Digital Dave

Congratulations, Welcome to Yelp! Here are your friends who are already on Yelp and here are your contacts who are not on Yelp, yet! Who do you want to invite?

Congratulations, Welcome to Farmville! Here are your friends who already play Farmville, and here are your friends who don’t! Who do you want to invite?

Congratulations, Welcome to Loopt, Foursquare, Gowalla, and whatever new social geo-locating friendship app comes out in the near future! Here are a bunch of your contacts, who do you want to invite?

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Request sent

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Wait for a response

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Send a reminder

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I’m sure you’ve been able to grasp the point by now. There are a whole lot of applications out there right now that feeds into your social graph. If I am connecting to an application that several of my friends are already using, why should I send an ‘invite’ for those friends to join me? They are my friends for a reason!

Some people like to invite random people into their social graph so they can take advantage of the benefits that come from having a large friendship network. I can see why you may not want those people to instantly be connected to you when you sign up for an application that both of you have. Well, there should be lists that control the scope.

Facebook dominates in knowing who your friends are so they would be the most suited to tap into this experiment. They’re view on privacy pretty much means they would be open to implement something like this as well.

This problem is obviously seen in Facebook games. How many Zynga game invites does it take before your friends start ignoring their notification area? If, by chance, your friend actually looks at their notification area you will get connected. But a lot of people are probably ignoring notifications since it is a huge spam-bucket. So, now you are left with the option of sending an actual message to your friend to remind them about your invite. Great, more spam.

In my mind, it makes sense for a game to know who of my friends are already playing. Moreover, It makes sense to just connect those that are in my friends list to a game that I am new to. This bottleneck of inviting doesn’t have to exist.

Expand that to other applications outside of Facebook. Hi, Yelp, You already check my contact list for those that are already within your network. Well, it doesn’t sounds too extreme to think that those people are probably people who I have a friendship with. Why not just link our accounts together? This is just one example, but there are many applications that are starting to tap into your social graph.

It’s only going to get worse.

I have been incredibly busy within the last few weeks that I haven’t had time to write.

So let’s go back to July 20th.  I ended up getting rotation implemented in Project Void and now i’m trying to generate a procedural algorithm to throw together levels on the fly.  One of the big selling points for this game will be that you will not play it the exact same way twice. Plus, this will give me much more freedom to incorporate new content.

Fast forward to July 25th, Megan and I finally got married!!! After 9+ years, we’ve tied the knot! It’s been an incredible journey and I am excited to continue it as a bonafied married couple!

From the 26th to the 30th we spent time in Vegas.  We saw Mystere, Ka, and Blue Man Group.  All were awesome.

Coming back from our honeymoon, we packed up a moving truck, and spent 33 hours on the road heading toward California.

Then when we got here I couldn’t get in touch with anybody who said they might be available to help so we spent 7 hours moving all of our stuff up 3 flights of stairs!

To now… We’re still unpacking boxes, trying to organize things, and buying new stuff for our awesome apt.

I hope to get back on Void soon.  I’m really enjoying it and, so far, the people who have touched it are as well.

I’ve been living pretty cheap at the moment renting out a room with a family close to work.  Why buy more than you need?  It was a pretty good decision.  It’s allowed me to save some money, view the area, and learn a bit from the family.

Well, the marriage is right around the corner, and doing this with 2 people and 2 dogs isn’t going to work very well.

I found an excellent place north of Novato.  2 Bedroom, 2 Bath coming in at a crazy 1,120 sq. ft.  Pool. Gym. Laundry in unit. Beautiful grounds.  It’s right next to a shopping center (Target, Petsmart, Movie Theater).  I locked in on this room for about $260 less than what it used to rent out for.

The really good thing is that they allow Siberian Huskies! They seem to embrace pets pretty well. They hold a party every month and this month the party is centered around pets.

So I’m excited. Megan is excited. And if nothing else, this will allow us time to get oriented, find her a job, and eventually lock our sights in on a home.

Who knew it would be such a pain to find an apartment complex that allows a Siberian Husky?  I sure didn’t.  Didn’t even cross my mind… Would it cross yours after reading the AKC temperment note:

The characteristic temperament of the Siberian Husky is friendly and gentle, but also alert and outgoing. He does not display the possessive qualities of the guard dog, nor is he overly suspicious of strangers or aggressive with other dogs. Some measure of reserve and dignity may be expected in the mature dog. His intelligence, tractability, and eager disposition make him an agreeable companion and willing worker.

So it seems that I have a triple threat on my hands with this pup…

• Finding an apartment complex that allows dogs
• Finding an apartment complex that allows dogs over 25 lbs.
• Finding an apartment complex that allows dogs over 25 lbs and isn’t on the breed restriction list

What could it be that puts them on the restriction list?  Well, none of the places have been able to answer that question, and always seem to point to someone else, “We didn’t make the rule. I don’t know.”

I’m willing to bet it’s the fact that huskies and small animals (and possibly small kids) do not mix.  Huskies have a high prey drive and if they see something small running, instincts will kick-in and they’ll go after it.   But i’m still not sold as this being a specific reason.  All of my prior apartment complexes have required a leash, and your dog isn’t going to run far on a leash.

I’m pretty excited about this event that is going on in 77 days.  If you’re not aware, I asked Megan to marry me December of 2007, and time has finally come up on us to get the party started.  Most of everything is set and planned, side from just a couple of things.  It felt like yesterday that I said we had 100 days.  Time is flying.

So what have I been up to? Work. Which is probably reason #1 as to why my week goes by so damn quick.

And an independent iPhone project. I’m at the point where I need to get it into some peoples hands so I can come down to a final decision on if I’ll post it on iTunes for free, or sell it for, likely, $0.99.  It’s a drinking game that is designed to be played at a bar with friends.  You can consider it a catalog of drinks like the cocktails application, but with a slight variation to it – namely, the game/competition factor. And no, I don’t worry about the history of the drinks…

In other news.

The campaign to promote the movie is going to get on the road, err, tracks soon.  Read the buzz here: Train

Not that it wasn’t expected.

So this is my fourth week with IMD.  I’ve had my hands on all kinds of things, from the build system to an array of tools and systems.  I’ve written some integration testing scripts, learned all kinds of linux tricks, read a lot of information, sat through a few classes, messed around with some broken C++ and Python code, fixed some Python code, watched pieces of the movie, and… The list goes on and on.  They’ve kept me relatively busy.

The clips that I’ve seen look phenomenal.  But I guess I hold a bias now?  Bleh. It’s sweet.

Working from 8:30 A.M to 6:30 P.M sure doesn’t give me a lot of time to tinker with any hobby projects. I normally crash out at 10:00 P.M, so I’m sure I could wake up 5:30 or so to work on something.

This past weekend I put PyQt on my system and began writing a pathfinding application.   That happens to be a weakness at the moment that I need to tackle (PyQt).  Hopefully I can get some work done on it and post my results/source.

I also spent some time brushing up on some linear algebra.  In college I only took Calculus and another math class that gave me a slight introduction to linear algebra.  If I have any hope to get over to help the R&D side of IMD, this is a critical element.  Luckily I work with a bunch of geeks now, so I can’t imagine that one of them wouldn’t like to share some knowledge.

I’ve been wanting to watch some of MIT’s opencourseware videos since last year, but things were understandably busy.  Now I actually have weekends and nights to focus on these things.

This also brings up another point of interest… I’ve been thinking about what university I could possibly attend for my masters degree and what kind of topic I would like to research here in NorCal.  Both are at a stand-still.  I just don’t know.  Berkeley would be sexy but I doubt that I have a chance there.

But that brings up another issue that I’m still debating.  Do I want to go the MSE route or MS route?  My mind is all around a MS.  I have a year until I gain my California residency, so I have some time.  Hopefully I can spend some time exposing myself to some of the 3D technology.  I’m sure there are a ton of problems revolving graphics.  This school dilemma could be a post in itself.

So this week has been dragging a bit.  I’m excited for Monday to get here and I’m also a bit anxious for it’s arrival.  It’s typical.  I’ve experienced it when I started my first job at Sonic.  Sitting at the airport waiting for my a drill instructor to pick me up.  Moving from school to school and eventually landing in Camp Pendleton.  Starting work at a supply warehouse to being officially in charge of the receiving warehouse.  Going over to help the Military Police to knowing that I was heading into a war zone in T-5 hours.  Receiving my discharge papers and arriving on my university campus for the next 4 years.  All leading to graduating and driving off into the sunset for a brighter future.

Now.  Jumping on a new ladder in life, starting what sounds and feels like a promising career climb.

So I guess I’ll sit back a little longer, breathe deep, and have peace in knowing that things will work out.

The living situation couldn’t be any closer to perfect.  I’m living extremely cheap for the area until I get married in July (on Surf Way, I might add).  I live with a very skilled family that grew up in the Novato area and who has traveled a lot.  They’ve driven me all over, shared experiences, and explained what kind of great things there are to do around the bay area.  They share their food and their culture (husband is Japanese) as well as a bed and desk.

But it’s not all picture perfect.  I’m 1,500 miles away from the most familiar faces.  I don’t have any belongings quite yet.  And July is too far away.  Distance sucks, but hopefully I can wrap my mind around work and personal projects to forget about it.  It won’t quite feel like home until I get Megan out here with her own career, our new place set up, and eventually having my mom and brother out for a visit.

Patience is virtue.  No doubt about that.

I need to get out of my friends apartment as soon as possible.  Her landlord isn’t too thrilled that I’m still here due to the apartment complex policy, which puts me in an awkward situation.  Luckily I have a job (woot x∞), I just need to find somewhere to live.  Regardless, I’ll need to leave tomorrow.  I can’t risk getting them evicted by old man scrooge.

I do have two great options on the table in Novato, CA.  I’ve only pursued one and I am just waiting for them to get in touch with my references ASAP and giving me the thumbs up. I would pursue the other, but this one sounds like it will work out. If not, I’ll scramble to get with the second individual (who basically lives down the street from the first…).

I do have my twitter-networking post nearly complete.  I will post that soon.

Edit: The first option in Novato fell through.  The other tenant didn’t want a male to come in to occupy the other space.  Unfortunate.  My female friend here in Glendale has a) tech support and b) a personal dish-washer.  Trust me, I make myself useful.

Edit: The second option in Novato was a success!  I have somewhere to live! Woot!

Megan received a letter today that announced Megan owed money to the university for some amount.  What makes this extremely odd is that they are immediately garnishing wages at her work, and her tax return.

How mind blowing is that?  No warning at all.  Attack.

What confuses me more is that they turned the loan (in my prior entry) over to the creditors, and never attacked Megan.

But for this? They didn’t turn it to the creditors. They attacked.

Why didn’t they go after her when the loan originally defaulted instead of sending it to the creditors to ruin her life?

Hell! Why did the loan office not send a letter to this address that has been on file for years about the loan BEFORE going to the creditors?  They claimed they had the wrong address, but this letter arrived, from the school? Further proof that they HAD the address in their system.  Gah!

You wouldn’t believe the kind of things that Megan has had to go through a few days ago and is still trying to deal with.

See, there is this mysterious school loan that was overlooked by the one who has been dealing with Megan’s finances while she was at college.  Fair enough, it was overlooked.  Shit happens.

(rough time scale since I’m just trying to recall, but close to being accurate)

6 months had passed after Megan graduated… Repayment of loans began.

15 months had passed after Megan graduated… Mysterious loan, defaulted, turned to creditors…

21 months had passed after Megan graduated… Megan receives a phone call from the creditors. A whole 6 months after they got it, and a whole ~14 months after the first payment was missed while it was at Kansas State University.

So now she has an extra +$1,100 of interest/fees tacked onto the loan.  She also has an obliterated credit history, raised car insurance, and a credit card heading in that direction, despite the fact that she has been rock solid on everything until now.

Oh, did I mention that the university changed who handled the loan midterm, and that could have easily jarred things up?  Oh, but they don’t care.

She’s immediately going to pay back the loan.  So that should help a ‘little’.

We need better consumer protection laws.  There is absolutely no reason why this has to be in the condition that it is.  This isn’t a simple, “Somebody running from bills.”  This is ruining someones entire life.  If you owe me money, you can bet I’m not going to wait years before I call you.

This is far from the first individual that this sort of thing has happened to.  A moment after I posted a tweet on Twitter, I had someone immediately tell me that they were in the same kind of situation.

I would not expect full immunity from the situation.  I would just expect that the other side would lend a hand and find a way to balance the issue. But everybody on the other side has a terrible attitude.

It is a sure fire way to kill alumni relationships.  The university needs money today due to hard times, evidently not in the future.  And this was an act by a university where I thought they absolutely cared about their student base… I guess it’s true. “Nobody cares about you. You just take care of yourself.”

And to think. I just referred somebody to this ‘awesome’ university… Guess it’s time to tell him that the military might be a better option after all.