Easily impressed

Video of someone stacking dice with a cup

Halo 3

Wooooo!




Wooooooo!



Ok. I can say the multiplayer is fun, but haven't really tried single player yet.

Software: Optimized compilers and Moore's law

Joel, fromJoel on Software, recently talked about how software strategies should include features additions as opposed to optimizations. I recommend reading this article mostly because Joel is a pretty good writer, but I will attempt to distill his points.

• People buy features and things that do jobs for them
• People are unlikely to buy super slow software
• Features and software take time to build
• Hardware gets faster according to Moore's Law
• Time spent optimizing code and trimming features is time not spent building new features
• If you like optimizing, build an engine or a compiler since optimization is the feature

I think that covers it. The part I am not in total agreement on is his points around NewSDK. First off, you need to be able to identify NewSDK before you can port your apps to it, because it does not make sense to port to one that isn't going to be the DefinitiveSDK and porting to all PotentialXSDK is plain a waste of time. But when the DefinitiveSDK is found/created/agreed upon, build it ye shall. Errrr, you should really hop on that wagon.

If Trent says it, it must be ok

Article on Slashdot

I haven't read the whole interview so it is likely out of context. But it seems that Trent Reznor believes CDs are too expensive. It is interesting to here someone in the music industry say that. From what little I looked into manufacturing costs, I can see where the big ones are turning over enormous profits. They just want them to grow more. Only really they are hurting the artists and then in turn hurting the fans.

Especially you Sony. Keep your damn rootkit off of my PC.

Robert Jordan passes away

Slashdot article

My condolences to his family and friends.

Andy, I need a caption

Ok, so let me hear what you have.

Social Networking...

From the sounds of it, social networking is little more than digitally removing fleas and ticks from our allies fur...

How social can we get?

I will not pontificate on the value of facebook, myspace, orkut, or any of that lot. If people use it, it will survive. I have found it useful to me on one occasion. I guess that is good enough.

Wow. I feel old... and fat

I thought I was really tanned / burnt, but turned out that this was grease paint from when I played J.B. in the play J.B.

So this would be 1998/99.

Review or Rant: NCAA Football 08 Online Experience

Alright I already reviewed one mode of NCAA 08 for the xbox 360. Everything with the game was going super well in terms of playability. The menus were never great but you just eventually deal with them. Some complaints.

1. Why do I have to save? Shouldn't this be automatic?
2. Why do I have confirm that I want to save? I pushed the hardest to push damn button on the controller, I really want to save.
3. How can I quickly get my depth chart from the recruiting menu?
4. Why, oh why, is it so slow to navigate the menus (see more in my later section)
5. Why is it so slow to switch guys before the snap?

So last night, I tried the online experience. First off, the lag is completely unbearable. If you haven't played the single player game a lot you are at a disadvantage. You have to retain your originally timing because of the lag in what is shown on screen. Punting and kicking is damn near impossible. Pass timing as well is extremely difficult. The voice chat is garbled. I get disconnected from games frequently. Just a horrible experience. Not to mention in play selection for defense, I tend to like to gear my defense to the offensive personnel. This is impossible, because by the time I see the personnel, I have 12 seconds to find my play. Normally not a problem. But online, the menus are so slow, I rarely can get to page 3 of a play listing. For those keeping track that is 5 button pushes in 12 seconds is near impossible. So EA, get your crap together before you ship out a game, or don't even bother to add online capabilities.

Silly girl

Well, while Michelle and were cleaning the house a couple of days ago, we handed Miranda the xbox controller. It seemed like a perfectly harmless thing to do as normally she just randomly click buttons and she navigates the menus of Carcassonne or Solitaire. However this time she bought 1600 point from xbox live. This cost $20. I think I may want to parental control this if I can.

Lions predictions....

Well, I might as well...

versus	outcome	comment
at Oakland	Lions win	Beating Oakland during this stage of their development should be easy. They are rebuilding
Minnesota	Vikings win	The Viking defense will be too much for the Lions. In addition, the run game will eventually just wear out the Lion D.
at Philadelphia	Eagles win	An Eagle team that is not far out of the race from being the Conference champion will have some troubles with the Lion offence, but in the end stopping McNabb and Westbrook will leave the Lions short of the win.
Chicago	Bears win	The Lions shutdown the anemic Bears offense, but unfortunately the Bear defense scores more than the Lion offense.
at Washington	Lions win	The Lions D steps up and does its job. The hold the Redskins to 21 points, while the Lion offense racks up 39. All in field goals.
bye	No one win	Lions bearily beat no body.
Tampa Bay	Lions win	This is probably the best game of the year for the Lions. This will be one of those games where you wonder why the Lions aren't a contender. Then you realize you are watching them play Tampa Bay.
at Chicago	Bears win	See previous Bears comments as the same crap will happen again.
Denver	Broncos win	The Broncos run game perfectly sets up the pass game as the Broncos D, particularly Bly with 3 INTs, shut down the Lions' offense.
at Arizona	Lions win	In general, this is a close one where the total score is over 100 pts.
NY Giants	Lions win	Eli forgets where the end zone is. Either of them for the matter, and only scores for the Lions in the form of a safety. Kitna is injured. There goes the season. Of course I never thought I would say that in regards to Kitna.
Green Bay	Packers win	Farve has stellar game at Detroit. Sets touchdown record.
at Minnesota	Vikings win	The Lions put up a bigger fight again, but without Kitna the timing offense of Martz is completely screwed.
Dallas	Cowboys win	Romo, Romo, Romo and the blitzing D of the Cowboys.
at San Diego	Chargers win	Even though the game is meaningless for the Chargers as they have locked the division, the backup players still kill the Lions.
Kansas City	Chiefs win	LJ LJ LJ. Even with the upgraded run D, the common theme this year is using the run game to setup the pass game against a depleted secondary.
at Green Bay	Lions win	Green Bay was out of the playoff run so they bench Farve (as management could give a rat's ass about a legend) and the Lions completely shut down Rodgers.

All that said we are looking at a record of 6-10. The best record we have had in years!!! Go Lions. Make me proud.

Weird game name...

Sometimes I wonder where they get the game names that they have.

Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness.