The Super-Kamiokande neutrino observatory in Japan.

• Click here for more information

We are on the dawn of a new era in gaming. Soon, the boundary between the virtual and the real will get much closer than ever as games promise real-time experience with near Hollywood-production quality.

Ushering in this new era is Crytek's upcoming game, Crysis. Unveiled at the E3 Expo this year, its graphics is nothing short of revolutionary. Here's a gameplay clip:



There is a higher quality version of the clip here (select 'Gameplay 2').

Funny A&P commercial

More hilarity at www.engrish.com.

'Wrong Guy' interviewed on the BBC:

This is the funniest video I've seen in a while. It's the BBC interviewing a supposed Guy Kewney, editor of newswireless.net and IT expert, about the Apple vs Apple case on live TV - however, it's not Guy Kewney. It's actually Guy Goma, a recent graduate who was there waiting for a job interview.

Mr Goma said his appearance was "very stressful" and wondered why the questions were not related to the data support cleanser job he applied for.

You can find the full article here.

Money Saving Guide For Computer Experts

DI-524 Wireless Router - Wolf In Sheep's Clothing:

One of the dirty secrets in electronics manufacturing is in order to save manufacturing costs, different products often share the same underlying hardware, but have various features turned on or off using software. This is the case with the Dlink DI-524. Not only is it a great router, it's actually a firmware-crippled DI-624, the faster, more expensive brother of the 524.

One guy at the DSLforum discovered both routers shared the same Atheros chipset and brilliantly figured out how to fool the 524 into thinking it's a 624. Specifically, this only works with revision 'C' of the DI-524. To change it to a 624, you need to flash with the hacked firmware. After the flash, your DI-524 will behave identically to a 624. It will even accept non-hacked official DI-624 firmware. DI-624 firmwares are also more regularly updated than DI-524's.

Your router will now have the following upgrades:

• double the speed with Super-G 108Mbps
• more features such as Turbo and Extended modes
• cable testing feature
• more configurable properties

The greatest thing with the 524 is you can often find them on sale at Futureshop and other computer hardware retailers. I got mine for $35 at Compusmart after mail-in-rebates.

Exam time is here. Time to lock and load.

Best fight scene ever. From the movie, "Undefeatable". Warning, it's a bit gory.

Real life Simpsons.

I just found what appears to be a copy of a letter I wrote to a friend of the family who visited us from Japan. All I can say is WTF?! It's dated October 21, 1996 so I must have been in junior high school at that time. Maybe I had a fever that day because I don't recall drinking so young. I'll let you be the judge of that. Comments are in bold.

Guess who? What?! Michael Jackson??! No, no, no... It's Brian. Huh? No, I'm not trying to blackmail you. I'm responding to your letter not because I want to, but because my parents forced me. Just kidding. We had a really bad summer after you left. A hurricane completely destroyed our house, all our belongings burned to ashes when lightning struck our destroyed house, and we were forced to live in a treehouse in our backyard naked. Oh ya, and everybody in my family got typhoid from my mom's cooking (my understanding of viral infection was limited at this time). Excluding all that, we had a pretty good summer.

Remember when you made fun of my look in the picture at Niagara Falls? Well, you are a deleterious (harmful to body or mind), necrophilious (attraction to dead bodies), demonic (possessed by an evil spirit), half-witted Martian. Okay, maybe that is a little bit overly offensive. You are a subnormal dairy farmer. What do you mean you want to kill me? Fine, you are a esoteric......human being. Thanks a lot because it took all my energy just to type "human being" because we all know you're not.

So, how are you? I'm feeling terrible because I have to write this letter. I'm also writing on behalf of my parents because they are too busy right now arguing about who gets to watch Barney tonight (WTF?!). Okay, okay. No more stupid jokes (the footnote says "not"). The next paragraph is going to be really hard for me to write. Ready?

Thank you for the gifts you sent us especially the "tabi" for my mom. Come back to Toronto whenever you are free again. Just remember not to bring Yusuke because he might barf on my carpet again after getting drunk. Kidding again (I was such a kidder...)

Arghhhh!!!! Martian attack!!!! Got to run. Hope I don't get fined for public indecency for not wearing anything but rags. Oh, and say hello to Yusuke for me. See you next time, if I'm still alive.
B-Y-E!

P.S. Don't show this letter to Michelle because she might understand what I wrote.

I-beamer team video by Mike Tran


The I-beamers are back from the 22nd Annual Troitsky Bridge Building Competition held at Concordia University in Montreal. We went into the competition confident our design would beat all the teams. However, things were not meant to be. We finished a disappointing 18th out of 40 teams.

When our bridge tipped over at 80kg, we were in total shock. We were expecting something closer to 1100kg. Afterwards, one of the judges came up to me and apologized saying they just realized there was something wrong with the machine since the loading kept moving off center. Reza's team, who won the competition at Ryerson, failed at around the same weight as us. All bridges that were top loaded failed the same way; by tipping over, or twisting. In the end, of all things, a suspension bridge from Cegep Chicoutimi won.

After all the teams had their bridges crushed, we asked the organizers to crush our bridge again since it was largely unscathed from the first time. This time, we clearly saw the loader applying torque on our bridge, spinning and twisting it - something that's not suppose to happen.

We are going to fire off an e-mail to the Canadian Society of Civil Engineer (CSCE), who organized the event, detailing the problems with the crusher in the hopes the same thing won't happen again.

Meanwhile, if you were watching the Discovery Channel today, Reza's team was featured on the Daily Planet. I appeared for a brief moment in the background. I'll try to not let it go to my head.

• Official bridge building competition site with results

The bridge bearing battle scars after placing 3rd overall in Thursday's crushing.

In the language of the original civil engineers; veni, vidi, vici ... Barely. Our team placed 3rd and qualified for the national competition at Concordia University by the thinnest of margins. Only 0.5 points out of a 100 separated us from Chris and his team of masters students, the heavy favourites having set the Canadian record in 2003.

Our 1.35kg bridge held 784kg before the footings failed prematurely. In terms of the strength-to-weight ratio which comprises the majority of the score, we placed second. However, we were automatically deducted points in design because we went with an A-frame design, something that the organizers were trying to discourage. Nonetheless, even with this scoring scheme that we thought was unfair, we placed 3rd, barely ahead of Chris' team.

But it was not without controversy. When Chris' bridge was handled for the official weigh-in prior to the crushing, a member of the crushing committee accidentally knocked their bridge over and broke off the deck. Because the deck contributed nothing to the structural integrity of the bridge, they continued on with crushing. It did poorly failing at around 430kg. This is where things got a little crazy. Chris' team complained their bridge would of held more had the deck not been broken. They referred to a situation last year at Concordia where a similar situation occurred and they were awarded a 15% bonus in load score. This bonus would of placed them ahead of us and thus occupying the last qualifying position for the national competition.

Of course, this was a little upsetting. We clearly won according to the rules that we all agreed to when we entered the competition and it would of been extremely unfair had we lost our 3rd place standing because they changed the rules after the results. Fortunately, it worked out for us. I heard they may or may not send four teams this year. But personally, I just care we got what we deserved.

• official Ryerson bridge competition site with pictures

The second picture is courtesy of Stan.

After 50 painstaking hours over the past weekend, our popsicle stick bridge is finally done. This Thursday, February 17, the structural masterpiece our team designed and constructed will compete in the annual Ryerson bridge building competition. Starting 12pm that day, the bridges will be put under a hydraulic press and loaded until it fails. The top 3 Ryerson teams will move on to the national competition held at Concordia University in Montreal.

I want to be the first to thank the team members, Mike, Mohammed, and Stan for their dedication and hard work. Our bridge is kickass because you guys were there every step of the way.

Stay tuned. Pictures and videos are coming after the competition.

Stats:

• Bridge Type: Quadruple I-beam A-frame
• Design Bridge Mass: 1.15kg
• Final Bridge Mass: 1.37kg
• Design Load: 1250kg

GO I-BEAMERS!

The future is now.
Here's a demonstration video of Multi-Touch display technology similiar to the one shown in the movie, The Minority Report:

• Click here to download (17MB, 3min31sec)

Read more about the technology.

True story, I was happy. My girlfriend and I had been dating for over a year, and so we decided to get married. My parents helped us in every way, my friends encouraged me, and my girlfriend? She was a dream! There was only one thing bothering me, very much indeed, and that one thing was her younger sister. My prospective sister-in-law was twenty years of age, wore tight mini skirts and low cut blouses. She would regularly bend down when near me and I got many a pleasant view of her underwear. It had to be deliberate. She never did it when she was near anyone else. One day little sister called and asked me to come over to check the wedding invitations. She was alone when I arrived. She whispered to me that soon I was to be married, and she had feelings and desires for me that she couldn't overcome and didn't really want to overcome. She told me that she wanted to make love to me just once before I got married and committed my life to her sister. I was in total shock and couldn't say a word. She said, "I'm going upstairs to my bedroom, and if you want to go ahead with it just come up and get me." I was stunned. I was frozen in shock as I watched her go up the stairs. When she reached the top she pulled down her panties and threw them down the stairs at me. I stood there for a moment, then turned and went straight to the front door. I opened the door and stepped out of the house. I walked straight towards my car. My future father-in-law was standing outside. With tears in his eyes he hugged me and said, "We are very happy that you have passed our little test. We couldn't ask for a better man for our daughter. Welcome to the family.

The moral of this story is: Always keep your condoms in your car.

Electric discharges produced by the Z Machine at Lockheed Martin's Scandia National Laboratories. It is the most powerful X-ray source on Earth. Scientists hope to use its intense magnetic fields to carry out experiments on warp propulsion theory. Read more.

Howdy guys. It has been a while. I'm currently just having fun and recharging for the final push towards the end of the school year. I think I slept on average 12 hours a day this break. Yes, I didn't think it was possible either.

I'm satisfied with last semester's marks. I should of been more prepared for the exams though. That's my fault. I took my foot off the gas pedal a little bit too soon. It's going to be pedal-to-the-metal next semester!

Lots of stuff have been happening during the break. I held a LAN party at my house. Good times. My team has also been busy designing for the bridge building competition in February. We're going to unveil some pretty revolutionary designs so look for us ;)

I'm looking forward to hitting the slopes at Blue Mountain for a couple days with my friends. I really need the exercise. I think this year is a new low for me in terms of physical activity. Hopefully, I can get back to shape next semester by doing fencing and playing hockey in the civil engineering team Dave is organizing.

In the meantime, I'm going to go sit on my ass and watch some Smallville and maybe play some Warcraft.

In the spirit of the Christmas season, here's a video of the coolest Christmas lights:

• Click here (3:04 min)

I was browsing around my previous company's website and I found they finally have the product line I was in charge of designing posted in their catalogue! I feel like a proud father seeing his kid go to school for the first time *sniff*.

I never thought I would miss Eaton Electrical but I must admit seeing this brought back many happy memories: kicking it with Kandy-In-My-Pants, Euchre at lunch with John, Harry and Ross, pissing off Vera, dodging my boss by hiding in the lab, drawing boobies in AutoCAD (DAMN PLINE TESSELATIONS!!!!), playing with Janette's dog, mastering lockpicking with Ritchie and seeing the look on people's faces when they find their drawers locked ("Brian, please, I really need my CD player...") ROFLOL and finally the best, replacing Krish's voicemail greeting with my own faking a gay British accent HAHAHAHA. He didn't notice for a whole year since he never calls himself HAHAHA genius!!! He later revealed he always thought people he spoke to on the phone acted strangely when they later met LOL. A WHOLE YEAR! THE BEST PRANK EVAR!

• Why Segway sucks
• Building it yourself

And yes Hojo, you have been thoroughly PWNED. You didn't think I forgot that conversation we had September 12 when you lauded the Segway calling the gyroscopic system "revolutionary". I said it was nothing of that sort and that in fact the math and design principle behind it was simple enough to build at home. You then started making obtuse references to control system problems steadfast in the belief your Waterloo knowledge is supremely right and I just let you bathe in your aura of arrogance... remember that? And to think you are teaching electromagnetism to students next semester *shudders* :lol:

See other Maddox commentaries on:

• Pornography in video games
• Why Garfield sucks (sorry Harry :lol:)

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