It would have taken me 6 words to describe it based on what I’d seen before acquiring and using one daily. I’d have said it’s just a really big iPhone. And while that’s true, it isn’t accurate if you’re really trying to describe the device.

Let me frame this accurately. I have about an average amount of techno-gadget-lust. A pretty UI/UX makes me want to use a device. I camped stores for an XBox 360 (which I still use the crap out of) and a Wii (which I think I powered on… sometime this year? Maybe…). I have an Android phone, but I JUST got a truly modern phone, and I’d been successfully using a lowly Blackberry Pearl until then. I’ve been a huge proponent of two attitudes all year. 1, Android phones are for nerds. 2, Of course the iPad isn’t revolutionary, it’s just a big iPhone. After moving to an Android phone, I find that I really like the platform, and now that I’m in the “fully wired, all my email and tweets and everything else is delivered straight to my pocket” modern relatively-rude-but-now-I’m-addicted mode, I’m prepared to admit I was wrong about that one.

And then a couple of weeks ago, I acquired a 64GB WiFi iPad. A friend of mine describes it perfectly: “Nobody needs an iPad. But I love mine.”

It’s easy to point to the fun apps. Casual games like Angry Birds and Fruit Ninja absorb those brief times when you just need a few minutes of knocking things down, blowing stuff up, or slicing fruit into small pieces with your sword-fingers. Godfinger is a surprisingly fun standalone social game, for when you have that “appointment-keeping” kind of gameplay urge. Netflix and Kindle easily fill a “mobile conventional entertainment” niche. And I just can’t put down Civilization Revolution.

Beyond that, though, I’m starting to find that the “mobile device that’s small and light and convenient but fullscreen and I can type on it” niche is changing how I work and do stuff. I’m using Todo to manage my tasklist. I use Evernote to cloud-sync notes, documents, and sketches between PCs, iPad, and phone. The way I work is changing, and that was the biggest surprise for me. I’ve purchased all sorts of gadgetry hoping for vast improvements, and generally been left with “ho-hum, it’s really more of a hassle than a help.” Until the iPad, my “PAA” was a pen-and-paper Franklin-Covey day planner. I had a brief fling with a Palm Pilot back in the day, but when that job ended and I had to return it, I went back to analog. But the iPad goes to every meeting and discussion with me, and notes are taken, and they live in the Cloud and end up on all of my other devices. And unlike my older attempts at this, it “just works.” I could go on — Dropbox and other filesharing, remote desktop, monitor extension, Twitter and RSS clients, Office documents, and of course ubiquitous email.

So in conclusion, I was wrong. It may not just be the iPad, but the iPad in conjunction with the expansion of connectivity at all levels — mobile with phones, deep connectivity to wifi or local PCs, and ever-present Cloud data — genuinely feels like another evolution in computing and technology. Sure, I want Flash and/or IOS 4. I can’t wait for my Android 2.2 “froyo” update so I can STICK IT TO THE MAN (I’m my own WiFi hotspot, yippee) for truly mobile data. I’m certain iPad 2.0 will bring a lot to the table. I bet the upcoming waves of Android tablets will be awesome, too. But smaller-than-notebook, larger-than-phone devices feel like a little glimpse of the future. It’s not the Star Trek PADD yet, and maybe I do feel a little like I’m toting around a scepter, but it’ll do for now.

From the article:

One likely culprit is the number of hours kids now spend in front of the TV and playing videogames rather than engaging in creative activities.

By extension, I blame game developers.

But seriously. When I was growing up, we played D&D. On paper! When the uptight and moral types would descend on us with warnings of eternal damnation, we’d trot out the list of good things(tm) that come from this older style of gaming. For one, it developed creativity. Player and DM together imagined how the story would evolve.

Games today don’t evoke the imagination. Gameplay is most often rigid and repetitive (and every detail is spelled out with blessed HD graphics). Games expect their players to adapt and submit to the mechanics given, never the other way round. We had to imagine everything: what would be the impact of a magic missile on a mimic, formerly disguised as a disused vambrace, now firmly ensconced on a party-member’s forearm (why-not!). And if we didn’t like a rule in a PnP game, we changed it.

Game designers don’t want their players to be creative. They do their utmost to suppress unexpected and emergent gameplay, in fear it might overshadow the blessed experience they have bestowed on us.

As evidence I point to the Nerf. ZOMG! players have found a way to master the ZergMeister class 3.2 days earlier than intended. And the game MUST be experienced as we, the game designers, intend. You know what, who cares if this doesn’t match canon lore. The real fun in games comes from testing the limits.

And any time a game comes out that encourages player made content, the glorious-ones jump at the chance to point out that 99.9% of anything player-made is shit. That isn’t really the point though. Sure, my dungeon is shit. But it’s mine, and I probably had fun (and used my brain) while designing it.

• It’s scary. I’ve let my real name out, and it’s nearly impossible to fight your way back.
• I bet Blizzard has decided that the quality of discussion on their forums doesn’t really relate to a business metric. They will stifle the signal along with the noise by this move, and that’s likely their goal.
• Something horrible will happen as a result. Not because this is exceptionally dangerous, though it seems fraught with peril, but because it’s PRETTY dangerous and will be exposed to potentially millions of people.

UPDATE 7/9

Looks like Blizzard has changed their minds.

Tack in a reasonable amount of polish and some not-crap levels and it might start working towards a fun little experiment!

The balance between work and life is completely up to you.

Start by deciding on your goals. Are you in a growth phase of your career? This tips the balance. Is it really important to you to spend time with your family? This tips the balance. But don’t let the balance get decided for you. Decide what you want. Once you know your goals, then apply your MMORPG gamer skills. Let’s start with some min-maxing!

Workaholism
I work a lot… just ask Emi! But I don’t work 7 days a week, 16 hours a day. That way lies madness. Why? Think of it this way… if advancement is your objective (it sure is for me), you need to contribute unique value. Working more hours is not a unique value — anybody who wishes to slice time out of the “life” side of the equation can match, and probably exceed, you. Working MORE isn’t going to set you apart… but working SMART just might. At the end of the day, productivity is a better goal than activity. Work hard enough to achieve your goals, but keep yourself sane, because burnout can be a one-way street.

Fitness
Want to hack your effectiveness? Don’t neglect your health. You don’t have to become a fitness-obsessed two-hour-a-day gym fiend, either. Think before you eat — do I really want chips? Am I actually hungry, or just bored? Maybe you could purchase some snacks and bring them to work — I keep almonds at my desk, for instance. And exercise doesn’t have to mean costly gym memberships or tons of equipment. Picking up some lunch? Try walking there instead of driving! A couple of small optimizations around your health can lead to some surprising gains in energy and focus. Carving out 30-60 minutes in a day often ends up SAVING me time.

Make Time
Emi was feeling pretty dejected because my hours are a lot longer than they used to be, and I carpool with a coworker, leaving her not only at home but car-less half the time. She came up with a great solution — at least once a week, we spend the extra gas and time to have her drop me off at work and pick me up. It doesn’t sound like much, but that’s an extra hour and a half to talk. Find time for the things that are important — it’s out there.

This time around, I’m interested in general business stuff. I’m reading a couple of “recent classics” that have been on my list for quite a bit. First up is Good to Great, a writeup contrasting companies (mostly in uninteresting or poorly-performing industries) that managed to completely outshine their competition, supplemented with years of empirical research into what characteristics made them unique from the competition. Thus far, I’m enjoying the read, though I’ll hold judgment on how applicable it is, or how much confidence I have in its conclusions, until I finish. After this book, I plan to move on to First, Break all the Rules, primarily on the recommendation of a friend. With a provocative title like that, I hope to get more insight into exactly which rules it is positive to break… (Oh yeah, ALL of them.)

Which non-techie books would you recommend for ambitious nerds? Are they for everyone, beginners getting their feet under them, or advanced folks looking to grow into seniority?

Oh, and I still think it’s for nerds. Only now, I mean that in a GOOD way!

- If I’d bought a lifetime subscription, I might be disappointed now. But it looks like they gave some serious thought to mitigating this.
- I’m extremely likely to check it out when it happens.
- Hey, I think my Guardian was level 35 or so and I can pick him back up!

Ryzom is released in its entirety – all of the framework (NeL, NeLNS), game client, tools, utilities and game servers (services) is released. In addition to all of the source code Ryzom has also released its entire library of 3D assets such as high-quality textures, 3D models, animations, particle systems and more. All of the source code will be licensed under GNU AGPLv3 and all of the media assets will be licensed under Creative Commons CC-BY-SA.

The only thing that isn’t available is the Ryzom world-data. I haven’t looked closely, but I assume this means such things as landscape, missions and likely behaviours and mechanics won’t be available. So there won’t be clone servers of Ryzom.

Nonetheless, the server and world-building tools are available, including the data necessary for a rudimentary world. Servers can be made to run on Windows or Linux. Members of the community have released binaries for those who don’t wish to go through the process of compiling (there are a few tricks).

In theory, an enterprising arm-chair designer with the ability to configure windows software might be able to establsh a world to call their own.

It’s an intriguing possibility. A great opportunity for an outsider to understand better the work that goes into crafting even simple worlds. A great opportunity for an outsider to [demonstrate their l33t skills | embarass themselves] in quest and world design. Yet another project for the pile.