Category: Tech

See “The King of Kong”

Eric wanted to rent the DVD of The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, and having seen only half of it I am giving it my absolute highest possible recommendation. I had a hard time deciding on a video clip to preview here, but I settled on this one.

[flv:/Video/2008/FEB/KingOfKong.flv 448 252]

I’m not a gamer. My interest is casual. Yet I feel strongly that it is the mentality behind gaming that helped propel us into the technological age we are now in. Hippies, Science Fiction fans, comic book kids, and Rock and Roll combined to give us what we have today. It’s all due as much to cultural change as it is advancements in technology.

This photograph is from the monumentally important article “SPACE WAR: Fanatic Life and Death Among the Computer Bums,” by Stewart Brand, published in the December 7, 1972 issue of Rolling Stone. Yes, that’s right. 1972. The caption reads, “Bruce Baumgart, winner of the Five-Man Free-For-All at the First Intergalactic Spacewar Olympics, brandishing control buttons in triumph.”

I am deeply appreciative of the reality that the things we take for granted — telephones, cars, radio, TV, Web browsing — were at some point in the past merely strange ideas. We owe a great deal to the oddballs and misfits who made them possible.

Why Yahoo! Is Better Than Google

Ten years ago, Microsoft ruled the roost. But now, thanks to the return of Steve Jobs, Apple is a powerhouse in consumer electronics, and online it’s big, bad Google that’s calling the shots. So Microsoft wants to acquire Yahoo! Does Microsoft need Yahoo more than Yahoo needs Microsoft? Yahoo thinks so, because they’re holding out for more money.

But let’s keep Google in perspective. Its search engine isn’t perfect. For example, here are the results from a search I did a few minutes ago. Click to enlarge the picture, and look at the fourth hit.

Google Search Results

Google doesn’t put the popular Pratt Hobbies Rocket Catalog on the first page, but there’s a link to wedding pictures that you can’t look at, because they’re password protected? What’s up with that?

Now here is the same search, but done on Yahoo! Look at the first site listed.

Yahoo Search Results

There. Much better, don’t you think? Top of the world, Ma!

Comment on Comments

It has come to my attention that there are those among you who are not tracking comments. This means that unless I point them out, you are missing new comments on old posts.

If you are browsing with either Firefox 2 or Internet Explorer 7, click “Comments” under “Feeds.” You should see something interesting. If you see a lot of stuff that looks likes computer code, you’re using a browser that doesn’t do RSS and you should get updated!