Our first week of moving in has gone well! While we don’t officially move in until this Tuesday, Meaghan and I have been taking the chance to get some improvements and maintenance done early, before our furniture is in the way.
Painting the Guest Bedroom
Over the last few days we’ve moved many more loads of stuff (little things we don’t want to pay the movers to move for us) and also begun painting the guest bedroom. On Sunday we got the walls painted, and this afternoon I worked on the trim. We’re going for a coffee palette that incorporates some warm browns and tans as well as a lighter tone on the walls and ceiling.
Changed the Entryway Light Fixture
Hanging in our entryway was a light fixture that was both ugly and broken. It was loose, hanging off the wall at an uncouth angle, and offensive to look at, which gave me the perfect opportunity to do my first bit of electrical work in the house. Getting the existing light fixture off the wall was easy. Then I just had to figure out how to apply my knowledge of English electrical wiring with what I found sticking out of the wall. Following a moment of research on Google I was ready to go.
Painting the Living Room
We liked the concept of our living room with one red wall. Unfortunately the existing wall had several scratches and problems, and the red was just a little more dull that we like. So we decided to paint over the existing red with a new slightly brighter red, fixing the scratches and problems in the process!
Spackling the Walls
Meaghan has become a speckling ninja. She’s been buzzing around the apartment filling in all of the holes left from pulling out nails, screws, and taking down some of the ugly shelf sets favored by the previous owners.
Installed Solar Torches in the Back Yard
The fence around our back yard has slots for solar torches so we figured we may as well take advantage and buy a few.
There is a lot left to do, but we are making some progress!
After six weeks of paperwork, inspections, negotiation, and patience, we were finally able to start moving into our new house today! The last month especially has been quite a tease, as we were fairly certain the property would be ours but we didn’t want to get our hearts set on it just in case something fell through. Last night we received the keys and their morning we got started moving in. There is a lot of work ahead of us and a heck of an adventure to look forward to.
Moved two loads of Boxes and “Stuff”
We have movers booked to help haul our stuff in about a week, but that didn’t stop us from loading up and moving some boxes ourselves already. The movers get paid by the hour so we’re saving their time for the heavy stuff.
Changed the Locks
Just to be sure, we changed the locks on the front door, side door, and internal garage door. While we had been given the keys by our realtor, it just didn’t seem sensible to trust that there weren’t any other copies out there. We learned a lot about both removal of existing locks and the installation of new ones. Nothing too complicated but new to us nonetheless.
While we were at it, we also fit a new lock on the sliding door at the back of the house. The existing lock was broken so we got a brand new set of handles for it. Good peace of mind to have a functioning lock instead of just a piece of wood jamming it shut.
Changed the Batteries in the Smoke Detectors
One of the smoke detectors has been beeping every time we’ve been in the house. Nice to get that fixed. That beep was obnoxious!
Cleaned the Kitchen
Meaghan spent a few hours with antibacterial solutions and wipes going over all of the cabinets, under the sink, and generally getting the gunk out of all the nooks and crannies. I’m sure every person’s house has more gunk than they realize, but you really notice it when it’s your new place. We’ll be doing a lot more cleaning tomorrow and probably for days and weeks to come.
Changed the Bulbs in the Kitchen and the Living Room
For whatever bizarre reason, just about every bulb in the kitchen and living room was a different style, warmth, and power. It created a really weird color profile as light went from incandescent to fluorescent and light to dark depending upon which part of the room you were looking at. I got to learn how to use one of those extendable suction rods to screw the lights into the ceiling with and twenty-four bulbs later everything is looking great.
Running HDMI Cable
Our new house is wired for sound, literally. There is a media room next to the living room that acts as a central location for all of the video, audio, and network cabling and connections. However, since the house was built in 2004, the main cabling was for s-video and coax rather than HDMI. Fortunately, this was fairly easy to replace and after an hour or so of fishing and routing cables I’ve got an HDMI faceplate hooked up and ready to go. Tomorrow I’ve got to staple the cable in place and drill some new holes to mount the faceplate cleanly in the back of the media nook but other than that we’re ready to hook up the entertainment system. The next job is to figure out what speakers to buy. We have a fairly standard 5.1 surround set that will work well in the living room. However, the downstairs area is wired for an additional six speakers all throughout the dining and family areas. We’re thinking of installing recessed speakers in the ceiling, but I’m guessing that probably a few months down the line yet.
Tomorrow
Tomorrow we’re planning to pick out some paint colors for a couple of the bedrooms. We figure the best chance to get paint on the walls is before the furniture is moved in and we’d like to get at least the master and a guest bedroom decorated first. There is quite a bit of touch-up work to do downstairs too, from where the previous owners didn’t quite move out as carefully as they could have done. Nothing too major, but at least a few hours of hole patching and painting.
It’s been a fun ride so far! We’re looking forward to what everything else the place has in store for us.
With the release of the new iPad, many people are entering the tablet space for the first time. With it comes the task of finding the right set of applications. One of the amazing things about the platform is that no two iPads end up with the same set of installed applications; everyone has their own way of using it. Yet still there are a few core apps I would highly recommend evaluating both by those with a new device on the way and those who already own one but are still looking for new ways to use it. Here are ten of my favorite iPad applications.
1) Notability
I wrote a bit about Notability here. Over the last year I’ve used several different note-taking applications including Penultimate, Notes Plus and Note Taker HD. While all of them have their own strengths and weaknesses, I found that Notability addresses the best of my needs and closely fits my working style. Meaghan and I even signed some of our mortgage paperwork using Notability. No need to print or scan. Just sign on the page and email back to the realtor/title company.
2) Evernote
Evernote is the center of my online notebook and filing cabinet. I store everything from invoices, receipts, meeting notes, journals, to insurance records and web memorabilia within Evernote. It’s extremely useful to be able to carry all of your important documentation wherever you go. I have used it while opening a bank account to reference required documentation, provide proof of insurance, and even to find receipts while talking with our accountant. Evernote for iPad is free with an Evernote account, which is also free unless you want to take advantage of the premium features, which even then will only cost you $45 once per year.
3) Pocket Informant HD
Like many others I use a Google calendar to manage my schedule and ToodleDo to keep track of my task list. However, I had never found a convenient way to pair that information until I encountered Pocket Information HD. This app syncs with both Google calendar and ToodleDo to provide a single view of both your schedule and task list. Using this I can plan my day by finding appropriate slots in my schedule in which to knock off the top items on my task list. Adding an event to the calendar or new task to the list is sync’d right away back to the source Google calendar and ToodleDo account so reminders and the native features of those applications remain in play. All of the categories and fields of both native apps are maintained within Pocket Informant so you don’t lose any of their power. It’s the perfect replacement for a Franklin Covey right on my iPad. A very quick and simple way to see my appointments and tasks together and plan my day accordingly.
4) Splashtop
Remote desktop support directly on iPad. This lets me remotely connect to my home and work PCs and use the touch screen to drive the mouse. I’ve attended meetings, given presentations, and even coded fixes to broken builds while on a bus ride home using this application. Definitely worth the price of a foot-long sub.
5) iThoughts HD
I love mind-mapping tools and iThoughts HD brings the ability to iPad. I use this app perform brain-dumps when I just need space to think. From software designs, to thoughts on decorating our new house, to brainstorming how to help a friend through some difficult times, I’ve mapped a lot of thoughts on that little device. Visualizing your ideas is a wonderful way to understand why you might be going in circles over some decisions and grant enough abstraction to cut to the real meat behind the thought. Having that power available wherever I take my iPad has proven invaluable on more than one occasion. It’s extremely cathartic on my evening commute to just brain-dump on the bus ride home and not have to think about work into the early hours of the morning.
6) Track & Share
This is an odd application. The purpose is to track data, not specifically any type of data, just occurrences of data points across time. It wasn’t very intuitive to me until I started applying it to a few real-world applications and now I can’t imagine my life without it. Ever tried to track your weight by periodically stepping on the scale and then writing it in a log book? What about tracking whether you drink enough glasses of water throughout the day? A new exercise regime where you check off how many pushups or reps you do? That’s where track’n'share excels. Simply set up a category to track, specify the data type and range (i.e. numeric and 1-100) and then enter the value whenever you perform the action. It supports not only numeric data but comparitive values such as Bad, Good, Better, Great for tracking energy levels. I use it to track my sleep, energy, weight, exercise regime, diet, drinks, and a few other occurrence based data points. It makes those monthly reviews a lot smoother and you can really learn a lot by looking back over the data. The mind plays tricks on how often you really hit the gym last month. Track’n'share lets you know that Wednesdays and Fridays aren’t good days for your gym record and helps you to adjust accordingly. Once you get past the sometimes awkward interface this app is an absolute gem.
7) HootSuite
I love this app. The questions I used to get answers to by asking friends over drinks at the pub I now can research and ask to a whole world of people via Twitter & FaceBook. If I can’t get answers within my circles then targeted searches will likely yield the links I need to finish the research. Managing social networks from a single location is fantastic and HootSuite presents the data cleanly and quickly. The ability to save searches as a updatable feed column lets you track what’s being said on a particular topic as if the entire world was on your friends list (without the awkwardness that would lead to). Fantastic!
8) NetFlix
While it might seem like a no-brainer, the popular online streaming service is a fantastic addition to the iPad line-up. The form factor is perfect for watching your favorite TV shows and movies, whether on the bus, in an airport, or even just lying in bed. Sometimes if I can’t sleep I’ll watch a South Park or Top Gear, without disturbing my wife like a TV in the bedroom would. It’s like having your own personal DVD player 24/7.
9) iTunes (with iTunes Match)
Remember the days when you’d choose which subset of your music collection to sync to your phone, or which CDs to take with you in the car? With iTunes and iTunes Match you can take your entire music collection with you anywhere you go. The music is stored in the cloud so it’s available for download or streaming to any of your devices. I use my iPad to play music while in the shower, while riding home on the bus, and while sitting at my desk at work. You can edit your playlists and buy new songs on the go and it’s all sync’d with the cloud in the background. No more worrying about which subset of music to sync with your phone. Just take it all.
10) Words with Friends/Chess with Friends
Technically these are two separate applications, but Zynga have done such a great job that they fit together seamlessly. While not strictly productivity apps, my synapses have never felt so worked out. I haven’t played this much scrabble or chess since college, and I’ve even re-established old friendships from years ago by playing with friends from FaceBook; friends I haven’t talked to since high school. I’ve learned about their families and friends and what they are doing these days, all while getting a good mental workout and keeping my synapses firing. It’s a great way to clear your mind, keep fresh, and stave off Alzheimer’s and other neurological decay.
I’ve focused pretty heavily on productivity applications in this post. There are so many other great apps I use that I think I’ll write a follow-up post when I get a free moment to talk about the creativity side of the ipad; from music and art to learning foreign languages. Above all remember that iPad is what you make of it. Enjoy it. This is an extremely exciting time to be alive where we have available technologies that prior generations could not even have dreamed about.
No matter whether you’re a mac or a pc, prefer Android tablets or iPads, the one truth that unites us all is the need for a good backup strategy. There are many good backup strategies. Here I present just one. Find something that works for you, make sure that it backs up your important stuff without needing constant attention (it shouldn’t need manual intervention) and above all else perform a practice restore before it’s your only hope. Remember: backups nearly always succeed, it’s restores that fail.
Introducing Backblaze and Evernote
I’ve writtenaboutEvernoteatsomelength. It’s a fantastic online notebook that you can use for everything from meeting minutes to photos to audio notes and scrapbook entries. All of your data is stored securely in the cloud and can be accessed from phones, tablets, desktops, and anything with a web browser. This prepares it very well for use in a backup strategy. Add an item to Evernote and it’s whisked away to the cloud. Offsite secure backup for everything important…except…for two outcomes. First there are the things you don’t store in Evernote, videos, tools, configuration files, all of the little things that don’t warrant a formal note entry. Secondly, what if Evernote encounters a problem and loses your data, or worse goes out of business. To cover those items you need a second strategy.
Enter Backblaze. For $5 a month you can back up an unlimited amount of data from all of the drives in your system. Install the client locally and Backblaze will upload all of your data to the cloud in the background. Save a new file to your drive and shortly thereafter Backblaze will copy it to your online vault. Concerned about privacy? Don’t want Backblaze to see your porn? You can choose to have all of your data encrypted before it is sent to the Backblaze servers. Even the Backblaze employees can’t see the files. When you need to view your files or download them later, you use your password to decrypt the data. It’s safe, secure, private, and automatic.
This leads to the question, “then why use Evernote if Backblaze backs up everything?” The key here is convenience of access and search. Backblaze is a great way to take a secure, encrypted backup of your data, but it doesn’t help you find your items or access them from a variety of devices. Evernote lets your index and organize your online filing cabinet, whereas Backblaze lets you store a copy of the source data in a secure location.
The final key to this strategy is to backup your Evernote repository within Backblaze. No matter how simple your strategy, you will still expend some effort in building an online notebook. Tagging, sorting, and indexing your notes, formatting them, and choosing how they are organized into notebooks takes time and care. Protect this time by exporting your complete Evernote repository to a single file periodically and uploading the export to Backblaze. This way if Evernote encounters a problem and your data becomes corrupted you can revert to your most recent Evernote backup. Further still if Evernote should actually go out of business (which seems very unlikely) you’ll have a full backup of your notebook in Backblaze. You can import those notes into a different note-taking application and keep moving forward.
As always with any disaster recovery plan, practice a restore. Pretend you have lost some critical files and actually go through your backup agent’s restore policy to get a copy of those files from your archive. Better to find out that something is wrong when you’re practicing than when your significant other is asking why all of the photos of little Tommy don’t appear to be on the hard drive anymore.
Warning: Evaluate your own backup strategy carefully. This article comes with no warranty of any kind, implied or otherwise. I am not responsible if your strategy fails and causes loss of your data, loses your save-game files or Ctrl-Alt-Dels your cat. Seriously, think about this stuff carefully and decide for yourself what will work. Practice restores and enjoy peace of mind.
When it comes to note-taking applications, it’s hard to beat Notability for iPad. It’s the perfect replacement for a moleskine or other paper notebook. Writing on the iPad felt natural to me within just a few minutes, and notability provides the features that help to make the iPad feel close enough to a piece of real note-paper for the whole process to work smoothly. In addition to typical note-taking you can also annotate PDF documents and images, which turns out to be incredibly useful. Meaghan and I signed parts of our mortgage paperwork on our iPads using this technique. No need to print out forms, sign them, and then scan them back in. Just open up the form on the iPad, sign it, and email it back to the sender.
However, taking good notes is just the first step in a strong strategy. Equally as important is ensuring that they are backed up and eventually integrated with your central note repository; in my case Evernote. Fortunately these are easy goals to achieve as Notability supports direct integration with Dropbox and can export notes to Evernote via email.
Once notes are completed, I send them to my Evernote email address and remove them from my iPad notebook. This helps to keep my iPad notebook small and maintains Evernote as the system of record. Evernote provides several advantages as a system of record, most importantly the ability to search the text within images; arguably the most useful way to find information within hand-written notes.
Example Workflow
Take notes on the iPad just like you would with pen and paper.
Step 2 (automatic): Sync with Dropbox
This provides off-device backup in case something should happen to your iPad.
Step 3: Export the note to Evernote via email
Note how the subject line in the screenshot below has @House tacked on the end. This instructs Evernote to route the note to my House notebook.
Step 4: Tag, Index, and Search in Evernote
Leverage the benefits of Evernote to tag, index, and search your notes. It’s much easier than digging through piles of note paper or scanning through a traditional notebook. Additionally your notes are now available on all of your devices; iPad, iPhone, MacBook, and desktop PC. Anywhere you can get access to a web browser you can get access to your notes. I’ve used this in countless places: when opening a new savings account at the bank and needing access to reference information, when buying boxes at Home Depot and referencing a list of how many of each size we need. Ubiquitous access to all of your notes is an amazing thing. It has to be experienced to be truly appreciated.
Canceling into special moves can be a confusing topic for people new to the Street Fighter IV engine. For example, with Ryu the sequence MP, HP, Hadoken can combo but at first glance appears to require really quick movements. A lot of players (myself included) start by trying to press MP, HP, qcf+P in sequence as fast as possible. Occasionally it will come out but generally results in a lot of panicked button-mashing. What typically happens is an MP, HP, and then…nothing.
There are two tricks to understand here. One is that a separate punch button does not need to be pressed in order to execute the Hadoken. Rather, the HP button can be held down through the qcf (quarter-circle-forward) and then released at the end of the motion in order to execute the move. This avoids the need to push an extra punch button at the end of the sequence. The second trick is to time the Hadoken such that the HP cancels into the move. Canceling is achieved when a special move is entered prior to the previous move finishing. In this example, start the qcf motion while pressing the HP. The sequence of operations is HP (hold), qcf + release HP. By starting the qcf early you can execute the Hadoken by simply lifting off HP right as you push forward. This trick can be extended to the combo MP, HP, EX Hadoken. Press the MP and HP in rapid succession, holding both buttons down then perform the qcf and release both buttons just as the HP animation is coming out. The HP will cancel into an EX Hadoken.
The cancel means that the recovery frames of the HP don’t come out. Instead the HP animation goes directly into the Hadoken animation. Try this out by performing a standing HP and watching the start-up, active, and recovery frames. Now try starting a qcf motion prior to pressing HP and finishing it while releasing HP. If done right the HP will cancel into a Hadoken. You’ll notice that the HP recovery animation is missing. This is the essence of a cancel and is what permits the special move at the end of the chain to be part of the combo.
Have you ever found yourself searching for an old email conversation that you’re certain you’ve had but just can’t seem to find? Not sure whether it was in your work account, hotmail, or gmail accounts? Ever found part of the email thread but then been unable to locate the vital attachment that was lost somewhere along the chain? Yeah, me too. That’s why I’ve recently moved to using Evernote as my email archive. It provides a single searchable location that I can access from any device. As more of our financial and legal records move online, so too does the importance of managing those records effectively. I’m not convinced that gmail is the right place to store those items long term. With Evernote I’m able to take a local copy while still benefiting from the availability of cloud storage.
Workflow
When I have finished processing a piece of email, I forward it to my secret Evernote email address (see here to find yours) and tag it appropriately. Most email goes into a single book called Email Archive. I can then delete the message from my email account to help keep everything clean. However, I am finding that an increasing number of receipts are being delivered via email now too. In those cases, say from PGE for an auto-pay power bill, I route the message to our Receipts notebook.
I’ve been on the paleo diet for a little over a month now. Despite my initial fears about not being able to find anything on the menu at restaurants, I’ve been pleasantly surprised at just how easy it is to modify most entrees to work. The core idea behind the paleo diet stems from the observation that for 2.5 million years human beings evolved eating a very specific set of foods. Our digestive system and metabolism evolved around that diet. However, in the last 10,000 years or so modern agriculture has changed our diets significantly, introducing dairy, grains, and more recently many chemicals that we aren’t equipped to process. The premise is that our bodies have not been able to adapt to these dietary changes and as a result we’re having difficulty processing all of the new types of food we eat.
The paleo diet suggests that we return to the original food our ancestors ate and therefore the foods that our bodies are predisposed to work with best. Specifically paleo suggests a diet of lean meats, fruits, and vegetables. Since I’m already lactose intolerant, cutting out dairy was no problem. I changed out breakfast by switching from shredded wheat cereal to fruit; typically bananas, red grapefruit, and oranges. At restaurants I try to find a steak or chicken option and beef up the portion of vegetables. At Chipotle I’ve cut out the rice from the burrito and double up on the steak meat. It’s not perfectly adherent, but one of the best parts of the paleo diet is that following it 80% of the time works out beautifully. When you modify your diet to lean meats, fruits, and vegetables, the occasional grain, legume, or french fry don’t really tip the scales out of balance.
Results
So far I’ve found my energy levels are through the roof. I don’t get any of the typically blood sugar energy lows that occur after a carb-heavy lunch or dinner. I still don’t drink any caffeine or soda (clean three years now) and find I have more energy than most of the people I know who drink coffee, soda, or energy drinks. I’ve lost about 6 lbs total in the month that I’ve been on the diet, and feel much fitter and healthier than I have for years. I’m going to wait until I’ve been on the diet for at least three months before deciding if this is a permanent change that I can make, but so far all of the signs are really positive. This is the first diet I’ve ever encountered that makes scientific sense to me, and really the only diet I’ve ever taken seriously. I never got caught up in the Atkins or South Beach craze because, while the results promised weight loss, the idea of cutting out fruits never made any sense to me. I’m really hopeful that this diet will help me stay in shape and maintain high energy levels.
Renaming a file is such a simple operation that it seems silly to write instructions on how to do it. However, as someone who has worked with Windows for years even the simple interactions in OSX are not familiar to me. There are two ways I’ve found to rename files. Firstly, similar to how you might in Windows, you can click over the name of the file in a finder to make the name editable. However, another useful mechanism is to select the file and then press <Enter>. In Windows this would open the file in the default application, however in OSX it functions as a rename metaphor.
If you use Evernote as your personal online filing cabinet, there is a feature that you might not be aware of that can save quite a bit of time when filing new items. All Evernote accounts come with a secret email address that can be used to automatically add new items to your account. Simply send an email containing the item to that address and Evernote will process the email and create a new note for you. To route the new item to a particular notebook just add @NameOfNotebook to the subject line. Evernote will scan the subject line looking for this and add the note to the appropriate book for you automatically. You can apply tags by adding #Tag1 #Tag2 to the subject line as well.
Finding Your Secret Address
You can locate your secret Evernote email address by visiting the Usage tab in your Evernote account. I added it as a new contact in my email address book simply named Evernote. That way I can send an email to Evernote and not have to remember the secret address.
Example
Alaska Airlines email me a receipt for the airline tickets for a business trip. Since I’ll be filing an expense report I need to keep a permanent copy of this receipt. From my email account I forward the mail to my secret Evernote address and modify the subject line as shown below.
To: xxxxxxxx@evernote.com
Subject: Your Alaska Airlines Purchase @Receipts #Alaska Airlines #Expense-Business
It’s fine to include spaces in the notebook name and tags that are listed. Evernote will attempt to match them. A new note will be created using the subject line of the email as the title of the new note. Evernote will even remove the @notebook #tag parts as well so that the original subject line is preserved.
Note: Be sure to export and backup your entire Evernote notebook. I export all notes in the .enex format monthly. Be responsible with your backups and never store your data in a single location.
One of the biggest challenges in learning to use my MacBook Pro has been discovery of how to perform the little tasks necessary for the day-to-day operation of a computer. In most cases a quick Google search is sufficient to find the answer. However, to avoid losing the knowledge I’ve been keeping notes on how to accomplish these tasks and thought I’d write some blog posts to share those notes with others.
Verifying a SHA1 Hash
If you don’t know what a SHA1 hash is then don’t worry too much about these instructions. Feel free to skip this post. :)
To validate the integrity of a package downloaded from the internet, a SHA1 hash code is often calculated by the package publisher prior to offering the software for download on their web site. The publisher then makes this hash code available on their website. After downloading the package to your machine you can calculate the hash code of the physical bits that were delivered and then compare the hashes to ensure the software was not tampered with during the download. This protects against a man-in-the-middle type of attack whereby a malicious user presents to the user a download that appears to have come from the original source when in fact it has been modified, most likely to contain malware.
The following example demonstrates verifying the SHA1 hash code when downloading emacs; a popular open-source text editor.
Step 2: Open a terminal window
Click Launchpad -> Utilities -> Terminal
Step 3: Calculate the Hash Code for the Downloaded Package
In the terminal window type openssl sha1 /Users/<accountname>/Downloads/CarbonEmacs-Leopard-20100115.dmg
Replace <accountname> with your account name; it’s the directory in which your downloads are stored.
Step 4: Compare the Hash Codes
The calculated hash code for the package you downloaded will be displayed (as seen in the screenshot above). You can compare this calculated hash to the code that is shown on the software publisher’s website.
It has been three years since Capcom released Street Fighter IV. Since then we’ve seen Super Street Fighter IV, and the Arcade Edition. Each of these releases brought subtle tweaks to the gameplay and added new characters to the roster. None of them departed too far from the core gameplay, which is by no means a bad thing; the SFIV engine is one of the most solid fighting game engines ever released. However, SFxT introduces a whole host of changes, not least of which is the tag-style fighting format whereby you fight alongside a partner. Under the hood, the command input parser has undergone a series of changes designed to make the game more accessible for beginners while still offering enough depth to reward experimentation and practice. The simplified input scheme takes little away from the depth and variety the game has to offer.
So far I’m just working through the trials in challenge mode, learning the characters and trying to gain an understanding of the new timings. Some of the Tekken characters have moves that contain unfamiliar patterns, which helps them hold true to their roots but is unfamiliar territory for someone with Street Fighter style reflexes. I’ve started there first in order to understand more about the input patterns of those characters. So far Xaioyu is my favorite from the Tekken roster, although I’ve only worked through the challenges for about five of the roster so far.
The new tutorial mode is a welcome addition for those either new to the genre or simply needing a refresher on the basics of combat. It also does a much better job of explaining the new features than has been achieved in previous editions. The challenge modes are definitely easier than before but reveal good information about the techniques that can be used to discover more in depth moves and strategies for each character.
The artwork is as spectacular as always. From the following introductory sequence to the rich backdrops, soundtrack, and character artwork, everything is top-notch. However, despite all the glamour much of the depth of Street Fighter X Tekken is embedded in the puzzle game for those who enjoy research, practice, and a quick-thinking game of rock, paper, scissors. The challenges and mission modes hint at the depth that can be enjoyed in training. Then there is the cerebral exercise of playing online. While most beginners will likely endure a streak of losses at first, a few studied replays will quickly give anyone a fighting chance. Taking a little time to understand a character, knowing how to block and manage range, and a bit of practice with execution transforms the game into a psychological stand-off where most of the play lies in anticipating your opponent’s moves and learning how to counter their tactics.
Another addition to the series is character customization. In prior editions of the game players could choose from a set of predetermined color schemes. However, in SFxT players can customize the color of each individual piece of clothing as well as changing the base outfit worn by each character. This should help to make characters feel a little more personalized when playing online.
The only real negative thing I’ve encountered so far is the effect used to signify that a gem has been activated. Gems are special items that can be equipped to a character to further customize them. Each gem grants a small boost to that character either in the form of an offense or defensive bonus, or other special effect. However, gems come with a set of criteria to active them during a fight. To notify a player that they have activated a gem their character will flash green and a sparkle sound is played. Unfortunately this feels like the character has been doused in lucky charms, which detracts slightly from the rough and tumble theme of the fight.
Last week my buddy Aaron and I relived a little of our childhoods by going to see WWE RAW live at the Rose Garden arena. We had fantastic ring-side seats and as an incredible added bonus the main camera was pointed right at us. For most of the evening we could be seen in the background cheering and screaming both on the jumbo-screen and on the TV show at home. I’ve saved the whole show on our DVR and plan to upload some clips to YouTube when I get a free moment.
Despite having not watched the show for years, the moment the fireworks exploded, the jumbo-screen lit up, and the music started I was instantly transported back to a decade ago. We cheered, chanted, screamed, boo’d, and had a great time watching the superstars duke it out in the ring. No matter how you view the soap opera that is professional wrestling, there is no denying that it’s an electrifying show and it didn’t take us long to get sucked right back in.
The Bella Twins were gorgeous, Kelly Kelly was sexy as hell, and AJ could’ve stood ring-side all night. As implied, we were mostly admiring their athletic talents and skills in the ring. Gotta love a girl who can kick a little ass! I’d certainly go a round or two to find out.
It’s very different watching the action without the accompanying commentary from Jerry Lawler and Josh or Michael Cole. It’s also easy to forget just how huge the WWE wrestlers are until you see them up close. The Big Show (at 7′ 0″ and 441 lb) makes the ring look like furniture in a doll’s house. The icing on the cake was seeing The Rock come out and address John Cena in preparation for their match at Wrestlemania XXVIII. What an awesome night.
Now Aaron and I (despite years away from it) are planning to watch Wrestlemania XXVIII together in homage to what was a fantastic show, another great night, and one more thing checked off the bucket list.
A couple of weeks ago, Meaghan and I had the opportunity to visit San Francisco. I was speaking at the Women 2.0 conference on behalf of a company for which I have done work in the past. We decided that since I’d have to fly down for the conference that we may as well make a long weekend out of it. While Meaghan had visited before this was my first time there and I was keen to see the sights. We packed an incredible amount of stuff into just a few days and had a great time in the process. The only really stinky part of the trip (literally) was our ride on the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) from our initial arrival at the airport to the hotel. It was thirty minutes trapped in a train that smelled like the inside of a used diaper. Ewwww! We decided to take the hotel shuttle on our way home. So much for public transport on that one.
Fortunately the hotel room was great and a long shower helped to scrape away the muck and the memories. We were staying in the Hotel California and couldn’t resist sitting on the bed singing the song together and then bursting out in giggles. I think it was a mixture of relief mixed in with hysteria from an early morning departure at 4am.
Saturday – Walking and Shopping
After checking into the hotel and getting our bearings we decided to get some lunch and then go shopping. We spent most of the afternoon wandering around, looking in shop windows, and taking in the city sights. We gradually made our way out to the Port of San Francisco on the Eastern edge of the city. There we found the UC Davis marching band giving a performance to a huge crowd so we stopped and listened for a while.
Fortunately the weather was beautiful. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky and consequently we avoided the rain all day; an occurrence I’m led to understand is quite fortuitous in a San Francisco February. The streets were lined with open air markets, performers, and preparations for the Chinese New Year parade. As fortune would have it the parade route ran only a few blocks from our hotel. It was a great surprise opportunity to take part in unexpected festivities.
Unfortunately, since it was February neither of us planned for sun lotion and I managed to burn the top of my head pretty well. I must have looked like a matchstick walking around with a whiter-than-white body with this crimson dome on top. I hadn’t anticipated that San Francisco in the winter would yield sunburn weather. Aloe time!
Sunday – Fisherman’s Wharf and Chinatown
On Sunday we decided to hike up to Fisherman’s Wharf at the North end of the city. We had originally planned to take the trolley up the hill and save our legs. However, the fates had other plans and conspired against us. A trolley broke down just two blocks South of our stop, holding up the whole line. We waited for a short time but then decided there was nothing else for it and set off up the hill. Fortunately the weather was fabulous once more and after just a short huff and a puff we crested the rise into Chinatown, where we were planning to spend our afternoon. After the shorter downhill stretch we arrived at Pier 39, where we shopped, saw the sea-lions, and had a fantastic meal at Neptune’s palace overlooking the bay and affording a view of both Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge. A good meal, a glass of red wine, and a fine view are an outstanding way to spend a Sunday!
After lunch we researched the trolley routes on Google Maps and found a way back up the hill into Chinatown in order to see the New Year decorations. The streets were packed with all manner of vendors, musicians, and awesome decorations and we spent a couple of hours just taking it all in. We slowly meandered back to our hotel, once again graced by a clear sky and glorious weather. I was much more careful to avoid getting sunburned this time.
Monday – Alcatraz
For Monday we planned a tour of Alcatraz. The weather turned but since we’d be out on the water soon anyway this was the right day for it. The ride out over the bay took only thirty minutes and provided some superb opportunities for pictures as we approached. I tried to imagine what it must have felt like to arrive in a less comfortable fashion half a century ago. The prison buildings make for a foreboding approach.
The audio tour was very worthwhile. Alcatraz has plenty of stories to tell and the tour was executed superbly. We spent a couple of hours being walked through all of the areas of the former penitentiary, hearing from former inmates and prison guards about the escape attempts, living conditions, and unique sub-culture that developed while the prison was in operation. Definitely not a place I’d want to be on anything other than a guided tour. Despite obvious attempts to clean the place, everything still felt dirty and stale. I can’t imagine what it must have smelled like sixty years ago with a couple of hundred inmates confined there.
The D block “isolation” was a very sobering place. The punishment cells were small and blocked out all light. It would quickly drive a person crazy. Not somewhere you’d ever want to be, but I can understand why they were effective at keeping order. I picked up a tin cup (replica prison issue) as a souvenir at the gift shop and we lined up at the dock for our return journey. Alcatraz was an impressive place to see and another item checked off the life list.
Tuesday – Conference Time
The conference went very well. LeAnne and I were pitching to a couple of thousand people in front of a panel of Bay Area venture capitalists who would be judging our presentation. We evidently did a good job since the crowd responded very well and we were answering questions well over our initially allotted time. After the pitch we spoke with the press and conference members for a few more hours, answering all manner of technical and business questions. I got to meet several people whom until now I have only known online including Tara Hunt, an entrepreneur who’s advice has been very valuable over the years.
Stuart Thompson with LeAnne Ozaine SmithStuart Thompson with Tara Hunt
(photos taken by Michael O’Donnell of ZatPhoto.com)
The time had come for me to purchase a new point and shoot camera. For the past few years I’ve been using a Canon PowerShot A1000 IS. It’s been a faithful little camera that has been to concerts, brewpubs, beaches, and even made the voyage to Europe and back twice. Yet despite its plucky nature, the time had come for an upgrade. With the recent release of 16 mega-pixel compacts, the previous generation of 14 mega-pixel cameras have gone on sale. I was able to get a brand new Nikon Coolpix S4100 14 mega-pixel camera for just $89.99. That’s a heck of a deal for a great piece of equipment. Throw in an 8GB class 6 memory card and for a nudge over $100 you’ve got a lot of camera for occasions where a larger SLR just isn’t practical.
In addition to the 14MP sensor, the camera can also shoot video at 720P. It has a touch-screen interface on the back that you can use to navigate the menus. The screen isn’t super-responsive (especially if like me you’ve been spoiled with the ultra-responsive iPad screen) but it’s more than adequate to change a few settings on the fly or delete unwanted shots. It weighs less than a small wallet and slips easily into a small pocket. Perfect for the times when waiting for a phone camera to finally focus and shoot just doesn’t cut it.
I noticed while I was browsing my call sign titles in Call of Duty MW3 today that the Sit Rep Specialist and Marksman Specialist titles are transposed.
Notice how the description under SitRep Specialist (left) shows “Earn Marksmen 150 times.” whereas the description under Marksmen Specialist (right) shows “Earn SitRep 150 times.”
Meaghan and I arrived in San Francisco this morning. I’m here to speak at the Women 2.0 PITCH conference on Tuesday, but we figured that we might as well take the opportunity to take a long weekend vacation. I’m speaking to help raise funding for a potential future partnership in a company whose software I helped to build back in 2006 called Ascend Financials. Ascend will help you to plan, track, and manage your budgets either as a young startup, mature business, or simply for your personal accounts. LeAnne (CEO of Ascend) and I will be taking the stage on Tuesday in an attempt to raise venture capital to take the business to the next level.
In the meantime Meaghan and I are having a fantastic time exploring this incredible city. We had an early flight this morning (6:25am!) and then a stinky ride on the BART light-rail system (it smells like poo in there) arriving at our hotel shortly after 10:00am. Apart from the malodorous thirty minutes on the rail it was a very smooth journey. We started out our day with a shower and a nap before going in search of some lunch, which we found at the Daily Grill. This afternoon we walked around the city taking in the sights and creating some photographs. Tonight we’re planning to watch the Chinese New Year celebrations; a parade that is happening only blocks from our hotel. Pictures are coming. I just need to commit and finally purchase a copy of Lightroom; my trial expired last month.
I love Evernote. It’s like having a junk drawer on a cart that I can wheel around with me wherever I go that comes with a personal assistant willing to rummage through it all and find just the item I’m looking any time of day or night. There are many ways to file stuff into Evernote quickly ranging from the main interfaces on PC, tablets, and phones, the excellent browser-based plugins, and the magic Evernote email address mechanism. However, one feature that is a little less well known is that of import folders. This scenario addresses the need to quickly file “things on disk” into your junk drawer for later reference. You can set up one or more folders that Evernote will monitor. As soon as a file appears in that folder, Evernote will scoop it up and file it in the appropriate notebook. It even comes with an option to delete the file once the note has been created. This is a perfect combination with a Print to PDF printer driver as you can now take a note of anything on your computer that you would print.
Updated: This functionality is only available on the Windows version of Evernote.
Enabling this feature is as easy as going to Tools->Import Folders. You specify the location of the folder on disk as well as a notebook into which files in the folder should be stored. Choose Yes for Subfolders if you want Evernote to scan child directories of the folder you specify, and choose either Keep or Delete to indicate whether Evernote should leave a copy of the file one the note has been created. It’s that easy.
Now anytime an email comes in that you’d like to file away just print it as a PDF and save the file into the appropriate directory on disk. Evernote will create a new note containing the PDF which you can reference later.
Yesterday we celebrated my birthday with our friends Aaron and Melissa first with a meal at Buster’s Texas BBQ and then later with a visit to Cinetopia to see The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. As ever the food at Buster’s was superb. If you’re a fan of BBQ I’d highly recommend a visit. We always have a great time there. After our meal we drove to see the movie. Unfortunately we got there a little later than expected and were unable to sit with our friends. We still had a fantastic time with the movie though. I hadn’t read the book beforehand and really enjoyed the story. The acting and production quality were top notch. Some folks might be offended or disturbed at a couple of the scenes, but there was nothing gratuitous. It was able to very well deliver the poignancy of a great story without going over the top. It was great to double date with our friends and I’m looking forward to returning with them to see the second movie.
Friday night Meaghan had arranged a surprise party for me at Ground Kontrol with our friends. I had a slight suspicion that something was amiss when she wouldn’t nail down the name of the restaurant we were going to, but I had no idea she’d organized to meet with our friends or of the great location. It was wonderful to walk in and see everyone there. What ensued was a collection of beer drinking, great conversation, and of course old school nostalgia gaming at a truly classic arcade. Amy and Dan had a Ms. Pacman competition. I watched Laura flexing some skills for Bryon on the BurgerTime cabinet. I had to rekindle an old love with a few runs on the Dance Dance Revolution machine, and Matt, Dan and I tore up a few rounds of Gauntlet Legacy. It was a great night, and were it not for Sagat ending my clean run on SF II I would have had a chance to clear arcade mode in a single quarter (I find M. Bison much easier than Sagat).
After Ground Kontrol we retired to the Portland City Grill for some nightcaps and more conversation. Amy, Dan, Matt, and Holly got my The Camera by Ansel Adams; a great compliment to the new lens I got for Christmas and the new camera bag I received for my birthday from Meaghan and my parents. I’ve already studied a couple of chapter and can see why Mr. Adams was considered such a pivotal part of modern photography.
Thanks to everyone who sent me well wishes for my birthday, via phone, email, FaceBook, or in person. I truly appreciate it and I feel extremely blessed to have such great people in my life. Here’s to making another great rotation!
I’ve now been playing Skyrim for almost a week. I’ve put about forty hours in so far and I’m still loving it. The world and story are some of the most immersive I’ve seen in an Elder Scrolls game to date, and if you’ve ever played an Elder Scrolls game before you’ll know that’s high praise. This is a series that is known for its incredible scope and even more incredible ability to immerse you in a rich world. Skyrim takes that to a whole new level. While in some areas there are only subtle refinements to the formula, they are often in critical areas where their effect is profound. For example, in Oblivion there were many scripted events in which a character or other subject of a quest would just happen across your path relatively independently of the path you took. However, there were definitely cases where you could be searching for quite some time to just run into a certain event. It could pull you out of the immersion as you were forced to either start a thorough search, turn to the guide book, or simply give up on the quest until a later time. So far in Skyrim I’ve never felt like I didn’t know where to go. The answers and story weren’t spoon fed by any means, rather the answers and targets occur after just the right amount of searching. It’s a very pleasing way to interact with a semi-scripted set of events. You never feel out of control of the action, but equally you don’t feel herded like cattle down a narrow corridor. The ability to kill just about any NPC makes the whole system feel incredibly fluid. There is very little requirement to complete all the but fewest of main story quests to advance and if you want to play a character with a tendency to randomly kill or annoy quest NPCs for no reason then you absolutely have that opportunity. The balance change from Oblivion is subtle but it has a vast overall effect on the flow of the game.
Another set of changes that stand out to me are in the combat system. While it’s still nowhere as slick as many first-person action games, there is much less sword flailing than there used to be. The encounters feel much tighter and there is a lot more opportunity for employing spacial tactics such as using doors to funnel enemies together or leveraging an altitude advantage such as standing at the top of a stairwell or ledge. Battles can often go one way or the other based upon a few key advantages or disadvantages, and as a result you are never left feeling overpowered by an enemy; there is often a tactical option to swing the tide of battle in your favor. There are definitely moments where I have felt my own character is unrealistically overpowered, but who really complains about killing a few foes with a single swing? It’s just epic feeling. Archery has also been improved subtly; especially with regards to sneak attacks. Enemies in Oblivion had an uncanny knack for knowing exactly where your first arrow was fired from. You’d hit them once and more often than not they would turn and start charging right towards you, even if you’d attempted to snipe them from cover. This time around it is not unreasonable to pick off a few unsuspecting foes by finding a good ledge from which to rain down fire.
The skill system has been reworked a little, ultimately being more clear than Oblivion. Unfortunately the changes are significant enough that long-time players may be a little disoriented by the new setup. The only criticism here is the difficulty encountered when navigating between nodes in the new skill trees. The nodes are set up as stars in constellations that represent certain skills. Moving between them is a random affair at best and it can be frustrating to accurately select the item you want.
There are some noticeable glitches, both graphically and with the gameplay. I’ve had to load a previous game a couple of times to get past some particularly bad problems. In one case everything I came near would instantly die, like a long-range Midas touch of instant doom. Ordinarily in a game like Halo this would be no problem, however in Skyrim that means you’re also nuking all of the friendly NPCs, quest-givers, and merchants. Not to mention that being a walking avatar of doom loses its appeal fairly quickly. After all, you want to swing that new shiny sword of killing +1 and do the deed yourself from time to time. The other glitch I’ve encountered is with some enemies being able to attack through walls. They aren’t always bounds checked properly and I’ve been hit by a few spells and arrows that somehow emerged through a layer of solid rock without being able to return the favor. Fortunately, in both cases the problem cleared up by loading a recent save game.
On the note of saving, do it often. Get used to saving like you were working on an old 386 in a location where the power might go out at any moment. While the autosave feature does a fairly decent job of saving your character here and there, I have run into a couple of occasions where I lost about an hour’s worth of play due to not having recent save files to call upon; something that is particularly irritating when you are loading to fix a glitch rather than as a result of your own foolhardy actions.
I get the sense that I’m about 20% through the game so far. I’m approaching a level of map and location visibility, a level of power, and a decent enough stock of equipment to feel about a fifth of the way done. I’m basing this on no particular metric other than a familiarity with other titles in the series and the approximate size and length of those games. It’s also inline with the Bethesda prediction of about 300 hours of game time. I’ve zipped through some of the early stuff quickly, and the endgame always takes a little longer. I tend to play by completing everything pretty fully. I do all of the side quests in taverns, and definitely stop for scenic detours along the way. I’ll dump loot in the houses I buy and sometimes even arrange books on bookshelves or items on tables. I’m certainly not a streamlined player but make up for the detours by ploughing through dungeons at a fair pace.
In terms of game activities, I’d say I’m seeing the following breakdown:
60% questing – Completing objectives, exploring dungeons, making progress
15% maintaining – Selling items, crafting potions, weapons, and armor, sorting through bags
25% role playing – There is an immense amount to see. Sometimes you have to stop and take it all in.
For an open-ended role-playing game that’s a pretty good balance in my opinion. Just enough action to keep you moving, and just enough maintenance to make crafting and bartering fun without feeling arduous.
I’ve been playing Skyrim for about 4 hours now and it’s already competing for the title of greatest game I’ve ever played. My mind is blown. The world is so immersive, and the pacing so far has been about as close to perfect as I could imagine. Events happen at just the right time, and goals are found after just the right amount of searching; not so easily as to feel spoon-fed, yet neither so obtusely as to feel onerous. It is clear that an amazing amount of effort and time has been put into making this game feel massive and open, yet centered and focused around your story at the same time. Mind…blown. Bravo Bethesda. Bravo!
After a rowdy Christmas Eve of fine wine, champagne, a little beer, and even some tequila, we retired for a good night’s sleep; those of us who weren’t spending extending periods in the bathroom that is. After a refreshing sleep we woke bright and early to wish each other a Merry Christmas and exchange gifts.
I often feel overwhelmed by the veritable wealth of gifts laid at our feet. Everyone was incredibly generous and we all have many new toys and treats to enjoy. I’m typing this post on my new Apple wireless keyboard paired with my iPad; I feel all hip and cool. Meaghan celebrates her birthday today also. She is wearing her shiny new earrings that my parents and I bought for her and enjoying reading her new pastry recipe book from our friends Amy and Dan. We are planning a special birthday celebration for Meaghan tonight after we have eaten our Christmas dinner; it’s important to delineate the events.
It has been a wonderful week thus far. We’re so glad that Mandy, Chris, and Cole were able to drive down to celebrate with us. This morning we had a short web chat with my family over in England. We used FaceTime between my MacBook Pro and Peter’s new iPad. Neither of us have a particularly good internet connection available so the picture was choppy and the sound was a little delayed, but it was great to see them all and to get to wish them a Merry Christmas face to face. It’s difficult to be so far away at Christmas, but wonderful that technology brings us just a little bit closer every year.
Tomorrow we’re planning to do some shopping in Palm Springs and see if there are any after-Christmas sales of which we can take advantage.
This year for Christmas, Meaghan and I find ourselves in Joshua Tree California. We are visiting with her parents, Greg and Jenny, and with her sister Mandy, her husband Chris, and their son Cole.
We started our journey by catching a bus to downtown Portland in 27 degree weather. It was relatively early in the morning (for a vacation day) but after changing to the MAX line downtown found us arriving at the airport a comfortable two hours before our flight was scheduled to leave. This provided us with ample time to sit and eat a relaxing lunch before crowding into our winged sardine tin. Fortunately the flights were comfortable and went by quickly. Despite a minor problem with the airline failing to transfer Meaghan’s baggage, and thus leaving her without a change of clothing for our first day here, the complete travel experience was relatively discomfort free.
Greg had to work on Thursday and we were dealing with “not at work so we can finally let down” syndrome. We had a nice relaxing morning and then drove out to Copper Mountain College to meet Greg for lunch. After a tour of the college campus we went to a restaurant called Sam’s Pizza, which offered pizza (duh), subs, and Indian food (eh?). From the outside you wouldn’t know there was much there, but once inside we discovered a gem of a place to eat. The Indian food was authentic and extremely well prepared. The girls ordered a veggie pizza (*boggle*) while Chris, Greg, and I ordered curries. Well appointed sides (raita, mango chutney, and a variety of sauces) joined a very authentic tandoor taste to create a thoroughly delicious meal.
Friday was Greg and Jenny’s 33rd anniversary. To celebrate we drove out to Temecula to visit a winery of which they are members. We began the day with a superb lunch at the South Coast Winery restaurant, and then finished with a wine tasting tour at the Wiens Winery and Vineyard. After sampling a large variety of wines, we eventually selected five as our favorites; the fantastic Temperillo Petite Syrah, Reserva Primitivo, both the ’08 and ’10 Sangiovese, a Pinot Gris (for Meaghan) and an Orange Champagne. As our penance we now have to drink the bottles that we bought over the next few days. It’s a hard life.
Today we’re relaxing, watching some football, and perhaps heading out to the movie theatre to see the new Mission Impossible.
Thanks to a combination of planning and stubbornness on my part, I didn’t have to brave the malls during December even once this year. I was able to do all of my Christmas shopping online! Not only did I save a bunch of time and money, but my stress levels are lower and my Christmas cheer higher. Thank you Internet, thank you.
Tonight, while playing Call of Duty, I encountered an enemy I just could not see. No matter how many times I looked for my nemesis he would always shoot me before I could even see where he was. Eventually I decided to watch the kill-cam, a short replay of the last kill from your enemies perspective, to see if I could determine from where he was so able to finish me every time.
What I saw was a view from underneath the playing arena, an area players are not supposed to be able to reach. From this location my enemy was able to see the whole map without fear of being seen in return. He could leisurely pick off his foes at will without being in any danger himself. What a filthy cheat! I went into the replay room and recorded this video of his cheating ways. I also reported the bugger to the XBox Live! team. From what I’ve read the team try to follow up on reports of cheating so hopefully he’ll get banned. This sort of exploit just spoils the game for everyone else.
A cheating git found an exploit in MW3.
Fortunately I was able to simply leave the game lobby and find a group of people to play with who would abide by the rules. Several hours of grief-free gameplay ensued and a great time was had. My brother in-law Chris joined mid way through and we had a great time running around and shooting people together.
