Scrivener

The problem with 99.9% of all 'end-of-the-world' flicks is that something big, stupid, and illogical happens at the end to make it all better. For once I want to see one of these movies with a sad, despicable ending where humanity loses and everyone dies... or obviously going to die very soon as a result of previous events. No flying space shuttles into asteroids, no drilling the center of the earth... just people coping with impending doom. Yeah, that's morbid, but that's the right way to do it... and the one way that it's never been done before.

Hmm, those arguments sound reasonable, but there's still one inconsistency that I can't puzzle out... and that's the concept that Zion... which is in the 'real' world, NOT the Matrix... has been destroyed before. Also, I grasp the idea that Neo is still connected to the Matrix 'wirelessly'... but the question is *how?* If there are, indeed, explanations for other *ambiguities* then there has to be a reasonable explanation for this as well. I doubt it's some sort of telepathy or mental projection... which sounds a little too unreasonable. Then there's the scene where real world Neo is fighting the possessed Smith-guy in the real world, for a moment, Neo's Matrix-skills 'turned-on.' I still think the 'real world' is also encompassed by a Matrix. Perhaps it's the less perfect world we've heard about... not the virtual Matrix world we think it is. Again and again, the question is... how could Zion, in the real world, have been destroyed before? But that raises another idea... the game claims that everyone in Zion, but one person, had been killed. Could the game have taken place, itself, in a previous version of the Matrix? Aia, my head hurts.

SPOILERS AHEAD (Not that it matters). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . First, what do the machines plan to do with Neo? How the hell could the defeat of zion, etc, already have happened? For that matter, how could Neo already have happened? How the hell was Neo able to affect things in the real world? What exactly is with that little girl? If Neo and all the people possessed by Smith died, then how the hell is the Oracle still alive? OR, if somehow everone survived... then Neo also survived... so, again, what's going on with him? What EXACTLY happened between the Oracle and the Merolvingion [sp?] (Ambiguous flashback needed)? PLUS, IMO, this installment succumbed to every predictable cliche in the book. There were some ideas that the previous movies made allusions to that really should have been followed through on here. The ending needed some kind of unifying twist to make the trilogy work together... ie, the 'real' world isn't real at all. When it's all over, Neo dies and everything gets reset, real world and other. We see Neo waking up in his dingy hotel room with "Wake up Neo" on his computer monitor. Something to that effect... but the Wachowskis chose the worst-possible-ending.... unless there were one more movie in works. IMO, I don't see how they could resolve these quibbles in another movie, we just needed the last 15 mins of Revolutions to have been massively different.

Ok, so I saw it today. At first it was shaping up to be a MUCH better movie than Reloaded. But then there were a couple really lousy fighting scenes (Like guys running on the ceiling for no particular reason). Fortunately there's a little more philosphy in this one than Reloaded... and some very obvious christ-savior allusions... which, had they been fully realized, could have made for an interesting story loop. But no, the whole thing falls apart during the last 15 minutes. After the climax of the film there is no resolution. In fact, there's just a whole lot of camp and ambiguity. I would go so far as to compare the ending to an episode of Lost in Space. Yes, it's that bad. 3/10

Matrix was originally intended to be a trilogy of films, but thats where things get complicated. When the Wachowskis got cracking on the script for the sequel, it got so damn big that they turned it into two different movies. It's very possible that, rather than incorporate ideas for the final chapter into the Reloaded/Revolutions script, they left it open enough that they can attach the intended final chapter later on. That also happens to be why Reloaded sucked so much, it was only half a movie. Hopefully I'll have time to go see Revolutions myself before work today... provided I can finish my midterm paper early enough.

Well, my power adapter for my Powerbook got stolen during class yesterday... the replacement cost me $80 so I'm as broke as the nose on the Sphinx. No games for me this month. Also thinking of selling Steel Battalion for $$. But I want the online expansion so much! My hot list for the holidays: Uru: Ages of Myst, X2: The Threat, and Universal Combat. Yes, me want Thief 3... but it won't be out till next year. I'm horrified that Deus Ex 2 has been cannibalized (see: consolized) so I won't dare to hope.

I've been in support of the war from the getgo but I'm starting to wonder what we are accomplishing over there. It seems that they are just as fond of shooting themselves in the feet as shooting ours guys in the head I say we leave and take all our money, support, protection with us. Let's see how much they appreciate being ruled by an oligarchy of terrorist organizations.

Totally dodged the questions. How totally characteristic. quote:Dear Matthew, Right now the Executive Director is really busy and therefore unable to directly answer your questions, but you may find answers to many of your questions by searching our website (www.lionlamb.org). Good luck with your work. Heather Program Assistant

The debacle was over Valve's claim that Nvidia cards were supposed to have serious performance issues as opposed to comparable ATI cards, which was an absolute lie. My argument had nothing to do with DX9 feature support. Nevertheless, the special 'Nvidia optimized' mode looks and runs much worse than the 'generic' DX9 mode (Both of which can be forced by adding switches to the shortcut target box). There is also a DX8 mode (default) which performs about the same as DX9 generic but without some of the more nifty graphical effects.

I just sent the following [loaded] questions to Lion & Lamb Project: quote:To whom it may concern, I am currently working on a story for a school paper regarding violence and children. I have some questions about the Lion & Lamb project, its goals, its values, and its activities. I appreciate your time and would very much appreciate an expeditious response. 1)In your definition, what constitutes a violent act (real or fabricated ÔÇô ie, news as opposed to drama)? 2)What lifelong benefits can we expect for a child who is successfully sheltered from violent material? 3)Laws are currently in place limiting the times and places R rated films can be advertised. Do you feel this is sufficient or should additional steps be taken? What are those steps (if applicable)? 4)From the following two opposing views, which do you feel is the better and why? a.Raising parental awareness and responsibility through education. b.Limiting (even legally) the creation and distribution of violent content. 5)Based on historical statistics most Americans can expect a military draft to occur at least once during their life time. Should a young man be drafted into service (as of his 18th birthday), who has been sheltered from violence his entire life, will his limited exposure to violence (real or fabricated) prove to be more beneficial or detrimental? Explain. 6)Various studies on the correlation of real-world and media violence have had wildly different results. Some conclude that exposure to violent games and movies increase violent tendencies while others conclude that the ÔÇÿimaginaryÔÇÖ violence acts as a vent, decreasing ÔÇÿrealÔÇÖ violent tendencies. What is your opinions do you have about the studies concluding that ÔÇÿimaginaryÔÇÖ violence acts as a vent, decreasing ÔÇÿrealÔÇÖ violent tendencies? I would like to thank you again for your time in answering my questions. Sincerely, Matthew VanAndelTheir response should be interesting.

First off, there's already laws in place that limit where and when you can advertise R rated films. Those laws alone prevent R rated movies from being marketed to children. Kill Bill is marketted to all those of us that grew up watching the kung fu & samurai movies of yesteryear. The thing is that kids will always want to be part of whatever is hip with the adults. Therefore it is impossible to market something to adults without creating equivalent or greater buzz amongst youngsters. But you know what, why don't we just do away with all forms of mature-targetted entertainment anyway. Whatever makes the small special interest groups feel powerful, right? I don't think I could live in a world where everymovie is Toy Story and every game is Yugioh. Nevertheless, that's what they want.

Posting complaints about it on the EA message boards will get you banned, btw. Apparently defamation of EA and their products is not permited, even when are the complaints are just and true. At least UC will be out soon, then ROTK won't matter any more anyway.

Well, here's a piece of information I totally wasn't expecting. Personally, I hope the EA execs responsible for this decision rot in hell. Although the PC version of Return of the King supports cooperative multiplayer... it does not support LAN, internet, or any other form of network play. No... you have to play cooperative *on the same computer*!!!!!! I kid you not. Read the new Gamespy review. They saw fit to include online play for PS2, but not even the PC version... the apotheosis of online play!?!? Boy howdy did they lose my sell. Not to mention every other PC gamer who shops at my store

The problem is that it will never stop until we, the people, stop it... en masse. That's one of the reasons liberals want to take away our right to bear arms... so we can't rebel when they finally drive us to the breaking point. If the US ever instituted an online tax, I'd praise as a hero any person with balls enough to firebomb offending government buildings. As is the government takes about 60% of my meager $12k income when all is said and done. The US has already become a socialist commune and most people don't even realize it yet. The government needs to go away and let me deal for myself. I don't want ANY of their dirty d@mned 'services.' The whole world is going to crap and theres not a damned thing any of us can do about it, but head for the hills, build a cabin, and live off the land. But sooner or later the government will show up and take that too.

Hey, here's a surprise... these two new games are actually pretty good: 1) Nosferatu - This is one of those blessed rare games that manages to suck you in with it's fantastic atmosphere. Graphically similar to Arx Fatalis, it's deep, interesting, and scary. 2) The Black Mirror - Generally I end up hating most Dreamcatcher/Adventure Company games, but Black Mirror is a real change for the company. It's almost like a horror version of The Longest Journey. It could maybe have used some more alternate solutions for a few of the puzzles (Where you have the right idea, but the game dosn't tell you that your on the right track so you may sometimes give up on that idea and get stuck, having known the solution all along, just not executing it correctly), but is overall a very good adventure title. With Runaway also now available in the states and Uru due out in a couple weeks, we'll have three decent new adventure games. Let's hope this marks a true resurrection of the genre.

1) Max Payne 2 - Very ho-hum, IMO, and not worth the $50 asking price. Beat it in about 4-5 hours, also consists of one part game to three parts video/comic. There's maybe 2 hours of actual *game* included. 5/10 2) Halo - I didn't like it on the XBox and I *hate* it on the PC. It's repetitive, uninspired, and the engine/graphics *look* like they belong to a two year old game (which they do). The poor performance is another slap in the face as well. 2/10 3) UFO Aftermath - Great, great game. Not as complex as older XCom games, but it's been so long I won't complain. Captures the atmosphere of the first two XCom's splendidly and offers a simple, yet elegent RTS-TBS-RPG gameplay system. 9/10 4) Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic - AoW has become one of my favorite franchises since Heroes of M&M. Like a mix of all the great things about D&D, Disciples, and Kohan. 9/10 5) Scrivener's Pro Photographer - Ok, so not a real *game* per se. Just got my Olympus C-740 3.2MP Ultra Zoom digital camera from Costco (10x Optical Zool w/ Super-Macro mode). Who knew taking pictures could be so much fun? Since Costco has the best return policy in the world, waiting to the Canon PowerShot A80 to come in (They rotate their stock) so I can just exchange. 6) Temple of Elemental Evil - Won't touch it till the patch comes out. Had to restart three times due to game-killing bugs (including one that results in all new saves being corrupt) and called it quits. There's a brilliant 9/10 game in there somewhere, but its too broken to see. 1/10 7) Savage - The best thing to happen to online gaming since Microsoft's Allegiance. VERY highly recommend. 8/10 8) Morrowind - Although I admit I sunk hundreds of hours into it, Morrowind dosn't even register on my top 10 RPGs of all time list. I instead recommend downloading VMWare Workstation and setting up a virtual Win98 Virtual Machine on which to play 'TES2:Daggerfall.' A FAR supperior game to Morrowind in every way. Morrowind 6/10, Daggerfall 10/10 9) Hearts of Iron - I'm a big fan of Europa Universalis 1 & 2, and when this first came out it was a relative disaster. Since then there have been a number of patches that almost make this the great game it should be. If you pick this up, download the patches before jumping in. 7/10 10) Combat Mission 1 & 2 - The best turn-based WW2 tactical strategy game ever created. So realistic that military procedural handbooks act as strategy guides. Now available at retail in exclusive beefed-up Special Editions (Has been available on the internet for direct sales for years). 10/10 11) Korsun Pocket - A higher-level WW2 tactical STBS. Things like supply come into play here and the WONDERFUL manual will get even the most clueless gamer playing like a grognard in no time. HIGHLY recommend. 10/10 12) Lock-on Modern Air Combat Demo - Flight enthusiasts and armchair-pilots have been waiting for this Flanker 2-sequel for years. FINALLY the demo has been released and I can blow the dust off of my ol' HOTAS Cougar Flightstick. Only played for a few minutes but it looks AMAZING. Can't wait to put some more time into this one. 9/10 TENTATIVE 13) Call of Duty Demos - More of the same here. I am *not* impressed. It's just MoHAA all over again. Where's the blood? Why are the levels so damned linear? Why do all the soldiers look like the same guy? I mean, is this WW2 or Attack of the Clones? These WW2 shooters are saturday morning cartoons, not war epics. I'm disgusted. 1/10 14) Hidden & Dangerous 2 - Just picked this up but havn't played it yet. Including it here as it's the rare exception, an M-rated WW2 game. Maybe this one has the grit and stark realism that is so shamefully missing in *other* WW2 shooters. No score.

I actually think it sounds cool that your aim drifts a wee bit... it's sort of realistic. And not being able to hit the broad side of a barn while running... also realistic. *shrugs* I'll be happy with however it turns out, anyway. As for quote: Look, I was simply correcting a mistake regarding my name. That is not petty. And yes, I am quite aware that some people in the military think it's funny to call their underlings ladies, but I am not in the military and do not expect that kind of crap. ...

The way I see it is that you'd have to be one pretty messed up kid for your parents to fork out $40k a year to send you there. It sounds an aweful lot like an army boot camp and I think, ultimately, it actually would be beneficial. In Jamaica you can get away with the strict punishment required to straighten those kids out. Over here being locked up in a Juvenile Detention Facility is no different than being locked in your room for extended periods of time. Incarceration alone teaches nothing... IMO, Tranquility is an extreme and neccessary solution for an extreme situation. Just my 2 pence.

SC, that is simply amazing. Do you mind if I print some of those shots to show customers at work? Try and drive pre-sales, you know BTW, will there be an improved interactive tutorial this time around? People drool over the prospects when I describe the game, and then I still end up spending an hour on the phone giving lessons to every person who buys it

This one was definately good enough to earn a saved place in my super-elitist DVD collection. From me, that's high praise. Wow, it's been a good week for movies. Anyhoo, I'd rank this one up there with Fargo as one the Coen's best. Laughed my arse off. 9/10

Yeah, the gore is handled in a very silly/unrealistic/sylized manner. For instance, if a head gets lopped off, blood may spray 20ft in the air like it were a red colored sprinkler on the side of the freeway. The most 'gratuitous' portion of the film is also done in black & white, while simultaneously being set to some goofy 70s-style kung-fu action music. Unless you're Joseph Lieberman the gore isn't really that much of issue... it's not 'gross-out' gore like you'd find in a horror film nor is it the sad stomach-turning gore of Saving Private Ryan... it's silly and unrealistic, in a wonderfully good way.

Just discovered this program that works like a dream when it comes to running older games. It's called VMWare Workstation. It's essentially a computer emulator for your computer. You start up the program under WinXP and you then install any operating system that you have onto this 'virtual machine.' So any time you want to run that old Win95/DOS game you just start up the program and then pick the appropriate 'virtual machine' to start up. It's actually meant to help developers with quality assurance on multiple platforms with a single server so it's not cheap ($299 for the registered retail version). There's a 30-day trial available from their website if you want to check it out, however. Still $300 isn't bad for an unlimmited number of 'Legacy' machines all running on your desktop under WindowsXP.

In a word: FAN-F***ING-TASTIC! Every scene, every moment was an homage to all things cinema. This movie was so much FUN that the two hours felt more like five minutes. Terantino switches effortlessly from live action to anime to black and white - there are 10ft-tall gysers of blood, body parts everywhere... the cinematography is all over the map and the entire film is so deliciously over-the-top that mere words cannot describe how AMAZING it is. I've seen it three times since Friday (Two on Friday alone, as I bought tickets for the next available showing as soon as I left the theatre) and I pick up something new every time I watch it. There is no doubt in my mind (as a film student) that Kill Bill is the single greatest piece of filmaking of all time. Kill Bill is what happens when you combine everything that makes movies great into a single film. Yes, I really mean that. PERFECT 10/10! This will definately NOT be some people's cup o tea. But for anyone who quite simply loves movies in all their forms (ie, those people who saw Gigli just so they could honestly say firsthand how horrible it was) this is not to be missed. For those elite few, people like me, Kill Bill is a cinematic orgasm!

quote: Not unless someone physically breaks into my office. Then parks himself on my dev station. Then proceeds to spend the rest of his life cracking a military grade encryption algorithm to get into the dev folder. Assuming they can crack the password to the machine itself. And if he's heard of PGPDisk, I doubt that he'd even try. And since when not in my office for a lengthy period, the kernel code is around my neck on a USB and encrypted drive - along with my medical information. Not to mention that even my PDA (an HP5455) uses a fingerprint ID for access. Then there's that little matter that my dev station is not connected to the Net without a firewall - which monitors any and everything going in/out and with NO auto-rules enabled (i.e. I manually say yes/no to ALL comms going in/out of that machine). And even at the slightest hint of a breach, my ass is parked at my comms station and staring at the the output from TCPview and ProcessView. No, I'm not in the least bit paranoid. Good God, whatever gave anyone that idea? Holy cow! I think our shadow government puppetmasters could learn a thing or two from you, SC.

Let me clarify something, if I met the leaker on the street, I'd beat his ass into a bloody pulp. But simultaneously, I have very little sympathy for Valve. They whored themselves out to ATI and lied... blatantly LIED to the public. About their release date, about the ATI/Nvidia fiasco. And people knew they were full of it all along, that's *why* this happened. Valve should have been more honest and forthcoming with their fans. Needless to say, I don't think SC as at much risk for those reasons. Also - NEVER use Outlook, it's a liability. Eudora is infinately more secure and reliable.