Classic Lara Croft is Back, Huh
A remaster of the first three Tomb Raider games has been announced. Remastered Games This continues a trend of classic games receiving touch ups and being sold as new. For gamers, this has the advantage of making these remastered games easy to play on modern systems. Without such remasters, you’d either have to play the game on a console with [...]
Using NixOS on an OpenStack Public Cloud
Here are some notes on using NixOS in an OpenStack public cloud. Recall, NixOS is an operating system which makes use of the Nix package manager to manage its system configuration.
That NixOS allows declarative configuration of a system lends itself to building cloud VM images. OpenStack is a standard cloud computing platform. It offers services broadly similar to [...]
Two Kinds of Small Keyboards
In an earlier post, “Opinion on Small Keyboards and Big Spacebars”, I discussed the design flaws of traditional keyboards. – Mainly, traditional keyboards have big spacebars. Our thumbs are stronger than our pinky fingers, so it would be better to be able to use the thumbs more than the pinky fingers. A large spacebar results in the opposite: our thumbs [...]
Re-watching James Bond
I’ve been watching through the James Bond films with my wife. I’d seen the films many years ago, whereas this is my wife’s first watch through. Overall I’m getting a similar sense to what I got when I watched through Columbo with my wife: The lingering taste and cultural impact of these shows is the formula of these at their [...]
The Barbie Movie is Silly Fun
I went to go see the Barbie movie when I was visiting Malaysia with my wife. We wouldn’t have been able to see the movie in cinemas in Vietnam. Nine Dash Line It’s banned in Vietnam because, in one scene where a childlike depicition of a world map is shown, China’s nine dash line is represented. maritime-executive has an article [...]
So I Played Some Battlebit Remastered
“Battlebit Remastered” is trending on YouTube at the moment. At a glance, it has low-poly graphics, and is touted to have a lot of the charm that older Battlefield games had. (Maybe a lot of that is just nostalgia?). I don’t tend to play multiplayer games. I did watch a video that pointed out the game had voice-chat enabled, a [...]
Opinion on Small Keyboards and Big Spacebars
The mechanical keyboard hobby pretty much exploded in popularity during the pandemic. “Mechanical keyboards” generally brings to mind the loud, clicky switches; or perhaps people who have spent a lot of time (and often money) in order to get a keyboard that feels nice. But, there’s a niche part of the hobby which is passionate about playing around with more [...]
Nix Remains Useful for Side Projects
Nix is a sophisticated package manager. Nix has a steep learning curve; but those who do take the time to learn it are often enthusiastic about its benefits. The trade off with Nix is this: you put in effort up front to declaratively describe your software, and then you reap the benefits, such as being able to reproduce the same [...]
XCOM2 WOTC Added Some Good Parts
XCOM2 WotC I bought XCOM2 WotC (“War of the Chosen”) in a bundle for the Nintendo Switch. I’d completed a playthrough of the base game first. Overall, I found the game enthralling, but didn’t enjoy the RNG parts and so save-scummed my way through. I just completed a playthrough of XCOM2 WotC. And while I still don’t like the RNG [...]
XCOM2 has its Moments of Fun
XCOM and Civilization: They’re Okay I recently picked up the XCOM 2 Collection for the Nintendo Switch. I was lucky to catch it on sale at a discount of 85%. I just completed a playthrough of the base game. The collection also includes the expansion “War of the Chosen”, but I didn’t want to dive into too much content at [...]