Optimization Tradeoffs

This recent post by Raymond Chen highlights some interesting memory optimization scenarios, and the wide-ranging impact of size optimizations. A quick summary: Changing a structure definition such that a bunch of Win32 BOOLs use one bit each saves memory in the struct, because BOOL is typedef’d as an INT. Accessing the bitfield data members requires …

Cuttino Mobley’s Heart Rate Goes to Zero As Mike Dunleavy Approaches Infinity

Here’s a link to the original story. The source said Mobley would see a heart specialist on Tuesday. Normally players have 48 hours to report to their new teams and take a physical examination, followed by another 24 hours for all the test results to come in. Because this trade was completed after business hours …

“Games” Versus “Experiences”

My wife completed The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess the other day, after starting it several months ago, and playing in sporadic but lengthy bursts (the kind that you tend to indulge in only on the weekends, and which usually leave you feeling guilty about “wasting time”). I was a spectator for a small, but …

The Backlog: Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime

I did some air travel a few weeks ago, and had a chance to play and finish Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime. It’s a fairly easy action RPG with some interesting features, and a very good localization, which makes the charming humor in the game seem, well, charming, as opposed to bizarre. Gameplay is split …