Thursday, July 27, 2006
What is this?
(OK, and I promise I'm not turning this into a game blog).
That is my newest creation in the game Second Life, flying over one of the new void sims (which sadly will not be void once the land barons get it and chunk it up for profit). It's my rendition of a J7W1 Shinden, a Japanese prototype plane built very late in WWII, rendered in 30 primitives and programmed by moi with working gear, stall characteristics, a realistic on-ground taxi mode, and crash detection (still working a few bugs out of that).
Since it is a Japanese plane, I thought it only fitting to get a shot of the rising sun in the background.
I've had a blast building and flying this plane and it has, perhaps, renewed my faith in the world called Second Life. I finally succeded in making something there in that make-believe world that I am truly proud of. I still find intense irony in that thought.
(OK, and I promise I'm not turning this into a game blog).
That is my newest creation in the game Second Life, flying over one of the new void sims (which sadly will not be void once the land barons get it and chunk it up for profit). It's my rendition of a J7W1 Shinden, a Japanese prototype plane built very late in WWII, rendered in 30 primitives and programmed by moi with working gear, stall characteristics, a realistic on-ground taxi mode, and crash detection (still working a few bugs out of that).
Since it is a Japanese plane, I thought it only fitting to get a shot of the rising sun in the background.
I've had a blast building and flying this plane and it has, perhaps, renewed my faith in the world called Second Life. I finally succeded in making something there in that make-believe world that I am truly proud of. I still find intense irony in that thought.
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
Untrained Experts
Did you know that the two funniest sounding words in the English language are ‘boots” and “zucchini”?
No, really. I have it on good authority.
You see, if you say either of these words to my little boy he just erupts in laughter. No other words do this. Not “boy” or “ball” or “baby” or “butts”. Not “xylophone” or “zoo” or “xenophobe”. Not “mommy” or “daddy”. Not even words that I think are funny sounding like “ladder” or “hammer”. Just “boots” and “zucchini” do the trick.
So I ask myself what this means. We are dealing with mind that has zero connotative understanding of what these words mean. Although he may be beginning to grasp the meaning of words like “mommy” or “milk”, “boots” and “zucchini” are still concepts beyond him. So, he doesn’t think the meaning of the words is funny.
The only thing he knows is what the word sounds like to his ears. Just little bits of (as of yet) meaningless, conceptual code he has not deciphered. Going only on sounds, he has determined that “boots’ and “zucchini” rate a laugh and other words do not.
I find this fascinating, you see, because it took a completely unskilled and untrained mind to make the determination about what truly is a funny sounding word and what is not. No amount of expert training could have produced the same result. In fact, training would have tainted the result. Such experts would bring their own opinions about the words to the table (such as hammer sounding really funny to me).
Perhaps expertise in a subject is not all it is cracked up to be. An interesting thought.
No, really. I have it on good authority.
You see, if you say either of these words to my little boy he just erupts in laughter. No other words do this. Not “boy” or “ball” or “baby” or “butts”. Not “xylophone” or “zoo” or “xenophobe”. Not “mommy” or “daddy”. Not even words that I think are funny sounding like “ladder” or “hammer”. Just “boots” and “zucchini” do the trick.
So I ask myself what this means. We are dealing with mind that has zero connotative understanding of what these words mean. Although he may be beginning to grasp the meaning of words like “mommy” or “milk”, “boots” and “zucchini” are still concepts beyond him. So, he doesn’t think the meaning of the words is funny.
The only thing he knows is what the word sounds like to his ears. Just little bits of (as of yet) meaningless, conceptual code he has not deciphered. Going only on sounds, he has determined that “boots’ and “zucchini” rate a laugh and other words do not.
I find this fascinating, you see, because it took a completely unskilled and untrained mind to make the determination about what truly is a funny sounding word and what is not. No amount of expert training could have produced the same result. In fact, training would have tainted the result. Such experts would bring their own opinions about the words to the table (such as hammer sounding really funny to me).
Perhaps expertise in a subject is not all it is cracked up to be. An interesting thought.