"This is Where Geeks Turn Into Rockstars..."

"...and that's the game changer." 

Is being a nerd cool now? Well this is news to me but Nancy Conrad, wife of late astronaut Peter Conrad, and founder of the Conrad Foundation which (go figure) hosts the Conrad Awards, seems to think that it's becoming this way.

The Conrad Awards, awards given to those students who complete the program, are a way for educators and students to get involved in solving tangible and real problems in today's society. Combining competition, fun, and good old fashioned nerdyness, this 3 year old program has quickly become an unintentional international project.

Founded on the ideals of Education, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship, the program that Conrad and her team has come up with is based on the touching tale of her husband's rise from troubled child to Astronaut extraordinaire. 

Watch the video to found out more, and visit the Conrad Foundation's website for more information on how to get involved. I wish I was this enthusiastic about science when I was younger, or at least more involved.

[Cool Stuff] Airbnb? Why haven't I heard of this before?!

Airbnb, probably the best website ever.

I have no idea how old this website is, but it seems to be very popular, there are listings for my podunk little home town of Chico, CA.

Everybody knows what couch-surfing is right? You go and stay in a stranger's house and sleep on their couch, sometimes in exchange for doing a few chores or just because the person likes the company. Well this site offers users a more structured way of finding people to couch surf on (that sounds dirty), and it allows the renters to charge a (usually) small fee in exchange for their precious house/apartment space. Airbnb even offers to send a professional photographer to your apartment to take pictures for your room/couch/whatever you're renting, completely free of charge! Now that's service!

Airbnb quite possibly might be one of the coolest things that I've ever found on the internet to this date, besides doodoocaca. It's a simple idea that holds a lot of value for both the renter and the tenant, and it opens up the world of couch surfing to a bigger group of people than would normally be interested in this sort of thing.

If I didn't live in a dorm with no way of renting out my space then I would be extremely excited to try my hand at this. Obviously with the lower rates you have to charge this can't replace your normal job or whatever, or maybe it can I don't know your life. Airbnb could probably be one of the greatest sources of supplemental income ever. Except maybe owning a bunch of candy machines, but that's hard to get started...

All I know is that as soon as I'm done with college and I have a place of my own, if this website is still alive and kicking I will most definitely come back and be the biggest and bestest home/hotel/bnb in my city. I'm so excited.

[Gaming] Play Station Network/Qriocity Services Down

Photo From NYTimes Blog

An external intrusion on our system has affected our PlayStation Network and Qriocity services. In order to conduct a thorough investigation and to verify the smooth and secure operation of our network services going forward, we turned off PlayStation Network & Qriocity services on the evening of Wednesday, April 20th. Providing quality entertainment services to our customers and partners is our utmost priority. We are doing all we can to resolve this situation quickly, and we once again thank you for your patience. We will continue to update you promptly as we have additional information to share.

 This short post is the only solace that PS3 gamers unable to access the Play Station Network got on Friday. At least Sony KNEW about the problem and they were trying to fix it.

It's interesting to note that this attack on the Sony network comes days after this story came out concerning the lawsuit against George Hotz and he hacked the PS3 hardware and programming. Obviously I am absolutely not saying that Hotz had anything to do with it, and he probably didn't.

But it is possible and it shouldn't be ruled out that those who support him and PS3 hacking in general have made this attack to show their support, or just stick it to the man.

In any case, thousands (millions?) of players being unable to access the PS3 network because of this attack is kind of a large price to pay just to stick it to the man.

Some of the gamers unable to log on to the PS network might actually resort to going outside, or doing homework, or actually doing their jobs (!!) and that would just be awful.

[Video] Russell Brand Is the Most Eloquent Person Ever.

"Blimey"

Jeremy Vine ends his interview with Russell Brand on the BBC show Newsnight with an appropriate exclamation. Especially considering that his interview with Brand was probably one of the most existential and well thought out, and yet completely genuine interviews I have ever witnessed coming from a celebrity of Brand's caliber.

Absolutely nowhere in this video did Brand exhibit any of the tell-tale insincerity and hubris that we usually find in the upper echelons of the popular elite. And although an American audience might be slightly confused around the middle of the video, as they begin talking about an offensive message that Brand left on Andrew Sachs' answering machine that got him in hot water with some BBC news outlets. Nonetheless this interview can be thoroughly enjoyed even by somebody who knows next to nothing about Russell Brand or British popular culture. I suggest giving it a watch, you might learn something.

[Tech] The future of human-computer interaction

Inspired by an article I read today on Big Think I took a good hard look at the way that I want humans to interact with machines in the future. And then I forgot most of that and decided to write about it anyway.

If you're anything like me then you're desperately awaiting the day that computers are embedded in our eyeballs and microchip processors enhance our brain function. Or maybe you're just waiting for the day that you can close your eyes and be playing an online video game with the information beaming into your brain through those same microchips. I'm probably waiting for that one too.

Things like the iPad and iPhone and the touch media craze that have come with them are a good sign that these kinds of technologies are on the way which is the good news. the bad news is that optically embedded computers are probably a ways off.

We might not quite be at level of Minority Report. But we're getting there.

Things like an internet connected camera implanted into your skull though, yeah that's real. This story might be a few months old, but it's still relevant to this conversation. Basically some guy decided it would be really artsy to put a camera in the back of his skull and have it take pictures 24/7. Now, personally I really don't see the art behind this, and it really just looks like some sort of popularity/publicity stunt.

 However it is interesting to look at this guy's attempts at art/being popular in terms of human-computer relationships. Who knows, maybe this guy will set the precedent and we'll all be wearing cameras in our foreheads in the future. Which might be lame actually.

[Science] Genetic Warfare - Sayonara Malaria

This is awesome and definitely for a good cause.

Scientists at University of Washington and the Imperial College in London (Via PopSci) have developed a gene sequence that when inserted into a population of mosquitoes suppresses the malaria virus and could be an effective form of mass prevention for malaria.

During testing it was revealed that the malaria suppressing gene spreads very quickly and very effectively though populations of mosquitoes, obviously this is the point. The only problem with this is that pesky law of unintended consequences that always seems to get in the way when man tries to manipulate his environment.

Annually 881,000 people die from malaria related illness, 85% of whom where children under the age of 5 years old. In addition $12 Billion are lost every year directly from malaria deaths. (More Malaria Facts)

There are dozens of ways to combat malaria and mosquito population, and that's one of the reasons you don't see malaria in much of the developed world, however poorer countries generally located on the equator don't have the money to invest in malaria treatments and preventions. What's more the complete eradication of malaria is likely impossible, considering that the only way to do that would be to decimate the entire mosquito population which in turn would severely harm ecosystems. (there's that law of unintended consequences again).

Obviously we don't want that, so the only way to make sure that those 748,850 children survive is to provide them with the preventative measures they need to combat malaria.

[Gaming] Superbrothers' Sword and Sworcery EP Micro Comes to iPhone

The action-adventure indie game "Sword and Sworcery EP" that has been blowing up the iPad gaming sphere with its exquisite and unique graphics and self purported focus on audio-visual style has (finally) come to the iPhone.

The game sells on the iTunes app store for only $2.99 and just browsing the comments section of the plentiful videos of this game, it seems that people are very excited for this game. Especially considering the amount of people that have the iPhone, but not the iPad. 

Personally, I just downloaded this gem and I'm very much looking forward to playing it. 

[Gaming] Is the Kiip model the future of gaming? Or just a advertising gimmick?

One of the hot topics in the mobile gaming circuit right now is a new startup company called Kiip ("K-ee-p") that is offering real life rewards for players who earn achievements in the games they're already playing.

So far the company has only made contracts with a few companies (Sephora, Carl's Jr. and 1-800 Flowers are among them) but it would only make sense that they have plans to expand these contracts. Still though, how cool would it be to get a free Easter basket from 1-800Flowers for clearing the final level on Angry Birds?

It's interesting to think that this is the direction that advertising might be headed, especially considering that in the gaming market PC games, probably the best and most reliable target for companies like Kiip, are among the most popular.

 Imagine this scenario: you're playing Fallout 3 on your PC and you gain an achievement or complete a hard mission, you're notified of an offer that you can redeem when you're done playing by a small popup on the HUD, afterwards the popup goes away (possibly being saved on a list with an expiration date/time) and that's that, you continue to play the game like normal, later redeeming your coupon for a free Soda at Carl's Jr.

The incentive for the companies participating is that every time a player earns an achievement with a reward attached to it they are essentially being advertised to, and this is what has got gamers fired up on comment boards all across the internet. Even though the advertisement will only come once the player has earned the achievement, gamers simply do not want to see advertisements anywhere near their beloved games, PC or otherwise. Even the most casual of gamers can't abide by intrusive ads that infringe upon their enjoyable game time.

There are those, however, that see little problem with this form of advertisement, myself included. Would anybody REALLY be opposed to getting a free soda for doing the things they were already doing in the game for fun (and no real reward otherwise)? It's doubtful.

Is this the future of gaming and advertising? Certainly Kiip has come up with a novel idea, and who knows, maybe they'll be the industry leaders in the immensely popular world of in-game advertising in the future. One thing is for certain though, the way that they implement their features and the reaction by the gaming community will determine whether or not this turns out to be just a novel idea, or the next big thing in gaming and advertising.

Alternative Voting Explained

You guys remember the video explaining the differences between the UK, Great Britain, and England?

Well this is by the same guy, and continuing this apparent trend, it's a very good  and pleasantly explained video.

I love videos like this. Explaining things to people in a simple and easily understandable way is (duh) preferable to having to go through a textbook to understand something.

Of course, like everything, there are flaws. At one point in the video the narrator neglects to explain one of the problems with the Alternative Voting method, passing it off as something only math geeks worry about and moving on.

It's clear that this video is in support of different forms of voting beyond the "FPTP" voting method, but it does seem to come off as a little propaganda-y. That being said, it's still a wonderfully informative video that many people should be privy to.

 It seems as though many people are unaware that there are alternative ways for democracy to function, certainly scanning the comments of the YouTube video one can see arguments arising over how "democratic" the AV method is, or how it would be "unamerican" to change the way that voting was done. People do, however, seem to understand that there is some inherent problem in the way that voting works in this country, perhaps that's enough to get them to change their thinking. Perhaps not.

I encourage everybody to share this video with friends, family, neighbors, facebook friends, twitter followers, whatever. The more people that are exposed to alternative ways of doing things, the more debate there can be over them, the better off everything will be. After all, democracy is built upon choice isn't it?

Probably the best song on the internet.

Stumbled upon this creative song on Reddit today and I couldn't resist making a blog post about this.

I think this song is probably one of the truest geek litmus tests. The more references you understand in this song, the geekier you are.

I'm fairly curtain that I understood at least 3/4ths of the references.

Leave me a comment telling me how many you understood! If you didn't understand any of them then...well...get out.