Liam's space

The free HelloTxt invites I was giving away have all gone now. Thanks to everyone who emailed asking for one - hope you enjoy your mobile microblogging goodness!

Yep, the very thing I've been dreaming of - and pining for - since I started microblogging last year has arrived. It's called hellotxt, and it's an aggregator/dashboard for posting to multiple status/microblogging services such as twitter or jaiku.

I regularly use Twitter, Pownce and Facebook, and on occasion, Jaiku (if I remember and care). I would use them all a helluva lot more if it wasn't such a chore having to go updating them all individually. And, while there are some applications out there that already simul-post to those services, there's usually a drawback - for example, they don't work with all the services I use, or they don't work on my mobile phone.

hellotxt appears to do them all - and includes a mobile version, too. Only catch right now, it seems, is that only the lucky-few with a coupon code can get access to the mobile web version.

Can anyone out there kindly share a coupon code with me?

Email me - liam.cassidy@live.com - and I will gladly post my gratitude every which way I find possible.

And finally, if you're a microblogger or Facebook user and want to get in touch/befriend me/follow me etc, here's a recap of my handles;

twitter: limalicas

Pownce: limalicas

Jaiku: limalicas

Facebook: Liam Cassidy (London)

So, yes, I've been very slow to update this blog. But I'm not going to blog now in any sort of deep and meaningful way just yet - though there's plenty to blog about, it can wait until I'm in less of a hurry.

In the meantime, I've uploaded some more photos; there's a few of my friend Cy messing about with one of my cameras; some arty-farty photos I took last year in my garden; some shots of my new machine (and pride & joy); and finally, a quick assortment of shots from November last year when I visited my dear old Friend Adrian and his family in Ipswich.

I'm off to do busy work stuff now. Blog later...

I spent some time last night playing Super Mario Galaxy. It was fun. Really. You know - fun. That's what video games used to be about...

I've always been very honest about my feelings for the Wii. Nintendo have put a gimmicky, it's-been-done-before-albeit-without-Bluetooth control system into what is far from being a next-generation machine. For those of us who like fun and sophistication, the Wii simply doesn't cut it. (Cue comments from indignant Nintendo fan boys...)

But fancy high-definition graphics and megalithic super-processors don't necessarily guarantee a great game.
Assassin's Creed, a title I pined after for months and months and months and months... looks pretty, sure. Plays well, too. It's just... boring. Sophisticated, yes. Just... dull.

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare does a better job of marrying HD graphics with dynamic game play. And there are some real fun moments. (Crawling through long-grass with the enemy walking by... the tension is heart-stopping!) But in the fun stakes, Resistance: Fall of Man, a game with slightly-less-then-amazing-HD-graphics, still wins. (Btw, Resistance is even more fun the second time around, with new unlocked weapons.)

Super Mario Galaxy doesn't prove anything about console superiority. Nor does it change my opinion of the Wii. If it does anything, in my opinion, it proves that the technical prowess of the PS3 or XBox 360 is irrelevant if game developers go wide of the mark. And maybe - just maybe - the foaming-at-the-mouth obsessive focus developers have placed on HD graphics and "super-real" physics engines has served only to distract them from other crucial factors - like playability and fun.

Here's to a fantastic new year, in which I hope the following things happen;

• I get a shiny new HP MediaSmart Server EX475
• I get a shiny new BIG-screen Sony Bravia
• The iPhone is exposed to the world as the fraud it is
• Wireless USB actually finally happens
• My book gets published
• My Blackberry gets ground to dust
• World peace, and stuff

If anyone can help out - especially with the first two points in my list above - don't hesitate to get in touch! Oh yeah, and if anyone can do that world peace thingy, that'd be nice, too.

Happy 2008 everybody!