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EVE Evolved: Grid-Fu and bending space
In last week's article, I described how EVE Online maintains the illusion of full-scale solar systems by dynamically creating small pockets of high-detail space called grids. It's within these discrete bubbles that everything we do in space takes place, from mining asteroids to running missions or shooting at other players. The system is designed to split up space into manageable chunks to reduce server load while still maintaining persistent 3-D space that appears to span the entire scale of a solar system. Grids have been in EVE since it was first created, but over the years people have noticed a few odd things about how the system works. Flying about 250km-400km away from a stargate causes your ship to disappear from that grid and pop into a newly created adjacent one, for example, but this doesn't always happen. Bizarre occurrences such as abnormally shaped grids and ships mysteriously disappearing and re-appearing on the same grid were always thought to be freak accidents or unintended bugs until an interesting document emerged in 2009. Titled Grid-Fu: A Practical Manual, the 18-page PDF described the process of bending and manipulating space for a tactical advantage. In this week's EVE Evolved, I look at the various ways that players have manipulated space to their advantage.
Honey, they shrunk the boxes: FCS now in convenient nano size
There's more on the inside, where it counts, but the boxes are definitely downsized: over at ilove.nu, Peter Esse has posted his comparative unboxing pictures from Logic Studio and Final Cut Studio 2 to the newly announced and shipping versions (note that Apple is just calling the product "Final Cut Studio" now, even though many are referring to it as version 3). As you can see, the new pro apps are missing one of the pro features: printed manuals.Considering the $300 price drop and the sheer tonnage of idle & obsolete Final Cut manuals clogging shelves in edit suites around the world, this seems like a reasonable tradeoff. Will you miss the full-scale paper documentation? Let us know below. If you want a PDF overview of the new FCS features, Apple has posted the Final Cut Studio In Depth 66-page rundown (17 MB).
Yet more size changes on the PTR
Once again MMO Champion comes through with more size changes on the PTR. It's the Night Elves taking the biggest hit this time, not just in their shoulders: now their weapons and shields have also shrunk noticeably. Orc shoulders are back up to their previous sizes and their shields have actually gotten even larger, which I frankly don't think was necessary. Wow, my night elf is going to be one unhappy dude when he sees how much smaller his weapon just got. Cue the legions of jokes about night elf genitalia, but don't blame me for not playing along, as I am one of the ones stricken by this malady. Luckily, so far my tauren and human haven't been affected by this scourge, but it's really only a matter of time until you see a great white tauren sobbing inconsolably on the steps of the Lower City, his once majestic shoulders and massive sword now itty bitty.
Thompson mentally fit according to Dr. Wunderman
Following the Florida Bar's option of seeking psychological testing or face a 91-day suspension, GamePolitics has the details of Jack Thompson seeing a psychologist on his own dime who said he is allegedly free of mental health issues. The analysis was done by a Dr. Wunderman and Thompson filed the psych. report yesterday to go with a pair of lawsuits he has against the Florida Bar.According to Thompson's psychologist Dr. Wunderman, "Mr. Thompson appears to be a thoughtful, prosocial and erudite man whose life is anchored, fortified and enriched by his Evangelical Christianity. I find no evidence that his faith distorts, clouds or impairs his personal or professional judgment." Wunderman during his analysis focused on if Thompson suffers from mental illness, if he's obsessed with porn and obscenity and if he's obsessed with stopping the sale of violent games to minors. "Obsessed" being a clinical term here and not what we'd all clearly say is obsession. Thompson also says he will try to cut down on his use of hyperbole and sarcasm in his motions and says he knows he may have offended with his writings. It'll be interesting to see if the Florida Bar asks for Thompson to see their own psychologist.
iWeb Optimizer - easily shrink oversized images
iWeb Optimizer is a simple Automator app that allows you to easily compress PNG images inside your iWeb site into JPG files, but it maintains the same file name so it doesn't break any of your links or images. Simply drag and drop the site folder that iWeb creates (be it in your iDisk or an exported directory you specified) onto iWeb Optimizer and let it work its magic. The handy little utility will also parse all your subdirectories, making sure no PNG is safe from a little JPG compression.iWeb Optimizer is free and available from Automator World.
