Game review: “Toki Tori”
Posted by Peter | Filed under Games
No, this isn’t a game about verbose politicians. Rather, Toki Tori is a platform puzzler with oodles of character. It is available on PC (via Steam), Wii, and iPhone/iPod Touch, and is made by Dutch game developer Two Tribes. A previous incarnation of the character appeared in a game of the same name in 2001 on GameBoy Color.
Game review: “Bad Rats: the Rats’ Revenge”
Posted by Peter | Filed under Games
“Bad Rats: the Rats’ Revenge” is a physics-based puzzle game by indie developer Invent4. Before I describe the game, a quick word of warning. It contains a lot of cartoon violence (think “Itchy & Scratchy” from the Simpsons), and it most certainly pushes the political correctness envelope!
That said, if you still want to find out about the game, then read on…
WWWPS stops Apache starting on Windows 7
Posted by Peter | Filed under Software
Due to a recent computer catastrophe, I had to re-install Windows 7 from scratch. Previously I had been working on an upgrade from the Windows Vista installation which originally came on my PC when I bought it.
Today I wanted to get a webserver running for general web-development stuff, and I decided to use my old favourite, WAMPServer. It installs and runs Apache, MySQL, and PHP nice and easily. Unfortunately, its Apache service wouldn’t start, so I went hunting around to find a solution.
My Amilo M1425 laptop thinks its processor is only 600MHz
Posted by Peter | Filed under Uncategorized
I have a Fujitsu Siemens Amilo M1425 laptop which I sometimes take on trips, but last year I had to wipe the hard disk and re-install windows. Since then it’s been thinking it has a 600MHz processor (but the processor should actually be running at 1.6GHz).
Over a year later, I’ve finally fixed it! It’s caused by a BIOS problem, and it is reasonably easy to fix. First of all, make sure you’ve got the latest BIOS configuration. You can download an official BIOS flash program to do this. You should download an EXE file, which you should save to your computer somewhere (e.g. your desktop).
Close all other programs, and then double click that file. (You will need to be running on AC power, not the battery.) It should do everything necessary to update your BIOS, and it will ask to restart your computer.
Not done yet!!!
This is really important. Flashing and updating the BIOS is not enough. When the computer starts rebooting, you will see it offering you the chance to press F2 to load the setup. Do this, and the BIOS setup program will load. Navigation with the arrow keys on your computer, and go all the over to the right-hand menu option. Select “load optimal defaults”, and then exit saving your changes.
Your computer should reboot, and that will be it sorted. Your processor should now be working at 1.6GHz. 
