Learning All The Things
Photo by Kate Sumbler
Over the past month, I’ve been working with Joseph Pereira to create a web-based review show. Primarily intended for YouTube, the show is titled “All Too Convenient”, and will start with us reviewing the first season of a particular TV series. At this moment, we have one episode completed; however, due to the comments we have received, we decided to return to the drawing board, and start anew. It was a tough decision to make, mainly because it took us a month to get one episode fully edited and ready to go. This delay was largely due to Joseph’s hectic schedule, as it interfered with his ability to edit the video. His job was further complicated by the fact that the episode was scripted, and thus, had multiple scenes, and multiple takes. The camera also caused problems, but I won’t get into those details here.
Despite the fact that we decided to scrap the episode, and start over – we felt that our experiences could be valuable for others. With that idea in mind, we created a YouTube channel called “Learn All The Things” (a Hyperbole and Half reference), and proceeded to film ourselves talking about what we learned from our failed attempts at creating a web series. We also went on to discuss what we’re going to do next, which mainly involves successfully producing the first episode of All Too Convenient. The video is roughly 30 minutes long, and covers a large variety of topics: writing, filming, editing (video and audio), and some acting as well. Although certain topics we covered were somewhat technical, we’re still confident at least some people might find our experiences useful. Regardless, we had fun making it, and it only further prepared us for the work ahead.
If you think such a video would interest you, feel free to play it below.
In the future, we plan to use the channel for more content of this nature, without it necessarily having to be related to creating a web series. The “Learn All The Things” name was chosen partly for that reason – it is generic enough that we can post anything we want, provided it is somewhat informative.
As a sidenote, I’m happy to announce that this is my 100th blog post (excluding the 16 solution posts I currently have). I started this blog in January of 2009, all with the intention of sharing my knowledge of Windows, the web, and Computer Science in general. It has served that purpose, and yet has grown to cover other topics as well. It’s been a pleasure writing for this blog, and I intend to continue doing so for a long time. It also feels appropriate that post 100 just-so-happens to be about sharing knowledge.
Dragon*Con 2011: Top 10 Costumes
Earlier this month, I attended Dragon*Con 2011 – in full compliance with a personal ritual of mine. It was my sister who initially suggested we attend Dragon*Con for the first time, and that was last year. I knew after attending that I wanted it to be repeated on a yearly basis. It was a great excuse to spend time with my sister, and at the same time, it was a lot of fun. It also resulted in three blog posts, and that means the experience was significant enough that I felt it was worth sharing. That is a powerful statement, given my own obsession with posting only the non-mundane. One of those blog posts listed my Top 5 favorite costumes, and I really enjoyed sharing my selection. It became clear to me that I would easily be able to produce at least that one type of post, with every year I attended. That said, this blog post contains my Top 10 favorite costumes for Dragon*Con 2011. Before you start with the list, here’s an explanation of what I consider when evaluating a costume:
First, the more realistic the costume looks, the more I like it. If I get a feeling the character being portrayed might actually exist, then that’s a success. To give you an example, I never really liked the Batman movies until I saw Batman Begins. To me, that’s when the character really became respectable and interesting to watch.
Second, the more specific the reference, the less people will recognize it – but the more value it has to those that do. Sure, people might appreciate how cool a costume looks, but will they understand very subtle references? In my mind, I see subtle references as a gamble – those that understand it will have a greater payoff.
And now, the list:
10 Horseman
To start us off, I have a costume that is completely original – I asked the guy to be sure. I’m not certain what compelled him to dress up like a horse, but I can nonetheless appreciate the creativity that went into the costume. Not to mention, the effort it likely took to make it look that good.
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9 Darth Rooster
Most people can identify a Darth Vader costume with ease, even if they haven’t seen the Star Wars saga. I, for example, have only recently gotten around to watching the first Star Wars movie, A New Hope. Shocking? Yes, people tend to react like that. Yet, I have known about Vader for a very, very long time. Despite my current appreciation for the Star Wars universe, I can’t help but be slightly disappointed by seeing exactly how common the related costumes are.
Considering the above, I was pleasantly surprised when I spotted a unique variation of a Vader costume. For some reason, this guy decided to modify a Darth Vader suit, and made him look like a dark, evil rooster. I really found that funny, and knew he would be in my Top 10 for putting a lot of work into that comedic twist.
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8 Fawkes the Phoenix
Though I don’t know much about the Harry Potter universe, I had to include this costume in my list. According to the google searches I ran, it seems she’s portraying a character known as Fawkes the Phoenix. Despite my lack of knowledge, I found that the costume had a great combination of vibrant colors, and a clever design.
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7 Batman
Some costumes are so common at conventions that you can grow tired of seeing them. Batman seems to be a popular choice, so I have a tendency to only take pictures of the best ones I encounter. One particular Batman costume really stood out, and was so high in quality that I felt he could potentially be real. The design reminds me of Batman Begins - granted, it’s more cloth-based than the one in the movies, but still struck me as being particularly realistic.
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6 Alan from The Hangover
That’s right, folks – a Zach Galifianakis look-a-like. Galifianakis gained a huge amount of popularity from playing Alan in the films The Hangover, and The Hangover Part II. At Dragon*Con 2010, I saw an imitation of him, and listed him as a runner-up for my Top 5 Costumes list. It wasn’t just about his costume, I also enjoyed a comment he made after I took a picture of him.
Remember, tigers like pepper.
This year’s Alan didn’t make a comment, but seemed a better fit for the character. As I’m saying it, I realize that might not be a compliment, given as the character being portrayed looks like a fat, possibly homeless man. The humour behind his character also lies in the fact that he has a very strange behaviour, so that’s not very positive either. In any case, this year’s Alan seemed to be the best natural fit for the character, and jokes aside, I think he did a good job with his behaviour and costume as well.
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5 Hancock
I’ve been to Dragon*Con for two years in a row now, and there were only two moments where I had to question whether I was actually looking at a celebrity, rather than a person in a costume. Last year, it was a Zach Galifianakis look-a-like. This year, I thought I saw Will Smith… as John Hancock, from the movie Hancock. While I never actually saw the movie, I remembered seeing plenty of pictures of Will Smith’s character – so when I saw this guy in his costume, I was really impressed.
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4 Solomon Grundy
When I originally spotted this guy, I didn’t know what character he was dressed up as. He looked like a white version of Hulk, though less muscular, and quite tall. So tall, in fact, that it gave him a towering presence – it lead me to question whether it was natural, or he was wearing platform shoes. Either way, it certainly made the character feel realistic, and possibly a threat.
I stayed a few minutes, observed his behaviour, and realized that he had a tendency to attack men, and yet, was extremely friendly towards women. I’m not sure if he kept that up all the time, it could have been just a coincidence – but I really enjoyed seeing this unique behaviour.
As it turns out, the character being portrayed is known as Solomon Grundy, a villain from the DC Comics universe. According to Wikipedia:
Named after the 19th century children’s nursery rhyme, Grundy was introduced as an enemy of the Golden Age Green Lantern (Alan Scott), but has since become a prominent enemy for a number of superheroes, such as Batman and Superman
Upon reading this, I also realized that I even had a picture of him fighting with Superman. It was probably a coincidence, mind you, but a great one at that.
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Credit: Ruby Rinekso as Solomon Grundy.
3 Squirrel Girl vs. Doctor Doom
As I was taking a break from taking pictures, a girl dressed as a squirrel wandered into my general vicinity. I was particularly amused when I noticed that there were also plush squirrels attached to her belt. She was accompanied by what appeared to be a guy in a regular Doctor Doom costume. When I approached, I realized that this particular Doctor Doom was actually covered in squirrels, as if they had been attacking him. I enjoyed the humor behind the costumes, but wondered whether it was an original idea, or a reference to something.
Surprisingly, when I asked, they mentioned that Squirrel Girl was an existing super hero in the Marvel universe. Not only that, they were depicting a very specific scene from her comic books, one where she manages to defeat Doctor Doom with the help of her squirrel minions. They even pointed out that there was a picture of the scene on Squirrel Girl’s Wikipedia page. I always appreciate specific references, and this was a great example of one. Not only that, but even if you didn’t know who Squirrel Girl was, the combination of costumes was excellent – both very well made, and amusing.
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Credit: Andy Floyd as Doctor Doom, and Becky Montgomery as Squirrel Girl.
The only downside, of course, is that I must now live in fear of squirrels – I never realized they had such destructive potential.
2 Women of Mass Effect 2
I am a huge fan of the Mass Effect series, and was thrilled to see a group of women dressed up as characters from the game. Specifically, the characters portrayed were Jack, Samara, Miranda Lawson, and Tali’Zorah nar Rayya. The costumes themselves were very impressive when it came to quality, and accuracy. I can only imagine the work that went into creating some of those costumes – particularly for Samara and Tali. While the Jack and Miranda costumes may seem like they might have been easier to make, I must mention that the women were doing a great job at reflecting the character’s personalities. Together, they made for one amazing photo opportunity – I really appreciated that.
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1 Maurice Moss from The IT Crowd
Many years ago, I discovered a British show named The IT Crowd, and I found it an excellent comedy that also was related to my line of work. Here’s a quick description from Wikipedia:
Set in the London offices of the fictional corporation Reynholm Industries, the show revolves around the three staff members of its IT department, comprising two geeky technicians, a genius named Maurice Moss and the workshy Roy Trenneman, headed by Jen Barber, the department’s ‘Relationship Manager’ who knows nothing about IT. The show also focuses on the bosses of Reynholm Industries: Denholm Reynholm and his son Douglas.
Given that it is a British show, and that few people I now have seen it, I never thought I’d see a reference to it at Dragon*Con. Yet, there I was sitting outside one of the hotels with my sister, when Maurice Moss walked by. Not the real Moss, of course, but he was an extremely good imitation, on multiple fronts. Before I dive into the details, I suggest checking Google Images to see what the character normally looks like.
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Credit: Lucien Freeman as Maurice Moss.
The fake Moss was a success due to a few factors:
- He was dressed pretty much exactly like the character.
- His hair was parted just like the real character, though it may have been on the wrong side of his head.
- He spoke just like character, and though I believe it was a fake accent, I couldn’t figure out for sure – and that’s great.
- He was holding a cup that had a picture of the actual Moss character pasted underneath it.
Points 1 to 3 were all contributing factors towards my choosing him as the best costume. However, it was really #4 that sealed the deal – it is a very specific reference to a particular episode in the series. In the episode, Moss claims to have acquired a cup that features his face underneath it, all to ensure he can tell it apart from the others. To better showcase the humor behind the cup, I’ve found a YouTube clip where Moss first introduces it. It appears at the 45 second mark, and while it does get some attention in the clip, there are numerous other references in the episode that make for quite a funny episode.
The episode actually ends with a frustrated Moss attempting to locate his cup among multiple seemingly identical cups. The flawed strategy of putting his face on the bottom is what lead to all this, as the cups all look like duplicates of each other until they are flipped. Naturally, when I saw the cup he was holding at Dragon*Con, I had to say “Hey, you finally found it!”
That concludes my Top 10 costumes for Dragon*Con 2011. If you’re mentioned in my post, and would like me to credit you by name, please feel free to e-mail me at mref…@gmail.com. You can also post a comment below, I always enjoy hearing from Dragon*Con attendees and cosplayers.
If you’re interested in seeing my previous Dragon*Con related posts:
- Dragon*Con 2010: Costumes and Celebrities
- Dragon*Con 2010: Top 5 Costumes
- Dragon*Con 2010: Costume Runner-ups
An Analysis of SteamGifts.com
A little over three weeks ago, I discovered a user on Reddit who was giving away invites to a site called SteamGifts. I had never heard of it, but the idea of a site that focused on giving away games appealed to me. I remembered that I had a few extra game copies on my Steam account, and figured it’d be a good way to make sure they were put to use. After all, sending a gift using Steam is quite simple, since it exists purely as a digital credit of sorts – no files have to be sent around. With a use for the site, I requested an invitation code on Reddit, and received it shortly thereafter.
Once logged in, I began to poke around in an attempt to figure out exactly how the service worked. Creating a giveaway was pretty straight-forward – I simply had to choose the game, select the number of copies, and define how long it would be open. When a giveaway closes, one winner is selected from all the people that entered, and it’s up to the person who created the giveaway to send the game manually through Steam. As for entering giveaways, there’s a little extra mechanism that needs to be understood: in an effort to prevent people from entering every single giveaway, the site grants points over time. Reaching a maximum of 300, these points can be used towards entering giveaways - the more expensive the game, the more points needed to enter. Inviting friends to the site also uses a chunk of points, so it helps control how quickly the site will become populated.
Overall, I’d say the service is decently made, but currently suffers from some flaws – which I assume will get resolved in the long term:
- There is no search feature – so if you’re looking for a particular game, good luck. I simply found myself paging through the public giveaways, hoping to find any game that was interesting to me, rather than the game I was looking for.
- The site is often slow to respond to requests – extending the time it takes to find what you want.
- No e-mails notifications are sent out when your giveaway is complete. In my case, I one day realized that one of my giveaways was likely complete – but had forgotten about it. When I logged in, I saw that it had, in fact, been closed 1 day ago. Not a big deal, but the winner had not received anything yet, and I didn’t want him to worry, and others to question the legitimacy of my offer.
Now, the flaws I mentioned are all in the functionality, or lack thereof – but they’re forgiveable given that the site is a free service, especially one which currently does not yet feature numerous advertisements. I expect these things to be resolved as time progresses; however, I am concerned about how this site approaches giveaways. To better illustrate my concerns, I’d like to start by examining the experience for users that enter existing giveaways. As an example, here’s one of the posts I created:
It was configured to end in 5 days, and during that time, it managed to receive 55 comments, and 492 entries. Let me just clarify that last part – 492 people entered the contest, and one person won.
Is it just me, or is that a lot of disappointed people? Sure, they knew what they were getting into, but I can’t help but think that maybe there is a better way. Out of curiosity, I glanced at the winner’s profile – and here’s what I saw:
A total of 3 gifts won, despite having 340 entries. That’s roughly 113 entries per game. Considering the flaws I mentioned earlier, entering all of those contests could have been a rough experience for the user. Is the time investment worth it, considering the low chance of winning, and the flaws in the website? Keep in mind, also, that the chance of winning will decrease as the site gets more popular – as there will be more users, and thus, more competition. To help offset the low chances of winning, users seem to be encouraged to enter multiple contests, just in the hope that they will receive something free. I originally found myself doing this, as it simply felt logical – my time is valuable, so why would I spend it struggling to find only the games that I really wanted? It was simpler to enter any contests that were the slightest bit interesting, rather than making calculated decisions. Of course, I quickly realized that this wasn’t the most ethical approach, so it lead to some self-reflection.
First of all, I wondered: was it even necessary to have more than one entry per giveaway? What if you could create a giveaway that closes immediately after one person enters it? If that could happen, only two people would be involved: the person giving the game away, and the recipient of that game. The giveaway wouldn’t gather much attention from the public, but it will have served its purpose – giving away a game to a person that wanted it. As a bonus, there is a low probability of people being disappointed. Interestingly, SteamGifts isn’t too far off from offering this functionality. It is currently possible to configure a giveaway so it closes in one hour, but no less than that.
While the above would help reduce the number of disappointed users, another key factor must be considered – exposure. I originally didn’t feel like I needed recognition for giving the games away – I honestly did it because I realized they were gathering e-dust. Yet, I received 55 comments for giving away just one of game. After the contest had ended, I realized that it may have been beneficial to leave my post up for multiple days – for one primary reason: my Steam profile contained a link back to my blog. Now, as true as this was, I didn’t feel like adding to the number of disappointed users, solely for a chance at additional traffic.
Ultimately, I decided it would be best for giveaways to strike a balance between getting exposure, and preventing entries from reaching extremes. I felt that one day was probably a good maximum time-frame, but of course, that maximum was closely bound to the popularity of the site. Early on, one day might bring in hundreds of entries – but in the future, maybe thousands. The more entries, the less chance of winning – which encourages people to enter any and all contests. What if you could have those statistics handy when creating a giveaway? By knowing how many entries are projected, would the decision be easier to make? I think so, but still feel like there’s something missing to make the service work properly. As it is stands, I feel that users are too likely to entry-spam – all to improve the chances of them winning something. It’s a pretty unique challenge, and I hope they manage to find a solution. In the meantime, I find myself less inclined to use the service as a means of receiving gifts – sending gifts, on the other hand, can work well, especially with the above ideas considered.
If you’d like to try out SteamGifts, I’d be happy to provide invitations – simply contact me at mref…@gmail.com. Even though I had some issues with the site, it’s still worth checking out. My interactions within the community have mostly all been positive – users are quick to thank the guys creating the giveaways, and are also instrumental in warning their peers about fake posts.
UPDATE: I announced this blog post on the SteamGifts forum, and interesting comments were posted. One particular commenter was an administrator of SteamGifts, and he pointed out that they were working on improvements, some of which were particularly tricky. The administrator (named “cg”) also called me out on a logical error that was present in my post. He made a reference to particular part of my post:
“Keep in mind, also, that the chance of winning will decrease as the site gets more popular – as there will be more users, and thus, more competition.”
And replied with the following:
“Not true. Entries will increase, but you’re missing the fact that the number of giveaways will also increase. If new users are as generous as the last, odds of winning stay equal. Right now we have 25k members and 8k gifts. We’ve been floating around that 3:1 ratio for a long period of time. Those are the numbers you should be keeping an eye on, not the total number of entries.”
He was, of course, entirely correct.
Google AdSense: Banned for Life?
Back when I was a 19 year-old college student and still living with my parents, I was really enthusiastic about video games. So much, in fact, that I felt the need to create a clan, website and all. At the time, we went by the name “Infamous Butchers”, also known as Team IB. Yeah, I was pretty serious about it… it all seems somewhat silly today.
After a while, I decided I would put advertisements on the website, in an effort to support the team. Naturally, I looked to the most recommended service, AdSense, as offered by Google. I signed up, and despite how small the site was, I received a confirmation e-mail a couple days later. Shortly thereafter, I had the advertisements working as expected, and for a while, all was well.
Photo by Pål Berge.
At a certain point, a teammate decided to start paying for a game server that the team could use to practice regularly, and was doing so out of his own pocket. In an effort to support him, I told my fellow teammates to click on the ads, as this would help generate revenue. Now, in case you’re not aware, this is known as click fraud, and is a very serious breach of the AdSense Terms and Conditions. When instructing my teammates to do this, I never really stopped to think about the legality or ethics of my request. My friends just went along and said they’d click every now and then, and none of them questioned my approach.
In addition to telling friends to click, I also violated another core AdSense rule - never click on your own ads. While I originally was in compliance of this rule, I did find myself in one specific situation where I reasoned that yes, the content being displayed in the ad was indeed relevant to me. I was looking for an alternate company to host our game server, and sure enough, the ad was talking about just that. I only did this once, as far as I can remember.
Photo by Jason Cheung.
Approximately two weeks later, my earnings had reached a ludicrous sum of 100$, but still I failed to grasp that I was doing something very, very wrong. I remember at least two distinct moments where my friends told me they had been clicking, but I do not recall when, or how many times they clicked. It wasn’t long until I received an e-mail from Google, letting me know that I had been banned from AdSense. My initial feeling was that I let my team down, to a significant degree. As an extension of the shame I felt, I tried to reply to Google in an effort to salvage the account, and in turn, retain the possibility of earning legitimate clicks. I obviously wasn’t thinking clearly, because what I had done was a very serious offense… I was just blind to it at that moment, obsessed with my team, and how I failed to support them.
Despite my replies, the Google AdSense team informed that they were sure of their decision, eventually leading me to accept the truth. Their words had shaken some sense into me, and I began to feel greater shame towards what I had done with my AdSense account. Not only was I extremely wrong in doing what I did, I also managed to destroy a potential business relationship with Google, very early on, and on my primary Google account no-less. As a long time fan and supporter of Google, I was left with a shame so poignant that it stuck with me through the years – a dark cloud, always reminding me of that time where I really screwed up.
Photo by Dan DeLuca.
Years later, after having worked as a software developer for three years, I tried signing up to Google AdSense using another one of my Google accounts. To my surprise, they accepted my application, regardless of the fact that I had the same name as before. I was able to successfully place Google AdSense ads on my page, but then started to doubt whether this was in respect of Google’s rules. Sure enough, after reading their documentation – it became clear that if I was banned before, I should never try to apply again. It wasn’t just my account that was banned, it was me – and anything associated to me – as brutal as that sounds. Creating another account might work – but as long as I’m the same publisher as before, they could ban the account if they figured that out. To respect their rules, I quickly removed all ads from my site, and decided it might be time to contact Google. After all, I made the mistakes in my youth, and hoped this would factor into my appeal. I explained the tale to the best of my recollection; however, I still could not bring myself to admit that I had, in fact, been the root cause of the whole disaster. It was my words that lead at least two of my friends to click on my ads, and though I regretted my part deeply, I felt too embarrassed to admit it. Despite my appeal, Google still stuck to their response that they needed to protect their advertisers, and I would be a threat.
Though disappointed, I agreed with the reasoning behind their refusal. Why would they take the risk of allowing a banned user when the potential for income is probably far less than the monitoring fees? I could relate to them, and despite all my self-directed anger, I was once more convinced that I would need to live without Google AdSense, as much as that bothered me. That was roughly two years ago, and today, with more than five years of software development experience, I still feel like I shot myself in the foot very early on. Google AdSense seems to be the best pay-per-click advertising solution, one which allows even the smallest independent publisher to earn some profit back from their content. While I managed to find decent alternatives for websites, I still have difficulty digesting that I can never work with Google.
The whole experience has left me paranoid about pay-per-click advertising. For example, with one provider, I once accidentally clicked an ad on my blog, while I was browsing on my phone. I immediately figured out what my IP was, sent it to their the support team, explaining that I accidentally clicked, and they should not include the click towards my profit. They thanked me for being proactive, but warned that if it happened too many times, they would not be able to serve ads on my site. It’s unfortunate that I had to get banned by Google to understand the severity of click fraud, which, it turns out, is quite clearly explained in Google’s documentation:
Invalid Clicks and Impressions
Publishers may not click their own ads or use any means to inflate impressions and/or clicks artificially, including manual methods.
Encouraging Clicks
Publishers may not ask others to click their ads or use deceptive implementation methods to obtain clicks. This includes, but is not limited to, offering compensation to users for viewing ads or performing searches, promising to raise money for third parties for such behaviour or placing images next to individual ads.
Photo by Luigi Caterino.
So, was I blind? Was my young mind so obsessed with games that it even failed to understand the importance of the legal agreement that had taken place? Yes, I believe so. Today, I still agree completely with the reasoning behind why Google banned me – I just have one question that I’d like to ask in the open, right here. How long must I pay for a mistake that I made in my youth? Youth, mind you, is not always as simple as above or below 18. When I was banned, I was 19, and though I was mature in many ways, my behavior towards AdSense was quite the opposite. Am I really so evil that I must never be allowed anywhere near Google AdSense, even when I’m 30, 40, or 50? Does additional life experience mean nothing once you’ve made such mistakes? It’s not like I shot a man and tried to get away with it – how could this ban truly be for life, when even a murderer might get to walk after enough years of jail time?
The way Google crafted their agreement, it is entirely possible that I will never be forgiven – they have reserved that possibility. I’ve come to a certain peace about this – I’ve had ads from another company for over a year, and I remain in good standing with them. Still, I can’t help but think back to how great Google AdSense was… and, at this point, all I want is to be put out of my misery. If I’m banned until the day of my death, with absolutely zero chance of getting my account back, fine. I’ll learn to live with that, I just really need it confirmed so I can move on. Otherwise, what can I do? Would Google be willing to grant me a probationary period, during which I could prove myself worthy of reinstatement? I would gladly cover any administrative fees related to monitoring my account, if that is a concern. In any case, with this last appeal, I hope to arrive at a conclusion: either the dark cloud is here to stay, or it will eventually give way to sunlight.