T.V Antics

Ahhh, My week doesn't seem complete without a good watch of The apprentice.

This week's episode of the Apprentice wasn't as funny as the last couple of episodes now that Sam and her "bright" ideas are gone but it was still a good watch. I missed the first 15 minutes of the show because I was off fighting malware infections so I missed how they concocted their products. I was actually genuinely glad that Platinum (or is it that other team?) won the task. The concept of buddy is much better than that jug alcomesure thing. Putting buddy on top of the wine to discourage drinking is really nice. It makes sense. Now if they put more facial expression in there like what they did with smilies it could fly off the shelves. But I don't think a non-drinker's opinion counts.

I noticed that the contestants makes an awful lot of small mistakes each week. Considering they're professional with a lot of experience under their belt it shouldn't have happened. Maybe the fact that they're on T.V might have thrown them off a bit or the fact that they have to both work and live together every week might have gotten in to them. Who Knows? Like Ruth for example. She forgot to calculate the VAT rate and it wasn't the first time that happened. But it's understandable. If I was that under that kind of pressure I would've done the same mistake.

I was actually disappointed that Ruth didn't attend the Apprentice: Your Fired after show. I'm sure she had a good reason for not showing up but still. Now, what I really liked was that the host replaced Ruth with a cardboard box cutout. It was hilarious. Maybe that was the inspiration for J.C in our MMP project? I not even sure who came up with that but I really liked it.

My Tree House Project

Since I am an I.T student now, I figured it's about time to build my very first machine(computer). For the past few weeks, I've been researching parts for my build and it was daunting at first but I had to say it was actually pretty enjoying. After all It would be blasphemous for an I.T student not to enjoy reading about computer hardware. Well not "blasphemous" but you have to like that sort of stuff if you want to get anywhere. This would be the family computer that'll do some heavy internet surfing, office stuff and a few gaming weekends. Here is the specs.

GPU = ATI Radeon HD5770 - £120
CPU= AMD Phenom II x4 905e - £130
HDD= 500GB Western Digital Caviar "Green" - £35
MoBO= Asus M4A78T-E motherboard - £99
CASE= Antec 902 case - £88
PSU= 400w Silverpower (Seasonic) PSU 80 plus "Green Power" - £44

And the grand total iiss...£516. Ouch, that's a lot of money considering it's in Pounds and it doesn't include a monitor,the RAM, shipment and stamp duty. I specifically picked these parts to make it as energy efficient as possible without sacrificing too much performance so I will have to pay a little premium for it. I guess it's worth it because it's more green than most regular pre-built PCs and the ESB bill would be a little bit cheaper every month. Additionally, this build is pretty much a medium-high end computer so it will run any software for the next couple of years and I plan to keep it for at least 5-6 years so this would be a worthy investment. I must say out of all the components, choosing the CPU was the hardest. I was split between the 905e and the energy efficient Intel S-series equivalent of it. But in the end I had to go with AMD because Intel's S-series was too expensive and I'm already over budgeted.

I'm really looking forward to building this PC and it should be fun, sorta like the modern version of building a tree house in a vague sense specially if you get your family involved. So I guess that's were the tree house analogy comes in. Well that's it for week 8.

Intel v AMD

I was researching on what CPU to buy the other day when I saw an interesting article about antitrust lawsuits against Intel. Intel was found guilty of monopoly charges by the Japanese government, South Korean Government and the European Commission against it's competitors. Monopoly charges are also being investigated in the U.S.

Okay here's the gist of it. In 2005 the Japanese government accused Intel of anti-competitive practices by giving unfair discounts that discriminates against its main rival AMD. In 2007 Intel Korea was found guilty of granting incentives to computer manufacturers on the condition that they buy less CPUs from AMD and Intel got fined by $25 million. In May 2009 the European Commission found Intel guilty of granting rebates to computer manufacturers like Dell, HP and Acer on the condition that they buy less or don't buy at all from AMD. Intel was also guilty of paying some manufacturers to postpone launch of AMD based computers and laptops. Intel was fined by a record 1.5 billion euros.

It was really shocking to hear that such a reputable and huge company like Intel is doing all of this shady dealings to drive its main competition out of the market. With a quick look at the Wikipedia page of AMD, it is apparent that competition between the two is fierce dating back in the late 80's when Intel broke a deal with AMD in 1985. What really worries me is that AMD's market share has shrunk in the past few years and they are losing a lot of money as a result of this with the worst case scenario of AMD going bankrupt in the future and CPU advancement slowing down because of lack of competition. Well it's not really worrying because I'm sure AMD wouldn't let that happen. I just need something for week 7.

Sicko

I haven't been feeling well since Friday evening. It's not Swine Flu or anything, it's not even a flu. It's only a minor upper respiratory problem, sinus headache and a really bad cough. I should be well enough to attend college tomorrow though (Tuesday)

Adsense eh?

I noticed the Google adsense advertisement all over blogspot and Google the other day so I thought of joining up. Even Colin Manning encouraged us so this must be a good thing. I have nothing to lose anyway and I may even earn some money. I don't expect to gain much though if at any.

Ratchet And Clank: Tools Of Destruction Review

Originally posted 13oct09 9:43

Story:

This new addition to the series is a bit different from the previous installments. The plot is more serious this time but mind you, it still has the same humour and charm that made the series so popular, it’s just noticeably less here. The plot deals with the more serious topic of Ratchet’s past, why is Ratchet the last of the Lombaxes, and the question of what had happened to the Lombaxes. The amazingly hilarious Captain Quark is still here to entertain us with his buffoonery and there are newcomers as well in the series like Talwyn and her robot buddies, The Bounty Hunter and the villains Captain Slag and Emperor Tachyon. I was disappointed with the role of the lead villain Tachyon. He was under-utilised and underdeveloped and he only plays second fiddle to Captain Slag. Overall, the game’s plot deals with those important issues and it’s good but nothing memorable when compare to the other installments. I think it’s safe to say that the plot is the weakest point of the game.

Graphics:

The first thing that you will notice once you load up the game is how beautiful and colourful the graphics are. The environment is rendered amazingly, environmental and character textures are fully detailed, nice lighting, realistic facial expressions of the characters and most importantly the frame rate never falters even when there are a lot of things happening on screen. This game has one of the best graphics on PS3 in 2007 and frankly, it is still one of the best.

Sound

The background music is original and really good. The sound effects of your weapons and your enemies make and everything is excellent as well. The voice acting is superbly done and it’s synchronised very well with the lip movement of the characters, which injects the charm to the game.

Gameplay:

Ratchet and Clank has always been a fast paced, shooter/platformer with an emphasis on big exotic guns and this new installment is no way a disappointment. This time around developer Insomniac introduces space battles, new weapons, and the new concept of devices.

Shooter element:

The shooting in this game is as usual fast-paced and really fun with great depth in weapon upgrading, which made the series famous. There is a huge array of exotic weapons and cool gadgets from your classic ones like the magma blaster and flame thrower to new and welcome addition like the Nano-Swarmer that releases a huge hive of small robotic insects or the MagNet launcher which like the name implies releases a magnetic electrical net to immobilise enemies. One weapon that received a bit of press coverage before the release was the tornado launcher. I know it’s nothing new and it’s been on previous R&C games but this time it uses the six-axis controller. You guide the tornado by tilting your controller, which I got to admit was pretty useful specially since you can use another weapon after the tornado was deployed. I was surprised on how well the six-axis was implemented on this one; it’s easy to use which is very rare to see. All of these weapons are upgradeable up to level 5 and when you’ve beat the game and chose the new game plus, you could further upgrade it by 5. Long time fans would be pumped to hear this.

The new concept of devices adds even more depth to the gameplay. Take the “leech bomb” for example; when you find yourself low in health you could always toss a couple of them at the enemies to steal their health and regain yours. When the going gets too tough (which is rarely) or just for the fun of it, you could deploy one of my favourite gadget "Mr. Zurkon". A foul-mouthed syntenoid robot that hovers beside you shooting and bad mouthing everything that gets in your way. Now everyone has to try the gadget that got a huge publicity and has to be my favourite, the "Groovitron". The flashing lights and the 70’s disco music emanating from this disco ball forces everyone to groooovy! Some of their dance routines are worth a chuckle or two.

Platformer, Misc:

The platforming element of the game is superb. I don’t want to spoil the game by giving out the details so I’m only saying that the level design and setting were well made so it provides some excellent platforming action. The new space battle sections are really fun to play and it is a worthy addition to the game. The graphics of the space battles were particularly amazing. I was disappointed with the Arena battles for this installment though. It was too short, surprisingly easy, forgettable boss fights and virtually nothing has changed since they introduced arena battles on R&C 3: Up Your Arsenal. Again, I was disappointed with Clank’s solo missions. The “puzzles” were way too easy and it’s boring to play through it again when you died and restarted or when you’re on your second play through.

Game Difficulty:

Now, I have to say that the game’s difficulty was my biggest disappointment. It is just too easy. Sure, the difficulty of the “new game plus” when you beat the game is more challenging but even then, your weapons had already been upgraded and you have a new armour so it nulls it.

Closing Statement

Overall, this game was superbly done and it has enough charm in it for even hardcore gamers to cough up a smile or two. You don’t have play the previous games of the series to know what’s happening so both newcomers and fans would truly enjoy this triple A title.

GAME RATING: 8.7

Job 3: Linux Systems Engineer.

Brief Description.
The role is to work with the team to improve and expand the Linux platform and to provide testing and debugging. The employers are looking for an applicant with previous experience in Virtualization, Kernel patching and analysis of the Linux performance and scripting. The applicant must also show a keen interest in open source concept, distributed computing solutions, and Linux based platforms.

Soft Skills
As a Linux system engineer, I must have good interpersonal and intra-personal skill to excel at this job. The soft skills include:

Interpersonal Skills:
-Good communication skills specifically listening, verbal and written skills
-A team player
-Motivational
-Has good problem solving skills
-Can employ decision making skills
Intra-personal skills:
-Must know how to keep calm on a stressful environment or situation
-Must know how to effectively manage stress
-Genuine passion for open source concepts, distributed computing solutions and Linux based platforms.

Helpful Modules
I have listed and explained what modules I may need and why.

Modules That Will Help Improve Soft Skills:

Creativity,Innovation&Teamwork and Communication deals with improving communication skills.
Group Project and Software Project Management helps improve student’s motivational skills and being a good team player.
Algorithmic Problem Solving, and Artificial Intelligence will really help improve the problem-solving skill of the student.

Modules That Will Help Me Understand The Job Key Words (See Below)

Virtualization:
COMP8030: Storage Networking : Deals with virtualization
Open source:
SOFT8015: Software Quality Assurance : Deals with improving the efficiency of the team to develop quality software. This is important when developing on an open source project.
SOFT8016: Software Reuse: The module is about developing a software using existing resources. This is important because the very concept of open source is to use existing source code and then improving it.
Distributed systems:
SOFT8006: Distributed Architectures: The module aim to teach students the skills on how distributed systems work and its application.
SOFT8007: Distributed Objects : This teaches the practical skills to develop distributed system.
Kernel patching and OS Performance and scripting:
SOFT6003: Operating Systems Fundamentals :Teaches the fundamentals of operating systems e.g Linux.
SOFT7006: Operating Systems : Teaches the more advance knowledge of operating systems e.g Linux.

Job Key Words
I’ve highlighted the key words that will help me do the job properly. These are:

Virtualization:
Virtualization is one of those IT words that have many different meanings. For this job I think what they meant with “strength in virtualization” is that the applicant must have experience in all aspect of virtualization. This includes:

Platform virtualization- It is the making and maintaining of virtual machines.
Application virtualization- The application is virtualized on a hardware.
Network virtualization- The creation of a virtual network by combining both hardware and software network resources with network functionility.
Virtual private network (VPN) - Is the creation of a secure network by overlaying a software layer on a bigger network to provide security on unsecured networks or to provide private communications between computers.

Distributed Computing:
The use of multiple computers working together over a network to perform an overall task much more quicker than a single computer.

Open Source:
It is a concept where the source code of a software and its certain rights normally reserved to the copyright holders are provided to the public. This let programmers to improve the software and redistribute it in a modified or unmodified versions without infringing copyrights.

Kernel patching:
It is the practice of modifying or replacing codes of the Linux kernel to improve it.

Linux
An open source Unix-like Operating System first developed by Linus Torvalds