Duality

Given a set of resources and individuals, an allocation is considered Pareto optimal (or Pareto efficient) if there is no way to redistribute the resources to make at least one individual better off without making another individual worse off.

To illustrate this concept, let’s say you’re driving on the highway in the left-most lane. The cars in the other lanes are going slower than you are. There’s a car behind you following very closely—the international way of saying “OMG, go faster.” You could switch lanes to let the person behind you pass, but then you’d be going slower. The car behind you could switch lanes so you would no longer be tailgated, but then that person would be going slower. In this case, there’s no way to make anyone better off without making someone else worse off. Thus, it is Pareto optimal.

But what if the other lanes are going at the same speed that you are? In this case, switching lanes would not make you any worse off while making the driver behind you better off. That is called a Pareto improvement.

Class dismissed.

Despite the messy and excessive clean-up and the cut on the middle finger of my left hand I got while peeling potatoes, the dinner I cooked for myself last night was so good. To put it in Bigi terms, it was too good. It was also the first time I stir-fried veggies (instead of boiling them). Coincidence?

I should record this. The first meal I (mostly) cooked for myself that I craved: steamed rice, stir-fried yardlong beans with (canned) baby corn, steamed red potatoes, bacon bits (the kind made from real bacon), and catfish that my mom cooked for me.

It makes me excited about cooking—almost as much as the cooking game segment of Iwata’s keynote (that was my favorite part =)).

I know this is late. The past week was the last week of summer school for Xero and I have work. But this is too big of an announcement to let slide without commenting.

First, the facts. Above is a picture of the Nintendo Revolution’s controller. The remote in the person’s right hand is the main controller. In addition to the buttons (there’s a trigger below the D-pad), it can sense movement, angle, what part of the screen you’re pointing at, and how far you are from the screen. At the bottom, there is an expansion port. In the picture, an analog stick (with two trigger buttons) is connected to the expansion port. Nintendo has said that there will be a normal style controller that will plug into the expansion port.

Now, your first reaction will be / was either: it’ll be the best thing since sliced bread or good-bye, Nintendo. I’ve read some comments and a lot fall in the latter category. To all the haters, watch Satoru Iwata’s keynote from TGS (Tokyo Game Show). He sells the change and the need for the change really well. I mean, the only way he could’ve sold it any better is if he tag-teamed with Steve Jobs.

It’s a 50-minute keynote, so let me summarize for those of you who want the Cliffs Notes. The goal of the Revolution is the same as that of the DS: expand the market by bringing in people that normally don’t play video games. Those people probably find today’s controllers too complicated or too intimidating. The additional buttons and sticks won’t faze gamers, but they can easily overwhelm non-gamers. The key is to start everyone at the base level by creating new interfaces and new experiences.

The DS—which was criticized early on for being too gimmicky—has already made progress toward the aforementioned goal. Iwata cited Club Nintendo registration data for three DS titles: Nintendogs, Flexible Brain Making Software, and Brain Training (the latter two only available in Japan, btw). All three have a higher percentage of female users than the DS average. The latter two also have a significantly older user base.

And with that, Iwata unveiled the Revolution’s controller with a video that showed people interacting with the controller. A young couple playing tennis against each other, a cook chopping and sautéing, a grandfather and grandson fishing; later on, a teen swordfighting. In each case, the people featured used the controller as if it were a tennis racket / knife / frying pan / fishing rod / sword.

If that doesn’t get you excited, if that doesn’t even make you raise an eyebrow, then I’m not sure what to say. Games are about new experiences and I don’t think anything on the PS3 or XBOX360 will scream “new experiences” like the Revolution.

I find myself thinking about the school days every so often. I spent my day helping friends with EE 142 HW and now I can’t stop thinking about how nice it was being around friends all the time. My coworkers are nice people and all, but basically all of them have families to care for. I’m just a kid. All I want is time to have fun and play games. How do I do that when I have to work five days a week?

There’s a Best Buy video game clearance coming up and I’m not sure if I should make time to go. I like the idea of getting cheap games, but they will end up adding to the already-tall stack of games on my TV at home. What’s the point buying games I’ll never get a chance to play? I guess I’m just not sure what to look forward to anymore besides home-cooking on the weekends.

I think we need to come up with more excuses to get together and play games.

The price drop to $130 and TRU’s / Amazon’s juicy bundle (DS console + carrying case / starter kit + Spiderman 2 (DS) for $130) proved too good pass up. After languishing on my TV for 9 months, Mr. DRILLER: Drill Spirits finally gets its time in the spotlight. Of course, now I’ll have to get Advance Wars: Dual Strike, Meteos, Kirby Canvas Curse, and Pac-Pix. Maybe my mom won’t give me a hard time if I wait until after my next paycheck?

Someone bug me to write reviews for Astro Boy: Omega Factor and the previously-mentioned Mr. DRILLER: DS. Oh, and the new design will be out before Longhorn ships.

(Yes, that was a potshot at Microsoft)

…I should really think of a formal title for these kinds of posts. ;) After my last “lots of topics in one post” post, I felt rather good about it. So I think I might make it a regular thing. Lemmie know what your thoughts on the matter are by leaving me some comments. But for now, news!

Holy crap that was funny
Last night I had the privilege to see Dave Chappelle live and it was one of the funniest shows I’ve ever been to. Although, now that I think about it, I’ve only been to about 3 comedy shows. Once was Eddie Izard (Freaking Hilarious!), and the other was Lewis Black (Angry and hilarious!). There’s something about seeing a comedian live that makes it so much funnier than seeing them on TV. So if you ever get a chance to see someone live, take it!

Our Hero Has Returned!
For the past…wow, almost a whole month, I haven’t played City of Heroes because of an attempt at concentrating on school. But now that summer school is over and I’ve still got till Thursday before the fall quarter starts up, I’ve started playing CoH again. Just yesterday I played for almost 7 hours straight! Oh, and I created a new Hero as well. Her name is Icicle and she’s an archer with ice powers. It’s pretty fun to freeze someone in there tracks and then pick them off from a distance. But Blind Vengeance is still my main man and I had some awesome missions yesterday. This reminds me, I wanted to make some posts about my CoH characters…I’ll have to remember to do that later. ;)

Here we go again!
There’s something that I’ve been wanting to mention for some time now but I never seemed to get around to it. I bought a Nintendo DS. *pause for gasps* Yes, yes…it was only a little while ago when I sold my DS and bought my PSP. Well, now I have both. “Why”, you might ask? Two words: Instant Puppies!! Yes, Nintendogs was the reason I spent 130 bucks again. Although I do have a blue DS now and that’s an improvement. Either way, I’ve got Nintendogs and I also bought Advance Wars: Dual Strike. Which reminds me, maybe I’m the last one to see this, but it seems that all the subtitles on DS games can be abbreviated as DS. Advance Wars: Dual Strike, Mr. Driller: Drill Spirits, Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow, Lunar: Dragon Song, Dig Dug: Digging Strike, etc. The only one I can think of that’s breaking the mold is Animal Crossing: Wild World. Anyway, hopefully Nintendo can keep me as a customer this time, but with inventive games like Trauma Center and Phoenix Wright coming out soon, not to mention hard hitters like Mario Kart and Animal Crossing, I don’t think Nintendo will have much to worry about.

Blooodddd…
Every now and then I run into an anime that both creeps me out and captivates me at the same time. Luckily I recently found one. Trinity Blood is currently airing in Japan, but fansubs are being made each week. It takes place hundreds of years after humans cause Armageddon. The remaining humans have mostly come together religiously and the church hunts down a new evil that has appeared. Vampires! However, the coolest thing about the show is that the main character works for the church, but is a Vampire himself. But not just any vampire. He’s a Vampire that feeds off the blood of other Vampires! Now I’m sure there’s some one out there who’s gonna be all “wait that was done is so-and-so’s book!” or whatever. And there is probably actual terms for it all, but who cares. It’s a cool anime with lots of blood and violence. Once I finish watching them all, I’ll write a full review.

And Justice for all!
Just a quick note, but the new Justice League Unlimited season…AWESOME! They created a new Legion of Doom!! And just as the first episode of season 1 had me pausing every two seconds to name each hero they brought in, this episode had me naming all the villains. My only hope is that they bring back The Joker and—with any luck—his main squeeze (and mine) Harley Quinn! Joker hasn’t been seen since season 2 of Justice League! *sigh* A guy can dream, can’t he?

Well that’s about all I can think of right now. Next time I’ve got things to talk about, you’ll be the first to hear about. ;)

Last night I was flipping through my Tivo library and stumbled upon two episodes of Justice League Unlimited. “Did they start showing reruns?” my brain thought. However, I didn’t recognize the episode names. Upon further examination, I discovered that they were in fact NEW episodes! Season 3 of Justice League Unlimited started this past Saturday and I would have missed the whole thing had Tivo not been smart enough to record them for me. Bless you Tivo! You truly are king of kings!

First and foremost, an explanation. I’ve been without TV or Internet since Friday, and before that, on and off for the last two weeks. So now that everything is *knock on wood* back up and running, it’s time to talk about things I’ve been thinking about recently. Now, I’ve got a bunch of stuff to talk about, all of which could easily be separate posts, but I’ll try to keep ‘em short and sweet and scrunch it all into this one post.

Burnout
So last week I was down in the bay and I helped a friend hook his X-Box up to his wireless internet so he could use X-Box Live. You see, previous to this, I never personally knew anyone on X-Box Live. I’ve had the service for the last three years or so, but never really played on it much. But now that I’ve got someone I know to play with, my interest has been rekindled. Only problem was, the only game we both owned and could play online was Burnout 3: Takedown. Now I’m in no way saying that Burnout 3 is a bad game (it’s one of my favorites), but the problem was, ever since I replaced my 1st generation X-Box with a more recent one, I’d lost all my saves. And with no Burnout 3 save, I had no cars to play with. So the only solution was to play through the whole game again to try and unlock all the cars, otherwise I’d have no chance against my friend. However, after spending this entire weekend playing Burnout 3, I get online today (finally) only to realize that Burnout: Revenge (ie, Burnout 4) is coming out tomorrow!! Of course I’m going to get it (my friend will get it too), so I essentially spent all weekend unlocking cars in a game I’ll never play again. And while it was time consuming fun, I can’t help but feel like I wasted the whole weekend.

Tell me a Fable!
Speaking of games I’m playing over again, Fable: The Lost Chapters recently came out and I managed to *cough* buy *cough* (read: download) a copy of it. For those who might not know, last year Fable came out for the X-Box and was wildly hyped to the ‘Ultimate RPG’. However, while it was a good game, it was by no means Ultimate, and it was incredibly short. So now, a year and a half later Lionhead Studios releases Fable: The Lost Chapters, which is essentially Fable, but with some extra areas to explore. Only thing is, those extra areas aren’t accessible until after you beat the main game, so I’m playing through the entire thing again! Oh, and as a further kick in the pants to those of us who shelled out 50 bucks for Fable when it came out, Fable: The Lost Chapters is also being sold on the X-Box…for 20 bucks!

Let’s all go to The Movies
Aside from Fable, Lionhead Studies is busy working on several other games that I’m looking forward to playing, like Black and White 2. But the main game that I’m just dieing to get my hands on is The Movies. Now sadly, most people haven’t heard of this game (in fact, I’m the only one at my local game store who’s preorder it) but it is such a perfect sandbox game that I just can’t resist. Essentially the goal is..well, to make movies! You run the studio, you make the stars, you make the movies! And when I say you make the movies, I mean it! You can write the script, chose the actors, sets, camera angels, locations, sound effects, and even record your own dialog! You have complete control over everything! I don’t know about you, but I’ve got a whole bunch of movie ideas in my head just waiting for a canvas to release them, and it’s looking like The Movies is going to be that canvas. Only problem is, they’re gonna have to stay stuck in my head until late November…*sigh*

Well, I know there was more I wanted to say, but after exhausting my brain on these three topics, the others seem to have run off. But don’t worry, I’m sure I’ll find them soon enough and get started on the next collection of thoughts.