| Vrroom, Vrooom... |
[09/01/06
7:23 am] |
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Blitzed across the Granville Street bridge at 5000 RPM - not too often you get to do that in Vancouver. :)
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| The Final Frontier! |
[08/27/06
6:20 pm] |
| [ |
mood |
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 full |
] |
I should've been more careful before I committed myself to a particular dissertation topic. Apparently, someone down-under at Melbourne University in Australia won the Chancellor's Prize for Excellence for her Ph.D. thesis entitled Broadcast Space: TV Culture, Myth, and Star Trek.
This particular grad student watched over 700 episdoes of Star Trek (including their spin-offs of course - the original series only had 78 episodes :) ) to understand the connection of early television to that of ancient myths.
Being one of those people who's probably watched every single episode of Star Trek in his lifetime ( <- really is geeky), I've gotta say - I really shouldn't have tried so hard to get my Ph.D. "It's easier than you think!"
Just kidding - I'm sure that this student did wonderful work. I may just have to hunt down a copy of her thesis for my own academic review. :)
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| I Must be Insane... |
[08/27/06
5:35 pm] |
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...Just got back from the mall. Bought lots of clothes. Cha-ching!
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| Why Newspapers Shouldn't Write About Science |
[08/20/06
4:01 pm] |
| [ |
mood |
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 cynical |
] |
The Toronto Star published an article today entitled "Why Mississauga is a Pluton," presumably poking fun at the International Astronomical Union's resolution that "plutons" be a new designation for certain celestial objects in our fair solar system. The author pokes fun at the "bunch of technical phrases" that are used by the Union to precisely define what constitutes a pluton.
I'm not quite sure what the author was trying to get at - but I think he was trying to say that the IAU must have decided it was time to get some publicity so they put Pluto in the spotlight. I suppose he was also trying to say that scientific dialogue such as this is inherently pointless, and perhaps that scientists use technical dialogue to keep "the truth" away from the masses.
Yes, I will admit that scientists are human beings, and like many human beings they can be greedy and all of the other terrible habits people can pick up along the way. But, do you -really- think scientists (physicists or otherwise) hoard knowledge just to prevent people from becoming aware of it themselves?
Being a "scientist" myself, I think you would be hard pressed to find a scientist who wouldn't want to talk about what he or she does for a living. :)
There is no conspiracy to advance the "scientific agenda" under the "watchful" eyes of the general public. But, poorly written articles like this do nothing to encourage people to understand why science is the way it is, and what science is really all about. Science has a lot of mundane details, plutons and all. It's because of mundane details like this that science works.
And that may mean that science isn't especially glamorous - but when science accumulates results over time - sometimes a long time - great things can happen. Things like GPS and satellite TV are only possible because someone wanted to know why the sky was blue (seriously). Bet the answer to that wasn't any more exciting than defining what a pluton is - but look at what happens if we keep going.
I am constantly shocked at the lack of sophistication shown by most newspapers. In a society that is becoming increasingly knowledge-oriented, one would hope that the check and balance that is the public media would want to encourage the general public to become more sophisticated. Instead, we find out that pointless drivel like this article is supposed to pass for news, critical opinion, etc.
Do articles like this really sell, or is it because the writers they hire are generally so ill-equipped to ask hard questions that this is the best they can put out?
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| Ridiculously Long |
[08/19/06
6:05 pm] |
| [ |
mood |
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 thoughtful |
] |
Hmm... I've seen a lot of tournaments. Even played in a few when I was growing up. But this has got to take the cake.
In a spiffy marketing move for a chewing gum product called Stride, Gamespot is hosting a "Ridiculously Long Lasting Tournament" sponsored by Cadbury (makers of the Stride gum). The premise is that you sign up and play Counterstrike: Source in teams of 5 vs. 5. It's not about who wins or loses the most games... it's about who can play the longest.
Need we be reminded about how crazy that sounds? :)
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| Wow! |
[08/18/06
4:32 pm] |
| [ |
mood |
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 tired |
] |
...Two days without a journal entry. Must be because I've been busy. :)
Now it's Friday and I have a bit of a chance to breathe. Everyone is taking off... it's been one of those weeks.
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| They Came from Pluton... |
[08/16/06
8:36 am] |
The International Astronomical Union has been spending the last week debating whether Pluto should continue to be called a planet or not. If memory serves, this is a question that has been on the minds of astronomers for quite a few years and have only gotten around to seriously debating now.
One proposal is that there be a new category of celestial objects known as "plutons" that are objects that lie beyond the orbit of Neptune and have highly ellpitical orbits (I will note here that I read one news report that said "non-circular" orbits, which would make every planet around the sun ineligible to be a planet by virtue of the fact that no planet has a circular orbit - the semi-major axis != semi-minor axis :) ).
There is talk that this makes school learning about astronomy a lot harder because suddenly there are so many other objects to "learn" in school. I actually think this is a great idea - we'd be getting kids to build a larger scientific vocabulary, encourage them to think in terms of a "bigger universe" out there, and also perhaps get them to build their critical thinking skills along the way.
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| What to Do... |
[08/15/06
6:40 pm] |
| [ |
mood |
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 hungry |
] |
Does anyone know if there's anything fun to do in Baltimore? It looks like I'm going traveling next month......
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| Dell's on Fire |
[08/14/06
9:42 pm] |
| [ |
mood |
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thoughtful |
] |
Hmm... maybe it's time we built laptops out of something a little bit more... um... flame retardant. I guess this is one of the reasons why companies are hesitant to call them "laptops" anymore.
Instead, we use the politically correct term "Portable Computer," which I guess is a PC way of saying PC. Haha... okay, I -am- pretty sad.
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| Blargh and Other Random Noises |
[08/14/06
7:31 pm] |
| [ |
mood |
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thirsty |
] |
Phew.
That pretty much says what I think about today. There was so much to do at work today, I'm not sure where I could begin (there really was no "beginning" - just a lot of "middle" and not really an "end").
Note to self: do NOT go into a meeting where you have no idea who the attendees are. :) Even more importantly, don't be lured to take the place of your local CTO (Chief Technology Officer) without actually asking him why you should be taking his place in the meeting anyway. :)
Me: "Hi, people."
Them: "Uh, hello, you."
Me: "So... what's up?"
Them: "...We don't really know. We came for the food."
Me: "Oh... so, um, why am I here?"
Them: "We don't know. But we're all out of food."
Actually, that's nowhere even close to what actually happened, but you probably get the point...
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| Wark! |
[08/14/06
11:39 am] |
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Today is just one of those days where everything happens all at once. Run, run, running to multiple things at the same time. Sigh!
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| Tick-Tock Goes the Clock |
[08/12/06
4:46 pm] |
| [ |
mood |
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bored |
] |
...Just waiting... waiting to go out for dinner tonight. Sigh. Not enough time to do anything significant and too much time to lounge around and be lazy.
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| My Xbox 360 Blogs! |
[08/11/06
9:59 am] |
| [ |
mood |
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 bouncy |
] |
Check it out! My Xbox 360 posted its very first blog last night...
(Yes, I know it's not really doing the writing, but I still think it's a pretty nifty idea!)
Check out 360Voice for more info about how you can get your own 360 to blog about you. :)
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| My Kingdom for a Save Feature... |
[08/11/06
7:38 am] |
| [ |
mood |
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thoughtful |
] |
I managed to pick up a copy of Dead Rising for the Xbox 360 yesterday from the local Future Shop. Think of "Snakes on a Plane" except it's "Zombies in a Mall."
You play the role of a freelance journalist named Frank West, who's come to a small town called Williamette, Colorado to cover the story of a riot. He ends up being locked up in a mall for 72 hours, trying to get the story of his career while fending off zombies with only things he can find at the mall - like TVs, clothes hangers, and benches. :)
The game is a lot of fun, except for one of the worst save features I have ever seen in a game. It will only let you save one game per Xbox profile on your machine, and even worse, it only lets you save in washrooms or benches, which are few and far between in a mall that is perhaps not quite Mall of America sized, but pretty big nonetheless.
I would have been able to forgive Capcom for something like this 10 years ago, when game saving was technically difficult (flash memory was very expensive), but now there is no reason that I shouldn't just be able to save a game whenever I like and however many times I like (the 360 comes with a 20 GB HD option, or 64 MB memory cards, or USB sticks, or...)
There will be those who say that it adds challenge to a game. Maybe so, but at the expense of usability, which is a no-no with respect to user experience. I'm of the opinion that when designing a game that tries to appeal to a broad market that it's also necessary to accommodate as wide a variety of playing styles as possible.
Wanna be hardcore and not save? No problem - nothing stops you from playing that way even if the option is available. Wanna play it safe? Only if the option exists! :)
There are a lot of great games that are injured by poor usability - there's no reason things need to be that way, but I think it's time for game developers to step up to the plate and take as much interest in UX as a lot of other "serious" software application developers are.
Just because something is pretty doesn't mean it will work well. :) Of course, if you can do both, you've hit the jackpot...
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| PHAT Sandwiches |
[08/10/06
1:38 pm] |
| [ |
mood |
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full |
] |
...Just finishing up lunch right now. A little late, but it works out.
It works out because I went to PHAT (Pretty Hot and Tasty) - a Montreal-style deli in Yaletown clothing (1055 Mainland, for anyone interested). They have the best Montreal smoked meat sandwiches I've had this side of the country. That is to say, this side of Montreal.
Case in point: their smoked meat is actually shipped to them from Montreal. Smoked meat on rye, with hot mustard and served with a kosher dill pickle... mmm.
I wish I had taken a photo before I gobbled it up - but portion size is not an issue. It's almost as good as Schwartz's in Montreal. Almost. :)
Wish I had gone in sooner - I now have a reliable place to go when I'm hankering for something primally delicious.
I want to find out whether their BBQ Beef Brisket on a Baguette is just as good...
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| A patch only a terrorist could love... |
[08/10/06
11:43 am] |
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So, in the wake of the thwarted London terrorist attack, the Department of Homeland Security has not only raised the US threat level to red (highest possible), stranding countless travelers and making it near-impossible to go anywhere...
It looks like PC users are getting treated to the take-home version. A bug so malicious that DHS has sent out a warning about it.
Time to get a Mac. :)
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| Remember when we used to read books? |
[08/10/06
7:25 am] |
| [ |
mood |
| |
sleepy |
] |
News services from all over (link: InfoWeek) are talking about how Google has paired up with the University of California to digitize books from the university's library collection. Some people are for it - increased availability, preservation of very old books, etc. Others are against it - digitizing books without the permission of authors, publishers, etc.
Does anyone remember Project Gutenberg?
It seems to me that Google is making a big deal out of something that's already been done.
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| Here we go! |
[08/09/06
7:49 pm] |
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Excuse the mess while I move into Livejournal... this is a great layout. I will probably replace the big header image with something a little more personal, but I really like it otherwise!
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