March 4, 2008
Gary Gygax 1938 - 2008
The original DM just failed his save.
http://blog.wired.com/underwire/2008/03/report-gary-gyg.html
R.I.P. Mr Gygax.
Posted by Aaron on March 4, 2008, 3:28 pm permalink top | general
2 Comments »
February 25, 2008
In search of the Higgs boson
Joel Achenbach has a fascinating article over at National Geographic about The Large Hadron Collider, with amazing pictures by Peter Ginter.
The Large Hadron Collider is an enormous particle accelerator that’s being constructed by CERN, about 300 feet beneath the French-Swiss border. How enormous? Try 17 miles in circumference!
The article is full of crunchy scientific bits about what they plan on doing, but the pictures alone are worth the visit.
Starting sometime in the coming months, two beams of particles will race in opposite directions around the tunnel, which forms an underground ring 17 miles in circumference. The particles will be guided by more than a thousand cylindrical, supercooled magnets, linked like sausages. At four locations the beams will converge, sending the particles crashing into each other at nearly the speed of light. If all goes right, matter will be transformed by the violent collisions into wads of energy, which will in turn condense back into various intriguing types of particles, some of them never seen before. That’s the essence of experimental particle physics: You smash stuff together and see what other stuff comes out.
The project is set to begin in May of this year, and one of their main goals is to detect an extremely rare particle called the Higgs boson. Apparently only 1-in-several-trillion collisions is expected to produce the Higgs, and they hope the device will top out somewhere around 600 million impacts per second.
Posted by Aaron on February 25, 2008, 8:45 pm permalink top | general
2 Comments »
February 20, 2008
email apnea?
I saw this over on BoingBoing:
Linda Stone (who coined the phrase “continuous partial attention”) has noticed that people hold their breath and breathe shallowly when answering email, a phenomenon she’d dubbed “email apnea.” She’s posted a little rumination on the long-term health impacts of impaired email breathing.
From the original article:
As the email spills onto my screen, as my mind races with thoughts of what I’ll answer first, what can wait, who I should call, what should have been done two days ago; I’ve stopped the steady breathing I was doing only moments earlier in a morning meditation and now, I’m holding my breath.
And here’s the deal: You’re probably holding your breath, too.
I wanted to know — how widespread is email apnea*? I observed others on computers and BlackBerries: in their offices, their homes, at cafes. The vast majority of people held their breath, or breathed very shallowly, especially when responding to email. I watched people on cell phones, talking and walking, and noticed that most were mouth-breathing and hyperventilating. Consider also, that for many, posture while seated at a computer can contribute to restricted breathing.
Does it matter? How was holding my breath affecting me?
Do you hold your breath when scanning emails or certain websites? I think I do, sometimes. It’s not something that I really payed attention to before, so I can’t say for sure. I do know that I sometimes get a “compressed” feeling in my ribs sometimes if I slouch at my desk for too long. I’m going to make a conscious effort to breath regularly and see if I notice a difference.
Posted by Aaron on February 20, 2008, 5:02 pm permalink top | general
3 Comments »
February 9, 2008
rock climbing
This morning we went rock climbing. Indoors that is, and not on real rocks. There is a climbing gym not too far from here called Allez-Up, which translates roughly as “Up You Go”.
The whole experience was great fun, and I would definitely go again. The group I was with numbered about a dozen people - mostly coworkers from my girlfriend’s office, and everyone really seemed to enjoy it.
For myself, it was the first time I had done indoor climbing, but I didn’t have too many problems. I first tried 3 of the easier walls, these were straight 90-degree climbs, with a decent number of holds. No problem.
One of the belayers suggested I tried something more challenging so I moved to one of the side walls. This one was a bit harder, as there were fewer “good” holds and quite a few small nubs that were hard to get a grip on with my sneakers. Next time I would rent the climbing shoes. Also, the top of this wall leaned slightly outwards for the last 5 or 6 feet, just for fun apparently. On my first attempt my hands were still sweaty from my early climbs, so I slipped off halfway up and had to start over. Those bags of chalk must be essential for regular climbers. On my second attempt I made it to the top, slapped the pipe and was belayed back to the ground.
After that a bunch of us watched as people tried to climb this really hard wall. The first 3/4 was a straight climb, then the wall jutted out horizontally, about 4 feet, before resuming the vertical. Basically you had to hang from the ceiling to make it over the lip. A couple of guys (who had obviously climbed before) tried and failed but we all applauded their effort. Finally, a shorter guy made it over the lip and everyone cheered. After that a few more people tried, some made it and some didn’t, but everyone had fun.
Before going, Soizic and I tried another wall that was really fun. It was built into a corner, so you had two walls to climb against. The holds were decent, a bit easier than the more challenging wall I had tried before. To make it interesting, there was a large triangular lip that had to be overcome. It was easier than the horizontal lip mentioned above, but still challenging enough for us to put big grins on our face when we made it over the top.
Posted by Aaron on February 9, 2008, 9:24 pm permalink top | general
2 Comments »
February 8, 2008
Let’s Play Chrono Trigger
Some dude on the Penny Arcade forums is posting a video playthrough of Chrono Trigger for the SNES. I loved this game when I was a kid. Along with Secret of Mana and Final Fantasy VI*, it was one of my favorite console RPGs.
The videos are worth it just for the nostalgia trip, and the guy’s running commentary is an added bonus. You can check out the first 2 chapters here and here. I think all future chapters will be hosted on the Stage 6 site.
You can follow along the thread here.
*Final Fantasy III in North America
Posted by Aaron on February 8, 2008, 1:18 pm permalink top | general
1 Comment »
tamarin
Apparently I didn’t have enough to do already, because I’ve voluntarily added to The List. As you may or may not know, I’m eagerly looking forward to the release of 4th Edition. Eventually I would like to run a campaign using the new rules, but this won’t be happening until after our current DM (a schemer of Mephistophelian ingenuity I may add) tires of his current machinations.
Still, if ever I have the chance to work creatively I will jump on it. To that end I have started a wiki for what will probably be the Points-of-Light based setting I intend to run. It is tentatively titled Tamarin, and you can find it here.
Progress will be slow given my current workload and the several months of time I estimate before our current campaign takes us wherever it’s going. Regardless, I am posting this to keep myself motivated to update it on a regular basis.
Posted by Aaron on February 8, 2008, 1:11 pm permalink top | general
No Comments »
February 4, 2008
shower face and bibles
There’s a certain expression that people make when they are in the shower. That is, it is an expression that usually only occurs in the shower. It doesn’t happen often, but I am sure that we have all produced it at least once in our lives. What’s interesting is that, despite the probability that this expression has been produced billions of times, I would be willing to bet that few people have ever seen it. Last night, I had that opportunity.
I took a shower last night since we had been at the gym and wanted to avoid stink-bed. Now, shower face requires two specific criteria to be fulfilled. Firstly the user has to expect hot (or at least warm) water from the shower head. Second, and this is key, the user must instead receive water at a temperature more suited to polar bears or distant asteroids. We have a large mirror along the wall of our bathroom opposite the shower, so I was able to witness my shower face as it happened and analyze its makeup, which I will now present for your benefit.
The first thing I noticed about shower face is that it is a mix of several emotions, and I would like to posit that there are a total of three. The first two, I would suggest, are universal, and the third may vary depending on your personality. First we have shock (What the–!) and outrage (How dare there be cold water!?). Simple enough. For this test subject, the expression was produced by a furrowing of the brow and the jaw dropping and frowning at the same time, conveniently mimicked by the emoticon D: I trust your imagination can produce a more accurate facsimile.
The third stage of shower face must surely vary, in the same way that some people like jice-cream*, and others do not. For myself the final expression was a kind of mad delight. Not the angry kind of mad, the scientist kind. I almost cackled with glee as I pressed myself back against the shower wall, trying to avoid the frigid downpour. I suspect it was because of the absurdity of the situation, but it may also be related to the fact that I am the kind of person that enjoys “scary surprises”. This would also make sense with what I believe the other, theoretical, third-stage emotion must be; abject misery.
I am sure you will have no doubt imaging someone - maybe yourself! - who would nearly be reduced to tears by such a situation as they frantically reach for the dials. I posit that such a person would also fall under the category of those who do not enjoy scary movies and other thrills. I think I may be on to something here.
***
A few days ago I was sorting through my bookshelf, putting aside those that I would attempt to sell or give away before we move. During the triage I came across and old “King James Bible” that I had collected several years ago. As a joke, my girlfriend held it out to me and asked “do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth–” and so on. I placed my hand on the book and replied “I swear that there is no god!”
And then something funny happened. Neither my girlfriend nor I are believers, but immediately after I said that, a look of shock overcame her. I could see in her face a kind of internal struggle so I asked her what was wrong. She said “I know it doesn’t make any sense, but I’m actually worried!”
We laughed about it afterwards (fake lightning-bolt sounds included), but I thought it was an interesting reminder of the strong mental hold religious superstitions have on our conscious. For something like “the sanctity of the bible” to have been so deeply ingrained into our minds so that even a completely sane individual, fully in command of her mental faculties gets goosebumps when a heathen like me “blasphemes”…
If anything, I think that should at least be a reminder of the level of brainwashing that religions can produce.
*Jello and ice-cream in the same bowl. I recommend cherry and vanilla.
Posted by Aaron on February 4, 2008, 10:40 am permalink top | general
6 Comments »
January 23, 2008
Wii-D!
A month or so ago I had seen a video of this guy’s finger-tracking project for the Wii Remote. It was nifty, but I didn’t think much more of it. Today, while reading Penny Arcade I saw that he had updated his site with new projects.
You have to watch this:
Posted by Aaron on January 23, 2008, 1:30 pm permalink top | general
No Comments »
January 21, 2008
AT&T Internet Filtering
Joel Johnson of BoingBoing Gadgets visited The Hugh Thompson Show to talk about gadgets. This is a show that is sponsored exclusively by AT&T and distributed on their online Tech Channel. So what’s the first thing he does? He calls out AT&T on their idea/plan to filter all packets handled by their routers - basically peeking at what you are doing to make sure it’s not something naughty.
“I eventually did talk about gadgets, but in light of AT&T’s shocking and baffling announcement of their plans to filter the internet, I thought that a much more interesting and important topic.
So that’s what I talked about.
As you can see from the video, the crew ended up scrubbing the interview about half-way through. Figuring that might happen, I asked my steely-nerved friend Richard Blakeley to tape the first take. I wanted to make sure that we had a record of the event, primarily to ensure that AT&T would have no reason to try to bury the interview entirely — the same reason I am running this clip now, while discussion about what to do with my segment in post-production is surely underway.”
This guy is awesome.
Check out the rest of his details about the incident here.
Posted by Aaron on January 21, 2008, 11:43 am permalink top | general
7 Comments »
January 19, 2008
What is Cloverfield?
This past Friday I saw Cloverfield with a couple of friends, one of whom will post his own impressions of the movie as well I imagine. In advance, I apologize for the rambling format this mini-review will inevitably take, as I’m still trying to digest everything.
So how do I put this? In a word, the movie was intense. Both visually and aurally. I want to bring special attention to the sound. Save for the initial stereo music at the party, there is no background music during the entire film. This makes perfect sense if you consider exactly what kind of movie Cloverfield is. During the run-up to the release there had been a lot of guessing and hype about “the monster”.
Listen to me; Cloverfield is not about the monster.
Well, in a way it is, but more so it is a movie about us. It’s a movie about regular people in a stressful situation and how they deal with it. This is why the lack of music, as well as the somewhat controversial shaky-cam work so well. We are placed right in the middle of these people; we see what they see and we hear what they hear. If I don’t see (at the very least) Oscar nominations for director Matt Reeves and producer J.J. Abrams, I will be very disappointed.
I say somewhat controversial because there have been comparisons — based purely on the trailers — between this film and The Blair Witch Project. Let me tell you now that this is pretty much bullshit. The only real similarity between the two films is that they are both told from the point of view of a recovered videotape/SD card.
Where Cloverfield excels is that we actually care about the characters. To be sure, we are introduced to them as the rich, privileged and beautiful yuppies that they are. For the first 20 minutes all we can do is watch them go through their hipster heart ache routines, but we’re not really meant to connect with them.
Once the monster hits though, we are with them as their world quickly unravels (as would ours in such a situation) and falls apart around them. People die, things that were once important become meaningless, and we see just how like us these people are.
There’s a lot more that I want to say about this movie, but as I said I am still trying to digest it all. I want to see it again and if you haven’t seen it yet, I highly suggest you take the first opportunity. Don’t wait for the DVD or the .torrent - this is a film that has to be seen on the big screen.
I am not exaggerating when I say this movie will be a modern classic in the same way that Jaws and Star Wars were for their times.
Posted by Aaron on January 19, 2008, 6:06 pm permalink top | general
No Comments »
