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Do not read below this line if you don't want a couple of slight spoilers (nothing earth shattering).
Are we meant to believe that the Emperor's facial disfigurations occurred as a result of his fight with Mace, or did the Emperor just kinda "reveal" himself and make it SEEM like Mace disfigured him so Anakin would jump in?
Secondly, when the Emperor tells Anakin the story of the old Sith Lord who could save people from dying, he indicates that the Sith Lord's apprentice killed him in his sleep. Are we meant to believe that the Emperor was the apprentice who did that, or is this whole thing just a ploy to get Anakin to turn?
Great movie. Not at all disappointing. Thanks, George & Rick.
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I'm wondering if anyone else out there is having the same problem I am.
I received the 5048 Longhorn bits today and whenever (I've tried three times) I attempt to install them to a new, fresh Virtual PC and Virtual disk the thing errors out at the point at which I attempt to select the volume on which to install. The Virtual PC boots from the CD so installation starts right away, and the only available volume listed has a big red circle with a line through it. I've tried creating a new volume, formatting the volume, and even switching from a dynamic VHD to a static size VHD and the same behavior happens.
Anybody have any advice on this?
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Recently I began shopping for a new cell phone for my wife and I found a very disconcerting fact. The AudioVox and Motorola SmartPhones aren't available any longer. This puzzles me greatly.
When the AudioVox SmartPhone came on the market MOST of my friends and colleagues in my industry got it. It was amazing to see Ken Getz, Scott Guthrie, and a slew of other people not only purchase the phone, but also rave about it publicly. We've all had this phone for a year or less now, and it appears as though it is no longer available through any carrier. Sure, you might be able to purchase an unlocked version for several hundred dollars, but that just puts us in the realm of Verizon SmartPhones.
Let's talk about the Verizon SmartPhones for just a second now that I've brought it up. It seems to me that what is clearly the nation's best cellular carrier (based on public opinion as well as my own experience) is dragging MUCH more than its feet when it comes to SmartPhone offerings. When last I checked, they offered a single, large clamshell type design and it was close to $500. That's simply rediculous in today's world. Verizon should be first and best when it comes to phone offerings if they've got a network like they've got. That's just the way it is.
Verizon aside, though, why would Cingular stop (or just "not") offer the AudioVox or the Motorola MPx220? I mean, now that I've had a SmartPhone I will NEVER go back to any other type of phone unless this one died and I had no choice because nobody was offering one. I think a lot of people feel the same way.
With all this in mind, I pose this question to anyone who might be able to answer or offer any information or advice:
What's the deal with the lack of availability of SmartPhones?
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I bought this game yesterday with so much excitement I couldn't wait to get home to play it. I popped it in my Xbox and watched the opening movie which (was pretty cool). Then it came time to saddle up for the first level.
The graphics were not ground-breaking. They were good, but certainly not on the "amazing" level. I was extremely disappointed to find out in the first few seconds of game play that the player doesn't control the camera like they do in many other first-person games. I'm forced to compare all of these types of games to my A+ "Splinter Cell" (it really doesn't matter which version of the game). Because you have no camera control and the camera doesn't follow directly behind you, you are frequently running in directions without having a clue what's ahead of you (read: you could be running into enemy fire or a wall. In fact, this occurs more often than not. It is unbelievably frustrating and in my opinion the game should never have left the manufacturer with this kind of camera problem.
The second thing that really bothered me was the long delay that would occur quite often with regard to controlling my character. An enemy would start a combo on me and you literally have to wait until the entire combo has landed before you recover any kind of usable control over the character. Several times I'd simply be trying to back up, move out of the way, or use a force push but alas, nothing at all would happen and I would have to wait until the enemy was done.
I actually finished all 16 levels in about four hours of play, which was extremely disappointing. There should have been more involved with each level instead of just "fight off these three dozen droids, flick that switch, move this big object using the force (which you do by pressing a single button before the cinematics take over for you to complete the job)".
The one really cool thing about the game is the spoilers. You see some brief scenes from the real film, and also some scenes that were written specifically for this game. This is both good and bad, I suppose, but it sure made the game a lot more entertaining.Overall I give the game a 6 out of 10 rating.
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In February I blogged about a remote controlled airplane that I'd purchased after about twenty years of wanting one. Today I was finally able to enjoy an incredible five straight minutes of non-stop flight time and I have to say that it was well worth the wait.
Flying these things is not as easy as it looks. It takes a tremendous amount of getting used to. After several flights that I made specifically to balance the plane and get it flying straight and level, I'd really damaged the body and broken a wing (nothing a little epoxy can't make (literally) better than new). I'd always been disappointed at the performance of my plane when it came to turning. It would be incredibly slow to respond. It would take about 10 to 15 seconds to right itself after turning in one direction. I just figured, since this was a three-channel plane (i.e. a rudder but no ailerons) that I was stuck with that and I'd have to buy a new plane in order to get better performance.
This morning I had a new idea, though. What if I could increase the surface area of the rudder so as to increase the effect of its movements? I did just that in a couple of iterations and now, at twice the original surface area (which wasn't much to begin with) the plane now turns and performs exactly the way I would expect it to. Photo paper is of much higher weight than copy paper, so I took a piece of it and taped it to the rudder with shipping tape.
It was really fun to have this thing up in the air at my control for over five minutes. I did loops and flew it way out into the park and back. I flew it way up into the sky and did tricks at high altitudes. It's a very enjoyable hobby to have. I can't wait to take it out tomorrow! Now that the thing turns when I tell it I have much more predictable control over it.