A Picture

This is where I live. The reddish-brown one in the middle.

Allegedly

The best puzzle game ever.

More Ways To Make Go Bots

Read this article with pictures, it actually should be interesting and only subtly Go-related.

Neglected Forerunner

Apparently back in the day priests did academic research.

Update: this is more interesting. Is there really no wikipedia page on this?

With A Disclaimer, I Suppose

Don't read this if you don't care about programming go bots or statistical mechanics.

Subsubsubsubgenres

Sometimes I'm surprised something like this exists.

Gosanity

I've recently become obsessed with writing programs to play Go. Unfortunately it's really hard, but there's an interesting subproblem, of how do you write a simple program to play Go that beats Dan's simple program to play Go.

Naturally we're too lazy to actually play a game of Go ourselves.

Investigations in Lackering, Part One

The first of a hopefully many-part series investigating the phenomenon of "Lackering".

What is Lackering?

Step one - figure out what this video has to do with it.

I would be impressed if anyone could figure out a faint bit of this.

;-)

Will Wright

Interesting interview with the creator of the SimXXX franchise.

I'm tempted to buy the book on theories of mind.

Superman

This is why tabs are invaluable.

It's like literary history, but fun.

Crazy Talk

"Over and over again the single most important principle that I have learned is that the best computer experiments are ones that are as simple and straightforward as possible."

-- John Mathematica, 2002

Robert the Magician and the ZZ Girl

The Magician's Oath: traditionally, a magician may never reveal the trick, the secret information that lets him perform magic.

Unfortunately I follow the opposite oath.

Naturally this page seems to me like an injustice. Or at least a puzzle. What is "the famous illusion where the magician slides the girl's middle out to the side"?

Rowland is clever - he obscures his subject with the nonstandard reference "ZZ Girl". I'm sure his target audience understands... that "ZZ" equals "Zig Zag".

A common problem, to lack the necessary vocabulary to accurately describe your subject. Yet there is a common trick to dance around it - omitting seemingly necessary terms.

Use what you've got.

[robert magician]

From the first result:

"Since its invention in the mid 1960s by magician Robert Harbin, it has been hailed as one of the greatest illusions ever invented."

New-New

Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality.

(Theft is postmodern.)

For The Perl Haters

Even if you hate Perl, this is still interesting and mostly intelligent.

If you don't know what I'm talking about you'd better ignore me.

;-)

The Long Tail

In the insufficiently cool present, often the best video is stuff like.... high budget Will Ferrell movies.

In the future, the best video will be stuff like.... self produced Will Ferrell movies.

Network News Kills People

Well, probably pretty much any sort of news does.

Hat tip.

Talk about having different goals than your users.

Dead Like Chess

Apparently computer classical music composers are pretty much just as good as Bach, even if you get high-falutin' classical music analysts to judge.

Analysis by Hofstadter.

"Twin Boys, twin lives"

The stories of identical twins' nearly identical lives are often astonishing, but perhaps none more so than those of identical twins born in Ohio. The twin boys were separated at birth, being adopted by different families. Unknown to each other, both families named the boys James. And here the coincidences just begin.

Part Deux

me: Is Zelda the best video game ever?

Dan: No. "Exclam"!

me: You can't say "exclam"! It's the writer's discretion.

Dan: I did say "exclam"! Next question.

me: So what is the best video game ever?

Dan: The best memories I have are of Final Fantasy 1, when I was 11. But it doesn't have a lot of replay value.

me: Hmm.

Dan: What do you think?

And then lots of interesting discussion ensues, too fast for me to write stuff down.

Dan: Conclusion: Mega Man IV.

Dan Interview

me: What's a good question to ask you in an interview?

Dan: I'm not talking to you any more.

me: Come on man, it'll be fine, you can get final edit.

me: It's fine if our conversation doesn't make any sense.

Dan: I don't think you understand how an interview works!

me: I don't think you understand how this interview works!

Dan: You have to ask me questions, you can't just ask me "Do you have anything to say?"

me: Okay. Who's your favorite philosopher?

Dan: Hmm. That's a good question.

me: I mean -

Dan: I would say... Vonnegut. Well, Vonnegut has most often been my "favorite" philosopher. I don't agree with a lot of what he said later on.

me: Like what?

Dan: The pessimistic, world-is-going-to-hell attitude. I think that's pretty key, accepting that the world is better than ever by just about any measure. As long as you don't value rain forest over humans.

me: So does Vonnegut really count as a philosopher?

Dan: Yeah definitely!

A brief untranscribable argument ensues.

me: Well, would Vonnegut call himself a philosopher?

Dan: Not literally.

;-)