I am twittering…for now

I have had a hard time wrapping my head around the Facebook/Twitter phenomenon. Does anyone really have a thousand “friends”? Do I really care when someone, even a close friend, drinks a coffee, eats a bagel, or scratches their armpits? Not really…

And yet I have been curious. I poked around MySpace back when it was “the new thing”, and created a Facebook account (which I’ve since forgotten) when they still had only a couple million subscribers. I’ve never really touched Twitter, though- I think mostly because the short-form, incredibly “noisy” form of communication to be difficult to imagine being useful. I haven’t really changed my opinion but, as with MySpace and Facebook before, I feel I should give the latest social network “it” thing a chance. Maybe “microblogging” can live alongside my “macroblogging”?

Continue reading I am twittering…for now

Something for rich Pen and Paper gamers…

I remember back in the foggy vastness of the past how valuable having a decent gaming surface was when playing Dungeons and Dragons. My friend Chris and I eventually hacked together a particle board, mactac “wood grain” and screw on leg monstrosity for gaming. I’m not sure what ever happened to that, but I’m sure it is a treasured heirloom.

Almost as treasured as something like this: the Sultan gaming table. An actual, honest to goodness piece of furniture beautifully crafted for gamers. Each player has their own “station”, with the game master getting the deluxe treatment. There are dedicated areas for rolling dice, a multi-layer map surface, panels to cover over the game in progress and turn the thing into a massive “multi-purpose” table- it even has cup holders! Mind you, for nearly $10,000, I guess it should have cup holders.   If I were still gaming for half a dozen hours every weekend the way we did back when I was between 15 and 25, I could almost see buying this.

I’m sure Irene would be on board…

The big question: iPhone or Blackberry

Recently I’ve started to feel the limitations of my long-term cellphone, a Motorola Razr. I’ve had it now for five years, which means it is “ancient” by cell phone standards. Yet it has served me very well for most purposes. However, a couple of years ago I started configuring various server monitors at work to send me email messages when they ran into trouble. These messages are generally too long for the SMS service provided with my Razr, and my latest round of updates has resulted in these messages becoming largely unreadable: the emails are too long and complex.

And so I begin to consider an upgrade…

Continue reading The big question: iPhone or Blackberry

CSI Cloverdale: Nutkin is down

Case Number: 20090504.23734.19
CSI ID: 4393 (Adams K)
Case open date: 2009-05-04 14 AM Pacific
Location: Geek house, Cloverdale, B.C.

Victim particulars

  • Complexion: black, wearing fur coat
  • Gender: indeterminate
  • Size: approximately 15 cm excluding 10-12 cm tail
  • Weight: less than 250 gm
  • Gang membership: Sciurus carolinensis (non-native; see also 1914 Stanley Park transplantation)
  • Rigor fixed
  • Lividity indeterminate due to affixed fur coat
  • Liver temp indeterminate due to absence of test equipment re: recent budget cutbacks

Continue reading CSI Cloverdale: Nutkin is down

Duke Nukem… now not ever

It was confirmed today that the perpetual developer of Duke Nukem Forever, 3D Realms, is being shut down for financial reasons. If you’ve never heard of 3D Realms or Duke Nukem, this won’t mean much to you. But if you’ve been playing computer games since the early 90’s, you’ll almost certainly remember the iconic Duke Nukem 3D.

Unlike other early “3D” games, Duke Nukem’s greatest strength was its main character- a rough-talking, wise-assed musclebound guy as quick with a one-liner as with his shotgun. This was a game with a sense of humour, and an off the wall quirkiness: I recall the shrink ray which allowed you to shoot a monster or, in multi-player, another player, to reduce them to mouse size… then stomp on them. Or the remote control mines: set down four or five mines in various locations, then selectively detonate them using the remote control. Combine this with a “security station” containing monitors showing camera views of various places in the game, and you could remotely kill your enemies. Brilliant stuff!

Duke Nukem 3D was released in 1996. In 1997, 3D Realms announced their next installment in the series: Duke Nukem Forever. Originally, it was supposed to ship in 1999. 3D Realms was one of the original inventors of the term “it is ready when it’s ready”, and every year after 1999 there was another “not yet” from the developers when asked about DNF. The perpetual delays of Duke Nukem Forever became a long-running joke in the industry.

Today is the punchline, and it isn’t very satisfying. The employees of 3D Realms are, no doubt, even more disappointed than I am, and are stuck trying to get new jobs in a challenging economy. Will Duke Nukem ever reappear? Supposedly Take Two (the “when it’s ready” publisher of DNF) still owns the rights to the publication of the game, but all of the intellectual property (I.E.: the game in progress, the story, the artwork, etc) is locked up in the collapsed company. I suspect we’ll never see Duke Nukem as he was intended to be seen, although I wouldn’t be surprised if we get a never ending stream of cheap knockoff Dukes on various platforms like the the Game Boy and PSP.

Farewell, Duke: as you walk off into the sunset, may you always kick ass and chew bubble gum, and may you always be out of gum.