Chris Jackson's Blog

Restating my Assumptions

2009-09-13T00:23:00.001-07:00

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Next Einstein: From Africa

2008-12-15T04:49:00.000-08:00

Last post, I spoke about the education system. It's great to see people use education as a powerful tool to help transform Africa for the better through scientific leadership. It was super-inspiring to see the video below:

We need a revolution in our Education Systems

2008-12-14T15:01:00.000-08:00

We've all felt it. It has crossed all our minds. We thought it was us who were missing something--even when we played the good student and did all the work.

Sir Ken Robinson: Do schools kill creativity?

My favorite quote from this lecture: "If you are not prepared to be wrong, you'll never come up with anything original." So true. In fact, this is something I'd like to keep in mind in every research paper I write. There is the possibility that my hypothesis is incorrect, and I have to take it into consideration. Also, this is a good point he made, and our "grading system" or assessment needs to also reflect the idea that mistakes are often times how we learn best.

This also cross-references a point along really the same lines by what Milton Friedman says to his student at 3:36-3:55 in the following video about always considering the possibility that your analysis is wrong:

Dynamic vs Static : Why I love Groovy

2008-11-26T08:38:00.001-08:00

Steve Yegge hit's the hammer on the nail in why I like Groovy so much in this Tech-Talk about Dynamic Languages vs. traditional Static Languages.

Groovy allows both static and dynamic programming interchangeably. The most compelling argument I see in this video which really hits the point is that there is more information available during runtime. Groovy and the JVM is the future! ;)

ZOMG... The most random video you will ever see

2008-11-26T05:01:00.000-08:00

When a friend of mine shared this video with me, here was the chat conversation that ensued:

friend: you're never gonna believe this
me: what?
friend: i just found yo mama's ex-boyfriend on youtube
me: lol
friend: <inserts video>
me: LMAO
that's your stepfather
friend: HAHAHHAHAHAHAHA
me: lol
friend: that's your real father
me: your mom's like a mini-market
friend: yo mama's "just like...she's just like... a mini mall!"
me: yo, this dude's scary
friend: "oh yeah, flea market"
me: Alabama would make a nucca look like a clown
friend: hahahahahahhahahaha
he's the pride of montgomery
the scary thing is, i bet his business has quadrupled after that ad
3+ million views on youtube
if i was anywhere near alabama, i'd drive there just in the hopes of seeing him
me: this must be the edited version... the original had your momma booty dancin on the plastic covered sofa
friend: HAHAHAHHAHAHAHA
your mom's one of his many groupies
me: lol
your mom tailored his suit
friend: your mom's his roadie
hahahahahahahhaha
he got his suit at oaktree
me: the most unbelievable part is....
how he agreed to....
...cut off his jerry-curl
friend: hahahhahahaha
you know he's also gotta be a preacher on the side
me: yeah
usin' the money to go watch R-Kelly shows
friend: HAHAHAHHAHAHAHA
me: down-lo, down-lo

Does he look like a bitch?

2008-11-19T07:35:00.001-08:00

It's been a while since I've blogged. So here's some humor for ya.

What is America?

2008-11-03T05:58:00.001-08:00

One of the very touching moments in the Obama campaign. Go Obama!

Developing Apps for Microsoft Surface: Show me the Code!

2008-10-30T11:04:00.001-07:00

Surface is Microsoft's touchscreen technology.

This first video literally develops a basic photo viewing application in under two minutes using XML configuration and the C# language.

PDC Day 1 - Developing for Surface from Dan Waters on Vimeo.

In this second video, the guy codes tells Surface how to react to a particular physical object (painter pallet) by telling Surface its shape, position, and what do do, etc. Then uses this painter color pallet to actually paint things on Surface. It's kinda long, but make sure you watch minutes 3:00 - 4:00 and of course the end of the video.

PDC - Using the Surface SDK to "see" objects from Dan Waters on Vimeo.

Prepare your mind for Gears of War 2

2008-10-29T13:10:00.000-07:00

Ok, time to get ready for Gears of War 2.... If you haven't watched the Dev Diaries you should really check them out. Here are 3 of them to start....

1. All about Sounds (Can really make a game)

2. A Pixel is Worth 1,000 Words

3. Stars, Gunfire, Drama, Romance

And the cool launch trailer...

Finally, the very cool "Last Day" trailer as we prepare for battle...

GMaven (Groovy + Maven)

2008-10-13T15:24:00.000-07:00

I love Groovy and I love Maven but it was a bit of a pain at first to get GMaven working.

To make a long story short, my solution was to use the following parameters:

mvn org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-archetype-plugin:2.0-alpha-3:generate \
-DarchetypeGroupId=org.codehaus.groovy.maven.archetypes \
-DarchetypeArtifactId=gmaven-archetype-basic \
-DarchetypeVersion=1.0-rc-3

The real "gem" is having to specify the "2.0-alpha-3" since that's when the generate goal came into practice instead of the old-school "archetype:create." Once this is fixed, you'd be able to just do "archetype:generate." Also, once if the jira passes then you no longer will have to specifry the archetypeVersion, a parameter often missed by n00bs like myself.

G'luck!

Relocating to South America?

2008-10-13T12:02:00.000-07:00

I received an email from a friend of mine today interested in relocating to South America and ended up writing a long reply to it. These are just my own opinions but I figured I'd share the email with all of you.

Her email:

"Hi Chris,

I am thinking about relocating to South America in the near
future but I'm not sure where to go.Can you tell me about some of the best places?
I hear Brazil and Peru are very sexual, ia that true?
I'd like to live not far from a beach.
Could I possibly find a job in health care before I relocate? Or should I job hunt once there?
What do you know about Argentina?
Is the cost of living lower there? (south america)
I here you speak Portugese, do they speak English or more Portugese?
How do you like it over there?
I have more questions for you as I think of them ,if thats ok. Please contact me when you can. I hope your family is well."

My Reply:

Languages and Geography
I'm sure you already know, but just in case... In Brazil the language is Portuguese. Everywhere else in South America is Spanish. Argentina has the fastest Spanish that I've ever heard. Oh, and although to us Spanish and Portuguese are very similar (and the fact that they all lived right next to each other on the same continent), they still find it hard to speak one language of the other.

I've only been to Argentina (Buenos Aires) once, so I don't know much. They seem a bit more modern than Brazil, however they still have the weaker currency. This is probably due to big American companies setting up shop in Buenos Aires. The minute you go outside of Buenos Aires, you hit the real Argentina.

Brazil has very very beautiful beaches and climates. People just talk about Rio de Janeiro which is undeniably beautiful, but Rio is in the South, and the further you go North towards the equator the prettier the beaches and climate; Just like in the U.S. the further you go South toward the equator the more beautiful the beaches. For example, I really like the beaches in Salvador, a famous Brazilian city located in the NorthEast (also where I met my wife). Oh, and by the way, I wouldn't move to Rio, there's a civil war going on there between low-salaried corrupt cops, real cops, druglords with gangs, anti-drug ex-cops, pro-drug ex-cops, pliticians, etc. And more often than not, a lost bullet crosses over from that underlying excluded society into "regular" society realizing the neglected problems, yet real problems of that society.

Culture (social, sexual)

Brazil and Peru, and other countries in Latin American are quickly known to be more open, sociable folks. Having been here for a while I can tell there' s much more of an ease to conversation and a willingness for the people here to converse. There' s more physical contact as well such as kissing on each cheek (in Brazil) when greeting, hugging, etc. Sexual contact too, is less discrete but not all willy-nilly either.

There seems to be a stereotypical mixup with Brazil when it comes society here, particularly the women. It's a mixup because some of the things are true and some are not. So everyone knows there is this huge party every year called Carnaval in which there are Samba-dancers, people drinking a lot, more sex than usual, etc. Admittedly, the party is kinda
wild for those few days, but then everything is back to normal. Plus, Carnaval is celebrated differently depending on the city (Salvador carnaval is much different than that in Rio de Janeiro). Most vacationers visit Brazil for the party, then leave. Upon returning to their home-country they spread the experiences of the party and the women there. Judgment has been
put on Brazil as a whole based on a party that lasts just a few days. Kinda like a foreigner visiting the U.S. for Mardi-Gras then leaving.

The negative side of Brazilian culture I find is that they are very "espertinho." That word in some contexts means "clever," however the context in which I'm using it is "slick." Yes, they are very slick, or they "try to get over on you." Not only are Brazilians very socialable in terms of speech, but also in terms of attitude and are not afraid to try and cut corners, make a deal. In other words, they're hustlers. This tends to be a theme in any place where resources such as jobs and money are scarce. It doesn' t mean every brazilian is like this, but still holds true for the culture in general. Any brazilian you speak with will admit this is true. And for those who still deny, just ask them the meaning of "jeitinho brasileiro" ("the brazilian way"), and they'll crack, smile, then tell you the truth.

Job, government, work-society, and the Health Industry
Finding a job here is extremely difficult. Moving from say Atlanta to New York or from California to Chicago has its fair share of challenges, but moving from one city to the next in the same country for Brazilians is much, much harder. It can take months to for them to find a job and at best several weeks. If you are seriously considering moving to Brazil, it's best to have a very secure job lined-up first.

Brazil along with other South American countries are still not first-world countries. It hasn't
been that long since Brazil got out of a dictatorship as well. The society here is still kinda jacked up in terms of the rich-poor divide (no real middle-class here), overpopulated areas, lack of resources, government corruption, high import taxes, etc.

There tends to be a higher-rate of sickness and medical problems in general than in first-world societies and so the Health industry in that respect offers many opportunities. But then while actually on the job you end up suffering from the same things mentioned above. For example, because you cannot import this cool technology that makes it easier to help a patient (due to high import tax), you have to use an old-school, 30year old method to treat the patient while other people in the world enjoy the newer, simpler tools.

Overall advice:
Don't leave the U.S. under any circumstances. LOL, just kiddin'. But seriously, making a living and just living in South America is really difficult and you coming from the U.S. will probably get you blank stares of people trying to figure out why live in South American when most everyone in South America is trying to go live in the United States. If you can get through the bureaucracy and paperwork (that's another story) and don't mind living in a place without all the "goodies" and convenience of a 1st-world country, then you will at least find a nice, cozy place here in South America. The cost of living is not high at all, and there are some very nice deals in many untapped areas where you can buy or build a house close to the beach for cheap.

You should at least vacation to different places before moving there to get a feel. However, I've learned that vacationing to a place and living at that place fully integrated are two completely different experiences. Personally, I'd rather live and work based in the U.S. but have a nice vacation home in Brazil where I can spend a couple months at a time.

I hope this helps.

~= Chris =~

My EVE-Online Bio

2008-10-02T18:36:00.000-07:00

Minmatar - Brutor Tribe

A child of slavery, m0xie set out to get revenge for his ravished home and restore peace to his land. Mercilessly and single-handidly killing all those who opposed, m0xie quickly became popular through fear, a night-breathe roaming through the dark.

With an eager soul and powerful mind, the killing-spree will never end as those next in line gather in ignorance like confused sheep waiting to be slaughtered like a sacrafice to the great unknown we've come to know as EVE.

Geometry Wars²

2008-08-19T08:54:00.001-07:00

I found this neat XBox Card Generator on MyGamerCard.net. One of the cool features is the Geometry Wars 2 scorecard. Prepared to be embarrassed or proud. Here, I'll post mine:

Here is my general gamercard which is interactive:

Enjoy!

What I'm playing these days

2008-08-11T08:46:00.000-07:00

I haven't blogged in a while, so I figured I'd write a quick bit on what games I'm playing these days on my XBox 360 in no specific order.

Geometry Wars 2 -- I LOOOVE! This game. I just purchased it for 800 MS points ($10 USD). It's even better than the first one with all the new modes. I've completed all the modes including sequence. I currently have 10 of the 12 achievements in the game and almost won the sequence "smile" achievement but was off by one (man if I just had 1 more bomb!). I haven't tried the 4-player coop yet which I know will be insanely fun, but I did two two-player coop with my niece playing "waves" and "king" mode. Great game.

Schizoid -- Another amazing arcade title! This does have online-coop so my friend and I are currently at about level 80. This game is simple, yet very challenging forcing you to really work as a team watching each other's back. I'm determined to beat this game with my friend.

Oblivion (Elder Scrolls IV) -- Yes, I started playing this game in 2006 and I cannot put it down. I recently took about an 8 months break from this game but jumped back on it about a month ago. I finished the main quest line, but I recently started over with a brand-new character who I want to be the meanest, angriest son-of-a-bitch to exist in Cyrodill. I created a custom class specializing in sneaking, magic, etc. Think assassinator. I have the birth sign of an Astronach. I didn't realize that with this sign my magicka doesn't regenerate, but I like the challenge of gaining magicka through other interesting ways like making potions or just touching someone and absorbing their magicka :) Although I can't regenerate magicka, the amount I use up for spells is very little plus when I get hit with magical spells, I absorb some of it. I'm already in the thieves guild and the Dark Brotherhood. My goal is to become head of those guilds.

Rainbow Six Vegas 2 -- I recently completed Rainbow Six Vegas 2. I had fun playing with a character which had my face. They did a really good job with and really looks like me. I've been playing online recently doing Terrorist-Hunt coop and also regular Team Deathmatch.

Shadowrun -- I've been playing some multiplayer Shadowrun. This is one of the most overlooked, creative FPS game of all times. It is really unique in how you mix and match magic and technology to do things like teleport through anything, fly, turn invisible, etc. Along with the player classes it makes for a fun match of combinations and teamwork.

Those are the games I've been playing. Some future games I will be playing are the following...

Galaga 3 -- This arcade title looks scwheet!

COD 4 campaign -- It's a shame that over the 100+ hours I put into this game, I have yet to touch the single-player campaign. It's been all multi-player for me. I've already been through prestige mode, etc.

Assassin's Creed -- I only played out the first half of the first Act.

Mass Effect -- Yeah, shamefully I hadn't finished this yet. I'm about 80% done with the single-player campaign. I also want to download the FREE "Bring down the Sky" DLC.

Peace!

GamerTag: moXi3

Homeworld 2: Any Takers?

2008-07-22T11:20:00.000-07:00

Homeworld 2 is one of my favorite Real-time Strategy games. It came out in 2003, and I hadn't played it since 2004. You fight in 3D space with a range of ships. I just started getting back into it. Check-it out and let's play!

I played Too Human. My Impressions...

2008-07-16T12:57:00.000-07:00

I like Too Human, it's a great game that I've been longing to play. I just downloaded and play the Demo all the way through. It's just a demo and the graphics weren't really that great, but good enough for me and this type of game.

There are a couple of things I didn't like which I hope do not happen when the game ships next month. First, there seems to be lots of invisible walls I run into. They aren't even faked that well and stop me usually about 3-4ft from a wall or rock instead of bumping into it. This happens in some doorways where it feels like the actual graphic has an invisible outer shell which is part of the unseen door and blocks my run path.

Ninja Gaiden II gave me zero issues with the camera and worked perfectly not to mention there are tons of menu and in-game options to tweak the camera, but people complained... I just didn't see it. If people want to complain about game cameras in Too Human, I can understand. Te camera in Too Human was a little annoying. I wanted more control over it as I walked into a big room where I knew lots of monsters were going to come out.
But then I just said, ok, I'm gonna just trust the camera movements and things turned out well. So you just have to trust the camera in Too Human. You also have multiple zoom levels to view closer and further away from your character.

The leveling up skill point system is less complicated than I thought. And works out quite well.
You level up pretty fast and makes killing the mechanical beasts all the more enjoyable. I have
yet to play with upgrading and modifying my weapons.

Also, probably because I'm lacking the complete story, but some things didn't make sense from a gameplay perspective such as, teleport to this area... move this block to point at door number #2, then when I teleport back into reality, door #2 is opened in reality. Repeat the process for the other two doors. Logical, but why?

This demo isn't one of those tutorial demos and pretty much just let you get right in the action, and some of the story although you get the occasional tip about the basic buttons which is great but doesn't stop the game. I missed one tip because I was pressing buttons but I hope it was a tip about fighting the big, mechanical monsters. I discovered that the 'A' button let's you climb on top of the big beast when you're close enough to it (like in the trailers). But once you're on top, then what? I think, but I'm uncertain that when you're on top, if you can balance your left stick well enough and don't fall off he will do his finishing move instead of losing balance and throwing you off his back. But that's just my guess through trial and error.

Fighting was cool though, and I like the controls with the right analog stick as your main attack method in different directions. You attack a lot in Too Human, and in many directions, so the analog stick fits perfectly... better than trying to map to buttons or even just having to tap the A button repeatedly for hours.

There are even combinations you can do like pressing up/toward something with the left-stick then pressing up/toward in the same direction with the attack right-stick and that does a special move.

The music in the game is really nice too, giving it a more epic feel during battle and the actual moves themselves have nice sound effects as well.

Overall, Too Human is a great game and I hope they fix some of the minor issues I pointed out above. Too Human introduced cool and new gameplay elements which you will probably get used to pretty quickly and I'm sure once I really start customizing my character I will become attached. I will definitely buy this game.

FF XIII coming also to XBox 360 from day 0

2008-07-15T10:49:00.000-07:00

You may have noticed in the bullet points in my previous post that I said Final Fantasy XIII, which used to be a PS3 exclusive is also coming to the XBox 360 on the same day. Well, some fans are not happy with that and questions Square's "loyalty."

This has to be one of the funniest things I've seen on the net in a long time...

My E3 2008 favorites!

2008-07-15T06:28:00.001-07:00

Microsoft over-delivered at this year's E3 and there too much information to try a summarize it all. Instead, I want to share my favorite announcements in no particular order.

* Gears of War -- They will have bots! (games tend not to have bots these days). Also "Horde" mode
where you have 5player coop fighting off waves and waves of enemy hordes (who will be the last
to survive).

* Fable 2 online coop. We knew there was offline, but now online! Great!

* Red Alert 3 -- New faction "Rising Sun (Japan)". Looks beautiful. Canceled on PS3.

* Avatar system -- I welcome this new system. And I think this is just the first step
in a greater plan for social networking embodiment

* Dashboard update -- up to 8 people in a private chat room (you can all be doing different things like playing different games, doing nothing, watching a movie, and still be able to chat together). You can also share games, videos, and other stuff of on hard drive with other users. Truly the next step in social networking for consoles. Yes, blades are still there. ;)

* Netflix integration a no cost. Wow! If you have a netflix account and xbox live already, then
at no extra cost, you can queue up movies and get the downloaded straight to your XBox. Awesome strategic move by Microsoft and Netflix. Everyone wins.

* Portal: Still Alive (Portal 2). Exclusive sequel to the popular Portal coming to XBox Live Arcade this fall.

* Fallout 3 producer Todd Howard stands up and says that Fallout 3 will have substantial exclusive DLC for XBox 360

* Geometry Wars 2 with 4player online coop... That's right! Woohoo. The best $5 I've spent in my entire life

* Resident Evil 5 will have online coop so you don't have to be afraid alone

* id Software (John Carmack) partners with EA

* Final Fantasy XIII is coming to the XBox 360 and releases on the same day as the PS3 release. ZOMG!

I should note that bungie.net has yet to release any info regarding the Halo universe. Their countdown clock has about 24 hours left so be sure to see new udpates soon.

Sex and Video Games

2008-06-24T12:34:00.000-07:00

Get a Virtual Haircut: Realistic 3D Sound enviornment

2008-06-24T12:12:00.000-07:00

Wear headphones and click the "Play" button at this site: ( I know it's Portuguese, but you can find the play button under the number listing. )

http://www.gmoura.com/blog/2007/05/vai-um-corte-de-cabelo.html

There's also an option to download the mp3 fileby Right-clicking, Save As.

Back home (Zune, Wii Fit, Cam-Trax)

2008-06-23T09:34:00.000-07:00

I just got back from a week trip to the U.S.A. I miss living in my country. But at least I brought some goodies back with me...

Zune
I finally got my long-awaited Zune 80 and I'm more than satisfied. I actually bought the Red Zune 80 for myself and my wife. After doing much research on it, having it in hand looks much better than all those YouTube videos I watched over and over again. And the Zune Marketplace, like the Xbox 360 Marketplace, is a fantastic and enjoyable software to work with all made with Flash (It has that flawless, bubbly feel). My wife has one because she loves to listen to music throughout the day, which means I also get a chance to experience many of Zune sharing features like transferring songs, video podcasts, etc. It worked flawlessly. I can even sync my Zune with my PC wirelessly, yep. I also downloaded several XNA Zune Games for free made with the XNA Game Studio 3.0 CTP (community) release. Some of the games I downloaded are multiplayer, so my wife and I lay and bed and battle each other wirelessly using our Zunes all the while listening to our favorite tracks in the background and sounds effects of the game.

Wii Fit
I've also stocked up on some new Wii games (Boom Blox, Metroid, Mario Kart, Zelda, etc) and I was lucky enough to get a Wii Fit. Big thanks to my older brother for working his special channels to get me one which are still on a very limited bases. The kids just love to play on the Wii Fit. My top three games on the Wii Fit are hula-hoop, the marble madness looking balance game, and the soccer head-butt game. Definitely fun.

Cam-Trax
Speaking of fun peripherals like the Wii Fit and Wii Zapper (with Zelda), someone shared a great video of a team of folks who uses Image Recognition to turn almost any type of object into a game controller. Even a soda bottle. I've embedded the video below.

Human Computation for the Zune

2008-06-05T15:22:00.000-07:00

Zune Social Program Manager Jessica is working on new social feature to add to Zune Social. This
new feature was decided to be a music trivia game where users try to guess what music people were talking about based on words, phrases, etc. provided by other people of the community.

Alarms in my head went off about a Human Computation Tech-Talk (see below) I watched last week by a recent Ph.D graduate from Carnegie Mellon.

I immediately signed up on Zune.net to add my input on this subject to the forum since the design of this feature is heavily operated based on community contribution. Here's what I posted...

--- BEGIN POST ---
You rock Jessica!

But Please, please, please if you want to design a better game that's fun and addicting which in turn improves music search quality using human brainpower for free (which is what this is really about)then watch the following video in
its entirety...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtFroEJN1nI

Designing atop Luis' principles of Asymmetric/Symmtretric games is the way to go in my opinion.

My $0.02,

~= Chris =~

P.S. I can't wait til I make my next visit to the U.S. so that I can buy a Zune 80 (red). I'm an American living in Brazil (oh the horror of electronics down here).
--- END POST ---

And here's the video:

Hacking the XBox 360 Controller for Military Use

2008-06-03T09:45:00.000-07:00

Checkout this article on the military use of videogame controllers to help control their air and ground units. I think it's brilliant. To sum up the article, game controllers used to be highly influenced by military control interfaces spawning gamepads like the Atari game stick and the arcade controller, however, after years of evolution the military is learning a lesson or two from the videogame industry.

However, the real issue I want to talk about here is the difference between using a PC keyboard/mouse interface versus the use of thumbsticks which are widely used by almost all modern gaming consoles. More praise to console systems like XBox 360 and Playstation used outside of their original domain was surely to prompt a fanboy war between hardcore PC gamers (who thinks a mouse/keyboard configuration kicks everyone's ass) and console gamers (who argue that the thumbsticks are actually a better choice in some situations).

Here's my take on it (which I also posted to the website comments section). I'm in favor of thumbsticks (specifically the XBox 360 configuration)and here's why?

1) As stated by others, in real-life you won't be turning 180 degrees in one sec in the air or via a ground controlled vehicle. Less stress on your wrist. I can go for hours using thumbs.

2) If you have a keyboard and mouse (or just mouse) and you're in an airplane, what happens when you FLY UPSIDE DOWN???? How much control will you have then? With a gamepad, you can be upside down, on your side, whatever and still have full control! Ziiinnngg!

Robots! Robots! Robots!

2008-06-02T08:31:00.000-07:00

I'm a big fan of American style football. But besides rest of the world is concerned, I see soccer as being an okay sport and I don't mind watching parts of the game here and there. One of my gripes about soccer is the lack of points making it (to me) seem a little boring. However, I find Robot Soccer much more entertaining. Check out the vid...

I still haven't gotten my Pleo, but it's still growing in popularity, etc. Perhaps I will also invest in a second robot too called Zeno -- despite people being afraid of its stare giving him names like Chucky :)

The three things I like about Zeno is its Speech Recognition, Facial Recognition, and Facial expressions. Plus, it should not be too expensive because all the hard-processing is done by your real computer while Zeno connects to your PC wirelessly via wifi.

AI And My Contribution To Humanity

2008-05-28T13:50:00.000-07:00

In addition to switching industries to the Computer Games and Interactive Entertainment Industry, my head-first dive into the field of Artificial Intelligence in these areas is much more.

I believe one of the worst fears of a researcher is that your whole life's work or at least a great portion of it is "incorrect" and furthermore useless to the rest of humanity. And I don't mean incorrect in the sense that you prove one thing by disproving another, but rather incorrect as in, your theory or hypothesis is incorrect and you never noticed it the whole time. I like to think of a researcher as someone who explores beyond the knowledge of what's known to be true in order to find more truths about the world after having soaked up all the past knowledge and attempts in a particular area. In fact, this is exactly what you have to do and think about when trying to get a Ph.D, a Doctor of Philosophy. You are just pushing humanity's knowledge a tiny, tiny bit further in an outward direction like a bubble growing bigger and bigger. You get enough of these tiny pushes and the bubble becomes noticeably larger.

Am I satisfied spending my whole life only contributing a tiny, tiny bit to humanity's knowledge and advancement? For me, the answer is yes. Answering yes to this question makes you eligible to become a researcher. But why? After thinking about this I zoomed in on two key, motivating ideas.

The first idea is that I like to think of the world being far more advanced in 100 years, or maybe even in just 50 years, or even 5 years from now. What do you think the year 2020 will be like (it's only 22 years away)? All those Sci-Fi books I read about colonizing other planets, going beyond our own solar system, advancing the way we communicate and share information, doing things in video games that go way beyond trying to pick out differences in the number of pixels you can place on a screen are neat things if they'd really existed. This is the direction I see us moving towards as we advance in technology and sometimes I'd loved to be living in it right now. But at some point we have to bite the bullet and do the work. This work is done by researchers. And I would love to be in the middle of all this as it unfolds. Many times, however, we read about past researchers who've never seen their work come into humanity living and breathed by all. Well, that kinda sucks. But this brings me to my second idea.

My second motivating idea deals with children. More specifically, my children and family. It's great enough to be one of the pioneers helping humanity make leaps of advancement into a wonderful, evolved society but there will always be new people born who will have to live in those societies, including my kids, and my kids' kids, etc. What can I contribute to them? What I can contribute to them is survival. Survival by way of knowledge passed down to help them understand and operate in the new world. It could be as basic as getting a job, because my kid happened to have a father who was an expert in the field and who happened to teach his son a thing or to about robotics and AI which he or she was fortunate enough to pick up and enjoy. It could even be just learning to adapt and use new technologies which not everyone was able to be exposed to at an early age as my child who was lucky enough to frequently walk downstairs to bug me in my lab. This early exposure to research, ideas, and technology from my experience is usually beneficial to kids. And besides, this is the Age of the Geek. :)

I will end with this. Getting down to business and doing the nitty, gritty work is sometimes hard. But that doesn't mean being a researcher I will work, work, work. Choosing to study AI in the gaming and interactive entertainment industry means I will be having fun playing throughout my career.

Bye, Bye Sony Aibo. Welcome Pleo!!!!

2008-02-27T04:27:00.001-08:00

OMG!! I just discovered the coolest toy since tickle-me-elmo!!! It's called Pleo, and it's a robotic dinosaur. But this isn't your average robotic toy... This thing has sensors out the ass!! ... literally. It also has a sophisticated AI which it uses to learn things over time and has a variety of preset behaviors and reactions like tickling underneath its chin, holding it up by its tell and having it complain. I have a friend who bought one of the first 1000 units while he was in the U.S. and he brought it to the office today... soo freakin' cool.

The really cool part that interests me though is that the makers of Pleo, ugobe (You go become), has developed an Open Architecture behind their Pleo robot allowing anyone to plug in a USB cable and program their own behaviors into Pleo. You can download programs people have made on the internet for example and get some pretty cool behaviors like evil , evil, dinosaur, etc.

I have some ideas already. The Pleo has both an IR receiver and transmitter. With this, it can communicate with other Pleos, but it also means it can intereact via IR with say your TV. The idea I have is to combine these sensors with the use of image processing to get my Pleo to play Tetris with me by reading the colored-blocks falling on the screen and making decisions!!

This will also be my baby daughter's first birthday present! (May 19).

Jiu-Jitsu + AI = Kick-Ass!

2008-02-18T08:09:00.000-08:00

So, I have an idea that's been rolling around in my head for a while, and I want to get it down on "paper." I have a project idea I can use for formal education in the study of Artificial Intelligence. I call it, "A Demonstration of AI Learning Techniques Using Kinesiology." The "Kinesiology" part comes into play in the form of Jiu-Jitsu--studying the anatomy, physiology, and mechanics of human body movement. I actually went from calling it "Applied Mechanics" to "Biomechanics" to "Kinesiology" as I think I have now reached the schweet spot. The "AI Learning Techniques" part is where I hope to discuss reinforcement learning techniques, genetic algorithms, etc. and apply them to figuring out the best possible moves to use in Jiu-Jitsu gameplay.

So, what do I mean by applying AI to Jiu-Jitsu? Well first let's talk a little about what Jiu-Jitsu is. Jiu-Jitsu is mostly centered around ground-fighting, although practitioners do practice standup fighting, but mostly just to get their opponent to the ground where most fights seem to end up anyway. At this point it becomes an art of knowing how to control and counter body-part movements, cause muscle tension pain, and making your opponent give up. Practitioners are experts at using their entire body fighting extremely well not just with their arms but with their legs, feet, chest, head, and even weight balance plays a big role to reduce and cause fatigue. Knowing how the body works and moves is necessary in order to gain the better position. In Jiu-Jitsu, position is everything. In fact, professional practitioners a rewarded points based on their dominant position (e.g. 2 points for a side-mount, and 4 points for a top-mount). Matches often end with a player submitting the other, however the precursor to this is by having the dominant position, thus most of the game in Jiu-Jitsu is establishing dominant positions. So the next time you watch UFC and see two guys rolling around on the ground, know that they are not humping but rather they are trying to establish the dominant position.

Anyone who has participated in Jiu-Jitsu training will tell you that although physically exhausting, it feels more like a physics class than fighting. "Grab his arm...now twist your body 90 degrees to the right...put your right leg around his back with a lot of pressure so he can't stand...now put your other leg around his neck trapping his head and arm together...and pull! (opponent submits)." Knowing the physical forces and limitation of the human body is something to be mastered over time with lots of practice. It isn't easy. There are common practices or "moves" people study and give names to, but professionals often tweaked the moves based on experience or invent entirely new moves altogether.

AI is good at predicting, learning, and improving at a rapid pace. What I want to do in this project is build an AI system that can invent and improve Jiu-Jitsu fighting techniques and show it. This AI program could possibly create moves no one has thought about because of its expert knowledge in Kinesiology and hundreds and even thousands of cycles practicing different moves through generations of trial runs only letting the best of the best evolve to the top.

Not only do Jiu-Jitsu students and teachers benefit from this system, but this research also forms the basis of a Jiu-Jitsu videogame where you can have Player vs. Player and Player vs AI matches. This system could be incorporated on platforms such as the XBox 360 and the PC. A special PC version, however could offer an SDK and common set of APIs upon which Players can code their own AI atop the core framework and test them out against other AI players.

I would make the SDK OpenSource of course and would be a great, fun platform for learning and developing the art of Jiu-Jitsu (off the top of my head, I could call it "Senthi-Su" for "Synthetic Jiu-Jitsu.")

Mass Effect, Xenocide, Ender's Game, AI/VI, and The Human Race

2008-02-18T05:11:00.000-08:00

I started playing Mass Effect this past weekend and have logged about 16 hours thus far! It's a technically complex, graphically tasteful, addictive Sci-Fi which creates a 100% believable world of dozens of intermingling space faring species. But this is not a blog about Mass Effect per sé but just my take on some of the things involved in the game.

Storyline mistake?

I think I found a mistake made by the Mass Effect storyline. At one point you meet an Asari (humanoid alien) who talks about her father and feels ashamed because she is pure-blood (the child of two Asari parents). An Asari has the ability to mate with any species and they feel it to be
more advantageous to mate with another species in order to gain a better gene pool and enhance the race as a whole. Being a pure-blood means you are not helping the species and have nothing to gain. However, the Asari are an all-female species and so how could this Asari be a pure-blood and have a "father". Mistake right? However, now I realize that "father" in this case is really "mother." This Asari had two mothers (just calls one "father"). This is probably why the Asari always refer to them as "partners" to make things easier. The Asari have the ability to not only reproduce with another species, but also reproduce regardless of gender.

More on the Asari

The Asari are the sexy, intellectual species in the game. It's common for them to reach 1000 years of age. The first stage of their life is called the "maiden" stage where they spend most of their time acquiring as much knowledge as possible, exploring the galaxy, and interacting with other species. The second stage is the "matron" stage where they go around having sex with everyone and producing many, many offspring. The final stage is the "matriarch" stage where
they stop having babies and become leaders and counselors at the top of asari society.

Ender's Game and Xenocide

Having read the first two books in the Ender's Game Saga (by Orson Scott Card) ("Ender's Game" and "Speaker of the Dead") over the past several months, I've noticed some similarities between the Saga and Mass Effect. Sci-Fi novels tend to build on top of some of the same concepts and terminology, however I can't help but see sometimes direct similarities between Ender's Game and Mass Effect; I think the writers have read the books and were inspired.

<SPOILER ALERT>

For example, the idea of a Hive Queen who controls the "buggers" in a telepathic type way commanding everyone of her children at once harnessing an advanced hereditary, ancestral memory while being technologically advanced and dominant is central to the story of Ender's Game. Also, the fact that the entire "bugger" race was completely annihilated, an act of Xenocide after humans saw them as a huge threat is also part of the Ender's Game saga.

In Mass Effect, this hive-mind race are called the Rachni, and dominated most of the galaxy until they were finally wiped out, or thought to be wiped out. During the game you have to make, what I think is probably, the most important moral decision of the entire game. After finding out someone is trying to bring back the Rachni race having found a Hive-Queen egg, you have to decide to really commit Xenocide and wipe out the Hive-Queen thus sending the Rachni to permanent extinction, or let them live and risk another War and Rachni dominance. Similarly, Ender who was the one who almost wiped out the entire "Bugger" race, finds the last remaining existence of the "buggers" as well. He finds a Hive-Queen egg, and having felt guilty of almost committing Xenocide, he roams the galaxy for a place for a suitable place for the Hive-Queen to live and hatch its egg giving way for the "buggers" to live once again.

The whole story behind Mass Effect is not from the Ender's Game saga, but I'm glad to see they used it and other Sci-Fi novels as well as many original ideas to help shape and create one awesome game that I get to enjoy!

Sound interesting; Play Mass Effect and go read the Ender's Game saga... there's so much more gory details in there!

</SPOILER ALERT>

Artificial Intelligence vs. Virtual Intelligence

I'm kind of an AI junky and Mass Effect is packed with references to AI and VI. Many people
misuse the term AI and I think Mass Effect did a great job printing in BIG BOLD PRINT the difference between AI and VI. Virtual Intelligence (VI) is just a program which has access to a database of information, and with clever programming, is sometimes given a certain "personality" or attitude to make it act human. Just think of using Google by talking instead of typing and having it respond with a voice instead of text.

Artificial Intelligence, on the other hand, is more than just clever programming, it's a system that is able to reason and think on it's own and sometimes have the potential of becoming self-aware. The robot in the movie "I, Robot" is Artificial Intelligence. In Mass Effect, an intelligent humanoid race called the "Quarians" created a networked AI race which became self-aware and eventually turned on them and went to war killing to survive. This race is called "the Geth," and 300 years later, they have evolved and have become a huge threat to all species. This is why legal action was taken to repress the development of AIs in galactic society.

The Human Race

After playing Mass Effect and reading different Sci-Fi novels, there is one conclusion I made. As Humans, it kinda sucks to only live for less than a century. Even the most advanced medical science made possible probably would give us 200 years which is still kinda short compared to other species. Then again maybe living for a little under a century isn't that bad. I mean because our lives are "short-lived" it's more exciting and filled with more adventure (or at least has the possibility to be). Also, we develop faster. So maybe if we lived for two centuries instead of one, a 41-year old would really be a 21-year old--and it would suck to wait 41 years to become 21 and all rules that go away with that age like drinking. Heh, your parents would make you wait until you were 32 to date. So it's really not that bad if you make the most of your life.

Also, it kinda enhances the Human race as a whole with our rate of learning. In other words, Human society advances much farther in less time. Maybe this is one reason other species, in Mass Effect, are afraid of the Human race because we learn too fast, a curious species always eager to explore the unknown.

Great game, I can't wait to finish it!

Dark Messiah: Elements (XBox 360)

2007-11-29T09:57:00.000-08:00

I don't know how I let this game slip by me. This looks like Oblivion dungeon fighting gone bloodlusty insane!

New Song - "Você vai andar sozinha você vai"

2007-11-22T12:03:00.000-08:00

A few days ago, November 19, my daughter Thaísha turned 6 months young. Walking to the nurse's office to get her vaccines I made up a song in Portuguese and sang it to her. It has the same rhythm as "If you're happy and you known it clap your hands..."

"Você vai andar sozinha você vai"
(You will walk on your own, yes you will)
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-==-=-=-==
The Chorus, denoted "[Chorus]" from here on out is:
Você vai andar sozinha você vai,
Você vai andar sozinha você vai.
=-=-=-=-=-==-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

[Chorus]

Você vai andar sozinha, (you will walk on your own)
Você vai pular da linha, (you will jump over the lines)
Você vai andar sozinha você vai. (you will walk on your own yes you will)

[Chorus]

Você vai atrás da fila, (you will go [walk] behind the line [of people])
Você vai pegar florinha, (you will pick little flowers)
Você vai andar sozinha você vai.

[Chorus]

Você vai andar sozinha,
Passará na padaria, (you will pass by the bakery)
Você vai andar sozinha você vai.

[Chorus]

Você vai andar sozinha,
Você vai tomar vacina, (you will take a vaccine)
Você vai andar sozniha você vai.

Why you should NEVER live in Brazil

2007-11-13T10:41:00.000-08:00

A friend of mine recently asked me about how it is living in Brazil. After I responded, I decided it'd be a good idea to Blog it since it is on my mind.

I can answer this in different ways; some long, some short. I will try to give you the quick, dirty, straight version....

Postive:
1. Family is great! They miss the beach, but at least this city has other attractions. The baby girl will turn 6 months in 6 more days.

2. Work: I love working at Google Brazil. The people are awesome!! BHZ is an all engineering office mostly working on Orkut. Great staff. We speak 60/40 Portuguese/English.

3. Business opportunity here is amazing if you're an American. E.g. They lack many proven technologies here in Brazil as a whole.

4. If you're single... well just call this place icandy-land. Truly breath-taking.

Negative:
1. NEVER LIVE IN BRAZIL! The U.S. is the best damn country in the world, PERIOD! :-D

2. Electronics or anything techie is WAAAY more expensive (they lady wanted to charge me $120 USD for a D-Link wireless router which didn't even have a built-in switch)

3. Brazil is full of a LOT of beauracracy and government corruption way beyond the acceptable level of modern countries like the U.S.

4. Everything here is PAPER, PAPER, and more PAPER! They have no since of a system, only a process filled with paper which needs to be authenticated on top of authentication

5. I just got my furniture last week (God I miss my bed and TV), as Brazilian Customs held it and tried to suck $5000 USD out of me in the meantime.

6. Nothings ever on time so any apointement you have with a bank or hospital or anything is usually delayed by 2 hours and the lines here are way too long for everything

7. Imagine a system where your "credit score" is not linked to a number any business can look up, but linked to a series of signed, original paperwork, co-signers, past-paychecks, past bills, cash money, home and work address/number with contracts, and special identification documents. Anything you do, business-wise you need to present all this EVERY TIME! Even today, I can't even rent a movie without all the above information; I mean ALL of it.

8. The list goes on...

Conclusion:
Vacation here for as long as you want; It's awesome especially close to the beach like in Salvador, Brazil; But the moment you try to live here is the moment your life gets immensley complicated and set back about 100 years.

1 Year Marriage Anniversary

2007-11-09T09:41:00.000-08:00

I have been married for one year!!! This time last year Nov. 9th, I was signing my life away on a piece of paper in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil to the woman of my dreams. The funny thing is, is that i feel that time flies but at the same time it seems like it's been 5 years already!

Many things happened including moving to a different country, culture, and society. But things have work out in the end and have had a great 1 year and look forward to have great years to come.

Great news!

2007-11-08T11:33:00.000-08:00

There's been lots of fun activity this week. My furniture which I shipped from the U.S. finally arrived at my home after being stuck in Brazilian Customs since June 4 five months ago! I haven't even seen my furniture since March. Brazil is very bureaucratic and lacks technology, so it's very tough to get things done without doing a ton of paperwork and paperwork for the paperwork. I had a very painstaking time getting all my documents in order; Every time I completed and sent the local shipping company ¨Worldmover Brazil/Interpol" a completed document, they either said there was something wrong or said "great" and sent me yet another document to fill out. Even at the end Brazilian customs stuck a big fat R$ 10,000 reais price tag on me because it stuck in Customs several months. They make a business sucking money out of foreigners, it really sucks. This equates to about $5000 USD. Luckily, I got Google to pay for it since I transferred to the offices down here. Phew! I even forgot about some of the things I had except the important things like my rear-projection Flat-screen 50" LCD TV, 3 computers (including what used to be a "monster" game machine), a ton of data-backups, pictures, more electronics, books, etc.

In other news, Google has made two great announcements this week. Project Android, an open mobile platform which allows phone manufactures to build on top of Google's free, mobile operating-system and provide great applications atop this platform. This is huge and something I and many people have wanted. Better mobile software in an open platform, unlike WindowsCE. Just lookup Open Handset Alliance.

Secondly, Google announced project OpenSocial, which is another product or way of standardizing the way social networks operate. I have or at least have used in the past: MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Orkut. I've tried maintaining these all at the same time for a while. But it's tedious, and my friends are scattered all over the place. OpenSocial is a standard, open set of APIs design to enable developers to create "write once, run anywhere" type of applications that will run on all these platforms that use the OpenSocial API. I will spare you words...for now... and just show you the video below:

And finally, for the last bit of news, Call of Duty 4 is alive and released!!!!! I still haven't gotten my copy (I need to get it shipped to the U.S. but i'm waiting on a few other game releases first [i.e. Assassin's Creed, Virtual Fighter 5]), but it's a hell of a great game. The perk system is simply brilliant and you will have hours and hours of fun! Below you will not only find a great video of Call of Duty 4 but also the side-by-side comparison of the XBox 360 version and the PS3. They both look great and pretty much equal. Infinity Ward developed their systems with both platforms in mind from the ground up , so this is not just some XBox 360 port to the PS3.

That's it for this week. Go play!!!!

I want my Figurines!

2007-11-04T09:33:00.000-08:00

I haven't been a big fan of figurines since I was a kid; I always found them to be kinda childish. However, times have changed and I have a craving for figurines from some of the great games I've played. The figurines are a reminder to me of all those great moments during gameplay and also inspire me to be creative in my own work. Check them out...

BioShock Big Daddy!

Gears of War (Marcus Fenix)

Assassin's Creed (Altair)

Splinter Cell (Sam Fisher)

Devil May Cry 4

Devil May Cry 4

2007-11-04T09:00:00.000-08:00

A friend of mine is a Final Fantasy Fan, and he showed me a cool vid:

I like Final Fantasy as well, mostly the old-school Final Fantasy; I started off with FFIV. However, in my opinion there exists something better. Enter Devil May Cry. I haven't followed closely to the Devil May Cry series, but coincidentally I am going to start to follow the franchise beginning with Devil May Cry 4. And here's the video that convinced me:

Beautiful story (the girl and guy both grew up in an orphanage together as friends), nice characters, and best of all AMAZING Gameplay!!!

Reflections...

2007-10-25T17:38:00.000-07:00

As a first entry for my new, personal blog (I maintain 3: this one, family blog, and work internal blog) I want to reflect and sort of summarize the past few years as well as guess what the next few years will bring.

2000-2004 - The Years of Academia
These four years are my college years spent studying, researching, interning, and making lots of friends.
I'm often nostalgic of my academic years except when I remember how broke I was and how much
chicken-noodle soup I consumed.

2005 - The year of Exploration
I started working for Google a couple days after graduation in May 2004, however, in 2005 I began to explore many things at work and in my personal life. However during this time, my work was sorta my personal life as well. I started to seek particular career paths and also did a lot of traveling to many cities including Toronto, Canada....mostly for work. Good times.

2006 - The year of Change
Many things happened this year. I frequented Brazil. I learned to speak fluent Português. I got married to a Brazilian. I also got promoted at my job.

2007 - The year of Family
I moved to Brazil via transfer to Google Brazil in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais. (wife is from Salvador, Bahia, Brazil). We have 3 girls, the youngest one is 5 months as of the writing of this blog (born May 19, 2007 @ 8AM GMT-3). I also traveled a lot to see family in Virginia and Washington.

2008- The year of Business
I have been perfecting many particular skills in technology since the previous year (mostly Java EE 5 and other web technologies), as well as always trying to come up with the killer app or killer business. Living in Brazil is a land full of opportunity waiting to be pounced upon, if you're a skilled American, especially in the field of technology. Brazil is behind on many things and sometimes just flat-out lack the resources and accessibility. This is where *my* start-up business comes in. I am looking to launch Q1 of 2008. Stay tuned...

2009 - Back to the Future of Academia
I have decided to change industries from the web world to the game world. This means I need to gain more education points and begin to build a portfolio of "this is why you should hire me" documents/demos. I have chosen to attend UGA's Artificial Intelligence Center in the Fall of 2009 (applying Fall 2008). They have a Masters of Science degree in AI. And my goal is to get one! My focus will be on AI in the interactive entertainment business so it's really not limited to games per sé, but I imagine I will be doing things like helping build the new AI systems in Tom Clancy games (aka Rainbow 6, Ghost Recon, End War), or the next AI in the Halo Series. In the gaming industry they usually call the AI folks "Gameplay Engineers/Programmers" or "AI Engineer." What a dream to work at Epic, Ubisoft, or Blizzard. This also means my family will be moving to the U.S. as well, and will begin their journey of living abroad and learning all about my country including building great relationships with the university and taking courses in English.