Chimpware has moved

Chimpware has now officially moved to Wordpress, which you can find @ cware.wordpress.com or www.chimpware.org. Please move your bookmark over there!

Ta,

Sideath

Chimpware Userbars

I just made these rather fetching userbars for use on websites and forums:




HTML: Forum Code:




HTML: Forum code:



Feel free to use them :)

LAND OCTOPUS UNITE!

What is LOU? Land Octopus Unite is a way of life. A religion. A small sea based creature, lost in the torrents of life. Truth be told, LOU is whatever you want it to be - a husband, a dog, a money box, or just a frivalous product of Nocashvalue's warped mind. Go now, and be forever enlightened in the way of the octopus of land.

Original Concept- Progressive Art

-Original Concept is my new Column showcasing some of my most inspired ideas-

If there's one thing i would like to be known as when i grow up its an Artist, But I have one problem.
Im not amazing good at anyone thing, I mean im a more than capable Photographer but im screwed if i know the difference between ISO and EV. Im a dab hand at Watercolours but i wouldn't know where to start if i had to cover a 4ft Canvas. And the same goes for Music, Books & Films. But what if i could harness all my slightly unimpressive talents to create a piece of Art that's not only interesting but also fresh and unique.

Well that's where Progrssive Art (Or Prog Art, For all you middle aged 70's rock fans.) Comes in.

The basic idea is to have a Live Studio of sorts set up in an Art Gallery, The public would be able to walk in and interact with the Artistic process. Giving the Artist there opinions on his work so far and maybe digging in to lend the Artist a hand maybe painting abit or playing an instrument they really could do anything,

As you can probably guess the things that could be achieved though this are limitless. No more Artistic block, When the Artist is running low on ideas he could simply ask someone nearby what they would do. And there would certainly be no more limits on how big the piece of Art could be, And also of cause how varied it could be.

Well that's Progress Art, I hope you feel inspired by my idea. Please leave any suggestions on what Prog Art you would make, And you never know if i get enough good suggestions i may just make a competition out of it.

Flickr Exposure .1

-Flickr Exposure is the new series showcasing my favorite Photos from the Social Networking site Flickr.com-

Today's Photos all come from the same Photographer and his name is.. YACHT.

Enjoy.

Podcast Alley 'blacklisted' by Microsoft, and Adam Curry's response

Those of you who have emailed me regarding your vote for Chimpware on Podcast Alley, and the fact that you haven't recieved the verification email. My guess here is that Microsoft has blacklisted Podcast Alley, therefore if you have a .hotmail or a .msn account, it's likely that your vote hasn't been counted. This is due to the huge number of emails that Podcast Alley send off to Hotmail accounts.

This obviously destroyes the democracy of Podcast Alley. After all, Hotmail is still probably the biggest email provider out there, especially for the youth of today with thier MSN Messanger and VoIP. This is a large problem. If this demograph cannot vote on Podcast Alley, there will be a bias against them.

I then contacted the co-inventor of Podcasts, and guy-in-charge of Podcast Alley and the Podsafe Network, PodFather Adam Curry. My MP3 comment was played on his daily Show, the Daily Source Code #348, and in the Sirius Satellite Radio window, too! Here's my question and his response:

'The main reason why I'm calling is because there's problems with Podcast alley, the Podcast voting system. It seems that some of my friends, who have Hotmail accounts (which is the worst account ever), can't vote for it as I think Podcast Alley has been blacklisted. I just thought that you wanted to know because aren't being counted... So my podcast has only two votes! Good luck, love the Charlie, Tata.'

Here's Adam Curry's Response:

'It's kind of fortuitous that this has all come together where we're learning about this 'white list' 'blacklist' stuff and this incredibly unfriendly email tax that I believe AOL says they're going to start next month to put on email, which is not spam protection for you, it's just guaranteeing the spammers that the spam will get through! And when I say spammers, I of course mean marketers who call you from somewhere and send it on through. We found this out quite by accident, although I have a feeling that I do recall Chris Macentire mentioning this to me months and months ago, and yes, it is indeed a problem.

Hotmail is the biggest offender, again Hotmail and MSN both blacklist all kinds of email, and they will send you to a different company, a third party, which they use exclusively to have this stuff solved. Which costs money! If anyone knows if that company is partially owned by Microsoft, please let me know!

This is really the multi-tiered internet.'

So looks like we're stuck. I guess Adam Curry is looking into this problem, and well, it's a problem that Microsoft is doing this. There's one easy solution, though. Switch to Gmail! Or your own domain! Anyone who has a Hotmail account can easily switch via www.gmail.com/accounts.
If not, email me at chimpware@gmail.com And I'll be glad to send you an invite!

Chimpware is currently ranked 737th out of 15875 Podcasts on Podcast Alley. It is also ranked 100th out of 2097 Technology podcasts (9th March).

Podcast Alley
Adam Curry's Daily Source Code
Adam Curry's Daily Source Code #348
Chimpware Podcast Archive
Vote for Chimpware!
Digg this Story - This Story on Newsvine - del.icio.us

Original Concept Archive

Original Concept is rEVO's new Column showcasing some of his most inspired ideas...

[Archive]

Original Concept: Progressive Art

Flickr Exposure Archive

Social networking? Who needs friends?

[Flickr Exposure archive]

Flickr Exposure .1

Brits play the New IBF scoring system

Last saturday (4th March) England's badminton squad played Denmark in the Carlton Guidhall cup in Preston hall. Only a minor tournament i know, the results were good for the Brits, seeing Gail Emms and Donna Kellogg win the women's doubles, Tracy Hallam in the women's singles, and Nathan Robertson and Gail Emms win the mixed doubles, the English squad lost out in the men's singles and the men's doubles; bad luck Aamir Ghaffar, Anthony Clark and Robert Blair.
This was the first competitive win over the Danes since 1986 and was also the Brit's first competetive games under the new IBF scoring system. The new system has caused some conscern among badminton players (myself and Simon) as it radically alters the way the game is played. As oppossed to the traditional 15 point, point-on-serve system, players now must play 21 point games and get a point every rally. In doubles games, each side now only gets one serve per service. The fact that each side now gets a point on winning a rally regardless of who delivered the service means that it is near impossible to recover if you are say 6-0 down. The IBF stated that the new system will stop sides tiring their opponents out and will mean that badminton games can be more easily telivised as it shortens the game length. However, I personally can't see the logic there as the longest game on record was 2 hours, the average tennis games is 2 and a half hours and they are still very popular to this day.
Either way, what are our reader's views? If you happen to be interested, post your thoughts at chimpware@gmail.com

Pope Gets an iPod

All Apple who art in heaven
iMac be thy name
Thy iTunes comes
Sells a billion songs
and iPod gets given to the pope... sorry that was crap.

Yes, the Pope has been given an iPod...

The playlist? Besides the Vatican Radio podcast, they've got Beethoven, Mozart, Chopin, Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky. Puhleese.

'Pope Benedict XVI got an iPod on Friday, thanks to a group of workers at Vatican Radio.

According to a Catholic News Service story, the pontiff got a 2GB white Nano, loaded with, among other things, the radio station's programming in English, Italian and German, as well as classical tunes from Mozart, Chopin and Stravinsky.

The Nano was given to the Pope following a visit to Vatican Radio, CNS reported.' - Cnet

Full Cnet Story

Nintendo DS Lite Launch

The Nintendo DS Lite launched yesterday. I was really, really tempted to pre order via Lik-sang, however, I decided to wait. This seemed like the right decision. Apparently, due to the huge rush of people going off and buying the Lite, there were huge shortages and Lik-sang had to raise its prices, not to mention the pull-back of the release date of non-white DSLs.

Nintendo DS Lite Launch in detail
Problems with Lik-sang

Links of Interest 1

The news in tech and gaming and stuff this week... well, the news I read anyway.

Microsoft uses sex to sell
Google switches to AMD from Intel
DS Lite Launches
Lego USB Drive
Firefox 2 Rumours
Sega's Worst Game Ever
Elder Scrolls III Release Date Announced
Wikipedia Reaches 1,000,000

Mod Roundup: Half life 2 singleplayer mods

In this roundup I will be looking at two mods which alter the original half life 2 singleplayer, both leave the story mostly intact, but add loads of cool goodies.

SMOD simply adds bullet time and loads of new weapons. The bullet time works very well, much better then the standalone bullet time mod, bullet trails are fun and it's not too slow. The weapons are the real attraction to SMOD though, it adds some weapons from other valve games, the ak47 from csSs and the kar 98k from Dod:s for example. But above all SMOD is about the comedy, Gordon's magical wand looks like something from "Hello Kitty" but shoots magical bolts of electro death. The psp is another fun weapon, firing explosive umd's at hordes of combine doesn't get old. In a tribute to worms the banana bomb makes an appearance, but it's not as cool as throwing a pair of scissors which instantly destroy anything in their path. The list of weapons is too huge to go into now, mainly because I'm lazy, but it really does add another layer to hl2, a comedy layer admitedly, but it does make replaying half life 2 that bit more enjoyable.

First the worst second the best. I've been playing all the incarnations of Half Life 2: substance for a while now and their latest version hl2: substance GOLD is one of the best mods for hl2 out at the moment. It's basically a cross breed of the Metal Gear Solid series and Hl2, and it works surprisingly well. You get different suit modes; Gordon, Solid Snake, Liquid Snake, Big Boss and (as an extra when you complete the game) Gray Fox. Each form has different weapons and abilities, the only common ground being the gravity gun and bullet time (it's not a mod if it doesn't have bullet time these days kids!). Solid's stealth works quite well, essentially a modification of the aux power system used in Hl2, it allows for some very satisfying knife kills. Liquid is brilliant in combat and his dual Magnum's are brutally fun, easily gibbing any enemies in the way. There are also numerous game modes, the "European" mode being the usual romp through City 17 and Gordon Tales being the mod teams take on the 7 hours war of Half Life lore (rhyme intentional). Making the mode you're playing "survivor" gives a halo sytle recharging health system and more enemies. The health distribution system introduced into the main game is pretty good too, you get health by headshotting enemies, meaning any situtation can be resqued by some bullet time and dual Magnums. Ace.

Wanna know where to get these rather nice games? Try Google, it's your freind.

Canada's Healthcare System (Revisited)

Yay!


I'm finally out of that hell-hole they call a hospital. I had been stuck in there waiting for surgery since last wednesday, and I was getting a little tired of having a needle stuck into one of my veins for an eternity.

Because of the multitude of injuries sustained by very prudent Canadian citizens whilst skating on hard ice in -30 degree celcius weather, without any proper protection may I say, the hospitals were full of whining "adults" complaining about how much their muscles hurt, and how much their ears hurt from being outside in very cold weather for extended periods of time. There are also those people who have legitimate injuries, however stupid they may be. Like a broken knee for example. Now there are a few simple solutions to getting rid of these problems;
1. Kill all of these people,
2. Warn them that maybe they should dress for the weather,
3. Extradite them, or,
4. Make them sit in a hospital for six days at a time for a half hour procedure.

It would seem that all of us have chosen option 4. Yes, I did sit in a hospital for six days on iv, and yes I did sit around for 6 days waiting for a 30 minute procedure. And yes, my injury was a stupid one.

I don't know if this rant has any direction, and it certainly doesn't feel like it does, but I am just frustrated with the fact that normal people, however idiotic they may be, are made to suffer like this. I am one of the lucky ones, believe me, and I have certainly had an extremely short stay at the hospital compared to other people I met whilst I was there. Again, the conditions I was kept in were, terrible. There were flies making their rounds in my room! Flies! It's absolutely ridiculous, and there is no reason for this to happen.

Reptitiveness is my forte, so forgive me if I keep saying the same thing over again, but someone has to start doing something about this type of happening. Someone has to say something. I have been trying to do things about this, I have sent complaints to my MP, and that's only the beginning.

I wonder if people in Britain are doing the same thing. Is there anyone in the Isles who disagrees with their system of healthcare? Is there anyone doing something about that? I would honestly like to know.

Rant Over

Any comments, please leave them here, or email me at ian_forestell@hotmail.com

Civ IV: Teh Review

Format: PC
Publisher: 2K Games
Developer: Firaxis
Genre: 4X
Price: Variable, £30 new
Reviewer: Munki

Yeah, so this is about my third attempt to review Civilisation IV, I've actually had the game for ages, it's just been difficult for me to commit my thoughts to paper. Erm, E-paper. Yes. Civ IV is the latest in Firaxis' brilliant 4X series (eXplore, eXpand, eXploit & eXterminate) and manages to improve on the winning formula and easing the series into the third dimention.
I'm going to avoid the technical workings of the game, mostly because Simon "The Wang" Wang is paranoid I steal my reviews from PCGamer UK, and thats exactly what they did. Suffice to say, Civ IV continues much as the rest of the series, you start with a settler, create your first city, research some new technology, build new units etc amd eventually conquer the world. How you go about this is totally up to you, and the rewards for exploring new play styles are the numerous winning conditions, space race, diplomatic, military blah blah blah. Much of the boring old micro management has been stripped away in this game, but some remains if you like that sort of stuff, the rest of us will ignore it and lose nothing from the game. New features include the much demanded implementation of religeon, which I must say has been handled in a very subtle and fluid way, noice. The other big thing of course is the changing of civics to make them a bit more flexible, it's a good system and works well, allowing strange cross breeds of Communism and Universal Suffrage.
The game also benefits from it's spangly new engine. Some people will tell you that looks don't mean anything, that graphics aren't important. These people (my younger, more naive self included) are idiots. Graphics make things look pretty and can (shock horror) enhance the gameplay or even your game experience.Civ IV is achingly pretty, although until a lovely optimising patch I was running it on 7 fps, yum. Theres still a bit of lag in the late game when your screen is covered with lots of little railways and coal plants, but it is worth it, worth it so much [/drooling].
If I'm being honest I havent actually tried the multiplayer yet, we'll ignore the fact that thats actually because I'm scared of people and pretend that it's because the game is so damn replayable. Oh it really is that replayable? Again, noice. It's difficult to talk about this game without knowing in your head, that what your saying is a massive under statement, but then I am British so what do you expect? To be perfectly honest though if turn based games and 4X's really don't do it for you then theres not much here you'll enjoy, it certainally won't change your opnions about the genre. However if you are a fan of superior strategy then it would be a crime to miss out on one of the most rewarding games ever made ("omg I got a 6:1 kd ratio on dust the other day" "so what I nurtured a people from a tiny settlement to rulers of the earth in just over an hour"). There can be no praise great enough I can give this game to really put it in context for you, well, not until "The Wang" lets me give games a percentage score.

Ten Out of Ten (and 98% if your not Si)

Twenty Years of Nintendo

It seems weird that In February of 1986 the NES was released in the USA... and in typical Chimpware fashion, we're to lazy to do a tribute ourselves, so we've got another site to do it for us. Although normally I would warn people to stray away from Gamespot's so-called 'features', this one is really quite good. Really. So have a look.

Gamespot 20 Years Flashback NES

Chimpware Podcast 6

The Sixth Chimpware podcast is now avaliable for download! We do a news roundup of the biggest Chimpware, Tech, Music and Political headlines in the fast two weeks.

Hosts: Simon Wang, Miles Coverdale, Sam Street
Playing Length: 42:20

*0:00 Intro

*0:46 Chimpware News:
Forum Launch – Nocash did great job,
Afflicates: Sheep2Ewe, Lik-Sang

*2:33 Tech News:
OS X Worm,
Amazon vs Apple,
New iPod?,
Skype/Intel limitations

*12:33 Interlude: The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny – Lemon Demon

*16:05 No Spam!
Gaming News:
DS Lite's Opera based Web browser,
DS Lite's TV Tuner,
ONM New Magazine UK,
S*x Workers against GTA,
PS3 Launch Details Released,
Xbox Live Success
Halo 2 Vista Only
Capcom Triple coming to PC

*32:47 Interlude: Mark My Words - Granian (Thanks to the Podsafe Music Network)

*36:06 Vote for us on Podcast Alley! And TPN!

*37:15 Political News:
Dick Cheney. Shooting Lawyer. In Face. With Shotgun.
UK Terrorism Bill

*42:10 Outro

DOWNLOAD:
[Direct Download] [Odeo] [iTunes] [Stream] [All Channels]

Importing?

Chimpware is now an official afflicate of Lik-Sang.com, the leading internet videogame, manga, anime and other Japanese and US items importer. Now, with every order from Lik-Sang directed from Chimpware, Chimpware recieves a percentage of the price of the item as a donation. Therefore, if you want to import, as well as support Chimpware, go Lik Sang!

Lik Sang main site
Nintendo DS
Sony PS2
Sony PSP
Nintendo Gamecube
Microsoft Xbox & Xbox 360

Therefore, every time you want to import (say, a Nintendo DS lite), then please link from Chimpware! Thanks!

The Thought Police...Everybody Run!

David John Cadwell Irving was imprisoned on the 20th of February in Austria for 3 years following his return to the country after he was exiled from Austria for denying the holocaust's existance. He was an out-spoken denier of the events for many years since his early publications in the late 60's such as 'Apocalypse 1945.' It is also claimed by other respected holocaust historians that he is an active anti-Semite and a racist. So what do our readers think? Was this imprisonment justified? Whilst denying the holocaust's existance may be an absurd thing to do both factually and for the insult to it's victim's relatives, is it right to imprison somebody simply for what they believe?

Post your thoughts at chimpware@gmail.com

Chimpware Forums Active

Just a quick post to inform everyone that the Chimpware Forums are now re-active. I hope all our readers take a moment to register with our forums and comment on a few threads.

You can access the forums here

Thanks

Sideath

Katamari Flash-amacy!

Namco has come out with a fun little flash version of the popular PS2 game, Katamari Damacy. It doesn't really play the same as the PS2 game, but that doesn't make it any less fun - and certainly not any less weird.

Katamari Damacy Flash Game

Canada's Healthcare System - Experienced first hand

There I was sitting in a stupid little wheelchair.

It was 0130 on Saturday morning, and I had just torn a ligament, cartilage, and many other things in my knee.

I had been in the Ottawa General Hospital's emergency room since 2030 the previous evening. Although a seemingly minor injury, it was the most painful thing in my life. My knee had literally cracked under me, the cap and moved one way, and then had (thankfully) returned to position. Of course accompanied by a ridiculously large amount of pain. I had just started my second weekend of Basic Military Qualifications for the Canadian Army when this had all happened. After a large deal of ridicule from my master corporal, I was finally brought to the hospital.

There I waited for a very long time until I was seen by a nurse. (Yes she was the cliché, blonde, stupid nurse who needed to call for the doctor whenever a patient started showing signs of humanity, like pain for example). She asked me the usual questions, "where does it hurt?" etc.

What really pissed me off though, were the conditions in which I was being treated. The doctor had to perform a minor operation on my knee (blood draining, because of the massive swelling), and at first just before I warned him, he wasn't wearing any gloves. No mask, nothing.

Talk about a great government facility. There I was waiting in line when someone with a dislocated thumb who had arrived a few hours after me, was shunned in front of me because they were "weaker" than me. Holy bejesus, if I hadn't been gritting my teeth in pain, I would've waiting an eternity.

Our healthcare system, borrowed from Great Britain's NHS, works on the exact same principals. The taxpayer pays for shitty care, while in the U.S., people get health care quickly, no questions asked, and have to pay afterwards. Personally, I would rather pay for good healthcare, than pay stupid taxes for terrible healthcare.

Our new PM though, has proposed a better plan. A two-tiered system, where people without the money benefit from a free healthcare system, and where people with the money also benefit from an efficient system. When there are less people in the waiting lines, there are less people becoming as negative and cynical about the system as I am.

Rant Over.

Official Nintendo Magazine

As another follow on, I got my issue of ONM yesterday. First impression is: very sexy cover, made of a nice matte paper. Inside is some very 'mature' layouts and design schemes. I'm currently on page 27, and so far it has been lacking in any of the character NOM posessed. I shall see how the rest of the magazine unfolds, and perhaps buy another few issues before I make my judgement, but at the moment I prefer NOM as a magazine, and ONM as a source of content.
It came with a rather nice free gift of sticky DS decals, so now I have the nice guitar dog from animal crossing strumming away inside my DS.
Also noteworthy is the subscription of £9.99 per 3 months, with a free Metroid Prime: Echoes, Donkey Konga (with bongos) or Pikmin 2. This is quite nifty, as I have been intending to purchase donkey konga, so Donkey Konga for £30 with 9 free issues of ONM is quite a bargain.
:)

pps NOM is officially discontinued.

Is this the end?

Following on from Simon's news about the new magazine 'The Official Nintendo Magazine,' I would like to hear some thoughts from readers about their opinions on the new mag and in particular, what people think will happen to the current officially affiliated magazine in the U.K. Nintendo Official Magazine (or NOM as it's know). Is it the end? Or has the team at NOM towers got some fight left in 'em?

Post your thoughts at chimpware@gmail.com

New Nintendo Magazine

For our readers in the UK and Europe (ie the majority of Team Chimpware), we're getting a brand new Nintendo Magazine from our friends in Future Publishing.

The real news though is that this magazine is apparently going to be brilliant. In the first issue they will have a developer interview with Capcom about its plans for the Revolution, DS lite and Revolution hands on time and some new (supposedly) Twilight Princess info. Their new website has launched and you can also subscribe online, even if you aren’t in the UK.

Official Nintendo Magazine Site
Online Subscription Site
GAF Interview
Further details over on 4colorrebellion