Golden Sun

Dunno how I forgot about good ol' Golden Sun.

Golden Sun is an RPG for the GBA. The story is set in a land where people called Adepts can use the power of their minds to cast magic-like abilities called Psynergy. You also meet little creatures called Djinn which can boost or change your characters' stats and Psynergy.

The story pairs together four kids, all Adepts and follows their adventure all around the continent. The first two you meet, Issac and Garret, are long childhood friends. The opening content of the game shows them living through a disaster in their hometown and setting out on a journey to rescue their friend and mentor. Issac is an earth adept and Garret is a fire adept. This means that the Psynergy they specialize in is earth and fire respectively. Along their journey they meet a wind adept named Ivan. Ivan is a few years younger than the other two and was adopted by a high ranking merchant from a nearby town. He ends up setting off with Issac and Garret to fulfill a prophesy and hopefully figure out the mystery of who he really is. The final member of your party is met a little later as the three wander throughout the land trying to find what they're looking for. She is a water adept named Mia, and she is one of the last of an old tribe of water adepts who watches over the town she lives in.

The gameplay is really pretty easy. Battles are all turn based and you have multiple choices for each character. You can attack with a weapon, defend, use Psynergy, use a Djinn's power, use an item, or use Djinn to use a summon. Summons work with Djinn which are no longer equipped. Djinn of the same element can be stacked with each other up to 4 to summon different and more powerful creatures. Outside of battle you can use certain psynergy to solve puzzles and get around. Other than that you just run around between towns and the world map meeting people, defeating monsters, helping people out, and getting stronger. Keep in mind though, Golden Sun is only half the story, so don't be too disappointed with the ending (which seems abrupt the first time but really takes a long ass time to reach). Just be happy if you pick it up now that the sequal is already out, because I had to wait =P

Issac, the Earth adept using his sword to and unleashing it's critical hit in the form of a special attack. The characters from left to right are Issac, Garret, Ivan, Mia.

A player casting frost on a puddle of water. This will freeze the puddle into a pillar of ice that can be used as a platform to reach new areas.

The summon Thor, which can be used when you have 4 wind Djinn that you can use. Summons like Thor do more damage than any other attack in the game.

Unsung Technology: The Vacuum Pump

Where would we be without vacuum pumps?

The most obvious thing is that research into how pressure and fluids work would be severely retarded. Of course, this connects directly back to vacuum pumps, as such knowledge was used to make better and more efficient pumps. But that wasn't the only thing that could be applied to. Light was known to be a wave, but it could travel through a vacuum. How light could do that was eventually explained by the theory of relativity, which is used by GPS systems.

Vacuums are also used in light bulbs. If air were in the bulb, the filament could burn, which would rapidly extinguish the light. But more than that, vacuums are necessary for vacuum tubes (quite appropriately) which were vital in early computer systems, and vacuums are required to make parts of modern computers.

Understandably, things that will be exposed to vacuum (such as parts on the space shuttle) need to be tested to make sure they won't fail in those conditions. Also understandably, it's much cheaper to test those things on Earth. That means making a vacuum by means of a pump. Without the vacuum pump, no space program, as if the lack of computers wasn't a big enough hurdle.

Lasers work by exciting the electrons of a specific, very pure, gas (what gas is used depends on what frequency the laser needs to be). Vacuum pumps ensure normal air doesn't get in. Lasers have many uses, not least of all medicine, such as radiotherapy, which is used for treating cancer.

The Wiki Challenge

So...my roomate, a friend, and I were sitting around my room this week and were looking for something to do. It was after midnight, so we couldn't do anything to active or loud, which surprisingly limited our options. After sitting there for 10 minutes or so, we decided to make up a game that we could play. We call this game The Wiki Challenge.

This game is relatively easy to play. There isn't a set number of people you have to have to play, but we had three. This meant one person had to think of a topic, a unique page on Wikipedia, and the other to had to get there. Whoever got to the page the fastest wins.

You may be thinking, ok, so what, this is boring. This isn't it though. The two people have to start out from the same completely random page, by using the link to go to a random page. Then the two must race to be the first on to arrive at the choosen page using only the blue links or the categories at the bottom.

If this isn't enough, you can make it even more interesting by wagering bets on who can get there the quickest. For example, you could make a bet that whoever loses has to wear a suit and tie the next day.

It doesn't matter how you play this game, as long as you are having fun while you play it. It is a great way to socialize with friends and maybe even learn something in the process.

Gears of War

The Quest to Survive Human Extinction

I hate being killed. That's right, I hate being shot into a million pieces. All Raam has to do is send his little kryll out and devour me into dust. For all you Gears of War fans out there, I come to you with hope of sympathy and advice. I love Gears, don't get me wrong. Killing an alien race that sat dormant underground and now you have to save the world from complete annihilation, how can you not get hooked? I have tried and tried again to defeat the final boss, Raam, on the medium setting. (I believe that is Hardcore) I had beaten him before on easy, but well let's face it, it's meant to be just that: easy. I didn't think it should be as hard as it is on medium, but I can't seem to win....

My first frustration came when my partner, Dom, would die off so quickly. I used him on easy mode as a distraction to keep Raam from attacking me with his shield of Kryll. But everytime we go into battle, he has the urge to run as fast as he can to just get mowed by Raam and his arsinal of attacks. So that leaves just me and Raam. That's never too easy. The second frustration was as to what guns I should take into battle with me. I first thought that the (sorry for my lack of gun terminology) chainsaw gun and shotgun would be best, but I never seemed to take off a lot of damage. I am aware of his Kryll shield and the fact that he is invincible to damage while his little friends circle him. But even when I get a clear shot I can't seem to take him down. Then I tried to use the sniper and shotgun, keeping with the long and short range weapon combo. But that didn't work either, the sniper rifle took too long to reload. I then tried the bow and bomb arrow with the chainsaw gun, finding that to be a popular solution online. But still no good. My third problem was the fact that he would rush me constantly, giving me no time to shoot him, I would have to run away and hide behind another barrier, avoiding death on all angles. My question is how to win. I have been patient but I still can't win. Who has the experience and wisdom to defeat such a unfair boss?

DRM

Suppose you had a product that people liked to buy, but that some people just stole from you? Would your solution to the theft be to restrict how people who legitimately bought your product could do with it?

That's what the music industry is doing with DRM (Digital Rights Management). See, with the advent of CDs and digital music to be copied and shared, and the music industry doesn't like that. So, what do they do? They put DRM technology in all the music they sell legally. Well, I suppose it's theoretically a good idea, but...

DRM is annoying. Because of DRM, I can only listen to the album Spectators by Wolfsheim on iTunes. Which is all fine and well, as long as you're not running Linux. Oh, right, I am. Why should I buy music if I can't listen to it? I might as well just download it illegally.

Another problem with DRM is that it has no time limit. Copyrights don't last forever, but DRM (in theory) does. Which means, I still won't be able to listen to those files, even after the copyright on the music expires.

Who Needs Mailboxes

Email: Its Good and Bad

Emails have now been familiar in the technological society for quite some time now. Starting back in the 1980's companies used Email to send data and info to one another electronically for faster and more reliable transportation. It has spread quite quickly to everyone, with so many different Email providers now, many of which are on the Internet, such as Yahoo Gmail and AIM Mail. But how great is this new medium of stationery? I will go through some of my good and bad experiences of using Email and how it affects my life.

First with the bad. The obvious nuisance to Emails is spam. With all the spam blockers and filters out there, you think that the problem of unnecessary advertisements and badgering money hounds would be solved. Overall, yes, I can say the problem is generally gone. But sometimes, it blocks too much. I remember numerous occasions where I have had Emails from family and friends that get blocked because it met some criteria for spam, and that person or persons wonder why I wasn't getting any of their Emails. I never truly lost any of their Emails, but it was hard to go through all the crap I was giving as "spam" and find what I was suppose to get. Another problem is receiving too many chain letters, either in the form of support for God or the soldiers fighting wars, to the "If you don't send this to 100 people in three seconds your family is going to be murdered by little demon children!!!!" I like the effort but it really gets old fast. Another thing that puts Email at a disadvantage to the postal service is packaging items or gifts. No matter how advanced our computers get, they will never be able to send matter through the airwaves....Sorry.

Now for the happy good things! One thing I love about Email is you don't have to remember anything about anyone you know again! You simply put down ANY information about the person in question (AIM screen name, phone numbers, addresses, schedule for school, likes/dislikes, when they sleep and wake....just kidding, etc)when you first put them into your Email's convenient address book and away you go! Another thing I like is getting funny chain letters. I get jokes from long chains of Emails from friends and family and they are quick and easy to look at and send. Having the Email system helps to at least send pictures. Those are either cute or hilarious to get sent to you, like the baby pictures or some picture of a redneck bike made of shoes. The process itself is definitely better than having to buy stamps and lick the back of some envelope.

Overall, the Email system has helped keep people informed and connected with each other longer and faster, and the system will continue to improve as technology advantages. I mean they already have Email accessible on phones now....think of where they'll be in 20 years!

Diablo: Live or Die

A few years ago, a friend of mine got me to start playing Diablo. It started out with a bit of tough love. In that, I mean my friend showed me how to play the game, but didn't give me too much advice.

Over time, I played through the game, and my friend started telling me how to perfect my characters. I had started playing the non ladder section of the game. Basically to summarize the sections of the online game, there is 4 different options, which are ladder, non ladder, hardcore ladder, and hardcore non ladder. Ladder basically gives a sense of a competition, which resets whenever Blizzard decides they want to reset it. Once ladder gets reset, the characters get moved to non ladder, which contains the accounts and characters since the game was created.

The other side of the online game is hardcore. This is where the challenge lives. This is for people who think they have mastered the game or for people who play Diablo for the game it really is. You may be saying, OK, well what is hardcore. Why is it any better than just playing the game. Hardcore means, if you die, then your character is dead, and you can no longer play on the character. Hence, it provides you with a challenge, to live or die.

Hardcore has no question of who is the best. It is a question of who is alive. Hardcore is the only part of the game where the one person on the top of the rankings, is the strongest player. For if he isn't, someone may come along and take his top spot. Hardcore makes Diablo a game of champions and a game of past champions. It is meant as the side of Diablo reserved for dueling, no matter if you are a level 9 or a level 99. Because with this dueling, in the end, one person will be dead and one will be the victor. If the players are fair duelers, they will allow the winner to loot their body, which means they have the right to take the losers gear and items. So, if you think you are a champion of Diablo, play hardcore. Live or Die.