Took this panorama two days ago when I was coming out of a statistics lecture at Uni.
I've got to say I'm pretty envious of the students that get live in the new dorms they get some really lovely sunsets almost everyday.

Hope ya'll enjoy it.

When I'm happy with the number of panoramas I've taken I'll probably release a wallpaper pack for people with multiple monitors.

For the high resolution version drop by my deviantArt site here.

Many thanks to AyesDyef for bringing the parts down from Sydney personally and getting them machined for me.
You sir are credit to team!

Check out more of his work at his youtube channel here.
I also believe he has a Nico Nico Douga channel but I'll have to find the link somewhere.

Disclaimer: This mod involves using power tools therefore if you're young, don't know what you're doing ask an adult to help you out, and make sure you're wearing safety equipment.
I will not be responsible for injuries resulting from you dropping a drill on your feet or taking someone's eye out with your darts.
I will not be responsible for any damage or breakage that may befall your Nerf Longshot.
This mod tutorial comes as is.

Without further ado let us start modding our Nerf Longshot.Below is a list of the required tools:

• Power drill or Dremel with appropriate bits.
• Phillips head screwdriver
• Flat head screwdriver
• Clawhammer
• Small Brush

First off we need to take apart the rifle.Remove the cocking handle this can be done using a claw hammer or a screwdriver with a little leverage this process should be easier the next time round.Time to unscrew the gun; first  remove the buttstock.Then remove the screws holding the gun together.

Note the tape that prevents losing screws

After you have unscrewed all the screws holding the rifle together gently ease the rifle open, don't just pop it open as you'll end up losing springs or the gun will explode its parts everywhere.
Notice how I've used some tape to hold the screws in on the other half of the casing.With this mod I removed the bipod as I wanted to use my Longshot more like a rifle than something you can deploy so it's just matter of removing the screws and popping the legs out.
Alright below is a diagram of the insides of the gun (Thanks Captainslug for making the diagram) you need to remove the whole bolt section and plunger chamber (pictured under the diagram).Above is the plunger tube that holds the air restrictors and the air plunger itself.Unscrew these black screws, they hold the plunger in place.
Remove the plunger. At this point it's possible for you to add in extra springs or improve the seal with a better O-ring.
But in my case I haven't added anything at risk of putting the gun over the power rating for HvZ ANU.

Note the glue (sorry about the poor lighting)

In the bottom of the tube you will see a black piece of plastic this is the panel that covers the air restrictor and it too is an air restrictor so both need to be removed.
Some of the earlier models this part was only wedged in so no drilling was necessary but in my case they had glued it in so I had to whip out the power drill.
I used a small drill bit to make a center hole to gauge how much plastic I had to drill through, then used a 13mm bit to drill the hole and a grinding bit to clean the edges.After a bit of drilling we end up with a clean hole and if you look closely you can see the air restrictor at the bottom of the tube, pull it out with a pair of needle nose pliers.The air restrictor that was held in place by the plate should look something like the little black piece of plastic above.
You should be able to see through the tube (below).Put the gun back together.

Notice how the barrel isn't aligned properly? That was why I lost half my range during the first test fire.

Make sure all the bits line up correctly and that they fit snuggly together.
This is important as in my first test fire I though I'd lost half my range which didn't make sense until I took apart the gun and found I hadn't aligned the barrel properly.

Then it's lock and load, test fire your Longshot you should get a couple of extra meters and the darts should fly straight for a bit longer.
There is a side effect with the AR gone; your darts will fishtail I have a few hypothesis as to why this happens (feel free to discuss in the comments but stupid comments will be deleted):

a) the barrel does not provide a snug fit for your darts so 100% of the air is not being forced behind your darts with each shot, the dart more likely bounces around in the barrel before leaving.

b) There is too much air and not enough barrel in my opinion a longer barrel or a muzzle brake can possibly remedy this problem (don't use the stock barrel extension you lose lots of range and accuracy).

c) the darts themselves are not evenly balanced so the lighter tail goes everywhere while the heavier tip tries to keep a straight flight path resulting in the spin.

Anyway, if it all goes well and nothing broke you should end up with a Longshot that isn't gimped by the air restrictors and be able to hit people a few more meters away.
Enjoy!
For those wondering where I got the sticker from it's from the cool guys/girls at J!NX check em out here.

Having managed to get a key for the Beta I've been for the past few weeks playing around on it.

The beta features the Rush game mode and one map: Port Valdez.
Port Valdez set in the snowy Alaskan landscape is a four stage map in which the defenders with unlimited reinforcement tickets must defend sets of M-COM stations.
Whilst the attacking team must demolish these stations before they run out of reinforcements.

For each stage the attacking team completes they are awarded with extra reinforcements; objectives can be destroyed in various ways the primary method is to run up to the station, activate the demolition charge on it, and defend it until it detonates.
Alternatively you can just use the Recon's C4 charges to demolish the building containing the M-COM or place the charges on the station itself.

Both teams are provided with a variety of vehicles the Russians (attackers) are given a tank, an APC and quad bikes.
While the Americans (defenders) are only afforded vehicles after the first stage falls.
Although only given an APC they do get access to the infamous Apache attack helicopter that in the hands of a talented pilot can cause the opposing team to grind to a halt, unfortunately it's a double edged sword as in the previous Battlefield game vehicles can be stolen.

Aside from the new game mode one of the major differences from the previous Battlefield game is the smaller number of classes more so EA has consolidated the classes: Recon is still by far the most recognisable class keeping his infamous C4 charges and high powered sniper rifle, the Medic has now been provided with a light machine gun instead of the familiar assault rifle giving him an infantry support role along with keeping his squad alive, Assault doubles as the Support class being able to now deploy ammo packs, and finally the Engineer doubles as Anti-Tank been given a rocket launcher to deal with tanks or later on deploy mines.

Unlocks have been reworked from the old Battlefield 2 system; now all unlocks depend on how much you play a class so for instance you play lots of Engineer you only unlock Engineer related unlocks and specialisations.
Specialisations are usually class specific such as a more powerful scope for the Recon to use or faster healing health kits for the Medic.
Specialisations are not limited to infantry as use of vehicles are rewarded with unlocks that enable the player to have more armour on any vehicle they get into or being able to passively detect enemies around their vehicle.
EA has still kept universal unlocks like in Battlefield 2 which come with ranking up these unlocks are applicable to all classes; they can range from being able to run faster to being able to wearing extra body armour.

Okay so there’s new unlocks and neater classes, how do they play together?
From the hours of game play that I’ve spent on the game they interact fairly well so long as your team don’t all decide to play as Recon, Port Valdez is fairly balanced enabling equal opportunity for either side to win, and with the addition of destructible cover it makes it a very interesting prospect for the defending team.

Recon still plays very similarly like in BF2; you find a nice camping spot and pick off your victims although the unlockable binoculars enables a Recon player to call down a mortar strike to flush out or destroy pockets of resistance.
Medic is still king if you want to quickly rank up as you can become the top player in the game simply by running around reviving team mates and healing, now that you’re packing a machine gun it makes it all the more easier to defend yourself and support your squad.

Assault is all offensive you run into the fray guns blazing firing off 40mm grenades and can have an infinite amount thanks to the ammo packs you can deploy.
Finally the Engineer plays very much like in the original game except now you’re not stuck with a shotgun but are given an assault rifle to defend yourself with, your role now expanded to Anti-tank duties means you get to do the risky job of blowing up armoured vehicles although play style of the engineer hasn’t really differed much from BF2 play.

Vehicles like in the previous game are a huge trump card but useless without support, for instance the Main Battle Tank (MBT) no longer has a driver machine gun but requires a second crew member to mount the top mounted machine gun luckily for the second crew member the machine gun is remote controlled meaning they won’t attract sniper fire.
Usually a tank charging into a base without that second crew member will not survive for long as you’ll undoubtedly become an RPG magnet.

Enough about the gameplay, what’s the game look like?
The user interface is slick, easy to navigate and logical.
The visuals in this preview are of the game at medium quality and I have to say this game looks absolutely gorgeous, the models are detailed, and particle effects are amazing.
Now for those people who think they can get away with playing this game with absolute minimum spec you should think again, this game is fairly resource heavy so anything mid/high end from the last 2 years will run it great any older and you’ll need to lose some eye candy.

Alright so now I’ve covered most of the game’s good points now it’s time to gripe.
My first gripe is EA in all its infinite wisdom has removed the ability to go prone (lie down on your stomach) this is a huge annoyance especially when you’re trying to take cover in a crater as snipers can still see the top of your head because you can only crouch.

My second gripe is with the god awful server browser, although the interface is slick it lacks most of the features you’ll find in a server browser: The ability to filter by region, the ability to order the servers by properties, and the ability to stop the server list from updating since it’s infinitely long due to having no regional filters.
My final gripe is the game’s stability only two weeks from release and there’s a show stopping bug that seems to appear out of nowhere like dropbears.

Aside from these issues I haven’t had huge problems playing Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and immensely enjoyed my Beta experience, so aside from my above gripes I had lots of fun, and look forward to the retail release of Bad Company 2.

For those Battlefield veterans still leaning on the fence about buying Bad Company 2 I’d say take the jump and parachute into the Battlefield universe once more for another ride.

New wallpaper for y'all to enjoy.
This time it's the Minmatar Wreathe Industrial.

I picked her up in my travels according to the plank owners plaque on board she dates back to the Minmatar Independence wars.

On a trip around the world of EVE I docked up at a Urban Management station and saw this mothball Wreathe sitting in the docks.
Sensing an opportunity I got in contact with the owner who happen to be a fellow trader who was looking to get rid of it apparently a late relative of his passed it on to him.
But seeing as he was the owner of a several Freighters I wasn't surprised he didn't have a use for it short of reprocessing it.
Anyway he sold the boat to me for a pittance since he was almost willing to pay me to get rid of it.
After some quick restoration work on her she was ready to fly until someone found the plaque with the names of the original plank owners and commissioning date.

She dates back to the Minmatar independence wars with the Amarr, had somehow survived intact and went on to trade for the remainder of her life...

She's now on display as a memorial to the merchant convoys that travelled the void of space to deliver goods for the Minmatar resistance.

Yes, I know I'm lazy since I quoted my DeviantArt description but that's all there really is to its backstory.

For the larger version click here.

Enjoy!

Apparently the Hubble Space Telescope picked this up a week or so ago it's apparently debris from an asteroid collision which generates a comet like trail of debris behind it.
Though for those who play EVE Online and have a sharp eye it looks more like a Dramiel frigate speeding through space a ship that the Angel Cartel fields.

Dramiel

Could it be that the boffins at NASA got it wrong and what we're actually seeing is a Dramiel in space or is it just a coincidence?

Anyway you can check out the article here (Yes, I know its a bit old).

After much convincing and several million isk later.
I finally acquired a test model of the Prophecy from Khanid Innovations. Yes, the same people who designed the Damnation command ship.

When she turned up in my hanger she looked like she had seen better days. So after a few days of refitting, a new coat of paint and lots of polish she looked just like new.

And here I present to you the Khanid Innovations Prototype Prophecy in all her glory in a wallpaper.

Posed in Garry's Mod, logos vectored in Illustrator, wallpaper and composition was done in Photoshop.

Grab a copy of her here.

Before that since it was a Sunday we went to church service with our family friends who are kind enough to host us (props to them) here in Perth, the church was Sunset Coast Church.
It was a very eye opening experience to say the least, my old view of the classic preacher in church was blown out of the water in fact when we rocked up to service it was like entering some sort of rock concert with performers on a large stage and singing evangelistic music.
The service was pretty standard affair with awesome musical interludes in-between: Church news, explanation of scripture, prayer and passing around the donation buckets the general stuff you'd expect from going to church.
The musical interludes I have to admit were of extremely high quality and the whole operation was damn slick complete with charismatic preacher.

Anyway after service it was Wai-con time dispite having to take serveral detours, and parking 5 minutes short of the convention center we eventually made our way to the venue.

After paying and getting our passes we proceeded to get stuck into the event browsing the various stalls, checking out what they have on offer and of course checking out the cosplays.

So here are some pics of the cosplay I took and some courtesy of my sister:

And of course the spoils of war:

Edit: Fixed the miss-directed links.

As per suggestion from my sister I have created a Twitter account to accompany this blog hopefully this will give my readers an alternative way to stay updated on recent/future developments appart from suscribing to my rss feed.

Follow me on Twitter here.