Joshua Wright's Blog, page 8
August 13, 2015
Dude completes Dark Souls using voice commands
Check out the link and video here. As someone who has yet to beat the game, I do not understand how this is possible. It’s all about timing in the Souls games. How the hell do you deal with the delay from the voice recognition software? At the link is a video of his fight against Ornstein and Smough, which is generally considered the most difficult in Dark Souls. I know I died about 30 times fighting those bastards. I tried everything. Every possible armor configuration. Going in near naked t...
August 8, 2015
VR News
In case you missed it, Time magazine (yes, those things your great uncle still reads) recently had a ridiculous cover about VR. And, because internet, people are having a field-day with it. Per usual, Forbes’ David Thier’s comments on the matter echo my own, so go read his post.
Five years from now, this shit will be ubiquitous and none of this will matter. That said, I seriously doubt the Oculus founder’s street smarts. Google should probably tamper him down a bit and let him just focus on...
August 5, 2015
Last Obstacle to Skynet’s Dominance Removed By Microsoft
With the introduction of Windows 10, updates will now be automatic and forced. Seriously? Are they actively trying to piss off any and all IT managers out there? Because I’ve never known one who wanted to give up control. And I understand why. I’ve had numerous occasions where a new driver version will break my system, or where one of their security fixes is to just temporarily turn an essential feature off until they have time to fix that actual problem (I had this happen earlier this year w...
August 4, 2015
My Weekend With (And Review Of) Windows 10
Years ago, when MS first released their disjointed HP touch based desktops and clunky swiveling screen pen-enabled laptops, I remember thinking how awkward it would be to reach out and get fingerprints all over my monitor. Fast forward ten-ish years and, while the fingerprint thing is still an issue, the more I’ve used touch controls the more they seem a natural extension to all computers, especially on a laptop since my hands are already close to the screen (I have a feeling I’ll say the sa...
July 27, 2015
Ouya Sold, Uhrman Out As CEO, Razer Is Coming
Story here, CO Engadget. Ouya missed a great opportunity due to poor execution. Products from major players have since swooped in to scrabble up the missed opportunity. That said, I don’t think Ouya did particularly bad given the amount of time they had to ship, I think they simply bit off more than a small Kickstarter could chew.
On the flip side of this story, I’m curious what Razer is planning to do with Ouya. The purchase did not include the hardware, just the software and customers. I’m...
July 22, 2015
XBONE sales rise 62% week-over-week in Japan
What is this madness??!?! Xbox One sales climbed from 149 units sold to 242 units sold! I wonder if they’re running out of stock.
July 20, 2015
Robot Realizes Sound Of Own Voice
Apparently a robot has solved the “wise men” induction puzzle. Here are the details, c.o. New Scientist.
Side note, why do they have to use actual robots for these sorts of tests? I watched Ex Machina this weekend, and while an awesome movie, I think AI is more likely to manifest itself in a way closer to the movie Her than to an actual bi-pedal robot.
Side note to the side note. My Amazon Echo sprung to life at several poignant points during the movie. It freaked out my wife (and me a litt...
July 13, 2015
RIP Iwata-San
As most of you have heard, Satoru Iwata, Nintendo’s president for the last 13 years died unexpectedly this last weekend. He had been fighting cancer on his bile duct for some time, but he had returned to work and was apparently feeling well, although not well enough to make it to E3, where he appeared in Muppet form:
Why did he appear at the largest show of the year as a Muppet? Because he could, and he was a pretty cool dude. Before becoming president of Nintendo, he was president of one of...
July 8, 2015
Skynet Awakens
First United has a glitch grounding all planes, and then the NYSE dives and glitches. Something is obviously up. That chart in the NYSE link is pretty amazing.
June 29, 2015
In A World Where Google Trains AI Using Movie Sub-titles…
This paper from Google led to some clickbaity headlines from Fox New–er, I mean The Wall Street Fox News Journal.
To me, it seems as if this new paper is demonstrating the results of Google’s recent comments on using “thought vectors” to train neural networks (as we blogged about a few weeks back). The researcher quoted in The Guardian Link, Geoff Hinton, intimates that Thought Vectors could be a breakthrough in AI. If I’m reading these papers right, it seems like “Thought Vector” is synonymo...
