Nintendo has taken a huge risk with the Wii by completely avoiding competition with other video game console makers, Sony (makers of the PS3) and Microsoft (Xbox360). Their aim seems to be to widen the market by making games that are more fun to play in groups and parties, and to revolutionize the controller to appeal to audiences that aren’t comfortable learning complicated controllers. Although this may seem like a risk, it is actually quite ingenious. It pretty much looks they will be able to dominate sales on everything outside of the male aged 18-30 group (quite a big group).

As a reviewer of the Wii, I made absolute certain to understand as much as I could about this much-hyped system. However, the truth is, I never played a Wii, or have even seen one in person. Originally, I intended to wait outside of Fred Meyer in Corvallis with Mr. Spacetuna himself to get my hands on one, but a couple of problems prevented this from happening.

1. There were a lot of over-excited smelly video game nerds waiting in line.
2. It was really cold out there.
3. I don’t have a TV so even if I got one, I wouldn’t be able to play it.
4. While waiting in line, I got a call about a party back up in the Portland area.

Since no review would be complete without expressing the experience of playing, I will now make up some things about playing the Wii.

As soon as I plugged in my Wii I felt a strange presence overcome me, as if my very soul had begun a new level. The walls around me had turned into a eerily uniform brick pattern. I felt the urge to punch them with my bare hands, and as I did, mushrooms and coins started sprouting from them. Suddenly, a giant pirhana plant sprouted from the Wii! Without being able to control myself, I hurled the wiimote and it turned into a blazing fireball. Upon being hit by the firey wiimote ball, the plant turned into a floating sign which said, “200.”

Then I started reading the comments that these so-called “raters” wrote in. They all hate it as much as I do, yet they consistently gave it decent ratings! What is wrong with these people?!?!

Here is an example of what I’m talking about:

“Just updated to 8.047 and was hoping a miracle had occurred. Still the same appalling GUI, still like a Classic app’ (a bad one), still unfriendly to use, still doesn’t conform to Apple standards…should I go on?

“If this wasn’t free with my university course, I’d be asking for a refund.

“I’ve got to use this software for the next 4 or 5 years; beginning to hate the FC Mac development team!”

Rating: 2.5 out of 5.

Hello? What is wrong with you! Your words speak of dissatisfaction yet your rating speaks of semi-satisfaction. Learn to count!

Link

I can’t tell you how many times I read a great tinycouch comic and say to myself, “I sure do wish I could tell the creator of this great comic what I think, and have my comment posted live on the interweb for the entire world to see!” I’m sure you’ve been there – you know what I’m talking about.

Most of the comments I would write would probably be like this:

Interesting.

Once in awhile, I might write one like this:

Hmm. Interesting.

And occasionally, a great comic will come up and I’ll be like:

Woah.

It’s obvious how much value can be added by my comments. This is what virtual communities are all about: sharing input with each other and adding value.

Long ago, I had no lamps. Then I had one. I loved the lamp, but I felt it was lacking. I just wanted more and more. Then I got another lamp. It was a tall one. The lamp I had that I was telling you about before was a short one. So in my two-lamp period, I had a short lamp and a tall lamp.

Then Joe moved out. I still only had two lamps, but I had a fan too. (I don’t have the fan anymore – more about that later). Then Joe brought me a bunch of lamps! Now I have a lamp for every room. I only use two rooms, so most of the lamps are in a pile in the living room. I don’t really need a lamp in my bathroom, but I’m open to experimentation.

I don’t have the fan anymore – Joe took it away. That was the part where I was going to tell you about the fan.

If you love lamps, then you should come over to my house some time and view them. If you bring your own, we could have a lamp-party! We could be cool and call it a LamParty. LamParties could be a new craze to sweep the nation.

I hope you have found this lamp story en-light-ening and ill-uminating! I know I have. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever read such a great lamp story before. If there was a magazine about lamps, I would send in this story. I know it would be on the front cover of the next issue.

Einstein’s life and writings are often cited as examples of the of the harmony of science and religion, but he was not a religious man in the traditional sense. He rejected the idea of a personal God, believing that the notion was for weak-minded individuals.

“In their struggle for the ethical good, teachers of religion must have the stature to give up the doctrine of a personal God, that is, give up that source of fear and hope which in the past placed such vast power in the hands of priests. In their labors they will have to avail themselves of those forces which are capable of cultivating the Good, the True, and the Beautiful in humanity itself. This is, to be sure, a more difficult but an incomparably more worthy task…” (1)

What is interesting to me about Einstein’s faith is that he doesn’t simply reject the idea of a personal God, but the damage on the nobility of humanity when the idea of God becomes too narrowly defined. Humanity earns it’s freedom when it testifies that God is an unknowable essence.

“I cannot conceive of a God who rewards and punishes his creatures, or has a will of the type of which we are conscious in ourselves. An individual who should survive his physical death is also beyond my comprehension, nor do I wish it otherwise; such notions are for the fears or absurd egoism of feeble souls. Enough for me the mystery of the eternity of life, and the inkling of the marvellous structure of reality, together with the single-hearted endeavour to comprehend a portion, be it never so tiny, of the reason that manifests itself in nature.” (2)

“You will hardly find one among the profounder sort of scientific minds without a peculiar religious feeling of his own. But it is different from the religion of the naive man. For the latter God is a being from whose care one hopes to benefit and whose punishment one fears; a sublimation of a feeling similar to that of a child for its father, a being to whom one stands to some extent in a personal relation, however deeply it may be tinged with awe. But
the scientist is possessed by the sense of universal causation. The future, to him, is every whit as necessary and determined as the past. There is nothing divine about morality, it is a purely human affair. His religious feeling takes the form of a rapturous amazement at the harmony of natural law, which reveals an intelligence of such superiority that, compared with it, all the systematic thinking and acting of human beings is an utterly insignificant reflection. This feeling is the guiding principle of his life and work, in so far as he succeeds in keeping himself from the shackles of selfish desire. It is beyond question closely akin to that which has
possessed the religious geniuses of all ages.” (3)

“‘Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.’ So Einstein once wrote to explain his personal creed: ‘A religious person is devout in the sense that he has no doubt of the significance of those super-personal objects and goals which neither require nor are capable of rational foundation.’

His was not a life of prayer and worship. Yet he lived by a deep faith–a faith not capable of rational foundation–that there are laws of Nature to be discovered. His lifelong pursuit was to discover them. His realism and his optimism are illuminated by his remark: ‘Subtle is the Lord, but malicious He is not’ (‘Raffiniert ist der Herrgott aber boshaft ist er nicht.’.'). When
asked by a colleague what he meant by that, he replied: ‘Nature hides her secret because of her essential loftiness, but not by means of ruse’ (‘Die Natur verbirgt ihr Geheimnis durch die Erhabenheit ihres Wesens, aber nicht durch List.’).” (4)

If you would like to brush up on your physics to start off this new year, you might like to check out “The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality” by Brian Greene.

I hope you have found this thought-provoking I’m interested in knowing what you think.

citations:

1. “Science, Philosophy, and Religion, A Symposium”,published by the Conference on Science, Philosophy and Religion in Their Relation to the Democratic Way of Life, Inc., New York, 1941
2. “The World as I See It,” taken from the abridged edition of Einstein’s book bearing the same title. (Philosophical Library, New York, 1949)
3. ibid.
4. “Subtle is the Lord– ” : the science and the life of Albert Einstein by Abraham Pais, Oxford University Press, Oxford & New York, 1982.

http://media.adshadow.net/diesel/preloader_bear-1.swf

If anyone knows what its for, please comment.

The frisbee is based on the Jelly Flyer by NoodleHeadFun. The one I got is about 4 inches in diameter and glows in the dark.

Since its made out of a jelly substance, I will be able to fling it through the air with zeal and without fear of breaking windows or heads. Anyone in the path of the night flyer will be saved from pain and instead fell the mildly unpleasant gentle tap of a silicone based object.

I haven’t had much time to test it out yet, but I am confident that when that time comes, much fun will ensue.