Live-action After Dark desktop
May. 28th, 2004 03:06 pmYou know you're hopelessly geek when you catch yourself referring to a fish tank as "Nature's screensaver."
Yeah, sometimes I'm no fun.
May. 2nd, 2004 06:35 pmSaw "The Matrix Reloaded" again last night. Like a lot of modern action movies, there's parts of it I just can't enjoy as much as the filmmakers intended me to.
In the Matrix trilogy, both the good guys and the bad go through a lot of bystanders. We do get a pious little speech from Morpheus in the first film discussing that some of the village may have to be burned down to save it, but I don't think that improves the freedom fighters' moral ground much. From the perspective of the ordinary, unknowing inhabitant of the Matrix, those from Zion would indeed seem like terrorists in a lot of their actions.
But the freeway scene is the bit that always gets me. True, most of the random destruction in that scene is caused by the "bad guys", but it doesn't make it much better for me. Live though one near-fatal car accident in real life, and one's attention moves from the cool kung-fu move that Agent did off the hood of a car, to the poor driver who was just trying to get home from work and is now chunky salsa all over the road. Boom - the sequence is not fun for me anymore, and now I just want it over. :(
You know, the Machines seem disorganized and barely in control of their own creation in these movies. We saw in Mouse's death how the Machines can hack the Matrix for their own use. Why not just make the small tweak [set ZION_VEHICLE_GAS to "0"] in that sequence? There'd be a lot less mass destruction, ghostly apparitions, and Agent possessions to explain away later.
Even better - don't want to fight Morpheus and Trinity, who've gone through a lot of your Agents as it is? [set ZION_VEHICLE_FUEL_TYPE to "fighter aircraft fuel"] - as soon as a little of that hits the spark plugs, the KeyMaker and the Zion rebels won't be a problem. Maybe the Machines just aren't very creative on their own.
In the Matrix trilogy, both the good guys and the bad go through a lot of bystanders. We do get a pious little speech from Morpheus in the first film discussing that some of the village may have to be burned down to save it, but I don't think that improves the freedom fighters' moral ground much. From the perspective of the ordinary, unknowing inhabitant of the Matrix, those from Zion would indeed seem like terrorists in a lot of their actions.
But the freeway scene is the bit that always gets me. True, most of the random destruction in that scene is caused by the "bad guys", but it doesn't make it much better for me. Live though one near-fatal car accident in real life, and one's attention moves from the cool kung-fu move that Agent did off the hood of a car, to the poor driver who was just trying to get home from work and is now chunky salsa all over the road. Boom - the sequence is not fun for me anymore, and now I just want it over. :(
You know, the Machines seem disorganized and barely in control of their own creation in these movies. We saw in Mouse's death how the Machines can hack the Matrix for their own use. Why not just make the small tweak [set ZION_VEHICLE_GAS to "0"] in that sequence? There'd be a lot less mass destruction, ghostly apparitions, and Agent possessions to explain away later.
Even better - don't want to fight Morpheus and Trinity, who've gone through a lot of your Agents as it is? [set ZION_VEHICLE_FUEL_TYPE to "fighter aircraft fuel"] - as soon as a little of that hits the spark plugs, the KeyMaker and the Zion rebels won't be a problem. Maybe the Machines just aren't very creative on their own.
From something ![[profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
jdunson said
Dec. 30th, 2003 05:34 pmMatrix@Home - the screensaver where YOU are the OS!
Initial download free with signed slavery contract. Kung-fu package and cellphone plan sold separately. Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss, Laurence Fishburne, Monica Bellucci, and other expansions priced by customer pupil dilation.
If you would like information about adding "The One" option, please stay on the line and our agents will be with you shortly. Really.
Initial download free with signed slavery contract. Kung-fu package and cellphone plan sold separately. Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss, Laurence Fishburne, Monica Bellucci, and other expansions priced by customer pupil dilation.
If you would like information about adding "The One" option, please stay on the line and our agents will be with you shortly. Really.
Cleaning the attic of my brain
Dec. 30th, 2003 01:54 pmTwo interesting tidbits of geek stuff crossed my desk this morning; first, there's finally a really nice, configurable, Matrix code screensaver for Mac OS X. Too bad all my machines migrated to SETI@home some time ago. Second, it looks like the new AIM for Windows beta has early video chat support, and may soon be compatible with Apple's iChat AV. That would be wonderful news, seeing as the video chat support in Yahoo! Messenger for OS X is... weak.
I'm now the navigator for![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
kittykatya's pirate crew, yarrgh! I wonder if Tom Monaghan still has the letters of marque issued to the SS MacKeigh by the court of Riversmeet (I think)?
Christmas was very good, and in my case, spread over all of December. I got to see a lot of people who are important to me, and yes, I got a lot of neat stuff - to deny that I enjoy people giving me gifts would be hypocrisy of a high order. I know some people who feel that it's better to spend the whole year being good to their fellow humans, rather than to concentrate it on a single season; I can't argue with the sentiment, but I feel that we always need times of special celebration.
Still don't know for sure what I'm doing New Year's - we have several plans, but they all depend on things out of our control. I had hoped to finally meetsubbes face-to-face this week, but I just don't know right now.
I'm now the navigator for
kittykatya's pirate crew, yarrgh! I wonder if Tom Monaghan still has the letters of marque issued to the SS MacKeigh by the court of Riversmeet (I think)?Christmas was very good, and in my case, spread over all of December. I got to see a lot of people who are important to me, and yes, I got a lot of neat stuff - to deny that I enjoy people giving me gifts would be hypocrisy of a high order. I know some people who feel that it's better to spend the whole year being good to their fellow humans, rather than to concentrate it on a single season; I can't argue with the sentiment, but I feel that we always need times of special celebration.
Still don't know for sure what I'm doing New Year's - we have several plans, but they all depend on things out of our control. I had hoped to finally meet
subbes face-to-face this week, but I just don't know right now.
Ooo, hit me again Agent Smith
Oct. 17th, 2003 10:48 amYou know, if I were one of Morpheus' freedom fighters for Zion, I'd spend a *lot* of time researching electronic ways to block the 'pain' and 'damage' signals the Matrix wanted to send to my meat body.
Imagine if you hacked the connection ever so slightly to redirect the pain signals so they'd send a tiny jolt to the pleasure center of your brain instead. Agents could shoot you all day and it would just make you giggly. Your Matrix body might end up looking like The Crow, but that might be turned to your advantage; and you can always get another the next time you jack in.
Imagine if you hacked the connection ever so slightly to redirect the pain signals so they'd send a tiny jolt to the pleasure center of your brain instead. Agents could shoot you all day and it would just make you giggly. Your Matrix body might end up looking like The Crow, but that might be turned to your advantage; and you can always get another the next time you jack in.
Owie owie owie
Oct. 4th, 2003 12:22 amWell, apparently someone waltzed into Valve Software's computers, and waltzed out with the source code to Half-Life 2. The code and compiled binaries are all over the net, and soon script kiddies will be able to cheat at multi-player before the game is on the shelf.
I've always wondered what the point of cheating in online shooters is. Isn't that the same as stating up front, "I suck so badly that I don't have a prayer of beating anyone"?
I've sometimes used cheat codes in the single-player missions of some shooters, but I know I suck. :)
I've always wondered what the point of cheating in online shooters is. Isn't that the same as stating up front, "I suck so badly that I don't have a prayer of beating anyone"?
I've sometimes used cheat codes in the single-player missions of some shooters, but I know I suck. :)
Speaking of free games...
Aug. 1st, 2003 09:42 amThe original developer of "Glider PRO" has released the Windows, Mac OS X and 9 versions of the classic game as freeware.
This is a game which can cause some serious productivity loss :)
This is a game which can cause some serious productivity loss :)
I love the old Ray Dunakin World Builder games. Sure, the graphics are quaint, antiquated, but the puzzles are fun, and the bad jokes just make it better. (Actually, the antiquated graphics add a bit to the charm!) Legend has it that Myst was inspired by games like these.
Unfortunately, the sounds don't want to work right in Power Macintoshes. That's why I was installing a System 6 emulator for OS X the other day.
SoftMac and Basilisk II can both emulate older Macs under Windows and Linux, respectively. Users of other systems probably know more about available emulators than I would.
Free games rule!
Unfortunately, the sounds don't want to work right in Power Macintoshes. That's why I was installing a System 6 emulator for OS X the other day.
SoftMac and Basilisk II can both emulate older Macs under Windows and Linux, respectively. Users of other systems probably know more about available emulators than I would.
Free games rule!
First things first...
Jul. 28th, 2003 01:00 pmHappy belated birthday to meiran. My calendar said your birthday was on the 27th... on the other hand, it also said you were born in 2080, so it obviously needed a bit of correcting.
Thanks tovond, jdunson, corin_wolfkin, and the Carilion crowd for showing up at Rain's party, and thanks to yubbie for the cake on Saturday :)
It was a heck of a weekend - I got a little personal time in after work Thursday, but Thursday evening I drove some stuff over to Rain's gaming venue, and finished the evening with dinner at the Tanglewood Macado's... Friday I went from work, to bill-paying, to home to pack for Rain's party, to Anne-Marie's for the actual party *puff-puff, whew*.
Saturday, over to VTSFFC click-base day, where I discovered (by running demos) that the Shadowrun Duels system is fast-paced and fun, and does lend itself to use in actual RPG situations. OTOH, Benny andjdunson both found out a click-base truism: though two sides may be even in points, the side with more figures has a noticeable advantage.
Saturday night was dinner at the Blacksburg Macado's, where we plotted to make everyone atnius' high school reunion jumpy and confused, and we discussed the details of wirelessly networking sex toys.
Sunday, I had a little personal time, but it got divided between a long-distance phone call, laundry and dishes, and installing MacOS 6 on my G4. (Really - and I had a good reason.) After that, dinner withrattrap, corin_wolfkin, and Rockbender. Back home, to a couple hours of private time with the lovely raininva, and finally to bed.
And after all that - I couldn't sleep last night!
meiran. My calendar said your birthday was on the 27th... on the other hand, it also said you were born in 2080, so it obviously needed a bit of correcting.Thanks to
vond, jdunson, corin_wolfkin, and the Carilion crowd for showing up at Rain's party, and thanks to yubbie for the cake on Saturday :)It was a heck of a weekend - I got a little personal time in after work Thursday, but Thursday evening I drove some stuff over to Rain's gaming venue, and finished the evening with dinner at the Tanglewood Macado's... Friday I went from work, to bill-paying, to home to pack for Rain's party, to Anne-Marie's for the actual party *puff-puff, whew*.
Saturday, over to VTSFFC click-base day, where I discovered (by running demos) that the Shadowrun Duels system is fast-paced and fun, and does lend itself to use in actual RPG situations. OTOH, Benny and
jdunson both found out a click-base truism: though two sides may be even in points, the side with more figures has a noticeable advantage.Saturday night was dinner at the Blacksburg Macado's, where we plotted to make everyone at
nius' high school reunion jumpy and confused, and we discussed the details of wirelessly networking sex toys.Sunday, I had a little personal time, but it got divided between a long-distance phone call, laundry and dishes, and installing MacOS 6 on my G4. (Really - and I had a good reason.) After that, dinner with
rattrap, corin_wolfkin, and Rockbender. Back home, to a couple hours of private time with the lovely raininva, and finally to bed.And after all that - I couldn't sleep last night!
Puppet violence on the increase
Jul. 22nd, 2003 10:18 amA gentleman named Laz Rojas makes new character "skins" for the Voyager: Elite Force shooter game. Thanks to his work, one can clothe the Voyager characters in uniforms from any series except Enterprise, play Original Series, Next Gen, or Deep Space 9 characters, or even some unusual creations such as Tom Paris as a Blues Brother, or the feline Lieutenant M'Ress from the Animated Series. (trenn, take note!)
But with the upcoming Thunderbirds movie in the works, Rojas has apparently decided to go even farther afield... soon, Scott Tracy will be able to take out all those long-held frustrations on the other players!
(Click for a larger image)
All Rojas' skins and practice bots can be found at his Elite Farce website, and most can be modified for use in Quake 3, No One Lives Forever, Medal of Honor, or other Q3-based games.
trenn, take note!)But with the upcoming Thunderbirds movie in the works, Rojas has apparently decided to go even farther afield... soon, Scott Tracy will be able to take out all those long-held frustrations on the other players!
(Click for a larger image)
All Rojas' skins and practice bots can be found at his Elite Farce website, and most can be modified for use in Quake 3, No One Lives Forever, Medal of Honor, or other Q3-based games.
Of small interest
Apr. 10th, 2003 12:45 pmYes, I too would like to have a 3-GHz Mac on my desktop for $899. However, despite the fact that OS X is quite capable of running on an Intel chip, here's a nicely thought-out editorial on why that won't happen soon.
And for those on my friends list who still need a PlayStation 2, Deals On The Web has a Sony refurbed PS2 with a subwoofer tossed in for $129. That's only $30 bucks more than a PS1 if I remember correctly.
And for those on my friends list who still need a PlayStation 2, Deals On The Web has a Sony refurbed PS2 with a subwoofer tossed in for $129. That's only $30 bucks more than a PS1 if I remember correctly.
Some observations
Jan. 22nd, 2003 05:35 pmWell, I'm actually feeling a bit accomplished these days. This weekend, I shook the rust from my joints and did some serious database programming, teaching it how to build (static) webpages for manual upload. Today, I forced our server (which recently graduated from peer-to-peer file sharer to real server) to take an OS upgrade that it supposedly can't, getting better networking and filesystem performance from it.
( You had to 'force' it? )
Has anyone ever noticed that when a Jedi fights a lightsaber-wielding villain, things usually don't go well for the Jedi?
Ep.4 - Obi-Wan vs. Vader, ends with Obi-Wan dead.
Ep.5 - Luke vs. Vader, ends with everyone calling Luke 'lefty.'
Ep.6 - Luke vs. Vader, ends with Luke almost succumbing to the dark side, then lying on the floor sucking Sidious' energy bolts.
Ep.1 - Qui-Gon & Obi-Wan vs. Maul, ends with Qui-Gon dead and Obi-Wan having to train Anakin. (Yeah, that all works out well.)
Ep.2 - Obi-Wan & Anakin & Yoda vs. Dooku, ends with 'lefty' Anakin, injured Obi-Wan, defeated Yoda, and Dooku flying off in his ship cackling, pausing only briefly to skywrite "Surrender Dorothy" on his way out.
Okay, I exaggerate a bit, but if I were a Jedi, and saw the other guy light up a laser blade, I'd be pretty depressed about how things were going.
( You had to 'force' it? )
Has anyone ever noticed that when a Jedi fights a lightsaber-wielding villain, things usually don't go well for the Jedi?
Ep.4 - Obi-Wan vs. Vader, ends with Obi-Wan dead.
Ep.5 - Luke vs. Vader, ends with everyone calling Luke 'lefty.'
Ep.6 - Luke vs. Vader, ends with Luke almost succumbing to the dark side, then lying on the floor sucking Sidious' energy bolts.
Ep.1 - Qui-Gon & Obi-Wan vs. Maul, ends with Qui-Gon dead and Obi-Wan having to train Anakin. (Yeah, that all works out well.)
Ep.2 - Obi-Wan & Anakin & Yoda vs. Dooku, ends with 'lefty' Anakin, injured Obi-Wan, defeated Yoda, and Dooku flying off in his ship cackling, pausing only briefly to skywrite "Surrender Dorothy" on his way out.
Okay, I exaggerate a bit, but if I were a Jedi, and saw the other guy light up a laser blade, I'd be pretty depressed about how things were going.
The Matrix Has You
Nov. 14th, 2002 11:50 amFrom the useless-but-cool department...
You can now watch your movie files in ASCII in the Terminal application of MacOS 10.2!
Here's some shots from a certain video - each image links to a larger version:
So I don't bore everyone: if you want to know how to do this, leave a comment and I'll reply.
You can now watch your movie files in ASCII in the Terminal application of MacOS 10.2!
Here's some shots from a certain video - each image links to a larger version:
 |
 |
| Space Rogues logo |
Brion (Me) |
 |
|
| Extra (ypawtows) and Kat (snidegrrl) |
So I don't bore everyone: if you want to know how to do this, leave a comment and I'll reply.
Technology marches on
Sep. 4th, 2002 09:41 amThanks to Jaguar, QuickTime 6, and DivX for Mac 5.0 Alpha 3, I can finally watch DivX .avi files now. Time to catch up on those "Chobits" episodes I was loaned!
Build-your-own panic attack
Sep. 3rd, 2002 04:00 pmHad to install some printer drivers today at work during our big production day, and the installer dropped a directory full of useless documentation at the root level of the drive. So I went to move it, but said installer had placed it there as the root user. So I fired up a terminal and told the machine to "sudo rm -r" the directory (in non geek-speak, pretend I am the master user and delete this directory and its contents). As always after doing that kind of thing, I double-check what I've done by getting a fresh directory listing.
The terminal reports that the disk is completely empty. Completely. Not a single file.
Well, to say I was freaking out was one way of putting things. Now, the GUI insisted the files were all still there, and my running apps were all still functioning, but the terminal insisted on showing a blank listing. So, finally, I logged out of the whole shebang and logged right back in.
The GUI still says everything is where it should be. Check the terminal... which has recovered from its amnesia and confirms that all is well. *heavy sigh*
I think I need a cookie.
The terminal reports that the disk is completely empty. Completely. Not a single file.
Well, to say I was freaking out was one way of putting things. Now, the GUI insisted the files were all still there, and my running apps were all still functioning, but the terminal insisted on showing a blank listing. So, finally, I logged out of the whole shebang and logged right back in.
The GUI still says everything is where it should be. Check the terminal... which has recovered from its amnesia and confirms that all is well. *heavy sigh*
I think I need a cookie.
We got pizza for lunch, Humble Pie. But I accidentally ate a slice of the pepperoni pizza ('cause all the cheese was on top) and now my stomach's badly unsettled.
The people who programmed the spell checker for this client weren't real hackers... the spell checker doesn't recognize the word "pepperoni".
Someone is advertising miniature cattle in this week's issue of the paper... I keep flashing back to the conversation about "raising albino lesbian micro-beefalo in a windowbox" that came up duringkittykatya's Roanoke TFOS game from years ago. The beefalo weren't part of the game, you understand, just part of our gaming conversation.
The Australian government, responding to the RIAA's "we can hack your computer when we feel like it bill", has said that such activity may make US executives criminals under Australian law, and expose them to charges and possible arrests if they enter the country. There's more info here. Good for them! "Australia, Australia, Australia, we love you, amen!"
Hi torubinpdf - say, do you think I could actually film the Commissioner Horton part this time?
The people who programmed the spell checker for this client weren't real hackers... the spell checker doesn't recognize the word "pepperoni".
Someone is advertising miniature cattle in this week's issue of the paper... I keep flashing back to the conversation about "raising albino lesbian micro-beefalo in a windowbox" that came up during
kittykatya's Roanoke TFOS game from years ago. The beefalo weren't part of the game, you understand, just part of our gaming conversation.The Australian government, responding to the RIAA's "we can hack your computer when we feel like it bill", has said that such activity may make US executives criminals under Australian law, and expose them to charges and possible arrests if they enter the country. There's more info here. Good for them! "Australia, Australia, Australia, we love you, amen!"
Hi to
rubinpdf - say, do you think I could actually film the Commissioner Horton part this time?Borgus Reviews of Literature
Aug. 4th, 2002 07:30 pmFinally caught up on my reading this weeked... finished re-reading "The Barsoom Project", read "Idoru" and "Snow Crash", and checked out some half-remembered passages in "1984".
( Click to read reviews and thoughts )
Oh yeah, and I finally beat a sub-boss in the fifth act of Diablo 2 that has been giving me serious trouble on "Nightmare" difficulty. So that's good.
( Click to read reviews and thoughts )
Oh yeah, and I finally beat a sub-boss in the fifth act of Diablo 2 that has been giving me serious trouble on "Nightmare" difficulty. So that's good.
Adventures in Operating Systems
Nov. 1st, 2001 10:26 pmWell, I finally took the plunge - this is being posted from the new installation of OS 10.1 on my machine. I'm still getting used to a lot of it - it takes me longer to find stuff at the moment; some of my favorite applications haven't been "carbonized" to run under the new OS yet, while at least one game will run but insists on setting my monitor to a size it can't handle (cheap monitor's fault, not the OS), and there are other teething troubles. On the other hand, text looks really good and very readable on here; once I install X Windows, I can find a nice mailreader and read my mail directly off Elfie, bypassing Adelphia's bogus servers; and, the best part about this installtion, is that it's not Windows ME or XP. I fought with ME for hours this afternoon just trying to get it to acknowldge a LAN connection to the Internet; and I'm hearing so many bad things about XP right now that I'm glad I own some Apple stock. Wonder what RedHat stock's going for right now? :)
It's a weird Thursday night. I *still* don't have the hang of Thursdays.
It's a weird Thursday night. I *still* don't have the hang of Thursdays.
"I just love scanning for lifeforms!"
Oct. 27th, 2001 11:06 amAll right! I've made it into the top 20 members of the SETI @ VTSFFC project! (Okay, so there are only 26 members in the first place... but I'm making progress!)
