MMB
Just my view on the world :)
Wow what a eventful month!
Jul 30th
This month has been really busy for me. With a unfortunate and worrying illness in the family and even more progress with my business.
I have a business advisor and been to many seminars back in London about starting up and I have a real roadmap for these 3 weeks. To finish market research, finalise my business plan and submit to banks. The main priorities after then will be structuring and sorting the premises with the council. The website really needs tweaking because it wasn’t really structured to handle a store online and offline! In reality it was created before any plans were firm and this was a mistake. One that won’t be made again. I’m drawing up a website plan too.
Work has become somewhat ridiculous but I will speak about that when I become detached from that company (then I can’t be fired) 
Must get to sleep now… got work tomorrow again. Not long left till I leave Oxford for a bit.
Btw, If you live, study or work in Oxford please fill out this quick questionnaire for me. It will help me with my market research and you will be entitled to a money off voucher when we launch.
Peace!
Me & The MonkeyPC
Jul 11th
I can’t think of what to write about really. I will be blogging about The MonkeyPC later on in this week or month. I have lot of exciting things planned regarding that and have had some feedback which has come in handy.
I’m still working hard at Sainsburys in Oxford. I only have a few weeks left until I leave.
Other then that not much has changed personally. However, on the business side things are almost ready. The draft business plan is complete. The financials are a little weak and need a second going over.
There is still a lot to do but progress is coming on.
Lovin’ the weather hope it stays sunny.. stay tuned for more updates
What I’ve been doing…
Jun 30th
One word The MonkeyPC. I will have a update in July about what’s going to happen! It’s big. Bigger then before!
http://www.themonkeypc.co.uk
Follow us on twitter!
Doing lots of work hours
May 28th
I will be doing lots of work hours for a while so won’t get to update my blog much. Still love all you readers!
F12010 the game
May 13th
Months back I started looking at the next F1 game. As some of you know I’m a big fan of F1 and F1 games. F106 was a big step forward over F105. I still consider F197 in terms of gameplay and everything you could do as a driver to be the best game released. It will be released on PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii.
F12010 looks like it will walk all over that. Let’s look at the features:
F12010 will have “the most complicated weather system ever seen in a racing game” this has me veryy happy
From wikipedia and following the codemasters forum.
(Screenshot taken from development build but still looks amazing!)
When rain starts to fall, the track will gradually lose grip, with some areas losing grip faster than others. “Overhanging trees, for example, will shelter the track, while dips and indentations in the tarmac will hold more standing water and provide a greater risk.”
To me that sounds just amazing! F1 games so often mucked up when it rained. F106 for example. The cars just became undriveable to anyone. You had to run insane amounts of front wing to keep the car on track or take corners extremely slowly. Whilst the rest of the field would be tenths to seconds quicker then you. The track never had differing levels of grip too 
When the rain stops, a “drying line” will start to appear which will provide more grip which will make it easier to drive. If car goes off the dry line, the tires will lose grip and it will be harder to drive. Evolving track will also be featured elsewhere in the game; at the start of a race weekend, the track will be “green” and therefore have less grip, but as the weekend progresses, rubber will be laid down onto the track increasing the grip.
A drying line has never been seen in any F1 game I owned. This will be amazing making it much more realistic. A evolving track is something I longed for (F106 had evolving tyres to a extent) but having a green track at the beginning of the weekend and then evolving to a faster track by the end will be great. I
presume when it rains the track will lose all rubber laid down too.
The game will feature a career mode consisting of either 3, 5 or 7 seasons (it is up to you). Where players can drive for any team, each having their own objectives – “For example, race for Ferrari and anything other than winning the Driver’s and Constructor’s Championship would be a failure, while a mere points finish when driving for Lotus would be a huge success.” Media interest will also differ depending on whether the player is racing for one of the top teams, or a team at the back of the grid. Impromptu interviews will take place alongside the official interviews following each race.
The fact I can now do 7 seasons without being dropped by my team at the end of 5 (no matter how many championships I won in F106) is much better. I want to go through what its like to be a real driver. I would expect goals such as winning the championship in a Ferrari to exist. The media aspect is a new thing. The fact we can manage our lives with the media is going to be interesting.
Research will also feature in F1 2010. Consistently out-race their teammate, and the player will receive new parts, updates and upgrades as they’re developed. Their team will develop new parts or updates for their car throughout the season, evolving the car as the season goes on.
Imma make sure I out race my teammates 
This and the eight engines per season rule being implemented will make it very interesting. Meaning you have to look after your engines. Turn them down at various points in the weekend to make them last or you risk taking grid penalties towards the end of the season!!
There will be no safety car or formation lap and races will never be red-flagged, but all the other flags will be included.
Safety car, formation lap and no red flags are no biggie for 2010. Maybe it can work its way to 2011 perhaps? I’ve included some screenies for you all to see!
It’s gonna take me a few testing laps to get used to!
I’m going to buy it as soon as it comes out. However I won’t pre-order in case the release is set back. Tbh, I can’t wait till it’s out. I don’t have a PS3 so will get the xbox 360 version. I just hope it handles well on the xbox 360 as I have never played a F1 game on the console. Here is to hoping it’s good!!
Politics and SATS
May 10th
What a unusual few days in the politics world. Unfortunately I couldn’t vote because I was registered back home in London and had to work in Oxford on Thursday 
I didn’t even have a clue to vote and still don’t. I’m not sure if I’m going libertarian, pirate party, labour or liberal democrats. The only party I would hate to see in power is the conservatives. Now when have a hung parliament. It was interesting seeing what confusion the word hung brought as people tweeting from far corners of the globe thought parliament had been hung! Looks like we will now have another general election or conservatives and liberal democrats joining to form a coalition.
In the education world its good to finally see some schools abandoning the SATS papers. I always thought they were pointless for many years. The whole UK education system needs a reform and it should start by ditching SATS and replacing A-levels with the International Baccalaureate.
Will someone vote me in as PM please?
Everything goooood!
May 7th
Not really said much about myself lately but everything is going good. Been real busy with work (Sainsbury’s) and some web projects. Speaking of web projects work has been underway at Ferrari Fans! Project Italia has been coming along nicely with a new design
It’s only a concept at the moment. Feel free to give your thoughts and opinions. Suggestions are warmly welcomed and will be taken on board.
Notice how we are moving more to a “content” based homepage. We aim to have a few surprises thrown in too
We have pretty much chosen to ditch vBulletin now. vBulletin 4 has been a major disappointment. In my opinion keeping vBulletin 4 so secretive was the first downfall then releasing something half baked after committing so many people who relied on it was a big mistake. Therefore all the staff have agreed within the community to move back to MyBB forum software. We need a reliable open solution and we believe MyBB is the right solution. As some of you may remember we ran MyBB back in 2008 so it’s more like coming home.
The content side will be run on Joomla a strong well known CMS. We want people to suggest what can be improved. We are in this community together. One improvement will benefit us all. If you can think of something you can reply on the blog or post a topic here.
Moving back to myself and home. I’m doing good. Currently watching the UK election updates.
I missed my opportunity to vote. Let’s hope the right people get into power
Apple Elf renamed to The MonkeyPC
May 2nd
A lot has happened since I last wrote a blog post here (I will go into that in another post) but the topic of this post is the new webhost I am committed to starting.
Apple Elf has plans laid out as far back as 2007. However after several setbacks we haven’t been able to launch. These range from disappearing designers to financial issues. Recently I decided to ditch the Apple Elf name, for The MonkeyPC. Along with it comes changes in plans. The website coding itself is coming along very well. Unfortunately, we didn’t hit Monday 12th April as our opening date.
Speaking of services I have decided to add several more that I have thought may be useful. There is still so much more work to do that a launch date cannot be properly given. Development is continuing.
Personally I am fine. Just been really busy these few months and I intend to explain all that soon
Feeling more positive
Jan 26th
Truth is I have become disillusioned with my degree. I’m not going to pin this down on certain difficult lecturers but rather myself. I chose a motorsport degree because I done a bit of karting and loved watching it on tv.
However I’ve lost interest and feel like I should be chasing something else… I probably should have seen this coming ages ago. I look a what I know I can do and seem to have a passion for and I see the web, servers, databases, COMPUTING! Maybe I’m just having a phase.
(Maybe I should focus on a career in the IT/technology field)
I know how to work with php to some extent (I got a lot more to learn and I’m working on it) I can work with MSSQL and MYSQL. I feel like I should something related to what I can do. There is a lot to this but I been feeling down over my university choices.
In other news… I’m still focusing my efforts on getting Ferrari Fans on top. At the moment I am in talks with some designers over a new theme. I hope that buy July 2010 we will have something revolutionary online. Something more then what we have now which is effectively just a forum.
It’s also great to see Michael Schumacher in F1 overalls in the vicinity of a F1 car again! Welcome back Michael and Fernando Alonso has given his first interview as a Ferrari F1 driver.
At the time of writing this I was listening to: Wyclef Jean feat Mary J Blige – 911
Till next time… love ya all
Ferrari Fans Improvements
Jan 21st
Some new staff members have come aboard. They are talented, fresh and eager to help us expand.
There are 3 main issues that need tackling. These are:
1.) One is lack of activity – No new members!
2.) Lack of direction – Managements fault.. = mine.
3.) A site overhaul – Upgrade to vb4 and finally go the full CMS site route. Make it more of a community. Design new graphics for most parts of the site.
We have a chance to actually push these three main areas and get them completed on time. Thanks to the talented staff we have on board. We hope to get the main issues cleaned up by our 3rd Anniversary.
If you love Ferrari’s and want to help out. Head over to ferrarifans.net register and private message matt!