Sierra Kilo

• merging code into the mainline. fixing mergeinfo issues. the kolaches at the corner store are tempting me. no @pepsi #throwback #
• working literally 6 projects concurrently right now. some are interconnected, others are in a holding pattern. 5 of them are high priority. #
• @alexalbrecht nice site. like how tweets and posts have almost equal billing in reply to alexalbrecht #
• Watching @alexalbrecht and @kevinrose @diggnation on 50in mac mini plex for quick lunch checking on dogs http://twitpic.com/6jnyq #
• Han Solo, P.I. is AWESOME! http://bit.ly/jDdAB #
• got Live’s Live album for upcoming coding frenzy at work…will add it to the other live stuff that keeps me in the zone #
• catching up on @diggnation, DLing podcasts, ripping a dvd for my Plex library. really need to get my harmony set up better #

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As you can see, the amount of new content on the site has been sparse. I’ve found that Twitter is my content publisher of choice lately. I don’t have as much time lately to put a thoughtful, well-written article together, but I can certainly find time to squeeze a nugget of information here and there into 140 characters. I thought about letting Twitter Tools post a daily digest of my tweets, but if you follow me here, it’s just as easy to follow my Twitter or FriendFeed (which aggregates all of my content into one site). That’s not to say I’m dropping the site, just letting you know where you can find more up-to-date information from me.

That said, here’s what I’ve been up to:

• Got a Mac Mini for the living room, hooked it up to the 50″ DLP, got a motion-activated webcam to tinker with, running Boxee and Plex (I’m favoring Plex more and more). Still haven’t set up Indigo or bought any Insteon devices yet…waiting to win the lottery…sheesh!

• Been playing a little Fallout 3 here and there, some Strategery, KDice, Galcon, and Pocket Tanks on the iPhone. Still searching for the ultimate RPG that can be played in small chunks of time.

• Read a few things about Mortal Online and love what I hear so far. The walled garden of WoW needs an open sandbox as a counterpart. Unfortunately, I probably won’t be able to play much past a Beta since I won’t have the time to invest. If it were available for XBox 360 or the Mac, though, I could probably find more time. PC games require me to be chained to my desk in the office.

• I planted a few things in my container garden, but nothing noteworthy yet. A rogue tree (a willow, I think) sprouted in one container, so I transplanted it to the yard and stuck some landscaping around it. It looks nice.

• Switched our version control system at work from Visual SourceSafe to Subversion and set up FinalBuilder to begin automating the build. I’m loving that so far, but it’s been consuming most of my time. It’s one of those investment things where you put a lot in it up front and get a huge return later.

• The kiddo has been consuming the majority of the free time that I have. She’s doing exceptionally well with her Cochlear Implants, hearing, understanding, and speaking. That’s another one of those investments that will have huge returns later.

• I’m trying to learn iPhone development whenever I can stand to dig into XCode. Visual Studio is just so easy for me to throw an application together. I just need to broaden my development base a little. I’ve got a couple of very cool apps in mind. If I can sell one for $.99 to 10,000 people, that’s nearly $7,000 in my pocket! Really want to get into that niche.

With Apple’s recent Mac Mini update, I was finally able to start my new media center setup. With 4GB RAM and a 320GB HDD, it has been able to handle whatever meager tasks I have given it. I set up the web server (Apache with PHP5) with a small web application I’ve been working on. Currently, I can interact with my Transmission BitTorrent client, alter my network settings, and view a live webcam stream (via EvoCam).

I set up a sensor in EvoCam to detect motion in one section that acts like an additional security system. If a “Motion-On” file exists in my Dropbox folder, it captures a snapshot. If a “Twitter-On” file exists, it sends a tweet to my home’s Twitter account with a link to the image. If a “Voice-On” file exists, it says “Motion Detected! The owner has been notified. If you are an unauthorized visitor, please leave immediately.” I need to tweak that script a little so that I can turn the options on/off via the web interface (maybe have the AppleScript read settings from a file updated through PHP?). I’d like to find some software to split my webcam video so that I can use the feed with multiple applications. Anybody know a good one?

I’ve been running the latest Boxee alpha version. I’m very disappointed with how Hulu has been trying to block Boxee users. I love the Hulu service and I am more than willing to sit through the same 15-30-second commercial breaks, but I want to do it through a full-screen 10-ft interface that doesn’t require a mouse for interaction. As far as Boxee goes, I’m not all that impressed. It’s a great way to view web video content, but its main focus is still on home media. It takes several steps to navigate to web video and the “home” screen is near-useless displaying recently-viewed videos, recently-added media, friend recommendations, and friend activity. The social aspect of Boxee is nice, but I usually watch videos so that I can turn my brain off and unless there was some kind of instant-messenger built-in that allowed me to chat while I was watching videos, I really don’t care what everybody else is watching. The iTunes integration works fine for music, but isn’t great for videos. Plus, since I have iTunes on my laptop set to sync my iPod and iPhone and you can’t share an iTunes library on multiple machines, it doesn’t make sense to keep videos in two places. If I could sync music from my laptop and videos from the Mac Mini onto the same device, I would do that. The latest alpha has been crashing Finder, which is very annoying, too.

I haven’t plunged into the home automation project yet. Indigo and an Insteon starter kit is like $400. While that would be very cool in the future, it’s unnecessary right now. I’d really like to set the outside lights on a schedule and hook up the webcam motion sensor to a light. Plus, I’d like to integrate it all with my web interface. Maybe someday.

I’ve found I could really use are a web browser with a 10-ft mouse-less interface. I use Firefox now and sync bookmarks, passwords, etc. with 5 computers using the XMarks extension. The problem with using it on my 50-inch DLP at 720p resolution is that the pages are not easily readable from 10-12 feet. I have to zoom the page, which can make them unreadable sometimes. I’m not sure about a good way to browse using a remote without moving from link to link. I think this might be my next research project. Surely there is some extension, userscript, or wrapper for Firefox to make it easier to use with a remote. Anybody know of something?

Ryan Dewberry, the developer of KDice, a multiplayer version of DiceWars, emailed me to announce that he ported a single-player version of KDice to the iPhone and will be submitting it to the App Store soon. I had previously expressed my interest for just this and it looks like Ryan will deliver! Here’s a screenshot of the game:

Courtland commented on that same post about a gamed called Strategery. I’ve been playing the free version for a little while now and it’s not bad. The mechanics (dice rolls) are visible to the player, but not visible enough and seem to disappear very quickly. Games like this are good for quick, dumbed-down strategy.

Now, who’s going to port XCom? What about Fallout?

UPDATE (04/15/2009): The KDice Trainer is now available for iPhone in the iTunes App Store.

I was playing Fallout 3 last night and realized that it kind of feels like a chore. I love the RPG mechanics and combat (especially the aimed shot feature), but the UI is horrible and the vistas are just so bleak! Oblivion was gorgeous. I would run around the landscape enjoying the virtual nature that surrounded me. I realize that Fallout is set in a post-apocalyptic future, but does everything have to be half-destroyed? The first half of “I Am Legend” shows New York becoming reclaimed by nature. In Fallout, I haven’t seen a plant YET! If you blame a nuclear explosion, there would be less buildings, more rubble. If you blame disuse, there would be less rubble, more buildings. The balance is just off. Everything is too dark and gray to be believable.

I also played Gears of War 2 a few days ago. This game suffers from the same bleakness. In this case, however, it’s a little more believable since an alien race destroyed everything. Surprisingly, though, there is more vegetation. I found myself actually hoping to see a battle taking place in the landscape, among the trees. That would feel so out-of-place in a Gears game, but could be very fun.

I think I totally called this. Maybe I was just way ahead of my time. I never got my setup working completely, though. It was all good in theory, but required too many pieces.

The remote is very cool. Hopefully Logitech will release a Harmony with a slide-out keyboard (and a mouse - think Gyration or Wiimote) one of these days.

So here are a few Macworld Apple rumors and what they mean to me:

• Mac Mini Update - Based on the scuttlebutt, there’s a very good chance that the Mac Mini line will be getting updated. Supposedly, it’ll match the aluminum lineup, possibly with some black plastic accents, and might look a little like the Time Capsule. This means a new purchase for me. With several projects lined up for this device, I’m really looking forward to this.
• MacBook Pro 17″ Update - With the recent “brick” updates to the MacBook and MBP 15″, updating the 17″ model was bound to happen sooner or later. This doesn’t mean much of anything to me since I just got more RAM, a new HDD, and updated to Leopard on my current MBP 17″. If the rumors are true about the non-removable battery, though, that could spell problems for future purchases. While I don’t have extra batteries, it’s nice to know that the system is somewhat modular in case something needs to be swapped easily.
• iLife/iWork 2009 Updates - Another version update for iPhoto, iMovie, iWeb, iEtc. After upgrading the HDD and OS, I reinstalled iLife 2007 from my original install disc. I’m pretty content with it and the 2008 update didn’t offer much for me. I’ll definitely look into upgrading iLife if it offers some good iPhoto features (like built-in Flickr uploading).
• iPhone Nano, iPhone OS Update - There was talk of a smaller 2G-only iPhone. It doesn’t matter to me since I already have a 3G, but if it’s offered as part of a pay-as-you-go plan or as an unlocked GSM/EDGE phone, Apple could do well. An iPhone OS update, however, would be nice. I’d love to have copy-and-paste, but most of all, I’d really like the unlock screen to show me more information. Namely, unread email counts for each account, upcoming appointments, tasks, missed calls, voicemails, text messages, and other app notifications (IMs, Tweets, etc). Seeing the time is great, but as a “smart” device, it requires too much user interaction to get to the meat! The Mac OS status bar is nice and succinct…why can’t the iPhone have something like that? Plug-in apps for the unlock screen would be great (looking at you, FuzzyClock and MagiCal).
• iMac Update, Cinema Display Update - Apple typically updates their lineup fairly regularly. Look for LED backlighting, etc. This doesn’t mean much to me, either. Don’t want an iMac and the Cinema Displays are too pricey. Plus, my Mac Mini will get an existing 50″ DLP hookup in the living room

Ditto… except…

WoW character recustomization is one form of RMT* that I find acceptible, however. It does nothing to affect gameplay, so let the newbs swap genders and get DragonballZ haircuts all day long (their micropayments may even help subsidize an eventual monthly payment decrease).

Character Transfers are another form of RMT that I’m not opposed to. The only exception would be if the game used a finite material-like system (like UO’s original system) where transferring a character with items could throw off the balance by removing material from one “shard” and adding it to another.

Restrings and color customization is also an acceptable form of RMT for me unless the customized form of the item is also available in the loot pool. If colored armor sets are available in drops, they should not be available via RMT because they represent a player’s “hard earned effort” to collect said armor. Another form of this is organizations. If I am a member of the Order of the Blue Star, I wouldn’t mind paying for a cloak bearing my guild’s crest.

Any form of RMT that is visible in-game to other players should be flagged as such (possibly by a badge next to the player’s name or in his profile). This could do several things: advertise that the red armor set is only available via RMT, advertise that the player is a lazy, spoiled rich kid, advertise that the player is narcissistic, or advertise that the player is very centered on roleplaying.

The key to incorporating RMT in a game is to not spoil the core gameplay by tipping the balance toward the RMTers.

• For the uninitiated, RMT = Real Money Trading - a form of virtual economy where players can spend real money for virtual goods/services in a game.

I have been tinkering with my home automation project here and there. The big part is going to be the web control interface, so I have been trying to get the hang of css for the layout. The software that I’ll be using has a web front-end that uses Python scripts to interface with the software and send the signals to the devices. The problem is that I wanted a complete home control panel (see previous post) to do everything. Not quite sure how I’ll do all of the wiring up, but here’s the design I have so far. It shows our Twitter statuses when Twitter is working and has buttons for easy device status toggling.

A friend of mine pointed me to the WordPress Automatic Upgrade plugin a few weeks ago. Until then, it was a long, painful process that ended up broken several times. Now, it’s just a few clicks…complete with site and database backups.

The version 2.7 upgrade broke my Fluency Admin administration plugin, which I really liked, but the new administration panel works much better than the previous stock panel did.

I’ve been tinkering with some web development lately and really enjoy seeing sites that are well-laid-out, simple, functional, and easy-to-use. So far, I like what I see.