Microsoft is developing a new smartphone application that, although it has not been released yet, is already stirring up controversy. What will the app enable users to do?
1. Determine the nutritional content of restaurant meals
2. Avoid high-crime neighborhoods
3. Get better deals on health insurance
4. Boycott products made by companies affiliated with Apple
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Sunday, January 15, 2012
The new year
Here are some things I haven been doing during the new year:
1. I went back on Weight Watchers. There is a Weight Watchers place right in the Orchards Shopping Center which is where I switch buses whie going to and from work. On my first week back on Weight Watchers I lost three pounds. One time I was at the game store playing games and I had my Eaight Watchers booklet (I also had a big bag of oranges so I could have them instead of the high calorie snacks they sell at the game store) One of the people there said he didn't understand why I was on Weight Watchers because "you're already really thin; you don't have any weight to watch" (I am now about 5'8" and 180 lbs)
2. I found a laser tag place in Loveland. It is better than the place in Gaithersburg because the place in Gaithersburg had two main problems: (1) after you get hit, your phaser reactivates a split second before your pack reactivates, giving you a "free shot" after you get hit. Thus the best strategy after being hit is just to run up to the nearest opponent and get a guaranteed hit in. This often led to players standing next to each other trading shots, which was uninteresting game play, and (2) there were lots of technical problems, like packs that stopped working in the middle of the battle. The place in Loveland does not have thee problems Also you can get an all day play pass for only $25. On Thursdays they agave a "members only night" where they do a game called "Space Marine 5" which is supposed to be tougher (and there will be tougher competition) butI have not gone to that yet, because...
3. This Thursday I went to the live MythBusters show in Loveland. There was someone else at work who wanted to go so we went out to dinner and then to the show. At dinner I asked what he thought of MythBusters and he said that the old episodes (first few seasons) were better and some of the new episodes test "stupid myths". Also I showed him my iPad and he didn't understand why anyone would want it because it's more expensive than an e-reader like the Kindle, and almost as big but not as versatile as a netbook. He was pretty impressed by the WolframAlpha app though. The show was pretty cool ,and they had time for questions with Adam and Jamie, they had demonstrations with volunteers from the audience, and they told some funny stories. For instance ,they said one do the first time they realized what an asset they were to the Discovery Channel was when the insurance company told them that Adam and Jamie couldn't do a particular stunt, "but Tory could".
4. I found a web site called "Meetup" that allows you to connect with groups of people in your area. The way is works is that there are all these "Meetup Groups" that are each organized around a different activity, and you can post up when meetings will be taking place. Essentially, it is a social networking site like Facebook, except it is centered around finding people who share your interests, so it is likely to be a very good resource from me. I looked on Meetup and I found several Meetup groups in and around Fort Collins that I might be interested in; such as a philosophy discussion group, a group that does programming puzzles, and a group that is designing a new role-playing game..
5. I heard about a personal training studio in Fort Collins called "Nerd Fit", which is, as you might expect, is geared toward geeks. The web site doesn't have a whole lot of information, but is has things like there is a point system you use to ttrack your progress that is based off of the systems in role-playing games.
6. There is a gaming convention in Colorado called "Genghis Con" that will be taking place in February. I will make sure to save up some vacation days for that..
1. I went back on Weight Watchers. There is a Weight Watchers place right in the Orchards Shopping Center which is where I switch buses whie going to and from work. On my first week back on Weight Watchers I lost three pounds. One time I was at the game store playing games and I had my Eaight Watchers booklet (I also had a big bag of oranges so I could have them instead of the high calorie snacks they sell at the game store) One of the people there said he didn't understand why I was on Weight Watchers because "you're already really thin; you don't have any weight to watch" (I am now about 5'8" and 180 lbs)
2. I found a laser tag place in Loveland. It is better than the place in Gaithersburg because the place in Gaithersburg had two main problems: (1) after you get hit, your phaser reactivates a split second before your pack reactivates, giving you a "free shot" after you get hit. Thus the best strategy after being hit is just to run up to the nearest opponent and get a guaranteed hit in. This often led to players standing next to each other trading shots, which was uninteresting game play, and (2) there were lots of technical problems, like packs that stopped working in the middle of the battle. The place in Loveland does not have thee problems Also you can get an all day play pass for only $25. On Thursdays they agave a "members only night" where they do a game called "Space Marine 5" which is supposed to be tougher (and there will be tougher competition) butI have not gone to that yet, because...
3. This Thursday I went to the live MythBusters show in Loveland. There was someone else at work who wanted to go so we went out to dinner and then to the show. At dinner I asked what he thought of MythBusters and he said that the old episodes (first few seasons) were better and some of the new episodes test "stupid myths". Also I showed him my iPad and he didn't understand why anyone would want it because it's more expensive than an e-reader like the Kindle, and almost as big but not as versatile as a netbook. He was pretty impressed by the WolframAlpha app though. The show was pretty cool ,and they had time for questions with Adam and Jamie, they had demonstrations with volunteers from the audience, and they told some funny stories. For instance ,they said one do the first time they realized what an asset they were to the Discovery Channel was when the insurance company told them that Adam and Jamie couldn't do a particular stunt, "but Tory could".
4. I found a web site called "Meetup" that allows you to connect with groups of people in your area. The way is works is that there are all these "Meetup Groups" that are each organized around a different activity, and you can post up when meetings will be taking place. Essentially, it is a social networking site like Facebook, except it is centered around finding people who share your interests, so it is likely to be a very good resource from me. I looked on Meetup and I found several Meetup groups in and around Fort Collins that I might be interested in; such as a philosophy discussion group, a group that does programming puzzles, and a group that is designing a new role-playing game..
5. I heard about a personal training studio in Fort Collins called "Nerd Fit", which is, as you might expect, is geared toward geeks. The web site doesn't have a whole lot of information, but is has things like there is a point system you use to ttrack your progress that is based off of the systems in role-playing games.
6. There is a gaming convention in Colorado called "Genghis Con" that will be taking place in February. I will make sure to save up some vacation days for that..
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