O'Reilly Mac OS X Innovators Contest
One of the reasons I went to OS X was the promise of innovation. That promise has been realized. There's an amazing amount of interesting software for OS X. O'Reilly has done a great job with this series of articles and with this year's winners.
Update: Maybe not as great a job as I'd thought. One of the winners is called "Process". It's a simple project/task manager with outliner features. It's supposed to allow one to link to "sources" (documents). Problem is, the link is a unix path -- not a Mac file reference. So if you move the source file, you break the link. This won a prize?!! Give me a break.
Wednesday, October 27, 2004
Role playing games and robotic simulants -- the future of games and the evolution of mind
Fantasy Economics - Why economists are obsessed with online role-playing games. By Robert Shapiro
I was discussing this topic with a colleague today. He mentioned how one company used "sweatshop" low wage Mexican game players to outsource the tedious work of building initial assets in many role playing games.
That led me to the next logical step -- robotic players. I was inspired by an old science fiction satire about a world in which the costs of production had fallen so far that consumption became a duty rather than a privilege. Only the rich could afford to live without constantly consuming goods. The protagonist breaks the viscious cycle by building robots to consume things. Ok, so it's not the same thing at all -- but that's how my brain works.
I don't mean simulated players within the game -- the game wouldn't allow that. No, simulated players outside the game. They don't have to strike keys, but they need to generate keystroke and mouse motion signals. They don't have to read the screen, but they need to be able to "interpret" the digital stream representing onscreen objects.
Observed within a game the avatar for such a simulated player might seem clumsy ... even a bit "mindless'. Or they might seem oddly smooth but "stupid". They would, however, react with lightning speed to certain stimuli. They could kill game-rabits and the like very well. They'd never advance far in the game, but they could earn a lot of low level script.
And there could be a lot of them. Thousands. Millions.
Just like robots in the real world. Or just like frogs.
Of course the game masters might come up with tricks to detect robots. mini-Turing tests that would a robot would fail. So the robots would get smarter. One human might manage a hundred robots, constantly on call to solve Turing tests the robots could identify but not resolve. The robots might be supplemented by rats responding to a rat-VR version of the game. Eventually rat tissue plated out in growth chambers would play a role.
And so it goes.
Eventually the robots/simulants become a part of the game. Other simulants compete with them. Some get their own tv shows.
And do it goes.
I was discussing this topic with a colleague today. He mentioned how one company used "sweatshop" low wage Mexican game players to outsource the tedious work of building initial assets in many role playing games.
That led me to the next logical step -- robotic players. I was inspired by an old science fiction satire about a world in which the costs of production had fallen so far that consumption became a duty rather than a privilege. Only the rich could afford to live without constantly consuming goods. The protagonist breaks the viscious cycle by building robots to consume things. Ok, so it's not the same thing at all -- but that's how my brain works.
I don't mean simulated players within the game -- the game wouldn't allow that. No, simulated players outside the game. They don't have to strike keys, but they need to generate keystroke and mouse motion signals. They don't have to read the screen, but they need to be able to "interpret" the digital stream representing onscreen objects.
Observed within a game the avatar for such a simulated player might seem clumsy ... even a bit "mindless'. Or they might seem oddly smooth but "stupid". They would, however, react with lightning speed to certain stimuli. They could kill game-rabits and the like very well. They'd never advance far in the game, but they could earn a lot of low level script.
And there could be a lot of them. Thousands. Millions.
Just like robots in the real world. Or just like frogs.
Of course the game masters might come up with tricks to detect robots. mini-Turing tests that would a robot would fail. So the robots would get smarter. One human might manage a hundred robots, constantly on call to solve Turing tests the robots could identify but not resolve. The robots might be supplemented by rats responding to a rat-VR version of the game. Eventually rat tissue plated out in growth chambers would play a role.
And so it goes.
Eventually the robots/simulants become a part of the game. Other simulants compete with them. Some get their own tv shows.
And do it goes.
Status.Blogger.Com -- not great status!
Status.Blogger.Com
This page is available even when, as happens too often, blogger and blogspot are unreachable. This page shows some significant outages over the past few weeks, and it certainly does not capture all the issues I've seen.
Blogger is going through a rough patch -- the worst I've seen since the google acquisition. Do they need to put a moratorium on new blogs until they get a handle on these issues?
This page is available even when, as happens too often, blogger and blogspot are unreachable. This page shows some significant outages over the past few weeks, and it certainly does not capture all the issues I've seen.
Blogger is going through a rough patch -- the worst I've seen since the google acquisition. Do they need to put a moratorium on new blogs until they get a handle on these issues?
Tuesday, October 26, 2004
Shopping.com: best way to find watches
Watches - Find, Compare, and Buy at Shopping.com
This is impressive. I found it via a blog I read. They've built a very rich data model for common objects, such as watches. Given this extensive range of attributes there are many, many ways to filter thousands of items to find the handful one wants. Building this must have taken a great deal of work, though some was done by parsing text descriptions.
This needs some evaluation. For buying watches there's no beating it. (There are THOUSANDS of wrist watches out there.)
This is impressive. I found it via a blog I read. They've built a very rich data model for common objects, such as watches. Given this extensive range of attributes there are many, many ways to filter thousands of items to find the handful one wants. Building this must have taken a great deal of work, though some was done by parsing text descriptions.
This needs some evaluation. For buying watches there's no beating it. (There are THOUSANDS of wrist watches out there.)
Defined Contribution / Medical Savings Accounts (washingtonpost.com)
Selection Time (washingtonpost.com)
In the original model there wasn't a big gap between the cash portion and the indemnity portion. These incarnations with large gaps are much more suspect. They penalize illness too severely.
The article misses the most important question. Does the plan have an associated PPO with negotiated cash rates? If consumers pay "retail" fees for medical costs they'll blow through their cash portion in no time. Cash rates have been artificially inflated by the discounts demanded by payors.
Before you commit, it's a good idea to read through the list of frequently asked questions (www.opm.gov/hsa/faq.asp) posted by the federal Office of Personnel Management. Even if you work in the private sector or are shopping for an individual policy, the questions should prepare you for a talk with your agent or your employer's benefits staff. This is especially important for individual policy buyers, since they'll likely be dealing with salesmen who may biased toward their own product.
Here are some reasons you may find an HSA tempting:
• You own the money in the account even if you retire or change plans or employers.
• Tax-free withdrawals may be made for expenses such as prescription drugs, a doctor visit for a sinus infection, setting a broken arm and physical therapy prescribed by a doctor. (See the IRS list at www.irs.gov/publications/p502/ar02.html#d0e516.)
• Unused funds and any interest they've earned can be carried over, without limit, from year to year. (You can even spend set-asides on nonmedical expenses. But do that before age 65, and you'll pay income tax on the funds used plus a 10 percent penalty.)
In the original model there wasn't a big gap between the cash portion and the indemnity portion. These incarnations with large gaps are much more suspect. They penalize illness too severely.
The article misses the most important question. Does the plan have an associated PPO with negotiated cash rates? If consumers pay "retail" fees for medical costs they'll blow through their cash portion in no time. Cash rates have been artificially inflated by the discounts demanded by payors.
Blogger and Blogspot -- slow and slower
Blogger: Create your Blog Now -- FREE
I think both Blogger and Blogspot are succumbing to their popularity. Performance is degrading at a fairly steady pace.
I think both Blogger and Blogspot are succumbing to their popularity. Performance is degrading at a fairly steady pace.
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