libertus

Oh dear. Scarcity doesn’t imply quality.

It was ages before I found Mariokart Wii in a shop. I remembered being a fan of the previous versions of the game on the SNES and N64 so had no reservations about buying it for the Wii. I wish I hadn’t.
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It’s a pain trying to buy the most popular game in the world. It took an age to find but we finally have it - Wii Fit.

We bought it to help out with the “diet thing”. Having spent a few hours with it now, I can say that it’s very interesting and definitely more a workout tool than it is a game. Computer-aided exercise - what will they think of next?

Nintendo at their best. Highly recommended, if you can get one, that is

I completed Super Mario Galaxy this weekend, not in the purist sense of doing absolutely everything, but in the normal sense of having helped Mario to beat Bowser and rescue Princess Peach.

Awesome game. 9½ out of 10.

Wow! It just can’t get any better than this. I’ve been banging on for months about how the Wii would be perfect for a scuba diving game. Well, Endless Ocean isn’t a game but I imagine it’ll be 90% of what I had in mind. Released on 9^th November 2007, the same day I return to the UK, it’ll be a must buy for me!

Here are some YouTube videos and be sure to check out the Wikipedia entry.

When I got home the Wii’s disc tray was glowing blue indicating that I had mail, which is good. It turned out to be another gift mail from Nintendo. Free USB keyboard support! I immediately downloaded the system update, plugged in a USB keyboard and typed a message to my brother. Fucking joy! Worked like a charm.

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Now my Ubuntu workstation, part-way upgraded to the 7.10 “Gutsy Gibbon” release, works almost as elegantly as my Windows machines have worked forever. My network music store now auto-mounts into my home directory when I login. Finally. I’ve been beating away at this, on and off, for bloody years. I’m just not a great sysadmin, I guess!

Method follows.

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My friends know that I’m a bit of a political geek and like to keep abreast of what our elected representatives are doing, so I follow the Official Reports of the UK Parliaments with an almost religious fervour, although I’ve been a bit lazy recently and just been watching the BBC Parliament channel.

I’m also a huge fan of theyworkforyou.com, a volunteer-run website which republishes the Official Reports of the House of Commons, House of Lords and the Northern Ireland Assembly in a far friendlier form than the “official” sites, with the added bonus of public commentary and statistical analysis of the MP’s performance.

Missing from theyworkforyou.com is the Official Report of the Scottish Parliament, all the more sorely missing due to the now very interesting constitution of that body with its minority SNP government. Republishing an official record is no easy task, for a number of reasons that I’ll go into later, but I know for sure that I have all the requisite skills and tools to do it.

I’ve had this project on the back-burner for some months now and since I’m starting a new job soon, any spare time I might have to work on hobby projects is going to vanish.

So here I go. I don’t need to get it perfect - just far enough along so that someone else can pick up and complete the task.
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Having a mate who works in a game store is a real bonus when it comes to play-testing. I took my Wii to the shop and we spent some time checking out all the games we could get our hands on (the ones returned for exchange mostly), so that I could figure out which ones I wanted to buy. Hey… there’s no such thing as a free lunch and not making your customers feel ripped off is good business!

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I logged my first dive for the third time today. I’ve paid £3.95 for one month in which time I can log as many dives, write as many stories and make as many changes as I please.