I finally made time to try and install Vista Service Pack 1 on my notebook.  Not because there was something specific in there that I wanted but because I got fed up with the update manager prompting me to install it everytime I turned on the system.

I’d read a lot of reports that people had been having problems with the upgrade, usually managing to corrupt their installation instead.  I’m not one for taking unnecessary risks so I made a backup of all my data first (I work in IT so I have to lead by example).  After an hour of backing up, I shut down the virus scanner and let the update manager do its work – expecting it to take an hour, I wandered off to watch some videos that had been piling up on the media centre.

An hour later, I come back to find that the notebook had reset itself two thirds of the way through the upgrade and that Windows could no longer boot.  An attempt by Windows to fix itself was unsuccessful.  In the end, I gave up and booted the backup CD to start the restoration process – not realising that the restoration is all done in legacy mode and as a consequence would take about three hours.

So finally 6pm comes and the restoration is complete – I restart and Windows goes all sulky again because some of the boot information is different (I backed up using Acronis TrueImage 10 but could only find my boot CD for version 9, released about 9 months before Vista came out).  A diagnostic screen and attempted repair later, and I’m back up and running again – albeit without the Service Pack, accordingly the update manager is prompting me to install it again.

I’m going to have to look into this again at a later date but for now, I’ll wait until I absolutely have to upgrade.

In the meantime, I’m going to spend a little more time in the company of my newly assembled Linux box, trying out Kubuntu 8.04 for size and waiting for ReactOS to reach a usuable state.

Well done Microsoft, you’re the only corporation I know of that uses a sniper scope to shoot yourself in the foot.

Just came across this photo on eric-singer.com. This took me by surprise, as these two gentlemen are my #1 and #2 absolute favourite drummers of all time. The order isn’t important, but let’s just say Eric lost points for wearing the stupid cat makeup 🙂

For those who are wondering, these two guys are Eric Singer from Black Sabbath/KISS/ESP and Mike Bordin from Faith No More/Ozzie Osborne…….I think Eric is techically the better drummer, but I just love Mike’s lanky spastic style.

[edit] and as per Kris’ request:

Work has started again on one of the games Chrome/Kitchen Sink Productions originally conceptualised back in 1994.

Erky published a preview chapter of the Space Taxi 2 novel that he is working on, to generally positive response, and that seems to have refreshed everyone’s interest in the project.

Style has been developing the physics engine over the weekend, though there is little to demonstrate at this stage. Erky will dust off his music editors and start to actualise the soundtrack he has been putting together during the intervening years. Yes, he will be doing so, won’t he?

Until Fade and Redback have time to devise new graphics, test work will likely be done with sprites ripped from the original game.

Most of the concept work is being discussed on channel so we can bounce ideas off of each other. Or just throw food around, sometimes.

More news as it comes to keyboard.

http://www.krisroebuck.com/

Came across this entirely by chance. A person apparently of the shiny skull brigade who writes music, designs games, takes photographs and lives in Tokyo, Japan.

Further investigations pending.

As per Style’s suggestion.

Useless item of the week – the tape duplicator device.  It uses two datasettes – one to  play the tape, one to copy.  Uses the C64’s cassette socket power outlet with a chip that shapes the signal into nice clean square waves.  I’ve not used it myself, even though I have owned this for some 16 years.  Its lived in my desk drawer all this time.

I couldn’t pass this one up….. this is seriously the worst cover art I’ve ever seen on anything, ever. Is anyone else thinking “backyard operators with 13 year old son”? Is anyone else thinking “why did they draw fur on that photo of the kid with down syndrome”? Is anyone else thinking “why does that poor man have a penis for a nose”?

I have no idea what the game itself is like, because the tape is now broken since I vomited on it.

Seriously, if you’re out there, and you drew this 25 years ago…… YOU SUCK.

Update: We always thought ‘Vanadium’ was such an imaginative name……..

In keeping with the current channel theme of “To the trees!  To the trees!”, here are a couple of images of Quetzal
and Erky attempting to conquer some tall, bendy things during their Made in Japan tour of 2005.

That, and there is another gallery, extracted from The Quetzal Files.

And Style took the lame database and unmunted it and made it work like it is supposed to.

And Erky saw the unmunted database and said that it is Good.  And posted an update.

Good evening all.

Just a quick test before bedtime – seeing if I can launch an audio stream from here.

Having worked out how to create seperate pages here, I’m looking to
set up an art gallery, music page and rogue’s gallery (members page)
– not to mention a Brief History of Lame (Chrome history) and photos
from the various meetings – be it Japan, Projects 95 and 97, or just random events.

Wish me luck.

Link to The Song (second place at the Project 97 music competition).

[EDIT: Yes, it works although the streaming is a little temperamental and coughs out at random times]