Month: October 2006

Next gen console analysis from a normal (-ish) gamer

I don’t have a lot to add to this. Head to Dubious Quality and read what Bill says about the next-generation console shoot-out (that would be XBox360 vs PS3 vs Wii). His is probably the smartest analysis of what will happen I’ve seen. He could be wrong, but given how well he understands the entire gaming industry, I’d place higher odds on his being right than any other analyst or business I’ve read yet.

Okay, let me get this straight. The Wii is going to sell barely more than half the units of the other two consoles even though it’s significantly cheaper and offers an entirely unique control scheme which will encourage developers to be more creative. Oh, and the development costs are much lower.

WTF?

[tags]A look at the next-gen console wars through 2010[/tags]

Do a lot of gun owners act this way?

A recent co-worker posted a link to this article on one gun-owner’s experience at CostCo when he carried his gun into the store and wore it openly. When he was leaving, a member of the store staff saw the gun and told him that store policy was that members had to leave firearms outside the store. Rather than agreeing to follow the company and store rules which he agreed to when he joined as a member, it sounds to me like he was rude and acted rather childishly. I’ve known a lot of gun owners/permit holders/gun carriers. None of the ones I’ve known seem to me likely to act this way, but maybe I’m mispercieving them. Continue reading “Do a lot of gun owners act this way?”

Pluto’s planetary status was long in doubt

More from the way-back archive that is Modern Mechanix, we see this November 1934 article from Science and Mechanics in which Pluto’s status as a planet was already in question.

mm-sml_little_pluto.jpgSINCE his discovery, the planet Pluto has been a good deal of a disappointment to his sponsors. Now Dr. Baade, of Mt. Wilson observatory, estimates that Pluto’s mass is something like that of Titan, the largest satellite of Saturn. But the mass of Titan, though the diameter is 2,600 miles, is but l/50th that of the Earth, or less than twice that of the moon. So that Pluto ranks as the largest asteroid, rather than the smallest planet; and it may be necessary to look farther for unknown planets.


I never before realized that Pluto was referred to as “he” either. Hmmmmm.

[tags]Pluto’s planetary status has long been in doubt, Pluto as a planet back in 1934[/tags]

The alphabet of manliness

OK, when I get a chance to update my Gift ideas page, I’m adding Maddox’ book “The Alphabet of Manliness” (or search Amazon for ISBN #080652720X if the link is broken) to the list. I recently got to see a few pages from the book and decided this is something I must have. Now understand – I’m not actually manly enough to live up to the book’s guidance, but I am at least manly enough to read the book without hurting myself. How can you not love a book that starts “A is for Ass-kicking” anyway?

maddox-manliness.jpgThe phrase “Ass-Kicking” has changed over the years from its humble origin as the union of one’s foot with another person’s ass, to the expression today that has nothing with asses, or even kicking. The picture at the beginning of this section epitomizes ass kicking. Time for a pop quiz: What’s more awesome than a lumberjack smashing Santa in the face? (A) Nothing or (B) All of the above. I gave this quiz to my friend’s wife, and she got the wrong answer. She kept asking questions like “what’s so cool about Santa getting punched in the face? That’s not cool, that’s mean.”


In the Ass-Kicking section alone, one learns the proper way to perform the cock punch (2 different styles), the dropkick to the face (no pansy tosskicking here – drop the target and kick the face), plain-old punch to the mouth, head-butt to the ovaries, and much more – all with illustrations. And yes, it’s a humor book, so don’t get too worried about the described content.

Buy this book for me and help me improve my manliness, which will in turn improve my natural awesomeness. It’s only $10 for a far greater return in my own greatness. Come on – you know you want to. 🙂

[tags]The alphabet of Manliness, Maddox on manliness[/tags]

I wish Google would

061021_no_big_google_offer.gif

I totally feel this kid’s pain. I wish Google would pay $1.6 billion for my web site, too. I suppose I probably need a bit more quality, content, and viewership before I can get that, though.

[tags]bLaugh, I wish Google would, Google doesn’t want to buy you today[/tags]

You taste like bacon

Let me be the first to say that I, for one, welcome our new robot overlords.

baconbot.jpg

In an early preview of the future of humanity comes this response from robots: you taste like bacon. Don’t forget this when the robots take over the world.

So, apparently the guys at NEC thought it would be cool to make a wine-tasting robot. The robot — pictured above — fires a beam of light into the wine, and then uses an infrared spectrometer to analyze the reflection. It studies the chemical composition of the wine and delivers an instant verdict about how good it is.

. . .

But the NEC guys decided to show off the robot to the media, and that’s when it revealed its morbid secret. As the Associated Press reports:

Continue reading “You taste like bacon”