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War Imidates Art Jerkcity

Via mefi, an article in Wired about the technology the military uses.
You want to know what sophisticated chat measures they use? MS Chat.

Swarm theory is also moving online – into chat rooms, an application Mims is pioneering for military purposes. When a problem develops on the battlefield, a soldier radios a Tactical Operations Center. The TOC intelligence guy types the problem into a chat session – Mims and his colleagues use Microsoft Chat – and the problem is “swarmed” by experts from the Pentagon to Centcom. Not only is the technology changing the way we maneuver, Mims notes, it’s changing the way we think.
But the system is not without problems. Because anyone on Siprnet who wanted to could set up a chat, 50 rooms sprang up in the months before the war. The result: information overload. “We’ve started throwing people out of the rooms who don’t belong there,” Mims says.
“What’s funny about using Microsoft Chat,” he adds with a sly smile, “is that everybody has to choosean icon to represent themselves. Some of these guys haven’t bothered, so the program assigns them one. We’ll be in the middle of a battle and a bunch of field artillery colonels will come online in the form of these big-breasted blondes. We’ve got a few space aliens, too.”

All I can think of now is Saving Private Dicklicker.

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Thoughts on the 24 Finale

So everyone’s favorite quasi-real-time-drama wrapped up season 2 last night, and I’ve had some time to chew everything over…
Major props to the writers for managing to tie up the loose ends that looked insurmountable a week ago. Granted, it took a little bit of faith leaping to get there, but it worked out. Everything was completed to a satisfactory level.
I was a little saddened by the way Palmer dealt with the turncoats – keep the Cabinet, but lose Mike? Mike was the best part of Season 1 – and most of Season 2! In any case, I understand the justification for this, I guess.
Carlos Bernard needs his own show, where he just crosses his arms, gives the camera that look, and acts smug towards someone I dislike for an hour. I would watch it every week, I swear. It’d be better than anything on NBC!
Unfortunately they lost me in the last five minutes of this episode. The assassin (although we won’t know till next season if it was a success or not), Mandy, was in the first three episodes or so of Season 1. No one who started watching the show this season – and hell, even some of us who watched Season 1 (on DVD) – is going to go “OH MY GOD IT’S MANDY”. Well, actually, Katie did.
But I digress. Lots of people on various boards have asked “If a handshake is all it takes to bring down Palmer, why didn’t the bad guys do it sooner?” – and I think that’s a pretty valid question. As for whether or not he’s dead – it’s not going to keep me up for all hours of the night. I’d like to see Dennis Haysbert return, as he’s a wonderful actor, but I can understand if he wants to move on to greener pastures and they had to kill him off.
In any case, out of my two “drama” shows (the other being Alias; Gilmore Girls is too low-conflict for me to consider it drama), this had the far less shark-jumping resolution, so thumbs up. I’ll be picking up the DVD set for this season, believe you me.

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A Little DDR Humor

I realize that nearly no one will get this, but it’s too funny. I just have to post it, especially in light of the response I got regarding the DDR rant I posted a month or two back.
Also, DCB is my god. HI GUYS.