C0rk.W0rd

BD Mylo & The Go Daddys - CD RELEASE @ WCL

Not doing anything interesting Saturday night (11/27/2004)? Good!... Now you are… head to Philly for the BD Mylo & The Go Daddy’s CD Release party. The event begins at 8:00pm and will be held at the World Café Live at 30^th and Walnut (3025 Walnut Street), which is located near Drexel and PENN (plenty of free street parking). --- Free Admission, No Cover!!

The event will celebrate the release of BDGD’s debut album – “I Can’t Lose”. The first 100 guests will receive free sample CDs from Verve Records and various door prizes will be auctioned off throughout the night including an autographed electric guitar.

BDGD is a 6-piece band blending blues, soul, rock and jazz. You may have heard them mentioned in this blog before, but rather than having me explain them to you, head to the official BD Mylo website (designed and maintained by BD Mylo herself) and get a taste of what’s in store. Hopefully I will see all of you there!!

Half-Life 2 - A Must Own

...No really... you have to own it, breaking the piracy protection is too much trouble...

I made time to play around with HL2 this weekend, and thought I should drop my two cents about the game. Rather than bore you with stuff you can read in other comprehensive reviews, I'll just give you some of my highlights…

The game runs amazingly well on my dated system. This is particularly remarkable because HL2 includes some amazing graphics work. I prefer HL2's visuals to Doom3's by simple virtue of the fact that HL2 environments are well lighted, and those that aren't do other things to enhance visual appeal. I particularly enjoyed a sequence where enemy soldiers cut power to the building you're in, and you're forced to fight by red flare-light --- the shadowing during this sequence is breathtaking. While on this topic, I'd also like to mention the scale of the environments. Objects render in the far distance that make
things seem REAL, and little things like birds and water effects really get this working.

Another remarkable area of HL2 is the physics engine. The manner in which objects react in the environment seems too natural --- barrels falling/rolling and the ragdoll effects. You’re also equipped with a gravity gun early in the game that quickly becomes your weapon of choice. You can pickup and throw just about anything of a certain size, including enemies (later in the game). These physics are also used to enhance the puzzle solving portions of the game.

 I don’t want to go on too long, so let me try to just mention a few more things…

• Manhacks – little mechanical blade things that fly, super cool.
• Striders – giant spider looking tank things, dumbfounded.
• Dog – mechanized assistant, neat.

The characters and plot line of HL2 is also intriguing, though I recall the original’s being better. Nevertheless there is a lot to love about this must own title forgiving the anti-piracy steam registration process. Please post your comments and/or thoughts regarding this short review and the game.

Mozilla FireFox 1.0 Released

The first official release of Mozilla's open-source web browser, FireFox - version 1.0 - is now available for download. Shoot on over and download your copy.

In case you're not familiar with my 'over-the-top' promotion of FireFox -- Consider reading this or this.

Please go download this new browser, then return to www.c0rk.info and tell me what you think.

Current Polling Indicates...

VOTE!

Stop reading this and go vote... no seriously... stop... go... NOW.... VOTE!!!

Leave No Child Behind - I WANT TO LEARN!!

Finally the day has arrived … what has happened, and what have we learned?

…we’ve endured months of mud slinging because nothing wins an election like making an ass out of your opponent
…we’ve justified politically saturated news which probably increased the consumption of psychological drugs which we just learned  may lead to health risks
…we’ve shaped ourselves into the most divided nation most living Americans have ever seen – Indeed, “United We Stand” (Need a bumper sticker?)
…we’ve come from ‘no taxation without representation’ to ‘draft-dodger’ and ‘flip-flopper’
…we now know that Vietnam taught us NOTHING except to use any criticism of any American military action to attack your political opponent
…we’ve hopefully learned that the following individuals (and many others) are in no way associated with anything even remotely resembling journalism – Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson
…You do not need to defend yourself or attack your opponent with facts. Guesswork and partisan poll results are perfectly acceptable.
…Numbers lie
…Political Rhetoric + Lying Numbers = partisan hack fuel
…There is no punishment brutal enough for Anne Coulter
…Polls mean a little less than nothing
…Karl Rove sold his soul to satan…loooong….long…ago
…Your vote matters, but not as much as your money
…1 person – 1 vote, unless you’re Clarence Thomas
…If you’re a lawyer and you want to deface another lawyer, call him a lawyer
…Dick Cheney died three years ago, or at least that’s when his heart stopped beating
…gays are “politically unviable”
…No one did it like Slick Willy
…There are more lessons to come