Flash photography with the Sony Satio, Sony C905, Nokia N82 and Nokia N86

These three camera phones have a "Xenon" flash - which is the same flash that you'd find in a proper digital camera. Most camera phones have crappy LED flashes - these are rubbish in comparison, and are in no way a suitable replacement for a real Xenon flash, despite what Nokia (and others) might hope you believe. LEDs are just cheaper and easier to put in, as they don't need a large capacitor to charge, and are low power items.

Typical indoor Sony Satio 12mp Xenon flash photo in dark conditions - group photo (3 or more people): There is still the problem of red-eye, however, the Sony Satio and Sony C905 do the best job of looking like photos from a real digital camera when it comes to flash photography (more so the Satio). Focusing is also very good thanks to the focus assist lamp. The Sony's also do the best job with exposure with the subject correctly exposed - whereas the Nokia(s) tend to overexpose white / light clothing and anything that is too close to the camera lens.

Typical indoor Sony Cybershot C905 8mp Xenon flash photo in dark conditions - photo (of people): Unfortunately I didn't have many examples to choose from that matched the same situation as the other photos - however this photo is well lit and the colour is good, and the detail is sharp without too much noise.

Typical indoor Nokia N82 5mp Xenon flash photo in dark conditions - group photo (3 or more people): This camera struggles to keep the subject sharp and if the subject is further away from the camera than this, then it really struggles to light the subject.

Typical indoor Nokia N86 8mp LED flash photo in dark conditions - group photo (3 or more people): Here the twin LED "flash" isn't capable of lighting the subject properly and any movement is noticeable resulting in a blurry poorly lit photo.

Best Album Ever (from 1999)

Track 1 - Simon and Garfunkel - Leaves are Brown 

Track 2 - David Bowie - Ground Control to Major Tom 

Track 3 - The Beatles - Good Day Sunshine 

Track 4 - The Beatles - Strawberry Fields Forever 

Track 5 - Carpenters - Why Do Birds Suddenly Appear 

Track 6 - The Divine Comedy - Don't look a horse... 

Track 7 - The Wannadies - You and Me Song

Track 8 - Blur - There's No Other Way 

Track 9 - Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit 

Track 10 - Hive - Ultrasound 

Track 11 - Fat Boy Slim - Acid 8000

Atari Jaguar, Atari Jaguar CD, and Games (Quick Reviews) Opinion

Atari Jaguar with CD Unit.

Here you can read my atari jaguar reviews, with a rating out of ten.  it's about how much i like the game.  they are all personal opinion.  i have been silly enough to do them in alphabetical order!  


a.

Alien vs. Predator - 6/10 - 94 - this one's ok. people were buying the jag for this game when it first came out [so i was told!].  a lot of atmosphere, and quite freaky sometimes, especially when you're being chased by a predator, and about 10 aliens! argh! slightly slow frame rate.



b.

Bubsy (the bobcat) (new Jan 07) - something something (perils in peri peri land or something like that - actually: "Bubsy in fractured furry tails"). sideways scrolling platform game. jump and collect things (like sonic the hedgehog) - back in the early 90s everyone thought you had to have a "sonic the hedgehog" or "mario brothers" platform game on your computer / console otherwise you had to hang your head in shame as a complete failure. hence "zool" on the amiga and atari st, and "bubsy" on the jaguar. (although see rayman). quite good - similar to sonic, but you collect cheese and you can fly. pleasantly colourful - fairly tricky 5 - 6 / 10.

Brutal sports football - 5/10 - new 2/apr/01 - 94 - 2pl - another average jag game, this time on a football pitch (american football).  a cheesy, almost impressive telegames intro. the game has ok-ish music, and ok-ish graphics, it's sort of ok.  it's very basic as the pitch is a big graphic, none of that clever parallax stuff you see in other football games, and the scrolling is just not smooth.



c.

Checkered flag - 4/10 - 94 - atari's answer to sega's virtua racing i guess.  it's okay / quite bad definitely not brilliant. slow and hard to control. very slow frame rate wise - and worse than the excellent Geoff Crammond game on the Atari ST. 

Club drive - 2/10 - 94 - 2pl - possibly one of the worst games on the jag. although there are a LOT of bad games available, so probably isn't. 

Cybermorph - 6/10 - 94 - quite playable. woman says "ouch" lots when you hit things. oh! and "where did you learn to drive?" which is really quite funny. 



d.

Dino dudes - see evolution: dino dudes below.

Doom - 6/10 - 94 - better than the PC version, probably worse than a lot of other versions. (some people say it's the best version ever made, but I'm not convinced)

Dragon - the bruce lee story - 4/10 - new 27/mar/01 - 94 - 2pl - not that great. music ok, fast game, with all the usual parallax scrolling effects we've seen on the Snes version of Street Fighter 2.  Not very good graphics, all very 2D, and not that much fun to play, got annoying after about 20 minutes!  Have not tried this in 2 player mode, maybe it'll be better then, I doubt it though. graphics look very much like Street Fighter 1 on the Atari ST. It's very fast and reminds me of IK+ ever so slightly but nowhere near as good.

Double Dragon V "The Shadow Falls" - I expected this to be similar to earlier Double Dragon games - sideways scrolling story based game where you beat people up - but this one's just like Street Fighter 2 and all the other Atari Jaguar fighting games - disappointing.



e.


Evolution dino dudes - 5/10 - new 1/apr/01 - 93 - 1pl - nice enough graphics, smooth scrooling, average music, puzzle type game, seems okay, but i'm not really into this, seems slow, and i'd way prefer to be playing tempest 2000.  [besides that i can't get past level 2]


f. Fight for Life

6/10 - 95 - 2pl - erm. tekken clone. texture mapped in places. took ages for them to release this because they were going to release it without texture mapping and i think everyone said it would be completely pants if they didn't have texture mapping. so it finally got released with texture mapped people.  and it's okay.  it's got a good demo! here are some screenshots...  (on the left) If you push your opponant out of the ring they get electrocuted to death! 

g.
h.

i.

Iron soldier - ?/10 - 94 - haven't played it enough to get into it.  looks quite good though.  and people went on about it a lot at the time. so it must be good. you are a giant metal robot and have to fight tanks, helicopters, jet planes, missiles etc and have numerous missions to take part in. similar I guess to Robocop 3 on the Atari ST in regards to 3D (untextured) graphics, but with more detail, and 3D explosions.

I WAR - I-WAR on Amazon.com

j.
k.

Kasumi ninja - 6/10 - 94 - 2pl - quite a lot of fun. fighting.  funny too, e.g. the scottish guy shoots fire out of his kilt!!  This one's supposed to be Mortal Kombat but on the Jag, it's got lots of blood but where's the ripping peoples heads off etc? good graphics - bigger sprites than "ultra vortek" - quite difficult.

l.

m.

Missile command 3D - new oct 08 - full: Missle Command 3D. "This I guess would almost be considered a fully featured "64bit" game for the Atari Jaguar - using 3D objects - some with texture mapping and a 3 dimensional environment. The game has three modes - an original Missile Command - with changeable background (choose from a default wallpaper, atari lynx, arcade, or tv set), a 3D Missile command - an updated version of the original but in 3D, and then a "Virtual" Missile Command - which is set under water and is first person - you can fire from one of the cannon towers (at a time), and must protect the houses, other towers and yourself. The game has some horribly irritating background menu music. I prefer the original version of this - seems the quickest - most fun and most playable."

n.
o.

p.

Pinball fantasies - 4/10 - 94 - just like the one on the amiga. absolutely no point this game being on the jag.

Power drive rally. overhead (micro machines style) rally game, like on the 16 bit Sega Mega Drive. you can buy a car then pay to repair it after the event.

q.
r.
s.

Sensible soccer - (like on the Amiga)

Super Hang On - Sega Megadrive / Genesis

Super Burnout - very quick bike racing game, sprites moving quickly towards you, remember someone saying that it runs at 60fps, can believe that, quite good fun for a dated game. like a 16bit game on steroids. worth seeing in action. there's a youtube video here.

Super Burnout - Atari Jaguar

Supercross 3D - 3/10 - 95 - another seriously rubbish game.  dirt bikes.  bad graphics.  and bad playability.  perhaps if i played it more it might turn out okay?

Syndicate - new 18/mar/01 - 94 - 1pl - review not yet written..

t.

Tempest 2000 - 10/10 - 94 - 2pl - one of the BEST jag games EVER!! - so good i have been looking for it on the PC for ages, and then one day i actually found a demo i could download, so i thought i'd share it with you...you can download it from here (500k zip). (or google it, or try the atari jaguar emulator that's been made just for T2K)

Theme park - 6/10 - new 20/mar/01 - 94 - 1pl - very addictive when you get into it [i played for about 5 hours non stop today! so that shows you how addictive it is]. a wee bit slow, and not very spectacular for a jag game, but fun nevertheless, you might call it a wee bit boring because of it being slow.

Trevor mcfur in the crescent galaxy - new oct 08 - quite an entertaining shoot em up, seems quite basic but has fairly big end level baddies that appear to have been raytraced with something more powerful...

u.

Ultra vortek - (new Jan 07) another street fighter 2 / mortal kombat clone - similar to kasuma ninja. slightly easier. lots of blood but less realistive characters when compared to kasuma ninja. quite good (6/10).

v.

Val d'isere Skiing and Snowboarding - (new Jan 07) - if you're expecting some kind of 3D "Virtual Reality" style game then you'll be sorely dissappointed (like I was) when you realise that it's nothing more than Super Burnout on snow. If however, you like Super Burnout, then you might like this game, as it's very very fast and in your face. okay - good (5/10) expected more.

w.

White men can't jump - 5/10 - 95 - npl -  based on film i guess. comes with free 4 player "team tap" when you buy it from www.dentec.com. average. (Team tap also available from Amazon)

Wolfenstein 3D - 5/10 - 94 - yes, it was alright.  I preferred Doom personally.

x.
y.
z.

Lots of games on this youtube video. Most appealling look like Atari Karts, Mutant Penguins, Battlemorph (CD), Defender 2000, Dragons Lair?, Highlander (CD), NBA Jam, Pitfall, Rayman, and Skyhammer looks freaking awesome graphically (but a little slow). Flashback? Zool 2?

Atari Jaguar CD Games:

Baldies - overhead puzzle game where you move bald men around. you start on an island and eventually build land over to another island, invent some weapon and kill the other men on the other island. Quite good fun, but a bit slow, and not especially colourful.

Battlemorph - sequel to Cybermorph - but they've switched on texture mapping.

Blue Lightning - another flying through badly pixellated clouds / bitmaps game. Uses the CD to play good looking videos of a 3D game, except you never get to play it... video on youtube looks quite good with rocks and buildings, but so far I've only played the clouds.

Hover Strike Unconquered Lands (CD Version) - 3D texture mapping...

Myst - adventure puzzle game with pretty graphics...

Vid Grid - puzzle game using MTV style music videos - rearrange till it looks okay, then you get to watch a fairly low resolution video of the music. video on youtube.

VLM (Virtual Light Machine) - pretty much the sole reason for owning a Jaguar CD, invented by Jeff Minter (VLM-1, Atari Jaguar, 1994).

You put an audio CD in, press play, and lots and lots of pretty colours wibble all over the screen in time to the music - it was the inspiration for the first every VLM on the PC, as featured in Winamp. Apparently there are 81 different effects, and two main modes, VLM, and VLM R? Youtube videos: here, here. The JagCD can be hacked to edit the effects, or alternatively you can add an audio in port so that you could use the VLM live.

hmmm... where are all the 3D Virtual Reality, next generation games, that you'd expect on a "next generation" console (ie the generation after the 16-bit SNES and Megadrive)? The console seems limited by the number of buttons on the controller, yes it has a 12 button keypad, but surely a left / right top button, and a second row of C B A buttons (like the Sega Megadrive) would be more useful.


Best Games for the Atari Jaguar?

Tempest 2000 - best version, PS1 and PC versions were AWFUL in comparison.

Alien Verses Predator can be very scary.


Doom - very good, no music, makes it quite scary at night.


?Attack of the Mutant Penguins looks awesome (video with swearing) - part 1 is here if you're interested. (although I've not played the game)


Super Burnout - VERY fast.

VLM - see above.


erm that is all i have.  i would like more games as long as they are cheap.  also i wouldn't mind a cd-unit plus any other stuff i can get. cheap.  please email me at goshwa at hot mail dot com if you have any games available or would just like to send me some feedback. originally on jillajang, but now here and updated.

#cbb7 Celebrity Big Brother 7: Monday 11 Jan 2010 10pm on Channel 4

Celebrity Big Brother 2010 UK - This episode: Monday 11 Jan 2010 10pm on Channel 4 (on 4OD) - The actual original discussion between Vinney, Steve and Nikki - in the kitchen. (18.00 - 18.25 minutes into the show, 1.22pm): Steve-gate or Nikkigate!

Vinney: I wonder, I wouldn't have a clue who he'd vote for, you know.
Nikki: I know, well probably me now, coz I've told him off today.
Nikki: I'm really sorry Stevie Bee
Steve: HA HA HA HA



Vinney: Bit late for that, eh?
Steve: Well you know ya should have thought of that before.
Vinney: No, he knows who he's.
Steve: You're nice and safe Nikki, don't worry about it.

"Later: Dane: They've taken our food!" (31:15 minutes)

BB: This is big brother...
Dane: Aw, EVERYTHINGS Gone!
Nikki: I'm scared.
BB: This is big brother...
BB: At 10.30am after leaving the diary room... Heidi said... blah blah blah.
BB: Then at 10.40am Heidi said... blah blah blah.
BB: And at 1.20pm Steve and Nicola said: I'm really sorry Stevie B, Steve said: You should have thought about that before, you're nice and safe nicky don't worry about it. It is a fundamental rule of BB that housemates must not discuss their nominations with each other... blah blah blah. Housemates must be punished.

BB appears to be wrong - why did they not notice Vinney talking about the nominations?

Following conversation between Nikki and Steve: (35:40 minutes)

Dane: What was said?
Steve: Me, Nikki

Nikki: Don't bring me into it, I didn't bloody say anything, I just said sorry. No coz I didn't I just said sorry. I said sorry because you were, because of the jam.
Steve: No! You said, which your selective memory will be interesting,
Nikki: Yeah go on...
Steve: Now, you commented to me twice on how I was eating today
Nikki: Yeah Yeah Yeah
Steve: and then you made the joke "I should have thought of that before you went in for your nominations"
Dane: (To Steve) No, you said that?
Steve: No, SHE said that! To which I said, "Don't worry you're safe", It was all a joke.

Later when Nikki goes to see BB (36:47)

Nikki: Erm, I'd really like to know if I broke the rules as well. Because I didn't hear the first part of the conversation, and now I might have just kind of had a go at Steven, when I was probably in the wrong as well but I don't really rememeber the whole conversation, but did I break the rules?
BB: To clarify, No you did not break any of the rules, BB was just providing context.
Nikki: Well, can you tell Steven that then, because?... What did I say before, sorry? eh, do you remember? What was the whole conversation because I can't remember it and I've got apparently "Selective Memory". I haven't got a selective memory, I've just got a bad memory.
BB: (audible Sigh) BB can only repeat what was said earlier:
Nikki: What was it again?
BB: At 1.20pm just before Steven came into nominate, you said "I'm really sorry stevie b" to which steve replied: "you should have thought about that before. You're nice and safe nikki, Don't worry about it."

Nikki: Oh right! So it was him that said "you should have thought about it" and then He just told me that I said to him "I should have thought about it before.". I'm telling him. He's gonna bloody deny it isn't he? He's gonna try an persuade me into thinking that it was me. Thank you. Bye
BB: Thank you Nicola.

Nicola confronts Steve (in the kitchen): (38:39)

Nikki: Stevie, I just went into the diary room because I wanted to make sh... clarify that if I did break the rules that I could apologise, so I said to them "Did I?" and they said "No, conversation went: Sorry Stevie B", which is what I said to you, and you replied to me erm "Well you should have thought about that before but don't worry you're safe" and that was the conversation. Though I think maybe you should apologise for saying that I have selective memory because, in fact I dont. I didn't.
Steve (interupting): That's a lie, he's lying to you, Big Brother's lying to you.
Nikki: Really??
Steve: Yeah, because I didn't say "You should have thought about that before" I didn't say any of that.
Nikki: So maybe I have selective memory?

Steve: This is the game! (motions speech marks)
Nikki: What about? So you think I'm lying?
Steve: No, I'm telling you the conversation was...
Nikki: Sorry Stevie B and as to which you replied "Well you should have thought about that before"
Steve: No, I didn't say that, I didn't say that "you should have thought about that before the nominations" you said "I should have thought about that before you voted" and I said "Don't worry, you're safe" which I'm just as guilty.
Nikki: To be perfectly honest I can't rememeber what I said, but if they're telling me, If they're saying to me...
Steve: Can I...? Can I make your life easier?
Nikki: Yeah
Steve: If you'd like to apologise go ahead...
Nikki: Yeah but I don't feel like I broke the rules
Steve: Well then, you shouldn't apologise, but this is exactly what they want you to do.
Nikki: They can't lie
Steve: Big brother can't lie?
Nikki: No
Steve: Sure he can
Nikki: Well, at least apologise for saying I have selective memory, because I don't select what I remember and what I don't.
Steve: Then do you want me to apologise to you for saying you have selective memory
Nikki: Well do you think I have selective memory?
Steve: It was a joke.
Nikki: Okay, (looking disappointed, upset, and melancholy and without feeling says) that's fine then.
Steve: blah blah blah while Nikki gets some food.

Apple iPod 20gb Colour Mini Review (From the past)

iPod 20gb Colour Mini Review (buy MP3 Players online at Amazon.co.uk)
nb: written back in 10/10/05


Apple iPod 20Gb Colour Mini Review. (...new apple ipod 30gb video 5.5g here) Manufacturer: http://www.apple.com/


Overall this is a very good portable MP3 player - limited in other functions - no video playback, limited photo support as standard (it's an optional extra) etc. Annoyingly the design means a case is required at the same time as buying the iPod otherwise the back of the ipod and the screen will scratch very easily. Because of the generally high price in comparison to other MP3 players from Creative etc, I personally wouldn't spend my own money on an Apple iPod. I got the 20gb Apple Ipod Colour from freeipods dot com (back when they used to exist or work) - they also sent me the firewire cable in a seperate box (I don't know whether this is normal). Purchasing music through iTunes (the media player that comes with the iPod) is quite expensive and limiting, as the music is copy controlled. I'd much rather buy a CD, convert it to MP3 at the quality of my choice.


Good Stuff:
+ Compact, good looking, colour screen
+ 15 hours battery life apparently.
+ Appears as another hard drive on your computer for easy access / you don't need to install iTunes / although it does appear as though you need to install something, such as ephPod in order to get the music onto it...
+ Very good bass response and sound quality from the provided apple earphones.



Bad Stuff:
- Silver metal back scratches rediculously easily for example, I opened it yesturday, put the ipod down on what I thought were clean surfaces, and today it's got tiny scratch marks all over the back!
- You can format the drive, and wipe the operating system (the stuff that plays the music) easily, meaning you need to reload it... (using the Apple software on the CD and iPod Updater... there's a neat Restore button that will put everything back to normal so that you can sigh a big sigh of releif)
- There seems to be no way of getting the photos onto the iPod without the photos first going through a computer -  You need the optional ipod camera connector in order to use the ipod as a camera backup :( - it's £20 from Apple.
- Apple iTunes playback quality seems poor compared to Winamp - also tracks sometimes playback with crackles!
- Switch off the ipod and it'll loose you position in your playlist, this is annoying if your playlist is about 1000 songs long, and you're 250 songs through the list.
- Loudest setting is too loud, distorts, especially if you use the equaliser to boost bass.
- Bright white earphones and lead draws attention to you and your ipod (should be available in black as well).
- Very expensive accessories whether it's a car tape player adapter (Belkin £20-25!!!), or speakers for the ipod, they're all stupidly priced simply because they're white and match the colour of the ipod!

Photos:

Box shot - iPod 20GB PC+Mac label

Rest of box - Colour screen, Actual size on side

The colour screen iPod - Parachute game on display

Top - thinner than I expected

The Mac OS X style Apple switch on logo

The crazy shiney back - looks like a mirror when it's brand new

Box contents - UK plug, and charger (USB cable), USB Cable, the white "Steal my iPod" headphones (in a silver packet), the iPod, CD-Rom, Manuals, 1 year warranty, Free music, Getting started, plus the silly white Apple stickers you seem to get with all Apple products, perhaps these are for the 10-12 year olds who buy these products?

Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

The Mondeo passed it's MOT! with a few minor faults (lights being one of them and handbrake needed tightening), they also advised a new tyre after we were running for a while with the tracking out, and I still hadn't got round to replacing the tyre. This time I went for some winter tyres - which has come in handy - and asked them to re-balance them as they weren't done properly last time. Although finding some winter tyres seems a little difficult as a lot of the main online sites (and even Kwik Fit) don't seem to list many (or any) online. The car has been fun to drive, especially over the Snake Pass, (although a bit weak around 2000rpm when fully loaded), and has acted as the RAC twice for friends. Although in this winter weather it's a shame the car doesn't have any traction control to stop the front wheels spinning when accellerating. (And yes it was foggy!)

The Ford Mondeo - The Best and Worst Car I've EVER Owned!

Even when they're rubbish, they're brilliant...



Even when you need to get everything fixed on it - it's still cheaper than fixing VW / Skoda cars with cambelts and dodgy waterpumps - thanks to the Ford's chain driven engine.

Even when the tracking, balancing, anti-roll bars, wishbones and rear suspension are all shot, they're still more fun to drive than any car from VW, even the Skoda Octavia VRS with it's brilliantly fast engine and stopping power, that's horribly boring and sensible around corners, and has the dullest sound ever for a "sports" model, or the torquey, but heavy and ponderous VW TDI diesels with such narrow power bands you spend all day changing gear or stalling.

When you get the Mondeo fixed, it's absolutely brilliant to drive, especially the petrol version with smooth power delivery, with the car feeling quite light to drive, even when it's a fully loaded estate model.

Another thing Ford are capable of doing, is making seats that you can actually fall asleep in (whilst someone else is driving obviously!).

It even looks quite good even when it's been treated like crap by numerous previous owners.

Plus it's the only modern (new-ish) car that I know of that literally needs glueing back together - and I'm not talking about the flimsy plastic parts inside - I'm talking about the rear suspension which needs "arildite" (according to my mechanic, and honestjohn.co.uk says to use "Loctite 270 superglue") - otherwise it just clunks around and over every bump you go over (much like the front suspension - which needed a replacement top mount).

Another reason why this car is absolutely rediculous is because it's got rust all over the bottom of the doors! How is it possible for car manufacturers to be so lazy that they can't be bothered stopping cars from rusting? One thing that the VW Group do so well is they make sure that all their cars are rust proof for 12 years. Have Ford forgotten the 70s, 80s, and 90s so soon?

It's the best car ever because it's cheap to buy, very cheap to fix (it's so common there's even places called "The Mondeo Centre" that specialises in fixing Mondeos), great fun to drive, has comfortable seats, plus it's very big, and most of them have chain driven engines. Even getting hundreds of things fixed on the Mondeo, is still cheaper than spending money getting a few things fixed on VW / Skoda cars. (Spent around £500 getting things fixed on the Ford, including getting the AC fixed, spent around £900 on cambelts, waterpumps, brake master cylindars, calipers for the VW Passat (with it's dodgy waterpump and water plenums blocking wreaking the brake servo, and that's excluding the money spent on cv-joints and suspension problems, and a blown turbo), and around £700 on repairing the Skoda Octavia (door lock motor, starter motor squeek), and replacing the cambelt and v-belt tensioner.). One of the problems I had with the Mondeo, simply went away, of it's own accord! When I bought the car, the middle air vents didn't work, then one day, they suddenly started working, all by themself!

And it's the worst car ever because everything breaks on it, it rusts, it needs glueing back together, it gets no respect from anyone, in fact it's so common it's like they don't exist, you will get driven out of the way by an Audi R8, but ignored by everyone else, whereas VW (Passat) TDIs will be driven out of the way by Audi TDIs, BMWs and everyone else. Even though everything does break on it, it's still cheaper to fix than VW / Skoda cars, everything breaks on them as well, but on the Ford it's much much cheaper to fix.