User:	simpsons_fix (posted by cherry_pizza)
	Date:	2009-07-13 17:01
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	User:	simpsons_fix (posted by cherry_pizza)
	Date:	2009-07-12 18:06
	Subject:
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	User:	delascabezas
	Date:	2009-07-10 08:00
	Subject:	happy friday
	Security:	Public

MTV International / Mister Furry from Universal Everything on Vimeo.

	User:	simpsons_fix (posted by cherry_pizza)
	Date:	2009-07-10 17:02
	Subject:
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	User:	bradamant
	Date:	2009-07-09 22:37
	Subject:	Moderate affinity.
	Security:	Public

It took a hell of a long time, but I've made it through The Reality Dysfunction, the first volume in a trilogy recommended to me by ennnis. It's a "space opera" about a futuristic society plagued by an evil force that "sequestrates," or maybe just possesses, people.

The story takes place in the Confederation in the 2600s. The set-up is quite detailed and interesting. One group, the Adamists, lives on a failing planet Earth and various other planets. The Adamists are mostly like the people of today, but with neural implants that allow them to "datavise" or communicate directly with computers. They have starships and nuclear weapons and whatnot. Another group, the Edenists, has a different kind of technology that is organic. Edenists have genetic changes that allow them to have an affinity bond with each other and with their habitats, which are miniplanets made entirely of organic matter. This bond allows them to share thoughts and feelings inside their own heads, without speaking, and to see through other people's eyes. They also have spaceships that are organic and have personalities and memories. When Edenists die, the intangible part of them is absorbed into the habitat. The distinction between the two groups is essentially religious; they trade and coexist more or less peacefully.

The plot of the book revolves around a new planet, Lalonde, which is being settled under a Dutch East India Company-esque scheme. Colonists have bought in, and come from Earth or other failing urban planets to farm. We see a group of the colonists struggling to get their village, Aberdale, up and running. This is fresh stuff--after all, in sci-fi like Star Wars and Firefly, the farmers are just there as redshirts or comic relief. However, an evil force appears on the planet and begins to take over villages and people in a mysterious way. The book has a huge number of characters, including Joshua "Self-Insert" Calvert, a strapping starship captain with remarkable sexual and technical skills, and many female figures that are almost characterized well enough for you to be able to tell them apart. There is a planet with a culture nostalgic for 19th century England and a bunch of marines who have huge machine guns welded to their forearms. So while Lalonde turns out to be central to the plot, it doesn't dominate in terms of number of pages. There is a lot going on here, and some if it must pertain to the later volumes of the trilogy, since it doesn't pan out in this one.

This book is either rather good or completely terrible. The author is certainly inventive, but I often had occasion to wish that he'd handed over his ideas to someone else to write. The pacing here is frustrating. At times, he is so enamored of discussing planetary trajectories and technology that you wonder if you will ever see a sentient being again. There seems to be little structure governing the arrangement of scenes. There are problems with the POV. You'll be reading about Person A doing something from the point of view of Person B, watching them from 20 yards away. Then all of a sudden you're in Person A's head. Or, scenes of a space battle cut back and forth between the POVs of people in different, even opposing spaceships, with no notice. This problem is so basic to telling a story that I'd expect even a novice to avoid it instinctually.

The novel is quite long and there are two volumes left. In the end, I feel about it the way I did about A Game of Thrones. It has its good and bad points, and I thought I was intrigued enough by the plot to read the sequels, but I never did. We'll see about this one.

The Reality Dysfunction: Two smileys, I guess. Would have been three if the author had cut 500 pages.

	User:	phanatic
	Date:	2009-07-09 09:43
	Subject:	Heh
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Nobody likes brutalism.

	User:	damonbradl
	Date:	2009-07-09 08:35
	Subject:	power office
	Security:	Public

Using Excel as an architectural design tool:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2349758,00.asp?kc=PCRSS03129TX1K0000625

This of course is mainly an excuse for me to brag that in high school, I used PowerPoint as a CAD app. So anyway I'm still way cooler than you.

	User:	simpsons_fix (posted by cherry_pizza)
	Date:	2009-07-09 13:41
	Subject:
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	User:	simpsons_fix (posted by cherry_pizza)
	Date:	2009-07-09 13:38
	Subject:
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	User:	phanatic
	Date:	2009-07-08 11:32
	Subject:	Had enough fuckin' change yet?
	Security:	Public

The Obama administration is now arguing that it gets to keep people locked up as long as it wants to even if they've been acquitted by a court.

	User:	delascabezas
	Date:	2009-07-08 07:49
	Subject:	happy sequential date day
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	User:	simpsons_fix (posted by cherry_pizza)
	Date:	2009-07-08 09:54
	Subject:
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	User:	delascabezas
	Date:	2009-07-07 15:19
	Subject:	SP FTW
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	User:	phanatic
	Date:	2009-07-07 10:45
	Subject:	Shit I'm tired of waiting for. Or, problems of the rich.
	Security:	Public

1. Windows 7.

Don't mock. The desktop runs XP, has done so for about two years, and it's about time for a fresh install. But with 7 coming out in a few months, I don't want to do that. Hurry up and come out already.

2. A new iPod Touch.

I dropped mine on the floor, and the screen started going wonky. I've got two black horizontal lines across the screen, and you can see the LCD material bleeding into adjacent cells. The interface on the iPhone and the Touch is so superior to this creaking UI on the hard-drive based players that there is no way I want to buy another one of them, but the current Touch is only 32 gigs, not big enough to hold all my stuff. Despite that the iPhone is also only 32 gigs, I'm very tempted to buy one for two reasons: It's $100 less than the 32-gig Touch, and it comes with what's apparently a pretty damned decent phone camera. My hope is that the next round of iPod announcements will foretell a 64 gig model with the camera, in which case I'd buy it instantly. Hurry up and come out, already.

3. Diablo III

4. The Pacific

It's Band of Brothers II. It's still produced by Spielberg and Hanks, so I expect the same utterly top-notch quality, but instead of following the 101st Airborne Division in Europe, it follows the 1st Marine Division. That's Guadalcanal, Peleliu, Okinawa, New Guinea. This is going to be absolutely amazing.

	User:	phanatic
	Date:	2009-07-07 10:33
	Subject:	Grrrrrr
	Security:	Public

Seems like work just decided to block forums.somethingawful.com. This is most disappointing.