This may be a little off topic but since I love video games and logic, I thought I’d take a moment to share some thoughts I was having.

I just read this post from Kotaku talking about the new proprietary memory card that will be used for the PSVita, Sony’s upcoming gaming handheld. The tl;dr version: Sony’s making a new type of memory card. They will only work with one gadget. They will be expensive.

This is not the first time that a gaming company, especially Sony, has asked us to pony up for a proprietary storage medium. Sony has virtually cornered the proprietary format market: MiniDisc, MemoryStick, BetaMax, even those little cassettes that go in your answering machine. All of this, I must assume, was in the hopes of making one that lasts and becomes a standard. Well, they kinda did with BluRay even though it’s appearing at the twilight of physical media. But I digress. Microsoft’s also in the game with their custom XBox360 hard drives costing about twice the going rate. In fact, every non-standard CD-ROM or cartridge is also a proprietary format when you get down to it.

Anyway, this post isn’t really about storage being proprietary. It’s about storage being expensive. The companies create this proprietary media then sell it to us. We’ll have no choice but to buy it so they can charge whatever they want. That makes sense I guess. So to sum up their thinking…

• Make a thing customers need to use our product
• Sell it to customers for $$$
• Get rich… Right?

There’s one glaring flaw here. If I may be so bold as to illustrate my consumer-centric logic…

• If storage is $$$…
• I don’t buy storage
• I don’t have much storage
• But I need it to play games!
• I can’t play games :-(
• I don’t buy the games I can’t play
• I spend less money and have a generally un-fun experience with the gaming system

To look at the same argument conversely…

• If storage is El Cheapo!
• I buy lots of it
• I have lots of room for games
• I spend the money I saved on storage buy games without worrying about where to put them
• I have a more fun experience with the gaming system.

To try to turn this from pure gripe into something useful, I will just say this. Don’t make me your willing customers have to work hard to spend money on you. Always be aware of decisions that benefit your company by punishing your customers.

This is not just a video game rant. The online world is also fraught with similar follies. One phenomenon is discussed in this great post about the Mobile App Splash Screen Anti-Pattern by Martin Sutherland. Another example is any site that makes me create an account before I do even a simple task. Virtually every restaurant website ever made has made me endure a Greek techno slideshow and download a PDF menu just to find their hours and address.

Don’t let this happen to you, or to your clients! Always Be Closing! And let me buy more video games, dammit!

I would like to say it’s been a lazy summer with nothing to report but that just isn’t the case. I know Roger has been busy with many things and I have too. I’ve recently been working with an ad agency in LA building a redesigned website for their company. I also worked as a graphic designer on a new NBC web series called Fact Checkers Unit (I now have an IMDB page, so legit!). Last but not least, my wife and I bought a new house in Highland Park. Yay adulthood! Naturally, we’re up to our ears in conduit and drywall dust. Like this blog, it’s not much to look at but it (finally) has running water and (some) walls.

I have lots of little code snippets I’m excited to write as well as a few lengthy, academic posts on programming. I hope to have a little downtime soon to share with everyone. But if I don’t, I guess I’ll see you at Adobe Max in LA!

Keep on Scriptin’â„¢ everyone!

According to All the latest news the attack takes control of your browser and attempts to download a trojan. Luckily, I clicked that link from firefox on my Mac which, for the time being, is largely unaffected by viruses. After clicking on the link, when i went into facebook, the site seemed to be disabled in many areas specifically, in the help and change password areas. At one point my password was changed and I couldn’t cancel my account or change the password.
I went on with another computer and reported the issue then requested a password change which was sent to my email. I also tried to take any personal info off of my account.
Next, I went through my files for firefox on the affected computer. I went into /Users/mims/Library/Application Support/Firefox. I backed up the contents then threw them away. I also trashed the firefox preferences in /Users/mims/Library/Preferences and the application itself. I downloaded a new version of the browser and installed it and the facebook corruption seems to be gone.
I haven’t heard anything from facebook yet and trying to contact them was a pain in the ass.
Good luck!