MMOGs Get Interesting

INFO TECHNOLOGY: This has to be a first. The Massive Multiplayer Online Game (MMOG) Star Wars Galaxies, was the site of civil unrest, protest, and finally civil disobedience recently. Since the reports are only on message boards and in highly localized language, here's my synopsis:



A few players found an exploit that allowed them to forge game currency (called 'credits'). After making a lot of cash, the players started distributing it to other players that didn't know it was forged. After catching on to the whole affair, Sony (the company who manages the game) decided to make a rash decision and ban all players with forged credits, regardless of whether they knew they were forged or not. Of course, this pissed the community off, so a bunch of friends of the banned players gathered and formed a protest which consisted of large groups of people gathered in an area, spamming the console with all caps messages demanding justice from Sony.







So how does Sony respond? They threaten to shut the whole server off. After unsuccessfully trying to stop the madness by teleporting the protestors to other areas (or possibly purgatory areas, I'm not sure), they made good on their threat and cut off the entire server.



Find the message boards surrounding the incident here, here, here, here, and view a screen shot of a consol here.



In other MMOG news, check out Wired News' article about gamers outsourcing their gaming to poorer countries.

For example, entrepreneur Valery Markarov said he pays workers in Russia a base salary of about $100 per week to earn in-game money, which Markarov then sells to Internet Gaming Entertainment, or IGE, the major seller of virtual goods. Workers get paid more as they're more productive, though, and could make up to $500 a week, he said.



"It's very good money for them, especially for Russia," Markarov said.

(via Terra Nova)

Money (The Proper Noun, not the Noun)

INTERFACES: Of all of the bad interfaces Microsoft has ever made (yeah, including Microsoft Bob) Money has to be among the worst.



(By the way, Microsoft, you really need to come up with a new way of naming programs and projects. I'm so fucking sick of the literalness of programs called Word, Money, Explorer, Internet Explorer, Word, and Project. It's just not ok unless it's a tiny app, like Calculator. Why not add a little character to your programs' names like you did with Excel, and Visio (well, I know you didn't come up with Visio's name, but still, good job)?)



Wow, a double parenthetical digression. Yikes! I apologize, but it had to be said.



Back to Money's interface, look at this train wreck! Every time I open it to do simple stuff like balance my checkbook or check my investments -- stuff that should take a few simple clicks -- I'm greeted with this migraine inducing salmagundi. (10 point word, w00t!)







This is nothing short of gratuitous orgy of links and graph congestion. Who knew there was so much to be done! Here's a nice little outtake of some of my Money options (yes these really are on the money front-page):

* Calculate the value of kitchen remodeling. (Money, you know I rent! Tease!)



* See how much you can save (Save on what? How much I could put in savings? I've no clue...)



* Should you change your IRA to a Roth? (Good question, too bad I have a 401k, not an IRA. Again, you should know this, Money!)



* Estimate my home's value (I rent, Money, I rent.)



* Tax IQ Test (Yay! Tax test! How fun is that?)



* How do I improve my Lifetime Plan? (Um, I have a Lifetime plan?)



* Is it time to refinance? (God, I'm fucked, I don't own and I don't have a lifetime plan. Where am I going in life?!? I'm so depressed. I hate you, Money.)

Gah, what a mess. And yes, I could get rid a lot of these options, but I shouldn't have to. Does anyone know if Apple makes a money program? I would love to buy it if it makes finances as easy as it makes MP3 management.



Moral of the story: everyone needs an editor. Even UI designers.

Best Buy Bashing

INFO TECHNOLOGY: A post over at Engadget has turned into a bona fide Best Buy Hate-Fest. The comments are an entertaining and informative (if anecdotal) read.

* I get the feeling they systematically ignore a certain percentage of the rebates.



* They kicked me out of a Best Buy last fall for trying to purchase 3 telephones at the same time. They accused me of being a reseller.



* these guys are arseholes. i bought a laptop there last year, the guy said it had usb 2.0 and build in wireless. guess which of the two it had? if you guessed usb 2.0, or wireless, youre wrong!



* I bought both Apex and Morrowind at Best Buy, and had to return bpth. They were scratched to the point that they wouldnt play, and the map that comes with Morrowind had what looked like a coffee stain on it...



* i absolutely REFUSE to buy a computer from best buy. a) they are all teenagers who don't have a clue b) they just want your money c) things are better in threes.



* has anyone else noticed everyone has jacked up the prices of dvds?!!



* It was worse enough being asked 3 times if I wanted to buy a $50 warrenty for a $40 printer, but now I'm constantly hassled with "help" that I don't need and surveys that I don't want to take.

And here's the most interesting post (even if it's completely unverifiable):

As a former employee of the computer department of a Best Buy in Toronto I can say with certainty that their open box products are not of high quality. I would frequently catch my seniors and supervisors throwing products in boxes missing cables and manuals, discounting 5-10% off and still claiming that it was the exact same as a new product, only returned. Aside from that, if we were out of stock on a new item we would sell the open box item for the price of the new item.



As far as extended warranties, if you were sales staff and not constantly selling them you would get fired. Warranties are the huge profit that they make (aside from technical services). On their sales charts, they even have separate columns for percentage of service plan of the total sales. During meetings and throughout the day, low-level sales associates were constantly harangued about pushing more PSP to "boost the numbers".

Beck, Pharrell, Jay-Z; Trifecta-Perfecta

DATA: Illegal music never sounded so tight. Check out this mash up of Beck and Pharrell.







It's a explosion of falsetto perfection.



Enjoying this song being illegal in violation of copyright law, I can't see how the current laws can be good in any reasonable person's view.



Check Reset Music for more great mash ups. Great summer music. Get it now before the corporate overlords deem this music too good to enjoyed with no consumer-raping involved.

Swift Asshats for Four More Years of Insanity

INFO VISUALIZATION: The New York Times has a graph showing connections between those vile tools, "The Swift Boat Veterans for ..." -- you know, I'm not going to repeat that name one more time -- those guys and the Bush family.







You can also read the corresponding article.

Visualizing Disk Space

INFO VISUALIZATION: Filelight is an interesting KDE program for visualizing the size of a given directory. Check out this example image:







The first ring around the "doughnut hole" is divided into color coded sections that represent the first subdirectories and their size relative to one another. So, in this example, the entire ring represents 31 megabytes. The next ring out represents the size of subsequent subdirectories and so on.



Overall I like this idea, I wish I could use this on my windows box to free up some space. It certainly beats what I do now -- search for all files over 100 Megabytes and delete anything I don't need anymore. This system of viewing the size of directories rather then files could be more useful for a lot of projects that have a deep file structure.



But the radial nature poses some problems. The biggest issue here is that smaller subdirectories appear much larger then parent directories -- which actually should be represented with larger shapes. This is just the nature of the program since each consecutive ring, although much larger in area, represents the same size. In this case, each complete ring is 31 Megabytes, even though the last ring is several times larger.



Also, I find it a bit counterintuitive that the size of files in any particular directory are not represented (or represented as white space) rather then an extension of their respective directory. This makes it more useful in a context where only the directory size is informative.



And the circular nature brings up the same problems as does the pie-chart. (Ahhh, the pie chart. So loved by MBAs; so hated by everyone else.) Speaking of pie-charts, here's one of my favorite Tufte quotes:

Pie charts make your viewers stupid; pie charts also say that you don't know anything about data. Use a table.

You can view a nice short discussion on "Ask Tufte" about pie-charts' failings here. Also, check out a thread that suggests the use of Nightingale Rose charts (which are interesting, but still less useful then a normalized histogram IMHO).

That Other Network...

DATA: I've been digging around online today to find if there's anything along I-90 between Seattle and New York City that might spruce up the drive. And, as usual, I'm finding a ton of other interesting information while I'm looking, but not finding the info I really need. (Like, say, I-90 is the longest interstate in America, or that Alaska as no interstates at all.) I never realized there were so many resources for information on the interstate system online.







First a little background: The interstate system will mark it's 50th year in 2006. Why was it built? Well, it was sold to the public as a national security precaution: interstates could be used to evacuate large cities in case of an impending nuclear attack. Of course, we all realize now that that's a joke (you think traffic is bad now, try getting somewhere with the threat of impending doom creeping up behind you and every other road-rager on the street).



As for that wacky numbering system, here's the naming conventions to remember:

* One or two digit even-numbered Interstates are always east-west routes. The numbers increase from the south (I-4) to the north (I-96).



* One or two digit odd-numbered Interstates are always north-south routes. The numbers increase from the West Coast (I-5) to the East Coast (I-95).



* Three digit Interstates with the first digit an even number are usually circular loops or "beltways" around cities (eg. I-405 breaks away from I-5 around Seattle, Portland, and LA)



* Three digit Interstates with the first digit an odd number are usually "spurs" that leave or go into a city center. (eg. I-395 in Washington D.C.)

Of course, there is an exception to the rules: I238. A two mile bit of interstate in California named after it's highway predecessor, not by the normal naming conventions. (No, there's not an Interstate 38.)



Anyway, for two nice (but poorley scanned) maps that show the major East/West and North/South routes in the States, check out Newbie Driver.









The best resource for all sorts of random Interstate information has to be The Interstate Guide.



But anyway, back to I-90: The fastest way to get from Safeco Stadium in Seattle...







...to Logan International Airport in Boston...







...on wheels (recently extended by the big-dig). 3,021 miles long. (London to Baghdad by air is only 2,543 miles long.)



The busiest parts of the I-90, by Annual Average Daily Traffic (AADT) are:

State - Location - AADT Comp. - Year

Washington - Seattle - 150,600 - 2002

New York - Buffalo - 143,300 - 2002

New York - Albany - 120,700 - 2002

Massachus. - Weston - 119,006 - 2000

Washington - Spokane - 107,000 - 2002

Massachus. - Boston - 104,507 - 2000

I-90 is busier in Spokane then Boston? Strange. Still, think 150,000 cars an average day is a lot? Check out I-5:

State - Location - AADT Comp. - Year

California - Lake Fores. - 356,000 - 2002

California - Santa Ana - 314,000 - 2002

California - LA - Paico. - 302,000 - 2002

Washington - Seattle - 294,000 - 2002

California - LA - 291,000 - 2002

California - San Diego - 262,000 - 2002

Here's a nice graph depicting the traffic level of I-5 all the way from Mexico to Canada:







Last, but not least, if you need a listing of the signs that exist at every I-90 exit in New York State, visit this d00d's website. I wish they had a website like this for the entire nation.



I'm amazed. What an insane amount of pavement. Now if our government would just put a little more attention to faster, safer technology, like bullet trains, we'd be set for the next couple hundred years... until we get that global vacuum bullet train thingy worked out.

All Eyes On Google

DATA: Check out the intraday at Yahoo.

Data Parade

INFO SCIENCE:Random happenings today:



*Check out the worst diagram ever.







*The rich get richer; poor stay just as poor. Surprise of surprises!







*How to create a model of a city.







*Study on car alarms in the city. Verdict: get rid of them.







*Crazy Yale economist predicts Bush victory, says that war, civil-rights, and anything but the economy doesn't matter in presidential elections. (My vote: he's a nut.)

Labor Day Data

DATA: Some interesting data about labor and Labor Day have been posted over at the Census Bureau.

Early, Lonely and Long: the Journey to Work

25.4 million: Number of commuters who leave for work between midnight and 6:29 a.m. These early birds represent 20 percent of all workers and were, by the time of day they left home, the fastest-growing group of commuters between 1990 and 2000.