Brad Wardell's views about technology, politics, religion, world affairs, and all sorts of politically incorrect topics.
Draginol's Articles » Page 20
June 24, 2011 by Draginol
I just got email from Google that they are discontinuing their Google PowerMeter product. Google PowerMeter allows people who have a supported device to track the energy use of their house in real time as well as look at graphs and such to determine what is consuming their energy. It’s like Google web analytics except for electricity. After September 16, it’s gone.  Total bummer as it was a very useful service. One I would have been willing to pay for.
June 21, 2011 by Draginol
My puppy can be pretty disgusting. The things it tries to eat. The things it rolls in. It’s all bad news. And if it’s an indoor dog, it becomes your problem. And I have to say, I’m glad I waited until after having 3 children because when it’s your own child, you grin and bear it as you learn to deal with icky gross stuff. By the time you get the dog, you’re numb.
June 20, 2011 by Draginol
So this weekend I had to take my boat out of the water. In the process I had to wade into water that was up to my waste. Unfortunately, my iPhone was in my pocket. Like an idiot, I immediately try to turn it on and got just the Apple logo which came on and then would go off. After a few tries of turning it on and off, I didn’t even get the Apple logo. Ruined. Dammit. $500. @#$@#$@#! So then I started searching online. Surely, I wasn’t the first person who had done this. I found lo...
June 2, 2011 by Draginol
I've been online since I was 15. That was 25 years ago. Back then, it was BBSes using C-net 10.0. You could say that I've grown up entirely living online. Before people used twitter for facebook to express their every inappropriate thought, I was mouthing off on things that I really shouldn't be mouthing off on (or at least, things that shouldn't be held up to scrutiny). This year I started to live life in "the real world". And to give you just an idea of how out of touch with...
May 31, 2011 by Draginol
Once upon a time… A city level in War of Magic had two key game mechanics attached to it. First, it determined what improvements you could build. The higher the level, the more powerful improvements you could construct. But secondly, it limited the number of improvements you could build as well.  Unfortunately, this had the effect of being very frustrating to users who quickly discovered that they couldn’t get their settlement to the next level without wrecking somethin...
May 24, 2011 by Draginol
Most of the excitement in the Elemental universe has been about Fallen Enchantress.  But War of Magic continues to move forward too, albeit in a different direction. There’s a lot of changes in v1.3 to gameplay that I’ll talk about later but one change that I’m working on is the scaling of costs of things in terms of population. As many people know, in “the real world” it’s one thing to find one specialist nearby for your company but it gets progressively more difficult t...
May 5, 2011 by Draginol
After years of waiting, I’ve gotten the Chevy Volt. I’ll be doing a more thorough review shortly after I’ve had more time to evaluate it.
May 4, 2011 by Draginol
Bailey and her mother Hara and 8 siblings.
May 4, 2011 by Draginol
Bailey at 8 weeks.
May 4, 2011 by Draginol
Our newest family edition. Bailey. Our Entlebucher.
April 22, 2011 by Draginol
Every time I announce to family and friends what noon kooky thing I’m going to try, people assume that I’ll grow tired of it and quit doing it. My poor wife, however, knows differently and has gone from being supportive to dread when I start brain storming some hair brained thing I’d like to try. I think the bees were the tipping point where she realized that once I pick up a hobby, I’ll stick to it.  Obviously there’s finite time in the day so hobbies to displace other activitie...
April 22, 2011 by Draginol
I do a lot of interviews. But I’m doing fewer and fewer of them as time goes on because it seems like the odds it’ll create negative PR increases as our company becomes more successful. If you do an hour long interview, you provide a lot of potential fodder. How it is used often depends on the “narrative” that the journalist is trying to get your interview to fit. That is, often there is a headline that the journalist is looking for and will scour your words to find something that can be fi...
April 8, 2011 by Draginol
Has anyone ever noticed that people, with pride, will often say that they would choose X over Y even if it were easier to get rich (or richer) if they chose Y but when they read about someone else doing the same they’re shocked?
April 8, 2011 by Draginol
nt.
March 23, 2011 by Draginol
Programs in use: WindowBlinds for GUI skinning DeskScapes for animated wallpaper Tiles for task management Fences for icon organizing Other things on there… Chrome is my browser. Skype I use constantly. Impulse of course for managing my games and utilities. CVS for source control (not pictured is SVN and PerForce for other projects). Visual Studio 2005 for coding. Excel and Word of course going there.