Self-Worth and the Idiot

There's nothing worse than a confident idiot.

Ben, Official Friend of the Brink

This thought, along with corollaries like the Bible's "Even a fool is considered wise when he opens not his mouth", make a brilliant case that modern society (and especially our public education system) should focus less on convincing people of their self-worth and more on education so that some of that self-confidence might be justified.

filed: etcetera

RealFrogger in Austin

In a melding of robot-vacuum technology with classic video games, individuals with electronics skills, alcohol and time on their hands have created and deployed RealFrogger on Austin's 6th Street.

Follow the link for pictures of this momentous event, and descriptions like this:

The impact of the technology on Austinites has already been deep. During the nerve-wracking initial crossing, which took place below the balcony of the Herald suite at Austin's Driskill Hotel, passers-by were heard to exclaim, "Dude, it's Frogger!"

Will RealFrogger survive? Will the police arrest anyone? Will Austin's traffic be slowed any further than it already is? Is that even possible?


RealFrogger Technology Revealed at SXSW


filed: etcetera

Geekonomics, The Matrix, and Happiness

In The Matrix, the machine character Agent Smith tells us that humans cannot survive in a utopia--they need pain and struggle or they will not accept their surroundings as real. It seems that a similar idea holds true in (semi-)real life with the economies of online games. This Wired article gives examples of experiments and incidents that prove that unlimited resources in a world lead not to universal happiness but instead cause all of the players to leave for lack of a challenge. The lesson: if you had all the money you could want you would be...bored.


Wired.com: Geekonomics


filed: economics