NerdyJoe's Blog

Technology enthusiast, Archery nut and evil genius since 1989.

GAME Group Next British High Street Casualty?

March 12th, 2012

High-street chain GAME has today warned that it’s survival is in doubt after failing to secure terms with prominent publishers.

The news prompted the FTSE100 listed company to put itself up for sale as the group’s shares dropped to a little over 1 pence. The news comes not long after the group announced that it was no longer going to stock new titles from the likes of EA games after failing to agree more favourable terms. Other publishers are reportedly reluctant to supply the company as they fear a situation where they would be unable to reclaim stock if the company went under.

GAME group includes not only the 600 high street stores but also second hand specialists Gamestation and mail order specialist Gameplay.com which recently shut down. The company employs over 10,000 people across its operations.

GAME has long struggled with several market challenges. The main threat has come from the big supermarkets who discount big releases such as Call of Duty, FIFA and Gears of War against a typical weekly shop.

The rise of digital marketplaces such as Steam, Direct2Drive and Origin along with the rapidly expanding casual game market has also made life difficult for the group as consumer habits change. Rumours that the next generation Xbox may not even have an optical drive is a fine example of how the gaming market is evolving away from relying on retailers like GAME. Under these circumstances it’s hard to see a business like GAME having a place in a broadband connected world.

Im no fan of GAME. They have catered more for the console market rather than the PC niche I’m interested in but unfortunately it’s another British high street chain that will probably disappear altogether. The loss of jobs for the people working for the group isn’t welcome news.

Two-thousand and Twelve: It’s All About Access

December 5th, 2011

I’ve been hard at work on my latest project to take a distribution company online to customers and get more information into the palms of warehouse management.

There has been talk of a paperless office for some time. While we’ve been working on the facility to send invoices, credit notes, order confirmations and statements for some time we’re taking things a step further.

One half of this project has been the foundations of a mobile picking system within the warehouse. The solution is a complementary module to the existing operations software and runs on a rugged Windows Mobile 6.5 powered device. The warehouse team also helped me install a WiFi access point which can also allow roaming between an indoor point we also have. Alright, they did all the hard work up the ladder! I’m scared of heights so let me off.

For my next trick I’ve been working on an internet facing customer account portal which will also work as an order point where we have an agreement with the customer. To customise the appearance I’ve had to go and write about 200 lines of CSS script to achieve the corporate branding which matches the main site.

The next phase will be completed by January when the next version of our operations software is released. The only reason for the delay is a the lack of mail server authentication in the web application on the server and a few other minor bugs that slipped QC.

So when I return to work on the 3rd January of 2012 it’s all go on the latest innovations for the timber industry.

DNS Hijack Takes Down High Profile Websites

September 5th, 2011

Turkish hacking outfit claims responsibility.

On Sunday evening several major websites including The Register and UPS were subjected to a DNS Hijack which redirected visitors to a message from a Turkish group of hackers claiming 4th September as “World Hackers Day”.

The attack did not specifically target the websites themselves. The DNS provider NetNames, which was used by the affected websites, was itself attacked. According to the firm “A very small number of customer domains were redirected”.

DNS, or domain name system, translates a URL such as NerdyJoe.co.uk into an IP address like 64.233.161.18 (which belongs to Google), the “phone number” of the actual webserver. This means that the actual attack did not compromise the websites themselves; only the “phone book”.

Although the attack was politically motivated weaknesses in DNS could be used to fool visitors into handing over personal data if the attackers were able to convince the victim the page was legitimate. Another reason, if you needed it, to check the green bar in your web browser address bar to confirm a site’s identity.

Life’s A LAN Party

August 8th, 2011

This weekend gone I’ve been over at a mate’s house with my gaming PC for some old school LAN party action.

There are 3 of us that meet on an irregular basis. Typically we play Battlefield Bad Company 2, Call of Duty: Black Ops, Total War: Shogun 2 as well as a few other games. It’s always a good weekend and doesn’t cost much which is a plus in these recessionary times.

Hosting a LAN is easy. All you need is enough Ethernet leads for every participant, enough power sockets for each PC, a case of beer and a large pizza each! Forget wireless networks; lag-free gaming can only be guaranteed through wires. Besides it’s not a proper LAN unless you have to lay cables around your house!

Ideally each PC should connect to a broadband router. In most cases this will provide DHCP that will automatically configure each client as well as internet. Our setup over the weekend used a basic 5-port Netgear FS506 switch connected to the household router in the basement with a 30M Ethernet cable. Each participant then connected to the Netgear switch.

We spent a lot of time on Bad Company 2. It’s a frustrating game sometimes but the hardcore mode usually makes for some explosive firefights. Battlefield 3 will be played at a future LAN for sure. We also have a 6 hour campaign save from Shogun 2 which has turned very tense. A lot of rival clans are moving in to make gains at our expense but our castle defences are difficult to overcome.

My nerd credentials are proven and I can’t wait until the next LAN.

Must Haves And Me, A Tale of Application Bliss!

June 4th, 2011

Any self-respecting nerd should come armed with a plethora of tools and gadgets. So here’s five of mine;

Notepad++

Stuffed full of useful features for scripters and programmers alike such as line numbering and language recognition. Notepad++ is my first port of call when I need to get down and dirty to modify any kind of code. The only downside? I keep tying it as “Notepadd” for some reason!

HashTab

This shell extension is a must for heavy downloaders. How do you know the file you have just downloaded is corrupt or even complete? Simple. Copy any hash such as MD5, SHA-1 or CRC to the clipboard then look at the newly installed “File Hashes” tab after right clicking > properties. You will get rapid confirmation that the file you have is intact or not.

SumatraPDF

The internet is full of PDF files and consequentially an appropriate reader is a must have. I find Adobe Reader to be a bit of a clumsy solution; large install and many features past just reading documents that I don’t require. Sumatra PDF is a lot leaner and will have trouble reading DRM protected documents but will do the job for those who don’t rely on PDF files for confidential information exchange.

TagScanner

A very useful application for manipulating masses of music files. Plenty of capability for changing files names, tags and even the directory structure of your music folders. An absolutely invaluable tool for any music lover.

KeePass

You should really use a unique password for each account. Doing so is a nightmare and sometimes not practical. Step in KeePass. This handy little item will keep a track of all your passwords and keep them secure in the process. It will even generate secure passwords for you.

Not My Favourite Contacts

May 2nd, 2011

Printers can be quite a nuisance for desk support.

In the office our most recent acquisition is an Oki b431. We have other Oki printers and are pleased with their reliability, print quality and cost per print. However we are plagued by a slight oversight with this new model not seen with any other we have had in the past. The design flaw here is that the contacts on the drum unit are liable to bending when removing or inserting the toner assembly into the printer. Users with a tendency to be a little less than gentle with their technology aren’t helping either. This results in “error 231 code 01″ displayed on the printer’s LCD and a total stop in printing operations. Bad news because the printer seems to frequently jam and requires the toner assembly to be removed to free the offending paper. Not the kind of problem our transport team want to encounter at the busiest point in the day.

If you look closely the second copper contact from the left is out of place.

To solve this problem simply use a pair of pliers to carefully bend the contacts back into position then power the printer off and back on again. Preventing the jam in the first place is the actual solution to the problem because the constant removal of the assembly unit causes a culmination of damage to the contacts. Different paper stocks, a clean of the feeding rollers and calming down the heavy-handed user may finally clear this one!

Google Has Your WiFi Mapped

April 25th, 2011

Both Apple and Google have been under scrutiny this week for collecting private data on their smartphone platforms which is then sent back to headquarters.

Google has apparently been capturing details of your WiFi connections made on your Android phone and uploading them to a central database. The reasons for this haven’t been made clear by Google but you can probably guess why they’d like to do such things being a search company.

Some bright spark has found a way to poll this data. You can try it for yourself with an example provided. All you need to know is the BSSID (MAC) of your access point’s WiFi which you should be able to retrieve using the web configuration of your equipment. For extra fun use inSSIDer to find which pesky neighbour is broadcasting on the same channel as you.

This, to me at least, is quite an unsettling find. I would guess that the collection of such data has probably been stipulated in the terms and conditions of use when you setup your Android phone. Google has my router’s address mapped right down to the exact house I live in. Obviously as it’s a private connection I am none too happy over it appearing on there at all.

I will be watching the situation closely but I do feel this behaviour strongly undermines trust between end users and vendors.

AV IN/OUT?

April 19th, 2011

Disclaimer; the only IT angle on this post is the bad technology reference in the title!

On May 5^th the UK will be voting in a referendum to possibly change the way the country elects the House of Commons.

I’ve been following the yes campaign since its inception and fully support the idea of the alternative vote system (AV) being adopted as a replacement to the highly un-proportional first past the post system. Although I will not explain my conclusion in depth I do not believe that the arguments against AV are enough to make it a bad choice. Nor do I believe the recent stories of the yes campaign “collapsing” mean that this means it cannot be won.

At the moment the no campaign is emphasising their argument of AV is like making the second runner to finish in a marathon the winner. This analogy doesn’t fit. Voting is not a race. It is a choice of who we would like to represent us. To anyone out there still undecided or considering a No vote please give Yes to AV good consideration (http://www.yestofairervotes.org) lest we lose a precious chance to make the UK a more democratic place.

Regardless of the way you decide to vote please make good use of your democratic rights and make the effort to go to the polling station!

The Windows 7 SP1 Fracas

January 18th, 2011

Leaking the details of top earners or US embassy cables is one thing but the IT crowd will be following a much less thriller-esque spillage this week.

What is claimed to be the final release of Windows 7 SP1 has made it to the web thanks to a notorious Russian website famous for getting the final, untouched and genuine versions of Vista SP1 and SP2 leaked. An employee of the Microsoft Russian office also posted on his blog that SP1 has gone “RTM” with a build string matching the leaked version. Those Russians really know how to cause trouble don’t they?

Despite the leaker’s track record and numerous other deductions Microsoft have been mostly hush about the release other than stating that it hasn’t been sent onto OEMs just yet. In other words it’s possibly the RTM but possibly not. Confirming or denying that the offending pack is the real deal probably would just encourage this in the future so I can’t fault Microsoft for taking this approach. I don’t recommend you go out and install a copy of SP1 just yet for these reasons. Await for further confirmation if you’re that trigger happy. Better still wait until it gets published on The Microsoft Download Centre or Windows Update. If you do decide to take the blue pill; make a system image and hope for the best.

If you’ve been holding out for SP1 before moving to Windows 7 take it from me it’s a very good release. Like any operating system it is not perfect which is why Microsoft publishes updates and rolls them into a service pack. There are over 600 hotfixes included in SP1 alone. I estimate, unscientifically looking at my update history, that about 100 patches have already come through Windows update. The remaining 500 thereabouts will likely be fixes for highly specific scenarios. The key new features include RemoteFX and Dynamic Memory for Hyper-V which could be of interest to your corporate capabilities.

Hardware Returns Speaks Volumes on Reliability

January 12th, 2011

I came across the following study of returns made to a French retailer today. A percentage of computer hardware returns based on a sample of 500 orders per manufacturer per segment (i.e. multiple types of components from the same manufacturer aren’t grouped together). Sounds fairly credible.

You can read the full article and see for yourself. Disclaimer: it’s in French and no I can’t speak or read the lingo.

The most interesting thing I’ve got out of this was the reliability of SSDs which, according to the article, don’t exactly come out any better than regular hard disks. The only manufacturer coming out better was Intel at about 0.6% of sales returned. Surprising given SSD manufacturers tout the technology as being more reliable due to less moving parts.

As a person who builds his own computers for gaming I’m very much concerned with reliability. This kind of information can prove invaluable in choosing the right manufacturer.

Source: Hardware.fr