binarytoybox

NY Times Profile: Madden

2008-09-22T13:34:29Z

I've always thought Madden was a goofball. Now I'm not so sure.

The common complaint with Madden, who joined NBC's "Sunday Night Football" in 2006 (its debut season), is that these days he is merely offering up the conventional wisdom. It is important to remember that in many cases he's the one who established the conventional wisdom...

You can read the rest at the Times: Summa Cum Madden

Goodbye Manny, Goodbye Manny...

2008-08-01T14:03:39Z

It's time to say goodbye...

Nomar, Pedro, Trot, Manny, Damon, etc. etc. This Red Sox team new, with new young players; aside from Wake and Varitek it's not the same team my grandfather cheered for before he passed. Unfortunately, players don't start and finish their careers with the same organization anymore. They come and go. It's certainly sad to see them leave, but by the same token we have new exciting players like lil Dustin and Speedy Gon'ellsbury to watch.

I have mixed feelings about Manny. It was certainly time for him to go, however he gave us a lot of good times, two championships, and was always exciting to watch. I'll always remember him as one of the most feared and best two strike hitters the game's ever seen. There were so many times where he had two strikes and it didn't matter. You knew he'd turn it into something.

That aside, what I enjoy about sports is seeing players enjoy what they do play with integrity and the knowledge that they've got a gift that others are inspired by. That's not the type off player Manny was, and when it was just a matter of laziness and strangeness I could endure it. When it turned into pushing people to the ground and slapping team mates, my opinion changed. I wish him the best, I'll remember his time here fondly, but it was time to say goodbye.

Sean Tevis and his campaign for KS state rep.

2008-07-31T17:48:04Z

Until recently, I'd never given money to a political candidate or a political action committee. Two things changed that: The FISA bill, and a guy named Sean Tevis.

I've been interested in local government for a long time. In high school, I attended the Massachusetts Boys State program where I learned about how our state government works by modeling it. We all chose offices to run for, campaigned, had elections, and created a piece of legislation. Recently, I've begun researching the town selectmen's job description in hopes of getting involved in my local political process.

Sean Tevis lives in Kansas and recently decided to campaign for state representative. I saw an article about him on Boing Boing, read about his political beliefs on his website, and thought he'd be a great person to donate to. I saw that he was on Twitter and followed him, and began checking his website frequently for more information. Nothing was posted. I figured he was busy counting his money and needed more time.

After a week, I started searching through Google News, curious about Sean's progress. Was the whole thing a scam? I found nothing about Sean's campaign but blog articles.

Today, I checked his competitor's site and there, to my amazement, I finally found an update! The LA Times ran an article about Sean's online success and Arlen Sigfreid linked to Sean's Ethics Committee report. Checking Google News again, I found a number of new articles reporting on Sean's success.

In short, Sean has raised $96,512 with approximately 5700 online donors. I think this is amazing. As the Times article and Sigfreid's website show, we won't know until the election is this is a liability. Will his potential constituents be upset about out-of-state influence in their local business?

We need smart people in government everywhere. Sean will have the most direct impact on affairs within his state, but Kansas is part of the U.S. and that means their success is ours and vice versa. Also, if Sean is successful, Kansas might be a great place for him to gain experience that could transfer into a federal position.

Most importantly, it's not fair that legitimately qualified candidates are unable to participate in the political process because they're not part of the machine or don't have the funds. Our country was founded on the obligation each of us has to participate in our government. Interest in politics has increased recently, and we should encourage it. Political support should be able to come from anywhere within our country, as long as the final vote still lies with the citizens of Olathe. All the internet has done is level the playing field.

Sean Tevis has a political platform and opinions that I can relate to. I don't live in Olathe, or even Kansas. Regardless, I wish Sean the best and look forward to following the campaign as it moves forward.

Kid covers Mary Had a Little Lamb

2008-05-20T12:02:00Z

As seen on Digg, here's a YouTube video of a kid covering Mary Had a Little Lamb as performed by Stevie Ray Vaughn. I recently started playing the electric guitar, complete with lessons from a qualified instructor. I won't kid myself: my progress has been limited by the lack of time I can/do set aside for practicing. However, I find videos like this both intimidating and inspirational.

Take Five Hundred and Sixty-Two... Action!

2008-05-19T00:09:11Z

Once again, I'm thinking about getting into blogging again. Given that I've tried more and more frequently recently, both here and at other sites, maybe this will be the attempt that gets me going.

In the past, what I loved about maintaining this site was the community. More frequently than not I'd find strange but interesting referrers in my logs, or I'd meet fascinating people in the comments of my posts. I miss that sense of connection, however I also know that it took a long time and a lot of hard work to get there the first time. Having lost all of the Google power this blog had by trashing the archives, I'm essentially starting from scratch.

Let's see how it goes.

Review: Overlord (360)

2007-09-04T13:22:07Z

I recently completed Overlord (the 360 version). Released on 6/26/07, the game is very similar to Pikmin, however instead of playing a lost alien trying to rebuild his spaceship you play an evil Overlord trying to rebuild his tower. You control an army of minions comprised of four different types, each having separate abilities. The game consists mostly of exploration with some light puzzle play as you figure out how to use the specific skills of your minions to overcome enemies. Also, like Fable, you can make choices throughout the game that have an effect on how evil you are. Find the village's lost supplies and keep them for yourself? Or return them to the village?

]]> My first experience with this game came from playing the demo. I enjoyed the witty writing and the mocking take on evil game play. The graphics were good, the storyline was interesting, and the control scheme seemed well done. However, the demo is short; since you only control 10 brown minions you don't get a sense of how complicated the controls will become.

As the game progresses it became less polished and more complicated. In a late stage, a bridge had been raised in order to force me to go in a certain direction, however I could walk through the bridge and cross the gap over empty air. In another case a door that I had already opened closed when I re-entered the area but the mechanism to reopen it wasn't active. I had to return to my tower and restart the level. With another quest, I was asked to visit my mistress. I did so and received an achievement, but for the rest of the game I continued to be prompted to visit her in our chambers when she wasn't there anymore. Finally, some techniques were not clearly identified early in the game and caused me much difficulty later on. A great example of this is the ability to target a guard point and then move it with the right stick.

Forty minions are difficult to control and keep track of, and many times I lost half my army without realizing it. The game uses the directional pad to manage your spells and the right shoulder button and face buttons to manage the selection of specific minions. Spells don't have names or descriptions, so if you forget what they do or the order you got them in it's difficult to determine what the most powerful version is and how it works. Selecting minions is a difficult task to manage and can be very frsutrating. You can break your brown minions into three groups and then target a group and move it around by selecting it's way-point, however I often found my waypoints difficult to select instead of other objects in the environment. In addition, resurrected minions don't return to their waypoint and in tough battles this is something to keep track of. It does no good to have 40 minions if only 10 of them are fighting.

Overall, I enjoyed Overlord and I'd recommend it as a nice break from the steady diet of shooters on the market. The gameplay is interesting and the game is fun. The control is tough to get, but I did feel as though I mastered it eventually, albeit at the end of the game. It can be compensated for by upgrading the number of minions you can control and doesn't become an obstacle to enjoying the experience. I wish they had done more with the minion dialog (they say some funny things), but there was enough to keep me amused. I would also have liked a little more polish later in the game, but it's certainly not a deal-breaker.

To be fair, I didn't explore the multi-player content in the game. I did enjoy the single player campaign regardless of the minor issues I encountered. All-in-all, I give this game a 7 out of 10.

The White Stripes

2007-07-24T12:13:36Z

Last night I saw The White Stripes at the Agganis Arena. This is the third time I've seen Jack White in concert (once with the Raconteurs and twice with The Stripes) and I will continue to pay to watch him at every opportunity. His mix of folk, blues, and rock is fantastic and he puts on an energetic and fantastic show.

Let me begin by saying that I was let down with the tickets, and that's my only complaint about the show. I spent a lot of money on what I thought were floor seat tickets by the sound board. Upon arrival at the show I was disappointed to find that the tickets were really General Admission, no seating. I wasn't the only one who was confused; I spoke with some other fans who had the same misunderstanding. In my case, Ticket Master allowed me to pick seats and mailed me tickets showing section, row, and seat information. Very misleading.

Dan Sartrain opened the show. He did a 30 minute set and other than not sucking, I don't have much to say. None of his music stood out as being exciting for me, and with the arena only being half-full by the end of his set-list there was no energy build up leading into the main act. It was clear that everyone was there for the Stripes and listening to the opener was like washing your hands before dinner. As always, the Stripes' set was simple: a red backdrop with a shelf that Jack would occasionally walk on (see picture), a mirror ball, and lots of lighting. They opened with Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground which got the whole place fired-up. They played a lot of different material off all of their albums. Jack is an extremely talented musician, highlighted during the performance of Icky Thump. As Jack played his synthesizer with his left hand, he played his guitar with his right. His vocals were fantastic and sounded great from where we were. The set-list mixed in heavy stuff (like the aforementioned Icky Thump) and lighter stuff (Meg did In the Cold Cold Night). I'd looked forward to hearing Deathletter (one of my favorites; Jack covers it amazingly) and an awesome cover (last time I saw them they did Bang Bang (My Baby Shot me Down) by Nancy Sinatra). They did play Ball and a Biscuit and in the encore did a great medley of a few of their songs mixd together that was HOT.

Overall, the show was great. I totally recommend checking out the Stripes of they play near you. It's well worth the price of admission.

Will it blend?

2007-07-11T00:40:39Z

I've seen some of the Will it blend movies before, however today Gruber linked this one: Will it blend: iPhone.

Horrifying.

iPhone

2007-07-10T00:37:49Z

It's true: I am an iPhone owner. I bought mine at 7:00 P.M. on June 29th, the very evening they came out. Upon reaching my local Apple store I was concerned that they were sold out as there was no line, however when I pointed this out to one of the twelve thousand clerks he told me they had plenty. I asked a few questions, approached the counter (also no line), chose my phone, paid, and left. After getting home I had my phone activated and my number switched within 30 minutes and could make and receive calls within an hour.

The only problem I've had so far was with battery life. The Usage data wouldn't update and my battery was dying within a day, without using the phone very much at all. After some research on the Apple discussion forums I learned that some others had similar experiences and a trip to the Apple store was the remedy. Sure enough after describing my problem I was given a new phone, which is doing much better.

I'd like to write a whole review, however since I'm just getting the blog up and running again I'll start with baby steps. The iPhone is a beautiful device. The hardware is sleek and eye catching and the software is smooth and fast. My favorite feature is Safari. I've always wanted an internet device that gave me access to the interwebs from anywhere at anytime. With the iPhone I have that. Look up an address in Google Maps? Done. Check my Gmail? Finished. Read a little Slashdot? Piece of cake. This is the way the web was meant to be: all access, all the time.

If you read this far, thanks. I've been itching to get back into the writing game for a while, and hopefully this will be the first of quite a few posts. I've got my fingers crossed...

A Warrior

2007-03-17T18:05:07Z

I'm currently playing on the server Demon Soul. My main character there is a level 68 Undead rogue. I've had a very hard time trying to find a group to do the mid-60 instances whether it's PUG or a guild group. It seems like there are many rogues and hunters, and plenty of hybrid classes that can heal. Trying to find a tank is an effort in frustration.

That being said, I've rolled a Tauren warrior. I've never played a high level warrior before. I've heard that they're slow to level as they don't deal a lot of damage (until you get higher and you can obtain appropriate gear) and since they can't heal themselves you have to stop frequently in order to eat or bandage.

I'm not sure if I have it in me to level another character all the way up. I've hit a wall with WoW and I'm starting to consider trying Guild Wars or the new Lord of the Rings MMORPG. No matter what, I'll do my best to journal my progress with the warrior as I go.

Introduction

2007-03-08T00:29:29Z

I've kept a blog in the past and recently realized that I miss doing it. I'm also an avid World of Warcraft player, and in my many adventures through Azeroth I've repeatedly come across things I've wanted to share. The goal of this blog will be to document my Azerothian adventures and intellectual dalliances.

WoW and the mop

2005-11-03T13:12:57Z

I've been playing a lot of World of Warcraft lately, so much so that I'm beginning to think I might have an addiction. Like any good addict I've asked my friends to come along, dealing out 10 day trials and EB Games coupons to buy the game for $29.99 instead of $49.99.

Kottke recently pointed out the number of games with "cleaning" type themes: eat all the dots, kill all the enemies, wash away all the dirt.

For someone like myself, who has slight obsessive compulsive tendencies, this struck a chord with my WoW addiction. Common tasks include collecting a certain number of items, exploring and discovering all the regions on a zone map, talking to every person with a yellow exclamation point over their head, filling your XP bar in order to gain a level, and finding sets of things (i.e. armor). Personally, I find it challenging to log out with only four of eight murloc eyes. I'll get one, then another, might as well get half of them, I'll just get one more, why quit now? Only two left!

The bottom line is that WoW emphasizes and reinforces a repetitive cleaning/sorting/straightening pattern of behavior, one that I find very satisfying to complete over and over and over. Does that mean I have a problem?

As an aside, I'm curious if this type of behavior repetition could burn in other patterns at the same time. We always hear about Pavlov's dogs: ring the bell and give them food enough times and they'll salivate merely at the ringing of the bell. If collecting 12 Thresher eyes requires killing them, and I repeat that pattern over and over, can I unknowingly train myself into preparing for battle when I gather my dirty laundry? I've really stretched that example, but it's a serious question.

Harry Potter: The Half-Blood Prince

2005-07-25T00:15:02Z

I finished Harry Potter: The Half Blood Prince last week and since I finished it I've been trying to find people to discuss it with. There were so many clues and revelations to ponder, and like Order of the Phoenix the ending was thrilling, jaw-dropping, and emotion filled. When you've finished reading, post your thoughts below.

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

Heavy Metal Umlaut

2005-02-08T16:17:07Z

O'Reilly Network: Heavy Metal Umlaut: The Making of the Movie

Check out the movie, Heavy Metal Umlaut. Then go read the article O'Reilly Network: Heavy Metal Umlaut: The Making of the Movie.

There's a lot of food for thought here, both in the technology used, and in the analysis of the change log on that article. Fascinating stuff.

O'Reilly Network: Stewart Butterfield on Flickr

2005-02-08T13:39:10Z

Ultimately, any user of any app built on the API has to be a user of Flickr as well. It also just introduces for a company at our stage a lot of headaches and risks, in that people are, excuse me, but shitty coders; they're not responsible in their use of the API or they write buggy code that hammers us. And that's happened a couple times. People can hammer you in other ways: they can scrape you, but they can hammer you a lot harder if you're exposing methods to the things that are most database- or CPU-intensive.

--Stewart Butterfield on Flickr