April 2010
17 posts
Should we fear space aliens? - CNN.com →
cnn.com
An interesting comment from SETI director Jill Tarter on the recent Stephen Hawking Discovery Channel TV show. During the show, it was pointed out that broadcasting our presence to space faring civilizations that could visit us carried inherent dangers. SETI’s defense here is typical and sounds something like Pierce Brosnan’s defense of the aliens in “Mars Attacks.”
Personally, I thought the Steven Hawking show on Time Travel was far more interesting. The aliens show seemed more focused around contrived 3D animations which had little to do with what Prof. Hawking had written for the show.
Enemy Lurks in Briefings on Afghan War - PowerPoint - NYTimes.com →
nytimes.com
“PowerPoint makes us stupid” - Gen. James N. Mattis of the Marine Corps
Delta Green: Targets of Opportunity
Two years after contributing to a fan-based funding of this book’s first printing (link) I have received an early release e-book from the publishers. Quite a classy move. I’ll post my impressions after giving it a read.
iPad App Roundup
An excellent play with a touch interface. The 2D sprite animation is beautiful on the iPad’s screen. The iPad version is very good about persisting the state of a game. If you turn off your iPad or hit the home button to return to the app menu, upon returning you find your game paused and ready to be resumed. A delightful tower defense game.
Great looking streaming Netflix with an almost complete Netflix.com experience (drag and drop for your queue doesn’t work).
Allows you to carry around DRM-free PDF and text files from your computer. Files are uploaded through iTunes and can have folder organization.
No need to wait around for app versions of your favorite websites. I find no need for a Facebook iPad app because the Safari browser is completely adequate. I miss the ability to use “bookmarklets” for reposting links on Tumblr, but that’s about it.
iPad Impressions
Yes it is a high resolution, large screen iPod touch. However, with a full screen web browser, I can actually multiple-task much better because I don’t have to use non-persistent state 3rd party apps, quite as much.
I had the iPad touch open to the D&D compendium for a full 4e game today, and I can’t describe how nice it was to not have a laptop open on the table blocking my view.
Ambush
- Me: After reading up on <technical details>, I had the feeling that I was slightly ambushed <on that phone call>.
- My Boss: Just remember standard tactics for an ambush—charge directly into the weakest group among the attackers, without waiting for orders from your leadership, who are probably already dead.
