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Wednesday, May 22, 2002
Clicky, clicky: Holy caffeine buzz, Batman, check this out. That's one way to wake up in the morning. Once you're up, though -- assuming you're the kind of person who enjoys a computer game or two -- you should definitely check out Blue's News and IGN's E3 conference coverage and maybe the "impressions" area of Gamespot's coverage, too. (Don't bother clicking on any GameSpot links with a red padlock next to them unless you're a paid subscriber, though.) I'm excited about the prospects of a sequel to Halo, Duality, and the US Army game, which, did anyone mention, will be based on the Unreal2 engine and distributed for free? Also, I'm simultaneously psyched and hoping against hope that EA hasn't screwed it up, but I can't wait to get my hands on a copy of Buffy, the game. It looks like the sort of thing that, once it arrives in it's shiny packaging, might cause me to become spontaneously glued to an Xbox controller. That is, if it doesn't suck. Speaking of Buffy, this scares me a little...
Other newsbits for your consumption: Netscape 7 PR1 is ready for your download, Sony's new copy protection scheme for CD's can be foiled with a 89¢ marker, and sadly, Chandra Levy's body has finally been found.
Monday, May 20, 2002
Linkage: I just found an interesting article at Kuro5hin on the apparent spread of Moore's Law to war technology and methods (which very well might be explained by how much computers are now used in anything military these days.) And I can't believe some schmuck's mother would destroy $1.4 billion worth in art just to "remove the evidence" against her son. That's a crime against human culture, for chrissakes. Egads. And for something even more frightening, Aldous Huxley is probably doing semaphore in his grave, trying to warn us that moment he predicted is imminent. Holy ****, the Barbie drug? How far away can Soma be? Speaking of Barbie, by the way, did you know we were having a bikini crisis? Me either. Oh, and as an afterthought, would you -- for no particular good reason, mind you -- walk for 12 days, crossing 180 miles, in July's hottest temperatures, in Death Valley? This guy did. You know, some days it's like Darwin isn't even paying attention any more.
Oh, and I finally ran across, in complete happenstance, what my friend Wes was telling me about a few days ago: The Top 20 Science Fiction films of all time. There's at least a few films in there I agree with, but others I'm not so sure about. I mean really, Robocop? And I'd put T2 on the list before the original Terminator, just for the improvement in Linda Hamilton's hair, much less all the waxing-poetic about machines achieving some kind of state of humanity that wasn't in the original, which gave it a little something extra beyond its predecessor's simple suspense/thriller formula. Glad to see Gattaca on there, though -- as much as other people say they yawned through it, I thought it was phenomenal.
Also, a bit of sad news: gifted evolutionary biologist, paleontologist, writer, and Really Smart Guy™ Stephen Jay Gould passed from us today. He'll be missed, certainly.
Friday, May 17, 2002
Linky, linky: Oh. My. G-d. This has to be the funniest thing I've seen in days, if not weeks. (Warning, adult-oriented humor. Quicktime required. May not be work-safe.) And if you're an MP3-listener with download-guilt, check out this Time Magazine article. And those kids over at MIT are starting to scare me. And while we're on the topic of things that really shouldn't be, how 'bout a guy who can fool biometric security devices with $10 worth of gummi bears and other supplies?
Monday, May 13, 2002
At some point in time, this kind of cultural stupidity would've made me laugh. But it's just not funny, really -- it's sad. This is, too, but in a way I also had to cheer. (i.e., "it's about time, but it's terrible that people are so stupid that it had to come to this.") Chalk two points up to the idiots today, I guess. More stuff tomorrow.
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