Why I read blogs #9138. It’s a pretty moving piece.
Archives for 2006
WTS: Used PSP
I’m not selling one. But I’m starting to see a rather serious trend here (I could go on, but I’ll spare you). Question is: are there any buyers?
Now that movies on UMD are going the way of the Dodo, so goes the PSP? Will the DS Lite be the final nail in the coffin? Where are the good games, Sony?!
I still have gadget envy everytime I see that gorgeous PSP screen but then I play a game of Animal Crossing. Or Metroid Prime Hunters. And I suddenly feel a twinge of superiority.
Still here, still gaming
Hey, I just realized it’s been almost a week since I’ve posted anything and comments have gone unanswered, but I am still here, and yes I’m still gaming. Right now the only free time I’ve had has been with EVE-Online, but it has been time well spent. EVE is definitely my current favorite game. I’ve put in a little time with Metroid Prime Hunters and Animal Crossing, but not much else.
Presently I’m on a quest to erradicate a bug infestation. It’s come to the attention of the townsfolk (my wife and I) that part of our lawn was killed last year by an assualt of bugs. Grubs, to be exact. So my quest is to kill like ten thousand of them. I’m only half way there, so I must attend to my duties now. I’ve only got another day to finish this quest or I don’t get the bonus. I hope I score some phat lewt!
What he said
I was going to mention this, but Josh already has, probably better than I could have anyway.
MMO-Carnival, the new game
Cosmik has posted this month’s Carnival and true to his MMO-roots, it’s screenshot heaven. Check it out!
You can digg this story, if you feel so inclined.
Carnival Carnival!
Less than 8 hours to get your submissions in for the Carnival. I’m a guilty procrastinator, as I haven’t submitted anything yet, but I’ll get something together. The rest of you need to get out there are become a carnie!
Playing with WordPress
I’ve been meaning to play with some new WordPress Toys, I just haven’t gotten around to it until now. They’re pretty slick.
For starters, I’ve just installed the most excellent WordPress Widgets. The k2 theme will support them shortly, but here’s the quick and dirty changes you can make yourself. I haven’t completely moved all my sidebar content over, but that’s on my to-do list.
Next are two excellent Flickr plug-ins I’m dying to try out. The first is a WordPress Flickr Album which uses your Flickr Sets and presents them in a gallery on your site. I’m more interested in this plug-in for my family blog, but I’m using BM as a guinea pig. It also implements the writer’s Flickr Post Bar which makes inserting Flickr images into blog posts a cinch.
While I have Google Ads on the site, I don’t really push them too much and wonder how much good they do anyway. I saw this little snippet of code from Michael that will hide the ads from regular readers (read: commenters). I guess that makes me feel better about having them. I’ll be adding it shortly.
I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again, I can’t say it enough — WordPress is awesome.
Update: Whoops. I broke something and a bunch of my posts were updated and picked up by the RSS feed. Sorry about that.
Haven’t we had enough?
I’m not a big fan of the internet April Fools Day shenanigans. They haven’t been funny for a long time (even though Josh got me last year). Being away from the computer insulated me from all this. That’s a good thing. I’m tired of them. It appears I’m not the only one.
We need a quota on these things. I mean seriously!
A quick follow-up
Gamestop posted a summary of the Senate hearing on video games, which is referenced in my earlier post about the proposed video game legistlation.
From the review (you can get all the pertinent links, including testimony transcripts here), it seems like the testimony was stacked in favor of the legislation, but there was some heartening quotes, like this one from Paul M. Smith, a partner in the law firm Jenner & Block:
The attorney went on to explain that “Every court to have considered the issue has found ‘violent’ video game laws would not pass constitutional muster because the government lacks a legitimate and compelling interest in restricting video game content. Under well-settled First Amendment principles, expression may not be censored on the theory that it will cause some recipient to act inappropriately, unless it falls into the narrow category of speech ‘directed to inciting’ and ‘likely’ to incite ‘imminent’ violence.”
Unfortunately, that is countered with this argument from Kevin Saunders, a Professor of Law at Michigan State University:
Saunders’ second legal basis will likely prove the most troubling to gamers. This approach would argue that “is that video game play, like the play of pinball machines, is not an activity protected by the First Amendment.” It would legally differentiate the expression of a game designer, which would be protected, from the playing of games, which would not be. As an example, he compared a sexually provocative dancer’s movements, which is a performance and therefore expression, to a gamer playing in an arcade, which is not, even though others were watching him.
This definitely far from over, but there seems to at least seem to be a level of civility between both sides. No one attacked (verbally or otherwise) the otherside, so I guess that’s a good thing.
I guess they’ve never played Grand Theft Auto.
Subject: Clone Activated
Body:
2006.03.31 04:52
So you died? Well you have a Clone Grade Iota at Hulm VIII - Moon 2 - Republic University School Station. Enjoy your afterlife.
Yeah, so this is the cute little EVE Mail message I’ve sent to myself after I was podded (killed while trying to flee in my escape pod). How quaint.
EVE had seemed unstable all evening, but I found a sweet spot to mine some rare asteroids and no one was bothering me, so even with the constant disconnects I was hauling in some good ore. After a couple more disconnects, I logged back in and found myself targeted by two pirates. They didn’t seem too far out of my league, so I started lighting one up when I noticed two other real players in the same area. They decided I was to be their Minmatar red-headed-step-child and they unleashed a fury on me. I frantically tried to warp out but was unable. I think they had something to do with that. After my ship was destroyed (fully insured) I tried to make tracks in my trusty pod when it received a volley of thorn rockets that sent my poor character on his way to EVE heaven.
Dead. In space. What a horrible way to go.
A lot of things went wrong here. I probably shouldn’t have been in 0.4 space by myself, even if I was fully armed. I only had a couple cannons mounted as I was busy mining, so I shouldn’t have been so careless with that. At the first sign of trouble I should have bailed but I stuck around a little longer than I should have. Above all, I shouldn’t have been playing when EVE was acting so wonky.
So I have started “the list”. “idimmu69” and “golddiger” and the Corp, “Arcana Imperii, Ltd.” have just made themselves the first entries on “The List”. Fear the list!
Since I really don’t gain much from not revealing my identity, I’ll let you in on the gory details of my death. You can see them here and here.
(Let me just add that the amount of non-CPP EVE content out there is pretty impressive)
Related Posts:
EVE Online Impressions
Learning the ropes, the hard way…
Daddy’s got a new ship
EVE and Me