Checking-In: Is this fun?


This year has marked the rise of services that allow users to “check-in,” or in other words, “update the internet about where they are.” The two big ones on the scene are Foursquare and Gowalla, both focusing on checking-in to shops around town, gaining points for doing so, and possibly getting some discounts for repeat business.

Recently, I have taken up a third, lesser known service called SCVNGR. I have been using it for a couple of weeks, but up until this point I have yet to figure out if I am actually having fun.
Continue reading

More TED Talks

Hey, guess what? I’ve watched more of these crazy videos and I will share some of them with you.

The first of this list is a discussion by Jane McGoniga, who talks about how games can possibly help solve real world problems. Far fetched? Maybe. It is very interesting how she has used that idea to apply to games that interact with real life. I could use to hear the word “epic” less.
Continue reading

Some TED Talks

If you’re not familiar with TED.com, it’s basically a repository for really amazing lectures given by people who are much more intelligent than you or me. That’s really all there is to it. I simply want to list a couple that I’ve watched tonight. And don’t worry, all of the talks are very interesting.

The first, which is what is shown above, is a fifteen minute talk with a math genius who can square up to five digit numbers in his mind. It’s really quite fascinating.
Continue reading