video games: a prediction

Prediction: Sony's PlayStation 3 will become very successful in the future. it will "beat" the 360 and be right up there with the Wii in terms of hardware and software sales.

Rationale: Sony's investment in creativity and innovation will eventually pay off in a big way. Sony has clearly invested in creativity on the software end by giving publishing deals to indie developers with very creative titles (fl0w, everyday shooter, little big planet, etc) and by incubating a top-notch roster of daring first-party developers (Team ICO, SCEA Santa Monica). when MS, EA, and most other publishers are busy refining their Halos to death, they'll be hit with dramatic diminishing returns. as consumers grow weary of games that only sharpen the saw, they'll turn to Sony (and also to Nintendo, as they already are) to deliver fresh experiences. on the hardware side, Sony's decision to use the CELL processor will also enable different experiences. although initial development costs are high, developers will adapt and learn to utilize the unique hardware in new and interesting ways.

voting for the under dog

often times, people don't vote because they think the person they support doesn't have a realistic chance of winning. but, i think you should vote anyway, because:

1. even if the candidate doesn't win, if he/she has a strong number of votes, that sends a message to the American people. it shows that many people support the candidate's views, and thus next time, people are more likely to take him/her (or someone similar) more seriously. this is especially important for third-party candidates.

2. for phone-polls, they only call people who voted last year. so if you don't vote, you're sacrificing your vote in the polls. sure, it doesn't seem that important, but people (unfortunately) pay attention to these polls. a lot of Ron Paul supporters (like myself) don't get called because they didn't vote last year - now, we're facing the consequences of that because RP's popularity is not properly reflected in the polls.

duality

Reggie Fils-Aime, president of Nintendo of America, recently gave a talk here at Cornell. in summary, "nintendo is awesome and the wii prints money" - fair enough. but at the end, he was asked what's the most important thing for achieving success? he said there was no single thing, no silver bullet, no secret to success. but he did offer a piece of advice i found pretty solid...

appreciate the duality of values. that is, be able to hold values that are strictly opposed to each other yet exercise them all when appropriate. for example, passion and dedication are important values. but equally important is to know when to quit and not let your passions blind you - that is, to be pragmatic. teamwork and tolerance are also important values. but equally important is to know when to go against the flow and stand-out against the majority. so as with most things in life, it is important to have the right balance of values.

not quite as simple or catchy as one-liner advice that most ppl give, like "follow your dreams and everything will turn out alright!" or "you can only rely on yourself!" but a lot more realistic, i think.

wasted time

pride can waste you a lot of time. as a first year phd, i have a lot to learn, since almost every week i encounter something new thanks to my research project. but, being full of intellectual pride, i rarely ask for help - surely i can figure it out on my own!

i'll spare the details, but i probably just spent a whole week doing insanely pain-in-the-ass calculations. then today, i had my weekly meeting with my prof...he showed me a much better way. turns out, you can do it in like 15 minutes using these things called "computers"...

wasted time = 1 week - 15 minutes. me = pwned (but a little wiser).

time management

...i'm pretty bad at it. here are 2 videos that i can relate to, cuz they're both about bad time management:

"Saturday"
"Procrastination"

so, what have we learned? you really need to just do whatever you need to do and stop thinking about it so much. bad news for us thinking folk, eh? stop thinking so much! it's hard, i know. maybe put a cap on how much you think about something before doing it - like 5 minutes.

politics - student gets tazered at john kerry talk

if you haven't seen it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqAVvlyVbag

think about it for a bit and let it settle in. what does this mean for our country?

i don't think there's anything conspiratorial going on here. i don't think kerry's people removed him cuz of the probing questions - the security guards were doing their job cuz he was breaking the rules of the event.

however, i do have a problem with the rules. the first amendment guarantees that the government will never suppress free speech, but it seems like we americans do a fine job suppressing ourselves anyway. don't say anything controversial at work, cuz you may get fired! or in this case, don't try to make a lengthy point at the mic cuz you may get forcefully removed! this isn't about the first amendment and law - it's about free speech in our culture (as reflected by the rules of such events) - or there lack of.

on the BBC, there was one event where tony blair and a member of the audience were literally shouting at each other. was that against their rules? hell no - it was damn good television!

american political culture is tragically restrained. this has the de facto effect of suppressing free speech and making politics generally dull and boring, motivating the population to censor itself. perfectly constitutional, but pathetically unhealthy.

life in ithaca so far

i've been here for over a month now, so here's the 411 so far

pros:
- ithaca's natural beauty goes pretty well with its hot and humid summer weather. nothing like cliff diving in to one of ithaca's many gorges!
- cornell's student theater is awesome - cheap, and great selection of indie movies
- lotsa stuff to do on campus. i plan on doing hockey and swing dancing on a regular basis
- my office mates - all girls - are a pretty entertaining group to work around
- academically, i'm learning a ton
- my room is HUGE

cons:
- summer's over soon, so i expect it'll get balls-clinking cold in a month or two
- i've started on a research project, which is great, but i'm expected to produce results by january. this means that unless i finish early (read: work my ass off), my winter break will be compromised...
- disappointingly, very few of the first year PhDs are enthusiastic drinkers ('alcoholic' is such a strong word...)

so all in all, things are going well and i'm diggin it over here!