Both VMware Workstation and VirtualBox have just released major updates.

VMware Workstation 9 is an expensive ($119) upgrade barely a year after version 8 was released. It appears to bring some interesting new options, such as the ability to access a VM remotely or to mount a virtual disk as a drive on the host system, but it's getting harder to justify the cost versus the free (at least for personal use) of VirtualBox 4.2.

InfoWorld has a comparative review of VMware 9 and VirtualBox 4.2.

I've now uploaded a rough version of my Open Source python library/helper code for very rapidly prototyping card game images for playtesting, PythonProtoCards.

It includes my sample "CodyCards" game and sample use of the code to generate the cards for it.

Download from: https://www.donation...er/pythonprotocards/

Release history:

• v1.5.1 - 9/9/12 -- improved layout of large blocks of text; fixed bug when displaying text with linebreaks
• v1.4.1 - 4/5/11 -- added corner circle text helper function, and used it from sample CodyCards
• v1.2.1 - 3/25/11 -- improved transparency effects, improved full page bleed layouts
• v1.0.1 - 3/13/11 -- first release

The PythonProtoCards library provides classes and functions that are useful for rapidly prototyping *printed* card games.

The library makes it possible to programmatically create lots of cards quickly. It helps you divide up work into different steps, so that you can manually create and edit game piece data or automatically generate it programmatically, and then generate printable images for this card and piece data. The data file format is designed to be very easy for humans to edit, but also parsable by code, which can load the data, modify it, and write out newly modified files, almost like a minimalistic database. This makes it easy to programmatically modify or add to existing data files that will also be hand edited.

The focus here is on very rapid prototyping (rather than pixel-perfect laytout control) so you'll find things like functions for automatically scaling text and images to fit within specific regions, text-wrapping, etc.

By interfacing with the Python Imaging Library (PIL), the PythonProtoCards classes can quickly generate large numbers of nice looking card images, and even lay them out for printing on card template sheets.

One of our favorite sites, and arguably *the* best site to find the best freeware tools for MS Windows, Gizmo's Tech Support Alert, has just published their 2012 Editors' Choice List of Best Free Windows Applications.

It's a must read list, and I'm very proud to see that our own Screenshot Captor program was recommended as Best Screen Capture Utility.

Personal Note: I've been nervous that Gizmo's would get tired of waiting for the latest update to Screenshot Captor, but I have some *major* new features coming in the next month, including better online uploading, a new optional quick-screenshot toolbar, and video screencasting, so I hope to make them proud.

Now, we all know that User Reviews have always been a dubious thing to see, and we could never know if they where legitimate or not.  Now, it has been uncovered, that big-name authors RJ Ellory and Stephen Leather have been writing fake reviews, promoting their own books, whilst slamming other authors work.  Now, that's not to say they are the ONLY people doing this.  It is well known that reviews are easy to buy online, be it video, or written.  One can buy these on sites such as Fiverr, and as the name suggests, they cost $5 each.  I am sure, that somewhere, somehow, you can get them for much cheaper.

Do people even read user reviews?

In short, yes.  I, myself, have dismissed an app on Android based on the comments of users.  I do this even when I know that user reviews are mostly fake.  Now, I don't know the true figures of Fake vs Real, and I am not honestly sure that anybody really does.  However, I still read them, and somewhat trust them. 

Gary Marshall over at TechRadar writes this week about why these fake reviews are so prominent -- in short, because they work so well:

You can see the appeal. Imagine you have a restaurant, and in these tough times you need every customer you can get - so why not try to steal your rivals' customers? Why not pay a few friends to go to your rival's restaurant, booking via one of the restaurant booking sites, and then leave a damning online review for other would-be diners?

It wouldn't cost much, and if it persuades even a couple of people to go to your restaurant rather than theirs then it's been a good investment.

That story from TechRadar seems to focus heavily on reviews for books, however, it is easily transferred to any other service or product.

Here's Eileen Brown at zdnet writing about Google's attempts to catch fake reviews:

A new software algorithm was announced last week at the World Wide Web 2012 conference in Lyon, France.  It tries to detect groups of spammers working together to influence products.

Opinion spamming is quite common. Have a look at any successful web sites with multiple reviews on the site. Some reviewers try to game the system by promoting or demoting target products. Groups of reviewers can work collaboratively to write fake reviews and can often take total control of the sentiment of the site.

Eileen makes a point of showing two reviews, one real, and one fake, both VERY similar to each other.  I don't know about you, but I can't tell which is fake, and which is real!

Do you trust user reviews?  Do you have a technique on how to filter fake from real?  I would love to hear your take on this!

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Related Content:

Fake Reviews: Amazon's Rotten Core (DonationCoder Forum Discussion)
Estimating the Prevalence of Deception in Online Review Communities (Technical Paper) - PDF

I'd like to request your help in improving my Culinary-themed card game, that I would like to try funding on Kickstarter.



Here's a link to the current DRAFT rule book: https://www.donation...gparty/Rulebook3.pdf

Here's where the game currently stands:

• I have a draft of the basic rulebook.
• I have a complete set of about 150 draft prototype cards.
• I have playtested the game with a few friend and family, and it's gone over great -- my 8yr old niece who likes cooking shows loved it.

And here's what I know I need help with:

• Coming up with a better name.
• Adding additional variants of gameplay.
• Adding a main gameplay mode that does not depend on subjective culinary judgement.  That is, I want to add an alternative, more traditional card game that can be played with the cards, for people who may not love the idea of a subjective social party game.
• Coming up with kickstarter goals, "perks" etc.
• Finding an enthusiastic partner who likes the game and wants to handle the kickstarter parts like making a high quality kickstarter video, etc. and handling all of the work involved in the kickstarter and "markering" aspects.
• Playtesting.
• Writing an ingredient guide and glossary (basically some info+trivia about each ingredient and general culinary tips).

I would really love some help from the gang here.. It's a simple game idea, nothing ground breaking, but I still think it's a fun idea and I'd love your help in exploring the possibility of using kickstarter for a fun little project.

At 6:30pm forum time today Friday Aug 31, join the irc chat channel (#crackthecase on efnet), or click the "CHAT!" button at top of forum page, to join us for a virtual game of "Crack the Case".

All are invited for a good time; rules will be explained in the chat channel, there is nothing to it.