Organic Acoustic Coupler
I was waiting for a friend in the lobby of the Hilton down at Union Square. Near me was a middle-aged woman speaking loudly into a pay phone.
“Yes, yes, that’s right. You’ve got it. Now, here’s what I want you to type. ‘are em’ … yes. The letter ‘r’ and the letter ‘m’, together. Now type a dash. Yes, like a hyphen. OK, and then another ‘r’. Yes rm space hyphen r.”
(via Kottke)
Geekbench 2006 Private Beta
After six months of previews, we’re getting ready to release Geekbench 2006. Before we do, we’d like to run a private beta first to make sure Geekbench 2006 works for everybody.
If you’re interested in helping out, drop us a line. Please let us know what hardware you’ll be running Geekbench on; we’d like to get as many unique hardware combinations as possible.
SiN Episodes: Emergence
With all the brough-ha-ha about Half-Life 2: Episode 1, everyone seems to have forgotten about SiN Episodes: Emergence. I purchased Emergence from Steam a week or two before it was released but didn’t play it until recently.
The first thing I noticed about Emergence is that you can very easily tell that it’s using the Source Engine; the graphics are nice and shiny and the physics is very realistic. In particular (and as with Half-Life 2) when a character is speaking their faces move incredibly realistically.
The two biggest down sides to Emergence so are firstly that it’s kind of short; not as short as Half-Life 2: Episode One, but short none the less. Secondly, it’s not quite as imaginative as Half-Life 2 is; there is a lot less thinking and a lot more shooting. Granted that’s kind of subjective (I know a lot of people that prefer not to think when playing games), but it was a little disappointing for me.
The biggest bonus of purchasing Emergence is that it came with the original SiN game, which has been a blast from the past. I only wish that Ritual had been able to redo the game with the Source Engine as Valve did with Half-Life.
All in all, SiN is a lot of fun. Not quite as original as Half-Life 2 (or Episode 1), but the longer play time, good graphics and good cliff hanger ending make up for what it lacks.
Attack of the Green Slime
When Apple announced liquid-cooled Power Mac G5s back in June 2004, I was initially skeptical of their durability, but I wrote it off to the fact that I’m neurotic and, quite frankly, new technology scares me. Well, according to Macsimum News, I’m not completely insane:
Reports of liquid-cooled Power Mac G5s leaking have been been popping up around the Net. Ryan Butterworth at wrote, “So, we have six G5s all ranging from Dual 1.8s to a Quad G5. Came in to work today and my computer, a Dual 2.5, wouldn’t turn on. It would click on for about a third of a second and turn back off. Thought the power supply went on it. It was only a year and a half old. Disconnected everything and put it on the floor to try a different plug. I tipped the machine up to show a co-worker when another co-worker spotted liquid coming from the rear of the computer. NO WAY!! It was fine on Friday and untouched all weekend.”
If you own a liquid-cooled Power Mac G5, and it’s less than a year old, now might be a good time to consider purchasing AppleCare.
Half-Life 2: Episode 1
I pre-ordered Half-Life 2: Episode 1 last week, installed it this afternoon, and finished it this evening. It’s not a terribly long game; it took me about 3 hours to finish it. It’s a good game, too, even when compared to Half-Life 2. The story isn’t as strong as it was in Half-Life 2, but the ending is more satisfying.
You can tell the shiny new technology in Episode 1 isn’t the physics engine, it’s HDR lighting. There aren’t as many physics puzzles, but there are a whole lot of situations where HDR lighting makes things interesting. Shooting at a sniper on a roof with the sun in my eyes was damn hard (if not impossible). Turning off your flashlight in a dark room, however, makes it easier to see, once your “eyes” have adjusted to the dark.
The one game mechanic I don’t get is Alyx; she’s with you throughout most of the game, she’s invincible, and she never runs out of ammunition. I understand having a vunerable Alyx would make the game a whole lot less fun, but it’s just weird watching her fight a group of a dozen antlions) and survive.
Oh, and it took way too long to get my trusty crowbar back.
Overall, Episode 1 is a fun expansion to Half-Life 2. I’m not completely convinced it’s worth $20, but I certainly don’t regret buying it.
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