Cryptic Brings Back Subscription Deals

Okay.. see.. I’m glad they’ve reinstated the original special offer (original, meaning that it ends by launch, as they originally advertised it), but this just underscores my original objection of why have an unadvertised numerical limit in the first place? And this only heightens the marketing Hocus Pocus that graypilgrim first aired grievances over.

Here’s what I think: I understand the company wanting to put a cap on how many lifetime subs they are willing to sell -They lose money on those in the long run, so I understand the desire to limit their number. However, once they saw they were quickly reaching that cap (which they admit they thought would never happen) they should have just removed the cap… we were only a few days away from the time limit anyway so what’s the big deal?

Instead, they pull the rug out from under everyone saying they ran out, people start clamoring and pitching fits because (other than the *one* dev comment where it was nonchalantly mentioned there were “limited quantities”) no one even knew there was any kind of limit.

And in the end they end up removing the cap anyway. So all they’ve managed to do is piss off a whole bunch of people in doing what they should have done behind the scenes in the first place.

oh well.. i’m glad they removed the cap, but i still think that cap should never have been made public. just my two cents..

*clink*
*clink*

Latin Translation Assistant

I know this isn’t going to be of much interest to most people, but I can’t tell you how excited I am someone did this. I found this gem over at In Rebus, and I can’t say enough good things about it.

This is a front-end interface for William Whitaker’s popular Latin-to-English Dictionary program, popularly known as WORDS. WORDS is, quite possibly, the best translation application for Latin< ->English out there right now. One of the reasons it’s so fantastic is it gives a grammatical analysis of the words, not just a definition.

It is not without its drawbacks, however. The interface (shown left) is rather clunky – it’s a DOS based program, and thus totally command-line driven. While this isn’t so much a problem for me (being a child of the command-line era), it can be a stumbling block for those attempting to use it for the first time. Also, due to limitations of the Windows command terminal (sigh) you can sometimes get strange wrapping and truncated information without realizing there is more to see on the “next page.”

The Translation Assistant (shown right) helps out by giving us a windows layer to the application. Keep in mind, this is simply an extension of the WORDS program; you still need to first have WORDS installed for this to work. This makes using WORDS so much easier! Switching between translation modes is clear, and simple to do, as is switching between showing definition, and full morphology.

A word of warning though – The output itself is potentially meaningless to someone who dosn’t have a basic understanding of Latin grammar. This isn’t intended for lay people wanting to know what their club’s fancy-sounding motto really means.

All in all, this is a great extension of an already fantastic application, and one that was a long time coming. If you have been using William Whitaker’s WORDS, you will love this addition to it!

You can find it, along with full description and instructions, by following this link …  Since it’s a single executable that only need to be dropped into your existing WORDS directory, I’m offering this mirror of the download as well.

The Orphanage (2007)

El orfanato (2007)

Rating:  

This movie is, quite possibly, my new favorite dramatic thriller. You will find this in the Horror section of most Video stores, but I feel that classification is unwarranted. There is nothing truly ‘horror’ about this movie, in the classic sense – true, there are things that go ‘bump’ in the night, and an occasional apparition, but they only serve to progress the point of this movie.. which is The Mystery.

This movie tells the story of a woman who, with her husband and child, opens a home for children with special needs. She bought the orphanage where she spent her childhood, and found it fitting she repay her treasured memories with giving back to the same community. Her son first starts talking about new imaginary friends, and then goes missing, and that’s when things get crazy.

The mystery will take the mother through her own past, as well as the past of the house and it’s occupants, before finally leading her to an answer that left me in tears.

As far as the “horror” goes, while you could argue themes in the movie (such as the idea of your child going missing) to be horrifying, there were only parts that were cat-jumping-out-from-behind-the-door startling… that’s not “horror,” in my opinion.

Though some of my friends found the ending of the movie to be a little cheesy, I felt it fit with the overall story arc.

This one goes on my “Must See” list.

Terminator Salvation (2009)

Terminator Salvation (2009)

Rating:  

This loses 2 points for the following reasons:

• Waaaaaaay to much, unnecessary, exposition. In fact, in the group I went to see this with, that was the very first thing we all complained about. “Here we are up on this hill. Yep, we’re up on this hill to test this thing we just spent the past 10 minutes explaining in the previous scene. Look at the view from up top this hill where we will be testing this. I guess we better get to testing this thing up on top of this hill here.” … … we got it already, sheesh! Reminiscent of Star Trek’s explaining the Borg’s temporal mechanics shenanigans in Star Trek: First Contact 6 ways to Sunday, only to have Riker just come out and say, “Time Travel” for all the ninnies who didn’t get it. WE KNOW!!
• There was a nagging lack of thematic consistency with the previous Terminator movies. What I mean is, the previous movies all followed a very similar formula, consisting of our hero (Sarah in the first, and John in the following two) having a protector that was guarding against a significantly more powerful hunter. We lose that, in its purest form, in this movie. I’m willing to extend some leeway if we include Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles as a buffer: It extended our perception of the war, and of the Connor family, and how they all fit together. However, as a self-contained movie formula, it falters.

Having said all that, please notice I still give this movie an 8 out of 10. This was a fantastic action flick. And if we do allow for T:TSCC to act as a universe-expanding buffer (which I do) than this movie makes for a very satisfying end to the whole story arc. I walked out of the theater content, and smiling.

However… since Terminator has always been about the struggle between SkyNet and the past, and the Connors and the future, I would really hate to see the franchise evolve into a post J-Day, wartime series. It was always about the avoidance of the war, not the war itself.

But I’ll still watch them…

Star Trek (2009)

Star Trek (2009)

Rating:  

I really enjoyed this movie. It was visually stunning, had a compelling storyline, brilliantly acted, and (aside from one minor complaint) had stunning cinematography.

The Trekker in me had one, I-just-can’t-get-past-this, complaint though. Before arguments erupt, let me say, if this is the only bad thing I can point out, that speaks volumes… also, the time-incursion creating a new time line does not account for this error. Just sayin. So… the emblems were all wrong. The arrow-esque logo we all know and love did not become formally adopted by Starfleet as its logo until the time between The Motion Picture and The Wrath of Kahn. Until that point each ship, outpost, and instillation had their own Assignment Patch which was unique. There also existed the insignia of Starfleet, which was separate from these assignment patches.

This move, submitted as canon in the Trek universe (having a shared history, but establishing a new time line), essentially retcons that whole concept by suggesting both the USS Kelvin and the USS Enterprise used the same Assignment Patch (see Starfleet Insignia at MemoryAlpha).

Okay.. rant over.  Again, if that’s the worst thing I can point out, Trek wise… we’re doing great

The one visual thing that really bugged me was the constant use of Lens Flares. It felt like they were used everywhere, quite at random. Dramatic shots of the universe, I can understand… but inside on the bridge? It got to the point where it was extremely distracting for me. However, almost everyone I’ve talked to didn’t seem to notice it. I’m not sure why they jumped out at me so dramatically, but they did… and I was annoyed.

Other that that, I loved this movie.  Minor plot holes here and there, but that’s to be expected in just about anything.  The whole concept of a Romulan Time Incursion was just brilliant.  It allows for a whole new, re-imagined, Trek universe without having to sacrifice the existing story world.

I was a little nervous walking into this movie, but left with a smile, and eagerly anticipating the next one!