New Blog

Hi, if you found your way here recently, I'd like to direct you to my new blog. Go to www.onebrow.co.uk to see the beginnings of my new blog, which should also see some new content soon.

Exploding: All Over Your Face

I've been watching the progress of giantbomb.com very closely. It was a given that whatever project Jeff Gerstmann took on after his exit from Gamespot would be of great interest to me, but I have to say I wasn't quite expecting something so promising. So far giantbomb takes the form of a glorified blog, but we're being given glimpses into the beginnings of a full on games website. The series of videos "How To Build A Bomb" gives an insight into the kinds of equipment required, and hopefully over time we may get a little more of a look into the process behind the development of such a big website project. As a computing geek I have a particular interest in that particular aspect, and I just hope it's covered. Anyway, it's going to explode this summer so hopefully we'll get to see the first version of the site in a few months time.

Another interesting point regarding giantbomb.com is the GiantBombcast, which spun out of the Arrow Pointing Down podcast. This stars both Jeff Gerstmann and Ryan Davis; Davis also quite Gamespot following Gerstmann's sacking. This is far and away the most interesting podcast I've ever been fortunate enough to listen to, and incidentally quickly became the most popular gaming podcast when it started up properly. The brilliant thing though is that it doesn't try to seriously cover games, but is more conerned with just putitng out general chat about things in general and games. Most important has to be their coverage of beverages; which already extends to importing drinks suggested by listeners. Recently they tried out Irn Bru, which was a treat as a Scottish listener. This is definitely the only podcast I take the time to listen to these days, and that is in no small part down to the humour of Jeff and Ryan. It's relevant to me, and encourages me that GiantBomb.com will be every bit as good as I hope it will.

Jeff Gerstmann's sacking was something I wanted to cover at the time, but didn't have the opportunity. There's not a lot of point in me commenting on it now, as the exodus from Gamespot in terms of the vast majority of the known editorial staff speaks volumes. What's interesting though is that Jeff has some really cool ideas about the future of games journalism that I agree with. I'm going to expand upon those soon, so watch this space.

Sleeping On Trains

This is a bit of a weird subject, but it's something that I'm suffering from just now. I remember that back in my first year of university, I fell asleep on the train quite a lot. It was never something a meant to do, rather something that just happened. I've never actually seen falling asleep on the train as much of a problem, I'm not scared of missing a stop as you always wake up whenever the train comes to a halt, nor am I scared about some perceived social stigma.

I have to say though, it is amusing how embarrassed, or amused some commuters become when they become aware of you falling asleep. I always wondered why it bothered other people so much, if someone falls asleep in their own seat without invading anybodies space, what is the problem? A number of people invade other people's space while awake, so why should people find sleeping people so problematic?

Still I am rather surprised at myself. I have somehow managed to not fall asleep in the train for over a year and a half, but now I have fallen asleep on every journey so far this week. That's four, just for clarification. I guess there is a combination of factors coming in to play here. Certainly I'm very tired out from the university semester. There has never been a time in my life which required quite so much work, and it has taken its toll mentally and physically. This combined with the marginally warmer weather, could go some way towards explaining it. As could the choice of music this week; which has all been what I would call comforting, though not quiet, music.

Still, it doesn't really feel like a problem. No matter what other commuters think. Really what a judgmental bunch commuters are. I can't say I blame them though, having to experience the same strangers everyday is surely enough to make everyone a little cynical. After all, it's hard enough to tolerate the people you like when you see them too often.

Youthmovies - Good Nature

It's pretty awesome. I got it today, it's just over an hour long, and I'm already at the end of my third listen. It is far from perfect however, a couple of the imperfections are actually a little weird and grating at first, though I think could dissipate with time. More on this though later in the form of a full blow by blow review. Also coming this month should be a review of Foals - Antidotes, when that comes out, and if we're very lucky ¡Forward, Russia!'s Life Processes will arrive from Japan.

It's been an awesome year for music so far, I'm going to have real difficulty picking out my favourites in an end of year list this year. So, until I have more time, Good Nature is awesome and deserves to be listened to.

WiFi

While I'm writing blog posts on the train, I may as well talk about my experiences with National Express. I have to say I was very surprised when I realised they were offering up a Free WiFi service for all customers now. Indeed I rushed to try it as rather fortuitously I realised this on a National Express train. There were a couple of good points, but also some bad points too however.

As a computing geek, the promise of wireless internet on a train is an exciting one, more particularly as a commuting computing geek. Indeed, at first I was very grateful for the service, and was able to browse quite happily. I was even able to talk over MSN Messenger, whether that is a blessing or a curse is perhaps another matter, which was really cool for the novelty value if nothing else.

The problems though were the truly awful speed, the connection behaved very erratically, and seemed to take a disliking to certain websites for no good reason. Others which were graphics intensive I can understand, but some relatively text based websites took minutes to load, which is unacceptable even in a free internet connection. The second time I used the service it was even worse, that time consistently disconnecting me for no good reason.

So overall, I'm pleased, but not impressed. It's certainly interesting as a sign of things to come. I can't help but feel that in the future we'll see a lot of “free” WiFi services. The reason I'm a little less than convinced about the free aspect is that I suspect it's an attempt by National Express to poach customers from Cross Country, whose trains are much better. I would be more impressed if National Express simply dumped their old rolling stock and rolled out their newer, more comfortable trains across the board. Indeed whenever I do get on one of these trains I'm almost convinced they are better than Cross Country's current market leading trains. I suppose I can accept free WiFi in place of better trains, for now. It is, if nothing else, an incentive to catch one of these trains in place of my usual First Scotrail train where at all possible.