Bydood

Tag: experience

  • Impact of smart phones

    Smart phones huh? I can’t help but look back at what choices we had back a few years ago…
    Nokia 5110
    I started with what they used to call a “brick” and a 4cm antenna given to me from my brother. This was once known as the Ericsson. That’s right, Ericsson was not merged with Sony at that time. This phone had a green LCD screen with up to 3 lines of text and the network provider one2one. Not heard of it? That’s because it changed to T-Mobile and now changing again to EE. But since I was a young one, I had to settle with a pay as you go sim card. At that point, text messaging wasn’t even integrated with this phone and everyone else was holding the hip phone Nokia 5110 that had the amazing feature of changing the front face! Oh and they decreased the size of the antenna to 1.5cm. But I couldn’t afford this face changing phone so what could I do because everyone was texting and I couldn’t. Then I discovered the new update that you can text but you need to go through a series of steps. Awesome right? It took about 3 days to setup involving a call to one2one and configuring some settings on my Ericsson. Finally, with a load of frustration, the phone had texting however, it was one liner! In other words, I had to type my text out on one line scanning my wording from left to right! It was painful but I had no choice since money was a huge problem.
    Nokia 3310
    Skipping a year or so ahead, I finally saved up £100 to grab my first ever phone! So my choices were either the Sony or the Nokia 3310 (at that time, they were the hottest phone on the pay as you go market after the Nokia 3210). This was a no brainer since I was in need of the game Snake! The game ONLY available for Nokia. The Nokia 3310 with the customisable feature of back and front faces to be changed! Whatttt!? Mind blowing change by Nokia! And not only that, the antenna within the phone!? And to top it all off, it was twice as smaller and lighter too! These were the best features ever! And to overkill, I had the ability to text on 5 lines! 

    Nokia destroyed their competition!

    Nokia 3300 (Image from http://www.GSMArena.com)
    From there, I had this phone for a while only until I heard that another Nokia phone was released which had the similarities of a portable gaming device; with a d-pad on the left side of the phone, the numbers on the right and the screen in the middle. To top it all off, it was a colour screen! Now that was revolutionary! Although, the only game I really played on this device was Snake (yes, that game was still very good, the d-pad made it really easy to control).
    Those years feel like a long time ago and now, the phones have gone bigger and all touch screen phones! I think we have established that size does not matter and in fact, people want even bigger (sounds so wrong)… With phones going off as cheap as £100 or less for a touch screen phone is a bargain! 
    What do I have now? I currently hold the LG Nexus 4! Have a look at my previous blog to check the specs on it: http://gamingdood.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/phone-comparison.html
    This phone is somewhat great but since I was an iPhone user, I cannot adjust to it just yet. I guess I am taking some time with it before I can say I “love it“. Too soon to tell.

    What will be the next gen phone!?

  • Gaming to escape reality…

    In one generation, gaming has been given the reputation that only kids play on them and then there are another set of people who say that it is an absolute waste of time when we can find something more productive to do. In my perspective, gaming is classified for any age and it is very productive! 
    The games have evolved to a point where it immerses the gamer so deeply that its like watching a film. Saying this, there are a variety of games with so many genres available that gives a gamer a wide choice. This is where age doesn’t matter. The evolution of gaming have improved drastically… 

    Gaming is not the same as it used to be!

    Now the reason why I say ‘productive‘ is that depending on the type of person you are, there are some people who cannot handle stress like others do. It relieves a huge portion of the day you’ve encountered. Of course you can spend that time doing paperwork or do what you feel is important, but sometimes, having that virtual world to do something you’ll never do in reality can really allow you to escape for a few hours…
    From my experience, its important to keep control. One is gaming. It can distract you from the world but obviously there are many different ways you can deal with this. 

    Inspire yourself… 

    And then there’s inspiration. Gaming unlocks a part of yourself where it feels like it wants to become creative and motivated. Generally, when playing a game, I tend to criticise it and with this information, I learn that when I ever do create a game, I can develop it and know roughly that my game will not suffer from the same consequences. 
    So what I am trying to point out is if you feel like you have disconnected from the gaming world and like to get back into it but don’t know how, don’t think! Go out to your nearest retail gaming shop and buy your most wanted console. Then schedule yourself to go play! I believe that sitting there to just think about things is a waste of time when you can just go for it. 
    Try it before you may never have the chance to…

  • All about the money…

    There I was, just thinking so deeply about where I am, what I do and if I am truly supposed to be where I want to be. It is so strange to sit here and fight my inner troll to prove constantly in my head that money is very important. It is obviously vital but there is one thing I sacrifice… My dream. There are so many people in this world who once had a dream job, or a certain goal they want to reach however, they feel so locked into what they do because they feel the need to.

    But that is not the case…

    Dreams are constantly crushed by money however, blaming it on money alone is just stupid because the person who really is suffering is the person who made the choice. If you really want your dream job, then you should risk it despite the money or job status. Most dreams are difficult to chase but in the end, you will either sit back and say “Well, as long I tried” OR you will sit there saying “If only I took that opportunity…“

    So what if the world ended tomorrow, could you honestly say you are happy with where you are and accept your fate or would you turn back to all the events where you “could have” done something about it…?

    Now I am not saying to just up and leave your job. There are so many things that need to be considered but for those who are confused with what they do, you should have an aim… An end result that you can be proud of…

    But hey… If you guys can honestly say that you could not be any happier with where you are today, then that’s great! Maybe that is the dream you’ve always wanted.

    For me? I’ve only recently started following the path I have always wanted to go on. It maybe a little late but better late than never! It has been many years that I have been distracted. I seem to have put others before myself. That is my problem… This is where I have decided that I need to focus on myself now.

    So it all comes down to this. If you are not happy, change it! There’s absolutely nothing stopping you…

    This world is about money. But it doesn’t mean it has to change you…

  • The power of the internet…

    It’s absolutely amazing just seeing where we have evolved to! Technology has now become our main source to basically everything we want to do! Just looking back upon where I started with a 56k modem. That was crazy! Firstly, it took forever to connect to the internet with those weird sound effects. Not only that, the home telephone line needed to be free before you go connecting! Now looking back at it, it sounds completely ridiculous.

    Then it comes down to what we were using with this god awful slow connections. We had chat rooms, MSN, AOL, AIM, Yahoo Messenger… That is only to name a few.
    Finally, in our household, there were 3 users who were capable of using the internet at that time and we had to share it. So what did we do? We made a schedule. We were assigned an hour each! Though, with the schedule, I did other things before my time came up so it wasn’t all bad…

    When the news came in that we can connect to the internet with a router and can make a connection with more than one computer, that was absolutely mind blowing! We were ALL excited to be on the internet 24/7 with no hassle or schedules coming our way! We got it and then we all stuck in our rooms and just did what we all had to do… However, when using the internet too much, it tends to get tiring and especially when there is literally nothing to do on it (minus chat rooms), it was absolutely dead. Bare in mind, Facebook and YouTube was not introduced in these times.

    Now? I’m living with a 70MB Fibre Optic connection with BT with up to 4 computers connected to one router plus WiFi connections with several devices! And when the internet goes down, we tend to complain a huge amount! How spoilt are we when we were once living with such a slow connection allowing only one computer to connect to the internet per time. Don’t get me wrong because I also go complaining a huge amount! But I should really appreciate with the technology that currently exists!

    One major factor is the simplicity upon creating a business online! We don’t need to go and get a loan to open up a shop and sell things for it to be a business… We can just set up a host and get a web developer to make it! All it takes is time and dedication. Truly amazing! Just comes to show that anyone can become a successful person.

    So I suppose the point of this post is just appreciate what we have today! It’s amazing that we can just keep in touch with people online without having to make the effort to make constant calls to keep in touch. With social media, it’s just dead simple! Surfing the internet is so smooth. When I have a slow connection or disconnection issues, all I do is look back and think to myself saying “I’ve had worse…“

    The internet…. Love it!

  • Dodging from the truth?

    Rants… What is it really about?

    I can’t say for the majority of the world but I can say my views upon it. So last weekend, I had two conversations with two different people specifically aimed about rants. Why we do it? Maybe to just vent out how they feel particularly in a situation but what is the solution for the person hearing these rants? All the person really requires is a person to listen… Not for them to come up with a solution… Its fairly strange but it works! But it benefits both parties! On one side, they can talk out loud regarding their issue and analyse if there is a possible flaw in what is said. As for the other side, you get 2 factors… You level up in the trust reputation with this person and also learn from their experiences you hear. There is one condition… This person puts this amount of trust in you in hopes that you do not repeat it to anyone else! So all in all, it is amazing just how a person can put this level of trust in you. But you have to bare in mind that when they do, speak as little as possible… Otherwise you can offend them…
    Saturday evening around 11pm, I had a meeting with my brother on Skype. I skipped last weeks meeting since it was very hectic for me. But finally we sat down and we discussed quite a few things regarding games, what we’ve been up to and obviously the Microsoft Surface. Feels like every week, we discuss the Surface… But more importantly, we discussed our project: the progress report. We added more to the task list but feels like we’re moving forward.

    My Sunday was absolutely quiet. It involved being at home and getting down to a bit of work. The very small things have been ticked off the list. But I suppose the small things are better than nothing at all. Besides having those little tweaks, I’be been sitting around watching films. Seems to be my go to move nowadays…

    Monday after work was a day of badminton. With all the trash talk constantly falling out of my mouth, the game was a good one. I felt an improvement somewhat than the other weeks. Maybe because there was constant rotation after each game. It seems as though every week goes by, I begin to improve my doubles skills. Relying upon the other to return was once a hard thing to do but now an easy thing. Roll on next week…

    Tuesday came on with the purchase of the new Tomb Raider developed by Square Enix. With this being said, I played on Wednesday as well. This game is a very well developed game. It has a mixture of Uncharted and a hint of theLl old Tomb Raider games embedded into it. I must say I have not been addicted to a game like this since the Metal Gear Solid days. It consists of values I expected but more! The game literally makes you feel precisely how Lara Croft is experiencing. It feels like in the beginning, the game was very well thought of. But as the story moves forward, it gets even better. The game is definitely worth playing and is given a 9/10. Reason why I didn’t give it a 10 is probably because I feel like the graphics could have been better but the gameplay covers that small issue.

    To sum up my feelings as a whole, it is very hard to steer. I tend to dwell upon what I thought was forgotten. I’d like to think what I’ve done to this very point, it was all for a reason. Although I don’t know that reason right now, I’ll find out sooner or later… But can I really rely on that hypothesis?

  • My week so far…

    Its been a while since I wrote a blog post… I had a few things I needed to sort out but I think things will start to calm down from here. Things have been hectic. I didn’t even have time to even play games or develop stuff. Its almost embarrassing just to write this post since productivity has been at its minimum… But one way or another, I must write so here we go… 

    So I just received my new LG Nexus 4 and I must admit, it does the job very well. The screen size is great, the device looks solid and the interface is user friendly. However, there are very minor changes if I had the chance to change it. Me being an iPhone user before transferring to an Android OS was somewhat frustrating to me. Some features that I was used to on the iPhone like tapping the top of the screen to get to the top of the screen or the way I always accidentally hit the home button when I am typing on the virtual keyboard. With the many complaints I see, some of them do resolve themselves as I continue to use the device so eventually, the small things will disappear but still leaving my iPhone on standby if I find a major disappointment… This was also one of the reasons why my blog has been on pause for a while… Usually I type my post on the iPhone but now I transferred, the system I was once used to was broken and needed to repair it. But now seeing I am beginning to get used to the phone, I can start firing out posts… 

    Project planning has begun to initiate recently although development has been terrible lately. Just writing ideas on a bit of paper just makes me realise how much I rely on computers and mobile devices. I think its about time I pull out my notepad more and use devices less. So with several projects in motion, if procrastination is going to occur, resulting into planning doesn’t sound so bad. I’ve written a methodology in regards to a back end script for the website project. Progression seems to be happening in terms of front-end since my brother just keeps giving. This week, I will definitely have some solid showing. Just need to write a document for him. My mini games have been on super slow as it has been all about going out lately, but it will probably calm down from here. Projects are on priority now. 

    Monday morning has started and it started with a morning I was familiar with; motivation to code! I walked out my house feeling once again, proud of myself. Although the code was little, it felt as though things are looking up. But seeing as badminton is happening tonight, my evening will be a relaxing one.
    Speaking of relaxing, so on Saturday, I went out to Game on a random day and found that Crysis 3 was released! Seeing that although I had hesitation about the price, I ended purchasing it but ended up playing it on a Sunday. This game was everything I ever expected but only with the gorgeous graphics and of course, the crossbow! With the “Cloak engaged” and the crossbow equipped, it absolutely accomplishes immersive gameplay! Just the way how you also can lock on to the cel operatives just initiates tactical advantage! Although I only played an hour of it, I definitely will play more tonight… Rating out of 10? I’d give it a good 9!
    Just to summarise, I think things have been too crazy lately that now, I need to take a step back. I have a vision but I just need to pursue it… Procrastinating is fine but too much of it can end up being a routine… Just having a think through what needs to be done. There are many things on my list but all I need to be is motivated. This morning was a good start. Can I keep the ball rolling? Only time will tell….

  • Phone comparison

    So there was a conversation with a friend of mine from work who wanted a direct comparison of phones with my opinion embedded it. So with that being said, here we go:

    The phones I will be comparing will be Samsung S3, LG Nexus 4 and iPhone 5.

    Samsung Galaxy S3 LG Nexus 4 Apple iPhone 5
    Display 720 x 1280 pixels, 4.8 inches 768 x 1280 pixels, 4.7 inches 640 x 1136 pixels, 4.0 inches
    Processor Quad-core 1.4 GHz Cortex-A9 Quad-core 1.5 GHz Krait Dual-core 1.2 GHz
    Primary Camera 8 Megapixel, 3264×2448 pixels, autofocus, LED flash 8 Megapixel, 3264×2448 pixels, autofocus, LED flash 8 MP, 3264×2448 pixels, autofocus, LED flash
    Secondary Camera Yes, 1.9 Megapixel Yes, 1.3 Megapixel Yes, 1.2 Megapixel
    Internal Storage 16/32/64 GB storage 8/16 GB storage 16/32/64 GB storage
    Card slot Yes, microSD, up to 64GB No No
    Network 3G and 4G ready 3G ready 3G and 4G ready
    Browser HTML, Adobe Flash HTML5 HTML (Safari)
    Earphones included Yes No Yes
    Price £409 (Carphone Warehouse) £279 (Google Play) £509 (Carphone Warehouse)
    Taken from http://www.gsmarena.com

    From the analysis of the table and personally using the Samsung Galaxy 3 and Apple iPhone 5, they almost have similar features towards one another but the biggest difference here is mainly the interface.
    So lets start off with Samsung. Their phone has a higher quality secondary camera holding 1.9 megapixels so it would be great for those who like to webcam or video call with their friends / family. It also has the capability of browsing the web with its full performance as a PC as you are able to see Flash content as it has always been a problem before. In addition, it holds an expandable memory slot for a user to have the option to slot in another 64GB for extra data if needed.
    The LG Nexus 4 is the mid-range between the two phones. In other words, the phone sits literally middle but with the one major difference. The price… It is one powerful phone with an extraordinary price Google has to offer. One thing that may drag down the device is the fact that it does not support the newly developed 4G network. However, since it has been recently introduced, there isn’t much you’re missing out upon. But depends upon a persons preference.
    And finally, the iPhone 5. With the sleek design that I am still amazed at, it surprisingly holds less features. With the dual-core 1.2GHz speed and the 1.2 megapixel secondary camera, the price does not add up.
    Like I said, it all depends on the operating system that each phone holds. The iOS installed on the iPhone has always been smooth and the customisation is limited but liveable. Android has been a competitor for a while and as read a while back, Android is taking the lead, their apps are increasing and also their customisation is very much its beauty of it. To top it all off, there are a wide range of phones to choose from.
    So all in all, from the looks of everything, I am happy with purchasing the LG Nexus 4 as it is very cheap and it does precisely what a phone is supposed to do.
    What is your choice?

  • Valentines day…?

    So tomorrow is the lover fest. Flowers, roses, cards all being dished out… I remember this event once. This event was exciting to me at one point in time but now just another day. Why was this day even made anyway? Shouldn’t love be expressed anyway instead of just creating that one specific day? It makes people not bother until this one day to make effort to that one person. May as well make one specific day where you donate money to someone who really needs it… Kind of pushes people to make effort right? Or maybe one day to do one good deed. Maybe I bring frustration to this day because I don’t really see this day as a vital one anymore however, I’ve always had this view but never complained about it. So what will I be doing? Well, as geeky as this sounds, I was invited by Kirsty to attend the Crysis 3 event at Waterloo, IMAX which is so exciting to me! Who’s with me? *tumbleweed*…

    Moving on, Lyndsey arrived back at London again. Since she’s been gone, I’ve been at home power watching Breaking Bad through the weekend. Yes I realise I am VERY LATE to the game but the series is very cool but bad thing is that I have slowed down my production towards my projects! Motivation has moved to just watch this series! Absolutely hooked! But when I needed a break, I skyped Lyndsey. There are some things I enjoy when talking over Skype with Lyndsey. She’s always laughing and smiling. Always talking as well. Sometimes, she is just hilarious. When Steps comes on, she’s a whole new party animal! Love it! But on a serious note, we have been hanging out a lot recently. It’s nice to just sit and talk with her! I feel like we have a good connection together. Whether its through Skype or in person, it’s like I can rely on her to make me smile. She always does! When I am away from her, it feels like I need to talk with her just to check-in… I can’t quite explain this feeling. In fact, most people think we’re dating which makes it fairly strange. But I’ve come to a realisation that although I spend heaps of time with this one person, it’s just great to know that she can just come out and comfort me however I am feeling. So as confused I am, I am fine with where I stand…

    And in the sports, badminton has been great. The colleagues and I have kept up to speed with the schedule but this time, we finally had a fourth player (took long enough). So we had our first ever doubles game. It was lively and fun. It was nice to play and have no seriousness on the court. The game had trash talk before, during and after the game! But I think we all walked out rather satisfied with ourselves… We even spoke about creating a tournament now that we have a team of four. Department vs department. This is the beginning of something EPIC!

    So in technology news, I may have decided what tablet I am going to get. It’s the Microsoft Surface Pro. As written in my last article in regards to my tablet dilemma, the devices are more or less the same specification. Also, I was told not long ago that the Nexus 4 is finally in stock again but I have not reacted upon it just yet. My thoughts may finalise towards the end of this week.

    So to end this post, I just want to summarise. Having a friend to always be there for me, understanding what I’m going through, spending a load of time together means that simply we enjoy each others company. We may have separate issues in our lives but when we are together, the world stops and the issues don’t matter for those few hours. Having that power, every precious moment counts because if you cannot find a moment to stop time, you should hang onto it and appreciate them…
    Sporting will be continued in this format. Scheduling whatever day, but will be an every week event to improve stamina and keep fit.
    Overall, although my projects are on hold, my thoughts are in the positive…

  • The simple things in life…

    The weekend ended with a weekend to remember…

    Starting with meeting Lyndsey on Friday, to Saturday… And then Sunday! Although we meet a lot, it’s been a while since we’ve met this much. The smiles, the laughter, the fact that we just ignore the current situations happening around us… I must say, it was crazy. So from that note, I’d like to say thanks for that. So what happened? We ate, we spoke a lot, a lot of walking happened (my weekend exercise), and the random jokes… What can I say? It’s easy to forget all my problems when spending these random moments with a good friend. Realising this, it’s just important for someone you can trust to have your back in case you fall. I can have so many problems in this world but to know that there is a person to talk to is vital! Keeping it bottled up can be a problem. But that’s just me talking… I cannot speak for the majority of the world.

    For Sunday evening, I went to the Thriller performance at Lyric Theatre. This was a great experience. I loved the songs and bought me back many years of music. Made me want to get the Michael Jackson album all over again! All in all, great performance and I don’t mind watching that again.

    So during my weekend, I had a Skype call with John in regards to our little project and a little of our side tracked conversations as well. We covered a few topics. I have some server side development to handle so I will have to get round to that at some point and put my mini game on hold. It’s hard to keep up with my projects but I guess all I need is to prioritise myself…

    I finally got round to look at my bank statements and it is an absolute mess. I guess the last time I really analysed it was like 7 or 8 months. It came as a shocker that my past caught up to me but denying it was a bad move as that has been my action towards this situation. I think it is about time I stand my ground. As messy as my life is, I cannot cling to something where its just a lost cause. I cannot complicate it. I suppose my one biggest weakness is prioritising! I need to sort out a lot but there will be a point where I can sit down and be satisfied with where my finance stands…

    So this week, I had the chance to meet up with Kirsty… It is always lovely to see her… Just sharing passions, remembering why I chose to create games as a career in the first place… We both have so much in common. We had so much to talk about and it makes me forget some key areas that overtake my mind… So thanks for that Kirsty…

    Besides that, it has been hectic busy but very productive!

  • Tablet dilemma!

    I’ve been on the look out for tablets. Jumping from website to website, shop to shop… Finding the one thing that could possibly upgrade my productivity. There are many tablets on the market but I have come down to two potential tablets. So I have looked at both specifications looking at roughly the same price ranges to keep it fair. Here is what I got:
    Sony Duo 11 Slider Black Microsoft Surface
    Processor Intel® CoreTM i5-3317U, 1.7GHz 3rd Gen Intel Core i5 Processor
    Operating System Windows 8 Pro Windows 8 Pro
    Storage 128GB SATA Flash SSD 128GB SATA Flash SSD
    Memory 4GB 1600 MHz DDR3L-SDRAM 4GB RAM—Dual Channel Memory
    Display 29.4cm LED 1920×1080 + webcam 10.6″ ClearType Full HD Display 1920×1080 + webcam
    Graphics Intel® HD Graphics 4000 Intel® HD Graphics 4000
    Stylus Digitizer Stylus (pen)included Pen input and pen (included with purchase)
    Battery life Battery life up to 6.5 hours Estimated 5-6 hours
    Price £919 $899
    Release Out now U.S Release for 9th February 2013

    So from looking at my comparison table I created myself, it is almost a direct match in specifications but a difference in pricing! Mind you, the Windows surface is confirmed in U.S and not in U.K so I cannot compare it but I was told it was going off for roughly £800 but that is what I heard.
    My decision can be finalised upon patience. The Microsoft Surface is not out so I cannot judge it but if I am impatient, then I would get the Sony Duo 11 Slider Black despite the price difference. But truth be told, I am currently leaning more upon the Sony product!
    What do you reckon?