Mysterium 2006

Wowowowowow! Coolcoolcoolcoolcool! I'm at Mysterium '06!
They have everything here!
Costumes, every Cyan Worlds game ever, too cool!
The place is really nice, too. Great garden in the back, manicured lawn, waterfall.
And cones! They have cones (keeping eager fans from bothering the QA people)!

So, yeah. It's cool here. My Dad got me a Myst tee-shirt signed by Rand himself! My heartburn is bugging me though.

Blender Water Simulation

I just finished a fairly cool water simulation in Blender3D. While it isn't the most dramatic scene I've ever made, -- my best render would go to a publicity shot I made for A Realm Divided, but never published -- I still kind of like it. The only reason I could make a simulation this complex is by virtue of my new Lappy K8 (So much better then Strong Bad's Lappy 486, it makes your head hertz!). I've uploaded it to http://i80and.googlepages.com/WaterSim3.mov.

NOTE: At the time of this writing, for some reasen my upload broke the movie. When this note is removed, I'll have gotton it working.

WWII, Hogan's Heroes

Every time I watch Hogan's Heroes (Not very often; I've only seen about one episode all the way through), I keep wishing that every WWII prisonor of war camp officer had been as lenient and forgiving (and as dim a bulb) as Colonel Klink. The lives that could have been saved...

Open Micro$oft?

I read this. My opinion: Whoever leads marketing at Micro$oft should get an award.
The deal is that for years (starting '04, I believe), the EU has been prosecuting Micro$oft for not giving out enough information for interoperability purposes. So they've racked up over 350 million dollars, and finally agreed to give out some info (although the EU is still pressing them, and is going to double the fine to over 600 million). So then the marketing geniuses at Micro$oft (I'm getting tired of writing that. Is there an abbreviation?) decide to turn it into good publicity. Not that I'm complaining, of course. It makes OSS developers lives much easier. Nor am I saying that every change they've made for interoperability was because they had to. They may have also gotten pressure from the ISO's decision to use the open ODF format instead of Micro$oft's OpenXML, and decided to just go full out with transparency. I just find it interesting how they turned a defeat into a win.

vnunet.com comments
dailytech.com comments
forbes.com comments

Math, Rise of Nations tactics

First off, math.
My Dad is getting me into a collage Pre-calculus (pre calculus?) 1 program as pass-or-fail. I'm not too sure how well I'll do in that, especially because of my sever chronic heart-burn (I'll blog about that someday, I'm sure). Fortunately, it's pass-fail so my grade won't be recorded.

I played another game of Rise of Nations today. Maybe the first game ever that I won AND was the top player. Of course, it was on easy...

Laptop is still holding up. The polish and shine is going away and being replaced by finger-prints. Oh well. It also keeps making these odd clicking and whirring sounds I've never heard come from a computer. But the most annoying problem so far is that the right mouse button keeps popping off. Again, oh well. It's worth it for the frame rates and ray-tracing times.

Sound on Compaq V3000Z

Ok, I have no clue what's up with the sound on SUSE 10.1 Live x86 on my Compaq. It doesn't work, but then, when I plug it into a wired Ethernet connection, the sound works. Unless I try to change the volume. For some reason, that doesn't work period. More on this later, I hope.

Decent day today. I figured out a strategy in Rise of Nations that actually allows me to play a half-decent game (e.g. Without my being slaughtered mid-game).

Laptop Replaced

Well, I got my laptop replaced. Works great. Runs Uru: Ages Beyond Myst (the newer URL is http://www.urulive.com) at a very playable speed with ultra overall quality and full anti-aliasing + reflections. AOE III is a little more demanding, and I don't even try to push it very far. Anyway, I'm pretty satisfied with the laptop.

Model: Compaq V3000Z
Price: ~$950
Special Features:
HP Inline finish
Built-in stereo mic

Pros:

(40% faster then comparable Intel Core Duo)



Lots of RAM (1024mb DDR2)
Decently sized HD (80gb)
High-end integrated video card
Wide-screen display

Cons:
Poor Linux compatibility
Low-end Turion 64 X2 (1.6ghz; fastest is 2.4ghz)
10gb of HD is reserved for system restore and QuickPlay
WAAY too much junk pre-installed


Linux Notes:
I haven't tried installing anything yet, but I have run two LiveCDs:
SUSE 10.1 x86 LiveDVD:
Video card picks up GeForce Go 6150 and widescreen display without flaw
Wireless card fails to function
Sound fails to function
Built-in mics fail to function

Kubuntu 6.06 AMD_64 LiveCD:
Uses VESA drivers, complains about nv driver not working when forcing a change.
Wireless card fails to function
Sound works fine
Mics not tested

Broken Laptop

Sigh. I just got a really slick laptop from Circuit City (Cool sales rep. Did you know that the Cell can be oc'd to 90ghz?), got it home, everything was working beautifully, but about 35min after turning it on, it shut itself off. Repeated attemps to turn it back on (including with the QuickPlay button) failed, and even a system restore didn't help. Oh well. My dad can exchange it tomorrow.

Laptop Specs:
Compaq v3000z
AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-50
1024mb DDR2 RAM
80gb 5200rpm HD (In benchmarks, performed as well as your average 7200rpm)
nVidia GeForce Go 6150 (LE?)

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