Motion controls for gaming? Huh!

It will be a sad day for me when the primary control scheme for all the consoles turn out to be motion controls. Why? I could write a book full of reasons.

• Games using motion controls can’t be played for long time: they will destroy your arms and eat your soul!
• Motion controls are just not precise enough: imagine trying to pull off a headshot using a wiimote.
• You look stupid: that weird look on your face while playing a game is already bad enough.
• Long combos? Pulling off a hadouken while jumping? Way too complex for a motion controlled setup.
• Motion conrolled games are gay.
• Traditional setups are just too good: what would you prefer – pushing a button to jump or jumping for real?
• You can never be fast enough: see that ultra cool chun-li’s high-n-low kick combo? Try doing that in real life.
• You won’t be able to boast about it: because motion controlled games are so simlpe, even your grandma will laugh at you as you get owned by her in some stupid game.
• Games will be simple: because you can’t use complex input mechanisms, the developer will be forced to design a gameplay that is simple.
• Will it be portable? I seriously hope it doesn’t turns out this way: imagine stupid looking people kicking and knocking people on the road!
• Destruction it invites: you will probably destroy everything near the console and the tv and hurt people passing by while you play virtual boxing or tennis.
• Motion conrolled games are gay.

For me, the only part of motion i want while i am playing a game is the rumbling of my controller. That’s it. No more stupid hand waves or anything. I can rejoice as i sit on my bed and tap out awesome combos in God of War or dominate people in TF2. And while Microsoft’s project natal and Sony’s wand thingy will make games accessible for more people, it will also dumb down the games in the process. Want to make the game better? There are always other options. More innovation. Stereoscopic 3D, better sound and graphics, better gameplay, more content and more gameplay, and most important: more FUN.

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Calling all ya gamers!

All right. It all started when i ordered a new mouse for myself. $80. By now i am almost used to paying crazy high prices for gaming hardware. Then a old school mumbo jumbo economic rule popped in my head: there are not enough users to buy these products, and thats why they are so expensive. Which brings in another question: why are there not enough users? Turns out that we itself are somewhat responsible for it. We, the indian gaming community, are responsible for the fact that our community is not big enough. Nuts.

Why? Because we are in a way blocking new gamers to come onboard. How? Our ego. Our vanity. We love to taunt over noobs when we own them. And games now are complex enough for total newbies to take a lot of time and practice to be able to play smoothly, leave alone master it. People like us who got the blessing of games in our lives from an early stage got great at playing it. So great that complex control schemes like a keyboard + mouse combo for fps games, or fps on consoles that require one analog stick to look and other to move feel totally natural to us. This leaves the newbies light years behind. Don’t believe me? Try teaching your mother to play a fps. You will get the idea. I tried, and failed miserably. Another example, I went to croma, a big electronics store which had a xbox 360 running Halo 3 for people to try out. The booth was a success. Success in terms of gathering people around it. People of all age classes. I was kinda happy to look at it. Happy that games were picking up among people. But when I looked at the screen, all my happiness vanished. Master Chief was looking at the ground and used to stick to every wall or turn for a good 10 seconds. I asked a few people who played the game, and they all told more or less the same thing: the game looked beautiful, but it was way too complex for them. Then I picked up the controller and played the game for a few minutes, and boy, people looked at me like I was some sort of alien being among them. Gibberish.

Getting more gamers onboard is important for a number of reasons. Cheaper hardware being at the top of the list. More gamers means more games being made as well. More gamers means more competition so that we also can have an annual 5 day gaming tournament. Many more reasons. But how do we get more gamers? More marketing, or making simpler games. These are something we can’t do much about, because these depend upon the developers and publishers. What we can do is introduce people to gaming. Tell them about how awesomely supersensational the games are. Introduce them to a simple game. Don’t expect them to take headshots any time soon. And if you are playing with them, losing a few times to them is not a bad idea either. Just a few times. Let them feel the emotion of owning a nemesis. Let them feel the joy that brings a gamer back and back again to a game. They will tell others about it. I am teaching my 13 year old kid neighbor how to play unreal and a few other games, and apart from the fact that his parents think that I might be spoiling him, everything seems fine.

Here is a call to all you people who gave their precious time reading this mumbo jumbo: you don’t need to be a prophet of gaming, but just introduce one person to gaming. Thats it. Hope it makes my next mouse purchase a bit cheaper. Cheers!

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Linux ported to iPhone! Absolute Nirvana!

Absolute nirvana. hit to read the official post

Ok, we had been waiting for it, and now finally, our favorite OS, Linux has been successfully ported on the iPhone. Devteam member planetbeing has done a incredibly phenomenal job of reverse engineering Apple’s hardware drivers and has successfully ported Linux on 1^st and 2^nd generation iPhones and 1^st generation iPod Touch. Though it’s a bit buggy as of now (read: no touch screen, wi-fi, audio and cell radio support), it’s definitely a first step in the direction of absolute nirvana on Apple’s darling device. The team is hard at work and even looks to port Android (yippee! Android) to iPhone. Thing just can’t be any better.

So if any of you guys want to check it out, hit this link, and if possible, lend a hand to this project. Even if you don’t know Linux or can’t code, just spread the word about it. Blog about it, digg it… try to bring this wonderful project into visibility.

Cheers for open source! Linux rocks! Even better on iPhone!

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I miss my CRT monitors!

Ok, so I upgraded my bulky old monitor to a shiny new super sexy LCD, but I end up missing quite a few things. You see, now that I have upgraded my CRTs, I don’t know what to do with all the extra space. The main problem I have is now that there is too much open airspace either in front of or behind my new monitors. When I used my 17” CRT monitor, I knew I needed to have a reasonable amount of space on the desk to accommodate the devices. But the majority of computer desks were designed keeping in mind the right face-to-monitor distance ratios so that where exactly at the right distance to view them comfortably.

But now these fancy new LCD monitors don’t take up any space. I sometimes find that the monitor is too far away, because it closer to the back of the desk. And if I push the monitor back, what am I going to do with all the empty space in front of the monitor? I can’t really put anything there because it’s going to block the view. And if I move the monitor closer, I have all the empty space behind the monitor – space that has no real value for shelves or anything else.

What have I gained?

Sure, LCD monitors are sexy to look at, but where am I going to put my cap? At least with CRT monitor, you could keep your unreal tournament figures on the top. But there is no space on the top of a LCD monitor, they are so bloody thin! Now my desktop is a vast sea of unproductive open space, and unless I cut my desk into half, I’m stuck with this awkward setup.

Seriously, what were the engineers thinking when they designed the LCD monitors? Obviously not the end user. And what am I going to do when I will get myself a 48” LCD TV? Yes, I would be able to mount it on the wall, but where the hell will I place my beloved game posters?

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Linux through a browser? COOL!

I love the StumbnleUpon extension for Firefox and today i stumbled upon a really cool concept. It’s called workspot.com and aims to provide “a Linux desktop, through a browser”. Cool. I can now look and preview a distro before downloading it, and i won’t have to read reviews and user opinions to decide on a new distro.

It would be a great service for Linux enthusiasts as well as Linux newbies to help them decide which distro to decide upon. And it seems more convenient than downloading a live cd version of the distro and and then waiting for another 4 minutes for it to boot up.

The downside:

1) The site isn’t up and running yet, it just says “coming soon”.

2) There are just 5 distros to have a preview of (that’s what the image at the site suggests, though i have my finger crossed for more).

3) The user experience may vary on the browser being used to access the site (though most recent browsers would do the work well, but i have seen morons using IE4 and Netscape as well).

Anyhow, I am waiting for the site to get started. And a cool idea: you can bluff to your friend that you have five distros installed on your system and you can switch between then in just seconds. All you need for this trick is a fast internet connection and a decent browser in full screen mode.

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Your computer has a sense of humor!

Ok, so you thought that your computer was just a dumb electronic box. Well, you may be wrong (if you are a linux or unix user). Here are a few outputs that your unix or linux machine will give if you input the following commands:

The C shell

% rm meese-ethics

rm: meese-ethics nonexistent

% ar m God

ar: God does not exist

% “How would you rate Reagan’s incompetence?

Unmatched .”

% [Where is Jimmy Hoffa?

Missing ].

% ^How did the sex change^ operation go?

Modifier failed.

% If I had a ( for every $ Reagan spent, what would I have?

Too many (’s.

% make love

Make: Don’t know how to make love. Stop.

% sleep with me

bad character

% got a light?

No match.

% man: why did you get a divorce?

man: : Too many arguments.

% ^What is saccharine?

Bad substitute.

% man woman

No manual entry for woman.

% %blow

%blow: No such job.

% (-

(-: Command not found.

% sh

$ PATH=pretending! /usr/ucb/which sense

no sense in pretending!

The Bash shell

$ drink <bottle; opener bottle:

cannot open opener: not found

$ mkdir matter; cat >matter

matter: cannot create

Do you still believe that your computer is and idiot box? (Windows users: your computers are dumb, just because of windows, accept it).

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Have you ever seen a keyboard like this?

Okay, so you know about all the outstanding keyboards – right from the Razer Tarantula to the ridiculously expensive Optimus Maximus. But this keyboard will surely knock your senses off. I can guarantee that won’t come across a keyboard like this ever. This Das keyboard (I stumbled across the page) claims to be a “keyboard that clicks”. It’s specialty: it’s BLANK. Yes, you read it right, it’s blank: no labels on the buttons – you don’t have anything to look at the keyboard. The reason they quote for this “Like on a piano, since there are no keys to look at when typing, your brain will quickly adapt and memorize the key positions”. And they claim that within a few short weeks users increase their typing accuracy and find themselves typing up to 100% faster.

It’s priced at $79.95. So if you are a keyboard warrior, go ahead and buy this keyboard. And if the prices seems a bit (or more) steep to you, I have a trick for you. All you need is your trusty old keyboard, a pair of scissors, and sticky tape. Next step: cut pieces of tape as per the size of buttons on your keyboard and cover the buttons. Boom! You own personal hand created Das keyboard (or whatever you want to call it) is ready. Cheers!

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Want to go to Mars?

Ok, so the earth is now too overcrowded or just too polluted for your taste (or you simply want to go to a place where nobody can disturb you). Thank Google, for they (with virgin) have planned to move people like you to mars! This is what project Virgle is all about. So, starting in 2014, Virgin founder Richard Branson and Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin will be leading hundreds of users on one of the grandest adventures in human history: Project Virgle, the first permanent human colony on Mars.

Oh, this is so cool! So are you wondering now how to apply for this? Just hit this link: http://www.google.com/virgle/application.html And Google has got everything planned out for you. They have a 100 years plan ready for you. And guess what, Google is intending to this project a totally open source one. So what are you waiting for? Go and get ready for mars. You little red planet, here we come.

P.S. – this was an April fool joke!

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Best Geek Pranks

April 1^st is upon us – it’s the April fool day. And it’s the perfect day to show off your geeky skills by playing some geeky pranks. Here is the list of the coolest geeky April day pranks:

1. The easiest and perhaps the oldest one: take a screenshot of the victim’s desktop and apply it as wallpaper. Then hide the desktop icons (right click on an empty area on the desktop – arrange icons by – untick show desktop icons). Don’t forget to put the start menu bar to auto hide as well.
2. Install the BSOD screensaver (the nasty blue screen of death you got when your system hanged) on the victim’s pc. It’s a free download from Microsoft (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897558.aspx). Your friend will go nuts.
3. Download the cracked lcd wallpaper and set it as a desktop background. Hide the desktop icons and set the start menu bar to auto-hide.
4. Install VNC on your friend’s computer and then remote control his pc. Then disable the taskbar icon of VNC and have fun controlling his pc remotely as your friend scratches his head ion confusion.
5. If your friend uses an antique ball mouse, just hide the mouse. It sounds far too simple to actually fool anyone, but you’ll be amazed at how long people will curse and slam their unresponsive mouse onto the desktop before actually flipping the thing over.
6. If your friend has an optical or laser mouse, just stick some tape over the sensor and watch the mouse movements go haywire.
7. Use the autocorrect feature of MS Office. Try adding substitutes to commonly used words or the name of the person who uses the system (It would be really funny if someone types his name and sees something like Mr. Dumbass on the screen).
8. Switch the keyboard layout to Dvorak. This will change the layout of the keyboard to an almost alien layout. To switch a keyboard layout in Windows XP, go to the Control Panel (make sure it’s in “Classic View” mode) and click on Regional and Language Options. Under the Languages tab, view Details. Click on Add and find “United States-Dvorak” in the list. Now you’ll see Dvorak show up in the drop-down menu of default input languages. Choose it and click Apply. Mac OS X is much easier: Go to System Preferences, click on International and select the Input Menu tab. Click the checkbox next to Dvorak. You might also check “Show input menu in menu bar” at the bottom of the window. A tiny icon menu will appear in the top right corner (next to the clock), allowing you to switch between keyboard layouts with a single click.
9. If the Windows Messenger Service is active in your environment, write a small batch file that will broadcast a message to a colleague a few hundred times using the “net send” command. Then, watch in amusement as the target keeps on clicking OK on the hundreds of message box that appear on his screen. (Don’t forget to disable your Messenger service after; the victim will likely want to play the same trick on you!).
10. Another simple trick: switch the keyboard and/or mouse cables or two nearby or back to back pcs. And then watch the fun!
11. Modify commonly used desktop shortcuts (like that of MS Word) to point to some objectionable site. Or set them to shutdown or restart the system. Here’s how:

    First: choose a program your coworker/friend uses often. Back up the icon somewhere.

    Right Click on Desktop

    New > Shortcut

    For target type “shutdown -s -t 00 -f”

    Type the name of the program you chose (e.g. Microsoft Word)

    Finish

    Right Click on shortcut > Properties

    Change Icon > Choose icon of chosen Program (e.g. If you chose Microsoft Word the path would be “C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OfficeXX\WINWORD.EXE” Where XX is the number based on the version of Office)

    You can also copy the comment of the original icon to the shutdown button, so it is even more unnoticeable. Warning: this will cause the victim to lose ALL unsaved changes.

If you have ideas for more pranks, feel free to add them to the comments. Have a happy April fools day.

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What do you use: OS X, Vista or Linux?

For all users using shiny apple Macs, there is a little bit of nasty news. There was a contest organized, named PWN 2 OWN by the organizers of the CanSecWest security conference. It asked the attendees to show off their hacking skills against Vista SP1 (fujitsu laptop), Leopard 10.5.2 (Macbook Air, and Ubuntu 7.10 (VAIO). The first hacker to take down any of the three systems would get a cash prize of $20,000 along with the victimized laptop. Nobody managed to pull down any of the systems on the first day, as for the first day contestants were told to use only network based attacks. The second day, they were allowed to use web and email based attacks. And guess what, the Macbook Air was hacked down in 2 minutes flat. The attacker used a website holding malicious code and targeted Safari as its victim.

Ubuntu 7.10 was the only OS to remain unscathed. This proves a lot of things. First of all, Linux still rules in matter of security. Microsoft has been (shamefully) forced to make its OS secure. And while Apple may taunt about its OS being most secure, it is not the truth. The truth is, Mac OS X has a smaller user base. And so the hackers are not interested in attacking an OS having a smaller user base. And it is to be noted that OS X and Linux have the same roots. Now the question arises: why did Apple fiddle with an already stable base? Not only this, the attack was pulled off using Safari as its target. It’s the same Safari that Apple has been trying to install on our systems using Apple software update.

So, if you are a Mac user, beware. You are at a security risk. Avoid visiting suspicious sites. And windows users – DON’T USE SAFARI. Use Firefox or Opera instead (IE still has numerous security loopholes). Or do the best – switch to Linux. Linux users – rejoice. Time has again proved that you are using nothing but the damn best OS of this planet (I wonder what people on other planets use as their browsers, though).

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Three cheers for Wubi!

Ok, so you are a pc user who wants to try out Linux but haven’t tried out Linux yet just because you didn’t knew how to install a Linux distro (or were just afraid of your hard drive getting wiped out during the installation), it couldn’t get better for you. There is a new application which is built just for you and it is named Wubi. What it does? Well it’s a windows application (surprise!) and it lets you install Linux just as you would install a windows based application. Cool, isn’t it?

Here’s how to proceed: you download Wubi off the internet (or get hold of it from somewhere else), launch the application and tell it the location of the Linux disc image. Then it asks you a few questions: on which partition you wish to install, your username and root password etc. Then you sit back and watch Wubi do its magic. The next time you reboot, you get to see a multi-os boot loader with both windows and Linux options. It can’t get any easier.

For now, Wubi works only with Ubuntu. But I would like to see future versions of it working with other distros as well. It is a great product. Worth praise, indeed. Innovative software. I just hope that the open source world continues to see such innovative softwares.

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Apple: What are you doing?

If you have iTunes installed and you chose to use apple software update to update your copy of iTunes to the latest version, you are in for a nasty little surprise. Guess what? Apart from getting a updated version of iTunes, you find safari in the list of installed applications (even if you have not installed it yourself). Now this is really unfair. People use the update software to update the software they have installed themselves, apple. It’s not fair to shove unwanted software through a backdoor. No matter how good software is, no software company has the right to force it down to a user’s pc. This is unfair advertising.

If apple really wants people to use safari, it should make it good enough so that people go and download it themselves. Just like Mozilla Firefox. Your safari for windows is buggy, has multiple security loopholes, and uses its own font smoothing technique that makes the text look worse than original. And the worst of all: it misses a “add new tab button” – an absolute shame in my opinion. Improve safari first, and don’t even think of installing softwares on a system without its owner’s consent. You are a big company and have a cult following. You shouldn’t do acts like this that may cause your reputation to dive down. You are known as a innovative brand. So innovate. Don’t use cheap means.

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