07 Jul 2005, 16:46
Well, turned out that the road to 60 wasn’t that hard, but could be terribly annoying. A couple of days when I tried to quest solo in my 50’s I ended up logging out completely angry at the groups of Alliances enjoying a cheap shot. However, the group instances (Uldaman, Zul’Farrak, Maraudon and Sunken Temple) allowed me to play with other people in a gank-free environment.
So at 60 now, free to run any high-level instances with the friends, the shadow of repetition and eventual boredom looms in the horizon, but until that happens, it is more fun than ever.
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02 Jul 2005, 18:04
Well, this story (book and 50’s movie) has been in my mind since I was a kid, a reference for all other stories about aliens taking over Earth. I was hopeful that Spielberg’s version would be the great alien invasion movie, some kind of grandiose version of the book’s idea.
Instead, we got a pretty standard movie, with kids, dysfunctional family, some watered-down horror and some simplistic action. Not bad, but I didn’t feel immersed at any point throughout the movie.
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01 Jul 2005, 04:07
Yesterday was the conclusion of the 1st Master in Game Programming at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. It’s been great! The students had to step up and show their projects in front of a crowd, got their diplomas, and we all had fun celebrating it. They should be really proud of their accomplishment, the projects were quite ambitious but they were able to wrap up quite reasonable versions. Lots of variety, from strategy to racing, 2D and 3D, humour-based and seriuos ideas, singleplayer and networked, there was a bit of everything.
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24 Jun 2005, 17:33
Heh, I’ve reached a strange point in my WoW life. Up until now I had been leveling up slowly, taking my time, joking in the guild chat, devoting time to explore the world and the places I’m not supposed to be at.
Thanks to the wonderful dynamics of a PvP server, all that is changing. After level 40 or so, solo questing and hunting has become a real chore, with zones full of red-named players that want to see you die, no matter the means or the (lack of) reward.
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23 Jun 2005, 16:24
Interesting topic of discussion here. Summary: well-known internet ad firm says systems that block their ads will remove opportunities for sites that want to remain free (their claim is a lot more outrageous, but of course they’re an ad firm so what do you expect?).
Like I mentioned a couple posts below regarding MSN Messenger, the real problem comes when you annoy people. Like most people remark in the slashdot discussion, I never have had a problem with Google Ads, and I have clicked them a few times.
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22 Jun 2005, 07:43
Added 5 or 6 new pics to the Gallery. Also discovered a handy tool to remove all the crap that Photoshop insists on including in JPG files. Thumbnail pics gone down from 18Kb to 4Kb, what’s not to like?
Edit: finally revamped the Gallery to use a database backend and an upload form through the web. Took a while to figure out all the proper parameters and code in the PHP script and the server panel, but it works now.
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17 Jun 2005, 02:26
Congratulations, Microsoft! After several years of staying with Messenger and refusing to use other IMs, your latest and greatest additions to an app already crammed with CRAP has finally convinced me.
Trillian here I come.
16 Jun 2005, 04:36
Maybe someone can shed light on this. This morning I found 300 emails in my inbox, from various Mailer Systems, notifying that “my email could not be delivered”, all from various sources and different styles. Some of them included the original email or the subject, which was essentially spam.
My PCs were turned off at the time all those error emails were generated and sent, so I doubt I have been virused or trojaned.
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14 Jun 2005, 03:37
Microsoft finally launches a casual game download service for the XBox. Strane, considering the next iteration of the console comes out in about 6 months, and the service is launched in Europe of all places. I assume they simply want to test and polish the download / promotion / billing system so it’s available out of the box for XBox 360’s launch.
Oh and Jason is right: I have given up and joined the masses in accepting the XBox 360’s name.
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10 Jun 2005, 16:17
The Virtual Reality-focused conferences at CARVI 2005 took place these past two days. Very well organized by EUVE, lots of interesting talks and people to meet. I had fun giving my talk exploring where Virtual Reality and Videogames meet, and got asked tons of questions during the coffee breaks.
And, of course, nothing beats a few sunny days in the Basque Country. Good times.