- Live forms are classified into Animal Kingdom, Plant Kingdom, and what else? The list has grown quite a bit in the last century. Besides the Eurkaryotae (animals, plants, fungi and protists), we also have Bacteria and and new Archaea. Read about Three Domains of Life at University of California, Berkeley Museum of Paleontology. (link added 28 Jan 2002)
- Cosmology (modified 28 Jan 2002)
- Earth dragging the spacetime around it with its gravitomagnetism (Exoscience 8 Jun 1998)
- Fermat's Last Theorem (modified 28 Dec 2001)
- Here is an excellant book on Fermat’s Last Theorem.
Fermat's Enigma: The Epic Quest to Solve the World's Greatest Mathematical Problem It is an intrigue and melodrama that ensued during the quest to prove Fermat’s Last Theorem. Like the
The Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA, it is a personal account and just as enjoyable to readers who know nothing about the field.
- Fermat's Last Theorem finally sovled, nearly 360 years after it was postulated (Nova Online, link updated 10 Feb 2000)
- History of Fermat's Last Theorem
- Here is an excellant book on Fermat’s Last Theorem.
- Facts and Myths about the Bermuda Triangle (link added 7 Dec 2000)
- Virus (Modified 23 Feb 1999)
- AIDS
- Understanding HIV and AIDS
- Prion Diseases
- AIDS
- Don't be misled by wrong ideas under the guise of Science (modified 26 Jan 1999)
- Why does the Moon appear larger on the horizon than overhead? I used to think it is because you are comparing it to foreground objects. No, it's wrong! (Planetarian Dec 1985, entry added 26 Jan 1999)
- You think water in a sink rotates anticlockwise in Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern Hemispere? Coriolis Effect didn't do this! (Bad Meteorology entry added 30 Nov 1998)
- Why is the sky blue? Don't believe the Mac OS! (Bad Science, entry added 30 Nov 1998)
- Calendar (added 11 Aug 1998)
- Calendars and their History
- A 3-part FAQ that answers all your questions about the calendar: Part I, Part II, Part III.
- From the ancient world (9 Jun 1998)
- Hen and egg problem: DNA first, RNA first, or protein first? (ExoScience 6 Jun 1998)
- The Mayan Astronomy
- El Nino (26 Apr 1998)
- El Nino slowing down the Earth (NASA Mar 1998)
- Tracking El Nino
- Now fading
- Teleportation
- Refer to the Research at IBM.
- Note: while Heretic II is a Third Person Perspective action/adventure game, it is grouped under the First Person Shooter along with the Heretic Saga.
- First Person Shooters
- the Doom Series (Dec 1993 through Jul 1999)
- the Heretic Saga (Dec 1994 through Jul 1999) (Link to Hexen2 Game Guide added 20 Aug 1999)
My walkthrough for Hexen II and Portal of Praevus available in my Hexen II Game Guide! (v1.4 July 2002)
- the Quake Series (Jun 1996 through 1997)
- Jedi Knight (Oct 1997 through Feb 1998) (modified 26 Aug 1999)
- Shogo — Mobile Armor Division (Sep 1998)
- Developer: Monolith
- Monolith with its Lith 3D Engine now gives us an action/adventure game with a (Japanese) anime setting. You complete your mission with normal weapons, or with 10-meters high combat robots. And on your mission you find your girl friend who has been reported dead with your brother in a previous mission. You don’t know whether to tell her you are dating with her sister, while she tells you your brother is also alive. And your brother is organizing the very rebel forces you have been instructed to wipe out....
- Game review available at Adrenaline Vault
- Home page at Shogo MAD.
- Download demo version and the v2.2 patch at the home page for EAX and A3D support!
- Cheats available at The Adrenaline Vault
- Walkthrough available at Planet Shogo
- Action+Adventure/RPG Games
- Nowadays it is so difficult to classify games. The ones here are all very good. Looks like an Action game, but with adventure and/or RPG elements.
- Thief series (Nov 1998 thru Apr 2000) [content updated 11 Aug 2000]
- Thief: The Dark Project (Nov 1998) [content updated 10 Aug 2000]
- The developer, Looking Glass Studios, went out of business without warning in May 2000...
- Even though Thief is called a 3D action game, it is one of a kind, now known as First Person Sneakers. You can shoot but most missions require you not to kill human. Even if you are allowed to fight, you find quickly that you are weaker than all your enemies. Usually you do not have sufficient ammo to kill them all; and even when you have sufficient ammo, weapons fires too slowly to kill them before they kill you! That is what Thief is about: sneaking, stalking, and stealing. In each mission, your objective is to sneak into a place, collect valuables unnoticed, and leave without arousing attention. And the successful thief does that without messing around killing guards.
- The thrill of standing in a dark corner waiting for a guard to walk by is unique. Think twice before playing this game: you may lost interest in all other games forever. Thief is a game that really make you afraid, make you hesistate whether really to load the game and continue to play it. Remember to post a Do Not Disturb sign when you are play it — any disturbance may lead to shocking reactions from you, bringing physical harm to yourself, the intruder, your PC, or your house.
- Sound plays a central role in Thief that no other game has done before. You are not provided with CD Music or MIDI files. Just the surround sound of your environment. For me, I think the minimum hardware requirement should have read 3D sound card plus 4 point stereo speaker.
- Thief is about problem solving. Not about the get Key A to open Door A type problems. You do need some keys, but the main type of problems you face are this: you are here and want to get there but guards are patrolling this area — what should I do?
- New: my Complete Loot walkthrough version 3.0 (Apr 2020), rewritten for cross-browser support
- Thief Gold (Oct 1999)
- Thief Gold has three more missions (plus the secret mission Blooper Reel). Many existing missions have been modified. Some have new areas, some new enemies, some with changes in enemy behaviours. Therefore, it is a worthwhile purchase for Thief owners.
- Unfortunately, the graphics engine has not much improved. Dead bodies still protude into walls and the textures look washed-out. Yet they are not important because Thief is about shadows. And sound effects, where the game really excels.
- Developer: Looking Glass
- Publisher: Eidos
- Game review available at Adrenaline Vault
- Home page at ftp://ftp.eidosinteractive.com/pub/thief_gold/demos/thiefgolddemol.exe. Demo version is available for download at the home page.
- Download the v1.33 patch for (original) Thief at The Patch Scrolls for EAX and A3D support!
- Cheats available at The Adrenaline Vault. Note that the trainers are only applicable to the original game, not the v1.33 patch.
- My Complete Loot walkthrough is written for both Thief and Thief Gold.
- Thief II: The Metal Age (Mar 2000)
- Thief II: The Metal Age has been released in April 2000. It uses the same Enhanced Dark Engine like System Shock II, with better graphics than Thief I.
- The high and mighty Hammers have seen their numbers dwindle in droves in the last year. The Hammerites have almost systematically been replaced by the Mechanists, a less radical but far more secretive and sinister sect of the cities most wealthy patrons. The Mechanists, as their name implies, are a group of technologists that have invented robotics. Their culture and products are sweeping through the city. Businesses and organizations everywhere have begun to employ the mechanical beasts for all sorts of activities, including security and maintenance purposes.
- The game improved in the weakest area of TDP/TG: graphics. It uses the same Enhanced Dark Engine as in System Shock II, providing 16 bit texture instead of the aged 8-bit ones. While it still cannot be compared with Quake III or Unreal, one must also remember that it is handling much are complexe objects than those FPSes.
- Developer: Looking Glass
- Publisher: Eidos
- Game review available at Adrenaline Vault
- Home page at Eidos. Demo version is available for download at the home page (130M!).
- Download the (33M!) v1.18 patch at 3D Files
- Cheats available at The Adrenaline Vault. They are actually identical with the Thief cheats.
- New: my Complete Loot walkthrough version 1.0 (Jun 2020), rewritten for cross-browser support
- Thief: The Dark Project (Nov 1998) [content updated 10 Aug 2000]
- System Shock 2 (1999)
- System Shock 2 uses the Enhanced Dark Engine like Thief 2. Besides moving to a spaceship, it is a full fledged RPG where you have to manage your inventory and upgrade your skills. Most important, the problems in the game do not have single solutions. You can tackle them in different ways depending on the skill you acquired and the style you prefer.
- There is no level in the game. The spaceships have multiple decks, but you can (and sometimes need to) go back to a previous deck at any time. What was there will still be there. The only exception are corpse of the bad guys. Unlike Thief, when a bad buy is down, its body soon disappears. So if you need to search it for items, you need to do it quick.
- Throughout the game, you will feel so lonely, so frightened; never the Rambo feeling like in Doom.
- Game review available at Adrenaline Vault.
- FAQ at Info Data.Node under its home page.
- Download its demo from 3D Gamers.
- Buy
System Shock 2
- Deus Ex (June 2000)
- Deus Ex is a very exciting game developed by Ion Storm and published by Eidos. More important, it is produced by Warren Spector who also worked for System Shock and Thief. You have FPS action, plus also RPG training/upgrade. You have a large inventory to manage and credits to buy stuff as well. Finally, using the Unreal engine, it has nice graphics.
- Yet more important the excellant story plot. Actually the plot is fixed in the game, but you yourself make the story on the fly. In the same spirit as in Thief and System Shock 2, the problems are set, but you can solve them in many different ways. In Dues Ex moreover, your choice (to shoot madly at the terrorists or to sneak past them) influences the way they respond and how the story unfolds.
- Game review available at Adrenaline Vault.
- Home page at Deus Ex.
- Download its two demo missions from Game Power.
- New: my Sector 4 walkthrough version 2.0 (4 Jun 2020), rewritten for cross browser support
- Adventure/RPG Games
- Grim Fandango (1998)
- Grim is the best game I found from LucasArts. It is very funny, and the solutions to the puzzles are really interesting.
- Based on Mexican myth, you are a sales agent in the Land of Dead. While your boss complaints about your poor sales records, you gradually discovers a conspiracy from which you must untangle.
- With the patch, the dialogues now come with subtitles. A very nice feature. Better still, you can view previous dialogues so you can review what you missed. Unfortunately the dialogues were (rather infrequently) recorded with the wrong speaker name.
- FAQ available at Ritual Entertainment.
- Home page at LucasArts. Demo version and upgrade patch are available at the home page.
- Grim won Gamespot Game of the Year for 1998!
- the Tomb Raider Series (1996 through Dec 1999)
- Resident Evil series (updated 7 Oct 1999)
- Resident Evil (Sep 1997)
- Developer: CAPCOM
- Game review available at Adrenaline Vault
- Home page at CAPCOM
- complete walkthrough by myself, leaving no stones unturned.
- Resident Evil II (21 Jan 1999)
- As a 1999 game, the 640x480 graphics is disappointing. If CAPCOM had developed the game on PC and then port to PS, I think the graphics would have been much better. Anyway, it is already a great leap from RE1.
- The story continues with a Leon reporting to Raccon City Police, and meet Claire Redfield on the way, who is looking for her missing brother Chris. The whole game is similar to RE1: even the police office looks like the mansion of RE1. Except now there are more variations. And if you have the patience to play it over and over again, you get more and more (tiny) surprises.
- Basically, you have Leon game and Claire game, and each characters has two scenarios. In the two Leon games, you can play Ada for a short while (like Chris playing Rebecca in RE1); similarly in Claire games, you can play Sherry. After you played all four games with good results, you can play the Hunk game (another character). And finally if you still get good results, you can play the Tofu character. Tofu is a Japanese food made from soya beans. Seems the Zombies love to eat Tofu too.
- As in RE1, the controls are annoying but at least you can now customize the keys for the few controls you have.
- Developer: CAPCOM and Virgin Interactive Entertainment
- Game review available at Game Power
- Home page at CAPCOM
- Demo version available from CD ROM archive
- New: my guide for Editing Saved Games (18 Sep 1999)
- Resident Evil (Sep 1997)
- Grim Fandango (1998)
- I wrote Seneca on Shock based on the Consolation of Philosophy by Alain de Botton. I think it is a must-read for people who find themselves frustrated, in anger, shocked, or faced with injustice. (links added 20 Sep 2001)
- Walrus and the Carpenter: an interesting poem by Lewis Carol. You should also read his Jabberwocky and my Le Bredouillon. (links added 17 Sep 2001)
- My amusing article, The Haunted Apple, first published on Computer Society of my university long long ago. At that era, Apple II was the most popular personal computer. The article is humorous because it takes the paradigm of ghosts and exorcists to view the bugs and problems on Apple. Now added with an introduction, every computer user should go and read it. Keep your PC free of ghosts!
-
My most favorite book, Virus of the Mind exposes the imminent crisis of the dangerous new technology know as memetics.
What is it and how can we guard against its horrifying damages?
How are we going to survive the mental plague that is already upon us?
To defend our free will, the only chance is to have everyone read Virus of the Mind before it is too late!
Read the first chapter (Introduction) on-line, free.
Absolutely recommended.
If you like the book, buy it at
Barnes & Noble (this link marks me as your referer, so please use this one; and besides, B&N shipment is much cheaper). If you are interested in memes, you should also read
The Meme Machine. It is a book on meme-gene coevolution by Susan Blackmore. It addresses issues like the big brain, the origin of languages, religion, free will and consciousness. You can read the first chapter (Strange Creatures), a synopsis, and reviews at the author home page.
-
The best book on evolution: The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins, who first coined the term “meme”.
Visit The World of Dawkins to see his books.
If you want to buy them, do it here:
The Selfish Gene from Barnes & Noble. If you are completely new to Darwinian evolution, I would suggest you to first start with this later work of Richard Dawkins:
River out of Eden: A Darwinian View of Life.
-
Project Gutenberg hosted over two thousand public domain works of all kinds. Go and read Gulliver’s Travels, the Bible, or the Declaration of Independence. Of course, public domain books will be published before 1923, not your best sellers. (link added 23 Feb 2000).
Yet if you are interested in Gulliver’s Travels (and you should: it is not just a fairy tale) in particular, online here (link added 25 Feb 2000). To fully appreciate the book, you should go and buyGulliver's Travels: A Case Study in Contemporary Criticism. If you are interested in political satires, you probably would also like
1984 and
Animal Farm (Study Guide). (link added 8 Sep 2001).
- My favorite author, Isaac Asimov
- Jenkins' Spoiler-Laden Guide to the writings of Isaac Asimov.
- Isaac Asimov home page
- Isaac Asimov forum
- My French compositions, with English introductions
- Le Bredouillon: my first French poem, with English version
- Three Weeks in France: my first published work in French
- Travelling and The Little Prince: my second published work in French
- Why Chinese New Year usually starts in February
- Calendar Systems explained
If you want to understand the calender but can't read French, refer to the articles in Scientific Interest and Curiosity: Calendars. - A short one on MTR
- Louis Cha ¬d¨}ó` [sites in Chinese Big5], better known as Kam Yung ª÷±e
- The Inn ª÷±e«È´Ì with the best encyclopedia and quiz
- My brothers in law (15 Sep 2001)
- Daniel Mak
- Francis Mak (link updated 28 Mar 2002)
- Photo Album (Aug 2003)
- home page for all our albums
- Selected Albums from Irene and I (Aug 2003)
- Summer at Phukey (Aug 2003)
- Our trip to Los Angeles, Las Vegas and San Francisco (Jan/Feb 2003)
- Our trip to Hokaido Japan (Jan 2003)
- Our trip to Paris October 2001. (1 Nov 2002)
- Our trip to the Mediterraneans May 1999. (29 Dec 1999)
- Our Honey Moon Trip to South Africa 1997!
- Revisit our wedding.
- Irene’s trip to Los Angeles 1997 (29 Apr 1998)
- My SPCC schoolmates
- Chemistry and the Periodic Table at Web Elements, University of Sheffield (link added 3 Sep 2001)
- Astronomy Facts (group created 18 Jun 2001)
- Astronomy 161 lectures: Our Solar System, a very informative site on astronomy (link added 18 Jun 2001)
- All the laws of Physics. Well, most of them anyway, available in this dictionary.
- Science made stupid: a humorous version of science
- Ban DHMO now! (anon 10 Apr 1998)
- Student publishes paper to break her own cryptosystem (Cryptome 22 Nov 1999, added 22 Dec 1999)
- Student Discovers New Public Crypto Algorithm and it is much more efficient than RSA (Baltimore-Zergo 13 Jan 1999, added 20 Jan 1999, link revised 22 Dec 1999)
- Can PGP still be trusted? (22 Apr 1998)
- Can't export encryption? Actually you can communicate confidentailly without any encryption! (Ronald L. Rivest 23 Mar 1998)
- How strong is strong cryptography? 56-bit DES encryption broken in 40 days (C|net 25 Feb 1998)
- My solution: a systematic way to solve the cube
- Learn cube speeding from Lars Petrus, the cube champion
- THE Rubik's Cube homepage