Blizzard says: You'll pay three times for StarCraft II, and you'll like it

Blizzard says: You’ll pay three times for StarCraft II, and you’ll like it

In StarCraft II, we’re going to have a campaign that focuses strictly on the Terran. It’ll be 26-30 missions long, and you’ll play as Jim Rainer. When we release first expansion set, that’s going to focus on Zerg. So that’s going to be another 26-30 missions strictly focusing on Zerg. When we go to the final expansion pack, it will be the Protoss experience, probably another 26-30 missions.

That’s nice, but the main point of single-player mode in a real-time strategy game is to learn how to play each race, offline, before you compete with other people. The story, although important, has to be secondary to that.

This is a company that has done literally everything right–not just right, but outstandingly above and beyond the competition–for as long as I can remember. Now, look how far they have fallen in their greed.

This is not a hard problem to solve: you put a short campaign for each race in the first box. Then you can expand upon them later in–wait for it–the expansions. That’s what ‘expansion’ means. It doesn’t mean ‘the rest of the game you should have got in the first place’.

I think the readers aren’t understanding that there’s a full, gi-normous single-player campaign experience in each of these three products.

Yes, that’s it. It couldn’t be that we hate what you’re doing, it must be that we don’t understand. Go ahead, insult the intelligence of your customers. Great strategy.

iPhoto Feed with Picasa Web Albums

Here’s a how to get a feed that works with iPhoto from someone’s Picasa Web Album.

Go to the person’s Picasa Web Albums home page. This is the page that shows all of their albums at once. Click the ‘RSS’ link at the bottom of the page. This will give you a URL like:

http://picasaweb.google.com/data/feed/base/user/dmdeller?alt=rss&kind=album&hl=en_US&access=public

But don’t do anything with it just yet. This feed only has one tiny thumbnail for each album, which is not what you want.

Where it says ‘album’ in the URL, change that to ‘photo’.

http://picasaweb.google.com/data/feed/base/user/dmdeller?alt=rss&kind=photo&hl=en_US

(I also removed the ’&access=public’ part. This doesn’t currently have any effect, because it will only show you public albums anyway; but I figured, asking for more is better.)

Copy the modified URL. In iPhoto, go to File > Subscribe to Photo Feed… and paste the URL.

Now, you can get automatic updates of a friend’s photos, right from the comfort of iPhoto.

Addendum : if you want to link to this on a web site somewhere so that it will automatically open in iPhoto (without requring your visitors to copy/paste), just change the ‘http://’ part to ‘photo://’. This will probably only work for people who have iPhoto installed (namely, Mac users), so you should also provide the normal HTTP link.

Comparison (with audio clips) between real and fake-leaked versions of Ben Folds's 'Way To Normal'

Comparison (with audio clips) between real and fake-leaked versions of Ben Folds’s ‘Way To Normal’

What’s sad is that, if you don’t read the text, it’s sometimes difficult to tell which is supposed to be the ‘good’ and which is supposed to be the ‘bad’ version. And I say this as a long time Ben Folds/BF5 fan.

… to my knowledge, not a single published iPhone developer has spoken out in favor of the App Store’s current rejection policies. Those developers who have spoken are against it. Those who see no problem are not themselves iPhone developers.

… to my knowledge, not a single published iPhone developer has spoken out in favor of the App Store’s current rejection policies. Those developers who have spoken are against it. Those who see no problem are not themselves iPhone developers.

—John Gruber

David Pogue: Tech Tips for the Basic Computer User

David Pogue: Tech Tips for the Basic Computer User

Unlike most such lists of ‘tips’, this is a surprisingly good article.

If you can’t find some obvious command, like Delete in a photo program, try clicking using the right-side mouse button. (On the Mac, you can Control-click instead.)

This is actually why Apple refused to ship a two-button mouse for so many years: hiding functions in contextual menus is poor design because it is not discoverable by users. Shipping computers with a one-button mouse forced developers to make applications that work with only one button (even though the computer and OS fully supported as many buttons as you want).

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First, a Saturday Night Live skit about Sarah Palin.

Then, the actual interview with Sarah Palin that the skit was based on.

I’m not going to say anything more; it speaks for itself.

Penny Arcade: Guest column about DRM by Chris Remo

Penny Arcade: Guest column about DRM by Chris Remo

On the other hand, I can’t help but feel a lot of the vocal protestors are simply getting caught up in the righteous fury of the moment. It looks like we’re at five activations per game now, up from three; that’s unlimited installs on each of five PCs, as I understand it, and a deauthorization tool is coming. Realistically, how much more do you need? Obviously, it’s not as good as “infinity installs (plus one)” but can’t we just come to terms with the fact that no amount of internet petitioning or Amazon guerrilla warfare is going to take the activation limit out of the realms of the finite?

I’ve seen this argument a few times now, but it misses the point that he came so close to just one paragraph earlier:

… adding yet another complicated, irritating thing that PC gamers have to deal with …

It doesn’t matter what number of installs you’re allowed. What matters is that there is a limit. When you buy such a game, you have two options:

• Closely keep track of your installs, uninstalls, system hardware changes, etc. to make sure you don’t go over the limit
• Decide ‘oh it probably won’t affect me’ and live with the nagging doubt that one day you could wake up and your game doesn’t work any more

Either one of these is extra mental baggage that is forced on you when you buy the game, and that you can never get rid of as long as you still care about owning the game. For many people, computers are already sources of frustration. They buy games to have fun. And DRM can ruin that good feeling they would have, because of the fear, uncertainty and doubt that it introduces into the experience.

That’s right: these video game companies are using FUD against themselves.

Remo goes on to rant about the media blowing things out of proportion, but the more important story is of the would-be customer who takes a look at the words ‘activation limit’ on the box, thinks about it for a moment, and slowly puts their credit card back in their wallet. Because it just isn’t fun any more.

Screen Sharing between OS X 10.5 and earlier versions

Here’s something that took me by surprise when I found out: the new ’screen sharing’ feature in Mac OS X 10.5 works not only with other computers running 10.5, but also versions going back to 10.2 (though I’ve only tried with 10.4 and 10.3).

Only 10.5 has the ‘screen sharing’ service in System Preferences > Sharing, but it turns out that if you enable Apple Remote Desktop in the same location on earlier versions, you can then connect to the older computer from one running 10.5. (Note that this will not work vice versa.)

Computers running 10.3 or 10.2 will need to install this update first.

There are several ways to start the session:

• In Finder, if you use the browser view (default), select the computer from the sidebar and click Share Screen.
• In Finder, choose Network from the Go menu. Open the computer’s icon and click Share Screen.
• Browse to System : Library : CoreServices, open the Screen Sharing application, and enter an IP address or hostname. (I made an alias to this application - just don’t move the original.)

This is very handy in the case of my company because we have many machines still running 10.4 and a few running 10.3, but can’t justify $500 for the Apple Remote Desktop administration software. Of course, Screen Sharing has fewer features than ARD, but it basically does the job.

Microsoft Aims to Redefine ‘I’m a PC’

Microsoft Aims to Redefine ‘I’m a PC’

Everyone else has had their bit to say about this, so why not me as well, I suppose.

I think what Microsoft doesn’t get about the Apple ads is that when the latter puts John Hodgman on screen and has him say ‘I’m a PC’, it’s not some kind of metaphor for people who use Microsoft products - he’s literally playing the part of the computer, the machine and the software running on it. Apple isn’t saying you’re a dork because you use a PC - Apple is saying your PC is a dork. Oh, no, nothing against you! Apple thinks you’re just great, really, and why don’t you stop by sometime?

This confusion seems to be reflected in Microsoft’s response, which consists of people from all different (and cool) walks of life saying ‘I’m a PC’. No, you’re not. You might be PC users. You’re not a PC, because PCs don’t go SCUBA diving or whatever. Ever notice how the Mac in the commercials doesn’t talk about going SCUBA diving, or doing other ‘real people’ things? He says stuff like ‘I come with iLife and other great software, and I work with your printer.’

Now, the thing is, Apple has done really effective characterisations of the Mac and PC archetypes. If Microsoft had hoped to break the mold that has been set for them, even if they understood what they were doing, they would need an even more effective characterisation to replace it with. John Hodgman is funny. He’s memorable. And more importantly, he’s the same guy every time (never underestimate the power of repetition). What are they trying to replace him with? ‘Oh, well, PCs aren’t all like that… a PC could be anyone, or anything.’ That’s not memorable or impressional. It’s so vague, it may as well be saying nothing at all.

I read an article once - I wish I could remember where - which contrasted how the market leader and the underdog advertise. The leader tends to portray emotions, feelings; they just want to keep their brand at the forefront of your mind. After all, they’re already on top, so why would they need to prove anything? And they never, ever mention the competitor. Think of any Coca-Cola or McDonalds ad you’ve seen: good times are what they’re selling you on. You already know about the product, so it doesn’t even bear mentioning.

Now think of Burger King. X% more beef? Flame broiled, not microwaved like the other guy? Pepsi. Taste tests? And yes, even Apple. Do you think it would be at all necessary for them to mention their competition so directly if they were on top? But they’re not on top. Sometimes, a head-on attack like this can be an effective strategy to slowly erode the leader’s position. But ultimately, it’s not a winning strategy, if you define ‘winning’ as becoming the new market leader.

Now, if the current leader responds to this, it’s a sign of weakness, because as we’ve seen, they shouldn’t need to. The obvious parallel (mentioned in linked article) is New Coke in the 80s. The management of Coca-Cola got scared of Pepsi slowly inching up in numbers with their ‘different’ taste, and decided they had to be different too. We all know how that went over. But despite that collossal blunder, Coca-Cola remained on top. Why? Because Pepsi’s strategy was good, but not good enough to be a danger to Coca-Cola’s majority position. No matter how much they persisted in it, they couldn’t compete against The Real Thing™, because people were just so darn comfortable with The Real Thing™.

And so shall it be for Apple. But I have a feeling that’s okay with Apple. They’re extremely profitable at the moment, and stock people seem to like them. Market share is overrated. Ask yourself this: why would Apple need majority market share? What tangible benefit would it bring them that they don’t already have? And would it be worth the drawbacks?

Anyway, Microsoft is getting scared. Now they’re pulling a Coca-Cola, and responding directly when they don’t need to. This is probably because Microsoft has a corporate culture of paranoia, but that’s an essay for another time (and a more knowledgeable writer).

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David:

getdropbox.com

David:

it's like idisk, except free

David:

then again, i can't think of any way it would be useful to me at the moment

Patrick:

yeah

Patrick:

but neat

Patrick:

where does it host?

David:

on their servers

Patrick:

how do they make moneys?

David:

by being wide-eyed dreamers with some venture capitalist friends

David:

presumably

Patrick:

so they'll totally be around for sure in a few months

David:

oh yeah

David:

and no chance they'll sell all your files to AOL in vain attempt to stay out of bankrupcy