Friday Links!
It's a three-day holiday for most people in the U.S. (to celebrate July Fourth), so if you're at work and unmotivated, close your door and enjoy.
I thought I'd linked to the worst music video in history last week, but Bob Taylor corrected me--it seems that
this video is worse (and yes, it's another Mark Gormley video).
From Matt Vanner, a link to the website of a crazy person who
unicycled across Canada. The mind reels, especially since it doesn't look like he had a support van with him--he's unicycling with a big backpack!
From David, the story of a 13-year old who
swapped his iPod for his Dad's vintage Sony Walkman for a week. Hey, I remember when the Walkman first came out--it was a miracle.
From Jesse Leimkuehler, a link to new information about the
Tunguska explosion, which has endured as one of the most mysterious events in history.
Here's a provocative story in the New York Times about competitive cyclists
reduced bone density.
From Nate Carpenter, a link to some nifty graphics explaining the
food industry. Not quite Tufte, but extremely interesting.
From The Edwin Garcia Links Machine, more information about the SAGE system, this time in
video form. It's insightful both in terms of technology and the fear of the times. Also, a picture of an F-22
going supersonic. Next, a closer look at a plane that could have won the war for the Nazis--the
Horten 2-29 fighter, described as "decades" ahead of its time. And one more--the most incredible
papercraft castle I've ever seen.
From Sirius, a link to video footage of the
red-capped Manakin, a bird that (incredibly) moonwalks. Also, a fascinating story about biodiversity titled
The Extinction Oscillator. And here are some ornate headstones with an incredible photo of a
granite quarry.
From Ben Younkins, a link to a fascinating video of Richard Feynman explaining
how trains stay on the tracks. Also from Ben, a recent article from Sports Illustrated that's a great read:
How (and why) Athletes Go Broke.
From Andrew B, it's the
Atari 2600 VCS Program Cartridge Tour. Some screenshots are missing, so I'm not sure this is complete, but it's worth a look.
From Geoff Engelstein, a link to a remarkable story about
ant colonies, and here's an excerpt:
A single mega-colony of ants has colonised much of the world, scientists have discovered.
Argentine ants living in vast numbers across Europe, the US and Japan belong to the same inter-related colony, and will refuse to fight one another...
In Europe, one vast colony of Argentine ants is thought to stretch for 6,000km (3,700 miles) along the Mediterranean coast, while another in the US, known as the "Californian large", extends over 900km (560 miles) along the coast of California. A third huge colony exists on the west coast of Japan.
Please Note
You guys sent me a ton of interesting e-mail about the "toys for girls" post I made yesterday, and I'll put up a follow-up post on Monday to share it with you.
Tiger Woods 10 (Wii): Update
I've put in another 10+ hours into Tiger Woods 10 for the Wii, and it's wearing very, very well.
It's not perfect, but the annoyances aren't related to the gameplay, which is just absolutely fantastic using MotionPlus.
I've gone about halfway through a season in career mode (I've played about 30 rounds at this point, I think), and I can recommend settings for your golfer that will help keep the game challenging. You accumulate points as you play rounds that you can then use to increase your skills, but I've been very careful about increasing my skills slowly, because I don't want to reach a point where my golfer gets too good.
If you have the same concerns, you might try this: for every skill category but Power, Luck, and Spin, don't increase your golfer's skill past 50%. For Power, you'll probably need to go up to 80-90% to get reasonably accurate distances (and "accurate" can vary widely from golfer to golfer, really, so that's very subjective). I've kept Luck at 0%. Spin probably needs to be in the 70-80% range, but I still have a way to go to get to that point, so that's just a guess.
Right now, I've got Power at 70%, Spin at 40%, Luck at 0%, and everything else at 50%. I'm shooting anywhere from 70-78 in a normal round, depending on the course, and it's very challenging. Putting, in particular, is masterfully done, and I think I've gotten a much better sense of how individual courses are challenging than in any other golf game I've ever played. These courses play very, very differently, as they should, and it's tremendously entertaining.
Gaming Links And Notes
Two notes on
Red Faction: Guerilla, the presumptive GOTY at this point. First, here's an article at Eurogamer on the technology (which is superb) used in the game:
Big Bang Theory (thanks Quarter To Three). Second, the first DLC pack,
Demons Of The Badlands, was announced.
No console post this week (I was going to write about why the PSP GO is going to be DOA, but charging a premium for a hardware revision, disabling the ability to resell games, and selling the games for the same price pretty much sums it up), but Sony has filed a patent for
software based PS2 emulation. General speculation is that this method is either intended for the PS3 "Slim" or to support digital delivery of PS2 downloads to the PS3.
Given Sony's financial straits, it seems to make more sense to expect the technology to be used to support revenue production (downloadable PS2 titles, in other words). And they have expressed general disdain for backward compatibility for several years, so unless it's going to make them money, I don't see why they'd care.
Speaking of Sony, Matt Matthews has another excellent analysis at Gamasutra titled
Was Using Original IP The Best Idea For Sony's PS3 Strategy?. In it, he takes a look at Sony's strategy of creating new franchises early in the lifecycle of the PS3 instead of releasing sequels, and it's a thoughtful and interesting read.
If you've ever wondered whether you should buy an LCD or plasma screen, here's something to consider:
viewing angles. It's why I still prefer plasma technology, by far.
The viewing angles link is to a past article over at Extreme Tech, which has been a daily read for years, but Loyd Case (my favorite tech writer) and many others have recently left, and I doubt that I'll be following the site anymore.
DQ Fitness Advisor Doug Walsh sent me a link to a Newsweek article about
Six Days In Fallujah, and the reason I'm including the link is because the article is an honest attempt to look at the controversy without being simplistic.
A Disturbing Discovery
Gloria 45.0 (she's going to kill me for that) and I went to shop for a birthday present on Saturday night.
We were shopping for a seven-year-old girl. Her parents said "anything girly" would be fine, so we went to Target and looked for the girl-designated aisles.
If you don't have kids, you may not know this, but toy sections in stores (in the U.S., at least) are usually pretty clearly divided between boys and girls. Because of this, I've never really been in the girls' sections before.
Wow. I was so surprised that I made a list of what was available in the respective sections.
First off, here's how you tell where the "girls' toys" are: almost everything in the row will be pink. It's incredible, these long runways of pink, which is clearly the most foul and disgusting color in the world (but I digress).
Almost all the toys targeted at girls were in these pink rows, and here's a list of the toys:
--Disney dolls
--Barbie dolls
--High School Musical dolls
--Bratz dolls
--Hannah Montana dolls
--My Little Pony
--Littlest Pet Shop
--Stuffed animals
--Dollhouses
--Easy Bake Ovens
Holy crap! Okay, I admit I wanted an Easy Bake Oven when I was a kid, but only because it would give me access to a potentially unlimited number of fresh-baked cookies without needing to ask my mom.
Can you believe that list? I mean, WTF? Who came up with this merchandise selection--Walter Freeman?
Even worse, nothing can be done with the vast majority of these dolls except change their outfits, their hair, and their makeup. Damn, haven't we already been damaged enough by spending months waiting on grown-ups performing these very activities?
I want Eli 7.10 to live in a world of strong, interesting women, not lobotomized, compulsive re-dressers. But how are little girls supposed to become strong and interesting when almost every toy intended for them is completely droolworthy?
Now let's look at the toys for boys. There was so much variety that I didn't even write everything down, but here's quite a bit of it:
--trains
--cars
--dinosaurs
--pirates
--knights
--cowboys
--science kits (there's one specifically marketed to girls--it's called "perfumery," I shit you not)
--mythical creatures
--construction vehicles
--robots
--Legos
--Bionicles
--Magnetix
--Bakugan
--branded action figures, including Transformers, X-Men, Ben 10, Power Rangers, WWE (good grief), Batman, and Star Wars
All of these toys are active, not passive. They're about adventure, not outfit-changing. They require imagination and invention.
How much imagination does it take to put on the fourth skirt in the set?
I remember thinking when Eli was much younger (the 3.5 range) that it was surprising how boys and girls were already different. And they are, but in no way are they THIS different. I could understand seeing this kind of difference in merchandising FIFTY YEARS ago, but good grief, why hasn't it changed since then?
I was curious enough to Google around for a while, and I found a list over at About.com of
The Best Girl' Toys of 2008. Here it is:
1. Color Me Gemz
2. Holiday Barbie Doll
3. Girl Tech Stylin' Studio
4. Cherry Blossom Market from Playskool
5. Spa Factory
There are five more items on that list, including a stuffed dog and horse trading cards (and the "Hannah Montana Glitter Studio"), but it's all MOTS.
I just threw up in my mouth.
Could this be unique to to the U.S.? Maybe in other countries it's not like this, or it's not to the same degree. Surely, it can't be as bad as this.
Far down the road, when the time comes, I'll encourage Eli to date international.
Happy Birthday To You
Gloria's birthday is today.
Eli 7.10 came in this morning and dog-piled us, throwing his arms around Gloria and shouting "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" Later, they had this conversation:
"Mom, you're still not old," he said.
"Thank you, honey," she said.
"Mom, you're forty-one, right?"
"Forty-five," she said.
"WHOA!" he said. "That's ALARMING!"
New Unis
Cycles, not forms.
I rode several days while Eli 7.10 was in Shreveport. On a 1:1 basis in terms of time spent practicing, he just kills me--I have to go to 2:1 or more just to keep up.
Here's the chart:
His longest ride is just insane now, but mine has finally crept over 1300 feet. On Sunday, I went to the local high school track and took seven rides in total (numbers in feet): 750, 590, 770, 890, 1335, 690, and 650. It's the first time I've gone over a mile in total, and I didn't have any rides where I had to bail out early.
I still can't free mount (although I'm getting close), but I can certainly ride now. Well, in a mostly straight line with mild curves, anyway.
We've both worked hard learning how to do this, so last week I ordered new unicycles for both of us. Unicycles aren't like bicycles, where you have to spend $500 or more to move up in class. Our original unicycles cost about $100 each, and the new ones cost about $200.
They're quite a step up, and even better, the brand is "Nimbus." That's right--the same name as the premier Quidditch brooms in Harry Potter. So I wrapped up his unicycle in brown shipping paper and addressed it to him, with this return address:
HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY
ADVANCED STUDENT EQUIPMENT DIVISION
It says "NIMBUS" on the frame, too. I should get some peel-off numbers and add "3000."
[I wrote this post last night, but we went out this morning to ride for about half an hour. We were riding at the Metro parking lot, and I've marked off something I (goofily) call "The Grand Lap," which is basically a lap around the entire parking lot (which is huge). It's 1260 feet in total.
Eli 7.10 started riding, and I just followed him. He did one full grand lap and kept going. I was so excited to reach one full lap that--at the precise moment I reached one lap--I fell on my ass. Hard.
Meanwhile, Eli was still going. He did over two full laps, finally stopping at 3000 feet. Later, though, I managed to almost do two full laps, falling off at 2300 feet. That's a record for me by almost 1000 feet.
I think the next time that we go out to the high school track (with fewer turns and a smoother surface), Eli may be able to ride for a mile without stopping.]
...And In Comparison
It's Bill Abner week at DQ, apparently, because he has a
long interview up with the Madden 10 designers (lead designer Ian Cummings, senior designer Josh Looman, and designer Donny Moore).
I encourage you to read the full interview (particularly for the section on online franchise mode, which sounds pretty amazing), but here are a few excerpts:
--All-Pro is the difficulty level most tuned to the realistic experience
--Quarterbacks have separate accuracy ratings for short, medium, and deep throws (Bill A. has been screaming for that for YEARS)
Here's one example of why ratings in past Madden versions were just ridiculous (this excerpt is from Donny Moore):
I did a rating analysis on this to start out the Madden NFL 10 pre-production cycle and discovered that every CB in the game had between 87-99 SPD in Madden NFL 09. I looked further, nearly 80% of ALL CB’s fell between 4 ratings points (88-92)!This was always one of my fundamental complaints about Madden, that too many players felt identical. Turns out they
were identical, essentially.
--Two-minute A.I. has been significantly revised (historically, that's been my pet peeve)
--Player progression in franchise mode has been improved (a pet peeve of both Bill and myself)
Look, I know that I'm setting myself up for Charlie Brown Syndrome here, but these guys approach making a football game as the process of duplicating something that is real, and that's
exactly what I want. That may sound obvious, but it's not how the NCAA designers have approached the game in the last two years.
I mean, come on, guys. How many people watch college football every weekend for three months in the fall? They're voting on the gameplay with their remotes, and ratings for college football in the real world seems entirely healthy. If the NCAA team would just simulate the damn game, it would play great.
These Videos Are Insane
I'm not saving these for Friday.
This guy's name is Bruce Manley, and he's basically a trick shot/pass artist. Shaq saw one of his videos and is playing him in a game of H-O-R-S-E later this summer. I can't do these videos justice by describing them, so I'm not even going to try. Here are the links.
shootingpassing
NCAA: What I Mean
Here's a good example of why I think NCAA has completely run off the rails.
Today, a video was posted about
Road To Glory mode, which is basically "Campus Legend" mode with a new name. New features have been added this year--Erin Andrews covering your career, a 3D dorm room, season previews, awards presentations (if you're nominated), and a different in-game audio mix.
That's quite a bit of new content, and I'm fine with it, but if you watch the video and look at the on-field gameplay, it looks identical. There's no mention of user-definable camera angles (which are desperately needed) or making the various fixes to the clock that are needed to accurately track time.
So these new additions are nice, but what was broken about the mode last year appears to still be broken, which makes the new features meaningless. And how NCAA of them to focus on lots of fluff and ignore the core mechanics.
Two Excellent Band Names
Dent
Hunting the Melon (
source)
Blood Bowl
Blood Bowl was released on Thursday (in the U.S., available via
digital download only for now), and I've spent a few hours playing since then.
That's not as much as I've wanted to play.
Yes, the A.I. can be a bit wonky at times (see Bill Abner's excellent post
here), but the game is tremendously fun and feels like a faithful translation. The atmosphere is outstanding, and the campaign mode is more interesting than the franchise modes of both NCAA and Madden. The ability to play in either turn-based mode (faithful to its board game roots) or in a hybrid real-time strategy mode (where you can pause the game and enter commands as needed) is an excellent piece of design.
To clarify, you can't mix modes during a game, but you do get to choose which mode to use up front. I've been playing quite a bit in real-time strategy mode and haven't missed turn-based mode at all.
So this is a sports game, nominally, but there is so much wackiness and so much strategy that its appeal should stretch much wider. If you're a fan of Blood Bowl, this is an absolute must-purchase, but even if you're unfamiliar with the game, it's worth a look if you enjoy strategy games and have a sense of humor that is a bit dark.
Bill Abner loves this game and is doing a wonderful job covering it over at
The Nut And The Feisty Weasel.
Michael Jackson And The WTF Parade
I fully intended to write something about Michael Jackson today, but I can only think of three letters: WTF?
I'd like to focus on his music, which was undeniably brilliant at times, but it pales in comparison to his life, because he might have been the strangest cat to ever walk the earth. Michael Jackson made Howard Hughes look like Sarah Plain And Tall.
I do think one thing is true, and I think it's true for everyone: when what you do becomes less important than who you are, bad things happen.
I Saw A Man Leap From The Balcony
Here's how Gloria's trip to Shreveport went: within seven hours of her arrival, her brother had been carjacked.
Please note that Gloria has five family members living in Shreveport. Two of them have been carjacked in the last five years.
Her brother was fine, and the car, seemingly taken by the most inept carjacker in recorded history, was recovered only a few hours later. Of course, as an officer helped him close his hood later, it got bent and now won't close completely.
I'm not implying that Shreveport is some sort of carjacking hub, or that police officers are crazed hood destroyers. It's just the kind of strange gravity that her family lives under: if something is bad, it will always get worse.
She went through a list of the things that happened since she arrived (many of which are darkly comic, none of which I can mention here), then said, "Except for that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you enjoy the play?"
Friday Links!
It's a return from sabbatical edition of Friday Links, so let's get going.
Thanks to Steven Kreuch for sending in a link to what may well be the
worst music video ever, and I'm not kidding.
From Jarod, a link to the
Megalithic Passage Tomb at Newgrange, a remarkable archaelogical site in Ireland that is over 6,000 years old.
From Shane Courtrille, the story of
the girl who does not age. This is a strange, fascinating article.
Here's a new disaster you might not heard about--stem rust, which is a
'time bomb' for the world wheat crop. Scary stuff.
I've linked to this before, but stuff seems to keep getting added, and it just gets funnier. From Nate Carpenter, it's
what's happened since Duke Nukem Forever was announced.
From Andrew B, it's the
Google Maps alphabet.
From The Edwin Garcia Links Machine, a fantastic story about the
IBM SAGE, and here's an excerpt:
The IBM SAGE spoke to me. It was old, but unlike other machines from the era, with crude punch interfaces, it had a GUI, a light gun, and hell, an ashtray. And a big yellow screen. The ashtray was so operators didn't have to leave their posts for cigarette breaks. Spotting incoming planes from the Soviet Union was precise work that needed constant attention...
SAGE stood for Semi-Automatic Ground Environment and its sole purpose was to analyze radar data in real time and relay targeting information to fighter planes' autopilots. It was built by IBM in 1954 based off of MIT technology and was a fore bearer of additional *amazing futuristic ideas* like magnetic core memory, networking, and modems to facilitate communication between the 27 bases.From Randall G., and it's one of the greatest headlines ever:
The Strange Life Of Creatures Whose Sperm Is Larger Than They Are.
From John D'Angelo, a spectacular photograph of the Sarychev Peak Eruption--
taken from the International Space Station (more and larger images
here (thanks Ryan Leasher). Also from John, here's an
optical illusion that has to be seen to be believed.
From Jesse Leimkuehler, an article about the
weirdest article in the solar system. Also, it's
secrets of space blobs revealed.
From Sirius, a very interesting essay titled
Triumph Of The Default. Also,
stunning hi-res photos of Mars, taken by the HiRise camera on board the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Then there's the man who dug a 50 foot hole to fish--
in his kitchen. One more, and it's fascinating--
the plant that pretends to be ill.
From Juan Font, and don't blame me if you don't get anything done for the next hour, it's
Circle The Cat.
NCAA Football 10 (360): Demo Impressions
I bitch about NCAA Football annually, but I've also felt like (except for last year) that I've gotten my money's worth, even if the game always had at least a few significant flaws.
Last year, of course, was a train wreck. The pursuit angles and speed gaps made the game unplayable. Seriously,
Backyard Football had better pursuit angles than NCAA. Plus, the number of sheer bugs in the game was much worse than the already low standard for annual sports game releases (current exceptions: The Show and NHL).
So I was at least marginally hopeful that the idiotic design choices last year would be replaced by some semblance of sanity. And in some ways, it has been, but if the demo is indicative of the final product, this is the first year in many that I have no interest in this game.
A quick run-through:
--it looks like ass in HD. Put in a copy of The Show, watch it for a few minutes, then start the NCAA 10 demo and try not to throw up in your mouth. It won't be easy.
--incredibly, they've left in some of the pursuit angle code from last year. The pursuit angles appear to mostly be fixed, but remember how some defensive players would actually
run away from the ball at critical moments during a play? I saw that happen twice in the first twenty plays. Example: a pass play where the defender was closing on the ball as it was in the air, then he magically turned and started running in the other direction. After running away from the ball for 10-15 feet, he turned back and again pursued. Seriously, development dudes, WTF? Were you not embarrassed enough last year to fix this shit?
--there are some new animations. I noticed, in particular, some new animations for receivers and defensive backs when trying to catch the ball. I think.
Then there's the announcing, which deserves a separate paragraph of its own. Check out this sterling exchange between Brad Nessler, Kirk Herbstreit and Lee Corso:
Nessler: He's sacked by the big fellow.Herbstreit: For a big fellow, he sure moves pretty good.Corso: Kirk, you didn't call him 'big fellow' when you saw him at the hotel.Ingenious homoerotic subtones notwithstanding, that's what passes for clever in this game.
This entire engine is so old and so tired. Graphically, I think it's the single worst entry in the entire EA Sports line. Actually, it may have the worst HD graphics of any team sports game, period. And the entire experience feels like the seventh season of a t.v. show that jumped the shark three seasons ago.
College football actually has
more potential, conceptually, than the pro game, because recruiting is potentially much more fun than the draft and free agency. But this franchise is on the rocks.
Three Movies You May Enjoy
UP!This is one of my favorite Pixar movies because it feels very personal in so many places. Yes, there's the obligatory commercial gloss so that it can gross $250M, but it's surprisingly intimate for a movie that has so many box office obligations. It's very funny, it's very warm, and if you get a chance to see it in 3D, it's a wonderful experience--no cheesy effects, just an immersive use of the technology.
Drag Me to HellSam Raimi's latest comedy that's allegedly a horror film is brutally, disgustingly funny. It's totally over the top, of course--so far over the top, in fact, that you can't even
see the top from where it stands. There are always multiple levels of funny in a Sam Raimi horror film, so everyone gets a chance to laugh, then recoil in disgust at what they're laughing about. Gloria was totally appalled by this film, and rightly so, but that's one of the reasons it's so funny--it
is appalling, by design.
The HangoverI thought this movie was probably mostly hype, but I was wrong. It's very, very funny, and the script is incredibly clever in the way it sets up the movie. Gloria loved this, believe it or not, and there's a kind of manic energy in the film that serves it incredibly well. Totally tasteless, totally irreverent, and damned funny.
Camera Obscura
Yes, I've seen a real one, believe it or not (in San Francisco), but the optical device is not what I'm talking about.
I'm talking about the band.
Camera Obscura is a five-piece band from Glasgow, and they play soaring pop songs that are both sturdy and frail. Until you hear them, it's impossible to understand that contradiction. Their lyrics are often deeply ironic as well, undercutting the seeming innocence of their vocals.
Every once in a while, a band really gets under my skin, and Camera Obscura has done that. They make, quite simply, beautiful music, and I write easily while I'm listening to them (which I'm doing right now).
Obligatory Myspace music page:
Camera Obscura. "French Navy" is an excellent place to start.
I found out two weeks ago that this Scottish band was coming to Austin, of all places. On a Monday. At Antone's, a legendary blues club that has had uniformly
terrible sound quality every time I've been there in the last five years.
Plus, and I've said this before, I like people, but not near me.
Combine all this and going to see them was, for me, a risk. It wasn't like they'd be coming back anytime soon, though--or ever--so I decided to go.
Here's the thing about me, and after so many years, it's undeniable: at a concert, I have power gravitational field that attracts assholes. If an asshole walks within ten feet of me, he's inexorably drawn into orbit, coming closer and closer.
At a concert, I am to assholes what Saturn is to moons.
Gloria has, in the past, refused to believe that I have this quality. Foolish girl, so lovely and so terribly naive. "I will unleash my awesome power this evening," I told her, and she laughed.
Then.
We reached Antone's over an hour before the band was supposed to begin playing, and took our place only fifteen feet from the stage. Antone's is a long shotgun shack, essentially, about three times as long as it is wide. For some inexplicable reason, though, they set the stage so that bands perform across the width of the club instead of the length. What that means is that the stage is about forty feet from the back wall, and the reason the sound is so shitty is that the sound just bounces back and forth. The accoustic sweet spot must be the size of a tennis ball.
As we wait in the blissfully uncrowded club, I look at Gloria and say "They're coming." She laughs.
By the time the band begins playing, the club is absolutely packed, and the three people directly in front of me are as follows:
1. Pogo Man. There are over three hundred people in this club, and there is ONE person who is pogo-ing up and down. He looks like a twenty-year old version of Niles in Frazier, he has enough energy to light up Pittsburgh, and he's in front of me. And he actually cut in front of us, saying "I'll be more out of your way if I'm up here."
2. Just to the right of Pogo Man is Sara The Sea Cow. Sara also cut in front of us, only she just used her elbows, which are lethal. Sara is tall, and large, and is punishing her hair in a macabre fashion that I am unable to explain. She is also terribly drunk, and as she dances she swings her elbows up high, establishing position in the post. She's Dikembe Mutumbo with boobs.
3. To the right of Sara The Sea Cow is Robert Pershing Wadlow, the world's tallest man. He is at least 6'10", which makes him the tallest man in the entire club. He is standing almost directly in front of me.
"Behold the awesome power of my asshole gravity," I said to Gloria, and she did not laugh.
Oh, and Antone's sound was worse than ever, damn it. Camera Obscura depends heavily on aural clarity to create their soaring sound, and since the mix was butchered, nothing sounded right, even though it was very cool to see them in person.
To stop this from happening again, I'm designing a new product--The Personal Concert Experience Box™. It's a sealed enclosure with a periscope, and I believe it has commercial potential.
The Man Who Made Vermeers
I recently read one of the most interesting books that I've read in a long time. Titled
The Man Who Made Vermeers: Unvarnishing the Legend of Master Forger Han van Meegere, it's the story of the man who may be the most famous and successful forger in art history.
Originally, Han van Meegeren was arrested after WWII for allegedly selling stolen art treasures to the Nazis (Hermann Goering, in particular). His defense, which emerged only after some time spent in captivity, was that he'd actually painted the pictures himself, and as they were forgeries, no crime was committed.
Like all forgers, however, his story is far more complex and far more difficult to unwind than that. And art forgery in general, much to my surprise, has much in common with hacking.
This book is absolutely riveting reading, and the complexities and frailties of humans are on full parade display here. It is a wonderful, compelling piece of writing, and it very much makes me want to study the history of art forgery.
All I Know Is That They Should Have Been Playing Red Faction: Guerilla
If you're a sports fan, you know that Dallas cowboys owner Jerry Jones now has a new stadium, which cost over 1.15 billion dollars.
One of the many fantastic extravagances in this stadium is a 72x160 foot, high definition LED screen (I believe it's the largest 1080p screen in the world).
Fortunately, someone is putting that screen to its proper use: playing video games.
Here, take a look.
Console Post Of The Week: A Curious Blast
Bobby Kotick (rhymes with ...), CEO of Activision, recently had
this to say about the PS3:
Activision CEO Bobby Kotick has said that his company may have to stop supporting the PlayStation 3 if Sony does not drop the price of the luxury console.
"They have to cut the price, because if they don't, the attach rates [the number of games each console owner buys] are likely to slow. If we are being realistic, we might have to stop supporting Sony," said Kotick to The Times.
"When we look at 2010 and 2011, we might want to consider if we support the console — and the PSP [portable] too."
More:
"I'm getting concerned about Sony; the PlayStation 3 is losing a bit of momentum and they don't make it easy for me to support the platform.
"It's expensive to develop for the console, and the Wii and the Xbox are just selling better. Games generate a better return on invested capital on the Xbox than on the PlayStation."
I believe every major videogame publisher in the world is telling Sony some variation of this behind the scenes. I also believe they've been telling Sony since the day the console launched that the price is to too high.
What makes this different is that it's happening in public.
I've never really had a handle on Kotick, because he sometimes seems to go out of his way to antagonize the competition as well as his partners for no good purpose. But I'm guessing that this is a case of someone with leverage pressing when they perceive a weakness. Sony hasn't been developer-friendly, to say the least, in this generation, and now the chickens are coming home to roost.
Everyone in the world knows that Sony is cutting the price on the PS3 this year. The only questions are when they do it and whether it will be $50 or $100. With sales down 20% year-over-year in the U.S., though, they don't have any chance of hitting their unit target of 13M (30% growth) without one, and given how long they're waiting, it's looking more and more likely that it's going to have to be a $100 cut.
Unless they revise their financial forecasts downwards, of course.
Because this is all known, it seems unlikely that Kotick's blast will have much effect. Sony is a dreadnought, moving at dreadnought speed, and their course has, in all likelihood, already been determined.
Here's one more note: I find it very interesting that the phrase "luxury console" was used in the story. When the PS3 launched, Sony played up that angle, but it's looking more and more like that tag is a millstone.
Made In China
Gloria and Eli 7.10 are off on their annual summer trip to Hellport. That means from this morning until Friday afternoon, I'm by myself.
I mentioned earlier this year that one of my goals was to write three short stories. As it turns out, I'm writing one, but it's almost long enough to be a novella, so I'm counting it as all three.
It's title is "Made In China," and it still needs a lot of work. The writing is not the difficult part for me--it's the structure. I'm too undisciplined when I write fiction, and I like to start writing with only a loose framework defined. It's fun to write that way, but it's also ultimately more work, because I have to do more rewrites.
So that's what I'm going to do for these four days. I'm going to try to get in 20-25 hours of work on the story. And I promise you that you'll be able to read it by the end of the year. Some of you will like it very much, and some of you won't.
That means Dubious Quality is going to be live on tape this week. I've already written the week's content, and it will be posted daily. But I'm probably not going to check e-mail, at least not until Thursday night.
Writing this story is important to me. I'll try to explain some day.
The Soap Box
My friend Frank had a heart attack on Saturday.
Frank used to run with me, and at one point he had a three-year streak of running more than five miles every day.
Then he stopped running, and because Frank (like a lot of us) is extremely digital, he never started running again. Gained weight. Start smoking again.
I told him at least once a year for the last decade that he needed to have an annual physical, and he said every time that he'd been meaning to, but he never went, because he hates doctors.
Here's what not getting an annual physical can do for you:
--a heart attack
--100%, 90%, 80%, and 60% blockage in his coronary arteries
--quadruple bypass surgery
--a total lifestyle change, because if you don't change, you die
All of this could have been avoided if Frank had gone for annual physicals and had listened to his doctors. But he didn't.
Trust me, you don't want to be the guy lying in bed after having a heart attack. You will have to think about things you never wanted to think about, and you will feel a kind of fear that you didn't even know existed.
So I don't give a shit if you're busy. Let me rephrase that: Death doesn't give a shit if you're busy. Pick up the damn phone, call your doctor, and make an appointment for a physical. An annual physical.
Father's Day
We spent Father's Day going for a unicycle session in the morning and watching five new episodes of Ninja Warrior that evening.
Ninja Warrior is on the G4 channel, which makes Spike look like Masterpiece Theatre.
Things we said while watching Ninja Warrior:
--"There's no way he's making it up the salmon ladder."
--"It's Daniel Terry from America, and he's come to Japan for revenge."
--"I'm happy for that thirty-year old shoe salesman."
There's a Mountain Dew commercial that co-markets with World of Warcraft, and two women at a grocery store checkout suddenly attack each other with swords, then transfigure into WOW creatures. Eli watched the women attack each other for a few seconds, then said, "That's called a chick fight or chick-fu." I started laughing and he said, "What? It is!"
Gloria and Eli 7.10 also washed my car, which is the first time it's been washed since the last heavy rain, basically.
A few weeks ago, Eli saw a Father's Day display in Target, but he didn't realize it was specifically for Father's Day. He just thought it was cool stuff that I would like, so he brought home a Dad trophy and a picture holder that said "Daddy."
Gloria said "It wasn't for Father's Day. He just wanted you to have them."
That made my Father's Day right there.
Corrections (Yours)
Every once in a while, I get a vague sense of unease when I use a link, usually because something seems just a little "off." That was the case when I used the "visual perception"
link last week, mostly because the author seemed like a bit of a breathless self-promotor.
Well, chalk one up for the spidey sense. From Phil B:
I'm a vision scientist, and I'd like to point out that the thing is almost entirely factually incorrect.I could pick it apart, but the best proof comes if you simply close one eye. That completely removes all information that could be gleaned from your eyes being separated in your head (called 'stereopsis'). Everything looks the same size, no? This is because stereopsis is one small part of what we use to judge depth. Cues that come from just one eye, for example, how much space the image occupies on your retina, are the main cues used to perceive depth. It is true that things that are perceived as further away do feel like they must be bigger, but our brains sum up the information from all those other cues of perceived depth so that how apart a person's eyes are has very little impact on how far away things look and hence how big they look.
Phil should write his own articles, because that was an extremely clear explanation.
Also, from Brendon Dusel, in reference to the article about the
first man in space:
Just a correction, despite that local news station's story to the contrary, he was not the first man in space by most definitions. According to the wikipedia article, he jumped out approximately 18.32 miles above the earth. The international definition of space is 62 miles, while the US designates an astronaut any human that travels over 50 miles above sea level. Interestingly, some fighter pilots have earned this distinction:x-15 Wikipedia link.
Still the highest ever skydive, though, and a heckuva jump.
