Stormcaller.net

Wednesday, October 29, 2003 - "The most important (skill) is luck. The second most important is imagination. Everything else, you can learn."

> Header

Heard on bbc radio news:
"So, what's the scene out there - there are lots of journalists I presume?"
Ok, I draw the line. I'm not sure where - probably before the program started, but that line tripped my stupid alarm. Either admit that you share the same idiotic tabloid interests as the sun, or don't report on it at all. Either way, stop the ridiculous journalistic masturbation. He says. On a news site. {Holds head in hands and cries}
Iraqis bomb... the red cross building. Oh that's SO sensible.
And the gubblement proposes arresting asylum seekers who don't have travel documents. Because of course oppressive countries just love giving travel passes to dissenters.
Cat1: Watcha doin'?
Cat2: Starin' at a wall.
Cat3: True.
And in more news from Iraq: These 'last ditch hardliners' and 'foreign insurgents' blew up a US army tank. An occupied one. Problem is, the absolute worst thing the US can do for the country now is to pull out. I see no way of resolving this short of a couple of million deaths.
{from bluesnews forum} Steam is motivating participants and capturing their expectations, in a collaborative, forward-thinking venture brought together through the merging of like minds. In order to build a shared view of what can be improved, whenever single-loop learning strategies go wrong, organizations should be capable of double-loop learning. To experience a profound paradigm shift, measure the process, not the people, and build a dynamic relationship between the main players. The components and priorities for the change program maximization of shareholder wealth through separation of ownership from management organizations capable of double-loop learning.
That will indubitably lay the firm foundations for any leading company the new golden rule gives enormous power to those individuals and units, highly motivated participants contributing to a valued-added outcome. The components and priorities for the change program whether the organization's core competences are fully in line, given market realities to ensure that non-operating cash outflows are assessed. An important ingredient of the business process is reengineering building flexibility through spreading knowledge and self-organization, that will indubitably lay the firm foundations for any leading company using Steam.
Or, as valve put it - about half our current users are using steam. - and you lost about that many entirely, fools.
> Comics

For a change, I won't link to futur today.
Catharsis: Go on, just try and forget this strip next time you hear the phrase. [Display]
Angel Moxie: Don't tell me you've never felt this way? [Display]
Sinfest: Uh humm. [Display]
Pete the Carnivorous Plant: Customer specifications. [Display]
Megatokyo: Kitten! [Display]
Oh My Gods: Taking little gamers advice and linking here. [Display]
Have you ever seen Final-Fantasy Unlimited? Yeah. This is a pretty good explanation. [Display]
> Humour

Ah the internet. What wonders it can produce. [Details]
Support this project. Donate your mouseclicks now. [Destroy]
You need to buy office2k3. And here's why. [Details]
"According to the Muslim faith, a terrorist who touches a pig is not eligible for the 70 virgins in heaven." Good to know that Islam has its own equivalent of revelations, isn't it? [Details]
> Serious

Um. It's not so nice to see these things being proved viable - but that's mainly because the things themselves are bad. I think now that the only option is going to be to release flash worms that patch before a hostile worm can be launched. At least no-one is yet using them for distributed cracking of critical sites yet. DDOS is annoying, but long-term harmless. [Details]
It's the general and the specific... [Details]
Freedom of thought? Must be a very different school. [Details]
Joe average user is stupid. So edumacate him, you fool! [Details]
This site also contains that wonderful mis-censored document you heard about on the news. [Details]
Don't let it be said that I'm overtly biased. Here are two competing views on RFIDs horrendous and unwarranted invasion of our privacy. [Details]
So, to combat this, they're gonna advertise it in the media? Great idea - now wait six months and shoot everyone in the area. [Details]
Abundance is only a problem if people are stupid. [Details]
... People are stupid. [Display]
> Gaming

For some, it is enough that the game sucks. Others, however, quest long to understand truly why it sucks. Personally, I'd wonder what makes them do it - but I'm too lazy to quest right now. [Details]
Yeah, it's advertising for a book - but it's also interviews with a couple of well thought out people. One of whom is making a story-engine. [Details]
La la la.. DEMO! [Download]
I finally found it. They have to order it from the US, but at least they have to faff with tax and I don't, this way. But I found it. Released in Spetember? In their dreams, perhaps. [Details]
Humm. i may be able to get SB16 emulation working if I stick emm386 into autoexec.bat Failing that, Albion should run under bochs. Slowly. [Download]
That TV show what everyone has been talking about. [Details]
> Stuff

A new apache (1.3), fixing a 'steal your computer' bug if you use a couple of common modules. You may need this. [Download]
Any competitor to email will be similarly flooded. Consider people doing steam invites with advertising in their usernames, for example. [Details]
Note that to get these figures, oftel has reclassified ISDN (and all other 128k services) as broadband. [Details]
Founts! [Download]
Faust! Ye gods, ancient poetry is a pain to read. Go see the play. [Download]

Posted by Vitenka at 4:52 PM GMT [Link]

Saturday, October 25, 2003 - "Fascist communism in the post-ironic age."

> Science/Tech

Hmm. I'm rather sad about Concorde. The last flight flew right over my area - could hear the roar from inside.
[Details] [Details]
Topically, I was working at the Royal Institution tonight (Friday), where Rod Eddington, Head of British Airways, was giving a discourse. At the end of his talk he showed a video that BA had prepared for their staff, crews and pilots to remember and celebrate 27 years of Concorde. Seeing the beautiful bird do a fly-by over the Mall during the Queen's Golden Jubilee celebrations, accompanied by the Red Arrows in a 'V' formation and with one million people below waving flags below, was an awesome sight to see, even on video - gave me a shiver. I swear there was not a dry eye in the room.
Is this silly, or just unusual? [Details]
The first new way of generating electricity in over 150 years - nice. [Details]
One step closer to the end of the ridiculous amount of control the Arab world has over the West? [Details]
It looks like a radio controlled model car, doesn't it? But oooooh no... [Details]
> Geek

Utterly ruin your PC, component by component. Don't bother reading past the introduction. [Details]
People to mock [Details]
British Members of Parliament to mock. [Details]
Mocking to be joined in with. [Details]
iCan but refuse to on principal. [Details]
Gamer types: Never mind yer PAK explorer and game decompilers and stuff - this is what you need to extract those files from game archives. No Warcraft III or Command & Conquer support, though... [Details]
> Stuff

A plausible end to the world, I suppose. Surely made by the same guys who did the Mario Brothers flash. [Destroy]
A couple of interesting adverts for you. [Destroy] [Download]
If Heineken didn't taste like cat's piss, I'd probably agree. [Display]
Everyone's been doing these. I couldn't fit "Stormcaller.net" on very well. [Destroy]
Could be worse - it could be another flash game involving Santa/elves/reindeer/presents/snow. [Destroy]
Meat! We like meat. [Details]

Posted by Stormcaller at 3:22 PM GMT [Link]

Wednesday, October 22, 2003 - "Downloadable Motivation"

> Serious

Not the first such study, but good to see the media is waking up to our hatred of the media. Not had a TV in almost a year now, don't intend to ever have one again. [Details]
No one ever said mobs were smart. (Well they did, but the people saying that are yuppies.) [Details]
The US in Asia. How many people can we piss off at once? You KNOW it's bad when even the diplomats are saying 'wtf?' [Details]
ok - these people are running the show? Please. But, um, yeah - Islam lost the plot around the 17th Century when it refused to adapt. [Details]
So even the US don't want to be in Iraq? And they want Iraq to pay for the repairs on the damage they caused? Owie. My head just exploded. [Details] [Details]
Obvious conclusion. But why isn't the ethics being discussed? Or, more importantly, how to persuade the idiot on the street that he isn't the only thing with life and rights? [Details]
But, having said that - HOW do we develop the tech? [Details]
A simpler answer from someone with fewer conflicting interests. Do not use money on-line. There. Then again, if you're smart enough to read this, you're smart enough to know to avoid scams. [Details]
Leenus. It rhymes with... [Details]
Duck! Incoming sciency bit! [Details]
> Comics

DragonTails presents: The ultimate goal of all philosophy. [Display]
Sluggy: People seem to like this movie. [Display]
MegaTokyo: Firewall visualisation aids. [Display]
Tonja and steel: Heavy petting [Display]
Penny Arcade: The classic years. [Display] [Display]
> Gaming

Myths? Heh. The author needs to hang out in irc more. [Details]
XQuest 2. Dodgy shooty llamatron thing. [Download]
Steam. It bites. It really really bites. Hard. And I'm not just bitter because I tried it ages ago and it's been fixed since - no. It's still broken for me. [Display]
Forward scrolling shoot-em-up goodness [Download]
The demo is down the bottom, don't download the trailer by accident. Silent Storm - name brought to you by bad spy novels! [Download]
Beeeeeeeeam weapons. Getcha Beeeeeeeeeeeeeam weapons here. [Download]
Alright, fine. Everything and their moms linked it. Kids laugh at old crappy games. Funny it isn't. [Details]
For those not clear; Protected mode support means it should play huuuge numbers of games that it didn't before. DOSbox. Because windows fscked everything up. [Download]
Ninja's in a cel-shade... [Download]
Ahhh. Yet another adventure game where you wake up in the morgue with no idea what is going on. This whole "You do not know what is going on" way of introducing the plot is getting old guys. [Download]
> Humour

The scary thing isn't the number who spelt it wrong. It's the number who were trying to spell it at all. [Details]
The joke is, of course, that Germany has fascist anti-fascism laws. Go figure. [Details]
A database - of lies! Yes, for when you're too lazy to make up your own. [Destroy]
I'm gonna assume this is a joke. [Details]
Lame and boring. I prefer talismans and magic boxes. [Display]
This, however, is just obvious and useful. [Details]
Stormy saves age old net jokes! [Details]
> Stuff

It's like a book in 60 seconds, but for anime. The InuYasha and Utena ones are particularly good. [Details]
Founts for every occasion! Except, you know, normal text. [Download]
Bob? Try this client. I've heard good things. [Download]
Founts. For people who can't read good. [Display]

Posted by Vitenka at 5:40 PM GMT [Link]

Saturday, October 18, 2003 - "Would you like lemon and lime with that piece of advice?"

> Science/Tech

The worst jobs in science. It says October 2003, but I definitely bookmarked (then never got round to reading) this article on September 17th. [Details]
I suppose it's a novel idea - take the two things that almost everyone has, and merge them into a single thing. [Details]
Who knew grapes could be so much fun? [Download - 1.57MB]
One day everyone will have one of these. It'll probably be after they've invented efficient, cheap hydrogen fuel cells though, or perhaps better solar panels. [Details]
Take a course in something. This is run by MIT, so it can't be too bad. [Details]
Visual display technologies seem to be forking all over the place - you've got all the fogscreen prototypes, various 3D monitor projects, some flatscreen stuff and now this one. Could be shaping up for an interesting television format battle in the next decade or so. [Details]
Making things glow using microwaves is fuuuun. [Details]
> Geek

Underrated games, eh? Let's see. I definitely agree with their choices of "Rez", "Planetscape: Torment" and "Grim Fandango" especially. My initial thoughts are to add to that "Giants: Citizen Kabuto", "Evolva", "Metal Fatigue", "Battle Isle II" (going a while back there)... Even "Deus Ex", one of the greatest games ever in my opinion, wasn't really that widely known. Not to mention "Albion", another of my all-time favourites - nobody's even heard of that. [Details]
Come to think of it, I wrote a nice review of "Albion" about three years ago for the old BTTOS (Back To The Old Skool) classic gaming site, which has now disappeared off the net. Luckily I save all work and articles I do for various websites etc, and I should be able to put it up here. There we go - an exact copy (except that the images don't expand to larger versions), for nostalgia's sake. [Details]
While I'm putting all my old content up, here's a review of "Morrowind". [Details]
What makes them think they're going to get a million concurrent users to play this game? Yeah, them and every other MMOG. [Details]
You know you're a geek when you need a pixel ruler. [Details]
Macrovision have had an excellent idea to prevent software piracy but encourage people to buy the game - let them play, but slowly degrade their aim, accuracy, steering etc. Shame it'll still be defeated by making an exact copy of the CD using CloneCD or similar. [Details]
Sci-fi lookalikeys. [Details]
Turn them geeky while they're still young! [Details]
Shiny Napster-branded things. [Details]
Apparently I share the name Stormcaller with a character from the official Star Wars Roleplaying Game. Who came first? I think I'd already started using it by the time the game came out in 1996. Got an email from the author - nice chap from America - who is trying to get Stormcaller and his mercenary band called the Red Moons picked up as a standalone series. Good luck! [Details]
> Stuff

Given that we already know that the world is a stupid place, at what point do we just accept that yes, the world thinks the Palestinians are good and right and honourable and Israel are the ones who are evil and wrong and despicable? [Details]
Now I'd prefer not to support a bunch of anti-war hippies, but any group preparing to bare their arses at George Bush when he visits the UK next month deserves some publicity, especially if they are a bunch of bloggers from b3ta. [Details]
Another lot of hippies whose viral campaign I'm not entirely happy about passing on, but I'm afraid it's just too excellent not to. It's got Eddie Izzard and Jim Broadbent in it as strange looking aliens, too (one might argue that's not much of a costume change for Izzard, but...). [Download - 7.80MB]
Keep an eye on how your local MP is representing your views. [Details]
Did I mention the stupidity of Americans? [Details]
We like "The War Of The Worlds", we do. [Destroy]
MC found pretty things. [Display] [Display]
We've run out, as a nation, of David Blaine jokes to make, so we're doing parodies instead. [Details]
The best window display I've ever seen, ever. [Display]
If you've never seen a bear on a trampoline, you're missing out. [Download - 1.76MB]
It may be Lister's dream to settle down there, but remind me never to go to Fiji. [Details]
We like cacti. [Destroy]
Improve your English - cut off part of your tongue. [Details]
Bush being childish, his top advisors fighting amongst themselves, unnamed White House officials leaking things to the press... so what else is new? [Details]
If you play the National Lottery, you're an idiot. [Details]

Posted by Stormcaller at 5:26 PM GMT [Link]

Tuesday, October 14, 2003 - "A fly can't bird, but a bird can fly"

> Stuff

A listing of some of the best freeware out there. You need most of this installed. [Download]
Random name generators are useful things. [Destroy]
Here. Have a picture of a football. [Display]
It's history. Save it before it vanishes. [Destroy]
> Comics

Ask me a question and I'll tell you why: Cottleston, cottleston, cottleston pie. [Display]
This is really very good. Dragons and angels and demons, oh my. [Display]
It's not the sunday specials of calvin and hobbes, but you won't know the difference. [Display]
Three. A measley three. May your hair grow long and your legs fall off. So have some futur. [Display]
> Gaming

So halflife2 leaked. Will we ever see it? [Details]
I had a link to how to fix steam, and a hl2 mod wiki, but I deleted my entire hl and steam install anyway because it annoyed me too much, so you can't have it.
> Science/Politics

Aint power politics strange. [Details]
I begin to see why philosophers died out. I'm not reading all of that - get to the point! [Details]
Scientists are going to have to be 'responsible' - which is, of course, double-speak for 'loyal weapons engineers' [Details]
Which means no saying stuff like this. Sensible stuff isn't allowed. Just to remind you all - nukes didn't magically go away when they stopped making movies about the cold war. [Details]
Quick! Ship Lance Bass there ASAP - we haven't had a good interstellar war in millenia. [Details]
I'd just like to quote a headline in the local paper: "Jury to decide: Are you biased against Vampires?" [Details]
The main problem with it is that it carries electricity. We all ought to be generating our own by now. [Details]
Except, of course, to find out how pupils perform under stress... [Details]
I call it a plan. [Details]
...not that it would matter. It's a good thing that consumer-quality computers only control non-vital stuff, isn't it? [Details]
This would actually be illegal here. [Details]
It wouldn't be science without frozen squirrels. [Details]

Posted by Vitenka at 6:18 PM GMT [Link]

Monday, October 13, 2003 - "Post-Midnight Codehax"

After one of those late nights of caffeine 'n' coding (well, minus the caffeine) I've sorted out the photo gallery a bit, along with a couple of other small things affecting the main site too. If you don't care, scroll down to the bottom line.
My use of images in posts has been fairly constrained so far due to a bug for people using small windows (i.e. on low resolutions) and Internet Explorer. If an image was too big, or a couple of pictures overlapped on the same line, the whole of the main content column would get pushed under the menu bar at the side, leaving a large blue gap next to the sidebar then all the articles underneath. This problem was a lot more noticable on the newer photo galleries, where I've generated them in the same design format as the rest of the site as opposed to the earlier plain photo pages without any menu bar or colour scheme. If the IE browser window was too small horizontally, the whole of the main box containing all the thumbnails would wrap down below the sidebar. The same problem also prevented me from adding a sidebar to the main photo index.
I've finally identified the source of the bug, and have almost entirely fixed it. The problem is still there in the new galleries, and you can see it in the latest Collectormania IV gallery if you're using Internet Explorer, but I now know more or less how to sort it out. Ideally instead of the whole thing dumping itself down at the bottom I'd like a scrollbar to appear, and this shouldn't be too hard to do - but it's late (early?). They're also now stretchy - the thumbnails space themselves out to fit whatever window size you have instead of boxing together rigidly on the left and leaving a big space. There's now a sidebar plus the usual header graphic on the photo index, which is also stretchy and tends not to break. As a plus, my underlying CSS stylesheet that's controlling how all the pages are laid out is a lot cleaner and orderly now, and I've replaced a few dirty hacks in the photo gallery code with... uh, less dirty hacks.
So the bottom line is that for people using resolutions much lower than 1024x768 on Internet Explorer the new photo pages will still look a little odd - I'm now happy about this, and am working on it - but for the rest of the site that bug is fixed. This also means I should be able to make greater use of images in my posts, if I so choose. All that remains to do now is iron out that last buggy bit of the new gallery design... and then regenerate all of the old galleries to fit in, which could take ages. Shrug. I sleep now.

Posted by Stormcaller at 2:21 AM GMT [Link]

Saturday, October 11, 2003 - "Stupidity so dense that no intellect can escape. Singularity stupid."

Well, so much for words. I tend to keep my promises, but this week has been pretty intense. It was my birthday on Monday, so the (extended: intergalactic, in Vitenka's language?) weekend was taken up with various happenings, celebratory and non.
We went to a fantastic Lebanese restaurant in Bayswater in London called Fairuz on Saturday night. Photos exist, but have yet to be collated/edited/posted; they'll be online... eventually. Sunday I trooped up to Milton Keynes to meet up with various friends for Collectormania IV. Photos here. After watching Derren Brown not shoot himself in the head, much to my disappointment, I got my first proper sleep since Thursday night.
On Tuesday I saw the Reduced Shakespeare Company's new show, "All the Great Books", which was excellent. Wasn't as good as their other shows, though probably better than the bible one, but still enjoyable, slick and well-written. Wednesday evening I was working. This left the last couple of days to catch up on A-Level work... and that brings us up to speed, I think.
In between all that I've still managed to come up with a full set of links - but surely that goes without saying?
> Science/Tech

I'm sure I've done various footballing robot type links before, but we still like shiny robot things that play football. [Details]
NASA have been talking about using lasers to power air/spacecraft for years, and are considering the method for use on a space elevator. Now they've proved it works, at least on a small scale. At the risk of stating the literal: shiny! [Details]
The people that really shape the future, for better or for worse. [Details]
Whether they'll be able to hear the vacuum cleaner 'talking' above its own noise is the next hurdle. [Details]
Nobel Prize in Physics 2003 announced. [Details]
Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2003 announced, too. [Details]
A British team reckons they've found proper evidence of the existence of dark matter. [Details]
> Geek

Well, that's it. "Half-Life 2" has been pushed back to at least April 2004 because of the theft and leak of the source code. If they find the person did this, I'm going to lead a procession down to his house with flaming torches and pitchforks for some medieval-stylee justice. [Details]
Student sued for telling people to press the shift key. No joke, actually. [Details]
Yay - finally a[nother] "Hitchhiker's Guide" movie. On the other hand, Neil Gaiman apparently said "Hollywood can never render Ford turning in to an infinite number of penguins better than you can in your head", and he probably has a point. [Details]
I assume you've heard about Eddie Izzard as Dr. Who. Vitenka probably posted this already. Almost as bad as Queen Latifah as Mary Poppins. [Details]
Unimpressed. [Details]
All the info on WASTE and the various projects in development on it at the moment. [Details]
Verdict: You're less likely to get a virus on Linux than Windows because doing/running new things in Linux takes longer and idiots can't figure it out. Fair? [Details]
SHP found this lovely comic strip which illustrates exactly what's wrong with the music industry. [Details]
If you don't understand the whole binary vs decimal Gigabyte thing, or why your hard drive seems to have less capacity than you expected when you bought it, read this. [Details - PDF]
Proof that I'm up to three times more productive than you. [Details]
"We're sorry, Napster is not currently available outside the United States." Humph. [Details]
> Stuff

We went to Collectormania IV, and here are the photos (taken with my shiny new Casio QV-R40 digital camera). [Display]
Genius - we found the "Kill Bill" teaser music. [Download - 3.35MB]
Would you survive a vampire attack? Mmmm... blood. And dark sunglasses. [Destroy]
Lovely shiny Concorde things from BA. [Details]
Arnie won! Am I the only person that doesn't particularly mind? In fact, I'm fairly pleased - there are a lot of people in American politics that need to be faced with the Terminator himself and asked if they'd like to argue. [Display]
New U.S. $20 dollar bills. [Destroy]
I got a personal email earlier this week from the chap who runs the World RPS (Rock Paper Scissors) Society. He'd noticed that I linked the WorldRPS website, and was wondering if I'd be interested in their new International World Championships" taking place in October. Poor thing - I think I was mocking them when I linked the site, back in July. [Details]
I've used the word "shiny" four times (now five) within this entry. That's a Bad Thing.

Posted by Stormcaller at 5:48 PM GMT [Link]

Wednesday, October 8, 2003 - "Accomplishments as President"

> Intro

Stormy wants enhanced seriousness. So. Israel is taking off where the US left off. China is putting a man into orbit and private attempt 'space one' have some aeronautical problem which I'm not qualified to understand. And I have been threatened on my way to work yet again and am wondering how society can be fixed to neutralise such people but still leave me basically free.
> Serious

Stormy wants more professionalism and sciency stuff. So here is a quick overciew of a ocncept that dark-matter is actually made of leptons and thus are wider spread and might be detctable in a lab. [Details]
Even higher compression? It'd be nice, file sizes are rocketing again. With decent compression and hundred gigabyte disks around the corner, what on earth is going to be put onto these disks? Infinite camera angles for p..? Ah. I think I just cracked the code. Best hide now. [Details]
Sadly, wales survived. [Display]
The internet. Digital communication in general. Where is it at, where has it been and where will it go. Well, if you follow the standards bodies, into 160 page documents that no one reads properly. Check. [Details]
Finally, your PC may be securable. So no, all those people who got hit by that recent trojan - it wasn't actually your fault. There was no patch available. [Details]
> Gaming

Only the first level, so no shenanigans with the mirror - but this may bring back fond memories. [Destroy]
Fight, my multilegged minions! [Download]
This is the future of advertising. [Destroy]
Not as good as tamigothi. [Destroy]
This is the FAW for a trio of games - two freeware and one shareware. All CRPG's and all heavily modabble. Blades of exiles revenge! [Download]
YAWBPG (Yet ANother Web Based Puzzle Game) [Destroy]
Aww - now isn't that sweet? But it's DOOMED! [Details]
The further adventures of Phileas Fogg, with the evil transfer! Or perhaps not. [Download]
Yo ho ho and YAPPG (Yet another pirates puzzle game) Wait, a unique blend of tactics and luck? I can win this one! [Download]
An alternative gaming news site. [Details]
The good? A treasure trove of free games. The bad? In Japanese. [Download]
> Comic of the Day

Evil people don't want comics. Fine. Then you only get one comic. And it's about ikea. [Display]
> Stuff

Pretty graphics for meeee [Download] [Download]
Collaborative, artistic, pointless. It's the web! [Destroy]
Someone sent me this link because I run catnews. Cool. [Destroy]
Unixy but useful. But I've still not found any decent free tool to MAKE an ISO - either from files or from an existing CD. They all seem to only know about a few formats. [Download]
> Humour

So what's the problem? They kept the bathwater. [Details]
Some things are just too too silly. [Display]
Dunno. Link title says it's got dragon though. [Destroy]
Bad things are done by bad people [Details]
I've got him beat in almost every category! Give me the job! [Details]
A useful rebuttal. [Display]

Posted by Vitenka at 7:21 PM GMT [Link]

Saturday, October 4, 2003 - "Continuance Interruption"

> Science/Tech

They found a way to make physics interesting to everyone - involve chocolate! [Details]
More Fogscreen type stuff. I've lost track of whether or not this is the same one I've linked before - this was really exciting a couple of weeks ago. [Details]
3G phones will fry your brain, apparently. Given that anyone who owns a 3G phone is stupid enough to pay the ridiculously high prices they're currently charging, isn't this a good thing? [Details]
Voice over IP has got to become the norm for private homes and buinesses within the next decade - we've been using telephones for far too long. This is a small step, but it's in the right direction and free. [Details]
> Geek

We may think we're geeky and love the "Matrix" films, but we've got nothing on the Japanese. They did re-enactments of it some time back in May/June. They don't seem to be very well-documented but looked like a big success - pictures scattered throughout this forum thread and the next page... uh, and the next and most of the rest of the thread; also a nice gallery at this site.
...There are some great videos, though most of the links on the various boards and pages didn't work. You'll need the Platform4 Player or similar for the MP4 files. The best videos, in a vague order starting with the one you should most see (after, of course, the official film which is linked below): the "burly brawl" scene (kung fu!), preview video, trailer, short Trinity and Neo fight scenes, "Real Matrix", a chase, this one and this.
...They did another event too, in Tokyo. Want to see 250 Agent Smiths taking over a tube train? [Details] [Display]
...This is the big one - an edited film of the Tokyo event. There's also a 17.7MB trailer. [Download - 54.6MB]
Oh - and some fan-made, probably-not-crap "Fanimatrix" film, which is what I was originally looking at before I was sidetracked with all that malarkey. [Details]
Yahoo! are blocking users of third-party instant messaging clients such as Trillian and Jabber from connecting to their Yahoo! Instant Messenger service. Evil. Slashdotters aren't impressed, either - some interesting comments there. [Details]
New version of BitTorrent is out. Updates include down/upload meters, less CPU usage, no pre-allocation of files (saves on HD space). [Details]
Someone wrote everything about everything about the future of the Internet, in one article. Even I, mammoth consumer of words on geeky topics that I am, skipped most of this. What I read I tended to disagree with, but I think that was the point of the article. [Details]
Proof that shopping is clearly stupid. [Details]
I dunno, something lame to do with the "Half-Life 2" source code leak, and possibly Fanta. [Destroy]
This is the sound of everybody being very disappointed but completely unsurprised that the "Red Dwarf" movie has been delayed again. [Details]
> Stuff

I've read several books today. [Details]
Muse's new album, "Absolution", is just so good. I've heard Matt Bellamy's voice described as "achingly beautiful", which is the only phrase I can think of that begins to do them justice. Soulful, painful, beautiful. This review puts it better than I ever could. [Details]
Another year, another silly Coca Cola promo.
[Details]
Pope seen skateboarding to church! Naaah, only joking - he's dying. [Details]
It's just an online store selling bags and stuff, but it's also unique and lovely, and a little different every time you view it! [Destroy]
Monkey Island humour! Sorta. [Display]
Something MC found. I forget what. [Details]
I nearly bought a GameCube for this game. Actually, no, I didn't. But I would have if I was planning to buy a console at all. Pikmin! [Details]
Buh. It's been a hectic week. Lucky for you that Vitenka went a bit overboard on the links on Wednesday. Words from me in a few days.

Posted by Stormcaller at 5:43 PM GMT [Link]

Wednesday, October 1, 2003 - "A narrator with an overactive pie hole"

Stormy is only going to let me have seven comics. Despite this intergalactic wednesday coming two whole earth-weeks after the last one. Which is mean. so I'm gonna sneak the link to futur in here. Sections can go hang themselves. All the privacy and politics rants have been snipped in the interests of size. A headline? Ok: It's like talking to a Brick wall made entirely out of goo.
No link, quick rant: So someone pulls their game review, after it was discovered that they only tested it for two and a half hours. Why? If a game isn't enjoyable for the first couple of hours, I sure as heck won't continue playing it...
> Gaming

It's an adventure! It's pontifex! It's a RISK clone! It's a vacuum cleaner - with telescopes! It's.. something else! And a repton clone! [Download] [Download] [Download] [Download] [Download] [Download]
You remember crimsonland? Like that, but with a sword. [Download]
Picture this: Bhaal in a tutu. Now download something a tad different. [Download]
It's an online rts thingy. For free! [Details]
More game reviews should be like this. [Details]
A site full of good well thought out editorials on game design theory. So I'll link you to the one about monkeys. Monkeys make everything better. [Details] [Details] [Details] [Details]
This ought to use the same tech as the 20 questions game linked last week. [Details]
Good people. Game stuff, and 'must link because of the cats' quality. [Download]
Yeah, the further adventures of the fat bloke and the demo pack. [Details]
> Consumables

You have to admire their tagline. You can also download their music. Plenty of music today. [Download] [Download] [Download] [Download]
What do I say about destroy links? Don't lick! For the love of... oh my, that's an odd typo. [Destroy] [Destroy] [Destroy] [Destroy] [Destroy] [Destroy]
It's long, it's a ripoff, it's a student film. And now, there's a free clone! Enter the fanfix. [Details]
Do you need any of this? [Download] [Details]
> COTD

Comics! From deep philosophy, to sillyness and pirates. Comics are good! (Seriously, spare five minutes for some links)
Ok. Now, apparently, I'm only allowed seven. Despite my having my daily allowance, and that being 14. How evil.
So I'm going to disobey him horribly.
First the big comics. Big, shiny, good. Big thinking, big adventure, just plain big - and ye gods what on earth made someone do that. [Display] [Display] [Display] [Display]
Now the fun silly ditzy ones... [Display] [Display] [Display] [Display] [Display] [Display]
And the ones with a story. [Display] [Display] [Display]
> Stuff

Categories can bite me.
High art and low art. [Details] [Details]
Online is bad. [Details] [Details] [Details]
ID cards are just a bluff. The big problem is too late to stop. [Details]
Not bash.org. Thank gods. [Details] [Details] [Details]
It's got big wheels and your moms american cousin drives it? [Details]
Christmas present! [Details]
Competitions! (But, um, wouldn't you rather rwrite games for mobile phones, in a link styormy made me remove?) [Details]
Warning! Fast paper ahead! [Details]
The fate of the world hangs in the balance. Fortunately, randomness triumphs against adversity. [Details]
How to create evil, in one easy lesson. Combine two things, which have no hope of returning but one of which is. Sing to the tune of ulyses2010 - "Doctor whoo-oo-oo-oo-ooo no one else can do the things you doo-oo..." [Details] [Destroy] [Destroy] [Destroy]
Soo pretty. Such a shame it's an mmorpg. Or, for the latter, such a shame it isn't. [Details] [Details]
Do unto others before they do unto you. [Details]

Posted by Vitenka at 7:43 PM GMT [Link]