The first thing that you notice once you’ve unboxed the X41s is how light the headset feels, yet how sturdy it is. The ear cushions are very soft and the headset fits very snugly and the headband is fully adjustable, as is the microphone. The base unit is a well designed piece of kit too. Not only does it act as the wireless transmitter for the headset, but it also has a second audio jack, so a spectator of your gaming session can plug in a second set of headphones and listen to the game audio as well, and has their own volume control for their headset on the base unit.

So on to the audio itself. I have to say it was quite a shock just how much difference there is between the sound quality of the Sharkoons, and the X41s. The sound is far more immersive on the Turtle Beach set and makes a real difference to the gaming experience. The headset has a bass boost button on, and again the difference when engaging this mode is very impressive. The audio itself has a great quality, and the 7.1 surround sound gives an extra feeling of realism to games, and provides additional spatial awareness when playing. I found myself noticing sounds that I hadn’t heard in a game before (L.A. Noire’s ambient sound is very noticeable on the X41s and adds extra quality to a superb game).

The headset itself has it’s own volume control which is very responsive and helps to balance the volume without having fumble around for the controls. The microphone is on a very flexible stem, and it can easily be moved out of the way when not in use. If you do want to use voice chat while playing then the microphone swings down very easily and the stem can be manoeuvred to put the microphone in pretty much any position that you require. The only change to be made to use voice chat is the plugging in of a wire from the headset into the XBox 360 controller. This wire does not get in the way, and there is an inline volume control which independently controls the volume of the voice chat that you hear.

So are there any downsides to Turtle Beach’s offering? Well the set does seem to eat through batteries. You should get around 25 hours per set according to the manufacturer. I’ve been using Duracell Extreme AAA batteries and have gotten around 25 hours per set, but these are expensive batteries to keep buying. I don’t know how long rechargeable batteries last as I haven’t tried them, but they must be a reasonable option, even if the life per charge is not quite 25 hours. Also, some people will find one of the voice chat features frustrating. When using voice chat, your own voice is fed back into the headset, so it can take a bit of getting used to when you constantly hear your own voice in your headset, but that is a small distraction.

All in all I have nothing but praise for the X41s. Turtle Beach have done a great job, and have managed to balance the functionality of the set with the design. The headset is comfortable, functional, and provides superb audio quality. I haven’t seen any interference on the wireless side of the set, and the audio is uninterrupted. Voice chat is excellent, and the option of independently altering the voice volume is a definite plus. Obviously all of this quality and function doesn’t come cheaply, and the RRP of these is £149.99. However the likes of Amazon often have these at a very competitive price, and at the time of writing they are selling them brand new for under £90, which in my opinion is a great price for such a fantastic piece of hardware.

Pros: sound quality, immersiveness of surround sound, no wireless interference, build quality, design.

Cons: Batteries don’t last long, hearing your own voice in game chat.

I’ve known for a while that I’ve had writer’s block with this blog (and others that I used to contribute to). I got to the point where my postings felt like they were just inane ramblings, and I decided that there was no point in me continuing to write them. Sure I came back every now and then and tried to draft some posts (and I was always happy to approve comments – thank you all), but very few of these drafts ever saw the light of day. And that’s because I wasn’t happy with them. The subject, the content, well pretty much everything. So they never made it past the draft stage, and moving forwards, I won’t miss them.

So why is this post entitled artistic block, rather than writer’s block? Well, I had a eureka moment not that long ago. I realised that there were other things that I was struggling to draw inspiration from. Food being one. I was stuck in a rut of cooking the same things over and over. Photography was the second. Anyone who knows the face behind the words knows that I really enjoy my photography, but recently my camera has been gathering dust, as I just don’t have the impetus to get it out of the bag and go hunting for something to photograph. Even subjects and genres that I love working with no longer held the same appeal (in fact some of the photos I’d taken were downright awful). And that got me to thinking that surely any creative types must have that feeling every now and then that they just don’t know what to do next. How to get out of the humdrum of doing the same thing, and not feeling like they are really enjoying their creative works.

So where does this bring me? Well I thought it was a good place to start the rebirth of my writing. Has my view on photography changed? Well probably not. I still know what I can do well, and I know that it’s currently a slump that I need to work through. Will I give up? Definitely not. The same with cooking. I just need to find the right inspiration and everything will be fine. Hopefully this will be the first step on a road to change, and that before long, I’ll be writing regularly again, enjoying my photography, and cooking new food (there was even talk a while back about having a food related blog – maybe time to dig that one out and give it a go? – you know who you are!!). Of course this could be the first and last post for a long time, in which case, sorry for this inane rambling that did make it through to these pages…

My first attempt was foiled by the 62% problem (documented by Microsoft here). So after having read the article, off I go to view the log, and sure enough there are the entries I was hoping to see. Bingo, workaround applied, we’re in business. Or maybe not. The next run through doesn’t even get that far. I get an error stating that it can’t unpack the files, with an error code that a quick Google later seems to suggest that there is a faulty memory stick in my machine. Memtest downloaded and run, but no errors. Odd. So let’s try an old favourite instead. Reboot and try again. But no dice, still failing on the unpacking step. Hmm….

So perhaps I should go down the route of dual booting my machine to at least be able to do a clean install rather than an upgrade. Ah yes, good plan. Except there isn’t enough space to create a decent sized second partition for the install. Damn. Now what to try? Maybe I should free up some space for that partition. Oh hang on, there’s a shed load of temporary Windows install files sat here. Well I can’t need them surely? And that’s them deleted. Ah now hang on. Maybe they were causing the unpacking issues. Let’s try again.

Now that’s interesting, we’re now past the unpacking stage and rattling through installing features. And now we’re into transferring my files and settings, this looks promising. Whistling through and past the 62% point, this is the best yet. And installer is rebooting my machine, fantastic! Starting Windows… Should Starting Windows actually mean that it starts? Hmm… I sense there is something wrong here. After 15 minutes of the Starting Windows screen, with the little flag animation not moving (it did to begin with) I think it’s time for the reset button. Which caused the BSOD with a “Driver_Power_State_Failure message). Please no. Ok, all coming back up ok. And there’s a Windows 7 setup screen. Nooooooo! I was greeted with the “Windows wasn’t installed properly. Rolling back to previous Windows installation”.

So I have to say while I’m getting closer, I still feel a million miles away. One thing I will say for the Windows 7 installation process though, is how well it reverts back to your previous version of Windows when something goes wrong (I’m guessing it only does this if you do an upgrade). It really is the best at “self recovery” that I’ve ever seen a Windows installer be, and I’ve seen a few! So a trawl through my action logs this time show that it had a problem talking to one of my external USB hard drives that seems to have gone to sleep and not woken up properly. Now taking my lead from others on the internet, I reckon the next attempt will involve unplugging the USB drives before I start the upgrade. Fingers crossed that works (and that should also reduce the amount of time to install as it will massively reduce the number of files that need transferring).

Expect more updates to come, but hopefully from a Windows 7 machine…

UPDATE: So after a weekend of more trying, I can finally say, I’m giving up trying to install Windows 7 on my desktop. It just won’t have it. Went through the process of ensuring my external drives were disconnected, went through the install procedure again, but again it is hanging at the “Starting Windows” screen, after a BSOD “Power_Driver_State_Failure” message. So I’ll stick with Vista and I guess I’ll go with Windows 7 when I come to refresh my hardware…

And so before long the time came to move across and start playing Eve. And it was good, very good. It was the game that Earth and Beyond should have been. Where these 2 differ is that Eve is still going from strength to strength, Earth and Beyond is a distant memory. But again, before too long, I wanted something more, something different. And so I moved on again.

Fast forward to 2009 and here I am again. In those intervening years I’ve played (and left) Guild Wars, Horizons, Everquest 2, Star Wars Galaxies, Conan, Lineage 2, Dark Age of Camelot, City of Heroes, D&D Online, Lord of the Rings Online, World of Warcraft and The Matrix Online. For at least half of these, I was also involved in the beta and so saw the game before it was “polished”. But each one of these, in turn, has killed my enthusiasm, and therefore lost my subscription.

And so I look at where I am now. I currently subscribe to both Warhammer Online and Champions Online, both on long term plans. I’ve been with both since day 1, and was a beta tester on both. Warhammer was superb. The idea of Public Quests was a great new thing, the combat was good, the changes introduced made the game better, and it was one of the most polished games at launch that I’ve ever played. Scratch that. It was the most polished game at launch that I’ve ever played. It’s the game where I’ve discovered my hunger for good PvP, and I keep going back to that. You’re immersed in the feeling of being involved in a conflict from Level 1. I got in with a good guild from early on and have been with them ever since. I’ve been with WAR now for over a year, and that’s a long time for me!

Champions is still new. It’s great as it’s like City of Heroes but better. Lots of fun, and allows that child inside who always wanted to be a superhero to come out! I’m still getting used to it but it seems like it’s going to be a lot of fun.

But already I’m yearning for the next thing to come along. Now I can guarantee that I’ll sink a lot of hours into Star Wars The Old Republic. And I quite like the look of both Star Trek Universe, and Stargate. My reason for already looking to the future? Warhammer is becoming a bit samey. WAR is the game that I’ve come closest to the level cap in any game I’ve played (my main is a 39 with a level cap of 40), but progress is now desperately slow. I appreciate that this is due to the kind of things I spend my time doing now (zone captures mainly) and I can accept that. What I can’t accept is the fact that the imbalance that has been in the game since day 1 is still there. If you play for one of the sides, you can build a group of 6 players that is pretty much indestructible due to the combination of skills. That’s all well and good if you can do that on both sides, but you can’t. It’s just not possible. And it’s a game breaker.

My guild in WAR has gone from over 100 members to less than 50 in less than a fortnight. People are flocking away from the game. I’m still with it, but will I renew at the end of my current 3 month subscription? At the moment, I’d say probably not.

So where does that leave me? Perhaps a return to WoW? Perhaps a move to something new (Aion has peaked my interest but I don’t think it’s a long term game for me). Perhaps a move to a different genre (I played the beta of Fallen Earth and didn’t get on with it but I’ve heard so many good things I might have to try it). Maybe I’ll find something else that I’ve not discovered yet that might just tide me over until SWTOR arrives. Who knows. 1 thing I do know is that I’ll find a home somewhere, and when SWTOR arrives, I’ll be packing up wherever I am and moving my MMO time to that…

When I was younger (about 12) I went to a secondary school (as most 12 year olds do). Whilst there in Year 1(Year 7 they call it nowadays), everyone was offered the chance to take extra-curricular music lessons in an instrument of their choice. Lots of us signed up across various different instruments, everything from the flute to the drums. Me, I went for the drums (as they sounded fun and a bit more practical than a wind or brass instrument).

I was assigned to a teacher named Kel Dennis. A name I knew well as my brother had been taught by Kel’s father. Kel was an incredible teacher. He could play just about anything, but loved being behind a drumkit, and therefore I always saw him at his most passionate about music. One of the trade-offs for being taught an instrument (for free) was that you played in a local Campus/Concert band. These were great organisations where all of these people came together and played music, generally developed their musical and social skills, played concerts, and generally had a blast.

I joined one such band in my local area and was immediately thrown in with some superb musicians and percussionists (people who have since gone on to have their own bands in some of London’s more well known Jazz and Swing venues). It was such an eye-opening experience that these people who had so much more experience than me, and that were technically so much more gifted, were more than happy to share techniques with you, and to listen and comment when you learnt something new – even if they already knew it themselves.

The sense of community was incredible and the 7 years I spent in the band were fantastic times that I’ll never forget. Then it came time for me to move away from home and go to University. I was put into Halls of Residence and had nowhere to store my drumkit, so it was time to sell it. It wasn’t something I did lightly, but it was necessary at the time. And so my drumming ended (or paused as I believed at the time). I never managed to go back to it, and often wish I could, but I now have very little time to be able to return to it.

One thing I do miss is the community spirit of being amongst that size group of like-minded individuals. And this also went across the taste in music. I learnt so much about music while I was there that it staggers me now when I think about it. I listen to music in a whole different way now. Over the past few years I’ve considered finding out when the band are playing a concert and going back to see them, just to see how good they are (in our day we were good – we had awards to prove it and won competitions) and to thank Kel for the inspiration he gave me and for the musical enlightenment that it brought.

Unfortunately I’ll never get the chance to do that as Kel died 2 years ago from cancer. His death sent shockwaves through the musical world in my hometown and is something that I doubt the music scene there will ever recover from. He was an incredible man with such a passion for his music, and he managed to instil this sense of passion in everyone he taught.

So why Carpe Diem as the title? Well now that I can’t, I want to thank him more than anything. I had so many opportunities to do just that and yet I didn’t take a single on of them, and that’s something that saddens me so much it hurts. I have dreams of going to see the band again and being to chat to him about music, and waking up brings me back to the reality that I’ll never be able to do it.

I missed Kel’s funeral, at which an estimated 600 people turned up. He was a legend and he is very sadly missed. As a tribute to him, a road on a new housing estate has just been named after him. Ironically this road is a stones throw away from where the band used to meet every Monday evening. If it means that someone who lives there in a few years time asks who he is, does some digging and discovers the joy that he brought to so many people, then that can only be a good thing…

In the past Shearer has managed to resist the pull to move to Newcastle, and I was always one of those fans that didn’t want him to come back. I was worried that the status that he had worked so hard to get for himself (that of a hero amongst the geordie faithful) would be forgotten if he came back to manage us and it didn’t work. But now I think the timing is right. Lets look at what’s changed.

Well for a start we’re looking at the very real possibility that we’ll get relegated. And this will probably still happen. Do I want it to? Absolutely not. But I still think it will. Even with Wor Al’s influence on the team I think we’re already past the point of no return. But I still think it’s a good move. If we go down then at least he tried, and the fans can’t exactly blame him for the relegation. But if we stay up, Shearer will be hailed as an even bigger hero around St. James’ Park, and his place in history will be even more secure than it is at the moment.

For today at least, it feels good to be a Newcastle fan again. All the recent results seem like they don’t matter quite as much today as we’ve got back our second Messiah, and we know he’ll try. He’ll inspire the team, he will not suffer fools, and he’ll demand that every player gives the same amount of passion and commitment that he always did whenever he pulled on the number 9 that is now synonymous with his name. Lets face it, Shearer is the number 9 that Newcastle fans talk about.

Of course if it is actually an April fool then I’m looking very silly right now…

Ok so madness hasn’t quite set in yet, and yes I’m being sarcastic, but I figure it’s the only way I’ll ever be able to afford one of these. Yes a Lamborghini Reventon. As soon as I saw this I fell in love with it. I’m not going to wax on about how I think it makes the Gallardo look like a frightened little child. All I’ll say is that, in the words of Sir Bob Geldof himself, “Just send me your f***ing money”.  All I need to raise is 1.25M Euros. By way of a thank you, I’ll even take all contributors out for a spin in it, with the person sending me the most money actually being allowed to drive it (although you’ll have to get your own insurance!!). So let the donations begin…

As a former player (and corporation director) of Eve, I have to say I’m not surprised this is happening. As in real life, it’s very easy to become disgruntled in an online game, especially when part of a player-run organisation such as a corporation. Again, as in real-life, there are then a number of things you can do. The most of extreme of which is to run off with everything you can get your hands on. To my mind it just adds to the realism that CCP (the company that runs the game) has tried to build their universe around. With this in mind, I can’t blame them for not stepping in to resolve things either. Yes a “crime” has been committed, but then let the law enforcers of the universe deal with it, not the “masters” of the universe (no He-Man gags please!).

But who are the law enforcers in the game? Well for crimes like this it has to be the players themselves. But who is going to take on the amassed wealth and power of this corporation to get to the man who stole everything in the first place? You’d need a massive amount of firepower to try and take them down. The kind of firepower that can only be gained by putting in the hours and hours of work needed to build a corporation up to such a level. The kind of firepower that might convince someone else to go and do exactly the same thing.

Moral of the story? Keep your friends close, and your disgruntled ex-employees even closer!

Seems the error occurs because the install program is running under elevated privileges, whereas my m drive is mapped for my standard user account. Simple fix is to map an equivalent m drive for the local admin account and, hey presto, it all works fine. Steps to follow are below (taken from the vista64 forum):

1. Disconnect the previously mapped network drive from Windows
Explorer.
2. Right click on Command Prompt in the Start Menu and selected Run
As Administrator.
3. Type “Net Use m: \\servername\sharename”
4. Exit out of the command prompt
5. Open Windows Explorer
6. Click ‘Map network drive’ menu item
7. Select the m: drive and typed \\servername\sharename into the
Folder box.

Of course if you already have an m drive mapped, then you only need to do steps 2-4.