Nov 30
JustinPersonal beta, developers, Glitch, reset
Roughly seven months ago, I posted about what I called Sonyfication, a term I created to describe the acts of a company that promises and delivers features, then, out of nothing more than pure greed, removes them. The namesake of this term was, of course, Sony’s removal of the OtherOS feature of the PlayStation 3. My first usage of the term was aimed at Spotify, who initially offered free (but with advertisements) unlimited listening, then altered their free plan to enact severe limits on listening after six months of membership.
Today, Glitch has announced that it’s “unlaunching.” That is, they are returning to a beta stage. As an end-user, and as a developer who understands (at least to some small extent) his responsibilities to the end user (oh, and let’s not forget, a huge fan of Glitch), I figure I have a few things to say about this.
Before I begin, let me make one thing clear: I am not comparing Tiny Speck (the developers of Glitch) to Sony, or to Spotify. I have nothing but the utmost respect for Tiny Speck, and nothing but the utmost of loathing for Sony and Spotify. Tiny Speck is not doing this unreleasing of Glitch for profit, but to make the world of Ur a better place (unlike Sony and Spotify, who clearly performed their actions as a malicious act of greed). I applaud their motive, but I’m worried that the results may still be disastrous. So I’m not entirely confident that the term Sonyfication is appropriate here. However, for lack of a better term, it’s what I’m using.
Quoted below is my comment on the Glitch forum topic on the issue, verbatim, and in its entirety (but with some formatting added):
I’m going to add myself to the list of “please no reset” people. As much as I’ve always wanted the honor of “being in the beta” and getting a pickle and all that jazz, I’ve realized something. None of that will make up the 99 hours I’ve devoted to accomplishing stuff in the last three-ish weeks. I’ve more or less renounced real life in favor of spending more time on Glitch, although if I lose all I’ve got on here, I may not come back. I feel really sorry for those who are up at levels 50-60. The amount of time they’ve had to spend doing rather menial tasks in the game (I’m looking at you mining) is incomprehensible to me. The previous resets (while I can’t actually speak for those who had to deal with them, as I had not yet signed up) made sense. If people sign up knowing it’s in beta, then they sign up expecting the worst. However, many people, myself included, signed up after this period, and expected smooth sailing (I’ve written about this kind of thing before; companies like Sony and Spotify have promised features then later removed them, in an act I’ve termed “Sonyfication”). While I’m a developer myself, and certainly acknowledge the fact that software can have bugs after launch, as I am also an end-user, I realize my responsibilities toward the end-user as a developer (e.g. making it a priority to cause as little disturbance to users as possible when there are indeed bugs).
One possible solution (I realize I’ve never developed anything on as large a scale as Glitch; so correct me if I’m wrong on this) would be something like what Chrome does. Have a “stable channel” (e.g. Glitch as it is now), and a “beta channel.” Then, completely informing them of the possible repercussions (resets included), allow them to opt into the “beta channel.”
That said, and to attempt to end on a somewhat positive note, I’m glad to see that things like housing and the ability for more player control over the world are being addressed. Remove the ability for players to kill each other by splank fight, and I think Glitch has the opportunity to become the perfect game (the lack of violence as a core gameplay element is key, in my opinion, and I applaud Tiny Speck for making such strides in this arena; also, I realize that the term “perfect” is subjective). For what it’s worth, I’m not offended by or opposed to violent games. It’s just not my cup of tea.
You already posted that there. Why repost it here?
A couple of reasons. First is visibility. My comment will quickly be buried in that forum post. Here, it will remain at the utmost level of visibility for, at the very least, the better part of a month. Second, is out of my respect for Tiny Speck. The Glitch forums are theirs, not mine. I have a bit more I’d like to say on the topic than what I said there, but I respect that the Glitch forums are their home turf, so I’ll instead post the extended version here.
So I’ve always wished I were in the Glitch beta, as I felt, until today, that in order to really be part of the community, it’s a prerequisite. Furthermore, and partially for the same reason, I’ve always wanted the Special Item That Only Beta Testers Get (aka Señor Funpickle). However, what I never really gave much serious thought, is that sure the pickle says you were in the beta. But that’s not much of a real accomplishment. It’s actually just a stroke of luck, being in the right place at the right time. What really struck me in light of this was my reconsideration of a Glitch who was level 59 for as long as I could remember, then finally accomplished reaching level 60 (by comparison, I’ve attained level 30 at the time of this writing), and another Glitch who was in the beta, but has only attained level 8. Let’s assume the level 60 Glitch wasn’t in the beta. Still, it’s obvious as to which one was more devoted to the game. So really, a special item doesn’t properly make up for resetting one’s level, as it isn’t an accurate indicator of the amount of effort and time one has put into the game. Upon giving this some consideration, my advice to Tiny Speck would be to provide an additional piece of information on each player’s profile, stating “Pre-Reset Level: [level number].”
In addition to level number, the other thing I’m most concerned about is cubimal collections. I’ve, admittedly, only recently started collecting cubimals (for those who do not play Glitch, just know that a cubimal is a collectible in-game item, often of excruciatingly high value). However, I have a little over half the different kinds of cubimals in my collection (sadly, the more common half of the cubimal spectrum, in general). Of these, a couple were obtained from Cubimal Boxes, and the rest were obtained by trading with other players. This is cause for alarm. What if, after post-reset, these other players are no longer able to trade cubimals at the same prices I paid for them the first time?
At this time, I’d like to reiterate the ultimate moral of this post: the responsibility of developers toward users. Especially after launching my first paid iOS app, I’ve learned some of these responsibilities quite well. Like see that “App Support” link up top? In my opinion, it’s unnecessary clutter. It’s also the first time that my blog contains content that I don’t really want. But Apple requires that I offer a support page (maybe in the future, I’ll create a support page separate from my blog), so I have to put it there. Returning to Glitch, the subject of this discussion, I understand the previous resets. As far as I am aware, it was made quite clear to users that they were part of a beta, and that there would be resets. However, for those of us now, who signed up to what we thought was a finished product, the ethics of the situation have changed. A beta was not what we signed up for. Stuff like resets wasn’t part of the deal. So I leave Tiny Speck with this challenge: No more resets, please. And I do understand that you’re working for the good of the community (and I’m deeply sorry that I had to mention the likes of Sony and Spotify in this post along with the good guys). Even if you do have to perform a reset in the course of this (and I’d also like to remind the reader at this point that they said it’s extremely unlikely, and to apologize for my “the sky is falling” tone), I won’t lose any respect for you. Will it perhaps preclude my return after such a hypothetical reset? Yes. But that’s more so my fault than theirs. I simply can’t bring myself to spend the many hundreds of hours to get back to where I was. Ultimately, Glitch is a free game, and I suppose Tiny Speck doesn’t really have an obligation to go out of their way to avoid a reset. But I challenge them to go above and beyond what’s expected, as they’ve already more than proven that they can, and to ensure a seamless user experience by avoiding a reset. I have faith in them, and until some terrible reset comes, I shall continue to play Glitch in every possible minute I can find.
Jul 10
JustinPersonal Microsoft, rant, Xbox
Today I’ve made an important decision. That decision is to never buy a Microsoft product again.
So a few weeks back, my Xbox 360 failed with the Red Ring of Death – strike one, your product sucks.
The Xbox 360 has a hardware failure rate of slightly over fifty percent. I dunno how anyone finds this sort of thing acceptable, but it’s easily the highest failure rate ever of any gaming console.
I called my friend up and had him try to fix it. However, he couldn’t get it to work again. He later told me I can get MS to fix it for free. So I ship off my Xbox (using packing materials that cost me nearly $20), expecting to have it repaired. I thought it was admirable of MS to offer a three-year extended warranty on the consoles, until I realized they’ll try to get out of it by any means necessary. I proceed to get an e-mail (well actually two e-mails for some reason) informing me that they’ve detected tampering with the console and won’t repair it.
So I call up their tech support to try to get them back in line. I tell them that I know someone who had also attempted to have my friend repair his 360, and MS serviced it anyway. They called BS on this, even though I’m completely sure my friend was telling the truth. They then proceed to pitch me on some $120 out-of-warranty repair service. They seriously think I’m dumb enough to be paying $120 for something I’m supposed to be getting for free. As if this wasn’t outrageous enough, I only paid $80 for the console. Yeah, people complain about Apple being pricey, but Microsoft are a bunch of outright scam artists. Okay, I give up on getting my console serviced. If you want to be a bunch of thinkheaded douchebags, so be it. Strike two, your service sucks.
Remember that I paid almost $20 for the materials I had to ship the thing off in. I thought it was a worthy investment, because I expected MS to actually service my Xbox. I proceed to demand that they refund me this money, as it was obviously a complete and total bust. I spent $20 for nothing. Once again, they refuse. Strike three. You can’t even make basic amends to your customers.
Anyway, MS sent me a survey a few days back, and I’m quite glad I waited until today to answer it. I forgot to mention in it, that this was by far the worst tech support experience of my life. Wait times of an hour or more? I can deal with it. Foreign accent I can’t understand without hearing the statement repeated a million times? I can deal with it. Treat your customer like crap and tell him “Screw you and your investment in a console, its accessories, and the many games you have for it”? I can’t deal with it.
As far as I know, the jobs of these people depend on answers to surveys like those. I put in highly negative answers fully well knowing that the customer support representative will probably lose his job, and I feel absolutely no remorse about this. If he chances to read this, I offer him this advice. Tech support (or any job where you deal with customers) isn’t the job for you. Until you learn that age-old motto, “The customer is always right,” you won’t last five minutes in such a setting. Harsh, yes. True, also yes.
Not like it matters, since I don’t have the money for a game console anyway, but all the current consoles suck and I give up on the concept for now. I’ll wait for a new player (cough cough Apple… please?) to enter the game console market. The Xbox 360 is a poorly made POS, and the PS3 steals people’s credit cards. I think there’s some third console on the market, but its general unimpressiveness causes me to always forget about it.
The moral of this story is that you shouldn’t buy a Microsoft product. They don’t care about the customer. At all.
Apr 14
JustinPersonal geohot, Personal, rant, Sony, Spotify
Sonyfication [SO-nee-fi-key-shuh
n]: (noun) 1. Referring to Sony’s practice of removing features previously used as major selling points of their products. 2. The action of becoming like Sony in this respect.
Yeah, I know I’m late to write something up about this whole Sony thing, although up until now it never really concerned me. That said, even though I do not own a PS3, PSP, or any other Sony product, I still strongly disagree with what they’re doing, and so should you. They removed OtherOS, a major selling point of their hardware. As if this weren’t enough, they removed it from hardware they had already sold. This would be analogous to buying a car, then in the middle of the night, the dealer comes and takes the engine right out of it. “Oh, well who buys a PS3 to run Linux on it anyway?” Uh… I would. I wouldn’t have much other use for it. I’m not exactly much of a gamer. “Nobody’s forcing you to update.” Once again, wrong. Sony is. From what I can tell (I do not own a PS3, nor will I ever own one), if you don’t update, you can’t use PSN. Wouldn’t bother me much, since I do have a 360, and I never use XBL, but the point still stands. Sony is trying to blackmail you into surrendering a feature you bought your hardware knowing it would have.
Anyway, I really wasn’t planning to use this post to talk about Sony. I only did that to better establish a definition for the word “Sonyfication,” which seems like it’ll be seeing more widespread use in the coming months.
Why?
Another company has recently employed Sonyfication.
Who?
Spotify.
If you don’t follow me on Twitter (which you really should), I had about a six-post rant on what Spotify is doing. I’ll re-post some of it here.
http://www.spotify.com/se/blog/archives/2011/04/14/upcoming-changes-to-spotify-free-open/
Above is a link to the blatant act of Sonyfication. See what they did? Unlimited listening (albeit with advertisements; kinda like radio) was the big promotional feature for Spotify Free accounts, but they’re taking them away and demoting them to Spotify Open accounts (which have extremely draconian limits on them). I worked hard to find someone to give me an invite to get that account too. 
Wow. These Sony douchebags are being a real inspiration for worse to a lot of people. How can I help get Spotify back in line?
http://twitter.com/justinrdaigle/status/58610671843147776
cd /Applications && rm -rf Spotify.app (/cc @Spotify)
Retweet that. (for the less geeky among us, it changes to the Applications directory then deletes the Spotify app when input into Terminal).
Also, for the record, I didn’t actually uninstall Spotify. I believe I’ve got the rest of this month to enjoy it before they totally screw themselves over.
While I’m at it, I’m not the only one concerned about this. Peter Sunde (one of the TPB founders) sees Spotify’s decision as their doom.
http://twitter.com/brokep/status/58477025098346497
Oh, @spotify is thinking of committing suicide:http://www.spotify.com/se/blog/archives/2011/04/14/upcoming-changes-to-spotify-free-open/
Go RT that as well.
We can force Spotify to go back on their decision. If we let them know just how much we like our unlimited listening, and threaten to stop using their service if they take it away, they’ll be forced to give it back.
Just RT those tweets I linked to above, and tweet around some links to this blog post (make sure to add (/cc @Spotify) to the tweets so they see them).
And of course, feel free to stick it to the man while you’re at it. Rebel. Register as many Spotify accounts as you need to listen as much as you want. We will win this.
Even if you don’t use Spotify, show them your discontent anyway. Sonyfication is spreading, and selling a product on a feature that’s later removed may soon become a common business tactic. Don’t let that happen. Show Sony, Spotify, and anyone else that tries it that Sonyfication is wrong.
Feb 16
JustinPersonal, Software AutoClickr, birthday, Personal, software
Today is February 16, 2011, my eighteenth birthday. 
These birthday posts are so routine that they really no longer deserve their own post, so I had to find something else to combine it with, hence AutoClickr 2.0.
Back to my birthday, so far I’ve gotten enough money to pay off my current server debt, so all TiNternet services (my blog included) should stay around for awhile.
Unfortunately, I had to deal with quite a few things today that I really wish I hadn’t had to.
Namely, three tests. Fortunately, the first two were easy. The third was reasonably difficult, and in subject matter I don’t really enjoy.
That said, at least I finished the test early and managed to get out of class 25 minutes before I usually would.
Now for AutoClickr 2.0.
It adds the ability to auto right-click, along with a display of the current cursor position.
It was also supposed to add the ability to provide a specific screen position to auto-click, but as opposed to the intended result, it continued to auto-click at the cursor location.
I’ve left the broken code in the application, however I’ve hidden the graphical interface to it.
If you want to have a crack at fixing it, you can uncomment these lines in the source to access it.
Anyway, here’s the download links.
Executable: http://justindaigle.com/files/AutoClickr2.zip
Source: http://justindaigle.com/files/AutoClickr2source.zip
If you get the broken functionality fixed, please let me know how either in the comments or by some other means.
Sep 10
JustinPersonal Personal, WLM
About fifteen people have probably noticed by now that I’ve gotten a new WLM address.
Anyway, if you’re reading this post to find the new address, you’d may as well stop now.
I deliberately made the new address hard to guess, and I won’t be posting it in public.
And unlike in the past, I won’t be accepting invites from random people.
Over the seven years I’ve had my last address, I’ve somehow gathered over 300 contacts.
You’ve gotta see how that’s ridiculous.
So here we have the first reason I’ve changed to the new address – too many contacts.
The second reason is, my previous address was previously public and I had it all over the place.
Meaning more unwanted contacts, and more spambots.
The third reason is, using my old Yahoo address more or less made me look like a noob.
Not to mention, it confused clients because I used both WLM and YIM with the same address, and they’re compatible with each other.
The fourth reason is, I’ve decided to change the formatting of my profile stuff. I’ve finally accepted Wave 4 and the fact that that means I can’t use my elaborate display names anymore.
I’ve also decided to change my display picture from my old one to the one I use on forums and Twitter.
So far, the transparency seems fine in WLM, but if you see problems with it, please let me know.
Anyway, if I haven’t added you to my new address, please don’t get offended.
I don’t hate you. You either never sign in, I don’t talk to you much, or for a very select few, maybe I do hate you.
If you really need to talk to me on WLM, just ask someone who has my new address to let me know and I’ll consider adding you, but I’m really trying to avoid having any more than about 30 contacts.
Not to mention, if you want to talk to me, I’d much prefer you go to my IRC network anyway. 
And I’m still on Twitter, but I am going to unfollow a bunch of people soon.
That said, if you manage to sound intelligent and I don’t mistake you for a spambot, I’ll at least answer you.
And I’m still on Skype, if you know that address.
However, all my other eight or nine IM accounts are no longer in use as of now, and my old main address will receive the same fate as of Monday.
Anyway, seems there’s a bit of good news. Supposedly, a new bootrom exploit has been found. Meaning the iPad will soon be jailbroken for life, and as soon as iOS 4.2 is released, I’ll finally be able to write my Colloquy review! 
It seems the jailbreak community is finally once again reaching its former glory.
Web-based exploits (although I tried jailbreaking someone’s iPod Touch 3G with JailbreakMe 2.0 earlier today and for some odd reason, it didn’t work =/), and now more bootrom exploits. I just wonder when we’ll see a release.
Aug 14
JustinPersonal JDC, Personal
I suppose after all that’s happened over the last week, you’re probably wondering “What the heck is going on?”
And I suppose I owe you an explanation.
As many of you already know, I was fired from M1 for causing 10 minutes of server downtime.
Obviously, this forced me to find a new host.
At first, I said I’d be down for months to years, but it came out to less than 24 hours.
I was offered hosting by Chris of FreeResellers (thanks!), but due to the lack of the full control I’m used to, and the inability to run certain things I need to be able to run, I decided to purchase a VPS from UCVHost.
So far, I’m quite impressed.
As always, a picture is worth a thousand words.
Anyway, what does this mean?
A. It means I’m not under Tom’s control anymore. I’m free! 
B. I’m having to shell out $32.50/month. (so much for “free,” huh)
C. I can now offer various services, as described below.
First off, I’d like to announce the return of the TiNternet IRC.
It’s at the same place, although we lost the databases, so we had to start from scratch.
tinternet.justindaigle.com port 6667 in #coffeeshop as always.
Anyway, join and register. Let’s make the third incarnation of the IRC the best yet (and hopefully the last).
Did I mention (mainly for a certain lazy person) that I finally got aliases working?
Secondly, we have TiNterDNS, my new DNS service.
For those who don’t feel like reading the rest of this, just point your DNS to 174.37.165.180.
So, we all know what DNS is, right?
It resolves host names into IP addresses.
And it’s free, flawless, and everyone’s happy, right?
Wrong.
You normally have to pay $10/year for domains, and you’re limited to certain TLD’s.
TiNterDNS plans to change that.
Why? Doesn’t OpenNIC already offer this?
Yes. And we have no intention to compete with them. Actually, we use OpenNIC as an upstream DNS, meaning you can take advantage of OpenNIC by using TiNterDNS.
This handy little diagram should explain it quite well:
Actually, for me, you can add “Home Server” between “TiNterDNS” and “You.” I have a DNS server set up on my home server as well.
So the all-important question comes up.
Why should I use this?
I’d be asking too. But here’s why.
We’re better than the “official” DNS (and as my diagram illustrates, you still have access to them anyway, so why not? We couldn’t work without them, because then TiNterDNS would suck and nobody would use it ). We don’t require you to pay outrageous yearly charges for domains. Just go to the forums (which I’ll discuss in a bit) and ask for one.
We’re better than OpenNIC. We don’t limit you to certain TLD’s that have to be voted on before you can use them (even then, they only have eight right now).
You’re free to be as creative (or as not-creative) as you want. However, we won’t let you use TLD’s that overlap official or OpenNIC ones. Sorry, but this could cause problems. The staff reserve the right to make exceptions, and so far we’ve already done so. tinter.net redirects to the forum if you’re using TiNterDNS. We don’t think anyone will miss it. It’s just some crappy German site. I plan to make one more exception in the near future, and document them all on the forums. Don’t worry, these exceptions won’t be very common. I’ve had these two planned since the very beginning.
For those of you who read all this and don’t feel like looking back up, once again, it’s at 174.37.165.180.
Finally, for the first time in over two years, justindaigle.com has its own forums.
http://justindaigle.com/forum/
Why? Your forums always suck.
I’ll be the first to admit it.
But these forums have a fundamental difference from past forums.
Past forums were a product of boredom.
These are a product of necessity for a support offering for the TiNternet services.
Anyway, for now, I’m running the forums, the IRC, and the DNS all on my own.
Most of the old IRC staff are welcome back.
I’ll staff the forums as necessary.
Finally, the DNS will have maybe two people running it at the very most. This results from the requirement of having administrative access to the server to manage it.
Meaning you have full access to the files on my site, the DNS, the forums, and anything else I may happen to be working on. I don’t give this out lightly.
Don’t even ask. Asking = instant “No.”
If you have to ask, you’re not one of the VERY few people I’d trust for the position.
A couple of final notes.
I DO have more reviews planned. I actually have two lined up right now. One I can do at any time, and the long-awaited Colloquy review I’ll do as soon as iOS4 for iPad is released and jailbroken (I do have a reason for this requirement; perhaps I’ll explain it with the review).
Finally, as far as my personal life is concerned, I start my senior year in high school next Wednesday.
I’m also taking a few college courses, and I’m quite excited about this. I’m quite ready for my first taste of college life. I’ve been ready.
Apr 28
JustinPersonal prom, school
I know this is a whole 18 days late, but I just got the disc of pictures last Friday (and nah, I haven’t been busy the whole time… 10% busy, 90% lazy).
It was fun, and I had a great time regardless of the fact that the food wasn’t exactly the best (mini-review of Pujo Street Café anyone? ).
The after party was also… interesting, although suffice it to say I’m not all that happy about people who screw up the perfectly ordinary game of ping-pong into something it’s not.
I documented it to some extent on Twitter, this tweet being my favorite:
http://twitter.com/jrdaigle1000/status/11976330565
On an unrelated note, I’m most likely going to replace the ThinkTwit widget on the side over there with the official Twitter one. ———->
Also, I’ll be publishing my review “Sent from my iPad” as soon as a jailbreak is released. I’ll have my work cut out for me, since I had quite a bit of it written up, I had issues with the WordPress app, and managed to lose a good portion of the review. Originally, I just had to jailbreak, get the iWork apps, add them to the review, and publish it, but I now have to rewrite the vast majority of the review. I’m really hoping for a jailbreak on Friday, so if that’s the case, expect the review some time this weekend. Otherwise, you’ll just have to wait…
Feb 16
JustinPersonal, Uncategorized birthday
For those who don’t know (if you’re not a member of JJ, GS, or TWC), today is my 17th birthday!
I got my intermediate driver’s license yesterday, but now that I’m 17, I’m eligible to get my full license (tomorrow; they’re closed today for Mardi Gras).
So far for my birthday I’ve gotten some cash here and there… and that’s basically it.
And once again, for those who don’t know, I’ve started using Twitter again.
For real this time. As in, I’m making a habit of it.
http://twitter.com/jrdaigle1000
Oh, and thanks to those who actually remembered my birthday without my having to mention it. Much appreciated.
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