Archive for February 2007

I just survived and thoroughly enjoyed a weekend-long family celebration. Today, I learned that some people didn’t make it to the party because Mapquest didn’t have the right information or street for the location of the party. I was horrified. I used Google Maps and it was perfect in giving directions and showing the location of the event.

This is a lesson in how technology can screw up the best laid plans. About five people got lost and thankfully, my out of town family found their way even though I gave them the right map and posted it on the event’s web site.

When planning an event for a business involving getting someplace… check the major map sites and do all you can to avoid this problem. Maybe I should’ve included a map in the invitations — but really… this place wasn’t new. Remember that people don’t have your web site with them when they head to the event.

Even if we had our phones with us, it probably would not have made a difference. Only one person called needing directions. Most people won’t likely know how to contact you. Or maybe giving out a cell phone or the event’s phone number would help.

It’s been a weird week. I’ve been getting up way too early most mornings as my family prepares a large celebration this weekend. So I thought it appropriate to play and do a review of Dream Day Wedding. No, it’s not a wedding we’re preparing for… but it sure involves almost as much work.

I’m an old married woman, but playing Dream Day Wedding had me reflecting back on my own wedding day, grateful there were no crises. Dream Day Wedding combines I Spy-style puzzles with Choose-A-Story and the match card game.

Search for things the bride, Jenny, needs in the usual settings from the florist and the bakery to the dress shop and the honeymoon suite. When I found enough items on her to do list, the game rewarded me with a Choose-A-Story so I could learn how she and Robert met, fell in love and got engaged. The story can change every time you play, so like those Choose Your Own Adventure books, you get a variety of wedding stories.

Dream Day Wedding kept things interesting by having mini-games. For example, while I sought items from Jenny’s list, I kept my eyes open for bluebirds of happiness until I found enough to reach the golden anniversary (50 bluebirds). In between levels, I played memory match where you find pairs of cards until you clear the board and receive a reward of a needed item for the honeymoon.

The music put me in a wedding and love state of mind while I sought out cleverly hidden items in the various rooms and stores. Sometimes a level stumped me so that I needed to rely on Cupid to give me a hint. The game doesn’t take long to complete and is a great way to escape reality without much concentration. Some games frustrate a player, but this one rarely does, which is a nice change of pace especially when you’re fighting the flu as I was.

Mystery Case Files fans will like this one, but don’t expect as many features and puzzles as those found in Ravenhearst. Consider this one a lighter and shorter version. Puzzle lovers of all ages will enjoy this lovely graphics-based adventure. The game took only a few hours to complete, so those with little time to play will find this one doable.

Download the game from your favorite site:

• Amazon
• Big Fish Games

I’m buried with the final preparations for a big family event happening all weekend. I’ll write about it at another time. In the meantime, I posted a review of Virtual Villagers: The Lost Children, a follow up to the popular Virtual Villagers.

The only recent I mentioned this here is because some of you only get the feed for the blog and not the features, so maybe you’ll find something of interest over there where the “longer posts” are that are too long for an average blog entry.

This is my first encounter with the Virtual Villagers (VV), but not the first time I’ve played a SIM-style game. I’ve played Populous, Sim City, The Sims — years ago. Virtual Villagers: The Lost Children‘s objective is to complete the 16 puzzles with other tasks along the way. This game stands out from many adventure games in that every time you start a new tribe (new game), the experience doesn’t feel like a repeated experience.

In the first tribe, I had a couple that had babies as soon as the mother finished nursing a baby. The second tribe ran into trouble very early on with the ocean rendered useless for food thanks to the algae build up. One of the villagers in the third tribe refused to swim in the ocean. He ran away every time I tried to put him in there to fish.

In other words, each tribe has personable characters and different timing of events. While playing, I thought to myself things like, “Oh it’s that annoying villager who won’t do anything,” “That’s a sweet villager who loves to tell stories and teach the children,” “I appreciate the villager’s dependability” and “Are these people ever going to master anything???”

I celebrated when the villagers completed a project, I got mad when villagers hadn’t mastered a job when I checked on them, I smiled when the children discovered a new item and I felt sadness when two elderly villagers passed away.

One thing I had to learn in playing this game: Patience. Sometimes there wasn’t anything to do except keep an eye out for items — that means I needed to let them take care of themselves for a little while. Even when the game wasn’t loaded, the villagers continued to go about their business. Those who have little time to play games, but long to play one will find VV3 a perfect fit. It doesn’t take much time to check on the villagers and do a few things.

A good way to play the game is check in on them a couple of times a day and take care of things. The game isn’t meant to be played on a continuous basis like the arcade games as time is an important factor. Sure, you could change the clock on your computer, but you might miss important events.

The Virtual Villagers: The Lost Children official web site has a great guide that provides hints without giving anything away. It also contains the details for the puzzles, but it warns you when you’re about to read the spoilers section. The community forum is another great resource for the game. This community is careful not to spoil anything since many users put (Spoiler) or (Possible Spoiler) in the subject.

Anytime I got stuck, I went to the forums where I found most of the answers. You just can’t control some things in the game — after all, the developers did a superb job of ensuring the experience isn’t the same each time you start a new tribe.

The island-style music fit beautifully with the environment without getting old after playing for a while. You can also rename your villagers — I had to, since several of mine received the same name. You can get creative and name them after your family as I did by giving an island-like version of my ancestors’ names.

Time to check on my tribes. It’s hard to stay away from them for too long as I miss my people and helping them discover new things. Fabulous game.

Download the game from your favorite site:

• Amazon
• Big Fish Games

Original article source and reprinted with permission: TheDiamondGames

I have many fond memories using the Apple ][+ and Apple //e. Funny, I have little or no memories of early Windows PCs. Gnome's Gaming on the Go reports that those with Pocket PCs/Windows Mobile devices can play Apple games with the appleCE Apple II emulator. I dumped those Apple ][+ and //e programs long ago and don't regret it. They'd just be taking up unnecessary space.

Can you tell I'm not a pack rat?

Users of most PalmOS devices have a simple fix for daylight savings time without downloading a thing. The instructions come from the Is Palm Help Forums:

1. Tap Prefs from the Home/Applications screen.

2. Tap Date & Time.

3. Tap Location.

4. Tap Edit List from the down down list.

5. Tap to select your location in the list.

6. Tap Edit to get to the Edit Location screen.

7. Set Start: Second Sunday of March

8. Set End: First Sunday of November

9. Tap OK, Done, Done.

Those on Windows Mobile devices will need to download three files as explained here. You may not need the first file if you already updated your computer.

Boy, I wonder how it’s costing companies to change daylight savings time. Paul had to work last night to install a patch on his company’s servers.

Also, important note for Treo owners: Symantec Vulernability Researched has reported a security advisory on a vulnerability that lets hackers bypass the password lock to access secured contents. Details and a link to a third party fix is available under the Solution tab at http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/22468). Palm has opted not to report the vulnerability and has no plans to issue a patch.

Today’s entry is a hodgepodge of stuff I found or experienced this week.

This slideshow displays the 10 most expensive books in 2006. Note these are old books not books published in 2006.

An entire book comes from text messaging. Though it’s ez 2 read txt msgs, but 2 read 100s of pgs in txt msg-speak? Hard on the I’s.

Teachers are noticing a trend … students using txt msg-speak in papers. Ouch.

**Snail Mail**

I’m preparing for a major family event and that meant sending invitations with RSVP response cards. A friend of mine who lives the next neighborhood over from me said she sent hers in January. I never received it… until yesterday, February 15. The envelope itself was postmarked February 1. Talk about snail mail.

Another friend who also lives within a couple of miles from me sent her response that I have yet to receive. We’re paying 39 cents to never receive our response cards?

I also received an organization’s newsletter after some events have occurred. They sent it to me at least two weeks before these events.

You might allow some e-commerce sites to send you emails with sales and specials. I do. But some go overboard and give you no way to cut down the number of emails you receive. One such site sends emails more than once a week with a sale and instead of drawing me to the site to check out deals, I delete them.

The emails come too often and the sales are too general. In other words, too many choices! The company would have a better chance of my checking out sales by doing the following:

* Limit emails to no more than once a week.
* Limit sales items to a manageable number (hundreds is not manageable).

The point is to find the balance between overwhelming the user and enticing the user. I recommend these sites read The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less.

An email newsletter is a great way to build relationships (for B2B businesses), get sales (for B2C businesses), and stay in the customers’ minds. But there’s such a thing as too much. B2Bs have to balance the number of promotional emails with informative emails. Too many promotional emails — readers will unsubscribe because it’s not worth being on a mailing list when there are far more promotions than good stuff they can use. 80/20 rule works here.

lifehack.org has an excellent (as usual) entry on efficient reading. I remember coming across classic book How to Read a Book, which covers the different levels of reading and how to reach them — “from elementary reading, through systematic skimming and inspectional reading, to speed reading, you learn how to pigeonhole a book, X-ray it, extract the author’s message, criticize.”

The book teaches reading techniques for reading practical books, imaginative literature, plays, poetry, history, science and mathematics, philosophy and social science. I keep meaning to implement these strategies (better yet, read the book!), but I can’t help but want to be thorough when reading a book I review or abstract.

Somewhere I read advice on how to retain information from a book. The fact alone it recommended reading the book four times turned me off. With all the books I have waiting for me to read, I don’t have time to re-read a book. I’d like to use that time to read a different book. But the author was right to recommend re-reading the book if you want to retain its advice. However, some books do the job so well that I pick up a tidbit or two and use it without reading it a second time. Other books, reading them one time lets me know what information they have — so when I need the help… I know where to find them and put their advice to work.

If only I could find magical advice to encourage my kids to love reading without prodding from us. Many experts recommend letting your kids see you read. Well, that doesn’t work in my family. I’ve tried encouraging them to read things they enjoy like comics, topics of interest and such.

My daughter recently shocked me when she asked money to buy a book and its sequel at her school’s book fair. She read both of them in one day. How did she get into them? A friend’s recommendation. We begged her to make more recommendations! She can feel free to read the two books repeatedly. It’s better than not reading at all.

Speaking of books, this YouTube video shows what tech support was like before computers came along. Hilarious.