My first green triangle

I've made my first green triangle in Ingress. Here it is:

For the effort I have put in, I get +744 Mind Units (MUs) for the Enlightened faction. This was done while I grinded my way up to level 3. The game does get somewhat easier the higher you advance, but it also means you do a lot more grinding to get up to higher levels.

I'm not sure on the strategy to follow. Either I will let the Resistance faction take back what I have claimed, or I will defend what I have claimed. The game does not seem to have a definite path, except for the constant exchange of portals between the two factions.

Looks like Google came out with a better game

I came up with a game a long time ago, when I was bored and working in Canberra. Thinking about how isolated it was, I wonder sometimes why someone else did not come up with the game sooner. I called it the blog photo game.

Anyway, it appears that Google have come out with a far better version: Ingress.


If you have the opportunity to play this game, I highly suggest it. It turns your Android phone into a "scanner" and then you take photos, and check-in to locations around your city, or your country. At the bare essence of the game, you are now employed by Google to make sure their "geo-data" in your city is accurate. It also allows for the creation of other applications like Field Trip.

My apologies to the Apple iPhone faithful. The game is solely for Android appliances. While you may be happy in the fact that you are not an unpaid employee of Google, you are missing out on the fun of this game. Apparently an Apple version is due out soon.

Magic: The Gathering resources on the web

I have been attempting for a while to document the websites I visit when I want information on Magic: The Gathering (MTG), and here is my current list (in no particular order):

• MTG Top 8
• Card set information
• Drafting simulator
• MTG Card Staples
• Wizards of the Coast's MTG Website
• mtgGoldfish
• MTGPulse
• MTGO Stats
• Magic: The Redditing
• Competitive Magic on reddit
• MTGPrice
• Wizards of the Coast's Gatherer
• MagicCardInfo
• Judge's Corner on Youtube
• Magic: The Gathering channel on Youtube
• The Magic Show on Youtube
• Wizard's Play Network on Youtube
• DoctorWhyMagic on Youtube
• Ertai's Lament
• MTG Salvation wiki

I hope other people looking for resources for the game also find this list useful. I am sure there are plenty more sites, and others will have their favourites. I am happy to update this over time, if I find any more or am informed of any more.

Australian government backs down from internet filter

I have not written in this blog for a long time, as I have been busy recently, but something in the news has broken my "silence".

The good senator Conroy is now also the level-headed senator Conroy. In a win for anti-censorship, the Australian Government has backed down from implementing a nationwide internet filter. Instead they have asked for individual internet companies to block the most degenerate of all child pornography websites.

While this is a better idea than a nationwide filter, I do not know what it will target. I do not know of any public websites that deal with child pornography. It is not like you can search for the topic on the internet and find websites, where you can then purchase images or movies. Still, I welcome this move.

I have been following, and writing, about this topic for a long time. As a parent, I welcome that fact that the government is allowing me to take responsibility of raising my child in a way where he will have limitless access to knowledge, and with my assistance, also know what is right and wrong.

Toddler Adidas Shelltoes

With someone special on his way, KittyKat and I decided we needed to purchase some sneakers for the little man. KittyKat saw these on special and knew that I would be getting them. There is not much I can write about the Adidas Superstar II for toddlers, as I cannot actually try them on, but they look just as sturdy as the Shelltoes I have.

The main difference is the laces with the adult version and the toddler version - with the toddler version not having any laces but velcro straps instead.

After little man arrives, I'll report on what they appear to do, but keep in mind, this is more of an exercise in marketing than in comfort for any toddler. Most toddlers may get about 2 months usage out of these type of shoes (especially in this shoe size) before they are not longer usable. I have already made comments on this in the Adidas Toy Story Woody shoes article I have written, and my stance is still the same.

The revised SplinterWin deck on Android

I've recently been working on my Infinite Copies Modern deck for Magic: The Gathering (MTG), and this is the latest iteration of it:


SplinterWin (Modern) [blue/red]
CREATURES

• 2 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
• 4 Pestermite
• 4 Deceiver Exarch
• 2 Spellskite

NONCREATURES

• 4 Splinter Twin
• 3 Pact of Negation
• 4 Remand
• 2 Mana Leak
• 2 Dispel
• 1 Firespout
• 1 Lightning Bolt
• 4 Serum Visions
• 1 Spreading Seas
• 2 Echoing Truth

LANDS

• 4 Steam Vents
• 4 Reflecting Pool
• 4 Scalding Tarn
• 4 Cascade Bluffs
• 4 Sulfur Falls
• 2 Island
• 1 Breeding Pool
• 1 Stomping Ground

SIDEBOARDS

• 2 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
• 2 Spellskite
• 3 Nihil Spellbomb
• 3 Naturalize
• 2 Firespout
• 1 Echoing Truth
• 1 Dispel
• 1 Lightning Bolt

I have been working on this deck with my new Android phone and it the MTG toolbox application. The application itself is quiet interesting, but appears to be prone to crashing during mid operation. SpecialK has the same application on his iPhone, and it does not appear to have the same crashing problems. The application's features include a card viewer, a location finder, a news reader - all of this is to do with MTG, of course. Additionally, I am able to analyse the decks I create (seeing percentage breakdowns of different cards in the deck), build different decks at the same time, share the decks (via email or sms), and even draw sample hands.

Another fault (other than the random crashing) I have seen in the application is that during the simulated drawing of sample hands, there is a significant doubling up of cards in sequence. I do not think the randomiser works well. I have not seen behaviour like this in real life draws.


I am still keen to know of alternative applications, as well as decks in the modern format that are competitive against this deck, which can win by turn 4 around 35% of the time, and by turn 5 around 60% of the time. It would win easier if Preordain and Ponder were not banned in the format - but there are reasons for that, and it has been discussed in:

• What’s Up with the Modern Banned List?

Other Modern format deck ideas have been discussed in:

• Analyzing the Modern Format - Post-Dark Ascension Edition

This blog's split copy

Google sent me out an email to my regular email account stating that I had an "unregistered" blog. This was a surprise to me, and I treated it suspiciously. The reason is that I use this blog for most of my postings. I investigated further.

I may have set this one up initially, but I thought I had deleted it. Everything I saw about it pointed to something I would have done.

Long story short, I now have splitcopy.blogspot.com available. And as you can read from the first page, I do not know what I will do with it yet. I may turn it into my own personal rant / twitter / pic of the day blog.

Any suggestions?

Avacyn breaks out of the Helvault

I can now confirm what was in the Helvault (as you may be able to see from my previous post). It is Avacyn breaking out of the promotional material:

And I can also confirm that along with the promotional material, there was spindown life counters with the Avacyn Restored symbol on it, over-sized cards of Avacyn, other angels, and Griselbrand, and additionally, some Angel / Demon two sided token cards. All images of these products were spoiled a day or two before the release. I was fortunate enough to obtain the life counter and 4 of the the token cards. I did not try to get the over-sized cards - which I believe would be suited for Commander / EDH.

I am not overly impressed with this set in a sealed format, but neither am I disappointed with it. It has a feel that for this Magic: The Gathering (MTG) set, it is only somewhat connected to the rest of the block via its flavour and the undying mechanic. It did have a feel that it was made for the Commander / EDH format. I do not think this is a bad concept, but playing it in a sealed format meant I did not have much to do until turn 4 or 5. If my opponent could swarm out better smaller creatures than me, then he was able to subdue me. In my sealed pool, I did not have much that was large or any cards with the miracle mechanic - so I did not experience those mechanics. I did not feel that this set was strong enough to stand on its own. I believe that Innistrad, and even Dark Ascension were far better stand alone sets.

My final record was 1 win and 3 losses. This is a step down from the Dark Ascension pre-release where I won one more match, but better than the Innistrad pre-release where I did not win any matches.

Still, it was a great atmosphere at Games Laboratory. The staff there did a great job of organising and running the event.

Saying that, I have yet to play in a draft format with this set.

Does anyone want to comment on their experiences with the set so far?

What is inside the Helvault?

Games Laboratory has a Helvault for the Avacyn Restored set of Magic: The Gathering (MTG) pre-release tonight.

Anyone want to guess what is inside? I will confirm it tonight! Wish me luck!

No more N900 - now onto Android

This week I sadly said goodbye to the Nokia N900. The N900 came out in 2009, and offered so much promise as to what a truly free open sourced phone could offer, but Nokia managed it to failure.

I got my N900 after I was introduced to it by Ax - back in 2010. He showed me his N900 with all the great features:

• Keyboard slider design
• 5 Megapixel camera
• Linux (Maemo) as its Operating System
• No tedious technique to "root" the device
• Command line available

The device was a symbol of freedom. I was able to do what I wanted to it, and I did not have to go through Nokia to do it. Unfortunately, Nokia decided to continue development of the operating system, and moved onto MeeGo. MeeGo being Linux itself was also a good step, but it did not back port it to the N900. Nokia made it for the N9. Then Nokia made a horrific decision - they entered a partnership with Microsoft. Their phones went from being Symbian based, to running Linux, to in the future running Microsoft's mobile version - Windows Phone. I was not impressed. They should have gone to Android.

Regardless of their decisions, I stuck with the Nokia N900. I even purchased a second unit when my initial unit's micro USB port started to malfunction. KittyKat also had a N900, but made the jump to an Android phone (the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10) after she accidentally dropped the phone, and then ran over it. Little did she know she was paving the way for myself.

My second unit's micro USB port started to malfunction again, and I knew this was leading to an untimely end for the unit. It must have been a weak point of the phone, as I found out recently that Ax's N900 went down the same path. Ax is now using an Android phone as well.

What makes Android interesting is the fact it is also a Linux based phone. Unfortunately it does not have the initial freedom in-built to it like the N900 does, as the system is more locked down, but it does have the potential to be "root'ed". Therefore, it is goodbye to the N900 and hello to the Sony Ericsson Xperia pro. Fortunately, it has a slider keyboard, that is similar to the N900, the form is somewhat less clunky than the N900, and it has a 8.1 Megapixel camera.

In the first few days of using this new device has been interesting. I am still getting use to the new keyboard, and the new layout of the desktops, but otherwise it has made a good replacement.

I have already noticed there has been more applications written for the Android system than the Maemo system. This is evident in the Google Play site - the Android's market site. Another observation I have made is that Android multi-tasking is not as good as I have witnessed on the N900 - with the Android phone only really being able to background 6 applications. Other than that I am pleased with my new device, and if I do anything exceptional with it, I will write about it on this site.