I don’t like horror games, specially zombies and creepy creatures. They kinda freak me out! So, when I first checked out Left 4 Dead (L4D) review; it did not appeal me. It was like another horror game to me. But two reasons made me look back to L4D: I’ve been hearing so many good stuffs about it (online co-op) and it’s from VALVE. I’m a big fan of VALVE and Steam! But I was refrained from buying it till yesterday mainly due to price point ($50) plus horror game. Yesterday I came across this Polish site http://g2play.pl where L4D is being sold for 9.99 EUR which is about 13 USD! What’s unique about G2Play is that they sell only CD keys. No physical media. You can activate it on Steam if it’s a Steam game. I don’t know about non Steam game. I think you can download digital copy from their site. I’ll buy diablo II and try it out later this month.

My first impression was as usual: might be some scam. I exchanged couple of mails to site owner Viktor Wanli and later on convinced that the site is legal. So I decided to take a chance and ordered L4D. But that was not an easy task. First the site is in Polish. So I had to use Google translate to navigate the site. But when I directed to PayPal for payment, the payment failed because there was no “United States Of America” in shipping country option. I mailed Viktor about this and he immediately made necessary changes to his site. This time payment was successful but I got another error and PayPal payment was “unclaimed”. So I mailed Viktor again and he sent me a CD key almost immediately. I was able to activate L4D in my Steam accout and download about 4GB while I was in office so that I could play immediately when I go home :p

I just played about an hour online co-op mode and now writing this blog to let you guys know how fun this game is

I asked Viktor to launch his site in English. I was told that they are working on it and provided me a link to beta version of it: http://g2play.pl/l/en.html. I’d suggest grab your copy as soon as you can before it’s too late..

EDIT: New English site: http://g2play.net

Price has been increased but still it’s less than $15

Finally I received my white U100 6 cell MSI Wind. I wanted to have a office computer which is small, light and has long battery life. My G50V is too big and heavy to carry around. So, I ordered a Wind hoping that it would be perfect for my office work since I don’t need powerful system.

So, I opened the box and when I saw this baby, I was like WTF? This thing is freaking small! I never thought 10 inch would be THIS small. Now I wonder how small 7 inch eeepc would be. I doubt I can work on this small screen for 10 hours everyday. Screen is ridiculously small. I wish it had end-to-end 1280*800 screen.

Config is pretty standard like other Atom based netbooks: 10 inch ( WSVGA LED), 1GB RAM, 160GB HDD, Card reader, 1.6GHz atom, bgn wireless, bluetooth, 3 USB, VGA, 1.3 MP webcam, XP Home.

So, here are my impressions:

1. Screen: Now as gorgeous as my G50. Not even close. Again, I’ve not seen other netbooks; so I’ll assume netbook screens are like this due to small size.

2. Speed: OK for normal work such as word processing, browsing etc.  Processor can be overclocked 8%-24% dynamically without going to BIOS. Even at 8% 720p video runs choppy (about 20fps) but at 15% it runs smooth.

3.  Keyboard & touchpad: OK, my biggest complain is Fn key placement. Both my HP and ASUS has Ctrl key at the left most corner but this one has Fn key (like Dell, Lenovo). So, I always press Fn key when I want to press Ctrl key. Pretty frustrating. Also, touchpad is very small and there is just one button for left and right click and its very narrow. Since I use bluetooth mouse that’s not a big issue. Keyboard is good. But I’m making a lot of typo. Arrow keys and “,./” (3keys) are narrow compared to other keys. I need some time to get used to.. lol

4. I tried to upgrade RAM with a 2GB RAM but it won’t recognize 2GB stick. It has onboard soldered 1GB RAM. So, you can add one more 1GB RAM. Built in speakers are crap but sufficient. I pluggd a pair of PX-100 and it sound nice. Webcam is OK for video chat.

5. Other thoughts: One nice thing I noticed is that unlike other laptops, MSI has made two partitions: 40GB OS partition and about 110GB another partition. Saved my time from resizing OS partition. Wind comes without any crapware preinstalled like ASUS. There was a folder with some software such as Norton and Powerdvd but I deleted it. I’ve not run a battery test but I’m hoping it should be 5+ hours with a 6cell battery.

Overall, it’s an excellent netbook. If you plan to buy an affordable 6cell netbook then look no further. You can turn it into a MacBook Wind if you want to I liked the new HP netbook but 3 cell is deal breaker for me.

MSI Wind Picture

Wind U100	Keyboard size
15.4 inch vs 10inch	G50V vs Wind
Too small	Size comparison
Back	in my hand
T-mobile G1 vs Wind	G1 vs Wind

First Wordpress app for Android, wpToGo. Hopefully this one gets posted. This app is very basic; simple post with image attachment feature (attached image captured by G1) with default resize option. It retrives categories in a dropdown list but no option to add new or select multiple categories for a post. Hopefully the author adds more features in future updates.

Finally I’ve got the TMobile G1! I must say its an amazing piece of device. I love it! I wanted to get it on 22nd itself but then I had office next day. I can’t do a review of this phone yet since I’ve not used it long enough. But so far Android has been rock solid. Here are the first impressions:

1. The display is excellent and very responsive and smooth like the iPhone. Interface is very responsive too. It can do multi-tasking and Copy-paste!

2. Building quality: feels solid.

3. Look: I must admit, I thought the phone was ugly when I first saw pictures and videos of G1. But After holding it in my hand, it’s a different story. I have the black one and it is really beautiful. I was hopping to get the Bronze one but it is too shiny and looks cheap.

4. Keyboard is nice. I never used such small keyboards but it’s quiet comfortable. An on screen keyboard is very much needed. Backlight makes a nice contrast with keyboard

5. The notification bar is great. One of the coolest features of android.

6. Browser is pretty fast. I’m on EDGE now and pages load pretty fast. I did a speed test and it’s about 180kbps. The on screen zoom controls are pretty annoying since they show up whenever I touch the screen for scrolling and take good amount of screen space. No flash, java support yet.

7. Internal memory is a joke. I had about 78MB available when I 1st checked. Apps cannot be stored in memory card.

8. The roller ball is very responsive. Better than Blackberry.

9. Music player is OK. Can’t comment on music quality since I don’t have a USB to 3.5mm audio adapter. Bundled headphone is as usual, flat sounding. I’ve order one from ebay. No video player as expected. There is one in app store but I’ve not tried it yet.

10. Camera is OK. It has auto focus. I’m not impressed with image quality.

10. Now the (in)famous battery life. I started using the phone as soon as I received it. Battery was at some 60%. Battery died after 4 hours, out of which 3 hours I was on EDGE browsing Internet, playing with settings, mp3 and stuffs. Then I charged the battery overnight (10 hours). So far, up time is 4H:13M and awake time is 1H:21M which i mostly spent in browsing, IM, taking some picture and 5Min GPS and battery says 67%. Not good at all. I wonder how long battery would last if I use 3G network.

That’s all I can think of now. Will post later as I discover more.

Picture: http://picasaweb.google.com/amitava82/G1Images

PS: Phone pictures are taken using laptop webcam :p Sorry! I’ve forgotten to pack my digicam while moving to Florida.

Finally I’ve set up a private Urban Terror server for all [DF] members so that we all DFs can play  together at some fixed place. The service is from Gameservers and the price is quite reasonable: 99 cents per slot. In case someone wondering, they do not have Urban Terror listed in their supported games list. You have to get Quake 3 server and Urban Terror is available in MOD section. Also Gameservers provides full FTP access and unlimited space for custom maps and mods. My server is a 10 slot private server. Since most of my team members are from India I was having tough time in finding Asian server but there are none. So I had to go for German server. If other DFs like this server then I’ll keep it else I have to drop the idea. I have a plan to start a Call of Duty 4 server too provided I earn enough through Adsense… :p

Here is our clan site and all started from here.