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Latest News and Blog Posts from Wayne “Pendragon” Owens.
Assassins Creed Brotherhood Connection Happiness
You may remember Assassins Creed from such posts as Assassins Creed Brotherhood AKA You can’t Run but You can Hide! and Assassins Creed Brotherhood Connection Madness. If you do, then you will recall that we had been hit with the dreaded “the session is unreachable” issue that a LOT of people seem to be suffering from.
If you have not read the previous articles, or have no understanding of the mentioned issue I’ll provide a quick recap. *Wayne’s World recap music*
Me & PlanetPete can join a group and play together no problem, and CampyPhil & MIAdave can play together no problem. BUT if anyone tries to join the other group they get “the session is unreachable” So neither PlanetPete or Myself can play against the other two, and neither of them can play against us.
Now our original thought was that maybe it was an odd routing issue, with them being in a different part of the UK to us, Well luckily PlanetPete went to visit them and took his hard-drive with him. And with his hard drive plugged into MIADaves’s xbox he was able to join me, yet with MIADave’s hard drive plugged in “session is unreachable”
It makes no SENSE!!!!
Well PlanetPete recently purchased the Da Vinci DLC, and before installing it he deleted all the previous system updates and the downloaded Animus Project Update 2.0. He then bought and installed the Animus Project Update 3.0 (Da Vinci). After this we discovered that we could no longer play online together, but he could play with CampyPhil & MIADave.
SO. I deleted my DLC & updates. I then decided to work upwards in order. Animus Project Update 1.0, Animus Project Update 2.0, then started the game and let it do it’s own system updates. After this was complete I tested playing against CampyPhil and was able to play fine.
It seems to me that there was a conflict between DLC versions. PlanetPete & Myself downloaded ours a while before the other two. So there must have been a change at some point which causes a conflict. So if you are getting the dreaded “session is unreachable” while trying to play with friends, then delete all downloaded content from your XBOX Dashboard, and re download them.
Let us know if this solves your conflict.
A happy GreatGothNinja prowling the roofs of buildings hunting his pray with a concealed gun.
USA – Secret Summit
I recently had a mini holiday in Pwllheli, I’d gone to visit some old friends who were holidaying there at the time (*EDIT: Oddly all the friends there can probably be found in The Pleasuredome rest home for the mentally unstable.) This Mini-Holiday led to several thoughts, events, Stories that will make it onto this Blog. This one is titled :-
“USA – Secret Summit”
I took a rather random and scenic route from my part of North Wales, to Pwllheli, for several reasons like :-
- Diversions/Road Closures
- A SatNav that refuse to talk to any Satellites
- The Avoidance of a road where I had a really nasty crash the last time I drove to Pwllheli to meet a Dome Spod.
- & The fact I was not really paying that much attention to where I was going since I knew the basic route.
So there I was happily driving along a small mountain road with little or no traffic when I noticed a large hall in the trees that was oddly flying several American flags. “That’s Odd” I thought. And I decided it was a lot odder when I got closer to the building to find a large car-park full of large cars, all sporting those American bonnet flags you see on embassy/presidential cars.
So what I would like to know from the American readers is. What secret official summit were you guys having in a hall hidden away up in the Welsh mountains?
Ghost in the Asylum
The Asylum may or may not be haunted.
This morning I was stood in the Support Office talking to ItWerWobbie* when I heard someone walk up the stairs to our floor and saw them walk past the door to the support office as they passed down the hall.
Shortly after @DemonPengu* ascended the stairs, and came to the open door.
IWW: “Who was that?“
WO: “I don’t know. Hey @Demonpengu who came up before you?“
DP: “huh? no one?”
WO: *quickly checks upstairs rooms to see who came up* “Err there’s no one up here?“
IWW: “you heard/saw it as well right?“
So two of us heard someone ascend the stairs and walk past, we both saw from the corner of our eyes a person walk past the door to the room towards the front of the building where there are NO exits. Yet there was no body there!
Explain away!**
(*) We never use real names here on the Three Ninjas, for security, peoples safety against stalkers, and to prevent any nasty legal action if we accidentally mention little know facts like ItWerWobbies fetish for amputee midgets.
(**) Seriously. Any explanations welcome, comment away if you can explain what may or may not have happened.
Some thoughts on the Recent England Riots
I was originally not going to write anything about the recent state of anarchy that popped up over England, even though I had friends in the areas of the riots, and who were affected by what happened. I had decided too many people were writing their views about it, so I had nothing new or different to contribute to the discussion, so I did not. Only as I read and hear more and more stories from the Media, I feel I need to mention a few things, just to get them off my mind.
1: #ukriots, UK Riots, etc.
The UK is made up of four parts. Wales (No rioting), Scotland (No rioting), Northern Ireland (No rioting) and England (Rioting). Notice something there? only one quarter of the UK was affected, So please Media can you call it the England Riots, or the English Riots, or something other than UK.
2: The youth have nothing to occupy them.
I have seen interviews and reports that one of the reasons the youth of England were so keep to riot, and fight the police was due to them having nothing to do, they feel bored and restless and acted out in response to this. I have heard this before, I have a nephew who used to moan that him and his friends had nothing to do.
When I was growing up all we had was what we could find or invent with our imagination. We played games, we played football in any flat bit of land we could get, we climbed trees, we hung out, we did not riot or claim we had nothing to do.
Where I live (And the same play my poor nephew who has nothing to do) now has several youth centres where kids can go to play pool, and other games for free (All we had was cub scouts, or the ACF). There are several dedicated skate parks, where they have all the facilities for skateboards, bikes, skates to have jumps, tricks, all sorts (All we had was a couple of bricks and a bit of wood to make a jump). They have xbox’s, playstations, wiis, the Internet, mobile phones, multiple ways of communication (We had letters, that you had to write, post, and wait a week or so for a reply). YET even though the modern youth have a HELL of a lot more options and activities avilable to them than we ever did, they feel like they have nothing to do, no one gives them anything to do so riot? Hello. If having nothing to do, was a reason for riots why did my generation and those before me never riot?
3: The youth are rioting as a demonstration against the government to show they are unhappy at a lack of career/financial prospects.
Hello. Have you listened to these ambassadors of youth on TV? Have you read when they’ve written about it on line? Now look at the way they talk (Mostly trying to emulate American gangster/Gang culture. Like calling the cops Fedz because thats what they hear on TV shows/songs. The Yanks don’t call police fed’s they call FEDeral officers fed’s.. Sorry current pet peeve) Then look at their lack of reading/writing skills, and the atrocious way they spell (I am slightly dyslexic and am crap at spelling, yet these guys make me look like Shakespeare). Now if you were hiring a new member of staff would you pick someone who turned up well dressed, who spoke decently, had qualifications, and could deal with customers politely and do the work required. Or would you hire the person who turned up in a hoody, with their trousers hanging round their knees, and greeted you in fake-gangster talk?
If they are upset about not being able to get a job. maybe they should have paid attention in school. Or if its the faults of the schools, then why not go back to school now, pick up the skills needed to get a job. Change your manner, try and get a job and you have more chance of getting employed than you ever will by burning down businesses. Your recent actions have probably done more harm to the employment prospects of your generation than the government ever did.
As a side note to this, there is another bit of news that came out this week. One of the Chav culture won just under ten million pounds several years ago in the lottery. Now personally if I won half that figure I would be able to live a very happy life of luxury for the rest of my life. The Chav? he blew all ten million in just a few years, and has nothing at all to show for it, to the point My taxes are paying him money every week. That shows that its not lack of money, or prospects, its the mentality of a certain culture of people. We need to change the people.
As another side note, look at some of the parents who’s kids have been in court for looting. I’m talking about the ones who are just swearing and giving rude gestures to the press, and the judges. Take a long look, then consider the old adage “an apple does not fall far from the tree”
Assassins Creed Brotherhood Connection Madness
I have been enjoying the game Assassins Creed Brotherhood, Especially the online Multiplayer (You may recall Assassins Creed Brotherhood AKA You can’t Run but You can Hide!). It makes a great change from FPS games like COD. SO PlanetPete and myself convinced some other members of the COD group we play with to also get the game.
In theory this gave us an increased group to play ACB with. In truth its failed miserably. Me & PlanetPete can join a group and play together no problem, and CampyPhil & MIAdave can play together no problem. BUT if anyone tries to join the other group they get “the session is unreachable” So neither PlanetPete or Myself can play against the other two, and neither of them can play against us.
Now our original thought was that maybe it was an odd routing issue, with them being in a different part of the UK to us, Well luckily PlanetPete went to visit them and took his hard-drive with him. And with his hard drive plugged into MIADaves’s xbox he was able to join me, yet with MIADave’s hard drive plugged in “session is unreachable”
It makes no SENSE!!!!
Has anyone else had this issue? Do you know a solution?
*EDIT*
Update, PlanetPete purchased the DaVinci DLC. And now we are unable to play together, even with his DLC turned off. Come on UbiSoft you have somehow broken an important part of the game. Online Multiplayer. This was the first Assassins Creed with multiplayer, and you seem to have done something to prevent friends playing against each other. We have a group of people, some who only bought the game to play together who are unable to actually play together. FIX IT NOW!
Spock Is Not Impressed
Sean Bonner Made a Thing “http://spockisnotimpressed.tumblr.com/” Wil Wheaton suggested it get made “A Thing”, The Internetz Agreed and “A Thing” has been born.
(This is a retouched copy of My contribution to The Thing. Original one was a quick five minute knock up while working, you can see it HERE. )
But Remember, Spock is not Impressed! Unless you grab a copy of the Spock template to use to add Spock to photos which can then be submitted to the blog.
Go Internetz. Go spread The Thing and make this MEME fly.
I am Man hear me Roar!
As I was on my commute home after work Friday I noticed my battery warning light was glowing.
“By Jove, that’s a devilishly unfortunate occurrence!” I exclaimed
(Well I think those may not have been the exact words used).
Now I have had problems in the past with my alternator, so I hoped it was either a dead battery, or just the alternator playing up. My commute is over the Welsh mountains, where there is no phone signal in the slightest, So I decided to drive on in the hope that :-
- If the battery was dead. I could keep driving fine off the alternator as long as I did not have to stop and restart the vehicle.
- If the Alternator was dead. I could get home as long as I did not over use the charge stored in the battery.
Option 2 was a bit tricky as it was pouring down with rain and dark, I should have had my lights & wipers on, but I am MAN. so I needed no lights, and minimum wipers. Unfortunately my plans were destroyed when I made a right turn at a junction. I had slowed down partially, and tried using the breaks as I turned only for it to feel weird. Confused by this event as I mounted the top of a hill and started to drive down a steep incline, I noticed as I adjusted speed to manage the twisting turns of the road that each time I used the brakes there was less and less there until the time I put my foot on the pedal and there was nothing there. *Don’t Panic!*
I came safely to a stop using the age old breaking technique of mounting the grassy bank at the side of the road for the grass/mud to slow the vehicle down, then finalising the stop with the handbrake. Upon checking the engine I discovered my “Alternator Belt” or “Fan Belt” (depending on your age) had come off.
So I found myself, standing over a internal combustion engine, big metal engineering tools held in my oil stained hands roaring up at the heavens as they poured rain down on me. “I AM MAN HEAR ME ROAR!!!!” You Know, working in an office based Job you sometimes forget the feeling of manly work. If there had been a woman in the area I would have asked for a stocking to really be manly in fixing the car.
I soon got bored of this activity and decided to sit inside the car while waiting for the engine to cool down enough to let me re-attach the belt. (Since the belt also controlled the oil pump & radiator fan the engine was a tad hot)
When I could safely work on the engine it was a five minute job to reattach the belt, which was a lot less time than spent looking manly and roaring earlier. And my trip home continued with me driving very calmly as the belt was frayed, twisted, and not the healthiest. I actually made it the last ten miles home with the belt, before some woman stepped out in front of me two hundred yards from my place and as I swerved around her I heard a SNAP, as the belt finally gave up the ghost. At least it had got me home.
I need to add one more section on this story before I bid you farewell dear constant reader. On the Saturday I popped into town to go to a Car Accessories and Parts place to get a replacement belt. Now I have used the same place for years, since its a lot cheaper than most because it sells to mechanics and car part shops. So I pull up outside the warehouse near the customer door, only to be confronted by a sign saying they now have a shiny new shop across the road, for customers to use. I manage to cross the four lanes of very busy traffic to enter the shop, which looks more like a normal car accessory shop than a parts place. I order my belt, the guy behind the counter checks the exact one I need, takes my money, then tells me I need to go to their main building across the road to collect my part. Yes. They send you across four busy lanes of traffic to order your part, then back across them to collect it. From now on I order over the phone.
Review – The Cape Pt 2
I have now finished watching “The Cape” and as such I need to revisit and update my review of the show. If you recall the original Review you will no doubt remember that I said “Anyone who likes action shows, or superhero shows will Like this show a lot. ” Well I need to update that view.
The show was originally designed to be a thirteen part season, unfortunately it was cancelled after just ten of the thirteen episodes were filmed. And as such they never made the extra three. And as such they never finish the story off, and leave many questions unanswered. You never see where they were taking different story lines, and it leaves you as the viewer unsatisfied at the end.
for example:-
They start a Orwell ark with her loosing it slightly, painting everything white, and loosing herself in her mind. They start this just as season ends so never goes anywhere.
The Carnival of Crime are apparently training the Cape so they can use him in some big, dangerous, mysterious way that they hint at but never tell you.
In fact the final episode feels more like a penultimate, episode, or at least a penultimate to a two part season ending.
All in all I feel let down by the show, and would advise people not to bother watching it.
News of the World Phone Hacking Scandal
Unless you have been living in a small cave half way up an inhospitable mounting for the last month you would have heard of the News of the World (NotW) Phone Hacking Scandal. It’s especially bad if you live in the UK.
If you are that cave dwelling hermit let me say “How the frak are you reading this post? Did you follow the article on reading blogs on kindles? How have you got internet access? inquiring minds want to know!” *relax* I mean to say, that this scandal is about slime masquerading as reporters who accessed a vast (possible 4,000) number of people’s (Celebrity’s, Sports Stars, Politicians, Victims of Crime) answer phone messages. Now there was such an amount of this going on that the paper has closed down after 168 years in print.
I have no intention of writing about the incident itself, or any of the fallout, or anything directly in relation to this case. That has been covered in depth all over the Internet & Surviving media. What I would like to address is the term thrown about “Phone Hacking Scandal“. Why must everyone insist on calling it Hacking?
*NOTE: Phone Hacking is referred to as Phreaking
Nowhere in any of the reports is any activity mentioned that even faintly falls into the category of “Hacking” under any definition. Even if you take the original definition of Hacking, as in using some piece of technology or item in a way that was different to the intended use. Or knowing or wanting to learn about the inner working of different things, you still can not fit the term “Hacker” or “Hacking” to what the NotW reporters actually did.
What they did was to access peoples voicemail’s. Yes this is wrong, its an intrusion of privacy, it’s probably illegal as “unauthorised to personal communication” but it is not Hacking. They phoned up the voicemail number, and using the Victims phone number, and the generic default pin number accessed they voice mail system in the way it was intended to, in the way we all access it, they just did it without the Victims permission.
Surely it should be called “illegal phone tapping” or “illegal access to mail” or by whatever legal term it is for the crime they committed. The media like using the term Hacker to scare the public about these faceless super-criminals with secret abilities that let them to do almost anything. I think its time to stop the mass-hysteria and excessive incorrect use of this term.
We do not call someone who sticks a plaster on a small graze a Doctor, We do not call the small child playing with a plastic gun in the street a terrorist, and we should not call someone who phones up a publicised phone number and follows the instructions the recorded message tells them a Hacker.
Come on Media People, Your reputation is tarnished over this NotW incident, don’t make it worse by not doing your homework, and just falling into your old scaremongering ways.
A few words about the misappropriation of the term “Hacker“.
To quote Randal from Clerks. “I’m taking it back”
RTL: The Cape
The last couple of nights I’ve been watching “The Cape”, I’m about halfway through the series. (Well Technically I am exactly half way through having watched 5 of 10 episodes). And since this show is starting on UK television next week, I thought I’d review what I’ve seen so far to aid people deciding if they want to watch it or not.
For those of you who have not seen any of the trailers, or heard anything about this show I guess I better give you a quick plot outline.
The series follows Vince Faraday, a police officer in the fictional Palm City, who is framed for a series of crimes committed by a mysterious villain named Chess and is left for dead after being caught. He is taken in by Max Malini, the ringleader of a circus who trains him with the special abilities of a superhero. Determined to clear his name and be reunited with his family, Faraday takes on the guise of his son’s favorite comic book hero, the Cape
Basically Good cop in a city of dirty cops, gets disillusioned and tries to make a difference. He’s set up by his best friend, framed as the master villain, and left for dead. Luckily he is rescued by “The Carnival of Crime” a bunch of circus performers who use their skills to rob banks. They teach him their skills, equip him with a almost magical cloak, and help? him clear his name and bring down the real criminal mastermind.
Now as I stated I am half way through the series and I am enjoying it immensely, it has both the necessary action mixed with the correct amount of comedy to make it a very enjoyable series. For example, The cape foils a stickup in a store, the owner thanks him and asks is he some kind of super hero, to which the Cape replies “I’m The Cape!” the store owner looks at him and replies “you can work on the name“.
Anyone who likes action shows, or superhero shows will Like this show a lot. Unless maybe you are a worshipper of the Dark Knight, where you may see this as a poorly done rip off. You disagree? Lets compare :-.
Batman: A normal man who’s trained up his body and mind to fight crime in a corrupt city while dressed in black with a mask & cape.
The Cape: A normal man who’s trained up his body and mind to fight crime in a corrupt city while dressed in black with a mask & cape.
Batman: Dedicated to bring down evil after the loss of his family.
The Cape: Dedicated to bring down evil after the loss of his family.
Batman: A great Detective
The Cape: An actual Police Detective
Batman: Trained by Ra’s Al Ghul who was the leader of technically evil group.
The Cape: Trained by Max Malini who was the leader of technically evil group.
Batman: Villain Two Face. A split personality criminal D.A/Criminal mastermind
The Cape: Villain Chess. A split personality criminal Business Man/Criminal mastermind
Batman: Aided by a young girl (daughter of another character) who’s an expert with computers & hacking & technology (Oracle)
The Cape: Aided by a young girl (daughter of another character) who’s an expert with computers & hacking & technology (Orwell)
Batman: Quote “Make sure you wear the mask and that the mask doesn’t wear you”
The Cape: Quote “Make sure you wear the cape and that the cape doesn’t wear you”
The List goes on…
This Article was 1st posted @ rocktheLAN.com