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Back in 1994, I remember asking my English teacher whether or not I could use “the Internet” to aid me on a project. She asked “what is that?”

And if this 1993 Canadian broadcast is any indication, she was not alone. I’m especially fond of the interview with the football fan who suggests that everyone is nice and friendly. Flame Warriors anyone?

Also, since everyone bumps into spam mail and pop-ups today, a buddy of mine linked me to a rather comical episode of Aqua Teen Hunger Force that tackles this uninvited phenomenon.

Coincidentally, it ties in with a recent article from Robert Higgs.

Via BK Marcus.

During the winter break, one of the more memorable stops along the Top 10 list announced by David Letterman was that only seven people have ever received official written consent by Major League Baseball.

Who knows if anyone actually has.

We do know of someone who didn’t get permission from the NFL.

Forget Ninja Turtles and Lego’s, as a kid I would have wanted a B’Owl.

And of course, there is some debate as to whether I am this guys son.

Next on Jerry.

While the dust has settled for now, I found one quote of particular interest surrounding the new Orion system from D-Wave.

The CEO of the firm noted that it was not a true quantum computer, but rather one that used quantum mechanics to solve problems. Stating,

“Users don’t care about quantum computing—users care about application acceleration. That’s our thrust,” Martin said to the Associated Press. “A general purpose quantum computer is a waste of time. You could spend hundreds of billions of dollars on it” and not create a working computer.

For those who complain that basic research budgets are on the decline and clamor endlessly for financial hand-outs, this strikes precisely at the root of the issue.

As I’ve noted previously (as has Klein), D-Wave’s business philosophy is a good thing, because it appears management practitioners have perhaps matured to the point where they want to not just create cool, whiz-bang technology — but technology consumers are also willing to buy.

For those stuck in an Ivory Tower, I know it must seem like a crazy and radical business model, but maintaining profitability is something private firms cannot ignore like their subsidized academic counterparts. Perhaps this motivation is the reason why the private industry has actually shown a useful and usable solution first — sell or become extinct.

I have not looked at the current numbers, but as of December 2006, could you guess what the most popular podcast in the Higher Education section of iTunes was?

Turns out it was from a high school teacher in Long Island discussing the Byzantine Empire.

Talk about leveling the playing field (just like the intarweb has done to research salaries across the country).

I mention this because a friend of mine sent me a WSJ article today (“Yale on $0 a day“), which discussed the continued growth of high-quality material placed online for free or at a low price. It turns out Yale has now jumped on the pioneering bandwagon: taping and releasing videos of undergraduate lectures onto the web por gratis.

And again, like MIT and others, they do not feel these substitute for the direct, invaluable interaction between students and teachers. This may be temporarily true for some specialties, but is it the case for all?

Will the wide consumption of such podcasts eventually eliminate redundant teaching positions at other institutions — after all, why continue paying for circular overhead when you could just outsource lectures to gregarious instructors with an army of teaching assistants?

And it has already happened with text books and curriculum methods (e.g., some of the classes I took at the management school were modeled after the Harvard case-study approach)… perhaps those on the vocational, self-taught track can take advantage of it too.

Not really.

However, back in 2003 he was granted a patent on the prestin molecule. Prestin is a protein found in the inner ear of every mammal.

Oddly enough, it turns out that 20% of the human genome is patented by someone. This of course leads to problems for, among others, drug researchers who cannot create vaccines targeted at specific genetic defects without permission/royalties on patented genes.

In fact, there is a whole slew of problems that were recently addressed in an informative article in the NY Times entitled Patenting Life — which was written by controversial author Michael Crichton. [Note: one of the more humorous comments regarding his piece was at Slashdot]

One of the biggest problems with being allowed to patent biology is that quite simply: no human invented it, let alone the individual(s) laying claim to it. Sure they may have discovered it, but would that not open up the floor to debate on who owns the rights to mitochondria, T-cells, or heaven forbid: proteins found in semen?

The tie in with prestin is that, as the New Scientist noted, “it may be 10,000 times more efficient at generating power than the best manmade material.”

If Dallos owns an artificial monopoly on it, what could be the negative consequences of his judicious enforcement upon the technology sector?

Unfortunately this looming issue will continually come back to hinder technological and potentially life saving progress, and will invariably effect individual freedoms — after all if you are currently not allowed to do what you want with your own organs, what won’t you be allowed to do with your itty bitty genes?

If you are a fan of real-time strategy games like StarCraft or Commander & Conquer, then you may have looked at TA back in 1997 and scratched your head.

While you could conceivably employ the typical Zerg rush type of tactic, many of its hardcore fans would rather spend hours on end erecting elaborate defenses before first blood was spilled. And that is exactly what my friends and I would do on weekends (that and smuggle WMDs from Mexico).

TA was unleashed onto the gaming world in 1997 as one of the first 3D games in its genre and ten years later, its “spiritual successor” carries the torch even farther, into the fourth dimension. And it cures cancer.

Actually, Supreme Commander was developed by the same guy as the original TA and he put together yet another gem.

I had the chance to play the demo that was released last week and based on my first impressions, it survives all the hype surrounding its upcoming release. Note: the demo only lets you play one of three factions, the Cybran Nation.

Lamentations:
- there is no air engineer capable of building structures on top of hills
- the extra ACU’s you build are impossible to locate after you build them
- the artillery experimental unit is absolutely worthless (never fired a single shot, no matter how close/far it was from an enemy)
- some clipping issues with each of the experimental units (they could fly through my own walls/structures as if they didn’t exist)
- would have liked to have a dual-purpose defensive missile launcher capable of shooting both ground and air (perhaps other factions have this)
- the quantum gate is utterly worthless, it takes forever to beam the commander anywhere and when you do, his HP limits his frontline effectiveness
- its dual monitor support was very taxing on my system (Athlon64 3800+, 2 GB RAM, 7600 GT) so I simply played with one — which was fine because there is a mini map you can pull up as part of your HUD.

And speaking of the HUD, it takes up a huge amount of the screen. Hopefully the tools included in the full version will allow this area to get an overhaul.

Adorations:
- fantastic graphics, although, you aren’t always zoomed close enough to really watch the fireworks take place — the water refraction is also cool
- the ability to upgrade the tech trees is streamlined (one factory can produce all three levels, instead of having to build a factory at each level)
- the commander is one total bad ass if you get a chance to actually upgrade his weapons (the laser beam can put your eye out…)
- shield generators add a new strategic element to the game — plus they look so damn pretty, very similar to what the Gungan warriors deployed in the Battle of Naboo
- small power generators are a nice change from the space-consuming solar panels, so is the ability to bundle them next to other structures for bonuses
- the tech engineers can move around on the water alleviating the superfluous need for water-only engineers (it would be cool to submerse them though)
- you can finally zoom out far enough to grab your erratic-minded air units (whom all suck against shield generators and SAM sites)

Judgement

4.5 out of 5: my only real beef with it was the lack of units compared to the initial amount that were included with TA — although this will change with the release of modding tools and perhaps even official units (the developers for TA released a new unit each Friday back in the day, perhaps they will do this again)

Gameplay note: even with the current unit build limit (currently hardcoded at 250 in the demo) you can have fun decimating any offensive the computer sends at you by building 200+ laser turrets which are protected with medium artillery and a couple dozen shield generators. It is pretty neat to see the ginormous experimental units get lit up faster than Evel Knievel, from a barrage coming from an actual Maginot Line.

Here is a not-so-complimentary view of the game and one that is glowing. Video of gameplay: 1 2

A couple of my friends from high school put together a highly polished parody of the TV series ‘24‘ entitled: 24 Hour Pizza Delivery

Mis amigos are the writer (Bill Zilliox) and director (Scott Ricamore). Scott and I took a Cisco-sponsored network engineering class that met a couple hours each day… and Bill was in the same class at a different time. We kept in touch over the years by attending a local junior college during the summers and visiting many computer game conventions (e.g., PGL events, QuakeCon).

If nothing else, this shows what you can do with a lot of talent on a low-budget.

Great script. Perfect editing. Excellent intensity. Hire them.

And another friend sent me this recently made parody of 24 and the Boston/Aqua Teen Hunger Force bugaboo created by National Lampoon staff members.

Note: I can’t say I’m a fan of 24, it is way over-the-top and if anything, only adds to the sky-is-falling attitude post-9/11.

You’re probably familiar with the sensational Boston Bomb scare by now.

A friend just sent me this well-made parody video.

The only question I have is, how on earth did the producers make such a high-quality production in less than a week?