Luckily, there is a simple fix: defaults write com.google.GmailNotifier AutocheckInterval # (where # is the number of minutes between checks)

Just jotting this down so I don't lose this. Adapted from the original instructions on MacOS X Hints.

• I spent 40 minutes on the phone with Xbox Support to request my "casket".
• A week later, I received an extremely destroyed box that I was intended to ship my 360 back with.
• Two weeks later, I received a 360 that was not my own back. Because of Microsoft's DRM, I then had to fight to get my purchases reactivated.
• This fight lasted another ten days, and involved a Better Business Bureau case, a text adventure, and much screaming into the phone.

Last, my launch Playstation 3 began to routinely crash after 30 minutes of use. This, as far as I can tell, is not a widespread problem - the closest parallel that Sony has is the "Yellow Light of Death".

(Strangely, my RRoD occurred while playing Crackdown, a free-world adventure game where you play as a crime fighter with superhero powers. My PS3 issues occurred while playing inFamous, a free-world adventure game where you play as a crime fighter with superhero powers. I will not be buying Prototype, largely for the safety of my hardware.)

After the frustration I had dealing with Microsoft - a combination of poor materials, shoddy business practices, and a cavalier attitude towards the customer's experience - I figured it would be worth documenting whatever hell Sony would put me through. Horror stories are easily found regarding service for launch units, include time frames of "months", due to Sony no longer manufacturing that exact type of hardware. And given the bile that was spilled regarding the 360's failures, it would only be fair to hold the PS3 up to the same light.

Before I begin this blow-by-blow, a few notes:

• My issues with Microsoft occurred a roughly two months before Microsoft wrote down a one billion dollar loss to extend the warranty on all Xbox 360s for the RRoD. Their process may have improved in the last two years. (As a result of my experiences, all of my multi-platform purchases have been on the PS3 or PC since.)
• My PS3 was not completely broken - it would still boot - and so while I am still mostly sure this was an optical drive issue, this was a somewhat preemptive service request.
• My PS3 was also not under warranty - which meant this repair was paid for out of pocket.
• Because of the hardware backwards compatibility, allowing me to play PS1 and PS2 games natively, it would be critical that I receive the same model of PS3 back.
• Since SingStar DLC is tied to one PS3 (rather than 5, like most PSN content), it would be important that I receive my original PS3 back. Sony does have a process to reset SingStar content which takes an average of 3-5 business days, from what I've heard.
• The final complication is that I replaced my PS3 hard drive in January of 2008, upgrading from 60GB to 250GB. While this is completely supported by Sony, I managed to strip the vital screws in the process, so my hard drive was not in the standard protective metal sled. Most stories I had read indicated that sending a non-standard hard drive to Sony would end up with it getting replaced with a stock hard drive; no one that I could find had sent in a hard drive in this unprotected state before.

Here we go:

Sunday, May 24th / Day 1 (Business Day 0)

After reconfirming with multiple discs that this issue was widespread, I first went to Sony's support site. After clicking the "Service" link, I was slightly annoyed to not find a phone number. I have an innate distrust of automated repair systems, preferring humans as they are easier to vent at.

But after realizing that it was a Sunday and calling Sony would probably get me nowhere, I filled out the form. It was roughly four pages, which included giving credit card information to bill the $150 (plus tax!) charge to.

Nearly immediately, I have a confirmation email with a service request number and a confirmation of all my fields. Slightly better than the Microsoft experience, which only gave me a very generic email telling me to follow the instructions I had been given over the phone.

Thirty minutes later, another email arrives, indicating there was a form that I could print out and fill out that would need to go in the box when it arrived. Okay.

I proceed to attach my large USB drive to the PS3 and did a backup of all of my data. It took around four hours for 75GB of data. Meanwhile, Memorial Day weekend continued.

Wednesday, May 27th / Day 4 (Business Day 2)

I receive a shipment confirmation from UPS that a package from SSC will be delivered to me the next day.

Thursday, May 28th / Day 5 (Business Day 3)

The casket arrives. The difference between it and my Xbox 360 casket is night and day. This is a box I am not uncomfortable putting expensive hardware into.

The form that I had been instructed to print out earlier came with the box. Obnoxiously, the area to enter the service number is one character short. My belief of writing outside the lines comes in handy this one time.

I also am asked to re-state the problem with my system, and in addition to mentioning the optical drive failure, I add "ALSO STRIPPED THE SCREWS FROM THE HARD DRIVE CARRIER - COULD YOU REPLACE?" or something similar. This is a desperate attempt to get them to not throw out my hard drive, even if the cost to replace it would be relatively small.

I de-authorize all of my PSN accounts and factory reset the machine (as instructed by Sony), pack it away, and tape the box shut. Shipping will have to wait till Monday.

Monday, June 1st / Day 9 (Business Day 5)

I drop-ship the box from the UPS store near my office. Expected delivery to Texas is June 4th.

That night, I plug in my USB hard drive and take a look at the backup folder, and noticed that it seems a lot smaller than I would have expected.

Thursday, June 4th / Day 12 (Business Day 8)

Checking my favorite delivery tracking app, I see the package is out for delivery. Then, my gmail chimes, subject "Your system has been received by PlayStation":

Sony Computer Entertainment America,Inc. (SCEA) has received your system at our service facility. Turn around time for most products are 7 to 10 business days. Please note, turn around times may vary depending on your product, the type of service being done and any courier impacts.

UPS has not signaled that the package has been delivered, which means Sony has processed the delivery faster than the courier that delivered it. I am mildly impressed.

Monday, June 8th / Day 16 (Business Day 10)

I am at WWDC, about to have dinner with a variety of educational IT folks at the conference from NYC. My mail badge lights up. Subject: "PlayStation Shipment".

On 06/08/09 we shipped a PLAYSTATION 3 - CECHA01 and if applicable, peripheral(s) and/or accessories, to you.

There is a UPS tracking number.

I am incredulous and immediately suspicious. If they shipped it that day, would they have even fixed it? Did they just swap me another PS3? Am I going to get it back with a message that I had voided my warranty?

Thursday, June 11th / Day 19 (Business Day 13)

UPS pulls off some amazing bullshit and manages to take a package that was in Newark - a mere 8.5 miles from my apartment - and sends it to Philadelphia - 97.3 miles away. Only a 1045% increase in distance.

Friday, June 12th / Day 20 (Business Day 14)

Katie calls to inform me the PS3 has been delivered.

I ask her to check the serial number to see if there was any chance we received our original unit back. It is.

I ask her to check the hard drive bay to see if there's a carrier around the hard drive. There is.

I ask her to power it on and tell me how much free space is showing on the drive. She reports back that there's about 210 GB.

I am speechless. Katie hangs up to watch a Blu-ray.

Conclusions

While I don't have day-by-day notes for how long the Xbox 360 ordeal took, but diving from my blog posts, the hardware replacement process went from May 17th to June 6th - twenty days total, with fourteen of them being business days. So the overall turnaround time was exactly the same. There's a possibility I could have driven down the turnaround time by three days had I shipped the PS3 on Friday (the 29th) instead of Monday (the 1st).

There is another difference worth noting: Sony actually repaired my console and returned it to me. (They even fixed my jury-rigged hard drive upgrade.) Microsoft provided me with a refurbished unit, which forced me to go through the DRM reset process; this added another nine days (seven business) to my hell experiences.

More importantly, there's a level of common sense that Sony's process entailed that Microsoft's had not grasped. Tracking numbers for every one of the three shipments saved me from blindly wondering where my console was. Emails confirming all of my details and notifying me when repairs were done. No painful calls with call center reps from who-knows-where. No escalation, no dropped calls. No need to call in the Better Business Bureau.

The punch-line with my PS3 repair experience is that there is no punch-line. The repairs were of reasonable speed, the communication was great, and I was back up and running with all of my games by the time I got back from SF on Saturday morning.

So kudos, Sony. You may be stuck with the same shipping times (unsurprising, given that you're both using UPS), but your process is a pleasant walk in the park by comparison.

Notebook Refresh

With the 13" aluminum MacBook changing names and joining the other Pros, a significant amount of confusion will finally dissipate - I will no longer be trying to explain why there's a small gap between the top end MacBook and the low end MacBook Pro. Simplifying the product line helps, a lot.

Price cuts are always welcome, as are performance bumps.

As someone who has never lugged around multiple batteries, and as someone who always has to deal with AppleCare when a battery starts to go anyhow, I am all in favor of integrated batteries. The additional battery life is just icing.

I shed a single tear when they announced the SD card slot, as my Canon DSLR uses CompactFlash.

10.6 / Snow Leopard

The biggest news here is the pricing: $29 for a single license, $49 for a family pack. There was a lot of rumbling that 10.6 would not have flown with consumers at the usual $130, since it's lacking a single compelling feature. (Exchange support might have done it for businesses.) But at $29, this will be a non-painful upgrade for most users.

While Bertrand Serlet is always willing to bash Windows during a keynote, the biggest middle finger towards Windows 7 is the price. Both 10.6 and Windows 7 can be seen as a refinement release, bordering on a major service pack. Snow Leopard ships a month in advance of Windows 7; pricing for Windows 7 hasn't been announced yet, but I have my doubts Microsoft can limbo under the $29 bar.

Second biggest news: Intel only. I am sure that many tears are being spilled over this one. It was inevitable, and when Snow Leopard ships, all PPC machines will be out of Apple's support window. Upgrade your hardware, people. (By the way, I was right.)

The hidden gems here are the actual refinements, and browsing through the Snow Leopard site reveals some substantial nuggets. These are fixes to minor day-to-day pains for most Mac users:

• Disk ejecting will become much more reliable, and will actually tell you which application is blocking the eject.
• You can "Put Back" items in the trash.
• Startup, shutdown, and waking from sleep are all significantly faster.
• The Airport menu now shows signal strength for all the networks in the area.
• Machines that are asleep will have Bonjour services proxied by an Airport Extreme or Time Capsule, thus solving the "I have to go wake my machine up before you can do X" problem.
• There's HFS+ read-only support for Boot Camp users. As a frequent Boot Camp user, this resolves a huge problem in trying to co-exist in two OSes.
• Plugging in a printer will automatically download the newest driver. This may be a killer app for those of us who end up supporting non-technical users. I can only hope this works the same way for network printers.

10.6 is looking good, through and through.

iPhone OS 3.0

The "Find My iPhone" functionality is very neat, but not enough to save my MobileMe account from termination this fall.

Given that all developers are now required to add a content rating to their apps (for the parental controls), I am crossing my fingers in the hopes that we'll finally stop seeing app rejections for content.

While I was hoping the OS would come out this week, the 17th is not that far off. Expect a lot of apps to update next week.

The ///gs

The iPhone 3GS feature list reads as a set of needed improvements. More storage, better camera, better battery, faster CPU. It's not a sexy update, but it's a functional one.

While the video recording will be good to have, I'll still be keeping my Flip minoHD on hand. VGA resolution at 30FPS is good, but not great.

Knowing a number of directionally challenged people, the digital compass and auto-reorienting maps are greatly appreciated. Knowing a number of people who go to the gym, the Nike+ integration is also greatly appreciated.

The hardware-level encryption (and the related "instant wipe") knocks out a serious concern that I've heard from assorted IT folks. Kudos to Apple for chipping away at the pile of security concerns.

I am glad to see the existing 3G drop to $99, but I'm wondering how long the 3G will continue to be sold. Is this a way to empty the channel, or is this a long-term strategy?

The New Enemy

If anything became clear at WWDC today, it's that AT&T has become the enemy. As I write this, "AT&T" is trending above "iPhone" on Twitter.

As Scott Forstall ran through the feature list for 3.0 - reminding us of ones already announced, and unveiling a few more - the line became drawn in the sand. For the two of the most requested features - MMS messaging and tethering - Scott reminded us that "carrier support is required", and when the list of carriers was shown, AT&T was missing. MMS support was promised "later this summer"; but the same list of carriers during the tethering section led to a series of boos. Scott moved on as quick as he could, and with good reason: to announce a feature that's not available in your home country is ridiculous.

No one from Apple said anything positive about AT&T - instead, they swerved or made jokes. (Note the "if your carrier supports it" joke from Phil Schiller during the iPhone 3GS demo.) Rumors have been swirling about whether or not the AT&T exclusivity deal has been extended, or if Verizon is angling to get the phone on their network next year.

Based on today's keynote, I can't believe that Apple is looking to hang onto that exclusivity for any longer than is necessary. Next year should be very interestin

I find that every year, I get far more excited about the titles at E3 that slip by quietly - the niche games, the ones that only get two seconds during a montage on the screen. The games that may not get a formal press release or even much of a mention.

Allow me to point you at some of the things you may have missed at this year's E3, both good and bad, across all major platforms.

A Boy And His Blob

Platform(s): Wii
Release Date: 2009?

Twenty years after David Crane's original NES game - a maddening, nearly impossible game that lead to much suffering during my youth - comes a re-invention of the game on the Wii. This wasn't a new announcement from E3, but it was the first time it was seen at length. It looks gorgeous, it appears to play much better than the original, and there's a "hug button". I'm sold.

The Beatles: Rock Band

Platform(s): PS3, Xbox 360, Wii
Release Date: September 9th, 2009

Okay, fair enough: this title may be difficult to consider "under the radar", as it was given much attention during the Microsoft press conference. But you may not yet have seen the opening cinematic, and without any hyperbole, it is one of the most amazing game intros I have ever seen.

Of course, one would immediately wonder if the game looks like that. Not quite, but it's still quite remarkable:

While TB:RB won't really live in the current Rock Band ecosystem (DLC won't transfer with Rock Band proper) - the game delivers plenty of charm and polish, and I'm not sure the core music gamers are going to care about a disc swap.

Already I've gotten questions from friends about how this is looking - all I can say is that based on these videos, it looks amazing.

Demon's Souls

Platform(s): PS3
Release Date: TBD

Much like Rhythm Heaven, Demon's Souls is the triumph of gaming good over laziness. After being released in Asia with a full English version, this hardcore dungeon crawler became notorious in the circles I travel for brutal difficulty, innovative online play, and unbelievably low inventory levels. The game was hard to come by, which made tearing through it something of a true accomplishment.

Bizarrely, Sony passed on the opportunity to release this in the US, but Atlus jumped at the chance, and are releasing this game of games in the US in the coming months.

If you've been lamenting the lack of a good RPG this generation, this is your game. You will die plenty, losing hours of work at a time. You will crawl slowly through the dark, praying that nothing jumps out at you. You will tremble as other players invade your game, in an attempt to steal your body.

And you will love it. I promise.

ModNation Racers

Platform(s): PS3
Release Date: 2010

In 1992, my best friend's mom confirmed he was getting Super Mario Kart for Christmas. Shortly after learning this, we resolved to find the game during our next sleepover - and about 5 minutes into the search, I had discovered it stashed in a closet. For the next month, every sleepover would involve waiting until parents were asleep, carefully removing the game from the closet, playing it all night, and then returning it to its resting place before dawn.

While no kart game since has reclaimed my attention quite the way Super Mario Kart did, casual racers has been an itch I've been pleased to scratch time and time again. And so the surprise announcement of ModNation Racers spoke to the 12 year old me, the one who still wants to stay up all night whipping around a track with my friends.

But it also spoke to the 28 year old me, the one who's interested in social gaming. Like LittleBig Planet before it, ModNation Racers is focused on the "play, create, share" ethos - and Sony's demo of the game makes it clear that they nailed the creating.

Plenty still needs to be proven here - the karts need to handle well, the racing must be fun, the game needs enough depth to be worth playing, the online needs a lot of nuance. But with at least another 6 months of development in front of it, I have a lot of hope for this one.

Picross 3D

Platform(s): DS
Release Date: TBD

The original Picross DS was an underrated gem, bringing an endless amount of puzzle depth to the DS. Katie and I own three copies of it - two of the Japanese version, and one of the US. It was that good.

Rittai Picross was released in Japan earlier this year and proved to be just as addictive as the first title, even as it upped the difficulty by moving into the third dimension. And while it wasn't shown, Nintendo listed "Picross 3D" on their upcoming release list. I am keeping hope alive for this one to reach our shores.

PixelJunk Monsters Deluxe

Platform(s): PSP
Release Date: TBD

My love of PixelJunk may not be unfamiliar to people who have been reading my blog; it's fair to say I'll buy practically anything Dylan Cuthbert decides to release.

PixelJunk Monsters Deluxe may seem like a quick cash-in - the original PixelJunk Monsters remains one of the best Tower Defense games available on the PS3, and the game mechanic hasn't changed much. But with three islands (including the original PJM release island, the PJM:Encore island, and a brand new one for the game) and online co-op play ready to travel on the PSP, this is an easy double dip to be in favor of.

Pop'n Music

Platform(s): Wii
Release Date: TBD

Shortly after the announcement went up, Konami's official description for the game ended as follows:

With easy and intuitive controls, pop'n music takes full advantage of the Nunchuk™ and Wii Remote™ as you move up, down, left and right to original and licensed music.

That text has since been replaced with:

Pop'n Music will bring a smile to kids as they move their controllers and their hips to the Pop'n music!

This is not the first time Konami has bastardized a Bemani franchise in the name of trying to achieve crossover success in the US. Hell, it's not even the first time Pop'n Music has been bastardized for this purpose.

I have nothing against making kid friendly rhythm games. And the final result may be less terrible than these screens are leading me to believe. But for a game that doesn't play like Pop'n, look like Pop'n, or be even remotely targeted at the same audience as Pop'n, would it kill them to call it something other than Pop'n Music?

Real Racing

Platform(s): iPhone
Release Date: Any Day Now

As if I needed more justification for the iPhone as a gaming platform, Firemint (makers of the ingenious Flight Control) has submitted Real Racing to Apple this week. It's enough to make you say "Gran Tursi-who?"

Scribblenauts

Platform(s): DS
Release Date: TBD

It would be hard to call Scribblenauts anything other than ambitious. Working off the concept that anything you write will appear in the game, skepticism surrounded the original game announcement - but as the E3 hands-on have shown, it may in fact deliver. To quote Nintendo World Report:

This DS game is one of the most creative games on the show floor, but it's terribly misnamed. You don't scribble anything. There is no drawing of any kind. Rather, you type words to make objects appear, then use those objects to solve puzzles. What's impressive is exactly how many words and objects the game recognizes and spawns sprites for. We typed in "dinosaur" and a generalized theropod appeared. We typed "zombie" and a zombie appeared, and it immediately began consuming the human character, who then turned into a zombie. We typed "God" and Zeus was born. We typed "Death" and the Grim Reaper popped up and immediately began fighting God, who eventually died.

To quote IGN:

5th Cell's clearly having a blast putting in objects as inside jokes. Be sure to type in "keyboard cat" when the game ships later this year.

Release this game, keyboard cat.

Shadow Complex

Platform(s): Xbox Live Arcade
Release Date: Q3 2009

As someone who repeatedly tore through Symphony Of The Night and Super Metroid, I have been saddened by the apparent death of the 2D adventure genre. But this year, Epic have saved me from having to go another year without a new Metroidvania game. Shadow Complex, a massive 2D based action/adventure title features a huge map and lots of secret things to find. It's the first title in this genre to appear on a current-gen digital download service. Cannot wait.

Xbox 360 Games on Demand

Platform(s): Xbox 360
Release Date: August 2009

As another sign that direct download services are nearing complete global saturation, Microsoft is preparing to offer catalog titles for download. As an added bonus, they also seem to be dropping the Microsoft Points currency (commonly referred to as "space bucks") for these purchases.

This can only be seen as a good thing. I am glad Microsoft has finally gotten over the idea of constraining file sizes so that 360 Arcade owners don't feel left behind.

But sometimes, the good games make it through. Earlier this year, Nintendo of America came to their senses and released Rhythm Heaven. A localization of Rhythm Tengoku Gold, Rhythm Heaven is a collection of over 50 rhythm-based mini-games for the Nintendo DS. A typical game will see you rocking out with a ghost band, filling robots, playing ping pong, picking turnips, and joining a monkey dance party.

It's extremely weird, but also extremely fun. Even Beyoncé likes it.

Today, I discovered that by not actually looking at the official Rhythm Heaven site, I missed something fantastic: a free iTunes visualizer, using artwork from the game.

Installers are available for OS X, Vista, and XP. (In case these links break, you can find the downloads through the official site on the left hand side.)

A quick install and iTunes restart later, and even an average song can be made amazing through the addition of trippy visuals from the game.

The visualizer isn't perfect - I'm not really feeling a lot of "sync" with the music I tried it with, and sometimes the artwork clips oddly - but watching the assembled mass of ghost drummers, duck drill sargents, and lab assistants rocking out to anything you throw at it is a thing of beauty.

Download this, before Nintendo shuts down the site and we've lost the archive for this glorious piece of software forever.

(Many thanks to Offworld for tipping me off. If they're not on your feed reader, they should be.)

I can't recall having one of my most loved stand-up routines become obsolete in front of my very eyes.

"This song shouldn't have any meaning in 2009," my inner monologue went on as I waited for the third Lexington express train at Fulton Street as a choir sings portions of "Eternal Father, Strong to Save" over swelling strings.

But as I came up out of the underground by my office, and the same track still playing, my lips could not keep still when the refrain came around once more:

Fuck the millenium - we want it now.

Be ready to ride the big dipper of the mixed metaphor. Be ready to dip your hands in the lucky bag of life, gather the storm clouds of fantasy and anoint your own genius.

I have been thinking a lot lately about Bill Drummond & Jimmy Cauty.

"Lately" may be a half-lie. I have been torturing my friends and family with this interest for the last few years, much to their lack of understanding and my inability to explain. But it's intensified recently, capturing my spare thoughts and infecting my playlists, progressively driving me towards writing. Writing this post may allow me to put most of this to bed.

It could be perceived that there is no more appropriate day to finish this post - writing about the two most renown jackasses of the early 90's on Internet Jackass day. Like many things in life, this was not intentional. This has been a long time coming.

Now, we all know that pop music is not going to save the world but it does, undeniably, create a filing system for the memory banks. In years to come people will stagger home down lonely streets singing your song to the strains of regurgitated vindaloo, all memory of who was behind the song lost.

The twelve year old version of me went out of his way to nag his parents to buy what was the coolest album he knew of: MTV's Party To Go Volume 2. Practically a early 90's middle school dance in a box, I already knew and loved nearly every track - the Boyz 2 Men, the ABC, the PM Dawn. It was heaven for someone who had shit taste in music, but at that age I am able to forgive myself.

But the last track was unusual in both genre and content, foreign in every sense to my not-quite teenage world. It was the first house song I ever heard and loved. It is the only song off that album I still love without any sense of irony seventeen years later. And it was the first time I ever heard anything from The KLF.

What was one track in my music collection has since bloomed into ninety-three. I have spent much time and energy digging into the rich written and visual history that was left in the wake of every incarnation of Bill & Jimmy that there has ever been.

Seventeen years since I simultaneously found The KLF as they retired. Fifteen since they burned a million quid. Fourteen since The Magnificent. Twelve years since Fuck The Millenium.

The KLF has endured with me for reasons that only became obvious recently -- something of a self-fulfilling prophecy, I realize. The goal of this post is to simply answer why. (Most of the quotes that follow are from Bill's memoir 45, of which I have strangely purchased two copies.)

Every morning I stop at the service station and pick one of those club compilation cassettes: Ministry of Sound Vol. III, Ibiza Classics, you know the ones. I shove it on the cassette player and drive. I hope to hear something that inspires me, makes me feel good, makes me think something's going on out there in disco land. But it all sounds limp, crap, shit and lame. No ideas, no risks, just a bit of shallow packaging and an ad campaign. And they all come on like they are on some sort of a mission, like this well-past-its-sell-by-date handbag techno has got some sort of moral high ground going for it.

Arguments I've had about The KLF almost always boil down to their music, and I am forced to defend my choice to enjoy something that quite clearly was written as a joke.

Yes, yes. Doctorin' The Tardis was an obvious piss-take.

But I don't admire their music for the joke; I admire it for the risk. Getting their first album removed from sale by sampling too much Abba. Making a pop novelty album intentionally, without shame. Writing a set of #1 dance tracks filled with lyrics about the Illuminatus Trilogy. Getting Tammy Wynette to join them, even for one song. Filling an album with sheep sounds and country guitars, and somehow turning it into the seminal ambient house album.

Such actions require a serious disregard for one's professional livelihood.

(I also admire the music because nearly twenty years later, it's still better than most mass-market trance.)

I sit and wonder where the boundaries are being pushed in music today. The "digital revolution" has certainly tipped the balance of power away from the labels and back towards the artists, but to what end? (Have you seen the iTunes Top 100 lately?) I'm sure there are artists out there doing this, but how many can claim they've both been reckless and successful?

It's a bit hypocritical to sit here and wish for things that I wasn't paying attention to when they were happening -- my view of the KLF activities is all through the benefit of hindsight. But I am in love with the idea of a musician taking all the money they earned and burning it to keep warm.

The argument continues: aren't I perceiving risk when there probably wasn't any? They knew what they were doing. This was all planned!

I'm not so sure.

After the success of Doctorin' The Tardis, there was a plan to make a film. A road movie with no dialog, no script - just a soundtrack. A film crew was assembled, and shooting began in the Sierra Nevada.

It was quickly apparent that the film was rubbish, but the soundtrack was tweaked, completed. and released. That album - The White Room - would have three hits reach the Top 5 in the UK.

Bill writes:

So why am I telling you all this, other than to brag about what a wonderful, rich and varied life we lead? Because I want to emphasize how, when you push your boat ... take that step into the ... and just say Yes, things happen. You may have no control over them. Let them be, let them spiral out there.

Unintended success on the pop charts may not be the most compelling demonstration of what can happen when you stop trying to control everything in your life, but it resonates. Great things are possible when you are willing to let them spiral out there.

With risk comes a chance of failure. Bill & Jimmy's activities were not always a success, or perhaps even mostly a success. They were rarely in control, and the wheels frequently fell off the cart. And yet, this was never a problem.

Writing about the 2K Fuck The Millenium show -- after quoting page after page of negative press, Bill concludes:

And then I did understand. Everything was OK...We had not only blown it, we had destroyed whatever remnants of credibility, bankability, and myth we had left. We had been exposed for what we had become. It wasn't just the money that got burnt; it was also the bridge that we could have trotted over any time we felt like it for a fiscal graze in the green pastures of success. With my finger no longer on the Zeitgeist, I could pick up this pencil, downgrade my horizon and get on with the rest of my life without being weighed down by that sack of credibility, myth expectations.

It is one thing to embrace risk. It is another to take your hands off the wheel. It is a third to be able to embrace your failure as much as you would your success.

Now I am racing to finish this post. It has been sitting in my draft box for longer than I care to admit, and there are a mere twenty minutes until midnight. I am determined to find the point to all of this.

The point, of course, is right in front of me; for once my wandering style of writing has found the destination. I've been thinking about Bill & Jimmy because they have lived much of their lives the way that I want to, perhaps the way we all want to. To embrace risk, to push boundaries, to be okay with not being in control, to accept our own failures.

Bordering on religion or a self-help book? Perhaps. But as far as life mantras go, one could do far worse than to embrace K-ism.

Bill, explaining The Manual:

Don't be afraid. If you want to do something, just go ahead and do it, but be prepared to take the blame, to feel the fall. Don't sit around waiting to be asked, to be given permission. Just get out there and do it.

Bill is currently off redefining his relationship with music. Jimmy is challenging the art world.

I have some catching up to do.

How deep does the irony have to go before we all drown? Time for tea. We've had enough. Just show us where the door is. The White Room is calling.

Wasn't expecting this: after a two year absence due to my shifting job duties, I am finally returning to WWDC this year.

Hope to see many of you there.

It goes without saying that Apple is a huge company, with a extremely large number of moving parts. Trying to get support in the time of a crisis or to fight for a discount can feel like pulling teeth, as it can with all large companies. Bruce eased this tremendously - always being willing to do his best with the corporate office on our behalf.

He will be missed.

I will publish a blog post on Tuesday 24th March about a woman in technology whom I admire but only if 1,000 other people will do the same.

Now, it would be terribly easy to write a post about Ada Lovelace Day organizer, and close personal friend, Suw Charman-Anderson. So easy, in fact, I feel it would be a bit of a cop out. (Sorry, Suw!)

Instead, I will write about a different personal friend. Because that isn't a cop-out at all.

A blog focusing on the goings-on of a city doesn't sound revolutionary in 2009, but in 2002, it was practically unheard of.

In the time since, Jen Chung's tireless editorial work at Gothamist has been a source of stability in a restless city. Day in and day out, Jen is researching, writing, posting, and responding to the news. Yesterday, she posted 15 separate stories - an average day, from what I've seen. In the time since Gothamist was founded, as of when I'm writing this, Jen has written eighteen-thousand-nine-hundred-ninety posts. Just for comparison: in the time it takes me to crank out a single entry, Jen is averaging fourteen - and that's with me having a two year head-start.

Of course, it's quality, not quantity, that counts most - and what's even more impressive is her tireless work to cover the stories that New Yorkers are talking about and affected by. Every major NYC story over the last five years - HookerGate, the Astoria blackout, the Transit Strike, Flight 1549, even the Maple Syrup Mystery - has her fingerprints all over it. Jen's work helped to ensure that after four years of fighting for a press pass from the NYPD - denied on the grounds of "being a website" - Gothamist was finally issued one in February for a City Hall press conference.

Her job is largely thankless. She is frequently raked over the coals by Gothamist commenters over typos and grammar mistakes. Somehow, under all that stress and pressure, Jen remains down-to-earth, friendly, and personable.

Six years has taken Gothamist from personal blog to indispensable resource. Nearly everyone I know reads it; the New York Times said it "reflects everything worth knowing about this city." I can't imagine living in the city without it. (To be fair and also not be beaten to death by other friends, plenty of that cause can be attributed to Jake, Neil, Tien, and the other editors.)

As one of the most prolific, knowledgeable bloggers I've ever met - as someone who's work ethic is unmatched - Jen Chung is the woman in technology I admire.

I wanted to let you know, dear reader, that I am not dead. I may be tired, irritable, and a bit melancholy - but I am not dead.

A better explanation of what's going on will be provided soon. In the mean time, you should probably be following me on Twitter if you are not already.

An upstart gaming center in Rhode Island called Tokyo Game Action immediately felt the effects of this outage - their website was hosted by Bemanistyle. Without a proper website, their community was being extinguished - and for an arcade that largely relied on the patronage of hardcore gamers, community is everything.

But as luck would have it, my forums were readily available - and in a decision I don't honestly recall making, I quickly made a temporary forum so they could keep operations going. (A similar forum popped up on Shoryuken to maintain the fighting game side of the house.)

That was when I first had a chance to talk to Andy McGuire, the owner of TGA, who sent me a heartfelt note. I was immediately struck by his courtesy and motivations for opening TGA:

I don't know how much you know about TGA, but TGA is unique in the fact that we are 100% dedicated to bringing the best Bemani experience possible to the United States. I won't bore you with the sacrifices I have made and continue to make to make TGA a reality, but in short I do it for the love of the Bemani community and a service to humanity.

Every penny that TGA receives, goes right back into the store. I have accepted that TGA is my God given mission (literally, I am a Christian) to bring happiness to people in a way that's not violent or vulgar. I live a simple life and dedicate all my time and finances to make this work.

Besides finances the most important part of keeping TGA alive is communications. And our website being down has killed us. But because of your assistance TGA is surviving and helping keep it's head above water.

He offered to send me a full set of IIDX Happy Sky E-Amuse cards as a token of his gratitude - but as enticing as they may have been, I declined. I wrote to him then:

While I greatly appreciate the offer, I'm going to have to politely decline for a simple reason: After being in the community for 4 years (as of next week, anyhow), I have seen far too many places come and go - people who pour their heart and souls into businesses like this and unfortunately after a certain number of months, flame out for whatever reason. I would much rather see you keep the cards and sell them to your regular customers and keep the business going properly.

Andy's dream had, thanks to his selflessness and sacrifice, managed to survive since that time. TGA played host to two Bemani community festivals, both fantastically received. And through the last three years, Andy always managed to keep all of his Bemani machines up to date with the latest releases - which is not an easy task when they are intended for release in Japan only.

But while he was in Japan in December - researching the newest Bemani releases, working on getting BlazBlue - disaster struck Massachusetts, and TGA was heavily damaged by flooding.

TGA stayed closed after the flood, but Andy did everything he could to work towards re-opening.

Today, Andy's dream has come to a heartbreaking end:

Tokyo Game Action is officially closed forever. With no income and other problems due to the flood, we are drowning in bills it is impossible to recover and reopen.

To pay our creditors and to prevent my family from being thrown out on the street (literally), I am left with no choice but to auction all of TGA's assets.

TGA will be auctioning everything we have in May to pay our bills. Every game, pcb, poster, keychain, chair, plate, fork, Arch stand, figures, software, bowling ball, everything in TGA has to be sold.

My heart goes out to Andy and his family, to all the staff of TGA, and to everyone who had the opportunity to call it their arcade home.

I hope to finally make the trek to TGA in May for the final liquidation - not in the hopes of purchasing anything, but to give my respects to a man who wanted nothing more than to bring happiness to a community of gamers.

I would embed a clip of it, but it is apparently too worthless an ad for anyone to even have put it onto YouTube.

So with that in mind, this ad from the newly opened 92Y Tribeca may fall flat if you haven't seen the original:

Perform advanced retouching of screenshots and teach skills to others as needed.

This sort of "honesty" from Activision is becoming more and more common. I look forward to the inevitable "Game Reviewer Bullying Associate" position getting posted.

But this isn't a post to knock Activision around again. This is about career paths.

Growing up as a gamer, I shared the dream of making video games for a living. How cool would it be, to sit around playing games all day and getting a paycheck for it? But that is what we all do. We take our favorite hobbies and activities, the things we love, and try our hardest to get paid for it.

Before horrible ads made such dreams into self-parody, I did managed to find my way in to getting paid to help make video games. And then it turned into a full-time telecommute position; and then I would relocate to NYC and work out of the company office. I followed the usual industry trajectory: start in QA and support, advance to design and production.

Having games be your work was, surprisingly, about what I expected - a very casual environment, LAN games during lunch, and a lot of freedom to work independently. (To this day, I miss being able to go into work in a t-shirt.) But the seams became exposed rather quickly - it was hard to live in NYC on what I was making. Freeverse was a small company then, not quite the behemoth in the mobile gaming marketplace it is now.

When the time came to move on, I was interviewing to make the leap into the IT field, and presented two offers: I could take a job as a support technician immediately (yielding a large effective pay increase) and then move up when something more suitable opens up - or I could wait until that opening happened, and start at that point.

I opted for the latter.

It's not that I'm against rising through the ranks of a company. I went through two or three titles at Freeverse; I'm now in my fourth position at WCMC. It's not that I didn't need the money - I did, and the eight months I had to wait out for the opening to occur were a little tough.

It's a personal value. Do not take a position solely for the sake of advancing out of it.

Let me be clear: you should always be looking to advance. The second you land a position or a promotion, you should be looking at your org chart, thinking "where next?". Staying in a position where you can't advance is like staying in a loveless marriage - it will eventually end in frustration, and you will have no idea what to do once you're out of it.

But taking a position solely to jump into something else, or solely as a "way in to the industry", is foolish.

You can't advance if you don't love what you're doing, because you'll never excel in your work without that drive.

You won't advance if you're embarrassed about your title, or ever look at yourself in the mirror and have to ask "I went to college for this?". Where you start is when you form all your opinions about your work environment, your co-workers, the management team, and your industry. If you resent them when you're starting, you will resent them always.

Taking a job you don't want to later get a job you do want still means you're working at a job you don't want.

And let's be fair: promises about advancement opportunities aren't worth anything when you have no credibility with the company. Budgets get slashed, economies crater, departments get restructured, better candidates appear on the horizon - and they have no loyalty to you until you've paid your dues.

To those out there with hopes of working in a field they already love, but are considering jobs like "Art Services Screenshot Associate" as a way in: do yourself right.

Find a position to start at that you'll love just as much as the one you're eyeing for your next title. If you love QA, great - you can absolutely start there and advance. But if you hate it, find another in.

Get hired using your skills at a level you won't feel insulted for. Four years of college deserves better than being a Photoshop monkey with "Associate" in your title.

Never settle. Find a position that you'll never be embarrassed talking about what you do, one you won't ever have to consider leaving off your résumé.

Once a bullshot artist, always a bullshot artist.