Bronchitis. Its what they said I have. What drives me nuts is that I already spent about four days quarantined from the world, and now I'm supposed to take it easy some more. I'm going to get stir crazy not being to do anything. So much goes on in the college in any given day, and not being a part of any of it drives me nuts. Patience I suppose; a faster recovery later requires me taking it slow now.
But I wanna do stuff.....
Wednesday, February 08, 2006
Monday, February 06, 2006
Fighting Back
After what was easily one of the worst and longest illnesses I have had in several years, I am finally back on my feet (well, almost...still have a couple symptoms to get rid of). It feels good to be back in the realm of the living. I literally didn't have a weekend outside of the few hours reserved for the Super Bowl (congrats to Pittsburgh - at least I could make the right call for the Big One).
Nothing much to report beyond that. I did get a mysterious second application to a possible summer internship, which I believe is a sign that I should stop putting the shit off and get around to completing it. Also, I actually started playing Ninja Gaiden, despite some of my nasty remarks toward it. I still don't like some of the things it does, but when the combat begins it instantly becomes Real Ultimate Power: The Game, and that my friends is a good thing.
More links that may leave you feeling clean and refreshed.
Tomorrow, Shigesato Itoi will reveal the first real details to Mother 3 . If that means something to you, then perhaps you join me in praying that the game sees a US release. If this means nothing to you, it is time to do some homework on a game series that defines cult here in the states.
I never understood why the general populace is so obsessed over the lives and relationships of celebrities. Apparently CNN is confused as well, as they look into why the hell "Brangelina" won't go the hell away.
If anyone watched the Super Bowl last night, perhaps you saw the ad placed by Hummer. Once again this company has proven to me that their marketing team (if one exists) would be put to shame by a small group of bubbly undergrads working on their semester project. Let me get this straight....you made a giant robot and a giant lizard have sex, and the result was one of your cars? And this is supposed to entice people to buy your product? I know we can't expect much from the people that decided to name themselves "Hummer" (my 50 year old parents even "wtf"'d that one), but I think they're getting exponentially worse.
Finally, a lot of my peers have wondered why I drink so much water, but rarely ever pay for the bottled stuff (aside from a huge case of Poland spring at the start of the semster, so I can reuse the bottles). I suppose I still don't like the concept of paying as much for a bottle of water as I would for soda, gatorade or any other drink. I also find that most tap water (outside my own home of course) tastes pretty fine the way it is. In any case, I've finally found a good article discussing why the bottled water craze really is a bunch of bull. Thanks to Fifthturle for the link.
Nothing much to report beyond that. I did get a mysterious second application to a possible summer internship, which I believe is a sign that I should stop putting the shit off and get around to completing it. Also, I actually started playing Ninja Gaiden, despite some of my nasty remarks toward it. I still don't like some of the things it does, but when the combat begins it instantly becomes Real Ultimate Power: The Game, and that my friends is a good thing.
More links that may leave you feeling clean and refreshed.
Tomorrow, Shigesato Itoi will reveal the first real details to Mother 3 . If that means something to you, then perhaps you join me in praying that the game sees a US release. If this means nothing to you, it is time to do some homework on a game series that defines cult here in the states.
I never understood why the general populace is so obsessed over the lives and relationships of celebrities. Apparently CNN is confused as well, as they look into why the hell "Brangelina" won't go the hell away.
If anyone watched the Super Bowl last night, perhaps you saw the ad placed by Hummer. Once again this company has proven to me that their marketing team (if one exists) would be put to shame by a small group of bubbly undergrads working on their semester project. Let me get this straight....you made a giant robot and a giant lizard have sex, and the result was one of your cars? And this is supposed to entice people to buy your product? I know we can't expect much from the people that decided to name themselves "Hummer" (my 50 year old parents even "wtf"'d that one), but I think they're getting exponentially worse.
Finally, a lot of my peers have wondered why I drink so much water, but rarely ever pay for the bottled stuff (aside from a huge case of Poland spring at the start of the semster, so I can reuse the bottles). I suppose I still don't like the concept of paying as much for a bottle of water as I would for soda, gatorade or any other drink. I also find that most tap water (outside my own home of course) tastes pretty fine the way it is. In any case, I've finally found a good article discussing why the bottled water craze really is a bunch of bull. Thanks to Fifthturle for the link.
Wednesday, February 01, 2006
Crappy Title
Its been almost a week since the last post. There actually is a reason for this; this third week of classes has felt like crunch time all over again. Two coding projects due, one which I couldn't complete, and a music "test" that turned out to be an honest to goodness test based on only two days of lecture.
This doesn't really get me down though. There's always one spot in every class where I stumble just a bit, but it only strengthens my resolve and helps me bounce back in the future. I only wish said stumbling didn't occur so quickly in the new semester!!
I also have to get this work done so I can focus on job hunting. I've got all sorts of leads and oppurtunities, but they don't do a lick of good if you dont' apply.
The state of the union address was on last night, and I didn't know it until after the fact. Usually this kind of stuff doesn't fly under my radar, though I suppose I haven't exactly been in touch with society over the last few days.
This doesn't really get me down though. There's always one spot in every class where I stumble just a bit, but it only strengthens my resolve and helps me bounce back in the future. I only wish said stumbling didn't occur so quickly in the new semester!!
I also have to get this work done so I can focus on job hunting. I've got all sorts of leads and oppurtunities, but they don't do a lick of good if you dont' apply.
The state of the union address was on last night, and I didn't know it until after the fact. Usually this kind of stuff doesn't fly under my radar, though I suppose I haven't exactly been in touch with society over the last few days.
Friday, January 27, 2006
Week's over
I was utterly shocked when, on Wednsday night, I attmepted to compile an OpenGL file in Cygwin and it actually worked, on my very first try, exactly as the readme file instructed. Normally I have bad luck with getting this kind of development stuff up and running in anything less than two weeks. I need to savor this stroke of luck while the feeling is still fresh.
On that same topic, I'd like to host some PGL projects on the website for people to take a look at, but before that happens I need to
a) Find out how to let people view them without all the OpenGL tools.
b) create something worth demonstrating.
No idea as to the timeframe of either of those.
Perhaps you have heard by now of the Nintendo DS redesign. I think this is just what I needed to push me over the edge and save up for a DS of my own.
And finally, here is another "hard hitting" EGM interview, this time grilling the Perfect Dark Zero team. Let's see, that's two they've done with Microsoft. Still waiting to see something with Sony or Nintendo. This whole month over at Ziff Davis/1up.com has been like a hilarious sitcom, what with all their schpiels on "journalistic integrity", "hard hitting interviews" and a plagarized game guide. Who knows what zany controversy will come up next?
On that same topic, I'd like to host some PGL projects on the website for people to take a look at, but before that happens I need to
a) Find out how to let people view them without all the OpenGL tools.
b) create something worth demonstrating.
No idea as to the timeframe of either of those.
Perhaps you have heard by now of the Nintendo DS redesign. I think this is just what I needed to push me over the edge and save up for a DS of my own.
And finally, here is another "hard hitting" EGM interview, this time grilling the Perfect Dark Zero team. Let's see, that's two they've done with Microsoft. Still waiting to see something with Sony or Nintendo. This whole month over at Ziff Davis/1up.com has been like a hilarious sitcom, what with all their schpiels on "journalistic integrity", "hard hitting interviews" and a plagarized game guide. Who knows what zany controversy will come up next?
Wednesday, January 25, 2006
Cygwin!
My first day of work was yesterday (since I'm technically posting this at 1:00 AM on Wed.), and as expected no one showed up. I need to savor these nights, before business picks up and students realize they have free CS tutoring five nights a week.
I spent most of my time researching open GL, or rather, how to get it running on my own machine so I can work on my Computer Graphics coursework on my own machine. I found out that all the tools were availible for free download, which was great news. That is, until I returned to the apartment and realized I was missing the most imporant tool - a Windows C compiler.
So what's a guy to do? Reinstall linux on his machine? Hells no! That takes too long. Instead I spent the rest of the evening playing with Cygwin. Cygwin is, essentially, a Linux emulator of sorts for Windows. On a fresh install it will load up with a Bash shell and let you do some pretty basic Linux stuff. In order to use all sorts of goodies, the setup file allows you to pick and choose tons of different packages to download and install (kind of like Debian, only it works :p). Right now I've got it running with gcc, X-window, ssh, a whole bunch of other compilers, and what I think are the necessary tools for running open GL (Hell, I can get KDE running with it if I really wanted). And it all works just fine. Getting Cygwin to do what you want is a bit tricky at first, and there is some definite slowdown while running it, but I must say that it is still very impressive. I'll try my best tomorrow (um, today I guess) to test out those some open GL files.
Its criminal how much fun I have tinkering with this kind of stuff :)
This evening I also tried a very interesting brew. Dogfish Head Ale makes a beer called the "90 minute IPA", an Indian Pale Ale that is hopped for 90 full minutes. It is incredibly strong and very hoppy, but surpisingly not as bitter as I expected. Definitely a different kind of taste, though really enjoyed it (and recommend it!). Too bad it is far too expensive to buy normally; I suppose that college kids aren't supposed to become beer snobs.
I spent most of my time researching open GL, or rather, how to get it running on my own machine so I can work on my Computer Graphics coursework on my own machine. I found out that all the tools were availible for free download, which was great news. That is, until I returned to the apartment and realized I was missing the most imporant tool - a Windows C compiler.
So what's a guy to do? Reinstall linux on his machine? Hells no! That takes too long. Instead I spent the rest of the evening playing with Cygwin. Cygwin is, essentially, a Linux emulator of sorts for Windows. On a fresh install it will load up with a Bash shell and let you do some pretty basic Linux stuff. In order to use all sorts of goodies, the setup file allows you to pick and choose tons of different packages to download and install (kind of like Debian, only it works :p). Right now I've got it running with gcc, X-window, ssh, a whole bunch of other compilers, and what I think are the necessary tools for running open GL (Hell, I can get KDE running with it if I really wanted). And it all works just fine. Getting Cygwin to do what you want is a bit tricky at first, and there is some definite slowdown while running it, but I must say that it is still very impressive. I'll try my best tomorrow (um, today I guess) to test out those some open GL files.
Its criminal how much fun I have tinkering with this kind of stuff :)
This evening I also tried a very interesting brew. Dogfish Head Ale makes a beer called the "90 minute IPA", an Indian Pale Ale that is hopped for 90 full minutes. It is incredibly strong and very hoppy, but surpisingly not as bitter as I expected. Definitely a different kind of taste, though really enjoyed it (and recommend it!). Too bad it is far too expensive to buy normally; I suppose that college kids aren't supposed to become beer snobs.
Monday, January 23, 2006
Monday Potpurri
The previous entry was supposed to be a 2-parter containing game news and some random personal stuff. I got the first part out, but the second somewhat vanished in the hectic first weekend of the semester. So today will be a mix of everything I've wanted to tackle over the last few days.
First off, my 21st birthday was without a doubt the best I've ever had. We had a very large party the day after, and it was somewhat strange to realize that not only did I know most of the many people in attendance, but they were all wishing me a happy birthday. It was great to see a lot of friendly faces again, and I realized that maybe, just maybe, I've moved up a bit from my days as a socially awkward and reclusive teenager. In any case, thanks to everyone who was there; we'll have to do it again sometime.
Also, I did some research on the bottle of Jack Daniels 1915 Gold Medal Whiskey I bought at the liquor store as my first legal purchase. The bottle was the only one of its kind, cost me a cool $35. I was a little reluctant to spend that kind of money on a bottle of booze, until I found this ebay auction. I think I'll hold onto it for just a little longer...
Yesterday I saw my NFL playoff predictions fall to pieces, as both my AFC and NFC picks lost horribly in their championship games. Now its time for everyone who was right to point and gloat at me.
......
There we go. I can't say I have a favorite team for the Super Bowl anymore. I'll still watch it however, if for nothing other than the commercials.
CNN has an article about the nation's richest colleges. I'm still trying to wrap my head around why a school needs over a billion dollars in its coffers. Do they even realize that spending just a small fraction of it could improve all sorts of things for the students, who are paying outrageous tuition prices just to attend Harvard? Or am I missing a piece of the puzzle?
Lastly, there's a bit of controversy in the gaming world over a strategy guide for Dead or Alive 4 that 1up.com is being accused of plagarizing from a smaller fansite. Unfortunately, 1up pulled their guide off the site before I could compare the two, but I have been reading comments about the ordeal throughout the day. A 1up staffer the site by claiming that they watched the writer responsible for the guide spend hours with the game in order to get familiar with its combat system and the intricacies of each character. While no one doubts this, it isn't exactly a solid defense in my book. Someone could spend hours doing research on a topic or writing a piece of code and still not come up with a solid paper/program, only to find a perfect example somewhere on the 'net to simply reword and submit. I'm not saying that this certainly happened, but it is a definite possibility, and as a large, professional games site I expect 1up to do a thorough investigation and give us some honest answers. Considering all their shit about journalistic integrity recently, they pretty much have to. Still, something in me is saying that not only did they plagarize the guide, but that they won't admit to it either. Maybe this is due to the horror stories I've heard about EGM and Ziff Davis media, though who knows how honest they are.
First off, my 21st birthday was without a doubt the best I've ever had. We had a very large party the day after, and it was somewhat strange to realize that not only did I know most of the many people in attendance, but they were all wishing me a happy birthday. It was great to see a lot of friendly faces again, and I realized that maybe, just maybe, I've moved up a bit from my days as a socially awkward and reclusive teenager. In any case, thanks to everyone who was there; we'll have to do it again sometime.
Also, I did some research on the bottle of Jack Daniels 1915 Gold Medal Whiskey I bought at the liquor store as my first legal purchase. The bottle was the only one of its kind, cost me a cool $35. I was a little reluctant to spend that kind of money on a bottle of booze, until I found this ebay auction. I think I'll hold onto it for just a little longer...
Yesterday I saw my NFL playoff predictions fall to pieces, as both my AFC and NFC picks lost horribly in their championship games. Now its time for everyone who was right to point and gloat at me.
......
There we go. I can't say I have a favorite team for the Super Bowl anymore. I'll still watch it however, if for nothing other than the commercials.
CNN has an article about the nation's richest colleges. I'm still trying to wrap my head around why a school needs over a billion dollars in its coffers. Do they even realize that spending just a small fraction of it could improve all sorts of things for the students, who are paying outrageous tuition prices just to attend Harvard? Or am I missing a piece of the puzzle?
Lastly, there's a bit of controversy in the gaming world over a strategy guide for Dead or Alive 4 that 1up.com is being accused of plagarizing from a smaller fansite. Unfortunately, 1up pulled their guide off the site before I could compare the two, but I have been reading comments about the ordeal throughout the day. A 1up staffer the site by claiming that they watched the writer responsible for the guide spend hours with the game in order to get familiar with its combat system and the intricacies of each character. While no one doubts this, it isn't exactly a solid defense in my book. Someone could spend hours doing research on a topic or writing a piece of code and still not come up with a solid paper/program, only to find a perfect example somewhere on the 'net to simply reword and submit. I'm not saying that this certainly happened, but it is a definite possibility, and as a large, professional games site I expect 1up to do a thorough investigation and give us some honest answers. Considering all their shit about journalistic integrity recently, they pretty much have to. Still, something in me is saying that not only did they plagarize the guide, but that they won't admit to it either. Maybe this is due to the horror stories I've heard about EGM and Ziff Davis media, though who knows how honest they are.
Saturday, January 21, 2006
Today's Post Part 1 - Games
If you've read penny arcade (and even if you don't), then I'm sure you know about the big interview with Peter Moore over at 1up. As usual, the groupies are jumping all over Dan Hsu's crotch over what they consider a tough and hard hitting piece of journalism.
I call bullshit.
This is a typical fluff piece with a few "tough" questions that are either irrelevant or have been answered before. Hsu springs this clever little trap with his question about the backwards compatibility list, which results in the same answers from Moore that we've heard a hundred times over; the list was not a choice, and it was larger than any writer expected. Hsu's query along the lines of "at what point do you just tell your people to get Splinter Cell working now?" is much more valid, but it doesn't have the same punch alone as it does without the little pincer attack (and even as an undergrad CS major, I know that software emulation is easier said than done, so the question still isn't that good).
In regards to Hsu's graphical comparisons, he cites the jump from Playstation to Dreamcast as being huge, but omits a comparison of Playstation to PS2, or even Dreamcast to PS2. Launch era PS2 games were essentially cleaned up PS1 games with the exception of a few standouts (which is just what the 360 faces; a lot of crud with some real standouts from 1st party developers). And as for the Dreamcast, a little launch title named Soul Calibur managed to look as good as a PS2 launch title named Tekken Tag, despite being older. The PS2 was initally not a very huge leap in graphical quality. The only reasons I can think for Hsu omitting this point is that a) he knows it would disprove his point or b) he didn't do his homework like a journalist should, and neither of these options is very good. In the end, these "tough" questions didn't give us any new insight about the 360 or its problems.
As for the rest of the interview, we have queries like "would you sell Rare to Sony or Nintendo" (when Nintendo were the ones who sold them off) and "would you give something up for Miyamoto to join Microsoft?". It is typical interview fluff. Hsu is a man who put himself into a situation with the things he said in his blog about integrity in games journalism, and needed to somehow prove himself to the readers. So he does a typical interview where he masks some easy (and already answered) questions as powerful and hard hitting. He keeps his job, and the 1up bloggers can tell him "great job Shoe! This is why I subscribe to EGM" yet one more time
In any case, I don't really see this type of interview to be any sort of progress over the usual BS that we get. It will be interesting to see if he really does approach interviews with Sony and Nintendo in the same light, though even if he does I'm not sure if it will do much good. I'll reserve final judgement until them, but for now I'm afraid that Dan Hsu (or any other game writer for that matter) has done anything to change the state of his trade.
In other news, I enjoyed an article by David Rodruguez (a developer from High Voltage Software), in which he bemoans the industry's reliance on cutscenes and bad storytelling. I've flapped my gums about this issue many times before, but hearing it come from an actual developer is much more interesting.
I call bullshit.
This is a typical fluff piece with a few "tough" questions that are either irrelevant or have been answered before. Hsu springs this clever little trap with his question about the backwards compatibility list, which results in the same answers from Moore that we've heard a hundred times over; the list was not a choice, and it was larger than any writer expected. Hsu's query along the lines of "at what point do you just tell your people to get Splinter Cell working now?" is much more valid, but it doesn't have the same punch alone as it does without the little pincer attack (and even as an undergrad CS major, I know that software emulation is easier said than done, so the question still isn't that good).
In regards to Hsu's graphical comparisons, he cites the jump from Playstation to Dreamcast as being huge, but omits a comparison of Playstation to PS2, or even Dreamcast to PS2. Launch era PS2 games were essentially cleaned up PS1 games with the exception of a few standouts (which is just what the 360 faces; a lot of crud with some real standouts from 1st party developers). And as for the Dreamcast, a little launch title named Soul Calibur managed to look as good as a PS2 launch title named Tekken Tag, despite being older. The PS2 was initally not a very huge leap in graphical quality. The only reasons I can think for Hsu omitting this point is that a) he knows it would disprove his point or b) he didn't do his homework like a journalist should, and neither of these options is very good. In the end, these "tough" questions didn't give us any new insight about the 360 or its problems.
As for the rest of the interview, we have queries like "would you sell Rare to Sony or Nintendo" (when Nintendo were the ones who sold them off) and "would you give something up for Miyamoto to join Microsoft?". It is typical interview fluff. Hsu is a man who put himself into a situation with the things he said in his blog about integrity in games journalism, and needed to somehow prove himself to the readers. So he does a typical interview where he masks some easy (and already answered) questions as powerful and hard hitting. He keeps his job, and the 1up bloggers can tell him "great job Shoe! This is why I subscribe to EGM" yet one more time
In any case, I don't really see this type of interview to be any sort of progress over the usual BS that we get. It will be interesting to see if he really does approach interviews with Sony and Nintendo in the same light, though even if he does I'm not sure if it will do much good. I'll reserve final judgement until them, but for now I'm afraid that Dan Hsu (or any other game writer for that matter) has done anything to change the state of his trade.
In other news, I enjoyed an article by David Rodruguez (a developer from High Voltage Software), in which he bemoans the industry's reliance on cutscenes and bad storytelling. I've flapped my gums about this issue many times before, but hearing it come from an actual developer is much more interesting.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)