What's on Alainn's Mind?

Grachtenfietser

alainn — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 14:15:31 +0000

God of War 2

alainn — Wed, 26 Apr 2006 08:20:52 +0000

Although I have seriously limited time to play games, the trailer to this one even makes me want to pick up PS2 just to play it. The last time I had this urge was when Halo came out on the Xbox.

Judging from the trailer the game looks excellent, even on the new much older PS2.

YouTube-link

The story:
"Unleash the power of the Gods and embark on a merciless quest as Kratos, an ex-Spartan warrior driven to destroy Ares, the God of War. Armed with lethal double chainblades, Kratos must carve through mythology’s darkest creatures— including Medusa, Cyclops, the Hydra and more, while solving intricate puzzles in breathtaking environments. Driven by pure revenge, nothing can stop Kratos from achieving absolution."

Pictures:

Smart Label

alainn — Wed, 22 Mar 2006 11:16:14 +0000

The prediction made by John Underkoffler (MIT) that everything will have it’s own interactive display, as seen in the movie Minority Report, has made a first step. Liteon has made Smartlabels for consumer goods like milkcontainers, indicating the age of the contained milk. “The Smart Label is applied with a ‘disappearing ink’ technique that disappears through oxidization. Different colours will appear on the Smart Label over time, as the food draws near its expiry time, thus indicating the quality of the product. It is a form of management over the quality of food, which is independent and controlled by real time, assuring the trust and confidence of consumers in the product. As the Smart Label changes its icon, it can also reflect the corresponding discount price of the product, saving time and money for the consumer.” Yes this is still miles away from the ads-screaming cerial breakfast-boxes, but it seems like a good step in the acceptance by the consumer.

Clerks 2

alainn — Tue, 21 Mar 2006 12:11:41 +0000

Ok, hold the phone/posts/jobs/reports/essays and all that stuff: Kevin Smith is making/has made Clerks 2!
Since most of the people I know have been, at one time or another, forced to see Clerks (OK, that was also me. Sorry Mo: I know you’re my boss and everything…) I can asume you all know the film (or flic in Kevin-speak). And Kevin Smith has made/is making a sequel to it: Clerks 2! And I even used a second exclamation wich I know is a sign for really too much excitement!

For those of you who haven’t seen this film (I want names and home-locations) this is KS’s best film out of a three part New Jersey-setting (although KS will probably not see it that way). It’s a story about a guy who’s at that point in life where you’re either content with what you’ve got or still want to have more (career-, social-, relationship-, money-wise). He’s in a relationship with a girl but in love with another and meanwhile has a job in a Quick-Stop convenience store but thinks about going back to college. This long sentence might give you the impression that it’s full of plot turns, development and excitement. But as true Jedis know: these are not the things to crave for. It’s more the laid-back observation of life and your own desires in it that make the film work.
After I saw it in a small theatre in Amsterdam it began to grow on me and have been it’s propper (getting people into the theatre) ever since. Some friends saw a new lease on life and why they should follow the path they’re on (and have since stopped being friends, sorry Kim) and others have found new insights into the sexual activities of their girlfriends (sorry Paul). Although the dutch DVD was somewhat lacking in features (and that subtitling could have been left out altogether), I’m still a fan and hold the film on par with Cinema Paradiso (it’s a development-thing).

So, back to the sequel: am I going to like it? Am I going to turn into one of those fundamentalists always neeping about that this was never the True Intention Of The Story? Seeing the decline in how much I’m attached to KS’s later work (although J&SBSB has earned a special spot), I must say I’m a bit sceptical. This however has nothing to do with the quality of KS’s work but more with my understanding of where I am (in a ViewAskew-universe).

Will post more when more comes through, bbl.

Will this be any better?

alainn — Tue, 21 Mar 2006 11:24:27 +0000

OK, I admit it: installing WordPress locally didn’t work, despite it’s really clear install-guide. The access to the MySQL-server was just constantly hindered by some setting. I could have asked Jelmer about this but IT and asking for help just doesn’t go together.

To get around this I tried to get the blogger working on blogger.com, but seeing I’ve got some long rants I needed to get the posts split. And this is where blogger lacks in functionality.

First I tried to get it to work with advice from O’Reilly books. At first it seemed like a breeze and my posts looked a lot more structured in Opera. However testing it in Firefox showed that all posts were expanded again, converting the page into a 5-fold page.

So now I’ll try WordPress and hopefully they’ll be able to get the posts right.

BBL