Nintendo funds old-school gaming expo

Nintendo has opened its wallet to fund a £1m gaming retrofest at London's Science Museum where teary-eyed old timers can chew the fat about Space Invaders, Pac-man and Donkey Kong.

According to London's Evening Standard, the expo will open later this year and run until 2007 when it will be replaced by "an interactive gallery built to inspire aspiring programmers", which will wow the crowds until 2009.

It's not all about nostalgia though - gamers will have the chance to get their sweaty mitts on the latest throbbing hardware and titles. Nintendo general manager David Yarnton said: "This exhibition means not only can we celebrate the great history of gaming, but also inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers to get involved in what looks to be an exciting future."

Nice one! A chance to show off my Galaga skills.

Read more at www.theregister.co.uk/2...

Figures show massive leap in 'cannabis casualties'

Statistics set to be released by the Scottish Executive in a parliamentary answer will show that the number of cannabis-related casualties soared from 45 to 136 - the highest rise in Scotland.

In Greater Glasgow during the same period, discharges more than doubled from 74 in 2002-03, to 158 in 2004-05

Read more at news.scotsman.com/healt...

...but on the positive side, alcohol related casualties have only risen by 17% with 40448 discharges for the same period.

R.I.P. Western Digital Caviar (12 Jan 2004 - 21 Jan 2006)

No longer shall you seek. Your gentle gurgle will be missed.

Radeon X1900 XTX, XT, Crossfire pricing revealed

Ouch! $649, that works out to around £366.137... That's the price of a budget laptop!

I supose this is going to be another one of those months where I can't bare to view my bank statement.

Read more at www.theinquirer.net/?ar...

Webcams

I've been looking for software to post snapshots from a webcam to a ftp site for the last two days... a simple request, you would think that there were more products available.

Out of the ones that I tried I eventually ended up going with Active WebCam from PY Software as it's the only one that I could find that actually met my limited requirements of supporting multiple cams, being under £20 and relatively bug free.

So, now I have the means for a "live" feed from the inside of my case to the web *grin*.

I had a problem with some of the tubing for my case's watercooling getting crimped when I closed the door. Unfortunately I can't mount a window anywhere sensible on my case so I put two old webcams that I had lying around inside to check on the tubing.

I think it's fine at the moment but I probably need to wrap a few more bits of the tube that tend to bend in Chameleon Spring though.

3DVisor.com: Z800 3DVisor

Hmmm... Perhaps I should get an HMD instead of upgrading my monitor.... I'd better work on my touch-typing.

No clues on prices yet.

Read more at www.3dvisor.com/product...

One down

I got into the top 10000 on SETI...

Well, ok, it's only for "Recent Average Credit". I should really try go for the "Total Credit" rankings as well... That will take a little longer (at least another month).

Happy New Year

Goals for 2006:

1. Get into the top 10000 SETI participants.
2. Get my computer into the top 20 on Futuremark's PCMark05 Hall of Fame.
3. Buy a house.

(1 should be easy enough, 2 is possible, 3 may not be achievable if I manage 2 though.)