November 2003 Archives

With all that hype surrounding it, it is easy to overlook a very simple reason that makes a service like iTunes so attractive.

iTunes is a Time Machine.

I spent a few hours (and dollars) going over their catalog, looking for particular albums and as I was coming across some unexpected titles, it hit me - there are so many songs I used to like and listen to years ago but never bothered buying because they were burried into albums with other titles I couldn�t care less about.

Now here they are, potentially available with a few clicks of a mouse. iTunes catalog may be limited (where are all those french artists I would love to listen to ?), but it already contains plenty of titles to make up for lost time.

The new home for my brother's website, Koumako, is coming along nicely. It took some planning and patching to integrate more seamlessly Moveable Type, iGallery and Cold Fusion in general but it seems to be working great so far. The structure is similar to the site I created for Linfa.net but he customized the graphics and layout to better reflect his artwork.

A few more days of work and it will be ready for domain redirection....

A few links to better use your ipod :

• iPod Lounge - All things iPod. Featuring the gallery of iPods around the world. Where did your iPod go today ?
• SmartPlaylists.com - Explanations about the concept of smart playlists (really, just a wizard to build queries to the database created by iTunes). The site hosts examples of smart uses of these playlists as submitted by other users (such as creating playlists for backup purposes).
• iPod for windows - official support site from Apple.
• iTunes for windows forum - official forum for help about using iTunes for windows,

Rendez-vous 3D, a french sister site to Renderosity is no more. The site closed soon after an announcement that sales of 3D items were no longer sufficient to make the site profitable.

It is always sad to see a site fold., especially one with a distinct identity and welcoming folks running it.

Hopefully, this will not be the last attempt at making a gathering place for french speaking enthousiasts about 3D graphics.

I thought the Normandy beach scene in "Medal of Honor" was it - the perfect immersion in a brutal battlefield, with its exploding boats, random blanket fire from unreachable machine guns and screaming soldiers running up a hill.

Forget about "Medal of Honor" - "Call of Duty" is here.

This is not a game. "Call of Duty" is a cinematic experience. It becomes obvious at the first scene of assault in a farm in Normandy. After a stealh exercice to set up a radio beacon, airborne troups land in the middle of a field and all hell breaks lose. A plane crashes in a building. German and American screams are barely covered by the roar of guns and in the background, anti aircraft stations illuminate the distant sky with their flak.

The game is so intense at times that I had to stop and really look around, each new step possibly the last. And to make things more interesting, the game features the same realistic touch introduced by Halo - only two main weapons can be carried at any time.

The story is linear, viewed through multiple characters instead of a "one man war" from so many games. But the storyline develops fluidly from assignment to orders, each new situation providing occasions to shine with heroism or just sit back and cower.

And then there are moments of sheer brilliance, such as how the game slows down and the image blurs when a mortar explodes nearby, or when you spend a few minutes with other soldiers in a glider on its way to a strategic bridge.

Going through the first part in Normandy was in many way comparable to being drawn into such movies as "Saving Private Ryan" or "Band of Brothers". It took me close enough to the experience of a battle that it made me hope I would not have to live through one.

Must be because of Fall cleaning, or maybe the increasing tension at work. For the past few days, I felt that I needed to put some order in the many loose ends around me at the moment. Updating this website took care of a few of them. Some people eat chocolate to get a clearer head... I work on personal web pages. What does this say ....

I finally got to apply the layout of the Diary section to the rest of the site. It looks more clear and better put together that way. The navigation has been improved as well.

In related news, the Gallery section now is still growing, with new images and new categories (Biography and Statues / Gargoyles). I still have a lot of pictures to add to this list though.