News from the Hermitage...

This just in from the Hermit Kingdom, courtesy of the diligent people at Associated Press. I think it pretty much speaks for itself...

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Avid video gamer dies from heart attack
SEOUL, South Korea (August 11 2005)

A 28-year-old man died of an apparent heart attack after playing computer games nonstop for 49 hours in an Internet cafe, police said.

The man, identified only by his last name, Lee, collapsed Friday after having eaten minimally and not sleeping. He had refused to leave his keyboard while he played the battle simulation game Starcraft, police said.

Lee, a resident in the southern city of Taegu, was quickly moved to a hospital but died after a few hours, due to what doctors believed was a heart attack, police said.

Lee had been fired from his job last month because he kept missing work to play computer games, police said.

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...so, it would seem that videogames DON'T make kids turn violent and kill people. The videogames themselves are already violent and busy killing people.

Battling Gollum

So anyway, this morning I sent out this riddle to a few friends:

Q: How many people can read hex if only you and dead people can read hex?
A: 57006

and this MSN conversation with Gav resulted:

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"uh... is this mike on?" says:
you got that one rather quickly... impressive
mdcore@... says:
well I knew that i either had to convert FROM hex or TO hex.. so ja
"uh... is this mike on?" says:
a good one to have up your sleeve for next time you encounter a Gollum-like creature and have to play a riddling game for your life...
mdcore@... says:
:)
mdcore@... says:
oh wait.. you're on MSN
mdcore@... says:
!?!?!?!?!?!!?
"uh... is this mike on?" says:
taking my chances... living on the edge...
mdcore@... says:
:)
"uh... is this mike on?" says:
adrenalin-junkie, that's me
mdcore@... says:
what next.... using firefox!?!?!?! wild man, wild.
mdcore@... says:
have I sent you to alien loves predator before?
"uh... is this mike on?" says:
don't think so, no
mdcore@... says:
http://alienlovespredator.com/index.php
mdcore@... says:
the current one is quite funny
mdcore@... says:
the basic premise is the alien and the predator share an apartment in new york,
"uh... is this mike on?" says:
btw, have you played AVP?
mdcore@... says:
a teeny-weeny bit
"uh... is this mike on?" says:
I lasted, like, ten minutes into it
"uh... is this mike on?" says:
then I ran and hid, crying like a little girl
mdcore@... says:
hehehehehe
"uh... is this mike on?" says:
scary
"uh... is this mike on?" says:
the reviews probably called it "atmospheric"
"uh... is this mike on?" says:
I'd go with "frikkin' terrifying", personally
mdcore@... says:
:)

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... and I'm not even kidding about that game. It gripped my heart with an icy claw as cold as the depths of space, and didn't let go until I exited and un-installed it from my computer.

Btw, the particular strip referred to can be found here.

The astonishment which Gav expressed at my being online is due to the fact that Management, in their infinite wisdom, have decreed that such potentially efficiency-improving tools as Trillian, MSN Messenger, FireFox and the like are not to be used at work. The logic in this decision is as self-evident as in any of their proclamations.