What is Dating these days?

Dating, in my opinion, is not what is used to be...

Dating, in my mind, represent the method by which one can find a life partner. The basic idea is to meet people to find the perfect match. Thus, to meet as many people as possible maximizes the possibilities of finding the right person.

Before there was community gathering, bars, clubs, friends of friends, etc. Concepts relying on random chance or on shared interests.

But that all changed with the Internet. And cellphones. And an ever changing society.

Since don't have time anymore, we can't be bothered by the old way anymore. We also can't just leave it to chance anymore.

With the Internet came easier access to communication. With Cellphones came convenience of anywhere, anytime, as well as proximity.

The famous pickup lines was all about ice breaking, about establishing a communication medium. It was about creating a context into which you were not a stranger anymore. The new technologies are the pickup lines. The new medium by which communication is established is the change of context. You don't have to break the ice anymore, the system does it for you. It also changes the dynamics of meetings, as it creates a medium where women are more confident and contact men as often as men contact women.

are things getting better or worse? or just different?

MMORPGs, the list

I am searching. Searching for a good game I could play online with friends. We can always play the usual UT2004, or Freelancer, or Starcraft, or whatever, but it's a sort of repetitive experience.

I want to find something persistent... Some universe we can go back to... Some form of building up with competition and cooperation that never really ends...

I'm thinking of getting my own Baren Realms Elite game server! (Ha! the good old times...) But since the new craze is all about MMORPGs, I decided to have a quick look at those, and here is a list of what I found interesting (sources here and here:

• Shattered Galaxy - This is an older one in my mind because it's one of the first I played (back in 2002). Still a good game, and a rare breed of MMORPG with RTS (in other words, MMORTS). This game is free, but non-paying character suffer penalties.


• Guild Wars, another free-to-play game. You only pay the initial price of acquiring the game. I might try this one has it seems to be casual-gamer-friendly.


• Planeshift yet another free game, but this only is still in beta. This one is special, as the game engine is GPL, meaning you only will pay for things like artistic content and server access (once the game is finished)... Interesting title to say the least.


• MapleStory - Free 2D anime-like cartoon game. No comments.


• EVE Online - I could be considered a fan of this game. I played the 14 day trial, and liked it very much, but saw little incentive to pay for the game (considering I was unemployed at the time). I liked the huge skill tree that permit one to survive mostly on trading, or on mining, or fighting, etc. I also liked how you could, in theory, be a more casual gamer and only play a couple of minutes each day. (of course it always turned into an hour or two, but on some occasions, I only logged in, changed skill, and logged out.) The big downside to this game, is the fact that you aren't the pilot, the computer is: you tell it what to do, but it's more homeworld-like than space-sim, in that regard.


• Jumpgate - an older Space-based MMO. The graphic looked dated by todays standard, but I don't know about the gameplay.


• Rise - I could find little information on this game, but it seems a bit like Planetside, in which you have to fight for a planet.


• Darkspace - Space-based MMORTS.


• Vendetta Online - now this one seems interesting. I haven't tried it yet, but it looks promising. A real space sim with the story somewhere between EVE and freelancer.


• Infinity - Now there's a very interesting game. Problem is, it's not out yet... not for at least another year.

Interesting articles and thoughts

Here is a couple of random thoughts for today.

it's been a long week since I last posted, and I wanted to give a idea, kind of a roundup, of what i've been thinking all week.

First of all, there is a couple of interesting thought provoking articles that exist on the Internet, and I stumbled across one today. It's a speech from 2 years ago, on why DRM is bad. Bottom line: DRM can never be designed to be uncrackable, and it's not what consumers want. Corporation should try to find new markets instead of trying to fight the new technologies.

And while we are on the subject of thought provoking articles, here is a small list of those I found interesting enough to keep:

• Microsoft Research DRM talk by Cory Doctorow, the article I just mentioned


• "Free Culture" by Lawrence Lessig - An electronic book about the reasoning of copyright law, and how the idea behind it is loss to the modern world.


• "Cargo Cult Science" by Richard Feynman - A critic of modern scientific integrity by a well known Nobel prize American physicist.


• Space Shuttle Challenger Accident Report, Appendix F - Personal observations on the reliability of the Shuttle, again, by Richard Feynman. "For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled."


• "The Mathematics of Monkeys and Shakespeare" - A Short look at the classic problem behind making Hamlet with an infinite numbers of monkey.


• The Six Dumbest Ideas in Computer Security - Title says it all...


• Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One's Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments - An ignobel winner , tell why some individuals are incompetent and will stay that way because they can't see that they are wrong.


• The Problem With Music a small article by Steve Albini about how music bands don't get much from signing deals (while the record company got a lot of revenue).


• Why Are There So Few Female Computer Scientists? a 1991 text that tries to explain why there are so few female in the tech field.


• MIT's OpenCourseWare - a free and open educational resource for faculty, students, and self-learners around the world.

I'll post more went I remember them.

Second 'topic' I gave lots of thought about is dating. I'm presently single, and in the I.T. Field, it's not easy to meet women (even harder my age). I'm preparing a complete post on this topic, so i'll just leave it at that for now.

Third concept that occupied my thought this past week is a concept i've seen in ethics. I don't know the exact term in english but it can be roughly translated to 'forbidden to think'. It is a process by which you tell people what to think instead of giving them the tolls to come to proper conclusions by themselves. I have also prepare a simple post, and I need a picture to complete the post, so more on that later.

finally the topic of MMO. I have talked with a friend of mine yesterday about the economies and the principles that makes MMO fun. One thing stuck out: for us, at least, it has to be casual, not power leveling. Thus I ask for advice from a friend who followed this industry closer than I do, and I might try out Guild Wars. The no monthly fee is a very interesting aspect, to say the least. In any rate, i'll keep you posted...

Explaining technology to the commoner

Theories or hypothesis are never of real value until you test them in the Real World(Tm). And sometimes they fail miserably.

Well, this is exactly what happened to me this week. I had this very well thought-out theory on how to teach technology to the common men. The basic idea is that while you can get by only how things work, you can never really master technology until you learn why things are the way they are. You can only go so far only learning everything by heart. I have already touch that part of the subject and I won't reproduce the entire argument here...

And so with this idea in mind I sought out to find the perfect way to teach someone how to use technology better, and how to teach those around me enough knowledge about computers and security to make them efficient and safe. With a solid base on how computer works, it's much easier to understand why you should or should not do something. It's also easier to see anything that might be problematic, like a phishing scam or a scrupulous website. I Truly believe that with a solid foundation, one can be good enough to be self-sufficient. I also think that everyone should follow some sort of computer training in order to insure the overall safety of the entire network. But then, I compared notes with a friend and found out that I forgot something important:

People are lazy. People are stupid. They don't want to learn.

When was the last time you opened a manual of any device you used? If you actually read the manual (like I tend to do), ask around. You might find that you representing a small minority. We, North-Americans, tend to think about ourselves and give as little attention as possible to things that don't seems useful. Can't learn to use it in 5 second? it's useless. Can't be explained a new notion in less than 5 min.? don't want to hear it. We just don't care.

Teaching a notion to someone who isn't intended on mastering it can be a real pain.

But there is still hope for those you want to learn. Because computers and technology will be in every aspect of ours lives soon enough. Learning it will no longer be a simple requirement, it will be impossible to do live a normal live without it. And thoses who will lack the basic computer knowledge will become second class citizens (or un-netizens): unable to communicate or participate on the community, to socialize with friends, or to meet anyone. It is similiar to the phone system from years ago, you don't hear this anymore: "You don't have a phone number? But how am I going to reach you?". But very soon, people without Cell phone, e-mail adresse, Blog or any new communication technology deemed necessary for communication will be left out.

So why not start today? Learn something new today. Take a simple step forward. Before you know it, you will have walked a mile, or 10000, and will have joined up with the information revolution.