Death Magnetic

Death Magnetic, wow. That's all I really have to say.

Well actually, I should probably say some more. When I first listened to this album I was on a 8 hour ferry journey to La Havre on my way to Spain. I was in a cramped reclining chair sharing a giant room with crying babies and irritating French people who refused to stop rustling newspaper near my ear. So, to get away from the horror I decided to listen to Death Magnetic, which I had picked up a mere 6 hours earlier on the 10th of September 2008, the release date.

My first impressions weren't great. Being totally smashed from the journey to Portsmouth and having very little sleep, I was not mentally prepared for what Death Magnetic really was. The first time through was agony for me. It was like being mentally born again.

However, once I listened to the album again, I appreciated how you really really need to stick the volume up to understand the album. The songs aren't really songs, which is why there are only 10 songs in the album. They are more like epic events of pure metal. Once Metallica brings you through their traumatic re-birth, your whole idea of metal will be forever change.

I think in many ways, this is something that Metallica was aiming for. After St. Anger, they knew that they had a lot to make up for. One of the biggest attractions of Metallica is their ability to change, adapt and innovate in every new album. With the help of their new bassist, Robert Trujillo, the band has really moved forward and redefined themselves. The album starts off very well "That Was Just Your Life". There is a definitely musical theme going through the whole album, however, which makes listening to the album in one session very difficult. However, the pinnacle of the album for me was Unforgiven III. Once put together with Unforgiven and Unforgiven II (From the 'black album' and 'ReLoad' respectively), the story of James Hetfield unfolds. After the troubles shown in "Some Kind of Monster", the Metallica docu-movie, James Hetfield has created a song which almost concludes the story told in Unforgiven I and II.

Final Thought Byte : As a whole, the album is awesome. Metallica really have recreated the Metal genre and they have succesfully grasped back the minds of the millions they lost after St. Anger. Although the album is difficult to appreciate the first time round, it is deffinately worth adding to your music collection.

Tags : death, James Hetfield, magentic, metallica, Unforgiven III

Old baby names really dying out? Not so sure on that...

After reading the BBC report on old baby names dying out, I did a little research into top baby names.

Although the report is probably right about some older names dying out, like Norman or Walter, it forgets to mention that the current top male name Jack has been popular for over 100 hundred years in western society and has been the most popular name in the UK for 14 years.

Chances are, the BBC is probably reacting to the introduction of non-traditional names into the top 20 list. According to government statistics, Mohammed is at number 17 and Muhammad is at 38. To be honest, I doubt that a lot of Caucasian couples are naming their child Mohammed or Muhammad, which means that the BBC is just taking a stab at immigrants.

Now, if the BBC were honest about this irrational fear, fair enough, but they aren't. We all know that throughout History the UK has been the settling place for a lot of immigrants, whether they are from India, Pakistan or Ireland. We also know that after two generations, those immigrants become part of the British culture. Of course that means that non-traditional names become a lot more popular, but that doesn't mean we should get panicky about it. A lot of people in the UK who call themselves "English" rarely originate from the UK completely. Someone always has a Norwegian Aunt or something.

So being English doesn't mean having 10 generations of completely English ancestors, it means being part of the British society and culture. Heck, the basis of English society as a whole is a weird mix of Normans, Vikings and other European cultures. Why start getting protective about our heritage now anyway?

Final Thought Byte : So why should the BBC publish a whole series of reports about the decline in traditional names? Its a fact that things change over time, so get over it.

Tags : Baby names, BBC, Engish Heritage, news

Overheating, Overclocking Frenzy

The nVidia 8600 GT is the cheapest , and one of the best selling high performance cards on the market. It has been described as "the best bang for your buck" graphics card, however this legacy is about to come to an end. The 9600 GT has specs that are very close to the 8800 GT but at a much lower price. But, with the new Geforce 200 series coming out, will people be skipping the 9600 GT and going straight for the 200 series equivalent?

After 10 months of hardcore gaming, my XFX 8600 GT is still doing very well. In an earlier blog I mentioned that GRID was causing heat problems with the card, but that is the only problem I have really had. Bioshock has also caused artifacts to appear after 3 hours of play at full settings, but that was fixed with an extra case fan. Over clocking, however is not a good idea. For a card that is already very hot, over clocking will just mess up your system.

The performance of the 8600 GT is good enough to keep up with most new games, but it will soon become heavily out-dated. The new nVidia PhysX drivers are rumoured not to support the 8600 GT, which means the card will not be able to keep up with new games that come with full PhysX features.

Final Thought Byte : So what does that mean for those of us who bought the 8600 GT for gaming? It means that we'll probably have to wait till the new year deals to pick up a cheap 9600 GT, or a new 200 series card. But, if you're looking for something to keep you going till then, you can pick up a 8600 GT for about 50 quid.

Tags : 200 series, 9600 GT, Bioshock, Computer, games, Nvidia 8600 GT, PhysX, Race Driver : Grid

There's Blood everywhere!

When I first picked up Genesis Rising I thought it would a normal space flight game, something along the lines of EVE, but without the ridiculous monthly fee and irritating tutorial voice. I was , however, completely and utterly wrong. The game is more like a space based strategy game, like a cross between DarkSpace and Starcraft.

What makes the game really weird is the odd focus on the Universes most precious resource : Blood. The tutorial takes you through all the basic skills needed to fuel and upgrade your organic fleet. As you play the game you get more access to ship types , ship upgrades and weapons from bloody carcasses.

The interface is bog standard and the widescreen feature doesn’t quite work properly. It’s bearable, but it could do with some tweaks. The mouse cursor is also way too slow for the game. These common pitfalls, however, are made up by the graphics. They’re at the same sort of standards as EVE, but with more spectacular planets. They aren’t top of the range, but they aren’t bad compared to some other games.

Final Thought Byte : We’ll see how this game pans out before giving it a rating.

Tags : blood, DarkSpace, EVE, games, Genesis Rising, space, Starcraft, universe

Blog Update

Having discussed the direction of this blog with my close friends and girlfriend, I have decided to start writing a "University Top 10" series. It will include advice on what to take, what to do on your first day and your first weeks, what not to do and the best way to have the time of your life. Obviously this won't apply to everyone, but the more first hand advice the better.

Next up though, is a product review on the XFX 8600 GT and a game review of Genesis Rising.

Tags : games, Genesis Rising, top 10, university, xfx 8600 GT

Amazing Supermarket Disaster : Aaaahh!

For anyone living within the United Kingdom, inflation has recently become a real problem. Every supermarket is boasting the fact that they are "rolling back prices" , but what are the effects of that on supermarket employees? From very recent personal experience, the damage of super high inflation on a highly competitive market is showing through.

Normally around May, the job market tends to be saturated. If you’re a University student returning home, you’re normally guaranteed a job for the summer. Not this year though. After 8 applications and 3 interviews for jobs that barely met national minimum wage, only one company had the courtesy to tell me that they had considered my application. After two further interviews, the first being a gruelling group selection, and an induction which was focused on teaching new employees the importance of the individual, I started work as a checkout operative in a leading supermarket.

My training for checkouts was minimal at best, but wasn’t really an issue. It was company standard to put all new employees on a 12 week probation period. In normal jobs in offices, this probation is usually 3 to 6 months long, but 12 weeks of training/probation for a supermarket job is a little much.

The first two weeks went pretty quickly and the job seemed relatively easy. However, the first cracks were showing through. The store I worked in was less than 6 months old and was one of the companies most celebrated achievements in the area. Apparently we had built up a good rapport with the community and apparently we offered the most choice compared to our competitors. What they didn’t mention is that the store suffers from broken “travelators” , broken conveyer belts on the tills, broken slam locks for the tills and broken management. It seems that this particular supermarket was achieving inflation busting prices by destroying half the store. They would rather charge a penny less for milk than employ a bloke with a can of oil.

The lack of good management in these stores is what affects employees the most. After three weeks I was already filing a complaint against a night manager for harassment. My normal day manager had “sorted” the problem, but not addressed the issue. The night manager had stopped harassing me, in fact he stopped talking to me full stop, but that only meant he started harassing a colleague. All the official channels were avoided because they could not afford to fire this particular night manager. This again is an example of money before employee safety.

A week after that I had called in sick with a stomach bug. After only taking one day off, I was back to work the next day. My manager had called me over and told me that my probation was being extended by 4 weeks because I took a day off. She had also said that I had to go through HR because apparently a day off sick was cause for concern. As she failed to spell correctly on the HR form ,I asked my manager what I should have done with a stomach bug, her answer was for me to come in to work regardless. Again, it seems supermarkets are more interested in money than in employee safety and customer safety.

I gave my notice in the following Saturday..

Final Thought Byte : Inflation is really starting to hit the UK bad. Petrol prices are stupidly high and food prices even higher. Supermarkets are fighting each other to the death in an attempt to get all the customers. And to the death they shall fight. Supermarkets would rather lower prices than ensure the safety and comfort of customers and employees. People are going to catch onto this soon enough...

Tags : competition, Economy, food prices, Inflation, supermarket, UK, work

One child policy doesn't apply to Pandas?

Earlier this July, four baby giant pandas were born in China. For a species which has more stuffed toys in its image than actual animals, four pandas in two weeks is pretty good going. Although giant pandas are very very cute and get loads of publicity, I don't think they are worth the trouble. We've all seen the youtube video where the mother panda freaks out as the baby panda sneezes, so why should we bother saving a species that can't even handle a sneeze from its children?

The fact that it's in China means that we should be skeptical to begin with anyway. When was the last time you heard the news quote the Chinese Government as a reliable source? I wouldn't be surprised if they killed one of the twin baby pandas to conform with the famous 'One Child' policy.

I know what you're all thinking: suggesting the murder of a new born panda is brutal. And that's the thing, it would be murder. So what about all those unborn children in China? Or even those babies that "go missing" in families that already have one child? To be fair, there was talk about changing the policy, but it's probably not going to happen. (BBC News Report)

Final Thought Byte : It seems to me that we should spend more time and effort on addressing the human population problem in China rather than the Panda population problem. It's a shame though, that as a Western society we don't get involved unless we're under direct threat or if we can get some money out of it. I guess we'll have to wait until Global Warming starts to fry us....

Tags : BBC, China, news, One Child Policy, Panda, youtube