Randomness
New Monitor or a Holiday?
It’s no contest, really.
Currently I use a $600 HP LCD monitor which requires a VGA input. Since I now have a DVI card in my computer, I have to use an adapter, which these days seems to be causing “ghosting”, or an unpleasant shadowing effect. Research involving about thirty seconds Googling indicates that I need a new monitor that supports DVI cables.
So I’ll be keeping an eye out in future for DVI monitors for about $600, so I can retire the HP to the back room and finally get rid of the old Phillips tube.
I can live with horrid ghosting. What I need more is a chance to step away from the grind and take a holiday. And that’s going to cost more, have a finite lifespan, and hopefully put the zing back in my working life.
Of course, if I win tonight’s Lotto draw, I’ll get both, and a nice unfeasibly large widescreen monster. And a more stylish case, and SATA disk and DVD writer drives, and a cool house or apartment in Australia to store it in, along with a trans-Tasman pipeline from my built-in beer tap direct to Mangatainoka.
Posted in Randomness (Op-Ed,Dear Diary...) by R Cruickshank 27/09/08 09:26 PM tags: rant
Comics
At least Kaye doesn't have the facial hair
A staple idea/cliche in sci-fi is that of the “Evil Twin from the Mirror World” — that through a freak accident the hero’s doppelganger (albeit with additional flourishes, such as a goatee) appears in the world and starts causing havoc until he can be stuffed back into his rightful slot.
Well, the big plot twist of Jennifer Diane Reitz’s To Save Her, the third strip in what I call “The Tryslmaistan Cycle”, is that this comic’s Kaywai is not the noble sacrifice of Unicorn Jelly.
Her plan — to undo the multiversal rain and prevent Tryslmaistan ever being “invaded” by entities (actually copies of entities) from other universes, thus returning it to its original, pristine state.
Of course, this will/may have dire results for her crewmembers, not to mention herself. And especially not to mention the Ascended Unity of Tryslmaistan — or the inhabitants of Pastel — or the Kliktlikak — all of whom owe their existence to the rain in the first place!
Chou, I think and speculate, will uplift herself, realise what Kaye is up to, and throw a wrench in Kaye’s plans. Texto (or Virtue, as he is called) is likely to take more direct, futile action. And Only/Uni?
Well, I don’t know. What I do know is that, really, undoing a trans-universal phenomenon directly responsible for your existence is one complicated way to commit suicide.
Comics
Piglin?
I see that with the oncoming freakshow yclept the 2008 US elections, cartoonist Tatsuya Ishida has planted a decidedly Democratic stake in the ground… or at least what appears to be one.
Dressing up Squig as Sarah Palin… comedy gold.
At least I assume that it’s Squigley and not a new character.
Comics
Of comics, illustrated stories and the like
A couple of times, I’ve considered giving up on straight comic-style storytelling and switching over to something like what Carson Fire is doing with Alfheim — illustrated prose.
Second Life
RL money and SL land
Currently, I pay about USD$50, or about NZD$75 a month, for my property in Butler. That includes my deeded crap to the Arbor Project and my rental properties.
If the greenie doesn’t rally soon, I may have to seriously consider selling my rental properties at best and selling up entirely at worst. That’s something I don’t want to do, as I like being in Butler. But Second Life is an increasingly expensive addiction, and I have to prepare for the worst.
But if I can’t afford to stay, so be it. I’ll either become a hobo, or rent. I’m just not sure where, or how palatial.
Posted in Second Life (Op-Ed,) by R Cruickshank 09/09/08 07:08 PM tags: land, second life, speculation
Second Life
Precipitate Flood reporting: At Home with the Archer
Precipitate Flood breaks her silence (to the regret of Martien Pontecorvo) and goes on about the Archer House, as well as neighours past and present.
Games and Toys
Will you idiots SHUT UP!?
I’ve been spending far more time online sniffing out Flash games with my computer in the shop, and I’ve been repeatedly disappointed by the quality of comments on the sites.
Look folks — the comments box is for commenting on the game. It’s not for yawping the unfortunate fact of your existence to the masses.
Being the first to post a comment isn’t in and of itself noteworthy.
If you think a game “sucks”, at least take a breath and explain why. Is it the poorly thought out, unresponsive controls? The irregular difficulty curve? The annoying music or ugly graphics? What? (Oh, and I don’t suck if I like it, OK?)
If you think a game’s “great”, stop squealing, take a breath, and explain why. Controls well thought out and responsive? Snappy graphics? Unobtrusive music? Difficulty balanced just right?
Quizzes and chain letters aren’t comments. Don’t post them.
I don’t care about your score. Or your drama with that other moron who had the nerve to disagree with you. Take it to AIM or something. The world is not a giant Jerry Springer episode, and we are not the studio audience. I don’t mind a good dose of schadenfreude, but as with any other intoxicant I have my limits.
You’re on sites about games. And the game’s the thing.
Posted in Games and Toys (Op-Ed,Rants) by R Cruickshank 08/07/08 01:37 PM tags: flash games, human nature, opinion, rant
Second Life
What's holding SL back?
I was doing some needed goofing off earlier and I noticed that ol’ Hamlet Au has a couple of back-to-back entries contemplating a pair of related stories which go some way to explain why Second Life hasn’t taken off as much as it could have, and instead having a fairly static uptake.
I feel that a number of factors do hold SL back. Here’s the short list:
Second Life
Shadow over Shadows
Well, it seems that Hamlet Au really set the prim cat among the particle pigeons in this post about the shadow-draft branch of SL development. As he noted, dynamic shadows would be a nifty feature, but could result in a “balkanisation” of client experience.
I think I know partly what he means. My machine could — barely — cope with SL on my underpowered Radeon. This didn’t stop me enjoying myself; I just had to wait patiently and bumble around with a very low view distance. Even now I haven’t adjusted that too much.
Even the Lindens themselves have stepped into the discussion, and I have to agree with Simondo Nebestanka that as long as you can toggle it on or off like you can Windlight shaders, that’s fine.
However. Dynamic shadows may well raise the bar for building and texture designers. For instance, do you bake shadows into textures, or rely on J Random User having dynamic ones on? Also, dynamic shadows change over time. If you’re trying for a particular ambience, do you really want to trust in people arriving at just the right time of day?
I’ve upgraded since I joined SL, but that was in response to several components including the motherboard dying, and cost more than the US$200 tag flying around. And since then, I’ve found SL getting annoying again if I turn around too quickly.
Hamlet’s also posed another question, how 3D SL should be. He notes that the most populous multiuser environments are not as bleeding edge in terms of rendering as SL is, but personally I see that as comparing pipfruit and citrus.
SL’s main feature is that virtually all content and environs are created ex nihilo by the users themselves. Other MMOs are created by closed teams of professional developers, dictating what goes where, and what the theme is. Naturally this involves a steeper learning curve, and also creates the problem of not offering a clear entry direction for those asking “what’s it all for?”
I like the idea of shadows and want them — I’d happily throw over Windlight for shadows if I had to choose between pixel shaders. There are three reasons for this:
- Shadows offer better depth perception and stop annoying light bleedover from neighbouring builds.
- We don’t need Phong shading and multi-bounce crap. Just trace from source/s to surface and kill that virtual photon. Heck, I used that sort of lighting system in Quake for years and still got good results.
- I stand to make a killing from designer light fittings.
Posted in Second Life (News,Op-Ed) by R Cruickshank 18/06/08 12:24 AM tags: good ideas gone bad, links, opinion, second life
Second Life
He has a headset and "YouTube for Dummies". Uh oh.
He also has a head full of Memories since he went to see Cats performed at the Opera House on Sunday night, a chipped filling from tonight, and has been watching a number of spots of Yahtzee’s hilarious game review shorts, Zero Punctuation.
This simply cannot bode well, and I hope you all are praying fervently that he’ll continue to be bereft of inspiration for a long time to come.
Posted in Second Life (Op-Ed,Site News) by R Cruickshank 02/06/08 10:44 PM tags: good ideas gone bad, second life, toys
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