Econ

adewherst: Dude, econ 101 with Larry Smith is pretty bloody awesome. Don't do it over distance ed, that's just wrong.

Crappy Software

So when classes ended, I figured hey, I have this new video card that finally works, and I've never played Half-life 2. That's right, a self-confessed computer geek who's never played Half-life 2. Mostly because I don't have Windows and until recently had a (relatively) crappy video card because the only 3D game I played much at all was Quake 3.

Anyway, I bought Cedega and Half-life 2 and figured I'd have a go at making it work.

What a nightmare. Now I am doing something "weird" by trying to run a Windows game on Linux. It could be Transgaming's fault or it could be Valve's fault. But Transgaming definitely claim that Half-life 2 works reasonably well with Cedega. It just doesn't.

From it taking several minutes to load up, to it randomly claiming that the game is "unavailable" to it crashing in the middle of gameplay, it's just downright unusable. There goes US $65 down the drain. On the plus side, it won't interfere with studying for exams...

It's a shame, too, because until this whole thing I thought relatively highly of Transgaming. I used an older version to play Warcraft III, and it worked very well even though at the time Warcraft III was a very new game. Maybe it's Valve's fault, but I doubt people would rave about how awesome Half-life 2 is if it were this unstable on Windows.

Anyway, if you ever want to see a giant mess of barely-working crap infested with bugs that makes you think it'll crash if you sneeze on it, you know where to look. Of course, I guess you can find that just about anywhere these days so maybe it's not that remarkable...

August 07, 2005 (link)

Marketing

So if you've ever used Amazon you know that when you put something in your cart it says "People who bought foo also bought..." and hawks a bunch of other crap at you. So far this seems like a clever marketing idea. Fine.

But people buy the strangest combinations of things. I wanted to buy Freakonomics, and all of a sudden Amazon is hawking Suzanne Somers' Slim and Sexy Forever at me. Whoa. Where'd that come from?

Now if you wanted to make a gross and probably unjustified generalisation, you could conclude that a lot of women pushing 40 are buying Freakonomics. Do people (other than Amazon) use Amazon in this way, to try to figure out who's buying what?

August 09, 2005 (link)

On Vegetarianism

lkosewsk: The way to be vegetarian in Beijing and still tuck in to the grub like nobody's business is to say you're Buddhist. Works every time. I learned the Mandarin to say "no meat," but all that gets you is pork. Or chicken. Or frog or snake. But Buddhist, that they understand.

August 25, 2005 (link)

Life

Long time no update. Since last time, I:

• Finished exams
• Spent a week in Calgary
• Flew down to California
• Started work back at Google

That said, this will be a rather large update, which why is most of it is behind a SanityBarrier, for those of you reading on PlaNit.

Tidbits

First, an image so glorious it defies all logic:

Without the gut, you gotta use the crotch

So I got down here, and I'm staying at the same place as last time, because I know where it is, I know the landlord, and I'm lazy. It being the same place, there's some mail for me. All of it from my bank, most of it mundane. But wait, there's one that has a little plastic window in the envelope saying "Pay to the order of." Yay, money! Inside is indeed a cheque for a whopping $5 USD, and a letter that starts off saying "We really appreciate your business..."

The first thing I think is "wow, they must really like me." But reality kicks in pretty quickly. They can't like me that much. Sure, I have a few thousand bucks, but this is Palo Alto we're talking about, where everybody and their dog has a million bucks, 2 porsches, a beemer, a prius and something "sporty" as well. The bank doesn't really like poor Waterloo co-op students. Upon further inspection, the letter that comes along with the free $5 says that by depositing the cheque, you agree to sign up for a bunch of stuff with fees totalling something like $4/month. I didn't know they could do that; it's the sneakiest marketing I've seen yet.

Side note: what's with Americans and calling cheques checks? I don't think I'll ever get used to sloppy Yank English.

Calgary

Calgary was good. Saw thap's new house, and many of my friends, and of course my parents. Did some drinking, though surprisingly no prairie fire (note that a true Albertan prairie fire is a shot of tequila and a shot of tabasco, not a "splash" like that sissy page suggests).

There are no words

Also made it in to Banff to do some hiking and hit the hot springs. Whenever I'm back I realise how much I miss the mountains. Must remember to do some hiking this term in California.

Hiking near Banff

Google

Still just as awesome. Geawwd I missed the food. I had forgotten how quickly things move here. It's so fun, I mean Google is up on Slashdot once or twice a day, new releases every week, etc. And yet, as fast as it is, some things don't change. Most of my code from last term is still in service, much to my shock and amazement. "It still works with this many users?" "Uh, I guess so."

Ah well, I got them to agree that in return for coming back I'd never have to touch the stuff again, so it's officially Not My Problem(tm).

jdeboer arrives on Saturday, and of course jim is already here. I don't know if they ever met, but I think some beer is planned for Saturday night.

Niti

People have noted a trend for Niti people heading down south to the new not-quite-yet-evil empire. Regular readers of my blog and people who talk to me know that I've become pretty pro-Google. I like it here, they do cool stuff, they feed me, etc. But let me put it plainly: I'd definitely still be interested in working at Niti when I'm done, assuming it's a possibility. I'd like to be in Canada, and there is still an attraction to a smaller company, as much as the resources of a larger one can be compelling.

August 29, 2005 (link)

Disturbing

Apparently about half of all Internet traffic is BitTorrent.

While that isn't necessarily that disturbing on its own (although it did strike me as rather high), let's stop and think for a moment that given the BitTorrent traffic, what's the breakdown for the other half?

• 25% - porn
• 20% - spam
• 4% - worms

Leaving us with a whopping 1% of Internet traffic being used for anything remotely productive!

(Yes, I'm being facetious and just pulled those numbers straight out of my ass. Still, it does make one wonder.)

August 31, 2005 (link)

Mad rush (or, why you need VPN access)

So, after working a little late last night, I awoke this morning to the realisation that I had slept rather a lot, like until 11. I had a meeting at 11:30. Oops.

So after throwing some toothpaste in my mouth, scrubbing a bit and throwing some clothes on I hopped on my bike and flew into work in under 20 minutes. A quick shower and change of clothes and I was at my desk at precisely 11:30. Just in time to open the calendar and see that the meeting's been pushed back until next week. D'oh!

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