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17th July 2010
Yesterday I replayed Portal in a couple of hours, and took some
screenshots which are now available on this site.
11th July 2010
For this weekend only, Croteam allowed Steam users to play
Serious Sam HD: The Second Encounter for free. I took the opportunity to
play through it and take over 250 screenshots of the beautiful places you
visit while playing. There is a new listing in the games
page with links to said screenshots.
I first played Serious Sam sometime around 2001-2002. It struck me because of its fun attitude - it was fun to wipe out the hordes of weird monsters that would be thrown at you at all times, and to smirk at the clever one-liners and other humour scattered throughout each game. Now, Serious Sam is being remade by the same developers using their latest technology - Serious Engine 3, whose beauty can be admired in the screenshots mentioned above.
6th July 2010
Gigi's Computer Corner is 4 years old today!
27th June 2010
Several months ago, the Windows 7 Release Candidate was released for people to try out. The condition was that shortly before the release of Windows 7, on 1st March 2010, it would start doing shutdowns every 2 hours; and also that as from 1st June 2010 it would cease functioning altogether and not allow people to log in any more.
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For several times this month, I booted the Win7 RC just to see if it really had stopped working. In fact it still works, just that it does occasionally log out on its own (more or less every 2 hours), where it asks you to activate Windows (but you can opt out of it and login again). It also complains about not being genuine (throwing a blank wallpaper and some text near the clock). But otherwise you can still use it normally.
I own two original licenses of Windows 7 (Home Premium and Ultimate) so I obviously have no intention of using the RC as a sort of pirated copy (which can't even find my optical drive, by the way). But for those who do, the RC must be a kind of gift from Microsoft, I guess...
12th June 2010
I have continued
to come across games which are very simple in nature and yet which artistically
convey a deeper meaning, as would a poem or a painting. Each of these games
have been added to the listing under the Game Info
page.
Read my article about Games with Meaning, which discusses Every day the same dream, Don't Look Back and Passage.
11th June 2010
Following the
nice experience I had yesterday playing the demo of Braid, I decided to look
for similar games. A particularly entertaining game I found is
Knytt, a Windows platform
game characterised by its itense exploration, fast-paced wall-climbing action,
and cute atmosphere. Although it in no way compares to Braid, it is a great
way of spending a couple of spare hours. Check out my
review of Knytt, and/or go to the
Knytt website and try it out!
10th June 2010
Today I tried
the demo of Braid, an independent video game, and was greatly impressed with
the overall experience it offers. It is a breath of fresh air to people
who have been waiting many years to play a game that is new in spirit, not
just in graphics. This game presents a revolutionary way of manipulating time,
amid stunning artwork and a thought-provoking narrative. Read more about it in
my first look at Braid.
8th May 2010
I have begun looking into Kodu,
a project at Microsoft Research aimed at making game programming accessible
to children through the use of a simple graphical programming language.
To this end I have added a section about Kodu to the game development page, and also added a new article called "Kodu: Understanding Pages".
I have also added a site map to the site.
29th April 2010
Added a page listing Maltese ICT Websites - a focal point for anyone interested in anything ICT-related in Malta.
Also, if you're interested in open source, don't miss tomorrow's event!
22nd April 2010
Added a section for Tech Events in Malta. I have also been adding some information links throughout the site.
29th March 2010
Added a section about Maltese resources to the NLP page.
Also, I added a section on Visual Studio to the General Programming page, which includes my DevDays presentation on Visual Studio 2010.
27th March 2010
I added a whole section about Windows Phone 7 to the Operating Systems page, listing lots of links and also showing a couple of first programs I wrote for this new platform using XNA 4 and Silverlight.
21st March 2010
Today I tried out XNA Game Studio 4 on Visual Studio 2010.
Both software are pre-release editions, XNA Game Studio 4 being part of the
Microsoft Windows Phone Developer Tools CTP (Community Technology Preview (CTP),
and Visual Studio 2010 being the Release Candidate.
Aside is a screenshot of a simple ball and paddle game I made with XNA Game Studio 4 for the Windows Phone 7 platform (shown in an emulator). Support for Windows Phone 7 is, from what I've read, the biggest new feature of XNA Game Studio 4 - which otherwise hasn't changed all that much since version 3.1 as far as game development is concerned.
Developers interested in exploring this new ground can read the XNA Game Studio 4 FAQ or download it from the XNA Creators Club Online downloads page.
13th March 2010
I have added a new page dedicated to Maths and Physics,
in which I will be including notes on said subjects, especially where relevant
to particular areas of computing. As a first set of notes I have included some
new notes on vectors [PDF], which are
useful in game development.
Also, I have split the Games page into a Game Info page and a Game Development page. To the latter I have added some info on deploying XNA games.
18th February 2010
I've been wanting to be able to use virtual desktops in Windows
for a long time. Finally, the search is over. Read my
article about WindowsPager, a free and
open-source program that will get virtual desktops working in any version of
Windows from 2000 to the latest Windows 7.
16th February 2010
Today I tried to find a way to sync my iPod Touch with the
Banshee media player,
to see whether it would be possible to use the device with Linux and reduce
dependency on iTunes. Although I managed to install Banshee and added a
how-to for it, I had no luck with making the
iPod Touch work with Banshee.
I have read about all kinds of hacks to get it to work, and others have said that it may not be possible for some versions of the device. Unlike the issues involving MP3s and similar basics which I ranted about last week, the iPod issue really is not the fault of any Linux distributor; from what I've read it's actually Apple who keeps trying to maintain the lock-in on their iTunes application.
On another note, there are new gameplay screenshots and levels at the Spectre VR page.
14th February 2010
I added a whole page with information about the 1993 game Spectre
VR. I also added a new section in the Games page
called "Game Info", wherein I listed this new SVR page, as well as all the
game info pages on my companion sites Dino's Ultima Page
and Gigi on Games.
13th February 2010
- Added a link to Tech Spark under a new section in right navigation, Friends.
- Added a presentation on DirectX to the Games page.
- Added a base converter as a new online tool.
10th February 2010
Added a page about How to set up an HP LaserJet
1018 Printer on Fedora 12.
I also reorganised the Operating Systems page and removed the "My Linux Mysteries" section since I have solved all the basic Linux problems I have had in the past (i.e. Flash, printing, and MP3 playback).
It is ridiculous that it should take so much effort to set up such basic software. People making Linux distributions such as Ubuntu and Fedora should really handle these usability issues if they really want to advocate widespread adoption of Linux (as opposed to Windows) by end users.
9th February 2010
Updated the Operating Systems page with new links on Ubuntu and Fedora, and added the following information pages:
- How to Enable MP3 on Ubuntu 9.10
- How to Enable MP3 on Fedora 12
- How to Access Windows Shares from Fedora
7th February 2010
I am offering some paid services including web
development and custom PC building. New pages
have been added to cover these services.
Also, I added a page that displays your IP address.
6th February 2010
Gigi's Computer Corner has been relaunched with a completely new design and
site structure. Since its first launch on 6th July 2006 (3 years and 7 months
ago), it has existed as a single page. This was intentional, so as not to
repeat the mistakes of its predecessors that made them so hard to maintain.
Now that GCC has grown, the content has been subdivided into logical sections, and the site has been redesigned to be much more visually appealing.
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