Today saw the very last launch for the Space Shuttle programme, with the 33rd and final launch of the Atlantis at Cape Canaveral. The Space Shuttle programme has been in commission now for 30 years, with a total of 135 launches under it's belt, and today sees it's unfortunate end. Ironically, for most of today, I've been watching repeats of Star Trek: The Next Generation. With the shutting down of the Space Shuttle programme and Present Obama cancelling NASA's Constellation programme, it makes me wonder if we will ever reach the technological achievements portrayed in Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek franchise. The question on my lips now, as well as many others who look up to the stars in the hope that mankind can further explore the emptiness of space, is... What of the future of space exploration?

We all knew that the Space Shuttle programme, as we knew it, wouldn't be around forever. There'd be another type of craft we'd be using to get astronauts into space, followed by another, and another, and so on. It's common for technology to be improved upon and replaced over time, so many have assumed the same would occur with NASA's space programmes, that we would have a 2nd/3rd/4th/etc generation of Space Shuttles reaching further out into space. Now though, it's difficult to see how we will proceed. In researching for this small article, I was surprised to find what NASA have in store for us. I must add that what I write here is based on research that I've performed on various different websites and, because of the differing figures, views, and opinions, it was difficult to come to any sort of conclusion, so I will apologise now if any of the details are wrong.

Since I've made a website to cater for those who play Zynga's Café World (no pun intended), it would be negligent of me to fail to mention that the game has been given a bit of a spring clean this evening! A couple of months ago, we were given an entirely new cookbook in the game, which helped fellow chefs find the next dish they want to cook a little quicker than before (although perhaps not as well as I've done it). Now the rest of the game has been spruced up and I, for one, welcome it.

Naturally, the update will have been staggered along the many thousands (if not millions) of players throughout the world, so not everyone will see the update yet. For those of you who haven't seen it, take a look at the video they posted on YouTube.

We're currently into day 2 of the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2011, and now all of the main E3 press conferences are over and done with. The rest of the time at E3 will be spent going to various stalls and trying out what all the main contenders have to offer... at least, if you're there... Since I'm over 5,000 miles away and having to watch the Expo via live stream, I'm already calling it a week for E3.

So what have the main contenders shown us this year that reporters are immersing themselves in now, and that we'll be immersing ourselves in later in the coming months? In this blog entry, I've decided to outline the key points from the three main press conferences (Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo) that have stuck in my mind.

Read on to find out my thoughts...

The PlayStation Store was re-opened a couple of days ago, and now the Welcome Back content has been made available for everyone!

"With the PlayStation Store back online, we’ve been getting all caught up this week, having launched an abundance of amazing content for download on PlayStation 3 and PSP. Today, we’re excited to launch the Welcome Back program to thank you for your loyalty and below we’ve detailed what is available, how to go about downloading it and a list of frequently asked questions.

Thanks again for your patience and understanding as we restored the PlayStation Network and Qriocity services – your support has meant a lot to us and is greatly appreciated."
- from PlayStation Blog

Has it already been 25 years since we first saw The Legend of Zelda come out on the trusty NES? It certainly has been, and rumour has it that Nintendo have something up their sleeves to celebrate this momentous occasion.

Just last year, we were all celebrating Super Mario's 25th Anniversary. Nintendo commemorated this by releasing Super Mario All-Stars for the Wii. As good as this was for any of us who didn't already have this game (or series of games, if you want to see it that way), it was basically just an emulated ROM made to run on Wii software. What I would've liked to see was a remake of Super Mario All-Stars using the same engine used for New Super Mario Bros Wii, utilising all the benefits included with it, like co-op 4-player gaming and enhanced graphics. The game also included a booklet of Mario history, and an audio CD with a select few soundtracks from various past games. The booklet made for very light reading, and the CD was unremarkable. In my opinion, anyone who truly wanted to listen to the soundtracks would've already downloaded them from the internet.

So what's in store for Zelda's 25th Anniversary? I, for one, wouldn't want to see a repeat of what happened with Mario's 25th last year. There's no "All-Stars" Zelda game, as far as I know. I've hypothesised a number of options that Nintendo might choose to go with, but almost all of them would be poor choices if Nintendo decided to do any of them.

I finally got round to porting all the blog posts from my old site to this one. I started using Joomla near the end of October 2010 and I've only now gotten round to doing it!

It took about 14 hours to manually move them all over. There were way too many for me to sort out a batch SQL query to insert them into the database, so I used Joomla's own UI to put them in.

I've also put some key posts in over the last few months to fill in some of the gaps. If anything else crosses my mind, I'll pop them in too. Now, hopefully, I can keep this thing up to date with more technical and gaming news, as well as some updates on my own life.

Great! Shortly after I get my PS3, the next series of Pokémon games come out, named "Black" and "White". I've got the White version and I've gotta say it's mighty impressive! Time to start catching them all again!

I finally got one! My very own PlayStation 3!! Wooo!!!!

I've been wanting one of these for god knows how long and now it's MINE! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! Errrm *cough*

It's the 320Gb slim model, and I got a couple of games with it as well: Gran Turismo 5, Gran Theft Auto 4 Collection, and the PlayStation Move Starter Pack. The graphics and everything are fantastic, and this is going through a standard definition television as well! I need a HD telly now haha!

Happy New Year everyone, except anyone who doesn't deserve it!