Classic Ultima Resurrected?

My jaw dropped today to learn of some very exciting news: Classic Ultima games are going to be commercially available once again!

Electronic Arts, the giant game corporation that absorbed Richard Garriott's Origin, has apparently struck a deal with Good Old Games to introduce Ultima to a modern audience.

I can't wait. I also hadn't heard of GoG until today.

So... I'm probably going to be spending some hard-earned money on modern variants of Ultima, if only to be able to play Pagan on modern hardware. As a bonus, GoG is bundling the EA cluebooks -- a very rare commodity these days!

In other Ultima news that wouldn't interest those who are not total nerds on the subject, I stumbled across a link containing juicy details regarding the Bob White Plot which was rejected in favor of a hastily-produced Ultima 9 that broke much of the wonderful story continuity between Ultimas VII, VII:Serpent Isle, and VIII:Pagan.

I know what I'm going to be reading for fun this weekend!

Time for Some Maintenance [Macintosh SpinRite]

My home Mac has been acting up lately. Very slow to boot, occasional spinning beachball while hard disk activity is taking place... all signs of HDD weariness.

Today I finally bit the bullet and screwed up enough courage to delve into the disassembly of my iMac4,1 so that I could get access to its hard drive and run the ever-venerable SpinRite upon it.

It is a pain in the behind to get access to that hard disk. I needed Torx screwdrivers, in addition to prying the lid of the front face (taped down to boot) and making a big mess on my floor.

It was enough to get access to the SATA interface with my nifty SATA-to-USB adapter. My PC laptop can then safely SpinRite the Mac disk nearly in-place.

Of course, I'd much rather be able to run SpinRite natively. Perhaps that will come in SR7... :)

A Letter to My Representative About the Debt Ceiling

In my opinion, this whole debate about the debt ceiling has gotten completely out of hand.

Tonight, the President issued a request to all Americans to contact their elected representatives. Here's my shot at it:

Dear Representative Ryan:

This evening I am writing you per the President's request for concerned citizens to contact their elected representatives regarding the need for Congress to pass legislation that raises the debt ceiling.

As you are well aware, failure for Congress to pass such legislation in time for the President to sign it into law by August 2, 2011 would induce the first default in American history. Such an unprecedented, reckless action would mar the full faith and credit of the United States, increase the interest rates on future borrowing, and has a very strong likelihood of severely damaging the US -- if not the world -- economy.

I recognize the House has passed symbolic "Cut, Cap, and Balance" legislation, which was subsequently rejected by the Senate.

Such political theater is unacceptable to me, given the gravity of the matter and the impending deadline for action.

I strongly urge you to use your influence with your peers to craft compromise legislation that is capable of clearing both the House and Senate to promptly address this issue of national import.

I support the most ambitious initiatives put forth by the President to address the separate, but related issue, of reducing our structural deficits using a combination of spending cuts and increased tax revenue; in particular, broadening the corporate tax base by elimination of "loopholes" while reducing overall tax rates.

Please, do not ruin the impeccable credit of the United States by refusing to compromise. Use your position and influence to its fullest to avert the insanity of a self-inflicted default by raising the debt ceiling.

Respectfully,

Here's hoping that this falls on non-deaf ears. :/

LaTeX Goodies

I just found out the joys of the showframe package while working on figure sizing.

My issue is to ensure that all my thesis figures, etc. fit within the Blessed Margins set by the Graduate School.

Now I can view the placement and sizing *right away* without resorting to opening things in Acrobat and making page-specific layout guides.

Now, back to the trenches...

Note to Self

While recovering from a back injury, do not slip and fall on stairs.

It hurts your back. >:-/