Thoughts From My Life

September 2007 Archives - Page 3

Sep
24
Written by Neil Galloway
 

As some of you will know, I have recently added a new advertising opportunity to this site. It is called LinkWorth and I have already been sent my first LinkPost offer. Basically is involves someone paying me to review their site on my blog.

The offer is from Online Casino Bluebook. This is a site that provides rankings and reviews for online casinos. It is a good idea on their part. The industry has grown steadily over the past number of years and become very popular. There has been some negative publicity, especially in the U.S., because of the government restrictions on some of these sites. It definitely won't stop the industry though.

The value of having a good rankings page is that there a lot of online casinos out there, but you do not here of them unless they do some heavy advertising. For me there is also a trust factor when holding money in company's that are for the most part offshore of North America.

I notice they do state on each online casino in their list whether they accept U.S. gamblers or not. I am not sure if this means they are legal to play in the U.S. or not, but I went to one of the sites and they had a 1-800 number and such, so it looks that way.

I read some of the reviews and they are to the point and provide a list of features. It includes pay out percentage, games available (like online blackjack, payment methods, bonus features of the site, languages, availability of tech support, and more. Can give you a quick look at what you are looking for.

They are definitely not big into advertising on the site. I notice their links to the casinos are referral links so they make their money by referring traffic to those sites. It definitely makes their website easier on the eye. Keep in mind there could be a bias towards casinos depending on whether they offer money for sending referral traffic or not. I would like to see user reviews be allowed to offer more comment.

All in all it is a good little site to get quick list of online gambling sites to check out.

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Sep
24
Written by Neil Galloway
Cathedral of the Spilt Blood

Inside the Cathedral of the Spilt Blood there are no chairs and no where to sit. Every inch is covered with images. This view is looking straight up into one of the giant domes on top of the building.

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Sep
25
Written by Neil Galloway
Moskovsky Train Station

Laying along the wall of the Moskovsky Train Station in St. Petersburg, we patiently wait for our train to Moscow. The station is a constant blur of people moving back and forth.

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Sep
25
Written by Neil Galloway
 

Well, I did it. I already had a Nintendo DS and quite enjoyed it, but I have been eyeing up the dropping PSP prices lately and kept looking. I ended up finding a used one that came with 4 games and 3 movies for a very reasonable price.

First Impressions

Very nice handheld system. I cannot help but compare it to the Nintendo DS and the PSP has a number of features that are really nice.

  • Very big and bright screen.
  • Obviously more horsepower to run higher resolution games.
  • Analog joystick. I know it is not as good as a regular controller, but at least it has it.
  • Built in web browser and RSS reader.
  • Video is wide-screen and very nice quality.
  • Can charge via a USB cable. I already have all the supplies for the car so I don't need to shell out for some power supply if I do not feel like it.

The increase in game performance is the biggest thing I am looking forward to. I will be able to play a few more graphic intensive titles. Namely the Grand Theft Auto series, NHL 07, Metal Gear, Syphon Filter, X-Men Legends, and some other ones that just will not be coming to the DS (not anytime soon anyways).

That being said, I am still glad to have my DS. The PSP lacks in a few departments against it.

  • The touch screen is really nice on the DS.
  • At first look, the homebrew scene is a lot more extensive than for the PSP. It also seems to be less risky in terms of messing up the system.
  • Battery life definitely is not as long.
  • UMD media for games and such. It is noisy and the load times are long. Why or why would they not have used some sort of flash card media format.

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Sep
26
Written by Neil Galloway

It is almost the end up of the month again and I will be writing up my summary of earnings for the month. Feel free to post a comment with a guess as to what the total will be. Everyone that posts a comment between now and when I publish my results (most likely on Tuesday) will get a free linkback in a posting before or after the results. I will even use the keywords of your choice.

I do have an outstanding offer to receive a free linkback for individuals who do a review of my site, but I want to increase the frequency of my link love as much as possible.

I will say that it has been a record month for some revenue streams so it will be interesting. I am also signing up for a new ad network, but it is not final so I won't write about it yet.

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Sep
26
Written by Neil Galloway
Yekaterinburg Statue

A very strong pose for this statue. They are looking towards the Cathedral On The Blood, a large cathedral at the location the Romanovs were murdered.

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Sep
27
Written by Neil Galloway
Afghanistan War Memorial

The figure of a fatigued soldier gives the Afghanistan War Memorial a very serious ambience. Along the side are individual pillars for each year.

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Sep
27
Written by Neil Galloway
 

I think I might have a new second best homebrew game. The first is Warcraft Tower Defense of course.

The game is called AmplituDS and is made by Sander Stolk. He has a few projects kicking around and you can check him out at the his page on drunkencoders.

Basically, it is a game where you pilot a ship over various ribbons (I know this is hard to imagine) and as you your weapon targets pass over spots on the ribbon, you need to press the trigger buttons to shoot at the target. It is all done to music and the ribbons represent different tracks. If you can hit all the targets for a section of ribbon, then it turns on that music track. It is actually very addicting and fun.

AmplituDS

Here is an image I took from their website. What makes it so awesome is the cool soundtrack, bright colors, and the sky texture is very cool.

My Hardware

I have Nintendo DS Lite (NDSL) with a Supercard Lite and Super Key. The Supercard Lite takes a microSD card for memory storage. I use the 1GB Kingston microSD.


Getting It To Run

The setup is very simple. Make sure to check out the site and go to the AmplituDS project page if you have any other problems or want further instructions.

  • Download the latest version from the AmplituDS download page. I am using the 3rd release dated 2007/05/26.
  • Unzip the download into its own folder. The important files are the amplituds folder and the amplituds.nds file. There is a pdf file included with very good instructions.

  • This application reads and writes to the memory card so you will need to patch the amplituds.nds file with the DLDI for your hardware.

    I have written an instruction page on doing this called Patching NDS Homebrew With DLDI. Follow the instructions there and then continue on here.

  • Copy the amplituds folder onto the root of your flash card. The amplituds.nds file can go anywhere I believe, but I have not verified this.
  • Boot your NDS and start playing.

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Sep
28
Written by Neil Galloway
Kremlin Guard

Walking around the Kremlin there is a lot to see, but you are not allowed to cross the street in some areas. This guard stood watch in front of a government building. Cannons line the outside of the walls.

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Sep
28
Written by Neil Galloway

Someone did a version of Risk for the Nintendo DS! Seriously. The game has been quite well done.

Basically there is a large map and 7 other computer controlled opponents. The map is divided up into little countries and you have blocks stacked on them to represent your men. Each turn you are allocated more blocks based on how many countries you own and then you can attack the countries adjacent to you. You win or lose based on the odds of how many men you have. Anyone who has played Risk will understand.

DiceWars DS

Here is an image I took from their website. The graphics are very bright and clear. When you select a country it sort of raises up out of the ground to give you a clear picture of what is going on too.

My Hardware

I have Nintendo DS Lite (NDSL) with a Supercard Lite and Super Key. The Supercard Lite takes a microSD card for memory storage. I use the 1GB Kingston microSD.


Getting It To Run

The setup is very simple. Make sure to check out the site and go to the DiceWars DS project page if you have any other problems or want further instructions.

  • Download the latest version from the DiceWars DS homepage. You will have to look through the blog to find his latest release. At this time I am using 0.2.0.
  • Unzip the download into its own folder. There is only one file, dicewars.nds.

  • I don't know if I need to, but I patched the dicewars.nds file with the DLDI for my hardware.

    I have written an instruction page on doing this called Patching NDS Homebrew With DLDI. Follow the instructions there and then continue on here.

  • Copy the dicewars.nds file onto your memory card.
  • Boot your NDS and start playing.

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