Thursday, May 30, 2002

Looks like Icland is stepping up to be the first country to ditch traditional fossil fuels and move to Hydrogen power. And this is going to take them 30-40 years. I can only imagine how screwed we are when, in a hundred years from now, the US decided to make the switch and comes up with a 200+ year plan to make the migration. I think something drastic needs to happen before anyone will really care. Bush thinks that terrorism is our top priority when 3000 people die. What about in 50 years from now when the global temperature goes up 2 degrees and our coastal cities start getting a little more comfortable with with the ocean? There's going to be a helluva lot more deaths than 3000. Disclaimer: I am not an environmental nut, I barely even recycle, but I do think that we're screwed as a whole if Iceland is the only country that steps up to battle this problem. 3:07:00 PM

I'm thinking about buying some new parts for my computer: a new video card (GeForce4 probably, or maybe an ATI) and possibly a DVD writer. Unfortunately I can't differentiate from all the specs. I think I'll do some reasearch this weekend and write an article with my findings. I wish there was a way to have my computer in my room and still send a good quality signal to my TV in my living room. Anyone know if there are any good ways to do this? 1:10:37 AM

George Lucas May Be Completely Evil [Slashdot: News for nerds, stuff that matters] Reading this got me thinking... I own Episode I and while yes, Jar-Jar kinda sucks, I still liked it a lot. Besides the obvious (that light saber battle is amazing, better than those in Episode II, IMHO), I really liked the back story to Darth Vadar. For the same reason I liked Episode II, even though it now appears that Lucas is determined to find only bad actors to play Anakin. I can't wait for Episode III, but even more, I can't wait for IV, V, and VI to come out on DVD! I hate George Lucas for not releasing these on DVD, it kills me. I tried to rent them (I own them on tape, but they are in San Jose and I'm in San Diego) at my local Blockbuster, and it made me realize how crappy VHS really is. Speaking of which, I think I'm going to get that progressive scan DVD player this weekend. If going from 480i to 480p on my Xbox did what it did for my games, watching moves is going to be a whole new experience. I'm also contemplating getting a new video card (NVidia GeForce 4 w/ HDTV) and then using it to output games (Max Payne, Jedi Knight II, Giants) to my HDTV. That would be very nice if it was possible. Unfortunately, there is no way for me to get HDTV broadcasts yet, unless I try to pick them up with rabbit-ears, which I don't feel like doing. 12:44:02 AM

Speaking of C#, I'm starting to think I want to get in to some .NET development. I think it'd be fun, and since I bought a copy of VS.NET (which is running very sluggish today), I might as well learn the stuff. My first project will be some C# support classes for OSWorkflow, tying in to the SOAP interfaces enabled by GLUE, the best SOAP implementation ever. 12:36:33 AM

I just finished a lab for my computer graphics class (OpenGL) for the first time all by myself, and it's amazing, I actually know what I'm doing! I'm shocked, it's very cool stuff. I'm doing textures and dynamic lighting, and the best part is I understand it all. Anyone know if there are GL hooks in to C#? That would be the best thing in the world: a good language and access to high level graphics. I suppose C# Direct3D hooks would be OK too, but then that's one more thing I'd have to learn. 12:34:51 AM

© Copyright 2002 Patrick Lightbody.