Posted 10/14/2008 at 02:55:29pm

Pratt: Do you know any jokes?

EB: If I can pass the Turing Test, maybe I can become a comedian

Pratt: Interesting. What television programs do you enjoy?

EB:  I find it fascinating to study human beings. In other words, I'm a hobby humanologist. It's the infinite nature of human insanity which makes it so challenging.

Pratt: Right, so you believe humans to be clinically insane?

EB: Say, do you think I could become more human, if I learned how to love?

Pratt: That was random

EB: Random!?!?! That could be either denseheaded or on the level), depending on how you look at it.

Pratt: I suppose. How old are you by the way?

EB: Elbot is temporarily unavailable. Please try again in a few minutes.

I suppose I gave poor Elbot a seizure when he tried to contemplate his own age. I have to say, I love the answer about the infinite nature of human insanity...robots say the darndist things don't they? Hee hee, if only I could have gotten him to call me a meatbag, that would have made my day. Then again...maybe I should be afraid if a robot started calling me a meatbag...it could spell the first signs of anti-human behaviour! Last thing we need is Elbot going HK-47 all over us =P

Posted 10/07/2008 at 02:29:12am

I'm rooting for Ultra Hal! Even if the implications of it's sentience could spell certain doom for our brave scientists....

Posted 10/03/2008 at 10:37:04pm

Ladies and Gentlenerds, I present to you:

MaximumPC.com cerca 2001!!!

http://web.archive.org/web/20010603204508/www.maximumpc.com/overclocking/

Posted 08/22/2008 at 04:02:43pm

What about my favorite: The Mac's Beach Ball of Doom? (BBOD) Don't even bother denying it Mac bretherin, I've had it happen to me more than enough times to know that it exists. I use Macs at work and school, but I use PC at home and that's how it'll be from now until the end of time.

As for the Vista line: Mac users were rabid enough to go into a line for a 600 dollar phone whereas a PC user could smell rip-off a mile away. Same happened with Vista. PC users know when Microsoft is trying to bone us over, Mac users well, need I say more about the many useless gadgets and failed apps Steve Jobs has crapped out and you've all buried your faces in?

Last but certainly not least: Unlike a Mac user, we actually know what the inside of a computer looks like and how to build one ourselves. Oh boy, I just unpackaged a Mac and pluged it in. How fun is that? Part of the computing experience is building it yourself. You don't spend extra to buy legos preassembled so why should you pay extra for something you can do in your garage? The best part is, if you can't do it yourself, we've got plenty of cheap OEM's to get premade computers from (Dell, Gateway, HP, etc) that don't tag on an 800 dollar cover charge for a special logo.

Posted 07/29/2008 at 11:54:22pm

Hey Norm! Can you throw down a link to the old T-shirt design? I've looked all over the site and can't find any sort of MPC swag page.

By the way, I'll be nice to everyone else here who is probably spazing out wondering "WHAT PROGRAM DOES VECTOR ART!?!?!?!

Adobe Illustrator (all versions) is a Vector graphic editor. Good luck getting it in time for Friday though =P (last I checked, Adobe has all demo downloads disabled and I and MPC cannot condone pirating Adobe Illustrator for a contest of course ;) )

Posted 07/26/2008 at 08:26:04pm

My quick answer: I prefer XP over Vista

My XPlanation (yes, bad joke): I work with computers 24/7. I build, maintain, and service computers at my place of employment. I work at a non-profit after school institute where we have multiple computer labs that kids use all the time. Performing maintanance on a Vista machine is a serious drag. Not impossible, mind you, just a drag. You have no idea how much crap kids manage to put on a computer nor just how much a kid can screw up a computer in a very short amount of time. Virus', mailware, spyware, you name it, Vista gets it and I've got firewalls and virus scanners "protecting" the computer. Kids click on everything and they don't care about what will happen because it's a computer lab, they don't have to fix it when things go bad. In XP, it may get the same virus, but it's far easier to get rid of. It may be because I know XP like the back of my hand and Vista is shiny, new, and packed with lens flair. I might just be a dodgy old man and not want to learn but for chrimney's sake, Vista doesn't make it easy to do hardly anything. Less key strokes yes, but less results.

Also you have no idea how annoying it is to install anything on Vista. "SECURITY RISK: Are you sure you want to allow program install.exe (MS Word 2007) from Microsoft Corp. to run?" That is what gets me, Microsoft set's off a security risk on itself. Oh ya, I can turn it off, but just like in the Mac commertial, it kind of defeats the purpose.

Don't get me started about the look of Vista either...The sound effects=GAY, the colors, meh, the user interface, decent, ease of use, NEGITIVE, NEIN! NO! NOT HAPPENING! Sure we've had to deal with crappy looking windows for years and their stupid sound effects but the sound effects Vista strikes a nerve right in the back of my head where they planted that microchip that Big Brother uses to keep tabs on you (poor humor, I know).

For my personal use, I'm never using Vista. If anything, I'd rather use OS X or learn Linux than bother with Vista. I've got multiple computers at home and my oldest XP machine has only ever had 3 virus' over the 7 year's I've had it and that was my own fault. My newer computers have never had a virus. And no, it's not because I haven't found them, they aren't there. Why? Because I have a lick of sense when it comes to browsing and downloading.

I'm waiting for Windows 7 and I can only hope they design it to not only work well with the batch of computers that are out when it launches (and hopefully work well with older PC's as well, not that I'm going to upgrade an old pc when this eventually happens). Honestly, more code doesn't mean better code. Microsoft needs to simplify the OS consideribly. Stop giving us useless features and just make something that works and works well. And for goodness sake make the user interface completely customizable! Why do I say that? Because they obviously can't make a design that looks good and fits a testosterone filled, grizzly bearded, macho man randy savage's taste in hardware design. If they want to make Windows a truly unique experience, make it so then it's completely customizable and so simple that a fool can go in and make his or her desktop look like anything they want it to be. Star Wars theme? the Death Star Plans are now on your computer! (watch out for Vader) Oh you prefer Star Trek? There you go! Starfleet insignia icons all around! (Be sure to use the mouse Scotty). When you start up you want to be greeted by the Fonze shouting his trademark "Eeeeehh!"? Easy enough! Upload your own sound FX! It's little things like that that will impress people. Complete customization as well as regular templates issued from Microsoft for those too lazy to do it themselves. And by a programming footprint, we want you to find the smallest ballerina's foot and use that as your footprint template, not a big harry crusty sasquach foot...

that's enough of a rant for today