Atari Lunar Lander

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.

My Wishlist: Xmas 2009

Stuff I really need

• KBC VR1X Medium Helmet (85-160€)
• Aprilia Strada Headlight (144€)
• 30 Watt Solder Iron (4-10€)
• Money clip wallet (11€)
  

Stuff I want

• 10" Atom 270 Netbook (250-330€)
• The Road, By Cormac McCarthy (5€)
• Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare II (33-40€)
• Garmin Etrex Handlebar Mount (10-15€)
• 2.1 Speakers (20-35€)
• Bad-ass coffee mug (17€)
  

Stuff I can live without (But want nevertheless)

• Nintendo Wii (189-199€)
• 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€)
  

Free stuff inside a DVD Drive

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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....

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!

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:

1. Burn-down the forest. Make sure it's summer and windy so that it's very difficult to extinguish it.
2. Wait until next year, and burn it down again, to wipe-out any chances of natural reforestation via pine-cones, seeds etc.
3. 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.)
4. 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

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

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

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

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

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:

• Honda CB600F Hornet
• Yamaha FZ6
• Yamaha MT-03
• Yamaha XT660X
• Kawasaki ER-6N
• Kawasaki Z750
• Aprilia Pegaso Strada
• Suzuki GSR600
• Triumph Speed Four
  

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

Geocaching. The hunt is ON!

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!

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

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

Take part in the Mend of the World 05.06.07

Mini Cycling Adventure

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

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

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!

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.

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?

My latest photoshop-obsession is spoofing corporate logos:



Check out my flickr page regularly for updates.

Rainbow Six: Vegas

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.