Children’s Garage Band #N: 2nd Thought
So, basically, these guys rock. They played Summerfest in Millwaukee, and they have a bunch of videos on their youtube website:
Children’s Garage Band #5: Iron Man
Pint-size rock band, THE TOXIC MUFFIN, plays Black Sabbath’s Iron Man, complete with mini-solo at the end. Note the Blues Brothers shirt worn by the singer. Truly classic.
Children’s Garage Band #4: Blitzkrieg Bop
Drunk British dad gets his kids to play a Ramones classic.
Children’s Garage Band #3: Don’t Stop Believing
This kid has an amazing voice, but someone skilled is playing the piano part.
Children’s Garage Band #2: Life is a Highway
The bass player is basically as tall as his instrument. Rockin’ keyboards and guitar solo. These kids rock.
Children’s Garage Band #1: Freebird
I’m going to start posting a few awesome kids garage bands playing awesome classic rock songs. The first one is a band called 2nd Thought, playing Skynyrd’s Freebird at a middle school talent show. Yes, that’s right, they are between 11 and 13 years old. The singer is still waiting for that puberty thing to start, but the singing is strong, and the solo is pretty amazing.
Wallace
My ultimate goal, for some reason, is to see if you can use genetic algorithms to “train” a computer to play Super Mario Bros. A genetic algorithm needs two key things: a way to generate candidate solutions (relatively easy, here) and a way to measure their “fitness” (or “goodness”) so as to decide which candidates live on to the next generation and which go the way of the dodo.
Of course, being a master of computer science, I won’t be satisfied by creating something that is only capable of playing Super Mario Bros. Nay, I want something that can, in principle, be applied to any Nintendo game. Naturally, a fitness function appropriate for Super Mario Bros. (whatever that might be) would be quite different than one appropriate for, say, Mega Man 2, to say nothing of something like StarTropics or (dare I say it) Final Fantasy.
[meta] Sorry for leaving you guys post-hungry. I should be done moving tonight–I started August 3rd. [/meta]
Paul Kuliniewicz » Wallace [via]
Feels Like Making Love
I love the Dad-like fellow.
Genesis Project Trailer
Genesis is an interactive installation, where a player is able to play god. The installation consists of a 1×1m table and 7 cubes, which represent the 7 elements of this game: Mankind, Water, Forrest, Cereals, Animals, Mountains and Fire. A beamer projects a 2D game scenario onto the table and the cubic elements are tracked by a video camera.
The player is invited to create his own “good” world, where all of the elements can exist side by side. If the elements are arranged unequally, the world collapses and results in conflagration, flooding, hunger and other horrible things. To avoid that, the user has to position the elements carefully in his world.