Scott Hanselman

I bought a Nintendo Switch last week with my allowance and I'm utterly smitten. It's brilliant. It's absolutely brilliant.

Now, to be clear, I'm neither a hardcore gamer nor a journalist. However, I am someone who grew up on Mario, enjoys Retrogaming and my Xbox One, and most of all, I know genius when I see it.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is a wonderful example of the very best that video games can offer as an art form in 2017. - Me

It may be the best video game ever. And it is because it borrows so much from the decades of refinement whose shoulders it stands upon.

Let's break this down into two halves. First, Zelda (which is available on WiiU and Switch), and later, the Switch itself.

If you don't feel like reading this, just trust me and buy a Switch and Zelda and bask in the hundreds of hours of joy and wonder it will bring you. It's the most fun I've had with a video game in recent memory. I also profoundly recommend the gorgeous hardcover The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild: The Complete Official Guide Collector's Edition. The maps, the art, and the gentle walkthroughs are more fun than googling. The kids and I have enjoyed exploring the wilderness with the giant map unfurled in front of us.

Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

It's HUGE. It's estimated at 360 square kilometers. They are saying it's 1.5x the Skyrim map and may be larger than Witcher 3. A cynic could call Breath of the Wild derivative, but an optimist like me says, well, they stole every game mechanic that was awesome over the last few decades, and made the near-perfect game. I love that this is a console launch game that is polished and has at LEAST 100 hours or more for the completist.

What is Zelda like?

• Just Cause - Fly off a cliff with a paraglider, fly over a raging river and land on an elk, tame it and ride it. Because you're awesome and you can.
• Witcher 3 - Massive map, armor sets, crafting and more.
• Assassin's Creed - Climbing because...it's fun. Getting maps by unlocking towers and jumping off.
• Grand Theft Auto - The first massive sandbox without loading. You enter a new area and get a brief subtitle announcing you're in a new "neighborhood" and then you wander.
• Skyrim - The Elder Scrolls was the first video game I played where I climbed mountains "because they were there" and really had a sense of wonder when I got to the top. Draw distance!
• Shadow of the Colossus - There's amazing HUGE boss fights that involve climbing the enemy, racing after monsters with horses, and sometimes going inside them.
• Bard's Tale - Because I'm old.

Complaints? Honestly, if I had to truly nit. And I mean really nit I'd say the durability of weapons, particularly swords, is annoying. I would make them last maybe 50% longer. Also, moving in and out of Shrines has a load screen that takes 10-15 seconds. But really, that's like saying "I wish Beyoncé was 5'8", not 5'7". I mean, REALLY. Beyoncé. Shush.

The Nintendo Switch

It's portable. Just like in the ad, you can pull the Switch out and leave. In my video below I also switch to portable AND have to re-sync the controllers, so there is one additional ceremony, but it's easy.

Short #video of my #nintendoswitch playing Zelda going from big screen to portable and back. pic.twitter.com/3a2yPtz01w

— Scott Hanselman (@shanselman) March 5, 2017

It feels like a console when it's plugged in. I've got it plugged into my TV and from my couch it looks as nice as any of my devices. Sure, it's not an Xbox One playing Tom Clancy: The Division. But it's a brilliant tradeoff for a device I can simply pick up and go outside with (which I've done, with considerable appreciation.)

I'm surprised that folks are complaining about the gaming resolution, frame rates, battery life, older processor, or said "it's just like an iPad with an HDMI cable." Here's why:

• Resolution - Zelda runs at 720p (the native res of the touchscreen) at 30fps. It's just 6.5" and 720p is just fine when it's a foot or more from your face.
• Battery - I got an easy 3 hours out of it. If you're on a plane, carry a cable and extra battery. If you need to portably game more than 3 hours, take a break. ;) Seriously, though, given my appreciation of it's portability and power and experience this is reasonable. One can always complain about battery life.
• Frame Rate - When you dock the Switch and run Zelda over your TV the resolution is 900p and sometimes it lags. If you're in the forest, and it's raining, and there's a bunch of enemies around there will totally be moments of 20 fps. But it passes. And it's still gorgeous. A small price to pay, and we don't know if it's fixable with a software patch. Given that launch titles rarely use the new hardware in an optimized fashion, it's more than reasonable to give them a break on this.
• Older Processor - The Switch is using the older Nvidia Tegra X1 processor. As a business person this makes sense. It's a $300 device. It's not reasonable to expect all day battery life and 4k gaming on a device that weights two-thirds of a pound.
• Innovation - Yes, you can plug your iPad into your TV. But most folks don't. And the iPad and iOS clearly haven't tried to optimize for this scenario. Apple has scandalously under-supported their MFi Controller Spec, even though the SteelSeries is brilliant. Frankly, Apple handed Nintendo a huge opportunity by not making a proper controller and supporting MFi better with Game Devs. The Switch might not exist if I could BlueTooth Pair any controller to my iPad and play Skyrim on an iPad. Oh ya, I'd have to have an iPad with expandable memory or a cartridge slot. ;) The Switch is a new category of device. It's not an iPad.

It's a fantastic device for the price and the promises, for the most part, were kept. That said, a few gentle warnings if you do get a Switch.

• If you put the joy-cons on backwards they might get stuck and you could perhaps damage the system.
• The joy-cons have these little wrist straps as well, and to be clear if you put these on backwards you're in trouble. Make sure you line up the plus + signs. There's a + on the right joy-con and a - on the left one. Use the correct strap for the correct joy-con.
• If you slam the Switch into the dock it's possible you could scratch the screen. I always treat $300 equipment like it cost $300. Be somewhat careful.

My Recommended Nintendo Switch accessories (I own each of these)

These accessories are by no means required (the Switch has everything you need out of the box) but these are all 4+ star rated and I've purchased them myself and appreciate them. Yes, I've gone overboard and my $300 Switch is now a $500 Switch BUT I HAVE NO REGERTS. ;)

• Some kind of Carrying Case. I have the Zelda Special Edition case, but all the cases that are official Nintendo are excellent.
• The Nintendo Switch Pro Controller. If you're going to hook your Switch up to the TV you might consider the pro controller. The Switch does come with a quasi-controller that has you pop the two joy-cons into a harness to simulate a typical Xbox/PS Controller but the ergonomics are exact by any stretch. The Pro Controller is fantastic. It's 99% the same as an Xbox Controller and includes (quietly) the full 360 degree gyro support that (I believe) Switch Games will be known for (see the second above on gyro in Zelda.)
• Joy-con Grips. This was a frivolous purchase but a good one. I've got big hands and the Joy-Cons are NOT comfortable when turned horizontally and used for any period of time. These little holsters turn them into tiny Pro Controllers and make two player a LOT easier.
• Compact Playstand. The Switch has one major hardware design "flaw" in that it can't be charged while it's using its kickstand. This little folding playstand is nice because it's 3-in-1 and can also perfectly fit a 3DSXL.
• Large 128g EXTRA-FAST microSDXC SD Card. The Switch has only 32gigs of internal space and if you (theoretically) downloaded Zelda you'll use 13gigs. I can see myself using up a LOT of space in the next year so I got this 128G SD Card. And it's FAST.
• 6 pack of Microfiber Cleaning Cloths  - I can't stand a dirty touchscreen. Can't. I have two dozen of these spread around the house, my car, my backpack. Can't have too many given laptops, TVs, and iPads.
• USB C cables - Both the Switch and Pro Controller use USB C (finally!) so pick up a few USB C cables that you can use to charge in a pinch from your laptop, existing car charger, or portable battery. I only buy Anker Batteries.
• A Zelda Amiibo - Amiibos are these little figurines with an RFID/NFC dealie inside. They are registered to you and they can "light up" features in all kinds of games. In Zelda specifically you can (a little later in the game) use them to get daily food and other bonuses. Plus they look nice on your desk.

My Predictions for the Nintendo Switch in 2017

I'm looking forward to seeing what the Nintendo Switch can become. I think/predict we'll see this on the Switch in 2017.

• A thrilling Indie Game Community. Yes, the launch titles are weak. There aren't a ton of launch games. Call it a soft launch. But give it a few months.
• Virtual Console - The ability to play SNES/NES and other games via some kind of emulation from Nintendo. We have already seen NEO-GEO games show up in the last few days! I can imagine we'll see a Mario Collection going back 30+ years.
• Video Apps - If they add Hulu, Netflix, and Amazon, then I'll be taking my Switch with me to
• A USB-C to HDMI cable - I don't want to take the dock with me on trips, so I'd love a USB-C to HDMI cable from Nintendo (It'll need their magic box/chip) to free up my bag.
• A great balance between AAA Games and "classic" games. If Zelda and Shovel Knight are any indication, the future is bright.
• Continued updates to the online experience. I suspect we'll get firmware and store updates quarterly.

But at the same time, what's the nightmare scenario? Nothing happens. No games come out and I have a $500 Zelda-specific device. I'm totally OK with that give the joy of the last week. So between the worst-case scenario and the best case, no matter what happens it's awesome and I'm a satisfied customer.

* I've used Amazon referral links here. Please use them and you'll support this blog and my Amiibo Habit.

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About Scott

Scott Hanselman is a former professor, former Chief Architect in finance, now speaker, consultant, father, diabetic, and Microsoft employee. He is a failed stand-up comic, a cornrower, and a book author.

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I'm setting a goal for myself to finish my half-finished book relationshiphacks.com this year. In an attempt to make that happen (and because the recent podcast with my wife was wildly popular) I'm going to try to blog some guiding principles. Then I'll attempt to collect the feedback and comments, improve the posts, then move them into the book. Yesterday I posted about "An allowance system for adults."

In this post on I want to touch briefly on the concept of "mindfulness." When I was younger I didn't know this term so I said "don't live your life by default." Phrased alternatively, "don't let your life happen by default."

I mentioned it years ago on a podcast and Paul Apostolos did a very nice blog post where he paraphrased:

Teach your children to make life choices rather than just let life happen to them.

Now, to be clear, stuff happens and this isn't always possible. There's luck, there's planning, there's inherent privilege, but the root idea of mindfulness and awareness is crucial. As they say, "Luck Is what happens when preparation meets opportunity"

I met with a young mentee today who is considering not just leaving her job but also moving to a totally different career. What I appreciated about her perspective and questions was that she clearly was going into the future fully aware of the possibilities. She embraced both the potential good and bad possibilities with a conscious and mindful awareness that was inspiring.

She wasn't going to just "let whatever happen, happen." She wasn't going to just start the game and accept the defaults. She is opening up the options menu of life and trying to change the settings consciously.

I'm doing my best to teach my kids this, hopefully by example. Yes there are things they can't change about themselves, but the one thing they can change (or try) is how they think and how they act. I catch them saying things like "I'm not good at math." They have tapes that are already starting to run in their little heads that feed them negativity and inaction. The defaults are just doing nothing. Humans (myself included) can be very lazy. I want them to build up their reservoirs of self-esteem and "I can do it" so they don't accept the defaults.

Do you have any stories of where you "woke up" and realized you were coasting (perhaps for a week, perhaps for years) and were just accepting the defaults in your life? How did you break out of that thinking?

Sponsor: Get next level application monitoring with Raygun - The revolutionary software intelligence platform for your web and mobile apps. Take a free trial today!

About Scott

Scott Hanselman is a former professor, former Chief Architect in finance, now speaker, consultant, father, diabetic, and Microsoft employee. He is a failed stand-up comic, a cornrower, and a book author.

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I'm setting a goal for myself to finish my half-finished book relationshiphacks.com this year. In an attempt to make that happen (and because the recent podcast with my wife was wildly popular) I'm going to try to blog some guiding principles. Then I'll attempt to collect the feedback and comments, improve the posts, then move them into the book.

I got a Nintendo Switch yesterday. Bought it with cash, brought it home, set it up, and - with neither shame nor regret - showed my non-gamer spouse.

"That's cool," she said. "Is that the new Nintendo 64 they were talking about on the radio?"

No judgment. Not a comment about the $300 price tag. Nothing was said like "do we really need another game?" or "what credit card did you buy that with?"

How is this possible? No fight (not even a lowercase F fight) and no tension.

My wife and I give each other an allowance. In cash.

Every two weeks when our paychecks are deposited, we each get an allowance. It's a $100 a week (yes, for some that's a lot, for others, it's not. It works for us.) and it's the same for each of us. We put all our money in one account, give ourselves the allowance, pay the bills, then if there is anything left over it goes it savings.

Let me back up. We used to a bicker and judge each other for our purchases. If you'd log into our bank you'd see something like:

• Paycheck
• Mortgage
• Car Note
• $5 Starbucks
• $3 Subway
• $8 Chipotle
• $60 GameStop
• $70 Nordstrom

HOLD UP. What is that GameStop? Well, what's this Nordstrom? Did you need to be getting that [widget?]

You get the idea. We needed to remove all that noise at the bottom of the ledger as it was distracting us from the larger goals.

Then my wife had the idea that we just needed to pay ourselves first. We can spend that money however we like - with promised zero judgment from the other spouse. That's crucial, otherwise the system doesn't work.

The allowance for anything that isn't "necessarily living stuff." So it's not for toothpaste, but it IS for eating out when we don't need to eat out.

I could have eaten at Chipotle each day this week, but that would come out of my allowance. Instead, I chose to eat at home all month and save my allowance for a Nintendo Switch.

This works - of course - both ways. My wife has hobbies and social stuff that she does, and she uses her allowance for that.

If you made it this far, perhaps you're thinking, "wow, you're a wimp" or "gee, he/she has you in their pocket." Wait.

Step back and absorb. We are grown-ass people. This system works because we designed it for us. All arguments around "frivolous" spending are gone.

This allows us the best of all worlds.

• It keeps credit card spending to an absolute minimum. 
• We are empowered and we empower each other with this system.
• There's a certain sense of power in carrying cash. You know exactly how much you have and exactly when you have to stop spending.
• We can decide if we want $200 shoes or a $100 meal or a $50 game. One spouse comes home excited about their purchase while the other greets them without resentment. The fixed allowance amount handles that.
  • Additional spending is discussed on a case-by-case basis. But we've picked an amount that is large enough that I could buy something crazy like a Vive - if I am willing to forgo movies, excessive eating out, etc.
• It sets a good example for the kids as they watch us weigh the pros and cons of a purchase. Money is spent when it's in-hand and not on credit.

My wife and I are in a mixed marriage. It's not that I'm White and she's Black, is that I'm a techie/geek/nerd and she's fairly normal. ;) Of course, this kind of mix isn't gender or race specific. I know lots of couples of varying combos and flavors that bump up against issues in their relationships because of budding resentment, missed or poorly set expectations, divergent points of view around problem solving, and more.

I'd love to hear YOUR story of your partner and your "mix" and how you (mostly) solved it with a simple Relationship Hack like this. Sound off in the comments.

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About Scott

Scott Hanselman is a former professor, former Chief Architect in finance, now speaker, consultant, father, diabetic, and Microsoft employee. He is a failed stand-up comic, a cornrower, and a book author.

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I'm a huge fan of the command line, and sometimes I feel like Windows people are missing out on the power of text mode. Fortunately, today Windows 10 has bash (via Ubuntu on Windows 10), PowerShell, and "classic" CMD. I use all three, myself.

Five years ago I started managing my Azure cloud web apps using the Azure CLI. I've been a huge fan of it ever since. It was written in node.js, it worked the same everywhere, and it got the job done.

Fast forward to today and the Azure team just announced a complete Azure CLI re-write, and now 2.0 is out, today. Initially I was concerned it had been re-written and didn't understand the philosophy behind it. But I understand it now. While it works on Windows (my daily driver) it's architecturally aligned with Mac and (mostly, IMHO) Linux users. It also supports new thinking around a modern command line with support for things like JMESPath, a query language for JSON. It works well and clearly with the usual suspects of course, like grep, jq, cut, etc. It's easily installed with pip, or you just get Python 3.5.x and then just "pip install --user azure-cli."

Linux people (feel free to check the script) can just do this curl, but it's also in apt-get, of course.

curl -L https://aka.ms/InstallAzureCli | bash

NOTE: Since I already have the older Azure CLI 1.0 on my machine, it's useful to note that these two CLIs can live on the same machine. The new one is "az" and the older is "azure," so no problems there.

Or, for those of you who run individual Docker containers for your tools (or if you're just wanting to explore) you can

docker run -v ${HOME}:/root -it azuresdk/azure-cli-python:<version>

Then I just "az login" and I'm off! Here I'll query my subscriptions:

C:\Users\scott\Desktop>  az account list --output table
Name                                         CloudName    Sub  State    IsDefault
-------------------------------------------  -----------  ---  -------  -----------
3-Month Free Trial                           AzureCloud   0f3  Enabled
Pay-As-You-Go                                AzureCloud   34c  Enabled
Windows Azure MSDN                           AzureCloud   ffb  Enabled  True

At this point, it's already feeling familiar. It's "az noun verb" and there's an optional --output parameter. If I don't include --output by default I'll get JSON...which I can then query with JMESPath if I'd like. (Those of us who are older may be having a little XML/XPath/XQuery déjà vu)

I can use JSON, TSV, tables, and even "colorized json" or JSONC.

C:\Users\scott\Desktop> az appservice plan list --output table   
AppServicePlanName    GeoRegion         Kind    Location          Status
--------------------  ----------------  ------  ----------------  --------
Default1              North Central US  app     North Central US  Ready
Default1              Southeast Asia    app     Southeast Asia    Ready
Default1              West Europe       app     West Europe       Ready
DefaultServerFarm     West US           app     West US           Ready
myEchoHostingPlan     North Central US  app     North Central US  Ready

I can make and manage basically anything. Here I'll make a new App Service Plan and put two web apps in it, all managed in a group:

az group create -n MyResourceGroup
# Create an Azure AppService that we can use to host multiple web apps 
az appservice plan create -n MyAppServicePlan -g MyResourceGroup

# Create two web apps within the appservice (note: name param must be a unique DNS entry)
az appservice web create -n MyWebApp43432 -g MyResourceGroup --plan MyAppServicePlan
az appservice web create -n MyWEbApp43433 -g MyResourceGroup --plan MyAppServicePlan

You might be thinking this looks like PowerShell. Why not use PowerShell? Remember this isn't for Windows primarily. There's a ton of DevOps happening in Python on Linux/Mac and this fits very nicely into that. For those of us (myself included) who are PowerShell fans, PowerShell has massive and complete Azure Support. Of course, while the bash folks will need to use JMESPath to simulate passing objects around, PowerShell can keep on keeping on. There's a command line for everyone.

It’s easy to get started with the CLI at http://aka.ms/CLI and learn about the command line with docs and samples. Check out topics like installing and updating the CLI, working with Virtual Machines, creating a complete Linux environment including VMs, Scale Sets, Storage, and network, and deploying Azure Web Apps – and let them know what you think at azfeedback@microsoft.com. Also, as always, the Azure CLI 2.0 is open source and on GitHub.

Sponsor: Check out JetBrains Rider: a new cross-platform .NET IDE. Edit, refactor, test, build and debug ASP.NET, .NET Framework, .NET Core, or Unity applications. Learn more and get access to early builds!

About Scott

Scott Hanselman is a former professor, former Chief Architect in finance, now speaker, consultant, father, diabetic, and Microsoft employee. He is a failed stand-up comic, a cornrower, and a book author.

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I just updated my Windows 10 to Insiders Fast Build 15042, and suddenly my glorious new Logitech BRIO 4k webcam doesn't work! Well, it's all beta software, but it turns out the issue is with something in the Logitech INF files for their drivers. I'm assuming they'll figure it out, but the nutshell is that the first install works, but the driver gets messed up on the upgrade. You can't just pull out the camera and put it in again, you need to DELETE the drivers and have them redownloaded by Windows Update/Device Manager.

Here's a temporary fix (either until Logitech fixes it and it shows up in Windows Update or you take another Windows 10 upgrade):

Go to device manager and right click the device and Uninstall Driver. If it has the checkbox "Delete this driver" then check it. That's required. IF (like me) you don't have that checkbox (I'm not sure why I don't) then you'll need to delete the Logitech driver from the DriverStore. You can do it manually but it's tricky and messy and hard.

We need to delete this driver so it gets reinstalled cleanly.

Unplug your webcam. Then, go get the latest copy of DriverStoreExplorer from here https://github.com/lostindark/DriverStoreExplorer/releases and delete JUST this one driver.

Now, go back to Device Manager and plug in your Logitech BRIO webcam. Note you'll get some super old 2006 driver. Right click the BRIO in Imaging Devices and Update Driver. This will get you BACK to your original state. You still have a driver that will break when you next take a "major" Windows update or Insiders Build, but at least you have a solution until it magically gets fixed.

Yay!

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About Scott

Scott Hanselman is a former professor, former Chief Architect in finance, now speaker, consultant, father, diabetic, and Microsoft employee. He is a failed stand-up comic, a cornrower, and a book author.

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