[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.

This Is Absolutely What Being A Geek Is All About!

I can't exactly remember how I came across this TED video of Adam Savage, one of the co-hosts for MythBusters, describing his quest to create a near perfect replica from the Maltese Falcon movie. I do, however, remember not remembering how 15 minutes went by so quickly after I watched this.

There's definitely an art to being a geek, as I've said before, but Savage takes this to a whole new level with the level of detail and the amount of effort he puts into this "Creative Project" of his. 

I'm sure many of you have already seen this TED video, but I encourage you to watch it again. Savage's sincerity is absolutely infectious, and it's inspiring to see be so humble about his fantastic (fanatic?) work and to care about nothing more than the fantastic journey it took to get there.

Not to mention he's a great speaker! 

Photon Torpedos, Solar Cells, Spaceships and Flashlights.

Oh Michio Kaku, you both crush my childhood dreams and create new, more adult ones at the same time.

I was simultaneously enraptured, and saddened, by this video by Michio Kaku in which he describes why Photon Torpedos and Photon engines are nothing but the stuff of science fiction, and will probably remain that way, at least in the way that we think of them.

Michio Kaku is a science-show staple. You can't have a show on the science channel without having an expert testimony from Dr. Kaku. A lot of his "testimonies" have to do with either validating or debunking (or both) sci-fi "impossibilities", and one of my favorite books by him is called "Physics of the Impossible". 

Picked up in an Airport book shop and devoured by the time the plane touched down several hours later. This book provided much entertainment and scientific fun facts. Now whenever a friend or acquaintance (sometimes even just random passers by) are talking about things like time travel and human cloning and they refer to them as "impossible", I like to pipe up and say something to the tune of :

"NAH UHH!!! YOU'RE WRONG AND HERE'S WHY..."

I make lots of friends.

If you don't already know who Michio Kaku is (you heathen) you need to head over to his blog and check out all of the awesomesauce things he has to say all the time. You won't be sorry.

Google Facing Copyright Infringement for eBooks (for the last 6 years)

You know, I have been wondering how Google has gotten away with digitizing books and offering full access to them for a price like they do on Google Books without facing copyright infringement lawsuits or something of the sort.

Turns out they are facing copyright infringement suites and they have been for the last 6 years. Who knew.

Now, 6 years into this litigation, a proposal drafted by has been rejected by U.S. Circuit Judge Denny Chin.

Google has proposed to pay royalties to the owners of the copyrights for each of the books it scanned. But, apparently, the problem is that for quite a few of the books, the owners of the copyrights can't be accurately determined, and so much of the money they'd be offering to pay wouldn't be able to go to anybody. Quite a conundrum.

Furthermore the deal would allow the internet giant to continue to digitize books while paying said royalties, potentially leading to a "universal library" of books on the internet. While this seems like a great idea, apparently Judge Denny Chin thinks this deal is "going too far" even despite the benefits that having such a large digital library would bring.

The proposal would clearly give Google a market advantage in terms of selling eBooks. Whereas other companies would be required to get permission of the copyright holder to digitize and sell eBooks, Google could go on digitizing and selling without seeking the appropriate permission.

Fair? No. And Judge Chin doesn't think so either.

I can definitely see the benefit of having such a huge library of books available online. I've used Google Books many many times to finish that last minute school paper without having to go all the way to the library. But I can certainly see the issues, and it definitely wouldn't be cool to see other eBook publishers shoved out of the market due to a near monopoly (that we all know Google could accomplish) on eBooks.

See the story on BBC News, or for more in-depth coverage check out this article on ComputerWorld

Japan Earthquake: Robots and Rescues

 It's not surprising that after the devastating 8.9 earthquake experienced in Japan this past week that the Geek-o-sphere (I made that up) is overflowing with news pertaining to both the relief efforts and the efforts to fend of the potential nuclear meltdown happining in the Fukushima district of Japan in the wake of the earthquake.

On top of these two things, it seems as if every Arab nation has decided that the old ways have got to go. Again, the geek-o-sphere has got this covered in terms of news, and not just normal news either, there are some truly “geeky” things going on in Japan in relation to this crisis.

At the risk of seeming like a news recycling blog (I like to think I put a personal spin on things) and taking a page from Phillip DeFranco, let's take a look at some of the things that interested me in the news this past week.

Robots. Real. Live. Robots. Well, you know, without the "living" part.

Now, OK, you might be saying “Luc, Robots aren't that special, bomb squads have been using them for years to deactivate bombs 'n stuff.”

Well you know what I say to you, smart ass?

I say that these aren't just regular Wall-E like robots that have extendable arms and are remote controlled. Although there are those too. These are robots of an entirely different sort. Snake Robots, for example. As well as underwater robots, which are probably going to be some of the most helpful considering this disaster was caused by a tsunami, although information on the underwater robots is apparently scant according to an article on the IEEE Spectrum blog.

Here's a video of that snake robot I mentioned earlier in action. 

Now, I don't know about anybody else, but if I was stuck in a situation where this snake was required to find me, and I saw it trying to find me, I might actively try to avoid being seen by this thing, because it's f'king terrifying and I've seen War of the Worlds a few too many times.

It's like being saved by the caterpillar from Alice in Wonderland, except without the hookah and rude sarcasm.

At the time of writing this post, Japanese power has been restored to the nuclear reactors that were near meltdown, and the Japanese have avoided another tragic situation, but the tragedies in Japan are still unfolding, with thousands without homes due to the tsunami, and thousands more "nuclear refugees" evacuated. It's important now to think of the Japanese people, keep them in your hearts, and if possible, donate to the Red Cross relief fund. You can donate Here.