Foursquare went live in St. Louis last week, and it seems to me it’s people are using it as an extension of Twitter, rather than its own separate social network. The concept is great, but I don’t think some people “get it”. Foursquare has a very open platform, but has a much more specific use that separates itself from other social networking tools, therefore users must use their own discretion.

I’ve put together my personal preferences and some suggestions to other users. Obviously there are exceptions to these, they are just suggestions.

Who I friend:
My rule of thumb is this, If I’m not interested on hanging out with you, I’m not your “friend”. Don’t take that the wrong way.

Where I check in:
Places of interest. I ask myself, “Does anyone care that I’m here or would anyone want to come here?”. If the answer is no for both, then I don’t post it. I’m sure no one cares if I visit a gas station, grocery store, McDonald’s, home or work (Unless work is someplace you spend your free time or want visitors).

My suggestions to users:

• Don’t check it at your work or home.
• Tag venues so others know what to expect.
• Suggest tips on good dishes and drink specials.
• Don’t check in at the same place twice in one visit to say something site specific. Either add a tip, tag it or use the “Shout” function.

Foursquare is a completely unique social service, and should be treated as such. I don’t want 100+ Foursquare friends and I don’t want to know their every move. Obviously you can make up your own mind and do whatever you want, but this is how I find value in it, and might be why I’m not your “friend”.

How do you use Foursquare? What are your pet peeves? Am I taking this too seriously?

Now this is a man’s breakfast, none of that ricecake shit. That’s a grilled cheese sandwich with bacon and an egg, washed down with a stag. The only thing that could make this more manly would be some gravy…and maybe a gun.

I started a new site this week, still under heavy construction, but it’s interesting to move outside of the wordpress.com world and into my own domain. It won’t replace this site, but will receive more of my small attention span as it is. Please, check it out and see TheNarwhal.net, your source for internet news.

As per a suggestion by @rexdixon after I posted this on twitter yesterday, I’m posting this work of art. Don’t expect me to draw one of these every day, or ever again really… I need a scanner, and some sweet art skills.

Hi Mom!

It looks like people can actually find my blog by “googling” my name, as told to me by my mother. She also found my Twitter. Pretty impressive if you ask me. I’m cool with it, she brought me a Chipotle gift card up to work yesterday. Thanks Mom and I love you!

Occasionally I like to post these because there are so many AWESOME apps on the iPhone, and hard to keep up with all of them. I just got my 3GS and I’m back up and running, and here’s what I’ve been using.  I’m also cheap, so these are all free.

• fring – If you’re looking for push notification for Skype, AIM, GTalk, ICQ, Yahoo or AIM this is it. Unfortunately the twitter support will push ALL mesages to the phone and as far as I can tell that is the only option in fring. I’ve also been playing with the SIP support for Gizmo5 and Google Voice.
• Chess with Friends and Words with Friends - These 2 apps support multiplayer chess and scrabble, enough said. My username is doctorsound.
• Bump – Transfer contact info between two bump users via a fist bump. I wish more people had this set up already…
• World War – I’m again addicted to another unimaginative MMO iPhone app, this one focused around the military. my ‘alliance’ code is J8YDEB
• Cube – First Person Shooter for the iPhone, seems to be kinda buggy. It’s got a lot of potential, especially with better Multiplayer capabilities.

What are some apps that have caught your attention?

So if you’re like me and always looking for a new way to nerd out, you’ve  already gotten your Google Voice number and are asking, now what? Personally, I’ve been wanting to take my Google Voice calls on my computer. I’m also cheap, so I wanted to receive my Google Voice calls for FREE. Here’s how, because most guides online are quite more complicated than they need to be, or not complete.

Please note, I am not an expert in IP Telephony, so YMMV and use at your own risk. I’ll be able glad to help as much as I can if you run into anything.

1.) Get a Google Voice invite. This is probably the hardest part seeing that it is still invite only.

2.) Go to Gizmo5 and create an account. Pay attention to the SIP phone account they assign you (It’ll look like 1747xxxxxxx), you’ll need it in a second.

3.) While in your new Gizmo5 account click the “My” tab on the top right. One of the top section is used to connect your Gizmo5 number to Google Voice, enter the info and save.

4.) Download SIP Communicator and install. It will prompt you to add your information under the SIP account (Top Left account). Add you SIP information as ‘1747xxxxxxx@proxy01.sipphone.com’ placing your number you got on the last step and your Gizmo5 password.

5.) Head back to Google Voice, and bring up your settings and add a new forwarding phone, choose it as a Gizmo5 and add your 747 number. Receive the confirmation call in SIP Communicator and enter the verification code (To bring up the dial pad, press the icon in the bottom left corner, that looks like a circle).

6.) You now can receive calls on your desktop when someone calls your Google Voice!

Please note that I’ve seen info change on this daily it seems, mainly on the length of received calls through Gizmo5, but the most recent I’ve seen it’s unlimited incoming.

This is just the tip of the iceberg of what Google Voice can offer, and there will be many more things to come.

Just for the record, I deleted my Facebook a while back, that’s why you can’t find me there anymore. Too much high school drama even though I am no longer in High School.

Please note, this is not me supporting, or admitting to pirating games. This is just some of the reasons the gaming industry needs to get their shit together. Pirating games might not be “stealing” to you, but the people who DO work hard for these game companies deserve to get paid. Also, I cuss a lot, be forewarned.

1. Games that don’t live up to the hype. Too many times have we seen a game surrounded in hype released only to be mediocre at best. I’ll take Spore for example. Even Will Wright admitted to the pressure put on the game by fans. For some reason people were still going ape shit over it before it released. Outside of the crippling DRM (I’ll get to that) it was a decent enough game, but I haven’t played it since release, and probably never will.

2. Hardware requirements. I remember picking up the 1^st Matrix game (see #1 again) and glancing at the hardware requirements and thinking “No problem!”, Wrong! Many hours of tinkering and a call to tech support left me with my answer, an incompatible video card. While mine “met” the requirements, it was not supported. Many low budget gamers, like myself at the time, have felt this burn. Window Vista was supposed to change a lot of this by making itself a descent gaming OS with it’s “Games for Windows” ratings. I don’t think I’ve seen any big advancements with this.

3. Operating System woes. There has been only a few Vista issues I haven’t been able to work around, but I shouldn’t have to. Why can’t I play my games designed for windows 98 on my Vista machine? Some of my classics are completely unplayable now. Serves me right for being so open minded about Vista…

4. Poor development and bugs. Rushed deadlines are the #1 killer of games. I currently have a save game on Knights of the Old Republic II that I can’t advance because of a major glitch. Sure, console games have them too, but not like this. Seriously, we can wait another 6 months for your game to come out. We WANT it to be good, we’ll wait.

5. Which brings me to after-launch support. Just because sales have slowed, doesn’t mean people still don’t have problems. PATCH YOUR FUCKING BUGS! Again, KOTOR II has forums full of bugs with unofficial workarounds which essential involve pirating the game anyway. This shouldn’t be.

6. Why can’t I play Team Fortress 2 on my PC with my friends on their 360’s? Frankly PC games are about the BEST moderated I’ve seen, many have great 3^rd party add-ins to keep the griefers out. Second thought, let the consoles keep their clusterfucks they usually have in their poorly moderated servers.

7. Price structure. While I am no expert in the following fields; game development, gaming in general, economics or retail. I do know this, the price of gaming is godawful. Most games start at $60, then many games turn around and charge just as much for expansion packs (Which I’m sure the development cost is much less), online content or monthly access fees. The Sims, I’m looking at you. I LOVE The Sims, but I’m not dropping $20 to get IKEA furniture. Nor am I going to download your online furniture set for $20. P.S. Your expansion packs are great. I used to just wait until my friend bought the newest one, and I would just play one version behind. Eat that DRM! P.P.S. I would imagine I have spent over $200 on Sims games alone, and probably another $100 on Will Wright games, don’t feel like you didn’t get enough out of me…

8. Poor balance between Multiplayer and Singleplayer. For FSM’s fucking sake I don’t want to play with others all the time. And if you’re going to create a multiplayer, don’t just stick us in a box and give us guns, make it GOOD!

9. DRM. It fucking sucks. I have games sitting around that I cannot play due to two things. The terrible DRM that it uses won’t let me play the game for whatever stupid reason. Or, I’ve lost my keys. There is nothing more depressing than playing by the rules, purchasing your overpriced, poorly developed, over hyped, barely compatible game only to get home and it go all HAL from “2001: A Space Odyssey” I’m sorry Dave, I can’t allow you to play that. FUCK YOU HAL!

10. For some reason I can pop a disc into a XBOX and play right away. To do this on my computer on the other hand I have to wait forever and a fucking day in order for my game to install. And then I still have to put a disk in to play! I know you’re not using that disk for anything…

11. Tech support. Is there any anymore? Are they ever any help? I’ve called TS numbers just to get a “go online” message many times. The one time I did get a hold of anyone, I had to reformat my computer after what they had me do :-/

What I’d like to see

1. Games that are designed for longevity. Blizzard is still patching Starcraft, and no surprise, still selling it. Why? Because it is a good game and Blizzard knows it. They continue to keep it up to date. I will be buying Starcraft II because I feel like I owe THEM for their work.

2. More games on Steam. Probably the single biggest factor in the reason I don’t pirate games. It’s easier to catch a good deal on a game, Download it on Steam and it (almost) always works. Many games on steam tie into #1 above and continue to update long after the hype has died down.

3. More free updates. TF2 is awesome about this. I’ll lose interest in it, hear about a new update and get back it it. Definitely worth my money.

4. Stop it with the crap DRM. Give me some options here. If I have to install a game, I don’t want to have to worry about keeping the disk handy. I’m sure you guys can find a better  DRM system. Either connect online to verify your account or put your disk in. Either of these are more than sufficient enough to stop people from passing their games to their friends. Anything more complicated will piss people off, and will find a way to pirate it anyway.

5. Better multiplayer will entice gamers to pay for the game in the 1^st place.

6. Stop making terrible games. Just stop, we’ll find your crappy game before it comes out and tell everyone.

7. Let me see some boobs every once and a while. I don’t need porno in my games, but quit worrying about the conservatives and show some tits.

8. Peripheral options for PC are limitless, why are the consoles getting all the cool stuff? Seriously, every gaming accessory of late has been on the console first. That doesn’t even make sense.

9. Well it kinda does… PC’s typically aren’t party consoles, you can change that. The amount of people plugging their computers to their TV’s is increasing. That’s potential.

10. Don’t lie to us. If you know you’re never going to finish a game, don’t lead us on (I’m looking at you Duke Nukem Forever)

11. This one is going to need the right point of view… Development studios need to set up a tip jar. Say someone pirates a game, they really like it, but don’t see the need to go out and buy it at a $60 price point. Why should they pay that much when most of the cost does not apply to them. They don’t need the material, the marketing or the markup charged by the distributor and retailer. Set up a website where pirates can go and “Pay” for their game. Charge them a reasonable rate. Let them print out a certificate saying, I such and such am free from any legal obligations or persecutions for illegally downloading this game. I cannot be prosecuted as such. Everybody’s happy, well maybe except Best Buy.

Maybe I’m making excuses, but one thing is for sure. I’ve been burned too many times. I should start a list of times I’ve been burned…

P.S. If anyone read the 1st draft of this, I apologize. I was drunk. It’s still probably not much better.

Hey St. Louis, I need your help. I want to put together a bit of a “who’s who” and new users guide to St. Louis for new twitter users. I’ve got some ideas to ease the pain for new users who are probably overwhelemed with everything. This will be hosted on the STLTwitter page, but other STL sites are welcome to use it as well.

Here’s what I’m looking for:

• People who have a lot of tweets geared for new users. @tojosan is probably the best example of this, but I’m looking for others.
• Local “Celebrities” i.e. Radio DJ’s and Talk show hosts. I’m ashamed to say, I can probably only think of 1 that I follow.
• Local places and their tweet streams. i.e. @themuny
• Major STL sites like @SceneSTL and major news outlets like @weatherbird
• Any STL bots like @stlbot
• And a list of any other STL sites of intrest (I should have most on the right of the STL page) Please let me know if I’m missing any.
• And anything else you find helpful to stay connected in St. Louis!
• Maybe 1 or 2 generic “New Twitter Users” guides. I’ll for sure link to @tojosan’s, which was a big help for me!

I want to keep it as simple as possible, so I don’t want to create a White Pages of STL, I’d like to keep it strictly as a guide for new users to be able to find value. I appreciate any help, please leave a comment below or contact me. If I can keep track of who helped I’ll give a shout out on the page. Thanks for your help!