Category: Etc

Looking for some up-to-date information on the human/computer battle I stumbled on this great article reminiscing about the machine (Deep Blue) pwning humanity at chess 10 years ago, emphasizing how it’s no longer even a contest:

Wired News: What is the state of supercomputer-versus-human matchups? How are we humans doing?

Murray Campbell: Not so well! The current world champion, Vladimir Kramnik from Russia, lost a match to a PC program in November, 4-2. If you look at the supercomputer that Deep Blue ran on, I think a present-day Cell processor has as much processing power as that entire system did in 1997.

…

Campbell: It’s almost the end of the story for chess in the sense that matches between chess machines and grand masters are becoming less interesting because it’s so difficult for the human grand masters to compete successfully.

They’re even taking relatively dramatic steps like giving handicaps to computers, making them play the game with a pawn less or playing the game with less time. We’re past the stage where there’s a debate about who’s better — machines or grand masters — and we’re just looking for interesting ways to make the competition fairer.

I welcome you robot overlords, please let me continue to upload photos.

Link to Wired article (P.S. why is Wired.com in beta? That’s so stupid it hurts)

For those of you who don’t know/care about Linux and why I don’t use it, here’s an adorable puppy to wash that bad, nerdy taste out of your mouth.

(This adorable break brought to you by ICanHasCheeseburger?, the #1 source for such things)

Just want to make sure that it’s clear, I <3 Linux (/selfslap, GNU/Linux). And also, Linux outmatches any flavor of Windoze you care to throw at it. It just happens that the driver support for Apple hardware (i.e. running Linux on Mac computers) is pretty flaky and requires hoop jumping to get things to work properly (as well as leaving things like extra monitors basically not supported).

If I had a non-mac computer I would run Linux as my main OS, (with Window$ as backup if something went wrong) and if Linux was smoother on my MacBook I would run it as my main OS (with Mac OSX as my backup). But as it stands, I’d rather have OSX as my backup than Winblowz, and I’d rather use OSX as my main OS than risk having to use Windows ever again. So you see, I love linux, but hate Windows more, and thus continue to use Mac OSX for most things.

I do however use almost exclusively Free/Open Source applications on my computer no matter what operating system I use. So just to balance my last post, here’s two sites everyone who doesn’t run Gnu/Linux should check out.

OpenSourceMac – Tons of great apps to do useful as well as fun things for free and freely using a Mac.

OpenSourceWindows – Same thing except if you’re a n00b.

I personally have found tons of great stuff on the Mac one, as well as tons of great stuff I was already using being listed there. Some of my favorites:

• Smultron => Code-enhanced text editor with tabs and stuff
• Adium => Undeniably the best chat client in the world, does MSN, AIM, YIM, everything, lots of plugins
• Firefox => Duh
• VLC => best video player around
• Transmission => Smooth easy BitTorrent client.

I guess I’ll stop there, you get the point world.

P.S. Ubuntu just released a new version, what better time to try it out?

I still don’t use Linux on a day to day basis (I have Ubuntu installed on my MacBook but only use it for a few weird tasks like checking projects on Internet Explorer), but I love to root for it nonetheless. Novell, who release the SUSE linux distribution, made some joke ads that play on the “I’m a Mac” ads that are slowly getting annoying, and they’re pretty good. A bit light on the actual content but that’s mostly just the medium I guess. Some day Apple will screw up or Linux will be truly ready and I’ll switch over. Until then I’ll just watch funny YouTube ads for it and think “Hell yeah, the mac ad with the bimbo was so sexist, props to Novell for making their ad a bit more balanced”.

First (best) one (others are in the YouTube sidebar, you know how it works).

Also of note in the “spoofing the damn Mac ads” arena is this set , which feature a “I’m a Mac” character who is basically just a dumbass and a “I’m a PC” who trades John Hodgeman’s tweediness for just more pompousness. They try to argue against most of the real points made in the original ads but usually fail to point out anything relevant to the actual topics they argue (as well as having factual omissions, like implying that Macs don’t have pre-installed firewalls).

Not mine unfortunately, origin unknown. Makes my video muscle itch:

 
[Cut from cricifiction scene of a Jesus movie]
Jesus: WHYYYYY!?!? (i.e. “why hast thou forsaken me”)
[Cut from a Village People video]
VillagePeople: M – C – A !
[replay Jesus “why” but as a repeating loop]
Jesus: Wh-Wh-Wh-Wh-Wh-Wh-Wh-
[Back to Village People Video]
–Super-slowmotion video of cowboy dancing, lasts 2-3 minutes–

Thanks to Shawna for the photo tip.

Original AP image found here, Co-produced with Bopuc (his version @his flickr), share and enjoy.

p.s. I can’t live without ICANHASCHEESEBURGER and neither can you

Moment of Facebook zen when two different couples I know have their relationships awkwardly upgraded because of the way the system works. At the top my brother Chris, who’s been married since the summer, is listed as having just married his wife Mary because she just joined Facebook and couldn’t be listed as his partner before, with facebook making a huge deal about it. Below is the aftermath of a similar message, where my friend Mike thanks everyone for their congradulations but reminds them that the news of his engagement is two years old. What a delightful bug that lets you relive the celebratory moments of your life again upon joining. (Now all I need to do is make a version which, upon joining, forces you to list all the old relationships you’ve had and reminds everyone how you broke up with those people.. Oh wait, that’s just what friending your Ex’s is like)

At least as he looks in this picture (cropped version to the right). It’s weird to find celebrities to whom you actually do have an uncanny resemblance, especially when it’s almost always Kevin Bacon (seriously, even some guy in Japan who didn’t speak english said I looked like Kevin Bacon).


Though I guess it’s just as weird to find normal people that look just like you, like this guy I found on BMEZine while looking for someone with a certain kind of piercing I wanted to get. Not only does he look exactly like me, but he has the piercing I wanted and got on his lips (though he has two and I only want/ed one) and stretched ears similar to mine. Crazy.

For those who don’t know me face to face or forget what I look like, see this.

Abba similarity found by Ed, who also looks like that guy but only cause Ed looks like me. Note that he actually noticed it on this joke about jABBA the Hut, which happened to have the original ABBA shot mixed in.

P.S. For those of you who have been complaining that this site isn’t safe for work lately because of the last post, do NOT go see my Flickr Page. I updated it with some new Japan photos that make the statue look tame.

(via Louisa’s LJ)

Been spending a lot of time inside while in japan, but luckily made a friend on Craigslist Tokyo who showed me around and helped me order food at restaurants, which is pretty much impossible as it often involves using a vending machine with no pictures and meat in all the choices (by the way, Craigslist is awesome, as I’ve been discovering lately. The Montreal page gets a fair amount of traffic and scored me a sweet apartment).

I updated my Flickr account with photos, highlights below:

New Friend from the Internet

Reality to George Lucas: You’re Fired, Noob

Arcade P.O.Ds

It’s supposed to look like a “peach”… uh hunh.