I Think We Found Our Man

I Envy A Wordsmith

The following are some great words found in lyrics by Colin Meloy (The Decemberists) that I enjoy saying. Although some may prove challenging, I would be most pleased to hear them used more in day-to-day conversation.

• Petticoat (a woman's slip or underskirt)
• Tamaracks (a deciduous tree found in North America with short needles)
• Parapet (a low protective wall)
• Dirigible (an airship)
• Chaparral (a dense growth of shrubs)
• Concubines (whores)
• Palanquin (one of those box-shaped carriages that were carried using poles rested on the shoulders of a handful of men. You know, like in Aladdin. "Prince Ali, fabulous he, something something something..."
• Magistrate (like a justice of the peace. they try minor criminal cases.)
  

Lost Revelations

Rawson and I decided tonight that "The Others" are most likely republicans because...

1. They claim to run a peaceful society, yet react violently when their way of life is threatened by change.
2. They act better than everyone else until something happens that is beyond their control. Then they must turn to competent people to help fix their mess.
3. They're jerks.
   

Worth Your Attention

Here are 7 movies I would consider to be largely underrated and too often overlooked. Feel free to share any choice flicks you may have.

1. Serenity
2. Galaxy Quest
3. Road To Perdition
4. Miller's Crossing
5. October Sky
6. Shattered Glass
7. The Contender
   

That's More Like It

Bored Now

Here are some generally useless but moderately interesting facts for your Tuesday...

• Pinocchio was made of pine.
• The one hundred billionth Crayola crayon produced was periwinkle blue.
• Strawberries contain more vitamin C than oranges.
• Pigs can run a mile in 7 1/2 minutes.
• Australia is the only continent without an active volcano.
• Rubber bands last longer when refrigerated.
• There are 293 ways to make change for a dollar.
• King Kong was Adolf Hitler's favorite movie.
• Maine is the only state whose name is only one syllable.
• The most productive day of the work week is Tuesday.
  

Eureka!

Marilyn Manson - This is Halloween

Whether you're a fan of Manson or not, this cover is super sweet. Plus, it suits the time of year! (credit goes to Schnepf for the link.)

Quote-Worthy

The quote of the week goes to Mr. Rawson Sillsby on the topic of the PS3's Blu-Ray Disc capacity...

"It's like a 15-inch dick that never gets hard."

Talkin 'Bout My Resolution

I realize many people won't care a lick about this topic, but I found it particularly informative. Basically, Bruce Dawson, one of the senior software designers for Microsoft, explains why 1080p gaming isn't as glorious as Sony would lead you to believe. If you're interested in next-gen gaming, you might learn something. I did.


(from Ozymandias' blog)

The really interesting statistic that popped for me is how much less time a game console has to render a 1920x1080 scene versus a 1280x720 scene. (Remember this is on the same console, whichever one you like. This is not a comparison of different console's rendering capabilities to each other.) Simply put, for a 1080i/p game the console has 55% less time per pixel to render any special effects, anti-aliasing, illumination, etc. than for a 720p game. Yes, even Resistance has fallen off the bandwagon and admitted they can't hit 1080i/p as previously claimed. (It also helps explain why Gran Turismo HD is so underwhelming.)

Here's Bruce's explanation:

Many developers, gamers, and journalists are confused by 1080p. They think that 1080p is somehow more challenging for game developers than 1080i, and they forget that 1080 (i or p) requires significant tradeoffs compared to 720p. Some facts to remember:

• 2.25x: that’s how many more pixels there are in 1920x1080 compared to 1280x720
• 55.5%: that’s how much less time you have to spend on each pixel when rendering 1920x1080 compared to 1280x720—the point being that at higher resolutions you have more pixels, but they necessarily can’t look as good
• 1.0x: that’s how much harder it is for a game engine to render a game in 1080p as compared to 1080i—the number of pixels is identical so the cost is identical
• There is no such thing as a 1080p frame buffer. The frame buffer is 1080 pixels tall (and presumably 1920 wide) regardless of whether it is ultimately sent to the TV as an interlaced or as a progressive signal.
• 1280x720 with 4x AA will generally look better than 1920x1080 with no anti-aliasing (there are more total samples).
  

A few elaborations:

Any game could be made to run at 1920x1080. However, it is a tradeoff. It means that you can show more detail (although you need larger textures and models to really get this benefit) but it means that you have much less time to run complex pixel shaders. Most games can’t justify running at higher than 1280x720—it would actually make them look worse because of the compromises they will have to make in other areas.

1080p is a higher bandwidth connection from the frame buffer to the TV than 1080i. However the frame buffer itself is identical. 1080p will look better than 1080i—interlaced flicker is not a good thing—but it makes precisely zero difference to the game developer. Just as most Xbox 1 games let users choose 480i or 480p, because it was no extra work, 1080p versus 1080i is no extra work. It’s just different settings on the display chip.

Inevitably somebody will ask about field rendering. Since interlaced formats display the even lines on one refresh pass and then the odd lines on the next refresh pass, can’t games just render half of the lines each time? Probably not, and even if you could you wouldn’t want to. You probably can’t do field rendering because it requires that you maintain a rock solid 60 fps. If you ever miss a frame it will look horrible, as the odd lines are displayed in place of the even, or vice-versa. This is a significant challenge when rendering extremely complex worlds with over 1 million pixels per field (2 million pixels per frame) and is probably not worth it. And, even if you can, you shouldn’t. The biggest problem with interlaced is flicker, and field rendering makes it worse, because it disables the ‘flicker fixer’ hardware that intelligently blends adjacent lines. Field rendering has been done in the past, but it was always a compromise solution.

Forget-Me-Not

So the other day Tony went to the dentist and after his check-up was finished they gave him a pink carnation. How random is that?

The Departed Review

HIGHS

• Scorsese always manages to get the best out of his actors and The Departed is certainly no exception. Jack Nicholson, Matt Damon and Leo are all fantastic. The rest of the cast is swell too, these three just particularly stood out for me.
• While I'm talking about the cast, even Alec Baldwin was great in this! For what may be the first time ever I actually thought he was useful in a film. Way to go, Marty.
• Something that stood out to me during the film was a particularly good use of soundtrack. Not just in the selections but also how they were implemented.
• You can always count on a Scorsese flick to be worth the price of admission. It's a cinematic truth.
• They even got the accents right! For once a film about Bostonians doesn't have them all sounding mentally retahded.

*SPECIAL FEATURE!*

Let's just take a second to compare the career pathes taken by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck after Good Will Hunting:

Matt Damon makes Saving Private Ryan, Ben Affleck does Armageddon
Matt Damon makes The Talented Mr. Ripley, Ben Affleck does Forces of Nature
Matt Damon makes Oceans 11, Ben Affleck does Pearl Harbor
Matt Damon - The Bourne Identity, Ben Affleck - Reindeer Games
Matt Damon - The Bourne Supremacy, Ben Affleck - Surviving Christmas
Matt Damon - The Departed, Ben Affleck - Clerks II

One of these actors' filmographies is not like the other...

LOWS

• Nothing to report. Go see it already.

Torrey's Opinion:
5- Strongly Recommend
4- Recommend
3- A Mixed Bag
2- Sub-par
1- Don't Bother

Random related fact: The apartment where Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon) resided in the movie had been that of New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady.

Be More Funny!

I was just thinking that I can't decide whose stand-up routine I enjoy less, Dane Cook or Carlos Mencia. I will re-visit this at a later date.

Frakin' Sweet

Sure, Lost is fun and all but THIS is the best show on television:

Hayden, I Need You

Lord of the Rings by George Lucas

Thanks to Cookie for supplying the link.

Not Far Off

I found this photo on a random gaming site and got a good chuckle out of it. There's a reason I refer to them as "Best Guess."

A Fine Wife

If you enjoy good music, The Decemberists have a new album out today!


If you do not enjoy good music, Evanescence released something as well.