Snark Hunting, the naming and branding blog (which would normally only be mentioned on my other blog) seems to think that "Wii" is a totally bogus name created to generate publicity. It makes sense if you think about it... Giving it a dumb name that forces people to think and write about what makes the system different makes people, well, think and write about what makes the system different - and that's exactly what Nintendo wants. After that's done, change the name to something less ridiculent. One compelling bit of evidence for this theory is that the name is a sham is that Nintendo has not trademarked the name in the U.S. or Japan. Hmmm...

Seriously, go here to buy OMG bling. And LOL bling, and my favorite, STFU bling.

So, word is out that the forthcoming Nintendo game system will be named "Wii". At first, when I read it, I thought it said "Wil", as an homage to Wil Wheaton for some reason, but no, it's "Wii" - pronounced like "we". Now, I've been anxious for this system to come out because I think Nintendo has taken an extremely smart stance on trying to build a game system that will appeal to everyone.

When I was a kid, I USED to be a hard core game player, but now that I'm an adult, I get incredibly annoyed by overly complex game controls, levels that must be replayed over and over again due to minor screwups, and drawn-out load times and cut-scenes. At heart, I still love the idea of video games (I'll play Katamari Damacy for hours straight without regret), and I think Nintendo will be trying to appeal to people like me.

Anyway... My point is this. As cool as the system is, and whatever Nintendo's genius marketing logic was regarding the name, I really don't see myself asking my friends if they want to come over and play with my Wii.

Oh yeah, and, of course, this was the first thing that popped into my head when I read the name...

David Copperfield and two of his assistants were robbed, but the magician got the upper hand. He tricked the robbers into thinking that his pockets were empty, then as they drove away, he called the police on his cell phone, which was in his pocket. The four teenage robbers were arrested. Article.

I have no idea what this is trying to prove; I just saw it in a conference room and thought it was priceless. Apparently facts become pain over time, and pain is more valuable than facts. Or something.

It's not only a whiteboard cleaner, it's great for cleaning whiteboards! I hear you can also use it to keep your whiteboard clean!

I saw this fantastic cheap-ass robot toy in a weird little general store in upstate New York. I wish my phone had a better camera, but you can see two more shots of the great Engrish wording here and here.

LaCie is selling external hard drives that look remarkably like a certain popular building toy (By that, I mean "Mega Bloks", of course). They are available in a desktop version (160GB - 500GB) or a self-powered mobile version (40GB - 120GB). The desktop version looks remarkably like a 2x3 brick and the mobile version looks remarkably like a 2x2 "plate".

Personally, I wish the desktop version would have been made in the more iconic 2x4 brick shape, but that might have been pushing it in the patent/copyright/whatever department. Still, this is a great design for anyone who's worried about how silly it would look to keep adding on external hard drives as they rip their 5000 DVD collection to disk. Just build a castle out of them!

First off, do not panic - Ridiculent is not going away! But I am giving some thought to whether it should evolve into something a little different. I love having somewhere to post goofy thoughts and information, and I know Dave does, too, so Ridiculent will always be a place for THAT.

However, it's approaching three years old and there's very little differentiating it from a million other similar blogs. I had intentionally kept the site very simple, so that I would refrain from obsessing over technology and neglecting content, but now I feel I'd like the site to evolve into something a little more unique. I think the content of the site has developed a unique "tone", which I love - so how do we take it to the next level?

I'm not interested in enhancing the site because I have a ton of free time - in fact, quite the opposite. My life is busier than ever, and will only get busier soon. So, I want Ridiculent to become a more rewarding "project" for me - to sort of up the (rewardingness/time spent on it) ratio. This has nothing to do with money. If I can figure out a way to make money with the site without annoying users, that's fine, but as long as the cost to run the site remains under a few bucks a month, that's good enough for me.

Though it's hard to tell from the comments, the web traffic logs tell me that the site traffic is sloooowly creeping upward, which is great. But now's the time for the "lurkers" to speak up. I really want any enhancements to be things "the community" wants, and not just technological experimentation for my own amusement. Should Ridiculent become a "digg"-type site, where everyone can post and vote on stuff? Should we just find more contributors? Should we let everyone create their own Ridiculent-flavored personal "diaries" much like Slashdot does? Should posters get their own profiles? I'm a pretty accomplished web programmer, so the sky's the limit.

So, what do you want Ridiculent to be?

OK, let's do another one. I stole this one from the "Car Talk Puzzler" from a while back.

You're in the basement of a three story house. There are three bare lightbulbs in the house - on on each floor. These three lightbulbs are attached to three light switches in the basement. Unfortunately, you have no idea which switch is attached to which lightbulb. These are all standard on/off switches, and none are wired upside-down or anything - so you know that "on" really means "on", at least. They are currently all turned off.

Your task is to figure out which switch connects to which light bulb. You must definitively determine the mapping of all three. The catch is: once you leave the basement, you can never go back down there - EVER! You have no assistants, spy cameras, or anything like that - you must personally investigate the light bulbs to determine what kind of state they're in.

This one's tricky. I'll post a hint in the comments.

As someone thinking about buying a house, I just had to share this find. A guy name Kyle MacDonald has devised a very unique scheme to try to get a free house. Actually, he's not trying to get it for free, he's trying to trade one red paperclip for it.

OK, actually, he's trying to parlay the red paper clip, via a series of increasingly valuable trades, into a free house. He's only been at it since July 12th, 2005 and he's already traded it up to one year of free rent in a Phoenix, AZ house. Most amazingly, it's only taken 10 steps so far.

If you have something more valuable that you'd like to trade for that year of free rent, help him out!

I was recently introduced to this rather clever logic puzzle. I needed some help to figure it out, but there is no "trick" to it. It goes like this...

There are 6 balls on a table. They all look identical, but one of them is slightly heavier. The weight difference is imperceptible without an extremely accurate scale. Fortunately, there is an extremely accurate balance scale on the table which you can use to compare the relative weights of different groups of balls - you have no other counterweights of any sort.

Your challenge: Figure out a way in which you can always find the heavy ball by using the scale no more than twice.

If you ever wanted to prove that you were smarter than your hamster, why not challenge it to a virtual reality battle? Some folks in Singapore have cooked up a system to enable just this sort of thing. Coming soon: Chicken and jellyfish battles. (Seriously.)

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