I don't own a videogame console, so I don't play any of these controversially violent video games. I don't have anything against them. It's just a matter of time and resources.
That said, I find it hilarious that some gamers are upset that the game "Bully" (http://www.rockstargames.com/bully/) allows the player character, a boy, to make out with either girls or other boys (http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1040_22-6130423.html). Yes, the usual groups protested the game for the gameplay that requires beating up kids. But now there are gamers, who are totally cool with the violence, getting their thumbs bent out of shape because the game has the option of kissing boys.
C'mon dudes, grow up. No one's making your bully kiss boys. What about female players? Maybe they don't want their character, who they could pretend is a tomboy, to make out with girls. Oh, but I forgot, girls don't play videogames. (yeah, right)
Besides. for all you know, the prostitutes in Grand Theft Auto (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Theft_Auto_(series)) are transvestites. They're just pixels and programming, guys. Their chromosomes are 0's and 1's, not X's and Y's.
Same deal as last year (http://sumocat.blogspot.com/2005/10/happy-halloween.html): no costume, dodging the parade through Leesburg, even though my wife and her friend are going (I dislike parades... with one exception (http://sumocat.blogspot.com/2006/08/might-change-my-stance-on-parades.html)). My sister, however, decided to go the extra mile and enlist her weiner dogs in a theme costume concept (http://tinyurl.com/ybnacn). Too cool!
From a techno-geek perspective, I'm not a cutting edge guy (try telling that to the norms). However, I am seriously considering Core 2 Duo (http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=288) for the processor of my next tablet. Honestly, it's not the power that's attracting me, but the power efficiency. I'm a big believer in energy efficiency (I use a fanless slate) and the heat specs and power management of Core 2 Duo look outstanding. I really look forward to seeing it in Notebooks (Tablet PCs).
Yeah, doesn't sound that impressive until you learn, as I recently did, that Scott Adams (http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/), creator of Dilbert (http://www.dilbert.com/comics/dilbert/index.html), suffers from Spasmodic Dysphonia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spasmodic_dysphonia), which inhibits one's ability to communicate in various situations. Adams, for example, learned that he could recite rhymes even though his normal speech was nearly gone. He clung to that exception and kept reciting nursery rhymes until he finally recently got most of his normal speech back (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061028/ap_on_en_ot/dilbert_cartoonist). Fascinating.
This story jives with another theory I find interesting: Mozart may have corrected his own autism with his music. There are researchers who argue Mozart had Tourette syndrome (http://tinyurl.com/wjz92). However, the symptoms cited could also be attributed to mild autism. Couple with that the theory that Mozart's music can correct autism (http://www.mozarteffect.com/OnlineStore/MERCProductd.php?d=0780), and there exists a mash-up theory that supposes his early mastery of music composition may have been an effect of how his brain was correcting itself or his music was one of his limited means of expression and repetition had a correcting effect on him.
But back on topic, I also learned that Adams had to switch to a digital tablet (Wacom Cintiq) (http://www.wacom.com/lcdtablets/index.cfm) to keep drawing because his pinky would twitch when putting pen to paper. Amazing that the brain would precess those two with significant difference.
Anyway, great news for Scott Adams. Hope he continues to improve, though I hope he'll stick with digital ink even after a full recovery.
I don't care that I gained an hour today. That my internal clock is now out of sync with my digital clocks really irks me. Part of my disdain for DST stems from being born and raised without it. (Hawai'i rules!) (http://www.timetemperature.com/tzus/hawaii_time_zone.shtml) Another element is that animals, such as our cats, don't use clocks to determine time, which means they now whine for food an hour earlier. But primarily I hate DST because it's stupid. Is any time actually being saved? No, we're just doing stuff an hour earlier or later. We don't need to change all the clocks to do that, just change the time we do stuff.
They're not even competing against Red Hat yet, but the mere boast by Oracle that they'll offer cheaper support for Red Hat Linux has sent Red Hat's stock tumbling 24% (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6088896.stm). If knocking down someone's selling price isn't laying groundwork for a buyout (as rumored (http://www.baselinemag.com/article2/0,1540,2007404,00.asp)), I don't know what is.
Nearly ever since I got my Notebook (http://sumocat.blogspot.com/2006/10/time-to-redefine-term-notebook.html) (Tablet PC), I've been looking forward to someone developing a dual boot system that would allow one to have instant-on PDA functionality, in addition to full PC power. DualCor (http://www.dualcor.com/) appeared on track to deliver this with their cPC. However, they've since derailed and a more likely contender, I think, will be a Notepad (UMPC) that takes advantage of the SideShow technology in Windows Vista. (http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/features/foreveryone/sideshow.mspx) A lot of attention was been paid to adding SideShow to peripherals, like mobile phones, and detachable secondary displays that would work like PDAs. For the mobile market, however, I think a more promising use will be to use the existing components of the UMPC to call up SideShow. No separate display, just one screen that can go instant-on as SideShow then switch to full Vista if desired.
And since Sidebar gadgets can be ported to SideShow, there is tremendous potential for customization and adding functionality beyond PIM access. Throw in access to the built-in wireless and/or input devices, like cameras and microphones, and you're looking at one very useful device. Hope to see someone take advantage of this potential soon (or more accurately, relatively soon, as we still need to see Vista released first).
Finally took a read through the Gear Diary (http://geardiary.com/?p=359) interview with DualCor (http://www.dualcor.com/) president Rob Howe. Admittedly, I've lost interest in the cPC since dual boot-type functionality will be possible in Windows Vista through Sideshow. However, it's nice to finally have confirmation that, as I theorized (http://sumocat.blogspot.com/2006/05/dualcor-cpc-he-who-laughs-last.html), the lack of integrated radio was due to technical constraints.
John Mclaughlin (http://www.mclaughlin.com/) may look old and stodgy, but the man earned some street cred this week by reminding his audience that they can "iPod (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPod) the group". Yeah, yeah, I know the cool kids stopped using iPod as a verb last year, but c'mon, the man's eighty years old. For him to remind us to "iPod the group" is cool as balls. It's like the opposite of claiming to "use the Google". (http://wickedstageact2.typepad.com/life_on_the_wicked_stage_/2006/10/bush_and_the_go.html)
I noted a while back that Wacom (http://sumocat.blogspot.com/2006/06/wacoms-looking-forward-to-vista.html) was excited about the ink functionality in Vista. I'm excited too. The prospect of having ink on any Vista PC just by plugging in a Wacom tablet is of particular interest to me.
Anyway, Hugo Ortega (http://ubertablet.blogspot.com/2006/10/ink-desktop-really.html), that man of many tablets, is testing out the system. Look forward to seeing all the results.
Okay, I understand there are racist hypocrites who ignored his biased rambling about Donovan McNabb (http://espn.go.com/gen/news/2003/1001/1628537.html) and that he never went to prison for illegal drug use (http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/122839p-110349c.html) despite his calls to punish all drug addicts. But why hasn't everyone turned off Rush Limbaugh (http://www.bartcop.com/webring.htm) after he accused Michael J. Fox (http://www.michaeljfox.org/) of exaggerating his Parkinson's Disease symptoms (http://msnbc.msn.com/id/15417821/site/newsweek/) in his recent ad promoting stem cell research? It's one thing to dispute the validity of racial bias or chemical dependency. I can appreciate the differences in opinion and perspectives in these murky areas. But Parkinson's is unquestionably a disease. Fox definitely has it. He had to retire because it got too hard for him to control. Yeah, he wanted people to see the symptoms in this ad, but to accuse him of any level of "faking" is reprehensible. If this is how Rush wants to keep his name in the press to combat his sagging relevance, his reward should be the sound of crumbling ratings.
Been playing with Internet Explorer 7 (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/) for a few days. Installed Firefox 2.0 (http://www.mozilla.com/) last night. I don't know why I wasted my time on IE. Out for a week and it's already obsolete.
Don't get me wrong. IE7 is probably a good choice for Joe Low-Tech armed with a mouse and keyboard. But using a stylus and active digitizer, I found it nearly unusable. For crying out loud, at the very least, let me move some buttons around. Some of us want all the controls on one side.
And am I missing something or is that webfeed reader about as useful as visiting the feed's website? I understand that plug-ins add headline browsing and other features, but by itself it's not very useful and I doubt feed newbies will find it very compelling.
One feature that did impress me was the tab preview screen that displays thumbnails of all the tabs I have open. In fact, I found it so compelling that I installed the extension (https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/1937/) to add it to Firefox.
Bottom Line: IE7 is a good browser, a great step above IE6. But I can get all the same functionality in Firefox 2.0 (or even 1.5 for that matter). In a straight-out comparison, they're even. But once I factor in the customization element, IE7 doesn't even come close.
I'm only asking because every week it seems like there's some new study result announced proving stuff we already know, this week it's yet another permutation of the widely-believed "vegetables are good for you" theory, claiming that they're good for your brain (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061023/ap_on_he_me/diet_vegetables_aging). Good to know. All this tine I thought they were making me dumber. Next week's study: Men appear more attracted to women with large breasts.
Was I the only one combing though feeds today who hit the panic button when I saw "Deploy this patch Now!" (http://www.pringle.net.nz/Blog/PermaLink,guid,51b07417-4f85-4473-ab0d-f623caf43456.aspx) on Craig Pringle's feed? Crap in a hat! I thought there was a zero hour exploit being stampeded by worms or something. I check it out and it's just a call to install the Office compatibility pack (http://www.microsoft.com/office/preview/beta/converter.mspx). Okay, that's a worthwhile install, but maybe the adverb-exclamation combo "Now!" was a bit much considering Office 2007 is not yet golden.
Been playing with Internet Explorer 7 (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/) and I came across this interesting tidbit. I have my home page set to blank, but the Home button shows the names of weather.com and Orbitz. Doesn't affect the navigation, but why are the names here?
Heading out to GeekEnd 2006 soon. Actually, it's just a gaming weekend thrown by my friend Matt Tice (http://www.darksidestudios.biz/). Our pal Zach (http://blacksnail.livejournal.com/) is bringing Arkham Horror (http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/arkhamhorror.html), Zombies!, (http://www.twilightcreationsinc.com/zombies/) and Brian (http://tinyurl.com/y9ffj5) (person). I'm bringing Skallywaggs (http://www.skallywaggs.com/). Should be hours upon hours of geek fun.
