IM for Gamers

I’ve been checking out the new instant messaging program called Xfire. Xfire looks to be the must have messaging tool for gamers.
Xfire understands games and can tell when you are playing a game. Your friends can see your status and see what you are playing. If your friend wants to join you, they can join you on the same server.
For example, if you are playing Call of Duty on a specific server, Xfire allows your friend to see what server you are on and join it easily. This is truly revolutionary for gamers. No more exchange of IP addresses, just a simple point and click. This is a great thing for guilds and clans.
Besides see your friends, you can see the friends of your friends, increasing your group of potential teammates. I haven’t played with Xfire extensively, but it looks to be a great tool once I have more friends using it.
So if you are a gamer, and a friend of mine, download Xfire and add me as a friend. I’m Argyle on Xfire. This means you BillB…

Taxes Done!

For the first time in about ten years, I did my own taxes. We had been having our accountant doing them since we lived in San Francisco. For the last several years I had been getting extensions and putting off the taxes until October each year, paying a premium for the accountant to handle things. Quite a slacker I was.
The guys at work convinced me that the Turbo Tax software on the net was completely kick ass and easy to use. I was dubious at first but I had faith and and tried it anyways. I had gathered the info over the weekend and did all the data entry in about 90 minutes. Easy as cake.
We are getting a sweet little refund direct deposited into our bank account and I am filled with relief. I heartily recommend online tax filing via Turbo Tax.

LA Bloggers

Yesterday, I arrived back in LA from New York and saw that there was a meeting for LA bloggers in downtown LA. With Michele & the kids still out of town, seemed like a good thing to do.
Before the meetup, I went to have a drink with Len, Monique, and Darby before heading to the train station to take me downtown. They were having dinner in Pasadena and wanted to give back some stuff from the Crawfish party I had loaned them.
The Gold Line to Union Station, switch to the Red Line and pop up at Pershing Square. I was one block away from the meeting at the Biltmore. For $3 I had an all day pass and avoided traffic and parking costs. Taking the train > driving.
The group was gathered at couches near the bar and an impressive tab was building. I pulled a chair and started chatting. IIRC, I chatted with Jeff Koga, Will Campell, Kathy, Kathy’s friend from St. Louis (who’s name I forget, but remember is a Lotus notes guru), Ponzi (Chris‘s girlfriend), Sean, and briefly with Wil (trying to convince him to try Neverwinter Nights). There were a dozen more people I didn’t get a chance to meet with. They passed around a paper for people write their names & URLs onto, but I don’t know what happened to it.


Here’s a photo of the group taken with my digital happy snap with it’s weak flash. I Photoshopped in a fill flash, so pardon the quality. We didn’t seem to have any of the serious photographer bloggers in the hizzou.
I think this gathering could get converted into a regular event. The downtown Biltmore seems like neutral ground for the Westside & Valley bloggers. The drink prices were high, but other than that the spot was good, with supposed wifi lurking. Next time, I’m bringing my sporadically blogging wife. She never turns down a chance to go out for a drink.
Update: Looks like I go things confused. I was actually talking with Jay Bushman, not Will Campell at the meetup. My apologies. All the more reason we need nametags at these things. Jay is a good guy and we agreed about most things, except that Nightmare Before Christmas was a great movie. He says it was terrible. It must have been the gin talking.

More on FeedDemon

In an earlier post, I mentioned that I had found a way to sync one install of FeedDemon to another. It’s simple in theory but a little more complicated when you actually do it. Alex Hunter asked me to explain how to do it.
All of the information about how you’ve configured FeedDemon is stored in the C:\Documents and Settings\Mike\Local Settings\Application Data\Bradsoft.com\FeedDemon\1.0 directory. The exact location will probably vary on your machine unless you name is Mike as well.
What I do is zip up the entire 1.0 directory and upload it to a directory on some web space. You could do the same thing with removable storage, but online storage works for me.
When I’m at a computer where I want to sync up FeedDemon, I simply download the zipped file and unzip it into the same C:\Documents and Settings\Mike\Local Settings\Application Data\Bradsoft.com\FeedDemon\1.0 directory having the unzipping process overwrite any existing files as needed.
Boot up FeedDemon, and viola, it is configured just as the location I zipped the files was configured. It’s a little complicated but I think that in time the process can be automated within FeedDemon itself. It might take some time for this to be done, Nick Bradbury, the author of FeedDemon, is having neck surgery. Amazing, since I was just playing kickball with in February at SXSW. Until then I can manually sync the aggregator.
Perhaps I need to learn how to write a simple script that executes the zip and upload for me. I think that winzip allows for command line scripting. If you figure it out, let me know.

Coffee Drinkers read this

In the New York Times Health section, there was a great article on caffeine intoxication. All you coffeeholics should read it. Some of you have that darting eyes look about you and can’t seem to pay attention well.
After reading that, go check out the list of caffeine content of various drinks. Another list shows slightly higher values.
Putting this in perspective, a single large Starbucks coffee (500+ mg caffeine) has roughly the equivalent of FOUR cans of Red Bull or a SIXPACK of Mountain Dew soda in caffeine dosage.
So people please, watch your caffeine intake. Try to keep to the recommended 250 mg per day.

Passover

Last night was Passover.
I am not a religious man, but I have to say that Passover is my favorite religious holiday. Like many holidays, it is a time when family gathers together for a meal. Different than many holidays, Passover is a living, changing holiday. Passover is about the journey of the Jewish people both today and thousands of years ago. Unlike some holidays that are locked into events that occured long ago, Passover examines the continuing quest of the Jewish people for a better life.
The basic idea behind Passover is for the youth to be told the story of the deliverance of the Jewish people out of Egypt and into Israel. Quite a good tale, if all the movies about it are any sign.
The story has been told over and over the centuries as the Jews have been through good and bad times, to remind them that in the end, their current struggles will subside and things will get better. Even while in the concentration camps in World War II, the Jews celebrated Passover, looking toward the future. As new history is made, so changes the story of Passover and the path to peace that lies ahead.
This year I was proud as my eldest daughter, Zoe, read the four questions in the Haggadah (the script for Passover). It doesn’t seem that long ago that I was reading the same questions from the strange book with the pages backward.


Here Zoe & Mira negoitate the price for the Afikoman with my father-in-law, Steve. We need to work on this since they gave into his first offer. They could have gotten much more out of him.

Found goodness

Thanks to a note from a reader of my post about self-publishing, I was able to track down a copy of the book NeoAddix by Jon Courtney Grimwood. It winged it’s way to me from England and I read it in the last couple days.
NeoAddix by Jon Courtney Grimwood
After about the third paragraph of NeoAddix, I knew it fit seamlessly into the world I first encountered in ReMix, Grimwood’s third novel. The world takes place in a slightly alternative future where France still has aristocracy and the advancement of genetic engineering is common place. The world has a harsh edge to it. The boundary of right and wrong is blurry and power is the goal above all else including money or fame.
The story wanders into themes of the corruption of power, the future of medicine, and the interconnectedness of crime. I was suprised to find that several of the characters int he book are mentioned in the later books. In fact, they play key roles. Alex Gibson and Razz both appear in ReMix with references to them that I really didn’t understand. Now I have a clear picture as to where they came from.
The cyberpunk style is much like William Gibson with a future that doesn’t need a lot of explanation, but with a harder edge of world spanning conspiracy and cruelty. The book was hard to get, but worth it. The second book in the series, Lucifier’s Dragon, is on order from England now. It looks to continue on in the world Grimwood has created.

On the road

In about a half hour I’m heading to the airport for a trip to Cincinnati to catch up with the girls and spend some time with family. On short notice, I have to go to New York as well for business.
So if you are in Cincy or NYC, drop me a line.
Have a good weekend, I know I will.