My brother, Patrick, plays lacrosse for Gettysburg College. Last weekend they beat Stevenson University — an upset by the stats, but they owned the game — which advanced them to the NCAA Division III Championship.
They’ll be playing Cortland at Gillette Stadium, home of the New England Patriots, on Sunday for the title. The game will be televised on CBS College Sports Network.
So yeah, my brother? Kind of a big deal.
Good luck, bud! Kick ass!
One of the best sites I’ve come across in a while that wasn’t in StumbleUpon (but is now).
http://www.howtonailaninterview.com
If you’re looking for really good interview advice coupled with hidden video of people absolutely botching them, this site is for you.
I just hopped onto Steam, gearing up for some TF2, and I was presented with a fantastic news update. Some bootstrapping directors made a short film called Escape From City 17. If you’ve played Half-Life 2, the story covers some of the citizens trying to get out of the city after Dr. Gordon Freeman and Alyx Vance set the Citadel to blow. According to Valve, they made the film with very limited cash, donated equipment and props, and lots of effects borrowed from the Source Engine. It’s mind-blowing how well it came out.
I was getting a very jittery display, so I recommend you download the video in hi-res to really appreciate it. What, never heard of pwnYouTube? Well now I’ve given you two great recommendations today!
After watching it, I immediately went to check out their site (www.purchasebrothers.com), but it looks like their host has shut them down due to billing issues. If anyone with contacts to Purchase Brothers reads this, get them in touch with me. I’d be happy to cover their next month’s hosting if I get to see more kick-ass video like that.
Update: Looks like they’re back up. And it didn’t cost me anything.
Update 2: Site’s been offline for quite some time, looks like they’ve shut down for good. That’s a shame. Guess my enjoyment will start and end with this one incredible piece.
Fwd:Vault is participating in StartupNation’s 2009 Elevator Pitch Competition. The idea is to submit a 1-2 minute elevator pitch, and have the world review your pitch and idea, then rate it. The top 5 entries will get the chance to pitch their idea to a group of big-time investors, potentially landing major financial support.
You can vote once per day per entry until March 20, but I’d really appreciate even just a single view and vote. Mine’s just one minute long, and since it’s an audio clip you don’t have to endure my lousy filming skills.
http://www.cakespy.com/2009/01/taking-it-to-sweet-cupcake-street-art.html
Sure they’re handing out cupcakes instead of backstabs, but it’s still pretty hilarious. And awesome.
If that doesn’t make any sense, play Team Fortress 2 and look for this spray in-game.
When I’m not coding, I’m gaming. Pretty standard formula. My latest gaming indulgence is Valve’s Left 4 Dead, offering the most original take on the first person shooter formula that I’ve ever seen (and I play a LOT of FPS).
Okay, 30-second summary. L4D sets itself apart through its 4-man survivor team mechanic. Whether you play cooperatively or versus, you and 3 buddies have to navigate a level chock full of zombies. How many zombies? Your pistol has unlimited ammo, if that helps put things in perspective. While you’ll enjoy a surplus of zombies to shoot, you’ll simultaneously suffer from a strong lack of health. Maps will usually have 4-8 health packs, but each person can only carry one at a time. When — not if — you run out of health, you don’t die right away, but become incapacitated, lying on the ground with only your pistol. Your health slowly ticks down until it runs out, or a teammate picks you back up. Fall three times and your done. Finally the big kicker: friendly fire is not a selectable option, it is always on. The fastest way to failure is through the back of your teammates, so you must watch where you run and shoot.
Suffice it to say, it’s new, different, and I love it. With a little practice I quickly learned to check my fire, leave no man behind, and keep an eye behind for flanking hordes or player-controlled zombies when playing versus.
Unfortunately, I seem to be in a very select group of players who have grasped the best tactics for these mechanics. I’ve never seen such extended suckiness in a multiplayer game. We’re well past the window of general introduction, and I’m still finding n00bish behavior to be the norm (I play L4D on PC, jackass console gamers are almost a rule). Co-op campaigns going horribly awry when someone runs way ahead, lags way behind, or empties half a clip into a teammate. Outclassed versus matches where survivors don’t make it 30 feet, or zombies that don’t scratch said survivors. I try to instruct the unenlightened, but alas, he’s been killed by the tank, or wiped out by survivors after running headlong out in the open as a boomer.
It’s so bad that I now start each map with the same phrase: “Stick together, keep moving, focus on the tanks.” Here’s some more detail on what I’m trying to convey. Be sure to pass the information along to any rage-quitting ass-clowns you may encounter…
Stick Together
Can’t over-emphasize this one. All zombie classes have an incapacitation ability: general horde impede your movement, which can get bad when you’re hit by boomer puke; hunters and smokers both eliminate your ability to do anything. The solution is obvious: you count on your teammates to rescue you…which is really tough when you’re halfway across the map!
Your teammates should always be 1 turn away or less. Don’t go off on your own. Ever. Clear enough?
Keep Moving
Running behind is just as bad as running ahead. Aside from slowing everyone down (boring!), you also run the risk of incurring the random horde. If your team lingers for too long without advancing in the map, the game penalizes you with an automatic and unscheduled horde assault. Special zombies also pop randomly from behind when you stall. Campaigns are often slow and steady, but keep emphasis on the “steady.”
Keep Moving FASTER
After applying the previous rule in campaign mode, double triple it in versus. Your team scores points in versus based on how far you make it through an individual area. Even if your team dies, you still gets points for distance. In addition, your zombie opponents can maximize their damage when they have time to set up coordinated ambushes (e.g. hunter-hunter-smoker-boomer). It’s much more difficult to cause damage when they’re chasing a track team.
Don’t scour every room and kill every zombie. Take the shortest, fastest route, and never, ever stop!
“Everyone on the tank!”
I say it every time I encounter one. When a tank shows up, everyone has to unload on it. At once. Until it’s dead. No exceptions. If you are not shooting the tank, you are passively contributing to your team’s imminent demise. All other targets are secondary, including special zombies. The “stick together” rule works fantastically here, because you’ll kill the tank really fast — I’ve seen him go down in versus in less than 30 seconds — and cover each other from special zombies.
Shape up, L4D n00bs. I’m begging you. It feels like an endless suckfest far too often. Win or lose, I just want a good game!
Well this is interesting. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said security on the device has been “enhanced.”
Reality-check: it’s still on the BlackBerry network (as far as I know), which means it’s still subject to the same points of access. And failure.
Any one taking odds on how long it takes until someone has hacked his device or accessed his account? I give it a year. Somebody remind me on Jan 22, 2010.
Anyone who knows me knows that starting and running my own business has been a lifelong goal of mine. Since I was 12, I would routinely generate ideas for new ventures and play them out in my head. Inevitably, I found fatal flaws most of the time that would prohibit the idea from ever taking off. Then I’d revise the idea, reconsider it, and reject it again for a different reason. The goal was to whittle the initial idea down to a core product or service, or away to nothing. By the time I graduated college, I had the process down to a science, asking questions and shooting myself down sometimes in a matter of seconds. However a couple ideas have held up under long-term scrutiny and research. Fwd:Vault (say it “forward vault”) is one of my favorites.
I got started in the solo realm doing freelance computer support work for friends and family, fixing internet connections, clearing virus infections, configuring home networks, etc. In that time, I learned that the vast, vast majority of “regular” people (as opposed to uber-geeks like me) have absolutely zero inclination to do anything with their computer outside their day-to-day routine. In other words, if it’s not of some direct benefit, it usually doesn’t get done. Writing documents, printing pictures, listening to music, and “surfing the web” are no problem, but anti-virus software, sharing printers, “a weird error message at startup,” and data backups all went by the wayside.
I found the absence of backups to be the most common issue, and was always recommending the latest (and easiest) backup solutions available. First CD-R’s, then CD-RW’s, external hard drives, USB thumb drives, and finally, desktop software. Once software-based solutions hit the home market, I enthusiastically pushed my clients to try services like Mozy and Carbonite. No equipment, minimal software, and easy configuration. I thought, “Finally, I’ll be able to get users to start backing up without all the cajoling.” But as it turned out, user inertia (or fear, or ignorance, or in difference…) is strong enough for even this simplified formula, as I still have clients lacking any kind of backup.
So I saw an opportunity, and applied my usual revise-reconsider-reject logic to the matter. I knew that the concept of backups is not the problem, but rather the hurdles a user must leap to create backups. Buying and configuring hardware is an obvious boundary, but buying, installing, and configuring software can be just as big an obstacle in some cases. I realized that the solution for the most basic users was to minimize or outright eliminate software from the equation. I also knew that even the simplest of users could effectively use email — most were introduced to the internet through this ubiquitous platform. Since they already had it and understood it, using it to create backups would be an easy concept to grasp.
And thus Fwd:Vault was born. Send attachments to a special email address, and the system will automatically store the message and the files in a secure remote location. The files and messages can be retrieved later via email request or web interface. The current site placeholder also lists some additional features, like a versioning system, which keeps copies of the same file when you send it multiple times (think about the document that ping-pong’s between coworkers).
The stars aligned for the forces dictating my life recently, and I’ve seized the opportunity to work on Fwd:Vault full-time. A beta test of the email storage process is in the works (within the next two weeks hopefully), and I’m shooting for a full service launch sometime in April.
If you’re interested, there are a few ways you can stay abreast of my progress. First, there’s an email signup on the Fwd:Vault homepage. That list will be notified when beta tests and the actual launch occur. Second, I’ve set up a Twitter Feed for Fwd:Vault that details my daily progress; you can see me fix bugs, add features, even deal with legal issues. Finally, you can subscribe to my blog’s RSS; all the major news for Fwd:Vault will end up here as well.
If you have any comments or questions, feel free to post here. Any business inquiries should send an e-mail. Wish me luck!
From all of…well…me to all of you:
Have a very Merry Christmas.
I’m not gonna lie. Some days, with some people, it’s tempting…
Don’t worry, I’m not talking about you.
Or you.
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