T
he brainiacs at MIT are working on a Linux-
based $100 laptop with a 500MHz processor,
1GB of storage, and a 1MP digital camera. Like
AMD’s PIC project, it’s aimed at kids and third-
world wannabe netizens. The prototype notebook
is rugged, enabled with Wi-Fi and cellphone tech-
nology, and creates a mesh network with other
nearby machines when turned on.Google’s
Secret
Services
You use Gmail, Google Talk,
and the ubiquitous Google
search engine, but that’s just
scratching the surface of the
information giant’s offer-
ings these days. We scoured
Google’s website to get you
up to date on some of its
more useful—and obscure—
services that, like its search
engine, are absolutely free.ÑMobile
http://mobile.google.com
All of the top features of
Google on your cellphone. Get
search results, images, and
local information instantly.ÑVideo
http://video.google.com
Following the Google Images
model, this service saves
you time trying to fi nd, say,
that video of Leeroy Jenkins
or President Bush fl ipping
the bird.ÑReader
http://www.google.com/reader
A web-based Atom- and RSS-
feed reader to keep track of
your news and blog sites, all
with the Google touch.ÑPrint
http://print.google.com
Search for keywords and
view scans of books.ÑRide Finder
http://labs.google.com/
ridefinder
An extension of Google Maps,
this service provides real-
time locations for shuttles
and taxis. Cities are currently
limited, though.For more Google tools and
services, check out: http://www.
google.com/intl/en/options/;
and visit Google Labs at
http://labs.google.com to see
the latest projects of Google’s
skunkworks.$100 Laptop? We’ll Take 10!
Intel Aims to Speed
Boot Times
New Robson technology uses flash memory to load
OS in a jiffyI
ntel showed next-gen technology designed to reduce
PC boot times at this year’s Intel Developers Forum in
Tapei. Although the company was tight-lipped about when
this tech might appear on the PC, as well as the potential
decrease in boot times, the company did divulge that it
relies on a NAND fl ash card that works in tandem with
the PC’s hard drive to achieve faster booting. It’s safe to
assume that this technology will appear when Microsoft’s
Vista OS ships in 2006, because Toshiba has announced
plans to introduce a hybrid hard drive that uses NAND
memory as well, which will also be compatible with Vista.Behold the centerpiece of MIT’s One
Laptop Per Child program.Combining
hard drives and
flash memory,
as seen here,
could be the
key to reducing
boot times in
the near future.Tom McDonald has been covering games for countless
magazines and newspapers for 11 years. He lives in the
New Jersey Pine Barrens.T
he first words of this column, written
almost 10 years ago, were the
undeniably childish (albeit accurate)
“I hate Myst.” Myst was an anti-game, a
desiccated husk of an imaginary world
peppered with puzzles that only grew in
tedium the further you traveled. Levers and
buttons and switches, oh my!
Well, a decade or so later, Myst fi nally comes
to an end with Myst V: End of Ages, and I needed
to see if maturity had done anything to mellow
my feelings about this spawn of the brothers
Miller. The answer is a defi nitive “sorta.”
Despite the mighty efforts of team Cyan,
reams of text, and oceans of dialog (all well-
voiced), I still feel no connection to these
humorless, mopey, unappealing characters
and their problems. End of Ages is loaded with
the sort of overripe text that defines the series:
“What is a stranger? Someone who is not me?
Yet sometimes I feel like a stranger to myself.”
This is simple sub-Robert Jordan
wankery: low-level freshman English comp
with pretensions of profundity. As a passing
bit of narrative/character backfilling, it would
be merely something to dismiss on the way to
the next bit of lever/button/switch twiddling.
The problem is, the entire game—indeed
the entire series—is permeated with this
grim portentousness. It’s a particular style
of fantasy narrative that many readers (and
gamers) adore, but which leaves me utterly
cold, and it partly explains why this series has
never clicked with me.
And yet ... there is a real sense of
imagination at work here. While the narrative
and gameplay sensibilities of the Millers hold
little appeal for me, the visual style and grand
sense of the fantastic is mightily impressive.
Myst’s worlds—dark and empty as they
always are—display a tremendous amount of
invention. World-building is no easy matter,
and an entire landscape with such wondrous
places and clever touches is a tremendous
achievement. Cyan always delivers the eye-
candy, and a wholly 3D Myst world is an
amazing place to explore. Too bad I’ve never
felt there was a good reason to explore it.Don’t Get
Mysty
GAME THEORY
THOMAS
MCDONALD14 MA XIMUMPC DECEMBER 2005
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