F.E.A.R.

Well, I just finished "FEAR" the game
HOLY COW!!!!
That was one of the most incredible games I have ever played through!
You can say tons of stuff about the game-play music, and graphics... but I want to focus on something that many game developers seem to forget...
THE STORY!

The whole time I played FEAR I kept getting "enlightened" to the story.
It is one of the deepest, richest stories I have ever experienced in a game.

I felt like I was a hero in a movie... and I didn't know if the hero won in the end!
LOL, I've watched several different movies that had plots that weren't this good.
In short, if you are ever feeling stumped or freaked out in the middle of this game, keep on playing, the ending is incredible!

1. The game gives you the story in a few ways:
   
2. Your team over your comlink will tell you information that you upload to them via laptops you find in the complexes
   
3. There are a few radios in the various levels that keep you in-touch with the outside world
   The answering machines on office desks
   
4. And finally, the various whispers, flashbacks and physical (non-physical?) encounters with the ghosts.

I have been watching scary movies for some time now,
and I know how to predict the endings; but I never saw this coming.
You most likely can do the same thing,
I think everyone knew the ending of "The Others" after seeing "Sixth Sense".
I honestly wasn't surprised in "The Village", except for the unveiling of the monster.
But FEAR kept on pushing it's story and twisting it, and a HUGE part of the game is spent in foreshadow so when it finally comes together... you are LITERALLY blown away!

I immediately got online to see if anyone else had a review for this masterpiece, and found that IGN (duh) had a great review!

To say that FEAR keeps the tension running high is an understatement -- playing the game for a few hours straight can get a little draining

I really encourage anyone who has not played this game to try the demo. I played it, but found it to be very taxing on my system. Surprisingly, the actual game ran well (and I played it on my laptop!!). I spent about 15 minutes setting up the performance options, but this is made either than with most games because there is an option to test the new settings using a "test scene" (very small level that loads fast and tests for the "average game-play").
Anyway, if you like the demo and the scares and shooting it offers, go out and get this game!
I nearly wet myself many times, and the FPS part of the game is a ton of fun too.
It's not often that I am happy to have a slew of armored commandos in a firefight, but in this game, you need a chance for the hairs on your back to go back down.
WARNING: This game is scarier than "The Ring", "The Grudge", or "Alien".
It's also scarier than "Doom 3", "Doom 3, resurrection of evil", "Resident Evil", or "AVP2". It saddens me to say that my favorite scary games all pail in comparison.

The reason this game is so much scarier than the movies is that in a movie, you have no control. In the game, though, the spirit isn't rushing towards the main character... it's coming after you!
::Shivers remembering many scenes that caused me to leap out of my chair::

My roommate started laughing at me when he heard me yell at the monitor and rip off my headphones. He thought I was a baby... Then, he watched me played and started freaking out too!
LOL
FEAR is most certainly a game that is as much fun to watch as play. And that says quite a bit about it.

I know that I'm crossing my fingers hoping that Vivendi makes a sequel!
:-)

My Rating: 9.5/10 A++

IGN's Review

9.0	Presentation Excellent production values, but a few holes persist.
9.5	Graphics It doesn't get much better than this, and the bevy of options make things highly customizable to your rig's capabilities.
9.5	Sound Gorgeous music, spooky ambient sound, and great sound effects abound.
9.2	Gameplay Challenging combat, great set pieces, detailed environments, but not a lot of environmental variety.
8.0	Lasting Appeal The main game is relatively short; multiplayer, while having some neat tricks up its sleeve, won't replace Counter-Strike any time soon.
9.2	OVERALL (out of 10 / not an average)

RSS Added!

It's time to get funkay!

I got the atom feed set up on my blog (it was REALLY hard! --you check one check box, lol).

Now you don't have to check the website for updates, you can use your own RSS reader to "Auto-Check"!

If you don't have a reader, may I suggest the very free, slightly buggy, Google Reader?

You don't have to install anything on your system, and its interface if very slick. I found it kinda buggy when inserting new feeds, but I may have been doing something wrong.
:-)

That's all for now!

Another Day, More Exciting Discoveries

So I was in HRBB 220,
Which is the best lab on Texas A&M Campus, and I was informed about a few new resources which are pretty nice. I was planning on just relaxing after my awful Acct 209 test, but the TAGD nerds (who have recently become my friends) were showing off their code and also some awesome websites on the internet.

BugMeNot
Problem:
ok, so this has happened to all of us who use the internet long enough. You're doing a search online for some material, say a demo of the new Serious Sam 2 game, and the website you're about to download from has the requirement that you be a "member" to download.
ARG! What a pain in the butt! First, you have to fill out a long form, with all your personal information, and you think to yourself, "Ha! I'll just leave all the elements blank, except for the email address" and the server comes back with those stupid

*required field ->

>:-\ So you place some bogus field and it comes up with

*not a valid phone number

(ie: 123-456-7890)

ARGGG!!!!
So then you fill in all the stupid required fields with your friend's information, except with the email address because they all send you a stupid confirmation email, so they know for sure where to send the LOADS AND LOADS OF SPAM TO!!!!
Solution:
This nifty and aptly named website, "BugMeNot"
It's a simple idea: Instead of having everyone fill out the forms, have one person fill it out once and share the user account.
This has been happening on a much smaller level before BugMeNot. Think of all the times that you logged into fileplanet or some news broadcast on your buddy's name because it's just faster.
Well, now it's been organized and made very simple. In fact, there's even a firefox extension (put out by roachfiend)

The Firefox extension is Frillin' Awesome!
Just right click in the user field of the website, click "BugMeNot!" and the userfield AND password are auto completed AND the website is entered! THAT'S AWESOME!

If you don't use firefox you can just visit BugMeNot.com, put in the html address that is giving you a problem and it will instantly give you a username and password for that website. If no website is found you can "give back" to the community by filling out the stupid form and submitting the username and password you get.
It's a great idea!

Woot!
Problem:
Yeah, so you know those people that stay up until 3:32:21am to grab that ebay sale? Yup, you know them... they're your mother, your younger brother, or sadly... you.
Solution:
Well, Woot is a website that adds some consistency to your life. Every day at 12:00 exactly a new item is posted for an "unbeatable price!!!" lol.
It's a lot of tech stuff mainly (speakers, projector combos, ect...) trying to appeal to the techno junkies and gadget freaks. The website is layed out in a very "info-mercial" style with a big yellow "I want one!" button. lol, it's a fun idea and there are a bunch of good deals, too (well, one per day).

Eclipse
For every programmer, there is some underground editor that is better than all the rest "Because it just is, ok?!?". lol
For me, when I started programming with java, I was an insane user of "Jedit". Why? Mainly because it had "Jedi" in it, LOL. Also, it had a TON of addons (plugins) that could extend it's functionality and it was very fast for doing simple tasks (the problem with other solutions like JBuilder and JavaBeans.


Well, Eclipse is a Java editor (current version 3.1.1) that has been growing a lot lately. I got it a while back and it was very impressive. It seems that some of my fellow computer science friends have it working with C++ (pdf), perl, python, and more!
It really is a beautiful IDE. It seems that you have to solve some of the linking issues when you start using it for developing C/C++ projects.

I wonder what ever happened to that Java OS that everyone was screaming (video, alternate site)about a while back... I haven't heard anything from sun about it...
My brother got a live CD after attending a conference that ran a JAVA OS. It was slow (which I blamed on Java, and he blamed on it being a live-CD ;-) ) and wasn't nearly as cool as the video I linked, but showed the limitlessness of Java.
I was impressed and wish they would release some more information about it.
Sigh, but such is life.

"This Code Is Clean"

Sigh,
After 6 hours of coding on Friday, 14 hours straight yesterday and 7 today, I am finally finished (in case you didn't catch that, it's 27 hours total).

I'm listening to: Geto Boys - "It Feels Good To Be A Gangsta" bobbing my head to the heavy beat.

I AM OFFICE SPACE.

I think I'm going to start work on a new movie.

"College Space"
homework hoovers

It'll be a horror/Comedy
;-)


Here's a little piece of my output. This program was created to split up memory into fibonacci sized blocks (block size = previous size + 2nd previous size) and ship it over to an array that holds them in doublely linked lists. Anyway, it was a lot of work, and most of the time was spent figuring out what I needed to do and then juggling the memory from list, to allocated and back again. Also the memory manager can split larger memory blocks and coalesce them as needed (aka, if you need 13, but there aren't any blocks that size, it goes to 21, splits it into 13 and 8 and takes 13).

Adding Block <0> Size: <6765> to freelist in index <0> FreeList Size: 10 index 1: 1 <7935> index 2: 1 <7933> index 3: 1 <7930> index 5: 1 <7925> index 8: 2 <7917><7909> index 13: 1 <7896> index 55: 1 <7841> index 89: 1 <7752> index 987: 1 <6765> index 6765: 1 <0> nreclev =2 MOD_1=<17> mod_2=<42>to_alloc=110100 COUNT =1841471 Allocating: <28> Allocating: <34> !!!Splitting Splitting 55 into 34 and 21 Adding Block <7841> Size: <34> to freelist in index <0> Adding Block <7875> Size: <21> to freelist in index <0> FreeList Size: 11 index 1: 1 <7935> index 2: 1 <7933> index 3: 1 <7930> index 5: 1 <7925> index 8: 2 <7917><7909> index 13: 1 <7896> index 21: 1 <7875> index 34: 1 <7841> index 89: 1 <7752> index 987: 1 <6765> index 6765: 1 <0> Freeing Address: <0> Adding Block <0> Size: <6765> to freelist in index <0> FreeList Size: 11 index 1: 1 <7935> index 2: 1 <7933> index 3: 1 <7930> index 5: 1 <7925> index 8: 2 <7917><7909> index 13: 1 <7896> index 21: 1 <7875> index 34: 1 <7841> index 89: 1 <7752> index 987: 1 <6765> index 6765: 1 <0> Time: 0 sec / 19219070 nsecResult: 7 Time for computation : Time: 0 sec / 14418380 nsec Number of allocate/free cycles: 27F

Yeah, it's pretty boring, but it's the work of 27 hours and I'm proud of it.

Also, I tried OpenOffice
for the first time (it's the portable version of beta 2). I LOVE IT!
I tried the 1.x version a while back and didn't really like it. I preferred word, but this new version is great! It has a feature that goes through your typed text and searches for large words and then it starts getting sweet. It autocompletes the words as you type...
Now, this sounds like it could be annoying, but it's really, really useful.

Microsoft Word has a feature similar to this, but it only autocompletes on words like "Wednesday" or "January". This is a problem since I don't type those often.
Since it pulls words from the file I'm writing at the time, I most likely will use them again and I can prepare to use the autocompletes (just press enter to complete the word).
I found that it was very easy and quick to get used to. I can see this feature becoming a necessity, just like mouse gestures in firefox or a scroll wheel on a mouse. One of those features you get so used to that when you use someone else's computer and it's not there you kinda step back a second and then say,
"Oh, wow! I forgot what it was like to use a computer before this."

lol, I'm kinda dramatic about this, but I was close to "flat-lining" when I submitted this (submitted at 23:59, so I just made it in under the door) and this feature almost doubled my typing speed.

I just finished torrenting the newest leak of Windows Vista.
I'm very excited about installing it on my laptop. Sadly, I haven't found any 64bit versions, so I keep using the x86 beta on my 64bit laptop. :-Oh well. I'll be sure to put up some screenshots when I've got it up and running.

Speaking of Office,
I went to a presentation put on by Microsoft Thursday. The lead speaker was the corporate vice president of the Office division, Grant George. It was interesting mainly because he talked about the OpenDocument formats. He was asked whether the newest version of Office would support it. He said something like,

"Oh... well, we do what the market requires. Right now we aren't too concerned with this new format."

Basically, he said that they would support it if and only if they had to. It really makes sense for a business standpoint. They have the standard right now. OpenOffice and StarOffice are trying their hardest to make their products that can translate the Microsoft formats. It's great for Microsoft. If their competitors get on their backs, or start taking over their share of the market, all Microsoft has to do is completely change the way their files are created and read and all the competitors are sent back (also they could say that the format was changed to add in new features; AKA video in word files and such). If OpenDocument were to become a format used globally, Microsoft would have to start competing on a new level.
What's on that level? A bunch of stuff Microsoft doesn't want to worry about. They would have to compete with features and price. Users (and companies) would be able to buy (or in the case of openoffice, just download for free) the office package that suites them best, not the software that their customers have or the industry uses as a standard. I really wish someone would do something similar to adobe. That monster of a company has the publishing industry under it's finger. The first thing any publisher, printer, webdeveloper, or independent artist buys is a $600 copy of photoshop.

Now, I love photoshop
and have used it for many years (legal copy, too), but other software solutions aren't compared on what they can do, but rather if they can export to the adobe standard. These situations are located in almost all software categories (AutoCad, Windows Explorer, Quicktime, Quark but now InDesign...) (Quark kinda shot themselves in the foot). I was just surprised to hear the Microsoft Rep say that they didn't have any plans on implementing the new format.

In his defense,
nothing has been finalize, really, so there isn't much to say. I'm sure Microsoft will release a plugin or patch later to allow exporting and importing OpenDocuments.
Also, when you're the biggest and you've got everything coming your way, why cut yourself and your profits down? It's not a smart business practice and I would most certainly do the same thing!
lol.

Well, it's 1:30 and I have a 9am class
(yay for databases)

OS Project (Machine Problem 1)

Goodness!!!
This is a killer of a problem. I've been working on it for three days straight!
I got up at 10am, started working on it...
I started a playlist too...

Playlist length: 6 hours 33 minutes 27 seconds

Playlist files:

1. Rolling Stones - (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction (3:46)
2. Aretha Franklin - Respect (2:27)
3. Led Zeppelin - Stairway to Heaven (8:02)
4. Bob Dylan - Like a Rolling Stone (6:09)
5. Bruce Springsteen - Born to Run (4:31)
6. Eagles - Hotel California (6:31)
7. Doors - Light My Fire (7:08)
8. Beach Boys - Good Vibrations (3:37)
9. Beatles - Hey Jude (5:03)
10. John Lennon - Imagine (3:05)
11. Kingsmen - Louie Louie (2:46)
12. Beatles - Yesterday (2:05)
13. The Who - My Generation (3:24)
14. Marvin Gaye - What's Going On (3:51)
15. Chuck Berry - Johnny B. Goode (2:42)
16. Derek and the Dominoes - Layla (7:06)
17. The Who - We Won't Get Fooled Again (8:33)
18. Elvis Presley - Jailhouse Rock (2:34)
19. Don McLean - American Pie (8:32)
20. Beatles - A Day in the Life (5:33)
21. James Brown - I Feel Good (2:46)
22. Stevie Wonder - Superstition (3:59)
23. Beatles - I Want to Hold Your Hand (2:25)
24. Rolling Stones - Brown Sugar (3:49)
25. Jimi Hendrix - Purple Haze (2:50)
26. Rolling Stones - Sympathy for the Devil (6:27)
27. Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody (5:53)
28. Kinks - You Really Got Me (2:36)
29. Roy Orbison - Pretty Woman (2:58)
30. Simon & Garfunkel - Bridge Over Troubled Water (4:55)
31. Elvis Presley - Hound Dog (2:18)
32. Beatles - Let It Be (4:03)
33. Otis Redding - (Sittin' on) The Dock of the Bay (2:45)
34. Jimi Hendrix - All Along the Watchtower (4:00)
35. Aerosmith - Walk This Way (3:32)
36. Temptations - My Girl (2:44)
37. Bill Haley - Rock Around the Clock (2:10)
38. Marvin Gaye - I Heard It Through the Grapevine (3:17)
39. Creedence Clearwater Revival - Proud Mary (3:09)
40. Steppenwolf - Born to Be Wild (3:30)
41. Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit (5:01)
42. Police - Every Breath You Take (4:13)
43. Ray Charles - What'd I Say (5:07)
44. Lynyrd Skynyrd - Free Bird (10:06)
45. Buddy Holly - That'll Be the Day (2:19)
46. Led Zeppelin - Whole Lotta Love (5:34)
47. Aerosmith - Dream On (4:27)
48. Mamas and the Papas - California Dreaming (2:41)
49. Van Morrison - Brown Eyed Girl (3:03)
50. Troggs - Wild Thing (2:36)
51. Crosby Stills Nash & Young - Suite Judy Blue Eyes (7:29)
52. Michael Jackson - Beat It (4:19)
53. Jerry Lee Lewis - Great Balls of Fire (2:32)
54. Bee Gees - Stayin' Alive (4:47)
55. Buffalo Springfield - For What It's Worth (2:37)
56. Bob Dylan - Blowin' in the Wind (2:49)
57. Beatles - Twist And Shout (2:33)
58. Billy Joel - Piano Man (5:37)
59. Beatles - She Loves You (2:21)
60. David Bowie - Space Oddity (5:18)
61. Beatles - Strawberry Fields Forever (4:10)
62. Led Zeppelin - Kashmir (8:32)
63. Patsy Cline - Crazy (2:43)
64. Clash - London Calling (3:20)
65. Rolling Stones - Jumpin' Jack Flash (3:44)
66. Led Zeppelin - Rock and Roll (3:40)
67. Al Green - Let's Get Together (3:15)
68. Elvis Presley - All Shook Up (1:57)
69. Rod Stewart - Maggie May (5:14)
70. Elton John - Your Song (4:04)
71. Elvis Presley - Heartbreak Hotel (2:11)
72. Beach Boys - God Only Knows (2:52)
73. Chubby Checker - Let's Twist Again (2:20)
74. Little Richard - Good Golly Miss Molly (2:11)
75. Cream - Sunshine of Your Love (4:12)
76. Beach Boys - California Girls (2:35)
77. Eddie Cochran - Summertime Blues (1:58)
78. Carl Perkins - Blue Suede Shoes (2:17)
79. Beatles - A Hard Day's Night (2:32)
80. James Taylor - Fire and Rain (3:26)
81. Them - Gloria (2:35)
82. Marvin Gaye - Sexual Healing (4:09)
83. Rolling Stones - Start Me Up (3:34)
84. Boston - More Than a Feeling (4:45)
85. Police - Roxanne (3:14)
86. Queen - We Are the Champions (3:01)
87. Bob Dylan - Tangled Up in Blue (5:41)
88. Jefferson Airplane - Somebody to Love (2:54)
89. Ben E. King - Stand By Me (2:53)
90. Jerry Lee Lewis - Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On (3:01)
91. AC/DC - You Shook Me All Night Long (3:24)
92. Prince - When Doves Cry (5:54)
93. Wilson Pickett - In the Midnight Hour (2:28)
94. Spencer Davis Group - Gimme Some Lovin' (2:52)
95. Van Halen - Jump (4:01)
96. Bruce Springsteen - Thunder Road (4:51)
97. Bob Marley - No Woman, No Cry (3:46)
98. Richie Valens - La Bamba (2:08)
99. The Carpenters - We've Only Just Begun (4:08)
100.Temptations - Papa Was a Rolling Stone (3:55)

As you can see, I have very good musical taste... Here's what my workspace looks like.
(I'm programming a memory manager for the MIPS architecture)
Anyways, I need to finish... almost there.

Check back later when I'm going insane studying for my Accoutning exam that's on Monday!
:-p

Energy Drinks

..::Energy Drinks::..

This is a short little post ranting over some of the most memorable energy drinks I've had.

note: Understand that I just pulled an all-nighter studying for my database exam and doing other homework (cpsc 332), so my grammar and english will not be the best.

So far I'm living off of an AMP, a Monster and a Full Throttle.


Yes, Amp. The beautiful drink made by mountain dew that keeps you up and going when you're almost all dead.
:-)

Another way to stay up is by listening to the mountain dew music player.
It's alright music, hard to fall asleep to. ;-)

Amp: It's small, but it has quite a kick to it.



Now the monster. This is the big daddy of energy drinks. This guy will keep you up when you're running only on fumes. Sigh, it's sad that I can actually do a blog all on energy drinks. I really like the taste of monster, my favorite flavor is "Monster Assault".

The downside of this drink is that it's huge, so you'll be making a ton of bathroom breaks.




Alright, now we move on to the "Full Throttle". When you buy this drink, make sure that you get the one that has sugar in it. If you don't you'll be tasting the "diet coke" version of full throttle and it's really nasty. Why does it taste just like diet coke? Because it's made by coca cola. This drink is the same size and the monster drink, so expect to be making frequent runs, but it tastes very good. It's sweeter than most energy drinks and has a lot of sugar in it.





Now it's time for the finalists.

..::THE WORST::..
You'd think with a name like, "Pimp Juice"... well, actually, I don't really know what to think. Ok, let me comment that the can looks very cool. It's all gold (even on the top tab). If I drank energy drinks for the cans (which I sometimes do), this one would get a good 8/10... sadly, the gold can is the best part of this drink.
First, the drink is green. Not apple green, no, nuclear waste green. Not only that, but this is the only energy drink I've ever had that BURNED when it went down my throat. It was like I was drinking Vick's Vapor Rub... Now, to top it all off, it tastes awful! If orange juice is made from freshly squeezed oranges, I don't want to imagine where this foul liquid came from.

..::THE BEST::..

But, by far, the best energy drink out on the market is "Bawls". Yes, as the name suggests, this drink has a lot of chutzpah.

This drink is just the right size, and the bottle looks AWESOME. No wonder it's the hard-core gamer's energy drink of choice. The downside? Well, it's hard to find, expensive and... well, I started shaking a few hours after downing it. LOL.



Now, you can get your energy drink opinions from anyone, but it'd be smart to take the advice from a college student in computer science who pulls all-nighters all the stinkin' time.

Over the summer semester, I pulled six. The last four days of class, I only got to sleep once (in other words, 3 out of 4 days I didn't have to make my bed).

So I hope you understand that I'm a professional and I know what I'm talking about ;-)

Ok... Enough with the tests...

Yup, yup, yup.
So I got a new job. I'm working with the Computer Science Department, under the director of communications. This means I'm an administrator... :-D
Oh yeah. Power... authority... I love it!

I have permissions to so much now! As a administrator, I can get into the super sweet labs (I'll be posting pictures of the differences soon). I also manage the Computer Science Departmental website and database.

:-D

KING OF THE NERDS!!
lol.

I'm studying for my database system exam and listening to The Oscar Peterson Trio - My Blue Heaven (Swiss Internet Radio - Radiocrazy - Big Band Jazz and Swing) - 128 kBit/s

:-)
I like it.

I'm really getting tired of profs letting us have "cheat sheets". This is the forth class in my college career where the prof tells us we can bring in a piece of handwritten paper. (I had one last semester, and three this semester). You'd think it'd been great, right?
nope.
My hands are getting micro-writer's cramp, all I learn is how to put down everything in my notes, and it takes more time than just studying.
Why do profs do this?
BECAUSE THEY'RE LAZY!!!
lol
If they tell you to make a cheat sheet, they can put a question like:

Problem 12(25pts):List the three reasons why we used Relationship models for database?

Now, a very smart student who knows everything about databases but has a bad cheat sheet won't be able to answer all three reasons (fyi, they are 1. they are simple, 2. they often match how we think about data, 3. It is an abstract model that underlies SQL)

Plus it's easy to grade, because there is a right and wrong answer, no extra credit.
lazy, lazy profs.
:-)

Now, in their defense... no, wait, nevermind. I don't wanna defend them. ;-)

Here's one of the little flyer's I made for work today. I had fun.
:-D

Now, it's not as cool as it could be, but I was constricted because the department's main printer is currently dead and I had to use an ink jet printer. I like it because it looks professional (boring, I know).

Still it's fun and it pays.. not well, but it pays.
As my mom says,

It pays for the starbucks, right?

Yup! Now if only I could get a car to drive me to starbucks... ;-)

I need to finish studying.

There is a reason I'm a member of the I Would Have Seen the Sun Set and then Rise In Bright, But the Labs are Soulless, Windowless Boxes on "the facebook" :-D
Later!

I'm listening to: Frank Sinatra - Super Hits # The Coffee Song
and my mom's favorite song (she used to sing it to my dad when he would go on business trips)
I'm listening to: Patti Page - You Belong To Me