ApacheCon Day 0

My headache *still* won't go away.

Several sessions today; some good, some not. I found Dave Johnson's talk on Roller pretty informative, and Greg Stein's talk on open source licensing was gratifying (although it was pointed out that he knew 3/4 of the people in the room and he was shamelessly preaching to the choir). Talking to him afterward, it seems that he doesn't know of anybody other than me who does both FSF and ASF. I've gone into this stupid schism before, but it still surprises me that I'm mostly alone on talking about how important it is for the two largest free software communities to find more common ground. How is it not obvious to other people, especially the ones smarter than me?

Other random highlights: chatting up someone in French, shocking them; the keysigning party, which attracted way more photographers than I was expecting (i.e., a number greater than 0); several enjoyable and informative chats with Google people; taking a close look at Abdera; Doc Searls' interesting and amusing keynote. I'm glad that some other people try to inject humor and entertainment into powerpoints, which are man's latest and most promising result in the search for something to bore others to death.

In between sessions, Bjorn and I are going to sneak off to the aquarium, which I've heard is something I need to see. Apparently whale sharks are cool.

ApacheCon Day -1 (Hackathon Day 1)

Well, if you have a productivity binge, you're likely to fall off the next day. And I did. Feeling sick doesn't help either.

On the plus side, I did get the chance to research a lot of Apache projects. And the Android SDK is sitting on my hard drive giving me the most seductive come-hither eyes. Why do I see myself spending lots of time in there?

I did meet Glen Daniels of WSO2, who's a nice guy, so I have to mention that.

More later; busy day lined up.

Easy hydrogen?

From Wired comes the story about a group of Penn State researchers that have developed a method to encourage bacteria to extract hydrogen gas from ordinary biodegradation.

Aside from being cool, it offers me a chance to say what I've become convinced is the greatest long-term problem for humanity: energy. You may have noticed the price of gas skyrocketing. While part of the reason is the idiocy in the Middle East, many people don't realize that the U.S. imports most of its oil from Canada and Mexico, the latter of which is a member of OPEC. The prices are climbing for us not because our suppliers are running dry but because demand for oil is rising rapidly worldwide. China's economy, which is growing almost 10% per year, is industrializing at a mind-boggling rate; India isn't far behind. With almost 2.5 billion people in those two countries alone, the demand for oil and coal has only started and isn't near peaking.

As most people who aren't deeply and pathologically insane will admit, fossil fuels are limited resources. Oil is the most popular source of energy simply because it is the most profitable for those who control it. Up to this point in human history, the use of oil has a positive energy coefficient; it takes less energy to get it out of the ground than it produces when combusted. As we use more and more oil, it will become harder to find, and we'll have to dig deeper, invent new technology, distill it from shale, etc. The common problem is that all of these approaches require more energy than simply building a derrick on an easy-to-tap oil reservoir a few hundred feet down. At some point -- no one agrees exactly when -- the energy coefficient will degrade to break-even, and it will no longer be useful to extract the remaining oil.

At that point, we are, to put it bluntly, fucked.

Hydrogen is one of the possible solutions. It's extremely powerful stuff; when combusted, it provides much more energy than an equivalent weight of oil, and if we ever figure out how to do fuel cells cheaply, a ready supply of hydrogen would go a long way toward solving small-use energy needs. The discovery of a process that produces hydrogen from simple organic matter without requiring other energy could be, if it pans out large-scale, a long step toward avoiding oil judgment day. Hydrogen as a fuel source has problems, of course; it's unstable, it's hard to transport and store, and the technology to use it in car-sized engines is still in prototype stage. But if we could be assured that we could have all of it we ever wanted, figuring out how to make its use safe and efficient is just an engineering problem. That's a problem we can solve.

At some point, I'll talk about why nuclear power is the best hope for the world's large-scale energy needs. I expect to piss off a lot of people when I do that.

ApacheCon Day -2 (Hackathon Day 0)

First time at ApacheCon, and things are getting off to a quieter start than I'd expected. I had Apache nerds pegged as a tamer, calmer sort than IT or video game nerds (the stories about the E3 Tecmo parties have sent many a frantic fundie running off in terror), and the day in the Peachtree Ballroom was all business.

I don't recognize half of the people here. Most of them seem to know each other, and as the day slipped into night (POETRY, IT IS), the conversations got a little more animated and for some reason turned to economic policy. I kept my mouth shut for most of the time, figuring that I had enough opportunities to look like a dolt this week and that there was no need to burn through all of them on the first day.

I'm happy to say that much productive work was done; I updated several Validator issues and then Henri, Bjorn and I powered through the 2.4 outstanding issues. Benevolent soul that he is, Henri pulled down ten enhancements from 3.0 that he thought made sense for 2.4, and we spent most of the night going through those. It's a pile of work, and I'm proud of it, even though my contributions were mostly limited to formatting patches and giving a +1 rubber stamp to Henri's mad committer antics.

The trip has not agreed with me; I feel bleary and sick in my stomach. I haven't eaten poorly unless you count some disappointing Merlot the fine folks at devzuz were kind enough to provide us. Hopefully I'll get some good sleep tonight, have another awesome Southern breakfast, and then squeeze the sponge for a few more drips of Open Source commitment.

Seriously, I'm glad I'm here. I think the best is coming.

Guitar Hero III quick hits

Rather than writing a long and possibly sucky review, I'll just go with the important points. (I got the 360 version, if it matters to you.)

High fives

• The new wireless guitar controller is a big improvement. Yes, wireless is always better, but this baby has a more solid feel to it and a stout, thick neck that is actually a reasonable facsimile of a real Les Paul (one of which I happen to own). Much more comfortable to play and hold, and connects to the 360 with zero problems.
• Track list is well-rounded. There's something for everybody, and the bonus songs aren't writeoffs.
• It looks really good in HD.
  

Turn your head and cough:

• Battle mode is fucking retarded. You can throw powerdowns at the other player that you earn by hitting Star Power-like streaks. They range in effectiveness from mildly annoying (upping the difficulty level of the song) to bullshit and cheese sandwiches (double note, lefty flip, etc.) The game randomly picks which powerdown you get, introducing a very unwelcome element of luck into the nice pure game of skill. To make things even better, the three battles you're forced to do in career mode interrupt the flow; the AI never misses notes unless it's suffering a powerdown, and it always seems to know when to hit you with one. Frustrating as hell and zero fun. Fuck you, Neversoft.
• Art direction. There's a lot of color in this game. A LOT. Venues are bigger but not better; blinding wouldn't be a bad description. The character art ranges from silly to ridiculous, and not in the fun way. A new Japanese girl rocker wears eye-hurting shades of intense pink or green. Judy Nails has been turned into some kind of ugly-ass goth wannabe. Casey's now an anorexic Lindsay Lohan lookalike. Lars' spikes and shoulder pads are now bigger than he is. While Harmonix knew how to design for humor and silliness while still retaining a subtle sense of taste, Neversoft has adopted "louder is better" and thrown any sense of proportion to the winds. It's just lame.
• Co-op career is a nice touch, but why the hell can't we do it online?
• We're on Guitar Hero game #4, and pausing STILL split-second freezes in the middle of the song? Who thought this was a good idea? It makes pausing worthless, since you're forced to miss notes unless you're in a dead spot in the song. Would it kill them to give you a two-count back in or something? Of all the shit Neversoft chose to fuck with, they decided to leave in this idiocy.
• Is it really necessary to throw big wiggly "50 Note Streak!" and "100 Note Streak!" text at us while we're playing? All it does is distract you. Basic rule of interface here, people: a popup is designed to interrupt the workflow and get the user's attention. This is a GAME -- his attention needs to be on the note chart and should not be interfered with. If the user wants to know what his streak is, he can see it under his score. The popups don't need to be there.
• The approach is starting to get a bit old. The next game needs some serious rethinking. Maybe Rock Band is going to be that game, but since Guitar Hero is now a cash cow, Activision's interest in tweaking the game (and possibly annoying the legions of Don't-Change-It-Ever) is probably close to zero.
  

Well, who am I kidding really? When I'm not yelling at the screen for fucking with me in another battle, I'm enjoying the hell out of this game. If you're a Guitar Hero fan, it's a no-brainer purchase. If you're not one yet, it's hard to argue against this purchase, especially if you want a good controller to start with.

**** (4/5, irritating flaws and lack of anything really new remove perfection from its desperate clutch)

Shameless plug

I recently managed to maneuver Commons Email 1.1 through the release gauntlet, and since it's the first thing at Apache that I've taken all the way to the finish, I feel the need to announce it here. P.R. is best when it comes from completely compromised sources.

If you've ever wanted to do anything with email in Java, you owe it to yourselves to check it out and see if it helps. Bugs, feature requests, angry letters, and invitations to box socials are all welcome.

halo3.moveon.net

I just can't let it go.

Yahtzee's latest Zero Punctuation, to no one's surprise, takes aim at Halo 3. While it's gratifying to see that someone who actually gets paid to blather about video games takes a stance quite similar to mine, it also reinforces the lonely realization that the determined few of us who dare to question the orthodoxy of Halo 3's Supreme Greatness are not going to be seen as the cold-blooded geniuses we are for some time, if ever.

Aside from the world-against-us feeling, which is always invigorating, what do I care if some basement-dwelling fanboys rip anyone who suggests Halo 3 has not been the best game ever conceived and delivered to the sweaty hands of man?

Part of the problem is that 3's multiplayer, which apparently was what I was supposed to buy and use nonstop, has become an excuse for the shortcomings of the singleplayer campaign. This annoys the hell out of me. Several people have tried to explain this away in a few different tacks:

• "Oh, come on, Halo's really about the multiplayer anyway. No one cares about the singleplayer". Funny, that's not what the pre-release hype was all about. Anybody remember "Finish the Fight"?
  
• "You have to understand the backstory from the first two games in order to really appreciate what happens in the third". Weak. This is the first Halo game on the 360, and there are going to be people who haven't played 1 or 2 that want to try 3 just to see what all the fuss is about. Are we really expecting those people to play 20 hours' worth of backstory before we pronounce them ready to enjoy the current game? Why not craft a compelling story that can stand on its own but also rewards longtime fans? Valve does this with Half-Life, Bethesda does it with Elder Scrolls, and even Bungie did it with Halo 2 (a game that has been retroactively rising in my esteem these days). This argument smacks too much of navel-gazing comic book nerds who yell at you if you don't read all your comics in chronological order, and it deserves no more respect.
• "At least they tried to do a story, unlike some other games that don't even pretend to". They damn well better have a story, since Bungie has always had decent stories with their games (going back to Marathon and Durandal). They spent a lot of time in 2 developing characters, story arcs, and deepening considerably our understanding of the Covenant, the Arbiter, the Marines, and the Flood. Fanboy reaction to this was admittedly negative, so Bungie seems to have decided that time spent on the story was wasted since gamers specifically rejected that part of 2 while embracing the multiplayer. No, Bungie doesn't get points for trying here; they took the safe route and tried not to piss anyone off. When you do that, you get lackluster, uninspired gaming, no matter how pretty it looks.
  

Some game companies *coughidcough* have in the past succumbed to the temptation to write a multiplayer game, stick some bots into the multiplayer levels, and call the result a singleplayer game. This is the degenerate case of a singleplayer game -- a quick and dirty hack on top of the multiplayer that exists solely that the publisher can check off the "Features single player"/"No Internet connection required" bullet point on the Blockbuster Game Feature List™. Other examples include Unreal 2004; it's one of my favorite shooters, but it made little pretense of being a compelling singleplayer experience. Halo 1, by contrast, was specifically NOT about being a multiplayer game. In the days before Xbox Live, multiplayer was confined to splitscreen on usually tiny standard-def TVs. While it was fun for a group of friends in the same room, it sure wasn't any kind of "new standard" for other games.

Finally, I guess I'm just personally disappointed. I preordered 3 months in advance, I went to the store before midnight to get it, I took the day off work -- hell, Bungie (who all else aside are really awesome people who love their fans and try their damnedest to make them happy) came out in a party bus to sign autographs, shake hands, and dodge questions about Halo 4. I have to say it was one of, if not the best, experiences I've ever had at a public video game event. It's sad that the final product didn't live up to my expectations, but if the game makes $170 million in one day and scores dozens of perfect reviews from otherwise legitimate game sites, making me happy has got to be at the bottom of anyone's list.

P.S. I'm not ending on a "poor lil ol' me" kick here; it's my problem, I'm dealing with it, and video games are ultimately a stupid and pointless waste of time anyway. I may be emo over this, but I haven't lost touch with reality just yet. (Unlike those dumb bastards who forked over US$130 for the Super-Special Legendary Collector's Edition With Cat-Sized Helmet and Worthless Bonus Discs. HA-ha!)