Yes, believe it or not I am actually still alive, after a while away I’m back to abuse the freedom of speech that is commonly called blogging. A lot has been going on, both in life and in public affairs, with me being in my final year things have been very busy, its about time I actually wrote something here.

To make up for the lack of posting for so long I am going to make this entry pretty long, as there are quite a few things I guess I have to have a say about (what’s new there hey?), so I will try and break this entry up in a manner that is easy to follow and read.

So read on about the Cyril Paciullo (Patchou) MVP Saga, Sony’s possible mistake(s) with the PS3, PSP Homebrew developments and my gripes with EA Sports and particularly problems with Fifa 07…

The Cyril Paciullo (Patchou) MVP Saga

This first matter on my mind has to do with the presence of the Messenger Plus! logo in the caption image for this entry as some of you may or may not have heard, Cyril Paciullo (otherwise known as Patchou) was awarded an Microsoft MVP (Microsoft Most Valuable Professional) award for his contribution to the MSN/Windows Live Messenger community at the beginning of October as announced by Patchou himself on the Windows Live Messenger news section. However, soon after the award was revoked by Microsoft due to various statements made by other MVPs who questioned the award due to adware that is bundled as an optional add-on to Messenger Plus! (Sources:The Register, Vitalsecurity.org, Messenger Plus! Forums).

Even though I understand what the MVPs who opposed the award are saying, people are quick to write off the true reason why Patchou was indeed considered and eventually awarded the MVP status, his contribution to the messenger community cannot be missed. His messenger extension has done nothing but help attract more users to use MSN/Windows Live Messenger official client, even with myself transferring over to the official client from others due to the extensibility that Messenger Plus! Live provided. At the end of the day, Patchou spends a lot of his own time developing the program so that millions of people can use it to enhance their messenger experience, this time and effort does have a monetary cost and Patchou offers a means to support his work via donations or the optional adware.

Okay, maybe the choice for bundled software isn’t the wisest choice Patchou could have made (I have never personally installed it), but why revoke an award completely because of it? How about maybe an incentive warning first, asking that he removes the software bundle from the installer or the award will be revoked? Because I personally feel that Cyril Paciullo has done enough for the messenger community to warrant the award of the MVP status, and I think people have their heads too buried in the sand to realize that, and its a shame the whole saga had to occur as it did…

Sony’s Mistake with the PS3?

Right secondly, something recent I have been mulling over is Sony’s delay of the Playstation 3 (PS3) to Europe until March 2007 with the launch of the PS3 proceeding as scheduled in November (rumored to be the 17th of November) 2006. I think in a way this will hinder their dominance/influence on the next generation market in Europe, especially with the Nintendo Wii being released before Christmas and the XBox 360 releasing accessories that aim to make up for features that it may lack as a singular unit.

When it was announced that the PS3 would be delayed again for Europe (regardless of the reasons) I think Sony immediately lost some of their grip on customers that were originally holding out for the PS3, with them declaring it the last straw and concentrating their sights on either the Wii or the XBox 360 for Christmas, a vital period in the gaming sector. If it was the first occurrence of a delay on the schedule I don’t think it would have had as much impact, but considering the delay announcements kept coming, people have since decided to give up the wait…

I’m really hoping I am wrong however, because the PS3 has huge potential, with statements saying that the first generation of PS3 games wont be harnessing the true power of the PS3′s Cell processor, it seems to give a lot of legroom for games to further advance, develop and get more realistic without the need to buy add-on hardware and/or accessories, a huge plus when it comes to the consideration of the lifetime of the machine. This compacted with the system’s multimedia features, online connectivity and ability to interact with the PSP, just goes to show how much the system could come to use in a living room / lounge as more than just a gaming console…

However, all is not lost for Sony, as they still have a huge backing from major game development companies and also major television/movie studios in regards to the blu-ray medium, they can also probably expect that PSP owners will indeed want to get a PS3 to make extra use of their slick hand held console… After all, regardless of all the delays, I for one am still waiting eagerly for the PS3 to finally make its arrival, because at the end of it all I believe it will be worth the wait…

The PSP and the homebrew community

Being a PSP owner I keep a close eye on the homebrew community and its works for the PSP, and I have been very impressed by the progression of the development of what they call custom firmware, especially a project by a very talented developer called Dark_AleX, dubbed 2.71 Special Edition, as you’d expect the basis for the firmware is the 2.71, however it has been modified to include the ability to run homebrew utilities that only the 1.50 can run, therefore unleashing the full potential of the PSP with the most notable new features of the latest firmwares being available to you whilst still maintaining the 1.50′s flexibility. A lot of people are reverting to the 2.71 Special Edition (2.71 SE) due to the convenience it provides in loading backed up games etc, and to be honest with something that does basically what the 1.50 does but even more, why wouldn’t you?

Even though Sony ($ony) seem to frown on the development of homebrew utilities and as such continue to update their firmwares with “security” updates in an aim to stop the usage of homebrew applications, the homebrew community do not lay back and let it happen. Talented individuals such as Dark_AleX and BOOSTER (the latter of which recently had a run in with Sony and therefore has quietened in his development for the scene) have taken strides to help the community by developing methods to use the updated firmware whilst still retaining the ability to run homebrew. So to the community out there who continue to develop and support homebrew for the PSP, I say thank you, and I look forward to seeing what else your creative minds have conjured up in the near future.

My Electronic Arts (EA) Sports Gripe

I purchased Fifa 07 when it was released for the PC and ever since its been nothing but problems, the install went fine, but that was about it. I have a HIS ATi Radeon X850XT-PE IceQ II graphics card in my desktop machine, which to be honest runs games like Half-Life 2 at high quality settings just fine, but yet I start playing Fifa 07 at 1280×1024 at high graphics settings and I get really bad stuttering in the cutscenes… I log on to EA Sports forum for fifa 07 to find I am not alone, people with top end graphics cards were experiencing the same problems, EA then post some config file hack and tells users to reduce graphic levels…

I’m sorry, correct me if I am wrong, I bought my graphics card to be able to play games at high settings, then I go and buy a game that should run with no problems at high settings and I am told I have to reduce the quality settings because they weren’t thorough enough with their testing… Come on EA shape up! Then comes the saga with the roster update for the PC that would update all the teams to the state they were come the end of the transfer deadline, the PS2 update was released on the day of release just as the PC patch was meant to… But in fact it ended up being a month long wait before any patch was released, and when it was, the roster update wouldn’t save unless user intervention was initiated, and then online gaming ceased to work because EA servers didn’t recognize the updated version…

So what stage am I at? I have managed to get the rosters to save after manually forcing a save of the updated rosters, however, after installing the now released Internet Explorer 7 (IE 7) the online aspect of Fifa 07 crashes out, returning me to my desktop at an ugly 800×600 resolution which I have to manually revert back to my native 1280×1024. Considering IE 7 is now being pushed out as an automatic update, I sincerely hope that EA fix this problem soon, as every computer with IE 7 installed is experiencing the same problem… After sending EAUK_Protagonist (forum admin and EA employee) a private message on the EA Forums a week ago, he confirmed they were aware of the issue (even though no formal acknowledgment has been made on the forum or otherwise) and were working to fix the issue… As of yet there has been no further news on this issue…

The moral of the story? If EA don’t shape up, I’ll be very reluctant to buy any of their games from any of their franchises.

Something along the lines of life… And the end of the ramble

Well… as I said this has turned out a very long post, and even though I haven’t covered everything thats been on my mind, nor what I have been up to, the major recent issues/thoughts I have faced have been depicted. As for the thing I call my life? Well it carries on, with my missus still managing to put up with me after quite a while, I’m surprised she hasn’t gone mentally insane yet!

I recently went back down to Weston-Super-Mare to visit my mother who was visiting the UK and staying with my aunt and uncle, and it’s been a while since I have actually been down there. Not much has changed, surprise surprise, but I took my missus down the Grand Pier to experience the main attraction of the area, but Weston in general is a lot quieter than I remember :-s But then again I have been in Manchester for the past 3 years.

But it did make me think, it’s always good to move on in life, to explore new territories and new adventures, but no matter how far you travel away from your roots and your past, returning back can bring back a realization of just how much you have achieved in life and may even inspire you to extend your goals.

I think I am going to call it a day for now, congratulations if you’ve survived reading this far, until next time, take care, and look after yourself…