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This Is So Not Worth Your Time
Wrote another eight pages or so today. I'm definitely feeling more productive than the average bear.
Power in this place is erratic this week. Several power outages have driven me out of my room. The next time it happens, I think I'm just going to bed. Everyone else will have to live with it.
I also have to add that I'm a wimp. It's only barely in the thirties outside, yet I'm already feeling cold. What the hell is this? I guess I can blame my California upbringing, but it's damn annoying. I guess in my defense I can claim that it only happened when the wind speed topped about forty miles per hour (17.9 m/sec for those of you in more advanced countries), which I guess is pretty fast. It tends to cut through light clothing.
Additionally, I have also seen The Matrix Revolutions now, so I can proudly say that I've now seen the worst high-budget case of bad sci-fi engineering that I've ever laid eyes on. I am embarassed to, as a member of the human race, have lost to the machines, because quite frankly, if I was fighting machines that built like that, I would only lose a war by laughing myself to death. On the other hand, given the complete incompetence of the human engineers, I don't know if I can blame us for losing the war. Why can't either side do a damn thing right in that movie?
This annoys me in general because I like realism, and I'm always looking for chinks in books. It translates badly into movies. I'm still annoyed at Peter Jackson for making both Helm's Deep and Minas Tirith into some of the worst planned defenses in history. And I still claim that the first thing I would have done as Aragorn, King of Gondor would be to execute my generals. And then generally clean military house. And those movies were done well!
I know it's a horrible nitpicky thing to go after sometimes, but can I get a battle that makes sense?
Probably not. War never makes sense in any case.
Power in this place is erratic this week. Several power outages have driven me out of my room. The next time it happens, I think I'm just going to bed. Everyone else will have to live with it.
I also have to add that I'm a wimp. It's only barely in the thirties outside, yet I'm already feeling cold. What the hell is this? I guess I can blame my California upbringing, but it's damn annoying. I guess in my defense I can claim that it only happened when the wind speed topped about forty miles per hour (17.9 m/sec for those of you in more advanced countries), which I guess is pretty fast. It tends to cut through light clothing.
Additionally, I have also seen The Matrix Revolutions now, so I can proudly say that I've now seen the worst high-budget case of bad sci-fi engineering that I've ever laid eyes on. I am embarassed to, as a member of the human race, have lost to the machines, because quite frankly, if I was fighting machines that built like that, I would only lose a war by laughing myself to death. On the other hand, given the complete incompetence of the human engineers, I don't know if I can blame us for losing the war. Why can't either side do a damn thing right in that movie?
This annoys me in general because I like realism, and I'm always looking for chinks in books. It translates badly into movies. I'm still annoyed at Peter Jackson for making both Helm's Deep and Minas Tirith into some of the worst planned defenses in history. And I still claim that the first thing I would have done as Aragorn, King of Gondor would be to execute my generals. And then generally clean military house. And those movies were done well!
I know it's a horrible nitpicky thing to go after sometimes, but can I get a battle that makes sense?
Probably not. War never makes sense in any case.
no subject
Thank you for saying it, because my friends would kill me if I did. But it's true.
no subject
Hmm. How so?
I'm genuinely interested, although wary you might talk about struts and bearings.
no subject
Imagine you're a machine who is obsessed with efficiency and minimizing the expenditure of resources. You're faced with the challenge of designing a set of machines who will be used to police these annoying pests known as humans, soft biological constructs who rather go squish when you step on them. Do you equip your new police device with:
a) A whole bunch of metal tentacles that can be used to tear humans apart when you get close enough?
b) Maybe two or three tentacles and a machine gun, because you might as well splatter humans from as far away as possible.
Once again, you're an efficiency obsessed piece of machinery. You're beginning your assault on the human stronghold. Do you:
a) Dig a giant heaping hole through layers of earth in order to come in the top of their dome, taking days of work?
b) Drive around until you find one of their doors, and then blow it open, creating a slightly larger entry point?
Now that you've drilled a hole through the top of the dome, you're ready to enter the humans's entrenched base. What do you send through the hole?
a) An army of expendable, even if they are slightly expensive, police bots who will allow some of their fellows to enter the dome simply by absorbing human bullets while taking casualties in the hundreds.
b) Something that goes boom when it hits things, thus rendering the entire assault done and over with.
c) Enough nerve gas to kill every human in the city, and then send in your police bots.
Now, change tactics. You're a brave human engineer, preparing to build the weapons that will have to defend Zion, should the evil machines ever attack. Your first challenge is to design the dock area. Do you:
a) Build all systems out of normal wires and electronic components so they function as normal.
b) Build all critical and power systems out of hardened components so that they can withstand a blast from an EMP.
At this point, you're also in charge of designing the mobile gun platforms that will move inside of Zion and defend it from anyone piercing the dome. Do you:
a) Build giant mechanical robots that use a tremendous amount of resources, while not being particularly fast, just to hold two guns.
b) Build a simple armored cart that also holds two guns in a turret, and drive it into position just the same way. It's cheaper, and it does more.
Now that you've decided which way to go, you take another think-through. Given Zion's most effective weapon, do you:
a) Build giant complex mechanical robots with electrical ciruitry
b) Build cheap mechanical carts that are powered by basic engines, and are completely immune to EMPs.
You've gone the APU route (God know why). It's time to design the pilot cages. Knowing that you're most likely fighting Sentinels, which have these giant mechanical tentacles, how do you design your pilot cockpits?
a) Leave them completely open to the air to make it easier to climb in and out.
b) Cover them in a metal cage that will at least resist any attempts to rip the human out for a few crucial seconds without impairing much visibility.
c) Cover them in shatterproof, metal reinforced glass to additionally protect against flying debris.
d) Cover them completely with metal and run the gunnery by computer.
e) Just go for remote control.
Now it's time to add on the carrying capacity. Which way do you go?
a) Put on a pair of ammo canisters, one for each gun.
b) We've got some space, why not put on two canisters for each gun?
c) Load the damn thing up with as much ammo as it can carry without falling over. You want it to shoot things, not run races.
By the way, a huge monster drill is digging its way into your cavern. What weapon system do you want to use to take it down?
a) Rocket launchers which require precision hits, and are easily intercepted by nearby Sentinels, but limit collateral damage.
b) Duct tape, twenty sticks of dynamite and a fuse. Everything in the general vicinity is hosed. Let's just blow the damn legs up.
I could probably add some others, but I've got to go to work. I hope I made some kind of point somewhere in there.