Although Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) technology counts a few decades in the research labs, only the last five years has been used through consumer electronics introducing maybe the next videogame controller. In the last few years several new companies have started to make brain-computer interface (BCI) devices for gaming purposes.

i have rather recently come into possession of a laptop. the laptop as standard shipped with a 32bit version of win7. being a geek i have a natural hatred for things that are excessively user friendly and so went looking for an OS that catered for me. this was the perfect opportunity to install a linux distro as i wont be using the laptop for gaming.

Lord of the Rings Online (LOTRO) recently went Free. Or partly free. Since September (USA) and November (Europe) the game offers a free play option with an in game store. So after trying out WoW and DDO (see my previous blog entry for that), I decided to try out LOTRO as well.

Did anything interesting during Christmas? I did, I finished Fallout New Vegas (pathetic I know). I guess I couldn’t help it. I just love post-apocalyptic themes, especially when there is blood and gore involved. I have played all Fallout titles (even tactics) in the past and I am a big fan of the series and killing things in general. When Fallout 3 came out I got three days off work so I could play it and kill things. Three days during which I only went out to buy cigarettes. I couldn’t help that either as apparently post-apocalyptic landscapes are resplendent with cigarette packets. It makes me wonder if Marlboro is sponsoring them or something. Anyway, I liked this game so much I actually bought it twice as I wanted the collectable edition. Needless to say there was no way I would skip the new Fallout title, even if it meant creating a Steam account. Steam is not required for Fallout 3 but, unfortunately, is a mandatory requirement for New Vegas.

I guess an official statement is in order as GD is also a place for learning. The overlords of chaos do not approve of tuition fees. Roads, education and other public services are exactly the reason we pay taxes –paid for already and much more useful than costly and pointless wars taking place in the middle of nowhere (where on earth is Afghanistan again?). The same empty arguments that were used today in parliament to justify their decision could as easily had been applied towards justifying charging NHS patients, road users and elementary school children. All those things already paid for, available only to those willing to pay for them again. The words "horse" and "shit" come to mind. As such, our official position in regards to this issue is that this country is run by corrupt fat-pocket elitist bastards. If you find this post offensive then it is your problem.

I recently found had a couple of weeks of free time, and decided to play the World of Warcraft (WoW) 10 day free trial. When i was done with that I decided to also play Dungeons and Dragons Online (DDO), just because it's free (even though it employs microtransactions for better items etc). I played both games only for a while, so this is not a review. After all, both games have been around for a while, and they have been reviewed and commented on extensively. I aspire only to draw a comparison between the two games, in a way that will hopefully be beneficial from a game developer's point of view.

There will be no dawn for other video games when BLIZZARD will release the Diablo 3.....!!!

Simple tutorial of how to install Mysql on Fedora13 and perform basic operations using java.

This tutorial demonstrates how to use very simple sql queries from java. HyperSQL is used to create the database and the table. The operating system is Fedora 13 and the IDE is NetBeans 6.9.1..

After a decade of waiting the game is finally out (unlike Duke Nukem forever). Problem is, Blizzard has changed. What do I mean by that? After the success of WOW, aka cash cow married gold egg laying hen, the new model is releasing a game in parts and making people pay again and again for the same title. So 40 pounds (what I paid in game on day one of the release) might sound a bit stiff for just the seven hours of gameplay of the human campaign but what the hell. I am made of money. It is not as if I got a life or anything. This is only the beginning though.