Recent Posts

751

DC Gamer Club / Re: IndieRoyale Graduation Bundle

« Last post by Carol Haynes on June 01, 2012, 10:01 PM »

Not the most inspiring bunch of games (unless you are into retro 70s style arcade games).

I can see why you wanted to play AirMech - not my sort of game though. What's with the Google Chrome frisbee in the trailer?

Actually the two that appeal to me are The Void (though it will probably be disappointing) and Ichi (which at least looks quirky and different).

752

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 8 Release Preview Available

« Last post by Carol Haynes on June 01, 2012, 08:35 PM »

From what I have read there doesn't seem to be any visible changes to the legacy desktop.

The main differences since the Consumer Preview seems to be in Metro with lots of new and improved Metro apps and a few tweaks to navigation and multiple screen support.

Not sure if I am going to bother downloading though I suppose I will have to install it on at least one computer as I will have to support customers that get lumbered with it on new computers

The one positive point is that Windows 8 seems to be better optimised and apparently faster than Windows 7 - but to be fair everyone always says that when a new OS is released - give it six months and everyone will be saying why is my computer so slow again.

The one big criticism (apart from the obvious stuff) is that there doesn't seem to be any emphasis in Metro on getting actual work done!!

753

DC Gamer Club / Re: Portal 2 gets a new level maker! Woohoo - thousands of new levels

« Last post by Carol Haynes on June 01, 2012, 12:35 PM »

New extended version of Flying About online now: http://steamcommunit...details/?id=68641863

I have tried to make the original puzzle slightly more obviously logical by only supplying the bits as you need them!

754

DC Gamer Club / Re: Portal 2 gets a new level maker! Woohoo - thousands of new levels

« Last post by Carol Haynes on June 01, 2012, 06:27 AM »

I have revamped my Labyrinthine Treasure Map with extra puzzles and challenges.

Can somebody have a go at it please (it is sitting there all lonely with no feedback on Steam - no thumbs up or down and the only comment is min - looks very sad and lonely).

I am quite pleased with it now and seems to have the right feel (but maybe that's because I designed it) - it would be really good to know if I am hitting the spot!

My other puzzle Flying About is also getting a facelift with whole new funnels and lasers section (coming soon).

I think one of the big problems with the new community editor for Portal 2 is that so many people are producing puzzles it is almost impossible to he visible in the community and an awful lot of frustrated designers have now taken to spamming other designers threads trying to get visitors. Apart from the Steam Workshop page there doesn't seem to be any way to promote custom maps and that page is seriously broken - search doesn't actually work - even when you know the name of the user and/or the name of the map you are looking for and the only maps displayed prominently are the ones with 5* ratings meaning it is impossible to get new maps off the start.

755

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Norton Identity Safe -- Free Download

« Last post by Carol Haynes on June 01, 2012, 06:15 AM »

Interesting - I don't find MSE has any discernible impact on my system.

I was at a clients yesterday with a very slow computer. They had a current Norton subscription and so I swapped them to MSE and the speed up was very noticeable even without any other cleaning. Horses for courses I suppose.

Being cynical I suspect your original Norton removal wasn't complete (it rarely is IME of Norton even though they assure you it is) and interfered with MSE (wouldn't be at all surprised if that was deliberate). That's why I always use not only the normal uninstall routine but then use the Norton Removal tool to make sure it has all gone. (Interesting to note that Norton provide such a tool for uninstall issues - even for their latest versions).

I do the same with MacAfee - saw a computer a while ago that was slow and had some connectivity issues and had for some time. Turns out they had uninstalled MacAfee about 18 months earlier (apparently successfully) but there were still bits of the old firewall interfering with the connection speed which the MAcAfee Removal Tool got rid of and there was an instant system speed up and totally stable internet connection.

756

Living Room / Re: Ohhh Myyy (George Takei's signature)

« Last post by Carol Haynes on May 31, 2012, 04:09 AM »

Actually speaking of George I quite like his facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/georgehtakei

Mostly Takei silliness but occasionally thought provoking.

Aside ... on a Trekky theme ...

The Shatner appeared as the guest host of the UK satirical news quiz "Have I got news for you" last week. Apart from the fact he can't read an autocue to save his life (they had to give him bits of card to read off) it was very funny.  Particulalry good was his rendition of the Sex Pistols God Save the Queen ... Ohhh Myyy

757

Living Room / Re: The Zombie Apocalypse starts now....in Miami

« Last post by Carol Haynes on May 31, 2012, 03:26 AM »

He has too much time on his hands 

I bet he watched Buffy too!

758

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Norton Identity Safe -- Free Download

« Last post by Carol Haynes on May 30, 2012, 04:41 AM »

Interesting Carl, not been my experience with recent Norton offerings but glad it works for you.

759

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Norton Identity Safe -- Free Download

« Last post by Carol Haynes on May 29, 2012, 07:10 PM »

My standard advise top anyone with Norton or MacAfee stuff on their machine is to remove it ASAP. Both seem to work on the principle that the best internet protection is to make your computer so slow it is virtually unusable, and MacAfee in particular seems to be on most boxes I am asked to remove malware.

I used Norton for years when it was a good company but when Norton sold out to Symantec things flushed down the toilet rapidly and personally I would not let their crap near any of my computers (to the point that I use an original MS Windows disk on boxes I buy to make sure there are no dregs left behind).

I have found MacAfee still screwing up internet connections 2 years after users have removed it because their uninstall is so bad!

760

DC Gamer Club / Re: Build a Bundle

« Last post by Carol Haynes on May 28, 2012, 09:20 PM »

You don't have to download the games you don't actually want!

761

DC Gamer Club / Re: Build a Bundle

« Last post by Carol Haynes on May 28, 2012, 07:57 PM »

Thanks for the heads up - appreciated.

I also see they have now added the Steam key for Dark Fall.

762

Living Room / Re: Raspberry Pi ...

« Last post by Carol Haynes on May 27, 2012, 08:08 AM »

There is a second single row of pins that don't seem to be documented at all - they don't even appear on the circuit layout on the website.

763

Living Room / Raspberry Pi ...

« Last post by Carol Haynes on May 26, 2012, 04:28 PM »

Got my Raspberry Pi this morning. Not sure what I am going to do with it but it looks like a bit of fun.

I was a bit surprised to see it arrive with absolutely no documentation - not even a single side of A5 with a diagram explaining the ports. Most are obvious but there are a couple of ribbon headers on the board which look interesting - off to the forums to see if anyone can enlighten me further.

764

Developer's Corner / Re: Visual Studio 11 Express to only build Metro apps

« Last post by Carol Haynes on May 26, 2012, 03:09 PM »

Windows Phone is presumably imminent in its demise - I presume MS will be focussing on Metro Phones from now on.

I think the point of the oroginal comment was the dropping of support for writing desktop apps - no C++ but presumably no Visual Basic either.

765

Developer's Corner / Re: Visual Studio 11 Express to only build Metro apps

« Last post by Carol Haynes on May 25, 2012, 07:44 AM »

Are they going to hobble VS 2010 on Windows 8 ?

766

Developer's Corner / Re: Visual Studio 11 Express to only build Metro apps

« Last post by Carol Haynes on May 25, 2012, 04:25 AM »

I can see that being another nail in the coffin for Metro - why would anyone want to use VS to only write Metro apps?

Can you actually run Metro apps on your own computer - I thought the only place you could install them was via MS AppStore and since you can't write commercial software using the Express IDE how can you submit it to the store?

767

Living Room / Re: WTH, part Deu... Steam IS coming to Linux!

« Last post by Carol Haynes on May 24, 2012, 03:39 AM »

Gabe Newell has already trashed Windows 8 in the press!

Interesting if Left4Dead is going to be the first port to Linux - why wouldn't they choose some of there most recent games first?

768

DC Gamer Club / Re: Build a Bundle

« Last post by Carol Haynes on May 24, 2012, 03:32 AM »

Have you tried downloading the games from the BIB? At least three of them seem to be corrupt files - including Necrovision which I have downloaded 3 times (and at over 5Gb it is a bit annoying!) and everytime got a corrupt archive. You can install it via Steam but its a shame the non-DRM version doesn't seem to work.

769

Living Room / Re: WTH, part Deu... Steam IS coming to Linux!

« Last post by Carol Haynes on May 23, 2012, 06:26 PM »

Saw this a while back - be interesting to see which distros they support 'cos I can't see it being open source to be compiled on any distro?

770

DC Gamer Club / Re: Build a Bundle

« Last post by Carol Haynes on May 23, 2012, 12:52 PM »

Fun idea - big overalap of games from the last offer though.

771

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows Aero (transparent window borders, etc.) is dead.. Good riddance

« Last post by Carol Haynes on May 22, 2012, 05:25 PM »

I think the real reason MS want to dump Aero is so that Metro doesn't look completely pants (it still does in my opinion but if you have a nice looking desktop it actually makes Metro look even worse).

PS: I hate the classic start menu - much prefer XP, Vista and 7 start menus.

772

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows Aero (transparent window borders, etc.) is dead.. Good riddance

« Last post by Carol Haynes on May 22, 2012, 03:44 PM »

Sorry to be a party pooper but I like aero ... but then what do I know. 

773

Living Room / Re: Request for help - potential website security issue

« Last post by Carol Haynes on May 22, 2012, 03:54 AM »

Thanks hamradio - someone must have edited the link though I can't think why! (They largely manage their own content)

774

Living Room / Re: Request for help - potential website security issue

« Last post by Carol Haynes on May 21, 2012, 06:49 PM »

Well, if you can disable your user's site account, then that shouldn't interrupt access from what the user said, right?

-x16wda (May 21, 2012, 06:17 PM)

That was precisely my thought - unfortunately I only set up the site, I am not a club member myself so I can't really make that decision.

775

Living Room / Re: Request for help - potential website security issue

« Last post by Carol Haynes on May 21, 2012, 06:02 PM »

Yes I wondered about caching but the forum pages aren't in the site map and are set not to index by google etc. As far as I can tell they are not cached (looking at the google webadmin index) and certainly if I look for a cached copy of a specific forum thread it comes up as not indexed by google.

I don't think the member would be able to craft that sort of URL anyway - they said it was just from browsing on the website.