Forza Motorsport 3 demo arrives

I am a huge fan of racing simulators. A few weeks ago I heard that a demo of the upcoming Forza Motorsport 3 Xbox 360 game would be available on the 24th of September - today. I connected to Xbox Live, and located the demo; only to discover that you require an Xbox Live Gold Membership in order to download the Forza 3 demo (I only have the free Silver Membership). Put simply, I have to pay to play the demo! Demos are supposed to attract people to the full game, not scare them away. I guess Microsoft can do what they like, now that Gran Turismo 5 on the PS3 is now officially more than six months away.

Carpet and Vinyl

Janelle visited the house today, and she couldn't help but notice that there was carpet and vinyl in there! All that is left is the door handles, driveway, hot water service and appliances.

Certificate of Occupancy

We just received the Certificate of Occupancy for our new house, so we're on track to move in on the 2nd of October!

Top 10 website

The website for the computer store MSY - which I check regularly because they have great prices - now has a 'Top 10 Website' logo on the homepage.

Firstly, congratulations to MSY for the achievement.

It's amazing what can be done in a web browser these days! Check it out: www.msy.com.au

The first person who can find the pricelist and give me the price of a Kingston 4GB SDHC card gets a surprise.

The house

House update! The paint has been attached; front and back doors have been applied; and the wall tiles have been ensembled.

We noticed that the bathroom vanity unit is in the wrong position (it should have been flush against the bath), and the decorative tiles are not the ones we selected; but they're not problems worth worrying about. Also, a hole in the floor of the lounge room has yet to be filled; and one of the powerpoints in the laundry is missing! Most likely, a hole simply hasn't been cut to reveal the cable.

Latest PlayStation 3 firmware v3.0 smells

The PlayStation 3, like the Xbox 360 and Wii, has the ability to upgrade it's firmware via the Internet. Version 3.0 has recently become available, and after having used the new XrossMediaBar OS, I have decided I prefer the old one! Here's why:

• I can no longer access the XMB while listening to music.
• All menu items, exept for the currently selected item, disappear after a couple of seconds (a strange and very annoying design feature)
• Selecting an item on the XMB often changes the background image, which can be annoying.
• Direct links to PlayStation Store items are everywhere!
• The games bar now defaults to the PlayStation Store, instead of the game that is in the Blu-ray drive.
• The cool PS3 chime no longer plays when a game has been started.
• The new friends list looks ugly.
• The game 'Uncharted: Drake's Fortune' now has freezing problems. Possibly other games also.

Hopefully the next update will be less aggresive with it's downgrades.

Construction completion date

We received notice today that our house is almost completed, and the keys will be handed over on the 2nd of October! That's great news, as we were originally told that we might be in by Christmas.