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Computer World

Saturday, August 11th, 2012

If you worked at pioneering computer company IBM in the mid 50s, you likely began your day with a song. These songs were included in the ‘IBM Songbook’, a page of which is shown in the following photograph:

This was one of many, many exhibits at the Computer History Museum, which we visited yesterday. The expansive collection spanned from the very early days of computing (abacus and slide rule) all the way through to current applications of todays machines (such as Google Street View). It was highly informative and very entertaining.

Those are two early non-electronic ‘computers’. The above shot shows a device invented for the 1890 US census designed to tabulate statistics from the punched card census results, and the lower photo shows a planimeter (from the 1800s) designed to calculate the area of an arbitrary two-dimensional shape. Both of these were amongst the many examples of computational devices that were in use long before what we now think of as computers.

The above is a photo of the instructions attached to the Enigma Machine they had on exhibit. I include it here because I thought my dad may be interested 🙂

An example of many badges from the early days of computing that was displayed. Who said ‘computer nerds’ were a new thing?

Here’s my pointing to a button on one of the many examples of massive, 1960s era business computers on display. These devices were almost incomprehensible, with archaic user interfaces and unfathomable controls. What exactly was this button that had caught my eye? Here’s a closer shot:

If you want a laugh, google it. It seems the definition of the words ‘amplidyne sensitrol’ has now become: “That button on that computer at the computer history museum”

That’s an original Apple kit computer constructed and autographed by Steve Wosniak!

That’s the closest (very close actually, since I pushed some keys) I have ever got to the best computer I never owned, the ZX Spectrum!

The museum concentrated on computing in general, rather than various fields, but obviously could not ignore gaming. Although the game collection was not as large or impressive as at Strong Museum in Rochester, it still included some beautiful examples such as the Ultima display shown above.

One of the temporary exhibits was a profile of Street View, including camera cars and bikes and details of the technology used to create the images. Given that Google is quite literally down the road from the museum (we had lunch in an area that had some Google bikes in the carpark), this was a comprehensive and very interesting exhibit. For instance, did you know that various other countries or cities had created their own Street View-like technologies long before Google?

After the museum we set off for Lick Observatory, which is one of the ‘hills’ surrounding Silicon Valley. The drive would be an hour, and from the city the hills look rolling and peaceful so I was expecting a leisurely site-seeing drive. How wrong I was!

Now compare that GPS route to the photo I took on the famous ‘Hana Highway’ in Hawaii back in 2007. Which looks worse?

Yep, if you decide to drive from San Jose to Lick Observatory avoid Quimby Road, since it’s a shortcut to regret and horror, with ultra steep turns and evil gradients. The road is full of rubber marks where previous drivers went careening to their deaths over the edges, and the utter absence of any other cars is a sure-fire sign that you shouldn’t always trust your GPS 🙂

When we eventually got to the top alive, we found Lick Observatory to be an intriguing commune of homes and telescopes that sits on top of Mount Hamilton, at an altitude of about 4200 feet (which is, amusingly, lower than the city of Albuquerque!) About 18 people make this mountaintop their permanent home, although the several boarded up homes are evidence that the number used to be many more. A total of 10 telescopes (all optical) are situated at the top, but it seems Lick’s days of cutting edge astronomical relevance are behind it, with many of the scopes unused or used only for college classes or ‘public interest’ demonstrations.

That’s the telescope inside the biggest dome, a 36-inch refracting telescope that is still used today. A lovely lady who has lived at Lick for 34 years gave us a brief tour, but mostly we were able to wander around the mountain and have a gander ourselves.

The photos we took of the view of San Jose do not do it justice. Here’s one…

…with San Jose (just) viewable in the distance. The mountains don’t look that high do they? Well I guess they are not relatively speaking (again, I can’t believe the tallest mountain near San Jose is lower than Albuquerque!), but I can assure you the height is most detectable during the drive up and down the mountain!

Today we’re going to the seaside! My goals are threefold: roller coasters, retro arcade games and corndogs! Check back tomorrow to see how successful I am 🙂

Posted in Blog, Family, Otaku, Tech, Toys, Trip | Comments Closed

Ten Treasures

Wednesday, August 1st, 2012

A few times on this blog, I’ve referred to my ‘boxes of fun’ (BoF’s). These are plastic storage containers hidden away in cupboards containing stuff I have collected over the years. The name is a misnomer, since these boxes give me no fun at all. In fact they are ‘out of sight, out of mind’ as they say.

Yesterday I emptied one out for the fun of it. This particular box contains Star Wars ‘stuff’, accumulated over about the last 15 years. Here’s a photo of the box immediately after I removed the cover:

Stuffed in there, isn’t it? Most of my boxes contain Star Wars stuff – in fact about half of them contain just action figures. But this one is unique in that it contains a motley collection of toys, licensed merchandise and advertising ephemera. Basically anything remotely Star Wars related went in here, whenever I bought it, and did not see the light of day again until yesterday.

Today on the blog I present ten treasured items I found yesterday in my box of fun 🙂

1. Han Solo & Chewbacca ‘cake topper’

KLS purchased the above many years ago in the clearance bin at our local grocery store. It’s not edible (!), but is designed to be an ornament on a SW themed cake. I also have another pair (Anakin & Watto). As far as SW ‘action figures’ go, this is one of my most unusual. [Approximate Ebay value: $6]

2. Star Wars Bowl

This is one of a set of 4 items (2 bowls, 2 cups), all of which I own. This was part of a General Mill’s mail-in redemption for Episode 2, and as far as melamine SW bowls are concerned is the cream of the crop. And I say this with some expertise, since our cupboards at home contain about 5 SW-themed bowls and plates already. The guy pictured here (and his friends) have never been used though, and will forever live out their lives in the BoF. I particularly like this one, since the image of Padme used on it is uncommon, and I’ve not seen it used on merchandise before. [Ebay value for set of 4: $40]

3. Episode 1 ‘pogs’

Around the time Episode 1 was released, Pepsico restaurants (namely Taco Bell, KFC and Pizza Hut) in the US had a incredible amount of promotions, including toys, ‘cup-toppers’ and these little pogs that came randomly in kids meals. As you can see, in an effort to collect the toys I accumulated a lot of the pogs! These are in perfect condition, stored in a little plastic container. I reckon there is about 50 or so here, and I know I have more elsewhere. In fact it’s even possible the ones shown here are my doubles, and I have a full set tucked away in another BoF. [Approximate Ebay value: $5-20+]

4. McDonalds ‘Clone Wars’ kids meal box

The less said of the above item the better. Yes it’s a mint-condition kids meal box, folded flat for storage. It’s from 2010. I’m lovin’ it! [Approximate Ebay value: $3]

5. R2-D2 Gigapet

Yes, this is an R2-D2 ‘tamagotchi’ type toy. As you can see I have never opened it, so I can’t comment on how it works. I can also confirm that I never will open it, so I will never comment on how it works. But it keeps my heart warm knowing it’s just sitting there in my BoF! [Ebay value: $10]

6. Japanese General Grievous Pepsi bottle cap figure

Over in Japan, they occasionally promote bottles of drink via cap toppers like the one seen here. They are little figurines that sit on top of the cap of the drink. Sometimes you can see them just sitting there in the cooler, sometimes (as in the above) they come in a bag and have to be put on. During our last Japan trip this promotion was ending, and I was only able to find one figure. [Ebay value: $3]

7. Japanese mini Episode 1 action figures

These were from a gatchapon machine. If I recall correctly, they were found at an unlikely place – a machine on a walkway leading from one train station to another near Shibuya in Tokyo. I didn’t have a lot of Y100 coins with me at the time, and could only get two from the machine. My other one is Anakin & Watto (yes, the same pair as my other cake topper!). This is a very cool item, and the figured are surprisingly detailed for their miniature size. [Approximate ebay value: $6]

8. Lenticular Anakin/Darth Vader plate

Another promotional item; this was obtained by mailing in tokens from cereal boxes around the release of Episode 3. The plate is dreadful – weak plastic with a lenticular glued onto the front. I daresay it’s barely washable! But, as with all these treasures, I love it like a child and it’s not ever for sale! It shall rest eternally, happily, in the BoF. Sealed in it’s plastic 😉 [Ebay value: $15]

9. Episode 1 wall stickers

A quick search for this item online revealed that the company released a staggering variety of Episode 1 themed wall adhesives! This podrace collection is a relatively recent aquisition, purchased as it was from the budget bin of a dollar store only a year or so ago. It’s yellowing and aged and cursed to an existence of never ever being stuck on a wall. But I love it because it’s flat and easy to store! I seem to recall I actually purchased two of these, so I deeply apologize to whomever got the other one is probably quite happy with their gift! [Ebay value: $3]

10. Frito-Lay Episode II 3D puzzle pieces

These are real treasures. They are 3D puzzle pieces that were notoriously hard to obtain back when Episode 2 came out. Although a Frito-Lay promotional item, they were only available at retail by purchasing a massive box of snack sized chip packs. Even then the promotional boxes were few and far between, so I was only able to get 2 pieces. Some searching online reveals there were at least 54 (!) different pieces (in 6 colours), and they were sometimes distributed in sets of nine. I wonder how one got a set? Anyway I love them for a specific reason – they are actually lithopanes! Here’s a photo showing the nice effect then they are held up to a light:

Very effective aren’t they? I wish I could have gotten more now. Maybe I’ll try harder next time I’m in 2002. [Ebay value: $10]

Before I end, one last photo. The box contained oodles of stuff (you can see other items in the backgrounds of some of the above photos) but perhaps the most nostalgic were these:

Pictured are my ticket stubs for (one of the many times I saw) Phantom Menace, Attack Of The Clones and the cinematic rerelease of Star Wars back in 1997 ($4.50 for a matinee!!). Note that there are three tickets for Attack Of The Clones on the same day. That’s because I saw the midnight screening myself, and then later in the day went back with KLS 😉

Posted in Family, Miscellaneous, Movies, Otaku, Tech, Time, Toys | 4 Comments »

Backhoe Loader

Saturday, July 14th, 2012

Time for yet another Lego kit! This one was a birthday gift, and I built it over several days this past week.

Here’s the content of the box:

You can tell how big the finished product is from the size of the tire.

The kit contains numerous intricate gear systems connected to several different moving parts. Of particular note are the actuators used to raise and lower both digging arms:

It’s a complex build that took many hours over three days. It was particularly interesting seeing all the gears and systems piecing together in seemingly random order:

Luckily I had assistance for most of the build…

Here’s the finished product:

Everything about this set was fun. If you like Lego technic at all, this set is highly recommended.

Posted in Miscellaneous, Otaku, Tech, Toys | Comments Closed

Magic 2013 Prerelease Report

Sunday, July 8th, 2012

Yesterday I went to the prerelease of the latest MTG core set, Magic 2013. The format was the same as all the others I have attended: you get 6 boosters, and have to form a minimum 40-card deck from them using land provided at the store. Four rounds would then be played (each round is best of 3), and the top 8 of the 32 entrants would enter a series of final rounds for prizes.

I hadn’t looked much at the set prior to attending, but expected I’d end up playing a green/white deck since that’s usually what I do at such events. However when I started opening my boosters I just kept seeing good red and black cards. In fact once I’d opened and sorted everything, not only where the red and black piles slightly larger than the other colours, but the cards themselves were better as well. It was therefore an easy solution to play a black/red deck.

My deck contained the following (notable in brackets):
– 9 black creatures (Nefarox, Overlord of Grixis), Duty-Bound Dead)
– 4 red creatures (Goblin Arsonist x3)
– 4 black spells (Murder)
– 4 red spells (Reverberate)
– 2 artifacts (Ring of Xathrid)
– 2 dual lands (Dragonskull Summit)
– 9 swamps
– 6 mountains

2013 introduces the exalted keyword to black cards, and there are quite a few of them containing it. Exalted proved to be popular with many players at the prerelease, and in fact every single one of the 6 decks I played against utilized exalted cards (ie. contained black or white colours).

The design intent behind my deck was speed coupled with buffed single attackers via exalted. I also through in a bit of direct damage and graveyard love (Rise From The Dead, Disentomb). It only took me a few minutes to put it together, and a few test-deals I made before starting seemed promising. Happily, the deck ended up working quite well, and here are the results of the qualifying rounds:

Round 1: My opponent was playing white/red soldiers token deck with a bit of exalted. His deck couldn’t hope to match the speed of mine and I easily defeated him 2-0 without ever losing a single point of life:

Round 2: A face-off against a very similar (red/black) deck to mine. I had more creatures, he had more spells, including 3 Murder’s (to my 1) and 2 Disentomb’s. My best play was to Reverberate one of his Murder’s to kill his irritating Xathrid Gorgon after he’d buffed it with several enchants and was about to kill me with it. Although I won 2-1 overall, the battle was hard fought.

Round 3: A battle against another green/white deck, full of weenie creatures that he was trying to buff. My 3 Goblin Arsonist’s really came into their own during this round, since I often used them as blockers to kill 2 toughness guys or to kill two 1 toughness guys each. Also, in every single of the three games against this guy I Reverberated his Captain’s Call, much to his amusement. I won overall 2-1, and was chuffed when – to the surprise of my opponent who didn’t know it was possible – I used the ability on the Ring of Xathrid to regenerate my Nefarox after he cast Planar Cleansing (note to MTG nerds: this action is why Wrath of God will never be reprinted; it’s too powerful). When I did this, he said “That’s why you deserved to win” 🙂

Round 4: My final qualifying opponent used red/black as well, and his deck was the strongest of the 6 I played against. Not only did he have astonishingly lucky rare draws (2 Nefarox’s, 1 Xathrid Gorgon) but he also had 2 mythic’s (Chandra the Fireblaze, Vampire Nocturnus). 2013 reprints Gilded Lotus, and of course he had that as well. It was quite astonishing to play two games against him where he had close-to-perfect draws and got his big guys out quickly and beat me 0-2 in the same way I had beat my first opponent! He was a nice guy though, so even in defeat the games were fun.

After the qualifiers I was 6-4-0, and made it into the top 8! This meant I was guaranteed booster packs as prizes, I just didn’t know how many yet. The win-loss ratio’s are wiped in the finals, so even though I had lost one qualifier round I still (theoretically) had a chance. I was realistic though: that last guy’s deck was a monster and I knew he’d beat me again if we faced up.

But it was not to be. The first round of finals paired me against a black/green deck heavy on removal (again 3 Murder’s!) and exalted creatures (note to Florence: this was ‘viking’). The first two rounds were traded 1-1, and it was down to the third. This proved to be an epic game, where he had a Xathrid Gorgon out and kept petrifying my creatures as I cast them. However he couldn’t attack, since I had more blockers than him and kept drawing creatures. Furthermore, he had a Ring of Xathrid on his Gorgon, and I had one on my Liliana’s Shade, and both had over 15 tokens! It was a classic standoff; we were both top-decked and alternated inactive turns until the 30th (!) draw when he drew the guy above, cast it, and put 18 1/1 Saprolings into play. I was doomed, and he won 2 turns later with only 1 card left in each of our libraries. I got the impression this opponent was not used to defeat (he had gone into the finals 8-0), since he became increasingly more serious and attentive as the rounds went on, to the point of being fixated during the last game which could have gone either way.

The finals were single-elimination and I was knocked out in round 1. My eventual standing was tie 6th, which netted me 3 booster packs as prizes. In one of them I found the reprint of one of my favourite cards of all time, with brand new art by my favourite MTG artist of all time. Happy day!

What’s that you ask? I mentioned 6 opponents?

Good catch! The store owner had cancelled one of the four prerelease events due to low signups, and therefore had extra boxes of boosters he had to distributes. So he was running a side-contest “Beat me for booster packs!”. He made his own deck, and played any challenger and gave them a free booster if he won. I accepted his challenge after I was knocked out of the finals, and actually lost! But since it was a good game and we had a good chat (I discovered he worked for Wizards Of The Coast for a year about 10 years ago), he gave me a booster anyway 🙂

Posted in Games, MTG, Otaku | Comments Closed

Machine Brain

Sunday, July 1st, 2012

Remember those commander MTG decks I made before my last Australia trip? If not, they are described here. Note the last comment, where I describe how I replaced the monogreen deck with a Green/Black tokens deck. In Australia the six decks were played in 3 or 4 player games an average of 10 times each. The results (wins-losses) were as follows:

– Darien, King of Kjeldor (W soldiers): 6-3
– Mayael The Anima (RGW fatties): 6-5
– Skullbriar, The Walking Grave (GB tokens): 6-5
– Olivia Voldaren (RB vampires): 5-4
– Grand Arbiter Augustine IV (UW control): 4-5
– Wrexial, The Risen Deep (UB mill): 2-7

Yep, Wrexial bombed hard! The other decks, as you can see, were very closely matched. I believe Grand Arbiter was a bit stronger than it’s wins suggest, but tended to be a bigger target in the multiplayer games so ended up losing more than it won.

I have another trip coming up in about a month, and the decks are coming with me! I’ve made slight adjustments to five of them to include cards released since last December, and I scrapped Wrexial entirely in favour of a brand new deck. This was done not because it was the weakest, but because in 2-player games (which I will be playing in NM and CA) I reckon it would just be tedious to play against.

So the question arose, what would the new deck be?

The above card is from one of the recently released new Planechase 2012 decks. His particular deck is the strongest of the four (at least in my playtesting), and focuses on enchantments. I greatly enjoyed the deck, since I like enchantment cards and they are often underutilized. My first idea for a new deck would use this guy as commander, and include all and every enchantment boosting card I could find in white and green. It would have been a slightly defensive deck, heavy on lifegain, that relied on building up 2 or 3 creatures to shockingly powerful levels before finishing the game in as few attacks (ideally, only one!) as possible. I still think it’s a good idea, and that it may have been well balanced against the other five decks, but after some brainstorming realized I couldn’t actually build the deck without heavily changing some of the other five (specifically the Skullbriar and Augustine IV decks). So I scrapped this idea, or rather put it on the back burner for a while.

So… what next?

I wanted something I could build without cannibalizing the other decks. Furthermore, I wanted something quite different from them as well. With Wrexial gone I was left with only one blue deck, so ideally the new deck would use blue, and hopefully avoid the other colours since each were represented twice in other decks. Also – and this was a big one – I wanted to feature artifacts since they hadn’t been a large component of any of the other five decks.

A few minutes of research led to me finding this guy, and as soon as I saw him I knew I had my new commander:

He’s one of those cards that you occasionally find with an ability that just seems too good to be true. There are any number of game-winning artifact cards that could be pulled from the deck right into play, and all I needed to do this was an artifact creature already in play. Here’s an obvious combo:

Use the turbine to create Myr tokens, which can then be sacrificed using Arcum to put things like the Forge into play. This could happen very quickly given a perfect hand. For instance:

Turn 1: Seat Of The Synod, Sol Ring, Mox Opal, Palladium Myr
Turn 2: Arcum
Turn 3: Myr Turbine, sac token to put Forge into play

And that scenario even has some flexibility!

But a commander deck contains 100 cards, and this combo requires some sort of artifact creature or token generator to start. Happily, being blue there are any number of ways (Treasure Mage, Fabricate) to get specific cards into your hand (the deck contains other token generators aside from the Turbine) or to speed up card draw entirely. So what about the rest of the deck? What is the ‘gimmick’ to the remainder of the cards?

Here’s a hint:

Yep, it’s a ‘charge counter’ deck! Over the years I had coincidentally amassed almost every good charge counter card in existence, and it was finally time to collect them all into a deck. So about 20% of the entire deck is cards that utilize or manipulate charge counters, often to hilarious results:

So the deck is a control-based artifact deck (about 90% of the non land cards are artifacts) that utilize Arcum Dagsson’s ability to ‘tutor’ up broken cards to make the player invulnerable while he bases a win around fun-to-play charge counter cards. I’ve done some test deals to make sure it seems to work in principle, but it should be fun to see how it actually works against another one of the (mostly successful) other five decks 🙂

Posted in Games, Otaku | Comments Closed

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