I’ve started the Honours years in my Psychology degree and this year’s Psychopathology paper allows us to choose one of four Themes – I’ve opted to write my paper on Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
I’ll be doing a fair bit of serious research and readings over the next few months as I write draft after draft whilst fine-tuning the final product. That being said, it’s great to start the research off with something that ties into one of my many other hobbies – videogames.
A research paper published in 2009 sought to find out whether playing Tetris can reduce the occurrence of visual flashbacks after a traumatic experience. The main theory is that flashbacks are visuospatial mental images and any visuospatial task (such as a computer game) will compete for the limited resources within our brains thus reducing the flashbacks common to PTSD.
Do you wish to disable the tab preview in Windows 7 when mousing over the Internet Explorer 8 icon on the taskbar when you have more than one tab open? Well there is a setting to change that which seems obvious in hindsight.
Open IE8 and click on Tools, then Internet Optioons. On the first screen there should be a Tabs section – click on Settings. In here simply untick the box next to “Show previews for individual tabs in the taskbar” and then restart IE8. Now you won’t be shown a list of all the open tabs but instead the last active one just like it does in Vista.
Recently I tried to load up my Dragon Age: Origins save game on my Xbox 360 only to be greeted with the following message:
Unable to load save game as the required downloadable content is not present on the selected storage device. Please insert a storage device containing the required downloadable content, or download the downloadable content again.
Dalish Promise Ring
I had purchased the Collector’s Edition and it came with two pre-order bonuses of a Memory Band and a Dalish Promise Ring. I entered in all of the codes for the CE content, Dragon Blood Armor, Stone Prisoner quest and the two rings. Each downloaded without a problem except when I chose the Memory Band. After it completed downloading and the download screen refreshed, the Dalish Promise Ring reported as being downloaded. The problem is that it’s all part of a single file download called Promo Item Pack 1 so it authenticated only the Memory Band but not the Dalish Promise Ring despite having downloaded the physical content. That is why it needed me to be online so that it could authenticate it at the start of each session against the Dragon Age BioWare servers.
I understand others are experiencing a similar issue but this time the inability to load save games related to either the Memory Band or Embri’s Many Pockets not being on the storage device.
Well, I have a fix that has worked for me as well as other Dragon Age forum users!
How to fix the “Unable to load save game” problem:
1. Log into xbox.com and check your Download Purchase History. It’s more than likely that the offending item won’t be in the history list.
2. Turn your xbox on and at the dashboard navigate to your relevant storage device and go into Games -> Dragon Age. Find the likely file, for me it was “Promo Item Pack 1″, and delete it (or if you’re paranoid move it to a memory card and then remove the memory card).
3. Load Dragon Age: Origins and go into the Download Content section – because the DLC is no longer on your storage device you will get the change to redownload. The trick here is to choose the item that was previously reported as not being on your storage device – for me I downloaded the Dalish Promise Ring first which automatically included the Memory Band (which was already authorised for my account).
4. Quit out to the dashboard and disconnect from Xbox Live. Load Dragon Age: Origins and test if you can load your save game.
5. SUCCESS! You can now play offline!
I have confirmation from a fellow Dragon Age user that this fix worked for him when he had issues with both the Memory Band and Embri’s Many Pockets.
Olivia Munn in a French Maid outfit (a sexy French Maid outfit nonetheless – thank you voters!) diving into a huge pie. Yes, you read that correctly – Olivia Munn diving into a pie. Delicious!
So Apple have ALREADY released an ad trying to make fun of Windows 7. Seriously, Apple, you need to get over this strange insecurity you and your users have about anything defined as “Not Apple”.
I’m really enjoying the differences in Windows 7 so far and I’m sure I’ll come across a couple things that I will definitely not like but that’s what change is all about. When I first started using Vista I didn’t really think there were sufficient enhancements to justify an upgrade – that is to say until I tried to use XP at work and noticed all the small extras which I took for granted in Vista were missing. I’m sure the same will probably ring true for Windows 7 – I already can’t do without the Zune controls straight off the taskbar!
I know I have a pretty obvious preference for Microsoft, but I’m not a blind follower – just check out this terrible Launch Party ad campaign Microsoft thought was a good idea.
Enter Microsoft’s Zune HD! I ordered one for delivery next week and shall be saved from the hell that is iTunes on Windows (I don’t doubt it runs smoothly on a Mac but on PC it’s an overbloated pile of shit). I bought an iPod years ago because it was all that was available to me at the time with the storage I was after and have never enjoyed using it from day one.
So what does the Zune HD offer that has made this such a sweet piece of hardware?
Touchscreen
Built-in web browser/wi-fi
HD Video (720p streamable to HDTV via dock)
Built-in radio
Apps
Zune software is clean and fast
Zune Marketplace
Zune Social
Zune Pass
XNA support
So I thought I’d touch on some of the key feaures highlighted above. The Zune Marketplace is like iTunes Store where you can purchase MP3s, videos, and applications but what Microsoft have added some features that take it way beyond iTunes.
First is Zune Social. You create a username (or use your Xbox Live user account if you have one) and it then scrobbles your tracks just like Last.FM but isntead to Zune Social. There is a program for Windows called Zuse which allows you to scrobble tracks to Last.FM if you’re worried about losing that ability. Taking a page out of Xbox Live, they have added Badges to your Social account which act almost like Achievements that you unlock as you play more and more songs.
Next up we have Zune Pass. For a paltry $15/month you get the ability to stream any music found in the Zune Marketplace using the built-in wifi – it’s like having Spotify on the go. But wait! That’s not all! You also get to download 10 MP3’s to keep each month. This is a feature which I feel extends the 32Gb flash storage found on the device in a way that works beautifully in this ever-connected world we now live in.
The Zune Software is just a dream to run. Unlike iTunes it has a very clean design and doesn’t feel bulky and tacked together with duct tape. It can be downloaded and run without owning a Zune and I’ve been doing just that for some time now.
Something I have been delving into on the Xbox is XNA. XNA is an excellent game development framework designed to allow anyone to develop a game for PC, Xbox360 or Zune. The great thing about XNA development for Xbox360 is that once submitted for approval your game could end up for sale on Xbox Live’s Indie Games section. This seems to be the case for Zune too as Microsoft unveils the App Marketplace within the Zune software. The addition of XNA supporting Zune was the ultimate cherry on top for me.
