Reflections on Pong & Computing.

My last post contained a link to a 3D pong game, and I've been playing that game in an intentional effort to keep busy while avoiding some of the other (read that, "real") work I have to do around the house. After a total of about 45 minutes of pong-ing, in three or four sessions, I have good news and bad news. The good news is, I'm getting better at this cool game. My high score to date is posted to the right - respectable, but I'm sure I can do better. The bad news is, my old computer, while orders of magnitude more technologically advanced than even the most capable game machine available back when the original Pong was all the rage, it just can't hack the modern day version of this venerable classic. Ya see, this new version is uses Macromedia's Flash, which runs in your web browser, which runs run under the main OS (in my case, Windows 2000) and shares available CPU cycles with all the other processes running, like virus scanners, explorer and media player (as I type this, Sheryl Crow is serenading me with that sexy voice of hers, but that's another post). And let's not forget about Outlook fetching my email in the background. Now, I know Jadzia (yes, that's the name I chose for my old computer - I liked Terry Farrel's character AND HER back in the days of Star Trek Deep Space Nine) is old, and she's only a dual PII 266Mhz, and she has only 224MB of (old EDO) RAM, but c'mon! It's just a freak'n PONG game! I actually switched over to a machine I have from work - a laptop - to get decent pong-performance. Not that it was unbearable on Jadzia, but I did notice my racket was a bit sluggish and, as I'm sure anyone who has ever played Pong at my level will tell you, ya just don't want to have to deal with a sluggish racket. It really throws off your timing.

Hold that thought - Sheryl just started singing I Shall Believe - gotta pause...








Ahhhh...

Back to the business at hand, Pong. I shouldn't be surprised at Jadzia's performance. I've been window shopping for a new machine for a long, long time. Just not yet ready to plop down all that jack for something shiny and new when Jadzia, as old as she is, does nearly everything I ask her to do (if only I could find a woman who'll do the same!). I've never had a computer as long as I've had Jadzia - Dell shipped her October 23rd, 1997 - and I used it every single day! 1997! Hell, in dog years, Jadzia's DEAD! I guess I should stop complaining and just buy a new machine. I'll have to come up with a nice name for my new machine. Something like, ohhh, I don't know, maybe Sheryl

PONG! It'll NEVER Die!

The first pong game I ever had was on my Atari game console when I was a teenager. It was cool then, but not so much these days. I simple game like that doesn't stand a chance competing against all the fancy bang-bang shoot-em-up games that are out there now, with all their slick, 3D graphics and hot, bosomy chicks. Or does it...

I just came across this on the web. A 3D pong game! I amost feel like a youngster again. Almost!

It has curves, but no chicks. D'ough!!!

Details, details...

So, before leaving work today I shared my last blog entry with Aaron. You remember Aaron, that "smary" guy from my last entry? I just wanted to be sure he'd take my...observations in the spirit in which they were meant. He did, good-spirited guy that he is. He was also quick to point out the typo I eluded to above (I know, just throwing Aaron a bone. Here, read this) - VERY quick, in fact - and he also graciously offered advice of a grammatical nature, not all of which I agree with, but a bit of research should clear up any lingering doubts, if not quickly and definitively prove him wrong and me right. Of course, Aaron would probably say that I should say, "...prove MYSELF right", but I'll deal with that tomorrow, along with whatever additional comments he'll have regarding this post, my punctuation, my hair style (shut up, Joe) and whether or not my black shirt is actually black or some odd shade of navy blue that black shirts tend to morph into when they get old and faded. No matter how you slice it, I'm in for another fun morning, that's for sure! Maybe it'd be wise to call in sick! At any rate, he did get a good laugh out of it, so all is well.

So, after pondering Aaron's constructive criticism, I DID make a few insignificant...modifications to the last entry. Not all of Aaron's concerns have been corrected - I mean addressed...yah, that's what I mean, addressed. After all, were I to correct - I mean, address - all of his...points of interest (or should it be, "...were me to address..."?) the (admittedly fairly meaningless) point of reference for this entry would be forever lost and we can't have that, now can we? (Aaron, did I get the comma in the right place? Maybe I need another one after "lost" and before the "and"??)

Still, I don't know how those little things get by me. I must proof read my entries three or four times before declaring them 'good-to-go'. Must be a glitch in my internet connection. Yah, that's it, gremlins! I hear the 'net is chock full of them pesky critters. I really wish blogspot would do something about that. Maybe I should lodge a complaint...

To be honest, I'm feeling a teentsy bit guilty about sharing Aaron's quirks with the world. He's actually a nice guy, even if he was a psych major (probably minored in english, too), and some might think he really doesn't deserve it. They may be right...Oh, well. I'm sure the guilt will pass.

It always does.

Gee, I'm feeling better already!

Intelligent People...

...They can be...surprising. Take, for instance, one of my co-workers, Aaron. Aaron is a smary guy, there's no doubt about it. We work in IT with a lot of other smart people. The other day I mentioned to Aaron that my brother and I recently bought some circular slide rules. You, know, the kind you might have seen in an (old) movie with...well, smart people. Today we might call those people "geeks" or "nerds", but let's not get sidetracked (besides, I'm sure we're all much more enlightened these days, right?). So, I'm telling Aaron about how surprised - more like astonished - I was when I finally figured out (okay, I read it), after all these years, the basic principal behind slide rules, whether they be of the circular or straight variety. It was a bit of a "revelation" for me. I think it was just about the time I used the word "logarithm" when I noticed the blank, almost lethargic look on Aaron's face. He had absolutely NO INTEREST WHATSOEVER! How can that be? Well, that's when I found out that, in college, Aaron was a psychology major!!! He's the kind of guy who's more interested in why people like me (and my brother - I'm not taking this hit alone!) are fascinated by such things as slide rules. He's even more interested in what makes some people invent such things. What could go so wrong with a human mind to make it dream up something like that? That's what interests Aaron. Go figure....

Anyway...
On the chance that there are others out there like my brother and I, let me share a little about my two new toys...



There they are. They're smaller than I expected, but they're still pretty cool. They're also getting hard to find these days. I was surprised when my brother found a place that still sold them. One thing that really surprised me was how well they are made. I think they'll last forever, especially since I'll hardly ever use them.
So, how DO they work? Well, I'm certainly not any kind of slide rule expert, but the basic answer is pretty simple. First, think of having two rulers with the scales adjacent to each other. It doesn't matter whether the rulers measure inches, centimeters or ladybugs, as long as the scales are the same they give you a mechanism for adding two numbers. If you want to add 3 and 2, place the edge (zero) of one ruler under the 3 on the other ruler and read the answer over the 2 on the first. If you don't get 5 you did it wrong. Like I said, simple!
Second, logarithms. As you may recall from the day you fell asleep in 9th grade math class, when you add the logs of two numbers and then take the inverse log of the sum, the result is the same as if you had multiplied the original numbers. You can also divide numbers by subtracting their logs, just be sure to keep the numbers straight. Remember, multiplication is commutative, but division isn't. Now, take the imaginary rulers we used for addition and make a slight change. Instead of having normal linear scales, make them logarithmic. Now, when you add two numbers you'll actually being adding their logs, thereby multiplying instead of merely adding! Pretty cool, eh?

Okay, so maybe you're not as astonished as I was, but you have to admit it's pretty cool. I'm sure Aaron won't but you can. It's alright, I won't tell...

If you're more of a geek than I, here's a site I found with what just might be a better explaination than mine.

Oh, I left out my nephew. He certainly didn't miss this chance to bust his uncle's and old man's balls about this. We have these things called calculators... Smart-ass! Twenty-something years old and he thinks he knows everything. Slide rules got us to the MOON, kid, and the batteries never died. Kids these days have NO respect...