Wow...

Okay, I have three email accounts. I have a personal account, a school account, and a cannon-fodder account. The latter is a yahoo account that I give out to websites I don't trust. Or are heavily traversed.

I seem to get about 10-15 junk emails to that account each day. Yahoo's junk mail filter is surprisingly good, allowing almost no emails to get through their net twice if you flag it the first time.

So, anyway, I submitted that story by the NY Times about google and china to slashdot. And, whaddya know, it gets accepted! Yay and all.

Then I check my yahoo email account. It's got some new spam, so I flag it and see no more of it.

Today, I checked my junk box.

Sunday, I got 60 spams. On monday, "only" 27.

And one from May 24, 2006...

A tip: When submitting things to slashdot, don't use your real email address...

Google + China

Google's China Problem (and China's Google Problem)

Not game related, but this is a very interesting (and long) article on Google in China and also on how censorship works in China as well. Hint: It's not as harsh as you'd think.

It's 10 pages long, so don't just think you can breeze through it, but it's a VERY interesting read nevertheless.

Oh, Orson Scott Card...

I was reading "Ender's Game" for the... well, hundredth time is probably not too far off, yesterday, and I got to the Dragon Army kicking ass and taking names in the Battle Room.

The Battle Room has always been a point of annoyance for me. The goal of the Battle Room is to defeat an equally numbered force by "freezing" all of the enemy soldiers and then using five of your "unfrozen" soldiers to open the enemy's door to win the game.

And then in the last Battle Room, when Ender faces two armies at once and clearly has no chance of out-fighting the enemy, he just goes for the door and wins this way, which is supposedly a BRILLIANT tactical move, something that no one has ever done before! Amazing!

Complete BS!

The biggest problem I have with Ender's Game is that all these supposedly brilliant kids, who's whole life is based around this game, never thought of this strategy.

Card apparantly never talked to a gamer.

One of the most important thought processes that occur within the mind of a gamer is "what is the fastest/simplest/easiest way to win?" Fair? Doesn't matter. Intended? Who cares? The first thing that any of them, when looking at the rules for the Battle Room would ask is "Wait, so I don't actually need to Freeze any of the enemy, as long as I get the five guys to open the door, right?"

Of course, "Ender's Game" has been around long before the NES, before there was any games at all like the Battle Room. Well, maybe except for Chess, where you have to keep up a strong defense because it doesn't matter how many pieces your opponent has, as long as he can take your king. But, well, I can't really fault him for not having that kind of mindset.

Just a baseless, pointless rant, I guess. But, writers of the future! (aka: Liz and Mom) Be aware that the simplest path to victory is going to be the one that people are going to figure out!

Things that are so awesome at 2 AM...

"STAR TREKKIN', ACROSS THE UNIVERSE!
ON THE STARSHIP ENTERPRISE, UNDER CAPTAIN KIRK!
STAR TREKKIN', ACROSS THE UNIVERSE!
BOLDLY GOING FORWARD CAUSE WE CAN'T FIND REVERSE!"

heheheh...

(search for "Star Trekkin" in case you haven't heard of this...

Boot Camp

(I'd make a joke about the military here, you know, something, a throw a way like "Ten-HUT!", but that's what you all EXPECT me to do! So HA!)

I've long been the oxymoron of the computer industry: The Mac Gamer. While the selection isn't as limited as some would make it seem, it isn't like I can play any of the great PC games that just came out. The list of companies that do simultaneous Mac and PC releases is one name long: Blizzard. And, while I love them for it, Real Time Strategy and Action RPG's aren't exactly that great.

And then Apple releases Intel based Macs.

And now Boot Camp, allowing the Mactels to boot in Windows.

And I have a year old computer (which I love) that is NOT a Mactel.

*sigh*

There was this big concern back when the Mactels first came out that few, if any companies, would bother creating THREE versions of their products. Now they don't have to. Just two. And you just know that Apple's marketshare is gonna go up because of this.

Heh. It's the mullet of the computer world: Buisness in the front (windows), party in the back (OS X)!

This little piece of software, when I next upgrade my machine (probably two years...), would let me be a real gamer.

Gotta give Apple props for, once again, swallowing their pride and accepting that they can make a lot more money if they just make their stuff Windows friendly (iPod and iTunes anyone?).

It'll be interesting to see how this plays out. The reviews of the Beta have been that it's solid, plays the graphically intense games like a breeze, and there are, according to reports, few errors at all (although I've heard of some nasty ones that make forum goers look like idiots for demanding perfection from a Beta product. But, then again, how hard is it to make Forum goers look like idiots?)

Lets just hope that Boot Camp, when it's finalized, is damn near flawless.

Why am I going into the VG industry?

According to CNN's MONEY magazine:

Mark Dochtermann, the director of Technology at Electronic Arts has the best job in America.

Oh, and "Software Engineer"?

According to the same magazine, Software Engineer is #1!

Awesome :).

How I Met your Mother...

Firstly, this is a very good show.

But, why do I watch it?

Because the main chaarcter, Ted, is very human. I've made decisions very similar to his, screwed up about as royally as he has, and, well, it's kinda refreshing.

It's kinda why I love Robot Chicken so much. Yes, it's a good show alright. But it feels a lot like RC was made for me, or at least people very similar to me. Geek comedy is something that is just now becoming popular.

Meanwhile, HIMYM seems like it's made by people who've done the stupid things that, well, we all know they shouldn't do, because we've done it ourselves. Maybe not the specific actions, but the thoughts behind them. Sometimes you do the wrong thing even though some part of you is telling you not to do it. Sometimes you just freeze, even though sitcoms never show that part, cause inaction rarely sells.

You know what? I want to see inaction! I want to see a character in a fictional show NOT act on bad news. Because, as human as doing the wrong/funny thing is, there's nothing more human than seizing up in the face of trouble and adversity.

Just ask our oh-so-noble president. 5 minutes at a reading of My Pet Goat, two full days before taking any kind of action after Katrina makes landfall?

Sounds human to me. I know that many people are quick to criticize him for this, but, well, when crisis strikes, nine times out of ten people are probably gonna freeze up and just do the things that are normal for them.

Don't make it right tho.

(wow, HIMYM to RC back to HIMYM to Human nature and me to Bush... Need to work on focus while writing...)