Back again

Had a hectic few months moving house among other things so back again with my blog.


Had mental weather here in Ireland felt like i needed a boat to get anywhere.

Have been addicted to the Anime and manga of One punch man it is the type of show/story that seems tailor made to appeal to me.

My review of the Fractal Define S computer case

I was lucky enough to win a competition for this case and thought i would do a review of it

So first thing that struck me when i took it out of the box was the solid front panel it has no space for the optical drive which for me is fine as i have not used a optical drive in years, and when you remove the front panel there is a dust filter. On the top front of the case there are two usb 3.0 ports, audio in/out/, power button (and LED) HDD activity LED and the reset switch . On the top behind the interface there are three module fan slot covers which are very easy to remove and they all have sound absorbing material which i thought was very useful. I do wish there was a dust filter on the top though.

On the base there are 4 black rubber feet plus another dust filter. I removed the windowed side panel which both panels have handy thumb screws which has no sound dampening material unfortunately, though i guess as the window is quite big i am not sure if any material on the available space would have made much of a difference. But when i saw inside i really got a idea of what type of case this is. There is a lot of space inside with no optical drive cage or Hard drive cages there is plenty of space for cooling options and even has pre drilled holes for pump mountings and has two 140mm fans that come with the case.

I removed the the other side panel (which does have sound dampening material ) and this is where you can put the hard drives enough space for 3 of the 3.5" drives on the left part and two 2.5" drives behind the motherboard trays. And i have to say i really like that set up as it makes things very neat with cable management as it has three velcro straps and quite a large slot for the cables to go through so would not get to cramped.

So overall i do like the case  when everything is set up it is very neat and tidy and while i do not use water cooling i can see it would be handy though i would say though if you have a set up that has more then three 3.5 " drives then you might need to go for something that can hold them.

Also done a video on the case as well (which repeats whats mentioned here but shows footage of the case)

Vodafone Smart ultra 5

So recently My galaxy S4 got a cracked screen so needed a replacement phone i had seen the Vodafone Smart ultra 5 so here is some early opinions but first the specs

BODY	Dimensions	154 x 77 x 8.4 mm (6.06 x 3.03 x 0.33 in)
	Weight	159 g (5.61 oz)
	SIM	Nano-SIM

DISPLAY	Type	IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors
	Size	5.5 inches (~70.3% screen-to-body ratio)
	Resolution	1080 x 1920 pixels (~401 ppi pixel density)
	Multitouch	Yes

PLATFORM	OS	Android OS, v5.1 (Lollipop)
	Chipset	Qualcomm MSM8939 Snapdragon 615
	CPU	Quad-core 1.5 GHz Cortex-A53 & quad-core 1.0 GHz Cortex-A53
	GPU	Adreno 405

MEMORY	Card slot	microSD, up to 64 GB
	Internal	16 GB, 2 GB RAM

CAMERA	Primary	13 MP, 4128 x 3096 pixels, autofocus, LED flash
	Features	Yes
	Video	1080p@30fps
	Secondary	5 MP 3000 mAh battery

Looking at those specs they are quite impressive while camera specs/clock speeds and ram have been increased on newer phones what i have not mentioned is that this phones killer feature is the price...Prepay no contract it was only 170 euro and for the specs it is a killer deal. From what i have used of it compared to my Galaxy S4 while it may be lacking a lot of features and perhaps the performance is not as smooth it does everything i need. The camera is simpler but i found the pictures were  decent here is a comparison with the S4.

Ultra 6 photo

S4 photo

The battery is bigger but really in my day to day use i did not notice a huge improvement in battery life. The screens i bigger and it being a ips i really thought it looked great. So all in i thought it was tremendous value and a great phone . 

Cons

-Volume controls and lock controls are really close so would often accidentally lock the screen

-Performance does stutter at times

-Screen is a smudge magnet

-Lacking features you might have got used to with previous phones

-no removable battery

Pros

-Screen quality is immense 

-camera is decent ...personally i found it better then my s4

-that price....170 euro

-has a radio...small thing i know but something i like
-call quality is really good and if on a speaker you can hear the other person very clearly

Shock horror a proper blog post about life.

Have been living in Ireland for about 15 years this year was planning to move back to England but after a lot of research and checking the finances just could not do it for several reasons, firstly the cost of just getting over there was going to be a lot but the biggest drawback was the actual cost of living with huge rents + council tax it was only going to give us a few months to find jobs. But then there was the drawback of wages for jobs me and the wife could do we would both need to work to get by and it was just a to big a risk.

So with staying in Ireland the plan is to find work or do courses continue with blogging and making Youtube videos and writing articles for websites

Oh and teaching the wife to drive.....

More fav one liners

I am trying to invent itching powder i had to start from scratch

I bought a universal remote control and i thought well this changes everything

I say what i think...that is why i say nothing

I bought a custom made ruler....in fact you could say it was made to measure

I met my wife on the net....we were rubbish trapeze artists

Publishers dropping previous gen console

So it happened before and it happened again publishers focusing on the current gen of console rather the previous gen. Now of course it makes sense to move everything to a more current hardware but the thing that really puzzles me is why they cease development on the previous gen so quickly bar the odd token game.

Heard a few things lately in regards to games for the previous gen for example Mortal Kombat X was supposed to have been made but was cancelled due to not making the quality expected.....and i believe that is rubbish while graphically it would have took a major hit fact is you could have got the game play as it built on what Mortal Kombat 9 already did. Then you have the next Call of duty not having single player and just multiplayer because they said the previous gen could not handle the single player. And i say ...it could handle a single player mode probably have to be cut down a bit but still could have it.

It all boils down to the publishers not putting the time or money into previous gen versions and for both Mortal Kombat x and Call of duty : Black ops 3 for previous gen they were farmed out to other developers and not getting the main developer to work on it.

Of course i understand that things have to move on i do get that but the thing that puzzles me is combined there is over 180 MILLION xbox 360s and ps3s out there and while the PS4 and Xbox one are doing well with combined sales of over 35 million but still far short of the previous gen. And i just do not understand how they can ignore that user base.

Games i would love to see remastered or remade

Ideally remade but failing that a remaster would do....and these are for older games i really do not see the point in remastering games that were only last gen ....cough cough God of war 3 among many others.

Panzer dragoon series....all of the games 1, zwei, saga and orta (i think there was a game gear version aswell). These games were a major part of my teenage years and good enough with a remaster and improved graphics to stand up now

Otogi 1 and 2. Now these two games flew under the radar for most people on the original xbox but these were two very good games which had a really satisfying combat system and smashing demons through small houses was great fun and the destruction had a points aswell.

Crimson skies. Now there were two games one for the pc and one for the original xbox and i would love to see a remake of the xbox one as it was such a fun game.

Mechgames....now their are so many earthsiege/mechwarrior/mechassault so would ideally love a remake of any of them that takes influences from others

Konami dead and soon to be buried

So was confirmed today that Konami have ditched all triple-a development on games except for the Pro evolution series.

From what people have said they are planning to go into pachinko making and perhaps mobile games which does seem like they could be money making but the problem i feel is that they are markets which are getting saturated and while konami was a big name in gaming i think in those markets they will find it a lot harder.

In the end they are really trying to screw up their legacy and while metal gear solid v was great you do get the impression much was still to be done for the game. I really hope things change but i fear it is the end of konami.

Rose tinted glasses or has music really gone downhill ?

When i was a kid i never had a music identity, i did not get into music until my teens and then i got into grunge and indie music such as nirvana and the dandy warhols and later on i got into heavy metal.

But then it stuck me recently there has been not major shifts or something that is new if you go back in time you have some major events such as in the 30s you had Robert johnson in the 50s you had Chuck berry and elvis presley, 60s and 70s was massive with beatles/led zepplin/kiss/the kinks and...erm disco as well in the 80s you had synth pop/New wave of british heavy metal, glam metal, thrash metal and the 90s had grunge, Nu metal and some very big pop bands. But now it feels everything feels safe and manufactured and while stuff was manufactured back then was to a much lesser extent.

Even music such as heavy metal i hear a lot of that type of music nowdays that feels ...too polished and not as raw and almost watered down.

Sure there are artists out there doing well with sales and some good songs but feels like every week there is someone new coming out with the next big thing but would be soon forgotten.

One thing that does really bug me is many artists fame and fortune has really gone to there heads and they forget it is there fans that give them that luxury and they arrogantly think they can do anything without suffering any consequences. Have to say sometimes i wish music went back to basics and became less about the mega money and massive egos and more about the music.

Some of my fav one liner jokes

Some are my own and others i have heard

I subscribed to a Origami magazine but unfortunately they folded.

I phoned a wedding dress shop but they were engaged.

I went clubbing with some shellfish and i pulled a mussel.

Friend said to me to pull a funny face...so pulled his.

I failed a maths test so many times i cannot count.

I am so bad at tests i even failed a blood test.

Wife said i never call her compliments...so i called her vinegar and salt...i think i misheard.

Some great deals here for steam games http://www.kinguin.net?r=2365

The trouble with what is on the internet nowdays

1. You cannot believe many of the things of what you read or see and often you will only get one side of a story.

2. Clickbait articles...they are now everywhere would be like me putting a blog title called "Read this article about what happened to me it is shocking"....and it will not be unless you get electrocuted.

3.Many Youtubers create a persona for themselves...which i have to be honest i do find annoying it feels like they are trying to hard and really sacrificing a part of themselves to get the views.

4.The right to say whatever you like with no consequences i get the first amendment right to free speech but if it resorts to spreading hate and bullying i really do not like that. I believe in karma but i sometimes think it needs a helping hand.

5. Captcha security ....FOR THE LOVE OF GOD MAKE THESE AT LEAST READABLE

6. And please if you are going to do a article such as top 20 cutest dogs do it all on the one page rather then having a next button and 20 pages.


Affiliated with kinguin now check them out some great deals http://www.kinguin.net?r=2365

Should you pre order games ?

I have to say i rarely pre order games and when i do it is usually because i know the game will be good at launch and none of that dlc rubbish.

But even games that i know will be great and well supported such as The Witcher 3 or Skyrim i did not pre order as i knew they would have bugs and there dlc coming down the road so would often wait till bugs are sorted dlc is released and then they go on offers.

In the end most people know that if they wait you will get a cheaper and more polished version of a game and often they do release a more complete version such as a game of the year edition later on. But it is all about that waiting and the price ....if can get it cheap enough then i will often buy it such as a few days ago on http://www.kinguin.net/?r=2365 they had mad max for only 16 euro and i thought for that price i will give it a shot.

What i hate is how publishers are so desperate to get these preorder sales and will have exclusive content cut out of the game or what square are doing with there augment your preorder rubbish.some games even need graphs just so you know with which shop you order from to know what you will get.

In the end though no matter what i say or massive youtubers such as jim sterling or totalbiscuit say people still preorder and i think the only way it will stop is if a publisher does something really bad to put off consumers

Things i miss

Gametrailers.com of old...invisible walls....pach attack...annoyed gamer and the people on there

Epicbattleaxe i really enjoyed listening to the people there...and they answered a few of my questions which is always good.

Tv of years ago .....i really do not like reality tv and back then was not that much at all ...is it sad that i miss noels house party ?.

Music. I really think the golden age of music is over it has become saturated with stuff that feels safe and while we have musicians that have sold millions i really think we will not have genre making music like the beatles/nirvana/korn/metallica/iron maiden/public enemy for a while. 

Not having everything so reliant on having a internet connection....think how many username and passwords you have and what you do online with me without a internet connection, paying bills, banking,communication, finding phone numbers and contact details and the amount of games i have that i would not be able to play because they need to be connected.

Speaking of games....i miss back then no worrying about buying a unfinished game and being bled money to pay for dlc.

Wrestling of old ...as bobby heenan said the magic is gone i loved the large then life characters and the fact back then i thought it was real....now it is a shadow of its former self.

I am now affiliated with kinguin had some really good deals there in fact mad max for the pc digital less then 20 euro link here http://www.kinguin.net/?1=2365

Important questions

Why do ghosts in photos and in films and tv all have clothes ? do clothes go to heaven to ? do they have souls ?....i imagine shoes do though........

When will animals evolve stop look and listen when crossing the road ?...i swear it is like they hide in the hedge and they are playing a game of dare to run across the road closest to a moving car.

Had pre pay power and mobile phones and tablets and noticed they make noise and often light up when they are running out of power.....so why are they using power to tell me i am running out of
power ??.

Why do games publishers do stupid things ? there would be so many to list but never understood why they with all these smart well paid people they do not see the problems.

And for no reason a pic of a cute puppy

Things i do not understand

Someone posts bad news on Facebook and 20 people like this.....that just feels not right to me.

A sign saying caution cattle.....i do not have time to stop everytime i see cattle and to caution them i think that is the police's job.

People who are potentially in imminent danger and there first reaction is....i need to record this on my camera.

If i make a upside down cake but make it the correct way round is it just called a cake ?

Rat poison has a use by date but does that mean after it is more or less poisonous ?

Kanye west calling himself the greatest rock star ever ...if that is the case then the beatles were the greatest hip hop artists ever .

Good deals on digital games here