Security

2003.01.31

I really do wonder how long all of this American "security" is going to last before people stop accepting it. Is it here to stay, or will it be as fleeting as the McCarthy style communist paranoia of the '50s?

If it does stay, it's almost certain that historians three hundred years from now will look back on today and admire the brilliance of the terrorists, for with one strike, they will have convinced the Americans to destroy the spirit of the very country they want to save.

Anyone who can't stand to live in a free society can choose from any number of dictatorships, who are always looking for more citizens. A person who lives in fear every day of their lives of a possible terrorist attack, is a coward. A person who would sacrifice the very foundations of their culture in order to protect it, is a coward. A person who would defend such behavior as "necessary" is not only a coward, but a tyrant.

Truly free societies do not hold people for "questioning" for hours, days or months, simply because they are of a certain nationality. With all of the "security" changes happening in America, most of which will probably be around to stay, it won't be long before entire generations of North Americans grow up thinking this sort of thing is normal. When the reality of freedom and equality exists only on paper, if even that, the terrorists will be victorious.

"Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom; it is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves."
-William Pitt, 1783

JIHAD!!!!!!!

2003.01.30

I just read another silly quote from an Iraqi ambassador declaring that a US invasion of his country would spark attacks by Muslims against American targets, all over the world. Hello? No one cares.

Muslims all over the world, extremists aside, have got to be sick and tired of hearing "Jihad" every second day. Maybe not, but I would find that hard to believe. What? Can the Muslim extremists, like the characters in Dragonball, charge up their religiously motivated hatred into a concentrated strike, resulting in a more powerful Jihad?

For those of you who have seen even a piece of a Dragonball episode, you can imagine it going something like this:

America: "You've hurt us for the last time, Saddam. Now, prepare to meet your end."
Saddam: "Ha ha ha! HA HA HA!!!
America: "Huh?"
Saddam: "HAHAHAHA!!!!HHUUUURRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!"
America: "What? No, this can't be! It's impossible!"
Saddam: "SUPER ULTRA MEGA JIHAAAAAAAAAAD.........TIMES TWWWENNNTYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
America: "NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!"

I mean really, what are they thinking? I can picture it as a cartoon, which should tell you how silly the whole thing is.

State of the Union

2003.01.29

President Bush's State of the Union address was last night. I didn't think it was too bad. More of the same, really. People have been listening to these arguments for months, the only difference this time is that it was a little more formal.

I was intrigued by Bush's proposed 1.2 billion dollar research fund for fuel cell cars. I imagine his oil company backers weren't too happy about that one. It's the smart thing to do however; remove a huge part of America's interest in the Middle East. At least if American cars aren't running on oil, people can stop shouting "it's all about the oil" over and over. That will be a relief.

His tax announcements were a little surprising. Who knows if any of it will happen, but you do have to wonder where all of this money is coming from. The US is running a massive deficit right now, and is projected to do so for five more years or so. I'm no economist, but that can't be good.

I imagine many people will be swayed by the President's address, at least for a little while. Pretty soon everything will go back to the way it was. The notion of the United States being the ones to enforce UN resolutions is the only real problem I have with attacking Iraq. The world really does need an international military police force. Maybe that will happen when the first President of Earth is elected? I guess I'll be waiting a long time.

At the very least, we're living in interesting times.

PC? Console? Both!

2003.01.28

While talking with my friend Chris, who seems to be more of a PC gamer, I realized that except for one exception, I've only ever played three kinds of games on a PC. First person shooters, simulations, and strategy. The exception is Myst.

I looked around my shelves, which contain many PC game boxes, only to find that this fact even truer than I had thought. I wonder why that is? I do like PC games, but I must admit that there is something about a console which always brings me back. Is it because I grew up on console games? I don't think so.

There's something about lounging back on the couch, holding a controller, and becoming part of the game. PC's allow this, but the keyboard, mouse, and position you're in while at a computer, don't offer the same comfort in my experience. I've always found it easy to use a controller, almost as if it were a third hand. Other than the occasional, extremely engrossing game of Counter-Strike or Battlefield 1942, this never happens with a keyboard and mouse for me.

I'm not sure what the reasons are, but ask yourself if you've played any PC games which don't fit into the above categories. Let me know if you find one.

Oh, and another thing: PEOPLE ARE REALLY FUCKING STUPID!

Click here and here.

COME ON PEOPLE!!!!

Motivation

2003.01.26

I really admire people who seem to be able to motivate themselves, no matter the circumstances. I am definitely not one of those people, as I quite often just feel like doing nothing. I often wonder how they do it, but I suppose there is no great secret. Some do it because they must, and some are just capable of forcing it upon themselves.

On the other hand, I've been able to do things like that all my life. Maybe I only feel that way these days since I seem to be in a bit of a rut. Ah, things will look up.

I managed to get through all of the remixes on Overclocked Remix this weekend, and download the ones I want. I've been doing this over the past couple of weeks, slowly working through their alphabetized list of games. I've posted a new remix, and will hopefully continue to keep that up to date.

Green is for...bad?

2003.01.24

Red Ink Banned!

With all of the stories on terrorists and Iraq these days, I'd completely forgotten that politically correct ridiculousness like this still exists. There really isn't too much you can say about something like this. Kids aren't stupid; they'll quickly realize that anything written in green is just as bad as anything in red. Red is the universal colour for "bad". Warning lights, traffic lights, car break lights, warning signs, etc. They're all red, and they're all red no matter where you go on the planet. Red is the universal alarm. Who knows why it's like that? Not me. Maybe it's because our blood is red, but whatever the reason, red is bad.

If someone can point out the benefits of protecting children from the world, I'd like to see them. Kids need to learn that sometimes they will be wrong. Sometimes they will make mistakes, and unless those mistakes are corrected, they'll always make them. The world doesn't care about your feelings or your self-esteem, and one of the jobs of schools is to prepare kids for that inevitable reality.

Who knows, maybe all of these kids will be killed in crosswalks, confused about what "green" means.

House to House

2003.01.23

60 Minutes II had an interesting piece on last night about Iraq, and the possible war. Dan Rather traveled to Baghdad, talked with the people, and with the politicians. Looking around the city, you could tell that if it weren't for the multitude of portraits of Saddam hanging everywhere, it would look like any other city anywhere in the middle east. People having parties, people getting married, people shopping, kids going to school, old men sitting around tables talking. It's all very familiar.

It would be difficult to imagine the American army rolling through those streets with the ease Americans seem to think they should. Narrow roads, dark alleys with dead ends, dark alleys without dead ends. Dozens of houses which seem to be arranged haphazardly as if the notion of a city planner was completely alien. It would be difficult to find your way in a city like that, especially if buildings were constantly exploding and bullets were steaming in and out of every window.

The big wild card in this whole thing really is the unity of Iraq. America is depending on Iraq's soldiers to give up by the hundreds, disobey orders for fear of death, or mount an outright revolution. America is also depending on Iraq's civilian population to welcome them with open arms and blaring music. How likely is all of that, really? It would seem to good to be true if that sort of thing happened. Iraq isn't a European country who's been living under a Nazi boot for five years, and has secretly been longing for the allies to roll into town for the biggest party of the century.

Iraq says it has no weapons of mass destruction. America maintains that they lie, that there is concrete proof of these weapons, but refuses to reveal it. UN inspectors haven't found anything to warrant war; nothing that would warrant the thousands upon thousands of deaths a war would bring. President Bush described the UN workers as "so-called inspectors" just recently; hardly the attitude of someone who genuinely wants peace as he keeps saying. America itself has admitted that it hasn't ruled out using tactical nuclear weapons should the threats demand it, while even the mention that Saddam might do something of the sort seems to be reason enough for his elimination in America's eyes.

It's just a big mess right now, and it's only going to get messier. Bush and Rumsfeld seem determined to go to war with Iraq, no matter what. I mean really, if the UN finds nothing, and Iraq declares nothing, and all that means is that "they've hidden them very well", what's the point of all of this?

Remix!

2003.01.22

For those of you who haven't noticed, there's a new "Game Music Remix" button to the left, right above the "cool image" link.

Remixes of game music are things I've enjoyed for a long time, so I've decided to post my favourite ones on this site. Almost all of these remixes have been obtained from Overclocked Remix, a site dedicated to hosting people's work as well as promoting this musical niche. People produce these remixes as a hobby, and submit them to the site for everyone to enjoy. Yes, it's true, there are still some places where music is free.

A lot of you won't enjoy what I post, and a lot of you simply won't get it. That's fine. For those of you who have played the featured games, and remember their simple scores, these pieces will probably bring back many memories of years past. Have a listen, and let me know what you think. Just a point of interest: Overclocked Remix is the only website who's "Donate through Paypal" button I have actually used.

Sue, Sue, Sue!

2003.01.20

If there was one thing I think western society needs to change to improve itself, it's the idea that there's always someone to blame for anything that may happen. What do we do when we feel someone is to blame? Sue.

We've got Gulf War Syndrome vets suing European companies for selling chemicals to Iraq before the Gulf war, which they say allowed Iraq to build chemical weapons, which they say are the cause of their illness. For one thing, no one has been able to form any connection between any known chemical weapons and the effects these former soldiers are suffering from. Were they even exposed to chemical weapons? Perhaps their sickness is a result of exposure to US Army and Air Force depleted uranium ammunition, which is used in several aircraft and helicopters. Perhaps not. The strange thing about Gulf War Syndrome is that it doesn't affect everyone. How can one man out of an entire unit be the only one affected by a chemical weapon? Not impossible, sure, but it's hardly concrete. The companies in question are hardly guilty of anything. They sold some chemicals that could possibly, if combined with other chemicals acquired from other companies, be used to make things like Mustard and VX gas.

We've also got the families of two of the Washington sniper victims suing the company which made the rifle which was used, as well as the gun store where the rifle was purchased or stolen. The level of ludicrousness in this case hardly needs to be described. Sure, American gun laws are fantastic, so long as they don't have complete psychopaths running around. All of a sudden someone is at fault simply for making or selling a certain kind of gun.

Sometimes, there's no one to blame. Obviously in these cases, the people to blame are Iraq and the snipers themselves, but unfortunately they can't be sued. All of this garbage is created by lawyers; lawyers who tell these suffering people that they have a case when in fact they don't. Lawyers who are interested only in getting paid. They're disgusting parasites which feed off the pain and suffering of human beings. I make that distinction, because I'm not sure what to call them, but I know they aren't people.

Homes for the Homeless

2003.01.19

Vancouver has a huge problem when it comes to low-income housing. While certainly not among the world's most expensive places to live, it's not exactly cheap here. People have been trying to organize low-income housing for decades, but it's never worked, and there's a simple reason why. Location.

I may not be a representation of public opinion, but it seems ludicrous to me to build low-income housing on some of Vancouver's most sought after land. Housing in the downtown core? Possible conversion of the False Creek Olympic village should we get the games? Why do the homeless people always scream for housing in the best parts of the city? There are plenty of other places people could live, and plenty of non-homeless people who would like to move into the city.

It seems to me that if I were homeless, and were looking for a home, I'd get myself out of the city to some small rural town where someone might offer me a job. Why do the homeless people in this city feel that they're somehow entitled to live downtown? Oh sure, they'd be happy to accept a handout, so long as it's on their terms. "You're going to build me a house in Delta? I want a house in Vancouver. Screw you!"

Give me a break.

Boys Will be Boys

2003.01.17

Boys cause more problems during labour than Girls.

While the difference seems to be quite small, the numbers don't lie. Little evolutionary mysteries like this always fascinate me. Apparently the doctors don't know why Male babies are more trouble, but they are. Male newborns are larger and have a larger head circumference at birth, but this apparently couldn't explain such a large difference in the stats.

Perhaps, back in the "cave man" days, this sort of birth problem with males was useful. If less males survive birth than females, it ensures the female population will always be larger. Less males mean more females to go around, which probably means less conflicts between males over mates, and less killing of other males' offspring by the competition. Just an idea.

It is interesting how evolution almost seems to have a consciousness about things like this. It makes plenty of mistakes, but learns from them and always seems to arrive at the logical conclusion, almost like an intelligence. It's things like this that, for me, completely discount any notions of Creationism as we know it. Maybe someday when mankind invents time travel, we can go back and prove evolution is the way it happens. Of course, that would imply that people were capable of making logical conclusions based on evidence, which might be asking too much.

Nail 'em to the Wall

2003.01.16

I'm really getting sick of this "protect our pilots" attitude in the US over the much publicize friendly fire incident which killed four Canadian soldiers. I suppose it's to be expected, and it certainly seems that as much as the Americans love their military, they don't understand what it means to be in it.

The case is really very simple for me. The pilots were told by the operating AWACS to "hold fire". Now, last time I checked, if you were in the military, you follow orders. You follow orders, or people die. There is especially no condition to this in a combat situation. If it were acceptable for a soldier to ignore orders because "he feels his life is in danger", every military force on the planet would be incapable of operating. I've got news for those American pilots: you're expendable. If you're given an order which places you in harm's way, you follow it. Unless you're at the top of the chain of command, you don't get a say, and you don't have an opinion. That's what military life is all about for crying out loud.

In any case, I truly do hope that the US Air Force nails these guys shoes to the floor of a cell somewhere. There is no place for cowboy "I'm gonna git me some Terrorists" behavior in today's cooperative military environment. The system didn't fail these pilots, the system told them to "hold fire". They made a choice to ignore the order, killed four allied soldiers, wounded eight more, and they should pay for it.

Sex and Gaming

2003.01.14

Over the weekend I managed to catch a short piece about sexuality in games, which airs every once and a while on Space: The Imagination Station. It was another one of those "attack video games" media pieces for the most part, just as the media and conservative groups have attacked every other entertainment revolution throughout history. I find it funny that the people who continually assault the gaming industry are the same ones who's parents led the crusade against rock music.

One particularly amusing bit featured the head of one of the many feminist groups, trying to attack the unrealistic features of female game characters, otherwise known as the "Barbie" maneuver. Big breasts, small waists, scantily clad, etc. She actually made the argument that while the gaming industry seems comfortable portraying girls as being sexually attractive, but not necessarily intelligent, they would never send that image about boys.

Bullshit. Has she ever seen the male characters of a video game before? How about virtually all the Hollywood leading men? Tall, broad shoulders, washboard abs, etc. The proverbial knight on his horse. The image of the ideal man is just as evident in gaming, and the rest of society, as the image of the ideal woman is. It's just not vilified.

The feminist also complains that while games have a rating system for violence, there isn't one for sexual content. Also false. The rating found on all interactive media is a representation of it's maturity level, not it's violent content. Just like the movie industry, a game with a "M" rating means "18+", because it may contain either violence, sexuality, or both. There's nothing worse than a moral crusader without a leg to stand on.

Thankfully, Zoe Flower (formerly of Electric Playground), saves the piece when she points out that video games are fantasy. If you were going to create a fantastical character, which you were going to assume the role of through a video game, would you create a strong, intelligent, and beautiful person? Or would you create a strong, intelligent, and ugly one?

Star Fox, and Enterprise

2003.01.09

I completed Star Fox Adventures last night, so I've posted a full review below.

Why must Enterprise suck? Yet again we're faced with a "would have been good if it hadn't been done before" story.

"Trip and a hostile alien crash on a desolate moon after a fire fight between their shuttles in orbit. The two must work together to send a distress signal and be saved."

Can anyone say "Enemy Mine"? The alien even looks like the one in Enemy Mine. It's almost as if the writers watched Enemy Mine, then watched that TNG episode where Geordi and the Romulan crash on a planet as must work together to get home, then started writing this Enterprise episode.

What would really be scary is if they actually thought they were being original and fresh. Wouldn't that be hilarious? LOL!

Star Fox Adventures Review

2003.09.01

British developer Rareware always creates impressive games, despite their notorious reputation for taking an eternity to do it. They've consistently released solid games, with fantastic presentation and tight gameplay. Rareware games are also safe; they don't take chances and they don't introduce new ideas. Gameplay from other games is refined, mixed together, repackaged, and released as a Rare creation. Their first Gamecube release (and perhaps their last, as Nintendo cut them loose and they've since been swallowed by Microsoft), Star Fox Adventures, is no different.

You play as Fox Macleod, the leader of the Star Fox team, a mercenary unit which only seems to get employed by the "good guys". It's a Nintendo character, what do you expect? Team Star Fox is sent to investigate Dinosaur Planet after the planet breaks apart and its leaders become captured by General Scales, the evil leader of the carnivorous dinosaurs. Scales has removed magical artifacts from an ancient temple on the planet, artifacts which literally hold the planet together against a constant magical force emanating from the planet's core. It's obviously up to you to recover the artifacts, return them to the temple, and defeat Scales' plans. It's all very formulaic, recycled, and not particularly interesting as far as stories go.

Star Fox Adventures plays a lot like the 3D Legend of Zelda games, crossed with a bit of Tomb Raider. All action takes place from a three quarter perspective. One thing I noticed right away with the game is the excellent camera system. You're given a single button which centres the camera behind Fox, but otherwise the camera is completely automated and never once gave me a problem. Cameras which become "stuck" in tight areas or pass through walls are common in lesser 3D adventure games, but not here. Combat is handled well also. Whenever Fox has his trusty staff ready, simply approaching an enemy will activate the now familiar "lock-on" camera. There's no need to press or hold anything while fighting, which frees up precious fingers to select items or perform combo maneuvers. If you aren't interested in fighting, simply put away the staff and run past the enemy. I hope to see this system in the future, and I find it to be the greatest gameplay contribution of the game.

Moving between the different pieces of the planet before they are restored involves the Arwing; the Star Fox team's standard fighter craft. The level of difficulty of these brief space combat areas increases as you attempt to reach the more advanced areas. It's really nothing more than a token addition designed to link the game to it's Star Fox predecessors and to setup the final boss battle. The space combat isn't even as well done as in Star Fox 64, as the ship in this version repeatedly blocks the player's view of incoming enemies.

Graphically, Star Fox Adventures is splendid. Colours are rich and vibrant, and high-res, high quality textures can be found everywhere. Of particular note is the water, which resembles that of a high-end Bryce or Terragen render, but is refractive and real-time. The water doesn't look "realistic", but it's done excellently none the less. The real-time cut scenes also feature character models with rudimentary fur. It seems to be made up of textures, and not an actual fur shader, but the technique is impressive and it certainly gives those characters a softer feel.

Sound is where this game's failing lies. The music is utterly forgettable and presented entirely in MIDI. It's not even good MIDI like the music found in Metroid Prime, but MIDI one would expect to hear on a video game fansite. Thankfully the melodies aren't annoying, and the music fades into the background almost instantly. Even worse than the music however is the voice acting. In what is becoming another Rareware staple, the character voices in this game range from Fox Macleod's "acceptable" to the Warpstone's "God awful". I mean seriously, whoever thought of giving an ancient, magical being made of stone a Scottish accent should be shot. It's not even a powerful, Sean Connery Scottish voice, but a screeching, Mike Myers as Fat Bastard Scottish voice. Sound effects are all fairly standard.

Star Fox Adventures is a solid game and will provide any adventure game fan with 15-20 hours of enjoyment. That being said however, I don't think it should represent over 3 years of work, which is what Rareware spent on it. Granted the title had to make the transition from the Nintendo 64 system to the Gamecube, but in terms of story and gameplay it's mostly mediocre. I can understand why the Big N decided to let Rare go, as most of their games seem to turn out this way despite years and years of delays and more delays with every game they create. Maybe Microsoft will have better luck with Rare. We'll see.

Once again...eBay is EVIL!

2003.01.07

I guess I have to stop when I run out of money huh? Yeah, I guess. I know I'll feel better if I win another auction......just kidding! Seriously though, I will feel better when these purchases start showing up at the post-office. There will be a final stabbing pain however, when the evil Canada Post people tell me about the duty charges, but that too will fade in time.

I can't wait to play some of these games again!

Napster Bad!

2003.01.06

I don't know how I missed this Flash cartoon series when it came out during the Napster days, but it's still pretty funny.

Cassette tapes cost about $10 in Canada. $15 will get you a brand new film on VHS. Music CDs run about $20-25. DVDs can be found for $20-50, depending on the title. How much of that $20 CD goes to the artists? A few pennies, maybe, once the record label, agents, advertisers, and retailers take their "fair share". In addition, the old recording standards, cassette and VHS tapes, are much more expensive to produce and distribute than CDs or DVDs. How exactly does the equation work then?

Ask a record executive how you can buy a single track of an album. Oh, you can't? Really. There are some songs which are released as singles. They cost about $6 each. Six dollars, for a single song, when an entire album costs twenty? I don't think so. What if I don't want the CD, or the case? What do you think the price should be if you remove the cost of CD production, booklet printing, plastic case purchasing, retail markup and shelf space? I'd say about one dollar. Give me a chance to buy any song I want, online, for one dollar each, from a website with no pop-up ads or badly ripped tracks, and I'll gladly never steal another piece of music again.

If you're willing to sell a quality product at a reasonable price, people will pay for it. It's really very simple. People are starting to realize that the music industry has been ripping them off for years, and they've had enough. The current method of selling art, at least recorded performance art, is going the way of the dinosaur.

The thing to realize about the executives of the music and movie industry is that they're only interested in one thing: money. They couldn't care less about fair use laws, artist's rights, consumer opinion, or art itself. These people are parasites; they live off of the talent of other human beings. Members of the RIAA and the MPAA will do anything to get honest, hard working consumers to pay more money for what they sell and have less freedom with it. Their dream of copy-protected music and movies would have you buying separate copies of each item for your home, office, car, computer, PDA, and boat. When these people die, their lives with have given nothing to civilization. They will have produced no art, they will have introduced no new ideas, and they will have helped no one but themselves. If I ever meet one of these people, I will be able to tell my friends that I have seen what lies at the muddy, scum covered, worm infested bottom of the pool of civilization.

eBay is Evil

2003.01.03

Whoever thought of creating eBay sure hit a big nail square on the head. The system is ingenious. It's so easy to place bids and win auctions, it hardly feels like spending money. You do spend money however, lots of money. Five bucks here, ten bucks there. Pretty soon your inbox is bursting with message after message proclaiming "eBay bid confirmed -- Item #xxxxxx", "eBay Outbid Notice" and "eBay Item Won!!"

I've quickly managed to spend quite a bit of money, even though the individual items aren't necessarily expensive. I can see how some people become addicted to eBay, and I can also see how some people are able to make a decent living holding eBay auctions. It's a massive, worldwide garage sale where there's always someone who's willing to pay money for almost anything. If you haven't tried it, I recommend doing it if only for the experience. Try and think of something you've always wished you could find in a store, but never did, and do a search. You might be surprised.

New Year

2003.01.01

Happy new year everyone. My holidays have been quite good, especially since I haven't done anything related to work for almost two weeks. It feels nice. I'm sure the only tedious task I took on was backing up my important data onto CDs. It's done now, which is a relief in case anything happens.

I've got two new Gamecube games to plow through; Star Fox Adventures and Eternal Darkness. They're both reported to be quite long, so I hope I can get through them before something else catches my eye. Speaking of games, I set a goal for myself for 2003; to collect all the old console games from my childhood. I've been scouring eBay for a few days and I've managed to rack up quite a bid total. We'll see how many of them I actually win. So far, the big ticket items are a Sega Master System and the complete collection of NES Megaman games (with boxes and instructions). Simply bidding on these things brings back a lot of memories, let alone actually playing them again.

So there's my new year's resolution. Spend money. I don't think that'll be too big of a problem ;)