Gmail account

Just got a new Gmail account thanks to my friend Matt Sekol. W00t!!

Half-Life2 tidbits from PlanetHalfLife

A Half-Life 2 SDK (Software Development Kit) for mod developers will be released prior to the game hitting store shelves.

Like the original Half-Life, Valve currently has no plans for a pre-release demo (Half-Life: Day One wasn't an official demo).

An Xbox port is supposedly in the works, but it isn't expected to ship simultaneously with the PC version. There were rumors of a PS2 port, but those have now been confirmed as false.

Barney is back, and all the voice actors from the original Half-Life are reprising their roles. Also returning is Half-Life's original writer, Marc Laidlaw.

While the new engine has all sorts of fancy features, it's still designed to scale and work on lower-end machines. Apparently a 700mhz processor and a video card capable of running DX6 is enough, although a 2ghz with a GeForce4 is recommended. Rumors about NVidia or ATI exclusivity are unfounded.

Alyx is not a playable character. You're still Gordon Freeman, and Gordon doesn't talk. Nor will there be cut scenes.

Scripted Sequences will be more interactive.

ALL objects in the game world are affected by the physics.

Movement speed of HL will be retained.

There will be drivable vehicles in both single and multiplayer.

Known locations: City 17, a harbor, a jail, the suburbs, a dried up ocean, an icebreaker ship.

An upgraded Hammer editor should ship with the game, but instead of just editing maps it's now described as a "complete development environment" for maps, mods, and more.

Valve is apparently already working on a Half-Life 2 expansion pack.

Half-Life 3 is planned, so expect another cliffhanger ending.

The Best Sci-Fi Film [Slashdot]

Now there's scientific proof: according to 60 of the most influential scientists in the world, including British biologist Richard Dawkins and Canadian psychologist Steven Pinker, Ridley Scott's Blade Runner (1982) is the best science fiction film. Late Mr. Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) finished 2nd, followed by George Lucas' Star Wars (1977) and The Empire Strikes Back (1980).

Denise Henning

I just found out that a girl I used to work with passed away Friday night. Denise Henning had been fighting the effects of cervical cancer for a year and a half. Her maiden name was Zulandi. Both her and her twin, Christina Binko, worked with me at Network Solutions three years ago. She was a little younger than me (maybe 30 now?) as I recall, and she just got married before I left NSI.

She and her twin were two of the most infectiously bubbly people I've ever known.

I pray you're in a better place now, Denise, but those you've left behind will miss you. My heart especially goes out to Christina, I can't imagine the pain of losing a twin.

Star Wars: Battlefront

Check out my gaming page, updated it with the next title I am eagerly awaiting. (drool)

And yes, I still have to do a write-up of Doom3, but I haven't gotten around to playing it yet... I fixed the problem with Far Cry (outdated video driver) so I've been playing that through now. Should help me with the upcoming LAN party on Sept. 3rd...

You Say You Wanna Revolution?

This was a fascinating post. The writer was trying to explain why she votes Republican when she is, in fact, a dedicated anarchist and anti-technopolist:

I don't vote Republican because I think they're going to run this country well. I vote Republican because they're going to run this country into the ground. Why do you think the Religious Right is so fervently pro-Bush? Do you honestly think Christians can accept a murderer as a great leader? Hell no! The Religious Right is trying to bring about the Apocalypse, and Dubya is just the man to do it. Me, I'm not interested in Christ's triumphant return, but I am very interested in the collapse of civilization as we know it. My reason? I hate technopoly, but whatever your reason is, Bush is the man who will bring the Revolution one step closer.

I swear, I almost fell out of my chair laughing so hard. I'm really a moderate as far as politics go, I'm a registered Democrat but only moved from Independent after living in Virginia Beach (the Religious Right's backyard; one might say they drove me to Democrat). Still, I had some Republican leanings. Much of that has vanished after observing what a complete and utter idiot Dubya has been these last years. The only thing that would have made me pause and consider my choices this election was if John McCain was running instead of Bush. I love that guy.

Hamas suspect arrested videotaping the Bay Bridge

Now isn't this interesting, a bit of local news.

A man described by federal authorities as a "high-ranking" Hamas operative was arrested in Maryland last week as he was videotaping the Bay Bridge, authorities said yesterday.

The Bay Bridge runs just south of Baltimore across the Chesapeake Bay, connecting to the Eastern Shore in MD. Very long bridge.

Great security-related quote.

In explaining why turning on a firewall by default (via XP SP2) is a good thing:

For the good of the Net, and therefore for the good of all Net users, I'm glad that Microsoft's new service pack turns on the firewall by default. If applications break, too bad. If a user isn't educated enough to know how to open up a port he needs to run a particular program that needs a hole punched in the firewall, then that user shouldn't have unfettered access to the Net anyway.

By Scott Granneman, SecurityFocus.com. Read the rest of the article, it is very entertaining and all too close to the mark. 20 minutes is all it takes for an unpatched version of Windows XP to become infected once it connects to the internet. Scary.