Reisun.org

Full disclosure: I am Asian (American)

Horror films are by their nature deeply personal. Whether you sit in a dark room by yourself, or in a theater with lots of people, the experience of feeling scared is something that is hard to explain or share with others, as invariably emotions, memories, and incidents from your own past are called up.

All this is to say that for people who watch a lot of horror films (and I am by no means a true afictionado), remakes are a very touchy subject, especially for foreign remakes.

My very first Japanese horror film was “Ringu” which was remade to “The Ring.” Ringu was absolutely the scariest thing I ever saw, and I am fairly certain it is still the scariest thing I will ever see. Although I was born and raised in the US, a lot of my cultural and social sensibilities have a distinctively Asian influence, which this film exploited. I have not seen the American remake, so I can’t and won’t comment on it.

Another impression-making Asian horror film I saw a few years ago was “The Eye,” a Chinese (Hong Kong?) film that, while not as drop dead scary as Ringu, was thought provoking and sensational (in both senses of the word). Much to my dismay, I found out today that they are remaking this movie as well, with Jessica Alba as the lead. I will probably not watch this, as it would be too painful. The lead actress in the original was cute, good looking in a girl next door way. Jessica, without discussing her acting abilities, is really more of a bombshell, a sexy siren. I think that alone will alter the mood and context of the movie.

An additional concern is the cultural sensibilities of horror films. A lot of what made The Eye scary was the Asian setting, subplots, and even scenery (especially the climactic ending scene). I don’t think the subtlety of the horror elements in the original will get translated properly in an American setting.

Having said that I will probably eventually see The Eye, just to see Jessica Alba.

I drive an old 1994 Mazda 626. It still runs great most of the time, and I am in love with it. Recently, however, the check engine light (CEL) turned on briefly, then went away. This repeated once again, and I felt it was time to take action. I took it to a local Mazda dealer (I was fed up with local mechanics, two of which screwed up simple repair jobs) and they told me it was a failed oxygen sensor. I had recently noticed my mileage was going down, from somewhere as high as 30 mpg (I drive conservatively) to the current 20~24 mpg. A failed oxygen sensor, which can behave poorly even before the CEL comes on, is one possible cause of reduced mpg.

The Mazda dealer wanted ~$220 for the part and labor. Since I had already forked over $380 for a 120K maintenance procedure (transmission flush, etc.) I wasn’t in the mood to pay an additional $220 (I need to get my rear  brakes and front CV boot/joint fixed though), so I started researching oxygen sensors.

• On the mazda626.net site, I found a wealth of information on techniques, parts, etc. The most useful piece of information I found after much reading is that on pre 1996 Mazdas (inline 4 engines), there is only one oxygen sensor. 1996 and later models have two or more, one before the catalytic converter and one after.
• Autozone sells the parts, and a oxygen sensor socket/wrench kit. They also loan them out, but it was cheap enough that I just bought the kit.
• Resetting the ECU (the computer) requires you to unhook the negative (gnd) terminal of the battery, and step on the brake pedal for more than 5 seconds.

I am away from home right now on business, but I’ve already bought all the parts and tools I need (Bosch oxygen sensor for ~$60) and am looking forward to replacing it when I get back.

I picked up the Gamemon Universal USB Converter (FT8D91) from Walmart recently, and wanted to hook it up to my laptop to play Flanker 2.51 (more on that in the next post). It came with a mini-cd that I promptly lost (really just threw it away), since I figured I could always download it from the web.

Well it looks like these devices arent as well known as others, so it took a little googling to find the drivers.

1. Install the v1.2 drivers
2. A shortcut to the configuration settings program is left on your desktop. Change the compatibility mode to Windows 2000 (if you are running XP) to run it, and set the appropriate converter (I use an XBox controller) to enable.

I have been a fan of Russian fighter planes for quite some time now, all due to my exposure to Su-27 Flanker Squandron Commander’s Edition, a flight simulation game published by the now defunct SSI. The developers of the Su27 Flanker SCE are still around, and have produced follow-on products such as Flanker 2.51 and LockOn: Modern Air Combat (LoMAC). I have both, but have refused to purchase any of the later addons, like Flaming Cliffs, because they use the Starforce protection system. (I have bought two copies each of Flanker 1.5, Flanker 2, and LoMAC, I do not like being treated like a criminal with a protection system that is known to have adverse effects on systems)

Still, I think I like the original, polygon-graphics only game more than any other, primarily because I can still run this on practically any computer, including laptop.

However, there are a few additional things that are needed to easily run this game.

1. Sound patch for NT/2000/XP OS’s.
2. No CD patch

The former is a must, or else you will not get any sound at all in any Windows version after NT4. The latter is not a requirement, I currently use DaemonTools to mount an ISO image of the SCE disk.

Some miscellaneous utilities I have found and stored here as well include

• Flanker Realistic Payload Editor
• Flanker Campaign Shell
• Random Mission Generator
• Warroom

Please be aware that I am the author of none of these fine pieces of software. I am mainly hosting these files for the foreseeable future because it was very difficult for me to find them when I reinstalled Flanker 1.5.

Update: One other aspect of running Flanker 1.5 on a modern PC is the fact that a USB joystick does not work properly—namely, the control inputs are erratic. The following post offers a solution. This post explains in greater detail what PPJoy and PPJoyJoy are. I’ve added a zip file of both here.