BOOYA!

Thanks for the link Cataclyst, this is exactly something I've argued till I was blue in the face, time and time again.

Viruses, hacks, unstable software... it all comes with the territory. You get bigger and more popular, with more people using it and more software being written for it, and you WILL be subject to it all.

Microsoft gets slammed unfairly all the time. I have the distinct feeling that FEW companies could actually compete on the same ground, given the same variables to deal with.

You have a staff of a couple hundred writing the OS, but a user base in the HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS using it... there are definitely WAY more, skilled people trying to break your software then there are people making it.

Windows haters can stuff it.

Just to clarify

I'm not an Apple hater. In fact I am this close to buying a Mac Book. I just hate the uncontrolled and unfounded superiority complex that comes with Apple. Let's face the brutal facts guys. Mac OS is less battle hardened product than Windows is. Zeal is an acceptable trait of a losing underdog, but as you start getting more main stream it just comes off as pompousness.

Major security bug in Apple OS

How sweet the taste of vindication. And you know this will only get worse as more people use it.

Justice?

Penis pump wielding judge on trial. Sounds more like a script from a bad sitcom than real life.

Look, PC's can do it too!

Hehehe, uh, yeah, that was 5 minutes well spent...

The Format War: Continued

The first players are now out: The Toshiba HD-DVD player, and the newly released Samsung Bluray player.

Toshiba's player was released in April, the Samsung just a mere week ago. So how does the "superior" bluray format stand up against HD-DVD?

In short... it doesn't.

Reviews coming in from everywhere now confirm the exact opposite of what everyone had expected, the player is actually inferior to the Toshiba HD-DVD player. The movies, while in HD, and definitely far better looking then regular SD (standard definition) content, aparently fall short of the quality that HD-DVD titles currently have.

How is this possible? How is it possible that you can walk into best buy and have a choice between a $1000 Bluray player and a $500 HD-DVD player, and the HD-DVD player actually produces a better image?

Blame Sony.

Sony, in their inifinite wisdom, released a press statement that they are not going to be using VC1 (Microsoft's compression algo) or H.264 (aka MPEG4) but are going to continue to use MPEG2 (Current DVD compression algo).

So basically, the measure of the quality of a decompression algorithm, is.. how much information can be stored as accurately as possible in as small a space as possible.. So, for most compression algorithms, you can specify the quality of the compression. This tells the algo how much information it is allowed to "toss out" as it tries to get the file smaller. So, in theory, all compression algorithms can have equal visual fidelity, but at VERY different file sizes.

MPEG2, therefore can in fact produce an image that is equal in quality to the best that VC1 or H.264 can offer, the problem is, it will consume a great deal more space to do so.

And therein lies the kicker.

Sony made a public statement that they believe MPEG2 to be a better compression algo then VC1.

This is, in fact, flat out false. Given enough processing power to decompress a VC1 stream, it will offer equal visual fidelity to MPEG2 but with a vastly smaller file size. But hey, Sony has never lied before right?

What is the REAL reason behind Sony doing something that appears to be completely ass-backwards? Royalties

Sony is part of the DVD Consortium. They selected MPEG2 as the algo of choice, and Sony does not need to pay anyone royalties for the use of the algo. However, Microsoft is the owner and creator of the VC1 algo. It is apparent that Sony would cut their nose to spite their face and are refusing to use Microsoft's algo for Bluray, because they don't want to pay Microsoft royalties.

They thought they could get away with this because of Bluray's superior storage space.

With Bluray offering 50GB disks and HD-DVD offering 30GB disks, why not? You can use MPEG2 and offer equivalent image quality, and not worry about space since you've got so much more to play with anyway.

BUT, in an unfortunate twist of fate, the Bluray camp has struggled to make dual-layer disks. The result is that all movies coming out are capped at 25GB, which is actually LESS than HD-DVD.

So, not only are the disks being released holding less than the competition, the compression algo being used is far less space efficient than the competitors. This results in Bluray movie producers being forced to decrease bitrate, resulting in image degradation.

Now, this is potentially a temporary problem. If all goes well, the bluray camp will finally get their act together and start stamping out those 50GB dual-layer disks, at which point they will be able to increase image quality... but this was a very poor move in the battle.

HD-DVD has effectively won this round. It costs half as much, has a lot more titles available, AND offers better image quality. Apparently the actual player is better too, the Toshiba has higher quality DVD playback, better sound, better options, ethernet and usb ports, none of which the player that costs 2x as much has.

Me thinks the Bluray camp is getting a little too cocky. I am still gambling on Bluray winning the war, under two assumptions, someday 50GB disks will be available, and the PS3 is going to sell by the assload... but I'll be damned if I wouldn't mind seeing Sony get bitch slapped for this stupidity.

Getting Tired of Apple Smearing PCs

Apple used to stand on a pedestal looking down at the PCs with "I am holier than thou art attitude" for a long time now. And I was okay with that. Now they resort to silly negative campaigning like a sleezy politician. I got this in my email today. (how did they even get my email?)

PLEASE. Like Macs don't crash or freeze.

HD-DVD vs Bluray

There is a new format war that is raging in full effect, the likes of which we have not seen since the betamax/VHS days.

The contenders are HD-DVD and Bluray, both formats vying for the right to replace DVD as the next optical medium of choice.

Vital Stats:

Major Supporters:
HD-DVD:Toshiba, Microsoft, NEC, Intel, Sanyo
Bluray: Sony, 14 CE manufacturers

Studio Support:
HD-DVD: 5 Movie Studios
Bluray: 8 Movie studios
(Subject to change with the wind of course, as studios will quickly jump on board with whichever proves to be successful)

Tech:
HD-DVD: Triple Layer (only dual layer currently available), 15GB per layer, 30GB disks currently in use
Bluray: Multilayer support (though only single currently available), 25GB per layer

Software:
HD-DVD: XML (interface), VC1 (Microsoft Decompression Codec), H.264/MPEG4 (Alternative Decompression Codec), MPEG2 (current DVD codec)
Bluray: Java (interface), VC1 (Microsoft Decompression Codec), H.264/MPEG4 (Alternative Decompression Codec), MPEG2 (current DVD codec)

Bottom line:

Bluray is a technology designed from the ground up to support higher densities and and more layers (theortically up to 8 layers at 25GB per layer). The draw back to this of course is cost. HD-DVD was designed as an "upgrade" to DVD. The way the disks are pressed are very similar to DVD's as as such, only minor upgrades to DVD factories need to be made to start pressing HD-DVD's. The drawback is that they don't hold as much as Bluray.

Is the cost worth it? Hard to say. Feature for feature they are nearly identical, but initial HD-DVD drives are starting at $500, Blu-ray drives at $1000. They both can hold full length, full featured movies stored in HD. HD-DVD also has the added benefit of "hybrid" disks. Since they are pressed like DVD's, when making a double-sided disk, a company can elect to make one side DVD and the other HD-DVD, a feature that bluray does not support (with any degree of ease.) This would then allow you to make one purchase, a movie disk that will play in both your DVD player and your HD-DVD player.

So which will win?

I believe Bluray.

Despite the features, flexibility, and cost benefit of HD-DVD, there is one HUGE variable that puts victory squarely in Bluray's court.

To date, HD-DVD, despite being released before bluray (available for around 2 months now), has only sold 50K units. This isn't entirely due to demand, since that is all that Toshiba has been able to make so far.

By November, this will rise to a couple hundred thousand at best.

On the other hand, in one day, with the launch of the PS3, Sony will put upwards of 4 MILLION bluray drives on the market, 1 Million in the US, and they will sell out in the first HOUR.

In one hour, there will be more bluray drives sold than HD-DVD could hope for in a year.

With more drives out there, more incentive for movie makers to put their content on bluray, causing positive feedback loop.

The only wrench could, in theory, be Microsoft, if they make the HD-DVD add-on EXTREMELY compelling for X360 owners. But the chances of that are quite slim, and in reality, the only reason why Microsoft is backing HD-DVD (other than the fact that they hate the idea that bluray will be using Java) is that it hurts Sony and makes the format war more expensive for Sony.

Prediction: Bloody format war with either bluray victor or drawn out battle causing an abundance of dual format players.

This is what work can feel like

Waves and waves of ice walls.

Another Day, another bogus lawsuit

A mother and daughter are suing MySpace.com for $30 Million because the daughter got assaulted by a 19 year old man she met on the site.

Let us not even question how the man met up with the girl... or where the mom was when this all happened. No, not negligence at all on the mom's part. It's clearly MySpace's fault that they don't require your credit card or driver's license to sign up for the site.

Since having both would have definitely allowed the site to have attained the success it has had. (I don't even have a driver's license)

Next up, two male roomates sue google for $100 Million because google.com allowed people to search for their blog site and leave disturbing sexually explicit comments on it!

Video Games Killing your electric bill?

VINDICATION!

Guess what guys... the next time someone blames the electric bill on you playing too much video games... show them this chart. Even if you're playing the most expensive device, the X360, the most it's going to add to your electric bill is $1.68 a month.

BOOYA. So the next time someone running a room heater blames your video gaming as the cause for the electric bill, you can tell them that since it's not your Xbox 360 that's the cause, it has GOT to be your sonicare tooth brush. You must have brushed your teeth especially vigorously during those cold winter months!

Google Verticals

At a glance it looks like Google is everywhere and taking control of every vertical market they enter. But from a ZD blog it actually turns out the things like Gmail only have 5% market share and rest of the Google Verticals such as Google Finance lag very far behind incombants like Yahoo Finance and Google Maps lag far behind Mpaquest. I was surprised to read that because I was under the impression that Google was rapidly gaining market share on all these areas with what I feel is often superior products. Interesting, so what IS Google's end game? I am more curious than ever.

Hal, T-1000, Sky Net... here we come!

Every day that passes, a new human-only feat is accomplished by computers.

I was rasied to believe that we are simply incapable of artificially reproducing human thought simply because it originated with god and there is simply no way for us to achieve that.

Once upon a time, computers could never beat a human at a chess game. The permutations were far too numerous for a computer to brute force, and it simply wasn't possible for a computer to "out-think" a human.

And then the unthinkable happened. The best humanity had to offer... was dethroned by a machine. Excuses were made, "But but but" rang out in religious circles.

But machines can't even do simple things... like walk! Then Asimo and QRIO rose up to debunk that claim!

"Driving a car is something that is far too complex for a machine to ever be able to do. There is no way it can account for all posibilities. Machines are inflexible and rigid. They can only handle the exact scenarios that are hard coded into their system, and if something happens that isn't accounted for, game over.... "

Oh ho ho... The Military hosted tournament, DARPA, was a resounding success with no less than 4 unmanned computers navigating though a variety of complex terrain including lakes and desert and mountains successfully completing a 150 mile journey. Unexpected obstacles like tumbleweeds and birds, ditches and boulders, none of them hard coded into the systems were insurmountable for these machines. The machines weren't hard coded... they learned.

Only a few more obstacles need to be overcome. One of the most difficult things that has perplexed man, has been understanding how we see and our amazing image recognition abilities... Machines have simply been completely left in the dust unable to separate one blue pixel in the sky from the brown pixel of the roof of a house... But now, a huge leap forward.. This obstacle is not only within the grasp of computers, but nearly solved!

We have voice recognition. Image recognition. We have machines that can walk, that can drive, that can evaluate possibilities. Now we just need to tie it all together.

If we continue to increase computing power at Moore's law (processing power doubles every 18 months) then we will attain maximum human theoretical processing power on a chip by 2030. (Despite what people in religious circles might attempt to claim). The maximum human processing power, assuming 100% efficiency, would be as simple as taking number of synapses x rate of fire. That is absolutely the maximum amount of power the human mind could generate, actual power is far far less than that since we don't fire every synapse in the brain simultaneously or constantly, at any given time, only certain areas of the brain are active.

My fear has always been that the software wouldn't keep up with the hardware... that we might have an uber-powerful CPU, but we still wouldn't have any clue how to attain sentience.

At the current rate of research, I no longer fear that will be the case.

I look forward to the ethical and moral dillemas that will arise when computers can "think" and even more so... can "out-think" us.

It will happen. I just hope we can get biological science to keep pace, so that if I want.. I can augment my abilities... I fear that biological progress will be far outstripped by digital progress... we have too many moral and ethical dillemas stiffling research in biological circles.

I must admit that there is a little part of me that will be saddened by the notion that a device far smaller than my brain will be far more powerful than my brain, and there is simply nothing I can do about that...

We will have to come to accept the difficult to swallow notion that we are not the epitomy.. the pinnacle of that which can be attained in this mortal shell.

Bill Gates steps down from Microsoft

It's official. Of course the question would be, what has he really been doing at MS recently anyway? :] But I applaud him. He is going to be off fighting malaria and hunger, in ways that all the NGOs and the bleeding hearts combined couldn't achieve. Bravo.

Who is?

Koreans or me and you?

I'll agree with the latter, but the former... eh.. I'll give the girls a B+... the guys I hear don't have too many redeeming qualities outside of video game addiction. =P

The Deal is...

we're awesome.

Dope Wars

Hmm, I'm sore more than a few of you know what game I'm talking about. It was put on palm, ported to all manner of Texas Instruments calculators... etc.. even online multi-user versions were made.

Who started that damn thing?

Well, hahaha.. it turns out a Microsoft Employee working currently on the X360 did.

The article is an interview about the X360 but, of course, the thing that stood out:

"Arstechnica: I hear that you are the author of "Dope Wars." My friends and co-workers have wasted countless hours and the total lost productivity from that game is probably too high to measure. What's the story of how that came about?

Matt Lee: Yes, I wrote DopeWars for the Palm handheld. I bought a PalmPilot in my junior year at college, and I wanted to learn how to program for it. DopeWars was my "Hello World" program, and it was styled as closely as possible after the old DOS game of the same name. About a year after I released it, it became really popular. For two years straight it was the number one PalmOS download on download.com. It was also the top download on Palm's corporate website, until Palm's CEO noticed it and insisted it be taken down. I received a very apologetic e-mail from the webmaster about that.

Then the mainstream media got wind of it, which quickly spiraled out of control, as you would expect. My picture was in the New York Times, and I hear my software and I were talked about in a not-so-positive light on the floor of the U.S. Senate. The Windows version was written by another guy, and both of us wound up being interviewed by press people. At one point we got in touch with each other just so we could get our stories straight. I was going to write a PocketPC version, but someone else beat me to the punch. It's a good thing Microsoft hired me despite my shady background!"

Hmm.. perhaps he didn't originate it, since it apparently was modeled after some DOS game? But he popularized it.

And Lee? Is this dude Korean? Goddamned video game playing Koreans. What's the deal with those people anyway!

Computers for Everyone

The project that's been getting a lot of buzz has been the $100 laptop project. Basically this guru from MIT's been working with governments and institutions to design a laptop that only costs $100 so they can be distributed to billions of people who can't afford one. I think it's a noble goal and I support the idea of bringing the computer to the masses, but like most projects that try to by pass the economic mechanism I think it is doomed to failure.

Project as planned by Intel I think makes more sense has has much better chance of success. They will be making PCs that cost from 200-400 dollars and will attempt to do so without taking a loss. They are attempting to find an economically viable way for poorer people to own computers.

We live in exciting times!

SHOW ME THE MONEY!

Yo, I just thought of the most brilliant money making scheme.

I'm going to go run over a kid with a toyota car.

Then I'm going to sue toyota for making the car too heavy.

The Jury will be in my favor of course. But Toyota is going to use some stupid excuse like "Whatcha mean?! Anti-grav hasn't even been invented yet! It's his fault he ran over the kid."

BOOYA. $2 Million here I come!

I get paid $2 million for getting my kid run over by my lawn mower

Unbelievable. Those parents should be in jail for negligence, not getting paid $2 million.

Hey, YOU'RE dissing color?

Listen, mister "I will pay twice as much as you for my video card that comes with 3D goggles". Looks matter, and no matter what you say, if people get just that little extra pleasure looking at their black macbook everyday it'll surely add up the $150 premium. :p

User Story What?

Just so people know what they are looking at. User stories are used as a way to capture requirements for a system. The reason we do it this way is, often it's hard for someone to describe how exactly a system should be, but it's much easier to sit down and think about what the people who would be using the system would be doing with it. The list is not a sequence of events but 20 discrete "stories" on what someone or something would be doing with the system. Ultimatey the objective is capture all the things that people would be doing into User Stories, and from that I can create my requirements. If I have a system that lets people do all the things that are described in the User Stories, the system will be "fully featured".

Entities are basically "things" that exist in the context of what needs to get done in the User Stories. Some of the "things" are what begin the action and are called "actors". Hope this helps!

Cataclyst is the Google Mac Daddy

You happy?

All kidding aside, cataclyst has been trying RSS feed crap for months and months and finally got me on board.

He's practically a google sales person these days trying every new feature (he was also the first on the block with gmail)

I can safely say that the only service I've spent more time than he has is with google spreadsheets. I'm still trying to put it through its paces and will have more to say shortly.

He's also considering getting an apple laptop and is almost willing to pay a premium for a COLOR.

He has since fallen from my graces.

Spending extra on color is where I draw the line.

W8W Event System - User Stories

Evite and even Google Calendar has been an imperfect fit for our weekly dinner event planning. We've been looking for something that can help automated the venue selection and event notification process and so far it's been trying like trying to fit a size 12 foot into a size 6 stilleto. Decision has been finally made to home brew an event system. I'll be following the best practice approach to designing a software system as I know it. Input is welcome as always. The following steps will be taken:

*Gather User Stories
*Identify Actors and Entities
*Create a System Requirements Doc
*Create a System Design Doc
*Create a Mid-level Plan for Development (project management)
*Execute (code, etc)

Input throughout the process is very welcome.

First the User Stories. Think about it like Netflix, where the next restaurant (venue) is chosen from a venue queue. Unlike Netflix though a venue is recycled into the back of the queue after it was used.

W8W User Story Documentation
W8W Event System
06/14/2006
Yong Woo

User Stories

1) User logs into W8W system and is given proper user credentials.

2) User signs up to join W8W and become a Member.

3) W8W system automatically creates a new open event on the midnight after the current event is closed; venue from current event is returned to the end of the venue queue; venue with the highest recommendation points in the venue queue is chosen for the new event; if there is a tie in points venue for the new event, the one closer to the head of the venue queue is chosen.

4) Member reviews the details of the current event.

5) Member reviews the list of past events.

6) Member reviews the list of venues.

7) Member reviews the venue queue.

8) Member adds a new venue to end of the venue queue.

9) Admin moves a venue up, down, out of, or into the event queue.

10) Member votes for a venue point value ranging +1 or -1; multiple votes are allowed, but one for each venue.

11) Member sends a non-member an invitation to join W8W.

12) Non-member accepts or rejects an invitation to join W8W.

13) W8W system automatically notifies members the details of next event and allows the members to update their attendance status the Monday before and on the same day of the event.

14) Member sets the status of the member’s attendance to an event as a yes, no, or maybe.

15) Member posts a comment for the current event.

16) Admin changes the details of the current event and notifies the members.

17) Member broadcasts a message to all members.

18) Admin assigns a member as a default point person.

19) Admin assigns a member as a point person for the current event.

20) Admin assigns a user as an admin.

Entities Identified

Actors

1) W8W System

2) User

a. Admin

b. Member

c. Non-member

Entities

1) User

2) Event

3) Venue

4) Venue Queue

5) Vote

6) Invitation to Join

7) Attendance Status

8) Comment

Coming up next: Requirements documentation from the User Stories.

Who's your (Google Reader) Daddy?

Hey! Give where credit is due. ;]

A 3 Day Laptop Battery?

HOT DANG! They've finally done it, before this year is out we will have fuel cell based batteries.

3 Days running off a single battery. The future is here people.

GIMME GIMME!

This is not a rechargable battery though folks. Get ready to see your battery power affected by gas prices, although I'm sure that the cost of charging a li-ion battery off of your electric bill is not much less than getting gas for your laptop.

Fill-er up!

Reader has made be a believer

I never used RSS before. I completely lost contact with the Xanga's and the newsblogs and all the various sites I used to visit once upon a time.

But no more!

Thank you reader.google.com!

They made it extremely easy for me to figure out this RSS mess, and voila, a few minutes later I've got half a dozen tech sites and blogs all feeding into one place with amazing ease.

Google Labs, keep up the good work!

Guilty Conscience

What can I say.

The storm must have felt guilty and decided not to ravage, rape, and pillage the south. One honorable storm I must say.

Here here Alberto! Good show!

Alberto splashes without much punch

"(AP) After splashing ashore in Florida without much punch, the remnants of Tropical Storm Alberto churned ..."

Speaking of Google competition

These guys seem to think they stand a chance competing with Google.

When was the last time 30 ANYTHING came together and accomplished anything worthwhile? Stick 30 salesmen in a room. Bad idea.

Stick 30 engineers in a room. Bad idea.

30 Japanese companies set out to dethrone Google, MSN, and Yahoo? HAHAHAHAHA. Good luck. First off, they are starting WAY late, and secondly forcing innovation doesn't work. Google didn't appear because they were worried about someone creating a monopoly. They saw a need and filled it.

What need are the Japanese filling? The need to have a Japanese search engine? Sure everyone in Japan might switch to it, but I don't see anything even remotely compelling about their product other than the fact that it will be Japanese. And I don't see google sitting idly by letting these guys even come close.

Since when do you see a slew of American companies banding together to do something that someone else is better at? Uh. Never. Let them do what they excel at and we'll go do something else. It's silly and flat out nationalism. If we rock at search engines... who cares? You'd be flat out stupid if you forced a bunch of people to compete when they aren't competitive.

Microsoft Fanboy?

It is not a secret by any means that there is a fondness I have for Microsoft. Is it irrational, with no basis? Will I pioneer and push MS products that suck over other valid alternatives? Am I secretly employeed by MS getting kickbacks for my pro-MS propaganda?

Hardly.

Most of my pro-MS "propaganda" is pushback against an increasingly hostile market. It is en-vogue to bash MS.

When your Windows PC crashes, it is easy to blame Microsoft's shoddy programming skills. When you get a virus or spyware, Microsoft and their damn security vulnerabilities.

Microsoft and their damn monopoly crushing all competitors and stifling innovation.

File lawsuit upon lawsuit. Force Microsoft to bleed defending itself against increasing pressure to close them down, to break them up, to shatter and fragment and destroy the money making entity that is unjustly overcharging us for their software.

Please. It makes me sick.

It makes me sick that people tried to sue Microsoft for including a browser in the OS for free, when the alternative would be that we would, had it not been for MS, be paying for our web browsers and as a result, the rapid growth of the www would never have come to pass since people are far more willing to use something if they get it for free.

Tell me, what alternative for MS Office out there does everything office does better?

People claim that MS leverages money from different sectors to float others. I say.. so WHAT? Anyone would be an idiot if they didn't do that. How many olympic runners do you see chopping limbs off so that they have no unfair advantages when competing with people who have no limbs?

And, the very thing that people claimed, that Microsoft had a monopoly and could squeeze out competitors is being proved false as we speak... Microsoft has proven to dominate in the conventional marketplace. IE was unequivocally better than Netscape and won. And yet, had the courts had their way and the naysayers, IE would have been shut down and we'd all be buying Netscape Navigator X.xxx. Office was unequivocally better than SmartSuit or any other alternatives, but people are now getting money from MS for being "overcharged" for these products in a class action lawsuit.

Excuse me? Since when do people file class action lawsuits because they are paying too much for the best product on the market? How is that even LEGAL?

People wonder why companies start collapsing under their weight? Microsoft is the one company that has continued to thrive despite its size, but how can anyone compete when you have to deal with people STEALING money from you and it is considered LEGAL?

Google, the rising star, doesn't have any of this political dead weight. Google is busy eating away at Microsoft from every possible angle, Apple at other angles, Sony, Linux... Google can spend far more of their money on research because they don't have to worry about getting sued by every damn person that owns a computer and every corrupt politician looking to fund their state of choice. How is that even remotely fair? Let google kick MS's ass fair and square, there is NO need to screw Microsoft out of their hard earned money and force them to fight crippled with their limbs bleeding profusely.

Google has found a model that works. A brilliant and exciting one no less. They offer their products for free and yet, I don't see anyone complaining that we don't pay for searches on google. I don't see the courts suing google for having a monopoly on search engines and bundling emails and bloggers and maps and online spreadsheets for free with their search engine. Of course google is going to be lithe and fast. They aren't overencumbered by the bullshit of the US government.

Monopoly my ass! Google is starting to make free online office applications. I say.. GREAT! But damn it, if I'm going to use their product, it is going to be because it is BETTER, or at least offers a BETTER VALUE than the alternatives, not because the market leader was killed off by politics.

I have considered getting a mac on many occasions, but you know what? It's expensive, has less software and hardware support, and SLOWER than a PC. Does it crash less? Perhaps, OSX is a mighty fine OS, but given the fact that the number of people (and subsequently hackers) that use a Mac are dwarfed by many orders of magnitude by PC users, it is no surprise there are no viruses and fewer found security vulnerabilities. The vast majority of crashes on a PC are caused by poorly written device drivers. Guess what. Microsoft doesn't make those. I certainly didn't forget my high school years using Mac OS 8.xxx or 9.xxx and getting the sad mac all the damn time and not having a multi-threaded OS when my home computer was running Windows 95 10x faster, with more simultaneous applications, better gaming support, AND fewer crashes.

That means, the VAST majority of times your computer crashes, it has absolutely NOTHING to do with code that microsoft has written and everything to do with that budget video card you bought that has crappy drivers.

Is this entry too long? Yeah.. so what. Bite me haters! =P

Master... what?

Reveal thy self, lurking anonymous commenter.

Tribal Heritage

As much as people of more modern civilization like the US would like to think otherwise, no one can escape the deep rooted tribal tendencies we humans have. One of the reasons why sports are so popular is that we can stand behind a tribe (the Mets, the Giants, the whatevers) and stand behind our champions (the players) and stand united against those who are outside our tribe, who are against our tribe (the other team). That's how it's always been, and so long as we retain most of our original biological neural systems that's how things will remain. There's nothing wrong with that, it's just the way we are.

The concept of Flow describes the defining characteristics for experiences that human being attribute to "happiness". It actually turns out that people don't attribute physical pleasure directly with happiness (such as doing drugs, or acts of physical pleasure such as masterbation). It turns out people report most content and happy after they engaged in an activity where they can solve a "problem" to their fullest potential and be fully absorbed and their awareness is consumed in that process. (problem can be anything from listening to classical music, to having a gossip conversation, to solving a math problem, to reading, to playing a computer game (more on this later on another post))

The key features of Flow include "requires intense concentration and focus of awareness", "clearly defined goals", "frequent and accurate feedback on the performance", "challenge level closely matches the skill level" and a few more.

It turns out people can experience intense Flow when they are watching sports, especially with a lot of other people. People experience Flow when they fully aligned themselves with the goal of the group, victory of the team. When a person focuses all their awareness and concentration on the screen watching his team play and is burning with the clearly defined goal of scoring into the opponent's net, he will experience Flow. When that goal is finally met, he will, along with all the other people who have become fully aligned in the purpose, will explode in unison and experience intensely the very stuff that we most consistently attribute to happiness.

So let's take all this and discuss this situation about not being able to form a "tribe" around computer games. I don't think it's computer games has an intrinsic problem in this area. In fact we have enough critical mass of players in this country that one can without too much difficulty find others who will aligned their purpose to the purpose of a game. I think the problem we are experiencing is a local problem. We haven't really gone out of our way to recruit a group of like minded people who love the games we love. Malekan has effectively organized events and aligned people to some goals that he believes in. Watching sports, watching Lost, watching 24, etc. On the one hand those things are lowest common denominator (requires very little skill) and is easier to set up, but the fact of the matter is he has taken his time to set them up and reinforce the purpose. We have a greater challenge, first is in finding the right people who have the computer game skill set to enjoy the games we enjoy, or find games that can appeal to people with average skill. But let's face it, we have not been focusing on doing this. We have not made a "game night" where we consistently invite those with potential "chris, derek on some fighting games/sports games, paul, etc etc" and encourage alignement with our goal of playing games. We can say it's too difficult, those people are too busy, etc, but let's be honest, we haven't really organized and put that much effort into it.

The problem of "common denominator" is prevaling here. Gig and I can enjoy a DVD as much as Malekan or Justjess or Mike, but the inverse is not true for playing Call of Duty. To accomodate for optimal satisfaction of people in the house, DVD trumps Games.

We've identified our problems. Obviously the fact that Malekan doesn't play computer games doens't make him a bad person to live with. In fact Gig and I enjoy his presence a lot in our apartment. So let's A) Face the reality that with Malekan and others around the living room won't be playing games around the clock. And this isn't forced on us, this is a decision we are making, a point we are willing to concede for optimizing happiness. B) Face the reality that sitting on our asses and complain about this won't make a difference. We must act to get what we want.

So how should we act?

First we must nurture and defend our culture. And that begins with our own desire to play games. Given point (a) we have implicitly agreed to be flexible. This means that when Malekan and a few people want to watch DVD in the living room, the desire to play computer games can't be allowed to be destroyed. We must be pro-active and be agile. Most the 360 into our rooms where we both have another huge ass TV each. We have to allow ourselves to have a great time playing games without letting our existing limitation shut us down.

Second we must context for people of our culture to align themselves in. We should be hosting a weekend gaming session, or maybe even a weekday gaming session, either online or offline. We are dismissing the concept of combined online and offline community of friends that can easily dwarf the offline only community.

Third we should be actively recruiting other to join our culture. Simple fact of the matter is people are not going to enjoy playing something that they are bad at. Let's look at the case of Malekan and games. It's a very good example of something we managed very poorly. We didn't properly ramp him up on games and given him a context in which he can be successful and have a good time. Feeling alienated and inadequate, he went from moderate interest in computer games to moderate dislike of computer games. That really no one's fault but yours and mine, Gig. We screwed that one up. Let's see if we can do something about that moving forward. We should also be actively looking at games that we enjoy that new people could quickly pick up and enjoy. We need to include key players who would often be the key objectors to gaming. (we'll discuss that part more off line)

ANYWAY. Once against, a post too long, but I wanted to drive home all my points. I doubt anyone's reading this far except maybe you, Gig. ;] Let's get this rolling. We have a tribe to build and protect.

Business Stops for Soccer

If there were ever a time a company should do something drastic to LG, it is now, while Korea plays in the world cup.

The entire company has gathered around one of many TV's that has been set up to watch the event. Not a single Korean sits at their desk doing work as they bring down the walls of the company every time the ball nears either goal.

As I write this Korea just took the lead, and I feared for my life that the pillars supporting this building would be shaken to the ground.

Watching sports is not about the sport. It is this. The feeling of belonging to a group, and something like this reaches even deeper into the core of people. This is a birth earned right to cheer for something. I sit here as the only American that has somewhat infiltrated the Korean culture, and yet, I am a complete outsider.

This is why people go to sporting events rather than watch it on TV. This is why guys invite all their friends over for these events. There is something to talk about, and common bond.

The depth and strength of the Korean nationality comes through in force. These people are fiercely korean. A bond I share with no one and barely comprehend. My circle is relatively empty... the only things I cheer for are generally tech related and very quickly get me ostracized even in my own home. "Turn that off" "Lower the volume"... Sorry Halo 3, you are not the world cup, and you aren't baseball. I suppose if I were to attend E3, the vibe there would be akin, albeit on a smaller scale.

Should I sign up for a sport just to be part of a group? I detest that mentality as much as I detest signing up for a religion for the exact same reason. In fact, my aversion to joining a group just for the groupy feeling probably stems directly from religion and impacts my ability to join other such groupy events.

The game has just ended, and I doubt much work will get done from this point forward. Everyone is too high on their orgasmic sporting experience to really put their minds to work at this point.

Everyone is talking about it in Korean, completely leaving the rest of the company in the dark.

I once knew what that felt like, but I quit being part of that group.

Gas is out, Nukes are back in.

Suddenly everybody wants nuclear power.

I remember when I was younger that nuclear power was considered to be the dirtiest, most evil selfish thing human beings have ever created. Everyone was protesting against nuclear energy without considering the possibility of cleaner and safer form of nuclear energy. Of course now the big evil thing is oil. Everyone's out protesting against the use of oil now, and suddenly everyone totally okay with nuclear energy.

Personally, I am a huge fan of nuclear energy. I think we can make it cleaner, safer, and cheaper. Let's consider for a moment why our energy is so highly dependant on oil and coal in this country while (I hate to say this) countries like France is enjoying cleaner, safer, cheaper energy in the form of nuclear power. You did this to us, environmentalists.