Author: Joe

Categories
Books

The Facebook Effect

The Facebook EffectJust finished reading The Facebook Effect. Figured I was due for a non-fiction read and it’s reflective cover was too tempting to pass down. It was a very good book, detailing the rise of Facebook.

Being a web developer it’s always interesting to hear of a web project that can grow so fast, amazingly fast actually. The chapters on the early days was very interesting. You always hear about Mark Zuckerberg when Facebook is discussed, and rightly so. But to hear about some of the other founders and other important figures in it’s rise was very interesting.

Once again it demonstrates that the first one to do something in tech usually isn’t the winner in the end. Conditions have to be right for a idea, no matter how great to really take off.

I liked reading about when new features were added and reminded of the backlash whenever change comes to the masses online. After  using the newer features, it’s amazing how fast people who complained and formed groups to bring the old Facebook back forget about the change anyway.

This book isn’t written for techies so much, so if you use Facebook a lot or are just into a crazy fast story of riches you might want to give this one a read.

Categories
Sports

Dodgeball Week 5

banzaiThis week we played the Banzai Executioners again. They won our last encounter and we were hoping to get a win this time around.

Before the game, the Commissioner asked me if I would mind having another girl on the Honey Badgers. Thankfully I said yes, as Jen turned out to possess the ability to throw like a boy.

Our girls played all their games against a 4 man roster, and they played very well. Legitimately taking a couple of games from the guys. One game in particular was pretty amazing to watch. They just simply beat up their guys for that one game in a fairly dominate fashion. So proud of them

Our guys on the other hand weren’t as sharp last night. Our first match was great. Everyone felt good and seemed to play very well, easily taking the first match. Then we fell into an now too typical drought, losing several matches in a row.

I can’t seem to pinpoint on why we’re not winning, I guess the other teams are just better at this point. Losing aside, I have been seeing a lot of improvement from many of our players.

I still think that we’re almost to the point where we can start to have the little breaks go our way in a game. With the addition of Jen to a vastly improved girls team, I also feel as though we should be able to beat any girl roster now too.

Categories
Sports

Dodgeball Week 4

honey badgerThough the Honey Badgers did walk away with another loss last night to the Terror Squad, there were definitely some highlights in last nights game. Many little plays just didn’t go our way at teams. If we can start to get those to go our way, we should be able to start winning some games.

By far the highlight of the night was Dustin single handedly taking out the Terror Squad in a systematic and almost cruel fashion. Never before have I seen a lone dodgeball player pick of 3 opponents with 3 consecutive throws in under 30 seconds. It was truly a beautiful thing to behold.

Our girls really played well overall too. The improvement that they’re showing week after week is great to see. Once we get a full healthy roster back, I do think our girls can and will beat the other teams girls. I’m really impressed by their teamwork.

I personally had a pretty poor night. Really hoping to get healthy soon so that I can get back to how I was playing a few weeks back. An opponent who should never be able to beat me running to the line was able to get the ball to begin way before I was. I really do have to go to the doctor and get my groin injury checked out.

Our guys played ok with some standout play at times, but we really ought to be able to handle their guys better. I really thought that we matched up well with their guys, but just didn’t execute or make the routine plays.

I thought that Geoff and Jared really showed some improvement tonight. I saw a lot more confidence in their throws and overall play. Just waiting for the entire team to click one week. We can play better and I really hope that we start to soon.

Categories
Video Games

Catrap

CatrapDownloaded a fine little old puzzle game a week or so ago on my shiny Nintendo 3DS that’s really impressed me. The game is Catrap, a puzzle game that was originally released for the Game Boy in 1990.

Despite the ancient black and white graphics and horrific sound, the idea is simple yet addictive. You have to clear a simple room with a cat person thing (still figuring that one out), that’s all. However the really cool thing is that you can rewind gameplay just by holding down a button. Mess up, make a bad decision, stuck in a corner now; just rewind and try again.

I do believe that this was the first game that featured the concept of rewind (think Prince of Persia Sands of Time). So in 1990 this must’ve really been an amazing idea.

Some of the levels can be very challenging (thought I was about to give up on I think level 29 or something around there). It’s the perfect brief puzzle for when I need just a few minutes away from what I’m doing.

At $2.99 I highly recommend it. I really want to consider developing a simple browser based version of this. I think that’d be a really cool project.

Categories
Books

Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi Ascension

Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi AscensionSince the copy of of Game of Thrones that I had loaned from the library became unreadable due to sever book damage (I really shouldn’t taken a photo to share, it was amazingly beat up), I figured I’d continue on my Fate of the Jedi series. The latest book out is Ascension, and thus far I think it was my favorite in the series.

Since this is the eight book in a nine book series, things are really beginning to come together. Lots of battles, a ton of Sith doing bad things, Abeloth doing all sorts of evil, political double crossing, all good stuff. The author does a great job of setting the stage for the final book which I will have to wait until April to read.

I really plowed through the very beginning and the last half of the book. There was just so much unfolding that if was hard to put down during those times. My favorite thus far in the series and am anxious for April now.

Categories
Sports

Dodgeball Week 3

GhostbustersThe Ghostbusters were our week 3 opponenets. They are a very solid team and seem to get much more movement on the ball than any team we’ve played thus far.

With a gutsy opening game performance, our guys did mange to take the first match. It was great to not start ourselves in such a deep hole, as we’ve seemed to do thus far. I felt as though we played a lot more comfortably in week 3. I didn’t sense as much confusion as in previous weeks.

Our girls were down Caitlin who was unfortunately ill, and played 4 against 5 the entire night. Despite playing a girl down, they did pretty well. It was nice to see how much they had improved in catching the ball.

They all had some great catches and also showed excellent judgement in when to not catch and just get out of the way. Meghan seemed to be the last standing most of the games and almost single handedly won a few matches for us. If we can protect her and her sister, I think we can win a lot of matches.

I personally didn’t play very well overall. My throws just didn’t have any pop on them this week. I kinda realized this in warm-ups, but hopefully this was just a one night thing and not signs of a dead arm already.

The Ghostbusters was the game, but we did win 4 of the matches. With our guys winning 3 of them against their very good guys team. I really think we can build on this and continue to improve.

Afterwards I asked the Ghostbusters is they wanted to play a few more games just for fun. We agreed and decided to play everyone co-ed at once. It was pretty crazy having so many people on the court at once, but a lot of fun. I had no idea when throws were coming from and didn’t last as long as I would’ve liked, but it was fun just to see everyone else play. Ryan the referee hopped in there too on our team, which was nice to see.

Even though we lost, I thought we made some big strides overall as a team this week. I hope that we manage to peak right as playoffs begin (still a ways off).