tecznotes

I hit the tipping point with two pieces of technology today.

The first is subversion, a revision control package for software developers. I actually first heard about SVN approximately six years ago, at the same time I heard about CVS, my favorite until now. SVN was half-baked at the time, and I became an expert in CVS instead. I tried SVN a number of times over the years, but there was always something wrong enough with it (reliance on db, crappy merge support) to turn me off. This time, it's going to stick. The difference is that I'm experimenting with a project management tool called Trac, which is pretty much requires the use of SVN. The benefit is major enough that I'm finally convinced to switch entirely.

The second is LocoRoco, a playstation game smuggled into our office by Matt, who let me play a level.

The physics and graphics are amazing, and I love that the designers chose to ignore the normally-baffling profusion of buttons on the controller in favor of just three, and focused instead on getting the interaction flow just right. My favorite aspect of the game is the malleability of the character, who can be split or merged into a variable number of smiling orange blobs. The big one can jump higher, the small ones can slip through crevices, and together they form the basis of simple strategy. Very cool.