General Plot

Yeah, like I said in my final site announcement, it wasn't an easy decision, but it was for the best. To give an idea of the kind of traffic we were getting, one of our former admins (Emwearz) made a post announcing our 20,000th post milestone. That was in March 2008. On the day I closed the site, we had a little more than 23,000 posts, meaning that in the course of more than 4 years, 3,000 posts were made. For that length of time, that's low. And the only active members were some staff who made a post now and then, but return members were nonexistent. I spent six years with GE trying to revive it, but I think we just got in the game too late. By the time the site was going up, general interest in emulation was dwindling. I tried to counteract it with posting PS3 hacking content, among other things, but nothing could draw traffic our way. Still, it was a great time, and we did have a pretty active length of time, which I loved. To all current existing emulation sites: luck be with you and I hope that the newer generation getting online will discover this great technology and bring a revival to all sites dedicated to allowing users to resurrect and preserve their favorite games.

I love it. Certainly tells the tale though, doesn't it?

Lol, the only game that i know of that fully utilise Bluray space is MGS4. I dont think any other games used that much space :/ GOW3 maybe? Or any PS3 exclusive? But seriously, i only found this useful IF you intend not to go online at all. Heavy Rain is 17GB, Final Fantasy XIII is 40 GB and God Of War 3 is 39GB. I've ripped quite a few of mine that aren't overly huge, but still too big for even dual layer DVD's (typically in the 14-20GB range).

Awesome! Where did you purchase yours from? Got mine from Farnell (here in the UK). The board set me back about 35 pounds ($50 US), which included shipping. I ordered it on Friday (the 3rd) and had it the following Monday. Here's the link to it: Atmel AVR XPLAIN. Now with real homebrew taking off in the PS3 scene, I can't wait to see what else people start creating. I've already dumped my hard drive and flash (there are 3 flash locations by the way). You buy the dev evaluation board, flash it with a hex file (which you can find preconfigured ones depending on which board you bought) and you use the software that the board uses for programming (in my case it's Atmel FLIP). You plug the device in to a PC, choose to flash it with the hex file, 20-30 seconds later, it's ready. You plug it into your PS3 (with all power off), then switch on power and press power button immediately followed by eject (make sure there's no disc in there before doing this). You'll hear three fast beeps if you've done it right. Once the PS3 boots up, you can unplug the board and dev mode will stay avtivated. You then choose the option to Install Package File from the game menu and put the backup manager package on a USB stick (not the dev board though) and install from there). When you run backup manager it detects what game is in the drive and any you have on your hard drive. If you choose the game in your drive, it'll start ripping the game to the hard drive (if you want it to rip to internal drive, don't have a USB hard drive plugged in). After it's done, put a disc (any regular PS3 game) in the drive and choose your ripped game from backup manager menu and it'll run from the hard drive.

Woah indeed. Now for some CFW maybe? Can't wait to see how well nullDC performs on it when Razi's done.

Got my Atmel AVR XPLAIN board last Monday (the 6th) and it works great. Easy to setup drivers and flash (whole process taking about 2 minutes total). There's something nice about having dev mode available.

become a chelsea supporter...support a real team. A guy I know at work hates Chelsea (he's a Liverpool fan). As for me, I just can't get interested in soccer.

Well, I'd be lying if I'd said it had been bliss. My new wife and me struggled through some rather tough times, even came near to breaking up, but in the end, we held it together, and that's how marriage should be. Just when you think it's over, you realize marriage is something to not be thrown away so easily and you do what you can to hold on to it. At least that's what I believe. We've made it this far, and that must have been the biggest struggle of our relationship. No need to quit so easily now. Glad to see you work it out in the end Indeed. I think the largest problem was all the pressure that came with having to hurry and get married and try to jump into that life at an instant. But in the end, we've found a way to relieve that pressure and still hold onto our marriage. The past few weeks with her have been some of the best that I can remember. We've had larger obstacles in our way before, and I don't think there's anything we can't make it through together. The fact that we've gotten this far is a testament to that. Odd to think it was two years ago this Friday (Christmas) that I met her for the first time in person. I landed in Gatwick Airport in London at 10:30 AM on Christmas morning 2007 to meet her. One of the best days of my life.

Well, I'd be lying if I'd said it had been bliss. My new wife and me struggled through some rather tough times, even came near to breaking up, but in the end, we held it together, and that's how marriage should be. Just when you think it's over, you realize marriage is something to not be thrown away so easily and you do what you can to hold on to it. At least that's what I believe. We've made it this far, and that must have been the biggest struggle of our relationship. No need to quit so easily now.

That it is. And I must say, it's taken me some time to get used to all the differences that come with making a change like that. From nearly getting myself killed countless times from looking the wrong way for traffic, to trying to figure out the expressions people use here, to almost all houses being connected together, and a myriad of other funny differences. All in all though, I'm happy where I am. England's been a fun place to be, and a nice change of pace from New York.

Hey folks, been quite a while since I've stopped in here (my sig still had specs form the rig I had 6 months ago ). Just wanted to check in with all of you and see how things were going. I've just celebrated my first anniversary with Raefraction, and things have been really busy, but good here. Hoping you all have a good Christmas and that you haven't entirely forgotten about me. Take care all and I'll try to keep with this place better.

Well, no need to worry about seeing me in any community service. I don't plan on breaking any laws, as I've got too much to lose. Just about any legal infraction can cause me to violate my visa and be deported back to the US, so I'm certainly not looking to do that. Thanks.

It's a good feeling to know we've finally made it this far. It's certainly taken long enough. I only have one hurdle left to deal with, which is getting the marriage visa. I called to set up an appointment, but they don't have any open slots til January. At least once I've done this one, I won't have to hassle with any immigration stuff for a couple years.

Thanks. I am happy. Anyways, as promised, here is the video of the wedding. However, thanks to youtube's 10 minute limit on videos, I've had to split it into two parts. Part 1 Part 2

OK, I know you guys have been patient for this, so I'm finally putting up some pics from the wedding that most of you know about already. As of November 22nd, me and refraction are indeed brothers in law, and I am now married to Raefraction. Some of these pics need just a bit of eplanation, so I'll do my best. Pictures (in order from left to right): Raefraction and her dad (also refraction's dad ) with the three bidesmaids in front. The middle one is my daughter. Me and Rae signing the register just after the ceremony. Me and Rae in the garden outside just after the ceremony. Me and refraction at the reception later on. Now for the explanation of the next three pics. The first two was our wedding cake, which had a theme of the bride and groom sitting on opposites sides of computer screens, as if they were chatting online to each other (which actually used real screen shots of skype we had taken while talking online together when I was still in New York). The third pic is me and refraction holding the screen from the cake (which you will notice has a PCSX2 logo on it.) Moving on, we took our honeymoon in London, and in true yankee fashion, I made it a point to see all the tourist stuff there was. So, here's the rundown of those pics (there are 7 of those in total). Rae outside Baker Street Station next to a statue of Sherlock Holmes. We went on the London Eye, and this was our view of Big Ben and the Houses Of Parliament from up there. At the Tower Of London, Rae took this pic of me next to an "armed guard". Rae snuck the camera on me when we were near Big Ben. Me at a phone booth in Central London (notice the Union Jack hat she bought and made me wear.) Me at Buckingham Palace. View from inside the London Underground (which is always conveniently packed.) The next seven pics are from outside (and one inside) Sony Computer Entertainment in London. As a team member for a project which emulates a Sony console, it only seemed natural to stop there. The last two are each of us with a Sack Boy figurine. She seemed to like him more than me. We finished up our honeymoon in Cambridge, where her and her friend Gina (the one in the last pic with me) convinced me to "punt", which is essentially using a long pole to push a boat down a shallow river (we were on the River Cam) and also use the pole to steer with (sort of like a rudder). Apparently, I did pretty well for my first time, though I think if I punt again in the future, I'll just stick to football. Side note: there will be a youtube video of the wedding (I'm currently in process of capturing and converting it).

I'll take Exmoor Beast instead though, but thanks.

I'm New York born and raised, so I'm a yank whose just moved to England. I'm getting married next month to Refraction's sister (Refraction is a developer for PCSX2). It's gonna take some time getting used to living here, that's for sure, but I'm glad to be here. I couldn't resist (maybe it's the yank in me ), but here's a pic on my new street with a shot of a car's plate behind me.

Just a quick pic of me and my daughter on the plane flying over to the UK (yes, I'm finally in England!!!! ).

These days I've been spending time with the Little Big Planet beta. Gotta love some of these user-created levels. I can't help but laugh at the RROD X360 joke levels.

I hate to say it, but it just seems like they're adding stuff that the PSP has already so that they can try to compete better with it. I just don't see it working now, as PSP owners have had these capabilities for quite some time now, and anyone that was looking for a handheld to do these sorts of things would have probably just bought a PSP by now.

The reason you won't see them is they're scared to come out and say they are female (for very good reasons). You'd be surprised (or maybe not) at how many lonely boys gaming and emulation sites get, and when they spot a female, it's like sharks to blood. The poor girl will never be left alone again. I know it seems ridiculous, but it's true. Just ask refraction (of the PCSX2 team). I found out he has a sister, and now I'm marrying her.

OK, took a few more shots just a bit ago. They're better than the last one. Keep in mind that while it's almost done, it's still a tad unfinished. Of course I'll post more when it is. Edit: Here's the original picture the tattoo was done from.

Exactly. The key is that parts of your body you barely touch would tend to hurt more. For me, this was all of the lower wrist (especially any areas directly over bone), while the main area on the inner forearm I barely felt.

At the moment, a couple small ones on my chest (besides this one anyways ). Just a head's up, it's an entire sleeve tattoo (goes completely around my arm). I'll post pics of the other side when it's closer to being finished.

I'll agree that in most cases, it shouldn't matter. However, when the personal attack is something as grotesque as mocking a tragedy such as one of your kids' parents dying when the child is a very young age, it's my belief this crosses a line from a random online insult to something alot more vile and disgusting. That said, I'm leaving it be, I've said my piece and everyone else is free to form their own opinions. Anyways, to keep this on topic, thought I'd post a more updated pic of the tattoo I'm having done (it's my wife to be). I'll try to get a better one up next time.