Dec2011 22

With the year of 2011 soon coming to an end, it's that time to reflect on the best and most enjoyable PC games of 2011. This is a list of my favourite games of 2011, so I can tell you now you won't find those overpriced, overhyped titles such as Battlefield 3 and Skyrim. So, without further ado, here's the list:-

Frozen Synapse
Turn based gaming is back and this game (at least to us) played out like a game of Paintball, with it's similar tactics such as working out your movements from the break and being all about the angles. Very easy to start a game and come back to it whenever you like.

Web Site: http://www.frozensynapse.com/

Frozen Synapse


Renegade Ops
This game is mad fun. Explosions everywhere, fast paced action and the levels look fantastic. Has great co-op multiplayer too, just a pity a couple of my friends aren't WASD people and so balked at the game because you couldn't change the keys. Still, I had immense fun with this game and will continue to do so for sometime.

Web Site: http://www.sega-australia.com/games/renegade-ops/

Renegade Ops


Brink
Being a fan of Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, I was especially looking forward to Brink. With it's initial high-price and panning reviews, I was soon put off it, but when the Steam sale hit (Thanks Steam!) I grabbed it and really enjoyed it's gameplay. This is an updated version of Quake Wars, with it's objectives and goals and the presence of AI bots. The parkour system worked well, however, the weapons in the game were pretty uninspiring. Single player is just the multi-player with bots, which is fine except in the higher levels where the AIs have trouble doing the objectives.

Web Site: http://www.brinkthegame.com/

Brink


Orcs Must Die
This is a great enjoyable single player only game, which is a cross between tower defence and a third person shooter and relies on bits of both. Setting traps and watching those Orcs (the other, other white meat) die is extremely fun and the game has a great sense of humour too. I've done so many levels and still haven't found myself getting bored, which is a great sign of a good game. The only multi-player aspect of this game is a leaderboard, so you can see how your scores stack up against your friends.

Web Site: http://www.robotentertainment.com/games/orcsmustdie

Orcs Must Die


Pay Day: The Heist
Who knew robbing banks would be so much fun ? This game is awesome. Indie priced too. It's best described as Left 4 Dead meets Point Break/Heat. Each game feels new as the AI director gives you something different every time. Great co-op with great game play, just wish the developers Overkill could sort out those annoying networking issue. They've been releasing patches pretty constantly, so there is hope in that department. I dare say this game will be played well into 2012.

Web Site: http://www.overkillsoftware.com/payday/

Pay Day: The Heist

Dec2011 18


A rather cute little iPhone 4S ad featuring a day in the life of Santa using Siri.

Nov2011 13


Michael König brings us this stunning video that uses time lapse sequences of photographs taken with a special low-light 4K-camera by the crew of expedition 28 & 29 onboard the International Space Station from August to October, 2011.

Nov2011 09


Says it all really ...

Nov2011 07


Boy are Infinity Ward throwing some money at marketing this game. We've seen buses and bus shelters plastered with posters for sometime now and then yesterday during the Ravens vs Steelers match, they showed a live-action video featuring Aussie Terminator Sam Worthington as the vet and that fat kid from Superbad, Jonah Hill as the n00b.

Not a bad video, still it's not going to make me buy the game. I'm boycotting Battlefield 3 too over EA's stupid Origin downloader/spyware.

Nov2011 05


Back once again, the guys from Too Hot To Handle sampled four habanero-based hot sauces from Southwest Specialty in Arizona, USA.

Sauces were Ass Blaster, Spontaneous Combustion, Hot Sauce from Hell and Hot Sauce from Hell: Devil's Revenge.

They also managed to rangle Ben Z in as a special guest.

Oct2011 30

Daily TeesAfter 3 years of running the Daily Tees site, I've decided to call it quits.

I'm still a T-Shirt junkie and will continue to buy weird and wonderful shirts to wear, it was just I couldn't find the time to keep the site updated daily as per the title.

So, rather than letting all those links and posts go to waste, I've brought the site into the fold at http://tees.sikosis.com/.

Oct2011 25

Opena is the world's first iPhone 4/4S case with a slide out bottle opener. This case was first available as a Kickstarter project and I was one of their many backers. If you don't know anything about Kickstarter, you should definitely check it out. It was great to see the guys behind this case with updates on the production side of things all the way to finished product.

Opena in Open Position

As for the review, it works great opening beers. I've used it quite a few times already and it's rock solid. It does add some weight to the phone, quite a bit in fact. That's usually the comment I get from people when I pass my iPhone to them -- jeezus, that thing is heavy.

Opena - Jack Issue

There is another issue to do the with the headphones. Your standard iPhone earbuds won't have an issue, but if you plug a thicker cable, it will still plug in, but will fall out unless you hold it in. I would suspect the guys to "round out" the issue in the next version. Still, it's the ultimate party case and certainly turns a few heads.

Oct2011 11

Stuff Magazine got a hold of the iPhone 4S early and have posted this video showing a demo of Siri. It's a little strange that the demo users keep hitting the microphone button even after saying something. Siri seems to work off the pause of speech, so don't why they're doing that. As Steve would have said, you're doing it wrong.

Oct2011 10

MediaTV.meThere's a new Media site in town and it's MediaTV.me - which covers everything you need to know about the latest version of XBMC on Windows and OS X.

Whilst it's still new, it has a variety of tips and advice that could only could have come from someone who's XBMC savvy.

Also, if you're on Twitter, why not follow @mediatvme.

Oct2011 05

RIP Steve Jobs

Posted In Apple |

RIP Steve JobsSteve Jobs, Apple's Ex-CEO and creative genius/visionary has passed away at the age of 56. He had been battling pancreatic cancer since August 2004 and only stepped down from the CEO role in late August 2011 due to his health.

RIP Steve. I'll remember him for not only the great products his company released under his reign but also for his superbly delivered keynotes in his black turtle neck and jeans with no belt. I was lucky enough to see the main in action at WWDC 2010 when the iPhone 4 was launched.

CNet writes "One of the most legendary businessmen in American history, Jobs turned three separate industries on their head in the 35 years he was involved in the technology industry."

Click here for the full article.

Oct2011 04

PBDBPBDB.net, the Australian Paintball Database site, has decided to close it doors after 5-6 years of operation.

Back in the day, I use to play paintball every weekend and it was great. Samford had one of the best fields in Australia and unfortunately, when a thunderstorm damaged their poles and netting, they decided not to repair it -- hence killing off one of the best places to play.

Also during this time, two indoor fields, Velocity and Gord's Indoor were both places we frequented. Unfortunately, both these fields couldn't stay afloat and folded, leaving pretty much nowhere to play paintball.

The PBDB site was left up, as we all hoped that one day, paintball would become viable again but thanks to the lack of fields and the ever restrictive gun license laws in Queensland, the sport was never going to grow.

So, we shed a tear, drink a beer and think of all the good times.

Sep2011 07


Dale and Phil (The Two Hot Crew) once again sample the sauce made from the world's hottest chilli - Butch T Trinidad Scorpion - the name of the sauce - The Chilli Factory's Scorpion Strike.

This was another special night episode of Too Hot to Handle in conjunction with a Riverfire party, so they were literally putting the fire into Brisbane's Riverfire annual event.

Aug2011 17


DC Shoes and Ken Block present Gymkhana FOUR: The Hollywood Megamercial.
GYM4 surpasses the high-production style of Gymkhana TWO with even more spectacular effects shot in the backlots of Universal Studios, California, USA.

Aug2011 14


Dale and Phil (The Two Hot Crew) are back and this time they try The Chilli Factory's Funnelweb Bite Hot Sweet Chilli Sauce. Sounds great, as generally sweet chilli sauces are mild. But does it have the kick we're all looking for ?

Jul2011 26

Today I went to the VMware vSeminar Series for 2011, which was held at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre. This is the second vSeminar I've attended, so I had a basic idea of how the event would unfold and who the usual suspects (vendors) would be.

Your Cloud

All and all, it was a good day, though they could have done more demos -- any demos really. The only ones we got to see, were pre-recorded videos, which is better than nothing, but it says to me that VMware are not confident that their products will be able to shine when shown live.

Vendor Room

The two things that I was interesting to hear about at the event was VMware View/ThinApp, which I first saw at last year's vSeminar. I thought it was interesting and said to myself, I'll have to keep an eye on this product. They showed off a little bit of View but nothing on ThinApp, except for publishing web apps, which in reality, is a bit meh.

Vendor Room

Finding out about vSphere 5 was cool, though VMware, if you need over 15 minutes and 10 page document to describe your licensing structure, then there is something really wrong with your model.

OS X Support

There was an illustration showing Steve Jobs in front of an iMac, which made me very intrigued and when an off the cuff remark was made that vSphere 5 now support Apple's OS X -- I nearly fell off my chair. At the end of the day, they were going to have a Q&A session using questions asked via twitter (#vss2011) or SMS. I asked two questions about OS X -- neither of which got answered. That was pretty disappointing since they was only about 4 other questions asked. I guess they didn't know.

Vendor Room

Later on, it turned out they demoed OS X running on VMware -- but, it was just an Apple XServe (defunct product) running ESX. That's great, but not what anyone wants. We all want to be able to run OS X on a PC ESX server. Since vSphere 5 isn't out yet, only time will tell.

Jul2011 05



It's the Annual Chilli Festival in Sawtell, NSW -- so the Too Hot Crew roadtrip it to sample the best Aussie Hot sauces and other related chilli products, as well as take in the wonderful Australian scenery.

In this special episode, Dale and Phil (The Two Hot Crew) try The Chilli Factory's Scorpion Strike (15 out of 10) made from Trinidad Scorpion "Butch T" (The Guinness Book of Record's Hottest Chilli) -- we only had a small amount but boy it was really tasty and then it just got hotter and hotter.

Jun2011 25



This time Dale and Phil (The Two Hot Crew) review a hot sauce that's not commercially available, it is only available from Symposium Cafe, Fortitude Valley, Brisbane. They'd heard that one person said their ears were ringing and that it would give Blair's Megadeath sauce a run for it's money. Check the video and find out.

Jun2011 06

<a href='http://www.apple.com/icloud/' title='iCloud' target='_blank'>iCloud</a>, OS X Lion and iOS 5.0Today is the first day of WWDC 2011 in San Francisco, USA. It is also the day of the inaugural Steve Jobs keynote presentation to the Apple developers, industry press and the world.

They started off with Lion and showed off 10 new features such as Mission Control, which is Spaces on steroids, LaunchPad bringing iOS icons to the Mac and other applications that take advantage of multi-gestures. There is now auto-save and version control for documents, AirDrop so you can easily share files on LANs (presumably not heavily firewalled ones) and it's priced at $29.99 USD. Outstanding. Especially when compared with Microsoft's Windows 7 at $319.99 USD.

Lion Server wasn't mentioned in the keynote, but I've found that it will be available in July as well for the low price of $49.99 USD. I don't think you want me to compare that to Windows Server 2008 at a price tag of several thousand of dollars. I'll be looking forward to getting my hands on this update in the coming months.

Then came iOS's turn with 10 features such as the much needed Notification's system overhaul, iMessage, which is basically a text messaging chat system for iOS devices only, the huge news of Wifi Syncing (more on that later), Reminders system negating the need for all those Todo apps, Twitter integration, which I felt they spent more time on than needed, Camera is now accessibly when locked and best of all ... it's available to developers today. In fact, it's currently installing on my iPhone 4.

Lastly, Jobs took the stage to talk about iCloud and admitted that "How can you trust the people who did MobileMe ?" ... well I think he answered that when he announced the release of 9 iCloud products such as iTunes in the Cloud, all purchases will be sync-ed wirelessly with all devices, PhotoStream, which is the same but for Photos, Documents in the Cloud, you get the picture, but also 5GB of data backup in the cloud, which doesn't include your music, apps or photos.

I've briefly tested the Wifi syncing and it seems to work just fine. It's still syncing a lot of my apps at present and it was great to see all my apps restored back in the same locations and folders. The notification system on first launch asks for your location and from that it updates a live weather and stock widget. It also enabled me to find out about an important email I hadn't seen yet and a twitter response. Very cool.

So, a huge range of new products and features for the OS X community, which is great, though I was a little disappointed there was nothing about speech technology or the iPhone 5. My guess is both of these will come at an event later in the year. Only time will tell ... but this week if you're a developer at WWDC -- it's all about the sessions. Personally, I would definitely get along to the sessions on the iCloud API.

Jun2011 05


Dale and Phil (The Two Hot Crew) have uploaded their third chilli adventure with Nando's Extra Extra Hot (Black Label) Sauce ... does it live up to it's name ? Watch and find out ....

Jun2011 03

Mixcloud has finally released an iOS application and this means good news for both you and me.

For those that don't know, Mixcloud is an on-demand radio platform, allowing you to stream your favorite Podcasts, DJ Mix sets and radio shows direct to your iPod or iPhone - it's free for a limited period only kiddies, so get on it.

Be sure to check out the fine mixes from DJ Sikosis.

Download: App Store

May2011 25

World MS Day

Posted In Events |

WorldMSDayTwo years ago I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis and every day I live with the pain, taking regular injections to slow down this incurable debilitating disease.

Today is World MS Day, which was launched in 2009 with over 200 events in 67 countries. It's an opportunity to raise awareness about MS and to strengthen the network of people living with MS across the world.

Next week is MS Awareness Week, so please show your support for these great charities:- Kiss Goodbye to MS and MS Queensland. Even wearing something red is a great start.

Also, if you're in the Brisbane CBD next week, please show your support by going to King George Square between 7am and 9am.

May2011 02



You go on holidays and you miss a gem like this, Meteorites, the official video from London Elektricity latest LP, once again featuring Elsa Esmeralda on vocals. Definitely becoming one of my fav tracks.

Apr2011 22


Dale and Phil (The Two Hot Crew) have uploaded their second chilli adventure with El Yucateco's Salsa Kutbil-Ik de Sauce (XXXTRA HOT).

Apr2011 19

Sub FM iPhone iPhone AppCode Army has released their latest iPhone App - Sub FM for all you dubstep and future garagists.

Sub FM has been broadcasting for 7 years and counting and now you can listen to it wherever you go, thanks to the iPhone and a Wifi or 3G signal.

And of course, the Sub FM iPhone app comes with all the features you'd expect from a Code Army app such as Auto Play and Connection Robustness.

Send your Feedback via Twitter: @codearmy and shout outs to @subfm and if you've got some spare time, please rate the app in the iPhone store.

Apr2011 19


I was pleasantly surprised with this remix and then I was kicking myself for not having heard it sooner ...

Apr2011 13

Tonight I went to the Traktor 2 Launch hosted by Store DJ at their Brisbane store in the Valley.

Presented by Jason Hearn a.k.a. JaseFOS (NI Product Specialist, CMI Australia) and DJ Kuya (Store DJ), the event got off to a rocky start and not the best sales pitch by saying how easy and awesome the new Sample Banks are in T2 and then failing to get the demo working and even later when trying again it was a poor demonstration. I hope it was just first time demo jitters and it gets better in Sydney.

Jason Hearn

Jason Hearn did most of the presenting and it's unfortunate he didn't just do more hands-on demos, as he talked about how he uses cue points to do quick jumps in his mixes, so it would have been nice to see him actually doing it.

Traktor 2 with DJ Kuya

Anyway, the event was about Traktor 2 and it was all about the new features such as the coloured waveform, which I'm still unsure how that's going to help but at least it looks pretty, right ?


Read More »

Apr2011 09



Here's the latest video from the forthcoming London Elektricity LP, this one titled Round the World In A Day featuring Elsa Esmeralda on vocals once again. Very rock pop orientated.

Apr2011 02



Check out the Official Video for the title track - Yikes!, which is off the forthcoming London Elektricity LP. Another top notch video, this time using the London backdrop.

Mar2011 18



Official Video for the latest London Elektricity and Elsa Esmeralda masterpiece - Elektricity Will Keep Me Warm.

Mar2011 12

Last week I received my Midifighter from DJ TechTools. What's a Midifighter you ask ?

A midifighter is a midi controller made up of 16 arcade buttons (slightly smaller than your standard arcade ones) on a light frame that connects to your PC or Mac via USB. This controller talks to your DJ software, in this case, Traktor Pro -- and with the aid of different mappings you can create something out of nothing.

Check out this demo video I did using the Deckalized mapping and below is the Instant Gratification mapping.



Feb2011 27


On Friday 28th January, Melonfarmer and myself were lucky enough to catch one of UK (if not the world) leading Drum n Bass DJ's Andy C with his partner in crime MC GQ. This duo have been touring Australia for 10 years, however, this was the first time they had been to Brisbane. Having seen our city ravaged by the floods only weeks earlier, people were in a mood to party and give at the same time, with $2.50 per person being donated to the cause.

Anyway, I've tried to capture the entire vibe of the night in this 19 minute video made from photos and video taken by myself and Melonfarmer. Enjoy!

Feb2011 21


A rather interesting review of Minecraft by Zero Punctuation aka Yahtzee, a British-born, currently Australian-based writer and gamer with a sweet hat and a chip on his shoulder (apparently).

To me, Minecraft is one of those games where I just didn't take to it's graphic style nor it's open endedness. What do you think?

Jan2011 31

MiDi-to"Created by a bunch of guys from Barcelona, this iPad app currently only supports Serato Scratch Live (although they are promising to support Traktor in a future release) and works over a private wireless connection which means no additional software or cables are needed.

MiDi-to gives you control of practically every feature in SSL across three panels accessed from the top of the screen within the application."

Click here for the lowdown.

Jan2011 26

Now in it's fifth year, Sikosis, N3B and Melonfarmer are back, bringing you the Top 20 Drum n Bass tracks from 2010. This year, we've got all the tunes available for streaming via Mixcloud.

Jan2011 19


Pioneer have taken their CDJ line and used that interface look 'n feel and created a midi controller for Traktor users. Check out this video by Spanish Techno legend Cristian Varela.

I have to say it's a very nice looking controller and they do something interesting by placing the laptop underneath the control, which gets it out of the way in a club scenario -- but then you've now lost the ability to search with the keyboard or use any of the keyboard shortcuts you have. Pioneer seem to believe that you can do everything with their controller.

In saying that, the DDJ-T1 looks like it's the first controller to give the Traktor S4 a run for it's money -- despite being $300-400 more.

Jan2011 13


Watch Danny Byrd in a gold suit at Over 70's Bingo in his Netsky collaboration - "Tonight" taken from the Rave Digger LP.

Jan2011 12


Here's some footage from Channel 9 of The University of Queensland (where I work) having been inundated with water from Brisbane Floods.

Jan2011 02



Dale and Phil (The Two Hot Crew) have uploaded their first chilli adventure with Byron Bay Chilli Co.'s Smokin' Mango Chilli Sauce (HOT).



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