Life from the eyes of a video-gamer

Moving blog to wordpress

2011-02-16T08:33:00.001Z

The end of an era... The start of a saga...
I'm moving this blog to my fancy new domain name GeekGreek.com
This blog will remain active but the comments are locked and all posts from now on will link to the new shiny wordpress blog.*
If you want to comment, you will have to do it on the new blog with a wordpress account. Don't forget to update your bookmarks people!
Bye bye and thanks for all the fish.

*Many thanks to arunmvishnu for the redirecting script.

Replace the screen on the EEE PC 901

2010-12-06T13:00:00.000Z

What do you do when electronics fall apart? Most of us just bin it and buy a new one. Especially with the high prices the I.T companies charge. 50 euros just to look at it? F that. There's another way: D.I.Y.
It's really not that difficult. Here's how to replace a broken LCD on the EEE PC 901.

The above atrocity happened when a cell phone went flying and landed flat on the screen. The netbook didn't sustain any other damage. It just needs an LCD change.
First step is to locate the necessary replacement part. The 8.9" LCD screen. They sell for just 42 euros (£36) on ebay. Thank god for the Chinese!

Here's the old and new screen side by side.
Next, make sure that you have a screwdriver, and an old credit card or a guitar pick. If your screwdriver isn't magnetized you can attach a magnet on it. It helps a lot in removing the screws without losing them.

Start by removing the charger and the battery. Then remove 7 screws on the bottom. Because I tend to forget where each screw goes so I try to group them together with magnets and write down a short description to help me with the re-assembly. I strongly recommend you to do the same.

Now in order to remove the keyboard you have to press 3 tabs that hold it in place.

Here's a close-up of one of the tabs

After you free the keyboard from the tabs lift it slowly from the top. The lower part is attached to the rest of the netbook via the connecting ribbon. In order to disconnect it you have to pry apart the little black piece of plastic that keeps the ribbon tight in place. Then the keyboard is free. Put it aside.

this is the point of no return. If you're having second thoughts this is the time to screw everything back because after you break that yellow sticker you instantly void your warranty. Of course if your warranty is already expired, you got nothing to fear.

unscrew everything you see, and detach the little touchpad cable. It has the same locking mechanism as the keyboard.

Now for the next step, you have to insert something soft and slim on the sides to separate the top from the bottom. DO NOT use a screwdriver or you will scratch and mark the plastic. Use an old credit card, or a guitar pick.

Ta-daaa! Sexy exposed electronics. Notice the thermal paste on the CPU, GPU and north-bridge. The upper chassis functions as a heatsink that dissipates heat through the keyboard. Optionally, Remove the LCD ribbon on the right.

Next, you have to remove the plastic tabs that hide the screws. Keep them somewhere safe to put them back once we're finished. After you unscrew the 6 screws that hold together the monitor. Now in order to pry the LCD casing appart you need your trusty guitar pick or credit card. Insert, and pry away.

Remove the cable on the back of the LCD.

Next remove the support brackets and keep them for the new LCD. Throw away the old LCD. (By "throw-away" I really mean recycle). Screw back the support brackets, connect the LCD ribbon, and test that it's working before you re-assemble everything.

It's alive!!

Final step: remove the protective film. Congrats. You made it.

DIY Lab Bench PSU

2010-10-10T10:50:00.003Z

My old Bench PSU had died and I needed a new one for my water-gun project (Work in progress), so it was a good time to document the process as well for the benefit of others.

List of materials.

A discarded computer Power Supply Unit. (PSU)
At least 2 terminals
2-state flip switches
A 12v fan
an on-off rocker switch
Dremel
LCD Voltage meter (Optional)
Sandpaper & Paint (Optional)

My Donor PSU has a large 120mm fan on top of it that is not very useful. It takes up all the space. It had to go. As a replacement I used the top off another PSU with no top fan. The dimensions are the same anyway.

First step is to open it up as see what we got. Some dust bunnies, and a lot of dirt. I vacuumed it and then cleaned it carefully with an old toothbrush. Bellow you can also see the 110v-220v switch. I never plan to use it on 110v so I removed it.

Next step is to figure out the layout of all the switches, fans, etc. I drew the outlines as a guide for the dremel.

I used the carbon fiber bit for the straight cuts and the metal drill bits for the holes. It took me hours to finish it.

I then sanded it and gave it a bright white finish. I then cut all the excess cable, but left a power molex intact to use it as a PC components tester.

This is the main on-off switch. Cut-off the main motherboard power molex, and connect the green and the black to the switch so that when you flick the switch, the circuit closes and the PSU thinks that the motherboard is on. When soldering, I recommend you use a "handy tool" for holding the cables. It's very handy.

My new revised design uses just 2 terminals, and 4 flip-switches as voltage selectors. This way when you want to change voltage you don't have to connect and disconnect to various terminals. You can also see the LCD voltage-meter bellow. I used hot glue to fix everything in place. It doesn't look very good on the inside, but looks flawless on the outside.

I glued rare-earth neodymium magnets to store the test-molex on the side of the case. This way it's out of the way and at hand when needed.

Here is the final result. I love the black and white theme. Reminds me of stormtroopers.

For the final touch I added some labels with a sharpie. Available voltages are 3.3V, 5V, 8.3V, 10V, 12V, and 17V.

How to fix a dead fuel pump on the Aprilia Pegaso Strada

2010-09-06T13:11:00.003Z

This is how it all went down:
In the 3 years that I lived happily with my bike, only 2 times it refused to start. I presumed it was due to the cold, affecting the battery. After a couple of days the problem disappeared on it's own, and the bike started again in both cases.
I visited an authorised Aprilia service where I was told that it's the fuel pump that it's starting to fail.
To add to my dismay, Aprilia doesn't sell just the fuel pump as a replacement part, but the whole assembly including the fuel gauge sensor, and the fuel filter. How much does it cost you ask? £433 (519 euros) !!!

And this is just the cost of the part. You also have to add the cost of labour to disassemble half the bike to reach inside the tank.
So I postponed it. The mechanic told me that a well-placed punch on the left side of the tank where the fuel pump is located, will make it run again. And so I did. Every time the bike refused to start, I would punch it once, and it would always start. On some rare occasions I had to punch 3 or 4 times, but the trick would always work. And so 1 year passed, and I got used to all the punching.
Until it stopped working completely. No matter how hard I slapped the tank, the engine wouldn't start. After 38.800km of The fuel pump went from living-dead to just dead.

It was about time to hack it. There's no way I would pay 500+ euros for a fuel pump that allegedly has the tendency to fail again and again, each time setting you back 500 euros.
Fortunately many people around the world suffer from the same problem, and thanks to the power of internet they share some of their knowledge and lessons taught. In this case google is our friend. I found invaluable help in the ApriliaBikers.gr forum, and the ApriliaForum.com.

The main idea is that instead of buying the whole assembly from aprilia, you replace just the faulty pump with a car fuel pump. The problem is that there is no fuel pump on the market small enough to fit in the place of the original one so you have to be creative. Generally any pump will do as long as it's 12v and has a rated pressure above 3.2 bar. So I went out there and asked around at the car-parts shops. Some were persistent to know the make and model of the car it's going in, and as soon as I said the word motorcycle they wouldn't listen any more. In the end I found a helpful shop owner who gave me a Siemens 3.8 bar pump that looked small enough. Cost: 60 euros.
Then I searched for a suitable in-tank fuel filter. According to the good people of the aforementioned forums, the Mann MWK-44 is a perfect replacement. It's better build than the original Aprilia, and even cheaper: 48 euros for the aprilia, and just 22 for the Mann.

If you want to buy the same pump as me you might want to use the markings on the box:

It reads 993-784-025X Kraftstoffpumpe HPi8

Before you start the operation make sure you've got all the ingredients:

3.8 Bar 12v Fuel Pump
Mann MWK-44 Fuel Filter
50cm of hose
4 hose clamps
Hex keys collection
Screwdriver
7mm Wrench / spanner

My brother demonstrating the items of the utmost importance. A new pump and a cup of coffee. (The Greek frappe kind).
It's very handy to have a brother to help you. Couldn't have done it without him. Thanks bro!

In order to get to the fuel pump you need to remove the tank. In order to get to the tank you need to remove the headlight and the glove-box compartment. Here we go: Start unscrewing!

Unscrew 6 screws to separate the dash from the headlight.

Unscrew the supporting bracket, and disconnect the cabling from the bracket.

The head of the beast.

Unscrew the glove-box but leave the latch mechanism as is. It doesn't bother us.

With the glove-box and the 2 side-covers removed, lifting the tank is pretty straight forward. Just make sure to unscrew the central bolt under the glove-box and 2 on the side. I'm sorry for the lack of photos but we got carried-away on this point.

The striped-down bike, and my bro complaining about the low level of coffee.

This is where the fuel pump assembly came from

The golden part in there is the original faulty pump. It will be replaced by the brand new siemens on the right.

The original and the replacement side by side

There's no way it will fit without some "modifications"

I had to "surgically" remove all of the pump holder (Click to enlarge)

The final result. Beautiful.

In my case the DC connectors where slightly different so I had to solder some new ones.

Done.

This is the complete assembly before I dip it back into the tank

Put it back there.
Re-assemble, and hopefully it will run.
Once you turn the key and before you hit the ignition, you should hear the pump working.
In my case I could hear the pump working, but once I hit the ignition it wouldn't start.
Turns out I had soldered the terminals the wrong way and the pump worked all right, but instead of pumping fuel into the engine it would suck it out. We removed it once again, soldered positive to positive and ground to ground, put it back in, and it started at once!!
Major success!!
Total cost of the project 89 euros. I saved about 430 euros

How to fix a dead DVD player

2010-08-20T09:36:00.000Z

My super-cheap DVD player stopped working. It powered-up but it wouldn't recognising any disks. I inserted a movie and always returned a disk error.

The player was a gonner. I was about to throw it in a recycle bin but changed my mind and decided to try and fix it.
I had nothing to lose after all.
First unscrew everything that is unscrewable. Did I mention unplugging it from the mains? No? Whatever...
Sometimes some of the screws are hiding beneath stickers or rubber pads.

Once you get on the inside goodies, you have to locate the eye of the beast. A.K.A the DVD lens. Take a cotton swab, dip the tip in alcohol and gently wipe the lens clean. re-assemble, pray to the gods of electronics, and take it for a spin. If it works, it works. If it doesn't, it's a matter of re-calibrating the lens assembly. Some DVD players have 2 tiny screws for lens fine-tuning. Mine did. They where located under the tray, near the lens.

I had to unscrew and remove the whole tray assembly to get to them. It's easier than it sounds. On other models the tuning screws may be on a different easily accessible spot. Look around.

You should have two screws. One for DVD calibration, and one for CD calibration. If they're not labelled, you're in for a treat. You have to guess. I got lucky as I randomly started with the upper right and it was the DVD one. The methodology is you slightly turn the screw clockwise, put a DVD in the tray and see if it starts. If your unit has an LCD status screen, you can quickly see whether it starts or throws an error. If you don't, you'll have to connect it to your TV.

After some unsuccessful efforts, I stopped waiting for the lens to finish, and tweaked the screw on the fly. Somewhat dangerous because of the live current, and the eye-blinding laser beam. If the lens keeps going up and down on the same spot, means that it can't read jack. Turn the screw a little further. When you hit the spot, the lens will stop moving, the disk will keep on spinning, and the LCD will display the sweet-sweet playback time.

This part took me 2 days. I found the sweet spot near the end of the clockwise turns. The problem was that just as I found the spot that reads correctly some DVDs, it wouldn't read some others. It takes very small movements of the screw to mess it up. Finally after 2 days of fiddling I found the spot where it reads most of my DVDs. I didn't bother calibrating the CD lens as I never use it anyway.
Success!!

Keychain spy camera mod

2010-08-15T16:09:00.000Z

Background story: I needed a small camera to record my adventures on my motorcycle and on the ski track. I needed something small enough to mount almost anywhere without limiting my movements. A helmet cam would be ideal, but not really an option because of the cost.

A little bit of ebay search and I found what I was looking for. Turns out China has a solution for every problem.
It's a tiny camera in the form of a car alarm fob. Even close inspection won't give it away that this thing is a camera.
The specifications on most of the ebay sellers are all lies. Some state that the video is 720x480 and some 1280x1024 HD. The reality is that the camera shoots at 640x480 and upscales it to 720x480 pixels.
The quality is a bit on the "meh" side but I don't care much. The footage looks clear enough for me.
They sell for about £5 with free postage worldwide! that's about 6.1 euros, or 7.7 dollars! Cheap as dirt!
Just use the keywords "keychain camera" if you want to buy one.

I first tried to mount it on my helmet with some velcro so that I can attach it and detach it easily. That didn't work very well for 2 reasons: I hadn't thought much about the viewing angle and all I was recording was my speedometer and the tarmac in front of the bike. Small problem.
You can watch that first attempt here:

The second problem and most important was recording time. The tiny internal battery was just 180mah and went flat after about 20 minutes of recording. Not enough for long roadtrips, and also hard to find a PC up in the mountains to recharge. Supposedly it should record up to 1 hour when fully charged, but mine didn't. Maybe it was a faulty battery.

So the obvious mod was to replace the internal tiny battery with a bigger capacity external one.
Cell phone batteries are good for that purpose because they carry the same voltage, (3.7v) and more than enough capacity. I already had a surplus nokia battery laying around but if you don't you can buy a new one from ebay for just £1.39. Plus it boasts a whooping 900mah that should last a lot.

The battery I had was the Nokia BP-5M. It's not the easiest battery to mod as the positive and ground terminals are awkwardly hidden inside a plastic tab.

I had to remove that, and solder directly on the battery's circuit board or IC-Chip or whatever that thingy is.

Chuck Lohr showed interest in my project and featured it in his webpage that is dedicated to the camera. He has collected every conceivable information on it.

The second mod I attempted was to change the mounting "system". Instead of velcro, this time I used powerful neodymium magnet, the same way I mounted my MIO GPS on a generic GPS holder a few months back.Only this time, instead of hot glue, I used super-strong fast-dry epoxy. When it bonds, it becomes firm plastic.

I also attached a metal plate on top of the brake-fluid box on my bike and I was golden. The Point Of View is amazing. Plus it's more stable than my head.
Everything was going well until after a couple of months use, the camera wouldn't power-up anymore. It was a soldering failure. It was time to replace the battery again.

This time I ordered the Nokia BL-5B for £1.39 from ebay. It's an easier to mod battery as it has flat and accessible terminals.The BL-5C should do as well.
Disassembled everything, soldered some fresh cable, glued the new battery with epoxy, and I was good to go again.

The final mod that I tried (For now) was to add a wide-angle fish-eye lens in front of the original lens to increase the viewing angle. I bought a wide-angle jelly lens from ebay for just £0.99 + Free postag, and glued it with epoxy. I had to hold it absolutely still for about 5 minutes until the epoxy dried, so i used the my trusty helping-hand tool.

Now my little camera does everything I want. It takes wide-angle footage, has a battery that lasts, and it's easily mounted on any metal surface.

To recap:

Keychain camera £5
4GB Micro SD £3.99
2 neodymium magnets £0.2
Nokia BL-5B Battery £1.39
Wide-angle lens £0.99

Total cost of the project was £11.59
Craaaazy!
Next step will be waterproofing it.

Jack Daniels LED mod

2010-06-28T08:27:00.001Z

I've done this a while a go but didn't bother uploading it.
Modded a Jack Daniels bottle into a bedside lamp.
Basically you take a battery holder and some LEDs and slam them together with some soldering and hot glue.

I used4 blue LEDs. You can use less if you want the battery to last longer. The only downside of the design is that there isn't any space for a switch so you have to remove the battery in order to switch it off.

I hid the battery under a zero coke cap. It looks unnaturally taller but it's better than showing the electronics.

It looks amazing with the lights off. Plus the light leaks through the white lettering and adds to the effect.

Many thanks to my good friend Juan for all the nice pics.

Mold Success!!

2010-05-15T13:48:00.002Z

We're starting to get a little mold problem. It was time to do something about it.
(Specially after watching 6 seasons of House M.D, where half of the cases are caused by common mold on the walls)
Went to my nearest hardware store and bough an anti-mold cleaner.

Mildew Remover by Bison.

The instructions say: spray, leave it for 10 minutes to act, and then scrub with a sponge.
And so I did.
Check out the results:

Phantom Buzz on motorcycles

2010-05-10T11:44:00.000Z

Do you ever get this?

The effect is even worse if you're riding a motorcycle.
My single cylinder Aprilia Pegaso Strada makes me think that my cell phone is ringing all the time.
(Because of all the engine vibrations)
I have to touch my pocket in order to figure out whether someone is calling me or I'm imagining things.
It probably looks like I'm groping my self. No wonder I'm getting weird looks on light-stops.
Yes people! I love my Aprilia THAT much.

Mass Effect

2010-05-07T09:20:00.001Z

Finished it! Better late than ever right?
I totally missed it's release day because of my military service, and then I didn't have a proper pc to play it on.
I wanted to start playing mass effects 2, but you can't play a sequel without playing the first one first. Otherwise you're missing-out on the storyline.
Verdic: Overall I liked it, but it's very dated by today's standards.

It reminded me a lot of the kotor game engine.

I liked:

The command-menu. While in combat you can hold-down the spacebar to bring up a commands and weapon selection menu. I like that in RPG games. The menu pauses the action and you can think your next move
Storyline. It had everything. Explosions, sex, drugs (Well not drugs), aliens, battle, oh and you get to drive a rover too.

I disliked:

When you enter an elevator everyone in your group, including you, holsters their guns. Even in hostile territory. What is this? We're not going on the upper floor of the shopping mall people. Gear-up!
Why there are elevators everywhere? Why do they go so slow? Some even have elevator music! Are they kidding us?
On the final boss, all your weapons overheat without ever cooling down again. Including your team-mates'. Maybe it's a boss super-weapon, maybe it's a bug, but it annoyed me anyway.
Grenades are both rare and unusable as they take ages to detonate.
You can carry up to 150 items. When you find loot, you're presented with a screen. You have the option to either take them all, or reduce them to omni-gel one-by-one. Also you can't exit the screen. This means that if there's 1 item that you like, and let's say 36 random items that you either don't need, or can't take, you will have to select them one-by-one and then reduce them one-by-one for a total of 74 clicks!
A lot of dialogue. The game feels more like a movie than a game, which is good, but sometimes you need to skip some non-essential dialogue. Fortunately you can skip it bit-by-bit by pressing the spacebar, but most of the times this also presses the dialogue selection for you before you get a chance to see what you're pressing.

Trivial:
Call of duty: Modern Warfare 2 has a General Shepherd and Mass Effect has a Commander Sheppard. See any connections there? Are they running out of names? Is Sheppard a common name in the US? What about Jack Shepherd?
I smell a consiracy.

Also, There's an ass in one of the cutscenes! Nice touch.

Saboteur

2010-04-30T12:02:00.001Z

I really enjoyed this one. I love WWII games and this one gave me a fresh perspective.
Usually you get just the soldiers' perspective. Either on the German, or the allied side.
This time you play as an Irish resistance fighter. Nice.

Thinghs I liked:

The graphics. The film-noir effect with occupied France in black-and white. As you liberate it, district by district, it gets coloured again.

You can climb everywhere! Awesome.
GTA look and feel
You can drive tanks
Nudity: There are a lot of semi-naked strippers. Just make sure to enable the nudity option in the menu.
Check-out the sample video bellow: (NSFW)

Things I disliked:

You can only carry 2 weapons at a time. Bummer.
There is a V2 rocket mobile launcher. You can drive it, but you can't fire it. C'mon!
There are no flyable aircrafts. There is a mission where you cruise in a Zeppelin but you can't fly it.
The freeplay targets although they add variety to the gameplay, they are repetitive. Blow up this (Tower, Speakers, Tank, Radar) or kill that (General, Guards). At least if you ever get bored of the main storyline there will always be something to blow up

Onslaught 2

2010-04-29T11:05:00.002Z

The sequel to onslaught, a popular tower-defence browser game.
This is what level 487 looks-like on onslaught 2.

That's my current high-score on easy mode, on the "miss direction" map. I don't think it's possible to get a lot higher than this as there's not enough space for lots of combo turrets.
The sheer amount of firepower and enemies started to hog PC resources and near the end I had terrible frame-count.
It also gave me a headache, so that's it. I'm through with that game.
Good fun though. I recommend it.

A typical "work-day"

2010-04-26T07:37:00.004Z

Here you can see all my mouse activity on a typical work-day.
It was recorded over a period of 8 hours. From 8 o'clock to 4 o'clock.
The black lines represent mouse movement.

As you can see, Tower Defence is an important part of my job.
*Edit: I made the graph with IOGraph.

Driving in 3rd person

2010-04-07T09:17:00.000Z

These guys try to re-enact the 3rd person view that you get in video-games when driving a vehicle.
They attached a pole on the rear of a pickup-truck, with a camera on the top, blacked-out the windows, and installed a 15" monitor on the dash. Presto. Real-life GTA.
Just don't run-over any more pedestrians or the wanted level will rise.

Modern Warfare 2

2010-03-23T13:07:00.002Z

So I finished Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.
I haven't got any original comments other than the usual: awesome but very short, and the multiplayer with no dedicated servers sucks.

I thought they made a goof in the cut-scene at the beginning of mission 9: "The Only Easy Day…Was Yesterday". Where the player's mini-sub meets the second mini-sub and the operator signals a thumbs up.

*The thumb-up signal in scuba-diving means abort the dive and surface. When you meet someone or signal that everything is ok, you should make the circle sign by joining the index with the thumb.

What the operator meant was:
-dude we're here. Let's surface and shoot some bad-guys.
And the other operator replies: -ok. lets.

Anyhow.
Another thing I would like to point out is on mission 10: "The Gulag."
The scene in the showers is identical to the showers from the movie "The Rock" with Sean Connery.
Checkout this screenshot from the movie and tell me it's not the same room

Also, totally irrelevant, but the guy in the middle where exactly is he aiming? 'cause it looks like he's shooting the tiles. Yeah way to go man.

Add a USB port to your motorcycle

2010-03-01T17:41:00.002Z

The problem:
When I use my Mio C220 GPS on my bike the battery doesn't last long. This sucks. Especially for those long trips. Also, It would be cool if I could charge my cell phone and mp3 player on the go.

The solution:
Add a powered USB port, hooked to the battery, for everlasting power.

The dirty details:
First of all, you'll need an 7805 voltage regulator A.K.A. LM7805, a diode, a fuse, some cable, and a female Type-A USB port.
While you *could* wire up everything on your own, there's no point doing so.
For about 1 Euro you can get a USB car charger, from ebay. (Postage included)
It would cost you more to get the individual parts, plus you would have to find some sort of case to protect them. For 1 euro you get everything you need. Sweet deal.

Carefully dismantle the car charger.
If it includes a fuse, you're lucky. Mine didn't. It's fifty-fifty. Some have a fuse, some haven't.
Although you could get away without using a fuse, I highly recommend it. We don't want to burn down our beloved bikes, do we?

Get rid of the spring either by cutting it, or de-soldering it. This is the positive output of the circuit.
Also throw away the metal contacts. We don't need those either. Just try to keep the little black cable intact.

It's easier to solder on the cable instead on the PCB itself. Black equals ground, or negative.
This is where I connected my 2 amps fuse. I'm not sure whether you're supposed to wire it on the positive or the negative lead, but I don't think it matters much.

If you have a multimeter it's a good idea to test the connections to make sure you've soldered everything correctly.
Now connect positive to positive, and ground to ground on your battery screws, and wait for the fireworks. (Just kidding). Just take extra care not to connect them the other way around, or the voltage regulator will get red-hot and start melting everything.

Now wire a mini-USB cable that runs from the battery, through the bike's frame, to the handlebar.
This way you can charge your GPS and use at the same time.
And if I ever need to charge something under the saddle, I can always unplug the handlebar cable and plug any USB charger under the saddle.

The only problem with this configuration is energy waste. All the excess voltage is converted into heat. This isn't just wasteful, it's also a small flaw: When the engine is running, the voltage on the battery gets up to 14V, so the regulator has to drop it to 5V which is quite a drop. The specs for 7805 specify that it can take as input as much as 35V with a heatsink. In this case I'm not using one, plus everything is encased, and under the seat. Depending on your motorcycle, things might get very hot.
My Aprilia has the engine air-intake under the seat so I'm hoping to get some air-stream on it that will help cool it down.
My next upgrade will be to perforate the plastic so that it "breaths" better.

Mio C220 Motorcycle Holder mod for under £5

2010-02-16T08:55:00.002Z

...Or how to take your car GPS with you, on your bike, on the cheap.

First, you'll need a cheap generic motorcycle holder.
China is again the way to go. So fire-up ebay, and search for a motorcycle holder. Any device will do, as we only use the handle-bar ring, and the plastic platform.
I found a motorcycle holder for the Samsung i900 Omnia for just £2.75 including P&P.

Next step is to clip all the protruding plastic bits that hold the Samsung in place, until you're left with a flat plastic platform.

I'm sorry, I don't have any before pics.
Now glue some neodymium magnets (AKA rare-earth magnets) on the platform, and the equivalent amount of magnets on the GPS it self.

I glued them with hot-glue and up to now it holds great. You can use other glues as well, but my guess is that they will start dissolving under the blazing summer-sun. Epoxy would work even better if you have it.

Just make sure to reverse the polarity so that they actually pull each other instead of pushing.
We don't want that, unless you're trying to build a self-floating GPS.
No.
It won't work.
Forget it.

The mod works fine even with just 4 magnets. I've used 8 just to be sure. The magnetic attraction is so strong that it's very hard to pull them apart even by pulling with both hands. There's no way to accidental lose it.

Chuanglida HK No. 741 (HK MP5) review

2010-02-09T10:26:00.001Z

I know... I know... WTF right?

I bought a toy SMG for the Greek version of Halloween (apokries) for just 4.99 euros from Jumbo.
Quality looks good and when you press the trigger you get a nice kickback effect with the included vibrator and moving nozzle.

I believe the model is a bad immitation of the Heckler & Koch MP-5 with a handle attachment, scope and extendable stock. It was a blast at the party.
Unfortunately I lost the scope and the nozzle broke. (It was a wild party) but nothing irreparable.
I'm thinking of hacking it into a railgun but it's a lot of work and planning.
For now I might settle for a paint job.

The funny thing is that those shameless Chinese marketing guys used as promotion, a photo from Eidos Interactive, Commandos 3: Destination Berlin.

They just changed the subtitle from Berlin to Fortress, and presto! free marketing.

I thought it was too funny not to share. I wonder if Eidos will even bother to sue...

Mio c220: Replace the battery

2010-02-06T07:56:00.003Z

I bought a second hand Mio c220 GPS to tinker with it.
While trying to hack it, I also flirt with the idea of replacing its internal battery.
Since I bought it for 20 euros, I don't care much if I break it, so I took the plunge:
I disassembled it to see what's inside. Here goes.

**Warning**
Before you start unscrewing stuff, take a mental note of the power button. Once you remove the rear cover, the button will go flying and you will have to figure-out which way is the right way to put it back in.
Also, performing an open-heart operation on your loved GPS is not a risk-free matter. I cannot be held responsible for any damaged units. Proceed at your own risk.

Right. Were was I? Go on and unscrew the 4 screws on the back. Then you have to pry it open. Use a flat screwdriver and be careful not to mark the plastic casing.

Once you separate the casing into 2 pieces, carefully disconnect the black and white cables that connect the speaker to the PCB. This will give us some more "breathing" space for our tinkering.

What we see before us is a 3.7v 1200mAh battery with dimensions of 5 x 3.5 x 0.7 cm.

You can buy a direct replacement for about £7.5 or if you're a real cheapskate like me you can buy a cell-phone or camera battery which are cheaper.
I haven't tried this one yet, but it appears that the following batteries have very similar dimensions and should fit within the casing.

The only downfall is that you will have to cut the cable off the original battery and solder it on the new battery contacts. Shouldn't be that difficult. Just make sure that you keep the soldering process short as batteries tend to explode on your face if you overheat them with a soldering iron. And they overheat fast.

I'll first let the battery die completely and then I'll buy a new one, so I'll let you know how that goes.

Portal

2010-01-19T12:48:00.014Z

Portal. Puzzle awesomeness in a 3D environment.
Portal launched on October 9 2007 as part of Half-Life 2: The orange box and completely flew by me. I never knew it existed until yesterday. So naturally I had to catch up. Finished it in just 2 days.

It's rare for any non-violent games to be that good. That's because there are very few non-violent games targeted to adults out there. It reminded me of mirror's edge a bit because of the lack of weapons but it's a lot slower-paced. Which is a good thing because it gives you time to think about your next move.
The puzzles are very smartly designed and enjoyable. (specially the final level!)
The concept of the portal gun is amazing. Gives you new possibilities. Makes you think in new ways where up and down are unimportant. Redefines gravity.
For example: If you have an inaccessible far-away platform that you need to reach, you can create an entry portal on the ground, and an exit portal on the wall, then jump through the entry portal and gravity pushes you out the portal on the wall. The greater the fall, the greater the vertical force you get out of the exit portal. That doesn't make much sense does it?
Watch this video and you'll get it:

The only downfall is that it's very short. There are rumours about portal 2, but nothing is confirmed.
("The cake is a lie")

I've got one question about the game's storyline:

**SPOILER WARNING**
In the end, after everything blew up and the camera lies down on the surface between the wreckage, what do you make of it? Is it the character it self that died and now lies down on the grass, or is it just the camera and the character survived?

Lunar Lander - High Score

2009-12-14T16:48:00.001Z

Remember when I wrote last week about Lunar Lander and my #7 rank on the world-wide ladder?
Well, I just broke all the records!
1555 points!
I'm No. 1. The best of the best. I can land an oil tanker on a pizza box.
Here's a screen shot for the non-believers.

LED throwies

2009-12-12T18:37:00.001Z

Have you seen the new craze?
LED throwies.

Basically you slam together a button-battery (cr2032) and a bright LED, and tape them around with electric tape. If you want you can tape together a neodymium magnet as well and throw it on a lamp post or anything metal. Hence the name.
I thought I would copy the meme but instead of the magnets I used blue-tack to glue them on the balcony wall to serve as Christmas decorations.
It worked pretty well. Here are the results.

Atari Lunar Lander

2009-12-04T18:32:00.002Z

Remember Atari's Lunar Lander?
What an awesome game. I remember playing a clone of it on an Olympic Data PC with a black and green screen back on 1989. I was 6 years old!
Anyway. It seems Atari brought back the original Lunar Lander in a flash emulation, and you can play it for free!
I'm trying to beat the high score, but it seems impossible! There is a guy that goes with the nickname BJC that has reached an amazing score of 1525!!

To give you some perspective on the awesomeness-scale:
You get 250 points if you land on a 5x tier spot. The way I play it, I got enough fuel for approximently 3 landings. If you manage to nail the sweet spot, that's 750 points total.
This dude has managed to score 1525!! That's at least 6 landings! He's either cheating, or he's godlike.

Anyway. ~~My best score is 825, wich makes me 85th best player on the whole-wide world.~~
**Update 9/12/09**
I just nailed a score of 1305 points! This makes me the 7th best player on the whole wide world. Holy sweet Mary, mother of Jesus! I rule!

My Wishlist: Xmas 2009

2009-11-27T10:38:00.013Z

Stuff I really need

KBC VR1X Medium Helmet (85-160€)
Aprilia Strada Headlight (144€)
30 Watt Solder Iron (4-10€)
Money clip wallet (11€)
Gas mask (5€)
Butane Pencil Torch (7€)
Heat Gun (19€)

Stuff I want

10" Atom 270 Netbook (250-330€)
The Road, By Cormac McCarthy (5€)
Garmin Etrex Handlebar Mount (10-15€)
2.1 Speakers (20-35€)
Bad-ass coffee mug (17€)

Stuff I can live without (But want nevertheless)

~~Holux M241 GPS (25-35€)~~
Nokia N82 (60-100€)
Samsung CLP315 Printer (129€)
Linksys PAP2 VoIP Adapter (20€)
Samsung BD-P1580 Blue Ray Player (165€)
Canon Powershot SX10 IS (150-200€)

Video Games!! *Drooling*

Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare II (33-40€)
The Saboteur (30€)
GTA IV (15€)
Nintendo Wii (189-199€)

Free stuff inside a DVD Drive

2009-11-16T07:50:00.002Z

While waiting for my arduino to arrive, I'm accumulating various ~~junk~~ useful parts for my future projects.
When it comes to arduino projects, one thing you can't have enough are motors and servos. And LEDs. Definitely LEDs.
If you have a busted DVD or CD drive, you can sacrifice it to get at least 2 motors. And there's more free goodies inside!

Inside my busted old NEC DVD-RW I found the following:

4x screw dampeners
1x two-way switch (on-off-on) Good as a forward-reverse stick
4x Lenses. The two circular can be used as a macro lens for cell phone cameras
1x Right-angled tact switch
1x Disk-type Rheostat (These are rare)
1x 3.5mm jack
2x headers
2x Laser diodes. Good for DIY burning laser devices
1x right-angled Green LED with housing
1x DC motor
1x Stepper motor (Sweet)
Enough gears to make your own robotic gripper

On top of these parts, there should be 2x strong magnets, -I must have thrown them away by mistake- and a third high-RPM motor that spins the disk. I couldn't salvage it as it was soldered on a PCB and looked complicated, but maybe someone else can use it somewhere.

DIY Vibrating Body Massager mod

2009-10-03T19:51:00.001Z

Bored on a Satuday morning, I contemplated on what use I could get out of some spare parts I've got.
My latest salvaged item was the RF-370CA-15370 motor that I pulled apart from a working VCR. It looked powerful and I was itching to use it on some project.
I tried it with 5V at first, and it buzzed happily! I then connected it's rotating axle with an off-center crown to test it's vibrating capabilities... Yup. Perfect. With a 9V battery I couldn't even hold it still. That much vibration.
Hmm... time to build a cheap as chips vibrating body massager thingy.
We already had a manual roller body massager. Good for back aches. Bought it a while ago from Jumbo, costs just 1.5 euros.

First step: take it apart. It has exchangeable heads, so taking it apart is as simple as twisting it.

We then mark the switch dimensions

I couldn't bother taking my dremel out, so I warmed-up a screw with a lighter and melted away the plastic. I then finished it up with an exacto knife.

I soldered the cables to the switch

The motor with the slightly off-center bit and the 9V battery. I used hot-glue to fix them inside the massager.

That was it. The finished product looks the same externally (minus the switch)

It works very well as a back massager. Don't get any naughty ideas.
For 1.5 euros + 2.40 euros for the battery, it can rival easily some commercial models.

Ammo Case HTPC Mod

2009-09-21T19:41:00.004Z

I've always wanted to build my own custom PC case.
Ever since I randomly stumbled upon the mini-itx.com website I got hooked. I saw all of the mods that other people submitted over the years and I wanted to build my own. I specially liked the army themed ones such as the Ammo Box and the AmmoLAN. I had an ammo box lying around that I used to house all of my audio cds. It was about time it got a new purpose.

The new system would act as a Home Theater PC (HTPC) and keep company to my new 32" Full HD TV. For that it would have to be powerful enough to play Blue-ray and some video games. I read some positive reviews on the new Zotac ION ITX-A, plus it has an external brick-type UPS for space economy and less heat.

Featuring the Intel Atom 330 and the Nvidia GeForce 9300, they say zotac Ion is up to the task, and pretty friendly to the pocket.

So the configuration goes like that:

Main Components
Zotac Ion ITX-A -------------------------->175 euros (Delivery costs included)
Sony AD-7670S Slim DVD --------------->46 euros
Seagate Barracuda 320GB ---------------->39 euros
Kingston PC6400 800Mhz 2GB ---------->27 euros
Trust Wireless Keyboard & Mouse -->27 euros
TOTAL 314 EUROS

Bits & Pieces
2x light bulbs ------------------------> 2 euros
Valdal-proof Switch ---------------->7.40 euros
Key-switch -------------------------> 4 euros
2x Flip toggle switches -------------> 2 euros
Tiny reset switch ------------------->0.60 euros
Cables ----------------------------->0.15 euros
2x 40mm Fan Guards ------------->1.2 euros
80mm Fan Guard ----------------->2 euros
4x M3 Stand-offs ----------------->1 euro
mini-sata to sata cable ------------->5 euros
HDMI v3 Gold cable -------------->7 euros
TOTAL 32.2 EUROS

Tools
Solder Iron ------------------>8 euros
Solder Flux ------------------>1.6 euros
Hot Glue Gun --------------->3.50 euros
Masking Tape--------------->1 euro
Dremel-Type Rotary tool --->30 euros
Set of Dremel bits ----------> 7 euros
TOTAL 51.1 EUROS

I started by measuring the mobo and the ammo case. It seems it could fit. the height of the mobo matches exactly the height of the box. 17cm. It's gonna be a close fit. I made a paper mock-ups to arrange all the parts inside the box and figure out where to put each part.

Next step was to plug everything, cross my fingers and hope that everything works out of the box. A very critical step to the overall success.

And yes it works just fine. Notice that the original plan was to include a full-sized DVD drive. More on that later.
Here is the ammo box in it's original un-modded beauty.

On the side it's marked: "Fuze PD M557 Boostered" and on the top: "Explosives Class C" a little bit of googling revealed that it's purpose was to store fuses for 105mm artillery rounds.
In the past, (Before 9-11) I had a lot of fun at airports with this thing as carry-on baggage. The stares I would get from security staff...

Now lets get that dremel working. For the ports on the back, I didn't want to use the I/O shield that most of mods use because it would look too much like a PC. I just cut enough steel for the ports to slip through.
The I/O shield came handy to mark the spot for cutting.

Here's my workshop setup. I got exiled by my GF to the balcony so I wouldn't mess up the house with steel trimmings. That was a BAD idea. More on that later.

I started off by cutting the front handle. It was the first time I was handling a dremel tool so I needed the practice. The front handle was totally useless and it was making a clinking noise when moving the case around, plus I needed the space, so it had to go.
The carbon cutting disk cut it like butter.

Largo from Megatokyo webcomic says that you have to hack naked so who am I to defy him?
I also own (or should I say p0wN) this awesome t-shirt

Here are the first holes my dremel skillz are improving really slowly.

Now for some soldering skills. Again, It's my first time with a soldering iron. I needed to wire fans, Switches, and status leds. Starting from the fans, the system is ment for my bedroom so it has to be extra silent. It will also be permanently on, so good air flow is a must too. At first I thought of putting 40mm fans. 2 on the back and 2 on the lid.
The disadvantage of 40mm fans over bigger ones is that they produce more noise, so instead of 2 + 2, I used one 80mm on the back, blowing air in, and two 40mm on the top, blowing hot air out.

I don't have a multimeter and don't even know how to use one, so a peek under the label reveals the polarity. (At the time I didn't think about cables color coding)

So as you probably suspected, the red wire is the positive, and the black is negative or ground. The blue one is the RPM sensor that I don't need it at the moment, so off it goes. All 3 fans are 12v and they have the small 3 pin connector. The one that connects to the motherboard so that the system controls the RPMs. Off with those too. Now... where to solder them? The sata power molex is basically the same as the standard molex. yellow is +12V, red is +5V, and the 2 black cables are ground.

At first I connected all of the fans in series, but that didn't work very well as the voltage was reduced with each device I added. Makes sense to those who actually paid attention in physics class.
So I de-soldered everything and connected them in parallel.
I then wired 2 flip-switches to kill the power to the inbound or outbound airflow individually.

Everyday I could only cut for 4 hours from 5pm to 9pm so I wouldn't annoy the neighbors with all the noise. Add to that the much needed planning time, and it took me weeks to cut and sand everything.

Next stage was to cut 3 blow holes. I started with the 80mm one on the back.
The hole saws were too expensive so I had to do it with the dremel.
I masked the area with masking tape to protect it from random "oops" slip-offs. (I learn from my mistakes)

I started by drilling guide holes with the drill, and then worked my way circularly with the dremel and carbon cutting disk. The steel was thick and the job took me quite a while to finish.

Next was the lid 40mm holes. That was a royal pain in the 4$$ ! ! !
The steel on the lid was double! I don't mean just thicker, it actually consists of 2 steel plates. That made it super tough to carve a proper smooth circle. I should have bought the hole saws after all.

The rubber molding covers perfectly the imperfections. I had to force the 2 metal plates together with a pair of pliers otherwise it wouldn't fit.

Here you can see the HDD mounted on the side, the holes for status LEDs, flip switches, reset switch and the rubber molding DVD slot. The batteries are hot-glued to the bottom. I needed some way to line up the drive with the slot because of bad measuring. Also I had to place the DVD-drive upside-down because its right side corner would touch the motherboard. Amazingly it works even upside-down.

Everything plugged-in. The motherboard upper side sits just on the edge of the box. They have the exact same height of 17cm. It was a gamble but it fits. I tried to manage the cable-spaghetti a bit to get better airflow and that's the best I could do. It's breezy in there.
That was the point where I got so excited with the project that I forgot to take pictures of the process.

When I trie dto close the lid I realized that the lid hits the motherboard screws and stops it from closing. I remedied it with a little bit dremeling.

I wanted to mount the mobo, HDD, DVD and fans with M3 screws so I cut them to appropriate lengths. I later found out that M3 doesn't work with internal components. It's a good thing I had a bunch of spare screws from random PCs. I used the M3 screws and M3 nylon nuts to mount the fans. It was very had to keep the nut in place while screwing. (This doesn't sound right...)

I hot-glued most of the cables to tide them up and improve the air-flow. That's the top fans connected and ready to go.

Perfect fit for the wifi antenna. I've got some regular sized antennas that I could use, but I'm planning on installing a huge one just to get the military-specs style

I added a key switch. I order to power-on the PC, you have to turn the key to on, and then push the start switch. The key disables the power switch by opening the circuit. I wanted to imitate the 2 key-safety feature of nuclear weapons. If the key-switch is off, you can't power-off the system either.

Close-up view of one of the top fans with its fan guard.

Rear view

Fron view. In that hole you can see the reset switch. I put it there to avoid accidental resets. On the left we got the fan flip-switches, and on the right the HDD activity status and power-on status. I used 3v light bulbs instead of LEDs to give a more old-school look. When inserting a disk you have to remember to put it upside-down

I wanted to mount a regular sized DVD drive vertically, but unfortunately it didn't fit, and it wouldn't look good anyway with a tray protruding even with the bezel removed. So I opted for the much more expensive slimline slot drive. I was hoping to cut a thin line on the front of the case to eject the DVDs and stealth the drive behind it. Turns out dremel tools aren't that precise. At least not in my hands. The line ended up being quite thick so I had to resolve to rubber molding around the edges to make the slot appear thinner, and protect DVDs from getting scratched.

I then bought a cheap PC remote control from ebay for basic control while laying lazingly on the bed. It is an HTPC after all.

Some close-up details

And finally the finished product

I also added XBMC to enhance the home theater experience. Works like a charm.

P.S
Why it's a bad idea to cut steel on the balcony:
All the metal trimings that graciously lie on the balcony floor, once they get wet from the rain, they start to rust. And boy do they rust FAST. I got rust everywhere on the floor and the GF went mental so I had to scrub and scrub with acid solution.
Next time I'll do it in the basement and vacuum the place real good.

Feel free to leave comments negative or positive, or suggestions.

Aprilia Pegaso 650 Strada - fuel efficiency

2009-06-12T20:26:00.009Z

After 2 years on my Aprilia Pegaso 650 Strada, I think it's time to write a review of fuel efficiency.

How I measured:
Whenever I top-up my tank, I check the mileage and then reset the trip odometer. For means of simplicity and consistency, I top-up right after the yellow fuel indicator comes on.
Here are the results:

At daily commuting in heavy traffic, I never get more than 200km per tank. That's about 15km per litre.

While touring at around 140km/h I get 230km. (17km per litre)

During my last trip, I tried to keep a steady pace of 120km/h and never reached above 5,000rpm. Amazingly, this gave me a range of 300km!! (23km per litre).

While touring I can travel easily as far as 500km away with just 2 top-ups and some fuel to spare. Overall, I think that as long as you don't go full throttle fuel economy on the Aprilia Pegaso 650 Strada is pretty sweet.

Mirror's edge review

2009-05-26T11:40:00.005Z

Just finished Mirror's edge. One of the few video games with minimum violence.
The concept of the game is to avoid using firearms of any kind. Some successful games in the past followed this concept, but they were aimed mainly at stealth. Avoiding detection. (Metal Gear, Splinter Cell, Thief: The dark project)
This one is different because you don't try to hide your tracks, you just try to run away.
The feel is very smooth. It gives you a sensation like watching a Jackie Chan movie. It's very fast paced: You climb drain-tubes, jump-off roofs, balance on flag polls. The game is a lot about fast response, and timing. For example when a bad guy tries to shove you with a gun stock, you have to press the disarm button the precise moment to effectively avoid being hit and disarm him. There is also a bullet-time button at your disposal, and many combinations of acrobatics.
The cut-scenes are animated and awesome, the gameplay is fresh, graphics are cool. Just don't try to play it without the latest patch. At some points it's unplayable.
Also if you get stuck and don't know where to go next, the hint system works very well to show you the way.
Only problem is that it's short. But no-one stops you from playing it again to beat your own score.

Photoshop Mutations - Bulb Head

2009-05-22T09:58:00.003Z

You know how in comics the hero has a bright light bulb on top of his head every time he gets an idea?
Well that's the real-life version on it.

I'm not too happy with the shadows, but it's an early experimental pic. I might revisit and make a better version some time.
Next I'm going to try the clothes-no-body manipulation. I'll be the invisible man.
Stay tuned.

Burnout Paradise: Ultimate Box Review

2009-05-15T11:20:00.005Z

One word: SUCKS!
Allow me to contemplate:
I absolutely loved the first 3 Playstation versions. I almost bought a PS2 just to play burnout. So now that finally a PC version came out you can imagine my excitement. All that went away just minutes after installing and jumping in my first car.

Of course there's no story, no need for one anyway, but the game just dumps you in the middle of a boring city and if you want action you have to drive around to find it.
This was firstly done in Need for Speed Underground and it worked great. It gave the player a sentiment of freedom. BUT in NFS you had stuff to do. You had a linear story, performance upgrades, you could fool around with the looks of your car to customize it in sickening detail, money you earned helped you buy stuff and pay fines, plus you had cop chases.

In BP none of that exists. You don't get BP just to have another clone of NFS, you get it for it's uniqueness. Well that's gone too. That thrill of the race with the boost and the crazy speed and the speed blur? gone. The crash mode from burnout 2? Yup. Gone. The game has nothing that reminds you the first instalments of the series.
At least is it playable? No! The car physics are so dumbed-down that it's more arcade than the arcades. I didn't expect a driving simulator, after all, in the past I didn't enjoy Colin Mcray games because they were too hard. But this, this feels like it's 1995 and I'm playing Sega Rally again.
And what about the menu? It's a nightmare! you have to press F1 & F2 to navigate to various menu categories, with an added delay between each screen just like on a freakin' console. Sometimes keyboard navigation doesn't even work and after you press frantically the enter button several times, you drag the mouse and click the enter button.
The only points that I did like were the graphics, and the car models that get smashed pretty nicely in slow motion. Unfortunatelly those advantages are not strong enough to make me like the game.
Another bad thing is that it doesn't convey the feel of the speed properly. I'm driving flat out with a fast car and it feels like I'm on first gear. The fact that it doesn't have a speedometer doesn't help either. I was fighting my way through the menu to change a setting or something and get a speedometer, and I noticed paradise bikes mode! Another joke! Whoever developed that, never rode a bike in his life!
Yikes! Uninstall, throw the disk away!

Upgrade time!

2009-04-10T23:22:00.000Z

It's about time I upgrade that machine of mine. It's vintage by now. I've had it since 2003. It can't run any of the new sweet games. Ahh.. the sadness...

Because of a very short budget, I can't go crazy on the specs, but at least it will be something I can live with for now and maybe upgrade it more later.

My first choice of CPU was the AMD athlon x2 6000+, but intel nowadays gives you more juice for your buck so I think I will go for the Core 2 Duo E7400, E7500 or E8400.
So that settles the "which socket?" question. LGA775 it is.
Moving on to the Motherboard, I definitely want performance, but on the other hand I'm not gonna go crazy on overclocking, so there's not much point in getting a high-end mobo.

Now for the "which brand" and "which chipset" questions:
I really hate MSI for that lame KT6 VIA they made. It sucked big time and I was stuck with it for 5 years.
Abit closed-down, so that leaves me with Asus, and Gigabyte. At this point I got lucky because I really wanted the P45 chipset, but could only afford the P43 for around 75 euros, and then I found an Asus P5QC refurbished, with the P45, at the price of P43!
Sadly it only has 6 months waranty, doesn't include any cables or manual, (or anything else beside the board), and I don't even know if it works, but what the hell it's cheap.

So what's missing now is a GPU and some dimms.
For the GPU I'm thinking a second-hand 8800GTX, or a 4850 ATi.
I don't care much for the dimms as long as they're DDR2 1066Mhz. Later-on I can upgrade to DDR3 since my mobo supports both.

Best games of all time

2009-04-10T23:06:00.005Z

Which are your all-time favorite video games?
Here's my list of the best of the best.

Adventure

Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis (1992)
Sam and Max: Hit the Road (1993)
Day of the Tentacle (1993)
Full Throttle (1995)
Leisure Suit Larry 7: Love for sail (1996)
Lula: The sexy Empire (1998)

Simulation

Grand Prix Circuit (1988)
Comanche: Maximum Overkill (1992)
SimCity 2000 (1993)
Screamer (1995)
Creatures (1996)
Subculture (1997)
Carmageddon (1997)
Theme Hospital (1997)
Interstate '76 (1997)

First Person Shooters

Wolfenstein 3D (1992)
Doom (1993)
Duke Nukem 3D (1996)
Quake (1996)
Shogo: Mobile Armor Division (1998)
Half-Life (1998)
Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear (1999)
Call of Duty (2003)

Arcade

Double Dragon (1987)
Golden Axe (1989)
Star Wars: Rebel Assault (1993)
Worms (1994)
Desert Strike: Return to the Golf (1994)
Super Street Fighter II Turbo (1994)
Raptor: Call of the shadows (1994)
Metal Slug (1996)
Grand Theft Auto (1998)

Strategy

Command & Conquer: Red alert (1996)
Close Combat II: A Bridge Too Far (1997)
KKnD (1997)
Incubation (1997)
Dark Reign (1997)
Starcraft (1998)
Company of Heroes (2006)

RPG

Fallout (1997)
Fallout 2 (1998)
System Shock 2 (1999)
Neverwinter Nights (2002)

3rd Person Shooter

Metal Gear Solid (1998)
Max Payne (2001)
GTA San Andreas (2004)

Call of duty

2008-01-31T10:48:00.000Z

That's it. My numbers are up. I'm off to to serve the country.
I was drafted to join the special forces. My training will be tougher and more interesting than regular army. I hope that I'll learn a thing or two and hopefully get beefed-up on the process.
I'll try and post photos of me and my M16.
The registration day is on 11 February and my service lasts 12 months. It would be kinda hard to keep my blog updated as there are no PCs nor internet connection inside the camps.

Must... post....

2007-12-06T05:28:00.001Z

It's been a long time since my last post. A lot have happened:

I managed to finish my dissertation and not only I earned my MSc Networking Professional, but my dissertation will get published and presented in a security conference. A guy can brag right? I even went back and had my graduation ceremony. Gown, square hat and everything.

On other news, I finally got my shiny new bike. I ended up with the Aprilia Strada. A wise choice I must say.
Last but not least, I found a job: Technical customer support on Altec Telecoms. I guess my life starts to get on track. The salary sucks, the shifts are ok, but at least I get work experience and some pocket money to get-by until the day I join the army.
I'll post some stories of the funny calls I had from times to times. 90% of the users that call are totally dumb...

Greece on Fire!

2007-08-27T08:19:00.000Z

Unless you live in a cave, you probably have heard about the fires that burned-down more than half of the country this summer.
For the people who do live in a cave: The situation got out of hand. More than 170 fires in total, and 60 new ones just yesterday. Death-toll is 60 and rising, with hundreds wounded. Almost all of our majestic forests turned into ashes, and now even the national heritage area of ancient Olympia is threatened by the fires.

Our prime minister Kostas Karamanlis declared state of emergency, while neighbouring countries are sending help with fire-fighting aircrafts such as the BK 117 helicopter, and Canadair CL-415 water bomber.

I feel anger and sadness when I think of the extent of the damage. mountains and forests where I used to climb and go camping in my youth are now gone, and will probably never grow back. You see, in Greece, everything evolves around money. Everyone want a nice luxurious villa on the mountain with a breath-taking view. However, it is illegal to build anything inside, or within specific distance of a forest. The work-around is 4 simple steps:

Burn-down the forest. Make sure it's summer and windy so that it's very difficult to extinguish it.
Wait until next year, and burn it down again, to wipe-out any chances of natural reforestation via pine-cones, seeds etc.
Put a fence around the area that you want to build, then wait for a few years until the land is considered yours. (Some weird Greek law.)
Now all you have to do is sell it between friends, 5 or 6 times, until it gets registered in the national cadastre. That's it! You're ready to build anything you want!

Disgusting. People die, entire species get wiped-out, whole families are found charred, for what? For some rich guy to build on the top of the mountain and pretend to be king.
Then winter comes around, the rain starts, and without trees to hold the water, floods plague the country. And then we have even more deaths.
I'm angry. I'm pissed-off.
The government will offer 1 million euro (£678,000) as a reward to anyone who helps arrest the arsonists. I say kill 'em. We need to set an example. Let them burn on a stake or something.

I wish I was in Greece so I could join the above protest. One might argue that protests don't make any difference. Even if this is true, it's good because it shows that we still care. That we're all united. Don't forget that elections are coming on the 16th of September. What will you vote for? The same 2 parties that we had in power for ages? Nothing ever changes.
Maybe it's time to start voting for the Green ecologists parties.

Blaaah

2007-08-20T22:18:00.000Z

I predict that my posts are going to be a lot less frequent than normal, in sight of the looming dissertation deadline on the 21st of September.
I'm supposed to write 15,000 words on the subject of replacing the standard alphanumeric passwords with a graphical password system. Don't ask. It's complicated.

Here. Feast your eyes on my dissertation experiment:

All video-game playing is put on hold until I hand-in the damn thing. I've got Colin McRae DiRT ready to go, but I have to control my urges and go cold turkey, otherwise I'll never make the deadline.

Also, some exciting new changes that happened in my life lately, will most likely keep me occupied. Change is always welcome right? In this case you bet your ass it is.
Life is damn good!

Video-Game Junkies

2007-08-02T13:57:00.002Z

Apparently video-game addiction is about to be officially recognized by the American government as a medical condition.
This made me think: Am I a junkie? When did I first started playing video-games? How many have I played?
I don't worry too much for my health, I don't think I'll overdose or something...
However, a 28 year-old gamer died after playing starcraft for over 50 hours non-stop.
Are video-games evil?

LoveFilm Promotional code

2007-07-27T16:43:00.000Z

Free DVD rental anyone?
I got here a promotional code from LoveFilm that will give you 30 days free trial instead of the usual 2 weeks. The code is: RAF96
What's in it for me you ask? Well... if you decide to become a paying member, they'll give me 30 days too.
They'll probably ask you for your friend's email, so remember:
SuNbLoCk(at)hotmail(dot)com

Yamaha MT-03 VS Aprilia Strada

2007-07-24T23:32:00.000Z

After a lot of thinking, I ended up in those 2 final contestants: the Strada, and the MT-03. They have the exact same engine, minus some differences in the tuning.

Aprilia Strada
Advantages:
Convenient tank-top compartment, Lightweight, advanced instruments, greater range, More horsepower.
Disadvantages:
Less torque, more expensive, electrical parts hard to replace, expensive parts, re-sell value drops dramatically.

Yamaha MT-03
Advantages:
Great design, More torque, Less fuel consumption, Cheaper, Easier to find parts?
Disadvantages:
No fuel gauge, lack of instrument functionality.

Moto Day-Dreaming

2007-07-10T14:46:00.000Z

When I'm supposed to be studying, I get bored. When I get bored, I day-dream.
Once I go back to Greece I'll buy my new shiny motorcycle and hopefully do some long road-trips all around Greece. I've been thinking for a long time now which bike would best suit my needs: maneuverability, light-weight, low fuel consumption, good for trips as well as city commuting. Great acceleration speeds would be nice, while top-speed doesn't matter much as long as it's at least 160Km/h.

The final contestants are the following:

I can't decide! I want them All!! Here are some specs:

Geocaching. The hunt is ON!

2007-06-10T18:24:00.000Z

Weee! My first GeoCache is now active, live n' kickin'. You can find details about its activity here.
If you got no clue what I'm talking about, read all about GeoCaching.

Curse you Royal Mail!

2007-06-05T12:56:00.001Z

Stupid royal mail, they never deliver special deliveries to me. They always leave a card stating that they couldn't find me. How do you expect to find me if you don't knock the freakin' door? This time I left a message tapped to the mailbox:

Dear postman, I don’t live inside the mailbox. Pretty please with sugar on top, don’t leave a card saying that you didn’t find me. I’m one floor up, in flat 38. I’ll be there all day. I don’t bite. I Promise. If you leave a card, I’m gonna have to go to the central office the next day, and a lot of innocent kittens will die. Save the kittens. Deliver the parcel!

Bike Upgrade

2007-06-01T22:12:00.000Z

New toys for my bike!
I bought a new bottle-cage, kickstand, brake levers, and gear shifter:

It took me about 3 hours to install the gear shifter and adjust the gears. It's a pain-in-the ass job...

Global Environmental Day

2007-05-31T14:52:00.001Z

Take part in the Mend of the World 05.06.07

Mini Cycling Adventure

2007-05-29T13:13:00.000Z

Took my bike and went for a test-drive expedition around peak district.

My initial goal was to reach the Redmires Reservoirs, but stopped at Ringinglow because of severe rainfall. Although I had a waterproof poncho with me, the ride wasn't that fun anymore. The trip lasted about 3 hours, and I covered 20Km in total.
Here's a compilation of the photos and video I took:

Networking Fun

2007-05-24T22:51:00.000Z

Went to a 10 o'clock class today but the proffessor didn't show up. So I had a little bit of fun instead...

Cable spaggeti anyone?
Click on any picture to super-size it.

New bike

2007-05-22T23:30:00.000Z

I bought a new mountain bike! I got it off ebay, for just £10. It's a bit old and it shows its age, but with a little more money and love I'll convert it into a shiny mean bad-ass machine.
The plan is to take it in peak district and explore the wilderness.
Here's a photo of it before I started working on it:

Up to now, I removed the n00b stickers, washed it, and put the gear levers back to their normal position. The previous owner had them the other way around.
Next step will be mud-guards, and maybe new tyres.
I'll post any updates from my mountain-bike pimping. Watch this space.

Spain!

2007-05-04T20:49:00.001Z

I'll be travelling to Spain, Barcelona from Sunday 6 of may to wednesday 9. I'm planning of taking a tons of photos and have the time of my life. I'll post news and experiences once I get back. until then...
Hasta luego muchachos!

Strategy is back.

2007-04-30T22:40:00.000Z

I just finished playing company of heroes. Amazing game! There aren't enough WWII strategy games out there...
It was very similar to Joint Task Force, and Desert Rats VS Afrika Corps. Infact I think they all use the same engine. On the other hand, Company of heroes has some insane hardware requirements if you want to enjoy the awesomeness to the fullest.
I have now moved-on to Command and Conquer III: Tiberium wars, Which seems dull and boring compared to Company of heroes.
Seriously, what's with all the actors? It feels like I'm watching battlestar galactica, lost, and house, all at the same time.
I have to finish it though. It's my sacred duty. Command and Conquer series was and will be part of gaming history.
Onwards my brave ones! To the meat-grinder!

Logos anyone?

2007-04-18T22:21:00.000Z

My latest photoshop-obsession is spoofing corporate logos:

Check out my flickr page regularly for updates.

Rainbow Six: Vegas

2007-04-17T15:30:00.001Z

What an amazing game! I finished it in less that a week and enjoyed every part of it.
It's different than the previous Rainbow six instalments, in the sense that the tactical element is simplified. They probably did that to make it appealing to the console* type of gamers that like things simple. The game is still enjoyable, with a new feature added to it: Taking cover. It has an amazing system that works great.
Remember Time Crisis? A light-gun arcade game that had a dedicated pedal for taking cover. The player had no other control apart from taking cover and aiming. Nevertheless it was entertaining.
Similarly, in Vegas, you right click to take cover when you’re near some wall, crate or anything that could provide protection from rain of bullets. It feels kinda like splinter cell, only it’s even easier to use. You even have blind-fire! When the shit hits the fan, just stay behind cover, creep out your machine gun over the corner, and… say hello to my little friend!!

Other features include rappelling, upside-down rappelling, thermal goggles, night vision, wire-cams, silencers and many more.
Graphics and lighting are an eye-candy, realism is great, tactics is sweet… The only slight disadvantage is the story. It’s kinda weak. It doesn’t matter much though. Breach the room, save the hostage. Assault the dam, kill the terrorists. No need for a story-line. Just lock and load!

*Mentally challenged type of gamers that just want to put disks in the tray and hit play. They can’t be bothered with game installations, hardware configurations or assigning keys. They can only play games that use joy-pads and use them even on 1^st person shooters.

Photoshop news

2007-03-25T11:17:00.000Z

I discovered lately some techniques that I really have to explore further:
HDR, in which you take 3 pics on a tripod, with the same framing and different exposures and combine them into 1. The result is that you get balanced exposure levels everywhere, even with difficult lighting conditions. On top of that, if you play a bit with tone mapping, you get very artistic results. example 1, example 2, example 3.

The second technique is the Polar Panorama Effect, or "Create your own planet".
Get your examples here, here, and here.
All I need now, is a nice sunny day to explore my creativity.

Long time no see

2007-03-25T11:03:00.000Z

I've been busy lately with assignments, essays, group meetings etc, so I didn't have the chance to update. Nothing has changed anyhow...

I went to Nottingham again for Dennis' Birthday. There was some kind of a festival to celebrate the opening of the new town-square. We arrived at the scene 5 minutes before it ended. Proper Greeks or what? Always late.
Of course a trip to nottingham couldn't be complete without the "missing-the-train" experience, therefore, as the tradition requires, I missed the last train. I had to take a bus, change buses, go to derby, take a taxi, and then catch up with the same train that I missed in Nottingham. To treat my self, I snuck into the first-class coach, laid back, and enjoyed the ride home.

Back in the UK

2007-01-10T15:26:00.000Z

Yup. The rumors are true. I'm back.
I had a good time in Greece meeting friends, going out, drying-out bars etc. Unfortunately, I didn't manage to archieve my initial goal which was to ski till I drop. Because of a global shortage of snow (Stupid climate change...) I was able to go skiing only once, on a crappy ski resort up north, with only half the slopes open. The weather was great, and we were having fun until Filippos fractured his hand and we had to look for a hospital.
You can watch me skiing down the slope on youtube. I didn't had the chance to film a more spectacular one, because of the accident.

Greece for Xmas

2006-12-16T00:12:00.000Z

I'll be going to Greece for my xmas Break. I'm leaving on Sunday, and I'll come back on January 9.
Posting will be harder from now on because of the weak 56k Dial-up I've got in Greece. I'll provide updates as soon as I can.
The plan is to Ski. Ski A LOT

Quake 4: I need my fix!

2006-12-07T19:43:00.000Z

I finished it already! On the hard level too. Apparently there were only 15 mins of gameplay left since my last save. Now what am I going to do? I need my fix...

I wathed "Cars" the movie, earlier and I think I need a good racing game to get by.
What's that? Need for Speed Carbon?! Is this really you? You're talking to me? You want to be played?! Here? NOW?!
Ohh yeah baby. Let's get dirty...

Please don't hurt me?..

2006-12-07T02:18:00.000Z

I started Quake 4 yesterday, and I can't have enough of it. I'm addicted.

This was not the first time I played it. I tried it before, on May, got really immersed in the scary atmosphere, crapped my pants, and vowed never to play it again. In the lack of anything new to play, I reinstalled it now, haven forgotten the bad first experience, and with a different state of mind, I kicked some strogg ass.
Maybe it was the candle-lit room, maybe I was more of a pussy back then, the fact is I really enjoy the game this time. Maybe I'll give Doom III a chance after quake, (if I feel brave enough). I don't think I'll ever be able to play F.E.A.R though... One preview video was enough for me. I'm not gonna even install it. That little girl? Scraaary shit...

Although I believe the prize for the scariest game ever, goes to System Shock II. I'm proud to announce that I managed to finish it back then! (Plus I was only 16 and the game was rated "Mature 17+"). Anyway the game was hands-down CREEPY! I was scared shitless with every step I took in that virtual world. It wasn't so much the stuff you could see, it was mostly the stuff you couldn't see. Most of the times you would walk in a dark corridor with just 3 bullets or so, and listen to the creepy moans of the zombies nearing on you. Well... the stuff you would see weren't exactly all fluffy and cuddly either. You had your typical disfigured zombies, the "ghosts" of slaughtered crew-members in audio-logs, flesh-infested walls, and various other hair-rising stuff. You can get a taste of the gameplay here.
Gamespot wrote in a review:
"The game was scary. Damn scary. And this isn't schlocky-horror-movie-style monster-closet scary, where the bogeyman jumps out at you when you least expect it. Shock 2 projected real psychological terror through the tragic grotesquery of the formerly human enemies, the urgency and grim portent of the crew members' audio logs, and the unparalleled sound design that brought the menace and forebodingness of the Von Braun to horrible life."

Must... Plaaay....

2006-12-04T12:20:00.000Z

On Video Game news, DarkStar One is a cool game, reminds me of Star Wars: X-Wing VS TIE-Fighter. You got your standard match-speed button, hyperspace, dog-fights, space-mines, asteroid fields, "shield-lasers-engine" power management etc. It's also pretty similar to Sub-culture, Privateer and Eve-online because of all that trading. It had alot of potential to be a great game, but it’s full of bugs, and pisses me off most of the time. I got bored of it pretty quickly. Neeext…

Trip to Nottingham (Naughty-Ham)

2006-12-04T11:21:00.000Z

Yesterday I went to Nottingham to visit some friends. We had fun, and we had dinner in a Nando's restaurant. WOW! That was the best chicken I ever had. Looked it up, and it seems that there is one in Sheffield too, so I'll definitely eat there again.

Unfortunately, on my way back, my train got delayed, and I had to wait for an hour and a half, standing out in the freezing cold. Finally at about 11 o’clock they decided to cancel it, and arranged taxis for everyone. I got home at 1 o’clock.

Borat

2006-12-02T11:48:00.000Z

I went and saw Borat last night...
Yikes! The movie sucks ass! I mean, ok I laughed at some points, but overall the film was offensive. It wasn't worth £4. Maybe divx, but certainly not cinema-material.
Although I like Ali-G, (the other character that Cohen plays in his TV-show), I hate Borat. He's disgusting and offensive. I don't like this kind of humor.

The l33tness... It's too much...

2006-11-29T22:55:00.000Z

w00t! My GP2X arrived today! Oooh it's sooo sweet...
Unfortunately, it arrived opened, the batteries were missing, and the USB cable was dead. Oh well.. not a big-a-deal. I'm using a USB cable I had lying around.

I've spent all day tweaking it. The following is a list of the games I've managed to install:

Scummvm (Plays lucasarts click and point adventure games)

Monkey Island
Sam & Max Hit the road

Mame (Plays Coin-up arcade games)
VisualBoyAdvanced (GameBoy Advanced emulator)

Super Mario Advance (Too slow to be playable)

Duke Nukem 3D (Doesn't work for now, need to find an older version)
Descent 2
GnuBoy (GameBoy Emulator)

Can't find roms for now

GPfce (NES Emulator)

Castlevania 1,2,3
Mario Brothers
Skate or Die 1,2
Sonic-Mario

Quake (Works just like the real thing!)

On top of those, I tried mp3 playback, and video. I can watch all my favourites movies and series on the go. It's awesome!! Now all I need is a carrying case to protect my precious.

BRAIiiiiNSsss....

2006-11-28T19:18:00.000Z

I gave the presentation on Change Management today. I think it went pretty well... (Apart from the fact that I had no idea what I was talking about). Anyhow, It's just on a pass/fail scale, so since I've passed, I don't really care. Nothing to do from now 'till Thursday. 2 Days off! Sweet!

On other news:

I finished JTF, and moved on to "Stubbs The zombie: Rebel without a pulse". Nice little game. It's cool that you play the zombie for a change, but after a while it gets kinda boring. Yeah.. kill that cop, eat his brains... been there, done that... After 2 hours of it, I got ultra-bored. I don't think I'll play it again. Ever. Gave me a headache too.

I reckon I'll start DarkStar One once I get the chance. Other things to do include change the inner-tube of my bike, do the laundry and go grocery shopping. Gotta set my priorities...

GP2X: The saga begins...

2006-11-26T12:26:00.000Z

I've just went ahead and ordered my GP2X handheld console!

In case you've been living in a cave for the past year or so, GP2X is a handheld that allows you to play homebrew games (NeoGeo, atari, GameBoy, Game Gear etc), watch your favourite movies, read ebooks, listen to your MP3s, and many many more. It has 2 CPUs of 240Mhz each, and runs linux.
you can find more about it here

I can't wait to try it out! I'll propably camp by the mailbox and wait for the postman to arrive holding my precious GP2X box... mmm... *drooling* sweet...
More on the subject, when it arrives.
Peace out.

Web Design

2006-11-21T19:55:00.000Z

Here take a screen capture of the latest version of the project website. again for your viewing pleasure.

Fuckin' Fucked up Fucks...

2006-11-21T00:05:00.000Z

Damn those endless essays, assignments, and presentations. In the past 2 weeks I've been through HELL! Fuck dat. I'm not made for studying... I was born to play video games!
Oh well... At least it's going well... (Kinda...)
I finished the skeleton website for the Discussion Forum Website. For your viewing pleasure I give you... *Dramatic Drums*.... The Discussion Forum Logo! Made by me, in Photoshop CS2.

Joint Task Force

2006-11-12T12:57:00.000Z

I'm currently playing JTF. It's a Real Time Strategy with modern warfare. Pretty cool. And the graphics are eye-candy. For an RTS that is...

It reminds me a lot of Desert Rats VS Afrika Corps.
I love the fact that you can repair destroyed vehicles. This was present in desert rats, and they emphasized it a lot. It gives another strategic factor to keep in mind. You can grow your platoon by repairing abandoned tanks.

I wanted to play Company of Heroes, which is pretty similar, but with far more advanced graphics, and WWII instead of modern warfare. but the specs are too high... I'm gonna have to upgrade first.

The Land of Shoppertunity

2006-11-12T11:18:00.000Z

Went to the Meadowhall shopping center yesterday.
This place is HUGE! I stayed there for 2 hours and still haven't seen everything. There must be an ice-skating arena somewhere as well, 'cause I could see people carying around ice-skates. I'll have to check it out some other time.