A Total Recall and Ninja Turtles remake?

Nostalgia sells, and is easier than originality. Take a look at ironic neon sunglasses, classic rock radio, Mad Men and Titanic 3D. And it's that time, the time for nineties nostalgia! And, I remember those crazy 90s very well. I had a conversation with someone else who grew up in the same time, and we were remembering our favorite films. All of my fond movie memories start with E.T. re-release in 1985 and onward. I became a movie fiend, and it grew as I grew.

You just had to be there...

In 1990, there was no way I was going to be allowed see Total Recall. I had to wait quite a few years to see it, and see it uncut. Today, the film kindles remembrance of the era of ultraviolence. The early 90s were full of action flicks, thanks to superstars like Stallone, Willis, and Arnold. Movie rental stores were in their heyday, and so was action. That era ended in about 1997, when (for some reason) violence went more underground. My hypothesis is that CGI took over the need for bloodlust. Now, the movie executives want to relive that past (in a more computer-generated, artificial way).

Colin Farrell (who was already in a movie adaptation of a PKD story) stars in a second film adaptation of "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale". I'm not sure why a B actor was chosen, or why this film was selected out of all the action tour-de-forces. Maybe it was the director's lifelong dream to do the story right. Maybe it was the success of Inception that put the "dream vs. reality" hook back on the table. I'm sure someone knows. Anyway, like to see any futuristic film, because I'm a geek boy who likes seeing cool flying cars and laser guns. Question: will kids today have nostalgia for a nostalgic reboot?

I consider Total Recall the most violent big-budget action flick ever. It is still wildly entertaining, twenty years later. That violence is almost matched by the Last Boy Scout (which narrowly loses, even though it has suicide and helicopter blade dicing). Are they going to remake that one, too?

Speaking of the 90s, I was a Ninja Turtle fiend, too. I can remember exactly where I was when I saw the TV trailer for the original TMNT film. I watched that damn cartoon every day, and seeing it in live-action was like discovering a new planet. My head exploded. And, it met all of my (high) expectations as a 10-year-old.

And now... now... Michael Bay wants to bring the shelled warriors to the 2010s... not as mutant turtles from a sewer, but as space aliens. Fans are confused and frustrated, calling his treatment "unnecessary", "childhood ruining" and even "sodomy". I tend to agree.

Quake and Quake II on a modern system

[Taking a break from music videos for a short, short time.]


I may go into how awesome Quake 1 is someday, I want to address a common problem with newer video cards and graphics chipsets: GLQuake won't work!

The fix:

1. Delete (or rename or move) opengl32.dll from the Quake directory.
2. Play!

Some great console commands for GLQuake are:

• r_wateralpha .8 will make the water slightly transparent
• r_mirroralpha .8 will make slipgates kinda transparent
  
• +mlook will make the mouse work better
  
  
  
  

Also, I wanted to recommend FitzQuake as a good engine for today's needs. So is JoeQuake (gives Quake 3 looks to stuff), but I don't think it's being developed. They're nice and bright (cough, cough IDGamma). Another useful article is here.





Speaking of brightness, what about Quake II? Sure, it wasn't that spectacular of a sequel. It was a departure alright. But, with modern systems the game may be too dark. Here's what you do:

1. Access the configuration file at \%Quake2%\baseq2\config.cfg
2. Look for gl_modulate and change the number to 2.5
3. Look for gl_shadows and change the number to 0
4. Save and play!
   

If you are doing some testing in-game (ad hoc) in console (~ key), make sure to type: "disconnect" to apply the changes.

Excel saved my life & Sorting issues

(For the Excel sorting "bug", scroll down...)

Personal Tasks
I have been using Excel 2007 as a personal planner for about six months, and I love it. For some reason, this little XLS has made me efficient, and helped reinforce my often-forgotten priorities. I put almost everything on here--the stuff I want to put off, the stuff I won't remember and the stuff that is really important. I don't keep it as specific as "brush teeth today" or "put clothes on", but do put stuff such as "clean house for party" and "vacuum car" that aren't really once-a-week kind of things. When I do a task, I simply place an "X" in the Done column, and then Sort. Here is a screenshot.

You can't understand how this has greatly improved my efficiency. But this is not why we're here.

Sort data problem
I want to discuss something that is common for those spreadsheet movers and shakers: SORTING. Sorting is beautiful for a user, when it works. It took me six months to figure this issue out, so I want to help those in need on this "feature". By default, Excel is supposed to memorize your sorting options from previous saves. It also remembers sort settings on a new instance or a computer restart! This is not new to version 2007, and I think this has been a mainstay since Office 97.

When my "personal tasks.xls" started to get huge, I started sorting. I could prioritize the list and push the finished tasks away from the main list:


This was all good and fine, until I began to sort constantly, sometimes 20 times in a day. To boot, I would often open and close Excel in the process, and that's when I stumbled upon this hair-pulling problem: it would not remember any of my sorting options! So without moaning and groaning, here is the solution:


How it happened
It was my own fault. I love noodling with column titles, and I renamed a few of them over time. Excel does not adapt the sorting tool when you rename the headers! This could be considered a bug, but I doubt Microsoft would flag it as a high priority. And that fricking "My data has headers" really has no purpose, other than cosmetic. In the meantime, you may want to try my personal tasks spreadsheet idea. Who knows, you may be thanking me in a few months (hopefully with cash)!

And another thing...
One more great, great organizing application I discovered a few years ago is Desktop Calendar. It just plain rocks.

Startup directory: Stupid

One thing that's been around since the early days of Microsoft Windows is the Startup directory. You probably don't know about it unless you've had one of those moments, feverishly deleting anything that booted with Windows.

Basically, if you plop any executable (or shortcut to executable) in the folder, it will magically start after Windows has booted up. Right now, I have over 10 applications starting up with Windows (you probably have more than I do). But none of these are in the designated Startup folder!

Basically, software writers thought that the \Startup\ directory was too out in the open. They thought (wrongly) that users would see the startup folder in the Start Menu and go apeshit. Programmers started writing directly to the registry, into \CurrentVersion\Run\, burying the true startup programs. Fast-forward to Windows XP and the commonality of the internet. Malware goes hogwild, and utilizes the same registry trick to hide. Even those who know about msconfig still have a huge job of cleaning up cryptic startup programs.

So, what does Microsoft learn? Nothing. They have yet to close the loophole. The registry folder is still there in Vista!

Program Files: Stupid

There are a lot of problems that get under your skin with Microsoft Windows. Let me be clear at the beginning: I do not have Linux installed on any of my machines. As one of my friends once said, "Windows is a good product", and it is. When Windows 98 came out, I thought it was the apex. I slowly and begrudgingly moved to XP (I finally figured out how to turn the Start Menu back to Classic Gray). Now, I am 90% content with my OS.

But there is something that became the norm with Windows 95 (and all subsequent sequels) that all software companies seemed to adopt. I am talking about \Program Files\. Let's break down the old way, first.

Typically, when you installed a game or a piece of software, it needed a new folder. The old way was to type something simple, so it could be quickly typed in command line. Games would be installed in C:\Quake\, so they could be accessed in DOS (via "cd quake", then "quake.exe").

Microsoft decided that the root directory (C:\) had become too cluttered (C:\Windows\ is where the OS is seated). So, they developed a solution (albiet a bad one): Program Files. The horrible thing is that everyone and their dog default installs to Program Files. Without looking I probably have 40 goddamn subfolders in there. They just moved the clutter into an a different closet! Video games, chatting applications and even Microsoft products now have a place in C:\Program Files\i-cant-type-this-right-in-command-line-or-find-it-when-searching\.

Now not all honorable programs want to be in the Prog Files club. mIRC used to be good at this, but they finally caved in. Let me ask two questions: why do you need a separate folder to house third-party (and first-party) apps; and why does it have to use case-sensitive, redundant words?

Let me suggest something for anyone that has more than Solitaire on their systems: C:\games\. I have everything gaming-related here (even oldschool game files). It's easy to type and easy to find. Also, make sure you have a place for downloads (the Desktop is for rookies). I use C:\tasks\, which is easy to find and type. C:\setupfiles\ is where offline copies of all my app installs are.

Another thing about the Desktop. Don't make tons of folders there. Windows buries the Desktop in the root structure, and if you change usernames or login as someone else, expect some downtime and headache.

If you are a developer, understand the KISS principle and stop putting my files into a catchall folder like Program Files!