We are just about done with our basement finish. We finally gave in and bought an Xbox 360 to compliment it. Pretty cool gaming system, but there really are few native 360 games for kids. So I had Connor look at the regular Xbox games that were compatible with the 360 and he chose a couple, one of which was Frogger Beyond

He just got done playing it for the first time. Here is an 8 going on 9 year old’s review:

This game is boring. All you do is jump around and dodge stuff.

Connor – Age (almost) 9.

Don’t know why but I find that pretty funny.

Off to London tomorrow.

No related posts.

Post from: John's Jottings

Frogger Beyond Review

Just got back from Chicago and I guess “this video”:http://www.youtube.com/w/Pilot%27s-eye-view-of-a-three-day-trip?v=zZgwky7WEkg from a pilot’s viewpoint of a 3 day trip from Boston to Paris and back (time compressed!) struck a chord because I think it’s pretty cool. Played to U2. Of course it may be because I’ve started flying United and I’ve been listening to Channel 9. [video link via Steve Lacey]

I’ve got a lot of travel coming up – Amsterdam and Brussels this month, London and Paris next. Most likely a trip to China and Spain before June. Unfortunetly it’s all business but I’m hoping to take pictures. Work’s been a bitch and I haven’t had time to write much but pictures would be good.

No related posts.

Post from: John's Jottings

Fun Pilot Video

Connor took a GPS course this fall and got a GPS device for Christmas. This afternoon we went after a couple of caches close to our house and he found both of them. The picture shows him signing the log book of one of them.

On a pure geek scale I still have to put my own hobby of metal detecting above geocaching but they really are similar – it’s all about getting outside in the fresh air and finding stuff.

The thrill of metal detecting for me is finding something that was not planted, like a geocache is, but rather lost and forgotten over time. The other difference is when you are geocaching you know exactly what you are looking for, whereas with metal detecting when you pull something out of the ground it could be just about anything. Of course depending on how fancy a metal detector you have you may have a good idea, but still you didn’t know what was there until just that moment.

But enough about metal detecting, that’s for later stories (and the summer). Geocaching is cool and Connor enjoyed the hunt. He’s already starting to plan ones he wants to plant.

Any hobby that gets us together and outside is a good one. I look forward to the next hunt.

No related posts.

Post from: John's Jottings

First Geocache

I just noticed that back in 2003 when I “mentioned”:http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0740748475/johnsjotting-20/ref=nosim/102-0531947-3947310?%5Fencoding=UTF8&camp=1789&link%5Fcode=xm2 the coming Far Side anthology that I called out to Bill Watterson, creator of Calvin & Hobbes – “Bill Watterson, are you paying attention?”

Apparently he was because one of the biggest releases of this Christmas season is 0740748475.

This one hit my Amazon wish list as soon as I heard about it. If anything could tempt me to “peek” into what has been purchased for me this would be it – I really need to know!

Bloom County in it’s prime, Calvin & Hobbes, The Far Side, I’d have a hard time putting these comics into order of preference.

No related posts.

Post from: John's Jottings

The Complete Calvin and Hobbes

I’m going to be in Vegas from the 12th through the 20th, most of the time actually working as my team is responsible for the IT function of our user conference held that week. I will have some time this weekend to gamble a little bit but after that it’s going to be all work.

I received the following in an email today from someone who knew where I’ll be:

bq(quote). Have fun in Vegas. Don’t forget that Craps is the only casino game where the house doesn’t have an advantage.

Were it only true! Of course, Casinos are in the business of winning money and they do that through their house advantage which they do indeed have in Craps. In fact on certain bets they have an advantage as high as 17%.

She was close though, there is a bet in craps in which the house has no advantage on those chips and that is the odds bet on the pass, don’t pass, come or don’t come lines. These odds bets pay the true odds with no house advantage. However, since to make these bets you first need to make a bet that carries a house advantage of about 1.4% (still pretty small for a casino game) the overall house advantage of your pass + odds bet is going to vary from about .85% (1x odds) to .02% (100x odds).

So you can get that house advantage pretty low but to get there you have to risk a lot of money (100x odds if you are in a casino that offers it) and be sure you make no other bets with a higher house advantage. And even then the house will have an advantage on you.

Read more about “craps”:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Craps at Wikipedia. I’ve “written”:http://www.google.com/custom?domains=www.johnsjottings.com&q=craps&sa=Search&sitesearch=www.johnsjottings.com&client=pub-8814790628205710&forid=1&channel=3630340328&ie=ISO-8859-1&oe=ISO-8859-1&cof=GALT%3A%23008000%3BGL%3A1%3BDIV%3A%23336699%3BVLC%3A663399%3BAH%3Acenter%3BBGC%3AFFFFFF%3BLBGC%3A006600%3BALC%3A0000FF%3BLC%3A0000FF%3BT%3A000000%3BGFNT%3A0000FF%3BGIMP%3A0000FF%3BFORID%3A1%3B&hl=en about the game some too.

No related posts.

Post from: John's Jottings

On Craps

I’ve “refered”:http://www.johnsjottings.com/archives/2004/06/15/finding_a_silver_dime.html to “http://www.wackypackages.org”:http://www.wackypackages.org before but this deserves a new look. “Krazy Dad”:http://www.krazydad.com and his “Wacky Packages Coverpop”:http://www.coverpop.com/index.php?pop=wackyf

Brings back good memories.

No related posts.

Post from: John's Jottings

Wacky Packs

I’ve played fantasy football off and on for the last 20 years or so. I’m certainly not a fantasy addict – I’ve never played anything but football and in only a few years have I played in more than one league. And there have been many years I haven’t played at all, usually depending on my mood and/or “busyness” that fall.

Still, I think I’m pretty well qualified to comment on what could be the next generation of fantasy football. After all, I did draft Isaac Bruce in 1995 in the 12th round.

“GameDayCoach.com”:http://www.gamedaycoach.com is not only a new tool for managing a fantasy football league but it also introduces a significant new way of managing a team: live, as it happens – just like a real coach.

Anyone who has played fantasy football knows that one of the biggest frustrations is not knowing for sure if your star player is going to play with that minor hamstring injury. Or the major one, depending on what the team is trying to hide. Too often games are played with the injury reports – leading you to start or not start a player at the completely wrong time.

No worries with the GameDayCoach system – because you can make real-time changes you can make that substitution right for the game time scratch. Of course you can also take someone out who is playing poorly, put that rookie in who is having a surprise game, etc. The UI of GameDayCach promises to make finding what substitutions you should make easy, and doing them even easier. While they haven’t posted any demos yet I’ll bet it’s pretty slick.

The site is a work in progress but I have confidence that before the season begins it will be complete. I was impressed to hear radio ads for GameDayCoach during the Vikings draft report show on KFAN earlier this year. Clearly these guys are making the neccessary investment to making this a success.

Commissioners, if you are interested in taking your fantasy football to the next level, step up to GameDayCoach.com.

No related posts.

Post from: John's Jottings

Next Generation of Fantasy Football?

Well the “test drive”:http://www.johnsjottings.com/archives/2004/09/12/test_drive.html sold me and six weeks later I’ve picked up my new ride. It ended up being between the “BMW 330xi”:http://www.bmwusa.com/vehicles/3/330xiSedan and a Suburu Legacy. The Suburu is a nice car – but in the end I decided that when I was 45 (about the time I’ll be ready to hand this down) I’d rather be driving a used BMW than a used Suburu. Weird maybe, but there it is.

“Buying a Car”:http://jthurber.com/blog/index.php?p=118 (link via Inluminent) has some good suggestions but I would encourage any car buyer to use any site like carsdirect.com as just one resource. I ended up being able to get a 2005 for just $700 over invoice which is significantly less than Edmunds says people are paying. I did it by having done my research and playing off a number of dealers against each other. Don’t be afraid to ask for something, especially if there is a fear of losing you. Don’t worry they won’t sell it to you at a price where they aren’t still making money.

I’m in Chicago this week and Tokyo next so this past weekend was about all the driving I’ll be able to do for awhile. Hopefully it’s still in one piece when I get home.

No related posts.

Post from: John's Jottings

New Ride

Test drove a “BMW 330xi”:http://www.bmwusa.com/vehicles/3/330xiSedan yesterday. Wow, what a car. I actually wasn’t planning on doing a test drive, but I’ve been looking at Audis and figured if I was looking at them I might as well look at a BMW too. The Audi A4 is too small inside (the backseat is really cramped when I have my front seat in normal position) and I had assumed the 3 series would be the same. But I happened to find myself over by the dealership so I took a quick look and found that while the 3 series doesn’t have as much room in the back as the A6 it still is perfectly fine.

So I took a test drive. At this dealership they let you drive by yourself, which I like. I asked the salesman where a good test road was. This was his response:

bq(quote). Go out the frontage road here and take a left. You’ll hit a left curve where the posted speed limit is 25 mph, hit it at about 45 and despite what your instinct will tell you, don’t touch the brakes. Then it curves again this time posted at 15 mph, don’t slow down and don’t hit the breaks going through that curve either.

An interesting sales approach but it worked on me – that car hugged the road like none I’ve ever driven. Wow, very impressive.

I’m looking to keep this next car for 8 years and if I can negotiate a good deal on a 2004 this just may be the car.

No related posts.

Post from: John's Jottings

Test Drive

Liked Office Space? Star Wars? Then you’ll like the 4 minute short Office Space Wars (30MB WMV, via “Boing Boing”:http://www.boingboing.net/2004/06/25/star_warsoffice_spac.html and Jeremy)

No related posts.

Post from: John's Jottings

Office Space Wars

I’ve seen some pretty cool applications of AIM(AOL Instant Messenger) and Andy Baio’s latest hack which allows you to “play a handful of old Infocom games”:http://www.waxy.org/archive/2004/03/21/infocomb.shtml#002715 Like Zork I, II & III over AIM has to be about the coolest. It even supports Save and Restore. Check out the link for an example transcript or just send a message to Infocombot or Infocombot2

Not practical in and of itself but definitely shows the power of AIM as a robust auto-responder, extremely useful for providing automated technical support, for example.

No related posts.

Post from: John's Jottings

Play Zork over AIM

You really have to wonder about home builders these days. Are they trying to do too much, too fast? What else can explain how a supposed professional could manage the blunder you see in the picture to the left? That’s above a doorway in our unfinished basement. Tucked in behind a flexible heating duct run is a sawed-off PVC pipe. That pipe leads up to the second floor washing machine, and is designed to handle any water that overflows into the pan the washing machine is sitting on.

What caused us to find this hidden PVC pipe behind that tubing? Well, for whatever reason the washing machine did actually overflow. And the pan did its job, funneling the water into the drain, which funneled the water into the PVC pipe, which did the best it could which unfortunately was nothing more than dumping the water above the doorway in the unfinished basement.

We’ve been in the house for a couple of years now, hopefully the builder will be too embarrassed about this to try to argue that I’m past any warranty period. I’m just glad we hadn’t finished the basement yet. Trust me, we’ll be checking the ends of all the other pipes down there before we do.

[UPDATE - the builder was equally mortified and fixed it ASAP.]

No related posts.

Post from: John's Jottings

Craftsmanship

We took the kids to see the Physics Force show at Northrup Auditorium last night. The Physics Force is an outreach program of the Institute of Technology at the University of Minnesota that is designed to show kids that Physics is interesting, understandable and fun.

The place was packed and everyone really enjoyed the show. This week the Physics Force brought in over 12,000 K-12 age kids during the day to share in the wonder that is Physics. Last night was open to the public.

My favorites were the ping-pong ball cannon that shot a ping-pong ball through two pop cans using nothing but atmospheric pressure – all the air was removed from the cannon and then a hole was punched in one end. It was pretty amazing to see those cans destroyed like that by a light ball. The other crowd favorite was the fire extinguisher powered “rocket ship” that sent Dan screaming across the stage on a 3 wheel bicycle.

Their website isn’t that great but I was able to find a few interesting videos that show some of the things they do.

The Bernoulli Effect [26.8MB] shows two experiments, the second of which is the most interesting – imploding a 55 gallon steel drum.

The Bernoulli Effect [12.5MB] shows a unique way to apply Bernoulli’s Principle using a roll of toilet paper.

A Demonstration of Gravity [35.7MB] is an experiment that of course is a classic in any first year Physics course but instead of using a stuffed monkey they drop a teacher from a 20 foot high platform.

Their schedule for the rest of the year only has them going directly to schools but hopefully next year they will put on some more open to the public show.

The looks on the kids’ faces said it all – Physics is fun!

No related posts.

Post from: John's Jottings

May the Physics Force Be With You

[UPDATE: I've deleted the code for the button since McAfee now flags this as Exploit-URLSpoof and it is constantly removing this entry page!]

Read all about it here

(Go ahead and click the button, it’s safe). Once you’ve done so check out Don Park’s Spoofing for Dummies for an explanation of what you saw, if you were using IE.

No related posts.

Post from: John's Jottings

Google Buys Microsoft!

Any RPGers out there? No that’s not just any beat up old gaming die, that’s a beat up old gaming die from ancient Rome. Christie’s is auctioning it off and expects to get $4-$6K for it. I hope the geek that buys it can abstain from actually using it in next Friday’s game.

Link via Fark.

No related posts.

Post from: John's Jottings

Gaming in Ancient Rome

About a month ago I wrote that Berke Breathed was bringing Opus back in November. I also said nothing would make me happier than having Gary Larson’s The Far Side back. Well what the heck do you know but I open the comics this morning and there in the lower right corner of the comics page is a Far Side cartoon! Turns out that in an effort to drum up business for The Complete Far Side 1980-1994 (2 vol set) Larson has arranged to have published classic Far Side panels through the end of the year. Not quite what I was looking for but I’ll take it.

Bill Watterson, are you paying attention?

No related posts.

Post from: John's Jottings

Return of The Far Side

If you play Counter Strike you should find this video pretty entertaining.

NEW – Visit my Counter-Strike Store where you can buy Counter-Strike related items. Through trusted vendor Amazon.com.

[UPDATE] – It’s been a few years now since this video was put together but it’s still one of my favorite Counter Strike videos just because it is so low-tech.  Just a bunch of friends having a little fun.  Really looked like fun to make too.  I wonder what they would rather do – play Counter-Strike or make Counter-Strike videos?

No related posts.

Post from: John's Jottings

Counter Strike Video

Trivia Pursuit for Fun and Profit. How cool is that? Signed up as a guest to try it out and won all three games I played. I suspect I was playing some younger players as a question such as “What state was Jimmy Carter born in?” was answered “Oklahoma.”

No related posts.

Post from: John's Jottings

Trivia Pursuit

According to Berkeley Breathed he is bringing Opus back to the Sunday comics starting on November 23rd. No word whether Milo and the rest of the Bloom County gang will be back, but hopefully Breathed learned from his foray into a Milo-less comic with Outland, where he eventually brought back all of the popular Bloom County denizens. Bloom County was the comic strip of the 80s and while I’m disappointed that Opus will be back only once a week it certainly is better than retirement. I’ll have to drag out all of my old Bloom County compilations to read during the week, I guess.

The only thing that could make me happier would be the return of The Far Side. I guess The Complete Far Side 1980-1994 (2 vol set) will have to do.

No related posts.

Post from: John's Jottings

Opus Lives!

I just killed way too much time playing Yahtzee [via Love and Casino War]

This is how Wikipedia describes Yahtzee:

Yahtzee is the trademarked name of a popular dice game made by Milton Bradley (now owned by Hasbro). The object of the game is to score the most points by rolling five dice to make certain combinations. The dice can be rolled up to three times in a turn to try to make one of the thirteen possible scoring combinations. A game of Yahtzee consists of thirteen rounds during which the player chooses which scoring combination is to be used in that round. Once a combination has been used in the game, it cannot be used again.

The scoring combinations have varying point values, some of which are fixed values and others of which have the cumulative value of the dice. A Yahtzee is five-of-a-kind and holds the game’s highest point value of 50 (not counting multiple “Yahtzees” in the same game).

No related posts.

Post from: John's Jottings

Yahtzee