Managed to pick up a few extra shifts at work this week, although the money isn’t going far. Didn’t do much over the weekend, got a 30 day trial account for Xbox Live. Console online gaming sure is different to PC, I’m yet to see a single game actually tell you a ping time or allow basic server filtering.

EA Games’ approach is certainly half assed, you’re just automatically dumped in to a game hosted on an EA server, and each client takes turns at being ‘Leader’ (allowed to select game options like tracks). PGR 3 seems to have much better online support, actually allowing you to create your own game (host).

Communication leaves much to be desired if you cannot afford a headset and microphone. You can’t use just any old headset and mic, it has to be an Xbox one with a proprietary connector. You can send instant messages to other gamers, if you don’t mind using the analog stick to move around a qwerty keyboard. I’m not sure whether to blame Microsoft (and their more than likely crappy SDK) or the game developers for the poor online play – perhaps I’m just expecting too much from a console.

Either way, certainly not worth $10.95 a month in my opinion, not on top of game costs and your own broadband internet connection. As a side note, burned games work online just fine, and I have seen no evidence that Microsoft is able to detect modified optical drive firmware (via Dashboard updates or otherwise).

We’re all familiar with the Genie effect, and Scale – but apparently the Apple developers were also working on a third minimize effect called Suck-in – I guess somebody forgot to remove it entirely from the final builds. You can enable this effect using TinkerTool, as well as many other cool tricks. You’ll also note the transparent dock in that screenshot, achieved by running ClearDock.

Just realised I haven’t updated this in some time. I’ve had the Macbook back for well over a week now. The top case was replaced, and the new battery seems to be working fine. I’m yet to pull off the plastic cover over the palm rest of the Macbook, I probably should before I wind up with a big colour difference, kind of like when you move the couch and realise how dirty the floor around it is.

I’m still debating whether or not I should sell it and try and get a Macbook Pro, they can be had quite cheaply on eBay if you don’t mind the older Core Duo. On the other hand, I really want to put some cash towards a new TV, I’m getting tired of watching everything on this 19″ Widescreen LCD, although it is still larger than our old TV.

I’m currently forcing myself to sit through Star Trek: Enterprise. I never got around to watching the whole show, only the first and last episodes. If you consider it a standalone sci-fi show, it’s actually really good. However when it has to live up to the Star Trek name, it’s extremely poor.

I’m replaying through Need For Speed Carbon, this time on the Xbox 360. Graphically, it’s on par with the PC version, looking better in some areas, and not so good in others. Gone are the days when consoles just ‘ran’ games at a set speed, with a constant resolution and frame rate. Even the 360 slows to crawl when trying to load some cars. Probably more optimization related than anything, seeing as the tri-core PPC processor is no slouch. If I could pick up a 360 cheap enough, I probably would honestly consider purchasing one if for nothing else than the range of game titles available.