Sep 13, 2007 · psu · 5 minute read
Games
I don’t recall when I watched The Fifth Element for the first time. However, I distinctly recall that I didn’t think it was that great. Over the years, however, my wife and I happened to catch the movie from time to time on HBO or whatever, and a funny thing happened. After watching the film the equivalent of five or six times, suddenly it became the one of the [best films](http://www.
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Sep 12, 2007 · peterb · 3 minute read
Games
“Baker Street is a game of logic and deduction,” says the web site, modestly. It is more than that, though. Baker Street is a life-destroying timesink of addiction and pure puzzle-solving pleasure.
I rave about Everett Kaser’s games about once a year, and it’s about time for this year’s installment. Kaser makes essentially two types of games: logic and deduction games (where you are given a set of clues and from them must deduce each position in the board), and a bunch of other games that I don’t play.
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Sep 11, 2007 · psu · 2 minute read
Games
I picked up Madden a couple of weeks ago, and actually had time to play about half of a franchise season before Bioshock hit and the quest for achievements consumed me. This year’s iteration improved many aspects of the gameplay, but was also annoying in many of the same ways as last year. The user interface problems persist: the play calling screens are a crime against usability studies. The game insists on using time consuming in game displays to indicate simple things like if the field goal was good or not.
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Sep 10, 2007 · peterb · 1 minute read
Food and Drink
I’m experimenting with trying to make these videos generally shorter, quicker, and tighter. Any comments would be appreciated.
I have to send the nice HD camera back to Sony soon, so expect a drop in video quality if I go back to plain old miniDV.
Sep 6, 2007 · psu · 1 minute read
Culture
What is it with these stickers that come stuck on the boxes of CD, DVD, video game and other media disks? I notice nothing in the damn box. The box is full of nothing but the disk and various flyers and advertisments begging me to buy other shitty movies that happen to be made by the same company that just pissed me off by putting this sticker on the box so I can’t open the god damned item to watch the movie or play the game.
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Sep 4, 2007 · peterb · 1 minute read
Food and Drink
Continuing my discussion of booze-related videos, here’s a review of Grand Marnier’s latest monstrosity, “Navan”:
You can find a higher-resolution version of that on .mac. Marvel in the HDness of being able to count the number of hairs on my chin! Or something.
Sep 3, 2007 · psu · 7 minute read
Games
I was skeptical about Bioshock. I remember watching some demo reel that Irrational had put out on the game. While the demo footage panned over a claustrophobic and chronically damp interior setting, the voice of Ken Levine spoke over the film, declaring that in this game they wanted to redefine the shooter, and provide the player with a combination of visceral action and and a deep web of possible tactics. This kind of talk always makes me skeptical.
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Aug 29, 2007 · peterb · 5 minute read
Games
Despite the common misconception that both Petes on Tea Leaves are the same person with multiple personality disorder, we actually lead separate, fulfilling lives. This is especially apparent when it comes to games. Here is the typical Pete To Pete Pattern when it comes to “What we’re playing lately.”
Polarity: peterb-to-psu peterb: Hey, you need to try this game, Morrowind. It’s the best thing ever. psu: I don’t play Windows games.
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Aug 27, 2007 · peterb · 1 minute read
Food and Drink
Cachaça is a Brazilian rum-like sugarcane based spirit. Earlier this year I slammed Cachaça in an offhand manner, based on my experience in trying one brand. Dave Catania, aka “Cachaça Dave”, commented and challenged me to try the brand of Cachaça that he imports, “Fazenda Mae de Ouro”.
I’ve accepted the challenge. Here’s the full review:
I’ll be honest: the only reason I did this in a videoblog format is that a certain friendly company loaned me an HD-format dv camera, and I wanted to try it out.
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Aug 23, 2007 · peterb · 1 minute read
Food and Drink
After [harshing on them last week](http://tleaves.com/2007/08/16/slo-as-in- slow/) for how clunky their SLO system is, I will take a moment to say something nice about them: my Special Liquor Order arrived today. That means that it took them less than a week to get 3 fairly exotic bottles of liquor into my local store, and they got the order exactly right, despite my snark.
So while it may be a painfully slow process to place an SLO, I have no complaints at all about the actual delivery process.
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Aug 22, 2007 · psu · 2 minute read
Games
Like at least half of the rest of the gaming universe, I picked up Bioshock this week. Most of the industry appears ready to pronouce it to be the orgasmic second coming of gaming nirvana. This may or may not be the case, I don’t know. What I can say for sure is that the game knows how to begin with a bang.
You might recall that earlier this year I ruminated about how not to start a game.
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Aug 21, 2007 · peterb · 1 minute read
Games
After being killed by a cactus with a flower on its head, I restarted the game and used a cheap technique to quickly level up to level 15 before progressing with anything.
I’m much happier now.
Aug 20, 2007 · psu · 2 minute read
Culture
The [news came last week](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp- dyn/content/article/2007/08/16/AR2007081601092.html?hpid=entnews) that Max Roach passed away in Manhattan. I was lucky enough to see Max Roach play live a few times while I was a graduate student at Dartmouth College. My most enduring memory of the man would have to be Max and the drum kit alone on the stage while he completely captivated the audience for five or ten or fifteen long minutes. It was a shame to see him stand up and exit.
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Aug 16, 2007 · peterb · 5 minute read
Food and Drink
While on my recent trip to California, I visited a couple of liquor stores – the venerable BevMo, of course, and also the little diamond The Coach House, in Cupertino, where one can find [Tequila Los Abuelos](http://www.friday.com/bbum/2007/02/19/tequila-los-abuelos-now- available-in-south-bay-cupertino-area/). While at the latter facility, I stumbled across a bottle of Amaro Nonino, perhaps my favorite Italian amaro. I considered bringing it with me, but I knew that Nonino was available via Special Liquor Order – aka SLO – in Pennsylvania.
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Aug 15, 2007 · psu · 6 minute read
Games
In my time on this Earth I have often been accused of taking things too seriously. As I’ve grown older and seen more of the world, I have tried to keep a tighter hold on my tendency to do this because if there is anything I have learned it’s that no matter how seriously you take something, there is always some guy living in a basement somewhere who is working much harder that you are.
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Aug 13, 2007 · psu · 2 minute read
Food and Drink
This past week the Petes were both in Cupertino for a visit. The last few times I’ve been out there, I’ve been told to find a donut shop called [Stan’s] (http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=stan's+donuts+santa+clara+ca &ie=UTF8&ll=37.341298,-121.972704&spn=0.032754,0.073042&z=14&om=1) that is close to our normal Cupertino hotel. Because I am lazy and morally suspect, I never managed to do this. On this trip though, we girded our loins and made ourselves get out there one morning. So here is a shout out to Stan’s.
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Aug 6, 2007 · peterb · 1 minute read
Web
Both of the Peters are out of town this week, so updates will likely be slow for a while. Our apologies.
Aug 1, 2007 · peterb · 2 minute read
Food and Drink
The egg cream, as anyone over a certain age who grew up in New York will be happy to tell you, is a transcendent soda fountain drink that contains neither egg nor cream. A strict interpretation of the egg cream contains seltzer water, Fox’s U-Bet chocolate syrup, and milk. It invokes summers in Coney Island, open fire hydrants, and Steeplechase Park.
The dirty little secret behind the traditional egg cream, however, is that it doesn’t actually taste good: imagine carbonated Yoo-Hoo, and you’re not far off the mark.
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Jul 31, 2007 · psu · 8 minute read
Games
Just when you thought it was safe to browse your internets, the intellectually challenged have come out to play again. This seems to happen once or twice every year. Or maybe it only annoys me this much once or twice a year. This year, I come to the partial defense of the current punching bag of the defensive gamers everywhere: Roger Ebert. You may recall that he said some stupid things about games versus art last year and like a kid in an Internet Forum, he is back to troll again.
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Jul 24, 2007 · psu · 4 minute read
Games
I’ve been happily playing through the opening chapters of Resistance. The game is as good a straight up shooter as I’ve played in a while. The presentation is strong, the level of polish is high. Even if the game doesn’t quite reach a Halo-like sense of place and atmosphere, the game does present enemies that are enjoyable to shoot in a world that is mostly enjoyable to look at. Here is the one problem though.
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Jul 23, 2007 · peterb · 2 minute read
Food and Drink
This weekend I went to heaven. It turns out that in heaven there are lots of blueberry bushes.
Heaven is just north of Ligonier, at The Berry Patch, a pick-your-own blueberry farm. The same week that Whole Foods raised their prices to $4/pint for berries shipped halfway around the country, I was picking fresh berries off the shrub for $2.50 a quart. I have a few quarts now. Quite a few.
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Jul 20, 2007 · peterb · 1 minute read
Culture
…it is because I appear to have lost my precious Nintendo DS, along with the game that was in it at the time.
Curses.
Update: The missing lamb has been located. The crisis has ended. Shop as usual.
Jul 19, 2007 · psu · 3 minute read
Games
I got the PS3 last night. My overall impression is that Sony should stick to hardware, and Microsoft should stick to software. It’s really too bad that the companies did not end up as partners.
The out of box experience is great. It’s just one box and two wires. No retarded power brick. No connectors the size of a washing machine. No kludgy external wireless doohickey. You plug it into the wall and into your TV and you turn it on.
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Jul 18, 2007 · peterb · 2 minute read
Games
For those following along at home, my Xbox 360 Died The Death about a month ago and I shipped it off to Microsoft for repair service. When I sent it they had not yet announced the repair program, so they billed me $70.
A package with an Xbox 360 arrived yesterday. I don’t know how they plan to refund my money, but hopefully it will just magically happen. Anyway, there are a few things worth discussing in terms of the machine that came back.
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Jul 17, 2007 · psu · 6 minute read
Games
There is a prevailing line of thought in the circles of economic theory that consumers will act in a manner that is in their best interest. This is the idea of a rational consumer. The notion is that consumers will evaluate the choices given to them in a manner consistent with logic and reason and the pick the choice that maximizes whatever it is that consumers want to maximize. Not being an economist, I’m sure I’m doing violence to their elegant theoretical thinking.
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Jul 16, 2007 · peterb · 7 minute read
Games
I don’t read game manuals.
I should qualify: I don’t read manuals for games first. After I’ve been using a program for a while, sure, I might look up a specific task in the manual. Or if I’m truly obsessed with the game, I might read it later, for recreation (really, everyone should keep a copy of the manual for Dominions 3 in their bathroom). But I never read a game manual before actually trying the game out.
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Jul 12, 2007 · psu · 5 minute read
Games
Almost everything about the “new generation” of gaming has revolved around High Definition. High Defintion allows console games to look as “good” as PC games. These same consoles, at least the two that aren’t selling that well, are being used as a wedge to try and own the High Definition movie market. Over the last couple of weeks, I have been watching Planet Earth in HD. I have also been re-playing Resident Evil 4, which is decidedly not in HD.
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Jul 11, 2007 · peterb · 2 minute read
Games
Snippets from a real conversation I had this weekend with my friend Nat:
Me: “Hey, you remember that game Exult, the re-implementation of Ultima VII?
Nat: “Sure I do.”
Me: “I’ve been not playing it quite a bit lately. I grabbed the sources from CVS and built it so that I could have a Universal binary to be not playing.”
Nat: “Did it build easily?”
Me: “It wasn’t too bad. There were some hidden dependencies that I needed to tease out.
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Jul 9, 2007 · psu · 5 minute read
Food and Drink
Today I am inspired by the sauce I just ate. But I’ll get to that later. My story begins with a long standing conflict that I have with my lovely wife. Karen, in general, has the role of telling me what to cook. Left to my own lazy devices I’d just eat ramen noodles and hot dogs every night. Thus, Karen spends her time making up shopping lists and handing me recipes for the dishes that she’d like to have that week.
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Jul 6, 2007 · peterb · 1 minute read
Games
It seems like [just the other week that I ranted about the Xbox 360 design being unacceptably fragile](http://tleaves.com/2007/06/11/when-is-the-best- not-the-best/). And what’s the news this week? Microsoft is extending Xbox 360 warranties for the “red ring of death” to 3 years (even retroactively!), refunding service fees for that repair already paid by customers, and taking a one billion dollar (plus) charge to cover the costs
Without any schadenfreude or sarcasm whatsoever, I’ll just say “good job, guys.
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Jul 6, 2007 · peterb · 1 minute read
Final Cut Pro
iStopMotion is a wonderfully simple little Mac app that helps you make stop-motion movies. I made the below movie with a tethered Canon Rebel XT, because I’m an abject, hopeless wanker. An easier (and probably more correct) way to do it, however, is probably to use the program’s excellent support for the iSight camera.
OK, OK. As you can see, I’m not Martin Scorsese. I’m probably not even Ed Wood. But I still had fun.
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Jul 5, 2007 · peterb · 1 minute read
Food and Drink
It’s been a few years since I made a video of the fantabulous walnut pastry (“hodo kwaja”) machine in Toronto (see À la recherche du temps à noix, from 2004). I figured it would be a generally good idea to get the video on YouTube, just to make it easier to find and view. Enjoy!
Jul 3, 2007 · psu · 7 minute read
Culture
The 80/20 heuristic states that in most computer systems, you spend 80 percent of your time in 20 percent of the code. Another way to say this is that 80 percent of your users will spend most of their time using about 20 percent of the application that you have so painstakingly constructed for them. This leads to a lot of meetings where we spend time trying to guess which workflows we must support in order to please the “80 percent” users.
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Jul 2, 2007 · peterb · 2 minute read
Food and Drink
Still in the throes of my newfound Pokémon addiction, I went overboard and picked up Pokémon Battle Revolution for the Wii.
Meh.
To be fair, this is one of those cases where I have no one to blame but myself. The ad copy for Pokémon Battle Revolution makes perfectly clear what it is: it’s essentially a “visualizer” for Pokémon battles. So the battle mechanics are the same (or nearly the same) as the handheld Pokémon games, but instead of just getting a modest shake or a small animation, you get a beautifully modelled 3D depiction of one Pokémon kicking another Pokémon’s ass.
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Jun 28, 2007 · peterb · 1 minute read
Computers
In Shadyside tonight I noticed that the queue for the iPhone has already started:
I took the opportunity to do a quick on-the-spot interview with the guys who dared to be first. The video and audio quality is pretty poor, but nonetheless…here it is.
Jun 27, 2007 · peterb · 5 minute read
Games
As [psu mentioned yesterday](http://tleaves.com/2007/06/26/whats-old-is-new- again/), Pokémon on the Nintendo DS is the new obsession.
Being a consummate joiner, I am not afraid to admit that my descent into the Pokéworld was due to Penny Arcade’s ungrudging respect for the game, coupled with a purely base financial motivation: I’m reviewing Pokémon Diamond and Pearl for PTD Magazine. After just two days playing the DS game, I found myself scrounging the local used game stores for the older GBA games so I could understand exactly what I had been missing all these years: the best Japanese RPG since Earthbound.
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Jun 26, 2007 · psu · 4 minute read
Games
Today a discussion of two games that have been around for a long time, and are still more interesting to play than most of the new games. I suppose it’s possible that my [current state of mind](http://tleaves.com/2007/06/12/lull-2 -the-return-of-the-lull/) makes me more inclined to stick with the familiar. I think it’s more likely that these games are just better.
First, Resident Evil 4 again. For some reason I just can’t stop playing this game.
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Jun 25, 2007 · peterb · 1 minute read
Games
…and I sort of suspect it’s a bad sign that the planned highlight of my week is likely to be the release of Pokémon Battle Revolution for the Wii.
More on that soon.
Jun 18, 2007 · psu · 2 minute read
Food and Drink
When I was a graduate student, I lived in North Carolina for a couple of years. I didn’t personally enjoy the area, although I can see why others might. One thing though. The fresh fish was fantastic. There was this guy just outside of town who would go to the coast every week and bring stuff back directly from the boats. In the summer, we’d gorge on snapper and live soft- shell crabs.
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Jun 15, 2007 · peterb · 1 minute read
Food and Drink
Ingredients:
-Juice of a lemon -6 fresh figs -lots of rum -ice -about a tablespoon of sugar (depending on how sweet the figs are, adjust to taste)
Instructions: blend everything and pour into a frosted glasses. Makes 2 big drinks.
The good: The fig texture works with the ice to create a drink that will stay frozen for a while, even when there is a ton and a half of rum in the drink.
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Jun 14, 2007 · peterb · 1 minute read
Food and Drink
…and tonight, I will determine if it is possible to make a cocktail with them.
Jun 12, 2007 · psu · 4 minute read
Games
In what has become something of a yearly ritual, the time between early Spring and the next release of Madden brings with it almost nothing of interest to play. Last year, I was saved when Oblivion hit and kept me busy for a couple of months in this normally empty time. This year there is no such white knight to save the gaming industry from my disinterest. Worse, some new equipment and a nice overseas vacation have awakened other obsessions that have for the most part been dormant while the gaming obsession has taken its course.
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Jun 11, 2007 · peterb · 4 minute read
Games
I had what started off as an extremely productive weekend. I got a lot of work done at my job, did some house stuff, changed the oil on the car, and was otherwise efficient and in a good mood. As a reward, I decided to play some more Forza 2, a game I’m reviewing for PTD Magazine. I’ve been enjoying Forza, and approached my Xbox 360 with some enthusiasm. This should have been a warning sign.
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Jun 8, 2007 · peterb · 1 minute read
Culture
10. Clifford The Big Dead Dog (peterb)
9. If You Give A Mouse Some Serum (peterb)
8. Horton Hears His Doom (peterb)
7. Goodnight, World (peterb)
6. Where The Dead Things Are (kosak)
5. Bedknobs and Boomsticks (peterb)
4. Olivia’s Favorite Flesh Eaters (psu)
3. One Vein, Two Vein, Red Vein, Blue Vein (peterb)
2. Click, Clack, GGGGgggaaaarrrrrrrgggghhh (psu)
1. Green Eggs and Hand (peterb)
Please feel free to pile on with your own suggestions in the comments.
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Jun 7, 2007 · psu · 4 minute read
Photo
Our first full day in Paris was gray, wet, and cold. As a result, I didn’t take a lof of pictures of the city. It’s hard to make nice landscape or cityscape photographs when the sky is white. But, I dutifully carried my camera into the early evening just in case. You never know what might happen.
What we did this evening was walk over to Joel Robuchon’s restaurant to see how long we’d have to wait for a table.
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Jun 6, 2007 · peterb · 1 minute read
Games
A while ago you may recall that I posted an enigmatic call for writers to assist in some-project or other, without saying exactly what.
Now I can tell you what that project was: PTD Magazine’s [latest issue is devoted to retrogaming](http://ptdmagazine.com/2007/digest/ptd-306-now- available/), edited by your humble narrator. You can download the digest version here, or subscribe to PTD for a mere 99 cents per issue to read the rest.
If I do say so myself: it’s awesome.
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Jun 5, 2007 · psu · 6 minute read
Photo
I like Thom Hogan. He is an intelligent writer, photographer and fellow technical geek and his web site is one of the better collections of information about Nikon cameras. As a bonus, the overall design and layout of the site shows a lot of taste and restraint, unlike almost every other such site in the universe.
This week, Thom posted a nice rant about the sad state of the compact digital camera.
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Jun 4, 2007 · psu · 6 minute read
Places
Pete mentioned last week that I was in Paris on one of my periodic visits. These started over ten years ago when a friend of mine got a long term consulting gig over there and we went and visited and got hooked on the place. Now I try to take a trip once every year or two. This trip was much like the others. Mostly what we do is walk around, sit in the gardens, and eat.
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May 29, 2007 · peterb · 1 minute read
Photo
30 second exposure at f/5, ISO400 equivalent. The sky was nearly completely dark, so most of the illumination came from the sodium vapor lights at the nearby dock.
My favorite thing about the picture is how the long exposure smoothed out the waves on the water, making it look like a sheet of textured glass.
Click the image to see a full-size version (warning: large).
[](http://wptest.tleaves.com/wp- content/uploads/2007/05/20070527-08857-1.jpg “Long exposure” )
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May 28, 2007 · peterb · 4 minute read
Games
While I remain hidebound here in Pittsburgh, co-author psu is taking a few weeks in Paris. But I’m not jealous: I have Travelogue 360 Paris, just released for Windows and Mac. And my Paris has a rhinoceros wandering around the base of the Eiffel Tower.
Travelogue 360 Paris is a bit of a strange beast. I went into the game not knowing anything of its provenance, and was expecting a sort of dreary “virtual room” tour of the French capital.
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