It felt like wonderful NYC fantasy that was almost too reflective of my own experience in NYC, like looking it a distorted mirror.

5.0 Stars

Then, while walking home home from work today, I witnessed attendants at the Arco station I buy most of my gas changing the price of regular from $3.98 to $4.02.

Draw your own conclusions…

After a few minutes a very tall girl with long brown hair [...] broke social convention, turned to her fellow benchmates, and said, “My God, wasn’t today beautiful.” At first she just got a few quiet affirmations,”yeah, gorgeous”, “best day yet” etc, but then a young woman in a business suit again broke social convention and revealed personal information: “It was so nice, when I woke up I decided I didn’t want to feel miserable about anything, and broke up with my boyfriend. I ditched him at 7:30 in the morning. He didn’t know what hit him.”

I miss a lot about NYC; particularly riding the subways and how there are still lots of interesting people out at all hours of the night.

(Link via Kottke, post title inspired by LCD Soundsystem.)

Things are fucking great down here in LA though; I feel like I’m just peaking at the top of the big hill of a roller-coaster and now I get to enjoy the ride down.

What I really want to say is thanks to everyone who helped me climb that hill and get here. I appreciate you more than I let on. So here’s to some great years in LA and the end of the NVinNYC.com URL (I’ll be moving the blog to a new one as soon as all the details get sorted).

“Meh.”

I mean, I only played Wii Sports, but I really don’t understand what the big deal is about. I see Wii like computer solitaire: a complete waste of my time. Are people that hard-up for simple games? (Answer: yes, apparently so, because the casual gaming market is in the middle midst of an explosion.)

Yes, the motion controller is kind of cool. Yes, it does bring some new dimension to the games. But no one seems to realize there is a trade-off that comes from this controller. Designing a game around the motion control means you leave the traditional schemes behind, and with that you sacrifice a lot of depth because the Wiimote is not really a precision input device like a button. Sure it makes a great pointer but so does a mouse (plus, a mouse is hundreds of times more sensitive). So you loose a lot of accuracy from the motion control and this means you have to make your game ‘looser’ to compensate.

It’s akin to the difference between playing Halo with your Xbox controller joystick or playing with the mouse a keyboard: when you play with a joystick the game takes this into account and gives you a margin of error (auto-aim). On the flip side, mice are accurate to the point that an auto-aim feature in a shooter would be considered kiddie mode or outright cheating. The difference between the Wiimote and a joystick works on the same level. The game has to make assumptions that you’re doing the right thing as long as you’re close enough even more so than a the joystick. This makes the experience feel sloppy to me and it ruins the whole illusion that “Wow, it’s like I’m really swinging the bat.”

So yeah, I’m done with the Wii at least until they get the next Super Smash Brothers out (which I’ll be playing with a GameCube controller anyway).

Disclaimer: I’m a mouse and keyboard PC gamer (I’m lumping Macs with PCs here). I was raised on the likes of SimCity, Civilization, and WarCraft. My favorite games are mostly hard RPGs (D&D) and real time or turn based strategy games. I like games where there is a lot of tactical decision making, where you have to think a lot, and where you have to work the math and numbers on your units/characters to succeed against your opponent. I’m exactly the wrong type of gamer for the Wii I think.

But honestly, if I really wanted to bowl, I would go bowl. At least then I would feel like my physical actions were having a strong impact on the outcome of the game.

I still plan on rolling my own for ‘NVinNYC 2.0: No Longer in NYC’ (if you will) but this should serve me well in the meantime.

I still think you’re better off subscribing to my RSS feed than actually visiting the site though…

This is the first celebrity (meaning well known artist/musician/author/actor etc.) deaths that have happened in my lifetime that truly saddened me (most celebrities I like are still young and a few have been dead before I liked them).

I, regrettably, have yet to read many of his books. I did see him on The Daily Show back in 2005 and he was definitely edging on senility back then, so maybe it really was his time. Commedy Central has an archive of that appearance (though the list they mention is dead on their site, here is a mirror).

So it goes.

(Via DF Linked List.)

Some of these tactics are ones I used regularly working as a Genius. Number 6, ‘Practice puppetry’, was particularly helpful because I always had to remember customers were upset with Apple, not myself, even though they would address their complaints to me directly (“You make these iPods so break right after the warrantee expires!”).

Others are areas that I can see myself improving on if I ever worked a customer service related job again, like number 4, Take the blame’. Apple would do well to take note of several of the tips as well. Number 1, ‘Fix everything two ways’ particularly could use improvement on Apple’s part because it seems like even a technical guy like me has trouble getting through to them to tell them about a problem or bug in their software. I feel like Apple could also take heed of a tidbit number 3, ‘Make customers into fans’ too; it’s really important to reduce wait times to talk to someone about your problem. I can’t tell you how many time I started repair talks on a bitter note because someone was upset at having to wait 3 hours for a Genius Bar appointment or because they spent hours on the phone with Apple Care only to be referred to the Genius Bar to start the repair process over.

Some of these lessons obviously would be difficult to scale to large companies like Apple, any other large company for that matter, but it’s all the more important to consider them because of that. Joel is right, most customer service is so bad that we avoid it: I know that I want to complain to Wells Fargo about how they charged me debit card fees unjustly, but it’s not worth the money or frustration this would cause me to bother. It seems like the same is true at most ISPs, cable providers, cellphone companies, and computer manufacturers (and I include Apple in this category). I don’t know how this became an acceptable business practice (I have some partial theories) but it’s really inexcusable and it needs to be improved.

Now who wants to bust up some Starbucks?

(Via Swiss Miss though I seem to remember seeing this linked elsewhere before.)

• Sleeping on a regular schedule.
• Reading books for fun.
• Motoring.
• Having a personal (shared with friends) apartment with a real kitchen & bathroom but without skitzo heaters, poor lighting, cramped spaces, fire alarm evacuations, and douches yelling in the halls & leaving messes all over.
• Not ever worrying about homework.

Check it out these maps of Union Square, New York City and Portland, OR for examples.

It’s great to see Google continuing to develop this tool.

Update (2/20/07): I beat Kottke to the punch but he confirms that stops for the T in Boston and the L in Chicago are also featured on the maps.

PS: Wow, 200th post!  Yay for blogging!

Story of My Life:

Me too.. way too much these days.

Update (7/12): The transition is complete if you’re seeing this, but be sure to let let me know if anything isn’t behaving as expected.

I don’t know if the MacBook is really what I want since it doesn’t have a good graphics card to play games (with Boot Camp) but it’s such a tempting little machine (and one really needs a tower for games anyway). I’d rather have something smaller than a 13″ model, but there’s no indication that Apple is ever going to make a smaller laptop (if they do I might have to loose the MacBook).

Anyway, there are still a few things here and there that need to be fixed, so I apologize if everything isn’t working at 100% yet. If you do find problems, be sure to let me know. Also, the move affected the character encoding of some of the text in the posts, so if you see question marks or strange symbols where they shouldn’t be, let me know about that as well.

Update: Things weren’t working for a bit because I forgot to do something (simple, of course) but everything should be working as expected now. Some images might not show up however because I’m still moving them from my old server.

Anyway, leave me your thoughts, comments, and suggestions about the new look.

Update: I threw in a color-coordinated RSS badge (check the bottom of the sidebar) stolen and modified from Command-Tab. If you can actually see it on the page and wouldn’t have known I modified the them without this post then you aren’t using RSS. So I must ask you: why do you actually visit my site instead of making you computer check it automatically? Seriously, get a news reader, you’ll thank me. On Mac OS X get NetNewsWire or NewsFire, on PC get FeedDemon since you can sync it with NetNewsWire (or at least will be able to soon).

I wasn’t expecting it to be that good (I was ready to have cereal), but to my surprise it turned out to taste pretty great. So I’m sharing the idea with the world. See Mexi-Asian Scrambled Eggs on the new Google Base (in Beta of course).

Update (5/29/06): Google ‘Disapproved‘ this item because it broke their Program Policies for some reason (can’t quite figure that one out). So instead I’ve used a little app that I just picked up called Connoisseur to upload it here.

Did I mention that I dressed up as Waldo for Haloween one year? This year I’m going to be a lonely & sleep-deprived college-student who procrastinates about doing his problem sets.

Update: We have a winner! John “Silent Bob’s Right Hand Man” Feldman gets the star. Congratulations John, now everyone visit his website. If you’re still wondering about where I was (what’s wrong with you?), check out this picture.

My personal history with Logitech started when scroll wheel mice were first becoming available it was around the advent of the original iMac so the whole USB craze was just starting. I actually went to Fry’s and bought a PC only USB PCI card for my Performa 6400 (I got the card for $10 at a time when Mac cards were going for $60 and up). Then I downloaded development (non functional) drivers from Apple Developer Connection and modified them with ResEdit to work with my card according to some instructions I found on the internet. The whole reason for me to get that card however, was so I could use the original Logitech MouseMan. This guy was just about the coolest mouse available at the time with four buttons and a scroll wheel. Since Logitech didn’t support Mac OS 9 at the time, initially relied on Apple’s built in basic mouse drivers which (in version 8 or 8.5 added scroll wheel and right or control click support). Eventually a product called USB Overdrive came along that basically provided highly customizable generic mouse drivers. I’m still using it today, even though it hasn’t been updated in quite a while and Logitech now makes their own drivers (which are not as customizable). That original MouseMan was eventually replaced with a MX500 when they were released which proved to be super awesome as it had 3 buttons with to use for Expos? and replaced my dated ball mouse with a highly accurate optical sensor (hurray for no lint cleaning!).

Well I’m happy to report that my MX500 has now been replaced with an MX1000 (obviously it has double the power). It’s super smooth and wireless with a plethora of buttons. My favorite thing about Logitech’s high end cordless mice however is that they don’t just connect to a USB dongle, instead they come with a cradle that recharges the mouse’s batteries when connected. I don’t want to have to worry about replacing my mouse’s batteries while writing a paper (or worse, playing a game) and thanks to this feature I’ll never have to. I’m not sure why other mice manufacturers haven’t picked up on this one yet but perhaps they eventually will; since not only is it handy, it saves consumers money in the long run (see: iPod Shuffle).

In recent years Logitech has branched out from their mouse business a bit. They now make USB cameras (after acquiring the now defunct Connetix QuickCam several years ago), programmable remotes (since purchasing Harmony about year ago), various other computer & console controllers, and speakers.

Why would a peripheral company make speakers when there are so many other players you ask you ask? I don’t know either. What I can tell you is that for high end computer speakers, they blow away the competition: I present you the Logitech Z-5500 Digital speakers. After reading this review, I knew I had to have them for my new G5 (it would just be a shame not to use the optical out jack). I’m happy to say that they are pretty damn amazing. I’ve tested them out, but I haven’t had the guts to turn them all the way up yet (for fear of breaking windows or eardrums); these things get loud. I can say volume pretty dang high (like concert levels) without hearing any distortion and I’m not even using the optical connection yet (still waiting for the cable). This is basically the only audio experience that can come close to matching the precision of my E3c. The only downsides are that the subwoofer is freaking huge (it has a 10″ diameter speaker), and the remote has a cheap feel to it (though it works fine), but these are minor quibbles in comparison to the amazing sound of the system.

The point I’m trying to make with all this is that Logitech makes some pretty awesome hardware (and not just stuff I’m mentioned in this article) that’s worth checking out if you’re a descriminating nerd like me.