I have recently been playing with the OS X app Battery Health. It shows you the number of cycles you have used and how healthy your batter is. It’s some nice information to have about your battery. Oh, and it’s free.
(via TUAW)
Lydia Dishman on unlimited vacation:
Mahoney agrees. Unlimited vacation fosters productivity and loyalty because it favors results over input. “We don’t judge employees based on the number of lines of code they write, but instead on the impact their innovative ideas have on our users,” he says. “If we trust employees to make the right decisions with the time they spend at work in pursuit of our aggressive goals, we can trust them to make responsible decisions about when they choose to take time off of work.”
The trend of “unlimited” vacation is catching on. But it’s not as rosy as it sounds. Most of the companies that offer it work their people to the bone already, and so even when there is enough of a lull in work to take time off, it likely doesn’t make up for all the late nights and weekends put in.
But I am sure it’s great for weeding out people. Because those that abuse it are probably not the people you want around.
(via Lifehacker)
Patricia Hernandez:
New Super Mario Bros Wii was released in 2009 with the inclusion of a “Super Guide,” an in-game device that allowed players who experienced a high degree of difficulty to skip through segments of the game. The Super Guide activates when a player dies a certain number of times, at which point the AI takes over. This AI will play the demanding sections for you until you actively tell it to stop. Though some ‘hardcore’ players took umbrage with the mere existence of the Super Guide, it was also included in other key games such as Super Mario Galaxy 2 and Donkey Kong Country Returns.
Ridiculous. This is why I dislike “hardcore” gamers. I don’t allot an unlimited amount of time for gaming. It’s a secondary hobby. I hate certain types of levels in games. Especially any time of platforming in a non-platforming game, such as some of the levels in Star Wars: Force Unleashed. I spent lots of time falling off, and starting over, and it wasn’t fun. When I got past it, I had no sense of accomplishment, just anger that it was there in the first place.
I play games for fun, not skill.
Chris Jancelewicz on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon:
2. Guess Who Wrote And Performed The Theme Song? I had to look it up — where did this masterwork come from? Turns out it was none other than “Two and a Half Men” executive producer Chuck Lorre. I know, crazy!
So many other good observations about the cartoon.
Marco Arment on depositing checks with apps and photos:
[ATM's are] much faster and simpler than a photo deposit. (I can also get cash while I’m there. Can’t do that with the iPhone app.)
And then it’s done. The check is out of sight and out of mind. I know that if anything goes wrong, the bank will mail me something about it, although I’ve never had an ATM-deposited check get rejected by the bank later.
Sometimes, new technology is not progress.
I know it’s the nature of the internet, but sometimes I feel like people are dramatic just for the sake of being dramatic. How is this not progress?
Arment has had his own personal issues depositing checks this way, but I have had great success. He also enumerates the steps and talks about how cumbersome it is, but it’s still nowhere near as cumbersome as getting in my car, driving to the bank, hanging out my window and working an ATM.
He also talks about waiting for a check to clear in his account, which also has to happen when you deposit a check in an ATM. Arment has clearly has his own woes, but to say this isn’t progress is ludicrous.
I hardly get any personal checks, but in the couple years I have used this, I have had no problems with funds not showing up, and have same myself countless trips to the bank.
Jonah Keri:
But the idea that [Indians' closer Chris] Perez had to rush back for Opening Day, and that [Indians' manager Manny] Acta had to use him as the closer right away, is the direct result of the save rule. If teams didn’t base bullpen decisions on saves, all of this could have been avoided. The trick is to find a way to reward relief pitchers for great performance without turning it into nothing more than a grand conspiracy to tamp down salaries bloated by gaudy save totals.
There is a way to do that. It’s called shutdowns and meltdowns.
I had heard of this stat, created by FanGraphs before, but I hadn’t ever really paid attention to it. It sounds like I will start to. I hate the save stat, and I wish managers would get over worrying about it. Maybe this will help that movement.
Leo Laporte’s TWiT network is the first podcast-centric network to become commercially successful. There are presently about 30 shows actively in production, and another dozen or so that have ceased production. Laporte and Kevin Rose’s Revision3 snatched up as many former members of TechTV as they could. Laporte still employs many, including Sarah Lane, John C. Dvorak and Tom Merritt. Many others are regular guests on his shows.
Laporte had long talked about adding a video game podcast to his fleet, but hadn’t found the right hosts or the best format yet. On January 16th 2012, the first episode of Game On! aired, with hosts Veronica Belmont and Brian Brushwood. Belmont is a well-known female geek, who has many admirers for both her nerdiness and good looks. She worked at CNET and then spent about a year working for Jason Calacanis’ Mahalo before joining Kevin Rose’s aforementioned Revision3 in 2008. She has co-hosted Tekzilla with Patrick Norton since then. She also has a couple of other hosting gigs around the web. She is also the longtime girlfriend of Engadget and gdgt founder Ryan Block. Brushwood is a magician (literally) and hosts shows on both Revision3 and TWiT as well.
To me, these hosts made sense. Belmont has a strong following and has long been known for being a video game nut. My history with Brushwood isn’t as deep, but he always seemed like enough of a geek to be able to host a video game show. The only other video game podcast I listen to is Weekend Confirmed, hosted by Garnett Lee and Jeff Cannata, and featuring a slew of rotating guests. I have watched/listened to every episode of both shows, and it’s safe to say they are both very different.
Laporte’s surprising decision to cancel Game On! after 12 episodes may not come all that surprising to some. According to that Technorati article, Laporte has said in the past that every show is given a 12 episode trial period to prove itself. In the same article Laporte also said that the cost per episode of Game On! was $7000 and “lost more in a week than any other show had in a year.”
The high production costs are not surprising to me. The show was very overproduced. It always seemed to include at least one pre-produced segment, ranging from Leo Laporte as a robe wearing, pipe smoking, fake mustache wearing dude talking about a particular game, to Belmont in pigtails and pajamas pretending to be a young girl who liked games. The latter of which also seemed to me like a cheap ploy to sexualize Belmont without crossing any lines. I was actually surprised they went that far, and she did not seem proud of it based on a tweet prior to it’s air.
The other recurring segment was an interview with some sort of person from the video game industry. This ranged from pre-record interviews with game developers, to live interviews with other members of the video game press. I have never been a big fan of these interviews. I have also found them to mostly be the wrong level of detail. Either they are way too inside baseball, or so generic that it’s just not compelling enough. When doing a weekly show, it’s hard to cover news. This is a problem with the internet age and 24/7 news cycle. Things are covered so intensely in the first 24 hours, that a weekly show will usually have trouble saying something that someone else hasn’t already. Because of this, Game On! seemed to have trouble finding the sweet spot.
The show generally seemed to be composed of a quick rundown of news, an interview about one or two recent or upcoming releases, a nostalgic countdown of some sort, and then one of the preproduced segments. I rarely found myself getting any insight into whether or not I should check out a new game, and the opportunity to use video to show gameplay was completely wasted, as I don’t recall the game ever showing any unique gameplay footage. One of the best parts about Area5.tv’s no longer in production CO-OP) podcast, was the inclusion of actual gameplay footage as they talked.
Laporte spent Friday replying to tweets about the cancellation. He took some heat from people who said the hosts were the problem, to which he followed up with “The previous tweet is why I can’t do a gaming show. There is no gaming ‘community.’ Just a bunch of warring parties.” I don’t have an answer/suggestion for Leo either. If I did, I would be producing a gaming podcast. As good as Weekend Confirmed is, sometimes it’s a little hardcore for me. They spend 20 minutes on some games, and constantly reference games I never played. CO-OP always seemed like the right mix of gameplay, reviews and nostaglia, but it only lasted 6 episodes. One of Laporte’s tweets talked about how it is hard to do an audio version of a video game podcast, but I didn’t find the video to be all that well utilized anyway.
Unfortunately, this isn’t the best news for TWiT. Although they undoubtedly are making a significant amount of money, the move to the new studio last year unquestionably put a dent in their coffers. I am a long time listener who has given up on all of their shows except Tech News Today. They spend a lot of time regurgitating hosts and trying new shows that are a little too close to shows they already do. Meanwhile, rising star Dan Benjamin has done a great job of adding existing shows to his 5by5 network, thus adding new talent the old fashioned way. Benjamin is always expanding his horizons to include things like sports. TWiT made a big gamble by building a new studio in an attempt to become the premiere online network. The problem is that these networks are popping up all over the place. In addition to 5by5, Myke Hurley has created the 70decibels network. Celebrities have taken up podcasting as a way to get directly to fans without much cost. It’s hard to say if there is room for an expensive giant.
It’s probably dramatic to say that this the beginning of the end for TWiT. But as someone who badly wants to see this network continue to succeed, it seems like they need to find some new hits soon, or do a better job of trying to repackage old favorites because I know I am not the only one finding the current offerings a bit stale.
Brian Cook from mgoblog expands on his suggestion that the NBA adopt a more NHL/MLB-like draft.
Words can’t even describe.
(via Darren Rovell)
David Schoenfield:
While Konerko has consistently put up good home run and RBI totals, his OBP has fluctuated from as low as .305 in 2003 while generally hovering around .350. He’s reached a .375 OBP just four times. Compare that total to some of his contemporaries: Todd Helton (11), Jeff Bagwell (11), John Olerud (9), Jim Thome (8, not including DH years), Fred McGriff (8), Jason Giambi (7), Carlos Delgado (7), Rafael Palmeiro (7).
Interesting analysis of why Paul Konerko’s career Wins Above Replacement (WAR) number isn’t higher. I thought It’s not surprising to me that Konerko’s total isn’t higher. He is consistent but not world beating. You can say this though, he is a mortal lock to have his number retired along with Mark Buehrle sometime in the 2020s.
