#Poken Fun

Sorry, I wanted the hashtag to be searchable on Twitter when this is posted

I have a penchant for business cards. I like designing their faces, deciding what information I want to share, and waiting excitedly for them to arrive so I can start passing them out. The problem is, I can’t always put all the information I’d like to on my cards. I don’t always remember to bring my cards to events. Ordering additional cards, or cards with different information on them, can become costly.

There’s also the issue of collecting cards from friends, coworkers, businesses, companies, ect. You may receive them just fine, but what happens when you unwittingly toss those trousers in the wash without first emptying your pockets completely? All that information, washed away with the detergent. And please don’t get me started on hand-written contact information on things like backs of receipts and cocktail napkins!!

Enter Poken. With Poken you have a single item, carried on your person, and you never have to purchase and carry around another box of business cards again! You can also set up different business cards inside the Poken, to choose from when you’re out & about. You wouldn’t necessarily want to share all your personal/private contact information with a potential client, business associate, or employer.

From the PokenZoo website:

Poken solves one simple problem: how do I remember the email addresses and screen names of everyone I meet? You Poken, of course. When you meet other Poken owners in the real world, quickly swap information. No more writing down email addresses or long blog names. Just touch Poken and connect.

I love my Poken. I have a pink geisha Poken on a necklace. Fits me, no?

Visiting Poken.com will help with a broad overview of the whole ordeal and will also give you access to your Poken account where all your setup occurs, but below is the super-technical version of how a Poken connection occurs, from Wikipedia:

A typical usage scenario consists of:

1. User meets User
2. User ‘high five’ his or her Poken with that of the other user. Essentially holding them against each other (such that the coils inside the token are more or less aligned).
3. The two Poken flash green to signal that a bond was made.
4. At home, the User plugs in his or her token into the USB port.
5. The token is recognized as a standard (read only) disk.
6. The user opens an HTML file from the disk (either manually, or through the AUTOSTART.INF mechanism).
7. The HTML file contains a page which forwards the user to the Poken website. The URL forwarded to contains the Poken its unique identifier as well as the unique IDs of the most recent 64 Poken seen.
8. The website detects any new Poken seen – and adds them to the various buddy lists.

There are plenty of affiliate websites that will sell you individual Poken, two-packs, or even bulks of 10, 20, 50, or 100 or more. They come in a variety of styles, like ninja, geisha, Obama, animals, creatures of the night, and others that simply look like USB flashdrives. I’m hoping eventually they will come out with packs of swappable Poken caps for a single token. Being a girl, I’d like an opportunity to coordinate my Poken with what I’m wearing out that night.

Sharing information with another Poken user is as simple as a few seconds of standing still while trying to stop giggling. Once the tokens flash green, you know that it’s worked. Later, at your computer, you can see who you’ve met, accept them as Poken friends, and view your contacts along a timeline. Which is why, even though you make have touched Poken before, you want to keep connecting with any Poken users you’ve met. Then you can use them as a reference for figuring out along the timeline who else you met at a specific event or show, and see how often the two of you get together.

Poken is also on Twitter, as well as a Poken Twitter account in my local area. I’m sure there is possibly one near your area, too. The founder of Poken is on Twitter too, Stéphane Doutriaux, here. A big thanks to Derek-Jan Franse, a reseller in Europe, for fact-checking me.

You can bet you’ll learn all the latest news & Poken events from them.

I look forward to Poken fun with you!!

Yours In Tech,

Jett

Worst DS Game Ever, So Far

I’m adding the qualifier “so far” because they can always come up with something worse. But even if they tried to come up with worse, they’d be hard-pressed to top this one.

The Clique: Diss and Make Up – Publisher: Warner Bros. Interactive, Developer: Gorilla Systems

Learning, after some research, that the game is based on a book series doesn’t make it any better. In fact, it makes it far, far worse. That this kind of filth is published proves that young girls need much more choice and guidance in books to read.

Synopsis of the game: The game allows fans to play as a new student in school attempting to make friends and increase their popularity in an effort to join the ultimate clique, the Pretty Committee. Players take on a variety of challenges and experience tricky situations as they interact with characters from “The Clique” books and new characters created specially for the game. Players can increase their social standing by playing a variety of mini-games to earn money for the latest clothing and accessories. (ds.ign.com)

Another synopsis: players assume the role of the new girl at school, taking on the challenges of climbing the social ladder to join the ultimate clique, the Pretty Committee. The Clique: Diss and Make Up is an empowering game of social maneuvering where the player attempts to survive in one of the most harsh and unforgiving environments on Earth – Octavian Country Day School (OCD). Player will use gossip, fashion and wit to make friends, join cliques, attend classes, and even work after school “jobbies” with a variety of exciting mini-games. Play a variety of exciting mini-games to earn cash or increase your cool. Along the way a variety of challenges and tricky situations make the climb up the social ladder tough including getting invited to one of the hottest parties of the year. (Amazon.com)

I find it amusing that the school’s name is abbreviated OCD.

Playing the game for only about a half an hour, I felt my stomach turning the entire time. No-one will speak to you unless you’re dressed “appropriately,” which means to dress to fit the clique you’re trying to impress that week. In between classes – which are just mini-games based on a school subject – you must chat up girls in the clique, run errands for them, listen to and give gossip you’ve picked up, and try to worm your way into each clique, with the ultimate goal being getting invited to that cliques’ party at the end of the week. Going to the mall each evening to earn money and shop for clothes and accessories seems to be a requirement to get enough variety to make sure members each clique will speak to you. Each piece of an outfit (no matter how hideous it looks when they’re put together) has a certain amount of clique influence, and only when a meter is full on the top screen will girls of that clique speak to you. The ultimate, ultimate goal is to be invited into the “Pretty Committee” clique and get invited to their parties.

It’s a mind-numbing game to say the least, with simplistic mini-games throughout. The scores in class mini-games don’t seem to make any difference to overall game play, while the mini-games at the mall earn you cash to buy clothes & accessories. I suspect things might become unlocked if I chose to progress, but I suspect this is another game of mine that will rot on the shelf.

Bottom line – this game embodies every thing I despised about high school. Except even worse – this is based in a middle-school setting.

Yours In Tech,

Jett