Something I missed: [ ai-class.com ]

A partnership between Stanford Education and knowlabs, the class offered over at [ http://ai-class.com ] is pretty neat. I wish I had signed up for it sooner, even if my current workload isn't always getting done. I'll have to settle for watching videos on occasion, I guess.

A news article (FD: written by Stanford) detailing what's going on can be found [ here ].

Neat stuff, AI.

Overall, I find the idea of a class where the material is taught in compact format outside of the classroom (in a potentially passive medium, perhaps) to be a pretty neat one- classes could be shorter, wouldn't require an hour-or-longer attention span to take in all the material, and the educator could utilize their time more efficiently- rather than spending time lecturing more than once, they can record the lecture, and spend valuable class time helping the students with more advanced or difficult-to-understand concepts.

Food for thought, I guess.

Shameless Airsoft Plugs

"Other people and things can stop you temporarily. You're the only one who can do it permanently."


~Zig Ziglar

I was introduced to the almost-milsim that is Airsoft (sometimes called softtair) by an old friend who just recently left for college. Airsoft is a game (or a sport, depending on how seriously you take it) that involves launching small, relatively lightweight plastic pellets at high velocity (typically propelled by compressed air in one form or another) to simulate gunfire without the danger of bullet wounds. The industry backing the sport is pretty big. We're talking 20+ manufacturers big. People pouring more than $500.00 into a single rifle big.

It's not just manufacturers that are producing rifles, though- it's also the players- a friend of mine (the same one who introduced me) sold me my first rifle. It started out as a stock TSD M16A3 - a rifle of decent pedigree - and he upgraded it with higher-quality internal components, such that the rifle fires harder and faster than almost any other stock rifle (and it's still field-legal, too!).

That being said, he's been doing this for awhile- buying a "decent" rifle, upgrading it, and reselling it for a profit. He's also introduced me to some good sources (if you're in the United States) of rifles and parts.

[ http://evike.com/ ] and [ http://airsoftgi.com/ ] are two reliable retailers for stock equipment.

[ http://www.airsoftforum.com/board/forums.html ] is an excellent resource for questions regarding almost everything airsoft, as well as an excellent marketplace for purchasing and selling rifles.

I'm still a nubcake, though- I'm working on manufacturing some field-ready armor. More on that later.