Just wanted to let you know that Gamers World Bangladesh Blog finally jumped into the PayPerPost bandwagon. For those of you who do not know what it is (I doubt it) PayPerPost allows you to make a buck while writing about the things you love.
Well, if you own a blog then you can sign up. After you have been approved, you will be able to browse "Opportunities" and take up on offers that you like and is relevant to your blog. After you finished your entry, just send them the link and if they like it, you get paid! As simple as that.
Actually, I was a bit skeptical at first. Since this blog deals with video games and such, I hardly believed that I could get good and worthwhile "opportunities". I mean I tried other similar sites (Reviewme) and I couldn't find enough opportunities. Needless to say, it was difficult to make a buck. But then I read in a mag about payperpost. Being what I am, I instantly signed up in their site.
After a simple and quick registration, I was able to take up on offers that were relevant to my site and what I believed, would interest my readers. To put it in short, there are lots of opportunities, whether you blog about games, your life or what not. And hey, who doesn't love to get paid to blog? I sure do.
I think you will be seeing a couple of sponsored reviews in the future. But don't worry, they won't be something as irrelevant as what I had for lunch.
Heck, if you own a blog then just head to payperpsot and sign up. I'm sure you won't regret it. And while you are at it, take the time to look up the payperpost blog. It's a great place to get started.
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I think I have become very much addicted to blogging. I always think about blogs, what I can write for my blog, how to generate more traffic, tweak the template so that it's more appealing to visitors and so on and so forth. In fact, I dare say that I have become obsessed with blogging, as a test I took proves so ( you can try it too). The test shows that I am 80% addicted to blogging! Now that's a scary number indeed.
80%
I am so much obsessed with blogs that I cannot remember the last time I've played video games. My Xbox 360 lies unwanted, unloved and gathering dust (with a shiny new copy of Gears of War that I am still about to complete). Long time fans of this blog will notice that the gamerscore on my Xbox 360 gamercard has remained the same over a long time. I plan to change that.
This might come as a surprise to many of you because this blog deals with video games in the first place. So how can I write about something that I've not been playing for a long time? You see, there is so much going on in the gaming industry, so much news, and so much to write about. And there is only 24 hours in a day. Sigh. And I am still in the middle of my education course.
Just for tomorrow, I think that I will turn to some good old fashioned video gaming goodness - and hopefully not write about it. Let's just hope that I can refrain from this serious addiction which has taken a dominant part of my life.
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In my last post Intermittent PC Trouble [and how I solved it] I wrote that my computer would randomly restart. I thought that I had the problem figured out (it was due to my PC overheating). Although that did help to some extent but it seems that now I am facing even more weird problems!
It all started last night while I was doing some research for my blog. And right in the middle of an important article (sigh) the computer restarted again. This time I didn't bother to reboot into Windows - I was so fed up that I decided to call it a night and went to bed. But today when I turned it back on, I received a message saying, "Some of your system files have been corrupted. Please repair these corrupted files". Great! Just what I needed! All of my important documents were lost.
As I put in my Windows XP CD to re-install my operating system, I was completely surprised that my computer booted into Windows without a glitch and everything seemed to work fine once again. Luck or no luck, the first thing I did was to backup all my documents, important files, etc. I restarted my computer to make sure that everything was okay (just in case I needed to re-install Windows) and thankfully, everything was.
But when I turned on my PC this afternoon, I seemed to have yet another strange problem. For a start, my computer just refused to boot! Right to the point it gets to displaying Windows logo it just restarts! I've tried everything - safemode, last known good configuration - but nothing worked; it would just restart and occasionally display a blue screen of death (and that would only be visible for about a second followed by another restart). After I gave up hope and put in my XP installation CD, my computer, once again, booted without a glitch! How strange and annoying is that?
Still my computer will often restart at random (and this has gotten more frequent) and I will get the infamous blue screen of death. And now it is doing a sort of pretend-to-be-old act, often it will get so slow that the mouse cursor takes ages to move! And at other times it works just fine (like the time I wrote this post). Overheating problems? Nope. Viruses? nope - checked that too. It seems that my computer has taken to a mind of its own and I am really getting a serious headache for it!
[UPDATE]
I don't know why, but right after I disabled Active desktop (which I used to display my Xbox 360 gamer card on my desktop) the problem has gotten less and now it doesn't occur at all! But I have been using Active desktop for about two months and it didn't give me troubles then. Strange isn't it?
RELATED ARTICLES:
Intermittent PC Trouble [and how I solved it]
My Xbox 360 just took a bath!
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Okay this is driving me crazy! The problem is that my PC hangs up (with an annoying noise from the speakers) and restarts for no good reason! This is not something new - it has been bothering me since the day I bought my new PC back in November 2005. I have learned to live with it but now it is getting more and more frequent and downright annoying.
This happens completely at random so it translates to countless lost documents and having to occasionally tear my hair out after defeating a difficult boss in a videogame. And the strange part is that this problem occurs when I do some CPU intensive (and important) tasks such as playing video games, photo 
editing, etc. Not while doing light (and unimportant) tasks such as browsing the internet, writing this rant post, etc. The last time that it crashed, I decided that enough was enough. Something had to be done, so the first thing I did was pester the technical support of my retailer.
But it seemed that even they had no idea as to what was going on. They told me to send the PC back to their shop. So I did. At first they determined that something was wrong with the processor. So they changed it. But that didn't help. Later they thought that the motherboard was damaged and they took that out and changed it too! After two days of wasting my time I finally got a phone call saying that they could not solve the problem! Since my warranty period had expired (maybe I should have dealt with it the first time it occurred instead of trying to live with it instead), so a refund was out of the question. It seems I am stuck with this PC (except with a brand new processor and motherboard).
Frustration led me to search the net. I ran into a couple of topics dealing with overheating issues and the symptom seemed strangely similar to mine. Now, it never occurred to me that any one of my 3.2GHz P4 processor, 120 GB HDD, 1 GB of RAM or the Radeon 256 MB video card could be overheating. I quickly downloaded SpeedFan and checked my motherboard temperatures. And boy was I shocked! My processor often ran past 65 C (hey I think my processor's hot!) and motherboard temp would spike past 50 C (and then restart) - hmmm so the restarts weren't completely random after all.
The cause? It seemed that my measly old single cooling fan and cramped case wasn't enough to save my computer from meltdown. Now that I discovered the root of the problem it was time to remedy it (with no thanks to tech support). A bigger case with at least three 120mm cooling fans (the really big ones) and a side vent was a must. To prevent the CPU from overheating, I replaced the stock cooler with Thermaltake's Big Typhoon Cooler (it's whisper-silent and works like a charm).
Settling on which case to buy was a tough decision. As my inner gaming geek told me, the case had to be big for proper air flow as well as showy. I liked Thermaltake's Tsunami but it lacked support for three cooling fans. The same could be said for Aspire X-Cruiser. There was this absurd looking black case with 5 cooling fans from Antec, the P180, but I passed.
In my hunt I came across Gigabyte's 3D Aurora 570 case. Now Gigabyte is not know for making cases. But this beauty caught my eye with it's simple yet elegant design (and, of course, it's cooling capabilities). It also came with a changeable side-vent and transparent windows to show of those heat-spewing parts of mine. Match that with Gigabyte's patent pending [Light projector] (which can project any word that you can come up with) and a cool looking brushed matte black paint job, and I knew that this baby was for me. To cut a long story short, I didn't find any retailers in Bangladesh that had this case so I had to import it from abroad paying double than the normal price (because of tariffs and transport expenses) which would have bought me a top-of-the-line graphics card. But it's the price I am willing to pay to get rid of those irritating restarts (oh the horror!).
If you guys are facing the same problem, then stay tuned for my upcoming article "HOW TO GET RID OF OVERHEATING PC PROBLEMS".
RELATED ARTICLES:
My Xbox 360 Just took a Bath!
Die hard Oblivion fan - disk error - you've just wasted 110 hours!
CD Compatibility Woes
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As hard as it might be to believe, my Xbox 360 really did take a bath, although I was not responsible for it. You see, last Friday (or maybe it was before?) there was torrential rain in Dhaka city and all roads and drainage system got waterlogged (don't ask, it happens every time it rains). This time it rained so hard that water came pouring down the stairs from the roof and into our house (now that doesn't happen very often)! And it happened at night, so I didn't realise it until the next morning. And what a shock I got! My imported premium 360 was a goner for sure I thought. It was just soaked! Now how did it happen? Well, you see, my precious 360 lies on the ground in a dusty corner of my room. But luckily, I was able to recover it from it's bath.
First I unplugged all the power cords and left it to dry for an hour or two. Next I got out my mom's hairdryer and blasted every vent holes with hot air. I would have taken the console apart and dried each part individually, but, I wanted to keep the warranty sticker intact. Lucky for me, I happened to put some old newspapers under the 360 which soaked up most of the water before it could really do much harm to my console.
The next time I turned on the power, I was happily playing Project Gotham Racing 3 on my squeaky-clean X360 without a glitch. Guess it needed the bath, right? And in case if you are wondering, yes, my X360 still lies on the ground in the same exact spot. I think that I still haven't learned from my experience, that is, until the next flood comes. That's how careless I am.
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I've read about this issue a couple of times online, but I didn't find enough evidence to backup this claim. So, I dismissed it. But it seems that the Xbox 360 CAN scratch your game disks! Yep, its true. As far as you would like to avoid this unpleasant fact, the truth is that if you play your games long enough on an Xbox 360, it might end up getting scratched.
Now here's the fact. I'm a big fan of Oblivion, with playtime well over 110 hours. Recently the game just freezes up for no good reason and I receive an error message saying that the disk is unreadable. I pop out the disk and upon further inspection, find a couple of scratches on the game disk. Now, I don't know how it occured. I've always stored the game disk back into its protective case and always handled the game carefully. I never lent the game disk to any of my friends. So the most obvious culprit is my 360 and the long hours I've spent with it in Oblivion.
It seems that I'm not the only one suffering the same problem. Head online and you are bound to come across some stories similar to mine. Infact, in a recent press release, Microsoft DID say that the Xbox 360 MIGHT scratch your game disks. Not only that, but Microsoft has an offer in their support section to replace scratched Xbox 360 game disks that are published by Microsoft.
So, in the end, remember that prolonged use of a game disk in an Xbox 360 might end up getting scratched. Just don't say I didn't warn you.
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Too Many Games, Too Little Time
I'm on a gaming overload. Can't just find enough time to play all these games due to my exams starting (again).They never seem to end, do they? I mean about exams. Its just so boring. I have to study and miss out playing all these great games that I recently bought. Some were also lying around for sometime. Hopefully I will get time to pick up and play them all.
1. Elder Scrolls IV: Shivering Isles (X360)
2. Project Gotham Racing 3 (X360)
3. Kameo : Elements Of Power (X360)
4. Tomb Raider : Legends (X360)
5. Blazing Angels : Squadron of World War II (X360)
6. Gears of War (X360)
7. Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 (PC)
8. Fear : Extraction Point (PC)
9. Prince of Persia : The Two Thrones (PC)
10. Age of Empires III: The War Chiefs (PC)
11. Titan Quest : Immortal Throne (PC)
12. Command & Conquer 3 (PC)
13. Titan Quest (PC)
14. Neverwinter Nights 2 (PC)
15. GTA: San Andreas (PC)
15 Games in total!
Well maybe I'll get time in the coming summer vacation. Yeah baby! Here I come.
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CD Comapatibility Woes
This is completely nuts! None of the CDs that I buy can install without a glitch!Well, I am writing this after the 10th time I wanted to install Fifa 2007. At the end of the installation process, I always get an error saying that CRC checking failed. For the last time, I changed the CD and tried it ONE MORE TIME.
97% complete ... 98% complete ......... 99% complete ........ ERROR MESSAGE AGAIN!
I am totally upset. Most of the CDs that I purchase will have some sort of problem, whether be it installation errors, file transfer errors or just plain scratches! Ugh! And the shopkeeper doesn't want to change the faulty discs! One time he is very friendly and the next time he won't even recognize you!
This is totally absurd. All the discs that are locally burnt in our country (NPP, AZE, etc,) are downright unprofessional - they just care about making money, not the fact that you could even install the game in the first place! The soluion to this problem? Get Malaysian CDs/DVDs. They might not be original ones or cost as much, but they are the next best thing.
They cost around 250 taka for a single DVD (the local ones cost 100-150 taka), and in my opinion, they are worth the money. All the DVDs are golden discs and I have never encountered an error with them. They also have long shelf life.
So I guess that I am going to buy Malaysian DVDs/CDs afterall. I am just upset with our local ones!
What experience did you have? Share it with our readers by leaving a comment.
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My Top 10 Favourite Games of All Time
I've played a lot of games (trust me, a-l-o-t!). So to compile them into a list of the Top 10 was a hard decision! So after a lot of thinking and tinkering, here it is!1. Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II
2. Warcraft III
3. Half Life 2
4. NFS
5. Dog's Life (PS2)
6. Jak III (PS2)
7. The Settlers V - Heritage of Kings
8. Star Wars Jedi Knight - Jedi Academy
9. Battlefield 1942
10. Sims
Make sure you leave your Top 10 favourite games list in the comment box!
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The Worst Copyright Infringement Ever
Ever since Gamers World Bangladesh started (first as a magazine and then this website) we have a few copycats on our tails. But by far, this is the worst attempt to copy our website ever!With fame comes headaches. Recently, Gamers World Bangladesh has been a popular target for copycats. A few sites like us have sprung up (even they publish their non-professional magazine) but a recent search at Yahoo groups revealed the worst attempt, ever.
A certain Yahoo group (I am not mentioning their name), has been claiming that they have published the first ever Online Bangladeshi Games Magazine. Okay, like whatever. We all know who was the first one, right? Anyway, they were so amazed with our articles that they are collecting it and putting it up as a magazine at their forum, claiming that we(!) stole it from them! They are also blaming us about a lot of things that even I cannot relate.
Next month they are going to publish a collection of our articles saying that it was stolen from them. Way to go LOSERS!
And so pathetic they are that the whole group is devoid of real members. The owner has made a couple of Yahoo IDs and have added them to his group to boost his groups membership numbers. Even if you post a message, no real reply will come. Only the owner trying to act like a different person - and the similarities are always obvious.
Recently, he has taken matters to the extreme. Now he has turned to hacking other Yahoo accounts in order to add them to his group. He even hacked mine, once or twice. No matter how much they try, good always wins over evil.
So readers, remember. Gamers World Bangladesh is the first ever magazine (online or off) and now we are the first website in Bangladesh dedicated to games only (see Prothom-Alo). That's a lot of firsts, right?
And we have only one forum at http://forum.gamersworldbd.com/ which redirects you to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gamers-world_bd/ If you see any work(s) and/or article(s) that you think that might have been taken from Gamers World Bangladesh, then please report it immediately. We need the help of the public to battle this ongoing war against copyright infringement.
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The Search for a Good ISP
Fed up with the worst service that I came across, I decided to switch my ISP. When all hope was lost, an unbelievable offer came up - which I couldn't resist.
Yesterday, I just reached the end of my patience with my current ISP, Dtech Ltd. from whom I took a broadband connection. The speed was unbearably slow. Everything seemed to take ages to load. Trust me, it took forever. Worse still the connection would drop suddenly and I would not be able to go online for days.
After not receiving the connection for three consecutive days, I got fed up. I decided to call in tech support. There didn't seem to be any good reason for the connection to keep dropping continually. The tech support wasn't of great help either.
"We're doing the very best we can, Mr. Rahman. I will at once increase the bandwidth of your connection."
After receiving a temporary boost of about two hours or so, my connection resumed its previous state. Again. Agh. That was the last straw, I thought. I need to switch my ISP.
A search on Goolge revealed several ISPs near my home. Most of them offered more or less the same packages to home users. a 28.8 kbps shared bandwidth at 1,500 taka (the same service as I had from Dtech Ltd.). Once or twice, I even considered getting a corporate package in my home!
I feared that the end was nigh. There didn't seem to be any good ISP available in all of Dhaka city. So it was a chance of luck that I landed on www.zipbd.com Now, what they were offering to home users was unbelievable. A 128 kbps (average) shared fibre optic connection at 1,500 taka per month! Moreover, they offered other ancillary services, such as Video over IP, a gaming server (yummy) and 30 or so free videos on demand. It seemed too good to be true. I even contacted customer support to make sure that all the details were accurate!
So fast forward to today, and I have a delicious fibre optic connection pumping at more than 128 kbps. Now everything loads faster and downloads don't take forever. I do not have to wait overnight for a 1GB game demo to near completion and suffer from little or no lag while I play Battlefield 2 online. Well see you slow-pokes later, I've got a date with my Battlefield 2 clan, online.
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