Internet Neutrality is a reality... sort of

Well, it's been a long time coming... the FCC finally roused itself enough to put something resembling basic protections of the way the Internet has historically worked into the form of an enforceable rule (in theory, anyways). I have yet to see a link to the raw text of the rule, so I can't pick too many holes in it personally yet, but the gist I get from reading multiple stories is that landline-based consumer Internet providers can't block or artificially slow legal content from reaching their customers, and they have to be transparent with their customers on how they're managing network traffic on their networks. All fine and well, I suppose, but I don't think that will keep Comcast and the rest from improving their in-house networks to support their own services, while letting their connection to the 'net at large get clogged naturally by increased demand for services, or charging different amounts for different tiers of data usage or transfer speeds... time will tell on that, I suppose.

Wireless is less of a concern to me (what can I say, that's "last resort" territory for me getting data)... so, I guess it's no surprise that I'm not particularly perturbed that wireless 'net access doesn't get the same protections as wired. Providers still have to tell us how they're messing with the connection, but I gather they get to at least slow content from the world at large. Considering the physical limitations of open-air transmission, it makes sense enough to me.

Still, this game isn't over yet, I'm sure... intentionally or no, some provider (or group thereof) is going to get in a legal argument with the FCC, and it'll be at least a couple of years before this round of fun is settled. That is, supposing Congress doesn't find a way to cause grief first... oh well, at least we've finally gotten on to this stage of the play, rather than still be waiting for somebody to rein in the ISPs.

One reason I love the Internet... Competition

As you might have read from my last post, I'm less than impressed with Hulu Plus on my Roku, between $8/month to access, commercials in videos, and a selection of limited interest to me. Yesterday, a new channel came out for the Roku, from a site called Crunchyroll... with it, you can watch most of their vast anime library for free, commercial-free... including two of the three anime series I intended to slog through on Hulu's system. As an added bonus, Crunchyroll even has more episodes for those two series than Hulu Plus does... so, I'll be burning through that third series on Hulu Plus before ditching it.

Of course, I did say most of Crunchyroll's anime library was available for free... they do have a paid plan, if I want the absolute latest episodes for some animes, or one of a few series reserved for paying members. Even so, that would be about $7/month, and still without commercials. Yes, "numbered" is a good description of Hulu's days on my box.

First impressions... Hulu Plus on Roku

So, the free trial period for Hulu Plus is over, and I'm now (for the time being at least) a paying customer... so, obviously, I'm not entirely dissatisfied with it. However, I'm still thinking of this as a short-term subscription for the purpose of catching up on some longish anime series, rather than a long-term viewing source... let me tell you a few reasons why.

First and foremost has to be the ads. Yes, even though you're paying Hulu for the stream, you still get ads. In and of itself, that's a nuisance... but the volume of ads is really a bit much. Here's a brief example of what watching an episode of anime is like:

• Start with a "this program is brought to you with limited commercial interruption by" message, usually followed by an ad.
• Anime title animation
• 1-2 ads (15-30 seconds each)
• First half of anime episode
• 1-2 ads
• Second half of anime episode
• 1-2 ads
• Anime credits/preview of next episode

I'm guessing that by "limited commercial interruption", they mean that they don't hit you for 5 minutes of ads at each break.

Apart from that... well, there are a number of smaller issues, but I can't say with certainty whether they are Hulu Plus specific, Roku specific, or something to do with Comcast, but they're still worthy of note. I have run into a number of occasions where the stream "lost sync", dropping the audio and advancing the video in short bursts. On one occasion, the video locked up on return from commercials, and had to be restarted to continue. Even so, it's generally rare enough that these glitches occur that they are (so far) endurable.

Then there are the Roku-specific issues with Hulu Plus. I'm guessing that the "channel" was created by folks at Hulu with little or no experience in actually using a Roku... how else can I explain some of the baffling exclusions from the interface? For example, you can "subscribe" to a series, which gives you access to all the shows in that series Hulu carries, thankfully broken out into seasons... but, from what I've seen, it doesn't remember what the last episode you watched was. There is a "star rating" displayed for each episode, and you can rate episodes yourself... but it always displays the aggregate rating (or, at least, doesn't visually differentiate between your ratings and overall ratings), so you can't even use that as a workaround. Better still, the standard "use the fast forward/reverse buttons to jump a page of selections" feature isn't available... so if, for example, you want to see episode 25 in a 50-episode season, you get to mash the right arrow button 24 times, waiting for the Roku to respond to each press, before you can get started on your show. Thankfully, you can "wrap around" from the first to the last episode by going backwards, so it's not as bad as it could be... but it's plenty bad as is.

But enough negativism... what about the good stuff? Well, you do get original-language shows with English subtitles, which I count as a plus, although not everyone will. It is faster than waiting on Netflix discs with four episodes apiece to work their way to your door... and it's certainly less expensive than going out and buying disc sets of these animes. And... that's about it, really. So, yeah, I'll burn through the series I really want to see, and, barring something exceptional cropping up on Hulu in the meantime, I'll drop Hulu Plus like a hot rock once I'm done.

And so it begins... Comcast tries its hand at gatekeeping

Comcast and Level 3 Communications are getting into a pissing match over Internet traffic, and who pays how much to let Netflix-streamed content get to your eyeballs. I've seen a few brief news items about the mess, but this link to an Ars Technica article is the best, most thorough walkthrough of what the issues are, based on publicly-available information, that I've seen. Even so, it's not as clear-cut as I might care for... but it sure has the whiff of Comcast trying to charge Netflix for the data I've already paid Comcast and Netflix for. As usual, here's hoping somebody works out a decent alternative to Comcast for Internet access in my neck of the woods, soonest. Heck, I might even have to look into what I can get through commercial channels, once the car's paid off.

Kirby's Epic Yarn

If you're looking for some truly innocent fun in a game, especially something to play with younger children, you could do far worse than Kirby's Epic Yarn on the Wii. Visually, it's a wonderful game, and a fine entry for the debate on "are video games art", with every element defined by the concept of a world made entirely of fabric and yarn (well, and the occasional button or zipper, but you get the idea). Gameplay-wise, it's that rarest of game types, a relaxing platformer... I suppose there might be some challenge for the youngest of players early on, but I'd put it about a notch down from the various Lego games, maintaining the "you can't really die" feel while eliminating the odd camera angles that sometimes result in your untimely demise. Story-wise... well, that's pretty straight-forward, your basic "rise of the villain looking to take over the world, until you stop him cold" line, as told by a narrator with a definite reading-to-children bent. I played through the story line in single player mode, and had a fair deal of fun, but there is also a two-player simultaneous mode that could be quite fun, again especially for younger children. All in all, I'd say it's a worthwhile play for all gamers under 10, and any older gamers that can don't think a game has to have a BFG to be worth playing... but it's only about 10 hours to get through, so whether it's worth full-price to you, well, that's entirely up to you.

Imperfect, but worth a shot... Hulu Plus

I've been wanting something resembling Internet TV for a while now... movies I've got covered by Netflix instant streaming, and sports, what little I watch of them, I can get over the air or through ESPN's widget on my Xbox360, but recent, episodic content has been a dead space to date. That changed today, with Hulu Plus going live on my Roku box, with a price drop to $8/month. Mind you, the vast majority of what they offer is of little to no interest to me, and much of the content I do care about is already available to me through Netflix streaming... but I did see a couple of longish anime series in the mix which are available only by disc through Netflix, at least one of which I'm part-way into already, so it's not a total waste of time to give it a go. Still, I'll probably hold off until just before Thanksgiving to start the week-long free trial period... nothing like a long, holiday weekend to get some serious vegetation out of the way... :)

We now interrupt your regularly-scheduled shooter...

Looking back, April's the last time I talked about Activision... the short reason being that, by and large, their style of games aren't the ones that make me reach for my wallet. Add to that the ongoing legal mess with their past developers, and my urge to buy is that much less. However, just because I'm sworn off their software for now, doesn't mean that I can't recognize their developers' good works... such as the recently-released Call of Duty: Black Ops.

Mind you, I'm still not a huge shooter fan... but, last I looked, it rated over 90 at Metacritic, which is unusually good for starters. More interesting to me, though, is a little "easter egg" they hid in the menu screen... allowing you to play Zork, a text-adventure game from the last century, and even earn an achievement for doing so (link). Oh well, I guess I'll have to check it out at some point down the road, likely used by then, and cheaper to boot.

DVD pick: Stardust

Wow... this movie's only three years old, so I don't know how I didn't notice it come through the theaters. Maybe I did, and dismissed it as kiddie fare, but the PG-13 gives the lie to that.

So, what's it like? Well, it's a "cross-worlds" fantasy tale about a young English land entering a magical realm in pursuit of a gift for the girl he thinks he loves. It's also a tale of the remaining scions of a newly-dead king vying for the throne. It's also the tale of a lady escaping the clutches of a group of evil witches who want to sacrifice her for their own ends. It's all these, intertwined, plus a couple of side stories, nigh-on-perfectly meshed, sprinkled with dark, wry humor, with some great actors in key roles to boot. Particularly memorable to my mind are Robert de Niro as Captain Shakespeare, whose position and circumstances are difficult to describe at best, and Peter O'Toole as the dying King of Stormhold, deliciously wicked and somewhat disappointed that his sons haven't "worked out" the succession yet... oh, and of course, the ghosts of the sons that died, who serve a great spectator/color commentary role on the whole proceedings.

I enjoyed this movie immensely, and I can think of very few people that I wouldn't recommend it to... if you're not sure, here's a link to the IMDb page for more details.

What's Cookin': Belgian Stew

OK, so this isn't one of those "OMG it's so tasty, you need to make it right now" sort of recipes, but it's one I go back to at least a few times a year... which is to say, posting this recipe here is as much for me as it is for you. As far as the question of "what makes it Belgian?" goes, I'm going to have to guess it's primarily the beer. Now, on to the recipe:

Ingredients

• 1/4c. flour
• 1T salt
• Fresh-ground pepper
• 2lb. stew meat, appx. 1" cubes
• 1/2 large onion, diced
  
• 1/4c. cooking oil
  
• 2 cloves garlic, whole
  
• 1lb. mushrooms, sliced
• 12oz. "dark" beer (you may need to experiment here for taste... I find stouts leave a bitter aftertaste when cooked, but most darker/more flavorful beers will work for this)
• 1T Soy Sauce
• 1T Worcestershire Sauce
• 1T Steak Sauce
• 2t. Thyme
• 1 bay leaf

Equipment

• Shallow bowl or similar for dredging meat
  
• Dutch Oven
  
• Wooden spoon, suitable for stirring/sauteing

Procedure

• Combine flour, salt, and pepper in the shallow bowl.
• Dredge the stew meat in the flour mixture, to evenly coat the meat cubes, discarding any excess flour mixture.
  
• Heat the cooking oil over medium heat in your dutch oven.
• Add stew meat and onion, until the meat is browned and the onion has softened.
• Add remaining ingredients, stir to combine.
• Bring the contents of the dutch oven to a boil, then reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 2 hours.

The source recipe I'm working from suggests boiling up some potatoes, tossing them in butter and parsley, and serving the stew with a little ring of potato bits around them... but, for my purposes, it's just fine to quarter and boil a potato, drop it in a serving bowl, and cover with stewy goodness. Either way, this recipe should handily serve 6-8 people... personally, I tend to just cook a half-batch, portion it out, and refrigerate or freeze what I'm not using that night.

Out with the old shinies, in with the new

So, it's been a while since my last post... too much fun being had both at work and at play, I suppose. At any rate, here's a quick run-down of my gaming changes, and their effects on this site:

• I've dropped playing my PS3 entirely of late... it's main use now is as my DVD/Blu-Ray player. Maybe, someday, Sony will make good on their sins... until then, well, they're pretty well dead to me.
• My Wii use is slacking off, too... as I guessed earlier, it's pretty well just some exercise equipment for me now. I know that because I switched to a backup wireless router after some odd behavior from my most recent router, which broke its Internet connection... and I just haven't been motivated enough to troubleshoot that problem. Maybe, when Kirby's Epic Yarn comes out, I'll give it some "real" use again, but we'll see.
• The Xbox360 has been good to me, but it's going to get less use for a little while... I finished the storyline on Viva Pinata and Just Cause 2 (both decent enough games... the story line on Just Cause 2 is good in a MST3K-meets-James-Bond sort of way, but the gameplay will keep me coming back for a bit longer), and I don't have any really consuming game needing played there. I suppose I would have gone for Fallout: New Vegas on that box, but...
• Just got me a new gaming computer. As a by-the-by, this is the first time I've bought a system pre-built, because I was able to find it online for less than the individual components would have cost me. "Shout out" to NewEgg and iBuyPower on this one... good price, and no issues beyond my own blindness... :)
• Of course, with a new computer, there must be a new game... so, I finally snagged Civilization 5. Interesting, what I've played of it so far... definitely a heavier tweak of the base mechanics since, well, Civ3, I believe, but I think we're going to get on just fine, based on the 7-8 hours of "just one more turn" that I endured last night.
• And, since I've got a new compy, and new games that Xfire hasn't updated to track, I've got a new widget on the sidebar from a group called Raptr. It should track not only my PC gaming, but any XBox360 stuff as well, in theory (heck, it could do PS3 as well, but, well, Sony and all that). If I were so inclined, I could rig it into Facebook, Twitter or the like... but I'm not quite up to that level of integration of online personalities at this point.

So, there's the quick/huge update... 'til next time!

Sewer adventure update: painful, but not fatal

So, I think I've got a handle on everything for my upcoming sewer connection... between trenching, laying pipe, re-plumbing my basement, taking care of the old cesspool, permitting, and taxes, I figure I'll be out something short of $5000. That's still a healthy chunk of change, but well less than what I feared. Of course, there's still likely months yet before all's said and done, so plenty of time for unexpected extras to come into play... but hey, I'm feeling optimistic, for the time being.

DVD pick: Sita Sings the Blues

OK, Sita Sings the Blues is odd, even by my standards... but it simply works. Basically, through a rotating pack of art and animation styles, the old Indian story Ramayana gets told (in a couple of different ways), interspersed with both a story of the film creator's own breakup and "musical numbers" set to 1920s-era recordings. The musical numbers in particular caught my attention: the art and animation stylings struck me as the sort of thing that cartoon studios back in that era might have done, if color were available/affordable... and are especially fun to watch when they're depicting fight scenes in cute counterpoint to the lyrics in play.

I list this as a DVD pick because you can get it that way (especially fun if you care about extras like subtitles, including LOLspeak subtitles)... but, if you just want to check it out now, it's available online through its own website, here. You won't miss that hour and a half anyways... :)

Recettear

There are certain words that I just don't use often, for one reason or another. One such is "charming", but that's truly the best description I can come up with for Recettear. It's a fine example of the sort of offbeat game that you just never get to see in "mainstream" gaming... in this game's case, both because it's an indie game and because it's a translation of a Japanese game.

If you've ever played one of the many RPGs on computers and game consoles, you're familiar with the concept of the "item shop", where your adventurer/party converts their unwanted loot into cash, then buys wanted loot. The idea behind this game is that your character runs such a shop... but, to prevent it from becoming just a market simulator, they involve a couple of other features. First, the reason you're running the shop... it turns out that your father went and got a large loan to kit out for a life of adventure, then disappeared, leaving you to make payments on the loan or lose your home. It's not as grim as it sounds, but it's still a good rationale for why you set up shop in the first place.

The other odd feature... while there is a "merchant's guild" where you can buy and sell stock for your shop at a discount, the smart money is on hiring an adventurer. Basically, in exchange for a small fee and whatever equipment you care to loan them, they clear out a dungeon for you, keeping any cash but giving you any items they run across. Of course, you get to accompany them on their task, totally protected from harm, able to use items in your inventory to help them out... but, should they fall, you only get to keep one item from the various stuff you brought along or found.

All in all, if you've got a Windows machine to play it on, I'd suggest you follow the link above and download the demo from Steam. If you decide you like it, it's only $20 to buy the full game, or $18 if you pre-order before the full game releases on the 10th. Me, I've already pre-ordered, which is something I Just Don't Do, so that should give you some idea of how well I like what I've seen so far.

Everybody has their sickness

The title of this post is something I use to remind myself that everyone that I have ever met has some quirk that will consume time and/or money doing objectively useless things... and to remind myself not to judge them too harshly, since my primary sickness is games. What I sometimes forget, however, is that being possessed of one sickness in no way inoculates you from other sicknesses...

Last month, I wrote about the Negima! anime series, and that I'd try out the manga source material... boy, talk about your "gateway drug" experience. Here's a brief rundown of my time with Negima! so far:

• Before July: Start watching the series on Netflix. Price: $0 (beyond what I was already spending on Netflix)
• Early July: Oh, Netflix doesn't have disc 3... but Amazon has the whole 6-disc series available for cheap! Price: about $15
• Mid-Late July: That was pretty good, but I want more. Oh hey, Amazon has used copies of the first five volumes of the manga from various vendors for under a buck (plus a few dollars shipping each... still a lot cheaper than new, though). Price: $20-$25
• Early August: Hm... consumed those volumes in one night. Most of that batch of manga matched the anime, in broad strokes, but had better story development... and it just started to deviate from the anime in ways I like. It was a real pain waiting for shipments from all those vendors, though... think I'll try getting used copies of the next five volumes from "fulfillment by Amazon" sellers. Price: about $35
• Mid August: Showed some restraint, and managed to make those volumes last all weekend long. Time for five more volumes... but it looks like the used prices aren't much off the new prices for these. I guess I'll pony up for new copies from Amazon this time. Price: about $50
• Today: I can't believe I stayed up until midnight on a work night to finish those books... and they left me with a cliffhanger ending! I may as well face it, this series has me hooked, and I'm so very weak... luckily, I converted some credit card rewards points into an Amazon gift card, so this won't hurt too much. Amazon, send me the last 12 volumes that are out in print so far... I can take it! Price: about $110

So yeah, in a week or two, I'll get my last shipment of books, likely will consume them over the course of 2-3 days tops, then likely will wait with bated breath for volume 28 when it drops in late October... oh, that will be some unpleasant withdrawal symptoms time, I'm thinking. Any of you Spokane friends care to jump on board the plague cart? I'll gladly lend you DVDs or early manga volumes... :)

A new adventure begins: Sewer Hookup

Every so often, I need a reminder that you can't quite do everything on the Internet yet. Even so, it can still come in handy in those limited cases. Today's case in point, finding somebody to hook up my house to the sewer system.

I still have the better part of a year before I must be hooked up, but I can't comfortably endure knowing there's a pricey expense in my near future without knowing how pricey, so I started the search. Googling up "Spokane sewer contractor" brings up a few hits on the map, but... few, if any, of the companies listed have a website. Also, most of the Street View shots of the business addresses tie to residential addresses (or, in one case, a vacant lot)... which says, to me, that most of these contractors are just a guy with an earth mover. It's nice to keep in mind, if I'm looking for somebody to do a passable job on the cheap, but I really want to start with knowing what it will cost to do the job "right" before I fall back on that level of work.

So, I revert to the phone book. I find a place that advertises having been around since the '50s, and find it on Google Maps (it was in my initial search results, but didn't make it onto the main list, for some odd reason). It's fairly close, and Street View shows a commercial building/lot... which is pretty much what I expected for a "real" business in this vein. One phone call later (and oh, how I do hate phones), and my request for quote is in... but, of course, they're backlogged, so they'll get back to me, in theory. We'll see how this goes...

More Sony wrongness

So yeah, I'm still in a snit about Sony's PS3 Linux disabling from back in April, but, last I heard, there's class action lawsuits being pursued there, so I'm not obsessing over that at the moment. Rather, it's another PS3-related change that has me fervently hoping that they're overestimating what their "core demographic" will tolerate.

Every two weeks, a new episode of a "show" called Pulse is made available on the PlayStation Network for free. I quoted-out "show" in the last sentence because what it is is a run-down of the various games, movies, etc. that are coming out on PSN in the coming weeks... or, to put it bluntly, it's pure advertising. I'm not aware of any games that I'm going to want to purchase for PS3 any time soon, but it's a low-effort way to keep abreast of what's coming out soon. At any rate, this week's episode was preceded by an ad for a new movie theater release, before the show itself got going... or, to put it in other words, you had to watch an ad before you could watch the ads you came there to watch.

I was going to title this entry something along the lines of "More Sony consumer cluelessness", but I fear that too many people have gotten used to watching ads before what they came to watch online, and won't even bat an eye. As for me, it's just another little piece of PS3 that I won't be using any time soon... good thing it's still a decent Blu-Ray player.

Movie o' the day: Inception

I'll keep this brief, because, as many have said before me, trying to describe this movie adequately is a fool's errand. The basic structure is a "heist movie", but dealing with secrets and beliefs in dreams (and dreams within dreams, and...), but, much like the action in the movie itself, there are multiple layers beyond that. All in all, it's great sci-fi, or maybe fantasy, without devolving into space opera or swords and sorcery. Better still, I only left the theater with one hole in the mechanics of the film, which could have been explained away with a throwaway line of dialogue, but they chose to focus on the action at hand instead, and I honestly can't fault them for that. So, if you're looking for action, intrigue, sci-fi, or a nice dense mix of the above, go see this film.

DVD pick: Negima!

If I had to choose one trait about myself that stood out beyond all others, it's my capacity for suspension of disbelief. In day-to-day life, that trait pairs nicely with my intelligence to let me find ways to do things, system-design-wise, that others would deem impossible, impractical, or only feasible with large teams and layouts of cash for software. In relaxation, it allows me to enjoy some truly ridiculous things... like this anime series I stumbled across called "Negima!", thanks to Netflix.

The premise is bizarre enough, to be sure. The main character is a ten year old boy named Negi, who is a wizard-in-training from Wales. He is sent, as part of his training, to an all-girls academy in Japan, where he is to serve as a teacher for junior-high students... and, of course, keep his magic a secret from his students. It doesn't take long for him to slip-up in front of one of his students, at which point damage control, and hilarity, ensues.

As the series progresses, you discover that few, if any, of the students in Negi's homeroom class are "just" junior high students. While many present initially as broad stereotypes, you get to discover more about their true personalities (and true natures, in some cases) along with Negi, which makes a charming addition to the individual episode storylines.

Of course, suspension of disbelief isn't without its hazards, either... Negima! is a six-disc series, and the first five are reasonably happy affairs, with a fair share of comedic bits and action sequences. By the end of disc 5, they appear to be setting up a storyline about one of the central characters getting sick from overworking herself, but, in the general flavor of the series to that point, it shouldn't be anything too terrible, and it will all work out in the end. In disc 6... it turns out that the character knows the time of her approaching demise, which she doesn't look forward to, but, believing that nobody can do anything to help her anyways, keeps quiet about it to the very end. They go through an entire sequence of holding a funeral for her, nailing her coffin shut, then cremating her remains... which, in my case at least, hurt a lot more than it had any right to. The follow-ons of watching the class try to get back to normal, with different individuals blaming themselves for her death, and Negi basically suffering a breakdown while trying to figure out how to make her not dead, and the lengths he contemplates and attempts to meet that goal... well, it's much darker than what came before, but all the more powerful for that. As an added bonus, everything does turn out alright in the end... but that would be way too much detail for this review.

So, overall, Negima! is a worthwhile watch... but, be forewarned on a few issues. First, on content... as I stated above, it's not entirely a happy show. Also, given the general type of anime involved and the cultural differences between Japan and the U.S., there's some material that might be a bit risque for some (e.g. somebody threatening Negi getting "pantsed" accidentally when he sneezes), but the "perv factor" is really very low. Second, getting the show... "Negima!" is the show I watched, while "Negima!?" is a "reimagining" of the original material... I haven't watched the other one, so I can't say anything about the show's quality or perviness at this point. Also, as of this writing, Netflix apparently doesn't have disc 3 of the series any longer... but, if you watch the first 2 discs and want the rest, I was able to find a box set of all 6 discs for about $15 new on Amazon.

If you're still on the fence as to whether you want to explore this show, here's a link to the Wikipedia page. As for myself, I think I'm going to hunt down the manga source material... knowing there's more to the story, I want to see where it goes, for a while at least.

Mix and match - my ideal game system

So, I've had one of the new Xbox360's for a couple of weeks now, and both the PS3 and Wii have been my toys for a couple of years now... and I've been exposed to home videogame systems of various stripes for decades, all the way back to the old Pong machines (gosh, I'm old!). I got to thinking, what should an "ideal" home videogame system look like these days?

Start with the box itself... small, quiet, and unobtrusive should be the order of the day. It seems that most game manufacturers get that right on the second major physical revision of their systems (the exception being Nintendo, who got it right the first time). Since optical drives are still the method of choice for physical game sales, slot-fed drives are the way to go, in support of the pursuit of quiet (it surprised me how much noise the drive on the new Xbox360 made... then heard that the old one was even louder). An internal hard drive is almost a must... and best good would be to be able to install games from disc onto the hard drive, to minimize noise from and wear on the optical drive (my Wii drive makes odd noises on occasion now, and I dread the day that happens on my PS3, since it's my Blu-Ray player). Wireless networking for multiplayer gaming is now standard, thankfully, so stick with that. Finally, since we're talking about an ideal, build a high-efficiency power supply into the box itself, use a standard power cord to supply AC (your standard PC power cable would do nicely), and vent waste heat to either the front or rear of the box, where you can expect a cabinet-installed box to either have open access for cables or the optical drive and power switch.

Controllers are a trickier matter... if you go by sales figures, the masses like the simplicity and full-body-motion use of the Wii's primary controllers, while "dedicated gamers" still prefer the standard handheld controller style. To add to the confusion, Microsoft is ramping up to push their Kinect system, eliminating the hand-held controller entirely, and there are a slew of game-specific controllers out there for things like Guitar Hero. Since Kinect is still an unproven concept, I'm going to work on the theory that an ideal system would still need a "standard" controller, and try to get the best of all worlds while I'm at it. That said, here's a breakdown of what I think an ideal controller should be:

• No Wires - one of the few hardware design pieces on the PS3 that always made me question the designer was needing a USB cable to connect a controller to the PS3 for charging... and charging only works when the console is turned on. Contrast that with the Xbox360 or Wii controllers, which both never need to touch their console to work properly. Of course, the Wii doesn't get a free pass on this one either... that cable between the Wiimote and Nunchuck was a necessary design evil at the time, I'm sure, but there has to be a better way.
• Motion Sensing - I recall, a few years back, letting my brother (who has owned an Xbox360 for years) know that the controller on the PS3 was motion sensitive, which blew his mind a bit. Even without the on-screen-cursor fun of the Wii, motion sensitivity can add greatly to a game, or even be the heart of a good game (Flower for PS3 springs to mind).
• Rumble - physical feedback, even as crude as controller rumble can be, generally helps with game immersion. Even on the Wii, I can't help but think how much better a sword-fighting game would be if you got that little physical nudge when you crossed swords with your opponent.

With that in mind, here's what I think would be about an ideal standard controller. Start with your basic PS3/Xbox360 style handheld controller, use the PS3-style analog stick layout (the Xbox offset version was just a patent dodge, if I recall correctly, not an ergonomic decision), but use the Xbox-style sticks, plus the Xbox-style bumper/trigger controls. Then, for your Wii-style pointing-and-flailing games... I don't know if you would do this with a physical or magnetic lock, but set up the controller with a twist-lock down the center of the controller, letting you separate it into two roughly chicken-drumstick-shaped parts that still work in tandem, much like the Wiimote and Nunchuck on the Wii. I know there's some serious ergonomic work to be done to make such a multifunction controller comfortable to use in both configurations, but it would start to rein in the Wii's problem of too many controllers, especially when it comes to things like their "classic" controller, which plugs into the Wiimote, and initially came with only the bumper buttons, until they released a version with triggers for a specific game within the past year. Oh, and I'm not even sure if it's possible, from a gameplay-feel perspective, but it could be pretty cool to make those analog sticks into "paddle" controllers as well... there are a fair number of games from the past that analog sticks, as they are now, simply don't handle well... and, if the controller supported that feature, there could easily be some new games to take advantage of the control option.

Well, there's my ideal game system. Note that I didn't get into certain details, like graphics power or how it connects to your TV, because that all tends to be "what's the best we can justify cramming in, price-wise, at the start of the console's life-cycle". Of course, there's at least one service starting up now that's aiming to replace the home game console entirely, so we may not even get the box in years to come. It'll be fun to see what comes along next.

A mixed day for individual liberties

So much of what the Supreme Court does passes with hardly a mention in the press these days... but, sometimes, you get something "big enough" to break through. Today was such a day, with SCOTUS stating clearly that, yes, the second amendment to the constitution applies not only to the federal government, but state and local governments as well (link). Of course, they didn't get into little matters like how broad that constitutional right is (at least, I haven't heard any ads for full-auto weaponry for sale yet)... but, in general, people who want to buy weapons for self-defense (and haven't had their rights revoked for felonies) should be able to get them now, even in major metropolitan areas.

Of course, nothing's perfect (including, many would argue, that last item)... but SCOTUS made another decision (or rather, punted on another decision), wasting a golden opportunity to fix something that's been broken for some time - the patent system. You see, at some point, patents got away from "here's this new thing I made, and intend to profit from", creeping into the territory of "here's this nifty idea I had, which I might or might not make use of in something I'm making, but I don't want anybody else using my idea". In this particular case (link), somebody was trying to patent a way of deciding whether a risk was worth taking for a business... and SCOTUS, thankfully, threw it out. However, they didn't go all the way back to limiting patents to "machines or transformations", apparently thinking there's some more nebulous case where there's no physical change, but patent protection is still applicable. The pisser on that is, a lot of that grey area covers business method and software patents... meaning, in theory, I could come up with some nifty new way of doing things for my company, and end up putting us in legal jeopardy, just because somebody else had the same idea some years back. I mean, it's one thing to scour the Internet or the patent office's files to see if somebody came up with, for example, a peculiar fishing lure... it's quite another to find, again for example, an odd search algorithm.

Oh well, one can only hope that, in time, those answers will be worked out, and, possibly, code will be protected the way I think it should be, by copyright. In the meantime, if I ever get an itch to get into guns, it's likely to be a bit easier, in time.

The shiny, it burns!

First, a tip of the hat to Ars Technica... I wouldn't be linking to you so much if you weren't so damn cool.

It's that time of year again, when all sorts of goodness flows out from and around the E3 Expo. I'm used to seeing multiple things that catch my fancy, but this year outdoes anything in my recent memory.

First, in the answered-prayers department, comes news of a new XBox360. Back in April, after Sony made a business decision I disagreed with strongly, I posted a half-hearted hope that Microsoft would come out with a new hardware revision soon, so I could "switch sides". Only with new hardware, I felt, could the issue of their well-publicized hardware failures be put behind them, and, just maybe, they would include a wireless network interface without charging obscene amounts for an add-on. Well, both those prayers were answered in the new model, along with some aesthetic and engineering changes, such as quieter operation and a smaller power supply... and, since Sony went ahead and announced their own online subscription service similar to Microsoft's, they effectively killed the last thing that could have conceivably held me back. Long story short, when next I stumble across one of these new XBox360s, it will almost certainly be mine.

Second, in the oh-heck-yes department, Apple decided to release a new revision of the Mac Mini. My current model is about two and a half years old now, and was never built for anything more than "light" computing tasks, certainly not games (as my experiments with Steam verified). The new version not only replaces the anemic video hardware that limits my gaming, it also has HDMI output for home-theater use, and a fully-internal power supply, despite being even smaller than its predecessors. Of course, at $700 for the base model, it's not quite the gimme-gimme-gimme that the XBox360 is... but I was already thinking in terms of a new "gaming" computer later in the year, when Civilization V comes out. This just might be a strong contender for getting away from having a separate Windows box, when the time comes.

Third, in the wait-and-see department, Nintendo let the wraps off their 3DS. I know, 3D is all the rage these days, but I still haven't seen a single movie in the theaters, mainly because I have no use for glasses, goggles, or anything else getting between me and what I'm watching (especially since I already wear my own glasses). The trick here is 3D without any such encumbrances... which, depending, could be a very nice trick indeed. Still, I've played with a basic DS, which is really too small for my hands... if the hardware's a workable size for me, and there's enough software that appeals, this could be a Christmas or birthday present to myself, come the time.

All that... and it's only the first day of E3. I wonder what other goodies will come to the fore in the next couple of days?

Movie o' the day: The Secret of Kells

Spokane has this little art-house theater that's come and gone over the years, called the Magic Lantern. I normally don't pay it much attention, since the majority of its fare tends to be small foreign films and documentaries that, if they grab my attention, I can generally catch on Netflix in short order, in the privacy of my own home. However, they do also occasionally show some piece of animation that had escaped my attention earlier, and isn't currently available on DVD, and may never be, for that matter... such was the case for The Secret of Kells.

The story itself isn't anything earth-shattering... during Viking times, our young hero Brendan lives in an abbey where his uncle is the head abbot. The abbot is doing his best to make his abbey defensible, and shield his flock from the northmen... in his nephew's case, to the point of forbidding him from leaving the abbey. A master limner, who survived another Viking raid on his abbey, comes to the abbey with his cat, Pangur Ban, and a book that generations of limners have been working on, the Book of Iona... and proceeds to lure the hero away from the path of the abbot's choosing. In the end, the vikings come, the abbey is razed, but the limner and his new apprentice survive and complete the book, now called the Book of Kells. In and amongst all that, there's a fair bit of Brendan sneaking out of the abbey, befriending a local faery who's the guardian of the surrounding woods, and battling a dark pagan god in the process. It's a passable tale, but not something likely to grab the imagination of young children, I'd wager.

That said... the animation is oddly beautiful, in its own way. The main art style is influenced by anime, but also looks to draw on time-appropriate European artwork (it wouldn't surprise me if that influence came from the real-life Book of Kells itself). When they deal with the Norsemen, the color palette shifts extremely dark, and the motion they use to imply their implacability and unstoppability is inspired. At times, they split the behavior of a character and their shadow, to better portray mood or shadow something they're describing. The one time the faery does actual magic involving Pangur Ban is understated but simply outstanding. Oh, and Pangur Ban is one of the better mostly-normal cat portrayals I've ever seen.

So, overall, if you're an animation geek, get thee to the Magic Lantern before this goes away (or check your own local art-house to see if it's coming or already gone), or at least get it saved in your Netflix queue and pray that a DVD release is forthcoming soon. For those of you looking for something to take the kids to... it's not bloody, it doesn't have any bad language or other naughty bits, but neither does it have enough action to keep real young kids enthralled. If it still sounds like something they'd enjoy, by all means go, or stow it away in your Netflix queue.

Something good, for a change: The Maxx

Yeah, I've been doing a lot of focusing on the craptastic side of our life and times here of late, so it's high time I highlighted some of the cooler things about living today... to wit, The Maxx.

The Maxx is a short cartoon series from the mid-90s, with a unique concept, entertaining voice-work, and a wide range of artistic styles. For those not in the know, here's a link to more details... but, suffice it to say, that it was never mainstream fare. In years past, if it ever made it to a home recording, it would have been released shortly after the series ended, while whatever interest it held was still 'hot', then quietly stuffed into the archives, never to see the light of day, except in odd corners of video stores or even odder private libraries of cartoon nerds (and yes, I did get a VHS tape for myself back in the day).

Fast forward fifteen years, and we find ourselves with the Internet in full swing... and on the Internet, nothing is truly obscure. On the small scale, that means you could likely do a search on YouTube and piece together this series, or many others, with a little time and effort. On a larger scale, there are plenty of movies and series that have been resurrected in DVD form, the vast majority of which you can get through Netflix... unfortunately, The Maxx isn't quite "big" enough to do a full production run of DVDs, it seems, so Netflix doesn't carry a copy. Not to worry, though... we've also entered the age of on-demand publishing, which has reached into the realm of DVDs as well as books. As such, you can get The Maxx made, legally, just for you... and who knows what other "marginal" goodies are out there, waiting to grace your shelves, the better to spring on unsuspecting guests?

So, yeah, obviously, I bought a copy... here's a link to Amazon. $15 for two DVDs, and they threw in streaming copies of the episodes as well. If you've never been exposed to the series, well, check out that IMDb link I tossed in earlier, maybe do a little online research... but, if it draws your interest in the slightest, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend the buy.

A study in human nature - the Humble Bundle

Funny how you can watch a wide swath of human behavior over the course of a week. Last week, a group of independent game developers got together to offer a limited time offer... five developers, five games, one week, pay as little as you want for the games, and donate as much of what you pay as you want to one of a pair of charities. They called it the Humble Bundle, and, as of this writing, with about 15 hours left on the offer, they've gotten over $840,000. All things considered, not too shabby.

Of course, it's not all a feel-good story. Having to pay for the bandwith to let all those downloads happen, they get tracking reports of how much bandwidth they've used... and, despite offering the option to pay as little as $0.01 for the games, it appears that about 25% of the downloads were made without any payment or contribution whatsoever (link). There are a number of people out there who, for whatever reason, couldn't or wouldn't pay anything for the games, even to charity.

So, there's your portrait... faith in humanity on the part of the developers, mostly decent people willing to play by the rules, and a pool of scum that can't be bothered to dig a penny out of their pocket for a little entertainment.

Bloomsday

For any of you without a Spokane connection, today was Bloomsday. Naturally, I didn't participate (not much of one for exercise, especially with 50,000+ of my closest strangers), preferring instead to sleep in... but I thought that it might be a fine time to snag brunch and hit Costco before the hordes hit.

Naturally, things didn't work out quite that way. I drove out to the Old European on Sprague, only to find it closed and converted to some sort of Japanese establishment (still one on Division, thankfully... much prefer eating aebelskivers to making them myself)... so I settled for the evil of IHOP (not terrible if your expectations are low... but man, those were some greasy sausages). I then hit Costco, to find things even more crowded than usual for a weekend, with all the Bloomies clustering around the sample stands, clogging flow through the aisles better than the greasy breakfast I had just eaten ever dreamed of doing to my arteries. Foolishly, I pressed on... it wasn't quite Christmas-at-Walmart levels of people packing, but it wasn't pretty, either... it's never a good sign when I breathe a sigh of relief on managing to exit a store.

So, lessons learned... be damn sure, if you're going to try to take advantage of an event to get something done, that you get what needs done done while the event is still in play. I might have spent more shopping Costco while I was still peckish, but my sanity would be in better shape, I believe.

Google Street View surprise

It's nice to know that I can still be surprised, I guess... the story's from Germany, but Google's not a company to do things differently in different places if they can help it, so it almost certainly applies here in the U.S. as well. Google's car that's used to generate those images for their Street View service does more than just take pictures... it's also scanning for wireless networks, and recording any MAC addresses it finds (link). The best "why" I've heard so far is to assist with geo-location... your IP address can and will change, but your MAC address is constant and unique (unless you take the time and have the know-how to change it yourself, of course).

My initial reaction on finding this out was unpleasant... after all, on a visceral level, there seems to be a big difference between filming the neighborhood and snooping into what electronic gear you may have stashed in your house. Thinking on it, though, most people who have a wireless router don't go to any great lengths to disguise the fact, and "hot-spot finders" have been around for years... the big difference here is that a data gathering company is pinpointing large numbers of such hot-spots, for purposes that aren't exactly clear, but it's not like any of these people were taking active measures to protect themselves.

So, I guess, if you're concerned about somebody tracking your Internet smack-talk back to your home thanks to Google, it's time to wire your house for Ethernet and drop all the wireless bits. Otherwise, it's business as usual... but with an extra piece to keep in mind, just in case.

Watching the Activision train wreck

It's not fun for the people involved, I'm sure, but it sure is entertaining to watch... in the week since Activision filed their counter-suit against the developers they fired for insubordination, at least ten more employees of that studio have left of their own accord, from reports I see on the 'net. The most notable bits I've gleaned on that:

• Mostly, it's "leads" that are leaving, it appears... but they're not all going straight into the welcoming arms of the new studio set up by the fired developers under EA's wing.
  
• "Anonymous source(s)" from inside Activision report exceptionally low morale, even calling the studio "dead".
• Activision and business analysts seem to be of the mind-set that they're likely to see more developers leave, but they'll just replace them, and will still be able to put out "competitive" products in the future.

How can I best put this... creative types aren't interchangeable parts. At some level, even Activision must realize this, when they replace terms similar to "industry-leading" with "competitive" as the best they can look forward to on an ongoing basis. To use a car-dealing analogy, it's like Lexus losing significant portions of their engineering and design staff, then telling anybody that will listen "not to worry, we'll get more workers, and still be able to compete with Chevy." I'm not going to be sad to see most of Activision wither away over time, but I do feel some sorrow for the coders that don't have the option to jump ship early, for whatever reason.

Of course, I did say "most of Activision"... there is one piece that isn't going by the wayside anytime soon, and that's Blizzard. Best evidence of that: they started selling an in-game mount for their World of Warcraft game yesterday, at $25 a pop... and sold enough to make over $2 million in a day (link). It'll be... interesting... to see how the power struggle over that cash cow plays out.

Brief catch-up post

All sorts of fun being had, and nothing quite worthy of a post of its own... time for another three-fer.

• My Roku box died! Well, to be more precise, the wireless and HD display parts died... so, after hours of consideration and reviewing the state of Internet players out there, I gave the old box to my younger brother (as much for the niece/nephew to watch as anything) and snagged the Roku HD XR. On the plus side, I've got dual-band wireless-N now, so I can run on a different frequency and avoid any issues with other wireless devices in the house. On the minus side, the USB port on it doesn't have any use (yet), and it seems to be a bit more sluggish to respond than my old box. Still, it's a lovely toy, and should only get better as more channels/new firmware comes out.
• On the Sony front, I decided to re-partition my PS3 hard drive, eliminating my Linux partition, on the assumption that I would be wanting to upgrade to the new firmware eventually... unfortunately, even though I backed up my downloaded software, it wouldn't work when restored, because it couldn't "phone home" during the restore, because I was using old firmware. So, to get things working again, I had to accept the new firmware and re-register my PS3 with their network. Not entirely unexpected, but it sure doesn't make me any happier with Sony.
• On the Activision front, it only took them over a month, but yesterday they filed a counter-suit against their ex-employees (link). There's two bits I like from this... first, Activision's assertion that employees were looking to steal "one of Activision's most valuable assets", namely the studio employees these guys presided over, as they jumped ship to a competitor. Note to Activision: no matter how hard you try, you can't "own" your employees... you can disincentivize them leaving by contract all you want, but, at the end of the day, it's their choice whether to stay or go, with or without their leaders. The second bit I liked? The rep for EA, where the jumping-ship-to was alleged to be imminent, replied to a request for comment "We don't have the time to comment on the many lawsuits Activision files against its employees and creative partners." You know, I think he rather enjoyed that... :)
  

Comcast vs. FCC - round 1 to Comcast

So, old news as I write this, but Comcast got a court of appeals to rule that the FCC overstepped its bounds when it forced Comcast to stop throttling BitTorrent a couple of years back (link). Has it really been that long ago? At any rate, I was perturbed when I first heard this, being the staunch backer of 'net neutrality that I am... but I'm at least as staunch a supporter of the rule of law, and, in truth, the FCC's order was based on something closer to the Pirate Code from Pirates of the Caribbean (more like guidelines, really). While the goal was seemingly noble, government shouldn't get in the habit of claiming power it doesn't have, lest less-noble goals get the same treatment.

Of course, the question becomes "what now?" The FCC could pursue the appeals process higher, and get spanked by the Supreme Court, more likely than not. They could seek to classify Internet access as equivalent to phone service, bringing regulation and common-carrier requirements solidly into play, and trigger legal battles on a grand scale. They could wait for Congress to pass legislation giving them more nuanced/neutered powers over 'net providers... but good luck with that, since Internet access isn't even remotely sexy, even in political terms, and the big-business-friendly Republicans are already in an obstructionist mood. All I know is that there's no clarity right now as to who has how much say over how rabidly Internet providers can pursue their profit motives at the expense of their customers... customers that don't have the wealth of choices necessary to let the market truly dictate winners and losers. Here's hoping things get figured out quickly.

Another company for the no-buy list: Sony

Could it just be me, or are companies pushing the boundaries of appropriate behavior more cluelessly these days? The most recent to cross a line that shouldn't be crossed is Sony... they decided to try to remove a feature from my PS3 that has been there since I bought it, for vaguely-stated "security concerns", with only a few days notice (link).

Luckily, this doesn't appear to be as bad as I initially feared... none of the games I currently own, on disc or downloaded from their online service, appear to have been shut down. Of course, some games, like Noby Noby Boy, are pretty useless without an online component, and, unless I upgrade my firmware, I can't use their service. Even so, strong-arming your customers into giving up a feature they paid for without any compensation under questionable pretenses (whose security are we talking about, for starters?) falls under corporate behavior that I want no part in supporting... and, since this is the same company that tried to install a rootkit on their customers' computers using their music CDs, I honestly can't think of any action they could take to restore my trust.

Of course, for all that I have moral standards, I'm also a pragmatist... I'm not about to scour the entire house for Sony-provided products and start a bonfire in the street. I'll continue to make use of my PS3, with the games I already own... but I'm definitely no longer buying any PS3 game on disc "new" (wouldn't do to let Sony collect their slice, after all), and I'm going to resist buying any downloadable content from this point forward. Oh, and, of course, I'm not buying any of Sony's music, movies, computers, etc., and especially not any further hardware for this game system, nor any future game system they put out.

I find it hard to believe I'm writing these words... but I wonder how long it will be before Microsoft comes out with a new hardware revision for their XBox360? After all, they may overcharge for their components, and nickle-and-dime you in other ways... but at least they're straightforward about what their intents are.

Movie o' the day: How to Train Your Dragon

Slow day at work, an early show of a new, animated film, you know I'll be there. Today, How to Train Your Dragon sucked me in.

It's a pretty straightforward story, which I'll outline in broad strokes: smart Viking lad constantly gets into trouble trying too hard to prove himself as much a Viking as anybody else in the village, which is constantly raided by dragons; he discovers dragons aren't just rapacious raiding machines, ends up (somewhat) taming a dragon in secret; when he tries to demonstrate what he's learned to his village, they assume he's turned his back on the Viking way, taking the side of the dragons instead; hasty words set up a 'final battle' situation, the Vikings get in over their heads, the lad and his friends save the day, and an imperfectly happy ending wraps the whole thing up.

I'm not going to go into any more detail than that... I'll just say that the story isn't quite as grim as the broad strokes would suggest, and the imperfection of the happy ending actually serves the story quite well. My only quibble with the film is the hero himself... as a "smart wannabe Viking", they cast him as excessively sarcastic, and almost world-weary when things are going wrong for him, which I can't see the Vikings putting up with without a few well-placed cuffs, chief's son or no.

So, my verdict... I liked it, and wasn't sorry to shell out $7 to see it in 2D... but then, I'm an animation fan. If you're on the whole 3D kick, I can see how this could be a good one to watch that way on the big screen... otherwise, unless you're a fan like me, or are looking for a film to take older, grade-school children to (I did hear an anguished "NO!" from a young child towards the end of the film, thanks to the lead-up to the imperfectly happy ending, so if your child still takes movies excessively seriously, be warned), you might want to hold off for a matinee, or even wait for the DVD. Still, I'd say it's worth seeing.

GOP: screw you guys, I'm going home

So, this is what politics in Washington have devolved to.

Unable to stop the passage of health care reforms, the GOP has decided that the best policy they can take... is to shut down all the committees they can at 2pm daily. Thanks to a Senate rule (which the best explanation I've seen so far as to its existence is that it might date back to the days before air-conditioning), the majority and minority leaders have to agree to let committee hearings go past that time... so today, several hearings got cut short, including defense, judiciary, and veteran's affairs hearings.

Will this happen on an ongoing basis? Or, maybe, on random days of the GOP's choosing? It's beyond petty... the very essence of "the game's not going the way I want, so I'm taking my ball and going home".

New games section

Yep, love me some lists of links... if you look to the right, there's now a list of games that "have my attention", games that I'm actively playing or keeping an eye on their release. Your tastes may vary... but now, you can at least know what I'm playing, without waiting for me to post a review after the fact.

Spot on!

I try not to just link off to other sites' stuff without some personal commentary, but this one's got the topic covered, with humor, so there's not much for me to say... except that it's a must-read for videogame-philes and -phobes alike. Why Your Loved Ones Hate Videogames

EA's "crown" falls to Activision

Yep, I've been pretty constant in my disdain for Electronic Arts... in fact, I'm pretty certain that I've successfully avoided buying any product of theirs for years, with the one exception of Spore (which was as much a reward for trying something different and rewarding the efforts of the founder of Maxis as anything else). However, it looks like I have to take EA off the top of my "game companies to avoid" list, since Activision's management has taken things to a whole new level.

Here's a link to a better description of what's going on in Activison-land, but here's the basics... Activision bought a game developer some time back, and part of the contract for that promised royalties on that developer's products to their founders. As pay-up day approached, Activision let their investors know that they were going to fire those founders for "insubordination" (the nature of which hasn't come to light to date), which, I gather, would mean that they wouldn't have to pay out those royalties, and that they were likely to get sued in the process. Sure enough, those founders are suing, and the detailed descriptions in their legal filings of the thuggish behavior they endured on approach to firing speaks volumes, compared to the bland accusations of insubordination by Activision.

I suppose it could be argued that I should wait until all the facts of the case come to light, etc., but calling people in on a holiday weekend for a 6-hour interrogation session, and demanding they turn over their personal electronic equipment to company lawyers for review, never mind any of the other items alleged in that filing, crosses way over the line of appropriate corporate behavior for any company. As such, no more Activision games for me... luckily, I haven't played World of Warcraft for years, so I don't have a major addiction to give up to "do the right thing". I'll just have to check my collection of recent games when I get home, and see how guilty I should feel for helping Activision grow to the size it is today.

Minor annoyances

Nothing here's big enough to warrant a post on its own... but, since they all hit within about 24 hours of each other, might as well round 'em up and get them off my chest.

• My PS3 was one of those taken out of commission by the glitch referred to on at least one site, in standard Internet overreaction, as the ApocalyPS3. It's working now... just from what I could see, I'm pretty sure it was some conflict between the on-board timer and the firmware (outage was over 01MAR10 by GMT, possibly due to the timer thinking 2010 was a leap year, somehow). The fact that only older models were affected implies that a hardware change in newer models eliminated the problem... which raises the question of why the hardware change was made. It could be Sony just replaced an obsolete part with a functionally-equivalent, properly-working part... or it could be that this was a known problem, at some level in Sony's hierarchy, but they decided to try and pass it off as as much of a surprise to them as to everybody else. Either way, somebody's got some 'splaining to do... it'll be fun to see how that comes out.
• Got a mailer from Comcast today, touting their Xfinity upgrade thingy... in particular, faster Internet speeds and "basic" cable for $5 more a month (intro rate, of course). From what I read, it appears that Comcast is going to artificially limit the speed of their existing users' connections to something approximating their current speed, so they can charge more from users for a higher-speed connection. Some days, this might be sufficient to send me off on a Comcast rant, but not today... it just means that, if I see my service quality suffer (primarily as measured by my ability to watch 720p streaming video from Netflix, since nothing else I do these days really taxes my connection in a way I would notice), they have that much less room to beg off on the grounds of concurrent users bogging down the system, since they're extracting extra cash to support that user base, which would likely trigger a serious round of "who else can I get decent Internet connectivity through at a decent price?"
• This one actually hurts a bit... I don't dine out that often (for all I'm a tech geek, I'm fairly frugal), but I do have my favorites when I'm in the mood for food X. I thought I'd stop off on the way home from work tonight to pick up some Happy Family from my favorite local Chinese restaurant, Tasty House... only to drive up to an empty storefront. I don't even know if anybody else does Happy Family in Spokane... here's hoping there is, and they do a decent job of it, and it's not way on another side of town from anywhere I go normally.
  

Get your OCD on: Disgaea 3

OK, I'm going to say, right off the bat, that this game is definitely not for everyone... first, because it's only available on PS3; second, because it is not nearly as "pretty" as you would expect most PS3 games to be; third, because it will let you be as OCD as you want, which can be either a major turn-off for some folks or an extreme hazard for others. In fact, that third part is a big part of why it's taken so long for me to write about this game... so far as I can determine, I have had this game for nearly a year, the playtime tracker on the save games says I just went over the 300 hour mark, and I just recently completed the "main" storyline in the game. So, yes, it's a long game, but it held onto me well enough to get me through the story, too... which is by no means certain in a video game, even these days.

For those of you looking for a proper review, I'd suggest taking this link off to Metacritic, to see if it's your cup of tea. The highlights... it's a "tactical RPG", which means a role-playing game where you control a team of characters and fight out your battles in a turn-based game. The setting is quite unusual... "demon high school", with a strange cute/anime mix to the blend. Beyond that, there are multiple story tweaks and game mechanics to spice up the adventure... and, being demons involved, they pretty well invite you to game those game mechanics as hard as you can.

Speaking of game mechanics, there's one basic concept that I find missing in party-based RPGs in general that Disgaea 3 nails spot on... if you have multiple people ganging up on a single person, the effect should be more than simply additive. Better still, this game gives you multiple ways to embrace that concept, whether it's team attacks, combos, linked attacks, tower attacks, characters wielding other characters as weapons... there are many, many ways to bring great amounts of hurt to your opponents, often in visually satisfying ways (well, given the limitations of the game engine, at any rate).

But now, here's the kicker... like I said, I managed to spend 300 hours over the course of a year getting through the main story. What I've come to realize, especially after sniffing about online, is that the main story line is there, as much as anything, to get you accustomed to the behaviors of the game engine and advance your characters to the point where they are, tactically speaking, interesting to work with. There are extended story lines to pursue after the main story line, if you are so inclined, or you can just play randomly-generated battles if that's your thing. Any way you look at it... I've just completed a 300 hour tutorial on the game. Off and on, I'm going to be playing this game for as long as I use my PS3... and liking it, a lot. What can I say... between what I've written here, and the reviews available through Metacritic, if this game sounds interesting to you, pick it up... if it gets its hooks into you, it will be one of the better game purchases you ever make, especially in terms of playtime to dollars spent.

Corporate charity?

While attending a family get-together the other night, I got into a bit of a spirited discussion with my younger brother. Somehow, the topic came around to corporate-sponsored charity drives in general, with the center of contention being a local Thanksgiving dinner-generating/food-bank-filling event sponsored by Rosauers supermarkets and heavily pushed on KREM (our local CBS affiliate), especially on and around their news broadcast, for about a month before the two-day event. While most at the table thought the month-long lead-up was just overdone, I took the darker view (as I often do) that those two corporate entities had effectively hijacked the whole proceeding, taking it from the realm of "let's help the needy" to "see how good we are, getting all of you to help the needy". My brother took umbrage at that, and argued the position that, since corporations can't be expected to act altruistically (which I fully agree with), they should be lauded for whatever charity work they do engage in, no matter how much they profit from the exercise (which I emphatically do not agree with).

Of course, as always, the possibility exists that I'm playing the ass, with respect to the norms of society... so, what do you think? Where do you draw the line between corporate charity and corporate self-aggrandizement? Is there such a line at all?

Yes, please.

I'm sure I've ranted once or twice here about the lack of Internet competition provided by Comcast and Qwest, my local cable and phone companies... the problem being, short of one or the other improving their service and/or lowering their prices (none too likely, in either case), I couldn't see any "viable" third option coming to play. That changes today, with Google deciding to run a test project on entering the fray with true fiber-to-the-home Internet connectivity (link).

In brief, Google wants to run 1 Gbit connections to homes in its test area (at least 50 times faster than the fastest cable Comcast provides these days), and let you choose from a variety of Internet providers to get your service through their hardware... you know, kind of like in the old days of dialup, where there was active competition for your Internet dollar, and smaller providers were able to survive and, in some cases, thrive. The downside, of course, will be what Google's going to charge for that line to your house, I'm sure... but it's still a test program, so I can dream. Heck, while I'm dreaming, come over this way to run your test... I won't mind, honest... :)

Subscription TV via Internet - so... close...

Yep, Roku just added another channel to their box, for Skitter.tv. Unfortunately, it's not just "subscribe with us, and get content via Internet on the cheap"... rather, they partner with local Internet providers to stream content, including local broadcast stations, that their users would otherwise have to get via cable or dish. Being on a cable company's Internet service, that means that I won't be seeing this particular feature any time soon... but, patience is a virtue, and all that. One way or another, a la carte programming will make its way online... eventually... I hope... please? :)

The latest fly in my ointment - "alarm registration"

This is a small issue, but one that illustrates a basic flaw with most governments I've seen... the basic disconnect between "for the good of the community" they were set up to serve, and "for the good of the government" that they evolve towards.

Until this year, my city has had a simple, straightforward system for dealing with alarm systems, specifically for dealing with false alarms... the first one in a given year's free (accidents will happen), after which escalating fees and other requirements kick in to fix your brokenness. The end result of this setup (according to the numbers quoted in the notice I received): slightly over 1000 false alarm responses by the police, at an estimated cost of slightly under $45,000 over the course of 2008. If my math doesn't fail me, that's a per-alarm cost of $4.50... so, let's be generous (inflation and all that), and call it $5 per false alarm.

Now, being the rational sort that I am, if I considered this to be a problem (which, honestly, I don't... responding to potential property crimes in progress is part of the job of the police), I would look at either increasing the fines for false alarms (or, if that revenue stream wasn't reliable enough, a small fee on all alarm owners), and use that money to hire on more police help (with the numbers we're talking here, that's maybe only half or a third of a full hire... but I don't think most alarm owners would get too bent out of shape about hiring on added police capacity to ensure their alarm was responded to in a timely manner). Oh, but wait, that would involve administrative overhead to collect those piddling little funds, and might be portrayed as "raising your taxes", so we can't do that, can we?

Instead, the city has decided to bring in an outside company to do the administrative work, charging every residential alarm customer $25 a year ($15/year if no false alarms in the past year), and even more for business alarms... or, to put it another way, everybody who dares to own an alarm system gets to pay 3-5 times more (or even more for a business) than it cost, on average, for any false alarm they responded to in 2008... which, in and of itself, is a nuisance. However, they then take that money, and... wait for it... use it to make sure that your contact information is correct. That's it. The theory being that, if we can call you when your alarm goes off, you might tell us no, it's OK, I tripped the alarm myself, no worries, no need for the police to get involved.

But now, hang about a moment... if you have an alarm company, they're supposed to do that already. I mean, that's part of the purpose of having a monitoring company for an alarm... alarm goes off, they call to make sure it's not a problem and, failing that, call the police. So, the end result of this new system is, rather than improving public safety by hiring on additional police, the city is extorting funds from their citizens to fund a private company that duplicates what the alarm monitoring company is supposed to do for itself, on the off chance they're not... all so no elected official "looks bad" for raising taxes.

Now, for the part that really chaps my hide... I'm a homeowner, I have an old alarm system still mostly doing what it's supposed to do, but I don't have a monitoring company (haven't for years, and it's disconnected from the phone line entirely), just the audible alarm. It's been tripped a couple of times (usually when I'm out-of-town and have somebody drop by to feed the cats), and I haven't seen or heard from any police officers in that time, so the "false alarm mitigation" argument doesn't really fly for me... but, unless I uninstall the system or disable the klaxon, I'm still liable for the fee. Worst of all... I'm actually going to pay the fee, rather than muck with the system, because I'm reasonably certain I get more than $15/$25 off my homeowner's insurance over the course of a year for having a local alarm system. Well, at least they'll have my phone number right, when they need to call me about that alarm they happened to drive by and hear going off, I guess... :/

Ultima? Nooooooo!

Let me give you a brief explanation behind this post's tile first... for practically as long as I can remember, I've always liked computer and video games, but they were always brief distractions, to be played for a while, set aside, maybe come back to later to be played from the beginning. Then, in the mid-80's, a friend of mine who actually owned a computer (now that's aging me, innit?) showed me Ultima III. We played that game for hours on end, the same game, and had a blast... to this day, we can still crack each other up with a properly-delivered "Oh no! Orcs!" line.

That experience molded me more than I would often care to admit... first, showing me that a computer-based role-playing game was feasible, and that games, in general, could be worth spending more than a single play session on... to put it bluntly, I was hooked. When I got my first computer, fresh out of boot camp, one of the first titles I bought for it was that self-same Ultima III. Then, Ultima IV came out, and introduced me to the concepts of games with deeper interaction with their characters (you actually had something resembling conversations with characters in IV, instead of the canned replies in III) and an ethical component in games (I had to restart my game after cheating a blind shopkeeper too often/thoroughly, because games, up to that point, didn't enforce any penalties for such actions). And so on through Ultima V, VI, and VII, each expanding the story of Ultima's world, improving the technology used to tell the story, and so forth.

Of course, nothing good lasts forever... I don't recall whether Electronic Arts had gobbled up Origin Systems by that time, or completed their mutation from art-house publisher to soulless corporate monolith, but Ultima VIII was a severe disappointment, mixing platform-game mechanics with Ultima's RPG roots, and placing it in a separate world entirely (I was overseas at the time, and got the game from a local shop in the Arab lands for something like $5, and still felt overcharged). But it takes more than one game to break a franchise... so Ultima IX put the nails in the coffin. IX could have been passable, but they attempted to make it a 3d game, and never really got the glitches worked out of their engine... I kept the box for that game on my shelf for a long, long time, as a reminder to let reviewers and others take the plunge on brand new games first. Finally, the main creator behind the Ultima games, Richard Gariott, left EA for another company, but wasn't able to take his games with him... there have been a few other "side-games", and abortive attempts to create something new, but Ultima has been effectively "done" as a brand since the end of the '90s, with only Ultima Online still kicking around... and that as more of a footnote of the evolution of MMORPGs than anything else.

Apparently, EA just can't leave Ultima to rest in peace, though. They've snagged the name for a free, web-based strategy game they're ginning up, trying to cash in on the casual/free-to-play craze of the day by melding it with a mostly-forgotten franchise from the ancient past (well, ancient in Internet terms, at any rate). Here's a link to their closed-beta game... I'd like to believe that they're going to do something interesting or worthwhile with the franchise, but I'm getting the vibe that they just needed a name to toss on their medieval-styled game, and, hey, we own this one. As my brother would put it, they're probably raping my childhood... but then, I expect no less from EA.