I've been playing this game (on the XBox) a lot lately, and spent about half this weekend on it. It's so addictive, especially since you get to compare you scores against everyone else in the world and your friends in particular.
What I've noticed this weekend in particular, though, is that winning in the Kudos World Racing at the medium difficulty level (that is, getting the silver medal) is not really as good of an indication of how good you are as it could be. The reason is that each time you get to a new class of cars, you probably buy the best car in the class to do your races. You therefore make up extra time on straightaways versus the computer opponents just because you have a better car.
I can tell that medium difficulty is actually harder than that because I played a bunch of the street race and timed run levels in the game where the car you drive is picked for you and is usually not the best car. Medium difficulty there was much harder. The good side is that I've learned more about how to take turns for maximum speed much better, although not nearly like the guys who are the top scorers on those boards.
There's one cone challenge level, the one that uses a Morgan Aero something-or-another, that I have a gold medal and came very close to the platinum. On that one, I'm placed something like 1292 in the world, which for that level is something like 30,000 people. I feel pretty good about that one. Of course, you go look at the ghost for the top guy on that board and you see him execute the whole race flawlessly (okay, I did that - every cone gate plus slides between got me the whole race in one chained combo) but he throws in a couple 360s and extra slides that make his score just dwarf mine.
I could go on, but I need to go get some breakfast! (Oh, look - racing and blogging both came before breakfast. How interesting.)
Sunday, June 27, 2004
Tuesday, June 22, 2004
Dodgeball
My twelve year old daughter, Elizabeth, went with her sixth grade class to the movies last Friday. They saw Dodgeball, with Ben Stiller. Unfortunately, all they had to say about the movie afterward was what happens in the final moments. The woman that's the primary love interest in the movie apparently greets some other woman with a deep, passionate kiss. The guys that are there then go on about how they didn't know she was a lesbian. She replies with something like, "I'm not a lesbian, I'm bisexual!" and continues the kissing with one of the guys.
Why? This had nothing to do with the rest of the movie, but was merely an unnecessary, gratuitous sex joke that ruined the movie for my daughter and her friends. I can only imagine how horrified the teacher was, as I'm almost 100% certain he didn't know that was in there. I know he had to field at least one question of "What's bisexual?" from one of his students.
Frankly, this is just a shame and further evidence of the extremely liberal slant of Hollywood. It's no wonder I don't watch as many movies as I used to, although it's hard to tell considering the number of movie related posts I've made in this blog. Maybe it's really that I am more particular about my movie choices, not that I watch any less.
Why? This had nothing to do with the rest of the movie, but was merely an unnecessary, gratuitous sex joke that ruined the movie for my daughter and her friends. I can only imagine how horrified the teacher was, as I'm almost 100% certain he didn't know that was in there. I know he had to field at least one question of "What's bisexual?" from one of his students.
Frankly, this is just a shame and further evidence of the extremely liberal slant of Hollywood. It's no wonder I don't watch as many movies as I used to, although it's hard to tell considering the number of movie related posts I've made in this blog. Maybe it's really that I am more particular about my movie choices, not that I watch any less.
Thursday, June 17, 2004
Treo 600 & PocketTunes
I have a Treo 600 now as my phone and Palm organizer. This little device is awesome, and it's already made a world of difference in my productivity. Since I don't have to mess about with multiple devices, I'm using it a lot more and capturing some of those random thoughts that hit me, go away, hit me again, and so on.
Even better, I got the Pocket Tunes application for it, plus a 256Mb SD card. Just this very moment, a double album by Paul Oakenfold that's one of my favorites is copying in WMA format directly from Windows Media Player onto the Treo. I have headphones and the adapter I mentioned in a previous post about shopping at Radio Shack, so I can listen to music directly off my phone any time.
I think about what life was like before cell phones, and PDAs, and all this cool technology, and I wonder how we did it. I actually know how: we didn't know any better. I wonder what we don't know any better about now that will be cool and critical in ten years? You know, when I'm getting my first immortality treatments?
Even better, I got the Pocket Tunes application for it, plus a 256Mb SD card. Just this very moment, a double album by Paul Oakenfold that's one of my favorites is copying in WMA format directly from Windows Media Player onto the Treo. I have headphones and the adapter I mentioned in a previous post about shopping at Radio Shack, so I can listen to music directly off my phone any time.
I think about what life was like before cell phones, and PDAs, and all this cool technology, and I wonder how we did it. I actually know how: we didn't know any better. I wonder what we don't know any better about now that will be cool and critical in ten years? You know, when I'm getting my first immortality treatments?
Wednesday, June 16, 2004
My new hat
New Hat
I ordered a new hat that says "W: 2004" on it. I can hardly wait to wear it at the office, around my Dad, anywhere on the Left Coast, oh, just everywhere!
I ordered a new hat that says "W: 2004" on it. I can hardly wait to wear it at the office, around my Dad, anywhere on the Left Coast, oh, just everywhere!
POLITICS: The Abu Ghraib excuse
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,122653,00.html
From the article:
This is really good news! Johnson only has to worry about being posed naked or wearing panties on his head, and those that do it will then be courtmartialed by their leadership. If he once attended college, especially if he was in a fraternity, he should be able to weather that easily.
Meanwhile, back in reality, I know I'm preaching to the choir when I say that the death of Nick Berg illustrates the absurdity of that statement.
From the article:
Johnson apparently was abducted Sunday by militants who also claimed responsibility for gunning down another American from the same firm the day before. They threatened to treat the captive as U.S. troops treated Iraqi detainees, a reference to the month-old abuse controversy at Abu Ghraib prison.
This is really good news! Johnson only has to worry about being posed naked or wearing panties on his head, and those that do it will then be courtmartialed by their leadership. If he once attended college, especially if he was in a fraternity, he should be able to weather that easily.
Meanwhile, back in reality, I know I'm preaching to the choir when I say that the death of Nick Berg illustrates the absurdity of that statement.
Tuesday, June 15, 2004
Posting via email
Blogger is a really great product. The last post, on the WarEngine, was done via email. I have a secret address that I set within the blog settings to which I can send an email. The email is converted to a post. For those of you that have already used Blogger, this isn't probably news, but I'm pretty thrilled with it.
WarEngine License
I had someone today contact me about getting a license to The WarEngine, which is the tabletop miniature wargaming system I wrote when I was running DemonBlade Games many years ago. They want to produce a new miniatures game, but are thinking that writing their own system is too much when there's a perfectly good, licensable system that has a built in fan-base. Very cool!
I hope that they have their act together with regard to their business proposition, but since I'm going to offer a one time fee for licensing, my income from such a thing will not be tied to their success. Unfortunately, too many ventures in the miniatures business are poorly planned, under-funded and doomed to failure. There's just not much money in it without a considerable up-front investment that most who venture into the business don't have, me included.
Still, it's very exciting when I get approached about this. It's the fourth time, if I'm recalling correctly, although no one has actually followed through and published. Perhaps this time will be the time!
I hope that they have their act together with regard to their business proposition, but since I'm going to offer a one time fee for licensing, my income from such a thing will not be tied to their success. Unfortunately, too many ventures in the miniatures business are poorly planned, under-funded and doomed to failure. There's just not much money in it without a considerable up-front investment that most who venture into the business don't have, me included.
Still, it's very exciting when I get approached about this. It's the fourth time, if I'm recalling correctly, although no one has actually followed through and published. Perhaps this time will be the time!
Microsoft Echoes Spanish Prisoner
I really enjoyed the movie "Spanish Prisoner" when I saw it. It's a movie about a never-quite-defined, extremely valuable "process" that's the intellectual property of a company, and the intrigue that surrounds attempts by various parties to gain access to it. The "process" is so valuable that there's enormous secrecy at the company and painstaking measures to protect it. The movie is often compared to the better-known movie, "The Usual Suspects," but I think the dialogue in "Spanish Prisoner" is far more entertaining, as it's all complicated and filled with little side sayings and such, like the woman that just throws into a conversation the phrase, "Dog my cats."
The real point of this post, though, is that we have some new security posters that have gone up around campus, encouraging us to be careful with our intellectual property and security measures. Every time I see one, I think of "Spanish Prisoner," where they had posters on the walls of the company with much the same theme. One that springs to mind is a poster with some guy drowning in front of a sinking ship and the slogan, "Someone Talked!" emblazoned across the header. It is, of course, a reference to the phrase, "Loose lips sink ships."
I'm in no way downplaying the importance of security and the protection of intellectual property, although I'm a firm believer in more transparency being good for product development. But this is definately a case of life imitating art.
The real point of this post, though, is that we have some new security posters that have gone up around campus, encouraging us to be careful with our intellectual property and security measures. Every time I see one, I think of "Spanish Prisoner," where they had posters on the walls of the company with much the same theme. One that springs to mind is a poster with some guy drowning in front of a sinking ship and the slogan, "Someone Talked!" emblazoned across the header. It is, of course, a reference to the phrase, "Loose lips sink ships."
I'm in no way downplaying the importance of security and the protection of intellectual property, although I'm a firm believer in more transparency being good for product development. But this is definately a case of life imitating art.
Monday, June 14, 2004
Riddick & Achilles
On Saturday, I went to the movies - twice. First I went to see "The Chronicles of Riddick", which is the sequel to "Pitch Black". As a big fan of the first one, I was very happy to see a new movie exploring the character of Riddick further. It was very interesting in that we get a much wider view of the universe in which Riddick lives, including that there are different species of human-like creatures and that Riddick is from one of the powerful but rare due to persecution species. I'm not giving away much of anything with that statement, as they make it clear pretty fast. There's also an interesting parallel drawn between the biblical story of Herod having all the Hebrew boys killed because of a prophesy and that of the Lord Marshall of the Necromunga doing the same thing with the Furions for the same reason.
Later in the day, I went to see "Troy". This is a movie that will have to join the collection of modern epics that have been made, including "Gladiator", "Braveheart", "The Patriot", and the "Lord of the Rings" movies. I particularly liked the way they took a story that could have included a lot of supernatural elements and presented it as an entirely human story. The characters were, of course, all mythological heroes and villians with ancestry among the gods in the original story, but this telling sidesteps that, and the resulting focus on the characters and their emotional interaction without Greek gods dominating the stage results in what I think is a better movie than it would have been otherwise.
The reason behind the title to this post, though, is because it occurred to me a couple days later that the character of Riddick and the character of Achilles were cut from almost precisely the same mold. They are both incredibly strong outsiders, although Riddick is a criminal where Achilles is not. Achilles fights for Agammemnon, not because he cares whether the king wins or loses, but because he'll be remembered for the battles he wins. When it doesn't suit his purposes, he's ready to leave or sit out the battle. This is a direct parallel to Riddick's statement, "This is not my fight."
Both of them are also rather gloomy about the fact that we all die (at least for now - see my prior post on Kurzweil.) When faced with other people trying to get them to act because more people will die if they don't, they point to the inevitability of death as a counterargument as to why they should bother. I think it would be particularly interesting to take the scripts of the two movies, pull out the lines for Riddick and the lines for Achilles, and do some comparisons. If they don't have a least a couple lines that are almost verbatim the same, I'd be very surprised. Perhaps a quiz giving lines with an "Is it Riddick or Achilles speaking?" question lined up with each would be entertaining?
Not directly related to this topic, I'll also add that the race against time and a hostile planet that was the central activity of "Pitch Black" has its parallel in "Chronicles of Riddick" as Riddick leads an ever-dwindling group across the face of Crematoria, a planet with such extremes of temperature between night side and day side that humans can only survive in the narrow band between them, and if outside better run like hell. It's also kind of fun that in the Riddick universe, no matter how violent and dangerous a planet is, no matter how odd the environment, humans can breathe the air just fine.
I think both of these movies are well worth the price of admission, and when they come out on DVD, they will be added to my collection as movies I expect to watch quite a few times.
Later in the day, I went to see "Troy". This is a movie that will have to join the collection of modern epics that have been made, including "Gladiator", "Braveheart", "The Patriot", and the "Lord of the Rings" movies. I particularly liked the way they took a story that could have included a lot of supernatural elements and presented it as an entirely human story. The characters were, of course, all mythological heroes and villians with ancestry among the gods in the original story, but this telling sidesteps that, and the resulting focus on the characters and their emotional interaction without Greek gods dominating the stage results in what I think is a better movie than it would have been otherwise.
The reason behind the title to this post, though, is because it occurred to me a couple days later that the character of Riddick and the character of Achilles were cut from almost precisely the same mold. They are both incredibly strong outsiders, although Riddick is a criminal where Achilles is not. Achilles fights for Agammemnon, not because he cares whether the king wins or loses, but because he'll be remembered for the battles he wins. When it doesn't suit his purposes, he's ready to leave or sit out the battle. This is a direct parallel to Riddick's statement, "This is not my fight."
Both of them are also rather gloomy about the fact that we all die (at least for now - see my prior post on Kurzweil.) When faced with other people trying to get them to act because more people will die if they don't, they point to the inevitability of death as a counterargument as to why they should bother. I think it would be particularly interesting to take the scripts of the two movies, pull out the lines for Riddick and the lines for Achilles, and do some comparisons. If they don't have a least a couple lines that are almost verbatim the same, I'd be very surprised. Perhaps a quiz giving lines with an "Is it Riddick or Achilles speaking?" question lined up with each would be entertaining?
Not directly related to this topic, I'll also add that the race against time and a hostile planet that was the central activity of "Pitch Black" has its parallel in "Chronicles of Riddick" as Riddick leads an ever-dwindling group across the face of Crematoria, a planet with such extremes of temperature between night side and day side that humans can only survive in the narrow band between them, and if outside better run like hell. It's also kind of fun that in the Riddick universe, no matter how violent and dangerous a planet is, no matter how odd the environment, humans can breathe the air just fine.
I think both of these movies are well worth the price of admission, and when they come out on DVD, they will be added to my collection as movies I expect to watch quite a few times.
Missed a few days
I was traveling and had only sporadic access to an internet connection, so I have not posted for a few days. What's interesting is that this really bothers me. I have an affirmation relating to blogging: "I am relaxed and have greater clarity of thought when I regularly post to my blog." The affirmation may be working!
Wednesday, June 09, 2004
Google is a Verb
One thing I've noticed in the focus groups (not that it's the only place I've heard this, but it jumped out at me) is the Google has become a verb. One of the guys in the group said both "I google it to make sure I've got everything" and "that would come out when I'm googling it."
Someday, I would love to create a product that becomes a verb. I think at that point, you can say, "I have arrived."
Someday, I would love to create a product that becomes a verb. I think at that point, you can say, "I have arrived."
My Role is Changing
I'm changing what I'm doing at work. A slightly edited version (basically, I don't refer to people with their last names in my blog unless I know in advance it's okay) of my announcement to that effect is below:
Things change, and now is one of those times. It is with mixed emotions that I announce that I am transitioning out of my role in the Windows Server community engagement initiative, effective immediately. I am now feature program manager in Chris ...’s newly formed Server Feedback Systems team. The SFS team is building the new replacement for Betaplace, Windows Beta, and the JDP/TAP web portal under the code name Taranna.
This is a natural extension of the work I've done over the past several months on verbatim product feedback, a pillar of the Zephyr project many of you have heard me discuss in conversation and presentation. It is work vital to the future of Windows Server in a time where customers expect the responsiveness that comes from a direct channel between them and our product teams. I am excited to have an opportunity to contribute to enabling this connection, and I’m looking forward to using and refining product planning skills that have mostly sat idle during my eighteen months at Microsoft so far.
At the same time, it is with reluctance that I turn over our community engagement effort to other hands, although that reluctance is tempered by the knowledge that those hands are very capable. I had reduced my time on community over the past six months in order to get Zephyr up and running. During that time, the bulk of the work fell to Chandana ..., who has performed extremely well and made community at least as much hers as it has been mine. I am passing the torch to her now, confident that she will carry it forward and will see to it that we continue to succeed in this space.
Chandana will now be in the newly reorganized Customer Connection team and will be reporting to Linda ..., whose work leading the TAP program will likely be well known to many of you. I will be working with Linda and Chandana over the next few weeks to insure as painless a transition as possible. I encourage those of you on our partner teams to find time to introduce yourselves and your community related activities to Linda as soon as possible.
It has been a great pleasure to work on community and bring a stronger sense of connection to the customer for Windows Server product teams, and I’m grateful to have had the opportunity. This new challenge, though, promises to be a great opportunity as well and so, I must move on.
Things change, and now is one of those times. It is with mixed emotions that I announce that I am transitioning out of my role in the Windows Server community engagement initiative, effective immediately. I am now feature program manager in Chris ...’s newly formed Server Feedback Systems team. The SFS team is building the new replacement for Betaplace, Windows Beta, and the JDP/TAP web portal under the code name Taranna.
This is a natural extension of the work I've done over the past several months on verbatim product feedback, a pillar of the Zephyr project many of you have heard me discuss in conversation and presentation. It is work vital to the future of Windows Server in a time where customers expect the responsiveness that comes from a direct channel between them and our product teams. I am excited to have an opportunity to contribute to enabling this connection, and I’m looking forward to using and refining product planning skills that have mostly sat idle during my eighteen months at Microsoft so far.
At the same time, it is with reluctance that I turn over our community engagement effort to other hands, although that reluctance is tempered by the knowledge that those hands are very capable. I had reduced my time on community over the past six months in order to get Zephyr up and running. During that time, the bulk of the work fell to Chandana ..., who has performed extremely well and made community at least as much hers as it has been mine. I am passing the torch to her now, confident that she will carry it forward and will see to it that we continue to succeed in this space.
Chandana will now be in the newly reorganized Customer Connection team and will be reporting to Linda ..., whose work leading the TAP program will likely be well known to many of you. I will be working with Linda and Chandana over the next few weeks to insure as painless a transition as possible. I encourage those of you on our partner teams to find time to introduce yourselves and your community related activities to Linda as soon as possible.
It has been a great pleasure to work on community and bring a stronger sense of connection to the customer for Windows Server product teams, and I’m grateful to have had the opportunity. This new challenge, though, promises to be a great opportunity as well and so, I must move on.
Running Focus Groups
I'm currently in New York. As an aside, I love this city, and wish I was staying for a few extra days. But the primary reason for the trip is that we're conducting focus groups around a project we're doing at work.
What I wanted to say here is that it's really impressive and exciting to participate in this activity for the first time. They treat us very well as the people (via Microsoft) funding the focus group. We have a room with three tiers of desks, very nice chairs, access to the internet, food and drink, and a mirror window plus microphone to be able to listen in on the focus group itself. It's very comfortable.
Beyond the sheer physical niceties, the ability to get a very targeted group of people together to go through a carefully planned out discussion to either validate or refute our assumptions in our planning is just downright cool. I wish such things had been attainable for my small business!
What I wanted to say here is that it's really impressive and exciting to participate in this activity for the first time. They treat us very well as the people (via Microsoft) funding the focus group. We have a room with three tiers of desks, very nice chairs, access to the internet, food and drink, and a mirror window plus microphone to be able to listen in on the focus group itself. It's very comfortable.
Beyond the sheer physical niceties, the ability to get a very targeted group of people together to go through a carefully planned out discussion to either validate or refute our assumptions in our planning is just downright cool. I wish such things had been attainable for my small business!
Tuesday, June 08, 2004
Radio Shack
I had the best shopping experience in Radio Shack the other day. I just wanted an adapter that would allow me to use regular headphones with my Treo 600 to listen to music - I have an application that makes it an MP3 player on top of everything else. The sales guy, Matt, was totally into what the phone did and unhesitantly opened up a couple adapters and a pair of headphones in the store so I could try them out. When the best choice of adapters didn't quite fit, he suggested trimming down some superfluous plastic so it would. I asked if that was okay to do, and he said, "Hey, it's all cool, man! Let's get this thing working before you spend any money on it." He was looking for an Xacto knife to trim it down, then thought of using a pencil sharpener. So he opened one of those, and some batteries. When the adapter wouldn't fit in the pencil sharpener, he just moved on to the next possible solution.
In the end, I walked out of there with the right adapater, modified to fit well on the phone, and pleased with having had a great experience buying something. How often can you say that?
In the end, I walked out of there with the right adapater, modified to fit well on the phone, and pleased with having had a great experience buying something. How often can you say that?
Monday, June 07, 2004
Microsoft Community Engagement Effort on Microsoft Watch
Microsoft Goes on the Community Offensive
This article pertains directly to my role at Microsoft. It is focused, however, on the things going on with CDDG, our Content Delivery (mumble) Group. I can never remember what the second D stands for. Anyway, the technologies they are describing there are what are being built from a platforms perspective, and all good stuff. The article doesn't touch on what's going on within the product divisions themselves, where we actual use the work CDDG does to try to drive greater connection with our community.
Still, good to see it talked about without any obvious element of cynicism.
[After the fact edit: CDDG stands for Content Development & Delivery Group. No wonder I couldn't remember what came after Delivery.]
This article pertains directly to my role at Microsoft. It is focused, however, on the things going on with CDDG, our Content Delivery (mumble) Group. I can never remember what the second D stands for. Anyway, the technologies they are describing there are what are being built from a platforms perspective, and all good stuff. The article doesn't touch on what's going on within the product divisions themselves, where we actual use the work CDDG does to try to drive greater connection with our community.
Still, good to see it talked about without any obvious element of cynicism.
[After the fact edit: CDDG stands for Content Development & Delivery Group. No wonder I couldn't remember what came after Delivery.]
Friday, June 04, 2004
Avant Browser
http://avantbrowser.com/
This link is for Avant Browser. It basically builds on top of Internet Explorer to make a superior browser. I've been trying it out for the last couple of days, but this morning I noticed a feature that now has me hooked. The feature is that you can set multiple home pages. So, when you launch your browser for the first time, instead of it coming up with just one page, it can come up with two, or three, or more.
For example, I have an internal SharePoint site relating to community that I go to all the time. I also want the Blogger window to be as quick as possible to get to. Google is another. Lately, I'd settled on the Blogger page and moved a few other links to the very top of my Favorites, but it's not ideal. It seems so simple: add more starter pages. But like so many simple things, it's only obvious once it's pointed out to you.
I'm sure there's more in this browser that's cool that I haven't discovered yet, but don't wait for me to tell you. Try it out for yourself.
This link is for Avant Browser. It basically builds on top of Internet Explorer to make a superior browser. I've been trying it out for the last couple of days, but this morning I noticed a feature that now has me hooked. The feature is that you can set multiple home pages. So, when you launch your browser for the first time, instead of it coming up with just one page, it can come up with two, or three, or more.
For example, I have an internal SharePoint site relating to community that I go to all the time. I also want the Blogger window to be as quick as possible to get to. Google is another. Lately, I'd settled on the Blogger page and moved a few other links to the very top of my Favorites, but it's not ideal. It seems so simple: add more starter pages. But like so many simple things, it's only obvious once it's pointed out to you.
I'm sure there's more in this browser that's cool that I haven't discovered yet, but don't wait for me to tell you. Try it out for yourself.
Tuesday, June 01, 2004
Meeting goals
At the beginning of the (calendar) year, I set goals for me and my "team" (I use quotes here because a team consisting of me and Chandana seems almost laughable to call a team) around what we would achieve for the Windows Server community engagement effort. This set of six-month goals was, in the words of my manager's manager, very aggressive.
After my 1:1 with Chandana today, I see that we are almost finished with hitting almost every goal and target on the list! There are one or two that we have chosen to defer and a half dozen successes in areas we didn't anticipate. Those deferred are acceptable as priorities change and things that seem feasible up front can turn out to require much greater resources or investment than their value warrants. The areas where we've had unexpected success are just icing on the cake.
All-in-all, FY04, spanning from July to June, is shaping up to have been one with enormous value and success for our endeavors in these area, and I'm very pleased. It is my hope that my management chain will both recognize those successes and perhaps even reward me richly for my efforts. As the only cautious part of this posting, I am well aware that success and recognition of success are all too often disconnected. But the optimist in me swears that I'll be seeing much favor from above come September.
After my 1:1 with Chandana today, I see that we are almost finished with hitting almost every goal and target on the list! There are one or two that we have chosen to defer and a half dozen successes in areas we didn't anticipate. Those deferred are acceptable as priorities change and things that seem feasible up front can turn out to require much greater resources or investment than their value warrants. The areas where we've had unexpected success are just icing on the cake.
All-in-all, FY04, spanning from July to June, is shaping up to have been one with enormous value and success for our endeavors in these area, and I'm very pleased. It is my hope that my management chain will both recognize those successes and perhaps even reward me richly for my efforts. As the only cautious part of this posting, I am well aware that success and recognition of success are all too often disconnected. But the optimist in me swears that I'll be seeing much favor from above come September.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)