Whatever happened to the handkerchief?

I know it sounds gross to think about, but whatever did happen to the good old snot-rag. When you get a cold, allergies or flue, you're going to need something to wipe away the excess mucus that constantly drains from your nose. Kleenex is hardly environmentally friendly so why not just use a handkerchief instead? Sure, it will get all messy but then you could just rinse it out and hang it up to dry.

Wouldn't it be great...

As I was driving to work this morning, I was thinking, wouldn't it be great if we could eliminate the need for telephone poles and visible wires? Whole cities could dump cable for satellite. Phones and Internet access could go 100% wireless. Power, water and other essential utilities should go underground for safety reasons.

New Gaming System Design

Every now and then I like to build a new PC for gaming. Most of the systems that I've built have lasted for years and years. There's a system that I built back in 1999 that is still in use today (I sold it for around $1000.00) and my current system is custom too but it's starting to show it's age.

Here is my new system list that I priced online today.

Antec Nine Hundred Case $119.99
Intel 975X ATX Motherboard $204.99
Core 2 Duo 3.0Ghz LGA 775 $169.99
4GB 240-PIN DDR2 PC2 6400 $79.00
GeForce 8800GTS PCIExpress $199.99
WD6400AAKS 640GB HDD $84.99
OCZ 600W Power Supply $89.99
HT OMEGA Striker 7.1 Sound Card $79.99
Creative P7800 7.1 Speakers $86.99
ASUS 20X DVD+R $36.99
Saitek Illuminated Keyboard $49.99
Optical Mouse Pad $13.99
RAZER Black 3 Button Mouse $34.99
Acer 22" 5ms Widescreen LCD $249.99

Total Cost $1501.87

Operating System: Vista or XP(OEM) +$160.97

For the hardware challenged; the system price list typically includes the tower case, system motherboard, processor (CPU), memory, video card, hard drive, sound card, speakers, DVD+R Drive, keyboard, mouse and monitor. This system would cost over $2000.00 retail.

Building a system is pretty straight forward, but I would consult an experienced builder before attempting it yourself.

Epiphany about dice games

Dice games are just too random. It’s true that games do tend to average out and board games need a simplified method of calculation for resolving battles. Computer games on the other hand can afford to be much more complex in terms of calculations to resolve battles. This is why a game like Company of Heroes is far superior to computer games that just import board game rules (e.g Gleemax's Axis and Allies). Game designers need to be more creative than just importing existing rules; they need to invent new ones.

Good blog post: "What is atheism?"

John Wilkins over at science blogs has written an interesting philosophical post regarding atheism.

Lately, its seems like the atheists have really come out of their shells and started aggressively attacking religion. I don't consider myself religious but I respect those who do to the extent that they aren't offended.

Do atheist really need to be so rude and obnoxious to get their point across?

http://scienceblogs.com/evolvingthoughts/2008/08/what_is_atheism.php