I have written many articles about my love, passion, enjoyment, fascination, and overall obsession with the games of Everett Kaser. Everett, who has the worst web site in the world, writes puzzle games. Many of these games are based on boolean algebra, which is enough to make them warm the cockles of any software developer’s heart.
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For a Monday evening, a few short thoughts on food, because I have not bothered you with this in a while. Continue reading »
Amateur astronomy has always suffered with one central delusion. It’s always been the case that in order to maintain a healthy enthusiasm for the hobby, you have to be able to lie to yourself under rather difficult circumstances. Let me set the scene. Continue reading »
I finally visited the Arsenal Cider House, and I’m thrilled that such a quirky new local winemaker is in Pittsburgh. Two thumbs up. I recommend their dryer wines and ciders, but everything is very drinky.
I had my phone, so I threw together a quick interview:
Saluté!
The replacement TV came today. I now feel that I must quickly update a few articles that appeared a few years ago on our humble web site. In this one I surveyed various TV technologies. In this one I gave pithy advice how to to pick a TV. Things are different now. Now all you need to do is (1) pick a size and (2) buy (generally) the cheapest LCD TV that is of that size from a brand you like. Don’t worry about all those other TV technologies. They are either already dead or will be dead in 3 years. Also, people will try and convince you that the more expensive stuff offers more value. Unless you know this in your heart to be true, don’t believe it. It’s all lies. Make your life simple. Follow the simple list of instructions above. In particular, for god’s sake, don’t buy a 3-d TV. Hopefully if we ignore them they will just go away.
My HDTV is dead. Actually, it’s more half-dead. Most of the time when you turn it on, it flashes its picture for about a second, and then gives up. Instead of 50 inches of HD splendor, you get a feeble blinking red light. Once in a while it turns on for good, and it works fine for as long as you need it to. Since the TV is out of warrantee it will cost about 25% as much as a new TV just for the guy to show up and start to see what’s wrong with it. To actually fix it would probably cost 40-50% as much as a new TV and more importantly, would take about 4 times as long as just buying a new TV. The problem, of course, is that you have to shop for a new TV. You only have to do this for about 15 minutes to again realize why television has completely failed as a consumer electronics product. Continue reading »
I had an epiphany this weekend that my mid-life crisis is going to be pretty boring. I realized this while I was browsing classified ads for telescopes over at Astromart. What’s that? Why would I be thinking about a mid-life crisis while looking at telescopes? Why was I looking at telescopes at all? Well, that’s a long story. Continue reading »
I just finished paying the horror-action game Alan Wake.
Before I complain about the game, let that sink in for a minute: I finished the game. I hardly ever finish games. Games that irritate me usually go on the shelf and never come off. But I finished Alan Wake. So despite what follows, keep in mind that the game was good enough for me to play to completion. Which doesn’t happen that often, lately.
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Here’s an original recipe for a great drink. I call it the “Spirited Away.”
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File under “Good news”: Slitherine’s awesome light wargame of ancients combat, Field of Glory, is now available on Mac OS X!
I reviewed the game and its first expansion, Rise of Rome earlier this year. This is a nearly perfect port, so all of the kudos and criticisms you’ll find in those earlier reviews still apply. But there are a few updates since my earlier reviews that are worth mentioning.
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