autumnizing

[jazzfish]

Sent out the last of the post-office saving letters earlier this week. So if you've not gotten one by, say, this time next week, and you ought to have, let me know.

At Crooked Timber, commenter Lemuel Pitkin on Steve Jobs:

Worth noting that in all the tributes to Steve Jobs, nobody is saying "He was a rational agent who maximized the present value of his lifetime consumption, and would have wrecked his company in a second if he thought that would net him a dollar more. We will continue running Apple to generate the maximum profits for shareholders, whether that means putting out great products, putting out crappy products, or liquidating the whole thing." Instead, they all talk—sincerely I'm sure—about his commitment and dedication to his work, and say things like "his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple." It’s a nice illustration of how capitalism’s biggest success stories are really arguments against capitalism.

(see also ajay @32)

In related news, I preordered the Device Mark 2 this morning. (Delivery estimate: 1-2 weeks. Which is okay; if it got here on the release date I wouldn't be around to play with it anyway.) The Device has served me well for nearly three years, but between the inexorable march of technology and the flaky headphone jack (and AT&T's obscene refusal to allow me to use a device that I purchased with any other carrier), it's time for it to take a well-deserved retirement.

Restless lately. Fall out here is made of Wet, which doesn't make for much in the way of scuffly leaves, and it's harder to get excited about going out in the damp. Too, I'm half eagerly awaiting VP/Boston and half thinking "wait, how can it be october already, i'm not nearly prepared for this." Impostor syndrome is kicking in like nobody's business.

But the mist is nestling in among the tops of the trees in Stanley Park, and I seem to have gotten enough sleep last night, and Portal 2 was on sale earlier this week. And, you know, tomorrow I get on a plane to spend a week with a bunch of awesome people, and then a couple of days with different but still awesome people. Life is decent.

Comments

[rbandrews]

So you mentioned Portal 2... The thing about Portal 2 is, it has an absolutely brilliant single-player campaign that you'll love, and a multiplayer campaign that really only works if both players are playing it for the first time. I bought it for the PS3 and all my friends bought it for PC, and by the time PSN came back up they had already played it. So, long-windedly, would you like to play the Portal 2 multiplayer with me when you finish? I'm pretty sure it'll work between PC and PS3, and we can use Skype or something.

Also, there's another Humble Indie Bundle, and it would be sort of lame (containing only three games and all) if one of those games weren't SpaceChem. I think you would like SpaceChem. It's insanely hard (I stopped when I realized that the puzzles I was being paid to solve were easier) and has your kind of humor.

Okay. So. I'll stop telling you about games now.

That is an excellent point about Steve Jobs. I was telling someone at work yesterday that yes, Apple hasn't been very hacker-friendly in the past few years, but I can respect someone who has a vision I disagree with a lot more than I can respect someone who has no vision or plan at all and is just in it to get rich[er]. Ballmer, for example.

In other words, "Say what you will about the tenets of National Socialism but at least it's an ethos."

[jazzfish]

Huh. I'd be up for co-op, I think. Could be neat! I'll let you know when I finish the single-player.

Yeah, I lost yesterday (and maybe the day before) to SpaceChem. I picked up the bundle this time because I'd been meaning to look into Frozen Synapse anyway... still haven't opened it up. SpaceChem is in fact almost obscenely difficult. I solved the first 'optional' puzzle (convert CH4+N2 to NH3+HCN) in a single reactor, which was tangled like nobody's business, but now I'm probably irrevocably stuck on converting N2+O2 (in random amounts) to NO+waste. Although I keep on getting more ideas that aren't going to work...

[rbandrews]

It was the first level that introduced switches that I quit on, although I plan to restart this weekend. You have to fill these tanks to explode them as a vehicle drives by them, which means hooking up switches so you can control (from the main screen while it runs) which tank the output goes to. It's not quite a timing thing...