George Allen Miller One Geek's take on all things SciFi

I spent about a month playing the new MMORPG Rift. I had some fun, leveled pretty fast but ended up, like with all MMORPG's, canceling after about a month. It wasn't that the game was terrible, it was actually pretty fun, it was just that in the end, it was more of the same. Sure it was still pretty good. The guys at Trion implemented all the goods things from other simliar MMORGP's and it is one of the better implementations of character customization. Still, it was just more of the same. I tried a warrior and a mage and settled on the mage for the most of my time. I only got up to 22 or so. The PVP was solid. If you plan on a PVP server, PVE is gay after all, just about all zones are PVP except the starter zone. I like that type of play. But I'm also a big FPS player so it's mostly in line with what I enjoy. There are also PVP instances where you can fight with members of the other side. ... More

In a recent article on http://www.kurzweilai.net they have some numbers that are down right depressing. Only a 10% chance of machine reaching human level intelligence by 2028 and 50% by 2050. What the fuck is that about? I don't know about you but I'm somewhat pissed about it. Why do you ask? It's simple. When machines gain human level intelligence we can ask them, "hey in there, tell us how to be 25 forever or we'll pour scotch on the rocks into your main frame for relentlessly beating us at chess", you go MacReady! Yes, I, like many other people, are longing for the day when human life space is extended to hundreds and thousands of years. I fully intend to build a nice big spacious space ship and sail away to the nearest planet and setup a new colony world, bringing with me many thousands of virgins and tons of video games. Seriously though, it's going to get really friggin cool in the next century. So cool that I just don't want to miss anything. You think technology is cool now? In ... More

I'm slightly confused here. Have the writers for Dr. Who mis-stepped? The good Doctor, currently played by Matt Smith, told his friends that he was 900 and some years old. We then learn that future Doctor, the one killed by the space suit guy, or little girl, was two hundred years older. Uhm, what? What's going on here? How is Matt Smith the Doctor for the rest of the Doctor's life? That clearly means that he is going to be the actor for the rest of the Doctor's life, which we all know just isn't going to happen. We now know that the Doctor is not going to regenerate again. Period. He can't, as Matt Smith is still the Doctor when he dies. Now,they could, the writers, work is to that the Doctor manages to foil the future but then we learn that there will be a paradox that will destroy all of space time for all time. Of course, with as many time travelers in the universe, it's a wonder that's never happened before. I mean, come on, don't you want ... More

George R. R. Martin's series, a Song of Fire and Ice, has begun on HBO. In fact, as I'm a lazy drunk bastard most of the time and didn't post when it did start, it's nearly three weeks old. I, of course, being the geek I am, and having read all the book, watched the show. Here's what I thought. I was somewhat surprised, initially, because for some odd reason, I didn't recognize anyone. I'm not really sure why but for some reason I had pictures in my mind of the cast, as anyone who read the book would also have, and the actors that are portraying the characters don't look like them. That's really a nit picky thing and really deals with my own many mania's but it was the biggest point that hit me. I did love both shows, of course. Robert Baratheon and Ned Stark are portrayed perfectly, I think. Mark Addy and Sean Bean are great. And they do look like my mental projections of the characters. Michelle Fairley, though great, doesn't fit my image of Catelyn Stark well. ... More

Can you believe the Donald? I am telling you now, he knew what he was doing at every step, and the whole thing was a publicity stunt. Donald loves media attention and that is exactly what he got. From the start of this whole birther business, Donald Trump knew how to play it, how to manipulate the birther morons, and how to eventually get out of it when it was revealed that President Obama was really born in the United States. You gotta give a guy credit that gets proven dead wrong and then takes credit for the proof coming out. That's exactly what the Donald did. When Obama released his certificate, did the Donald say, "oops, sorry, i was wrong"? Nope. What did he do? He said he won! He said he was happy that he was able to do what everyone else was not able to do, get the president to release his long form birth certificate. Wow. What a spin. That is why I think Trump knew exactly what would happen. He probably didn't even have anyone in Hawaii ... More