Sure, one robot post, that's cool. Add an update, no problem. But this! This is a whole new layer of robot craziness.
The thing that strikes me about this video is just one thing: when the robot stops running, he's not out of breath.
People don't just stop running and then not move. It's freaky. Asimo is a real person right?? RIGHT??? Real people don't just stop.
UPDATE: More video here.
You know this happened with an excruciating, almost exquisite slowness. I picture a wizened, ancient train conductor (who has, of course, seen it all), quietly shaking his bowed head, not watching the carnage unfold.
"If all else fails, immortality can always be assured by spectacular error." — John Kenneth Galbraith
Long version: http://daringfireball.net/2007/08/rethinking_email
Short version: I read some mail and throw the rest in a box.
Wikiscanner, while being an interesting bit of webish daring-do, is useless. This article, (and articles like it) isn't helping.
Wikiscanner, which simplifies the process of linking anonymous Wikipedia edits to computer addresses, has gained popularity in recent weeks as a tool to discover how various corporations, government agencies and nonprofits manipulate the encyclopedia's entries.
While I would be pretty hard pressed to define corporate communications, I fail to see how one can rationally say that a user editing Wikipedia entries on a computer connected from a Hawaii state IP address is part of the government agency proper.
There are certainly issues at play here regarding computer use in government and corporate workplaces, but seriously, even the Vatican probably has a few Fantasy Footballers.
Should someone put together a MySpace scanner, God save the USA.
UPDATE: At least someone is using it for good.
Two fantastic presentations by Hans Rosling over two years of the TED conference:
This article over at the New York Times caught my eye for its snappy title, but held my attention a bit longer after reading John Gruber's short post at Daring Fireball:
But how many Wiis would Nintendo sell if they could actually produce them fast enough to meet demand? They’re bungling a runaway success.
While it seems certain that in the short term Nintendo would indeed sell a few more, I pin the long term success of the Wii to its runaway latent mindshare with the casual user. I think the hardcore (and heck, even the softcore) wanters already have one. I think these still strong sales point to something deeper and something intrinsically different than the gaming scene has seen before--that that casual tier of players that Nintendo has been courting have not forgotten our little white box, even after the hype has died down.
As Nintendo (almost) starts producing enough to show up on store shelves occasionally*, the fine folks who don't follow closely this strange industry are getting interested again just from the sight of the thing in the wild. Where the mysterious Siren's call of Wiimote wizardy lured the gaming know-its, I just as easily calls the sorta-know-its that aren't tracking quarterly sales numbers with the zeal of David Pogue helping Moms find a new digital camera.
*For someone who spent a fair amount of time trying to score one on or near their release date, there was a sort of cognitive dissonance at play when I saw three (!!!) on the pallet at Costco. "Aren't I supposed to buy this...right now??"
Heard a story on Marketplace today about Bush-backers trying to help our demented leader drum up support for the war in Iraq. 10 points to Gryffindor and host Kai Ryssdal (who looks nothing like he sounds) for not laughing out loud at the entire premise of the story. A snippet of an ad was played:
They attacked us and they will again. They won't stop in Iraq.
It really pays to listen to the story, the quote comes very early. And, at least in my mind, there was no way to not make the connection to the human's own Kyle Reese, sent back in time to destroy the Governator. I have taken the liberty of replacing all mentions of the Terminator with 'Al Qaeda':
Al Qaeda's an infiltration unit, part man, part machine. Underneath, it's a hyper-alloy combat chassis - microprocessor-controlled, fully armored. Very tough. But outside, it's living human tissue - flesh, skin, hair, blood, grown for the cyborgs...The 600 series had rubber skin. We spotted them easy. But these are new, they look human. Sweat, bad breath, everything. Very hard to spot...Listen, and understand! Al Qaeda is out there! It can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with. It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead!
CONSTANT VIGILANCE!!! We don't want this war to turn into another Vietnam. Oh wait, yes we do. I'm so confused now.
There is nothing, NOTHING, that Canada can't do.
Winnie the Pooh, Superman, basketball, and, ummm...orphans.
