The Long Road

Archives: June 2004

Saturday, June 26, 2004

Read this first.

At it's current stage this technology seems limited to something like pressing cursor keys on the keyboard or moving a mouse around, but further developed, this could go very far.

The article is in the Video Games category, and indeed its applications in gaming are fairly obvious. Being able to direct characters on screen by merely thinking about their actions should be a great improvement over controlling with some kind of input device. This opens up gaming to no longer being about feats of manual dexterity but actual strategy. How often have I lost a game because I couldn't click as fast as the other guy?

In a broader scope, this can essentially change the way we relate to technology altogether. If a person can move a cursor around by thinking about it, it seems like a simple extension to go from that to moving a wheelchair, and then a car. The basics are similar - an object on a 2 dimensional plane. Of course, there would have to be a way to simulate tactile feedback, as there is no way to drive safely and effectively without it.

If we can then be more precise and isolate language or even how we interact with a keyboard we could type at the speed of thought. Imagine computing using only your mind, instead of clicking on a inactive window to bring it to the foreground you only have to focus on it, or look at it. Copying and pasting text without manually highlighting anything.

But that's all about interacting with a computer in front of you, what if you had a computer with you at all times. In your brain. Instead of having to look at your IM client and thinking of words to type out you simply think of something you want to say and who you want to say it to and your connection to a computer instantly relays your words into the other person's mind? Telepathy. As users become more acquainted with transmitting thoughts using language, it would not take long before primal ideas and blunt emotions which can not be properly described using language can be expressed to one another. It would not take too many generations before we found that communicating with the purity of thought was superior to using language. And wouldn't it be cool if instead of visiting someone's blog, one could simply browse the other person's exposed consciousness?

Of course, this requires that the communication from brain to hardware be two-way. Information needs to arrive into the brain somehow, leading us to Matrix-like downloads of data. We relate to information through our 5 senses, what if instead of reading a book with our eyes all we had to do was "download" it and "read" it with our minds? Or better yet, have the contents of the book directly inscribed into our brain's storage facilities.

Best of all though, is having the precision and power of a processor with which you can directly interact at all times. You can have a calculator constantly at your disposal. The benefit of a picture perfect memory stored on hard drive, along with textbooks worth of information. Education would take a completely different turn as everyone would be able to access information more quickly than surfing the web at all times.

Posted by Rayne @ 07:09 PM EST [Link] [8 comments]

Tuesday, June 22, 2004

Troy
Not as good as I was expecting, the movie focused on the wrong character. Hector should have been the main character for the first half of the film instead of Achilles, but since Brad Pitt's the bigger star...

The movie's so star filled, everyone reminded me of some other character they played. There was The Hulk, Sabertooth, Legolas, Boromir, Colonel Stryker, and Tyler Durden off the top of my head.

The battles were all amazing, but especially the Achilles VS Hector fight; probably the best sword fight ever. I really loved Achilles fighting style.

Riddick
Somewhat dissapointing, but worth watching because there isn't anywhere near enough large scale sci-fi movies. The second act (on the the prison planet) seems very out of place since it doesn't deal with the real threat until the end of it.

The FX were fantastic (like they are in most movies now) but the best part were the designs of the various cities, ships, and costumes.

The movie is sort of a mix between Dune, Trek, Mortal Kombat, and Conan. The character of Riddick is basically a space age Conan. In fact, the ending is pretty much the ending to Conan The Barbarian. I'd really like to see a sequel to this movie to see where the story goes, as there is a pretty big turn of events but things aren't looking good financially for this one.

Why isn't there more sci-fi out there?

Mean Girls
Yeah, I liked it. Besides the fact that Tina Fey takes her shirt off, the humour is really witty and the girls are hot. It kinda gets sappy at the end. Dunno what else to say, it was smart and funny, which is a lot more than most movies like this can even hope to be.

Stepford Wives
The opening led me to think that the movie would have some good satire and wit, and it does, but somewhat sparingly. By the end though, the movie sorta loses its brains by and goes for shock value; it raises a lot of social and moral issues but ends up casting them aside for some laughs instead. A bit dissapointing, that.

Day After Tomorrow
Very VERY U.S.-Centric, and amazing scenes of destruction, as expected. The tornadoes riping apart L.A. were my favorite part. The characters running away from the cold (!!) was the most ridiculous and my least favorite part, the movie would have been infathomly better without that sequence. An sequel to this would be awesome, the socio-political structure of the world has been turned completely upside down, it'd be interesting to see how society works after that.

Posted by Rayne @ 11:16 PM EST [Link] [12 comments]

Monday, June 21, 2004

It is in the best interest of companies to keep their consumers happy, to have some kind of redress policy and open channel for complaints to be delivered because retaining a disatisfied customer is usually cheaper than obtaining a new one. We as consumers are getting smarter and have more options than ever before, companies have to step up their ability to satisfy consumers to compete with each other.

As a rather cynical person, I think it's almost..dishonest when a company tries to keep you interested, reason being that the company isn't truly invested in your satisfaction with their product or service but in your money. If they were in a monopolistic environment, this kind of concern would be nonexistent because they would have no need for it. It's like in Fight Club, if it costs more to solve your problems than it would to just go out and get a new consumer, then you're screwed.

Similarily, an employer is interested in keeping its employees happy and satisfied not because it likes to see happy people, but because happy people are productive people. Employers like to keep turn over rates low, because training and hiring are expensive. HR and managerial science programs are not in place to keep employees smiling, but to keep production flowing. If it was financially beneficial to treat employees as numbers and black boxes, I'm sure that's what would happen. This is what happens in a lot of low skill level jobs in developing countries.

Take Maple, for example, the company has an on-staff maid that will go around running errands for its employees. While that is a pretty nice perk, the goal isn't to make the employees' lives easier but to keep them at work and working. A maid's day of pay is probably worth a lot less than time lost to programmers having to rush around during work hours.

In the end, employee and consumer satisfaction aren't what's important to organizations, they are merely a means to an end - more money. There's nothing intrinsically wrong with looking out for your bottom line, I certainly wouldn't advise against it, but there's always a sense that that is the only motivation behind everything a company does.

Posted by Rayne @ 01:15 PM EST [Link] [4 comments]

Tuesday, June 15, 2004

The Selling Concept: "It focuses on creating sales transactions rather than on building long-term, profitable relationships with customers. It assumes that customers who are coaxed into buying the product will like it."

The Marketing Concept: "...depends on determining the needs and wants of target markets and delivering the desired satisfaction more effectively and efficiently than competitors do."

Was gonna write an entry relating that to some dating/pick up theory but got lazy. I'm sure ya'll can imagine how it'd go, for the most part.

Posted by Rayne @ 12:41 AM EST [Link] [3 comments]

Friday, June 11, 2004

Money is not the ultimate motivator.

Money can only have a small influence on those for whom it doesn’t matter. A person in need of financial resources will be more motivated to obtain the rewards, while the person who is not in need of money will be looking for some other form of satisfaction from their work. For example, based on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, someone who has their material (physiological, safety) goals fulfilled will be less motivated by money since it cannot buy any of the higher needs (love, esteem, self-actualization).

When working for a monetary reward, the actual work can sometimes be lost in the desire to obtain the reward. This is analogous to some students who when studying for an exam and want to get good grades, the reward in this case, will not study to learn and understand the material because they are interested in it, but instead study specific questions they know will be on the exam, or memorize the steps to a mathematical proof without understanding the semantics of it. Although the student may get a good mark for having studied “to the exam”, their understanding of the material is fleeting and incomplete. Likewise, an employee who is working with the sole goal of obtaining a reward may take shortcuts, and not do the job to the same level they would if they were interested in the work itself.

Likewise, a monetary reward for a set of specific goals can limit the quality of work being performed. As Alfie Kohn stated, with a monetary incentive in place, an employee’s goal becomes receipt of the reward over the actual work. This can lead to employees being motivated to work “just enough” to achieve their goals but not going above and beyond the call of duty since there would be a lack of reward beyond that point. An employee doing work the he or she enjoys is likely to work passed the pre-set goals because they have an intrinsic interest in their work and its quality.

Monetary incentives can also stifle risk taking. For example, a major video game company recently instituted a reward system wherein the developers behind a game get bigger bonuses depending on amount of positive reviews a game garners. A possible outcome of this new system is that developers become afraid of spending time on designing new gaming techniques, which may prove to be neither entertaining nor popular, and instead focus solely on new variations of existing games which are guaranteed to sell. There is no external motivation to develop something new and different when it is possible for the developers to simply make a fun game based on a proven model and receive greater financial rewards for doing so. This would be a result of Kohn’s theory that obtaining rewards would supplant any internal motivation to take a risk when taking that risk might not lead to being rewarded.

Posted by Rayne @ 06:27 PM EST [Link] [5 comments]

Friday, June 4, 2004

Been wanting to try a sleeping pill for a while now, just to see what it would be like. Over the weekend I was sleeping at ridiculous hours and getting up around 3 in the afternoon both days, so come Sunday night, I decided that it would be best to sleep at a normal time. Midnight, pop sleeping pill, play dota. 1:30 go to sleep.

Hilarity ensues.

I get up and go to my 8:30 Database class, come home at 9:30 to break my fast (!!), go back to school at 11, nap in the room my 11:30 class is at, end up sleeping through to 12:30, missing the entire lecture. Go off to the SLC (Student Life Center) to take a nap before my 1:30 class. Sleep THREE hours until 3:30. Get up, feel stupid, go off to do some weights, come home have dinner. Print my notes for the night class. Discover that I have an assignment due in 30 mins. Decide to take a late. Go to night class, sleep through 90 mins of it.

So yeah.

I'm not sure exactly what was going on, but I was definately tired all day long. Perhaps the pill forces you to sleep X number of hours even if it's broken up over several sessions in the day. Or maybe the night's forced sleep was "artificial" and not as satisfying as falling asleep naturally is.

Posted by Rayne @ 10:29 AM EST [Link] [10 comments]

Tuesday, June 1, 2004

It's somewhat disturbing that I can lay down hundreds of dollars for comic books when deciding to buy other things leaves me undecided for large periods of time. Why is that?

After some pondering, here are the answers I have come up with.

Each comic is unique; there is no shopping around to compare features, prices, and quality. When you buy a comic there's no chance that it will drastically drop in price in the next few months because something better and newer has come out. In fact when buying trades (bound collections of individual issues) you're guaranteed that the trade will always go at that price, they never gain or lose market value.

There is also the fact that there are no concerns about the trade suddenly malfunctioning and needing some kind of repair or replacement. They're pretty dureable when compared to, say, electronics, so I'm not wary at all about obtaining them.

Having worked at a comic shop, I am a highly informed comic consumer. I know what prices shops get their stuff for so I can tell when a sale is actually a good sale, and trades being what they are rarely go for something other than cover price, so when they're being offered at some insane discount...

Anecdote: I've owned a credit card for at least five years now and up until Saturday I have always thought that the limit you have on your card is "renewed" every month regardless of payment. Imagine my surprise when I tried to buy a couple hundred dollars worth of trades and was rejected because my b'lance carried over!

Posted by Rayne @ 02:16 AM EST [Link] [5 comments]

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