So I just watched my first episode of GSpot Live. Now, a lot of it really didn't apply to me, or to my kind of gaming. There were a few things that I found kinda cool or interesting. First, the Folding@Home project. Now, they talked about how they were going to allow people to DL this and put it on their PS2s. Fantastic idea. It's not particularly new though. The whole @Home series of scientific research has been going on for ages, and on my PC, I've been working for Einstein@Home, Seti@Home, Rosetta@Home, and QMC@Home for a couple of years now. With Folding@Home, you're looking at processing Protein combinations in a search for a cure for various ailments like Alzheimers. Funny thing is, that's exactly the same as Rosetta@Home, only it's being run through Stanford instead of Washington University. Currently, my 2 computers each spend 30% of my off-time processing for Rosetta. Einstein@Home is an attempt to find data on Pulsars. I currently spend only 10% of my computers' off-time processing this stuff. Seti@Home, which garners 20% of my off-time, is of course the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence. QMC@Home, to which I dedicate the bulk of my processor's time at 40%, attempts to refine and better the Quantum Monte Carlo method for general use in Quantum Chemistry (thus enabling us to find lighter, stronger, cheaper, and more durable materials from which to create stuff). I find it really interesting that they've decided to transfer some of this processing capabilities to the Playstation, as it could potentially be of great aid in making some of the required discoveries of our time. However, with that many more consoles continuously powered on, I'm concerned about the power consumption, and the potential environmental impact that this program may have. Global Warming and the like are in the news like mad right now, but of course made no mention on GSpot. Let's face it, we're here to talk about and play games, not protect the environment. However, I like to think of myself as an environmentally conscious individual. I recycle everything that I can, have as few things powered on at all times as I can manage (aside from my computers which are doing important scientific research), and take part in numerous environmental activities every day... There is no knowing what kind of an impact this will have on the environment without some statistics to the amount of power a PS2 consumes in an hour, the number of PS2s that would be left on to run this program, and the amount of pollution produced by the average power plant per hour in order to generate that amount of electricity (stats which we'll never see). The other part that I really liked was the God Of War 2 action. Those scenes were pretty wicked. I'll never play the game, but it still looked sweet. At the end, they announced a chance for a new emblem, the Scavenator Beta. Basically, play the beta and post some constructive criticism. The emblem is available for 1 day only, so I was kinda glad I decided to tune in to this episode. The parts I didn't give a damn about, were all the football and baseball garbage. Sports really don't interest me, not even hockey. But hey, I guess they needed something to fill their time... Of course, that's why they showed some Japanese stuff that will never come to North America right? -- In other news, I've stopped playing Oblivion. The game was just dragging too much from my system, and every time I tried to reload after death, the game would crash. Going to have to figure out which mod was causing that, but instead, since it's been so long since I was interested in it, I just pushed it aside. Managed to get Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 the other day. I think I preferred its predecessor more. RCT3 seems to be pretty clunky with the cameras, often causing wrong parts to be deleted, and costing me coin. The rides seem to be, more or less, the exact same as what was available in RCT2, except now they're more expensive. Additionally, the whole colouring of the game is a bit annoying. Despite this, I still managed to waste a good chunk of today on it when I should have been working on my projects for university, so it does still have the addition, lose track of time thing that all RCT games have. I think that's about it for now, other than just mentioning that I think I have all the stills that I'll need for when I start doing my v-blogging. Rin's Report shouldn't be too hard for me to put together once I manage level 10.