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Popular funnyman Will Ferrell is in full promotional mode, hyping up his new movie Semi-Pro which opens at the end of this month. You might have seen his Superbowl Bud Light commercial. He’s also done a series of spots for Old Spice deodorant. These commercials are different in that he has donated his appearance fees to a charity, Cancer for College. During a scholarship presentation, Will surprised a scholarship winner and cancer survivor, strangely enough, named Will Ferrell. Hit up this video for that. If you enjoyed the commercial above, there are plenty more at the Old Spice web site. Be sure to check out “Herniated Colon”.

On Saturday night, I brought Rock Band over to St. John’s College, marking the first time I played the game with all the instruments at once. My gracious hosts were Shawn and Kafui. We were setup in the dining hall where we had use of an LCD projector and a portable screen. The projector was apparently very new and surprisingly did 1080p! The limiting factor was the screen itself, it was squared shaped and only about 4 feet across. If we had a white wall available, the image would have been massive. Still, it was bigger than any LCD screen we could have found. The audio was hooked up to a decent portable stereo. Though we tried hard, we could not find a second compatible guitar for the evening, meaning no bass guitar this time around.

Special guest Frank was luckily in town and he made an appearance to my delight. Initially, there weren’t that many people playing. It was myself, Frank, Shawn, and Kafui doing the first couple of songs, just getting used to the instruments and game mechanics like going into Overdrive.

After the first couple of songs, people would randomly wander into the dining hall, either drawn there by the sound of music or seeing the game on the screen from afar. Though a few people had actually played Rock Band before, most had not, and were not gamers in general. Despite this though, it was interesting to see the intrigue on people’s faces when they saw the setup. The combination of the 3D animations of the musicians and the crowd, the multiple tracks with coloured squares flying down the screen, and the beats booming from the stereo made a lot of people wonder “what the hell is all this?” It’s here that I was able to see the great strengths of Rock Band. It truly does a great job of being accessible for any type of person, from the seasoner gamer to the first-time gamer.

We had a lot of people try the game for the first time. After just a minute or less of explanation, they were beating on the drums, riffing chords, and hitting the high notes during the chorus. There were a few people who had no idea we were playing that night but after seeing us set up, they didn’t leave the dining hall until the final song was played. People also started falling into their preferred roles after trying out the instruments. One dude was our star vocalist, willing to sing pretty much anything. He really got into it, virtually channeling the Beastie Boys during “Sabotage“. They say any good band requires a good drummer and we had ours fortunately. This crazy talented journalism student could do the drums on “hard” which was a feat I had yet to see and we have Rock Band set up at EA Black Box. His coordination and sense of timing was incredible.

One other thing I discovered is that certain songs draw people in more than others. Crowd-friendly and high energy tracks like “Dani California” from the Red Hot Chili Peppers were just awesome to play for everyone. When people were playing that track, it kinda did feel like they were rocking out on stage. When people see that much fun being had, they want to give it a try.

We didn’t pack things up until around 2am, having played for about 4 hours. I thought people really enjoyed themselves but Shawn later told me that some residents were still talking about Rock Band during dinner on Sunday. Kafui actually forwarded me an e-mail where one person already had a list of tracks that they want downloaded for “next weekend”.

It’s been written a thousand times before but it’s true, Rock Band is really a good time with a bunch of people.

They say that pride is a sin but I’m not a Christian so perhaps this post will still be ok. In that case, could I mention that there are estimates that skate. outsold Tony Hawk nearly 2 to 1?

While Activision made boatloads of money this holiday season, Variety also had this to report:

“The only significant underperformer was the latest Tony Hawk skateboarding game. Activision is in the midst of major revamp of the franchise as sales slowed amid competition from EA’s new title skate.“

A “major revamp”? Interesting.

As some of you know, I’ve been getting e-mails on a rarely used account that are intended for someone else. Tonight, I e-mailed the intended recipient and told him the situation. I’ve also given him instructions on how to fix the problem, should the cause be the reason I’m theorizing it is.

He is really missing out on some great forwarded e-mail jokes.

UPDATE: With hits coming from Sunnyvale, Concord, and Los Angeles, I’m pretty sure either Dr. Fedkiw himself or at least people who know him have read this.

With a world of over six billion people there are some amazing individuals who exist on this planet. I would like to point out one of those individuals. Dr. Ron Fedkiw is an Associate Professor of Computer Science at Stanford University in California. He has a PhD in applied mathematics from UCLA. So just let’s examine that right there. Dr. Fedkiw has a doctorate from a good school in an area that’s pretty rigourous and challenging. So we already know he’s a pretty smart guy. He also teaches and does his research at Stanford, a school that’s well-respected. Not only that, he’s an Associate Professor, not an Assistant, meaning he’s done enough quality research and published enough papers to merit the increased status. I’m almost certain he’s tenured as well.

So is that all there is to Dr. Fedkiw? Nope. He’s considered an expert in the field of computer graphics specifically relating to the modeling of natural phenomena such water, smoke, and other complex physical interactions. He is a consultant to Industrial Light and Magic, the legendary special effects house that George Lucas started. His movie credits include the last Terminator movie and Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. Feel free to look at all the video clips on his departmental web site to get an understanding of his work. This fireball is a favourite of mine. Keep in mind that animation is not done by hand, it’s all calculated using mathematics. His list of published papers is lengthy and any academic would love to be that productive.

So smart guy, expert in his field, ILM collaborator, is that it? Nope. Days from now Dr. Fedkiw will be awarded a Scientific and Technical Academy Award for his work in feature films. Yes, that’s right, the man is going to get an Oscar.

So we’re done right? No man can be that smart, publish that many papers, win an Oscar and still got stuff to be proud of right? Right? Wrong again! Dr. Fedkiw was a competitive weightlifter in his earlier days. By his own admission, he states he bench pressed a personal best of 555 lbs. Holy! Just look at what he used to look like in his younger days. Does that look like a professor of computer science?

Surely one man could have nothing else to be thankful for right? Smart, respected, Oscar winner, there cannot be anything else we could be impressed by, correct? Wrong again! Dr. Fedkiw married an NFL cheerleader. He is a computer scientist who married an NFL cheerleader. Read that sentence again. How many times has that been fact in the history of the world? Together with his wife, Dr. Fedkiw have two adorable daughters. So after a day of teaching students and making pretty pictures for geeks, he goes home to a loving family.

So that’s it for real. I know nothing more about that man. He probably has some more impressive credentials but he just hasn’t made them public yet.

I know you can define success in life in many different ways but gosh darn it, Dr. Fedkiw has done a lot of things right.

Geez, I hope he doesn’t find this post through Google or something.

I’ve been told I’m pretty good with using the Internet as a search tool and that’s a skill I take pride in. Tonight, I’m kinda stumped, though perhaps I should try harder than a five-minute Google search.

In any case, can ya help me? Why do baked goods like muffins and glazed doughnuts get “wet” when they’re stored in a container or a bag? You know what I’m talking about. If not, try this at home (preferably without parental supervision). Go to your local doughnut or muffin purveyor and purchase a glazed doughnut and/or a muffin, possibly of the blueberry variety. Get a fresh baked specimen if possible. Take said baked specimen and store it in a closed paper or plastic bag. It doesn’t have to be airtight, so feel free to keep a mouse in there too.

After about a day or possibly less, check up on your baked good. Depending on the exchange rate in your country, the muffin top and/or the entire doughnut surface should look like it’s wet with a sheen of something. I’ve noticed this for years and I’m inclined to think the baked good is drawing water from the air. I’ve actually seen this since I worked in a science lab in high school. We had a chemical solid that had to be kept airtight in a container because it would get wet when contacting the air. It would draw moisture from the air. There’s a formal name for that property but I forgot it.

Anyways, I hesitate to attribute that same property to a doughnut since that would be kinda scary. My best and latest guess is that the sugar in the baked good is somehow reacting with the air and breaking something down in the dough to make the surface appear wet.

Random guesses aside, does anyone know the real story behind my wet muffin?

If you’re not familiar with the Xbox Live service, it’s Microsoft’s online component for their Xbox 360 console. It’s what allows people to play games online on the 360.

I first signed up for the service in early 2007. One of the neat things about Xbox Live is how voice communication is universally integrated into the service. Nearly every single game allows you to chat with the people you’re playing online with. While this is great, it is also the source of my greatest frustration with Xbox Live.

I soon found out that listening to other players meant listening to young teenagers and pre-teens who think calling someone a homosexual is an insult. Not far behind those comments were the racial ones. They weren’t directly at me necessarily but just hearing idiots like that made me angry. You can mute people but it’s a chore to do, when all you want to do is just play the game. At times, I just didn’t even plug the headset in but you lose that crucial communication element that’s sometimes required for some online games.

After a while, I just stopped playing online all together, preferring to play only the single player portion of games. I would play online if I knew it’d be with just friends I knew but that’s rare.

It was with great intrepidation that this weekend I started playing Burnout Paradise online, with the headset plugged in. To my great surprise, it was a pleasant experience. People were cordial, helpful, and on good behaviour. There was hardly all hostility at all, in fact, I can’t remember any actually. Perhaps it was the nature of online in Paradise. For the most part, online gameplay is cooperative-based in Paradise and it benefits everyone to be helpful. In any case, the six hours I spent online this weekend was a lot of fun.

While I have hope, the cynical side of me thinks this was an isolated case. Perhaps, I would think differently had I been playing Halo 3.

I made unnecessary work for my lead tonight, after he did me a favour. Let me give you a piece of advice, don’t make extra work for your superiors at your job.

Before going home, my lead graciously left his computer unlocked so that I could test my changes on his machine as well, giving me a better idea of how my stuff was all working.

When I went to get my code changes off the Perforce server, I promptly overwrote three of his files, stuff that he’d been working on but hadn’t checked in yet. So you’re probably wondering how it’s possible to clobber files if everyone is under source control. Here’s the “funny” part, my lead never actually checks out files for edit until he’s ready to check in. When he edits files, he sets the permissions locally to overwrite, bypassing the source control until he’s good and ready to contact the Perforce server.

Of course, I knew he works that way but I guess it was kinda late and I reversed two steps, thereby blowing away his current changes. I realized what I had done about a second after it happened and thought that this is why I’m not a lead, and probably won’t be for a very, very long time.

I wrote him an e-mail apologizing for my error. Then I went upstairs, got a Coffee Crisp and placed it on his keyboard with a Post-It on it saying, “Sorry.” I may also buy him lunch tomorrow if he wants.

Now I know I shouldn’t have erased his changes but if I could mention one thing… you’re really not supposed to be using source control like that. As soon as you try to save any changes on any file, it should be immediately placed under source control. I’m totally owning up to this but I’m just sayin’!

Oh, I’m pretty sure I think I set him back about 15 minutes worth of work… I think… let’s hope I’m right.

I know I’ve told some of you that if I were ever blessed with a daughter, I’d try to convince the mother to name her Oceania. I am now also considering the name Molly Beth.

In several of my previous posts I’ve stated that I get e-mails on a rarely used account that are clearly not for me but some other person who has incorrectly configured their e-mail client. They are able to send messages but all replies to any messages come to me.

It may sound interesting to get another person’s e-mails but this individual seems to lead a pretty normal and “by the books” type of life. No one even forwards him porn, which I’d settle for.

Last week, it got a bit awkward for the first time when he sent a message but it got bounced back because the end recipient didn’t exist. I guess he got the address wrong. Anyways, since it bounced back, it didn’t go back to him… it went back to me. From the looks of it, I think this is either a dating site “first contact” type of message or some other message with romantic overtones.

I’m going to publish an excerpt here, censoring details that might get picked up by a Google crawler.

Subject: To the The S****y Girl who likes working out in the Gym

Hi,

Like your ad on the Web. I am from C****a been in S******i 2 years ago
and really like it. Originally from G*****y but live here in C****a for
** years.

I like the Chinese Culture and been practicing Kung Fu and Tai Chi for
** Years. Would like to learn Chinese and Visit China more often. I am
** Years old used to work in F*****e but do more a********s work now.
Well you say you not ugly at all and have brains, very nice.
Maybe we can start as friends I teach you G****n or English and you
teach me Chinese and show me China someday, who knows where it leads.

Looking forward to hear from you

Erwin

I know I’ve said it before but now I’m really, really considering telling this guy he’s messed up his e-mail client. Mind you, now there’s a bit of awkwardness involved, I’m tempted to not tell him. I think that would be wrong. Of course, there’s no way he knows the message bounced, so I can spare him that indignity.

Hindsight being a Hubble telescope, I really should have told him months ago when this first started.