Proof that we are a nation of idiots

I heard this listing of last week’s top 6 television shows as I was driving in to work today. I really didn’t believe it until I looked it up and verified that as an American, I am in a population best classified as eff’ing idiotic brain-damaged monkey (FIBDM). And since that information is like to change or go linkdead, here’s the facts:

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The Restaurant Game – using artificial intelligence to develop human-like game responses

A neat gaming project is going on thanks to the folks at the MIT Artificial Intelligence (AI) Lab. The plan is to get people to play a game based on a restaurant interaction, then by processing the collected gameplay data and processing it through some magic-like algorithm, come up with game behavior that will better mimic human response.

Contribute to the first collaboratively authored computer game and earn Game Designer credit! customer_waitress_small.jpg

. . .

The Restaurant Game takes about 10 minutes to play. It is a two-player game that will automatically find partners for players once you join a server. You are welcome encouraged to play multiple times. In order for this project to be at all successful, we will need to collect a lot of data — data from over 1,000 10,000 gameplay sessions. Play early, play often, and please spread the word!

This project attempts to address two frustrations I experienced as a professional game developer. 1) Convincing human social behavior is difficult to model with existing hand crafted AI systems. 2) Play testing by people outside of the development team typically comes too late to have a major impact on the final product. This experiment aims to generate AI behaviors that conform to the way players actually choose to interact with other characters and the environment; behaviors that are convincingly human because they capture the nuances of real human behavior and language.


I’ll be downloading and installing this little gem tonight after work. There’s even a desktop widget available so you can get notification of when there is an available restaurant gamer waiting for a partner. (via DubiousQuality)

[tags]Artificial Intelligence used for improving human-like game interactions, Gaming with the MIT AI lab[/tags]

The greatest mobile phone review?

Catching up on so much recent miscellany brought me to this British journalist reviewing his new mobile (we call them cell phones, by the way). He titles his write-up My new mobile is lumbered with a bewildering array of unnecessary features aimed at idiots, so you know just by the name that I have to read and share it.

The trouble started the afternoon someone from Orange rang me up to say, “Hey, valued customer – do you want a free phone?” At first I wasn’t interested, but he went on and on about how popular and great the Samsung E900 was, then promised me free texts at weekends for life if I said yes. So I gave in.

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Review quotes taken out of context

I’ve been reading the latest issue of Electronic Gaming Magazine tonight, and in a fit of stupidity on my part I’ve decided to post some out-of-context quotes from recent game reviews. I do this because this makes me laugh, while revealing to the world how stupid and immature I can be (like most males, I’d offer).

  1. Also cool: unlockable balls
  2. Straight, thin, and more important, one piece.
  3. …but I don’t go for starlight spewing from a struck ball…
  4. …but become more natural and fluid as you get acclimated to the fast-paced, twitchy action.

These come respectively from reviews for:

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Helpful tips to avoid tax problems

Straight from the evil-overlord’s mouth, here are the “dirty dozen” tax frauds that you should strive to avoid. The IRS will be watching for these especially carefully. Here’s a sample:

3. Phishing is a technique used by identity thieves to acquire personal financial data in order to gain access to the financial accounts of unsuspecting consumers, run up charges on their credit cards or apply for loans in their names. These Internet-based criminals pose as representatives of a financial institution — or sometimes the IRS itself — and send out fictitious e-mail correspondence in an attempt to trick consumers into disclosing private information. A typical e-mail notifies a taxpayer of an outstanding refund and urges the taxpayer to click on a hyperlink and visit an official-looking Web site. The Web site then solicits a social security and credit card number. It is important to note the IRS does not use e-mail to initiate contact with taxpayers about issues related to their accounts. If a taxpayer has any doubt whether a contact from the IRS is authentic, the taxpayer should call 1-800-829-1040 to confirm it.

12. Frivolous Arguments: Promoters have been known to make the following outlandish claims: the Sixteenth Amendment concerning congressional power to lay and collect income taxes was never ratified; wages are not income; filing a return and paying taxes are merely voluntary; and being required to file Form 1040 violates the Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination or the Fourth Amendment right to privacy. Don’t believe these or other similar claims. These arguments are false and have been thrown out of court. While taxpayers have the right to contest their tax liabilities in court, no one has the right to disobey the law.

If you don’t do your taxes yourself and want to try to avoid unethical tax preparers that might suck you into these or other tax abuses which will lead to trouble, I’ve been a fan of Consumerist for finding reliable consumer help on practically anything. Searching the site for “Tax preparation” yielded a few potentially helpful threads.

[tags]IRS Dirty-Dozen tax schemes, Avoid these illegal or unethical tax frauds[/tags]

This day in history, 1959 – Barbie debuts

At the American Toy Fair in New York city, Barbie made her debut today in 1959.

Eleven inches tall, with a waterfall of blond hair, Barbie was the first mass-produced toy doll in the United States with adult features. The woman behind Barbie was Rith Handler, who co-founded Mattel, Inc. with her husband in 1945. After seeing her young dauther ignore her baby dolls to play make-believe with paper dolls of adult women, Handler realized there was an important niche in the market for a toy that allowed little girls to imagine the future.

Barbie’s appearance was modeled on a doll named Lilli, based on a German comic strip character. Originally marketed as a racy gag gift to adult men in tobacco shops, the Lilli doll later became extremely popular with children.

A brief video of Barbie’s beginning plus a lot more information on her origins at the link above.

[tags]Today in history 1959 – Barbie debuts, Barbie’s 1959 beginnings[/tags]

Gore may be receiving honorary doctorate

I read this bit about Gore possibly receiving an honorary doctorate in the near future. I saw this on Ten Jack Ten, which I just started reading, after seeing it linked by Bill at DubiousQuality.

Former Vice President Al Gore could pay a visit to the University in the near future to receive an honorary degree for his work in climatology.

. . .

“He’s in the news and is a legitimate expert on a pressing issue of global concern, climate change, so this level of interest is understandable,” Wolter said. “However, no plans have been set and it’s unlikely that would occur this spring.”

And the reaction from the Ten Jack Ten owner?

An “expert,” eh? If this is an expert, we’re going to need a new word that indicates someone has extensive personal knowledge of a subject area. Heaven forbid he starts running around demanding his “credentials” be cited everywhere like Bill Cosby did for a while.

And more. Read the original article at mndaily.com and the full reaction at Ten Jack Ten.

[tags]Gore might receive honorary doctorate[/tags]