Shorten The Road

Have you ever said something similar to “If you like that movie, you are going to love…”? If yes, has your predictions been true? If yes, then Netflix wants to give you a million bucks.

http://www.netflixprize.com/index

Netflix is looking to improve its recommendation system by sponsoring a money contest open to anyone almost anywhere. To qualify for the million dollar prize, you must improve the recommendation system by 10%.

I’m interested from hearing from anyone who would be interested in forming a team.

Time to take a break and play a game. Here is an old link in my favorites. Enjoy!

http://www.widro.com/throwpaper.html

This is a great game for conference calls that you need to pay attention to, but not a primary participant. Although I try to multi-task on conference calls, there are a few calls that need a little more attention which disrupts the multi-tasking, but does not require enough attention to keep me fully engaged. This is a nice lite-weight distraction.

In September 2005, 4 million players were infected with a virus in the online realm of “World of Warcraft.” Quarantine areas were circumvented by infected players, cities became uninhabitable and were abandoned, and players avoided large groups. The game never recovered. Blizzard, the game’s creator, had to reset the game to eliminate the outbreak.

Since then, this scenario has been studied by various groups including the CDC (Center of Disease Control), to determine how a real epidemic would spread. I was inspired to post this article, because almost two years later, I heard a BBC report on it. An August 22, 2007 yahoo news search for ‘Warcraft virus’, returned 30 articles for the month of August 2007. One of my favorite headlines from that search was ‘Nerd Plague to Save the World.’

So, the next time you are being nagged by your spouse or significant other to stop playing your games, remind them the important role you are ‘playing’ in saving their lives and the lives of the human race.

Bubble Game.

I was cleaning up some folders and came across this project. It is a very simple java applet game which the player, utilizing their mouse, ‘pops’ the circles by clicking inside the circumference of the circles.

It can be played at:
http://www.martinbutler.com/Bubble/BubbleGame.html

The code, along with the comments, should be self explanatory, but if you have any questions please let me know.

java files:
http://www.martinbutler.com/Bubble/BubbleGame.java
http://www.martinbutler.com/Bubble/Bubble.java
http://www.martinbutler.com/Bubble/CanvasPanel.java
binary:
http://www.martinbutler.com/Bubble/Bubble.jar