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  • Leslie Moore 7:34 pm on April 24, 2012 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , speakers, tdk sound cube   

    If you’re ever considering the purchase of a TDK Sound Cube, allow me to add my recommendation. The fact that it will go to raucously loud volumes on batteries (12 D cells, but batteries nonetheless) is enough to justify the price.

    Admittedly, I don’t know how long those batteries will last, but time will tell!

     
    • Leslie Moore 5:50 pm on April 17, 2012 Permalink | Reply
      Tags: p2, theme   

      So, once again, I’m back using Automattic’s awesome micro-blogging theme, P2 (with a few small modifications, of course).

      I’m using this as an incentive to post more often!

       
      • Leslie Moore 11:46 am on March 6, 2012 Permalink
        Tags: game, grainger games, lumines: electronic symphony, ps vita, super stardust delta, wipeout 2048   

        PS Vita – First Impressions 

        So the PS Vita is finally with us, after months of build-up and hype. I made the momentous decision to pop over and buy one at midnight on launch day – and I’ve spent the last week-and-a-bit playing it to death. (More …)

         
        • Leslie Moore 5:08 am on December 1, 2011 Permalink
          Tags: apps, beta, facebook, guardian, last.fm, moodagent, , software, soundrop, , tunewiki   

          Spotify Apps Beta: initial impressions 

          As I managed to get two months’ Spotify Premium for free via Three UK’s offer (thanks for that!), Spotify are currently back in my good books (for the most part) – and as they’ve just announced their Apps platform, I thought I’d check out their new beta version to see what the deal was.

          (More …)

           
          • Leslie Moore 2:51 am on October 28, 2011 Permalink
            Tags: bandcamp, rant, soundcloud,   

            Spotify, you need to get rid of your 5-listen cap 

            Spotify has recently introduced a cap on the number of times a user on their free service can listen to a particular song. This really isn’t a good thing!

            (More …)

             
            • Leslie Moore 10:04 pm on October 19, 2011 Permalink
              Tags: sega, sonic, sonic generations   

              Sonic Generations 

              Despite the physics model in the 2D levels feeling a little off compared to the original Sonic games, I’m really looking forward to getting my copy of Sonic Generations.

              Here’s a quick play-through of the “Sky Sanctuary” level, which shows the kind of direction Sonic Team have taken. It’s got a good mix of 3D elements in a predominately 2D play area, with nothing that looks like it detracts from the overall experience. The “Green Hill” level that’s included in the newly-released demo on the Xbox 360 is designed in much the same way.

              Hopefully the whole game will be similarly well designed and fun to play.

               
              • Leslie Moore 1:31 am on October 13, 2011 Permalink
                Tags: 10.7.2, , , icloud, os x   

                iCloud. 

                iCloud disables Google contact sync.

                Well, you lost me right there, Apple.

                 
                • Leslie Moore 9:46 pm on October 3, 2011 Permalink
                  Tags: , , , youtube   

                  HTC’s Android security hole. 

                  If this is true (and it looks pretty legit to be honest), HTC needs to get this fixed fast.

                   
                  • Leslie Moore 1:59 am on September 29, 2011 Permalink
                    Tags: link, w3 total cache   

                    This article proved useful when setting up W3 Total Cache on this blog – you might find it useful too!

                     
                    • Leslie Moore 4:26 pm on September 23, 2011 Permalink
                      Tags: dissertation, university   

                      Dissertation project. 

                      As part of the induction week for my final year at uni, I’ve been discussing what I could cover as my dissertation project.

                      I’ve arrived at something suitable with this:

                      Trees have often been represented in games in a number of different ways, from 2D billboards that rotated to face the camera, to low-poly 3D models in more recent titles. Often, trees will be the same model or billboard posted over and over again, which doesn’t appear convincing!

                      This project will explore a number of topics related to procedurally generating and representing trees and forests in game titles, with the view to removing such phenomena and making forested environments more convincing. Factors that affect the physical appearance of trees, such as the size, shape, colour and texture of branches, leaves and bark will be considered. External factors such as seasons, environmental effects such as wind and rain, and interactions with other game objects will also be taken into account.

                      The end result of this project will be a tech demo demonstrating some of these effects, and a report detailing some of the problems the game developer faces when implementing trees in modern games, along with suggestions of how these could be changed and improved.

                      I’m just waiting on final approval of this from my appointed supervisor, but hopefully this is a go! =D

                       
                      • Leslie Moore 2:07 am on September 20, 2011 Permalink
                        Tags: h5bp, html5, html5 boilerplate   

                        HTML5 Boilerplate 

                        Just moved my website’s home page over onto HTML5 Boilerplate. For something you can just drop your markup into, it’s pretty sweet – as it takes care of a lot of things for you.

                        I’ll be using this again in future – yes, even the pink. =p

                         
                        • Leslie Moore 4:53 am on September 16, 2011 Permalink
                          Tags: , ,   

                          /laughs 

                          I since found out that the Optimus 3D is running Android 2.2.

                          LG: your flagship phone is running software that is at least a year old. The next major Android release is in the next 2-3 months. Get a grip, and get it up to date.

                           
                          • Leslie Moore 11:26 pm on September 7, 2011 Permalink
                            Tags: 3ds, , , ,   

                            Optimus 3D? Nah, I’ll leave it thanks. 

                            Recently LG have started advertising the Optimus 3D on TV. That, in itself, is fine.

                            I can’t help but find their advert a little misleading, though:

                            • There’s only five built-in apps from LG that actually use the 3D technology – it’s standard 2D in Android itself.
                            • “Dual-core, dual-memory” as a feature. As someone who is still very sceptical of dual-core smartphones (mainly due to the impact on battery life), I’m sure that putting both of these things (and creating a completely unrealistic animation to go with them) is not the way forward.
                            • After having seen a demo model in my local T-Mobile store, the 3D effect isn’t that good. Even the 3DS seems to have a better 3D effect, despite the smaller screen and lower resolution.

                            What genuinely puts me off, however, is this: as these devices with 3D screens and dual cameras proliferate, the 3D apps that will inevitably be released to the Android Market will work with one specific device (or range of devices) only – for example, HTC are using their own SDK to cater for third-party 3D applications. It just leads to yet more fragmentation that Google aren’t in any position to deal with at this point.

                             
                            • Leslie Moore 11:28 pm on September 5, 2011 Permalink
                              Tags: fonts,   

                              Google Web Fonts. 

                              Thanks, Google, for making them easy to browse, choose and implement.

                              I’m now using one on my website home page. Literally two minutes to add to the page, and everything looks a little more modern.

                               
                              • Leslie Moore 10:06 pm on September 5, 2011 Permalink
                                Tags: anime, nichijou   

                                Nichijou. 

                                Nicely animated and genuinely funny. Go and watch Nichijou.

                                 
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