super-structure

While I might not be the strongest believer in fate, I happily recognize and accept serendipity when it occurs. I had signed up for the lastest Dungeons & Dragons Worldwide Game Day — to get players familiar with the new Dark Sun Campaign Setting supplement — with my local gaming group. As it turns out, I went to the wrong of the two venue addresses listed on the page. As luck would have it, there was another group there playing the same adventure (it is worldwide, after all) who had a seat for one more person. Not wanting to let me scheduled afternoon of gaming go by (thanks, Angela!), I jumped in.

It can be a mixed bag when going to a game table blind, but generally it is a good experience. This was a great experience. The individual running the table had loads of giveaways and free drinks arranged for players. The group I was gaming were friendly and eager to play off one another during the four five¹ hours of gaming. I missed the chance to play with some old gaming pals of mine but making new friends is always fun for me and these are guys I hope to roll some dice again with soon.

The ambushes just kept coming in this adventure. Dark Sun is a place where elves and templars are trouble, and we kept running into them.

As for the adventure itself, it was a good one. Sure it was the typical "You’re in a bar together in the village and are approached by someone offering gold to find something … " but it did capture some of the elements that make Dark Sun a unique setting and offered some nice opportunities for role playing. As a matter of fact, I a great opportunity to ham it up when my character lept into the dark pit ahead of the group and them climbed back up to report what he’d seen. I’d have gladly done so without the promise of real-world reward, but I got voted best role-player of the session and won a set of condition cards for it.

Thanks to the group for voting me to get these cards; which I will be using in every game from now on in 4th Ed.

So, enjoyed playing Dark Sun enough that I’m going to (literally, as soon as click the Publish button) go pick up a copy of the Dark Sun Campaign Setting book. It’s like Dune meets Mad Max, but with d20s and I can’t wait to play some more.

Update: No, I wasn’t using "literally" in a figurative sense.

1. As it turns out, Dark Sun can have some additional random encounters due to the nature of the setting. We ended up running an hour later than scheduled but it was no less fun and my terrific wife entertained the kids without once calling me to ask where in the hell was I at. I’m not sure I’d have had that kind of patience in her shoes, and she’s awesome for being so cool about it. And if you think I’m just trying to score some points; I can assure you she never reads this site.↵

While I think it’s great that Steam is finally available for mac users, I’ve still yet to benefit from it. I first bought Portal about two years ago and played it via Boot Camp on my iMac. It was just as wonderful as everyone said it was and I had a great time. Some time later, Parallels 4 allowed me to play it on a virtual machine. No longer needing to reboot was nice but the video was still a bit choppy. I would have never made it past some of the later levels if it had been that way in Boot Camp. Fortunately, Parallels has only gotten better with gaming and Portal looks and plays great on my iMac.

Ironically, a year and a half later, Valve releases Steam for the mac and gives Portal away for free to everyone. Okay, that’s not the ironic part; that’s actually really awesome of them. The irony is in that I can’t play Portal on Steam for the mac because my video card doesn’t meet some as-yet-unknown system requirements.

It’s pretty clear this dialog box hasn’t been updated for the Mac port. Yes, there is a link there for “Show Minimum Requirements …” and no, it doesn’t do anything.

That’s right. Valve doesn’t know what the system requirements are and I can’t find them anywhere on their store/site/steam/labyrinth. But they know that my mac can’t handle it. Except that it has been playing this same game for over two years.

Let’s face it: my iMac isn’t that new. It’s over four years old now and is on it’s second video adapter. But, it still works fine and the video adapter is far from being a poor one¹. So I can understand that it might not be able to play every game; especially not the latest. But Portal isn’t a new game. Portal is was released three-and-a-half years ago and it didn’t really push the limits of PC gaming hardware then.

The real issue in all this actually has little to do with Portal. I’ve already played it through three times over². My issue lies in the fact that I have no way of known what the system requirements are for a game. I wouldn’t even know if I could play it at all until after I’d bought it. Even then, the message is so cryptic as to be useless. Is this something that is a true limitation or is it as arbitrary as having a “white list” of hardware? I don’t know, but I’m not going to spend a penny on a game until I know for sure I can play it.

Not that I have any time for gaming anyway, mind you.

Update: I did find some system requirements at the bottom of the Portal product page. I suspect I just didn’t look there (despite it being the obvious place). As you can see, I did find some mixed messages. The clearly state that Mac requires a GeForce 8 card or better, which is both unfortunate and still confusing. In the meantime, I downloaded the demo for Torchlight, which plays just fine on my mac (if a bit sluggish when a lot of enemies are on screen). I’m hooked and will cease to complain about Portal.

Update 2: I just downloaded an update for Portal. I now get an error message with data for my OS and graphics card. The link to minimum system requirements for the game also now takes me to the product page system requirements section.

There have also been a number of reviews and news pieces for Steam on the mac which have pointed out that a lot of my issues are due to the fact that Mac OS doesn’t take full advantage of the graphics hardware (poorly written or older drivers) when compared to a Windows machine. This partially explains my issue. However, the virtual machine doesn’t have native access to the graphics card (as evidenced by the fact that the graphics card is displayed as a “Parallels Graphics Adapter” and not the actual card. Still, Parallels does taught better graphics support and I have no doubt they have squeezed every ounce of performance they could get out of Windows for VM gaming purposes.

On a somewhat related note, Steam for mac seems to not play very well with Spaces on my iMac running OS X 10.6.3. It seemed to leave pop-ups, tool tips, or something on other Spaces when it wasn’t in focus, and would then try to jump back to those at odd times. I finally had to turn Spaces off just to prevent me from screaming at my computer any more.

1. It’s an NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT↵
2. That 6 hour figure you see above doesn’t really seem correct to me; I’m not that fast of a gamer.↵

In many computer applications¹, you’ll find a toolbar which contains a save tool & icon. Almost without fail, that icon is of a floppy disk (most closely resembling a blue 3 1/2″ floppy). But why not a computer hard drive (though those often end up looking like sardine tins in small icons) or a reel-to-reel tape? It is interesting that we sort of all agreed on one slice out of our technological history to agree upon as the standard for saving data. Of course, the irony of using this for to execute a save command is that very few computers today have a floppy drive at all and using these as a primary method of saving predates even the 3 1/2″ floppy itself.

I’ve often wondered if I’ll have to show my kids a old floppy disk to explain the history of the icon. That is, assuming I can even find one around here. When I did my Spring cleaning last year, I had to borrow a USB floppy drive from my father-in-law since I didn’t have a computer handy to even read those disks. Regardless, I believe the icon itself will be largely abstract to them; though I don’t doubt they’ll learn to recognize what function it represents immediately. They will become symbols more than direct representations, which isn’t a bad thing in of itself²

Similarly, you might find a old phone handset representing calls or phone functions and a snail-mail envelope for creating or checking e-mail. These, too, are outdated (or nearly, in the case of the envelope) tools to represent their digital replacements.

But then, what icon better represents saving data? Or making phone calls? Or sending mail?

1. This is mostly a Windows and Linux GUI convention. You’ll occasionally find it in Mac applications, though mostly in those written by Microsoft. This is because in most Mac applications, the file-level commands are only found on the menu bar and not in a window toolbar. A lot of web applications use a similar icon, as well.↵
2. Pretty much all letters, numbers, and other symbols all had more concrete meaning at one time. Take, for example, the octothorpe/pound/hash/crosshatch/number symbol (#). According to The Elements of Typographic Style, this was once used in cartography to represent a village. That is, it was a symbol for a town square surrounded by eight fields. The fact that we have so many different names for this symbol is indicative of its many modern uses and that we have all but forgotten its original, more literal meaning.↵

As I’ve become more and more attached to using Twitter, I (like most everyone else) has enjoyed adding more rich information into tweets. I personally love including links to a photo, which essentially renders a tweet to a caption (Arguably it also adds a 1,000 words or so to your actual tweet length). I have also been trying to use some of the location-based social networks on and off for a couple of years now, most of which seem to thrive based on their integration with Twitter.

First, we had BrightKite, which – while an attractive site – was trying to do too much. Foursquare and Gowalla both seem to be restricting themselves to I was here and did this¹.The value I see in these is to add some location context to a tweet (rather than the game of Foursquare or Gowalla, for which I couldn’t care less). It also provides a way for any additional data I wish to add to be made available to others if they happen on the same spot.

That being said, it is very annoying to me that these two methods for adding information to tweets (images and locations) aren’t really integrated better. After struggling for the better part of 15 minutes to add a Flickr² photo to a Foursquare post, I figured I’d likely never try that again.

Twitter + Foursquare + Flickr = headache

Perhaps it could be argued that having multiple URLs in a single tweet is a bit much information for a system that was built around minimalism. To that end, I at least try to provide enough information in the tweet itself to make it of some value. I almost never just use the default “I went to [blank]” text in Foursquare. If it is worth posting, it’s worth letting others know why I did it. This is how I choose to use Twitter. That is, letting anyone interested in what I think know what I’m doing and why it is of value. Unfortunately, it just doesn’t seem to be the intention of many of the services on Twitter.

1. It’s no coincidence I use the past tense here. One of my issues with putting my location online, in real time, while doing something away from home is best explained by the site PleaseRobMe. While I don’t worry too much about actual thieves tracking my whereabouts via the web, I find it best practice to limit who knows where I am and when. Thus, I generally post to Foursquare just after I’ve left. I’m just cagey like that, I suppose. Some feel this abuse of Foursquare is cheating the game. To those I would point to above and remind them that shit = not given.↵
2. Despite Flickr’s adoption of their own URL shortening, it has been poorly adopted by Twitter, its clients, and its services. The lack of integration there really puts a damper on my interest in using these as well. Why must I use TwitPic (less attractive and interesting to me) when I already am a long-time Flickr user?↵

We’ve been in Spring cleaning mode here around the house. Angela went through our old file cabinet, combing over records for the past decade plus. We also both chucked most of our papers and files from college. That alone ended up being ten boxes to take to the document shredding & recycling place.

In the process, I ended up with a rather large pile of 3.5″ floppy disks to get rid of. I decided to go through them and copy any files before we had them destroyed. Of course, we actually don’t own anything with a 3.5″ floppy drive! Even my old linux box in the garage only has a optical drive. Fortunately, Angela’s dad has a USB floppy drive he was able to loan us.

So, in the process of going through some of the disks (many of which included programs for obsolete operating systems), I managed to find a few gems:

• Lots of photos from around 1998-99, when Angela and were first dating and she was going off to pharmacy school in VA. It probably goes without saying, but we’ve aged a bit in the past decade.
  
  

  Our first ever big date, almost 11 years ago.

• The first help document I ever wrote for software. It was for a DOS program called Plane Frame & Truss (PFT, for short, because filenames back then couldn’t exceed 8 bytes). It is written in a very snarky voice; probably not something I’d try and reproduce in my current writing (okay, maybe here):
  

  How to use Dr. Noel Tolbert’s Plane-Frame-Truss Program (PFT)
  By Jason Coleman

  First of all, PFT is not user-friendly, regardless of what Big-Daddy-Tolbert may say about it. However, if you are using PFGTAB (the quasi-graphical version), simply read everything it tells you until you are more comfortable with the program. The questions the program asks are not always clear at first, so take your time with them.

  How PFT works: (This is more-or-less from the horse’s mouth)

  This will cover, for the most part, how to use the graphical interface, PFGTAB. You have to be at an MSDOS prompt, and not simply in a Windows Shell. In a windows shell, you can only run a program once, and then the shell more-or-less quits, and when using PFT, you actually have to run two programs consecutively. That’s one of the many non-user-friendly features of PFT.

• The first program I ever wrote in Visual Basic (or anything that had a GUI, for that matter). It was a program for Advanced Mechanics of Materials grad. level course which would determine the stresses in a curved beam member under a specific loading. It wasn’t exactly anything very useful (unless you need to design clamps for a living), but it also didn’t look too bad for a first attempt:
  
  

  Curvbeam.exe's screen.

So we found a few nerdy treasures from our past lives. That’s one of the fun things about cleaning out so much of that sort of stuff: you find the things that really mean something and can put them somewhere you can access, instead of buried in a tomb of junk.

I and about 400 other folks attended PodCamp Nashville this past Saturday. Perhaps the idea of a free, volunteer run conference kind of gave me some low expectations (I’d never been to a bar-style, un-conference before). But it was without need as the conference was time well spent.

I attended seven different sessions during the day:

• "From Prep to Post: The PodCasting Process" by Justin Davis (of the Davis on Draft podcast, produced here in lovely Franklin, TN). — This was a very well received presentation on the basic process of creating and distributing a podcast. Justin did an excellent job of describing good podcast practices and demonstrating the very low barrier to entry for creating a show of one’s own: From using inexpensive hardware, to open-source editing tools like Audacity, to free hosting & feed tools like FeedBurner. This was generally a very high-level view of the process, with a few practical tips thrown in to demonstrate just how simple this can be to get started.
  

  
  

• "Twitter Groups: The Real Conversation" by Paul Nicholson — This was really the background for and demo of a technology – ReTweetBot – for grouping related tweets to build more practicality into Twitter. Definitely something Twitter needs and this is a pretty good solution, though still not perfect (or very tested). However, the @pcnChat group seemed to work well throughout the day. Indeed, it seems to work better than tagging (which is not the same as grouping, regardless of the site).
  
• "Building Online Communities" by John Morgan — John presented excellent tips on how to begin and grow relationships with customers/clients/users. As someone who is trying to build up a community for Structural Engineers online, there was a lot of invaluable advice here. One of the biggest take-aways I have from this session is that I need to ask my community what they want from me¹ Lots of great ideas to be put into practice over at the BE Communities site.
  
• "Buisness PodCasting & Blogging: There IS a Secret Sauce" by Jerad Degnan — Another great presentation for mining ideas to put into practice over at BE Communities. My favorite: get people to answer the question "What makes you successful?" People love answering that and they also love hearing what others have to say in response.
  
• "Slice of the Cake: The Secret to PodCast Listener Loyalty" by Dave Delaney — Dave and his wife ran a very successful podcast on parenting and he shared some ideas on how to partner with related goods and services to generate contests, etc. The most important parts seemed to be choosing something that would have relevance to the audience and to keep the process simple. It was also fun to see he had partnered with Rockabye Baby music, something we’re big fans of here at the Franklin Branch Office.
  
• "WordPress & PodCasting: Like Digital PB & J" by Mitch Canter — This presentation would have been best placed immediately following Justin’s session on how to create PodCasts. One of Justin’s strong recommendations was to have a website for your podcast and Mitch’s presentation was on how to do just that. This was done at a more on-the-ground level and Mitch really walked the audience through the process of setting up a WordPress blog (using a full WP install and not WordPress.com — something I very glad he spent time differentiating). He also hit on how to make the most out of WP plug-ins geared specifically for hosting podcast content. My only complaint was that some complex concepts (like plug-ins) could have used a bit more expanding and much time was spent on walking through a WP install. However, given the wide audience that he presented to in 20 minutes, Mitch managed to cover a lot. I was very glad to see WP getting a little love at this PodCamp and hope to see even more next year².
  
• "Why I Love Guinness: A Introduction to Social Networks" by Dave Delaney — Having lived in Galway, Ireland, Dave is a big fan of pubs and stouts. Here, he makes comparisons of old-world pubs to some of the most popular social networks. He also includes some rather amazing stats on the rapid growth of these sites. I do wish he’d spent a bit more time of some of the different types of users and how to engage them, but it was also an intro session.
  

Unfortunately, due to a lot of small things going on, I wasn’t able to help out but I would certainly like to volunteer some for next year. I’d even like to present on screencasting, as that was no where represented though I do think it is a popular form of online video. Further, I’m generally excited to see such a large tech community here in the Nashville area. This means not only PodCamps, but BarCamps (this past year was the third BarCamp Nashville). Maybe even a WordCamp, as WordPress seemed to be a popular subject.

Hey! Maybe I should try and find a MadCap users group here in Central Tennessee. Or even start one if it doesn’t yet exist! The possibilities are wide open and that was the best thing about this past weekend: learning that there are so many people right here around me who are interested in and even creating new media. People who have a lot of the same geeky interests as me.

1. Sorry, that doesn’t apply to this site. Here, it’s just whatever I feel like posting.↵
2. Or if Mitch decides to get a WordCamp going here in Nashville, that’d be even better↵