Ugh. I just read an article on Wired today about Zune and Creative Commons.

The super condensed version: Zune has a sharing feature that allows a file to be transfered to another Zune, but the receiving Zune has only 3 days or 3 plays (whichever comes first) to listen to it before it’s rendered useless. This goes against the spirit if not the letter of some Creative Commons licenses, which state that DRM cannot be applied to the source files.

Here’s where it gets ugly: Read the rest of this entry

I got up at the crack o’ 10:45 am on Thanksgiving morning to try and get a $100 xBox 360 from Amazon.com. They only had 1000 at that price, going on sale at 11:00am sharp, and virtually every video game blog in the Universe had reported on it. So it was going to be tough. Read the rest of this entry

I’ve been excited about the Carbonite online backup system ever since I first read about it on TechCrunch. Why? Because it’s 5$ a month for unlimited storage capacity, using a silent tool that is always running to insure that new and changed files are backed up automatically. In the past I’ve been good at doing manual backups to DVD ROM, but recently I’ve been a bit lax with it. Since I’m a contractor who works at home, backups are a must-have to keep my career from being ruined by a data-loss. Having automatic backup is really the optimal solution. After using Carbonite’s 15 day free trial, I decided to purchase a year’s subscription to it.

There’s good things about Carbonite, and some bad things, but I’ll walk you through my experience. Read the rest of this entry

This is a comment I posted on the blog zuneinsider, where the question “where will we be in 1 to 5 years?” was asked. I decided to repost my comment here as well.

I want an MP3 player that I don’t have to use. No one ever says “I love to use my radio”. They say “I love listening to music”.

Right now, all I associate my iPod with is maintenance. I gotta make sure it’s charged. I gotta make sure it’s synced, and I gotta do a fair amount of spinning and clicking just to get some music playing. On the PC I gotta answer little dialog boxes for store updates and downloads, which appear at the worst time. I gotta check the screen to make sure it’s okay to unplug it, or I may hurt the little thing. Keeping a working iPod in my life is more trouble than owning a pet.

So, when are these things actually going to become easy to use? When is using an Mp3 player going to be just as easy as using a radio?

At the end of the day, it’s not about the iPod, or the Zune. It’s about the music, and any time I spend “using the player” is just taking away from “listening to music”. Less is more.

In 5 years, that’s where we should be. Listening to music, not fussing with dialog boxes and cables.

(And a full mia clupa here: I’ve worked on a few MP3 players, but it’s not easy to cause a sea-change.)

According to their official blog, vgsmart.com, the go-to for independent game PR, is closing down, with founder Joseph Lieberman going to work at arcadetown.com. From the blog:

Well, after 3 years of running VGSmart (Or possibly of VGSmart running me) I have decided to close down shop. The reasons are all personal decisions to aid my sanity. Neither lack of skill nor lack of interest, but the reality is I was really exhausted from doing it. Working 9 AM to 1 AM takes its toll after three years.

On the bright side some things will NOT happen:

1) This blog will NOT stop (despite what some would wish)
2) My book, www.indiegameguide.com, will still be there for you to purchase
3) I am NOT leaving the indie game industry. Instead I have joined forces with ArcadeTown to continue their tradition of excellent products, excellent service, and excellent coffee (that’s part of my new job.) Seriously, I am doing business development- so if you always wanted someone at a major portal to talk to, here I am.

I never used vgsmart, because they either did not exist or I didn’t know about them when I launched my first two games, but I was planning on contacting Joseph when my latest work got closer to being finished. I wish him the best of luck, and I hope this isn’t the last of the indie game PR firms. If anyone knows of any others, please let us all know.

Update

Drake from Rabidlab kindly pointed me towards the indiegamer forums, where a topic has started about alternatives to vgsmart. No word yet as to whether any of them are standouts, but time will tell, I suppose.

http://forums.indiegamer.com/showthread.php?t=9002

Wow, this brings back memories. I went to install a font in Windows XP today and saw a relic from the past: the Windows 3.1 file dialog. This is in Microsoft’s own code. To see it, open the fonts directory and choose “install new font” from the edit menu. It’s funny to see this kind of thing in XP; clearly it’s holdover code from eleven+ years ago.

I wonder if this still exists in Windows Vista.

I saw a commercial for Special K breakfast cereal the other day. The female voice over said this line:

People who eat cereal like Special K way less.

I thought it was a pretty bad (but honest?) way to advertise a cereal. Then I realized what they were actually saying: People who eat cereal like Special K weigh less. Then I thought it was funny. It reminded me of the “Make 7 / Up yours” commercial, except that it wasn’t done on purpose, which makes it even funnier. Unfortunate, but funny.