Bjorn

The lack of money is the most obvious hurdle, but that's why I pointed out trailer homes, as they are often actually cheaper than renting IF you can get a loan for one (which is the other big hurdle, but I think it's one that a lot of people fresh out of college have a legitimate shot at). I think it's just an alternative most people never consider because we've been normalized to think only of renting an apartment at that age, and to think that trailer parks are somehow inherently bad, a sign of failure or full of undesirable type people, when none of that is inherently true.

For those of you who are young (early to mid 20s), one thing I would suggest when thinking about housing is actually buying something if you think you are going to be in an area for longer than a couple of years. This probably doesn't apply to some place like San Francisco, but in a lot of other markets, you can buy something like a trailer home for an amount equal to just 3-5 years worth of rent in a decent place. If I could go back to my early 20s again, I would have bought a trailer for ~$25,000, would have paid it off in just 3 years paying the same amount I paid for rent, and then could have lived rent free or sold the place and upgraded. True, you're living in a trailer park, but the economic footing you are putting under yourself is massive if your income vs expenses are at all tight at that age. This is something I've been looking at again recently, as it is an option we might encourage our daughter to do. In our area, there are places for sale in the ~$18,000 range (which is going to be a lot cheaper than the coasts where some of you are). If we help with a down payment and co-sign a mortgage with her, she can have a monthly payment significantly lower than rent prices here (which are stupid high), and own the place outright around the time she is graduating college.

The Toast is rapidly becoming one of my favorite sites: http://the-toast.net/2014/09/04/eighteen-kinds-people-comment-recipe-blog/

Play Minerva's Den? I picked up B2 from one of the bundles solely so I can play through Minerva's Den at some point.

Wikipedia also has a long, and troublesome, history with its gender demographics, ranging from 85-90 percent of its editors being men, and in cases like this, it's almost entirely men making the decisions of how women's lives should categorized and described. The obvious solution is to get more women involved, but it's been years and the problem is ongoing (sometimes due to the very nature and structure of Wikipedia that tries to discourage them from participating). http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2013/apr/29/wikipedia-women-problem/ I'm not advocating for burning any buildings down, just for calling in the exterminator.

CONGRATS!

What's up with burning building metaphors! On one hand, I theoretically completely agree with what you said. But that said, at least one of the editors outed in that piece is clearly (to me) part of the harassment campaign itself. You can go through the revisions of the Quinn page and the talk history of one of that editor and see the changes he was trying to make (he added an entire section to her article titled "Accusations of Personal and Professional Misconduct" that appears to have just been repeating all the things said by the ex-bf, 4chan, reddit, etc). I'm not wiling to make such a hardline declarative stance about the privileged anonymity of Wikipedia editors when you have someone trying to control the Wikipedia article of another human as part of a campaign to harass and smear her.

Nice! I haven't fully shaved since the late 90s. I'm actually terrified of what I would look like without some kind of facial hair.

If MS is really willing to spend that much for Mojang, I'm all for Notch and company taking it. We don't know the stock/ownership structure of Mojang, but my impression of Notch is that he would make sure everyone with the company got paid, and paid well, through such a sale. So it's not even like it's just his own payday he's looking at. If I was in his position and totally independently wealthy at this point, but I could easily also make all my employees independently wealthy, I would feel a moral obligation to do that. All that said, I completely agree with the OMGPOP analogy. I cannot imagine any scenario where this is a profitable or successful acquisition for MS.

@Denial, thanks for the Marketplace link, great to hear another industry voice (no pun intended) speak out, and to do so know she may face backlash for it. The article I link to below gets into the edit war over Quinn's Wikipedia entry. The article itself outs one editor, and the comments out another. I'm comfortable linking it here, but if people feel it's inappropriate, I'll remove it. So continuing the blind hypocrisy of the gaters, there was kind of a shitstorm about this article and its doxxing of two Wikipedia editors. http://wikipediocracy.com/2014/09/07/wikipedia-and-the-war-on-womens-dignity/ Here's a reddit page where people are all frothing about Quinn doxxing these people by tweeting a link to the article (a tweet she has since deleted): http://www.reddit.com/r/KotakuInAction/comments/2fvt9n/zoe_links_a_doxx_to_wikipedia_editors_who_tried/ It's an interesting question. Do you have full right to privacy when you choose to make Wikipedia edits to a high profile article that is currently controversial? This isn't like commenting on Reddit, or posting on your own Tumblr. This is essentially writing what will be one of the most common narratives many people will encounter, on one of the most popular sites on the world, which many people (erroneously) trust. Is it unreasonable to want to know who is writing articles for Wikipedia? Particularly if the pattern looks like the people most dedicated to controlling the article are not who they claim to be and clearly demonstrate both through the talk pages and other sources that they do not have any interest in a neutral, factual narrative.

Happy Birthday Mr. Remo!

I interacted with him in a comment thread once, and he really took criticism as well as any dev I've ever seen (this was during a little mini-controversy about getting matching funds from Ouya and there being a mandatory exclusivity period tied to those funds). His replies to people's concerns really impressed me, and ultimately that's what really tipped the scales for me on backing him even though I was one of the people critical of Ouya for insisting on that exclusivity deal.

So this actually comes out this month! I'm excited. I backed it on Kickstarter, both because it is the kind of game I want, and being really moved by the big Polygon piece on the developer that came out a few months after retro/grade was a dud at release. New trailer too:

Somehow I feel like you were channeling gamerghazi satire years before it was a twinkling in 4chan's eye.

Lord Gaben, secret priest of the Feminist Cabal.

That's mostly what I do. At this point, I've got a mustache, goatee and near mutton chop sized sideburns. So I just need to shave my neck and the strip between my side burns and beard. Shower shaving isn't usually as precise, but working from home it's not like I need to be perfectly presentable every day. Usually on the weekends or if I've got a meeting or something, I'll take the time to even everything up in front of a mirror.

If there are any folks around here with experience putting together business plans, I would greatly appreciate any resources you might recommend or specific tips you've got. My wife and I have run a successful business for going on a decade, but it grew out of a small side thing I started in college, and we never really intended for it to become what it has, it just kept growing and we went with it. So I never had to make a business plan or pursue traditional funding or anything. Now we're looking into starting something new. Our experience over the last 10 years maps over pretty well towards our new business, though the end product is radically different. But I'm self educating about writing a plan and it's a bit overwhelming at times. We're easily a year to two years out from actually opening this business, and I'm trying to approach this as professionally and methodically as I can. Our current business has focused on a niche, online retail sales and our new business would include both a local brick & mortar store and online sales serving a different niche area.

Thanks! I hadn't even looked back at Shoestring Theory in awhile, it seems like a past life now. spent a half hour this afternoon skimming over a couple of years of posts there. I miss writing as much as I used to, and doing the odd freelance piece here and there. Like I remember writing all that stuff, but I haven't sat down to write anything like that in a few years now. If you got back to the ZKP posts, that's a project that ended up stalling out. I actually have a design I ended up fairly happy with, but ultimately the process of doing a ton of custom art was really not something we could handle with just the two of us. It's something I'd like to get back to at some point though and finish the refinement of it though. There are resources like that, and a post on Facebook today got me a personal introduction to the guy who runs the small business office at the local university, so that's nice to have a personal reference before going in to meet him. Overall this business is actually pursuing one of my wife's passions more so than mine. Much of the last decade has been about many of my goals professionally (finishing my degree, doing some writing, growing my business), and her goals/responsibilities personally (raising her daughter, bought a house she loved and remodeled it the way she wanted it). We're looking to flip that now though, and have her be the primary owner/manager of a business with me working to support her the way she's supported me for years. I know we really need to find a decently lawyer. There are some unique legal and zoning laws we'll need help with, so that's high on the list. But I'd like to at least have a basic business plan outline in hand before approaching a lawyer about it. I'm not intending on being coy about specifics, but it's one of those kind of irrational things about worrying about talking about something to specifically too early on and jinxing it.

I do appreciate how thoughtfully you guys approach everything, and for being open about discussing this stuff with your community.

Of course not....it's fart noises.

Yesterday they also announced that another team is working on a tabletop Pathologic game....WEIRD! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1535515364/pathologic/posts/976732

Video games died with Galaga.

I just have no words for that IRC dump. I don't think they can actually comprehend how terrible they are. Different subject, the Ray Rice video has ignited another firestorm, part of which of course involves the public deciding they get to play armchair psychoanalysis on Janay Rice and why she hasn't left (and much scrambling of some people to attempt and hide their previous victim blaming). But amidst that, the whyistayed and whyileft hashtags emerged of people sharing their own stories. Some of that stuff is really raw, so delve into cautiously if you're sensitive to those kinds of stories.

Your video drivers have jammed and contracted malaria.

Wouldn't the Watch_Dogs iconic cap be better, a privacy cap for privates.