HL2, Steam, and the Future

I love Valve Software, I always have. They aren't a one-hit wonder, they are a group of incredibly talented people that will take video games in directions we won't know we wanted until we're given it. Not everything they do is perfect (steam, that high speed modem initiative that went nowhere...) but even their "failures" have some very intelligent thought behind them, so grand idea that we all wish would work. For example, check out this feature for Half-Life 2 and Steam:

"If you buy Half-Life 2 in a store, it will ask you to create a login id and a password. That way if you go to a friend's house, you can play Half-Life 2 there, even if you don't have your CD/DVD with you."

Welcome to my job

This is most of my waking life, only reversed. If you could only understand how stupid some people who call in are... sigh. The site, Ill Will Press is pretty funny, too.

Happy Bday to Me!

I turned 33 yesterday,the last year of my "early 30s" :-( I thought it was going to be crappy birthday, I got really sick the day before and was forced to stay in bed all day. Then I realized that my bed is exactly where I wanted to be. It's been one of those days where everything just magically happens. Tonight is gonna be fun. Oh, yeah, tonight... I'm having a big party tonight, so if you live and Austin and know me, call me for directions.

Game Publishers sweating the next generation of consoles

Like I hinted at earlier, game developers are very nervous about costs to develop on the next generation of consoles. The Playstation 3, XBox 2, and Nintendo Whatever are thought to have 100s of times more power than the current generation. The cost to develop is thought to increase 5 times. In this generation we already are seeing the big studios pull out ahead. Games like NFS: Underground are employing Hollywood SpecialFX masters to give them a certain look that can't be reproduced by polygons alone.

There is still room to rise in the ranks. A good example of the type of cycle we will probably see is seen in the Burnout games - #1 was relatively simple with less than impressive graphics, #2 turned everything up a notch, and #3 is a classic. EA saw the potential and threw a lot of money at the 3rd game. Consider Battlefield 1942 vs. Battlefield 2. Truly original games will start small, without the hollywood graphics or sound we'll see on established sequels. As the cream rises to the top, we'll see lots of money and attention lavished on the most popular originals. Plus, I don't think gamers really care anymore about graphics. Hundreds of thousands play old MMORPGs like Ultima Online and Everquest with primative graphics, or play old retro games, or bust through the bargin bins for games they couldn't afford a year ago at full price. Just like the movies, we're gonna see blockbusters and little independent projects, both with a charm all their own.

Silence of the Video Lambs

God, what a terrible headline. Anyway, here is a video inspired by the film Silence of the Lambs. I gotta wonder about the guy who gave me this link...

Burnout 3 ROCKS

Got Burnout 3:Takedown this last weekend. A couple of friends came over after work to play it with me, and we ended up playing for 7 hours straight. I was laughing so hard I was in tears, my buddy Mario said his sides hurt. In Burnout you race cars, with a twist - crashes are encouraged, and you are supposed to take everyone else out. The crashed flip into super-slowmo bullet time, and you can steer you wreck a little bit and drive into other vehicles and create a huge pile up. The mode we played the most was Crash, were you try to create eleborate 50-car pile ups and cause $millions in damages. I highly recommend it.

Cool Doom 3 case mod

Ppl are getting more and more elaborate with their case mods. Take this Doom 3 project for example. Or check out this Hummer RC Car PC mod - the thing is still driveable!

Patriot Act used to silence ACLU on non-security issues

Check out this piece on an ongoing fight between the ACLU and the Department of Justice over the Patriot Act. If you search the web about this, you'll get a lot of junk, so I'm not sure how legit this all is. However, this news article showcases lines that the Dept of Justice tried to censor that were clearly not security related. Stupid.

CBS blames forgery fiasco on conservative viewers

A short while ago, CBS reported on some documents that called Bush's military service a lie. Now those documents themselves have been discovered to be a forgery. In a swing of sweet instant karma, CBS's ratings have plummeted. Good. I'm glad, very glad, that viewers are voting with their remotes. What adds insult to injury, a CBS official blamed the drop on pro-Bush supporters: "we're being perceived as 'anti-Bush,' which I do not think is fair to Dan." So in other words, in typical thinking for the past 4 years, attack the president and you are labeled unpatriotic. Republicans are punishing CBS. However, look at the market's that CBS is referring to - New York, Chicago, Philidelphia. Every Top 10 city but San Francisco. These are hardly republican strongholds. No, intelligent viewers are turned off by shoddy journalism, and turning off Dan Rather...

Hungry-Man, It's a Way of Death

You just have to read this. This seemingly innocent breakfast will kill you.

The newest audio speaker craze - Flowers

A japanese company has create a product that turns flowers into audio speakers. No word on the quality of the sound, although the article suggests that flower-sound fills a room more completely than traditional speakers. The base model costs about $46, and is available on the company's website. If you figure out how to get some delivered to the States, let me know and I'll buy one off of you.

Strange New Forces Hinted at in Deep Space

The US's oldest space probes, Pioneer 10 and 11, are outside the confines of the traditional Solar System and traveling through "outer" space. Scientists have discovered that a new force is affecting the spacecraft pulling them off course slightly. There is a debate as to what exactly this means, but some of the scientists believe this will disrupt our current understanding of gravity in the universe...

Digital Restoration of Star Wars

USA Today has an interesting article about the restoration of Star Wars for their upcoming DVD release. The DVDs have been getting rave reviews for their sharp images and vibrant colors. It's interesting to see this new sub-industry emerge in Hollywood.

Snapshot of the Gaming Industry

I said before that the gaming industry is approaching a huge Xmas season. I believe sales will be much larger than expected, and the industry should see a corresponding jump in cultural recognition. Naturally, we're hearing about some growing pains right now...

A new set of consoles is around the corner, and with the advances in technology comes greatly increased development time. This is going to shrink the industry again, down to what many believe will only be 7-8 major publishers. This doesn't mean originality will disappear, but big budget games will most likely be sequels to proven franchises in established genres.

Then there is the brillant realization that women play games too, and gee-duh, they don't like the same things that guys like. Next will come the stupid idea to stop making guy games in order to make room for the girl games. The Elspa has an unfortunately named report, "Chicks and Joysticks," that studies a wide range of women in all aspecs of the industry. Like anything that talks about stereotypes, the report itself is trapped in them. Women play differently, they like different rewards and punishments that are the foundation of all games. The industry is going to have to make entirely new products, explore new genres, something it seems loath to do right now. You aren't going to see grrl-versions of FSPs or RTSs that sell in the millions, there isn't a way to make Girl Theft Auto or Woom or whatever the flavor of the month is for the men and apply a wrapper for the ladies. And you can't expect developters like id or Rockstar to change their style because some people don't like it. They made millions doing the exact opposite.

Lastly is a column on Sony's failure with the PSX, an important machine in the much heralded "convergence" movement where your game console does everything and is the gateway for ALL your entertainment needs. The more your console does, the more money Sony or Microsoft can steal from cable providers and music stores. The approach has been touted to gamers as a new religion so many times already I can only imagine the entire collective rolling their eyes at every E3. The PSX is only the latest yet grandest failure in the convergence march-off-the-cliffs.

It's a colossaly stupid idea... or is it? Sony is trying to converge on their new handheld device, the PSP, by offering movies that play exclusively on their tiny machine. Why on earth would anyone pay extra money to watch a movie they probably already own on a screen the size of my thumb? PSP's movies will almost certainly fail to ignite a mass-march to this new medium, but Sony probably already knows this. Such things are pure profit for the electronics giant, who already owns a large library of work. Packaging The Matrix onto a tiny disc probably costs 1/20th of the final asking price. And Sony has a hated-history of doing things like this, coming up with its own proprietary versions of otherwise universal things, such as Beta, memory sticks, and mini-discs. None of these closed formats have taken off like the Playstation has (another closed system) and yet Sony continues the model with each new generation. It's not unlike what Apple does when they take generic Wi-Fi technology and stick it in a fancy Airport casing, charging way more money than it's worth and making a very tidy profit. It's all bottom line. But I'm not paying for it.

OS X: prebinding explained

Here is a short article that explains prebinding, a core concept in modern operating systems like OS X or Windows.

Halo 2, just a couple of months away...

The game that all my friends are drowling over is Halo 2. It should be one of the biggest games of the holidays, even if hardly anyone owns Xboxes, let's hope this game moves some systems. IGN has a new preview of H2's multiplayer beta that goes into a ton of detail, talking about the new playlists, parties, the New Assault mode, new vehicles, new maps, etc. The thing that excites me most is the ranking matches: players don't have much control over what the rules are and who they play against. This blind match approach should cut down on cheaters abusing the system. And even after 7 pages, Bungie hasn't revealed half of the good stuff. Here's to Nov 9th, can't get here fast enough!

My 2nd Blog: Connect the Dots

Today I started my 2nd blog, Connect the Dots. I'll be moving any interesting news stories to that site, and keep this one focused on entertainment and personal hobbies.

Connect the Dots is a news site for news junkies. I tend to process the news differently than the media serves it; I put a much bigger emphasis on historical causality and "the Big Picture", while most news sources just get the word out. Right now the site is pretty ordinary, but hopefully one day I'll be able to implement all the features I'd like to have on the site, like the ability to "visualize" a news article and see graphically how it links to other important topics, both current and past. Also I'd like to have categories, so if you see a topic on Venezuelan Oil, you can instantly see other stories on Oil or Venezuela.

DNF release mystery solved?

Duh, I should have known. It's all because of space aliens and a government cover-up. I feel so stupid, I should have seen the truth all along... (ps, keep reading, the poster keeps putting long pits of info into the thread)

2004 Hugo Awards

The year's best in sci-fi, including much of the fiction published on the web.

The New iMac

Apple announced the new iMac last week in Paris, and it's a stunner. The best article I've read about it so far is here, which talks about all the little details that making owning a Mac so great. If you've only had a PC your whole life, you really are missing out. I personally don't love the new iMac, nor the last model. The whiteness of the "i" line is too sterile for me, and despite how clean it looks, I think it looks out of place for most homes. I also don't like the lip on the bottom, and was hoping for something that really looked like a plain old monitor. I really wish Apple would make a cheap computer without a screen. Once the computer is no longer useful, you shouldn't have to throw away the screen, too. We certainly don't at work. I just finally gave up an old beige Apple monitor, must have been over 10 years old. My 21" monitor at home is almost 10.

But it sure is sexy.

Wife for Sale

Jesus, this goofy Ebay auction thing is getting out of hand. A woman in Canada is selling her serves as a wife for a mere $20 million, says she is totally serious. There's a marriage built to last. Click here for this $20 million "steal."

Hurricane Frances Destroying Florida

I have family that lives in Palm Beach, where the storm first hit the state and stalled for a long time before spiralling up the coast. That's not on the mainland but on the thin islands called intercoastals where all the highest valued lands is located. West Palm Beach is the corresponding mainland town. We first heard my grandparents today, so we know they are ok. They can't go home yet, police have blocked off the entrances until emergency workers can clear away downed power lines. Half of the state is without electricity, most gas stations are without gas, the highways are empty, DisneyWorld is CLOSED.

Notice the small hurricane in the lower right corner of the picture. It is heading right for the Sunshine State. This would make the 3rd hurricane to hit Florida in 30 days...

Top 10 - Strong Bad Emails

There is no better web entertainment than Homestar Runner, and on Homestar there is nothing better than Strong Bad Email. So, in honor of a true internet instant-classic, here are the Top 10 Strong Bad Emails. Maybe in a month I'll have a Top 10 of the best things that aren't SB's email.

#1 - Kids Book
#2 - Caffeine
#3 - Some Kind of Robot
#4 - Different Town
#5 - Video Games
#6 - Japanese Cartoon
#7 - Techno
#8 - Guitar
#9 - Interview
#10- Army

Short history of modern Chechnya

Slate has got a fascinating short history of Chechnya and the violence that is occuring over there.

Hydrogen Fuel and the mini iLeader

Wired.com has 2 very cool articles up, the first on the present state of hydrogen fuel research, a fuel that promises change the world. Really any change in our energy useage would make a radical change to the world power and political climate. Any move away from oil.

Also interesting is the mini iLeader, a GI Joe doll dressed up as Steve Jobs and being sent all over the world.

Siteseeing

-cool website from Ars Electronica that tracts predictions for future technologies for the next 25 years. Very cool, you can make your own predictions and vote on others.
- the rebirth of The Bard's Tale is looking like it will one of the funniest things on your computer.
- RIP, Fred Whipple, comet and satelite pioneer. He invented aircraft chaff, discovered that comets are "dirty snowballs", not flying clouds of dust, predicted artifical satelites long before Sputnik.
- surprisingly funny crayon review by Spiderman. Just look at it.
- how stupid is this? The company that originally sold 9/11 toys with a plane flying into 2 buildings now sold a Bin Laden toy. The comapny deserves to go out of business.
-Apple releases the new iMac G5. I'm not impressed. It'd look cool with a bluetooth mouse and keyboard, but the ports are hard to get at and the wires coming off of them would look ugly. I'd rather have a Power Mac and a new Cinema display.
- video game sales predicted to shrink slightly. I don't believe it, not after this Christmas season.
- Wired.com has a piece on vote swapping sites. These sites have sucker written all over them.

The Terminator takes NYC

I gotta love Ahnuld. So do Republicans. I've been a huge fan of his for over 15 years, which a lot of my friends don't understand. They see the muscles and that accent and instantly discount him. So what if he can't act? Arnold Schwartzenegger has risen to the top of 3 different careers in just one lifetime. He is an immigrant. (I'm first generation American) He is a self-made man, the American Dream. He is an outsider, poor, didn't even speak good english, yet he rose to the top, without class connections or the Good Ol' Boy network. Schwartzenegger is the embodiment of our ideals of Land of Opportunity, of our right to the Pursuit of Happiness. His speech at the convention highlights all of this, and was the most elegant, interesting moment from BOTH conventions. When he ran for governer, a lot of people were surprised, called the election a circus. I wasn't surprised, he'd been talking about it for 35 years! When Arnold sets out to do something, it happens. His performance in office has been great so far, another surprise to his detractors. I tell you, some people only see what they want to see.

Gen-Xers love family

I generally hate marketing research, that part of the cultural machine that thinks it knows the minds and tastes of everyone in the country. My generation, "X", has been particularly mislabeled as group of whiners and black-hearted miscreants. No, we just think hippies suck and the Boomers are full of it. Anyway, I did find an interesting study about generational attitudes about work vs. family between Boomers and Gen Xers. The writer doesn't answer some of the most obvious questions, but it's an interesting read, none the less. Definitely true in my experience.