It's the Xbox 360's 5th Birthday!

Now, I'm not that much of a fan of the Xbox 360, or the Xbox in general for that matter (although I do like the look of the new Xbox 360 S), but as I was reading some other people's blogs I realised that the Xbox 360 is five years old today (with the help of CNET, but that's beside the point). True to my blog's new format (see whether you can spot the key ideas) I thought it would be a good idea to post eight facts about the Xbox 360, as a sort of birthday celebration, so here they are, fresh from Wikipedia, I hope you find them interesting...

1. During development, the Xbox 360 was called a variety of different names, such as "Xenon" and the "NextBox",
2. The processor used by the Xbox 360 is a slightly modified version of the PS3's cell processor, made by the same company that made the PS3 processor,
3. In it's first year on the market, the Xbox 360 launched in more countries than any other console had ever launched (a total of 36),
4. One of the original versions of the Xbox 360, the Xbox 360 Core, had no hardrive or onboard storage, no HDMI socket, a wired controller and is no longer in production (probably because it was rubbish),
5. Apparently from "ashens" (using his Youtube username) an Xbox Live subscription is the equivalent of "cramming into a phone box with eight angry, homophobic teenagers and shouting noob! noob! at each other until 5am",
6. 10% of the Xbox 360 units made by it's launch were on eBay by the end of the first week of its launch,
7. A "general hardware failure" on an Xbox 360 (nicknamed the red ring of death) is actually only three quarters of the Xbox 360 "ring" lit up red.
8. 18% of games on the Xbox 360 are exclusive, compared to 25% on the PS3 and 20% for the Wii

So there you go, I expect you didn't know all of them - but did you spot the pattern?

How to use third party themes on Windows 7

Firstly, for those of you who like a video tutorial - the title of this blog post should link to one on Youtube.

Now, for those of you who don't know, a third party theme is one which is made by somebody other than the makers of the OS (operating system) so for Windows 7, it's a theme made by somebody other than Microsoft.

To use these themes, you have to do some relatively easy (and legal) things.

1. Download the Universal Theme Patcher: http://www.freewaregeeks.com/?page=detail&get_id=1898&category=11
2. Then pick the version of the theme patcher that is correct for your system version. There are two versions; x64 and x86, if you have a 32 bit OS then pick x86, if you have a 64 bit OS then pick x64. Run the selected program.
3. It should come up with a box telling you your system information and how many files you need to patch to use third party themes. Click yes to patch the files.
4. A box will then pop up showing this:

      5. Click patch on each one, it should show a message saying "Patch Success" or something similar. 

      6. Restart your computer.

      7. Once your computer has restarted find a theme you want to use.               

      8. If it's a zip file, unzip it and find these things: "en-US" folder, "shell" folder, a "Wallpaper" folder (if there is one) and the Windows Visual Style File. Put the folders in another folder with the theme's name as its name, and put the Windows Visual Style File and that folder in here Computer/C:/Windows/Resources/Themes

      9. Now if it's not a zip file, then things get more tricky - the only other format I've encountered for themes is a .RAR file (If it's not a .rar file then search how to extract that file format). In basic, you need to extract the files and then once you've extracted them, find these files and put them in a folder with the theme's name: Windows Visual Style File, any .mui files, any .dll files. Then find the Windows theme file and put it, along with the folder you just made in Computer/C:/Windows/Resources/Themes. 

      10. Then just double click on the theme file and there you go, your theme is installed. 

Finally, if you're unsure where to find a third party theme then have a look at places like Deviantart and other similar websites.     

NANOWRIMO Ideas

I've came up with the theme and genre for my novel for NANOWRIMO which will be (drumroll please):
A Steampunk horror set in the Italian Renasissance.
The reasoning for my choice?
I like history, I like technology, when do these things meet best? In the renaissance. Where did the Renasissance start? In Italy.
As for the steampunk horror aspect - I always liked steampunk and the horror genre goes hand in hand with it so why not?

Here's a taster of some of what's to come (this isn't going in the novel, it's just practice and getting some ideas written down)

He took the host, gave thanks, broke it, and said, “This is my body, broken for you. Take it and eat it, and when you do, do it in memory of me.” Then he took the wine, gave thanks, and said “This is my blood, poured out for you, take it and drink it, and when you do, do it in memory of me.”

As it is written, so shall it be.

Darkness fell on Italy. It was late into the evening, and the candles in the crypts of the church flickered, making the shadows dance across the walls. Sounds of a struggle and raised voices approached from above. The sounds of footsteps on the steps leading down into the crypt became louder and louder, and the source of the noise emerged; a man, in ragged clothes, chained at the wrists was led down the steps by two muscled men in uniform, wearing plate armour and carrying halberds. Their halberds had various machines wired to them, and their plate armour was covered with all manner of devices and machinations. Behind them, a man in long, black, flowing robes carried a staff with a cross at its head; wires and archaic machinery wrapped round it. The chained man struggled, but his captors did not let go. They took him down the last few steps, into the crypt and tied him to a surgeon’s slab in the centre of the crypt. The robed figure followed, chanting in a language that sounded vaguely like Latin. The surgeon’s slab was made of metal; it was fixed to the floor by metal supports and wiring. The two guards stripped the chained man of his clothes and the robed man stepped forward. He made the sign of the cross with his staff over the tied down man and drew out a device from a pocket in his robes. The device was made of metal and had a glass panel, as well as various runes, carved into the front. The robed figure touched one of the runes on the device and began to speak again, saying, “My lord god, we have sinned, may you forgive us for what we have done, and bring new, perfect life into this, this most wretched of your subjects, let him be reborn to serve you anew, in your name!” “His body shall be broken, his blood poured out and he shall be cleansed, in memory of you.” At that point he pressed another rune on the device, and various machines folded out from underneath the surgical slab, covered in a myriad of devices, saws, drills, injectors, and, most importantly, a gun-like device, engraved in runes and shaped like the head of a dragon. The man tied to the slab struggled and screamed as he saw the device with the dragon’s head. As he screamed, the dragon’s head spewed forth a cloud of steam, engulfing him in the scalding vapours from head to foot. The cloud engulfed the man entirely, and he stopped screaming.

Well, there you go, comments in the comments section please (if you have any).

Thanks, Simon

NANOWRIMO

NANOWRIMO stands for National Novel Writing Month ( I think). I will be taking part this year - writing a 50,000 word (175 page) novel between the 1st of November and Midnight on the 30th of November. At the moment I can't write anything for the novel, but I can come up with ideas, and that's where my small fan base comes in.

If you're reading this, do you have any ideas for a novel? Post in the comments section if you do.

Thanks, Simon

Sanctuary

A new gaming group I've just joined called Sanctuary has a Facebook page - have a look!
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/group.php?gid=116997085020930&v=wall

Here's the description for those of you who are more careful about which groups they join:

A society for gaming of all kinds - a haven for all gamers...

Sanctuary is an attempt to bring together all the people we know who enjoy playing games of all varieties, and allow them to contact and organise events/tournaments/games with each other without intermediaries.
Also, I will hopefully be running some group events depending on demand and the reception this group gets.

Invite anyone you know who you think will enjoy the activities and games this group commonly participates in! Remember, the more people we network with, the bigger/more games we can run.

When you join the group, if you could post on the "Introduction" wall an introduction for yourself and a list of the games you play (so that others can find like-minded players and organize their own events).

If you want to play a game with another person, find them and drop them a message.

If you want to run an event (like a tournament) drop me a message.

We currently have members who play everything from:

Tabletop Wargaming - 
Warhammer Fantasy, Warhammer 40,000, Lord of the Rings and we may be expanding into Flames of War at some point;

Tabletop R.P.G.'s - 
Pathfinder, D&D 3.5, Dark Heresy, Deathwatch, Call of Cthulhu d20, W.F.R.P.G.;

Collectible/Trading Card Games - 
Yu-Gi-Oh!, Warcry, Top Trumps (:P);

PC Wargaming -
Age of Empires (I, II, III), Rome: Total War (with Barbarian Invasion), Medieval: Total War (I, II), Cossacks II, Company of Heroes (with expansions), Dawn of War I (with expansions), Starcraft I (with expansions);

PC R.P.G.'s -
Neverwinter Nights I (with expansions), Neverwinter Nights II (with expansions).


Join if you want to, but more importantly - invite others to join! Lots of them!
Thanks, Simon

PictoChat - Conversation for people with no vocal chords...

Woo! I finally came up with something to rant about! (Although I wouldn't have thought about it at all if the patch download for my game wasn't running so slowly - 2% in 4 minutes!) Nevertheless, onto the serious matter of blogging.

If you've ever owned or used a Nintendo DS, DS Lite or DSi (I believe the DSi XL has it preloaded as well) then you most probably will have experienced PictoChat, if you haven't owned or used a Nintendo DS, DS Lite or DSi (or DSi XL) then you're a very lucky person and should never consider buying one! (Well in my opinion anyway but you know, you don't actually have to listen to my advice and take it seriously...) Back on topic anyway, every DS and variant thereupon has PictoChat loaded as standard software. On the outset it's a fun thing, be able to chat with your friends by either typing or drawing pictures with the stylus. Although it's not exactly brightly coloured (grey, black and white don't count as bright colours) it still is decently enjoyable, and it breaks the mould set by your average Instant Messaging service like MSN for example.

However, there is one very large problem with it. HOW you communicate. Now usually with an Instant Messaging service, you communicate using the internet via the company's server (or series of servers), but Nintendo, always the ones to be different, decided to make an instant messaging service that communicated through a system to system function. (This is one of the things I dislike about the DS and the DS Lite, because they had no wireless internet capability they used a system to system function to download demos - DS to Wii, and used the same system for PictoChat; why didn't they just change it to a wireless internet system?  More about that in another blog post) Great, no internet connection needed! What is not so great is the fact that it only has a very short connection radius (ie the person has to be within earshot to talk via PictoChat) so if the connection radius is so short why not just talk to the person? Do you have vocal chords? Are you capable of communication without the use of an electronic device? If you aren't then either you can do nothing about it (ie you can't speak or move or have another disability affecting this) or you can and are being too lazy (as in most cases). So, basically PictoChat is useless unless it's not.

Men in Tights (While my game demo's downloading)

While the Portal Demo downloads off Steam I thought I'd write the third blog post this month on Robin Hood, another story based on grains of evidence. This is on a similar theme to the last post as I was going to put them both in the same post but realised halfway through that it would be too long. So, I decided  to split them, and hence this brings me to this article.

Firstly, Robin Hood. Now, from what I've gathered the only evidence behind this Nottingham legend is mostly consistent of medieval chronicler's and poet's writings. So what? Well, the problem with medieval chroniclers is that most of them were famed for exaggerating events and people and for generally being inaccurate and making up wild stories about heroes and villains. Robin Hood is no exception. Although their is evidence for the existence of various people called Robert or Robin and many of them falling foul of the law their is still very little evidence for most of the legend. The earliest references come from poems and ballads and it is theorised that most of the legend may have been based on earlier folklore and legends (Such as Hereward the Wake for example). So, although I appreciate the culture and benefit to society that such legends bring, I still support the idea that most of the legend was most likely made up by a drunken medieval monk who needed something to do in-between drinking copious amounts of monkish ale.

That's all for this post, I try to keep my posts shortish unless I have some very good points to make and that's really all I can say about Robin Hood, I mean if you want a full investigation go on Wikipedia, I'm just writing for entertainment and because the new Robin Hood film has just came out. Now go and enjoy the £50,000,000 that the new Robin Hood film will generate for Nottingham, that is, if you live in Nottingham...

UFOs and 2012

After various discussions I decided that I had enough content to make a blog post on various myths and legends and plain rubbish that I had heard details on. First off, UFOs. Now although I'm definitely not an expert on this subject but I can tell you one astounding fact: 2,000,000 Americans claim to have been abducted by UFOs. Now, this either means that 2,000,000 Americans have been abducted by UFOs (Extremely Unlikely), or that 2,000,000 Americans are drunk/high on drugs/ too stupid to think things through properly, or that it's all a conspiracy and we're all going to die at the hands of aliens working with the government in some dark, occult conspiracy to bring about the Apocalypse. Your choice.
This nicely brings me on to my next topic. 2012. The very idea that we're all going to die in 2012 is absurd. There is absolutely no evidence to suggest that we will all die in 2012 except for the ideas suggested by the film 2012 which is, in concept, a film and therefore a work of fiction (in this case as it's not based on a true story as the year 2012 has not came about yet and unless they could time travel into the future of mankind which in itself is impossible they would not be able to know the information to base the film on). The other thing that annoys me more is that when you challenge the idea that we will all die in 2012, the general response is just a repeat of the original hypothesis, therefore not answering the question or giving any logical evidence.

No Expansion Without Equilibrium

Define: Equilibrium - balance or equality of distribution.

I thought after last month's post on patriotism, I would do a blog post on equilibrium. Equilibrium (as shown earlier) means balance or equality of distribution and is, what I believe, we should strive to gain in everything. Control is very important in our lives, lest our world as we know it descends into anarchy. Staying on the theme brought up by last month's post (See Patriotism: It's Not so Black and White) shows why equilibrium is useful. The most common example of extreme patriotism is the football hooligan; They travel to foreign cities and countries and trash the place in various overly violent and usually drunken ways and people wonder why (and how) anyone could do such a thing and get away with it. Now, don't get me wrong, their are probably hundreds of reasons behind each and every situation, but I'll try to outline a few and relate them back to my main topic.

Firstly, alcohol. This is one of the main things that causes trouble and unnecessary violence in our society and yes, it's not everyone who decides to drink extortionate amounts of the stuff and expect people to accept it, but nevertheless, there are still those who will use it as an excuse to be overly violent, and in the case of football hooligans, they have another reason to lose their sense of balance.

Secondly, patriotism. This gives football hooligans an excuse to get drunk and smash the place because their team has won and they want to celebrate, or their team has lost and they want to drown the despair of defeat in a pint of beer. Supporting and upholding your nation's culture and past and being proud of it is one thing, but equilibrium is important in these sort of situations as, if your pride for your nation takes over, you can lose all sense of logic and common sense to an overwhelming feeling of pride and violence towards those who would challenge that. This overwhelming pride, combined with the effects of alcohol can be a devastating and highly dangerous mix and can lead to riots, assault and even murder (or mass murder in the cases of some although that tends to be due to a medical condition or a drug rather than alcohol). This is why we should strive for balance on the tightrope that is life for, if we lose that sense of balance, we can lose our footing and plunge to our death.

PS The title was taken from a quote from the PS2 and PC game called Fire Warrior and in full is:
No expansion without equilibrium.

No conquest without control.

Pursue success in serenity.

And service to the tau'va.

Blind Patriotism - Things Aren't So Black and White

With the World Cup in South Africa looming on the horizon and the chance of English (and indeed any other nationality) people to gain an excuse to become hooligans and idiots temporarily I thought I would do a blog post on blind patriotism.
First off, the definition of patriotism: Patriotism is the love of and/or the devotion to one's country. (Wikipedia.org). Doesn't that sound admirable? Indeed, the words devotion and love are very strong words and are usually connected to deeds that benefit society. However, over time, the definition of patriotism has changed. Political parties like the BNP (British National Party), and UKIP (UK Independence Party) have started taking matters too far, to the extent that people are striving to conform to stereotypes that fit with a certain country's image, that people are encouraging racism towards people that do not conform to this image. There are, however, sinister sides to this image and different stereotypes connected to the UK (and other nations). Such as the thuggish and drunk view on English people, the idea that all Americans are fat, the idea that all French people eat cheese constantly, the list goes on. So, if we start encouraging and enforcing stereotypes then what's to stop people from considering that stereotypes are okay, that they can start labelling countries and their populace as displaying certain traits. If we encourage the use of stereotyping, what's to stop people from bringing in their own, negative stereotypes?
Secondly, stereotyping in itself, even to the extent that it is widely seen as a positive stereotype is not a good thing as people can be too busy striving to conform to this "positive" stereotype and therefore will use it as an excuse for violence, uncivilised behaviour and general disregard of any logic. They will take the stereotype to extremes and when presented with a more logical alternative, will disregard it entirely. For example, people blatantly disregarding the damage of one of the two world wars and taking an attitude of "We won, who cares", people disregarding the fact that somebody may have made mistakes under pressure and losing all respect for the person's success because they can't be bothered to think about it properly and in their mind they messed up so they're an idiot. This is not a good way to think! We should be individual in the way we think, not conforming to national stereotypes. British people shouldn't go on about the second world war (or the first) as if it was won from the start and that it was easy, that the German people were all idiots and got pounded, that whatever the cost we won and that was that. Things aren't so black and white - there isn't a line  dividing wrong and right that says "if you think about people who have done wrong too much and admire them for their success you will be killed"  is their? No, their isn't. So, try thinking about things, things you considered obvious, and think, "Is it that obvious really?"

What Would Jesus Do? The Christian Approach To EVERYTHING

Christian: Hmmm, I am faced by a moral dilemma totally unrelated to religion. What Would Jesus Do?
Agnostic: Well, Considering you think he's all powerful and everywhere at the same time why don't you ask him rather than sitting there staring at your stupid wristband that cost you £3,000,000 and has the letters W.W.J.D encrusted in diamonds on it so you get blinded the next time you look at it in bright sunlight because you think it might help you more than your all-powerful, ever loving, everywhere at the same time superhuman creature god...thing.

Yes, You guessed it, it's time for Simon to moan at some of the ridiculous Christian ideas that I hear being shouted, screamed and generally burning my ears at how illogical they seem. For Example, I saw a bunch of Christians in the Market Square the other day, all of them old people with some form of flag with most of them playing instruments or singing hymns. Now, I don't know whether I'm right about this or I'm just stereotyping here, but the majority of people I see in the Market Square (In Nottingham) are young people going shopping, this raises the question; What were they trying to do? Convert People to Christianity? Yeah, wishful thinking methinks. How are a bunch of old people singing hymns and waving a flag ,when you can't even hear them singing  and can just see that they're a bunch of old people, going to convert anybody when the majority are either already in a religion/ young people who couldn't care less/ atheists or agnostics that know better than to pay any attention to evangelists?

I think that's enough moaning for today, although I will continue this post in "The Christian Approach to EVERYTHING Part 2". While you're waiting for the next post check out http://www.metacritic.com/ ; It's a review site that takes everybody else's reviews for Games, Films, DVD's, TV and Music and gives their own score based on the arguments made by others - quite clever methinks...

Urban 4x4's

Hmmm...
This puzzles me. Why would anyone design a 4 x 4 that doesn't perform well off road? I was under the illusion that the purpose of the 4x4 was to perform better offroad - after all the one major car company I remember when I think of 4 x 4s is Land Rover, until now. It seems, after having a discussion with one of the regular readers of my blog that the idea of a 4 x 4 that can't go off-road is not an absurd one completely and utterly ignored by the public and your average Joe the Designer Dude. Take for example the 4x4 designed to fit in an urban environment. Now, I don't know about you but the biggest obstacle you can possibly face in an urban environment, well, isn't very big. Either that or its not meant to be avoided (that's referring to you, the free-running misfits who thought they do free-running in a car). As I get to the middle point of my post I start to run out of arguments, and so I venture onto Google, begin to search relevant topics and stumble across a series of websites on urban 4x4s. This brings up a few relevant points - While the concept of Urban 4x4s is a pointless one is it any better than clogging our streets with swarms of smaller cars, surely then we should be aiming to cut down on the amount of wasted journeys or high carbon emission cars rather than a specific type of car. Having a large car is not necessarily a bad idea as it means you can pack more stuff in, meaning less journeys and less cars on the road. At the same time however, the concept of a people carrier covers that and so, if you have lots of stuff/people to carry and live in an urban environment, get yourself a people carrier and make these "environmentally mad against urban 4x4" lot shut up...

Please Note: I am complaining about the concept of an urban 4x4 not on the actual cars themselves (for example, the Nissan Qashqai is a good car, but is made for the wrong concept - I think.)

Concept Cars with No Engine

This next post for my blog is on two rather pointless things; concept cars with no engine and 4 x 4s that can't perform well off-road. The other day I was reading a Clarkson book, and he mentioned that somebody had made a concept car with no engine. For once I agree with Clarkson on this - what is the point of a car with no engine? Who, in their right mind, would make such a thing? If anything, this concept "car" is not a car because it does not have an engine and as Wikipedia kindly points out, a car is - "An automobile, motor car or car is a wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor" This shows that a car without an engine is an utterly pointless idea.  Even if the car looked beautiful, at the very least, it is a merely the bodywork of a car, to call it a car is an insult. That said, I still like concept cars as some of them are actually good ideas and are well designed (including an engine!). There are new and fresh ideas by major car companies like the new Honda 3R-C which is a battery powered three wheeled, single passenger "car". It looks brilliant and I love the idea, but it is still being liberal to call it a car, nevertheless, there are some concept cars which ARE practical and look good - Take the Alfa Pandion for example, and if you can tell me that it doesn't look beautiful then you have some strange taste...

iPad? More like iThing...

A slightly late, but absolutely neccessary, post on the new Apple iPad. If you've been tied up and gagged in a cellar for the last few months or are a technophobic (see previous article) then you won't have heard of the new piece of Apple tech - the iPad. Basically a larger version of the iPhone and meant to bridge the gap between smart phones and netbooks, realistically it's another piece of Apple tech to join the ranks of expensive gimmicks for touch screen obsessed Apple fans. 
First, the technical run down, those of us who are less technically adept may wish to skip this section as it is stuffed, almost entirely of technical jargon.

The iPad has a larger 9.7-inch (25 cm) LED Backlit Multi-Touch display with a pixel resolution of 1024x768, 16 to 64 gigabytes (GB) of flash memory, a 1-gigahertz (GHz) Apple A4 processor, Bluetooth 2.1, and a 30-pin dock connector to sync with iTunes and connect wired accessories.
It is similar in functionality to the iPod Touch, running the same operating system (iPhone OS) and almost all of the same applications.

Two models have been announced: one with 802.11n (available in March 2010 in the United States) and one with Wi-Fi; 3G, which can connect to HSDPA cellular networks; and Assisted GPS(available in April in the U.S. and several other countries). The price on the Apple website for this piece of tech is $499 or £316.

Apple's first device to use its iBookstore service and companion iBooks eBook reading application, the iPad has been compared to Amazons's Kindle

Shown below are some images of front, back and side views of the iPad.

That's all well and good and if you check out the Apple page on it, even the technical specs show little flaw in this latest gadget, so what's wrong with it? Surely this article wouldn't have been put on my blog if their wasn't something wrong with it? Fear not, their are many problems with the iPad. The first of which is the fact of what it is, a tablet PC. The problem with this is that it doesn't have a disk drive or a keyboard (except an on-screen keyboard which would be difficult to type with) and the second problem is the problem with all Apple Gadgets - compatibility. The iPad is no exception to Apple's compatibility problems - it has no support for Flash and the only software that can be loaded is software off the Apple AppStore - which is fine if your technologically illiterate or are Apple obsessed, but the majority of people interested in new and innovative technology aren't and are probably working for Google.   

Needless to say, the iPad will probably be a success as it will be fuelled by the thousands of Apple fans and touch-screen obsessed people that know nothing or next to nothing about technology and are generally blinded by Apple hype. Nevertheless, I shall still attempt to enlighten the masses as to what they should do if blinded by Apple hype and are thinking of buying an iPad. Either:
 - Buy a Netbook - if you're often on the move and don't have the funds to buy a laptop,
or
 - Buy a Laptop (not a mac) - if you have enough funds to buy one and aren't always on the move.
or
 - Buy a Smart Phone - if you don't need to do anything more than simple tasks but like a powerful mobile,
or 
 - Buy a Desktop PC (not a Mac) - if you have the funds and want a high performance PC
But do not, under any circumstances, buy an iPad...

Cheap Cars and Bodykits

Why Oh Why would anyone buy a rubbish car? What is a rubbish car? How could anyone create a rubbish car without realising how awful it is? These are all questions I will be answering in this blog post, with of course, a sprinkling of cheese...

Firstly, What is a rubbish car? Now this is probably the most controversial point as it relies mostly on opinion but the point I will make, before you burst out in outrage, is that there are some cars that are blatently awful. Take the old Nissan Micra, the Ford KA and any Daihatsu in general. Their are certain cars that most people would simply be embarrassed to drive, many of them too cheap to be believeable. I ask of you only this, if you consider a car in the future and aren't very well off in the financial department, then wait, please, because I don't want to have to be woken up at one in the morning because an old Nissan Micra is revving its badly turbocharged engine outside my house.

Secondly, Why would anyone buy a rubbish car? Well, there are various reasons. They can't afford a decent car, they don't care, or they don't know anything about good cars. These are only a few in a myriad of reasons. The first then, if you can't afford a decent car then okay buy a cheap one, but do not, I repeat, do not, customise it in such a way as to ruin the car that was already in bad shape (probably). DO NOT give a Ford KA/Nissan Micra/ Whatever a bodykit/overly large stereo/turbocharged exhaust there is no point whatsoever. All these "accessories do is draw attention to your car, and if your car is a good, expensive, flashy sports car then sure, do what you like with it, nobody will care, but if your car is a piece of rubbish that you bought for £500 then you shouldn't be proud of it, least of all should you be committing the deadly sin of modifying your car without good reason or proper knowledge. People who customise bad or cheap cars without good reason (eg tuning up a cheap car for the purpose of racing it is acceptable) should be ashamed of themselves - cars are designed like they are for a reason, unless you have good knowledge of how you are affecting the car, don't change what's already there, chances are it looks good already and changing it will only make it worse, or the car is too rubbish for your customization to have any noticeable effect anyway.

I will continue this blog post when I have more examples to give for the third and final point - why would anyone make a rubbish car without realising. See you next month (end of february 2010).