Gilbert Johnson Keerthi Algorithm explained

Casey Muratori's GJK presentation is informative, understandable and surprisingly entertaining. Other interactive entertainment industry heavy hitters post responses to the Molly Rocket forums.

Casey's blog is also worth reading, especially his thought on McDonald's recent addition.

Crackdown - Xbox 360

Crackdown is an empty vessel but it can make a LOT of appealing noise. It is devoid of significant characters except for the sarcastic, disembodied voice that serves as co-pilot and tutor to your mute, latent superhuman aka "Agent". Anyone who played GTA or any of its clones will be familiar with Crackdown's open world style. Its contribution to the genre is being able to pick up a "commandeered" car (or Scud missile transport), jump from the street to the roof of a several story building in a single leap while carrying said vehicle, drive said vehicle while atop said building and...take it from there...It sets the bar for future super-hero games and some Spiderman 3 reviews are already comparing that game in a negative light to Realtime Worlds' offering.

The recent downloadable content with additional vehicles and activities is also worthwhile. "Street Racing" Crackdown-style can be particularly entertaining; while your AI competitors try to navigate the city at high speed, you build roadblocks, shoot out their tyres...or whatever takes your fancy.

A friend noted that he considered Quake a tapestry with Half-Life 2 being the masterpiece. It will be interesting to see how future titles paint the bar that Crackdown has raised.

Bay to Breakers - May 20th 2007

The first time I signed up for TNT was the night before Bay to Breakers in 2005; running it for the first time this year was something of a milestone.

Results. My bib number was 813. My time was 51:07.

26 official photos! Direct links:

• I think this might be the happiest I have ever looked in a race finish photo!
• Post race

Gears of More

The silver lining of my Wildflower bike experience keeps looking better. I recently learned (thanks again to Rand Libberton and PK Racing) that for nearly two years, since the start of my auspicious road-biking career, I have been riding with a crazy gear ratio setup; or at least one that is highly inadvisable for anyone biking in the hilly Bay Area or attempting Wildflower's Nasty Grade.

My Felt 65 had a 53/39 chainring and an 11-23 cassette (standard setup details). I should be riding with a 12-27 cassette to allow me to keep a reasonable cadence while climbing.

Rand & PK Racing ordered and installed a new Shimano Ultegra cassette, chain and derailleur and fixed the derailleur hanger; the latter two were necessary as my bike is still banged up after a crash coming down Conzelman Road in the Marin headlands at the end of 2005 (in spite of post crash repair work and several tune-ups at other locations since...)

The result? My bike rides even more smoothly and shifting is much better. The headlands repeats on Saturday May 19th were almost fun... :P

The Chemical Brothers - Do It Again (single)

I hope the latest installment from Basement Jaxx, ahem! I mean The Chemical Brothers, is a grower because it certainly isn't aurally endearing out-of-the-box...Will The ' Brothers next album also be a schizophrenic mess? Time vill tell...

Halo 3: Multiplayer Beta

I entered the Beta through my copy of Crackdown, Agent. I played two matches on the evening of Wednesday May 16th before the service became unavailable and recommended me to play Shadowrun. :P

The service was back up and running on Thursday May 17th and I played about a half dozen Rumble Slayer games.

Initial impressions:

• Matchmaking options seem even more thorough
• Looks a lot like Halo 2. Update: A pretty detailed comparison of both games' graphics.
• Use of the shoulder buttons on the Xbox 360 controller is welcome
• I didn't expect to enjoy using the re-introduced assault rifle but I do :-)

Spiderman 3 (movie)

After having my expectations set pretty low by some friends, I thoroughly enjoyed this. Yes, it's dumb and ridiculous but it's a comic-book-movie. Get over it.

Spoiler Alert

• The special effects are solid especially for Sandman.
• The "New Goblin" is Super-Lame but as he's never on-screen alone, he's easy to overlook.
• Venom is very well done but not around for long enough.

Area 51: Black Site, Xbox 360 teaser

Negatives:

• takes too long to load.
• is ridiculously short in duration, especially for the size of the download! (but I guess it is a "teaser"...).
• looks like a low rent Gears of War.

Positives:

• team commands are lightweight and seem to make an actual difference e.g. direct your teammates to attack a specific target and they normally do a reasonable job.
• special effect the demo closes with is cool (but "solid" objects passing through the characters is definitely not).

Verdict:

Not overly impressed but I seem to remember the demos for its predecessor being inconsistent too; I liked the squad-based-shooter-y type one but was not so keen on the i'm-changing-into-an-alien one (maybe it was better in context?).

New wheels: Fulcrum Racing 1

An upside of breaking a spoke at Wildflower; it provided the perfect excuse to buy new wheels. Thanks to all who gave me advice especially Mike Spence, Craig Dalton, James Gracey and Rand Libberton.

Brand/class recommendations included: Mavic Ksyrium ES, Bontrager Race X Lite, Easton and Fulcrum. In the end I chose Fulcrum Racing 1.

So how are they? I must admit, I wasn't convinced that I would be able to tell the difference (especially given my relatively limited road biking experience). My first test ride was the Escape from Alcatraz bike loop on a sunny, dry, almost windless Sunday May 13th. Climbing was easier, descending was faster (I could pick up speed incredibly quickly, even when freewheeling) and the part I'm most impressed with: every street felt like it was newly paved; the ride was incredibly smooth. [They also sound pretty cool and come with their own carry cases :-) ]

Huge thanks (again) to Rand Libberton and the folks at PK Racing, who did all the hard work installing them and servicing my bike post Wildflower.

I also learned about some useful online resources including

• Sheldon Brown's Bicycle Technical Info
• Park Tool
• Road Bike Review

PS I was riding ALX 220 and Wildflower was the third spoke to break in 2007 (one front, two back). I guess I should have seen it coming...The weight difference between the ALX 220 and Fulcrum Racing 1 is about 129g front, 227g rear, 356g total.

Wildflower - May 5th 2007 - Long Course

My Wildflower experience was...emotional. I was happy to finish the 70.3 miles!! Here are some details:

Swim - was a little choppier than expected due to slightly windy conditions but I was satisfied with my time (especially given my recent lack of swim training...). Here's a sample of the mayhem of a triathlon start, from the Olympic distance race on Sunday May 6th.

Bike - I felt great and was pacing pretty well until a rear spoke broke at about mile 29 and the rear wheel buckled pretty badly. I had to tear the spoke out of the wheel rim as I don't carry the tools to remove or snip it and it snapped at the hub so I couldn't safely wrap it to an adjacent spoke...Riding the remaining 26+ miles with the rear brake rubbing (even though it was open) wasn't much fun. I think time spent standing on the side of the road spoke-wrestling plus time spent cycling at a slower pace cost me about 15 to 25+ minutes on the bike segment alone. Many folks complained about the wind on the bike leg too but I don't think I was trying to push hard enough at any point for it to bother me! (The wind strength increased throughout the day so the amateur female waves were hit hardest).

Run - I was very glad to get off the bike but physically, mentally and emotionally drained by the time I did. I walked more than I would have liked but came close to my two hour run target.

Race results. My bib number was 363. I am listed under Long Course Triathlon > Amateur Finishers.

Pop trivia: I was smoked by Andrew Baldwin, Bib #525 aka The Bachelor in reality-TV-land.

My goal for 2008 is to beat my 6 hour 18 minute time from this attempt and maybe break 6 hours!

Photos:

• Official photos.
• Pre race in transition area.
• Struggling into wetsuit
• Luke, Kit, Philip, Travis
• Kit, Luke, Jeremy, Travis, Steve
• Kit, Luke, Jeremy, Travis, Steve.
• Male 25-29 wave start (I think I am visible; the second person from the right side wearing the squid lid).
• Transformation #1.
• Run Mile 8-ish.

Coachella 2007 - April 27th to 29th

Blew my mind:

• Rage Against The Machine - Wake Up speech, okay quality. Pre and post Wake Up speech, poor quality.

Truly Rocked:

• Faithless
• Hot Chip
• Junior Boys
• CSS - Paris Hilton & posse showed up for this.

Great:

• David Guetta
• Benny Benassi
• MSTRKRFT - overflowed the dance tent in the afternoon...
• Soul Wax Nite Versions
• Placebo

Good:

• Felix da Housecat
• Peter Bjorn & John - started out poorly but finished well.
• Ozomatli - filled the stage with fans by the end and allegedly played without amplification in the crowd after they were cut off.
• Gotan Project
• The Rapture
• Air - but set was only about five songs long...
• Teddybears - check out their nutty videos...

Disappointing:

• Digitalism - screwed around for about thirty minutes, then played ten minutes of okay stuff...
• Justice - see directly above...lasting memory is of one girl jumping up and down screaming at the top of her lungs "...play the f***ing song!!!"
• Happy Mondays - Shaun Ryder seemed too drunk to me...

No opinion/also rans (i was too tired by the time some of these played :P ):

• Bjork
• Peaches - introduced by Ron Jeremy.
• The Decemberists
• Red Hot Chili Peppers
• The Good, the Bad & the Queen
• Tiesto

Multisport diary 2005, 2006

2005:

• Big Kahuna Half Ironman triathlon as a Team In Training participant on September 11th 2005. My bib number was 44. Results. Official photos. More photos. I enjoyed the swim (even though I managed to lose my precious goggles afterward) and the bike ride but my run sucked!


• Bridge to Bridge Run on October 2nd 2005. My bib number was 6967. Official photos.


• Treasure Island Olympic Distance Triathlon on November 5th 2005. My bib number was 136. Results. Official photos. I was disappointed with my swim (training once in the previous 2 months probably wasn't the best preparation) but I was happy enough with my bike time and my run was faster than it felt!


• San Francisco Holiday Run on December 18th 2005. My bib number was 356.

2006:

• The 4th Annual Alcatraz100 "Swim of the Centurions" on September 2nd 2006. My race number was 472. Results. The official times were approximate as all chips started at the same time but some swimmers didn't enter the water until nearly 10 minutes after the official start. My watch clocked me at about 40 minutes.


• AlcaTRI XXVI™ - The 26th annual ESCAPE FROM THE ROCK Triathlon™ Sunday, October 15th 2006. My bib number was 291. Results. Official photos. This was my first triathlon of 2006 (after breaking my left third metstarsal on April 2nd 2006) and I REALLY enjoyed it. :-) More photos here and here.


• Treasure Island International Triathlon. Saturday November 4th 2006.
  My bib number was 149. Results. Official photos. I beat my 2005 time! I'm pretty sure the wind was stronger in 2005 but I made up most of my time on the swim and transitions.

For starters

I think I will use this as a diary, probably with an emphasis on multisport training and "racing" and maybe some thoughts on concerts or movies I see or video games I play or maybe even books I read...

Full disclosure: I work in the video games industry. The views expressed here are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of my employer.