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Or maybe the light side, I'm not sure which is which. In any event, I have a MySpace page now and have been neglecting my LJ page in favor of that one, for various reasons. (It's not like I blog anything interesting there either, though, so don't worry, y'all aren't missing anything.)Current Mood: busy Current Music: No Doubt |
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I haven't posted here in a while, but it's not because I'm dead, it's because I've been focusing my writing energy in other directions. If you're not one of the people I've already pointed at this article, go check it out. And do your part by printing out a copy of that poster and putting it up in your local Best Buy. |
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Nov. 8th, 2004 @ 06:19 pm
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1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 23.
3. Find the fifth sentence (I repeat: sentence, not line).
4. Post the text of the sentence in your journal, along with these instructions.
"Lady Madonna, children at your feet, wonder how you manage to make ends meet." |
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Mmmm... graph...
How common are klugarsh's interestsCurrent Mood:  thirsty Current Music: Cake - Daria |
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1) My website, LeadToGold.Com, is finally back up, after a week or two of DNS trouble.
2) Evil Genius comes out today. Having played through the free demo about five times, I'm stoked. The gang and I will be making the ritual Best Buy run at lunchtime.
I AM 66% EVIL GENIUS!  Evil courses through my blood. Lies and deceit motivate my evil deeds. Crushing the weaklings and idiots that do nothing but interfere in my doings. |
Current Mood:  sleepy Current Music: Belleville Rendez-Vous |
| » The unfairness of the skill hack |
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This rant is inspired by an experience at last week's Austin Game Conference. Not the free beer, or the karaoke party that followed, or the accolades I received from McElroy's Russian intern on my rendition of The Joker. No, those are fine memories, but they aren't rant-provoking.
It was one of the panels I attended, entitled "Design Risks We Should Be Taking." Present were folks from Mythic, Wolfpack, and SOE (Raph, specifically). An audience member spoke up and asked when we were going to see player skill become more important in MMOs than character stats, thus giving the player an active role in his/her character's success (he was speaking in terms of combat, but I think it could be more general than that). One of the panelists shot him down with the air of one who's heard a patently stupid idea a hundred times and is swatting it away as though it were a persistent mosquito. "What happens then is that you've got some uncoordinated guy who's been playing for two years, has his level 50 character, and some level 1 newbie with better reflexes comes in and beats him. That's not a good game experience."
Never mind the question of whether the current state of MMO combat, where it can basically be macroed away, is a good game experience. I'm intrigued by this assumption that adding player skill removes fairness. And so I give you today's rant.
( Clicky. )
Sep. 14th, 2004 @ 10:45 am
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| » It's alive! |
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That happened faster than I expected. The little screensaver project I mentioned earlier is done.
If you've got CPU cycles to spare and/or consider yourself a "power user" and/or have been looking for a more interesting screensaver, go check out my latest creation...
Sep. 2nd, 2004 @ 06:36 pm
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| » SIGGRAPH 2004 report, take 2 |
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I had this post all nicely typed up last night and LJ's web interface ate it without so much as a belch. This time I'm doing it in Notepad like a smart monkey. Take two...
Last week ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) mataway and I headed down to LA for the SIGGRAPH conference, where people from all over the world converge to show off shiny new toys, mostly in the computer graphics field, but with contributions from UI, art, and robotics as well. Here are a few of the niftiest things I saw while there:
( Impressive hardware from nVIDIA. )
( Swarm, an interactive painting. )
( Make your own virtual Calder mobile! )
( Robotic omnidirectional treadmill. )
( The automated haptic back tickler. )
( A computer animation festival. )
( Random industrial toys. )
And of course, the Big Cheese that I had for lunch was stellar. Also, the Millenium Biltmore hotel in downtown LA is a lovely place to stay, and they make some really killer martinis.
Aug. 18th, 2004 @ 07:26 pm
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| » Livejournal ate my post |
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Blah.
Aug. 17th, 2004 @ 06:51 pm
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| » Mmm... hardware... |
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Here is my dilemma.
On the one hand, PCI Express is coming. When that happens, I will need to get a new computer. There is no escaping this. Having an entire row of identical slots that each on their own have more bandwidth than current AGP slots, and being able to plug multiple video cards into said uber-slots, and have them share the workload... well, that's the Holy Grail. Once this technology is on the market, I will not be able to sleep at night knowing that it is out there and not in my grasp.
On the other hand, Doom 3 is coming. Soon. I've been saying for the past two years or so that once it finally hit shelves, I would build myself a new machine in order to enjoy the highest framerates reasonably possible. My current machine will probably run Doom 3 (it was in fact built one year ago in anticipation of Doom 3 and Half-Life 2), but I'm guessing not in its full glory. There is room for it to be upgraded, chiefly in the video card department, which would probably make Doom pretty darn playable.
The dilemma: do I blow $300-$400 on a new video card now, even though I'll be building a new computer from scratch in the indeterminately near future? Does it make sense to spend money upgrading a machine whose obsolescence is looming on the horizon? Should I just turn down the resolution, grit my teeth, and continue waiting for the Holy Grail?
To add to the difficulty, shiny things like this video hover just out of my grasp. Arrrrgh!
Jul. 20th, 2004 @ 03:26 pm
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| » Donnie Darko back in theaters! |
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Inspired by the success of Donnie Darko on DVD, Newmarket films has decided to rerelease it in theaters, to give people another chance to see it (since it vanished so quickly the first time). The rereleased version is a new director's cut with an additional 20 minutes of footage, and should be in theaters this week.
NY Times story here
I was one of the few who was lucky enough to see Donnie Darko in a theater; one of my fraternity brothers at the time had a good nose for quirky movies and dragged a bunch of us down to the Shattuck to see it, refusing to give any explanation other than that it involved a giant demonic bunny rabbit. We then sat around for a good hour or two piecing together what we had just seen. I loved it.
I've pieced together what I'm pretty sure is the "complete story" from all the special features on the DVD, but I'm still very eager to see this movie again with the additional footage. Here's hoping it does better in theaters this time around - it definitely deserves it.
Jul. 18th, 2004 @ 11:03 pm
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| » Cat story |
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Everyone loves cat stories, right? My mom came to visit me for my birthday, and she told me this one about the family cat, Leibowitz (I've mentioned him before), a polydactylic stray that we adopted, who has turned out to be a very friendly and intelligent feline.
Last Christmas, the family got a pair of rabbits as a present. Rabbits being rabbits, they've had a litter or two. Obviously, a concern was that Leibowitz, being a ferocious hunter (he regularly leaves giftwrapped rodent carcasses on the doormat), might try eating the baby bunnies. So Mom decides to formally introduce them.
Leibowitz is lounging on the couch, and Mom brings over a baby bunny - they're barely a day or two old, and hence very small and bite-sized. Leibowitz tenses, and stares, his eyes wide. It's obvious he wants to eat the bunny. But clever cat that he is, he knows that he's not supposed to. And nice cat that he is, he doesn't want to traumatize the kids by eating the bunny.
It turns out that cats have a finite amount of self-control. Leibowitz did succeed in not eating the bunny. He did, however, pee on the couch. (He does not have a history of poor bladder control. At all.)
Poor cat. He's apparently gotten used to the bunnies and no longer has as much difficulty around them, but that must have been quite traumatic.
Jul. 18th, 2004 @ 10:52 pm
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| » Gish |
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In my journeys across the Web last night I found this rather nifty little game.
At its core it's an ordinary 2D scrolling platform game. The niftiness is in the added twist of a modern physics engine. Gish, the main character, is an amorphous blob of tar who oozes, rolls, and bounces around the levels. He can make himself sticky to cling to walls and roll up them, slippery to ooze down narrow, twisty drains, or heavy to barrel through obstacles (or sink, since his normal density makes him float in water). When Gish jumps, his entire body compresses and stretches, and to get extra height on those jumps, you have to use elasticity and momentum to your advantage. Various objects in the environment cast dynamic light, have Havok-style physics, et cetera.
I'd have thought that I'd be bored stiff by console-y platform games by this point, but I'm always entranced by games that use physics in interesting ways. I'm also curious about what sort of content the game has past the demo levels - one of the creators (souldescen ) caught my interest with his website entitled "THIS IS A CRY FOR HELP!", which besides having a great name is home to some of the most bent online tests I've seen.
If I were a serial killer I would be Jack the Ripper.
If I committed suicide I would be a suicide bomber.
I will die of natural causes.
(full result images/text BALEETED just in case you're eating lunch as you read this)
Jul. 13th, 2004 @ 02:01 pm
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| » Hippie with a mean streak |
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HA! I like it.
You are an SECF--Sober Emotional Constructive Follower. This makes you a hippie. You are passionate about your causes and steadfast in your commitments. Once you've made up your mind, no one can convince you otherwise. Your politics are left-leaning, and your lifestyle choices decidedly temperate and chaste.
You do tremendous work when focused, but usually you operate somewhat distracted. You blow hot and cold, and while you normally endeavor on the side of goodness and truth, you have a massive mean streak which is not to be taken lightly. You don't get mad, you get even.
Please don't get even with this web site.
Jul. 12th, 2004 @ 04:25 pm
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| » That new Arthur movie |
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I originally wrote this rant/review in an email to luftblasen on the day the movie opened (mrniceguy2224 invited me to a midnight showing and I couldn't say no), and it occurred to me that others might want to know what they're in for if they go see this thing. SPOILERS. But really, you shouldn't be watching this thing for the plot anyway.
Synopsis: Arthur and his knights are servants of the Roman Empire because many generations ago, the Romans spared their grandparents' lives in exchange for the loyal service of them and their male descendants. As elite Roman cavalry, they defend Hadrian's Wall against the "Woads" (Celts), who include among their number Merlin, a tribal elder and purported sorcerer, and Guinevere, who's a warrior princess or something. When Arthur and Co.'s service time (15 years) is up, they're free to leave Britain and return home, just as Rome is preparing to pull out of Britain due to a Saxon invasion. Arthur, moved by the plight of the Woads, decides to stay in Britain and lead them in battle against the evil Saxons, and his knights, moved by Arthur's conviction, stay with him. Most of them die. The Saxons all die. Arthur and Guinevere get married in Stonehenge, and with the Romans and Saxons gone, Arthur is crowned king of the survivors.
My thoughts on Arthur: Interesting angle with him being Romanized and therefore all "civilized" and "enlightened" and junk, but I don't remember a single shred of anything that suggests that this may have been the case, or that Arthur even lived during that time - he supposedly lived and ruled during the Dark Ages, after Rome had fallen, right?
My thoughts on the various blue-faced people: I wanted to buy the idea of Merlin being a woad-painted pagan sorcerer, but the "Guinevere, warrior princess" angle is just as stupid as it looked in the trailers. I guess the studio told them they needed a strong female role model in there, lest they be accused of sexism by having all of Arthur's knights be men.
Finally: Why did the Saxon ruler have an American accent? Everyone else in the movie managed either a bad British accent or a bad Italian accent. And there was this guy sticking out like a linguistic sore thumb.
Summary and recommendations: Don't go to this movie expecting anything related to anything you already know about King Arthur. I'm pretty sure you'll be very disappointed - they get some of the names right, but that's about it. Also, ignore the blurb at the beginning about how this is the true story. In a nutshell, if you can't enjoy a movie solely on the basis of cheesy medieval battle scenes with flaming arrows set against nice scenery, don't go. If you're looking for something a bit closer to historical re-enactment, I suggest the Monty Python version.
Jul. 11th, 2004 @ 11:10 pm
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| » Love the Gord. Fear the Gord. |
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I was made aware today of a most excellent website, Acts of Gord. It's the true testament of Gord, owner and proprietor of a video game store called the Gamer's Edge, and the educational/punitive measures he takes against customers, thieves, and other assorted heathens. You might be thinking at this point that this sounds a bit like the BOFH, and you'd be right.
To give you a taste without having to click the link, I quote from the Book of Annoyances, Chapter 11:
"I'd like to drop off a resume."
"Sure."
"What are you doing?"
"I'm marking it."
"What?"
"Tsk, you spelled 'McDonald's" wrong."
Gord starts to highlight the mistakes with a red felt pen. Guy just stands there while Gord marks his entire resume.
"Here you go."
"Why did you put a giant 'F' on it?"
"Because there were 17 grammatical mistakes on your resume. You failed."
"I'm leaving!"
"Ok."
And the Gord gave the applicant his resume back so that he could fix it, and perhaps one day get a job.
http://www.actsofgord.com/Annoy/chapter11.html
As one who has read some pretty awful resumes, I cheered. Amen.
Jun. 18th, 2004 @ 10:24 pm
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| » Five years of infamy |
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My first day of work at Perforce was June 11th, 1999. I had graduated from high school a week or two prior to that, and at seventeen years old, I was the youngest person at the company.
It boggles my mind to think of how much of my life I've spent with this company (nearly 22% of it), and how much has happened in the past five years. Five years ago, I hadn't even started college yet. I was living with my mother. Hadn't learned to drive (not even a learner's permit by that point).
What coding skillz I have now, I got in more or less equal measure from work and school. For my first real coding project I had the crazy idea of writing a Half-Life mod that would display Perforce data - and not only that, it would do that "tree graph" revision history thing that people always wanted to see. And in the course of about a month, I had learned enough to create P4HL. The summer following that, I agreed to do a two-dimensional version, and P4QTree resulted. Another year or so after that was done, I was able to apply some graphics juju from school to create yet another version of the same thing that was good enough to ship, which it just did, mere weeks ago. In the past five years I've gone from lowly intern to bona fide developer, and it happened more or less by accident.
If you list all current Perforce employees by order of arrival, I come in at number 13 (out of 70something).
And at twenty-two, I'm still the youngest one here (barely squeaking by with five more days of youth than that cute intern who holds the title of second youngest). :D
Jun. 11th, 2004 @ 03:42 pm
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| » Myself as an aggregation of webcomic characters |
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Against my will, I find myself very intrigued by the "which character are you" style of online quiz. You're asked a string of questions non sequentur (how's that for a unnecessary, pretentious, and possibly wrong Latin conjugation?) and the answers are fed through a simple Bayes belief net to determine which of a pretermined group of characters you most represent.
It's not that interesting to learn that I resemble Mike of CRFH!!!, at least not in and of itself. But what if a person were to take a whole string of quizzes at once and look for patterns in the combined results? Below is the answer. Draw your own conclusions.
In the process of doing this project I found that there was no such quiz in existence for Nukees, which is a shame because it's got some great characters, so I decided to make one. In the process of that sub-project I discovered that Quizilla doesn't support very complex decision-making logic, and have resolved to write something more intelligent at some point. So many projects, so little time. Anyway, here's the list I was talking about.
http://geocities.com/rad_ed_iv/fansquiz.html
Which Sluggy Freelance Character Are You?
which member of something positive are you?
quiz created by heatherbat
Which MegaTokyo Character are you?
brought to you by Quizilla
John Romero... oh gods.. I pity you.. you .. you..
WOMAN!
Which Penny Arcade Character Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla
You are... God! Congratulations! You're the creator
of the entire universe, second to no one, and
the devil is your bitch. In your spare time,
you like to mock all of humanity with little
puppets that you make for just that purpose.
Most whine to you about their problems, or
insinuate your immaturity, but hey. You're God
freakin Almighty. Screw'im.
Which Sinfest Character Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla
Drew
Which MacHall Character Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla
You are Gav, an exasperated
cynic-turned-mad-scientist. You enjoy a
"quest" more than almost anything
else, except world domination. Unfortunately,
you have on no occasion even been able to
formulate a reasonable plan for world
domination.
Which Nukee are You?
brought to you by Quizilla
Jun. 8th, 2004 @ 05:46 pm
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| » CRFH personality quiz |
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 You are Mike.
You started young as a bully, basically punching people whenever the need arose. Growing up, you eventually realised that pain was the most fun when given to people who deserve it. This is why you deal only in revenge now, using techniques crafted and refined over the years that simply wow your audience. Everyone fears you, but that's OK... You're cool.
(The comic strip "College Roomies from Hell!!!" and all its characters are copyright Maritza Campos. http://www.crfh.net/)
Which CRFH major character are you?
brought to you by Quizilla
May. 21st, 2004 @ 09:06 pm
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