It was a crazy January, so I was only able to make more progress in Skyrim and Fallout: New Vegas, but I also finished Super Meat Boy.

Let me tell you a little bit about Super Meat Boy.  If you really enjoy dying often, you should play Super Meat Boy.  It actually tracks how many times you’ve died, and I died 1,782 times playing Super Meat Boy.  I also consider myself to be “beyond proficient” in platform games, so take that as you will.

“Yeah I get it, we all know it’s hard, only every game publication in the history of time has published about how hard Super Meat Boy is because the game is like 20 years old.”

Beyond Super Meat Boy’s difficulty, and one of the things that makes it so compelling, is how hard it drives you to improve, and then shows you the results of your improvements.  My favorite feature in Super Meat Boy is when you finish an incredibly difficult level and the game replays the level for you – but also replays the level showing your every attempt at the same time, so you can see the results of your improvement immediately.  It’s difficult and – at times – frustratingly so, but Super Meat Boy is an incredibly enriching and rewarding game and I’d recommend it to anyone who is up for the challenge.

If I got that level of insight into my performance at work, I’d be the most productive employee ever.  This is a hard concept to write out, so here it is in action.

Super Meat Boy Death Montage

When I got to the end, the final level, and the final screen appeared with the burly man saying “CHAPTER COMPLETE,” it was a good day.  To those who are curious – yes, I only finished the game on the light world.  I saw a credits screen and a “the end,” so the game is beaten for the purposes of this exercise.  Mayhaps I did not receive the best ending, but I don’t think I could attempt such a feat without having a massive aneurysm.

I’ve gone ahead and donated the first $10 to Child’s Play.  I will post a screenshot of my receipt at some point.

CPC 2012 TOTAL, END OF JAN 2012

GAMES BEATEN:

SUPER MEAT BOY

TOTAL DONATED: $10.00

Now that I am a little bit older and marginally less fiscally irresponsible and I’ve grown out of some of my more ADHD tendencies (as much as I know we’re all guilty of this), I find myself staring at a pretty huge pile of games that I’ve purchased over the last couple of years through one means or another that I have not finished.

Looking through Steam alone, here’s my unfinished game list:

And Yet it Moves
Beyond Good & Evil
Borderlands
Commander Keen
Far Cry
Gish
Jamestown
Just Cause 2
Magicka  (nevermind, I hate this game)
Orcs Must Die!
Return to Castle Wolfenstein
The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition
Shadowgrounds: Survivor
Shank
Star Wars: Empire at War Gold
Titan Quest
Torchlight
Trine
VVVVVV
Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War 2
Zombie Driver

I also have a slew of Xbox 360 and PS3 games I haven’t beaten, including (and I’ll list more later):

Fallout: New Vegas (practically finished, at this point I’m just putzing around)
Batman: Arkham City
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Red Dead Redemption
God of War 3

Rather than continuing the abandonment cycle, I’m committing myself to a novel New Year’s resolution.

I will only be purchasing one game in 2012:  Diablo 3.

I can’t *not* purchase Diablo 3.  Any games that I receive as gifts don’t count as “purchased” games, because I didn’t purchase them.  I’ll just add them to the list.

But what will I do with all of the money I’ll save from not purchasing any games?  Much of it will be simply saved and used to pay off my car, but…

Starting on January 1, 2012, I will donate $10 to Child’s Play for every game I finish.

Obviously I will have to post updates here for when I actually finish the games, but don’t expect those to be more than a few sentences.

So, let’s play in 2012.

Twitter was abuzz the other day about the recent acquisition of Motorola by Google, evoking various reactions from Sector 930 faithful, but I think the best response/reaction was summed up by Edwin: “Google just bought Motorola?”

To me, this was a line-item.  I saw it on Twitter and said to myself, “well, that’s interesting,” but didn’t really think too much of it because I have an iPhone.  As it turns out, Apple (and Microsoft) have more to do with Google’s deal than meets the eye.

At this point, the Android vs. iOS battle seems to be coming to a stalemate of sorts, with RIM and Microsoft trying to keep up like fat kids at a track meet.  Realistically, to consumers, there’s only “so far” a company can go to remain competitive with another company, and I mean that on the hardware and software side.  You can argue the strengths and weaknesses of having an Android device against having an iPhone all day without having a clear winner.  I’m not even going to talk about Windows Phones.

Yep.

In July, Google decided that the next logical step would be to place a bid for the patent portfolio of the now-defunct Nortel.  Obviously, patents become a significant competitive advantage for technology companies; every time Apple patents something, MacRumors goes nuts.  Some quick Google searches will tell you that a lot of Apple’s iOS technology is patented.  A lot of the news I’ve seen about tech companies lately has been about patent lawsuits, and so on.  Google saw Nortel’s dissolution as a chance to get a lot of patents without having to do any of the research work themselves; convenient for Google, as they don’t seem to really do much work outside of their advertising business.  Android is open source.  Come to think of it, “not doing much work” sounds pretty good; I’m sure I’d fit right in at Google.  I’d probably be a good Google Street View driver, except I’d get lost and need to look up directions…on Google Maps.  But I digress.

So here’s where it gets interesting: Google puts out a bid for Nortel’s patents, (big stuff: wireless, 4G, etc) at $900 million.  Nortel puts out a deadline for higher bids.  A consortium of companies, led by Apple, but including Research in Motion (the BlackBerry folks), Microsoft, Sony, and Ericsson, decide they’re going to band together and place a counter-offer.  This went back and forth for a while, until Google placed their final bid: $3.14159 billion, or pi, rounded to 5 places.

By now, it should’ve been clear that Google was up to something, but nobody really seemed to think much of it, except for the consortium, which put out a bid for $4.5 billion and won the patents.  Of the total purchase price, Apple put up $2.6 billion.  The Nortel folks were understandably and pleasantly surprised.  Around this time, Google fired back, saying the “patent war” was a “hostile, organized campaign against Android.”  You can read more about this in the official Google Blog post: “When patents attack android.”  Interesting stuff.

So Google turned around this week and bought Motorola, for $12.5 billion dollars, which again seemed weird on the surface.  There’s a lot of nay-saying, but ultimately, this was the big “fuck you” to Apple, Microsoft, and the like.  Naturally, with the purchase of Motorola come Motorola’s patents; all 17,500 of them (with 24,000 pending patents), and, if you didn’t know, Motorola kind of invented the cell phone.  You don’t have to take my word for it, just listen to Larry Page, CEO of Google: “our acquisition of Motorola will increase competition by strengthening Google’s patent portfolio.”  Veni vidi vici.

You might think that Apple or Microsoft or RIM might’ve come back to dump on Google, but they can’t do that without looking like idiots, because they’ve been tooting the patent horn for a long time now.

Since the deal, Google’s stock has plunged, but if you ask me, this would be the time to buy.  It wouldn’t surprise me if Google can do for Motorola what it did for YouTube, and they (Google) executed this deal very smartly.  We’ll see what the future holds for Google, Apple, and the cell phone…war…I hate that term, but it’s been an interesting few weeks for the technology industry and I’m sure it will continue to be so.

I expect a due response from Charlie.

When I heard on the show that Adam and Micky would be starting in Fredericksburg, I almost ran off the road. The tour is starting in MY town? Holy crap! I told friends, family, and coworkers as soon as I could. NO AGENDA IS COMING TO FREDERICKSBURG!

A week before the tour, I emailed Ms. Micky, she put me in touch with Baroness Maggie Vincent, and the plan was in place. We were to meet at Barefoot’s downtown, and then head over to Capital Alehouse for some beers. I rounded up as many people as I could for the occasion, which ended up being my brothers, Kristin, and Charlie. We were so excited that we showed up 20 minutes early.

After meeting Adam, Micky, and all the listeners, we had some lunch. Kristin and Adam split a big plate of crabs. The set up in the restaurant wasn’t ideal, and it was noisy, so it was hard for everyone to participate in the conversation. The restaurant has a big outdoor area, but it was being used by a big biker rally.

We took a few pictures outside the restaurant, then headed down the street to the Alehouse. Fortunately, they had no trouble accommodating 25 showing up at the door, and we got a whole room to ourselves. We got a little more face time with Adam there. He wanted a local brew, so I recommended the Blue & Gray Red Ale. Micky and Adam left with Maggi and her boyfriend, Mr. Smith, after hanging with us for a while, and we said our goodbyes to everybody.

We were all so elated that we went back to my place and got completely hammered. The next day we listened to the show live, hungover, but still in a great mood. We all had a good laugh when Adam talked about the ride sharing that commuters practice and called it “slogging.” The weekend didn’t end too well when Matt was robbed as he was getting home. Hopefully that didn’t have anything to do with him writing END THE FED on the bills he donated to Adam. I managed to get a blast of karma for him on Thursday’s show.

The whole experience I had at this meetup was one of the high points in my life. The show has been a huge part of my life for the past couple of years, and it has helped shape who I am and what I believe in. When I saw that blonde-headed string bean with dark-rimmed glasses stroll through the door of the restaurant, the whole thing became so much more real. It’s one thing to listen to or watch something, but it’s a whole other thing to be a part of it. Sadly, the whole event went by too, too fast. I didn’t get to say as much as I wanted to, partly because of my own shyness and partly because of the size of the group. But I wouldn’t have missed this for anything.

As cool as it was meet Adam, it was just as cool to meet everybody else. I’m not the only nut in Fredericksburg listening to this crazy show. There actually is hope that other people are out there searching for the truth. No Agenda listeners share a certain baseline attitude and worldview, and I hope I have the opportunity to get to know them better.

I have never been one to express my emotions, in conversation or in writing, so I hope what I have written here conveys how I feel about this momentous event in my life. I still can’t get over the fact that it all started a few miles away from my house. Thank you, Maggie, for making this possible. We all owe you a huge debt. Lucky for us, Adam and Micky have to come back to Fredericksburg to drop off the RV. I hope they aren’t too burned out by the end to have a blowout end-of-tour party.

Contrary to what President Obama said, the American Dream is not just to get by. Yes, the American Dream is to get rich, but each of us has our own unique version. For some of us, a life on the open road is a part of it. Adam is a lucky guy to be able to fulfill that dream, even if just for a short while. The rest of us can live vicariously through him, following along on Facebook, where Micky is posting some great pictures. If this post finds its way into the rig, I hope they’ll enjoy this tune.

Be safe. Enjoy the road, the company, and the memories.

Here is my haul.

• June 30 – The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion GotY Edition, $6.80
• June 30 – Lead and Gold Four Pack, $4.50
• July 1 – Star Wars Battlefront II, $2.49
• July 5 – King Arthur Druids DLC, $1.50
• July 5 – AI War Bundle, $4.49
• July 5 – Doom Pack, $8.74
• July 8 – Fallout 3, $10.19
• July 8 – Mass Effect 2, $6.80

Total: $45.51.

While I enjoy Steam’s sales, I suspect my days of snatching up everything in sight will soon come to an end. I just need to play the ones I have.

Anyways, the point of this post is that in looking for a solution, I came across the concept of address tags:

Some mail services allow a user to append a tag to his email address (e.g., joeuser+tag@example.com). The text of tag may be used to apply filtering and to create single-use addresses.

This is a revelation. It makes filtering your email easier and potentially more useful.

At first, I thought you could use this to fight spam, until I realized that people could just figure out that they could remove the tag. This is a bummer. Plus, a lot of sites will probably not recognize and email address with a + as a valid address. Still, it’s worth a try. Slap a tag on your address the next time you give away your email to some random site. If you start getting spam addressed to that address, you know for sure who gave it away.

According to the Wikipedia article, a lot of email services still don’t support this feature. Luckily for nerds, Gmail fully supports it. I even tested it this afternoon. Give it a whirl.

Due to recent events at [redacted], I’ve had to take down my previous post about [redacted] because I make a reference to [redacted].

I will re-post it after [redacted] becomes a [redacted].

Thanks for reading.

I want so many of your books. I don’t know what it is. I get a sudden rush when I see those cuddly animals. I even get a little turned on when I see those colored spines. I realize that I could never read a tiny fraction of your books in my lifetime. It doesn’t matter. I want to hold them in my arms as I fall asleep.

Recently, it has come to my attention that you are holding a contest where one lucky SOB can win his wishlist of precious O’Reilly titles. When I found out, I got so excited that I canceled dinner plans with my wife so that I could start putting together a list.

First of all, let me say that, unfortunately, going by your official list, one cannot buy very many of your books for $500. I wish I could shower the homeless with your magnificent books, but I just don’t have those kinds of resources.

I wrote down all the O’Reilly titles in my Amazon wishlists, and it came out to over $2000. I suppose I could postpone retirement, but how would I find time to read all these books?

I tried to make a good balance between some of your more expensive books and some that I have a more immediate need for. Here it is:

• Astronomy Hacks ($34.99)
• Designing Embedded Hardware ($44.95)
• Essential System Administration ($54.95)
• Even Faster Web Sites ($34.99)
• Head First Design Patterns ($44.95)
• Head First Object-Oriented Analysis & Design ($49.99)
• High Performance Web Sites ($29.99)
• Java Servlet and JSP Cookbook ($44.95)
• JavaScript: The Good Parts ($29.99)
• Learning Rails ($34.99)
• Mastering Regular Expressions ($44.99)
• Programming Amazon Web Services ($49.99)

That comes out to $499.72. While this doesn’t even scratch the surface of the total number of titles I would like to own, it would still be awesome to get these for free.

Before I say goodbye, let me just say Ooh ooh! Pick me! Pick me! Please, please! Pick me!

Sincerely,
Sam

Why do you do this to me, Steam? Don’t you know that I cry while I hit the Purchase button? And don’t you know that I will probably never play half of these games? Of course you do.

• December 20 – Battlefield Bad Company 2, $6.79
• December 20 – The Deus Ex Collection, $2.99
• December 23 – Silent Hunter III, $3.39
• December 24 – Ghost Recon Pack, $9.99
• December 24 – ARMA 2, $9.99
• December 25 – Monkey Island: Special Edition Bundle, $3.75
• December 25 – X2: The Threat, $1.70
• December 25 – X: Beyond the Frontier, $1.70
• December 25 – X-Tension, $1.70
• December 27 – Machinarium, $2.99 (This one was a gift for my brother.)
• December 27 – Serious Sam Gold Pack, $3.99
• December 31 – FarCry 2, $4.99
• December 31 – Star Wars Jedi Knight Bundle, $5.00

There were many more great deals that I had to pass on, especially Mass Effect. But this was a good haul. That’s a total of 23 games for $55.98. See, Honey, I’m responsible!

I’m looking forward to the next mega sale. Before bed, I will spend time reciting this prayer:

O Steam, blessed is thy bounty of awesome sales. Bless us with many more discounts, but not too many, for next season’s harvest. Provide for us a multitude of digital entertainment titles, O Steam, and spare us enough means for food. Have mercy on me, my wife, and our unborn children. Amen.

I’ll start with the personal reasons.  I think I was at the 350-or-so “friend” mark, and realized that I didn’t really know anything about the people I was friends with, let alone my thesis on how it’s almost impossible for the human brain to maintain interactions above a given number, and I’d challenge you to even list everyone on your “friend” list without actually signing in to Facebook.  It ends up being a question about opportunity cost; I would rather spend real time with my real friends (and I know who they are) as opposed to online time with people I ended up not really caring a lot about.  The typical argument against this is “but it’s a great way to keep in touch,” and I don’t buy that, because so is email and – gasp – the telephone.  Additionally, the vast, vast majority of Facebook messages I received were to advise me of events that were occurring on my campus when I was in college – valuable notices, but I’m not in college anymore, and Devil Goat Day was never really that fun anyway.  So, I’ve removed the friends and messages feature.

There was also the question of representation.  Facebook, for being almost fascistic about the level of control it maintains on its users and platform, gives comparatively little control to the users themselves.  Many of the rules can be modified by the users, but changes to the level of control typically come about when hoards of users call foul, as opposed to a more proactive solution.  To give an example, I don’t like having my picture taken.  Nobody in my family does.  We don’t have family photo albums.  I accept that I can’t control, sometimes, when my picture is taken, but the ability of other users to create albums of pictures of me on my behalf on Facebook is incredibly disrespectful and insensitive to me, regardless of my ability to disable that feature.  Before the enhanced privacy controls came out, any of you who know me know that I was a voracious un-tagger.  I’ve removed the pictures feature.

I also had little control on people’s reflections on my person.  I don’t have the energy to follow a “wall” where people can write about me in any given way.  This is a contrast from Twitter – there’s a Twitter account that is entirely devoted to what a terrible person I am.  You can say virtually anything about anyone on Twitter, and few people will take you seriously for it, but Facebook implies a handshake between you and the person writing on your wall.  We’ve all seen the “worst Facebook wall moments” stories, and the outcomes are never good.  One pissed-off friend writing about little Jim’s massive collection of sheep pornography is enough to cost someone a job or other opportunity, and I’m not interested in doing Internet damage control.  So, I’ve turned off the wall feature.

By this point – and knowing the obvious – that the “Interests” one lists in their profile are used to determine targeted advertising, I’ve turned off all of the features that are supposed to make Facebook a valuable service, and decide that I’m better off without it.

There is a technical aspect to this as well, in the sense of how Facebook treats the data of its users.  Despite my moaning and groaning about all of the above, I held on to Facebook. It was, at one point, a service I enjoyed using and checked often.  The turning point actually occurred when I checked Groupon, and found that the tracking cookies that Facebook uses to (what else) target more advertising had actually signed me in to Groupon’s site without my permission.  The argument here is that this feature can also be turned off, but as I did some reading and looked at some research, I found out that, yes, while the feature can be “disabled,” cookie tracking activity takes place regardless, even if you don’t have a Facebook account.  There are a number of other technical problems and exploits that can be performed on Facebook users in any number of ways by taking advantage of human vanity and fallacy.

I kept all that in mind, and came to a realization that the people who were using Facebook were only using it, and the only people who are talking about how cool it is are people who work in marketing departments.  They move people around on a chessboard in exchange for dollars – pawns, working for the king of human commotidization.  Facebook users, inadvertently and unbeknownst to them, are brainwashed.  They’ve fallen into the same trap as Facebook developers and advertisers, who, as explained pointedly in Wired by Michael Wolff, build “on top of the platform that [Zuckerberg's] company owned and controlled [and] would always be subservient to the platform itself.”

Regardless of how many features a user disables or limits, Facebook always has and stores an incredible amount of personal information on them, often in questionable ways, and will continue to do so in its endless quest to turn <strike>pawns</strike> users into dollars.  Don’t fall for this bullshit.

Welcome to Facebook.