Geekomon

Sony Stock Check-up

2007-12-08T21:29:00.000-08:00

My April predictions, 1.3 million PSPs from October to December 30th
VGChartz says...

Console	PSP
America	975,287

Pretty damn close. There's also a Christmas to go for the remaining 400k.
400k is also what i predicted would be the PSP monthly sales after the price change.

Stock predictions. Buy at $49, release at $55.
Yahoo Stock ticker says...

Last Trade:	53.23
Trade Time:	Dec 7
Change:	1.54 (2.81%)

And guess what the market high for these 4 prime months were.
$55 (courtesy of finance.google.com). So if you bought in April at $49, you would have had a 12% rate on your investment. Most mutual funds give 8% return rates. 1000 dollars would make you 120$ for 9 months. Around 14 dollars a month. $5,000 investment would make that $70 a month.

The bad thing about this investment is that it's not really worth the risk for most professional investors. Sony could have pretty much pulled an Enron within 9 months. which is why i thought getting in at september or october would be better. A 4 month wait is safer.

The profit is even better too.
$45 entry. 4 months. That's a 22% ROI. $1,000 nets $250. $62 a month, baby.

Here's the point in all this math. Get in low; Get out fast.

Here's my prediction for the future. Get out of luxury stocks.
No more gaming stocks for the next year minumum. No apparel stocks.
The dollar is so volatile that there's not enough foreign interest to boost any kind of stock. So don't look for foreign interest. Look for local interest.

Any stock company with a government contract is GOLDEN. Services! Services never devalue.
Find out what your local government outsources to the private sector, and start sinking your savings. Personally, i like traffic cameras. Educational services are good, too. Traffic and Education eat the majority of government funding.

Google Desktop Fucks Up

2007-11-03T21:26:00.000-07:00

GDS 5.5 has a really bad error where only enabling web history allows you to access 127.0.0.1. Allowing web history tracking allows GDS to search secure http lines--which i guess includes 127.0.0.1.

Instead of bringing up my latest Super Duper Man videos when i type Duper, it brings up my imdb.com results. Which is a hassle.

Bad Google. The fix is to disable the googlemozilla dll in the components folder of Google Desktop. Hit the link for further instruction. It works but exactly how will GDS get popular when you have to do all this bullshit?

Google should just buy Firefox already. Or make their own browser. Most people could care less about the ability to search their hard drives using a parsing app but this is a super important bug.

Imagine if the same shit happened to Google Search! Or to Google Reader? Since most Google apps are heading for a dual online and desktop implementation, more stuff like this shit is going to happen. And woe be it he who relyeth on Google too much.

Fix this shit, dammit. It irks me to have a dll renamed for no reason.

What's Wrong With WicroWoft

2007-10-05T21:55:00.000-07:00

Over on Major Nelson's blog is a little post entitled...forgot. Something about what's wrong with Microsoft's approach to software and services as opposed to say, Google.

Here's my top 10 list of wrongheaded snafucks.

1. Asking the Public.
For god's sake. "Involve the community." That's a PR move. As if high-ups are going to take any honesty to heart. As if the public has enough information to give insightful answers. You need to be in the company to know where the dirty shit is rolling from. Preferably someone who's worked under every facet of the company. Human Resources? The pretty girl at the front desk?

2. Insecurity.
Stop comparing yourself to Google! Face it. You will never be Google. Just beat Yahoo. Not everyone likes the blank screen Google provides. Some ppl enjoy being spoon fed their info. That's why Yahoo's still in business. The less stuff you make people learn, the better. Bundle shit with your computers. Make language localizations a top priority. Get all Yahoo's business. Solve your insecurity by actually beating someone new. Beating Netscape was a long time ago.

3. A Better Business Model.
Software development supported by ad revenue. That's how Google is kicking everyone's ass. You can't beat FREE! Not only is it free, it's good enough. Offer up Office for free, and make available all the really business oriented features (like replication) as a pay for service. Make integration a paid package too. But offer everything else for free. Lose a chunk of your market? It's already gone anyways. Hell, make Vista free. This probably isn't possible due to business inertia. I suggest you prototype new products and services with this model. Xbox Live, maybe?

4. Simplicity.
7 versions of every software? 4 versions of every service? It's one thing to maximize your profit by your audience but no one's going to read 3 pages of features list. Offer 2 version. Pro and Free. Simplicity isn't just good for the consumers, it's good for the bottom line. How much advertising money does it take for Microsoft to gain a new customer? How are you going to compete against the new age of cellphones and blackberries?

5. Corporate Culture.
Make better decisions. Find good people to make better decisions. And then let them. Prototype, and test a leader. Then give him a project. Give him a timeline. Rinse, Repeat. Do not let a PERSON define success. Let multiple people and if possible, use numbers as a metric. Is the Zune the second most popular player in America? Does it sell at a good price? Is it a fashion statement? If no, J. Allard is not your golden boy. Look elsewhere.

6. Vista
The problem with Vista is that Microsoft doesn't have a retail presence. Fuck making computers. Just own some brick and mortar shop. You will lead by example. Lots of distributors have their own retail outlets. It's a way to control ppl like Micheal Dell who will bow to public pressure. You want to popularize Vista? Well, start selling computers at cost. You exert just enough pressure to light a fire up Dell's ass. You can pull back at any time.

7. Xbox
Do not nickel and dime. Do not charge for things that have been free since time immemorial. Do not charge for online. Do not buy 2nd tier gaming companies. Do not buy Rare. Do not buy Lionhead. Do not buy Peter Molyneux. Buy cheap stuff. In order to do that, you need a good buyer. Someone that knows the business. I suggest someone from Scandinavia. At least two people from the indie scene (people can smell bad programmers from a mile away---'ahh, that guy has time to bathe. fire him.')

8. Start killing bad projects. Microsoft Surface is stupid. Table PC. Dumb.
Start new projects. Not new new but new and profitable. ISP business. Wifi infrastructure. Retail. Don't aim for hotly contested business. Go into several small pools and eat them. Silverlight is a good idea. Adobe is only one fish. Xbox was a good idea. Bad idea now that Nintendo has Iwata. Don't want to step on your developer's toes? Design your software to be compatible with your competitor. It's the same philosophy as having a retail presence. Drive a fire up your developer's ass, saying 'don't make Photoshop so expensive, bitch!' It makes Silverlight an even better idea since it's a platform--all platforms are belong to Microsoft, donchaknow? And if they don't know, make them know. Platforms are expensive to support. Finish killing Sun's Java Machines and then work on Silverlight. Do more little projects. Any software market that has one big fish needs to be controlled. Fuck up Adobe Photoshop. Fuck up Autocad. Fuck up Itunes.

9. Quality Control.
This is a huge endeavor. Do this first before everything else. TQA. Forget all about the six sigma crap and make your own metrics.

10. Even Big companies have weaknesses.
That means you have strengths as well. One, bundle software into your operating system. Get sued? Wouldn't have this problem if Vista was free. But regardless, you can still bundle. Just bundle it with a competitor as well. IE has Microsoft labeled on the ass--that kind of official status beats everything. Two, businesses are still under Microsoft's fiefdom. Use them. Talk with them. Solidify the hold even further.

As for weaknesses: Microsoft has a lot of money. But it aint infinite. Don't waste it on shit ventures. Also, for all it's success, it is still a software company. One product is heavily dependent on a PC market that's slowing down and commodotizing. The other product is being attacked by free products like OpenOffice and Google Writely. Revenue will shrink. Revenue IS shrinking.

But the thing with good solutions is that they are self correcting/fulfilling. This 10th thing is a deadline for the company to start making better products and to focus resources. Fix the first 4 on the list, the others will buckle like dominoes.

Giant Lego man

2007-08-09T22:48:00.001-07:00

"I Want ~~Charles~~ Giant Lego Man in Charge of My Kids"

Oh come on. It's a fricking giant lego man. If this was a Robot, no one would dare fuck with your kids. When i say fuck, i mean literally.

It's a big world. Filled with pedophiles. What? It's true.

Japanese Songs Rock

2007-07-15T20:00:00.000-07:00

Chiaki Ishikawa
Little Bird
Bokurano OP ED

Gripping the branch which becomes the guide
Dropping to the foot
Way that child which to the opposite bank is not perplexed,

Those which appear in your pupil
Without thinking that that is everything,
Still while blue picking up the truth which it passes, the profile which you laugh
The pain knowing, as for those which the small feather carries shining
When it just was born it is the all-inclusive wall
The rear form fly away was held

In shower in shade of trees
Lowering breath, the [ru]
Being able to tell calling voice
Until the rain stops, we would like to speak a little

Those which your pupil desires
With this feather which makes the small nest
You will live in order to connect the children who come being born
The loneliness which waives that back
Holding closing, as for this place which slept
Probably it continues to be the vacant seat eternally
You are thought in pride, directly

How the Iphone Avoided Being Ebayed to Death

2007-07-03T22:01:00.000-07:00

The whole iPhone thing is a miracle. Just look at the Wii and the PS3. Two hotly wanted items. Both ebayed to high heavens during the first 3 months. Ruthless speculators with the time to hunt it, holding the devices hostage. Avid Gamers that want the system, forced to pay a premium for its release.

So, how did Apple avoid this?

1. They released it only in America. Easier to plan and control the logistics when all the data is in the same country. Shipping streamlined. Distribution quick. Supply can be quantified

2. They only allowed two retailers. No unscrupulous Toys R US workers taking the devices off the market for Ebay purposes. 90% of the iPhones were retailed through Apple stores = 0% corruption. Demand can be quantified.

3. They pre-planned. Apple talked with Ebay beforehand about how they should quickly take down any iPhone reselling ads. Early speculation halted.

4. They allowed people to buy more than 2. Speculation comes in waves. There are the early spectators who take a lot of risk in the first week/day. Then comes the careful spectators--the bigger wave that usually contains the more successful spectators of the first wave (often using the proceeds from their earlier speculation). By allowing the first spectators to buy two, and then making the speculation go bust, that gives the speculator a negative -1000 in their wallet. An ouch that makes them think twice about trying to speculate again. Snowball anti-speculation effect. Late Speculation halted.

I'm not sure any other company except Apple could have implemented such a top down effort to stamp ebayism of their product. But dammit, it is beauty to behold.

Sony's New Old $179 PSP

2007-04-03T01:36:00.000-07:00

Here's the deal. The PSP Price has now been slashed. It went from 250, to 199, to 170. Now, why?

Let's deal in numbers. Let's limit it to 2005-2006 and to the battle between the DS Lite and PSP. Forget the fact that the GBA is still kicking ass with its walking stick.

Numbers
Sony America managed to fight the 9 million DS Lites being sold with a whopping 7 million PSPs. Getting trounced by 2 million is okay. Remember, the PSP is 1.6:1 more expensive than the DS Lite. 7 million PSP units generates enough revenue as 12 million DS Lite units.

In Japan, the DS Lite is winning with by a 7:1 ratio but that's okay too. DS Lites sold 8 million copies.

The point is, in America, the PSP is just as popular as the DS Lite. There's no reason why the PSP needs a 30 dollar price decrease. Not in America or Europe anyways. Worldwide, the PSP as a hardware platform sells just as well as the DS Lite. And selling more hardware isn't going to solve the software attach ratio problem.

Main Point
A redesign is coming, obviously. That's the only reason for a price drop. Let's just use some induction here. If our theory is true, then the price cut on the PSP has to do with how many PSPs need to be cleared off the American shelves before the PSP redesign gets announced.

Narrow the time frame.
November and December are the months where sales are the greatest. Allowing October for announcements, it gives us a maximum range of 4 months for stock to be cleared. Seeing as how PSPs sell at around a 170K units on average, we have 680 or 700K units that retailers are confident that they can sell.

Now for the Prices Vs. Quantity asymptotic charts. The best way to do this is to look at the historic data on price points, similar or competitive products, and its own price decreases. Since the DS Lite is 70 Dollars cheaper than the PSP and sells 2 million more, you can assume that a 30 dollar decrease will follow the same ratio. That's about 850k units. But people don't purchase that way. People purchase using comparison. That's why the PSP was priced at 199 in the first place. Not only was it hi-tech, it was also priced the same as the iPod nano. Sony, if anything, is corporate and predictable. So keep that number weighted.

So 850k increase in PSP sales, 4 months of possible sell time.
212K per month projected increase.

Add them all up and you have 1.3 million PSP units in America that needs to be sold in the prime 4 months. There are 4(Target, Walmart, Best Buy, Circuit City) national sellers of electronics in America and it's not farfetched that they would each order a projected amount of 300K units, ie a month and a half's worth backstock.

This assumption is based on my assumption of Sony's need to push out a redesigned PSP before November so that it can have a solidly push out out PSN titles to a PSP 2.0 with a built-in hard drive. Everyone and their puppy knows how important this Christmas is.

Conclusion
Sony's stock right now is at 49$. If you look at the yahoo charts, it's nearing a scheduled nadir cusp. it will probably start steadly rising to 55 dollars, just like how God of War 2 gave the stock a boost. Personally, i think the PSP redesign will bump the price even higher.

You could wait two months, earn 2% on your securities, sell those and dump it into Sony, and sell it at the end of January for the truly unbrave.

Sony's not a good long term buy but it's still a pretty strong brand. But maybe you should buy now. Who knows how fast people'll catch on.

Future in Gaming

2007-03-23T20:13:00.000-07:00

10 Predictions for the Gaming and PC world. Within 5 years.
1)Microsoft Loses the console war, retreats back to Windows, readies Xbox 360 2.0.

2)Apples loses the personal computing war, retreats back to consumer products and software for Windows. Steve Jobs can't live forever.

3)Playstation owns the hard core gaming world. Casual gaming market balloons up. Nintendo creates a cellphone, and buys Nvidia.

4)Intel capsizes. Microsoft creates their own Processor and Semiconductor company.

5)Playstation loses all their exclusives. Procedural programming methods are popularized. EA capsizes. Old directors lose their prominence. Hideo Kojima's new games tank.

6) In order to combat piracy, more games include hardware in their software. Guitar Villain. Guitar Heroes 4. FBI Fingerprinter DS.

7)DS Advance demolishes PSP 2.0. PSP 3.0 finally includes dual analog sticks. PSP always one step behind DS.

8)PC trends will change. Laptops will become Dual screened. Nintendo starts making more than just electronic games. They get a shitload of money from their outsourcing wii and dual screen patents to the PC industry.

9)Movies become completely greenscreened. The massive competition between the movie and the gaming industry begins. Government starts to crack down on the gaming industry even more at the behest of the MPAA.

10)A Raping Simulator made on a HomeBrew Wii sells 50 million Wii consoles.

How would you change Zelda?

2007-03-12T00:52:00.000-07:00

Let's atomize the requirements.

1) Difficulty. It has to reflect the new market. No hard core Devil May Cry enemies/bosses. No slow dungeon tutorial. Instant action. Make every level, every mini-game, every sub-level a mission ala GTA ala Devil May Cry. You can adjust the difficulty mode for each mission.

2) Control. Remove the shield. Let Link Dual wield. Turn the Wiimote sideways to go into parry mode. Dual wielding creates more combat moves with less button memorization.

3)Combat. Remove all long-range weapons. It's time to replace it with superpowers/magic. Naturally, the puzzles should reflect these powers.

Zelda games are defined by their puzzles, controls, level designs, and gameplay. It all meshes to create an almost gradual slope for the player to go from swordless Link to multi-move super-puzzle solving menu hopping Princess saver.

The next Zelda game should reflect all these core elements. But it should also include something new. Something to invigorate the franchise. Maybe co-op, maybe multiplayer combat, maybe even having Mii's in the villages.

What makes a game Next Gen?

2007-03-11T23:56:00.000-07:00

What makes a game worth that 60 dollar price tag?
It has to be a software leap. By definition is has to be the evolution of previous gen software.

Let's atomize a game to see what needs to evolve.

Texture Mapping - the bumps on a surface. It fools your eyes into thinking a 2D image is made of marble or skin. Current-gen games use normal mapping--basically making a Low Polygon character walk around in the skin of a High Polygon character. Parallax Mapping is the next level technique. It involves doppler effect of light. Textures look bigger closer, smaller farther. Only Crysis and Conan seem to support this extensively.

Light Sources: The problem with Parallax mapping is that it takes a lot of registers in your GPU to use properly. Registers that can be doing more light sources. More light sources, better graphics. You could probably fake it if you had to.

A.I - true AI isn't just a big chunk of If else statements. It should take user tactics, asign a template, respond, simulate, and repeat. Full A.I.

Procedural Assets - Using functions to create assets on the fly instead of pre-compiled. On the fly assets can be modded on the fly. Bullet holes can actually be bullet holes. Not just a 2d texture map repeated over and over again.

In conclusion, what does this mean for games?
A) Wank off to better looking breasts.
B) Multiple Light Sources. Better shadows.
C) AI, single player experience.
D) Procedural will let you create your own characters, buildings, vehicles. It also supposedly lets you generate your own actions by combining others (supposedly).

The hardware needs to be dual+ core Out of Order Cores for AI and a huge L1/L2 cache for procedural. The 360 has 1MB L2 but that's shared between all 3 cores. The PS3 has individual caches but it's non cached (slower) 256 KB with the main PPE with only 512KB L2. Either use a faster PPE with half a gig, or a slower Xenon with a shared Gigabyte. And the only saving point of the Wii in all of this is that it uses an Out of Order single processor but by Chris Hecker's(Will Wright team) admission, the Wii CP can't even lead in the AI department.

So the only truly next-gen platform is your upgradeable PC.

Donnie Darko

2007-02-01T04:04:00.000-08:00

http://www.locusmag.com/2003/Reviews/Person04_Darko.html

Watch the movie firs. Then read the link and then deem to come back so i can refute him.

Straight to explanations: The whole movie is about limited destiny. You have free will but only through the channel God's give you. That is, choice leads to another choice which hems you into other choices.

A) Darko has time travel ability.
B) Darko knows about certain things like he has experienced them before.
C) Sparrow pretty much catalogues Darko's life and abilities into a book that predates Darko's birth.

The only explanation for everything is that this is not the first time Darko has traveled back in time. In fact, it could be an odd take at the Butterfly Effect or Groundhog's Day. In the movie, his parents, little sister, lover and sister's lover all die. He knew all this! Which meant that this has already happened for him.

What else did he know? He knew that Cunningham was a pederast. He would only know that if some friend of his was molested in Cunningham's kiddy porn dungeon. Either the fat girl or even Gretchen.

Let's say he retained all the memory of time travel. Wouldn't he have to time travel every time he messed up? Let's say he did every single permutation, and each time, someone he loved died. Darko's the type of person to try out every permutation to get the best possible outcome for everyone, not just for Gretchen.

So the only way for him to be sure that there be a more random course of events would be to remove the Observer. That's why you see Gretchen bicycling there. She's not a new girl that just moved in. Her entire history changed. Most likely, everyone that was supposed to die or be harmed were saved because this wasn't a do-over from a pre-rolled die; Donnie killed himself even before the die could be rolled.

He felt it would be too hard for himself so he put safeguards in place so that he would come to the same conclusion but happily.

There is one snafu. Why is Sparrow so important? Or that damn Frank Bunny? Or the water flooding? The flooding created police investigation which delayed the delinquents' heist. Who knows what the delinquents would have done to Sparrow? Which means sparrow, and possibly her gems, are connected to the secret of time travel.

As for Donnie killing himself, that may not be the case. Remember, he brought two bodies with him. Himself and Dead Gretchen. That dead corpse they wheeled away could have been Gretchn. Also, he doesnt need to kill himself to fix the timestream. He just needs to remove himself from his era...maybe to an earlier time, to a time when Sparrow was still a young teacher. Thereby allowing Sparrow to collect or build her time gems and write her treatise on the Philosophy of Time Travel. No no. He prolly already tried that and obtained the same results.

And that's why she had to walk to the mailbox everyday. Because Darko told her to during his many trips through the timeline of his Tangential Universe. She prolly forgot the exact date due to senility.

Selling 1up, EGM and Sister Magazines To The Highest Bidder

2007-01-14T02:37:00.000-08:00

Heard the news? It’s out on every minor blog and gaming site. A few note-worthier ones have refrained from commenting—maybe because they feel that it’s not anyone’s business. But the moratorium can’t be forever. I’ve no inside information but I feel, as a gaming site, we should still cover it. We’re journalists, dagnabbit. Ziff Davis is trying to sell 1up, EGM, and all sister magazines. There. Whew. Someone within the Ziff Davis Empire has finally said it. Out in the open. Like a white banana. How does this news matter to the gaming world? The weakest species are always the first to go in any ecosystem. Think of it as an early warning bell for other magazines, even the ones with healthy subscriptions. But why 2007, right when a possible increase of readership is likely—after all, 3 companies are launching consoles. Let’s pretend we’re Ziff Davis management. Yes, I know. The horror.

Hi, CEO. You overlook 32 websites and 7 gaming publications. Your crowning achievement would have to be 1up.com with about 10 million unique monthly visitors. EGM, 1up Show, and even Retronauts regularly rank among the top gaming podcast charts on sites such as Digg.com and Podcastalley. We’ll just sweep GFW under the rug for now.

But the magazines aren’t doing so hot. In the UK, where the population readership rates are much higher, magazine markets are down by 4% overall. Official Playstation Magazine UK, a past ZD publication, lost 40k of readers in 6 months. Which would explain why OPM was cancelled. Other gaming mags share the same disparaging losses. In the US, a few telltale signs indicating another precipitous readership drop haunt you. Ulcer-inducing. Such as the fact that no one wants to buy your magazines. Not even MTV. And they bought Courtney Love’s reality show.

But surely there’s hope. The Wii has launched. So’s the PS3. Microsoft’s just renewed their commitment to the 360, and unveiled their hideously obvious strategy of taking over the living room. Prospect a future where gaming consoles situate in the trifecta: in casual, hardcore, and Tivo-centric households. More gamers, more readership, more advertising, more profit. What could go wrong?

The problem lies in the fact that Ziff Davis began in 1938 and have always thrived on printed media. There’s a lot of inertia to change. Even though the charts show that 1up is generally on top, the highest online advertising dollars rates are garnered by Kotaku. The younger sites just have better ad rates/systems. For instance, Kotaku has an actual pricing board and layout specifications linked directly on their site to their parent company Gawker. 1up.com refers you to a contact number to a ZD sales rep.

Also, which of the two media gets the breaking stories? Do you shaft your subscribed publication readers? Or do you hamper the website’s ability to cover the news and miff off the online debutantes? The Crossplayer gameplay exclusive was broken on the magazine and barely mentioned at the website, despite the fact that it was a upcoming game from Valve. This swaddling of two sides miffs off, more importantly, the advertisers, both online and offline, who pay for viewership. 30K a printed page sounds dubious when the online medium can swing more viewers for less money. This sounds like a rebuke against printed material in general but it’s not. Most other magazine sites give their magazines the bulk of their content. Vanity Fair, Playboy, Maxim, they’ve made the choice to give their photos exclusively to their printed editions. Newspapers are a different beast. They have a slower and older base that still rely on the Old Media for information. Also, they cost 75 cents for a billion pages. It’s an Itunes-like buy at the grocery store.

So, CEO, choose. The Magazine or the Website?

If you choose the website, you’ll have to settle for 3^rd place, behind Joystiq and Kotaku—sites with vast blog networks that funnel traffic behind them. 1up.com doesn’t exactly have any reputation as a gaming news site either—most of the cover stories are sent to the magazines. Like the 1up Show episode regarding Crossplayer. Selling it to someone else would be easier. But are there any large blog networks left without gaming and PC content? Gawker has Kotaku and Gizmodo. AOL has Joystiq and Engadget. Who’s left? No one, that’s who. The only way Ziff Davis can full exploit their 1up.com success is to create a blog/podcast network akin to the Gawker and AOL model. But in order to do that they have to beef up the content on the 1up site, thereby rendering their magazines obsolete. But moving from simple 30k page rates to the more complex Web 2.0 advertising model is not something done lightly and certainly not the revenue stream you have the most experience in.

Maybe it’s time to change the CEO?

Source:

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=10526

http://accessabc.com

http://gamegroup.ziffdavis.com/rates

Iphone or Epiphany?

2007-01-10T00:08:00.000-08:00

You do not realize the importance of this product. You may think you do, but you don't. It's not just the mobile phone industry at stake here. It's your laptop's touchpad. It's the mouse. Say goodbye to them.

Let me explain the philosophy of the iPhone to those that failed to see the keynote (infidels).

1) Pinch-to-resize
Anchor your thumb and your index on opposing sides of an image. Now move your fingers together slowly. The image below your fingers will resize depending on how far apart your fingers are.

2)Flick-to-scroll
Let's say you have a PDF open. Now flick upwards. Yes, like a booger. Depending on the direction of the flick, that's where you'll scroll to. Registers speed of flick, et all.

Now imagine these two key features on your computer. Wouldn't it be cool if you could actively reach out to your LCD monitor, hover your fingers over it, wave a magic gesture and have it do whatever you want without greasing up the screen? Imagine a laptop like that.

If this is the iPhone. If the iPhone runs OS X. If the gestures are 100% foolproof. Then Windows will lose 3 markets in the coming year.

Who's going to want a smartphone that doesn't have hover gestures? With a full fledged OS that natively supports it all.

Who's going to want a Tablet PC? A stylus is dead. Long live the hovering finger. It's just so intuitively simpler and efficient that--customers are going to expect hovertures on every mobile device.

Vista. Imagine controlling laptops like this. Dragging, clicking, all on hover. Instead of using the stupid touchpad, i can bring my finger on the Publish Button and jab at the air over it.

Seriously, how are you going to fight this new paradigm? It doesnt matter how many legacy apps you have when this new system of controlling things makes to much sense not to adopt.

It takes a long time for some ppl to learn an app. But if you make every app controlled the same way, the incumbency of your old apps becomes moot. Any OS without Hovertures cannot compete.

Remember, you heard the term Hoverture here first. I'm not greedy. Just pay me a penny every time you say it.

Wii Classic Controller Useless

2006-12-04T20:50:00.000-08:00

The Nintendo Wii.
GameCube Library. Check.
Wii Library. Growing.
Virtual Console. Emulating.

3 Wiimotes+Nunchuk = $180
Except, Wiimotes can't play Gamecube, SNES, or N64 games.
Gamecube controllers can. $24 x 4 = $96

That's a total of $336 on top of the $250 already spent.
$586. And you are going to have to spend this if you want a great game of Smash Brawl or Wii Sports/Play. You could be cheap and not by the nunchuks and it'd still be over 500 USD for the complete works.

And it would weigh just as much if not more than the PS3 from the weight of the combined controllers.

Oh did i forget the classic controller? The redesigned normal controller that has just as many buttons as the GC but refuses to play GC games. What the fuck.

The GC controllers are bigger than the fucking system and tethered to the goram' machine!

And Brawl, a that Wii game doesnt use the wiimote. Are they expecting everyone to buy the GC Wavebirds? Fuck it. What's the point of having a sexy system and using a ugly controller? It's like using the DS Lite with a DS fat stylus.

Argh. Nintendo better make their Classic Controller work with GC games.

Purpose	GameCube Library	VC Library	Wii Library	MIN PRICE	MAX PRICE	XBOX360 PRICE
2 Player	X	X	X	378	398	439
2 Player		X	X	330	350	439
2 Player			X	310	330	439
4 Player	X	X	X	566	626	519
4 Player		X	X	470	530	519
4 Player			X	430	490	519

Min Pricing is done with the least amount of money possible with wireless GC controllers. Max Pricing is the same as Min but with the inclusion of ninchuks. Xbox360 comparative pricing includes the Premium System and the Wireless Controls. Well, 4 player Xbox360 games are a bit less polished than Ninty's but the prices get the point made.

FFXII: Square Does Not Like This Game

2006-11-11T01:05:00.000-08:00

The underlying system of this game is good. But the story, the character design is fucked up. Boy Band.

Jesus, there's save points every 3 feet. The Limit breaks kill bosses faster than Batman. When your party dies, you can just swap out for more people. The beginning of this game was so much better. In the beginning you had to conserve power, choose wise gambits, choose when to use limit breaks, and when one of your teammates died, you damn well better finish the fight or the fight finished you. But then the game decides to give you double the license points and gives you an easy way out at every battle.

This is prolly why the people responsible for XII left the company. Someone, somewhere, decided to combine the worst game mechanics from FF 9 and FF 10 and FF 10-2 and give it to this game.

This is the end of a franchise. Fatal on a fundamental level, the fact is that Square Enix can not recognize a good game anymore.

Movie of the Year: Good Night and Good Luck

2006-10-31T23:13:00.000-08:00

By now, you've heard of Good Night and Good Luck. If you haven't, go see it. Why? Because this movie distills, in poignant frames, what exactly makes America great. It does this by standing the good in stark contrast with the shadows that darken America every odd decade or so.

The shadows of fear.

Fear of Communism quieted the Americans who would otherwise balk at Senator McCarthy's overreaching, unjust and illegal Inquisition. Accusations based on hearsay. Forbidding or limiting the powers of counsel. Civil liberties decided by a closed circuit with closed evidence. Wide powers given to government. Sound familiar? Incredibly, it is a news program, acting as a pulse/idea.conduit for the nation, that finally drums up enough courage to defeat the villainy of the times.

Which is strange because Americans nowadays are familiar with a different breed of news and tv programs. Shows filled with Dane Cook aphorisms and the Jay Leno-style transcripts of non-controversy. Because John Q. Public (and the resulting advertising dollars) don't like uncomfortable things, they don't enjoy being insulted, being told they are wrong, or being shown that not only are there awful things happening, but that they themselves allow it to happen. 'Dancing with the Stars' is much tastier fare, and easier to keep down.

"For surely we shall pay for using this most powerful instrument of communication to insulate the citizenry from the hard and demanding realities which must be faced if we are to survive. I mean the word survive literally. If there were to be a competition in indifference, or perhaps in insulation from reality, then Nero and his fiddle, Chamberlain and his umbrella, could not find a place on an early afternoon sustaining show. If Hollywood were to run out of Indians, the program schedules would be mangled beyond all recognition. Then some courageous soul with a small budget might be able to do a documentary telling what, in fact, we have done--and are still doing--to the Indians in this country. But that would be unpleasant. And we must at all costs shield the sensitive citizens from anything that is unpleasant."
-Murrow

"If we confuse dissent with disloyalty — if we deny the right of the individual to be wrong, unpopular, eccentric or unorthodox — if we deny the essence of racial equality then hundreds of millions in Asia and Africa who are shopping about for a new allegiance will conclude that we are concerned to defend a myth and our present privileged status. Every act that denies or limits the freedom of the individual in this country costs us the. . . confidence of men and women who aspire to that freedom and independence of which we speak and for which our ancestors fought."
– Ford Fiftieth Anniversary Show, CBS and NBC, June 1953, "Conclusion." Murrow: His Life and Times, A.M. Sperber, Freundlich Books, 1986

"We cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home."
-Murrow

"We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason if we dig deep in our history and doctrine and remember that we are not descended from fearful men, not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate and to defend causes which were for the moment unpopular. We can deny our heritage and our history, but we cannot escape responsibility for the result. There is no way for a citizen of the Republic to abdicate his responsibility."
-Murrow

Studio 60: A Show that Dares to Insult the Viewer

2006-10-31T04:57:00.000-08:00

Sports Night, West Wing, Studio 60

I dont care who Sorkin is. Sports Night and Studio 60 is practically the same show. Sports Night was genius. It was smart, witty, funny, and quick. It was different. No laugh track.
And it was funny.

Studio 60, however, is the same breed but a different animal. Instead of sports and bylines, its about the stuff comedy is made of. Its about censorship, religion, politics, government, counter culture, racial issues and history. All bound in a 'SNL Within A Show' veneer. It insults everyone and anyone. It starts off by insulting the people that watch the myriad of CSI and Reality shows. After which, the script calls to insult people from Columbus, Ohio. (The state that gave Bush the lead over Gore in the 200X elections)

People guffaw at being insulted. But that's what makes S60 different. It dares criticize the viewer. Are you freaking perfect that you cant stand a bit of critique?

That's why the internet/TV online fans hate S60. They are otakus. Serious fucking otakus who only understand pandering TV shows like Lost or Heroes. Argh. How often do you get a show that insults you? Do you surround yourself with "yes" men?

Jesus Frackin' Christ. If S60 was on BBC, it would make a killing. Because Nielsen Ratings are filled with people (not dumb) that can't read W. Somerset Maugh. Entertainment does not only satisfy desire but it can discuss truths as well.

That's what the Nielsen Public and the Internet Otakus cannot get. I'm never going to write for television, I think. The system only rewards producers of nicotine and not medicine.

Wonder Woman Unofficial Redesign by Mckeevie

2006-08-19T00:33:00.000-07:00

Click on the title link to go to the redesign.

It's eh. There's no ambassador feel to her. Looks like toned down goth chick.

She's wearing normal everyday clothes? Why? Costumes must fit the character. Absurd as it sounds, a dark cape goes with Batman. Red Cape goes with fast flying. Lightning goes with Flash.

Wonder Woman is an Ambassadar and Themyscira's Number One Fighter.

So A) she has a specialty. Lasso. I would make the lasso be able to be turned into a staff.
so B) she sees the President in one second, fights Medusa the next. So her Ambassador costume should be tough themysciran armor, or at least part of one. She can grab her other armaments from her jet when she needs to. Maybe some ablative golden decoration that reveals the armor that was there all along.
C) She is Greek, give her the nose.

Here's what I came up with. Rough sketch. I'm still working on it. Tassels on the cloaks? Hrm.

Top 5 Bad Comic Book Movies

2006-07-07T01:24:00.000-07:00

Batman Begins - The second half, the resolution, the big reveal, totally destroys the realism, the atmosphere, and the focus the first half tried to build. This movie tried to be great and failed.
Blade III - Written and Directed by David Goyer. The prick refused to accept the continuity that Guillermo Del Toro built for him and remade Blade 2. Good grief. Goyer not only does not know how to write, he doesnt know how to direct. David Goyer is the very def. of a fool. He can't even judge his own level of talent.
Spider-man 1 and 2 - Both movies tried to be more but still aimed at the mainstream market. It wanted things both ways. But the core concept that they've built up for Spider-man is at odds with the implementation. You can get past the un New Yorkness of the sets. What you can't do overlook in those movies is the poor scriptwork. The repetition of moments/jokes. Spider-man movies should make ppl cry. The very core of his character is based on personal responsibility and personal tragedy. They skirt around those concepts but they never dare complete it for fear that a graphic nature would offend censors. Utterly commercial.
X-men 1 and 2 - If these movies were Wolverine I and II, then maybe the would be good movies. But X-men denotes a team of people. If the purpose of the movie is to appeal to the mainstream Micheal Bay audience---Sure. I abhor hybrids. Jean Grey didnt sacrifice herself to save her team from the flood. She committed suicide. The refusal of the script to take that step makes this a bad movie.
See No. 4.

That's all i can think of for now.

Short Story

2006-06-27T23:17:00.000-07:00

Chapter 2

Long ago, to celebrate the rebirth of the world, a powerful Master of Transformaions held a banquet.
" The first twelve animals of the new land to come across the river will be invited. The banquet will be at first light."
All the animals were elated. To eat at the Master's table was to recieve limitless bounty. The animals camped across the river bank and made their beds.
But the Monkey saw the hunger that lurked in many of his brethren's eyes. He feared a betrayal most foul. He summoned a few of his closest and most powerfulest friends and stood guard against those who would ambush in the night.
And the Monkey's caution had been warranted. Late at night, a battle raged between all beasts. The Wolf had allied himself with many Kafkas. They had decided to wipe out the competetion. Soon, the Twelve that had guarded the night faced off against the Twelve that the Wolf had gathered. The other animals had run off for their magical ability was not as strong as the others.
Dawn approached, and the Monkey knew that should even one of his Twelve taste the fruit from the Master's table, he would able to garner enough power to overpower the Wolf's Kafkas.
And so the Monkey hatched a desperate plan. As dawn came, the fighting became more fierce. The Monkey called the Wolf to fight a duel to end matters once and for all. And so they fought and the Monkey's Staff was knocked asunder. Without the staff, the Monkey was no match for the Wolf and acceded defeat. Such elation did the wolf feel that he did not realize that the Monkey had placed a small creature onto his back. The wolf proudly swam the channel with his Kafkas, their intent to reap the fruits of war. But no sooner did he reach the table of the Master did the Rat jump from the Wolf's fur to snatch the first bite of immortality.
The crumb the Rat devoured not only was delicious but amplified the Rat a hundredfold. The Wolf growled and attempted to strike him. But the Rat repelled the Wolf as easily as one would squat a fly. The Rat opened his mouth and burned a trail of fire in the air. The Wolf and his kafkas ran, tail behind their legs, and escaped into the river. Meanwhile, the Rat stood guard as the Monkey and the rest of the Twelve crossed leisurely over the river, to reap the spoils of their victory.
The Wolf realized that the duel had been nothing more than the Monkey's ruse. The Wolf vowed revenge, and from then on, the Wolf has ever warred the Monkey.

- Song's Midnight Legends and Fairy Tales Vol I xxii

Samsung Engineers have 4-Dimensional Thumbs

2006-06-06T19:41:00.000-07:00

You and me, we're too thumb to understand how ergonomic and innovative these controls are. Samsung and Microsoft. You might think they don't understand consumers. You may think that they've got no creativity. But you'd be wrong. Don't have 4-dimensional thumbs to work this new-fangled keyboard?

4-d thumb accesories, here we come.

Apple's Chief Quits

2006-03-28T19:28:00.000-08:00

Apple's Chief Technological Officer Quits.

While Ars Technica references a Daring Fireball post regarding the suspicions and deets regarding the matter, it seems like a puff piece.

There's really not enough information to say why he quit, even though the articles purport that the CTO was biased and impractical. Ergo, he quit because he didnt jibe with the Apple crowd whose employees we all assume to be Gods among Men.

But the fact is that he's a loyal Jobsian. He was the veep at NeXT for gad's sakes. There's only two reasons why a person would quit a successful company.

One; Inside information about an upcoming crash. This doesnt seem likely.
Two; Lack of a future. My guess is that Steve Jobs is grooming someone else to be the future CEO and Tevanian is pissed about it. Understandable.

Three, disagreement about the future of the company. Now this third one is for idealistic workers. Is Tevanian idealistic? He did give up a Microsoft position to go with Jobs. He's a heavy supporter of the Mach Kernel. He wrote the damn thing. He's also big on Unix File System.

Hrm. I dont know. There's no way that this is an innocent departure. The clues seem to be all there. I'll be selling my shares of Apple just in case.

And in any case, you'll prolly see software development slow down from Apple. It'll be really funny if Microsoft fucking buys Apple outright.

Thunderbird 1.5 SMTP with Google No Good

2006-03-25T05:59:00.000-08:00

If you use Thunderbird 1.5 and Gmail's SMTP/POP exclusively, you might notice that stuff is fucking up.

Someone dropped the ball, I don't know who but it got me pissed. Scoured the google group forums for half an hour before i found something usable.

Pop settings. If you aren't recieving mail to your client, go to port 995, check SSL, and use "pop.googlemail.com". Personally, I havent had this problem but others had.

SMTP settings. I couldn't send jack shit. This pissed me off.
Port 587, check TLS, and use "smtp.googlemail.com"

Really, Thunderbird or google really has to communicate more or something. Somewhow I don't think Google favors Thunderbird anymore, and vice versa. No proof, just a feeling.

Microsoft's Origami Site

2006-02-24T19:16:00.000-08:00

Never have i ever seen a more intimidating site design.

Oppressive, totalitarian, and evilish. Do you know the origin of the myth that vampires can't see their reflection. It's not that their reflection doesn't exist. It's that they don't have the capability of looking beyond themselves. Like Microsoft.

Okay, that's enough of my comparing MSFT to the Soulless.

Brrr. That site is chilling.

I really should save the .swf just in case they take the site down. Brr. Scary.

Apple to drop OSX?

2006-02-21T21:51:00.000-08:00

Dvorak's theory is that Apple's going to drop OSX and being nothing more than a Windows frontend.

Exhibit 1) Why is Apple going after rumor sites over things inconsequential?
I agree with Dvorak, Apple is hiding something. But all companies have secrets and it doesn't mean that their going to drop OSX. For one thing, we'd hear about it. There are some hard core nuts in Apple that would prolly quit their jobs over this. Not to mention all the work that's been done porting OSX to x86 chips.

Exhibit 2)Firewire being dropped
Well, the market has chosen USB. It doesn't mean anything other than the fact that USB has gained ascendancy. There's no reason for Firewire anymore. Apple is already in bed with Intel. Might as well go all-in.

Everything else is superficial. Still, Apple does have some real big problems. First of all, the peripherals, applications, and drivers entrench Windows users. It's hard to switch when you have to throw away hundreds of dollars of previous junk. It's a very hard hurdle.

2nd of all, you can't just be a retail store and sell only Apple products. That way lies madness. The taxes, the brick and mortar overhead, the whole thing costs money. Sooner or later, someone is going to come up with a Ipod killer. It's only a matter of time and the level of stupidity of Apple's competitors which, so far, seems infinite. (WMP11? Vista only? What?). And once that happens, your retail stores are gonna look stupid. Specialty stores don't last any more in this world. You need to be big, and serve more constituents than just the 5% Mac ppl. Even without a competitor, ipod sales are going to saturate the market sooner or later--in other words, cash cows aren't infinite.

So what is the point of a retail presence? Convenience. That's the only way to get ppl to overlook the premium their paying to get electronics. So what secret does Apple have that would solve their future troubles? The ace card up their sleeve when they can't rely on a new generation of ipods to boost their year-end profits? What did they give up to keep Office for 5 more years?

There's only one answer. More products. Apple Tivo, Apple HD-DVD player. Apple Phones. Apple Cell Phone Service. Sell other people's phones. SELL OTHER PEOPLE's phones! Sell Windows Mobile Smartphones. As many products as it fits your market. Gain as many market segments as possible before making the big play for the mainstream OS.

When applications become totally online based, the switch to other Operating systems will come much easier. Until then, Apple should just aim to stay alive and pour money into AJAX research. After that, bring out that spreadsheet program.

If i were Microsoft, I would pull Office out of Apple right now.