(formerly)tangentmind.org

I finally got the tangentmind.org domain name pointed to the blog. Only problem now is that if you click on a link it will still say "tangentmind.org" in your address bar instead of the address it's supposed to say. You can however, circumvent that by using firefox or netscape and opening up the link in a new tab. Or you can probably open up the link in a new window too. I think I know how to fix that but I would have to change every link on the blog, and that's a lot of trouble. I think all that would happen then is that things would automatically get opened up in a new window if you simply click on them. Better to just use firefox or netscape and then middle click to get the link in a new tab. That's what I do.

Funny link for the day: Parents

Yeah, funny thing about my last post with OpenAL. I haven't figured out how to make 3d Surround sound work in Linux yet. I'll figure it out eventually. I wish someone would make it easier for me, though.

From openal.org: " OpenAL is a cross-platform 3D audio API appropriate for use with gaming applications and many other types of audio applications."

OpenAL was originally created by the now defunct Loki Games, with the help of Creative(who created the original SoundBlaster, and is generally the biggest innovator in the Desktop Sound world). Loki Games used to create Linux ports of video games about 4-5 years ago before going bankrupt. Before going bankrupt however, they ported at least 20 high quality games to Linux, created the SDL library, OpenAL, and a few other Open Source libraries and programs(the Loki installer is still in use in many commercial games). SDL stands for Simple DirectMedia Library. What it is, is a library that provides a layer of abstraction between video, audio and networking, very similar to Microsoft's DirectX. However, SDL is multilpatform which means that and program made using SDL could very possibly work on Windows, Linux, MacOS X, and BeOS. When SDL is combined with OpenGL, and OpenAL, that creates a very poweful layer that creates a complete next generation environment for hardware accelerated video games.

Many of the employess of Loki Games did not quit programming when Loki Games went bankrupt. On individual is Ryan "Icculus" Gordon. He is very much responsible for a geat deal of the new Linux(and MacOS X) ports, including just about everything that uses the Unreal Tournament engine. Unreal Tournament 2003/2004 uses OpenAL, SDL, and has an OpenGL renderer...it even uses the Loki installer.

Here's the kicker. Microsoft is going to be using OpenAL for 3d audio in Longhorn, the next version of their operating system. This probably means that the Xbox 360 will too. Does anyone see the irony in that? Granted, it's essentially Creative's OpenAL, but it has it's roots in Linux Game porting. So, OpenAL will be the defacto standard for 3d audio in games accross pretty much every platform, and a standard that covers all platforms doesn't really happen very often. It's kind of awe inspiring. It might be frightening, but you can't really call OpenAL a monopoly. I mean, it's open, and it's free. OpenAL is neat.

That's not all on the 3d audio front though. Creative is coming out with new graphics technology which boasts performance like no one on earth has ever seen. The difference in performanc of today's sound cards and Creative's new X-Fi is not a small gap, it's a huge chasm. We're talking something like 24X faster.

You can read more on OpenAL and Creative X-Fi here.

The X-Fi is one sign that next-gen computer gaming might be able to compete with next-gen console gaming(Xbox 360 and PS3 mainly), but if the cost of the X-Fi soundcard is comparable to the cost of the consoles, then I don't know. As it stands, the anounced statistics for the Xbox 360 and PS3 looks like the consoles will the ludicrously expensive, but we'll just have to say. I'll probably have more to say on the console hardware later.

But for the moment:

Heroes of Might and Magic 5
Heroes of Might and Magic is a fantasty turn based strategy franchise based on the Might and Magic Franchise. I have enjoyed playing many hours of Heroes of Might and Magic(mostly II, III, and IV). 3do bought the developer who made them long, long ago, and then went bankrupt shortly after releasing HoMM IV. After that Ubisoft bought the rights to the franchises and they have recently anounced the next in the HoMM series. The developer, Nival Interactive, has been making Strategy games for a while, but I have never played any of them. What has been released so far about the game makes it sound like it will be very different from the former games, but maybe that won't be a bad thing(HoMM IV didn't do particularly well). I'm just not sure it will really feel like a Heroes of Might and Magic game. Tycho at PennyArcade seems to be a big fan of Nival, so hopefully that's good tidings. We will have to wait and see.

Orson Scott Card wrote Ender's Game, which is a very good book. He has recently been designing a video game called "Advent Rising" and gamespot.com has an interview from him here.

George Romero is a legend in the horror film business, and he has a new game called City of the Dead

Microsoft has a "Get the Facts on Windows and Linux" web page which is, of course, filled to the brim with propoganda. Some of it probably true, some of it's probably ludicrous. I found something I thought was funny here though. It says:

"Most mid-sized enterprises are simply not interested in Linux. Forty-eight percent of survey respondents indicated that they are not interested in Linux, and another 15 percent are not sure. Only 10 percent plan to evaluate Linux within the next three years.

Only 27 percent of mid-sized companies currently have Linux installed."

First of all, when is 48 percent a majority? Second of all 52% of 1400 companies is a lot of companies. 27% already have Linux installed even. I thought it was like 5%. That's a big deal. Reading this would make me more interested in Linux for my company, not less. Those spin doctors will try spin anything. Whenever I first noticed the stats I think I burst out laughing. Granted, I have a weird since of humour.(I wrote this while running Gentoo Linux, btw)

There are probably thousands, if not millions, of free computer games in the world. So, as I find some that seem interesting, I will be posting them, if I remember, as I find them. The subject of tonight's escapades is "adventure games".

http://www.agdinteractive.com/ was formerly called Tierra. They have created two fine remakes of classic adventure games, so far: Sierra Online's "King's Quest" and "King's Quest II". They also have another remake in production and a commercial game under the company name Himalaya Studios.

The remakes are made using "Adventure Game Studio"(AGS). There are many many fan made games using AGS, some of them mediocre at best, and some of them very nice, and most can be found at the website. Two I have completed are "The Adventure of Fatman" and "5 days a Stranger."

Something similar to the AGS engine is "Sludge". At their website is one free game "Out of Order", which is a highly enjoyable game, in my opinion.

I recently found yet another game engine, and there . I don't know why I haven't heard of it...maybe I have and I forgot. This engine is the WinterMute engine.

One of the commerical games using the WinterMute Engine is Juniper Crescent - The Sapphire Claw, which is based on a web comic created by a man named Steve Ince(he is responsible for the game too). Ince used to work for Revolution Software until recently. Revolution Software created a number of nice adventure game titles, the most recent being "Broken Sword 3". Two of Revolution's games is freeware, Beneath a Steel Sky(BASS) and Lure of the Temptress. BASS came after temptress and is much better.

You can get BASS from scummvm.org. Scummvm, which was originally a virtual machine designed to play Lucas Arts Adventure games, such as Maniac Mansion, Monkey Island, Day of the Tentacle, and Full Throttle. However, it has now included many other games. Two of which are freeware. The first being BASS. The second being Flight of the Amazon Queen(FOTAQ). One of the most recent game implementations in Scummvm is "Gobliiins", which is a sort of puzzle/adventure game. I think that's pretty exciting, because that game always ran very poorly on my system.

Well, I think that's all the games I've looked at tonight. I'm going to check out the wintermute games, and maybe I'll post her with my opinions.

Those bastards killed Kate!

I forgot this chess game, made with ogre. It's pretty neat.

Update: She didn't dump me for sprite.

Ever wanted to play a realistic curling simulation. Well, there is one right here. There is a trial, but the full version is only $8.

How about "online team-based biker gang combat and racing"? Well, you can find that Here. This one is free too, because it was developed by a group of students graduating from some University in Paris, France.

Both of those games were developed using "OGRE 3D", an Open Source Graphics Rendering Engine. O.G.R.E. Get it? It's been in development for a long time and it just hit 1.0 this April. There are other examples of games made with this Rendering Engine on the website.

So, I just ranted for two hours to my girlfriend, Leslie, about how her habit of drinking sprite every day is unhealthy and a big reason for the weight gain she has seen over the past few years. I think she may have totally missed the point though and just heard(and seen, because a lot of it was text messenging)"he thinks I'm fat", "he hates me". I don't understand how cutting down on soft drinks is that big of a deal. It's really easy for me.

Here's a good article from the washington post that proves that I'm not just of my frikkin' mind.

A few quotes:

"he study of more than 50,000 U.S. nurses found that those who drank just one serving of soda or fruit punch a day tended to gain much more weight than those who drank less than one a month, and had more than an 80 percent increased risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, the most common form of the disease. The risk pertained to drinks sweetened with either sugar or high-fructose corn syrup."

How much weight gain you ask?

"Data collected from 51,603 women over an average of four years found that the women who gained the most weight were those who increased their consumption of non-diet drinks from one or fewer per week to one or more per day, the researchers found. Such women gained an average of 10.3 pounds, compared with an average of slightly less than three pounds for those who consumed one drink or less per week."

And the quote which explains why I even give a shit:

"The message is: Anyone who cares about their health or the health of their family would not consume these beverages,"

That doesn't even mention that sprite has more sugar than all the other soft drinks(38 grams per 12 oz...about 10 packets of sugar). I'm also not sure if it mentions that the particular kind of sugar used in soft drinks doesn't even get turned in to energy...only fat.

I'm not even really that severe about it. I just want to see her drop from one or more a day to a few a week. It can be gradual too. Like only one a day or less for a month, and then 6 a week or less for a month. That's all. Really. Is that too much to ask?

I hate always feeling like the bad guy. People only want you to care when someone else hurt them, they never want you to care when they are hurting themselves.

"I'm going to need more eye shadow if I want to attract nasty old men."

Edit May 15: I think the link was wrong. Now it's right.