Everything old is new again in Video Games

They say in fashion every comes back in style about every 20 years. I am beginning to think the same applies to video games. The online games of facebook and mobile games have the same look and feel of early PC games. The only thing I am glad is that command line games like Zork or Galtrader did not make a comeback because I was glad to see them go. Now I am hearing more and more about table video games returning to bars. It is like the 80s have come back in fashion.

In the 80s video games had there heyday in bars across America. Games like Pong, Pac-Man and Donkey Kong gain fame and fortune not on the home gaming screens, but on table video game units in bars. I remember walking through these smoke filled ( yes they still smoked in bars then) by table after table of video games being played with beers and quarters stacked on top of them. By the 1990s they had all disappeared to make way for things like Karaoke.


Now it seems that video games and beer will once again be joined together in a happy partnership of something that requires fine motor skill and something that impairs motor skills. Recently I saw a video of a new video games for Grasshopper NYC. The Game and its developer make no bones about its purpose. The games is called Don't F**K Up: A video game for drunk people. Here is a link to the Video.

ROIA - A great new Restaurant in New Haven

I met Avi, the owner of ROIA, about a year ago as he was working on getting his restaurant open.  He is a very passionate man and great to talk to. I was invited to the opening. The place and the food were outstanding! I remember thinking someone needs to write about this place to get the word out. I have eaten there a number of times since, and every time I keep thinking someone needs to write an article about this place because it is awesome. Well, the New Haven Register finally did. Go to ROIA you will love with the place and the food.

Register review of ROIA

Hate Map

Time ran an article on a hate map of tweets in the US. The article is interesting, and I think that heat maps are a good way to visualize data especially if there is an easy way to drill down in the representation to small areas and to the actual data itself. I am always concerned about people mining tweets for key words because the language used on Twitter is different from normal language, and it is rare that these tools mining these Tweets have any contextual awareness. I know that picking up things like sarcasm is hard if not impossible to do, but a tweet like "how not to raise a racist child (with a link) might be counted as a hate tweet even though it clearly was not the intent of the tweeter. Anyway I have attached the link.Time Article on Hate Map

Connecticut R User Group starts 2013

I can not believe the Connecticut R User Group is already in its second year. I started the group mostly because I did not want to have to go to all the way into New York or Boston just to connect with other R users. The group has been more successful than I had hope in its first year. We have had a host of great talks, the group has grown to over 70 members. If you are in Connecticut especially the New Haven area I hope to see you at our next meeting.