Duality

… in the “please hate us” category.

Perhaps you already know what I’m going to talk about. Yes, it’s about Sony and their rootkit-installing music CDs. If you haven’t heard—and if you have, correct me if I state this incorrectly—Sony BMG’s DRM-protected CDs install drivers on your Windows computer, hides them in a way that could also hide other malware, and modifies your system so that the drivers sit between Windows and your CD-ROM drivers. So, not only is it hard to track down the offending files, but if you carelessly delete them, your CD-ROM drive will no longer work.

I feel so disgusted.

Yesterday after work, I started feeling sick to my stomach after a bowl of cereal. It was dinner time, but I couldn’t eat dinner. So I did the next best thing: sleep. I figured that I’d cook and eat whenever I woke up.

6.5 hours later, it was 2 AM. I felt better, but still not hungry. I lounged around for awhile on AIM before feeling sleepy again. I went back to sleep at 3 thinking I’d be awake by 6, so I’d have plenty of time to cook, eat, and get to work at 9.

My alarm woke me up. At 7. And I decided to go back to sleep after turning my alarm off. Didn’t wake up until 8.

(something something something… 11.5 hours of sleep total. Throwing this post up because I gotta sleep)

I’m going to put a region switch on my GameCube.

I think I was reading this list of “top 10 games you’ve never played” at IGN or something—can’t remember how I got there—and one of the entries was Mr. DRILLER: Drill Land. Years ago, Drill Land seemed like it was on track for domestic release. But then, it was never released in the U.S. Seeing it again reminded me of how badly I’ve wanted to play it all these years. That’s when I made my decision.

Admittedly, it was a spur-of-the-moment decision, but I’m sticking to it. Everything that kept me from indulging in import games—cost of import games, cost of a replacement console (in case I screw up), cost of mod materials, lack of soldering skills—are non-issues now. I’ve already placed my order and Drill Land, Nintendo Puzzle Collection, and a 4.5mm Gamebit (to handle Nintendo’s special screws) are on their way. No turning back now.

Things to get:

• Fine-tipped soldering iron (maybe that ColdHeat iron)
• Thin rosin-core solder
• 30-Gauge Kynar wire
• On-off switch (SPST or DPDT if I want to do the dual-LED mod too)
• Digital multimeter with connectivity testing
• Electrical tape
• Wire stripper (come on, gotta have one at home…)
• … some kind of grouding bracelet or anti-static thingy?

Resources:

• IGN: How to Modify Your GameCube (JP to US mod, but has good disassembly pictures and instructions)
• GameCube Import Mod (covers JP to US and US to JP; nicest button placement out of the links here)
• GCN Mod (JP to US mod, but with high-res photos)
• mmmonkey Game Cube Region Switch (site also has a nice dual-LED mod to complement the region switch)
• Region switch guide (covers three different sets of contacts for the switch)

Yesterday, my alarm woke me up at 7 AM. I thought something was wrong because it was still so cold and dark. I must have set my alarm clock wrong, right? All I wanted to do was stay in bed. And I did for another hour or so.

This morning was even colder than yesterday morning, so I stayed in bed until almost 9.

My parents bought a space heater for me last week. I thought they just wasted their time. I guess not. I’ll have to bring it over ASAP.

Postpwning: (verb) dropping a pwnage class with the intention of taking it next time.

(tell them you got the job, Xero =))

I’ve noticed something about working full-time. The more I get used to it, the more my brain shuts off after I get off work. When Cal’s semester started, I made a point to at least think through each problem set from EE 140 and EE 142. It kept my analytical skills sharp and kept me ahead of the homework questions my friends still at Cal threw at me. Now I don’t look at the problems until they ask me and when they do ask me. And when they do ask me, I let out a few brain farts before any helpful tidbits come out.

It’s just so easy to be content with doing nothing after work. I’m tired. It’s late. Why exert myself at all?

Well, because I like progress. I’m going to try to turn things around this week starting with the still-upcoming redesign. I’m going to push for a 2005—yes, this year!—release.

So I was telling my mom how I haven’t even accumulated one vacation day yet and she tells me that 8 vacation hours—not 24—equals 1 vacation day.

… oh.

Wow, Wikipedia, you sure can read my mind. You even know what working full-time is like for a young’un like me.

But really, the work part isn’t that bad—it’s pretty cool, actually. There’s already a part of the current project which is mine. Okay, so it’s only tweaking model files to match data from the technology group. But still, it’s nice to be responsible for something other than showing up every day, you know?

It’s the everything-else part that makes me feel lost sometimes. The QLC article in Wikipedia covers it all, except the times when I read about great video game deals and think about how little time I have to play games. Do I still buy? Or is that a waste?

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)

For the uninitiated, A List Apart is a web magazine for web designers. It was THE place to be when CSS layouts first hit the scene. It’s activity has waned in recent years, but that in no way diminishes what it has done for the web designer community.

A List Apart (ALA) relaunched (yet again) a couple days ago with a new look, a new feel, a new CMS… well, basically new everything. It was like seeing an old friend again and being surprised by how different, yet familiar they looked.

Me and ALA go back many years. I was only two years into this “web thing” when we first crossed paths. “Dump tables for CSS layouts,” ALA said. “To hell with bad browsers,” ALA said. I was intrigued—I mean, how could I not be? I was knee-deep in tables wondering if there will ever be a better way.

Four years later, I’m not really much of a web designer anymore—meaning that I no longer consider it a possible career, just a hobby. I stopped my weekly visits to ALA awhile ago, partly because of its on-again, off-again activity and partly because I knew most of what I needed to know as a hobbyist. Seeing ALA again feels like a chance encounter with a friend I knew long ago.

It’s nice to catch up. It’s nice to talk about the things that have changed and the things that have stayed the same. ALA no longer has that edgy / hip / in-your-face look that I first saw, but the content is as intriguing as ever. What’s this issue’s hook? “Be your own client,” ALA says.

You know, all I feel like doing when I come home is play games. I miss having large chunks of time that I can dedicate to gaming. So this post is just a skeleton. I don’t feel like fleshing it out.

- - - - -

Did you see the news? Nitric and sulfuric acid spill in San Jose on Thursday.

I remember arriving at work around 9:20 AM… something-something coworkers got stuck in traffic. One guy backed up off an on-ramp to escape.

Something about driving home for lunch and noticing the road going back was blocked… wouldn’t it be great to get the rest of the day off? They re-opened the street and I had to go back.

My bill says “Johathan.” You feel that? It’s the world getting dumber; incompetence reaching new heights.

Good job, Comcast. I couldn’t have hoped for a more unenjoyable way to waste what little free time I have. (Really, there are more acceptable ways of misspelling my first name.)

While I was working in Excel, I stopped to ponder one of the mysteries of life: what letter comes before H?

A B C D E F G… oh.

Then I got back to work.

I never thought I’d be so happy just to have a desk. I guess two weeks in an empty apartment can do that to you. When it arrived, all I wanted to do was tear open the package and put it together. But no, I had to drive back to the company and get back to work. After work though, I pushed everything aside (dinner and washing dishes) and built my desk, busting the handle of a cheap screwdriver in the process. (Luckily, my apartment is near an Orchard Supply Hardware).

My desk is nice, but it feels good just to have a desk. Tuesday night, after putting it together, cleaning up, and eating dinner, I just sat at my new desk for awhile. I cracked open a book—of all things!—and listened to some music. It was late, but I didn’t really care. I finally had a place to relax, read, create. (It’s funny how the one thing I can do at my apartment that I can’t do at home is read…).

A desk is probably the one thing I wish I had all along. With it, everything else is starting to fall into place. I started designing again. (I created a new logo for Duality and scrapped my old plans in the process). I’m going to have internet installed. I’m going to sign up for gym membership. Piece by piece, I’m bringing everything I left behind back into my life.

The government is out of control. I got my first paycheck and almost half of it was missing. I swear—it’s enough to make a man go Republican.

(For Futurama fans, read that as: “it’s enough to make a man go neutral.” =))

Someone remind me why it’s my duty to support politicians that don’t care about me anyway.

The message of my previous post wasn’t that the actual work sucks, but that the way work takes over your life leaves you feeling confused and lost. As far as the work goes, right now it’s just like school. I have assignments, reading, and lectures. I need to learn how the product works before I can contribute anything.

Money
Thinking about my financial future has me afraid of spending money. It makes me more than willing to cook myself if it means saving $20+ a day. I feel like I should be saving as much as possible because so much of my income goes to taxes and rent. (Income taxes are seriously out of hand).

And money no longer comes from a seemingly bottomless well (parents =)), but from hours at work. $20 no longer registers in my mind as $20, but as X hours of work or—more accurately— as 2X hours of work after taxes+rent.

Beatmania
It’s coming to the U.S. and no one told me? Found out about it last week through—of all places—Wikipedia. =(