Shortly after the Northeast blackout of 2003, my wife and I started to take disaster preparedness seriously.  The blackout only lasted a couple of days but we realized that had the blackout not occurred in the Summer and had the blackout lasted much longer, we would have been in serious trouble. 

The journey from being totally unprepared to being aware of how totally unprepared we are could be be described as “The idiot’s journey”. 

BIG DISCLAIMER:  Muich of this is written tongue in cheek. This is primarily about the dumb things I did and the dumb things I’ve noticed other people doing as they learned what they actually need to do to be prepared for a prolonged disaster.  YMMV.

Stage 1: Stocking up on future rotting MREs

The newbie prepper thinks it’s all about starvation.  Never mind that a human can go up to 3 weeks without food but only 3 days without water. Our novice prepper will not just stock up on food but will specifically buy MREs in bulk.  This food will then be stored (poorly) in the basement along with a couple gallons of water.  In time, this food will quietly expire.

Prognosis: In the event of a prolonged disaster, this prepper won’t starve to death, they’ll instead die of dehydration or dysentery.

How to spot: Asking who makes the best 1200 watt portable generator.

What we learned:  Pointless to have more food than water supply.

Stage 2: I must have all the guns!

Graduating to stage 2 for us meant recognizing “it’s the water, stupid!”. 

Our novice prepper will begin building up supplies of water, the ability to obtain new water and then build up on food supplies. At this point, the prepper understands the concept of cycling through their food stocks (but usually won’t do it anyway). 

Unfortunately, these novice preppers immediately start worrying about how to defend their food and water. So they get guns. Lots and lots of guns.

And our well armed proto-preppers ignore:

• that their house/apartment/condo is indefensible.
• that their house/apartment/condo isn’t habitable in the winter
• that if they get hurt they’re screwed
• that they have no way to stay clean (unless they dip into their water storage)
• that they are really just glorified supply depot for gangs if things really were that far gone.
• that if they think they can hunt for food that millions of others will be doing the same and there just aren’t enough deer for that.

How to spot: Endlessly debates AR-15 vs. AK-47 in a survival forum.

What we learned: Defense is way way down the list in terms of being able to handle a serious disaster.  (1) Water (2) Food (3) Fire (4) Gear (5) Hygiene & First Aid (6) Defense.  Not necessarily in that order.

Stage 3: The Purposeless bug out bag

This is where the dumb person (like me) can spend a lot of cash on things they’ll never use.

Stage 3 is where the real fun starts. The Bug out bag. Most people never leave this stage because the bug out bag becomes the hobby.

What starts as the accumulation of gear ends with a 55 ton “bug out bag”. Because, you know, it should have everything possible.

For me, this stage lasted…well, let’s just say it lasted a long time.  I’m better now. No really. I have it under control. What? What’s that? A portable Ham radio receiver? I’ll be right back!

(4 hours later..)

Ok. I’m back. What were we talking about? Oh yes. My bug out bag. I’m not trying to brag it’s got everything…

• Water? Hell yea. I’ve got water. Water purifiers, life straws, bladders, canteens, charcoal, solar distillers, plastic wrap for collecting moisture. I could live on Dune! When filled with water: 1.2 tons.
• Food? Oh, no problem. MREs, rice, jerky, bear traps, dinosaur snares, harpoon, fishing pole, pemmican. Total weight: 2.1 tons.
• Fire? Lighters, matches, fire starter kits,  gas stoves, “portable” (not really) propane stove, etc.
• Gear? All of them. I mean, you have to include thermal imaging gear in there. Only a fool would not have that. Plus knives, hatches, saws, hatchet, axe, tents, knives, sleeping bag, under armor, knives, Merino wool stuff, shovels, and on and on and on. 
• First Aid and Hygiene? Oh, well, obviously we need to be ready if someone needs their appendix removed. Haven’t you read The Stand? Don’t want to be stuck out in the middle of nowhere not ready to do an appendectomy.  Plus toilet paper, portable latrines, and lots and lots of other necessities.
• Defense? Well you gotta pack a 30-06 (for hunting game), a 22 (small game), an AR-15 (for defense), a pistol.  Not to mention a shot-gun. 12 gauge of course unless you really need that 410 too. What the heck, let’s take both.

Prognosis: Dies of heart attack 15 minutes after trying to carry all this stuff.

How to spot: Treats disaster preparedness as if it’s an extended hiking trip that they’ll never actually take.

What we learned:  I learned that in the event of a disaster my primary role should be food. That is, I should be food for other people as I clearly lacked common sense to survive an extended emergency. As a form of protein, I might be able to help smarter, better prepared families survive a difficult time.

Also: A bug out bag is a means to an end. It should get you from point A to point B. And you should know what A and B are beforehand. Which brings us to…

Stage 4: Grasping what Disaster Preparedness is

From what I have seen and read, most people stay in stage 3. That’s not all bad. Getting more people interested in camping or hiking and how to use various types of equipment is better than nothing and anyone who has gotten to stage 3 will probably be okay in all but the worst disasters.

In our case, since we began this journey after realizing just how dependent we’ve grown on the modern power grid. Not surprisingly, most of our thoughts have centered around how to deal with an extended power outage.

People who reach this stage seem to have an understanding that there are certain prerequisites that should be met before even starting this journey. 

For example, you shouldn’t be “prepping” IF:

1. You have a large credit card debt
2. You don’t have health insurance
3. You are financially struggling
4. You are physically in preventable, poor health.

People at this stage also realize that accumulating a bunch of stuff is pointless without a plan.

What we learned: This is where we started thinking of different locations we should go to in the event that we didn’t think we could stay in our home.

I hate the term “bug out location” (BOL) but that’s the lingo. It means that in a disaster, the destination matters. Your emergency kit (BOB) exists to get you to your BOL.   How long would it take you and your family to walk there? Ideally, you could just drive there but if you’re planning for the absolute worst, being able to walk there should be a consideration.

Once you’ve figured out what it would take to get to your destination, what challenges would you realistically expect? Being picky on this is a big challenge because the more you carry, the slower you’ll go.  I think my family could probably walk 8 to 10 miles a day. That distance decreases rapidly as we load up with gear.

My kit is 35 lbs. I weigh 180 lbs. I know there are people who say that 25% of their body weight is the norm. Yay for them. They win. They’re more manly than I am.  My goal is for my pack to be less than 1/6th my body weight. But it’s very challenging getting there.  When I started, my kit was about 50 lbs. Someday, if I build enough skills, I think I can get to 1/6th.

Remember: Gear can be traded in for skills. Skills weigh 0.

Point being, the kit is there to get you to a destination.

Depending on the severity we’ve got 3 different destinations. 

1. Our home,
2. my wife’s parent’s farm,
3. or our 40 acre wooded land.

Having a destination is crucial.

In all hope and likelihood, none of this will matter. We’ll probably never have any emergency that makes any of this relevant. We just treat it as any other insurance policy, we don’t expect any disasters to happen. But if the worst case happened, it would take a week to walk to remote wooded property.   Thus, our kits have to include what that would entail. 

It is important for people to remember, especially people who never go past stage 1, this few people think there’s any real likelihood of any of this mattering.  We enjoy this as a hobby as well as an insurance policy.  It’s a great excuse to get the family doing something together.  We get to learn how to be more self-sufficient. I can’t really think of any downsides.

Stage 5: SKILLS

For us, this is a theoretical stage because we’re not here yet.

When it comes to learning skills, there is no substitute for experience. 

You can read and theorize all day but you have to actually do it to be sure. And that takes time. A lot of it. A bunch of expensive equipment and a good plan are useless without the skills to carry out your plan. 

Many basic skills  just require discipline.  For example,  could my family actually walk to a prepared location in a reasonable time? I doubt it.  A hiker, in decent shape and a reasonable pack can do around 10 miles a day.  That’s one of the reasons why I see these 70lb packs people have prepared and wonder how long they plan to lug that around.  Ask a soldier/veteran about how easy it is to carry 70lbs of gear 15 miles a day with an 8lb rifle. 

I want to say this again: Learning skills will let you get rid of some of your gear. 

Someone in excellent shape can haul 25% of their body weight. But most hikers I know stick to 1/6th their body weight.  Mine is about 1/5th my body weight and I consider it a bit too heavy for a week long hike.

Skills are, imo, the culmination. They are the difference between someone being a supply depot for someone else and survival in the event that some horrible disaster ever happens that really does bring about a prolonged break down in civil society.

We may never get here but it’s nice to have a goal. Plus, I plan to become an expert with those dinosaur snares.

As much as many of us like the existing WinCustomize design, technology marches on and there's a lot more we can do with WinCustomize today than we could when we did the last design.

I'm starting this thread to begin the brain storming phase of what you guys would like to see in the next-generation version of WinCustomize.com.

This can include:

1. HOW items (like skins) are organized.

2. WHAT kinds of items we include (should we add support for mobile devices for instance)

3. WHAT kinds of design elements and features would you like to see.

Plus anything else you'd like to add.

Let it begin.

First off, we should all be ashamed that we do not already have a Breaking Bad thread.

There.

I've said it.

We are all bad people.

Terrible people really.

What kind of forum doesn't have a Breaking Bad forum? I'll tell you what kind: One that has something to hide.  A forum that feels like the subject matter hits too close to home. 

But the time of hiding is over. The final season is here.

Discuss.

Spoilers.

(duh)

The time preordained from the beginning of things has arrived.

It is time to do some UI cleanup.

So in this thread, please feel free to make reasonable requests on changes/enhancements to the UI.  These should be things that fix problems that really really bug you.

Thanks!

In October we turn 20 years.  As some of you know, Stardock started out as a 1-man shop. I was a college student paying my own way through school and I started my business to help pay for school until I could find a real job. 

When I incorporated Stardock, I was 22 years old (I’m 42 now).  I had no idea what I was doing. I knew nothing on business. And ultimately, I gave up trying to get a “real job” because I was having too much fun doing Stardock. 

During the past 20 years, I’ve read a lot of books on business and I’ll tell you, most of them are terrible. They are fine if you’re looking to be a manager at an established company but I’ve read nothing that helps prepare someone for what it means to be an entrepreneur.  So let me share with you 10 lessons I’ve learned that might be helpful to you or someone you know who’s starting their own business.

#1 It’s a lifestyle.  I have never met anyone with has a successful business that they founded that can (or even wants) to turn it off when they leave the office. 

#2 Loving your job forever is hard.  Before founding a company, you better love what you want to do. I mean, you better really really love it because you’re going to be doing it every day for years until either [A] you close it down or [B] you sell it.

Loving your job for 20 years is no easy task.  That’s why it’s important that you make your work environment suit your preferences. People who don’t like the environment you set up can leave. You can’t.

#3 You can’t do it for money.  If money is your motivator, give it up now. Money is just the exhaust that comes out whatever machine you’re building. You’ll never successfully compete against people who love doing what they’re doing if your motivator is money and not love of what you’re doing.

#4 Do not hire your friends.  This is one of those things that lay people say is “common sense” but when you’re actually running a company and you need people you think you can trust, the temptation to hire friends is very high. Don’t. Avoid it. Because…

#5 No one is a prophet in their own land. The friends you had outside of work once brought in will never understand the thousands of little things you have to do well to succeed and this will generate resentment and weaken your friendship.

#6 If you make money, you will get sued. Look at the Wikipedia entry of pretty much any successful entrepreneur. You will find they get sued. A lot. The rationale is always different but they always get sued.  I didn’t started getting sued (and nowadays it seems like there’s always a few lawsuits going on or pending) until we started making a lot of money.  If you have money, people will rationalize their way into trying to extract some from you. For us, the worst ones are patent trolls. But every industry will have its own unique form of parasites.

#7 You can create the best working environment ever. Because you have a lot of control over what kind of corporate culture develops, you can, with experience and wisdom, create an amazing place to go to work every day. The people I work with are universally awesome. I am not just saying that, I mean they’re so awesome that if you, reading this, randomly selected someone who works where I work, you would probably conclude “Yea, this is a smart, good person.” Interview the people who work at a fortune 500 company and then interview the people who work at a company run by its founder and I think you’ll find a huge gulf in general satisfaction. If not, they’re doing it wrong.

#8 You have get really good at knowing your own strengths and weaknesses.  Let’s face it, most people really don’t know themselves that well. They don’t have to. Starting a company can be a very humbling experience as the school of hard knocks teaches you that you’re not really good at a lot of things you thought you were.  One favorite example is that I don’t hire people where I work anymore. That’s because I like almost everyone. I am a terrible judge of character. Instead, I’ve learned to rely on people who are really really good at interviewing and hiring people. It took some very unpleasant experiences (see #4) to teach me that.

#9 You better be excellent at math.  It doesn’t matter what your business does, if you personally aren’t good with numbers, stop. Stop right now. Being good at juggling numbers is one of the most unappreciated skills there is and yet it’s one of the most important prerequisites for being an entrepreneur. You have to be able to intuitively manage lots of variables to determine what is and isn’t a financially viable idea. 

When people ask me what are the most important factors in our success (besides hard work and persistence) I say intuitive accounting ability. Being able to look at an idea and know whether it’s going to be profitable or not at a glance is crucial. People who can’t do that have absolutely no appreciation for that skill and yet it’s probably the biggest differentiator between a successful entrepreneur and a bankrupt one.  It’s also one skill that results in #5 because it’s not obvious or appreciated.

#10 It’ll make you an optimist.  I’ve never met a successful entrepreneur who isn’t extremely upbeat. In fact, the longer they’re an entrepreneur the more upbeat they become.

In high school, I wrote a column called “The Cynic’s Corner”.  I was, to put it mildly, a pessimist. I didn’t call myself one of course. I said I was a realist. When I started my business, I still had a pretty dark view on people and the world (I probably did better at hiring back then too).  But the more I travel, the more people I meet, the more I’m convinced that human beings are good.  I can even look back at my own blogs (I’ve been writing on my blog for 12+ years) and see how I’ve gradually become more optimistic when it comes to dealing with challenges and people.

So there you have it.  I won’t claim that my experiences and lessons are universal. But as someone who started his business with nothing and over the past two decades has built it into something, I hope that what I’ve learned may be of use to the next-generation of would-be entrepreneurs. 

Cheers!

I’ve ready a lot of comments on Fallen Enchantress: Legendary Heroes AI.  I feel confident in saying that most people seem very satisfied with it overall. But I think most people would say it’s not quite as good as GalCiv II’s.

In some respects, the GalCiv series is an anomaly.   I’ve been programming AI on GalCiv games for 20 years.  Let’s put that on the table for a moment and consider the ramifications. Can anyone think of a game, any game in the history of game development, where the same individual programmed the AI for the same franchise for 20 years.  That’s why the AI in the GalCiv games is so good. I’ve had 20 years to digest people’s ideas.

Similarly, a couple weeks ago we released FE: Legendary Heroes 1.3.  As many have observed, the AI improvements in it are nothing short of spectacular.  But that’s not because I suddenly became a better programmer (I wish! <g>). It’s because I’ve had just that much more time to play the game, read the forums, watch “Let’s Play Videos”.

Probably the biggest advantage the LH has had in AI is that pretty much everyone has multicore setups.  I can’t promise this but I think LH may be the first truly native multicore AI that’s been developed (it certainly won’t be the last).  That is, every AI player gets its smarts spawned out to a different CPU core.  That’s why the turn times are much shorter than in most games even though the AI plays pretty well without having to cheat.

Why we don’t like cheating

I’ve gotten a lot of email from people asking why I don’t just have the AI “cheat” on the challenging and normal difficulties.  And I think there may be an age thing.  People of my age (around 40) really really hate cheating AI.  I think it hurts the game. I think it hurts the game because when I play a game, I want to feel like the AI is playing the same game as I do.

Even on the harder levels in Legendary Heroes, the AI doesn’t just conjure up units out of thin air. We just give them more gold or more HP and other things that players can understand and react to.  We don’t, for instance, spawn enemies out in the FOW (a very common trick on our industry). The AI has to have the resources, even on “ridiculous” to create those units. That matters because players want to be able to knock out iron mines and stables and know that this is going to impact the AI’s ability to create those units (same for wiping out shards and spell casting).

What’s next

I still think of Legendary Heroes as a new game.  New DLC is in the works, new updates (1.4 and 1.5) are in the works.  The success of the DLC allows me to pay developers to keep enhancing the game. 

So how do we make the AI better?

There’s just no substitute for time on this.  When people play the game and post, I read. And I conspire how to thwart their plans.   Like many of you, I enjoy playing the game and thinking of ways to wreck it.  I’m a lucky guy that I get to spend time with you guys and brainstorm new strategies for the AI.  I do feel bad for the amazing experts who won’t get to see the expression on those new players who suddenly see the AI doing something clever.

But I think, you and I, together are doing something really fun for next-generation gamers who will realize that 4X games are, actually, pretty darn amazing.

Cheers!

In October 2013, Stardock will be turning 20 (incorporation date). The first software product we made was…Galactic Civilizations. 

I began working on it in early 1992 while in college and it went into public beta at the start of 1993.  It was “published” by a guy going by “Advanced Idea Machines” who also designed, ahem, the box.

Galactic Civilizations for OS/2 box (we had nothing to do with this..box)

I was going through my stuff today and found a shrink wrapped copy of Galactic Civilizations for OS/2.  This has to be about the worst retail box I have ever seen  in my life. But there it is.

A couple years later, Stardock made a sequel for OS/2 (Galactic Civilizations 2).  This time, we designed the box ourselves using Corel Draw. Mind you, we still didn’t really have any resident artists.  My long-time friend who I met during Orientation at college, Bill Zalenski, designed the GalCiv aliens.

Galactic Civilizations 2 for OS/2 box

Of course now, boxes are starting to become rare. In the digital age, why would you put a computer game inside a piece of dead tree? But I kind of miss game boxes.

So what kind of firearms do you have? Any?

I've got a CZ-75 P07 0.40 pistol.  This one my favorite pistol.

I've also got a S&W Model 28 revolver which is my favorite handgun overall even though it's just a 6 shooter and has a 6 inch barrel.

I also have a Mossberg 500 pump shotgun and a Benelli M4 semi-auto shotgun. I have a few others but I don't tend to use them anymore (not enough time to practice)

In terms of rifles, my favorite one to shoot is a 10/22 but I have a SIG 556, a LMC AR-15 Defender and an ACR but I haven't had time yet to put them through their paces.  I've got some other files (a Ruger Mini 14 which I don't like).

Ironically, I do not own a 9mm pistol. I'm thinking of getting a Glock 19.

As pressure mounts to raise the wages of fast food workers, advocates may want to take note that such wage increases eventually pass a threshold where it makes financial sense to simply invest in automation. As Grocery Store cashiers learned, these jobs are not a given. We are all competing not just with each other but with robots. 

One of the primary reasons that the gap between the rich and poor has increased so much in the past 20 years has been the rise in IT.  Once we purchase a computer, robot, etc. its capabilities – its output and productivity are owned by the buyer which increases the wealth generated by that person.

As people demand McDonalds pay workers $15 an hour and the government insists that they also provide health care, restaurant owners are increasingly evaluating whether to simply replace their work force with machines.  

Naturally, in 2017 when today’s “living wage advocate” is ordering their Big Mac from a friendly touch screen and having it delivered momentarily by a robot they’ll make no connection between how their beliefs resulted in more people living in poverty. Instead, they’ll blame McDonalds. They’ll blame greedy restaurant owners. But they won’t consider that perhaps it wasn’t such a good idea to price people out of their workforce.

More reading:

http://singularityhub.com/2013/01/22/robot-serves-up-340-hamburgers-per-hour/

http://www.thestar.com/business/2012/11/29/automatic_burger_machine_could_revolutionize_fast_food.html