Tuesday, March 31, 2009

OnLive

As you may have heard, there's now a company generating some buzz about how they will revolutionize the video game industry by running video games in a cloud of computers and streaming the video to users. This would free users from needing major hardware (consoles or PCs), would eliminate piracy, and usher in a new age in video games.

After a little bit of critical thinking, I realized that their claims could not possibly be met. I was going to write up a nice long explanation when I had time, but I stumbled across this article that pretty much sums up all the technical reasons why their claims are pretty far fetched. Their writeup is better than mine would have been, but I would have put more emphasis on the impossibility of OnLive overcoming the basic latency inherent in home internet connections.

Sunday, March 29, 2009

Why Toddlers Don't Do What They're Told

Psychology is such an interesting field.

Apparently researchers have found that toddlers don't seem to apply lessons in anticipation, but rather they do it in hindsight. Basically, telling a toddler to do something for a hypothetical situation that the toddler isn't already in will not seem to stick. However, when the toddler is later in that situation, the toddler will be able to remember what he has learned.

The development of the human mind is so amazing.

Saturday, March 28, 2009

Earth Hour

I doubt anybody will read this in time, but Earth Hour for the P.S.T. time zone is starting in a few minutes! Gotta shut down my stuff.

U.N. Attacks Freedom of Speech?

The United Nations has sunk pretty low by passing a resolution urging nations to pass laws outlawing the criticism of religion. Obviously, the U.N. can't dictate the laws of sovereign nations, but this certainly makes a major statement about how blindly religious the world is.

The right resolution to pass would be one that encouraged member nations to pass laws protecting the criticism of religion. Encouraging people to be closed-minded is horrible because people being closed-minded is what leads to wars.

Thursday, March 26, 2009

NFL Player Kept From Being With His Dying Mother-in-law By Police Officer

When I heard this story about Ryan Moats being kept from being with his dying mother-in-law by a Dallas police officer named Robert Powell my initial reaction was outrage. It's pretty outrageous that this man missed his mother-in-law's dying moments for a pretty stupid traffic violation.

However, besides my emotional response, I have to admit that Powell was correct in giving Moats a ticket. I just wish he'd admit that he was a huge asshole for taking so long to do it when there was clearly something serious going on. Moats handled the situation about as well as I could expect.

If he apologized for his actions, I might be able to see him as human. As is, he was clearly putting being an asshole above being a human, so he will remain an asshole for now.

Everyone should be a human first in all things.

Monday, March 23, 2009

The Real "Ocean's 11"

When I was watching Ocean's 11, I knew nobody could pull something like that off in real life. However, I stumbled across this article today telling the incredible tale of the world's biggest diamond heist.

It's even got the whole practice vault, the mysterious experts at various illegal activities, the double crossing, etc. It's literally something you'd see in a movie.

Friday, March 20, 2009

Extreme Sheepherding

This is an ad for Samsung, but still pretty freaking cool.

Monday, March 16, 2009

The Bush Administration's Legacy

America's moral high ground is completely gone since we apparently have tortured prisoners for information.

Is it any wonder when a guy like Cheney was vice president? Cheney apparently believes that the government can spy on us, imprison us, even suppress free speech but the government is overstepping its bounds when it tries to provide universal health care. Wow.

I am very grateful that our democracy finally kicked that horrible administration out of office. Now we need to repair all the damage they did.

Sunday, March 15, 2009

A.I.G - $165 Million In Bonuses For 2008?

Yes, those execs who nearly destroyed A.I.G and were a big part in the financial crises deserve a huge bonus. Especially with the $170 billion we're bailing them out with. How do you have contractual obligations to pay "bonus" money? If you're guaranteed to get it, how is it a bonus at all?

Seriously, you A.I.G. executives are greedy pigs. If you have any ounce of decency, you should turn down your bonus. You screwed up the company. You screwed up a large part of the economy. You don't deserve millions in bonuses.

I want a list of names posted of every person who accepts a bonus and how much they receive so they can be blacklisted in society's eyes. That means nobody should serve them food in restaurants. Nobody should clean their houses. Nobody should do a damn thing for them so they can sit and count their money all day long as outcasts.

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Apocalyptica - I Don't Care

I'm really digging Apocalyptica - I Don't Care these days. For some reason, I'm a sucker for string instruments in rock music....

Friday, March 13, 2009

Bankers Vs Consultants

At least some people have been making use of the current financial crisis to make funny music videos....

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

"World Builder"

Cool video effects can be used to tell pretty amazing little short stories without a single word spoken. Here's a wonderful example called "World Builder".

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Greed + Mis-use of Math = Global Financial Disaster

Apparently, a lot of our recent global financial collapse comes from a mix of greed and people mis-using a simplified risk assessment formula. The guy who came up with the formula warned people that they didn't understand the formula....

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Why The PS3 Is Losing To The Xbox360

Quote from Sony's Kaz Hirai: "We don't provide the 'easy to program for' console that (developers) want, because 'easy to program for' means that anybody will be able to take advantage of pretty much what the hardware can do, so then the question is, what do you do for the rest of the nine-and-a-half years?"

As a game developer, I have to say, developers will be encouraged to make games for a console that is easier to develop for. Companies trying to make games are trying to make money, not to solve a software engineering puzzle. Sure, as a programmer, it's fun to solve challenges, but we also have deadlines and milestones to meet. If they are not met, projects fail and jobs are lost.

Around the office, everybody pretty much runs the game on the Xbox360 as their primary development platform and people run the game on the PS3 to make sure it still works there. Now that we're getting close to shipping, more effort is being put in the the PS3, but it has been behind for so long that it's a bit of a hurry to get it up to speed.

Sony needs to take a look at the practical realities of game development and rethink their strategy for next time around.

The Best Bento Ever

My favorite bento box maker made a bento of Calvin and Hobbes! Her boyfriend is a lucky guy. Seriously.