Back to work tomorrow <insert sigh/> Here's some family photographic reminders of Christmas that was 2004.

Final Scratch 2

<drawl> She is a thing of beauty </drawl>

Once I've received my order, my girlfriend wont see me for days. Imagine, mixing all my records and mp3 via my radio station - now if I could only figure out a way to make a living at it! No longer will I need to carry my record cases - just my laptop! MP3's weigh a lot less. Harder to scratch as well!

But dont let this fool you into thinking I've gone totally digital - I still have vinyl acetate in my blood.

BTW the on-demand section of my radio station is almost coded up - just adding final touches, here's a small sampler:

U2 - How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb - removed

Added: As promised - On Demand Music

Contracted my first Trojan via an audio file during the Christmas break! When will the RIAA and its Overpeer minions give us a break? BTW the radio station is now playing about 15GB (all legally ripped). But this does bring up the question: is it worth risking your pc for music?

Hope everyone had a great Christmas and is looking forward to the new year. I've put some new tracks into the radio playlist. BTW does anyone know how to get Windows Media Player to show track details from a SHOUTcast stream?

Just when you thought you had all the problems with Windows XP Service Pack 2 nailed, Microsoft are planning the release of Service Pack 1 for Windows 2003 Server. And by the looks of it, it will be another nightmare week for admins everywhere!

Actual quote from Microsoft: 'The company argues that the improvements are important enough that applications should be changed to accommodate them.' Hehe!

Now that Windows Media Player 10 is out you can use that as your player to listen to my radio stream. You just need to use a slightly different url. http://www.ryanstevens.co.uk:8000/ I'll try and update the main website link somehow to support all players tonight. Happy listening.

Play the stream with Windows Media Player 10 by using the File -> Open URL command. Then when the stream is playing, I go to my Library under Now Playing and right click on the words Now Playing to get the Add As New Playlist option. Clicking that will allow you to add it as a playlist under your My Playlists section of your Library.

The recent outage on my web sites was due to an extreme heavy session of Halo 2. Basically when I know I'm gonna be playing for a long time I turn off my web sites to eliminate any lag (mainly from goggle bots). So if you find that my web site disappears in the evening you know why! Also, I occasionally have such a manic session that I forget to turn the web sites back on!!!

Last night a group of yanks showed me how to 'sword jump' in Halo 2. Basically theres a 'bug' in the game that you can use to make your character able to jumb about 500ft into the air. You can reach almost any part of the maps. I spent the evening admiring the view on top of the wheel on the Zanzibar map. All you need is a sword and a warthog. I wont describe how to do the jump just yet - let me enjoy it a bit longer, but i'm happy to demo it to anyone who joins my games. My gamertag is solidstore. You should hear the reaction when other people see you leap 500ft during a slayer match!!! If you also hold a sniper rifle just imagine the possiblities. This technique will become public knowledge pretty soon and I imagine all manner of silly videos and tricks will be discovered. Happy jumping!

Revealed!

Nice review of Doom 3 vs. FarCry vs. Half-Life 2 vs. Halo 2

I'd have to agree with most of the comments - Halo 2 was just too damn easy - Far Cry much better FPS - Halo 2 has cracked the multiplayer genre on the XBox. Love the way Friends can easily find one another and chat. Game can suffer from lag but this will improve over time. Doom 3 visually stunning - sound amazing - multiplayer major disappointment. Half-Life 2 - dont own a copy yet - but what I've seen its great.

In reference to my previous blog about modding your xbox, you might want to reconsider if you enjoy XBox Live & Halo 2.

http://www.winnetmag.com/Windows/Article/ArticleID/44543/Windows_44543.html

Next time you boot your xbox you'll want to grab the update from bungie.

Also, they released a (sample) guide for multiplayer games - grab it here. H2_E_216-219_1117_CO.pdf (1.94 MB) More guides here as well. Or download the whole book.

The XNE Clan has not been deleted. Bungie had some problems with clans recently but things are being restored.

Join the XNE Clan here. We need atleast 3 members to stay active.

Now this is getting silly. Even the book is set to top the fastest seller list for the decade!

I wonder if we can get the soundtrack into the charts? Creditcards at the ready!

After a full day of online madness with Halo 2 I've come to the conclusion that I need far more practice - first person shooters are far more difficult on a console these days compared with a pc & mouse. Had a lot of fun, especially when Illusio (Ian) joined. Now the XNE clan has two members - one more and we can start to compete!

See how Ian 0wned me in a head to head battle!