Game

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Life On Mars Flatlines

I really shouldn't have gotten my hopes up, I really shouldn't have.

Once again, the bitch goddess that is television has given me some joy and then just as summarily, taken it away.

Life on Mars is being cancelled.

However unlike some other recent ABC cancellations like Pushing Daisies, the producers of the series are going to get some closure as they were informed that the show wasn't being picked up for a second season, but the rest of the current season will be filmed.

Now, I was disappointed that they replaced Colm Meaney with Harvey Keitel as Gene Hunt, but aside from that minor quibble, I've enjoyed the show this season, especially given my familiarity with the original series.

But to me, it looks like having a new series based on a time travel premise alone is turning into a losing proposition for all involved. Journeyman is an earlier testament to that. I don't know... perhaps the American viewing public can only stand time travel on television if it is just a flavor or occasional aspect of the show (like Star Trek or Heroes), or if they are gradually introduced to that element (Lost comes to mind).

And now I think we are ending up with a self-fulfilling prophecy, as this history of failure may make viewers less likely to tune into a show like this in the future because, like myself, they will be afraid of committing to the show, and thus, it will fail.

Tell me I am wrong.

Monday, March 2, 2009

Cold and Snow?

It is March 3, and the weather maps for later this week and the weekend, are a real eye-opener--some the coldest air I have seen this late in the season for an extended period of time. And yes, there are snow chances for the lowlands. But keep in mind that we are working against the clock. Significant lowland snow after the first week of March is increasingly unlikely--although we did get an inch last April (the frigid spring from hell--or I should say the arctic).
During the next day or so, we will be in the typical spring shower regime. Right now a band is heading towards us (see satellite pic) and should get to Washington overnight (the precipitation from it is visible in the Portland radar).

But that is not the fun part.

A major upper-level ridge develops over the eastern Pacific on Wednesday and a trough moves southward over us on Thursday (see map). Such a flow pattern will bring colder air, certain snow in the mountains, and perhaps in some high

elevations...but it is not ideal for much lowland snow..the trough is too far inland. But this pattern doesn't go away and another trough moves in on Sunday...and is much more threatening..colder and and more favorable trough location with greater upward motions. The WRF model in fact puts down some lowland snow...but this is so far out, I would not get too excited yet (image). My rule of thumb is I don't get psyched about snow until we are within 96hr of the event. But I would get those salt trucks ready. And the cold air holds in. Just amazing.

PS: the Northwest weather workshop will be on March 20-21st..the major annual meeting of local meteorologists and hard-core weather enthusiasts. If you want more info or to register, check out:

http://www.atmos.washington.edu/pnww/

Doug Crockford: JavaScript: The Good Parts

By Steve Souders, Member of Technical Staff

Doug Crockford, from "The Yahoo!" (his words), gave a talk at "The Google" (again, his words) last week. The talk is based on his recent book of the same name, JavaScript: The Good Parts. Doug is a, perhaps the, JavaScript guru who has undertaken responsibility for helping the world's web developers embrace JavaScript and use it successfully to build clean, fast web applications. He is the creator of JSLint, JSMin, and JSON. (Notice a theme?)

Doug was hitting on all cylinders. I've heard him deliver this talk before, but this rendition was off the scale in terms of clarity, humor, and takeaways. He flowed effortlessly from broad observations to detail-oriented code samples.

He begins with the observation that JavaScript is one of today's most used languages, so it obviously has gotten something right. Despite this success, JavaScript has plenty of bad parts: global variables, semicolon insertion, with and eval, and more. There's confusion with false values. Consider this example:

'' == 0
0 == '0'
'' != '0'

In JavaScript, all three of these statements return true. Doug highlights other traps that are easy to fall into using for..in, ++, and typeof.

He delivers a clear, concise tutorial on object-oriented JavaScript and closures. The most satisfying piece to me was his clear explanation of why right-curlies ("block {" all on the same line) is the only acceptable style in JavaScript.

Tune in to the video below, and follow along with the presentation. It's enjoyable and enlightening. What a great combination. Thanks, Doug!

Scratch Another Genre of Gaming from My Favorites

I came to a startling realization over the weekend, and I was in denial about it for a long time.

I just don't like fighting games anymore. It was like I was blocked about the whole thing, because I couldn't believe that somehow I didn't like something I loved as a kid.

So I kept buying titles from the Mortal Kombat, Tekken and Capcom universes to play and yet I was never satisfied. I just couldn't connect with them on some level, and while I may have been entertained for a few hours, I quickly gave up on each of those titles. Nostalgia wasn't enough. They ended up being a worst combination of frustration and boredom for me.

There is that phrase that is bandied about sometimes that insanity is repeating the same actions and expecting different results. Well, I think my behavior fell into the category.

I remember playing so many of these kinds of games when I was a child, and they never really failed to satisfy, but I think much like console role playing games, I outgrew them. There is some need that these one on one combat games just don't seem to fulfill anymore.

It is ironic that I came to this realization the weekend that the latest Street Fighter movie was released (and I may write something about that at a later date).

Yet strangely enough, if you take the same attention to fighting detail and take it from a one on one contest to a battle between one or a few against many, well, somehow those games still can captivate me.

So, the beat em up as a genre still works for me. I mean, I could play the above and games like it all day long. And I will be very afraid the day they no longer appeal to me.

From the Parentonomics Google Alert

So I have a Google Alert set up to tell me whenever Parentonomics is mentioned in the world. It doesn't have much activity.

This morning this gem of a short blog post came through. It is about a father who reads adult books out loud to his baby. I guess he figures he gets the kudos for reading but doesn't have to be bored even when his baby doesn't understand. Sounds like a win-win. Reminds me of the time I introduced the kids to The Beatles as the new Wiggles.

Anyhow, guess what he is reading to his baby in the post.

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Why not? Period edition

I have written before about Why Not? the book by Ian Ayres and Barry Nalebuff that has little strategies for thinking creatively. I applied it to teaching children mathematics using subtraction before addition to great effect. I have also written recently about Ian Ayres' accomplished children.

Barry Nalebuff's endorsement adorns the cover of Parentonomics: "Dr. Spock meets Freakonomics. Parenting will never be the same." But he too, it turns out, has an accomplished 18 year old daughter. Rachel Kauder Nalebuff has just released a book, My Little Red Book, that has just been reviewed by the New York Times. And the thing about it is that it looks like it's genesis was a "Why not?" moment:

To understand why Rachel Kauder Nalebuff’s “My Little Red Book” manages all of the above, you need only muse for a moment on the fact that your local Victoria’s Secret, that high temple of undress, has private dressing rooms. Or that “Hair” on Broadway features full frontal nudity on stage and the usual segregated men’s and ladies’ rooms at intermission. Or that sex education still routinely proceeds in single-sex classes.
In other words, for all our public exploration of everyone else’s bodies, our own personal specimens remain quite private. So when it comes to the onset of menstruation, it is the rare girl who will launch an enthusiastic dialogue with family or friends on the subject. Far more typical is she who enters the feminine-products aisle alone (and returns there alone for the duration).
To 18-year-old Rachel Nalebuff, this particular privacy made no sense.

And she did something about it. Her book collects stories of the 'first period' experiences of many women. The NYT endorsement is impressive: "Seldom can a book stretch to accommodate both its author’s and its publisher’s fondest hopes: that it be original yet universal, artistic yet practical, and likely to sell briskly for centuries to come." You can't buy that type of endorsement!

In reading about the book and looking its website, I had my own "why not?" moment. Why do fathers never seem to talk about their daughter's menstruation? So I decided to correct that right here, right now. And in researching this blog (yes, I actually did that) I discovered that the answer to "why not?" may actually be "because."

First, some context. As regular readers know, my daughter is 10 years old. What you may not know, because I have not really been open to discussing it publicly until now, is that she has been going through puberty for about 18 months. (By the way, various permissions to discuss this openly have been sought and approved but as you will see, there is only so much detail I can provide). And if you think that sounds young, you are right. But apparently it is not so young as to be regarded as outside the norm. Apparently, there has been a downward trend in the onset of puberty for girls. I, for one, don't think I'm ready.

This has manifested itself in various developments. I know this by conversations between myself and my daughter and her mother on the other side of a closed door.

"What's up? Can I help?"

"Go away. We have this under control."

"You have what under control."

"Nothing that you need concern yourself with."

And so I was left to not concern myself with it. As I knew that the whole puberty thing was going on, I always figured that her time had come. But actually I was wrong and it hasn't yet come (although apparently that is just around the corner). It was other stuff that I can't describe because I have been removed from the loop.

Other signs have appeared.

"Whose bra is this?"

"Your daughter's."

"Really? Did I miss the meeting on this?"

"Err, no."

I usually expect to have meetings on important developments but apparently not. I don't know quite what I was expecting. Some sort of party. But somehow growing up is going on without so much as a memo.

And the growing up is right. Early puberty means an early growth spurt. My daughter is now the tallest in her class and towers over kids a year or more older. She is wearing her mother's clothes! Boys are hobbits to her. But there is a sad side to this that we can't do much about. Her growth will actually stop very soon and she will spend many years watching everyone else grow past her. Child No.1 won't be really short but the looming prospect of it doesn't thrill me.

On other matters though my knowledge is non-existent. I have broached this with the mother of my young woman.

"You know, what if you weren't around and I needed to do something?"

"What exactly would you need to do?"

"Whatever it is you are doing?"

"Call one of her aunts."

"What if they can't be reached?"

"Reach them or get someone else in."

"Aren't I in the line of succession somewhere?"

"No, you aren't."

Apparently, years of wiping crap off her bottom was just fine but not this. Well, I'll show them. I ordered My Little Red Book and will give it to my daughter. That way I'll be doing my bit. Also, I believe that now you know why fathers don't talk about this stuff. It is just because.

Sunday Night Video: To Be Free

I remember hearing this song almost weekly on a local alternative show in 2000, and for years, I had forgotten the name of the song, but not the artist (Emiliana Torrini).

But thanks to the magic of Youtube, I found it again. Hope you enjoy.