"So what was the highlight?"
This is the single big question that I always and repeatedly get asked after going home after PAX. What was the big game, the best booth, the best swag that made it all worth it. And it completely misses why I love PAX.
I've been to PAX five times now, and tomorrow I leave for PAX number six. When I reflect back upon all the moments over those trips (and there are a lot of them), I don't think about that time I got to play Dishonoured or Gears Of War 3 or Titanfall or whatever other "before it came out" game I got to play. I think about the time I got to shake Ken Levine's hand and get a poster autographed by him. I think about the moment walking down the street and seeing Jonathon Coulton walking down the street beside me. I think about the time I got to shake Randy Pitchford's hand and tell him I loved Borderlands. Or the moment I got my gameboy flask signed by Alexey Pajitnov, and seeing the puzzled expression on his face as I handed it to him to be signed. I think about the moment I arrived at my first PAX, went outside the convention center to pick up my badge, couldn't find the booth and turned around and asked the guy standing behind me if he knew where the badge pickup was. Upon further reflection I realized that guy was actually Jerry Holkins just having a quiet moment outside. Or this past year, talking with Mike Micha after the Jackbox panel and seeing on his face the sheer joy and passion for his craft as he described some of the crazy ideas they have for #IDARB.
But you know what, even those memories aren't really what make PAX so special to me.
What makes PAX special are the moments with friends. Like the time Ryan and I upon arriving in Seattle one evening wandered the streets looking for food and ended up accidentally walking into a rather sketchy bar of the alternative lifestyle variety, realized where we were, then hurriedly backed out the door. Or the time when I got together with some of my best friends and got up on a stage in front of people outside the Juicy Juice bar and played Bohemian Rhapsody in Rock Band in front of a crowd that cheered us on. Or the time me & two friends scored exhibitor badges and walked around the expo hall before it opened to the public and were just in awe at how surreal it all was to see that place devoid of huge crowds of people.
Last year's PAX was different, yet the same for me. A year later I don't really remember much about playing Lego Dimensions or Mirror's Edge Catalyst, but I'll never in the rest of my years forget sitting down with two good friends in a hotel room and recording a podcast where we shot the shit about the stuff we saw at the show. Or sitting in a bar on a Sunday night with the 0HITPOINTS crew & friends and just having a blast hanging with some really cool, fun, awesome people.
So while yes, the window dressing is all about games, if that was all that PAX was it wouldn't be so special. What makes PAX so special is the human aspect, the people, the great times with friends, old and new.
Though yeah, the swag is pretty sweet too.
Wednesday, August 31, 2016
Friday, April 27, 2012
NHL Round 2 Playoff Predictions
So uhm, yeah, that round 1 didn't go the way I had hoped. Here goes with round 2:
Eastern Conference
Philadelphia Flyers vs New Jersey Devils
My Prediction: Philly in 6
Wife's Prediction: NJ in 5
New York Rangers vs Washington Capitals
My Prediction: Caps in 6
Wife's Prediction: NY in 7
Western Conference
Phoenix Coyotes vs Nashville PredatorsMy Prediction: Yotes in 6
Wife's Prediction: Yotes in 7
St Louis Blues vs LA Kings
My Prediction: Kings in 6
Wife's Prediction: Kings in 6
There you go. So with Vancouver out, I'm a bit torn on who to root for. This really is a sucky year for teams I follow.
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
NHL Playoff Predictions 2012 -- Round 1
It's that time of year again, time for my yearly blog post mentioning my NHL playoff predictions. Here goes. And of course, as with previous years my wife's predictions are given as well (we have a completely not elaborate scoring system and the winner at the end of the playoffs gets bragging rights).
Eastern Conference
NY Rangers vs Ottawa Senators
My Prediction: NYR in 4
Wife's Prediction: Sens in 7
Boston Bruins vs Washington Capitals
I'm biased on this series, as I hate the Bruins, but I really think this one has the making of an upset. Caps won't go far past round 1, but I really think they have the potential to surprise an overachieving B's club.
My Prediction: Caps in 7
Wife's Prediction: Caps in 7
Florida Panthers vs NJ Devils
My Prediction: NJ in 6
Wife's Prediction:NJ in 6
Pittsburgh Penguins vs Philadelphia Flyers
Man, this one is just going to be a war.
My Prediction: Pens in 7
Wife's Prediction: Pens in 5
Western Conference
St Louis Blues vs SJ Sharks
My Prediction: Blues in 5
Wife's Prediction: Sharks in 5
Phoenix Coyotes vs Chicago Blackhawks
Chicago worries me. They are definitely my dark horse for the west, I wouldn't be surprised to see them surprise people and go far.
My Prediction: Chicago in 6
Wife's Prediction: Phoenix in 6
Nashville Predators vs Detroit Red Wings
Back around Jan/early Feb Detroit was my pick to win it all this year. I dunno what's going on there, but they've really stumbled of late. And I know what Nashville is capable of in the playoffs, there's a definite risk here of having a goalie steal a series. I hope Detroit wins, but don't be surprised if Nashville makes it through.
My Prediction: Preds in 7
Wife's Prediction: Preds in 7
Vancouver Canucks vs LA Kings
This is the year. See you all in June when Hank raises the cup.
My Prediction: Canucks in 5
Wife's Prediction: Canucks in 5
Eastern Conference
NY Rangers vs Ottawa Senators
My Prediction: NYR in 4
Wife's Prediction: Sens in 7
Boston Bruins vs Washington Capitals
I'm biased on this series, as I hate the Bruins, but I really think this one has the making of an upset. Caps won't go far past round 1, but I really think they have the potential to surprise an overachieving B's club.
My Prediction: Caps in 7
Wife's Prediction: Caps in 7
Florida Panthers vs NJ Devils
My Prediction: NJ in 6
Wife's Prediction:NJ in 6
Pittsburgh Penguins vs Philadelphia Flyers
Man, this one is just going to be a war.
My Prediction: Pens in 7
Wife's Prediction: Pens in 5
Western Conference
St Louis Blues vs SJ Sharks
My Prediction: Blues in 5
Wife's Prediction: Sharks in 5
Phoenix Coyotes vs Chicago Blackhawks
Chicago worries me. They are definitely my dark horse for the west, I wouldn't be surprised to see them surprise people and go far.
My Prediction: Chicago in 6
Wife's Prediction: Phoenix in 6
Nashville Predators vs Detroit Red Wings
Back around Jan/early Feb Detroit was my pick to win it all this year. I dunno what's going on there, but they've really stumbled of late. And I know what Nashville is capable of in the playoffs, there's a definite risk here of having a goalie steal a series. I hope Detroit wins, but don't be surprised if Nashville makes it through.
My Prediction: Preds in 7
Wife's Prediction: Preds in 7
Vancouver Canucks vs LA Kings
This is the year. See you all in June when Hank raises the cup.
My Prediction: Canucks in 5
Wife's Prediction: Canucks in 5
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
The Rome Hit & Suspension
NHL fan-friends, make me understand the Rome suspension.
How is the Rome hit:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUYqTE3cnuQ
different from say, this classic hit by Scott Stevens that was largely hailed as one of the great plays of that series:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8up-tkxZ4r8
Okay the NHL is different now. New rules have been put in place (this season) to try and curtail concussions. But this means that in only 8 years a play that would've been the highlight of the night, and put you into the hall of fame, is now something that will get you kicked out of the NHL finals, and vilified as being one of the dirtiest players to hit the ice.
I agree, Rome's hit was late. According to the NHL rulebook, interference is called when a player is: "Moving laterally and without establishing body position, then making contact with the non-puck carrier is not permitted and will be penalized as interference". Okay, I buy that. Rome did move laterally into Horton, he didn't have established body position. Having said that however, watch the Rome replay, he's actually moving in for the hit as Horton is making the pass, it just took that extra second for the contact to be made.
But, why a match penalty?
Again, according to the rulebook "A match penalty shall be imposed on any player who deliberately attempts to injure or who deliberately injures an opponent in any manner." So presumably the reasoning is that Rome *intended to injure* Horton. I don't buy this. Rome's hit was late, but he didn't raise his elbow. His feet left the ice, but only after the hit (he didn't "jump into" Horton). I guess the referees saw it differently.
So then, why the suspension?
Historically the NHL has had one of the worst reputations for being completely inconsistent with suspensions. Sometimes players will get no suspension, others will get several games for similar plays. Some of the common variables that reportedly are involved include whether or not there was intent to injure, whether the infraction was premeditated, and the big one -- whether or not the player is a repeat offender. Going down the list, I already commented that it did not seem to be an intent to injure. Given the play transpired in the span of a couple seconds it's difficult to see how this could have been premeditated. And finally, Rome has never been suspended in his NHL career.
But apparently the play was "dirty" enough to warrant being suspended for the duration of the Stanley Cup finals. I'm hard pressed to think of any instance of this happening in the entire history of the NHL. The last time a player was suspended in the finals was when Pronger clotheslined Dean McAmmond. This was a play where there was clear intent to injure, and Pronger was most definitely a repeat offender. His suspension? 1 game. So extrapolating: a split second play with no premeditation, by a player who's never been suspended before was 4 times as bad as a clear hit to the head by a player who's been suspended and had run-ins with NHL disciplinarians throughout his career. Huh?
Please, make me understand.
Edit: Some interesting links
How is the Rome hit:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUYqTE3cnuQ
different from say, this classic hit by Scott Stevens that was largely hailed as one of the great plays of that series:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8up-tkxZ4r8
Okay the NHL is different now. New rules have been put in place (this season) to try and curtail concussions. But this means that in only 8 years a play that would've been the highlight of the night, and put you into the hall of fame, is now something that will get you kicked out of the NHL finals, and vilified as being one of the dirtiest players to hit the ice.
I agree, Rome's hit was late. According to the NHL rulebook, interference is called when a player is: "Moving laterally and without establishing body position, then making contact with the non-puck carrier is not permitted and will be penalized as interference". Okay, I buy that. Rome did move laterally into Horton, he didn't have established body position. Having said that however, watch the Rome replay, he's actually moving in for the hit as Horton is making the pass, it just took that extra second for the contact to be made.
But, why a match penalty?
Again, according to the rulebook "A match penalty shall be imposed on any player who deliberately attempts to injure or who deliberately injures an opponent in any manner." So presumably the reasoning is that Rome *intended to injure* Horton. I don't buy this. Rome's hit was late, but he didn't raise his elbow. His feet left the ice, but only after the hit (he didn't "jump into" Horton). I guess the referees saw it differently.
So then, why the suspension?
Historically the NHL has had one of the worst reputations for being completely inconsistent with suspensions. Sometimes players will get no suspension, others will get several games for similar plays. Some of the common variables that reportedly are involved include whether or not there was intent to injure, whether the infraction was premeditated, and the big one -- whether or not the player is a repeat offender. Going down the list, I already commented that it did not seem to be an intent to injure. Given the play transpired in the span of a couple seconds it's difficult to see how this could have been premeditated. And finally, Rome has never been suspended in his NHL career.
But apparently the play was "dirty" enough to warrant being suspended for the duration of the Stanley Cup finals. I'm hard pressed to think of any instance of this happening in the entire history of the NHL. The last time a player was suspended in the finals was when Pronger clotheslined Dean McAmmond. This was a play where there was clear intent to injure, and Pronger was most definitely a repeat offender. His suspension? 1 game. So extrapolating: a split second play with no premeditation, by a player who's never been suspended before was 4 times as bad as a clear hit to the head by a player who's been suspended and had run-ins with NHL disciplinarians throughout his career. Huh?
Please, make me understand.
Edit: Some interesting links
- http://www.canuckz.com/2011/06/07/aaron-rome-suspended-4-games-nhl-lacks-consistency/ -- FTA: "A reminder to everyone who often forget this, but head shots that aren’t from the blind side are legal in the NHL, as long as it is with your shoulder." Which the Rome hit was (shoulder)
- http://www.torontosun.com/2011/06/07/rome-suspension-strong-statement-by-nhl
- http://www.cbc.ca/news/yourcommunity/2011/06/horton-hit-should-canucks-rome-be-suspended.html FTA: has a poll asking for people's thoughts on if the suspension was appropriate with four choices ranging from "too lenient" to "too strong", and at the time of this writing the poll is almost completely evenly split between all four choices.
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAKE27l7ZzA The McGinn hit on Rome in the SJ series. This was a hit from behind, with McGinn not recieving any suspension at all.
Saturday, May 14, 2011
Round 3 Predictions
Boston vs Tampa Bay
My Prediction: Boston in 6
Wife's Prediction: Tampa in 6
Vancouver vs San Jose
My Prediction: Vancouver in 6
Wife's Prediction: Vancouver in 7
My Prediction: Boston in 6
Wife's Prediction: Tampa in 6
Vancouver vs San Jose
My Prediction: Vancouver in 6
Wife's Prediction: Vancouver in 7
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Round 2 Predictions
And round 2 is up:
Eastern Conference
Washington Capitals vs Tampa Bay Lightning
My Prediction: Tampa in 6
Wife's Prediction: Tampa in 7
Philadelphia Flyers vs Boston Bruins
My Prediction: Flyers in 7
Wife's Prediction: Flyers in 6
Western Conference
San Jose Sharks vs Detroit Red Wings
My Prediction: Wings in 6
Wife's Prediction: Sharks in 7
Vancouver Canucks vs Nashville Predators
My Prediction: Canucks in 5
Wife's Prediction: Canucks in 5
PS - round 1 predictions results were a little off from last year, but using the scoring system the wife & I usually use (2 points for predicting the winning team, 1 for the number of games) the scores are 12 for me, and 9 for her. :)
Eastern Conference
Washington Capitals vs Tampa Bay Lightning
My Prediction: Tampa in 6
Wife's Prediction: Tampa in 7
Philadelphia Flyers vs Boston Bruins
My Prediction: Flyers in 7
Wife's Prediction: Flyers in 6
Western Conference
San Jose Sharks vs Detroit Red Wings
My Prediction: Wings in 6
Wife's Prediction: Sharks in 7
Vancouver Canucks vs Nashville Predators
My Prediction: Canucks in 5
Wife's Prediction: Canucks in 5
PS - round 1 predictions results were a little off from last year, but using the scoring system the wife & I usually use (2 points for predicting the winning team, 1 for the number of games) the scores are 12 for me, and 9 for her. :)
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
NHL Playoff Prediction 2011 Version
It's that time of year again, time for me to actually post something in my blog. :) Since the only thing that I ever put in here is hockey predictions, here goes. Again, as in years past my wife made her predictions as well.
Eastern Conference
Washington Capitals vs New York Rangers
My Prediction: Washington in 6
Wife's Prediction: NY in 7
Philadelphia Flyers vs Buffalo Sabres
My Prediction: Philly in 6
Wife's Prediction: Buffalo in 6
Boston Bruins vs Montreal Canadiens
My Prediction: Montreal in 7
Wife's Prediction: Montreal in 6
Pittsburgh Penguins vs Tampa Bay Lightning
My Prediction: Tampa in 5
Wife's Prediction: Tampa in 7
Western Conference
San Jose Sharks vs Los Angeles Kings
My Prediction: Los Angeles in 6
Wife's Prediction: Los Angeles in 6
Detroit Red Wings vs Phoenix Coyotes
My Prediction: Wings in 5
Wife's Prediction: Coyotes in 7
Anaheim Ducks vs Nashville Predators
My Prediction: Ducks in 7
Wife's Prediction: Preds in 5
Vancouver Canucks vs Chicago Blackhawks
My Prediction: Vancouver in 5
Wife's Prediction: Vancouver in 7
Eastern Conference
Washington Capitals vs New York Rangers
My Prediction: Washington in 6
Wife's Prediction: NY in 7
Philadelphia Flyers vs Buffalo Sabres
My Prediction: Philly in 6
Wife's Prediction: Buffalo in 6
Boston Bruins vs Montreal Canadiens
My Prediction: Montreal in 7
Wife's Prediction: Montreal in 6
Pittsburgh Penguins vs Tampa Bay Lightning
My Prediction: Tampa in 5
Wife's Prediction: Tampa in 7
Western Conference
San Jose Sharks vs Los Angeles Kings
My Prediction: Los Angeles in 6
Wife's Prediction: Los Angeles in 6
Detroit Red Wings vs Phoenix Coyotes
My Prediction: Wings in 5
Wife's Prediction: Coyotes in 7
Anaheim Ducks vs Nashville Predators
My Prediction: Ducks in 7
Wife's Prediction: Preds in 5
Vancouver Canucks vs Chicago Blackhawks
My Prediction: Vancouver in 5
Wife's Prediction: Vancouver in 7
Sunday, April 11, 2010
2010 NHL Playoff Predicitons
Well it's time for my yearly blog post. About the only time that I post on here anymore is NHL playoff time where I post my predictions. Just like previous years both myself and my wife are making predictions and competing for marital bragging rights. On to the predictions:
Eastern Conference
Washington Capitals vs Montreal Canadiens
Damn damn damn. I was really hoping Philly would finish in 8th in the east, as I wanted Ovie and the Caps to get a bit banged up before moving on. This one is a huge mismatch. Should be short.
My Prediction: Caps in 4
Wife's Prediction: Habs in 7
New Jersey Devils vs Philadelphia Flyers
Not sure about this one. Philly's had an incredibly inconsistent season, but there's still a lot of talent on that team (though no goaltending). I think of all the teams in the east they are probably the most likely to be a dark horse that surprises everyone. Jersey has had a history in recent years of great regular seasons followed by short playoff runs. I'm sure most experts are picking the Devils, but I think this one could be an upset.
My Prediction: Flyers in 6
Wife's Prediction: Jersey in 5
Buffalo Sabres vs Boston Bruins
My candidate for snoozer series of the first round as both teams are extremely defensively-minded. Miller's been awesome all year, and I think in a series where goals will be at a premium, goaltending will be the difference. This could be a series were every game has a final score of 1-0 or 2-1.
My Prediction: Sabres in 6
Wife's Prediction: Bruins in 6
Pittsburgh Penguins vs Ottawa Senators
Ottawa has surprised pretty much everyone this season and had a great year. But they're playing the defending champs, and I don't see any reason why the Pens won't play like they're capable of playing. The Sens will be happy just making the post-season this year after everyone predicted disaster at the start of the year.
My Prediction: Penguins in 5
Wife's Prediction: Senators in 7
Western Conference
San Jose Sharks vs Colorado Avalanche
Ahh, April when the playoffs begin and we wait for the annual Shark choke. I don't think it'll happen this round, but I have little doubt that SJ won't be going deep yet again this year. Nabby's been average, and Thornton/Marleau still have yet to show they can get it done when it matters most. Colorado was the Ottawa of the west -- the team that absolutely stunned everyone by making the playoffs. They limped into the post-season, and Anderson's been mediocre since the Olympic break. I think the Avs may surprise the Sharks a bit, but ultimately this is a mismatch.
My Prediction: Sharks in 7
Wife's Prediction: Avs in 5
Chicago Blackhawks vs Nashville Predators
As a die-hard Canucks fan it pains me to say this, but Chicago is my pick to win it all this year. They've been outstanding all year long, Toews had an amazing Olympics (as did Kane, Seabrook and Keith), the only question is in goal, but Huet has been very strong in the final stretch. Nashville has had a great season, Renne has surprised many, but I just don't see an upset happening here.
My Prediction: Hawks in 5
Wife's Prediction: Hawks in 6
Phoenix Coyotes vs Detroit Red Wings
Now this is the interesting series of the first round. Phoenix has (arguably) overachieved all year, and finally realized the potential that a lot of people felt was there in the last few years. Bryzgalov is a possible Vezina candidate. Stepniak was a huge pickup for them at the deadline. And in spite of all the adversity over the ownership situation they've gone out and won, week after week, month after month. Detroit had a horrible start to the season, was decimated by injuries, and plagued by underachievement right up until the Olympic break. Then they came back, realized that they are the team that has been perrennial post-season players for almost two decades, and the team that has gone to the Cup finals in both of the last two years. The run they put on in March was magical. The big question mark is whether or not Howard can duplicate his regular season success in the post-season. I think this one's a lot closer than people think, and I wouldn't be the least bit surprised to see either team win it. I'm giving the slight edge to Detroit based purely on experience.
My Prediction: Wings in 7
Wife's Prediction: Yotes in 7
Vancouver Canucks vs Los Angeles Kings
Admittedly I most definitely did not want my boys to meet the Wings in the first round, and of the three possible candidates (LA, Det, and Nashville), LA was definitely my first choice. Having said that, LA has finally come into their own this year, and had a great season. There's a LOT of really, really good young talent on that team (Doughty might have been the best player on the Canadian olympic team, and Kopitar is a definite rising star), complimented by the likes of veterans like Smyth. I really hope my team doesn't underestimate them. On paper, there's no doubt who's the better team, Vancouver has arguably the best goaltender in the playoffs (though he didn't look it going down the stretch), an Art Ross trophy winner in Hank Sedin, and an incredibly balanced scoring attack (6 players with 20+ goals). Defensively there's some concerns (the injury to Mitchell is huge), but if we play the way we're capable, this one should be a nice tune-up for round 2.
My Prediction: Canucks in 6
Wife's Prediction: Canucks 6
Eastern Conference
Washington Capitals vs Montreal Canadiens
Damn damn damn. I was really hoping Philly would finish in 8th in the east, as I wanted Ovie and the Caps to get a bit banged up before moving on. This one is a huge mismatch. Should be short.
My Prediction: Caps in 4
Wife's Prediction: Habs in 7
New Jersey Devils vs Philadelphia Flyers
Not sure about this one. Philly's had an incredibly inconsistent season, but there's still a lot of talent on that team (though no goaltending). I think of all the teams in the east they are probably the most likely to be a dark horse that surprises everyone. Jersey has had a history in recent years of great regular seasons followed by short playoff runs. I'm sure most experts are picking the Devils, but I think this one could be an upset.
My Prediction: Flyers in 6
Wife's Prediction: Jersey in 5
Buffalo Sabres vs Boston Bruins
My candidate for snoozer series of the first round as both teams are extremely defensively-minded. Miller's been awesome all year, and I think in a series where goals will be at a premium, goaltending will be the difference. This could be a series were every game has a final score of 1-0 or 2-1.
My Prediction: Sabres in 6
Wife's Prediction: Bruins in 6
Pittsburgh Penguins vs Ottawa Senators
Ottawa has surprised pretty much everyone this season and had a great year. But they're playing the defending champs, and I don't see any reason why the Pens won't play like they're capable of playing. The Sens will be happy just making the post-season this year after everyone predicted disaster at the start of the year.
My Prediction: Penguins in 5
Wife's Prediction: Senators in 7
Western Conference
San Jose Sharks vs Colorado Avalanche
Ahh, April when the playoffs begin and we wait for the annual Shark choke. I don't think it'll happen this round, but I have little doubt that SJ won't be going deep yet again this year. Nabby's been average, and Thornton/Marleau still have yet to show they can get it done when it matters most. Colorado was the Ottawa of the west -- the team that absolutely stunned everyone by making the playoffs. They limped into the post-season, and Anderson's been mediocre since the Olympic break. I think the Avs may surprise the Sharks a bit, but ultimately this is a mismatch.
My Prediction: Sharks in 7
Wife's Prediction: Avs in 5
Chicago Blackhawks vs Nashville Predators
As a die-hard Canucks fan it pains me to say this, but Chicago is my pick to win it all this year. They've been outstanding all year long, Toews had an amazing Olympics (as did Kane, Seabrook and Keith), the only question is in goal, but Huet has been very strong in the final stretch. Nashville has had a great season, Renne has surprised many, but I just don't see an upset happening here.
My Prediction: Hawks in 5
Wife's Prediction: Hawks in 6
Phoenix Coyotes vs Detroit Red Wings
Now this is the interesting series of the first round. Phoenix has (arguably) overachieved all year, and finally realized the potential that a lot of people felt was there in the last few years. Bryzgalov is a possible Vezina candidate. Stepniak was a huge pickup for them at the deadline. And in spite of all the adversity over the ownership situation they've gone out and won, week after week, month after month. Detroit had a horrible start to the season, was decimated by injuries, and plagued by underachievement right up until the Olympic break. Then they came back, realized that they are the team that has been perrennial post-season players for almost two decades, and the team that has gone to the Cup finals in both of the last two years. The run they put on in March was magical. The big question mark is whether or not Howard can duplicate his regular season success in the post-season. I think this one's a lot closer than people think, and I wouldn't be the least bit surprised to see either team win it. I'm giving the slight edge to Detroit based purely on experience.
My Prediction: Wings in 7
Wife's Prediction: Yotes in 7
Vancouver Canucks vs Los Angeles Kings
Admittedly I most definitely did not want my boys to meet the Wings in the first round, and of the three possible candidates (LA, Det, and Nashville), LA was definitely my first choice. Having said that, LA has finally come into their own this year, and had a great season. There's a LOT of really, really good young talent on that team (Doughty might have been the best player on the Canadian olympic team, and Kopitar is a definite rising star), complimented by the likes of veterans like Smyth. I really hope my team doesn't underestimate them. On paper, there's no doubt who's the better team, Vancouver has arguably the best goaltender in the playoffs (though he didn't look it going down the stretch), an Art Ross trophy winner in Hank Sedin, and an incredibly balanced scoring attack (6 players with 20+ goals). Defensively there's some concerns (the injury to Mitchell is huge), but if we play the way we're capable, this one should be a nice tune-up for round 2.
My Prediction: Canucks in 6
Wife's Prediction: Canucks 6
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Round 2 Predictions
Well, round 1 is now done, so onto the 2nd round predictions:
Eastern Conference
Pittsburgh Penguins vs Washington Capitals - Gee, do you think Gary Bettman's happy about this matchup? Crosby vs Ovie, the matchup the NHL has wanted in the playoffs for a few years now. It's too bad that both teams aren't playing up to their potential right now. Washington barely squeaked by NY, and if not for the complete collapse of the Rangers in game's 5 and 6 they could've very easily found themselves golfing right now. Even in game 7, it wasn't until the 3rd period that they really stepped it up and took over the game. Pittsburgh managed the win over Philly, but with all due respect to the Flyers, they simply did not bring their A game to that series (not even close). At any rate, kinda tough to call this series. No question that Pittsburgh has the edge in goaltending, and one could argue that they're a more complete team than Washington, but the best player in the series (and the league) is wearing a Caps jersey.
Anaheim Ducks vs Detroit Red Wings - Amazing upset by the Ducks over the Sharks in round 1, but this is easily the biggest mismatch in this round (maybe even this postseason). I think the Ducks might squeak out an early win as the Wings shake off the rust from the long break, but Detroit should be able to coast through this series. The Ducks have always been a team which takes far too many penalties and while the Sharks couldn't capitalize on that, Detroit will.
Eastern Conference
Pittsburgh Penguins vs Washington Capitals - Gee, do you think Gary Bettman's happy about this matchup? Crosby vs Ovie, the matchup the NHL has wanted in the playoffs for a few years now. It's too bad that both teams aren't playing up to their potential right now. Washington barely squeaked by NY, and if not for the complete collapse of the Rangers in game's 5 and 6 they could've very easily found themselves golfing right now. Even in game 7, it wasn't until the 3rd period that they really stepped it up and took over the game. Pittsburgh managed the win over Philly, but with all due respect to the Flyers, they simply did not bring their A game to that series (not even close). At any rate, kinda tough to call this series. No question that Pittsburgh has the edge in goaltending, and one could argue that they're a more complete team than Washington, but the best player in the series (and the league) is wearing a Caps jersey.
- My prediction: Caps in 6
- Wife's prediction: Caps in 6
- My prediction: Bruins in 7
- Wife's prediction: Canes in 7
Anaheim Ducks vs Detroit Red Wings - Amazing upset by the Ducks over the Sharks in round 1, but this is easily the biggest mismatch in this round (maybe even this postseason). I think the Ducks might squeak out an early win as the Wings shake off the rust from the long break, but Detroit should be able to coast through this series. The Ducks have always been a team which takes far too many penalties and while the Sharks couldn't capitalize on that, Detroit will.
- My Prediction: Wings in 5
- Wife's Prediction: Wings in 5
- My prediction: Canucks in 7
- Wife's prediction: Canucks in 7
Monday, April 13, 2009
2009 Stanley Cup Playoff Predictions
Well it's that time of the year again, time for the 2009 version of my playoff predictions. Just like previous years both myself and my wife are making predictions and competing for marital bragging rights. On to the predictions:
Western Conference
Detroit Red Wings vs Columbus Blue Jackets
Interesting series, the BJ's (snicker) are in the post-season for the first time. Too bad it's against the defending Stanley Cup champs as even with rookie sensation Steve Mason, this one's no contest. Detroit's been somewhat underachieving (if you can call a #2 finish in the NHL underachieving) all year, but it'll take a miracle for this one to go past 5 games.
San Jose's been at or near the top of the standings all season long, and are arguably the favourites to win it all this post-season. The Ducks had a very slow start, kinda picked it up midseason, then hobbled into the playoffs nearly losing their playoff spot late in the season. Again, this one doesn't look like much of a contest, though given San Jose's history of underachieving in the post-season maybe this is an upset waiting to happen. Yeah right.
This is the matchup to watch in the west, as the other 3 are likely going to be snoozers. Chicago's got a youthful, enthusastic, and very skilled team with a solid goaltending duo. Calgary has (when healthy) one of the best defensive cores in the NHL, the goaltender who (IMHO) should win the Vezina this season, and arguably the best power forward in the game in Iginla. Should be a hell of a matchup. If both teams were completely healthy I'd give it to Calgary for their experience, but given cow-town's injuries and the fact that they nearly had a complete collapse in the month of March, this one should be close.
Never would've predicted this one at the end of February. How my boys managed to catch Calgary and how St Louis managed to not only make the post-season but finish in 6th is beyond me. My boys are playing some fine hockey right now, and Luongo is looking like, well, Luongo with 2 shutouts to finish off the season. The addition of Sundin really helped balance the scoring, giving us a bonafide #2 scoring line for the first time in what seems like forever. St Louis has been hot down the stretch, but I just don't see them putting up much of a fight in this series. We simply have more to play for and far more skill than they do.
Boston Bruins vs Montreal Canadiens
This one has the potential to be a legendary series. It's arguably the most well-known rivalry in the NHL, and with Montreal being in their centennial season makes things extra special. Boston has looked like a powerhouse this season and although they cooled off a little bit late, they're still a hell of a hockey team. Montreal is an inexperienced, arguably soft, and very injured team right now, and who isn't playing with a lot of confidence. This one should be fun, but short.
Ovie-mania! Washington's played great all season, and given the dissapointment over their loss to Philly early in last year's playoffs should be hungry to go farther. I do think Washington is the most overrated of the division winners though, feasting on a rather weak Southeast division (though Carolina did their best to change that division's reputation down the stretch), and while Theodore is capable of being amazing (we saw that some time ago when he was in Montreal), he's also capable of choking (we saw that in Colorado last year). New York had an amazing start to the season, then struggled as the season went on. Torts was a great coaching change though, and is a proven playoff coach winning the Cup with Tampa a few years back. If Avery can play hockey and not be such a dumbass, this would has upset written all over it.
Tough one to call. At points this season NJ looked so solid, with such great balanced scoring and solid defensive play. They're littered with veteran experienced players who know how to win (Shanny being the best example). Then Marty came back and they looked near unstoppable in the first few games after his return. They cooled off in recent weeks though. Carolina looked so-so all season until late, and after they re-picked up Eric Cole went on a huge run, finishing the season as one of the hottest teams in the NHL. This could be an upset, but I still think that NJ will pull it out.
This is it. The series to watch. Playoff hockey at it's finest. Two rivals that absolutely hate each other battling it out in a 7 game series. Philly will be hungry to avenge their loss to the Pens last season, and truth be told, Pittsburgh is lucky to find itself in the post-season given how inconsistent they were throughout most of the season. Should be a bloodbath, and I think either team could win, but I'll go with Philly on this one.
Western Conference
Detroit Red Wings vs Columbus Blue Jackets
Interesting series, the BJ's (snicker) are in the post-season for the first time. Too bad it's against the defending Stanley Cup champs as even with rookie sensation Steve Mason, this one's no contest. Detroit's been somewhat underachieving (if you can call a #2 finish in the NHL underachieving) all year, but it'll take a miracle for this one to go past 5 games.
- My prediction: Detroit in 5
- Wife's Prediction: Detroit in 7
San Jose's been at or near the top of the standings all season long, and are arguably the favourites to win it all this post-season. The Ducks had a very slow start, kinda picked it up midseason, then hobbled into the playoffs nearly losing their playoff spot late in the season. Again, this one doesn't look like much of a contest, though given San Jose's history of underachieving in the post-season maybe this is an upset waiting to happen. Yeah right.
- My Prediction: San Jose in 6
- Wife's Prediction: San Jose in 5
This is the matchup to watch in the west, as the other 3 are likely going to be snoozers. Chicago's got a youthful, enthusastic, and very skilled team with a solid goaltending duo. Calgary has (when healthy) one of the best defensive cores in the NHL, the goaltender who (IMHO) should win the Vezina this season, and arguably the best power forward in the game in Iginla. Should be a hell of a matchup. If both teams were completely healthy I'd give it to Calgary for their experience, but given cow-town's injuries and the fact that they nearly had a complete collapse in the month of March, this one should be close.
- My Prediction: Calgary in 7
- Wife's Prediction: Calgary in 6
Never would've predicted this one at the end of February. How my boys managed to catch Calgary and how St Louis managed to not only make the post-season but finish in 6th is beyond me. My boys are playing some fine hockey right now, and Luongo is looking like, well, Luongo with 2 shutouts to finish off the season. The addition of Sundin really helped balance the scoring, giving us a bonafide #2 scoring line for the first time in what seems like forever. St Louis has been hot down the stretch, but I just don't see them putting up much of a fight in this series. We simply have more to play for and far more skill than they do.
- My Prediction: Vancouver in 5
- Wife's Prediction: Vancouver in 6
Boston Bruins vs Montreal Canadiens
This one has the potential to be a legendary series. It's arguably the most well-known rivalry in the NHL, and with Montreal being in their centennial season makes things extra special. Boston has looked like a powerhouse this season and although they cooled off a little bit late, they're still a hell of a hockey team. Montreal is an inexperienced, arguably soft, and very injured team right now, and who isn't playing with a lot of confidence. This one should be fun, but short.
- My Prediction: Boston in 5
- Wife's Prediction: Montreal in 7
Ovie-mania! Washington's played great all season, and given the dissapointment over their loss to Philly early in last year's playoffs should be hungry to go farther. I do think Washington is the most overrated of the division winners though, feasting on a rather weak Southeast division (though Carolina did their best to change that division's reputation down the stretch), and while Theodore is capable of being amazing (we saw that some time ago when he was in Montreal), he's also capable of choking (we saw that in Colorado last year). New York had an amazing start to the season, then struggled as the season went on. Torts was a great coaching change though, and is a proven playoff coach winning the Cup with Tampa a few years back. If Avery can play hockey and not be such a dumbass, this would has upset written all over it.
- My Prediction: NY in 6
- Wife's Prediction: Washington in 6
Tough one to call. At points this season NJ looked so solid, with such great balanced scoring and solid defensive play. They're littered with veteran experienced players who know how to win (Shanny being the best example). Then Marty came back and they looked near unstoppable in the first few games after his return. They cooled off in recent weeks though. Carolina looked so-so all season until late, and after they re-picked up Eric Cole went on a huge run, finishing the season as one of the hottest teams in the NHL. This could be an upset, but I still think that NJ will pull it out.
- My Prediction: NJ in 6
- Wife's Prediction: NJ in 7
This is it. The series to watch. Playoff hockey at it's finest. Two rivals that absolutely hate each other battling it out in a 7 game series. Philly will be hungry to avenge their loss to the Pens last season, and truth be told, Pittsburgh is lucky to find itself in the post-season given how inconsistent they were throughout most of the season. Should be a bloodbath, and I think either team could win, but I'll go with Philly on this one.
- My Prediction: Philly in 7
- Wife's Prediction: Philly in 6
Friday, February 13, 2009
Type Inference
I'm currently teaching CSC 212 - The Practice of Computer Science at UVic this term, and one of the topics we've touched on in the course is that of type inference -- the process by which a statically typed language can deduce the types of expressions without programmer annotation.
First some motivation from personal experience: there truly are moments in every programmers life when they learn about some new technique, concept, or abstraction and they stop, turn into Neo in the Matrix and go "woah". One of the first of them for me was when I learned about inheritance and polymorphism. Another was when I learned about type inference. Until you've used it you really can't appreciate how useful it is. It's yet another argument in favour of static typing, and it is really, really cool. It is without a doubt one of the coolest features I've seen in functional languages (though it is not limited to FP languages -- more on this in a second).
So what is it? Let's look at an example. In Java or C++ you might write a function with a header like:
And I don't know about you, but typing "SomeReallyLongClassName" and "SomeOtherClassName" is a pain in the ass. C/C++ alleviates this a bit with typedefs, but you still have to type extra characters to specify types of arguments (and Java doesn't have the typedef keyword). Wouldn't it be nice if the compiler could figure this out for us and save us some keystrokes? And of course it would be, and that's where type inference comes in.
In a language which supports type inference, the types of identifiers in your source code are deduced by the compiler depending upon the context in which the identifier is used. The trivial example I usually show students is the following function declaration in SML (a functional language designed by Robin Milner who is oftentimes credited as the guy who came up with the notion of type inference):
When the above code is compiled, the compiler deduces the type signature of the function foo() to be "int -> int", or (in English) a function which takes an integer and returns an integer. Note however, there is no syntactic evidence of type annotations -- nowhere did I write "int x" or something similar. The compiler figures out the type of x by the "x + 3" expression in foo()'s definition. Since 3 is an int, and the + operator is one which takes two arguments of the same type it infers that x must therefore be an int (and additionally since the + operator returns a value of the same type as its operands it also deduces that foo must return an int as well).
This is magic.
It's also the best of both worlds: all the type safety of static typing, and the "clean" or "uncluttered" code of dynamic typing.
One thing I've been thinking about lately though is how type inference would play out in a OO language. One of the reasons the algorithm works well in a language like ML is because functions can neither be overloaded or overrided (though they can be rebound or redefined). So for example, if I have a function declaration like:
There's no trouble in figuring out what which function bar() refers to (since there's only one). In an OO language like Java you could have a situation like:
and suddenly the problem becomes more complex -- is someMethod() a part of the Foo class or SubclassOfFoo? Or is it defined in some other parent class to Foo? And since we can overload methods in Java we also need to know the types of x, y, and z to figure out which version of someMethod we need.
Now imagine we lived in the C++ world and we bring in multiple inheritance and suddenly the world gets even more complicated as now someMethod() could be in one of many parent classes.
I suppose this is about the time I put on my snooty elitist academic hat and say that this is another example of why we should all be coding in functional languages, but I'll save that for another blog entry. :)
At any rate, type inference is a staple feature in many functional languages: SML, Haskell and CAL all use it. The Gem Cutter visual programming environment I'm using in my thesis work is a great tool as well for learning about type inference -- as you make or break connections between functions, type inference is applied and the types of inputs and outputs change accordingly. This allows newer programmers to more visually see the cause and effect nature of the algorithm.
First some motivation from personal experience: there truly are moments in every programmers life when they learn about some new technique, concept, or abstraction and they stop, turn into Neo in the Matrix and go "woah". One of the first of them for me was when I learned about inheritance and polymorphism. Another was when I learned about type inference. Until you've used it you really can't appreciate how useful it is. It's yet another argument in favour of static typing, and it is really, really cool. It is without a doubt one of the coolest features I've seen in functional languages (though it is not limited to FP languages -- more on this in a second).
So what is it? Let's look at an example. In Java or C++ you might write a function with a header like:
Vector<somereallylongclassname> myMethodName (SomeOtherClassName foo)
And I don't know about you, but typing "SomeReallyLongClassName" and "SomeOtherClassName" is a pain in the ass. C/C++ alleviates this a bit with typedefs, but you still have to type extra characters to specify types of arguments (and Java doesn't have the typedef keyword). Wouldn't it be nice if the compiler could figure this out for us and save us some keystrokes? And of course it would be, and that's where type inference comes in.
In a language which supports type inference, the types of identifiers in your source code are deduced by the compiler depending upon the context in which the identifier is used. The trivial example I usually show students is the following function declaration in SML (a functional language designed by Robin Milner who is oftentimes credited as the guy who came up with the notion of type inference):
fun foo x = x + 3;
When the above code is compiled, the compiler deduces the type signature of the function foo() to be "int -> int", or (in English) a function which takes an integer and returns an integer. Note however, there is no syntactic evidence of type annotations -- nowhere did I write "int x" or something similar. The compiler figures out the type of x by the "x + 3" expression in foo()'s definition. Since 3 is an int, and the + operator is one which takes two arguments of the same type it infers that x must therefore be an int (and additionally since the + operator returns a value of the same type as its operands it also deduces that foo must return an int as well).
This is magic.
It's also the best of both worlds: all the type safety of static typing, and the "clean" or "uncluttered" code of dynamic typing.
One thing I've been thinking about lately though is how type inference would play out in a OO language. One of the reasons the algorithm works well in a language like ML is because functions can neither be overloaded or overrided (though they can be rebound or redefined). So for example, if I have a function declaration like:
fun foo x = bar (x);
There's no trouble in figuring out what which function bar() refers to (since there's only one). In an OO language like Java you could have a situation like:
Foo f = new SubclassofFoo();
f.someMethod(x, y, z);
f.someMethod(x, y, z);
and suddenly the problem becomes more complex -- is someMethod() a part of the Foo class or SubclassOfFoo? Or is it defined in some other parent class to Foo? And since we can overload methods in Java we also need to know the types of x, y, and z to figure out which version of someMethod we need.
Now imagine we lived in the C++ world and we bring in multiple inheritance and suddenly the world gets even more complicated as now someMethod() could be in one of many parent classes.
I suppose this is about the time I put on my snooty elitist academic hat and say that this is another example of why we should all be coding in functional languages, but I'll save that for another blog entry. :)
At any rate, type inference is a staple feature in many functional languages: SML, Haskell and CAL all use it. The Gem Cutter visual programming environment I'm using in my thesis work is a great tool as well for learning about type inference -- as you make or break connections between functions, type inference is applied and the types of inputs and outputs change accordingly. This allows newer programmers to more visually see the cause and effect nature of the algorithm.
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Xbox Avatars on your desktop
So last November Microsoft introduced the New Xbox Experience (NXE) and along with it, the addition of Avatars. Now we can have little digital versions of ourselves on our 360's. Additionally a few websites have made use of them as well (for example www.360voice.com displays your avatar on your Xbox's blog page).
I wanted to be able to check out the avatar's of some of my friends on XBL, and I thought it would be cool to have them on my desktop. From this, a Perl script for doing so was born.
For example, right now my desktop on my netbook looks like:
As you can see, the avatar's (and gamercards!) for 4 of my friends are drawn on my wallpaper. This script which started off so simple, has now become quite complex (as most programming projects do), and is quite versatile. You can now:
perl genWall.pl -?
will show all the options. And lastly the script itself can be found at:
http://webhome.csc.uvic.ca/~aparkin/xbox/genWall.zip
And it is released under the conditions of the GNU Public License (GPL), so is free to use and modify as you see fit. Enjoy!
I wanted to be able to check out the avatar's of some of my friends on XBL, and I thought it would be cool to have them on my desktop. From this, a Perl script for doing so was born.
For example, right now my desktop on my netbook looks like:
As you can see, the avatar's (and gamercards!) for 4 of my friends are drawn on my wallpaper. This script which started off so simple, has now become quite complex (as most programming projects do), and is quite versatile. You can now:
- Specify the number of columns of gamers (in the above screenshot this is set to 1, but you could have 2 or 3 or as many columns of avatar's and gamercards as you want)
- Set the opacity (transparency) of the avatar's so that you could have your background image partially show through.
- Have as many or as few gamers as you wish
- Change the card look by specifying a different base URL from MyGamerCard.net
- Output the image in 8 bit, 24 bit, or 32 bit colour depth
- Output the image as a PNG file or Windows BMP
- Only generate an image consisting of Avatars & gamercards or have them drawn on a suppplied background image (in GIF, JPEG or PNG format)
- Specify the width & height of avatar's and/or gamercards
- And much more
perl genWall.pl -?
will show all the options. And lastly the script itself can be found at:
http://webhome.csc.uvic.ca/~aparkin/xbox/genWall.zip
And it is released under the conditions of the GNU Public License (GPL), so is free to use and modify as you see fit. Enjoy!
Monday, August 25, 2008
Teaching programming
It occurred to me that I've never blogged about my work, so why don't I start...
My thesis work is centered around the use of a visual programming environment (VPE) to teach students new to computer programming how to construct software. This isn't a new idea of course, others have done so (Alice, Squeak, etc), however use of a VPE based upon the functional programming paradigm in educational settings is rather uncommon. The VPE I'm using is known as the Gem Cutter, which is a part of the OpenQuark framework originally developed at Business Objects.
To give a bit of background: OpenQuark is a framework which consists of a language called CAL which is a very Haskell-like language which compiles down to Java bytecode, and thus is interoperable with existing Java code. The Gem Cutter is a VPE which is built upon the CAL language (that is, all components or gems in the Gem Cutter correspond to CAL functions, or imported Java routines). Much more info can be found on the Wikipedia page on CAL and Quark, as well as the main homepage. It is similar in some ways to the Scala programming language, although Scala is intended as a language by itself (and compiles down to Java bytecode) whereas CAL is intended as a way to bring the functional paradigm to Java.
The reason that I find the Gem Cutter interesting is because typically I've found VPE's counterintuitive, not particularly useful, or "dumbed-down". For example, I've always found Alice a bit hard to take seriously (to be fair it has been designed to be friendly to younger audiences) due to the emphasis on kid-like "toy" animations rather than general programming constructs.
The Gem Cutter OTOH is a tool designed for and made by professional software developers working at a major software company. In particular, the functional paradigm seems particularly well suited to this, as (like dataflow programming) it has a natural visual mapping of having functions (or "gems" in Gem Cutter terminology) composed together with outputs of one feeding into the inputs (or arguments) to another. So rather than seemingly bending the paradigm to fit the visual model, it seems to be a much more natural fit.
Now you're probably thinking I'm overselling Gem Cutter, and I am. There are warts on it. Numerous times while working with it I've run into bugs, or "gotchas". Part of my thesis will be the exposition of these issues from the perspective of one trying to use the tool in a learning environment. Having said that however, it really is a cool piece of software to play around with, and in particular if you're a Java developer who's ever had the desire to pass around higher order functions then I highly recommend checking it all out. And more imporantly, it's all open source released under a BSD-like license so you can do pretty well whatever you want with it.
My thesis work is centered around the use of a visual programming environment (VPE) to teach students new to computer programming how to construct software. This isn't a new idea of course, others have done so (Alice, Squeak, etc), however use of a VPE based upon the functional programming paradigm in educational settings is rather uncommon. The VPE I'm using is known as the Gem Cutter, which is a part of the OpenQuark framework originally developed at Business Objects.
To give a bit of background: OpenQuark is a framework which consists of a language called CAL which is a very Haskell-like language which compiles down to Java bytecode, and thus is interoperable with existing Java code. The Gem Cutter is a VPE which is built upon the CAL language (that is, all components or gems in the Gem Cutter correspond to CAL functions, or imported Java routines). Much more info can be found on the Wikipedia page on CAL and Quark, as well as the main homepage. It is similar in some ways to the Scala programming language, although Scala is intended as a language by itself (and compiles down to Java bytecode) whereas CAL is intended as a way to bring the functional paradigm to Java.
The reason that I find the Gem Cutter interesting is because typically I've found VPE's counterintuitive, not particularly useful, or "dumbed-down". For example, I've always found Alice a bit hard to take seriously (to be fair it has been designed to be friendly to younger audiences) due to the emphasis on kid-like "toy" animations rather than general programming constructs.
The Gem Cutter OTOH is a tool designed for and made by professional software developers working at a major software company. In particular, the functional paradigm seems particularly well suited to this, as (like dataflow programming) it has a natural visual mapping of having functions (or "gems" in Gem Cutter terminology) composed together with outputs of one feeding into the inputs (or arguments) to another. So rather than seemingly bending the paradigm to fit the visual model, it seems to be a much more natural fit.
Now you're probably thinking I'm overselling Gem Cutter, and I am. There are warts on it. Numerous times while working with it I've run into bugs, or "gotchas". Part of my thesis will be the exposition of these issues from the perspective of one trying to use the tool in a learning environment. Having said that however, it really is a cool piece of software to play around with, and in particular if you're a Java developer who's ever had the desire to pass around higher order functions then I highly recommend checking it all out. And more imporantly, it's all open source released under a BSD-like license so you can do pretty well whatever you want with it.
Firefox 3.0 revision 2 (or okay it's growing on me)
Well, I was somewhat critical of the newest version of Firefox before, but I'd have to say that it really is growing on me. The fact that my extensions including the two "cannot live without" ones (Session Manager and All in One Gestures) have now been made to be FF 3.0 compatible.
I still haven't run into any real technical issues, although in spite of claims about improved memory usage, FF is still a pig when it comes to using memory (as I write this on my Windows XP machine it reports ~128MB of memory usage with 7 tabs open). Occasionally I get CPU usage spikes, but they're thankfully quite rare.
All-in-all it is working well.
I still haven't run into any real technical issues, although in spite of claims about improved memory usage, FF is still a pig when it comes to using memory (as I write this on my Windows XP machine it reports ~128MB of memory usage with 7 tabs open). Occasionally I get CPU usage spikes, but they're thankfully quite rare.
All-in-all it is working well.
Monday, August 4, 2008
My streak is now done....
Well, I was on quite a roll this year, keeping a (I think) pretty impressive achievement streak going, but alas, as the cliche goes, all good things must come to an end. I'm currently away from home in the Kooteneys doing a combination of work and visiting family. I brought a 360 with me, but after the 9+ hour drive yesterday I didn't find the time to get any gaming in and as a result my 216 day achievement streak came to an end.
I really gotta tip my hat to people like Knuckles Dawson who did close to 2 solid years getting at least one achievement a day. That's incredible perseverance.
Oh well, maybe now I'll get that masters degree finished. :p
Some stats about my streak:
I really gotta tip my hat to people like Knuckles Dawson who did close to 2 solid years getting at least one achievement a day. That's incredible perseverance.
Oh well, maybe now I'll get that masters degree finished. :p
Some stats about my streak:
- Length: 216 days (Dec 31, 2007 to Aug 2, 2008)
- Total Gamerscore gained: 33,808
- Total Number of achievements: 1,475
- Number of Games 100% Completed during the streak: 23 (20 retail and 3 arcade)
Monday, June 23, 2008
Firefox 3.0
So, those of you who read this and know me will know I'm a fairly strong supporter of the Foxy web browser known as Firefox. This past week Mozilla released version 3.0 of Firefox, and I wanted to share some thoughts.
It wasn't a good start: upon installation 6/16 of my extensions (including 2 absolutely "cannot live without" ones) weren't compatible. The new address-bar is interesting, but I'm wondering where it pulls data from, as upon installation it knew I liked achievement sites, and yet I have my history disabled. As a privacy nut, I have concerns about what's being stored, and what isn't (if I say don't remember any history, it shouldn't remember anything about where I've been).
Haven't had any problems with speed/performance at all. Some have raved about how smooth the page scrolling is, but it looks the same to me as any other version. Memory usage seems to be slightly better, although it's WAY to early to say for sure (and to be honest, the mem usage problems of FF are somewhat exaggerated).
Haven't decided yet if I'll go back or not, but my initial impressions are not good. Admittedly though, I'm tough to please, most people will be completely tickled with this version. I just don't see any reason to stick with v3, but a lot of reasons not to. Perhaps if my "must-have" extensions become compatible then I might be more inclined to stick with v3, but given that there are extensions which aren't even v2 compatible that I really love and that have made me want to stay with v1.5.x on most of my machines I won't hold my breath.
Now for the rant:
I've been with FF since pre-version 1.0. It's amusing to me to look at its evolution as it started out as a lean no-frills browser that was supposed to be for the hardcore crowd. The idea being that if you didn't want a feature, you wouldn't have to have it, and if you did want a feature, that's where extensions came in. Now, it seems that feature-bloat has occurred with it, as with each version comes new advanced features that I don't really want, but are added from a marketing POV (so that when tech blogs & such can do those side-by-side comparisons of FF vs IE it doesn't look one-sided). I want the old FF back, where the goal is to create a minimal platform where extensions provide the functionality. If that were the case, then one of the big goals would be extension compatibility. One of the problems for me with FF is that I don't really care for the browser, but love the extensions, and as such I become very dependent upon them. The problem though is that every time a new version of FF comes out, half the extensions I use are no longer compatible (it's one of the reasons I still use v1.5.x on most of my machines). For me, that's a showstopping problem, and I'm not convinced the FF devs realize how much of an issue it is. I find myself now in a position on this machine where I either A) have to live without functionality I've become used to, or B) go through the pain-in-the-ass process of uninstalling v3 and reinstalling an older version along with all my extensions. That's not the kind of situation that is going to win support and/or adoption of the browser from the masses. One of the big criticisms of Microsoft is that they force features down your throat that you simply don't want. Now we see the same thing happening with the Mozilla team with Firefox, and the hacker in me can't help but feel his heart hurt a bit at that realization. I'm not going to go all hippie-ish and say that they "sold out", but there is a greater sense that there's less of a difference between FF and IE now (security issues aside) than there used to be.
It wasn't a good start: upon installation 6/16 of my extensions (including 2 absolutely "cannot live without" ones) weren't compatible. The new address-bar is interesting, but I'm wondering where it pulls data from, as upon installation it knew I liked achievement sites, and yet I have my history disabled. As a privacy nut, I have concerns about what's being stored, and what isn't (if I say don't remember any history, it shouldn't remember anything about where I've been).
Haven't had any problems with speed/performance at all. Some have raved about how smooth the page scrolling is, but it looks the same to me as any other version. Memory usage seems to be slightly better, although it's WAY to early to say for sure (and to be honest, the mem usage problems of FF are somewhat exaggerated).
Haven't decided yet if I'll go back or not, but my initial impressions are not good. Admittedly though, I'm tough to please, most people will be completely tickled with this version. I just don't see any reason to stick with v3, but a lot of reasons not to. Perhaps if my "must-have" extensions become compatible then I might be more inclined to stick with v3, but given that there are extensions which aren't even v2 compatible that I really love and that have made me want to stay with v1.5.x on most of my machines I won't hold my breath.
Now for the rant:
I've been with FF since pre-version 1.0. It's amusing to me to look at its evolution as it started out as a lean no-frills browser that was supposed to be for the hardcore crowd. The idea being that if you didn't want a feature, you wouldn't have to have it, and if you did want a feature, that's where extensions came in. Now, it seems that feature-bloat has occurred with it, as with each version comes new advanced features that I don't really want, but are added from a marketing POV (so that when tech blogs & such can do those side-by-side comparisons of FF vs IE it doesn't look one-sided). I want the old FF back, where the goal is to create a minimal platform where extensions provide the functionality. If that were the case, then one of the big goals would be extension compatibility. One of the problems for me with FF is that I don't really care for the browser, but love the extensions, and as such I become very dependent upon them. The problem though is that every time a new version of FF comes out, half the extensions I use are no longer compatible (it's one of the reasons I still use v1.5.x on most of my machines). For me, that's a showstopping problem, and I'm not convinced the FF devs realize how much of an issue it is. I find myself now in a position on this machine where I either A) have to live without functionality I've become used to, or B) go through the pain-in-the-ass process of uninstalling v3 and reinstalling an older version along with all my extensions. That's not the kind of situation that is going to win support and/or adoption of the browser from the masses. One of the big criticisms of Microsoft is that they force features down your throat that you simply don't want. Now we see the same thing happening with the Mozilla team with Firefox, and the hacker in me can't help but feel his heart hurt a bit at that realization. I'm not going to go all hippie-ish and say that they "sold out", but there is a greater sense that there's less of a difference between FF and IE now (security issues aside) than there used to be.
Thursday, May 22, 2008
I should quit now, but only one round to go (round 4 predictions)
Okay, admittedly my predictions this year have been less than stellar, but only one more series to go:
Detroit vs Pittsburgh - Tough series, both teams are on huge rolls right now. Both are looking extremely impressive, and both have been dominating the competition thus far. They match up very well too, both have great offense, solid goaltending, and solid defence. I'd give the slight edge in defence to Detroit, and the slight edge in offense to Pittsburgh, and goaltending I'd say they're about equal (Osgood has been much better than his stats indicate, and Fleury hasn't quite been as spectacular as his stats would indicate). Tough series to call, but I'll give the edge to the Wings for two reasons: home ice and experience. My prediction: Detroit in 6.
Detroit vs Pittsburgh - Tough series, both teams are on huge rolls right now. Both are looking extremely impressive, and both have been dominating the competition thus far. They match up very well too, both have great offense, solid goaltending, and solid defence. I'd give the slight edge in defence to Detroit, and the slight edge in offense to Pittsburgh, and goaltending I'd say they're about equal (Osgood has been much better than his stats indicate, and Fleury hasn't quite been as spectacular as his stats would indicate). Tough series to call, but I'll give the edge to the Wings for two reasons: home ice and experience. My prediction: Detroit in 6.
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Round 3 predictions
I don't even want to think about my round 2 results (LOL), so I'm going straight to round 3 predictions. Hopefully I'll do better (I suppose I couldn't do any worse....)
Eastern Conference
Pittsburgh Penguins vs Philadelphia Flyers - Interesting matchup. So far the Pens have absolutely dominated the competition, whereas the Flyers barely squeaked by the Caps, and then had a relatively easy go against the suddenly inconsistent Habs. This will be a much different test for Pittsburgh, as neither Ottawa nor New York had anywhere near the physical presence or defensive mindset of the Flyers. As well, Biron is simply playing outstanding. Really tough one to call, but I can't see the Pens completely falling apart given their outstanding start. My prediction: Pittsburgh in 6.
Western Conference
Detroit Red Wings vs Dallas Stars - Holy crap is Marty Turco a goaltending god or what? I watched all 4 OT periods of that last Sharks/Stars game and he was simply amazing. Looking extremely calm and confident right now. The team playing in front of him looks pretty good too, they looked a bit shaky at times vs the Sharks, but managed to persevere and come through. Detroit OTOH completely obliterated Colorado in round 2, and is simply on a roll right now. Really close matchup, in many ways this matchup was destined to happen -- the two teams were #1 and #2 in the Western conference for a good chunk of the season until Dallas slipped a bit in the later going. Flip a coin, but I really like Dallas's experience, and even though Osgood is playing about as well as he ever has, there's no doubt which team has the better 'tender. My prediction: Dallas in 6.
Eastern Conference
Pittsburgh Penguins vs Philadelphia Flyers - Interesting matchup. So far the Pens have absolutely dominated the competition, whereas the Flyers barely squeaked by the Caps, and then had a relatively easy go against the suddenly inconsistent Habs. This will be a much different test for Pittsburgh, as neither Ottawa nor New York had anywhere near the physical presence or defensive mindset of the Flyers. As well, Biron is simply playing outstanding. Really tough one to call, but I can't see the Pens completely falling apart given their outstanding start. My prediction: Pittsburgh in 6.
Western Conference
Detroit Red Wings vs Dallas Stars - Holy crap is Marty Turco a goaltending god or what? I watched all 4 OT periods of that last Sharks/Stars game and he was simply amazing. Looking extremely calm and confident right now. The team playing in front of him looks pretty good too, they looked a bit shaky at times vs the Sharks, but managed to persevere and come through. Detroit OTOH completely obliterated Colorado in round 2, and is simply on a roll right now. Really close matchup, in many ways this matchup was destined to happen -- the two teams were #1 and #2 in the Western conference for a good chunk of the season until Dallas slipped a bit in the later going. Flip a coin, but I really like Dallas's experience, and even though Osgood is playing about as well as he ever has, there's no doubt which team has the better 'tender. My prediction: Dallas in 6.
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Xbox Live Orientation
Came across this while watching the latest Sessler's Soapbox. It's a funny vid of a hypothetical Xbox Live Orienation, and it's gets everything just about completely bang on.
http://www.g4tv.com/xplay/videos/21418/Xbox_Live_Orientation.html
http://www.g4tv.com/xplay/videos/21418/Xbox_Live_Orientation.html
Round 2 - My wife's predictions
My wife's turn:
Eastern Conference
Detroit vs Colorado - Colorado in 6
San Jose vs Dallas - Sharks in 6
Western Conference
Pittsburgh vs New York - Pittsburgh in 6
Montreal vs Philly - Montreal in 7
Eastern Conference
Detroit vs Colorado - Colorado in 6
San Jose vs Dallas - Sharks in 6
Western Conference
Pittsburgh vs New York - Pittsburgh in 6
Montreal vs Philly - Montreal in 7
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