Play My Cards Right

I’m beginning to believe that my perception of my physical self changes radically based on my workout and eating routines, regardless of actual, physical changes.

This:

Reminds me of this:

“Our philosophy is simple—when Apple brings a new subscriber to the app, Apple earns a 30 percent share; when the publisher brings an existing or new subscriber to the app, the publisher keeps 100 percent and Apple earns nothing,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “All we require is that, if a publisher is making a subscription offer outside of the app, the same (or better) offer be made inside the app, so that customers can easily subscribe with one-click right in the app. We believe that this innovative subscription service will provide publishers with a brand new opportunity to expand digital access to their content onto the iPad, iPod touch andiPhone, delighting both new and existing subscribers.”

Simple.

I’ve been using Google Voice for a few months now and I’m more or less happy with it. I occasionally get word that some calls haven’t gotten to me but I can live with it as telephony is not really my primary method of communication at this point.

The one thing missing from making GV feature complete for me was voice dialing from the iPhone- a feature I use quite frequently as I often need to make and receive calls while I’m otherwise too occupied to bring up the keypad. Really. Also, it’s cool.

Took me a while to figure this out but its quite simple:

Choose the contact you want to voice dial. For me there are only a few I’m really interested in so I’ve no need for this, though you can do something like that too if you want.

Add a new number for this contact or edit a current number, though I prefer to have their legitimate number in there as well.  In the field for their new number add:

your google voice number, your google pin number, 2 (to make a call) and finally the number you are calling.  It’ll look like this:

(777)555-1212,1234,2,4123919500

This page shows how to find the comma (pause) in the iPhone menu.

Providing an iBook title is available on Kindle or B&n, there is absolutely no reason to do so through Apple. Hell it might even be worth paying extra for the competitor’s, just for the ability to read it on multiple platforms. A color LCD and snappy page turning animations aren’t enough.

Suddenly its been a few weeks since I posted anything, so consider this a return.  I went to an amazing wedding at the end of April, and had the opportunity to spend some much needed time with family.

I updated my PBT today and realized that I’ve only read one book so far this year.  I’m not particularly upset about it but it was surprising.  In related news, we scored some tickets to see Anthony Bourdain speak when he comes to Pittsburgh in June.

Lots coming up- family gatherings, playdates, weddings and birthdays and about six weeks from now we’ll be introducing Max to the ocean.  Assuming it isn’t completely destroyed by then.

I know I’m getting old but goddamn it if every time I try to play this remake of a game that was never even released in the US I barely make it to the second stage before I throw the PSP off the bus.  Maybe this is why I play RPGs so much- they don’t require the dexterity and willingness for torture that a game like this demands.  Indeed this is what most games demanded back in the day.  RPGs, especially the old school Japanese variety I’ve been playing lately feel like a walk in the park, repetitive, simple gameplay and a sense of progression whose only requirement is your time.  Of course back then I was more than happy to use a cheat or code I picked up in Nintendo Power, these days I have some kind of purist mentality that demands I avoid gamefaqs unless absolutely necessary.  Absolutely necessary should not be before I reach the end of the second stage.  And what is the deal with hiding the aspects of this game that i actually want- Castlevania- Symphony of the Night and the original Dracula X ROM- within the game itself?  This one is heading right up to the unfun category.

Tonight was date night and we had a chance to visit Bistro 19 in Mt. Lebanon.  To sum it up, upscale suburban?  The menu was decent enough but there seems to be no real focus.  Some chicken, some veal, some fish, a …southwestern barbecue salad?  We split a pear and plum salad that had candied walnuts and blue cheese and it was pretty good, though I would have liked a bit of oil and vinegar to sop up with the dry bread they gave us.  My almond chicken with brie sauce and risotto was quite good, but came with the saltiest side of spinach I’ve ever eaten.  Dawn had the Bistro burger, which was a decent size and overall a nice burger.  Wine doesn’t really interest us and that is one of their pitches so I guess we can’t say we have a complete picture.  For the price, I can’t say it was completely worth it.

I may have been complaining a bit last week about how hard things are with Max, but honestly whatever little problems we have with him are so tiny compared to the joy he fills us with every day.  He is a miracle and a joy to be around and at the end of the day when I am totally beat I can’t wait to ride home and run in the door so our little family can share some time.  I am the luckiest person in the world.

If Final Fantasy XIII were named Ultimate Illiad and made by a company that wasn’t Square Enix, it would not have been reviewed nearly as well as it has, nor would it be as controversial as it has.  Unfortunately, I’ll never find out whether all of the Internet Rage is justified.  After reading Christian Nutt’s sprawling review, I’ve decided I’m not going to play it.  Parts of the review cover game mechanics I literally can not comprehend.  And if said mechanics make up a battle system that many claim is the games one good aspect, I’m done.  The story seems to be meandering and hard to digest.  If those two things aren’t worth the effort in an RPG, then the game simply is not worth what limited time I have.

Seems to me to be as much about music period as New Orleans or its music alone. Beautiful so far.

Not that I really need to pitch into this bloodbath of a conversation, but I just wanted to share a thought on the iPhone and Flash:

No matter how well optimized Flash could ever possibly be on the iPhone, it would always offer a substandard experience with the slightly possible exception of video playback. And while Flash playback is important, it is also obviously becoming less so with HTML5 video players quickly picking up the slack.

The big problem comes with all the other things users expect and experience from Flash on the Desktop. You’ve got games, you’ve got banner ads, you’ve got entire sites designed in flash (when they really should be HTML). These Flash movies are almost always designed for a specific desktop size or higher, be it 800×600 or 1024×768. Many of them allow you to right click. They all ultimately expect you to be interfacing with a mouse and keyboard easily at the ready. At best you’re going to get a mix-and-max of sub-standard to downright awful browsing experiences. One could even argue that Apple got full web browsing so right on Mobile Safari by ignoring Flash completely.

At best a Flash designer could possibly create two versions of the Flash interface: one Desktop, one “mobile.” And then of course you’d be designing for every potential Flash enabled phone out there, regardless of speed, screen size, or interface.

Whether you chose to write your Flash for the desktop or you chose to “optimize” for mobile, if you targeted both at any point you are now providing a lowest-common-denominator, feature incomplete interface that will likely not look or interact as well as versions specifically designed for Desktop or mobile. So let Flash be Flash, a time wasting game interface and the bane of mobile users searching for restaurant menus everywhere. The iPhone doesn’t need it, and if it had it it would be worse for it.