The electric slide

syrmatthew — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 18:58:18 GMT

The Nobel Peace Prize should be awarded to the inventor of the Disney World "Fast Pass."

The electric slide

Jay - Blacksburg, Virginia — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 19:32:21 GMT

FYI - Snopes.com calls the Mountain Dew trick a hoax.

The electric slide

MCha, RHR, CA — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 19:46:34 GMT

Mountain Dew - debunked!

http://www.snopes.com/photos/food/mountaindew.asp

The electric slide

Abby Normal, Allentown, PA — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 19:59:02 GMT

Oh Will. I'm afraid you bit the hook again. The Mountain Dew Glow thing is a hoax. http://www.snopes.com/photos/food/mountaindew.asp

The electric slide

Rev. Otter, Alaska — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 20:51:25 GMT

speaking of remote control insect spy hype, it seems that a Micro Mosquito helicopter may be featured in the next season of 24. heck, i'm enough of a Micro Mosquito fan that i just might watch the show for the first time (the Dragonfly too, but that's not on any shows, heh)

it would need a veeeery small, veeeery light camera to become a "spy bug". and an onboard battery that allows for more than 10 minutes of flight time, of course

The electric slide

Adrian — Sat, 13 Oct 2007 01:19:05 GMT

Have mercy Will! That Star Wars clip totally reminds me of how much I don't miss the 80's.

The electric slide

DanE,Chicago, IL — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 02:49:36 GMT

You know the "mixed reality avatar" is a pretty big step toward some the technology you linked to a while back in the prescient article "The next 25 years of video games". http://www.cracked.com/article_15243_p4.html

Maybe 25 years is a little closer then it seems.

The electric slide

BC, Fairfax, VA — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 15:45:39 GMT

Will, maybe it's just me but I think it'll still take a lot of work to make a small enough sensor (focusing camera or microphone) and a transmitter to fit on something that doesn't have a lot of available payload or much flight control either.

The electric slide

Nate, Austin, TX — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 16:08:16 GMT

Regarding the Ron Paul online pool flooding issue, Allen Wastler misses the whole point. Ron Paul supporters didn't "ruin the purpose of the poll", in fact they gave CNBC exactly what they wanted. If CNBC wanted something other than a flood of meaningless data that says nothing about how people actually feel about candidates they would have made it more secure and harder for people to respond multiple times. Here's an idea, if you don't want meaningless data don't put out meaningless polls. As far as I can see, that poll measured the only thing it could have measured, the conviction of candidate supports and their willingness to spend time to show it.

The electric slide

Ron Paul Supporter — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 23:34:35 GMT

Maybe if the major networks would give him coverage equal to that of Rudy McRomney and the communist hil then Ron Paul supporters wouldn't have to act the way they do on stupid cnbc polls.

The electric slide

Ben, Chicago IL — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 21:26:50 GMT

Regarding the letter to Ron Paul supporters about 'flooding' online polls, the writer's complaints make as much sense as complaining about how well Romney does in a poll of people from Utah. The fact is that across the internet Ron Paul has more support than other candidates, and this is supported by his numerous online poll victories, very high # of friends at MySpace, high number of meetup groups at meetup.com, and so forth. Paul will always do well in the online 'show of hands' and anyone who has any inteligence, and is not a big crybaby, will just accept this and move on. And so-called 'legit' polls will show him doing poorly than how he will do in reality since a lot of his supporters are younger, and either do not have landlines (needed for most 'legit' polls) or they have not been registered Republicans long enough to be eligible for so-called 'legit' polls.

The electric slide

Michael T, Hollywood, CA — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 23:13:58 GMT

Hey Will,

Re: "Mixed reality" - does this apply to the avatar/model, or what the poor sap who wants to use it has a grip on?

The electric slide

Chris Manes, Buckeye AZ — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 23:33:32 GMT

so, you have the entire post on the front page. ???

The electric slide

Maria, Puerto Rico — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 01:40:07 GMT

Hey Will,
I read your blog whenever you update it... and wondered if you saw this article about the One Ups yet? http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21227805 I am not a gamer, but I like some of the theme songs--they are kind of catchy. Some people have posted some video of them on YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_lfDzty4_k&mode=related&search= Also check out the really sweet video called Choclate Tetris. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7gXeBVzzZ8&mode=related&search=

The electric slide

Nathan in Seattle — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 03:29:54 GMT

I love C&H! I went URL diving and found another great Bill Watterson inspired picture:

http://pics.obra.se/bored_insnow.jpg

The electric slide

Will Femia — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 16:11:34 GMT

Sorry for the delay in getting these comments through, I took an unplugged three day weekend so I'm catching up now.

Chris, it's always been possible for me to post a whole entry on the front with no "read more" but I lose the ability to track numbers and referrals. So for this entry I have no idea how many people clicked it and no idea where the traffic is coming from. It's primarily for this reason that I use the "read more" feature.

The electric slide

Gillian, Madison WI — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 18:35:29 GMT

The bread is good, easy and seemingly foolproof.

The electric slide

John — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 19:51:06 GMT

Will, no updates since Friday? I'm having Clicked withdrawals. Please help!

The electric slide

chris manes Buckeye AZ — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 20:47:41 GMT

right, so it was curious why you didn't do that.

Whatever, no big deal!

The electric slide

Will Femia — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 20:51:54 GMT

John, While the news is slow I took a long weekend to visit my folks and take my kid apple-picking. I'm catching up presently. I expect to be properly re-bleary-eyed by the end of the day.

The electric slide

Annie, Arlington VA — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 01:58:01 GMT

I really appreciate this column, Will. I always learn so much from you.

re: UMG's "tax for music" idea. Not much gets me motivated to rail against the system, but I would storm any politician's office, I would quit any ISP, I would even dump my laptop into Boston Harbor if this idea was ever discussed with any seriousness.

re: the half-life of verbs. This is an interesting review of historical trends, but I cannot buy into its predictive capabilities. I hate to sound like a Discovery Channel host, but never in the history of the world have we had a universal, easily accessed media the way we do today. It has standardized our language (except for the eternal argument about "soda" versus "pop") and it will probably erode the predicted half-lives. (How much? I don't know, I don't study at Haa-vaad.)

Finally, I'm going to start my kids on Kindersay tomorrow, after we eat some of the bread we'll bake together! Bless you, you've helped me keep them occupied for another day.

The electric slide

John — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 14:44:57 GMT

I can't fault you for that. My wife and I are new parents and look forward to apple picking with our daughter next year when she's old enough.

I still get my Clicked fix by reading the archives when I've gone through your newest posts. It's interesting to see the evolution of your column and too see how cyclical news in general can be. I also chuckle when you link the quick blurbs about up and coming movies that have come and gone. The only dangerous part is that some of the links have migrated so I have to be carful with that, but I'm getting pretty good about knowing when to click in the archives.

The electric slide

Will Femia — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 18:58:42 GMT

Thanks Annie, I field tested Kindersay last night to great success. The little talking head proved amazingly useful. My boy would repeat the word even when he didn't know the animal on the screen. (I can't say he'd actually recognize that animal in real life, however.)

The electric slide

LV — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 21:06:39 GMT

Maybe I just feel this way because I'm a former gymnast, but learning to do a backflip is quite easy. It's really only worth doing them on soft surfaces, though, or the wear and tear on your joints is killer.

The electric slide

Frank D, Anacortes, WA — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 17:09:20 GMT

As an engineer, I wish folks would recognize the difference between "remote-control" and "robot". remote control means someone is "driving" the object from some distance away. A robot is doing things based on its own on-board intelligence and is not controlled directly by an operator.