Pickstr Goes Alpha

What a week!

One of my many side projects, Pickstr, went to public alpha this week, and my days and a lot of my nights have been filled with chatting with alpha testers and integrating their feedback. It's good to reach this point in development.

If you haven't been to the site or are too lazy to click the link and check it out, Pickstr is a web-based game. In it, players select the outcome of such real-world events as sports games, and compete with others to be the most accurate and achieve Guru status. Players also get to wager virtual currency on matches for added fun.

The alpha is all about testing the concept, mechanic, design, technology, etc. and soliciting user feedback before we take the concept to a public Beta some time in the summer. We're collecting data on user preferences and will use the information to improve the product.

One thing I've been reminded about repeatedly this week is how valuable it is to listen to users. The development process comes with a set of blinders, and hearing people new to the experience talk about what they like and dislike is incredibly helpful in understanding the potential of what is being built.

Furthermore, I was surprised to find that working on and playing Pickstr made me more interested in sports. It could have something to do with the number of bad picks I've made and virtual currency lost. I hate to lose.

Next steps for Pickstr include deployment to social and mobile platforms. The prospect of being able to compete in isolation with friends makes Facebook a likely early target. The Twitter angle is also developing, as we explore how to capitalize on the platform's strengths.

I don't wish to make this into a Pickstr development blog, but after almost a week of silence, I felt I should mention what I've been up to. If you've taken the time to try Pickstr, thank you! Be sure to let me know what you think of it - I'm very interested to know.

Thanks again, and enjoy your weekend.

© Jeremy Buehler and Rogue Tendencies (www.roguetendencies.com) 2010.

Will Technology Deliver Ghost in the Shell?

I recently saw a story about some university students who made a glove mouse much like the one Tom Cruise uses in Minority Report. I am a big fan of real life technology catching up with the super-fantastic technology of science fiction. And the glove got me thinking about what science fiction most accurately reflects where I think technology is headed today.

I came up with Ghost in the Shell. It is an Anime franchise based on a manga by Shirow Masamune. The stories follow the exploits of a special government security force formed as a counter-terrorist unit. The setting is a very futuristic, highly technological Japan.

The stories are aimed at teens/adults and deal with very complex issues around the integration of technology and society, sitting at the frontier between the real and virtual worlds. It represents a vast collection of ideas near the end of what I like to think today's technology can take us; at the point where current technology moves on to the next logical developments.

And that's what makes it exciting. Here are some of the 'almost' technologies portrayed in the franchise that are pretty much inevitable:

Personal Cloaking Devices. Some members of the anti-terrorist team wear special clothing that bends light around them, making difficult and dangerous infiltrations lower risk and spying easier. Today, scientists are already working on similar technologies and the concept passes my 40 year test - I will probably be alive to see this sci-fi concept become real in the next 40 years.

Intelligent Windows. I am referring to the dumb windows found in most buildings today becoming bigger, faster and stronger. Dumb today, because all they do is let light through and keep the elements out. Boring. In the Ghost in the Shell world, windows are also display screens for computers and media devices. No more curtains, just touch a button (or the window itself) and it switches from transparent to opaque. Touch another, and you're watching a big screen TV. The concept also made an appearance in the first Iron Man movie, and it's practical enough to pass the 40 year test.

Cybernetics. The melding of flesh and machine to replace some of the biological parts of a body with mechanical ones is not an original idea, but it's a central point in the franchise as the main characters struggle with the virtual line between man and machine. At what point is humanity separated from the technology we use? As we become more dependent on technology it becomes part of how we exist. But what of our souls? If you remove the body, what remains? All weighty philosophical debates that will wage on in the next 40 years, guaranteed.

Augmentative Devices. I separate this from cybernetics because augmentative devices do not necessarily replace body parts, but still make a body 'better'. The Ghost in the Shell franchise is full of them. While traditional mobile phones exist, for example, most of the tech elite use implanted communications devices - the ultimate in hands-free. People entrust memories to external devices and make back-ups. People connect to the internet using data ports in their bodies (WiFi didn't make it big in the Ghost in the Shell universe, apparently). As we toy with Augmented Reality and seek a better device for it, I definitely put augmentative devices on the 40 year list.

Automated Transit. Basically, cars that drive themselves. This is an idea that is so prevalent in sci-fi that it's practically a given. In fact, some companies are already putting concepts to the test. Forty year list? Definitely.

Crime. As we struggle to make technology do the things we do, we open the gates on a world of exploitive opportunities for criminals. It's happening today with the likes of the recent Google hack; and it will continue to happen and become more sophisticated over time as technologies develop and become mainstream. Sadly, 'cyber crime' makes it onto the 40 year list by default.

Unknown Threats. While I have faith in science there are risks with exploring any frontier, and while I hope I will be proved wrong, I can't help feel threats to the technology model will appear in the next 40 years. I'm not implying society won't grow to deal with them. This story about a Korean couple that let their child die of malnutrition while they played a video game about raising a child brings it home.

With great power comes great responsibility, indeed.

© Jeremy Buehler and Rogue Tendencies (www.roguetendencies.com) 2010.

Feel Good Technology Stories

I like reading feel-good technology stories. They bring out the best of the geek in me. Here are three of my favorites from the last 48 hours:

Efficient Desalinization. MIT scientists developed a desalinization chip that could one day provide clean drinking water to remote villages with only a solar power source to drive them. Read the story at PopSci.

Privatized Space Flight for the Rest of Us. Well, for those of us who can afford the $200k ticket price (which, coincidentally, takes the 'me' out of 'us'). Virgin Galactic's Enterprise took its official maiden flight and landed safely. Besides looking fantastic, the space ship will one day ferry six passengers into space via a high altitude launch and rocket push. See pictures and story at Fast Company. Virgin apparently collected $45 million from 330 passengers booking flights so far.

iPhone Opera. This is more of a 'dare to dream' than a true feel-good technology story, but Opera submitted a version of its mini browser to the iPhone app store. If Apple allows the browser onto the platform, it will be a spark of hope for those of us who wish the platform was more open and competitive. Read the story at Read Write Web.

© Jeremy Buehler and Rogue Tendencies (www.roguetendencies.com) 2010.

The Social Web - Is it a Big Bang Deal?

Sometimes working in an industry magnifies the industry's importance. This doubly applies to anything digital, like the social Web. Sometimes it's easy to forget that a very short while ago the electronic technology we take for granted today didn't exist. Can't live without the social Web? Pfft! Back in the day, if we wanted to be social with someone we had to walk up hill both ways, in the snow, to visit them.

Here's a humbling perspective: I read this article in the MIT Technology Review about the search for another Earth-like planet, and the recent discovery of an exoplanet (a planet outside our solar system) that brings us closer to success than ever before.

The exoplanet, designated CoRot-9b (named after the French satellite used to discover it) is composed of Helium and Hydrogen and probably does not support life in its -23 to 157 °C climate. In terms of little green men, a big let down; but important to science nonetheless. More interesting, however, is the mention of NASA's Keplar Satellite, the James Webb Space Telescope, and several other technologies that will soon be searching for life-sustaining planets.

Happily, if I'm to take the word of an assistant professor at face value, I'll be around to enjoy the discoveries these technologies help make because:

"Johnson predicts that Kepler will find the first inhabitable "Earth" outside our solar system in the next three to six years."

The idea is enough to boggle the mind. The technology available in six years here on Earth will be as amazing to my generation as what we have today is to our grandparents. The capabilities of mobile devices and the infrastructure on which they operate will have multiplied in effectiveness several times. We will be far more Web-social.

We'll have integrated the social Web to a point where we'll raise a generation with the ubiquitous ability to contact their peers directly at any time with text, voice and video. And the concept of being without that technology will be as alien to them as the thought of the existence of another 'Earth' is to my generation.

Children six years from now will easily grasp the idea of a planet like ours waiting for us beyond our solar system. They'll know about it faster, share ideas about it more efficiently, and as they grow they will reach out to it with tools a hundred times more powerful than anything available today.

But some things won't change, especially when their grandchildren begin talking of travelling to our celestial neighbor. They will have to grapple with that new technological reality as previous generations have struggled with technology since the dawn of humanity.

The next time you see a child, enjoy a chuckle. They're in for quite a ride.

© Jeremy Buehler and Rogue Tendencies (www.roguetendencies.com) 2010.

The Best Farmville Crops

A long time ago in a land far, far away (called Farmville, on Facebook) I was interested in analyzing crop progression to see how the rewards for certain Farmville crops scaled. Some crops must be better than other crops, right?

Turns out there were some clear winners, and my fast Farmville leveling was based on a chart like the one below. The chart integrates plowing cost because it takes a chunk of potential revenue from each seed planted. The "value defining" factor is revenue per hour.

Some other fast Farmville leveling tips: When leveling fast in Farmville, chose the crop with the highest revenue per hour and the shortest hours to harvest available at your level. Plant as many plots as possible, and harvest as soon as possible. Encourage your friends to fertilize your crops, as it increases revenue and experience earned. Spend excess coins on buildings, as the coins spent earn a one-to-one return in experience points. Sell buildings so things don't get too crowded, and re-invest the coins earned for more experience points.

Good luck!

Crop	Plow Cost	Cost	Sell Price	Value	Hours	Rev/h
Superberries 1	15	10	100	75	2	37.500
Asparagus	15	220	357	122	16	7.625
Onion	15	170	275	90	12	7.500
Sugar Cane	15	165	239	59	8	7.375
Peas	15	190	381	176	24	7.333
Tomatoes	15	100	173	58	8	7.250
Green Tea	15	105	191	71	10	7.100
Grapes	15	85	270	170	24	7.083
Sunflowers	15	135	315	165	24	6.875
Ghost Chili	15	80	136	41	6	6.833
Acorn Squash	15	175	258	68	10	6.800
Coffee	15	120	243	108	16	6.750
Blackberries	15	75	117	27	4	6.750
Lilies	15	195	369	159	24	6.625
Blueberries	15	50	91	26	4	6.500
Carrots	15	110	200	75	12	6.250
Corn	15	150	380	215	36	5.972
Raspberries	15	20	46	11	2	5.500
Potatoes	15	135	345	195	36	5.417
Broccoli	15	200	473	258	48	5.375
Pattypan Squash	15	65	160	80	16	5.000
Cabbage	15	140	388	233	48	4.854
Lavender	15	160	384	209	48	4.354
Sweet Potato 2	15	10	125	100	24	4.167
Red Wheat	15	180	449	254	72	3.528
Aloe Vera	15	50	85	20	6	3.333
Cotton	15	75	207	117	36	3.250
Peppers	15	70	162	77	24	3.208
Yellow Melon	15	205	528	308	96	3.208
Rice	15	45	96	36	12	3.000
Pumpkin	15	30	68	23	8	2.875
Red Tulips	15	75	159	69	24	2.875
Watermelon	15	130	348	203	72	2.819
Cranberries	15	55	98	28	10	2.800
Pineapples	15	95	242	132	48	2.750
Strawberries	15	10	35	10	4	2.500
Pink Roses	15	120	254	119	48	2.479
Yellow Bell	15	75	198	108	48	2.250
Soybeans	15	15	63	33	24	1.375
Squash	15	40	121	66	48	1.375
Daffodils	15	60	135	60	48	1.250
Artichokes	15	70	204	119	96	1.240
Eggplant	15	25	88	48	48	1.000
Wheat	15	35	115	65	72	0.903

1. Superberries were a special reward crop, and aren't always in game.
2. An experimental crop. Sweet Potatoes did not wither. Special cost (10 coins + 25 FV Cash)

Read some of my thoughts about Farmville design here.

© Jeremy Buehler and Rogue Tendencies (www.roguetendencies.com) 2010.

Old and Slow

Being close to new technology makes me feel young. I think it is because of the learning required to understand it. The technology I'm referring to is daily use stuff; computers, phones, software, Web standards, and so forth.

Lately, however, I've begun to feel something else when I read about new discoveries regarding the 'big ideas' of science and technology. It's a kind of discomfort that is at once unsettling and disturbing, like being on an airplane that flies through an air pocket. For a moment, the world kind of drops away, and then just as quickly, everything is back to normal. Except now the memory of the air pocket is fresh in my mind.

I'm referring to such discoveries as 'Ardi', the recently discovered fossilized remains that usurped 'Lucy' as the oldest fossil record of a human predecessor. Or the recent discovery by the Chandra X-Ray Observatory that questions how we've been measuring distances between celestial bodies.

These discoveries do not change how I live out my day. But they push and nudge at the foundations on which I've grown and learned for almost forty years. I've never thought of myself as the type of person to cling to comfort zones, but apparently, I like my science to be 'absolute', especially on big issues.

Thinking about how children will grow up learning based on a different set of 'absolute' facts and how the advancement of technology will increase the rate of 'big' discoveries leaves me feeling perversely satisfied. If I'm unsettled today, I can only imagine how today's children will feel 50 years from now. My generation is leaving them a fantastically disturbing legacy of high-speed evolution.

I hope someone is teaching them to adapt.

© Jeremy Buehler and Rogue Tendencies (www.roguetendencies.com) 2010.