steve kwan user experience designer

Like what I've done with the place?

(November 30th, 2004 - 10:00PM)

So the website's received a bit of a surface makeover. Internally, I've also taken out a lot of unnecessary PHP that was put in place when I didn't know of better ways to accomplish what I was trying to do.

If you guys have any feedback on the new interface (that I haven't already heard), feel free to let me know. And before you tell me, I like the big picture of myself on the right-hand side; don't ask me to remove it.

So I wrote my COMP 7036 (research) final today. That was horribly exciting. Can you feel the sarcasm? Too bad HTML doesn't have a <sarcasm> tag.

Next, I finish my research proposal; then I'm done the class. The only reason I haven't finished the proposal yet is because I've been so busy procrastinating over my proposal.

It's probably time for me to sign up for a new course, since this one is almost finished. I'm looking at an online course offered at the University of Toronto, but I want to verify with BCIT that I will get credits for it before I sign up.

So listen to Damsel Fly, a wicked Vancouver rock band. Suffice it to say that I'm pretty tight with the bass player. If you like their music, check out their website for show times.

The One Free Man

(November 28th, 2004 - 11:50AM)

So I finished Half-Life 2, and...wow.

You don't see games of this quality very often. All of the hype surrounding Half-Life 2 is easily justified, and it was well worth the wait.

The game has some of the best and most engrossing levels I've seen in a first-person shooter. Especially amazing are:

• The "Water Hazard" level, in which you guide an air boat through an alien-controlled canal (see picture below)
• The "Highway 17" level, in which you drive a dune buggy across a Californian highway
• The "Anticitizen One" level, in which you lead a team on an urban assault of City 17 (the city in which the game takes place).

Like the original, Half-Life 2 raises the bar in several ways which are likely to become de facto standards in other first-person shooters. Saying that Half-Life 2 has excellent graphics and gameplay is a given. However, there are a few things about the game that really stand out:

• There is tremendous diversity in the levels. Throughout the course of the game, you'll visit City 17, cross canals, drive highways, visit zombie-infested ghost towns, break into correctional institutes, and so on. The game manages to contain tremendous diversity in its levels without creating the "stupid" factor that usually accompanies this (I'm referring to games like Metal Gear Solid and Painkiller, where the diversity in the levels makes the games almost cartoonish).
• The character models are breathtakingly realistic. Half-Life 2 isn't the first of the "next-generation games" to be released; it is following behind FarCry and Doom 3 in this respect. However, in FarCry and Doom 3, while the graphics may be realistic, the character models look like really big, high-resolution plastic figures. In Half-Life 2, they actually have skin texture and can effectively show emotion. This results in a very engrossing gameplay experience.
• The Gravity Gun is one of the single coolest innovations in any game I've seen lately. Half-Life 2 has great physics - that is no secret - but the Gravity Gun (a weapon you get early in the game) allows you to interact with the physics engine by picking up and manipulating objects. You can then hurl said objects at your enemies, use them as shields, or stack them to solve puzzles. This weapon is tremendously fun and really showcases the physics of the Source engine (on which Half-Life 2 was built).
• There are a number of little things that stand out in the game. The attention to detail in Half-Life 2 is far higher than you're likely to see in other shooters. When you're walking in a corridor with another character and he talks to you, you can actually hear his voice echo off the walls. Little things like this just make the game so much more involving.

However, that's not to imply that Half-Life 2 is perfect. There are several problems with the game:

• The Steam service is the most disgusting distribution method I've ever seen for a game. After you install Half-Life 2, your computer loads the Steam application, which is Valve's distribution/authentication mechanism. Steam attempts to go online and validate your CD key (which several people have apparently had trouble doing). Steam then has to essentially decrypt your Half-Life 2 installation, a process which takes around fifteen minutes. Additionally, whenever you play Half-Life 2, it is required that you have Steam running in the background. For some reason, Steam takes around 14MB of memory. I don't know what Steam is using all that memory for, but I would guess that it's not necessary for Half-Life 2 to run.
• The game could stand to be a bit longer. From start to finish, Half-Life 2 takes about fifteen hours to complete. While it's not a short game, Half-Life 2 isn't a long game either. Doom 3 was at least twenty hours; however, Doom 3's levels were far more repetetive than those in Half-Life 2, so maybe that's not a fair comparison.
• The ending to the game is quite disappointing. Valve seems to have chosen to set its players up for Half-Life 3 rather than give them a meaningful conclusion at the end of Half-Life 2. This was probably a poor choice.

However, most of the problems mentioned above are forgivable. The game is just amazing to play. See the screenshot below; I don't think I've seen such immersive environments in any game to date.

Screenshot of the "Water Hazard" level, in which you guide an air boat through a canal. Click the image to see a larger screenshot.

Stress level reduced

(November 28th, 2004 - 1:43AM)

I have been soooo stressed lately.

First and foremost at the top of my mind has been my research course. I've been putting it off, and the problem with procrastination is that it tends to lead to a lot of stress. I have my final project due soon and I haven't even started it. Not that I'm particularly concerned; it's a research proposal that shouldn't take me a long time write. All the same, it still stresses me out and I want the project out of the way.

Second, I had an altercation with one of my roommates (this is the subject of the "People are flaky" post below). He decided he wants to move out at the end of November. That's fine. However, he decided that he would only give me a week's notice. That is not fine. Those of you familiar with the BC Residential Tenancy Act should know that tenants are required to give their landlords a minimum of a month's notice upon vacating. I hate confrontations, but if I were to let this go, then I would have had to pay this guy's rent for a month. I am on a lease for the house in which I live, and I rent out three of the rooms. If one of those rooms is not filled at rent collection time, then I have to make up for it with my own money. However, in this case the fellow and I had a civilized talk and were able to resolve the issue. We decided that I would take his damage deposit in lieu of a month's notice. It looks like this problem may be behind me now.

My third major problem is my laziness. I have lost interest in going to the gym (possibly related to the first two items above). I really should resume my trips to Fitness World in order to stay in shape.

But at least I seem to have resolved the problem with my roommate. That was really stressing me out and I'm glad it's behind me.

People are flaky.

(November 23rd, 2004 - 8:58PM)

People are just not to be trusted. I try to have faith in humanity, but I keep wondering if that faith is misplaced. Presented the choice of doing either the right thing or doing the convenient thing, people will almost unanimously choose the convenient thing regardless of who gets hurt.

What's so "super" about it?

(November 23rd, 2004 - 7:19PM)

So today I was shopping at The Great Canadian Superstore - or as my little brother calls it, "that hole where I used to work." What an awful store. Their policy seems to be to provide low prices by offering the worst customer service possible. If that makes sense. Which it doesn't.

I've never encountered such lousy customer service. I've been shopping there for over a year, and I don't think their "greeter" has ever actually "greeted" me once. In fact, all that greeter guy ever seems to do is insist on taping your shopping bags shut or confiscating your backpacks so you won't steal anything. Great plan: alienate the customer as soon as he steps in the door.

And then you get to the cashiers, who I think are specifically trained to not be friendly. And they make you bag your own groceries.

So why do I keep shopping there? Because it's cheap, and so am I.

Half-Life 2

(November 21st, 2004 - 11:52 PM)

I know it's been a while since I've updated, but I've been busy with video games. A good excuse, isn't it?

First, I was working on Final Fantasy 9 - didn't finish it, but got close to the end. Then Half-Life 2 was released. An amazing game overall, but I think anybody who finishes it will have issues with the ending.

2004-2008

(November 3rd, 2004 - 8:02PM)

For the past four years, Democrats (and Canadians) have been trumpeting that George W. Bush stole the 2000 election. No matter what controversy Bush got himself into, few people actually criticized the American public for the actions of their president; after all, his very presidency was questionable. So it was assumed that no matter how backwards or corrupt the Bush government became, their actions were not representative of the American people.

Here we are in 2004. Knowing full well what Bush has done and what he plans to do, the American people have consciously re-elected him for a second term. No longer can we all attack Bush and leave it at that. The American people have spoken, and for whatever reason, they have spoken in favor of George W. Bush. We have to accept the fact that Bush is more than an election thief and shady politician. He is also the elected mouthpiece for the United States, and everything that Bush does has the conscious consent of most Americans.

Clearly, this is not a Bush problem, this is an American problem. For whatever reasons, Americans think the war in Iraq is the right thing to do. I was watching The Daily Show a few days ago when Madeleine Albright was the guest, and she raised a good point: if the Americans re-elect Bush, then they are validating his actions. This could do serious harm to world opinion of the United States. Well, Bush has been re-elected, and his actions have been validated.

So, to summarize Bush's presidential history:

• Bush was elected in 2000, despite significant evidence that his opponent had actually won
• Bush came close to declaring war on China because of a mid-air plane crash
• 9/11
• Bush defied the United Nations and unilaterally declared war on Iraq (after failing to capture Osama bin Laden)
• Bush justified his invasion with claims of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, which were never found
• Bush has turned Iraq into a hot(ter) zone and caused hundreds of American troops to die
• Controversy surrounds Bush's war history as nobody can effectively prove that Bush served in the Vietnam War
• Bush successfully defeats his opponent - a man with three Purple Hearts and a stellar war record - in the 2004 election.

I'm disappointed, but not entirely surprised. I only hope that Bush's second term goes a lot smoother than his first.

Republicans

(November 1st, 2004 - 2:57 PM)

"The most dangerous place to be on Election Day is between [a] Bush supporter and a polling place."
-Ed Gillespie, Chairman of the Republican Party

Is that because they're armed, Ed?

I hope Bush doesn't win the election tomorrow, but I have a sneaking suspicion that he will. As the saying goes, "Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups."