Meet the Sandvich

I just saw this video for one of the Team Fortress 2 updates coming this week. I laughed so hard I started to cry a bit. This will be funnier if you've seen the other "Meet the..." videos which you can find here.



Unfortunately, I won't get a chance to play the updates for a little bit; I'm still waiting to get Internet hooked up at the new place. Yes, I am actually living at this place now since my computer and bed are there. What more do you need to live somewhere?

Slackin' on the Internet 2

Previously, I told you about games you can play on the Internet when looking at boobies just isn't practical. But, what can you do when a connection to the Internet and a PC aren't available? I'm glad you asked that because that's what I'm writing about. Funny how that works, eh? The scenario is this: you commute to school and spend between an hour and 2 hours a day in commute and you want to know how the Internet can save you from this boredom. Let's pretend that you also have a digital music player, for simplicity's sake. Well, in that case, have I got the solution for you! I am going to introduce you to a spawn of the Internet Age known as podcasts. Podcasts were originally produced with the Apple iPod in mind, but don't let that fool you into thinking that you need to rush out to buy one; any portable MP3 player should do. The idea here is that you use the Internet and a computer at your home or school to download audio broadcasts onto your music player and then listen to them during your commute. Now that you know the basics of a podcast, let's look at some of the best. Full disclosure here, these also happen to be my favourites and the ones I use to lessen the drag of my commute.

The first group I want to tell you about are the shows on TWiT.tv. These shows are produced by Leo Laporte who used to be on TechTV and still has a show on G4 Tech TV Canada. Most of the shows are pretty tech heavy. The flagship show, This Week in Tech, features Leo and a constantly changing panel of tech pundits discussing the week's news in tech to keep you abreast of the latest developments with a healthy dose of the panelists opinions. There are also weekly shows on computer security topics, internet developments, geek food, law, biotechnology, Windows, Macs. In total, there are 14 periodical tech related shows on the TWiT network, so there should be something that interests you.

Another good site to find these things is Revision3.com. The site was started by another TechTV alumnus named Kevin Rose. You may remember him from the internet video series "thebroken" which focused on cracking, intrusion and other "questionable activities." If you don't, no biggie, you can find the series on the Rev3 website. Most of what Rev3 has to offer are video shows, which you can use with your fancy-shmancy iPod Video or just on your computer. Also, most of the shows are released as audio along with the video version. The flagship show of the network is Diggnation in which two guys sit on a couch drinking beer and talking about the weekly top news on Digg.com. If you're more into comedy, Revision3 offers up Martin Sargent in Web Drifter. Martin interviews people behind some of the weirdest sites on the web including a guy that talks to Andromedans and a guy that believes that immortality can be had with a $28 ring. Finally, I'd like to point your attention to the Totally Rad Show which is basically three geeks making interesting conversation about geeky topics and reviewing TV shows, movies and video games. Again, there are a lot more shows on the site so you should check it out.

As you can see, there are lots of technology related podcasts, but that's not all there are. There are also tonnes of audio fiction to listen to. These can be anywhere from someone reading a book to full on plays using multiple actors and sound effects to describe the action. A good starting point I found is the SonicSociety.org. They produce a show that plays the best of free audio fiction but their page also contains a lot of links to creators of audio fiction.

Lastly, if video games is your thing, then 1UP.com is the place to be. They have a number of audio casts and a video cast all dedicated to video games. There's a podcast to cover almost every kind of video game. There's the Legendary Thread for World of Warcraft players (no, I'm not one of them. I can claim to have a life), Sports Anomaly for, you guessed it, sports games, and Retronauts to cover all those classic games that are new again. You can also find GFW Radio which covers all things related to Windows gaming and EGM Live to cover console gaming. The flagship shows are 1UP Yours which is usually a pretty funny commentary on recent gaming news, and the 1UP Show which is the video show that covers new games and usually has a loose, but humorous, narrative that ties the show together.

I haven't even started to scratch the surface on semi-regular audio recordings that people post for the world to listen to, so don't be afraid to check out rating sites like PodcastPickle.com and PodcastAlley.com. I'd like to leave you with a word of warning, though: podcasts can be so enjoyable that you may not notice someone sneaking up to offer you some cotton candy. Cotton candy is very sticky, kids. So remember, have fun, but not too much fun!

Quantum Theory as Applied to Drunken Memory

Introduction
Quantum theory states that a quantum particle exists in all possible states until the time at which the particle is observed when the waveform of possible states collapses to the final state. I posit that the same is true for drunken memories. Memories a of a drunken romp exist in a dual state of there (true) and not there (false) until they are observed or accessed and collapse into a single state. I have devised a test to verify my hypothesis and ran it on a small test group to determine the feasibility of research on a larger group.

Test Procedure
Find a test subject. The subject must be willing to drink copious amounts of alcohol in the name of science. Next, find alcohol. Beer works well, especially when supplied in keg format. Start the test subject drinking and make observations. The more inebriated the test subject becomes, the more likely it is that conclusive observations will be made. Observations should include the general ability for the test subject to function and also the ability for the test subject to remember recent events. Be careful to not disturb the test results by forcing the test subject to try to memorize events. Repeat the test with multiple subjects or the same subject on a number of occasions and compare observations.

Test Results
Two tests were performed on the same test subject on two separate within a week of each other. During the first test, the test subject appeared to no longer remember recent events around midnight but remained reasonably functional until losing consciousness around two hours later. Proof of the test subject's ability to function is that the test subject was able to take a number of digital photographs after the test subject reportedly lost short term memory. The next morning, the test subject's recollection of events was that the test subject was standing in the middle of the living room of the test laboratory and then woke up on a couch in another laboratory approximately a block away from the test lab. I believe that this is confirmation of the hypothesis as the memories fail to collapse to true the moment they are meant to be stored, thus are never stored.

For the second test, the test subject was supplied with large amounts of alcohol but never lost memory functionality. At one point during the test, the test subject observed that since the test subject was making an observation, the memories should store and also the memories should be recalled easily at a later time. The test subject's self observation proved to be true as the test subject fully recalled the test.

Conclusion
An observation which collapses the memory dual-state may occur at a later time or the time that the memories are stored. Thus, if a drunk person is able to remember recent events (within a few minutes), the memory dual-state collapses and the memory is stored. A related result is that a person is able to act in a reasonably coherent manner without being able to recall a memory the next day if the dual-state waveform does not collapse to true with a high probability. A larger sample size test could better verify the hypothesis and may lead to further insights.
Further research could lead to determining the outcome probabilities of the dual-state collapse, for predicting the outcome; determining whether all memories behave in this dual-state manner; and, determining whether the brain makes use of probability waveforms in the storage, compression and recollection of memories.