Fugu Talk

For those game programmers who actually want to make money in the field, there’s a nice article from Christer Ericson.

The post includes an Excel file of the data, but here’s the posted version that gives you an idea who to shoot for and who to avoid. I’ve worked for a few of these companies, on the low end and in the high end, and it does accord with my experience.

I’ve been meaning to remark on a couple of web sites, but the oddities I saw a few weeks ago are gone:

• LegalZoom - I visited this site for low-cost legal services after repeatedly seeing ads on CNBC featuring founder Robert Shapiro, of O.J. trial fame. Strangely, the site had a page of endorsements solely from Fox News talk show hosts (does Bill O’Reilly really need cheap legal advice?). That page is entirely gone, now.
• MoveOn - I vaguely recall seeing somewhat obnoxious political ads from them in past elections and indignant Republican responses (but nothing lately, are they getting less attention?), but only recently visited their web site. The top campaign asked visitors to express their outrage at Wesley Clark’s comment about McCain being taken out of context. Right below that, a list of Top Ten Things You Should Know About McCain, with a bunch of snippets taken out of context (what did you expect, top ten expansive essays?) Stuff like, did you know John McCain is one of the richest members of Congress? (Who cares? What’s the cutoff - Clinton-rich is OK, but McCain rich is too rich?) Top ten lists are great for talk-show comedy bits and, well, blogs (try googling “McCain top ten”), but not so great for political discourse. The list is still there, but the Clark campaign is now gone - can’t even find it in their campaign archives.

This leads me to a few conclusions:

1. When I see something that looks ridiculous on a web site, it seems I’m not the only one.
2. If I want to blog about it, I’ve gotta move faster.
3. There’s plenty of regular revision work out there for web designers.

After watching my health insurance premiums increase five-fold over the last six years, without every incurring expenses beyond my deductible, I finally got around to switching from Healthnet to another provider.

Besides getting my premiums back down, I wanted a plan that was HSA-compatible. But applying for new health insurance is a pain, even on ehealthinsurance, so I wouldn’t have bothered if I didn’t still have a grudge against Healthnet from a few years ago, when they cashed my premium check, told me they hadn’t received it, and then cancelled my policy. And then since I’d shown high cholesterol from a recent doctor’s visit, I had trouble finding new coverage (Blue Cross sent me a rejection letter that said I was welcome to apply to one of their “high risk” programs)

Contrary to the standard riff that health coverage would work better if government got out of the way of private insurers, the State of California came to my rescue. Following the instruction in my Healthnet manual, I sent a complaint to the California Department of Managed Health Care, which within a few days replied that they only handle HMO’s and not my PPO plan, but they did examine my complaint and agree it appeared valid, so they forwarded it to the appropriate agency, the California Department of Insurance, which also promptly replied saying they sent Healthnet an inquiry.

Shortly after, I received a letter from the Healthnet legal office explaining that the policy number I’d written on my check had been “illegible” so they’d deposited it in another account (apparently the account where they cash any checks they can’t identify, that’s what “illegible” means, right? - I suppose it was too much trouble to check the name and address on the envelope?).

Their not-so-subtle attempt to blame me was undermined by typing the wrong name on the letter. In contrast, the case officer from the Department of Insurance sent me a letter some months later apologizing for not following up sooner with details of the reply from Healthnet.

I hate musicals, except when they’re written by Joss Whedon. The first was Buffy: The Musical. Now Dr. Horrible comes along. Even has a fan site, already.

When I listed Fugu Games on the Dreamhost Site of the Month forum (garnering an average of 2 points out of 10), one reviewer asked :”What’s a Fugu?”. It seems to me it would have been faster to just type “fugu” in the browser search box, but a fugu is the poisonous Japanese puffer fish served as a delicacy. Some of you may recall the Simpsons episode. See the wikipedia article for more information.

I came up with the name a few years ago after watching a segment on fugu on the Food Network. Tasty, with a hint of danger - perfect name for a game company!

I wasted part of this weekend messing around with the Green Screen Challenge movie from the Colbert Report, integrating it into a 3D maze web player, on Fugu Games:

and here’s a little movie, captured with SnapZ Pro X from Ambrosia Software.