Well here it is at long last, my personal website on the Information Super Highway. On here you will find retro computing and gaming info, my observations on life and the world as it is today and any other random stuff.
Oh and lets not forget this is the home of the Kilobytes Podcast!
News and titbits
22nd January 2012
Time for some predictions before it gets too late!!!
West Ham get promoted to the Premiership as champions
Apple release details on the iPhone 5 - larger screen and more Android like features for home screen
Apple team up with a TV manufacturer and build in the Apple TV hardware into it.
RIM go into administration or get bought by Intel or AMD
England actually do well in the European Championships
2012 Olympic games is a success without any incidents, but the opening ceremony is a let down.
The Raspberry Pi is released and embraced by the hacker/nerd community, but struggles to get traction in the educational sector.
A computing device (computer/tablet etc) is designed that does use a CPU, but only uses a GPU.
The world does not end and the 2012 theorists claim that their calculations were wrong and it's actually 2013 when the world ends.
So that was 2012's, how did I do with last years?
1) West Ham will stick with Avram Grant and we will survive ending up in 15th place.
Half correct. We stuck with Avram Grant and ended up bottom getting relegated. Thank god we sacked him and replaced him with Sam Allardyce.
2) Apple will release the iPad 2.
A given really and we ended up buying one!
3) Another large IT computer company will make a big acquisition. I reckon it will be EMC or Apple.
Not quite an acquisition, but Google did buy a load of Motorola patents.
4) I will lose 2 stone in weight or close enough.
Haha, I ended up heaviest I have ever been! Though thankfully I am losing that weight.
5) Windows Phone 7 will fare badly,but will do well in a tablet PC form factor.
Half right and half wrong. Windows phone 7 did okayish since pairing up with Nokia,but didnt make any big waves. Windows 7 tablets did really badly. However Windows 8 should do pretty well.
6) FIFA will become more corrupt and the British media will do everything they can to uncover any dodgy dealings.
Pretty much right on this one, various people were outed and Sepp Blatter came out with some great rascist comments and managed to insult a lot of people.
6th October 2011
I woke up this morning to hear from my wife that she thinks Steve Jobs had died. What? Is she joking? I know he was ill,but dead? Sure enough it was true. On October 5th (yesterday) Steve Jobs passed away after a long battle against pancreatic cancer. To say I am shocked and gutted is an understatement. Really one of the saddest days I have had in a long time.
Steve for me represents many things and has been a kind of hero in my mind. He was part of the birth of personal/micro computers being the face of Apple for so long. One of the original pirates of silicon valley, he has been there since the start. He was a visionary and dreamer, making sure the design of technology is just as important as it's functionality. A very charismatic guy who could be angry, aggressive, oh so blunt, yet also warm, friendly, funny, witty and caring.
I grew up alongside the growth of the personal computer industry, being born as the Apple 1 was being created. So I feel an affinity with industry and its leading figures, of which Steve really was the most famous and best known, right up there with Bill Gates. Except Steve had presence, had charisma, was a showman, sometimes contraversial, but he was INTERESTING. You would always want to know his ideas and viewpoints. As I grew, so did Apple and Steve kept creating, kept innovating even after leaving Apple. Not until the iPod did I become an Apple user, then i got an iPhone and then a Macbook Pro. All insanely great devices as would say. You can feel his thoughts and design ideas in these products and they really are superb. Steve has indirectly helped me get where I am today, working in the computer industry with a love of technology and computers.
In his final years he become very frail and really reminded me of my dad. The way they wasted away slowly becoming gaunt and frail. They even had a very slight resemblance, so this has made me feel very emotional about it all. Strange to get so upset about a person I have never met or come close to meeting.
Steve Jobs has left behind a legacy that has affected and changed the lives of millions. I hope that Apple will be able to continue with Steve's values and philosophies in place and keep innovating. I believe the people are in place to do this and for the next 2 or 3 years at least things will be fine with plenty in the pipeline. After that who knows? The current execs and management I have confidence can carry things on nicely, but I am not so sure who would be able to successfully take over Steve's place.
So I raise my beer to you Steve Jobs, you will be sadly missed by so many, you leave this world a better place than when you started and THANK YOU for everything you have given to us.
Rest in Peace
3rd January 2011
A new year and a new beginning in mind,body and life hopefully. I feel full of hope and energy, hopefully i can turn that into something constructive and useful!
I made some predictions last year, so think I should see how I did and then make some more!
1) Apple will finally reveal their touch screen computer
Fairly easy this one, the iPad was released to much acclaim and has sparked a huge revival in the tablet computer market.
2) West Ham will struggle to the very last game of the season. We will stay up if we keep our decent players. If we sell the likes of Scott Parker, Rob Green etc then we will be relegated.
Sadly another easy one and I was right on the money. West Ham finished in 17th 5 points clear of the drop zone. Zola was then sacked, replaced by Avram Grant.
3) Another year of game sequels, but they will be GREAT. I am looking at you Bioshock and Gran Turismo.
Fairly obvious, Bioshock 2, Mass Effect 2, GT5, Modern Warfare 2 etc. GT5 sadly has not lived up to expectation.
4) A colour ebook will be available and grey scale ones will be much more common.
The Kindle is still monochrome but the Nook is now in colour.
5) A new PC architecture will be revealed
Didn't happen, but Chrome OS was revealed.
6) Microsoft will announce details of its next console
Nope, the 360 is still going strong. However Nintendo revealed the 3DS, its 3D handheld.
7) A well known and well loved cult film will be remade and totally ruined.
Thankfully this didn't really happen, most remakes were not bad.
8) Big Brother will be incredibly over the top due to it finally ending.
Again thankfully this didn't happen, Big Brother came and went ending fairly quietly. However the housemates were indeed VERY over the top.
9) East 17 will reform.
Did not happen, we did have Robbie Williams rejoining Take That. For how long is anyones guess.
10) I will become a dad ;)
Postponed for another year!
And my predictions for 2011?
1) West Ham will stick with Avram Grant and we will survive ending up in 15th place.
2) Apple will release the iPad 2.
3) Another large IT computer company will make a big acquisition. I reckon it will be EMC or Apple.
4) I will lose 2 stone in weight or close enough.
5) Windows Phone 7 will fare badly,but will do well in a tablet PC form factor.
6) FIFA will become more corrupt and the British media will do everything they can to uncover any dodgy dealings.
30th October 2010
Halloween once again, I have my pumpkin carved and looking evil, the wife is having a True Blood marathon with her best mate, I have a new brew maturing in the keg and its a really nice day!
I will have to dig out Cauldron and Cauldron 2 and play them!
24th August 2010
My PC has recently seen a bit of a makeover thanks in part to a faulty motherboard. My PC starting locking up randomly and then would not boot past the starting Windows screen.Trying to reinstall Windows would fail also. I narrowed it down to either the motherboard or CPU and after a month without my PC I RMA'd the bundle from overclockers.co.uk and got a shiny new motherboard, new CPU, new RAM. I decided its about time to replace the case as I have had it since 2001 I think and it was getting cramped in there. My Corsair H50 water cooling solution was too big for it so bought a decent case with loads of room,fans and a very nice screwless hard disk mounting system. So I now have a neat, airy case, with excellent specs and loads of storage:
Case - In-Win Maelstrom gaming case
CPU - Intel Core i7 930 2.80Ghz
Motherboard - Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R
Memory - Corsair XMS3 (3x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Triple Channel
Cooler - Corsair H50 CPU watercooler
Graphics card - Gigabyte ATI Radeon HD 5870 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express
Storage - Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache hard disk X 2
Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache hard disk
Optical drives - Samsung SH-S203D/BEBN 20x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter
LG 20x DVD±RW IDE Dual Layer ReWriter
PSU - OCZ ModXStream Pro 700w Silent SLI Certified Modular Power Supply
Keyboard - Logitech G15
Mouse - Razer Diamondback limited edition
OS - Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit
I have this all backed up to Seagate 1Tb external hard drive and hooked up to Samsung 22" LCD monitor ,Hyundai 19" LCD monitor, Logitech 2.1 speakers and a creative gaming headset . It looks good, excellent performance, stable and I no longer have to worry about overheating or drives failing.
Obviously there are things I can upgrade and improve, such as high end soundcard (I use the onboard sound which is more than adequate for me), but my main prority is to replace the IDE optical drive with a SATA drive. The obvious choice is to go for a Blu-ray rewriter. After that my next step is replace the OS drive with a SSD which would give me a very fast boot-up and quicker desktop performance and 3Tbs of storage. I will probably get the Blu-ray drive later this year as they are reasonably cheap. The SSD will have to wait a while, at least until the price drops enough for me to get an 80-100Gb SSD for less than £100.
Now to put all my old stuff back into the old case and get a backup machine going :)
23rd July 2010
Ashes to Ashes (told you I would get round to it eventually!) finished on a high I think and has complete closure for most people. Whilst I did'nt specifically name what Gene was, I did mention it in my list of possible ideas. Gene Hunt is a guardian angel for coppers living in a kind of Limbo land. Having been a policeman in the 1950's who was killed, he somehow managed to create his own world and became a guardian angel. Helping coppers who have died to come to terms with their life and resolve major issues, before passing on to the afterlife/heaven/Railway Arms etc.
I am happy with that and it works. There are many questions we could ask, but I don't think they need to be asked. It was a quite moving and gripping finale that ended the Life on Mars/Ashes to Ashes saga on a high.
Now Lost seemed to end in a strikingly similar fashion. The final season had the flash sideways that we struggled to understand. We knew they were linked to what was happening,but thats it. Turns out the flash sideways was a kind of limbo/purgatory and they are all dead. They are all connected thanks to their adventures on the island and this helps them to come to terms with who they are etc. (sound familiar?) In the real world they are alive and fighting the smoke monster for control or destruction of the island. Of course evil is defeated, the plane leaves the island with most of the remaining Oceanic people and Jack dies on the spot where he landed after the crash.
Again I am happy with the ending, it was very emotional and I was welling up at points. BUT oh my god there are still so many questions left unanswered, even though the writers said they would clear everything up. Three toed statue? The numbers? What IS the magical light and where does it come from? What happened with Walt, seeing as he was supposedly really special? What was Widmore actually doing there? How does putting a wooden ships wheel into rock make it move the whole island? What was the point of Dharma? Why did they go there in the first place?
Ignoring those questions, I loved the last episode and am happy to have taken this journey with Jack, Kate, Hurley and Locke etc. End of era? Maybe, but soon there will be another huge cult tv series to get involved in.
30th June 2010
iPhone updated and really wasnt any point as it hardly added any features and seems to have slowed my phone down. Waiting till the white iPhone 4 comes out then will think about upgrading as its a bit expensive.
The world cup is now in the knockout stages and the pitiful England team were stuffed 4 - 1 by Germany and thus sent packing home in disgrace. Really not surprised and not bothered or even upset. They dont deserve my emotion!
21st June 2010
It's been a month since Ashes to Ashes and Lost both finished for good. End of era I would most certainly agree with. They have both been with us for a good chunk of the 2000s and ended in a weirdly similar way. I will discuss my thoughts on the ending another time because right now I am updating my iPhone 3G with the latest firmware and OS, iOS 4.0. In fact its just finished, so I will be playing with my updated toy for the next few days. Then I can get back to those fine programs.
21st May 2010
Well the time is 21:13 and the last ever episode of Ashes to Ashes is on right now. Why am I not glued to the TV watching it beer in hand? The missus at bellydancing and doesnt get back till 22:30 and won't let me watch it without her!
So until she gets back I am having to re-enact the Whatever happened to the likely lads? episode No hiding place from 1973 (Life on Mars year funnily enough). They want to watch the england v bulgaria match on telly, but the game is played in the middle of day time so they have to spend 8 hours of the day avoiding the TV, radio, newspapers and people so they wont know the result and can enjoy the game. Fast forward 37 years and I have to avoid the TV, radio, text messages, internet, Facebook, twitter, instant messenger, email and of course people.
thankfully I can switch all those off and play Battlefield Bad Company 2 until she gets back. Then let the big reveal commence!
16th May 2010
Just watched the penultimate episode of A2A and now Ray has now seen the stars, heard the music and heard Nelson. Again after getting Gene's approval which is significant, but no idea why.
Keats does seem to have some kind of knowledge of the outside world, but is getting quite sinister and creepy. I am going to narrow down the theories to all in a coma and all in alex's head still.
3rd May 2010
Okay Gene Hunt says something to the bad cop, the cop screams in fear and Gene says he told him "the truth". This is hinting that Gene is in control in some way or has external knowledge of what is going on. Curiouser and curiouser
27h April 2010
Being a huge Life on Mars fan and subsequently Ashes to Ashes which is drawing to a close in about 3 or 4 episodes time, the big question on everyones mind is who or what is Gene Hunt? Having trawled numerous forum posts and online discussions I would like to propose a list of possibles and see if I can maybe get it right
Gene hunt is one of the following:
1) God
2) A guardian angel
3) A complete figment of the imagination
4) A real copper in a coma
5) A psychologist,therapist or some kind of doctor
6) An enigma. We just simply won't find out and have to guess until the writers reveal all in 20 years.
I am plumping for number 4. Real copper in a coma, but they are all in his head or kingdom.
24th April 2010
Bioshock 2 at last!! Also got Avatar on blu-ray and florence and the machine's album Lungs which is bloody brilliant.
7th February 2010
Finished Warhammer Dawn of War 2 the other day and thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience. The squad tactical play really works better i find than the base building style of play. You can focus on the combat instead of firefighting to try and keep units being pumped out etc. Well worth getting hold of if you are a fan of the series or the IP. Also finished Batman Arkham Asylum, definitely rates as one of my games of 2009.
On a sad note, a good friend of mine from university died on Wednesday morning. Only 35, full of life and laughter, but his life was on a often self destructive path. So whilst its a complete shock and I still cant believe he has gone, it's also not a surprise either. I jokingly said to him I thought he wouldnt make it past 30, another friend joked he would be the first to go many years back. I only found out about this through Facebook, two days after. If i had'nt looked at his Facebook page I would have never have known. We all could have gone through years of not knowing, as he had become very distant and never made the effort to keep in touch at all.
Dave if you are reading this, take it easy wherever you are, we all miss you and cant believe you have gone.
27th January 2010
Finally after all the rumour and speculation , most of which was totally accurate, Apple have revealed the iPad!!!! Yes it's the tablet computer we have all been expecting. Essentially a large iPhone in essence. It looks gorgeous and another must have piece of kit from Apple. Tablet PCs have failed miserably in the past, yet Apple release one and suddenly you feel it could be a success!
Time to check out an Apple store and actually touch one!
7th January 2010
Welcome to 2010 everyone. This year and decade has kicked off with SNOW and ICE !
31st December 2009
Well it's New Years Eve, end of the day, end of the year and end of the decade or the Naughties as some people have decided to call it. Its been a pretty topsy turvy year for me and the world in general. Redundancies, credit crunch, new job, trying for a baby, michael jackson departing this world and West Ham in turmoil on the pitch.
So 2010 is going to be a year of doing for me. Doing all the things I keep meaning to do but never get round to. Will kick things off with a month off the booze, dieting a bit and cutting down the games so I can free up time to read and program and do constructive things. I feel very positive and motivated for some reason, will make use of that positive energy!
I will sign off this year with some predictions for my life, the IT world, games world and the world in general:
1) Apple will finally reveal their touch screen computer
2) West Ham will struggle to the very last game of the season. We will stay up if we keep our decent players. If we sell the likes of Scott Parker, Rob Green etc then we will be relegated.
3) Another year of game sequels, but they will be GREAT. I am looking at you Bioshock and Gran Turismo.
4) A colour ebook will be available and grey scale ones will be much more common.
5) A new PC architecture will be revealed
6) Microsoft will announce details of its next console
7) A well known and well loved cult film will be remade and totally ruined.
8) Big Brother will be incredibly over the top due to it finally ending.
9) East 17 will reform.
10) I will become a dad ;)
Happy New Years to you all.
20th December 2009
Today we saw the power of the internet and social networking, when Rage Against The Machine got the Christmas number one slot in a battle against the X-Factor winner. After people had got fed up of the X-factor winner always getting number one, 2 people setup a Facebook group to get people to buy Killing in the name to get it to number one instead. And it worked!!! Sure Joe McEllderry will probably be number one next week, but a point has been successfully made.
14th December 2009
Not long till Christmas comes round again, need to get a podcast of some kind out before then with a festive feel to it. Then will get into a routine in the new year. Also can cover an event for the podcast as I got my ticket for Retrovision 2010, which should be good fun. 3 days of beer, curry, games and geeky people in black tshirts! Superb!
Been ploughing my way through Halo to get it finished, now i am on a roll after halo 3 and ODST. Halo is great but some of the levels are a bit lazily designed making it quite frustratingly boring in places. Still I am almost at the end and enjoyed the romp through it all.
Modern Warfare 2 multiplayer has been good fun too, now level 17 and got the hang of it. No longer do I die without managing to kill anyone or wonder who the feck shot me. The new equipment makes it all worth doing.
7th December 2009
4 years ago today my dad passed away. Me and mum still miss you loads.
30th November 2009
Time to get a Christmas podcast on the go and maybe Christmassize the site! What's making that hard to do is a number of rather good games keeping me occupied. Namely Dragon Age Origins and Halo 3: ODST. Modern Warfare 2 has been and gone already, 8 hours to finish which is quite poor value I have to say. Normally it takes me a month or more to play through a FPS at my own pace, but did this in a week! Dragon Age on the other hand is reputed to have well over 70 hours of gametime. Playing it on normal difficulty means it can be quite a challenge sometimes, thus will take me a while. Last game that had me hooked like this and playing for more than 50 hours was Zelda Twilight Princess, not often that happens but I am pleased when it does.
One thing bothering me at the moment is the rarity of the Radeon HD 5870. Pre-ordered nearly 2 months ago and its not in stock ANYWHERE!!! AMD literally cant produce them fast enough. I don't know whether its the chip factories not delivering the GPUs or some kind of supply chain screw up. People in the US seem to have them, but us over here have to sit and wait. bugger.
27th October 2009
Okay finished the podcast script and music, just need to get it recorded then should have it out before Halloween . . .
26th October 2009
Well its taken a while to get momentum going, but finally got this site looking vaguely how I want it. i.e. clean and tidy.Starting work on the 2nd podcast, got the script done, just need to choose some music and get it recorded.
Maybe have a halloween theme to it all. Oh how predictable!
1st July 2008
Okay today is the first day of the Retro Challenge! I have pretty much decided to go with the Z80 on the Amstrad 6128. Its the computer I am most comfortable with having grown up using it. Also I have a few decent books on the Z80 and the Amstrad. So I am going to be drawing on the legendary Programming the Z80 by Rodney Zaks, Z80 Machine Code for Humans by Alan Tootill and David Barrow and BASIC Programming on the Amstrad by Wynford James. A good starting point is the CPC Wiki which has some good tutorial links and some information to get me started. So the reading up begins now!
26th June 2008
RetroChallenge 2008
Okay this year I thought I would jump onboard and take up the Retro Challenge 2008. This is a yearly event which challenges you to make use of your old/retro computer hardware and show off your retrocomputing skills for a whole month. This can be anything from building hardware, learning BASIC or exclusively using retro computers all month! The best efforts will win fame and fortune or most likely a small prize and some retro kudos! This will run from July 1st to 31st.
17th February 2008
Another year and hopefully I will keep up to date with this website and make it worth having! Current situation in my life? Moved down to Farnborough last year, about to get a new car (Mazda 3) on Tuesday and will try making babies this year with the missus. Gameswise I am currently playing Team Fortress 2,Super Mario Galaxy, Halo 3 and Call of Duty 4.
18th May 2007
Yet more bloody sad news, yesterday my Siamese cat Sheri (the family pet for 17 years) was put to sleep. She was very old and was very poorly. Mum took her to the vets to get a final verdict and everyone agreed it was the kindest thing for everyone to put her to sleep, as she would have had a painful death if we left her to die naturally. I am very sad about this and will miss her greatly, but happy she won't suffer any more and will be with my sister and dad
30th April 2007
Well my birthday has come and gone, ripe old age of 32! Had a great birthday and time for Shereens.
3rd April 2007
Happy Birthday to my sister Stephanie. Everyone is thinking of you on your birthday and missing you terribly. I hope you can see this wherever you are.
love always
your brother
Thurstan
17th March 2007 - GOT MARRIED !!!!
Yes finally tied the knot and married Shereen in Ringwood Hall hotel in Chesterfield on Saturday. Bloody knackered but it was perfect and went without any hiccups.Everyone seemed to have a great time and they really made it special. The missus (hehe) is sorting out the photos online, so will post a link later.
15th March 2007
To my beautiful sister Stephanie Johnston (King) who sadly died a year ago to this day. I miss you so much and love you dearly. You are always in our thoughts. Sleep well, one day I will see you again.
love from your brother
Thurstan
1st February 2007 - Wii update
The games just keep on coming! Gradius (NES), Bonanza Bros, Comix Zone and Gain Ground (Megadrive).
26th January 2007 - Wii update
Well the most important update is the activation of the News channel. Requires an update and then you are off. Looks quite interesting and visually looks great. 2 new Virtual Console games today too, Mario Kart 64 (N64) and Soldier Blade (Turbo Grafx).
19th January 2007 - Latest Virtual Console games
Out today we have Super Probotector and Street Fighter II: World Warrior both on the SNES.
16th January 2007 - Latest Virtual Console Games on Wii
The Virtual Console games are slowly trickling through. Latest ones are Super Mario Bros (NES) & Xevious (NES) and Super Castlevania IV (SNES). Been confirmed that Zelda Link to the Past, Super Mario World are coming soon amongst others..
12th January 2007 - Retrovision 2007 and Back In Time Live 2007
Well ordered my tickets for Retrovision 2007 on 11th to 13th May and Back In Time Live 2007 on 22nd to 23rd June. Looking like a good year for retro events so far! Everything is confirmed and ready to go.
1st December 2006 - Glastonbury 2007
Well as luck would have it Glastonbury is on the same time as BIT Live 2007! So that screws things up a bit as i want to go to both. Anyway tickets go on sale 9am 1st April 2007.
30th Novemberr - Everton v West Ham, Sunday 3rd December 2006.
Off to see the mighty Hammers beat Everton at Goodison on Sunday. Nice 20 mins walk and I am there!
23rd November - BIT Live 2007
Well during last nights Boz show on Slay Radio, I spoke to Chris Abbott from C64audio.com and found that Back In Time Live is back! Pencilled in for June 22nd 2007, looks like it may be in London though I need to confirm.
