Today everything is wirelessly connected!

Special thanks to Ruben.

The Nintendo Wii has now been presented and a few game demos were shown.
I am not in the gaming industry and I was not at any of those expo’s, but I have to say that I’m really excited about the new controller. I can’t wait to see it.
I have been a hardcore player, I started when I was a kid and have been playing almost every possible game for many years.
A few years ago I kinda got bored. Most games were all the same. I bought a Dreamcast and never really used it. I bought a PS2 with the gun and played about 2 weekends. I sold both.

I played a lot MAME, lots of retrogaming such as Tetris, Puzzle Bubble and Money Puzzle Exchanger.

Then I quit playing games again. I did try some “modern” games but I am not really attracted and I don’t have the time to play a couple of hours a day… I might find that time, but probably I don’t want to.

Here comes casual gaming. My girlfriend is a hardcore-casualgamer. Is this possible? Isn’t a casual gamer someone who plays occasionaly? Yes and no, in my opinion. Casual gaming is about playing occasionally, but also about playing simple games, that you pick up very quickly and can play for a good amount of hours without getting bored. They must be simple in concept, but must have a good development.
At that time the concept did not exist, but Tetris is a GREAT example. Think about it. Rules are DAMN simple. How long does it take to learn how it works? 5 minutes? How long does it take to be a good player? Maybe a week or two of intense playing. How long does it take to become a master? An entire life!
Well, my girlfriend plays a bunch of casual games often… How would you call that?

Now back to the Nintendo Wii.
The new joystick really breaks that barrier that kept a lot of possible players from playing. It takes a while to get used to the joypad and I still haven’t been able to use all the keys on a PS2 joystick easily. On the other side EVERYONE can use a stick, point it, click 1 or 2 buttons, swing it and so on. How long would it take to learn to play a Tennis game? 1 minute? 5 minutes?
Ok, so we made games simple to pick up. Do we need great graphics? Not really, IMHO. Gaming is about playing. Playability must be GREAT. The stick is a way to make higher playability.

I just hope the Wii will not be limited to Mario Bros and Pokemons. I DO like Mario bros games such as mario kart, I like shooting games such as Time Crisis (they don’t really need great graphics!!), but I can’t buy a console for 2 games…. and, NO, I don’t like pokemons.

I can’t wait to get one and I hope they will get in the stores with a few games ready. I’ll be there to get one and I’m sure that this could be a good chance for me to play with my girlfriend. And guess what? I think this could be a winning move for Nintendo. I can play with my girlfriend, I can play with my niece who’s 6 and all thanks to a very innovative controller.

Think of Wario Ware on the Wii. It just demonstrates that if playability is good, you will play it.
Does Brain Age have good graphics? Wasn’t it a blockbuster?
Innovation – playability – simplicity.

PS: If you like Puzzle Bobble you should try this

A couple of days ago I was looking for a few updates about the new Mazda MX-5 or Miata as is called in USA.
I browsed the Italian site, but then wondered about the US version. I was looking for little difference, just for the curiosity.

I went on the Official site.
Then I went to the section of the beautiful Miata and with my great surprise I discovered a tiny fun game (look at the bottom, there’s a link named “MX-5 Miata game”). It is definitely a Casual Game.
In short, there’s a course and you drive your Miata. The more you drift the higher is your score.
There’s practice and race.
It’s pure casual gaming, it takes about 5 minutes to pick up the game and you can basically play for hours to drive and drift perfectly.

It’s fun to see that casual gaming is now also a vehicle to promote other products. We used to get little gadgets or a chance to win a prize along with a product publicity. Now that casual gaming is trendy and cool, big brands use it to promote their products.

The game is fun and the graphics is good. If you are up for a quick match with your friends or colleagues, I suggest you give it a try.

This video is really interesting. It’s a chair that takes life.
I read this on an Italian site, but it was actually already referenced on Engadget, so you can see their comments in English.

Here you can see the video of the chair plus some other interesting things.

Enjoy.

If you read my blog you must be a nerd, a hardcore developer or something like that. Don’t take it wrong. 😀

Maybe this link will make your life a little better, check it out.
Dr. Razavi’s Good to Know Info: Ergonomics, Obeying the Natural Laws of Work to Avoid Injury

An old friend of mine used to say “Quando è fatto bene si vede subito”, which can be roughly translated into “When it’s a good software you can see it from the start”.

Here’s an example:

class user_class {
  var status = -1;
  var stato = 0;
  var name = ”;
  var last_name = ”;
  function user_class() {
    $this->stato &= $this->status;
  }
}

While I might understand that stato and status are probably the same variable that changed name in time… It’s funny that they are initiated with different values and then set as the same thing! 😀

Software evolves in time.

These days I was considering moving from Milan to a sunny place like Liguria or Tuscany for the summer. Work from home and travel when needed.

This perfect summer plan seems to present a flaw: I live connected to Internet and I might not be able to survive for such a long time away from the ‘net. I could probably also not be able to work which would be a problem too!
A couple of usefule links:
definition of Addiction
Are you addicted to the internet?

At home I have an aDSL connection at a flat fee and I can use it as much as I want. Working from home is not a problem, I can access VPN networks, download and send big emails and browse as much as I want.
I would like to have something similar while not at home.

Finding a summer house or apartment with internet connection doesn’t seem to be so easy, mostly because most apartments don’t even have a telephone line. Asking the landlore to add phone AND DSL seems a little bit too much for a month or two.
I could try some Satellite provider, but I would still need a modem to send requests. Doesn’t seem very convenient as I would have to use a cellphone.

My last resort is going in an H3G shop and buy a PCMCIA with a somewhat flatfee (sorry this is Italian only, there is a similar offer in UK that you can see here).

Now I wonder. Am I the only one considering to do this? With all the new communication tools such as IM and Skype and the fact that most companies support VPN access… Why isn’t everybody working from the seaside?

Wouldn’t it be beautiful?

As you might have read on the public mailing list, the DDWG has published a Working Draft of the Device Descriptions Requirements.

This is a great result, we have worked hard in the last months and the great thing is that the group has worked very smoothly. Everything flowed very easily and members discussed about little things, while the general concept was very uniform.

There are still a few things to clean up in the requirements list and some requirements might turn from MUST to SHOULD or viceversa, but most of the work is there.

Take a peek and make your comments.

A few days ago I was having lunch with a few colleagues, about 8 people.
While chatting, a couple of them started saying that they were impressed because another colleague (also sitting at the table) every time anyone asked for anything, seemed to have a link ready.
“I need to buy shoes”. “Here’s a link”.
“I need to go to this street”. “Here’s a link on a maps site”.
“I need that document you wrote for that client”. “Here’s the file on the server”.

She said that she’s very used to search for documents on the server (and how they are organized in folders) and that she can find things on the web very quickly as she’s used to run searches on it.

The funny thing is that a couple of weeks ago I was talking to a friend of mine and he told me:”I was talking to this girl that of course has a computer and internet at work. I asked her what she does when she needs to find a phone number or an address at home and she said that she looks on the White Papers or the City Maps”.
My friend was really surprised that she doesn’t use her computer and connect to some maps site to search for an address.
Actually I thought about myself searching for a number and immediately thought of going on internet or maybe priting a map to go from home to some other place (as I don’t have a GPS).

Again, two days ago I was on the train travelling back to Milan, I was reading my e-mails and needed to visit a website to check something. Of course I could not, because I was not ON-LINE. It felt strange.. I actually clicked on the link, saw the browser open and then realized that I could not visit the site.
I am SO used to be connected that I don’t even think about it anymore.
Many people, on the other side, is just NOT used to this.

Feels strange the fact that I always consider to be connected while other people don’t even think they could be… Or don’t feel the need to have internet connection at home (not even a computer, actually!).

PS: In case you wanted to make a donation, please, get me a nüvi™ 360 with the European maps, of course

Today I was reading email on GMail and a adword appeared on my upper bar.

For those who don’t speak Italian, the text says: “Every day 5 SMS for free fromthe Web and the hits for free!”.

You know what? This is the site I work on every day!
Are we doing AdWords on ourselves? 😀

Sounds like if an Apple reseller called Steve Jobs and suggested him to buy a new iPod! 😀