tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90798151455950075492024-03-12T18:14:33.207-05:00yarbarsYet Another Random Blog About Random StuffUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger18125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9079815145595007549.post-12263552704582738182010-06-02T06:24:00.004-05:002010-06-02T06:29:30.106-05:00Dominion Kingdom Deck 1.2 bug fixDKD 1.2 is out! Unfortunately, there are reports coming in of the app crashing during the data upgrade step. I'm still working on figuring out the cause.<div><br /></div><div>If you don't have any saved data (lists or custom cards) that you care about, then the fastest way to get past this problem is to delete the app and reinstall it from the app store. This will clear all of your existing data.</div><div><br /></div><div>If you have a lot of data saved up, then contact me at yarbars@gmail.com and I'll work on figuring out the problem and getting you an adhoc version to get past the problem.</div><div><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9079815145595007549.post-43482353367546607622010-05-25T12:23:00.005-05:002010-05-25T12:34:14.381-05:00Dominion Kingdom Deck 1.2DKD 1.2 should be released shortly.<div><br /></div><div>It has two new features.</div><div><ul><li>Ability to select your card language independent of your iPhone's system language. So those who have Italian or German phones can now get English lists.</li><li>Alchemy data and support for Alchemy selection rules (enable these in preferences).<br />The game creators recommend using 3-5 Alchemy cards mixed in with other sets. The Alchemy selection rules will first randomly determine whether a hand will use Alchemy or not based on the proportion of Alchemy cards to other cards and then draw appropriately.<br />The point of this method is to make Alchemy cards appear about as often as they would normally, but be grouped together.<br />For example, in a normal distribution, you may get 1 Alchemy card each in 3 different 10 card lists. This algorithm should statistically give you 3 Alchemy cards in 1 list and no Alchemy cards in the 2 others.</li></ul><div><br /></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9079815145595007549.post-19342389389883217312010-01-23T09:12:00.003-05:002010-05-25T12:34:44.021-05:00Dominion Kingdom Deck 1.0.1 released and errataDominion Kingdom Deck version 1.0.1 is available on the App Store. This version adds a "shake to shuffle" option and a "require a reaction card if an attack card is present" option. You can toggle both of these in preferences.<div><br /></div><div>It has also been pointed out to me that I made a mistake in my default data. The Haven card for Seaside should have a cost of 2, not 4. I'll correct this in a future release, but in the meantime, you can fix it yourself using the set editor.</div><div><br /></div><div>Enter preferences and scroll down to the "Editable Card Sets" section. Toggle the switch next to Seaside to on. </div><div>Then go back to main menu and view card sets. Tap the Edit button at the upper right and then enter Seaside. </div><div>Here, find Haven and tap it, then change the cost to 2. Now just back out and Haven will be updated.</div><div>You can go back to preferences and turn Seaside's editable setting back off if you like.</div><div><br /></div><div>Thanks again to everyone that's downloaded. Dominion Kingdom Deck is now in the top 6 for the search term "Dominion".</div><div><br /></div><div>A special thanks to those who also took the time to rate and review! I definitely appreciate the comments.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9079815145595007549.post-42455618086086316042010-01-14T17:53:00.004-05:002010-01-14T20:02:13.460-05:00Dominion Kingdom Deck is available!Dominion Kingdom Deck is now <a href="itms://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dominion-kingdom-deck/id350024780?mt=8">available on the app store</a>.<div><br /></div><div>For those who might be curious, that is a turn around of 3 days from Apple. Not bad!</div><div><br /></div><div>There will shortly be out a minor update that will lower the minimum OS version required from 3.1.2 to 3.0. It will also add shake to shuffle to the Random Card List.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9079815145595007549.post-18929734567166661222010-01-14T11:25:00.005-05:002010-01-14T20:01:46.614-05:00Fair Share v1.1 Update and RoadmapAs many users have noticed, Fair Share version 1.1 was released recently. Based on the number of updates so far, I'm pleased that so many people are still using Fair Share.<div><br /></div><div>Version 1.1 added the following features:</div><div><ul><li>Picker wheel for selecting the tip amount along with 3 configurable preset tip amounts.</li><li>Option to tip "after the tax."</li><li>Option to round the subtotal for groups instead of rounding each individual in the group.</li></ul><div>I intend to have one more update to version 1.2 with a few more minor additions.</div><div><br /></div><div>But after version 1.2, I'm planning on switching to iPhone OS 3.0 SDK. This means that anyone still using iPhone OS 2.2.1 will not get any updates after version 1.2 until they upgrade their firmware.</div><div><br /></div><div>While I would like to maintain compatibility for OS 2.2.1, it's becoming increasingly difficult to develop and test on 2.2.1. There is also the uncertainty of how many users are still on 2.2.1 and thus if there's even any need to continue support.</div><div><br /></div><div>If you have any concerns or comments, please leave a comment on this blog or send email to <a href="mailto:yarbars@gmail.com">yarbars@gmail.com</a>.</div><div><br /></div><div>Thanks again to everyone who has purchased Fair Share!</div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9079815145595007549.post-59627977045051497662010-01-14T11:02:00.003-05:002010-01-14T20:02:03.921-05:00Dominion Kingdom Deck PreviewMy second iPhone app, Dominion Kingdom Deck, is a setup utility for the board/card game <a href="http://riograndegames.com/games.html?id=278">Dominion</a> by Donald X. Vaccarino.<div><br />A preview is up on <a href="http://www.cjas.org/~jhsu/apps/Dominion_Kingdom_Deck.html">its product page</a>. It is currently in review and hopefully will be available within a week.</div><div><br /></div><div>DKD is meant primarily for fans of Dominion who own one or more of the expansions to Dominion. </div><div><br /></div><div>There are two main problems players start to face as the as the number of setup cards starts to grow:</div><div><ol><li>Properly shuffling a stack of 75+ cards becomes more and more tedious.</li><li>Having a "poor" distribution of card costs becomes more frequent.</li></ol><div>For the first, a quick tap and DKD pulls up a list of 10 cards. Optionally sort this list by cost and/or expansion. Don't like a card? Swipe its row to replace it.</div><div><br /></div><div>For the second, DKD offers an toggle-able option to guarantee that there is at least 1 card of cost 2, 3, 4 and 5 in the draw with the remaining 6 cards random as usual.</div><div><br /></div><div>Other features of Dominion Kingdom Deck include:</div><div><ul><li>All currently published cards included.</li><li>Fully configurable to select which expansions to use.</li><li>Custom card and card set editor.</li><li>Save interesting or favorite lists for quick reference.</li></ul><div><br /></div><div>Dominion Kingdom Deck will be donation-ware. It will be free to download and use with no restrictions. In a future update, an in-app store will be enabled to allow users who find the app useful to donate an amount of their choice to show their appreciation.</div></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9079815145595007549.post-86890293678031989992009-07-08T14:48:00.003-05:002009-07-08T14:56:58.390-05:00Future Fair Share featuresA big thank you to everyone that's bought Fair Share and taken the time to leave reviews and ratings.<br /><br />Here are a few things that I've decided to add to the next release of Fair Share:<br /><div><ul><li>Optional rounding for group totals instead of individuals in groups.</li><li>Optional Post-tax tip calculation.</li><li>Optional tip presets for level of service (think 1-3 star system).</li><li>Negative exceptions - When everyone except one person orders something, then mark this one person with a negative exception so as to say "he pays this much less than everyone else."</li><li>Optional key clicks.</li></ul><div>On the future roadmap:</div><div><ul><li>Contact list integration.</li></ul><div>These enhancements will of course be free to anyone that's already purchased the app. I'm looking to get these new features done in about a month or so.</div></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9079815145595007549.post-75550614367082380572009-06-25T15:57:00.003-05:002009-06-25T16:12:54.937-05:00Fair Share is available!Fair Share is now available in the iTunes App Store. It isn't showing up in searches yet but you can get to the page directly via <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=320281574&mt=8">this link</a>.<br /><br />Fair Share allows you to quickly figure out your tip and split your bill when dining out.<br /><br />While providing a simple interface to allow for fast calculation of simple tips, Fair Share also can help you easily divide the bill and account for the different items your party has ordered.<br /><br />Fair Share provides two entry modes to suit your personal preference.<br /><br />In Subtractive mode, exception items (such as drinks or desserts) can be assigned to members of your party and the remainder of the bill is automatically split evenly.<br /><br />In Summation mode, you input and assign all of the items in your bill and the subtotal is calculated for you.<br /><br />The summary screen reports each person's appropriate share including tax and tip. Group your diners, and a total for each group is also provided.<br /><br />Standard rounding functions are also available to round each person's share for ease of payment at the table.<br /><br />Please check out the <a href=" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QX5bBt_a_Eg">demo on YouTube</a> to see its features!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9079815145595007549.post-17238048121543437682009-06-15T22:00:00.005-05:002009-06-22T13:48:54.551-05:00Fair Share<div>Fair Share is my first iPhone app. It is currently undergoing review by Apple.<br /></div><div>Fair Share is yet another tip calculator. In fact, the working name was yaTipCalc. But Fair Share also does bill splitting which not very many of the tip calculators out there bother to do.</div><div><br /></div><div>Hopefully it will be approved in the next few days. In the meantime, here's a demonstration of how Fair Share works.</div><br /><br /><div><object width="445" height="364"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/QX5bBt_a_Eg&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0&border=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/QX5bBt_a_Eg&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0&border=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="445" height="364"></embed></object></div><br /><br />I already have a number of improvements in mind including Address Book integration. If you have any comments, feel free to contact me at <a href="mailto:yarbars@gmail.com">yarbars@gmail.com</a>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9079815145595007549.post-69055415681277559942008-09-05T12:20:00.004-05:002009-07-08T14:36:45.420-05:00More applescripts for Delicious Library 2Some more applescripts for Delicious Library 2. Applescripts go into ~/Library/Scripts/Applications/Delicious Library 2/.<br /><br />You can download an archive of these scripts <a href="http://www.cjas.org/~jhsu/dl2scripts/dl2%20series%20handling%20applescripts.zip">here</a><br /><br />1) A short hotkey script to allow you to toggle the played/read checkbox. The settings are to put it into the Edit menu. You can reassign the hotkey/menu choice to your liking.<br /><br /><pre><br />-- Menu Title: [3] "Toggle Experienced Flag"<br />-- Menu Keyboard Shortcut: command-`<br />-- Menu Path: [3]<br /><br />-- Copy and paste everything into Script Editor (use spotlight to find it).<br />-- Then save to home/Library/Scripts/Applications/Delicious Library 2<br />-- You can edit the menu keyboard shortcut to be whatever you want.<br /><br />tell first document of application "Delicious Library 2"<br /> set selectedItems to selected media<br /> set itemsRef to a reference to selectedItems<br /> repeat with mediaItem in itemsRef<br /> set playedStatus to experienced of mediaItem<br /> set experienced of mediaItem to not playedStatus<br /> end repeat<br />end tell<br /></pre><br /><br /><br />2) Translate retrieved Amazon title to a Series. More comments at the bottom.<br /><br /><pre><br />-- Menu Title: [0], "Translate Amazon Name to Series"<br />-- Menu Keyboard Shortcut: command-option-1<br />-- Menu Path: [3], "Series Scripts"<br />-- Maintain a sqlite3 db to track Amazon returned titles and the series they are translated to. Then for future additions, guess the desired series based on previous entries.<br /><br />-- Attempt to put the database in the scripts directory. do shell script seems to start in user's home.<br />set databasedir to "'Library/Scripts/Applications/Delicious Library 2/'"<br />set database to "seriestranslate.db"<br />set sqlcmd to "cd " & databasedir & "; sqlite3 " & database & " "<br /><br />-- Create tables if they don't exist<br />do shell script sqlcmd & "'create table if not exists translate( dl2id text primary key, series text, amazonname text); create index if not exists amazonname_index on translate(amazonname desc);'"<br /><br /><br />tell first document of application "Delicious Library 2"<br /> set selectedItems to selected media<br /> set selectedItemsRef to a reference to selectedItems<br /> repeat with mediaItem in selectedItemsRef<br /> set itemId to id of mediaItem<br /> set itemSeries to series of mediaItem<br /> set itemAmazonName to name of mediaItem<br /> if itemSeries is missing value or itemSeries is "" then<br /> -- itemSeries doesn't exist so find a new one<br /> set query to "select series from translate where amazonname < \"" & my sql_escape(itemAmazonName) & "\" order by amazonname desc limit 1;"<br /> set seriesName to do shell script sqlcmd & quoted form of query<br /> set query to "replace into translate (dl2id, series, amazonname) values (\"" & my sql_escape(itemId) & "\",\"" & my sql_escape(seriesName) & "\",\"" & my sql_escape(itemAmazonName) & "\");"<br /> do shell script sqlcmd & quoted form of query<br /> set series of mediaItem to seriesName<br /> else<br /> -- series name already exists so update existing record<br /> -- we don't update name because it may have changed since we retrieved it from Amazon.<br /> set query to "update translate set series = \"" & my sql_escape(itemSeries) & "\" where dl2id == \"" & my sql_escape(itemId) & "\";"<br /> do shell script sqlcmd & quoted form of query<br /> end if<br /> end repeat<br />end tell<br /><br />on sql_escape(sqltext)<br /> set AppleScript's text item delimiters to "\""<br /> set the item_list to every text item of sqltext<br /> set AppleScript's text item delimiters to the "\"\""<br /> set sqltext to the item_list as string<br /> set AppleScript's text item delimiters to ""<br /> return sqltext<br />end sql_escape<br /></pre><br /><br /><hr><br />Amazon does not populate (usually) the Series field in the information it sends back and it's not really DL2's place to guess from the other information what is appropriate to put there. On the other hand, Amazon's titles for volumes in a series and its formatting does not always agree with my preferences. They've gotten somewhat more consistent recently, but there's no guarantee that whatever Amazon sends back is what I would want to use as my title.<br /><br />Thus the scripts in my <a href="http://yarbars.blogspot.com/2008/06/applescripts-for-delicious-library-2.html">earlier post</a> which let me reset the title based on the Series and NumberInSeries fields.<br /><br />This script fills in the last part which is to automatically set the Series field based on the title that Amazon returns.<br /><br />The algorithm is as follows:<br />1) Maintain a sorted list sorted on the title/name that Amazon returns. In the second column of the list, associate what series the user has decided goes with this title.<br /><br />2) When you get a new item, search to see where in the list it goes and then get the series information from the entry before it and copy it for this entry.<br /><br />Example: Your list starts off like:<br />Eyeshield 21, Volume 1 | Eyeshield 21<br />Naruto, Volume 1 | Naruto<br /><br />You then introduce Naruto, Volume 2. This inserts after Naruto, Volume 1 and we copy its series value, "Naruto," which happens to be correct in this case.<br /><br />The first assumption is that Amazon is reasonably consistent. Volumes in a series will at minimum all have the series name at the front. For example, everything Naruto is "Naruto, xxxxxx". This is true for the majority of the manga I collect.<br /><br />The second assumption is that I collect manga from earlier volumes to later volumes. So I'm going to get volume 1 before I get volume 10. Given how this algorithm works, it's not that critical that this is strictly followed, but it would be a worst case scenario if for some reason, you collected a series backwards.<br /><br />This algorithm has an advantage that you don't have to make any assumption as to the precise formatting of the Amazon title. As long as Amazon is reasonably consistent across the volumes, it will work. <br /><br />The other advantage is that you can arbitrarily rename a series based on your preference. For example, Monster by Naoki Urasawa is officially "Naoki Urasawa's Monster" in the US for whatever licensing reasons. I say screw that, I want the series to be called "Monster" in my library. And this algorithm has no problem with that. Or if you would prefer "Neon Genesis Evangelion" to be filed as "Evangelion." Again, no problem.<br /><br /><hr><br /><br />So now that the why is done, here's how to use the script.<br /><br />First off, the script will create a sqlite3 database file in your Delicious Library 2 scripts directory. If you want to put this elsewhere, you can modify the appropriate variables at the top.<br /><br />When you have new items, select them and run the script. If the series have never been seen before, they will either leave the series values blank or fill in incorrect information due to how the algorithm just uses blind sorting.<br /><br />Correct the entries that are incorrect, select them again and rerun the script.<br /><br />At this point, any new items in the series should automatically set with your preferred series name (subject to the assumptions listed above).<br /><br />If you're satisfied with the series values, you can then run the other two scripts to set the series number and then rename the title.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9079815145595007549.post-15080769558898947212008-06-03T12:53:00.005-05:002009-07-08T14:22:16.304-05:00Applescripts for Delicious Library 2Here are a few applescripts I threw together for Delicious Library 2. Applescripts go into ~/Library/Scripts/Applications/Delicious Library 2/. <br /><br />1) Mass import from a list of ISBNs. <br /><br /><pre><br />-- Menu Path: [2], "Import", "Import Scripts"<br />-- Get a file name<br />tell application "Finder"<br /> set isbnList to paragraphs of (read (choose file with prompt "Pick text file containing ISBNs to import"))<br />end tell<br /><br />-- Statistic variables<br />set numIsbn to 0<br />set existingIsbn to 0<br />set lookedup to 0<br /><br />tell first document of application "Delicious Library 2"<br /> set isbnListRef to a reference to isbnList<br /> repeat with isbnItem in isbnListRef<br /> set numIsbn to numIsbn + 1<br /> -- Check to see if book with this ISBN is already in the library<br /> if (every book whose isbn is isbnItem) is {} then<br /> set lookedup to lookedup + 1<br /> -- DL2 call to look up ISBN on Amazon<br /> look up isbnItem<br /> -- Delay is to prevent flooding DL2s look up mechanism<br /> delay 0.01<br /> else<br /> set existingIsbn to existingIsbn + 1<br /> end if<br /> end repeat<br />end tell<br /><br />-- Report stats<br />display dialog "Done: " & numIsbn & " ISBN in list. " & lookedup & " ISBN looked up. " & existingIsbn & " ISBN already in DB."<br /></pre><br /><br />I set this up to let me import my OpenDb list. In this case, the script will be located under the File|Import menu.<br />Use the "Export my Items" action in OpenDb. You will need to specify Books specifically to be able to export ISBNs.<br /><br />2) Renaming titles based on series and number in series fields.<br /><br /><pre><br />tell first document of application "Delicious Library 2"<br /> set selectedItems to selected media<br /> if selectedItems is {} then<br /> display dialog "No entry is selected. Run on all entries in the library? (This may take a while.)"<br /> set bookNames to every book whose series is not missing value and number in series > 0<br /> else<br /> set bookNames to selectedItems<br /> end if<br /> set bookNamesRef to a reference to bookNames<br /> repeat with bookItem in bookNamesRef<br /> set bookName to name of bookItem<br /> set bookSeries to series of bookItem<br /> set bookNumber to number in series of bookItem<br /> if bookSeries is not missing value and bookNumber > 0 then<br /> set name of bookItem to bookSeries & ": v. " & bookNumber<br /> end if<br /> end repeat<br />end tell<br /></pre><br /><br />I collect lots of manga which tend to run multiple volumes. Unfortunately, sorting by title runs into problems when jumping from single digit volumes to multiple digit volumes (v.10 coming before v.2, for instance). Also, importing the information from Amazon can be wildly inconsistent with formatting.<br /><br />This script will make use of the "series" and "number in series" fields to rewrite the "name" field.<br /><br />An improvement would be if DL2 added an "on update" script that could automatically run this script when changes are made.<br /><br />3) Pulling the volume number from a title.<br /><br /><pre><br />tell first document of application "Delicious Library 2"<br /> set selectedItems to selected media<br /> if selectedItems is {} then<br /> display dialog "No entry is selected. Run on all entries in the library? (This may take a while.)"<br /> set bookNames to every book whose series is not missing value and number in series is 0<br /> else<br /> set bookNames to selectedItems<br /> end if<br /> set bookNamesRef to a reference to bookNames<br /> repeat with bookItem in bookNamesRef<br /> set bookName to name of bookItem<br /> set bookSeries to series of bookItem<br /> set bookNumber to number in series of bookItem<br /> if bookSeries is not missing value and bookNumber = 0 then<br /> set testlist to (a reference to characters of bookName)<br /> set validChars to "0123456789"<br /> set numberFound to false<br /> set foundNums to ""<br /> repeat with i from length of testlist to 1 by -1<br /> if validChars contains item i of testlist then<br /> set numberFound to true<br /> set foundNums to item i of testlist & foundNums<br /> else<br /> if numberFound then<br /> exit repeat<br /> end if<br /> end if<br /> end repeat<br /> if numberFound then<br /> set foundNums to foundNums as number<br /> set number in series of bookItem to foundNums<br /> end if<br /> end if<br /> end repeat<br />end tell<br /></pre><br /><br />Of course, filling the "series" and "number in series" fields is a bit of a pain itself. This script will assume that the last number in a title is the volume number and assign that to the "number in series" field.<br /><br />It will only process items that have a "series" field set. It is fairly easy to batch set a group of items to the same series and then run this script to pull the volume numbers out. Afterwards, I run script 2 to format all of the titles.<br /><br /><br />These scripts are set to deal specifically with book items but they should work well enough for DVDs with a minor modification.<br /><br />The last step for me is to figure out a way to reliably and automatically set the "series" field from the "name" field. This is much more difficult due to the inconsistency with how Amazon lists manga though it seems to be more consistent with recent titles.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9079815145595007549.post-57601954773012780042007-11-12T12:29:00.000-05:002007-11-12T12:38:56.083-05:00Phase Review<span style="font-weight: bold;">Introduction</span><br />I'd like to think I'm well-versed in rhythm games having played my fair share of Guitar Hero, Karaoke Revolution, Ouendan, Band Brothers, Donkey Konga and DDR. I've even gone in with my share of Samba de Amigo, Taiko Drum Master, Parappa, Gitaroo-man and Amplitude. Shakka de Tambourine has eluded me sadly. Harmonix, the maker of Karaoke Revolution and Guitar Hero, has recently released an iPod rhythm game called <a href="http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewGame?id=267719580">Phase</a>.<br /><br />Phase is only available for the new iPod Nanos, Classic and 5th gen iPods (no iPod Touch or iPhone). Once it's installed (in iTunes 7.5), you'll have a Phase Playlist that you can drag your favorite tracks to. iTunes will spend a few seconds per track calculating game data from the music.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Gameplay</span><br />The game itself has a receding 3-d track reminiscent of Guitar Hero. Notes scroll towards you on 3 tracks corresponding to previous, select and next buttons (left, center, right). There is also a slider effect where you sweep your finger along the touch wheel to catch notes.<br /><br />Each song starts with Easy, Middle, and Hard modes. Apparently more can be unlocked as you clear marathon mode - a series of 5 songs. I have yet to clear marathon mode so I'm just going off one of the random loading screen tips here. High scores are stored for each individual song.<br /><br />The game is a decent rhythmer that makes good use of the platform. I don't find the side graphics (random 2d bitmaps) or sound effects (cheers and hit confirmations) particularly interesting and I've turned the sound effects off. As is with the case with most rhythm games, you'll probably be too busy concentrating on the notes to see the side graphics anyways.<br /><br />On my own 5th gen iPod, the game eats the battery about as badly as video playback. My battery life was never good to begin with and I managed about an hour on a charge. The newer iPods should hopefully manage better. I also had an intermittent problem where loading my entire playlist of 150 songs caused the iPod to reboot. I wasn't able to reproduce this later so I'm unsure what the exact cause was.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Takeaways</span><br />Phase (or iTunes) does a good job of calculating the game data from the song. And this data generation makes Phase more compelling than it probably would be otherwise. A common weakness for most rhythm games is the song selection. Regardless of the game controllers or graphics quality, the "quality" of the song list tends to be a large factor as to whether or not people like a particular rhythm game. No matter how cool the controller, if a person (me) isn't that big a fan of rock music, he's probably not getting Guitar Hero (I played my sister's copy instead of getting my own).<br /><br />Phase allows me to tap away to my favorite J-Pop or anime themes which are hard to come by in US rhythm game releases. The guaranteed ability to play to your favorite songs is a definite point (I would say strongest) in Phase's favor.<br /><br />The creation of game data lends itself to some tantalizing home-brew possibilities. I haven't investigated how the game data is stored, but it could in principle lend itself to game clients on PC and Mac platforms. Given the availability of various game controllers for home computers, one could potentially unlock all of one's song collection for a larger and more immersing interface.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9079815145595007549.post-39857561071447859972007-08-09T13:13:00.000-05:002007-08-09T13:15:08.905-05:00Origami Starcraft figuresSaw <a href="http://zstudios.789mb.com/photo_scorigami.html">this link</a> over on boardgamegeek.com. I like the reaver that's off to the bottom.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9079815145595007549.post-47097635348752746812007-06-13T12:31:00.000-05:002007-06-15T10:57:28.340-05:00Leopard's New FinderI've been thinking about GUI design for a while and I came up with a few conclusions about file managers. I believe that the tasks a user performs in the file manager can be divided into three tasks.<br /><ul><li>The one I will focus on in this article is document management. What I place into this term is essentially the navigation or actions involved with finding, organizing and opening documents.<br /></li><li>The second task is application launching. There's a little overlap with document management as media-related applications are usually launched by their associated documents instead of by the executable directly. Apple's Dock is a fairly underpowered, but effective handler of application launching. Various third party apps also give alternatives to more effective application launching.<br /></li><li>The last is actual file/folder management. In this case, I mean moving, copying or deleting files and folders around on a system or to shared file systems.</li></ul>Apple unveiled a <a href="http://www.apple.com/macosx/leopard/features/finder.html">new finder for Leopard</a> at their WWDC based around iTunes. While not doing much for file management, I think using an iTunes model is a good idea towards providing a <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">document</span> management aspect in the finder. However, I'm disappointed because I feel that Apple didn't take the idea far enough and the result is mostly a lot of flash without that much substance.<br /><br />The disclaimer for the entire article is that it is based on what has been publicly shown for Leopard. There's a possibility that Apple has elements that they haven't shown or have planned and not yet completed.<br /><br /><hr width="50%"><br />Originally and continuing into today, document management consists primarily of folders/subdirectories. A person might dump all of their school papers for 2005 into a 2005 folder. All of their history papers might further go into 2005/History. The purpose of this organization is to reduce clutter and to make it easier to find a document later. Thus, also, the traditional encapsulation of document management by file management.<br /><br />There's been a minor shift recently towards using search to either replace or augment the need for this type of organization. Spotlight and other similar technologies on other OSs make it easier to find specific files without having to delve through trees of folders. I'm not that fond of this shift myself, but it appears to work well for some people as a few keystrokes gets them to their document.<br /><br />However, search is direct. In the case of Spotlight, it's really to open documents as there are a few extra steps needed if you want to do file management on something it finds. Additionally, I think there's still a lot of benefit to being able to browse through documents. This is presumably the principle behind preview icons and Cover Flow which is about as flashy a browsing method as one can get. Browsing also is needed if you want to do file management. If you are looking to copy a bunch of files to a flash drive or onto an NFS.<br /><br />I believe an iTunes-like interface makes the most sense for this kind of operation. And when I think iTunes, I'm thinking of meta-data management which unfortunately appears to not be something that's going to appear in Leopard. Meta-data is what people are really applying via their folder hierarchies and file naming schemes. Much like how an mp3 in iTunes could be named 01-dontdownloadthissong.mp3, but have artist, genre, album and other information associated in iTunes, any random file could have some set of meta-data that would help organize it.<br /><br />OS X currently has minor support for this in the way of Spotlight comments that can be set on the information view for a file. But it doesn't appear that Apple is taking it any further at this time.<br /><br /><hr width="50%"><br />So what would extended meta-data handling in the finder give you? For starters, if it followed the iTunes interface, setting meta-data on mulitple files would become very easy. Just select a group of files and you would be able to change the information on all of them in one dialogue. Another benefit would be even more powerful smart folders/smart lists.<br /><br />A killer feature I'm thinking of would be the ability to specify specific meta-data columns to use for a specific folder. Let's say you made an e-book folder to hold various pdfs or text files. Then in addition to whatever standard generic meta-data tags a file would have, you could define publisher, author, genre, rating. That folder would then turn into a mini-iTunes for ebooks.<br /><br /><hr width="50%"><br />I will cut Apple some slack as there's a big problem that would put a damper on all this meta-data tagging. That is namely that there is no good way to transfer meta-data around the internet. Locally, meta-data can be stored in the resource fork, but without a reliable and/or standardized way to transfer the resource fork, any meta-data on your system gets lost once it's off your system. But all the same, the ability to have it on the local system would still have a lot of utility.<br /><br />Here's hoping for 10.5.x or 10.6 I guess.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9079815145595007549.post-36917915157273214842007-01-18T00:04:00.000-05:002007-01-18T00:40:03.136-05:00Total Off-the-wall Random SpeculationI'm a fan of shows like <em>Lost</em>, <em>Heroes</em> and <em>24</em> where there's the big conspiracy or mystery and part of the show is finding out what the twists are. It seems like a popular pasttime is to try to figure out the twists before they happen. I find myself falling into this also, but, lately, it seems like people are just coming up with absurd theories for the sake of making theories.<br /><br />"What's with the numbers?" "Who is Sylar?" "Who's the CTU mole?"<br /><br />Have we seen so much TV - are ideas so recycled - that it's necessary to try and guess the plot before it happens? Part of me feels that people who make up outlandish theories just want the satisfaction of being able to say "I was right" on the off-chance that it comes to pass. Part of me is starting to want people to shut up and see what happens as it unfolds.<br /><br />Anyhow, in season 6 of <em>24</em>, Wayne Palmer is now president. He is the brother of former president David Palmer. I recently read a side-comment on <a href="http://televisionwithoutpity.com">TWOP</a> that questioned how he managed to become president and what his qualifications were for running a country.<br /><br />So, in a fit of free-association from that thought, my uber-outlandish theory is that it doesn't make any sense for Wayne to be president. Season 6 actually isn't real. Jack isn't free and is actually still in a Chinese prison. The events of season 6 are all in his head as a fantasy to deal with his incarceration and torture. Or alternately, it's a kind of hypnosis by the Chinese to get him to spill State secrets. Oh yeah, and Patrick Duffy is in the shower and Roseanne's an aspiring novelist.<br /><br />There you go. In 4 months, I'll have a very small, but non-zero chance of saying, "Called it."Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9079815145595007549.post-33057583033456452722007-01-12T11:16:00.000-05:002007-01-12T11:31:51.455-05:00Axiotron ModbookA company called <a href="http://www.axiotron.com/">Axiotron</a> has created a Mac tablet called the <a href="http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/ModBook">Modbook</a>. The previews and reviews from MacWorld look promising. It is an Apple Macbook that the company has modified with a new case and screen. The internals are all Apple. The tablet functionality is from Wacom. It looks like it would certainly fulfill a market that Apple has decided to skip for now.<br /><br />From the various descriptions I've read, it sounds like Axiotron is buying completed Macbooks from Apple, maybe getting a bulk discount, and then disassembling and using the appropriate parts to create the Modbook. <br /><br />Here's my question. What are they doing with the leftover parts? Are the old keyboard and screen being sold as spare parts? This looks like a great product, but buying whole Macbooks (as opposed to motherboards or what not) just seems so wasteful.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9079815145595007549.post-15208769768076719462007-01-10T18:04:00.000-05:002007-01-12T11:32:12.751-05:00Apple's iPhone: Caveats, Concerns and IdeasEveryone's covering Apple's <a href="http://www.apple.com/iphone">iPhone</a> so I won't bother to repeat what they're saying. Instead, I'm going to first address things people should have learned from previous Apple dealings. In the second half, I'm going to go over my personal concerns about the phone's design and give some ideas on how to get around those concerns. If anyone from Apple's listening, no charge for these ideas. I promise I won't sue if you use them.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >Standard Apple Operating Procedure</span><span style="font-size:100%;"><br />The iPhone is a new product, but at the same time it's also an iPod. And anyone who's followed the iPod since its launch should take into consideration Apple's actions with regards to that device. The big issue I'm focusing on has been Apple's unwillingness to back-port features to earlier generation iPods.<br /><br />For example, people have been working PDA-like functions onto the iPod since the beginning. To my memory, the first-gen iPod supported just played music. And so people made empty mp3 files with contact information in the song tags. The 10 gig iPod then came out and provided contact information as a feature which was also applied to the 5 gig. Unfortunately, this was about it for the free upgrades.<br /><br />People quickly co-opted the new contact feature to store general data by making dummy vcards. In the second-gen iPod, Apple added its own notes system. However, this new feature was not back-ported to the first-gen.<br /><br />Along came the third-gen with on-the-go playlists. It was a really nice, new feature, but older iPod owners had to upgrade or get nothing.<br /><br />Then came along came iTMS. Amazingly, all iPods received an upgrade. iPods that couldn't support the seemingly simple notes system had no problems dealing with the new DRM system.<br /><br />This behavior has continued where anything that might make Apple money can be implemented on older iPods without issue, but features that seem like they could be provided through a firmware upgrade are reserved for newer iPods only. If one wanted to give Apple the benefit of the doubt, maybe some of the new features genuinely couldn't work on earlier models, but the pattern is rather apparent.<br /><br />Now, given that the iPhone is advertised as running some version of OSX, hopefully this trend will not continue and we won't end up with first-gen/second-gen/n-th-gen firmware revisions adding new features that are "incapable" of being run on earlier models. Of course, we may end up with paid OS upgrades instead (coming June 2008, OSX 10.6 for Macs and iPhones!), but at least that's better than having to buy an entirely new device.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Batteries Permanently Included</span></span><br />This leads to a second issue which I haven't seen covered too much yet. The battery life of the device has raised a few eyebrows, but I haven't seen too many people question the, yet again, non-user-replaceable battery.<br /><br />From a design perspective, the permanent battery allows for a level of integration and form factor that's not possible otherwise. However, unlike with a degraded-battery iPod where there's still uses (permanent use in car docks, boom boxes), an iPhone that suddenly only has 2 hours of talk time is significantly less useful. And while your cheap cellphones don't typically have a life greater than 2 years, I wouldn't think that would apply to smartphones. Regardless, I'm not crazy about planning to replace a $500 device that often.<br /><br />Will Apple provide a reasonable battery replacement service? Remember also that an iPhone is a phone and people would be less willing to part with their phone for a few days compared to their iPod.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >So Close Yet So Far<br /></span>The iPhone truly is packed with a cool combination of technology that makes me drool with the best of them. The multitude of sensors; the slick interface; the next-gen multi-touch control.<br /></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><br />And yet, there's a lot of "but"s that make me wonder why I don't want it more. The price, the memory, the battery life. There's also the carrier, but that's more a business problem and I don't have any rationalizations for that.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">This Didn't Go So Well for Sony</span></span><br />First off, the price. There's definite sticker shock. At the keynote, Jobs led up with "how much would you pay? A Nano is $199. A typical smartphone is $299." I was hoping he was going to do a "$499? *red line through that* $449? *red line through that* No! Yours for $399!" Too bad that's just in my fantasy world.<br /><br />It seems expensive compared to smartphones. It seems expensive compared to Nanos. But consider that the original iPod was $400. Consider the (hopeful) strong integration with OSX (and this would definitely be a feature for me). I'd rather pay $400. But I can drag myself up. More easily than I can for PS3s at any rate.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Is There A Zero Missing?</span></span><br />My next big concern (as with many) is the memory. 4 gigs/8 gigs doesn't seem like very much. But if one considers that the iPhone most likely would be docked every night, then it allows for the possibility (at least in my usage) to have frequent content loads and unloads ala the shuffle.<br /><br />Audio or video podcasts could be synced and then removed after viewing. A cool usage would be for my EyeTV to automatically record, say, The Tonight Show, automatically encode and upload for me to watch during lunch the next day. And then when I get home and dock, automatically unload. This solution wouldn't work for everyone as some people really just want to have all their media available at any time. But for a good percentage, I think it would effectively manage the amount of space provided.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">PSP Flashbacks</span></span><br />Lastly, there's the battery life. My concern here isn't so much from the iPod perspective, but from the phone. I shudder at a scenario of getting on a plane, watching 5 hours of video and then landing at the airport with my battery almost dead and myself unable to make a call. Having to charge nightly doesn't phase me too much, but the possibility that the charge wouldn't make it through the day and leave me without a phone really holds me back. It makes me want to have a phone separate from a wide-touchscreen-wifi iPod.<br /><br />Luckily for Apple, I've got a solution! One of the rumors I've heard is that the iPhone has two batteries. One for the phone and one for the other functions. I hope this rumor isn't true as it's a ridiculously stupid idea. But it did get me on the path to a better solution.<br /><br />What Apple should do is allow a user to configure reserve battery cutoffs. If the battery has only 1 hour of talk time left, then disable or give a warning for all functions except phone use. Or phone calls and browsing. Let the user configure what they want their buffer to be and what can be used at each level.<br /><br />So in my above flight scenario, I'd watch video for 4 hours and then the iPod would pop up a warning, "1 hour of power left. Reserving for phone calls," and hopefully have an easy option to override.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">On The Bright Side</span></span><br />Let me say that I'm excited about the iPhone. The combination of technologies makes me think of the Wii. It presents real <span style="font-style: italic;">Star Trek</span> or <span style="font-style: italic;">Minority Report</span> feel into a hand-held device. And I own Apple stock so I'm certainly happy as a shareholder. But as a consumer, I'm hesitant because of these various issues and past history.<br /><br />Most of my issues can be handled in software design so hopefully Apple will implement something like them to make the iPhone even more attractive.<br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9079815145595007549.post-54597180345291693732007-01-02T23:37:00.000-05:002007-01-03T11:41:43.618-05:00Design flaws in PSUI've been playing Phantasy Star Universe since launch. I was a big fan of Phantasy Star Online. Personally, I think Sega did a good job with the overall game / balance / environment. I like playing the game even if most of the people I started with have stopped playing.<br /><br />All that said, there are some pretty grevious design flaws that I'll wish Sega will address (but I won't hold my breath). The set of flaws I'm covering today all stem from the game's mission structure and how rewards are provided upon mission completion.<br /><br />The mission system in PSU calculates a completion score at the end typically based on the number of enemies killed and the number of times players die. For some of the story missions, the amount of time spent is also considered. The top rank which usually requires killing all monsters and having zero deaths is S-rank. Any deviation from this will drop to A-rank. 2 deaths will usually drop to B-rank and 3 deaths will drop to C-rank. Rewards for A-rank are roughly 60% of S-rank and C-rank gives no rewards.<br /><br /><ol><li>Moon atomizers are useless.<br />Moon atomizers are resurrection items. Using one in the vicinity of a downed player will bring him back. The problem is that if a person dies and is brought back with a moon atomizer, it still counts as a death and lowers the completion rank. This also applies to the resurrection spell giresta.<br /><br />Now that's not to say you have no margin for error on a mission. There's another item called the scape doll that will sacrifice itself upon a death and bring a player back with full health. Dying and resing in this manner doesn't affect completion rank.<br /><br />The overall effect of all this is that moon atomizers (and in theory, giresta) are pointless and noone ever uses them. For any mission where death is possible, everyone is expected to carry scape dolls. I typically collect moon atomizers until I hit the stack limit and then sell them.<br /><br />I don't mind a design that encourages people to play carefully. I've never liked the gungho player that rushes off to death. But a design that renders a historically useful item and spell to be totally pointless strikes me as a serious flaw.<br /><br /></li><li>98% isn't 100%.<br /><br />Another problem with the mission system is that it penalizes late arrivers. If a person joins a mission in the middle, his personal completion rank will be roughly prorated depending on when he joined. This is to prevent someone from jumping in at the very last moment and collecting a full reward.<br /><br />The problem is that if someone joins 1 second after the mission is started (in other words, was not part of the party when the mission was selected), he gets 98-99% prorated. And anything less than 100% will immediately drop a person down to the second A-rank which typically is about 60% of the reward of the top S-rank.<br /><br /></li><li>You can't disconnect.<br /><br />The game will automatically remove a person from a party when he disconnects whether intentionally or due to lag. Leaving a party eliminates all record of your involvement and if you rejoin later, it is as if you were new. This will again impact your completion rank. And there's nothing people enjoy more than getting disconnected from lag right before the boss and then ending up with a C-rank for their efforts.<br /><br />This one really bugs me as it implies no one at Sega considered the possibility that people might legitimately get disconnected over the internet. Plenty of games just hold your spot if you go link-dead and then it can be the party leader's discretion whether to boot you or not. When the situation happens, it's frustrating to think that Sega didn't follow this course.<br /></li></ol>Now all this having been said, I enjoy the game. These problems are the occasional annoyances that I feel should never have seen release. Of the 3, #2 bugs me the most as it discourages people from joining mid-mission.<br /><br />In my next post at some point in the indeterminate future, I'll go over ideas I have for different mission types.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0