I didn’t bring my laptop with me to Maui so itLs hard to update like usual.

See twtter feed for updates…

When playing Fallout 3, I felt that it wasn’t as strong of a game as Elder Scrolls IV:Oblivion.  Going back now and playing the Oblivion expansion pack Shivering Isles, I think I realize why.

In Fallout 3, much of the richness of the story is in how they tailor the story around the choices you make inside the game.  If you play one way, you get a very different storyline, with different characters and goals (at least in the side quests).  This is less true in Oblivion, where it is more of a singular story experience.

Thus when playing Oblivion you get a much larger story, as you play a larger percent of the content that the game story creators actually made.  With Fallout 3 you only get to see one side of the story unless you replay the game with a different style of play, which I find tedious.

So while Fallout3 creates an experience that is more specific to your gameplay, it ends up feeling like a much smaller world — even though they had to put in a lot more effort!!  On the other hand, Oblivion feels a lot more epic because you get more exposure to all of the story telling effort that the creators poured into it.

In conclusion, Shivering Isles is pretty awesome.

If so, hold down the “meta” key (aka windows key) , and press “e”.

Cool, eh?  Also try 1,2,3,n,m.  I can’t figure out what “r” does, but it also does something.

(tested on hardy, probably only works with their default XGL blah blah blah)

As an experiment I have started up a twitter account.  http://twitter.com/ryanthiessen

Yesterday I got a new toy… an android G1.

Very cool!

When asked the mundane question “Who do you admire most?” my answer is Charles Darwin.

He was the first person to realize and codify that the richness and complexity of life could be perfectly explained without magic.  His application of the idea was to Biology, but it can also be equally applied to complexity on micro and macro scales.  Stuff just happens naturally and the outcome is selected, and given time complexity arises.  No magic required!

It’s so completely basic and obvious in hindsight, but took hundreds of thousands of years for a human to really recognize this simple and fundamental fact of life.  Kudos, Mr Darwin.

http://www.somethingpositive.net/sp02122009.gif

The world “nauseous” is best pronounced “nachoes”. (more…)

You know the old saying “when you assume, you make an ass out of ‘u’ and me”?

I realized that since I’m already an ass, it’s a no-loss situation for me.  Assume away!

It really sucks.

Folks,

I’m starting to have some doubts about the realism in the 2008 series remake “Knight Rider”.  I hate to be the doubting Thomas in the crowd but I’ve got some nagging doubts that just aren’t going away.

For starters: the car has an amazingly advanced artificial intelligence system compared to any known commercial or research editions.  In addition to sophisticated navigation skills, it also is capable of verbal communication and even learning.  How has Knight Industries managed to advance so far ahead of the academic and industrial world?

This brings me to my second concern: the vehicle “Kitt” is remarkably advanced, having the ability to even shield and repair itself using nanotechnology.  Why have we not seen even crude versions of this technology in commercial or military applications, when a working prototype vehicle is clearing demonstrating the viability right now?

The only answer to these two questions is the obvious one: massive government conspiracy.  Clearly the federal government is diverting a hundreds of billions in tax income to fund Knight Industries.  Despite that, this rogue military contractor appears to have extremely limited oversight relative to the amount of money being spend to develop these cutting edge projects.

This development is not strictly related to nanotechnology and artificial intelligence — it’s also completed working implementations of matter replication, vehicle structural transformation in real time, and streaming satellite high-resolution video communication without latency.  They have also mastered on-board weapons systems, including rockets and a robust harpooning mechanism.  Plus the car can fly or something?  I wasn’t really clear on that point.

It strikes me as interesting that all of these incredible advanced technologies are all bundled into one car — as a taxpayer it concerns me that the risk of total toss is quite significant.  This is compounded by the fact that operation of the vehicle is done by young and reckless crew and command, who often seem far more interested in sexual relations with each other than utilizing the remarkable technology at their disposal.

I also question the priorities of the command group.  Given the abilities of this amazing talking car, why waste them chasing drug dealers and petty thugs instead of fighting terrorism or the Axis of Evil or something?  Maybe use the advanced AI to solve problems to benefit humanity, not to offer relationship advice to its operators?  I’m just saying.

Anyhow, I’m sure there is a perfectly good explanation for all this.  Just wish I could figure it all out myself.