Draginol

2011 BMW X5 Review in Automotive JoeUser Forums

The BMW X5 is an SUV for drivers who want an SUV that is both sporty (read: Can go fast) as well as works as a good utility vehicle. In other words, an SUV that really is an SUV as opposed to simply a car that is shaped like a closed pickup. My previous X5 was somewhat disappointing. BMW has its “iDrive” system for controlling the internal gadgets and it was just awful. The 2011 edition has a far superior iDrive with buttons that take you right to where you want to go. Its iPhon

Reply to It’s not the game’s problem, it’s a player problem in PC Gaming Stardock Forums

@marlowwe, I didn't say I couldn't counter the strategies, I said it's not enjoyable either way because the opportunity to play the game more than 5 minutes is rare. When 4 out of 5 games is being played against someone who is simply playing a recipe all-in strategy, there isn't that much opportunity to play a strategy game. Countering most of these strategies is also not a matter of skill but rather a matter of pattern recognition due to scouting early and recognizing which che

It’s not the game’s problem, it’s a player problem in PC Gaming JoeUser Forums

I finally threw in the towel on Starcraft this week. As a single player game, it’s amazing. Game of the year as far as I’m concerned. It’s multiplayer design is phenomenal as well. It’s the single best game purchase I made in 2010. And yet, playing online, against humans, has demonstrated why I just cannot stand multiplayer games in general. At various times during the beta I was ranked between "bronze” and “diamond” leagues. In my experience, the difference be

If you’re not running Windows 7 64-bit yet, please do so soon in Personal Computing JoeUser Forums

I’m looking forward to not running into the 2 gigabyte limit anymore on development.

Retail pain accelerates in PC Gaming JoeUser Forums

Got a lot of good stuff going on this week in terms of development. But it’s also a very stressful time as we watch retailer after retailer tell us that they’re eliminating much of their PC gaming space starting 1Q2011. I wish the reason was because everything’s moving to digital. But as much as Steam and Impulse and the others have grown this past year, the real issue is the continuing migration of users to other platforms followed by the publishers. This is going to put furthe

Bringing game lore into the game in PC Gaming JoeUser Forums

One of the struggles we’ve always had has been integrating the considerable “lore” created for our games into the game itself. G

Don’t be too proud of your technological marvel in Personal Computing JoeUser Forums

I’ve been playing around with the Mac Book Pro for the past week. It’s amazing how primitive it is compared to even the iPad in terms of usability. Using a Mac is like going back in time. It’s better than say Windows XP or Vista but it’s slightly behind Windows 7 which is, itself, pretty primitive. If Microsoft doesn’t get a clue soon, the iOS and Android devices are going to grow up and we’ll look at Windows in the same way we look at Sparc Stations today.

Getting a life in Life Journals JoeUser Forums

I’m trying to get some hobbies. I’ve focused on my job for so long that I haven’t really developed a sort of “normal” life. There is no home life. Only work at office and work from home. But this sabbatical I’m on has been helpful. Today my boys and I explored the woods around our house and saw a lot of deer. I’ve been researching a bit on deer habitat and it’s really interesting to find out how deer live. Since learning more about “Deer beds” I’ve been able to spot them all ove

The right wing greenie in Politics JoeUser Forums

So, on the one hand, I like the idea of having a 0 emissions house. On the other I have philosophical objections to the federal government picking winners and losers. So I have some trepidation as I install the 20KW solar array because of the almost insane level of tax incentives on it.

Keep a close eye on Air Play and Air Print in Personal Computing JoeUser Forums

Apple’s Air Play has the potential to be a game changer for the tech market depending on where Apple takes it. Frankly, from a business point of view, it scares me. When every monitor and receiver and TV becomes an Air Play device, that could spell the beginning of the end of the PC as we know it. Microsoft and Sony and especially Nintendo should be afraid too. What happens when you can just tell one of your TV’s to display (and play the sound) of your iPhone 5/6 game or have yo

Twitter fails still for me in Virtual Communities JoeUser Forums

Twitter still strikes me as not having enough meat. I like blogs. It’s a pity we were never able to get a more consistent blog format because I think there’s a market niche still to be filled by something that easily supports small articles.

Virtual Programming in GalCiv Journals JoeUser Forums

Fire-Watch pointed out that I’ll need to get a virtual image of Windows XP going in order to program GalCiv. Otherwise, I’d have to take some people off of Elemental to migrate the GalCiv II project to Visual Studio 2005 or 2008. Right now, I’m on a bit of a sabbatical to get back to focusing on tech. So installing a virtual PC image (or VM Ware) is kind of cool. I’ll let you guys know how it goes as I’m doing it.

Reply to GalCiv II coding in GalCiv Journals Stardock Forums

Fire - that would be torture.

Reply to The coming 1.1 patch in Elemental Dev Journals Elemental Forums

Essence isn't gone, it's just not a stat anymore since you pull from a global mana pool. I.e. a magician must have essence to cast spells and only channelers have essence inherently (but can imbue heroes to have it). It's a bool.

Reply to GalCiv II coding in GalCiv Journals Stardock Forums

Yea, this is proving harder than I thought to get the compiler up to speed on win 7 64-bit. It's a freaking compiler. :(

Reply to GalCiv II coding in GalCiv Journals Stardock Forums

One of the yucky things is I'm having to install Visual Studio 2003. Ack.

GalCiv II coding in GalCiv Journals JoeUser Forums

So I’m on a sabbatical which was planned a long while ago. Basically, it’s an opportunity for me to get back to my roots. One of the things I’m working on during sabbatical is GalCiv II (Twilight of the Arnor). It’ll be lots of little tweaks and improvements (AI, gameplay, balance, bug fixing). But this is the kind of thing I enjoy but can only justify on vacation. It seems like for the last couple of years my role has been less CEO and more fire fighter anyw

Sabbatical: Day 3 in Blogging JoeUser Forums

Our family recently moved to the house I’m typing from. It’s not quite done yet and nothing is bigger reminder than that than the constant sound of contractors pounding on things from various distances. Our IT guys got me set up so I can do AI coding from remote via VPN and Incredibuild (which lets me use all the lab machines at the office as slave boxes for compiling). The main thing I miss when working from home are the people. Stardock really is a different kind of company.

Sabbatical: Day 1 in Blogging JoeUser Forums

Day 1 of the sabbatical has begun. Apparently I have 3 children. Today we took a walk in the woods.

Being crushed by my own kind in Blogging JoeUser Forums

One of the biggest problems I’ve run into as a business person is that I’ve never treated the PC game industry as a genuine business. It was a hobby side project. I’m one of those guys who want the game industry to work better and I want to make games for those vocal people on net. When Elemental: War of Magic didn’t live up to the standards we had hoped for, it was pretty stinging to my “my people” turn on me so quickly and so adamantly. It was a bitter lesson that requir

Windows vs. MacOS? No. iOS in Personal Computing JoeUser Forums

When deciding what to invest in going forward, one thing that I know many software developers are seriously looking at is the ubiquitous potential of iOS. Right now, it is confined to two form factors – a tablet and a handheld. But there is nothing stopping it from becoming a fairly universal OS, potentially supplanting Windows in the long-run. This is not something I’d like to happen. But I see it as becoming increasingly likely.

Reply to Why business owners get rich (or very poor) in Business Stardock Forums

Indeed. It is interesting to see guys like "Max Power" complain how I spent my capital. As if one group of people are more worthy than another.

Reply to Why business owners get rich (or very poor) in Business JoeUser Forums

[quote who="Daiwa" reply="4" id="2814117"]I noted with interest the recent brouhaha about Google paying so little in US taxes. The general drift, even in conservative circles, was that it was somehow wrong. Lots of sentiment in response that we should do something to punish Google or somehow force them to pay their 'fair share'. Even Drudge gave it a demonizing headline. Like they were bad for making money & using a strategy to minimize taxes. Completely

Reply to Why business owners get rich (or very poor) in Business JoeUser Forums

[quote who="Maxpower179" reply="3" id="2814113"]Yeah but if the reason the given product failed to make $X is that the CEO kept insisting that the product would be market-ready by launch date in spite of all the beta-testers suggesting that it might not be, then laying people off doesn't really address the root cause of the issue. By the way, how good do you think the AI was when Elemental launched?[/quote] There's a number of misconceptions here. First, you are m

Reply to Why business owners get rich (or very poor) in Business JoeUser Forums

Cute. The two aren't really connected. For instance, the house I built took 4 years to construct. It was "paid for" long ago. Though, even if it hadn't been paid for long ago, it would still be irrelevant. Jobs exist to achieve an objective. If a given product fails to make $X then you have to look at cutting costs in the area of that project. Otherwise, you're just delaying the inevitable. The minute you start treating job creation as charity