"We can work it out, we can work it out."

And that was the expression that I was wearing this morning  - sans cigarette - when I randomly switched on the TV and discovered that, once again, CTV's Sci-Fi Channel was showing Jaws.

Based on blog postings, Space and its inheritor Sci-Fi have been sneaking Mr. Spielberg's masterpiece into the broadcasting lineup for a decade now, and I'm baffled as to the reason why.

And, to be honest, this time I almost want to give it to them:  the movie lineup for the day is Jaws, Deep Blue Sea (which is a legitimate science fiction shark), Deep Blue Sea 2, and The Meg, which may not be great science fiction, but at least it IS science fiction - broadly speaking.  It's a logical playlist and a reasonable concept for a different channel (or Channel) but still, in the words of Sesame Street, one of these things is not like the others.

Some very small part of me wonders if someone who has been working there for the last ten years actually reads this blog and is programming Jaws just to troll me, but my ego doesn't extend to an archenemy in the broadcasting profession.  However, if that is the case, however unlikely it may seem - hello.  If you're reading this, please, leave a comment, send me an e-mail, get in touch, do something, surely after all this time we can work this out before it ends badly.  Face it, sooner or later someone in charge is going to demand an explanation as to why you keep showing this damn shark movie - is this really worth your job?

- Sid

Eternal Starlight.

In the time since I've purchased my Quest 2, I've been very impressed by the degree to which Oculus works on maintaining and developing the customer connection for its VR headsets. Virtual reality is a relatively small part of the entertainment marketplace*, and whereas Oculus seems to have found a solid niche position, they obviously recognize the need to encourage their user base to invest - literally - in VR usage by sending out periodic discounts on games.  

Fortuitously, their most recent 30% discount perfectly coincided with my decision to buy Eternal Starlight, a real time tactical space combat game - the discount actually arrived in my e-mail as I was putting on my headset to log in and purchase the game. 

It's not a sophisticated game - at least not yet, there may well be upgrades in the game's future.  The narrative elements cry out for actual audio and more realistic character illustrations, and the in-game graphics rely on polygons rather than smoothly rendering the shapes.  None of this disappoints me, it's a $22 game** that screams indie developer, and any shortcomings pale in comparison to the game's outstanding interface, which is the first example I've experienced to date of anyone truly attempting to utilize the manipulative nature of the VR environment to its full capability. 

There's a strong Tony Stark/Minority Report feel to the interface, where the player's interaction with the ships in their fleet is almost completely controlled through hand movements and gestures.  Pulling your hands apart while holding down the HOLD buttons magnifies and rotates the map view, tapping on a ship with your hand reveals its stats, and grabbing a ship and dragging it to a new location sets in a course.

So far I've only done the tutorial, and I'll do it a few more times before I start the game in earnest, so that I can start to create some muscle memory for the game functions - the physical nature of the system makes it fairly intuitive, but when the survival of your fleet is on the line, you really don't want to be thinking to yourself, "Wait, is it the trigger button or the grip button to aim the beam cannon?"

- Sid

*Although, that being said, one of my co-workers also owns a Quest 2 - she's an outdoorsy 30-something training supervisor, which would indicate that Oculus has some horizontal spread in its appeal.

** Seventeen bucks and change after the discount.

1,000.

 Wow.  I was working on a posting on a VR game, and I just realized that The Child was my 1,000th post. Thanks to any and all who have taken a few minutes to look at The Infinite Revolution over the years!

- Sid

The Child.

This child is extremely gifted and has been blessed with rare properties that have the potential to bring order back to the galaxy.

Moff Gideon, The Mandalorian

Today I made one of my twice-weekly commutes to our company offices.  Some of my co-workers haven't been in since the first stay-home order last year, but the physical aspects of my job have made it necessary to actually go in and load paper into my printer, roll up posters, laminate signage, and so forth.

This morning's trip was much like any of the others, until the bus pulled up at the corner of Granville and West Georgia, and a small child boarded the bus with his mother. Beaming up at the driver, he chirped, "Do you want to see my Baby Yoda? Mom, can I show him my Baby Yoda?"  His mother shrugged and laughed, and said, "Okay, but hurry!"  

He dug into his little Star Wars backpack and pulled out a small stuffed Baby Yoda from The Mandalorian for the driver's approval. "Isn't it great!?" he asked, and the driver agreed.  Mother and child made their way to seats, and the bus continued on its route.

Normally I'm a bit obsessive about delays on my commute (too many years of constant professional deadline pressure have ruined me) but in this case, I did not begrudge a single second of the time lost to Baby Yoda and his joyful owner. Never lose that joy, my little fellow fan - and don't let them take it away from you, either. 

- Sid

"A dog is a Masan's best friend."

I was a bit surprised to see the above cartoon in my travels on the internet today - in an odd coincidence, I had randomly picked up a book* earlier today and read an optomistic little 1947 Murray Leinster short story called Propagandist, which is basically this cartoon spread over 24 pages.  

Obviously, the story is a bit more complex than the four panel cartoon.  Propagandist is a first contact story which takes place under the worst possibly circumstances: an unknown alien species has raided an Earth colony and slaughtered half a million human settlers, and a grimly determined Terran space fleet searches vengefully for the aliens responsible.  The light cruiser Kennessee finds inhabited planets in the Masa Gamma system, and sends a scout ship to one of the planets in hopes of confirming that these are the aliens responsible for the barbaric attack on the colony.

Meanwhile, the Masans are struggling with the same problem.  They've detected the Kennessee and are concerned that it heralds a new assault by raiders who devastated their civilization hundreds of years in the past.  If it is a raider ship that presages a new attack, there is only one option:  total war.

The unlikely diplomat who resolves the situation and leads to an alliance that defeats the actual raiders?  Buck the dog, who is captured by the Masans when Holden, his owner, is forced to leave him behind after the unsuccessful scouting mission to Masa Four.  As both sides prepare for battle, the Masans scan Buck's mind, and based on the results, decide to contact the Terran ship rather than destroying it outright - it's impossible that the beings in Buck's memories could be the monsters that they fear. The humans realize that the Masans have not killed Buck  - they can't possibly be the brutal species that destroyed the colony. 

After resolution of the war with the raiders, Holden and Buck visit Masan Four and the scientist who probed Buck's mind:

"Then we knew that men will always repay trust with loyalty." Then the Masan added, "That is, most men."

Holden said uncomfortably: 

"Well - that's something that has worried the skipper.  You people act as if all of us were as decent as our dogs think us.  We aren't.  You'll have to be...well...a little cagey, sometimes..."

"So," said the Masan, "we learned from Buck.  But also we learned that there will always be men to trust."

It's a pleasant little morality tale, although it's probably a good thing that Holden went against the tradition of cats on ships and took a dog instead.  Lord knows what would have happened if they'd read a cat's mind!

- Sid

P.S.  The selection of "boof" for the dog's bark is a bit reminiscent of Clarus, the infamous Apple dogcow - who of course goes moof.

* For any bibliophiles in the reading audience, it was the 1969 paperback edition of Great Stories of Space Travel, edited by Groff Conklin.

Happy Mother's Day!

It's good to see that not every comic book backstory has to involve some kind of parental trauma.

- Sid

May the 4th: A Star Wars Trilogy, Episode 3.

The Empire Strikes Back.

“In every corner of the galaxy, the downtrodden and oppressed know our symbol and they put their hope in it.” 

Vice-Admiral Amilyn Holdo, The Last Jedi

My wonderful wife was kind enough to buy me a Star Wars t-shirt on the weekend - just the simple classic logo on grey, which perfectly matches my design aesthetic. Sadly, on the 4th itself, I was unable to wear the t-shirt because, not only did I have to work from our company offices, I also had to attend a high level subcommittee meeting, for which I felt it necessary to wear a shirt with a collar rather than a t-shirt.  Talk about downtrodden and oppressed...it's a shame that I don't feel more like I could be the spark that lights the fire.

- Sid

 

May the 4th: A Star Wars Trilogy, Episode 2.

The Phantom Menace.

We were recently heading out to Steveston with Karli's sister Stefanie on a covert fish and chips run, and the topic of COVID-19 vaccinations came up.  During the conversation, Stefanie mentioned her concerns about getting sick from being vaccinated.

It's an understandable concern, but misplaced in this case.  In the case of traditional vaccines, they do work by injecting a small piece of the target virus, called an antigen, into your body.  Your immune system recognizes that it's been infected, albeit in a minor fashion, and produces virus-specific antibodies that give you resistance in case you're exposed to the full version of the virus.  

RNA based vaccines, like the Pfizer product that I've recently received, provide the body with instructions on how to build the antigens, so that the immune system can prepare T-cell and antibody responses all on its own that provide resistance without being infected.

Extremely simplifying something that I'd seen on the XKCD webcomic,  I offered the following by way of explanation:

 "No, it's more like the injection gives your body the plans to the Death Star."

A short silence ensued.

Karli, sensing the problem, said, "It's from Star Wars - you know, the big globe thing."

"Well, maybe if it was more of a pop culture reference."

Another short silence ensued.

I cautiously said, "Ummm...Star Wars isn't pop culture?"

"Well, okay, maybe if it was more of a family drama."

"It's literally nine movies about one family," said Karli. 

More silence - and by the time we'd arrived at Steveston, by unspoken mutual agreement we'd moved on to less sensitive topics. 

Regardless of the relatability of the simile, it pleases my science fiction fan heart to imagine tiny little X-wings preparing to do battle with the evil coronavirus - perhaps even a little Luke Skywalker, and the tiny voice of a miniature Obi-Wan Force ghost directing him to turn off his targeting computer and trust his feelings.  And when the pandemic's finally all over, I think that we will all definitely deserve a medal from a princess.

- Sid

 

May the 4th: A Star Wars Trilogy, Episode I.

Attack of the Clones.

I purchased my treasured copy of Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds in 2004 as a part of a Movie Collection games package, along with James Bond 007: Nightfire and Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb. I have no memory of ever installing the Indiana Jones game, and probably played Nightfire a couple of times at most, but Galactic Battlegrounds has been in heavy rotation ever since.

Galactic Battlegrounds is a real time strategy game based on the Age of Empires* game engine, with the obvious substitution of the Rebellion, the Galactic Empire, Trade Federation, Naboo, Wookiees and so on for different historical civilizations. There's a newer version that added more features, but I've always preferred the classic version, to the point where I zealously maintain an older PC running Windows 7 without upgrades pretty much just so that I can play it. It's one of those games that just perfectly suits my playing style and interests, regardless of its age.

I admit to never having completed all of the Galactic Battlegrounds storylines, which are derived from Episodes I, II, IV, V and VI of the movie franchise - I've always just played the single player Standard Game, where you can face off against seven computer opponents. I almost always play as the Rebellion, and I always play against the full range of political groups and alien races - why would I want to play against seven tribes of Gungans? I've played as the other options now and then, but the Rebellion just seems to suit me best (and besides, they're the good guys.)

One of the things that I've noticed again and again is that, win or lose, my casualty rates are almost comically low compared to my digital opponents, as you can see in the above image.** I'm fanatically careful about not losing troops - I assume it affects my score somehow, but it's really just a complete inability to treat my little 16-bit soldiers as cannon fodder. 

I know it's odd, but in my mind, every one of them is this poor doomed Rebellion trooper*** from the boarding scene in A New Hope: how could I let him die again?

- Sid 

 

* Oddly enough, I have never had much success with Age of Empires - funny how the addition of aliens and lightsabers would make me a better player.

** My apologies for quality, it's an actual photo rather than a screen grab.  For whatever reason, Windows 7 can handle the game's 16-bit graphics, but it won't successfully do screen grabs.

*** Whose name, as it turns out, is Pello Scrambas, who knew?  I suppose it's prudent to name as many characters as possible, you never know when you're going to want to put an action figure into production for someone.

And sometimes the bear gets you.

Irish comedian Dara O Briain has commented on the fact that computer games, unique among all other art forms, reward or punish you by restricting your access to the entire game depending on your performance.  As he points out, a book does not demand that you demonstrate an understanding of the major themes of the story in order to be allowed to finish the novel, nor do albums require that you show how good your dancing is before it plays the rest of the songs.

I've run up against this unique problem a couple of times in my gaming career, and unless there's a handy cheat code available, you're kind of stuck.  As much as I enjoy The Long Dark as a game, it was a nuisance that after the mystical bear captured me and dragged me to its cave, I just couldn't for the life of me (no pun intended) figure out how find the magical spear,  use it to kill the bear and finish the level, to the point where I just gave up and played in straight Survival mode.  

However, after recently receiving a poll from game developers Hinterland regarding the conclusion of the game's narrative, I decided to give it another shot. I revisited the bear cave with fresh eyes, found the spear, managed to kill the bear, and completed that chapter and the next one in short order. (To be honest, it makes it a lot easier if you've explored the environment a lot.)  

Following the disturbing final image of the third episode, I'm on hold for the next update, and I'm also eagerly looking forward to whatever Hinterland does next in terms of gaming development.

- Sid

"Meet your new instructor."

I'm pleased and gratified to see that award-winning science fiction author N. K. Jemisin has been tapped to present a Masterclass course in writing science fiction.  Everything I know about Jemisin suggests that she is an excellent choice as an instructor, with a writing technique that combines superb creativity with rigorous research and consistency.

Sadly, though, I don't think I'll sign up.  It would be interesting, but ultimately I feel that the ship has sailed for me in terms of a possible writing career.  On the other hand, I did take that Chris Hadfield course in being an astronaut, so obviously practicality isn't the only consideration for things like this.

- Sid

Commander Hadfield has spoken - wear a mask!

Well, more accurately, his eyebrow has, but I think his position is clear.

- Sid

Virtual Dreams IV: IRL VR.

 

If you own an Oculus Quest 2 VR Headset, buy the Elite Head Strap upgrade.  Now.  

Right now. 

Are you still reading this? NOW.

No, seriously, the Oculus Elite head strap upgrade was worth every cent of the sixty-seven dollars that it costs on Amazon™.  It was a bit disconcerting to install - it's easy to imagine breaking a little plastic clip by accident and rendering the whole thing useless - but once in place, it's a huge improvement over the stock strap in terms of comfort and, more importantly, stability.  The elastic strap that shipped with the headset never really did a great job, but the ratcheted hard plastic Elite strap provides a much better fit and a better seal around the eyepiece to prevent light leaks, without being uncomfortable.  

For committed players, there's also a version with a secondary battery to extend usage time, but if you're that committed, you should probably look at catheter pricing as well, just in case.

- Sid

 

Surviving Mars.

It's been a Mars-intensive period of time, what with rover landings and scientific conferences and so on, so when I noticed that Epic Games was offering a free download of a game called Surviving Mars, I decided it was a timely opportunity to give it a try.

Surviving Mars is a colony building game in the same vein as the venerable SimCity franchise.  As with SimCity, the purpose of the exercise is to build a self-sustaining community that meets the needs of its inhabitants.  The difference is that in Surviving Mars, making a mistake doesn't reduce your tax income or get you voted out as mayor - if you miss something, everyone dies. 

I've played a lot of strategy games - Starcraft, Warhammer 40K, Star Wars: Galactic Battleground, and so on - where resource collection and management was part of the game, but primarily as a function that supported the ability to enlarge my base and create military units, rather than as an end to itself.  I seem to recall trying SimCity at some point in its evolution, and finding it a bit too intensive in terms of micromanagement, but the idea of creating a Martian colony is intriguing.

And free, it's hard to argue with free.

So I installed the game, made a cup of tea, and settled down to colonize Mars.

After finishing the comprehensive tutorials, I'm ready to launch my first expedition.  The default settings are friendly to newbies, with an Easy setting for the mission, and bonuses such as an extra rocket.  I leave the cargo defaults in place, choose a landing site, and launch the rocket.

The tutorials were useful, but ultimately I just use logic when the ship makes its landing and the drones go to work.  My colony needs power, oxygen, food and water, all of which require factories, extractors, generators, solar cells, pipes, power lines and storage locations.  When they arrive, colonists will require homes, hospitals, playgrounds, and all the other elements that make up a complete community support structure.  They won't be self-sufficient immediately, but with two rockets and the ability to fuel them for return trips to Earth, the nascent colony should be able to import the missing requirements to keep things going until it becomes self-sustaining. 

As an example, I discover at some point that I need polymers from Earth to fix a disabled power generator, and use that as a guide to equip my second rocket with a suitable cargo of manufactured materials and prefabricated factories that will let me make repairs and hopefully fill similar gaps in the supply chain. I launch the rocket, lean back in my chair, and suddenly realize that I've been playing for over an hour and my forgotten and now cold tea is still sitting on the kitchen counter - a strong indicator of how absorbed I am in the game.

There are parts of the process that I don't have a firm grip on - the Research ladder system remains a bit of a mystery, and I'm not sure how to expand from my plateau location to the resource-rich plains, but I feel that I at least have the basics under control. 

By this point, I've constructed a modest but well-equipped little base which is almost ready for the final test: actual colonists. I want to add another dome, and increase the oxygen supply and storage options, but overall I've put together what seems to be a reasonable place for my colonists to make their start on Mars. In fact, some of the buildings aren't functional without people, which helps to keep the focus on the purpose of the mission.

The first ship is almost refueled, and when it is, I'll send it back to Earth to pick up my first load of would-be Martians.  We'll start with the maximum 12 passengers, and if they make it through the first ten days on Mars, I'll be able to send the ship back to Earth and double my population.

Wish us luck!

- Sid

UPDATE:  The first specialist-heavy group of colonists successfully survived the ten day trial period, which clears me to bring in more people!  More domes to come! And a playground for the park, that sounds like an investment in the future, given that there's no indication that any of the colonists have children - yet.

And who doesn't like bigger fins?

I was reading an article earlier today about Elon Musk's plan for a "whole new architecture" of space craft, and I saw a photo of his prototype for the Space-X Starship reusable launch vehicle intended for eventual Mars missions, seen here beside an existing Falcon-1 booster.

I was instantly reminded of the eponymous spaceship from the early 1960s classic Rocketship XL5 Supermarionation series.   All you need are bigger fins, Elon, a touch of colour, and you're there!

- Sid

Red Mars.

I opened my eyes upon a strange and weird landscape. I knew that I was on Mars; not once did I question either my sanity or my wakefulness. I was not asleep, no need for pinching here; my inner consciousness told me as plainly that I was upon Mars as your conscious mind tells you that you are upon Earth. You do not question the fact; neither did I.

Edgar Rice Burroughs, A Princess of Mars

When I first purchased my VR headset, I viewed it as primarily an advanced gaming system.  Now that I'm using it on a regular basis, it's obvious that it's really more of an alternative computing platform that's capable of delivering a wide range of services and experiences*.  

As an example, there's an extensive selection of virtual reality experiences in the Oculus download library: an immersive tour of the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone; a 3D view of Shibuya Crossing, Tokyo's busiest intersection; visits to the world's great cities; and trips to the Arctic, the Pyramids, the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, and a myriad of other opportunities.  Most recently, they've added a VR view of Mars from the perspective of the Perseverance rover - and it's breathtaking.

Assembled by CreatorUp video services founder Hugh Hou from 142 HD pictures taken by the probe's Z-Mast camera, the virtual view of the Martian surface is incredible in its realism. 

Screen grabs really don't do justice to the experience, it was startling to have that strong an impression of standing on the surface of another planet  - or, more accurately, on Perseverance's chassis, probably someplace quite close to the chip with Karli and my names on it. I thought I was joking, but it turns out that we actually do have seats with a good view.

- Sid

 

* But, to be honest, not necessarily better than a standard desktop setup.  For example, it's a lot easier to find your cup of tea for a drink when you're not wearing a headmount to browse the Internet.

"Out there... thataway."

A few years ago, I signed up for a membership with the Heritage Auctions web site - not because I wanted to start bidding on things, but because their site was an excellent source of high resolution scans of comic book covers and artwork, book and pulp magazine covers, and movie posters and memorabilia.  

However, over time I've started casually following their auctions - they do dedicated comic book and movie sessions every week, and I've always thought that it would be nice to own original comic book art.  Admittedly, anything I've ever been interested in has been far out of my price range - yes, this is the auction house that auctioned off a Frank Frazetta cover painting for 5.4 million dollars in 2019   and the first comic book appearance of the Batman for 1.3 million at the start of this year - but it's a harmless dream to enjoy while I browse.

However, there are more modestly priced lots available, and every now and then I place a bid, just for fun.  Recently, this resulted in the successful purchase of a set of eight lobby cards from Star Trek: The Motion Picture, which debuted in December of 1979.  

It's generally agreed that the first attempt at transferring the original crew to the big screen was not a great success, but it's still a significant moment in Star Trek history, and I like the idea of lobby cards - they don't seem to attract the same amount of bidding as the posters, and and at 11x14 inches they're a convenient size to frame, whereas a 28x40 inch movie poster almost requires you to design the room around it.  (Although, gosh, if I had the wall space and the money...).

To my surprise, I won the items with what I considered to be a relatively low bid of $38 USD.* This bid marked my first successful purchase in this area - I had tentatively placed a bid on lobby cards from the 1956 science fiction classic Forbidden Planet at some point last year, but it quickly got too rich for my blood (I strongly feel that the secret to managing auction participation is to not fall prey to bidding fever).

My purchases arrived today, and now that I'm able to examine them in person, I'm definitely pleased.  Oh, there's a slightly compressed corner here and there, and a hint of yellowing on one or two of the cards, but overall they're in excellent shape for printed items that are over 42 years old.

Now that I think about it, I'm not sure I've watched this movie since I saw it in commercial release in '79.  Hmmm...it must be streaming somewhere, right?

- Sid

 

* Okay, this is a lie, as you can see if you compare that with the screen grab at the beginning of this post  $38 is just the auction price.  On top of that I paid a $19 Buyer's Premium, and about as much as those two combined for shipping.  Price of doing business, I suppose - and the original bid was still lower than I expected.