Revealing The Hidden Terror: Snakes on a Plane!

Post ImageIf you haven’t had the pleasure of talking to me in person for a while, you might not know just how excited I am for the upcoming movie Snakes on a Plane, which opens Friday (though I have tickets for the Thursday screening). I mean there’s snakes, a plane, fear-stricken passengers, and one extremely badass FBI agent, better know as Samuel L. Jackson. Just check out the summary:

On board a flight over the Pacific Ocean, an assassin, bent on killing a passenger who’s a witness in protective custody, lets loose a crate full of deadly snakes.

And with much cussing and violence, I fully expect Samuel L. Jackson to save the day. You just can’t go wrong with a title like Snakes on a Plane!

Another interesting aspect of the movie is the huge community of fans who have created “fan media” for the movie – fake trailers, posters, websites, fake scripts, etc. There’s really an amazing amount of stuff available. You can find links to some of it as well as some good background on the movie and the community at Wikipedia.

Which brings me to the point of this post – to show you fan media created by myself and Andrew! We went to the Edmonton International Airport yesterday, to interview people about the hidden terror; the terror the media doesn’t want you to know about. Snakes on a Plane. What we found was shocking – no one was aware of this growing terror! Among those we talked to were a security screener and a baggage person, and it was clear from our conversations that there is no plan in place to fight the snakes. The ban on liquids is good, but what we really need is a ban on snakes!

Watch the video at YouTube!

The video turned out to be a little longer than I had hoped it would at seventeen minutes, but I wasn’t sure what else to cut. It has its funny moments, especially in the latter half, so if you have some time to spare, check it out! We find out if people are afraid of snakes, if they trust Samuel L. Jackson, and if they are planning to see the movie. It was fun to make!

Read: YouTube

Soon I'll Create My Own Xbox Games!

Post ImageAh, I have been waiting for news like this ever since I got my Xbox 360 back in November. Microsoft will be releasing a set of tools that let “college students, hobbyists and others create their own games” for both Windows and the Xbox 360 console. The tools will be demonstrated for the first time at Microsoft Gamefest. A lighter weight version of the company’s XNA tools for professional developers, the hobbyist suite is dubbed XNA Game Studio Express:

“The tools we are talking about make it way easier to make games than it is today,” said Scott Henson, director for platform strategy for Microsoft’s game developer group.

In the first incarnation, games developed using the free tools will be available only to like-minded hobbyists, not the Xbox community as a whole. Those who want to develop games will have to pay a $99 fee to be part of a “Creators’ Club,” a name that is likely to change. Games developed using XNA Game Studio Express will be playable only by others who are part of the club.

The current plan is to have a completely open system three to five years down the road, where anyone can make a game, and the community decides what sucks and what rocks. This will drastically change the gaming landscape if Microsoft can pull it off. Finally regular people will be able to build things for a console!

I always figured Microsoft would eventually release developer tools like this for the Xbox 360. They are, after all, a platform company.

Read: CNET News.com

Notes for 8/13/2006

Another week, another round of notes!

  • So Dickson left this last week, and thus, I am slightly behind on getting the testing started. I also took a little break today to work on something else – more on that tomorrow.
  • Went to see Step Up tonight. The critics seem to have hated it, while the users (the fans) seem to have loved it, judging by the Rotten Tomatoes ratings. I thought it was like most other dance movies (a poor guy makes something of himself through dance) but it was enjoyable! I was surprised to see that Mario had a role. Oh and that one girl from all the Missy Elliot videos too. If you just want to sit there and see some cool dancing, this is the movie for you.
  • You know how I like wireless everywhere. Now, behold, environmentally friendly wireless everywhere!
  • I realized just how big MySpace.com has become the other day, when I saw players in a public TFC server using MySpace addresses as their gamer tags. For those of you who don’t know, TFC is Team Fortress Classic, a mod for the original Half-Life. I used to be in a clan, a long time ago. I don’t ever remember seeing websites as gamertags!
  • As my Mom pointed out to me, the PC turned 25 years old on Friday! It’s kind of hard to imagine how the world would look today without computers.
  • I’m not sure I’ve used any of these, but apparently they work – ten sure-fire headline formulas that work.

Students using Wikipedia

Post ImageWikipedia has become pretty popular in the last couple years, and I am sure that most students have at least seen the site, even if they don’t use it regularly. I think the online encyclopedia is an excellent resource, full of really great information. I also think it should be treated like any other resource, whether online or offline – with caution. That said, I don’t think there’s any reason students should not use it. An intern at CNET News.com thinks otherwise:

Wikipedia is one of the Internet’s latest additions to the information revolution. More importantly, it’s the reason I was able to finish my massive second-semester AP English research final project in less than 45 minutes.

As the deadline loomed, I knew there was no way I would be able to sort through thousands of Google search results or go to the library to research while simultaneously performing other vital homework completion functions like talking online, reading celebrity gossip and downloading music. So I did what any desperate, procrastinating student would do–I logged on to Wikipedia, pulled up the entries on Renaissance literature and filled in the gaps until I had a presentable product.

Until recently, many kids in my high school, myself included, used Wikipedia without questioning the integrity of its content. Before Colbert highlighted the unreliability of the site’s information, I doubt many people even realized it isn’t an authoritative, credible source.

So please take my advice, students: Wikipedia is a great place to find out about local bands or start doing research. However, before including Wikipedia information in a term paper or using Wikipedia entries to study for exams, make sure you support your findings with more legitimate sources.

So let me get this straight – you’re an advanced placement English student, with a major research project, and you’re waiting until the last minute? Then you rely solely on Wikipedia entries and a few blanks you filled in? As one student to another, I hope you failed. And are you really so unable to think for yourself that you just assume Wikipedia is the be all end all of accurate information? Pretty sad it takes a comedian on television to teach you that it isn’t.

Wikipedia has been found to be just as accurate as Britannica (granted, I would like to see some additional studies back this up). The difference is that Britannica entries are shorter and contain a neutral perspective, while Wikipedia entries can be longer, include multiple perspectives, links to other resources, pictures and other multimedia, and much more. Wikipedia is also able to offer a much wider range of topics, including some very specific articles on niche subjects. There’s no reason to think that Wikipedia can’t be as comprehensive or accurate as traditional encyclopedias, though it varies from article to article. In fact, on average, I bet it is better.

I guess this really isn’t so much about whether students should use Wikipedia or not – to me, it’s clear they should. The point that needs to be made is that students always need to find multiple sources for information they want to use, and they’ve always got to add something extra. Even in a research paper, a little commentary and anaylsis will help your paper rise to the top of the pile when the time comes for it to be graded.

Don’t use only Wikipedia, but don’t be afraid to use it in addition to your other resources either.

Read: CNET News.com

This and That for Thursday

Today is the first time in weeks that I can go to Yahoo! News and not see something about the Israel-Lebanon conflict as the top story. Of course, as the fighting continues, that also means something bad has happened, or almost happened. As you’ve undoubtedly heard, British police foiled a plot to once again turn airplanes into missiles. If you’re travelling anywhere today, I definitely feel sorry for you. While I think it’s good they stopped these madmen, I have to echo Darren’s sentiments – when will it end? Will the world ever be devoid of terrorists?

Dickson leaves for vacation today – have a good time man! We’ve been working really hard lately to get Podcast Spot ready for testing and, ultimately, for launch, so I am sure Dickson will enjoy the break. His departure means that I am holding down the fort until he gets back at the end of the month, so let’s hope I don’t break anything!

For the record, it appears you can spell illegible with either one or two l’s. The Canadian Oxford Dictionary lists the word as ‘ilegible’, and the American Heritage Dictionary lists it as ‘illegible’. I like the second way, though I am not sure which is more commonly used. I find I like the American way of spelling lots of things – it’s ‘color’ not ‘colour’!

Despite being a self-described “Intel guy”, we purchased a dual-core AMD processor the other day for a new machine we were building here at Paramagnus. So far the performance is right on par with my dual-core Intel. The one advantage the AMD seems to have is that it uses far less power. That advantage disappears when compared to the new Core 2 Duo chips, however, which we intend to purchase as soon as the price is a little more reasonable (and availability is better).

I had a lunch meeting today at The King and I (a Thai restaurant here in Edmonton), which I had only been to once before (for dinner). They have great food, and I have to say, lunchtime is definitely the time to go. Their portions are almost as big as the dinner portions, yet they are about five dollars cheaper.

Microsoft totally sucks at product names

Post ImageI’ve said it here before, and I’m sure you’ve read it elsewhere, but it needs to be said again: Microsoft completely and totally sucks at naming their products. Possibly the only names from the last year that are really good (IMHO) are Xbox 360 and Windows Vista. Let’s take a look at what I mean.

On Friday, Microsoft announced the official names for IE7:

For Windows XP: “Windows Internet Explorer 7 for Windows XP”
For Windows Vista: “Windows Internet Explorer 7 in Windows Vista”

Now let’s compare that to a product (technically a feature I guess) that Apple announced yesterday:

You back up your system regularly, right? Well, you would. If you had a better way to do it. With Mac OS X Leopard and Time Machine, not only can you back up and preserve everything on your Mac — including priceless digital photos, music, movies, and documents — without lifting a finger, you can go back in time to recover anything you’ve ever backed up.

A backup product named “Time Machine”. You can bet if Microsoft had named the product, it would have been something like “Windows Data Backup Manager” and there would have been a “Premium Edition” and a “Home Edition”, at least. “Time Machine” is simple, inviting, and yet still makes sense as the name of a backup product!

This makes two things on my list of people Microsoft should hire: a professional demo person (like Steve Jobs) and a professional product namer.

AMD to drop ATI brand

Post ImageYou probably heard a couple weeks ago that number two chipmaker AMD was purchasing Canadian graphics manufacturer ATI. I was a little surprised by the deal, but I guess it was a strategic move for AMD, and hopefully it will result in better products for all of us. Anyway, just came across this article that says AMD has decided to drop the ATI brand:

Chip guru AMD has announced that it’s going to drop the ATi brand name following its takeover of the Canadian graphics underdog. Gareth Cater from AMD told Custom PC that ‘the new company will be called AMD,’ meaning that we could shortly be seeing AMD-branded Radeon graphics chips.

[Richard] Baker [from AMD] said that ‘the company is being bought, so it’s fairly standard that the name should go, as it’s becoming a part of AMD.’

No word yet on whether or not they will keep the other brand names like Radeon for sure, though I would expect they would. I am thinking the next video cards we see will use the AMD Radeon brand.

Hope you weren’t attached to the ATI brand name!

Read: Custom PC

Mainstream Media Meltdown III

Post ImageI started reading Chris Anderson’s The Long Tail a little while ago, and so far it’s really good. I still remember reading the original Wired article, and thinking it was pretty darn smart. One of the best things about the book is that Chris has sort of continued it online, using his blog. A couple days ago he posted an update on the state of mainstream media:

A couple times a year, I take a statistical look at mainstream entertainment and media in decline. All figures are year-on-year comparisons unless otherwise noted.

He has some really fascinating numbers, though I suppose less fascinating once you grok the long tail. TV, Music, Radio, DVDs, and Newspapers are all down. Magazines and Books are mixed (and The Long Tail itself has cracked the top ten). Only Videogames, Internet advertising, and the Box Office are up (and the box office is still down from 2004).

I am pleasantly surprised to find that, at least so far, the book is more about economics and less about business. The idea of the long tail just makes so much intuitive sense to me – it really is about economics. I’ll hopefully post a review when I finish it later this week.

Read: The Long Tail

Notes for 8/6/2006

Can you believe it’s August already? I can’t. Seems like the summer has just flown by! On the plus side, it has been pretty productive for me so far.

  • Busy day ahead for tomorrow – let the Podcast Spot testing begin!
  • Ever been on a date where you didn’t talk, but only typed to one another? Me neither. Apparently it isn’t that unusual, however. The so called “Netorati” even have a name for it – “couple surfing”. I have witnessed this first hand in the past, and I must say, it adds an interesting element to the atmosphere in the room. I’m sure it somehow improves the couple’s communication too.
  • Four words: SNAKES ON A PLANE. I can’t wait for the movie! I never use MySpace, but I did update my profile to use the SOAP theme. Do yourself a favor and watch these amazing early auditions (fake of course). You won’t be disappointed!
  • Looks like .NET 3.0 might RTM within the next two months!
  • Apparently half the United States still thinks Iraq had WMDs. If you’re an American, you better hope the country’s future leaders are from the other half.

Libsyn Pro?

Post ImageI just went to take a look at Libsyn’s site tonight, and came across Libsyn Pro. Oddly there is nothing about the service at their blog or in the forums yet. Here’s the brief description:

Built from the ground up, we took the best features of our very popular Libsyn personal system and added the elements businesses demand: World class distribution network, 99.99% Service Level Guarantee, Turnkey, ultra-simple workflow .

Sounds interesting. Judging from the website, I am guessing that it also will not be cheap. I am really curious to know what the pricing is like. Two of their current clients include NPR and National Geographic. The website looks nice, but it’s hard to tell what the service is like simply from the screenshots. It does appear, however, to be focused on businesses only. It also appears to be strictly a storage service, like the regular Libsyn, meaning they don’t create a website for the podcast.

I find the timing a little strange. Just days after they had some major problems with file distribution, they launch a service for businesses with a “world class distribution network”? Either it’s a completely separate system, or that copy was written a long time ago (though Libsyn has had problems for quite a while). And if it is the former, I can see their existing user base being pretty upset. I know I would be.

I’ll be watching this one with interest.

On a slightly related note, we’re going to start testing Podcast Spot next week. Over the next month or so, I’ll be posting little tidbits about the service here and on the Paramagnus blog, so stay tuned.

Read: Libsyn Pro