Earlier this week, I picked up a copy of the 2004 title Thief: Deadly Shadows from Steam. Last night, I found out the hard way that the game doesn't auto-save your progress; my character fell from a lofty spot, died, and I lost a couple of hours of progress. This got me thinking about the state of auto-saving in video games today, something that I now clearly take for granted.

Back in the day, games never auto-saved your progress. One of the earliest titles I recall using an auto-save feature was the original Far Cry, which (in actuality) used a checkpoint saving system. I'm sure there were titles before that which used an auto-save mechanism (the first Serious Sam might have used one back in 2001). Since that time, nearly every game I've played has had some form of an auto-game saving mechanism.

Take one of my current favorite games, Torchlight. With regards to saving your progress, it lies at the complete opposite end of the spectrum from most old games: you cannot, at any point, manually save your progress! In essence, it only auto-saves, nothing more. What a change from having to consciously remember to save every so often.

Going forward in Thief: Deadly Shadows, I'll have to remind myself to save every so often. Otherwise, I'll end up wasting more time like I did last night. Live and learn.

Earlier today, I finished watching the fourth and final season of It's Garry Shandling's Show. I enjoyed the whole series so much, that I wanted to share a few thoughts on it. For those who don't already know, It's Garry Shandling's Show was a sitcom that ran on the Showtime network between 1986 and 1990. In it, Garry Shandling plays himself, and is fully aware that he is a sitcom character. All of the characters around him also realize that they are a part of a television show, so the whole experience is very "meta." Garry often involved the studio audience in the story, and each show opened and closed with a monologue. The fourth wall was broken as a rule on the show, not as an exception, so the viewer at home was usually in on every situation and joke.

What I like most about the show is how unique a premise it is, even to this day. Having the characters of the show all realize that they are on television is very clever and made for some great gags. Garry would often exploit this fact to the fullest; whether walking between sets to keep a thread going, or advancing time in silly ways to push the story forward. The supporting cast is all terrific, and the comedy outstanding. There were some episodes where I literally laughed until I cried. You gotta love a show that can do that.

The fourth season is definitely the weakest of them all. I listened to a number of episode commentaries, and it was interesting to learn that many of the writers felt the show went in the wrong direction in the fourth season. Showtime had a fairly small audience, so the show's ratings were never terrific (even though it was nominated for, and won, a number of awards). After Fox picked up the last two seasons, ratings tanked, mostly because the show was never meant to air with commercials. Upon debuting on Fox, the show came in at number 99 out of 100 shows; only The Tracey Ullman Show was worse. Interestingly enough, during the fourth season, many of the writers from It's Garry Shandling's Show also went to work on a little television show called The Simpsons, which debuted in the top 5 of the ratings. It's ironic, then, that the same writing staff would garner a top 5 rating and a 99th rating in the same year.

If you get a chance to check out this show, I highly recommend it. In some ways the show may be dated, but the humor is clever, and there are some very ground-breaking ideas. I'm greatly looking forward to checking out Garry's subsequent show, The Larry Sanders Show.

Over the holiday break, I stumbled upon a wonderful article describing several CSS tricks to add eye-candy without images. I've been using rounded corners here at the site since the last theme update, and thanks to this article, I'm now employing drop shadows. The effect is subtle, but adds a lot to the design; in short, I like it.

The style rules for adding drop shadows are very simple, though proprietary; it's a shame this stuff can't be standardized properly. Here's the code to use a drop shadow (the values shown are the ones I'm using on the site):

#myelement {
    -moz-box-shadow: 1px 1px 3px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.5); /* Firefox */
    -webkit-box-shadow: 1px 1px 3px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.5); /* Webkit */
    box-shadow: 1px 1px 3px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.5); /* Standards way */
}

The article even details the appropriate style code for Internet Explorer, but I haven't included it here, mainly because it's ugly. Other effects that the article explains are glow (the opposite of drop shadow, essentially), gradients, rotating images with CSS, transparency, and a few more advanced tricks. It's great that this support is built-in to most standards compliant browsers. So long to those annoying images that try so desperately to do the same thing!

Update: So it turns out that adding this eye candy significantly reduces scrolling performance in Firefox (quite an annoyance). Chrome doesn't have this issue, so it's clearly a Firefox problem. Should I keep the shadows and suffer the performance hit? Or should I chuck them and keep things snappy?

Also, Webkit browsers don't support the inset modifier for shadows, which means you see even less eye candy in Chrome, et al.

Update 2: I've removed the drop shadows for the time being. After all, this stuff is experimental.

I recently stumbled on an incredibly wonderful website; one that threatens my productivity just as much as Wikipedia does. The Vintage Ad Browser is a trip down memory lane, showcasing magazine advertisements from as far back as 1800. All kinds of categories are available to peruse: from Airlines & Aircraft, to Gender (some of which, today, are quite sexist), to Transportation. This site is one of those black holes on the internet, where you can get lost down a trail of links. I highly recommend checking it out; definitely worth bookmarking.

For better or worse, my online news site of choice is CNN.com. Last year, when they rolled out their new look, they also introduced a feature (which is still in "beta") called NewsPulse. It's essentially a look at what stories are being viewed most by site visitors during a given time period. For quite some time now, I've found the feature amusing, so I try to check it every once in a while. The most popular stories (over a longer period of time) typically fall into one of the following three categories:

1. Celebrity stories
2. Stories involving sex
3. "Big News" stories

In general, the popularity of any given story follows the order above. Celebrity news, especially celebrity death stories, seem to be very popular. The recent death of Casey Johnson, the Johnson & Johnson heiress, was particularly popular because it fit both of the first two categories: she was a 'celebrity' and very openly gay.

I've always enjoyed looking at statistics like this. Google's year-end zeitgeist is equally as enjoyable to peruse (though, it's obvious that it's filtered to be family friendly). This kind of data paints an interesting picture into our culture's interests.

In the spirit of it being New Year's eve, I thought I'd share a few random goals I have for 2010:

• Simplify CoLT and Googlebar Lite where possible
• Actually release the next version of Paper Plus
• Continue the improved 2009 trend of taking and posting more pictures
• Back up data earlier and oftener
• Get more exercise
• Eat healthier fare (and cook more often)
• ???
• Profit!

Whatever the new year has in store, just remember this:

All these worlds are yours, except Europa. Attempt no landing there. Use them together. Use them in peace.

Happy New Year! :D

Steam is hosting a holiday sale through January 3rd, with some titles discounted as much as 80% off! I picked up a couple of indie games during this sale (and might grab a few more at these prices). The first title I picked up was Samorost 2, and it only cost $2.49. That's still a little steep in my opinion, seeing as over half of the game is available for free on the web. But the title is a fun, cute adventure style game set in a very imaginative world.

The second title I picked up is by the same crew, and is called Machinarium. This game is much more substantial, and has a number of very difficult puzzles (I'm currently stumped on a few of them). The artwork is fantastic, the soundtrack is highly enjoyable, and the characters are adorable. There's no dialog; each character speaks using a thought bubble. But the stories they tell are amusing. It's hard not to fall in love with these characters, much in the same way I did with the Pixar movie WALL-E.

Be sure to check out the Steam store before January 3rd. There are some terrific discounts on some great games, so now's the time to pick them up!

After two separate incidents aboard inbound flights to Detroit, airports have stepped up security (again) for passengers. Gizmodo has posted a couple of articles on the new restrictions being seen at various places: The Unofficial Guide to Flying After the Underwear Bomb and Leaked: Homeland Security's Post Underwear Bomb Airplane Rules. These rules are ridiculous. Passengers have to sit with nothing in their lap for the last hour of a flight, the flight crew cannot make announcements during the last hour, and in-flight services, such as live television, phone access, and wifi, are all to be disabled for the entire flight. This, along with additional baggage charges, is why I no longer fly, nor plan on doing so at any time in the near future. There's no doubt that airplanes are terrific inventions, but these policies make this form of travel ridiculous.

What's next? We all have to sit quietly, with our hands at our side, and our eyes closed for the whole flight? Will bathroom breaks be prohibited? Will people who need medication aboard a flight be denied that, because there's a potential risk?

Let's just face the facts: with rules like this, the terrorists have already won.

Sherlock Holmes has had a special place in my heart since I was quite young. I've read all of the stories, all of which I hold in high esteem. In high school, I even did a report (or two) on this character. Among all famous, fictitious detectives, he ranks as my all-time favorite (though Cadfael, Inspector Morse, and Inspector Lewis are nearly as enjoyable). Of all of the actor portrayals of this character, Jeremy Brett's is the only one I will ever truly acknowledge. Mr. Brett's take on Sherlock was fantastic, and spot-on with the character in the stories. He captured nuances and characterizations that no other actor had been able to do prior, and no one has done since.

That being said, I'm intrigued by the new Sherlock Holmes film being released. Robert Downey Jr. is a good actor (though I'd argue not in the same league as Jeremy Brett), and his take on the super-sleuth looks interesting. Some of the reviews I've read have been positive, so it's a movie that is definitely on my radar. I'm not a fan of movie theaters, so I'll happily wait until it gets released to DVD. In the mean time, I think it's time to fire up an episode or two of Jeremy Brett's work.

A recent update to Torchlight has added achievements to the game. There's no way to see them in game (which is a bummer), and I wish they had progress bars that gave you an idea of where you were in the midst of collecting each one. Those nits aside, this is a great addition to an already great game. As of this writing, I'm only 15% complete, but I look forward to trying to grab as many as I can. Some of them look awfully difficult! It's a shame they didn't have this in the game from the get go...

Update: Here's the global achievement list for your perusal.

Earlier today, Netflix announced some interesting changes they've made to the site. These changes seem to speak volumes about where the company is headed. First off, the "Watch Instantly" tab is now the default view when you log in. This clearly indicates that Netflix is wholeheartedly committed to a future where media streaming is the norm. Is this the beginning of the end for DVDs?

The second change is a relocation of the friends feature; from a prominent tab up top to the very bottom of the page. This must be an indication of how many people actually use this part of the site.

All in all, these are some interesting changes that Netflix has rolled out. It's will be interesting to see where they go from here.

The upcoming Demoman and Soldier updates to Team Fortress 2 will add a crafting system into the mix. Apparently, blueprints (i.e. "recipes") will be available in some fashion that will show you how to combine items together to create new items. This is a bizarre addition to this game. With this announcement, players are already complaining that Team Fortress 2 is devolving into a role-playing game. To be fair, however, the lines between game genres is blurring over time. Borderlands is a great example of a first-person-shooter mixed with traditional role-playing-game elements.

I'm going to give Valve the benefit of the doubt with this upcoming update, though I agree this is a odd direction to take this game. Knowing Valve, however, I won't be surprised if this change turns out to be a great addition to an already great game.

Having played through it a few times now, I thought I'd post a few thoughts on Torchlight, the action role-playing game I've talked about a time or two here on the site. For those who don't already know, the game is essentially a Diablo 2 clone (with, what I would argue, are terrific updates). Read on for my take on this title.

The Good

Diablo 2 Clone

Few would dispute that Diablo 2 is one of the greatest (if not the greatest) action RPG's ever created. Often times, clones of stellar titles like that are weak. Thankfully, with Torchlight, that's not the case. Many of the developers who created Torchlight worked on Diablo 2, so they know how to make a triple-A title. All of that know-how has been put to good use here. At some level, Torchlight feels like a re-imagining of Diablo 2. It's as if the developers simply brought the look and feel into the 21st century, and that's a terrific thing.

Loot, Loot, and More Loot

By far one of the best attributes of this game is all of the loot that enemies drop. Magical items are great fun to find, and they drop with just enough frequency to hook you into looking for that rare, unique item. Set items are equally fun to find. This feature alone makes this game a collector's dream.

Great Performance

The game runs like a dream on my system, and works well on nearly all systems (so I've read). A netbook mode is even included to boost performance for older or underpowered systems. Being able to run the game on older hardware is a terrific design decision, especially in this age of ultra-realistic looking titles.

Great Looks

Despite it's ability to run on older hardware, Torchlight looks great. The cartoony atmosphere is fun to look at, and nearly all magic spells and character abilities result in terrific visual delights. Things can sometimes get confusing (especially when battling large groups of monsters), but in the end, the chaos adds to the fun.

Pets

I've already written about this terrific addition to the game, so I won't rehash it again. In short, this feature had better be in every action RPG from here on out!

Randomized Levels

With only a few exceptions (boss levels, mostly), all of the games levels are randomized. As a result, no two characters will ever see the same level layout twice. I've run across several traps and sights on my second and third times through that I didn't see before. There's no telling what I have yet to see, which I think is great.

It's Cheap

At only $20, how can you possibly say no to this game?

The Bad

Difficulty Scaling

Difficulty in this game is, on the whole, quite easy. But it scales in a strangely uneven way. On my initial play through, I played on the "Hard" difficulty level, and I was able to defeat all but one of the bosses with ease. The final boss is so much harder than all the previous bosses that the change is quite jarring. Likewise, all of the general enemies are very easy to up to the final boss level. All of the subsequent levels (in the never-ending (?) Shadow Vault) are substantially more difficult. This unevenness is hard to justify.

Weak (and Short) Story

The story is fairly weak, and relatively short (only about 30 levels worth of the game), but were we really playing this for the story? No, we probably weren't.

Only Three Classes

There are only three player classes you can experience: Vanquisher, Alchemist, and Destroyer. A few extra classes would have been welcome.

Skill Point Redistributions

If you do a bad job of distributing your skill points in the game, the final boss can become essentially impossible (as I found out on my first play through). There's a semi-official mod available that adds a "respec" potion to the game, allowing you to redistribute your points at will. At some level, having this ability from the get-go would have been welcome (though, it admittedly would make the game even easier).

The Verdict

This game is pure fun, no doubt about it. The price couldn't be better for what you get. I've played through the game with 2 of the 3 classes so far (I'm currently working my through with the last of the 3, the Alchemist), and I'm looking forward to going through again, trying different character builds in the process.

Every year around this time, the Hess Corporation, an independent energy company, advertises their "Hess Racing Cars" for Christmas. Apparently, they've been doing this for 45 years now, a fact I find quite surprising. According to their advertising, the cars are available at local Hess gas stations. They clearly must sell these cars to someone; otherwise they wouldn't advertise year after year. But who buys these? I never think of a gas station as a place to go to buy stuff like this. As a kid, I never said "hey, let's go toy shopping at our local gas station!" And I don't know who would do that today. Maybe truck drivers pick this kind of thing up for their kids?

According to the Wikipedia article, these cars (especially the older ones) are considered collectibles and can fetch into the thousands of dollars, depending on the rarity and condition. Pretty amazing! Does anyone here have (or previously had) a Hess car? If so, what did you think about it?

For a long, long time now, I've run the Symantec anti-virus program (corporate edition) on my home desktop computer. I got the original binary from college and I've kept it ever since, undoubtedly breaking the license agreement in the process. Over the Thanksgiving holiday, however, I ditched the bloated, slow Symantec mess for the newer, freely available Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE). Having read good things about the product, I figured I'd give it a try.

So far, so good. Boot times are noticeably faster, which is a big plus in my book. With Symantec, my boot times had become horrible; it would literally take 2 or 3 minutes for the machine to become usable. Now, it's ready in about a minute or a minute and a half (still too long, in my opinion; maybe Windows 7 will fix that). MSE is also quite easy to use. The interface is intuitive, and updating happens auto-magically, with no need to schedule updates. Performing a quick scan took a little while, but seemed to run faster than Symantec did. To top it all off, the MSE memory footprint is much smaller, though it's still one of the larger memory using apps on my system.

What do you guys use for anti-virus solutions? I'm pleased that Microsoft is offering a quality solution to this problem. And the price couldn't be better.

How many people here use Google Reader to follow RSS feeds? I use it as my primary surfing mechanism now, and I'm curious as to how many others use it. Although it has some quirks, I've gotten used to it. Google Reader has made surfing the 'net way more efficient, so much so that I often look for new sites to troll. If you do indeed use Reader, let me know if you'd like to friend me up. I share stories on the service routinely.

It is being reported that Microsoft is trying to pay News Corp. to "de-index" their search results from Google. Rupert Murdoch (billionaire tyrant) has hinted that he'd like to prevent Google from spidering the websites for the companies that News Corp. controls. Ironically enough, what he wants can be done today for free using the appropriate rules in robots.txt.

If this report is true, it sure seems like a desperate attempt to gain search engine market share by Microsoft. What might really happen if this deal goes through? I've got to believe that viewership at the various sites would drop considerably. "The masses" know how to use Google to find stuff. If the stuff they're looking for disappears, will they be willing (or knowledgeable enough) to use Bing to find it? I'm not sure that's the case. Should this scenario play out, I can see things going one of two ways: either Microsoft wins and gains market share, or both Microsoft and News Corp. lose big time.

Gizmodo has a good take on this situation, claiming simply that, in the end, we'll all lose. This will definitely be an interesting thing to watch in the coming months.

The "high definition" remake of Serious Sam: The First Encounter is being released tomorrow on Steam! Watching the trailer for this game should bring back some fond memories for anyone familiar with this title. I'll probably pick it up very soon, as I remember having a blast with the original. At only $20, what is there to lose?

Speaking of $20 games, I still highly recommend Torchlight. I have yet to beat it, simply because I did a terrible job of creating my original character, therefore making her too weak to defeat the final boss (as embarrassing as that is to say). Oh, and the "Hard" difficulty is just that. It was a breeze early in the game, but the final levels are murder! Anyways, I created a new character and have pumped her up with all the right stats (she's now a death-bringing tank). The other character classes are just as fun to play, and I look forward to spending more time with them.

Hopefully other equally great games will come out at this price point. With the price of most games today eclipsing $50 or $60, it's hard to justify not picking up a cheap, fun title to play for the upcoming holidays.

Ever been bitten by the blue screen of death on a Windows box? Who hasn't? It's often hard to see just what caused the blue screen to occur, and the machine usually reboots before you can properly note down the information being provided. Thankfully, BlueScreenView is a helpful little utility that will provide information on your past crashes. It scans the mini-dumps that are generated when your system blue screens, and reports the problem. I've used this a time or two to track down troublesome drivers (usually the cause of these nefarious crashes). Be sure to add this helpful, free tool to your collection.

Time is a bother when programming. Doing time calculations is always way more complicated than it may seem, especially when your calculations have to go out into the distant future. Having been bitten by time related bugs in the past, I can only smile and nod in understanding when I read that the camera auto-focus bug in the Motorola Droid is due to an unfortunate time calculation. Why they use a date stamp in their auto-focus routine is beyond my understanding, but thanks to the wonders of rounding, auto focus will toggle between working correctly and not working correctly every 24.5 days. Terrific!

Time is making fools of us again. ~J. K. Rowling