This here blog.
Posted on August 20, 2009 at 10:29 am.
You know, when I wrote this blog engine back in 2005, I did it to practice my ASP skills, and to power this web site. I didn't see it having any other uses, and even as I expanded and updated it over the years, I always thought that it's purely for personal use.
Well, at some point I took stock and it appears that my blog engine is running on a couple commercial web sites and some non-commercial ones too.
o.O
Imagine that...
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Mini Ninjas Demo.
Posted on August 19, 2009 at 11:06 pm.
I downloaded the Mini Ninjas demo from Steam and gave it a go. I've heard about the game before and was interested enough to keep it in the back of my mind.
It looks every bit as good as I expected, which is a plus. It detected my resolution on start-up and adjusted accordingly, which is also a plus.
Another piece of good news is that everything seems fun and intuitive, with most interface features being self explanatory.
The bad news is, the camera and controls suck. I don't know maybe it makes sense on consoles, but on PC the controls in combat are so strange that when fighting multiple enemies you are pretty much reduced to button mashing in hopes of hitting something. There is no precision there. Also, when sailing on water, the camera does the weirdest things, for example refusing to stay behind the character.
Overall I'm not interested enough to buy it full price. Maybe if they send it to me for free or if there is a HUGE sale on Steam. See for yourself though, the demo is pretty short.
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Canadian health care.
Posted on August 18, 2009 at 10:38 am.
Here's some cheerful news from Canadia.
Those waiting for surgery in Vancouver will now wait much longer... if they don't croak while waiting. Apparently where there is not free market - there is no money, and where there is no money - there is no way to pay the doctors. So the said doctors will be fired.
Cheers.
Source: here.
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NHS = birth on a sidewalk.
Posted on August 18, 2009 at 10:35 am.
A hospital in Britain told a pregnant woman who was about to give birth to walk a 100 meters, because they don't send ambulances this close, and she had 9 month to prepare for it anyway.
Source: here.
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Movie - Wolfhound.
Posted on August 15, 2009 at 11:11 am.
As I wrote before, I am continuing my attempts to find a good Russian movie. So far I failed miserably, so as I was walking through Blockbuster last night, I decided to pick up Wolfhound.
Wolfhound (Волкодав) is based on a novel by a contemporary Russian author Mariya Semenova. Personally I think the novel is so-so, but apparently some people swear by it.
This film looks good. Not good as in awesome and spectacular, but good as in adequate and definitely on the level. In other words I have no complaints about the visuals.
I do, however, have major complaints about everything else. Plot, character development and acting are mediocre at best. And that's me being generous. The worst part by far is of course the dialogues. Whoever wrote those, deserves to be eaten by cockroaches.
The movie has English and Russian audio, so I watched it in Russian. Occasionally I repeated a particular scene in English, just to see whether it was translated well. I must say the English version is the same uninspired bullshit as the Russian one. Of course it is hard to take a bunch of crap dialogue and translate it into something credible, so no surprises there.
Overall, this movie is something that can and most likely should be avoided.
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Whole Foods.
Posted on August 14, 2009 at 4:17 pm.
I've been boycotting them since waaaaay before it was hip and trendy to do so.
Here's a blog entry from 2007 to prove it.
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I am batman!
Posted on August 8, 2009 at 9:49 am.
I've been playing the demo of Batman: Arkham Asylum, and I must say it's lots of fun, but... it's also the first game ever to give my computer hell of a workout. At 2560x1600 with everything on high and physics enabled... I get like 1 fps. I guess my 9800GTX SLI has outlived itself.
What's out there as far as video cards, that would be a good idea?
[Edit] Ok, nevermind, I was begin stupid. I didn't have a separate card dedicated to physics. Duh! Now that I disabled it, and removed 16x AA, the game is very smooth. No need to upgrade.
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StarCraft II delayed.
Posted on August 6, 2009 at 8:17 pm.
StarCraft II is delayed until 2010. I feel a disturbance in the force, as if millions of Koreans cried out in terror ... then ... silence.
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Game #131 - Rosemary.
Posted on August 4, 2009 at 11:50 pm.
I came across this tiny adventure game, which was developed by some lady as part of her dissertation on the subject over at MIT.
It's very very short, took me less than 10 minutes, but it has a very nice atmosphere.
It's a real game, even though it's short, and it is very artistic, which is why I decided to count it towards my list. It is now #131.
You can check it out for free, right here. It's a small download of only 29 Mb.
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Movie - Night Watch.
Posted on August 3, 2009 at 11:00 am.
Those of you who know me, are aware of the fact that I am not a big fan of contemporary Russian art. In particular I am extremely disillusioned with the current state of cinema and games.
Books are different, because literature is pure ideas, and Russians are great at ideas. However, when it comes to execution, anything they make with their hands is utterly crap-tastic.
Every now and again I give it a shot, and check out a game or a movie. Last week I watched a movie called Night Watch (Ночной Дозор). It's based on a book by Sergei Lukyanenko, a contemporary fiction/fantasy/sci-fi writer.
This film is SHIT.
I'm not talking about the fact that it is only very loosely connected to the book. I understand that literature and cinema are different genres of art, and what works for one doesn't work for another.
I am talking about SHIT acting, SHIT dialogue, SHIT scene setup, SHIT special effects... and SHIT everything else.
Some time ago a read that Russians love it and call it their "first national blockbuster". I don't know what sort of block they are trying to bust, but if anyone ever needs an example of nationalism clouding judgment - this is it.
In any event, if you haven't seen this movie yet - KEEP IT THAT WAY!!!
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Nations do not survive by setting examples for others. Nations survive by making examples of others.
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