Adam's R&R » Rant/Ramble

Gamification – A New Twist on the Carrot and Stick

Adam — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 12:17:21 +0000

I recently realised I had become a bit obsessed with increasing my StackOverflow reputation – hardly a surprise really given how close it is to the gaming concept of XP and leveling, which has caused large parts of my life to disappear into a black hole (Civ and WoW, I am looking at you).

I have been helping out on SO, mainly on the MongoDB side of things there since I joined 10gen and it has been a great learning experience as well as a great tool to use, the self moderation means that the questions (and I hope, my answers) are generally well formed and potentially useful to others. Nonsensical and lazy questions are often voted out of existence before they can cause the kind of flame war threads that are so common on normal support forums.

The obsession that the reputation and other gamification components engender though is quite intriguing, and it’s why I see things like Badgeville having a bright future. It works, it’s based on pretty well established psychological principles and it is somewhat painful to do properly if you have no experience with it. Being able to “gamify” your existing products more easily, given the success of this type of approach elsewhere, is something I think a lot of people and businesses will be looking at soon.

I do also want to note that the Office Space reference on StackOverflow, calling this picture/rating summary “flair” tickled me too

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Eddie’s Brilliant Britain – Almost Got Me

Adam — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 16:05:38 +0000

Sometimes you can’t fit your thoughts into a 140 character message, so time for an actual post for a change. Not being a majorly political animal, this might seem like a strange post to jump in on, but I’ve always found it easier to look at politics from the outside – my overwhelming dearth of faith in Irish politicians also makes the goings on elsewhere more attractive.

I just watched Eddie Izzard’s tweeted video over at http://www2.labour.org.uk/eddie-izzard – as an Irishman I won’t be voting in the UK elections, but this might just have swayed me if I did. I think though, that the current Labour leadership is the very same one (with a few minor changes) that conned the British people into the war in Iraq.

A vote for Labour now is a vote for that same leadership – I don’t buy the story that it was all Tony Blair anymore than I would believe it was all Dubya and Cheney on the US side. Dump that leadership, start fresh, and then Labour would likely get my vote (depending on the local candidate of course), otherwise you are condoning what they did and asking for more.

Do I think the Tories are any better? No – but a significant defeat might be needed to knock some sense into Labour and get them back on the right track. Nice try Eddie, but maybe next time.

/rant

Now, back to work and studying for exams :/

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Probably No iPhone for me in Ireland

Adam — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 17:54:40 +0000

As this comparison shows, although the cost of an iPhone is reasonably subsidised, the data plan and associated call plans are very poor. It really is a disgrace – enough to make me not use O2 at all in protest. With that decision made, my only problem is the complete lack of a decent alternative – I have been reading up on several iPhone competitors (Nokia N95/96, Samsung Omnia, Blackberry Storm, LG Renoir) and none of them seem to be distinguishing themselves clearly.

I’ve also found the interface on the Nokia N95 I am currently using (thanks to a loan from John) to be very counter intuitive, which is sad since I used to think Nokia had a real edge when it came to UI design. Two guesses what John traded his N95 for…..

There is not a single phone I have found so far with WiFi, GPS, a decent sized screen and a UI that gets a decent review. If anyone can recommend one, then please let me know. Assuming my Macbook Pro comes back to me in working order sometime in the near future I may have to look into getting an iPhone and jail breaking it to work on any network.

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Done with work (for now)

Adam — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 18:54:13 +0000

So, I bid adieu to the US office Friday (*sniff*) – was a bit sad to pack everything up and clear out my office, but now comes the hard part – I have to sell everything we are not taking home. The sofa, coffee table, patio furniture and, of course, the car all have to go.

Rather than doing that of course I procrastinated and did other things instead, like upload the inaugural photos and videos I took, and wrote this post

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Shopping before I leave

Adam — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 01:04:56 +0000

So, what to buy before I leave the US……this is a list that falls broadly into 3 categories:

Electronics, Gadgets and Toys
Clothes
Stuff I don’t really need but that is much cheaper here

OK, so most of the Electronics and toys fall into category 3, but given my buying history and my gadgetry related obsession they get a separate category in my head. Suggestions, ridicule and general wish fulfillment is accepted – what would you buy?

I’ve already got some things in mind:

Golf Clubs (I don’t play a lot but they are soooo much cheaper in the US)
Drobo (just plain cool – in a very geeky way – what drives to buy is an open question)
Suit/Tuxedo (again just a lot cheaper this side of the pond)
Warm Coat (Ireland is effing cold)
Russian Bride (do they want into the EU too – should I wait for the cheaper “shipping”?)

Last thing: big thanks to everyone that commented on facebook and this blog wishing Jenny and I the best and/or wishing we could stay – it’s appreciated and we are sad to be going, but looking on the bright side we get to see our families and old friends again, so it is not all doom and gloom

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No More Exile

Adam — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 04:40:19 +0000

It has been quite a few months since I posted last and there has been plenty going on. The lask of updates was partly due to crazy work load and partly due to a gag order on blogging about the fact that I have to return to Ireland by March. Until all the appropriate people knew that we were going home, we didn’t want them to find out via a blog.

In any case, it is official – Jen and I are heading back to the Emerald Isle by March 1st 2009 at the latest. Sad news, but there is nothing to be done about it – apparently I am not educated enough to get a green card and so off I go. On the bright side, I do get to keep my job – I just have to do it from 3,000 miles away.

We’ll be celebrating our last Thanksgiving with Scott and Lori in Scott’s place tomorrow (thanks for the invite Scott, and the cooking Lori!) which will be excellent. We’ll also be around for the inauguration and will have had at least a small part of our stay under someone other than George W. Bush as president (and in a Blue Virginia!) for which I am very grateful to the electorate.

Last but not least are the pictures (on Flickr as usual). We’ve been quite busy as you can see, in something approaching chronological order we have:

Stereophonics @ 9.30 Club

Redskins Vs Cleveland with Matt & TK

Some Shooting

A Tour of Capitol Hill

A long Weekend in Charleston

Hopefully it won’t be as long a gap too my next post, but I think if anything it will just get busier in the near future with the move prep….

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Random Geekery

Adam — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 20:20:03 +0000

I found an excellent article describing how to analyze a cracked Linux machine – I’ve had some experience with similar efforts on Windows in the past, but (so far) have been lucky enough not to have to do it on a Linux/Unix host. Serves as a good guide on how to break down a crack step by step, though the elementary mistakes made by the cracker certainly made things easier – it would not have been hard to do this in a way that would have been far more difficult to detect/correct.

So, for all of those people that think that non-Windows machines are bullet proof, take note.

Technorati Tags: Linux, cracker, forensics, security

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Secrets

Adam — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 14:33:18 +0000

I found this site quite a while back, but had completely forgotten about it. For those that don’t know what it is, the recently released mini-movie is pretty cool and explains what the site does pretty well. I’d love to know how many cards are truly people’s secrets and how many are just people being artistic and/or clever, I’ve found I enjoy the site more if I suspend my disbelief and just go with it

Oh, and one more thing – Dear America, please sort out the value of your currency, the exchange rates are getting ridiculous, that is all.

Technorati Tags: Post Secret, rant, currency

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Indebleu and Lessons in Career Management

Adam — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 13:14:37 +0000

Jen and I hit indebleu on Saturday night for a sligtly more upscale dinner than usual. The food was excellent – we had the duck meatballs to start followed by the New York Strip (me) and the quail (Jenny). Jen was too full for dessert so that meant I had the very tasty l’opera dish to myself. So, only two minor gripes – first, though the wine list is long it is apparently not stocked very well, both of my choices were unavailable and so we went with a recommendation. That was served slightly too cold but was otherwise a good bottle. The other gripe (even more minor) was that the service was slightly slow and the waiter needed to get some voice projection lessons. I would still definitely recommend it, the issues were minor and the food was very good.

As for the lesson in career management – do not tell your boss you are thinking about switching to the management track from the technical track a couple of days before he goes on vacation – wait until he gets back. That way he does not gleefully (and somewhat evilly) set you up as his stand in for the duration of his vacation….

Technorati Tags: indebleu, restaurant review, washington dc, career

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Taking it easy (kinda)

Adam — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 15:14:54 +0000

It’s a bit strange, but because of all my traveling recently it feels like an “easy” week just because I don’t have to get on a plane any time soon. I have a pretty important product launch on Saturday (ugh), I’m recovering from jet lag and I’m way behind where I would like to be with some personal projects. Somehow though it doesn’t seem so bad because I get to sleep in my own bed and not have to worry about whether I can get upgraded to business or get my money changed to the currency of the week

Of course that could all change on Saturday if things don’t go well with the launch, but here’s hoping for smooth sailing…..

On a brighter note, I think we’re off to catch Hot Fuzz at the Drafthouse tonight. Last time Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright showed up in person – doubt we’ll be that liucky this time but should be good nonetheless.

Technorati Tags: Hot Fuzz, Arlington Drafthouse, work

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