David Beoulve's Blog

at Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Esteban's Arrival
Esteban arrived on Monday night at 11PM at the local airport. I recognized him from far off because he really does look like my wife, only he was born a boy not a girl. Oddly, given that description, he's quite handsome. He also speaks great English for someone taught by English courses. Maria, my 10yo, was with me to greet him.

Esteban got stopped and questioned by INS three different times, basically every stop but the last, each time he said he could tell they were comparing notes from the interview before, even though it was different people in different airports and cities. I'm not sure why the US has taken such a horrible turn against immigrants that aren't Canadians, but they have. Being Hispanic can't be confused with being Muslim, but Hispanics are definitely not "in". It's basically open season. He didn't mind, he just realized what they were trying to do - catch him at a different answer.

Esteban is like...
Esteban is quiet and thoughtful, hardworking and observant. He's a good cook. He says that if the choice for his father is getting his daughters Magdalena, Gabriella or Marisol to cook for him, dad will ask them to fetch Esteban. I ate way too much of his cooking at lunch on Tuesday.

Mighty Tuesday
I took the day off from work on Tuesday and took my extended family to the Salvation Army, where we bought Esteban more clothes than the one suitcase he brought. Esteban told me that he's studied psychology, philosophy, theology, Mexican history (as opposed to world history), and trained incoming workers how to put together computers at an IBM factory.

We dropped by Perfection Auto and saw Mr. Nuñez, our mechanic who runs his own shop. Mr. Nuñez spoke with Esteban in Spanish. He gave Esteban his card and said in English "Call me as soon as you get your papers sorted out." Mr. Nuñez has a specific way of talking and emphasizing things.

I asked Esteban, realizing what I thought just transpired (he just got offered a job, tentatively) "Do you know how to fix cars?"

Esteban smiled lightly and nodded "Sure, yeah."

My mom hit the issue a bit more clearly: my great grandfather, who went on to become the Governor of Colorado, hit the train tracks as a hobo for a year. Got his head straight, saw the country, carried around Shakespeare with him. My mom said "Back then, this was an excepted thing to do - often you'd find hobos were really just men seeing the country, not homeless or drug addicts like today."

When Esteban lost his job at IBM (first in, first out, and Mexico has felt the same small downturn we have in the last year) there was just no reason to not come here. Clearly, it was not for lack of education or the ability to walk into another job, which I knew already, but I didn't know how many things Esteban knew.

At any rate, since I've returned my 32" TV, I've asked Esteban for help considering what to do - buy computer parts for $300 and have him build one (with me helping), or buy wood working equipment so he can have fun with that, or something else, or just put it back into savings.

Jose Francisco Meets His Uncle, Esteban
So Jose, my 2yo boy, woke up early on Tuesday and came out into the living room to find someone sleeping on the couch (transformed into bed-mode). He decides it is appropriate to wake up this person and show him his toy Matchbox cars. Then, tired, he gets into the bed and naps with his Uncle until 7AM. They'd never met until this moment, and nobody else was around.

Other than feeling the jealousy of there being another man in the house, this has been how they relate ever since. Esteban and Jose Francisco took turns following each other around in the stores and places we hit. Jose quickly found that Esteban just ignores him when he whines about something, and tells him no when he tries to do something he shouldn't.

My mom told Esteban that it must have been the pheromones that Jose Francisco recognized - he knew Esteban was blood the moment he met him.

Esteban Meets the Wii
(WiiSports) He enjoyed Bowling and didn't understand Tennis any better than real life. He loved Boxing, and hunkered down and jabbed and hooked like he was really there, practicing on some tethered ball in front of him. He still lost because he couldn't figure out how the controllers wanted to be held to block. He laughed a lot, which is something the Wii brings out given the game you play.

Summary
So we're all happy Esteban has come to live with us. He has no return ticket to Mexico, which might be another reason INS was so interested in him. I'm just as happy as can be. The van fits everyone, exactly, even when the little ones grow. My wife is happy that her youngest brother is here and he's happy to be here. My kids love him and he's quickly seen what he expected: we are as Mom has told him and as we've represented ourselves on the phone. I don't think he had any surprises, even Wal-Mart didn't seem to surprise him.

at Monday, June 18, 2007

I had a fantastic Father's Day, complete with:

Homemade Breakfast.
Homemade Father's Day cards.
A 32" TV with component input and 480i.
Back pain medication since it was acting up, coupled with cuddles when I napped. I kept feeling the kids swapping who would be on the couch with me as they played around and I lied there, intert.
Lots of attention from kids.

Whatever you do, however, don't get that TV, an ILO 32" IWT3206. Mine came with a permanent color problem on the left hand side - I'm taking it back as soon as I find a vehicle that can fit it.

Naps are Good
It was great having my back pain medicine on a day I didn't have to work. I never feel like getting up from naps when I come home for lunch on those days, and on Sunday, I didn't have to. The kids took turns riding the horse in Shadow of the Colossus, or playing Wii Sports, and someone would always end up on the side of the couch with me - mostly my 7 and 4 year-old daughters, as my 10yo is getting a bit big and didn't have room. I'd drift in and out of sleep and hear their voices. Children are so cute when they giggle and talk to each other saying "My Daddy's asleep."

Wii + Component Output = Good
The Wii works great with Component Output - text that was unreadable on Gmail was now readable on the 32" at 480i... my wife's 32" lacks this input or resolution and you can't read the text even on a big screen. Whatever replaces this TV will also feature 480i at least.

Jose Francisco, "The Strong"
Jose Francisco is quite the baby boy. He stuck a crayon inside the power-button hole in the old TV that just died, and I smacked him on the leg for messing with electronics (which he knows not to, it was just too tempting). In hindsight, I think he was trying to make it work - he loves to try to fix things. Rather than cry and then fall into my arms like my daughters, he kept a grudge for about two hours, and didn't want me around him. I did not press him, knowing that you have to give Jose Francisco his own time to decide things - playing with a sprinkler (something else we did on Sunday), anything. Afterwards he came out and we played cars and games with the giant TV box.

Many adults I meet don't have the strength of personality of my two year-old boy. That's why my wife and I spend so much time trying to give him exactly the right upbringing: obedience that isn't blind, decision making (for him) that isn't abdication of parenting (on our part), and rewards for anything tough or clever he does, from falling (tough) or lifting things (same) or attempting to redirect my attention from reprimanding a sister (clever, he often comes up with something new).

On the surface, he's remarkably emotionally detached from things, but that's only if you don't get to know him. He picks a sister and gets a hug in the morning - it's not always his little mama (my 10yo). He handles each sister a bit differently:

Alejandrita (4yo) is his playing companion and friend (he'll often grab her to show her something he wants to do or join in her activity).
Dulce (7yo) is both his help, his target (for wrestling or chasing her around the house with something that scares her, like my belt, which he has learned how to swing overhand quite well), his sympathy magnet (Dulce's a sucker for anyone out of sorts or crying) and sometimes his playtime companion.
Maria (his oldest sister) is his partner in crime (he knows she won't tell on him unless it's dangerous or strictly forbidden, and even then she handles disciplining him herself and rarely involves me or my wife - strengthening the trust), his help, his little mama, and his playtime companion.

Father's Day was great, if only because I got to see my kids alllll day, and my wife got a chance to rest - the older two had to cook all the meals.

at Friday, June 15, 2007

Dove cued me into an excellent revelation:

The real failure of the XBOX 360 and the PS3 are the same: Sony and Microsoft both made the console that their fanbase said they wanted. They assumed that people would answer "within reason" or "within how much they would be willing to pay for what they say they want."

Of course, people don't do that. The first rule of usability is "don't listen to users." (Instead, watch what they do.)

Nintendo came along and said "Well, our research says they'll spend $250. What can we cram into that?"

The PSP is what everyone said they wanted - a GameBoy Advance that plays 3d games. Then the NDS comes out with less power and trumps it - because it lets you do something new, to interact in a new way. The Wii is essentially the same. It's called "Blue Ocean" strategy in business leet speak.

GP2X versus PSP
This is something I see come up a lot, for some reason. GP2X versus PSP? Not truly comparable, because the GP2X is such a niche device. If you want a handheld that does non-3d emulation, you get a GP2X. You are already "not normal" for even wanting emulation, let alone open source.

If you could only get one, as always, the question boils down to "What kind of games do you want to play, and how much are you willing to pay for them?"

at Thursday, June 14, 2007

The wireless router (Ativa) that's gotten our Wii online also let Maria and I try out Mario Kart DS via WiFi. We both choose "Worldwide" and eventually came up with different opponents - sadly, it seems you can't game with friends and worldwide opponents, which is gay.

She's played the game extensively and claims to know every track. I sat there configuring her NDS while she played on my black one and after a while she said "He left."

"Who left?" I asked.

She looked puzzled. "The fourth player."

"The losing one?" I asked rhetorically.

Later still, she said "Now the third place person left! It's just me and the other guy."

I told her "They leave because they are tired of losing."

Before she won the cup, the 2nd place person quit too. She was not amused.

I figured she had a bad game - she'd won two cups before this, but then she kept winning and I realized "You're really good at this."

"Thank you, Papa."

"No, really. Anyone still playing Mario Kart DS should be good."

So we called up Billy's house and I thought Sarah answered, but the voice replied "No, I'm Zach."

Doh. Way to make a boy feel manly. Mistake him for his mother. I fall over myself by quickly saying "Hey I was trying to reach you anyway, what's your Friend Code? Maria and I have a wireless router and want to try out Mario Kart DS with you." Actually I wanted to chat with Billy but this worked.

Zach helped me find out where to find what our Friend Codes were, and I discovered that if Zach was my friend and I was Maria's friend but Maria wasn't Zach's friend - we can't connect. No error message, you just time out after 5 minutes of tedium. We rectified this. I let him and Maria chat on the phone a bit before we switched off again.

Zach then did merrily trounce upon our bodies, karts and all, winning three cups in a row. Partway into cup 1 I heard his mother call him and he whispered on the phone "I can't talk." I hanged up and hoped I wasn't supporting child delinquency and called Billy after the games.

I tried to tell Billy that Zach's achievement (the summary trouncing of Maria and I) was no small deal given that Maria had won nearly every online cup she'd played in "Worldwide" opponent mode, but of course Billy just chuckled.

I don't know. *whispers loudly* I think he knows.

at Thursday, June 14, 2007

While I have very mixed feelings about Michael Roberts, father of MP3.com and Linspire, he educated me about Milton Friedman, the Nobel Prize winning economist. Michael wrote:

I flew up to San Francisco and visited him [Milton] and his wife Rose in their San Francisco apartment. They offered me a cold glass of water and we talked about my Internet and business experience. Then I asked Milton the question I had come up with. "How do you make the world a better place?"

His answer was, "If you want to improve the world you have to create more capital. While creating non-profits makes people feel better, the only way to fundamentally improve living conditions is to create more business." I left the meeting puzzling over that answer. It was a bit more abstract than I was hoping for. Later he sent me some photocopied pages from several books with a nice note.

Over the years I've had time to think about his response. I've come to the conclude it was the most succinct and accurate response possible. Capital is gasoline for the great engine of economic development which creates jobs, grows wealth and responds to consumers needs and desires.

Nothing is free, a friend is fond of telling me. I shall ponder this further. I'm not even sure if I agree with Milton (nor that I'm qualified to disagree) but that one quote makes me want to research further... Milton Friedman's entire series titled "Free to Choose" is now available via streaming video.

at Thursday, June 14, 2007

I prefer leaving my blog as a non-news service because who the hell comes here for news? But I found this interesting, especially how aware the military is of how many young men play games today.

at Thursday, June 14, 2007

That's all, just the link. I found a number of the old items interesting - you can look up "Nintendo Museum" on YouTube. I did and found these:

	Nintendo Museum Tour - Osaka Rare Nintendo toys from 1889-1970s, attended by the creators of Super Mario Kart and Nintendogs. Honors for This Video: #40 - Most Viewed ( (more) (less)	From: GovernorWatts Views: 53,811 Added: 2 months ago
	Time: 08:37	More in Gadgets & Games

	Nintendo Museum Feature: Part One - The Toy Era Hankyu Department Store chain decided to hold a Nintendo Museum inside their Osaka Store for their 100th Anniversary. The Nintendo Museum spans all the way from their early years (more) (less)	From: ScrewAttackEurope Views: 118 Added: 1 day ago
	Time: 07:34	More in Gadgets & Games

	Nintendo Museum Feature: Part Two - The Video Game Era Hankyu Department Store chain decided to hold a Nintendo Museum inside their Osaka Store for their 100th Anniversary. The Nintendo Museum spans all the way from their early years (more) (less)	From: ScrewAttackEurope Views: 55 Added: 21 hours ago
	Time: 05:56

at Tuesday, June 12, 2007

I'm glad that someone is writing about how games are reviewed, because the current model is utter crap. Examples otherwise are far and few between.

First of all, game reviews start out with the fictional setting of the game and its story, when gamers really want to know first and foremost "What kind of game is it?" If it's a 3d game, what kind of 3d game is it? 1st person? 3rd person? What do you do? Drive cars? Wander a haunted, indoor environment?

Also important but often omitted: Does the game have cooperative play? Versus play? If there is a multiplayer component, what is it like? How does it operate?

Many NDS games to date have woefully pitiful explanations as to what the multiplayer mode is or does.

After the mechanics of the game are settled upon the fictional setting can be told.

at Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Retro Gaming
I didn't know there was a GameCube GBA Player. I feel, humbled at my lack of knowledge. I try to not let anything worthwhile in gaming pass me by - a lesson I learned from missing out on the heydays of the SNES and some GameCube games.

I didn't miss out on Shadow of the Colossus! I think I have the 'net's only remaining copy of their technical rundown of how they made the game in English.

GP2X specific Retro Gaming
MAME on the GP2X seems baaad. ROMs that run craptastically in MAME run great on the CPS2 emulator.

Different NEO GEO games like different settings so I'm trying to figure out how to create indifidual "CF" settings files for the Rage2X frontend of the GnGeo emulator. One shoe does not fit every iteration of Samurai Shodown.

NEO GEO Retro Gaming
My 10yo has found she enjoys the Samurai Shodown series (she hasn't seen the bad ones yet, just I and II) and the penultimate 2005 ROM of King of Fighters.

In King of Fighters I pick ... this really big guy who has a toddler son ... and press heavy kick. To mock her, I put my right hand on my head and use one finger - that rests on the heavy kick button, and every time I attack I say "Kick to the Head!" She can't figure out how to approach me, either while walking, jumping, or attacking while doing either of those, without receiving "Kick to the Head!"

She did find a guy who wields a pole-arm that beats this strategy quite well.

My other trick is saying "Block Low." I can pick any fast character and do this, though it's funnier with the drunken master. I run up to her and say "Block Low" just before I attack (I say "Kick to the Head" after or as I kick). While she has kind of figured out how to "Block Low" she hasn't figured out what attacks always counter a low attack, so I usually end up either KO'ing her or knocking her down a lot.

Until she found the guy with the bo-staff I could go through all 3 of her characters with "Kick to the Head!" My right shoulder was almost bruised the first night, so I warned her I'd hit back the next night.

This all makes it sound like she can't play : Samurai Shodown proves she can, and she can pull off several special moves in King of Fighters. She just doesn't understand timing well, or when to block - the old adage of "I know my opponent is about to attack, I'll block now and hit him next." Unfortunately for her, these are the perennial necessities of fighting games. She'll learn it eventually, because I don't always choose my "Kick to the Head!" character.

But at any rate, we've been enjoying nightly sessions of MAME. There's only, like, a thousand game to try. For some reason she asks for Samurai Shodown and "Kick to the Head!" I mean King of Fighters.

at Monday, June 11, 2007

Using the Wii's Virtual Console, Shopping Center, and Opera Internet Browser.

I noticed a strange phenomenon this weekend: people like simplified, easy to use, easy to understand controls better than more complex controls that give them increased capability.

Written like that, it makes sense, but we techno-geeks rarely think about it.

My 10yo daughter has fallen in love with the Internet not on a computer and a mouse (which she has been exposed to), but on her Wii. I observed how she surfed to find out why.

She pointed at links and clicked a big, round A button on the Wii Remote to go to pages. She pulled the trigger and dragged the direction she wanted to pan on the page. She pressed the + and - buttons to zoom. This was all intuitive to her - only the zoom took the first 5 minutes to understand (she was using an option on screen). She found the trigger's function accidentally and moved on.
She had trouble aiming at hyperlinks, so she changed how she was sitting, just like she does when she's playing the Wii in a competitive game. Eventually she reclined again, having found a position the Wii Remote liked (it disliked hitting things at an oblique angle, and she was far to the side of the TV). She didn't seem to realize why things had changed (she had centered herself when she sat up and then relaxed again), and it didn't bother her.
She was able to add favorites (bookmarks) easily, by clicking on a star at the bottom of the screen while viewing a page. The favorite gets a screenshot of the Web page you are on and the title (usually concatenated). I saw her add favorites and then go to another she'd made a Favorite for few minutes before - essentially task switching between pages by keeping favorites she didn't plan on keeping forever. (Dad's note: She did not bother arranging or deleting favorites, though I tried these features out - just two of the three buttons in your Favorites view: add, move & delete.)
She zoomed in to read different parts of pages. If a website formatted badly for a Wii, she still looked at it, but spent less time on such sites before moving on (~1 minute as opposed to 3-4).
She didn't mind that it takes more time to do all of this than with a mouse and keyboard, because for her a mouse and keyboard involves these things:
1. Turning on the computer, and signing in.
2. She's not accustomed to the keyboard and isn't a touch typist (although she's used typing tutor programs).
3. The computer browser is confusing.
4. She has to go to the computer room, sit down, and plan on spending a while there.
5. She stated that using the Wii Remote and just turning on her Wii and getting online was much easier than all of the above, which she enumerated in simpler terms.

I found some of her assertions amusing - as human interface engineering teaches you "Don't listen to what your users say, watch what they do." Why? Because users lie, even though they don't think they are. Maria spent more time on the Wii than she might have at a computer, but it didn't bother her because it was more in tune with her usual life.

Maria used the Wii's online Opera Browser to research Virtual Console games - to find out what was good and worth her money. She paid me and her mother $20 for us to buy her "Wii Points" online, with which she could buy old emulated games the Wii runs.

She found that the only thing worth downloading, she bought first: Bomberman '93. Every other good game was either single player (vast majority), or two player, both of which I can emulate for free on my computer. I don't have 4 or 5 joysticks, so Bomberman '93 on the Wii for $6 made economic sense: extra USB gamepads for the PC run $15 a piece at least.

I was proud of her research (she wrote her findings down, whereas I would have used Firefox's tabs) and the fact that she got it all done - on the Wii.

at Monday, June 11, 2007

Gamers have yet to realize: the war is already lost / won.

at Thursday, June 07, 2007

Censorship on the Internet: Bad according to BBC, Amnesty International
It's official, censorship on the Internet is changing people's perceptions and allowing governments to control what people know.

Worst Buy Still BAD
Worst Buy really is bad: They scam people and outright lie, or sign you up for digital subscriptions which cost you money without you knowing it.

at Thursday, June 07, 2007

Recall the beta review (which was still true post-release) where I ripped Supreme Commander for playing like frozen crap pushed through the grating behind your computer's power supply.

Things have gotten remarkably better.

The game doesn't become a jerky, choppy, chop-fest anymore. The game does, however, slow down. Basically it's as though the game speed itself was automagically scaling (some RTS's have a game speed slider most of us leave at "100%" - well imagine that that slider automatically decreased as your computer begged for mercy, and that's what happens). I still find this annoying because a 4v4 game will become slow and drawn out; however, it is actually playable versus before where you couldn't accurately click on units.
Supreme Commander no longer has a CD check. Just install the game and play it.
Choosing where each player's start location is in a Skirmish / Multiplayer match is now easy - the menu color codes things for you so you can tell.

at Thursday, June 07, 2007

WOOT! From GP2Xstore.com

Order Content

Product ID	Product Name	Price	Quantity	Total
003	Payback SD Card Game	$29.99 (Tax 0.00%)	1	$29.99
Subtotal Amount :				$29.99
Discount :				$0.00
Shipping (USPS - Priority (2-3 day delivery)) :				$5.60
Tax Amount :				$0.00
Total Amount :				$35.59

at Thursday, June 07, 2007

It's Back!

WooT! Thanks to Grahf!

I'm also now a member of GP2Xtorrents.com - they have some good stuff with nothing that would make me dislike them (like the full version of Payback). Speaking of Payback I need to buy that! Woo!

I've updated my emulators; having installed a 2gb "image" onto my 4gb SD card, I'm liking that I spent $90 on it oh so long ago right about now. Carrying my GP2X into work with me reminded me of why I like it - I noticed I didn't bring my black NDS.

My GP2X plays music, has a 4gb SD card, plays movies, lots of emulated games and homebrew. My NDS can hold between 5 and 12 games, 7-8 being the usual number, using the G6 Lite, which has 512mb of space. The PDA homebrew ("DSorganize") for the NDS won't work on my G6 so...

at Wednesday, June 06, 2007

Read it an weep, but be sure to read about Atlanta, Georgia in the USA too.

at Tuesday, June 05, 2007

4.7 million Virtual Console titles sold, 100 available to buy. That may not me Microsoft XBOX Live's Marketplace, but it kicks Sony Online Entertainment's PS3 Home right in her tender middle, then knees her in the face on the way down. But lately, beating on the PS3 is easy.

If a Wii Hard Drive does come out, I will scream "THAT'S SO FUCKING STUUUPIIID!" Why? Because the Wii should allow you to plug any USB Hard Drive into it - and then let Nintendo make money on the Virtual Console sales. Who cares how they download it? Just get them to download more!

Some proprietary Hard Drive Box comes out and I will scream. I really will. You just won't hear it from where you're sitting.

Bill Gates thinks motion controllers are hot, but is such an asshole he can't admit Nintendo gave him that idea, and tries to say his idea is different than the Wii. Who does he think he's fooling? I suppose experience has taught him it doesn't matter: getting a product out people buy does.

Wii: Six Month Review and Metroid Prime 3: With or Without Multiplayer - good reads if done so in order.

Sorry for not posting links but I've read so much lately - the Bill Gates thing was over a Tennis Racket - he said "You can't use a Tennis Racket with your Wii" uhhhh okay - yeah. Try asking Joe Schmoe to swing a tennis racket around for two hours instead of a Wiimote and see what happens to his arm.

at Monday, June 04, 2007

THIS IS FALSE. For one, anyone who can read all of this and believe the original flag folders had all of this in mind is silly. For another, "Symbolizing George Washington's hat"? That should send off another BS meter.

Apologies for being gruff but everyone needs to wake up and start checking sources, so pardon me for taking a page out of Patton's modus operandi...

I am amazed, flabbergasted, at how much stuff people forward without checking for sources. This is one thing that helped spread hatred of the Jews in France - people just listening to a few and not thinking for themselves, only saying "Hey, that's what I wanted to hear anyway!" and latching onto it. Somewhere out there - Muslim fathers are forwarding each other horror stories describing what happens when men let their daughters lead their own lives, and they eat it up.

Whenever I get this stuff I check it on www.Snopes.com, so much so that a friend of mine now does so just to avoid me correcting him.

It doesn't matter if something says what you want to hear (remember Anti-Semetism, and recall that a lot of people back then were predisposed to such thoughts), it matters what is real and valid. We should base our lives around truth, not fantasy.

I always teach my children to question things. "I like this." "Why?" "Because it's fun." "Why?" The annoying repeater is the father, not the child. By age 10, my oldest daughter has become so adept at enumerating the whys of things that come under her purview that she came home from a weekend with her grandparents and told me "My grandmother is better without her medicine if she just drinks water, so whenever she asked for soda I gave her water."

All I can do is just stand there and look shocked, and await the day these powers are used on me (lovingly, but it'll happen).

Everyone here is an adult, right?
So ask "Why?"

Note: I sent this in a reply to a general forward I got. Aren't I a jerk about truth?

at Wednesday, May 30, 2007

My GP2X joystick broke a while ago, and a seemingly random member of the community of GP2X owners offered to fix it for me *swoons*. Now I'm back and it's actually cool - here's what I posted in the forums...

Apparently GBA emulation is not only possible, but really happening. When my GP2X joystick broke, folks still thought this was an impossible dream.

CPS2 emulation is apparently gotten so good you can run some games at 200MHz. I can't wait to try out Magic Sword again, heck, maybe Dungeons & Dragons: Tower of Doom or Shadows of Mystaria will work. OMG, the link has the D&D title screen on it (jizzes self & feints).

There's this cool cradle which apparently can be had for less moola from Nubie's link; I'm guessing there's something in North America that does that too.

There's wireless Internet access, which is something I wanted since before I bought my GP2X. Who's going to arrest you for piggy-backing carrying that around?

EvilDragon is busy. Good to know.

Folks are making an open source Firmware for the GP2X! This could really help the device as it ages if it enables us to do more with our GP2X.

Maybe if I make a GP2X game I'll become famous enough for Hooka to interview me. *dreams*

There's a lot of homebrew to catch up on - and honestly, since I have an NDS and a G6 Lite, that's high on my list of priorities.

I can finally buy Payback. My joystick broke while I was playing the demo. It was xnopasaranx's wondering about me and Sam Fisher and PokeParadox getting back in contact with me that got me to reiterate my problem, which Grahf saw and PMed me offering to help.

If xnopasaranx hadn't written nicely about me, Pokeparadox never would have pointed me to the thread, and Grahf would never have seen my issue, and my GP2X would still be sitting next to my wife's MP3 player (when she's not using it). Thank you guys.

It's great to see Squidge is still here, Telcolou - I hear Epicenter left on bad terms and I'm saddened for that but such is the nature of humanity and the hardships of the world.

I've been having great fun in life - my kids are fantastically well behaved - my 10yo daughter cooks food, as in dinners. My 7yo daughter cooks scrambled eggs without making them too dry or soggy. My 2yo son scribbles on the wall in red permanent marker. Hey wait that's not good... oh he protects his sisters if I'm chastizing them. And my lovely Latina is STILL fun to chase around.

at Tuesday, May 29, 2007

It's all summed up here:

The console is systematically outselling every other new generation game console (XBOX 360 and PS3) every month.
Games cost less for developers to make, and take less time.
Whereas XBOX 360 and PS3 caters most to men, the Wii has a greater success rate at getting everyone in the family to play it - this means that the Wii should sell more games than a console the family buys for their teenage son who plays it in his room.

That's what Nintendo is banking on. While the Xbox 360 and the PS3 are played primarily by young men, the Wii is played on average by more people in each household. That means Nintendo has a good shot at selling more games per console than its rivals, said George Harrison, Nintendo of America's senior vice president of marketing.

"Before, it was the teenage boy playing by himself," Harrison said. "Now, the whole family is playing."

Dave's take? It's obvious, and anyone who thinks otherwise lets their emotions rule them too much. Welcome to a changing market.

at Friday, May 25, 2007

For this next bit - sometimes I try to be a funny guy. This is one of those times.

I bought Etrian Odyssey and spent a very long time trying to hack the savegame - the game is gorgeous (see my review) and fun, but also unforgiving and hard. A party-wipe means "start over from the last time you were at the town's inn." Ouch.

My plan was to take one character and make her into a version of "Lord" Benedict, from Final Fantasy Tactics - a character who a faulty PSX 3rd party save card corrupted and suddenly could learn any skill (max it out) as soon as it was available. His level didn't change, but he was the master at anything he could do. It was like having Michael Jordan on your team. He couldn't carry the battle, but man he was awesome.

I did get Skill Points happening with my Protector / Paladin, Madrigal, and maxed a lot of her skills out, even though she's level 5 (now). Basically, my catch for trying to survive a party wipe. Sometimes folks drop, but not Maddy. Oh no, Madrigal's a resourceful gal. Not invincible, but how many level 5's do you know who can do almost every trick in the book? And, to keep the game fun, 98% of the time she either attacks or does Front Defense during combat, and that's it.

I had heard folks complain in the forums about a certain beast on the very 2nd level of the Labyrinth that was wiping parties out just because it could. The Ragealope. Some kind of angry Antelope or some such rubbish. I figured folks were diving in early.

Baring this in mind, I can tell you ... WITH ALL THE CERTAINTY IN HEAVEN ... with the very assurance that ON DAY, Jesus Christ will come again and judge the living and the dead... with this level of assuradness, I... assure you...

It is NOT the "Ragealope".

It is the "RAPEalope".

I seek the thing out with my party - Maddy's got Stalker up so nothing runs into us and wears us down. Everyone's 5th level. Standard party: Fighter, Paladin, Ranger, Cleric, Mage. Or is that Gay Germanic Word for Fighter (Landsknecht), Call it What it is Paladin (Protector), Rangers do More Than Survive (Survivalist), Clerics Without Gods (Medics), and Mages Without Magic (Alchemist)?

Anyway.

The battle starts and I have Maddy put up a frontal defense, and tell Pharra (my fighter) to Cleave, Glen (my ranger) to haste the party, Lia (my cleric) to brace herself, and Vera, her sister (my mage) to use Volt (a nice lightning attack).

Rapealope is MAD. Rapealope CONFUSES puny Ranger and Mage.

I think "Oh dear." I recalled in FF7 how my party of "rape the enemy and steal their candy" was annihilated by creatures who just kept casting confusion on them.

Rapealope is ANGRY. Rapealope hits ignorant intrudors for massive damage.

Lia (cleric) tries to remove status ailments, but it doesn't work on confusion. Glen (ranger) dies horribly, her guts still entangled on the beast's antlers. Pharra (fighter) uses Cleave again, while Vera (mage) casts more Volt. Maddy attacks. I have 4 out of 5 characters left.

Rapealope is DISPLEASED. Rapealope confuses pitiful Paladin and Mage.

Vera (mage) dies in a similar fashion to Glen (ranger). Pharra takes another stab at the beast. Lia tries to heal folks.

Maddy comes out of her daze in time to look around and sees only she, Lia (cleric) and Pharra (fighter) are up. She cheats. She breaks an oath and uses Smite. Calling upon her forbidden Goddess, she smashes the Ragealope. I have 3 out of 5 characters left.

Rapealope is AMUSED. Rapealope kills puny Cleric, and knocks Fighter silly.

I have 2 out of 5 characters left. With Pharra almost dead, and the Ragealope badly injured but still powerful, Madrigal flees to the first floor and takes Pharra and the bodies with her.

And that, my fellow, was my encounter, with the Rapealope.

at Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Uh, this is stupid. It seems the world of computers is "Don't get caught." Because reality and law aren't meshing well. I won't bother defending it or going into the issue - only state that it's another example of the way people working changing faster than existing models can cope.

at Tuesday, May 22, 2007

My GP2X thumbstick / joystick broke a while ago (October of 2006 I think), and a friendly person in the GP2X community who repairs cellular phones has offered to fix it for the low, benevolent cost of - of - OF... shipping!

So Grahf gets the Mensch of the Month Award.

I've even torrented a 2GB image of a GP2X SD card setup and everything. I'm stoked.

at Friday, May 18, 2007

As part of my RIAA posts...

As If Big Copyright Didn't Already Have Enough Lobbying Clout...
from the "lobbyists doing more lobbying"? [source]

You would think, given their ability to pass ridiculous self-serving legislation solely to protect their dying business models, that the folks behind "Big Content" wouldn't need another lobbying group... but you'd apparently be wrong. The RIAA, the MPAA, the Association of American Publishers and companies including Disney, Viacom and Microsoft have teamed up to create "The Copyright Alliance."

You would have thought that these groups already had enough lobbyists and misleading spokespeople, but I guess if you can't get real grassroots support, you just keep forming industry associations to make support look stronger than it really is. The group will be led by Patrick Ross, who recently left the Progress & Freedom Foundation, though not before making the case against fair use and bizarrely claiming that changing the DMCA would be inefficient regulatory tinkering without explaining why creating the DMCA wasn't inefficient regulatory tinkering in the first place.

In other words, this is going to be more of the same tortured logic pretending that without stronger copyright law, the content creation business would be in trouble. The truth is this is a front group to protect the interests of big copyright holders allowing them to prop up obsolete business models against more innovative new business models.

However, since those big copyright players tend to be big political contributors, politicians such as Howard Berman, who chairs the IP subcommittee and is known for being a big friend to big copyright (representing parts of LA explains that), welcomed the formation of this group without bothering to question why it's even needed in the first place.

I copy these articles because I'm never sure if they'll stay on the 'net :P

at Friday, May 18, 2007

Thinking hard about how the world really is can HURT, so I went back to some old game news and found something nicely written:

If you thought the pile of PS3 at your local retailer was big, think again!
I spent my lunch hour reading the latest news and noticed the Sony announcement of the financial results for the year on Yahoo. At the end of this article there were a few sentences that caught my eye: "A total of 5.5 million PlayStation 3 consoles were shipped between the November launch and the end of March. That's below Sony's target of 6 million. The company cited production delays that have now been fixed. The shipment numbers count consoles as they leave Sony's factories and include those in warehouses and en route to retailers. The number of consoles sold to retailers stood at around 3.6 million, said Oneda."

Having 1.9 million (5.5 million minus 3.6 million) PS3 en route and in warehouses seems like an awful lot, doesn't it? Since my company does a lot of shipping from Asia to Europe and North America and I know the shipping times, I decided to apply some math to see where all those 1.9 million actually are.

First, let's assume that all shipping is done by boat. Given the reports of PS3's stacked up in stores, there is no need to air freight PS3 anymore. Shipping time from Asia to North America is 6 weeks if shipping to the east coast, less to the west coast. Shipping time from Asia to Europe is 4 weeks. For shipping time within Asia, let's assume 2 weeks. We will assume that the PS3 manufacturer needs 4 days to get the newly manufactured units on the boat. At the other end, let's assume 4 days to get the PS3's off the boat and into the Sony warehouse and let's assume one week to ship it from the warehouse to the retailer. Total transit time for North America is then 57 days, for Europe 43 days and for Asia 29 days.

Now let's look at the sales figures and see what that gives. NPD reports indicate that the PS3 is selling about 130k per month in the US. Let's be generous and say they sell 6k per day when adding Canada. For Europe, let's use the same number (6k per day) since there is not that much data available. For Asia, the PS sells about 15k per week in Japan, so let's say 3k per day when adding the other Asian countries.

Given all these assumptions, how many PS3 need to be in transit to keep the product flowing to retailers:
- For North America: 57 * 6k = 342k
- For Europe: 43 * 6k = 258k
- For Asia: 29 * 3k = 87k
Total: 687k

With 687k in transit needed to resupply the retailers, where are the other 1.2+ million PS3? Most likely in storage waiting for sales to pick up. That is a gigantic amount of consoles to have in inventory, costing interest and not producing revenue. Sony must be in deeper trouble than I thought.

It can be argued that other territories need to be added such as Australia/New Zeeland but these are small and do not materially affect the analysis. The other contributor could be if Sony was stockpiling PS3 for a launch but I am only aware of Korea which is a PC-centric market up to now.

Nifty! Someone is actually thinking!

at Friday, May 18, 2007

Well last night my ADD laiden brain spent a few cycles on my previous post, The United States of America is only as good as its laws, and thought of a few things:

Only part of the information I found is true - leaps of logic and conclusions abound.
Since every person, even a scientist, is altered by his emotional makeup, his humanistic traits, we can assume that the same is true of people who spend a decent amount of time researching how those in power manipulate those beneath them.
Conspiracy theorists are adversarial and assume those in power collude against them. The problem is this can be true.
I believe the USA is heading towards fascism for one simple reason: we are giving up freedoms and giving more and more power to the Federal Government. This always ends in disaster for any republic. The people vote power away and then cry when it's used against them.

So, despite the conspiracy theorists whose diatribes border rampant fiction, there is truth in where this country is headed, and just like Germany, the people want it to happen. They can't see the end.

at Thursday, May 17, 2007

Now, first and foremost, realize that this is another thought exercise of mine. I cannot claim to know that each source I list is valid, nor that all information contained herein is valid. I can claim to know that it is human nature to exhibit favoritism, cronyism, and that people who attain power without checks and balances from people with power over them quickly form into terrible things. We might call them dictators.

My summation is at the bottom of this post.

We Are Not the Country We Once Were

The Destruction of America is well underway - the article that gave me most of the following sources...
Bush on the Constitution: "Just a goddamned piece of paper"
CIA acknowledges Bush signed secret directive on interrogating terror suspect.
Kiss your America Goodbye video - A bit funny, a bit scary, which shows that, given new bills, 1/10th of the Bill of Rights still stands. The 3rd Amendment is safe: soldiers can't board at your house without your permission.
Fight for Your Health: Exposing the FDA’s Betrayal of America.

As Bruce Ackerman, professor of law at Yale and author of Before the Next Attack: Preserving Civil Liberties in an Age of Terrorism, puts it:

“Buried in the complex Senate compromise on detainee treatment is a real shocker, reaching far beyond the legal struggles about foreign terrorist suspects in the Guantanamo Bay fortress. The compromise legislation, which is racing toward the White House, authorizes the president to seize American citizens as enemy combatants, even if they have never left the United States. And once thrown into military prison, they cannot expect a trial by their peers or any other of the normal protections of the Bill of Rights.”

Congress has now granted the president the powers of a dictator. The rest of the story of our slide into absolutism is merely a matter of filling in the details. [source]

The real reason for all of this is to have better control over the American people. As one can clearly see, it is not to protect their freedoms because their freedoms are actually being taken away and their constitution is being systematically weakened.

History shows us that fascism starts up with prison camps, right? We'll apparently we've got those already.

How Health Helps Control People
"Public health has almost nothing to do with your personal health. In fact, totalitarian governments place the control of your health options at the top of their list." - Byron J. Richards.

In the article, "Fight for Your Health: Exposing the FDA’s Betrayal of America" by Mr. Richards, I found this chilling:

The government, especially the FDA, is actually a major contributor to the obesity epidemic. The FDA condones massive adulteration of our food supply to protect the profits of multinational agribusiness and junk food producers at the expense of human health, which are actually a major cause of obesity. Metabolism of our children is seriously damaged by government condoned chemicals. How can the FDA possibly define disease or judge fraud when they are actively causing disease and promoting real fraud?

There is no question that nutritional supplementation offers hope to undo the massive damage our government has done, help restore energy production in the human body, and help repair the human body to get some level of functional health back. The truth is nutritional supplements have a major ability to prevent many diseases and the science to back up the claims.

From Byron J. Richards, Founder/Director of Wellness Resources, a "Board-Certified Clinical Nutritionist" Apparently all of this leads to a whole conspiracy theory that Canada, Mexico and the U.S.A. are planning to form a North American Alliance, which would include the health agencies. How far does the rabbit hole go?

In researching Windows Vista DRM, it appears the same people who are scared by Companies' ability to hinder freedoms are the same people who are scared by the Government's ability to hinder freedoms.

Summation
It seems I have come across a lot of websites that are "on the fringe" so to speak - some blatant conspiracy theorists, some vocal and concerned. Therein, somewhere, lies the truth. But what is truth?

Truth is something that actually happened. At some point, I sat down and typed this out on a computer and posted it online. At some point, you had sex with a girl, or saw a shooting star. You had a car crash, but didn't tell anyone you were distracted. Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 struck Jupiter in 1994, and would have even if there wasn't any intelligent life around to observe it. Most truth is not written, but it happened in the physical world.

Language can convey truth, but really I think it conveys ideas.

Back to what's really going on. I'm a big believer in following a very simple principle:

Do not pay attention to what people say.
Do not pay attention to what people do.
Instead, observe their behavior, for behavior belies true intent.

It's very difficult to do because the human mind seems to ready to listen to words or actions, but behavior tells me this:

President Bush seems easily frustrated with differences in his opinion.
The reports about laws being proposed or passed (that I was hitherto unaware) all coincide with his behavior and the plan that behavior might put into action.
The plan, I believe, is as selfish as it seems, but really it's about the idea that control is good.

That's it. Control is good. Selfishness takes root from there, because to be truly manipulative and controlling, you have to be partly selfish - by definition, you are putting your desires before others.

It is a system of thought humans can't seem to escape, and it's very seductive. If we just had control of guns, our gun problems would go away. (No, we just have different gun problems.) If I don't micromanage my work-force, I don't feel right. That's all it really boils down to.

But what we are watching is the dissolution of the United States of America, and it's about time for that decline anyway, because just as we can predict that humanity as a whole can't escape the allure of controlling others, history tells us that nations have a finite lifespan - one which I've judged to be around 400 years on the outer end, before becoming something different. Sometimes, another country, sometimes the same ethnic populace with a new system of government.

So I think there is truth in these scandalous reports, but I'm not prepared to say how much. It follows both human nature and the time-line of the lifespan of the United States of America.

Welcome to the realization that human nature wouldn't surprise you anymore than a dog's, if you would just buckle down, research it, understand it, and abandon your preconceived notions about how things ought to be.

Post-Notes
Jerome Corsi, listed as a good source author, it turns out, gets a reliability rating from David as: Zero. Why? Nevermind that he might not have co-authored a book he says he did, let's skip to the heart of the insanity and say that he believes oil comes from things scientists say it doesn't, simply because that would mean we're not about to hit a peak oil limit. Now wouldn't that be nice to believe? And you are that type of personality, than your whole life is colored by things you'd like to believe, like writing a book, or conspiracy theory.

It goes to show - truth exists outside of words. The only inherent truth in words is that they are written.

PS part 2
The article goes on (I stopped reading at "But fortunately, some congressmen have taken it upon them to officially get these developments discussed in Congress:") to infer that Pearl Harbor was a conspiracy. Whoa. Hold on. Stop the train.

I'd need to see some better evidence; I'm not saying it's not possible. It did get us in the war, and there were some questionable things - issue is, there may or may not be answers, and I don't know them.

Addendum
I made an addendum to this post after a night's reflection.

at Thursday, May 17, 2007

First, gentle reader, educate yourself about how the human brain assesses risk, using relevant examples such as Virginia Tech and 9/11.

The Virginia Tech massacre is precisely the sort of event we humans tend to overreact to. Our brains aren't very good at probability and risk analysis, especially when it comes to rare occurrences. We tend to exaggerate spectacular, strange and rare events, and downplay ordinary, familiar and common ones. There's a lot of research in the psychological community about how the brain responds to risk -- some of it I have already written about -- but the gist is this: Our brains are much better at processing the simple risks we've had to deal with throughout most of our species' existence, and much poorer at evaluating the complex risks society forces us face today.

Novelty plus dread equals overreaction.

Tie this into an obvious truth:

In other words, proximity of relationship affects our risk assessment. And who is everyone's major storyteller these days? Television. (Nassim Nicholas Taleb's great book, The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable, discusses this.)

and...

I tell people that if it's in the news, don't worry about it. The very definition of "news" is "something that hardly ever happens." It's when something isn't in the news, when it's so common that it's no longer news -- car crashes, domestic violence -- that you should start worrying.

You have today's lesson! Read it again, and think how it applies to you.

Also Useful:

More Essays by the man who wrote the above
Why Vista's DRM Is Bad For You (same author)
A Cost Analysis of Windows Vista Content Protection (his cited source, which I've also read much of)

Word of the Day
Salient means:

1. Projecting or jutting beyond a line or surface; protruding.

2. Strikingly conspicuous; prominent. Noticeable.

3. Springing; jumping: salient tree toads.

at Friday, May 11, 2007

Billy put me on his Flickr site.

There's me and... that guy! He was cool. He and I talked about how we raise our daughters. I forget his name though.

Oh yes! Look at my FEET!

I almost had a little girl convinced at the party that it was because my feet were swollen from a surgery and I needed special shoes. Then my 7yo daughter, Dulce, overheard me and told her "Don't believe him!"

*cackles* I love making kids think.

And there's me again.

at Friday, May 11, 2007

[See the original blog or you'll be lost]

Atticus didn't snap or clack his teeth at Maria. I had her read my blog for accuracy and she said "He didn't do that, he tried to bite me."

"Describe what he did. Show me, pretend you're him."

She made the motions of a fear-bite - something dog people know, hunched down, lunging at you from behind, going for an ankle or something else available.

Also she said she didn't hit him on the nose the second time, just somewhere on the side of his snout, but it obviously worked.

I asked her why she did that, why fear didn't make her seize up, and she said "Well, I knew I was bigger than him (she's 100 pounds to Atticus' puppy German Shepherd dog's 50 pounds) and that if he did bite me, he was going to be in for serious pain."

She continued, changing quickly to a light and happy voice, "But, he was fine after that. He and I sat (lied) on the bed with my grandma later."

At any rate, I try to present things as they actually happened.

at Friday, May 11, 2007

My friend Jessie sent out an e-mail to me and mutual friends:

JESSIE: This is probably one of the funniest Will Ferrell skits.....EVER!!!

It features a home-made skit wherein Will Ferrell faces off with his landlady, an 18 month old little girl who says "Where's my money, bitch?" and "You're an asshole."

I replied:

DAVE: That was horrendously unfunny. What's funny about a 3 year-old cursing? Ha ha. Oh my God. Wait, that's still not funny.

And what's with the afro?

Jessie pointed out she wasn't 3, and that my answer was typical of me, "not that that's a bad thing." At this point I realized everyone was missing the picture - so I illuminated the issue as best I could in the appropriate rant.

Abdication of Parenting
Oh she’s 18 months old? Ah ha ha ha! See? Now it’s funny.

Abdication of Parenting, I wrote about it in my blog. Now, apologies for being a wet blanket, but if anyone wonders why my daughters spontaneously clean the living room and kitchen without being asked, it’s because we pay a lot of attention to how we raise them.

Now the great thing is just about anyone’s kids can be like this, it all falls on the parent. Used to be a time when children worked – Kenny’s wife Jen asked as soon as she saw my daughters “Do you make them work?” (Jen is a very recent immigrant from China.)

Kim (the other David's wife) said something like “Goodness no, they’re children.”

But I knew what Jen meant and said “Yes, they do. They clean their room every morning, my oldest is the little mother for her baby brother, and my 7yo handles all of her older sister’s old chores now, like washing dishes, cleaning parts of the house…”

“Gooood!” Jen said.

What was magical about this encounter was that I found that there are parts of the world that still understand that children don’t grow up hard-working, successful and respectful unless you raise them that way – and the only way to teach it is to make them do it.

I made my 10yo burn her arm taking hot Pizza out of the oven. I knew it might happen, because she was scared. She’s done it five times since without a problem, and powdered vitamin C and later, liquid vitamin E in capsules has made the burn vanish.

Who here has those kind of huevos with their kids? (Mexican slang for balls, word means eggs but no one uses it for that.) I felt bad when she came running to me, because I predicted it – but I remember horseback riding, I remembered that, at the end of the day, it wasn’t my father or mother who taught me to ride, it was getting on that horse that did it.

So when she’s hungry at night, she doesn’t go asking Mom to make her something, nor snack on dried fruit or crackers – she busts out a frozen pizza and cooks it and gives her parents (only people still up past 8pm) some. I was sitting in my recliner working on my computer and she came up to me with Pizza. “You’re mother make that.” “No, me. I’m hungry. He he.”

10 years old.

So, no. Until Will Ferrell demonstrates that the Main Stream Media’s picture of “All children are terribly behaved, they hate their parents when they are teenagers and nobody gets along, so you might as well have fun with them when they’re little” is wrong, and only normal because folks either don’t know how to raise them or don’t care to, I don’t find it funny. I’m sure that any skits he does with teenagers will present just the picture I gave, and never include a respectful, hard working teenager who is funny because she’s ditzy or playful or smart.

And that’s sad.

Sorry for the morning rant – but I take it seriously – and so far I’ve gotten decent results.

at Thursday, May 10, 2007

My mom has the dumbest German Shepherd dog I have ever met personally. He's still a puppy, but growing fast (~50 pounds). He lacks not only brains, but common sense - yet he retains all of the normal German Shepherd instincts, such as being protective, aggressive, and alert.

Trouble is, he doesn't know what to do with all of this information. So, when people come over, he barks at them, and acts aggressive. Lacking intellect, he can't figure out who is friend of foe, and lacking common sense, he can't figure out that maybe he should stop. So you can spend 3 hours there and he'll go through the whole day hating your existence, fleeing your touch and looking at you as though you have a hot poker in your hand.

Then one day Maria comes over to my mom and dad's for the entire weekend...

So Atticus barks and barks at Maria. He does this more when Maria is away from my mother (Maria's grandmother, obviously), so Maria turns around and pops him in the nose with her fist. He yelps and stops for a while.

Later in the day Maria leaves my mom again and Atticus decides to get aggressive with her, snapping at her. Rather than display fear, Maria hits him again and yells at him.

Atticus didn't bother my 10 year-old daughter again.

I'm sorry, but I consider myself a dog person, and snapping dogs give me pause. Quizzing my daughter on the story, it appears fear didn't creep into her mind because she knew the end result: she'd win. As a 911 operator told me, it's not that fear doesn't hit the person, it's that their immediate response is fight, not flight.

[See Corrections to this post]

at Thursday, May 10, 2007

(or his news associate, Harry the Wonder Llama)

Pedophiles get a Second Life, while not having a first
Skin them alive! Peel them like bananas!
Wii continues PS3, Xbox 360 slaughter in Japan
Skin them alive! ... oh wait, that's pedophiles.
Why Sony doesn’t deserve the PS3
Compares Commadore's mishandling of the Amiga, which was ahead of its time, and Sony's handling of the PS3.
PS3 sales still low in Japan
The terrible beating continues!
Namco-Bandai Disappointed with PS3 Sales, Announces New Plans
And the new plans are "Don't publish for the PS3 for a while."
Nintendo Dominates Top 20 Titles in Japan
Hardly a surprise, but also not something to dismiss, either.

Indie MMO
Somehow, I hit the Indie (independant) MMO Developer's Conference, found the college-funded Mermaid Ecological/Social MMO interesting, went to their site, found the official link to the conference, the speakers and what they were presenting, and found the two main toolkits for building an MMO:

Multiverse - seemingly the best development kit.
Torque Developer Kit, apparently available through Garage Games and a few other folks.
Realm Crafter - something that has its own section on the MMORPG Maker Forum, along with Torque.

at Wednesday, May 09, 2007

"We have a strong lineup for the year ahead," said Warren Jenson, Chief Financial and Administrative Officer. "We expect to launch more than fifteen games based on wholly owned properties - including Medal of Honor Airborne, Army of Two, Boogie, MySims, Battlefield Bad Company, SKATE and Need for Speed."
[Source]

Okay... so "mass of sequels" == "strong lineup"??

Learn to not read what they say, but what is really going on.

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