In the end, we made two orders: one from Amazon and one from Tesco. We saved a non-trivial amount of money. This is in pounds. So at today's rates, £26.78 is worth about $41.79. Worth the effort we spent.

The only other question is stuff like shipping. Shipping was free in both cases. Amazon was also better on price in the 3D Land game, but they're shipping time on the cheap one was 2-4 weeks, which wouldn't make it for Christmas. So the price I show above is for an Amazon retailer who had it in stock and could ship this week.

Obviously the RSS feed doesnt include YouTube videos, and a bunch of other parts of the page. But it also doesn't include the ads! Some sites don't have an RSS version, so you don't get it. But where they do have it, it's so much nicer.

It's easy to tell Google you want to see the web in English. In fact you can see the button to click right there ("google.com in English"). But I want it to know that I'm speaking English as soon as I submit my search from my browser. I don't want to enter my search, see the results in a language I don't speak, and then have to click a button for English.

Google in Hebrew. Cool, but not useful to me.

The trick is to create a new search engine definition and make it pass the hl parameter, set to the value en.

The way you do this is to go find the definition of the Google search engine in /Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/searchplugins. Copy google.xml and rename it something like google-en.xml. Modify it to have the following line in it where all the other <Param/> tags are:

<Param name="hl" value="en"/>

Search engine selection in Firefox 4

You can download my google-en.xml. The file is named .txt. Rename it to .xml. Keep it in the same folder as all the other XML files. Now, go to your list of search engines (as shown below) and pick it.

Now, even though I get redirected to a local Google site, based on what country I'm in, I will still see results written in English, not the local language.

Click for the full story

Here's the "Verona" trundle bed or "guest bed" as they call it. The first thing that got my attention was the "save -11%" on the overview. Sure enough, when you click on it, you get a bigger view that makes it totally clear how much you're NOT saving. Original page is here.

That's not the only one like that. I went to "metal beds" and sorted them by price, highest to lowest. I found the "Amelia" bed frame was offering negative zero percent off. Huh? Yep, it appears the recommended retail price (RRP) is £149.95, but with them you pay only £149.99.

Negative zero percent, huh?

The code is obviously broken for displaying the discount. It is supposed to tell you you are saving -£0.04, but it prints it as pound, decimal, negative 4. That's strange no matter how you look at it.

I could probably find more of these, but that was enough. Pretty amusing.

I've done a couple. They're fun.

Communications in Marriage

First Day At the Office

Time Warp

Facebook is savvy about time zones and the fact that its users span the globe. But notice this conversation I had with a friend. He sent it at 12:39am on October 21st. I replied 3 hours earlier. Now, if you look at our profiles, Roy and I live in the same time zone. Normally this would never happen. But, I happen to be in the UK when this happened. I think I replied a couple hours after his message, but at you'll see, it's essentially impossible to know, given what I see.

I think it has decided that I'm on the west coast. I'll have to go figure out if that's right. Without putting the time zones in there, though, it is impossible to sort out who sent what and when. You can't tell if there's an actual error in the time stamping, an error in my user profile or Roy's user profile (e.g., one of us has told facebook that we're in some weird location), or if there's an error in the localization. That is, facebook could have figured out that I'm in the UK and tried to display local times, but then goofed up the conversion to my local time zone.

I wonder what kind of software testing you would have to do, if you couldn't change the display to add in the time zone. Could this be tested in its current form? Could mistakes be distinguished from correct behavior?

Take a look at the graphic from their front page:

Neuton Mowers Comparison

Two things strike me as a bit odd. I currently have one of these "Old" mowers. Notice that they characterize my mower as "Heavy." They don't say how heavy, but I'd estimate mine between 40 and 50 pounds. Then notice that their mower is "Only" 69 pounds. There is no way my old skool mower is 69 pounds. It's obvious why they just said "Heavy," because if they gave a typical number or an average, they couldn't compare favorably.

The other thing they say is that the Neuton makes "less than half the noise." Now, noise is traditionally measured in decibels, and lawnmowers are typically estimated around 90 decibels. The decibel scale is a logarithmic one, which always makes it a bit unintuitive. Now, half of 90 dB would be 45, but they say it's "less than half." Refrigerators humming are estimated at 40 dB. I find it hard to believe that this thing is somewhere around as loud as a refrigerator humming.

Finally, there's the fallacy of "emissions-free." Nothing is emissions free. At best we can say it does not directly emit pollutants after you purchase it. However, consider how many pollutants were generated  to produce it in the first place. Compare that to the traditional mower and they probably compare more or less equally. While Neuton mowers may be zero emissions when operating, they are not zero pollution. Your coal-fired electric plant provides the electricity that charges the batteries. And some day some really awful chemicals in the batteries have to be disposed of carefully when it has reached the end of its life. So zero emissions, yes. Zero pollution, no.

I got the idea after explaining some really crappy code to my wife and how it did a ridiculous job protecting against SQL injection. I said "there must be 50 ways to inject SQL into that code." That's when she sang a couple bars and I realized it would be a great idea. Now, my singing it might not have been such a great idea, but the parody was a good idea.

I downloaded the music from a MIDI site, and then arranged it in GarageBand. Here are the lyrics:

I see your input's not validated properly
You have to check it at all tiers: 1, 2 and 3
Give me a browser and quite soon you will agree. There must be
50 ways to inject your SQL

You see it really is my business to intrude
The CTO wants to see this web app broke into
Turn on my proxy and all doubt will be removed. There must be
50 ways to inject your SQL
50 ways to inject your SQL

Try a quick hack, Jack
Add a new row, Joe
Try an insert, Kurt
Change their SQL query

Evade the regex, Rex
Encode it all in hex
Unbalance the quotes, Vinod
And change the query

Break the syntax, Max
Use a backslash, Cash
Try command shell, Mel,
And change the query

Use "one equals one," son,
Unhandled exception!
Read the stack trace, ace
and change the query

He said our application is secure against your kind
There are no simple vulnerabilities to find
I said your coders write their code like they are blind, there must be
50 ways to inject your SQL

He said our logs show unexpected funds were sent
Its probably time we started using Prepared-Statements
I said I'm glad you're seeing what I meant, there were
50 ways to inject your SQL
50 ways to inject your SQL

Break the syntax, Max
Use a backslash, Cash
Try command shell, Mel,
And change the query

Use "one equals one," son,
Unhandled exception!
Read the stack trace, ace
and change the query

Try a quick hack, Jack
Add a new row, Joe
Try an insert, Kurt
Change their SQL query

Evade the regex, Rex
Encode it all in hex
Unbalance the quotes, Vinod
And change the query

1. You lose sleep over Facebook
2. You spend more than an hour a day on Facebook
3. You become obsessed with old loves
4. You ignore work in favor of Facebook
5. The thought of getting off Facebook leaves you in a cold sweat

What I find surprising is that 3 of these 5 are probably true of most perfectly normal people who watch TV. I happen to watch basically no TV at all, so I have a different perspective than most people; but, I want to keep it balanced in this blog. Substitute "TV" for "Facebook" in this article and see what happens.

When they say "lose sleep over Facebook" they go on to say "stay up late doing facebook and wake up tired the next day." Perfectly normal people have TVs in their bedrooms and stay up later than they should watching it. Sometimes they come in tired the next day. Is this a sign of TV addiction? Or is this just a bad indicator of addiction?

Don't most perfectly normal people watch more than an hour of TV a day? More than an hour of Facebook is considered some kind of addiction indicator, but an hour of TV is just fine? I don't get it.

You become obsessed with old loves. The article goes on to cite an example of gossiping online. You could gossip at work, too, and end up in the same predicament. I'm not sure that this has anything to do with Facebook.

You ignore work in favor of Facebook. Hmm. Most people can't ignore work in favor of TV, so we'll have to let this slide.

The thought of leaving Facebook leaves you in a cold sweat, huh? Ask people to give up their televisions. While "cold sweat" might be a bit of an exaggeration, your average watch-an-hour-a-day person is not going to part quickly with their television. Again, is this really a sign of addiction? If so, are we benignly addicted to TV and everyone's cool with it?

This story leads off with a sad tale of a mom obsessively using Facebook while ignoring her kid's need for help with homework. Doesn't this happen with TV? "Sure honey, I'll help with your homework right after the news is over..." Is this OK? This is somehow different?

I think TV and Facebook are equivalent. They can be abused, or not. I think the addiction "symptoms" cited in this article are absurd because they can be applied to a lot of our lifestyle behaviors.

Game Features

These are features of the game that influence my choice of strategy.

Minimal Interactivity

There are only 3 things that you can do to another player in the game:

• Lower their health by fighting them
• Possibly plunder some item of their loot when fighting them
• Join their crew

Being on "the crew" is Reciprocal

If I'm on your crew, you're on my crew. If you had a crew of 10 and I had a crew of 5, and then I joined your crew, you would have 11 and I'd have 6. Because of this, there's no reason (I can see) not to be promiscuous and join as many crews as you can. If you're on someone's crew, they can't fight you. Perhaps at higher levels there are personalities and teams and things. As a low-level person (I'm level 19 as I write this), I can't see any reason not to join every crew I can.

Most Game Events are Random

Although whether you win a fight or not depends on your crew size and weapons, the spoils of war are largely random. In many ways this means it doesn't matter who you fight.

Strategy

This is how I play, based on the characteristics I noted above.

1. Build experience doing simple jobs

The best job, experience-wise, is called "Recover treasure from a sunken vessel" and it's on the "Swashbuckler" tab under "Plunder!" It takes 10 energy and gives you 15 experience points. If you want experience, do this job over and over again. I make my energy a multiple of 10, so I can just do this job, say, 4 times, and then ignore it for a while. If you want experience, only do this job.

2. Attack people you can definitely beat

Experience points are random, from 1 to 3, if you win. You occasionally have a bonus where your experience is doubled. There is no incentive to attack someone you might not beat. If I have a crew of 15 and I beat someone who has a crew of 20, I get the same experience as if I beat someone who has a crew of 5. Why risk it? You also get the same experience for attacking "fresh meat" (i.e., people who aren't playing). You're guaranteed to win, you're guaranteed the same amount of experience. What's not to like?

3. Arm Everyone

Make sure you have one weapon (pistols, rifles, hand grenades), one super bonus thingie (ship's wheel, golden teeth, shark army, etc.), one defensive item (eyepatch, parrot), and one vessel (rowboat, fleut, gallion) for every crew member. Unless you do, you might not beat people who have smaller crews than you.

4. Keep Coming Back

I typically drain all my energy and strength doing jobs and fighting, then I forget about it. I come back a few hours later, do a bunch of jobs, bury my treasure, then fight.

5. Keep Gold Buried

Bury your gold before you fight. Bury your gold before you leave the game alone for a while. If it's buried, it can't be stolen. Although it costs 10% to bury, you'll lose more than that overnight if you get attacked.

5. Buy the Special "Islands"

Every time you get 2 new crew members, you qualify to buy a new special island. It costs around 8000, and produces 12000 per hour. I have 17 crew members and 6 of these things. ALL the rest of the islands are stupid (see below).

6. Buy the Special Weapons

In their effort to virally market the game, the front page ("Home") always has some special offering. it's always the same: 18 attack, 18 defense, 10,000 gold. Every time you get 2 more crew members, you qualify. Always get these. They have no upkeep, they're relatively cheap, and they are the best weapons in the game.

WTFs

These are things that make me wonder why I play the game at all.

Advancement is Guaranteed

No one can stop me from advancing. My energy renews itself at a certain rate, and when I have enough energy, I do a plunder job. I move up in levels. Nobody can take experience away from me, slow me down, or change the way I move up. Because I know how to test web applications, for example, I know how to write small programs that will watch for my energy to hit 10, then will click the 'do job' button. I could just create a program to advance me in levels. What part of this is playing a game?

Gold is Static

I can earn all the gold I want, and keep it buried. When people attack, they can't get my buried gold. Although it costs me 10% to bury it, that's much less than I would lose if it was available when people attacked. I try to periodically login and bury my gold. It keeps people from stealing it. I have over 4 million gold now, and I don't know what to do with it. I wish I could give it to friends or something, but that's not possible, so it just sits.

No incentive to take risks

Who cares that I'm attacking people who are bigger or stronger than me? In most games, a risky gamble like that pays off sometimes. In this game it just doesn't matter. I'll stick to activities that are sure bets.

Most Plunder Jobs are Pointless

The "Recover treasure from a sunken vessel" has only a few requirements (and no minimum crew requirement!). Everything else that gives experience points has a worse ratio. That is, the "recover treasure" job gives you 1 experience point for every 1.5 energy you spend. Everything else requires 1.6 energy, 2.0 energy, etc. to get an experience point.

Now that I have an income of 60,000 an hour or so, I don't use plunder to get gold or loot. I get loot by attacking people and I get gold by just sitting around. The entire "Plunder" screen is useless to me except that one job.

Keelhauling is Pointless

Keelhauling is when you attack someone and their health goes to zero. They lose some experience points. I guess if I don't like someone, I can go after them. But I don't need to do that. It doesn't matter. You can earn a bounty by keelhauling, but who cares? I can earn 600,000 while I sleep. If I attack someone and I keelhaul them, I don't get extra loot, I don't get extra gold, I don't get extra experience or skill points. I just get one more "keelhaul" in my stats. Whooptie do.

Islands are Pointless

The only islands that matter are the special ones that cost 8000 and produce 12,000 an hour. Get those. The rest are so bad that they're just not worth buying. Consider a "captured island." It costs 4 million. Yes, million. It produces a pathetic 8,000 per hour. It will be 500 hours (or almost 21 days) before that thing pays itself off. Why would you pay that kind of money for something so worthless? You can get a tariff station if you turn in that captured island and pay another 5 million. The tariff station earns 50,000 an hour, which is respectable. But at 9 million gold to buy it, it will still be 7.5 days before it pays itself off.
I understand the idea of encouraging recruitment. Recruiting is the only way you get the 8K/12K islands. But this is so absurdly lopsided that it's just dumb. If I can recruit my way into the game, great, but these other options are so ridiculous that they shouldn't even be in the game.

What does it mean to win?

Given that I can just play all by myself and advance through the levels, amassing gold and gaining experience points regularly, what does winning mean? Nobody can take my crew away. Nobody can take my buried gold. Although I like my special weapons (shark armies, etc.), it doesn't really matter if they all get looted. I can advance in the game without them.

I can advance in the game without lots of crew, too. Since most jobs are tied to level, and level is tied to experience, and I can earn experience without recruiting, who cares about recruiting?

I can't figure out how to measure myself and decide that I'm doing well or poorly. I don't know what my motivation is to try hard. I click, I advance. I click, I advance.