I took this photo a while ago but on that day I was bored and wanted to try something different.
So I requisitioned some matches and proceeded to try and capture the moment a match ignites.

The setup was very simple: The camera was setup on a tripod pre-focused in drive mode and with remote trigger. The matches were soaked in alcohol so they could lit like a fuse providing time to get ready to trigger the camera's shutter via remote.
Of course this was all down to good timing which ment I went through many matches to get a half decent shot...

Drop us a comment and as usual high res version is on my deviantArt site here.

The Classification Review Board (the Review Board), after reviewing Left 4 Dead 2 has come to the conclusion that it could not accomodate Left 4 Dead 2 within the MA 15+ bracket and has classified Left 4 Dead 2 as RC (Refused Classification).
This was due to same issues that arose when the game was originally rejected for classification - the depiction of dismemberment and 'graphic' violence pertained within the game.

Apparently though the modified version that is classified as MA15+ will only be sold in Australia so we won't be getting the unedited and ungimped version.

Check out the media release here for more information about the rejection of the unedited version.

Yay, for outdated classification laws diluting another highly anticipated game.

So I either I don't get the joke here or I should send this to the cops.
In any case posting shit like this whether it be an innocent joke or actual intent can be admissible as evidence in court as motive to commit a crime.

Check out my channel here.

And remember kids work a part/full time job and you too can easily save up for a sweet rig.

That's right you heard it right Aussie gamers. We will not be getting Left 4 Dead 2 in Australia as it has been refused classification by the Classifications Board this week.
The report on the game said it contained ""realistic, frenetic and unrelenting violence" and therefore was refused classification, as the current classification system Australia does not have an R18+ rating for computer games similar to that for movies.

Early reports the games' success is going to be huge in Australia and the rest of the world.

It's a shame really instead of gamers buying a game locally in Australia and spending their money here they'll just resort to a) importing overseas, b) pirating the game or c) just not play it at all.

This issue has once again put into the limelight that Australia still does not have an R18+ rating and that the classification system is in much need of reform. This is not an old issue though as there has been attempts at introducing an R18+ rating for games in Australia with all Attorney Generals of each of the states agreeing, except for Michael Atkinson an attorney general from South Australia who voted against.

Currently he is the only one preventing a new rating system being implemented, according to him he is 'protecting the children' from being exposed to such material. But wait! I though it was up to the parents to monitor what their children are viewing, but then I guess it's just easier to blame the developers when you find out your kid is playing a violent game instead of looking at the big fat red sticker on the game box.
Why raise your children when the government can do it for you?

I for one had strict parents who didn't even let me watch movies or play games they considered were not suitable for me that was until I hit 15 which then I was allowed the freedom to watch/play most games and movies barring buying porn (but that's what the internet is there for right?).
It's not very hard to see what games your kids are playing as being a parent means you have absolute control, monitoring what content passes through your house hold and the simple act of reading the rating does help somewhat when you're buying computer games for your kids hell I was asked to be accompanied by my dad back then when I tried to buy Fallout Tactics which had an MA15+ rating.

Anyway I'd say write polite complains to the Classification Board to protest their decision might help sway their decision but writing to or estimed Michael Atkinson would just result in typical political spin.

Electronic Arts(EA) the distributor for Australia is still working with the classification board to resolve this issue and it will be allowed to be sold in Australia in its pure undiluted form like F.E.A.R 2: Project Origin which had a similar story but having its' ban lifted.
Instead of a gimped release in the case of Fallout 3.

Although I do enjoy living in Australia and enjoy its' many freedoms, I have to say it is akin to living in a country town: nice to living in but not modern.

Edit: After a bit of digging around on the internet Atkinson apparently posted a letter to the editor for the Adelaide Advertiser about the very subject of video game censorship in Australia only to be later rebutted by a gentlemen of  57 years of age; Terry O’Shanassy. The rebuttal was done  in such a fashion that Atkinson very much got 'owned'.

Source News.com.au

So imagine you went for a spot of urban exploration and found yourself lost in the stormwater drains. What do you do?
Do you: call triple-0 on your phone to contact the emergency services or do you update your Facebook status to say you're trapped in some drains?

Well two girl 10 and 12 from Adelaide were in the exact same predicament after a foray into the Adelaide stormwater drain system, and which choice did they choose?
Update their Facebook status to being lost of course. What modern teen would be so un-hip to call the emergency services with their web enabled phones?

According Glenn Benham from the Metropolitan Fire Service (MFS):

"If they were able to access Facebook from their mobile phones, they could have called 000, so the point being they could have called us directly and we could have got there quicker than relying on someone being online and replying to them and eventually having to call us via 000 anyway." he said.

Obviously the emergency services were concerned that posting online about your predicament, instead of calling  would delay a rescue effort, and that the girls were lucky that a friend was online to notice that the girls were trapped and called 000.

Now this particular incident reminds me of a particular episode of The IT Crowd.

Source

I say is that a hatless idling Irishman?

So a few days ago I booted up Team Fortress 2 after a mate asked me to check if my items were gone. Apparently because Valve had started to remove items gained by using Drunken F00l's Idler Program which basically emulated you being connected to a Team Fortress 2 server.
Indeed I was greeted with the following:

Your account has been flagged for circumventing the item distribution system. We have removed the items that were illegally obtained. Future violations will result in the loss of all your items.

Valve had removed all the items I had gained using the idler which as two hats: The Heavy's football helmet and the Glorious Officer's Ushenka.
I am rather jarated off that Valve has all of a sudden pimp slapped a large percentage of its active Team Fortress 2 player base without stating its position on this matter months before this fiasco. The creator had emailed Valve about this months before asking for Valve's opinion and also offered to voluntarily shut down operations if Valve requested, making it unforgivable for Valve to not have made an official post on their Team Fortress 2 blog warning idlers that its use was disapproved.

Instead of posting up a warning to all idler users Valve takes a different approach; it proceeds to take all items that idlers have gotten using the idler program, labelled them "Cheaters" and a final slap in the face, given all other users who did not use the idler program hats more specifically a "Halo" hat.
Now the community is in uproar about how Valve has handled this matter people who idled are not helping those with halos and those with halos refuse to help people who have idled. It has divided the community and many people have refused to play Team Fortress 2 ever again.
Although Valve has stated that only 3.5% of Team Fortress 2 owners were affected it seems that the number has been skewed as instead of being the number of active Team Fortress 2 players it is the number of people who own the game which it was bundled with The Orange Box. At its peak the idler server numbered roughly 10,000+ idlers at any given time, according to some users the number sits somewhere around the realm of 25-33.3% of the active player base has been affected by this fiasco.

Although I am unhappy my hats got taken away from me, I can still take solace in the fact that I can now see spies easily and snipers wearing the halo make easier headshot targets.

Edit: Fixed some expression mistakes and missing words.

So what does one trillion dollars look like?

Well someone at Pagetutor.com has decided to put it into perspective with the help of Google Sketchup.

Behold one trillion dollars US.

But in some countries that sort of money is pocket change...

If you want to read more of the article check it out in full here.

Source

]]> http://delayedflight.keikakudoori.net/blog/2009/09/what-does-1-trillion-us-dollars-look-like/feed/ 0 http://delayedflight.keikakudoori.net/blog/2009/08/ram-can-be-downloaded/ http://delayedflight.keikakudoori.net/blog/2009/08/ram-can-be-downloaded/#comments Sun, 30 Aug 2009 15:44:27 +0000 Spectre257 http://delayedflight.wordpress.com/?p=370

So a mate of mine found an interesting site where you can apparently download RAM.
Yes, someone actually came up with a site to "Download" RAM.
Just looking at the company's address you can tell the site's dodgy, downloading this "RAM" will probably install a Trojan or something of the like into your computer.

Sneaky way of trying to scam computer illiterate people though.

So on my usual romp on the internet I stumbled upon this interesting piece of news.

A pilot apparently stole a Cessna 172 light aircraft from the Confederation College in Thunder Bay, Ontario in Canada.
According to Confederation College vice president Judi Maundrell  this man requisited his aircraft by scaling a fence, simply jumped into a plane and took off, the keys were already inside as students were using the planes. The aircraft was apparently fully fueled with enough to fly for about 7-8 hours according to two difference sources.

After acquiring this ill gotten gains this man proceeded to fly his aircraft south, over the US border attracting the attention of NORAD which dispatched F-16s from the Wisconsin Air National Guard to intercept the flying felon, who led the fighter pilots on a seven hour, 1,261 kilometer wild goose chase.
The F-16 pilots claim that the pilot did not obey non-verbal instructions to follow them back to their base but did acknowledge their presence, the pilot later put his plane down on a road near Piedmont, Missouri only to escape on foot.

He was later taken into custody, by local police.

A day later a police officer stated on "Good Moring America" that the reason this man stole the plane was to commit suicide, unfortunately he did not have it in him to do it himself: so he decided to steal a plane, fly it over the US border and hope that a fighter would shoot him down.

Sources
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Flying Balloon heads... O_o

So on my usual trawl of Sankaku Complex I stumbled upon an interesting Homebrew game for the Nintendo DS: a recreation of the renowned Touhou manic shooters.

In its current version (as of this post) Touhou DS 0.8 is made up of four stages in the demo level, with most of the fancy text still very much under construction. According to the developer's site you can muck around with the in-game files letting you adjust the amount of bombs and lifes your character has.

Reimu! Reimu! :3

So how does it play? Well to put it simply it's quite fun to play when you're on break or just want to kill a few minutes.
The game currently has a selection of 5 characters from the Touhou games for you to choose all with different bullet patterns, unique bombs, and movement speeds. All make for an interesting play through.

IMA FIRIN' MAH LAZAH!!!!!!!!!!111!!!ONEONE

Controls are relatively simple with the D-pad controlling movement, while 'X,Y,B,A,L & R' can be configured for Shoot, Focus (concentrating your bullets but sacrificing speed), Bomb, holding down focus and then hitting your bomb button will use your unique Bomb attack.

Its Raining Men Hallelouya... Oh wait...

The boss battles get progressively harder with each boss at each stage gaining more lives forcing you to kill them many times over before defeating them, enemies are relatively easy to kill but again get harder to kill as the stages progress and the bullet patterns get crazier and more interesting as you get to the higher stages.
Collecting drops from enemies makes your attacks not only stronger but changes your shots adding more firepower or better coverage (spread shot) dieing results in you losing your powerup one rank at a time until you only have your weakest attack with barely any coverage and poor power.
A word of warning, for those who have not played Touhou will find themselves dieing a lot as a single hit will kill you, but luckily it does offer you a chance to restart the current stage instead of having to start over from the beginning.
The graphics as a whole are quite good for a DS game, the interface is still relatively rough but workable allowing you to easily navigate the menus, and the soundtrack is brilliant in all its sorta-midi greatness.
Overall I've found the game very amusing, fun and a good time killer.
Can't wait for the next version to come out.

I'd highly recommend this game to those looking for something to kill time on their DS, so long as you have an R4 or similar cartridge.

Link to developer's Site
Sankaku Complex Article Link

From the looks of it 'Weeaboo' the developer is also developing a DS port for other games the one that draws most of my attention is the awesome Fate/Stay Night visual novel which I am currently in the process of downloading, I'll report back on here when I've given it a spin.

In other news Atomic Magazine reports that the Australian Board of Classification website was hacked by aliens.

1337 |-|4X

Sauce for aliens