tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1423340273486807952024-03-07T23:06:04.657-08:00Zousware CabalZoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17481317721497365558noreply@blogger.comBlogger83125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-142334027348680795.post-33473251859054744962014-11-23T14:49:00.000-08:002014-11-23T19:53:48.212-08:00Warning: Construction AheadI've decided to make some changes around here, unfortunately that's difficult with the site in its current shape. The first step will be to transfer this site into Blogger, and in that way it can live through the transition. Once it's there, I'll tear this down and start anew. Hopefully it won't take too long, but I'm not very good at keeping promises on this thing so all I'll say is "just wait".<br/><br/>In the immortal words of the T-1000, I'll be back.Zoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17481317721497365558noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-142334027348680795.post-43374806483692460642014-07-19T09:32:00.001-07:002014-11-23T19:53:48.199-08:00HOPE X<img class="alignright wp-image-1330 size-medium" src="http://cabal.zousware.com/cms/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/hopex-300x300.png" alt="HOPE X" width="300" height="300" />A few months ago some friends of mine asked if I wanted to head to NYC for a conference. At the time, I knew very little of <a href="http://x.hope.net">HOPE (Hackers on Planet Earth)</a>, the biennial hacker conference put on by <a href="http://2600.net">2600</a>. Honestly, I had no idea what to really expect, I was just told to show up at the Hotel Pennsylvania and prepare for a long weekend.<br/><br/>Midway through the first day, I'd already decided that this would not be my only HOPE.<br/><br/>It's exactly what you want out of a Con: an eclectic mix of people from all over, brought to one place by their love of hacking, here to share what they love with each other. There are panels for Makers, panels on web security, panels on telecommunications, panels on whistleblowing, and even some cool "look what I made!" panels. Given the recent revelations about government surveillance, much of this year is devoted on how to properly maintain confidentiality and privacy in communications. And of course, topical as ever, the keynote began with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Ellsberg">Daniel Ellsberg</a> and finished with a teleconference with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Snowden">Edward Snowden</a>.<br/><br/>So far, the panels I've seen have been interesting and enlightening. The people have been open and friendly, always excited to share and learn from each other. The one complaint I would have is the hotel itself; while it's historic, it seems barely maintained.<br/><br/>The best part? If you'd like to play along at home, <a href="http://x.hope.net/streams.html">all the panels are available online via live streams</a>. I highyly recommend them.Zoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17481317721497365558noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-142334027348680795.post-11413514176360847932014-01-21T04:00:00.001-08:002014-11-23T19:53:48.145-08:00Wii U: Great fun missing a market<img class="size-medium wp-image-1312 alignright" alt="Wii U Console and Gamepad" src="http://cabal.zousware.com/cms/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/800px-Wii_U_Console_and_Gamepad-300x144.png" width="300" height="144" />This past holiday season saw the introduction of the Sony PlayStation 4 (PS4) and the Microsoft Xbox One (XB1). This guy, however, bought neither. Instead, I went and bought <em>The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker HD</em> and <em>Super Mario 3D World</em> for my Nintendo Wii U. I've had it for over a year now and enjoy it immensely, however it seems the world doesn't agree with me...<br/><br/><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">This past holiday season, the PS4 and XB1 enjoyed a great holiday season selling 4.4 million and 3.1 million consoles in 2013 respectively (according to VGChartz, which should be taken with a grain of salt). These numbers are only from the holiday season, as each were released in mid-November. Meanwhile, the Wii U sold 3.2 million consoles over the entire year, even when having a price point below the competition. In addition, </span><a style="line-height: 1.5em;" title="Nintendo reports loss for Q1 2014" href="http://money.cnn.com/2014/01/17/investing/nintendo-profit-warning/" target="_blank">Nintendo just changed their Q1 2014 forecast from a nearly $1 billion profit to a $335 million loss</a> after seeing sales tank much more than expected post-holidays. Overall, people simply aren't buying the console quite as much as hoped.<br/><br/>Now, full-disclosure: some people would likely call me a Nintendo fanboy. I grew up on a NES and later, an N64. I didn't own a non-Nintendo console until I was almost out of high school (PS2). Today I tend to enjoy most consoles equally, but it's still difficult for me to not get and enjoy Nintendo products almost immediately upon launch (to prove my resistance, I didn't get a Wii U until December 2012). Although this love persists, I do not claim myself to be a Nintendo fanboy simply because I also enjoy the other consoles as well (and even PC <em>*gasp*</em>). It comes down to one simple thing: very few things are more fun, and I mean pure-unadulterated-children-running-and-skipping-fun, than Nintendo games.<br/><br/>Sadly though 2013 simply wasn't a great year for Nintendo and the Wii U. The "Year of Luigi" (only took 30 years to celebrate the best brother a man could have) simply did not pan out. As someone with both a Wii U and a 3DS, I'll say it wasn't for lack of good games.<br/><br/>Instead of continuing talking about how unfortunate this recent turn is though, how about we focus on why I'd buy a second Wii U before a PS4 or XB1?<br/><br/><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">To begin, some people think the GamePad is a gimmick, but after using it I can say it's actually a great feature. It really is simply if the DS and Wii had a child. You get a touchscreen right in your hands that you can interact with directly and/or play on the TV. And then it also enables off-TV playing for most of the content: playing </span><em style="line-height: 1.5em;">New Super Mario Bros U </em><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">on the TV and someone wants to watch something else? Immediately play it solely on the GamePad and let them do whatever they'd like. The one missing killer feature is the ability to play DS games (or even 3DS) on the Wii U, similar to how they had the Super Game Boy for SNES or Game Boy Player for GameCube, but given their track record here I'm sure it's just a matter of time. If anything, the GamePad is before it's time; Android and Chromecast (or iPhone and Apple TV) will likely bring a lagless feature like this in the near future, and gamers will rejoice.</span><br/><br/>Next, the games are solid. People might find Mario games childish, but there's no negating the joy and fun that comes from playing one (which holds very true for <em>Bros U </em>and <em>3D World</em>). <em>NintendoLand</em> is a solid launch game, introducing the features of the console in a new and exciting way. <em>Wind Waker HD </em>is the only current Zelda, however it's a beautiful remake of an amazing game (nothing quite as free-feeling as sailing). I'm sure PS4 and XB1 will get there, but at the moment there's nothing on either of them which excites me.<br/><br/>Overall, while I hope it's not true, if the Wii U is a swan song for Nintendo's home console business, it's one so beautiful I would truly openly weep.Zoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17481317721497365558noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-142334027348680795.post-83618403058373387632014-01-06T14:42:00.001-08:002014-11-23T19:53:48.131-08:00If you don't use it...Thankfully the old adage isn't true and this blog isn't going anywhere. Some could say that it hasn't gone anywhere in a long time, but those would be jerks who I choose not to listen to. If you can believe it, this site is regularly on my mind, but if thinking were as good as doing then I'd be a much more interesting person.<br/><br/>Either way it's a new year now. I've mostly recovered from the holidays so here's a promise: my goal is to outdo myself this year. I'll post more than you've ever seen me post! In fact, my goal is to post more than I did in 2012 and 2013 combined! That's right, I'm promising an entirety of 14 posts this great year of 2014!<br/><p style="text-align: center;"><img class="size-full wp-image-1295 aligncenter" alt="Is such a thing even possible? Yes, it is." src="http://cabal.zousware.com/cms/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/even_possible.gif" width="443" height="250" /></p><br/>How can it be done you ask? Why, it's easy, I just have to not be quite as lazy as I have been in the past. In fact, this post itself counts! I'd say I'm well on the way to being a slightly less lazy person, wouldn't you?<br/><br/>1 down, 13 to go...Zoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17481317721497365558noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-142334027348680795.post-25756744986278314952013-08-14T05:00:00.001-07:002014-11-23T19:53:48.069-08:00DuckTales Remastered, Rewriting History<p style="text-align: left;"><img class="size-full wp-image-1259 alignright" alt="ducktalesupdated" src="http://cabal.zousware.com/cms/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/ducktalesupdated-e1376465996393.jpg" width="300" height="428" />Back in 1989, Capcom released <em>DuckTales</em> for the NES. Whereas a lot of licensed franchise games exist only as a tie-in to make a quick buck, surprisingly <em>DuckTales</em> was a masterful game, being unique, fun, and challenging. So suffice it to say, <em>DuckTales</em> quickly became a hit.</p><br/><p style="text-align: left;">In fact one of my earliest gaming experiences, aside from Mario, Zelda, and Tetris, took the form of Scrooge McDuck's pogo-ing and golf-swinging adventures. My family never even owned <em>DuckTales</em>, but my sisters and I still rented it over and over, continually trying to master the mysteries of Transylvania and the Moon. Given that the game came out when I was three, it's no surprise that said mastery never occurred (at least for me). However, the game left a lasting impression nonetheless.</p><br/><p style="text-align: left;">That's why I was giddy to hear they were remaking the game for modern consoles.</p><br/><p style="text-align: left;">Of course as my formative years were in the early 90s, <em>DuckTales</em> (and all of "Disney Afternoon"s great shows) had a large impact on me as well. I remember always wanting to keep up to date with the adventures of Scrooge and his grandnephews. This just goes to say that <em>DuckTales</em>, for someone my age, hits all the proper notes of nostalgia and childhood to forever occupy that warm, cuddly place in the heart where such things go.</p><br/><p style="text-align: left;">That's why I've made sure to pay attention to the details surrounding the game.</p><br/><p style="text-align: left;">And then, a few weeks back I was at San Diego Comic-Con and attended a panel held by Capcom and WayForward where they talked about making <em>DuckTales Remastered</em> itself. They went into their techniques for trying to be as faithful to the original game as possible while mixing the art up to look more like the TV show itself. I was really impressed at the lengths they went through, including an interesting technique of playing both the original and their remake side-by-side to ensure the controls are as 1-to-1 as possible.</p><br/><p style="text-align: left;">That's why I purchased the game.</p><br/>And now, lo and behold, I've bought it and played it, and you get to hear all about my thoughts on the subject.<br/><br/>The main thought: <strong>Woo-hoo!</strong><br/><br/>So this game hits me in the feels. I didn't realize until now how much I actually remember of the original game. The remixed chiptunes themselves call up some deep memories and make me channel my inner 5-year-old. The only level I've finished so far is Transylvania, but I look forward to attacking the others one at a time. One of the best features of the original game is that, a la MegaMan, you can hit up the levels in any order you'd like. I am loving the voice acting as well, and am impressed by how many of the original actors from the TV show returned (the only ones that were replaced are sadly no longer with us). And the levels look so awesome and feel the same.<br/><br/>The one thing that caught me off guard: when I started playing it the controls actually felt really weird and slightly off. I realized it was that I had "Hard Pogo" turned off. Basically, the old NES way of pogo-ing was considered too hard (good ol' NES games!). As such, they replaced it with a simpler mechanism. Well, once I turned "Hard Pogo" on, my hands knew exactly what to do. Surprising how long muscle memory can survive! It's amazing how easily I slipped back into the feel of the game, and how good of a job WayForward did at emulating the original moves.<br/><br/>If you have any nostalgia for the TV show or video game, you won't go wrong with this game. Even if you never saw the show or played the game, it's an amazing platformer with a unique play-style that's worth a go. And if you have any youngin's around, get them this game and make them watch the show, as it surpasses most kids shows today by a mile.<br/><br/>Meanwhile, I hope to plunder the game of every last treasure as soon as I can get back at it!<br/><br/> <br/><br/>P.S. Apparently Capcom <a title="Golden DuckTales cartridges" href="http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2013/08/capcom-re-issues-nes-ducktales-as-an-ultra-limited-golden-cartridge/" target="_blank">sent out the original <em>DuckTales</em> on golden cartridges</a> as a promotional package. Shut up and take my money!<br/><br/>P.P.S. If you'd find it interesting, Capcom and WayForward posted a video about their strategy for updating the art without leaving behind the feel of the original. A lot of this was in their presentation at San Diego Comic-Con (and other conventions as well), and it's a good take on what lengths people go through when they've fully invested themselves in making something be the best experience they can.<iframe src="//www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/CwSTqfrVIL4?rel=0" height="418" width="100%" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0"></iframe>Zoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17481317721497365558noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-142334027348680795.post-25654829265832519092013-08-09T02:00:00.001-07:002014-11-23T19:53:48.055-08:00Re: Geek Week - Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?<a title="Re: Geek Week – Square One TV" href="http://cabal.zousware.com/2013/08/07/geek-week-square-one-tv/" target="_blank">...continued from...</a><br/><br/>And for my final post celebrating <a title="YouTube Geek Week" href="http://www.youtube.com/GeekWeek" target="_blank">Geek Week</a>, how about this delight from PBS in the early 90's? I'm betting that you're already humming the theme just from reading the title of this post!<br/><iframe src="//www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/Hsa2nsjmc4Y?rel=0" height="418" width="100%" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0"></iframe><br/><br/>There's been<a title="Carmen Sandiego Returning?" href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/16/carmen-sandiego-returning-pbs_n_3604059.html" target="_blank"> rumblings that it'd return</a>, and while it's not new episodes, I'll happily take a rebroadcast. This show had such a profound affect on me as a child, making me the trivia buff I am today. After all, you never know when a small piece of information about South America will be all that stands between you and the capture of a master thief!<br/><br/>I'll leave you with this. Sadly, while Lynne Thigpen as passed away, I'll always fondly remember her as The Chief.<br/><iframe src="//www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/Pck19C7GkC4?rel=0" height="418" width="100%" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0"></iframe><br/>And yes, this is from one of the video games, but she's The Chief no matter what medium!Zoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17481317721497365558noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-142334027348680795.post-16129270962241011872013-08-07T02:00:00.001-07:002014-11-23T19:53:47.984-08:00Re: Geek Week - Square One TV<a title="All Things Geek on YouTube" href="http://cabal.zousware.com/2013/08/05/all-things-geek-on-youtube/" target="_blank">...continued from...</a><br/><br/>I decided to celebrate <a title="YouTube Geek Week" href="http://www.youtube.com/GeekWeek" target="_blank">Geek Week</a> myself by highlighting a couple of my favorite (and very geeky) PBS shows as a kid. To start, how about Square One TV!<br/><iframe src="//www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/LXp3AMgbG6k?rel=0" height="418" width="100%" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0"></iframe><br/><br/>It was hilarious and did a great job at making education fun for all ages, like this song for negative numbers:<br/><iframe src="//www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/IH0-DCA5uJg?rel=0" height="418" width="100%" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0"></iframe><br/><br/>Or how about it's own (mildly scary) version of Pac-Man:<br/><iframe src="//www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/bgaCCxwUml8?rel=0" height="418" width="100%" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0"></iframe><br/><br/>And don't forget Mathnet, the gritty world of crime colored by math:<br/><iframe src="//www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/7_eBFzNLsGk?rel=0" height="418" width="100%" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0"></iframe><br/><br/>I can only hope that when I have kids there are shows like this on TV.Zoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17481317721497365558noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-142334027348680795.post-44732969901769028022013-08-05T02:00:00.001-07:002014-11-23T19:53:47.964-08:00All Things Geek on YouTubeA few months ago YouTube tested the waters with <a title="YouTube Comedy Week" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWIWSQa9JZU" target="_blank">Comedy Week</a>, featuring the comedy talents of notable YouTube channels. Needless to say, it was a hilarious romp that kept the laughs coming (one of my favorites: <a title="What kind of Asian are you?" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWynJkN5HbQ" target="_blank">What kind of Asian are you?</a>). How do you follow this up? With a <a title="YouTube Geek Week" href="http://www.youtube.com/GeekWeek">week dedicated to geeks</a>, of course! It began yesterday and isn't exactly a secret (as those who found the <a title="rm -rf /youtube" href="http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=%2F+geek+week" target="_blank">easter egg</a> would know), but I'm slow to post as always.<br/><br/><iframe src="//www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/-m_S-IDs3Wg?rel=0" height="418" width="100%" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0"></iframe><br/><br/>And YouTube's pulled out all the stops it seems. They have each day set aside for different geeky celebrations. For instance, yesterday was "Blockbuster Sunday", today is "Global Geekery Monday", followed up all week long with the likes of "Braniac Tuesday", "Super Wednesday", "Gaming Thursday", and "Fan Friday". Meanwhile, this leaves Saturday to be a full day of the best of the best.<br/><br/>Highlights so far:<br/><ul><br/> <li>Blockbusters hosted by <em>Red Dwarf</em><em>'s </em>Kryten:</li><br/></ul><br/><iframe src="//www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/videoseries?list=PLpmwWuIh57wYUTLDB1SVSdMbLiTaVG7vy" height="418" width="100%" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0"></iframe><br/><ul><br/> <li>The latest Doctor Who news:</li><br/></ul><br/><iframe src="//www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/videoseries?list=PLbpi6ZahtOH4P9tbH9kCvg2dirBVwEBi3" height="418" width="100%" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0"></iframe><br/><ul><br/> <li>Top animations from around the world:</li><br/></ul><br/><iframe src="//www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/videoseries?list=PLbpi6ZahtOH7LTwG1l3W0cE5R3K3qJi5y" height="418" width="100%" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0"></iframe><br/><br/>There are other treats too such as being able to <a title="YouTube Geek Test" href="http://www.youtube.com/user/YouTube/geektest" target="_blank">test your geekery</a>, and it's been reported that many other easter eggs are on their way. After all the hectic geeking out at San Diego Comic Con a few weeks ago, it's nice to slide right back into full geekitude with this. While I don't fully know where the week will take us, I look forward to sitting back and enjoying the ride.<br/><br/>You can stay up to date with all week long at <a title="YouTube on YouTube" href="http://www.youtube.com/youtube" target="_blank">YouTube's own channel</a>.<br/><br/>Meanwhile I've decided to post a couple extra small, nostalgiac, geekish posts this week (with videos!), so stay tuned. And if you have any geekery you'd like to share with me, please do! I'm always on the lookout for something new.Zoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17481317721497365558noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-142334027348680795.post-8589437894691552182013-08-01T02:00:00.001-07:002014-11-23T19:53:47.910-08:00Chromecast: Google + TV = Win<a href="http://cabal.zousware.com/cms/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/chromecast.png"><img class=" wp-image-1195 alignleft" title="Chromecast" alt="chromecast device" src="http://cabal.zousware.com/cms/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/chromecast.png" width="245" height="245" /></a><br/><br/>Full disclosure: I'm a Google employee. Now that I've gotten that out of the way, I'm going to be late to the game and talk about the new <a title="Chromecast" href="http://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/devices/chromecast/#youtube" target="_blank">Chromecast</a>.<br/><br/>So, what if I told you that you no longer have to buy a Smart TV to have the capabilities of a SmartTV? You'd say "Well duh! We've all already heard about the Chromecast! It launched a week ago!" And you'd get angry at me for being behind the times and whatnot. And I wouldn't listen because that's not something I do.<br/><br/>But think about it: SmartTVs have been around for a while now but they still aren't supplying good user experiences. All of the last generation of game consoles had some SmartTV features and they've been around since 2006-2007. Samsung introduced its initial line of "Internet TV"s in 2007. AppleTV is originally from 2007 as well. Heck, TiVo's existed since 1999 and even the GoogleTV itself has had 3 years to get better. Given all this time and all these people vying for the market, you'd hope something really wonderful would come out of it. But nothing so far has been all that great of an experience. Yes, they're usable, but they're not fun to use.<br/><br/>Let's talk about the Google TV. I think it was a good thing, but I feel it wasn't taken far enough. It was expensive and bulky, yet it still managed to be slow and clunky. Setting it up took forever: sign in, adjust for overscan, figure out the audio, yada yada yada. The users had to navigate it with a keyboard and touchpad mouse, either using a decent Logitech keyboard or the dreaded <a title="Labelmaker!!!!" href="https://www.google.com/search?q=sony+google+tv+controller&tbm=isch" target="_blank">Sony label maker</a>. But it was still a good thing; it was Google trying out the TV space, making mistakes and learning.<br/><br/>And look at that, now we have the Chromecast! Instead yet-another-set-top-box or TV itself, here's a small and simple dongle usable with any TV with HDMI. How do you set it up? Just quickly tell it your wifi network and bam, you're ready. How do you interact with it? Use your phone, tablet, or desktop, a.k.a. things you know how to use. I got mine in the mail the other day and it was ready to go within literally two minutes after plugging it up. And it's cheap! Just $35! This will sell insanely well at the holidays assuming the supply will hold out.<br/><br/>I've had plenty of time to play with it and there's something great about quickly finding some video on YouTube or Netflix and instantly watching it on your TV. While you're watching YouTube, find some more and queue them up. Or feel like just working around the house and need a soundtrack? Send music to the TV instead.<br/><br/>But wait, there's more! Google's already published the <a title="Cast SDK" href="https://developers.google.com/cast/" target="_blank">Cast SDK</a> used to get the content to the TV, so now anyone can make their website or app work with it. Imagine playing Scrabble where the TV's the board and your phone/tablet is your tile rack. Or how about some asymmetrical gameplay like the <a title="Mario Chase from Nintendo Land" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwYbKJ7fIdk" target="_blank">Wii U has with its gamepad</a>? Or something simpler like a killer photo share app or getting webcam to work with it as well and use Google Hangouts or Skype with your TV? There are so many awesome possibilities. I, for one, welcome our new multi-device experience overlords.<br/><br/>Long story short? Get a Chromecast, or find a friend with one and play with theirs. You're gonna like the way it works, I guarantee it.Zoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17481317721497365558noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-142334027348680795.post-18408738139152313652013-04-01T05:00:00.001-07:002014-11-23T19:53:47.896-08:00Grump grump grump[caption id="attachment_1182" align="alignright" width="321"]<a href="http://cabal.zousware.com/cms/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/grumpyvasili.png"><img class=" wp-image-1182 " alt="grumpyvasili" src="http://cabal.zousware.com/cms/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/grumpyvasili.png" width="321" height="210" /></a> Separated at Birth?[/caption]<br/><br/>I've been called many things in my life, but the most enduring is likely the adjective "surly". So obviously when Grumpy Cat came to the internet's doorstep (reddit.com) last year, I knew that the comparisons to myself would begin soon enough. For instance, the picture comparing my young, handsome self to Tardar Sauce was taken around 7 years ago, and quickly labeled "Grump grump grump".<br/><br/>Things haven't changed much since though. I've recently been told that Grumpy Cat is my spirit animal. I think I can live with that... somehow. I almost feel like this is a paradox in the making though, as if I admit I like being compared to Grumpy Cat, then I'm also admitting that I'm in no way grumpy enough to be worthy of that comparison! Oh how my mind boggles...<br/><br/>Maybe I'll just have to go full Grumpy Cat for Comic Con this year. Hrmmmmmm?<br/><br/>Full disclosure: Grumpy Cat is one of my favorite memes today. Surely this is due in no small part how well the meme relates to me. But as such, I guess I can't complain for once.<br/><br/><del>Also, for those of you with a PS3, Wii U, internet-connected set top-box or television, check out YouTube on it today. You might find something apropos...</del><br/><del> You can also see it at www.youtube.com/tv.</del><br/><br/>EDIT: Welp, nevermind. Looks like we're not doing that... so yeah, that's less cool >_>Zoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17481317721497365558noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-142334027348680795.post-74851085613216244802012-05-08T07:00:00.001-07:002014-11-23T19:53:47.572-08:00The GatewayI can't believe that it took me nearly a year to do more than just drive across the Golden Gate Bridge...<br/><br/>Last summer, I walked across it instead!<br/><br/>Some of you might've heard of the Golden Gate Bridge before. For most of us, it's only recognizable because of Full House:<br/><br/>[caption id="attachment_1136" align="aligncenter" width="983" caption="Whatever happened to predictability..."]<a href="http://cabal.zousware.com/cms/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/alamosquare.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image-1136" title="Alamo Square" src="http://cabal.zousware.com/cms/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/alamosquare.jpg" alt="" width="983" height="737" /></a>[/caption]<br/><p style="text-align: left;">Wait a second, that's not the right picture... Alamo Square and the Painted Ladies are not the Golden Gate Bridge. Why I'm so certain: do you see any water in that picture?</p><br/><p style="text-align: left;">Sidenote: I dare you to not have the Full House theme stuck in your head right now. Mwahahahahaha.</p><br/><p style="text-align: left;">Yeah, let's try this again...</p><br/><p style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://cabal.zousware.com/cms/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/japaneseteagarden.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-1158" title="japaneseteagarden" src="http://cabal.zousware.com/cms/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/japaneseteagarden.jpg" alt="" width="998" height="748" /></a></p><br/><p style="text-align: left;">Nope. Nope nope nope. I can sorta get it, this is the Japanese Tea Gardens. As you can see, there's a gate, so we got one word right this time. And it's in Golden Gate Park, so that's sorta close. Otherwise, again, it's the completely wrong picture.</p><br/><p style="text-align: left;">Maybe the 3rd time's the charm?</p><br/><p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://cabal.zousware.com/cms/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/palaceoffinearts.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image-1135 aligncenter" title="palaceoffinearts" src="http://cabal.zousware.com/cms/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/palaceoffinearts.jpg" alt="" width="983" height="737" /></a></p><br/>Wow. We went from being slightly related to the bridge to not at all. That can't be good.<br/><br/>So, this is the Palace of Fine Arts. It's a nice little park/place to get wedding pictures (seriously, everyone does).<br/><br/>At least we're moving in the right direction though: North.<br/><br/>[caption id="attachment_1137" align="aligncenter" width="983" caption="That's more like it!"]<a href="http://cabal.zousware.com/cms/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/goldengate.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image-1137" title="goldengate" src="http://cabal.zousware.com/cms/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/goldengate.jpg" alt="" width="983" height="737" /></a>[/caption]<br/><p style="text-align: left;">There we go! That definitely looks more bridge-like! And yes, the picture does no justice to its great and mighty orange-ness.</p><br/>In case you're wondering, the name "Golden Gate" refers to the entrance to San Francisco Bay itself. That's why there's so much named after it: the bridge, the park, the university, the cemetary, and even the casino.<br/><br/>[caption id="attachment_1142" align="alignleft" width="179" caption="Me, happy(ish)"]<a href="http://cabal.zousware.com/cms/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/happy-ish.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-1142 " title="happy-ish" src="http://cabal.zousware.com/cms/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/happy-ish-179x300.jpg" alt="With hat, and happy-ish" width="179" height="300" /></a>[/caption]<br/><br/>Anyway, it was a good walk. Chilly, windy, and deafening, but good. The bridge is just over one and a half miles in span, so it's a decent walk to get down to one end and back. Also, you don't realize just how giant it is until you're crossing it. Sure there's the Bay Bridge too, and it's longer and has more traffic. But there's something just majestic and awesome about the Golden Gate Bridge. It has the kind of style the Bay Bridge will never have.<br/><br/>Did I say earlier it was windy? That's an understatement. Everyone's seen those old movies where it's so windy the guy is walking backwards right? If you want to experience that, cross the Golden Gate Bridge on foot. It's definitely a fun experience, and I was enjoying myself. It was as if nothing could go wrong.<br/><br/>Or at least, that's just what they wanted me to think!<br/><br/>[caption id="attachment_1139" align="alignright" width="225" caption="Me, sad..."]<a href="http://cabal.zousware.com/cms/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/sadpanda.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-1139 " title="I'm a Sad Panda" src="http://cabal.zousware.com/cms/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/sadpanda-225x300.jpg" alt="My Hat!" width="225" height="300" /></a>[/caption]<br/><br/>We were nearing the north end of the bridge. Before I knew it, blam came a gust and knocked my hat away! Straight over the side! To be lost forever!<br/><br/>That hat had been a close and dear friend. I'd had it since I was a freshman at Georgia Tech. It was my band cap, coming with me for every football game, helping cheer on the Yellow Jackets. There were so many things that cap accompanied me through, whether my yearly Get-A-Clue excursions or even my last trip to Greece. It was with me through good times and bad, and it was always there when I needed it!<br/><br/>But no! That bridge (a.k.a. evil incarnate) decided to take from me something I held dear! How dare it?!<br/><br/>Well, I guess I got sidetracked. This was supposed to be about the bridge, and how it's really pretty dang cool. It's definitely a marvel, and walking along it gets you to think how much has gone into it. To think it's 75 years old makes it even more amazing. I'd definitely suggest taking the time to visit it yourself if you make it out to the Bay Area.<br/><br/>But just remember, it's a harsh mistress. If you decide to take the journey, make sure everything you wear is tied down. Who knows what the bridge will decide to take next? A baby? I wouldn't put it past that orange devil!<br/><h4>Epilogue:</h4><br/>While I miss my hat, I was able to procure a new band cap last fall. Right now it's just a replacement, but maybe, given time, we can build a solid rapport and it will graduate into being my dear friend like its predecessor. I'm sure we'll have many adventures together, I just have to hold onto this one. I'll tell you now though, the one place it will never be allowed to go is across any bridge, especially giant orange ones.<br/><br/>Also, I guess it's now been another year since I moved out here. Maybe I should finally make my way to Muir Woods...Zoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17481317721497365558noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-142334027348680795.post-27132967352746521322012-05-05T07:00:00.001-07:002014-11-23T19:53:47.833-08:00Look! Up in the Sky! It's Supermoon!<a href="http://cabal.zousware.com/cms/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/FullMoon.png"><img class="size-full wp-image-1105 alignright" title="Full Moon" src="http://cabal.zousware.com/cms/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/FullMoon.png" alt="Perigee Syzygy" width="250" height="250" /></a>You might want to take a look outside tonight. The Moon will be strutting its stuff as today it's no moon, it's a <a title="Supermoon" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supermoon">Supermoon</a>! Obviously something called a "supermoon" must be supernatural in some form or another. I mean it's lining up with the peak of an annual meteor shower (Eta Aquariids) <strong>and</strong> Cinco de Mayo. Coincidences like this simply don't happen! Other than today of course, when they do.<br/><br/>If you want to know what it means for your horoscopes, I'd suggest going to speak with a licensed astrologer. You might also need to stock up on some homeopathic medicines while you're at it, as you never know where the day will take you.<br/><br/>Ok, back to the point at hand. So "supermoon" is actually a colloquial term and is not accepted astronomer jargon. Astronomers would tell you tonight is the perigee-syzygy of the Moon in the Earth-Sun-Moon system. Yeah, that's not very helpful is it? I'll explain.<br/><br/>The Moon orbits the Earth in an elliptical orbit. On an ellipse, the perigee and apogee are the closest and farthest points from the center respectively. So the first part of a supermoon is that the Moon is at its closest point to Earth in its orbit. For the Moon specifically, the orbit is around 405,000km away at its apogee and around 360,000 km away at its perigee. It's basically 50,000 km closer at perigee than at apogee! The orbital period of the Moon, the time it takes to make one full revolution from perigee back to perigee, is called the <a title="Anomalistic Month" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Month#Anomalistic_month">anomalistic month</a> and averages out to around 27.5 days.<br/><br/>Now syzygy should be a more familiar term, however we tend to use other names for it. To clear things up, no, I do not mean that episode of <em>The X-Files</em> where the two high school girls go crazy with mind powers and kill Ryan Reynolds. Syzygy is the term for when the positions of three astronomical bodies make a straight line. A true syzygy with the Earth, Moon, and Sun would be in times of solar and lunar eclipses, as either the Earth is directly between the Sun and Moon or the Moon is directly between the Sun and Earth. The term is also used more generically however to denote new moons and full moons. These aren't times when the three bodies are aligned, but they do represent a specific alignment of the Sun and Moon in relationship to the Earth. A <a title="Lunation" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunation">lunation</a>, or <a title="Synodic Month" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Month#Synodic_month">synodic month</a>, is the time it takes the Moon to complete one lunar phase cycle; it averages around 29.5 days.<br/><br/>So really a perigee-syzygy in this sense could mean we're experiencing a new moon or a full moon while the Moon is at its perigee. Of course, why would we care about a new moon, we can't see it! So "supermoon" is really just a full moon at its closest point in orbit. Due to it being closer, it will actually be noticeably larger than average (the reported number is 12%). If the Moon were at it's apogee instead, it'd only be three-quarters as large and bright as you can see it today (it turns out 50,000 km can make quite a difference).<br/><br/>[caption id="attachment_1117" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="The periods of the anachromal and syndochal months are above, with the lower graph representing the period of their interference."]<a href="http://cabal.zousware.com/cms/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/interference2.png"><img class="size-full wp-image-1117" title="interference" src="http://cabal.zousware.com/cms/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/interference2.png" alt="Beats Between Months" width="600" height="526" /></a>[/caption]<br/><br/>Now, as I mentioned, the Moon completes a revolution in about 27.5 days, but the lunar phase cycle takes 29.5 days. This causes a beat period between the two as they go in and out of phase together (shown above). This entire cycle is called the <a title="Full moon cycle" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Full_moon_cycle">full moon cycle</a> and occurs once about every 14 lunations (just under 14 months). In fact, the last supermoon was in March 2011. So don't worry too much if you miss this one, the next one should be around July 2013. And if you miss the Eta Aquariids, they'll be back next year the same time as always.<br/><br/>The point of the story? It's just a big moon, spiraling around us at a kilometer a second, as we go spiraling around the Sun at 30 kilometers a second. Same as always, no big deal. But go out and enjoy it, because it'll be cool. If you're lucky, you'll see some shooting stars as well. And if you're really lucky, you won't party too hard for Cinco de Mayo and actually be able to remember your evening under the supermoon.Zoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17481317721497365558noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-142334027348680795.post-27345764043252865072012-04-13T07:00:00.001-07:002014-11-23T19:53:47.790-08:00Re: Sound and FurySorry, I'm going to delay your regularly scheduled post in order to respond to !Blogger's comments.<br/><br/>1) Per my belief that the ending is not happy<br/><blockquote>I think it’s a bit harsh saying that there was no way the Synthesis ending was “happy”. Yeah, the Quarians get totally screwed, as do all the other survivors now stuck without Mass Relays, but the fact that the cycle of organic destruction gets broken via everyone becoming half and half synthetic/organic is a happy ending, isn’t it? I mean, it’s a fresh new start for the ENTIRE galaxy. That should be exciting!</blockquote><br/>I simply don't buy it. I too chose Synthesis in my game, and I see the ending as being just as unhappy as I initially said. The relays are gone, and as such so is the supply chain of the galaxy. Everyone left in the Sol System will now be fighting for scraps, with the same occurring in every other system.<br/><br/>To be honest, I was happier when I was under the impression everyone would die when the relays blew. I thought "that sucks, but it's sacrificing everyone so the cycle can finally end once and for all". That seemed like the best choice. I was much more disappointed with it when I realized the horrible truth of the situation: I had just caused the inevitable, painful death of everyone as they slowly ran out of food and supplies. But hey, at least Joker and EDI will have robo-babies, right?<br/><br/>2) Per the Extended Cut<br/><blockquote>Additionally to be clear – the Extended Cut DLC isn’t re-writing the ending; in fact BioWare said specifically that it’s not. The purpose is to create a bit of closure and answer a lot of the questions people had when the game finished up. The way they described it in their blog post actually has me very excited; I feel like they’re really trying to make people happy.</blockquote><br/>Yes, in my ranting haste I didn't handle the Extended Cut DLC paragraph well. The offending line is:<br/><blockquote>Now I don’t follow the crowd with their “rewrite the ending” gusto, as you can’t just change the ending to make fans happy; that’s one of the worst ideas out there.</blockquote><br/>Basically, that line needs to be moved/removed. It was not my intention to imply that BioWare <em>was</em> changing the ending. This line was my response to those fans who believe BioWare <em>should</em> change the ending. In other words, I think they're idiots.<br/><br/>3) Per the PA Report<br/><blockquote>Also, unrelated to your post specifically, you should check out the PAReport’s editorial on the ME3 panel at PAX; apparently everybody seemed to come away happy. That should mean something, right?<br/><a href="http://penny-arcade.com/report/editorial-article/mass-effect-retaken-bioware-described-extra-ending-content-at-surprisingly-" rel="nofollow">http://penny-arcade.com/report/editorial-article/mass-effect-retaken-bioware-described-extra-ending-content-at-surprisingly-</a></blockquote><br/>What I notice most in that:<br/><blockquote>The panel pointed out that this content wasn’t in the game because <em>they didn’t know fans wanted it</em>. “The dev team stands by what was released in the core product, and we’re very proud of it. It was important though for us to listen to the community, and a lot of that feedback didn’t come until the game came out. Once we were listening we decided to include the extended cut. It wasn’t in the game because we didn’t know there was such a huge demand for it, to be honest with you.”</blockquote><br/>What content did they not realize the fans wanted?<br/><blockquote>“We want to give more closure about some of the questions you have,” Gamble explained, “and in general we wanted to give the players a sense of personalization with the endings. Many people mentioned that some of the choices they made in the game are not necessarily reflected in the ending scenes. We’re definitely going to focus on things like that. We want to make sure that when you see the ending of Mass Effect, you now have the information and context to be satisfied.”</blockquote><br/>So, the content they didn't know fans would want was specifically the content which showed the audience how their choices mattered. In addition, more information and context as to what exactly is going on at the end. I'm sorry BioWare, I don't buy it. You want me to believe that you created a game where personal choice is at the core of gameplay and story, and then decide the fans don't want to know how their choices are reflected in the ending scenes? That load of bullshit would dwarf anything you'd come across in Pamplona.<br/><br/>What I hear from that: BioWare didn't want to delay the game to deliver a solid ending. So instead they delivered an incomplete game initially, planning on adding the ending the audience wants (or even needs) a few months later. That makes me mildly sick, simply because I didn't think BioWare would pull such nonsense. Oh wait, that's right, <strong>EA's the publisher</strong>. Suddenly the world makes a little more sense.Zoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17481317721497365558noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-142334027348680795.post-79419376324280244292012-04-10T05:00:00.001-07:002014-11-23T19:53:47.711-08:00Sound and Fury<a href="http://cabal.zousware.com/cms/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/me3thumb.png"><img class="size-full wp-image-1046 alignright" title="Mass Effect 3" src="http://cabal.zousware.com/cms/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/me3thumb.png" alt="" width="250" height="250" /></a><br/><h3><strong>Avast, ye mateys! Thar be SPOILERS ahead!</strong></h3><br/><em>Mass Effect 3 </em>is a great game. Or so I keep telling myself.<br/><br/>Why wouldn't it be great? It's improved the combat system <em>again.</em> Equippable weapon upgrades returned, but without the inventory nightmare of <em>Mass Effect</em>. The AI was intelligent and challenging; I'd just breezed through the last two on Veteran and this one, on Normal, was at least an order of magnitude more difficult.<br/><br/>I enjoyed the game, really I did. Right?<br/><br/>There was so much good to it. It starts off a lot darker than the other two. Don't get me wrong, none of them have been happy games. But this time the beginning is impressively powerful simply in how quickly everything goes to hell. You start fighting for Earth almost immediately, being overrun by abominations created by the Reapers. Not to mention that cheap shot of a scene, when you're watching the kid get rescued, only for his shuttle to get blown to smithereens as it tries to escape.<br/><br/>Then in the first mission you find out that Cerberus, the people you spent the entirety of <em>Mass Effect 2</em> helping, have gone off the deep end and are now abominations of their own. And again what a cheap shot, having you reconnect with Ashley (or Kaiden if you kept him alive instead), only to "kill" her at the end of the first mission. Of course, she wasn't killed, but I actually thought the developers did her in. Toying with us: uncool, but it worked to pull me straight into the game.<br/><br/>Again, I liked it. So why do I feel like I have to convince myself of that?<br/><br/>I mean the entire game you come across someone new fighting off the Reapers (and normally losing). Yet you spend the majority of your own time bringing people and species together. You come across each and every one of your old teammates from the first two games and help them out. Those who survive the meeting will join you directly or help you indirectly. Even if they die though, each one does so honorably and without regret (unless you've been Renegading it up, tsk tsk tsk).<br/><br/><em>Mass Effect 3 </em> manages to effectively tie up each storyline and give an ending to each character's subplot across the three games; that's a lot more than you normally get from a standard JRPG, whose subplots often meander to a random and unimportant end.<br/><br/>Working your way through, you finally cure the Krogan and bring peace between them, the Turians, and the Salarians. And hell, if you play your cards right, you not only stop the war between the Quarians and Geth, but even unite them with a common goal. You can even give the Quarians their homeworld back after spending 300 years in exile. Sure the galaxy's being destroyed, but for once in these games things seem to be going your way! You're bringing all the races of the galaxy together to fight as a united whole! This is a word I try not to use, but this time it fits: <em>Mass Effect 3 </em>is simply epic.<br/><br/>[caption id="attachment_1046" align="alignnone" width="560" caption="Legion! NOOOOOOO!"]<iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/uRa6WH90xVc" frameborder="0" width="560" height="315"></iframe>[/caption]<br/><br/>So seriously, what's not to like? Oh yeah... that's right...<br/><br/>Remember how I mentioned that <em>Mass Effect's </em>biggest trick to being immersive was that you weren't just playing as Shepard, but rather Shepard was an extension of yourself? And <em>Mass Effect 2</em> continued it by having clear ramifications for the choices you made in <em>Mass Effect</em>? That's something <em>Mass Effect 3</em> tended to stumble over.<br/><br/>Remember choosing between Anderson and Udina for who'd serve on the Council? Doesn't matter, <em>Mass Effect 3</em> has Udina on the Council. To be fair, <em>Mass Effect 2</em> more-or-less ignores the possible-destruction of the Council in <em>Mass Effect</em>; however even then at least your Anderson/Udina choice stuck.<br/><br/>And remember saving the Rachni Queen? Well too bad, no matter your decision you'll still have to fight your way her again as she's been enslaved by the Reapers. The difference: in one case she's real and will help you when you save her; in the other case she's a fake Queen that'll turn on you. Of course, you could just kill her either way. Not a real big payoff for that choice, is there?<br/><br/>Oh yeah, and the Geth Heretics? Did you rewrite them in <em>Mass Effect 2</em>? Too bad, the Quarians and Geth go to war anyways, and the Geth accept the Reapers help.<br/><br/>Seriously, is there any major difference from any choice you made in the previous games? The majority of decisions only affected how many "points" you get to put toward the endgame. Everything comes down to a number, and it feels like game-changers were little more than a number to add up. Karma's a bitch, especially when she doesn't seem to exist.<br/><br/>The worst offender of this was the ending of the game. Not even the choices you made in the current game seemed to matter. It came down to a single decision between 2, possibly 3, choices. Now, I wasn't surprised Shepard would die; it was pretty obvious from the beginning. But having everything you did come down to this one choice? That's just lame.<br/><br/>Another reason not to like it? The dialogue of the ending was a huge problem; it was clunky and did an awful job of explaining what was happening.<br/><br/>For instance, <em>Mass Effect 2: Arrival</em> taught us that destroying a Mass Relay wipes the star system that contains it. In fact, that's exactly why Shepard was imprisoned in the beginning: his decision to destroy the Mass Relay had killed 300,000 Batarians. And then the "Catalyst" tells you that each choice has the added bonus of destroying all the Mass Relays? I took that to mean the galaxy's screwed no matter what I do; Earth and all the other major systems will be wiped out in the explosion. Apparently, that's not what it meant. But wait, in that case why was the Normandy running away from the blast? It's mind boggling.<br/><br/>Worse than that, think of how screwed all the fleets around Earth are. When it dawned on me that my character destroyed the Mass Relays, thus cutting off a huge portion of the Quarians from the homeworld <em>they just reclaimed</em>, I was damned near heartbroken. That is not a happy ending in any sense of the word.<br/><br/>On that note: there'll supposedly be a free "<a title="Mass Effect 3: Extended Cut" href="http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20120405005304/en/BioWare-Announces-Mass-Effect-3-Extended-Cut" target="_blank">Extended Cut</a>" DLC to explain this better. Now I don't follow the crowd with their "rewrite the ending" gusto, as you can't just change the ending to make fans happy; that's one of the worst ideas out there. However, I also don't see how this extension will help. I see it doing one of two things; it will either add confusion to an already insane ending, or it will oversimplify the ending and prove that it is just as stupid as the audience has assumed. Neither of these will improve the situation. It's like nervously explaining a bad joke; they should just move on and act like it never happened, we'd all be better off.<br/><br/>Unfortunately, I'm not nearly done. I was also disappointed at the number of missed opportunities that felt foreshadowed. The Keepers could've easily have been important again; hell, there's that one that keeps getting in your way at the docking bay. The writers completely dropped all the dark matter foreshadowing in <em>Mass Effect 2.</em> There's the matter of Shepard's dreams which could've had a lot more done with them. And even a bit of foreshadowing about how dead Shepard actually was between <em>Mass Effect</em> and <em>Mass Effect 2</em>. All of these could've really easily been taken advantage of, but none were. Instead, we were given a random ending. I had seen nothing in any of the games leading to that point which fell in line with the Catalyst's nature or reasoning. As such, since they ignored their own foreshadowing, they left it with an ending that felt completely out of place and painfully absurd. Sure, that's an easy way to have a twist, but it'll also immediately alienate those following the story.<br/><br/>[caption id="attachment_1056" align="alignleft" width="288" caption="The writers told me I had to let you win. But I'll make sure you don't like it!"]<a href="http://cabal.zousware.com/cms/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/catasuckmorelikeit.jpg"><img class=" wp-image-1056 " title="Catalyst sucks, and you know it." src="http://cabal.zousware.com/cms/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/catasuckmorelikeit.jpg" alt="" width="288" height="163" /></a>[/caption]<br/><br/>And to top it off, here's a quandary for you: the entire point of <em>Mass Effect</em> is to prevent Sovereign from activating the Citadel as a Mass Relay from dark space. So, if the Catalyst controls the Reapers, and it was in the Citadel the entire time, why couldn't it have just activated the Mass Relay when Sovereign attacked the Citadel?<br/><br/>It's insane to think there was this super-intelligent older-than-dirt AI living in the Citadel and yet it somehow didn't win? This is almost a subversion of the <a title="Gambit Roulette" href="http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GambitRoulette" target="_blank">Gambit Roulette</a>, as the apparent trilogy <a title="Bigger Bad" href="http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BiggerBad" target="_blank">Bigger Bad</a> implies it's so intelligent to be damn near omniscient, and yet it can't stop a single human. If it's really done this for millions (perhaps billions) of years, why does it let Shepard stop it? Everything that happened should've been playing directly into the Catalyst's hands (so-to-speak), and yet it seemed to have no control over anything. At the very least, it's decision to simply give up when Shepard reaches it makes zero sense. Can we say "boss fight"?<br/><br/>Speaking of which, and this is more of a non-storyline gripe, but where <em>was</em> the freaking final boss fight? Why didn't the Catalyst fight me? It should've at least tried to stop me, right? Hell, I took down a Reaper earlier, but I don't even get to do that again? We all know Harbinger deserves it! Even <em>Mass Effect 2</em> had the shitty Human Reaper fight. Did they just forget about it? And no, shooting the Illusive Man after 15 painstaking minutes of <strong>TRYING TO WALK 5 FEET</strong> is not a "boss fight". Though I will admit it was nice to make Martin Sheen shut up.<br/><br/>So this was an epic game that fell apart amazingly at the end. Up to that point, I was loving the game. It had everything. Sure, it didn't play nice with the decisions I'd previously made, but I didn't care, I was saving the universe!<br/><br/>And then came the end, after which I only had one thought:<br/><blockquote>...it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing</blockquote><br/>But I'll still tell myself it was an awesome game as maybe, with the right amount of willpower, I can forget everything else and simply remember the following: I honestly enjoyed the game.Zoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17481317721497365558noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-142334027348680795.post-90886727906105012862012-04-06T07:00:00.001-07:002014-11-23T19:53:47.643-08:00The Weight of the Galaxy<img class="alignright size-full wp-image-830" title="Mass Effect" src="http://cabal.zousware.com/cms/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Masseffectlogo.png" alt="Mass Effect" width="250" height="72" />The third and final installment of the <em>Mass Effect</em> trilogy came out last month. If you're anything like me, you've known this for quite some time; any mention of it had you salivating like Pavlov's dog. But it wouldn't be enough for you to just play it. No, you'd need to once again fully immerse yourself in this universe.<br/><br/>The best way to do that? Start a new character and play through the first two, in order, back to back. And that's exactly what I did.<br/><br/><em>Mass Effect</em> itself is one of the best games I've ever played. To get it out of the way, let's first talk about its problems: the battles are clunky, the AI is stupid, and the equipment system is tedious. Ok, done, let's talk about the rest of it now.<br/><br/>I should note: a lot of this was influenced by <a title="Why Mass Effect is the Most Important Science Fiction Universe of Our Generation" href="http://www.popbioethics.com/2012/02/why-mass-effect-is-the-most-important-science-fiction-universe-of-our-generation/" target="_blank">a stellar post over at popbioethics</a>. I don't fully agree with the post, but it makes a lot of good points.<br/><br/>To begin, <em>Mass Effect</em> is one of the most true role-playing games out there. They did a great job of supplying a system where you always have multiple choices, and depending on what you do has definitive ramifications down the line. And it's not just whether or not you complete a task, but often <em>how</em> you complete a task. Which gets me into the reputation system: are you a just, lawful hero, or a ruthless, chaotic anti-hero? Your decisions affect what's available and how you're treated. This allows it to be extremely immersive; you're no longer watching a movie with some interaction, you are instead crafting the main character to such an extent that they become an extension of yourself.<br/><br/>Next, the environment: instead of a universe where humanity is the status quo, <em>Mass Effect</em> throws you into one where humanity is brand new on the scene. Humanity's viewed as a second-class race, not important and still too focused on its own insignificant problems compared to the issues affecting the galaxy. It's not dystopian: there's a galactic government which oversees most of the "civilized" areas of the galaxy. But it's far from utopian, as the highest power of the government, the Council, is shared by three races, the rest of which are vying for inclusion in that elite club.<br/><br/>Not only that, but as popbioethics pointed out, this is a universe where things have gone horribly wrong. One race, the savage Krogan, is on the brink of extinction thanks to two of the Council races, the scientific Salarians and the militaristic Turians. That happened after the Krogan extinguished the bug-like Rachni on the Council's behalf. Meanwhile the technological Quarians have been evicted from their homeworld by the Geth, an AI race and the Quarians' former servant cyborgs. Then there's the Batarians, a race which still thrives on a caste system and slaving.<br/><br/>Among all this, the most advanced technology in the galaxy is the Mass Relay: a mass transit device which has allowed space-faring races to traverse the galaxy instantaneously. Without these, colonization and expansion would be slow-going and extremely difficult. Unfortunately this technology has only been co-opted by each race, as it was seemingly left over by the Protheans, an extremely advanced race that went extinct for unknown reasons 50,000 years earlier. So it's also a galaxy where all races have come to depend on a crucial piece of technology of fully foreign design.<br/><br/>And yet there you are, you little human, with your human problems, trying to understand the chaos which is the Milky Way.<br/><br/>Of course, the game doesn't tell you all of this at once, it's introduced to you as you work your way through the main plot. You start with a simple mission: examine and retrieve a Prothean artifact found on a human colony. Of course what seems simple is anything but (like every other RPG out there). Instead by the end you're in a battle for the survival of all civilized life in the galaxy.<br/><br/>Your villain? Saren, a rogue "Spectre" (special agent for the Council, think Trevelyan from <em>Goldeneye</em>), who is for some reason working with the Geth and travels in a giant dreadnought of unknown design called Sovereign. As you work through the game you realize Saren is controlling people with Indoctrination and wants to learn as much as he can about the Protheans.<br/><br/>[caption id="attachment_1059" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="That's no ship. It's a Reaper!"]<a href="http://cabal.zousware.com/cms/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/noshipitsareaper.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-1059" title="That's no ship. It's a Reaper!" src="http://cabal.zousware.com/cms/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/noshipitsareaper-300x233.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="233" /></a>[/caption]<br/><br/>But wait! Sovereign's not a ship, it's a Reaper! And the Mass Relays weren't left by the Protheans! They were left by the Reapers to control the technological paths each race would take when they were discovered! The galaxy is a giant trap, and the Reapers want to kill us all! OMG! THE CITADEL IS OUR DOOM!<br/><br/>Yes, that's pretty much how quickly everything spirals out of control: The Citadel, the center of galactic civilization and also thought to be left behind by the Protheans, is actually Reaper technology as well. In fact, it's a Mass Relay itself; it opens to the space between galaxies, where the Reapers are waiting to begin their assault on the civilizations of the Milky Way. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, don't let the Reapers invade the galaxy and kill everyone!<br/><br/>Trust me, it's a powerful storyline, with betrayal, intrigue, and action. Plus tons of sideplots to fill out the fictional universe. Overall, this is a decidedly one of my favorite games.<br/><br/>Then came <em>Mass Effect 2</em>, a game which you start by dying. That's right, Bioware wasn't pulling any punches; they kill you off within 5 minutes. Of course you don't stay dead, but it gives the plot a reason to take your character somewhere he'd never be otherwise: in the hands of a terrorist organization called Cerberus. There were a few missions involving their inhumane operations in <em>Mass Effect, </em>but this makes you one of them. Your goal: stop the Reapers' plans, again. And that's exactly why Cerberus brought you back. Overall though, this is a pretty nice twist for the second game, as it puts your character in a place they shouldn't be, yet the events make it believable he <em>would</em> be there.<br/><br/>The second game improves on all those things that made the first one annoying: Fighting is much simpler and more streamlined. They tossed the crappy inventory altogether. And the AI really improved a lot.<br/><br/>Even better, they didn't lose much at all. I won't go into plot details on this one, mainly because this post is huge already and touching the awesomeness in chapter 2 *cough*<em>Legion, Thane, Grunt, Samara, Garrus, Tali, Zaeed, Kasumi</em>*cough* would make this post be 3 times longer. The missions are still great though, the plot has just as many twists and turns, and overall it's still a great game. My one problem with <em>Mass Effect 2 </em>when compared to <em>Mass Effect</em>: the enemy Harbinger (another Reaper) just isn't as cool as Saren. Plus the final battle with a "Human Reaper" was just lame (someone had a bad trip when they came up with that idea).<br/><br/>Again though, Bioware delivered what they'd set out to deliver, a game which was more fun and more engrossing than <em>Mass Effect</em>: and lost none of the charm.<br/><br/>Oh look, it's the end of the post and I didn't get to talk about <em>Mass Effect 3</em>. Darn. I'll have to get at it another time, I guess.Zoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17481317721497365558noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-142334027348680795.post-90991347557603900902012-04-03T07:00:00.001-07:002014-11-23T19:53:47.736-08:00ShinyYou may have noticed some updates to this site. That's because I spent the time digging through <a title="Suffusion" href="http://aquoid.com/news/themes/suffusion/">Suffusion's</a> settings and found some I liked. I also took the time to give myself a nice image up top, because I figured you'd all like that. So, you're welcome.<br/><br/>If you have qualms or comments on the update, let me know and I promise I'll give at least 30 seconds of thought to whatever your issue is. I normally charge ridiculous amounts of money for such a thing, and you're getting it out of the goodness of my heart. So, again, you're welcome.<br/><br/>Admittedly this is to point out I haven't forgotten about you all again. Yes, I have posts coming. I unfortunately found myself stuck on what exactly I want to say in my next post (and how to say it without paragraphs and paragraphs of exposition). It's a difficult task I've set for myself. But I'll do it for you people. So, if you haven't figured it out yet, you're welcome.<br/><br/>If what I'm working on isn't out by Friday, I'll have some other real post in its place. And not just a stupid little status update thingamajig. Because honestly, I don't want to write this and you don't want to read it. So, to end this off, you're welcome.Zoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17481317721497365558noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-142334027348680795.post-31408647463390559172012-03-30T05:00:00.001-07:002014-11-23T19:53:47.657-08:00The ReturnYes, that's right. The Return. The Return of me. As in posting. On this blog. Like this one. Only with more content. And less incomplete sentences. And likely more run-on sentences instead.<br/><br/>"But Zous," you say, "you never left!"<br/><br/>Of course you didn't actually say that, because the lack of activity the past 5 months speaks for itself. But I digress.<br/><br/>If you haven't figured it out yet because you never were one for lacking subtlety: I'm going to try to get back into this again. Why? Because I've gone much too long without a proper rant. So many things constantly beg me to mock them, and I've failed them thus far. Also, I forgot how many posts I had in the works but simply never finished. If I can manage it, I might even get a few weeks buffer in there.<br/><br/>Not that you haven't heard this before, but maybe, just maybe I'll keep it going this time. Of course, being me, there's a certain joy I get out of disappointing others. So we have that working against us, don't we?<br/><br/>Side note: it's also possible a certain someone out there continually pesters me to blog. At the very least, they deserve a stern finger wagging. I can't be bothered to post just because someone wants me to! I have to have the right level of grumpiness to reach that specific activation energy required for posting. Sure, you think it's all just sitting down and typing, having these words magically appear from the launching point that is my imagination (or lack thereof). But the diamonds that are my posts simply don't occur without the proper conditions! And trust me, you simply don't want to know where that pressure comes from.<br/><br/>In other words, good job raising my grumpiness to its old levels.Zoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17481317721497365558noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-142334027348680795.post-70754000469757528972011-10-17T05:00:00.001-07:002014-11-23T19:53:47.557-08:00Batman The Animated Series, The Game<img class="alignright" title="Batman: Arkham Asylum" src="http://cabal.zousware.com/cms/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Arkham_Asylum.jpg" alt="" width="256" height="391" /> The post last Friday was supposed to be on this topic, but to really show you why this game spoke to me, I had to first explain what it was about the show that made me love it. Now that we've gotten that out of the way, we can move on to the topic of the hour.<br/><br/>Batman: Arkham Asylum came out 2 years ago, and it encapsulated the Batman world extremely well. It was a perfect match to the world of The Animated Series. They had writers from the show, the same voice actors, kept it just as dark and foreboding as any game set in Gotham should be. Nothing was better than walking down the halls of Arkham, occasionally being taunted by Mark Hamill's Joker, never knowing what villain would take a run at you next.<br/><br/>I'll admit, the game wasn't perfect. The story was great, and so were the characters. And I loved the sneaking gameplay, which is exactly what Batman should do (there was little better than watching your antics freak out the enemies). But the gameplay also had a major flaw: the combat system. It was slow and tedious, and as multiple major boss fights were just "fight a lot of enemies at once", this could make it really drag on. I only remember Poison Ivy and Scarecrow being different, but they still weren't anything special. It can make you question continuing to play, when you have to fight 20 enemies using a system that feels unresponsive. Of course, the rest of the game was way too awesome for it's own good, so there was no way I'd stop.<br/><br/>Of course, the other reason why this post is today: the sequel, Arkham City, comes out tomorrow. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't planning on buying it.<br/><br/>What? I don't want to miss out on Harley and Joker's taunting. Or Strange's machinations. Or Two-Face's revenge. Or Catwoman's...well, you get the point.<br/><br/>And to end this on a note of awesomeness, I present to you the Batman: TAS theme over Arkham Asylum/City Gameplay:<br/><iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/1OhPwY8Xfwk" frameborder="0" width="560" height="315"></iframe>Zoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17481317721497365558noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-142334027348680795.post-5756160245995563302011-10-14T05:00:00.001-07:002014-11-23T19:53:47.126-08:00I am the Bat<img src="http://cabal.zousware.com/cms/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Batman_the_Animated_Series_logo.jpg" alt="The Batman" title="Batman: The Animated Series" width="250" height="331" class="alignright size-full wp-image-801" /><br/>When I was a kid, I watched my fair share of after-school cartoons. We had the Disney greats like Duck Tales, Tale Spin, and of course, Darkwing Duck. There were the standard Nick Toons of Doug and Rugrats. And the new Warner Brothers hits like Animaniacs and Pinky and the Brain.<br/><br/>But none of the others could hold a candle to my favorite: the World's Greatest Detective, the Caped Crusader, the Dark Knight, the Batman.<br/><br/><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batman_TAS" title="Batman: The Animated Series" target="_blank">Batman: The Animated Series</a> was what cemented a lifelong love of Batman. He is simply the coolest hero. Whereas other superheroes have powers reaching even invulnerability (it's easy to win when you can do anything, Superman), Batman has three things: ingenuity to defeat those much more powerful than him, a mission to prevent crimes like the one which took his parents from him, and boatloads of money. Sure that last one is a little out of the blue, but he had to have some way to afford all his cool gadgets, right?<br/><br/>Why is he so great?<br/><br/>He's a standard tragic figure, trapped in fighting the good fight, no matter what path that leads him down. This sets him up to make decisions which he knows are right, but might be costly to him. In other words, he gets to be the courageous one, making the sacrifices to save others. He couldn't do all this without a solid moral compass pointing him.<br/><br/>But to top if off, he's not afraid to get his hands dirty. You try to steal a purse? Black eye. You shoot someone? Maybe a broken bone. You try to kill everyone in the city? That'll land you in the hospital for days, maybe weeks. He'd never kill, but has no issues dishing out justice like a fry-cook dishes out grease-covered plates.<br/><br/>So that's why he will always win: he has the will to do what must be done to save the day, and he'll kick ass to make sure it gets done. Of course, when Batman wins, he also tends to lose...<br/><br/>But the show wasn't great just because of the subject matter, there was also the stellar voice acting.<br/><br/><a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0175834/" title="IMDB - Kevin Conroy" target="_blank">Kevin Conroy</a> is the only voice I will ever associate as Batman or Bruce Wayne, and he does a stellar job separating the two (without the need of extra computer-generated gruffiness like some current actor playing Batman in movies).<br/><br/><a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000434/" title="IMDB - Mark Hamill" target="_blank">Mark Hamill</a>, the farm boy who took down an empire, takes a turn as the menacing Joker, one who keeps you unsure of if you just sat on a standard whoopee cushion, or somehow just set off a bomb (and that laugh is killer).<br/><br/>And the guest actors, though we didn't know it as kids, were well known to our parents: John Vernon, Michael York, Kenneth Mars, Roddy McDowall, Richard Moll, Melissa Gilbert, Rene Auberjonois, John Glover, Thomas F. Wilson, Tim Matheson, Ed Begley Jr., Ron Perlman, Tim Curry, David Warner, and Ed Asner. (look them up, you'll probably recognize more than you'd think)<br/><br/>And then there was the writing.<br/><br/>The show was so good that parts of it worked their way back into the comics. The villainess <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harley_Quinn" title="Harley Quinn" target="_blank">Harley Quinn</a>, was immediately accepted into canon, and is really the only character that could ever be Joker's second-in-command.<br/><br/>Also, the Emmy award-winning episode <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heart_of_Ice_(Batman_episode)" title="Batman: The Animated Series - Heart of Ice" target="_blank">"Heart of Ice"</a> retconned the origin of Mr. Freeze, something which has stayed as canon to this day.<br/><br/>The show was even ranked the #2 in two separate top 100 lists for cartoon series (<a href="http://tv.ign.com/top-100-animated-tv-series/2.html" title="IMG Top 100 Animated Series" target="_blank">IGN</a> and <a href="http://www.listal.com/list/wizard-magazines-top-100-cartoons" title="Wizard Magazine Top 100 Cartoons" target="_blank">Wizard Magazine</a>), both times coming in second only to The Simpsons.<br/><br/>And then there was the music.<br/><br/>I can't embed the video (the user disabled embeds), but here's a <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEx9r5enZsk" title="Batman: The Animated Series, Opening Theme" target="_blank">link to the opening theme</a>. As you can see/hear, they chose a theme close to the standard set by Danny Elfman in Tim Burton's <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096895/" title="Batman (1989)" target="_blank">Batman</a>. This dark theme, plus the intro cartoon, set this up as what it was, a dark and "mature" cartoon. Sure, it was still a cartoon, so it couldn't be that mature, but it matched and maintained the tone set by Tim Burton: a horribly corrupt Gotham City with one lone avenger trying to help redeem the people and save the city.<br/><br/>From the tragic lost love of Dr. Freeze to the drug-addict Clayface, this series gave us new characters with real stories, not just a villain-of-the-week superhero cartoon. The music and voice acting were above and beyond what was expected from cartoons at that point. And it was a new approach, to have a series for kids which wasn't always happy, and even if the good guy won it didn't mean everything turned out fine. All in all, this show was, and forever will be, the best animated series, period.<br/><br/>Lastly, because I couldn't resist, this should be everyone's best outfit:<br/><iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/kOufYa9LO5A#t=25s" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>Zoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17481317721497365558noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-142334027348680795.post-51744094699367361802011-09-24T04:00:00.001-07:002014-11-23T19:53:47.489-08:00Six O'Clock - TV HourHere we go, because I didn't want to write a real post, instead I'll give you my take on this past week's news:<br/><ol><br/> <li><p>Devil Went Down to Georgia: I don't know if Troy Davis was guilty (though it's hard for me to believe he wasn't given the amount of times the details were looked back into), but I can tell you that Lawrence Brewer sure was.</p></li><br/> <li><p>Busmageddon: The sky is falling, the sky is falling! Note: if someone does get killed by the falling satellite, I'll fully revoke my sarcasm and apologize. If not, I'll continue to think the media is slightly beyond sensationalist.</p></li><br/> <li><p>What's a Grecian Urn?: You've got a month, so you'd better get your shit together. Seriously, I've always been proud of being Greek, but now I'm almost embarrassed (almost, it's still pretty awesome overall). Also, the answer to the question is: Given their economy, nothing.</p></li><br/> <li><p>c++: CERN announces neutrinos went faster than the speed of light. Either their data is wrong, or the physics we know is wrong. I personally hope for the latter, as we can only learn while we disprove. We've gone through many theories, and this won't be the last one which is proven wrong.</p></li><br/> <li><p>Facepalm: Facebook, your changes make me want to give you up so bad. But you have the current monopoly on my friends, so I can't (yet). Now that's Google+ is open though, let's see if I can move them over there.</p></li> <br/> <li><p> </p></li> <br/> <li><p>The Muppeteer: We miss you Jim Henson, but at least there's always YouTube for <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7UmUX68KtE">Muppet goodness</a>.</p></li><br/> <li><p>Schweddy Balls: Great sketch, even better ice cream name. Ben and Jerry, you rule.</p></li><br/> <li><p>JUST TAKE MY MONEY ALREADY!: iPhone's on its 5th generation. Shouldn't it assimilate itself into our culture by now, getting fat and lazy like all good Americans. I'd never buy this thing, but on October 5th (or 8th or whenever it is) I'm sure the Apple stores will be packed with fanboys and sycophants (assuming there's a difference). I'll be enjoying a nice day outside, using my Nexus S on a network that never drops my calls...</p></li><br/> <li><p>Bases for your Buck: Moneyball, great movie, and given that I don't follow the sport, none of it was ruined by knowing what actually happened. Also, props to the A's for picking up Justice. I remember when he played for the Braves, and he was awesome.</p></li><br/> <li><p>Tis the Season Premiere: Fall TV has begun, with all new episodes of your favorite sitcoms and dramas. I have high hopes for TV this season in general, based on the couple premieres I've seen so far. (Sorry Steve, but the new Office proved they don't need you to be a good show)</p></li><br/> <li><p>End of the World: Not cool, REM, not cool. Though I guess if you have to quit, it's better to do it before you start fighting each other. I'll just return to rocking out to Orange Crush.</p></li><br/></ol><br/>Final Note: "give you my take" is a really weird thing to say.Zoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17481317721497365558noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-142334027348680795.post-31091517896549829712011-09-16T05:47:00.001-07:002014-11-23T19:53:47.462-08:00You Have Been WarnedI've been a bad writer the past few months (but Zous, you're always a bad writer). I had multiple ideas as to what to write about, and some of them you might've even seen pop-up in my feed because I scheduled them thinking "there, now I have a deadline". Unfortunately the deadline didn't mean anything and instead I just forgot about the posts completely. You're welcome, as I'm sure I saved you the horror of reading them.<br/><br/>Meanwhile though, I've been told to return to this, and as peer pressure is the wind to my house of cards, I gave in (for more examples of my lack of self-control, see my beard).<br/><br/>So if you're lucky, I'll be back. I'm thinking weekly at first, unless I come up with enough goodness to share with you more often than that.<br/><br/>Also, any pleas to stop writing will only be met with contempt, forcing me to write more out of spite.Zoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17481317721497365558noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-142334027348680795.post-20378230759564240162011-07-26T05:00:00.001-07:002014-11-23T19:53:47.396-08:00Time Keeps on Slippin'A year ago today I walked in the front doors of Google, picked up my badge, and started a journey that I could never forget. Or at least that's what I'd like you to believe.<br/><br/>Sure, those first two things happened, but that last part is very questionable.<br/><br/>I'd love to tell you my year was full of drama, with heroes and villains and victories and losses and, of course, loads of gratuitous sex scenes (As Hedonism Bot says, "Let us cavort like the Greeks of old! You know the ones I mean..."). Unfortunately, if any of that occurred, I'm finding the events difficult to remember.<br/><br/>Don't get me wrong, this year was great. New climate, new job, new friends, lots of great things. The downside? Being so far away from everything I grew up around, including my old (read "matured", or "better") friends. However, compared to the two previous years of grad school though, anything would look good.<br/><br/>The issue I find is that the year feels half-missing (or perhaps half-full?). I didn't actually miss anything, and it's not my memory that's failing, it's simply life. I just look back on the year, and find that there were months where nothing major happened. But c'est la vie, the important parts aren't the months I don't remember due to lack of drama; the important parts are the months I do (they must be important if my brain found a place for them). And what do you know, I might even be able to conjure up a few good stories out of those, with the hero Software Engineer solving the puzzle of the code and thus saving millions of users from boredom due to lack of cat videos!<br/><br/>Actually, I don't know why I'm complaining at all (beyond it being second nature to me). It's been a good year, better than I could've imagined. And this next year is looking even better, with trips planned and some good time to spend back in the ol' Hotlanta with nothing to do but relax.<br/><br/>And maybe, if you're lucky, I'll conjure up some of the better memories and share them. Knowing me though, I probably already have.Zoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17481317721497365558noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-142334027348680795.post-52693442909126078792011-05-12T09:17:00.001-07:002014-11-23T19:53:47.380-08:00YouTube on TV: Leanback with a Vengeance<a href="http://www.youtube.com/leanback"><img class="alignleft" title="YouTube" src="http://cabal.zousware.com/cms/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/YouTube-Logo.jpg" alt="YouTube" width="171" height="62" /></a>It wouldn't be YouTube if things weren't drastically changed every now and then. It can be jarring, but hopefully it leads to better use cases of the site and overall more satisfaction.<br/><br/>The most current case: YouTube Leanback. A new version was just released, this time focusing on helping users find content they want to watch, and then keeping them satisfied with both more videos from a single stream and an easy browse experience to discover related streams. At the moment it's a work in progress, but it meets all the expectations and use cases of the initial version with the added benefit of easier navigation. There are more ideas on the way though, hoping to help surface more common, but simple, actions for the user as well as providing discovery of better videos.<br/><br/>You can check out <a href="http://www.google.com/support/youtube/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1299013">what's changed</a>, or as always <a href="http://www.youtube.com/leanback">go play around with it yourself</a>.<br/><br/>Might I suggest though: sign up and log in to YouTube. You'll get more things which matter to you personally that way.Zoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17481317721497365558noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-142334027348680795.post-84966859465874146242011-04-26T19:48:00.001-07:002014-11-23T19:53:47.318-08:00Re: 80710A06On one note, I was wrong. Netflix wasn't blocked by not being able to sign in (though I did get regular interruptions where it was trying to sign me in).<br/><br/>On another note, all my personal data has been lost by Sony. To any identity thieves out there: you can have my identity, I hardly want it myself. If you happen to come across the identity of someone awesome, say who owns an island and has no need for a job, can you send it my way?<br/><br/>What will I be doing tonight? Keeping a watchful eye on my credit card and changing all my passwords...Zoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17481317721497365558noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-142334027348680795.post-84049278380057331802011-04-25T05:00:00.001-07:002014-11-23T19:53:47.290-08:0080710A06<img class="alignleft" title="PSN" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/bc/PSN_logo_color_trans.png" alt="" width="119" height="113" />So for those not paying attention (also those having no reason to care), right now PlayStation Network (PSN) is down, and has been for many days. PSN is how PlayStations verify themselves to Sony, allowing online play and other connected functionality. Now, anyone who has a PS3 has probably run into a standard maintenance shutdown of PSN anyways. It happens, you live with it. Only it's not down due to any technical issues; this time it was attacked. (Rumor mill is anonymous, but that's just rumor, who knows?)<br/><br/>Personally, this doesn't get in my way much. I don't normally play video games online anyways. But I do still use it for one major thing: Netflix. That's right, these jerks have made me watching Netflix on my TV a bit more difficult, and that shall not stand. After all, what am I without my leisure time.<br/><br/>[caption id="attachment_691" align="alignright" width="191" caption="You may take our lives, but you may never take ... OUR LEISURE!"]<a href="http://cabal.zousware.com/cms/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/braveheart.png"><img class="size-full wp-image-691 " title="Braveheart" src="http://cabal.zousware.com/cms/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/braveheart.png" alt="" width="191" height="241" /></a>[/caption]<br/><br/>Now, I'm not saying that Sony isn't stupid for tying Netflix to a PSN account. After all, I can still use the browser. It could be some business deal which ties Netflix's hands though, licensing and such. Really, I'm just getting to the point that I'm not a fan of Sony themselves.<br/><br/>But I simply don't understand this. There's no way to profit from this attack. (Maybe make Sony lose face and try to short-sell some stock?) Revenge doesn't really fit. If anything, it's just an annoyance to the general public. As part of that general public, I take offense.<br/><br/>The attackers of this, just know, I'm putting you on notice. No one attacks my leisure time and gets away scot free. I've given a good 5 minutes towards damning you. So, take that. Yeah, not much you can do about it, is there? How's that feel? Jerks.<br/><br/>Meanwhile, I guess I can go outside and do something in the blinding sunlight...Zoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17481317721497365558noreply@blogger.com2