Live from Austin!

Hamburg sits on the Elbe river, a few kilometers inland. A cunning tax dodge in 1189 propelled it into becoming Europe’s second largest port, and a world class red light district soon followed, surrounded by dive bars and seedy nightclubs. These days the city is keener to present the area through rose-tinted John Lennon glasses, omitting to mention that the Beatles played the Star-Club mostly because they couldn’t get a paying gig anywhere else in 1962.

The Elbe is apparently pretty deep, because the Queen Mary 2 was there. She’s the largest ocean liner in the world, making the Titanic look small in comparison. She takes around 7 days to cross the Atlantic, at a price of $1000+. Mind you, that’s not much more than we paid for our tickets, and if they have broadband on the ship I wouldn’t even need to use up vacation days on the crossing. I bet the food’s nicer than Continental. If they toned down the swanky ballrooms a bit and made it cheaper, they could have a compelling business proposition. But I digress.

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Update: There’s a happy end to the story. My dad managed to get hold of a BT Voyager 2100 ADSL router. For some reason it didn’t pick up the DNS settings; however, once I helped him configure DNS on his Mac, everything worked. In particular, iChat AV worked fine for video chat, with no configuration needed on the router.

So: if you’re looking for a good Mac-compatible router to use with BT ADSL, a Voyager 2100 will probably float your boat.

And it was extremely cool to video chat with my parents. Most of the rest of the family live in Bournemouth too, so I’ll doubtless get to talk to them as well over the next few weeks.

Update 2: Someone else with a Netopia wrote to tell me that he eventually got it to work, via the following steps:

1. I switched off uPnP on the router (iChat loading actually caused the router to crash/reboot with uPnP enabled!).

2. I switched the firewall setting to “Low” (although “Off” works, as well)

3. I’m not positive it was necessary, but I also upgraded the router firmware to 7.5 (from the Netopia site).

4. I left in place the various iChat port-forwarding settings.

Check his site for more info.

Previously:

We got the parents online from the Mac, but their router doesn’t seem to want to do the port forwarding thing, even when configured to do so. (With the Mac configured as DMZ, I still can’t ping them.)

The router that doesn’t work is a Netopia 3347NWG-VGx, in case anyone out there is considering buying one and finds this page.

Well, the beloved parental units are now back in the UK, about to fly off to Ireland. Life here is gradually returning to normal, except for the extreme backlog of work. The original plan was that they would drive off and explore Texas Tuesday thru Thursday each week, then Friday thru Monday I’d take time off work and we’d do family stuff together. In the event, they stayed here for the entire three weeks.

Dad did a bunch of random household things that I just hadn’t managed to get to, like removing the ghastly chandelier in the dining room and replacing it with a modern one, and wiring around the dimmer circuits on the ceiling fan lamps.

More excitingly, they recently got broadband, and we managed to sell them on the idea of video chat. Having done that, we managed to upsell the idea of a Mac, so they took home a new Mac Mini. Mum is now able to use iPhoto to straighten, crop, correct and print digital camera photos, something she had failed to master using Photoshop Elements on Windows. I also set her up with a non-Hotmail mail account, with Apple Mail ready to go, and imported her address book. She was amazed by how easy it was to e-mail sensibly-sized photos, type in names and have the address appear automatically, and so on.

As a side effect, we now have iChat + iSight. I couldn’t justify buying the camera before, but staying in touch with my family was a compelling purpose. Not that I know many other people with iSight, but…

I’m in Chicago to put signs on doors. No, really.

IBM is setting up a swanky new customer briefing center, where major customers are given custom presentations, attend hands-on technical demonstrations, and are shown proof-of-concept systems. Outside each room will be a video screen. The plan is for each screen to show the room number and name, the title of whatever event is happening at that moment (or starting soon), the times of the event, and the name and e-mail address of the IBM contact responsible for the event. There may also be a need to put custom logos, screenshots, clip art or animation on the screens.

There are turnkey systems for doing this sort of thing, but they cost a ton of money and are a pain to administer. So, we’re building one in-house. Or more specifically, I’m building the software, a colleague is installing the (Linux based) hardware. Each room will be driven from a central Domino database, which can be managed by any authorized user, and is integrated with the system used to book meeting rooms. The screens will show a web page, implemented in XHTML and CSS, and displayed using an embedded version of Firefox (I hope, or else I’ll have to do some extra work to downgrade the web design). The page will simply refresh every N minutes.

The hardware only arrived on Friday, so everything was booked at the last minute. I picked the closest hotel to IBM that had broadband. It turned out to be the Hard Rock Hotel in downtown Chicago, on the north edge of the theater district. The current IBM office building is a short bleary-eyed zombie-like morning walk away, and there’s a Starbucks across the street from the obvious route, so that works well.

Also just down the street is the Seventeenth Church of Christ Scientist. Until now, the only Christian Scientist church I had seen was the one in Boston, labeled First Church of Christ Scientist. I had thought that that was just the full brand name of the church, like the First National Bank. It hadn’t occurred to me that they actually number the things. Thank goodness Starbucks didn’t take that approach, or they’d have problems fitting wide enough signs on the stores.

This evening I walked to the original Pizzeria Uno. Just down the street someone had started an independent pizza restaurant called Pizzeria Due, with a very similar logo. I thought this was pretty amusing, and would have eaten there, but there was a queue almost as long as the one in front of Uno.

I’m sure I heard something about Chicago having a tough economy; yet someone is clearly doing well, as downtown is infested with condo developments. Many local businesses have recently shut down, and often have “Coming soon: more condos!” signs on the windows. A condo here starts at $200,000 or so.

Further evidence of selective richness: I saw a shiny silver Lambourghini downtown. I think it was a Countach. I love the design of the Countach, and the name—it turns out it’s the Italian equivalent of “Holy crap!”. The car got that name because when people living near the Lambourghini plant saw the test car being driven, they tended to say something like “Countach!”. A security guard was standing looking at the car. I’m not sure whether he was a guard from a nearby store taking a break, or whether it’s possible that someone is rich enough to hire a guard to stand and watch his car.

There’s also an enormous Apple Store. It’s just like one of the stores in the original Grand Theft Auto—the one where there’s a special stunt jump that involves driving through the plate glass windows and up the glass staircase.

If you like Art Deco, Chicago is the city for you. It’s everywhere. The hotel is in a historic building, and has some beautiful metal elevator doors on the ground floor. It also has an authentic deco mailbox set into the wall; or rather, something which used to be a mailbox. It doesn’t have a slot any more.

The paperwork arrived from NH, signed by Mr Toyota^† (or at least, his US representative), saying that there exists a Prius with a certain VIN. I’m still not entirely sure what essential purpose the Certificate of Origin serves, since it doesn’t have a price marked on it or anything; did they once have a lot of trouble with people maliciously paying tax on nonexistent vehicles?

Anyway, I went down to the RMV. There, I discovered two things: firstly, that they take credit cards for payment of everything except vehicle registrations; and secondly, that I had used the last check in my checkbook when I purchased the car, and in the delirious excitement I had been too excited to refill the checkbook holder when we got home.

Passing sailors blushed as I stormed back to the T station. One round trip to Cambridge later, I returned with a new checkbook. My bank account was graciously lightened further, and I was given two Massachusetts license plates. I was also informed that I would need to get the vehicle inspected.

I looked at the woman behind the counter incredulously. I reminded her that it was a brand new car, already certified to meet the toughest emissions standards in every state of the USA. She reaffirmed that nevertheless, I’d have to get it inspected. So, that’ll be a task for next week.

The truck with the transport containers arrives tomorrow. Everything’s now packed except cookware, china and cutlery. The air conditioners are sold, someone’s coming to buy one of the desks tonight, and once we have the car we’ll take all the junk to Goodwill and other similar emporia. The truck returns on Monday to pick everything up.

I’ve reserved us a ‘deluxe’ apartment at an extended stay hotel in Austin. It works out to cost about $400 a month less than we’re currently paying in rent. The location is described as ‘Arboretum’, which in fact means it’s near the junction of Route 183 and Burnet Road, a fairly grotty place to spend any significant amount of time. However, it does mean it’s about 5 minutes from IBM; I could even get the bus there if sara needs to go somewhere in the car. Supposedly there’s broadband Internet in the room if you pay a one-time connection fee, but who knows how flaky it is?

As the things to worry about get crossed off the list, my brain naturally finds new things to fret over. Currently I’m worrying about whether all our stuff will fit in the three containers we ordered, whether we’ll have time to load it all in, and whether I’ll destroy my back in the process.

^† Actually, his name’s Eiji Toyoda with a ‘d’.

I have broadband. I have a PlayStation 2 next to the router and cable modem. I have disposable income. I play video games. Yet, I do not have a PS2 network adaptor, and I haven’t played any online games.

I’ve been thinking about why not. I decided to put together some suggestions for Raph Koster, who’s the big cheese at Sony in charge of online PS2 gaming.

1. Either charge a subscription, or charge for the game, but don’t ask me to pay twice.

   If I need a subscription to play, I’m very unlikely to pay $50 for the game, because if I decide I don’t like it I’m left with a $50 coaster. Games which are offline or online can get away with charging for the game itself, but it’s still a bad idea if the main point is the multiplayer: A high up-front cost to join a subscription game screams “We don’t think you’ll stay a member for long so we’d better get some cash up front”.

2. Monthly subscriptions don’t work for me, unless they’re really cheap.

   Your market is people with broadband and significant disposable income. To me, that says adults with jobs. Like many adults with jobs, there are months when I don’t really get any time to play video games at all.

   It seems to me that it’s not technically hard at all to have a “per hour” fee, capped at the cost of a monthly subscription. That would encourage casual gamers and people who aren’t sure they will like the game enough to get really into it and spend hours on it every month.

3. It has to be co-operative.

   I have zero interest in player-versus-player. If I want a competitive challenge, a computer opponent is better for several reasons:

   • You know they won’t cheat.
   • You know it won’t be a hopeless mismatch of abilities.
   • You don’t have to deal with network lag.
   • The computer won’t camp, sulk, or otherwise behave in a deliberately game-ruining way.

   My motivations for gaming are primarily exploration, puzzle solving, and new experiences. Looking at the top selling games of all time suggests to me that the majority of gamers are the same way: “The Sims”, the “Myst” adventures, “Tetris”, the “Super Mario” games—none of them are about combat. There are a few combat games in the list, but they’re the ones that have lots of exploration and a strong plot—“GTA Vice City” and “Half-Life”.

   Furthermore, the multi-player combat game market is glutted already. People who want that already have lots of options.

4. It has to be social.

   This is where it gets hard. There’s no point in having other humans involved in the game unless you can talk with them, but on the other hand there has to be a way to get matched up with players who have similar gaming interests, and to keep out the assholes.

   This suggests to me that an essential part of any multiplayer online game is persistence in user IDs, and some kind of feedback or rating system at least as good as eBay’s.

   That doesn’t mean massive censorship. If people want to talk trash all day, just let ‘em go do it with other people who want to talk trash all day.

That’s all I have so far, but I live in hope that someone will take notice and come up with some multiplayer games that appeal to me.

We have cable modem!

I have finally ordered a cable modem.