Why can’t I run Meebo?

I was all set to add the MeeboMe widget to my WordPress blog here, on Mike’s suggestion, of course. I added the widget to the template. I’ve had a Meebo account setup for my various IM apps for some time, but in getting bogged down in huge projects at work, I never even bothered to open the Meebo website and log in.

So, I finally did. And then, my computer decided to hate me.

Tell me how — with a 2Ghz Celeron processor and 512MB of RAM — having an active Meebo page can take me from this…

…to this…

…and my laptop practically grinds to a halt. Any ideas? I’m all ears. KTHXBYE!

alt.NPR Press Start episode 5

New alt.NPR Press Start episode up this morning:

In this episode, Robert and Kyle talk to Rob Pardo, a lead designer on World of Warcraft. This is a part of our Great Games series, where we speak to the people who designed the greatest games of all time.

Good stuff. If you aren’t listening to Press Start, you really should be. I’ve found that alt.NPR‘s content is home to some of the highest quality podcasting I’ve discovered in recent weeks.

Paid Netscape “Navigators” revealed

It looks like three digg users have taken Jason Calacanis’ offer and are now being paid $1000 a month to add social news content to Netscape.

Top digg users BloodJunkie, DirtyFratBoy, and Wayjer have all accepted the paying gig, and quite a few notable digg users seem to have joined up on Netscape, as well, though not as paid content providers.

The best comment I’ve seen so far regarding this news actually comes from Calacanis himself, from his blog post (linked above):

UPDATE1: There is a story on DIGG about the new Navigators here. The DIGG community is supporting the three users who have left DIGG for Netscape!
UPDATE2: There is a Netscape story about the new Navigators here.

He is actually surprised by the fact that digg users are supportive of fellow digg users. This conclusively demonstrates that the man has absolutely no clue what sites like digg and Netscape are all about. You see, these are social news sites. And the word social is in there as more than a clever web 2.0 marketing buzz term. “Social” denotes that there are actual people interacting on a personal level. These top digg contributors didn’t become famous submitting content to digg — they became liked and respected. That whole social aspect of “social news” means that people actually get to know each other. And when something good happens in their lives, their friends share in their good fortune. You take digg or Netscape or Reddit or del.icio.us or any other social site out there — remove the content and design — and you have the basic principle of people using a website to share experiences and become involved in other people’s lives.

I don’t think digg will somehow fail because these users have left, and I don’t necessarily think Netscape will suddenly take off because these users are now over there. It could happen, but I don’t think it will. New users will fill in the gaps and gain more recognition, and new social relationships will be built and generate a new network of friends sharing content in all the websites.

The difference will be that at digg, the social experience will be genuine, whereas at Netscape, it will be manufactured. And that difference will be yet another thing that Calacanis will never, ever be able to understand.

New header graphic…feetsies

Man, I’m becoming Dave Winer over here. New header graphic of both Caleb and Alex’s feet that the wife took just this past June. The past handful of header images included only Caleb, so the new little one (who will be six months old in just three days) is finally sharing big brother’s spotlight. I think the next header will feature just Alex alone, so people don’t think I’m showing favoritism towards the older boy. =D
Sidenote: I’m going to stop adding “Blogged with Flock” to the end of my blog posts, since I do about 98% of my blogging through Flock. It’s kind of pointless anymore. As a somewhat-related aside, I’ll be posting more of my thoughts on the Flock browser in the coming days. Be on the lookout for that.

Later…

Ubisoft and Midway supporting Wii

Sounds like Ubisoft and Midway are both showing a lot of love for the Wii:

While speaking on a panel at the Ziff Davis Electronic Games Summit in Napa earlier today, Ubisoft North America President Laurent Detoc revealed that his company currently has seven titles in development for Nintendo’s upcoming Wii platform. This show of support came as a surprise to many, as the company had previously only demonstrated two of those seven titles: Rayman Raving Rabbids and Red Steel.

Detoc praised the Wii several times during the panel, stating that he expects it to have “a large audience and market.” He also stated that he personally felt that in a time when fewer and fewer games appeal to him, the Wii offers plenty of enjoyment. “The first time I picked up that sucker I couldn’t stop playing it.”

On the same panel, Midway President David Zucker stated that his company has six titles in development for the Wii.

Man, this is fast becoming a Wii-blog. Wiiblogs wobble, but they don’t fall down.

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Camelot doesn’t actually leave Nintendo, but do we care?

Evidently, it’s really hard to translate Japanese:

Update: Looks like we jumped the gun. Most sources, including Camelot’s official website, seem to indicate that the studio is merely branching out onto the PC platform with ‘I LOVE GOLF!’ A Wii RPG should still be in the works.

Yeah. A Camelot RPG has been in the works since 2002. First, it was for the GameCube. Now, it’s for the Wii. First, it was a console-based Golden Sun. Now, it’s an unnamed fresh IP. After all the crap this vaporware has gone through, and all the unfulfilled promises and frequent delays, I’m not so sure I even want a Camelot RPG anymore. The Shining Force series on the Genesis was fantastic, and the GBA Golden Sun games were great. But after so many sub-par and mediocre Mario sports titles under their belt, I have a feeling they’ve likely forgotten how to create a quality RPG. And frankly, I just don’t trust them with the task.

Why don’t we just convince Capcom to put their Breath of Fire series back on Nintendo systems? Or, better yet, just wait for Intelligent System’s Fire Emblem for the Wii.

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ESA makes E3 smaller

This news is all over the place today. Evidently the ESA has gotten the message from publishers that E3 is no longer creating a working environment for having meaningly business communications in the gaming industry, so E3 2007 is being demonstrably toned down. Firing Squad has a great write-up regarding the news, interviewing several industry insiders on their thoughts:

Mike Fehlauer: Business Development, Penny Arcade

Do you believe that this retrenchment is just temporary or will other events in the US, including CES, the Game Developers Conference and Digital/Life, become bigger and more important without having E3 be such a big presence in the industry?

I agree with the ESA that E3 needs to focus on being an industry-only show where retail buyers and press can sit down and meet with publishers and manufacturers and talk business. But again, there is also a need for a dynamic show where the industry can make a big splash and show off its wares to the public. Those two separate objectives are ideally served by two separate shows.

As far as I’m concerned, this is good news. I feel like E3 has become increasingly flashier and irrelevant with every passing year. Publishers looking to get press end up having to save up all their news and game info to release to the starving hordes in a three-day span, spending a considerable amount of money in the process. And developers looking to score a publisher get drowned out by all the glitz and glamour, and lost amongst the deluge of noise and hype being flung around the enormous exhibition center. Everyone seems to lose at E3. Everyone, that is, except for the gamers. They get everything handed to them, and that’s been part of the problem. E3 has in recent years moved from catering to the industry to catering to the masses. A shift back to focus on their priorities may anger some gamers, but will in the end definitely help the industry as a whole. Let’s think big picture, people.

Big picture.

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Nintendo giving away free Wii dev-kits?

Found this via digg:

A developer in a big coastal American city apparently received a mysterious package from Nintendo. Office staff, programmers, and even the president weren’t aware what was inside. The box was opened, and viola, Wii dev kit. This could be a ploy on Nintendo’s part to get as many companies working on Wii games as possible.

Certainly a great way to get developers interested in the Wii hardware who weren’t curious enough to purchase the dev-kit outright once available. Could this be a trend? They do only cost about $2,000 each, at the moment. Though, at $20,000 a kit, I doubt Sony will be performing the same miracle with the PS3 dev-kit.

Wii wins big for Business Week

Articles are beginning to pop up that proclaim the bold vision Nintendo holds as a shining example of a business model that could eventually topple the Sony giant. Hearing gaming sites say that is annoying. Hearing Business Week say that is astounding:

“Non-gamers are coming back because there are interesting games people want to play,” says Kamide. “The PSP is a beautiful piece of kit but the games are just rehashes of what you would play on the console.”

That’s music to my ears.

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