Nintendo actually has come up with a good idea!!

	Remember Nintendo?! I sure do!! Here was this company that not only rode the crest of a new generation but was instrumental in creating it ... not just once, but I reckon about 5 times now. But what does Nintendo hold for this new generation? It's small, brilliant and absolute genius!
Winter is coming Nintendo, for all their faults, have always been pioneers. Let me just list some of their successes: Game & Watch Nintendo Entertainment System Super Nintendo Gameboy Wii Every one of the above platforms were not only super-successful, but actually changed a generation... think about it, most everyone reading this was probably born in the Nintendo generation... if we didn't have the Wii we wouldn't have the Kinect and some could even argue mobile phone if there were no Gameboy... Goldeneye was instrumental in making first person shooters mainstream. But there have been misses too... and every one of those seems to be because it wasn't innovative.. except Virtual Boy.. that's a different story though :) The failures have cost them big too! So what will they do now?
Action Figures!! My girlfriend bought Skylanders for her nephew and I was intrigued at the concept of integrating figurines with gameplay... what a concept right? you can play the game, but figures give you power-ups, just the same as getting specific baseball cards of Magic the Gathering cards or finding the right Pokemon. Also... Nintendo have a back-catalogue of characters that are iconic!! I mean there are stores in Japan dedicated to these characters and figurines are already a very big part of their business... even Rovio report that half their profits are based on Toy sales rather than actual game sales so this could be a huge step forward for Nintendo...
What I would do... So Nintendo's ACTUAL strategy isn't quite clear yet... personally what I would do is the following: Make their games small... like tiny.. games that don't need a HUGE amount of time to play. Follow what Google's doing their their Chromecast and have a small device that you plug directly into the TV with a wireless card integrated into it. The figurine IS the game... so when you are buying a "game" it's actually a figurine that transfers it's data wirelessly to your Chromecast-style console plugged into your TV.  Any figurine can be a character in ANY game... that would be awesome... Each game can have many figurines which can change the perspective of the game or give different power-ups. Have "special" figurines that are like collectible cards. Why this is brilliant I'm going to summarize why this is genius!! Kids are attracted to toys.  Companies LOVE to put toys in the face of a child for an upsell. People love to collect things. Gamers like to buy a physical game, not download one. Nintendo have bright characters that have not changed in years. Nintendo games are addictive and simple.
Don't agree? think this is all a load of dribble? post a comment :) Cheers, Rhodesie

Baidu and things to come

Remember the movie "Things to Come" I sure do :) If you are new to my blogs then you will now know that's pretty much how I start things :) but this is true... Baidu is the future. Here is a site that is Hotmail, Google, Facebook and Dropbox all rolled into one but no-one in the western society has access to it and you have to be a Chinese citizen to join!!

Now I am from Australia.. yes please feel free to insert any shrimp on the barbie jokes,...but honestly I have occupied main streets via protests over the the past 20 years to make sure our Internet is free from any government or global company interference (fingers crossed it doesn't change) but recently I have been disheartened with the interaction I have had with Chinese internet sites. I had been asked to check out some LED controller device from a friend which I could pass RS232 commands to BUT no site was telling what those commands were? All Google searches (not Bing... let's be serious now) we're pointing me to Baidu site which I tied to join but it was telling me I had to be in Mainland China? Being in Australia, I know the influence China has on our society...especially in Western Australia... now if this is a microcosm of western society, imagine if Facebook, Google and Microsoft (skype, sydrive, xbox one) were to merge over the next 10 years... just imagine Pfffftttt!!! Jut another dev.... Rhodesie

Pterodactyl Terror Redux

Remember the Lawnmower Man movie? I sure do!! I couldn't wait to immerse myself into a metaverse once previously imagined in books and screen... But then again... remember Pterodactyl Terror???? yuh... killed it for me :\

God damn it!!! I was one of the first in line to play Pterodactly Terror when I was like 12. I waited in line for half a day, paid $30 for 10 minutes and I must say un-impressed... even worst I waited in line for like 2 hours to play Doom 2 with a headset only to have a burnt retina and a sore neck from both experiences... Where did they go wrong? I'll tell you, little innovation and no immersion... Remember reading Neuromancer?... fuck it... Forget that... I was going to go on a rant but let's think POSITIVE!!! Oculus Rift Praise be to the Oculus Rift!! Here is a device that was born out of Kickstarter, then got the support from the greatest game developer (be it in the 90's.. who hasn't had a decent hit since doom 2...soz but true!!) behind it, the biggest social media engine behind it, the most adapted game development engine... shit even the Mythbusters are behind it?! So why is it so good?? check this shit out... just stuff I've seen... Mythbusters Weird Yolo So it's a virtual reality headset that plugs into a computer which gives you an immersive environment over your head to play games.... or whatever you can throw at it.... what could possibly go wrong? Oooooohhhhhh!!! But what is this?? Sony is coming into the foray? This reminds me of Nintendo and Sony back in the day?  Literally watching the video is like reading the bits from the bible which begat everyone back to Adam... but here we are... apparently...but no actual footage right?? yuh... sure... they have shit-all!! But don't discount them... I am sure they will come out with something if need be ;) So where are we now? I'll tell you... have to pay rent so I can't pay for the friggin' dev kit!!! Man sooooooooo want this thing eh!! But all jokes aside, here is a good platform but a HARD sell. VERY hard sell. Think about it... you have to tell someone that they have to put a device in front of their eyes, that restricts their view, that turns them off society at large and immerses themselves into something outside of their lives for every waking second they have...wait...Facebook bought this right? yuh... makes sense :) average consumer? not so much in my mind... But no seriously, they are going to have to make a second-life kind of thing that kicks ass... and I mean kicks ass!!!  BUT things they will need to consider: CAD style VRML binary files interchanged over the internet... not quite sure how but needed...an ISO standard;) by the way (BTW) I know VRML is old....but so am I and I don't know the current equivalent lol!! Lag....always with the lag... I had thought about this BEFORE I saw this , but hey... what'cha gonna do...NBN ain't here yet and not gonna be here any time soon :) Content...OK so if this is no longer JUST a gaming device and Facebook have their own agenda, are they going to open this up to other platforms or are they going to open this up for other suppliers that are faithful to Facebook Corp? Is this going to be an ISO standard? Facebook haven't had much like with the likes of schema.org etc.,... so who would they open it up to? Would they charge? Will they have their own API? Time will tell : I don't know... I really want to know where this ends... I see the videos and I want it.. maybe I am thinking of lawnmower man, maybe i'm just optimistic of the future.... I don't know... but I want to see what happens to this remarkable technology...  I must admit, I have gone through ID software's code and I am sure as shit I can pick out Carkmack's code... If I am right then it is beautiful and complex and if it was an art-form then it would be on-par with some of the greatest artists of the past 200 years... beautiful in other words... just a remarkable mix of C and ASM.. lost among most... which is why I think Oculus will survive... Just my two cents :) Cheers, Rhodesie

Startup...just watch

You know... I have been to a few startup/kickstarter kind of meetings locally in the past few months and they talk about alot of stuff that I just don't understand... Firstly, they say that the customer will adapt to what you are displaying to them, secondly, they will buy into what you sell them because of their online habits and thirdly...they are just idiots who have no idea.. and in every meeting I always think of this Youtube video from Steve Jobs:

Steve Jobs Heckled

Let me tell you story..a Bill Cosby moment if you will

When I was 12 I started working in a video shop... I know, it's a dead industry but my manager was extremely wise... she said that if you treat the customer with respect they will come back and they will be loyal... it sounds ludicrous.... but it's true.

I don't know if you remember or not, but in Australia a new release movie back in 1998 was $7- overnight... stupid prices I know... but Blockbuster and other video retailers were charging below 50% of the price but STILL could not cover leasing and eventually died out... Blockbuster doesn't exist in Australia anymore.

In my area, the only video shop that has survived is the one I worked at...do you now why? I will tell you... we said "hello" and "good bye" to the the customer.... how simple, we we're courteous, we we're direct and we we're honest. If they could get a better deal by getting another weekly movie we told them if they paid their late fee they could get a free popcorn we told them... in fact we made sure that their visit was the best experience possible... that's customer service people.. and I have a certificate to prove it lol ;)

Giving people everything for nothing is not the answer, treating people like people IS the answer. Customer service is God and that's what consumerism is all about.

That's my two-cents...

Rhodesie

Micro-machines

	Remember when you wanted a robot when you were a kid? I sure do, STILL do but more importantly I think it was the appeal of playing around with wires and transistors etc., like a mad professor that took my fancy more. Short-cut to 2014 and here I am, a semi grown-up man, looking into getting an Arduino or a Raspberry PI... or even this new Spark So, like always, I went trawling through the internet for information on these great little devices and wow I am absolutely blown away by what I have found...
Raspberry PI For something around the size of a cassette tape and weighing bugger all, this machine is pretty powerful. It boasts a pretty powerful CPU, 512MB of RAM and up to 16g in SD RAM you can make some pretty impressive things. Big future for this in real-world devices that need a bit of computing power for critical decision making e.g., pumps.
Arduino You know, I reckon one day this thing will replace LEGO...unlike the PI mentioned previously, this is a micro-controller rather than a full blown mini-PC. The real strength of this device is in the accessories you can get for it. Add a 3D printer in with this thing and you watch the popularity of this device explode!!
Spark Man spark sounds like a GREAT idea! a micro-controller that is accessible via the web without any special programming, just an AJAX/REST interface... so simple, so easy endless possibilities... this little device is touted as being the next big thing for the "internet of things"
So will any of these make a robot? nah not really... besides I will leave that to Honda, they seem to have all that covered quite nicely :) Cheers, Rhodesie