Movie Review: ChronicleThe scifi genre of movies has a knack for producing films that seem really interesting in the preview/trailers, but turn out to be just the worst utter shit imaginable.

Long as you are ok with losing 102 minutes of your life you will certainly NEVER get back, to a "film" following the format of jerky, first-person camera perspective popularized by this movie that SHALL NOT be named, then by all means go flush your money down the toilet on Chronicle.

Not only do i despise this type of film, i feel it is really poorly written and performed, and i honestly have no idea how it ever made it to the big screen.

1/5 stars. Extreme and utter poo, you'd be better served doing just about anything else than sitting down to watch this movie.

TF2 vmfs
I've finally started to open and check out the TF2 .vmfs which are included with the Source SDK, and i must say they are very informative and interesting.

Besides instantly being able to see what the TF2-specific entities are and how they work, you also get a peak into how valve optimizes their maps and some cool tricks they use.

If you would like to check out some .vmfs that are not included with the SDK, try here.

I would highly recommend any source mapper to check these out, whether or not you map for tf2.

I'm using a modified version of Dignans's 75-year Plan to plan my Contest 32 map. I think it will be very well-suited to level design with some very minor modifications.

[green]

Initial Five Years[/green]
Through a consistent regimen of activities, we begin to learn the craft.

A. Practice Jobs (Goals)

1. Sharpen timing
2. Be able to make errors in safe environment

B. First Real Heist (Goals)

1. Assemble small team
2. Create cash base

¯¯¯¯¯

[red]Mr. Henry[/red]

C. Cultivate Relationship with Abe Henry

1. Work with professionals
2. Make name for ourselves

Anthony: Of all our goals the crucial one to bring to fruition is C. Mr. Henry

* Positive values

Loyalty
Enthusiasm

*Negative Values

Sloth
Predictability

[green]The 2nd Five Years[/green]
D. Going Legitimate (w/ Mr. Henry)

1. Make wise investments

2. The Robin Hood Principle

a. Establish good will within community
b. Anonymous donations

E. Develop outside interests

a. Travel
b. Art
c. Science

[red]3rd Phase Years 10-15[/red]
Anthony the ideas for these years are ............*****

[green]The Next 25 Years[/green]
F. Obviously these years will be heavily influenced by the years that precede them.

1. Multiple accommodations

2. When possible

a. Meet people from foreign countries.
b. Find ways to develop properties

[red]Anthony[/red]
Remember what Huey Long said, "You make your own opportunities"

[green]Further Opportunities[/green]
..............*****

[red]"Ways of Success"[/red]
These are some plans for ways of success

a. chances
b. odds
c. bet long

[green]The Next Fifty[/green]
G. Keep working

1. Keep developing

2. No more crime

* Wives and family *
Very crucial

1. Houses

a. Beach house
b. Town house
c. Ranch

d. Lake house

...................*****

[red]Living into 21st century[/red]
H. Anthony as you know there can be no way of looking this far ahead.

1. Remain flexible

2. Don't be too derogatory

I. Consider alternatives

1. Within field

2. Outside field

a. College
b. Higher degrees
c. Honorary degrees

J. Why not plan ahead ......why not continue......*****

Map reviews inbound.

I'll be reviewing/rating maps for the better part of today. If you'd like your map checked out, simply let me know, and i'll bump it to the top of the queue.

I usually try to rate every map that i can in the vault that i own the game for, but i've been neglecting this for some time.

If you like, specify your preferenced review tone, to "mild", "medium", or "omg that is fucking harsh", and i'll comment/rate appropriately. =)
***

EDIT: got through 6 maps today:



[url=][simg][/simg][/url]

Fun with malware.

I just recently got infected with the Windows 7 Antispyware 2012 virus, and man, they make these things nastier and nastier every time.

i'm pretty sure i contracted the the problem by accidentally clicking an ad banner, and then when avast popped up, i chose the wrong action rather than "open in sandbox" or "cancel opening".

After infection i could not:
-access msconfig
-open anything pined to the taskbar without it poping up and starting a new instance of itself (msv.exe win32)
-open any gadgets or sevendeskbar(dockable toolbar program for win7) without it popping up.
-could not open firefox without it being automatically pinned to the taskbar, for a nefarious reason no doubt.

Thankfully, i could still access the internet and find/download the fixes. I'm just finishing an anti-malwarebytes scan now to make sure it's gone.

I would highly recommend to anyone to copy your windows/system32/msconfig.exe, zip it, and put it someplace you'll remember in-case this or some other thing happens to prevent you from accessing it. (you can copy and paste it to the desktop and run it as administrator if your own msconfig gets corrupted)

Lastly, i'm adding some things to my security, as recommended by Penquingboy, all for firefox:

-disable java plugin
-install addon: flashblock plus
-install addon: adblock plus

Cheers, and Careful browsing to all, and to all a good night!
CT

Review: Star Trek EnterpriseWatching Enterprise finally. Even though i'm a big fan of star trek i just never got around to watching it when it was on tv, but looked forward to the day i could watch the entire series on dvd. Unfortunately i have to say i am severely disappointed.

Visually, the show is amazing, with sets, props, cgi effects, and ship design(particularly the alien ships, which are amazing), which are second to none compared to all the Star Trek tv series, but that's where the compliments end.

These are the voyages of a crew you for the most part, can't be bothered to care about and a captain who is a full-blown douche. Character development for some of the alien races seems way better, and it makes you wonder why more attention wasn't taken to make the crew of the enterprise nx-01 more insteresting.

Implausible, boring storys seem to dominate this beleagured show, though of course there are a few episodes that pull through and are actually ok.

Space battles(my favourite part of the star trek franchise), get better as time goes on, especially when enterprise finally gets photonic torpedoes and phase cannons. Sadly though most altercations seem recycled from every previous one; it's all very formulaic:

1. captain is informed unknown vessel approaching
2. captain askes comms officer to hail
3. enemy charges weapons
4. captain orders hull plating and weapons activated
5. enterprise gets pummeled but somehow survives.
6. enterprise runs away barely escaping destruction
7. "Trip" ordered to make repairs in approx 6 hours
8. repeat

Many times they don't even show the weapons being fired, and you only know the battle is over when the tactical officer says "direct hit captain, their engines are disabled". I mean, really? At 30 million an episode, you'd think they would at least try to throw you a bone.

Seasons 1 and 2 start out ok, and because the season is new you are willing to put up with some crap. Stories are mostly boring, but at least the introduction of the Temporal Cold war is interesting, and Sulliban are intereting alien enemies. Episodes involving crewman daniels explaining the origins of the TCW are particularly interesting.

Season 3 takes the glint of promise from seasons 1 and 2 and flushes them right down the trans-dimensional-temporal-rift toilet, with the ENITRE SEASON focused on the Xindi/sphere-builder crisis. Season 3 is like one, long episode that sucks, and at the end you wonder how the producers allowed this to happen.

THEN, just when noone could possibly think the show could go any farther down the poop shoot, yup, you guessed it: it does. =/

Season 4 boldly nosedives to a low no viewer has seen before, full of poorly-written stories and more recycled garbage from previous seasons, namely, rehashing the whole trans-dimensional/temporal war thing(even though they just got done failing at it the season prior). The producers seem to realize this halfway through the season and appear to try to make changes, with a series of unrelated 2-3 episode "cliffhangers" that all seem to suck almost as bad.

That is all. Dismissed.
:extreme-sadface:

Raise your hand if you use your laptop on the in the bathtub and/or on the toilet.

<raises hand>

)

Please raise your hand if you have ever found yourself trying to click dialog buttons on a video tutorial.It took me a minute to figure out why i couldn't view object properties of this entity...

)

Stupid Project #7268

I wanted to have a shortcut on my desktop to run nyan cat automatically, and also, to have it in my steam games list.

First, I tried a firefox shortcut to the main non-stop nyan cat! page, but i couldn't link it to steam games because steam requires an .exe to shortcut a non-steam game. (even despite my trickery trying to rename the shortucut to .exe) One thing that worked tho, I was easily able to change the internet shortcut icon by swiping the nyan favicon from the NSNC! homepage. =)

Second, i researced batch files and learned you can call up programs using a batch file, and furthermore, you can convert BAT files to exe(using a program called BAT-to-EXE Converter. Here's my first batch script ever(which took a little time for me to get right):

cd
"G:g2setup x64- desktop shortcuts&#65533;32811 downloads- misc videoNON-STOP NYAN CAT [original].flv"

After getting this to work, all that was left was the steam icon. Unfortunately, steam by default takes the icon of the original .exe(which for mine unfortunately, was that generic windows 7 program icon), so i tried using a program called Resource Hacker to edit the icon, but was unsuccessful.

Getting frustrated something so simple was taking so long, i finally realized that under steam game properties, you can select your own icon for any game! The kicker is tho, the icon must AGAIN, be an .exe file.. This time tho my trickery worked! By renaming the favicon.ico to favicon.exe, i was able to use the nyan cat icon in the games list.

)

This whole last part mostly for nothing as you can see, cuz you can't even make out what the icon is with the big shortcut block there... poop.

Brb, killing myself..

)

At home sick, but i'm well enough to map. so, i'm aiming to finish my Nuketown map come hell or high water before the end of the week.More Images
Slideshow
Album
(forgot to buildcubemaps, so no reflections in those pics.. SORRY!)

I'm not sure what i'll end up porting this to, but probably multiple games. HL2DM, CSSDM, De,Cs,Fy,Ka, and possibly GG. For barebones release, all i really have to do is add spawns and some clipping.

This map is meant to be an exact port of the original game, not renvisioned in any way, but i'm open to making more severe changes if you-all think it would be important enough.

So looking forward to any suggestions you-all might have! Including but not limited to:

-what would be the best game to port this to?
-any ideas on how i can handle carepackages
-Teams will now be 8x8 - What should the maximum team size be (for teamplay gametypes obv)

Also, looking for 2-3 people interested in beta testing, PREFERABLY, to those who own and play BLOPs.

)

What you are about to read has been brewing and marinating for a long time, twisting my mind and driving me past the brink of sanity. You have been warned.

It is a sad day. Another, otherwise semi-good, movie, I Am Number Four, has been ruined for me, due to ONE actor in the cast. This guy is in a shitload of movies and tv, ruining every show he is in, and he has struck again!

Known only as "Horse Teeth", this goddamn plague is cast in movies and tv frequently because of hollywood looks(well mostly) and he's a gigantic 6'6" tall. Lurking inside though are those hideously large, horribly deformed and shiny pearly whites, that eventually come out in every movie he's in, despite the director yelling at him through the entire movie to keep his big, stupid mouth shut.

Horse teeth is in so much film/tv, he is basically impossible to avoid, impossible to avoid his enormously disproportioned(and deadly) dental assault. Once he opens his mouth in a movie, it's over for me. There on, completely distracted for the rest of the film, all i can think about are the teeth, which even in caricature would never be depicted this large.

He may even actually be a good actor, i wouldn't know, because my eyes and my mind are too busy being immolated by those giganticly-rediculous, aformentioned goddamn huge teeth, for the duration of the movie and weeks after.

'(

Even in I Am Number Four, Horse Teeth is heavily disguised with ridiculous makeup and facial/dental prosthetics, but you can still tell it's horse teeth immediately, as the hideous teeth shine right through the makeup to come and get you. (make no mistake, they will get you. they will get everyone eventually)

Phew.

Thank you for letting me get that off my chest. I never thought i was so superficial when it comes to peoples looks, but Horse Teeth just brings it out of me.. i'm sorry. He's also from Canada, which is strike 2 and 3 in my book(JK, i love canada, but kidding really about Horse Teeth).

I really have nothing personal against this man, he is probably a nice guy and gives money to charity and stuff, but i just can't take it anymore. Despite this, i can not ignore my duty to television and moviegoers everywhere:

DEAR HORSE TEETH
STOP RUINING MOVIES AND DECENT TV PROGRAM FOR ME BY BEING IN THEM. DO EVERYONE A FAVOR IN HOLLYWOOD AND THE ENTIRE PLANET AND SOLAR SYSTEM AND PLEASE KILL YOURSELF. I DON'T KNOW HOW YOU KEEP BEING CAST IN MOVIES, BUT THIS WILL NOT STAND. THIS MUST STOP.

Due to Horse Teeth's involvement in I Am Number Four, I'm giving it a rating of 1/2 star. Thank you Horse Teeth. Thank you for another job well done.

This rant brought to you by Horse Teeth?. Ruining movies and TV since 1997.

Air Duster saved my life! (well, endust electronics did..)

Was having severe overheating problems with my gfx card. It would idle at 60-65C, and run +100C on some games at max settings(i think i saw it go up to 130 once).

Because of this, i underclocked my nvidia 9800 to the lowest settings, and that worked for a while, but eventually, the temps went back up to amazing heights.

I was about to stop gaming(even CSS would run temps of 95C) just because i didn't want to blow up my machine, until i read an article about airdusting your laptop fans. (blowing the intake and exhaust side while the fan is running)

I tried it, and IMMEDIATELY, my gpu temps dropped to 35C resting temperature, and 60C Load temperature, MAX on any game. (i can play SCII on max everything now, and gpu temps never exceed 60C)

I was able to set my gpu clock speeds back to stock, and again, temps never run above 60C whilst gaming when my card USED TO HAVE RESTING TEMP of +60C!

So. Happy.

)

Nissin Chinese Noodles, The new bane of my existence...
These "ramen" style meals offer a triple threat:

1. They are delicious(especially if you add some real chicken, green tabasco, and soy sauce)
2. They are dirt cheap, about $1 per package, plus even less if they're on sale.
3. Each serving proviedes roughly 1 million carbs.

If i keep buying/consuming these noodles, i'll be fatter than Jabba the Hutt by month's end.
I guess it doesn't really matter, since every type of food i like is high in carbs, but these are so cheap and good, it makes it really hard to not eat about 20 boxes a day...

'(

1. Slammed Double-shot of absinthe. Check.
2. Berrs have been opened. Check.
3. No food at all today. Check.

Good luck everybody!
:aghast

I want to play every Half-Life-series game in order. Anyone please speak up if i'm missing a game or the order is wrong! =)

HL
HL:Opposing Force
HL:BlueShift
HL:Decay
HL2
HL2:Lost Coast
HL2:ep1
HL2:ep2