Showing posts with label Battery Park. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Battery Park. Show all posts

Wednesday, May 13, 2015

Early State Tech Startups

Charging Bull, a bronze statue by Arturo Di Mo...
Charging Bull, a bronze statue by Arturo Di Modica at Bowling Green, Manhattan, New York City (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
I met a friend for lunch today near the Charging Bull, Battery Park. I said, I remember this graphic from one of the textbooks in high school biology. It showed a few different species a few weeks after conception. They all looked the same. Early stage tech startups are like that. You don't know if you have a camel, or a human being, or a unicorn. Or a stillborn. Most early stage tech startups end up being stillborns.


Thursday, July 11, 2013

Ingress: Home Territory: I Need My Green Agents


The Level 8 green agents on my home turf and some of the regularly visiting Level 8 green agents just so happen to be some of the very top green agents in the entire city. When I started playing Jackson Heights was 100% SRC turf. On Fridays that guy would just sweep through the entire area, and I wondered how he managed to do that. I just could not fathom. I later came to know about the power of L8 bursters.

Then on my way to L8 I started taking over, and once I hit L8 I wiped out SRC. And I thought I was done. I was not done. SRC had taken the game to a whole new level. Now he was working from behind the screen. He was playing a proxy war game. He was busy leveling up agents. Because he knew the one with more agents will dominate a territory.

I hit L8 before exussum but he went L8 not long after. And then chicory showed up. And once he hit L8, I was pretty much "outgunned," SRC's word. SRC and Henrock are out of Corona, but both are Jackson Heights regulars. Henrock I have been calling the King Of Queens for a while now. That guy has more resonators in the borough than anyone else. Lighthouse0 from Astoria and Zrozue from Flushing and RedJava and Avumede from Forest Hills also visit. Actually I know Avumede visited because Slomar visits within hours: such is the rivalry.

I would not want a home territory that was 100% blue and stayed blue. In short, I do not want a Forest Hills for me. That would be too boring. I want my home territory to stay competitive. So, no, I don't wish my local green agents did not exist, or disappeared, or went inactive. I want a game. Although I do want a much larger territory, as in, many more portals. And I do want a much bigger local blue team. I want do be able to organize L8 farm events just with local blue agents as necessary. And I want a constant inflow of new blue agents, so there are always people leveling up.

Over time I want the core of Jackson Heights to become like Battery Park, a zone that high level agents leave for low level agents who are leveling up. Easy come, easy go.

My home territory includes much of Jackson Heights, some of Woodside and some of Elmhurst.



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Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Ingress And Complex Strategies



Ingress is not a complex game and I believe complex strategies are not possible. This is more tic tac toe than chess. But it is fun and that's the point. It is futuristic. It is global. I expect mass adoption. Frankly I expect it to hit Gmail like numbers in two years. I hope the game goes public as soon as possible. Why wait? The game is good to go.

Secrets are details that the other side does not know. My experience in New York City has been both sides have gone on to do similar things pretty much independent of each other. Not because there are moles, but because this is not a complex game. You play solo. Then you hit Level 8. Then you meet a dozen others who are L8. And you wonder, what if we all got together? You end up with L8 Farms, which are my favorite Ingress events, only by now you can find it on the map pretty much, and L7 Farms give you pretty good ammo too. The idea of L8 agents coalescing is no secret, because both sides are doing it. The idea of L8 Farms: not a secret. Both sides do the Alerts thing on the enemy's L7 and L8 farms. The idea is to destroy as soon as possible. Some top players get major thrill out of it.

I just happened by two L7 farms in my neighborhood and took them down both times pretty fast. Then I got to take down a L8 farm in Battery Park attended by none other than derp, who I claim is the top Ingress player in the world. I think they had managed not even two hacks yet. That's a score. Could not have happened without tomhuze's intel. The dude also paid for the cab.

In this game a car is a tank, a fighter jet. The other night Kimon, I and sma were claiming back some blue territory at and near Grant's Tomb, in a car. It was fun.

The game does not need more complexity, I think. You don't want L1 agents feeling too helpless and you don't want L8 agents feeling too powerful. The recent changes that cause XM drains for actions taken create a more level playing field. The game is good to go. Now complex strategies are all about increasing the number of people that might be playing the game. I want to live in a city where more than 10,000 people are playing the game.

The next challenge I have set for myself is to build an elite squad. Beer bores me. Agents with less than 2.4 million in AP need not apply. And that elite squad will get built once 10 times more people are playing the game. So Niantic, open up the flood gates. The larger the number of people playing the game, more complex the strategies possible.

Ingress: Phase 3
Ingress: A Great Game For The Knowledge Worker
Ingress Tips
Level 8 In A Month
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Friday, March 01, 2013

Level 8 In A Month



And that in February, the shortest month. I hit Level 5 without an External Battery. And now that I am a Level 8 I am going to relax a little. I will still go out at least once a week with the express intention of hacking, plus I will be hacking when I am out and about town doing other things. But now I expect to be more skilled at it. Deploy just the right Burster, for example. That is a judgment call.

Now my Ingress focus is going to shift to the hyperlocal apps Highlight and Sonar. The number one reason I wanted to play Ingress was to meet people.

1,000,000 Action Points
Ingress Tips
Ingress Can Be Modified For Grassroots Organizing
Ingress Tips
Ingress Tips (2)
Would Like An Ingress Invite
Ingress And Location
How I Just Made Two Purchases
An External Battery As Big As The Phone

Now I am going to enjoy the scenery more, and I am going to venture beyond the Farms. I am going to the isolated Portals, because I want to see the city, and I want to meet people.

Photography
Highlight
Sonar

I took the train to Madison Square Park in the afternoon, not long after lunch. Madison Square Park, Union Squar Park and Washington Square Park all looked blue. I took turns and created a whole bunch of Fields all three places. And I kept walking. I destroyed a whole bunch of green Portals near City Hall, and created blue Fields. Then it was off to Wall Street and Battery Park. I hit Level 8 while I was working Trinity Church, right off of Wall Street.

It is a very good feeling to hit Level 8. Now I can relax some. I had cold sores the final few days, all those late night hours in Battery Park. You get those cold sores when you go up the Himalayas if you are not careful.

It is an amazing feeling to use a Level 8 Burster for the first time. You do some major damage.

I'd like to share some photos.

Creating Fields in Union Square. This is also the Level Omar was at when I met him, and I met him in Union Square.




It was a long walk between Washington Square Park and City Hall. You pass through this zone where there is one Portal per block, often less.



City Hall: green territory turned all blue.



Hitting Level 8 at Trinity Church near Wall Street.



What the Battery Park, Wall Street area looked like when I hit Level 8. Hint: it is not all blue. And that large Field you see I created after I hit Level 8.




About to use a Level 8 Burster for the first time.



The aftermath.




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