Month: August 2007

My plea for help

Folks, I’m hoping someone smart can help me out here.  My 8-year-old son has ADHD, pretty much just like I do, only his is much closer to incapacitating.  We’ve cycled through a number of medicines.  He has a problem taking pills, but the liquid ADD medications wear off in just a coupe of hours – we end up on three doses a day, and they don’t last long enough for him to function well to the next dosing time.  We’ve done a patch, but it irritates his skin so badly that he can’t stop itching it.  We’ve used Concerta, which works, but only for 3-4 hours.  We’re on a new medication (forget the name, and can’t grab the bottle right now to check it).  It’s a larger capsule than the Concerta, so he has even more trouble swallowing it.

If we don’t figure some way to get his focus problems under control, he’s going to be kicked out of his current school.  It is a very good school, and his teachers have been great since we’ve been there.  I know the counselor at his current school thinks he’s just not that bright, but I know that isn’t the problem – she wants him evaluated for a learning disability.  I don’t know if it is boredom (which was my problem with school), or if he is setting himself up to fail intentionally because his handwriting isn’t good and he thinks he can deflect from that problem by making it appear to be another problem.  He has an absurdly sharp memory, so anything that gets through to him sticks.  It’s a matter of getting his attention and getting the information into his head.

I need some advice on how to help him take his medication, so we can make it a less stressful event and make sure it happens every day.  I am hoping for some advice as well on how to help him focus better.  I’ve never gotten my ADD under control except through medication, but mine isn’t as severe as his and I can function fairly well even when I’m having troubles focusing.  I don’t know how to help him get better, and I don’t know what information on the web is actually worth consuming.

Please.  Anyone?

Thanks.

[tags]ADD, ADHD, Help[/tags]

Time to buy those airline tickets, folks

If you’ve ever sat and thought “Where can I get a sex change operation if I don’t have a lot of money?” – it looks like the Brazilians have you in mind.

Brazilian judges have ruled that a sex change is a constitutional right, so the government says it will provide the operation and treatment — gratis.

Unfortunately, some of you won’t qualify. To find out if you can catch a ride on the “I want to play for the other team” ride, hit the full USA Today story and see what the rules and requirements are.

[tags]Brazil, Free sex change, Just a sweet transvestite[/tags]

Dungeon Runners update to add the one feature I needed before paying

wikipedia-dungeon_runners.jpg
If you aren’t familiar with the game Dungeon Runners, you should probably check it out. You could probably most understand it as an online-only Diablo-like RPG. It’s free, so there is a very low threshold for entry – just create a free account, download the client, login, and play. If you like it, you have the option of paying $5 per month for extra capabilities, but you can play free as long and as much as you like if it doesn’t seem worth $5 per month to you.

I was in the beta of the game for a while. It was enjoyable, but the biggest problem for me was a limitation of one character per account. My older son likes the game, and it seems at least moderately age-appropriate, so I let him play. With only one character for an account, that meant I couldn’t have and develop a character – I let him delete and create characters as he liked, because he played it more than I did. It looks like that limitation is about to go away, however, as news of the upcoming patch and content upgrade will add in a 3 character per account allowance.

Free-to-play dungeon crawler Dungeon Runner is expected to get its next big update this week. I chatted briefly with lead designer Mark Tucker earlier today about what we can expect to see from the update, labeled Chunk Number One.

In a nutshell, the update will add player versus player worlds, multiple character support per an account, in-chat item linking and a new high level dungeon.

My brother already has a paid account. When this update hits, I’ll probably join, as well. I might even get 2 accounts – one for me and one for my older son. And if you wonder how a free to download and free to play MMO works:

While NCSoft is still hesitant to talk about the profitability of the mostly free game, you can pay for access to a small set of exclusive features and a new members only server, they do say they are quite happy with how the game is shaping up.

‘We are tracking well compared to other NC Soft titles,” Tucker said. “The development team has a goal in terms of number of subscribers. There is a point when we become profitable and it’s not a very big number. At that point we can grow the development team.”

NC Soft spokeswoman Opal Lertutai said they have 120,000 active accounts and that they have about 75 percent of the $5 a month paid accounts needed for the game to break even.

So it looks like they are pretty close to getting their target number of minimum paid accounts to keep the game alive and growing. Like I said above – once this update comes out, you can add me in to that base, as well. The single character limitation was all that kept me from getting more into the game.

[tags]Dungeon Runners, NCSoft, Gaming, MMO, MMORPG[/tags]

Games you just don’t want to hear are in development

As a hardcore gamer, there are some things you just don’t want to hear in reference to games. Anything referring to Barbie is bad. Barbie and Horse appearing in the title is much worse, because you know only one way that could be a good game, yet you also know there is no way Barbie would be in a bestiality pr0n game. Though Mary Kate and Ashley are hotties, seeing their name on any game is a sure sign you’d want to pass it by. But we’ve got a couple of new entries into the games-you-never-want-to-see-developed category.

Did you know there’s actually a Barbie MMO? BarbieGirls.com is the kinda thing that makes hardcore gamers groan, but there is — a pink-festooned, dolls-getting-manicured, ‘tween girl-focused MMO, and moreover, it’s ridiculously popular. In its first 60 days, it signed up three million users. Now it’s up to four million — that’s half of what Second Life has drummed up in its entire lifespan — and growing at a rate of 4500 a day.

. . .

Not to be left out of the competition, the freaky skank dolls of Bratz are getting in on the action with Be-Bratz.com, another ‘tween girls’ virtual world with a real-world component — you buy a $29.99 Bratz doll-slash-USB key, and it comes with some pink computer peripherals (a mouse and pad) that look like Japanese sex toys.

Please – if you ever hear that I’m playing these games in any serious manner, just shoot me. Neither Barbie nor Bratz should ever exist in a game title that references MMOs.  (via Kotaku)

[tags]Barbie, Bratz, beastiality, horses, MMOs, gaming[/tags]

Rubik’s cube – 26 moves or less

It’s astounding what one can find on the science blogs, isn’t it? How about information the insight that a Rubik’s cube can always be solved in 26 moves or less? This work beats out last years 27-or-less moves proof.

Daniel Kunkle can solve a Rubik’s Cube in 26 moves. Or at least his computer can.

Kunkle, a computer scientist at Northeastern University in Boston, has proved that 26 moves are enough to solve any Rubik’s Cube, no matter how scrambled. That’s one move below the previous record. In the process of cracking the cube, he developed algorithms that can be useful for problems as disparate as scheduling air flights and determining how proteins will fold.

Rubik’s Cube has approximately 43 quintillion possible configurations. Even a supercomputer can’t search through every possible configuration to find the quickest way to unscramble a given starting arrangement in a reasonable amount of time. So Kunkle and his advisor Gene Cooperman developed some clever mathematical and computational strategies to make the puzzle more manageable.

The article discusses in brief some of the work done to generate this proof. And as noted in the above snip, these algorithms could well have applicability to other work dealing in problems with massively large numbers of permutations. (via boingboing)

[tags]Rubik’s Cube, World record, Algorithms, Science news, Science[/tags]

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How not to find the perfect partner

After finding the perfect woman online, Des Gregor travelled to Mali to meet his beautiful, blushing bride-to-be and collect a rather generous dowry. Naturally, we wouldn’t want to cover it on the Blahg if it ended there and everyone lived happily ever after.

An Australian farmer who was kidnapped and beaten in Mali after walking into an Internet bride scam has pleaded with people to be careful looking for online love.

. . .

“I was tied, bound by the legs, and that was only probably for a couple of days because they knew that I was going to cooperate. There was always one bloke sleeping at the door, there was no way out,” Gregor told Australian media.

He is back home and safe other than the lasting mental trauma of the ordeal. Read the full article for how he escaped and his words of wisdom to all future online love-seekers.

[tags]Mail, Looking for love, Online love trouble, How not to find the perfect partner[/tags]

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Blade Runner Ultimate Collection DVD set

I must admit, I missed this movie when it was first out in theatres. I didn’t catch it until a few years later when I got the video and then again a couple years after that when I got the DVD. Now, I can get the Ultimate Collector’s edition DVD set of Blade Runner for a mere $55. That’s not bad, considering all the geeky greatness you get.

amazon-blade_runner_ultimate.jpgIn celebration of Blade Runner’s 25th anniversary, director Ridley Scott has gone back into post production to create the long-awaited definitive new version. Blade Runner: The Final Cut, spectacularly restored and remastered from original elements and scanned at 4K resolution, will contain never-before-seen added/extended scenes, added lines, new and improved special effects, director and filmmaker commentary, an all-new 5.1 Dolby(r) Digital audio track and more. Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Edward James Olmos, Joanna Cassidy, Sean Young, and Daryl Hannah are among some 80 stars, filmmakers and others who participate in the extensive bonus features. Among the bonus material highlights is Dangerous Days, a brand new, three-and-a-half-hour documentary by award-winning DVD producer Charles de Lauzirika, with an extensive look into every aspect of the film: its literary genesis, its challenging production and its controversial legacy. The definitive documentary to accompany the definitive film version.

The Ultimate Collector’s Edition will be presented in a unique 5-disc digi-package with handle which is a stylish version of Rick Deckard’s own briefcase. In addition, each briefcase will be individually numbered and in limited supply. Included is a lenticular motion film clip from the original feature, miniature origami unicorn figurine, miniature replica spinner car, and collector’s photographs, as well as a signed personal letter from Sir Ridley Scott.

That qualifies for w00tness in my book. Hit the Amazon item link for the disc-by-disc details. The disc 3 offerings look most interesting to me.

[tags]Blade Runner, Ultimate Collector’s edition, Harrison Ford, Ridley Scott[/tags]

Woman calls cops about her fake drugs

More news that makes us happy to have our “Stupid” category now on the Blahg. In Georgia, a woman called the cops for help getting money back because her crack cocaine wasn’t good enough to suit her tastes.

Juanita Marie Jones, 53, called Rochelle Police late Thursday night after she purchased what she thought was a $20 piece of crack cocaine, according to police reports.

She told officers she broke the rock into three pieces and smoked one, only to discover the drugs were “fake.”

I guess one should be wary of $20 crack rocks, now. (via boingboing)

[tags]Drug buy gone bad, Cops help buyer of bad crack to jail[/tags]

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