Tome of Secret-shuns

One of the reasons I had to get out of the house this past weekend was that I had spent most of the time pounding through a goodly portion of the most recent book I was reading, Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson. If you want to know more about it I’ll probably ramble on for some time.

This is the second book I’ve read from Stephenson. The first I read was because it was nearly demanded of me by a friend. That book was Snow Crash. I really loved SC and devoured the book quickly. In fact I will probably have to buy my own copy now. This was several years ago, and when I saw Cryptonomicon a year or so back I had to pick it up. I’m glad I did.

The book takes place in two times, WWII and the 90’s, and bounces back and forth. In each time you get to follow several different people. The two groups of people end up being connected to one another through an intricate web. Stephenson makes the events of the two unfold so that hints are given, but suspense is maintained. The basic underlying theme behind the story is cryptography, duh. It’s about it’s uses as they changed from WWII until the 90’s computer boom. You follow Laurence Prichard Waterhouse, mathematics genius, as he works briefly with Alan Turing at Princeton and then joins the Navy. Due to his unusual rand of genius he is mistakenly put in the band. After surviving Pearl on Dec. 7 he is transferred to do clerical work in the cryptography office where is talents are discovered. He then sets off on an adventure of code breaking, life threatening, globe trotting, and war deciding size. All during this you also follow Randal Waterhouse Laurence’s grandson. Randal is off on a new business venture in the Philippines setting up a telecommunications company. The business soon evolves into something else, and the new associates seem far more menacing than Randy would like. Randy has to navigate threats, espionage, legal obligations, false accusations, and crazy people to try to survive the ever changing business plan. He comes in contact with people and descendants of people who had contact with his grandfather during the war. Through clues, events, and revealed secrets he begins to piece together more of what his grandfather and his associates did during the war and each step puts his life and the lives of others at more risk. Randy needs to use new crypto and break old crypto to help find a way out of this situation, and beating the bad guys wouldn’t be too bad either. Oh and did I mention he’s trying to figure out a woman at the same time.

This is a monster of a book at 1k pages. I haven’t read anything this long in some years. Some of the reviews call it a step away from Stephenson’s Science Fiction past, but I have to ask why. Is it because it takes place in the past rather than the future? The book is full of science and engineering of virtually every sort, and the beauty of it is that NS describes it all to you. The technology he is talking about might be commonplace now, but at the time the book is supposed to be taking place it was uncommon, or even non-existent. NS’s descriptions of the tech behind the events and people are outstanding. With an initial rudimentary knowledge of simple high school algebra, you should be able to leave this book with a basic understanding of cryptography. I find that an amazing feat, and a testament to NS’s descriptive abilities. Then the storytelling itself is suspenseful, engaging, scary, disturbing, and funny as shit. Anyone who enjoys science, math, or engineering, will laugh their asses off; most other people will laugh a lot too.

Basically, this is a damn good book. It’s got all the right writing, character development, suspense, humor, confusion, etc. I liked this book as much or more than I liked Snow Crash. I recommend this to anyone who likes good storytelling. Don’t let the length fool you. Once you get about 150 pages into this thing you will probably start pounding it back like beer during the Superbowl. Just make sure you have time to do that before you start reading it.

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That’s why the lady is a Vamp

Yes, I know it’s a bad title. This is going to be short, because it doesn’t need to be long. Basically I got bored this weekend and had to get out of the house. I decided I needed to see a simple, mildly entertaining action flick. I looked at the movie listings and saw that the only thing that really fit the bill for me was Underworld: Evolution. As you can see from the link, it didn’t get very good reviews from RT, but then neither did the original Underworld. I have a strange love affair with RT. I don’t pay much attention to the rating if it drops below 40, because I like bad movies. There’s just not many other ways to put it. I actually met an attractive woman that loves Bruce Campbell and Evil Dead, but alas she was taken. But I digress. This was not a good movie. I didn’t expect it to be, and I wasn’t disappointed. It was heavy handed, shakily scripted, had plot catches, and it started with a monolog; never a good sign. However, it was actiony, twisty, and surprisingly more interesting from an overall storyline perspective than I had expected. Besides, I can watch Kate Beckinsale run around in latex britches for quite some time even without a plot, gunfire, or explosions. So basically don’t go see this movie, unless you have to get out of the house for it to be fumigated. And if you do see it later, for God’s sake have something to drink while you do it. Cheers.

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Partial Attempt

So I haven’t been writing much recently, but I have been thinking about stuff. Thing is most of the interesting things I want to mention I see on the few web sites I frequent. Now those are really good web sites, and I don’t normally feel I have much I can add to the topics they discuss. However, I do think it would benefit pointing them out. So I’m going to try to do that more often, and maybe ramble on about it myself.

Ars Technica had a good article up about the discussions of the broadcast flag in hearing. Basically the “flag” if just an instruction that tells your television and recording equipment what they can do with the program. You know the ads and trailers at the beginning of the DVD that gives you the “Operation is Currently Prohibited By Disk” message when you try to fast forward or skip to the menu. Yeah they want to implement something similar on the TV shows that are broadcast over antennas. The reasoning they employ is that the digital broadcasts can be recorded perfectly, and then “pirates” (read consumers) can distribute it with abandon. Basically it’s a load of bunk. The people that make money of selling illegal copies will have the equipment to get past this “measure.” It’s not meant to stop them. It’s meant to extract more money from the average consumer, by preventing you from recording shows, limiting the time you can keep them to 90 minutes or a few days, preventing you from letting your friend borrow your recording since their power was out, and other things I can’t even think of. A friend of mine has had an HDTV for a few years now. He gets to look forward to the possibility that the next cable box, DVD player, or HD DVD player won’t actually send a high definition signal to his TV. That’s because his TV uses the beautiful analog connections, but that isn’t secure from “pirates” copying it. So they invented a new connection called HDMI that only allows “secure” devices to connect to each other. Basically now they want to control everything you do with their content after you get it, especially if it means they can charge you for watching it more than once. Even the new digital radio is trying to get flags approved. Like anyone would steal a poor digital copy of a song on the radio when they could download a much higher quality MP3 off the internet. But it would prevent you from recording a baseball game or broadcast concert to listen to later. Or maybe you could watch it or listen to it again, if you pay a few dollars first. I suggest all media consumers read the articles. If you still think broadcast flags and digital rights management are about anything other than the mighty dollar then I have some swamp land for sale.

I just had to put this one up because it made me laugh. Oh and I’ll share this one too. Ah DRM and DMCA. Is there nothing you can’t screw up?

As they say use it or lose it. An exercised mind is an agile mind. I say that if you don’t learn something new every day then it’s wasted. It doesn’t have to be anything profound, just something. I read lost of web articles and such to make me think. I also try to read books to make me think. My grandmother’s mind is still going strong, and I haven’t seen many other signs of mental collapse in the rest of my family. I don’t think I would mind being in a wheelchair that much, but I would like to remember how I got there. And to help out I’m going to keep pushing what I know and what I want to learn. Maybe I’ll take some more history, literature, math, or science classes.

For those of you following the domestic spying hooplah going around (really who was that surprised), I offer this link. I link linking to the site I found the link on. It advertises good sites for finding these things.

I’ll try to do this a little more often.

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Late Knights

So I have to admit that I have been negligent in my posting to this page. I have been around, and I have been reading stuff that I thought about commenting on. However, I have been engrossed in the book I am reading (percentage completed is given below), and playing with a Christmas present. If you care to watch me ramble, I’ll probably do it at length.

I’ve never been much of and RPG (roll playing game) player. When I moved in with one of my current roommates, it was one of my first introductions. I think it may have been something like Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance. I became an observer and commenter. I watched the surroundings for items not seen during combat and offered thoughts on plans, weapons, and possible story paths. I got pretty good at being the observer, and I felt like I helped a little. It led me to explore outside of the few RTS (real time strategy like Age of Empires: Age of Kings Homeworld, and Star Trek: Voyager Elite Force) and on to Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem. Then my roommate bought Knights of the Old Republic(KOTOR) for XBox.

KOTOR was voted 2003 game of the year by many sites and groups. It was done beautifully and did wonders for Star Wars games. KOTOR had a great plot, beautiful environments, excellent voice work, wonderful weapon customization and fun combat. Frankly I thought the plot was better that most of the movies we have seen. In KOTOR you play a person returning from time on the rim of the galaxy. You stumble into the Republic’s war with the Sith and Darth Malak, the apprentice of Darth Revan. Revan originally lead the Republic and a band of Jedi against a Mandalorian invasion, against the Jedi Council’s orders. After defeating the Mandalorians, Revan falls to the Dark Side. This splits the Republic fleet and Jedi between those loyal to Revan the war hero and the Republic and the Jedi Council. This starts something akin to a civil war. Revan was recently killed and many Jedi have fallen in with the Sith. The Jedi order is strained with many of their ranks turning to the Dark Side, and the Republic is starting to collapse under the strain of repeated wars. You turn out to be the pivot point. As you turn so does the galaxy. You have decisions to make and answers to find. Each one leads you down the path of dark or light. Until you have one last decision that locks it all in place. Basically you get to chose to be light or dark, and you can change the fate of the galaxy based on which side you choose.

So a few months back I saw the PC version of the game for sale for $20. I like supporting good games, so I bought it and played it. I had a fantastic time and played twice. Once choosing the light path and once choosing the dark path. For the light side I played male as Luh K’Hae Boghb, and for the dark side I played female as Phuh K’Ing Beich. I have to say the dark path lead to easier advancement, but the light path was easier for me to play personally. As light my character made increasingly light decisions as time went. As dark I was merely self-serving, manipulative, and cold at first. I only became evil for evil’s sake later. I loved getting light side points for avoiding combat, but I also liked manipulating a conversation, so that the other person attacked me first.

Anyway, for Christmas this year, I asked for a copy of KOTOR II. The price had fallen to $30 so what the heck. I have been occupied with that over the past two weeks or so. I’ll tell you about it, and I will try to avoid big spoilers. Yes I give some stuff away, but you learn that stuff fairly fast anyway.

KOTOR II was made by Bioware, but KOTOR II was made by Obsidian. Lucasarts presided over both. I think KOTOR II used an expanded version of the original game engine, so it looks and feels very similar.

KOTOR II is similar to the first and many other RPGs in basic story line. A hero or band of heroes must set out to defeat something enormously powerful in order to save lots of stuff. It’s the implementation and details that are nice. II takes place a few years after the first one. You are an exiled ex-Jedi that has been out on the Rim alone and have just returned to Republic space. You were exiled because you fought alongside Revan in the Mandalorian war, but your connection to the force had somehow been severed. You returned to the Jedi Council, and they cast you out of the order without explanation of why you were cut off from the force. Your return to Republic space finds you marked as the last known Jedi. Being cut off from the force has allowed you to go unnoticed, but your return to Republic space coincides with the slow return of your connection to the Force. This means that you have become the target of the latest threat to the galaxy; one more insidious than the Mandalorians or Revan ever had time to be. So you must run, and you will need all the help you can get.

KOTOR II is a lot like the original, or most other RPGs for that matter, in that you talk to people, do odd jobs to get where you need to go, and upgrade yourself and your stuff. You still have the ability to go light or dark, but it may have even greater consequences in this one. You have more party members I this one, and a greater ability to level up your character. The biggest change from the first game is your relationship with your party. Through conversation and action you can gain influence with your party members. This means that the one thing you really wanted to do in the original is now possible. You can draw your party to your side, or push them to the other. That means that more influence makes each person more like you, light or dark. It also opens new conversation topics and gives you more insight into the person, the past, and yourself. In fact, if the influence gets high enough you can do something else. Many of the people you gather are sensitive to the Force. If you gain enough influence with them, you can pass on the teachings of the Jedi to them. In other words you can turn them into Jedi or Sith. I managed to turn 5 members into Jedi by the time I was done. I have only played light side, so far, but I’m thinking about playing dark side again. I chose the name Ye’Th N’Hou for my light character. I’ll have to think about a dark name.

As for the game play, it was good. Damned good. I loved it. The plot has even more things to grab your attention and more mysteries to solve than the original. It even seems more desperate since you may actually be saving the whole galaxy rather than just the Republic. There is one problem though. The ending. It is told that Lucasarts wanted the game released by a certain time, and that Obsidian wanted more time to finish it. They didn’t get the time. The last 4 hours of the game are strange compared to the rest. They feel rushed. I saw more glitches here than in any other part of the game. Then the last 2 hours were so different it was jarring. It was repetitive open a door and slash everyone inside over and over. And a lot of stuff is left hanging without closure. Some say Obsidian wanted to release a patch that would make the game complete, but Luscasarts forbad it. There is also a grass roots effort to complete the game close to how it was supposed to be. Most of the dialog and sound files were still on the install disks and were available for use.

So, I really liked both of them, even with the problems. I hope the hooplah about the ending of II gets through. I’d rather a game be pushed back several months and be right than to have it be thin in parts. Next I have one big question. Why is it that these games were so good, and Clone Wars Vol. 1 and 2was so good, but the movies were so mediocre? If you haven’t seen Clone Wars I recommend it. It takes place between Episode 2 and 3 and explains so much that it makes 3 a better movie. It’s even canon. These games are on par with that. They produce a compelling and complex story. The voice acting, dialog, and much character development are very good. I would almost like to see a movie attempt at them. The problem is that a movie would probably have to be split in two or be several hours long. Maybe you could animate it and have it come out on a two DVD set. Or you could mimic the game and have two movies. One could be the light path and another the dark. Hmmm. One can dream. Now I have heard rumors of a KOTOR III in the works. Here’s hoping they can keep a tight ship and make it as good or better then the first two.

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Humor in Uniform

Sorry to Reader's Digest for the rip-off title. But my good Airforce friend Smitty has a really good Blond joke up on his website. I normally don't post just for a joke, but this is one of the best I've seen in years. Go take a look.

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Ha hahahahaaaaaaa Hahahaaaaaaaa

Hahahahhhahaaaaa
*must read*

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060109-5930.html

Hhahaaahaaaaa.
*must breathe*

Oh man that's rich. Whew. The only thing that would have been more poetic is if it was Sony's fault. I hope Speilburg rips someone's ass out.

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Where’s Charlton Heston when you need him?

So the second movie I saw over the holidays was with my brother. As it turned out this was the first theater I have been to that charges over $8 for a ticket, in Spartanburg no less. I did manage to make a matinee, which reduced the price to $7.50. I will say however, that the theatre was exceptionally nice. The entrance and lobby were both rather impressively done. The building had an actual brick façade. The concessions area was well done with colors and shapes that made it obvious where each line was, and what was available. I even got an ICEE, for an exorbitant price. The seats were excellent in the stadium layout, and the sound was very nice. Of course you want something like that when you go to see King Kong. I’ll probably ramble on about the movie now.

King Kong is looong, and I’m not talking about his appendages. The thing is three hours long, but it doesn’t feel that long. I looked at my watch once and realized we were an hour into the movie already. I’ve sat through much shorter films that just seemed to drag on. This one has you enjoying the ride so much that you don’t notice the time as much.

This film is in color, but it’s based on a lot of the old black and white films. The style seems to pay homage to that. Some of the old B&Ws had better grain control than colors of the day, plus better contrast. I don’t know if it’s just me, but they seem to have rediscovered some of that lost ability in this film. Many of the shots of the main characters, especially Naomi Watts, seemed extra sharp on the face and eyes. They managed to get the glistening shimmer of the eyes, like in the old B&Ws, perfectly.

The visuals are really what did it for me. The characters, costumes, sets, and views off into the distance were outstanding. Many times I just found myself thinking, “Damn that’s gorgeous.”

The plot is King Kong. If you don’t know what the main plot of that story is then stay under your rock, and how did you get an internet connection anyway? I’m not going to go into detail about the plot, but I will say it was well written. The most amazing thing I realized is that I didn’t come away from this movie thinking that any one character was a bad guy. They are just people who either delude themselves into believing something, plunge headlong after a dream without looking, or they are just trying to get by during a hard time. This does take place during the depression after all.

Given that I got to see a three hour, well focused, movie with outstanding visuals and sound in an excellent theater, I didn’t feel so bad about the ticket price. Plus I don’t think I saw any of those stupid commercials at the theater either. The trailers actually started on time as well. Weird.

Anyway, if you like good writing, acting, and stunning visuals, then see this in the theater with the best screen, projector, sound, and seats (It is 3 hours afterall), even if you have to pay full price. However, matinee showings are really nice. This is probably going on the HD DVD purchase list.

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What no Spot?

Ok so it has become a recent tradition for my family to go to the movies on Thanksgiving and the day of or after Christmas. Since this year consisted of way too much on Christmas day we went on Monday to see Fun with Dick and Jane.

I think this movie was more fun that its RT reviews indicate. They managed to pull off a somewhat relevant plot with a fair helping of physical, pun, and satirical comedy. I by no means would pay full price to see it in theaters, but a matinee price of around $5 might be worth seeing with friends or family. If you live in one of the lucky places with exorbitant movie prices, then wait and rent it on DVD. You won’t miss anything.

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Holiday Fun

I use that term both exactly and somewhat loosely.

Well I went to my hometown for the holidays. I got to take presents and receive presents. Over the past 3 years I have gotten to the point that I like the giving more than the receiving. However taken over time, I like the using of the received even more than the giving. I just wish my current budgetary constraints allowed more of the giving. I’ll probably ramble on about it for a while.

My brother brought his Jack Russell, Roxy, home with him, and my sister brought her new Beagle, Max(imillion) as well. My parents had a new cat, Henry, and their other two dogs, Emily and Poe, were there. Their other cat, Josephine, dislikes the company of people too much to be bothered with associating, unless food is involved. As you can tell the menagerie caused quite a bit of fun and entertainment. I even acquired some pictures. Click on the picture for a larger image.

This is a picture of Poe (named after Edgar Allan Poe). I believe he is the oldest currently. He appeared on our front porch one day as a puppy. We assume he was left there, because he was scared to go up or down the steps. He was in awful condition, hungry, cold, scared, mangy, and just all around sickly. He looks big, but he’s mostly hair really skittish about new people. He doesn’t let anyone he doesn’t know get closer than 10 feet. He likes to have someone he trusts constantly touching his head, and he sits patiently while filling his food dish. Recently he has taken up playing with a couple of stray cats and then killing them. We hope by accident. He leaves our cats alone though. We have been speculating on his selectivity.

This is Emily (named after Emily Dickenson). She came from a litter our neighbor’s dog had. Near as we can tell she is a mix of English Springer Spaniel (mom) and Chow mix (dad). We saw the supposed dad and he seemed mostly if not all Chow. Don’t ask me how she came to look the way she does. She has the purple/black spots on her tongue from the Chow though. Emily is a big dog. Below is a picture of her with my 6’1” brother. Near as we can tell she tops 100 lbs easy, and almost none of it is fat. I understand that you should be able to feel the outline of a dog’s ribs, but Emily’s are covered in a layer of dense muscle. Given her calm demeanor, very submissive behavior, and great strength, I think she would have made an excellent service dog. Generally she walks up, raises a paw in a kind of wave, leans against your log while you scratch her head, and slowly rolls onto her back for a belly rub. (See picture below.)

This is a picture of Henry (mom hasn’t decided if it is for Longfellow or Thoreau). My bother brought him to my parents when he was a skinny, tiny thing. They have been keeping him in the house to get him used to staying there, but I think he is getting a little too used to being in the house. At least he is very fond of people though.

My brother brought his Jack Russell Roxy earlier in the week. She didn’t care for the hat too much. She’s a sweet dog. She knows how to sit, lay down, and sit up, but she has way too much energy.

My sister brought her new Beagle puppy Max. He was only 7 weeks old. I think he found his bark while he was at the house too.

Emily and Poe live in the back yard together, and run around together all the time.

Roxy and Henry developed a strange relationship during the two weeks Roxy would play with Henry until he was worn out. Henry would take a nap and start stalking Roxy when he woke up.

After Max arrived Roxy would play with him, while Henry was asleep. Roxy would wear him out as well.

When Max went outside, Poe showed his true fearless nature by backpedaling from the vicious puppy.

Poe successfully distracted Roxy long enough for Max to get a good play leg bite in.

Anyway, after Christmas at home I went to Atlanta to help out a friend. I spent 3 days doing electrical wiring, a little carpentry, and hanging sheetrock on the ceiling in two rooms. All on about 15 hours sleep over the 3 days. Oh and I also drank a six pack of hard cider and half a bottle of Canadian Club Classic 12, neat. It helped with the soreness.

I watched a couple of movies over break as well. I’ll try to get some reviews up shortly.

Then I came home and slept before work the next day.

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Deficiencies

I guess I should have said I was going to be out of town for the Holidays. I didn’t realize that that would also mean that I would be without an Internet connection or too busy to use one for most of that time. I tell you what, I had the shakes and the DTs there for a few days. But I’m back now in the embrace of the flowing IP packets.

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