Thought for the day: Everything they sell in IKEA is the designers equivalent of sans-serif.

They should use that in their product naming:

"Ahh, you got the Trebuchet shelves! Cool! I would've, but they're a little too elegant to go really well with my Helvetica coffee table."

"Yeah, I had to ditch my Optima dresser. It was just a little too serif-y to go with my Avant Garde bed.

See? Full circle.

So most of the really cool games and gaming platforms (Xbox, PS2, Gamecube) rely far more on realtime rendering for their wow factor. Personally, my favorite games are racing games (why this is true is probably a subject for a whole other post).

The latest crop of racing games try to make the experience as real as possible, raytracing the surrounding terrain in the reflection of a car's windows or polished surface, using sophisticated physics models. Gran Turismo 3 even uses actual recorded engine sound for each of their cars, and will alter the tire's gripping power over the course of a race to reflect how tires behave differently when they get hot.

So what I don't understand is actually pretty simple: Most (all?) of these games have lens flare, that diagonal line of circles that appear across the screenn when the sun is in direct view. Lens flare is an artifact of the multiple lenses used in sophisticated still and video cameras. Each lens (your pocket 35mm has a few, a telephoto lens can have between 4 and 10, etc.) creates a ghost image of the sun, usually on the opposite side of the frame from the sun, connected by an imaginary line cutting through the center of the frame.

Okay, great, cool. By simulating lens flare, these games are replicating even the imperfections of the experience, to make for a more realistic experience. Fantastic.

But what experience are they trying to replicate? When I'm driving a racing simulation (or flight simulator, Sonic 3D, or whoever else is being lens-flare-clever) I'm trying to suspend my disbelief and pretend I'm in the car and driving it, but the simulator, giving me lens flare, is trying to pretend I'm looking through a camera lens in a car.

Lens flare got put into these games because it was a cheap and easy way to make them look prettyer, and give them a little 'wow'. ("Hey, look at that, they even programmed in the lens flare. Those programmers got every detail! This is so cool!")

Now that everyone has it, and the lens flare isn't a hundredth as impressive as seeing the car in front of you reflected in the puddle on the ground, or driving through 3D fog, can we just lose the lens flare, so I can believe I'm a transparent eyeball, and not an 8-element Nikkor 28-210 telephoto lens?

If you haven't voted in the 2002 Bloggies Awards you only have until 10pm (pacific) on tuesday to do it! See Jane Surf. See Jane vote. Vote, Jane. Vote!

I'm listening to my iPod on the train, and "Under Your Spell" came on (the 'Tara and Willow get it on' song from Buffy: The Musical). It took me a second to realize, but for some reason the song was playing at half speed. It sounded completely normal, only it sounded like it was being sung by a drag queen with a drawl. Strange, that.

The third Austin Powers movie can't, at least for the time being, be referred to as "Austin Powers, in Goldmember" because of a dispute with MGM, holders of the James Bond franchise.

If they end up having to ditch the name, you can be sure they'll come up with something fitting, like "Austin Powers in MGM sucks and can't appreciate a parody."

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Err, that's 'goldmember' not 'goldfinger.' I fixed it above. (I guess it is confusing!) Thanks, Em!

Check out your keyring. Besides having twice as many keys as you use on any given day (if you're anything like me), you probably have one or two 'club cards' from the supermarket, pet store, or video rental chateau of choice.

Why stop there? With all the different ways credit card companies are trying to squeeze a buck, a little innovation, or anything that sets them apart from the other guys, how long will it be before we have keyring credit cards?

Just as important, how 'bout the drivers license? If they're to be our 'national identification cards' then the least they can do is make them smaller (as an option).

A few keys, a keyring credit card and a keychain drivers license, and you can leave your wallet at home. Lighter, safer, easier. Then of course there's the problems of digital cash, but I can keep money in my pocket. I don't need a mini-leather-organizer for that.

I want one of these...

kevin (10:52:46 PM): So I've got this idea for a rockin' game show... Have you seen The Chamber?
Ernie (10:56:19 PM): no, not yet!
Ernie (10:56:22 PM): i want to, however
kevin (10:56:28 PM): You know the premise?
Ernie (10:56:32 PM): yeah.
kevin (10:56:41 PM): Okay, so I got an idea for a new game show:
kevin (10:57:12 PM): It's in two parts. In the first part, you have two litigants, each with a suit and countersuit, presenting their case before Judge Judy.
kevin (10:57:40 PM): When Judy rules, and party A owes party B $8,000, party A goes to The Chamber.
kevin (10:58:34 PM): There they are subjected to hellish conditions while answering trivia questions, trying to work down the amount of money they owe the other person. If they're lucky, they can get off scott free! Otherwise, they have to pay the court winner on the spot.
kevin (10:58:52 PM): I call it "Chamber to Chamber", or just "Chambers"
Ernie (10:58:59 PM): HAHAHAHAHHAHA
Ernie (10:59:15 PM): you win. i can't beat that, dude.
kevin (10:59:38 PM): I'm gonna do a nice little screenshot and write it up tomorrow, I think.
Ernie (10:59:55 PM): just blog this conversation. if you don't, i will, damn you
kevin (11:00:15 PM): Judy: "You're guilty. You're guilty and I'm sending your ass to The Chair. Right now."

On 1/25/02 12:02 PM, "Sarah Howard" wrote:

Hi,

I've seen some of your journal entries and I'm just wondering, where does the interest in IKEA come from? (seriously).

Thanks,
Sarah

Hi Sarah,

I like IKEA because they present a more appealing aesthetic than my local Sears, Levitz, or Lamps Plus. The general design is consistent enough that almost anything goes with anything else, and the prices are in general lower than other 'department stores' and certainly lower than the stores that have the same kind of 'artistic' stuff like Scandinavian Designs, Z Gallerie, and the like.

Mostly, it's friendly, it's an experience, walking through the whole showroom rather than just finding the department that has the thing you came there to buy. It's like the difference between going on Pirates of the Caribbean versus walking through a halloween store. Also, there's some satisfaction in assembling my own things. I'm proud of my Ikea furniture, because in it I have a poor man's unified, upscale design, while still getting the pride of having designed it yourself and the money left over to accent your space with nice personal touches.

Or maybe it's just a big lemming cult thing, but what's the difference?

Hope that helps!
Kevin

So that I don't completely forget, stories that are in need of telling:

• The Ohio Scooter Story
• How I Met Mara
• CKS & Long Life
• ... I know there's more...

Okay, just reminding myself, because I just know listing them on the blog will get people bugging me to write one or two soon.

So Wednesday I drove in to work, ditching the train. Driving up Mathilda towards Yahoo, I found myself behind a Honda Accord with the license plate "TECH CEO". Now most of you know of my penchant for interesting license plates, so I couldn't resist snapping a shot at the light.

You're not the CEO of me, man.

Immediately after I took the picture, the guy freaked. I assume he was looking in the rear view mirror as I snapped the shot. He waived his arm menacingly, as if to say, 'what the hell do you think you're doing?!' I give a friendly wave, mouthing "I like your plate" but I can't assume he can read lips from that far. Well, the light changes and the guy speeds off, changing lanes frequently, speeding up and slowing down. I don't follow, but the guy seems torn on whether he wants to run away from me, or know what the hell is going on.

Finally, at First Ave, he reaches the red light and stops in the middle lane. I pull up next to him, since I have to turn left to get to Yahoo's parking lot. We're both sitting at the red, so I roll down my window to tell him I liked his plate, and that was all. He's looking angry, the light turns green just then, and he barrels away.

I thought CEOs were supposed to be cool and collected. Then again, perhaps tech CEOs have cause to be a little more nervous in today's economy, which could explain a dotcom CEO driving a Honda Accord.

Whatever the reason for your freak-out, I'm sorry Mr. Tech CEO Man. I'm not trying to catch you in one act or another. I just thought you were cool.