Sebastian Anthony
United Kingdom - http://www.mrseb.co.uk
Based in the middle of nowhere, England, Sebastian finds his lonely, friendless, hoboesque existence to provide the perfect vantage point for bias-free, objective opinionation.
Filed under: Fun, Games, Time-Wasters, Retrocomputing
The Atari classics are back and free to play! Asteroids, Lunar Lander and MORE!
by Sebastian Anthony Nov 25th 2009
Believe it or not, Atari have just released a bunch of old games on their own website. These aren't clones, these aren't even 'loving interpretations' -- these are the real thing, remade by Atari themselves. This comes as part of a re-launch for the Atari website which includes an online store.
I warn you, if you read on, this might turn into more than just a mere ten-minute time-waster.
I warn you, if you read on, this might turn into more than just a mere ten-minute time-waster.
Filed under: Internet, Microsoft, Mozilla, Browsers
Firefox is going to beat Microsoft's IE9 at its own game
Direct2D is a technology included in Microsoft's DirectX multimedia tools. Usually you would only experience the power of DirectX in playing games, but it seems we're finally going to see extensive use of DirectX in office and home use -- the next few months and years will see significant speed-ups to your general computer use and Internet browsing.
Whether this is simply a reaction to the announcement of IE9, or if Firefox had been intending to include D2D support all along, I guess we'll never know. One thing's for certain though, the fast-moving nature of Firefox and Chrome development has played a large part in nibbling away at Internet Explorer's market share.
[via CNET]
Filed under: Games, Internet, Social Software
Social media a smash hit on the Xbox -- 2 million users in its first week!
According to a spokesman from Microsoft, over 2 million users logged into Facebook using their console... in just the first week! Not only did they log in and poke their cute prospective girlfriends and answer banal questions about each other, they also created half a million Last.fm accounts and streamed a total of 120 million minutes of music -- again, in just the first week!
These crazy numbers are shocking; it's truly a case of build-it-and-they-will-come. The break-neck pace at which Microsoft and Sony update their consoles is a sure sign that competition between the PS3 and Xbox is still hotting up.
The console war is not yet over! Poor Wii... there's a new Zelda title coming soon, right?
[via CNET]
Filed under: Fun, Games, Time-Wasters
Delightful and haunting Braid-clone Time-Waster
by Sebastian Anthony Nov 24th 2009
The Company of Myself is one of those games that you don't want to conclude. When it does end -- if you have what it takes to get there -- it leaves you feeling sad. Kinda empty. Like there's a gap in your soul that's exactly Company of Myself-shaped and there's nothing to fill it with.The game is very simply played, platform-style. You progress through each level to the green door, passing obstacles as you go. The first few levels have dialogue where you are seemingly talking to yourself, reminding yourself how to play -- it's weird, but it works. It works really well.
But there's a twist. A twist of genius!
Filed under: Utilities, Windows
How to add network activity lights to your system tray in Windows 7
by Sebastian Anthony Nov 24th 2009
With the aid of a tiny little program -- of the juicy, sub-100-kilobyte freeware variety -- you can get those cute little blinking-blue screens back onto your system tray in Windows 7.In yet another case of inspired naming, Network Activity Indicator for Windows lets you re-attach the network activity indicator to your system tray. It's been sorely missed in both Vista and Windows 7 by many users, and now... you can have it back! Yay! No longer must you wonder if your router has crashed -- you can see it right there on your desktop!
I wish I had more to say, but... that's it really. You can set a blink duration (though it doesn't seem to make much difference), and you can tell it to load at startup... and that's it. Quick and simple, just how I like my, er, apps.
Visit the site, if you really need more information -- or download it directly (57KB).
Is Firefox causing laptops to overheat through CPU overuse?
Those of you that are fortunate enough to primarily surf the web on a desktop machine, you probably won't notice just how much of a resource hog web browsers can be. But if you use a laptop -- or any kind of portable really -- you have probably experienced the full 100%-CPU-ow-ow-my-thighs-are-burning-and-my-fingertips-are-sweating experience. It turns out that the issue is so pronounced in some ...Microsoft will pay content providers to shun Google -- and get in bed with Bing
In a marketing ploy so draconian and heavy-handed as to be reminiscent of the original XBox launch, Microsoft is now offering to pay-off publishers if they delist their content from Google's indexes. Sounds crazy, but it's true. Microsoft has approached News Corp and offered to pay them to de-list from Google's search indexes. So you have some idea of how big a deal this is, News Corp owns Fox, ...Hate the new Windows 'start menu'? Get the classic XP menu back with this little app!
By now a lot of you will have experienced the 'All-in-One Omnipotent Start Menu' thing that was first introduced with Windows Vista and can now be found in Windows 7. It combines My Computer, My Documents and your installed programs into one big, gribbly menu. Some people love it. Some hate it. Personally, I like the all-in-one search/run input box... but that's about it. I much prefer the old ...Google's Chrome and Android operating systems will converge sooner rather than later
by Sebastian Anthony Nov 21st 2009 {2 comments}
Google's co-founder, Sergey Brin, spoke to some reporters yesterday, after the Chrome OS presentation. Citing the common WebKit and Linux code found in both operating systems, he said "Android and Chrome are likely to converge over time." "We're reaching a perfect storm of converging trends where computers are behaving more like mobile devices, and phones are behaving more like small ...Foobar2000 v1.0 Beta -- holy crap, it's finally here!
digg_url = 'http://www.downloadsquad.com/2009/11/20/foobar2000-v1-0-beta-holy-crap-its-finally-here/'; Believe it or not, almost 7 years after its initial release, the Foobar2000 v1.0 Beta is finally out, and with it comes a large list of changes. Most of them are much-needed interface fixes, but there is the welcome addition of built-in support for the streaming of Windows Media formats ...
So, just how good at time waster games are you? Think you've got the stuff? Well, The World's Hardest Game 2.0 doesn't think you do.
Yes, amazingly, it's possible to have a sequel to a game called "The World's Hardest Game". It doesn't seem logically possible, since if the first one was actually the world's hardest, how could another one come along and share the moniker? It made me doubt the name in the first place. That is, until I tried the game.
The mechanics of the game are very simple. You are a small red square, ...
