Wednesday, August 31, 2005

King Kong vs. Pirates

Man ! I am looking forward to this movie from Peter Jackson (Lord of The Rings director). Apparently it's going to have a kickass tie-in PC game as well... I remember the previous King Kong movie, it was great by those days standards.

This article goes about the King Kong movie and Peter's views on movie piracy. He is holding such a tight lid on the movie, that a lot of people won't even see it coming.

Check out this article link :
King Kong link

Tuesday, August 30, 2005

Quote of the Day

When I was a kid my parents moved a lot, but I always found them.
- Rodney Dangerfield

Friday, August 26, 2005

Rodriguez to launch new CD with concerts

206 Productions, Sugar Music and PT Music are proud to announce that Rodriguez will be launching his new CD compilation, 'Sugarman: The Best Of Rodriguez', with a series of live concerts in Cape Town and London in late September and early October. Rodriguez will be accompanied at these four concerts by a three-piece band comprising Sean Ou Tim (drums), Sascha Sonnbichler (guitar) and David Broido (bass).

Rodriguez and the band will first play two exclusive CD launch concerts at the Independent Armchair Theatre in Observatory in Cape Town on Thursday 29 September and Sunday 2 October.

The following week Rodriguez and his band will perform two live dates in London at The Kentish Town and Forum on Friday 7th October and Saturday 8th October. Support acts for all these gigs will be announced shortly.

Tickets for the Cape Town concerts are R120 each and are limited to 250 per show. In order to apply for tickets, please email The Independent Armchair Theatre (info@bastardmedia.co.za). Please include your full name, ID Number and phone number on the email. Only two tickets are available per application.

Tickets for the London concerts are available c/o the Ticket hotline (London 24 hrs) - 0870 060 3777 Tickets are also now on sale at the Jazz Cafe and Astoria, there is no booking fee if you pay cash.
For info about the London concerts please email:
mailto:clem@touchskymedia.co.uk

'Sugarman: The Best Of Rodriguez' is being released in South Africa by PT Music, the independent SA label which has already released Rodriguez' two studio albums, 1970's 'Cold Fact' and 1972's 'Coming From Reality' aka 'After The Fact'. PT Music also recently released new remastered versions of both those albums.

'Sugarman: The Best Of Rodriguez' features 17 tracks mostly drawn from those two albums, plus three songs that only appeared on the previous 'Best Of Rodriguez' collection, and as a bonus track, the extremely rare 1967 single version of "I'll Slip Away" when he was known as Rod Riguez.

For all info about Rodriguez - past, present and future, please consult the official Rodriguez website at http://www.sugarman.org

For more information please contact:

206 Productions:
Josh Georgiou and Alan Freeman
Phone: (011) 728-8417
Mailto:debbie@88.co.za

The Independent Armchair Theatre:
Gil Hockman
Phone 021 447 1514
Mailto:info@bastardmedia.co.za

Sugar Music:
Stephen Segerman
W (021) 423-7635
mailto:sugar@sugarman.org

Thursday, August 25, 2005

Heavy Metal Guy

Check out the Heavy Metal Guy animations. From here on life will not be the same :

Heavy Metal Guy Link

The Boys of Iwo Jima

Found the following article on Snopes (which is found as true) that I thought was pretty interesting... definitely worth a read through.

Check out this link :
Snopes Iwo Jima Link

Google Talk has been released

Finally Google's Instant Messenger has been released. It's integrated with GMail and it's easy to use. A small download at 900kb ... It also features voice over internet functionality like Skype.

Get it here :
Google Talk Link

Wednesday, August 24, 2005

Ancient artefacts abound in Dubai

The discovery of ancient archaeological sites has transformed the simple agriculture city of Al Ain (Dubai) into an important centre of ancient history in the Arabian peninsula. A thriving civilisation existed in that area during the Stone and Bronze Ages, with its distinctive culture and character. Archaeological discoveries in the north of Al Ain a few years ago revealed a part of human settlements that date back to the Stone and Bronze Ages 5000 BCE.

Another important archaeology site is in the Hili area of Al
Ain: this site houses the largest Bronze Age complex. Archaeological finds in this area have been incorporated into the Hili Archaeological Park. Several sites dating back to the Iron Age, about 1000BCE, are also located in the preserved archaeological area surrounding the park.

One of the most impressive monuments in the UAE is Hili Grand Tomb, which is more than 4,000 years old. The tomb, which was discovered in the 1960s, is located in the middle of the park. The remains of a huge ancient cemetery have been discovered in the northern and eastern foothills of Jebel Hafeet that date back between 3200 to 3000 BCE. A team of French archaeologists exploring the area indicated in February that the society in Hili and its surrounding areas thrived about 7,000 years ago.

Article Link here :

Click Me

Friday, August 19, 2005

Google Releases Blogger for Microsoft Word

A new blogging utility for Word that’s free. Pretty handy – I used it to create this post.

“Google announced earlier this week the release of Blogger for Word, a free add-in, downloadable from the Web, that allows users of the Web log service Blogger to post directly to their sites from Microsoft Word.”

Check out article at Mary’s site :
Article Link

Thursday, August 18, 2005

Significant Performance Boost For XP

Found this article that was really helpful in providing some useful information on adjusting XP to be a bit faster. There is some great links in the replies as well.

Check it out at :
Performance XP Link

Wednesday, August 17, 2005

Quote of the Day

A girl phoned me the other day and said "Come on over, there's nobody home." I went over. Nobody was home.

- Rodney Dangerfield

The Hidden Records by Wayne Herschel on the face of Mars, Pyramids ...

If any of you haven't read Wayne Herschel's book yet... Go out and get it ! It has various facts and new revelations he is trying to promote. It's a pity his book came out at the same time as Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code as I believe the cryout against Dan's book basically subdued Wayne's book. I see he is trying to promote it currently in Europe. I believe they can prove one of his theories right as soon as they can start digging in those Martian sands...

Check it out :
The Hidden records

"It contains the long awaited (already televised) solution to the ancient pyramid civilisations. Their records all appear to include an obsession with worshipping the celestial bull of Taurus and beings that came from the sky."

Tuesday, August 16, 2005

Dungeon Siege 2 is a cummin' !



Man I don't know about you people out there but I have been looking forward to getting this game for a while now and in fact it will be released in the U.S. today. Here is an excerpt of the Action Trip review :

"...but the way I see it, the truly great gaming experience (one that is truly addictive), is that which not only makes you lose track of time, but when you finally peel your eyes away from the monitor, you're still feeling that slight numbness in your body as your mind tries to adjust to the real world. Without sounding too crass, this is pretty much how I felt after I've gotten my first really good and sufficiently lengthy blow job..." - "yes, Dungeon Siege 2 did give me that great buzz that lingers a bit after playing"

phoaarrr that sounds good... I really can't wait :)

Here is some links to reviews :

Games Domain Review 8/10
GameDaily Review 4.5/5
ActionTrip Review 80/100
1UP Review 7/10
Game Zone Review 8.3/10

Monday, August 15, 2005

25 Great Calvin & Hobbes Strips

One of my favorite comic strips. If you haven't read any, you have missed out big time. Check out some of the best strips :

Calvin and Hobbes link

World's Smallest Political Quiz

Try the quiz here :

Quiz link

In case you ever wondered what side of politics you should be on. Take it - it's results are interesting unless you believe there should be no such quiz - in which case you will probably be in the far "right" category...

I've been linked !!

Yay -awesome ! I've been linked by John.

Check it out :

John Walkenbach's Blog

Richard Garriott and the beginnings of space tourism

I didn't know that Richard Garriott started the whole thing on commercial space travel. I am currently replaying Ultima IX (his last Ultima game before moving on) at the moment and was very interested in reading this article. Mark Shuttleworth - one of my fellow countrymen - should be thanking him...

Article link

Friday, August 12, 2005

Dungeon Lords done !

I have just finished Dungeon Lords the other night and thought I'd blog about it. I really enjoyed the game and is probably the first game I have completed in the last 7 years.

The game got some really bad reviews - but I don't know - if you install the patches and enjoy a good dungeon romp, this game is a lot of fun. There are some boring parts especially crossing from one town to another or searching for places (hint : consult a walkthrough).

The graphics are nice but it seems surreal that you are floating through it. You don't affect grass when you walk through it and water stay stagnant as well. Very weird... but like I said the gamplay kicks ass, especially in combat and the dungeon parts.

The music is non existant and the voice overs are terrible. The story seems like a bit of an afterthought placed unto the game, just to send you around from one strange place to another. I also kind of liked the oriental clan that was totally misplaced in this fantasy setting.

Check it out :
Dungeon Lords link

Monks run out of the world's best beer

Arr ! Now this is amusing ... I guess I will never get to taste the world's greatest beer now. And me a beer lover and all.

Reuters link

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Monks at a Belgian abbey have been forced to stop selling their famous beer after it was voted the best in the world and was promptly sold out.

The abbey of Saint Sixtus of Westvleteren in western Belgium is home to some 30 Cistercian and Trappist monks who lead a life of seclusion, prayer, manual labor -- and beer-brewing.

A survey of thousands of beer enthusiasts from 65 countries on the RateBeer Web site (www.ratebeer.com) in June rated the Westvleteren 12 beer as the world's best.

But the abbey only has a limited brewing capacity, and was not able to cope with the beer's sudden popularity.

"Our shop is closed because all our beer has been sold out," said a message on the abbey's answering machine, which it calls the "beer phone."

And the abbey has no intention of boosting its capacity to satisfy market demand.

"We are not brewers, we are monks. We brew beer to be able to afford being monks," the father abbot said on the abbey's Web site.

Monk Mark Bode told De Morgen daily: "Outsiders don't understand why we are not raising production. But for us life in the abbey comes first, not the brewery."

J-Walk Blog Link Experiment

Ah! here is a way I might get some attention to my blog (which seems of to bit of a slow start). John Walkenbach my favorite blogger has posted this on his blog...

I am taking part in J-Walk's Blog experiment !

http://j-walkblog.com/index.php?/weblog/posts/attention_bloggers/

Tuesday, August 02, 2005

The 46 Best-ever Freeware Utilities

Found this really cool page with free utilties, some of which I knew about and some I didn't :

http://www.techsupportalert.com/best_46_free_utilities.htm

Quote :

"There are a lot of great freeware products out there. Many are as good or even better than their commercial alternatives. This list features my personal pick of the "best of the best."

All these utilities in this list have been featured in past issues of of my free monthly newsletter "Support Alert". More freebies are featured in every new issue. If you are interested in great utilities and freeware you really should consider subscribing. It's free."