Pad construction began, Credits where Credits are due, more people droppin’ by

  Well, I actually resisted posting anything for a day 

The first thing I’ve got is a snapshot that one of our members will appreciate (when he gets back from Las Vegas) – Snuff (Russ) was a playtester for Lucas Arts “Star Wars: Empire At War” (which we have, and are still waiting on fixes from the publisher to make it useful in GZ!!!), and was going to show us the credits… guess what, there’s no way to run the credits until you’ve beat the game. Harmon beat the game, so we watched for proof of Snuff’s work  

Just for giggles, a quick picture of the McDonnalds drive through ordering system that sets in front of the Walmart on West Kellogg:

Ya know, I ordered a Number 3, Super Sized with a Coke and no pickles. I most certainly didn’t order an “Runtime Error: 6”  Some things should still be done face to face – one of them is ordering. What many people don’t realize is that McD’s is testing a system were the orders are being taken in a “order center” hundreds of miles away, then transmitted back to the McD’s where you ordered your food. Uh… ok, look, I’m definitely a face to face sort of person, but I used to be pretty heavy into InfoSec (information security). I’m just thinking the hacking potential on this could be pretty high – and since it’s not as mission critical as a wire transfer, I’ll bet security around the system is a bit low. Sure, all people could do is mess up your order but… 50 Big Macs and a Diet Coke would sure be annoying when you got to the window!

So construction of the DDR pads began today (Ok, I’m sure one of you purists will say “StepMania” every time I say DDR. Sure, you’re correct – it’s a StepMania setup, not a DDR setup. Except, well, to me it’s always going to be DDR no matter the incarnation.) The design I created proved out pretty well, and I constructed the first active tile (IE, one of the direction arrows), and it worked just as planned. In fact it was extremely responsive – a light touch does the job. You can jump on the stupid thing, and it still doesn’t make much noise due to my design. So I started to do the other 3 active tiles, and screwed up – I used a spray adhesive way too liberally. Spray adhesive, of course, is non-conductive, so the contacts no longer worked  Had to tear the tiles down, and tomarrow I’ll put them back together properly then set the first full bore test up. It’s nearly 7 AM now, and I have a staff meeting at 10:30 AM, after which I’ll go home and sleep for a bit. So don’t show up at noon expecting them done – I won’t be showing back up at GamerZone until at least 4 PM. 

A new innovation at GZ – me not having to work the counter 16 hours a day now during the weeks. Twitch closes for me two days a week, Gawdwin opens on Thursdays, Psycho opens on Wensday next week (Mondays will be the norm for her), and the weekends are Davis-Works-The-Counter free. Cool. Finally enough time to sleep at nights, and enough time to handle other business items 

Thanks for stoping by, Chelsea (man I’m sure I just hashed that spelling . It’s always nice to meet people who I’ve seen online! (OK, well, we met once before, but your best-friend’s insistence on putting her hair in the paint meant I remembered her and not you  

So, I checked out something new and bizzarre – SecondLife. To start with, SecondLife is not a game. It’s an MMO chatroom with 3D graphics, and the ability to own and create things (for those who have been around games for way too long, it reminds me of things like LambdaMOO). Everything you want to do there – it costs L$ (second life currency), and you can earn it doing various jobs. Yeah, this isn’t going on any of the GZ computers. Lots of Adult content. Let me rephrase that: Lots of “OMG that would hurt like hell to put that THERE in real life” type of content. That may be the most bizzare thing I’ve seen online yet. The odd part is… it’s also captivating. You have to round the next bend or teleport to the next town to find out what else there is. There’s an island I ran across that has a set of rules of decency completely opposite the rest of the places I’ve been. Avitars showing cleavage result in jail time (which brings up the question… jail time? What exactly is a virtual PMITA prision like when you can log off at any time?) One has to wonder what else there is in that place. And you can buy land to build your own house, stores, etc. Or you could just rent a place in a high-traffic area. I mean, it’s a strange mirror of life where you can be anything you want to be, anywhere you want to be, and do just about anything you want to do.

I may stick around and play with it a while, and write my first full-bore game review on it, just because it’s so far “out there” compaired to everything else.

There are thousands of people on there, and I’ve got to wonder – is this the begining of a new evolution in Internet communication, where 3D graphics actually lend a hand to the conversation (most 3D chat systems / worlds I’ve been in have been nothing but chat + graphics, where the graphics don’t add anything.) And while a lot of it doesn’t exactly trip my trigger, I can imagine why some people would love it for it’s adult content – an anything goes environment where you could simulate your fantasies? Gotta wonder – what’s the most popular sort of thing there?

Ok, enough rambling – time for some sleep, then some work, then some sleep again. Then some work again. Then some sleep again. yeah, that’s just for one day  Next week is going to be amazingly interesting. DDR should be up and working in a fashion that everyone will love. Some of the big plans I’ve been working on business wise start coming into play.

Davis, Gamer Zone