Holidays, in & out.

(I knew it wouldn’t be a year before the next post. Hurray for me ! This might get you bored tough.)

So I concluded my last post by saying I was working too much. I think things turned nice in that regard. I’ve had my exams, which by definition are period of intense work, but I’m happy with how I fared, at least emotionally (grades should be tomorrow or at least in a few day, so we’ll see about that – I expect them to be good but there are one or two courses I’m unsure of).

But the thing with exam is that it is a period where you expect to have no free time. The real challenge comes now with the advent of the new semester. I have only 20h of course per week, for a total of 27 credits. But it’s 6 courses and I know that’s plenty enough to keep me occupied all the time if I don’t organise myself and if I don’t impose myelf a break from time to time.

So, what with the holidays ? They passed blazingly fast (as one would expect after a month of hard labor). I am proud however that this time was not wasted (and yet I would have liked to do more). I set up a backup scheme for my data using Microsft Synctoy, and I know dispose a copy less than a week old of all my data. That’s kinda cool, I know I would have been quite pissed off if I lost my main hard drive after all the time spent aggregating all of it’s content.

I also learned myself a bit of XSLT, as I will be using it to build the website of my father’s company. It’s really nice, and supported by all browsers (yes, even IE6). I really don’t know why it’s not widely known or used (World Of Warcraft website used it for very long tough – and I think it still does).

A thing I forgot to mention in the last post is that I’ve been learning to drive with my grandfather for about 3 months. Quite frankly the process was (and still is) quite stressful. After all, I was bumped into by another car (and actually I was mostly not my fault). But things are going well, even if I’m really not satisfied with how I drive yet.

As for leisures, I’ve been playing a bit of wow (and hope to be playing more of it with friends very soon) and I replayed dark messiah, which definetely is one of the most well-realized and original games I have played. I don’t understand why there’s not a bunch of games trying to emulate its gameplay. The combat system is so good… way better than the one from Oblivion for instance. Combining it with a more open world and a solid story would make for an amazing game.

Apart from that, I’ve been reimmersing myself in C a bit, as it is of interest to me, and I will need it anyway for my OS course next semester.

Anyway, we’ll see what will come out of all this.

 

Long time, no see.

It is as the title says. One reason is that I haven’t really played an awesome game or read an amazing book in a while. Also I wanted this come-back-from-the-deads post to be something grand. But really it hasn’t to. I’m not dillusional, really. I know nobody reads this, but I like to write here anyway. It marks the passing of time, gives a log into my mind to see what I was thinking at the time, it reminds me of little pleasure that can still be mine.

So on to the content now. I lied a bit when I said that I haven’t stumbled on awesome things. First for the reading part there is this awesome, uncredible, world-shredding masterpiece called Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality. Yep, it’s a fan-fiction. But I’d go as far to say that it match the original in quality and reading pleasure, tough the style of both are world aparts. The premise is very simple : Harry now has a rational, scientific and curious approach to the world and especially to magic, of course. I’ll let you read it now !

You done ? Pfiu, that was quick for a novel of 50 chapters (and counting). Anyway, on to the next topic now : video games (we all love them) ! I’ve played a lot of Starcraft II at the begin of the semester. It’s really a good game, well rounded and all. Unfortunately it can get quite stressful and while it is stimulating, it isn’t the best activity to blow off steam when not working (I’ll get back to the topic of work shortly). Anyway, did a lot of teamplay with my good friend Valentin, Adrien and Olivier.

But we have found another entertaining video games to spend our evenings on : Borderlands. Basically an rpg/fps that can be played collaboratively. I was told that I can get tedious quickly, and I can kinda understand why. It the meantime we have lots of fun with it and I think it is like World of Warcraft in this regard : fun if played with friends in the right goofy mindset.

And to close the list, I’m now playing trough The Elder Scroll IV : Oblivion. An old game, that I heard about long ago, but hadn’t got around playing. Well that was a shame (or rather, a good thing since I now have an interesting game to play). I’ll perhaps write a piece about it if I get to the end !

Oh and you may have heard about Minecraft ! Great game, the possibilites are just endless. It doesn’t however give you any instant gratification, and it takes a long time to achieve anything. In the end it is also pointless, much like World Of Warcraft.

Back to the beginning, why didn’t I post in such a long time ? The main reason, in addition to what I’ve written above is that I simply had too much work. I’ve really had a full plate all along and it’s beggining to really annoy me. This year is as bad as the previous was, maybe even worse and it seems that the only I do of my life is work, with a quick relief in tv show and short evening play sessions. Recently (last week or so) I wake up and said “away with this crap”. I really don’t want this to be my life, it really isn’t worth it. It isn’t even a productive use of my time to study so much. So now I’m much more willing to rush things, hopefully whitout jeoparding anything.

It’s funny because paradoxically this comes at a time where I realize I actually have some incentive to score high at the university (which I’ve done the last two years). First is have priority for a potential exchange student trip to the united states (I plan on doing it in two years, if I can), the other being that you need at least a “distinction” (I think you could transpose it to be a “cum laude”) to get into a Ph.D program, which I’m a little bit interested into.

Thinking about it however, those things are not really important, the trip would be nice, but a good life during the two years that leads there would be even nicer. And the Ph. D I’m not really sure. I seemed like a good idea but recently I’ve had a bad taste of academical nonsense. Also I fear it will be a continuation of this working-spree that is currently making me feel bad. The main reason this was a path of interest for me is that most of the work you can get in computer science here in Belgium is pretty much humdrum, working in banks or consulting firms. But a humdrum job means you have time, time to work on your own project on the side, and that’s good. So the grass don’t really seem that much greener on the other side of the fence.

What we now need to see is if I can sustain this non-work effort. Because actually for the time being I don’t see that much reduction in my work. If you think I’m screwed up, you’re probably right.

As for what to do with this time, I’d like to finally have some project of my own that don’t go right into the wall. I’m thinking of learning C++ and OpenGL and maybe do a couple games, I have also a lot of other ideas (a text editor, a programming langage, …).

See you next time (hopefully it won’t be a year or so !).

 

 

Are WoW private realms legal ?

Here is something I’ve been thinking about for a while, regarding World Of Warcraft. Blizzard sells you a game, then make you pay for playing on their server. The key here is that you purchased two different thing : first the game client with all of it’s content, then the right to connect to an infrastructure to enjoy this game.

Now, can they really (and by that I mean legally) prevent you from playing on private realms (also called “pirate” realms). Since you purchased the game, you should be able to “plug it” wherever you want, not only on the servers owned by Blizzard.

While Blizzard would like to make you think that their position (private realms are illegal) is right and obvious, they fully realize that it isn’t so simple. If it was, why didn’t they sue private realms owner ? I think they fear that they could loose and that it could cause an explosion of the number of “private” realms and of their popularity. They might also fear giving free advertisement to those realms with a legal action, and getting hit by some kind of “pirate backlash”.

While the legal situation of private realms remains unclear, few people dare launching their own servers – especially paid ones – because they fear a lawsuit from Blizzard. But if it was deemed legal by a court decision, then there would be a huge market opportunity and lots of people would fly in to try getting a slice of the pie.

I saved the universe (once again).

Recently I played trough Star Wars : Knight of the Old Republic. I had started it long ago, but I stopped midway for no apparent reason (given the game is awesome). So I corrected this gruesome mistake. I played a light side character, tough I’ve started quite neutral, some of those dark side answers are just so amusing ! But I felt I had to make a choice, and going dark side is … disturbing (for the good guy that I am, deep inside). If you want to go dark side, you have to commit a 100% to it.

(For those that have no clue, you play a character that will eventually become a jedi and each of your choices drive closer to the light or dark side of the force.)

And … what can I say, thirty hours later, here we are. The games starts off amazing with star wars theme and scrolling text, and end equally amazingly. When everyone acclaims you and that master Vandar congratulates you for your actions, and add a mythic line about jedi knights, you can’t help it but to say “I did it, bitches, I’m a jedi !”.

Spoiler alert : here’s the light side ending :

So while it has it’s glitches, Knight of the Old Republic is most definitely a game you want to play trough, especially if you’re a Star Wars fan or a RPG lover. If not, well it’s a good place to start off.

Why I Game

Most games can, one way or another, be played for what we call “the fun”, the thrill of learning and mastering new skills, being able to beat challenges that keeps getting harder. Required skills vary quite a bit from game to game, and that’s what condition our like or dislike for some of them.

But that’s not what makes video games so distinct. It’s story and ambiance that make a game really worth it. Each game has it’s own universe you may interact with. Sometimes you play a key part in the story, other times you may even change the story and thus the universe by your very own choices.

When the universe is great, you feel dragged into the game, involved. The games stops being only about fun and skill mastering but it start also being about emotions. In some games theses emotions even call for choices, choices that will affect the universe, and yourself trough it.

Video games let you project yourself or who-ever you choose to impersonate into their universe, thus effectively becoming a part of it. And that’s what great about gaming. Being emotionally involved in the universe allows you to feel things you wouldn’t or couldn’t have felt otherwise due to physical limitations, risks, moral consideration, etc…

You can now see why video games are different (and in some sense, superior) to books and movies. They  also have their universe, but they don’t allow you to be a part of it, and even less to influence it.

If I may summarize, for me gaming is about being emotionally involved in a universe and feeling great things trough it. Isn’t that finally what life is all about ?

Let me just add that most players do not play to escape reality, tough it might seem like that at first, but to circumvent all kinds of limitation. It’s like having all the goods things, the  great feelings, without the drawbacks that may arise if done in real life (if that’s even possible). That’s  also why video games are full of extraordinary people doing extraordinary things, for the rest may already be done in real life.

 

F.lux takes care of your monitor luminosity.

F.lux is really one of those software treasures you sometimes stumble on. What it does is very simple : according to the time of day, it changes the luminosity of your screen to accomodate your eyes. You’ll notice little change during the day (tough the screen appear a little more blue if you pay attention), but in the evening, the light gets “warmer”. See the two photos (before and after) above to illustrate this effect. As explained on the website, monitors mimic daylight, and you shouldn’t be looking at the sun in the evening. Great if you do lots of late surfing.

Gran Torino Review

While I always thought Clint Eastwood was cool, especially as actor, I must say I wasn’t convinced by Million Dollar Baby and The Changeling. Gran Torino however, is pure genius. I really enjoyed the old school, delusional and a bit racist character impersonated by Eastwood that becomes friend with a Vietnamese family and eventually protects them from a gang.

The movie is at the same time touching and captivating. Moreover it’s just done right all along, like a carefully crafted piece of art. It doesn’t lack any coherence, and that’s a rare enough quality in movies to be noted.

The original theme song by Jamie Cullum and Clint Eastwood is also stunning. It really fits the end of the movie, making it the perfect finish for a nearly-perfect movie. You can listen to it here.