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Showing posts from May, 2010

Review of Ubuntu 10.04 - Lucid Lynx

Tom's Hardware posted an interesting review of the latest Ubuntu, Lucid Lynx. I don't use Ubuntu (or any other Linux distribution) much myself, but I have used previous versions to test my software under Wine, and it worked pretty well. There are many details on the changes. One I found quite annoying is placing the windows controls on the left... Seems nonsensical to me.

Gesture-based computing in the cheap

I just loved the basic idea for this concept for getting gesture-based computing cheap. This one just uses a webcam, a custom glove with colored shapes, and software. Pretty cool!

Bob Came in Pieces Review

I just tried out Bob Came in Pieces - the demo. It's a fairly neat physics puzzle game, which involves a spaceship, a whole bunch of parts, and a ship builder screen to apply those parts to your ship in creative ways, to face a lot of physics puzzles. The graphics and sound are very good. Even the intro is clearly well made. The gameplay was nice, but not great. It is well worth trying, if you like physics puzzles.

The Sharp End - David Drake - Book Review

The Sharp End came on a Webscription.net  bundle. I didn't think much of it, but I put it in my smartphone, along with the others. After finishing the last book (The Tau Ceti Agenda), I picked it out of the list. I was quite surprised by how good it was. I'm a bit of a fan of military SF, and I read several of David Drake's books before. This one focus on a small group of infantry - a survey group for a mercenary outfit. It starts with the backgrounds on how each of the soldiers got out of their last assignments - usually in some impressive battle. Then it goes to the actual survey work, where they are trying to get a contract with either of opposing, low-level, drug syndicates on a backwater planet. But things don't go that way... The book was pretty good. The end felt a little forced, but it did get set-up to a reasonable level in advance. Very recommended for fans of military SF.

The Tau Ceti Agenda

The Tau Ceti Agenda, by Travis S Taylor, is clearly a book in the middle of a series. Since I've started the series on it, it changed my perception and enjoyment of it. The tech and situation introductions do suffice for a newcomer, but for me large parts of the book were a bit annoying. I liked the "President under Attack" story line - the park sequence reminded of me of the Simpson Episode Itchy & Scratchy Land. I did like some of the tech, particularly the embedded AIs. The transformer fighters were ok, but seemed to push the credibility envelope a little. While the start of the Oort Cloud battle was *very* slow, by the end it was pretty exciting. That description also applies to the book as a whole.

Humble Indie Bundle

The Humble Indie Bundle is an interesting experiment, you get 5 indie games for whatever you want to pay. The money is divided between the developers and the charities - EFF and Child's Play (unless you choose differently). I haven't actually played any of the other games, but World of Goo alone is worth it.

Sony's atraTable

Sony has an interesting table with projection and multi-touch, similar to Microsoft's Surface. It should be into mass production by june. One interesting justification on one of their videos is how it can be used on medical application with pure hand gestures (no touching) - thus not being a problem to sterile conditions.

Flotilla Demo Review

I've just downloaded the Flotilla demo on Steam. If I remembered how the game was actually played (which I had read before), I probably wouldn't. The biggest control gimmick for the turn-based spaceship fights, is that the rear and bottom of ships are poorly defended. So a great part of the game is about positioning right. I thought I'd find that to be annoying. I was SO very right. The graphics are adorable, in a retro way, and so is the sound. But I really don't like gameplay, so it is getting uninstalled after a few minutes...

New Steam Download Interface

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I've been a fan of Steam for years. But their interface has always been a little sub-par. I was doing my first download with the new interface, and I really like it! Very clear, and a lot of extra information.