The Sherman Clay piano dealership in Seattle has a $125K Steinway.
They kindly allowed me to play it last Friday.
Wow. That was pretty dang fun.
© 2007 Stephen Clarke-Willson - All Rights Reserved.
2007-12-18
Sony Clie NZ90 - RIP
Sony Clie NZ90 Review
Ah, my Sony Clie NZ90. (See the review for some nice pix.)
I think it's dying. It insists that batteries are unsuitable for use even though they worked fine the day before.
At one time I had a great Bluetooth ecosystem designed around my Clie. This was in 2003, and I could connect to the web anywhere via my cell phone and surf for just the cost of minutes. The cell phone companies plugged that hole eventually. I had the Wi-Fi adapter for faster surfing when that was available. I stored music playlists on it. It took nice 2 megapixel pictures until the camera CCD died one day. It had a big display - still big even by today's standards - and could show beautiful color pictures.
I always had trouble getting the Wi-Fi to work with 128-bit WEP. The 64/40-bit WEP would always work. One day, a year ago, it started working. Then two weeks later it stopped. What a mystery that was.
It could access Memory Stick Pro devices - so I had 2 gigabytes of memory in it at one point. That was impressive for a PDA from 2003. Now I just keep a little 128 megabyte stick in it with a few tunes.
It did a lot of what an iPhone does, but four years before the iPhone came out.
I'm getting an iPod-Nano (3G) for Christmas. It can do most of what the Clie could do, except surf and take pictures. But I have nicer cameras and a laptop with pretty good battery life for surfing. I might want a PDA again someday. I'm not sure. Generally I think the time of the PDA has come and gone.
Sony Clie - RIP.
© 2007 Stephen Clarke-Willson - All Rights Reserved.
Ah, my Sony Clie NZ90. (See the review for some nice pix.)
I think it's dying. It insists that batteries are unsuitable for use even though they worked fine the day before.
At one time I had a great Bluetooth ecosystem designed around my Clie. This was in 2003, and I could connect to the web anywhere via my cell phone and surf for just the cost of minutes. The cell phone companies plugged that hole eventually. I had the Wi-Fi adapter for faster surfing when that was available. I stored music playlists on it. It took nice 2 megapixel pictures until the camera CCD died one day. It had a big display - still big even by today's standards - and could show beautiful color pictures.
I always had trouble getting the Wi-Fi to work with 128-bit WEP. The 64/40-bit WEP would always work. One day, a year ago, it started working. Then two weeks later it stopped. What a mystery that was.
It could access Memory Stick Pro devices - so I had 2 gigabytes of memory in it at one point. That was impressive for a PDA from 2003. Now I just keep a little 128 megabyte stick in it with a few tunes.
It did a lot of what an iPhone does, but four years before the iPhone came out.
I'm getting an iPod-Nano (3G) for Christmas. It can do most of what the Clie could do, except surf and take pictures. But I have nicer cameras and a laptop with pretty good battery life for surfing. I might want a PDA again someday. I'm not sure. Generally I think the time of the PDA has come and gone.
Sony Clie - RIP.
© 2007 Stephen Clarke-Willson - All Rights Reserved.
2007-12-17
Lost Webisodes
I like Damon and Carlton and I love their podcasts which are funny and, in that Lost sort of way, informative ... but I offer up these Lost Webisodes as evidence that big budget TV guys can't make stuff for the web.
© 2007 Stephen Clarke-Willson - All Rights Reserved.
© 2007 Stephen Clarke-Willson - All Rights Reserved.
GENIUS! Incredible Wiimote Hack Creates Multitouch Display - Gearlog
Incredible Wiimote Hack Creates Multitouch Display - Gearlog
Wow. I'm completely amazed. This simplicity of this guy's hack is amazing. It's all made possible because the WiiMote uses standard Bluetooth for communication.
© 2007 Stephen Clarke-Willson - All Rights Reserved.
Wow. I'm completely amazed. This simplicity of this guy's hack is amazing. It's all made possible because the WiiMote uses standard Bluetooth for communication.
© 2007 Stephen Clarke-Willson - All Rights Reserved.
2007-12-16
Relative peace in Iraq
U.S.: Iraq quietest since '04 - Conflict in Iraq- msnbc.com:
My nephew-in-law, who is serving in the Marines in Iraq, wrote us and said the same thing.
I think our country is stuck there for many more years, though, until the Iraqis learn the habit of not hating each other 100% of the time. My wife, who knows some history, said she thought we were in Japan for a good many years, and Japan didn't have the civil war issue. [Actually we were in charge there seven years.] I think we have at least another seven years, since we're really just getting started on this new lifestyle thing in Iraq.
Lt. Gen. Ray Odierno:
© 2007 Stephen Clarke-Willson - All Rights Reserved.
Violence in Iraq is at its lowest levels since the first year of the American invasion, finally opening a window for reconciliation among rival sects, the second-ranking U.S. general said Sunday as Iraqi forces formally took control of security across half the country.
My nephew-in-law, who is serving in the Marines in Iraq, wrote us and said the same thing.
I think our country is stuck there for many more years, though, until the Iraqis learn the habit of not hating each other 100% of the time. My wife, who knows some history, said she thought we were in Japan for a good many years, and Japan didn't have the civil war issue. [Actually we were in charge there seven years.] I think we have at least another seven years, since we're really just getting started on this new lifestyle thing in Iraq.
Lt. Gen. Ray Odierno:
"I feel we are back in '03 and early '04. Frankly I was here then, and the environment is about the same in terms of security in my opinion," he said. "What is different from then is that the Iraqi security forces are significantly more mature."
© 2007 Stephen Clarke-Willson - All Rights Reserved.
Lego Digicomp II
Digicomp II made out of Lego.
Notice the picture of the original DCII:
© 2007 Stephen Clarke-Willson - All Rights Reserved.
Notice the picture of the original DCII:
© 2007 Stephen Clarke-Willson - All Rights Reserved.
2007-12-09
7 inches of joy
The first 45 I ever bought was "Lola" by The Kinks.
I still have it.
My kids were listening to Weird Al Yankovich's "Yoda", which is a take-off on Lola, and so I was reminded of it.
I was probably 14 when I bought "Lola". I was so excited to buy a record! I told my neighbor Jeff Rhoads about it. Jeff is a few years older than me. He said, "You know what that record is about, don't you?" Of course I didn't. "You'd better listen to the words more closely."
So I did and I was a bit shocked! And a little embarrassed at what I had been listening to over and over again in my bedroom. But I liked the record anyway.
I digitized it yesterday. The problem is, my record player can only play 33 1/3. So I digitized it at the wrong speed and then sped it up in Adobe Audition. Now it sounds just like a crispy old 45.
I like it.
(Note: 45 rpm records are 7" across.)
© 2007 Stephen Clarke-Willson - All Rights Reserved.
I still have it.
My kids were listening to Weird Al Yankovich's "Yoda", which is a take-off on Lola, and so I was reminded of it.
I was probably 14 when I bought "Lola". I was so excited to buy a record! I told my neighbor Jeff Rhoads about it. Jeff is a few years older than me. He said, "You know what that record is about, don't you?" Of course I didn't. "You'd better listen to the words more closely."
So I did and I was a bit shocked! And a little embarrassed at what I had been listening to over and over again in my bedroom. But I liked the record anyway.
I digitized it yesterday. The problem is, my record player can only play 33 1/3. So I digitized it at the wrong speed and then sped it up in Adobe Audition. Now it sounds just like a crispy old 45.
I like it.
(Note: 45 rpm records are 7" across.)
© 2007 Stephen Clarke-Willson - All Rights Reserved.
2007-12-04
Blogroll
Google Reader (59):
I know that guy! Steve Lacy used to work at RenderMorphics just before it was bought by Microsoft. One of the things the RenderMorphics people (mostly Steve I think) had to do as part of making RL part of the Game SDK was convert it to COM. So they put COM interfaces on top of their stuff that just thunked into it. I had a game engine that used the RL code and later that same low level code was used in the Intervista VRML browser. Microsoft eventually bought the Intervista browser. Since I had code that used the RL standard "C" interface, I thunked my code into the COM interface layer.
So it went like this:
1 The VRML browser called into my code to render a scene.
2 My code called into original RL interfaces which I had rewritten to call into COM.
3 The Game SDK COM layer called back into the original RL interfaces.
4 The RL interfaces called down into hardware or software.
So basically steps 2 and 3 canceled each other out. When Microsoft bought the Intervista VRML browser, Steve Lacey looked at the code, and saw my interface layer calling into his interface layer and how they just canceled each other out and got a good laugh from that.
The Intervista VRML browser was downloaded at least a million times, but sadly it was built for IE 4 ActiveX interfaces and Document Object Model which Microsoft totally changed for IE 5. That killed off the VRML browser, sadly.
VRML was actually pretty fun and surprisingly fast considering all the work that went on to render a scene.
Ah, the good old days.
Steve Lacey: As a blogger I like to include a blogroll on my site so that friends, family and other readers can take a look at what I like to read. It's also a nice way to give a shout out to the authors of the blogs that I like. However, maintaining a blogroll can be a bit of a pain as your subscriptions ebb and flow.
I know that guy! Steve Lacy used to work at RenderMorphics just before it was bought by Microsoft. One of the things the RenderMorphics people (mostly Steve I think) had to do as part of making RL part of the Game SDK was convert it to COM. So they put COM interfaces on top of their stuff that just thunked into it. I had a game engine that used the RL code and later that same low level code was used in the Intervista VRML browser. Microsoft eventually bought the Intervista browser. Since I had code that used the RL standard "C" interface, I thunked my code into the COM interface layer.
So it went like this:
1 The VRML browser called into my code to render a scene.
2 My code called into original RL interfaces which I had rewritten to call into COM.
3 The Game SDK COM layer called back into the original RL interfaces.
4 The RL interfaces called down into hardware or software.
So basically steps 2 and 3 canceled each other out. When Microsoft bought the Intervista VRML browser, Steve Lacey looked at the code, and saw my interface layer calling into his interface layer and how they just canceled each other out and got a good laugh from that.
The Intervista VRML browser was downloaded at least a million times, but sadly it was built for IE 4 ActiveX interfaces and Document Object Model which Microsoft totally changed for IE 5. That killed off the VRML browser, sadly.
VRML was actually pretty fun and surprisingly fast considering all the work that went on to render a scene.
Ah, the good old days.
2007-11-29
Kernighan's Law
Dr. Dobb's | Letters and the Law | October 10, 2007:
I actually did not know Kernighan's Law ... but once I heard I intuitively agreed with it.
What's really hard is debugging code from someone who is way smarter than you and writes clever code. That takes a great deal of persistence.
Do you know Kernighan's Law? 'Debugging is twice as hard as writing the code in the first place. Therefore, if you write the code as cleverly as possible, you are, by definition, not smart enough to debug it.'
I actually did not know Kernighan's Law ... but once I heard I intuitively agreed with it.
What's really hard is debugging code from someone who is way smarter than you and writes clever code. That takes a great deal of persistence.
2007-11-28
Happy Holidays from Above the Garage Productions
It's time once again for the annual posting of the Jingle Bell Rag.
Happy Holidays from Above the Garage Productions
Happy Holidays from Above the Garage Productions
Get Lost
Click here and then wave your mouse over the image.
On fast modern machines it looks pretty cool.
The Java applet came from Durius.com.
The image is from a game I was working on at home back in the mid-90's.
At one point the story for the game was almost picked up as a screenplay for a $3M movie. But then, many screenplays are almost picked up.
On fast modern machines it looks pretty cool.
The Java applet came from Durius.com.
The image is from a game I was working on at home back in the mid-90's.
At one point the story for the game was almost picked up as a screenplay for a $3M movie. But then, many screenplays are almost picked up.
2007-11-27
Oldest known post
Here's a link to the oldest known post by me: Did you know the internet was usable in 1989?
Lego upgrade and MIT sample server (hack fix) - comp.windows.x | Google Groups
-- Stephen
Lego upgrade and MIT sample server (hack fix) - comp.windows.x | Google Groups
-- Stephen
Software Piracy
Here's my idea for a T-Shirt to combat software piracy:
"Help prevent software piracy: become a software ninja!"
Sadly, it might have the wrong effect - a person might refine their pathetic pirate skills into leet ninja skills and steal more software.
© 2007 Stephen Clarke-Willson - All Rights Reserved.
"Help prevent software piracy: become a software ninja!"
Sadly, it might have the wrong effect - a person might refine their pathetic pirate skills into leet ninja skills and steal more software.
© 2007 Stephen Clarke-Willson - All Rights Reserved.
2007-11-24
NBC's Stupid Move
Digg - Welcome to Zuckerland: NBC's Stupid Move
This is awesome. I rarely read the comments at Digg but even the comments are interesting.
And I never heard of Hulu either.
This is my favorite comment:
Update 2007/09/24 - Hulu.com is probably dead on arrival, but at least Zucker had a backup plan with Amazon.com to host downloadable TV content. You can download the pilot episodes from four new shows. Amazingly, these downloads don't have any tag lines like "Watch the show Monday's at 8:00 p.m. PDT/EDT!" The shows are just the shows without any commercial breaks, no tag line, ... basically no promotional oomph at all.
Bionic Woman was interesting but I don't plan to continue watching; Chuck was funny and we'll give it a chance; Journeyman was interesting but I don't plan to continue; and the fourth one never downloaded.
Update 2007/11/24 - I have an invite to the Hulu private beta so I'm going to check it out. According to Zucker, NBC barely makes any money off iTunes. I read an interesting article recently that explained Apple's iTunes store pricing: priced just low enough for everyone to break even ... and therefore promote the sale of iPod hardware! That made a lot of sense to me.
I like getting non-DRM tunes from Amazon. I just visited California and I thought, "I should own California Dreamin'". Cost at Amazon: $.89. You can't beat that with a stick.
This is awesome. I rarely read the comments at Digg but even the comments are interesting.
And I never heard of Hulu either.
This is my favorite comment:
From Hulu.com:
"Why Hulu? Objectively, Hulu is short, easy to spell, easy to pronounce, and rhymes with itself. Subjectively, Hulu strikes us as an inherently fun name, one that captures the spirit of the service we're building. Our hope is that Hulu will embody our (admittedly ambitious) never-ending mission, which is to help you find and enjoy the world's premier content when, where and how you want it."
Translation: Doomed.
Update 2007/09/24 - Hulu.com is probably dead on arrival, but at least Zucker had a backup plan with Amazon.com to host downloadable TV content. You can download the pilot episodes from four new shows. Amazingly, these downloads don't have any tag lines like "Watch the show Monday's at 8:00 p.m. PDT/EDT!" The shows are just the shows without any commercial breaks, no tag line, ... basically no promotional oomph at all.
Bionic Woman was interesting but I don't plan to continue watching; Chuck was funny and we'll give it a chance; Journeyman was interesting but I don't plan to continue; and the fourth one never downloaded.
Update 2007/11/24 - I have an invite to the Hulu private beta so I'm going to check it out. According to Zucker, NBC barely makes any money off iTunes. I read an interesting article recently that explained Apple's iTunes store pricing: priced just low enough for everyone to break even ... and therefore promote the sale of iPod hardware! That made a lot of sense to me.
I like getting non-DRM tunes from Amazon. I just visited California and I thought, "I should own California Dreamin'". Cost at Amazon: $.89. You can't beat that with a stick.
HD DVD in Upset Victory Over Blu-ray
GameDaily BIZ: Forrester: HD DVD in Upset Victory Over Blu-ray?:
It's only going to take one more tudio to switch for the death knell for Blu-Ray to begin tolling.
And HD-DVD players will be less than $250.00 this Christmas.
(Update 2007 11 24: Blu-ray is $450 at Costco and HD-DVD is $250. My friends with Blu-ray say, "So what if HD-DVD wins? So what if it is a stalemate and we have both? HD-DVD is going to be so cheap I'll just buy it later for $100.")
'Weakened by these developments, Blu-ray needs to offer a viable hardware model at the $250 price point by Christmas 2007,' said Gownder. 'The Blu-ray camp must also stave off further studio defections, and employ more aggressive promotional tactics to counter HD DVD's recent momentum.' 'Failure to alter strategy would open up Blu-ray to a possible upset defeat at the hands of HD DVD,' he added.
It's only going to take one more tudio to switch for the death knell for Blu-Ray to begin tolling.
And HD-DVD players will be less than $250.00 this Christmas.
(Update 2007 11 24: Blu-ray is $450 at Costco and HD-DVD is $250. My friends with Blu-ray say, "So what if HD-DVD wins? So what if it is a stalemate and we have both? HD-DVD is going to be so cheap I'll just buy it later for $100.")
2007-11-16
2007-11-13
A Pirate's (After) Life For Me
A Pirate's (After) Life For Me
(That link is dead, but here is a link that refers to that link, which is not dead: https://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=3876673&page=1 )
Un-frickin'-believable.
The best fix, of course, is to let it be known that it's all cleaned up and put down the toilet by the end of the night.
Another idea would be to let people fill out a form and have the ... stuff shot up in a firework. They could charge big $$ for that.
Un-frickin'-believable.
The best fix, of course, is to let it be known that it's all cleaned up and put down the toilet by the end of the night.
Another idea would be to let people fill out a form and have the ... stuff shot up in a firework. They could charge big $$ for that.
[2024-07-11 - Hey Elon - could be big business! Just launch some remains along with Starlink satellites!]
2007-11-11
Mario Galaxy
I seem to have a copy of Mario Galaxy a little before it goes on sale tomorrow.
I've played it a bit. One of my children has finished it. It takes a little getting used to - the nun-chuck is used for moving and the standard Wii remote is used to grabbing and shaking and spinning.
I love that it runs at 60 fps. Very few games pull it off. 60 fps looks so much more "real" than 30 fps (and lots of games drop to 20 fps). It's simple arithmetic - you can draw 3x the stuff at 20 fps as you can at 60 fps, so to get a 60 fps game going you need to make some simplifications. (Those football games that run at 60 fps are amazing bits of engineering.)
I don't have a lot of time to play games, sadly. When I do have time, I usually play the game that's made where I work. I have about 280+ hours into that. (One of my kids has 2400 hours into it. She knows everything about it. She's a very helpful resource.)
When I was working on console games, I played console games. When I was working on PC games, I played PC games. Now that I'm working on a massive MMO, I have no time for other games. I don't think this is an unusual experience in the MMO world. The good ones consume all your game playing time.
Oh wait, this is about Mario Galaxy. Yeah, looks pretty good.
© 2007 Stephen Clarke-Willson - All Rights Reserved.
I've played it a bit. One of my children has finished it. It takes a little getting used to - the nun-chuck is used for moving and the standard Wii remote is used to grabbing and shaking and spinning.
I love that it runs at 60 fps. Very few games pull it off. 60 fps looks so much more "real" than 30 fps (and lots of games drop to 20 fps). It's simple arithmetic - you can draw 3x the stuff at 20 fps as you can at 60 fps, so to get a 60 fps game going you need to make some simplifications. (Those football games that run at 60 fps are amazing bits of engineering.)
I don't have a lot of time to play games, sadly. When I do have time, I usually play the game that's made where I work. I have about 280+ hours into that. (One of my kids has 2400 hours into it. She knows everything about it. She's a very helpful resource.)
When I was working on console games, I played console games. When I was working on PC games, I played PC games. Now that I'm working on a massive MMO, I have no time for other games. I don't think this is an unusual experience in the MMO world. The good ones consume all your game playing time.
Oh wait, this is about Mario Galaxy. Yeah, looks pretty good.
© 2007 Stephen Clarke-Willson - All Rights Reserved.
TiVo and Rhapsody
I like Rhapsody - I use the free version which lets me listen to 25 songs a month. It's great for checking out what's happening. For instance, Britney's new album, which was almost entire written and performed by her producer and her highly processed voice is treated like an extra synth instrument, sounded interesting to me, and worth using up some of my 25 free plays on.
I like TiVo. Of course.
TiVo + Rhapsody (at least on a Series 2 box) is not good.
The UI locks up a lot. When it's not locking up, it's slow to respond - so slow you get confused about what you've done.
Too bad. It could have been cool.
© 2007 Stephen Clarke-Willson - All Rights Reserved.
I like TiVo. Of course.
TiVo + Rhapsody (at least on a Series 2 box) is not good.
The UI locks up a lot. When it's not locking up, it's slow to respond - so slow you get confused about what you've done.
Too bad. It could have been cool.
© 2007 Stephen Clarke-Willson - All Rights Reserved.
2007-11-07
Radiohead
E! News - Fans Shortchanging Radiohead's Rainbows?:
The problem with any statistics about the Radiohead experiment are that a lot of people are going to go try it out even if they don't know Radiohead as a band. The upside for Radiohead is huge - lots of people get exposed to the band that might not otherwise have listened.
I haven't tried it out - I don't really care about Radiohead. But if I did, I would probably give them a couple of bucks. 1) Hey, it's more than they ever would have gotten from me in this life; and 2) if I like it a lot I can buy it again; and 3) I might not like the music at all, so a couple of bucks is a small risk to take on the music.
(I've been downloading lots of Amazon Unbox to my TiVo for $0.99 - in fact, two weeks ago I downloaded four movies and I've only had time to watch two. For $0.99 I'll try lots of movies I would never otherwise touch.)
A new study says nearly two-thirds of respondents indicated they didn't pay anything for the download.
The problem with any statistics about the Radiohead experiment are that a lot of people are going to go try it out even if they don't know Radiohead as a band. The upside for Radiohead is huge - lots of people get exposed to the band that might not otherwise have listened.
I haven't tried it out - I don't really care about Radiohead. But if I did, I would probably give them a couple of bucks. 1) Hey, it's more than they ever would have gotten from me in this life; and 2) if I like it a lot I can buy it again; and 3) I might not like the music at all, so a couple of bucks is a small risk to take on the music.
(I've been downloading lots of Amazon Unbox to my TiVo for $0.99 - in fact, two weeks ago I downloaded four movies and I've only had time to watch two. For $0.99 I'll try lots of movies I would never otherwise touch.)
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