http://www.tinkerx.com Creative flux for our heap of broken images. Wed, 30 Apr 2008 23:09:41 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I love Richard Bartle. Not in the way that a man loves a woman, or another, less-hairy man. Or a really, really good steak. But he's very well spoken, writes very well, is a major figure in the gaming universe, and is just an all around interesting guy. He writes great ... http://www.tinkerx.com/index.php/2008/04/30/dr-bartle-goes-off-with-my-slight-addition/ I used to really like the Encyclopedia Britannica. By "used to," I mean of course, "before Wikipedia." It's a fine reference work, and I never had anything against it until they, and others, started getting smarmissimus about how Wikipedia sucks because it's written by people who aren't on the staff ... http://www.tinkerx.com/index.php/2008/04/30/birtannica-gets-over-and-gets-clever/ At work, I get to do some research about the information industry and related technology because, well, libraries are deeply involved in the mediasphere. So that's cool. And last week I was reading up on teens (god, I hate the terms "tweens" and "screenagers") and tech. And there's a neat, ... http://www.tinkerx.com/index.php/2008/04/27/mypyramid/ I never watched the TV show "24" when it was on. I'd heard the name "Jack Bauer" of course. Upon looking him up in the Wikipedia just now I was a bit surprised at the length of the entry (around 6,400 words)... The entry on George Washington has around 6,200 ... http://www.tinkerx.com/index.php/2008/04/20/24-x-6-now-i-can-stop/ Fascinating post titled, "Is the Tipping Point Toast?" at Fast Company. In it, author Clive Thompson focuses on work done by Duncan Watts (a Columbia U. network-theory scientist on sabbatical to do work for Yahoo!) that shows how trends move through society. Contrary to the work of Malcom Gladwell, who ... http://www.tinkerx.com/index.php/2008/04/05/trends-neither-heads-nor-tails/ Revelations 8:11 (KJV) -- And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter. I'm not a scholar of Revelations. But I'm pretty sure this (link may be NSFW depending ... http://www.tinkerx.com/index.php/2008/04/05/wiirmwood-nsfw/ For the record, I think Kevin Kelly is a genius and often am extremely gratified to find him exploring weird, wild areas of technology and the mind. Even when I disagree with him, it's usually on small points or on wording. In his latest post on The Technium, though... I just ... http://www.tinkerx.com/index.php/2008/03/22/turing-vs-john-henry/ 16 Gary Gygax Jokes we better not catch you making “Quick! Someone cast Raise Dead!” “Don’t worry – he’s just playtesting the Astral Plane for the next edition.” “He’s gone the way of Star Frontiers.” “Analysts warn of a free-fall in Mountain Dew futures.” “In the next town, you meet a stranger named Barry Bygax.” “Now ... http://www.tinkerx.com/index.php/2008/03/09/best-gary-gygax-eulogy-stuff/ This is good: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z25t-PQDn5A[/youtube] And this is good, and makes the other one better: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yoIEWpl9oc&watch_response[/youtube] http://www.tinkerx.com/index.php/2008/03/06/why-i-love-teh-intertubes-part-31076/ Had a biz meeting in a local restaurant. Noticed that there was a painted-on window treatment above the big picture windows. You know... fake, painted valences. It occurred to me that "valence" and "painted" are words that do not get together often.  This restaurant had another couple fun painted, atmospheric ... http://www.tinkerx.com/index.php/2008/03/06/absolutely-totally-random-thought-of-the-day/