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Like internet memes?

Like Futurama?

Bow down to it.

More on the episode.

I’ve mentioned Dean Kamen’s new Luke Arm a couple of times, but I think this video is the best compilation of information thus far:

Will full-contact chess be the next milestone?

While the movie may have been terrible, it turns out that the technology powering some of the CGI in Transformers was stitched together by commercial, off-the-shelf components.

According to TGDaily, the company behind some of the rendering used the power within top-end ATI GPUs from the 2X00 generation. That’s great news for consumers and developers, and not-so-good news for Intel who has invested swaths of both labor and financial resources to develop Larrabee (though according to Ars, it still has a couple tricks up its sleeves).

Based on the interview it turns out that ray-tracing high-quality video in real-time will be a reality many moons before the previous estimates I discussed a few months ago (1 2 3).

This interview was also germane because a clever code hacker was recently able to get the CUDA version of PhysX to run on ATI cards. Talk about a coup, because Nvidia just paid top dollar not only for the physics-frenetic firm, but also in transcribing it into their development language.

Oh, and before I forget, if you’re in the market for a new system including a video card, do not buy an integrated video solution from Intel, not even if it is based on their latest GMA 4500 chip. I’ll mention more later, but let’s just say that 10 shader processors is a far cry from the competition.

One of the popular obituaries currently making the rounds is that of David Caminer, who is credited with inventing the first business computer. He created it to provide accurate accounting for a large tea company in England.

The statement that stuck out for me was an old gem from the popular science publication NewScientist: “In today’s terms it would be like hearing that Pizza Hut had developed a new generation of microprocessor, or McDonald’s had invented the Internet.”

Not to minimize his inventiveness, but as Plato’s old saying goes: necessity is the mother of invention.

For instance:

- To manage its call centers and ginormous network infrastructure, AT&T developed Unix, the core operating system underneath Mac OS (BSD) and one that heavily influenced Linux as well as Windows NT… the core kernel that runs every Windows OS since 2000 (WNT was created by the guy who made VMS for DEC — and yea, Unix arguably influenced the design/structure of later variants of VMS). In fact, thirty years ago, you could purchase a terminal made by AT&T. It certainly would seem weird if they developed one today, right? (the Supreme Court essentially forced them to exit that market place).

- Nintendo has been around for over a hundred years. It started as a card maker (like Poker cards) and evolved substantially over time.

- Flickr, is known as a popular web-based photo portal. However, before its web 2.0 days the development team originally created tools for an online role-playing game. They shelved the game and a few years later made bank when they were bought by Yahoo.

In fact, everyone knows at least a handful of other inventions that took odd twists and turns before becoming common place in kitchens. I mention several of them in Urban Legends of NASA: What They Did Not Invent.

Sticky notes have a colorful history too. As do submarines and dynamite! (hint: the modern developers saw their potential fulfilling peaceful, civilian matters).

If you missed it, you can grab a demo of the Creature Creator for the upcoming game (comes out early September). I spent 5 minutes and whipped together this guy. It’s very easy to use and extremely customizable.

It actually has a long tail but it’s obscured by its super sexy chest.

Also, the last few days have been Christmas-in-the-summer for fans of Blizzard games. They finally unveiled Diablo 3. Back in the day I spent hours playing the first two. Looks great (hold your breath until next holiday season).

I’ve been thinking about feedback loops lately.

In fact, the industry I currently work in thrives on a feedback loop.

Even though English is not the most widely spoken language in the world, the industries and markets it is used in are all highly influential and strategically important.

For instance, because many, if not all web standards and Internet-based communications were designed in the English-speaking world, in order to jump into the game, you really need to learn a bit of English. The same can be said for the sciences and various fields of engineering (i.e., most of the basic and applied research in these specialties are published in English). Wikipedia has a good entry explaining the positive feedback loop and why English will probably continue to dominate and grow (yey for my livelihood!).

I mention this because I came across a recent piece from The Economist discussing political segregation and neighborhoods, here is the money quote:

“We now live in a giant feedback loop,” says Mr Bishop, “hearing our own thoughts about what’s right and wrong bounced back to us by the television shows we watch, the newspapers and books we read, the blogs we visit online, the sermons we hear and the neighbourhoods we live in.”

If there is one thing that I do not miss in my life and times in Texas it is residents that have all the tools and access to information, yet only look at certain material that they agree with. I am hardly saying I’m the picture perfect example of cosmopolitan thinking (which of course, I am), but let’s look at an easy example: Christian fundamentalists.

Many of them (at least the ones I was familiar with), only read books written by fundamentalists. Only watch movies and tv shows that are Christianized or music that is blessed by various I-Heart-Jesus groups. Many conversations are entirely unoriginal as they are merely reverberations within an echo chamber.

I should point out that there is absolutely nothing wrong with hanging out or talking to like-minded individuals. Nor am I favor of criminalizing this kind of selective or discriminatory behavior (i.e., if you don’t want to hang out with non-Fundamentalists, go for it). But as noted in that piece in The Economist, much of the mantra devolves into petty group-think.

And fundamentalists are hardly the only group that can be identified and faulted for creating self-fulfilling feedback loops. I’ve met so many hippies out here that personify all of the pot-head stereotypes and unsurprisingly, they all hang out with one another and reinforce that lifestyle.

Again, feedback loops are neither inherently good nor bad but as The Economist notes, when taken to the extreme they have the potential to become violently divisive (or in virtual-space as seen in games like World of Warcraft: the Horde versus the Alliance…). Yankees/Dodgers, Star Trek/Star Wars, Lakers/Celtics, Tyson/five-year olds.

Looking for an epic war movie that doesn’t have any brand name actors and takes place in a new setting?

Check out Mongol. While it may not be entirely accurate, the cinematography and acting are superb. Oddly enough, the time period costumes set across the scenic backdrop of the Steppes remind me of the 19th-century Prairie Wars… without the guns of course.

4 out of 5. In my mind it ranks up there with Gladiator or 300. I think the only thing that could have given it a perfect score would be one more epic battle. Still the same, definitely not cheesy and makes for some refreshing viewing.

Note: about the only redeemable part of Day Watch is the brief portrayal of contemporary conditions of the Mongols and specifically Tamerlane/Timur: resting under horses.

I think it can almost be safe to say that you live in a modern, industrialized economy when consumers become conspicuous.

Yes, there is a thin grey line there and I believe the definitive measurement is chrome hub cabs: aka rims.

I just saw three different cars driving around outside with some flashy rims (no spinners though). It could be that the drivers are all in college (I live near Kyung Hee University), as it is still impossible to guess how old azn people are. Ageless between 20 and 40.

Other things the local men typically blow their cash on: “massage” parlors, horse gambling, liters of soju.

Last week I discussed the global trends of Firefox 3.0 downloads. Some people questioned my methodology (1 2) that I was grasping at straws regarding Iraq. But I believe the following graph, created after 7 days of downloads (20+ million so far), helps put things into perspective.

Where I got the numbers:
- populations (wikipedia)
- internet users (wikipedia and IWS)
- FF downloads (Spread Firefox)

The first five countries are listed because they have aggregated the most FF downloads thus far. No surprises.

The next grouping is Asia, specifically the eastern part (minus Japan). The two notable surprises are that Taiwan and Singapore.

Taiwan has half the population of South Korea but has downloaded FF 60% more than their Korean counterparts. I attribute this to the fact that FF 3 has not be made available in Korean Hangul yet whereas it has been made available in Chinese. And while I have lived in both Korea and Taiwan (I currently live in Seoul), I still can’t generalize about their surfing habits (they all use Naver though… hate!).

Singapore is another interesting case because its residents have downloaded FF nearly as much as its significantly larger neighbors. Again, I attribute this to the language barrier (Chinese and English are the predominantly used dialects in Singapore). When FF is translated into more languages it will probably be increasingly adopted in those regions.

North Korea is an absolute shit hole, don’t let anyone ever tell you otherwise. Several of my coworkers and friends have had the chance to take tours up there. Things to keep in mind. You are only allowed to take a guided tour in special Potemkin villages (fake tourist villages). You cannot stray away. The infrastructure has completely collapsed since they no longer receive the subsidies and free handouts from their old soviet pals. There is one internet cafe in the entire country, it is in Pyongyang and only politically connected individuals can use it. The sole ISP connects via a filtered satellite connection. That’s it. Hence the big fat zero internet users and FF downloads. And yea, I would personally like to visit it, but the money you spend on the tourist package directly funds Kim’s regime (you know he still operates gulag’s right?).

Anyways, one thing I would have liked to see in the China downloads is a separation of Hong Kong, Macao and the SERs. I would wager that the vast majority of traffic comes from these regions.

The next grouping is the Middle East. The internet user numbers come from IWS.

As I pointed out a week ago, the thing that sticks out the most is that number from Iraq. All of its neighbors have a substantially larger net presence and FF downloads. In fact, the refugee camp known as Palestine has a larger FF user base. Again, I attribute this solely to the fact that war has been terrible to the Iraqi infrastructure and economy as a whole. More on that here and here.

The next group is basically the “Axis of Evil.” Despite the political rhetoric of Bush and Bolton, these places really are run by tin pot dictators or are in a constant state of war. Thus, it is not surprising that their FF numbers are very low relative to the next group: the Commonwealth.

Yes, I think these two groups are a good illustration of dichotomy. Similar sized populations, totally different levels of economic freedom. While I’m not a huge fan of trying to wedge empirical data into philosophical matters, I think this shows the correlation between freer markets versus socialized/nationalized markets.

Actually, lets give the residents of Afghanistan a free pass. They endured a 10 year invasion from the Soviets. During this time the CIA funded the counter-insurgency (the Mujahideen in Operation Cyclone) which gave rise to the Taliban. After the Soviets left, the Taliban ran around blowing up the place. Now the US military, after pursuing bin Laden, have been occupying the war zone for the past 7 or so years. Yea, so not too many questions as to why their FF numbers are really low unless of course you really think carpet bombing sprouts router connections.

Coda: and while I’ll try to do one more update in a few weeks, I doubt the trends will change. Even if some kind of magical worldwide military deoccupation took place, it would take years to build an infrastructure in the various battle-hardened regions, let alone change the socialist policies that stymie innovation and foreign investment. Oh, and if you haven’t gotten it yet, download FF today:

List of problems solved by MacGyver.

QED.

Via Carl.

See also: Too Much Awesomeness: Airwolf

What applications do you still run through Windows?

Aside from Firefox, I think the only other two are Notepad and Paint.

I just found a couple of no-install, no-login cloud-based alternatives.

Spynote lets you just type plain text into a window (I need to use it to correct html tags or transcribe video). It’s free and simple. Opening up Google Docs takes longer and has spacing/formatting that can get annoying (especially when editing odd indented resumés).

CanvasPaint does the same thing, but for MS Paint. Looks and feels just the same. The only qualm I have is this: the main reason I open up Paint is to quickly resize a saved image or screen capture. Right now it doesn’t look like CP has the ability to paste a screen capture into the template. Still the same, it’s free and does everything else.

As far as instant messaging, I’ve mentioned them before and I’m still using Meebo — for the better part of two years now. And while there are occasional connection problems it does the trick (like Sex Panther). Out of curiosity, does anyone know what their business model is? Do they have any revenue stream?

Note: each company paid me millions of dollars to post this.

It was only a matter of time before someone decided to take all the fun out of air hockey:

Thus, reports of AI disappearing are greatly exaggerated.

When will foosball, ping pong, and billiards fall?

So, looking for someone to recreate the world of South Park, Futurama or Family Guy in a video game? Then hire these guys:

And some other interweb news, id software will be releasing a browser-based version of Quake 3 for free in a little bit (probably around QuakeCon in August). It’s called Quake Live and will hopefully be the beginning of a new trend towards more cloud FPS gaming.

Also, if you thought that map was cool, here is the direct link to the download location.

Even at the grocery stores here in azn land, you cannot escape products and isles erratically labeled “organic.”

It really makes one wonder, is everything on the other isles and in other packages… inorganic? Up until this past decade, have we all just been eating tofu-ish matter (and soylent green)?

Speaking of spin marketing, here is The O’Reilly Factor re-spun into 60 seconds:

Terrible. Awful. I hope they never shut down their website because their movie-making skills are less than stellar.

The only funny vignette was the part about the amputee hockey player. And the Lebron James basketball player cursing out god.

So ignore my preview on it.

If you work at Yahoo, you’ve been having a bad week.

But at least you’re not one of the passengers being squished into train cars in Tokyo:

See also: Do-It Yourself Resignation Letter

The list of the Top 500 fastest supercomputers was released today (it’s compiled and released every 6 months). No big surprises there, at least if you keep up with the big headlines (development such as the Ranger from Sun and Roadrunner from IBM).

Of particular interest are two things.

First, the Top500 organization put together a couple of charts measuring performance over the past 15 years.

It shows a geometric increase over the past decade and a half.

Also, they have an entry regarding power consumption. Unsurprisingly, the closer a system is to the very top, the more efficient it is performance/watts. Thus, the fastest machines are also the most energy efficient.

This can be a result of several developments. First, they are probably more modern and thus were designed with energy conservation in mind. In addition, for the same reason the Airbus 380 is the most efficient passenger plane, so to are multi-core machines. Using virtually the same footprint to deliver 2-3x the performance.

It’s one of the selling points behind IBM’s Kittyhawk program (economies of scale, or in this case, energies of scale).

Also, if Linpack isn’t the benchmark you want to measure performance with, you may be interested in the HPC Performance initiative which has some other metrics.

I think the last version of Netscape that I used was 4.5. From that point on I vowed to never use something that was so buggy or sluggish. From the two years spanning late ‘99 until the winter of ‘01 I used Opera — which is still a mighty find browser (remember when the CEO was going to swim to the US from Norway?).

But I switched to IE 6 for several years due primarily to its ability to render pages properly (i.e., most web designers built around its quirky engine) and because its tight integration into XP made it slightly faster than its competition at the time.

However, in late ‘04 I switched to our open-source friend, Mr. Firefox. I suppose the biggest reason for the change was that it could render pages using a fake IE tag, it had tabs, and was fairly speedy. I haven’t switched back and think that FF is the way to go (I have played around with both IE 7 & 8, neither of which offer much to excite me to change).

Anyways, I started using the latest incarnation, FF 3, back in April with Beta 5. Today, two months later, the final version has been released. I highly recommend using the latest edition, especially if you like stability, security and speed. And hot women.

Oh, and you can be yet another useful statistic. Morocco is creaming the Central African Republic.

Note: about the only major thing that I would change is size of the address bar (entries are too tall). This can easily be reconfigured (see LifeHacker) to look like the older version.

I know you all want to get married today, but if you can stomach a few more years you will have the ability to purchase cheaper diamonds.

No, de Beers isn’t opening their warehouses and flooding the market with their inventory.

Rather, modern-day alchemists have grown flawless diamonds in the lab, some of which have hit the marketplace and most of which are 15% cheaper than their natural counterparts.

If you have a chance, be sure to read Diamonds on Demand from the latest Smithsonian. It is a great update to the 5-year-old piece from Wired and one of my favorites: The New Diamond Age.

Among other quotes in the new piece are statements from de Beers who lobby intensely against synthetic competition. However, all of their arguments boil down to the same nonsensical diatribes used by the anti-GMO crowd.

For instance, here is a whopper from de Beers: “Diamonds are rare and special things with an inherent value that does not exist in factory-made synthetics. When people want to celebrate a unique relationship they want a unique diamond, not a three-day-old factory-made stone.”

Au contraire, I’m fairly certain that specific consumers like guys buying an engagement ring would much rather buy the cheaper alternative if the two items are virtually indistinguishable.

See also: Three cheers for Wired mag and many more for genetic engineers