Monthly Archive for April, 2004

Notes on Acting

Please do not outlaw spam. It is full of thoughtful words like these:

Buffy Freeman writes:

>Tricia, Actors are the opposite of people

>The best thing about acting is that I get to lose myself in another character and actually get paid for it… It’s a great outlet. I’m not really sure who I am-it seems I change every day.

>{ad for viagra removed]}

>Every man’s ability may be strengthened or increased by culture.

LaShawn Milburn replies:

>Grosvenor, Acting is nothing more or less than playing. The idea is to humanize life.

>Move decisions out to the Cabinet and agencies. Strengthen them by moving responsibility, authority, and accountability their direction.

>{Viagra and Cialis ad removed}

>Back of every achievement is a proud wife and a surprised mother-in-law.

Ain’t it interesting stuff?

iChat Robot

NSLog() asks “If you could have an Eliza application in your chat app, would you use it?”

I say emphatically yes! If you don’t know Eliza is the infamous “A.I.” program that passed the Turing Test, the premise of which is, “if a human cannot distinguish the program from a human, then the program can be deemed ‘intelligent’.” Of course, the premise is flawed, but Eliza and its ilk are great fun — they are good at creating mindless small talk, not to mention being bang-up Freudian philosophers in a pinch.

Anyway, if I could have an AI program answer my chats when I was away I’d be quite pleased. Plugin for iChat, anyone?

Unbelievable Robot, take 2

Talking about the previous post about the mini cooper robot made me realize how I wouldn’t be surprised if it was just a big hoax. Then I saw this: Robot Cop which is really great CG and compositing, but definitely NOT real (yet!). Hmmmmm….

And then I saw this Museum of Hoaxes

All a little TOO perfect, huh?

And then there’s this:

Transform and Roll Out

Unbelievable Robot

No, it’s not my new band name — it’s actually an unbelievable robot! This guy made a robot from “spare parts” from his job building Cooper Mini’s: http://www.r50rd.co.uk/research/internal/v2i/engin/. Be sure to check out the “Car Stopping Test” video!