Check this out.

Also, my Calculus exam is in 2.5 hours.

Wish me luck.

During a study break, I read this article through the Prophet of the Good News, Tycho.

It’s about a newly announced Firefly MMO. While it is only in the initial planning stages, the idea - simply through the brand attached to it - is elicit rivers of salivation from most science fiction geeks. In truth, this is the type of MMO that I have only dreamed of. I’ve always thought of how amazing - but likely unfeasible - it would be to establish an MMO around the Firefly universe, although - in my mind - I was unable to resolve certain pitfalls the concept might have. Issues such as maintaining a ship’s crew or unique ships in general made it difficult to envision how the MMO could be properly developed.

Whether these developers have even begun to think about this, or if they are merely attaching a popular brand to the upcoming Multiverse service, remains to be seen.

Nevertheless, if and when this title is finally released, I think I may end up finally being drawn in by the allure of an MMO. This will be a sad time, as my resistance to their shiny promise of gaming has remained strong for so long.

Oh well.

I cannot truly resist the idea of finally building and crewing a ship of my own, and blasting out into the stars. It fills me with warm thoughts.

Thought this was interesting…

Your campus+external use exceeds your permitted capacity. You have been in the constrained-bandwidth queue for the last 61 hours. Assuming no further use, you will be there until your currently-available allowance goes above zero, in 3 hours.

Fortunately, since the constrained queue isn’t on, this does nothing. I’m downloading the entire Invasion series, the first season of Slings and Arrows, and Star Wars: Clone Wars.

My computer has slowed significantly lately. I am concerned about a virus contained somewhere within my 120GB of storage.

It possesses an ample amount of space to hide in.

I was wondering if anyone can recommend a good virus scanner. I’m currently using E-trust Antivirus, however, the results I am getting are less than exciting. Frankly, I can’t even trust the thing to download its own updates.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Finals doth come.

And unfortunately, they are all in a row.

On Wednesday of the upcoming week, I have Math 137 (Calculus) at 12:30.

This is truly the beginning of the end. Throughout the year, Calculus has been my worst subject. I’ve gotten low 50s on both of the midterms, and in order to bring my mark out of the conditional zone, I am going to have to get a reasonably mark on this exam. A 66% should do the trick, but I cannot be sure. I’ve received decent marks on assignments thus far, but nothing to write home about.

The point is, the bulk of my mark is riding on the final (which is worth 60% by itself). While it is likely that I will pass, it seems unlikely that I will pass with flying colours.

On Friday, I have CS125 (Java Programming) at 4:00.

For the most part, I have taught myself this course, and am therefore not particularly worried. I may write a practice program the night before. Perhaps something that will perform the Euclidean Algorithm for me (I’ve written it into a program before). This will help me check my answers in Algebra.

On Monday, I have psychology. My concern for it is extremely limited.

On Tuesday, there is philosophy. The midterm for this course was easy. However, that was because the articles she chose to cover are the ones that I had read, and had a great deal of interest in. For the final, the articles are less interesting, and two of the questions are kind of obscure (as in, I don’t know which articles they relate to). The ambiguous nature of her questions makes me hope that not all of them will have to be responded to (perhaps 4 or 5 out of 7 question). However, it is not indicated as such on the exam sheet she provided, so I cannot be sure. I don’t entirely want to risk it, but with time constraints, I may just have to.

On Wednesday is Algebra, the climax of all my endeavors this term. I think that if I study the proofs more, I should be able to do quite well on this exam.

Wish me luck.

I’m going to post my tale of cruel conquering, since Andrew has posted his.

Thursday, November 23, 2006

On account of the recently completed Calculus midterm, the only Calculus assignment due for submission was a relatively simple Maple Lab, which was a great deal easier than the last one. In celebration of this recently acquired freedom and liberty, Andrew, Binkle, and myself got together to play a little Starcraft. Which turned out to be a great deal of Starcraft, since the whole endeavour spanned from 10:00PM to 5:00AM. It was certainly very spirited, although I often left the game early to pick away at my Maple Lab (which I needed to hand in to boost my Calculus mark ever so slightly).

There came a time where Binkle and I grew tired of being slaughtered by Andrew time and time again, so we decided to take on some computerized characters. I cannot recall what the initial numbers were (3 vs. 2) but we dove headfirst into battle. We were a force to be reckoned with, as we combined the might of all three species: Terran (Binkle), Zerg (myself), and Protoss (Andrew). From the outset, Andrew was the brunt of most enemy attacks. The computers, who will be referred to as Mr. Purple (Protoss) and Mr. Teal (Zerg), began to expand like a plague and assault Andrew’s defenses. Binkle’s relative naivety in regards to the game resulted in him holding back and defending his massive continental base (it expanded nearly 1/4 of the map), while I provided assistance to Andrew in the form of Hydralisks and Overlords.

This became my main strategy throughout the game. I expanded quickly, gaining enough resources to create legion after legion of Hydralisks which would eventually decimate the entirety of the computer’s forces. In an attempt to rescue Andrew, I dispatched my Hydralisks in a clockwise attack-move around the map. The quickly dug through Mr. Purple’s base, exterminating him within a matter of minutes. They proceeded north, where they encountered Mr. Teal’s expansive Zerg outposts. He was nearly destroyed, except for a few hidden bases on rocky cliffs.

The time to strike was at hand.

With three legions of Hydralisks surrounding Binkle’s supply depots, and a legion and a half in Andrew’s crippled base, I withdrew from the Allies and joined the Axis of Kicking Ass. My legions of Hydralisks completely decimated Binkle’s base, eroding the progress of his entire species, as well as his soul. Andrew was more fortunate, having been spared the brunt of the attack due to receiving fewer numbers of attackers. While Binkle was seriously crippled, Andrew was able to rebuild quickly enough to combat my Hydralisk militant police force. After 10 or 15 minutes (maybe more?) of them trying to destroy my single home base - which was relatively small - they finally starved me out through an aerial siege. When Andrew moved in with a few cloaked carriers, there was no chance to defend.

So, while I did have the military might to overthrow them both, I should have redirected my attack at Andrew, as opposed to Binkle, as Andrew was the more experienced player.

However, by the end, I’d gotten sick of merely holding them off with no difficulty, and I wanted to find the small remaining base of the computers that remained.

After they destroyed me, it turned out that the computer’s base was a single extractor, outside Binkle’s base. I’d lost so many Hydralisks by trying to get that extractor.

For some time, I was allied with Binkle and Andrew, including vision, so that I could just kill the computer and end the game. Unfortunately, they exploited the use of vision and continued to attack.

And I held them off until Andrew got well-established. A lesson learned.