Boycott/Yellow day at DeviantART
Posted on Sunday, July 31, 2005 at 11:28 pm
I don’t know how many of my loyal constituents are members of DeviantART, and for those that are, I’m hoping you already know what’s going down. But if you’re clueless, the last couple days have been… well… interesting.
So, here’s the story, as best I can figure it. DA had three founders: Jark, Matteo, and Spyed. (Previously, I thought Spyed came into the picture later, but I’ve since found out that he was indeed actually one of the founders). But everyone knows that Jark is the one who really runs the show. And for some reason or another (no one really knows), Spyed either found a loophole, or created a loophole, that allowed him to fire Jark and Matteo. The general concensus is that Spyed wants to sell out, but Jark and Matteo don’t. So, without warning or explanation, Spyed somehow managed to give Jark and Matteo the boot. Spyed hasn’t given any information, and Jark/Matteo aren’t allowed to give any information due to NDA’s. So nobody really knows exactly how or why this happened. And besides that, various people in the “new” administration saw fit to break one of the holiest of rules in the DA community: they deleted comments. DA was founded on the principle of free speech. Everyone is allowed to say pretty much whatever they want, as long as it’s not blatantly illegal/racist/whatever. But someone decided that this particular thread needed to be deleted. The fuck it did.
But it essentially boils down to this: Spyed is going for some crazy power grab, Jark and Matteo are losing everything, nobody knows what’s going on, but everyone is pissed. There are two reasons for everyone being pissed: firstly, Jark is gone; and secondly, the “new” administration won’t give anyone answers.
August 7 is DA’s 5th birthday. As such, the idea is that everyone boycott DA on that day. No new submissions, no new journal entries, no new anything. Financial motives are the general assumption for why Spyed is doing this; therefore, by proving that the community won’t stand for it (thus rendering the site without any financial support), it is hoped that Jark and Matteo will be allowed to return. Or, at the very least, we will be given some sort of concrete explanation for the what’s, why’s, and wtf’s of the whole situation. An alternative idea has also been suggested: if you’re not going to boycott entirely, submit something yellow in support of Jark (whose avatar has always been a yellow alien). Both ideas have their perks. Boycotting entirely directly impacts the financial aspect of the site, which renders useless Spyed’s suspected motives. Submitting something with the whole yellow alien theme proves that we’re supporting Jark and that we’re not going to stand idly by while Spyed goes on a power trip.
So essentially, I’m just giving you a heads up, if you’re someone who’s into the whole DA thing. I’ve been a member for 4 out of the 5 years they’ve existed. What Spyed did is absolutely unacceptable, and he should be held accountable for what he did. He’s hoping that this whole thing will blow over and everyone will forget about it, so he’ll be able to continue doing whatever it was he’s been planning to do. But it’s the community’s job to prevent that from happening. We must send the message that this won’t be glossed over, that it won’t be swept under the rug, that it won’t be forgotten.
So everyone who’s into the whole DA thing, please remember that a week from today – Sunday, August 7 – you must either boycott DA entirely, or submit something that supports the reinstation of Jark and Matteo, the real administration of DeviantART.
For more information, visit Jark’s personal website, which contains as much info as anyone’s allowed to give, plus links to screenies of pertinent posts/deviations (in case the actual posts/deviations themselves are deleted by the “new” powers that be).
1 Comment
Wallpaper: Negation
Posted on Friday, July 29, 2005 at 8:17 pm
I posted this on the forums, but here’s a repost on the blog in case anyone only reads this and doesn’t really get into the forums…
Here’s a fun new wallpaper I just finished. (Yes, I know, I should be working on Scourge… but deal with it.)
About 3 hours working on the models and lighting and what-not in 3dsmax, 15 hours to render the 3d, and then another 4 or so hours of 2d work in Photoshop. I’ve been working on it off-and-on for the last three days.
It’s called “Negation.” Don’t ask me why. I just thought it sounded cool.
Click the thumb for the full-sized image (1600×1200, ~400kb).
Also, in case anyone’s interested, here’s a couple more images you can view.
First up, we have the 3d render only. I’ve shrunk it down to 800×600 to save on filesize, but other than that, this is exactly how it rolled out of Mental Ray. Note that I did a little bit of color shifting in Photoshop on the final wallpaper, which is why this one’s colors look a bit different.
And here’s a version without the materials applied to the shapes. No lighting effects, no nothing. This lets you see what the three original shapes themselves look like without any of the fun reflection/refraction stuff. Sort of interesting. Actually, this is sort of pretty in its own right.
Also, a note for people interested in this type of thing, it’s actually a ton easier than you might think. The basic steps I took for this piece are:
1. Make a shape that’s good for playing with – torus (aka donut), teapot, something like that. Cubes and spheres are ok, but not really complex enough to have fun with, imho.
2. Add a noise modifier. This is where all the crazy twists and turns and everything come from. Yes, believe it or not, this background started from three simple donuts. Play with the noise settings until you get something that looks cool.
3. Add a few other modifiers – twist, stretch, and bend are some good ones. Again, play with the settings until you find something good.
4. Add the MeshSmooth modifier. This turns everything into nice round curves instead of big ugly pointy triangles (unless you’re going for big pointy triangles, in which case, skip the MeshSmooth). A tip that I found out by myself, is if you right-click on the MeshSmooth modifier after you apply it, you can turn it off in the viewport. Now everything will still look pointy and ugly in the viewport, but it will make editing and moving around a TON faster. And it will still render the final image with the modifier applied. For this piece, I used a MeshSmooth setting of “5,” which probably explains why it took 15 hours to render. A setting of 3 or 4 will result in a faster render, but some of the curves may still look a little triangular. It all depends on how patient you are.
5. Apply a material to it. Make the material whatever color you want, but you’ll need to turn on the reflection and refraction maps so everything interacts with everything else and you get all the cool glowy looking stuff. This is what separates that red/blue/yellow image above from the final good-looking render.
6. Rinse and repeat as necessary. Make another shape, do stuff to it, rotate it or move it a little, and just keep doing this until you’re happy with what you get.
7. Save often, and do lots of test renders at 320×240. Running the renderer at the really small size will only take a few minutes, and it will give you a good idea of what the final thing will look like once you’re ready to turn on the final render and go to bed.
Hope this has been informative. If anyone else is interested in getting into this, I can point you to a few of the good tutorials I relied heavily upon for this.
Also… Not to be an attention whore or anything, but I posted this on DeviantART, so if anyone’s got an account there and feels like commenting or giving it a +fav that would be nice. 
3 Comments
Fuck Hillary Clinton.
Posted on Wednesday, July 27, 2005 at 9:42 am
As I’m sure you all are aware by now, Bitch-tits Clinton has spearheaded an apparently successful campaign against Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. For those who just woke up for the first time in weeks, or perhaps recently suffered severe head trauma, here’s the recap as I see it.
1. Take 2/Rockstar write some code into GTA:SA that shows the player having sex with hookers, girlfriends and/or rabid weasels. Said chunk of code is entitled “Hot Coffee.” They then proceed to disable that particular chunk of code. They don’t remove it entirely*, but they disable access to it.
2. Some kid figures out how to re-enable access to Hot Coffee.
3. Some other kid replaces the fully-clothed models in the stock code with nekkid ones.
4. Hillary goes apeshit and decides that GTA:SA is surely the root of all evil in the world. You’ll kindly note that the words “Take 2/Rockstar” do not appear anywhere in the last two outline points (which are the whole reason this fiasco got started), but that doesn’t stop her from blaming the companies for the entirety of America’s state of moral decay.
5. The ESRB rescinds the game’s “M” rating and slaps an “AO” rating on it. Now, rather than (in theory) having to be 17 to buy it, you must be 18. Obviously, there must be some huge metaphorical canyon dividing the mental capacities of 17 year olds from 18 year olds that I’m not aware of, because “AO” means most retail stores will now be pulling the game off their shelves in less time than it takes R Kelly to nut all over himself at an N*Sync concert.
* Note that, as a pseudo-professional software developer, this is not a new concept to me. There are a handful of database fields and code chunks in DK that are currently not in use, but they may have been at one point or another during the development of the game. The same can be said of just about any software program you can think of. Sometimes, stuff just gets disabled, or methods of accessing it get removed. But the code itself may not be removed because of laziness (as is generally the case with my stuff), dependencies (you may not need the entire function, but a few lines still get used every once in awhile by other stuff, so you leave it in there just so it won’t screw up anything), and other reasons. It’s not a big deal. Unless you’re Hillary Clinton, apparently.
I still find it absolutely hilarious that a game whose sole preoccupation is murder, car theft, and beating the blue fuck out of hookers with baseball bats is ok to get the less-restrictive “M” rating, but as soon as someone puts a nudie model in it, it’s inherently evil. Yes, kids, it’s ok to run over people in your hatchback, but God forbid you ever see a damn pixellicious, polygonal boobie.
At any rate, that’s how things are from my viewpoint. There have been several well-articulated essays and letters in the last few days, from bloggers and reporters, responding to the GTA:SA tragedy. Note that, because I have a headache and a penchant for four letter words, this is probably not one of them. However, if you’re interested in reading one, I came across a good one (I think Boing Boing linked to it) at the LA Times’ website. Here’s a snippet:
Dear Sen. Clinton:
I’m writing to commend you for calling for a $90-million study on the effects of video games on children, and in particular the courageous stand you have taken in recent weeks against the notorious “Grand Theft Auto” series.
I’d like to draw your attention to another game whose nonstop violence and hostility has captured the attention of millions of kids — a game that instills aggressive thoughts in the minds of its players, some of whom have gone on to commit real-world acts of violence and sexual assault after playing.
I’m talking, of course, about high school football.
Clickie clickie for the full article. It’s a pretty good read.
32 Comments
Better names for the next Windows.
Posted on Sunday, July 24, 2005 at 10:14 am
As I posted in the forums, Microsoft announced on Friday that the official name of the next version of Windows, which according to a top-level Microsoft exec is due to be released “hopefully sometime before the apocalypse,” is going to be “Windows Vista.” They quit using version numbers a long time ago because they knew people wouldn’t really want to spend $200+ a pop on point releases (Windows 95, 98, 98SE, and ME were all based on the same v4.0 codebase, each with their own extra little hacks and bullshit thrown on top of it). And they’ve also, wisely, I think, dropped the year numbers, because anyone who can count would have noticed a FIVE YEAR GAP between versions if they’d kept it up. And they quit with the whole stupid little pun acronym stuff, too. Because really now, who needed [the] Windows [e]XP[erience]? But seriously… WINDOWS VISTA?!?! At least when it was still just “Codename Longhorn,” it had a sexy startup logo and it sounded like it came from Texas.
Once again, I cannot stress enough how much I am reminded of the Vista Cruiser from That 70s Show. Maybe they should play that up. The retail box for Vista could be, like, wood-panelled and come a pair of Donna’s panties. Actually, come to think of it, that’s not a half-bad idea. 
Anyhoo… I just thought that maybe I could offer some alternative names to Microsoft, in case they all of a sudden figure out that the new name just isn’t quite gay enough. So here are my suggestions.
1. Windows XS – Then they could totally nickname it WINXS, and have a bundle deal with the “band” INXS, in an effort to continue ass-raping the memory of decent rock-n-roll everywhere.
2. WiNdows eXtreme eDitioN – Random upper-case is cool. Or something. NXDN RuLEzzz!
3. Windows Honeypot – Now featuring a program whose sole job is to count the number of seconds it takes for you to get a virus after you turn on your computer for the first time.
4. Windows Infinity Plus One – Ahh, the pinnacle of elementary school debates. Microsoft will be on top of the world, at least until Red Hat fires back with Linux Infinity Times A Billion.
5. Windows Ubiquity – Now featuring even more badly-coded Microsoft programs to take market-share away from real developers. In fact, you know what? If Microsoft didn’t write it, you can’t even run it! How do you like them apples?! Yeah! Say what now, Mozilla!
6. Windows Anal Rape – “Well, gentlemen… we need a new name for Windows. And we need to be accurate this time. When you run Windows, you are left with a certain feeling… a certain experience… just tell me exactly what you think Windows feels like, and we’ll go from there…”
7. Windows v5.3.1600 XP2 Revolutions 2006 Professional 32-bit Edition Volume One – I’m sure that would all fit on the retail box… somehow or another… maybe…
8. Windows OS X – Heh… heh… just a joke, people. Even though we all know how Redmond loves to rip off Cupertino.
9. Windows 20th Anniversary Edition – Because we’re still using large chunks of code that were written TWENTY FUCKING YEARS AGO! Sure, the size of the OS has increased by a factor of a hundred or better, but we’ve still got some of the stuff we used when Windows came on floppy disks. And you wonder why it’s so easy to hack.
10. Windows Faggotry – Remember how WinXP was all bright and colorful and looked like it was designed for preschoolers? Well, with the all-new Windows Faggotry, your computer comes decorated with pink chiffon and a lovely throw rug, which will go oh so good with your new frosted glass coffee table, and it also comes with a gift certificate to the Organic Food Store down the street. Now let’s go for manicures, girlfriend! *limp wrist flick!*
4 Comments
One down, four to go.
Posted on Thursday, July 21, 2005 at 3:10 pm
I accomplished one of my five lifelong goals today. I beat Solitaire in under 60 seconds.
Yay for that. Actually, it was partly a let-down, because in my rush to get a screenshot, I forgot to write down the bonus score, which is directly tied to my second lifelong goal: to figure out the equation that determines your bonus score based on how many seconds it takes to beat the game. A couple summers ago, I was bored out of my skull at work and went about trying to get a list of every possible bonus score. With the exceptions of 66, 70, 75 and 77 seconds, I have every score from every time of 65 through 101 seconds. With that, I can find the difference between, say, the 80 second bonus and the 81 second bonus. Load all that data into a graph, study it, live it, become one with it, and then I can find out the equation for it. In theory.
So here’s my list, just so you know…
1. Beat Solitaire in under 60 seconds… CHECK!!!
2. Find out the bonus score equation in Solitaire.
3. Learn the fine art of bringing women to orgasm simply by pointing a finger at them from across a crowded room. I mean, how cool would that be?! You’re walking along, and BAM!, you’re rolling around on the floor like a big ball of Jell-O Brand Gelatin Snacks, moaning and screaming like a banshee. Yeah, that’d be cool.
4. Invent a device that lets you smack people over the Internet.
5. Own a Saleen S7. Also, a Maybach wouldn’t be half bad, either.
