I was stumped on what to do until a colleague just happened to stumble across a blog posting by Brandon Purcell. To resolve my dilemma, jQuery is going to be used to keep the session open as long as the user keeps the page open.

The first step is to create an empty Coldfusion page. Why empty? Just to be sure nothing on the page causes it to hang up. Next, we setup jQuery to call this page every X amount of seconds (just make sure its under your session timeout). The only thing you will need is jQuery. Note that some people like to refresh variable into their scripting language variable but I left it out of this as I wanted to make it friendly to any programming language.

<script src=”/js/jquery-1.3.2.min.js” type=”text/javascript”></script>
<script type=”text/javascript”>
$(document).ready(function(){
setTimeout(“callserver()”,6000);
});

function callserver() {
var remoteURL = ‘/emptypage.cfm’;
$.get(remoteURL, function(data) { setTimeout(“callserver()”,6000); });
}
</script>

pyram1dhead on YouTube edited the events of the Oceanic Flight 815 to sync up with one another. Its a well edited video and interesting to watch if your a Lost fan.

Torpedo doesn’t quite launch as planned.

A friend of mine posted this on his Facebook profile. I thought it was really interesting how in incorporated juggling, stunts and tricks all into one segment.

Pretty cool video of the Hubble Space Telescope and some deep space images it took.

http://science.slashdot.org/story/09/07/31/1244235/Fewer-Than-10-ET-Civilizations-In-Our-Galaxy

I’M SO EXCITED!

After the Prelude to War, you are presented with choosing which of the 3 nations you will be fighting for and then which battalion you will command. Each battalion has its own strengths and weaknesses and you should choose based on how you play strategy games. After choosing you’ll head back to the global map and choose which scenario to fight in. You don’t get to choose exactly where your going to fight, the game usually gives you three or more scenarios to choose from. Some are defending, some are attacking but with each round you can only choose one scenario to fight in.  I found this to be a bit of a weakness with the game as you can only choose one scenario and are leaving the other ones open to a random win or loose. Starting a scenario you can choose which troops to start off with and then enter the scenario. Their are three types of scenarios, eliminate all hostiles, capture half or more of the uplink nodes, or destroy more than half of the enemies structures.

After winning or loosing the scenario, your taken back to the global map where the “weeks” wins or loses are updated on the map. From here you can enter the barracks to upgrade your troops with new offense, defense, mobility and abilities. Each scenario, depending on how you do you earn credits which can be spent on the upgrades. These upgrades are important as your enemy will also be upgrading as well. After upgrading, you head back to the global map and choose your next scenario. Keep repeating this process until you conquer the world.

Jon’s Final Assessment: Ubisoft has lived up to their reputation of creating good games. It was definitely worth purchasing at full initial retail price. I found the strategy and the RPG elements of the game highly enjoyable. After a while it does get a bit repetitive especially if you keep fighting over the same territory which means you keep fighting on the same map. A nice change is that your reinforcements might start in the north one time and the next time you fight in the same territory you might start in the south. Overall I’ll give this game a B+ and recommend it to anybody who enjoys military strategy.

Jon’s Rating: B+

Strengths:
Upgradeable Units
Fun Strategy
World War III

Weakness:
Repetitive
Only Choose One Scenario

If I Developed the Game: Please Note that this section is about some changes I would have made to the game should I had been on the development team. This does not mean that the development team did not do a good job however I would have brought up some changes. It also does not mean I am making the best choice and the development team could easily convince me that my change would not be wise. This section also might contain some spoilers that people may not want to read, proceed at your own warning.

• I have not completed the game yet but I did defeat the Russians and after I defeated them it was a bit of a disappointment that no cut scene played claiming my victory over the Russian Army. I would have like to have seen some kind of congratulations or something where it didn’t seem like just another day.
• After gaining certain unit abilities, I would have like to have seen those units fire those special weapons when I did not have them selected. Sometimes I was concentrating on a battle across the map and my tanks were shooting at a building full of riflemen. If they had fired their special weapon it would have been easier taking them out. Instead I would have to jump across the map, select the weapon and then the target and then jump back to what I was doing.
• When highlighting multiple units, I would have liked to be able to use their special abilities but you would have to select the unit with the ability you wanted to use and then fire it and then re-select the multiple units you just had.

Information Below Provided By EBGames.com

Publisher: Ubisoft
Publisher: Ubisoft
Platform: PC
Category: Strategy:
Rating: Teen; Alcohol Reference, Blood, Language, Suggestive Themes, Tobacco Reference, Violence

The Story: The world enjoys an unprecedented era of peace as enhanced defense technology eliminates the threat of nuclear war. But can it last? 2020. Constant depletion of resources has international tensions at a breaking point. One spark will ignite what no one thought could happen….a third and final world war.

Points of Interest:

• Strategy for the next generation Led by creative director Michael de Plater (Rome Total War), EndWar will redefine strategy gaming. Designed exclusively for next-gen consoles EndWar will create a theatre of war, immersing you in the drama of World War III in a way you never thought possible.
• Fight For Your Nation Pick a side US, Europe, Russia – the fate of the world is in your hands. If you don’t step in to save your homeland, who will?
• Command Your Army Grow your army into the most powerful force on the planet. Your army is completely customizable, and experience breeds strength – your units grow more powerful with every campaign you fight.
• Light Up The City of Lights Tom Clancy’s World War III won’t be won by capturing remote deserts or grasslands but by striking countries in the heart. Paris, Moscow, Washington D.C. will all erupt in flames as you battle your way through the fully destructive playground.
• A Whole New Kind of Massive EndWar will be an online multiplayer experience unlike anything you’ve ever encountered. 16 player matchups? Try hundreds. 30 minute battles? Try persistent matchups lasting for months at a time. This isn’t a skirmish, it’s World War III.
• Talk Your Way to Victory Put the controller aside and start shouting commands. EndWar can be played almost entirely via voice command.

Minimum Requirements:

DirectX :		9.0c
Hard Drive Space :		10 GB Free
Operating System :		Windows XP/Vista
Processor :		Intel Core 2 DUO E4400 @ 2 GHz/AMD Equivalent
RAM :		1 GB/2 GB Windows Vista
Video Card :		256 MB (nVidia GeForce 7800 GT/ATI Radeon X1800XT)

I’m finding the story a little difficult to follow, perhaps its because I’ll play for a few hours and then come back to it a week later so I forget who the different characters are and who I’m hunting. But the customization of your character is extremely detailed. With advancement you can gain new body armor, new weapons and new clothing. Its not just a choice between 4 or 5 pieces, there is a lot to choose from. More Review to come after I beat the game.

Information Below Provided By EBGames.com

Publisher: UbiSoft
Developer: UbiSoft
Platform: PC
Category: Action, Shooter, Tactical
Rating: Mature 17+; Blood, Intense Violence, Strong Language

The Story: Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas 2 – the sequel to the award-winning next-generation first-person shooter – returns to Sin City. Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas 2 is your last chance to rescue America’s sexiest city from an escalating terrorist siege that will force you into heart-pounding action from beginning to end. The best are back and this time winner takes all.

Points of Interest:

• Ubisoft Montreal Returns – Rainbow Six Vegas 2 is back in the hands of Ubisoft’s Montreal studio, creators of the award-winning and highly acclaimed Rainbow Six Vegas, to ensure that ending to the Vegas story is one you’ll never forget.
• More Vegas – Sin City is back and bigger than before. Explore all new Vegas hot spots as the environment changes from dusk to bright daylight to dawn, creating a visual experience that is as challenging as it is breathtaking.
• More Multiplayer – The highly acclaimed multiplayer mode in Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas has been upgraded to include 11 new, smaller maps that force more intense face-offs, 2 new adversarial modes, more rewards, and easier access to matches using the improved and intuitive matchmaking system.
• Unprecedented Customizable Experience – Create your own identity that stays the same in both single player and multiplayer modes and progresses as you do. Reap the benefits of your single player rewards in multiplayer and vice versa.
• Vastly Improved Co-op mode – Turn single player mode into co-op mode at any time, just by jumping into the game. Now your friend can jump into your single player game and help you without any change to the story. Single player maps and storyline were created with co-op in mind, which means every map has multiple entry points and the story is the same.
• Improved AI – AI is more challenging than ever. Now, the terrorists are equipped with thermal vision, night vision, and shields – not to mention a multitude of varying reactions – all of which are guaranteed to give you a new playing experience every time you go into battle. As you progress within the game, you’ll only be able to outsmart your enemies by taking advantage of intel opportunities, such as thermal scanning, and tactical strategies, such as leapfrogging.
• New Weapons and Armor – Take down the terrorists more effectively using 11 new weapons. New camouflage, clothing and gear allow you to take customization to the next level.

Minimum System Requirements:

Disk Drive :		4x DVD-ROM
DirectX :		9.0c
Hard Drive Space :		7 GB
Operating System :		Windows Vista / Windows XP
Processor :		3 GHz Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon 3000
RAM :		1 GB
Video Card :		128 MB DirectX 9.0c-compliant, Shader 3.0-enabled video card (NVIDIA GeForce 6600+ / ATI Radeon x1300+)

Les Stroud, ‘Survivorman’, gives us his Best Story Ever about being stalked by a 1500 pound bull moose.