:: Omnia Mutantur ::

:: Monday, February 25, 2002 ::

Linux user counter

I've been registered as a Linux user for ages, and it wasn't until now that I remembered to add this small badge here.

Stand up and be counted, people. ;-)

:: Ricardo J. Méndez 9:58 AM [+] ::
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Mandrake Linux and the Fasttrack 100 Lite

The only thing stopping us from installing Mandrake on our two higher-end workstations is the fact that we don't have a driver for our RAID controller, the Promise Fasttrack 100 Lite included on the GA-7ZXR. Promise has a Linux driver page here, but there is no Mandrake support so far. Does anyone know if Mandrake plans to cooperate with them to put out a driver?

:: Ricardo J. Méndez 10:49 AM [+] ::
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Nobilis combat

Lacking a real new edition Nobilis book to hold, we'll have to console ourselves with the fourth installment of R. Sean Borgstrom's column on the re-design of Nobilis, discussing the combat and wounding system.

:: Ricardo J. Méndez 9:56 AM [+] ::
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Not an original bone in their body

Custom enterprise.com is a great case for speed reading. There are some good points scattered here and there, but the book is mainly a not-so-big idea log of things that might help you if you have never even considered personalization (not even as far as what Amazon.com), its main sin being that those tips don't seem to be born out of experience but at worst conjecture and at best removed observation. If you have at least configured CNN.com to give you the headlines you're interested in most, you have nothing to learn from this book.

Get yourself Philip and Alex's Guide to Web Publishing - it's a much better investment of your time.

:: Ricardo J. Méndez 8:26 AM [+] ::
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Exercises in futility

I finally got the nerve to watch Vanilla Sky last night. My fear was that, much like the remakes of Psycho or the Americanization of La Femme Nikita, it wouldn't add much to the excellent original Abre Los Ojos and would instead change things just to make the movie more palatable to an US audience. But I really wanted to like the movie, being a Cameron Crowe fan and all, so I

For once, I was saddened to be right.

Cameron Crowe seems to understand better the wide-angle, saturated look of dreams than Almenábar, so the photography is much improved. It's also always a pleasure to see Jason Lee acting, and Cameron Diaz provides some pleasant surprises as the bipolar Julie Gianni (somebody you feel throughout the movie that Aames should have seen coming - a vast improvement from the original character). Unfortunately, that's about what's good with the movie. The lead character was modified to make him more likeable, removing some of the ambiguity from the original. As much as I loved Kurt Russell in Big Trouble in Little China and The Thing, he is not up to the dramatic task of a nervous breakdown near the end of the movie - something that made you feel genuinely sorry for his character on the Spanish version. And (never mind if I'll get flak about this) Penélope Cruz is still as dull.

Sure, it's nice to see Crowe forming a family of actors, but that's not enough to justify this watered-down version of Abre Los Ojos, specially considering that it gets much more manipulative towards the ending. Do yourself a favor and rent the original, you'd be better off in the end.

:: Ricardo J. Méndez 11:11 AM [+] ::
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Treachery

Treachery, the third installment of R. Sean Borgstrom's column on the re-design of Nobilis, is now online at RPG.net. Stop by and enjoy.

:: Ricardo J. Méndez 1:40 PM [+] ::
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The Stage

Some of the best things in life are free. Take, for example, Phillip Challis' roleplaying game The Stage. Filled to the brim with great ideas, packed into only 18 pages, rules-free, with great illustrations by Scott Lininger, and freely available as a PDF document. Hell, I liked it enough to take the time to write a review for RPG.net some time ago.

It's usually available from Scott's site, but since their FTP seems to be down and people have been looking for it I've taken the liberty of uploading it to my site here.

Feel free to take a look at my RPG material while you're around.

:: Ricardo J. Méndez 9:15 AM [+] ::
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I've decided on my new photo project...

... now all I need is a lady to pose.

:: Ricardo J. Méndez 11:32 PM [+] ::
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More Nobilis Art, More Bad News

Darren Miguez brought to our attention some art of Bryan Talbot for the upcoming found on-line:

• A Storm Dragon,
  
• the Lady of Honesty,
  
• the Power of Greed,
  
• and finally, a Tree Sprite (perhaps my favorite, followed by Greed)
  

Enjoy and drool. By the way, Nobilis remains the more constantly up-coming book I've ever expected. James Wallis from Hogshead notified the list one about Nobilis being delayed again (no! seriously?) to perhaps... early April!

Oh hell, at least they're taking their time to proof-read it. This better be the most immaculate book in gaming history.

:: Ricardo J. Méndez 8:55 AM [+] ::
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