Welcome to The Serpent
Here you'll find guides, articles and news from the world of IT, from the perspective of a computer engineer based in the UK. Covering a wide range of computing\networking\programming and even some totally unrelated 'warped views' - we hope you'll notice our passion for IT and all things techie.
A geeks retreat - this site aims to promote shared knowledge though articles based on experience. We hope you enjoy your stay, and feedback is always welcome.
Back to Reality
Tuesday 14th May, 2013It's like 200 all over again
Well after giving SimCity a good going over, I think it's safe to say I've expored all there is. It's a great game, but could really do with bigger maps, as they do fill up too quickly, and it's unsure if a massive new building would take out a quarter of your population. Anyway, onward, normal service will resume...
SimCity comes to the UK... Tonight!
Thursday 7th March, 2013rearticulate those splines...
For those of you who remember the good old days of blocky graphics, MS-DOS compatibility mode, and late nights in front of an overly bright CRT monitor - You'll love the fact that SimCity, possibly the greatest simulation ever made (very close to TrainSim I might add!) is due out tonight at midnight on Origin.
Simply called 'SimCity' - this new version is stunning, creative, and every...
RollerCoaster Tycoon on Windows 7 64-bit
Monday 4th March, 2013Still works, looks good too!
Last weekend I found myself indoors more then usual and decided to try out some old PC games (feeling nostalgic!) on Windows. I still have some old CD's (Road Rash, SimCity, SimTower and RollerCoaster Tycoon to name a few) so tried my luck at getting them running.
I decided to use a Windows 98 virtual machine for most games, however I could not get RollerCoaster Tycoon to work at all....
HDMI Ripoffs
Thursday 28th February, 2013You want HOW much?!
I've been asked a fair bit about the art of purchasing a really good HDMI cable lately, and being well aware some would happily pay anywhere between £20 - £30 for a standard 1 meter cable (I admit, in times of desperate need, I have!). I decided to brush up on my old HDMI research and discover why prices really do fluctuate so much.
The golden rule with HDMI is that if you're sending the...
Adobe Acrobat Alternative
Thursday 7th February, 2013Been a long time comin'
Adobe Reader has been the dominant PDF viewer for many years, mainly due to the format being so locked down, that Adobe were the only ones able to render it. However that changes ages ago, and now the Internet is full of alternative PDF readers, many far smaller, cleaner, and better then the bloat-ware that is Adobe Reader.
Foxit Reader
Foxit is probably the second most popular....
Chrome > Opera
Friday 11th January, 2013Anyone else feel overly loyal to their browser?
Back in 2009 I wrote about Google's new browser when it hit the virtual shelves. It was faster then the IE and the Firefox versions available at the time, and had that nice lightweight feel, supported by the fact it fit nicely into your user profile. This last week, I've been giving some serious thought to making it my default.
I know some might think that's simply me being a little late...
Happy New Year
Friday 4th January, 2013The year of the pretentious loyal fanboi
We've got a feeling 2013 is going to be quite a year for the tech world. Not only will you be able to by a Ubuntu based phone and a Microsoft based tablet, but Apple may also go beyond the usual iStuff and produce more wearable gadgets, all the while updating the usual iOS platforms.
Still, like always, we're going to go in a different direction then the usual masses - so it's a choice...
Other Serpent Ventures
