Back in 2001 Microsoft's early betas of Windows XP contained a user interface dubbed "Watercolor". But only months before the operating system shipped Microsoft completely replaced it with an entirely different look and feel called "Luna" which became known as "Windows XP Style". That move has created speculation that current Windows Vista look and feel, called Aero glass, would be replaced by a different look and feel later in the beta process. However, this week's PowerU...

It's been a productive holiday season.   The AI that existed in Beta 5 (public) is dead. It's gone now. And it won't be remembered fondly. Not by me at least.  It functioned.  But the fact is, in a game that has no multiplayer the standard of quality on AI should be very very high.  It isn't enough for a game AI to be challenging.  The AI needs to be more than that.  It needs to play like a human being.  Much of what I've done this holiday is go through an...

When I play strategy games against the computer I am always amazed that no one does a simple for loop through the enemy units to see if they're literally just outside my city, base, planet, whatever ready to attack. That's what we humans tend to do.  The most lethal strategy in these kinds of games is usually to line up our units, ready to attack and then WHAM, knock down the AI in a couple of lethal turns. In GalCiv, there is also the influence attack -- building influence base after...

You are a Social Moderate (56% permissive) and an... Economic Conservative (76% permissive) You are best described as a: Capitalist Link: The Politics Test on Ok Cupid Also: The OkCupid Dating Persona Test   Here's my score..

One of my biggest disappointments in the GalCiv I AI was how it fought its wars militarily. The computer players in GalCiv I were given a lot of kudos but that mainly was because they were so efficient in how they handled their resources and on-the-fly military decision making. But when it came to the overall strategy of war, the AI was disappointing.  It wasn't supposed to be that way, it's just that the best laid plans can fall apart when things get complicated and there's not much ...

GalCiv II has a new diplomacy AI.  It's a complete rewrite from what was in Galciv I.  The AI literally calculates how much it should like a given player based on a broad range of factors.  Some of these factors are displayed on the "report" dialog on the foreign policy window. During the course of the betas, the kinks in the new system have shown up and this past week I've been going through and addressing them.  For example, the AI tended to go to war with way too many p...

"So what did you do over your Christmas break?" "Rewrote several key modules of the artificial intelligence engine in Galactic Civilizations..." Galactic Civilizations has always been known for its strong artificial intelligence.  Since the game is designed to be a single player game, it bloody better have good computer players.  Most people reading this don't know me very well but I'm actually a multiplayer fanatic.  I was one of the top ranked Starcraft players on Ba...

In politics, 2005 will likely be remembered as the year of the demagogue.  Where facts, history, and truth take a second seat to loud, shrill accusations of wrong-doing. The latest one has to do with the wiretapping of suspected terrorist agents in the United States.  Now, I'm not going to argue whether I'm in favor or against said wire tapping because I do not (and neither do the pundits) know enough on the specifics of each case to know the merits.  What I'm going to talk abo...

Merry Christmas everyone! It's hard to believe that we've been doing this now for over three years!  Wherever you are, have a wonderful holiday! And with that, whatcha get?

From Right Wing News : " She's. Pretending. To. Sleep. On. Her. Son's. Grave! For. A. Vanity Fair. Photo-op!!! What the hell? Sometimes words just fail me..." Indeed.

Liberal. Conservative.  These terms have lost all meaning in recent years. They are effectively political party names in terms of usefulness as a description.  We need new names.  But what should they be? Many people have pointed out that American politics is over-simplified.  Two political parties? Two political philosophies? Nonsense.  I have come to agree with them. So for the sake of this exercise I've devised 6 political philosophies that permeate the American...

Just in time for Christmas, Stardock has released the Desktop Pet.  The Desktop Pet lives on your Windows XP desktop. He will interact with various included desktop objects. A sophisticated artificial intelligence engine helps bring him to life by giving him needs such as hunger, sleep, boredom, and even (ahem) the need to take a potty break.  Users can set the various included desktop objects to be automated or take care of the feeding and cleaning up on their own.  It a...

I'm just rambling here so if you're looking for a well written piece, you'll want to go elsewhere.  After 6 weeks of massive hours I'm spent.. It's not a good time to ideological.  If you're a conservative, you're quickly discovering that victory in politics quickly corrupts.  Conservatives control the congress and the presidency only to have record deficits, sloppy governance, and cronyism.  If you're an intelligent liberal, your ideology has largely been hijacked...

As I get older or at least busier, I have a lot less toleration for micro management.  I just don't find it fun.  I know lots of people do but I personally hate it.  When I play Civilization IV, for instance, those workers go on A (auto improve) right away.  And I think it works fine.  I'm sure the workers aren't optimal but they're well into the "good enough for me" area. That said, I've always resisted having any micro management issues resolved by computer AI. ...

The levee on 17th Street in New Orleans shouldn't have broken.  While designed to handle a load of 14 feet of water, it never reached that and broke causing what is now estimated at $300 billion in damage. According to the investigation, the engineering error was so obvious, so trivial that it should have been spotted and that it was not caught ultimately resulted in a significant percentage of the damage done to New Orleans from Katrina. Read the whole thing.