In the D drive

Star Trek: Elite Force II

I liked this game. It was the best Trek game in what, six years?

Pros

  • interesting environments. As an old fan of TNG, it was pretty fun to walk around the Ent’s decks and Starfleet HQ.
  • nice detail. Generally everyone to talk to has something interesting to say. Funny conversations (like the plant fetish lady, the tribble smugglers, “Tholian figurines” etc.) ala NOLF
  • Trek lore. In-jokes about the Gorn, and TNG episodes like “Masks” and “Relics”. Anyone see the Enterprise NX-01 logo in the shuttle bay prep room?

Cons

  • Not very good AI. Bad guys are kinda dumb. Teammates never help you properly. Your teammates even crack jokes about you as a one-man team.
  • Didn’t like the “exomorph” plotline. Insect-like swarming aliens has been done to death. Fortunately we do get to shoot Romulans, Borg, etc.

Canadian comfort food

From my thread: Canadian Comfort Food

I was reading the latest issue of Maclean’s, and they were talking about Canadian junk food. I was surprised how much unique stuff we have that is undeniably Canadian. Here’s a short list I whipped up:

Nationwide
Coffee Crisp
Joe Louis and 1/2 Lune (my breakfast choice from 1986-1989)
Cherry Blossom (mousse with nuts and cherry sauce)
Hawkins Cheezies

BC
Nanaimo Bar (a brownie-shaped pastry with white icing and cream)
BC Ferries’ Sunshine Breakfast (described as “eggs Benedict drowned in fluorescent yellow hollandaise”)
Smoked Salmon

Ontario
Persian (Thunder Bay, pastry with egg, sugar and pink icing)
BeaverTail (Ottawa, deep-fried pastry with cinnamon)
Roasted Pigtail (St. Jacob’s near Waterloo)
Pickled Pig’s Feet (St. Jacob’s near Waterloo)

Quebec
Poutine (the one famous Canadian dish)
Smoked Meat Sandwich (Montreal)
Bagel (Montreal)

Newfoundland
Scrunchions (crispy cubes of pork)
Fish ‘n Brewis (boiled salt fish and bread)

Super Jumpman Bros. 3

A list of most popular enemies to shoot at in videogames, in order of most acceptable to least acceptable:

  1. Robots
  2. Manned vehicles (planes, tanks, spaceships)
  3. Hellspawn
  4. Nazis
  5. Alien critters
  6. The undead
  7. Terrorists
  8. Fascist military operatives
  9. Innocent ethnic bystanders
  10. Innocent white bystanders
  11. Crippled children, nuns

On the bookshelf currently: Tad William’s Tailchaser’s Song. A fairly whimsical, if a bit gory animal story. I like how the cats have their own creation myths; the first “M’an” was a disgraced cat that was stretched out and scalped. M’an was then condemned to service the cat race for eternity. Can’t you just see cats thinking something like that?

In the D drive currently: Freelancer, Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory

In other news, Bill Cosby reveals he is black

Remember when every new version of Internet Explorer brought a slew of improvements and enhancements to the world wide web? No? Maybe that’s because Microsoft had stopped improving anything in the overall user experience of IE back in 1998 with IE 4.0, non-coincidentally the first IE to be surgically welded into the Windows operating system (in this case, Windows98). Microsoft claimed that Windows 98 heralded a new age of innovation on the Internet.

Obviously, this is not true. In a recent chat about IE in Windows Server 2003, MS admits that much by stating they are dropping support for the standalone version of Internet Explorer. The only way you will see a “new” IE is to go down to Best Buy and buy yourself the next new Windows OS. “Legacy OSes have reached their zenith with the addition of IE 6 SP1,” they claim.

Strategically, MS gains little for continuing to innovate IE and support it for “legacy OSs”. There is no real competition, every Windows PC gets shipped with IE au gratis, in your face on the quick launch bar and Start Menu. Financially, a standalone IE makes no money for MS – so why support it? IE probably just gets its budget from the Explorer component of Windows development.

Obviously, this goes against MS’s public statement that it stands for “innovation”, but this is no surprise. MS probably wouldn’t have supported IE6 this long if the security watchdogs weren’t watching them like hawks.

Now, IE brings value into several MS projects, such as MSN Explorer and Windows, so MS’s logical move is to focus on these things, and not IE itself, which makes no money by itself.

I first switched to Mozilla because I was sick and tired of MS. Now I use Mozilla because it’s just so much more flexible and innovative. I think Opera and Safari users would agree; MS stopped trying years ago. They are simply admitting the
obvious.

In the D drive currently: Star Trek: Bridge Commander, Command and Conquer Generals.

Class dismissed

Why doesn’t school teach you things you actually need in life? I can integrate
imaginary numbers, but don’t know how to eat healthy. I can plot discrete waveforms but don’t know how to save up for retirement. University should teach courses like:

  1. How not to be a Close-minded Asshole
  2. Balancing your chequebook
  3. Speaking to Others without Pissing Them Off (co-requisite with #1)
  4. Procedures in Renting/Buying a Home
  5. Maintaining a Healthy Equilibrium between Reality and Idealism (mandatory for Arts students)
  6. TV, Nintendo and the Internet Are Not Virtual Babysitters

In the D drive currently: Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project, Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight and Soldier of Fortune II: Double Helix. Where is Duke Nukem Forever?