Grant's Blog Archive

...then I noticed some pictures of Starcraft on their web site. So I may bring that or Twilight Imperium. Haven't decided yet.

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2009-12-11 10:00:08

My condo maintenance fee will the same in 2010 as it was in 2009. It's nice to see some real evidence of non-inflation.

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2009-12-10 16:38:38

Here are the games that I have in both digital and book form:

• Time & Temp (digital first, which gave a discount on the book)
• Mutant City Blues (bundled)
• Panty Explosion (digital, then book, full price)
• GURPS Spaceships(digital, then book, full price)
• Sengoku (book, then digital much later for a different ruleset)
• Torg: Aysle and Cyberpapacy (book, then digital to replace books I had loaned out, then books again on clearance)

So to have a book in both forms, I have to really like it. I am more likely to buy a bundle that is only a dollar or two more expensive, though that is simple opportunism. I am likely to buy a PDF if I'm on the fence about a book, but I rarely make the leap from PDF to book. I am less likely to buy a PDF for a book I already have, though I do not feel entitled to the PDF or anything like that.

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2009-12-10 16:02:19

I just wanted to give a shout out to RPG Geek and Board Game Geek for their excellent site. They are in the middle of their fundraising drive and you should definitely check them out.

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2009-12-10 09:36:51

Caught up on Dollhouse last night. SO liked it and wanted to know if there were any more on Demand.

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2009-12-05 10:35:57

Shadowrun, the popular tabletop role-playing game first released in 1989, is now in its fourth edition. Set over 60 years in the future, magic has returned to the world and some humans have been transformed into (or born as) elves, orcs, dwarves and other creatures. The game casts the players as shadowrunners, people who operate in the shadows and are hired by various power players (usually corporations, but also governments, secret societies and the occasional dragon) to perform military-style special operations against other factions. This is what the game is geared towards; I can say from experience that it does not translate well to any other kind of campaign, even a ‘company man’ campaign where the characters work for one faction all the time.

Each player controls one character and a game master controls all of the other characters, asking each player in turn what they do and describing the results. The rules are highly detailed, favoring the rights of players to lay out their actions carefully.

The setting has twenty years of books behind it and is well-supported in its current incarnation. Books are available in digital form as well as hardcover and the quality is superb.

Characters are built on points, though one of the supplements has some alternatives. Pre-built characters are provided in the core rulebook. There are advantages to buy with points and disadvantages that give points, providing the role-playing, customization and abuse potential that always exists there. However, players do not have to load down their character with disadvantages in order to be competitive.

Like online RPGs, Shadowrun emphasizes a mixture of powers to maximize team effectiveness. Instead of ‘tanks’, damage per second and crowd control, however, the key is to be able to fight on several fronts: physically, magically, over computers, and now on the ‘technomancer’ front, a new character that still fights over computers but has a few tricks that can only be countered by another technomancer. Technomancers also rely more upon their innate abilities whereas a computer ‘hacker’ relies more upon the money spent on hardware and software. Being new, technomancers are also feared and hunted in the setting.

Because of a mechanic called Initiative Passes, some players will get to take up to four actions where others will only get one. Actions are also divided into Simple, Complex and Free Actions, so some players will have more spotlight time based on how they built their characters.

The game is primarily about combat and the rules are heavy on detail. The damage staging rules from earlier editions have been eliminated in favor of linear hit points. A single bullet has a decent chance of killing a person; two bullets have an excellent chance. Automatic weapons are watered down but still provide good tactical options.

There is advancement, but the characters start out very capable and are rather easily killed if the game master gives them realistic challenges. So there should not be a great disparity of power in the group. Money is important and the game master will want to keep the characters from getting too rich, which isn’t hard when they don’t have civil rights.

All characters have an Essence rating which is depleted by implants, biotech enhancements and occasionally by vampire attack. Mages want to keep their Essence as high as possible, and there are also ‘Adepts’ which devote their Magic/Essence points to special powers that largely mimic cyberware and bioware. The core book and supplements provide a plethora of things to spend Essence and cash on. Except for a few stylistic items in the supplements, the gadgets tend not to overlap and burden the players with choices.

The supplements provide good modularity. Some game masters will be happy with the computer hacking rules in the core book while others will want the tremendous detail in the Unwired supplement. Less so for the Street Magic supplement, which contains things that permeate the other material and may catch a party unawares.

There is a set of quick-start rules with sample characters and a starting adventure available online. It is a self-contained game that I would highly recommend to anyone interested in Shadowrun.

I certainly recommend Shadowrun for what it tries to do: combat-heavy games with lots of tactical options but not world-shaking power. I would be willing to run it with no rules changes. This is the highest praise I give to a game.

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2009-12-04 09:39:54

Is it just me, or did the spam stop? I haven't had a serious deluge of junk e-mail in a couple of days.

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2009-12-02 09:28:37

Since I got the new smartphone, my usage has gone from 25 kilobytes to 350KB per month.

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2009-12-01 23:04:16

Thanks to Simon at Pelgrane Press, made some tweaks to the conversion rules between Mutant City Blues and Secrets and Lies.

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2009-12-01 08:40:31

I picked up a copy of Top Secret SI at Half-Price Books a couple of weeks ago. My friend Eric really likes it, so I thought I would sit down and take a good look at it.

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2009-12-01 08:35:24

I updated my RPG collection on rpggeek.com. It appears that I currently have over 300 games in my library. There were some items missing from their database.

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2009-11-30 22:42:47

The PDF of Secrets and Lies has been updated at e23. This version has a new paper size for printing on demand. It places text in a single column for ease of reading on small-screen digital book readers such as smartphone. It also gives the book more white space. Rules for playing Mutant City Blues with Secrets and Lies are posted here. Mutant City Blues is a police procedural game set in a world of superpowers (but not superheroes). It's "Heroes" meets "CSI". I am excited about running it in the new year. In the meantime, please check it out and share what you think.

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2009-11-30 10:48:29

So the SO asked me what was the best way to get video into a room of the house that is not wired for cable. I replied that, right now, the cheapest way is to use an antenna complemented with Roku. There are other solutions for families with large libraries of video on a hard drive; Apple TV, for instance. Don't forget a small DVD player. But we are moving away from the big libraries of discs in the house. Roku works with the wi-fi for a small footprint in the room.

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2009-11-30 08:52:38

It was a Legend of the Seeker marathon at our house over the long weekend. The SO found the show on Netflix somehow and loves it. I think we have two episodes left to watch.

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2009-11-25 10:49:04

Secrets and Lies is not ready for order yet, but now that I have the book in hand, I can say a little about how this changes the economics of small print role-playing games.

First of all, there is no need to sell your early drafts of a game. The unit price is low enough for you to print enough copies for everyone at the table. You can then give a copy to anyone who will sit down with you to play it, though you may not want to let them walk away with it. You will wish you could have it back after you revise it.

The price is low enough for you to sell to retailers at a traditional discount, although shipping issues may interfere with that. Also remember that retailers are used to having some time to pay their invoices, not paying before delivery.

Some people believe that you should provide a digital copy for free or for a small marginal cost with the physical copy. I do not see that because I see them as two different products that serve different functions.

You have two groups of customers; people who devour media and have a lot of leisure time, and people who might bring your game to the table. Both are valid parts of your customer base. It is easier for me to read a book closely on the computer. For now, the physical book has an advantage at the game table, although that will not last for much longer. The current crop of digital readers have a screen refresh rate that is too slow for actually 'flipping pages' at the game table. Smartphones work, but the screens are too small. Netbooks are a possibility but are still not portable enough to pass around the table. Finally, there is something less ephemeral about the printed page that gives your game just enough gravity to feel special, like something no one else is doing anywhere. That's true in any case, but feels reinforced by a book.

The benefit, and crutch, of digital distribution is that if you decide to revise your game you can provide the fix to people free of charge. While gamers will not be happy when you change the rules on them, they will be furious if you charge them to do so. See above about charging for your unfinished versions. A physical book cannot be patched. Publishing errata is an imperfect solution and you can only use it to fix genuine mistakes, not design flaws.

If you release your game digitally, expect people to steal it without a second thought. Essentially, the people who pirate digital media are not your customers. Also, people are not invested emotionally in a free product because they are not invested monetarily. If everything is free, then everything is produced, by definition, by amateurs.

Problems remain with the business model. Even if printing has fallen to a manageable part of the budget, there remains writing, editing, art, layout, and of course playtesting, not to mention the opportunity cost of other jobs not taken. But the fall of printing costs is an important piece of the puzzle.

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2009-11-25 00:10:23

I got the proof of Secrets and Lies from CreateSpace. The cover and binding look good. Some of the interior grayscales and margins are not going to work out; I'll have to go through another round of layout and order another proof.

I finished the first draft of the conversion rules for running Mutant City Blues under Secrets and Lies.

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2009-11-24 09:52:06

Bought Frogger Returns for the Wii. I heard poor reviews when it first came out for computers, but we enjoyed it. A good deal at $5.

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2009-11-24 09:14:48

Found this story about a teen raped in Webster.

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2009-11-24 08:25:30

The proof copy of the new Secrets and Lies is sitting at our complex's management office while I am at work all day.

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2009-11-23 09:58:36

So I finally sat down with Assassin's Creed last night in earnest. The pictures are pretty and the story is good, but it is difficult to really get invested into the gameplay. I may not be a hardcore gamer anymore, but I am still a hardcore casual gamer. SO and I played several games of Swords & Soldiers to wind down.

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2009-11-23 08:49:49

Picked up a Warhol notepad at the Art Institute of Chicago. Just noticed that it has graph paper on the reverse side. Tiny maps!

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2009-11-20 12:27:23

...as I was saying, I have some news about Secrets and Lies and posted it over to PlumbagoLounge.com. I am working on an adventure for OwlCon and a translation of Mutant City Blues over to Secrets and Lies. I'm really excited about trying these rules out, but I don't expect to get anything started before the new year. If you're group is gaming over the holidays, though, and you want to take a look at the new stuff, just let me know.

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2009-11-20 07:43:19

PHONE: Made some changes to PlumbagoLounge.com. Took off the mirror of my Journal and

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2009-11-19 09:48:38

I am trying out CreateSpace as a print on demand (POD) solution for Secrets and Lies. In the past, I have used Lulu to print the books but did not make them available for sale. Lulu's prices were high enough that I would have to cut my royalty to zero in order to have a realistic price. If everything works out with CreateSpace, I have set the price to generate the same royalty I would get for PDF on e23 through my own storefront and without Amazon's 'Pro' subscription. I should be able to provide books to local game stores; although the margin is smaller, it is still greater than the marginal cost. I doubt that Amazon will cut the price on such a small item.

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2009-11-18 10:06:12

Added a category for Economics to the site. Don't know why I didn't have that before. Thanks to the inestimable Allen Varney for the link to Cheap Talk.

Comments (0) | Persistent Link | More on code

2009-11-16 11:04:16

So far the Comments page is one of the most popular pages on grantdavis.net, which makes it even more odd that there are no comments, awaiting approval or already posted. Presumably the spammers have found out about me yet seem incapable of submitting a simple comment. Show them how easy it is!

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2009-11-12 09:35:09

Got Time & Temp Unbound from Dig a Thousand Holes. It's a roleplaying game about time-travelling temporary employees. The best thing about the Unbound edition is that it looks like an in-game handout. It has an offer letter, an employee and management handbook, and handy charts for photocopying.

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2009-11-11 16:21:54

Interesting. The spreadsheet viewer on the Palm Pre (DocsToGo) doesn't let you see the contents of an individual cell. Thus, the column width needs to be wide enough so that you can see everything you need.

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2009-11-11 09:36:29

I am experimenting with createspace.com as a print-on-demand solution for my RPG, Secrets and Lies. Then, in the middle of the process, I discover that they can't accomodate an 8.5" by 11" book. I know that there is a trend for smaller books in independent game publishing, but I prefer a size that is closer to the other books on a game store shelf. So I will have to completely redo the layout.

Their cover wizard will give my book the same cover as many others, but looks much better than the one I had. At Gen Con, I realized that the cover was one of the main things keeping the book from being opened up and checked out. I will miss not having the book's name on the spine, but I chose a bright color that will help it stand out.

CreateSpace.com is part of Amazon.com, and they will assign the book an ISBN number and make it available through their site. I don't plan to publish through Kindle, however. Their cut of the sale is far too high. I will continue to use e23.sjgames.com for digital sales. Once again, everyone who has already purchased a copy will get the update for free.

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2009-11-10 12:41:32

Sprint's network seems to be broadcasting the wrong time. I just lost an hour.

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2009-11-10 05:51:54

PHONE: Got Hello World on the Pre emulator.

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2009-11-09 16:03:40

Found a copy of Top Secret: SI at Half Price Books. My friend loves this game and has almost all the books.

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2009-11-09 09:55:17

I'm listening to the unabridged Odyssey in the car. I listened to an abridgement of the Illiad in 2006 and it seemed so convoluted, but the Odyssey seems tighter and somewhat easier to follow. It could just be the Recorded Books performance. The most disorienting part of listening is the inscrutable motivations of the gods.

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2009-11-09 09:52:21

Bought two new Virtual Console games yesterday, Super Star Wars and Golden Axe. I never played SSW but others seemed excited. Couldn't get past the first level. I can see the appeal; very kinetic and violent. But I don't see anything that makes it stand out today.

Golden Axe is exactly the way I remember it in the arcades, except that I didn't realize how short it was. The game is so precise that I remember exact moves I used to make.

I also finally purchased a classic controller in order to be able to play more games.

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2009-11-09 09:47:02

SO has discovered Heroes and we are watching Season 1. She doesn't believe me about Season 2.

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2009-11-06 12:26:32

Some possible applications of augmented reality: http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=31&aid=172703

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2009-11-06 11:21:30

Anybody else going to the Houston Arcade Expo tonight? I want to get my Super Pac Man on. http://www.arcadecenter.com/

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2009-11-06 09:52:43

We need some more people for a game of Twilight Imperium tomorrow. Anyone interested, drop me a line at spacelonghorn@grantdavis.net

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2009-11-03 11:14:51

I ordered a sugar-free vanilla iced mocha at McDonalds. Then I realized that I am drinking a Vanilla Ice.

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2009-11-03 08:25:02

PHONE: Just voted. No waiting.

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2009-10-31 00:26:04

I ordered the hardcopy of Time & Temp. I need to play it in order to get a handle on it, and I need the hardcopy for that.

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2009-10-29 10:27:57

Watching Secretary of the Treasury testifying before Congress on reform of the financial system.

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2009-10-28 11:04:40

My card game is stuck again, needs to go on the back burner. At first, it just wasn't any fun to play. Now it might play OK, but the theme does not connect with people. I think I may start working on a lonely fun game next.

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2009-10-23 14:28:57

PHONE: The progress I thought I had made on my new card game has turned out to be a mirage. I have a great deal of work to do.

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2009-10-21 11:04:16

Arkansan women are the most likely Americans to remarry.

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2009-10-20 15:34:37

Steve Jackson games has finally released the Car Wars rules in PDF. The best part about this game was designing new cars to pit against your friends in the arena.

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2009-10-19 21:16:17

I have made up a URL shortener for grantdavis.net. For the moment, it looks like I don't have to buy a shorter domain name for it to work on Twitter.

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2009-10-19 09:25:13

Looking for something quick to play, I started up Trauma Center last night. Sure, I put it down an hour later, but I *could* have just played for five minutes. Maybe I can find the sequel cheap.

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2009-10-19 08:53:48

Our tv schedule:

• Monday: How I Met Your Mother, Castle
• Tuesday: The Good Wife
• Wednesday: Glee
• Thursday: Grey's Anatomy
• Friday: Ugly Betty (buying Dollhouse)
• Weekends: nothing

So about one show a night. What do we do in the gaps? Something else. There is no DVR in the home. If we missed a show, we buy it on Amazon and watch it on Roku.

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2009-10-19 08:23:26

This morning I was driving up onto the I-45 onramp as it rose into the sky, just as the dawn was crawling over the Baytown skyline of oil refineries and chemical plants. It was a silhouette of black against the orange. Smoke rises from some of the stacks, already at work even as most people are just waking up to start a new week. I marvel at the structures we have build, the mark we have made upon the earth, and I know that it will not last. But I go to work every day trying to ensure that the question will continue to be asked.

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2009-10-18 12:38:58

PHONE: Now that work is over, I'm at MomAlone for brunch. I never have time during the week to sit down by myself for lunch at a restaurant.

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2009-10-18 12:36:17

PHONE: Just put in half a day at work. They want us to test out some code but have not provided all of the header files.

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2009-10-17 19:11:45

PHONE: just saw the pilot of Wiseguy on Demand. I already had the Mel Proffit arc on DVD but thought I would try it from the beginning. It was amazing.

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2009-10-16 13:01:21

First pictures of Emmet: http://www.grantdavis.net/personal/emmet20091016_01.jpg

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2009-10-16 11:54:29

I came into work this morning to find two monitors on my desk, all connected and working properly.

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2009-10-16 11:32:02

Google may be getting into the PDF distribution business.

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2009-10-16 10:33:22

Made a little progress on a new card game this morning.

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2009-10-16 10:21:21

Accident on Bay Area Blvd. Eastbound at the I-45 overpass.

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2009-10-16 10:20:20

Emmet Roland Davis McHughes, 8 lb. 7 oz., 20 in. Born 7:44 CST to Jennifer Davis and Jason McHughes. Mother and baby are doing well.

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2009-10-15 14:47:28

Been coding.

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2009-10-14 18:05:28

Reading this article with the disclaimer at the end: "The author does not own or control a position in any of the funds or companies mentioned." Does he not get paid in dollars?

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2009-10-14 11:24:44

Moved my RPG library link over to my profile on RPGGeek. Years ago I started using GameSpot to track my video games. Sure, the content has been moved off of my site, but it becomes more accessible and I have a better chance of finding people to game with. I just updated my profile on accessdenied.net, too.

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2009-10-14 09:55:36

Matt Snyder has just released his new RPG, 44 - a Game of Automatic Fear, for free. Check it out.

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2009-10-13 11:09:54

Fixed up the page for calculating point totals in Advanced Civilization.

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2009-10-12 11:20:03

Pit Crew Panic is one of the worst WiiWare games I have seen so far. The 3D graphics are grainy, the interface is bare-bones, and the game requires more precision than you can get with the Wiimote. Within 15 minutes, I was so bored that I had no intention of grinding my way to the "better gizmos". Don't waste your money.

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2009-10-12 10:25:53

Finally did some creative work yesterday. I sketched out the Secrets and Lies adventure for OwlCon.

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2009-10-12 10:21:55

Watched 6 or 7 episodes of 30 Rock last night. You just scarf them down like Liz's Mexican Cheetos.

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2009-10-07 13:30:41

Something I want to get back to later: http://www.supremecourtus.gov/oral_arguments/argument_transcripts.html

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2009-10-06 19:07:36

PHONE: The Pre has certainly revived email as a medium of communication for me. I don't have to login and I can see subjects even when the phone is locked.

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2009-10-06 15:47:18

While re-downloading my games from various RPG stores, I see that I have more purchases from RPGNow and IPR than I thought. I try to keep everything gathered up at e23, but they haven't signed all of the small artists.

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2009-10-06 10:12:58

Trauma hasn't made the cut in our household. I am surprised SO watches medical dramas at all, but she likes to pick them apart for technical accuracy.

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2009-10-05 18:26:56

When we are watching Castle tonight, I bet that Jay Leno gets a lot of our time during commercials.

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2009-10-05 13:53:15

This weekend I reorganized my digital RPGs. I moved Pelgrane Press and Evil Hat from my 'indie' folder to the 'mainstream' folder, which I felt was too thin. So congratulations, guys, it's official.

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2009-10-05 13:07:21

Love that we have ODN conduits at work.

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2009-10-05 10:30:07

PHONE: Did some layout work on Secrets and Lies this weekend. It was important, but now the layout looks even worse than before. I didn't change any text. I am waiting for some more feedback before revising the text. Then I can tighten up the text flow.

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2009-10-05 10:21:02

PHONE: When I picked up Feral Cities for Shadowrun, I spent so much time reading about Lagos, Nigeria that I still haven't finished readong about Chicago. Now they have an adventure set in Lagos which I picked up yesterday, along with a roulette wheel, at the local game store. It will be some time before we can get around to it in the local campaign; we are still trying to start up again and the timeline is still back at the start of 2070, whereas this adventure takes place in 2072.

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2009-10-01 09:47:56

Running Shadowrun this weekend. Trying to have a lower-commitment game rather than waiting for everyone to be available.

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2009-09-30 11:15:39

PHONE: The Pre seems to have a lot of nice features. The applications for download are all free and I found some quite useful ones.

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2009-09-29 10:27:03

I won't be getting an iPhone; we've decided to stay with Sprint. Also, no phone means no email today. If you want to reach me, how about leaving a comment on grantdavis.net?

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2009-09-29 10:09:55

Pocket PC has finally died. I probably won't be able to retrieve numbers from it. It's RAM is so small (100 megabytes) that most of the data is on the micro SD card. I should have a new phone by the end of the day.

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2009-09-28 14:06:26

A collection of links for people seeking aid in Manila.

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2009-09-28 10:54:31

New trojan horse attacks this morning. Be wary of any attached .zip files.

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2009-09-28 10:08:32

Played Starcraft boardgame this weekend. Also tried out Civilization: Revolution multiplayer on the DS with friends. It was definitely not ergonomic; I constantly had to put it down to stretch my neck and fingers. It was also not very social; we tended to sit and silently focus on the game. We couldn't even trade technology and gold with one another, so diplomacy was limited to declarations of war or peace.

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2009-09-28 10:03:35

Family in Manila is safe. Streets were underwater. Nephew had to stay at a friend's house overnight.

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2009-09-28 10:01:11

Watched the last two discs of Galactica yesterday. My expectations were so low that I enjoyed most of it, but I understand why people would be irritated by the ending.

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2009-09-28 09:57:45

Saw Surrogates last night. Plot was only skin deep, but I enjoyed it.

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2009-09-25 18:00:52

PHONE: My Secrets and Lies event was accepted at OwlCon. Was sure to specifically mention the roulette wheel.

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2009-09-23 10:09:47

Having a little trouble with Twitter. I can't seem to submit a tweet. Not that that excuses my absence here, I've just been busy.

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2009-09-23 10:00:00

SO and I liked The Good Wife last night. She has also discovered Burn Notice after seeing Gabrielle Anwar in For Love or Money.

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2009-09-18 14:18:18

Today is so nice that Nassau Bay reminds me of Boca Raton. There are definitely more pastels in use along NASA Parkway.

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2009-09-18 12:47:32

Just had a rash of GURPS PDF purchases. Renaissance Florence offers a meaty historical setting. Pyramid 11 has maps, maps, maps! Transhuman Space Personnel Files 5 offers a "Scooby Doo" approach to your Transhumanism. I recommend the Personnel Files for their campaign concepts, but I want to say that I had very bad experiences when I generated people's transhuman characters for them. Take the time to go through options with the players and build the characters.

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2009-09-16 10:47:42

Finally got a flu shot. I know it isn't for the swine flu and that I'm not in the risk categories for regular flu, but I am trying to be more aware.

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2009-09-15 23:04:53

PHONE: Found a copy of the comic Mouse Guard at Half Price Books.

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2009-09-15 15:23:18

A tweet from Fred Hicks makes me think that there is some buzz about reviewing games you haven't played. I just wanted to make clear that I did play a game of Eclipse Phase at Gen Con, but lack of playing would not stop me from reviewing it.

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2009-09-15 14:23:00

AT&T's comments on the definition of broadband (thanks GamePolitics) set a standard so weak that it shouldn't even be called broadband. The services they describe could be accomplished by dialup connections to free internet service providers.

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2009-09-15 12:09:43

Just found an interesting article on MediaPost (via iWantMedia) saying that Hulu is costing the TV industry $920 per person. My first question was "per year, per month, what?".

The numbers in the article don't make sense to me: 32 ads per hour times $35 CPM equals $1120. Thats 1120 dollars per thousand customers per hour, not $1120 per one customer (unless they are assuming a thousand hours per year, which actually sounds a bit low).

So the network sells commercials at $1.12 for each hour of TV that I watch. I spend $2 on Amazon for a 43-minute episode that cuts out the commercials. I can also timeshift that show out to infinity and watch it again in a year or, hopefully, in ten years. An interesting tradeoff, and it sounds about right.

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2009-09-14 11:16:49

Acronyms have this way of taking over the mindshare of what they stand for, so that when you spell out an acronym, people don't know what you are talking about. You have to spell it out and also put the acronym afterwards in parenthesis. Afterwards, you can use the acronym like you would use a pronoun after defining it.

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2009-09-14 09:58:11

No time for a proper review of Through the Ages. I'm glad to have the game, but don't expect to play it again. There are so many aspects that cry out to be automated. In the 21st century, you have to leave to computing that which is best handled by the computer. Perhaps an augmented reality overlay where the score is calculated each turn and the population and commodity pieces appear virtually on your play mat. The game would go about three times faster and be a great mental exercise.

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2009-09-14 09:52:48

Playing Through the Ages this weekend, a friend said something worth pondering. It is a boardgame with lots of small wooden pieces, and he thought that he might have lost one. He said that it was hard to keep track of them because each one of them represented an abstract thing (population and commodities in this case). If a piece had specific powers, such as a chess piece, he would notice right away if one was missing (and not just because there are so few pieces in chess). This is useful insight. Many successful games - Chess, Magic the Gathering, Puerto Rico - have tokens that break the rules that you otherwise play by. But these special abilities can also engender a relationship with the pieces themselves, not just the game element they represent.

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2009-09-11 20:55:52

Caught the Shuttle landing just in time.

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2009-09-10 01:29:48

Eclipse Phase is a role-playing game from Posthuman Studios, released by Catalyst Game Labs. In it, you play a transhuman, survivor of a cataclysm on Earth who has fled elsewhere in the solar system. Your mind (called the ‘ego’) has been digitized and can be saved, restored and copied into a new body called a ‘morph’. Morphs can be baseline humans (even implant-free), replicants, or robots. You travel the solar system, working for a shadowy organization called ‘Firewall’, performing missions to preserve the remains of transhumanity. You can even travel through terrestrial jump gates to planets around distant stars.

This setting allows the Game Master to drop the characters directly into the action with minimal briefing, backstory, or even material risk within the game. Bodies are disposable and minds can be copied. There are terrible threats that can be fought, and lost to, and fought again without having to design a new character. The lonely fun of character design has great potential and, thanks to morphs, can even take place within the fiction.

The game is offered under an open source license. Do not take this as legal advice, but supposedly you can reuse the setting, the rules and the artwork as long as you don’t take money, credit Posthuman Studios and release your content under the same license. Some have suggested that under this license, one can simply offer the entire digital book for free download.

I have not read the chapter on secrets of the setting, so that they would not influence my judgment and to avoid giving anything away. I did peek to make sure there was a bestiary (there is) and skipped over to adventure awards.

In the outer worlds, most habitats have adopted anarchy as the form of government and reputation as the economy. Nanotechnology allows them to create anything they need, including food, from raw materials. They are called cornucopia machines, and they have the same effect as the replicators in Star Trek. In the inner worlds, cornucopia machines are restricted and there is still scarcity and a currency system.

High points of Eclipse Phase are:

• Body-hopping in general. The game makes the leap that hit points are transitory. Strength (the Somatics score) is not, but neither is it a major part of the game. The notion of being able to restore a saved copy of oneself to a new body is an excellent justification for violent videogame-style play, which the rules support.
• Advantages and Drawbacks can be purchased for either the ego or the current morph, which supports the fiction. Many of the character advantages are well-designed and interesting without being unbalancing.
• Psychological harm. I believe this comes from Call of Cthulhu and is used to good effect with an extensive list of derangements. Mental damage stays with the character from body to body. The wound system is actually more effective on the mental side than on the physical side.
• Psychosurgery. In addition to curing mental damage, behaviors can be inhibited or enhanced. Any kind of roleplaying constraint is difficult to impose and the game admits this and discusses it. There is no perfect solution, but the tools are there.
• Except for some high-end morphs, there are only five possible prices for anything. This is an excellent design decision to reduce bookkeeping.
• The reputation rules (separate from the reputation economy). Characters can gain reputation even if they have no physical form and carry it from body to body. There are at least seven reputation scores for the different factions in the solar system, playing out shifting loyalties.
• The rules for critical success and failure. The basic system is percentile and doubles are a critical. Hero points (‘Moxie’) let you swap the tens and ones digit. Quite elegant.

Now on to the problems, starting with the setting. The authors seem to think that energy is something only needed to keep the lights on. Cornucopia machines would also need to expend substantial energy to overcome the disorder of basic materials to make them into complex ones. They recognize that energy is limited in the outer system, but grossly underestimate the impact of millions of inhabitants in small asteroid fields. Importing energy from the inner system is a possibility, but would deny these outposts of anarchy the independence they espouse. Also, where would this energy come from? The book mentions several secret antimatter factories but only one out in the open, not even on Mercury.

The only biological transhumans who can survive without life support are, ironically, a pair of exotic morphs that fly close to the sun. Martians come close but still need breathers. Having a million inhabitants living in a state of anarchy is unlikely. Having those inhabitants in the midst of a hostile environment is ludicrous. The needs just above food, clothing and shelter would quickly be met by those who are best able to use force. A spaceport of one of the outer moons, Rhea, is under the control of a junta. Obviously intended to be a target for the heroic player characters to overthrow, I see it instead as at least one warlord who has finally established a bit of order somewhere.

With the player characters’ organization devoted to fighting ‘existential threats’, I can’t help but wonder why it doesn’t seem to have a decent space fleet. This is a conceit of the game; the crucial action takes place at human level. One just has to suspend disbelief.

The alien contact seems terribly under-utilized. If humanity knew that aliens existed, their outlook would at least change enough to be concerned about system defense, even if they cannot explore and project force.

There are also mechanical problems with Eclipse Phase. Players are allowed to spend creation points on their morph, assigning it up to 25 points in negative traits. Whether or not they keep that morph is determined by the Game Master during play. A player could spend over 100 points on their morph only to travel to another world right away, or spend less than zero points and be stuck with a weak morph for session after session. The game master will need to establish the frequency of world-hopping expected.

The benefits from morphs are vastly greater than their cost in either money or character points. This is explained by a morph’s temporary lifetime, but not balanced within character design. Money could fix some of these problems, if only money was used consistently throughout the setting.

The rules for the reputation economy accidentally support the fiction by showing why it wouldn’t work. You have to make a skill check for every favor you ask, making it uncertain whether you can even cover your own ego ‘backup insurance’, which should take about 25% of your favors (talk about expensive healthcare!).

All items have the same cost whether they are part of the ‘old’ economy or in the ‘new’ economy. If something can be created without effort, then its cost should be low or nil. All items smaller than a spacecraft can be created within 1 to 5 hours, which will cause problems on both the low and high ends of the scale. Food takes too much time to create and warbots take too little. Morphs are excluded from this system without explanation.

Several character flaws can easily be overcome by implants. This fits the setting but is not addressed by the character design rules. If you allow cheats in character design, players are foolish not to use them.

The rules fail to support the fiction that death can be swift. Even the weakest body can never be killed with one shot from a human-scale weapon. Automatic weapons have about double to triple effect, which should (barely) kill an unarmored target. Given that bodies are disposable, this seems like a wasted opportunity.

The game doesn’t seem to have a starting adventure, though it may have been in the secret section. The game is well suited for a starting ‘dungeon’ and the book is incomplete without it.

Players can start with psychic powers, becoming vulnerable and feared. Psi travels with the mind and is not limited to the morph. Psychic powers can be potent and are a way for a character to distinguish themselves. The same could be said about Jedi characters in early editions of the Star Wars RPG and GMs can expect the same problems. Everyone will want to be one and the social drawbacks will be mitigated or ignored.

Because of the broad cost categories, travel by broadcasting your digital self costs just as much as a ticket on a spaceship. It takes longer by ship, of course, but you don’t have to buy a new shell at the other end. This is grossly unrealistic when traveling to the outer planets. Conspicuously absent is a table of travel times, not even for January 1, 10 AF (After the Fall).

Advancement is slow, about 1 character point per evening of play. This is similar to Shadowrun’s system where the characters start out highly capable and progress little. Long lists of equipment and enhancements are encouraged.

Mass, a crucial value in space, is missing from the equipment lists. Too much is left to ‘common sense’. This is a design choice, to simplify things, but with neither cost nor weight as a limit on equipment, abuse is just a matter of time.

The rules for movement by reaction thrusters are inconsistent (Arachnoids need air, Reapers don’t, but Vectored Thrust can be added to any shell) and ignore both mass and fuel. You cannot have science fiction without some science that is plausible when written. Eclipse Phase has to be taken as science fantasy.

I see this as a good game to run for teenagers. The videogame tropes will go over well and they won’t be concerned about the science or the sociology. The core mechanics are simple and look like they could provide a good night of fun. The game is worth buying in digital form, and I would pay for it even if you can legally get it for free. But I don’t plan to start an Eclipse Phase campaign or revise and publish my own version of the game.

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2009-09-09 13:45:54

Found out that my noon meeting is really at 2. Better than finding out your 2:00 meeting is at noon.

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2009-09-09 11:49:24

Found this article over on the Economist about pricing in US health care.

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2009-09-09 10:27:14

SO says that we are not getting iPhones. Her co-workers cannot get any reception. It is OK with me.

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2009-09-09 10:08:23

SO beat me again at Swords & Soldiers. I just wanted to reiterate how awesome that is.

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2009-09-08 16:58:59

Thanks to @bnjacobs for the summary report of the Augustine Committee.

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2009-09-08 11:25:28

The Los Angeles Times says that RedBox's strategy of pricing DVD rentals at one dollar could seriously harm the Internet video-on-demand market. Netflix CEO Reed Hastings has said that RedBox's offering and growth is scary. I do not agree, particularly in the case of Netflix, but also in the case of Amazon and iTunes.

RedBox is not offering nearly the selection (dozens of titles) that an Internet VOD service can offer (thousands of titles). While it is true that RedBox's $1 per day is cheaper than $2.99 for one day, I would like to know how many days people really keep a RedBox DVD. When you rent a DVD, you may not be able to watch it as soon as you get home. If you are able to return it in a day, most likely you are letting video control your life.

When you sit down for Video on Demand, no money has to be spent until the moment you watch the show. There were a couple of episodes of How I Met Your Mother that I thought about buying last night and it just never came to pass. Since I buy individual episodes, I saved money, the shows are still available and I do what I want when I want. There is no comparison to DVD rental.

On the other hand, if the price point does fall and the market shrinks, I see this as a plus for Netflix. They already have to pay licensing fees to the studios; a shrinking of the market could lead to smaller fees for Netflix and improvement in their library. Netflix needs to build up their Internet offering to move people away from the red envelopes.

I do not own stock in any of the companies mentioned here.

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2009-09-08 10:41:42

Made a long-overdue change to the color scheme at grantdavis.net.

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2009-09-08 09:39:44

Removed Technorati tags from the site. The footer of each post is getting a bit crowded. Also, Technorati tags seem to be more specific than my typical topics: 'work', 'games', 'code', etc.

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2009-09-08 09:29:55

Bought a computer game, Demigod, to play with friends online, but I don't seem to have the hardware to run it.

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2009-09-08 09:24:51

Back at work after the long weekend. My new car seems to be having trouble keeping pressure in one of the tires.

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2009-09-04 17:17:11

Today I am playing around with tools to see what they can do. I generated some C++ code from a UML diagram and tried to make a C++-style structure behave like a C-style structure.

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2009-09-04 11:11:56

PHONE: It's OK to run down your reserves of something when using them for the thing you were keeping reserves for in the first place.

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2009-09-04 09:47:24

Finished reading Eclipse Phase, except for the GM secrets. Working on a review.

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2009-09-03 10:17:17

Watched most of Glee last night; will have to see if SO approves. Tried out Peach Girl; SO asked for (and got) episode 3, but I think we've seen all the depth these characters are going to have.

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2009-09-02 09:26:43

Checking out the stereo input jack on my new car, I downloaded ten RPG podcasts last night. There has been a lot of activity after Gen Con.

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2009-09-01 10:56:30

Thinking about getting an iPhone, I checked out my mobile phone usage over the last year: 128 minutes per month mobile-to-mobile, 122 after 7 PM, 288 incoming (that would have to change), 173 anytime minutes. 61 text messages per month and about 30 megabytes of data, throwing out the 250 MB data point in January where I resolved to do all my surfing over the smartphone.

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2009-09-01 09:45:36

I am picking up my new car today. I got a 2009 Honda Accord. I have to say that the experience was as painless as possible.

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2009-08-27 10:01:06

Looking for office space in Texas? Check out this presentation on the real estate market here in Webster and Nassau Bay (suburbs of Houston).

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2009-08-26 16:40:20

Going to buy a car today. I don't drive a clunker, so I haven't lost anything by waiting until now. I was waiting a few days for the program to end and the lots to be less busy. I was also hoping to get a better deal now that the government subsidy is no longer artificially inflating prices.

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2009-08-26 15:24:17

Last night was Simon & Simon and Magnum PI on Netflix streaming. Just added the A-Team. May try to catch some Rockford Files tonight, too.

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2009-08-26 11:03:21

In your software engineering organization, you need to establish what is a Unit and what is a Unit Test. In the C++ environment, I am seeing the term 'Unit' being applied to both the class and the method. I have even seen it applied to the file. In the TBRun tool, a Unit Test applies to a single class method or stand-alone function.

That said, there is more than one type of Unit Test. LDRA TBrun can completely isolate a function by modifying the source code, or it can run an Integrated Test with one or more functions, or against the unmodified code.

The safest course of action is to test against unmodified code, else you are trusting the tool to change the code without introducing new faults or covering existing ones. If you have code coverage requirements, LDRA modifies the code to insert probes at the decision points, though Green Hills Profile Analyzer has some capacity to measure branches without changing the source.

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2009-08-25 21:01:42

I am pleased to announce that you can now leave comments on grantdavis.net. Come on by, say hello, please leave a comment.

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2009-08-25 17:54:25

It's been an all-Saw weekend. We bought Saw III, IV and V and have just about finished Saw V. Also got a great deal on Justice League: New Frontier, an excellent movie.

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2009-08-25 11:51:43

PHONE: SO and I beat House of the Dead: Overkill in one sitting.

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2009-08-23 14:14:57

Grantdavis.net's journal is now database driven. This is the first actual post.

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2009-08-21 10:50:26

Significant Other got a lot more responsibility at work. She doesn't like attention, but I want you all to know how awesome and driven she is without even thinking about it.

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2009-08-20 13:08:34

Added some functionality to assign categories and subcategories to my backend. No idea why I deleted it in the first place.

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2009-08-18 13:54:03

The following is an Actual Play report on the game of Grey Ranks I organized and played in at Gen Con on August 13, 2009. The game started at 9 PM and finished right around midnight, an hour early for the time slot.

Grey Ranks is a game with no Game Master. Each player takes a turn describing a scene that their character is involved in, introducing characters as he or she wishes. There is one die used per scene, either rolled for a "personal scene" or contributed to the group effort in a "mission scene".

The setting is the Warsaw uprising against the Germans in 1944. A full game takes place over ten "chapters", leading from the beginning of the uprising until it is brutally put down.

There were six players, including myself. All were men and only one chose to play a girl. He was interested in setting up some romantic entaglements and a love triangle developed.

This was my second "Story Game" event ever. Maybe one person at the table had played before and he didn't have a copy of the book. This shows how well the book was able to communicate its concepts without relying upon oral tradition. Everyone was able to understand how to frame a scene and improvise events that would normally be resolved by the rules or arbitrated by a game master.

We weren't rigorous about separating the mission scene and the personal scene. We just made sure that everyone contributed a die to the mission and rolled for their personal scene.

The book contains lists of elements that you can introduce into your scenes. I made photocopies of the lists to pass around. None of us, myself included, used them even once. Everyone had an idea of what they wanted to do when their turn came to set a scene. The city map, which I didn't copy, was the most useful prop.

Besides keeping track of the pieces on the game board, my only direction as the event organizer was to run chapters three, six and nine rather than three middle chapters suggested by the book. Mechanically, the game started easy and becomes nigh-impossible by the end. Winning a personal scene in the last chapter becomes a major event. We won the first two missions but spent so many re-rolls in chapter six that the last mission roll was hopeless despite the number of ten- and twelve-sided dice contributed.

The second chapter was somewhat over the top as my character rushed a checkpoint with lit molotov cocktails. Other players narrated him almost to death and I had to destroy my thing Held Most Dear, the bridge over the Vistula at Jerusalem. For chapter nine, I realized that I needed to bring things back to ground level. So I narrated that my character, on lookout, was shot and killed without warning. Other characters tried to save him, brought him back into flashbacks, but it set the proper tone for the end. A couple got across the Vistula, but were returned by the Soviets.

Everyone was depressed and exhilarated at the end. We played more sessions of other games and I've never gotten such thanks for running an event.

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2009-08-18 10:35:44

Torg collectibles from Gen Con: replaced my copies of Aysle and the Nile Empire, got the Japanese version of the Nippon Tech book.

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2009-08-18 10:15:50

Pulled a C-3P0 this morning from one of the remaining Star Wars booster packs. I may open one pack every morning until they're cleared out.

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2009-08-17 14:21:15

Gencon was very successful this year. I got to run Grey Ranks, Don't Rest Your Head and Mutant City Blues for the first time. Having never played in any of them, they all went swimmingly.

Elsewhere, I played the Indonesian Ethnic Chinese in National Security Decision Making and a powerful rogue wizard in a Dresden LARP. I had great fun in the roleplay parts and epic fail in the gaming parts.

The Star Wars CCG was a smash hit and someone got a black-border Obi-Wan Kenobi. Ironically, I bought another box of cards and thus failed in my mission to liquidate the stash.

The Diceland game made! The one guy who bought a ticket showed up. I love GenCon!

I got a free copy of an underground movie called Crossing Shadows, a live-action envisioning of a Shadowrun. I sat in on two live recordings of This Just In From Gen Con. These three half-hours were the only seminars or movies I sat in on, a measure of having too much fun to sit still.

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2009-08-11 16:57:09

PHONE: Starting to drop off the grid in preparation for #gencon. No more forums, and don't expect a lot of posts from the showroom floor unless I'm announcing a game or such.

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2009-08-11 10:04:45

SO thinks her Facebook post was too cerebral. I guess that makes this a non-cerebral post in comparison. Wait, it just became more cerebral by pondering its depth! Oh no....

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2009-08-11 09:45:32

PHONE: So I have revised Secrets and Lies for Gen Con this weekend. I still intend to give out copies of the new version to anyone who wants one at the convention. You will have a choice of getting the spiral-bound version I will have with me, or a proper book version if you give me your address.

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2009-08-10 10:34:03

I just wanted to say that Fox Barrett over at @SJGames is awesome.

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2009-08-09 13:26:57

Able to work from home for a change. I am looking for some free C++ coding standards analysis tools. CCCC seems like a good tool for metrics.

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2009-08-09 13:26:07

Twitter seems to be down again.

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2009-08-09 12:28:19

While we have not reached it yet, we need to consider the possibility that we will, at some point, reach a plateau of computing innovation, where further growth is a more reasonable three to five percent a year. When that happens, an industry that is used to explosive growth will have a dramatic period of readjustment. But I wouldn't worry about it until Augmented Reality is fully mature and at least 30% of Americans are working from home.

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2009-08-08 02:27:13

Just finished revising Secrets and Lies, layout and PDF creation.

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2009-08-07 16:48:44

Hey everybody, check out Games on Demand at #gencon. Just tell us what you want to play and we'll try to scare it up.

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2009-08-07 14:16:55

When talking about a hard drive, does a pessimist see it as half full and an optimist as half empty?

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2009-08-07 10:56:58

PHONE: Yesterday I found the recorded session of Secrets and Lies. It is fascinating. It seemed so easy to cut away so many rules without causing the whole structure to collapse ("Stupid" was the hardest thing to cut so far). But listening to the playtest, it seems like everything I cut made up the bulk of the evening. Hopefully, that will steamline the game, perhaps even making it more accessible to a wider audience. But I can't release the recording, as it is no longer a representative experience.

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2009-08-07 09:49:34

PHONE: SO wants to see G.I. Joe. I am obligated; no choice.

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2009-08-06 19:43:33

What a difference a day makes. I've made so many changes to the rules for Secrets and Lies that I am no longer giving out the hardcopies at Gen Con. Instead, I will work to get a hardcopy after the convention to anyone who wants one.

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2009-08-06 13:03:26

PHONE: Twitter seems to be down. Since I don't rely on Twitter, I am able to tweet about it.

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2009-08-06 08:40:03

Last exam in Finance is tomorrow. It's not a comprehensive exam and there is less algebra than earlier chapters.

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2009-08-05 22:33:25

I have started revising Secrets and Lies. A year away from it gives me (barely) the distance to see and remove some things that aren't working.

People who have already purchased the game will get the updated version for free, in place of the existing version, when the site is updated. They will be notified by e23 when the new version is up.

Gen Con is the last chance to pick up hard copies of the old version. I will be giving away a copy to anyone who sits down for a demonstration.

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2009-08-04 13:56:12

If I go to every event on Thursday at Gen Con, I will be gaming for 17 hours straight. There is only a half-hour gap between two events I'm running; you know, to give me time to set up. Then I sleep for seven hours and start over again.

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2009-08-03 21:01:37

Do you know what I would pay $500 for a Very Important Gamer Gen Con badge? For a concierge gamemaster. Someone who could find any reasonable game (from the boardgame lending library or from a vast stash of RPGs and boardgames) and run it at a moment's notice. You would still need to have enough people to play the game. That would be worth the $500. And it would create the post of professional game master.

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2009-08-03 19:21:47

PHONE: Major accident on Bay Area Blvd between Hwy 3 and Texas Ave. Car on its side. All lanes blocked Westbound.

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2009-08-03 13:54:38

URL shortening links are now blocked at work, which I agree with. Clicking on a URL without being able to read it is a serious risk.

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2009-08-03 09:10:42

SO is beating me at Swords & Soldiers, a one-dimensional RTS for the Wii. It's only when I play Vikings and she plays Chinese. I think it's awesome.

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2009-08-03 08:42:33

After watching Defying Gravity last night, I think I was too busy checking for technical inaccuracies to really enjoy the show. In my non-DVR lifestyle, I missed some of the ending due to Freelancer. I'll try to watch it again online before I really have an opinion.

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2009-08-03 08:21:33

After years of searching for a multiplayer game with Josh, finally sat down to some Freelancer last night. The controls are fairly simple and it was fun. I need to sit down with the single player game and get some practice.

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2009-08-01 18:06:14

So I just took "How I Met Your Mother" off my wish list and replaced it with Planetes, a seemingly underappreciated anime. The DVD is about 30% cheaper than a whole season on demand, perhaps half the price if you buy one episode at a time. But I can be reasonably sure that the VoD will be available indefinitely, whereas I would like to own a copy of Planetes for myself. I can spend the two dollars to watch an episode at the exact moment I sit down to enjoy it. It sits on my virtual library shelf out in the cloud, taking up neither space nor money for me. My wealth is increased without even taking effort. Of course, this won't work for everything, only the most popular shows. But it's a start.

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2009-07-30 10:51:11

SO is gleefully pwning me at Dr. Mario every night. This has been going on for weeks.

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2009-07-30 10:26:38

GenCon has a special $500 badge called the Very Important Gamer. This grants you special swag, access to special events, a VIG room with free drinks (doubt they are alcoholic), the ability to use the handicapped line for event registration and a special block of hotel rooms. Of all this, the last two sound like the most valuable, and they are most valuable to people who didn't get to register when events and hotel rooms opened. Since the best ones filled up in minutes, we may still be talking about a sizeable group of people, but if you did, VIG probably isn't a value. Who wants to sit in a room away from people when there's gaming to do?

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2009-07-30 08:17:01

The Decipher Star Wars game for Gen Con sold out almost immediately. In the face of a gentleman's offer to bring his own sealed packs, I have asked the convention to enlarge the event. I need to find a few more starter decks.

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2009-07-29 10:01:55

At the risk of vaporware, made a breakthrough on my new game last night. I think it will be a web-based strategic multiplayer game about civilizations that build up, develop microscopic intelligent self-replicating probes and fire them at neighboring stars. If it's turn-based, turns will be about a thousand years or so.

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2009-07-28 09:55:33

How is it that Better Off Ted isn't more popular? Its time slot seems to be shoved around by it's lead-in, Superstar.

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2009-07-28 09:42:15

I'm very excited about Mutant City Blues, Robin Laws's ultimate test of guys shopping for super powers.

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2009-07-27 23:48:31

If the one-player vs. GM draft in Secrets and Lies isn't working, try this: Basic Draft, one player, but they only get one Positive Attribute and two Adventure Skills. It seems like the best bet is to let the player just choose a Job Skill from the list of sample jobs, though of course that depends on the game you want to run. Designing a character by yourself is still lonely fun, but sometimes it's necessary.

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2009-07-27 23:30:35

When creating Secrets and Lies characters with the Basic Draft, I found that it's better to pass the first pick from player to player.

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2009-07-27 17:37:42

According to FedEx, my GenCon badge should be arriving tomorrow.

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2009-07-27 07:57:40

PHONE: Picked up Through the Ages this weekend. Haven't added to the shelf in awhile.

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2009-07-26 22:56:31

I'm really looking forward to Gen Con on August 12-16 in Indianapolis, Indiana. For anyone else who will be there, I will be giving away copies of my roleplaying game, Secrets and Lies, to anyone who wants to sit down and let me demonstrate it, until they run out.

Secrets and Lies is set in Miami, where you play rich, important, beautiful people hanging out at the hottest nightclub. There's sex, betrayal, maybe crime and even redemption. I would love to show it to you and give you a free copy.

If you can't make it to Gen Con or you want to support the game, please head on over to Steve Jackson Games and purchase a copy of the electronic book. It is not copy-protected, so download it to the PDF reader of your choice. Physical copies are no longer available for sale.

Secrets and Lies will be at Games on Demand in the Fisher Ballroom at the Omni. Or reach me on Twitter or by mail at grant@plumbagolounge.com, especially before the convention, to set up a game.

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2009-07-25 10:34:20

I'll be in the Fear the Boot network at GenCon, which looks like a lot of fun. I wonder if I should bring my own copy of Star Trek III and Mechwarrior 2nd Edition.

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2009-07-24 09:32:42

Left my textbook at home today. Going to campus to work out; meant to study, too. I was hoping for some overtime this week, but it didn't pan out, so I have more time than I expected.

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2009-07-23 15:56:51

PHONE: I have to explain to the SO that the Bing spots on 'The Philanthropist' are actually commercials and not part of the show. No reflection on her; they look exactly like the show, except they don't relate to the plot. You could even call it character development between Dax and A.J.

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2009-07-20 10:07:47

By a quick inventory, I carry about 400 dollars worth of digital content on a chip the size of my fingernail, readable from my phone. But don't worry for my safety. It would be much easier to pirate the content than to mug me. It would only be of interest to pen-and-paper roleplayers. And if I lose the chip, I can download the content again, as many times as necessary. Most importantly, I get more than 400 dollars of value from the content, increasing the wealth of the nation without significantly increasing my carbon footprint. If I lost my job or we have another hurricane, I have entertainment for a group for 4, for months, in my pocket (though it would need power).

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2009-07-18 09:35:49

Working today.

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2009-07-17 13:33:19

Working on Coordinate Transformation Libraries in Simulink for Orion.

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2009-07-15 10:08:28

Diane Mermigas writes that slice-of-life posts on Twitter, specifically "I am eating a burger, though my cholesterol count is 450," are nonsense. On the contrary, that's the kind of post I like to put on Twitter. She wants to see only recommendations for consumption, and while I do plenty of those, I don't like to use Twitter for linking outwards. For one thing, I don't trust these URL shortening services, and I have started to see some unethical practices, where the service keeps you on their own site and thus monitors your surfing patterns. Second, why should I make a link when it's so easy for you to run a search? Lastly, there's the Golden Rule. If you post nothing but links, especially to your own site, then I'll check out your home page and see if I want to make it a recurring link. Whether I do or not, I'm not going to follow you on Twitter. I will say that Allen Varney has been a notable exception to this. His links are all over the place and not echoed on his home page.

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2009-07-14 10:11:48

There are some broken links on Metro's web site, so it took a bit to find this link to the new southeast light rail line.

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2009-07-13 09:24:03

Set my home page to be blank. I noticed that, whatever I opened up a web browser to do, I was always being distracted by my home page. Now I can do what I intended and then come back around to time-wasting.

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2009-07-11 20:16:27

PHONE: Just saw Transformers 2. Don't know why people arso hateful towards it. Perhps my expectations were skillfully managed.

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2009-07-10 15:20:53

Having some time at the end of the week, I went over to campus to work out. The televisions had lost power, so I listened to the podcasts "That's How We Roll" and "Yaruki Zero".

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2009-07-10 10:02:59

Thinking about an iPhone. SO and her sister are moving to AT&T. My phone can't seem to hold a charge lately. But AT&T won't let me have free incoming or nights starting at 7.

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2009-07-10 09:52:58

Up until 12:30 last night helping SO study.

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2009-07-09 15:22:02

Today we have a whole night of TV for a change: Samantha Who is ending out its run, then Burn Notice and Royal Pains.

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2009-07-08 09:35:18

PHONE: With our new non-DVR house, I check the program listings and only see one show that interests me (The Philanthropist). The networks seem to have given up on making compelling shows for more than one hour a night.

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2009-07-06 08:58:29

PHONE: Apparently, ordering Amazon VOD is 1-click all the time. Good to know for the future.

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2009-07-06 08:19:36

PHONE: Ready to get back to work today. Got a programming assignment due in a month.

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2009-07-03 13:46:31

Should be playing a game of Battlestar:Galactica today.

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2009-07-02 18:36:08

PHONE: Just got 27 miles to the gallon.

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2009-07-02 10:13:10

Still alive, just busy.

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2009-06-26 23:06:18

Testing.

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2009-06-26 14:50:48

PHONE: Generally, if someone can't communicate through their slides, it's a rare individual that does a better job speaking about them in person. Not impossible, but rare.

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2009-06-26 12:26:43

PHONE: We have decided to try going without the DVR. I will hook up the VCR as a backup, but for the most part we will get our TV shows from Netflix, Amazon and occasionally Hulu or Fancast. We get digital cable through our apartment/condo complex and will now only pay Comcast for Internet.

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2009-06-25 23:23:41

So the SO is coming home soon and I know I only have a moment for video games. I fire up the Genesis and, while any of the older games are short, I want to talk about full-motion video, or FMV. I fired up Double Switch, an early game that allowed you to switch from camera to camera and trigger traps like the classic Night Trap.

There are some obvious points to criticize about the design. Like Dragon's Lair, it's basically a memorization game, where you have to know the sequence of camera swtiches.

But it has its virtues. The same charge can be leveled at Adventure games, which somehow survive. Even the classically difficult games like Defender can go on for a long time if you're good. But no matter how good you are at Double Switch, a game will last no more than about 15 minutes.

Our high-polygon rendering has not yet given us a better picture than full-motion video. Perhaps a multi-camera setup can bring the medium back, rendering a human at enough angles to fool the eye.

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2009-06-25 14:26:59

Just found out that I have to buy an air conditioner today for my renter. I believe that was the last big item on my list. I published a book, got my teeth whitened and now I'm getting a more efficient air conditioner with a ten year warranty, even if I can't enjoy the benefits myself. I guess the next big thing is tuition.

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2009-06-24 15:25:48

Ready for my first exam on Friday. After that, class gets tougher. I'm about to get into the part of the book I haven't read. Will need to set aside more time for studying.

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2009-06-24 14:00:11

For those of you in Houston who can't make it to Origins, check out Apollocon.

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2009-06-24 10:58:31

Was able to work out and power-nap before going to work this morning. I feel more alert than usual.

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2009-06-24 09:48:39

A shout out to everyone going to Origins this weekend. Wish I could be there.

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2009-06-24 09:16:39

A night packed with gaming and Netflix watching. SO and I engaged in epic duel of Dr. Mario. Then we watched Quantum of Solace (OK) and Shaolin Soccer (how did I not see this sooner?)

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2009-06-23 12:03:26

Learning about parameters (Goto/From) in Simulink.

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2009-06-22 14:45:05

Spent Sunday getting ready for the games I'm running at GenCon by sitting them all out and "playing" them briefly. For me, the point of running at GenCon is to get committed players for the overlooked gems in my collection.

First up was Grey Ranks. I stepped through the scene summary to make sure I understood the mechanics. Rather than the suggestions in the book, I decided to run chapters 3, 6, and 9. The difficulty looks about right and it will cover the highlights of the Warsaw uprising from its beginning, middle, and bitter end. I see a lot of rerolling here and will need to purchase five twelve-sided dice. I photocopied one rules summary for each player and one copy of the Reputation and Thing You Hold Dear rules, as well as the scene elements chapter. Although the book specifically states that you don't have to use the scene elements, some people will insist and this keeps them from holding the book all the time.

Next up was Diceland. I sent some Lightspeed, then Terran/Lightspeed, fighters up against an Ogre Mark III. I think I'll have to ban the Ogre in the name of an interesting game; there are few tactical options when playing the Ogre and if it's me against one other person, I want an interesting stand-up fight. If it turns out to be multiplayer, I don't even know how you implement the Command Post rules. If everyone gets a shot at the Ogre in their turn, it won't last long with or without Command Posts. But as it is, there is still only one ticket sold, so sign up: event NMN0900387.

Finally, the Star Wars Collectible Card Game from Decipher back in 1995. I made up a pair of decks with only - I think - Common Premiere cards. It took some time to get back up to speed on how to play, but I think I can get through it. I wonder if people will insist on sleeving them before play; if they do, it's going to have to come out of their trading time or they can skip the first round.

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2009-06-22 09:00:23

Forgot my phone again. No email.

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2009-06-19 13:59:52

Looks like a game of PE for tomorrow.

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2009-06-19 12:32:48

So I was in Best Buy yesterday, pondering a purchase of Mirror's Edge. I didn't buy it, which I reveal first because it isn't the point. When I showed it to the SO, she noticed that it was for the PS3 and said, "so you wiggle sticks and push buttons to play it, right? You don't actually run around."

So we ended up purchasing an exercise mat and heart monitor for the Wii Fit. To her, the Wii is the serious machine and the PS3 is the toy. Whereas to a gamer, the PS3 is the serious machine and the Wii is the toy.

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2009-06-17 14:20:22

Trying to work out on campus yesterday was an epic fail. For now, I plan to work out with EA Sports Active and continue to record my activity on the Wii Fit. Active doesn't weigh you and I already have so much data stored on the Fit. Hopefully they will come up with a way to migrate that data somewhere. An assistant on the DS would be nice.

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2009-06-17 10:36:05

Watched the last three hours of Harper's Island last night, catching up to this Saturday.

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2009-06-16 11:44:03

So Wired's Chris Anderson says that everything digital will be free, based on the assumption that the price drops to zero as the marginal cost drops to zero. I have to take issue with this idea.

First of all, the marginal cost of producing something digital is not zero when a person's time is taken into account. Time spent writing online is time that could be spent either working, looking for work or enjoying leisure time. Yes, some people will enjoy writing for free, but that content will be unreliable and, by definition, amateur.

Second, there is reason to spend money on digital content because money is just as ephemeral as digital content. As the Federal Reserve buys US Treasuries, it is in effect printing money to get it flowing into the system. This is fiat money, not backed by gold or silver. We use it as a convenient medium of exchange to keep the global economy humming. Most of the money I spend is already digital. With money and content existing at the same level of reality, there is no reason not to exchange one for the other.

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2009-06-16 10:07:34

Completely blew off studying last night to watch 3 more episodes of Harper's Island with SO.

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2009-06-15 14:01:07

Caught 3 episodes of Harper's Island on streaming Netflix this weekend. Was pretty good. Also watched a DVD called Planetes, which we both enjoyed.

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2009-06-15 09:15:50

A very productive weekend. Saw the Terra Cotta Warriors at the Museum of Natural Science. Saw Terminator:Salvation, which was fun but not something to add to the DVD library. Played some video games, finally. Finished one chapter in Finance and started the next. Had dinner with friends, where we watched some Doctor Who. Didn't get the frames hung up or the garbage disposal installed.

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2009-06-11 09:51:03

A cardinal rule of buying media from the cloud is not to pay until you're ready to play. Never buy something in anticipation of watching it later in the evening. Make sure that the SO is on board with your plans. The only exception is for package discounts (e.g. an entire season of a TV show) that you want for your library.

This kind of 'just-in-time' purchasing can be applied to all kinds of consumption, but is especially applicable to video and books on demand because there is no cost overhead (gasoline, for instance) and no extra time of shipping or travelling to the store. I live across the street from a supermarket and am happy to wait until I run out of something before running over to get it. The only thing I like about bulk shopping at Costco is that they have Mexican Coca-cola.

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2009-06-10 09:14:36

For some reason, YouTube is no longer blocked at work. I can't wrap my head around that. I stay away from video sites on general principle, but YouTube seems like it would be one of the all time time-wasters.

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2009-06-10 08:43:11

Started using the Active for the Wii last night and this morning. I was able to work up a sweat, something I usually couldn't do with the Wii Fit. Had a little trouble detecting my movements on the second run, and running harder to please it was a mistake. Seems like a serious fitness program, even on the Easy setting. I'll keep track of my workouts in both the Fit and the Active for now, see how it goes. I am also enrolled at the Fitness Center at school, so I can try to get over there.

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2009-06-09 11:00:37

Went to Wal-Mart to pick up a hanging shoe rack and a set of suit hangers. I hang them from the wire mesh ceiling of my storage unit and use them to store DVDs and computer games. Did you know that 2 Liter bottles are only a dollar there?

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2009-06-09 10:58:47

On the way to work this morning, picked up EA Sports Active for the Wii at Wal Mart.

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2009-06-09 10:40:44

My Star Wars CCG event at GenCon sold out! Yay! Now if only Diceland would fill up.

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2009-06-09 09:24:57

Update to yesterday; found a couple more books in my library.

Hero System

• Vertical Jump: 1 meter
• Horizontal Jump: 2 meters
• Run: 4 meters/second
• Augmentation: 1 character point (a pittance) adds another meter to your vertical, 2 to horizontal. Every 2 points improves your run by one sixth. May also buy Speed at 10 points each (starts at 2) to increase your Phases in a turn. And, of course, Hero System has a Flight superpower that would break everything.
• Variability: Push your movement for 1 Phase by spending Endurance equal to the character points above.

Tri-Stat

• Vertical Jump: 2 meters
• Horizontal Jump: 4 meters
• Run: 4.8 meters/second
• Variability: none

So we have two systems with no variation in running and jumping. That might actually work for a carefully-constructed map.

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2009-06-08 17:44:07

So after Mirror's Edge came out, I wondered what it would take to run a parkour RPG, where the map used the height dimension instead of both length and width. It would be like Super Mario Bros!

This got me to thinking about how various RPGs on the market handled the moves necessary for this game: Vertical Jump, Horizontal Jump, and Running. I decided to find out:

1. What an average human could do
2. How much variation there was
3. What a character could purchase to improve their distances

I checked several 'full-featured' RPGs in my library to see what their rules were. I found them in GURPS, Dungeons and Dragons, TORG, and Shadowrun.

GURPS, DD and Shadowrun all have a rule that your jump is halved unless you take some time to prepare. The Horizontal numbers below all assume running jumps.

GURPS

• Vertical Jump: 20 inches
• Horizontal Jump: 7 feet
• Run: 15 feet/second
• Variation: One can try Extra Effort, a roll of 3d6 with a base of 10 or less, -1 for each Fatigue point and, more importantly, -1 for each additional 5% of distance. So variation will be minimal and costly.

Improvement: 5 points (2% of a typical starting character's) gets you an extra point of Move, good for 6 inches vertical, 2 feet horizontal and an extra 3 feet/second of run. You could buy up your Will, but that seems inefficient. There is a super power that doubles your move per 10 points, but that would quickly break the game.

TORG

• Vertical Jump: no rules. I would say 1 meter (typical DEX minus 8) or 39 inches.
• Horizontal Jump: 4 meters (13 feet).
• Run: 4 meters per second.
• Variation: Called Speed Push. With a base difficulty of 8 and a minimum +1 bonus, you are guaranteed a 50% bump and maybe 150%. But there is a heavy cost in fatigue unless you roll high (which is easy for player characters, but I'm analyzing baseline humans).

Improvement: A higher Running or Jumping score can reduce fatigue on a push, but nothing improves your basic movement.

Note also the lack of granularity: you either get a 50% bump or 150%, nothing else.

TORG and GURPS also have rules for long-distance running. An average GURPS human should last 300 seconds but could go on forever. A TORG human can last 400 meters, or 100 seconds, and then have a bit of discontinuity where they have to wait 150 seconds and thereafter must run at 1.5 meters per second.

Dungeons and Dragons, 4th Edition

• Vertical Jump: twenty-sided die divided by 5 feet, round down. Average is 20 inches, standard deviation is 15 inches .
• Horizontal Jump: one twenty-sided die roll in feet. Average is 10.5, standard deviation is 6.9 .
• Run: 6.67 feet/second.
• Variation: quite a bit, as noted above. No variation at all in running.

Improvement: For jumping, add half your character's level and half their Strength over 10 to the 20-sided die roll. Add +5 if they choose the Athletics skill.

For running, almost nothing. Elves run a bit faster and Dwarves run a bit slower. There is a level 10 Ranger Utility that bumps it up to 10 feet per second, then a smaller bump at level 16. Movement rate is a carefully regulated thing for the benefit of dungeon design. The variability in jumping, on the other hand, will result in a lot of short falls and bruises.

Shadowrun

• Vertical Jump: A bit of a GM fiat, caused by lack of granularity (see Variation). Average is 27.7 inches on a free jump, but actual is either 0 or 1 meter. Also if you are aiming for a specific target, it's more like 19 inches.
• Horizontal Jump: 2 meters (6.6 feet).
• Run: 25 feet/second
• Variation: Here's the thing: you are rolling 3 dice, the average Human Agility. For jumping, you need one of them to be a 5 or 6 or else you don't jump at all. Running is steadier; each 5 or 6 gives you a boost of 2 feet per second.

Improvement: Great room for improvement. Agility can be doubled to 6 (or higher, through magic and technology) and the Gymnastics skill gives more dice to roll. Maximum jump distance doubles along with Agility.

Conclusion

So which system should you use? Probably none. In a platforming video game, the thrill comes from knowing that you timed the jump just right to make it to the next platform. In a pen-and-paper game, that thrill goes to a die roll and you feel ripped off when it goes bad. Also, a lot of the excitement of parkour comes from intimate knowledge of the course, something that would have to come from letting the players scrutinize the map for a long, boring time. In a new environment, you would have a lot of falls without the restarts of a video game. Also, if the game is set in one static environment and the players know it's a parkour game, then they can all specialize in the skill (or Move, for GURPS) and there is no variety. Overall, it looks like you would need to design the game from the ground up (so to speak).

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2009-06-02 12:07:16

If all new shows next season are available on Amazon/Netflix, we are considering getting rid of the DVR. We would buy shows one at a time at the moment we were about to watch them. I would have to set up the VCR again for a few shows.

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2009-06-02 10:32:06

Modern software developers create computer programs by drawing pictures. I work with two such tools at the moment: Mathworks Simulink and Telelogic Rhapsody.

Simulink gives you a menu of boxes with inputs you connect to outputs. With the Embedded Real-Time Workshop, you can generate C code from this system of connected boxes.

Rhapsody creates documents in the Unified Modeling Language (UML), a series of diagram formats used to describe a system (not necessarily a computer program). One of these diagrams, the Class Diagram, can be used to generate C++ code.

At work, we are on the edge of this new way to write programs. When computers were first invented, programs were written in a binary (or even analog) form, and the transition to human-readable languages such as C and C++ probably provoked great skepticism. Today, C/C++ (called source)are the trusted forms of software and the generated code is meticulously examined for quality. In a generation, we will be comfortable with the diagrams and reading the C++ code will be as unusual as reading the machine language is today.

That doesn't meand that you can ignore the source. A competent engineer knows how all of his tools operate and can dig into the fundamentals when necessary. In college, you learn how electrical signals feed into magnetic gateways, into truth tables, into binary commands, into parsed languages, and now into diagrams. It all builds up into a new way of unlocking productivity and empowering creativity.

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2009-06-02 10:11:18

Testing.

I seem to have mis-coded last week, stripping out tags before posting the message. I was concerned that stripslashes would take out the backslashes, so I stripped tags first. Seems to work now.

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2009-06-02 10:07:53

Those of you who follow this site know that I don't talk about work on it. It is not out of a concern that I will reveal company information. I will say that if I didn't like my job, I wouldn't complain about it here. Conversely, if I have good things to say about work, I will say them here.

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2009-06-01 13:51:55

I don't think I have mentioned this: I have renewed my subscription to the Economist since I am back in school. They give a good discount for students. To me, the web site (most of which is subscription-only), magazine, and podcasts are three separate products which happen to be bundled together. I use all three as time permits. For instance, this weekend I got to finish the magazine flying to and from Philadelphia. When I started, I would download their entire podcast for my workout, though lately I have been reading the magazine online. I would pay separately for each of these media, just as I do for RPGs. I don't see a moral imperative to bundle all three media together, though there is certainly a fiscal imperative not to give it all away for free in the web browser.

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2009-06-01 13:42:28

Note to Sony: Get in the cloud! All you have to do is make PS3 downloadable content re-downloadable.

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2009-06-01 13:10:00

I think that I, like many others, want to establish a presence on the Internet as an affirmation of my own identity. In a world where so many people trust you on the basis of your password, your Social Security number, your driver's license, and especially your credit/debit card numbers, I want to leave a lasting impression that humans will identify me with. If someone stole my social networking password, I want people to be skeptical of what they read, and for a couple of people to ring me up for confirmation. Credit card companies monitor your spending patterns and use this to keep an eye out for fraudulent use; an impersonal profile, but a useful one nonetheless. Giving my shopping and browsing preferences to Amazon and Netflix allow me to visit the site and feel that the site recognizes me, though in those cases there is a schizophrenic identity made up of me and my SO. All of this comes together so that one tries to leave a footprint in the ephemeral digital world. Is it futile? Perhaps. But it speaks to a human need out there.

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2009-06-01 09:22:06

Visited Philadelphia and Gettysburg this weekend. Visited Independence Hall where they had first printings of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Saw the Liberty Bell. Visited the U.S. Mint, but didn't have time to get to the Federal Reserve. Visited the Betsy Ross house and Christ Church cemetery, gravesites of Benjamin Franklin and Benjamin Rush. We were in a hurry to and from Gettysburg, but I visited the National Cemetery and the site of the Gettysburg Address. SO saw an Amish person; I only saw the top of a horse-drawn carriage. Saw some houses that looked very simple but brand new. Stayed at the Westin thanks to Priceline; that place is amazing. Downtown shuts down at 7 PM. Drove through a lot of neighborhoods that prosperity has forgotten. While picking up breakfast on Sunday Morning, drove by the site of a mini-riot about five hours before.

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2009-05-28 16:20:02

So I wrote this web page for an online grocery list. SO and I could update it at work, then I could check it at the store. SO was thoroughly unimpressed and project is shelved. It's no good unless both of us use it. This morning, I noticed how quickly I could jot down an item on paper with pen. She's right, pen and paper wins hands down.

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2009-05-27 16:20:29

Made an overdue change to the style of my web site.

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2009-05-27 14:56:28

Testing some code.

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2009-05-27 11:20:22

I feel thin today. I am most certainly not thin, but somehow I feel it today. I cleaned out my fanny pack, but that shouldn't make a big difference.

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2009-05-26 10:03:41

Whatever kind of RPGs you like, check out Colonial Gothic:Elizabethtown before someone comes to their senses and charges what it's worth.

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2009-05-22 15:15:17

PHONE: The new Polk County rest stop is very nice.

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2009-05-21 16:13:08

Fewer credit card applications in the mail? Don't tease.

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2009-05-21 12:10:41

Testing some changes. I've changed the code to strip slashes before sending to Twitter.

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2009-05-21 12:03:01

If you're using your Twitter feed as a link dump from your web site, then I'll head over to the site and see if I like the content consistently. If so, then I'll add it to my recurring links. If not, I don't. Either way, I don't generally follow Twitter feeds that are nothing but link dumps. Note how I summarize these blog posts on Twitter/Facebook but don't link back to them.

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2009-05-21 10:18:31

SO has rediscovered 'The Legend of Kage' on WiiWare. Calls it 'Cage'.

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2009-05-20 15:19:27

I knew I would be hungry again after eating at China Star. The other guys like eating there. But I bring more than half of it home, which makes Minerva happy.

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2009-05-19 16:17:25

It is such a gorgeous day outside, I wish I could work out at the picnic table all day.

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2009-05-18 22:56:19

Remarkable. I find myself wishing that the Wii was capable of windowing.

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2009-05-18 22:35:43

Removed the forum from plumbagolounge.com. The game didn't generate enough interest to require a forum and it represents a security risk to the site. I'm happy to answer any questions people have about the game, Secrets and Lies.

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2009-05-18 16:14:47

It's gaming madness at the Davis household. Check out my Now Playing list. I am actually playing all these games, and the SO is positively addicted to the Wii ones (except Wii Fit; that's all me).

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2009-05-18 13:24:36

Reading ahead on Finance for summer school.

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2009-05-18 10:22:53

From MediaWeek: Chuck has been renewed by NBC!

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2009-05-15 22:37:42

WII: SO is kicking my butt at Dr. Mario Online.

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2009-05-14 10:28:12

So in the dentist's chair yesterday I started a game of Civiliation: Revolution on the DS. Stayed up way too late last night finishing it.

I love that they were able to cram this incredibly deep, complex game onto a device you can carry around, but I do have one nit to pick. If I had never heard of Civilization, this game would probably lose my interest before I got out of the Medieval Age. The PS3 version, on the other hand, has enough artistic and narrative assets (even without Leonard Nimoy) to draw you in and keep you entertained.

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2009-05-13 21:47:33

WII: Showing my web site to Jon.

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2009-05-13 15:47:47

Quote of the day: 'If you don’t cannibalize yourself, somebody else will do it for you'. link

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2009-05-13 09:08:22

Getting my teeth whitened today. When I told the guys I have lunch with, they moved the time so that I could make it. So now I'll have to make up three and a half hours. I can cover two hours today and the rest tomorrow.

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2009-05-11 10:55:57

Missed the start of sumo this weekend, but will try to catch the replays daily.

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2009-05-11 10:50:49

PHONE: Reconnected the PS2 and Genesis. Finally got to play Sewer Shark.

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2009-05-08 10:02:38

Saw Star Trek last night. An amazing weave of old continuity with new vigor.

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2009-05-07 12:06:09

I haven't read the novels, but several of my friends have: HBO is set to produce a Game of Thrones: http://bit.ly/pHSC7

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2009-05-07 09:12:05

Strange exchange last night. I, the geek, am excited about the new high-action Star Trek movie, which we have tickets for in IMAX tonight. The SO, the normal one, thinks it won't be cerebral enough. She's also trying to wrangle a showing of 'Ghosts of Girlfriends Past' out of this.

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2009-05-05 21:58:10

PHONE: Just played a great card game called Dominion. Reminds me of Puerto Rico in that you buy buildings for incremenal advantages that spiral into great advantage at the end of the game.

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2009-05-05 11:28:21

Podcasts in my queue: 2d6 feet, Independent Insurgency, Have Games Will Travel, Walking Eye, Pulp Gamer, Podge Cast, THACO, Yaruki Zero.

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2009-05-05 11:18:08

Twitter is just a way station on a path to ubiquitous online identity. There will be more applications that send a tweet, usually branded, as you do something else. Actual composed tweets will decline to a minority.

Web 2.0 has failed to monetize user-generated content. Data miners have plenty of access to open information without having to cut deals with the providers. Expect a shakeout followed by either ad-based or microtransaction models. And expect GrantDavis.net to still be around.

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2009-05-05 11:00:46

I could spend a lot of money on Amazon's new video on demand. On the exact same device (Roku), I have a queue of free shows (Netflix) and a couple of purchased shows (Amazon). Despite my backlog of free video, I am still compelled to shop for new video. Overall, the pay video is newer, selection is wider and I can browse from the Roku rather than the computer.

UPDATE: Have I mentioned 30 Rock? SO is big fan of 30 Rock now thanks to streaming Netflix.

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2009-05-04 18:05:03

Plane Ticket to Chicago: $100. Ticket to Madison: $500.

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2009-05-04 09:35:20

Saw The Soloist on Friday; loved it. Got tickets for Star Trek in IMAX on Thursday.

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2009-05-01 17:16:49

WII: SO and I enjoying Defend Your Castle.

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2009-05-01 13:06:40

To all my pals on Facebook: I can't respond because FB is blocked at work. But I do get e-mail notifications. Thanks.

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2009-05-01 10:49:53

My vacation time is now a scarce resource. I don't think there will be enough for the travelling I want to do this year. Plus, my workplace takes the whole week off for Christmas but my contract shop does not.

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2009-04-30 23:51:27

Now I should be able to post from grantdavis.net, to twitter, to Facebook.

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2009-04-30 09:51:19

Scored a copy of Dawn Patrol at Half Price Books. Slight damage to the box and the map is missing, though any square grid should do for air combat. Looks like a solid game; I see why it has remained popular for so long.

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2009-04-29 13:55:38

So I've been playing Star Trek: Conquest again, and I want to write something about the review I gave it. I till stand by the score of 6.5, but that doesn't mean that a 6.5 game can't be fun. The game is still strategically shallow and the lack of multiplayer is just unforgivable, but I had some epic battles for the Alpha Quadrant last night. I also had some cheesy moments where I bombarded a turret from just outside its range, and where I ran the Kingons back and forth with a Subspace Disruptor. But just because a game isn't as good as it can be doesn't mean it can't be enjoyable.

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2009-04-29 09:46:26

Wanted to point out this thread on Story Games about creator recognition. I don't have anything more profound to add to it; I just wanted to say 'me too' to everything said so far.

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2009-04-29 09:15:59

Forgot my phone again, but this morning I have an amusing anecdote about it, not just a sad statement regarding my facilities. I put my Nintendo DS in my fanny pack with the intent of getting it into the trunk of the car, part of my essential hurricane evacuation supplies. When I picked up the pack this morning, it had the proper heft (I have an older, bulky smartphone). So I didn't find out until I got to work. I do feel a bit edgy without it, but I'll manage.

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2009-04-28 13:53:08

Thanks to Fred Hicks at Indie Press Revolution for this link to a thread about games rejected by IPR. I submitted Secrets and Lies to IPR and received no response. Hearing that other publishers have had problems with IPR, that my game may have been arbitrarily dismissed, makes me feel a lot better. I signed on with Steve Jackson Games and I feel that Secrets and Lies absolutely belongs on their "shelf".

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2009-04-28 10:56:51

Saw Chuck live last night so that I wouldn't miss what may be the series finale.

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2009-04-28 09:55:16

The weatherman in Houston says stay home today. I didn't notice anything catastrophic on the way to work, but it sounds like the West Loop is in bad shape.

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2009-04-28 09:36:47

Significant other has discovered 30 Rock and is hooked. Of the office comedies, I like 30 Rock and Better Off Ted. Don't like the Office and Parks & Recreation.

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2009-04-27 09:59:18

Took the NASA 1 Bypass for the first time today. Crazy drivers on the road, but it was nice not having to fight the traffic on Bay Area Blvd.

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2009-04-27 09:56:44

Visited Galveston yesterday for the first time since Hurricane Ike. The town has definitely not recovered. Maybe half the stores are open on the Strand. I didn't realize that the Flagship hotel, on a pier into the bay, was never repaired. Now it is covered with grafitti and its vehicle bridge is still a pile of concrete and twisted rebar. The waves were higher and angrier than I remember.

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2009-04-23 22:03:26

Yesterday I bought the PDF for GURPS Mars, a 3rd edition product. Today I picked up the physical copy, realizing what I had been missing. I can pick it up and peruse without using the magic box. I can bring it to a game and run it. But I think I can read the PDF more closely, that it is more present, even though I can probably multi-task more on the computer.

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2009-04-23 13:58:29

Just found this article on Condolezza Rice's approval of waterboarding. It occurs to me that 2001-2008 may be this black hole of US public service that taints a whole lot of potential appointees in a future Republican administration.

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2009-04-23 11:48:54

Last night I went through all the powers and defects in Mutant City Blues and translated them to my game, Secrets and Lies. Nothing against the GUMSHOE system; I think this setting gives S&L a real shot in the arm.

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2009-04-23 09:45:05

Up too late every night watching Millenium. Almost done. The last season became very much like the X-Files, so SO is enjoying it more.

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2009-04-22 09:52:50

Having a very hard, good time with Valkyria Chronicles downloadable content. Wish I could buy a copy without the fan service. Paradoxically, also wish I could buy a copy with Japanese dialogue.

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2009-04-22 09:50:22

So I had to register for GenCon events at exactly 2 pm on Sunday. I assumed that they had rented some extra bandwith and servers; I was wrong and things slowed to a crawl as thousands of gamers raced for slots at the exact same time. I got most of what I wanted, but not all. My friend Josh thought it started at 3 pm Central time and missed out.

They don't allow you to buy tickets for overlapping events, but the code to enforce that doesn't always work. Once you buy a ticket, there's no automated way to release the ticket and free up the time slot.

They are starting to have events on Wednesday. Only National Security Decision Making took them up on it this year. I grabbed a ticket, but don't know if I want to start gaming so early.

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2009-04-22 09:44:48

Netflixed a fantastic show: Secrets of Body Language from the History Channel.

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2009-04-22 09:42:04

I sure do talk about games a lot, don't I? Be assured, there are other things going on in my life. It just isn't proper to talk about them on an open forum. So I guess this is my way of talking about the weather.

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2009-04-20 13:41:30

PHONE:I notice that I'm getting fewer job postings from recruiters over the last couple of weeks. Is the engineer job market in a dry spell?

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2009-04-20 11:59:38

Millenium definitely makes more sense now than when I saw it the first time.

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2009-04-20 11:34:20

Hours later, I can still recall a dream I had last night. I was on Texas highway 38 (no idea where that is), driving through the hills (no hills around Houston) very late at night. I looked up into the sky and saw an absolutely gorgeous view of the stars, galaxies that were too close, all surrounded by some kind of broken yellow boundary, as if I was zoomed in on one section of the night sky. Last night we were watching a spot about the Northern Lights on the Travel Channel, and I would like to see more stars where I live.

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2009-04-16 17:30:18

Just read GURPS Metro of Madness. I'm not a fan of magic, but a huge fan of prepackaged locations and maps, especially for modern settings. The map is serviceable: no shading and a distinct lack of offices and closets, but it will work. The characters are great and are introduced at graduated levels of weirdness for tailoring to your own game.

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2009-04-16 17:20:20

Taco Cabana seems to have some aversion to fast service inside the store, but drive-thru service always moves like lightning. This didn't just happen to me, it happens every time.

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2009-04-16 10:33:58

Added the Houstonist and Bibliophile Stalker to the Hotlinks. The Houstonist just reminded me of the International Festival this weekend. Kumusta Ka, Stalker?

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2009-04-16 10:27:03

Last night I played a game of Civilization:Revolution on the DS. I felt that I wasn't catching all of the user interface, so I played a whole game on Chieftain, the easiest level, in order to trigger any tutorials. Today they're releasing new content for Valkyria Chronicles, so that will be taking my time.

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2009-04-16 10:23:07

Last night I started streaming 'Ghost in the Shell' on Netflix. I swear I had seen it before, but now I'm not sure. Also started 'Paprika'; very trippy.

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2009-04-15 13:35:14

People should not demonize those who disagree with them. Down that path lies Nationalism. Toleration of dissent is the mark of character.

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2009-04-15 09:59:50

So I get online to register for classes. Obviously, everyone else is trying to do the same thing and I can't get a login. When I do get a login, it lasts for a few clicks and then I'm kicked out again.

So...I got my classes, for both Summer and Fall. Everything worked out in the end.

I've decided to go with all online classes for now. As the degree progresses, I will have to go on-campus, but I haven't had good experiences with that lately. Sitting in a classroom for hours has always been hard for me, and the lack of class time seems to motivate these teachers to come up with new ways to reach out to students.

I still plan to sign up for the Fitness Center, but I was kicked offline before I could get to Financial.

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2009-04-15 09:53:46

Had an Epic Fail getting to work this morning. I needed to get there at 8 AM to register for both Summer and Fall classes, and everyone gets to register at the same time. Don't know who thought that up. First off, I'm five minutes late getting out the door. The first road I hit in the morning had a flashing red light and I turned right instead of braving left (which someone else was quickly let through). Then I ducked into my storage unit rather than waiting for the turn. Sure, I got a chore done, but would have gotten through the light faster. Then I hit another red and turned right instead of waiting. Big mistake. I took a scenic tour of the industrial park with a GTA-like maze of roads back to the freeway. Obviously, they are trying to keep ignorant fools like me away from a potential high-crime area. By the time I get in, registration has been going on for 15 minutes.

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2009-04-13 14:46:58

Welcome to everyone searching the event list for GenCon 2009. Be advised that I have asked that event RPG0900394 be cancelled, replaced by RPG090320.

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2009-04-13 10:08:43

Played Wings of War and Battlestar Galactica boardgames this weekend. BSG is supposed to take 2-3 hours; took us 6 hours. There were too many Cylons (traitors) shuffled into the loyalty deck: 3 players out of 5 rather than 2 out of 5. The Admiral was a Cylon for the entire game, so the fleet traveled as slowly as possible. Nevertheless, the humans nearly won.

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2009-04-10 12:07:49

As technology evolves, it is becoming more difficult to know the best way to contact a particular friend or loved one. Some of your friends are on Facebook, some on MySpace, some on Twitter. Some never check their email anymore, some check it all the time. Some hover on particular message boards or use instant messaging all day.

Almost everyone has a mobile phone, but you don't know if it's a good time to call. Text messages are less obtrusive, but some people can't recieve them, or don't know how to operate their phone. Some people even have to pay a quarter to recieve text messages, so sending one has already imposed on them.

Know how your friends are connected, what their schedules are like: when are they at work, when are they in class, when is the baby trying to sleep. Ask them if they are text-savvy.

Advertise your own connectivity: the best way to reach me is by text message. Email and Facebook are the worst ways (that I haven't cut off entirely). Twitter is good during the day; I don't like having to login everywhere, so I tend not to use it at night or on my mobile. However, I don't like to use Twitter for conversations; I know that's the trend, but it seems like a lot of noise. The PS3 is a decent way to reach me, as I use it for DVDs and Blu-Ray.

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2009-04-09 10:27:23

Listening to Clyde Roher talk to The Walking Eye about Silence Keeps Me a Victim was not nearly as 'prickly' as I thought it would be. Clyde was animated and articulate and I will definitely be checking out his own podcast again.

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2009-04-08 10:18:14

Found a gem of a book over at Borders yesterday: Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex: Official Log 1. It's a reference for fans of the anime series.

Originally published in Japanese, it seems to be an official translation, bound but with no proper cover or spine. I can't find an ISBN number, though there is a link on the Borders site. Too bad I'm not an affiliate. Because it is packaged with a DVD of extras, it was classified by Borders as a DVD, all of which are currently marked for clearance at 40% off.

I'm sure there are lots of books like this in Japan, but I've never seen an official translation before. The book only goes up to Episode 19 of the first season, so it doesn't answer all the questions. But it's the kind of thing I would love to sit down and convert into an RPG like R. Talsorian did with Bubblegum Crisis. It picks apart the series, provides lots of early sketches, and has a section on technology. It's not encyclopedic, but I'm happy.

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2009-04-07 16:37:47

Thanks to @catalystgamelab for the tip and InsideIndianaBusiness for the dates of future Gen Cons: Aug. 5-8, 2010; Aug. 4-7, 2011, Aug. 16-19, 2012, Aug. 15-18, 2013, Aug. 14-17, 2014 and July 30 – Aug. 2, 2015.

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2009-04-07 10:25:27

Was playing Rebellion last night (Supremacy in the UK, because they don't talk about those lost colonies) and it crashed after two or three hours. I've lost Star Destroyers before, but rarely does the whole game crash like that. Trying to enjoy it while I can; haven't been able to run it on Vista.

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2009-04-07 10:16:32

Odiogo takes my blog posts and voices them as audio files. People can download them to mobile devices and listen to them on the go. I don't think that Odiogo is going to set the world on fire, but I appreciate it. I see that they are willing to insert some promotional bits at the beginning; that should help with monetization in a way that Twitter still struggles with. The main issue I have is that I'll need to monitor the audio to make sure they don't advertise anything I wouldn't support.

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2009-04-06 21:32:45

Just added an Odiogo feed to the site. If you're listening to this on Odiogo, welcome. I have to say, the file sizes look very reasonable for this service and I don't have to worry about how my own voice sounds.

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2009-04-06 15:30:16

Thanks to...someone on Twitter I can't find now, sorry, I listned to an interview with one of my favorite RPG writers, David Pulver. Of particular interest to me is his association with R. Talsorian and Guardians of Order (around 50:00).

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2009-04-03 11:51:25

So I just made a closer perusal of Minimus, a free RPG over on e23. It isn't just a stripped-down, essential RPG. It has some 'indie' elements of its own, including a collaborative character creation system like I have for my own game, Secrets and Lies. You are encouraged to derive some bonuses from your traits and the environment, just like FATE. Character death is at the discretion of the player, something I see rarely (I think the Skies of Glass beta has something similar). It uses relationship connections like several 'story' games. I don't want to make it sound like Minimus is derivative, rather that it is part of the effort to give gamers a new experience. I don't think that Minimus is the magic bullet that will break the industry out of its decline, but I would be willing to run it straight from the PDF on my cell phone if people asked me what an RPG was.

I did notice one thing at the end of the document, regarding combat. The phrase 'margin of success' is conflated to mean two things. First it is the difference in die rolls, just like you expect. Then the phrase is used again after weapon and armor modifiers are applied. I was able to suss out what the designer meant, but the term is overloaded.

Overall, good enough to charge a buck for even though it's free. Check it out.

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2009-04-03 10:12:00

Last night I saw an epic Starcraft match between Hwasin and Luxury.

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2009-04-02 17:38:42

After saying that I would start with my less liked DVDs, the first one I ripped last night was Homicide:Life on the Street. Then I stayed up too late watching it - to verify the copy, of course. Homicide was shot in a way that harmed the picture quality, so less was lost in the transition. For the same reason, Babylon 5 may be next.

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2009-04-01 10:20:57

Decided on a compromise for my DVD collection. I'll rip and put away the less-watched titles that don't depend on high-budget, lush vistas such as Lord of the Rings. I can compromise a bit on file size since I am already compromising on picture quality.

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2009-04-01 09:44:14

Got my Windows laptop patched at the last minute yesterday against Conficker.

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2009-03-30 10:54:15

Want to jump on the cloud computing bandwagon here, but not because of computing muscle.

As I have been moving, my DVD library is taking up a lot of space and, drowning in video as I am, I don't have a chance to watch much of it. So how to reclaim that space?

Yesterday I ripped a DVD to an SD card and played it back over the PS3. Even if I can fix the stutter, the picture just isn't as good as upconverting directly from the DVD. Perhaps I can go to a lossless format, but then I need a drive greater than 2GB that can interface with the PS3 and I doubt it will be upconverted, which looks better than I expected.

So ripping the library isn't an ideal solution. What then? Well, HD video on the Roku box looks quite good. I can start purchasing videos on amazon.com and watching them on Roku. DRM is a potential stumbling block, so it isn't a perfect solution, but there is more to this than video.

There is a new gaming service launching called OnLive that delivers a Roku-like service, a cloud service, for video games. A computing cluster performs the heavy lifting and delivers the video output to your screen. It remains to be seen whether OnLive can deliver, but if it does, another library becomes virtual.

There is already a virtual library on the Nintendo Wii, where you can purchase and download emulations of games for the Sega Genesis, TurboGrafix and older Nintendo consoles. Nintendo allows you to re-download games you have purchased, whereas the PS3 does not. When you sell or stow the PS3, your downloaded content goes with it. So don't get too attached to those Rock Band tracks.

For my pen-and-paper role-playing games (RPGs), I use e23.sjgames.com and www.indiepressrevolution.com. When I purchase a PDF, it is available for download in perpetuity. I need hardcopies for actually running games, but not for keeping up on the latest innovations in the industry. Amazon's Kindle provides a virtual library for books in general, though I don't care for the way they are locked down.

Last but certainly not least, there is music. Others can speak to this better than I, but consider that some sites offer a subscription to listen to whatever you want, while iTunes and others sell you individual tracks. Then apply that to all the other markets: video, games, and books.

While I am willing to pay for individual titles, I would rather pay for a subscription with access to everything. Netflix has unlimited video on demand, but its selection is limited. A subscription for games (and there are such services) would let me try games that I would never take a chance on buying. Same goes for books.

There are drawbacks. Netflix (and good shows on free, over-air-tv) have crowded out my DVD library, and people in general don't know what they want. Also, you are depending on the continuation on the service. If you buy individual titles, you can't download them and the service goes under, you are out of luck. Even if you can download them, it is a pain to have chosen the wrong cloud. But all of these media industries are on the cusp of a new business model that will definitely work out for some of them.

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2009-03-27 15:08:57

Updated my resume with the UML diagrams I'm making in Rhapsody.

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2009-03-27 09:15:57

Left my phone again today. This happens too often. Again, no phone means no email.

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2009-03-26 09:50:46

Found this blog posting comparing life in the Philippines to the Gibsonian Cyberpunk future.

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2009-03-25 19:00:26

Want to say that I like the adventure in the latest issue of Pyramid. I could see myself running that in a pinch. As a lazy GM, I am always looking for complete solutions.

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2009-03-25 10:00:05

Read an article about video gaming via cloud computing. I don't think this will work for action games, though it could result in some deep strategy games. More importantly, I think that the downloadable content (DLC) that exists now for console games will need to move to a subscription model. When I bought and downloaded Flower for the PS3, that copy of Flower is tied to the hard drive of the console and can never be moved. We buy things in order for them to be persistent, and persistence requires permanence. If something can't be persistent, then it needs to move to a subscription model. Speaking of which, I may be reconnecting my Sega CD again. I've got a hankering for Sewer Shark and Double Switch.

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2009-03-25 09:39:07

Yesterday I bypassed the converter box and connected our Sony Bravia straight into the wall. Picked up 68 analog channels and over 70 digital channels. This is the basic cable package we get as part of our maintenance fees.

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2009-03-24 11:01:58

The owner of West End Games, Eric Gibson, will be participating in a chat session tomorrow night. Eric will be discussing his plans to open up his d6 RPG engine for all publishers.

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2009-03-24 10:07:49

Got a three-man game of Starcraft together last weekend (rather than Mutant City Blues). Good to see friends again.

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2009-03-20 16:41:53

GrantDavis.net is back up again.

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2009-03-19 21:52:37

Just saw Kings on Hulu. Forgot to record it; won't miss it next Sunday.

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2009-03-19 16:52:31

Trying to put together a game of Mutant City Blues this weekend.

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2009-03-19 11:18:22

PHONE: Beat Flower last night. Visuals and sound are stunning. I think that for something to qualify as a game, there should be some kind of failure state.

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2009-03-18 10:43:08

After reading this story on inflation and deflation, I want to point something out. We have already been experiencing the deflationary spiral in housing prices. People have been holding off on buying until the prices stop falling. However, in my opinion, the average consumer is not waiting around for similar things to happen to other goods. Food and energy have to be purchased continuously. Big-ticket buys might be delayed if you are worried about losing your job, not because the price might fall. Economists take all prices as an average and then talk about this ideal, rational consumer who does not exist. We need to examine the individual components and realize that we can have deflation in housing and rampant inflation in other goods. Housing is important to the overall inflation number, but rising costs of everyday items will inflict more damage on the well-being of the general public, representing a true destruction of wealth.

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2009-03-17 12:52:32

Just followed the Twitter conversation between George Stephanopolous and John McCain. Thirty minutes for a dozen exchanges. It seemed stilted and, as Robert Scoble noted, you can't make a permanent link to it. I hope that reporters take away the lesson that Twitter conversations have to be spontaneous, not planned.

Generally, I don't see conversations as being the future of Twitter, though I may be in the minority. Consider the other communication options and see how Twitter fits into the model.

A text message goes straight to a phone. It cannot be ignored, but can be deferred without insult. A Twitter post is only seen if the user visits Twitter. This makes it similar to a forum post. Publicly trying to draw someone out is generally seen as bad form. A Direct Message is possible, but reduces Twitter to a primitive form of email.

Overall, I see Twitter as a simplified blog hosting platform. It is less of a commitment than checking someone's blog regularly, but more of a commitment than Facebook. It depends on how many posts and how many external links you are willing to tolerate. You can tinker with your Follow list until you achieve a stream of tweets that fits with your Internet consumption habits.

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2009-03-17 10:08:17

PHONE: Facebook seems somewhat inappropriate for the kinds of posts I like to do on grantdavis.net, where I expound on some thought to get it out of my head.

Why Twitter and not Facebook? On Facebook, your audience is people who haven't seen you in ten or twenty years, but don't really want to know what you have to say about this and that. On Twitter, people have actively sought you out to follow. If they just wanted to know how you turned out, that's what Facebook and LinkedIn are good at.

Certainly, my posts have been shorter since I started using Twitter, but at least I'm posting again.

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2009-03-16 20:41:54

PHONE: I bought Flower for the PS3 and so far it has taken an hour to download 400 megabytes. I know that it has worked faster with the PC, and it was also slower when I had DSL rather than cable. Clearly the Playstation's network connection is crippled.

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2009-03-16 11:38:21

Cancelled most of our digital cable tier last week and so far it hasn't been missed at all. Comcast had bumped it from $11 to $16/month. The only channel I watched very much was CNBC World. But I have a backlog of shows on the Roku and I haven't even seen the season finale of Burn Notice. I don't know how I'm going to catch up on Battlestar Galactica, but it's not on the front burner. I don't watch much tv online because I prefer not to use the PC at home. After seeing this screen all day at work, it's the last thing I want to look at.

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2009-03-16 10:23:55

When you stop writing the "what is an RPG" section of your RPG, you are giving up on the market ever being more than it is today.

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2009-03-16 10:08:51

Just heard that Fox is discontinuing shorter commercial breaks for Dollhouse and Fringe. I want to say that the change was working in our household; we record Dollhouse but were letting the commercial breaks run without fast-forwarding.

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2009-03-12 15:12:37

So at Origins last year I picked up several books of the Babylon 5 RPG by Mongoose Publishing. I almost dumped them at the airport due to weight limits, but they survived. Now that I am moving out of my place, I decided that these books needed to be read or culled. The background is actually quite well-written.

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2009-03-12 13:49:39

Engineers pack so much text on a slide, it's like someone is rationing their slide count. When I was a kid, I would write as much as possible on a single sheet of paper, even though there was plenty. But you can make as many slides as you want. Your limited resource is the attention (and eyesight) of your audience.

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2009-03-11 20:07:53

PHONE: Finished a chapter in Finance. My plan to study during rush hour worked. Think I will add Management book into the load.

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2009-03-11 12:47:20

I'm going to be running the role-playing game Grey Ranks under the Indie Games Explosion banner at Gen Con 2009. Thanks to Scott Acker for heading up the effort.

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2009-03-10 09:54:37

My SO is encouraging me to write again.

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2009-03-09 12:56:46

Was just put on hold by Verizon for 20 minutes because they knew I was cancelling my service.

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2009-03-06 12:48:08

Updated my resume. Took off 'willing to relocate' and mentioned that my security clearance has been lapsed since 1993. My apologies for leaving it like that for so long.

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2009-03-06 10:28:33

Gen Con registration is back up again. But the urge to run Pax has passed, especially after I found out how long it takes.

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2009-03-05 12:11:39

Gen Con registration is down. Got the urge to run some Pax Britannica. Maybe my local group will be up for it.

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2009-03-05 09:51:08

So last night I had Battlestar Galactica, Season 4, Disc 3 from Netflix. The night before I had watched 2 episodes on the disc. Thinking that I had 2 more to watch, I sat down and discovered there was only one left, called "Guess What's Coming to Dinner". After watching it, I *really* wish I had the next disc at my fingers.

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2009-03-05 09:34:24

Last night I made good progress in shoehorning my old stuff into my new place. Moved the Rock Band faux drum into storage but kept the guitar and mike. I got some hanging storage from Wal-Mart and used four hangers to suspend it from the wire mesh ceiling against the back of the unit. Strength is weak, so I only put in mostly-empty game boxes and some VHS tapes. Accidentally destroyed the box for the Wii Fit, but I am still using it after 135 days. We're getting a new washer and dryer today; doing our part for the economy. I'm concerned that it won't fit in the nook, but if so they will take it back and we can exchange it for a smaller unit.

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2009-03-05 09:14:11

Forgot my phone again.

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2009-03-04 10:12:47

Spent last night watching Galactica (I'm a half-season behind) and ripping my CD collection to put them into storage. Not happy with my options for ripping DVDs; I value my picture quality and I like to see the box spines on the shelves, imploring me to play them. For now.

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2009-03-03 16:56:24

Just found out that the tv show Life on Mars is being cancelled. I had just stopped recording it, but now I might be interested in finishing it, knowing that it will be able to end properly without wasting a lot of my time.

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2009-03-03 16:20:15

Over lunch, sold some games at GameSpot. I am amazed at how well PS2 games are retaining value. Three games for $30 in store credit, which for me is good as cash.

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2009-03-03 12:05:30

This morning at McDonalds, I was heading out while another gentleman was heading in. There is an antechamber with a door on each side. We were holding each door open for each other at the same time. We chuckled and went on our ways. Something like that would rarely happen in Miami.

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2009-03-02 14:24:21

Hung out with Eric, Evan, Angela and Jon this weekend. Good times. Jon pointed out that I may be having some stress over job uncertainty. I didn't realize that.

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2009-02-27 17:22:16

Just sold my television on Craigslist.

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2009-02-26 14:36:21

Just found out that my sister is pregnant with her second.

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2009-02-26 11:30:43

This morning I was dropping some stuff off at the storage unit. Between trips, I left the unit open and the keypad, controlling entrance to the facility, chose that moment to die. Left a message explaining what happened; hoping to speak to a human when they open.

UPDATE: Everything is secured. I can pick up the key on my way home.

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2009-02-25 14:22:21

Just got a fascinating fortune cookie: 'Remember three months from this date. Good things are in store for you.'. Which happens to be Memorial Day.

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2009-02-25 10:41:17

Got back on the elliptical yesterday. When I logged the time into the Wii Fit, I reviewed my data and saw that my last time on the elliptical was February 8, two weeks ago. The Wii is my repository of shame now.

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2009-02-23 10:53:24

Releasing a game without playtesting is like releasing software without trying to compile it first. There is a remote chance that it will run right the first time, but most likely it will fall on its face. I am not trying to be hypocritical: Secrets and Lies needed more playtesting before release. It's just difficult for me to use my friends to such a great extent.

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2009-02-20 12:27:55

Moved KTRK's hotlink time to evenings and gave the Chronicle an extra hour in the morning. KTRK is running a thumbnail video when you arrive at the screen, and I make a point not to stream video at work. There is no specific policy against it, but it increases load on the network and could eventually lead to a crackdown.

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2009-02-19 15:56:34

I have bought three role-playing games in digital form this week. Conversely, I can't even look at boardgame news and reviews: I have absolutely no room to store them.

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2009-02-18 16:01:41

Just heard from my manager that NASA Parkway will be closed across I-45 for demolition of the overpass. Not clear if the on-ramps or the NASA Parkway Bypass will be affected.

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2009-02-18 12:08:16

Left my phone at home today. Again, no phone means no e-mail.

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2009-02-18 09:51:41

This morning I was greeted with the not-unfamiliar sound of foreign object debris hitting my windshield on the freeway. It took me a second to figure out where it came from. The most likely suspect was an 18-wheeler ahead of me, even with another car between us. This was the filthiest truck I have seen in some time. Whatever kind of hauling you have to do, please have the courtesy to hose down your truck before you get on the major roads. This is a constant hazard and there ought to be a law against it.

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2009-02-17 15:15:32

Remembering the Atlantic Ocean rolling onto the shore at Boca Raton, and how small it made you feel.

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2009-02-17 12:46:18

I have spoken before about the Story Games movement and how there seeems to be a revolution against the Game Master. But you know, if I put weeks of effort into a game world and an adventure for it, I want some narrative control.

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2009-02-17 12:26:08

Just got a room for Gen Con. Registration opened at noon Eastern. In the 15 minutes it took to type in the link from the registration email, dig out a credit card and call my roomie - who is busy at work - I missed out on the hotel across the street. Got the Omni instead.

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2009-02-17 07:55:43

PHONE: OK, beat Valkyria last night. I understand there will be more content for sale online. Wonder if they can patch the AI to make it smarter.

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2009-02-16 15:08:08

MSG(tm) is a pen-and-paper role-playing game by Wood Ingham. It is available at Indie Press Revolution as a PDF and/or for preorder as a book. The game is written in corporate-speak and intentionally reads like marketing literature, though the photography makes it unsafe for work. The book is laden with deliciously dark humor and makes you want to surround your game table with motivational posters from your office supply store.

In MSG, everyone takes on the role of an employee at a late-21st-century post-moral conglomerate. Each player takes a turn as the Company, presenting the other players (the Corporate Reps) with moral dilemmas. Despite its protestations, this is a science fiction game in that it engages in speculation about unrestricted corporate activity and the loss of self through technology.

MSG touts itself as having a winner, the player who ends up with the most Resource points at the end of the game. There are two Resources, Self and Compassion. To gain resources, each Rep engages in a bidding contest with the Company.

First they negotiate the narrative stakes: what happens if the Rep wins and what happens if the Company wins. The Rep role-plays to try and get some Soap points that can be bid as Resources. Then each side secretly bids an amount of Resources. The side who bids more gets the Resources (but not Soap) that the other side bid and their declared stakes come to pass.

Thus, the total pool of Resources is on a steady decline: both sides have to spend what they bid and the winner only gets the lesser amount, the amount spent by the loser. Each Rep bids against the Company in turn, and each player gets to be the company once, for a total number of conflicts on the order of the square of the number of players. Each player starts with 11 Resources divided between Self and Compassion. They can also gain any amount of Soap during a single scene, though it must all be spent. An example in the book shows a Rep gaining 4 Soap for a single action.

I have to wonder if this game was played all the way through with 5 players, as I don't see how you could get to the end without depleting the Company and necessitating one or more Bailouts. Soap will also rapidly deplete the Company coffers whether the Company wins or not. Also, the person running the Company is disconnected from consequences for his/her bid (much like real life). Consider: the Rep is spending Resources whether they win or lose, and must spend at least one. The Company can spend zero; the Rep wins Narration but loses whatever Resources they spent. If the Company overspends (hey, it's not their money) and crushes the Rep, the Rep loses just as many points. Only if the Company underspends does the Rep get anything back. Also, Soap makes things seem rather hopeless for the Company altogether.

There is a vestigial skills system called Expertises. They are a way for the Rep to gain more Soap. The skill writeups are delightfully subversive and only three pages are spent on them. Reps also get Perks, which are bits of genius that I won't spoil for you.

I have to say that while the game is definitely worth the $8 PDF price for the setting, I cannot bring this rules set to my gaming table without some modifications. While it's true that I haven't proven this at my own gaming table, it's a catch-22: I won't subject my friends to the unmodified rules just to prove the point. With some more work, there is a fantastic game to be had here.

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2009-02-16 09:50:00

PHONE: Got to the final boss battle of Valkryia Chronicles. Lost on the first attempt, in a way I thought was cheesy. Why do boss battles have to be cheesy? The final mission in Grand Theft Auto is always good.

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2009-02-15 00:43:04

WII: Catching up on streaming Netflix. 30 Rock and Sukiyaki Django are ok.

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2009-02-14 21:30:20

PHONE:Just played 4 games of Pandemic.

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2009-02-13 13:35:16

Just bought and read MSG™. The best part is how much it looks like a corporate report. I fear that my giggling gives it away.

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2009-02-12 16:29:40

Updated my personal blogger to forward posts from grantdavis.net to Twitter. Seems to work, though it is relying on the browser for some conversion.

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2009-02-12 14:24:44

Fred Hicks tweets that Mutant City Blues is on the way. Seriously considering running a game of it.

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2009-02-12 14:19:44

I want to give a shout out to GURPS Mass Combat over on e23. Despite its protestations that it is a tool for facilitating roleplay, not a wargame itself, I want to sit down with the guys and play this. No characters, just kingdoms. All kinds of crunchy goodness. They would never go for it, though.

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2009-02-12 09:56:44

I've noticed that even with the largest roleplaying game lines out there, some companies are not putting out entire prepackaged settings and adventures. If your game uses range, that includes maps.

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2009-02-11 12:19:11

I can't believe this: I'm in too deep with Netflix, and this time I can't declare bankruptcy. This morning I sent back Disc 2 of Damages, I'm still working to get through Galactica and today I'm getting the feature-film cut of Stand Alone Complex.

Why can't I just sit on these discs until I feel less pressure? Because I live with another, and I'm keeping her from her Philippine soap opera.

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2009-02-10 14:22:35

Testing some new code.

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2009-02-10 14:19:47

PHONE: My friend Evan has gotten through hip surgery and is doing well. He should recover just in time to begin fatherhood.

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2009-02-09 15:30:47

PHONE: I notice a lot less spam these days. An economic indicator?

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2009-02-09 10:10:38

Got a neat new game at Owlcon this weekend called Pandemic. It's a completely cooperative, short, exciting little game. I think Eric will love it.

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2009-02-06 17:53:02

Earlier this year, I had an idea rolling around in my head that I might try updating Torg to utilize some of the more recent RPG theories coming out. To spoil the ending, I changed my mind.

The central framework of Torg is actually quite advanced and holds up well under these theories:

So as far as Story theory goes, Torg is way ahead.

No, the major flaw I am seeing in Torg is in the details, what theorists would call the "Ephemera":

So what Torg really needs is an overhaul of the Ephemera.

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2009-02-06 13:35:46

If anyone is reading this and needs help getting their television ready for the digital transition, or if you know somebody who does, drop me a line. I would be glad to help or answer questions.

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2009-02-06 13:13:04

Netflix has updated the software (firmware?) in their Roku player for high definition video. I am AMAZED at both the picture quality and at our internet connection (cable modem).

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2009-02-05 16:09:08

I'd like to take a moment to call out for hot-seat Civ. That is, I would like to see some single-console multiplayer for the next iteration of Civilization:Revolution for consoles. Civilization IV for the personal computer has such a "hot-seat" mode, so called because each player has to take turns sitting at the computer. With a console, each player can have their own controller, patiently waiting for their turn. There is a LAN party mode, but for a console that means each player needs their own console and their own television or monitor.

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2009-02-05 10:02:44

PHONE: Studied a chapter in Finance last night. Even though I didn't sign up for the class, I have the textbook from the first semester.

On a related note, Minerva and I were watching a movie and there was a scene with an 8-year-old carrying a small suitcase filled with his textbooks. I think that schools need to move to PDF readers and schoolwide PDF licenses as soon as possible. The textbook industry is literally crushing our students.

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2009-02-05 09:37:44

PHONE: Over at Half-Price Books, bought a copy of the book I am using for my role-playing campaign, Shadowrun. It was half price, of course. I had to get over the dissonance of owning two copies of a book and the slight extravagance of it. The fact is that I have desperately needed another copy for the players to read.

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2009-02-04 21:32:40

WII: It just occurred to me that we are seeing a bit of crowd behavior with the current spate of layoffs. Because other companies are laying off, and because there is the perception of a recession (whether there is one or not, the perception is what matters here), each CEO feels that they have "cover" to lay off workers now whereas they might have felt some loyalty before. At some point, everyone they wanted to lay off will be gone and the stampede will end. Given the current rate of layoffs, I would expect the end to come soon and suddenly. Most people laid off will, similarly, have the "cover" that they were caught up in the madness and should be able to find work elsewhere.

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2009-02-04 16:38:55

Keeping an eye on this bill to postpone the Digital TV transition. Since the transition is on February 17, the Congress is cutting this one close.

UPDATE: The bill has passed; the transition will be delayed to June 12.

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2009-02-03 12:39:27

PHONE: Made up main antagonist NPCs for Shadowrun. Each one is built just like a player character except for the Big Bad Guy.

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2009-01-30 14:41:59

Correction to my comments on Mutant City Blues: it is one die against a target number.

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2009-01-30 10:17:35

Left my phone at home today. No phone also means no email.

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2009-01-29 10:39:29

PHONE: Picked up the RPG "Mutant City Blues" yesterday. I ordered the book bundled with a digital copy. The book will arrive in a month, but the digital copy is available now.

The game takes place ten years in the future, after the spontaneous appearance of metahuman abilities in one pecent of the population. The characters are police, belonging to the Heightened Crimes Investigation Unit. Their job is to investigate and deal with metahuman crimes.

Character creation is, by their own admission, unbalanced from a combat perspective. There are no atrributes, only skills and powers. These are divided up into three pools of points rather than a single pool as in GURPS or Champions.

Solving mysteries is the primary activity. A large part of this involves deduction of what superpowers a criminal has, because all powers are connected in groups on something called the Quade Diagram, used in-game for this deduction and out-of-game for character creation. A single person can't have powers too far apart on the diagram. There are also genetic defects on the diagram, both physical and psychological.

The core mechanic is two six-sided dice against a target number, emphasizing speed over strategic gameplay. There are also a great many instances where players expend their skill and power points, not regaining them until the next adventure.

In particular, the "Investigative" skills and powers do not require a die roll when advancing the mystery is at stake, only expenditure of the points. This is touted as the great innovation of the system, though you still have to have the right skill and declare that you are spending the points.

I would really like to run a game of Mutant City Blues. The Quade Diagram, available for free on their web site, is an absolute gem and weaves a bunch of super powers into a unique experience.

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2009-01-28 12:48:08

PHONE: Had a good meeting with a property manager about renting out my condo.

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2009-01-27 10:44:06

My car had a flat tire this morning. Took 16 minutes to change, then I drove 25 miles on the temporary so that I could drop it off near where I used to live, then walk to work. There's a new sandwich shop on the way; I think I'll try it out.

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2009-01-26 10:32:28

Went to see Underworld 3 this weekend. Worst film this year. It doesn't have a '3' after its title, and it should: it offers zero context by itself and makes no sense if you aren't a fanatic about the first two films, like Minerva is. Every shot is dim and lifeless, all the better to mask the poorly computer-generated werewolves. The violence is absolutely pornographic and dull. You don't care about anyone or anything happening, and you can't understand half of it.

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2009-01-26 09:37:02

Minerva bought a Nintendo DS game called "Millionheir" on Saturday. Finished it on Sunday after about 15 hours. Loved it. Need to get her Professor Layton and the Curious Village.

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2009-01-22 10:28:10

My constant use of the phone has destroyed its ability to hold a charge. I'll have to order a new battery and cut back on usage. That means I won't be following Facebook and Twitter like I had planned. I can still step up my podcast consumption with my new MP3 player.

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2009-01-22 10:25:49

Valkryia Chronicles is one of the most beautiful, moving games I have seen in years. Not that the story couldn't be better, and not that the artificial intelligence continues to do shockingly stupid things, but I have just seen one of the great dramatic reversals in video games, better than Final Fantasy 10.

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2009-01-21 17:53:17

PHONE: After reading a Story Games thread on Achievements, working on some for my Shadowrun game.

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2009-01-20 11:33:24

PHONE: Watching the inauguration. So proud of my country today.

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2009-01-19 12:49:33

PHONE: It seems that Twitter empowers you to manage your signal/noise ratio, though I imagine that @replies could get out of control.

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2009-01-19 11:29:24

PHONE: Had a great game of the Starcraft boardgame with the Brood War expansion, and I'm not just saying that because I won. The game adds no more players, but a lot more things to do.

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2009-01-16 13:25:42

PHONE: Last RPG night, I mentioned to the group about how I may have made them feel interchangeable during my last campaign. Now I think I have identified the problem: I am both an RPG player and a boardgamer.

When you are planning a boardgame night, and you don't have a regular weekly thing and a vast library like my friends Paul Sauberer or Marvin Knighton, you call the people who are interested in that type of game and/or know how to play it. All you need is enough people with enough interest.

Populating a roleplaying game night is a different thing. You need to start with the group rather than the game. When you're young, you usually have a regular weekly thing and the game is usually the same each week. As we get older with children and wives, we can't play every week but an RPG still needs that group cohesion. A boardgame is finished at the end of the night (usually) whereas an RPG continues the same campaign from session to session. People develop an attachment to the flow of the game and shouldn't be cut off from it as long as they are making an effort to show up.

There is a new kind of RPG called 'Story Games' which seem to lend themselves more to one-shot games; I don't know what their group dynamic is like, but wanted to mention them.

It's a difficult balance, but one worth striking. We have a guy in our RPG who will be out of commission until March for surgery. I have decided to hold off on the game until he is ready to play again. Since I'm sure most of them don't read this journal, I have some text messages to send.

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2009-01-15 12:00:39

PHONE: I have started following Facebook (Grant Davis) and Twitter (grantrdavis). I intend to do most of my original posting here, so that I am hosting and unambiguously owning my own words. If you would like to comment on my posts, please post to Facebook or Twitter and I will probably see it soon.

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2009-01-15 11:56:49

PHONE: So the hardwood floor in my living room was ruined. Fortunately no carpet was damaged and insurance covered the floor damage. So I am rearranging the house and moving valuables up to Minerva's place and selling the condo. If you are in the market, give me a call.

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2009-01-15 11:53:23

PHONE: Now that it's over, a little info on my drama this year. We went to New Orleans the week after Christmas. First time for both of us. On the way there, I get a call from maintenance saying that I have a leak into the carport from my unit. I explain that I can't get back. So it sits for 4 days, and on Friday the plumber finally came and fixed the problem. He did so by knocking through the carport wall, which he would have to do anyway. In my opinion, there was no need to wait. Continued...

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2009-01-14 10:15:46

PHONE: Taking the semester off for now. Can't justify a second Master's degree without a clear plan for what to do with it.

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2009-01-13 10:23:55

PHONE: I disagree with the call to postpone the digital TV transition on February 17. The government has done what it can to inform people about the transition and I do not see how a new administration can do a better job with more time. The channel frequencies have already been auctioned off and the government should uphold its obligations.

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2009-01-12 11:25:23

PHONE: Since I returned from Florida, I use the Comments section of my timesheet to write in a daily status report on what I did for the day. Then at the beginning of the month, I synthesize the daily comments into a monthly list of accomplishments. When evaluation time comes around, I gather the monthly reports into a list of accomplishments for the year. I just noticed how much my daily status looks like some people's Twitter feeds, only work-related. So if my own Twitter feed (and of course this web site) looks sparse, rest assured that the people who pay me are getting the bulk of my attention.

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2009-01-09 09:29:05

PHONE: Thanks to Netflix, we now have a new level of perceived video quality. I'm referring to the overall quality of a movie or TV show, not the technical quality of a video.

First, there was the film in the theatre. It's an investment in tickets (one per person) and popcorn as well as making a trip out of the house. Then came the video store; also a trip, but cheaper.

Then, in 1992, Terminator 2 is released for 20 dollars. We have a step up, where you can choose to own a film rather than rent it. The equilibrium point for most films turned out to be $10-15, but it was done.

Now we have Netflix, where you choose your video on the computer and have it mailed to you for zero marginal cost. This has created a level below rental, where one can try out a bunch of films you never would have spent a buck on. As a result, you find films that turn out to be gems. Small-release films can get attention if they deserve it, and society is enriched as a result.

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2009-01-05 14:26:59

PHONE: Playing my first dedicated MP3 player. The first thing I notice is how I am no longer tethered to the desktop. When I turn my head, I don't have to worry about the earbuds being yanked out. I can even get up and go somewhere.

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2009-01-05 13:08:26

PHONE: I am well and truly hooked on Valkryia Chronicles. Obviously designed by a miniatures player, you move around in third person but with a ruler at the bottom to show you how far.

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2008-12-28 14:52:26

PHONE: Just gave blood for the first time in years. Need to order a lechon.

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2008-12-23 11:59:46

PHONE: at 888 restaurant on El Camino Real. M likes the dishes on the Chinese menu.

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2008-12-18 09:28:36

PHONE: Finally beat Civilization on the Playstation 3 at the highest difficulty, with every ounce of AI the computer would throw at me. I have been trying to beat that AI for years.

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2008-12-18 09:26:49

PHONE: I just wanted to mention the Gallup channel on YouTube (GallupNews). It's a travesty that it only gets a couple hundred viewers. Gallup is a polling service, and the videos are professional and informative.

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2008-12-16 11:31:28

PHONE: Just lost access to the Internet at work, on account of this Microsoft vulnerability.

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2008-12-05 09:21:54

Just finished my final paper for economics class.

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2008-11-26 17:42:52

Made a shopping list for Black Friday.

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2008-11-26 17:41:21

Finished the first draft of my final paper for Economics class. It's an analysis of the Belo Corportation's strategy of spinning off its newspaper division into a separate company.

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2008-11-10 12:04:44

My provider switched language versions today. Have to update code. Testing changes.

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2008-11-07 09:54:05

Thanks to the guys at the Phoenix Command Yahoo group for a link to a Flash representation of the Aliens boardgame.

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2008-11-04 09:47:00

Was up until 2 AM playing Civilization: Revolution. Can't remember the last time I slept so well.

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2008-11-04 09:27:54

Just voted. It took about 15 minutes and there wasn't a hitch. Everybody get out and vote today.

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2008-10-31 23:31:23

Hey there, welcome to everyone I just invited on Facebook. I haven't been posting to my blog much, but you can read the whole thing here.

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2008-10-14 13:03:42

I am declaring video bankruptcy, and that's a good thing.

Last night, I spent the entire night watching NBC - Chuck, Heroes and My Own Worst Enemy - without intending to. I'm about a half-dozen episodes behind on Heroes, and Chuck loses out every Monday to How I Met Your Mother and the Sarah Connor Chronicles. But the baseball playoffs are on Fox this week and Chuck catches a break.

This was quite a feat, considering that I can't get NBC on my television. First off, I don't have cable. Four years ago, I was able to get the digital signal, but not today. I meant to bring the portable TV, but that will stop working in four months. So I Slingboxed the signal from my girlfriend's place.

In general, I don't watch TV on my computer. I don't want to take up bandwidth at work. When I get home from work, I don't want to look at the computer.

So I spent all of last night watching television, something I never do anymore. I'm following a half-dozen heavily plotted shows, not to mention that I just finished season three of Battlestar Galactica. There is literally something good on television nearly all the time, at least for now.

So I am giving up. No longer do I have to hunt around for quality scripted programming. From now on, other things take priority, such as schoolwork. When I want to take a break, the TV will be there, at least until the holidays. Next year, perhaps I'll Netflix the shows where I want to fill in the holes.

I still need to get that VCR hooked up, so that I can somehow record when the need arises.

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2008-10-09 12:30:27

Monday night I watched four episodes of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. The first was live with limited commercial interruptions and some hilarious product placement shots. Then I caught up with the last 3 episodes of Season 1 on Blu-Ray. As I am watching this, I realize that it's an ideal setting for your role-playing game. The characters are going around a familiar city committing acts of terrorism in the interest of saving humanity. Like the TV audience, the players would have unlimited freedom of action along with whatever morality they bring to the table, not enforced from the top. But that's not the point of this post.

Leading Edge games was supposed to put out a Terminator RPG in 1995, but it never materialized. They did, however, put out a miniatures combat game and two other licensed RPGs in 1993, Dracula (based on the 1992 film) and the Lawnmower Man. Checking the minis game, it seems servicable for a Terminator RPG. Though it is 15 years out of date, there is an active Yahoo Group providing support.

Then, being further distracted, I started reading The Lawnmower Man RPG. Besides the fact that they "got it wrong" on Virtual Reality (and really, how could they not?), is the game itself playable as 1993 retro-tech science-fantasy? Two hours later, I concluded that the answer is yes.

Let's get the bad out of the way. The game hews very close to its miniatures gaming roots. While its core 3d6 mechanic is fine and its combat system is dear to my heart, the game is strictly about building people for fighting, not deep characterization. Along that line, it and Dracula introduced a couple of mechanics I haven't seen elsewhere: Reputation and Investigation.

Player characters start out with three Reputation points. This corresponds to three Supporting Characters that follow them around and act as henchmen. If they do something heroic, they can gain a Reputation point and eventually another Supporting Character. For vaguely defined unheroic actions (actually a chance to slip in some role-play), they can lose a Reputation point and thus a servant. While this system made sense in Dracula with its social class divisions, it's completely out of place in Lawnmower Man. Once Supporting Characters know about the Virtual Reality war, they would certainly want to stick around if for no other reason than to affect the fate of the world.

The next system is Investigations. The Game Master breaks the day into 4 hour blocks and the Players make a die roll to uncover clues. The only tactical decision to make here is the Risk Level to take, a number from 1 to 10 that adds a bonus to your roll and represents the possible danger you face. This looks like a long, boring slog and a tremendous absence of fun. To be fair, when you gain some Virtual Reality Gear you can decide whether to Investigate or Train up your skills.

The game seems to lend itself to adverserial play, where each team takes their henchmen and goes off to search by themselves. The game supports this and seems to encourage it. Competition among player groups - with open table talk, by necessity - seems to be the only way to make this interesting.

The Comptuer Intrusion and Virtual Reality Combat systems, which are integrated but subtly different, don't seem broken on the surface. It needs some playtesting to be sure; I chuckled when I noticed the lack of playtester credits in the book. But the VR combat has several tactical options: Attack, Loop Attack, 2 kinds of defense, 2 kinds of Escape, and even a Melee attack where you materialize any weapon in your hand and do damage based on that real-world weapon type. Cheesy? Of course! But that's the point here, and their example actually seemed to work, though I can imagine the legions of players asking for a virtual polearm instead of a virtual axe or knife.

Finally I want to talk about Training. You can use portable, low-powered computers (costing as little as half a million 1993 dollars!) to train Mental skills, slightly more powerful ones to train Physical Skills, and the highest-end mainframes to achieve Physical and Mental bodily enhancements. In order to get the ulitmate Cheese, where Jobe from the film reduces the enemy agents to globules, you have to find the "Angelo Programs". Remember that the Internet didn't and won't be mainstream in this setting, so its plausible that a computer program can pass as an Artifact of Power. Without Dr. Angelo's work, you can "only" train characters to go without sleep, to survive wounds and heal rapidly, and achieve something called Mental Acuity, which allows them to exceed normal human levels of comprehension.

And you can Train up your stats: all your stats, including the stats which affect your rate of Training. The main stats that affect your Training limits are Perception, which keeps you from going mad, and Motivation, which you must roll less than or equal on three dice for every single Training attempt. If you fail a Motivation roll, you can never try to Train that Skill, Stat or superpower. Thus, it behooves you to train your Motivation first until it gets to 18; unlike GURPS, there are no automatic failures in this game. The Angelo programs don't require a Motivation roll, but do require you to have a low Perception and Will, which is how Jobe was able to progress.

Thus the game is really about mankind's imminent progression towards a Singularity, which is consistent with the theme of the film. Normally these would be unbalanced game design decisions, but when everyone is racing towards the singularity, it makes sense. This race can be between the party members or between the group and external enemies, according to your play style.

One more thing about Motivation for player characters. Motivation is a Secondary Characteristic, so you determine MOT by rolling 3 six-sided dice. You get an additional die to split among 3 Secondaries, but trust me, you want all of it on MOT. So you will average a 14. A MOT check is made on 3 dice, so that's a 90% chance of success for an average starting character. A slightly above-average start will make it a near-certainty, while a below-average roll will cripple you on your quest for the Singularity. This is a severe flaw in character creation, and MOT (inherited from their Aliens RPG) should have been promoted to Primary for this game.

In conclusion, the game seems to hold together on paper, against all odds. However, it doesn't offer anything inspiring unless you want to do it as a gag or if you are entranced by the virtual landscapes of the 1993 film. I recommend trying to find the Extended version, which has some good Singularity-related scenes.

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2008-09-22 17:20:56

Traffic was a nightmare this morning. What was usually a 35 minute drive took 80 minutes and all my navigation skills. Meanwhile, the radio traffic report is basically cheery with nary a hint of problems.

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2008-09-19 12:40:21

PHONE: I want to thank all the people out there, from all over the country, working to restore power to the Houston and Galveston areas. When we saw power restored all around us, we figured it would be a long time before anyone could get us up and running. We are very grateful.

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2008-09-19 03:58:05

PHONE: Power came on at 1:15 am. Been cleaning.

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2008-09-18 08:47:52

PHONE: Power is still out at my place in Webster. Work starts Monday. Did manage to get gas. The biggest problem with not having power is how long everything takes. I haven't studied for next week. I feel like I can't make progress on anything.

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2008-09-17 09:30:07

PHONE: On the way back, I saw the same pattern of gas stations with power but no fuel. So the stations are being emptied out one at a time, each with a four-hour wait. Prices seem too low; my mother saya gas is 4.14 a gallon in Little Rock, 3.59 here. Price gouging has become a mantra, while every Houstonian thinks they can go right back to being gas-guzzlers. If letting prices float would get stations replenished, then I say gouge away.

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2008-09-17 09:24:05

PHONE: Yesterday I took a friend to the airport. On the way back, I saw a gas station with prices but no lines. Curious, I stopped at a pump and Inquired within. The harried manager said the fuel truck might come today, might come tomorrow. I bought a paper and waited in the car. It was a nice day and I could wait for fuel without burning fuel. Just as I finished the paper, another man came out and said that there wouldn't be gas until Friday.

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2008-09-17 09:05:49

PHONE: Finally found a reason to exercise. half of our complex has power, including the exercise room. Last night the room was filled with charging laptops and one child playing his Nintendo right there, but only the regulars are here this morning.

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2008-09-16 08:10:48

Got to the Starbucks in my local Kroger around 6:30 this morning. First time to use the real computer since the storm. Lines are still long for gasoline all over town. It doesn't seem like I will be returning to work this week, though only today and tomorrow are confirmed. Stood in line for ice last night at Kroger; turned out that they had enough for everybody. Can't find Lantern Batteries and we're burning through the ones we've got, though they haven't given out yet. Wish I could get together with the guys and do some boardgaming.

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2008-09-15 13:35:54

PHONE: I'm at work; the building has power but not enough water pressure. Grocery stores are open in Clear Lake, but they don't have lights or air conditioning. Plenty of water, but no ice. I did find D cell batteries (the last eight) and some milk at Walgreens on El Camino near Reseda.

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2008-09-14 11:39:14

PHONE: For now, I have moved my personal home page to the root of plumbagolounge.com and grantdavis.net. I have moved the Plumbago Lounge over to the side and updated the 'Secrets and Lies' link. So if you're looking for plumbagolounge.com, click on 'Secrets and Lies'.

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2008-09-14 11:28:31

PHONE: I don't have reliable power (and this phone can't hold a charge, with the miles I put on it), so I can't stay in constant contact. I am staying near Reliant Stadium. Most buildings around us had power restored last night, meaning that we may not have power for some time. I'm posting this from inside a Target, using their power to keep the phone charged. The flood waters haven't receded from the parking lot at my place, though everyone is at least one story up and the water didn't get into homes. Power has been restored at Johnson Space Center, but I work at a building off site and JSC doesn't want to reopen before its supporting partners can. Roads are driveable but not clear and not safe. Target does not have hot food, milk or juice. They have AA and AAA batteries, but not C, D, or lantern. The Kroger here will open in 90 minutes. That's what I know. I'll post as I can.

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2008-09-11 08:57:02

For those who are following Hurricane Ike: I am in the mandatory evacuation area and will be leaving at noon today.

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2008-09-04 18:00:02

Heads up: my school is hosting its first annual game convention. Note that Rice University's OwlCon is one week later.

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2008-09-03 10:28:31

I have the PS3 and the Nintendo Wii set up to browse the Internet, and I want to say that the PS3 is clearly slower. I've never heard of a client slowing down a download - normally, it's the internet connection - but the PS3 has somehow been crippled.

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2008-09-02 09:21:59

Went to Little Rock over Labor Day. Came back on Sunday to beat the storm, after it seemed highly unlikely to hit Houston. Getting over 30 MPG on the highway when I can cruise.

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2008-08-28 17:26:05

So last night I stopped by my local game store, Nan's Games and Comics, to see Secrets and Lies on the store shelf. Flipping through some of the old boxes, I came upon a second edition of Champions. Cost: twelve dollars, just like the day it came out in 1982. Nan's never marks up or down.

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2008-08-25 23:52:48

School started today. I have two courses - one online, one in person - in addition to the day job. Neither course has a required textbook.

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2008-08-19 09:49:43

Some interesting thoughts from the director of the Internet Storm Center regarding Cyber War, particularly Russia and Georgia.

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2008-08-14 19:41:02

So here it is, launch day. The PDF seems to be up on e23 without a hitch. No word from GenCon yet. If you came here because you heard of the game, please check out the forums and sign up.

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2008-08-12 20:42:47

Bought another copy of the Shadowrun game for Sega Genesis. I was seeing greyscale, half-laced images. I guess I really did wear the cartridge out.

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2008-08-12 20:41:41

Received the ashcan of Misspent Youth in the mail today. Just finished reading it.

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2008-08-12 13:48:31

Pricing has been set for Secrets and Lies. Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price is $19.95, but you can get it at GenCon for $15. If you can't make it to GenCon, a PDF of the game goes on sale on August 14, just two days from today.

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2008-08-07 19:51:13

Hey, welcome to everyone from e23. The full version of Secrets and Lies will be out one week from today, on August 14. On the same day, it will be available at GenCon at the Ashcan Front/PlayCollective booth.

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2008-07-29 10:07:11

PHONE: In Seattle. Played in the snow on Mount Ranier yesterday. Had dinner late at a place called 13 Coins. Food was exquisite, service wasn't.

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2008-07-26 15:48:59

The Canon Puncture podcast is now online. It was a great show; check it out.

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2008-07-18 20:01:52

Welcome to everyone from Steve Jackson Games. The full version of Secrets and Lies will be available at e23 on August 14. Meanwhile, if you have any questions please visit the forums or drop me a line: grant@plumbagolounge.com.

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2008-07-16 00:14:36

Just finished a roundtable for the Canon Puncture podcast. We talked about our games and the travails of getting ready for GenCon.

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2008-07-15 15:21:11

Got a reference from a techno-thriller magazine about my description of techno-thrillers.

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2008-07-10 21:02:32

Cold-called into a town hall teleconference with my Congressman, Nick Lampson.

Question from Matthew: What about the jobs gap [between discontinuing Shuttle and beginning the new Constellation]?

Congressman Lampson: China is well on their way and their goal is to beat us to the moon. Need to emphasize Math and Science in schools. Thanks to Citizens for Space Exploration for their efforts. Lampson seems to be in line for chair of Space & Aeronautics subcommittee.

On July 18 at 11:30, meeting with the Space Advocacy Task Force at Franca's on NASA Parkway. Check it out at lampson.house.gov

Allison: At JSC, remembers when X-38 project was shut down. What do we do as shuttle winds down?

Lampson: JSC plays to our need to stay strong in space and Science. NASA Administrator Griffin says that no job losses are expected at JSC, only realignment. SATOP has also won a million dollars of continued authorization from Congress.

Chundra: As gas prices increase, Houston is one of the worst places for mass transit. What is being done about the commute to Galveston?

Lampson: I am on the Rail Subcommittee and we have a great deal of work to do in the US. 5 years ago, won a project to demonstrate train service from Clear Lake to Galveston. Demonstrated overwhelming support and showed that it would be a success. Continuing to work on commuter rail, ride sharing and other means of commuting. Work will soon start on rail line to Fort Bend County. Park & Ride from Pearland to Medical Center. Big proponent of rail.

Town Hall coming up on July 21. Panel discussion on past 50 years of NASA at UH-Clear Lake.

Priscilla: My husband was a contractor at JSC for 30 years, laid off last year. Perhaps 10% of employees left at LM. What are contractors supposed to do?

Lampson: We are not hearing about that number of layoffs. I don't think it's going to be significant. There will be skill changes from one kind of job to another. I would have to investigate by contacting the contractor. I was told by the NASA Adminstrator that he is not expecting that level of job loss.

Margaret: I work at JSC for 23 years. Secretary to Project Manager. On the View, Whoopi asked what people are doing down here. People need a better idea of what we do here. Need a better appreciation and explanation of why things cost so much.

Lampson: We have not done a good enough job of selling the spinoffs of NASA. Better quality of life in anything we can imagine. I had bypass surgery last year and the improvements from 25 years ago have been amazing. What we are learning is giving us better ways to do things on Earth, saving money and creating jobs. Those are opportunities that we can have again. We have done a poor job of exciting the public. I hope people will continue to talk about it. A program called Earth Camp was going to be done away with. I was able to get its funding saved. Children will be able to remotely operate a camera on the Space Station.

Dan: As far as funding for different programs, what are the plans for NASA and how will that affect funding?

Lampson: Our goal is to bring NASA's budget up to one percent of the nation's budget. It is currently at six tenths of one percent. This will let us take on the tasks that will bring great returns.

Jason: There's a lot of international competition with NASA. What do you think the fallout will be?

Lampson: I hope we will find ways to engage other countries in space. We were able to engage with sixteen countries on the Space Station. We can't be angry with friends. Mike Coats of JSC said that 70 people graduated from A&M last year, 65 from other countries. We need to inspire Americans to this field and grow our interests to compete with other nations.

Liesha: I am working with public access channel 16 at Nassau Bay. NASA's achievements need to be communicated to the public. I also would like to know how to get my calls answered by JSC for interviews.

Lampson: Let's see if we can't get you connected to the PR officers there, if you would call my office at 281-461-6300 and we can set you up with someone who can change that. NASA owns hundreds of inventions and patents that have changed people's lives.

Tim: I'm sure you appreciate the benefits of the oil & gas industry. Interested in your position on offshore drilling.

Lampson: Worked to promote all those exploration efforts. Made some difficult votes along the way to show our attempt to be balanced in this matter. Worked on RIPSEA for underwater recovery of natural gas. Hope that we don't get caught up in the rhetoric coming out of Washington that the only solution to our energy problem is to drill for oil. Need a balanced solution to our energy needs. We are using more energy than we can get of the ground. Must grow our sources. That means research. Hope that we will take steps now to lessen our dependence on oil.

Jan: If there is a Democratic President in 2009, do you see any major changes in NASA leadership or mission?

Lampson: NASA's current mission is clearly laid out. I don't think there is going to be a dramatic shift in overall mission. I want to make sure that we get back to the moon before any other nation. Need to continue to show our leadership in technological development. Going to make sure that the public knows the benefits. Not long before we have a base on the moon that can generate electricity for Earth. Hope to see a manned Mars mission in my lifetime. Don't see a dramatic change from this year's authorization. Hope to see an increase in support. Working to be chair of Space Subcommittee.

Tony says we're just about out of time.

Lampson thanks everyone for joining us. Working together, we hope to support NASA and all the activities of the 22nd Congressional District. Stop by my offices at 10701 Bay Area Boulevard. Let's keep fighting for NASA. Makes a greater quality of life for all of us.

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2008-07-03 11:14:17

Some work-related video showing how we are working to return to the moon. This is real. We are working on this today.

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2008-07-02 08:28:46

National Security Decision Making was excellent as always, though they steadfastly deny being a LARP.

I want to thank Evan Tormer for some great games of Mortal Coil and Steal Away Jordan.

Bought Grey Ranks and Dogs in the Vineyard. Finished Dogs by the time the plane touched down on Sunday.

I found a great little Rio Grande game called "Stone Age". I think the S.O. will go for it. Also liked "Gangsters" and "Lascaux".

Finally scored a copy of Advanced Civilization.

Dread was a blast. Need to get a Jenga tower.

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2008-06-27 09:24:36

PHONE: Having a good time. Picked up some new games and am in the process of reading them.

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2008-06-25 07:18:16

Had this horrible feeling this morning, that I was about to leave for Origins without my badge. Like showing up naked for work. Fortunately, the Internets say that Origins doesn't mail out badges. You pick them up at pre-registration. Sounds like a nice long line to me.

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2008-06-24 19:55:53

PHONE: School is going well. Online course. Tests are multiple choice and, of course, open book. I am graded on the best ten tests out of 13 and I get two tries on each. Halfway there. But I don't think it will work for 'Human Behavior in Organizations'.

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2008-06-24 19:48:26

PHONE: At the hospital. A friend had a seizure for the first time. The room was getting crowded.

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2008-06-23 09:20:35

On my way to Origins this week in Columbus, OH.

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2008-06-17 18:11:36

Finally added tags to my weblog. It only tags the topic name, but its a start.

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2008-06-17 11:43:10

Picked up the new Player's guide for Dungeons and Dragons yesterday. I didn't have a lot of exposure to the previous edition, and I haven't gotten very far into the new book, but I don't see a great departure from D&D's design goals and techniques. They are clearly and explicitly spelled out at the beginning of the book. The game focuses on combat and on detailed mapping of the fantasy environment.

I admire it as a design aesthetic. It made me realize that my own game design is more of a "sandbox" game. The players have freedom to explore the whole world, which in the case of Secrets and Lies is the modern world. This is easier than dungeon design, but less disciplined. A dungeon is a finely crafted mechanism, each room's challenges depending upon the ones that came before. To sit down and design a dungeon requires patience and thoroughness. It is is to be admired. In the age of multimillion-dollar video games, it is also quite the marketable skill.

But it can lead to disappointment for the designer. Even in a best case, most of a dungeon probably goes unexplored, its best traps untriggered. In the worst case, the players want to skip it entirely; sometimes innocently, sometimes to tweak their friend who worked so hard. It's reasonable to want to cushion yourself from that kind of disappointment.

Enter the sandbox. The Planner describes the setting in general terms and lets the players make the next move. In the case of Secrets and Lies, the next scene can be pulled from a Florida guidebook or the day's newspaper. The Planner improvises and play moves on.

But it's important to own up to the fact that this sandbox play relies on improvisation over preparation, and to appreciate the intricacy of a well-stocked dungeon.

Personally, I try to have it both ways by cultivating a library of maps, settings and adventures that can be easily translated from one game system to another. Modern settings are more difficult to find than fantasy settings, but there are a few. I want to recommend the GM's Companion for Millenium's End (long out of print), a d20 product called the New Glory Naval Base, and the Floor Plan series from Steve Jackson Games.

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2008-06-16 13:12:54

Good news and bad news about Netflix. The good news is that it has won over the girlfriend. The bad news is that the cable companies are experimenting (thanks to I Want Media for the link) with caps on bandwidth, and Roku uses lots of it.

For now, cable companies are trying to fight illegal video file sharing. But Netflix has the potential to transform this into a problem with legal file downloads. The cable companies would lose their moral high ground and have to face up to the real issue: that this video sharing is a threat to their core business. For now, Netflix has replaced cable for me, though that's because the TV season is over and I have a lot of other things on my plate.

The service providers (cable and DSL) have a legitimate concern here, and a bandwidth cap is a major threat to the disruptive technology of the Roku. We'll see how it plays out.

UPDATE: I meant to mention another potential use for the Roku, for parenting. The Roku interface should be simple enough for a small child (not that I have one to test it on) and the worst they can do is remove videos from the Roku. You need a computer to add videos to the device. So a parent can regulate exactly what a child can watch, but the child might be able to navigate through hours of video on their own.

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2008-06-11 18:40:29

Just got the prototype of Secrets and Lies from Lulu.com. A printer friend of mine thinks that book-binding such a small page count (currently 85) will cause the pages to fall out quickly, so the jury is still out on an actual print run. But I will print them for distributor review and for conventions.

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2008-06-11 09:48:09

The Roku box came in. But with class starting, I don't have time to play with it.

UPDATE: Yes, I connected it. Component didn't work, had to use Composite. It has wi-fi; used virtual keyboard to enter security code. Video quality is nice; will want to get Component working.

ANOTHER UPDATE: There are 4 'levels' of video quality, depending on your network connection. Only level 1 looked pixelated.

It's a bit inconvenient to have to queue movies up on your computer, then watch them on the box. It seems like at least a top 10 list would be a simple software update. The virtual keyboard is already there as well.

So the delivery works fine; Netflix just needs to improve the content offering. I'm still interested in the really obscure titles. In 2008, it's probably easier to mail them out than to have them queued up on a server for a handful of people to download. But that will change, and this Roku box is the right way to get it done. Now that I've gotten rid of cable, it's a keeper.

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2008-06-09 14:32:50

Got my girlfriend connected to Comcast high-speed Internet this weekend. I want to say that Verizon DSL actively helps to get your wi-fi router connected while Comcast actively hinders it. Comcast wants to charge a $150 service call and a $15/month rental for wi-fi. With Verizon, the support person was able to control the desktop remotely and configure the router for networking. Now that's customer service.

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2008-06-04 16:24:36

Spent some more time with Grand Theft Auto 4 last night. Finally met the feds.

My last save file is two weeks old. I'm really not being pulled into this one.

Just read that the Civilization demo for consoles will be available on Thursday. Finally a little strategy gaming for the next-generation consoles.

So far I have Star Trek: Conquest and Battalion Wars 2 for the Wii, if you can call the Wii next-gen. Star Trek is very shallow. BW2 turned out to be a third-person shooter and the online multiplayer got old fast.

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2008-06-04 10:20:50

Just filed a complaint with the Do Not Call registry. It was remarkably easy.

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2008-06-03 10:55:20

Just registered for my first class towards a Masters in Finance. Wish it weren't Internet-only; they don't deliver as much as face-to-face. Will see how it goes.

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2008-06-02 08:48:15

The playtest went well. We recorded it, but there was a lot of sharp, painful noise created by the forks on plates at the beginning. Also, a transient was created whenever someone put something on the table.

The game itself went very well. This was the first version that didn't need major changes afterwards. While I have made a few changes, we will be using the same hardcopies for the next game.

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2008-05-30 09:09:16

Separated my personal web site from the main page. Now the main page is sparsely populated, but it's all about the game. Next playtest is tonight.

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2008-05-28 14:45:06

PHONE: Bought stock in Netflix today. Will let you know what I think of the new media player.

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2008-05-27 23:52:41

Updated the demo for Secrets and Lies to match the current changes to the rules.

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2008-05-27 13:05:14

WII: Just ordered the Roku box from netflix. Great deal on cables to go with it. Will see how it goes.

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2008-05-26 23:31:50

Finally finished Moby Dick on audio. Any particular passage is brilliant, but precious few of them move the plot forward. If only Melville had been appreciated in his own lifetime, perhaps he would have attracted a better editor. My mother says that Tale of Two Cities is plotted much more tightly.

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2008-05-22 10:07:54

It hasn't been updated, but I have restored the Demo at a player's request.

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2008-05-20 11:15:28

Something interesting happened on Sunday. It was easier to use the Wii to check something online than it was to use the PC. I didn't have the wi-fi card plugged into the PC. A transitory event, but significant for the future.

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2008-05-19 02:50:07

PHONE: Bought and connected an antenna today. ABC looks good. My emancipation from cable is nearly complete.

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2008-05-17 18:15:58

PHONE: My game demo will be down until May 30 so I can do some revisions.

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2008-05-17 13:51:18

Playtesting went well last night. The Draft sheet needs bigger cells, but generally went over well. We had another short combat and will be taking some things out.

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2008-05-16 10:07:47

PHONE: Playtest tonight. Will experiment with video and audio recording.

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2008-05-15 08:31:01

PS3 : Finally got DSL. Plan to cancel cable and get HDTV over the air.

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2008-05-09 19:50:20

Welcome to everyone from Story Games. I don't know if you'll find my game to have a strong emphasis on story. There are so many talented players out there that I can concentrate on the game-related aspects and let Game Masters do what they want with that.

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2008-05-07 14:12:22

I'm finally ready to announce my new role-playing game, Secrets and Lies. I've had playtesting and now have a sample ready for release.

I downloaded some forum software called Vanilla and have set up plumbagolounge.com to overlay my web site. I'll continue to use the main page for blogging.

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2008-05-02 09:24:19

Played Grand Theft Auto IV again last night, past 12:30 this time (though I was writing for most of the evening). My character got drunk and while I had him take a cab home, I now understand what this article is about.

In my opinion, MADD couldn't be more misguided on this one. Drunk driving in GTA seems like a strong incentive *not* to try drinking and driving in real life. Once again, the grown-ups show how out of touch they are.

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2008-04-30 12:26:41

PHONE: Bought GTA4 yesterday. Played until 10:30 last night. If it was awesome, would have played until 2. Pretty, though.

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2008-04-29 16:28:23

PHONE: My girlfriend is asking me about our slingbox because she heard Kelly Ripa talking about it. Could be a real boost for them.

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2008-04-28 13:49:16

Now that this document is fairly stable, Here are my character creation notes for GURPS Transhuman Space. The campaign has been dead for six months, though I will talk to Michael and Ben on Friday.

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2008-04-07 13:45:42

PHONE: Griefed on Advance Wars. Exploit allows you to move the same unit over and over. Very disappointing.

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2008-04-03 09:37:01

As I may have mentioned, I download my checking transactions into Quicken, match a receipt to each one (except online ones), assign each to a category, then shred the receipts.

This became very tedious for dining out, which I do at lunch every day. Sure, I could save money, but the point is to rent some table space away from the office each day. The point is that this generated a lot of receipts, and sometimes I would let them pile up.

A few weeks ago I went to paying cash only for dining out. A few years ago I was playing with Pocket Quicken for a Palm Pilot, and I found that 70% of all cash transactions were for eating out. Now it's probably closer to 90%; I'll even use the debit card for a small non-dining payment, so as not to pollute the category.

Quicken insists on classifying AMT withdrawals as Cash, and I got tired of fighting it, so I have to remember that Dining really equals Dining plus Cash. Someday I can do a mass reclassification of all those Cash transactions to Dining.

So now the number of receipts is way down, less than a half-dozen last week. Since the pile is smaller, I don't put them off as much, creating a virtuous cycle of a tidy receipt spike.

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2008-03-27 00:04:42

Just saw an episode of CSI: New York about Second Life. Insultingly bad. Sets virtual worlds back a decade. I might as well be watching the Lawnmower Man.

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2008-03-21 09:09:50

Got my tax refund today. I want to thank the government for their rapid turnaround.

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2008-03-17 08:16:37

Went to see "The Bank Job" last night. Really enjoyed it. Statham was great as usual, the bank heist was a simple caper story, and the politics were remarkable in the way that British media could just be shut down in the days before Drudge. Saffron Burrows does a much better job here than in "Timecode".

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2008-03-14 20:18:38

PHONE: I agree with what the President said about the mortgage crisis today. As someone who didn't buy into the obvious housing bubble, I don't think that those who did should be rewarded.

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2008-03-07 17:01:39

After two and a half years, finally fixed a bug in the RSS reader. If there was more than one valid link found, it would concatenate the two. So I had to decide; do I want the first valid link or the last one? I chose the first one and am checking out all the feeds.

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2008-02-27 20:44:12

PHONE: There has been speculation on the fate of the moon program under a democratic president. If we found a signal from space that was clearly from intelligent life, no one would question what we do. They would question why we weren't doing it faster.

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2008-01-02 10:04:39

PHONE: dreaming so intensely last night that I remember trying cryptography in my head.

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2007-12-21 16:58:17

Broke my first baseball bat this week.

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2007-12-21 16:57:52

Updated my boardgame and RPG collections. Took the editorial comments out of the RPG section, but kept a copy. Decided not to include games which exist only as PDFs.

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2007-12-07 09:15:26

PHONE: Finished my last DVD last night. No more until xmas.

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2007-11-23 07:42:25

PHONE: Mission accomplished. got tvs for my mother and sister. madness.

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2007-11-23 05:50:44

PHONE: In line at Circuit city. If we had come at midnight we might have a chance at the cheap tv. Cold.

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2007-11-15 01:05:05

PHONE: structure, subjectivity, collaboration.

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2007-11-08 23:46:28

WII: If I can keep this up, there may be some more and longer posts here. I look at Microsoft Windows all day at work, and when I get home I want an Internet experience that looks completely different. I definitely need to get my mother a bigger-screen TV for her Mac mini.

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2007-11-08 23:42:44

WII: I have been listening to role-playing game podcasts ever since GenCon. By far, the best one I have found is Sons of Kryos. I've also been listening to Fear the Boot because they're from St. Louis. If anyone out there knows how to reach Jamie Schneider, tell him to drop me a line.

Listening to the podcasts, in turn, has led me to some interesting independently-published RPGs. I would really like to run Panty Explosion as a one-timer, but the name always turns people off. Fred Hicks has some very impressive products with Don't Rest Your Head and Spirit of the Century. I also managed to find a copy of Burning Wheel at my local game store (Nan's in Houston). I see why so many people get excited about it. It was almost enough to get me going on a few campaigns rolling around in my head: Lord of the Rings, Warcraft or Romance of the Three Kingdoms. But the rules would still need some work. In particular, I don't see how players would get enough Persona points to get over certain Advancement humps. Also, there is such a thing as being too averse to wound accumulation. As I read it, each weapon does exactly three discrete levels of damage. To me, that's like saying that you can only be struck in exactly three points, none of which are necessarily fatal.

My purchases have been somewhat limited because I try only to purchase from e23. I trust them and am even willing to pay Texas sales tax to use them. But their selection of independent RPGs seems limited.

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2007-11-08 23:09:05

WII: My first post with a wireless keyboard on the Wii. I got it as a christmas present over five years ago. It's a Gyration keyboard; I see them all the time at work now. It works fine.

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2007-10-21 20:40:46

PHONE: Trying to grill in the dark. Last minute party. Saw Tony at his birthday party yesterday.

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2007-10-15 10:22:20

This weekend I purchased an old-school dungeon-style role-playing game book for a modern setting, 'New Glory Naval Base' by Darkfuries publishing. Lately I've had my eye out for realistic maps of modern settings. I realized that what I was looking for was a dungeon, something completely mapped and thought through. Since, in general, I don't run fantasy RPGs, I didn't make the connection until recently.

Thinking back on it, I can't remember the last time I drew a map. I bought Campaign Cartographer for my Battletech 3000 campaign, but just used Fractal Terrains to draw the planetary features. I might have transferred that over to a GURPS Space planetary record sheet. But the most important map, of cities and their adjacencies, was taken straight from King Arthur Pendragon.

There was a map sketched out on dry-erase paper, somewhere down on this blog topic. Usually I grab a map from some unrelated game; my favorite is the Millenium's End GM's companion. I was sure to pick up all the maps released for Lord of the Rings, though I will need to write a game system from scratch.

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2007-10-08 13:47:13

PHONE: Been listening to RPG podcasts since GenCon. Picked up an RPG called Burning Wheel at Nan's. Very meaty.

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2007-10-05 15:24:55

Got an unconfirmed tip that an Office Depot or OfficeMax is coming in at NASA Parkway and El Camino, where the Kroger used to be.

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2007-10-02 12:01:20

No Heroes, you ask? I received the first four episodes from Netflix. It's good, but again, not good enough. Also on that list: Ergo Proxy, Full Metal Alchemist.

Shows that are good enough, that I need to catch up on: Stand Alone Complex and Battlestar Galactica.

I would purchase Stand Alone Complex, but they want $100 for 11 hours of show. That's slightly more than I pay for The Wire, which I consider to be the peak of quality vs. cost.

On a related note, I'm waiting for the following shows to come out in High Definition: Rome, My Name is Earl, Lost, Ugly Betty, How I Met Your Mother.

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2007-10-02 11:26:22

Good new shows on tv: None are must-see. None (not even Moonlight) are so bad you want your hour of life back, but my video consumption is too high and something has to go.

The SO likes Chuck. I like Journeyman. We like Bionic Woman. Big Bang, Cane and Life are good but not good enough. Big Shots seems so derivative.

I started Dirty Sexy Money, but I liked the first scene so much that I stopped until the SO gets a chance to see it. Still haven't seen Private Practice, but will probably make the cut.

Haven't seen Desperate Housewives from 9 days ago; may be the first casualty. Shark may be the second, but it's in the queue. Returning favorites are My Name is Earl, CSI, How I Met Your Mother, Ugly Betty and Gray's Anatomy.

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2007-09-24 09:23:47

Getting back into the stock market today. I finally have some money to put away and my horizon is less than six months. I can afford to take a little risk now.

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2007-09-24 09:22:04

I'll be checking out zaon.com today. As I mentioned after GenCon, they sell detailed maps of starships for your role-playing game, and their online store is supposed to open today. I noticed a plethora of map-selling booths for fantasy games, but hardly anything else. So I'm looking forward to buying a couple of maps today.

Alas, I won't be buying Halo 3 tomorrow. If I was going to get an Xbox 360, it wouldn't be for Halo. This weekend I finally got around to purchsing 'God of War' for the PS2 and it was as good as people said. Looking forward to Batallion Wars 2 for the Wii next month and I hope to share it with friends.

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2007-09-17 16:37:20

PHONE: Star Wars d6, DC Heroes, Marvel RPG, Aliens. These are the role-playing games I would introduce a new player to.

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2007-09-14 00:10:07

WII: Realized from hurricane Humberto that I was prepared to shelter in place, but not prepared to evacuate. So I have packed two t-shirts, swim trunks and flip-flops in a duffel I don't like. I don't have shirts, and especially pants, to take out of rotation. I already carry a toothbrush and phone charger around all day between desks.

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2007-09-12 11:28:33

Bought an HD-DVD player last night; watched three hours of 'The Matrix' extras in Standard Definition.

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2007-09-12 11:27:20

Something to keep in mind about the supposed decline in housing prices: most of that decline will be in California, Florida and New England, where prices had skyrocketed. Places around here will probably see flat prices for 5-10 years, though there will be a bump up if the Fed cuts interest rates by a percent over the next year.

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2007-09-10 12:07:22

PHONE: Forced to watch the new Halloween. Exactly as bad as I thought it would be. No plot twists. No characters to empathize with. Violence to put A Clockwork Orange to shame. Leave Rob Zombie to his dark places.

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2007-09-07 14:53:23

PHONE: Rented Tiger Woods 2007 for the Wii. Controls are bad.

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2007-09-07 14:49:33

PHONE:Lost my travel toothbrush and paste. Need to replace.

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2007-08-31 12:30:21

PHONE: A friend recommended anime called Stand Alone Complex. Like it.

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2007-08-29 18:43:38

PHONE: Managed to get hooked on Gain Ground for the Wii virtual console. Continues seem to be disabled at Stage five.

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2007-08-21 21:16:20

I went to Gen Con in Indianapolis last week. Computer gaming has vastly increased this year, possibly in the wake of E3's cancellation. Apparently the biggest news coming out of the convention was a 4th edition of Dungeons & Dragons, which I will let others comment on.

I want to start off by telling you about a neat little service I found in the Art show. Zaon produces high-quality deck plans for science-fiction starships. Apparently their online store isn't ready yet, but they had one drawing for sale and I immediately picked it up for my game on Friday. I like it so much that I'm going to find a way to work it in, even though it's far too large for a typical Transhuman Space vessel.

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2007-08-13 23:26:52

I have purchased a new webcam to include a friend in my game night. We'll see how it goes.

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2007-08-10 16:28:02

The class I was to teach at UHCL has been cancelled; only one person signed up. Maybe in the spring.

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2007-08-06 23:54:55

WII: Will try to post more often. I read that people can only have a meaningful social relationship with 150 people. I feel so far behind.

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2007-07-27 10:18:44

PHONE: Motorola just updated the software for my razr. Now the volume of the media player really is quiet at the lowest levels.

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2007-07-21 15:57:51

For any of Minerva's friends who were interested in what we were playing last night, here is a link to the game. Just "check out": you don't have to register to download free PDFs.

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2007-07-20 20:08:17

PHONE: Happy, Michael?

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2007-06-08 10:28:28

PHONE: Beat Advance wars for the DS last night. need to give the handheld a rest. got the web browser for it as a birthday present but cannot bring up my personal site.

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2007-05-30 09:25:22

PHONE: regular expressions continue to plague me. I have to learn a new logic language today.

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2007-05-29 22:14:07

WII: Got my mother and sister set up on the Internet this weekend. My mother is using a Mac mini; I like the media player.

So I see that my last post was also on the wii. Right now it's just gadget-mongering; I'll need a few weeks to decide if it's really the paradigm-shifter I've been waiting for.

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2007-05-24 00:27:41

WII: Wanted to recommend Thaddeus Greibel's paper in the Dec. 2006 edition of gamestudies.org.

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2007-05-21 09:33:24

PHONE: They finally dropped the price on Star Trek. watched two discs of deep space nine this weekend. forgot how good it was.

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2007-05-08 09:43:40

Update on the Wii; I'm returning the cable modem today. Too many headaches and too many problems with customer service.

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2007-05-06 13:16:34

WII: My first post from my Nintendo Wii. GrantDavis.net looks great, YouTube works, I like it. Need to try my keyboard.

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2007-04-24 16:12:17

PHONE: something just occurred to me that most people may not know. when we switch to high definition television in 2009, you will not need a new antenna. even rabbit ears might pick up the signals when tv stations turn them to maximum power. the trick is having a television that can interpret the signal properly.

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2007-04-24 15:03:58

I'm updating RSS feeds on the site today. I see that several sites in my database now have feeds. I have also decided to trim out feeds that are not useful to me with my mobile phone.

To be a useful RSS feed, either:

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2007-04-22 18:44:14

Got to Best Buy first thing this morning and purchased a Nintendo Wii. I like the Sports games it comes with as a novelty, but I'm really looking for some kind of strategy game I can play with my friends. I'm also interested in the Virtual Console; we're getting cable modem set up as soon as possible.

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2007-04-19 09:38:02

PHONE: This morning i woke up early and couldn't go back to sleep. but i did not want to go to work early. so i started up my fifteen year old genesis and played desert strike, back when it was honorable to attack iraq. Meanwhile, my xbox is up for auction on ebay.

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2007-03-30 10:06:41

Last night I unpacked the stereo. I decided not to use the surround speakers; too many wires around the house.

I also unpacked the Sega Genesis in the bedroom. I decided that the Sega CD and 32X would be too much clutter. Besides, my favorite games are on the core system, though I would like to fire up "Sewer Shark" and "Double Switch" again.

My four favorite games on the core Genesis are Shadowrun, Midway Arcade Classics (none of the later ports do it justice), X-Men, and Desert Strike. "Joust" remains one of the best two-player games in existence, along with "Combat".

I can't believe the Genesis is over 15 years old and I still keep it around. The Xbox is in my trunk, waiting to be dropped off at the Ebay store. It's about the quality of the games and the willingness for the manufacturer to keep them playable on some platform; next-gen, mobile, whatever, as long as the controls are faithful. If the Nintendo Wii would carry these games, I could finally retire the Genesis.

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2007-03-27 09:23:03

So I hear that Starbucks is trying to market itself as a Third Place where people can feel comfortable just hanging out. I don't understand the business model here; people just hanging out should be taking up far more real estate than they're paying out in product.

I wonder why this plan didn't work for comics & roleplaying game stores. Here in Clear Lake, Horizon Games closed down over the year that I was gone and another comics/games store at El Dorado and I-45 seems to have shuttered before I could even check it out. In Boca Raton, Lost Realms moved from one depressed shopping center to an even more remote location.

But even when selling coffee to gamers, I've seen this business model fail. There was a place called "Haven Coffee" in St. Louis in 1995. They catered to gamers, allowed trading-card games without restriction, even allowed live-action role-playing. They went out with a whimper.

Part of it is the fact that most gamers, spending so much time on games, don't make enough money to flow it back to the stores. Also, the enormous markup on upscale coffee probably has something to do with it. Nevertheless, I'm surprised that a tipping point exists where a for-profit business, not selling alcohol, can afford for people to just sit around. I guess that's why the Starbucks guys are rich; they saw the opportunity.

Comments (0) | Persistent Link | More on money

2007-03-23 08:39:12

For those of you I told, my mother is doing fine. Thank you for all your encouragement this week.

Comments (0) | Persistent Link | More on personal

2007-03-21 08:01:58

It looks like my plans for "How to Host a Murder" are going to fall through. The game requires exactly eight people - four men, four women - to play. I just don't know enough women who would be into it.

My GenCon Event is ready to go, but I've asked a friend to look at it and see if it needs more work.

That leaves GURPS. I plan to design the rest of the Transhuman Space campaign with an ending in 6-12 months while working on my next project. The core combat rules will be Phoenix Command, which has some GURPS-like elements (e.g. 3 dice) in its free-form task resolution system.

Brent is starting a couples night of gaming at his place; I hope he keeps it up.

Comments (0) | Persistent Link | More on games

2007-03-21 07:48:54

Last might I dreamt that John Kerry moved in next door. I wasn't living in the condo; it was some kind of compound-like place with low ceilings. Most of this I can blame on an HGTV show we were watching last night, though I have no idea where Kerry came from.

Comments (0) | Persistent Link | More on dream

2007-03-15 10:07:09

[Moved from Language page] Try to listen to Japanese every day, even if you don't understand (especially if you don't understand). In Tokyo, I learned that culture shock is a physical condition, not a clash of values. Being surrounded by all this stimulus and not being able to understand will drive you crazy.

Comments (0) | Persistent Link | More on lang

2007-03-12 09:45:08

PHONE: so it was six last night and i was on a plane back to houston. it was remarkable how empty the plane was. i would think that sunday night would be busy.

Comments (0) | Persistent Link | More on trans

2007-03-11 05:09:44

PHONE: checking daylight savings time.

Comments (0) | Persistent Link | More on code

2007-03-08 08:59:49

Exported video from Quicktime Pro to 3GPP format, downloaded it to my Micro SD card, got it to play on the phone. Now working on a ripped DVD.

UPDATE: I just watched the opening credits of "Spiderman 1" on my phone. The complete movie is 67 MB, just a little too large for the micro SD card that came with the phone. If I buy a 1 GB, I can fit a dozen feature-length films on a card the size of my smallest fingernail.

Comments (0) | Persistent Link | More on media

2007-03-07 16:24:10

PHONE: last night i got 'lunar lander ' for the game boy. quickly becoming addicted to it. seems even better than i remember in the arcade.

Comments (0) | Persistent Link | More on games

2007-03-07 10:26:12

PHONE: Two hawks perch on a lamppost outside my office window. their white chest plumage is majestic in the morning sun.

Comments (0) | Persistent Link | More on local

2007-03-06 12:47:56

PHONE: it seems impossible to play mp3s on my phone without buying them through power vision. It may actually be easier to play video. Must investigate.

Comments (0) | Persistent Link | More on media

2007-03-03 17:22:15

PHONE: we're having our first barbeque of the year. Beautiful.

Comments (0) | Persistent Link | More on local

2007-02-28 11:00:22

Changed my front page to show all blog posts for the week, rather than just the last 25 hours. Similarly updated the RSS feed.

Comments (0) | Persistent Link | More on code

2007-02-28 10:12:50

Someone is building condominiums next to mine "starting in the 190s". That usually means $190,000 for a one-bedroom that isn't right next to the water. In our case, "the water" is simply a canal that is part of Clear Lake, not a beach or anything. That is about three times the offer made on my 2-bedroom unit last year.

Now, I like the things that are happening in my area. Baybrook Mall is becoming more upscale, the new bypass brings I-45 almost to my door (though not too close), and things are starting to ramp up at NASA with the new Moonshot. But $190,000 is close to the numbers I was hearing in South Florida.

While it is certainly in my interest to hype these properties right along with the builder, I have to wonder what could possibly be so good about these new condominiums. People usually think of real estate as an investment, something that will go up. But then you have to ask why the price of my 25-year-old unit would not pop right up with them, something I am skeptical of.

Doubtless someone would say that a new unit is less run-down, that it hasn't decayed. This leads me to question the underlying assumption that real estate is always an appreciating investment. By this logic, it should be treated as a depreciating capital investment or even expensed as a consumed item.

$190,000? I would like someone to show me the reasoning. Better yet, show me the money.

Comments (0) | Persistent Link | More on property

2007-02-23 08:57:20

PHONE: I was up early again this morning, looking for a place to work on the computer. With my new consulting arrangement, I'm trying to stay away from work until more people arrive. Starbucks is too crowded and noisy, so I'm enjoying some caffeine at the L & L Deli on Upper Bay Road. Looks like I missed Open Mike Jazz night at the Arts Alliance center up the road.

Comments (0) | Persistent Link | More on local

2007-02-22 21:45:04

Years ago, I bought faux-wooden drawer-type storage cases for my VHS tapes. Since then, they have languished in obscurity, neglected not because the VHS is slightly harder to load or because they lack cache, but because they were hidden away in these drawers.

With all my available media - books, CDs, DVDs, VHS, video games, collectible card games, boardgames, and wargames - I need a way to advertise them to myself more regularly. I don't generally keep these things just for the sake of having them - though I almost bought 1835 last night for exactly that reason.

The boardgames have the best advertising, being the largest, yet they are the most difficult to use, needing a group of interested players. The DVDs and video games have a decent presence on my shelves, but the CDs languish in their small boxes with thin spines, or buried in the iPod. I try to keep the Nintendo DS game boxes visible, even though the actual games are on a tiny chip.

I need some kind of solution that weights each medium's share of my attention according to convenience (audio can be consumed in more situations than video, while boardgames are difficult to play at all), how long since last being sampled, and how much time they would take.

A holographic solution would be ideal, but seems to be out of reach. My web-based inventory is out of date and doesn't give the the attention-space options I want. Perhaps something could be done with augmented reality, maybe aural rather than visual. The 'Hot Links' on the front page of GrantDavis.net have been helpful in organizing my web surfing.

Comments (0) | Persistent Link | More on media

2007-02-21 10:20:42

First day back at my old job went well. Hopefully I will be back on full time by April.

Comments (0) | Persistent Link | More on work

2007-02-20 08:14:56

PHONE: first day back on the job in houston. i'm in at seven am without a door key or an assignment.

Comments (0) | Persistent Link | More on local

2007-02-17 18:47:57

PHONE:At a chinese buffet in birmingham. going back to the freeway.

Comments (0) | Persistent Link | More on local

2007-02-17 12:29:39

PHONE: from ft. Lauderdale to the georgia border in six hours. Weather is beautiful.

Comments (0) | Persistent Link | More on local

2007-02-16 13:50:41

My old employer is bringing me back on short-term as a consultant. It's a new experience, having to send out invoices and file self-employment tax.

Comments (0) | Persistent Link | More on work

2007-02-16 13:46:59

I don't normally use the journal for personal announcements, but there are too many people to inform. My last day in Fort Lauderdale is today and I am driving back to Houston tomorrow. Florida is beautiful but it is crowded, expensive, and too far away from family and friends. I'm not leaving on account of the work; the job has been challenging and intellectually stimulating. But this is my chance to get back to Houston and I'm taking it.

Comments (0) | Persistent Link | More on personal

2007-02-15 08:59:02

Saw HD-DVD at a friend's house. It was the first time to see it 'in the field' rather than at an electronics store. I can see the difference and am definitely going to get HD, though I am still leaning towards the Playstation 3.

More remarkable that the picture was the sound. My friend built his own speakers and his surround sound is amazing. I see that poor-quality speakers are holding back my own home theature in a box - a moving box, unopened.

Comments (0) | Persistent Link | More on hdtv

2007-02-08 17:37:09

If anyone out there is reading this, I'm looking for a flash drive that plays any MP3s it finds, without any special software other than the auto-loading driver.

More generally, I wonder why so many of these wonderful data readers are still tethering themselves to the general-purpose computer. The iPod is dependent upon iTunes; Sony's PDF reader needs to download from a PC. These devices will never supplant the personal computer until they can function without one.

There is no technical reason people couldn't purchase music, video and electronic books from a kiosk.

Comments (0) | Persistent Link | More on net

2007-02-08 08:04:24

PHONE: I'm back up on my phone! The Samsung A920 didn't allow me to log in here. But my sister got me a RAZR for xmas and yesterday I was able to sign up for web access without extending my contract.

Comments (0) | Persistent Link | More on net

2007-02-07 08:45:35

Played Lost Planet yesterday. It was pretty good, better than Perfect Dark Zero.

Comments (0) | Persistent Link | More on games

2007-02-04 10:05:40

This Sprint mobile broadband is choking me. Not only is the service too slow for video and software patches, but this single card is such a tenuous link to the ether. I can't set up a network with Slingbox and my game consoles.

Comments (0) | Persistent Link | More on net

2007-01-28 09:17:27

When talking about cable and satellite subscribership in households, some people remark about the 10-20% of homes without either one as being disposable. Keep in mind that this is your seed corn, the way that people get video when they have no other way. Don't dismiss it.

Comments (0) | Persistent Link | More on media

2007-01-26 19:33:58

Went to the beach today. It was cold and I didn't go swimming, but there were plenty of white clouds drifting across the blue sky, covering and uncovering the half moon.

Comments (0) | Persistent Link | More on local

2007-01-25 08:36:36

We plugged the high-definition DVR into a standard-definition TV. The HD channels are translated properly and the color looks good. I think that the HD producers (at least at ABC) are working harder in general to deliver quality pictures.

Comments (0) | Persistent Link | More on hdtv

2007-01-22 20:14:02

Went to see "The Pursuit of Happyness" this weekend. Very good. Makes you appreciate what you have.

Comments (0) | Persistent Link | More on movies

2007-01-21 09:21:07

For being so pro-business, some Republicans in charge in this country don't seem to have a head for it. They don't seem to understand the principle of sunk cost. Trying to give "meaning" to the death of American troops is poor stewardship of the ones who are still alive.

Also, think about how this 20,000 troops are being brought to Iraq. In addition to sending more units, we will be breaking our promise to 20,000 troops already there, telling them that they will have to stay. Wouldn't it be a stronger show of support to the troops if we kept our promises to them?

Comments (0) | Persistent Link | More on intel

2007-01-18 21:33:37

We all thought that telecommuting would have revolutionized the workplace by now. But we didn't think far enough afield. If a job can be done from the beach, it can be done from another continent. Remember how everyone else learned English as a foreign language? Hoist on our own petard we are.

Comments (0) | Persistent Link | More on work

2007-01-18 00:40:05

In pencil-and-paper role-playing games, there would often be an equipment table. This table is a list of what characters can buy, how much things cost and how much they weigh. An equipment table for a fantasy setting might look like this:

There's no marketing involved, no advertisements that obscure important details (such as weight), no auctions, no used item discounts, no holiday sales. It's a utilitarian delivery of information.

This got me to thinking about data. In 1990, Steve Jackson Games published a book called GURPS Cyberpunk, which is famous for being seized by the U.S. Secret Service for being too realistic. In this book, they speculated about the cost and weight of data storage in the early 21st century. A few months ago, I cracked the book open to see how well they guessed.

So after extensive research (on the website of a popular big-box store), I have come up with a list of modern equipment for carrying and accessing data. Disclaimer: none of this is a solicitation to sell.

Modern Data Transport and Readers

Older Data Transport - for Computers only

Specialized Data Access Devices

Phones

Handheld Computers

Comes with Phone, Audio, Video, Data Transmit, and Emergency Locator. Reads cards. The Global Network is accessible, but difficult to navigate.

Portable Computers

Comes with Audio, Video, and High-Speed Data Transmit. Reads cards, sticks, or discs. Can add any function in these lists.

Typical Media

Comments (0) | Persistent Link | More on tech

2007-01-16 20:52:35

Did some interesting work on the PCI bus today. Need to look at the specifications.

Comments (0) | Persistent Link | More on work

2007-01-16 08:33:47

It occurs to me that in Florida traffic, people will take advantage of you for using your turn signal. I usually use my signal to let other drivers know that I need to get into a lane. In Florida, drivers will actually pull up and cut you off when you broadcast your intention.

Comments (0) | Persistent Link | More on local

2007-01-14 10:07:06

I try not to talk about politics much, but I have something to say about the President's speech last Wednesday. I am more concerned about what the president announced about Iran than about the extra 20,000 troops. A carrier group deployed and interdiction of Iranian operations represents a much greater escalation of the conflict. The extra troops are distracting people from this.

We can be totally opposed to the leadership with Iran, but we have more in common with the Iranians than people think. Most Iranians don't want to live under Islamic law, but Iran is a dangerous place to be a moderate. War with Iran is not inevitable and should not be resigned to.

Comments (0) | Persistent Link | More on intel

2007-01-11 15:19:19

I went way over my minutes during the Christmas break and owe an extra $100. I need to use text messages more and check my usage more often.

Comments (0) | Persistent Link | More on phone

2007-01-10 18:58:02

Updated my resume again today.

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2007-01-10 10:59:10

A TV show like 'The Dead Zone' was first filmed in standard definition and in later seasons was filmed in high definition. So there is a possibility of it being released on high-definition disc. But later seasons of a TV series on DVD never sell as well as the first season, so could that delay a show from ever being released in HD?

A more immediate question is when they will start releasing TV shows in some HD format. So far I am waiting on HD before buying the following shows: That's Life, Lost, How I Met Your Mother, and Desperate Housewives. Even for an old show shot in standard definition, you might fit an entire season of 22-24 episodes on one disc. How about a reasonably-sized box set of an entire series?

Comments (0) | Persistent Link | More on tv

2007-01-09 17:07:57

Minerva and I went to the beach together this morning.

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2007-01-08 08:08:21

PHONE: I got my fiance satellite radio for Christmas and I think it's great. The receiver is not removable and has no recording feature; I'm trying to get something for her, not me. It has 30 presets and I took the last ten. Preset one is the preview channel, to get samples of what is available. Two are music, two are traffic (Houston and Miami) and the rest are news/talk. My favorite so far is BBC World Service.

Comments (0) | Persistent Link | More on media

2007-01-07 10:08:34

Bank of America has made a mistake in setting up security for their online banking today. Computer technicians usually make upgrades like this on a Sunday in order to minimize disruption. But it also means that mistakes aren't caught as quickly.

Security on their site is guaranteed by a chain of security certificates from VeriSign, Inc., for which a company pays north of 800 dollars a year. Their root certificate certifies an intermediate certificate (also from VeriSign), which certifies Bank of America's security.

Bank of America's certificate was certified by the wrong intermediate certificate, which expired in 2004. Expired certificates are like expired milk; they may be safe, but they shouldn't be trusted. I'm going to hold off on banking for now.

UPDATE: Bank of America has already fixed the problem. It may have only been wrong for a few minutes.

Comments (0) | Persistent Link | More on net

2007-01-06 16:56:37

PHONE: It may seem obvious, but the beach is different when it's crowded. Usually I come in the morning, stand at the pavilion for a short time and go on to work. On the weekend afternoon, the crowd makes it different; not necessarily worse, if you are into people-watching. But a crowd is probably better experienced by being in it, on the sand.

Comments (0) | Persistent Link | More on local

2007-01-06 09:10:53

I'm thinking about the next game I want to run. I need something for GenCon and something to run locally once per month, in addition to hosting "How to Host a Murder" each month. Today I considered WWII, but that's just because I bought some GURPS books recently and have been playing a couple of PC games about the war. I still have DarkStryder ready to run off the shelf, but I need to come up with something myself.

I wonder why GenCon is taking so long for event registration and housing signup to get started. I seem to remember signing up around the beginning of the year.

UPDATE: Speak of the devil. GenCon is starting Pre-Registration on Sunday, February 11.

Comments (0) | Persistent Link | More on games

2007-01-04 21:05:19

PHONE: Last night I was watching a Marilyn Monroe movie from 1960 called "Let's Make Love". I'm struck by the depth and sophistication of the dialogue compared to movies today. Perhaps it came from the tendency to take a stage play and just film it, there being very little action except for one stunt ; an actor falls down a flight of stairs and you can see his head and neck landing in a way I think could easily make him a paraplegic, yet he got right up. I'm impressed.

Comments (0) | Persistent Link | More on movies

2007-01-03 21:57:58

I think that the slow speed of Sprint Mobile broadband may be due to the connection strength. In Little Rock, at the top of a hill, I was able to watch YouTube with only a little difficulty. Different people upload videos of different bitrates.

Comments (0) | Persistent Link | More on net

2007-01-03 07:20:40

PHONE: This morning I decided to eat before dressing so that my pants wouldn't get stained. On the way to work, I see this coffee stain from the last time I wore them, which I would have noticed had I put them on first thing.

Comments (0) | Persistent Link | More on personal

2007-01-01 09:20:20

I am making plans to leave South Florida. Thinking back on the decision to move here, I hadn't visited beforehand, neither to interview for the job nor on vacation. The last time I was in Florida was around 1980 when we went to Disney World.

I think that I got more accurate picture of what it would be like from the Internet than I would have from a one-day interview or three-day vacation. A trip would have shown me that South Florida is beautiful, that the weather is usually good and that the beach is spectacular. The Internet told me that the population density was triple that of where I lived before and that even with my raise, my purchasing power would be diminished (though it underestimated by how much).

But neither of them would tell me about transplanted New Yorkers, about rich people and old people going around with a sense of entitlement. On the other hand, the cultural diversity is a pleasant surprise. People just need to learn how to drive and generally how to be civil towards one another now that they're in the US.

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2007-01-01 00:24:16

PHONE: Keeping my New Year's resolution, I am starting up my journal again and intend to update it every day. As far as content today, let me say that the right for you to be wrong outweighs the need for us to be right.

Comments (0) | Persistent Link | More on wisdom

2006-12-30 14:47:24

I'm trying to get my mother set up with a high-definition DVR for her new television and Comcast in Little Rock has none available, with or without DVR. Did Comcast not know that Christmas was coming, that there would be people buying HDTVs and wanting high-definition programming? As the monopolist provider of landline video, I think I have a reasonable expectation that they would have a stockpile ready.

Comments (0) | Persistent Link | More on hdtv

2006-12-29 23:16:20

Went through the links at Terra Nova and picked out a few for games/news. It doesn't get very far afield, of course, but it's a few more perspectives on different aspects of gaming.

Comments (0) | Persistent Link | More on code

2006-12-28 12:52:34

Updated the style sheet today. I know that Monotype Corsiva is a risk; we'll see how long it lasts. Took out the tipjar to reduce clutter in the lower right cell. Took out the XHTML validator because I don't know how often it is wrong.

Comments (0) | Persistent Link | More on code

2006-12-22 08:06:48

Today is my last day of work for the year. I won't know what to do with myself for a week.

Comments (0) | Persistent Link | More on work

2006-12-19 22:08:09

PHONE: This morning, when I got to the train station, both ticket validators were broken. This is the second time this has happened. When it does, I buy a one-way ticket right away. I never want to cry to the conductor how unfair it is that I couldn't validate my 12-pass. But it affects my future choices.

Comments (0) | Persistent Link | More on local

2006-12-11 06:19:44

PHONE: I have lost the ability to beat the computer at Starcraft. Of all the realtime strategy games out there, I think that could be the Chess of our time. Like chess, you have to get very good at it before you even try to compete. Beating the computer only scratches the surface; you need to beat the higher difficulty, then try two computer opponents. A graphical update of the game would probably fail and new rules would just be a hassle, but there are other options: a better computer player or a new single player campaign.

Comments (0) | Persistent Link | More on games

2006-12-04 22:39:04

Updated my resume again. I don't know why I ever try to use Microsoft Publisher. It mangled things so badly I went back to hand-coding the HTML again.

Comments (0) | Persistent Link | More on work

2006-12-03 22:32:30

PHONE: From all I have seen in my career, it's amazing that anything gets done above a tribal level. The whole of civilization is astounding, and I am quite blessed.

Comments (0) | Persistent Link | More on personal

2006-12-02 08:38:33

PHONE: It's not he who dies with the most toys that wins. It's he who can spend a day as he wishes.

Comments (0) | Persistent Link | More on wisdom

2006-11-30 07:59:51

Went to the beach this morning. I slipped into the last free parking space as the light had already started to arrive. Perhaps you might get tired of the beach if you saw it every day for years, but I am far from that point. It makes you feel so small, that your problems are insignificant.

Comments (0) | Persistent Link | More on local

2006-11-29 08:06:50

I finally connected my VCR to the DVR to start recording Season Four of "The Wire". I have all the shows available on Video on Demand, but I have also been recording late-night reruns to capture the episodes. I haven't taped a show in years, but I didn't like waiting 18 months for the third season DVD.

Comments (0) | Persistent Link | More on tv

2006-11-29 07:59:30

PHONE: Still haven't decided on a Playstation 3 or a Wii. The answer is probably neither; I don't have time to play the consoles I have now. The Nintendo DS has been the best for the kind of interstitial gaming I am forced into.

Comments (0) | Persistent Link | More on games

2006-11-28 08:01:17

As I'm packing to move, I am following a "play-or-pack" rule for media consumption. If I'm looking for something to watch or play and my eyes rest upon a video, a game, a book, etc., then I have to use it or pack it. No more time for procrastination.

Packing it doesn't mean I should throw it away. Nostalgia is a tricky thing; it provides value when you least expect it. There is a board game called "Road to the White House" that I would never impose on my friends again, yet I have discarded it before and regretted it. Besides, my last move was only eight months ago; almost everything here has already made the cut.

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2006-08-29 15:20:56

Things seem to be calming down here; Tropical Storm Ernesto has not strengthened as they expected.

Nevertheless, I plan to write more here as Minerva goes on her trip. Right now I need to get some work done from home.

Comments (0) | Persistent Link | More on local

2006-08-29 00:20:09

I need to get to sleep. I came down with a cold this weekend; I feel well enough to work tomorrow, but I need to get some gas first. I also need cash and toilet paper.

Minerva bought a Sprint "wireless broadband" card, which I think I've mentioned here before. It's about as fast as DSL, but works anywhere Sprint has service. So I'll update this site whenever I can.

Comments (0) | Persistent Link | More on local

2006-07-21 19:45:03

HBO is finally releasing Season 3 of The Wire on DVD. This should be advertised on their web site MUCH MORE PROMINENTLY. I may have to re-subscribe to cable next month.

Comments (0) | Persistent Link | More on tv

2006-06-27 22:27:23

At my sister's recommendation, updated the list of my DVD collection. Probably not what she meant, but they are one of my most valuable possessions.

Comments (0) | Persistent Link | More on movies

2006-06-09 07:00:32

Finally stole some time this morning to fix the Houston clock on my site. I've been very busy lately.

Comments (0) | Persistent Link | More on code

2006-06-01 17:05:38

Updated my resume. Work is going fine, this is just my lot for now.

Comments (0) | Persistent Link | More on code

2006-05-19 14:30:46

Finally found some time to trim some links. Left most of them in the database; they just won't show up on the front page.

Need to get back to studying for MCSD.

Comments (0) | Persistent Link | More on code

2006-05-09 23:04:14

I have a retraction to make. I just found out that the modem card had been limited to 112k. It now runs at over 400k, as advertised.

Comments (0) | Persistent Link | More on net

2006-05-07 15:12:46

Yesterday I saw a commercial for "Sprint Mobile Broadband", which Mineva subscribes to. A few days ago I alluded to the slow nature of this service, but this advertisement compels me to state it outright. Sprint is engaging in deceptive advertising. This service is not broadband, nor is it fast enough to qualify as an equivalent. The other day I was able to download a file at about 128k, nowhere near the 400k-700k advertised. It's a few times faster than dial-up, and it is literally a dial-up connection using a cellular modem. Landline modems are limited to 53k because of the electrical limitations of older telephone wires. Sprint is not bound by these limits and thus can run faster, but not nearly fast enough to be worth $60/month, nor to advertise it as broadband.

Comments (0) | Persistent Link | More on net

2006-05-03 06:29:06

Updated the site's style sheet. Used color names for now; will go back and fine-tune later.

Comments (0) | Persistent Link | More on code

2006-04-30 22:25:31

Minerva is wholly responsible for paying for, and setting up, cable and/or satellite. So for now, I've got the HDTV connected to an antenna. We've got NBC, CBS, and Fox, but no ABC or WB. PBS is, as always, at the forefront with several interesting channels through digital multicasting. There is a channel called Create, with a cooking show Minerva liked, a channel which carries the Florida Legistature, and a channel called 'The Tube' which carries music videos. I purchased an amplifying digital antenna for the HDTV and hooked up an analog amplifier to the television upstairs.

Comments (0) | Persistent Link | More on hdtv

2006-04-30 21:00:22

I bought a PCMCIA adapter card for the desktop; I am now accessing through Minerva's Sprint PCS Connection.

There are nine wireless networks within range of this machine, and four of them are unsecured.

The connection speed is pretty slow. Sprint advertises 400k-700k, but speakeasy clocks it at 241k download, 22k upload. The upload was faster on the laptop, but the download was about 87k.

Comments (0) | Persistent Link | More on net

2006-04-26 18:36:00

PHONE: Last weekend I picked up a book of poetry by Keats.

Comments (0) | Persistent Link | More on poetry

2006-04-26 16:53:13

PHONE: I'm going to try to find a prepaid phone that allows web access. I miss being able to update this journal. I also miss using this phone that Marivic and Joseph gave me.

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2006-04-26 16:48:29

PHONE: apparently, the commuter rail doesn't even try to run on schedule until rush hour. I think I'll hold off on my monthly pass.

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2006-04-26 07:53:14

PHONE: Took the train to work this morning. It was much less stressful, though the view was unsightly. No one checked my ticket.

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2006-04-25 08:54:41

PHONE: Commuting is as bad as I thought.

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2006-04-20 17:31:14

Minerva switched to Sprint, so I followed her and picked up a Samsung A920 phone. The XHTML browser is crippled; it doesn't support old-style password authentication, so I haven't been able to update my web site from it. Sprint Power Vision is massively overpriced, and despite my complimentary month of Ultimate Vision ($25/month) I couldn't find any decent video that wasn't an extra fee. I dropped it.

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2006-04-20 17:28:03

The hotel is right across the highway from work, and I'm not looking forward to commuting in South Florida. They don't have anything nearly as sophisticated as Houston Transtar, and the people are terrible, selfish, dangerous drivers. Commuter rail is still an option.

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2006-04-20 17:27:50

If anyone is still out there, I'm still around. I'm still at an Extended Stay Hotel, and Internet access has just now been restored.

The job is going well, lots of challenges. It's embedded software testing, like I was doing in Houston. The emphasis here is upon trigger/response testing, where they stimulate the hardware inputs in such a way as to get the desired response. In Houston, I only did such testing as a last resort. There are no test harnesses; all testing seems to be on a full build, although there may be an option to turn off some outputs.

They need 100% code coverage for DO-178B Level B certification, but their Software Verification Plan has a clause that lets them verify coverage by analysis if necessary. Instrumentation philosophy is to insert probes in as many modules as possible, not to test the modules in isolation.

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2006-04-06 19:51:02

PHONE: The cars actually made it easier to get to sleep, a kind of white noise. But the neighborhood is not good; the houses are run down and the graffiti artist "OXID3" has the neighborhood in his grip. We are definitely moving when Minerva gets down here.

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2006-04-05 20:33:21

Got Jason to the airport today and checked out of the La Quinta. Checked into an extended stay hotel. It's nice to be able to cook my own meals again. The place is right across the freeway from work - *directly* across the freeway. We'll see whether the cars keep me up.

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2006-04-04 20:09:53

PHONE: we're at an amazing italian place on Federal called Bon Gusto.

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2006-04-04 16:30:20

I have just been informed that if I show up at 8 AM for work, nobody will be there. People usually get in around 8:30 or 9. Good to know.

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2006-04-04 16:25:25

Places - so far - where I forgot to apply sufficient sunblock:

• Top of my feet
• Top of my head

Stay tuned.

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2006-04-04 13:09:44

PHONE: driving down the Gulf Coast, most of the man-made structures were rebuilt (at least along the freeway). What I noticed were the trees down. I'm looking at the effect of a hundred year storm, something that can't happen annually without resulting in shorter trees like the ones here in Florida.

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2006-04-04 12:21:42

PHONE: sitting on the beach at Fort Lauderdale, enjoying a philly on stale bread. I could get used to this.

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2006-04-03 18:29:03

PHONE: We've unloaded the truck and checked into the hotel. We're trying out a pizza at a local place. I really like the pastel motif.

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2006-04-02 21:59:40

PHONE: what time is it?

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2006-04-02 18:22:07

PHONE: I've just crossed into Florida, perhaps to stay.

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2006-03-27 15:24:37

Replaced the Florida Sun-Sentinel link with the Miami Herald. I noticed that the Sun-Sentinel seemed not to report as many crimes as the Herald.

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2006-03-24 15:00:22

Someone is coming to look at the condo this afternoon. We still haven't started packing in earnest. I got the dirty dishes out of the sink and made up the beds this morning, but it's still not anything close to presentable. I don't want to try living in a "showcase home", and I don't want to put Minerva up to that either. When we leave and take everything, people will be better able to imagine themselves and their things. Until then, I accept that we won't make a good impression on this buyer today.

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2006-03-22 11:08:32

My condo is now listed for sale. I've called my realtor with a few corrections: there isn't a breakfast bar, I don't think the tub is a "Hollywood tub", and there is only a small amount of laminate flooring. The living room has hardwood flooring.

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2006-03-19 16:53:22

For everyone who thinks that I should consider buying instead of renting in South Florida, I offer the following:

A condominium comparable to the one I am living in now would cost $240,000. Assuming interest rates and property taxes of 10%, that would cost $24,000 per year, or $2000 per month. That is simply for the privelege of borrowing such a large sum of money; none of it goes toward principal. Since I can rent a comparable place for no more than $1500, the conventional reasoning that "renting is a waste of money" does not apply.

Real estate prices are so high that, if they were real numbers, the rational thing to do would be for almost everyone to quit their jobs and spend two man-years building their homes. We're in a bubble and it will take a long time for reality to catch up.

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2006-03-17 16:25:09

I have no problem with Felicity Huffman hawking Dove, because those ladies made hardly anything for the first season.

It got me to thinking, perhaps these shows could take out "celebrity insurance". If the show becomes a hit, the insurance could kick in and provide for drivers, bodyguards, etc. for these people who become overnight celebrities without the money or infrastructure to deal with it. This is not theoretical; people have died from sudden celebrity.

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2006-03-16 19:39:01

I just re-organized the 'Games' section of my Windows Start Menu. I noticed that I have a lot of Strategy Games, including The Sims and The Sims 2, so I created the category 'Simulations' just to split them up and make it manageable. I put Hearts of Iron 2 in there because of the level of historical detail, and Republic in because, frankly, the idea of Republic is more intriguing than the actual gameplay. Let me explain.

In Republic, you play a man who starts out trying to overthrow a brutal dictator. Your avatar travels through a clockwork city with a decent level of detail, with artificial people you can follow (with the camera, not your avatar) through the city, living out their lives. Eventually, you can engage in nefarious tactics and, once you have taken control, resort to the same brutality as the man you deposed. Unfortunately, the game tends to be slow and bug-ridden, though I intend to give it another chance when I upgrade my computer. It's more interesting to follow people around the city than to actually play, though eventually even this wears thin.

So that's why I placed it in the "Simulations" category, being a clockwork city. This is not to say that "The Sims" and "Hearts of Iron 2" are also boring to play, but that their entertainment lies in the details.

Along this line of reasoning, perhaps Kuma/War is being judged by the wrong yardstick. While its graphics are sub-par for action shooting game, its purpose is the same as that of toy soldiers and civil war re-enactments. People are interested in battles, and now they have the chance to re-enact these battles almost immediately after they happen.

Now, by *this* metric, Kuma/War has a disastrous flaw. The scenarios in the game are deliiberately "balanced" to provide a more challenging play experience. This is anathema to any war re-enactor. So if you dislike Kuma/War, do so for the right reasons.

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2006-03-14 23:20:46

Long-term deficit spending is the greatest lie a government can tell. It says that your taxes won't be higher in the future, when in fact they will have to be raised to pay off our debts.

Comments (0) | Persistent Link | More on money

2006-03-14 09:57:59

I was just reading this article decrying low voter turnout in the primaries. It's a little late this year, but I have to recommend that you think twice before voting in a primary election. In a general election, you have an absolute right to privacy in whom you vote for. This is also true in a primary, but you have to choose which primary you vote in, Republican or Democrat, and that is a matter of public record. I got some junk mail recently as a "loyal Republican" because I voted in the 2000 Republican primary. So think about how you want to be labeled before you vote in a primary. As for this year, I deliberately didn't in a primary so that I could sign the petition for Strayhorn for Governor.

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2006-03-10 14:27:01

I have some happy news: my new work place will be 0.2 miles from a commuter train station. I could live anywhere from West Palm Beach to Miami and get to work within an hour. Best of all, that's an hour of *not driving* in city traffic. I can just ride the train and look for apartments nearby.

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2006-03-08 11:30:00

This morning I resigned from my job and accepted a position in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

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2006-03-08 11:29:19

Added the Florida Sun-Sentinel to the local links, as I will be moving there soon.

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2006-02-21 09:17:46

I have an unusual song stuck in my head today: "Busy Prepositions" from Schoolhouse Rock. I never thought much of the song when I first heard it, but now it's stuck in my head. I don't even know all the words.

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2006-02-14 21:30:42

Created and posted a Video Resume.

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2006-02-14 12:49:53

We finally got through all our shows on the DVR, except for 'Lost'. We haven't finished the first season yet. The DVR, a Scientific Atlanta 8000, is starting to act up and I need to take it back to the Time Warner service center for a replacement.

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2006-02-14 12:47:10

I've started using the memo feature in Quicken, trying to attach whatever I can remember about what I spend on. It's like the memo line on a check, just some text to remind you what the check was for.

Looking at all these expenditures, I'm beginning to feel that my life is being swallowed up by all these transactions. The memo lets me reclaim a little bit of that life, something to reminisce over at tax or budgeting time.

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2006-02-08 14:19:00

Updated The Library to the new style.

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2006-02-07 14:01:19

One of the greatest problems with Digital Rights Management is the conundrum of flexibility: How can someone enjoy media (movie, TV show, podcast, song, etc.) in all their different life spaces (mobile, living room, computer room, car, work) when 1) You can't make copies and 2) you can't use your one copy everywhere?

The iPod is coming very close to solving this problem. You can watch it:

1. on the iPod's small screen,
2. on the computer that you used to purchase or subscribe to the video (note that this is actually your second copy)
3. with a car charger/player (we just bought one of these), or
4. connected to the television (I haven't tried this yet).

By the way, the iPod is also a really big USB drive. Just plug it in.

Some obstacles remain before the iPod achieves critical mass and takes over the entire non-interactive media space.

• Having to use a computer to buy the media. Starbucks is talking about selling music directly to your iPod. If this technology spreads, a dedicated iTunes device might make it into the home. Since one of the goals of the iPod is to sell more Apple computers, expect this to be delayed for some time.
• Making more content available. The iTunes store needs the top-quality news podcasts, recent films and the best video entertainment (what we call "TV shows" today). It's not there yet.
• Better picture quality on screens larger than the iPod's own. It's good, but it's not as good as TV, much less HDTV.

Even if this all comes together, it won't completely replace TV and radio. They can still offer critical services:

1. Live events. All of this media has to be downloaded, and that takes time.
2. Aggregation. Most people don't really know what they like, and the art of finding the best media and arranging it in a pleasing order is not going to go away.
3. Picture and sound quality. As I said before, the iPod picture is not as good as TV. Also, the MP3 sound files are not as high-quality as a regular CD. Even if you burn your MP3s to a CD, some audio data has already been lost.

Nevertheless, we are on the cusp of a major revolution in media. Soon, people may be deciding to get rid of cable just as they got rid of their landline phones.

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2006-02-06 09:32:39

Updated resume to stress that Shuttle Guidance software is heavily requirements-driven. Its requirements are called Flight Software System Requirements (FSSRs), and I've been heavily into them for the last six years. Shuttle software follows the FSSRs to the letter.

UPDATE: Extensive changes to resume. Using Microsoft Publisher won't work, though I did make a nice one to hand out. I also populated the resume with hyperlinks to explain different parts of what I have done. It makes the resume more real than a single sheet of paper, sort of proof that I didn't make it all up, though of course my name isn't on any of it.

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2006-02-05 06:25:06

PHONE: Channel two is making video of their nightly newscast available on Time Warner video on demand.

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2006-02-03 17:51:06

Removed link to TV show 'Rome'. What is the point of continuing the series after Julius Caesar dies?

I'm also ready for the new season of "The Wire". It's 2006, so they should be starting soon. I also want HBO to release the third season on DVD.

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2006-02-01 09:30:38

Updated my resume.

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2006-01-30 12:34:59

Removed link "LawMeme". Site has been down for more than a week.

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2006-01-30 11:55:55

I have discovered Painter's Pants at Old Navy. I'm starting to accumulate gadgets again and I need some cargo capacity. Painter's Pants have pockets on the back below the knee, so things don't fall out when you're on the toilet. Even the 'change pocket' is so enlarged you can't keep change in in, but I can keep my cellphone in it.

I got a wireless headset with a flip-out microphone, so I'm using it as a clip to my front shirt pocket. I'm sure it wasn't designed for that. When the phone rings, I pull and flip-out the small headset instead of the larger phone.

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2006-01-30 11:35:09

As I get older, component quality of my games becomes more important. This weekend I found a great deal on Hasbro's Clue and Sorry games packaged together in this nice wooden box. There's also a deluxe Scrabble in a wooden box at Barnes and Noble, but I haven't picked it up yet. For a time, I showed my miniatures in this beautiful display case I inherited from my Grandmother. Fantasy Flight has finally learned this lesson with their latest edition of Twilight Imperium, and Eagle Games definitely has the right idea with their game pieces sold separately as metal. I bought a copy of Fury of Dracula at the GenCon auction a few years ago, with the metal minatures instead of plastic, and painted them. Games Workshop included a flyer in Blood Royale for minatures available for purchase, but now that I have money I could never track them down.

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2006-01-24 09:45:12

I just received the worst service I can imagine at the post office. I thought that service this bad was long gone, part of the bad old '90s. I have encountered someone who is completely immune to the consequences of poor performance.

The important thing is that I had a chance to practice my New Year's Resolution: to be thicker-skinned and, inverting the Golden Rule, to be less sensitive towards what others think of me. I was firm, I threw her doubletalk right back at her, and now I need to walk away and forget the whole thing. When I need to mail something, I need to go right back in there and conduct business again.

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2006-01-19 10:36:13

PHONE: Last night I downloaded and played the demo for Star Wars empire at war. It uses the mechanic from Battle for Middle Earth where you construct and select a whole squadron of soldiers or fighters. I was able to do well in space but battle on the ground was frustrating.

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2006-01-17 17:09:15

One of the best parts of my job is the view. Clear Lake is so low today, it looks like you could walk across it in places.

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2006-01-16 11:33:53

Last night I found out that, like Comcast, Time Warner Cable is now offering free exercise videos on its video-on-demand service.

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2006-01-16 10:49:05

Minerva's brother-in-law is coming this week for a visit. Minerva said that he likes sports, so I'm resubscribing to HDNet and ESPN-HD.

The only sport I miss is sumo. CNN International's World Sport never talks about sumo. HDNet has some Korean sumo, but the only Japanese sumo I can find is the live webfeed at 3 am local time.

On a related note, I don't plan on having a Super Bowl party this year. The house will be full enough anyway.

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2006-01-16 09:16:53

Webster City Council positions 1 and 2 will be up for election this year and both incumbents are prevented by term limits from seeking another term. Hopefully Councilmembers Waltz and Donehue will continue to serve the City on one of its Boards. The filing deadline to be on the ballot is March 13 for an election to be held on May 16. Voting is held at city hall, not your normal polling stations.

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2006-01-13 12:17:05

I'm suffering from writer's block on my GURPS campaign. I have plenty of adventure ideas, but I haven't been able to weave enough of the over-arching story arc into the game. Now I have a bit that I really want to incorporate, but a bit is not an arc. I need to get back in touch with the guys.

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2006-01-12 08:55:23

Last night I called Carmax to find out how much I had left to pay on my car. I was surprised to find that my balance was zero; it was paid off last month. I feel a bit cheated out of the moment of paying it off.

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2006-01-11 14:31:00

Minerva and I started "Shadow of the Colossus" yesterday. That game is hard, and doubtless will get harder. The graphics are stunning, with so many polygons devoted to so few characters and to the terrain.

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2006-01-10 11:38:31

Last night Minerva was watching 'Wife Swap' with a local family featured. I think that Reality TV fails the karmic smell test. Not only are they exploiting human misery for ratings, but they are actually manufacturing fake, needless misery and multiplying its impact through broadcasting.

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2006-01-10 10:21:46

Webster City Council is meeting at 6 PM tonight to go over the final offer from a developer, Cherokee Investment Partners, to purchase and redevelop a large parcel of land bounded by NASA Parkway and Highway 3 (the largest gray area on this map). At the last meeting, the developers asked for $8.1 million from the city, $3.75 million from the Webster Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) and a 0.8% Municipal Utility District (MUD) tax on the property. The City Council directed staff to continue negotiations (if they found it acceptable, they could have approved it right there) and their final proposal will be tonight. Cherokee Investments is under pressure to complete the deal be February 1 when Texas Genco, the current landowner, will be bought by another corporation.

Note that arriving at 7 PM will be too late - the WEDC is meeting at 7, not City Council - and I don't see an agenda item for public comments.

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2006-01-09 09:44:57

After I dropped Minerva off at work yesterday, I resolved to stay in town all day rather than driving back and forth from home. I won't be doing that again.

I stopped into the Starbucks in Uptown Park and worked on editing the video from Minerva's trip to the Philippines. She shot four and a half hours of footage, but the laptop can only carry two hours of video at a time. So I will have to finish editing these two tapes, burn a DVD, delete the working files and then load up the next two or three tapes. Of course, we have to keep all the tapes, but I think Minerva wanted to do that anyway.

I made a lot of progress, but I stopped when I got to the boar being slaughtered for Karl and Mama's birthday party. I didn't want anyone at the Starbucks to see the video and be offended.

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2006-01-09 09:37:02

This weekend I wrote my first multithreaded server for work. I can't believe it worked right the first time; we'll see what happens after it is used for awhile.

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2006-01-09 09:35:20

This weekend I purchased a Bluetooth wireless headset. Bluetooth is a new standard which allows devices to communicate wirelessly across a few feet. So even though the headset was from Motorola, it worked with the Nokia phone. I don't like it as a fashion statement, though; I think I'll just use it when driving.

I also bought a Bluetooth USB adapter for the new phone. It uploaded all my old contacts from Microsoft Outlook. I plan to start using Outlook again to keep track of Minerva's Schedule.

For Christmas, I got Minerva a new Palm Pilot to run her PEPID medical information database. Yesterday she said that she liked it and uses it frequently.

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2006-01-05 20:16:30

Minerva's relatives gave me a Nokia 6230i for Christmas, but it's locked to a carrier in the Philippines. Last night I purchased an unlock code online, but it didn't work.

This phone isn't offered in North America so my provider's web site wasn't able to help me right away, but I contacted them and they directed me to nokiausa.com. Of course, I needed Nokia Asia, but then I got the information I needed to configure the phone for Web browsing.

I couldn't get the phone's e-mail function to work, but I can still access email through the web browser. The thing I like the best is that now the kanji from my web site shows up!

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2006-01-04 06:57:49

PHONE: I'm working at Tower Two again and the options for lunch are even slimmer than before. Yesterday I ate inside the Randall's supermarket. A good deal.

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2006-01-03 08:42:39

Games I got for Christmas:

• Halo 1 - I see that many innovations to first- and third-person shooters were introduced by Halo. But I thought the story was derivative and I can't believe that anyone thought the Covenant was an impressive enemy. I was more impressed by MechAssault 1, and still am.
• Final Fantasy IV Advance - How did we play these games before tutorials? FF X was my first game; I'll need some more data points before I can say much about this series.
• Civilization IV - played it again last night. I placed third on a Standard world at Noble difficulty, and yet I'm still labeled as a Quayle.
• Twilight Imperium, 3rd Edition - This is a board wargame, not a computer game. It was phenomenal and I look forward to many more games of it with friends.

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2006-01-02 10:11:06

For Christmas, my sister and I set up my mother with msnTV, a device which connects to her television and lets her browse the World Wide Web, check e-mail and use Microsoft Messenger. As I've said before, I believe that such a device is what most people need and want in their lives.

I settled for msnTV because it is small, quiet, cheap (at first) and is the only product that does what I was looking for. The interface is simple and the on-screen help is extensive.

Its main drawback is the high monthly fee for relatively little benefit. Like TiVo, Microsoft sells the product cheaply and hopes to make money over time. Unlike TiVo, it doesn't allow you to pay more up front instead. Unlike AOL, you don't get to create your own web page, there are no discussion groups and no "My MSN". In fact, some basic options (such as disabling call waiting) were nowhere to be found.

It does provide some other services. There is free music (with a convenient link to buy the CD) and video, some causal games, TV listings, stock listings, and personalized weather.

One thing you wouldn't have to pay for is using it as a Media Center Extender, like the QCast. You can store video, music and pictures on your PC and show them on the TV across a local network. I understand the Xbox 360 does the same.

In short, the hardware is good, but the service provided is not valuable enough.

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2006-01-01 09:06:57

PHONE: It's a new year and I intend to post here every day. More to come.

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2005-12-15 09:37:01

Yesterday I beat the computer at Starcraft, without Eric's help. Eric has had me over for the last two weekends to play, and all of a sudden I can play a decent game. This is usually the point where I'm ready to venture out and play against other people, but anyone still playing Starcraft in 2005 must be a master indeed.

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2005-12-15 09:32:34

PHONE: As of today, I have real-work experience with DirectX.

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2005-12-08 11:01:35

Added a link for Lost in ent/tv, moved 'Sunrise Earth' from subcategory 'hdtv' to 'tv' and added a comment.

From now on, I'll be logging entries like this whenever I change a link on the website. The links are in a MySQL database now, so when I changed an entry I didn't think of it as changing 'the site'. But I need to start logging them.

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2005-12-08 10:44:53

Minerva liked watching 'Lost' on her iPod and wants me to buy some more episodes. I haven't decided whether to buy some more episodes on iTunes or just go ahead and buy the DVD. I was going to wait for the high-definition DVD before buying, but now we want to follow the show. I'll probably get the iPod version; the remaining 15 episodes of season 1 would be $30 and she can watch them the way she wants to, plus we can catch up with this season. If you talk to me, remind me to set the DVR.

Comments (0) | Persistent Link | More on tv

2005-12-07 22:59:01

Added a clock for Houston, so that people in the Philippines will know the time here as well.

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2005-12-05 09:15:54

Added a handy script from FutureQuest to show the current time in the Philippines. I used to have a currency converter, but I can't find it.

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2005-12-05 09:14:40

My next video card shall be from nVidia. Not only is my ATI card recording in a format that won't work in Quicktime, but now I can't run Civilization 4 on my Radeon 9550. This is partly the fault of Firaxis, but I patiently went through every step on their support page and it still didn't work.

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2005-11-30 23:11:22

Minerva asked me to look through her bag for some Neosporin. Doing so, I realize a difference between gadgets for men and for women.

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2005-11-30 05:51:33

Minerva wants some shows for her iPod, so I've started recording video on my computer again. I had to roll back my copy of the ATI Multimedia Center to version 9.03.

Unfortunately, the video has no sound on the iPod. I'm recording in MPEG-4 format and converting it with Quicktime Pro. The audio works in Quicktime, but then it claims there is no audio stream to encode.

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2005-11-29 15:18:22

PHONE: I've gone and gotten hooked on ' Advance Wars 2'.

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2005-11-23 11:02:49

I've gotten into the habit of watching Sunrise Earth on Discovery HD. The program shows dawn breaking over some beautiful vista in real-time. As the web site says, it's not so much to watch the program as to have a peaceful way to get a little more sleep and/or transition to being awake. Even if I'm up and around, sometimes I prefer it to watching the news.

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2005-10-31 12:30:14

For some reason, the Windows 2000 desktop at work is playing music files too fast. It plays CDs correctly when playback is set to 'Analog', but nothing can get music files to work. So I downloaded a copy of Audacity. It has the same problem, but I can turn the sample rate down from 44.1k to about 40k and it sounds about right.

Comments (0) | Persistent Link | More on music

2005-10-31 12:27:09

We went to see "Saw II" last night; I suppose I should say something about it. It was OK, but I think that my opinion of the film is distorted by the incredibly low expectations I had going in.

I haven't seen the first film, but that didn't hamper my understanding much. Some have described the level of violence as "pornographic". I wouldn't agree with that: a typical episode of CSI is more explicit. But the film is certainly about violence, particularly against women.

Donnie Walhberg is such a poor protagonist that he can barely stay awake to deliver his lines. The villain seems to have his motives mixed up, and Wahlberg does nothing to drive through the gaping holes in his logic. The movie fails to achieve suspension of disbelief, relying on many actions that real people would never do. Then it falls back to the gore, which is only delivered halfheartedly.

By the way, this isn't really a Halloween movie; the only supernatural element is the superhuman stomach a moviegoer needs to endure it.

Comments (0) | Persistent Link | More on movies

2005-10-31 09:12:42

Finished the hardwood flooring in the living room this weekend. Also tried some Resolve High-Traffic foam on the carpets; it worked on the regular carpet but not on the Berber in the kitchen.

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2005-10-27 23:26:41

If anyone out there is using Microsoft Messenger, drop me a line. I want to test out the videoconferencing.

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2005-10-27 10:29:52

It's been a low media-consumption day so far. After Minerva left for work, I got around without turning on the television. On the way to work, I left the radio off; Morning Edition is way too fluffy near the end of the hour anyway. The quiet was nice.

Yesterday I spent the day ripping my primary collection of music. I've already assembled 600MB within iTunes and there are still two racks of my CDs as well as Minerva's, plus the audiobooks.

Be warned; iTunes does not rip into MP3 by default. You have to set it to MP3 encoding in the Advanced Options.

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2005-10-27 10:18:11

I left my phone at home this morning. When I got to work and realized this. I also realized that I don't really need it. Minerva won't get off work until long after I get home. I do need to get in touch with Mike and Evan about game night, but I try to do that in the evening anyway.

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2005-10-26 09:39:03

Up until 1 AM last night watching the baseball game. I need to get back to watching sumo.

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2005-10-24 09:45:47

Yesterday Napster began to lose the battle to provide us with music. I've committed to buying an iPod for Minerva's birthday, and yesterday I installed iTunes to see if there would be any kinks. I found one big kink: Napster gives you music encoded for Microsoft Windows media player, while iTunes gives you music encoded with Apple's digital rights management scheme. Needless to say, they don't play well together.

The way around this is to burn the songs to CD and rip them back into iTunes. Fortunately, we only had 2 CDs so far; I wouldn't want to be someone who spent hundreds on Napster. Also, iTunes can't identify the song and you have to type in the artist and title manually - twice, as the persistent data is not stored where you think it would be.

Also, I wasn't able to set up a music store account on iTunes. I want to use prepaid music cards and it wasn't even an option; you have to give them a credit card or Paypal account. I'll have to get back to that; there must be a way.

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2005-10-24 09:26:22

This morning all I have is something I try to avoid: a simple link to a story going around today. Be warned that any non-digital TV you buy today will stop working when this deadline (currently April 7, 2009) arrives.

Have I mentioned that I'm watching Rome? That I don't even bother recording it, I just watch HBO on Demand? I don't even know when the original episodes show; Minerva doesn't want to see it, so I pick them up when I can. You can watch all 8 episodes On Demand if you haven't been keeping up.

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2005-10-21 09:18:09

The guys in my GURPS campaign want some Martial Arts, so I spent some time yesterday working on it.

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2005-10-20 08:14:56

Yesterday I accidentally left my glasses and my Game Boy in my desk. From now on I'll be taking the Game Boy home but leaving the glasses. The glasses cost more, but they are only valuable to me. Game Boys, on the other hand, could be used in place of cigarettes in prison.

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2005-10-19 08:23:12

I don't understand why everyone's trying to make money off of blogs. I do understand why media companies are worried about incursions on their profits: when you're used to making money, it's hard to lose that regular income. But I think both of them are missing the forest in search of the leafy green.

Successful bloggers and established media companies are, by definition, watched/listened to/read by many people. This gives them a voice in the day's discourse, or a chance to shape modern culture. Yet they fret about how to monetize that. There are people who would - and do - kill for that kind of power.

The barriers to media creation have collapsed. Right now I'm a pundit; tomorrow I could be a record producer, a movie director, or a shock jock. So could you. GrantDavis.net costs me $10 a month and I don't have to worry about being bought by News Corporation. When the barriers to entry fall, more people enter a market.

The best will still rise to the top, but the peak may not be as high. The rest will go in and lose money, but not as much as they would ten years ago. A large number of money-losers makes a market difficult for the winners, and normally there would be a shakeout. But with such low expenses and the allure of media - everyone wants to be a director - more producers will stay in the market. The market becomes over-saturated and is likely to stay that way.

Even for the successful ones, the payoff is power with a poor exchange rate to money. It's best not to think of media production as a career, but as something that simply *is*: a natural part of our lives, and a contribution to knowledge, discourse or culture.

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2005-10-18 09:54:56

Bought a DV video camera for Minerva's birthday. The firewire connection was recognized by the Mitsubishi WS-B55, but there was no signal; the only benefit was that you could play/rewind the video camera with the TV remote. The picture looks very sharp; I'm impressed. The firewire connection did work with the Vaio laptop and I was able to capture video and burn a DVD, which again looked very clear.

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2005-10-17 09:28:52

This weekend I cancelled my Xbox 360 reservation and used the deposit to buy a Game Boy Micro, my first Game Boy Advance. I bought Dynasty Warriors Advance, thinking it looked like a Strategy game. I was wrong, it's definitely an action game, and I like it.

It has the standard Musou mode for taking a character through the Three Kingdoms storyline, a Free mode for replaying previous battles to increase stats, and a new "Challenge Mode" to start playing with as few keypresses as possible.

Just like the PS2 version, this game offers exactly the kind of action that was lacking from my mobile phone games. Judging by Gamespot's poor review, I'm looking forward to seeing what else the GBA has to offer.

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2005-10-14 13:05:25

The Hidden Weakness of High-Definition DVD

Offering seasons of old and new television shows have been a shot in the arm for DVD sales. But their success masks a hidden danger for High-Definition DVD evangelicals who like to make sales projections with graph paper and a ruler.

When HD -DVD and/or Blu-Ray players come out, we can all look forward to buying our movie libraries all over again, just like we did when DVD overtook VHS. But the same can't be said for television.

Television shows were shot in standard definition, and a VHS or DVD contains all the video data there is to be had. If you are using a progressive-scan DVD player with an S-video or Component Video TV, then your Season One DVD of "The Dukes of Hazzard" is the best version you will ever see.

Movies, which are transferred from celluloid, can be remastered into High Definition as long as the original film is preserved. HDNet and InHD are already doing so. But only TV shows which were filmed in High-Definition can be re-released on the new technology.

There is also the issue of screen width. HDTV is wider than old TV, but not exactly the same width as movies. "Letterboxing", where the top and bottom of the screen are black, will remain an issue, but in addition there will be letterboxing on the sides, or a stretched picture where everyone looks well-fed. Those who collected 'widescreen' versions of their favorite films will be in a good position, and may not want to spend another $20 for just a little more clarity, especially if the movie relies on character or plot more than visuals.

When the new HD players come out, executives who are counting on new disc sales to be as big as DVDs will be disappointed only a handful of TV shows, shot in the last five years, are available. On the flip side, you might want to hold off on buying that set of "Desperate Housewives" until it comes out in high-definition.

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2005-10-13 15:33:25

Added a new page 'Food' as its own category at the top of the index. While it's true that food is a priority for me, the reason that the page is placed so highly is to make it easier to navigate to with the phone. When Minerva and I are deciding where to order dinner, I can list them all and jump to the phone numbers. I can't believe I had to look up "food" in Japanese; I am so far out of practice. Hi Trez!

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2005-10-06 18:14:55

A spokesman for ABS-CBN confirmed that DirectTV's deal to carry The Filipino Channel is exclusive. No chance that Time Warner will be able to pick it up. We will definitely be looking for a house where we can mount a satellite dish.

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2005-10-05 16:37:10

Gamespot has revised its web site, so the links to my game collection had to be repaired.

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2005-10-05 08:35:57

I just found out that our phones are not working, that they haven't been working since Hurricane Rita ten days ago. I received one email from someone who couldn't reach me by phone, but we haven't tried to dial out for that long. It was so blissfully quiet. The only reason to keep the phone around is for 911 and so that Minerva can easily call home.

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2005-10-04 09:32:48

When dehydrated, one does not gulp the water. One sips it, savoring each drop.

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2005-10-03 09:44:18

Minerva and I bought "We Love Katamari" and have been playing it all weekend. Mostly, she plays it while I'm playing Star Wars: Galaxies. She wanted it on the big TV in the front room, and Katamari gives me motion sickness even faster than usual. Minerva is getting to the higher levels of the game, and it seems to be harder than the last one; she's getting frustrated but hasn't given up. To me, it's so much more of the same that I want to go back to the original Katamari Damacy, see if I can improve my scores. I love the instruction book, though; laid out like a children's book.

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2005-09-30 09:35:06

The city of Webster is trying to put together a 'Local Government 101' class for citizens to come and learn more about how the city works. The class was to start in October, but they had to cancel on account of having less than ten people sign up. If you're a resident, please consider calling at 281-332-1826 and signing up.

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2005-09-29 07:54:37

Thanks to Doug at work for suggesting razor blades to remove the duct tape adhesive from windows.

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2005-09-28 11:51:22

An offhanded remark in this article: that the Shuttle will be going back to repair the Hubble Space Telescope. That's news to me and a big deal for us.

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2005-09-28 10:30:14

I was interested in the Xbox 360's ability to serve video from the PC to the front room, but the fact is I don't do that anymore. Theoretically, I could record over-the-air HDTV on my PC and stream it across my wireless network to the TV the Xbox is connected to, but the PVR makes that redundant. Also, the Xbox 360 might require the PC to run Windows Media Center, which I can't use because it is only sold with complete PCs purchased at the store (I build my own computer).

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2005-09-28 09:19:33

I'm on the verge of giving up my Xbox 360 reservation and purchasing a Game Boy Micro. I just can't get excited about fancier graphics anymore; my life is changing and I need something for "interstitial gaming", and the V300 just can't cut it.

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2005-09-27 10:42:04

Last night I renewed my subscription to "Star Wars Galaxies", but I didn't get to play; I had to re-install the game and I was still downloading patches this morning.

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2005-09-27 10:40:22

Minerva liked "How I Met Your Mother" last night, but thought that it was derivative of "Friends". I wasn't a fan of "Friends", so I can't comment, but I really like it. We also liked "Out of Practice".

Yesterday I came home early and caught up on "Rome" thanks to video-on-demand (VOD). I also finished off the available episodes of "The Wire" (though I had seen them before).I wish the networks would put all the shows we missed last week on VOD.

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2005-09-26 11:27:09

PHONE: Went to work and reconnected the workstations. GB Tech's OBS Group is ready to serve the customer.

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2005-09-25 15:42:35

Back home, posting from my home PC. Everything is put up as best I can and the TVs are connected for Minerva when she gets home. I'm getting a shower.

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2005-09-24 19:09:15

Testing a change.

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2005-09-24 18:51:10

Fixed some problems with the new timestamp. Changed the blog back to showing only the last 25 hours. Also, from now on the RSS feed will show the entire contents of a post, rather than the first 145 characters. I wish that more feeds would do the same, as Lost Remote does.

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2005-09-24 18:33:39

The power and water are back on at the hotel. A local church is providing food tonight.

Eric is back on his way home (alone, for now). He says that US 59 has very light traffic and so does the Gulf Freeway.

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2005-09-24 16:46:31

PHONE: I just called my neighbor. They just got back and we have power, but another unit got a leak and the water is off.

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2005-09-24 10:53:15

PHONE: I went back to the hotel and there's no power or water. The lady at the door said they just lost power; you could still feel the air-conditioned air. So I lay down for an hour and a half on the big, comfortable bed. Now we have to figure out what to do.

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2005-09-24 06:51:19

PHONE: So this is a hurricane. It's pretty windy, a little rain.

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2005-09-23 15:21:25

PHONE: I've been moved into the nurse's lounge, a windowless room with a television and a ton of food that isn't for me. On the upside, it has a power outlet so I can keep the phone charged and use the laptop (still no Internet, though).

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2005-09-23 14:27:12

PHONE: Wind is starting to pick up. Maintenance is putting up plywood, for which I am very thankful.

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2005-09-23 12:57:40

PHONE: The ER waiting room was empty a couple of hours ago. Now it's doing a brisk business, though Minerva has told me it's usually like this.

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2005-09-23 12:33:17

PHONE: The cafeteria is open; best hospital food I've ever had.

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2005-09-23 10:25:10

PHONE: At the emergency room, things are quiet. The guard is watching The Chronicles of Riddick on his desktop and I'm jealous. No power outlet, no Internet.

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2005-09-23 09:40:50

PHONE: Like a ghost town. One or two cars in sight.

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2005-09-23 09:04:17

I'm heading to the hospital today to be with Minerva. She's "sequestered" and will be staying there until the crisis passes. I probably won't have Internet access at the hospital, but I'll send updates by phone if anything noteworthy happens.

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2005-09-22 21:26:24

Take a look at the traffic map and you can see two things. I-45 is at a crawl (the red area) from FM 525 to some point very far north. But the *southbound* lane is starting to slow down at FM 525 going back into the city (the blue area). I suspect that's where people realize they're at the end of the line, they're not going to make it out of the city and they're turning around. This part of I-45 is *not* "contra-flow"; you can still travel south. Hopefully, more people at the tail of the line will turn around and seek shelter, until that tail is sufficiently far north and people caught in their cars will be safe.

I've captured that screen of the traffic map before it changes; thanks to Houston TranStar for all the work they're doing tonight.

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2005-09-22 20:34:59

Minerva should be back from work by now; no doubt she's very busy. I bet they have a microwave there; I should bring something over. I have a list of things to do tomorrow morning, then I'm going over to the hospital. I'd like to separate the cars and not lose both, but this hotel parking lot looks very flood-prone.

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2005-09-22 20:31:18

Mayor White has called for stay-in-place in Storm Surge Zone C, and by implication for anyone not in a Zone. A Channel 13 reporter asked: if someone is 15 miles from home, should they give up and turn back? The mayor's said that he couldn't tell someone what to do if they were 100 miles away, that they had options and should exercise "common sense". No answer for the person only 15 miles away, or what the magic number should be.

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2005-09-22 17:53:33

PHONE: I-10 is completely clear here.

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2005-09-22 15:31:45

PHONE: Added a time to the date reading on journal entries. It shows Eastern time because the server is in Florida.

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2005-09-22 15:13:37

Big win just now. Rather than burning more gas and braving the streets of Houston, I hit the street to explore the surrounding area. I found a bar that's still open and I just confirmed that the kitchen is still open. I'd really like to take Minerva out for dinner when she gets off work, to keep the routine that much closer to normal for one more day.

On the way back to the hotel, I stopped by the car and dug another flashlight out of the glove compartment. That was the main item that I failed to get this morning; now we won't have to burn candles indoors and I am vindicated for not spending $9 on a beautiful citrus-scented candle.

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2005-09-22 13:47:31

I'm at I-10 and I-610 West. A military convoy is rolling down I-10 with a camouflage-scheme gasoline truck. I grabbed the camera but something's wrong with it. Every gas station around here is out of gas with long lines waiting, but not every station is closed. I was able to buy some basics before I found Kroger.

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2005-09-22 11:02:38

PHONE: Pretty crazy here at Kroger at Wirt and Westview. They were out of manual can openers, but I got the last electric to open the cans we have. I'm already thinking of it as an appliance for the new place.

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2005-09-22 09:20:36

Changed default topic to 'local'. Also doubled the time that journal posts stay on the front page, from 25 to 50 hours. I always keep a lifespan on my posts so that when I stop blogging, stale entries don't persist here.

On a slightly related topic, I listened to my first podcast on my Motorola V300 last night. I remember downloading it from Slacker Astronomy while Minerva was shopping at Saks Off 5th in Nashville about a week ago. It took over an hour to download a 9-minute cast, and at the end the phone crashed so I thought I had lost it. So last night I accidentally activated my phone camera and noticed that my memory had gone from 19% full to 59% full. I knew it must be the postcast, probably corrupted, so I hunted it down and found it under "My Sounds". I tried to play it before deleting it and found that it worked!

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2005-09-22 09:07:18

Made it to the hotel. Trip took 4. 5 hours. Minerva got 4 hours of sleep, then got up to go to work. She was 45 minutes late; I hope she didn't get in trouble. We shared one can of vienna sausages last night; we have food, but nothing to open, cook or eat it with. So that's job one for the day. I can't just sit around here while Minerva is working. This part of town is still functioning, no mandatory evacuation.

The hotel has wireless Internet, which is why there isn't a PHONE tag at the beginning of this entry.

The worst part of the whole thing is having to wait 2.5 days for the other shoe to drop, not being able to work or do anything. Maybe I can volunteer at the hospital.

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2005-09-21 21:21:48

PHONE:http://traffic.houstontranstar.org/mobile/ is working! I-45 very slow but moving.

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2005-09-21 18:50:15

At 5:20 I get a phone call. The City of Webster declared a Voluntary Evacuation at 12:00 and a Mandatory Evacuation at 6:00. The web site still only lists the voluntary one.

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2005-09-21 17:09:13

Transportation hotline: (713)837-0311 for the county, 311 for the city. Vans are being sent to pick people up.

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2005-09-21 16:59:48

It's surreal to need to do this, but if at all possible bring your cable boxes and cable modems when you evacuate. They cost $300 to replace and insurance won't cover them because you don't own them.

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2005-09-21 11:28:10

Nassau Bay has declared a mandatory evacuation, starting at 6 PM today and ending at 6 PM tomorrow. Webster directed me to Jason Thompson at (281)635-3348 but there was no answer. If you're reading this from a mobile phone, clicking on that link should bring up the number to call.

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2005-09-20 22:51:45

At the Webster (where I live) City Council meeting tonight, City Manager Michael Jez stated that there would probably be voluntary, then later mandatory, evacuation of the city on Wednesday. Nassau Bay (an adjacent suburb, where I work) decided on Voluntary Evacuation between 5 and 6 PM on Tuesday.

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2005-09-20 13:19:12

Minerva has to work in the emergency room this weekend, so that's as far as I am evacuating if Hurricane Rita strikes Houston. We're Sen. Obama's refugees; we have hotel reservations near her work. I plan on being back to work on Monday, wherever that may be. Strike Probability for Galveston is at 11%.

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2005-09-20 09:15:58

I recorded and watched "Kitchen Confidential" and "How I Met Your Mother" last night. "Mother" was laugh-out-loud funny; even though it's a sitcom, I may start recording it regularly. "Kitchen" wasn't so great; gratuitous sex *and* violence. Willow is kicking Xander's butt so far.

I also watched something called "Epitafios" (Epitaphs), in Spanish with subtitles on HBO on Demand. I wasn't that impressed; it seemed to be gratuitous CSI-style gore, with some dialogue that sounded straight out of Anime ("It's because of a mistake he made in our shared dark past").

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2005-09-17 09:46:48

PHONE: I've been hearing talk of officials "taking responsibility" for the poor Katrina response. Until someone resigns, it's just talk. I don't specifically blame Bush anyway, nor Brown.

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2005-09-13 09:47:02

Kinky Friedman is speaking in Webster tomorrow.

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2005-09-13 09:29:34

Heads up: Season 3 of The Wire hasn't been released on DVD yet, but it's on HBO On Demand right now. Episode 26 is the first episode of the third season. Even if you haven't seen the first two seasons, I highly recommend it.

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2005-09-08 16:42:33

Tony is hosting a Katrina fundraiser barbecue and auction Saturday. Any gamers who might want to pick up some hard-to-find items should attend.

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2005-09-06 13:24:17

I visited my family in Little Rock this weekend, and my sister had purchased the same Samsung 30" HDTV that I had been looking at. I liked the television (and I liked Comcast's on-demand features compared to Time Warner's).

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2005-09-01 15:27:22

A shelter for Katrina victims is being set up at Gloria Dei Lutheran Church in Nassau Bay, literally within walking distance of my work. If you're like me - cheap, lazy and distrustful of Big Charity - you can go to the Dollar store across the street, buy goods and donate them to the shelter. They're full now, but the need will last for several weeks.

UPDATE: Gilruth is taking overflow donations.

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2005-09-01 09:24:31

Robyn and the family are OK, they're with the parents in Ruston.

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2005-08-31 15:04:31

The Hurricane Katrina coverage is starting to make me question the accuracy of Buzztracker. Google News is listing stories from all over the world, yet Katrina barely makes a blip on Buzztracker.

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2005-08-31 09:43:28

I have a cousin, Robyn Brown, in Biloxi; she and her family went to Tylertown to ride out the hurricane. Now we can't get through to them. If anyone knows Robyn or what is happening in Tylertown, please contact me.

No word on Robyn yet; I'll keep this entry active until I hear something. Now we can't get through to her parents in Northern Louisiana, either, to let them know that my mother got her calls.

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2005-08-26 16:10:44

I heard that Microsoft is moving to refer to RSS as 'Web Feeds'. It sounds like a good idea, especially since the technorati can't even seem to decide what RSS stands for. So, I changed the 'RSS' label to 'Feed' on GrantDavis.net.

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2005-08-25 11:28:05

Jon is going to the MTV Video Music Awards! Props to Jon!

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2005-08-19 10:11:31

PHONE: Up until 330 last night. Have scheduled 14 hours of gaming today.

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2005-08-18 20:34:04

PHONE:Came in. Dropped off my stuff. Walked the entire dealer room in two hours.

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2005-08-18 16:23:17

PHONE: When using a limousine service, be sure you're getting a limousine.

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2005-08-18 15:44:57

PHONE: 2:35 and I am on the ground in Indianapolis. Couldn't sleep like I usually do. Instead, I finally finished reading "Indiana Jones Adventures" from 1996. This RPG book is not only of decent quality itself, it comes within a hair of being a self-contained game.

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2005-08-18 12:07:35

PHONE: Got to the airport. Got the next flight out, didn't have to pay extra or wait on standby.

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2005-08-18 07:12:08

5:30 AM and I'm too excited to get back to sleep.

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2005-08-17 23:50:05

My friend Joshua has just informed me that, due to a nasty smell in our room in Indianapolis, we have been upgraded. To the penthouse.

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2005-08-16 17:18:24

PHONE: Was disorganized on Friday night. Also unprepared for so much netrunning.

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2005-08-12 12:01:44

Making a list of games to pack for GenCon. One of them is Fastlane, for which I need a roulette wheel and chips. Note that GrantDavis.net is not a gambling site and no actual money is involved.

This got me to thinking about other times when poker chips would be good to use. Some players spend more effor tracking their character's money than their own. Chips would be a way to shake them loose from that thinking and spend as freely as people tend to in life.

I have a GURPS campaign where the players can purchase skills on the fly. They get to spend 4 points, no more, no less. A chip could make that flow easier. However, there aren't any chips going back to the player, and not everyone has leftover points.

A better fit would be the Possibilities from Torg. Players go through them like water. There's even a precedent for giving them to other PCs.

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2005-07-28 12:50:13

I can't believe that I have to comment on this, but the sensationalist reporting going on about the current Space Shuttle mission borders on criminal negligence.

To be perfectly clear: DISCOVERY IS NOT IN DANGER. We are not in the middle of an Apollo 13 scenario. The foam that broke off was on the External Tank (the big orange thing), which is designed to be jettisoned into the ocean. The orbiter, which brings the astronauts back to Earth, is fine.

NASA's concern is that the foam that broke off the External Tank *could* have struck the orbiter the way it struck Columbia on liftoff. They will be examining the tank to see what needs to be done differently next time. When they have a plan, they will move forward. This happens after every flight and is not as unusual as it is being made out to be.

Everyone just needs to step back and let the engineers do their work. It angers me that people are "praying for the Astronaut's safe return". Pray for Sudan.

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2005-07-11 20:41:19

Revived my April 24 post and posted to Come and Take It.

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2005-07-07 09:35:56

The City of Webster seems to have removed the link to its Code of Ordinances. Here it is.

Last night the Webster Planning and Zoning Commission met to consider the rezoning of land next to Highway 3 and South of NASA 1 from Industrial (M-1 and M-2) to Planned Development (PD). The City asserted that the Council did not want the land used for industrial purposes again. PD is Webster's "Master Planned Community" designation; any use of the land must be laid out in a master plan and submitted to the P&Z Commission.

However, the PD designation does allow some industrial uses:

• Concrete or Asphalt Batch Plant
• Electroplating
• Fish Processing
• Food Processing
• Freight Terminals
• Hazardous/Toxic Waste Processing
• Ice Plants
• Petroleum Storage
• Railroad Yard

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2005-07-06 18:13:00

I really, really want this.

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2005-07-06 16:23:54

Did I ever mention that my cable went out on Super Bowl Sunday 2004, but I had the party anyway? I was able to receive HDTV over the air with an antenna. I missed the Janet Jackson show, though; Brandon and I were playing MechAssault in the other room.

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2005-07-05 09:29:34

As I was ironing this weekend, I watched the original cut of Empire Stikes Back on VHS. Remember that ad campaign, "...One Last Time," to sell more VHS tapes as Lucas was working on Special Edition? At the time I felt ripped off, but now I appreciate having an unadulterated copy of the film. I wish they would release the theatrical cut of Blade Runner.

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2005-07-05 09:25:55

Finished Riddick for Xbox last night. Excellent game. It takes elements from plenty of other games, but uses the so that you feel you're there, that you're larger-than-life and yet you believe it. I started Splinter Cell (for PS2) the other day and it just didn't grab me the same way. They're both descended from Tomb Raider, but even the stealth in Rainbow Six 1 was more compelling.

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2005-07-05 09:17:52

Removed metar.pl weather links.

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2005-07-05 09:02:36

PHONE: Took my mother to dinner last night, at a new Mexican place called MomAlone, on NASA Parkway. They aren't charging nearly enough.

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2005-07-01 19:15:11

PHONE: July 1 and most of the HDTVs have built-in tuners. I'm impressed.

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2005-06-30 11:00:55

Just had the fastest service in my life from Texas Gulf Coast Medical. They didn't find anything, but that's just fine.

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2005-06-29 11:36:08

Once again, this huge market for ringtones implies that it's acceptable for them to go off in public. I don't like it.

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