I could tell from the game's announcement and earliest screenshots that it was going to be a buggy launch. Pretty much every AAA game is buggy mess when it's first released, and it's disingenuous for the accumulated mass of gamers and gaming journalists to assume that it would ever be otherwise. Where has everyone been for the last 30+ years of consumer computing that they would expect a 1.0 release to be perfect? If it ends in 0, just say no. And especially PS4 owners. You've got a last-gen console and you're surprised that a next-gen game runs like crap? Why? Your console isn't magic, it's a static piece of hardware with insurmountable, built-in limitations. At this point everyone should know better than to trust a giant company telling you that, against all logic, everything will be fine.

But that said, the bugs are absolutely hilarious. Anyone else watch Highlight Reel?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tJthUWc13Y

These are the kinds of things that, to me at least, actually make games worth playing. Massive open world games usually have such cliched plots and predictable/repetitive mission objectives that glitches and bugs make them way more interesting and fun. The sheer scale of these games makes it infeasible to script every possible interaction between procedurally generated NPCs, enemies, vehicles, and environments, and it doesn't take very much playtime until you've seen essentially all of what the developers were able to include. i.e. NPC almost gets run over by car, does one of three jumping-out-of-the-way animations and yells one of five variations on "Hey watch it!". Doesn't take long before you've seen it all, and then a bunch of the developer's work on motion capture, animation, voice acting, texturing, and scripting becomes totally routine and practically invisible to the player. Completed and polished games, i.e. Skyrim or Fallout 4, were rife with that kind of stuff. But watching characters randomly walk off cliffs or clip through walls was a really entertaining break from all that.

Open world games promise unlimited possibilities, but the truth is that the possibilities are inevitably very limited once you get into it. Bugs and goofy launch stuff are actually fun once you realize what's really going on.

Burning Man doesn't rely on the 911 system for any of its EMS issues. There are two large aid stations that are staffed by professional doctors, nurses, paramedics, etc. (people who are certified to be able to provide Basic Life Support services at a minimum), which are open 24/7 while the event is taking place, and before and after for all of the people who volunteer their time to construct and deconstruct the city.

On top of that, there is a fully functional Advanced Life Support facility (called Rampart) that is established in the center of the city and is meant to handle the very serious cases, of which there are of course a few every year. They have the ability to radio for air transport to Reno (the nearest large city with a real hospital) at a moment's notice. Rampart is airlock-sealed to keep the pervasive dust out and provide an environment that is as sterile as can be expected.

Emergency services are taken very, very seriously at Burning Man, and they have a history that goes back a long, long way.

I had a go at Google Glass a few days ago (courtesy of a friend with connections), and I had a rather unexpected problem with them. The display is set on the right side of the frame and can't be moved. I'm extremely left-eye dominant, to the the point where reading with my right eye alone is next to impossible. I can make out the scenery, but the center of my vision in that eye has the acuity of peripheral vision, and I can't parse complex shapes (ie text) with that eye alone. I hate to claim "I have a medical condition", but I do, and it's called amblyopia. Until Google makes the display switchable to the left side, this is a show-stopper for me.

I can certainly see that as the kind of thing that will show up in version 2 or 3, but they would be a waste of money for me at this point.

Agreed. I know exactly one person who had swine flu, and that one person was myself.

29 years old, in good health prior to swine flu. It was a very mild flu compared to others I've had, and cleared up within a week.

However, it's not overblown necessarily. There have been approximately 4,000 deaths in the US from swine flu, compared with about 50,000 annually for regular seasonal flu. The difference is that a larger than usual part of those 4,000 have been people like me, that is young and healthy. The 50,000 killed by seasonal flu are usually very old or very young (babies).

My company gave us the option of switching to 9/80 about a year ago, and while I hemmed and hawed about it for a while, I absolutely have no regrets about taking it. The Friday off is excellent because it frees you up for longer trips away without using vacation time.

It can also make some really nice situations when coupled with holidays. For example, since this most recent Christmas was on a Thursday, and my company gave us the following Friday off, I got to apply my 9/80 day off to the day before Christmas. That meant that I had Wednesday through Friday off just naturally, so I only had to take Monday and Tuesday off as vacation days to score the entire week off.

The days off are generally respected at my company, usually not more than a brief phone call in the event that something comes up that only I can take care of.

I should caveat all of this by saying that I like my job, I'm good friends with most of my co-workers and really wouldn't mind getting a phone call from them on a day off anyway. I imagine that a lot of other people who aren't in that situation would be more uptight about their time being respected, but I personally don't mind giving a little extra time here and there.

It also tends to make my evening commute a little easier since I'm leaving work at 6, and most of the people battling their way home at 5 have cleared off the road by then.

Something which has bothered me about games, particularly those in the realistic war genre (aka every WWII game made in the last 10 years... thanks Saving Private Ryan), is that the enemy always fights absolutely to the death. Even in games where enemies slow down after a few hits, they'll still hold onto their weapon and try to kill you as they crawl along the floor. If they're going for realism, then these guys should drop their weapon after a hit to leg, put their hands up, and you then lose points for killing them.