Thursday, August 30, 2012
Penny Pinching & Barrel Scraping – Kerbal Space Program
(Penny Pinching & Barrel Scraping is writer Lou Page’s column on low-cost indie games, bargain bin discoveries, and free games. These are not reviews but looks at hidden gems that readers may have missed our ever broadening market of video games. You can find Lou at @BusyZombieLord on Twitter)
NASA seems to have brought the world back into interest with space thanks their recent Mars Rover Mission. I have been no exception to this either and feel like I am nightly consuming Sci-fi TV and Movies like a zombie craves brains. In an attempt feed this urge I stumbled upon Kerbal Space Program from hearing Tyler Barber and Anthony Gallegos over at RebelFM marvel about it. Since they spent so much time discussing how it gave them so much more appreciation for what NASA has accomplished, I thought it might be worth a look. It has been eye-opening to say the least.
How is it eye-opening you ask? The basic idea of Kerbal Space Program is that you build realistic spacecraft to help the people of Kearth reach into the stars and beyond. With a nice Lego styled selection of parts and engines to choose from you can throw together a rocket in a few minutes or spend hours designing the perfect spaceship. Though still in the alpha stages of development Kerbal Space Program does a damn nice job of giving you near perfect idea of what kind of thought goes into a real space program. Did you put enough stabilizers to keep your rocket strait? Or are you going to send your Astronauts hurtling towards that earth at frightening speeds? All the parts count and I actually now have a new look at gravity.
Yes, I said Kearth earlier and not Earth. Part of what makes Kerbal Space Program charming is that instead of using humans, the designers decided to give you a cute human like race of green people who want space travel called Kerbals. It is much more heartwarming to see smiling green faces of a Kerbal as your rockets soars towards the heavens. I won’t lie either, it’s pretty funny to see their screaming faces when a rocket nose dives into a launch pad. Hey, don’t judge me; I know I have a sick sense of humor.
When I started my venture in Kerbal Space Program I was quite confident that it couldn’t be that hard to get a Kerbal to space. After hours of trying to get off the launch pad and then a few more watching rockets blow up in the atmosphere NASA got an applause from me. Let’s be honest they have made space travel look like child’s play considering how challenging gravity and physics make it.
All my failure was not for waste because at 1am I got Kerbals beyond the atmosphere. I can’t actually take all the credit either though. I spent an a few hours of watching a real astrophysicist demonstrating and explaining how to build and launch rocket in Kerbal Space Program. That’s right, an actual astrophysicist took the time to put demo videos on YouTube to help us common folk understand the science in Kerbal Space Program. While the developers don’t put that on front of their website they probably should! I think it might get them a few more sales and downloads.
In case you have not figured out yet, Kerbal Space Program is more than just a game. It takes simple ideas about math and science then makes you use them do something that will teach you about space and physics. Who would have thought a game about launching little green men into space could teach a 30-year-old more about physics than he ever learned in high school. In fact why isn’t this game in every science class worldwide? Try Kerbal Space Program and maybe we can get that to happen. I don’t make any promises though.
(If you missed my link above Kerbal Space Program is at http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/ )
Friday, July 20, 2012
Tragic Moments
*Warning I may say something you disagree with! Don't yell
at me, you were warned!*
Today a lone crazed moron decided to shoot up a Batman
midnight showing. It is a very tragic and a sad story. My heart truly goes out
to those that had family members involved in this tragedy.
Unfortunately, our news media doesn’t feel as sympathetic as
the rest of us. They see this as way to get viewership up and stir some more unnecessary
controversy. I read about this whole situation while getting ready for work.
Five minutes later our local news was covering it and comparing it to the Columbine
Shooting. They even went as far as to mention that this tragedy was only 30
miles from the Columbine Shooting, not just once either, they said it 4 or 5
times. Really?! Really?! Do they really think it does these families of either
event a service by dragging them though that pain again? A community had a terrible
thing happen, why can’t they just mourn for their loved ones.
If all of that is not bad enough, the talking heads of CNN,
FOX and Others dragged uninformed supposed specialists into the mix. There had
been almost no info released to the public and law enforcement couldn’t even
get into the suspects apartment because of booby-traps but by Noon, I heard 12
different people or things blamed. I mean I heard everything from Video Games,
Rush Limbaugh, The Tea Party, The NRA, Batman Comics, and more before my work
day ended. Also as of writing this I think they still have not gotten into the
guys house, let alone looked at it if they have. How do these people really
know anything besides talking out their own asses? They don’t! Whatever happened
to people just being crazy? It seems like everyone with an agenda is always
ready to jump on tragedies like this and use it as a soapbox.
What happened to facts? If you listen to the news lately, simply
finding a random YouTube video is now a confirmed source of information. It is
a sad time for anyone that wants to be an informed citizen. Between entertainment
news being major headlines and meaningless political attack ads, does any of us
really know anything in these down trodden times.
As human beings we are driven to know the Who, What, Where,
When, and Why but sometimes the Why takes time or there is no answer. Keep all of
this in mind as you search for reasons in this madness. Just remember that
there are people that lost loved ones today and that is the real thing that
matters today. Everything else comes with time and jumping to conclusions doesn’t
help anyone.
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Netflix, Qwikster, The Studios, and You (The Monkey in the Middle)
Earlier this week, like many other Netflix users, I got an email from CEO Reed Hastings saying the service was going to split its DVD and Streaming Services. At first I checked my calendar to make sure April fool’s was happening twice this year…no such luck. Then I read the fine print, and saw that the new DVD service was not going to communicate with the streaming service either. That really bummed me out at first, but with time to think about it, might all be a really good idea…or at least an attempt at doing something better for us.
According the email, all Netflix users were upset at the announced price increases earlier this year and that’s what prompted this splitting of services. I don’t doubt this is true since most Americans are attempting to tighten their purse strings, but I believe that this is only part of the issues behind the decision.
A few months to a year back, Netflix had to announce their income, making this once small Internet start-up, prove just how profitable video streaming could be. Since then, Studios and TV networks have been trying to bully Netflix into paying more for their content or putting delays on the time frames in which content can be released. For us the consumers, we might have to wait an extra month before that new movie come to us by mail. Personally I can wait the extra month and I think Studios are fooling themselves if they think I will buy the movie instead of waiting on Netflix. If I felt that strongly about a movie, I would have seen it in theaters. But I digress from my point. Netflix has made some serious bank last year, and everyone who made less is shoving their weight around for a piece of their pie. Movie studios have a tendency to feel entitled if you make a lot of money on their “content”. For a comparison to this situation just look at movie theater prices in the last few years and tell me that its theaters being greedy, I highly doubt it.
As you can now see, Netflix is in a predicament with us the customers mad at price increases and Studios demanding more money. To top all that off, a decrease in profit for next year with drive their investors away too. This situation does not bed well for anyone but especially us the consumer.
Pundits and News organizations have made lots of comments this week about how silly this decision is and how this could be the end of Netflix. I think most of them are way off target on what’s really going on here. I have heard people speculating that Netflix will try to sell their new Qwikster service because they are going to cut out the shipping of physical media. This is way off, because broadband issues are still huge in this country and with current legislation they won’t be getting better anytime soon. Plus they are talking about adding games to the new service. That does not sound like a company looking to rid it’s self of physical media to me. Also people have commented on how the name sounds weird or rushed, but I think it was meant as dig at Gamefly. They can’t use the term “Flix” if they provide games as well but they can demonstrate how much faster they can be. Gamefly has had a reputation of being slower than Netflix over the years. I think the new name is a smear at who will soon be their new competition. Personally I think it is great because competition is always good for us.
This too is also another small part of what is really going on. I think the real story goes back to the Studios bullying Netflix for more money. Right now the cost of the streaming service and mail service are part of the same pool of money. When Netflix announced their profits this year, I am willing to surmise streaming only makes about 25% of them. The fact that a recent study on internet usage showed that 30% of traffic is Netflix streaming has freaked everyone out. People now believe that it is the source of all Netflix’s income. I personally pay more for the discs I get than the streaming half of the service, so I call bull on those ideas. By splitting the services Netflix is giving itself the ability to push back on Studios by showing just how little profit comes from streaming. It may not look like it right now, but in a year’s time I bet their will much more content on streaming and we will owe most of that to Qwikster.
While only time will tell us the real story, I think Netflix is intelligent company, who is here for the long haul. Even though it might not look like it now, I think that our streaming future is here to stay and Studios will need to adjust to our demands as a changing populace. It does not look like it now but I think the real winner in the end will be consumers.
Source- USAToday - http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2011-05-17-netflix-internet-traffic_n.htm
Source- Netflix Blog- http://blog.netflix.com/2011/09/explanation-and-some-reflections.html
According the email, all Netflix users were upset at the announced price increases earlier this year and that’s what prompted this splitting of services. I don’t doubt this is true since most Americans are attempting to tighten their purse strings, but I believe that this is only part of the issues behind the decision.
A few months to a year back, Netflix had to announce their income, making this once small Internet start-up, prove just how profitable video streaming could be. Since then, Studios and TV networks have been trying to bully Netflix into paying more for their content or putting delays on the time frames in which content can be released. For us the consumers, we might have to wait an extra month before that new movie come to us by mail. Personally I can wait the extra month and I think Studios are fooling themselves if they think I will buy the movie instead of waiting on Netflix. If I felt that strongly about a movie, I would have seen it in theaters. But I digress from my point. Netflix has made some serious bank last year, and everyone who made less is shoving their weight around for a piece of their pie. Movie studios have a tendency to feel entitled if you make a lot of money on their “content”. For a comparison to this situation just look at movie theater prices in the last few years and tell me that its theaters being greedy, I highly doubt it.
As you can now see, Netflix is in a predicament with us the customers mad at price increases and Studios demanding more money. To top all that off, a decrease in profit for next year with drive their investors away too. This situation does not bed well for anyone but especially us the consumer.
Pundits and News organizations have made lots of comments this week about how silly this decision is and how this could be the end of Netflix. I think most of them are way off target on what’s really going on here. I have heard people speculating that Netflix will try to sell their new Qwikster service because they are going to cut out the shipping of physical media. This is way off, because broadband issues are still huge in this country and with current legislation they won’t be getting better anytime soon. Plus they are talking about adding games to the new service. That does not sound like a company looking to rid it’s self of physical media to me. Also people have commented on how the name sounds weird or rushed, but I think it was meant as dig at Gamefly. They can’t use the term “Flix” if they provide games as well but they can demonstrate how much faster they can be. Gamefly has had a reputation of being slower than Netflix over the years. I think the new name is a smear at who will soon be their new competition. Personally I think it is great because competition is always good for us.
This too is also another small part of what is really going on. I think the real story goes back to the Studios bullying Netflix for more money. Right now the cost of the streaming service and mail service are part of the same pool of money. When Netflix announced their profits this year, I am willing to surmise streaming only makes about 25% of them. The fact that a recent study on internet usage showed that 30% of traffic is Netflix streaming has freaked everyone out. People now believe that it is the source of all Netflix’s income. I personally pay more for the discs I get than the streaming half of the service, so I call bull on those ideas. By splitting the services Netflix is giving itself the ability to push back on Studios by showing just how little profit comes from streaming. It may not look like it right now, but in a year’s time I bet their will much more content on streaming and we will owe most of that to Qwikster.
While only time will tell us the real story, I think Netflix is intelligent company, who is here for the long haul. Even though it might not look like it now, I think that our streaming future is here to stay and Studios will need to adjust to our demands as a changing populace. It does not look like it now but I think the real winner in the end will be consumers.
Source- USAToday - http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2011-05-17-netflix-internet-traffic_n.htm
Source- Netflix Blog- http://blog.netflix.com/2011/09/explanation-and-some-reflections.html
Source- Wired- http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2011/04/netflix-profit-up/
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