/dev/null/kevin

Drivl.com has a funny entry documenting the 25 worst college mascots (NCAA D-IA only).  Beware, it's got some bad language.  Thanks to Brad for sending this to me.

Now that my alma mater, UC Davis, is D-IAA, how long until Gunrock (on thie bike) makes the list?   Go Ags!

Tags: worst | college | mascots

I think I'm going to get a job as an editor in my next life.  Read this story and and tell me what's wrong with it.  BTW, it's a very sad story and I'm not making fun of it or the people involved.  My beef is with the reporter who screwed up the story.

So, Encyclopedia Brown, did you catch the mistake?  Either the reporter got the name wrong in the last sentence or Sgt. Gittens is charging a dead man with a parole violation.

Tags: news faulty reporting

When your name is Kevin people send you stuff like this.  It's Kevin Federline's own search engine!  And just like his music, it really sucks.  Really.

I typed in my own name and it took 10 seconds to find... nothing.  Nothing!  Just a few sponsored links like "Buy Kevin Chu ring tones" and crap like that. 

Tags: kevin federline search engine

I really don't haven't anything against CNET, but their sloppy reporting once again forces my blogging hand.

This time it's CNET's list of the 10 Most Important Games of All Time.   The list itself is pretty good (and it is subjective, so I can't fault them there), but the #3 entry for Zork says this:

Well, that is just wrong.  Anyone who knows anything about text-based adventure games, knows that they all came from a game called adventure!  a.k.a. "Colossal Caves" or ADVENT.

I checked the Wikipedia entries for Zork, ADVENT and adventure game, and none of them make that claim.  In fact, they all say that ADVENT was the first adventure game.  Yes, Wikipedia entries change, but I checked the history for the Zork entry and as far back as 2001 (just weeks after the entry was created) it states that Zork was influenced by, and came after, ADVENT. 

It took me two minutes to make those checks.  For people who pretend to be reporters, they should try harder.  This isn't to say that Zork wasn't important and shouldn't be on the list, but they should get their facts straight.

Read hear more about ADVENT.

Tags: cnet | zork | advent | adventure games | games

 
Can someone explain to me why this is considered a good idea?

Tags: stupid table 

Neatorama posted this story, but they only linked to still photos of the eclipse.  Nasa's site has the whole movie, which is much cooler because it, y'know, moves and stuff.  Yes, technically it's a "lunar transit of the sun" but that phase doesn't play in Peoria.

Watch the movie in large mode, if possible.

Tags: solar eclipse | eclipse

Linda tagged me with with the new meme on music:  Name five songs (or artists) that you love but annoy your significant other.

Since my wife is into pop music and light jazz and I am into heavy/progressive metal, I could list anything on my iPod.  In the car we listen to the news, or play our kid's music.

1. Dream Theater
2. Primus
3. Evanescence
4. Linkin Park
5. Enchant
   

Tagged: Mocker, Tong, Rama, Steve, Trevor (if only to get him to blog this year).

BTW, use of the word "meme" is itself meme, since in the old days we used the word "fad."

Tags: meme | music

One of my most popular blog entries (via google and comments) is one about how Apple's iTunes 7.0 broke the competing MusicMatch program (acquired by Yahoo Music).  On Friday I received a trackback comment from Tony Bove that iTunes 7.1 has now fixed the problem.  Yeah!  I verified the fix over the weekend and now have both iTunes and MusicMatch living together in harmony.

Not only is the fix cool, but the blogosphere is working as it should.

Tags:  apple | ipod | itunes | musicmatch

This past weekend A few weekends ago, I helped stress test the new Lord of the Rings Online Game.  It's a MMORPG similar to World of Warcraft.  I'm not a big online gamer, but the both the download and account were free, and I'm a big LOTR fan, so I deiced to try it.

Short Review: Pretty Good

MMORPGs never really were that appealing to me.  The idea of continual payment never sat well with me, nor did the idea of the game never really ending.  Many of the early MMORPGs weren't that good: lots of repetitive tasks and high death penalties.  WoW really raised the bar for MMORPGs and it's the standard by which all others are now judged.  However, since I don't really play WoW I can't compare, so I will just list the features the I liked and didn't like.  I'll let the WoW players make up their own minds.  In talking with some WoW players, it sounds like LOTRO has borrowed/stolen many of the good features from WoW.

Good Stuff

• Fellowships - You knew it was there, right?   Fellowships are quick ad-hoc groups that players can form to tackle a larger challenge.  Smaller than a guild or raid party, you can easily join, and leave, a fellowship.  Members get a private chat channel, split all money and experience earned, and share in any quest tasks or items.  Those last two items are the most important because you don't have to worry about those limited spawn areas where a group of players are camped waiting for their chance to kill the quest target.
  

• No Death Penalty - Dying really has no penalty, other than transporting you back to your "home" city (which you can move).  Your equipment may take some damage (I never checked) but there is no need to retrieve your body or anything like that.

• Instances - Small, or large, parts of the game can be instanced to a player or group based on their situation.  Unlike the traditional MMORPG, parts of the game are linear, meaning that a location may change based on how far into the story you have progressed.  A town may get attacked at some point, so for everyone who was part of that battle, the town will show damage from that point on.  I didn't get far enough into the story to see how much changes, but the few examples that I saw seemed to work.

• Lots of Content - Granted, I just started the game, but there was no shortage of things to do.  Also, the automap feature lets you zoom out to see all of Middle Earth, so you can see how much content they have the capacity for.  There was also no shortage of quests.  I had anywhere from 5 to 10 active at any one time and most are interesting or move the story along.  There are also many types of quests covering all aspects of the game.
• Kill Quests - Typical monster quest: find it, kill it.  Or kill X many Ys.
• FedEx Quests - Take this object to Joe, or just talk to Joe.
• Skill Quests - Build or farm something.  You can either do it yourself (assuming you have he skills), or find another player to do it.

• Auto Journal - Will so many quests (and quest chains), the journal keeps track of all conversations relating to the quest, where you need to go to achieve the quest, and where to go back to collect your reward for the quest.
  

• Lots of Races - You can start off the game as a human, elf, dwarf, or hobbit.  Each starts the game at a different location on the map so each gets a different set of training and low-level quests.  I think that this makes for great replayability, as you won't get bored with the same stuff over and over again.

• Quick Transportation - Covering large distances quickly can be achieved by spending a little money.  You can only travel to a place that you've visited before, but you'd expect that.

• Ability to Become a Monster - I never did this, but it was advertised that once I became 10th level I could go a place to join the forces of darkness.  I don't know more about this than there are some limitations places on your character, but it sounds fun!
  

Bad Stuff

There wasn't too much that I didn't like, and I will say now that some of these problems might have workarounds that I just didn't find. 

•  With fellowships such an integral part of the game, there wasn't an easy way to create one quickly.  As it is now, you must invite each player one at a time.  It seems like there should be a "invite all players on the screen into a fellowship" command.
• It also wasn't immediately obvious how to leave a fellowship.  While I did figure it out (double click on yourself (i.e. talk to yourself), and then right-click on the second image of yourself to get the menu of options) this feature wasn't in the "Social" Tab with the other fellowship options.
• Inventory control seemed kind of random.  You have 6 separate bags to put stuff in, but when you pick things up it goes into a random bag.  Thus, it's hard to keep stuff sorted.  Also, as you acquire and sell items, your bags become fragmented.  Not a big deal but why not just have one large bag?

While the game makers say that you will interact with characters from the books (and movies) you won't be directly involved with the main quest of the the ring.  You will, however, follow a parallel story to the main ring story.  I'm curious as how they will keep things moving along since there is a linear element to this game, but as a MMORPG there can't be an ending.  Do the highest level chracters simply have the option of joining the huge battles of Helm's Deep, Minas Tirith or Mordor?  How does becoming a monster change things?  Answers to these questions are compelling reasons to try the game.

The URL on the mailboxes isn't working (yet).  Here are the obligatory one-liners:

• Still no word on the Jar-Jar Binks port-a-potties.
• I, for one, welcome our droid overlords!
• "When you want your mail sent to a galaxy far, far away."
• "Help me, Postmaster General Kenobi, you're our only hope."
  

Link and Source

Tags: mailbox | r2d2 | starwars | usps

How I can actually cash in on this?

My blog is worth $11,855.34.
How much is your blog worth?

Tags: blog worth

I called my credit card company and was listening to the phone tree prompts.  "For balance, press, or say, one."   Then I sneezed.  The computer took my sneeze for some vocal command and I was suddenly being prompted for my social security number.

I think all voice recognition software should be able to recognize a sneeze or a cough and then respond with "gesundheit" or "you sound like you need a doctor."

Tags: sneeze |  voice recognition

Based on this noisy site (turn speakers down).  Original picture from flickr.

Tags: star wars rocks | awesome