Dominic Preuss › Comments

Rock band is better :) - Jess Lee

@Jess How is RB better? I hear that every now and then but haven't heard why it's better. So far I've preferred GH because at the medium difficulty level, GH seems more involved than RB which is really easy. - ronin

Guitar Hero rocks - I just got my friend hooked on it over the weekend. - Charles Hudson

I think it's addictive in part for the same reason most video games are -- long-term goals with bite-sized, concrete accomplishments. But also because you get better and better each time you play and feel like you're developing a useful skill. (Whether you actually are is up for debate ...) - Tom Stocky

I brought my Guitar Hero and 2 controllers to my beach house full of lawyers... I never touched it again all summer. - Dominic Preuss

Your sense of rhythm actually improves over time. So you could say you are developing a skill.. Same goes for DDR - dance dance revolution - Bindu Reddy

Practicing a musical instrument is the most mind-numbingly painful and repetitive thing you can do. The game lets you bypass all the boring stuff, and lets you get right to the rocking out in front of an audience like a pro. Of course it's addictive. Just look at the number of folks posting themselves lip-syncing to popular music on youtube. It's the same market! - Piaw Na

And when you're doing well, the game does a good job of making you feel like you really are playing this music. And unlike the weak little tunes a beginning player can pluck out on a real guitar (or piano or whatever), it's actually a real live awesome rock song. And it turns out that's a lot of fun. - ⓞnor

I like that Harmonix (GH creator; they moved on to RB) has a lot of musicians on staff (that is, the developers there have side gigs/hobbies in music); I think as much as the great licensing of songs - as opposed to Konami's Guitar Freaks - it's the emphasis on musicality there that makes GH/RB so good: they put serious thought into how a song should be broken down into button arrangements. - Andrew C

My experience has been that GH is more difficult (and more fun) on the guitar, but RB is a blast on the drums. As a lapsed drummer, I found that it actually helped me get my chops back somewhat. I firmly believe that if you can play through most of the game on expert, you'll have a decent base for playing actual drums. Real drums will still feel funny, and your technique will suck, but it will get you past the most boring stuff. - Joel Webber

I really enjoyed GH and GH2. Rock Band is more social but I don't have quite so many visitors at home, nor do I have room for, or patience to repair, a drum kit. I bought GH3 / XBox for home. Decent gameplay. Biggest issues: I don't really like the songs, and the additional downloadable content is no more interesting. - Robert Konigsberg

Love the conversation here. Rock Band is great for the social quality. I've lived with 6 other people for about a year and a half and it's so fun to start playing together. Parties are a blast, too. RB drums are where it's at BTW. I'm at the stage that Joel brings up (I play the game only on expert with upper 90% scores) and am about a hair's breadth away from buying a real set and getting lessons. - Chieze Okoye

also @saeba: RB is better because Harmonix is clearly putting more thought into everything. Their song selection (on disc and DLC) is better and more eclectic (while still nailing the big hits), the charts feel more thoughtful and more fun to play and the interface and rest of the gaming experience is just slicker in every way. - Chieze Okoye

the song selection for RB is not necessarily better, but it is more diverse because of the range of instruments. GH has an obvious focus on guitar and basslines. As someone who has a history of air guitaring during his favorite anthems, GH (and RB) are completely empowering in that they really let you fulfill this urge to it's fullest (certainly better than a hockey stick or umbrella anyway). I've also found to generate new interest, playing it really, really loud *always* helps. - Bryan Power

@chieze: I miss my old acoustic set, but I've lived in apartments and tiny houses so long that I had to give it up years ago. But I *did* end up getting a small electronic kit (old and crappy but passable for practice). These days you can get a much better electronic kit much cheaper. If you're really interested, I would recommend going to your local music superstore and sitting down in... more... - Joel Webber

This reminds me of the early Google NYC office where an official rule had to be put in place requiring shoes, due to sales meetings - Dominic Preuss

In contrast, in 2003, the 3rd floor of Bldg 42 was declared clothing optional. - Christopher Sacca

Those were the days. But with both the Blogger and gmail teams up there, what would you expect? - Kevin Fox

why aren't you wearing shoes? - Kelly Norton

Didn't the shoes-less engineers in NYC eventually win that argument? - Joel Webber

+1 donorschoose.org; followed by Girls Inc and Heifer International - hunter walk

another +1 for donorschoose.org - Isaac Hepworth

I like the microloan concept... stuff like Grameen Foundation, Microplace, Kiva, etc. I wrote a post last Xmas about charities that you might be interested in if you're looking for ideas: http://www.pelczarski.com/gonutty... - Keith Pelczarski

All my business giving goes to cancer research http://www.experienceseekerstr... - Anne Bain

There are too many good ones. We like to give to the Palo Alto Animal Services that we volunteer for. But in my work one of my favorite local children's charities is Project HELP http://www.project-help.org/. Other local children's charities that I like include Child Advocates: http://www.cadvocates.org/, CCPY: http://www.ccpy.org/, Hospice of the Valley: http://hospicevalley.org and... more... - Rachel Lea Fox

Karen, just happened to do a post about this today that had a lot of good comments: http://www.mattcutts.com/blog... - Matt Cutts

surviving parents coalition, and the joyful child.org. these are parents of kids who were killed by pedophiles. they fight incessantly to protect the rights of everybody's kids - 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 6 boys will meet a child sex offender by age 18, most of which are either parents or someone they know. the parents in this group are why there are so many laws in this country,... more... - Patricia

I support my local charities, St. Michael's Hospice, Barby Keel animal sanctuary and the shelter nearby. They're the ones that turn out and give real assistance when someone is lost or a bird gets stranded on the beach. - Nicola Quinn

I had a good experience being a big sister for big brothers/ big sisters, so I am inclined to support them. But it is hard to gauge how effective a dollar is to that organization vs. other organizations I might want to support. Which is what I would really like to be able to easily tell. - Clare Dibble

If you like it when hippies actually do something, the Seva foundation (founded by Ram Dass and supported back in the day by the Grateful Dead) restores sight to people in poverty stricken areas like Nepal. - Clare Dibble

This is a great list!! Thanks everyone! - Karen Padham Taylor

I really like the Fresh Air Fund, but they are very NYC-centric although they send kids all over the US for summer visits - Dominic Preuss

I'm going to plagiarize myself from my earlier comment on Matt's question: "I'm a big fan of http://www.heifer.org/ for Christmas gifts. My grandmother turned me on to them (the foundation she worked for were big supporters). They do great work, and the way they structure donations makes for great gifts -- our family gets them every year, and everyone seems to enjoy it." - Joel Webber

We support a lot of organizations in small ways, but this time of year we always give to those helping with the most basic human needs--our local food bank and habitat for humanity. - Sheila Taylor

I like http://www.kiva.com-- they support microlending projects all over the world. - Shannon Jiménez

Children's Defense Fund: www.childrensdefense.org/ - Robert Konigsberg

I've had them... they work well. Do be careful, they get HOT! and sometimes make a mess... spew espresso out of top if over filled at all. Espresso taste great, nice college budget product! - Susan Beebe

Bialetti 9-cup. I agree with Susan's warnings. Simple rule: Never overfill the coffee holder. I have finally learned this lesson. - Stephen Pierzchala

What Shevonne said. :) - Admiral Anika

Well, I am not sure I want it... I *think* it may be a good idea, cause I like espresso and don't have thousands of dollars to spend on a espresso machine. I am open to other suggestions as well. - Bindu Reddy

We have found a number of them in thrift stores, likely the result of people receiving them as presents, using them a few times, then switching back to drip blech. See our collection: http://bit.ly/2OfE - Stephen Pierzchala

All of my European friends swear by their Nespresso machines. I love mine. - Dominic Preuss

stovetop are nice but it's a bit more work to clean and a bit more wait than the electrical machines (both for the coffee to be made and for it to cool prior to making another batch). A basic (i.e. the non fancy model) electrical machine is less cleaning and less wait, but costs a bit more. Nespresso makes a lot of sense if you dont drink lots of coffee (capsules are hermetically sealed) but not if you use it a lot (not green unless you recycle, and gets pricey) - Joelle Nebbe (iphigenie)

Con'grats !!! Its seems to be raining babies within FF ..is that time of the year or is it because we are better conenctions and share a lot more of or life streams !! - Peter Dawson

Congratulations! - Christian

Congrats Maria and Nick and Champ!!! - Doug Beeferman

Congratulations Nick and family!! - Robert Konigsberg

Nick, this is great news! Congrats. - Dominic Preuss

Congratulations! - Jess Lee

mazel tov - peter

w00t! - Jenna Bilotta

Congrats Shannon! - Mike Yang

Congrats, I didn't make it to my 4 year - Dominic Preuss

Congratulations Shannon - Daniel Dulitz

Congrats! Now that you've graduated, what are you going to do next? - Jim Norris

I think you started one week after me. We should get a drink together. - Thai Tran

That is why you should all move to NYC - Dominic Preuss

Not the first time it has crossed my mind ;-) - Christian

Sure you can have a start up from anywhere but no city in the world offers the network of like minded people innovating technology in the bay area. - romerotron

That's the beauty of the Internet. I can just IM or e-mail those people :-). I'm moving to Buenos Aires! - Christian

How about Vegas? No income tax, 1 hour flight from SF, cheaper housing! - Maneesh

Christian - are you writing for 37Signals now? - Rob Kniaz