Spokane has many faults, chief among them that it is the source of all human woe - a cleft in the wounded crust of the world that grants Satan and his twisted lieutenants easy access. But one thing you do learn there, other than the ability to create a tourniquet from your own intestines, is now to drive properly in the snow. We're snowed in here in Seattle, and not because you couldn't get around out there, but because driving in the snow with Seattle natives is like NASCAR in slow motion. It's not worth exposing yourself to those people, so you stay home. Even the sidewalks aren't safe. But that doesn't mean you can't go outside.
- Straining Kotaku for sustenance this morning, I came up with a mouthful of wriggling krill: a Microsoft job posting for work on the Zune project. The Kotaku article suggests that it's for applications on the Zune itself, and certainly that's part of the offer, but it also clearly describes a tripartite Zune experience: the device itself, the Xbox, and the client for the PC. They've been shuffling the deck over there for a year or more, trying to bring about the Grand Conjunction that will make them behave like a single, unified company as opposed to a grab-bag of endlessly warring city-states. My guess is that we'll see a Zune tab in the NXE sooner than later, with the option to use the Zune as a hard drive for the system - that is to say, what they should have done two full years ago.
- In ancient times, if you had a sore tooth or were hounded by the spirits of dead relatives, you could get help from the strangely proportioned hut in the center of your village. Its occupant, in the firm grip of some local entheogen, would tell you to "sleep on a pillow filled with bark" or to bury a tiny version of yourself in a graveyard. In other words, precisely the kind of mysticism that PC Gamers offer one another on forums to dull the sharp edges of their pastime. It is in that spirit that I offer this: I haven't had a single crash in The Witcher since I disabled Autosave and began saving manually. Since I was only using Autosave because the game was so unstable, this was like eating a counterintuitive Hungry Man dinner with chunks of real Irony. I have now Witched without interruption for three full days, and my joy has been restored completely. I pulled this tip from the official FAQ, which (in the strongest shamanic tradition) also includes tips for fever and unfaithful wives.
- The end of the official Child's Play drive is fast approaching, and I was informed this morning that the current total rests at $1,172,364. I have an annoying habit of writing numbers out whenever possible, but you've simply donated too much for me to retain that as a policy. Not that I'm complaining! Oh, no. I'm tough; I can take it.
(CW)TB out.
