Disqus - Latest Comments for RyanMcFitz

Re: Lego Heroica: fun adventure gaming for kids

RyanMcFitz — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 08:12:42 -0000

Embrace your inner geek. These games have *minimum* recommended ages. They don't have *maximum* recommended ages. Go get 'em!

Re: Gympact iPhone app offers cash rewards to gym-goers, penalizes inattendance

RyanMcFitz — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 09:51:21 -0000

Chris Anderson has a brief blurb on their business model in his book "Free -- the Future of a Radical Price." They're a chain of gyms in Denmark, IIRC?

Re: Font swap in iBooks

RyanMcFitz — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 10:57:13 -0000

Nope. Had a few reinstalls, but prob seems well-documented among users. PDFs of all sizes (usually large) will bork it.

Count yourself among the blessed. In the meantime, I rely on Kindle & Stanza.

Re: New law would let telemarketers call your cellphone

RyanMcFitz — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 08:52:58 -0000

Same here. "It's your captain calling...!"

Apparently, Canadians have been identified as scammers as a great untapped market. The US DNC list only takes US numbers and the Canadian DNC list only takes Canadian numbers. We need an international DNC list.

Oh -- and the ability to enter a code on my cellphone to make a cartoon boxing glove sproing out of the caller's handset to bop them in the nose.

Re: Font swap in iBooks

RyanMcFitz — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 08:48:46 -0000

I'm glad to hear they've got the subtleties of elegant typefaces addressed. I hope that will free up some time so they can fix the fact that every time I try to look at a PDF, it immediately crashes to the home screen.

Re: Sony defends PS Vita memory prices, wants to support flash

RyanMcFitz — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 11:14:00 -0000

Someone at Sony needs to open up a history textbook and look at the entry for "Betamax." The proprietary walled-garden approach only works (cough Apple cough) if the quality is there to back it up. In my personal experience, Sony has failed to satisfy.

Re: Sheri S. Tepper I Am Not - Deus Ex Machinatio Blog - Andrea Phillips

RyanMcFitz — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 06:35:26 -0000

No kidding. Makes me wonder what was their writing like when *they* were in highschool! File under "we can't all be Tolkien" I guess.

Re: Sheri S. Tepper I Am Not - Deus Ex Machinatio Blog - Andrea Phillips

RyanMcFitz — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 08:43:07 -0000

Wow. I just finished re-reading "The True Game" to see if it stands up to the memories I had from when I was 12. (Turns out it was smarter than I was which meant that I might as well have been reading a completely different book.)

Next up, Master of the Five Magics by Lyndon Hardy! Viva los guilty pleasures!

Re: Your tax dollars at work: misleading, lurid "anti-piracy" ad campaign from US AG and Natl Crime Prevention Council

RyanMcFitz — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 07:59:36 -0000

I'm against the lunacy presented in these ads but the "money still gets into the economy" argument is not the argument to make. Read up on the Fallacy of the Broken Window to see the error.

Re: Post Your Juvenilia Week - Deus Ex Machinatio Blog - Andrea Phillips

RyanMcFitz — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 08:04:09 -0000

This "bad fic" is all too good. I'm gonna have to manually transcribe something truly deplorable from my analogue notebook-keeping days.

Personal note: I read a story by Poppy Z. Brite where she has one character (a writer) talking to another character (another writer) discussing a third character. I'll paraphrase but in the conversation, the first says, "He's not a real writer -- he's still in that scribble-stuff-in-notebooks-at-coffee-shops stage."

That was the moment that I (a) stopped writing in notebooks in coffee shops because I didn't have the perspective yet to realize that that's not true and (b) stopped reading Poppy Z. Brite because pulp fiction is supposed to be an escape from reality, not an ambush by it.

Re: The Promised ElfQuest Fanfic - Deus Ex Machinatio Blog - Andrea Phillips

RyanMcFitz — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 07:57:07 -0000

Bonus points for the unnecessary apostrophe in "Turi An'daa!"

Hallmark of fantasy/sciffy, that...

Re: ‘Skyrim’ prayers answered with upcoming ‘Dragon Shout’ app for iOS

RyanMcFitz — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 13:26:43 -0000

I'm leery about its chances of success. Much as I love Bethesda's games, they didn't exactly earn themselves a hockey sock full of karma after releasing the hounds [read: lawyers] on the guys behind a game putatively titled "Scrolls." That doesn't exactly telegraph live-and-let-live for fan culture.

Re: Post Your Juvenilia Week - Deus Ex Machinatio Blog - Andrea Phillips

RyanMcFitz — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 08:38:51 -0000

I can't count the inevitable break-up poetry I wrote in black ink on black paper while singing "Evil Woman Look Out Tonight" by Iron Maiden with a bath towel cape pinned around my neck. (Bonus points for the Henry Rollins reference for my fellow aging angry yoots.)

My absolute best stuff [read: worst] took advantage of the fledgling security protocols offered by the rudimentary text editors I was using at the time. I password protected them, of course, because I didn't want anyone to steal my ideas. Now, unless I can scrounge up a 386 computer and coal-powered copy of WordPerfect, they are safely locked away in perpetuity.

Carbon-dating places the the below text at about 14 years old. From the the lyrics I recognize, I was clearly listening to a lot of The The at the the time but I can only guess why I decided I needed to change the the font colour to red:

"The gift of conformity is a terrible mercy. It leaves you bound and gagged and spitting on a cold floor that you didn't think you would ever walk. The multitudes sing for more of your passion, the blood of your soul that leaves you sick and dirty. Then the crowd leaves, without miracles, without truth, without you. Your place is in shackles and in fear of your own compassion. True freedom lies in freedom from the heart=s desires. True freedom this way lies. You have the choice to run, to tear out the pages of your book as fuel for your fire. The urge to shout, to stretch, to free yourself from the mud of your learning becomes a hammer in your weak, grubby fist. Leave! Leave! Assume the shape of your heart. Take flight. The ice-water rejuvenates you, cradles you. Let the entropy of life fill your veins before you become a hammer upon the anvil of the world."

Re: Zeitgeist - Deus Ex Machinatio Blog - Andrea Phillips

RyanMcFitz — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 09:33:03 -0000

I know you've already been referred to the "big ideas" tag at TED but I actually think one resource we have at our disposal is the opportunity to put "big ideas" in a larger context. You know, that whole "doomed to repeat" part of failing to learn from history.

I find it instructive that in the 1850s, the Second Industrial Revolution changed the landscape in social, cultural, political and economic terms and during the few years that followed, there were honest-to-garsh revolutions in a dozen countries. Fast-forward to the similar upheaval wrought by a cocktail of technology, culture, philosophy and politics in the 1890s and that paved the way for WWI.

In each case, one side of the divide was so chuffed with themselves for having made war/unrest obsolete that they failed to see the warning signs until armed conflict was upon them.

I love the advancement of all our new "big ideas." I love to see the change that betters humanity and I regret only that unless Ray Kurzweil et al have their way, eventually the show will be over. But I think it also behooves any "big idea" generator to try to appreciate if the new idea will generate ripples or waves.

Re: Consumers Can’t Keep Up with Holiday Game Glut

RyanMcFitz — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 09:17:28 -0000

I'm that guy. Not only could I not afford to buy every game I wanted to buy (either in dollars or husband-points, a mythical domestic currency guys understand) but I knew that if I wanted something to tide me over through the holidays, I would just get Skyrim because it would last and last and last. It's like video game gristle. Since I'm lucky to play for at most an hour a day, Skyrim will take me to spring. By then, I may have some better used-game prices staring back at me.

Re: 3 Complaints About The State of Online Music

RyanMcFitz — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 09:30:11 -0000

As wit @serpent posted to an article on BoingBoing recently, perhaps the music industry would hurry up changing its outdated 20th century geographic business models if they were more frequently recipient of the following message: "The audience you are trying to gain cannot be reached by your current distributor or marketing."

Re: Will Wright, designer of ‘The Sims’ announces ‘HiveMind’

RyanMcFitz — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 09:30:27 -0000

I anticipate a future backlash to this kind of pervasive personal curation.

For the nonce, yes, it all helps you feel like the unique and beautiful snowflake you want to be. (Unless you live in the sticks and every time you look at a Google Map you are reminded of just how little you appear to have in common with your neighbours.) But in the medium term, ubiquitous personal curation will remove those experiences and perspectives that disagree with and challenge your biases instead of affirming them. We will be entertained -- but we will be the lesser for it.

Re: Top 5 most enjoyable side quests in ‘Skyrim’

RyanMcFitz — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 12:22:07 -0000

Groovy, thanks Jen. Looks like I've got a ways to go yet.

Re: Top 5 most enjoyable side quests in ‘Skyrim’

RyanMcFitz — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 10:21:34 -0000

These sound great! Do the encounters scale with level or do I need to make sure I'm of a sufficient starting level to avoid having my ass handed to me on a plate?

Re: Don’t install ‘Skyrim’ to your Xbox 360 hard drive just yet

RyanMcFitz — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 13:27:54 -0000

I had to weigh the pros and cons. Ultimately, I decided that I can tolerate knowing I'm staring at less-than-perfect textures more easily than I can tolerate the 30-second load times every time I go up or down a ladder into a hovel.

+1 vote for blurriness.

Re: Video Review: Sonic Generations

RyanMcFitz — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 14:09:37 -0000

Roger. By the way -- in case it was contextually-absent, please take my word for it that my comment is 100% snark-free. I'm laughing with, not at.

Re: Video Review: Sonic Generations

RyanMcFitz — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 13:22:27 -0000

Full disclosure: I've got my own collectivist pecadilloes. There are things I buy because of the name/subject/developer regardless of implementation. I understand; I really, really do.

I just don't understand the allure of a game that has been cannibalizing itself for 25 years sans innovation and now laughably describes itself as "nostalgic." When has it *not* been nostalgic? Isn't Team Sega going to bed every night crossing their fingers and squinting their eyes and hoping they'll wake up and it's still 1987 and they're duking it out with Nintendo for control of the world?

I know it sounds like I'm trying to suck the jam out of every Sonic-loving apologist's donut. I'm not trying to be a Debbie Downer. But, Brian, if you're a self-confessed Sonic fan, was there really any doubt that you would rate this game "buy it?"

Of course you would! If The George announced that Star Wars VII will be in theatres this Friday and will feature the wacky hijinks of Jar-Jar and his trusty cadre of lightsabre-wielding Ewoks, I suspect we'll all go and secretly hope it won't suck.

Re: Rockstar Games announces ‘Grand Theft Auto V’

RyanMcFitz — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 09:02:06 -0000

And foreheads. Lots of foreheads.

Re: Book Review: Game Development Essentials Third Edition

RyanMcFitz — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 12:06:17 -0000

Thanks for the added info. I've got Parallels/Vista for when push comes to shove but I prefer to stay out of that environment when I don't need to.

Re: Book Review: Game Development Essentials Third Edition

RyanMcFitz — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 08:39:02 -0000

Thanks Dan -- I second the motion that a game design book is incomplete without paying homage to their analogue cousins. Every time I hear a kid mention that the progenitor of all video games is Doom, I go rage-blind.

Out of curiosity, why is your Mac preventing you from exploring the DVD? I'm in a similar boat and would appreciate knowing if it's .EXE files on the DVD or MS Office type docs that I can open through iWork and similar counterparts.