intepid

No Fucking Way

mark — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 04:15:20 GMT

There's this online thingy which can analyze your text and supposedly tell you who you write like, and this is what it told me:

I think it is actually cleverer than it lets on and said that just to mess with me. I even pasted some text from an old post complaining about what a terrible writer Dan Brown is, and once again it told me that I write like he does. The nerve!

[in desperation I kept entering different excerpts until it finally told me I write like David Foster Wallace. I've never read any of his work but I'll still take him over Dan Brown]

Some things are not really funny

mark — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 17:17:09 GMT

Sketchy

mark — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 12:12:22 GMT

Adobe Ideas is the first Adobe application in ages that makes me think that the company maybe isn't all bloat. It's rather similar to what I had in mind with JujuSketch, ie very bloody simple spline based sketchbook. Still, I really really wish the iPad had proper stylus input. 'twould be awesome...

(the closest solution I've seen is the Pogo Stylus, basically a fake metallic finger that makes it a little easier to draw with, but still, no pointy tip and no pressure or tilt sensing)

The picture you see here is my own little geek-themed motivational poster... I am having ENORMOUS trouble focusing on work right now.

Smalltime/indie game developers must love Apple

mark — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 16:23:42 GMT

...because by comparison Sony and Microsoft look like stupid corporate dinosaurs.

Stupid Corporate Dinosaur

If you want to develop a game for iPhone or iPad

You'll need a Mac

Install the free developer tools (XCode) from DVDs that came with your computer

Create applications and test them in the emulator

Once you feel like you are not totally wasting your time, pay about $100 to register as an iPhone developer, which lets you

Test your applications on your own devices (and those of friends if they want to help)

Submit your application to the App Store

Assuming it is accepted, which most are, everyone can now purchase your app and you can make your first million

If you want to develop a game for Xbox 360

You'll need a Windows PC

Download free XNA Game Studio add-ons for Visual Studio or Visual C# Express (so far so good)

Since there is no emulator, the only way to build for 360 is to buy a premium membership, $120/year, which you have to pay even though you don't yet know how hard this is going to be

Build and test your game on your 360

Submit it for peer review to the Kreator's Klub

Realize that the only people who can see/download/purchase your game are the other poor schmucks who joined the club; Regular xbox users will never see your beautiful creation

Further realize that even people who have joined this stupid club can only download your game if they are registered in Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom or United States. Australians are shit out of luck, as are the majority of other countries in the world

If you want to develop for Zune

As above but you don't need to pay for the premium membership, so that's one less impediment to cashing in on the enormous market for Zune games we keep hearing about... ...*chirp* *chirp* ... ...

If you want to develop for PS3

Buy a PS3

Now fuck off – Sony hates you and provides no tools or access to the platform for independent developers

I mean sure, Apple's iOS platform may not be the most open thing out there, but that's only when comparing it to other computers and operating systems. Start comparing it to other entertainment systems and you'll realize just how much worse things could be!

Podcasts

mark — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 13:07:00 GMT

Since I'm always telling people they should listen to podcasts, here is my current top 5 list as a reminder:

Savage Love – excellent sex/relationship advice podcast from Dan Savage.

Jordan, Jesse GO! – a rather big podcast which makes me think that a couple of people shooting the shit actually can be a good format for a radio show.

A Life Well Wasted – just found this one, it's all about computer games and the inspiration/history/culture surrounding them. Great production values, with music and fancy editing and whatnot.

NPR's On the Media – great analysis of news media focusing on current issues with a skeptical eye.

Little Atoms – skeptical interview show, getting into just the right amount of depth with some very interesting people.

If you have any favorites you think deserve to be heard, please add them in the comments!

Aw, here's to the crazies...

mark — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 10:46:34 GMT

Dicking around with icons today, I happened to zoom in to check out the icon for OS X's TextEdit application in detail...

That's pretty classy. It's from Apple's Think Different campaign from the nineties.

Dear ABC|iView

mark — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 08:11:39 GMT

Hi!
I think it's awesome that the ABC is offering TV shows online, but I have problems with *how* they are being offered. By making the iView website one big Adobe Flash application the thing breaks all accessibility guidelines– text is not selectable, the user interface can not be enlarged for the vision impaired, and keyboard navigation is virtually non-existent. Any decent interface, especially a web-based one, should be navigable without a mouse!
I bought a PS3 partly on the promise of iView integration, but I discover now that all it does is open the iView web page, which can ONLY be navigated on the PS3 via the game controller (and not the media remote). So the experience is exactly like using iView on a desktop, only without a mouse, ie: Horrible!
Even if Flash is necessary for the video playback, there is no justification for implementing the whole iView site with it– something that could have been done more easily, cheaply, openly and more *accessibly* in HTML.
Why o why does the ABC hate the disabled?

Digital Media Shenanigans

mark — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 16:26:01 GMT

I'm well on the way to securing my status as Single Guy with Too Much Free Time now that I have my own place as well as both an Xbox 360 and a PS3+PlayTV.

Most of this evening has been spent rearranging my whole setup, with cables and boxes everywhere, and the rest of the time configuring media related software. The 360 was a bit of a stupid purchase actually since I knew there was a new one about to be launched but I went and paid full retail anyway, for a system that just a week later (after the new one was officially announced) I could have gotten for $150 less.

The later PS3 purchase was largely inspired by the relatively new PlayTV add-on, as well the promise of ABC iView integration, and to a small extent the option of watching Blu-ray movies.

Here follows my carefully considered and balanced opinions of the two systems' strengths and weaknesses:

Xbox 360 (not the just announced shiny one):

Noisy! Originally I had this on a shelf below the TV but the whine of the fan got on my nerves so now it is stashed behind a glass cabinet door. The new one is supposed to be quieter, and it would want to be.

Stupid! Would you believe that it doesn't come with built-in wireless networking? It didn't even occur to me that this would be an issue since both the PS3 and the Wii have had wireless forever. The XBox 360 Wifi adapter can be purchase separately for something like 50% the cost of the original console.

Ugly! That concave casing really doesn't look right anywhere in a home media setup. It wouldn't be so bad if at least the front panel was flat, but it is not. The new 360 has a more faceted design, but still if you keep it horizontally it looks like someone has kicked in a big dent at the front.

Clumsy/Inconsistent/Schizophrenic – I'm really starting to appreciate Apple at this point, for their ability to make a remote with almost no buttons which still gets things done. The amount of time with xbox I expect a button to play something but instead it "selects" and opens another tab... argg! So I decided to run Windows Media Center on it for a more media-centric experience (since hey it's supposed to be a games machine normally) but it's hardly just a mattering of flicking it into a different mode. I can't believe I have to wait almost 20 seconds for it to: Launch; Search for a Windows PC; Connect; Show splash screen; fade in to pretty but not particularly great WMC interface. Urgggh. And now that I'm in WMC mode, none of the buttons work like they do when playing media from the regular 360 dashboard. It took me ages to find the play/pause button on the controller, because for some incomprehensible reason it is the Right Thumbstick Button, ie you have to clumsily push down on the top of the analog thumbstick just to play or pause a video!

PS3 slim:

Less Noisy! Significantly quieter than the 360, but by no means silent. Instead of whining it makes more of a thrumming sound, and I do not feel compelled to stash it behind a door just yet.

Equally crappy media playing experience... it's like both Microsoft and Sony don't want you to use their systems for this purpose! I finally got it finding my shared media via the DNLA sharing feature of Windows Media Player (but not WM Center, even though this is the logical place to put this goddamn setting). Of course, both Microsoft and Sony could have simply made their consoles find SMB shares (ie common-or-garden variety shared folders on the network) but Noooooooo they have to use dodgy "media sharing" protocols which require extra settings and hoops and give stupid random errors during playback. DNLA reminds me of XML-RPC on the web: it's almost completely redundant, and usually poorly implemented.

iView integration my arse! iView is supported by launching a browser window and going to the iView website exactly as you would using a desktop PC– the only integration is that they add a shortcut to the top menu. So now you are in a browser window watching a video, and NONE of the buttons on the controller do anything useful like pause the video; instead you have to wiggle the thumbstick to move a mouse cursor on your TV screen until it hovers over the pause button on the iView Flash player. So it's all the non-immersiveness of the browser experience combined with the added handicap that you don't actually have a goddamn mouse to at least make page navigation bearable. Oh and in fullscreen mode on a 4:3 TV the cursor position messes up so you actually have to click beside the onscreen button instead of on it. I blame the ABC and Sony equally for this crummy implementation.

No rear USB ports! Now this may not seem like a big deal, unless of course you want to connect some weird peripheral to your PS3, like, say, the goddamn PlayTV add-on! (The 360 has a rear port, but I'll be damned if I'm going to shell out for that ripoff Wifi adapter)

PlayTV – Actually this seems pretty cool... Dual digital tuners mean you get decent PVR functionality from your PS3. From preliminary messing about it does mostly what I expect (it shows you program guides and such although I haven't worked out how to tell it to always record the Daily Show yet). Pity about the USB cable now permanently protruding from the front of the unit though– it really messes with my feng shui. Also I watch hardly any free-to-air TV, because there is so little worth watching, so as cool as the device is it probably won't really enhance my viewing experience that much.

Oh yeah both systems play games and stuff... yawn! These days I only seem to like indie or art games, not the big titles that consoles are sold on. I tried playing Fable II for a while, since I remember lots of buzz about it because it's supposed to be this totally immersive narrative where every decision affects the future, but I got very very bored very very quickly when I realized that the moral universe was defined by a bunch of decisions to either help someone with a random and pointless task, or go crazy and whack them with a sword. My suspension of disbelief was seriously disrupted by the disembodied narrator voice of Zoë Wanamaker trying to casually instruct me on my hero status, potion skill levels, etc etc zzzzz....... Here's the thing with all that D&D style charisma-points bollocks in role-playing games: it was necessary to allow people to keep track of things before we had computers to do it for us. Now that we do, I don't want to know. Just make my character limp when they're hurt and let me notice for myself that I am getting better at shooting things with arrows, and don't bug me with stats!

I know I must sound like the most whiny & spoiled little first-world shit right now, but I just can't believe how hard it is to get an entertainment setup which just works. There is so much great technology here, and yet no sense that anyone actually gives a toss about whether it's well designed or pleasant to use– it feels like so much wasted potential.