It’s the middle of August which means that the new Madden is out and we can say that the annual “Retarded Fall and Holiday Gaming Release Flood” has officially begun. While the coming weeks probably won’t bring us anything quite as bountiful as last year’s Bioshock followed by Halo 3 followed by Ratchet and Clank followed by Rock Band, there are no lack of interesting titles.
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Archive for August, 2008
The Coming Flood
August 21st, 2008 by psuBreakfast, Lunch, and Dinner with Moriarty
August 20th, 2008 by peterbI just paid $90 for a set of games that, purchased separately, would cost nearly $500.
Long-time readers know of my love, bordering on irrational, for the games of Everett Kaser. From his first great game, Sherlock, through to what I consider the apogee of the deduction game, Baker Street, Kaser’s games have kept me company for upwards of 15 years. There has always been one problem: his games didn’t run natively on Mac OS X.
Until now. (more…)
A Wee Dram of Hokkaido
August 14th, 2008 by peterbI’ve alluded, once or twice, to my growing interest in Japanese whisky, and talked about the bottles that I absolutely, positively, did not buy out of state and certainly did not bring back to Pennsylvania, because that would be wrong. I have, it seems, taken it to a new level: friends have started not bringing me whisky directly from Japan. (more…)
I Woke Up And One Of Us Was Crying
August 11th, 2008 by peterbI’d like to watch the Olympics opening ceremonies, please. (more…)
First Impression: Richard Chen Asian Cuisine
August 7th, 2008 by psuWhen I go to other cities, especially cities that have large Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese or other East Asian communities, I tend to shit on the so-called “Pan Asian” style restaurants. My opinion of the iconic Vietnamese place called The Slanted Door in San Francisco is typical. I couldn’t see why I just spent all that money to get typical Vietnamese takeout food on fancy plates with a bar in the background (we went to the original, not the new one).
Now that the Richard Chen restaurant has opened in East Liberty in Pittsburgh, I think I understand why people would be excited about a place like that. This is the best new Asian restaurant to open in the city since Rose Tea Cafe started serving food. But, it is a lot of money and very fancy plates.
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The Abstraction Distraction, Part 2: Distraction
August 6th, 2008 by psuPreviously on this channel we discussed the role of abstraction in the context of constructing software. Abstraction enables laziness by hiding details that are unimportant or irrelevant to the problem at hand. This is a powerful and beautiful idea because it gives the appearance of providing programmers with a great deal of leverage against complexity. Of course, nothing is ever that easy. The problem is that at some point if you are going to ship anything someone has to worry about all those hidden details. And this is typically when people get into trouble.
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Irons in the Fire
August 5th, 2008 by peterbUnfortunately, I’m a bit overcommitted at the moment, which means my leisure writing has taken a back seat. Here’s a nice image to hold you over.
Thanks to the model for posing for this photo, and to Nikon for lending me the camera with which to take it. I’ve gotta say, this camera takes really good pictures!