25 December 05 - 00:00
Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas! Happy Hannukah! Glorious Kwanzaa! And a very enjoyable and lovely new Year to every single one of you that reads this, and everyone else :)
Nathan - Announcements -
-
§ ¶
23 December 05 - 12:23
Half Life 2 is now 64 Bit!
In a completely shock
announcement today, Valve declared the release of a 64 bit version of Half Life 2a and Half Life 2: Lost Coast. What performance increase this shall give to the game is the question now probably on the minds of many technology analysts, as well as enthusiasts (like me) who are using or thinking of switching to Windows x64. The success of the 64 bit implementation of this game could well swing the near future of 64 bit software. The weight of such a large entity as Valve throwing its support behind it could, and should, increase developer support worldwide for the platform - making them believe that yes, it is a viable platform for the future. Not a "
non standard OS".
I'm not sure what's going on with the update though. It's gone through at least three distinct phases. After the first, I opened HL2 with a crash. The second I opened, screenshotted, seemed to be faster, but didn't have my save games. I quite that session and now I have Steam downloading what must be 50-100MB of what I assume to be the *real* update material. We're waiting on some benchmarks from somewhere, I only hope that we can get them. Screenshots show the 64 bit evidence :D.
Steam Forums:
For those of you running with a 64-bit capable AMD processor, along with the Windows® 64-bit operating system, Half-Life 2 and Lost Coast are now available in native 64-bit versions. Steam will automatically detect your OS and run the appropriate version the next time you run these games.
Edit:
Nathan - Gaming, Technology -
-
§ ¶
20 December 05 - 21:30
TV and God
The previous weekend was one of the best for televisual viewing that I have ever seen; though it consisted sadly entirely of endings. Both
HIGN4U and
QI ran their course; with the series being won by Paul Merton, an unwelcome change from the usual successes of Ian Hislop; maybe he's started reading the news before playing captain (Ian somehow only won a single episode this series). I'm not sure what inspired the producers to choose Joan Collins to host it either, and I'm still undecided as to whether or not it worked. QI meanwhile, was its usual bundle of laughs, with various C words such as... well... I can't remember any; with the exception of the hastily researched
Cinderella. I regret that these are the last in the series, but they're
more than certain to continue next year. HIGN4U hasn't stopped in the past 20 or so years, even after the presenter was involved in a criminal case; and QI has 23 more series left to cover within the letters D-Z (I imagine that some might be harder to run for entire series however...) Besides, I just read that QI has been commisioned for its 4
th series, which will record in April or so.
read on...
Nathan - Personal, Philosophical -
-
§ ¶
19 December 05 - 20:31
Exam Timetable
- Weds 11th Jan 9.00am Chemistry:Chemistry for Life:Written Paper
- Weds 11th Jan 1.30pm English Language and Literature B 1 Written
- Thurs 12th Jan 1.30pm Mathematics:Probability and Statistics 1:Written Paper
- Mon 16th Jan 9.00am Mathematics:Core Mathematics 1:Written Paper
- Mon 16th Jan 9.00am Mathematics:Core Mathematics 2:Written Paper
- Tues 17th Jan 1.30pm PHYSICS PHYSICS FOR LIFE
Nathan - Personal -
-
§ ¶
19 December 05 - 15:03
How to drink sparkling water
Sure, it's disgusting; but I brought some by mistake (it's that typical mistake that everyone makes at least once a year in their quest for
normal water. I'm drinking it now, and for some reason now it's tasting strangely similar to Lemonade (with the conspicuous absence of Lemon). Sure, it's being helped down by more that a couple of fresh Jam doughnuts.
I'm drinking it in longer sips, ensuring that it doesn't linger in my mouth for longer than absoloutely necessary. Could be worse.
Nathan - In brief -
-
§ ¶
17 December 05 - 18:35
Working
Very hard on revising for A level modules in January, so I'm keeping very quiet. This weekend I have 3 chemistry, 2 physics and 3 maths papers to do; as well as a couple of English essays.
Nathan - Personal -
-
§ ¶
