http://blogcritics.org/ A sinister cabal of superior bloggers on music, books, film, popular culture, politics, and technology - updated continuously. en Copyright 2005-2007 by the authors Wed, 17 Nov 2004 05:07:17 EST http://backend.userland.com/rss Blogcritics.org custom software http://blogcritics.org/ Phillip WinnSunday, August 26, 2007, marks the switch of all Blogcritics.org article feeds from full-content to short-content. This is the result of several converging factors, and is unfortunately a permanent decision (as permanent as any decision can be on the web, that is). We are aware of all of the reasons that this is a Bad Idea, and we are aware that some of you will be quite upset about having to click on something to read the free content, and we're sorry. Unfortunately, despite great effort, full-content feeds are not currently economically viable. Two other factors are involved: full-content feeds have resulted in an unprecedented level of content theft, with BC content appearing on many websites, usually spam sites, without attribution or permission. This duplicate content causes a cascading set of problems, not the least of which is that search engines generally aren't favorable to duplicate content, and don't always guess correctly. Finally, our RSS advertising partner is strongly in favor of short-content feeds. We hope that you'll continue to subscribe to BC via RSS, and when an article grabs your eye, it's only a click away, still free on the BC website. Thank you for your understanding. Administration0@blogcritics.org Sun, 26 Aug 2007 12:00:00 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/11/17/050717.php DirkHalf Life 1 ended with the older one of the men in black (except that he wore a grey suit and had a slow and somewhat weird pronounciation) congratulating you for the job. Somehow (and don't ask me why) this single scene made all my efforts and endurance throughout the whole game worth while. It was the first time I actually enjoyed working for a middle-aged man in a grey suit.Back to this Half Life 2 review. Half Life 2 starts with this same man, with his same pronounciation, waking you up from a long sleep (so it seems) for a new job. And then you find yourself in a train, just like any ordinary citizen commuting to work, entering the main station of City 17.I don't want to spoil anything, but it takes some time until you get your first weapon. And some sort of military police try to hunt you down. I really enjoyed escaping through devastated flats to the roof, climbing to the next apartment unit until ... Together with the very realistic looks of an ordinary European city this thrilling flight made me feel alive in a game, an impression I don't have to often.Half Life 2's graphics is stunning. It lacks the sophistication of a Doom 3 engine with all its dynamic shadow casting, but it depicts a natural environment more real. The degree of immersion is very high. Driving with your buggy boat on some lonely river bendings, seeing the urban cement buildings from a short distance, illuminated by an afternoon sun, you can't get much closer to reality. The Source Engine excels in outside levels. The actors in the game are of course still far away from real actors in a real movie, but Valve has managed to get closer than ever before. One more thing that gets the game closer to virtual reality is that you can deliberately move (that is, grab and throw) most movable objects, like barrels and boxes.Though the story seems to have some interesting twists, the basic concept of Half Life 2 is of course "shoot from first person view". You will encounter some riddles, but your basic move for solving problems is pulling the fire trigger.Half Life 2 lacks both the lavish monsters and shock effects of a Doom 3. The advantage of this is that you'll see far more (in-game) sun light, and luckily there is duct tape so you can use flash light and your weapongs simultaneously.On another topic, I can understand that Valve is interested in pushing their Steam technology. But starting Half Life 2 seems to take much longer than other single player games (Doom 3 starts much faster on my reasonably equipped machine). I guess this is because it asks for permission online every time you want to play, even if it's single player. I really hope that I can play it when I'm offline too, and that I don't have to wait 5 minutes for a timeout. What's in it for me? Does Steam really offer something for the customer? Or does it only benefit Valve?Half Life 2 is not Doom 3. Both are first person shooters, but they differ wildly in graphics, concept and of course overall look and feel. I enjoyed both, but will enjoy Half Life 2 a little longer, waiting for other games to exploit more of its engine's capability to render sun light flooded environments. Even killing some terrorists in Counter Strike Source is more fun when there is a sunset :) Culture22309@blogcritics.org Wed, 17 Nov 2004 05:07:17 EST http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/11/04/153145.php DirkI have read some short stories in my life, and most of them have left me in a strange state of mind. I think that is the whole reason for writing a short story.But I have to admit that I haven't read/listened to many stories that top some of the tales in this audio book. Some stories are really weird, I don't know what to think of them.With this audiobook it's not just someone paid for reading the stories, it's Ray Bradbury himself. It's not that he is such a good actor, but he knows the most about every story, giving you some hints on how to interpret some passages.What makes this book really special is that he introduces every story, telling where and when he got inspired, even some techniques he uses. This is very enlightening.If you aren't afraid of weird stories, and interested how they were conceived, this book is for you. Books21866@blogcritics.org Thu, 4 Nov 2004 15:31:45 EST http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/10/27/050029.php DirkOn the cover you can read "the fast-track to intelligent business planning for executives and entrepeneurs". Except, there is no fast-track to writing a business plan. And if there was one, this book wouldn't cover it. Richard Stutely mentions this on several occasions and never tries to oversimplify complex matters. I guess the fast-track word was added by the marketing division of the publisher.This is not only one of the most profound and detailed books about business planning but also the most entertaining I ever read. I'm not kidding. After finishing this book I knew a whole lot more about balance sheets and how to read them, a lot more about accounting and so on. On the first sights I wondered "Hey I just want to write a business plan. What's that got to do with it?" But a business plan is a really complex thing, and Stutely proves right to cover all that in depth.As for the entertaining part, Stutely shows his rather cynical humor more than occasionally. If all introductory books about business planning would give you examples about selling coconuts at the road-side we would all know much more about businesses. Books21476@blogcritics.org Wed, 27 Oct 2004 05:00:29 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/10/20/050533.php Dirk"If you want to capitalize on cyberspace, you should read this book." Bill Gates Chairman and CEO, MicrosoftThis is very interesting, I cannot remember Michael Dell even mentioning something like "capitalize on" in the whole book. He narrates in a very humble way, always speaking of things having to do with customer satisfaction and their benefits. Maximizing profit seems to come only secondary.Whatever you may think about this (I guess it's not evil to make tons of money), the fact that Dell Corporation is still in existance makes me think they haven't done all this just for for satisfying their customers or suppliers (yeah, Dell even talks a great deal about making them happy).If you just can't stand altruistic talk by multi-billion-dollar-company-owners (what a mouthful) this book is not for you. If you're ready to read between the lines and accept some parts of the story as simply out-of-date (something like a website is not that spectacular anymore) you can learn a great deal about how Dell made a fortune. Books21190@blogcritics.org Wed, 20 Oct 2004 05:05:33 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/10/09/072053.php DirkAfter having read this, I wonder what the movie is all about. It can't even come close to the original content's depth, therefore it is merely billed as "suggested by Isaac Asimov's book". The book is all about the three fundamental laws of robotics: A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. A robot must obey orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law. I, Robot was written in 1950 and reading it I was in awe of Asimov's story telling skills all the time. Some expressions he uses, some depictions of protagonists' lifestyles may sound outdated, but it's still an excellent read.The whole book is actually more like a collection of stories in some sort of chronological order, loosely held together by the life of Susan Calvin, chief robopsychologist at US Robots. The book doesn't really develop any of its characters, giving lots of space to your imagination. In fact, more than one story kind of chilled me, but probably in a totally unintentioned way. One could create whole movies and games of some of the stories.Immerse into stories about distant planets, space ships and robotics labs, and enjoy the finale. Books20786@blogcritics.org Sat, 9 Oct 2004 07:20:53 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/09/29/150246.php DirkIt was once upon a time a PHP coder who drowned in work. His todo list grew larger and larger, one day it went overwhelmingly large. New tasks were added on a daily basis.One day it was so bad that he chose not to even look at his list anymore, and instead indulged in addictive games, beautiful women and history lectures. Until one day the angel of death knocked at his door. Startled, he was just able to gaze into the remarkably empty eyes. "Already?", the look on his face was asking. The angel just asked a question: "When I will pick you up at the end of your life and ask you what your life has been about, what will you answer?"Well, making a long story short I decided one day to get more productive than ever, because I had to it for some compelling reasons. "Getting things done" just sounded right and I delved into it.I learnt a few things. The reason I didn't even bother anymore to look at my todo list was because it actually was a list of "undoables". Tasks that were pretty complex as such were just given one line in the list. Instead, I should split them up into very concise, concrete "doables" that I could work on even if I was tired of thinking. Think once, then write your decision down (how to precisely tackle a task, all steps involved). And above all, get your todo items out of your head completely. This way, you'll end up with comsuming less memory, so some creativity threads in your brain can be scheduled more of it.Nice ideas, no magic at all, but useful suggestions. It helped me, and I'm still maintaining a "next actions" list where I write down all hot topics that have to be dealt with rather immediately, and some "nice to have" or wishlist, which I actually never look at.This all could have increased my productivity a lot, but for one caveat: Specifying exactly what to do, breaking it up into simple tasks makes it somewhat machine-like to follow it. I mean, I feel good when I'm designing the tasks. But when I'm then actually executing them, I sometimes feel like a trained monkey ... Books20433@blogcritics.org Wed, 29 Sep 2004 15:02:46 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/09/22/095742.php DirkIf you're sitting at the box day in day out like me and start to lose touch with real people, this is the book for you. Because you have probably forgotten most of the basics.It's about 92 little tricks for communicating better, getting in touch easier, and conveying your points better. Sure, most of the material is basic, but I have to admit it works. Some advice sounds strange at first, but thinking over it it starts making sense.If you happen to grab some audio version, I bet you'll have problems with the pollyanna type of woman narrating the tricks, but you'll get over it. If you can ignore the female-biased point of view of the stories, you'll end up with some nice psychological tricks under your belt, and the next party is made for you.As soon as I had finished the first tricks, I actually enjoyed the socializing at the next event. Not so much because suddenly I liked talking but I really enjoyed analyzing people's behavior and making "social experiments". Books20119@blogcritics.org Wed, 22 Sep 2004 09:57:42 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/09/15/072526.php DirkIt's pitch black. I'm crawling through a small tunnel system underground, lighting my way with the flash light. After the guy I had to protect had died, I saw no other way out than these tunnels.I lose my sense of orientation completely, it all looks the same. Have I already been here? Sometimes I don't even know whether I'm looking up or down. I start feeling panic, it's getting claustrophobic.I have found an exit. I hope it's not where I entered the tunnels. I'm in a room, still darkness everywhere, my eyes start hurting from following the small cone of light of the flash light. But I'm feeling free, I don't have to crouch anymore. Again, no discernible exit, just a button for extending an emergency ladder. I press it. Suddenly the spiders are everywhere. I use my shotgun and try to move, killing as much as I can while avoiding their bites. It's so dark I don't see where I'm moving to, I hope I can't fall down. My adrenalin level is at a high, I'm near death. The reloading of my gun takes much too long while I'm getting beat and hurled around by those damn spiders.No spiders anymore. I'm alive.I'm half-way through Doom 3, and so far this has been the most exciting scene. After that I gladly went for 90 minutes of cycling and walking in the sun to get down again from my adrenalin rush.Doom 3 is abolutely no surprise. The graphics are stunning. The physics and gameplay are very realistic, sometimes too much (you lose orientation everytime you get hit by a monster). This is cutting edge, like it was when Doom, Doom 2, Quake etc. came out. As always, the story is like the one in a porn movie: It's just there but you (and the author obviously) don't really care. Having to listen to a whole audio log just to get the digits for opening a cabinet is boring. I switch to the PDA only in emergencies, like when I'm running out of ammo and a closed cabinet happens to be near.The whole gameplay is very basic. The only variety comes from the different ways to kill baddies: Plasma gun? Simple pistol? Chain gun from a distance, or can I charge in and make a big blast with the shotgun? What happens if they accidentally shoot each other? Can I use some explosive barrels?The enemy is as dumb as it can get, you never have to think about anything if you have enough ammo. They don't dodge and don't try to sneak up at you from behind (unless of course they get teleported in your back, but I don't count that).But I said it before: This is exactly the kind of game to expect. Quake was similar. Dull story, dull monsters. Awesome graphics. I played it through anyway.That's the way idsoftware makes games. Sophisticated graphics, no-frills gameplay. I keep on dreaming about the next System Shock with Doom 3's graphics engine ... Gaming19842@blogcritics.org Wed, 15 Sep 2004 07:25:26 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/09/01/084222.php DirkI was sceptical: Another one in the Rich Dad's series, and not even by the original author, Robert T. Kiyosaki. But I needed some information, and I needed it quickly.The lawyer I visited didn't know too much about LLCs (limited liability corporations). In fact, I think he had no experience at all since he spent most of the time of my visit calling up colleagues and asking them my questions.Anyway, when I left I was as puzzled as before, but why not get a good summary written for actual people without all the complex details?I decided for that one, because it was an immediate hit for the keywords I searched for, and I had read some Rich Dad's book before and found them interesting. I admit some principles get repeated a lot in the books I read, and I sense they get repeated in every book. But nevertheless my previous impression of the Rich Dad's books were "sound information and making sense."So I started reading (actually I listen to most books because I prefer audio) and found my thirst for information rewarded. Some parts are too long for my taste, especially the sections why you really shouldn't do business as a proprietorship. I knew those parts cold since they seem to be repeated in every book about "founding your own [insert favorite form of corporation here]". Also, the examples are nice but too basic and foreseeable in most cases.But the main practical points in founding a corporation (the standard and the s-corporation as well as the LLC) are nicely summarized and gave me a solid background for my decision. Books19315@blogcritics.org Wed, 1 Sep 2004 08:42:22 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2004/08/25/054051.php DirkGetting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In - by Roger Fisher, William Ury, and Bruce Patton of the Harvard Negotiation Project.You gotta be a phony in order to negotiate successfully. Disclose what you really want and bargain hard. It's a zero sum game after all, everything the other side wins is something you lose.Frankly, these were some of my associations with negotiating. And many negotiations I witnessed and participated in left a bad taste in my mouth.So I read this book, to get an edge over "the other side". I thought I would learn some tactics on the fast road to winning. But it proved me completely wrong and it even made sense. And I think my ability to negotiate has gotten better, but without any bad taste after it.The book gives a lot of real-world examples where negotiation went wrong. Most are not only real-world but really "real" and kind of famous. E.g., there are even some cases about negotiations with terrorists. And it gives a bunch of good practical advice on how to restructure any negotiation so the odds are that both parties will achieve a satisfactory result. And it's not about bargaining hard. You don't have to be a phony. You learn how to be "soft on people and hard on principles."Expect your attitude towards negotiations to be shaken. Books19041@blogcritics.org Wed, 25 Aug 2004 05:40:51 EDT