digital pity

Angst: Web 1.0 Edition

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“Oh… then clear your cache then delete all of your cookies and it will be fine.” How about ‘no, I don’t think I will’ for a reply?

Not for anything, but the whole purpose of cookies is to store little snippets of information on your local box. Now that the wave of paranoia about cookies and “personal information” has passed – and rightfully so seeing as the – there are all sorts of nice things that web sites do for you, based on the information you’re stored in the cookies. For example, passwords that you might use once a quarter – those are stored for you, as part of the cookie. Often used numbers or forum information also might be pre-populated… this very web site will store your Name, Email addy, and URL, if you ask it to and that’s stored, where? In a cookie.

So why is it that IT departments or CSRs are so avant-garde about asking you to sacrifice all of your stored information just because they can’t figure out why their web site isn’t working? Doesn’t it make more sense to say “Oh, go remove this cookie from your PC” or even “any cookie with HiImUrDomain in it”? Maybe it’s just me, but I think it’s pretty freakin’ ballsy to ask someone to wipe out their “note pad of information” just because they don’t know their own site.

1996 called: they want their support steps back.


GeekStuff

GoW2: LIVE

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Gears of War 2 just went live in the UK – thus begins a 24-hour session of watching GoW2’s first users uploading screenshots from their Xbox over Xbox LIVE and to the web.

Just another day at the office, more or less, but I still feel somewhat giddy when a new title ships for Xbox. Especially when it goes with tech that you’ve worked on. (Yes, there’s a number of people from my group in the credits for this one, myself included!)

Even more giddyness knowing that there’s another two titles launching in the next ten days along with a [NXE] system update over the next week and a half – more on those as they launch, though.

Rant

What If?

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What if… Obama loses?

Yeah, I know – the polls have been telling us that it’s mathematically impossible for months, right? I’ve been watching people around here, for the last few weeks because it’s an interesting battleground… King County (home to Seattle) is so freakin’ pro-Democrat that they’ve been shitting crunchy granola blue-colored biodegradable hippy clothing for the last eight years while the rest of the state is so freakin’ pro-Republican that they all have red gun racks in the back of their trucks and W on those little Nerf balls that go on the end of car antennas. The blue has been very, very smug the last few weeks… it’s “in the bag” in their minds. The red has been cautiously watching their top guy and promoting their #2 seed, in the form of an Alaskan governor. Yet no matter what the polls say, it all comes down to the numbers after the election…

And that begs the question of “what if?”
Continue reading What If? →

Rant

Becky’s New Car

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Culture time bitches!

Went to the ACT theatre the other night with Jolene to see Becky’s New Car.

Yes I went willingly.

This is the third play I’ve seen in Seattle that is not considered “Broadway” class and I have to admit that I’ve been spoiled by having Broadway a short train trip away all my life… yet, I’ve been thoroughly entertained by all three, this latest one being “blogworthy”.

Why this one?
Continue reading Becky’s New Car →

digital pity

Glutton For Punishment

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Thus begins Round Three of the Apple saga…

I bought a MacBook last night. 2GHz (no underlit keyboard but also less heat than the 2.4GHz), 2GB RAM, 160GB HDD, 802.11n, etc. My take is that it has a really nice looking screen. Excellent chassis design – first MB/MBP/PowerBook that won’t have bowing problems on the lit or warping problems on the bottom. Keyboard is a little weird for me because the bottom half of the notebook is thicker than what I’m used to. New trackpad rocks: you can turn tapping off but still click because the whole bottom half of the trackpad physically clicks. Makes a cha-chunk sound, but so did the last Dell I used… and now that it’s aware of where the clicking is happening, the lower left and right corners are right-clicks, so my one button complaint is gone.

Why did I buy this one? iPhone development on the road and I’m planning on replacing the Mac mini in the living room since I almost never use it for iTunes playback – the TiVo with Amazon, 360 with Marketplace, and NXE with Netflix have all been the primary means of getting digital video to the TV – iTunes pretty much became a back up.

Already repaving the box tho – typing in the wrong short user name on the first pass caused this exercise…

No matter how good the hardware or the software, User Error can kill anything!

GeekStuff

It’s All Child’s Play

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Had a team meeting the other day… was around some internal news around the New Xbox Experience but seeing as it’s now October, we had an added bit of news around the annual Giving Campaign.

I’m not sure how many people outside of the company know it, but every October there’s a huge organized effort to get involved with all sorts of charity organizations. Not that there aren’t people here that give time and money during the other 11 months of the year – as an example, Sara Ford spent a whole slew of time working with Katrina relief. Also, there’s Bill and Melinda – no further explanation required. So, when there are sizable meetings in October, there’s usually a “reminder” about the Giving Campaign and a highlighted charity that the team is “sponsoring.” For Xbox LIVE, the highlighted charity is Child’s Play, which was started by Gabe and Tycho at Penny Arcade. Who just happened to be in our cafeteria, to talk about the org and how Child’s Play works – they both hung around after the meeting for some quality time around the ping-pong table…

Nice guys the both of them – not only are they now responsible for the largest player-event of the year but they use their web comic to continuously battle the “Jack Thompson-esque” attacks that our industry and players have to live with… on top of that, they are actively working to help kids in hospitals around the world… good times.

What can I say? Xbox LIVE rules. *g*

GeekStuff

Gag Order

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I’ve been working with the New Xbox Experience for a while now… during my team’s last re-org, we became a part Xbox LIVE and the push to get the NXE bits onto consoles has impacted every single bit of the org. Design, Code, Test. Design, Code, Test. Code, Test, Code, Test, Test, Test, Test.

Doesn’t mean that I stopped doing my day job either – I’m still helping to put great new features into games shipping this November… in fact, that’s what has lead to the slow down of blog posts: been busy trying to RTM three Titles and helping out with NXE testing.

Sadly, there’s not much that I can say about the specifics on either the Titles or NXE… the features in the Titles will start to show up as reviews come in but for NXE, I can’t say much… what I can say is Wow.

Just… Wow.

Update: Looks like November 19th is the Official Date for the release of the NXE!

Rant

And To The Government: Thanks!

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You stupid, re-election-focused motherfuckers, I’d like to offer a review on your performance today.

You are failing your country and the people that have voted for you. You are not doing the job you were elected to do. You are active helping to destroy the country. You are kowtowing to the angry voice of the mob when you should be a calm and responsible legislative leader for your people. You are not helping your party because when the country collapses, the first people the survivors will cage for food consumption will be the politicians, followed by lawyers; there will be no more party to support. Think I’m wrong? See who was around pre-Depression and who survived. FDR took action and got shit done; his party survived.

Do your fuckin’ jobs, make the hard right choice and pass this bill.

Now.
Continue reading And To The Government: Thanks! →

Rant

Don’t Cheer

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Kotaku: Jack Thompson Disbarred

As much as you’d like to cheer that Thompson finally got his – and that FL finally got rid of a rather unstable and unethical lawyer – please don’t cheer. In fact, gamers should be very, very wary of this development… Thompson no longer has a legal bar to answer to and he doesn’t have to behave like a laywer anymore.

Basically, FL just gave birth to a complete loose cannon that has a rather lengthy record of successfully being in the spotlight for anti-video game movements.

Ph34r.


Randy No Arms' ongoing commentary on life, gaming, and the rest of the world