In defense of Wal-mart?

Wow... Open mouth, insert foot...
I bet Wal-mart didn't see this coming when they hired Andrew Young.

3D Space Hulk

Here is a guy who casts 3D Space Hulk corridors by himself with resin, using LEGO in the production too. :) That's pretty cool. Looks like you can get quite a bit of detail just from resin. Interesting...

The Glass Bead Game

The book "the Glass Bead Game" sounds really interesting to me now, after I read this review. I've always found Hesse to be unnecessarily mystical, but from this review, I could be wrong. Definitely a good addition to my "to read" list.

ATI's trade up program

Wow, I just recently found out that ATI has a pretty good deal going on. You can trade in your old video card, no matter what kind it is, for $80 Cdn in credit towards buying a small selection of newer ATI cards from their website. The link is here. There are only three cards to choose from, but the most interesting one is the All-In-Wonder X800XT. This card has all the capabilities of a regular X800XT, which is old but still quite good, plus all the All-In-Wonder TV functions. After the $80 credit it's only $120! That's pretty awesome considering I've seen plain X800XTs in Edmonton stores recently for around $300. This is probably a really good deal for people like me who still have an AGP motherboard but want a faster card without upgrading everything.

LCD Monitor

Okay, I finally broke down and bought a ViewSonic VX2025wm LCD monitor. This is a 20" monitor with 1680X1050 resolution that goes fo $370 at Best Buy, and it's supposed to be one of the better cheap 20" monitors. I've only had it for one day, but I'm liking it so far. There appears to be no dead pixels, and at 1680X1050 resolution with a DVI connection, the image is very sharp. I do have to turn on large types though - this monitor is farther away from my eyes than my old one, and I have trouble seeing small type. (this maybe a case of my needing new glasses) I also test-watched Lord of the Rings on the monitor and there seems to be little or no ghosting. The games that I currently play also seem to do okay, although they tend to be slower now because of my old graphics card. (Radeon 9600) "Dawn of War," one of the games that I play most often, doesn't support widescreen play, but it does give you black bars on the sides of the monitor so things don't look stretched. All in all, it's good so far, and I'm glad I don't have to deal with my old heavy CRT monitor anymore...

Advice on LCD Monitors

Okay I need some advice here. I've been thinking of replacing my old CRT monitor with a new LCD one, but I'm kind of torn on what type of monitor to get. Should I just get a regular 19" LCD monitor, (some of these, especially the Acer, BenQ, or LG ones, are very cheap) or should I get one of the cheaper widescreen 20" ones? (again LG and BenQ ones are quite cheap at around $350) I'm not a super connoisseur or anything, so I don't really mind the cheaper models with somewhat worse display quality. In any case, any of the new LCDs will be better quality than my current monitor. What do you (the few people who read this blog) think is a better deal?

Valley of the Wolves

A while ago Majik Sznak posted about the Turkish movie "Valley of the Wolves" on his blog. It looks like someone has reviewed it here. And - I'm pretty sure this is naughty - there are clips from the movie on the website. From the looks of them, it seems the review's quite right: it's really badly acted, especially from Gary Busey and Billy Zane. Busey gives some really badly delivered lines, and Billy Zane, well, you can never tell if he's trying or not.