My instructions here are for bittorrent end-users, i.e. users downloading existing torrent files that are already being seeded elsewhere.

I discovered Desura today, I also have been seeing the redeem Desura keys on my Humble Bundles and thought the same as you. I found it incredibly simple to load and redeem my keys, all worked with a problem (I’m using PCLinuxOS and also use Mandriva). I won’t be waiting for a native Linux port of Steam anymore, (not that I thought it would really happen) my money is going to Desura (and Humble bundles).

How this first seeding step is performed in transmission?
Thanks

It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. The Doctor saw the Tesselecta-version die, thought it was his actual self, and thus put the Tesselecta there in the first place. It has nothing to do with *believing* something happened.

Saturday is going to be great but I don’t seem to have taken much from this episode because I’ve been too focused on the next.

So, can’t wait till Saturday and your next episode review.

I’m sure it will be good, I’m just on that post-companion sadness, I suppose, lol. It’ll be cool to see some old friends again (Craig from The Lodger, at the very least). Just sad to see them leave, if even for an episode. Sort of a prelude to next seasons’ final goodbye.

And, I suppose you are right. It just makes me nervous when any show builds up a central storyline for a season and then sort of shoves it off for any long stretch of time, but now that I think about it (post-your comment) I see you’re right.

“I would argue that I’m taking exactly the right amount of Feminist stance.”

Lol, fair enough I guess. Two sides of the same coin and all that.

I think I’ll avoid an ultra-feminist take on the Doctor. If I questioned your level, which I apologize and retract part of, I don’t think I could read one that you yourself claim as MORE critical.

Cheers. Can’t wait for the next episode and the subsequent review.

No worries, I appreciate the comments; it lets me know there’s at least one person actually reading!

As for next week’s episode, I have more hope for it than that. Gareth Roberts write a tremendously good episode in series 5, and I think that if anyone can make an interesting Cybermen story it’s him. Also, it’s important to remember that Doctor Who isn’t traditionally defined by its story arcs – indeed, ongoing story arcs as a concept that tie each production season together are new to the new series, and this season has had a LOT more episodes that tie directly to the ongoing story than any other series (I mean, showing a random crack in reality during each episode in series 5 is just a teaser; it doesn’t make that episode inherently connected to the ongoing arc. So, this is nothing out of the ordinary, really. Series 5 had 4 episodes in a row with nothing more than token nods to the ongoing continuity (Vampires of Venice – Vincent and the Doctor. If you want to count Rory’s erasure in Cold Blood, then we have to count the companion departure in The God Complex too).

Actually, I had already speculated that all the fuss fans are making about finding River is overblown – as I said in someone else’s blog comments last week, that ship has sailed. River has already grown up (as Amy and Rory’s friend), and if my timeline for Dr. Song’s life is accurate, there’s not really anywhere for ‘Amy and Rory have happy parent time’ to really slot into place.

I also loved this episode, despite the one crucially bad line of dialogue and its other minor flaws. And speaking of that crucially bad line of dialogue…

“Too strong a Feminist stance”. Interesting phrase. I would argue that I’m taking exactly the right amount of Feminist stance. It is simply the consequence of applying critical reasoning to the world around me, rather than unquestioningly accepting it as given. Nothing is created in a vacuum, and the dialogue and situations in a television program are very much influenced by the society they are created in. More importantly, the television show isn’t broadcast in a vacuum either, and the situations and dialogue presented can have real ramifications for our culture. Art reflects, reinforces, and influences culture, and so I feel more than justified in critiquing the implications of a narrative within a broader cultural context.

So, no, I don’t think my rant is a reach at all. Because that surname shift happened in a show produced within the confines of Western culture, and in that culture I’ve seen the narrative of women as de facto property (but not actual property, no, because we are So Enlightened and Sexism Is A Thing Of The Past, right?) played out again and again. It’s easy to miss that narrative when you don’t have to live in the shadow of the expectations created by that narrative. Which is a fairly succinct (if somewhat incomplete) definition of Male Privilege (and that link is certainly recommended reading!)

It’s also worth noting that at no point did I think ‘that out-dated chauvinist!’. Rather, I thought “That is a disappointing way to subvert the narrative of strong women, and Amy in particular, and to reinforce the very current, modern cultural trend toward the objectification of women.” Actually, to be fair, I didn’t think that when I heard the line. No, I thought “Wait, what the fuck was that shit? After the Doctor explicitly quipped about Mr. Pond, we’re going to drop a line like that?”. But I digress.

The upshot of this? Feminist thought (and Social Justice-oriented thinking in general) is a natural consequence of the way I think about the world, and I consider it important to analyze cultural artifacts from that perspective, because they are placed in a particularly powerful position for spreading and strengthening social memes. So the Feminist commentary isn’t going anywhere any time soon.

Also, all things considered my analysis of Doctor Who from a Feminist perspective is comparatively mild. See here for a much more critical analysis. (for the record, I don’t agree with all the points she makes there, but I don’t disagree with all of them either)

I mean, a rant about the changing of surname as a form of transferring possession of the woman is a bit of a reach in the context of the show and the line. Almost as if you’re mining every sentence for some kind of sexism and controversy.

I caught that line immediately but the very last thing on my mind was “look at that Doctor, trying to transfer ownership of Amy! That out dated chauvinist!”… No… I thought “this is it. The beginning of the end…” which made me realize that I’d made a giant mistake as a Who fan… I became emotionally involved in the well-being of the companions for the first time and forgot that they, like the actors that play the Doctor, and impermanent.

Of course, if rumours are true we’ll have Doctor/Amy/Rory episodes well into next season but the last 10 minutes or so of the episode sort of hit me in the gut, as a fan, who had forgotten not to become disillusioned to the truth of the companions.

Overall, I loved this episode. I, like most others, fell into the “this is just another monster who feeds on fear” mindset and the next thing I knew my preconceived notions were thrown out the window.

I liked that they actually made reference to River and sort of, if my interpretation is anywhere close, explained how Amy and Rory go along with all of the Doctor’s side quests without smacking him upside the head and yelling “Daughter! Now!”. It’s a weak explanation and probably my version of your over-analysis but I was left feeling okay about what had seemed like, as you put it, the tale of the forgotten daughter.

I am however not optimistic about next weeks episode. I’ve never felt a show has had so many filler episodes in a row before. It just seems like, with the major storyline of the season, there hasn’t been much beyond an episode or two and a line or two in others that plays into the overriding theme of the season. The death of the Doctor. And, while I know the season finale will likely cover it I can’t help but wonder if they intend to answer all the questions before seasons end or string them through next season.

Sorry… Don’t many friends of the show so when I get going… I really get going…

I’d like to point out that it’s not like he chose the young, hot Amy over the older, “less attractive” version (not that I agree she’s less attractive at 59, just sticking with your statement).

Also, it seems to me that the reason it’s made Rory’s decision is because young Amy would choose herself and presumably visa versa. Neither would want to die, neither could be on the TARDIS while the other was. Rory is, ultimately, the only one left to make the decision. It wasn’t like they could invite old Amy in to have a debate with young Amy…

That’s my take, anyways.

Moving on to something you pointed out. How Amy seemed to accept the betrayal too easily after the discussion with the Doctor. I agree that there has to be something at play there that will come back to be important later.

I had the same feeling, though for different reason, in Flesh and Stone when the Doctor rushes off and then seemingly turns back to talk to Amy as she sits eyes closed and fidgeting. The feeling that something more is at play, because it seemed out of place, and it wouldn’t be the last time we saw of this moment.

I suspect that conversation will come back at some point. Something the Doctor will recall sometime down the road or will come back up down the road.

I won’t spend a lot of time in this post because it’s weeks old but I believe this to be a very thoughtful post with a lot of compelling evidence to back it.

Kudos.

Now to join a more recent conversation and give my opinions!

In fact, the only time she agreed to risk unravelling time and space was when she agreed to help pull young Amy into their timestream, which was a decidedly unselfish action.

A few too many thoughts on the latest Doctor Who:
http://theoncominghope.blogspot.com/2011/09/doctor-who-on-forgotten-wives-and.html

Yes, the Doctor is a bastard for lying to older Amy. Yes, Rory is a douche for going along with it. (The acting was OMGAMAZING!)

However, older Amy didn’t seem to give a shit about destroying the cosmos by coming along. Also, by rescuing younger Amy, they did prevent those 36 years of solitary confinement. It’s a choice of evils. Save older Amy and let her suffer for almost 4 decades, or save younger Amy, preventing that suffering at the expense of older Amy.

Speaking of, I thought older Amy was a selfish git. She *EXPECTED* the Doctor to just magically pull something out of a hat in order to save both Amys, despite his telling her that the paradox could quite potentially destroy all of time and space. It’s not like he would know or anything, being a 900+ year old Time Lord, with all the experience that entails.

This episode is a dark time for all of our main characters. Each shows things that we don’t like about them, and we simply have to accept that they are not the flawless, gleaming knights running around saving the universe.

My game will use simplistic 2D and 3D graphics, with procedural generation as in your game. Thus I found your posts quite applicable to my situation. I haven’t started coding yet, pending choice of libraries. I’m not sure what to use…something like Ogre3D would surely be overkill, but raw OpenGL is a bit daunting. The tutorial you linked to (that discusses shaders and eschews deprecated features) looks very useful.

I hope you find time to work on your game more, and make more posts, but I sympathize entirely about not being able to find the time. I rarely do either.

Glad you’re back, hope you can keep up the reviews!

As for *why* I switched to OpenGL – mostly, just to learn, but also because I have the long-term goal of adding another spatial dimension to this game. SDL’s graphics library doesn’t really do 3D.

Also note that I’m still using SDL – it does my Window creation, event handling, and eventually will probably do sound. SDL is more than a graphics library.

So, if you’re trying to *efficiently* make a game, and it is 2D, you’ll probably be able to make it faster with SDL. Shorter learning curve, more intuitive system. And even if you want to do 3D, if efficiency is your goal, you’ll probably be better off using an existing graphics engine (such as OGRE, or one of these, perhaps) rather than using OpenGL directly.

But my goal here isn’t to do anything efficiently, it’s to learn as many new things as possible, at as low a level as I feel I need to understand the technology properly. That’s why I’m building my own nominal game engine from scratch, and trying out different approaches like this.

So, my approach to this project may or may not work for you, but I hope my posts about it at least prove interesting!

So if the Doctor wouldn’t survive it, obviously River wouldn’t survive it. Even if she can regenerate. So that’s not conclusive or even compelling as evidence, I’m afraid.

Also, we know River is Time Lord-esque because of her conception within the vortex; that was blatantly stated in A Good Man Goes to War.

One thing I do agree with you about, though: of course the Silence are the real enemy. They spent all of Series 5 carefully orchestrating a trap for the Doctor; the idea that we’ve seen the last of them is ludicrous (of course, it may be the last we remember seeing them, but that’s another point altogether). The question is whether they are in league with Kovarian, at odds with her, or orchestrating the entire thing without her knowledge (likely).