There’s a book called Getting Things Done which is generating a lot of excitement among blog community. I must admit that I’ve never felt particularly unable to generate, categorize, and act on those things which I want to do, but I bet that I could learn some useful tips from a big-picture book like this. I’ll have to consider putting it on my “to read” list.
I ran across a couple posts on various blogs about a new piece of software called Quicksilver for Mac OS X. It isn’t quite clear from the description on the website as to what exactly Quicksilver does, but it seemed to be generating a lot of buzz in the blogosphere, so I took it for a test drive this afternoon. All I can say is: this is one of the coolest utilities I’ve seen in a long time!
If you have Mac OS X, take it for a whirl today. I’d also recommend following a couple of the tutorials in the documentation section.
My new computer is up and running smoothly. I’ve loaded up Half-Life 2 and I am already getting sucked into it. The game is quite remarkable. The first thing you notice, of course, is the graphics. Texture detail is amazing (normal mapping at work, I suppose). Next you start noticing how interactive the game is. There was a lot of hype regarding the physics in HL2, but I guess it’s hard to describe the sense of being able to touch and move so many things in the game. You really just have to play it. Finally, once you start interacting with the NPCs you definitely get the sense that this is unlike anything you’ve ever played before, because character interaction looks and feels natural rather than stiff and awkward. I don’t know if it is the poses, or the facial animation, or something else, but HL2 fully delivers believable character interaction.
I might add that Half-Life 2 contains a fair number of physics jokes; always a plus, right? Speaking of physics jokes, here’s a groaner I heard last week: Two fermions walk into a bar, the first one says to the bartender, “I’ll have a martini.” Then second says, “Damn, that’s what I wanted!”
This might be a bad week for getting work done. Don’t worry too much, though, I’m not eager to climb under a mountain of work again like I did this week!
I just finished the original Max Payne this afternoon. It was a really fun game. That’s one fewer now on my list of unfinished games.
There are two opinion pieces in the times today regarding Lawrence Summers’ remarks on women and science: Op-Ed Contributor: Sex Ed at Harvard and Different but (Probably) Equal. I am glad to see that both articles stress the importance and ground breaking nature of current studies into the innate differences between men and women.