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Craigslist is lazyPart 1: the Mountain View bugAug-26-09, 7:02 pm by Hanford | Read full postFile under: Misc. Close friends of mine know that I don't think Craigslist does a very good job at what it does, considering how much far of a lead it has above all the other sites out there. Here's one of the reasons why: The Mountain View bug. For years now, Craigslist has had two entries for Mountain View, CA. One listed in the Peninsula: 
And one in the South Bay: 
If you post in one, it does not show up in the other. Let me repeat that: if you post in one Mountain View, it does not show up in the other Mountain View. This means that people checking Mountain View areas have to either check both sections, or they're unknowingly missing out on a bunch of stuff. Likewise, if you're posting to Mountain View, you have to post to both, or risk that a good portion of people don't see it. Continued Note: old blog feeds rolled over to the new siteAug-17-09, 4:21 pm by HanfordLEGO architecture seriesAug-17-09, 4:12 pm by Hanford | Read full postFile under: fun, LEGO LEGO has a new series of sets based on famous architecture. They run from the simple (like the Space needle) to the complex, but they're all done in a surprisingly serious tone. Here is Frank Lloyd Wright's falling water. 
Cool stuff. Insanewiches: a site about insane sandwichesAug-13-09, 2:26 pm by Hanford | Read full postFile under: fun Sandwiches as high art. High art that devalues gradually over the period of a week in the back of your fridge. 
[via LostAtEMindor] Random thoughts on Ultima 5Aug-12-09, 2:09 pm by Hanford | Read full postFile under: game design, Video games, Ultima, fun, tech
Each Virtue (there were 8 of them) represented a commandment in a way. U4 introduced those Virtue concepts, and U5 turned them on their head. U5 showed how taking the virtues to the extreme could have negative consequences. Poor people going to jail for not giving to the church (or was it the state? I'm not sure). Etc. U5 is cited by many as one of the best in the series plotline-wise because of this. The game was also substantially more difficult to succeed in than U4. But what I never understood originally, was this difficulty was supposed to force you to break the virtues. Force you to steal. Force you to be bad. That was in part why it is very difficult to get going at the beginning. I never got this as a kid, and it pissed me off. The virtues acted like rules that weren't *programmed* into the game, but existed to me anyway (you were punished if you broke them, but it didn't not KEEP you from doing bad things, like some games do). Starting off in the game, it was near impossible to stay alive. The amount of gold you got for killing the basic monsters was not enough to keep you fed, healed, and supplied. Food was the big issue for me. If only I didn't need to spend my money on food, I could save up for better weapons! I started to steal food off of tables, and looking to see if the engine counted it as stealing. I started going into the farmlands and stealing food (did you know you could do that?) and I kept going back to my house at the beginning and taking the food there, too. Looking back it was a clever thing for the designers to do, but since there was nothing in the game that pushed you that way -- nothing that gave you a wink and an nod that perhaps you needed to steal to make ends meet -- it pissed me off internally; it bothered me I was resorting to this. Perhaps it was better that way; if I knew the designers had intended that, I wouldn't have felt bad. But since I really did think I was supposed to stay true to the virtues, I had a lot of mixed feelings about playing the game in the manner I did. Facebook LiteAug-12-09, 12:03 am by Hanford | Read full postFile under: Misc., tech This showed up in my facebook account today, for about 10 minutes:  (click thee image to see the whole thing)
Here's the full text: You have been selected as a beta tester for Facebook Lite! |
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I make things. From consumer electronics, to video games, to theme park attractions. Perhaps I can make things for you! Check out my portfolio. When I'm not making things for other people, I'm usually experimenting.
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I've played a LOT of Ultima. It's my favorite game series of all time. My personal favorite was Ultima 5 (U5). I know not as many people played 5 as 4, but starting with 4 all of them had this concept of "living by the virtues" -- meaning, not randomly killing, stealing, hording, etc. Being a Hero in the world, not a villain.
