This should be a time of fun, but with the wrong tub, it can be hell.
What we were given at our baby shower was by Safety 1st Infant Tub. Similar to the one linked. In theory it sounded great, which is why we registered for it, it's got an easy drain plug, it's got non slip grips and a thermal sticker to gage the water temperature.
The reality was, it was rubbish, the sticker never changed colour, the non slip pads didn't really hold the baby at all. The tub also wasn't deep enough to have enough water cover the baby, so she was always cold, and the water would cool very quickly. This resulted in pissed of nuclear baby on the epic proportions, which was not good and also heart breaking.
Someone recommended the Tummy Tub, this looked awesome, nice and small, the baby slips in and feels comfortable, the water doesn't get cold and you can easily bathe the baby, only problem was, it was close to $80 when we first looked, it's now around $60. This is a lot when the usual bath tubs are around $25-30.
We found a cheaper knock off on Amazon, the Prince Lionheart WashPod, which is basically the same as the Tummy tub, but $25.
It has been one of the best buys for the baby so far, she now loves bath time which makes the whole process a lot easier and not a strain, plus she can play in the water and stay warm and far less mess.
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Sunday, June 8, 2008
3D Connection
The Space Navigator as most are probably aware is a peripheral device that is supposed to help with navigation in a 3D environment. The basic model, at $60 is certainly affordable and was the reason it was tested out, but unlike software applications, there isn't a free 30 trial, so this was tried and if it were good, the higher up models would have been evaluated afterwards.
It turns out, if this was an introduction to the product, it was off putting enough that after every artist tried it, it just got dumped on a shelf, never to be used again and put paid to any notion of bothering with any other products.
The theory is good, being able to seamlessly navigate your scene, rotate, zoom and pan all at the same time and have simple shortcuts at your finger tips.
The reality, it was too clunky to control, the drivers were rubbish and interfered with any custom layouts and short cuts. It was tried out with 3DSM 8 and 9, ZBrush 3 and a few other programs. It could well have improved since then, but the actual hardware interfacing with the device just wasn't very comfortable either.
I will say, it worked really well with Google Earth though, and it could be worth a poke if it has been significantly improved since it was evaluated. It's a shame that this device didn't live up to expectations nor filled us with confidence to spend the considerably more money on the higher range line of products.
It turns out, if this was an introduction to the product, it was off putting enough that after every artist tried it, it just got dumped on a shelf, never to be used again and put paid to any notion of bothering with any other products.
The theory is good, being able to seamlessly navigate your scene, rotate, zoom and pan all at the same time and have simple shortcuts at your finger tips.
The reality, it was too clunky to control, the drivers were rubbish and interfered with any custom layouts and short cuts. It was tried out with 3DSM 8 and 9, ZBrush 3 and a few other programs. It could well have improved since then, but the actual hardware interfacing with the device just wasn't very comfortable either.
I will say, it worked really well with Google Earth though, and it could be worth a poke if it has been significantly improved since it was evaluated. It's a shame that this device didn't live up to expectations nor filled us with confidence to spend the considerably more money on the higher range line of products.
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Pumps
Yeah, the thrilling world of breast pumps.
A couple of hints, get whatever one you fancy online, or if at a store, check the return policy, this could be a good purchase to make at Walmart. Certainly not at Babies R US, because they won't accept a return or exchange, even on a broken unit unless it is new, unused and sealed in the box.
We went with the cheap and cheerful "The First Years" by the Learning Curve. The natural Deluxe single breast pump. It worked pretty well for a month, before dying. This is where the company came good, kind of. The website FAQ is junk, and emailing them for help is a waste of time, call them up, and they are pretty helpful, we had to send the unit with all the parts back, including a copy of the birth certificate because we lost the receipt and they'll send us a replacement unit. Apparently from talking to the person on the phone, our unit was funky from the get go. We still have to pay postage to send it to them though which is a shame.
One thing they don't tell you about, all these electric breast pumps sound like a belt sander, really scary stuff, but they work quite well. I'd recommend a double pump though because it's a slow process and you might as well do both sides at once if you can.
So over all, $50, can't complain to much, it does the job, it was cheap, it's easy to clean and use. I wouldn't want a hand pump though, that would get tedious fast and I'm not sure why some of the other pumps cost $300 or so, a tad pricey, cheaper than renting in the long run though.
A couple of hints, get whatever one you fancy online, or if at a store, check the return policy, this could be a good purchase to make at Walmart. Certainly not at Babies R US, because they won't accept a return or exchange, even on a broken unit unless it is new, unused and sealed in the box.
We went with the cheap and cheerful "The First Years" by the Learning Curve. The natural Deluxe single breast pump. It worked pretty well for a month, before dying. This is where the company came good, kind of. The website FAQ is junk, and emailing them for help is a waste of time, call them up, and they are pretty helpful, we had to send the unit with all the parts back, including a copy of the birth certificate because we lost the receipt and they'll send us a replacement unit. Apparently from talking to the person on the phone, our unit was funky from the get go. We still have to pay postage to send it to them though which is a shame.
One thing they don't tell you about, all these electric breast pumps sound like a belt sander, really scary stuff, but they work quite well. I'd recommend a double pump though because it's a slow process and you might as well do both sides at once if you can.
So over all, $50, can't complain to much, it does the job, it was cheap, it's easy to clean and use. I wouldn't want a hand pump though, that would get tedious fast and I'm not sure why some of the other pumps cost $300 or so, a tad pricey, cheaper than renting in the long run though.
Monday, May 19, 2008
Baby Travel Tips
Just a couple of things I've found to have made life easier, so much so. Get a good nappy/diaper bag.
You'll probably be given a few freebies from all the free formula samples that you get sent, those are great for loading up with baby clothes, blanket and creams. The bag then weighs a bundle. Keep it in the car, you'll need it.
What you'll need more though, just a small one that can be thrown in a purse, or on the handle of the pushchair. A small bag that holds a few wipes, nappies and changing sheet. You'll end up using this far more for those every day short trips to the grocery store etc where you don't want to carry a big heavy bag over your shoulder.
Also the changing sheet is great on the changing table if the table pad doesn't come with a material cover, the plastic sheeting is really nasty feeling on the baby and the baby doesn't half slip and slide. Ideally you would have taken those pee sheets from the hospital because those are superb to use.
Car mirror for the back seat. I use quite a small one so I can see the baby in the mirror, it works a treat with a suction cup to hold it in place. I've tried a large Eddie Bauer one, that sucked, because it had a cord that goes through the seat to lock it in place, but it didn't hold the mirror very well. Other large ones I found to be too intrusive, blocking the rear view, but those might work better in a bigger car like a family van thing.
You'll probably be given a few freebies from all the free formula samples that you get sent, those are great for loading up with baby clothes, blanket and creams. The bag then weighs a bundle. Keep it in the car, you'll need it.
What you'll need more though, just a small one that can be thrown in a purse, or on the handle of the pushchair. A small bag that holds a few wipes, nappies and changing sheet. You'll end up using this far more for those every day short trips to the grocery store etc where you don't want to carry a big heavy bag over your shoulder.
Also the changing sheet is great on the changing table if the table pad doesn't come with a material cover, the plastic sheeting is really nasty feeling on the baby and the baby doesn't half slip and slide. Ideally you would have taken those pee sheets from the hospital because those are superb to use.
Car mirror for the back seat. I use quite a small one so I can see the baby in the mirror, it works a treat with a suction cup to hold it in place. I've tried a large Eddie Bauer one, that sucked, because it had a cord that goes through the seat to lock it in place, but it didn't hold the mirror very well. Other large ones I found to be too intrusive, blocking the rear view, but those might work better in a bigger car like a family van thing.
Monday, May 5, 2008
What ever happened to Fair Use, Piracy and Draconian DRM?
There has been a lot of blog and forum posts about piracy and the evils that it does to the industry, and there can be no doubt that it is not good for the industry, but is the subject so cut and dry being on one level playing field?
This is just my personal opinion and observations and I've nothing to back this up, but it's something I wanted to scribble down all the same.
Piracy has always been around, but I remember back in the day that "fair use" was around and a good thing. If a friend bought a music tape, CD, movie or game, you could borrow it, make your own copy and all was good as fair use of the product. That generally isn't the case. You can still borrow a book and that's okay for some reason, people still borrow a movie, but heaven forbid if someone wanted to borrow a game or a album.
That I think has led to part of the growing problem today, maybe not so much in the numbers involved, but in the empathy felt by people that do it.
Back when I was at university, when games were easier to copy, plenty of folks would chip in to buy a game together and they would either copy it amongst themselves or get a no CD crack for it. That is one sale from a group of three people, which is better than no sale from three people who might download the game now, but back then the cost of a game between a few friends was only a couple of pints of beer and a bag of crisps and copying the game wasn't a hassle so there was less need to search a download. What worked with this approach to having it easy to copy, you still needed your own copy to play a game online, this meant that after single player action was done, you could only play it online in shifts, which meant that most people if they liked the game at all would then go out and buy their own copy anyway, so that's now brought the potential from one to three sales instead of zero sales lost to downloads.
That's obviously a very simplistic approach to combating piracy and increasing sales, but allowing fair use and not crippling peoples ability to copy a product amongst their friends is a simple solution to potentially increasing sales, whether that works or not remains to be seen, but perhaps it should be looked at.
The real issue that these draconian DRM systems were put into place were meant to stop the professional pirate, those gang syndicates or whatever you wish to call them. The problem is, they haven't worked in stopping them, they still copy games easily and sell them to the public via markets, car boot sales, down the pub, or in some countries openly in shops.
These people are the real problem because they are selling a cut price product that you the developer isn't getting a slice of the pie from, and that people who are actually willing to spend some money on the product are giving their money to someone else.
Tackling this area I believe is where the most gains will be found because there is little point in going after the home downloader, chances are they aren't going to pay for the product anyway and will find away of getting it for nothing, and if they couldn't, they would probably end up getting it from that dodgy bloke down the pub, thus not really giving you a sale at the end of the day regardless.
So how can this be tackled? One way is to convince people who are willing to spend money buying a dodgy copy on spending their money on a legit copy, this could be either by lowering the cost of the game, which is an unlikely approach these days and the other approach would be to offer further value for money. This could be as simple as including an audio CD of the music in the game, including a T-shirt of the game or even simpler, a coupon for $10 at Amazon or Cafe Press or whatever. The publisher needs to buck up here because they are the ones in a position to do something, not the developer, because they could negotiate a discount rate for these extra products to be included in the game for minimal cost that would add a lot of extra value to the end buyer. Also, include a proper manual with nice graphics, printed on nice paper, with colour. It's cheap, tacky and cheats people of value when all you get is a CD in the box and perhaps a crappy little tatty black and white printed manual that is useless.
That's one approach, the other, also more publisher focused. Buck the fuck up and put money in to go after those professional pirates, be mercenary if you have to, get private investigators out there to gather evidence on these organisations, compile a neat case that will lead to convictions and seizure of assets and provide it to the legal authorities so that they can take these people on.
Sure that is going to cost money, but do something about the problem rather than waste money on measures that don't work like the DRM's in place. Sure the government and authorities should be doing something about this issue on their own and they do, but it's costly, it's pretty much considered a white collar crime and Joe Public doesn't care, so it's going to get less attention and budget, so help provide that budget and be proactive.
Perhaps a little naive and certainly a simple view and approach to things, but something new has to be tried to encourage people to spend their money because appearing to be the big greedy money giants isn't going to encourage people to not download your product, that approach completely failed in the music industry and something new emerged, iTunes and the ilk. The games industry is a spectacle of talent and innovation and yet some how we are falling short in this area, an area of great importance, WTF?
This is just my personal opinion and observations and I've nothing to back this up, but it's something I wanted to scribble down all the same.
Piracy has always been around, but I remember back in the day that "fair use" was around and a good thing. If a friend bought a music tape, CD, movie or game, you could borrow it, make your own copy and all was good as fair use of the product. That generally isn't the case. You can still borrow a book and that's okay for some reason, people still borrow a movie, but heaven forbid if someone wanted to borrow a game or a album.
That I think has led to part of the growing problem today, maybe not so much in the numbers involved, but in the empathy felt by people that do it.
Back when I was at university, when games were easier to copy, plenty of folks would chip in to buy a game together and they would either copy it amongst themselves or get a no CD crack for it. That is one sale from a group of three people, which is better than no sale from three people who might download the game now, but back then the cost of a game between a few friends was only a couple of pints of beer and a bag of crisps and copying the game wasn't a hassle so there was less need to search a download. What worked with this approach to having it easy to copy, you still needed your own copy to play a game online, this meant that after single player action was done, you could only play it online in shifts, which meant that most people if they liked the game at all would then go out and buy their own copy anyway, so that's now brought the potential from one to three sales instead of zero sales lost to downloads.
That's obviously a very simplistic approach to combating piracy and increasing sales, but allowing fair use and not crippling peoples ability to copy a product amongst their friends is a simple solution to potentially increasing sales, whether that works or not remains to be seen, but perhaps it should be looked at.
The real issue that these draconian DRM systems were put into place were meant to stop the professional pirate, those gang syndicates or whatever you wish to call them. The problem is, they haven't worked in stopping them, they still copy games easily and sell them to the public via markets, car boot sales, down the pub, or in some countries openly in shops.
These people are the real problem because they are selling a cut price product that you the developer isn't getting a slice of the pie from, and that people who are actually willing to spend some money on the product are giving their money to someone else.
Tackling this area I believe is where the most gains will be found because there is little point in going after the home downloader, chances are they aren't going to pay for the product anyway and will find away of getting it for nothing, and if they couldn't, they would probably end up getting it from that dodgy bloke down the pub, thus not really giving you a sale at the end of the day regardless.
So how can this be tackled? One way is to convince people who are willing to spend money buying a dodgy copy on spending their money on a legit copy, this could be either by lowering the cost of the game, which is an unlikely approach these days and the other approach would be to offer further value for money. This could be as simple as including an audio CD of the music in the game, including a T-shirt of the game or even simpler, a coupon for $10 at Amazon or Cafe Press or whatever. The publisher needs to buck up here because they are the ones in a position to do something, not the developer, because they could negotiate a discount rate for these extra products to be included in the game for minimal cost that would add a lot of extra value to the end buyer. Also, include a proper manual with nice graphics, printed on nice paper, with colour. It's cheap, tacky and cheats people of value when all you get is a CD in the box and perhaps a crappy little tatty black and white printed manual that is useless.
That's one approach, the other, also more publisher focused. Buck the fuck up and put money in to go after those professional pirates, be mercenary if you have to, get private investigators out there to gather evidence on these organisations, compile a neat case that will lead to convictions and seizure of assets and provide it to the legal authorities so that they can take these people on.
Sure that is going to cost money, but do something about the problem rather than waste money on measures that don't work like the DRM's in place. Sure the government and authorities should be doing something about this issue on their own and they do, but it's costly, it's pretty much considered a white collar crime and Joe Public doesn't care, so it's going to get less attention and budget, so help provide that budget and be proactive.
Perhaps a little naive and certainly a simple view and approach to things, but something new has to be tried to encourage people to spend their money because appearing to be the big greedy money giants isn't going to encourage people to not download your product, that approach completely failed in the music industry and something new emerged, iTunes and the ilk. The games industry is a spectacle of talent and innovation and yet some how we are falling short in this area, an area of great importance, WTF?
Sunday, May 4, 2008
The first doctors visit...
Well the first pediatricians visit. We got the medical insurance statement for that first visit, and the check up cost the insurance $220 plus the $20 co-pay.
Fair enough maybe, but the visit was 10 mins, which included a nurse weighing the baby and measuring the baby and then the doctor prodding the babies pelvis, running a nail up the spine and down the ribs to check for reflexes, listening to the heart and lungs and then looking at the ears and eyes.
How the hell does that work out at $220? That's over $1300 an hour, WTF.
Fair enough maybe, but the visit was 10 mins, which included a nurse weighing the baby and measuring the baby and then the doctor prodding the babies pelvis, running a nail up the spine and down the ribs to check for reflexes, listening to the heart and lungs and then looking at the ears and eyes.
How the hell does that work out at $220? That's over $1300 an hour, WTF.
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Whip Lash...
Well the baby is home now, has been for a short while...impressive how tiny and how much they grow in a short period of time.
One thing that you don't get told about though when doing the car seat, or at the hospital is that when you leave the hospital, you really can only accelerate at the rate of a snail because even when well snug in the baby car seat, with the big sausage head cushion to keep head wedged in place, the wee little head still bounces forward quite scarily, but you get the hang of that pretty quickly I guess and so far all is good.
Oh, and while your at the hospital, grab as much baby stuff as you can like the sponge bath bowl, changing sheets, nappies and whatever else, you'll probably be given some stuff on top too, but it's for the cost of the hospital co-pay, you might as well as get your monies worth and whatever you have at home won't be enough.
One thing that you don't get told about though when doing the car seat, or at the hospital is that when you leave the hospital, you really can only accelerate at the rate of a snail because even when well snug in the baby car seat, with the big sausage head cushion to keep head wedged in place, the wee little head still bounces forward quite scarily, but you get the hang of that pretty quickly I guess and so far all is good.
Oh, and while your at the hospital, grab as much baby stuff as you can like the sponge bath bowl, changing sheets, nappies and whatever else, you'll probably be given some stuff on top too, but it's for the cost of the hospital co-pay, you might as well as get your monies worth and whatever you have at home won't be enough.
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