Several weeks ago I got a gift certificate to Fry's (one of my favorite stores, as if you couldn't guess that one). I was given the gift certificate as a thank you from someone (Isabel) who I recommended as a Masters candidate to the Pepperdine Masters program. I had taught in the program one semester a few years back. One of the profs that interviewed her said "If Sonny says your good enough to get in, your in." Very flattering.
Anyhow back to the originally scheduled story here: I finally went to Fry's to geek out a bit and spend some of the gift certificate that was burning a hole in my nerdy pocket. Sandy came along. After searching for a Phillips keychain camera (they didn't have it), a midi pre amp for my "recording studio" (they didn't have it), I finally bought a 20Q handheld game (by Radica). It is a portable pocket version of the 20Q "game" online. Okay this thing is way geeky cool! The website says it's an experiment in AI (Artificial Intelligence) and is very impressive on it's own. What really impresses me is the handheld device. It was actually able to guess what I was thinking (common everyday objects) usually within 20 questions. Stuff like stop sign, shoes, dental floss, and asparagus! The thing is about the size of a bar of soap. It's hard to believe that it contains the data and programming that it must have to decide what questions to ask and a huge database to match the responses against! 15 bucks at Fry's.
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