I bought some small dice here. Besides game design, these dice here also serve an important purpose in decision making. It's like my magic 8-ball. :D
I roll the dice, find what random number shows up, and then I attempt to interpret those numbers to make my decision. I know it sounds pretty dumb, but it's pretty funny. :D
And yes, that is a macroeconomics book the dice are on. Imagine if all the policy makers in the world used my method of decision making: throwing dice. :D
Being alive: What do I think? I think you are alive as long as you are expending some resources that cannot become beneficial to someone else since you have to consume them. What do I mean by this? If you kill someone and don't report it, they are legally alive, and if they are receiving payments of some kind, and you take it, they aren't alive. They are no longer expending resources that cannot become benefit another person. For obvious reasons, death is the opposite of being alive. Why do I not mention sentience? Even if you are brain dead - you still cost someone money. And if you are being kept alive in a braindead of retarded state, someone obviously believes you are still alive.
Why do I choose such a cold state to define it? Because a lot of people don't know it, but that's their definition. What incentive is there otherwise?
(Yes, I know I haven't quite posted anything in a while. I haven't been taken any time to think about what to blog about, in favour of more important issues like studying and so on. In addition, I've had a bad long bout of writer's block, which is still on right now. Be patient, and things will smooth over.)
Kanya wakes up in an unfamiliar room. "That's odd. I thought I was following Cassandra onto the Aegis. And then, my memory is a blank."
"Ah, you're awake." An unfamiliar voice.
"Where am I?"
"You're in the infirmary on the Aegis. Apparently, you just collapsed on the floor after entering the Aegis. One of the crew members found you lying on the floor. We don't know what happened, and your files don't show any relevant medical history."
"I don't even know how I got on the ship."
"Either way, you'll be causing quite a fuss in the administration of the ship. Someone in security is going to get it for having the system allow in unauthorised personnel. Anyway, you've been given temporary clearance for the time being."
"Why?"
"For one, you just collapsed for no apparent reason. Another thing is that we want to do some study on you. We want to keep you in observation for about a month. After that, you can be on your way and board the Kirkor when we rendezvous with it in about a month."
"Becoming a lab rat, huh."
"We are for the most part, a TRi research ship. We aren't like the Kirkor, which is a military ship. You won't need to perform any military duties while you are onboard, but it is highly suggested you join the ordinary pilots during practice sessions so that you won't be too rusty when you get on the Kirkor."
Meanwhile, Erse had heard of the intrusion. She was already going through several screens of code and monitoring data in the security room.
"No visible difference in any of the information. This is going just as planned." Erse said to herself.
Pandora is actually behind her. "We have more important things to do now than monitor his progress. He'll be on the ship until we meet the Kirkor anyway."
"I'm quite certain you know the purpose of being called here," Erse stated the obvious. "You want me to transfer to your ship, correct?" Cassandra replied.
"Your guess is correct. I am unsure as to the reason you have been kept on the MV2904 but I have been pulling strings to find out. However, it might be unsafe if you remain outside my sphere of influence as I go deeper into matter. The main reason I have come is to recruit you."
"I am honoured, but what do you mean pulling strings? And why should you care about me?"
"You see, there have been a few rather peculiar occurences regarding certain people who stand out because of their outstanding skills. Often, they find themselves in circumstances not unlike the ones you have been in. Contrary to popular belief, my supposedly random recruitment is not random at all."
"What do you mean?"
"I have been picking up whoever I can without raising too much suspicion in the process. They know what I have been doing, and they know that I am on to them. While a matter like this might seem trivial to a person like me, the issue spreads far deeper than you know. I cannot go over the details and I cannot give you any information for reasons you already know."
"Understood."
"So, will you accept my offer and be the leader of one of the fighter squadrons of the Aegis? I have been waiting a long time for an opening to offer to you."
"I have been stuck on that junk ship for a long time. I'll take the job."
"Good."
A member of the Aegis staff suddenly walks in. He has news.
I think it's about time I wrote a hardware review again. :D I've chosen the Nintendo DS as my, um, victim. OK, so I have a DS. I decided that with the advent of the DS Lite, I should take this opportunity to grab a DS as the prices decline. :D First off, I believe a comparison is in order. There are reasons why I thought the PSP was higher on my 'to buy' list than the DS, and this picture shows it.
While arguably, my photo taking skills suck, this photo is merely to show you what I think Nintendo screwed up on the DS. As you can see, the screen is visibly worse. You think that PSP is on max brightness? Think again. That PSP is on minimum brightness.
Why did I use the flash? If I didn't, you wouldn't be able to see the difference. Some people might argue it doesn't matter, and a flash shouldn't be used in this comparison. It matters - a flash is a good test of which screen performs well in sunlight or very well lighted conditions - if the screen can't handle it, unfortunately you won't be seeing much.
Both screens have been protected with the exact same brand of screen protector - and I'm not kidding. Another grouch I have with the DS besides it's already simple firmware is it's shoddy volume control. I remember the days when my Game Boy volume was controlled by a wheel. But no, Nintendo had to use this sliding thing for a volume control. Trust me when I tell you that it is pretty worthless for controlling volume. My opinion is that the DS has 3 settings only - mute, some sound, really loud sound.
(look to the left of the photo to see the volume control)
The buttons on the DS do feel a tad worse than the PSP's. However, it is still on par with old Game Boys and the main feature of the DS is the touch screen. It also features a built-in microphone, however I haven't seen too much creative use of it. Most of the time, you end up blowing into the microphone, and the only few games I know of which make use of voice recognition are Nintendogs and Brain Age. Needless to say, with the small capacity of DS media, these recognition engines are quite finicky, and can act strangely.
A lot of DS games make use of the touch screen, but there are a number which use it exclusively as a second screen. I have seen a few games make only trivial use of the second screen, but many of them use the second screen to great effect.
It uses the same charger (and I believe the battery is the same too) as the Game Boy Advance SP.
The DS game slot is small and behaves like a lot of new spring-loaded memory card slots do. The stylus is kept (not very firmly) in a small slot for it in the DS, but is very short (most certainly among the improvements in the DS Lite).
As with most things, I like to do media size comparisons:
As you can see, the DS game (Mario Kart DS Australian version) is noticeably larger and thicker than ordinary memory cards like the MMC and MS Pro Duo next to it. It is still a lot smaller than the UMD which is used by the PSP, but I'd like to draw attention to that the fact is, a DS cartridge only can hold at most 1Gigabit (128MB) while all the other media in the photo can hold far more. The UMD is supposed to top off at 1.8GB.
While you might not think games need so much space on a portable, I believe the limitation of a DS cartridge might actually be the bane of developers - larger carts as I've heard mean slower transfer speeds on the DS. Note, that this review is tainted by my opinions. :D
Do I think the DS is a good gaming console? By all means - yes. The DS Download Play feature is amazing. While the feature is supposedly present on the PSP, I've yet to see any game use it. A lot of games support the DS Download-Play feature. A lot meaning really a lot. Sonic Rush, Mario Kart DS, Tetris DS, Polarium, Meteos, and the list goes on. The features rocks, period.
I certainly would like a browser of sorts for the DS, and maybe the ability to configure WiFi from within the basic firmware itself, rather than through a Nintendo WFC enabled game. That being said, I think Nintendo should watch out for design errors like those in the DS in any upcoming consoles. I'm not saying the DS is a bad buy, but I think that the DS Lite is a better bet if you are in the market for a DS to play DS games. And by the way, Metroid Prime Hunters is absolute pwnage when it comes to controls. :D