If you're trying to get in touch with me, give me a call. My PC is in some kind of funk, and I'm not sure how recoverable it is. I already yanked the video card when I was getting beep warnings (it wouldn't even POST), and now I'm trying to determine how deeply the problems lie.

Ahh, Safe Mode.

Only you could alert me to Scanwiches.

Current Mood: amused

I finished it. Yes, it was short, but almost mercifully so. One of the problems with this game was that once the basic mechanic is mastered, there's nothing else to learn or do. The levels are essentially puzzles to solve, forcing the player to figure out what series of jumps or wallruns will get them to the next point on an essentially rail-locked game, occasionally making the actually finding of the goal location a puzzle in itself. Unlike Braid, where new mechanics were constantly introduced in a playful, creative manner, ME is a one trick pony. A beautiful one pony that craps out stylized cities of unique artistic quality, but a pony nonetheless.

There is a mild bit of replay in the race mode for levels after the single player game has been completed. These are mercifully free of gunfire dodging or punching, but without the "runner vision" to highlight targets, this mode is less of a graceful experience in Zen Parkour and more of a frustrating exercise of "you want me to go where? How?!?"

I applaud EA-DICE for creating something unique and beautiful. They took some real risks, and they did get my money. I just wish it were a better game and less of what feels like an artistic research project.

Current Mood: bored

There were people holding Socialism and Government Spending protest signs in Redmond, at the very end of 520. In Redmond. Protesting Socialism.

Yes, on the brand new public sidewalk, near a brand new bridge and highway expansion project, people were holding signs protesting Socialism and undue taxation, while other people, driving by in their Mercedes Benzes and BMWs honked their horns and waved appreciatively.

It doesn't matter how much fucking money you make, you can still be a total idiot.

Current Mood: annoyed

I spoiled myself and purchased this game on Steam the other night. Last night I played it for about four hours, and I guess I'm about a quarter of the way through. I've been really really picky about what games I buy lately, mainly because if I'm going to drop $40-$60 on something, I want something that will last a long time and be very enjoyable, not a rehash of the same old crap that I've already seen a thousand times before. In fact, I've been playing Railroads obsessively for over a month now. That's a good value.

Anyway, I can appreciate the risks that were taken with Mirror's Edge. Clearly a parkour style game is innovative, and the stark graphical look with color highlighting to simulate "runner vision" is really unique and interesting to view. The controls are pretty smooth, as well, and when running towards visible goals, it's very easy to get into a "runners zone" and just feel like I'm making great, high speed progress. So kudos for that.

The cutscenes, animated in some vector-style flat 2.5D format are a little iffy, since there are in-game cutscenes as well. The story moves along, and it's an interesting style, but it doesn't work as well as, say, the animatic cutscenes that Relic does so excellently, mainly because Relic is wisely consistant to only feature cutscenes in one format, and those scenes in a game like Homeworld largely focus on people or history, while the rest of the game is strictly about ships in space. Still, they took a risk, and that's brave and commendable.

The combat sucks. In fact, it's a frustrating break in otherwise mildly enjoyable gameplay. I probably should have selected "Easy" in play mode (why I don't just default to that these days, I don't know), but still, it's too difficult, the AI corners me too often, and it winds up being a 15 minute diversion to subdue half a dozen armed and armored jerks before I can get back to freerunning. The "bullet time" feature also sucks, since I can't move any faster, and by the time I realize that I should act, I've already missed my cue.

Finally, the non-obvious running and jumping puzzles can be frustrating. I wish there were some kind of "stumble" feature, where if I was going to make a leap to certain death, the character would instead catch herself, and prevent me from doing so. Instead, I'm met with an all-too-realistic wind-rushing sensation followed by a wet crunch and a sudden cut to black. I already have a fear of death by falling from great height, thank you, and having to replay this uber-realistic paranoia over and over again because I misjudged a jump is actually more creepy than fun. This character is supposed to be a smart, skilled runner. Have her wisdom help me, the player, to have more fun and less frustration.

I'll have to play through to have a full feel for the game, although I suspect that I've already gotten the gist of the experience. The free running and environments are great, the rest is meh. The aggregate rating on this game was an 80/100, which is about the lowest I should tolerate, as I know how skewed these ratings are, and I give this a C-.

I suppose once I finish, I'll have fun on some abstract jumping challenge levels, which are probably where the experience shines the most.

Microsoft Cancels Campus Pub

Seriously? I mean, seriously? At the last minute? The coolest thing about the new campus gets pulled? Who is making these decisions, and why are they making them so poorly?

As an employee, I have no qualms about publicly stating that this makes Microsoft look bad. If there was a reasonable chance that this project would have been canceled, it never should have been approved in the first place. All that's happened now is that morale has been killed, and money and time have been wasted.

We can do better. This is very disappointing.

Current Mood: annoyed

Oh Terminator: SCC, how could you mess with me like that? And now it's not renewed for a third season? Suck!

I want my own robotic Summer Glau. :(

Current Mood: sad

This site is fascinating. I'm especially enjoying reading the employee reviews of Microsoft. This one in particular is dead on hilarious:

Pros
Top notch people everywhere around you. Everybody's committed to what they are doing. Singular focus.

Cons
Lots of lip service about internal opportunities and getting ahead. You really have to do two jobs there -- your current one, which is always on some insane unattainable schedule, and your next one, which you have to do to get noticed.


Yup, that's Microsoft!

Tags: work
Current Mood: amused

Ron Silver passed away yesterday. While not a fan of his recent politics, I always thought he was a genuinely good actor.

Okay, it's been a long time since I've had to think about any of this stuff (like, pre-1998), so I'm hoping some of my more technical friends can point me in the right direction.

Let's say a person wanted to start up a small company of their own, and they knew they'd need some application servers for the type of software they were running. They also wanted a company website, company email, and all the good crap that normal IT-related companies have. Let's also say these people were biased towards Microsoft software, so LINUX/OSS stuff was right out, but really I'm more interested in the topology and what service exactly runs on each box. What would said company need, to get off the ground?

Would something like Windows Small Business Server Pro handle 2/3rds of the equation? (That's a Windows Server box, and a SQL Server Box.) Does this company just get a static IP address from their ISP and host their corporate website off this same server? Do we get another server for the application execution (just assume it's an online storefront for now)? Do we get still another server for the Source Control storage? Exactly how many servers does a small company need?

I'm hesitant to run email on an externally hosted server, but I guess for a company of a dozen people or so, we could just communicate face to face if the network went down.

Anyway, I'm curious as to the thoughts of IT professionals.

Thanks.

Tags: business, computers