this morning thinking i had gone a bit too far with my initial comments and was seriously thinking about making amends and giving a bit more time before going into rant mode!

    But no i have decided to leave it be and get grumpy again tonight as today i yet again feel let down!

    On my last post i mentioned that Internet Tethering was one of the things i am very happy to see is now included, so falling upon 15minutes of free time today i decided to fire the laptop and check it out.

    To sets up the Internet Tethering you need to go into the settings of the iPhone, find Network under the General Settings and then select “Set Up Internet Tethering”

    The first thing you see is a message pop up saying that you need to enable Tethering via the O2 website… ok no problem, select Go To Website. Fully expecting to just be accepting a fair usage agreement I’m now sat in amazement that the only thing on screen is a message informing me about Internet Tethering Bolt On’s!

    I’m sorry… but I’ve already signed my name against an “Unlimited Data” package.

    But the best bit is…

    • 3GB @ £14.66 per month – (£4.88/GB)
    • 10GB @ £29.36 per month – (£2.93/GB)

    ON TOP OF YOUR ALREADY STANDING TARRIF!

    That is absolutely absurd! Not to mention, a complete rip-off!

    OK you get unlimited WIFI… that said you get that as standard with an iPhone tariff, although it is a con and its not truly unlimited, there is a fair usage policy behind it!

    It is oddly very similar priced to O2s own mobile broadband packages at the moment too, which makes me believe its just hoping off the same system, but lack of dongle = iPhone usage, don’t forget the iPhone battery is crap and a Bluetooth internet connection will destroy you! So you need a sync cable with you as it is!

    May as well just get the dongle and not have to worry about using iTunes everywhere no doubt, and have the added ability to quickly swap it into any computer/laptop.

    However to compare similar mobile broadband packages, 3 currently offer a 24month contract which gives you 15GB for £15 per month, obviously equalling £1/GB.

    On the other hand T-Mobile seem to be even worse! Offering 5GB for £30 per month! A whopping £6/GB!

    Really mobile broadband is just pretty much a well rounded rip-off. But O2 are taking the biscuit with customers already paying for “unlimited” data access! Although if they were offering unlimited tethering for a more reasonable additional bolt on of £5 per month then i would be very interested!

    After all 3 offer exactly this, and I’ve had no problem with using my N95 to connect wirelessly to the internet.

    Here’s hoping well see some sense come from this in future…

    June 17, 2009

    iPhone 3.0 – Biggest anticlimax ever!

    Filed under: Mobile Phones, WTF, iPhone — Tags: , , — Rob @ 11:30 pm

    As per most owners of the iPhone, recently i have been waiting for the formidable update to the phones operating system known as 3.0, which after reading so many tech websites, Apples own site and watching several online videos about the whole thing, and to say the least, i was getting very excited about the “100 new features” that were coming along!

    So today the 17th of July 2009 is the fateful day that Apple release 3.0 to the masses!

    And at the moment i sit on the fence!

    You may be well aware that conveniently… not long before the release of 3.0, the iPhone 3GS had been announced, and without surprise, several of the new features DO NOT work with the 3G, so i suppose that is a prompt to go out and buy the 3GS? Hint, hint…

    After waiting 10minutes for iTunes to pull down the update, followed by about 3 hours trying to get it to update, due to the Apple servers being overloaded by everybody doing the same thing, i eventually gained an “update slot” and away it all went. The iPhone powered down and iTunes transferred the update, followed by the update being installed on the iPhone.

    The iPhone then requires the need to reconnect to iTunes to activate the new update… iTunes promptly crashed…

    Restarted iTunes… which then refused to recognise the iPhone which never moved from its USB dock…

    Restarted the PC, logged into Windows and thankfully the iPhone was recognised and iTunes automatically restarted, followed by the online activation of 3.0, so semi-painless at least!

    Finally! Were up to 3.0! First things first, lets play with these (100) new features… hit the home button.

    OK great! A voice recorder! And… ooh! A search screen if a pan to the left… better test that! Type a word… yep that’s pulled up all my junk emails and the odd song from the iPod… try something else… aha! Found an App, some more tracks from the iPod and more junk emails…

    OK next… err… hey the SMS icon has changed… and… well… ??? am i missing something?

    Check the camera! Should have video… hmm… no the icon for the gallery is messed up… no video?

    [EDIT] – The gallery button isnt broken, it now shows a small preview of the last picture you have taken.

    Right… ill look for the ONE feature that i really wanted! Voice Control… i was excited to hear this was to be included with 3.0 as its one feature i really appreciate on a mobile phone (the N95 was superb!), but again… i cant find it?

    OK, onto iTunes and open the iPhone user guide… hopefully that’s been updated… success it has!

    Search for Voice Control…. 3GS only… Fuck you!

    Video… 3GS only…

    Video upload… 3GS only…

    Compass… 3GS only…

    And so on…

    Great! So i need to invest in a 3GS… so technically 3.0 is NOT free is it? Not if you want to exploit the true usage? Nice one Apple!

    However yes, there are some good and mediocre parts. Allow me to start with the least impressive.

    MMS… people have harped on about the iPhone not having MMS since time began, and yes Nokia, SE or Samsung etc. will sell you a phone, that have been able to for a long time.
    And great! We can now do it with the iPhone, but I’m sorry, its useless!
    Why? You ask…
    What’s the point? MMS allows you to send a few words, a small picture and a tiny horrible sound file or a flash file that a BBC Micro would be proud of… and if you’re in the UK it will cost you about 25p PER person you then send it to.

    One thing the iPhone is “reasonable” at? Sending emails!
    Which, if you have WIFI or unlimited data connection… is free… to send as much text as you want! To as many people as you want! Where they can read at their leisure on a phone or a computer, and reply… for free!

    Granted the iPhone is a bit crap as you only seem to be able to attach one thing with the standard system, although i do believe some Apps allow expansion on this.

    Rather than adding MMS i would much rather have seen a significant improvement to the email system.

    OK, one thing i am thankful for is the addition of the “Tethering” system, although i am yet to test this, but will do in the next few days. If this had been 3GS only, i would have seriously gone ape shit and probably smashed the thing to smithereens and gone out and bought something else! But my sanity was retained for at least one feature!

    Landscape keyboard… good but not brilliant, yes its nicer and easier to use, but somewhat, so far, I’ve found it really squashes up the actual area you are typing into… for an SMS you can only see the last line or so of the SMS you are replying to!

    YouTube Login… this i feel is a nice addition. I use YouTube quite a lot and this makes using the iPhone to browse the Tube much more appealing.

    Store Accounts… Helps to make life easier buying stuff i suppose. I am also yet to test this properly. At the time of writing there is NO HOPE of getting into the App Store via the iPhone!

    iPod Shake To Shuffle… set to OFF… sorry… but what a load of crap!
    Double tap the home button = iPod controls…
    The button on the headset = iPod controls…
    The Kensington LiquidAUX in my car = iPod controls…
    Three very adequate control systems that DONT make me look like i am fapping with the iPhone.

    Granted the one thing i don’t see on the surface is the so called “New APIs” for developers usage for new Apps. In which case i am hoping to see some new, cool and interesting Apps emerge, as at the end of the day 75% of the good stuff on an iPhone is all third part development…

    So yes… completely unimpressed! Ill have to wait until the 19th to see how much a 3GS is going to cost me! Again granted it has a better camera (i like to have a decent camera for those random moments) and all the nubbins inside are supposed to be better, and thus make it quicker and have better battery life etc. or so i read… but after this I’m not too sure…

    Nokia N97 does look nice!

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