Entries for February 2000
So here’s the answer to the three gunmen problem:
Gunman #1 should fire his shot into the air.
Want an explanation? Here’s the best one I received via email. Rob Cooper writes:
This calls into question Game Theory — which was a cold-war think tank strategy on how to wage and win in very dire straits. Each should fire towards the most likely target. If #1 shoots #3 and hits, then he’s second shot in a two way. If he aims at #2 and hits, he’s second shot and sure to lose. If he fires his gun into the air, #2 will fire at #3. If #2 misses, and #3 hits, #1 gets to go first. If #2 hits #3, #1 gets to go first. Ergo, fire into the air, let the bad guys duke it out until you are first shot in a two-way contest.
The worst thing #1 could do would be to aim at and hit his target in a 3 way contest — he’d most likely die. But if he aims and hits in a 2 way contest, he wins. In a 3 way contest — no one is shooting at him so it’s in his interest to keep it a 3 way contest until someone ELSE hits the other target.
Seems completely counterintuitive when you first hear the answer, but once you hear the explanation, it makes perfect sense.
Worst episode ever? Or just The Simpsons’ writers getting back at fans with too much time on their hands?
Yee-haw! Eyes Wide Shut is being released on DVD March 7th. In general, people didn’t like this movie…I loved it, putting it on my “best of” list for last year. Two things about the DVD: it appears to be the Americanized R-rated version (grrrr) and it’s not in letterbox. The non-letterbox format could be a good thing though. The Shining was released on DVD in non-letterbox and actually displayed more of the movie than theatre audiences saw because of the way it was shot. Let’s hope EWS is the same way.
The Talented Mr. Ripley, I’m sure, is a good movie. I just didn’t find it all that interesting. And the Gwyneth-to-dollar ratio was way too low.
Give me some good soundbytes on my voicemail: 1-877-218-0260 ext.358 (toll-free) Update: Sorry, it’s full already. Call 1-877-TAME-HER instead.
Odd day today. I went to get some lunch around noon and picked up an early metro edition of the Sunday paper. Much to my surprise, I find an article (entitled “Weblog wizard Jim Romenesko”) inside the Entertainment section about James Romenesko’s weblogs, Obscure Store and Media News. While it’s odd reading about weblogs in a Minneapolis newspaper (Twin Cities’ newspapers are about as un-media savvy as you can get), it was even stranger that the newspaper in question was the Star Tribune, a competitor of the cross-town newspaper that Jim used to work for. Quite possibly the last thing I expected to see when I woke up this morning.
But not quite. Whilst looking for a link to the above story on the Star Trib Web site, I ran across something even stranger. It seems that Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, who maintains the excellent Pop Culture Junk Mail weblog in her spare time, is running a daily weblog on the Star Tribune site. You can even suggest items for inclusion via email. Go Gael! Suddenly the Star Tribune doesn’t seem so lame anymore….although they still have a way to go considering their lack of real reporting about technology and the Internet up to this point.
And Gael, if you’re listening…if you could get me a link in that sidebar there, right above Robotwisdom, that would be great. ;)
The biggest part of a designer’s job is to create something that “feels right” and then come up with some reasons to justify your creation to the creative director, client, and investors.
Suppose there are 3 gunmen in a deadly shootout situation: if someone gets shot, they’re dead. Gunman #1 gets to shoot first, but only hits his target 33% of the time. Gunman #2 gets to shoot second and hits his target 50% of the time. Gunman #3 gets to shoot last and never misses. This continues until only one man is standing. What should Gunman #1 do with his first shot so that he has his best chance of escaping with his life? I’ll give you the correct answer in a few days.
Blast from the past: God.com, one of the more popular episodes of 0sil8. Includes the phrase: “the best meatloaf this side of Galilee.”
A question from a few days ago: When you look at yourself in a mirror, everything is reversed from left to right and from right to left. Why aren’t you upside down as well?
A: Quite simply, everything in the mirror is not reversed from right to left, it just seems that way. Psychologically, we think of the object in the mirror as another person and imagine ourselves in that person’s place. But we really couldn’t be in that person’s place because then our right hand would become that person’s left hand (picture yourself walking around the other side of the mirror and see what happens). With our misguided perception removed from the mix, a mirror doesn’t display things upside-down because *that’s just how mirrors work*.
For more on mirrors and such, visit these sites: 1, 2, 3, 4. Please note that some of the information on these sites may be wrong. Thanks to various folks for sending these links in.
From Steve Champeon comes the evolution of the portal:
1) come here
2) go somewhere else
became
1) come here
2) look at an ad (ka-ching!)
3) go somewhere else
became
1) come here
2) look at an ad (ka-ching!)
3) go somewhere else, but stay on this site
4) goto #2
becomes
1) come here
2) go somewhere else, but stay on this site
3) buy something (ka-ching!)
4) goto #2
AOL has been so successful, perhaps, because they skipped right to the last part.
Oh. Good. Lord. David Siegel, author of a couple of Web design books, creator of the Tekton typeface, and all-around egomaniac, is now, apparently, a comedian. Of course, I was once a physicist and am now a Web designer, so whatever. Update: I wasn’t paying close attention here (because I’m an idiot)…this is not David Siegel the former (current?) Web designer. Sorry for the confusion. It would be funny, though, if Dave up and decided to become a comedian. So, how ‘bout it, Dave?
More DoubleClick stuff. In addition to opting out of their follow-you-around-the-Web cookie, you may also send an email message to several of DoubleClick’s affiliates asking them not to share their information on you with DoubleClick.
”I am a happy invalid and it has revolutionized my whole attack. My back is turned on the more banal kind of advertising, and I have canceled all commissions and am resolutely set on starving. I shall undertake only the simple childish things that call for compromise with the universal twelve-year-old mind of the purchasing public and I will produce art on paper and wood after my own heart with no heed to any market. Revolution, stark and brutal.” - W.A. Dwiggins
It seems that the mirror question from a couple days ago is driving folks nuts….I’ve been getting lots of answers, right and wrong. When I get a spare moment, I’ll post the correct answer. Also, stay tuned for a brain teaser that is even more mind-boggling than the mirror question.
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