Just in case you didn’t see it anywhere else first, Serenity will be out on DVD on December 20th. You can preorder it from amazon.com. If you’re getting this as a gift, Amazon says it will arrive on 12/23 if you choose 2 day shipping.

According to the description on Amazon, the DVD will contain outtakes and deleted scenes, as well as vignettes entitled, “What’s in a Firefly” and “Future History: The Story of Earth That Was.” With a listed running time of 119 minutes, I doubt the deleted scenes are integrated in with the rest of the film. Does anyone know the theatrical run-time?

No, I’m not talking about yours truly, I’m talking about the Dell 20″ Widescreen Ultrasharp 2005FPW, on sale for about $350 after tax and free shipping. This monitor normally goes for $579. It’s on sale, plus you can throw on another $100 off coupon by using this code: 63C1JBV4XV1VMD

If you’ve been waiting to get a bad boy monitor, this is your chance! Make sure your video card can support 1680×1050.

[edit]
For clarification, the monitor is on sale for $434.25. You have to add the coupon (code given above) to get the monitor down to $334.25 before tax. Also, Dell defaults you to the overnight shipping option. Select the free 3 – 5 business day shipping option!

Thanks to a nod from Configuratrix, I recently played The Typing of the Dead, a typing game built on top of the House of the Dead arcade/console zombie shooter. The original arcade version uses two light guns (one for each player), but in this version you are armed only with a keyboard. Or in my case, a keyboard and a 12-week old puppy in your lap.

I have to tell you that I didn’t expect to complete the game on the first try, so I didn’t really keep track of important things like how long the game took to finish.

Technical information:
The game needs to be run on Windows 95 compatibility mode if you’re using WinXP (and W2K, I imagine). I didn’t have sound in my game, but that didn’t detract from my fun. I think the frantic pounding on the keyboard added some suspense to the survival-horror theme.

There are plenty of options, none of which I explored before my first game. The first one I probably should have adjusted was the “keyboard” setting mode, which was set to “UK” and not to “US.” I don’t know if that made a difference in my typing or not, but I probably should have set the keyboard accurately before playing.

The game is full-screen only, although there’s probably a way to adjust this.

There are different ways to play the game:

• Arcade mode – Not sure what this means!
• Original mode – this is how I first played the game. You get the entire storyline in order. The story is pretty weak, but hey, it’s a zombie game.
• Tutorial mode – Not sure what this means!
• Drill mode – Practice your |337 typing skills.
• Boss mode – Fight against the bosses. With the exception of the quizzing three headed beast, I thought the bosses were pretty tame and probably wouldn’t be worth fighting on their own. YMMV.

The biggest drawback to the game, technically speaking, is that there’s no way to quit unless you alt-tab and kill it from the task manager.

Gameplay:
This review will be based on Original Mode.

As this write-up from Underdogs suggests, the game supposedly scales the difficulty up and down to meet your typing skills. If you can’t spell, say, HAEMORRHOIDS, then the game will downshift you to, perhaps, “scruffy.” The game will also throw out phrases to you, the most gruesome being a five sentence diatribe about the enjoyment from picking scabs.

The game is from a first person shooter point of view, and from one to four zombies will attack you at any given time. Early zombies are easy to beat; later zombies throw weapons at you and require multiple hits before they are dispatched. There is also a “mission mode” on each level. An example of a mission is to kill 20 zombies in 30 seconds, or to hang tight for 30 seconds without being hit. Successful completion of the mission gives you a power up that you can use in combat. A power up that I thought was particularly funny (if not really useful) was the “zombie tranquilizer,” which slowed down your attackers in a certain radius for 10 seconds.

The bosses at the end of each chapter are fun to beat, although most of the boss characters themselves were a touch bland. My favorite was a three-headed snake monster: he would ask you a question, and you had to choose and type the correct answer before he attacked you.

Typing of the Dead awards you points for killing zombies, and also for accuracy and quickness. Accuracy is further broken down by main keys, symbol keys, and overall accuracy per level (expressed as a percentage). There was only one level I finished that I didn’t have higher than 90% accuracy.

There are six chapters to the game. Upon completion of each chapter the game summarizes your statistics and ranks you compared to the last 1000 players. I don’t know how accurate this ranking is — I’m a pretty good typer with a sustained, accurate words per minute speed of mid 90s to low 100s — but it seemed odd that I was getting top rankings in every level. According to the stats at the end of the game, I ranked #1, ousting someone from March of 2003. There is an IPX-based network connectivity option, but who knows if the program is actually maintaining a database of contestants. Seems highly unlikely.

Point blank capitals to the dome:

• It has zombies!
• Fun way to brush up and evaluate your typing skills.
• It has zombies!
• It’s free!

Miskeys

• May be finicky to play: runs in full screen mode, the game can only be terminated from the task manager, and my particular configuration didn’t have working sound.
• If you’re a long-time home key typer, this game should be easy for you on the default settings, and is a little shorter than I anticipated.
• You repeat each of the bosses throughout the adventure, which seemed a bit cheesy to me. More zombie masters, please!

Typing of the Dead, RISE FROM YOUR GRAVE, and accept:

Four out of five STFU mugs!

I was out riding today. The weather was a little cold (50s during the day — 28 at night) all holiday weekend, but today marked the beginning of a week with a 50% chance of rain. I was determined to get out before the temperature, and the rain, dropped.

I put my thermals on underneath my leather pants, put on my fleece atop a cotton t-shirt, and zipped up my leather jacket. I put on my CoolMax skullcap and reflective vest. I took my glove liners with me but didn’t wear them underneath my First Gear all-leather gloves. Soon I was zipping down the road, after an intial groan of straddling the bike with cold leather pants. The sky was overcast, but I was warm thanks to my gear. I turned down to where two of our friends live, and was completely in the company of cars.

I didn’t expect to see another motorcyclist out on such a day, with a cool wind whistling through my slightly-open faceshield and rain threatening to slicken the road. But in the middle of a long, two headlighted snake came a single, slightly oscillating headlight. Another biker. I gave him the customary cyclist’s wave: I extended my left arm out and down. But as we drew closer, I smiled widely. This man and I, whom I will probably never see again, were the only two motorcyclists on the road. I wasn’t a Web developer on a FZ6, and he wasn’t a mystery man on a Hayabusa, we were two men struck with cabin fever and afraid that today, this day, might be the last riding day of the season. I gave him an emphatic thumbs up and pumped my arm. He did the same. I’d like to think that inside his full-face helmet, encased in his full leather gear, he was smiling too.

My circuit was short — it indeed started to rain on my way home — but this was by far one of my favorite rides. Perhaps there is a biker brotherhood after all.

I don’t know if it’s something most people experience as you approach (or slightly surpass) their third decade, but a lot of my friends and I have been looking at our careers and asking, “why am I doing this?” Alexa isn’t happy with her new job, even going so far as to pack up her cube — and she’s only been there for two weeks. Some of my friends would rather be closer to family and loved ones, but know the financial timing isn’t right for a move. We aren’t happy with our work, but we keep going through the motions, because we don’t know what else to do.

A four day weekend and a suddenly departed boss led me to do some thinking about my career and my life in general. I’m tired of the uncertainties forced upon me by my current employer. Every six months there’s a round of reorganization, layoffs, shuffling around projects, killing off old ideas and barnstorming new ones. They’ve hired someone new to replace my old boss, but who knows what that’s going to be like. Will he ask me to move to California? Will he stand behind my efforts to organize a front end development team? Or will he ignore me completely?

These questions, and more, they make me wonder why I’m doing this job at all. And not just the role in my current employer, but the entire Web/software development space. This summer will mark a decade in this field. Is this what I want to be doing for another ten years?

If all debts were paid, and your obligations could be met, what would you do? Are you doing what you want to be doing with your life? What the hell are you doing? What the hell am I doing?

This is a repost from my vanity site — some of you have had your certs for a year and they have expired. So here’s a refresher on how to get your free encryption certificate. Pass this along to your friends who also use AIM. You will have to use Internet Explorer for this.

Because we use AIM at the office, we have a responsibility to be as safe and secure as possible.

Versions of AIM (5.5.3501 and later) allows you to import PKCS12 encryption certificates, thereby allowing for secure communications between users who ::both:: have these certificates.

Verisign is charging $15 a year for these certificates, or you can get one for free from a Web site I found. I have written out the steps I took to enable encryption on my AIM client. I hope you do the same!

1. Make sure you have the latest version of AIM installed:
   • Open your buddy list
   • Go to My Aim >> Edit Options >> Edit Preferences
   • Select “Sign On/Sign Off” from the left hand menu
   • Select “Beta and Final Releases” from the Auto Upgrade pulldown on the right
   • Fully exit AIM and restart it.
   • Follow the upgrade instructions from AOL.
2. Get your free PKCS12 certificate from COMODO
   • Go to Comodo to apply for your cert.
   • Enter your name and a valid email address
   • Enter a revocation password
   • Click Agree & Continue
   • You will receive an email from COMODO once your key is ready
   • Follow the directions in the email from COMODO to retrieve your key
3. Export your key from Internet Explorer
   • Go to Tools >> Internet Options >> Content tab >> Certificates
   • Click on your COMODO key and then click Export
   • Click Next on the wizard
   • Click “Yes, export the private key”
   • Click the first two checkboxes in the export options
   • Click Next
   • Enter the passphrase … I used the same passphrase here as I did with COMODO
   • Choose where you want to save your private key
   • Click Finish
   • The Export Wizard will say your export was successful. Click OK.
   • Close the options windows
4. Import your key to AIM
   • Open your buddy list
   • Go to My Aim >> Edit Options >> Edit Preferences
   • Click “Security” from the left hand menu at the bottom of the page
   • Click “Advanced”
   • Click “Import” under the “Import a Certificate” section
   • Locate your key in the popup window. Make sure you select the .pfx file type from the pulldown so your key will show up.
   • Click Open
   • Enter the passphrase … I used the same passphrase here as I did with COMODO
   • Your key is now imported. Click OK.
   • Close the options windows in AIM
   • You’re encrypted!!

Good luck, and let me know if you have any questions!

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I feel obligated to plug here: I buy a ton of stuff online, and normally newegg.com wins the award for fastest order fulfillment. UNTIL TODAY, when my order from crutchfield.com arrives, less than 20 hours after I placed my order. Holy crap! Now, they’re in Virginia, so they get a bit of a head start, but damn, not even a full business day had passed!

As I noted earlier this month, I am trying to sell my Honda Element. I’ve received more scam attempts, and I’ve gotten tired of deleting them.

Here’s the message I received:

And my reply:

For the last three weeks or so — maybe since Lady Jaye and I joined Stilts at our alma mater’s football games — I’ve felt that I was going to run into someone I used to know. When we were in Williamsburg I thought I might run into Barb, who graduated a year earlier than me and worked with me at Timberland. During my trip to San Fran I thought I might run into my old boss from Oregon. I did have a “small world” moment in California: someone at my company knows Stilts. Stilts’ friend/co-worker is long time friends with my fellow employee’s wife. And no, not that kind of friend.

Can anyone think of a reason why I am having these hunches? The only thing I can think of is that I’ve expected to see more people from my first tenure in Richmond than I have so far.

EDIT 07/18/2006

Now that this article is indexed by Google and I’ve seen a few visitors to this page because of its ranking, I want to state that I have stopped wearing my Fieldsheer jacket and wouldn’t recommend a mesh jacket to anyone.

The material used in mesh jackets can melt at high speeds generated by friction (read: sliding on the road) and may melt to your skin. Please do yourself a favor and buy a textile or better yet, perforated leather jacket. The discomfort you may experience in the heat is nothing compared to the combination of road rash and burns from a mesh jacket gone bad.

On to the original post:

##########################

Protective jackets and pants come in three basic materials, in ascending order: mesh, textile, and leather, with leather being the most protective. Leather should probably be in its own category, with variations in thickness, the skin used, perforated/solid construction, etc all making subtle but important differences. But for the purpose of this write up, it’s important to know that mesh is the least protective, then textile, then leather. Generally speaking, however, the inverse ranking is true for comfort in warm conditions.

I get hot very easily, and overheating was one of my biggest concerns when I bought my motorcycle. Thanks to my friend Bond, I was able to inspect his Teknic Chicane perforated leather jacket. I bought one for myself in solid black at a discount. I love that jacket, and it fits me quite well despite my longer-than-average arms. I still find it uncomfortable to wear in any temperature higher than 75 degrees, even though it’s perforated to allow air to flow through the jacket. When I’m stuck at a stop light it’s particularly bad; partially because the jacket is all black, and partially because that’s the nature of leather. It’s fawking hot.

So I started scouting this October for a mesh jacket. This is, of course, the weird time of the year to buy mesh jackets. Mesh jackets are worn during the hottest periods of the summer. Thanks to the cooler temperatures, however, all of the mesh jackets from the 05 style year were on sale. I was able to pick up a Fieldsheer Magnesium mesh jacket from Kneedraggers.com for $76 shipped. A brick and mortar store here in Richmond had the same jacket for $120 before tax.

The Magnesium features body armor in the elbows, shoulders, and back. There are velcro straps around the wrists and neck. There is an adjustable velcro-secured loop around each side to help make the jacket fit more snugly about the waist. Each arm features buttons right below the elbow, with three snaps available for those of you with stickfigure arms or big ass Popeye guns.

The entire jacket is mesh: little ringlets of (hopefully) tough as nails fabric.

The mesh allows wind to flow through the jacket quite easily. I’ve worn the jacket around a dozen or so times, and you can definitely feel the air coming through. Since I don’t have any weatherproof gear yet, the Magnesium is also my foul weather jacket. This is a horrible idea, since a wet jacket + wind = sad panda, but I figure the mesh would dry faster than wet leather. Plus it would be a lot lighter as well :).

One of the problems with the jacket is that unlike my Teknic, the Magnesium is in “letter” sizes (S, M, L, XL) instead of numerical sizes. Because of my arms, I need a size large, although my belly girth is better suited for a medium. Of course, my herculean boulder shoulders also require a large. So fitting into any letter-sized top is a nightmare. I wound up buying a large.

As you can tell from the back, there’s a lot of loose material around my midsection. From the first picture in the write up, but also in this shot, you can tell that the back/shoulder section fits well enough. The shoulder seams appear to be further out than they actually are: the Magnesium features really heavy armor in the shoulders and it throws off the lines of the jacket a bit.

The problem with a loose-fitting jacket is that in the event of a crash, the jacket may move around. This is bad for a few reasons. First and foremost, if the jacket moves around it might leave my precious baby-smooth skin exposed to the asphalt. Secondly, if the jacket is loose, the armor inside the jacket might move around and not protect my elbows, back, and shoulders adequately.

So, while the jacket seems well made and is quite comfortable, I regret not buying a medium, at least to try. If I had to do it over again, I would buy both a medium and a large and eat the return shipping cost.

I’m not going to rate this jacket, as I feel that the most important part of its value, its crash-worthiness, isn’t something I can rate. However, I will do a run-down on what I like and don’t like, otherwise.

You are the wind beneath my wings

• Lightweight in comparison to a leather jacket.
• Excellent airflow for the best ventilation you can get while still wearing protective gear.
• Armor in such a low-cost jacket is a big plus.

Hot air

• Letter-sizing scheme puts freaks like me in less-than-optimal fit situations.
• Velcro wrist straps feel cheap and I wouldn’t expect them to hold together during a crash. This isn’t too big an issue for me since I wear full gauntlet gloves that protect my wrists.