Yes that’s right I have moved to a new domain.
For my readers please update your bookmarks to http://delayedflight.keikakudoori.net/blog/

Thankyou to everyone who has been reading this blog, this site will still be up but everything will have moved to my new site.

That’s right you heard it right Aussie gamers. We will not be getting Left 4 Dead 2 in Australia as it has been refused classification by the Classifications Board this week.
The report on the game said it contained “”realistic, frenetic and unrelenting violence” and therefore was refused classification, as the current classification system Australia does not have an R18+ rating for computer games similar to that for movies.

Early reports the games’ success is going to be huge in Australia and the rest of the world.

It’s a shame really instead of gamers buying a game locally in Australia and spending their money here they’ll just resort to a) importing overseas, b) pirating the game or c) just not play it at all.

This issue has once again put into the limelight that Australia still does not have an R18+ rating and that the classification system is in much need of reform. This is not an old issue though as there has been attempts at introducing an R18+ rating for games in Australia with all Attorney Generals of each of the states agreeing, except for Michael Atkinson an attorney general from South Australia who voted against.

Currently he is the only one preventing a new rating system being implemented, according to him he is ‘protecting the children’ from being exposed to such material. But wait! I though it was up to the parents to monitor what their children are viewing, but then I guess it’s just easier to blame the developers when you find out your kid is playing a violent game instead of looking at the big fat red sticker on the game box.
Why raise your children when the government can do it for you?

I for one had strict parents who didn’t even let me watch movies or play games they considered were not suitable for me that was until I hit 15 which then I was allowed the freedom to watch/play most games and movies barring buying porn (but that’s what the internet is there for right?).
It’s not very hard to see what games your kids are playing as being a parent means you have absolute control, monitoring what content passes through your house hold and the simple act of reading the rating does help somewhat when you’re buying computer games for your kids hell I was asked to be accompanied by my dad back then when I tried to buy Fallout Tactics which had an MA15+ rating.

Anyway I’d say write polite complains to the Classification Board to protest their decision might help sway their decision but writing to or estimed Michael Atkinson would just result in typical political spin.

Electronic Arts(EA) the distributor for Australia is still working with the classification board to resolve this issue and it will be allowed to be sold in Australia in its pure undiluted form like F.E.A.R 2: Project Origin which had a similar story but having its’ ban lifted.
Instead of a gimped release in the case of Fallout 3.

Although I do enjoy living in Australia and enjoy its’ many freedoms, I have to say it is akin to living in a country town: nice to living in but not modern.

Edit: After a bit of digging around on the internet Atkinson apparently posted a letter to the editor for the Adelaide Advertiser about the very subject of video game censorship in Australia only to be later rebutted by a gentlemen of  57 years of age; Terry O’Shanassy. The rebuttal was done  in such a fashion that Atkinson very much got ‘owned’.

Source News.com.au

So imagine you went for a spot of urban exploration and found yourself lost in the stormwater drains. What do you do?
Do you: call triple-0 on your phone to contact the emergency services or do you update your Facebook status to say you’re trapped in some drains?

Well two girl 10 and 12 from Adelaide were in the exact same predicament after a foray into the Adelaide stormwater drain system, and which choice did they choose?
Update their Facebook status to being lost of course. What modern teen would be so un-hip to call the emergency services with their web enabled phones?

According Glenn Benham from the Metropolitan Fire Service (MFS):

“If they were able to access Facebook from their mobile phones, they could have called 000, so the point being they could have called us directly and we could have got there quicker than relying on someone being online and replying to them and eventually having to call us via 000 anyway.” he said.

Obviously the emergency services were concerned that posting online about your predicament, instead of calling  would delay a rescue effort, and that the girls were lucky that a friend was online to notice that the girls were trapped and called 000.

Now this particular incident reminds me of a particular episode of The IT Crowd.

Source

I say is that a hatless idling Irishman?

So a few days ago I booted up Team Fortress 2 after a mate asked me to check if my items were gone. Apparently because Valve had started to remove items gained by using Drunken F00l’s Idler Program which basically emulated you being connected to a Team Fortress 2 server.
Indeed I was greeted with the following:

Your account has been flagged for circumventing the item distribution system. We have removed the items that were illegally obtained. Future violations will result in the loss of all your items.

Valve had removed all the items I had gained using the idler which as two hats: The Heavy’s football helmet and the Glorious Officer’s Ushenka.
I am rather jarated off that Valve has all of a sudden pimp slapped a large percentage of its active Team Fortress 2 player base without stating its position on this matter months before this fiasco. The creator had emailed Valve about this months before asking for Valve’s opinion and also offered to voluntarily shut down operations if Valve requested, making it unforgivable for Valve to not have made an official post on their Team Fortress 2 blog warning idlers that its use was disapproved.

Instead of posting up a warning to all idler users Valve takes a different approach; it proceeds to take all items that idlers have gotten using the idler program, labelled them “Cheaters” and a final slap in the face, given all other users who did not use the idler program hats more specifically a “Halo” hat.
Now the community is in uproar about how Valve has handled this matter people who idled are not helping those with halos and those with halos refuse to help people who have idled. It has divided the community and many people have refused to play Team Fortress 2 ever again.
Although Valve has stated that only 3.5% of Team Fortress 2 owners were affected it seems that the number has been skewed as instead of being the number of active Team Fortress 2 players it is the number of people who own the game which it was bundled with The Orange Box. At its peak the idler server numbered roughly 10,000+ idlers at any given time, according to some users the number sits somewhere around the realm of 25-33.3% of the active player base has been affected by this fiasco.

Although I am unhappy my hats got taken away from me, I can still take solace in the fact that I can now see spies easily and snipers wearing the halo make easier headshot targets.

Edit: Fixed some expression mistakes and missing words.

We’ve been hearing about ’stimulus’ packages, government assurances and various schemes to prop up the economies in the current economic crisis.
With that politicians are throwing around big numbers into the trillions of dollars.

So what does one trillion dollars look like?

Well someone at Pagetutor.com has decided to put it into perspective with the help of Google Sketchup.

Behold one trillion dollars US.

But in some countries that sort of money is pocket change…

If you want to read more of the article check it out in full here.

Source

Posted in Money, Shenanigans Tagged: Economy, Money, Shenanigans, USA ]]> http://delayedflight.wordpress.com/2009/09/02/what-does-1-trillion-us-dollars-look-like/feed/ 0 spectre257 pallet_x_10000 446aaaa1 http://delayedflight.wordpress.com/2009/08/31/ram-can-be-downloaded/ http://delayedflight.wordpress.com/2009/08/31/ram-can-be-downloaded/#comments Sun, 30 Aug 2009 15:44:27 +0000 spectre257 http://delayedflight.wordpress.com/?p=370 ]]>

So a mate of mine found an interesting site where you can apparently download RAM.
Yes, someone actually came up with a site to “Download” RAM.
Just looking at the company’s address you can tell the site’s dodgy, downloading this “RAM” will probably install a Trojan or something of the like into your computer.

Sneaky way of trying to scam computer illiterate people though.

My Sigma 1000mm F/8 Mirror Lens that I got from Ebay for $305 arrived on my doorstep yesterday.
Here’s a photo of it attached to my K-7.

So I got a stack of old Pentax gear from Ebay.

Clicky for higher res

I got a fair amount of stuff with the package:

1. PENTAX ME SUPER WITH SMC PENTAX – M 1:1.7 50MM LENS WITH ORIGINAL CASE AND HANDBOOK
2. TOKINA TELEPHOTO LENS 70-210MM, 1:4-5.6 LENSE NO CASE
3. M – OPTIC LENSE 135 MM LENS, 1:2.8 WITH CASE
4. PROTONAR WIDE ANGLE LENS, 1:2.8 WITH CASE
5. CABLE SHUTTER RELEASE
6. SUNDRY FILTERS AND ADAPTOR RINGS

The items that interested me the most of the lot are the Pentax Opt. 50mm SMC F/1.7, the Protonar 28mm F/2.8 and the Pentax ME Super 35mm SLR.
I’ve given the 50mm a spin and (at least to me) is much sharper at F/2 than its modern brother the Pentax-FA SMC 50mm F/1.4, I’ll post a comparison image later.

I have yet to mess around with the Protonar 28mm but I’ll get around to it when I’m running around uni tomorrow, the ME Super needs to be sent off to be serviced and I’ll need to stock up on film for it.

I went down to Civic with some mates to wander around town to take photos with my grand spanking new K-7.

I ended up shooting this panorama.

Glebe Park Panorama by ~spectre257 on deviantART

I finally recieved my Pentax K-7 DSLR today after missing the original delivery yesterday by one hour and having to reschedule for delivery to be reattempted.
Well without further ado here’s the Pentax K-7 in all its un-boxing glory.

Un-boxing the package

Shiny new K-7's box

K-7's manuals & software cd

Battery and extra bits the come with the K-7

Finally:

My brand new Pentax K-7 with Tamron SP 90mm lens in all its glory (lens not included)

Well that’s all from me for now I’ll stick photos taken with the camera later

All photos were taken with my old K100D Super.