So I think I’m repurposing this blog. Initially I didn’t really know what I was going to use it for; I just assumed a theme would come to me when I got around to posting on it. Funny fact – a theme will help you post, and not having a theme is often an impediment to posting on it. As such, I think this is going to be my technology and futurism blog. It’s more interesting than me babbling about web tech, and is probably also more relevant to my daily life than that. Since I’m not currently working on web stuff, I think it’s probably for the best.

The UMPC B1 is really what we all ought to be looking for in a palmtop. It may not be as powerful as your desktop, but it does the job. The resolution may not be as good as your 21 inch monitor – but it’s fine for a palmtop. What this creature lacks in power, it makes up for in terms of form factor, integrated peripherals, and a touchscreen. This is the Shadowrun commlink. This is the PocketPC. I want one of these. A lot.

To put it mildly, I am amazed at the effects displayed in this demo of Photosynth. The program takes photos – either ones you input into its database, or you can access commonly photographed places/locales, such as the Louvre or pretty much any location in Washington D.C. – and stitches them together into a flowing domain that you are capable of navigating. What’s more, you can scroll around in real time to view all angles of your PoV as well as navigate in/out to closer or more panoramic views of your subject. It doesn’t just autostitch photos. It enables you to treat a collection of photos in the same fashion as Google earth treats its maps – one great continuous experience. Pretty. Damn. Sweet.

I’m going to skip writing a large or sweeping review of Mass Effect in order to concentrate only on those things that make it different or significantly superior to other games. This doesn’t mean I don’t like the game, it just means that I feel certain things bear more mention than others.

The two great triumphs of Mass Effect’s much touted dialogue system are that the dialogue choices you make are not verbatim – they suggest the tone of what you will say, but rarely dictate it exactly. For instance, the dialogue choice “Cut the chatter!” actually results in, “Quiet down, you two! You’re soldiers. Try and act like it.” What’s more, you’re actually prompted for your dialogue choice before the current conversation ends. What this does is preserves the flow of conversation such that what you’re viewing feels like a continuous dialogue, rather than the more traditional stop-and-go of RPG fame.

Perhaps the most glowing praise I can give Mass Effect is that in terms of writing and pacing, I personally would not have done anything different. What’s more, Mass Effect’s sense of style and world construction is so monumentally similar to Singularity Effect that I could, without changing anything but alien names, drop Mass Effect into a Singularity Effect tabletop game and it would fit perfectly. Witness the fact that even the names are similar, and refer to nigh-identical concepts.

What this means in practice, however, is that the writers of Mass Effect – like myself – are obviously huge fans of the author David Brin, and the world of Mass Effect – like the world of Singularity Effect – owes him a great debt. There are many references to concepts in the Uplift universe, not the least of which is the repeated use of “uplifted” to indicate “genetically modified to be sentient”; a religious awe and adoration of the Protheans/Progenitors; lost Prothean/Progenitor technology forming the basis of what galactic society is trying to remember how to build; the similarity of form between Salarians/Volus/Turians & Humans/Asari indicating common patron lines between the them.

It’s not like they’re ripping him off or anything. They consciously nod his direction. I’m just amused that great minds think alike, so to speak.