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Two years after Doom 3’s ending, Earth is receiving a strange signal from Site 1 on Mars, one of the UAC sites you don’t visit in the first game. Dr Elizabeth McNeil, who you might remember as Dr Betruger’s right-hand woman, is sent to investigate, and you’re a Marine combat engineer sent along as an escort. Once again you must fight for survival against an army of new demons and zombies, including Hell s own hunters.
   It’s not a surprise that Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil, the game’s latest expansion pack, plays almost exactly like the original - you’ll enter a new area, clear it of enemies, and look for a key item or security upgrade that will let you meet your objective and move on to the next area. There are a total of 12 levels – in the first levels you will explore the ancient Martian ruins (pretty dark levels) and then you go back to more base-type architecture.
   All of the creatures from the original are present and a few new monsters (Vulgars - improved Imps; Bruisers - half mechanical monsters; the Forgotten – identical to the lost souls from Doom and Doom II; and Hell Hunters - floating, legless hell knights) have also joined the fight. The level design has been opened up a bit and you’ll be fighting more enemies at a time now. Yeah, this expansion has a lot faster pacing and more hectic fire fights than the original game.
   As for new guns, one of the big weapons that reappear from the Doom franchise is the classic double-barreled shotgun which holds a special place in the hearts of many old-school fans. It’s every bit as destructive as you may hope, but the reloading is somewhat hampering. You use up lots of shells and have to reload after every shot. There’s also a physics-based weapon called the Ionized Plasma Levitator (also known as ‘the Grabber’), a device that can move, catch and throw objects or small enemies. Its main difference from Half-Life 2’s gravity gun is that it can capture and redirect large projectiles.
   Throughout the game there are scattered battles against three ‘Hunter bosses’. Defeating each of them will bestow you with its own special ability, including ‘Hell Time’ (semi-Bullet Time trick), the ability to go berserker, and becoming invulnerable for periods of time.
   These will come in extremely handy as enemies get tougher later in the game.
   The original Doom 3 had split reviews by people, one half loved it and the other half hated it. This game is no different. If you liked Doom 3, you’re going to like this one. Just don’t expect a beefy story or the gameplay to be much different from the original.
   — Moinuddin Sifty
   
   

   Game description
   Title: Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil
   Developer: Nerve Software/id Software
   Publisher: Publisher
   Genre: FPS/Horror
   
   Game website
   NA
   
    Minimum system requirements
   Full version of Doom 3, Win2k/XP, Pentium 4 1.5 GHz or Athlon XP 1500+ processor, 384MB RAM, 630MB of uncompressed free hard disk space (plus 400MB for Windows swap file), 100% DirectX 9.0c compatible 16-bit sound card and latest drivers, 100% Win2k/XP compatible mouse, keyboard and latest drivers, DirectX 9.0c (included), 3D hardware Accelerator Card Required - 100% DirectX 9.0c compatible 64MB Hardware Accelerated video card and latest drivers
   
   Note
   - Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil does not support Windows 95/98/ME/NT. However, installation is allowed in case of operating system upgrades, or dual booting configurations.
   - Supported cards: ATI Radeon 8500, ATI Radeon 9000 or above, ATI Radeon X700, ATI Radeon X800, All Nvidia GeForce 3/Ti series, All Nvidia GeForce 4MX series, All Nvidia GeForce 4/Ti series, All Nvidia GeForce FX series, All Nvidia GeForce 6 series.
   
   Ratings
   Our verdict A—
   
   - Solid, new monsters, weapons (gravity gun, double-barreled shotgun), 12 levels (~8-10 hours), few mini-games in the form of arcade machines, improved multiplayer, pretty stable (although pace slows down during the later levels)
   - Still top notch (the same as Doom 3), well rendered player models, improved level design, a little too dark at points
   - Superb music, effects and voice-acting

They could hit fastballs, draw portraits and be seen breathing. Not bad for robots. Even so, these droids of all shapes and sizes — more than 60 on display at the World Expo on Thursday — still need some work. Their developers say it will be several years before robots that are designed to be part of everyday lives — rather than serve as simple novelties — take their place helping the sick, rescuing disaster victims and entertaining families.
   Lined up in a row of booths, the robots were on display in the sprawling expo in central Japan to showcase Japan’s leadership in robotics. With the nation’s economy still sluggish, corporations, researchers and government officials are hoping the sector can provide new growth opportunities. The Japan Robot Association, a trade group, expects the Japanese market for next-generation robots — those being developed now as opposed to industrial robots currently in use — to reach $14 billion by 2010 and more than $37 billion by 2025. But all the robots on display were test models, and several had obvious glitches.
   Cooper, a mechanical portrait artist developed by a candy maker, was drawing the faces of visitors on large cookies with a laser pen. It has a program that translates images from a digital camera into line-drawing instructions, but sometimes the robot delivered only a mishmash of scribbles.
   Another model, the Batting Robot, has a vision system that handles 1,000 images a second, more than 30 times the human eye, allowing it to accurately hit pitches up to 100 mph. At the expo, however, it was using a plastic bat to hit rubber balls at far slower speeds.
   Hiroshima University Associate Professor Idaku Ishii believes the robot can help train professional baseball players. However, its ability to process information at lightning speeds might more practically be put to, say, detect cracks in walls caused by earthquakes.
   Many of the robots were designed to help communication. One worked as a fancy videophone, replicating the moves of a distant caller with its mechanical arms and projecting a three-dimensional image of the caller on its face.
   A model called InterAnimal is a 4-foot-tall teddy bear that moves its arms and nods in synch to the sound of a human voice. Developers claim it can help children who have problems talking with adults.
   The robot that looks most like a human being is the Repliee Q1expo, which is covered with a skin-like substance and moves its mouth and shifts its torso as though it’s breathing. It also appears to react to approaching people. But Repliee sometimes goes into what seems like spasms when its program has a bug.
   Still, it may be a precursor of the day when robots will be helping with tasks such as guiding the elderly around the streets or selling tickets, developers say. ‘When a robot looks too much like the real thing, it’s creepy,’ Osaka University professor Hiroshi Ishiguro said. ‘But if they resemble human beings, it also makes communication easier.’
   — AP

Daffodil Computers Limited is now marketing O2 Xda II, an enhanced cell phone, and Xphone, a pocket PC with mobile capabilities in Bangladesh at reduced prices and instalment facilities. For more details please contact 9143158, 9116600.
   Weighing about 190 gms, the Xda II is devised with a powerful Intel PXA263 400 MHz processor, with infrared, Bluetooth wireless modem using USB port, SDIO and optional WiFi supportsystem. It supports full internet browsing (powered by Windows Mobile 2003) along with reliable emailing, instant messaging and multimedia modes, even permitting real-time online chatting. The Xda II is similar to the original Xda in size (69.9mm x 130mm x 19mm) but without the antenna. With a much larger 3.5 inches trans-reflective, 65K colour LCD display, it follows the look and trend of a PDA. The phone contains pocket PC software, including Pocket Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint and Word, thus allowing the creation and update of Word and Excel files on the run, along with displaying PDF files and other Microsoft presentations. The hand writing recognition ability allows the user to experience the best of task management that PDA clones have to offer, along with a 128 MB RAM and 64 MB ROM, adding to it a wide storage and application capacity. The Xda II has a builtin integrated CMOS chip VGA resolution (640x480 pixels) digital camera to shoot video and still images. Additional features include VGA output ability, MP3 playing options in stereo format, supporting MPEG4, H.263, and Motion JPEG AVI files with a minimum scene illumination of 5 lux and a frame rate of 15 fps. The phone has a talktime of 3.5 hours, including 150 hours standby and 11 hours of Pocket PC usage. The expansion interface slot includes one SDIO/MMC lot, a back-pack connector for file transfer and output purposes, an infrared port, one USB slave interface complaint with USB 1.1, and DUN (dial-up-networking). The Xda II is available to purchasers for Tk 49,900. Instalment price: Tk 55,000, down payment: Tk 25,000 and rest amount by six equal post-dated advance cheques.
   It is as good as a pocket PC with added mobile phone technology. With efficient browsing facilities, generous storage space, and that little extra that a mobile user always looks for in his cell phone, the O2 Xphone is a great catch. The phone uses a Texas Instruments OMAP 710 processor that powers the Microsoft Windows Mobile 2003 operating system for smart phone facility, combining style with a great set of features, such as multilanguage ability supporting English and Chinese menus. Considering all its advanced capabilities, the O2 Xphone is impressively small and lightweight. Measuring about 12 cm x 5 cm x 2.4 cm and weighing around 130 grams, it’s a slick equipment to handle. The trans-reflective screen measures 4.3 cm x 3.5 cm and displays 16-bit colours with a 176x220 pixels resolution, offering crisp, clear pictures even in broad daylight while taking up most of the face of the phone. The SD/MMC expansion slot includes a built-in Bluetooth V1.1 wireless modem technology allowing enhanced GPRS global internet connectivity. There’s also Internet Explorer on it, enabling a rich mobile web-browsing experience. Interestingly, MSN messenger comes pre-installed with the phone, which further expands the peripherals of its mobile connectivity, while messaging is also available in SMS and MMS modes with image or audio files attached with it. A USB 1.1 port is located on the set. The generous 32MB RAM and 64MB Flash also means faster applications as well as plenty of room for storing thousands of contacts, emails and tasks. Additionally, the versatile Windows Media Player allows one to experience much of the multimedia world, from MP3 files to MPEG movies. Added features include a 640x480 pixel builtin camera, video and audio recording capabilities, an album for photo and video viewing, and finally a task manager that includes photo contacts, calendar and photo caller-id features. The Xphone is priced at Tk 25,000. Instalment price: Tk 27,000, down payment: Tk 12,000 and rest amount by six equal post-dated advance cheques.

ONE of the major problems with technology documentation is that the writers appear to sing oodles of praise over applications which don’t quite work out their way. From time to time you will be plagued with lines of code that look okay in print but refuse to compile, books that promise to make you a master in a particular field or application but won’t chalk out its limitations, and the most important areas apparently getting such less notice in volumes that you wonder whether the authors actually knew what the thing was intended for. The situation gets particularly critical for specialized fields where you are forced to buy multiple titles and download tons of web pages to gather information that queerly remains unbound in a single dependable edition.
   Sufi Faruq Ibne Abubakar’s ‘ISP Setup Manual’ aims to particularly address the issue. A well-known local tech guru, his book is subtitled ‘(A) Step by step guide for ISP and corporate network’, and easily qualifies as a first-hand guide to implementing Linux and networking.
   The manual, or ‘black book’ as Sufi calls it (who intends to bring out ‘red’ and ‘blue’ books for intermediate and advanced users in future) is divided into ten sections. The sections are meant to be read sequentially while further relevant information, including documentation, software (and even pictures of the hardware) come bundled with the free CD, which is a wealth of information in itself.
   The book itself starts off with the amateur user in view who is eager to move on to sophisticated training in networking. Everything is clarified from the very start and you even come across ocassional jokes and smileys when you’re reading, which definitely keeps your journey alive. A book called ‘ISP Setup Manual’ and weighing over 400 pages could always be expected to attract readers with a genuine professional interest or a geekish strain; nevertheless the language is easy to follow, and the format maintained is consistent and simple. But what’s probably most significant about the book is that all the issues and discourses in it relate specifically to the Bangladeshi context, which makes it an indispensable reference. Indeed, all possible supplementary sources are cited throughout, including the relevant hyperlinks relating to every single piece of software and hardware to the current norms in the business and even contacts of local experts whom you can turn to for suggestions.
   There were a number of things I liked about the black book. First of all, this is probably one of those very few titles that actually convey the message throughout that yes, everything shall work fine. And they do. It’s this true down-to-earth expertise that triggers your eagerness and confidence as a reader.
   Again, the content management and structurization is excellent. Sufi knows exactly where to draw line and before you know it you’ve moved on to the next chapter. The sheer amount of support provided is also nothing short of amazing: there’s the CD, the hyperlinks and contacts, the citings of hardware vendors and means of procurement (including eBay!) – and what’s more, you can register at the publisher’s website for feedback and solutions. I’ve never heard of this kind of responsiveness in a local publication.
   Apart from all that, you can’t help but admire the author’s penchant for aesthetics. The book looks beautiful in its black cover which actually features a scene from a Prachyanat play. All the section and chapter illustrations are vivid and attractive as well.
   Of the negatives, I didn’t like the fonts that were used. TNR and Courier are too commonplace and unqualified for serious publication, and I feel such printing etiquette played a major role in making pages appear brimful and lame which were otherwise an uncomplicated and interesting read. I’m not much of a fan of Sufi’s grammar either, which often drops an article here and there and often highlights terms unnecessarily. For his second edition of the black book, I’d strongly advise him to look into these issues. I’d also suggest the first few chapters to be extended with a view to providing some more breathing space for interested beginners who aren’t adept in Linux but would like to go through the whole contents of the book. The glossary could actually cover all the terms and key topics mentioned throughout, and appending a current price list of all the tools used at the end of the book could also go a long way.
   All in all Sufi’s black book is a highly standard publication and recommendable source of information for anybody with an academic or professional background in computers and networking. If you deem yourself a seasoned techie who’s taken a different path, well, I had long forgotten which organization in Bangladesh is for what in communication, and what DVB is for, and how to protect radio towers from lightning. Having all that come back in a simple, easy-going readthrough was a pleasant experience.
   — Tashfeen Mahmud
   
   ISP Setup Manual
   by Sufi Faruq Ibne Abubakar
   First edition [October 2004]
   Published by Sufi & Associates
   Price: Tk 390