A lot of what I read is Science Fiction. And if you believe Sturgeon’s Law, “90% of science Fiction is crap” (because 90% of everything is crap), so it can be hard to separate the wheat from the chaff. But I’ve got some rules of thumb that have served me pretty well:

1. If you’ve read something from the author before and liked it, you’ll probably like other things from the author.
2. Pick something from the Hugo Award for Best Novel list.

   Unlike the Nebula Award which is voted on by science fiction authors, the Hugo is voted on my science fiction fans. Since it is awarded based on a popular vote, the books that get nominated (and win) tend to be of the more “readable” variety (as opposed to being “literary”). Following my logic, these tend to be books that I enjoy reading (and I have empirical evidence to support this claim).

   If you take a look at the picture of Hugo Award winning Novels (and short stories), I own about 1/4 of the books pictured there. And some of the ones I’ve read from that stack I picked purely because they won a Hugo.

   Sometimes my two rules come together. I recently got “Rainbows End” by Vernor Vinge for Christmas (thanks Bill!). I had asked for it because of my adoration of the two other Vernor Vinge novels I read (see my last post). Tonight I was checking to see what book won the 2007 Hugo, and to my delightful surprise it was the same book I had just gotten. Lucky me!

   As an aside, I also seem to be reading a lot of Young Adult’s Novels lately. When it was just Harry Potter, it was very acceptable as everyone else in the world was reading it as well. I’m not so sure how acceptable it is to be listening to the Artemis Fowl series of books on tape, or reading His Dark Materials. But regardless of how acceptable it is, I enjoy reading them and don’t plan on stopping. As a matter of fact, I’m thinking about trying out the Inkheart series of books as well, as the movie that is coming out for it looks pretty good.

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Bill’s Book of the Year

First surprise, it’s not “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows“. While I really looked forward to the book being release, and sat down and read it straight, it had it’s rough spots. My two biggest complaints were the unevenness of the story (sometimes it moved really well, other times it dragged like it would never end) and the arbitrariness of who survived the novel and who died (killing a bunch of characters for the sake of showing that the final battle is Serious!).

Instead, I’m going two pick two science fiction novels by Vernor Vinge that totally occupied my time this year. The first is “A Fire Upon the Deep“. I was a little hesitant when I started reading this book as part of the story was fantasy stuff that I didn’t really care for. But Mr. Vinge quickly shakes things up and ends up with a chase story (are they going to get away before they get caught?) with such tension in it that I was happy to finish the book so I could physically relax from the stress of the story.

The second novel was “A Deepness in the Sky“. I think one of the area’s that Mr. Vinge excels at is creating a compelling and believable universe. His aliens are truly alien (no Star Trek prosthetics here). The best aliens from this novel are the Spiders. They look like, well, spiders. But act like humans. So you spend most of the novel relating to the human-ness of the these aliens, and in two paragraphs towards the end of the novel Mr. Vinge strips away their human-ness and presents them in all their alien glory. It was a subtle, but awesome switch that cemented by adoration for this book.

Bill’s Album of the Year

I don’t buy much music in a year, I’ve already got most of what I want to listen to. And the music that I do buy I mainly get from iTunes. But my pick for Album of the year is only available as a CD from Starbucks (of all places). Dave Matthews Band “Live Trax” is a compilation of a bunch of live shows throughout the lifetime of the band. It’s great because not only do you get to hear some of the best songs by DMB, but you also get to hear live versions of them that are different than the studio versions.

Bill’s Video Game of the Year

Yes, I got a Nintendo Wii earlier this year. And (I’m sorry to admit), my pick for this year is a PC game. Well, technically it is two games, but since they are available as one pack (Orange Box), I’m going to count it as one. Just as an aside, Orange Box is one of the best PC gaming purchase you can make this year. 5 games for $49.99 (cheaper if you shop around). I even already owned two of the games and it sill made a good bargain (plus I got two games to give as gifts, if anyone is interested…).

Ok, back to the games. Portal is an interesting twist on a First Person Shooter. Rather than relying on lots of well aimed shots and a quick reaction, Portal relies on you to interact with your environment to solve puzzles as you make your way through the game. You’ve got one weapon: The portal gun. Shoot a blue portal to one wall and an orange portal to another and you’ve suddenly got a new door that you can walk through (or drop stuff through). Couple this novel new idea in gameplay with a funny story (yes, a game with an actual story) and unusual characters (Companion Cube?) and you’ve got a real winner.

And the other awesome game from Orange Box is Team Fortress 2. TF2 is a Class Based FPS. So rather than having the same weapons and skills as everyone else in the game, you pick what Class you want to play and the determines what you can do in the game. And it’s multiplayer only, so you have to jump onto a server and play with other people in mainly pick-up games. The best part for me is that a single round of TF2 is short (like 10 minutes) so I can jump in and play a quick round and jump out if I have to do something else.

Bill’s Board Game of the Year

I blame my parents and brother for this one. When I went to visit them before Christmas (Margaret was home sick) we ended up playing “Ticket To Ride: Marklin Train Edition“. I hadn’t played before, so there was a bit of a leaning curve for me to figure out what was going on. But it took about 5 minutes before I caught on to how to play and I was hooked. Even though I lost miserably, when I got home I tracked down my own copy of “Ticket To Ride: Europe” so I could play at home. We broke it out last night with my wife and my father-in-law and had a blast playing. Highly recommended if you’re looking for a board game.

Bill’s Movie of the Year

I wanted to pass on this category for 2007, but it felt like a cop out. Frankly, I don’t remember that many movies that I saw this year. I do remember the summer popcorn fare like the most recent Spiderman, Pirates of the Carribean, and Die Hard Movies. But much like popcorn, they don’t really stick with you. I enjoyed “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix”, but was afraid that I couldn’t make an objective evaluation, me being a fanboy and all that.

But I’m going to make a pick anyway. “Children of Men“. While technically a 2006 film, I didn’t see it until this year so it counts. What I really like about CoM was the fact that it was science fiction done right. Most of the time, Hollywood screws it up and forgets that science fiction can be a genre of it’s own (as opposed to being either action or horror). CoM tells the story of a dystopian world where people can no longer get pregnant. No more children, no more future. Yeah, there is a little bit of action in it, but the science fiction part of it is what really drives the story. Oh, and it was nominated for 3 Oscars, so don’t just take my word on it.

Bill’s TV Show of the Year

This has been a rough year for me for TV viewing. I’ve really cut down on the amount of TV that I watch this year. It is just that most of the stuff that is being broadcast right now I’m not interested in watching. Now I’m still watching “Heroes“, Psych, and Numb3rs (and a few other shows). Oh, and I’m really enjoying Life on Mars and Top Gear on BBCA (and I am by no means a gear head, but the show is really funny and enjoyable).

But I’ve picked up a bit of a bad habit from Margaret. As she sits and works on BabyDuckles, she watches TV shows on DVD. And now I’ve gotten hooked on some of the DVD’s that she sits and watches. The ones that she has gotten me hooked on are The Unit and House.

So that’s it for my 2007 wrap up. Let me know what your favorite things from 2007 were in the comments!

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There are a few applications on my mac that I couldn’t do without. These are the kinds of programs that would be the first thing I install on any new computer that I would get, they are that good. And the best part about this list? They are all (currently) free.

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My dog CJ loves one day better than all the rest in the year. And that is the day Margaret and I toast the bread for the stuffing, which always happens the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. CJ’s biggest attraction that morning is the fact that I am a bit of a klutz when it comes to getting the toasted bread into the bags so a bit of it always ends up on the floor for her to chow down on.

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You mean besides someone actually writing for it?

But seriously, in trying to get myself motivated to start blogging again I did some upgrades to my blog. First order of business was upgrading to the latest and greatest Wordpress. Which of course broke some things. So after an evening of putting it back together, I actually replaces a lot of the custom plugins I had installed with native features inside Wordpress. Very nice.

Enough with the internal stuff. There’s some shiny new stuff in the sidebar. Like a link to my Facebook profile. After reading about it Wired, I decided I had to find out what I’ve been missing. I’ve connected with a few people (mostly college buddies), but I still haven’t figured out what all the hype is about. Maybe I just don’t get it.

The other big sidebar item I added was my “Recent Music” list. This feature is powered by last.fm, a collaborative music site. Basically you listen to music in iTunes (or on your iPod) and it gets pushed out to last.fm (and now, to my blog as well). It is collaborative because it examines your musical tastes and compares it to other users to try and guide you to new music you like. Basically, I’ve figured out that I like crappy music.

That’s all the changes for now. I’m still looking for a way to list what I’m currently reading and stuff of that nature, but I’ll solve that problem another day. For now, let’s hope that the biggest change is new content in a more timely manner.

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Penn Sports Network officially launches against Saint Joe’s this weekend. Most of the time I’m stuck watching Penn basketball games in a tiny little window streaming from CN8. But now I’ll get to pay for the privilege of a hopefully higher quality stream.

The good news is that they are offering their first two events (the aforementioned basketball game and a wrestling match) for free, so you can try it out. Never being one to scrimp $10, I dropped the cash to subscribe for the rest of the season (special introductory rate). I figure if it sucks, I’m only out $10. But hopefully it will be at least as good as the streaming NFL I watched in Denmark.

Now the bad news:

• $10 is the regular monthly rate starting next season.
• They don’t currently mention anything about football coverage (which I hope they would do next season).
• They say that the Mac is supported, but I haven’t gotten it to work without crashing Safari. Oh well, I still have a PC at home and can always bring my work laptop home

So, I will watch the game this weekend and let you all know how it went!

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What is it about being a captive audience that makes people think you want to see more advertising? It used to be that the only things you would see before a movie were previews for other movies. This was considered acceptable because it was somewhat entertaining and informed the viewer of upcoming releases they may be interested in. Today, not only do you have 3-4 movie previews, but a run of product advertisements as well.

I’m currently on an airplane flying back from Florida. Just a short domestic hop. I was very surprised when I pull down the tray in front of me to see an ad for Splenda sweetner. It made me think of the TV ad where the airline passenger needs to insert a quarter to pull down the shade. How far away is this ad from becoming reality? But the outrage doesn’t stop there. The airlines know they have a captive audience and will try and exploit it to the maximum they can. The flight attendant (remember, they are there for your safety and are not your personal servants) read a Bank of America ad to us over the intercom. When did their role as being chief safety officer on board expand to include peddling credit cards?

In the day and age where Tivo’s and DVR’s are reaching the tipping point in popularity, mainly on their abilities to skip TV ads, advertisers just don’t get it. I don’t want to see advertisements. I listen to XM radio or my ipod so I don’t have to hear radio jingles. I install adblockers on my web-browsers for much the safe reason. 90% of the TV I watch is time-shifted to avoid seeing ads. I delete SPAM and Advertisements from my e-mail. Catalogues and junk mail go right into the garbage bin.

Advertisers take note: Flooding me with ads have an opposite effect. I become immune to them to the point where I don’t even see them. So if you want your advertising to be effective, don’t flood me with them. “Everything in moderation”.

Side Note: The back page of the New York times the guy in front of me is reading also talks about this. How ironic.

A further note. It’s now ben a full week since I wrote the above and have some more information o this topic, especially when related to travel. Apparently the TSA is going to allow advertising while you’re waiting in line get searched for exploding shoes and dangerous water. To take things a step further, they are going to allow companies to sponsor the trays you put your stuff in to go through thte X-ray machine. Now I can (in some sense) understand trading my eyes and getting something in return (like TV or Radio). But this is just pure greed to take advantage of captive people. It’s not like I can skip going through security. Same issue with paying $200 for an airline ticket and having to be subjected to ads. Greedy.

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Tonight was a big night for Margaret’s office. The school district (MCPS) officially announced their 2008 budget. This is the thing that Margaret has been working on since she was hired, so she’s very happy (as is the rest of her office) to get it on the way to being approved.

I wasn’t doing anything else, so I decided to stop by. Before I relate my experiences and thoughts, a quick background on MCPS. It is like the 10th largest school district in the nation, has 199 schools (let’s just call it 200) and an operating budget nearing $2 billion. Let’s compare this to my high school (Wissahickon) which only had 6 schools and my graduating class was about 220 people.

So this thing tonight was huge. I couldn’t park at the school because the lot was full (Margaret and her executive parking pass had no such problems). I had to park at the “Economy Parking” and take a bus to the event. Coming into the building there are Rockville High students handing out the program and welcoming me to Rockville. They had real-time translation services. And not just for Spanish, but for 6 different languages (Spanish, Korean, Vietnamese, French, Chinese, and ASL). The event was webcast for people who couldn’t make it (I’m featured in it for those interested in watching it).

But I was a little disappointed. It was more “State of the Union” than providing any information on what is actually contained in the budget. The superintendent spent most of the night telling everyone how good MCPS is and how it is just going to get better. Honestly, the guy is a very good speaker who seemed at home in front of the microphone and the TV cameras.

But there were some things that surprised me during the speech tonight. The biggest thing is the size of the support staff for teachers at MCPS. They have “Consultant Teachers” whose job is to come into a new teachers classroom and lend assistance and advice. There are continuing education teachers. There is just a whole lot of resources devoted to making the “Front Line” teachers as good as they can be. I find this most amazing because this was so not the case when I was in school. We had a teacher. Sometimes, we had a student teacher. English classes had a “Theme Reader” whose job it was to read our papers for grammar and content.

Honestly, I’m glad to see the changes. I think each resource we provide, whether on the “Front Lines” or supporting staff impacts the quality of education that goes on in the school district. I just wish we school was like this when I was a kid.

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If this youtube clip doesn’t make you run out to order your Penn basketball tickets (order form), nothing will:

A better view of the dunk is here, but it lacks the “Ibby Jabbar” chanting at the end.

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On my way to the car this morning, I noticed that there were quite a few people gathering outside the Best Buy. It was almost like a mini-black Friday. At work I found out that all the queuing is for the new Playstation 3 release. This is at least 24-hours prior to the release, and there were already 20 people lined up to get it. And our weather wasn’t very good today. Pouring rain, lightning, tornado warnings. And yet those people were still there when I got home from work this evening. But the Best Buy people looked downright bedraggled when compared to the camp outside the Target. The Target people had tents and everything. Seriously hard core.

This whole scenario begs the question: Why are people lining up to purchase a new PS3? Why can you turn around and sell it on ebay for a 100% markup? It all boils down to one question: Why do game console manufacturers artificially create a shortage when releasing new consoles?

The answer is in two parts and really quite simple. The first (and minor) part is to get the Hype Machine rolling. If they create an artificial demand, people will do crazy things for it. All this buzz and hype gets coverage (even I’m writing about it). This is the kind of positive coverage that you can’t buy.

The second part of the answer is that it makes business sense. When the first generation of a console comes to market, the manufacturer is selling them below BOM cost (Bill of Materials). For those of you who don’t work with hardware, that means that they are selling it for less than parts it takes to make it. And there is no markup from the BOM cost to cover development expenses. They are just hemorrhaging money at this point. How can they get away with this? They make up the lost money on the back end by getting licensing fees from the game manufacturers. It is the same game as disposable razors. Give away the handle (the game console itself) and make the money back on the markup from the blades (the games without which your console is pretty much useless).

However, you can only make up so much on the back end, so the manufacturers have to staunch the bleeding somehow and they do it by building a limited run of consoles that go out initially. Each time they build another run of consoles, they have reduced the production cost somewhat so they lose less money. At some point they actually get close to making money on each console sold.

The companies gain two things from this. They can get the product to market sooner (rather than waiting the extra time to make it cost effective to build) and they can sell it at a reasonable price point (would you pay ~$800 for the PS3? or would you rather pay the ~$600 they are charging?). So while frustrating, these artificial shortages actually help both the company and the consumer.

But it doesn’t make me hate them any less.

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