Dubious Quality

Sony Earnings

2012-02-02T15:26:00.000-06:00

You guys are flooding me today with the link to Sony's earnings, so let's take a look.

In short: ewww.

A $2 BILLION loss for the quarter. A revised forecast with a 2.5X multiplier to the initial projected loss for the fiscal year (now estimated to be in the $280M range).

What happened? Here's Sony's explanation:
-Consolidated sales decreased significantly year-on-year primarily due to the impact of the floods in Thailand, deterioration in market conditions in developed countries, and unfavorable foreign exchange rates.

-Consolidated operating loss was recorded compared to income in the same quarter of the previous fiscal year, primarily due to a significant deterioration in equity in net income (loss) of affiliated companies, in addition to the above-mentioned factors.

-The deterioration in equity in net income (loss) of affiliated companies was primarily due to an impairment loss on the shares of S-LCD, which were sold in January, 2012, and the recording of a valuation allowance on deferred tax assets at Sony Ericsson.

What they've cleverly done, though, is bury the lead, because what's particularly stunning is the decline in sales. Look at the comparison from Q3 of the last fiscal year (and remember, Q3 for Sony is the holiday quarter):
LCD TVs -24%
Video Cameras -25%
Compact Digital Camera -18%
PCs -3.7%
PS3 +3%
PSP -30%

Yes, a 3% gain in sales from last year makes the PS3 the "star" of this sorry lot. Even there, though, the forecast for the full fiscal year was dropped from 15 million units to 14.

Oh, and while PC sales barely dropped, their annual forecast dropped by 1 million units as well. Basically, the only part of Sony worth owning right now is the financial services division (they sell insurance), which made $428M in Q3.

Now, it's not like Sony is alone in the boat. Toshiba, Sharp, Nintendo (now forecasting a $580M loss for the fiscal year) all had lousy earnings--and tomorrow, Panasonic will follow suit. The appreciation of the yen and declining sales are a double whammy.

I'm not sure what Sony's play is here. The LCD market has blown up in their faces, the camera market is in decline, everyone is eating their lunch in cellphones, and the PS3 is solidly third in consoles. Oh, and the Vita launch in Japan has been very ugly.

To borrow from Blazing Saddles, somebody's gonna have to sell a shitload of insurance.

Neurology and Ghostbusters

2012-02-01T16:03:00.000-06:00

I was sitting with Gloria at the neurologist's office today, waiting for Eli 10.6 to finish his ImPACT testing assessment.

"I think I found Linda a job lead," she said. Linda is a friend of hers from college who lives out of town.

"You did? With who?" I asked.

"I talked to Laurie, and she gave me the name of an attorney," she said. Laurie is the mother of one of Eli's best friends.

"Uh-oh," I said.

"What?"

"I believe you've just violated one of the principle rules of friendship management," I said. "In Ghostbuster's terms, you've just crossed the streams."

She laughed.

"Instead of being at risk for a total protonic reversal, you're at risk for a total friendship reversal. If this initially works out but then ends badly, you've alienated people in different friend groups."

"I'm sure it will work out," she said.

"That's what they said when they were testing DDT," I said. Well, I didn't say that, but I should have.

I hadn't really thought about it until today, but I don't really have friends in groups. I have friends on islands, forming a friendship archipelago. This probably says much more about me than it does about them, because as a certified loner, I tend to consider groups of three people as mobs.

Eli did very, very well on his ImPACT test, all within normal range, so now we have a baseline for cognitive performance in the future if he should ever have another concussion. And the prospect of that ever happening makes me shudder.

He also passed all other tests as well, and he's been doing full schoolwork for a week, so they cleared him for hockey. As with everything else, it's in steps, so his first practice will be with a goalie coach only, progressing through full practices, light scrimmage, and full scrimmage.

For now, he's going to concentrate on goalie instead of also skating out as a player, but after a few weeks in goal, he should be able to resume both.

This news was greeted with a resounding "YES!" from the young man.

Iron Man Mode: The Blog

2012-01-31T14:04:00.000-06:00

Zeke Iddon sent me a note last week about "Iron Man Mode":
I wanted to raise awareness to a fun charity drive I've recently launched. Iron Man Mode is a comedy gaming blog in which a bunch of us blog about playing stuff like Minecraft, Syndicate, EVE etc. with only one life - once we're dead, the blog and game is over completely. It's more for fun than anything, but we're also using it to raise money for the Child's Play Charity.

That's a terrific idea, and here's an even more clever description of what they're doing, taken from the website:
Clueless idiots playing the best games ever made...with only one life.

I can't stress this enough: any website that has a section titled "Social Media Bollocks" gets my immediate seal of approval.

Here's the link, and enjoy: Iron Man Mode. And if you'd like to donate to Child's Play, then go here: Iron Man Mode (Donate).

Dungeon Raid (two)

2012-01-31T13:55:00.000-06:00

I'm still totally enjoing my time with Dungeon Raid (iOS and Android), and John Harwood is now hooked on it as well. His e-mail:
Yet again, I must point out a simple but unavoidable fact: You suck. Dungeon Raid has moved from something I play occasionally while waiting to a primary form of entertainment. Once again, my wife is "very appreciative" of your suggestions, and I presume she's completely sincere the eye rolling while she said that was just due to cedar itchiness or such.

Oddly enough, I think you did the game a disservice in your writeup and actually undersold it. It's really quite brilliant, compelling, and addictive, and for me is the current ultimate extension of the match 3 quick-play genre (I don't consider Puzzle Quest to be quick-play). It's compelling for one simple reason: Choices. You're making choices on nearly every single match. I think it's a testament to the design that, while making a 25-chain match and clearing the board may be awesome, it's frequently not your best move at that time. Do I take out 3 skulls, knowing that the other 2 are going to smack me, or should I instead do a small shield pickup to repair armor and avoid damage? Or should I do a potion grab first? It's also frequently not the best move to match everything. Sure, if I match a god-awful-large number of shields, I'll get upgrade bonus for that, but would I be better served matching just a chunk of them and save some of them later for repair?

By removing any pretense to storyline or questing (although I do appreciate his humor in the intros), he keeps it firmly in the Bejewelled realm of pickup & play where high scores are your mark of accomplishment. This is serious one-more-turn area and I often find it hard to figure out where to stop for the moment. Oooh, I'll kill those guys, then I'll stop. Oooh, a great shield match! Oooh, wait, have to kill those new guys. Okay, I'll stop when I hit my next upgrade. Well, I'm also close to levelling now....

I think eventually the design is probably subject to exploit, and I'm already finding some strategies that are starting to reduce the challenge, but that's after 40+ hours tossed into it. Even with all that time though, I've only begun to scratch the surface of his other brilliant carrot-on-a-stick: Character unlocks and levelling. Oh my but that is indeed a cruel but lovely thing to add in.... Speaking of, I must go see if I can get lvl 7 on the barbarian "real quick"....

What he said.

Console Post Of The Week (part two--following on from last week)

2012-01-30T18:08:00.001-06:00

E-mail after last Thursday's post about the Xbox 720 contained two primary lines of dissent:
1. The PC gaming market didn't collapse after the end of used games.
2. The 720 will have a Steam-like marketplace that will actually be better than what we have today.

Let's talk about the first point.

I certainly remember that after retailers (like GameStop) stopped accepting PC games for refund or trade-in, I spent more money on console games. I still spent my gaming money, but I just spent it somewhere else.

So did lots of other people, too. In 1998, the PC game software sales were 1.8 billion. In 2008, it was 700 million. That's a 60%+ decline in just over a decade.

Sure, gathering this kind of data can be very complicated. Yes, by 2008, online gaming was contributing revenue not counted in the 700M number. Were there other complicating factors, like piracy? Yes. But is it true that refunds/trade-ins for PC games dried up during that period, and that the used game market for console videogames exploded? Also yes. And is there any question that PC gaming declined significantly during that decade? No. None whatsoever.

What brought PC gaming back? Even more than online games, I believe it was digital distribution--in particular, Steam, Which accounts for half to 70 per cent of the $4 billion market for downloaded PC games.

Again, the data collection issue rears its ugly head--4B? Is that an accurate number? I'm not sure, and I doubt that anyone else is, either, but I think we have an accurate arc, even if the numbers are imprecise: PC market declines from 1998 to roughly 2009, and then it recovers mainly due to digital distribution, led by Steam.

Let's translate that to the possibility of an Xbox "720" that kills the used game market (and the rental market as well--don't forget that). Hell, it's possible to make games unplayable on a second console inside your own house! I don't think that's actually going to happen, at least not now, but the technology can theoretically be extended to that point.

So let's say that one console giant releases a new console that doesn't play used games, and doesn't play rentals. Could the console market survive a decade-long decline? What if the other console manufacturers decline to follow suit? Why would I buy an Xbox 720, which can't play used games or rentals, when other new consoles could?

Well, I wouldn't, and a lot of other people wouldn't, either.

Folding this in with point #2, a Steam-like platform could potentially alleviate many of these problems, right? If I can't sell a used game, but I can get the new $60 games for $30 on sale, isn't that $30 savings more than I could've gotten by selling the used game?

Yes, it is, and if Microsoft sells new games for $30, or discounts them to $30 very quickly, Happyville would be full of citizens. Nirvana: a robust, dynamic pricing system with huge sales and discounts.

Here's the question, though: why would we think that would happen?

Is Microsoft more like Steam or the recording industry? I would strongly argue that a giant like Microsoft is far more similar to the recording industry, and we all know what happened there. The recording industry nearly strangled itself before they relented and provided more value to customers. The music industry was basically willing to die before it was willing to change.

$10. That's what I think the pricing difference in new games would be at launch, if that much. From $60 to $50. In other words, for millions of consumers, they'd save $10 but lose the $20-$25 value of trading in the same title (yes, I know those kinds of prices are only available for the first few weeks after a game is released, generally).

So we'd be paying $50-$60 for new games, including FPS games that often feature a single-player campaign of less than ten hours, and we couldn't trade those games in? We couldn't try out a game as a rental first?

Why would anyone think that's going to work?

And let me say this: the gaming market is a complicated beast. No one has reliable data on how the used game market affects new game sales. In other segments, though, the used market has been demonstrated to have a stimulative effect.

Destroying that market is wading into the great unknown.

I also think Microsoft is really missing the point. Look, Microsoft is in the videogame business to make money. Would destroying the used game market guarantee them more money? No.

Here's what would make them more money--much more--and it's simply following the most important rule or retail in the digital age: make it easier for people to buy shit.

Used games? Forget them. Irrelevant. Microsoft should be focusing 100% of its efforts on making it insanely, ridiculously easy for people to buy everything from Xbox Live.

Why do I spend 80% of my purchasing money at Amazon? Because they make it easy and convenient for me to buy stuff. Incredibly easy. Yes, the prices are generally great, but what's greater is the user experience.

That's what Microsoft should be doing: concentrating 100% on the purchasing experience when using Xbox Live. Put 500GB drives into the 720, and then sell us so much stuff that we fill those drives up.

Forcing me to buy all my games new because the used market was killed? Negative customer reaction. Making it incredibly easy to buy a ton of stuff on Xbox Live so that I have a better user experience and want to spend more money? Positive customer reaction.

Videogame companies need to stop beating us with sticks and start handing out cupcakes instead.

Friday Links!

2012-01-27T00:05:00.062-06:00

Here's an amazing magic performance at CES.

Here's an entirely riveting article from Sebastian Morgan-Lynch: High Tech Cowboys of the Deep Seas: The Race to Save the Cougar Ace

Here is an absolutely tremendous article on South African sprinter Oscar Pistorius, a world-class 400 meter runner in spite of having both legs amputated below the knee: The Fast Life of Oscar Pistorius.

From Steven Davis, and this is quite remarkable, it's transparent aluminum. Also, this is an entirely fascinating article that will blow your mind: Gardens As Crypto-water Computers.html.

From Sean Redlitz, and I guarantee this will blow your mind as well: a motion-senstive frame that feeds realtime tilt data to a 3D scene.

From Sirius, and this could be incredible: New Telescope to Take First-Ever Black Hole Photo.

From Fredrik Skarstedt, and this is quite fascinating: Internet Porn Fills Gap In Spider Taxonomy.

From Mike Stinchfield, and it's the story of the helicopter rescue mission I linked to last week (as a photograph): Apache Pilots Save Comrades in Daring Rescue.

From Danny, and here's your vacation planner: 8 Video Game Locations You Can Actually Visit.

From Frank Regan, and this is a fantastic photo: 4K of IBM memory found in my grandpa's pole barn.

From Kevin W, and this little guy is fun to watch on the drums (salty language warning on this site): Avery, 5, Says KISS My Ass! I'm not saying his taste in bands doesn't need to improve, though.

From Don Barree, and if you thought you'd seen slot cars before, you didn't see them like this (speeds of nearly 100MPH!): Autorata EM-kilpailut, Helsinki.

From laelman, and guitarists, get ready to be stunned: 8 year old mini band guitarist Zoe Thomson working on Stratosphere! And here's another one, because she's absolutely incredible: 7 year old guitarist Zoe plays All Of You by The Crave.

In closing this week, the wonders and uses of technology never end:
For a fun time (and a fake girlfriend), text this number.

Console Post Of The Week: Xbox 720

2012-01-26T13:49:00.000-06:00

This will be interesting.

On Kotaku yesterday, Stephen Totilo wrote an article about the successor to the 360 (which everyone is calling the "720" for the sake of convenience). Take a look at this excerpt:
Microsoft will upgrade its disc technology for its next Xbox from DVDs to Blu-Ray discs, catching up to rival Sony, games industry sources tell Kotaku.

...But that disc detail could be far less impactful to the next generation of game consoles than the assertion I've heard from one reliable industry source that Microsoft intends to incorporate some sort of anti-used game system as part of their so-called Xbox 720.

It's not clear if that means that the system wouldn't play used games or how such a set-up would work. Obvious approaches—I'm theorizing here—like linking a copy of a game to a specific Xbox Live account could seemingly be foiled by used-game owners who would keep their system offline. My source wasn't sure how Microsoft intended to implement any anti-used game system in the new machine.

First off, the obvious question: is this technically feasible? One of my most trusted sources e-mailed me yesterday and had this to say:
Some publishers are already relying on authorization apps and single-use serial codes that link the game to your Gamertag, Xbox MAC address, and network IP address for protection of their beta builds. If this technology was to ever migrate to retail builds under its current form, it would make it virtually impossible to even lend the game to someone let alone buy it used.

So yes, it is technically feasible. And it's possible to make this as restrictive as a publisher wants.

I've long considered "leaks" as generally falling into the "trial balloon" category. It's highly unlikely that Microsoft is freaking out about this "leak", because in some way, they likely caused it. Get the information out there and see how people react.

I don't react well.

Sure, if Microsoft made used games unplayable, but cut the price of games on the 720 by half, I would be borderline okay with it. Not in a philosophical sense--it would still be bullshit--but in a bottom-line sense, we'd be getting a game discount that was reasonably substantial in return.

Does anyone think that's what we'd get, though?

We'd get, at most, a $10 price drop on $60 games, with no chance of reselling a game once we finished it. Net result=screwed.

I'm actually a reasonably decent test case here, because I'm willing to buy almost any new hardware comes out. If even two or three games on a platform wind up being epic, I feel like I've gotten my money's worth. Remember, I'm the guy bought an Amiga 500 just to play TV Sports Football (not knowing how much other great software was available for the Amiga, although I soon found out). The system plus the monitor set me back almost $900--for one game--twenty-five years ago.

Would I buy a console if I bought a game disc and couldn't use it on another console beside my own? No.

If you've been following along carefully, then you notice that I was potentially "borderline okay" with this five paragraphs ago, and now I'm drawing a line in the sand.

Time apparently changed me. All 90 seconds of it.

Like everything else in the last 2-3 years, this comes down to value, or rather, how value to the consumer is steadily decreasing. Again and again in the last few years, value has been diminished. When is the last time a publisher gave us more instead of less?

Let me just say this: a console without a used game market will fail. I do not believe that the consumer market will support a product with $50-60 games and no possibility of resale. If Microsoft tries this, they are in for a rude, rude awakening.

Boat, meet anchor.

Also

2012-01-25T18:20:00.001-06:00

Triple Town is available for the Kindle as well, and it only costs $3.99. Quite a deal.

I noticed today that--temporarily--the full version on Android is also $3.99, so I picked it up. No more turn limits.
b

On Concussions, From An Expert

2012-01-25T12:36:00.000-06:00

I usually say that there's at least person of every profession who reads DQ, but I didn't realize how handy that would be when dealing with Eli's post-concussion recovery. In this case, the reader is a practicing neuropsychologist in Canada, and he offered to answer any questions I might have. His responses were so clear and helpful that I'm going to share them with you, in case you or anyone in your family has to go through this in the future.

My first question was sent the day that Eli threw up at school, asking if we should be following the same "step" approach with his school activities that we were with his physical activities. I wasn't comfortable sending him back to school unless he was able to do homework at home without getting a headache. I also asked him if perhaps the tennis we'd played the day before had caused some kind of delayed onset symptoms. His response:
My advice would be to follow the directions given by those who are already helping, using the rule of thumb: "start low and go slow". Small amounts of physical activity in brief intervals should be OK, but often the indicators that its "too much" are delayed, so you don't even get that immediate feedback about when its time to stop. Pacing, means using the clock rather than symptoms as a means of rebuilding stamina (stopping when you still feel OK, and before you get those bad symptoms of having already overdone it). And the fatigue you described is to be expected. Cognitive fatigue has to do with that feel of sleepiness and exhaustion that comes from mental effort. This too should be carefully paced as this stamina is slowly rebuilt. He needs time to recover, and the one thing that almost no one ever tells you when dealing with this stuff is that it takes longer than you think. You break an arm, put a cast on it, and 6 to 8 weeks later, you're good to go, especially as a kid. Brains are not the same. It will be a longer haul than you think (and want). It will get better, but in your haste to normalize, minimize, put this behind you, etc. don't push too hard or sweep this under the rug.

Maybe going back to school so fast is a little bit much. He does not seem to be ready from what you've said. Headaches are to be expected. Vomiting means "way too much". Helping him build back up to it in bits is the ticket, much as you suggested as an option for the near term. The school is, I'm sure, very supportive, but they just aren't set up to accomodate the kind of "work a bit, rest a bit" pattern he needs right now. Even passive TV watching can sometimes be overwhelming, and might not be "restful" enough for a brain that has a compromised ability to filter out unnecessary sensory information. Ask him if lights, movement, sounds, too many people talking at once, too much mental activity (such as problem solving), even just being in a crowded hallway bothers him. The brain does an amazing job of suppressing loads and loads of sensory information impacting our various senses, but that we "don't need" at the moment. When that gets compromised, suddenly everything has more of an impact on us than we want it to, and sensitivity becomes an issue.

I get really nervous when I hear you consider letting him play hockey again. I would put that and any other contact type sports on hold for a good long while. The problem with concusions is that, even if a full recovery is made....they kind of add up over the lifespan. Especially if they happen in relatively rapid succession (and rapid here means within months of one another). In close succession cases, they do worse than add up, they are much more than additive; the second one has a MUCH more pronounced effect on cognitive abilities (working memory, processing speed, attention, concentration, etc.). Regardless: he is going to be vulnerable to more pronounced effects on his cognitive abilities if a future head injury/concussion occurs, so managing risk is going to become something for you all to consider carefully. Of course, you can't wrap yourself in bubble wrap on top of five layers of cotton and live in the basement. That's not what I mean. I just want to encourage you to all think about how much is a reasonable risk for the few things we actually can control in our lives that might effect brain health. Helmets? For SURE! Risk being slammed headfirst into the boards in some future hockey game full tilt scamble gone awry? Not worth it in my books, but that is up to you.

Most importantly, inform yourselves. Look up and read about mild traumatic brain injury and all the other terms used to describe concussion. Go and learn about the metabolic cascade that occurs in the brain following mild traumatic brain injury, learn about symptoms, the various cognitive effects, cognitive fatigue, recovery expectations, tips and tricks to optimize recovery (everything from diet, sleep regimen, activity level, etc.), and how to slowly pace and rebuild stamina, and regain normal daily life. Ask questions. Take it seriously. Monitor signs and symptoms closely. Be patient.

It's worth noting that his response was more conservative than what I was hearing from anyone here, which I appreciated.

A few days later, I asked him if it was in the "normal" range of recovery to have his abilities be so fully recovered before his ability to read, write, or do math. Here's what he had to day:
Mental effort (thinking hard about something, problem-solving, focusing attention) uses integrated activity from many different cognitive systems, or put more simply, requires a wide range of structures in different regions of the brain to work together. If they aren't in sync or if the' connections' in the 'lines of communication are loose' (to use an inadequate metaphor), then this process can be very inefficient, and require more 'work' to reach the desire end point. He was hit on the side of the head, right? Was it in front of the ear, above it, or behind the ear? Right side or left? [note: it was just in front of the left ear] It may not be terribly important, but you might want to look up coup/contre-coup type injuries. The brain is a soft thing inside a hard thing. Think of it as having the consistency of a bucket of lard, or a bowl of jello. If you bang on one side of the bowl with a utensil, you can see the waves propagate and reflect back and forth. The brain is fantastically complex, so those mechanical waves can disrupt some of that complex organization, or functioning abit. Sometimes the force of the impact is enough to create a kind of sloshing back and forth of the brain against the inside walls of the skull: first on the side of the impact, as the kinetic force is transferred from the skull to the brain, and then the opposite side, and the brain "bounces back" against the other side, often sort of bruising the two sides from the point of impact. Even without gross imaging evidence for contusions, there is a massive depolarization of neurons followed by an intracellular "energy crisis" gobbling up ATP, straining mitochondria, and all the organelles inside those cells, as all those ion pumps in the cell walls work like crazy to try to re-establish the ion gradient across the neuonal membrane.

That was maybe too much info, but my point is that the gross motor stuff (his physical actvity stamina) and the areas required to use a console controller foe games in conjunction with well-learned visual-motor activities might be fine, but those heavily cross-(brain)-zone integration tasks, like arithmetic, or reading, still not as over-learned and second nature (meaning effortful) in a 10 year old as they are in older folks like you and me, are much harder work for him to integrate right now. Stick with the "start low and go slow" model across all activities as you rebuild that stamina, and it will be fine. Don't expect every different aspect of his functional abilities to recover at equal paces; they all use the brain in different ways, so the loading may vary. Be patient. 3 to 6 month recovery time is normal. He has a young healthy brain, and has loads of redundancy and cortical reserve to repurpose for all the things that are abit tough on him right now. Plus some of the things that are hardest for him right now were skills that were in the process of being learned and practiced, so it is to be expected that those "less expert" areas of the brain seem the weakest at first. It really will be fine.

Much thanks to this reader for the excellent and detailed information about concussions.

The Third Reason

2012-01-24T19:53:00.000-06:00

The third reason I had a good day yesterday (well, the third and fourth reasons, actually) is that I stumbled (thanks, Qt3 forums) onto two excellent Androis/iOS games: Dungeon Raid and Triple Town.

Dungeon Raid reminds me, in some ways, of Match & Magic, Jeff Latham's indie game that should be released this year. There's no map, and no location progression, but the feel of the game is otherwise similar. Here take a look at a screenshot (thanks, iTunes store):

Dungeon Raid is a three-match game, but there's so much more to it than that. You gather swords, shields, potions, and gold coins. Monsters also appear in the playing field, and you must trace a path through swords to the monsters to attack them. Tracing with your finger is a tremendously satisfying mechanic in this type of game, and the controls work perfectly here, as precisely as any Android game I've ever played.

The symbols at the top of the screen represent skills or one-time use spells, which you acquire as you increase in level (choosing from a skill tree). Filling up any of the various meters (sword, shield, coin) grants you a new skill (or new skills/upgrades to choose from), but you can have only four active, so there are choices to be made.

Traditionally, the problem with this kind of game is that the difficulty hits a wall at some point, and you'll quickly die. In Dungeon Raid, though, it's possible to last longer and to die in what feels like a fairer way, because the skills (which have cooldown periods) can be quite powerful, giving you a chance even as you reach the higher levels.

My favorite moment? Tracing a long, long trail through swords and enemies, sometimes 15 tiles long, and wiping out ten enemies in one turn. It's incredibly satisfying, and quite a charge as well.

It's an absolutely terrific game, highly polished, and it is perfect for a 10-15 minute session. It also looks fantastic on a tablet as well as a phone.

Like I said, versions for both iOS ($2.99) and Android ($1.99) are available.

Next, another game available for both platforms (as well as Facebook and Google+): Triple Town. It's also a match-three game, but again, that's a vast undersell. In Triple Town, you're trying to match landscaping, basically--grass, bushes, trees, churches, houses, etc. It's all part of building a town, and when you match three similar items, they compress into one item (leaving the other two tiles free again). The more items you match at one time, the bigger the subsequent item.

As an example, if you match three bushes, you wind up with a tree. If you matched four bushes, you get a larger tree, etc. Simple, but clever, and the feeling of "building" is very satisfying.

Here's a screenshot (thanks, Android Market):

This game requires more patience and more careful planning than most match threes, because the collapse into one item occurs at the last square involved in the match. So it's slower-paced than Dungeon Raid, and games last a bit longer, but it's every bit as enjoyable.

One negative note: for the iOS and Android versions, there's a turn limit, and to remove it you have to pay the entirely ridiculous price of $6.99. I've only played it enough in one day to hit the limit, and you regenerate a certain number of turns per hour, but it's still silly.

A Good Day

2012-01-23T18:29:00.000-06:00

It's been rough for the last couple of weeks, but today was a good day.

First, it was a good day because Eli 10.5 made it through half a day at school in "observer" mode. That's something that's becoming more common for children recovering from concussions when they can't handle doing schoolwork yet. They go to school, listen and participate in all the classes, but do no work that requires reading, writing, math, etc.

In theory, this is supposed to keep kids more connected to their school while they're recovering, and it also helps them get back into the rhythm of school.

In practice, it did both for Eli today. I picked him up at noon, and he was so excited that he made it through the morning. "I feel great!" he said when I saw him. "No headaches!"

"Did you do any work?" I asked.

"Not a bit!" he said, laughing. He was so relieved that he could be in school and not get a headache. So was I.

Second, it was a good day because of this:

I've mentioned several times that I love (not too strong a word, either) to mix Dublin Dr. Pepper with Diet Coke, resulting in the perfect drink. I spend hours each week at P. Terry's burger stand (by Eli's school) because their soda fountain is the best, most consistently mixed soda fountain I've ever tasted, and they have Dublin Dr. Pepper.

Dublin Dr. Pepper is still made with real cane sugar, in Dublin, Texas, and it's been made with the same formula for 120 years.

Until last Friday.

Last week, the complete assholes at the Dr. Pepper/Snapple finally won a lawsuit against the people who made Dublin Dr. Pepper. There's a long history in this matter, but basically the bottlers of the Dublin version had the right to continue selling it in six designated counties (even though it wasn't an official Dr Pepper product), but not outside that area.

Dublin Dr. Pepper was always available outside the designated area (in Texas), it wasn't considered a problem, since the drink constituted a tiny fraction of Dr. Pepper's sales.

Recently, though, Dr. Pepper started marketing its own cane sugar version, and decided to muscle Dublin Dr. Pepper out of the market via lawsuit.

It was settled last Friday by Dr. Pepper buying the Dublin plant and shutting down the Dr. Pepper portion of the operation.

You'd think that Dr. Pepper would have bought and promoted the Dublin version, since it is so beloved, but that's not going to happen. Instead, they destroyed it. They say that they'll still be making cane sugar Dr. Pepper in other plants, and they will, but it won't taste the same.

I hadn't been to P. Terry's in weeks because of holiday break and Eli's concussion, and the last time I'd gone, I'd been in a hurry and not tasted my drink until I drove off, and it was all carbonated water. I didn't have time to go back, not knowing that it would be my last chance ever.

So I went to P. Terry's today about 10:30 so that I'd be only blocks from school if Eli had to bail early, and--oh, who am I kidding. I just love hanging out there.

I asked them what they were going to do about the loss of Dublin Dr. Pepper, and the cashier said, "We haven't decided yet." I told her my story of not having been around the last few weeks, and that I was sorry I missed my last chance to taste it, and she said, "Oh, we're not out yet."

Clouds parted. Sunlight shone through.

As it turns out, they still have a few more days of supply, and I swear I drank half a gallon before I left-- my stomach should have exploded from the carbonation. And it tasted perfect, like it always does, and even though this sounds silly, it made me very happy to get to drink it again before it vanished.

A little thing, but a good thing.

Third, I found--well, let me tell you about the third reason tomorrow.

Friday Links!

2012-01-20T00:08:00.059-06:00

Leading off this week, one of the most amazing technological stories of this decade (or longer): Technology's End. It's discussing the future obsolescence of the wheelchair, and this is why: Ekso Bionics. Stunning!

From Matt Anderson, and you might not think you need to watch this, but you'd be wrong: the greatest volleyball ralley ever.

From Steven Davis, a delightful Rube Goldberg machine: The Page Turner. Also, an equally delightful animated short: The Joy of Books. Next, one of the most amazing automatons you'll ever see-- it's an entire city, and here's a video about how the city was made. Last one from Steven, and it's huge: Massive Apollo 11 Saturn V Model Built out of Lego.

Also in Lego Apollo 11 news, The Edwin Garcia Links Machine sent in a link to a Flickr photoset. Also, and I would definitely have a pants peeing issue if I had to do this, it's Apache rescue.

Here are two ridiculously adorable animal videos: A frog catching bugs on a touchscreen, and Cats playing "Game for Cats" with Apple iPad.

From Sirius, and I didn't even know these existed: adobe brick pyramid.

From The Edwin Garcia Links Machine, and here's a side of Star Wars that you've never seen before, it's Love Wars.

From Scott Z, and this makes a turducken look unimaginative: the Cherpumple.

From Griffin Cheng, and this is quite remarkable research, it's Multicellular Life Evolves in Laboratory (in 60 days). Next, it's Dark matter galaxy hints seen 10bn light-years away.

From Jesse Leimkuehler, and this is a wonderful story (wonderful in the sense that it's righting a disgrace): Black WWII Vet Gets Medal From Navy 66 Years Later.

From Andrew Martin, and this is simply amazing: This amazing optical illusion video will make a man’s head disappear.

Finally, from Eric L, and this had all three of us bursting into laugher when we saw it on t.v. last night, it's The Bark Side.

My Annual "The BCS is Shitty" Post

2012-01-19T21:04:00.000-06:00

One thing I have been able to do this week, even in the chaos, is to look forward to the NFL conference championships on Sunday. It's also reminded me how empty and useless the college postseason is in its current format.

The Rose Bowl this year was a terrific game, tremendously exciting, and I had forgotten all about it 30 seconds after it was over, because it was meaningless. No one outside of Oregon and Wisconsin cared, because it led to nothing. I just watched it for entertainment--it could have been an episode of SpongeBob for all I cared.

In contrast, in the NFL, stories build. Every game is win or go home, and story lines rise and fall and are extended for weeks. San Francisco beat New Orleans in an incredibly dramatic game, and now the 49ers can go to the Super Bowl with one more win. There are a ton of interesting stories around the game, none of which would be written if that game had been a "bowl" game.

Yes, the story lines for the "mythical national championship" are extended for six weeks, but only because that's the weight until the game is played. That's not extended--that's dragged out.

Dragon Naturally Speaking originally interpreted that last phrase as "that's dried out." Yeah, it's that, too.

There has rarely been as much unanimity of opinion as there is now regarding the shitty state of the BCS. It's nothing less than a joke. And yet the d-bags that run college football refuse to effect change (I'm looking at you, Jim Delaney).

8-team playoff? We'd watch every second of every game. 35 exhibition bowl games? We watched a grand total of four, and none of them all the way through.

What a waste. And what a shame.

To My Surprise

2012-01-19T20:47:00.000-06:00

I'm having a surprising response to Eli's concussion recovery. It's kind of a running joke that I can handle emotional stress--lots of it--without compromising my productivity (to such a degree that I'm not sure it's even healthy), but I'm having a unique response to this whole episode.

It's severely depressing me.

I'm such a hyper-rational person that I can almost always think through emotions, but not this time. The complications with concussions and the possible long-term consequences, and the accompanying fear, have totally drained me.

So if at some point one of your children has a concussion (I certainly hope not), and you feel this way, don't be surprised. I'm the guy who has sandbags piled up next to Emotion River, to prevent a collapse, so if I'm going through this, then almost everyone probably does.

Baller

2012-01-18T21:00:00.000-06:00

I forgot to tell you the only funny story on the day Eli had his concussion.

Once we got home from the hospital, and he was more himself again, I asked him what happened after he got hit in the head. "The teacher asked me if I was okay, and I thought I was," he said. "We pitched to our own team, and I was up to bat next, so I went ahead and batted."

"What happened?"

"I hit a homerun," he said. "I hit it so far that I could just walk around the bases, and I felt dizzy when I was walking. That's when I knew something was wrong."

"So let me get this straight," I said. "Not that you're ever supposed to do this, but you got a concussion, then went up to bat and hit a home run?"

"That's right," he said.

"BALLER!" I said. He started laughing.

We stopped at Target last week and bought him some sunglasses, so that he would have something to wear if his eyes were sensitive to light. Today, when we went out for lunch as part of a "get the hell out of the house" trip, he put them on. He said his eyes aren't sensitive to light anymore, but he likes wearing them. "These sunglasses are seriously cool," he said.

"Do you know who wears those sunglasses?" I asked.

"Who?" he said.

"Ballers," I said. "That's who."

He laughed. "Remind me why I'M wearing them again?" he said.

"I have no idea," I said, and we both laughed.

IGF Finalists!

2012-01-18T15:24:00.000-06:00

I'm a few days late with this given the concussion-related chaos of last week, but the Independent Games Festival announced their 2012 finalists, which is always one of my favorite gaming-related moments of the year.

The full list of finalists is here, and of particular note: DQ reader Ian Hardingham of Mode 7 Games is a finalist for the Seumas McNally Grand Prize with Frozen Synapse, which was undoubtedly the biggest indie breakout hit of the year.

Also of note is Atom Zombie Smasher, which is a highly entertaining game (I'd link to their website but it seems to be temporarily down), Wonderputt (entirely fun), and To The Moon, a charming and deeply affecting game.

The Boy With The Blank Face (Part 2)

2012-01-17T21:43:00.000-06:00

Eli 10.5 was steadily improving after we left the hospital and drove home. Clearly, he wasn't quite the same--he took an hour to eat one tortilla for dinner--but he was smiling and talking normally, and he seemed like himself again, even though his head still hurt.

Wednesday morning, we kept the blinds closed, dimmed the television, and turned on the Sprout channel. It's for preschoolers, and if you're an adult, this channel will make you want to stab yourself after a few hours. If you're 10, though, and had a concussion the day before, and it's the only television you can watch, then it's damned good entertainment.

"I could watch Caillou all day," he said, laughing.

"Good," I said, "because you pretty much have to." Caillou is a very gentle little cartoon that features a family with the worst haircuts I've ever seen. Well, except for Caillou, who is a little boy with an enormous, entirely bald head.

Eli wasn't really going to watch television all day, and fortunately, Gloria found something he wanted to hear. I'd read The Hunger Games series (three books) last year because I thought it was something he might enjoy. I wound up enjoying all three books, but they were intense and fairly dark. Now, though, his friends were reading them, his teacher recommended them, and he wanted to see what they were all about.

It's a heartwarming story: one child from each district put together on an island to battle to the death, with one child emerging victorious.

A feelgood story, in other words.

Eli was fascinated, though, and Gloria read for hours, because listening required much less effort from his brain than watching. By early afternoon, his headache was gone, thank goodness, and his appetite was back to normal. He was fine for the rest of the day, and Thursday, too, but after consecutive days of the Sprout channel, he was thrilled to go see the neurologist on Friday for a post-concussion evaluation.

Which he aced.

They said his balance was better after a concussion than most people without one. He destroyed every test they gave him, basically, and they said he could start exercising the next day.

Steps. Concussion treatment is big on steps. Like this:
Saturday: 15-20 minutes walking
Sunday: 10 minutes light jogging, 10 minutes walking
Monday: 30-45 minutes tennis, with breaks

He handled everything with ease, until Monday night when he tried to play a three-person game of Life (the boardgame) by himself, and he said it made his head hurt. Actually, his head had hurt briefly the night before at Barnes and Nobles when he tried to read a book. Exercise was easy for him, but "close work" like reading or concentrating for too long still gave him a headache.

The doctors had cleared him to go back to school today, and we sent him, but I don't know why, since he hadn't done any homework at home. We were basically ignoring "the steps" on the mental side of recovery because the doctor had cleared him for school.

Stupid.

When he got to school, the first thing they did was science class, and they looked through microscopes. Shit. That's probably the single worst thing he could have done. He stopped when his head hurt, and told his teacher (who is a wonderful, warm person), who told him to "take it slow."

That's the wrong advice when you're recovering from a concussion, because if you have a symptom, you don't take it slow, you stop. Eli kept going, wound up with a headache, and went to the nurse, who gave him some Tylenol. He went back to class, which was now math class, and his headache got worse trying to do some math problems. He needed to pee, and when he went to the bathroom, he suddenly threw up.

Game over. He was home by 11:00.

In retrospect, we were so stupid that it's embarrassing. He had zero chance of making it through the day, and we should've known that. We also should have known that it would be impossible for his teacher to monitor him as closely as we could-- of course he couldn't, because he has 20 kids in his class, not just Eli.

Parenting fail, and he suffered because of it.

By early afternoon, though, he felt fine again, and he was scheduled for 30 minutes of skating (with doctor's approval) today as part of his activity rehab. Gloria called the doctor, who said he could skate if he didn't have any symptoms while exercising. We went, he skated, he had a great time, and he was fine.

Tonight, he was still fine, and we watched hockey and hung out together. He's not going back to school tomorrow, and we're going to start the "mental steps"--5 to 10 minutes of homework an hour, if he's able, and we can build from there. Until he can do a sizable amount of homework in a single day at home, he's not going to get through a day of school.

I wish I had that kind of common sense this morning.

The Boy with the Blank Face

2012-01-16T14:26:00.002-06:00

I waited almost a week to write about this, because it was just too hard. And this isn't the entire story--I'll do the second half tomorrow--but know that Eli is going to be fine, so don't be alarmed by where the post ends.

Last Tuesday, I was on my way to Eli 10.5s school to pick him up. I always go early and hang out for an hour or so at a burger place by his school. As I was pulling into the parking lot of the burger place, my phone rang.

It was Gloria. "The school just called and someone needs to go pick up Eli," she said.

"What happened?" I asked.

"He was in PE class, playing slow-pitch softball, and he got hit in the head."

"Shit," I said (I actually did not say "shit". I said much worse, repeatedly).

It's only about two minutes from the burger place to Eli's school, so I was there quickly. I went to the infirmary and he was lying down on a bed.

"Hi, buddy," I said, walking over to him.

"Dad," he said weakly as I put my hand around his.

The nurse was talking, but I don't think I heard a word she said.

"How are you feeling, little man?" I asked.

He paused for a few seconds before answering. "I'm really dizzy and my stomach hurts," he said. Nothing he said sounded normal--it was like he was talking from the bottom of a well.

"Do you remember what happened?"

Again, a long pause. "I was pitching a softball to Caroline"--Caroline weighs 110 and can bench-press Eli--from about 10 feet away, and she hit a line drive that hit me right here." He gestured toward his left ear, then moved his hand toward the front of his face. "I can't hear out of my left ear right now."

"Okay," I said. "We're going to get you to a doctor. Can you stand up?"

"Not very well," he said.

I put my arm around him and he took tiny, shuffling steps. I held onto him, almost carrying him, because he was so unsteady. It took a few minutes, but we reached a bench just outside the school, and he sat there while I pulled the car around.

"Dad, can you help with the seatbelt?" he said when I got him in the car. I did, and then we headed for home, because Gloria was on the phone setting up a doctor's appointment, and home was on the way. I looked in the rear-view mirror when we hit a stop light.

My boy, the funniest, warmest, most enthusiastic boy, had no expression on his face. He wasn't there.

We got home and Gloria said that the doctor recommended we go to Dell Children's Hospital, which was about 20 minutes away. She gave Eli a pair of sunglasses that he could wear, and off we went.

The people at the Children's Hospital couldn't have been better. Eli didn't wait one second after we arrived--they took him into a room immediately. We sat there, scared. Eli's face was still blank.

"On a scale of one to ten, how much does your head hurt?" the nurse asked him.

"Ten," Eli said slowly.

"And your stomach?" she asked.

"Ten," he said. She gave him some Zofran to help with the nausea. The little room was quite comfortable, really, so he laid back on the bed, propped up at about a thirty degree angle, and we made small talk, trying to comfort him.

When the doctor came in, it didn't take her long to reach a diagnosis. "We're going to give him a CT scan, but he definitely has a concussion," she said.

"I can't go to my hockey tournament this weekend, can I?" he asked.

"No, sweetie, you won't be playing hockey this weekend," she said.

Eli squeezed his eyes together and one tear ran down his cheek. "I'm so sorry, little man," I said, "but the most important thing now is to help you get healthy again. You're going to play a ton of hockey when you're well."

"I know, but my team really needs me," he said. He was right--they do. He's the one who's always positive, the one the kids always gather around, the one who makes them believe in themselves. They did need him, but they were going to have to do without him now.

"I know they do, and I'm sorry," I said. "But the only thing that matters right now is helping you get well."

A nurse came in and put a bracelet on him. "FALL RISK," it said.

"I should just put that on a T-shirt," I said. He smiled, even giggled a little. I think I breathed for the first time in two hours.

The CT scan was normal, so no additional complications, and the doctor explained the treatment protocol. No bright lights. No loud noises. No exercise. No video games. No reading. No homework. No "active" television. If we dimmed the television and turned down the volume, he could watch something like the Sprout channel, which is for pre-schoolers. "Looks like lots of Franklin, Max and Ruby, and Caillou for you," I said.

He smiled. "That doesn't sound so bad," he said.

The doctor explained that with what had been discovered in the last few years, they believed that near-complete brain rest for 48 hours greatly speeded the healing process. "Anything that makes your head hurt, stop doing it immediately," she said. She was awesome--very warm and kind, but stern when she was talking about his care.

"How's your head now?" she asked.

"It's an eight," he said.

"Stomach?"

"Five," he said.

"That's good," she said. "Improvement is good." She cleared us to go home, and they brought a wheelchair to take Eli out to the car. While we were waiting, I sat across from him and took his hands. "We're going to get through this the way we get through everything else," I said. "Together."

He squeezed my hands. "I know," he said.

Eclipse Giveaway

2012-01-16T14:15:00.000-06:00

Dan Spezzano of The Old Board Gamer's Blog LEt me know that they're giving away a free copy of Eclipse. Just hit the TOBGB link above for details.

MLK Day

2012-01-16T11:12:00.000-06:00

Today, an annual post.

Today is a national holiday in the United States to celebrate the life of Martin Luther King, Jr.

It's easy to forget the kind of hatred and stupidity that King was fighting against, but a good place to start is with this docmentation of the Jim Crow laws in the United States (this is a different source than what I've linked to in the past, and it's much more detailed). The Wikipedia entry for Jim Crow laws also has detailed information. And the Wikipedia entry for King is here.

It's painful to read about the Jim Crow era, and as an American, it's both embarrassing and shameful, but it's important to learn about the past, even if we wish it hadn't happened.

Friday Links!

2012-01-13T00:03:00.054-06:00

Leading off this week, from the Edwin Garcia Links Machine, and what a classic: Graffiti From Pompei.

From Steven Davis, and this is quite remarkable: Android Sign Language Interpreting Glove. Also, and here they come, it's Parrot AR.Drone 2.0. One more, and it's quite interesting: Computer Vision Camo.

From J.R. Parnell, and this is one of the greatest unicycle tricks I've ever seen (watch to the end), it's Impossible Unicycle Trick.

From Tateru Nino, and this is absolutely amazing: Researchers Find that Parasitic Flies are Turning Bees Into Zombies.

From C. Lee, an excellent three-part series about the ineffectiveness of Japanese newspapers in a journalism sense:
Stop the presses and hold the front page
Stories spiked despite journalism's mission to inform
Fukushima lays bare Japanese media's ties to top

One more, on a different subject (but near and dear to most of us): X-Com is brilliant because it's broken.

From Mark Vines, and this is a stunning bit of artistry: Goldfish Salvation.

From Sirius, and this is just fantastic: Under the ice at Lake Saarijärvi in Finland. Also, take a look at Audubon's "The Birds of America".

From Griffin Cheng, and I've always wondered about this: Is the beer-goggle effect real?.

From Jonathan Arnold, and this is a wonderful video: The Joy of Books.

Finally, from DQ Fitness Advisor Doug Walsh, an absolutely insane video: First-Person Cliff Biking.

Remote Survey Results

2012-01-12T20:35:00.000-06:00

Thanks to those of you who sent in suggestions for remotes that would be easier for my mom to use. It's easy to break down the results: 85% of you recommended some version of a Harmony remote.

In particular, you like the Harmony One remote, which has about 40 buttons and a nifty little touch screen as well. One particularly cool feature is the help button, which will ask the user questions about what's wrong and guide them through fixing the problem.

Big points for that, and what a great idea.

At the other end of the spectrum is something like this: RCA 4 Device Big Button Remote. Very inexpensive, bigger buttons, but less functionality and dicey compatibility in some cases.

A Time Warner technician came out yesterday and replaced Mom's remote, and she's certainly having a better experience now, even before I replace her remote control. But the number of buttons (62--seriously?) still boggles my mind.

I'll let you know how the replacement goes, in case any of you are in the same situation.

CES Tidbits (two)

2012-01-11T18:45:00.001-06:00

After reviewing the new plasmas introduced by Samsung and Panasonic, it became clear to me that, unfortunately, these new sets aren't about image quality. They're about revenue stream.

That is, by far, the defining trend of the new displays this year. Everyone is desperately trying to co-opt the content on-demand revenue stream, with a bazillion integrated apps, all of which lead to places where you can pay for shit.

In Samsung's press release, their first three bullet points are:
--smart interaction
--Smart content
--smart evolution (kits you can install to "upgrade" your set each year, and I guarantee the "upgrade" will consist of additional apps leading you to places where you can buy even more shit.)

Image quality? It's down there toward the end of the press release. Way down there. In the twentieth paragraph.

Panasonic? Second paragraph of their press release:
Also new for 2012 is a cloud-based architecture to increase the VIERA Connect IPTV platform to an unlimited number of apps, thereby cementing its reputation for creating innovative and cutting edge products and focusing on providing the consumer with the ultimate in home entertainment.

AKA "so you can buy more shit now." At least Panasonic mentions image quality in the third paragraph instead of the twentieth.

So something important is happening, and no, it's not my sarcasm. All these television manufacturers want a piece of video on demand. They want to be the toll collectors from content providers, not cable companies. In some ways, this is war, with the television manufacturers cutting deals and trying to cut out traditional cable providers like Time Warner.

Seriously, if someone bought a new Samsung plasma this year, could they just get rid of cable or DirecTV entirely? For most of us, probably not, but I believe the market is inevitably headed toward 100% content on demand, except for live programming. No need for a DVR in a decade, really--everything will be available at any time.

If you weren't a sports fan, I think you could actually get rid of cable today. Every major network has episodes on demand, and there are plenty of online content providers like Netflix to stream almost any movie you want to see.

I do see one tremendous advantage to this, which is it would promote true competition among content. I wouldn't have to subscribe to six shitty ESPN sub-channels anymore, and ESPN eventually won't be able to hold cable companies hostage during renegotiations. So I wouldn't have to help pay for thirty horrible ESPN shows where hosts yell at each other for 30 minutes and call it "debate."

Consumers only paying for the content they want to watch. What a novel approach.

CES Tidbits

2012-01-10T13:29:00.000-06:00

First off, this has to be my favorite announcement of the entire show:
Fisher-Price will offer a selection of images from the company's View-Master image archive, regarded as the largest collection of 3D still images in the world. "The View-Master archive is a virtual treasure-trove of 3D imagery capturing over 100 years of history and culture," said Peter Snajczuk, Vice President of Marketing for Fisher-Price. "We're thrilled to be working with Spatial View to make these spectacular images available digitally for download from ViewMasterDigital3D.com to a variety of 3D mobile devices and Internet-connected 3D TVs."

...Launching in late Q1, 2012, the online digital content store - www.viewmasterdigital3d.com - will include a selection of titles consisting of national parks, travel, nature, and history. The content will be sold in packs of 18 to 21 images for $1.99.

That's right, baby--Viewmaster lives. What a great idea.

All right, let's move on from Viewmaster to OLED, and that's sort of describes how far we've come in terms of technology as well. I'm not going to go into the technical details of OLED (organic light-emitting diode), because it's mind-numbing. The takeaway, though, is that OLED sets (on paper) are brighter, have higher contrast, deeper black levels, wider viewing angles, and lower power consumption than LCD or plasma sets. Spectacular, potentially.

However, there have been two primary obstacles in getting these displays to market: the longevity of the blue OLED and high production costs.

This year, though, two companies announced 55-inch OLED displays: Samsung and LG. LG, historically, announces all kinds of shit at CES and never ships most of it. Samsung, though, is a big boy, and it looks like their OLED set will actually hit the market (second half of this year, although that might slip).

I don't want to buy a first-generation OLED display, because I have concerns about the reliability and life span of the first generation, plus they'll be ridiculously expensive (I wouldn't be surprised if the 55-inch Samsung is 8-10K), but this starts the timer ticking toward the day when these displays are reasonably priced and we all get them.

Links: LG OLED display, Samsung OLED display.

I forgot one more category of products I'm particularly interested in: 3D printers. And Makerbot announced a new printer that allows you to print objects "roughly the size of a loaf of bread." Take a look:

I find that entirely amazing, and I find it even more amazing that the printer is under $2,000. This entire technology seems like something beamed in from the future.

I'd be willing to bet that we're going to buy one of these in the next year. Eli 10.5 would go wild with it, and it would sneakily introduce him to all kinds of interesting creative and engineering concepts.

I planned for this to continue from here(discussing in particular the new Samsung and Panasonic plasmas), but unfortunately I am completely jammed up today in terms of time, so I will continue with this tomorrow.

$##*###!

2012-01-10T12:38:00.000-06:00

My sister and I bought an HDTV to replace Mom's 1995-era television for her Christmas gift. In theory, this was a great idea--now she could watch programs in HD, and the screen was almost twice as big as her old set.

There's just one problem: the remote.

My favorite remote of all time was the original TiVo remote, fondly known as the "peanut". Here, take a look (thanks Tivopedia):

What a piece of design. 32 buttons to do anything and everything. I don't know anyone who used the peanut who didn't absolutely love it.

Well, Mom doesn't have the peanut with her Time-Warner HD cable box. She has this:

Holy crap. That beast has SIXTY-ONE buttons. It's two steps away from being a Japanese typewriter.

Because of this piece of mediocre design, Mom is quite frustrated, and I don't blame her. It's far too easy to hit a button by mistake and be FUBAR immediately.

What I'm considering doing is buying one of the simpler universal remotes (30 buttons or less), then setting it up to work with her cable box. Over half the functions on the Time Warner remote are totally unnecessary for her equipment or her viewing habits, so I think this would probably work, and it would be significantly less complicated.

Here's my question for you guys: have any of you done this in the past, and is there a particular remote that you recommend?

Awkward Underpants

2012-01-09T14:09:00.000-06:00

I took Eli 10.5 to the tennis center on Friday for some afterschool fun.

There's a nice tennis center less than five minutes from his school, and it features old-school prices (about $6 an hour to play) and a relaxed attitude that we both enjoy. Plus, no waiting.

So we were hitting on a court, it was a bit windy, and Eli was frustrated. It's odd for me to see this, because he never gets frustrated in hockey. In tennis, though, for some reason, he will get down on himself.

"That was terrible," he said after one shot. "I'm horrible," he said after another. Remember, this is a ten-year-old who's been playing for six months and hits topspin off both sides. I can also rally with him at 80-90% of my skill level, and we have frequent 10+ shot rallies.

For him, though, somehow it's not enough.

"Look," I said, after he muttered about another bad shot. "The problem with getting upset is that it interferes with you seeing the ball. Anything that interferes with you seeing the ball absolutely clearly is going to mess you up. Getting upset is sometimes easier than refocusing, because that requires real concentration. But getting mad at yourself never help you hit the ball better."

There were two people on the lower court next to us--a woman and a boy. As we sat down to take a break, he turned and looked at them.

"I would get KILLED in a tournament," he said.

I started laughing. "Let's see--topspin on both groundstrokes and no one could hit a clean winner because you'd track it down? You'd do just fine. But we need to find a way to help you be more positive. I don't want your attitude here to infect your attitude about anything else, because it's easy for that to happen."

"Well, it's because I stink," he said.

I wanted to tell him that he couldn't say things like that anymore about himself, but then I got what I thought was a better idea.

"Okay, let's try something," I said. "You can keep saying bad things about yourself, but whenever you do, you have to follow it with 'My Granny's underpants.' "

"OH MY GOD," he said, laughing. "So I'd have to say 'I'm terrible my Granny's underpants'?"

"Yes, that's right," I said. "And you have to say the second part as loudly as the first."

We started hitting again, and after a long rally, he hit a bad shot. He started to say something, then looked at me and started laughing. "No way," he said.

"Focus on the shadows on the ball," I said. "You can even focus on the fuzz, because the angle of the sun is highlighting individual fibers. It's cool."

We hit for about 15 more minutes, and both got into a groove where the rallies were long and spirited. I walked over to the side of the court with the fence we shared with the other players, and as I picked up a ball, the woman walked over to the fence.

"Excuse me," she said.

"Yes?"

"Is that your son?" she asked.

"Yes, he is," I said.

"Is he already in a program?"

"No," I said. "I used to teach, so I've sort of shown him the basics."

"We have junior workouts on Tuesdays and Thursdays," she said. "I think he would fit right in. I hope it fits into your schedule."

"Thanks," I said.

"What did that lady want?" Eli asked me when I walked back up to the net.

"She wants you in the junior program," I said.

"Me?" he asked.

"Who knows?" I said. "If the other kids hear you saying 'my Granny's underpants', it may turn into a popular local expression."

He laughed. "That is NOT happening," he said.

***
Saturday night, he played goalie in a league game, and had his first shutout in quite a while. His team played terrific around him, but he had two beautiful saves in the same sequence that are among the best he's ever had. The game didn't end until 9:15 (after his bedtime), and he had practice the next morning at 9:45.

He skated out and caught the team's best skater from four spots back when they skated two laps of the rink at the end of practice. Eli won by about a yard.

"Did you see me catch him?" he said with a big grin on his face as he left the ice.

"I did," I said. "And you know what I said when you started that last lap?"

"What?" he asked.

"I said 'He's going to catch him'." I did actually say that. I knew.

He smiled. "Thanks, Dad," he said.

CES!

2012-01-09T13:31:00.000-06:00

The Consumer Entertainment Show begins today, and the amount of information emerging is quite staggering. I recommend Engadget for blanket coverage, plus CNET to fill in the gaps.

I am particularly interested this year in the new OLED displays, which are a substantial leap forward in image quality (as well as saving a ton of power), as well as the new 4K displays, which are also quite impressive. Plus I'm keeping track of glasses-free 3D, Android-related news, soundbars, and gadgets in general. So expect a few posts this week on specific bits of tech that seems interesting.

If you're at CES and want to send me impressions, please do.

A Disturbing Coincidence

2012-01-09T13:07:00.003-06:00

Jimmy Page turned 68 today and I had oatmeal for lunch.

Friday Links!

2012-01-06T00:05:00.025-06:00

Here are two phenomenal stories included in a Deadspin roundup of the best sports stories of 2011:
Blindsided: The Jerry Joseph Basketball Scandal
"Jerry Joseph was a basketball dream: six feet five and built like LeBron. Then the rumors started—and suddenly the 16-year-old golden boy was more illusion than dream."

The Confidence Man
"How Lalit Modi, possessed of inhuman energy, ambition and audacity, built a billion-dollar cricket kingdom—only to be rudely ejected from its throne."

From Sirius, and this is amazing, it's Transistors made from cotton yarn, t-shirt computers incoming. Also, and this is a remarkable video, it's Cézanne Was A Wimp . . . This Is True Water Colors. One more, and it's fascinating: This photograph is a cryptogram. And if you want a little more detail, Josh Eaves sent in a similar article: How to Make Anything Signify Anything.

From Rob, and it's tremendous: This music video was made using Kinect.

From Griffin Cheng, it's 11 new animal species. Also, and this is quite beautiful, it's What a Wonderful Sea of Fireflies.

From Josh Eaves, and this is an absolutely wonderful and interesting article (from Poemas del río Wang, which has lots of them), it's The Language Of Stamps.

From Dave Prosser, it's the BBC audio version of Isaac Asimov's Foundation Trilogy --for free!

From Frank Regan, and all I can say is "holy crap!": Controlled Quantum Levitation on a WipeOut Track.

From Steven Kreuch, and man, I admire the big brother in this story: Dear Customer who stuck up for his little brother.

The NHL Grind

2012-01-05T21:32:00.000-06:00

Eli had hockey practice on Tuesday. He had hockey practice tonight. He has a game on Saturday. He has practice on Sunday. He has practice on Tuesday. He has practice on Thursday. Then he plays in a tournament from Friday-Monday.

It's house hockey on steroids.

The "non-travel league" development team he's on has phenomenal coaches, one of whom had a very nice minor league career. He's also incredibly thorough and meticulously organized. It's completely ludicrous to have this level of instruction down here, but somehow we have it anyway.

I got some footage of Eli in goal tonight, and I'm going to get more on Sunday so that I can share it all with you next week. I saw that little YouTube video I made of him in goal last year, and it made me laugh because he has improved so much since then.

He was doing an up-down drill tonight where his coach would shoot along the ice, forcing him into the butterfly, then very quickly launch a high shot that required him to be upright to stop it. It's hard to do that on carpet (try it), but doing it on skates is much, much tougher. He was bouncing up and down almost instantly, though, and there were parents around me who were laughing because it was just ridiculous how fast he was.

Star Wars: The Old Republic

2012-01-05T21:25:00.000-06:00

I was highly skeptical that SW:TOR could be successful in an environment where there are so many freemium MMOs, but I will say this: Dubious Quality Timesink Advisor John Harwood is definitely on board. I'm not sure he even sleeps anymore.

I've heard from other people I trust as well, and their reaction is almost uniformly positive. The game isn't perfect, they say, but it is extremely engaging and very satisfying to play.

I also think it was very clever to have a limited launch. Guaranteeing a sellout, so to speak. Queues always better than the sound of crickets.

Accountability

2012-01-05T21:22:00.000-06:00

Someone told me this story at work today.

The "someone" is a guy nearing 60 who has several granddaughters (1-4 years of age) living with him and his wife. Because of this, he hears a ton of stories about little kids.

So a friend of a friend has a daughter who has a three-year-old. The three-year-old is potty-trained, but his parents are now going through a divorce, and he's upset, and he's started having accidents.

Last week, he walked up to his mother and said, "Mom, somebody peed in my pants."

I know so many grown-ups like that.

So Much For Sarcasm

2012-01-04T13:22:00.000-06:00

Incredibly, that safety warning I mocked yesterday turns out to have a legitimate foundation in reality. Thanks to all of you who sent in this link: Infants & Toddlers Can Drown in 5-Gallon Buckets:
Large buckets and young children can be a deadly combination. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has received reports of over 275 young children who have drowned in buckets since 1984. Over 30 other children have been hospitalized. Almost all of the containers were 5-gallon buckets containing liquids. Most were used for mopping floors or other household chores. Many were less than half full.

Of all buckets, the 5-gallon size presents the greatest hazard to young children because of its tall, straight sides and weight, even with just a small amount of liquid. At 14-inches high, a 5-gallon bucket is about half the height of a young child. That, combined with the stability, makes it nearly impossiblefor top-heavy infants and toddlers to free themselves when they fall into the bucket head first. A child can drown in a small amount of water.

Out of curiosity, I measured the capacity of the tennis ball bucket, and it was 4.5 gallons. So certainly differently-shaped and not as large as the standard 5-gallon bucket, but still similar enough to be required to carry The warning label.

Seriously, I must have been one of the most cautious parents ever (I am still laughingly called "Mr. Safety" by both Gloria and Eli 10.5), but this would have never crossed my mind.

Books!

2012-01-04T12:39:00.000-06:00

It's been quite a while since I've mentioned books that might interest you, so let's remedy that immediately.

First we have The Man in the Rockefeller Suit: The Astonishing Rise and Spectacular Fall of a Serial Imposter, which is one of the best studies of human nature I've read in years. Here's a description from the Amazon product page:
The story of Clark Rockefeller is a stranger-than-fiction twist on the classic American success story of the self-made man-because Clark Rockefeller was totally made up. The career con man who convincingly passed himself off as Rockefeller was born in a small village in Germany. At seventeen, obsessed with getting to America, he flew into the country on dubious student visa documents and his journey of deception began.

Over the next thirty years, boldly assuming a series of false identities, he moved up the social ladder through exclusive enclaves on both coasts-culminating in a stunning twelve-year marriage to a rising star businesswoman with a Harvard MBA who believed she'd wed a Rockefeller.

The imposter charmed his way into exclusive clubs and financial institutions-working on Wall Street, showing off an extraordinary art collection-until his marriage ended and he was arrested for kidnapping his daughter, which exposed his past of astounding deceptions as well as a connection to the bizarre disappearance of a California couple in the mid-1980s.

The story of The Man in the Rockefeller Suit is a probing and cinematic exploration of an audacious imposer-and a man determined to live the American dream by any means necessary.

What makes this story so fascinating is the willingness, even eagerness, of people to believe. Not just socialites, but employers, government officials--hell, everyone wanted to believe they were in the presence of a Rockefeller. And even before the Rockefeller con, there were others that were almost as impressive.

It's a strange, strange story, and told very well.

Next we have Fab: An Intimate Life of Paul McCartney. Yes, I know--George Harrison is, by far, my favorite Beatle--but I find that reading about Paul McCartney is far more interesting than listening to his solo music. This is an excellent read, filled with little tidbits (origins of many Beatles songs, for example) that I haven't seen elsewhere. This also isn't a whitewash--it's very frank about McCartney's shortcomings and limitations, as well as discussing his virtues. There is also a thorough discussion of his time with the Beatles, which is tremendously interesting, as well as his life after he left the band (including his marriage to Heather Mills, which will have you shaking your head in disbelief). All in all, an excellent read.

Another musical biography is When Giants Walked the Earth: A Biography of Led Zeppelin, which is an exhaustive look at Led Zeppelin. The product page describes this book as "unflinching", and that is a fair assessment. It's also quite fascinating, and I believe it qualifies as the definitive biography of the band. If you are interested in rock music, even if you have never been particularly interested in Led Zeppelin, then this is a must-read, and if you are already a fan of Led Zeppelin, just get it immediately.

Finally, there is Sex on the Moon: The Amazing Story Behind the Most Audacious Heist in History. It's by Ben Mezrich, who writes books that I describe as potato chips--extremely tasty and briefly filling.

It's the story of a NASA intern who decides to steal some moon rocks, and like all Mezrich books, it's a page turner. If you're tired of plowing through weightier tomes, consider this the perfect palate cleanser--light and refreshing.

"An Exciting List Of PC Games For 2012" (RPS)

2012-01-04T12:15:00.000-06:00

Rock, Paper, Shotgun has a tremendous 2012 games preview that includes 75 upcoming PC games. If you can't find at least 10 or 15 games on that list to get excited about, then you are dead inside and no one can help you.

Also, each game has links to previews, etc. Outstanding.

An Excellent Warning

2012-01-03T14:49:00.001-06:00

We bought a new bucket of practice tennis balls yesterday before we headed out to play.

This bucket:

Eli 10.5 wanted the bucket with him in the back seat, and while we were driving to the courts, he was trying to open it up (more difficult than it seems because of a realtively stubborn plastic tear strip).

Then he burst out laughing. "Dad, you are not going to believe this!" he said. Then he started reading from the safety label on the bucket. This label:

If you're too lazy to click on that image to enlarge it (hey, it's the New Year, and we're all tired), here's what it says:
"CHILDREN CAN FALL INTO BUCKET AND DROWN.

KEEP CHILDREN AWAY FROM BUCKET WITH EVEN A SMALL AMOUNT OF LIQUID."

The best part, though, is the illustration, which shows a child desperately trying to climb into this tiny bucket, clearly demonstrating that the only way a child could actually drown would be if they could do a headstand with their head inside the bucket. For several minutes

I lack the Photoshop skills to rotate this image appropriately, but the more accurate warning is clear:
FUTURE OLYMPIC GYMNASTS OR CIRCUS PERFORMERS COULD DO A PROLONGED HEADSTAND IN THIS BUCKET AND DROWN. PROTECT ACCORDINGLY.

ALSO, DO NOT SWIM IN BUCKET UNTIL AT LEAST FORTY-FIVE MINUTES AFTER EATING.

McDonald's

2012-01-02T18:08:00.000-06:00

Like many of you, I have a love-hate relationship with McDonald's. The company is a Rorschach test, really--you can find whatever good or evil you're looking for in McDonald's.

One thing I have always liked about McDonald's, though, is that they are remarkably efficient in an engineering and design sense. They pay attention to the "little" things that most other companies ignore.

I used to take Eli 10.5 there for breakfast almost every weekend, but as he's gotten older, it's fallen out of the rotation. Since they have "blue" Powerade (his favorite) on tap, though, we still often stop there for drinks, particularly after tennis or hockey.

Yesterday, after we played tennis until I couldn't stand up anymore, we stopped to get drinks at the drive-through. As I handed Eli his drink, I noticed the lid, which looked different:

See that sizable bulge in the center of the lid? I noticed that as I passed it back, and its purpose was working its way from my brain to my mouth, but Eli beat me to it:
"Dad, look at this lid!" he said. "They've added that dome at the top so soda won't spill through."

He was exactly right--that clever design change should almost entirely eliminate soda overflow through the lid. And he understood in less than a second why the lid had been changed.

I will be rendered obsolescent.

Epic Astro Story

2012-01-02T17:47:00.000-06:00

After spending more time with Epic Astro Story (Android), I think it's probably the most interesting Kairosoft game I've ever played, and that's a high bar.

For one, the addition of territory exploration, with your own party of adventurers, is a significant and entertaining addition. Yes, combat is very simple, and the strategic options are limited, but it's still quite fun to send your intrepid band of adventurers into strange lands to explore.

In addition, managing things planet-side is quite complex. In addition to managing your own citizens, you're also trying to attract tourists, make the right products for those tourists to buy, research and develop new technologies, even visit other planets.

In other words, there are a ton of things to do in this game, and more so than other Kairosoft games I've played, it's just not possible to do them all, so the choices are more interesting.

One more note. This is the first time I've preferred playing a KS game on my tablet instead of my phone. I just find it much easier to make selections and see what's going on, because the world is quite busy.

Here's a link to the games page on Android Market, where you can see a ton of screenshots (bright and colorful, like all Kairosoft games).

Friday Links! (Update)

2011-12-30T10:40:00.000-06:00

From multiple readers: Nobody Found Mayan Ruins In Georgia.

Friday Links!

2011-12-30T00:02:00.025-06:00

We're traditionally a little light this week every year, but there's still a hearty selection of whatnot.

From David Gloier, and this is a tremendous story: Decades later, a Cold War secret is revealed.

From Griffin Cheng, and these are quite astonishing: Insanely Detailed Book Sculptures. Next, and these are also astonishing, it's 2011 as seen from space. One more, and it's fantastic: Creatures found at deep-sea volcanic vent.

From Sirius, and this is remarkable: Perfect camouflage. Also, and all I can say is "whoa": 1,100-year-old Mayan ruins found in North Georgia.

From Jeremy Fischer, and some of these are amazing: 20 Extraordinary Photo Manipulations. Also, and this is a must-see, it's Mars Pictures: NASA's Most Extraordinary Images. Next, and these are fantastic, it's Wild Allusions Photography, including a picture of the remarkable Thor's Well, which you can see more of here.

From Steven Davis, and if you enjoyed Hugo Cabret, this is a must-read: the Maillardet drawing automaton. Also, and this is very cool, it's Swimming Koi Scanimation Table / Rug Illusion.html. Next is a fascinating video about ultra-efficient construction: Precut - Modern Japanese Timber Construction. It's a giant wooden Lego kit, basically.

From David Byron, it's "buttmetrics": Engineers unleash car-seat identifier that reads your rear end.

This Guy Died This Year

2011-12-29T21:31:00.000-06:00

I would normally post this as part of Friday Links, but it's so well-written that I'm making an exception. It's a Deadspin post titled This Guy Died This Year: Bil Keane, Comics Paterfamilias. That's Bil Keane of Family Circus, and it's an awkward, moving, and wonderful piece of writing.

Claymation!

2011-12-29T21:23:00.000-06:00

One of Eli 10.4s Christmas gifts this year was a program called Claymation Studio 3.0. Eli's been interested in claymation/animation in the past, but we never found anything simple enough to get him started.

This program, though, is terrific, and it's easy to use. He made 8 videos today in just a few hours, and the program is well-guided and very user-friendly for kids. It's really captured Eli's imagination, and here's a sample of his work:

The program comes with its own camera, and the camera is instead a little plastic dog with poseable legs. That means the camera has its own tripod, essentially, and can be set up any way you want.

If one of your kids is interested in animation, I highly recommend this program as a great way to get them started.

Quite The Storm

2011-12-28T19:12:00.000-06:00

I had other things to write out today, but this story is just too interesting to pass up.

Here's the basic setup: a customer service/marketing person from a company called Ocean Marketing went full-on 'roid rage/douchbag with a customer via e-mail, and the customer sent the e-mail to Gabe (Mike Krahulik) of Penny Arcade.

Gabe posted it, and you can read it here (and you need to, if you want to understand what a gigantic ass Paul Christoforo of Ocean Marketing made of himself). If you're lazy, though, here's a choice excerpt:
Son Im 38 I wwebsite as on the internet when you were a sperm in your daddys balls and before it was the internet, thanks for the welcome to message wurd up. Grow up you look like a complete child bro. I Don’t have my controller so im gonna cry to the world … Really ?? Hey take that free time and do something more productive. All you had to do was check the like everyone else , people have inquired but you’re the douchiest of them all J

Nothing says "genuine holiday spirit" like a reference to daddy's balls.

Of course, Gabe posting the e-mail is Russell Crowe in Gladiator saying "At my signal, unleash hell." It guaranteed that Paul Christoforo was going to get an Internet ass-whipping of epic proportions.

If you're expecting me to say it was undeserved, you will be waiting fruitlessly. I have a very, very unforgiving spot inside me for bullies, who are a perversion of human nature that has diminished us all. Paul C. enjoyed being the hammer to people who were wholly dependent on him for information--in other words, helpless. Then he found out that he was, in fact, not the hammer. He was the nail, being infinitely pounded.

There's more to this story, including an absolutely bizarre set of information posted by The Examiner (thanks, Qt3), which makes the story considerably more complicated (and possibly fraudulent) than just a random jerk being a jerk.

That was quite a lead-in to the real subject of this post, which concerns Penny Arcade, or rather, the dizzying rise of Penny Arcade. In 1998, they started an Internet comic. Thirteen years later, they have over three million readers, raised millions of dollars for charity, and last year they were in Time's 100 list of the most influential people in the world.

The world.

In Internet terms, they're the Beatles.

Thirteen years ago, they were unquestionably some version of the nail. Now, they are the hammer to a degree that cannot be overstated.

Here's my question: do you think they ever get tired of this?

I think one of the reasons it's often so difficult for people who become famous is because the transition from nail to hammer is difficult. Some people are nails, and by nails I mean underdogs. The odds are against them. They lack resources. They must prevail through their will.

When a nail becomes a hammer, though, how does that work? How does an underdog adapt to being an overdog? I can't imagine ever being able to do that in a psychological sense--it would be like wearing a coat that just doesn't fit right.

I'm a nail. I grind like an underdog, I root for almost nothing but underdogs, and I've always been that way, even as a kid. I draw an enormous amount of energy from being an underdog. I have no idea how to be a hammer. I could never adapt to being one. I would fail.

Somehow, though, Mike and Jerry have adapted, and far more gracefully than most. One of the reasons I respect PA is that nothing ever seems to go to their heads. They are who they are, which is who they've always been. I don't always agree with them, but I respect that there are no hidden agendas.

I do occasionally wonder, though, if they enjoyed it more ten years ago than they do today.

Raspberry Pi

2011-12-27T11:41:00.000-06:00

This is really quite astonishing.

In 1956, this is what a 5MB hard drive looked like (thanks Engadget):

No, not the plane, smart guy.

Combined with the computer, which was even larger than that hard drive in 1956, and you had quite a computing beast.

That was 55 years ago. Yesterday, I saw an article about a computer called the Raspberry. It looks like this (thanks Venture Beat):

That motherboard is the size of "two credit cards laid side by side." Here's a description of the computer:
The Raspberry Pi, the little $25 computer that can run Quake 3 Arena and play HD videos, is scheduled to go into volume production in January. If you want to splurge, you can also pay a $10 premium for the fancy Model B that comes with an ethernet port and 256 – instead of 128 – MByte RAM.

There's more here, and it's absolutely incredible functionality that they've managed to pack into such a tiny board.

The Upsell

2011-12-27T11:27:00.000-06:00

The upsell is driving me insane.

A few days before Christmas, I was in line at a Target, but I couldn't check out because the cashier spent (literally) 10 minutes explaining how a loyalty card worked to a customer in front of me. It didn't matter that there were half a dozen people in the same line with me--the upsell was more important than customer satisfaction.

Checking out at a grocery store? The cashier will ask you if you want to buy a toothpaste, or breath mints, or spend a minute explaining that your receipt entitles you to 2c a gallon off gas.

Now, though, it's gotten worse.

We went to a restaurant on Christmas Eve, and when the waiter came to greet us, he said, "Before I take your drink orders, I want to tell you about the special New Year's Eve event we're having here."

Holy shit--restaurant upsell!

I see no positive end game here, because clearly it's profitable for all these retail businesses to do this. So it's not going to stop.

Do they upsell at funeral homes? If not, they will soon.

It's Beginning To Feel A Lot Like The Day After Christmas

2011-12-26T19:00:00.000-06:00

This is one of the nicest gifts I've ever received:

I framed it today, and it's going up on the wall in my study. Whenever I feel grouchy, I can just look up and be reminded why it doesn't matter how tired I am.

Eli 10.4 needed a new goalie mask, and Christmas seemed like a good time. I did some research and discovered that Hackva masks were generally considered to be the safest. Expensive, but very safe, and with the added bonus of some absolutely beautiful designs. Eli went through the list and picked this one:

That's the top view, obviously. Here's the side view:

Those are beetles on the front of the mask, I think, and the whole mask is beautifully painted, with all kinds of detail.

I didn't know how well it would fit, but as it turned out, it fit almost perfectly, needing only minor adjustments, and Eli wore it today at a stick and puck.

It's a good thing, too, because he took shots (and a lot of them) from Midgets today. In hockey, the midget age group is for ages 15-16, and when the stick and puck started, most of the kids were in high school.

Eli was about half their size, in goal, and what always happens in situations like this is that the kids take a few shots, find out the goalie can't handle it because he's too young, and they drift down to the other end of the ice.

That's not what happened today.

They took a few shots at half speed, and Eli stopped them. Then they came in on him and deked a few times and he stopped them. Then they started shooting harder. They got to the point where they were shooting at about 80-90% of their normal speed, and he was doing just fine.

He was having an absolute blast, and the older kids seem to be having one as well, because they would skate by and tap him on the pads after a good save, plus they all started talking to him after about half an hour. By the end of the session, they were old friends, and two of the best kids (who had been particularly nice to him) skated off a few minutes early.

"Hey, you guys," I said, "thanks for giving my son so much work and not being too tough on him."

"Are you kidding?" One of them said. "He can really play. How long has he been a goalie?"

"A year and a half," I said.

The other kid laughed. "That's ridiculous!" he said. "Man, he is QUICK."

We talked for a few minutes. They were nice kids--it seems like almost all hockey kids down here are--and as they walked back toward the dressing room, Eli skated off. He'd been on the ice for 90 minutes and had faced 250+ shots.

"I can hardly stand up," he said, laughing.

Two hours later, we were on the tennis court.

Friday Links!

2011-12-23T00:09:00.042-06:00

From Frank Regan, an article about the "unluckiest ship ever to sail the seven seas": Ghost Ship.

From Jonathan Arnold, and this is a subtle and excellent stop-motion film: Proteigon: A Geometric Stop Motion Short.

Also from Frank Regan, and this is a tearjerker, but it's pretty wonderful: Sung-bong Choi performs on "Korea's Got Talent".

From Griffin Cheng, and this is a cuteness overload: HTTP Status Cats. Also, and this has a ton of additional links that are also excellent, it's Top 24 Deep Space Images of 2011.

From Mike Tokarski, and this is quite the headline: Woman's Plastic Testicles Trial Delayed.

From Hogie Chang, a stunning version of pond hockey: Windy Arm, Yukon.

From Jesse Leimkuehler, and this is quite amazing: Comet Lovejoy Survives Fiery Plunge Into Sun. Here's another, and this fellow is, well, insane: Highliner's Heart-Stopping Walk Over Yosemite.

From Tateru Nino, and this is incredibly clever: A Never Before Seen Optical Trick Creates Ultra-Secure Cash.

From Mike Stinchfield, and how unintentionally hilarious: The Ugliest Civil War Monument?.

From Sirius, and this is going to blow your mind: Kelvin-Helmholtz instability.

Here's a pretty fascinating article about actor James Franco, who's also studying for his PhD at Yale.

From Steven Davis, and this is pretty amazing: ultra-high performance double pendulum. Also, and if you're a fan of Calvin & Hobbes, you have to see this: snowmen. One more, and it's spectacular: Impressive Lighting Display in Ukraine. Wait, it's a four-pack, and this is terrific: Subversive Finds: Hidden Cross Stitched Messages from a Nazi POW.

From Lael Jones, and this kid is phenomenal: 15 yr. old guitarist.

From Juan Font, and this is both NSFW and very funny: Darth Schwarzenegger.

From D.F. Prosser, and this is a fascinating bit of musical history: The Beatles - The REAL First Chord of "A Hard Day's Night".

Superfreak

2011-12-22T20:27:00.001-06:00

I rejoined the human race today.

After two weeks of being sick as a dog, with a cough that just never got better, I woke up this morning feeling better. Much better, actually.

Eli 10.4 had a typical day today: two hours of Kinect, an hour plus skating lesson, and an hour and a half of tennis.

Holy crap.

Eli had a skating teacher today who's really something. She was on the national ringette team, back in the day, and she is the warmest, kindest person I know. She's also a wicked good skater, and she worked Eli's ass off today. Eli would skate through a wall if she told him to, and when he came off the ice, he was so tired that he was wobbly.

Of course, we were playing tennis two hours later. We hit for a while, worked a bit on stroke technique, then played a set, which I won 6-1. To put it in perspective, he just started playing in June, I could have played in college (my roommate at the time played on the team, and I beat him consistently), I taught for several years, and he's ten. Ten! But he won that one game fair and square--I wasn't trying to help him.

When we rally now, I hit out, almost never trying to groove the ball for him, and I hit the ball all over the court, at all different heights and spins, trying to disrupt him as much as possible. It's the "Rocksmith" approach, generally--after he developed good mechanics for the forehand and backhand, I want to present him with as many different situations as possible, so that he learns to adapt.

I'm going to take some video next week, which I'll put up for you. He's a superfreak on the court, getting to balls that there is no way anyone should be able to reach.

Of course, after playing two days in a row, he's still bouncing all over the place, and I'm busted up. Bad hamstring, something in my left foot kind of popped yesterday, and my right knee hurts.

In other words, pretty much a regular day. But a good one.

Not Allowed

2011-12-22T19:33:00.000-06:00

"Dad, is there more than one bad word that starts with 'F' and has four letters?" Eli 10.4 is watching 24/7 Flyers/Rangers: Road to the NHL Winter Classic. I tape the "sanitized" version for him, which airs during the day and bleeps out the curse words (and adds *** when there are subtitles).

This means that when the coach of the Rangers (John Tortorella), says anything, there's bleeping. In this case, there were subtitles, and "F***" had come up about four times in two sentences. Tortorella is one of those old-school asshole coaches, who seems like he's basically yelling at his guys all the time.

Since we're huge Penguins fans, and head coach Dan Bylsma is intelligent, rational, and composed, Tortorella isn't coming off very well with us. "He just says the same thing every time," Eli says. "How many times is it going to work to just yell the same thing at people?"

Good question.

There's only one problem with the 24/7 series, which we're both really enjoying: it's making the Flyers seem likable.

Console Post Of The Week: All Over the Place

2011-12-21T19:04:00.001-06:00

Now there's this:
Sony Tablet S update lets you play with PS3 controllers, cable adapter required

An excerpt:
The latest update to the company's divisive Tablet S will let you connect your DualShock 3 PS3 controllers with those 32-bit games of yesteryear.

Announcements like this seem to be coming about every 15 minutes now as everyone races to turn phones/tablets into auxiliary game machines. But why not design a custom Android controller, for example, for Android tablets? A controller that might be less bulky than a 360/PS3 controller, but with a reasonable subset of the functionality.

The Vita (not a console, so we're in sidetracked mode now) launched in Japan last week and, according to Media Create, sold 325,000 units in the first two days. That's out of a total shipment of either 500,000 or 700,000 (Sony may have boosted the launch shipment at the last minute, but there's no hard confirmation). Here are a few more launch details:
Media Create boss Atsushi Hosokawa blamed the relatively slow start on Vita's price, which, when you include a game and the required accessories (a memory card is required to play most games), means the system costs 40,000 yen (£328). He added a lack of a system seller at launch hampered its appeal.

"The shipment was abundant," he said. "So it seems that there were hardly any reports of inability to buy due to shortages. Regarding sold units, to be honest we would like to have seen it sell a bit more, but you can say that it reached a certain level of success."

Not exactly a ringing endorsement, but there's no question that the Vita is a hardware powerhouse, and there will be plenty of software support, so if it does fail, it will be price-based, not "lack of ass-kicking" based.

Community Assistance

2011-12-21T18:46:00.002-06:00

If you're familiar with sound editing software, and would be able to remove a "whistle" from a longer sound clip, and have nothing but free time to do this, please let me know. It would save me lots of me (that makes more sense than you might think) and would earn you the title of Official Sound Editor Of Dubious Quality.

Not that you necessarily want that title, but it's there for the taking. Thanks.

Tuesday Notes

2011-12-20T19:39:00.000-06:00

I brought back some kind of coughing plague from Shreveport (surprising), and this is usually a slow gaming week, but here are a few notes.

First off, Steam is basically just giving shit away this week. It's definitely worth your time to check it out to fill in gaps in your backlog.

Next, Kairosoft has release Epic Astro Boy for Android. Here's the Android Market description:
Pioneer an untamed planet, building roads and houses for your fellow denizens of the future. Cultivate your quaint colony into a stellar space citadel, and you'll pull alien tourists from everywhere this side of Alpha Centauri!

Careful though, not all intelligent life seeks souvenirs. Prepare to engage in heated battle with all manner of cosmic creatures! Win--and you just might be rewarded...

What that means is that there are some party-based exploration elements in the game, and your characters can actually level up. It's very much an "RPG Lite" element, but it does provide additional flavor beyond the regular Kairosoft formula.

Also, Kairosoft expert John Harwood gives it his unconditional seal of approval.

Lastly, since we went on a trip, I decided to buy a game I've wanted to try for a while: Professor Layton and the Last Specter. This game is unique in that it has both the standard Professor Layton experience and an additional bonus game called "London Life" that's a role-playing game (U.S. and Japan versions only). Here's a trailer, and it's all quite charming as your character explores "Little London." Be cautioned, though, that it's quite slow-paced (which is one of the things I like, actually--having something to play that's zero-stress is very refreshing, especially after the last few weeks).

Finally, the PS3 and 360 versions of Rocksmith are on sale for $59.99 at Amazon. That's $20 off the regular price and quite a deal for what might be my favorite game of the year.

A Safe Return

2011-12-19T21:33:00.000-06:00

We left on Friday for our annual holiday trip to Abandon Hope Town (also affectionately known as "Slowville").

Today, we returned.

I've given up trying to describe how hideously difficult these trips are, or why. Let me just say that by the time we get back to Austin, I feel like a Chilean miner who sees the sun after months trapped underground.

Now, a few pictures.

I like to call this first picture "welcome to East Texas":

It was even more disturbing in person, believe me.

On Sunday morning, I took Eli to Krispy Kreme, and we had an interesting discussion about this picture:

What we discussed was whether the snowman was right-handed or left-handed. Based on the position of the scarf, we concluded that he was left-handed. Actually, it would be fair to question how he could have a scarf on at all, given that he has no hands.

Finally, we went to the children's science museum in Shreveport, and in the gift shop, I saw this:

That's right--your eyes are not deceiving you. That is Count Chocula lipgloss. And Lucky Charm lipgloss was on the next row. Who knew?

On the way home, while we were eating lunch, Eli 10.4 asked Gloria why some of the cheeses she likes smell so bad.

"I'm not sure," she said. "I think they might actually put little bits of mold into bleu cheese."

"That would certainly make me want to eat it," I said.

That made her curious, so she looked up bleu cheese on Wikipedia. Here's an excerpt:
Blue cheese (or bleu cheese) is a general classification of cow's milk, sheep's milk, or goat's milk cheeses that have had cultures of the mold Penicillium added so that the final product is spotted or veined throughout with blue, blue-gray or blue-green mold, and carries a distinct smell, either from that or various specially cultivated bacteria. Some blue cheeses are injected with spores before the curds form and others have spores mixed in with the curds after they form. Blue cheeses are typically aged in a temperature-controlled environment such as a cave.

...The characteristic flavor of blue cheeses tends to be sharp and a bit salty. The smell of this food is due both to the mold and to types of bacteria encouraged to grow on the cheese: for example, the bacterium Brevibacterium linens is responsible for the smell of many blue cheeses, as well as foot odor and other human body odors.

Gloria read this out loud. Eli and I both said "EWWWWW!" At roughly the same time. "Mom, you like stinky foot cheese," Eli said.

On the basis of this description, I believe there would be a market for cheese deodorant. Maybe Dr. Scholl's would be interested.

Friday Links!

2011-12-16T00:05:00.034-06:00

Leading off this week, from The Edwin Garcia Links Machine, and who knew that Heddy Lamar was such a badass, it's This 1940s Hollywood Actress Made Wi-Fi Happen.

From Daniel Quock, and this is both very funny and NSFW, it's "The Website is Down".

From Steven Davis, the obituary of one of the most incredible watchmakers ever: George Daniels, master watchmaker, died on October 21st, aged 85. Here's one more: Passing of a master watchmaker, George Daniels.

From Jonathan Arnold, and this is a fascinating, article, it's What Really Happened Aboard Air France 447. Also, and this is fantastic: Cambridge gives Newton papers to the world.

From Griffin Cheng, a remarkable discovery: When Predator With 16,000 Eyes Roamed The Earth. Also, and this is quite fascinating, it's The shape of things to come: when products are printed, they often look like nature intended.

Another entirely adorable animal video: Lil' Drac: Orphaned Short-Tailed Fruit Bat Rescued By Bat World Sanctuary.

From Meg McReynolds, and this is quite brilliant: Santa's Christmas Eve Workload, Calculated.

From Sirius, and this is quite a discovery: Microraptor-the four-winged dinosaur that ate birds .

From Tateru Nino, and I'm pretty sure you don't need this camera for holiday portraits: MIT builds camera that can capture at the speed of light. Also noted is that ATP synthase is the smallest rotary engine known to man.

From Geoff Engelstein, and this is quite cool: Lenticular Street Art: Trick Graffiti Works only at Angles.

From Neil Sorens, and this is a tremendously cool idea: What children’s drawings would look like if it were painted realistically.

From The Edwin Garcia Links Machine, another fascinating TED lecture: Mark Raymond.

EBGDAE #17

2011-12-15T13:56:00.000-06:00

Tour guide David Gloier weighs in this week. It's all him from here on out.
***
Well, I've been too busy to actually get any time in with Rocksmith for the past three weeks, but thought I'd at least show up and give out a few bits of advice for those of you just getting underway with your guitar careers. Again, this is all my opinion and your mileage may vary.

First, I'd recommend getting your guitars properly set-up. The difference between a properly set-up guitar and one that isn't is night and day. Chances are many of you bought an inexpensive guitar to start with and it likely could use a little help in this department. Find a luthier in your area and get it done, or do it yourself. If you don't know where to find a luthier, start at your local guitar store and ask them. They may have someone or they can recommend someone. It shouldn't cost you more than $40 or $50 and it's money well spent. A basic set-up shouldn't take too long and I've had guys let me watch what they were doing so I could learn. If you want to learn on your own, I'd recommend picking up a copy of this book:
How to Make Your Electric Guitar Play Great

It's full of invaluable information. If you're going to play, you should know the ins and outs of your instrument. This will help you. If nothing else, learn to properly change your strings. It needs to be done and if you are putting in serious time with your guitar, it likely needs to be done regularly.

Next, even though we'd all like to be rock stars and play with our guitars slung low, I'd recommend getting yourself a comfortable stool and playing Rocksmith sitting down. Sitting puts the guitar in the proper position and it will make learning easier and will put a lot less strain on your hands and wrists. Playing with the guitar down around your waist is a different beast altogether and you might want to learn what you're doing before you start imitating your rock idols. I have a basic, wooden bar stool I picked up at Wal-Mart for $20. It does the trick. Anyway, if you're going to put in long stretches of time in with your guitar and Rocksmith, you might as well be comfortable.

Get a strap and some strap locks. You don't want to drop your new investment and, if you decide to channel your inner Jimmy Page, you don't want to have the thing pop off the strap and fall to the floor. I use the Dunlop strap locks, but several brands are out there. You will have to replace the existing strap buttons on your guitar, but that is simple enough. Just Google "replacing strap locks." You'll find write-ups and videos to guide you through the process. Locks should only set you back about $15. Or, you can go the MacGyver route and buy a six-pack of Grolsch beer. After you finish the first two, remove the rubber gaskets from the locking bottle tops and place them over the button where it comes through the strap hole. Like so:
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4096/5434511702_197c1dea48.jpg

You get security and a buzz. You can't beat it, and honestly, they work really, really well. I have a friend that gigs with these as his locks after I showed it to him and he's happy with with the security they provide. They should be more than secure enough for sitting around the house playing.

Buy a tuner. The tuner in the game isn't very accurate and it pays to be in tune. You can spend a bunch of money on a tuner pedal, but I've been more than happy with my little clip-on Snark. You can get them for around $10 on Amazon or $20 in the stores. They are surprisingly accurate and really easy to use. They just clip on to your headstock and use the vibration to tune. They are perfect for doing a quick tune. I think Bill will vouch for the usefulness of the Snark.

In order to protect your guitar when you aren't playing, I'd recommend getting a case, a stand, or a wall hanger. If you have pets or children, get a case or a wall hanger. I have pets and prefer wall hangers. They also allow your guitar to double as wall art. Plus, if your guitar is out and visible, you're more likely to play it. Trust me on this. If you plan on leaving the house with your guitar, get a case as well. I'm not a fan of soft gig bags. They're cheaper than hard cases, but hard cases are cheaper than repairing or replacing a broken guitar.

Play away from the game. Get to know your instrument. Just fool around and see where it takes you. If you don't have an amp, look into getting a little practice amp. It's easier to get five or ten minutes in and you avoid the load times. (Well, if it's a tube amp, you do need to let it warm up a bit.) Some inexpensive modeling amps are available that let you play with different sounds without paying a bunch of money.

Finally, if you have the opportunity, play with others. It can be daunting when you're just a newbie, but the rewards are worth it. You'll pick up and learn a lot of things you wouldn't otherwise. Anyway, everybody has been where you are at some point and they all understand. Fellow guitarist love to give advice, and some of it is good. ;-)

Anyway, I hope everyone is enjoying their new hobby. Hopefully, the payoffs are better than the frustrations.

Kinect

2011-12-14T20:32:00.001-06:00

The top item on Eli 10.4s Christmas list this year was Kinect.

The only place we could put Kinect, though, was in the exercise room, which was so crowded and cluttered that it was an exercise in despair to even enter. When Eli got strep throat last week, though, plus the broken nose, I realized he might be out of hockey for quite a while (I was wrong, fortunately), and in lieu of hockey, Kinect would at least be something he could have fun with.

Three days and quite a few hours later, the exercise room had been made habitable (more or less), and we had room for Kinect.

We also needed a television, and I was fortunate to see this: a well-rated 37" JVC LCD with 1080P resolution for $349 at Costco. It was a terrific deal, and I have been very impressed with the quality of both the video and the sound. And they're still selling them, so if you need an extra television somewhere in your house, I highly recommend it.

Alright, back to Kinect. We've played it fairly extensively for the last four days--oh yeah, I should've mentioned that we totally suck when it comes to waiting for Christmas--and I have some impressions to share with you.

First off, I totally understand why kids love this thing. Eli loves using his entire body to play a game, and the Kinect Sports series is right up his alley. And it is tremendously cool to be in front of a device that can read your full body position so accurately. So there's definitely a "WOW" moment when you first start using Kinect.

Having said that, everything we've played has been limited and somewhat insubstantial (although we haven't tried Dance Central yet--that's actually off limits until Christmas). The games we've tried are fun, but not in any long-term kind of way. We played Wii Sports every day for months, and there's no way Kinect Sports (either version) will be like that.

In terms of functionality, Kinect is exponentially more powerful than the Wii controller. However, and I think this is a big however, it must be incredibly, mind-blowingly intimidating to design a game for Kinect. It really is disruptive technology, and it forces paradigm shifts in design.

Think about it: design a game without using a conventional controller in anyway. No buttons. Every action in the game, every menu item, must be controllable with the user's body. That must be incredibly difficult, and I think it explains why the vast majority of Kinect games are mini-game collections.

I've also noticed that connect is quite good when it comes to "goal motion" detection. In other words, a game wants you to perform a single specific action, or a series of actions that are defined for you. Almost every game we've tried takes this approach. What must be much more difficult, from a hardware perspective, is allowing unlimited actions, essentially, and detecting which one you've made.

That would be necessary if you wanted to use Kinect in an RPG, at least if you wanted a reasonable amount of freedom. On the 360 controller, it's possible to press in a combination of 14 different buttons/directions, and that's not even including the two analog sticks. There is no way that Kinect can allow that many possible inputs at the same time.

Does that mean it isn't cool? No--it's very, very cool. But developers are going to have a hell of a time using it in "real" games.

There is one category of game however, that seems tailor-made for use with Kinect: fitness games. I picked up Your Shape Fitness Evolved 2012, and it's a blast. It's so much fun to see exercise connected with a game-type outcome, and with the sensor able to detect your body position, it greatly increases what a fitness program can do in terms of interaction with you.

As an exercise device, I'd give Kinect an "A". As a gaming device, not so much, although it's a fantastic piece of hardware. Actually, the hardware is an "A", but the games aren't. I do think that eventually will see some groundbreaking titles, but it will take someone who is an absolute badass to produce them.

Please note, however, that Eli gives it an "A+".

A Seismic Shift

2011-12-14T20:08:00.000-06:00

Engadget had an interesting post about the latest NPD data for the smartphone market.

You may remember that we had an extended discussion about this a few months ago, and in particular, in response to my belief that the Android OS was on its way to dominating the market, you guys made the fair point that there are many different kinds of Android devices--some extremely capable, some not so much. So it's sort of an apples to oranges comparison to iPhones.

So here's the latest market share data (for January through October of this year):
Android 53%
iOS 29%
RIM 10%
Windows Mobile 3%
Windows Phone 2%

Android and iOS have 82% of the total market, in other words. Here's what's remarkable, though--take a look back at 2007:
Android 0%
iOS 11%
RIM 35%
Windows Mobile 42%
Windows Phone 0%
Palm 9%

Only four years ago, Android didn't even exist yet, and iOS had 11% of the market. What an incredible change.

Console Post of the Week: a Turn of Fortune

2011-12-13T12:23:00.000-06:00

Some numbers.

November 2008 NPD
Wii: 2,040,000
Xbox 360+PS3: 1,214,000

November 2009 NPD
Wii: 1,260,000
Xbox 360+PS3: 1,529,500

November 2010 NPD
Wii: 1,270,000
Xbox 360+PS3: 1,900,000

November 2011 NPD
Wii: 800,000
Xbox 360+PS3: 2,600,000

At the peak of the Wii craze, Nintendo outsold the 360 and PS3 combined by an almost 2-1 ratio. Three years later, the ratio is now 3-1 in the opposite direction.

That doesn't mean that the Wii didn't "win" this generation. They have, and resoundingly, in both units sold and profits. The crater, though, has left a sour aftertaste.

With the Wii U launching sometime in 2012, what does Nintendo need to do to recapture the boundless enthusiasm that enveloped the Wii for much of its lifespan? The combination controller/tablet is interesting, but the U controller is "dumb", only capable of receiving content from the console. It's not a standalone device, and given the spectacular growth of tablets as content devices, it already seems a bit dated. Nintendo had a very, very interesting idea, but I also don't think they can take it to its logical conclusion.

Let's try to do that ourselves.

Consider a next-gen console with the standard capabilities (1080P output, etc.). Also consider that, like Nintendo, the console supports two types of controllers: a conventional gaming controller and a tablet.

Not a "tablet-like" controller. An actual tablet.

The Kindle Fire is selling for $199. Two years from now, that same tablet would sell (easily) for under $150. Why not include a real tablet with a console?

Think about it. Now the console's tablet becomes your primary media device, because it also has standard tablet functionality: Web surfing, standalone gaming, movie viewing. It works with your console, but it also works fine by itself. Plus it has access to exclusive gaming content that isn't available anywhere else.

Also think about this, and I know this is far into the future, but bear with me. Let's say you're playing a great game on your console, one that is absolutely consuming your time, and when you leave the house, you want nothing more than to keep playing it. What if your tablet could play a 2D version of that game, and your progress was synced with the console version? So you could continue playing on your tablet, and your progress would be synced with the console.

And it wouldn't have to be a 2D version--as powerful as tablets are getting, maybe it would just be a slightly "reduced" version in a graphical sense (I know, storage space would be an issue, at least today). Maybe it would be a series of mini-games or alternate quests that could contribute to your progress. It could be a sports game, and you could do all franchise simulation activities on the tablet, even if you weren't at home to play the individual games in a season.

I'm trying to think of the word for this, and all I can come up with is "continuation." No matter where you are, you should be able to progress in the game that you primary play on the console.

I would be happy to ditch my Samsung Galaxy tablet (which I'm quite fond of) if something like that was available.

Everyone likes to talk about convergence, and convergence devices. The 360 has turned into a media server, basically, in addition to its gaming capabilities. So why not extend that one step further, and turn the tablet controller into a media server/gaming platform as well?

I strongly feel that someone will do this in the future. Both Sony and Microsoft are already in the tablet market in some form, and this is a logical step that is in line with what they're already trying to do. Sony is actually the perfect company to do this, but they would charge $1200.

Rim shot.

The huge advantage of doing this is that it encourages consumers to single-source content. At home, your console provides all their content. When they're away from home, your tablet provides all their content.

That's the kind of brand loyalty that prints money.

A Perfect Website

2011-12-12T22:41:00.000-06:00

I couldn't possibly ask for anything more: http://www.devastatingexplosions.com/. Old Spice wins the holidays.

Fishing Resort

2011-12-12T13:46:00.000-06:00

Behold:

It's our traditional holiday Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer display--in Dexter terms, a tableau (without the dead bodies). Also please note the headless reindeer, my favorite Christmas tradition.

You might also note that an interloper has been added: "Fishing Resort" for the Wii, a game I have been looking forward to since the day it was announced. I have a long-standing affection for fishing in games, be they fishing-themed (Sega Bass Fishing, Reel Fish'n, Virtual Deep Sea Fishing) or just incidental (Dark Cloud 2, Fate, Everquest). Plus, it was developed by Yuji Naka (Sonic The Hedgehog, Nights Into Dreams...).

Why do I have time to play this one I don't have time to play Skyrim? A fair question, and the answer is that Eli 10.4 and I can play this together. Since he was out sick all last week, we passed some of the time playing Fishing Resort.

How is it? In a word: fun. The world is bright, the weather is warm, the beach is always clean, and there are plenty of fish to catch. Or you can bicycle around the island, if you prefer, or go kayaking, or travel on a submarine. If you'd like to stay indoors, you can look at the aquarium, which is stocked with the fish you've caught. Oh, and you can expand the aquarium, if you'd like, and aquarium visitors pay admission prices, and you'll get a portion of those proceeds.

The aquarium is a good example of why Fishing Resort works so well: the gameplay may be generally familiar, but there are infinite combinations of that gameplay drilled down to substantial depths. And it's a very well-designed game, with a simple but effective structure of multiple locations along with a hotel bulletin board in each location serving as an activity hub.

If you're wondering about the fishing, it's very solid. Float or lure fishing, many choices for rods and reels, even more choices for bait or lure type, and a gigantic array of fish to catch. Plus, even in the first location, you can fish from the beach, a pier, a charter boat, a kayak, or rocks/cliffs near the beach. Basically, any place there's water, you can drop a line.

The game is also absolutely stuffed full of personality--it's a happy island, full of life. There are plenty of people to talk to, who offer both challenges and useful information, and even with the Wii's limited graphics capability, the island is quite beautiful.

What shines through, in particular, about this game is the loving attention to detail. The degree of polish is very high, and the world is very full. This also makes it more engaging, and both Eli and I have very much enjoyed our time with the game. We've spent roughly 6 hours on the island's first location, without exhausting all the quests and mini-games. Of course, you don't have to do any quests or mini-games unless you want to--what you do is entirely up to you.

Oh, and remember what I said about the beach? Well, there are plenty of locations in the game, and most of them aren't beach at all. Some are saltwater, some are freshwater, some hot, some cold, some deep water, some shallow water. If you're thorough, I could see playing through the full game taking upwards of 50 hours.

John Harwood let me know that there is a co-op mode (the second person only appears when fishing, but both player's points from catching fish contribute to the point total), but we haven't even tried it yet. This is the kind of game where it's very pleasant to watch someone else playing, so Eli and I have just passed the controller back and forth.

One note: there is an optional "fishing controller" that comes with the $29 game package (by itself, the game is $19, which is quite a bargain), but trust me, you don't want the controller. It's a bit clunky, it adds nothing to the game, and it actually makes it harder to reel than if you just used the regular controller and nunchuk. So save yourself $10, and go for the standard edition instead.

Friday Links (Addendum)

2011-12-09T20:45:00.000-06:00

I somehow forgot to mention the best link of the week, which came from Dubious Quality Visual Basic Advisor Garret Rempel. Believe it or not, it's an ass-kicking version of "Little Drummer Boy".

Friday Links!

2011-12-09T00:08:00.027-06:00

Leading off this week, from Caleb Forney, a story that anyone interested in space will love: The Math That Saved Apollo 13 Just Sold for $388,375.

From Josh Eaves, and I guarantee this will blow your mind: Touchable Holography.

From Dave Tyrell, and this is quite remarkable: British Library digitizes 300 years worth of newspaper archives, brings 65 million articles online.

From Steven Davis, a fascinating device called The Wave Glider.

From Griffin Cheng, a remarkable little wasp: Fairy Wasps Are Smaller Than Amoeba. Also, this is quite a big story this week: Mythbusters Goofs Up Good. We love that show.

From Meg McReynolds, and this is stunning: 2011 Hubble Space Telescope Advent Calendar.

From Chris H., and this is one of the coolest sport stories you'll ever see: a 51-year-old amateur goalie signed as an emergency backup for a few hours with the Minnesota Wild. Paul Deutsch: Rags to riches to rags.

From The Edwin Garcia Links Machine, a bizarre and fascinating story: Dave Sanders: Fiber-Optics Exec by Day, Defender of Justice by Night. Also, and this is equally bizarre: Pablo Escobar's drug cartel spent $2500 a month on rubber bands for bricks of cash.

From Jeremy Fischer, and the first minute of this video is entirely classic: Achievement Hunter: Joel and Jack meet the Kinectimals.

From Michael O'Reilly, and this story is quite chilling: When Rebecca Coriam vanished from the Disney Wonder in March, hers became one of the 171 mysterious cruise ship disappearances in the past decade.

From Scott Hillis, and this is so creative and so striking: Drowning Beautiful.

From nin, and these are fantastic pictures, it's Most Intimidating NHL Goaltender Masks of 2011.

From Bill Sanders, and this is incredibly striking: Gwyn, Lord of Cinder (Dark Souls) on two pianos.

Here's quite a story: 6'5", 245 pounds, and trying to pass himself off as a 15-year-old. It's baffling, and it's Coaches puzzled by man who tried to play football at multiple Dallas high schools.

Even More Bizarre

2011-12-08T17:31:00.000-06:00

One more e-mail from Frank:
So my cousin, who married the lead singer of the Trishas, lives in Austin. The other day he's driving and pulls up to an intersection. A guy on his phone/ipod isn't paying attention and walks right in front of his car. Fortunately, my cousin sees him in time and slams on the brakes. It was Robert Plant. Imagine that story: Robert Plant killed by the husband of the singer whose album is being produced by the guy who produced Robert Plant's last album.

Relief

2011-12-08T15:34:00.000-06:00

I didn't mention this earlier, because it was too depressing, but here's what else we were dealing with this week:

That's a technician setting Eli 10.4 up for an x-ray of his nose. His idiot seven-year-old niece kicked him in the face at a birthday party, and he wound up with a small fracture in his nose (up high, almost between his eyes). Worse, she had been rough-housing with him and he had been trying to get her to stop, but he had been gentle because he didn't want to hurt her. Good grief.

So that was horrible, plus he's had strep throat and has been out of school all week. Misery.

Today, though, he got good news. He went to an ear/nose/throat doctor, who cleared him for hockey. So he's not going to miss any hockey because of his nose, which would have been incredibly shitty and unfair, and would have ruined his holidays completely. And we can still play tennis, too.

Life raft.

The Trishas

2011-12-08T14:15:00.001-06:00

A few weeks, longtime DQ reader Frank Regan sent me this message:
So I'm in Memphis...With friends of Graham Wilkinson. Small freakin world.

If you don't know who Graham Wilkinson is, you haven't been around long enough. Go here. Or here, and listen to "Ragamuffin".

So it's very cool that Frank is hanging out friends of GW. A little later, I got another message:
It gets better. They're trying to talk him into playing my wedding.

Here's the story, and it's quite the seven degrees of separation, only it's much less than seven. A few days later, Frank sent me an e-mail asking me to listen to a band named "The Trishas". Then he explained why:
This is an all girl band, the lead singer of which married my cousin and is one of the friends of Graham Wilkinson that I was with last weekend. Regardless, she has an amazing voice. They're in Nashville recording their first full album right now with the guy that produced Robert Plant's last album.

The Trishas are in the folk/country/bluegrass genre, and they have collectively beautiful voices, both striking and slightly haunting. So I am happy to make them the "little sister" band of Dubious Quality, and please give them a listen. Oh, and here's their website: The Trishas.

'Tis the Season, Indeed

2011-12-08T12:44:00.000-06:00

I got this e-mail yesterday:
"So have you got to the point in your gaming career that Pop Chips and Jem and the Hooligans are more important than impression you have of the latest games (ie. Skyrim)?"

This was from someone who's e-mailed for a long time, and he was kidding, but it's actually a fair question, given how little I've written about gaming in the last few weeks. And the answer would be "not more important, but more possible."

I think the last four weeks have been the most difficult stretch I've had in years. Gloria was out of town for three days one weekend, then we had two weekends in a row with hockey tournaments (away from home three and four days, respectively), and last weekend, Eli got strep throat. He's missed school all week, which is how I saw Gem for the first time, because we were so desperate to find anything new to watch, and the program description sounded so, well, outrageous.

Those Pop-Chips? That was what I had for lunch one day, and it reminded me of how much I like them.

Next weekend, we're going to Shreveport (oh no), which will take us away from home for another four days. It's been an incredibly difficult stretch, and I've been so busy that I haven't even installed the replacement video card that I've had sitting by my computer for two weeks.

In short, I've been hanging on by my fingernails. I have managed to play Rocksmith for 20-30 minutes most days, but Skyrim has fallen by the wayside, even as I know it would be breathtaking.

I know this is going to ease up eventually, but for now, I'm just scrambling to find anything to write about that's at least (hopefully) mildly entertaining. That's how my lunch and the worst show I've ever seen wound up in posts this week.

Hopefully, things will be back to normal levels of craziness soon.

Outrageous!

2011-12-07T14:26:00.000-06:00

That mystery screenshot I posted on Monday of people in tuxes and formal dresses sitting in a hot tub is from a show called "Jem."

See what they did there with a "J" instead of a "G"? I know you did.

Here's the basic set-up for the show (taken from the Wikipedia entry:
The series revolves around Jem who is the mysterious lead singer and front-woman of the rock group "Jem and the Holograms". She is also Jerrica Benton, owner/manager of Starlight Music. Jerrica adopts this persona with the help of a holographic computer, known as Synergy, which was built by Jerrica's father to be "the ultimate audio-visual entertainment synthesizer" and is bequeathed to her after his passing. Jerrica is able to command Synergy to project "the Jem hologram" over herself by means of the remote micro-projectors in her earrings, thus disguising her features and clothing enabling her to assume the Jem persona. While disguised as Jem, Jerrica is able to move freely without restrictions and on several occasions other people have been in direct physical contact with her without disrupting the holographic projection. Jem, through the use of her earrings, is also able to project holograms around her and uses this ability throughout the series to avoid danger and provide special effects for the performances of her group.

Incredibly, the show had a nice run from 1985-1988, with 65 episodes. Even more surprising was this (also from the Wikipedia entry):
...in 1987 it was the 3rd most watched children's program in syndication with 2.5 million viewers weekly.

You guys sent me some very funny e-mail, which I will share, but I'm not going to bust anyone by using their names. Oh, and for some of these to make sense, you need to know that the signature line of one of the characters is "OUTRAGEOUS!"

First in:
Is she truly outrageous...truly, truly, truly outrageous? ;)

I deleted this email about 5 times before I couldn't resist any longer.

Next:
Is that picture from Jem? The 80s band Barbie thing? I don't know what to be more ashamed of; that I can still remember that show, or that I might be wrong but admitted to knowing about Jem anyway.

I'm going to bury my head in my hands and pretend none of this ever happened.

And more:
Is that… Gem and the Holograms?

Bad? Yes. Worst EVER? No. Mr. T. had his own cartoon, which featured a dog with a mohawk.

Still more:
Jem is truly, truly, truly outrageous.

One of my favorites:
How can you say that about Jem?

Jem is excitement, Jem is adventure, glamor and glitter, fashion and fame, Jem is truly outrageous!

That's taken from the theme song, by the way. Well played.

Another favorite:
That is TOTALLY Jem and the Holograms. That's Kimber in the hot tub!

Um, I shouldn't be admitting that I know that, should I? That's quite the odd coincidence, too, because I just ordered the DVD collection from Amazon. For my girlfriend. For Christmas. Really.

This, though, was the absolute best:
Not a fan of Jem? But she’s truly outrageous. Truly, truly, truly outrageous.

And yes, I knew which show that was a shot from without looking it up. Don’t judge.

I actually copied down some dialogue from the episode we watched:
Unaware of his feelings, Kimber was going to marry Jeff.

I've got my guy, he's got the ring.

I began to wonder if I could give up my carefree lifestyle.

Of course, with such lovely ladies, we always travel first class.

Wow! Look at that long limo.

Totally awesome, stylish, and hip.

I know that you are now begging for more, so watch the opening of the show.

Yes, it's all just as bad as that.

For Your Consideration

2011-12-06T18:37:00.000-06:00

I bought a bag of these chips while at Fry's, and they're quite tasty. A husky version of Munchos, essentially.

Console Post of the Week: Sony

2011-12-06T18:32:00.000-06:00

Chris Kohler sent me a link to a fascinating article about Sony titled What Is Sony Now?.

It's a fair question. Sony was once identified as being the cutting edge of cool, later transformed itself into a money-printing giant, and today it's neither. Plus here's one more shocker:
For the past nine years, the business that has accumulated more profit than the rest of Sony combined is financial services, mostly life insurance, with some auto insurance and banking.

Didn't see that coming, did you? Well, neither did I.

The basics, though, are not complicated. Other companies make televisions and computers and video game consoles with the same degree of innnovation and quality as Sony, but at lower prices. The huge profit drivers of the 1997-2000 era (televisions and video games) are gone, and there's nothing to take their place.

Sony, though, isn't giving up. Here's a clue:
Hirai says Sony has lowered TV sales targets and will continue to shed assets, cutting staff and factory capacity as it outsources more production. Echoing Stringer’s view that Sony needs to produce a “different kind of TV,” he says Sony is working on prototypes that replace commodity LCD and plasma TVs. “We’re going to move onto these new technologies sooner rather than later,” Hirai says. Sony hopes to get its cool back with ultralow-power, glasses-free 3D sets that double today’s resolution, though they’re not expected to be mainstream until at least 2013.

In other words, Sony can't win selling standard HD sets against Samsung, etc. What they are hoping to do, apparently, is be a leader in 4K-HD technology. With a standard resolution of 3840×2160, one of the early benefits of 4K-HD would be to enable 3D displays that could show full 1080P resolution to each eye. Also, many films and sporting events today are shot at 4K resolution, and a 4K display would theoretically be capable of displaying them at full resolution (I say theoretically because compression has an effect on image quality, and 4K programs would require more bandwidth or disc space, hence potentially more compression).

Sharp will have 4K display at CES in January, and the early buzz has been extremely positive. So Sony will (again) have stiff competition.

Interestingly, though, it's not just 4K tech moving forward. OLED seems to have come back from the semi-dead (at least on anything larger than a cellphone screen). 55-inch screens from both Samsung and LG will allegedly be at CES as well.

Does this mean you'll be able to buy a 55" OLED display next year? Probably not, unless you want to pay a gigantic premium. But a year ago, OLED looked like it might never be used in much more than cool cellphone displays. Now, with Samsung's significant investment in the technology, and cost breakthroughs in the manufacturing process, it looks like OLED for large HD displays is apparently "real" this time.

Back to Sony, and let's move on to the Vita. A still-unconfirmed report this week indicated that buying a Vita title through PSN and downloading it will cost 40% less than buying the physical disk. If true, this will be an interesting experiment in pricing, since a discount of that depth would be very tempting, even with losing the ability to resell the game.

Course, given the price of the proprietary memory cards ($120 for 32GB), it could be argued that Sony's willing to discount the games heavily because people still have to buy the memory cards to store them. At the top level, though, a 40% discount would at least qualify as something substantial.

Sony has to stop the bleeding, basically. And at least they're not sitting around and watching the future hit them in the face, which I've accused them of doing in the past. Swing the sword.

Quite A Find

2011-12-05T19:07:00.000-06:00

I believe that I have truly discovered the worst television program in history. Your clue:

Unbelievable, Or All Too Believable

2011-12-05T15:53:00.000-06:00

I think this is a reasonable way to establish when a policy is utterly idiotic: when the worst person you can think of shouldn't be treated that way.

From Rock, Paper, Shotgun (in this case, John Walker):
For the last week I’ve been sending quite a few emails to various people within EA, trying to get to the bottom of why gamers receiving forum bans are finding they do not have access to their Origin online gaming. My goal has been to get a clear understanding of their current policy on the matter, since the company’s actions don’t appear to match the statements made in 2008, and March this year. On both occasions they have made it clear that forum bans should not affect access to games, and yet it’s quite obvious that’s not the case. So what is going on?

...I’m building up quite the portfolio of affected gamers, who find after a forum violation they’re unable to access their Origin games. And within this is a more disturbing trend – those who are finding that their forum bans are, without explanation, becoming permanent bans. Permanent bans from accessing their Origin accounts, their Battlelog accounts, and therefore downloading purchased games, and playing online.

Wait, here's the kicker:
Most exceptional perhaps is Aaron, who after receiving a 72 hour ban was told by EA support they couldn’t help because “the game developers control this”. Pardon? His crime? Someone else swearing on the forum, with his username in their post. Trying the live chat support instead, he was then informed that his account was permanently banned, and that “all property, items, and characters associated currently are or will soon be deleted.” Followed by, “Is there anything else I can do for you?” Aaron tried again, pointing out that forum bans shouldn’t affect games. And then came this incredible reply:
“Please be informed that your account not only suspended, But it is also Banned, So you will no longer to play the game in single player.”

In an era where gaming consumers are getting less and less from big companies, this may set the new standard of shitty.

Look, here's the first reason that this policy should never exist on a practical level: you're giving forum mods of uncertain qualifications 300 tons of power. It's like letting a 5-year old drive an 18 wheeler: disaster is guaranteed.

Secondly, though, on a philosophical level, should the absolutely WORST person on Earth be banned from playing a multiplayer game because they're a forum dick? Of course not, because they are entirely separate activities. Banned from the forums? No problem. Banned from anything else because they're banned from the forums? Seriously?

It's even more incredible that, in some cases, people can't even play OFFLINE. I don't know about you, but I'm not paying $60 for a *$#damn game when it's apparently nothing more than a product rental based on what EA arbitrarily decides is "acceptable" forum conduct. My ability to play offline could be REVOKED based on my conduct in a forum?

This is what's killing me when I think about how we got to this point: the policy had to be approved by a chain of command at EA. WTF is in that chain? How could you find three or four consecutive people who thought this was a good idea? Do these people live at the bottom of wells or something?

Appalling.

I Don't Know What's Worse

2011-12-05T15:24:00.000-06:00

...Finding out that the "tattoo artist put an excrement tattoo on his girlfriend's because he found out she cheated on him" story is an urban legend, or finding out that the picture they used with the story actually IS real.

So that means a woman VOLUNTARILY had a pile of dung tattooed on her back. Interesting times, indeed.

Friday Links!

2011-12-02T00:13:00.068-06:00

Crap, sorry. I thought these were posting at 12:13 a.m., and that's how it's scheduled, but somehow Blogger didn't do it.

Steve Davis sent in a link to a wonderful, thoughtful article by Steve Martin titled Being Funny.

From Jonathan Arnold, a fantastic time- lapse video: 'Brinicle' ice finger of death filmed in Antarctic.

From Frank Regan, and this is entirely amazing, it's Octopus Walks on Land at Fitzgerald Marine Reserve.

From Caleb Forney, and this is quite remarkable, it's Gunkanjima: Ruins of a Forbidden Island.

From Sirius, a remarkable discovery: Four-winged dinosaur fossilized after swallowing a bird. Also, and this is just as interesting, it's Golden orb web spider spins ant-repellent silk. One more, and it's also from nature: Spider web stabilimenta.

From Nate Carpenter, and this will amaze you: World's smallest V12 engine.

From the Edwin Garcia Links Machine, a stunning piece of history: The Royal Anjou Bible. Here's another, and it's equally stunning: the Voynich Manuscript.

From Griffin Cheng, and this is completely entertaining, it's 10 Science Tricks To Make You the Most Interesting Person At Dinner.

From Kadunta, and I find it fascinating that comedy is one of the most difficult things to understand, it's The Joking Computer (hint: the jokes aren't very good, which is quite interesting in itself).

From Jesse Leimkuehler, and surely this is one of the greatest acts of revenge for a strayed love ever: Ryan Fitzgerald and the excrement tattoo.

From Michael Clayton, a glimpse into the future: Contact Lens Capable of Displaying Text and Images Is Almost at Hand.

Closing out this week, from DQ reader My Wife, and this is entirely adorable, it's "Teddy Bear," the porcupine, doesn't like to share....

The Precipice (part three)

2011-12-01T15:30:00.002-06:00

I sat down next to Eli 10.3 in the dressing room and put my hand on his shoulder. "I love you, buddy," I said, "and that was incredible."

"I lost the game," he said, crying.

"You didn't lose the game, but it's okay to cry," I said. "I know it hurts. But a little while from now, when you feel better, I want you to celebrate what you did today, because it was special."

A few of Eli's teammates had thrown their sticks as they entered the locker room, frustrated by four consecutive losses, and even more frustrated that the last game had slipped away. But it only took a few seconds for them to notice Eli in the corner, and when they did, a curious thing happened: they stopped being angry.

Over the course of the next few minutes, every single kid walked over to Eli. Some put their hand on his shoulder, a few put their arm around him, and all of them were kind. "Don't feel bad," one said. "We had no chance without you. None."

"That's the best I've ever seen a goalie play," said another.

Each time, their kindness would make Eli cry harder for a little while. And then the moms came in, and most of them came over and hugged Eli. He's a mom favorite, and they did everything they could to make him feel better, but it just made him start crying again.

It's hard, being a father, because there was nothing I wanted to do more than burst into tears. I couldn't, though. I had to be strong and positive for my son, to help him through, and whatever else I felt, I had to eat.

When we had his gear packed, we slowly started our way out of the arena. Eli was just wearing his black UnderArmor and his blue sneakers, his eyes red and swollen.

I was carrying his leg pads, and as we walked out into the lobby, I saw a few parents from the other team (travel team parents usually have "team jackets" that they wear, so it's easy to know who they are). Then another curious thing happened: they recognized the leg pads, and every single parent stopped me.

"Is that him? The goalie?" one parent asked, pointing at my sad little boy with the red eyes. "He was unbelievable. It was amazing." Another parent said, "He should feel great about how he played. He was brilliant." A few of them patted Eli on the shoulder, and he thanked them as he tried very hard not to start crying again.

There was a photography firm that took pictures during the tournament, and we had decided to buy a CD with all his pictures. It was going to take a little while, though, so we packed his gear in the car, then came back into the rink. One of his best friends was in goal for the Peewee final, and we both wanted to see him.

At first, I thought this might be a bad idea, but as it turned out, it was the single best thing to do. Eli was happy for his friend Miles, who played a great game, and we wound up getting to watch the entire game, even seeing the team accept the championship trophy. Eli was much better by the end of the game.

On the way home, we stopped at a restaurant, and we both went to the bathroom before we left. "I wish I could've thought of what to do," he said.

"You have a tool," I said.

He thought for a few seconds. "The poke check!" he said.

"That's right," I said. "And I want you to understand something. I know you were nervous in the shootout, but it wasn't your nerves. Preparation brings clarity, and you'd never even worked on shootouts before. You felt nervous because you weren't prepared. We're going to look at shootouts together, and you'll understand them, and you won't be nervous next time."

"I'll be ready," he said. He was quiet for a few seconds as we washed our hands.

"Hey, what did you feel?" I asked.

"A lot of things," he said. "But mostly, when the shootout started, I felt nervous."

"There are people who reach the precipice of something great," I said, "and when they look over the edge, they see what's in front of them and they get scared. But that's not you. I've never, ever seen a kid handle pressure the way you do. It was just lack of preparation, and when you're prepared, you'll step to the edge, see what's in front of you, and embrace it."

"Thanks, Dad," he said.

"You really were ridiculous today," I said. "Seriously--35 saves?"

He gave a little laugh. "I needed 36," he said.

Almost as soon as Gloria started the car for the drive home, he fell asleep. He slept for almost 2 hours, exhausted, and we were just about to reach Waco when he woke up. I knew immediately that he felt much better, and that the Enthusiasm Engine was already recharging.

We stopped at a Dairy Queen, and we saw what must be one of the greatest murals in history. "Do you see that?" I asked Eli.

"Oh my god," he said, laughing. "That's awesome."

Here's what we saw:

"What makes this totally classic," I said, "is that the cowboy has an ice cream mustache. That is so outstanding."

"Even better," Gloria said, "it's not a cowboy. It's a vaquero."

"You're right," I said. "That is awesome in every way."

We laughed about the vaquero with the ice cream mustache, and in the booth next to us, three cute little girls who were identical triplets sat with their father, eating the same ice cream cones as the vaquero riding trail above them. Eli smiled at the girls, then looked at me. "Ready, Dad?" he asked.

"Let's go home," I said.

We were still on the road when the sun started to go down. The sky was all clear, and the colors were beautiful, blue bending into orange into yellow. It was one of the biggest, loveliest sunsets I've ever seen, and we watched it together as the road unspooled and we headed home.

The Precipice (part two)

2011-11-30T17:39:00.001-06:00

Before I talk about the fourth game, I wanted to describe what our routine is like during a hockey tournament. Most people come and go based on when their games are played, but Eli 10.3 just wants to watch hockey. If he plays two games in a day, he'll watch three or four more. So we basically spend all day at the rink, leaving for brief periods of time to eat.

It's good time, even though it's tiring. Eli is never more relaxed than when he's watching hockey, and he's never happier.

Game four was on Sunday morning, and they faced a team from Fort Worth. Yes, it was another travel team, but they were one of the weakest teams in the pool, and Eli was in goal. Combined, I figured that gave us a puncher's chance.

"Three keys," I said to him in the dressing room. "Be aggressive and stay on your angle. Be clear. And stay in a powerful position on the ice, so that you can make more than one move."

"I feel really good today, Dad," he said.

"I love you and you should be proud of what you guys have done this weekend," I said. "Nobody's played harder. Enjoy the beautiful battle and remember how far you've come. A year and a half ago, you were learning to skate at spring break. Now look at where you are."

"I can hardly believe it," he said, laughing.

Usually, I can tell in warm-ups how Eli's going to play. Before the final game against McAllen two weeks ago, he didn't look sharp. He still played well, but there are times when he is absolutely dominant, and he wasn't like that in the final.

For this game, though, in warm-ups, it was the sharpest I've ever seen him. No one could score, and he was stopping an assortment of shots with almost no time in between. "He's razor sharp," I said Gloria. "He's going to play really, really well."

How well? In the first period, he had 14 saves. Yes, he gave up one goal on a rebound, but after getting outshot 14-3 in the period, his team was only down 1-0.

In case you're wondering, the length of the periods was 13 minutes, so those 14 saves represented 21 in the regular 20 minute NHL period.

In short, he was busy.

The second period started, and he was still red-hot. As he made save after save, the crowd noise started building. He was stopping everything: breakaways, point-blank shots, shots from range, wraparounds, high shots, low shots. He was a human action figure, Stretch Armstrong with a mask.

Our kids had been skating hard the whole game, but somehow they found an extra burst near the end of the second period. For the first time in over two games, they scored, and a minute later, they scored again. Incredibly, after two periods, the score was 2-1, and Eli had 24 saves.

Third period, though, had been a minefield in previous games, and the other team came out with wild energy. Within two minutes, they scored on a high shot that went just over Eli's glove and shoulder (even though he was standing). A minute later, they scored again, after Eli made a nice save on the initial shot, but couldn't get to the rebound.

It was 3-2, and it looked like it was going to get ugly.

But it didn't. Eli started making save after save--again--and they stayed in the game. He even made glove saves on two mid-air deflections, and I still have no idea how he tracked the redirect and adjusted his glove in time.

More and more people had wandered into the rink, and by this point, there were well over 100 people watching the game. And every time Eli made a save, they pounded on the glass. It got louder and louder, and still he roamed the crease with absolutely no fear, looking faster than I've ever seen him.

With two minutes to go, and the score still 3-2, I started to resign myself to a close loss. It had been a brilliant effort by everyone, not just Eli, because all of his teammates had skated their guts out. Sure, it's tough to lose four games in a row, but they were all going to be so much better after the experience.

I was already thinking about what I would say to Eli. It was a loss, but if it was possible for a 10-year-old to be transcendent, he had been. He had 35 saves in all, and most of them were highlight reel quality.

With just over a minute left, the coach pulled Eli to add an extra attacker.

Then we scored.

The arena collectively went insane. We were giddy. And 57 seconds later, the game was headed for a shootout. "We're going to win," said one mom, "because we have Eli in goal." That's what everyone thought.

Except me.

I knew the truth: that in House league, there are no shootouts, because there's not enough time. Ice time is always apportioned down to the minute, so when regulation time is over, the game is over.

Shootouts are very different, tactically, from regulation time. It's a version of chess on ice, really, and there are specific techniques that aren't instinctive--they have to be learned.

None of which Eli 10.3 had learned yet.

We shot first, and missed. Their player came down, deked about three times on Eli, and scored. I was afraid that he would be nervous--because he wasn't prepared--and lose his aggressiveness, and that's what happened. Instead of being disruptive and challenging, he just let the shooter do exactly what he had planned.

But our next kid scored, and their second skater hit the post, even though Eli was beaten, and when our next kid also scored, we were suddenly up 2-1. If Eli stopped the next shot, they would win a thrilling and unbelievable victory.

The shooter skated forward, and Eli came out, but I saw him retreating too quickly. The shooter deked left, then right, then shot along the ice. Eli went down in the butterfly, but he went laterally instead of diagonally to the post, and his left skate finished inches from reaching the puck as it slid past him.

Goal.

In another 45 seconds, our kid missed, their next shooter scored on yet another deke, and the game was over. Eli lay face down on the ice, crushed by what he had almost done. The other goalie on his team, who had played defenseman in this game, was the first one to reach him, and he helped Eli up and put his arm around him. And his teammates skated up and consoled him.

I headed back to the locker room because I knew he wouldn't stop as he came off the ice. When he walked in, he took off his Captain America mask, jersey, and shoulder pads. Then he sat down in his red goalie pants and suspenders (he has suspenders because he's too skinny to keep his pants up). He had been so big on the ice ten minutes before, so much larger than life, but with his gear off, he was still a skinny little boy. He sat on a bench in the corner, leaning back against the wall, big tears running silently down his face.

It was enough to break your heart. I know it broke mine.

Tomorrow: the aftermath.

The Precipice (part one)

2011-11-29T19:51:00.001-06:00

This is the last hockey story this year--promise.

We went to Dallas last weekend for another hockey tournament.

In Laredo, it was a "house" tournament. House players don't play in leagues outside their own program, at least not down here. Everyone gets to play, and the atmosphere, while it can be intense at times, is still somewhat casual. Your team doesn't have enough players? Well, you do have to forfeit the official tournament game, but we'd be happy to loan you a few of our players and we can still scrimmage.

That was Laredo.

When we pulled into Dallas, then went to the ice rink Friday morning, the first thing I saw was a dad reaming out his ten-year-old son in the pro shop. "You were on the first line to start the season," he said, speaking in a low voice. "Then you got moved to the second line. Now you're on the last line, and do you know why? Because you don't backcheck, and because you don't skate hard enough."

I think I know why--because dad's a douchebag.

Welcome to the big-time. How disappointing.

We continued to look at items in the pro shop, and Douchebag Dad continued talking. "Are you just going to throw away all the time you put into this?" He challenged.

That was my depressing introduction to the world of travel team tournaments.

A travel team tournament is a galaxy away from house tournaments. All these teams travel, they almost all have three full lines, and they've been practicing together three days a week for the last three months, plus playing league games every other weekend.

Us? Our team is the top 15 kids in the house program. They had four practices before the tournament. They also had regular house practices, but only four practices where they could practice with each other and work on tactics, etc.

In other words, all signs pointed to an ass-beating.

However, that was okay. If these kids had all gone to Laredo as a team, they would've won every game by five goals and learned nothing, because their bad habits wouldn't have mattered. In this tournament, though, bad habits would be exposed, and the whole point of this "House+" team was to create an environment where the kids could get better.

Eli was thrilled, of course. In Laredo, there were about nine teams in three divisions. In Dallas, there were six teams in his division alone, and 14 squirt teams total. Adding up all divisions and ages, there were at least 40 teams. Even better, since the Austin squirt and peewee travel teams were also there, and he has friends on both teams, he had even more friends to hang out with.

Their first game was Friday morning. They were in the "bronze" division, and in the squirt age group, there were bronze, silver, and gold groups. Basically, "B" league travel teams played in bronze, "A" played in silver, and "AA" played in gold.

Well, except for us. Our team was playing up to be in the bronze division. Way, way up. It was the equivalent of a YMCA soccer team playing in a Select tournament. Even tougher, their first opponent was an "A" league team playing down.

Eli played as a defenseman in the first game, and it was ugly. Kids weren't in the right places, there were lots of breakaways--it was an 8-2 disaster, and it wasn't nearly as close as the final score. He only made one mental mistake-- getting beat to the inside in a 1-1 situation--but twice he was in position to intercept centering passes and the puck bounced over his stick (and both turned into goals).

After the game, kids were mad, especially the goalie, who struggles with his emotions when things aren't going well. Most of the kids are used to dominating House league, and they were in angry shock over the new reality. Eli went around and quietly talked to almost every kid, encouraging them. The ten-year-old who acts like a grizzled veteran.

Game two was Saturday morning, and Eli was in goal. And he was hot. It was a shooting gallery, but he was playing even better than he had the weekend before. After one period, he had 12 saves, all of them on close range shots, but the score was only 1-0.

It was still 1-0 after the second period, even though we were getting outshot 3-1. Then legs went dead, kids couldn't keep up anymore, and the third period lasted a long time. Eli gave up three goals in the period, two of which were stellar shots.

The final was 4-0, but he had 29 saves and had been terrific. A goalie parent from another team stopped after the game and said, "Boy, he can really play."

Kids were disappointed in the locker room, but it was different this time. They played much better, the game had been close for a long time, and it didn't feel hopeless all. Eli was down, but he rallied the troops again, and nobody looked defeated.

While he was taking off his gear, his coach came by and handed him a patch. It was for Player Of The Game, and when Eli realized what it was, it was like his coach had handed him the Stanley Cup. He was so proud.

Two hours later, they played their third game, and Eli was a defenseman. It went much the way of the second game--hopelessly outshot, terrific goaltending, and only 1-0 at the start of the third. Eli had his best game on defense ever, stopping a ton of 1-1 and even 2-1 situations, protecting the goalie, and sweeping away rebounds.

The third period, unfortunately, was almost identical as well, with the other team scoring three goals and a 4-0 final. As soon as the game ended, though, Eli skated off the bench and went directly to the goalie, putting his arms around him and talking to him. Yes, he'd given up four goals, but it was the best game I've ever seen him play, and I think that's what Eli told him. It was a singular moment in that most kids will tap goalie on the pads or make some kind of minimal gesture in a loss, but Eli stood with him for a good 10-15 seconds with no one else around.

Even though we were generally getting our heads handed to us, it was remarkable to see the improvement from game to game. Better discipline, Harder skating, and a degree of tenacity that you just don't expect from 10-year-olds. I couldn't imagine anyone wanting to play them, because the amount of work it took to score each goal was off the charts.

0-3 in the tournament, outscored 16-2, but they had one more game, and it was against the second worst team in the division.

That game was really, really something.

Tomorrow: game four.

Run, Big Man, Run!

2011-11-28T17:27:00.000-06:00

watch #60

The Aftermath

2011-11-28T14:03:00.000-06:00

I know this is highly unusual for me, but I may not post anything today (besides this, obviously). Eli 10.3 had another hockey tournament in Dallas last weekend, we were there for four days, and it was exhausting. It made the trip to Laredo look peaceful in comparison.

I don't know how a ten-year-old can accumulate stories like this, but believe me, this tournament was epic beyond all belief. It was exhilarating and very, very sad, depending on the moment. I am so worn out emotionally that I feel hollow inside.

I know I wrote about a hockey tournament last week, but I'll probably be writing about this one as well. Apologies for the one-note content.

Friday Links!

2011-11-25T00:06:00.012-06:00

A little light with Thanksgiving week cutting e-mail volume in half, but we're still puttering along.

From Stephen Kreuch, another strange pillow (obviously, invented by the Japanese): Robotic bear pillow stops your snoring by gently mauling your face.

Adorably cute owl video.

DQ Rugby Advisor Scott Gould sent in what may be the most improbable scoring drive in rugby history (41 phases): Ronan O'Gara Winning Drop Goal v Northampton.

From Shane Courtrille, a remarkable project: The 10,000 Year Clock.

From Steve Davis, and this is so beautifully old-school: Mechanical Computer for Camera Settings.

From Jean-François Boismenu, a fascinating article about security, and how little we know about it: what you don't know about your Apps.

From Meg McReynolds, and this is fascinating: Why Is China Building These Gigantic Structures In the Middle of the Desert?

here's an absolutely terrific link from the Edwin Garcia Links Machine: Handmade Portraits: The Sword Maker.

From Sirius, and this is quite interesting: Europa appears to have an enormous lake of water. Also, this is intriguing, it's An "out-of-place-artifact" (OOPA) discovered in Alaska.

EBGDAE #16: I'm Still Playing

2011-11-24T13:49:00.001-06:00

Trailbreaker John Harwood is in the lead position this week. It's all John starting now:
I've certainly remained motivated by Rocksmith more than I ever was with RB3 Pro guitar. RB3 had slipped firmly into the chore category by this point, while playing in RS or working through Justin's lessons remains in my upper tier of preferred leisure time activities. Best example is chords: Chords are now fun, something I look forward to in a song, and has been keeping me over at Justin's site alot lately. Chords used to be a real pain, something that I had to get through so I could start having fun and a real point of frustration. It's night and day being able to actually hear what you play. If RB3 had been able to register notes without the mute on, it might have been a very different experience. I'm now finding myself increasingly fascinated with my tone and the sound of the chords and that was never even a consideration before. Heck, I even have favorite chords because I just like how they sound.

I'm getting around on the fretboard much better (thank you Scale Runner!) and much much more comfortable picking different individual strings. The Bermuda Fretboard area has shrunk to the 15th frets and above on the upper 3 strings instead of just generally anywhere north of the 9th fret. But yet, I can't really progress much further in most of the songs without really learning my chords by name and not just by fret number and string color. I'm nearly over the hump with that and am starting to delight in chord shapes for picking individual notes and that has drastically cut down on the amount of unnecessary movement around on the fretboard I was doing and is really helping make the guitar into a more intuitive musical instrument than just a very complex video game peripheral.

One of the most surprising things thus far is how often I find myself not looking at the screen, yet still playing. I never really did memorize much of anything in RB because it was just buttons to push and I could keep up just fine sightreading. RS on the other hand just innately encourages you to learn the songs rather than just playing along. I know I'm not supposed to look down at the guitar any more than necessary, but I find it very cool just how often I can look down for good chunks of time or practice a riff or couple of chords while in loading screens. Likewise, I'm finding that more often than not, I don't necessarily need to know that the next couple of notes are 2 frets above because I can hear that's about where the next note sounds like it should be and if I miss, I very quickly know that wasn't it and can adjust. I'd never fully realized what a disservice the "plunk" of a missed note in RB3 was compared to hearing your note *and* the correct note.

Now if I can just go memorize all of the chords to House of the Rising Sun real quick. Damn, but I really want to learn that song!

We Are the Champions, Statistically, of the World, More Or Less (Part 3)

2011-11-23T14:43:00.001-06:00

"I know you're feeling terrible," I said to Eli 10.2 in the locker room. "And I know you're upset with Jarret [the star]."

"The first goal was his fault," Eli said through his tears. "And he deflected the third goal--I was going to stop the shot."

"I know," I said. "But when you calm down, you need to go talk to him. He's only eight. He had so much pressure on him, and now he's over there feeling totally alone. You need to go tell him it's okay."

Jarret was sitting at the other end of the locker room, crying hard, with his head in his hands. Eli looked toward him. "I can't do it yet," he said, another tear falling.

"That's okay," I said. "You just need to do it before we leave. It's a good time for you to be a leader. Anyone can lead after a win."

We sat there for a few more minutes, and the tears slowed down, then stopped. Gloria and I helped him with his gear, his eyes still watery, and when the bag was packed, he said, "Let's go."

"Jarret," I said. "Then we'll go."

I could see that Eli was struggling, trying to compose himself as he walked over. Jarret was still crying, and Eli leaned over, put his hand on his shoulder, and spoke to him softly. I couldn't hear what he was saying, but I saw Jarret's dad nodding while he talked. Jarret didn't say much, but Eli talked to him for a few minutes, and he had stopped crying by the time Eli was done.

Eli walked back over to us. "I know that was the hardest thing you've done all weekend," I said. "Well done."

There's a Carino's in Laredo where we ate after the championship game last year, and for a combination of reasons, it was spectacular. Eli said he wanted to go there again.

On the way, he complained about everything.

"I've come here for TWO YEARS and lost in the championship both times," he said. "Nothing went right today. Everything has gone wrong."

By the time we got to the restaurant, it was lunch rush hour, and we saw a few people sitting on benches. "Oh, no," he said. "Now we're going to have to wait. Of course. EVERYTHING has gone wrong today."

We didn't have to wait (please note that this did not count as something going right), and sat down at a table with a good view of an HD screen showing an NFL game.

We didn't say anything for a while. I knew he was hurting, and it was a new kind of hurt. It's hard for grown-ups to handle that, let alone kids.

After a few minutes, I picked up his child's menu, which was on one sheet of paper. I neatly folded it and took off a strip of paper about 3" wide. Then I started folding it like a flag is folded, which makes a triangle shape.

"What is that?" he asked.

"A paper football," I said. "When I was a kid, we played paper football on our desks whenever we had a few minutes."

"I DO NOT believe you," he said.

I started sliding the paper football back and forth across the table top. "So you slide it back and forth," I said, "and if you get part of the football over the edge, it's a touchdown."

I slid the football toward him. He waited a few seconds, then pushed it back with his finger. I pushed it back towards him. After a few tries, he pushed it and the football just reached the edge of the table, with the point hanging over. "Here's how you check for a touchdown," I said. "You slide your finger along the edge of the table at a ninety degree angle, and if the football moves, it's a touchdown."

I did, and it moved. "TOUCHDOWN!" he said.

"Time for the extra point," I said, making goalposts with my hands. I showed him how to hold the football in place and kick it with his finger, which he thought was very silly (it is, which is one of the reasons I love paper football). He kicked and it hit the crossbar (my index fingers), then tumbled over.

"It's good!" he said.

We played for about 15 minutes while we were awaiting for our food. I taught him about footballs over the edge, and how three meant a field goal attempt for the other player. My attempts at kicking were so pathetic that he started giggling every time I lined one up. We also tried a few kicks over the breadbasket and assorted trick shots.

He blasted one kick over the table on an extra point. "Nice kick, Sebastian Fingerowski," I said, and he cracked up.

"Fingerowski," he said. "Good one, Dad!"

I was behind 36-30, but I just needed one more touchdown before the food came. Then Eli pushed the football halfway over the edge. "YES!" he said, and before he could kick the extra point, the food came.

Final score, 42-30.

"Good game, Dad," he said, tearing into his spaghetti.

"Same," I said.

We had an excellent dinner, and when we got back on the road, he was asleep within 15 minutes, not waking up until we were just outside San Antonio. We stopped at McDonald's to get drinks.

"I know it's hard to hear this now," I said, "but those three games were epic. They were unbelievable."

"They were, weren't they?" he said. "It was really exciting."

"Oh, you know something else?" I asked. "Corpus doesn't score many goals, and you scored three for them, so you might be their leading scorer for the season, and you don't even live there."

"That would be AWESOME!" he said.

"Maybe you'll get a plaque or something," I said, laughing.

"You know," he said, "we played McAllen twice and beat them once. And the score of those two games combined was 5-4. So really, we kind of won." Then he started singing: "WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS, statistically, OF THE WORLD, more or less."

We had a nice drive home.

Gamers With Jobs For Child's Play

2011-11-22T21:23:00.000-06:00

Gamers With Jobs is having a fundraiser for Child's Play, and it involves an entirely spiffy GWJ poster that you can purchase. All the profits go to Child's Play, and the poster itself is entirely fantastic. So go take a look at the GWJ Unofficial Swag page and order a poster if you're so inclined.

We Are the Champions, Statistically, of the World, More Or Less (Part 2)

2011-11-22T19:29:00.000-06:00

Ah, the joys of a 6:30AM Sunday game after not sleeping the night before because the people next door were trying to party like it was 1999. Plus, this game was against Laredo, and if Eli's team won, they were guaranteed a spot in the finals.

The thing about being in a rink at 6:30 is that once you step in, you have no sense of time, so it doesn't feel like pre-dawn or anything else. It just feels like rink time.

Eli played as a defenseman for this game, with his friend Sean in goal, and it was tough. Laredo clearly wasn't as good as McAllen, but we were clearly not as good as the day before, and it was a tight, tight game. But they held on for a 4-3 win, putting them in the finals.

It wasn't Eli's best game--he made good decisions with the puck, but clearly wasn't skating as fast as usual--but he made it through, and the coach had already told him that he would be in goal for the finals.

We went back to the hotel, ate breakfast, and then came back for the game between McAllen and Laredo, because the winner would be their opponent in the finals.

When we got there, it was 2-2 in the first period.

McAllen's best player (#99) weighed about (I'm not kidding) 150 lbs. He was huge, and he could skate very well. Laredo had very little defensive discipline, and he started getting loose on breakaways.

After two periods, it was 11-2 McAllen, and that one kid had six goals. That's when I fully realized how well had Eli played in goal against them, and how well our kids had skated.

And how unlikely it was for both to happen again. See, at the end of Scarface, Al Pacino does finally get killed.

"Okay," Eli 10.2 said. "Let's go." We went back to the hotel and hung out for a while, because the game wasn't until 12:10. But it didn't feel right to be sitting around, because Eli never sits around. We had this plush ball about the size of a softball, so we took it outside and threw it around for a while. The wind was crazy, and the ball was so light that it was like throwing a knuckleball. It was just a simple, goofy thing to do, but it was good time, not nervous time.

When we went back to the arena, we went early (we always go early--Eli wants to be at the rink all day long), but again, we were sitting around too much. We went outside and I saw that there was a series of messages (created with those peel-and-stick letters) near the front door about what couldn't be brought into the arena.

It was huge list, with nine or ten different items, but at least half of the letters were missing.

"Clearly, we need to figure this out," I said.

A typical line would look something like this (I'm still pissed that I didn't take a picture, because I intended to):
"N R ERS O S O LER"

That's not an exaggeration--every line was like that. Stare at it long enough, though, and eventually, the words appear: "NO CARRIERS OR STROLLERS."

We spent at least 15 minutes trying to puzzle through the lines, and finally got down to the very last one, but it stumped us (another reason I wanted to take a picture, so you guys could figure it out). We did figure out "NO LONG CHAINS WITH", though, from " O ON HA S W TH" (or something very close to that).

Once we finished playing Arena Door Wheel Of Fortune, it was time for him to get dressed. We always talk a little before he goes out. "Don't try to be Superman," I said. "That will just cloud up your head. Just be yourself. Stay on your angle, be aggressive, and be clear. And don't show them anything--no emotions--because they're afraid of you. How funny is that? They're the most dominant house team in the southern half of the state, and they're afraid of you."

He laughed. "I know, it's just crazy, isn't it?" he said. "I'm a little nervous, but I'm not afraid."

"You know all those McAllen fans with flags?" I asked. Some of their fans bring these big flags with their team logo (Killer Bees) on it, and they waved them like crazy when they score. "You're going to shut down those flags."

"That's going to feel awesome," he said.

I felt like I was sending a tiny sailor to his death at sea. "I have an awful feeling about this game," I told Gloria on the way to the stands. "We're going to get our asses kicked."

"I've never heard you say that before," she said.

"I know," I said. "I've never felt it before."

The game started, and in the first minute, McAllen had a breakaway. #99. So this kid who weighed at least twice what Eli weighs was bearing down on him, but Eli was fearless, like he always is in goal. The kid didn't try to deke him, but shot low, and Eli kicked it away with his pad.

Then #99 got another breakaway. And another. On the third, he scored, even though Eli was in perfect position to make the save, but the shot was so fast that it went under him a split-second before he got down.

To make it worse, our best player and leading scorer had been skating 1-on-5 near the blue line and had gotten the puck stolen, and no one could chase down the breakaway. It was an awful, awful play, and seeing our best player get schooled like that, I was afraid it was going to turn into disaster.

It didn't, though. Breakaway after breakaway, most of them by #99, but Eli was fighting them off. It was only 1-0 after the first period. In the second, #99 scored again (Eli said the kid had the heel of his stick on the puck, then used the front of his stick to lift up Eli's goalie stick, then slid the puck through the gap, which is pretty freaking impressive). A few minutes after that, though, we scored an ugly goal on a shoved-in rebound, and it was 2-1.

Then our star finally got a breakaway and was almost tackled as he neared the goal. Penalty shot.

It was easy to feel what was happening. Momentum was shifting, we were handling their rushes better, and our guy was about to get going. He was going to score on this penalty shot, the game would be tied, and Eli would shut them down for the rest of the game.

It felt like that, all right, but as soon as I saw our star gather the puck, I knew it was all wrong. He was skating so fast that it was hard for him to control the puck, and when he shot, the puck never went off the ice, deflecting harmlessly off the goalie's leg pad.

After that, the momentum was gone. The kids fought hard--it was still 2-1 with 3:30 left in the third period--but on one last breakaway, their star scored again. Eli had read the shot perfectly and was in position to make the save, but the puck went under him again.

Final score: 3-1, McAllen.

I knew it was going to be very tough in the dressing room, and it was. Eli was crying, and in between tears he said, "They let me down, and I let everybody down," he said. That was an accurate description--his defense was terrible, but he still could've stopped all three shots that scored. He was bereft.

So was our star, who had what was surely the worst game he's ever played. He was crying harder than Eli. Other kids were teary, some were mad, and all of them were disappointed.

TOMOROW: The aftermath (sorry, I meant to finish today, but the length got away from me, which should come as no surprise).

We Are the Champions, Statistically, of the World, More Or Less (Part 1)

2011-11-21T19:15:00.000-06:00

"I'M COMIN' OUT STEAMIN'!" Eli 10.2 was the first kid out of school on Friday because we were driving to Laredo for a hockey tournament. He exited at Mach 4, his backpack wheels smoking as he walked down the sidewalk. "LET'S GO!"

The Enthusiasm Engine.

It promised to be an interesting tournament. The two best players on Eli's team (besides Eli) were only eight years old, they were facing some very salty house teams, and Eli had just gotten his cast off two weeks ago.

What wound up happening, though, was much more than interesting.

The toughest team they played last year was a team from McAllen. It was basically a travel team that didn't travel--except to tournaments--and they played some house tournaments. That's how they wound up in the Austin tournament last year, averaging over 10 goals per game and winning by about the same margin.

It was ugly.

This year, their first game in the tournament was going to be against this team, and Eli specifically asked for the game. He wanted to be in goal.

"Look, this game may get out of hand," I said. "That's not what's important, though. What's important is how you respond. The score doesn't matter, and the last shot doesn't matter. Every shot is a beautiful battle, if that makes any sense."

"It does," he said. "I know exactly what you mean."

"So don't think about anything beyond keeping your head clear," I said. "You might pile up 40 saves in this game. Just stay focused and stop everything you can."

That's what I thought, anyway.

What I hadn't expected, though, was that Eli 10.2 would be like Al Pacino in Scarface, laughing on the stairway landing as 50 guys tried to kill him because they couldn't.

Kick saves. Glove saves. Blocker saves. Stick saves. Saves I couldn't even describe. 22 in all, many of them on breakaways, and only one goal allowed. We were getting outskated, but it didn't matter. He made one crazy save after another, as quick as any kid his age I've ever seen, and his team won 4-1.

I was walking past McAllen's locker room on the way back to take off his pads, and I heard a kid say, "That goalie had SO MANY saves."

Why, yes. Yes, he did.

Corpus Christi always brings a team to these house tournaments, but it's almost impossible for the kids to get ice time, so they don't have many players. Eli subbed for them last year, so when they needed extra players again, he was ready to go.

They were still outmatched, but he played hard for them in the next two games. In the first game, an 8-2 loss, he had a goal and an assist. In the second game (against Laredo), he started out on defense, but behind 7-1, the coach switched him to center for the third period.

Early on in the third, he was high-sticked near the net, and he turned around to briefly complain to the referee (which is something you don't do). He glided a bit as he talked, winding up directly in front of the net, and when he looked up, a perfect pass was coming his way, which he proceeded to bury.

7-2.

After that, he started causing all kinds of havoc on offense, and momentum was definitely shifting. It was 7-3 when he got loose on a breakaway and scored again. 7-4. Then he set up a teammate with a pass right to his stick in front of the net--wide open--but he missed the shot.

After that, Laredo scored, and scored again. It was 10-4 in the last 5 seconds of the game when Eli got the puck, and he was on a breakaway. He shot--and scored--one second after the airhorn went off. One second away from his first hat trick.

"Dad, did you see that?" He said as he skated off.

"I did," I said. "Maybe you could've gotten that third goal if you'd argued with the referee again." He laughed.

The Corpus coaches and parents couldn't have been nicer, and Eli wanted to sub in their third game (that started at 8:30 p.m.), but with a 6:30 game in the morning with his own team, I thought that was enough for one day.

He was, of course, outraged. In a good way.

Tomorrow: the conclusion.

Friday Links!

2011-11-18T00:06:00.000-06:00

DQ reader Mike Rozak's friend Derek DelGaudio is a phenomenal card magician, and by "phenomenal" I mean "this video will blow your mind." So watch it.

From Steffen Vulpius, a follow-up on the cold fusion "breakthrough" claim of a few months ago: What to make of Andrea Rossi's apparent cold fusion success.

From DQ Legal Advisor Lee Rawles, and if you're a Star Wars fan, it's your lucky day: photos taken from the sandy set of "Return Of The Jedi".

There are a series of excellent links from Griffin Cheng. First, this is incredible, it's Watch this 230-ton Airbus A330 Stopping In Midair for a Few Seconds. Next, and this is very cool, it's From Poor to Rich to Richest: What Biking Through New York City in 5 Minutes Looks Like. One more, and it's Spectacular rainbow volcano on Mars.

From Jeff Pinard, and this video is quite spectacular: Nanotechnology Mirage Effect.

From Sean Redlitz, and while I might not agree with this article, it's a thoughtful read: A Brief Rant on the Future of Interactive Design.

From Jeremy Fisher, and this is both clever and cute: Angry Birds Seasons Ham'O'Ween.

From Frank Regan, and this is stunning (as well as the most submitted link, by far, this week): Earth | Time Lapse View from Space, Fly Over | NASA, ISS. Also, an image that explains the phenomenon known as Troxler's Fading.

From Robb, and it's related to the book about memory I mentioned last week: Woman With Perfect Memory Baffles Scientists.

From Steve Davis, and this video will astonish you: Live demo of the Japanese archer automaton. Absolutely incredible. Also from Steve, it's Self-Assembling Objects – at Home. One more, and it's one of the coolest Kickstarter projects I've ever seen: The Lightning Foundry ("Two 10-story Tesla Coil towers will fill an area the size of a football field with lightning-like discharges hundreds of feet in length"). Holy crap.

From Phil Honeywell, and if you ever wanted to see the excitement of a Washington State football game via tilt-shift photography, then you're golden: WSU Seattle Tilt Shift Football Game .

From Steven Kreuch, a site full of personal and interesting videos: Everynone. Also, a wonderful story about the pilot who dropped candy from his plane into West Berlin in 1948: The Candy Bomber.

From Jaby Jacob, and its technology I don't think I've ever seen before: 360 video.

EBGDAE #16: I'm Still Playing

2011-11-17T19:13:00.000-06:00

This week, it's my turn, although trailblazer John Harwood (whose career score in Rocksmith OBLITERATES mine) wanted me to mention that you can read a Q&A with a Rocksmith developer on Reddit here.

Highlights (from John):
--Bass support definitely coming "next year"
--3-5 DLC songs coming every 2 weeks
--Several bands that had initially dismissed licensing outright approached the developers a week after release wanting to get in.

Bass support certainly does not suck.

Also of note, I purchased both "Jessica" and "More Than a Feeling" on Tuesday, and they're both terrific. Jessica was absolutely my favorite Rock Band song in the "pre-real guitar" era, and it's a huge pleasure to actually play it on a real guitar now, even if I'm just playing single notes.

Okay, I've certainly hinted at this in the last few weeks, but let's get right to it: this game is killer. KILLER.

Why? A list.
1. Hearing what you are playing forces you to focus on note production and sound quality. In the last three weeks, my finger placement and tone has improved dramatically, and it's all because I could hear how crappy I sounded. There are so many nuances to finger placement that I would have never understood without hearing how I sound.
2. The dynamic difficulty system is unfathomably brilliant. I'm always on the very edge of my competence, and often beyond, and I am never allowed to coast. Because of that, my rate of learning has been ridiculously high, because my brain is constantly being forced to adjust. I cannot emphasize enough how well this feature is implemented.
3. Also because of dynamic difficulty, I don't hit a wall. There are always options for me in my career, some more difficult than others, but I never feel like I'm going sideways. I'm doing chords now, and they're certainly challenging, but there's always somehwere I can improve. As an example, see #4 below.
4. Believe it or not, in addition to the standard "musician's career", Rocksmith also has arcade games, and even more unbelievably, most of them are an absolute blast. There's a baseball game that challenges you to hit individual notes, and if you do, you get hits, score runs, etc. and it doesn't look like some half-ass piece of work, either--it's actually quite well-done. There's another mini-game called "Dawn of the Chorded", with zombies approaching your bunker position, and the way you fire your guns is to play the specified chord (you can see the chord shape on the screen).

Learning how to play chords is hard work, and it's dull, really--there's just no way around it. Including a game that's cleverly designed, though, breaks up the monotony, and I've already noticed a difference in how quickly I can shift my hands around the fret board.

The biggest endorsement I can give this game is that I want to play it every day. I can play some of my favorite songs, I can work on my career score, or I can just play arcade games. There are enough options that it keeps feeling fresh to me, which must be the single most important thing when learning how to play the guitar, because it takes so much practice.

If you're wondering about the review scores, don't. In fact, some of the worst reviews I've read have been about this game.

Case in point: the Kotaku review, which is one of the single least-competent reviews I've ever read, and something that never should have been published.

When you first boot up the game, you see a visual that explains how to connect your audio for minimum latency (in short, use analog cables). You will see this screen every time you boot up the game. You will also see the same information in the information ticker that scrolls across the screen at menus. It's also in the tiny manual that comes with the game, I believe.

It's freaking everywhere.

So what does this reviewer do? Let him tell you:
Rocksmith's most immediate—and most problematic—issue is lag. After plugging my guitar (a G&L Telecaster) into my PS3 using Rocksmith's included USB-to-1/4" cable, I played a few notes and immediately noticed the lag between when I hit the string and when the note sounded on my TV's speakers.

Software recording programs like Pro Tools and Logic often use what's called "low-latency monitoring" to deal with lag, which usually requires immediately flipping a dry signal back through the monitor speakers while simultaneously routing it into the recording software for processing. Rocksmith is, perhaps unsurprisingly, incapable of this trick, partly because in order to provide the guitar tones it's emulating, it has to slow down for at least a fraction of a second and process the dry audio from the guitar. I should note that lag will differ depending on your setup—I was running audio through an HDMI cable into my HDTV. Analog audio cables straight from the console probably help with this. But no matter what, there's gonna be some lag, and furthermore, I'd rather not rejigger my PS3's entire cable setup just to get the game more functional.

That's awesome--Rocksmith can't "flip a dry signal back through the monitor speakers while simultaneously routing it into the recording software for processing," an apparently heinous omission. Meanwhile, this dumbass can't connect analog audio cables, which should take anyone less than five minutes.

Because of this utter lack of effort, it's a terrible review, and it's completely unfair to the game. Even worse, this guy is a legitimate musician (taken from the review):
I studied jazz saxophone at an intense music school and play a whole bunch of other instruments these days as well, including the guitar. (Here's me onstage looping a bunch of instruments at a show.) I've worked as a professional musician ever since graduating, gigging around San Francisco, composing and arranging music on commission, producing shows and recording bands, and I spent the last seven years directing a jazz ensemble at a local independent high school.

And yet you can't connect analog cables. Shame, that.

Surprisingly, this may not be a coincidence--a "real" musician bagging on the game. David Gloier send me this last week:
I've never been more irritated by reviews of a game than I have the ones for Rocksmith. "You won't become a real guitarist playing Rocksmith", "it doesn't do bla-bla-bla", "I've played guitar in a real band and this is a joke", etc...shit like that. First off, anyone with legitimate experience playing the guitar (i.e. - playing in a real band) really has no business reviewing this game. It's not for them. As I mentioned before, a large number of guitar players exist that hate the fact a learning tool is out there that they didn't have the privilege to use. I've been on guitar boards where guys refuse to even acknowledge that Rocksmith uses a real guitar, continually making references to playing with a toy guitar, even though I specifically tell them you use a real guitar plugged into the game, and have posted links that show them as much. It's like they don't want to admit it exists.

In other words, fear the "professional musician" review, unless you're a professional musician. For this game, I recommend other sources.

Overall, if you want to learn guitar, or want to learn new songs more quickly, Rocksmith is a terrific teaching tool. It's fun, it's diverse, and it makes practice interesting instead of drudgery.

And I'll be playing again in a few minutes.

Console Post Of The Week: Fuel For What Is Still A Tiny Fire

2011-11-17T15:18:00.000-06:00

From Edge:
Ubisoft Montreal is hard at work on 'target boxes' based on the intended specifications of Microsoft’s Xbox 360 successor, according to an Edge source. Delivery of the first iteration of genuine devkits, running custom hardware, is expected to reach studios before Christmas, and all signs point to the finalised console arriving at retail in late 2012.

...We can also reveal that one major Sony-owned studio has now ceased PlayStation 3 development, its entire focus having shifted to the console’s successor. The studio is also said to have been involved in the development process of the graphics technology adopted by Sony’s new hardware.

It's about time.

We all knew this was coming, but just didn't know when. And while this report might be premature, it has the ring of truth this time (unlike earlier reports that always seemed a bit sketchy).

This could be the last generation of standalone consoles--at the very least, I think it's the last generation with three major players. However, it is also fair to say that the Xbox 360/PS3 aren't really "standalone"-- they both have so many different possible functions that they already qualify as convergence devices. It's probably more accurate to say that gaming is the centerpiece of these consoles.

The new consoles will extend the functional diffusion, and quite possibly, their chances of success will depend on taking an approach like the one taken by the Kindle Fire:
Instead of having a standalone shopping app the entire tablet is a store -- a 7-inch window sold at a cut-rate price through which users can look onto a sea of premium content.

Certainly, that's the future, and Amazon, as usual, is pushing ahead with low-cost hardware to get the "device that buys stuff" into the hands of as many people as possible.

In this era, I think that's the way to make money, because each unit can be its own revenue stream, with almost unlimited downloadable content available. That's why it's stupid to charge a fortune for the hardware, or design hardware that costs a fortune. It's unnecessary, and it gets in the way. It's not exactly selling the razor at a loss and making it up (and more) on the blades, but it's in the ballpark.

Writings Of Mass Deduction

2011-11-16T17:51:00.008-06:00

DQ reader Steven Hurdle sent me an e-mail:
A year ago, frustrated with what I saw as short-shrift being given to passionate independent developers, I began a project to purchase and review a quality Xbox Live Indie Game every day. My idea was to prove that the indie games channel was so much more than just avatar massage games, and that doing reviews over a large number of consecutive days would help prove that. I also limited myself to games not well represented in the top-50 lists in the Xbox dashboard, in the hopes of finding the hidden gems beyond the few good ones that do get regular attention on message boards and websites.

Somehow I find myself doing the 365th review tomorrow (Thursday). I wouldn't have dreamed I'd get that far, having either run out of good games by now (I won't review games I think are of poor quality), or having life issues get in the way. But there we go.

The site is Writings of Mass Deduction and I thought I would let you know about the project. I don't know how far I'll be able to take it (to a degree it depends on whether XBLIG developers keep turning out good content or not). In an era of major publishers trying to only publish AAA games, indie games have an opportunity to step up to the plate and to fill that B-game role that the major publishers are ceding. It's also an opportunity for racing games, rhythm games, and any other genre that is getting squeezed for retail shelf space. For those reasons and more, I know own hundreds of indie games and I'm loving it.

There are too many games to know where to even start in what to recommend, but one I bought early on that I want you to know about is Battle Beat (purchased way back on Day 30). This is a game that puts traditional Guitar Hero/Rock Band guitar controllers to great use, with a tremendous amount of personality and flair.

That's both a great idea and an absolutely incredible amount of writing. What's also quite remarkable is that Stephen noted he doesn't review the bad games; in other words, he may play several games each day before he finds one worthy of review.

I would usually mention a reader's website in Friday Links, but Steven's site is so useful and fills such a gap that it deserved its own post.

The Future In The Present (part #3 or so)

2011-11-16T14:02:00.001-06:00

From the WayBack Machine of A Few Weeks Ago, I noted that Android phones supporting version 4.0 of the OS had both HDMI output and support for USB controllers.

Apple has its own version of "future in the present", and reader Mike Dunn explains it:
I have this and have played it:
Real Racing 2 with 1080p output .

There are multiple ways you can play this game:
1. The way described in the article--plugging your iPad into the tv.
2. If you have an iPad AND AppleTV you don't even need the cord, you just stream from your device to the tv (Dual Screen AirPlay Gaming Demo with Real Racing 2 HD).
3. There is multiplayer that allows iphones to join in on the racing fun as well.

Now, obviously this is on iPad, but it's available for iPhone as well.

Very interesting, and here's more, from Matt Shields:
When I saw your note about USB gamepads plugging into mobile devices, plugging into TVs, I wondered if you'd seen this:
AirPlay Mirroring on iPad 2.

It's an iPad 2, wirelessly transmitting game video to an HDTV. It's acting as both the console, controller and supplemental display for various videogames. And it works. Today. (Game demos proper starting at ~1m 36s). Granted, the latency makes it a little dodgy for some genres. But I think improvement on that side is more likely to produce something that catches on; rather than solutions involving sets of cables.

Apple (iOS to Apple TV), Microsoft (phone7 to xbox), Google (android to googleTV) and Sony (ngp to ps3/bravia) are all positioned to make this a reality sooner, rather than later. Nintendo has the appearance of having understood this move, but has the architecture exactly backwards.

(Tangentially: A single hardware iteration is all any of them need -- which highlights the seriousness of the challenge Apple and Google present to Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo. Apple and Google are innovating and improving every single year. The pricing and upgrade rate of mobile devices and set-top boxes are massively in their favor. Can Microsoft and Sony remain relevant, after this next-generation, if they stay on a hardware cycle of even five years?)

Finally, what I take away from all this mobile gaming progress, is concern for the future of the gamepad. I don't think it's going away. Very little actually does. But it certainly looks like its de-emphasis, kicked off by the Wii, is continuing; if not accelerating.

Matt makes an excellent point about the hardware cycle. I strongly believe that innovation is more rapid with short hardware cycles and maximum competition. That's what exists in the mobile phone market today. It's not what exists in the console market, though, as both Sony and Microsoft much prefer a 7+ year hardware cycle (compared to <2 in the cellphone industry).

It's easy to envision a future where our gaming consoles are in our pockets. It's a handheld when we're away from home, but at home, it's a fully-featured gaming console with 1080p output and gamepad support. It's also our phone and about a dozen other things.

Actually, I would be very surprised if that's not the future.

Here's one variation on the future: tablets doing the same thing. And they're already doing it, as Jeff Forrester noted when he sent this link:
GameStop Cancels Its Own Tablet But Delivers Android Tablets, Wireless Android Controller. Gamestop's "hybrid" of existing tablets includes HDMI output and gamepad support.

I've mentioned more than once in the last two years that I was disappointed at the glacial rate of innovation in the console market as companies tried to extend the lifespan of consoles beyond "the natural order" of things. Now I realize that innovation is happening as quickly as ever--it's just happening in another place.

It's Been A Bit Crazy Here...

2011-11-15T22:42:00.001-06:00

for the last few days, which is why I've posted relatively little. Everything should be back to normal tomorrow.

Argghhhhh

2011-11-15T12:35:00.000-06:00

This day started off normal, but got shitty fast.

I haven't upgraded my video card since I built this system several years ago, so it still has the original Radeon 5850. A few weeks ago, I saw a review of the Radeon 6950 "Twin Frozr III" from MSI, and it was both significantly faster and ran 15-20C cooler under load than my 5850.

It wasn't expensive, either. Win-win-win.

I installed the card on Sunday in about 15 minutes, and not only was it quieter, it was even cooler at the desktop by 5C. Awesome upgrade.

This video card was specifically purchased for one game: Skyrim. I was able to use "ultra" settings at 1920x1080, add a few visual enhancements to shadows and whatnot, and it still ran as smooth as butter.

I hadn't been able to spend much time in Skyrim, and I had decided to walk everywhere in the game (savoring and stuff), so I hadn't seen much, but I was going to spend several hours today playing, then write up impressions.

A storm came through this morning (believe it or not), so I shut down my PC (which I rarely do) for the first time since installing the new video card. Storm passes, I sit down at my desk and turn on the system, and I'm ready to go. Damn, that video card was a great upgrade. Great!

System boots to the desktop, stuff loads up--hmm, what's this? It's Christmas on my screen--red and green blotches.

About 10 seconds later, I get a message that the display driver had failed, but had now recovered. Aces.

2 seconds later, Christmas is back.

All right, I can sort this out. Let's try a reboot first. Same. Can I boot into safe mode? Yes. Tried to install a driver, Catalyst couldn't find the card--or something.

Rebooted. Christmas. $*$*#*#*! Tried rebooting into safe mode, got a certain distance into the process, and froze. Can't figure out why until I look at the top of the screen, and there's a little row of Christmas at the very top.

This is why I don't upgrade hardware very often. 15 years ago, dicking around with this for a while would've been no big deal. Now, even 30 minutes wasted blasts a big FUBAR into my day.

All right, damage control. I pulled out the wonderful new card that is now apparently dead and put in my old, slow, reliable 5850. Which booted flawlessly to the desktop and everything works fine now.

Adios, upgrade.

Noted

2011-11-14T14:31:00.000-06:00

I was watching a new Disney movie with Eli 10.2 on Friday night called "Geek Charming."

The basic set-up of the movie is that the most popular girl in school, who is obsessed with being popular, winds up falling in love with an unpopular film geek. What's interesting, though, is that even though the movie was goofy, the way they described popularity very much mirrors how it works in real life.

At one point, the popular girl was explaining to the film geek how popularity worked and how rigid the separate levels were. She explained the multiple levels in detail, and while she was still talking, Eli 10.2 said, "Hmm. Popularity is like the Hindu caste system."

A Palliative

2011-11-14T14:22:00.000-06:00

Eli 10.2 had a "well check" with the pediatrician for his tenth birthday last week, and when he came home, he was crying.

"What happened?" I asked.

"Flu shot," he said, holding his left arm like a broken wing.

"I'm really sorry, buddy," I said. "Do you want to put some ice on it?"

"NO," he said. "I don't want to touch it."

I was taking over in just a few minutes, but I had to finish one or two things (including a post). Eli laid down on the couch with a blanket over him. "I'll be in my study," I said, "but I'll leave the door open in case you need anything."

A few minutes later, I heard an unholy moan from the living room. About thirty seconds later, there was another. I walked out of the study.

"Hey, where's your travel bingo game?" I asked.

"It's there on the shelf," he said. "Why?"

"Look, your arm is probably going to hurt for at least the rest of the day," I said. "Instead of moaning when your arm hurts, yell the name of a state instead, then flip it over on the travel bingo board."

He laughed. "I'll do that," he said.

I went back into my study. A few minutes later, I heard this: "O-O-Oklahoma!" A few minutes later, "MISSOURI!" (he pronounced it "misery", which was very clever). Then, a big one: "MISSISSIPPI TENNESSEE FLORIDA!"

In another few minutes, I'd finished the post, with a pleasantly spaced series of state names shouted from close distance. Always followed by laughter.

Friday Links!

2011-11-11T00:09:00.107-06:00

It's a huge links blowout this week, so let's get started.

From DQ Film Advisor And Nicest Guy in the World Ben Ormand, in a week where we can all use something to lighten the tone, it's Badass Of the Week. Just writing style ever (and NSFW, but damn, it's funny).

From Frank Regan, and this is being touted as the largest wave ever surfed:
Garrett McNamara rides 90 Foot Wave!

From Eric Higgins-Freese, an amazing animation, and here's the description:

What would it look like to tour the solar system at near-light speed? In this animation, created by physicist Paul Altin from the Australian National University, you can experience the weird effects predicted by Einstein's special theory of relativity as you fly by different planets.

This is from Jesse Leimkuehler, and I had no idea: Easter Island Statues Have Bodies.

From the Edwin Garcia Links Machine, an odd historical note: the Bulgarian folk song, Izlel e Delio Haidutin, sang by Valya Balkanska, was shot into space on Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 in 1977. And you can listen to it here: Interstellar Voyager Overdrive.

From Griffin Cheng, and this video is absolutely stunning (and also viewable optionally in 3D): The Most Incredible 3D Time-Lapse Yet Is a Beautiful Love-Letter to San Francisco. Also, and these are remarkably confusing images: These Pictures of People with Half-Faced Illusions Are Twisting My Brain.

From Steven Davis, and this is another incredible Halloween costume: Rad Green Army Man Costume. Also, a wind-driven vehicle that goes faster than the wind: Ride Like the Wind (only faster) .

From Shane Courtrille, and this is entirely wonderful: 86th Birthday Rage.

From Josh Eaves, and this is amazing: Suspended Animation Is FDA Approved and Heading To Clinical Trials.

From Kadunta, a detailed analysis of an age-old dilemma: The Urinal Problem.

From Keith Schleicher, and these are stunning: Dice Sculptures.

From Mitch Youngblood, and good luck answering this: Best statistics question ever.

From Sirius, and this is fascinating: The ears of the cracker butterfly. Also, and this is a brilliant discovery: Using A Light Barrier To Repel Mosquitoes.

From John Harwood, and you absolutely need to go see this: 3D wireframe chalk sculpture.

From Scott Ray, and if you're interested in technology, this video will blow your mind: Augmenting Indoor Spaces Using Interactive Environment-aware Handheld Projectors.

From Meg McReynolds, and this is quite bizarre: NASA Studying Ways to Make 'Tractor Beams' a Reality.

From Phil Honeywell, and if you don't know what a "murmuration" is, you're in for a treat: Murmuration. Also, and this is quite impressive: Spectacular Time Lapse Dam "Removal" Video.

From Jonathan Arnold, and this is truly a remarkable piece of work: stop-motion music video shot over two years with 288000 jelly beans.

Last, but extremely interesting, is a link from Jeff Davis: AI Challenge (Ants). Start churning out those algorithms.

EBGDAE #15: Meet The New Journey, Same As The Old Journey

2011-11-10T13:22:00.000-06:00

Well, we're back. This time, with Rocksmith instead of Rock Band 3 Pro mode, and with a new format as well--this time, one of us will be writing each week instead of all three. Hopefully, that will keep everyone fresh and sustain this for quite a while.

However, the goal hasn't changed: learn how to play guitar.

This week, Tour Guide David Gloier is the primary writer, but first, a few comments from additional voices.

First, from Fredrik Skarstedt:
I saw your post regarding guitars and I have a short note. When people ask about guitars what springs to mind are Fender Squire and Gibson Epiphone, the two premiere American "starter" brands. I have tried and tried to like these guitars, but never could.

For beginner guitarists, I would actually recommend another brand: Ibanez. They are cheap, very well built, and not a "junior" brand. The Ibanez GR series usually retails around a 150 dollars (quick look: http://www.guitarcenter.com/Ibanez-GRX20-Electric-Guitar-103557120-i1150594.gc ).

What I really like about the Ibanez brand model of guitars is that they are some of the easiest to play for beginners. Their necks are very, very thin which helps with the dreaded hand cramp syndrome + almost all their fretboards are flat which tends to help with finger cramps. They are also very light so your shoulders will thank you for that. The Ibanez Infinity series pickups (usually comes standard on most cheaper versions) are really quite decent little pickups built by Seymor Duncan and have a great range and a great bite for rock sounds, but they also clean up really well.

Another great thing about the Ibanez guitars is that almost all of them come with a standard locking nut and floating bridge which makes the guitar stay in tune + you can have a ton of fun just slamming the whammy bar up and down without going out of tune.

If you want to step up a little, the RG series retails around 200-400 dollars which is a great medium guitars.

Dan Plantholt also sent in advice about buying a guitar, after a few comments about the game itself:
I've played it a bit more now, and am still liking the game. One thing that might be a little rough on beginners that I see is the length of sets as you progress through the game. 2 and 3 song sets are good, but 5 and 6 song sets get to be really long, and then add on an encore or two. Woof, that gets to be a long time standing and playing guitar there, and I can see where that would turn some folks off to the game, if that's what's facing them, and they need to break out at least half an hour to 45 minutes of solid playing. I don't know if it's possible to save halfway through the event, but I hope it is.

I finally got to some drop-tuned songs, and know now that it requires actually tuning your guitar down. It's better to do it that way, than with some kind of electronic pitch shifting, but that poses a little bit of a problem with my guitar, which has a floating tremolo bridge and a locking nut. It stays in tune like no other guitar, but to change to a drop tuning, I have to mess with every string. Oh well.

That leads to a couple of the points I had about getting a guitar for the folks that don't have one. I think David's got a lot of good suggestions, but I'd add that people should try to go to a place like Guitar Center and sit down with some of the guitars they have. They have demo versions of most of the ones out there, and there can be a lot of variation in the way guitars feel: Folks should try them standing with a strap, not just sitting in your lap. Check the weight, the reach, the balance - neck or tail, and most importantly for people, I think they should feel different kinds of necks to see what they feel like. There's a significant amount of difference in the way they feel, and someone with smaller fingers might not like, for instance, a wider Gibson fingerboard, or maybe the Fender thick neck won't fit them that well. Maybe they really like the way that Ibanez feels, or think that the cutouts on the Dean are really nice.

Also, going along with my point about the drop tuning, I'd *really* recommend staying away from a tremolo bridge, like on the Strats (and Strat style other brands), or talk to the guys at the store and see if they can set it up to be more fixed, with stronger springs. For a beginner, a fixed bridge is a lot easier to deal with, less frustrating to tune, and will be easier to drop for two songs in a set and then back up.

A last point about the guitars in the entry-level: There's certainly some variation in quality but overall they're pretty consistently passable instruments now (unlike when I got my first Harmony guitar from a Wards catalog which had the nut in the wrong place). And while a Squier or Epiphone might be more recognizable, or *maybe* slightly better quality than an ESP or a Dean at the same price point (or maybe not, since they're getting a little bit of premium for name and shape), I gotta say that if one of those guitars calls to you while you're there, and playing it, and you think it is so cool and you want to play it (assuming it's not a complete lemon, of course), then you should get that one. If it's inspiring you to play, that's worth much more than having a 'safe' brand, or one that would be good enough to play on stage, but doesn't make you want to play it.

I know, some of that advice is in conflict with what David said last week, but when it comes to guitars, there's always more than one opinion, and this gives you an assortment from experienced guitarists.

Now, let's bring in David, and this week he has more information about the game and how it plays:
Bill, I'll try to address some of the games shortcomings in another post, but I'm still so excited by this thing I don't want to badmouth anything about it, yet. It's doing too much right.

The more time I put in with Rocksmith, the more impressed I am with the AI the developers built. The game finds a way to push you to improve by challenging you with new techniques as soon as it senses you may be ready. It walks you up to the edge of the pool, lets you put your toe in the water to become acclimated, and then gives you a big shove into whatever depth it has decided you are capable of handling. At the same time, it has you on a lifeline and pulls you out the moment you start to panic and thrash. No matter how freaked out you become, it quickly settles you back down.

I know John commented that I'm probably not seeing the hand-holding the AI provides, as I'm playing at a higher level. Let me say that while I've been playing for four years now, I'm by no means an expert player and I have plenty of room for improvement, but I definitely have a lot of playing hours under my belt. Anyway, the AI is making noticeable adjustments on the fly when I play.

As a basic example, I went back and played "Play with Fire" by the Rolling Stones last week. I first played the song when it came up in the list of songs for one of the venues. I played it pretty well in practice and received a good score. Then I played it in a set to a crowd. They seemed impressed. I earned a similar score. I played what I felt was a pretty complete version of the song. It was, but it apparently hadn't been completely fleshed out. Once I passed the song and the set, I moved on and didn't go back to the song until the next day. When I started in on "Play with Fire" again, one section where a chord sequence had a note played on the open D string after a G chord suddenly converted that note to a D chord after the G. It threw my timing off, as I wasn't prepared for the chord change. A minor change in the note chart, but I was thinking about it too much, and when the sequence came back around, I missed the timing on the G D G change again. The song continued, but didn't give me that chord again in that sequence, almost like it could tell it rattled me, and I got back on track and finished the song. I restarted and, this time, I was ready for the chord change. It came at me with it straight away and I hit it dead-on the several times it tossed it at me. As I continued, it didn't drop back down to the easier chart this time. I finished the song with my highest score yet. Now I'm thinking "If the AI gives me an open string I should figure the corresponding chord they will use to replace it." So, not only am I learning the songs, I'm beginning to think more about how they are put together and planning for, instead of reacting to, what the game is going do next. Sure enough, the next couple of songs I play, a few single open strings were converted to chords. From that one song, the game figured out the next step I was ready to take. That is truly amazing. The changes aren't just suddenly there. It walks you through the process and it makes it seem not so difficult. The dynamic AI does a good job of tempering frustration while it challenges you with a higher degree of difficulty. It's all very satisfying.

I haven't been messing with the technique lessons or the mini-games very much. I've just been having too much fun playing the songs, but that's where I'm at in my playing at the moment. I've spent hours upon hours doing exercises, but now, in a way, the game is allowing me to play as part of a band. Rocksmith as a tool for learning the guitar parts of songs, in the context of the entire song, is fabulous. With the AI adjusting to my abilities, I'm picking up songs much at a much faster rate than if I was trying to play along with a recording of the song and having to constantly stop and start the song and learn it one little part at a time. A big improvement over Rock Band is the fact that the song continues to play when you miss, instead of giving your that horrid "clank". It lets you play badly. That seems only natural, as an amp doesn't come screeching to a halt when you miss a note. Pushing through mistakes is part of learning. When you finish a song, it also replays it, allowing you to listen to how you did and really understand what you played well and what you didn't, where you missed notes and chords, and how your tone sounded as you played. Sometimes, when you're playing the song, you're working too hard to really hear yourself. This has been a big factor, I believe, in my timing and rhythm improving since incorporating Rocksmith into my practice routine. Another nice touch is when you master a song and reach a certain score/percentage correct, it lets you play the song without the note charts. It's daunting, but well worth trying to unlock for each song, and a true test of just how much improvement you've made.

I've also noticed that my playing away from the game, whether it's songs from the game (please hurry with more DLC, Ubisoft) or music completely unrelated to the game, has gotten much stronger and more confident. I'm getting a ton of practice in away from Rocksmith because of Rocksmith, as I'm really enjoying putting the practice from the game to use. It has been fantastic for my muscle memory, as practicing with the game is much less tedious. I don't get stuck in a rut doing the same things over and over again when using the game. The AI brings things in as you learn them and, applying that knowledge into other songs as it sees you're able to handle it, sneaks in the repetition you need to build the memory without making it tiresome and frustrating.

One feature of the game I'm finding enjoyable is the Amp mode. You can set up any of the amps and pedals you've unlocked in any combination and toy with your sound, much like having a modeling amp. It's a open sandbox that just lets you noodle around and play whatever you want. I wish I'd had this years ago and maybe I would've spent a bit less money on amps and effects. One drawback is you have to either unlock all the amp and pedal models, or buy the bundle from Live, but the unlockables are another carrot at the end of the stick that may drive you to keep pushing forward.

I firmly believe that, for novice and bedroom players, Rocksmith is a fabulous practice tool that should remove much of the tedium from practicing. It's not the only tool you should be using, because it's not teaching you the "why" behind what you're playing, but as a tool for building the muscle memory you will need to become a better player, it's fantastic, and one heck of a lot of fun.

There you go, and thanks very much to David and the other contributors this week. Next week, it will be my turn.

Halloween ARGGHHH!

2011-11-09T17:01:00.000-06:00

DQ reader Steven Kreuch (one of the Brothers Of Dubious Quality, along with Matt) sent me the best Halloween costume picture I've ever seen, and with his permission, I was going to lead with it in yesterday's costume tally post. I looked forward to it for an entire week.

So, of course, I forgot.

Fortunately, my brain re-engaged a few minutes ago, and I am very happy to show you Samson 0.7 in all his kick-ass Halloween splendor:

To The Moon

2011-11-09T16:42:00.000-06:00

Games don't often affect me emotionally. On rare occasions, yes, but always as a passing moment.

"To The Moon" was released last week, and it is both a lovely and deeply affecting game. The basic premise is quite unique, and since John Walker of RPS describes it perfectly, let me step out of the way for a moment:
At some point in the future, there exists a technology that allows people to backtrack through a person’s memories, such that they can create a complex timeline of their past, and implant new memories that create others, which create others still, that allows a person’s wishes to be fulfilled. Albeit only in their memory, since the events never took place. It’s a service that’s provided, by the company involved here at least, to those who are dying. It’s granting a dying wish, without the patient having to get out of their bed.

As a game, it's deceptive. The graphics are Super Nintendo quality, the play mechanics are very simple, and nothing in the first 15-20 minutes gives you any indication that anything special is in store.

Those first 15-20 minutes, though, are terribly deceiving. Soon after, waves of emotion begin descending from the lovely, carefully crafted story. I find myself almost in tears at regular intervals, overwhelmed. Given that I cry roughly once a decade, it's a singular reaction for me.

This isn't a game that will sell a million copies, because it is a quiet, thoughtful experience. It will deeply, deeply resonate with many of us, though, and it will be something that you won't be able (or want) to forget.

Oh, and I almost forgot to mention--in addition to having a thoughtful, poignant story, the music in To The Moon is just absolutely sensational. The soundscape is tremendously immersive and very, very special.

Here's a link to the game's website, and there's a demo available (the first hour of the game).

Oh, And Please Remember

2011-11-08T13:32:00.000-06:00

Admiral Dan Sinking compiled these results, and his recording methods are a bit sketchy, to say the least. So if you were asked follow-up questions about your location, and your city isn't listed, I'm sure he was busy polishing the buttons on his jacket that he continues to insist on wearing whenever he goes out, even when he's going to Luby's at 4:00 p.m. for dinner.

Halloween Costume Count 2011

2011-11-08T13:25:00.000-06:00

First off, thanks very much for participating. This is always fun.

Here's a look at our respondents by location:
Scotland:
Cumbernauld (60)
Australia:
Sunshine Coast (111)
Canada:
Halifax, Novia Scotia (69)
Halifax, Novia Scotia (58)
South Slocan, British Columbia (103)
Winnipeg, Manitoba (77)
United States:
Austin, Texas (52)
Bainbridge Island, Washington (6)
Baltimore, Maryland (31)
Canton, Michigan (86)
Corona, California (99)
Hudson, Wisconsin (59)
Huntsville, Alabama (40)
Kent, Washington (27)
Mountain View, California (2)
Pullman, Washington (39)
Redwood City, (40)
Simi Valley, California (96)

That's right: the city in the world most highly represented (by number of costumes) in the survey is Halifax, Novia Scotia.

Total costumess submitted: 1,053.

Here's a list of what I thought were the most interesting costume:
The city of Paris, France
Sheldon Cooper
Price is Right Contestant
Montreal Candians Zombie
Ninja Banana
Pinky Tuscadero and Arthur Fonzarelli
A handlebar moustache
Piece of rainforest
HazMat Spill Victim
Pirate Vampire Butterfly

The little girl who was "the city of Paris, France" came to my door, actually. She was five or six, and she giggled as she explained her costume.

She got 5X candy.

Here are the most popular costumes (any costume mentioned over 20 times is listed):
Witch (86)
Princess (74)
Ninja (34)
Pirate (29)
Fairy (28)
Zombie (27)
Vampire (25)
Skeleton (18)
Superhero (18)
Scream (18--the movie character, not the painting)

If you're curious (of course you are), the most popular costume for very small children is the bumblebee (15).

Now, and this a sizable data dump, a list of every type of costume submitted:
80's
80's Girl
Alice in Wonderland
Alien
Alien Abduction
Anakin Skywalker
Angel
Angry birds
Apparition
Arab Princess
Army man
Army trooper
Astronaut
Baby
Bag of jelly beans
Ballerina
Banana
Banana Split (dog)
Baseball Player
Basketball Player
Batgirl
Batman
Bear
Beastie Boy
Belle (princess)
Bloody Doctor
blue superhero guy
Boba Fett
Boxer
Bride
Bumblebee
Bumblebee (Transformers)
Bunny
Butterfly
Buzz lightyear
Captain America
Cat
Cat in the hat
Cat Woman
Chargers fan (Football)
Cheerleader
Cheetah
Chicken
Cleopatra
Clone Trooper
Clown
Clown, Funny
Clown, Scary
Construction Guy
Construction workers
Convict
Cookie Monster
Cow
Cowboy
Cowgirl
Cowgirl
Crayon
Crazed Rams Fan
Cupcake
Dalmation
Dancer
Daphne (Scooby Doo)
Dark Fairie
Dart Board
Darth Vader
Dead Clown
Death
Devil
Dinosaur
Disco dancer
DJ Pauly (Jersey Shore)
Donkey
Dorothy
Dragon
Elephant
Elvis
Evil Clown
Evil jester
Exorcist priest/monk
Fairy
Farmer
Fashonista
Female baseball player
Female gypsy
Female pirates
Female spanish dancer
Figher pilot
Fireman
Flower
Fonzie
Football Player
Frankenstein
Freddie Krueger
Gangsta
Gangster
Gangster Nerd
Geeks
Geisha
Generic Halloween tee shirt
Genie
Ghost
Ghostrider
Ghoul
Gilly Suit
Giraffe
Girl/crossdresser
Girlscout (boy)
Glitter girl
Glow Stick
Grannies
Greek Goddess
Green lantern
Green skin (full body suit)
Grim Reaper
Gypsy
Harry Hill (English comedian)
Harry Potter
Harry Potter
HazMat Spill Victim
Hermione
Hippie
Hipster
Hobo
Hockey Player
Hogwarts student
Horror Victim
Hot dog
Hulk
Hunter
I am Rich $$$
Ice Cream Cone
Indian
Iron Man
Ironman
Japanese Princess
Jason
Jedi
Jester
Julias Caesar
Kangaroo
Karate Kid
Kermit
Kesha
KISS (Paul Stanley)
Kitty Cat
Knight
Lacrosse Player
Lady Bug
Lady Gaga
Ladybug
Laker's fan (basketball)
Lamb
Leopard
Link (Zelda)
Little Bo Peep
Little Red Riding Hood
Mad Hatter
Mad Scientist
Madonna
Mafioso
Male nurse (girl)
Mario
Mary Mary Quite Contrary
Masquerade
Medic
Meg (Hercules)
Mermaid
Mexican Soccer Player Chichanito
Middle School Student
Mime
Minnie Mouse
MIT Graduate
Monkey
Montreal Canadiens Zombie
Motocross Rider
Mouse
Moustache
Movie/pop star
Mulan
Mummy
Mummy/casualty victim
Mustache
NASCAR driver
Nerd
Nerdy Minnie Mouse
Nicki Minaj
Ninja
Ninja Banana
No Costume
NO IDEA
Nurse
Old lady
Old Timey Paper Boy
Olivia the Pig
Optimus Prime
Orphan
Packers Football
Pacman
Padma (Clone Wars)
Panda
Peter Pan
Phantom
Piece of rainforest
Piglet
Pilot
Pinky Tuscadero
Pirate
Pirate Vampire Butterfly
Pixie
Policeman
Power Ranger
Princess
Princess Jasmine
Prom
Pumpkin
Punk
Puppy
Purple crayola crayon
Racer
Raggedy Ann
Random Mask
Random throw together from closet
Rapper
Rapunzel
Rastaman
Reaper
Red Riding Hood
Red skin (body suit)
Renaissance Squire
Rock Star
Roman
Sailor
Sandwich (very well done!)
Santa
Scary Clown
School Girl
School Teacher
Scream
Security
Shrek Donkey
Sibling
Skeleton
Slacker
Smurf
Snow White
Soccer Player
Soldier
Spartan
Speeder Trooper
Spider
Spider Man
Spongebob squarepants
St Trinians schoolgrils
Star Wars Clone
Star Wars Guy
Stick Figure People
Strawberry
Strawberry Shortcake
Student
Sully (Monster's Inc)
Super Hero
Super Mario
Supergirl
Superman
Surfer
Tarzan
Team Rocket
The City Of Paris, France
The Very Hungry Caterpillar
Thomas the Train
Tiger
Tigger
Tourist
Transformer
Trick or Treater
Tron
Undead Jester
Unicorn
Unknown Manga Character
Vampire
Vampire Skeleton
Varsity Volleyball
Viking
Warrior
Werewolf
Whoopie Cushion
Whore
Witch
Wolverine
Wonder Woman
Zombie
Zombie Bride
Zombie Fairy

Sometimes the description makes you want to see a picture. "Undead jester"? I'd like to see that.

Thanks again to everyone who submitted data, and we'll do this again next year.

Last Call For Halloween Costume Tallies!

2011-11-07T19:41:00.002-06:00

I'm working on the post, which will probably go up tomorrow afternoon, so if you have data, please send it in. Four countries represented so far (U.S., Canada, Australia, and Scotland).

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