mssv

  • MMOEs

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    Someone just coined ‘unfiction’ as a way of describing mmoe-like games such as the AI or The Spooks game. I’m not sure whether it’s particularly descriptive, and I prefer my own ‘mmoe’ (what a surprise). But ‘unfiction’ is easier to say than ‘mmoe’ – so from henceforth, I decree that ‘mmoe’ should be pronounced ‘Moe’.

  • Lobsters

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    I’m in the middle of reading Lobsters by Charlie Stross and while it’s very enjoying (a kind of superpowered MacLeod without the communism – okay, that doesn’t make any sense, but still) I can’t help but think – does anyone actually talk like this? “I work for the betterment of everybody, not just some narrowly…

  • Hugos

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    Several of the 2001 Hugo SF short story nominees are online at Asimov’s Science Fiction. High quality free science fiction – it doesn’t get much better value than this.

  • Space Exploration Act

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    A new bill entitled the Space Exploration Act of 2002 has been introduced to set forth a strict timetable for NASA to accelerate reuseable space vehicle development and see a Man on Mars by 2022 (and no, it hasn’t been enacted yet).

  • Dentist

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    No comments on Dentist

    Went to the dentist today. As I mulled over the psychological impact of hearing the whirr of a drill on patients (perhaps if you used a silent drill people wouldn’t make the association between pain and the drill?) the dentist took a couple of x-rays of my teeth. I hadn’t been to the dentist for…

  • Discourse markers

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    I exhausted my link-finding ability today after constructing a post to Metafilter about discourse markers such as ‘you know’ and ‘I mean’. Read and enjoy.

  • Wired

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    The June issue of Wired Magazine is now online – ever since their new editor came in, Wired stopped their practice of putting issues on the web a month late. This was probably a good idea – the magazine is so cheap in America ($10 for a year’s subscription) that you might as well subscribe,…

  • Saddam writing

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    An amusing article at Reason on Saddam’s career as the best-selling novelist in Iraqi history (even before his book was released, would you believe it).

  • Spooks

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    No comments on Spooks

    The BBC has started up a new AI-like game! Quite a surprise, I’ll have to admit. It’s called ‘Spooks’ and you can find the entry page here. Positive points: It’s done by the BBC, who have a good track record of Internet stuff. They openly acknowledge a debt to Microsoft’s AI game. It’s tied to…

  • SBC

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    I got an email today from my psychology supervisor, Prof. Simon Baron-Cohen (the autistics guy) who said that unfortunately he wouldn’t be able to give us an extra supervision for the exams since he’s flying out to Kosovo to help with their new child psychiatry service. I think that is impossibly neat.