Digital Parsimony

So I went out and bought what is essentially the demo of Gran Turismo 5. It’s 10:00PM on a Sunday and I need a break from homework, so I pop in the disc. I get greeted with a message that says that the game must be installed on the system before play, so I hit install. The progress bar is moving at the pace of a sloth so I nab one of my dad’s PCWorld magazines. About 20 minutes later the game is installed, so I grab the controller and get ready to race. Now another box pops up, this time it wants me to download the latest version of the game and deploy an update. Fine, I hit “install” again and go turn on the coffee machine. About ten minutes later, I’m greeted by another little gray box that says “Download Failed”. Now I’ve been picking at my face and reading silly magazines for over 30 minutes! From then on, I hit “no” to a bunch of dialog screens to try and get to my $40 annoyance. After an hour of play, I’m not impressed. Sure, the graphics are pretty but most of the functionality of the game has disappeared. All your events are categorized very strangely, the “dealership” is packed with giant icons making it impossible to view cars quickly and efficiently. Go into a brand-name and you’re greeted with 2 random cars and a little optional window where I can preview the rest of the cars in a tiny little box. When I select the car, I can’t see it’s specs because they’re written in light gray on a white background and scrolling across the bottom at the speed of a coke-head’s heart rate. After every race I can’t move on to the next one, I have to exit the current event (taking me back to the main menu), then re-enter “events”, followed by selecting a class, and only then can I see where I can race next.

Anyway, the graphics are pretty and the physics are great, but the game just doesn’t work right and I still can’t get online, so the game’s dashboard assumes I live in Tokyo. It’s simply frustrating to play…and that might just be a deal-breaker.

Check out this link, it shows pictures of the Google HQ. For a company that prides itself for innovation and technology, this really is the place to work. Personally, if I had a similar environment to work in, my creativity would shoot through the roof. There’s enough inspirational material around to even satisfy me… Good for them, it seems like it’s paying off, and I hope more corporate offices get the hint. If you want your employees to be productive, creative, and love working at your company, hire the same interior designer the guys at Google did.

Found quite an interesting article on Wired today…and I always assumed that driving was going to be cheaper and safer than taking a plane.

Yesterday a plane crashed in the Congo and at least 30 people died. The week before that thousands of Americans watched their flights get canceled. Last month a Texas woman had to bare her breasts while passing through airport security. Every day brings another new story about why it sucks to fly. Cancellations, delays, price hikes, service cuts, pillow removal, fewer snacks, more fees — the list goes on and on.

We all love to bash the airlines, it’s easy and fun. But here’s something that usually doesn’t make the headlines: When you sit down and really do the math, flying has a lot going for it. Compared with driving, it’s safer, faster, cheaper and cleaner.

Here are some simple stats straight from the article:

Safety:
42,642 annual auto deaths, 1,500 aircraft deaths. Advantage: plane

Time:
25 hours to drive, 10 hours to fly. Advantage: plane

Price:
This includes fuel to drive there and back, plus an $89 night at the hotel and some snacks.
$354 to drive, $236 to fly. Advantage: plane

Emissions:
850 pounds of CO2 driving, 577 pounds flying. Advantage: plane

Yes, when you fly you have to put up with the sounds of babies being cut by razorblades, curry-smelling hairy men, vomit bags, “security” checks, delays, pretzels, and stewardesses with face lifts. Pretty crappy, but I’d rather save some money and not die.

Finally, I uploaded the photos from last week’s party at Nomi. It was a blast and everyone had a great time. Hopefully, there will be plenty more parties like this one in the future. I get to practice my photography skills (which in this photo-set are definitely lacking) and enjoy some great music, not to mention the free drinks…I love free drinks.

Here’s the slideshow:

Well, I decided to refresh the page a little bit. Once again procrastinating and pushing back classwork (the new semester has begun, don’t even get me started), I upgraded WordPress and installed a more-manageable theme (K2). Not only that, but I even had the time to make a header. I think it looks pretty good and definitely a bit more me.

Below is a real “day in the life” of several Iraqi refugees. I thought this video was worth posting because they really do a great job of showing you the daily lives and struggles of Iraqi refugees. We’re not going home until it’s safe for them to go home.

Here’s the snippet from the original site:

It’s the fifth anniversary of the Iraq War and with talk of it not being even half-way through, we are approaching the 4000th American combat death.

More importantly, a recent World Health Organization report based on Iraqi Health Ministry figures estimated that 151,000 Iraqi civilians were killed between March 2003, the start of the invasion, and June 2006.
Many of the reports of civilian deaths are disputed. What cannot be argued, however, is another grave consequence of the Iraq War: the displacement crisis as a mass exodus of Iraqis flee the instabilities and ever-increasing sectarian violence at home, tearing their families apart.

In mid-January 2008, with the support of the United Nations High Commission For Refugees (UNHCR), I traveled to Amman, Jordan to photograph and record a few of these families trapped in a no-man’s land; asylum seekers looking for refuge, too afraid to return to their blood-soaked country.

Here are a few of their stories.