The Brad Hole

From 6pm last night until 10am this morning, my junk filter had trapped 1301 e-mail messages. This is up dramatically from the typical 120-130 I get in a 24-hour period. The culprit? A new Win32 e-mail worm called MyDoom. In the span of the past 5 minutes when I emptied my junk folder and now, 9 more have appeared. To say this worm is a success is an understatement.

Hopefully soon this technology can be adapted so I can be spammed about buying drugs online and increasing the size of my manhood with more efficiency than ever!

Posted by bradman at 11:00 AM | Permalink

Daring Fireball had a story today about a webpage detailing the history and folklore behind Apple. It contains a bunch of fascinating and sometimes humorous articles about the history of Apple and the personalities behind it, and it's a must-read for any Apple fan.

Posted by bradman at 12:28 AM | Permalink

Today is the 20th Anniversary of the Macintosh. As it happens, the Mac plays a large part in my life, not the least because it keeps me employed. In the spirit of the occasion, I'd like to take some time to reminisce on my computing past and how I wound up a Mac user.

My first contact with computers (that I can recall) was with a TRS-80 and BASIC, back in 6th grade honors class. We didn't get much time with it, but I remember thinking it was a fascinating concept to program computers, and this was my first taste. Prior to this moment, I had known that I loved video games, and would spent some time daydreaming up video game ideas. Seeing the TRS-80 was my first taste that the ability to harness computers was within my grasp.

In 7th grade, I took my first computer science class as an elective in middle school. The computers here were Apple IIs, and I was all about programming my own games and making graphics. The first game I ever completed was a text adventure with the plot that Mr. Rogers (yes, that one) was planning to detonate a nuclear device and you had to break into his house and stop him. My second game was a sequel that involved unsolved Sesame Street Hatchet Murders. This time, I added graphics, albeit low-res ones.

Some time in there, my parents bought a used Apple II that had been hacked into an Apple II+. I loved that machine, but I secretly lusted for an Apple IIe, because it had 128k of RAM and double-high res graphics. A year or two later, we retired the Apple II for a IIe, and it was my main computer for many years. Ironically, I learned an early lesson in obsolescence here - the Apple IIgs came out 2 months after we bought the IIe. Ouch.

In high school, I took programming courses all 4 years. The first 2 years, our lab used Apple IIe's, and my junior year, they upgraded the entire lab to Mac Plusses. This was my first in-depth experience with the Mac. I had formerly derided the Mac because it was, to be honest, not a very good game machine, what with black & white graphics. However, our teacher had received a Mac II, in living color, and my opinion of the Mac changed dramatically that day. The ease of use of the Mac, compared to everything else available at the time, was clear to me and I wondered why the entire world wasn't Mac-based. One of the first games I wrote for the Mac was an Arkanoid clone (in Turbo Pascal) called "BradleyBall."

In college, I finally got my very first Mac, an LC. Initially, I didn't have any inclination to learn to program it - in fact, I wasn't even sure I wanted to program computers any more. But sometime during my sophomore year, I decided that I couldn't deny myself, and became serious about programming, and more importantly, programming the Mac. It seemed easy to me mainly because I loved working on the Mac. In the early 90's, I was firmly convinced that the Mac was The Gaming Computer, because it was clear to see that playing SimCity or Civilization in 640x480 was a much better gaming experience than playing it in 320x200 in DOS with sporadic to no sound. The technological lead the Mac had over the PC in the early 90's stunned me and helped to cement my future course.

So even though Apple seems to be celebrating the 20th of the Mac with little fanfare, I raise a toast to the smiling little beige box that could. Here's to you, Mac!

Posted by bradman at 10:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

There is an article on nature.com about an interesting study on how sleep affects your ability to think through problems. As a programmer, I tend to keep "programmer's hours" - I get up late and go to bed late. (It doesn't hurt that I work from home.)

If this study is true, it leads me to think that I can benefit from either doing all my programming in the morning, or just take a nap every time I get stumped by a bug. I think I'll try the latter. :-)

Posted by bradman at 07:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I've made a conscious effort to keep topics like politics and religion out of my blog. Although I have some fairly strong opinions on the subjects, I just don't feel the need to share them, and certainly don't feel the need to convince anyone that I'm right or they're wrong.

So with that disclaimer firmly in mind, there is a noteworthy event happening tomorrow. As some of you may know, Beth works for Mesa Community College, and as it happens, Bush is appearing there tomorrow.

Why he's appearing at a community college and not ASU or U of A is beyond understanding for my simple, unfrozen caveman mind. (Actually, a number of reasons spring to mind, but I'm trying hard to bite my tongue.)

Posted by bradman at 10:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

My presentation at the Apple store on Saturday went well. Given that the general public had, at most, 3 days notice and the Apple Store website claimed I was speaking at 6pm (closing time for them, as it turns out), there was a better turnout than I was expecting. I think there were 10-12 folks there, and a number of them had some pretty good, and reasonably technical questions about Mac gaming and the porting process. If we could get the process a little more organized, I'm sure we could have a pretty significant turnout.

I was able to show Medal of Honor: Breakthrough as I'd just gotten it to what I would consider to be "beta quality" on Friday. It's running more or less bug-free now, although it needs some optimization done to it. Hopefully we'll be able to start the beta test for it in earnest sometime in the next week or two.

Last Friday, I started coming down with the cold that Beth had been carrying all last week, and by mid-day Saturday, I was officially "sick." The timing for this was good, I suppose. My presentation at the Apple store lasted about an hour, and by the time I was done, I was totally spent. By the time we got home, I was wiped out, and I spent most of Sunday blowing my nose and sleeping. I managed to talk Beth into picking me up a sandwich from A.J's, and as a bonus, she brought back a cannoli as well. That's why I married her.

My honker is still full of slimy little dwarves wearing green and yellow hats, but I feel a lot better this morning. Beth has the day off due to MLK day, so I'll try to milk some more sympathy out of her, and perhaps another cannoli as well.

Posted by bradman at 05:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

I got the word the other day that this upcoming Saturday at 1pm, I'll be speaking at the Apple Store Biltmore here in Phoenix. You want to win a copy of Jedi Academy from Aspyr? I'll be giving a copy away!

I'll be talking about Mac gaming, Aspyr, MacMAME and whatever else I can to fill up an hours time. You got questions? I'll try my hardest to give answers. What's more, if fate is kind to me, I may even show a sneak peek at Medal of Honor: Breakthrough, running on a Mac, which would be the first time anywhere that someone outside Aspyr has seen it on the Mac.

So come one, come all. Tell your friends and neighbors! Leave your fresh (and rotten) fruit and vegetables at the door, and join me for a painfully long (or mercifully short) hour of Mac gaming talk this Saturday. If you have something you want me to be sure and talk about (or bring) feel free to leave a comment in this blog entry.

Many thanks to my friend Shawn "Quickdraw" Demumbrum and store manager Jim Smith for making this happen.

Posted by bradman at 01:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

MacWorld is, for me at least, all about hanging out with fun people who coincidentally happen to be passionate about the Mac and Mac gaming. Not surprisingly, most of them are some of the nicest people you could hope to meet. I'd rattle off a list of names, but I'd be afraid to leave someone off.

However, I've run into a group of individuals who are threatening to take the title of Nicest People away from the usual Mac gaming crowd. Those folks happen to work at... wait for it... LucasArts. I was treated to a trip to Skywalker Ranch on Friday by Ted and Michael of Aspyr, and we met up with our LucasArts contacts at their office and then drove out to the Ranch. I don't know what they feed these folks or put in their water, but they were the most humble, friendly and unassuming group that I've met in a long, long time. From a business perspective, everyone I talked to was extremely well-informed about what we've done with the Mac projects of their games - how quickly we did the ports, how well they turned out, how well they've sold and how well they've been received by Mac gamers. If I didn't know any better, I'd say this was a group of Mac die-hards, but the reality seems to be that they love that we love their games, which floored me.

After a brief tour of the LEC offices (I saw a conference room named the Sarlacc Pit), and some chatting with our hosts about Arizona (one of the LEC guys enjoyed visiting Jerome and Prescott), we took off towards Skywalker Ranch. It was an overcast day and it was sprinkling, and they didn't allow pictures inside the buildings, so we didn't take too many. But wow, what a facility. It was, like our hosts, the exact opposite of what I would have expected - relaxing, quiet, large, and gorgeous. It seemed not so much like a place of business as it did a resort destination. We had lunch there, and again I was astounded by the friendliness of the Lucas employees. I chatted with the chef for a short bit about our food - breaded cakes with shrimp, salmon, halibut and crab, and she was very eager to discuss the recipe and offered a vegetarian alternative before I could even ask. The pride that they all took in their workmanship was evident.

After lunch and a tour of the grounds, we went to the Skywalker Ranch gift shop, which is extremely small. It can hold, at best, 15 people at once, and even then it might be a fire hazard. The ladies working the counter there must see drooling fanboys every day of the week but they maintained an interested and helpful air the entire time. I'm not sure how they do that. There was one there who was particularly drooling, asking about every little thing - "How many colors does that lightsaber keychain come in? I'd like them all! And that hat - can I get it with a plain Star Wars logo instead of Attack of the Clones? How about in black instead of navy blue?"

I had what I believe to be a celebrity sighting on the Ranch. As we walked up the front steps to the big house, a fellow walked out the front door and down the porch to smoke in one of the rocking chairs. I wasn't close enough to be 100% certain and I definitely didn't want to hassle him, but I'd say almost without a doubt that it was Rick McCallum, executive producer of the prequels and "Number 2" in the grand scheme of things right behind Lucas.

As we left, the Lucas guys dished out hugs and handshakes in abundance, and commented on how even though they didn't know us that well and didn't see the Aspyr guys all that often, how it felt like a group of old friends getting together. I'm not exactly sure of the "why" behind it all, but I have a theory. I've said before that I love my job, and I believe that the LucasArts guys love theirs probably as much. I think that when you get employees together from two companies that share those same traits, you end up with something that is rare and special and genuine in a business that is frequently harsh, unforgiving and full of fakery and false emotions.

Posted by bradman at 12:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

We've been having a pretty good time so far at MacWorld. We wandered around the show floor yesterday, fighting with the crowds. Apple was giving out 20th Anniversary "1984" posters in sealed poster canisters. You can stick them in a bag at an angle, and they jut out slightly. This is handy because you can then use the poster canister to goose people to clear a patch through large crowd areas. Shazam!

The Gaming Area was pretty crowded both yesterday and today. I wish the area in general was larger just so we could have room to breathe. There's quite a large variety of games being shown - not just the hardcore AAA shooters. It seems (to me at least) to demonstrate that the Mac has a well-rounded game selection. As it happens, it turns out that the Scholastic Math Missions game that I worked on last year was also on display, which was a surprise.

It's always fun meeting up with the other folks in the business, and so far we've seen all the usual suspects. The Freeverse guys have some cool stuff on display - their Toy Sight game is very novel, and an excellent use of Apple technology. UT2k4 and C&C Generals also look very nice, especially so considering that neither game is "final" yet. I also met up with Dave "MAMEbase" Weston, someone who I'd known "virtually" for quite a few years - that was nice.

We've hit up some good restaurants too. We had some great sushi Monday night with Tuncer, Jean-Luc and Glenda at this place across from the Renaissance Park. Last night we ate at this great Italian place a block or so away from Moscone with the ATI guys. I don't know the name, and since there are roughly 100 Italian places within a block of the Moscone, I'll be lucky to find it again. Today for lunch, we ate teriyaki at this place on the tourist strip on Powell by the cable car line - Tomi's Teriyaki I think. It tasted different from most teriyaki I've had, and I'm not sure if it's more or less authentic. All I know is it was damn tasty!

Tonight, we're gonna go to Chinatown. I've never been there, so it should be quite an experience. I wonder why there isn't a Japantown or Koreatown.

Posted by bradman at 05:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

As I'm sure most people are aware, Apple announced new G5 Xserves, some iLife updates and a new iPod mini today. I'm glad to see the new Xserve stuff - it shows how aggressively Apple is going after the enterprise market - traditionally one of their weakest spots. It's also very nice to see iPhoto get a kick in the pants, and I can't wait to grab a copy. Although I'm no musician, GarageBand (or GrajBand, as Jobs calls it) looks like a fun toy as well. There were a few "Jagwires" and a sprinkling of "ooo-tomatically"s too, which makes for a fun Keynote Drinking Game.

But the iPod mini - I dunno. You can now pay $249 for 4 GB of storage or $299 for 15 GB of storage. One of my biggest complaints with the original iPod is that I didn't think it was priced aggressively enough for the storage you got - something Apple fixed fairly quickly. Likewise, I just don't think $250 for 4 GB of storage is competitive enough to go after the market Apple claims it wants. The low-end is traditionally very price-sensitive, and Apple is traditionally very averse to competing there - a principle the new iPod mini seems to demonstrate very well. We'll see - hopefully Apple will at least hold their own.

After Beth finishes showering, we're gonna head over to the show floor and check some stuff out. I'm hoping to talk the MacSoft guys into giving me a copy of Halo, which hopefully should be easy, given that I did some work on it back in the day. :-)

Posted by bradman at 12:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Although today is technically the first day of MSWF, there's nothing really going on yet except for a bunch of press releases. Plus, it's only half-over for me, so I'll call this 0.5 - an unfinished development version. :-)

We got up this morning and after reading Dan's blog entry about Rendezvous, I decided to check out who else was here in the hotel. Turns out there were 2 other people, one of whom had a name consisting of Japanese characters. So I decided to get ready for a shower and in the process, Beth tells me that someone has sent me a message. It turns out it's from the Japanese guy here in the hotel, and he wanted to know if I'm the "MacMAME" Brad Oliver and if he could do an interview for a Japanese magazine. This is all less than 10 minutes after I logged onto iChat, which Beth thought was amusing.

This being my second-ever MacWorld, a lot of the experience is still relatively new and fresh to me. This time, I've got an "exhibitor" pass, so I was able to register and walk around the exhibition hall today, which was surreal. Most of the booths were in a state of half-construction. Forklifts and other heavy machinery were moving all around, which made it hazardous to be in there unless we were actively involved in the process. As such, after a token peek at the black-shrouded Apple booth, we high-tailed it out of there.

Last night, we went out to dinner at this Italian restaurant, and I saw someone who looked very similar to Peter Cohen, but upon closer examination, it wasn't him. So today as we're walking around, Beth started the "Peter Cohen" game by shouting out "Is that Peter?" everytime someone remotely like him was in sight (which, as it turns out, is often).

The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art is right next door to the hotel, so we checked that out. I've been to museums before, but not one exclusively billed as "modern." However, I think it was exactly was I was expecting - somewhat pretentious with a mixture of weird, cool and "that string hanging from the ceiling is considered art?"

Posted by bradman at 03:38 PM | Permalink

One week at MWSF is what I'm staring in the face. We leave tomorrow morning at the crack of dawn (well, 8:30am, but it'll always be the crack to me) and then begins a crazy week of being inundated by all things Mac. Unlike MWSF 2000, I have a few more titles under my belt now, and a bit more name recognition, so I'm wondering how this is going to pan out. It's a bit egotistical to think that I'll be mobbed by Mac-loving gamers, but I've heard some of Glenda's stories, so I'm trying to mentally prepare myself for all eventualities. I remember also at MWSF meeting Trevor Covert, then of Mac Gamer's Ledge I believe, and recalling that he was incredibly quiet in person compared to his online persona. I wonder if I'll have similar experiences this time where the person and the online personality don't match up to my mental image.

Sadly, Corey's not going to be there, and that's a real shame because he's a lot of fun to be around. There isn't anyone who can kiss Cohen or show his asscrack like he can. I feel like a little piece of my soul has died.

I hear Aspyr is sharing a booth with MacSoft, so that should be exciting, as I really like the MacSoft guys. I've also heard about Aspyr's plans for MacWorld, and I'm incredibly excited to see the reaction to them. It promises to be a big week. :-) Thursday night is the annual MacBowl for charity, and that should be fun as well.

One thing about MWSF 2004 puzzles me though. If the rumor about cheap $100-$200 iPods is true, I'm left with a question that the rumor sites seem to have missed. The current cost of replacing an iPod battery through Apple is $99. If a new iPod is that cheap (or close to it), then to my way of thinking it means one of two things: either Apple has added replaceable batteries to the new form-factor or Apple's battery-replacement program is going to drop in price by a significant amount, perhaps to the $49 level that the 3rd party company (whose name escapes me) charges.

Posted by bradman at 12:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)