Wednesday 11 April 2012

I released a web app called FreeTrakr!

Well, this is a bit of a self plug, but I recently released a new web app called FreeTrakr. It's a SaaS (Software as a Service) that's aimed at freelancers , sole traders and even small businesses who need to track their hours and make invoices.

The whole thing came about when I became a freelance developer, and manually recording my hours in a spreadsheet took ages. I also had my laptop stolen, which had all my invoices on, so I was really aware that my data wasn't really safe. So FreeTrakr was born out of necessity. Since then I've stopped going freelance and went full time, but for the last 6 months I've been working nearly every night on getting this out.

So to really give it a kick start, everyone who creates an account on FreeTrakr will get 3 months free. I'm hoping that in those three months plenty of people will have tried it and given me enough feedback to get it out of the Beta stage.

Let me know what you think!

Wednesday 22 December 2010

Steam Sales - Thursday 23rd

Right, we're now onto the third day of sales, and I must admit that it's a good one today. At this rate I'll have to buy a new hard-drive...

Anyway, onto the top five for today:

1. Right at the top of my list today is Just Cause 2. Although the driving in this game can be a bit...funky, it's one of the most beautifully crafted games I have ever played. The cut scenes are top notch and it improves infinitely over the original. At just a fiver, you would be a complete plonker to pass this one up.

2. Second up is Alien vs. Predator. It's fairly simple and it looks scary. Do you really need any more reasons to buy it for £3.75?

3. Third on my list today is Trials 2 : Second Edition. If you liked TG MotoCross 3, then you'll like this.

4. Fourth up is Clones. Essentially It's Lemmings, but with Aliens. Something to buy your mother maybe... (I mean that in a good way!)

5. And last on my list is Assassin's Creed 2. Although half price isn't a massive saving, it's not bad for a game of this calibre. If you have the budget, buy it.


Tags : Steam, Sales, Christmas, Trials 2, Clones, Assassin's Creed 2, Just Cause 2, Alien vs Predator

Steam Sales - Wednesday 22nd

Okay, so we have a new set of sales today. I'm not as overwhelmed today as I was yesterday, but I think that's mostly down to having owned most of the games that are on sale already. Despite that, there are some very good choices. Here is my top 5 list for today :

Top 5 List:

1. At the top it's got to be Burnout : Paradise. You're getting a highly polished for £3.75, so really...there isn't much to complain about. The game has been around for a while and the multiplayer is mostly dead, but the format of the game (which is a combination of free roam and 'sprint' racing) makes it a must have.

2. Coming in second is The Witcher. Being a highly acclaimed game, with practically every award under the sun, it would be stupid not to pick it up for £3.25. It's not made by Bethesda, which means we should get a completely different feel to most of the other major RPG's that are currently floating around on the market. A proper review will follow in the New Year.

3. Defense Grid : The Awakening is one of those games that turned popular flash 'tower defense' into a wonderful mainstream 3D marvel. It's been on sale before, but that's no reason to pick up a copy if you haven't already got it.

4. Coming fourth on my list is Bioshock 2. When this came out, I was really anticipating a game which was roughly on the same lines and calibre of the original. I quickly found that it wasn't, and truth be told, I was a bit disappointed. Despite that, at £6.99 you can't really go wrong. It's worth getting it just to find out for yourself how much you prefer Bioshock.

5. Coming up last, but by no means least, is The Polynomial. I was a bit torn on this one, simply because I couldn't decide whether the new Lara Croft is actually a good game or not. I decided not to put it on my list simply because it doesn't hold true to what Lara Croft games are really about, and that's big tits and big guns. There's a strange American Indian and you have to work together? No...that's really not Lara Croft. So, instead of that, I've opted for The Polynomial. It doesn't really have an aim as a such. You just listen to some music and fly around trying to shoot little round monsters which are gobbling up your colourful alien friends. It's fairly mindless and is a nice way to relax. (Maybe something more for the "laaaydies")


Tags : Steam, Sales, Christmas, Burnout : Paradise, Lara Croft, The Polynomial, Defense Grid, The Witcher, Bioshock 2

Monday 20 December 2010

Massive Steam Sales! - Awesome!

Valve has started the countdown to Christmas by unleashing one of the slickest sale campaigns to date.

For those of you who are feeling lethargic...here's the link :

http://store.steampowered.com/

You might notice that the site is a bit slow, but at the moment there is probably about 2 million people looking at it. And no...I'm not joking.

So lets look at some of more noteworthy products that are on sale today. Considering the sheer enormity of these sales, I'll try my best to give a quick rundown each day of the best buys.

Top 5 List :

1. First up is Peggle and Peggle Nights. Popcap Games hit the jackpot with these two highly addictive games. If you're wanting to get your family members into to gaming, or you like pretty flashing colours, these are definitely worth buying at £5.59.

2. Second is the Deus Ex pack, which includes the original Deus Ex and Deus Ex : Invisible War. I'm not too hot on the sequel of the original epic released a decade ago, but at £1.49 there's no excuse to take a trip down memory lane.

3. Coming in at third for me is Trine. Although Valve has 13 Indie packs on sale at the moment, a lot of them have already been on sale before. If you didn't take advantage of these earlier packs, grab yourself the "Heavy Hitters" Pack at £13.99 (which includes Trine) and the 2D Pack which comes in at just £3.99.

4. At fourth we've got the incredible Portal. If you already own Half Life 2, you'll be able to pick it up for £1.50. Without HL2, you can get it for £2.49. I really shouldn't have to explain why you need Portal in your life... so all I'm going to say is "The cake is a lie!"......

5. Although we're at the bottom of my list, this is by no means the worst deal in the sale. Epic's Unreal Deal Pack is a definite must. At £7.99 your getting some of the best FPS's to date. Some of the games are a little old, but if you don't have them already this pack will introduce you to a whole new level of community driven online shoot'em ups.


Now, this close to Christmas, I wouldn't suggest buying some of the newer games. There aren't any major sales on this years releases, so it might be worth waiting until the new year to see what you can pick up. IT also might be prudent to see what you get in your stockings in 5 days.

Tags : Steam, Peggle, Valve, Trine, Epic, Unreal, Deus Ex, Portal, Half Life, Indie Packs, Sale, Christmas

Wednesday 20 October 2010

Jacob's Rest - Alien Swarm



Tags : Alien Swarm, Games, Steam, Black Cat, Games, Valve, Awesome!

Wednesday 17 February 2010

Gmod Epic Fail



Tags : gmod Epic Fail Tennis

Wednesday 10 February 2010

Something I didn't know about Google Chrome

I've been using Google Chrome now for quite a while. since I originally downloaded it, Chrome has quickly found it's way to my nerdy heart...and boy have I been rewarded. Although Chrome was amazing when I started using it, there were a few faults. Firstly, there was a lack of add-on support, and secondly, I never quite knew why it sometimes used so many resources. The former was eventually included as a feature ,and I must say that with that feature in particular it beats Firefox hands down. I personally have never had issues with the latter on my desktop, however on my Netbook I am constantly aware of system performance and resources usage. I have never had a problem running Chrome on any of my PC's (that's including my Netbook), but sometimes it's nice to know how the resources are being used.

So, as I was reading about some Google Chrome shortcuts, I came across the "Shift + Esc" shortcut. If you press that, the Google Chrome Task Manager pops up. It's actually a very useful little gimmick. It tells you how much RAM, CPU and Bandwidth is being used by all your open tabs, the browser itself, and all the add-ons. This is handy if you ever need to troubleshoot some performance issues or want to squeeze as much speed out of Chrome as you possible can.

I'm also becoming increasingly fond of the F11 shortcut, which puts Chrome into full screen mode. This is nice if you want to browse without the clutter around.

Final Thought Byte : I never cease to be amazed by Google's innovation. I strongly recommend looking at their list of shortcuts because you'll never know what you'll find.

Tags : Google, Chrome, Task Manager, Firefox, Internet