Don't Ever Quote Fight Club

You are not your job. You're not how much money you have in the bank. You're not the car you drive. You're not the contents of your wallet. You're not your fucking khakis. You're the all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world. - Tyler Durden, Fight Club.

Ok so Fight Club remains one of my all time fave films but here's an excellent piece by andmysidearm  I came across today while doing some research into 1990s advertising trends for my day job.

If you've ever felt the need to set up a Fight Club or set off your own Project Mayhem or maybe just love the bits in the film where Brad Pitt is super cool then do read this critique:

Fight Club quotes are so quippy and simple – they really elucidate nothing deeper. Durden’s one-liners (and they are abundant) are like easy-to-digest commandments that everyone clings to as profound. Funny thing about profound stuff – once it saturates the mainstream, it tends to lose its kick. We’re all grappling for ways to define ourselves outside the status quo. At the end of that day that’s what Fight Club is really about – considering the things we cling to. Nihilism and rebellion are still laced potently with self-definition and ideology. We put ourselves in box after box until the day we die – then it’s just one last box.

Coolest Indie Games Ever

I really want to cover the best of the indie computer games scene but I admit I'm probably a bit out of the loop as I've been snowed under with work over the past 9 months or so - not much time to keep up to date with or play the best independent games. If you know of any titles be they computer games or apps that are deserving of some wider publicity do drop me a line or leave a comment. In the meantime I'm going to start exploring the indie game scene again and getting up to speed so that I can start both playing and recommending some of the best indie games past and present and maybe if I get time start building up a useful guide to the coolest indie games of all time

The Coolest Train Set Ever

Holy crap! If you want to see the coolest model train set ever then watch this video - it's Miniatur Wunderland and it's totally amazing! Like literally frickin awesome! This is the world's largest model railway but describing it as a model railway really doesn't do it justice. Visit the Miniatur Wunderland website for lots of geeky information, stats and statistics about this incredibly cool minature train/world set.

Fake Bio Shock Trailer

Have fun guessing the movies used in this fake but cool Bio Shock theatrical trailer.

Oculus Rift - Cool or Crap?

Boasting a diagonal field of view of 110 degrees and a 3D panoramic view (tech summary: it's all around you) it's designer Palmer Luckey boasts it's the first truly immersive virtual reality headset for video games but is the Oculus Rift any good?

Well people can find out for themselves by pleding $300 or more to get their grasping  hands on a prototype version with a copy of Doom 3: BFG Edition

Computer and Video Games have full details and a cool article on the race for wearable computing including video of the Oculus Rift. Cool or crap? Based on the video I reckon it's looking pretty damn cool but exactly how realistic can we go with 3D shooters before we crap our pants when a heavily armed virtual bad guy or demon from another dimension pops up from behind a crate and blows our brains out?

Monopoly Alan Turing Edition

Here's another of my nomimations for coolest dude ever - Alan Turing. Now not only did Alan Turing save millions of lives and not only is he widely regarded as the father of computing (and thus, ultimately, the reason we get to play Halo 4 instead of working up chimneys or watching paint dry) but he also now also has Monopoly game to celebrate his life and works - how many other cool people do you know who can say that?

The BBC reports that "The life of computer pioneer Alan Turing has been commemorated in a special edition of Monopoly. The board's London landmarks, and its Community and Chance cards, have been swapped for places and events important in Turing's life."

Google have bought 1000 sets and donated them to Bletchley Park to help raise funds (for Bletchley Park, not for Google).

For more information about Alan Turing please check out this fascinating website by Andrew Hodges author of Alan Turing: the enigma.

Coolest People Ever

Who are the coolest people ever? That's a theme I'm going to be covering in this blog. Basically it's a list of the coolest people ever to have lived on this planet with a focus on  the underdogs or outsiders - no Hollywood A-Listers are going on to be included as they get quite enough publicity.

Who to start with? Well I'm going to plump for Nikola Tesla. According to a BBC News article about Tesla:

"He's less famous than Einstein. He's less famous than Leonardo. He's arguably less famous than Stephen Hawking.
Most gallingly for his fans, he's considerably less famous than his arch-rival Thomas Edison."

Let's see if we can fix that. Wikipedia describes Tesla as "a Serbian-American inventor, physicist, mechanical engineer, electrical engineer, and futurist. He is best known for his contributions to the modern alternating current (AC) electrical supply system. Tesla's patents and theoretical work helped form the basis of wireless communication and radio. His many revolutionary developments in the field of electromagnetism were based on Michael Faraday's theories of electromagnetic technology."

So he's obviously a pretty cool guy and he's probably kicking himself for snuffing it before the internets was invented by the great Al Gore.

Do read up on this amazing fellow. Take a peek at the Tesla Museum and watch this fascinating Ted Talk Tesla Video.