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Friday, August 27, 2004

WOW, as in World of Warcraft, and wow as in size, over 2 GB! FilePlanet is having a stress test oppertunity for all subscribers. I was just going over there to get the Rome Total War Demo They have not started the testing yet, guess they need to give everyone a chance to download the monster. Do not worry Lone_Wolf, I will tell you if it is any good.

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Thursday, August 26, 2004

"Rock should never be in bed with politics."

Interesting points made by Alice Cooper. I know a lot of singers will make political statements, Steppen Wolf comes to mind, and that is cool; but should rock stars back specific politicians? If they do, they should not be surprised if they get flack from their fans. I like Bruce Springsteen, John Mellencamp, R.E.M., and Sheryl Crow; but it really surprised me when I heard about their tour to get Bush out of office. Their songs often talk about how the system is keeping them down. If they wanted to write a song to condemn something, like Steppenwolf's Draft Resister, I may have enjoyed it. The reason is it did not say one side was better than the other, it was just saying he despised the man and this is why. I can respect that.

Make a political statement without supporting one side or the other. If they are against the war, go on a tour to end the war. When it comes to the war, Bush led the troops, but Kerry voted to go to war in Iraq. Let the fan read into the music what they want, and let them vote how they want.

Hat tip from Frank J.

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Tuesday, August 24, 2004

Halo Goes Big Screen Oh hell ya! I would pay to do this with my friends. I am surprised that no one tried this before. I can think of a few theaters in my area that they could setup to do this a few nights a week. Sweet! Hope it catches on more. They can have clubs and host team matches; have city tournaments; or host parties. Ya, that would be a kick ass birthday party. Way better than renting out the appartment shared hall, or the local Moose loge.

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Monday, August 23, 2004

I remebored this email for Jedi Knights: Mysteries of the Sith. The game itself, was not all that, but you got to play as Mara Jade. Well when it first reliesed Lucas Arts put on their web a free level. Well by the time I got a pc that could play it, they had taken down the link for the game level. So I emailed them.

PROBLEM: A few years ago when the game first came out I remeber seeing a "unrealsed level" available to downlode from the Lucasarts website. I can not find this download any more. Can you please help me. This was the only e-mail I could find. Please help me Lucasarts tecs, your our only hope.

I thought they would find the last part funny, or boost their ego. Well here is the responce I got. I do not know if any one still has the game, but here you go.


Hi,
Thank you for your message.

PLEASE NOTE: This information is provided solely as a bonus for owners of Mysteries of the Sith. Since the secret level was not included as part of the standard version of the game, LucasArts will not be able to offer any further support than the information contained within this document.

Please do not contact the Technical Support department with questions/comments related to this level, as they will be unable to offer assistance.

If there isn't one already, create a new directory in your MotS directory called "Episode" Inside the "Episode" directory, create another directory called "MotS Secret Level"
Unzip the UNSUPPORTED.ZIP file, which can be found in the GameData/Resource/Video directory of your Mysteries of the Sith CD. Copy the "Jkl" and "Cog" directories from UNSUPPORTED.ZIP into the "MotS Secret Level" directory Right-click here and select "Save Target As.." to download the file episode.jk to the "MotS Secret Level" directory
Run Mysteries of the Sith
Select "Single Player"
Select "New Game"
Choose "MotS Secret Level" from the episode list
LEC JAY


Well there you go, a pice of useless info that has been saved from the Lucas Arts web sight cleanup. You may thank me now.


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Thursday, August 19, 2004

Van Halen kicks ass! Wow what a night! I went to the concert at The Arrowhead Pond on the 16th. I do not know if this is the case for all The Pond’s events, but traffic stinks getting there. The cops did not direct traffic. They just sit there setting up cones. They do not care if people block intersections. Expect to be stuck trying to get off the freeway for some time.

First thing we did was eat when we got down to Anaheim. We got down there with hours to spare. We went to eat at the ESPN Sport Bar and Grill at Down Town Disney. Last time I was down here, I wandered around to see what was so great about DTD. It reminds me of an overpriced outdoor mall with performers. It does have a LEGO store, and the ESPN place has a pretty sweet arcade, so it was not a total waist. Any way back to ESPN. I only went to the arcade the last time I was here, I can say now that the arcade is the best part. I was expecting some thing more like Hard Rock Cafe, with sport highlights, trivia, and signed jersey and stuff like that. Nope, zip, zero. Just a huge TV and lights that sporadically dimmed. The crowd was not even very rambunctious, but then again it was just the Red Socks and the Bluejays dropping the ball all night. The food was good, huge burgers, but pricey. We later found there is a Hooters right next to The Pond, damb it, we would have had more fun there, and had good parking. Kind of curious what Hooters is like, never been to one before. Oh well, next time.

Van Halen was the bomb. Even with the poor sound quality of the Pond, they were great! Eddy can still play one mean guitar! I was a bit concerned with Sammy doing David’s songs, but he did them justice. Sammy was playing the crowd, as always. He was signing autographs and getting in the pit with the fans all throughout the show. Eddy and Alex still have the long kinky hair and look really, really good for their age. Everyone had his own solo moment. That was totally cool. Michel came out with his Jack Daniels bass for his solo, much to everyone’s delight. Sammy played Where Eagles Fly. Alex just went nuts on his drums, man can he play! Eddy proved that he is still the master of the electric guitar; it was just mind blowing the stuff he was doing.

This will go down as one of the best. Man am I glad to see them back together. They looked like they had a lot of fun. I know I did.

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Saturday, August 14, 2004

Ninja Gaiden Master Tournament #2 is kicking my butt BIG TIME! I am having a hard time just getting up to the first save point. There are white and black robe ninjas all over the place, and they are smarter and faster then they were before. True you have a few new tricks up the sleeve, like being able to do ultras without collecting essence and a new quarter staff, but it is still a challenge. It is going to be a lot of fun.

I watched I Robot the other week. Ehh, it was all right. I will say this is the first movie that I have despised Will Smith’s character. This was a total unexpected, especially after movies like MIB, ID4, and Bad Boys. He comes off as a complete punk and often times I wished that someone would just smack him. The reason that he is this way is because he is prejudice against robots, but the question is why? Did a robot replace him at the burger joint, or go on a murderous rampage killing off everyone he loved when Windows self corrupted? The answer only left me scratching my head.

When Will gets called to his friend’s suicide at the robotics corporation, he immediately thinks foul play by a robot. Everyone thinks that he is totally nuts, and jumping to conclusions, witch I would agree, since he had only been at the seen for two minutes. I am suppressed by the lack of concern for the things that Will dose find later in his investigation. The security footage that would show what happened was corrupted. I know as soon as anything goes wrong on a company system, the tech departments phone starts to ring off the hook. Then there is the fact that the jumper went threw a safety glass window, witch can take the impact of a bar stool, and no test are ran to see if the batch was defective. Hum, guess people are just less suspicious in 2035, which by the way, LA has a ways to go to look like it did.

Now we get the hint of a corporate conspiracy. The owner doses not want anything to hint at the idea that his robots may be dangers, other words the news and panic would just ruin his company and the releasing of the newest modal will be a flop. So everything gets burred in political favors.

So the first day release goes as planed and everyone that participates gets to trade in their old ugly PC Bot for a new Mac Bot, complete with blue glowing plastic and a smile. I was wondering what the catch was. Then I realized, this is a beta release so that means calling a toll number for tech support, and since they are able to get updates, there will be a monthly subscription service fee. Brilliant! This company is truly more evil than Microsoft.

What I got out of the movie is that if you give computers AI and some laws, no mater how simple they are, they will eventually become lawyers and interpret and twist them around to achieve their own goals. World domination! I think they should have gone more for the dark humor that was in Robo Cop and had news highlights. ‘This just in, Los Angelis is engulfed in flames as robots riot in the streets. We believe that this is due to the arrest and beating of a robot by the LAPD…’

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Sunday, August 08, 2004

Well I went out and got myself a copy of Doom3 and played it last night. Man what a monster. It puts my rig working in overtime. I have an Athlon 2100 with GeForce 4 all water cooled and I can still only play the game at 600X800. Even then it still has a slight screen lag. I know the pc is not all that, but this is one of the few games that even puts a strain on it. I love it!

The game itself is great! I have not played a game this intense since Alien vs. Predator 2 or Half-life. There are very little lights, so seeing from where something may jump out and attack is nerve racking. It reminds me of the levels of playing the marines in AvP2. Hear something over there; see a movement out of the corner of your eye. It is hard to shoot what one cannot see. I could turn on the flashlight, and peek into a nook, but then a demon comes leaping out, and I have to switch back to a gun or club it with my trusty maglight. I expect it, but it still makes me jump sometimes. Popping into a nook for cover when reloading is NOT a good idea. Every door, every step, every sound, has me expecting something bigger, something worse to come barging threw a wall. It's GREAT!

The lighting effects are mind-boggling. I think they just put some of the "scientific" equipment in rooms just so they could play with the lights. There is rarely a room that is completely lit up, even before hell's gate is opened. Red running lights, the glow of a monitor flickering off the walls, a radioactive substance casting an eerie glow as it spins, even something as simple as the flashlight all are just extremely impressive.

I think they should have included the original Doom games as a mini-game. There are a ton of things you can interact with, and gather information to enhance the story. They give you a PDA so that you can download info from terminals or other character's PDAs. Some of the info is just story line enhancements, some will let have key codes to get extra health and ammo, and other things you have to get to get clearance to another room. I often times find PDA by a pile of limbs and some dark crevice. I know something is there, but I want that data, they are teasing me. I inch forward with my shotgun ready, I will myself to reach, stretch, stay as far from that void as possible, got it, RUN! KILL IT! Shoot it! Watch as the corps burns up and the blacked bones blow away like in Blade.

Only complaint right now is the cut scene. Do not get me wrong, they are mesmerizing. I have not seen scenes that look this good from a game engine, they rival pre-rendered cut scenes in many games. I just do not like the fact they break up the game play. My instinct is to shoot the thing coming at me, not sit and stare at how ugly the thing is in a clip before it lets me dispatch of it.


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Saturday, August 07, 2004

Well it looks like Hollywood and the Music indistry finaly won and closed down 321 studios, the makers of DVD XCopy and other cd and dvd backup software. They also made Games X Copy, a product I have been using to make virtual images of my games. ARRGGG! Just becsause the software could be used to steal software does not mean it will be used to steal it. Damb them! I just found out because I was looking to see if there was any patches that support the new Double Layer DVD writers.

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Thursday, August 05, 2004

Well looks like the Senators that know nothing about computers are at it again. Great, so not if I just tell someone about something that can be used to violate a copyright law, I can be held liable, just as if I has stolen something. So much for freedom of speech.

I personally think there are enough laws to protect copywriten stuff. If anything there need to be a bill of rights for the end users. Some things I think should be addressed are...

#1 License Agreement. Who the hell thought of putting the stickers on the software box saying, "By breaking this seal you agree to the license agreement."? Where is the license agreement you are adhering to? Bingo, in the sealed box, or on the cd that you have to break the seal to read! What happens when you happen to read the License Agreement and find that you do not agree with it? Well for one you cannot install it, and cense it will do you no good just sitting around; you would want to get your money back. Tuff luck! Have you tried to return software? HAAA! Even if you have the receipt, the original packaging and everything else, they will only let you exchange it for the same thing. Like that will do you a lot of good. They just tell you to talk to the company. No one cares, they got your money. This sounds like entrapment to me.

#2 Spywere. A lot of people are becoming more and more wise to spywere. I know that the company can get away with putting spywere in their stuff by hiding somewhere in the License Agreement that you agree to be spied on by installing this cheesy screen saver. Anyone that has read a license agreement know that at about half way threw you are so brain dead that they could put something like "The end user agrees to exchange his/her soul for the use of the included software" and you would not notice it. They should be required to put on a label what this software gathers from you. Kind of like the ESRB. R=registration, W=web habits, E=everything you do, P=promotional popups and other things.

#3 Backups. This is the biggest thing that you should be able to do. A person should be able to make a backup of the software, music, or movies that they have bought a license to. They keep saying that all you are buying is the license, what difference does it make how many copies of the software I have cluttering up my house?

#4 Ripping. This falls right in with the backups. What is the difference in what form my backup takes? If I want the backup on my hard drive as a virtual image or as an mp3 in my portable player I should be able to do such.

I am sure there are a lot more issues that should be included. If people have some right with their digital media, I think they may be more willing to respect the rights of the companies. Right now the companies are the only ones with rights and I think that P2P and other stealing is the little guys trying to stick it to the man.

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