Second Place Also Means Loser

Well, America lost the olympics. Too bad. Well done, Germany, well done.

Fourth Place Means Loser

I ended up getting fourth place in Ultracorps. I knew I wasn't going to win, but it's still rather dissapointing.

Ultracorps

This Ultracorps thing is pretty fun. If you have a spare hour every day, I highly suggest it. I am currently in first place as this game winds down. Unless something catastrophic happens, I'm going to win my second real game of Ultracorps, played against hundreds of people.

Why?

For the same flaw that many online games have: People drop out of games. Thanks to the fact that my neighbors on all sides stopped playing early on, I had no interference whatsoever for the first half of the game.

In Halo 2, which I recently stopped playing, there's a similar problem. It seemed that in half the games, a person would drop out of a team relatively early in the game. From that point on, it's an uphill battle for that team. I have seen outnumbered players win, but less than ten times in my entire Halo 2 career.

I wish there was some sort of device that would shoot quitters in the mouth.

mAnteater!

I have designed the greatest super of all time: mAnteater. He combines all of the power of a human with all of the powers of an anteater. Also, he can eat people whole. He's pretty cool.

mAnteater away!

Better Dead than Red

Whoever chose the colors to represent the Republicans and Democrats is nuts. The colors are totally inappropriate!

First, we have the Republicans, vehemently opposed to the 'red ideal'. With overtones of class struggle, revolution, communism, blood and war, a republican waving a red flag is a joke. What a strange irony that the Republicans would celebrate a wave of red sweeping across the nation.

Then there are the Democrats. The color blue, as far as I know, doesn't have any political meaning. It doesn't stand for anything.

...

Well, at least one of the colors doesn't fit.

A sincere letter

Dear car commercials,

Cars are designed to travel on roads. Your car, no matter how amazing, will flounder and overturn in the "off-road" conditions you so blithely put them in. Honestly, why would soccer moms even want a van that can drive up some convieniently road-shaped precipice?

Please cease to exist.

Dick Cheney shot a man

So, Dick Cheney shot a man.

It's just too easy. I'm going to let someone else field this one. Honestly, this has got to be the easiest piece of joke material in history.

Augmented Reality

The bicycle was a revolutionary invention. Suddenly, a person without a lot of money could travel at least five times as fast as walking, without as much effort. Instead of needing a horse and carriage to travel long distances, anyone with a little money and their health could travel long distances.

I think the internet is like that. Not, obviously, to help in making travel affordable (unless you're an electron). Instead, the internet is going to make information accessible at any moment, to anyone. The prerequisites will be few: access to the web, and the ability to read. (although that last one may fall away, eventually).

Right now, the internet and computers are at the cusp of a revolution in thought. With sources like Wikipedia, Google Scholar and Google Books, there isn't a very good reason to know trivia, as it can be accessed at any moment. Why bother knowing when Colombus sailed the ocean blue when you can find out in less than 10 seconds? Especially when you can also find out anything else about him in as much time.

Note that I don't think the revolution has come yet; with these tools, we have the foundation of Augmented Reality. A world where information on anything is instantly accessible is not too far away. The only thing we are missing is portability. Soon, I think, computers will be small enough to be of negligible weight. Then they can be attached to glasses that serve as monitors, or even eye implants that project directly into the retina. At that time, Augmented Reality is possible.

Imagine wandering through a new city to see the sights. Instead of getting a map or asking a local, you set out with no special knowledge. When you look at a building, glowing letters appear in your vision, telling you anything you may be interested in. You decide you don't want to learn about apartments or restaurants today, so you set your computer to only prompt you only at notable attractions. When you get tired, you tell your computer to give you directions to your hotel, and a glowing thread of light leads you down the sidewalk into the hotel, and directly to your bed.

Imagine playing an invisible game of Tag, where the person who is 'it' has a glowing halo, visible only to the other players.

Imagine information on anything, at any time.

That's augmented reality.

Sounds cool to me!

School hurts

I probably could have chosen a better time to start a blog than at the beginning of a semester. I've been buried under work, with nothing to show to my adoring fans.

Sorry, everyone.

Wikipedia is Great

Wikipedia is great. The people that find fault with it are, almost inevitably, finding fault with something it is not.

For example: People claim that Wikipedia cannot be trusted, and shouldn't be used as an authority. These people believe that Wikipedia is trying to be the end-all be-all authority on all issues, which it is not. Instead, Wikipedia is, as the name suggests, an encyclopedia. Encyclopedias are not the final source for research, they are the first source for research. Wikipedia is best for those people unfamiliar with an issue who wish to survey it, not for those who already know the subject. For those who know the subject already, Wikipedia provides handy links to other informative sites, some of which are the sort of reputable sort ( .gov, .edu ) that should be used as an authoritative source for experts.

For me, Wikipedia is the perfect source for information on issues that don't have any real importance, and, therefore, don't matter if they are true or not.

Groundhog's Day

Apparently today is groundhog's day. Ah, is there a more pointless holiday?

I am curious; what does it mean if I spend the entire day sleeping and watching TV? 4 more weeks of laziness? I don't recall seeing my shadow.

PS.
The show 'Drawn Together' is not funny. At all. It is, as they say, "un-funny". On the continuity of 'funny' to 'not funny', it is actually farther down the line than 'not funny'. If seen in the presence of something that is funny, it will cancel out that funniness proportionately.

PPS.
As bad as 'Drawn Together' is, 'Mind of Mencia' is worse. Shows like that make me wish I had a gun.

Queen is back?

I really can't tolerate the idea of Queen touring without Freddie Mercury. It's like a book without words in it. It's still technically a book, but why would anyone get it? If someone accidentally looked in it, they'd say, "I assumed that this book would have words in it. I want my money back." If the members of the 'new' Queen want to tour, I don't mind. But they shouldn't be doing it under the name of Queen.