06.26.07
Aletheic
Last night Claudine and I had a few friends over for a game night. I did a particularly bad job of planning it, so many people I would have wanted to come either couldn’t do so because notice was too short or weren’t invited at all because I am a lousy, forgetful friend.
Thanks to those who did make it: Jared Williams, Carlos Almendárez, and Lauren Clymer.
Anyone who’s ever been to one of my game nights before has probably played, or at least heard of, Mini Mao. For those who aren’t familiar already, I usually sum up Mini Mao thusly:
- The object of the game is to find out the rules of the game.
- The object of the game is to make other people have fun.
- The object of the game is to not be an asshole.
Kevan Davis created Mini Mao, which is itself a variant of Mao incorporating some of the principles of a Nomic.
By Kevan’s description, Mini Mao is a card game, usually played with a deck of normal playing cards, though not restricted to that medium. Last night was the first time we’ve tried to test that boundary, by incorporating a deck of Uglydoll cards and a normal deck of playing cards into a single, mixed deck.
Our findings: playing with a greater variety of cards only adds to the total amount of fun to be had. In other words:
cards++ => fun++
Rules that were developed and used last night (not in order):
- Primo: Threes must be played face down. Author: Jared.
- Icebat: When playing a blue monster, the player must growl. The player must not growl while playing a non-blue monster. Author: Claudine.
- I don’t know: Something to do with even diamonds. Author: Jared.
- Yipiee: I actually don’t know. Author: Jared.
- Ox! Ox!: When a player plays Ox, they must jump twice, exclaiming “Ox!” each time. Author: Claudine.
- Menage: Something about threes. Author: Carlos.
- Company: Three-eyed monsters and threes had to be played face-down. Menage is deprecated. Author: Carlos.
- Trail mix: When playing any number card except nine, the player must say “trail mix”. Author: Lauren.
- Odd-Eyes: If a monster is played on a number, the number of eyes on the monster must be odd or even to match the odd-or-even-ness of the number card. For this rule, aces count as ones, jacks as 11s, queens as 12s, and kings as 13s. Author: Danny.
- Say it Proud: The player playing a card must call out the card’s name while playing it. Author: Danny.
Next game night, I’m planning on procuring a set of mahjong tiles to use instead of cards. Theoretically, we could use any objects instead of cards, but mahjong tiles (or dominoes, failing that) give the added benefit of easy 3D construction. in the discard pile. Ooh…now I’m getting ideas involving Lego pieces.
03.29.07
The crocs were discovered during a search by a female border guard, who screamed and ran out of the room, just what border guards are trained to do when they discover contraband.
03.07.07
Ayon, browser daw ito!
Jesse Ruderman points out that Firefox is getting some hate for one of its localizations.
In the spirit of last night’s trip to see the One Man Star Wars Trilogy, I’m tempted to make an Ewok-localized Firefox.
A unique and delicate snowflake
Pandora has this statement to make about my music tastes: “Based on what you’ve told us so far, we’re playing this track because it features pop rock qualities, a subtle use of vocal harmony, repetitive melodic phrasing, a vocal-centric aesthetic and major key tonality.”
My name is Danny and I’m an indiepopoholic.
Thanks to cygnoir for cluing me in to Pandora.fm, which makes Pandora much more interesting to me, even if it does further clutter an already ad-cluttered interface.
03.05.07
Participatory Government
“… is starting a pilot project that will not only post … on the Web and invite comments but also use a community rating system designed to push the most respected comments to the top of the file, for serious consideration by … examiners.”
Sound like slashdot? Nope! It’s the US Patent Office.
03.04.07
Slippers
Stepped into the SanRio store, walked out with a new pair of bunny slippers and a few pads of cute post-it notes for the office. Neon rectangles were just getting so boring.
Attempting Connectivity
After reading Tantek’s thoughts on HCI usability, I’ve decided to lower the bar to posting on my weblog by setting up easy access to post from my blackberry. If this actually works the way I’d like it to, you’ll be seeing posts from me more often than once every several months.
It also means more noise vs. signal to anyone who might be following my blog for intelligent, well thought-out posts, but really, I’d rather this be an outlet for my public thoughts, whether they are or aren’t fully hashed-out. When I first set up my weblog, a long time ago now, I did so with the idea of making it easy for family and friends to follow me. Over the years I’ve waffled all over on what direction I wanted to take the site, but really I just want a communication tool, not a venue for thesis development or publication-quality material.
So friends: this one’s for you. Let’s see, yet again, if I can actually keep up with myself.
08.14.06
Liveperson.net: Support to shoot yourself in the foot with
a.k.a How StartLogic.com Consistently Lets Me Down
// This is a transcript of the second part of my conversation with Rob M. after our initial greeting was followed with a browser crash caused by the Liveperson.net Java Applet.
Please wait for a site operator to respond.
You are now chatting with ‘Rob M.’
Rob M.: Welcome to “Startlogic’s” live chat service. How may I assist you?
Danny: Hi Rob.
Danny: we got cut off.
Rob M.: Please give me the password for email account
Danny: You have my permission to reset it on your end.
Rob M.: No I will need it from your end.
Danny: Sending my password in plain text via http to an unfamiliar URL is not something I’m confident in doing.
Rob M.: Well this chat uses secure URL
Danny: Excuse me..comfortable, not confident
Danny: I don’t know about you but I’m on http, not https
Rob M.: But your connect is directly from your computer within my chat software
Danny: The connection from my computer is insecure because it’s over the http protocol. That said, even if it was over https, the URL I’m looking at is “liveperson.net”, which is not the company I do business with directly. If you are someone authorized to conduct business on behalf of Startlogic, you should have access to a contact at startlogic who can provide you with the necessary information.
Rob M.: Well then you will get a reply for your issue through ticket once the issue is resolved, the ticket is still open
Danny: I’d like to know why I haven’t received a reply yet.
Rob M.: Because the ticket is still open in the support dept.
Danny: And the lack of a receipt acknowledgement email?
Danny: It’s been four days. For an urgent issue, this is unacceptable.
Rob M.: Well the email you got with the ticket id was the acknowledgement email
Danny: That’s an acknowledgement that the server received my email. Not a person.
Danny: Is anyone even looking into the issue?
Rob M.: Yes you will get a reply when the issue is resolved
Danny: When you and I end this chat, you’re going to feel no contractual obligation to look further into this issue. What assurance do I have that I will receive a timely response?
Rob M.: Well the issue is still open in the support dept and it will not be closed unless replied to you.
Danny: That’s not reassuring.
Danny: If your car breaks down and you bring it into the shop, how long do you expect to wait around until they let you know what’s going on and give you a time estimate?
Rob M.: Well this issue is with level 2 techs and once they get it resolved, they will get back to you.
Danny: aha! So it has been assigned to a technician?
Rob M.: Yes a level 2 tech
Danny: does the technician have a name?
Rob M.: No
Danny: if you would like to help debug this issue, you could try sending an email to [email removed]
Rob M.: Sure
Danny: You’ll get a bounce message describing the problem.
Rob M.: May I help you with anything else?
Danny: Did you get the bounce message?
// The next several messages came in very quick succession.
Rob M.: Well it will take some time
Rob M.: May I help you with anything else?
Rob M.: May I help you with anything else?
Rob M.: Please contact us if you face problems.
Rob M.: We’re available 24/7 via chat, email, or phone.
Rob M.: Take care and thank you for choosing StartLogic, Good Bye !
Chat session has been terminated by the site operator.
If you could change something regarding our service and/or products, what would you change?
I would change the entire concept of subcontracted support. Your drones are completely powerless to *actually* help me with my problems, and they either don’t have the ability or they outright refuse to contact someone at the company with whom I’m *actually* doing business in order to resolve an issue when they are unable. I’d suggest you find a different line of work before the market for your services crashes entirely.