For any of you Spokane sci-fi/fantasy readers...

On the off chance you don't know about it, there's a neat little used bookstore by the name of Cal's Books. It has a couple of nice features...

• It has a fair-sized stock of fantasy and sci-fi books available (as well as other genres for those of you who are into those sorts of things)
• It's got a fairly decent trade-in system... you get some percentage of the cover price of your books' value as credit, which you then access for a pittance per book. End result: books for about $0.40 each, so long as you have credit at the store
• It's at the other end of the block from the Donut Parade, so you can have handy access to good donuts without explicitly making a trip to get donuts.

I've been going to Cal's off and on for years... and honestly, that's why I'm writing this. You see, it had been about 5 years since I last dropped in, between work and other hobbies interfering, and I have hundreds of dollars in credit there. Many places would have found a way, in that time, to quietly 'lose' my record or otherwise erase that credit... but everything was as it should be, all these years later. For that alone, I recommend taking a look into Cal's... worst case, it'll give you an excuse to go get donuts.

El Shaddai

It might sound like the setup for some sick joke, or maybe a disaster waiting to happen... but El Shaddai is a game based, however loosely, on a story from a book in the Dead Sea Scrolls. I've played a ways into the game now... it's a mildly interesting mix of 2d and 3d platforming and beat 'em up elements, without any obvious heresies to set off those so inclined. Game-wise and story-wise, it's decent, and that's about it.

However... it is visually unique, with a style that changes throughout. Anybody that wants to debate whether video games can ever be art needs to see this game. Myself, I'm quite taken by it... enough so to recommend that you rent it or check out a demo, at least. If you like it, it's down to about $20 new now, so you can almost certainly find it cheaper used.

Well, that's that...

For regular readers, this should be the last time I feel the need to mention Sony and their unfortunate business decisions, so read or skip as you like.

The final hope I had for Sony getting told that their shenanigans with the PS3 firmware from April of last year were wrong is gone. The class action lawsuit brought against them (and which Sony has shielded themselves against with changes to their Terms & Conditions since then) has been dismissed. Basically, the judge says that, since the users have the option of not upgrading the firmware on their PS3s if they want to keep the functionality they want, there's no foul on Sony's part.

The only problem I have with that line of reasoning is that it doesn't apply strictly to Sony's online services... you can use the same line of reasoning for games on disc that include a mandatory firmware update if you want to play them solo on your own machine. Don't want to accept the update? Don't play the game. Never mind that the system you bought was specifically designed to play those games, it's not on Sony for requiring an update, it's on you for refusing an update that strips away features you paid for.

So, apparently, the state of the law now is that your right to use your game consoles (and what else?) in a feature-complete state as of the time of sale is strictly dependent on the goodwill and immediate business concerns of the seller. That said, I simply can't trust Sony, based on past behavior, so they're still off my purchase list... and the bar for every other console seller has been set that much higher.

70 years since Pearl Harbor

Today marks 70 years since the Pearl Harbor attack by the Japanese, starting our fight against a dedicated foe that lasted for years, and was only finally brought to an end with atomic bombs. Now, we get good-quality electronics and cars from them, eat sushi and teriyaki without batting an eye, and, in my case, I get to enjoy subtitled anime and translated manga on a regular basis. So, thanks to the veterans of that war for doing what needed to be done, first off... but, especially in troubling times like these, it's worth remembering that change is a constant, however slowly that change may happen.

Skyrim!

I've seen enough games hyped over the years, only to fall far short of their hype once they launch, that I consciously do my best to disregard the over-the-topness of such hype, and see if what's left is likely to be worthy of my time. Skyrim (or, more properly, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim) certainly fell into that category, but, as the fifth entry in a decades-long series of games, which have (mostly) improved with each new version, I'll admit to having higher-than-usual hopes... and, now that I've got a solid day's worth of play under my belt, all I can say is... believe the hype.

If you like role-playing games, I think it's safe to say that you will like this game. It looks wonderful, even on XBox360, it plays smoothly, and, unusually for a Bethesda Softworks game, I was able to play it on day one without any major glitches or program lockups. It simulates a portion of its world down to a level of detail that's most games never approach, and lets you play the way you want to play. That's because, unlike most other RPGs, this game doesn't revolve around a concept of player "classes"... rather, the skills you use (or get trained in) determine how your character grows. Oh, and, unlike prior entries in the Elder Scrolls saga, it includes some truly massive opponents along with the run-of-the-mill people and animals... everything from bears, HUGE spiders, and mammoths, all the way up to dragons. You know, bigger than an elephant, flies, breathes fire, dragons... and hopefully, you've got a bunch of people with bows or other ranged attacks to help you out in taking one down.

For those of you that played Oblivion, here's what's changed, systems-wise. Like I said above, classes (or build-your own classes using "favored skills") are out. All skill advancement counts towards level advancement, and the magicka/health/stamina raises therefrom. Also, the "perks" are handled differently... instead of automatically picking up skill-related improvements every 25 skill points, you get a "perk point" to spend each level, to choose from a perk tree for each skill, limited by your actual skill level. Beyond that, the "automatic difficulty adjustment" from Oblivion is either gone or greatly reduced (got my ass handed to me by a bear I unintentionally provoked, for instance), armor/weapons repair is gone, and there are some subtle changes to skills, crafting skills in particular (smithing covers creation and enhancement of armor, weapons, and jewelry, while alchemy has some minor changes in how you work out what reagents deliver what effects). In fact, crafting is only done at fixed crafting stations now... sorry alchemists, even if you want to, you can't load yourself down with alchemical lab bits to craft potions and poisons on the road.

Long story short, Skyrim looks to be a wonderful RPG, that fixes the biggest issues from Oblivion without introducing new major issues, and what I've seen of the "main" storyline so far is quite good. I already paid full price for this game, and, if you like RPGs, I don't think you'll be sorry if you do likewise.

VIM turns twenty

It's fun, the things you run across on the 'net. As detailed by this Ars Technica article, today's the 20th anniversary of the release of VIM to the public. All I can say is hooray, and I hope it keeps going and getting better for another 20... I use this editor pretty much every day, whether for programming or systems administration, and it's a pleasure to have something that doesn't assume that you have a mouse handy, yet is still efficient to use. Didn't know that it started out on the Amiga (my first computers), and the article also points out to me that I've barely scratched the surface on this program... might just have to remedy that.

Death notices from computerland

Anybody who takes in almost any form of mass media these days knows that Steve Jobs died recently, and there have been enough "what a great CEO/computer pioneer he was" stories that I just don't see the need to link to them. Not that what he did was easy, or that it didn't have some impact on the world... but still, he did what he did pretty much for self-enrichment, and most of what he did was recognize the value of design and quality in consumer gear.

Contrast that with the recent death of another computer luminary that you won't hear much about in the mass media: Dennis Ritchie. He helped create an operating system still in use in various forms today, and created a little thing called C, a programming language still in use today, whose influence is felt in pretty much every programming language developed since. He is greatly responsible for much of the infrastructure the modern Internet uses to run, among other things (including the current foundation of Apple's software for their Macintosh computers). All that, and not a profit motive in sight, just pure intellectual curiosity.

All in all, well... I'm not one to put my heart on my sleeve and publicly mourn people I don't personally know... but I have to say, Ritchie is the greater loss in my book.