Smiley's Life

Team Fortress 2’s The Heavy sings Baby so much better....

Sun, 05 Sep 2010 00:12:09 +0300

Team Fortress 2’s The Heavy sings Baby so much better. Honestly, I think the chorus and Scout’s rap bit are the best parts. ^^

Happy Birthday to me!

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 19:44:17 +0300

Today’s my birthday! Yaaaaay! :D

Today I was at Cinema City and as I was waiting in line at the...

Sun, 29 Aug 2010 04:14:00 +0300

Today I was at Cinema City and as I was waiting in line at the food court, I noticed a FAIL. Apparently, this place sells witches! Blasphemy!

P.S.: Before you say anything, I just submitted it to Failblog. Though, the word wasn’t circled and the image was less sharp. I hope it still gets featured! (Sorry for the lousy quality. Not only is my phone’s camera horrible, but I also had to use digital zoom.)

Security tip: Disable unneeded plug-ins

Sat, 21 Aug 2010 21:17:56 +0300

A little while ago, I visited a site which apparently uses browser exploits to infect PCs. Someone who tried to visit it got a notice from his AntiVirus, saying the virus was “JS/Exploit.Pdfka.NXM Trojan”. A short search has shown this is common among PDF files. Luckily, I had Adobe’s “Reader” plug-in disabled in Chrome. If it wasn’t, I may’ve had a virus right now. (Just in case, a virus scan is currently running in the background.)

Cases like this prove just how unsafe plug-ins can be. I suggest to disable any plug-ins you don’t use in your everyday life. It helps lighten the load on your system and lowers the chance a website could infect your computer (without downloading and installing something). To do this on Chrome, click the wrench icon at the right border of the toolbar, and click “Options”. Then switch to the third tab - “Under the Hood” (“Under the Bonnet” for me) - and click on “Content Settings…”. Pick the tab or list item “Plug-ins” (depending on Chrome’s version), and click on the link “Disable individual plug-ins…”.

I suggest disabling the following:

“Chrome PDF Viewer” and “Adobe Reader 9” - I don’t like to be surprised with PDFs in my browser. If I want to view a PDF, I’ll just download it like any other file and then use a PDF viewer application to view it. PDF plug-ins tend to take a while to load, plus this way you can be surprised with carefully-crafted, malicious PDF files.
“Microsoft® DRM” - What the hell is this thing? I certainly haven’t used it until now, so why should it be enabled?
“Java 6” - Java takes a while to load and allows embedded Java to run like a native app, making it a security risk. I barely use Java anyway, so if I ever run into a case where I absolutely need to use Java, and the widget is safe, I’ll enable it.

Plug-ins can be dangerous and pose a security risk due to various exploits that keep getting discovered every now and then. That is why it is recommended to disable those you don’t or won’t use. (Or ones that are more vulnerable to hacks than others, like PDF plug-ins.)

graphicly: I bet he’d tell you he’s the greatest Superhero...

Mon, 16 Aug 2010 20:06:25 +0300

graphicly:

I bet he’d tell you he’s the greatest Superhero ever.

geek-art:

zuppadivetro:

odomera:

Captain Obvious!

R.U.S.E. Won't Use Ubisoft PC DRM, Will Be Playable Offline Thanks To Steam

Sat, 14 Aug 2010 04:13:27 +0300

R.U.S.E. Won't Use Ubisoft PC DRM, Will Be Playable Offline Thanks To Steam:

G4tv.com:

Ubisoft confirmed today that thanks to Valve’s Steam platform, the publisher’s upcoming strategy game R.U.S.E. will be playable offline, thereby sidestepping Ubisoft’s oft criticized DRM protection.

“When R.U.S.E. is released in September,” Ubisoft senior community developer Aymeric Evennou posted on the game’s official forums, “it will benefit from Valve’s Steamworks API to offer the best community experience to players. Consequently, a Steam account and Internet connection will be required to activate the game, as per Steam policy. For this reason, R.U.S.E. will not use the Ubisoft protection. Single player can be played offline.”

Ubisoft has been dealing with the fallout of its decision to introduce PC security protections that require a constant internet connect to play offline since the release of Assassin’s Creed II back in March. Shortly thereafter, Ubisoft’s servers were hacked, preventing some ACII players from being able to play the game.

It will be interesting to see whether Ubisoft will run into the same problem it had with ACII and Silent Hunter 5 when it tries to release R.U.S.E. on Steam in the UK. I guess we’ll find out for sure when the game releases next month. I’m waiting to hear back from Ubisoft about it, so stay tuned.

YES! This is the beginning of the end to Ubisoft’s ridiculous “Online Platform” DRM scheme.

Mass Effect (and Red Dead Redemption) meets Toy Story

Fri, 13 Aug 2010 01:33:54 +0300

I came across this hilarious crossover from Kotaku:

And in the comments, I found these gems:

BioShock Infinite was recently announced by Irrational Games,...

Fri, 13 Aug 2010 01:13:20 +0300

BioShock Infinite was recently announced by Irrational Games, the geniuses behind the first BioShock. Being a diehard BioShock fan, I acted how you would expect: I freaked out. (In the good way!)

Infinite is a prequel that takes place in Columbia, a steampunk city floating in the sky, at 1918. Yes, the BioShock franchise is leaving Rapture! As much as I loved Rapture, I do think it’s time to leave it. 2K Marin still managed to make great use of Rapture in BioShock 2, but they were squeezing the last drops. We all know Rapture already, using it once more will not do any good to the franchise. It was a genius move to replace Rapture with the entirely opposite Columbia: up in the sky versus down in the sea, visible to all and a symbol of humanity’s technological progress versus hidden to everyone and secret & brutal and harsh versus “calm” and bright. In addition, Infinite’s Columbia is just as amazing and exceptional as Rapture. It’s not as scary, but it’s seems like the best replacement.

In Infinite people don’t attack you unless you stir up trouble. They don’t just jump on you like they don’t like the shirt you’re wearing, as seen in the first game. In addition, the scuba-diving Big Daddies are replaced by much scarier, mechanical steampunk giants powered by what appears to be a human heart. Also, according to the story you are an agent sent to Columbia to track down Elizabeth, a woman who was kidnapped and is held prisoner in Columbia ever since she was a child. This brings me to the next point - in Infinite, you gain a companion: Elizabeth! The two of you combine your Plasmid powers to unleash devastating attacks on your enemies and progress through the game. The rest of these changes can be found on Shacknews’s (excellent) article “BioShock Infinite Reveal Preview”.

Being a diehard fan, there’s already a 90% chance I’ll pre-order this game. Sadly, we’ll have to wait until 2012 to get it. :-(

P.S.: I see a “Games for Windows” logo but I don’t see the “LIVE” logo! Yay!

I hate EA Support.

Wed, 11 Aug 2010 00:14:00 +0300

A week ago, I finished playing Mass Effect. I liked the game very much, and tried the demo for Mass Effect 2 afterwards. I couldn’t wait to play Mass Effect 2, and looked it up on Steam. “Still at $49.99?” - A month or two ago, Mass Effect 2 was dropped to $39.99, but not in Steam’s Israeli region, and it annoyed me. But this time, I checked again, and what do you know - it’s now $29.99 in Steam’s US region!

I decided to do something about it, so I started a live chat with EA Support. In it I explained the situation, and they said they would bring my issue to someone higher to look into. During that time, they claimed Steam was a retail store (lie - I left a URL and stated Steam is a digital distribution platform by Valve), that they are not in charge or prices (lie - I stated Steam Support has redirected people to publishers when they complained about prices), that they don’t know what I’m talking about, and even tried to “bribe” me (in a way) with a $20 coupon for the EA Store. Why yes, EA: I’ll take your coupon for a store I never use! Games downloaded from the EA Store contain SecuROM, and on top of that, Steam’s download network is more reliable, so why not buy on Steam? In addition: the coupon does not work. ~~And they’ve yet to activate it yet. (The coupon was sent nearly a week ago.)~~ [EDIT: A live chat support rep was kind enough to create a new coupon, so at least I have that. Yay!]

Over 12 emails (in total - 6 by EA) later, they quietly admit that they are in charge of the prices, but screw me over by saying EA Support can’t do anything about it:

Greetings,

Thank you for contacting Electronic Arts.

Sorry for the delay. Unfortunately this is outside of the realm of customer support, so I won’t be able to give you the specific answer you’re desiring. However, I’ve sent a request for information regarding this, and if I do get word back, I can relay that to you. Thanks!

If you have any further questions or concerns please reply to this email or visit our extensive knowledge base online at http://support.ea.com.

Thank you,

Danny K
EA Online Support

That’s it? I paid EA thousands of shekels, or maybe even over a thousand dollars, over the past 10 years and they treat me this bad? I bought every The Sims expansion pack, all but two expansions for The Sims 2, pre-ordered The Sims 3 and stood in line on the morning of release day and bought The Sims 2 for the full retail price at a pre-release event, and this is the treatment I get?

Some of you might think they will eventually resolve this, since the rep said he sent a request. Well, that’s bullshit. After over 8 different issues with EA Support didn’t get resolved and were treated just as bad, I can guarantee you they will not try to resolve the issue. Even if that request was sent, the executive recipient will not give a damn. The fact the “compensation coupon” didn’t work and wasn’t fixed yet as of this writing is additional proof that EA Support are not going to help me.

[Electronic Arts logo used according to fair use under United States copyright law.]

Infinity Linden is busy

Mon, 09 Aug 2010 21:44:06 +0300

Infinity Linden is busy:

Sing this to Rick Astley’s Never Gonna Give You Up:

We’re no strangers to agni
You know the terms of service and so do I
A full commitment’s what’s I’m thinking of
You wouldn’t get this from any other Linden

I just wanna tell you how I’m feeling
Gotta make you understand

Never gonna lose your prims
Never gonna grief your sim
Never gonna get laggy and disconnect you
Never gonna crash your mac
Never gonna steal your lindens
Never gonna ignore your PJIRAs

[The song continues at the link! Just click the title]

A religious-poetic interpretation of Alejandro

Mon, 09 Aug 2010 21:01:45 +0300

I recently came across a rather poetic, smart interpretation of Lady Gaga’s song, Alejandro. Apparently, it’s not just a pop song:

Our teacher told this. Alejandro means man’s defender and protector (God.) Fernando means ardent for peace (Jesus.) Roberto means bright or shining fame (Holy Spirit.) Babe is the same as Child.

Don’t call my name, Don’t call my name, GOD.

I’m not your child, I’m not your child, Jesus

Don’t call my name, Don’t call my name, hol…y spirit.

God, just let me go. - Lady Gaga

I checked it out, and it’s valid: Alejandro is the Spanish form of the name Alexander, of which the Greek meaning is “defending men” and “protector of men”. Fernando means “ardent for peace” according to Visigothic tradition. Roberto (or plainly “Robert”) means fame or bright fame. And of course, babe also means a baby or infant. In addition, the theory sounds quite possible, seeing as the music video dealt with the acceptance of gays in the military and the church.

The craziest bit is that I got this theory from a YouTube comment. Credit goes to UnStopableToria!

gamefreaksnz: 2K Announce BioShock 2 DLC Minerva’s Den 2K’s...

Mon, 09 Aug 2010 00:59:29 +0300

gamefreaksnz:

2K Announce BioShock 2 DLC Minerva’s Den

2K’s announced the proper single-player DLC fans have been waiting for; Minerva’s Den, due out on Xbox Live, PSN and PC.

FUCK YEAH, FINALLY! I have been waiting for this type of DLC for so long. I just hope it comes out by the time I’ve upgraded to Windows 7. (Long story short: I need an XP patch to fix GFWL’s downloads, and it isn’t available for XP in Hebrew, thus I can only activate DLC under 500MB. Fuck you, Microsoft.)

dwineman: “MOM! BETHANY WON’T LET ME PLAY DOODLE JUMP!” “Play...

Sun, 08 Aug 2010 18:17:42 +0300

dwineman:

“MOM! BETHANY WON’T LET ME PLAY DOODLE JUMP!”

“Play your own games, Bradley. And let your sister finish her homework.”

Bradley kicked at the banister railing at the top of the stairs and stomped off to his room, flung himself onto his bed. So unfair, he fumed. Bethany gets all the cool games. Bethany gets to have an iPhone 4 and all I get is a stupid iPod touch which doesn’t even have a Retina Display or a three-axis solid-state gyroscope. Bradley had a tendency to memorize WWDC keynotes.

He kicked off his sneakers and stared at the wall, frustration turning acid in his mouth. If only his dad hadn’t used Restrictions to disable purchases on his iPod. If only he hadn’t gotten in trouble for buying that thousand-dollar “I Am Rich” app two years ago when Tony from across the street had dared him to. If only Doodle Jump were free. So many if-onlies.

Wait. Bradley sat up straight, his nine-year-old mind just clutching at the edge of an idea. A moment later he was down the hall, banging on Bethany’s door.

“I already said no, Bradley. Go away.”

“I’m scared.”

There was a pause, then he heard his sister getting up and walking to the door. A moment later she was looking down at him. “What are you scared of, Bradley?”

“I’m scared that Mom and Dad are going to die someday.”

She sighed and rolled her eyes, but she opened the door all the way. “Come sit down.” He ran in and climbed onto her desk chair. His legs dangled.

“What brought this on?” she asked, sitting on the bed.

He glanced over her desk, noticing the open math book and the iPhone next to it, running what looked like PCalc. “I dunno. I was just thinking about stuff, and remember how Mr. Pauletti had that scuba diving accident last year and now Tony doesn’t have a dad? I don’t want that to happen to us.”

His sister looked at the floor. Uh oh. I went too far. “Well, Mr. Pauletti wasn’t being careful, remember? He antagonized that stingray. Everybody knows you’re not supposed to antagonize stingrays. Dad taught us that at the aquarium, remember? So you don’t have to worry about him.”

“I guess.” He looked over at Bethany’s iPhone again. On TV the good guy always waits for just the right moment to grab the bad guy’s gun and bend his arm behind his back. But how does he know when it’s the right moment?

“And Mom is never going to let him go scuba diving anyway. Not now.”

“But what if Mom dies?” He pulled the chair a little closer to the desk.

“Mom’s not going to die.”

“But she might, and then there won’t be anyone to tell Dad that he shouldn’t go scuba—”

“MOM’S NOT GOING TO DIE, OKAY?” Bethany was crying. When did she start crying? She buried her face in her sleeve.

Now.

Bradley pounced on the iPhone and fled the room, earbuds trailing behind him, barely noticing his sister’s startled yelp. He made it back to his own room and locked the door just in time.

“BRADLEY! OPEN THIS DOOR!” She was still crying as she pounded.

Quickly he turned his attention to the purloined iPhone 4, taking only a moment to marvel for the dozenth time at the precision of its construction. Steve was right: it’s just like an old Leica camera. Home key, App Store, Search. Come on… there it is. Write A Review.

“BRADLEY! I’M NOT KIDDING!”

His thumbs danced across the onscreen keyboard, paying no attention to spelling — there was AutoCorrect for that — or proper capitalization. This was his one chance. “Make it count,” he said aloud as he typed out the exclamation point, the question mark, the second exclamation point, the second question mark, the third, the fourth, the fifth. No. That’s too many. Backspace. Just right.

The hallway was quiet. Had she given up? He listened for a moment, then heard what he had feared: two pairs of footsteps coming up the stairs. Bethany’s and… Mom’s? Worse: Dad’s. Oh no.

He had just enough time to add a postscript. But there was still something missing. Of course: a cute animal emoji. But which one?

The footsteps rounded the landing. They were almost at his door. No time to choose. All of them.

He heard the doorknob rattle, followed by a muffled swear. Then a scraping sound, which must have been his father feeling for the emergency key they kept on the molding above the door.

Octopus. Fish. The key sliding into the keyhole. Another fish. Whale. A soft click. Dolphin. Send.

It was done.

The door flew open. The rage was plain in his father’s eyes. Shaking, Bradley handed over Bethany’s iPhone. The door closed again. He was alone.

Whatever punishment was coming, it could never be as awful as the silence that preceded it.

But this time, he didn’t mind. In a few days, Doodle Jump will be free.

And so will I.

Best App Store fiction I’ve ever read.

Linden Lab: What the hell are you doing? I cannot believe you...

Thu, 05 Aug 2010 22:27:10 +0300

Linden Lab: What the hell are you doing?

I cannot believe you fired Qarl. He brought sculpted prims to Second Life, fixed more bugs and crashes than anyone can count, contributed massively to the upcoming mesh-importing features, greatly improved SL’s performance on low-end hardware and all for less than the average salary for his position. Your recent history has caused me to lose faith you more and more, and this last move destroyed the last bit of hope I had left.

It’s amazing that just a year ago I had a dream to work at Linden Lab. Now I don’t want anything to do with them.

Super creepy Pokémon hack

Thu, 05 Aug 2010 05:59:02 +0300

tinycartridge:

I stumbled on this unsettling story of an obscure Pokémon bootleg/art-hack that I thought might be neat to share on here. I think this originated from 4chan, so I’ve no idea if this hack actually exists. It probably doesn’t, but it’s still a great concept/tale!:

I’m what you could call a collector of bootleg Pokémon games. Pokémon Diamond & Jade, Chaos Black, etc. It’s amazing the frequency with which you can find them at pawnshops, Goodwill, flea markets, and such.

They’re generally fun; even if they are unplayable (which they often are), the mistranslations and poor quality make them unintentionally humorous.

I’ve been able to find most of the ones that I’ve played online, but there’s one that I haven’t seen any mention of. I bought it at a flea market about five years ago.

Read More

That is the creepiest hack I’ve ever seen.

I found this amazing mashup a few days ago - it’s a mashup...

Wed, 04 Aug 2010 02:57:20 +0300

I found this amazing mashup a few days ago - it’s a mashup of Lady Gaga’s Alejandro and Marina And The Diamonds’s I Am Not A Robot. It was made by the (awesome) DJ Surge-N, the same guy who made Tick-Toxic, the popular Toxic/What You Waiting For? mashup. I Am Not A Robot’s acapella fits with the tune of Alejandro’s instrumental, and I believe the mashup sounds pretty great.

P.S.: Since I come across a lot of great mashups and have a collection of over a hundred, maybe I should share one great mashup with you guys every week?

(via fuckyeahalbuquerque) Yay! Snake is awesome.

Tue, 03 Aug 2010 01:38:00 +0300

(via fuckyeahalbuquerque)

Yay! Snake is awesome.

Using iOS push notifications to advertise your other apps is bad.

Sun, 01 Aug 2010 15:41:52 +0300

This is the second time this has happened in 2 days, and I’m sick of it. An unknown person (who I’ve blanked out) has invited me to play a game I’m not even interested in with him, through another app. ngmoco:), if you’re reading this: this is unacceptable. At least I don’t have instantaneous notifications (I’m using an iPod touch), so it’s not that bad, but I’m sick of getting these “invites” which are essentially pop-up ads for your other apps.

I’ve already contacted ngmoco:) through Twitter two days ago, and they’ve yet to respond, so I reported it as an issue on their Get Satisfaction site. If you’re sick of it too, or just play any of ngmoco:)’s games and don’t like this idea help me by voting in favour of removing this “functionality” from GodFinger and others. You can sign up to Get Satisfaction, or just sign in with your Windows Live ID, Facebook account or Open ID account.

thewickedend: 1.Find a large padlock 2.Find the nearest hipster...

Fri, 30 Jul 2010 00:17:31 +0300

thewickedend:

1.Find a large padlock

2.Find the nearest hipster with large tunnel plugs

3.Lock it onto their ear

4.Run like fuck

I just finished watching this great film called Shelter. Shelter...

Thu, 22 Jul 2010 05:20:43 +0300

I just finished watching this great film called Shelter. Shelter is a romantic drama about a young guy named Zach (Trevor Wright) who is forced to give up his dreams of becoming an artist due to family obligations. While helping his sister (Tina Holmes) out with her child Cody (after Cody’s father left), he meets Shaun (Brad Rowe), his best friend’s (Gabe, played by Ross Thomas) brother whom Zach has known since his childhood. The two start to surf and hang out together, and develop a friendship that turns into a relationship and the story goes on from there.

The film is very good. The acting is superb, the writing is very good and there’s true, great chemistry between the actors playing Zach and Shaun. I highly recommend this film, even if you’re not gay.