How Much For a Gallon of...

Did you know that Carlo Rossi blush wine costs less than an equal volume of Evian water? That black ink costs more than human blood? Now you do.

This is an older article, but it's well worth a review.

AD&D Online Stormwatch Beta

Disappointed at not being accepted into Vanguard Beta (yet, anyway), I've been playing a lot of Civ IV (fun!) and some console games (Disgaea, again). What should appear in my inbox last night? A beta invitation.

To AD&D Online: Stormwatch. For those of you who don't keep up to date on these things, AD&D Online: Stormwatch is an upcoming MMORPG that's based on the AD&D license (which is HUGE), developed by Turbine (of Asheron's Call 1 fame, and Asheron's Call 2... un-fame). Stormwatch is based on the AD&D 3.5 ruleset (which I'm not familiar with -- I'm only familiar with up to 3.0).

I barely even remember signing up -- I heard about it, made an account on their forums, and signed up on a whim. I heard they got over 150,000 signups, so I more or less wrote off my chances of getting in. But I'm in. And I'm excited to take a look at what they've done.

From reading the manual, a couple of things stick out:
1) The interface appears to be extremely simple/streamlined. This may or may not be a good thing.
2) Monks (my favorite v3.0 class!) are not one of the classes you can play. I loved their high magic resistance and the fact that they were basically anti-mage tanks. I'm not sure if this omission is a game-choice or if they were removed from 3.5.

Fortunately, Wizard has the 3.5 ruleset published online, so I will be having a read. And then I'll go online and see if Turbine's latest game is worth testing. General impressions in a few days (nothing NDA breaking though).

Personal: Sending in Acceptance to ASU/WP Carey

As many of you know, I've been tacking towards returning to school to do an MBA. I took the GMAT (equivalent of the SAT for business schools), narrowed down my choices, and applied to two schools: Arizona State University (WP Carey) and Indiana (Kelley). Indiana is the better ranked school and the more rigorous curriculum, but Arizona State seems better organized, is a little easier on the schedule (36 weeks a year of class instead of 48), and they didn't lose my application like Indiana did.

So I've decided to accept the offer to WP Carey. Assuming that they still have room in the program, that's where I will be going for the next two years. The program is a part-time, online correspondance program, so I will still live in Davis, still have my full-time job, and everything will be the same except now I'll come home and study for 3 hours a day after work.

Bye bye social life. Adieu. Ciao.

But I think, ultimately, it will be a good thing, as I will have more earning power, more job opportunities, and be able to move into an industry that isn't being killed by offshoring/foreign Visas.

Wish me luck.

Is the Console Video Game Industry Dying?

Or at least subject to a similar crash that we saw during the post-Atari, pre-Nintendo days? This article from the Inquirer seems to think so. With console and game prices rising, original games falling, and a ton of mediocrity, at what point do the consumers say enough is enough?

Cool Google Maps

This is way too cool not to post.

All sorts of interesting uses for google maps. Find out if you live near any sex offenders, where the nearest fast food restaurants are, where the lastest earthquakes have been, and where you'd end up if you dug a hole to the other side of the world.

How to Keep Your XBox360 From Overheating

1) Acquire string.
2) Suspend from ceiling.

As I anticipated, the first revision of the XBox360 has some major heat dissipation issues. As it turns out, the main culprit seems to be the power supply, which produces lots of heat but can't vent that heat adequately. By raising the XBox360 off the ground, it helps the air-flow of the unit and keeps it from crashing.

Microsoft is definitely going to have to do a revision of the system, and soon.

Interesting Optical Illusions

This page has some cool optical illusions, including a few I'd never seen before.

Of particular coolness is the one with the purple circles arranged in a circle,
where one circle is hidden at a time in a circular fashion. When you stare at the cross in the middle, the missing circle leaves a opposite-colored after-image.

XBox 360 Having Some Problems

You may have heard that the XBox 360 was released yesterday, to huge lines everywhere and being sold on ebay for way above retail prices. Of course, this was expected by me, as Microsoft has admitted they are artifically limiting supply in order to stimulate buzz and demand.

And probably also so they can work the initial kinks out of the machine before they have to replace too many of them.

News today is that a fair number of XBox 360s are having problems -- anything from not being able to load games, hardware failures, and games crashing. There's a thread on Slashdot about this, as well a thread on the official xbox forums (which are running super slowly today).

Unfortunately to all those who spent hours upon hours in line to get one, when they return their defective ones, they will be unable to get a replacement in a timely manner due to the limited supply.

From what I've read, the initial revision of the Xbox 360 is running VERY hot, and some people have reported problems with it overheating if stacked near other components (which block the vents) or put inside a glass case.

All this makes me glad I'm sitting this one out.

Is This For Real?

Check out this movie, linked from engadget.com.

If this is for real, it takes the cake for most cool (and most obnoxious) Christmas lighting display ever.

Davis Representing

A few months ago, Sony Online Entertainment had a contest where they were looking for a gamer to model Antonia (the queen of the good side) in EQ2. Apparently, the winner (who took home $10,000 and a 1 year modelling contract) was a girl named Anna Wainscoat -- and guess where she lives? Yup, Davis.

Reason #1,342 Smokers Are Dangerous To Others

From this article:

BRISBANE, Australia (AP) -- A French woman who is terrified of flying admitted in an Australian court Monday that she drunkenly tried to open an airplane door mid-flight to smoke a cigarette.

Read the article for the whole thing.

The Kings, and the NBA

Since I last blogged, the Kings played the Bucks and had an excellent game, beating them. They also played Seattle last night in Seattle, and lost 106-108. The game was close and the Kings starters all played well. However, there are two reasons the Kings lost: 1) Protecting the ball -- too many turnovers. 2) The bench. Kenny Thomas was the only bench player to score (With 9 points, compared to Seattle's bench which scored over 30 points). Fact is: Sacramento is NOT going to be a good team this year unless their bench starts scoring no matter how good the starters are.

I have to believe that Geoff Petrie is looking for a trade right now. I would not be surprised if the Kings make a trade move in the next 4 to 6 weeks. The big question is: who would they move, and who are they looking at? I don't think Shareef is going anywhere because the Kings already have such a good deal on him. Bonzi Wells is playing excellently, as is the point-center Brad Miller (point-center is what Bonzi Wells calls him, as he has more assists than Bibby). Bibby is central to the team and a clutch shooter, despite struggling a bit at the beginning of the season.

That leaves Peja (who is in a contract year), Kenny Thomas, and the rest of the bench players, notably Kevin Martin, Corliss Williamson, and Brian Skinner (and maybe Francisco Garcia). Probably not Hart, because he's played decently as backup to Bibby and he's a pretty good defender.

Would the Kings be ballsy enough to move Peja? I doubt it -- mainly because they don't have a lot of bench depth at that position. Kevin Martin and Francisco Garcia just aren't cutting it right now, so why move one of them into the starting lineup? They could trade Kenny Thomas, but he's the only guy actually scoring off the bench right now, so that wouldn't exactly be a step forward. I have to believe that Martin, Williamson, Skinner, or Garcia is going to be traded.

For whom? I have no idea. That's up to Petrie, not me. But there is one intriguing possibility. Trade Martin, Williamson, Skinner, and/or Garcia for a 1st/2nd round draft pick to clear out salary cap space. Then pick up Latrell Sprewell. Sprewell isn't well liked by coaches because of his attitude, but the Kings have "rehabbed" quite a few players who were considered big attitude risks, so why not Spre? Sprewell is getting older and he's not as fast as he used to be, but he can still bring the energy off the bench and score. He's going to be better than what you've got now.

I believe this would be their best move. But we'll see. Something needs to change.

---

Around the NBA: Taking a look around the NBA now that about 10 games have been played, there are some surprising/notable results:
* New York, under Larry Brown, is 3-7. I didn't think they'd be great, but I didn't expect them to be THAT bad.
* Cleveland is 8-2. That's exactly what I expected given their offseason acquisitions.
* Indiana is 6-3. Are they still a playoff team with Cleveland, Detroit, and Miami around?
* Chicago is 4-5. I expected them to be doing slightly better. I guess the team still needs some time to grow.
* Miami is 6-4. They should be 8-2 with their roster.
* Atlanta is 0-9. Guess Joe Johnson isn't as good as everybody thought.
* Utah is 4-7, having lost 5 straight. Injuries are killing this team. They especially miss Kirilenko. When he's playing, they win. When he's not, they don't.
* The Clippers are 8-2. WHAT? 8 and 2? Is this team for real? I think they might be. And Chris Kaman (their center) has been underperforming. If he starts turning it on, this team will REALLY be good.
* Golden State is 6-5. That's about what I expected. I predicted at the beginning of the year GS will make the playoffs.
* Phoenix is 4-5. They're really missing Amare. They have a great bench though, so they have a good chance of improving even without him.
* Sacramento is 4-6. I expected them to be doing better by now (and they play San Antonio tonight so it's likely they'll go to 4-7).
* LA's lesser team (the Lakers) are 4-6. Despite the emergence of Smush Parker, Kobe's just not good enough to carry the entire team without some real help. I predict the Lakers miss the playoffs this year.
* San Antonio is 8-2. No surprises there.
* Dallas is 7-2. Really? Dallas is a good team this year, with lots of depth off the bench. They're going to have a good year.
* Houston is 3-7. What's wrong with this team? They're too good to be 3-7. I am kind of boggling at this one. Even the Hornets are 4-5.

Final Thoughts: The east is looking stronger than the west this year, for the first time in... forever (Despite having the two worst teams in Toronto and Atlanta -- not to mention Charlotte). The current playoff standings in the west are:
1. The Clippers. Yup, they're #1 seed right now. Crazy.
2. San Antonio
3. Minnesota
4. Dallas
5. Memphis
6. Denver
7. Golden State
8. Seattle

Teams that could end up in the playoffs but currently aren't:
Sacramento (4-6)
Phoenix (4-5)
Houston (3-7)
Lakers (4-6)

Only one of these teams is probably going to make it in (I don't think Seattle will hold the 8th seed). Maybe 2 (if Memphis falls out, or Baron Davis gets injured and Golden State falls out). Who's it going to be? It'll be fun to watch and see how the results change over the next 10 games.

UC Increases Fees (again)

According to this story from the Sacramento Bee:

"The University of California Board of Regents on Wednesday raised student fees for the fifth time since late 2002, a move that will push the minimum cost for UC undergraduates to more than $6,600 next academic year.

The new tuition levels, along with various fees charged by the campuses, represent an 89 percent increase over UC's undergraduate price tag in 2001-02."

For comparison, the total overall inflation rate over the last 5 years: about 10%.

With housing prices at an all time high, health insurance increasing 10% a year, education costs increasing 10% a year, energy costs at all time highs, and stagnant wages, how is anybody expected to stay afloat in this kind of economy?

Florida Spends Money on "Celestial Drops"

This story is so bizarre it has to be true. According to the article:

Katherine Harris, then Florida's [Republican] secretary of state — and now a member of the U.S. House of Representatives — ordered a study in which, according to an article by Jim Stratton in the Orlando Sentinel, "researchers worked with a rabbi and a cardiologist to test ‘Celestial Drops,' promoted as a [citrus] canker inhibitor because of its ‘improved fractal design,' ‘infinite levels of order,' and ‘high energy and low entropy.'"

In other words, the government spent money investigating whether blessed (holy) water would cure citrus blight.

Absolutely amazing. If this country were at all sane, we'd smack these people down with a big stick. Instead, they become members of congress.

Kings Game Last Night

I went to the Kings game last night vs. Utah. As I was listening to the pregame show, one of the host (I think Grant Napier) guaranteed us a win on the following grounds: 1) Utah was missing 3 of their 4 best players (Kirilenko, Boozer, Harpring) (only Okur played of the 4), and they were playing their 4th game in 5 nights in the 4th different time zone. Indeed, Utah was sluggish and did not do well. But more importantly, how did the Kings do?

The Kings looked great in the first quarter, scoring something like 33 points. Their offense was in sync, and everybody was moving the ball and scoring. By the end of the first quarter, the Kings were already up by something like 21 points. Then the second string came in. And this is where things fell apart. The second string did not make a single shot in something like 8 minutes. It was incredible. That 21 point lead dwindled down to 4 or 6. Then Bibby came in, nailed a big 3 pointer, more starters came in, and the game was never close again. The Kings second string came in again in the 4th quarter because the Kings opened such a big lead in the third and they played better -- but still not good enough in my opinion.

As good as the starting lineup looked, the Kings will not be a good team this year if the bench can not score any points. And that is my prediction for the year: if the bench improves (particular Kenny Thomas, who hasn't found his rhythm yet, and probably Kevin Martin, who isn't shooting well yet), then the Kings will hit 50 wins. Otherwise, we're in for a disappointing year. It's that simple.

In the end, the Kings beat Utah by something like 36 points, the largest win margin against Utah ever.

The other thing that was shocking: a 24 oz beer at Arco Arena is $9.50.

Kings Not Looking Sharp

After a sad performance on Sunday against the New York Knicks (who were 0-5), news articles are starting to appear wondering if this really will be Rick Adelman's last year -- or even if he'll make it through the entire year. One thing is certain: the Kings are not playing with heart, and that needs to change sooner rather than later.

I am not sure why the team isn't gelling like the should be, but it's obvious to me that they are not taking care of the ball well, and I think a lot of the blame lays at the feet of Mike Bibby, who is a lackluster defender and has not been leading the team in shooting. I hope it comes soon.

On a good note, I am going to see the Kings vs. Utah tonight at Arco. Unfortunately, Andrei Kirilenko is out with a sprained ankle -- I really wanted to see him play. At least the Kings are healthy now, with Garcia expected to be back from his sprained ankle.

On a not so good note, my fantasy basketball team now has 4 injured players: Grant Hill, Carlos Boozer, Andrei Kirilenko, and Gerald Wallace. I hope Boozer or Kirilenko come back soon because I have nobody filling one of my PF spots.

Reason #6,842,157 To Drink More Beer

it helps stop tumor growth.

Political Compass

Political Compass is a website that gives you a political reading after taking a short (<10 min) quiz. It gives you two coordinates: the first measures how left/right leaning you are, and the second measures how authoritarian/libertarian you are.

Here's where some famous people fall on the chart:


I fall at (-5.50, -3.74), which puts me close to Nelson Mandela.

More More Sony DRM News

Several companies/states are suing Sony for putting DRM on CDs -- one of those states being the state of California, for violation of the consumer spyware protection act. Also, viruses/worms that take advantage of the security holes the Sony DRM automatically and silently installs on your computer have now cropped up in the wild.

Consequently, if you have a Windows computer, haven't explicitly turned off autorun, and have played any of the following CDs on your computer:

Trey Anastasio, Shine (Columbia)
Celine Dion, On ne Change Pas (Epic)
Neil Diamond, 12 Songs (Columbia)
Our Lady Peace, Healthy in Paranoid Times (Columbia)
Chris Botti, To Love Again (Columbia)
Van Zant, Get Right with the Man (Columbia)
Switchfoot, Nothing is Sound (Columbia)
The Coral, The Invisible Invasion (Columbia)
Acceptance, Phantoms (Columbia)
Susie Suh, Susie Suh (Epic)
Amerie, Touch (Columbia)
Life of Agony, Broken Valley (Epic)
Horace Silver Quintet, Silver's Blue (Epic Legacy)
Gerry Mulligan, Jeru (Columbia Legacy)
Dexter Gordon, Manhattan Symphonie (Columbia Legacy)
The Bad Plus, Suspicious Activity (Columbia)
The Dead 60s, The Dead 60s (Epic)
Dion, The Essential Dion (Columbia Legacy)
Natasha Bedingfield, Unwritten (Epic)
Ricky Martin, Life (Columbia) (labeled as XCP, but, oddly, our disc had no protection)

And possibly:

My Morning Jacket, Z
Santana, All That I Am
Sarah McLachlan, Bloom Remix Album

you are probably infected.

On a side note, if you got infected from the Celine Dion CD... You got what you deserve.

The Kings Are Now 1-4

for the second season in a row -- and yet, last year they still managed to win 50 games, so no need for doomsaying yet. Their schedule both this year and last has been tough to open the season. Last year they started off with a game against the Rockets in China and then had to play through jet lag. This year, they started with 4 of 5 games on the road, having the latest home-game opener of any team in the league, and against the conference champion Detroit Pistons no less.

The Kings now play 12 of their next 14 games at home. This is where they will truly be able to show what they are made of. Will they find the passion and fire to pick up their play and play with intensity? Or will they be a bunch of great players doomed to a year of mediocrity? Time will tell, but I am optimistic still.

Wily Pete

It has recently come to light that the US military has been using white phosphorous (known as Wily Pete to militia) in the Iraq war. While white phosphorous has been used for illumination and smoke-screen purposes in war for quite some time, it has been put to a new use in the Iraq war: melting people.

Yes, I'm serious. As noted by wikipedia, White phosphorous autoignites at about 30 degrees celsius -- in lower temperatures, it merely smoulders. When it comes in contact with skin, it smoulders the skin and tissue away, all the way to the bone.

According to Wikipedia, "Use of white phosphorus is not specifically banned by any treaty, however the 1980 Convention on Conventional Weapons (Protocol III) prohibits the use of incendiary weapons against civilian populations or by air attack against military forces that are located within concentrations of civilians. [2] The United States is among the nations that are parties to the convention but have not signed protocol III."

Recently, the Italian state-run Broadcaster RAI has been showing footage of the US troops releasing White phosophorous on insurgent and civilians when we stormed Fallujah, Iraq. Furthermore, the US military has admitted to using white phosphorous against the Iraqis (see citation in wikipedia article).

Did you catch that part about using white phosphorous on civilians? That means innocent people, including children. Our military is literally melting the skin off of children in order to capture insurgent-held areas.

This is what the Iraqi war has come to.

Hunter, on DailyKos, writes a brilliant essay/satire on the absurdity of it. Warning: it includes a graphic picture of a melted child. I have seen other pictures from the Iraqi war of people melted to the bone from exposure to white phosphorous. It is nasty, nasty stuff.

Raw Story has a new article here

More Sony DRM issues

Hot on the tail of last week's Sony CD DRM tale comes this patent from Sony, designed to limit resale of software. In other words, software installed on a machine with this type of DRM would NOT run on any other machine. Consequently, you could not buy used software, you could not rent games from your local video store, and you could not buy a game and take it over to your friends house for some multiplayer action. Note all three of these things would mean consumers would have to buy more games, making more money for Sony. Sony makes no money off of resold games, no money off rentals, and in the third case, consumers would each have to own their own copy of the game.

Perhaps worst of all, if your machine ever died, you'd probably have to replace your entire software library too.

Is this coming to the PS3? That's the rumor right now, though I suspect consumer backlash will kill this one before all is said and done.
If it is a PS3 "feature", I definitely will NOT be purchasing one.

My fear is that this will be bundled in as a hidden feature, and not be turned on until Sony has a fairly large installed base. The initial crop of games would be sharable/resellable, but then all the marquee titles later on wouldn't. That would really suck.

Kings Lose Badly to Pistons

Even though the final score wasn't horrendous, Tayshaun Prince put the smack down on the Kings in the 3rd quarter and completely annihiliated the Kings. The Kings had a few flashes of brilliance, especially in the first 5 or so minutes, but down the stretch they played like a team who wasn't comfortable playing together.

They're in Denver tonight, and I expect them to lose again. Yet I am still optimistic about this team. The thing is, they REALLY need more practice time, and given that they opened the season with a big road trip, that hasn't really happened. After the game at Denver tonight, the Kings have a HUGE home stand, where they will be able to get in a lot more practice time (instead of using that time to travel). I agree with Grant Napier when he says he thinks the Kings will be excellent, but it's going to take about 15 games for them to get good. I'm predicting more like 10-12, but so far tonight is only 5 so there's still plenty of time.

Ahnold Failed

As you've probably heard by now, not only did California propositions 74, 75, 76, and 77 (Ahnold's babies) all fail, but so did 73, 78, 79, and 80. That's right: all 8 propositions failed. Voter backlash against the costly special election? I think so. Given that the Repubs were pushing YES on 73-78 and NO on 79-80, and the Dems were opposite, and given that the average proposition had about a 55% NO vote, that means that there were probably about 10% of people on both sides who voted NO on everything.

As a side note, the People's Republic of Davis shot down Measure X by a 59% NO to 41% YES vote, which kills Covell Village (and Trader Joes). On the upside, it means Covell, Mace, and Pole-Line won't be clogged with traffic, and I won't end up getting stuck behind bulldozers and other heavy machinery on the way to work in the morning while they do construction.

My Vicious Cycle

I am stuck in a vicious cycle. No, it's not drugs or alcohol I'm addicted to. It's nasal inhalers.

Here's the deal: my sinuses are screwed up. This is not an opinion -- it's a medically confirmed fact, as evidenced by the fact that I had semi-successful surgery on my nose (and they stuck a 6 inch piece of gauze up each of my nostrils -- I swear it must have been touching my brain). Given the screwed up sinus passages, even a minimal amount of mucus buildup in my nose tends to impair my breathing. Not being able to breathe means not sleeping well. Not sleeping well means I am grumpy and want to cut your head off with a sword.

And thus, in with the nasal inhaler, superhero style (*trumpets*). One squirt at night, and one of my nasal passages opens up blissfully, allowing me to sleep and allowing you to keep your head. However, this has two big downsides. One, repeated use of nasal inhalers causes swelling, which makes subsequent nights worse (unless nasal inhaler is used again). And two, repeated use of nasal inhaler weakens the nasal walls, making me even more prone to nosebleeds than I normally am (which is pretty prone). Nosebleeds means more buildup, and thus more need for nasal inhaler.

So as you can see, I am stuck in a vicious cycle. If I don't use my nasal inhaler, I don't sleep and all sorts of bad things happen. If I do use it, then I just make it that much more likely I'll need to use it again. I keep planning to suck it up and not use it for a week, but after one sleepless night my inhibitions are lowered to the point where I can't refuse the seductive lure of the nasal inhaler.

My name is Alex. And I am a nasalinhalerholic.

New Wind Power Design

Those of you interested in wind power might want to check out this article, which describes a new method of generating wind power that's kinder to birds, easier to maintain, can operate in higher winds, and generates power less expensively.

Kings Edge Phoenix

Last night, the Kings edged Phoenix 118-117, with the game coming down to the final possession. This is a great win for the Kings, who looked horrible in the first two games. Of special note, Peja scored over 30 points, breaking his slump, and Mike Bibby also shot well, breaking his slump. The backup unit still looked like crap and that's the remaining major area of concern for me at this point. Furthermore, Francisco Garcia twisted his ankle and is day to day.

The Kings play Detroit on Tuesday at 7pm PST. It'll be fun to see if they can keep up this high level of play.

When Two Stories Collide

Two interesting stories have been increasingly in the news this week.

The first story is the Warden software that Blizzard is using with World of Warcraft to detect cheaters. In order to prevent players from installing mods that allow them to cheat in WoW, Blizzard's WoW software runs a program called Warden that scans what else the machine is doing, looking for hacking programs and the like. Obviously, the privacy implications of this concerns a lot of people, as this is somewhat akin to spyware, but imo, I think it's a necessary evil when it comes to online games.

The second story has to do with DRM (digial rights management) on Sony CDs. Sony, in a bizarre anti-consumer move, put a rootkit on one of their DRM's CDs. When you put this CD in your computer, it installs software on Windows to hide certain files from the user, with the ultimate goal of making sure the user can't copy the CD or run the CD under iTunes. Unfortunately, this creates a security breach in the user's computer -- and since there's no warning that the CD is going to install this software, a lot of people are upset about it. Sony, of course, denies that the software is harmful.

What makes these two dissimilar stories particular interesting is that they collided today when hackers figured out that they could use Sony's DRM to hide their hacks from the Warden. That undermines Sony's stance that their DRM isn't harmful, and also makes WoW more susceptible to hacking.

How Not to do a Photo-Op

courtesy (yet again) of the Bush Administration (as relayed in this Washington Post story).

1) Show up at Howard University (a prominent black university) after being accused of not caring about blacks in the wake of Katrina. Not a bad move in and of itself if one is looking to patch up one's shoddy image.

2) Make sure to hold your op at the Blackburn Center, which is where the dining hall is located. Standard operating procedure is to lock down the area where the president is. Unfortunately, this means the dining hall had to be closed.

3) Make sure you show up on Soul Food Thursday night. After all, what would be better than picture of you eating fried chicken and collard greens and cornbread with black students? Of course, Soul Food Thursday is most student's favorite night to eat dinner in the dining hall, and they are rather unhappy that the dining hall is now closed.

4) Have campus security tell the hungry students they'd have to come back when Bush and Laura were gone, "then go to a SERVICE door at the REAR of the dining hall and ask for a chicken plate to go". How long has Rosa Parks been dead?

5) Have campus security try to remove media persons interviewing students from the ensuing protest. Despite the fact that this is supposed to be a photo-op.

6) Threaten students that if they don't move their protest because it's in a forbidden area, secret service snipers on the rooftop might open fire on them.

Yes, this is a true story. Un-fricking-believable.

The Blue Balls Website

Not, it's not what you're thinking. And yes, it's completely safe for work.

It even has Danny Elfman music.

Click here to be entertained.

Now It's REALLY the Mile HIGH City.

Denver, Colorado passed a measure that makes possession of small amounts of marijuana legal. According to the article, this makes Denver "the first major city to legalize adult possession of 1 ounce or less of marijuana". Of course, federal law still makes possession illegal, so I expect this to be tied up in the courts for a long time.

New Orleans Kicks the Kings in the Nuts

There is only one word for the New Orleans Hornets vs. the Sacramento Kings basketball game last night if you are a Kings fan. HORRIBLE. Okay, here's a few more: awful, terrible, frightening. Yes, it was that bad. Gerry Gerald called it the Kings worst season opener ever. The final score? Hornets 93, Sacramento 67. Ouch.

Let's talk about what went right first, because the answer is very little. Shareef was the only bright spot on the roster (7-13 shooting, 8 rebs), and the Kings defense looked as good as I can ever remember seeing it in the first quarter. Brian Skinner was fairly effective on the defensive end for the backup unit. But that's about it.

Let's talk about what went wrong. It starts before the game, when the Kings plane was delayed for 4 hours and they sat on the runway. Instead of flying in to Oklahoma City last night, they came in the next morning, and consequently missed their usual shootaround. And it showed. In the first quarter, the Kings shot awfully, missing easy open baskets. The crowd was loud, and New Orleans was obviously pumped up -- and they played with fire and intensity all night. On the other hand, the Kings looked unsure of themselves and lethargic. The Kings made lots of unforced turnovers, they blew their first 4 fast break opportunities in a row, and they got out-rebounded 36-52.

The Kings shot only a 31% field goal percentage, led by Bonzi Wells (2-11 shooting), Mike Bibby (3-11), and Peja (5-14). Brad Miller attempted an uncharacteristicly low 5 shots before he was yanked due to fowl trouble. Despite the horrible shooting of the first unit, the defense was good and the Kings were only down by 1 point after the first quarter. But what really killed the Kings was the play of their second unit, which looked ridiculously bad. Kevin Martin (1-5) and Francisco Garcia (hmmm, I just wrote Francisco Garlic) (1-6) were totally ineffective, and Kenny Thomas (2-6) didn't bring needed energy.

In short, the Kings deserved to lose this bad. They earned it. That said, is this indicitive of a bad season to come? I think the answer is no. This game was probably an aberration. I think tonight's game against Houston is going to be a better read on the Kings over the first couple of months. If the Kings can bounce back from their lackluster play and put up a good game, I think they'll be okay. If they sleepwalk through another one, it could be a long couple of months.

Argentina Kicks Bush in the Nuts

The following is the start of a letter from an Argentinean parliament member.

"Mister President:

A Member of Parliament of the Argentinean Nation. I am one of the 257 representatives of the Argentinean people in Parliament; the second time I got into the Chamber of Deputies half a million citizens voted for me, but I can guarantee that what I will be expressing to you in this letter represents the majority of the Argentinean people.

President Bush:

We do not want you to come to our country. Maybe for diplomatic reasons, our Chancery will not have made you aware how reviled you are by our people. It is not simply that we disagree with your policies, but that you represent a danger to the democracies of South America."

You can read the whole thing here

20 Questions

You can play 20 questions with a computer here. I don't know why, but I always end up amused when I do this. From my latest session:

1. It is classified as Other.
2. Does it have a hard outer shell? No.
3. Does it get wet? Yes.
4. Is it manufactured? No.
5. Would you find it in an office? Probably.
6. Is it larger than a pound of butter? No.
7. Is it lifeless? Yes.
8. Can it bend without breaking? Yes.
9. Can it be washed? No.
10. Is it commonly used? No.
11. Is it a specific color? No.
12. Is it green? Sometimes.
13. Could it be found in a classroom? Probably.
14. Is it usually green? Yes.
15. Is it usually warm? Probably.
16. Was it used over 100 years ago? Irrelevant.

Q17. I am guessing that it is mucus?
Right, Wrong, Close

Damn it's good.

Only in the UK

can you get fined for driving through a puddle at 10 mph, playing Riverdance too loud, or holding an apple.

NBA Today

The NBA regular season starts today, and I am way excited. The Kings play tonight against the pathetic New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets (I think they won something like 21 games last year), so it should be a nice start to the season.

Of course, along with NBA season comes fantasy basketball. I've joined 3 leagues this year, two rotisserie and one head-to-head, all competitive. Sadly enough, out of 12 teams, my draft spots were: 8th, 10th, and 8th. In other words, I was in the bottom third of the drafting order for all 3 teams, which has only a 1 in 27 chance of happening! Go me!

I note that I have a lot of the same players on my three fantasy teams, undoubtedly due to ending up in similar spots in the drafting order, which is too bad.
For example:
Luke Ridnour: All 3 teams
Brad Miller: All 3 teams
5 other players on 2 teams.

If Luke or Brad goes down with an injury, all my teams are going to suffer. :) But it's going to be a fun fantasy year regardless. Wish me luck.

Civ IV Reviewed

Continuing my recent computer geek trend on this blog, today I bring you my review of Civ IV, which I played a lot over this weekend.

Civ IV continues much in the same mold as Civ 3, except it has a new fancier 3d graphics engine, it's more streamlined, and there are a few seemingly minor changes that have a large impact on the game. The graphics engine is definitely functional, but unfortunately adds relatively little to the game while exacting a fairly heavy toll on your hardware. The interface is functional, but less usable than any previous Civ. They've gone for an icon-based interface -- unfortunately, there are so many icons that look similar, there's no real way to keep them straight. Consequently, I find myself hovering my mouse over an icon and waiting for the popup help a lot, which wastes a lot of time and is annoying. The civilopedia is a complete mess for similar reasons. It's absolutely awful. The other thing I don't like is that you can right click to move units to the square you right click on. Due to other games, I'm constantly right clicking to try and pan the 3d world, and inadvertantly move my unit. There's no way to undo it either. Overall, I'm neutral on the graphics engine, and give a thumbs down to the user interface, although it's certainly functional.

But nobody plays Civ for the graphics, so let's dig into the meat of the game. By far and away the biggest change to the game is the removal of the expansionist strategy. Now, every city you create starts burdening your empire more and more, to the point where you can quickly go broke if you overexpand. As a result of that change, strategic placement becomes more important than spamming cities all over the map, especially in the early game. As a side effect of that, civilizations have less cities, and thus cities are more valuable. The second major change is that opposite Civ 3, enemy units are no longer able to enter your territory without your permission (if you haven't played Civ 3 or Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, cities now generate culture points, and when you get enough culture points it expands the borders of influence around your city). This means you don't have to worry about the computer founding a city in the middle of your empire, and it also means a well placed city can act as a strategic choke point on an isthmus. Because cities are more valuable, they are much harder to capture this time around, and it seems somewhat easier to capture them via culture than in previous games. Those two changes form the core of Civ IV, and they're both definitely for the better, as they lead to more valid strategies rather than spamming the map trying to fill in every bit of land so the computer won't settle there.

Let's talk about some other important changes. First off, the tech tree is now more flexible. There's often multiple paths to get to where you want, and you don't have to learn every tech to move to the next era. This means you can completely ignore areas of the tech tree if you want -- my recent Civ had radios before they discovered theology. Second off, barbarians are much more vicious this time around. In addition to barbarian militia, there are barbarian animals. Any square that is not in your empire, and out of the line of sight of a unit can generate a barbarian unit. Consequently, when expanding early, there are barbarian units everywhere. This further reduces the effectiveness of the expansionist strategy, because you need military units for protection. It really sucks when your first scout unit gets eaten by tigers. :) The barbarians can also found cities in this game, and hold land. You can't trade with them, and the only way to deal with them is by force. In my most recent game, the barbarians founded a city in the corner of my island about 5 turns before I got a settler there, and I had to spend over 20 turns producing more military units to evict them. Religion has been added to the game as well, although you can laregly ignore it if you don't want to deal with it. But it does definitely flesh out the theological side of the tech tree a bit if you want to take that route.

The other big change is the addition of great people. Wonders now not only have a special effect and produce culture (which expands your borders), they also produce great people points. When a city accumulates enough total great people points, a great person will be born in one of five categories. There are great prophets, great engineers, great scientists, great artists, and great merchants, and which one you get depends on what type of great wonders you have been building. Each of these units can either join your city as a super-specialist (producing free food, commerce, production, research, or culture points), or has one or two special abilities. Great prophets can found a religious center if you have a religious capital (which you get for free by being the first to discover a religion), which brings in income for every city (yours or your opponents) that is that religion. This can be a significant source of income if you can convert your opponents cities to use your religion. Great engineers can help rush projects -- rushing projects is MUCH harder in this game, so this can be a huge boon. Great scientists can rush technology or found an academy that increases your tech production by 50% in a city. Great merchants can do a trade run and provide a lot of cash. And great artists are perhaps one of the coolest -- they can do what's dubbed a "culture bomb", by adding 4000 culture points to a city immediately. This takes your city to culture level 3 (out of 5) immediately, and makes your city a formidible cultural force. This is imminently useful in two areas: one, when you establish a city near new cities your opponent built, and then use the culture bomb on your city. Since your city has tons of culture and theiers has none, they'll likely revolt and join your empire before too long. The second use is when you capture your first enemy city on a new island. It's hard to keep that city because there's so much cultural pressure from other nearby cities on it. If you drop a great artists in it though, that city will be able to hold it's own, and you will have a nice base of operations that you don't have to worry about converting back to it's original nation.

All said, Civ IV is a nice evolution of the Civ line. It plays much smoother than Civ 3, and removes some of the major issues that game had. It's not a revolutionary release, rather an evolutionary one -- but still one I think is worth it, even if you own Civ 3. I give it a solid 9.0/10.