BobbyVoicu.com

Curious about stuff

Apple Arcade, first week

By Bobby Voicu

Apple Arcade

It took me a little bit of time because of some traveling I needed to do, but I finally tried Apple Arcade during the last weekend.

If you don’t know what Apple Arcade is, read this article. The tldr; version is that it’s a new program by Apple where they finance new and high quality games to be launched on all Apple platforms: MacOS, iOS, iPadOS and tvOS. The twist is that you have no in-app purchases. You pay for the subscription and that’s it. The subscription is $5/month and you can try the games for free for the first month, without needing to pay anything.

I’ve been quite excited about it, because I want to have some cross platform games that I can play on TV and on my mobile phone/tablet as well. I use SteamLink, I use Remote Play for PS4, but having native games on all platforms I use is so much better.

Another reason I loved the idea is that, starting with the latest version of the operating systems you can use Playstation’s DS4 controller natively through bluetooth. There were some hacks previously, but now you just connect the controller you want and that’s it. It also works with some XBox controllers, I think, but I don’t have an XBox, so I didn’t test it.

The games I tried yet: “What the Golf“, ustwo’s “Assemble with care” and some OceanHorn 2. I played What the Golf mostly on the iPad, and Assemble with care and Oceanhorn 2 on Apple TV, with the controller.

What the Golf

This is a weird and funny game. I can’t really tell you too much without spoiling some things, so if you have the time, play it. It’s… a golf game. Sort of. It’s really great to play on your phone during travel, among other things.

Assemble with care

This one is more of a story rather than a game. Yes, it is a bit of a puzzle game, but it’s more in the vein of Firewatch, rather than Monument Valley, another game made by ustwo. You learn the history of some people in a small city through repairing their old stuff (watch, camera, statue aso).

I’ve finished the game in about 2 hours, I think. I played it on the Apple TV, with the remote. While the controller worked in the menus, it didn’t work in the game.

I think it’s a nice, reflective game, that you can play when you’re feeling nostalgic. The voice acting is good and the graphics, the colors, make it like a living painting. I liked it.

For a more complete review, read this article.

Oceanhorn 2

It’s a game similar, in looks, to Nintendo’s Breath of the Wild. I played for about 30 minutes, but I remembered I didn’t really like Breath of the Wild anyway, so I stopped there. The controller works really well on the Apple TV, but this is not the kind of game I enjoy playing.

I’m looking for other games to play, so stay tuned, I might actually write more about Apple Arcade. I actually looked for a reason to learn to stream for a long time, so this might be the moment.

The Agony of Trying to Unsubscribe – TED Video

By Bobby Voicu

This is one of the funniest videos I’ve seen in a while. It shows what you can do if some newsletter doesn’t unsubscribe you when you ask for it.


As a bonus, you can also watch the following video on how to talk with email scammers. It’s the same person (James Veitch) and it’s as funny as the previous one.

Image from Canva

Star Trek: Picard

By Bobby Voicu

Star Trek: Picard

Starting with January 24th, 2020, we’re gonna see the first new episodes of a Star Trek series with Jean-Luc Picard.

Like many people my age (I’m 41 now), the first Star Trek I’ve ever watched was The Next Generation. Picard, Data, Riker, Worf, Troi, Geordi, they were all names we grew up with and vastly enjoyed watching. For me, in particular, it might be the thing that made me love SF in all its forms: movies, TV series and, most of all, books.

While the new series is not around those characters (with the exception of Picard, of course), some of them will appear in the new series. I’ve seen glimpses of Data, Riker and Troi in the trailer. You can also see Seven of Nine, from Voyager, who seems to be playing a much larger role than the other ones.

October Christmas tree, why not?

By Bobby Voicu

Christmas Tree in a Cozy apartment

I’m crazy about Christmas. The thing is, I wasn’t as crazy about Christmas when I was a kid as I’m now, at forty-something.

What happened in between?

Well, as an adult, the holidays season (including Christmas, of course, and New Year’s) is the most quiet period of the year. Nobody sends you emails, nobody wants something urgent from you. Except family, but hopefully you manage/like that part of your life.

Once I understood why I loved the quiet period, I started to associate things with it: Christmas carols, the Christmas tree, Christmas lights… This means that once the summer is over, I want the Christmas feeling as early as possible. So right now I’m negotiating with my fiancée having a Christmas tree starting with October…

I’m also listening to Christmas songs right now. Just because I can.

Wine at EuroDisney

By Bobby Voicu

DisneyLand fireworks

Q: Euro Disney really took off once you realized that French parents wanted fine wine at the restaurants to get them through the day.
Bob Iger: I know it was an issue.

The Slow-Burning Success of Disney’s Bob Iger

During the weekend I read this article on Bob Iger, the CEO of Disney. He talks about buying Pixar, Marvel and 21st Century Fox, he talks about his way of doing things. Quite an interesting op-ed.

The quote above, though, made me wonder how many small decisions make the success stories though.

I mean, who would think that not having wine in a menu (at a children’s park, especially) would make the place less successful?

Photo via Canva, article via Ben Evans’ newsletter

Who would you be without Instagram or Social Media?

By Bobby Voicu

Woman posing for Instagram in apartment

Several years ago, before 2008-2009, when blogging was just starting in Romania, I remember talking to somebody and saying that, at some point, a real-estate developer might want to pay a blogger to live rent free in one of their apartments to promote the building(s). I actually tried to find someone to pay me for that, but I think it was too early. Or I wasn’t interesting enough. Well, no, that couldn’t be it, right? :)

Yesterday I was reading an article on the life of an Instagram influencer that started as a kid blogger: Who Would I Be Without Instagram? An investigation. She was actually paid to live rent free in a luxury apartment in New York.

This is where the luxury rental building comes in. I was asked to live at 300 Ashland, right by the Atlantic Terminal in Brooklyn, as part of a campaign the real-estate company Two Trees was doing to promote three new developments. In a deal that covered my rent for a year, I agreed to do press about the building, host an event for my followers on its plaza, and post about the building and neighborhood on my account. I’d long shared my living space online and decided to see this as no different, except I would get paid. And so, for a year, I lent my face to promote a borrowed home.

Who Would I Be Without Instagram? An investigation

It only took 10 years to see it happening, but I’m happy I was mostly right. You can read the story of the apartment here as well.

The initial article is really good and puts a lot of things into perspective: from the fake image we put online, no matter how good we are with “being real” to the costs it carries.

The lady in the article – Tavi Gevinson – also expands her online influence to an online business, then she moves to acting.

In some ways I feel a kinship with that, since I started online as a blogger, before becoming an entrepreneur and, apparently, a blogger again. I also have an Instagram account I rarely use, so there’s that, as well.

Photo from Canva. Article via Ben Evans’s newsletter

Story driven and story rich games on Nintendo Switch

By Bobby Voicu

Link statue - Nintendo switch story rich games

I play games on PS4 and Nintendo Switch. The platforms are quite different in terms of what type of games are popular on each one, so each has its own use.

Today I was looking for some story driven games on Nintendo Switch because I want to play some in hand-held mode. I found several on reddit, but I also found this link for the “story rich” tag on the Nintendo e-shop:

Story rich games on Nintendo switch

Use it, in case you need it. I wrote this blog post just because I thought it might be interesting for others looking for the same thing. And I also wanted the link to be in a place where I can find it easily.

Oh, in the end I’ve picked up Celeste, Undertale and Bayonetta 2. Celeste is giving me nightmares with the difficulty, Undertale is a little… underwhelming. And Bayonetta is NOT something I’m used playing.

Photo by Ryan Quintal on Unsplash

The perfect sunglasses: rubbery, light weight Polaroids

By Bobby Voicu

Guy wearing Polaroid P7334 sunglasses in Lagos, Portugal

I loathe sun. Not the sun itself, actually, because I love warmth, but I hate the blinding light it emanates most of the time. I know, right? Stupid, shitty sun…

I started using computers when I was 6, so I was “blessed” with light sensitivity. My eye sight is really sharp, I don’t need glasses or anything, but really bright lights make me want to live in a cave for most of my life.

All of the above means that I wear sunglasses when I go out. All the time, even when it’s cloudy. That white, milky light on a cloudy day is even worse than bright light in a really sunny day, at 2pm.

Because of all this I was looking for the perfect pair of sunglasses my whole life. And, to keep going on the quality of life improvements series I started on this blog with the rollerblade wheels of the office chair, read on to see if I found the sunglasses. Spoiler: I did.

The perfect sunglasses attributes:

  • be as light weight as possible
  • have the “around the eyes”/”around the head” shape, to cover the extremities of my eyes as well and not fall when I move my head around (including playing sports, if possible)
  • lens category 3 UV protection
  • the small things that “sit” on the nose should be part of the sunglasses, not separate pieces
  • as indestructible as possible
  • not overly expensive. €50 would be the top price

Over the years I found different pairs that had some of the attributes I was looking for, but none were perfect. Until someday, I was accompanying my better half in her pursuit of sunglasses and I entered a shopping mall optics store. And, because I was getting bored, I asked the lady if she had anything with the above qualities. And what do you think? She recommended the perfect sunglasses: the sexy called Polaroid P7334 Rectangular Sunglasses.

guy with Polaroid P7334 Rectangular Sunglasses and hat
Even on the windiest of days, while crossing the Pyrenees, the glasses stay on

The only bad thing, though: they were around €80. I bought a pair, because they were too good to pass. After several weeks of wearing them, I wanted to have another pair in the car, another pair at my parents, another pair in the toilet, one in the kitchen. Well, not really, but you get the point.

So I looked on Amazon. And I found out that the store in the shopping mall had at least a 150% profit margin on them. When I’m writing this, the price on Amazon is exactly where I want it. Less than my top limit, actually.

What makes these sunglasses so great?

  • They’re really, really light.
  • They stretch a lot, so you can sit on them without any issue (which is the way I’ve messed up most of my sunglasses).
  • Sometimes the lens fall and you can put them back immediately.
  • They wrap around the head and they don’t let the sun light reach your eyes.
  • They are made out of a silicone-like rubbery material.

So, here are the links for the sunglasses on Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.de. You know, to support my reading habit. Or my habit of buying these sunglasses, because right now I have three (one in the car, two around the house) and I’ve had around 5 or 6. I manage to forget them everywhere. With one exception.

If you don’t want to buy a pair, you can try to find one I lost while trying to learn how to standup paddle on one of the rivers of Portugal. This is one con of the sunglasses: they don’t float. Unfortunately.

Regex crossword and puzzle

By Bobby Voicu

One of the things I wished I understand a whole lot better is the regex rules. While I can hack an already existing rule to adapt it for my own needs, I can’t start one from scratch. To be fair, I don’t think I can adapt one if my need is more complicated.

Recently I’ve discovered Regex Crossword and I’m having fun with it. I test myself from time to time, when I get bored. Who knows, maybe something will actually stick.

Here’s what they say on their About page:

Regex Crossword is a crossword puzzle game, where the crossword clues are defined using regular expressions. The site is created and maintained by Maria Hagsten Michelsenand Ole Bjørn Michelsen. Everybody can play and it is a great way for newcomers to learn regular expressions and for experts to practice their skills.

via

The richest Romanian comes now from tech

By Bobby Voicu

Dines UiPath Forbes

More lucrative: Dines would encourage consultants to introduce UiPath to their clients by letting the consultants keep as much as 80% of the overall bot-related spend in exchange for setting up and maintaining the program. Suddenly some of the world’s biggest companies were serving as little UiPath’s sales force.

From Communism To Coding: How Daniel Dines Of $7 Billion UiPath Became The First Bot Billionaire

Brilliant.

“I work really hard at the company, but only at things I like. Being a lazy person, I had to build better pattern recognition in life.” 

This, above, is one of the mistakes I’ve made. I’m pretty good at delegating what I’m not skilled at, but I’m not as good at it as I want to be.

Read the entire article: From Communism To Coding: How Daniel Dines Of $7 Billion UiPath Became The First Bot Billionaire