michael i koperwas — mkoper@confidenceincompetence.com — 415 931.3935

Walking out of seeing District-9 made me realize something about myself again. Not the first time, but hopefully it’ll stick longer this time.
i realized i’m a builder. i like to build a foundation for the potential of an action moreso than actually following through on an action. i’m sure some of it is rooted in fear of failure, and some of it is rooted in experiences of being blocked at a crucial moment for poor planning.
So, watching the film, i decided i needed to buy that 5d mark ii that i’ve been looking at for a while. If i buy the camera, then that should make it possible for me to shoot without any problems. “Yeah!” i think to myself. Then i realized i don’t have a story to shoot. Then i got down on myself.
Doing better now, because i’m writing.

Dear Sony,
i just purchased and downloaded ‘Pain’ from the Playstation Store, and the experience has been atrocious. i’d like to go over all the pieces that are here, and see if i can sum up what type of experience i’d like to have.
8pm : i browsed some of the titles available, comparing prices and looking up reviews.
8:10pm : i remembered playing ‘Pain’ at a friend’s house and really enjoying it, so that was the one i decided to go with. It seemed like a nice escape after a tough day’s work.
8:12pm : Completed the purchase and began the 400 meg download. Got up to get a drink and clean up after dinner, thinking with my network connection it’ll be between 5 and 10 minutes.
Up to this point, it’s been an excellent experience, and i’m highly looking forward to playing.
8:20pm : Return to the sofa, ready to play. Now that it’s been downloaded, it needs to be installed. That little voice asks the first question, “Why didn’t it install automatically?” *1 Okay, go ahead an install. i’ll wander the internet for a bit.
8:27pm : Alright! Game’s installed, and i’m ready to play! The icon for the game has moved from the original location, now to be mixed in with the demo’s. *2
8:27pm : Found it, let’s go! “Before this game can begin, the software needs to be updated.” *3
8:28pm : Update download has begun. This shouldn’t take too long though, right? Wait, what’s the ‘1/4′ in the corner? Are there 4 updates that are required? Maybe i’ll make a quick snack; could be that i’m cranky because i’m hungry.
9:00pm : Snack’s done, and the second update has just begun to download. i begin writing this post.
9:18pm : 3 of the available updates have been downloaded. i’ve eaten my snack and am done writing. i’ll work on some code for my girlfriend’s app.
9:42pm : Updates have completed and installed. Signing in to the network…
9:43pm : Checking for updates. Installing updates 1 of 13. You have Got to be kidding me.
9:44pm : All 13 updates installed. That i can live with, but it’s just an unfortunate poke.
*1 – True, it may be a disk space issue, not wanting to eat up a user’s space without asking first. Maybe two options: download (400 M) / download and install (800M) would work? Something to prompt the user for all confirmation
*2 – i can’t organize these into my own folders?
*3 – Now i’m annoyed. i just downloaded the game from the Playstation servers!! What update is needed that has to be done on the client’s side? Why aren’t patches and updates applied before downloading? What a waste of bandwidth and time!
Here’s how i’d like this to have gone:
8pm : i browsed some of the titles available, comparing prices and looking up reviews.
8:10pm : i remembered playing ‘Pain’ at a friend’s house and really enjoying it, so that was the one i decided to go with. It seemed like a nice escape after a tough day’s work.
8:12pm : Completed the purchase and began the 1.6 gig download. With my network connection it’ll be around an hour.
10:00pm : Just got back from going out for a late dinner with some friends. Sit down on the sofa and begin playing.