.: Cedarstreet :.

Ghost In The Machine

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Smith) — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 14:51:00 +0000

It’s not easy to talk about mortality. Aside from being born, dying is the one guarantee every single person has in life. It’s a pretty abstract concept most of the time: we’re here now, but one day, we won’t be. Sometimes we may think of it in terms of simply being left alone, out of contact with our friends and family, but at some point I think we realize that it’s more then that. We’re not the ones who are left alone; we’re the ones who do the leaving. If we’re lucky, we get advanced warning after many, many decades of life, and can depart after having put our affairs in order. If we’re unlucky, we have to leave at the worst possible time, not only leaving people behind, bewildered and lost, but also a lot of lingering presence that continues on without us.

Last year, we lost a friend on Black Friday. He had to go in to work that day, and left early on a chilly and icy morning. He was killed in a head-on collision with another driver who was determined to have had fallen asleep at the wheel (I suspect that he had been out for the Black Friday sales that morning, and was returning home). He left behind a wife and two young children.

What he also left behind is a presence. He was a technical support specialist by day, gamer by night, and like many of us who work in technical fields and spend a lot of free time online, he left a decent sized footprint. I received an email today from LinkedIn with their occasional “maybe you know these people?” opportunity to grow my own professional network, and my friend was listed there, with his company name and his position. I fired up Steam last year, shortly after the accident, and remember seeing his name and icon in my friend’s list. Same with Raptr. He had a local account on my Xbox. When I returned to City of Heroes a few weeks ago, I started right next to a holographic projection of his character in the Architect (the last time we played CoH, we had all played a mission arc that he had spent weeks creating). Last night I was working on my daughter’s computer and I saw an installation of Artemis Spaceship Bridge Simulator that had been installed on 11/1/2010, the night we had all gathered in my basement to try it out, and which we recorded to get a free copy of the game. He’s in that video, forever on YouTube.

I know I’ve signed up for hundreds if not thousands of accounts all across the internet in all of the years I’ve been using it. I get emails for products and services I don’t ever remember having signed up for until I examine them more closely, but I’d be damned if I remember my registration information, or even the reason. I have subscriptions and accounts for active outlets like online games or services. I’ve got payment information at major online retailers. They all fill my inbox from time to time with deals, reminders, or automated birthday wishes. Of course, I’m also active on several social networks, and inactive on several more. Most of these are out of sight, out of mind, and if I were to pass on tomorrow, these services would continue on auto-pilot, sending me emails, showing my status – such as it is – to my friends and family as if I were only AFK for a little while.

I try to be cognoscente of this, and keep whatever account information I have in a central location in case my wife needs to access it to cancel accounts and to notify interested parties. Generation X is the first generation to really have to deal with this kind of post-life issue, and we, our younger generations, and even some generations that precede us now not only have to deal with the traditional end of life activities like life insurance and funeral services, but also to ensure that our spouses or significant others aren’t being nickeled and dimed by online subscriptions that they don’t know how to cancel.

I certainly don’t mind happening upon these shadows of my friend, although it makes me painfully aware that they’re dormant and coldly automated, and will continue to be so for as long as the services are in operation. I also feel a pang of regret when I make the decision to remove an association with him that’s under my control, like the Xbox account or the Steam association. I feel that it’s necessary but also cruel to cut these ties that served us all so well in the past. But I know that I’d want my loose ends to be tied up should I unexpectedly depart, and certainly wouldn’t begrudge anyone I know from doing to the same to me.

It’s Official: I Give Up

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Smith) — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 18:41:00 +0000

I yield.

I’m done with the Windows Phone. At this point, it’s like having the choice to be any kid on the playground, and consciously choosing to be the one that gets beat up by all the rest of the kids. And the teachers.

It’s not good enough that that the device is pulling in as third place. I checked the market this morning, and found three new apps based on the Kama Sutra. Seriously? This is the shit that people are making? Where the apps designed to compete with what’s on iOS or Android? The only quality stuff is coming from Microsoft themselves, and they can’t and shouldn’t be expected to prop up the ecosystem.

I’ve also been waiting for my Mango update, which is now a month and a half behind everyone else. There are good apps available, but they’re ticking over to 7.5 with each passing day, which means that I can’t use them, and with every passing day, I’m less inclined to use or even remember them.

It was this Unity news that really solidified it for me, though. You may know how much I like Unity, and hearing David Helgason say that Unity wasn’t going to support WP7, and the way he said it felt that I was being denied a whole refreshing boatload of content because I made the wrong choice. No one likes to be smugly told they made the wrong choice. No one wants to realize that they made the wrong choice. But I’m man enough to admit it.

I don’t know where I’m going to go after this. I’m dissatisfied with all three major smartphone players, and have learned that I don’t need 1,000,000 possible apps to feel that I’m getting my money’s worth. I do want some apps, and I want those apps to be decent quality. I guess that leaves me at Android’s doorstep again. I’m not due for an upgrade until February of 2012, so there’s time for SOMEONE to win me back. I’m open to influence.

Pimp’n Apparently IS Easy…For AT&T

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Smith) — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 15:59:00 +0000

I’m getting a bit more then a little fed up with the lack of update for my phone (I know…QQ). They had originally said it would be available in October. That didn’t happen. Now the update is “In Testing” and in the hands of AT&T, and the scuttlebutt is that it’ll be “Mid November”. That’s still a good month and half after everyone else got it, and considering more and more apps are made available or are being updated to require the 7.5, it’s edging me out of an already sparsely populated/low quality marketplace.

So like an ass, I went to AT&T’s website to see if I was eligible for an upgrade. Nokia’s Lumia 800 is nice looking, but I was considering the HTC Titan, but it’s not on AT&T. Despite the issues I’ve had with Samsung devices, I can’t deny that the Focus S is mighty attractive. But I’m not eligible for an upgrade until February of next year, so that put the breaks on that.

Of course, that doesn’t stop AT&T from trying to ram the iPhone down my throat. On the main account page, there’s a block extorting me to “upgrade to an iPhone!”. No thanks. Been there, done that, etc. So I click on the “Check upgrade options”, and what do I get? A huge fucking page dedicated to the iPhone!.

So it’s pretty obvious that despite having Android and Windows devices in their arsenal, AT&T is still pushing the iPhone very heavily. Now, this may be some contractual obligation they inked (in blood, of course) with Apple, but the favoritism makes me annoyed and sad, and only lends credence (to me, at least), that there’s a very specific agenda at AT&T corporate to push iPhones. In that light, it’s not unpossible that there’s a agenda on the sales floor to push iPhone or Android phones, based on the salesperson’s personal preference.

That being said, I have a tinfoil hat to fold, so please excuse me.

I Am Disappointed With LEGO

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Smith) — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 20:15:00 +0000

This is kind of a sister post to the one I posted at Levelcapped regarding the demise of LEGO Universe.

I got to thinking about the target demographic for LU, and why it didn’t click with enough people who thought it was a decent enough adaptation of a well loved product like LEGO.

I’m a long time user of LEGO products. My brother and I received many a LEGO set for Christmas and birthdays, back when they cost a fraction of what they’re going for today. Sadly, the integrity of the sets were never maintained; our parents always threw the contents into a massive cardboard box, mixing everything into a LEGO stew that would later demand several minutes of raking pointy-cornered bricks around like a plastic rainbow Zen garden in the hunt for the smallest pieces manufactured by the LEGO company. But it was OK, because we preferred to make our own creations, and every set added to the mix was just more materials to use for the next, great creation.

That’s what always made LEGO great: the ability to create whatever you wanted. It was brick and mortar for the pre-teen set, where the limited selection of geometric blocks were combined to make a starship, a futuristic home, or a motorized model of K-9 from Doctor Who (I kid you not. I was really proud of that one). Sadly, I think LEGO has lost sight of that, and I’m not sure why.

I look at the LEGO sets now, and I see a lot of the same kinds of sets that we had as kids. City sets with fire stations and airports, or futuristic sets with spaceships and aliens, and more. But when I look at the pieces, I’m appalled. There are far less “general purpose” pieces, and more “specialized” pieces, parts that can only be used for the things that they’re designed to be used for. Maybe it’s a wing for a bird, or a single piece wall of a castle. These pieces can’t ever be used for something they’re not, because a bird wing will always be a bird wing, and a castle wall will always be a castle wall.

The way I see it, LEGO has moved from a company that makes something that is about the sandbox aspects of free building to a company that makes something that is trying to provide a structured and specific themed experience in every box. They’ve stopped making “building blocks” and are now offering “playsets”.

I also believe that this is the rotten wood that was propping up LEGO Universe. I tried LU and it wasn’t what I expected or wanted. I wanted to play with LEGO bricks. What I saw was a translation of their “action universe” mentality that we see in their current playset offerings. It had LEGO sensibility, along with made their console titles so popular (Star Wars, Batman, Indiana Jones), but in order to build, I had to earn bricks. Each and every one. It wasn’t a matter of unlocking one brick and having an unlimited supply of it; one unlock meant one piece, period. The meat of the game was all about adventuring in a pre-built world where the most expression you could have was to destroy enemies in a shower of bricks (which you couldn’t pick up), or to build something very specific from a pile of jittery blocks on the ground. To say that it was disappointing would be an understatement. I suspect that I am not alone in this assessment.

LEGO can take their product any way they want to, of course, and it seems that they believe that the best way forward is to give their customers a specific, guided experience. I suppose that’s OK, but it’s not going to fly in my house. Sadly, my daughter isn’t as into the blocks as I was at her age, but I did bring my massive box of LEGO up from my parent’s basement for her to have. She’s very creative, and when she does get to urge to play with the LEGOs, I’d rather she have the formless, undetermined blocks to work with instead of someone else’s notion of what she should be building.

Why Science Sucks

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Smith) — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 18:54:00 +0000

Not really. But apparently for many, it does. It does for me too, and I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about why – about 15 years of thinking about why.

I have a B.S. in biology, specifically, marine biology. I got this degree from the University of New Hampshire’s College of Life Science and Agriculture, which at the time was one of UNH’s biggest programs. This covered general biology, specialized biology, aspects of pre-med and pre-vet, ecology, animal management and a whole suitcase worth of agricultural and plant science studies. The only other school that really outdid or rivaled COLSA, I believe, was the business school. Needless to say, there were a lot of students attending UNH for life science degrees.

I knew things were going to get rough when, during the first year, first semester survey class, the instructor pulled the old “look to your left, and then your right; two out of the three of you won’t earn a degree from this (COLSA) school” bit. That was actually rather frightening at the time, because we all thought we were there to be scientists. The idea of washing out of this dream, presented only days after we moved into our first dorm room, was terrifying because that meant we’d have to come up with another major, go undeclared liberal arts, or leave school. What really made me sweat, though, was when the COLSA freshman’s “dirty secret” was revealed: the majority of people had chosen marine biology as a career because they wanted to work with dolphins.

I kid you not. That is an actual statement, and not a representation of a trend. People applied to this school, packed up, left home, and decided to devote 4 years of their lives (minimum) to life science because they wanted to work with the most “charismatic” marine mammal in the world, and thought that a degree in marine biology was the first step towards achieving that goal. Although I wasn’t specifically there for that specific purpose, I , too, had an idea that I’d like to work with marine animals. Maybe studying migration patterns, or even behavior of goldfish. I really didn’t know; I had a vague idea of what I wanted to do, and I somehow decided that marine biology was going to provide the specifics as the studies progressed.

I was wrong. So friggin wrong that I might as well have said that I wanted to work with dolphins, too. What we got was a lot of staring into microscopes at Daphnia, which is about as far from a dolphin as the Earth is from the center of existence. There was a lot of book work. A lot of writing. I don’t think any lab I had involved anything larger then a hot dog, certainly not anything as large as a dolphin. At some point, I realized that I felt let down, and even cheated. This “science” wasn’t what I felt I had been lead to believe it would be, and I’m sure the pod of dolphin-lovers felt the same way.

Students in high school aren’t prepared for what science really is, at least not the “hard” sciences like biology and chemistry. Any advanced focus on “science” in high school is really a focus on “engineering”. The NYT article linked above talks a lot about making robots, or toothpick bridges, or safe-egg drops. This is good for students who decide they want to make the next iPod, but anything beyond that is far more esoteric, and I’m not fully convinced that America’s high school teachers are really qualified to prepare a student to understand exactly how life and chemical sciences work in the real world. I don’t blame teachers, don’t get me wrong. Engineering is a straight arrow; 2+2 will always equal 4, so once you know it, you know it. Life and chemical sciences are about discovering what’s not known, which requires the fostering of the ability to engage in critical thinking, and in problem solving. Moreover, scientific method requires that the scientist be willing, able and, in some cases, to actively seek out failure. In science, disproving a theory is just as important as proving one, but high school isn’t about teaching one how to accept failure; it’s about teaching students how to succeed.

Another thing they don’t tell you about the world of science is that it can be a barrel filled to the top with douchebags and assholes. I was told later on in college that learning how to do science is really only about 25% of what you need if you want to do science. The other 75% is who you know, and once you know the right people, what you accomplish. Science is very results driven, more so then what we expect from stereotypical business office culture. You need money to do the science, so you need to apply for grants or beg at the right feet to get it, and you need to prove that you’re competent enough not to squander it by having done previous science, or by getting an established scientist to put in a good word for you. There’s a lot of back-stabbing, ass kissing and pettiness involved in “doing science”, which is something that I absolutely, positively refuse to engage in. Because of the amount of students in COLSA, there weren’t enough lab opportunities to go around, so it was brutally difficult to get into a lab, even to just wash glassware (which I actually offered to do in one lab, just to get my foot in the door. I was denied).

At any rate, I left college with the degree I intended to obtain. I barely obtained by degree; it required some last minute credit shuffling and some summer classes to shore up my flagging scores in math (math which wasn’t really needed for the biology part, incidentally). I then went to work at a liquor store, and then in tech support, and now work as an application developer.

In the end, I’m both happy and sad I’m not in the science field. I make more money now then I would if I were in the scientific research field, and engage in 98% less of the behavior I’d be expected to engage in if I were in the scientific research field. I can work from anywhere, for anyone, with a minimal set of tools, and I can create great things. But I miss the every day learning and the process of working towards discovery of the unknown. That’s what science is presented as: an honorable dedication to the discovery of the unknown, but what’s really unknown is the reality of how science is done in the modern world. For those who only want to discover, it’s a horribly disappointing world of politicking and sometimes hanging one’s dignity up like a piñata in service of someday gaining the freedom to actually do science the way you thought you would when you graduated high school.

Windows Phone: Things Are Getting Better…?

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Smith) — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 17:35:00 +0000

I rarely have anything to say that isn’t gaming related, which ends up on Levelcapped, so this has turned into a Windows Phone-centric blog for the time being. It’s not a total conversion; it’s just the current topic du jour that I seem to have things to say about.

This time, it’s news about improvements. First is official improvements. Nokia has announced two new WM7 phones: The Lumia 710 and the Lumia 800. Nokia’s offerings were Srs Bsns because they apparently have a pretty decent aesthetics track record, and these phones don’t disappoint. The 800 especially. Sadly, the 710 is the only one currently (or coming soon) available in the US at this time. Still, Nokia is plastering ads for their WinPhones all over the place, apparently. Here in the US, HTC’s Radar had a TV spot during Modern Family, which I’m told is kinda funny. There’s also a new commercial showcasing One Note note synching on WPs. In looking at the WP ecosystem, it’s apparently very popular everywhere but the US (and, reportedly, Australia), so increased visibility is good in regions where it’s already popular, and especially here in the US where exposure has been limited at best…absent at worst.

Drawing a circle around previous posts and annotating it, there seems to be a real burst from the community to get WP on the radar (!) of several companies who have either waffled or who haven’t shown interest in providing a WP app alongside their iOS and Android offerings. CNet had a throwdown between the iPhone 4s, Samsung Galaxy Nexus, and the Lumia 800, and seriously knocked the WP device on the weakness of it’s marketplace, which prompted WMPoweruser.com to highlight some high-profile apps that are conspicuously absent from the platform. It seems that some folks in the community have had enough, and have created a website called I Heart WP7. This site is designed to call attention to apps and developers who have shunned the WP platform, and to provide WP users a way to “gently harass” these folks for a WinPhone version of their apps. It’s a confusing situation, as I mentioned in the last post, because we really don’t know if these companies are flatly refusing to release a WP version, or just aren’t sure if it’s worth their while. Efforts like those of I Heart WP7 are allowing users to line up to inform these companies that yeah, it’s very much worth their while to support the platform.

So I guess things are getting better for WP7, although I’m still waiting for the Mango update, a full month and change after most everyone else got it. This puts a lot of cool new apps and updates out of reach, which is rather infuriating. I like the Lumia 800, but it has no front facing camera. The Samsung Focus S is on the horizon, which does have a front facing camera, but I had a Galaxy S and currently a Focus, and both have had issues: the former with the GPS, and the later with receiving OS updates in a timely manner. Assuming this warming trend continues, I might consider keeping on with the WP platform the next time my contract is up for renewal, but it’s going to take wider developer support, and more “modern” hardware features to allow me to consider it.

What The Hell Is This?

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Smith) — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 22:29:00 +0000

OK. Here’s something that’s kind of annoying. I’ve seen two cases of developers of high profile mobile apps for iOS and Android posting a questionnaire regarding whether or not they should bring their product to WP7. One is Dropbox (login required), and the other is IM client eBuddy.

Logically, these companies are feeling out the user base. Some might say that it’s market research. However, I don’t ever recall a company every asking an open forum if they should make an iOS or Android version. I can’t decide if this is an anti-WP7 bias, or just absolute cluelessness. Some might suggest they get props for actually gauging interest, but I don’t know that Yelp asked, or – gawd help me – Rovio asked before porting Angry Birds. I can kind of understand Dropbox, since WP has access to 25 GB of SkyDrive space, but as a long time Dropbox user, and since Dropbox is so ubiquitous, I have no desire to switch to SkyDrive just because it’s convenient for 15% of my platform usage.

Wouldn’t a company be interested in extending it’s presence to as many platforms as possible? I can’t believe that it’s a massive task for a company like Dropbox, and maybe eBuddy, to get someone who knows C# (a very popular language, BTW) to whip up a client that will expand their user base? Do they not like money?

How We Doin’, Windows Phone?

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Smith) — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 15:49:00 +0000

Here’s a daily dose of WP7x analysis culled from the feed reader and smashed together with more force then what’s provided by Chuck Norris’ pocket LHC.

Marketing!

One of the issues WP7x suffered from was a lack of visibility. I dunno if Microsoft is in charge of that, or if that’s up to the handset manufacturers, but after the initial burst of…a commercial…there was very little public visibility. Supposedly, hot on the heels of the ongoing Mango release, we’ll see more marketing, partly because 7.5 brings a lot of features to the table, and partly because Samsung and HTC have been said to have ramped up their marketing dollars made available to their WP handsets, and because Nokia is coming on board with their own WP handset.

Knowing is (only) half the battle…

I know about the existence of meth, but I’m not going to run out and buy some. However, if the meth came with a whole universe of apps, then I might reconsider.

Several outlets have taken the new HTC handsets (Titan and Radar) out for a spin, and have had some pretty favorable reviews, but there’s two common cons that everyone seems to be picking on. The first is that Mango is the new kid on the block, which leads into the second, more important knock: the lack of apps compared to iOS and Android.

This is a chicken and egg scenario, to a degree, because apps aren’t going to flow unless the biggest names in apps feel that the platform is worthwhile, but the platform won’t be worthwhile until people feel that it compares to iOS or Android, and all else being equal, the app selection is where the platform is falling down (and that’s basically the only place it’s falling down, IMO).

Is This How It Should Be?

There’s a lack of “premium” developer support for the WP platform. We have Angry Birds, but that’s pretty much required as part of Rovio’s manifest destiny. We have Microsoft Game Studios Xbox Live Arcade games, and we have other top shelf apps like Evernote and Foursquare. But some are conspicuous in their absence. Like Pandora. Or Spotify, which had actually been demo’d live on stage a while back. So it seems that rather then waiting for these laggards to get their acts together, indie developers are picking up their slack and are working on their own implementation of some popular apps.

Should this be the norm? iOS and Android people have no idea what this means, since they get app drops lockstep these days, but the WP platform is virtually ignored by pretty much every single mobile device outlet out there (Gamasutra tracks iOS and Android game data, but not WP, for example). But when a company releases it’s “official” app, it often times looks like it does on the other platforms (Foursquare notwithstanding…which looks totally kick ass on WP!). Putting the development in the hands of the users who crave the app can be a real plus: they aren’t fettered by the corporate mandates of standardization, and can also add in other features that users may want, but which corporate gag-orders prevent from appearing in the official offering. The downside is that they risk being slapped down for their efforts. But if companies get all in a bunch over these forward thinking community heroes, then they might consider releasing official apps on all three platforms so people aren’t driven to do their work for them, yes?

I Give Up…Or Do I?

Several tech luminaries have taken the “30 Day WP Challenge”. Scott Adams did it. Tom Bradley of PC World did it. Molly Wood of CNet did it. Hell, even Leo Laporte is on deck to do it. All agreed that WP is awesome, but none chose to stick with it. Why?

Adams blamed the “un-hip” shadow of Microsoft. Bradley cited his investment in iOS. Wood had some issues on the nascence of the platform. It’s the perennial problem of the “last to the party”, but there seems to be a real undercurrent in each (overcurrent in Bradley’s case) that they simply didn’t ever and honestly consider switching. The investment in previous platforms – especially the apps that have been purchased, the money spent – is too hard for people to walk away from.

The one rebel? Gabe of Penny Arcade who took his WP7 with him on a trip, and has apparently never looked back.

Prognostication

Sadly, the lackluster response to iPhone 4s really hasn’t been that lackluster. Preorders topped over a million already, which shows that some people will suckle at whatever teat Apple flashes at them. Those people will never leave for another platform (well, most of them won’t).

Then there’s those who have a whole heap of cash invested in their current platform. I checked my iPad the other day for “apps I have purchased, but which were not installed”, and there were over 180 of them. JUST for the iPad, not including any iPhone apps which didn’t have a dual binary. If each were only $0.99, that’s almost $200 spent in little, micro programs tied to that ecosystem. I’m certain there are millions of people who are in for far more scratch then I ever will be. Those people will never leave for another platform.

Finally, I think there’s simply a bias. A bias for iOS’ hipster cred, for Android’s rebel image, and against anything Microsoft. Your mother wants an iPhone because she heard about it on The View. Every single online service exhorts you to download their app “for iOS and Android”. Tech sites only have two arms: one to put around the shoulders of iOS, and the other around the shoulders of Android. All WP receives is the “sorry, maybe next time” eyes and a shrug.

Honestly, WP does pretty much everything right, but that’s apparently not enough for the iPhone generation. Since Apple rightfully discontinued the use of the “Think Different” motto, maybe MIcrosoft should pick it up for Windows Phone. It’s obvious that it doesn’t apply to Apple anymore.

WIP: Google+ on WP7

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Smith) — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 01:46:00 +0000

Oddly enough, the emulator frame didn't show up in the recording. It may be because Livestream and the Aero UI don't get along, and the frame may be collateral damage.

cedarstreet on livestream.com. Broadcast Live Free

Windows 8

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Smith) — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 21:33:00 +0000

If you’re reading this, then you’re probably sick to death of hearing me talk about Windows 8. Avert your eyes, Boo, because I’mma keep on going.

The Story So Far
Win8 was “unveiled” yesterday during Microsoft’s BUILD developer’s conference keynote in Anaheim. They ran through all kinds of points, such as the Metro UI, how developers can leverage it, and some samples of hardware running Win8 which ranged from super high-end data center machines to super-mega-ultra-thin netbooks and tablets.

500,000 Downloads
So last night Microsoft released a developer preview edition of Win8 to anyone who wanted it. No logins required, just click, download and install. As of the writing of this post, over 500,000 people downloaded the ISO in 16 hours. That might not sound like much, but keep in mind this is a developer targeted, pre beta build.

Installing
I downloaded the build (with the dev tools baked in, clocking in at about 4.86GB in size) and installed it in a VirtualBox virtual machine. The install was fast. Very fast. Building on Win7’s experience, there was an absolute minimal need for user input on install: just a name for the initial user login, and the rest was automagic.

Most of the pre-installed apps on the Metro dashboard are totally useless for desktops. They require accelerometers or have gone to great lengths to have been touch-enabled that they totally forgot that the majority of people will be using this on a desktop machine. It's ok; these apps were created by Microsoft interns, and are really just examples of what can be done with Win8 and the Metro design.

The Metrofication Of Windows
The Metro UI design specification isn’t just a suggested specification, it’s pretty much a religion. Now two weeks into my Win Phone 7, I've seen many apps on the marketplace being dinged stars because their design doesn’t conform to the “Metro aesthetic”.

What is the Metro Aesthetic? Minimalism, organization, flow, and informative, I’d say. When you boot into Win8, you’re greeted by a background of your choice. You have a clock and calendar date in the lower left corner, and beneath that you may have icons for things like unread emails or appointments with alarms. If you swipe upwards, this background slides up to reveal the login screen which contains a massive profile picture (if you’re the only user on there) with a password box. There’s also the accessibility button and a power-down button in the lower corners. It’s all on a green background, so right now, there’s no swooshy Windows logo or wallpaper cribbed from an intro-to-Photoshop class.

Once you log in, you go straight to the Metro UI Dashboard. This is the admitted center of the new OS, as the MS reps on stage during the keynote admitted that Win8 is designed primarily for touch input. That’s right: MS is betting their future OS in the tablet market which is dominated by the iPad.

Start At The Start, Which Is Not The Start
Fear not, the traditional Windows desktop is always a keystroke (or tap) away. There’s a Desktop tile on the Metro dashboard. You can press the Windows Key to switch between the desktop and the Metro dashboard. If you’re on Metro, you can hover the mouse (or tap) in the lower-left corner to bring up a small Start Menu, or you can see the Start Menu like it’s always been if you’re in the desktop view.
But the Start Menu in desktop is not what you’d expect if you were to click it (or tap it). Clicking on Start opens the Metro dashboard. There is no more Start Menu. Instead, the Metro dashboard is the new Start Menu.

That is going to piss off a lot of people, but look at it this way: Metro dashboard is just a really large, expanded Start Menu that can persist. Remember when we upgraded from Windows 3.1 to Windows 95? Remember how weird that Start Menu was? That’s what it’s like moving from Win7 to Win8; a different way to think about it that is going to take getting used to.

What The Metro Dash Provides Us
Every app that installs on Win8 can surface a Tile, which can be included on the Metro dash. Tiles can be grouped. Tiles can be Live Tiles, which can display information like the number of unread emails, or the current weather conditions. They can be single or multi-column, and can sport your logo or the logo of your application. Due to the size of the tiles, a well composed tile image allows users to quickly identify an application, which can be a real PITA in the current Start Menu paradigm.

If you’re like me, you leave your computer on all the time. Win8, being designed for a new way of using our computers (in more ways then one, it seems), takes advantage of this possibility. The lock screen can be customized with your own wallpaper, and looks attractive. The Metro UI can expose a lot of info in quick, perusable Live Tiles. Metro apps are meant to be clean and pretty, and to take advantage of widescreen form-factors. You can easily leave your PC (or tablet) running, sitting on the lock screen, Metro dash or Metro app and it’ll be useful and pleasing to look at.

This is really what Metro gives us: a quick way to get info. The first (and only, as far as I know) Windows Phone 7 commercial was trying to communicate this by showing all kinds of people who were ignoring the world around them while they focused on their app-centric smartphones. For people who use their PCs (or tablets) to mainly check mail, social networks, weather and read news, Metro will be a worthwhile shift in how the devices are used.

If you’re a heavier, “pro” user, what’s in Metro for you?

What Metro Does NOT Provide Us
Despite Microsoft’s assurances that Metro can be used with K&M, it’s a real pain in the ass. There’s no double tap, no pinch, and swiping isn’t really swiping. You’ve got full range of movement, one pointer, and, at most, four buttons. If you want to do anything other then clicking on a tile on the Metro dash, you’re going to be facing up to some frustrating mechanics.

But Metro is designed to be an information center, not a work center. You can still access the traditional desktop which acts like the traditional desktop. All Win7 apps will run on Win8 (so they say), and when a desktop app is opened from a Metro dash tile, you’ll switch over to the desktop as it loads. I tried it with the included Visual Studio Express 11, and it flipped over to the desktop without skipping a beat. This furthers the Metro-dash-as-new-Start-Menu paradigm shift.

Basically, you may not be able to easily use Metro dash with a keyboard and mouse at first, but it can be done, and you’re not limited to dash-or-desktop by any stretch of the imagination.

How Can I Make These Observations After Only A Few Hours?!
People get a lot of flack for passing judgment after a limited hands-on time with a product, but let’s face it: for people in “my age group” or above, the first few minutes are the absolute make-or-break minutes for any product. If we can jump into a new product and do the things you think you should be able to do, on your own terms, with minimal fuss or hand holding, then you’ll be super happy. If you can’t do what you want, or can’t do it how you want, or if you have to consult some convoluted reference material just to perform a simple task, you’re going to be angry.

What I’m trying to convey here is my initial experience with this new OS using the above criteria of just “getting things done”. I’m not passing judgment: there’s things I like, and things I don’t like. There are things which work as expected, and there are things which are going to take some time to learn, and time to look into. As I stated above, we went through this kind of usability shift when we transitioned from Win 3.1 to Win 95. There was a learning curve there as well. We haven’t had a super large shift between Windows versions since 3.1 to 95, but doing things the way they were always done just because they’re familiar may be good for us, but that’s not going to help Microsoft stay relevant in the age of the tablet PC.

What About The Tablet?
If playing with the Win8 developers build doesn’t make you want a Win8 tablet, then you’re either an Apple fan, jaded, or just plain old crotchety. I was going to save up for a Sony Vita, but that plan has been unceremoniously dumped in favor of saving up for a Win8 tablet. Having used Metro on the WP7, I can say that the difference matters, and the push to get our noses out of our devices quicker is one that works. I have an “aging” iPad which I have many, many apps for, but I’d be willing to ditch it for a Win8 tablet that can sync with my Win8 desktop, my Metro-ized Xbox, and my Win7 phone (hopefully soon to be Win7.5).

But since Microsoft is obviously pinning Win8 on tablets, I think even I am going to furrow my brow on this one. OK, so getting Win8 on desktops is probably a no-brainer, but since touch enjoys primacy here, how many Win8 tablets does Microsoft expect to sell? It's got to be more then "a lot" for them to have created an entire OS iteration that's basically pushing the bread-and-butter desktop PC to second place.

There's pros and cons. The cons being that "it's Microsoft", a name which causes seizures in many people. Apple already has people goo-goo eyed over the iPad, and Android tablets are getting out there in conjunction with branding from the likes of Amazon and GameStop. The two pros I can see is that by the time Win8 hits the streets, it'll be a one-two punch: the desktop software will be available, and hopefully released side by side with the tablet. Users will have a choice: stick with your desktop and have a next gen experience (or buy a new PC), or go with a tablet and have pretty much the same next gen experience. Or, buy a tablet, and get the same experience on your desktop. Second, other tablets may have peaked by that time. I don't know, since I don't know when Win8 will release, or where the iPads and Android tablets will be in their life cycles at that time.

Overall, Microsoft rarely gets points for being innovative. Thing is, Metro is innovative, but many people won't give them credit for it because...it's Microsoft, and showing them any quarter is like asking the head cheerleader for recommendations on where's the best place to buy a pocket protector. But I like what Win8 is offering, and hopefully by the time it's made available for mass consumption, I'll still like it, and be ready.

The Hard Philosophy

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Smith) — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 19:51:00 +0000

G+ has been on my mind a lot, as you can see below. I like it. I like it a lot. I want to use it, but it is only as good as the crowd which adopts it, which is why I sigh heavily when I hear people are dismissive of the service because they already have Twitter and Facebook accounts.

In a strange parallel, today’s Penny Arcade comic talks about the Windows Mobile 7 phone. Tycho’s words are true, in a sense:

This is 2011, and they’ve brought a cellphone to a knife fight.

The fight being between Apple and Android, with Windows Mobile being the weaker third party participant which, like G+, is automatically dismissed because people seem to have this steadfast resolution that there’s only ever room for two players on the field. The only sport I can think where this is the case is tennis, but that’s not really part of this discussion.

I can’t help but think of this quote from Clive Barker’s Imajica. It’s the opening paragraph, and sets up the rest of the book perfectly, and is fitting here because when you think about the point it makes, it is pretty immutable.

"It was the pivotal teaching of Pluthero Quexos, the most celebrated dramatist of the Second Dominion, that in any fiction, no matter how ambitious its scope or profound its theme, there was only ever room for three players. Between warring kings, a peacemaker; between adoring spouses, a seducer or a child. Between twins, the spirit of the womb. Between lovers, Death. Greater numbers might drift through the drama, of course—thousands in fact—but they could only ever be phantoms, agents, or, on rare occasions, reflections of the three real and self-willed beings who stood at the center. And even this essential trio would not remain intact; or so he taught. It would steadily diminish as the story unfolded, three becoming two, two becoming one, until the stage was left deserted. Needless to say, this dogma did not go unchallenged. The writers of fables and comedies were particularly vociferous in their scorn, reminding the worthy Quexos that they invariably ended their own tales with a marriage and a feast. He was unrepentant. He dubbed them cheats and told them they were swindling their audiences out of what he called the last great procession, when, after the wedding songs had been sung and the dances danced, the characters took their melancholy way off into darkness, following each other into oblivion. It was a hard philosophy, but he claimed it was both immutable and universal, as true in the Fifth Dominion, called Earth, as it was in the Second. And more significantly, as certain in life as it was in art."

G+ As A Primary Social Network…Or Not?

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Smith) — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 13:28:00 +0000

Once more, Pete Smith offers a great post on the state of Google Plus, this time highlighting some of the perceived shortcomings of the young service.

In his latest article, Pete mentions something that has been bothering me for about a week now, since Google has been letting more and more people in to use the service:

…people seem a bit hesitant about posting on G+. They feel like they need to have something "valuable" to say as compared to Twitter where they feel free to just share any random thought. I don't see many 1-line updates on G+.

The one thing that is really bothering me about G+ is the reticence of people to seemingly consider adopting it. I’ve seen people professing this exact sentiment on G+ and via Twitter, in different forms.

To a degree, I can see where people are coming from, when comparing apples (G+) to oranges (Twitter). They're different platforms with different strengths and weaknesses. G+ can accommodate longer updates, so it makes logical sense that posting 140 character updates is really a waste of the horsepower that G+ provides. However, that's not G+'s fault; it's a perception choice of the users. If someone wants to post 140 characters or less in G+, that's perfectly all right. It’s not blasphemy, trite or abuse of the system, really.

My big concern is that this thinking leads to people looking at G+ as "another social network" and are asking "why do I need another platform?" if they're on FB and Twitter (and blogs and Tumbler or some other platforms). If people are weighing the possibility of using G+ based on it's DIFFERENCES from other systems, then I'm starting to believe that people aren't going to find G+'s features compelling enough to adopt it as a first tier experience if they've become used to the features that other networks provide. In essence, they shrug and say that the combination of their other, disparate systems add up to the sum of G+ already, and that they don't need to maintain another network for the sake of maintaining another network.

So my question is: why does G+ have to be the middle child? Assuming the questions people have about how G+ will shake out are taken care of to general satisfaction, why does G+ have to be the odd-man-out in people’s social networking decisions? Why would it be the “logical” sacrifice, and not one (or all) of the other networks? It’ll be difficult to move one’s social graph en masse to a new, unfamiliar platform which may offer far more (then Twitter) or far less (then FacebooK) then people are comfortable with, but not impossible with persuasion or tense negotiations. People had to adjust to limiting their status updates to 140 characters to work with Twitter, so what’s difficult about either continuing with that economy on G+, or in stretching one’s legs and really saying what’s on one’s mind?

The success of an online system lies squarely with how many people adopt it. Google Wave “failed” because no one could find a real-world use for it, and Google didn’t really work that hard (IMO) at convincing people why they should use it…for anything. Buzz seems half-baked when compared to G+, and again Google didn’t really push it out there to convince people of it’s value. If people can’t be bothered to adopt G+ as their “platform of choice” and simply wait passively to see who else is jumping into the pool before making a commitment, then the platform won’t succeed. We’ll be left with the constant crashing of Twitter, and the unmitigated spam (and eventual gloating) of FB because no one wanted to budge from their “established” networks and support an alternative.

I DARE You To Impress Me

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Smith) — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 13:08:00 +0000

I remember the days when people waited for months with a rumor under their arms, hoping that when the official press conference reveal came, it would be even more spectacular then they could ever imagine.

Those days are long gone. Maybe it’s because of “leaks” which may or may not be accidental, depending where you reside on the scale of paranoia, or gossipy forum dwellers who’s speculation builds on each other’s wish lists until some kind of hyped-up uber-golem is constructed. Worst of all, though, is the “OMG YOU’RE GOING TO WET YOURSELF!” proclamations from the PR department of the parent company in the run-up to the Big Reveal.

Yesterday, Facebook announced 1 on 1 video chat. I’ll defer to more learned scribes on this matter, but for a more specific example, I’ll refer to Apple. Remember when the bi-annual Apple announcements were awesome? Remember when live bloggers had as many “Oh wow”s as Jobs has jeans and turtlenecks? Now there’s more snark in a single live event column then exists in the entire Internet to this day. Sounds impossible, but the Internet, like an Apple product, is “magical”.

The real sad point isn’t that we’re disappointed. To me, it’s that these companies think we’re scratching at their door because we’re eager for the privilege of peeing on their shiny new hydrants. Facebook’s video chat announcement rings hollow because last week Google Plus opened to a limited audience and brought with it the Hangout – a 10 person audio/video conference tour de force which makes Facebook’s announcement sound like a deflating bike tire in a windstorm. Same with Apple’s Holy Proclamations. “We have added copy and paste! Multitasking! The things that older, crappier mobile OS’s like Windows Mobile had 10 years ago!” It’s really a non-event, but they’re forced to do this dog and pony show, pretending that they’ve uncovered the existence of some Supreme Being that they’re sharing with us, all so the shareholders will have something to rub one out to when they get home. Meanwhile, to the consumers – the people they’re trying to sell these things too – are cringing in embarrassment.

Homer (singing and shuffling while chained to the lawn chair): Dancing away my hunger pangs. Moving my feet so my stomach won't hurt. I'm kind of like Jesus, but not in the sacrilegious way ...
Moe (to Carl): Man, he's really losing it.

Me, +1

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Smith) — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 19:44:00 +0000

I’ve been lucky enough to get into Google’s “Facebook Killer” (someone else’s words, not mine) before the doors slammed shut on the Greater Internet, and I’ve been using it in various forms for the past week: Web, Mobile and dedicated Android App. I am happy to admit that I don’t spend a lot of time on Facebook. I have an account A) because there are some people there that I want to stay in touch with, but with whom I’m not actively in touch with, and B) my daughter is 10, and will be eventually of the age where she’ll want to be socially networked, and where I will have to start watching her like a hawk (disguised as a lamp post, mailbox or elm tree for secrecy, of course). So on the surface I have to wonder why I’d want a “Facebook Killer” for any other reason then to wipe the planet clean of the FB stain.

The problem with social networking now is that it’s either FB, or a whole Swiss Army Knife of other stuff. Twitter has been my platform of choice, but it relies on a lot of other services to make a rough analog for FB. There’s desktop software, mobile apps and other third party things that need to be tied into the API, unlike FB which has everything right there…including ads and spam. And let’s not get into the privacy concerns with FB. Having an alternative to FB is welcome, and even if it doesn’t actually kill FB, G+ is looking to be that viable alternative.

Circle Of Friends

The “core” of G+ is the idea of a “circle”, which is basically what you expect it to be: a themed group of people. The touted power of G+ is that circles are independent of each other so that what you post to the Friends circle doesn’t get posted to the Co-Workers circle unless you specify that it should. You can also view posts made only by people in a specific circle. If you’ve ever spammed the Mute button on your FB wall, you’ll appreciate the powerful filtering abilities that circles gives you. You’re no longer inundated with everyone’s pithy updates. Now you can choose which pithy updates you want to see!

You may have seen the Google +1 button around. This is The G’s answer to the Like button that no one seems to really like. This is kind of a hit or miss feature. G+ has to have it, since the idea of the throw-away comment is now ubiquitous in social networking and is therefor expected, but the Like button has become meaningless for that exact reason. It doesn’t mean anything to “Like” something on FB. Mainly it means that you agree to get spam from whatever product or service you Liked.

So far, the +1 action on the G+ service is like a chin-thrust acknowledgement across a room; you like the post or comment, but don’t really have anything useful to say. Outside of the service, however, anything you +1 shows up on your profile. Wait…privacy? Yeah, you can turn it off so it doesn’t display, but then you’re kind of missing out on what makes the +1 different from the Like. When you +1 something, it drops into your profile bucket. It becomes part of your profile. It’s like bookmark sharing in a way, and is a quick and passive way of collecting and informing those in your spheres of things you’d otherwise have to do by manually copying the URL and pasting it into a status update.

Bring It Together

Taking a 10,000 foot view of Google, you can see how their seemingly disjointed offerings fit into a G+ style service. You can upload unlimited photos, and 15 minute videos which are deposited into Picasa and YouTube automatically for you. Just today, a story dropped that Picasa and Blogger were going to be re-branded (and hopefully updated) pretty much alongside the public release of G+. Coincidence? Obviously not. I don’t know whether to be impressed with Google’s long-term vision, or be afraid that they had such a far reaching vision of this scale.

Goliath Verses Other Goliath

We wait with baited breath for the results: Will G+ kill Facebook? The nerds and geeks emphatically say yes.The pragmatists say they can exist side by side. Sadly, neither of these two will actually play a part in whether Facebook becomes the new MySpace. That honor goes to the moms and pops who picked up a FB account to view pictures of their grand-kids.

A new service like G+ will certainly attract the gadget freaks and those who have some kind of genetic hatred of FB, but the real power behind FB is the legions of people who really don’t give a shit what platform they use. They wouldn’t know a G+ from a FB if they just stepped out of the stone-age this morning. Instead, they’d pick the service that their friends and family use. They cede the decision to their social graph, and sadly, many graphs are deeply rooted to FB. In the absence of any monumental reason to leave FB (it’s shutting down, they have a horrendous security breach, their data centers simultaneously burn down, etc.), these people who helped FB bury MySpace aren’t going to migrate to G+. We nerds and geeks may bully friends and relatives to set aside their inspirational quotes and “I’m begging you to engage me” status updates long enough to sit through a presentation on why G+ is “better” then FB, but in the end, they won’t care unless Aunt Alice, Uncle Joe, Cousin Mike and his three kids that everyone secretly dislikes but won’t actually admit to decide to unilaterally leave their years of status updates, photos and game-progress to claim a plot in the untamed wilderness of G+.

Good luck with that.

Out With The Old

Is this really bashing G+? Hell no. People maintain a FB, Twitter, Tumblr and blog, all at the same time. The problem is, if you want to network socially, you really only had a few options. If you wanted the features of FB, but didn’t want the actual service, you were SOL. G+ offers an alternative to FB for those who want to vomit when they see the blue and white “f”.

Because Google has made some crafty acquisitions over the years that seemed rather head-scratchable, they’re coalescing into some kind of social networking Devastator. They’ve got petabytes of family photos on Picasa. There’s millions of blog posts written on Blogger. They own YouTube, which even FB has to accommodate (oh gawd…what if Google blocks FB access to YouTube?!). Google has the power to bring all of their resources to bear on this segment, which, had it been done in a vacuum, would take over the social networking world so fast it would make your head explode, but which now gives Google a sure and steady path to make something far greater then the sum of it’s parts.

I’m really itching to get out of Twitter for G+, to be honest. Most of the people I follow on Twitter are on G+, and those who aren’t yet will be soon. Those who do want to move from FB to G+ will find a comforting (and less cluttered) UI, which will make their transition easier then it would be to something like Twitter or full-on-blogging. And over time, G+ seems on track to aggregate a lot of the disparate services that I have to manage manually with Twitter. Plus, there’s no limit (or there’s a large limit) on the status updates available with G+.

Smile For The Camera

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Smith) — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 17:41:00 +0000

Here’s some free advice: never stop a friend or loved one from taking your picture; some day, it may be all that people have to remember you by.

This is really something that always annoyed me, when you try to take someone’s picture, and they get all agitated about it. Some people aren’t comfortable with themselves as they are, but we should also realize that when someone wants to take a picture of us, it’s not because they’re trying to embarrass us later on or because they want to start a lame meme on the Internet; it’s because every single minute of every single day will never come again. Pictures and video are ways for each of us to hold on to those moments as we remember them, for reasons we want to remember them. They aren’t just for glamor shots.

I bring this up for two reasons. Last November, a good friend of ours was killed in a car accident the day after Thanksgiving – Black Friday – by an early-morning deal-shopper who claims to have fallen asleep at the wheel. In the days that followed, I was going through my photo and video collection for pictures of our friend, to give them to his wife. Many of the photos were used during his memorial service, but I always wished that I had more to give. He left behind a wife and two small children who will always have memories to share, but only a finite physical record of his face and his actions that will never feel like enough of a record of his life as it was.

This morning, as my daughter was getting ready to head out to catch the bus, I picked up the video camera and just started recording her putting on her jacket, heading out to the driveway, jumping rope…waiting patiently to go to school. I thought about all the times she had done something spectacular, or funny, or cute, or was just sitting at home, doing homework or just being herself. All of the stuff that I had never thought to capture in any way was now gone forever. I grew up in a time when instant Polaroids were in vogue, but video recording was an expensive and complicated affair. Consequently, I only have a handful of photos of my life until now. I regret not being more gung-ho about chronicling my daughter’s life up to this point, both for me, for her, and for her eventual family to see how she grew up.

Don’t stop people from taking your picture. Don’t be shy. Don’t turn away, and don’t complain. People are taking your picture because you’re special to them and they want to remember you as you are at that point in your lives.

Longevity Of Digital Content

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Smith) — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 13:58:00 +0000

I fired up World of Warcraft last night, but was distracted by an ad in the launcher for the first issue of a Worgen-themed comic series that was available online. I decided that it might be interesting – the art style was very good, and it promised an intro the history of the Worgen. I ended up spending a good half hour looking into that and other digital comics (including the first three issues of a Rifts: Planes of Telara prequel series). I spent $8 on digital comics which, at the end of the night, left me wondering if it was a wise decision.

Don’t get me wrong; I enjoyed the comics and look forward to further entries in each series, but I thought about the difference between hardcopy comics and digital comics. Comics are a unique element among literature, mainly because of their historical and potential physical value as a collectable. Of course, in the heyday of comics, they weren’t bought as an investment; they were bought to read. Digital comics can’t end up as collectables because they can spawn as many copies as needed. There’s no rarity, but that also made me think: digital editions can be rare, if we don’t treat them like we’d treat hardcopies.

This goes beyond comics: music, literature, and applications are all things we can purchase online, download and use, but there’s the hidden cost of longevity. Do we back up our downloads? Do we buy from sources which will make the download available in perpetuity? What if the company offering our download goes under and vanishes, or if the content uses DRM and needs to contact a foreign server on the Internet, what happens if that server is no longer available? What about the forward march of technology? I bought these comics for use on the iPad; should I lose the iPad, I will no longer have access to these comics.

Personally, I don’t treat digital content the way I treat physical content. I have CDs and DVDs of games from the 90’s, yet I find myself re-downloading software I use on a regular basis. Part of it is the convenience of having it available to download, but that’s relying on the promise that the content will always be available. I’ve often commented to people that I don’t subscribe to the notion that one has to have a physical book in their hands to enjoy reading, but when it comes to the potential scarcity of content, I’m finding that having the non-digital version is preferred.

Do you back up your digital content, or have suffered an unrecoverable loss because you didn’t? Does it bother you either way?

Behold! The Power of Google!

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Smith) — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 13:20:00 +0000

How can a business tell that they’ve really “made it” in their industry? When they become a household name? When the name of the flagship product is used as an all-encompassing term for similar items (Kleenex, iPod)? It seems Google isn’t happy with achieving either of those milestones. Instead, they’re proving themselves by going full-on-Copperfield: they’re making entire towns disappear.

This is the curious case of Sunrise, Fl. Population: Almost 90,000, with a median age of 36 years. With that kind of demographic, you might expect that Sunrise’s population is pretty familiar with Google. Unfortunately, we can’t say the same for the inverse. You see, Google Maps has, on not one, but on three occasions, “lost” Sunrise. Any Google Maps search refuses to acknowledge the presence of the city. Instead, it directs users to Sarasota, Fl…which is on the other side of the state. You can get the lowdown – and search examples – over here.

When I heard this on the radio this morning, my first reaction was to smile and chuckle. Then I heard the story of a florist who was losing business because people were ordering from florists in Sarasota for deliveries in Sunrise, and then it dawned on me just how powerful Google has become. Although unintentional, their gaffe has rendered a whole city invisible. Had Bing of Yahoo! had the same issue, it wouldn’t be such big news, but because it’s Google – who’s name has become the de facto buzzword for searching on the Internet, and is the go-to way to find any and all information for many – this is some serious business (or a lack of business for those in Sunrise).

Google’s motto is (supposedly) “do no evil”, and we need to think that they’re still believers in this because we’ve become so dependent on their services: their search, their documents, their smartphones. Google now wants to get into your TV. With tendrils in so many facets of our lives, should Google ever decide to stop “doing no evil” and embrace their inner Palpatine, they could wreak some serious harm.

I’m not a “sky is falling” kind of guy; I just bought a Google smartphone and use their email service as my one and only, but I think that many people don’t realize just how dependent we have become on these always-on systems, and how we integrate them so deeply into our lives. The folks in Sunrise know this all too well, and are fighting with Google’s bureaucracy to get their town back on the map. Unfortunately at the time of this post, Google still has yet to restore Sunrise to it’s proper location. Hopefully it’s residents still receive their copies of the Yellow Pages.

Of Androids and Apples

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Smith) — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 15:40:00 +0000

I was an iPhone 3G user for 2 years, having switched from Verizon to AT&T after seeing a friend’s iPhone in action. I am not an Apple fan, by and large, but the iPhone is a great device: simple to use, simple to master, and a fun experience… so long as you can abide by Apple’s steady (or heavy, depending on your point of view) handed stewardship.

But the 3G model is no longer actively supported by Apple, and I made the mistake of updating the firmware to the crippled version of the iOS4 which made the 3G practically unusable as a phone due to agonizingly long task switching and load times. I was becoming frustrated with the experience, so I was pleased to realize that I was eligible for a handset upgrade. I headed down to the AT&T store to pick up a Samsung Captivate. The change between the two is…startling, in many regards.

Part of the problem with Android phones is that Android is an OS which is made by a single company, Google. They place no restrictions on who can create handsets, aside from some technical specs that probably have to be in place to actually run the thing. This means that a handset from Motorola won’t be the same as one from Samsung, both in form and in appearance of the display itself. It also means that finding and tracking information about your particular handset is an exercise in banging your head on the desk. In a scene where bigger-better-faster catches the headlines, as soon as your handset hit’s the street, it’s passé and unworthy of mention. Because the OS version differs, because the hardware differs, and because the capabilities of each device differ, it’s impossible to know when your handset is getting an update, or if an app being released and reviewed will actually work on your handset. This makes 90% of the news on Android themed sights basically useless. And I still haven’t found a decent, dedicated app-review website for Android apps.

There’s a lot of talk about how Android is more “open”, and I suppose the pure OS is. But since we the consumer aren’t building these phones ourselves, we still have to contend with the whims of the carriers. The Captivate, for example, doesn’t allow me to load apps that aren’t available from the Android Marketplace. I can root it, I know, but with all this talk of “openness” of the Android OS, I feel that I shouldn’t have to makes these end-runs around the carrier. So far, there are only a few irritations due to this – I can’t take advantage of beta software, or work with development tools like App Inventor the way they’re designed to work, but there’s a lot of apps on the sanctioned App Marketplace that I don’t feel like I’m totally missing out.

Speaking of the App Marketplace… I was originally against Apple’s “curated” App Store because Apple was putting their judgment ahead of mine by giving the thumbs up or thumbs down to all apps submitted for consideration. Naturally, the cynic in me believes that they’re rejecting apps in order to keep their dominance on the device, but now I realize that an uncurated marketplace is basically a dumping ground for absolute shit.

OK, that’s a bit harsh, so let me back up a bit. The Android Marketplace is to the Apple App Store as Wal-Mart is to…some high-end boutique department store. This is my biggest slam against Android in general. To be sure, there’s many a high-profile app in there, like Facebook, Dropbox and Pandora, but it’s obvious that A) the talent is still hitting iOS first, foremost and often times exclusively, and B) a lot of people are posting their “My First Java App” experiments (usually poor clones of iOS games, or lengthy series of super-simple apps on a theme, like jigsaw or moving block puzzles). On the other hand, the Android has a robust tools and utilities selection, including dashboard customization (pseudo shell replacements, or re-skinning) and apps which are better then the stock offerings (like Handcent for SMS and PlayerPro for multimedia).

One thing that really annoys me is the fast and loose ethos of the Android Marketplace – the grammar is atrocious, which I can only assume is due to the flood of apps from non-English speaking locations (which unfortunately and immediately brings to mind poorly worded phishing emails and scams), and there’s a disturbing lack of post-development support. A lot of comments on a lot of apps that I have seen focus on lack of updates and/or lack of response to technical issues. Also, there’s a noticeable void of simple documentation for some of the more complex apps. I’m not an idiot and can figure stuff out on my own, but sometimes I like to have a document which clues me in on features I might normally miss, or which aren’t stunningly obvious in their purpose. As a developer, I know how important it is to support your creation once it’s in the wild, and how adequate documentation can contribute to giving users a “warm and fuzzy” feeling about you and your product so that they want to come back the next time you release something. Right now, I have the bare minimum of apps on my phone because I am simply irritated with the quality of the marketplace, and don’t trust most of which I see.

Other then that, I have to say that the Captivate is a pretty good machine. It’s fast, being one of the most powerful handsets on the Android market at this time, and the screen is bright and clear. I am generally a fan of Samsung products (I have 2 TVs, a computer monitor and now a phone), but there’s a reported issue with the GPS on the Galaxy S class devices where the GPS has trouble locking in on satellites. Samsung is supposedly working on it, but from past experiences I know that this isn’t high on their priority meter, and a fix will probably never come about.

Finally, I want to slam AT&T, not only for locking down the OS, but for delaying the push of 2.2 (Froyo) to the Captivate. It can handle it, being as powerful as it is, but I’m sure that there’s another, more powerful handset in the wings that AT&T is secretly using as an excuse to not push out an update to existing users, instead holding it as bait for upgrades. Obviously, I do not trust the carriers to do right by their customers, and I find myself more supportive of Apple’s single-source approach of hardware, software and app store now more then ever. At least with Apple there’s a single source to rail against with certainty, rather then allowing several different players to point fingers at one another when something doesn’t happen.

But I wouldn’t go back to the iPhone. I’m tired of the hoopla surrounding Apple’s offerings, and the whole iPhone 4 reception issue denial-and-later-sort-of-not-really-here’s-a-free-rubber-bumper-now-go-away fiasco to me shows that Apple’s RDF doesn’t just emanate from Steve Jobs, but also infects Steve Jobs. The Android ecosystem is more focused on what matters: the hardware and software, and not any one person’s ego, or the cache that comes with being seen hefting an iOS device.

As a footnote, I want to mention that I struggled for a while over whether or not to stick it out with the 3G in order to pick up a Windows Phone 7 device, or to jump ship now and go Android. At the time, the decision to go Android was simple: WM7 will be a newly minted question mark, and chances are that the apps won’t be there for quite some time. However, with each passing day I’m seeing some regular and pretty attractive news about the OS and about apps that are currently being developed for it. The SDK is free and available, and Microsoft is apparently making a push to have their store stocked for launch. I am having small pangs of adopter remorse as times goes on, but it remains to be seen if it’s just the hype-interest or if it’s going to really be a contender.

After re-reading this post, I realize that it comes across that I’m disappointed with the Captivate. The opposite is true. I think that moving from the gimpy 3G to the fireball that is the Captivate is like breathing fresh air after being stuck on the freeway for days in rush hour traffic. I’ve come to the realization that this is, after all, a phone, and all of the fluff that Apple touts for their iPhone isn’t really necessary. I have the iPad for all of that. Instead, thinking of the Captivate as a very powerful mobile communication platform instead of a phone/handheld gaming device/media center/juicer shifts me to a more comfortable place where I can enjoy the device on my own terms.

The Way Back Machine

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Smith) — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 19:51:00 +0000

I don’t think there is any human creation as powerful as music. Paintings are OK, if you aren’t caught up on the style as many art scholars are. Books are, to quote a phrase, words that stay, which means that they’re only as good as the wordsmith, spoken or otherwise. Music, on the other hand has some kind of intrinsic power irrespective of composition or even composer. You don’t have to like a song to be affected by it so somehow, music is elemental in a way that I am absolutely unqualified to explain.

I signed up with MOG.com today because I received an email that they had released a client for the iOS and Android platforms. I had been using Pandora, but unlike Pandora, entering a song, artist or album into the MOG search engine will bring back that exact result. There’s no seeding in MOG; what you ask for is what you get, and because I’m not a voracious audiophile, when I do want to listen to something it’s usually something specific.

For some reason, I really wanted to listen to 80’s music. Being a “child of the 80’s” through no fault of my own, this is “my music”. Back then as before then, we were limited to radio play (mainly because I was too young to buy cassettes on my own, and we didn’t have cable or MTV when I was younger), so we had to take what was given to us over the airwaves. Today, I didn’t want to listen to what other people consider to be the “songs of the 80’s”, I wanted the real songs that I remembered, so I found a great site that listed the Billboard top 100 by year. I then spent the time building a playlist in MOG for the year 1984.

Even as I was looking over the list, searching MOG’s 8 million tracks to translate those words into sound, I was hit with a wall of emotional and visual memories even without actually listening to the song. Just by reading the titles and then having my mind automatically start playing the music and reciting the lyrics that I somehow remember from 20 years ago, more and more thoughts and feelings suddenly popped up: someplace I was at when I heard this song, or my own state at the same time. Because all I had was radio, and radio is notoriously repetitious, each and every song was beaten into me until it became part of my DNA, and brought with it snapshots of the foundation of my modern day person.

It’s dangerous, though, and I’m trying to decide whether or not to keep this playlist. Just as the constant exposure back then burned these songs into my memory, along with the place and feelings and activities, listening to them now is a double edged sword: I can vividly recall things from my past that are triggered with each song, but with each modern listen, I fear that those memories will be overwritten, kind of like how we used to do with the limited supply of cassettes that were used to record these very songs off the radio. I don’t know if it’s an inverse relationship or not: 100 listens then and 0 now means I retain memories in emotional clarity, while 100 listens now supersedes any memory of those days at all. I want to listen to remember, but I’m afraid that if I do, I’ll forget.

On Using Twitter

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Smith) — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 14:04:00 +0000

This is, of course, my opinion, and I suspect that many long-time Twitterites will agree with my assessments herein, but this is something that I had been thinking about writing for some time.

I originally was not a fan of Twitter. Twitter had originally been a “throw away” service. It got slammed (and still is in some corners) by a lot of people asking “who cares what you’re eating?”. 140 characters of me time made public was narcissistic and basically useless. I thought the same, which I now realize was due more to my instant dislike of anything “trendy” for trendiness’ sake, and less because the service was inherently flawed.

At some point, though, it moved beyond the gee-whiz stage when it was picked up by celebrities (who are the ultimate narcissists anyway) and even news outlets. It spilled over into all manner of industries who recognized it as a way to get their brands into people’s faces without spending a dime on marketing.

Twitter is an Onion

To the Twitter noob, wading into the established sea can be confusing: why would I want to, or how can I find people worth following?. The key thing to understand, IMO, is that Twitter works on two levels: The broadcast, and the community.

Broadcasting is done by most celebrities, public figures and many companies. Sometimes they can’t help it; celebrities have a brand to push (themselves) and let’s face it: it could be a real PR nightmare if they respond to individual fans who may or may not be psychologically unhinged. Companies who broadcast are simply doing it wrong. They see Twitter as a way to spam consumers. People who only follow these kinds of accounts are going to get bored, will think that Twitter is only for shallow updates, and will quickly walk away.

The community level, however, is where the real action is at. This level requires some real work on the part of the user, because Twitter is like a garden: it takes time and effort to cultivate, and you’re constantly ripping out weeds. If you can get to this level as a new Twitter user, you’ll be pleased with what you find.

Habits of Highly Effective Twitterers

How can someone get started with Twitter? What does one look for, and what does one need to avoid? Here’s my take:

Scrutinize people who broadcast: Notice I didn’t say unfollow. Some broadcasters are worth following. For example, if you have a favorite news website, but don’t want to hit the site every 10 minutes or use RSS…follow them! Other accounts, like @ShitMyDadSays or @FakeAPStyleBook are designed to broadcast absolutely hilarious things. But avoid following people who do nothing but throw out quotes or other inspirational garbage. Once you get into a decent community, you’ll find all the inspiration you need.
Start with lists: Twitter offers lists which are compiled by users and adhere to a theme. Check out http://listorious.com/ for a search engine that allows you to search by topic or users. With lists, you know that the people you follow all share at least a common bond surrounding a topic. Beware, though! Just because someone is on a specific list doesn’t mean that they only talk about that subject.
Friends and Family: Get your friends and family into Twitter. Yeah, most people use Facebook for that kind of connection, and most people who run both Twitter and FB draw a line between the two. To paraphrase a quote that was floated around Twitter a while back: Facebook is for people you went to high school with; Twitter is for people you WISH you went to high school with. But that doesn’t mean you can’t start a core group of mutual followers amongst your friends and family. Twitter is more portable then FB, with desktop and mobile clients for any OS and any device.
Watch for Follow Friday: Follow Friday – or #FF – is when Twitterers throw out a list of some of the people that they follow in the hopes that people who follow them can find new people to follow. It’s an application of six-degrees of separation: Chances are if I am following you then I might be interested in following people that you are following.
Hijack Conversations: This is a double duty point. Sometimes you’ll see people replying to the same person over and over. Follow that person! Also, if you feel that you have a point to contribute to the conversation, jump in and introduce yourself. If you’re not a total dickweed, you can make new friends.
Out and about: If you’ve ended up on a blog that consistently provides great posts, follow them if they have a Twitter account. Not only will you get updates of their content, but you’ll also have a direct line to their author.

Pitfalls

What about the shady side of Twitter? Spam happens. Keyword spam happens a lot. Often times you’ll receive notification that you’re being followed. Always check the profile of new followers! If they’re a broadcaster, especially a broadcaster of junk like “Get more followers! Here’s how!” or other repetitive filth, block em.

Blocking is your friend, but like any weapon, use it wisely. With Twitter, you control your end of the conversation, both in what you say and who hears it. Because it’s conversation by election, you have the right to block anyone you like. Now, that’s counter to the idea of “free speech” if you’re squelching people who disagree with you, but know that everyone has this power. It can be both abused and also used as an equalizer. If you’re a douchebag, you will be blocked, and if you block too many people, you’ll be back at square one with no followers. Spammers, however, are fair game. Block away!

How To Use It

So once you have a well cultivated garden, what good is it? It’s very good, actually. The biggest myth about Twitter is that it’s one way only. 140 characters isn’t a lot, but it can be used for conversations if you become good at getting your point across with as few words as possible. There’s really no better situation to illuminate the benefits of Twitter then when you’re 20 Tweets deep into a real conversation.

Another benefit of Twitter is what is unofficially called the “hive mind”. You’ve got all of these people that you follow (and who hopefully follow you!) and you’ve got a specific question about a specific topic. You could search for it on the web, and hope you get a relevant answer…or you can ask about it on Twitter. Chances are someone out there knows the answer, or can point you in the right direction! This also works for recommendations for all kinds of things like books and movies.

Twitter is a powerful tool, and rewards those who can punch through it’s shallow layer to find the expanse of community beneath. The key is that you have to work on cultivating your follow list. Twitter isn’t about your follow:follower ratio, since for those who work hard to get as many followers as possibly negate it’s value immediately. Instead, if you can find a place in a tight-knit community, your follower count will represent people like you who share the same hobbies and ideas as you do. It becomes far more social then most other social networking tools out there today.

Different Worlds

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Smith) — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 14:31:00 +0000

We went to the beach yesterday. New Hampshire has one of the shortest coastlines in the US, and we have but one “beach” that most people would recognize as such, and that’s at Hampton. When I was growing up, Hampton Beach was a disgusting mess, with the coastline covered in trash. I guess we have increasing environmental awareness to thank because these days it’s very, very clean, and aside from the fact that the Atlantic is frigid during this time of year, it’s a really nice beach.

We didn’t spend a lot of time on the beach proper. There was a sandcastle exhibition there, which was why we made the hour-long drive at 4:30 in the afternoon (that and to meet some friends who were already there), but once we saw what we came to see, and after the kids spent some time jumping waves and chasing sea gulls, we crossed the street to the boardwalk side of the beach.

Hampton has a long history (which I know nothing about, except to say that it’ long), and much of the boardwalk offerings were erected Back When. Few have received a face-lift to keep with the times, but I suppose that’s a moot point: part of their – shall we say, charm – is that old-time look and feel. Coupled with the fact that the buildings are under constant assault from salt water spray, and the interiors are coated with a fine patina of beach sand, any attempts to elevate these places to anything more then wooden caverns would be defeated, and would be defeating their purpose.

Even though I hadn’t really been to Hampton during my formative years, there was a certain cultural pulse which emanated from the coast during that time which was felt throughout the state. I joked to Isabelle on our way out that I felt that I needed to get a garish sweatshirt that said “Hampton Beach” on it for old-times sake, and she mentioned how she used to have a Hampton T-shirt with a kitten and a flower on it – and white tassel fringe. Typical 80’s fashion that I still mentally associate with that place, that time, and which oddly enough, hasn’t gone away.

In fact, that was the root of something very unusual about that place in my mind. All beaches have the “tourist traps”, those crappy souvenir shops that somehow seem to survive by selling offensive outerwear are seashell knick-knacks, and Hampton is no exception. But it seemed to me that even those places hadn’t evolved one iota since their goods were disseminated throughout the state during some ill-conceived hey-day for people with those particular tastes.

What really struck me, though, were the arcades. Not the video game arcades, mind you, but the arcades in the truest sense of the word. Barely classified as a building, these structures were held up by driftwood stuck together with decades of paint. The floors were naturally sanded down to a gloss that is usually reserved for high end hardwood. Air conditioning was not an option, thanks to the open-air nature of the place, but instead they had huge industrial fans placed in inconvenient locations to blow directly on the booths haphazardly situated around the interior.

In the arcade we visited, there were games, as the venue demands, and also booths that sold most foods that should be banned: hot sausages with sauerkraut piled to the point of clothing endangerment, friend dough with sugar, cinnamon, apples, strawberries, maple syrup and chocolate sauce, freshly squeezed lemonade, and probably hundreds of other food items crammed into the recesses of the cavern that we never saw. But we could smell them. It was the first thing I noticed upon leaving the beach: the scent of the briny ocean smacking head-first into the wall of frying oil as we approached the sidewalk. I felt greasy just walking through the place.

There were shops within shops, which I found strange. Like a puzzle-box, or those Russian dolls-within-dolls, there were more clothing stores, more souvenir dens, and at the back of the arcade, a small shop which dealt in CDs, posters, and even vinyl LPs. They advertised their heavy metal collection, which made this a place I would have gravitated to instantly during the 80s, but which now left me with a slight sense of embarrassment when I considered looking around.

The highlight – at least for my daughter – were the games. Every space that wasn’t taken up by food vendors, cheap pressboard seating or random retail outlets was occupied by a skill crane kiosk. Now, before you roll your eyes, know this: 90% of my daughter’s personal belongings come from skill cranes. She has an uncanny knack for these things. She managed to win two prizes from the skill crane, but faired less well at the bingo skee-ball on the upper level. There, we we saw an obese woman who’s stretch pants were stretched to the limit (and a bit more, unfortunately). She had a roll – a roll – of quarters, and was apparently intent to stay put for a significant amount of time, rolling the little rubber balls onto the bingo grid. It was a mindless task; I wondered if that was the exact reason she had planted herself there. I also wondered about the people who were working these games. Some were obviously students who had managed to score summer jobs, but there were people who were older working these games. How did these people decide to go for these jobs? Were they happy doing what they were doing? What are their lives like, both on and off the job? This was a place that people visited, some to see, and many had come to be seen. The people who were employed there are at the center of this show every day. They must have some unique perspectives on the radiance of this place.

On the ride home, I felt that there was some kind of weird other world that we were leaving behind. It had a culture that faded over distance, composed of rituals known only to frequent visitors, it’s temples of greasy food and throwback merchandise, and populated by people who may or may not appreciate the uniqueness of their workplace. Once we returned to the relatively sterile neighborhood of “civilization”, the scent of that place had pretty much worn off, and it’s facade had faded into the realm of did that really happen?

Some people live there, and some people are there every weekend, but I couldn’t do it. There’s certain places – and pardon the corny New Age sentiment – that are so different from your normal routine that they pulse with a kind of power. Some people can ignore it, if they’re using the draw of the scene for their own selfish purposes, or if they simply regard the veneer and are amused by the kitsch of it all. But if it’s just an occasional visitation for you, it can seem to alien when if you just stop and ignore yourself, and look at the people, the signs of the thousands that have come before you, and the ones that are there with you. Making it a habit would whitewash the experience and dilute the senses, making places like this nothing more then a garish tourist trap.

Boston Unity Meet-Up

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Smith) — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 19:59:00 +0000

Very excited. Tomorrow Nate and I will be heading down to Northeastern U. to attend the 1irst Annual (?) Boston Unity Group Meet-Up. We’ll hear and discuss all kinds of things about Unity, including the new 3.0 version (with raffles! I hope I win one!).

I was looking over the attendee list, and it’s pretty substantial. There’s a lot of people from Turbine, some from Irrational, and a whole smattering of students, indie groups and people like me, who fall into no discernable category – unless “wannabe game developer” is a viable category.

I’ll post more info on the GameDev portion of Cedarstreet for those who are interested. I’ll be bringing the laptop, so hopefully I’ll be able to post pictures as well. I might even create something for LevelCapped as well.

A New Day Dawns

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Smith) — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 19:46:00 +0000

If you're used to reading video game related junk here, or if you were directed here due to an older link and were looking for video game related junk, let me direct you to LevelCapped, where I'll be doing all my gaming related posting from now on.

Which leaves Cedarstreet a blank slate. What to do here? I've always loved to write essays, which can be attributed to a blow to the head I received at some point between the age of 1 and 35. I never turned this domain to that purpose, nor any other domain I have ever owned, so this might be an opportunity to do so. The only problem is that I'm wary of authoring non-gaming content in the public venue.

There's three reasons for this: One, it's public. At some point, someone may find this content and hold it against me, personally or professionally. I don't think that's cool, and certainly don't want to "Facebook" myself into a difficult situation, even if my writings are entirely my opinion am grown-up enough to leave my personal opinion at the door in certain circumstances. Two, I prefer discussion, yet the Greater Internet has proven time and again that it's incapable of discussing. It's really good at arguing and insulting, but not at using this opportunity for learning and growing. Third, I like people, and I certainly don't want to offend those I'm friendly with when they find out I like green, and they can't STAND people who like green (just as an example).

I'm sure I'll have good days where I try to play professor and throw out some pseudo-intellectual crap while smoking a pipe (I don't smoke) and wearing a tweed sports coat (I don't wear tweed or play sports), and bad days where I take a lead pipe to the knees of common sense, good taste and widely held beliefs. The tricky part will be finding the line between the two, and keeping my balance on that line.