educating eric

Tom 10 Mac Failures / Apple does cool things, but sometimes they're a bit too cool.

The New York Times > Technology > Circuits > On Maneuvers With the Army's Game Squad "Likewise, while the equipment and uniforms in the game are designed with maximum realism in mind, the same approach does not apply to other aspects of the military experience, like death and injury. In contrast to other popular computer games, in America's Army limbs are never blown off. Instead, wounds are marked by a puff of red smoke. Maimed foes never writhe or scream in agony." So, how do you make "war" into a "game"? Hmmm...

Yahoo! News - Caught a Virus? / Here's some outstanding computer maintenence advice that should be shouted from the rooftops.

Yahoo! News - Ruins Support Myth of Rome's Founding / My favorite quote from this story? The ultimate in hedging your bets: "That doesn't mean the story of Romulus and Remus necessarily happened that way..."

Yahoo! News - DNA Test Confirms Parents of 'Baby 81' : "Jenita Jeyarajah has said that as soon as she regains custody of her baby, she will fulfill vows to smash 100 coconuts at a temple of the elephant-headed Hindu god, Ganesh, offer sweet rice to the warrior god, Murugan, and kill a rooster for the goddess Kali."

President Bush's picture adorns fake $200 bill - Sep. 2, 2004 / I can't believe I missed this news last fall. Wow!

hack a day - www.hackaday.com / I have to admit, this looks really cool. Thanks, Chad! :)

eBay :: The Power of All of Us / It's not often that I come across something that I think is "touchingly cute", but the eBay "Clocks" commercial that I just saw fits the bill. This Internet version doesn't do it justice (and I think it's a different edit, anyway). When the Flash stuff loads, go to the red "TV Spots" tab and choose "Clocks".

Yahoo! News - Music Industry Sues 83-Year-Old Dead Woman . Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. Here's a good example of why "proof" (or even "evidence") when it comes to online activity is pretty much meaningless.

Display folder : "Color Infrared Photography" Wow! Wow, wow, wow! And to think I would never have stumbled upon this site without following some links via stumbleupon.com. Amazing what you find out there!

Yahoo! News - Study shows some teens not as Web-savvy as parents : "Immaturity and poor reading skills partly explained the youngsters' lackluster performance, the study concluded. So did the teens' weak research skills and unwillingness to tough it out when a site posed design obstacles." God help us all. The advice -- to design a clean, well-organized site -- is good, but this up-and-coming generation is supposed to be "with it" from a technological standpoint... isn't it?

The Seattle Times: Nation & World: First Amendment goes "too far," say students in survey : "The way many high-school students see it, government censorship of newspapers may not be a bad thing, and flag burning is hardly protected free speech." Scary! "It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel..." not so good!