:O

ruining freshly shoveled sidewalks

I don’t think I could ever work in a space where there are windows that people can easily look inside. I was walking around the Siebel Center and a lot of the specialty labs have clear glass walls so people passing by in the hallway can look and see what you’re doing. If I was in a place like that, I would be afraid that someone would walk up and stare intently at what I was doing for a few minutes. My brain would throw a CannotWorkWhileBeingWatchedException, and I would probably have to ask that person to leave…

Anyway, you guys (girls? hahahaha) should check out the trolololo-thingy. It’s not meant to be funny (I think), it’s just kind of interesting to listen to.

I finally played Dead Space yesterday on Xbox and found it to be pretty good. I like the way it has no HUD, as it makes the game more movie-like, although I am not very good at all yet. At the moment I am using an upgraded Plasma Cutter to fend off the aliens, although I have been surprised by the amount of ammo for the line gun. Inversely I found the lack of medpacks in the hospital area a bit ridiculous. Overall it is just ok. Maybe it will get better.

I liked Prototype better than Dead Space.

Here a couple pieces of software the readers of this blog should try out:

Mozilla Weave

This add-on for Firefox lets you sync bookmarks and other things across computers with the add-on installed. I found it useful because I use Firefox on my desktop and netbook, and so I don’t have to worry about my bookmarks on one being missing on the other, especially for the hard to bookmark things like the CS newsgroups.

POWDER

This a fun dungeon crawling game that’s kind of like nethack (it’s a rogue-like!) I first learned about it through the DS homebrew scene, but then I found out it also had Windows, PSP, and other versions. It’s fun to play because you grab random loot off the floor and beating up on monsters so you can eat their corpses. Just watch out for those all-too-frequently-found Evil (insert item of headwear here) of Draining.

I also added stuff to the redesign page on the right, so if you have anything to add about what I should be doing, you can post a comment over there.

For catching this lovely spam:

Two old ladies were outside their nursing home, having a smoke when it started to rain. One of the ladies pulled out a condom, cut off the end, put it over her cigarette and continued smoking.

Lady 1: What’s that?
Lady 2: A condom. This way my cigarette doesn’t get wet.
Lady 1: Where did you get it?
Lady 2: You can get them at any drugstore.

The next day … Lady 1 hobbles herself into the local drugstore and announces to the pharmacist that she wants a box of condoms. The guy looks at her kind of strangely (she is, after all, over 80 years of age), but politely asks what brand she prefers.

Lady 1: It doesn’t matter as long as it fits a Camel.

As some of you may already know, the ever-popular three-year-old game Portal received an update Monday, and then another Wednesday. The notes for the update were extremely mysterious, and what the updates did was not immediately apparent, until people started digging into the updated files. This article details what was included in the first update, and this video shows what the second update changed.

Overall, this seems to be a very interesting marketing ploy by Valve, a company that has always done well with PR in the past (for good examples of how well they market, check out the lead ups to the various Team Fortress 2 updates). Hopefully, next week will bring some answers as to what all this means. I know that I, for one, would be interested in a Portal 2.

Edit: I forgot to mention this extremely fun flash game I found online.

I bought a super funpack of indie games today. 7 for $10! As I play them, I will post little reviews.

The game I have been playing mostly tonight is called Altitude. It is a 2-D airplane shooter that has a cutesy visual style reminiscent of Team Fortress 2: it’s kiddie style belies its intense gameplay. For just $2, or less if you buy as part of the variety pack, you get a game with upgradeable airplanes, 4 fun modes, a surprisingly large and active gaming community, and just an all-around fun play style.

In other news, my roompick number lottery is tonight. Wish me luck! Here’s hoping for an adjoining single!

Sitting in the media center today, I realized that the Accepted game is still available for download on this website, so I played it and discovered that it is really fun.

If you cannot remember how to get free games or are new to the site, they are available from the ricera10 downloads section which is on the right side of the screen and about halfway down the page.

In honor of pi day I made this picture of Stalin eating a pie in photoshop.

As you may be able to see, he is really writing.

Here is the executable, in C++:

Saints Super Bowl Final Drive: C++

The source code:
SSBFD: C++ source

and here is a more visible link to Ricera10 games: games

Play my game, Saints Super Bowl Final Drive! It is a MATLAB m-file, so unless you are in the College of Engineering, you might be out of luck. I uploaded it to the download section.

Saints Super Bowl Final Drive

I fixed my laptop tonight (again) and in an attempt to figure out what my extra wire went to I am listening to the first artist in my media player.

I put the computer together tonight and noticed a two wired cable coming out of the bottom when I was putting in the RAM (one of the last steps for those who are unfamiliar). I turned the computer on and it is working perfectly fine, although the extra wire is bothering me. Audioslave is playing well and all the fans seem to be running though, so there will be no lasting damage if it decides to cause problems. I cannot decide if the bass is lacking more than usual, but if that is all the wire did I can live with it, as it is a half hour of work to take it apart again.

Also, my parents decided to buy a television, freeing up mine, as they had been using it as their tv or more accurately the family’s tv after they threw away the old CRT one. I have been debating hanging it on a wall mount in my room, but I will be going to college in 6 months, so that seems to be pointless. I should actually rephrase that: At the moment it seems pointless. I go between thinking it is a great idea and thinking that I really don’t want to. I guess that my parents really liked my tv, as they bought this one, which is the same except it only has two HDMI instead of three.

When my tv is in my room should I move my Xbox there? (not the original Xbox that is in my basement). That is similar to the wall mounting decision, as I am not too attached to the Xbox, but it has its moments of media streaming convenience.

On top of that, my LCD is going to come in the mail Thursday and I can’t wait for that to get here. At least Audioslave is still playing on my laptop. 

Edit: I figured out what that cable did. It senses if the lid is closed or not. Now is it worth opening the computer to plug it in?