Month: June 2005

Why I Never Play Chess

While I know how to play chess, I can’t say that I enjoy it because I know my opponent is always thinking something like this.

Thinking Machine 4 explores the invisible, elusive nature of thought. Play chess against a transparent intelligence, its evolving thought process visible on the board before you.

The artwork is an artificial intelligence program, ready to play chess with the viewer. If the viewer confronts the program, the computer’s thought process is sketched on screen as it plays. A map is created from the traces of literally thousands of possible futures as the program tries to decide its best move. Those traces become a key to the invisible lines of force in the game as well as a window into the spirit of a thinking machine.

It’s actually a very fascinating way to look at the game.

June 6, 2005

Well I’m On The Ball Here

Apparently I was Geek of The Day a while back. I remember filling out that survey they sent me half-heartedly, so take what you read there with a grain of salt.

June 6, 2005

Concerts Start Today

Just a reminder that the aforementioned concerts start this afternoon. There’s a concert today (Sunday) at 3:00 and tomorrow at 7:30. The concerts are free, and they’re being held at COCC’s Pickney Center. If you’re local (and I know some of you are), I would really encourage you to come, as these concerts are going to be great! And make sure you tell me “Hi” while you’re there.

June 5, 2005

Oregon Prep Sports Blog

Another Bend Blogger, and this time it’s actually somebody I know! Josh Cordell is a guy I went to high school with. I worked on the school newspaper with him, ran cross country with him, and read his prep sports stories in The Bulletin when he was a reporter there. He’s an Oregon Prep sports whiz, and the perfect guy to start an Oregon Prep Sports Blog. Welcome to the party, Josh, and feel free to sign up for the Central Oregon Bloggers Mailing List.

June 2, 2005

Google’s Best Kept Secret

That was, until SlashDot picked it up. So what is the project? “It’s a lab of humans from all over the world (from China to The Netherlands, from Korea to Brasil) They are paid to check search results of Google every day. Most of the employees, called international agents by Google, were recruited through universities all over the world. The aim is to avoid spam, to get the right sites at the top of the listing and to test new features, not shown to the public yet.” You can find more details about the site (with screen shots) here. More info will be on the Search Bistro site today (Update: Here’s the followup).

June 2, 2005

It’s Great Being Kept In The Dark

We’ve all read the countless articles following the identification of Deep Throat, and there has been a lot of great articles about Deep Throat and how the story came to be (a good piece written by Bob Woodward ran in today’s Bulletin and is also online here). One story that I found entertaining was this great little story about how it was an illuminating experience being kept in the dark.

The Grumpy Forester has a great entry pretty much summing up my feelings about the Nixon-supporting whack-jobs that are coming out of the woodwork saying Mark Felt was a criminal, anti-American, and should’ve gone before a grand jury. If he felt comfortable reporting this to authorities (instead of to a reporter) don’t you think he would’ve? This was obviously a corrupt government, and if this was “handled internally”, the problem would’ve never been fixed — it would’ve just been covered up, and Felt would’ve been demoted to a desk job. I applaud Felt for having the balls to put himself on the line to fix what was obviously something very wrong.

June 2, 2005

Our Wal-Mart’s Open 24 Hours?

Really? Apparently both the Redmond and Bend Wal-Marts are now open 24 hours, and have been for over a month (April 30th, according to the woman I just called at the Bend store). While some people locally really hate Wal-Mart, I do know I’ll be happy if I need to go get drugs or something for sick kids (or wife) in the middle of the night (and the selection at 7-11– the only other 24-hour store in town, as far as I know — is pretty minimal).

So, was I the only one that didn’t know this? I just asked Barney and he said he didn’t know about it, either (so I wasn’t losing my mind).

When I think about Wal-Mart being open 24-hours, it always reminds me of this hilarious true story about an (ex)-Wal-Mart employee who had a bit of fun. That should be required reading for everybody who works in retail.

June 1, 2005

Cascade Winds Concerts Coming This Weekend

Just a heads up to everybody. This weekend are the Cascade Winds final concerts of the season. The concert features several wonderful pieces that really show off a wide range of style in wind ensemble composition. We have traditional stuff from Shostakovich, Henry Fillmore, David Gillingham and Steven Reineke to some pretty crazy pieces by Eric Whitacre and James Barnes.

Not only that, one of Simone’s photos will be stuck alongside a mention in this week’s Source so hopefully that’ll get us a bit more publicity (it apparently made its weekly picks, as the issue’s already online).

Anyway, the concert info is at the above link. You will enjoy it, and if you don’t, you’re welcome to come slap me later. Really.

June 1, 2005