American Girl Factory, going for lunch at the Bistro, certainly an experience.
Cute as the place was, lending you a doll with a high chair if you don't have your own, it's still an over priced treat.
$16.50 for a fixed starter and main course plus drinks and $7.50 for a kids menu, which is a main meal and ice cream.
The food is good, but the descriptions were a little deceptive. Fondue of strong cheddar cheese with crusty farm style bread turned out to be what appeared to be melted Velveeta cheese and soft chunks of normal bread.
It was good but not quite as expected, but better than the veggie skewers, which consisted of a piece of pepper, a tomato and cucumber.
Main meal, the macaroni and cheese had the same cheese as fondue, the side of fruit was a couple pieces of melon. This contrasted with the kids version which did have a good portion of fruit and vegetables on the side.
The salmon meal was fantastic on the other hand, good portion of salmon, nice side of steamed broccoli and carrots with a good serving of mashed potatoes.
Another odd thing about the place, no booster seats, only high chairs.
Certainly a fun afternoon treat with the little one, but some how I think it would be better for icecream and coffee kind of break.
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Transferring Software Licenses?
For anyone interested, there was a pretty good article about this in this months 3D World Magazine, current in the US, being number 124.
It mentioned that a court ruling in California allowed someone to sell a license of AutoCad on ebay that was purchased from a architectural firm. This is being appealed by Autodesk however.
The point being Autocad and other software are being sold as products with a set fee, which is different to being sold as a service where there is continual payment, so the subscription services for 3DSM etc would not be included in this.
Various companies allow you to transfer your product license to a new user after sale, some with more ease than others. Some packages the license can be transferred when both the old and new user get in contact, others where the seller gets in contact. Some were free to transfer, some had a transfer fee ranging from $50-200
It mentioned that a court ruling in California allowed someone to sell a license of AutoCad on ebay that was purchased from a architectural firm. This is being appealed by Autodesk however.
The point being Autocad and other software are being sold as products with a set fee, which is different to being sold as a service where there is continual payment, so the subscription services for 3DSM etc would not be included in this.
Various companies allow you to transfer your product license to a new user after sale, some with more ease than others. Some packages the license can be transferred when both the old and new user get in contact, others where the seller gets in contact. Some were free to transfer, some had a transfer fee ranging from $50-200
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Boston Post Mortem Round up and the IGDA
This months meet up of the Boston Post Mortem was a round up of what has happened to the chapter during the year as well as highlighting plans for the future.
These plans included organising elections to the board of the chapter now that it is an official chapter of the IGDA as well as highlighting a few of the planned chapter meet up events, which have been provisionally arranged for the next few months, which for the most part do actually sound pretty interesting.
Also at the event was Joshua Caulfied, the executive director for the IGDA.
He talked a little bit of what he is hoping to accomplish and what has been happening at the organisation, but much of the evening was just a question and answer session, which he seemed to hold his own at and certainly a very pleasant, well meaning person who made himself very open to communication, staying for over an hour after the event to answer more questions from people.
One accomplishment he touched on was the medical health insurance pool being offered to those in the US, but he didn't go into how they would filter those who just joined the org for this benefit without being a developer. He did say that if people found better rates or plans on their own that he would be able to go to the brokers to find out why those better rates weren't on offer to people though. These rates might not necessarily be cheap, but the group rate should offer better rates for many people, especially those with families or pre-existing conditions.
Liability insurance as a group rate was also being offered to members which a lot of smaller start ups were interested about but he wasn't able to give any details at the moment, certainly regarding those outside of the US.
My main question to him was what he was doing to get the "I" in the organisation to have any real meaning and value to the members outside of the US via promoting communication, attractiveness to join or stay as a member as well as what advantages were being offered to those aboard.
His answer consisted of organising events aimed at those aboard, starting with web seminars with topics to help indie devs, going over local cultural differences, how to market to various other markets, how to go about localisation and distribution. These web events to begin with are being aimed at those countries who have shown most interest, such as Japan, China, Spain and Mexico.
To make the most of these events, they were being planned on being time shifted so that they could be viewed at a decent hour for those in the countries these events were being aimed at so that they could be involved in the discussions. These events should then be made available as streaming media for the rest of the membership afterwards but in a none interactive format.
Another way to help bolster the organisation through the ground up was giving more value to local chapters, such things that happen in the BPM, speakers doing practice runs for larger conferences. He was hoping to get in touch with people who do these speeches and arrange for them to do talks in their local chapter areas, perhaps offering to help out subsidising any out of pocket expenses if they had to travel beyond a local destination.
Bringing chapters together was another aim, but getting chapter organisers to provide event feedback after events and highlights of information and talks held so that they could be provided to the organisation as a whole so that every one gets to benefit from these hubs and if nothing else to act as a starting point for discussion for those smaller chapters.
A big issue of contention was the whole board of directors election process. The plan is now to lead a more structured approach of having each candidate answer 10 standard questions as part of their manifesto and information blurb. There is plans to also arrange a video conference some how where each candidate gets 10 minutes to talk about themselves and go over anything they feel appropriate as well as to answer question fielded towards them. How this is all done hasn't been sorted out yet, but is high on the agenda to be finalised soon.
The whole web problems. Part of the problems with slow responses to communicate with members were down to custom features implemented by the previous ED, Jason, who never documented how functions worked so that the board would have to get him to fix issues or to explain how to get things working such as the whole group email system is still tied into his little system.
The four years of development of the website, using two developers, he did mention who they were but I don't feel I should mention who they are so if your interested, email him. The reason for this, at the start they had cost estimates of $150K for a AMS system and creating their own being considerably less than this, though he didn't give an exact figure of how much they saved.
What they wanted from the system, not just a BBS, but the whole backend to the database, keeping membership information sorted by types, automating sending out membership dues and discount coupon codes to various events as well as opening up the studio membership so that those in the studios knew they were members.
The frontend at the moment is being handled by 20 volunteers, only 4 of whom have any decent experience with Drupal, this is part of the problem with slow responses and glitches with the site. They are looking for a proper web developer to help fix these issues and are interviewing a few companies to help out. One particular place is offering the hosting of the site on much better servers as well as 80 hours of development time to work through and fix the whole site. What Josh wants is a timeline to work with so that he can inform the membership what is happening, which at the moment is 3 months to get everything fixed and working properly or they'll revert back to vB.
He also said that they were limiting emails to the members to a maximum of 2 per week and he was trying to prioritise what kind of information is being sent out. Something that would help him would be members directly contacting him with any particular issues so that he is personally aware of them so that they could be addressed, for instance he wasn't aware what people were thinking about with the whole ghosting of posts and the time delay of them appearing or not appearing if you weren't logged in. This was a system glitch and not an attempt to censor posters which is something he is very against doing, as long as members follow the rules of the forum, more from a legal side as well as not being abusive to others. So he should hopefully address this and other concerns in further communications.
If anyone wants to get in contact with Joshua, his email is - joshua @ igda.org
These plans included organising elections to the board of the chapter now that it is an official chapter of the IGDA as well as highlighting a few of the planned chapter meet up events, which have been provisionally arranged for the next few months, which for the most part do actually sound pretty interesting.
Also at the event was Joshua Caulfied, the executive director for the IGDA.
He talked a little bit of what he is hoping to accomplish and what has been happening at the organisation, but much of the evening was just a question and answer session, which he seemed to hold his own at and certainly a very pleasant, well meaning person who made himself very open to communication, staying for over an hour after the event to answer more questions from people.
One accomplishment he touched on was the medical health insurance pool being offered to those in the US, but he didn't go into how they would filter those who just joined the org for this benefit without being a developer. He did say that if people found better rates or plans on their own that he would be able to go to the brokers to find out why those better rates weren't on offer to people though. These rates might not necessarily be cheap, but the group rate should offer better rates for many people, especially those with families or pre-existing conditions.
Liability insurance as a group rate was also being offered to members which a lot of smaller start ups were interested about but he wasn't able to give any details at the moment, certainly regarding those outside of the US.
My main question to him was what he was doing to get the "I" in the organisation to have any real meaning and value to the members outside of the US via promoting communication, attractiveness to join or stay as a member as well as what advantages were being offered to those aboard.
His answer consisted of organising events aimed at those aboard, starting with web seminars with topics to help indie devs, going over local cultural differences, how to market to various other markets, how to go about localisation and distribution. These web events to begin with are being aimed at those countries who have shown most interest, such as Japan, China, Spain and Mexico.
To make the most of these events, they were being planned on being time shifted so that they could be viewed at a decent hour for those in the countries these events were being aimed at so that they could be involved in the discussions. These events should then be made available as streaming media for the rest of the membership afterwards but in a none interactive format.
Another way to help bolster the organisation through the ground up was giving more value to local chapters, such things that happen in the BPM, speakers doing practice runs for larger conferences. He was hoping to get in touch with people who do these speeches and arrange for them to do talks in their local chapter areas, perhaps offering to help out subsidising any out of pocket expenses if they had to travel beyond a local destination.
Bringing chapters together was another aim, but getting chapter organisers to provide event feedback after events and highlights of information and talks held so that they could be provided to the organisation as a whole so that every one gets to benefit from these hubs and if nothing else to act as a starting point for discussion for those smaller chapters.
A big issue of contention was the whole board of directors election process. The plan is now to lead a more structured approach of having each candidate answer 10 standard questions as part of their manifesto and information blurb. There is plans to also arrange a video conference some how where each candidate gets 10 minutes to talk about themselves and go over anything they feel appropriate as well as to answer question fielded towards them. How this is all done hasn't been sorted out yet, but is high on the agenda to be finalised soon.
The whole web problems. Part of the problems with slow responses to communicate with members were down to custom features implemented by the previous ED, Jason, who never documented how functions worked so that the board would have to get him to fix issues or to explain how to get things working such as the whole group email system is still tied into his little system.
The four years of development of the website, using two developers, he did mention who they were but I don't feel I should mention who they are so if your interested, email him. The reason for this, at the start they had cost estimates of $150K for a AMS system and creating their own being considerably less than this, though he didn't give an exact figure of how much they saved.
What they wanted from the system, not just a BBS, but the whole backend to the database, keeping membership information sorted by types, automating sending out membership dues and discount coupon codes to various events as well as opening up the studio membership so that those in the studios knew they were members.
The frontend at the moment is being handled by 20 volunteers, only 4 of whom have any decent experience with Drupal, this is part of the problem with slow responses and glitches with the site. They are looking for a proper web developer to help fix these issues and are interviewing a few companies to help out. One particular place is offering the hosting of the site on much better servers as well as 80 hours of development time to work through and fix the whole site. What Josh wants is a timeline to work with so that he can inform the membership what is happening, which at the moment is 3 months to get everything fixed and working properly or they'll revert back to vB.
He also said that they were limiting emails to the members to a maximum of 2 per week and he was trying to prioritise what kind of information is being sent out. Something that would help him would be members directly contacting him with any particular issues so that he is personally aware of them so that they could be addressed, for instance he wasn't aware what people were thinking about with the whole ghosting of posts and the time delay of them appearing or not appearing if you weren't logged in. This was a system glitch and not an attempt to censor posters which is something he is very against doing, as long as members follow the rules of the forum, more from a legal side as well as not being abusive to others. So he should hopefully address this and other concerns in further communications.
If anyone wants to get in contact with Joshua, his email is - joshua @ igda.org
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
iPhone Dev Resources
Some sites everyone should have bookmarked - The Ultimate Toolbox for iPhone Development.
That site is such a great resource covering tools and tutorials on getting you started, heavy slant on the app side rather than games but it does also cover the basics of doing games.
iPhone Dev Made Easy - Short slideshow going over some tools.
35 Free Icon Sets for your iPhone projects - Does what it says on the tin...handy collection to get you started.
That site is such a great resource covering tools and tutorials on getting you started, heavy slant on the app side rather than games but it does also cover the basics of doing games.
iPhone Dev Made Easy - Short slideshow going over some tools.
35 Free Icon Sets for your iPhone projects - Does what it says on the tin...handy collection to get you started.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Storing those Plush Toys!
Found the perfect answer on Think Geek - The Otto Plush Animal Bag
Store all your plush animal toys in this big blob plushy.
Store all your plush animal toys in this big blob plushy.
Monday, November 9, 2009
Family Photo's and the holidays
Well it's that time of the year again and time to get another portrait photo of the little one.
Last year we used JC Pennys' but this year we opted to give Target a go.
Using their coupons they offer on that gallery portrait site, it's a great saving, about $100 it saved us.
Really liked the service, much more laid back and easy going getting the pictures done, also very quick in getting the pictures back, a week turn around.
They do offer all the extras like cards and multiple pictures on a print, but they were far less pushy on offering those services. They do have 3 of these extras that they offer for half price, so $8 when you pick your pictures up but you don't have to take them.
Highly recommended.
Last year we used JC Pennys' but this year we opted to give Target a go.
Using their coupons they offer on that gallery portrait site, it's a great saving, about $100 it saved us.
Really liked the service, much more laid back and easy going getting the pictures done, also very quick in getting the pictures back, a week turn around.
They do offer all the extras like cards and multiple pictures on a print, but they were far less pushy on offering those services. They do have 3 of these extras that they offer for half price, so $8 when you pick your pictures up but you don't have to take them.
Highly recommended.
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Baby Monitors
Here's a short review of a few baby monitors because we had to finally replace our original monitor because new neighbours below our apartment has caused some interference so we went for an upgrade.
Our original monitor was a Graco Respond which we managed to find at Big Lots for $10 and has been a fantastic bargain as well as a great product.
It is well built, very sturdy and can be thrown around lots without breaking. The receiver has a battery built in that can be charged up and gives you great usage which is handy when when you've got to run around the house as the range is also very good. The signal also is generally very good, except when placed around a phone or router.
Other features of this monitor include a recording option so that if your baby cries it can play your recording, or it can play a few nursery rhymes.
Very happy with this unit and give it 4/5
The replacement unit we got was a Graco iMonitor Digital Vibe - What we liked about this, it's very simple to work out of the box, comes with a built in battery for the receiver which charges from a cradle and the base monitor can use batteries as a backup, which aren't included but the power adapters were universal for both the base and receiver.
Also the receiver has a power socket so you don't need the cradle if you don't want. This is a nice mobile unit, small, well made, light and sturdy with a pretty good belt clip. The battery life on this isn't as good as other monitors but it is good enough to get you around a long nap time.
The range on this is advertised as 2000 ft, I haven't confirmed that, but it has been crystal clear through out our apartment which is lovely, and it really has been crystal clear with no static or interference, being a digital unit really does make a huge difference here over the older analogue systems. The receiver also has a vibrate function to let you know your baby is crying if you have the volume turned down which is a nice idea but not something I use.
We'll give this a 5/5 rating.
Before we got the above, we tried and then returned a couple other units, the first was:
Safety First Go and Glow Monitor - Looks great, quite cheap depending on where you get it, $25-35 and nice and sturdy design. The major problem we had with this unit was interference, it wouldn't work anywhere at all in our apartment, the receiver was just bleeping out static which was horrid. Other things that dinged this in our minds, the belt clip was rubbish and this didn't include any batteries. The base unit was nice and stable though and had a thermometer. Finally the nightlight feature didn't really light up, so was a bit pointless.
2/5
Fisher Price Sound's n Lights Monitor - Another cheap unit around the $25-35 price range, analogue and returned because it also suffered heavy interference, it was better than the above unit in that it would work if the receiver was placed close to the base unit or in certain parts of the apartment but not anywhere that was useful for us.
This does advertise itself as being "green" with the power supply, the irony being that it was least environmentally friendly in the packaging having the most disposable rubbish. The antenna is not built in on this either, which potentially means it could be unsafe as a large protrusion, certainly something easy for the baby to grab and throw. The base unit was very light and didn't feel sturdy, but it did have a nice night light feature, which wouldn't automatically shut down incidentally which is a shame. Also no built in batteries for this unit and if you wanted to place your own batteries, the compartment comes with screw fitted fixings which isn't very convenient, this is aimed at the parents and not the child after all.
A nice feature about this unit though, the light indicator is visible from both sides of the receiver and the belt clips is quite sturdy.
2/5
Other units we looked at but didn't try out, but you can read the reviews on Amazon, which came highly recommended were the:
Our original monitor was a Graco Respond which we managed to find at Big Lots for $10 and has been a fantastic bargain as well as a great product.
It is well built, very sturdy and can be thrown around lots without breaking. The receiver has a battery built in that can be charged up and gives you great usage which is handy when when you've got to run around the house as the range is also very good. The signal also is generally very good, except when placed around a phone or router.
Other features of this monitor include a recording option so that if your baby cries it can play your recording, or it can play a few nursery rhymes.
Very happy with this unit and give it 4/5
The replacement unit we got was a Graco iMonitor Digital Vibe - What we liked about this, it's very simple to work out of the box, comes with a built in battery for the receiver which charges from a cradle and the base monitor can use batteries as a backup, which aren't included but the power adapters were universal for both the base and receiver.
Also the receiver has a power socket so you don't need the cradle if you don't want. This is a nice mobile unit, small, well made, light and sturdy with a pretty good belt clip. The battery life on this isn't as good as other monitors but it is good enough to get you around a long nap time.
The range on this is advertised as 2000 ft, I haven't confirmed that, but it has been crystal clear through out our apartment which is lovely, and it really has been crystal clear with no static or interference, being a digital unit really does make a huge difference here over the older analogue systems. The receiver also has a vibrate function to let you know your baby is crying if you have the volume turned down which is a nice idea but not something I use.
We'll give this a 5/5 rating.
Before we got the above, we tried and then returned a couple other units, the first was:
Safety First Go and Glow Monitor - Looks great, quite cheap depending on where you get it, $25-35 and nice and sturdy design. The major problem we had with this unit was interference, it wouldn't work anywhere at all in our apartment, the receiver was just bleeping out static which was horrid. Other things that dinged this in our minds, the belt clip was rubbish and this didn't include any batteries. The base unit was nice and stable though and had a thermometer. Finally the nightlight feature didn't really light up, so was a bit pointless.
2/5
Fisher Price Sound's n Lights Monitor - Another cheap unit around the $25-35 price range, analogue and returned because it also suffered heavy interference, it was better than the above unit in that it would work if the receiver was placed close to the base unit or in certain parts of the apartment but not anywhere that was useful for us.
This does advertise itself as being "green" with the power supply, the irony being that it was least environmentally friendly in the packaging having the most disposable rubbish. The antenna is not built in on this either, which potentially means it could be unsafe as a large protrusion, certainly something easy for the baby to grab and throw. The base unit was very light and didn't feel sturdy, but it did have a nice night light feature, which wouldn't automatically shut down incidentally which is a shame. Also no built in batteries for this unit and if you wanted to place your own batteries, the compartment comes with screw fitted fixings which isn't very convenient, this is aimed at the parents and not the child after all.
A nice feature about this unit though, the light indicator is visible from both sides of the receiver and the belt clips is quite sturdy.
2/5
Other units we looked at but didn't try out, but you can read the reviews on Amazon, which came highly recommended were the:
Safety 1st High-Def Digital Monitor
Sony 900 MHz BabyCall Nursery Monitor
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