This evening I decided to go through my blog entries for the past year and realize that I never provided a video game review for "Lego The Hobbit" that I played on my PlayStation Vita earlier this year. I know that a lot of people are looking for video games as Christmas gifts and so I thought I would share my impressions on this fun little game.
Lego games are great for video game players of all ages. Any violence is no more graphic than when a child drops his Lego creation and blocks scatter. Contrast that with a first-person shooter that can be rather graphic. One nice thing about the video game is that you don't have all the little plastic blocks to pick up afterwards and it is a win-win situation for parents. I played the Traveller's Tale game on my hand-held and I understand they changed some of the game play to be a bit more customized for the portable format. However I highly recommend it for all platforms including the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, or any of the previous console versions.
The game follows the movie very closely and even uses dialog taken directly from the film. While not everything matches perfectly, I preferred that to having different voice actors narrate the game. You also have the ability to take somewhat different paths through the game and play things out of the order you would expect. I really enjoyed this after I finished the game and could go back to complete scenes I skipped the first time through.
I had an enjoyable time throughout most of the game. Of course I did encounter one or two parts of the game that seemed a bit more difficult than usual and found myself grinding through those sections. With a bit of effort and the lack of anything else to do on my plane rides, I got through them and continued the game.
I can easily recommend this game to anyone that loves either Lego toys or "The Hobbit." For the later it doesn't matter if you are a fan of the book or the movies. The game has an ESRB rating of E for everyone and can be found in most stores for around $20. It is well worth that price.
Monday, December 12, 2016
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Quick Video Games
I have a group of around 15 young men between the ages of 12 and 18 coming to visit me at work this evening. There will be the requisite number of adults joining them so I don't have to babysit them alone for the 90 minutes they plan to be here. Instead it is my job to give them a quick tour where I work and then let them play video games for about an hour. We have every console video game you can imagine in our game library and so I went through them looking for titles that the boys could instantly begin to play. Unfortunately I only have 4 consoles and TV's set up for the group. That is not nearly enough for everyone to get their own system and so I wanted to bring down a bunch of games that can be played in 15-minute increments.
Unfortunately console games are not meant to be played in 15-minute increments. That is what mobile games are for. I selected some popular sports titles such as FIFA 17, NBA 2K17 and Madden 17. Then I threw in several driving games like Project Cars and F1 2015 as those don't have too much of a learning curve. Naturally I added a few of the Lego games like Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Jurassic World as they can be a lot of fun and are meant for a younger audience.
I eagerly await the arrival of the group of young men and hope I chose wisely. I know they will be a bit distraught that I didn't throw in any first person shooters like Call of Duty but I am trying to avoid anything with and ESRB rating of M for mature. The last thing I want is a bunch of angry parents asking me why I exposed their kids to inappropriate video games. Of course, I am sure that is what the boys will want to play. After all, I remember being a teenage boy and that is what I would have wanted.
Unfortunately console games are not meant to be played in 15-minute increments. That is what mobile games are for. I selected some popular sports titles such as FIFA 17, NBA 2K17 and Madden 17. Then I threw in several driving games like Project Cars and F1 2015 as those don't have too much of a learning curve. Naturally I added a few of the Lego games like Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Jurassic World as they can be a lot of fun and are meant for a younger audience.
I eagerly await the arrival of the group of young men and hope I chose wisely. I know they will be a bit distraught that I didn't throw in any first person shooters like Call of Duty but I am trying to avoid anything with and ESRB rating of M for mature. The last thing I want is a bunch of angry parents asking me why I exposed their kids to inappropriate video games. Of course, I am sure that is what the boys will want to play. After all, I remember being a teenage boy and that is what I would have wanted.
Tuesday, December 6, 2016
Christmas List 2016: Non Video Games
Yesterday I put together a list of games I want to play over the Christmas break and called it a Christmas list. Today I thought I would put together a list of other things that I want for Christmas this year or would want if I didn't already own them. Hopefully some of you will find them useful.
An OBD-II Reader: Yesterday my wife called me and told me that my daughter's car had a check-engine light on. Her car is only a year old because I got tired of fixing her older car and provided a brand-new one to get my Saturdays back. With an OBD-II reader, you can connect it to the car and it will sort of tell you what the problem is. Sometimes it is as simple as your gas cap not being screwed on correctly. In any event, a quick search on the Internet with the make, model, and year of your car along with the code provided by the reader will tell you if you can fix the problem on your own or need to take it to a repair shop. My daughter's car is still under warranty so it is going back to the dealership tomorrow. I actually own an OBD-II reader and use it all of the time. If that technical person in your life doesn't own one, this should be high on the Christmas list.
Google Cardboard: If you have someone on your Christmas list that really wants to play with virtual reality but you don't have the funds to spring for a $400 PlayStation VR, $600 Oculus Rift, or $800 HTC Vive, then think about getting Google Cardboard. It is only $15 and works with most existing smartphones. It provides a first-hand look at virtual reality with a plethora of apps that are inexpensive and give a good feel for the technology. I got one from a conference and liked the technology so much I purchased a PlayStation VR when I got the chance.
Musical Instrument: I have spent the last year learning to play the guitar and recommend everyone learn to play a musical instrument. One of my favorite things to do is wake up on a Sunday morning and relax playing my guitar. Studies have shown that having a hobby like playing the guitar can help keep brain cells healthy.
A Photo Book: Now that almost every phone sold also includes a camera, there is no excuse for not taking pictures of important events. So what do you do with all of those photos? Put them in a photo book. My family took a great vacation this year and it would be great if everyone combined all of their photos to create a memorable book for the family.
Yes there are probably more things I could add to my list but this is a good start. Hopefully it has a something you wouldn't have thought about on your own that will be a great gift for that hard-to-shop-for person on your list.
An OBD-II Reader: Yesterday my wife called me and told me that my daughter's car had a check-engine light on. Her car is only a year old because I got tired of fixing her older car and provided a brand-new one to get my Saturdays back. With an OBD-II reader, you can connect it to the car and it will sort of tell you what the problem is. Sometimes it is as simple as your gas cap not being screwed on correctly. In any event, a quick search on the Internet with the make, model, and year of your car along with the code provided by the reader will tell you if you can fix the problem on your own or need to take it to a repair shop. My daughter's car is still under warranty so it is going back to the dealership tomorrow. I actually own an OBD-II reader and use it all of the time. If that technical person in your life doesn't own one, this should be high on the Christmas list.
Google Cardboard: If you have someone on your Christmas list that really wants to play with virtual reality but you don't have the funds to spring for a $400 PlayStation VR, $600 Oculus Rift, or $800 HTC Vive, then think about getting Google Cardboard. It is only $15 and works with most existing smartphones. It provides a first-hand look at virtual reality with a plethora of apps that are inexpensive and give a good feel for the technology. I got one from a conference and liked the technology so much I purchased a PlayStation VR when I got the chance.
Musical Instrument: I have spent the last year learning to play the guitar and recommend everyone learn to play a musical instrument. One of my favorite things to do is wake up on a Sunday morning and relax playing my guitar. Studies have shown that having a hobby like playing the guitar can help keep brain cells healthy.
A Photo Book: Now that almost every phone sold also includes a camera, there is no excuse for not taking pictures of important events. So what do you do with all of those photos? Put them in a photo book. My family took a great vacation this year and it would be great if everyone combined all of their photos to create a memorable book for the family.
Yes there are probably more things I could add to my list but this is a good start. Hopefully it has a something you wouldn't have thought about on your own that will be a great gift for that hard-to-shop-for person on your list.
Monday, December 5, 2016
Christmas List 2016: Video Games I Want to Play
Every year I try to put together a Christmas list for that technically minded person in your family based upon what I want. Sometimes I have listed feel-good gifts but most of the time I list video games and other items that I would like to receive. Today I am going to restrict it to just video games. I must confess that I already own a bunch of these games and so this list is what I would like to play during the Holiday break when I am not skiing. Some of these are old games while others have just come out. That should give you a healthy mix of economical gifts as well as more expensive ones. Here is the list, in alphabetical order:
Battlefield 1: I really enjoyed playing Battlefield 3. I tried Battlefield 4 but lost interest after about an hour. I understand that EA figured out they need compelling story lines so that Battlefield 1 is much more engaging. I already have my copy of this game and look forward to finding some time to play it.
God of War 3: I have finished playing both 1 and 2 on the PlayStation 3 so now I want to play the remastered version of 3 on the PlayStation 4. I had hoped to start this evening but am getting really tired after waking up at 4:15 this morning to catch my flight to California and may begin tomorrow. Naturally I have a copy of this game already and have had it for quite some time.
Rise of the Tomb Raider: The Tomb Raider reboot is one of my favorite video games. It is along the same lines as the Uncharted series with a female protagonist instead of a male one. Those of you with XBox One consoles have been able to play this game for the past year, while those of us that favor the PlayStation 4 console have had to wait. The exclusivity is now over so I am looking forward to picking this game up and continuing the adventure.
Steep: I am a huge fan of skiing and so I look forward to any well-done skiing or snowboarding video game. When the oppressive heat of summer kicks in, I head to my cool basement and pretend it is winter again. That will probably be the case with this Ubisoft title as I don't own it yet. However I have it on my Christmas list in the hopes that someone who loves me will get me a copy.
Uncharted 3 & 4: I love the Uncharted games and have finished both 1 and 2. Now that I have more time, I will try to finish 3 and 4. It may take me some time as I don't have huge amounts of time to play video games. I already have my copies of each game.
The Walking Dead Season 3: I just saw that this will be released shortly. I played the first and second seasons and am eagerly anticipating the next one. I have yet to purchase the game but will look for it as soon as I complete one or two other games on my list.
Yes I work for a video game company but I have tried to include a number of titles from other game publishers. I have also listed those games that have risen to the top of my want-to-play list. As I browsed through the catalog of video games I own and those available for video game consoles, I came across a number of games that sounded interesting but I didn't want my list to be too long. I want it to be honest. Now we will see how many of these I actually play this Christmas season.
Battlefield 1: I really enjoyed playing Battlefield 3. I tried Battlefield 4 but lost interest after about an hour. I understand that EA figured out they need compelling story lines so that Battlefield 1 is much more engaging. I already have my copy of this game and look forward to finding some time to play it.
God of War 3: I have finished playing both 1 and 2 on the PlayStation 3 so now I want to play the remastered version of 3 on the PlayStation 4. I had hoped to start this evening but am getting really tired after waking up at 4:15 this morning to catch my flight to California and may begin tomorrow. Naturally I have a copy of this game already and have had it for quite some time.
Rise of the Tomb Raider: The Tomb Raider reboot is one of my favorite video games. It is along the same lines as the Uncharted series with a female protagonist instead of a male one. Those of you with XBox One consoles have been able to play this game for the past year, while those of us that favor the PlayStation 4 console have had to wait. The exclusivity is now over so I am looking forward to picking this game up and continuing the adventure.
Steep: I am a huge fan of skiing and so I look forward to any well-done skiing or snowboarding video game. When the oppressive heat of summer kicks in, I head to my cool basement and pretend it is winter again. That will probably be the case with this Ubisoft title as I don't own it yet. However I have it on my Christmas list in the hopes that someone who loves me will get me a copy.
Uncharted 3 & 4: I love the Uncharted games and have finished both 1 and 2. Now that I have more time, I will try to finish 3 and 4. It may take me some time as I don't have huge amounts of time to play video games. I already have my copies of each game.
The Walking Dead Season 3: I just saw that this will be released shortly. I played the first and second seasons and am eagerly anticipating the next one. I have yet to purchase the game but will look for it as soon as I complete one or two other games on my list.
Yes I work for a video game company but I have tried to include a number of titles from other game publishers. I have also listed those games that have risen to the top of my want-to-play list. As I browsed through the catalog of video games I own and those available for video game consoles, I came across a number of games that sounded interesting but I didn't want my list to be too long. I want it to be honest. Now we will see how many of these I actually play this Christmas season.
Wednesday, November 30, 2016
Working from Home
This morning I sat at a cafe in Tokyo eating breakfast and looking out the window at all of the people coming from trains and heading to work. On Monday evening I got to visit one of my work colleagues that lives here in Tokyo for dinner. This morning I realized that most everyone here lives in a tall building, takes a train to another tall building, works in the tall building, takes a train home at the end of the day, only to repeat the process the next day.
Think of the infrastructure required to move everyone around and how much smaller it could be if we didn't require so many people to work in an office every day. Furthermore, think of how much cost savings there would be if you didn't require office space for everyone.
I work from home on Friday's. I chose that day of the week as it allows me to spend more consecutive time at home. Remember that I fly to work on Monday mornings and don't return home until Thursday evenings. Let's assume I have 5 people on my team and we all decide that each of us will work from home one day per week. Someone works from home on Monday, someone else on Tuesday, etc. My team no longer needs 5 work spaces at the office, we now only need 4. Of course this does have the problem that we never have the entire team in the office at any given time. However that is a problem that can be easily solved. A number of companies don't assign permanent work spaces and just provide the technology so people can move around at will.
As I sat at breakfast this morning, I wondered how many of these people really need to go to an office anyways. There are a number of jobs where people only go to an office because of tradition. There are some forward thinking companies that allow people to do their jobs from home. I have a neighbor that used to work in JetBlue's call center. She woke up every morning, logged into the system to say she was working, and took phone calls all day long from the comfort of her home. At the end of the day, she logged out of the system and stopped receiving phone calls. If a manager felt the need to monitor her work, a number of key indicators exist: number of calls answered, average length of calls, average time between calls, etc. Even then if the manager felt my neighbor wasn't doing a good job, the manager could listen in on the calls.
Call centers should be small and everyone should follow the telecommuting principle. My daughter used to work for one and she was required to go in every day. She hated it. Eventually she quit and took a different job. Now the company needs to retrain someone else and while it probably doesn't cost very much, it isn't free.
There are a number of other jobs that could offer telecommuting as an option. Technology is advancing to the point where simulated face-to-face meetings are getting better and less expensive. WebEx and GotoMeeting are a step in the right direction but they could be greatly improved simply by improving their interface for allowing multiple cameras and screens to be used. That would allow for people's faces to be viewed along with whiteboards and presentation materials.
I am a manager and feel like I need to be in the office to monitor what is happening with my team. Perhaps I am the one that needs to take a step back and figure out how my job responsibilities can be streamlined through telecommuting. I have figured out how to make 1 day per week work. My next step may be as simple as figuring out how to make it 2.
Think of the infrastructure required to move everyone around and how much smaller it could be if we didn't require so many people to work in an office every day. Furthermore, think of how much cost savings there would be if you didn't require office space for everyone.
I work from home on Friday's. I chose that day of the week as it allows me to spend more consecutive time at home. Remember that I fly to work on Monday mornings and don't return home until Thursday evenings. Let's assume I have 5 people on my team and we all decide that each of us will work from home one day per week. Someone works from home on Monday, someone else on Tuesday, etc. My team no longer needs 5 work spaces at the office, we now only need 4. Of course this does have the problem that we never have the entire team in the office at any given time. However that is a problem that can be easily solved. A number of companies don't assign permanent work spaces and just provide the technology so people can move around at will.
As I sat at breakfast this morning, I wondered how many of these people really need to go to an office anyways. There are a number of jobs where people only go to an office because of tradition. There are some forward thinking companies that allow people to do their jobs from home. I have a neighbor that used to work in JetBlue's call center. She woke up every morning, logged into the system to say she was working, and took phone calls all day long from the comfort of her home. At the end of the day, she logged out of the system and stopped receiving phone calls. If a manager felt the need to monitor her work, a number of key indicators exist: number of calls answered, average length of calls, average time between calls, etc. Even then if the manager felt my neighbor wasn't doing a good job, the manager could listen in on the calls.
Call centers should be small and everyone should follow the telecommuting principle. My daughter used to work for one and she was required to go in every day. She hated it. Eventually she quit and took a different job. Now the company needs to retrain someone else and while it probably doesn't cost very much, it isn't free.
There are a number of other jobs that could offer telecommuting as an option. Technology is advancing to the point where simulated face-to-face meetings are getting better and less expensive. WebEx and GotoMeeting are a step in the right direction but they could be greatly improved simply by improving their interface for allowing multiple cameras and screens to be used. That would allow for people's faces to be viewed along with whiteboards and presentation materials.
I am a manager and feel like I need to be in the office to monitor what is happening with my team. Perhaps I am the one that needs to take a step back and figure out how my job responsibilities can be streamlined through telecommuting. I have figured out how to make 1 day per week work. My next step may be as simple as figuring out how to make it 2.
Monday, November 28, 2016
There's an App for That
Yesterday I attended a conference in Tokyo and one of the subjects included mobile phone applications. While you can generally use a web browser to access a number of useful websites, some of them provide smartphone applications to custom tailor the user interface experience to better fit the small screen sizes. My personal preference is to use the phone's browser instead of cluttering my phone with a bunch of apps that I rarely use. This places me in a specific category of users. The point of the presentation showed how much you can learn about a person based on their smartphone app usage.
The thing that I found interesting about the presentation is how accurate of a picture can be painted about you simply based the smartphone apps you use. Similarly that same information can be gathered from the websites you visit and how you use your computer.
For most of us, this isn't a big deal as we don't really use our computers for nefarious purposes. For others, this is rather bothersome. Fortunately the examples provided in yesterday's presentation were used to categorize users in to various demographic groups for ad sales purposes. However imagine if someone were to use that information to deny insurance benefits or keep you from getting a new job. It leads me to believe that we all need to be rather careful of our digital footprint. After all, someone might discover you have a clinical addiction to chocolate-chip cookies.
The thing that I found interesting about the presentation is how accurate of a picture can be painted about you simply based the smartphone apps you use. Similarly that same information can be gathered from the websites you visit and how you use your computer.
For most of us, this isn't a big deal as we don't really use our computers for nefarious purposes. For others, this is rather bothersome. Fortunately the examples provided in yesterday's presentation were used to categorize users in to various demographic groups for ad sales purposes. However imagine if someone were to use that information to deny insurance benefits or keep you from getting a new job. It leads me to believe that we all need to be rather careful of our digital footprint. After all, someone might discover you have a clinical addiction to chocolate-chip cookies.
Friday, November 25, 2016
A Tough Thanksgiving
This has been a very tough Thanksgiving this year. It started with . . . never mind. This is the time of the year that I should really be focusing on what I am thankful for instead of worrying about what went wrong. So here is a small representation of things I am thankful for right now:
- I'm thankful that the mountains got 14 inches of news snow the day before Thanksgiving. I love to ski but I also know that we have had a couple of really bad winters and the Great Salt Lake is getting smaller. I hope we will have a few months of unnaturally wet weather that continues to fill the lake so I can sail my boat more in the summer. Extra powder in the mountains is always nice.
- I'm thankful that I got to spend the week with my family that loves to have as much fun as I do.
- I'm thankful that even though the ski resorts in Utah are not yet open (Snowbird opens tomorrow) I still got to ski every day. Sure I had to hike up the hill, but I have the correct equipment that makes it more fun than a chore.
- I'm thankful for a fun job in technology that pays me to do what most others consider play. About the only job cooler than mine would be an astronaut and those are very difficult to get.
- Finally, I'm thankful that even though I had a busy week, I got everything done that needed to be completed and can look forward to a wonderful Christmas season.
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