I was going to write about work, but something more important came up. The game Starfleet Command has been released as a demo version. Wow is all I can say. Its very complex. And it is a lot of fun. I have been waiting for this bad boy for a while. The game is based on the the classic Starfleet Battles board game and captures the feel of it very well. The demo weighs in at 46.9MB or you have an option to download a version of it without voices that is 20.9MB. It worth the longer download time though because you get Captain Sulu as a tutor. You can grab the demo at PC.IGN.COM.

One of my favorite comic books, Cerebus The Aardvark, had a storyline called Jaka Story. Its about a character named Jaka who is a dancer. It also has a character based on Oscar Wilde, who doesn’t understand what the big deal is about her dancing. One of the plot points is this Oscar finally seeing with his own eyes Jaka dancing. He realizes that what Jaka does is not dirty or filthy, yet a form of art.

I had that experience tonight. I made it out to the Vegas club. One of my old co-workers happens to dance out there. I always felt that Drake was a very beautiful women, so seeing her the way I did was kind of weird. I never thought I would have blushed seeing her do her thing, yet I blushed no doubt about it. What is it that makes it ok looking at naked females that you don’t know? Why does it change all of the sudden because you know the person in question?

When you don’t know them its easier to treat them like meat. But I found myself trying to look away when ever she would pass my way. Don’t get me wrong I still think she is a very beautiful women, its just weird because I know her it makes it harder to enjoy looking at her. For the record for those of you that think dancers are stupid let me say that Drake is one of the smartest women I have had the pleasure of meeting. And I’m not saying that just because I have seen her naked. This has been a very weird experience. I almost feel guilty for enjoying it.

Well I’m just checking if this works. I have to use plain old HTML, I don’t have my Frontpage 2000 to help me out. Work is going well. It can get a little boring at times. I miss my computer and I miss my computer games. I am really missing Starfleet Command.

Anyway I going to see South Park: Bigger, Louder, And Uncut tonight. I hope it’s good. If it isn’t bigger, louder, and uncut I’m going to be really pissed off. So I’m signing off for now. You guys send me an e-mail at Turk.

And I have to say Hi to my dad and the Izers. So Hi gang!

Well I finally had someone sign the GuestBook from that PMOTW thing. So every one say hi to Vancezanne. Who got his “handle” from some famous artists. So check out Vancezanne. This is what he had to say:

Heya Turk, as a recent inductee into the PhenomenalMOTW, I was checking out the links to other people’s pages. A lot of them seem self-absorbed and over-important. I clicked your link cuz you seemed like a normal guy through what you wrote for your site profile. Anyhoo, I like your site, its got a very personal touch. Yes, when I visit I can tell a person has been here. Not like a lot of web pages where its all tech’d out and over-bloated in self-importance and hasn’t been updated in ages. Nice site, I like it. :) Sadly, this GuestBook is at geocities. Have you seen their revised terms of service lately? (as dictated by Yahoo! which owns geocities). I’m on a boycott, but I wanted to sign your GuestBook anyway. Take care Turk, you da man

I have tried to set up my own GuestBook and never had any luck. I don’t seem to be putting the files in the right folder on my server. So the Geocities GuestBook has to do until someone can help me figure out what I’m doing wrong. I also have to say hi to a old friend who recently sent me an e-mail. So Hi to whoever you are. I think it’s Chad, but it could also be Bret or Larry.

Well I went and saw the South Park Movie again. It was truly a masterpiece. It was some of the little things that I liked the best. Especially the ending, it was kind of a homage to Japanese animation. That and Satan’s “I have had enough of you” line which was obviously borrowed from Star Trek 3. The musical numbers where as good as some of the Disney wannabes.

Each and every time I have seen the movie I have been waiting for people to get all pissed off and storm out of the theater because their delicate sensibilities were hurt. So far I have not seen that reaction. I am also surprised that none of the news media has done stories on how people were offended by the movie. And what about Saddam Hussein? Don’t you think he will be a little pissed off for been portrayed as Satan’s gay lover? Will he issue a death threat for Mr. Parker and Mr. Stone? It will be interesting to see what happens.

Seti At Home is a really neat little program that I downloaded a while ago that I have been meaning to tell everyone about. It is a program that lets you be a part of the Search For Extraterrestrial Intelligence or SETI right from your computer. Or as the people who made the program say:

SETI@home is a scientific experiment that harnesses the power of hundreds of thousands of Internet-connected computers in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). You can participate by running a program that downloads and analyzes radio telescope data. There’s a small but captivating possibility that your computer will detect the faint murmur of a civilization beyond Earth.

They have the program available for download for Windows, Mac, or even a text based version for UNIX, WinNT, OS/2, BeOS, Mac OS X Server.

The Windows program is Version 1.05 and is a 725K download. The Windows version requires at least 32MB RAM and the ability to display 8-bit color in 640×480 resolution (though 800×600 or higher is recommended in order to fit all the graphics on the screen). The software will not work if your PC does not meet these requirements.

The Mac program is Version 1.0 (with a promise for a Version 1.05 very soon) and is a 304K download.The SETI@home software for Mac requires at least the following to run: 32MB RAM (it could run with as little as 24MB RAM, but would be quite sluggish). The ability to display 8-bit color in 640×480 resolution (though 800×600 or higher is recommended in order to fit all the graphics on the screen). PowerPC processor System with Mac OS 7.5.5 or later.

I was looking around for some info on the game Starfleet Command and found some neat stuff for the demo. First up are some new missions that are playable within the demo. The best of them a mission in which you get command of a Dreadnaught class ship (pictures are below). You can get this file at SFC Alpha Quadrant, just click the link called Files on the left. To add to the homemade missions also download the plasma torp graphics, that way everything works. You do have to rename a file and put it in the demo’s directory but the readme include with the files tell you how to do this.

The next file is called Starfleet Command demo editor, and it allows you to tweak the Heavy Destroyer in the skirmish mission called the duel. It only work in that mission. I had some problems getting this to work. It tells you to put in a certain folder, yet it doesn’t work correctly when you do it the way the readme says. So I left it in the default folder WinZip puts it in and made a short cut to the program. Then you just have to dump the file the program creates into the right folder in the SFC folder.

Now keep in mind these two files might not work together as I have not tried to edit the ship after playing the new missions. But have fun either way.

And while I’m thinking of it, I have found a way to cheat in this game. You have to edit the file called sfc.ini for this to work. Just open the file up and add the following two lines under the [AI (Artificial intelligence)] heading: AIAttack = 0 and AIMove = 0. 0=no action, and 1=action. So set them to o and the enemy AI will not attack or move. Or let them move and not attack. Its up to you. You can also get higher resolutions out of the game by adding changing another line in the sfc.ini file. Add make the line lowres=0 read lowres=2 under the [3D] heading to get 1024×768 resolution. If anyone needs help e-mail at spider_jerus@hotmail.com because as of tonight I’m heading off to Mosinee again.