Archive for October, 2007
Habits of Happy People
Posted by Lane in Health & Fitness on October 4, 2007
Joie de vivre. We all know people whose engagement with life can only be described as joyful. Fittingly, nature rewards these happy-go-lucky types: Being optimistic in middle age increases life span by at least 7.5 years—even after accounting for age, gender, socioeconomic status, and physical health, according to a large Yale University survey. What’s behind their hardiness: They minimize the destructive effects of stress.
"Of course, optimists get stressed," says David Snowdon, a professor of neurology at the University of Kentucky who studies aging. "But they automatically turn the response off much more quickly and return to a positive mental and physical state."
Here are four habits that longevity experts say are at the heart of a sunny disposition—and that you can adopt, too.
How Cable Should Be
Posted by Lane in Politics & Religion, TV on October 2, 2007
If you’re tired of paying for cable TV networks you don’t watch and find offensive, visit HowCableShouldBe.com – It lets you vote for the networks you watch and are willing to pay for. It tells you how much you could save if we were allowed to choose. It also lets you send your vote to your representatives in Washington so they can help make Cable Choice a reality.
I would certainly welcome this. We’re currently paying for Dish Network’s “America’s Top 200″ package – for one station (Discovery Health). Even the Top 100 package has far more channels than we ever actually watch. And I would just as soon completely get rid of all the sports channels, Bravo, Fuse, MTV, etc.
The Atari 2600 celebrates 30 years of low-rez fun
Posted by Lane in Entertainment, Gaming, Nostalgia on October 1, 2007
As my 35th birthday approaches, an old friend is celebrating 30 years… the Atari 2600! Retro Thing is doing an “Atari Week” feature, with several pieces about the first device that defined “video game” for the majority of us thirty-somethings.
The Atari 2600′s impact upon the gaming world was immense. No less than eight variations were produced over its stunning 14 year lifespan, along with three Sears-branded models and over a dozen clones. The system sold in excess of 40 million units, and AtariAge lists well over 1300 different game titles. This is all the more incredible because the system was envisioned to have only a two or three year lifespan before being replaced by something more sophisticated. That day never came. Even though Atari made repeated attempts to surpass their initial design, the 2600 remained the pinnacle of the company’s console gaming success.
Christmas morning, 1980
Many fuzzy memories:
- Begging my parents to drop me off at John Arnett’s house to play his 2600 before my piano lessons.
- The hilarity of Basketball’s square ball.
- Being awed by the ability to play Space Invaders without having to drop a quarter at the arcade. (and the syncopated rhythm when there’s only four attackers left)
- Finally getting an Atari of my own for Christmas. Thanks Mom and Dad! Uh, I mean, Santa!
- Staying up all night at John Merritt’s house to beat Raiders of the Lost Ark.
- Playing, enjoying, and beating E.T., years before the internet told me I was supposed to hate it.
- Checking out my friends’ latest acquisitions each Saturday at the Cub Scout meeting. Including Journey Escape – Now THAT game was a stinker.
- …and finally giving it up for the Commodore 64 [links to an archive of my C64 site from several years ago]
The Atari 2600 seems so quaint in comparison to what we have today, but it was capable of some truly amazing things given it’s limitations. It had a meager 128 bytes of memory – to put that in perspective, this blog post alone is 20 times that. Your average home computer today with a gigabyte of memory can hold over 8 million times that amount. The ability to create anything with those limitations, let alone some of the classics that were produced for the 2600, is nothing short of incredible.