Tuesday, 17 February 2015

Becoming a billionaire in Grand Theft Auto V using BAWSAQ stock market!

I'm super pleased to announce that my latest pet-project has gone live; It's a simple website designed to help players of Grand Theft Auto V become billionaires using the ingame BAWSAQ stock market (it's fun, you know). It began as a project to re-sharpen my coding skills after an extended break and turned into a bit of a labour of love.




It's still early days, but I've designed it to be as simple as possible, and hopefully it will be very useful to players of Grand Theft Auto! New features will continue to be added, too.

Visit the site: http://www.gta-bawsaq-billionaire.com

Let me know your thoughts and feedback if you use it!

UPDATE: The API has broken, so the site no longer functions as it should :(

Monday, 2 February 2015

All the WINGS episodes missing from Netflix/Hulu


Sitcom junkie that I am, I've been watching WINGS each night to fall asleep to. It's an amusing series from the creators of the FRASIER that never found the popularity of that show (or its predecessor), but I've grown to really enjoy it. Yes, it may not have been edgy or boundary pushing, and the differences between the characters were sometimes ill defined (or subtle?), but whatever its faults may or may not be, it's still a very underrated and enjoyable show, and I was a little miffed when I discovered that Netflix doesn't have every episode on its service.

In fact, it turns out that 23 episodes are missing, an entire season's worth(!), and unfortunately, due to music licensing issues, there's very little chance of them being added. The biggest shame is that they frequently feature important story-changing episodes (and WINGS was mostly very careful about keeping its backstory -- although don't ask what happened to Budd, or Lowell's kids).

While watching on Netflix, did you wonder where Helen's sister, Casey, suddenly appeared from? How Brian, Casey and Antonio got a house together? Where Helen got a new cello from? What Brian did with his insurance money? It's all explained in episodes that were cut. You also missed Craig Bierko's cameo in Season 2, Kirstie Alley's "Rebecca Howe" from CHEERS in Season 4, and The Monkees's Peter Tork in Season 7 (if that's your bag). Often these were some of the best episodes, too.

So here's a list of each of the episodes missing from Netflix:

Season 2
01 - The Puppet Master
11 - A Terminal Christmas
15 - My Brother's Back and There's Going to Be Trouble

Season 3
09 - Try to Remember the Night He Dismembered

Season 4
11- Exit Laughing
15 - The Gift: Part 1
16 - The Gift: Part 2
17 - I Love Brian
21 - Another Wedding

Season 6
02 - Twisted Sister
07 - All's Fare
18 - Gone But Not Faygotten
21 - The Love Life and Times of Joe and Helen

Season 7
06 - She's Gotta Have It
10 - 'Twas The Heist Before Christmas
17 - Lynch Party
20 - A Tale Of Two Sister Cities
23 - Life Could Be A Dream

Season 8
03 - Maybe It's You
07 - Olive Or Twist
15 - Fay There, Georgy Girl
16 - Escape From New York
17 - House Of Blues

Unfortunately the only place these appear to be now available is on the DVD releases. Shame! (It's especially a shame because sometimes the music in question is only incidental and could be changed to anything else.)