…Really, I don’t.
But…when I got home, I noticed this.
That ankh is the one that came with my original copy of Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar. It has been on my keyring for over 15 years, and, needless to say, has endured an incredible amount of abuse. For a long time I thought it was indestructible, despite being made of rather soft metal.
But on the day I get laid off from yet another game development job, I look down and notice that it has finally broken.
I don’t believe in omens, but…damn.
At 10:30 this morning…I was laid off from Stardock, along with many other people from all across the company.
Elemental shipped ten days ago. That’s how disastrous this has been for Stardock.
Well, I’m big and fat. I’m also a liar. I guess that makes me a big fat liar.
Let’s say you’ve downloaded some (perfectly legal!) video from a website – one of the recent E3 conferences, let’s say, and it currently resides in a shared folder on your computer.
Now, being the savvy type, you’ve already set up your PS3 to play videos over your network, and it can see your box just fine.
But let’s say that the PS3 is downstairs and you want to watch the video upstairs.
Woe, woe is you.
Unless you have a PSP.
The PSP has an absolutely incredible feature that few people know about. It’s called Remote Play, and it will allow you to remotely control your PS3 over the internet. You must first link your PSP to your PS3 and then put your PS3 into remote play mode. Then, if both devices have an internet connection, the PSP will connect to it.
Once the connection is made, you will see a cross menu on your PSP. But this isn’t your PSP’s cross menu – it’s your PS3’s. The PS3 will stream its current video across the net to your PSP, meaning that you can watch any content your PS3 can access anywhere you have your PSP. You can even play games that are remote-play ready (though unfortunately, few of them are).
Let me re-emphasize this. Remote Play will allow you to use your PSP to watch or listen to content from your PS3 anywhere you have a wireless internet connection.
Add in a $20 cable that connects your PSP to a TV and things get even more awesome.
Last night I had a video on my computer upstairs. It would only play on the PS3 downstairs. But by streaming the video wirelessly to my PSP using Remote Play and connecting the PSP to my TV, I was able to watch it where I wanted to.
Crazy.
If, like me, Supreme Commander just made you wish you could play Total Annihilation again, your wish is granted. And it’s been updated to ensure it runs on all versions of Windows, supports higher resolutions than the original game…and is still both LAN and internet-playable.
The number of older games that are now available for digital download in one form or another is increasing. Publishers are learning that there is still value in these older games, which makes me happy, as a lot of my discs are getting really, really scratched.
My God, I do not want to come back to this topic, but I don’t really have a choice.
Saturday evening my wife Jamie had a mild heart attack.
She was bringing in the groceries and was carrying too much. The entrance to our apartment goes through the utility space, and she collapsed against the dryer. She had all the classic symptoms: chest pain, tingling in her left arm, dizziness and nausea. Once we got her to the couch I gave her a baby aspirin and called 911.
After doing all the necessary tests on her, the doctors concluded that her heart had blocked 100% for a moment and then cleared itself. If it hadn’t cleared itself she probably wouldn’t have made it out of the utility closet. The damage to her heart appeared to be minor and there were no other major blockages.
In other words, if she had to have a heart attack, it was about the best kind of she could have had. Of course, that’s like saying, “If you have to eat a crap sandwich…”
My wife and I fall under the category of “morbidly obese”. This is our third warning. I’ve had two and now she’s had one. She was lucky it was just a warning; I could easily have been writing her obituary right now.
Expect a renewed instance of Put That Freakin’ Sandwich Down, this one done with a vigor that verges on the frantic.
And I’d like to thank everyone who prayed for Jamie and supported me during this time.
My God, I do not want to come back to this topic, but I don’t really have a choice.
Saturday evening my wife Jamie had a mild heart attack.
She was bringing in the groceries and was carrying too much. The entrance to our apartment goes through the utility space, and she collapsed against the dryer. She had all the classic symptoms: chest pain, tingling in her left arm, dizziness and nausea. Once we got her to the couch I gave her a baby aspirin and called 911.
After doing all the necessary tests on her, the doctors concluded that her heart had blocked 100% for a moment and then cleared itself. If it hadn’t cleared itself she probably wouldn’t have made it out of the utility closet. The damage to her heart appeared to be minor and there were no other major blockages.
In other words, if she had to have a heart attack, it was about the best kind of she could have had. Of course, that’s like saying, “If you have to eat a crap sandwich…”
My wife and I fall under the category of “morbidly obese”. This is our third warning. I’ve had two and now she’s had one. She was lucky it was just a warning; I could easily have been writing her obituary right now.
Expect a renewed instance of Put That Freakin’ Sandwich Down, this one done with a vigor that verges on the frantic. If you want to follow our progess, you can do it over on GameDevDad.
And I’d like to thank everyone who prayed for Jamie and supported me during this time.
So, how exactly is Michigan different from Texas?
Snow – Let’s get this one out of the way first. Yes, the weather in Michigan is much colder than Texas, and I’ve never seen so much snow in my life. Georgia would have a heavy snowfall every ten years or so, but after I moved to Texas such a thing was a distant memory.
I think falling snow is beautiful. I’ve always loved it. I’m sure I’ll get sick of it by March, but right now my enthusiasm is not dampened, and neither is my children’s.
The good thing is that I do much better with cold temperatures than I do with hot. (I think my brain is overclocked or something.) I can walk around outside in just a shirt and coat (no hat, gloves or scarf) until the temperature gets down to the 20’s or so. Then I have to zip up my coat.
It’s Like Living in the Shire – It takes me about twenty minutes to drive from my home in West Bloomfield to work. As I do so, I pass through five towns: Commerce Township, Farmington Hills, Novi, Livonia, and finally Plymouth. All of these towns abut and few of them are more than five miles across either way. The entire Greater Detroit Area is like that. It’s incredibly confusing to navigate even with a GPS.
Lane Ends – Dear god, does it ever. The surface roads around here tend to be close, narrow, poorly lit, and (unfortunately) poorly paved. Plus, streets will widen to create a right-hand lane as you approach a light. These lanes are not turn-only, and if you’re me, you tend to think, “Oh, good, the street is now two lanes wide.” No. That lane merges back into the left lane as soon as you get through the light. After a while I figured I could stay safe by just staying left all the time…until I got on the highway to go to work and had the left lane disappear on me several times.
Penalty For Injuring or Killing a Worker: $7500 and 15 Years in Prison – Okay…I understand that the roads are narrow, but is this such a big problem up here that they have to put the penalty on the traffic sign to get people to not run into construction workers?
Strong Spirit – There are lots and lots of churches up here. As we entered Michigan during our move we passed the biggest mosque I’d ever seen. People up here seem to take their faith very seriously.
Vice – On the other hand, a lot of things that people like to do that are needlessly curtailed in other states are legal here. Gambling? Yeppers; every night I pass a restaurant that has a sign that reads, “Poker Room Open”. Alcohol? You can buy liquor at your neighborhood grocery store, even on Sunday. Guns? Not only is private ownership of guns legal, but Michigan is a shall-issue state so citizens can get a concealed-carry license with a minimum of fuss. I approve of all of this.
The Michigan Left – In yet another bit of driving weirdness, making a left turn here in Michigan usually involves turning right, then making a u-turn at a nearby pass-through. This is called the Michigan Left. It’s designed to prevent accidents caused by people darting across two lanes of oncoming traffic to turn left. I would guess that it probably works, but it’s going to take some getting used to.
Overall I’m liking it, and not just because I could become gainfully employed by moving up here. I’ll probably post more observations later.
Fifteen hundred miles in three days. We’re currently in a hotel just outside West Bloomfield, our new hometown. We should take possession of the apartment today and then…um…wait in an empty apartment for our stuff to arrive. Which it hopefully will today.
No disasters of any kind, car, medical, or other…except for one time when a lane ran out and I was forced into some orange barrels by a truck and my driver’s side mirror got knocked off. At the time, I thought “If that’s the worst thing that happens…” and it was.
Stardock on Monday.
I wish I could have been there.
