Monday, October 31, 2005

Thursday, October 27, 2005

22:54 ~ gaze at the moon

Found this through a comment on WWDN:IE.

KLI Scholarship

You don't need to know Klingon, but it probably helps. Have to keep that in mind if I go for a language degree.

Gadget Show again

Passwords -- Hypnotized some people to get their passwords. It worked too. The top three passwords in the UK are manchesterunited, britneyspears, and admin. So if anyone reading this has their password set to any of those, better go change it.

Stuff to ride on -- Offroad Segway or Centaur. And Trikke. Like a tricycle version of a scooter. Looked like good exercise. I bet hills would be difficult though.

Virus software -- Free virus software at avast.com. Arrr!

Wednesday, October 26, 2005

23:39 ~ gaze at the moon

My latest Epinions:

Salmon is Sake according to Japanese Vocabulary
Horses of Fantasy in Horse Fantastic
It Takes a Vile Village to Raise the Baudelaires

05:52 ~ gaze at the moon

I was just watching this show on Bravo that was counting down the top 20 super heroes and I had to come express my outrage. I missed most of the episode about the top 20 vixens. Apparently female super heroes (and villains) have to be vixens. But that's a separate rant entirely.

I need to tell you who they left off of the list!

Zorro!

Imagine! But it wouldn't be so bad if the 20 listed were like.. obviously better than Zorro. Superman, Batman, etc. But the freaking Mask got on the list. And, get this, Austin Powers! They're quite stretching the definition of 'super hero' there, aren't they? Even more when they put in Men in Black, just because it was a comic book. How does Zorro get left off?! Hmf. Need to go see the new movie.

I'm surprised who they listed as number 1, but I don't object. I won't tell you, lest I spoil you. I shall just taunt you and make you guess.

Now we'll see if this one with the villains has any chicks in it. I'm not holding my breath.

Friday, October 21, 2005

12:31 ~ gaze at the moon

Not at all who I would've thought of, but I suppose I'll take it. Could do worse.

Elrond

A stern yet benevolent organizer who often knows best, your wits are keenly fixed on aiding efforts you deem worthy.

Now at this last we must take a hard road, a road unforseen. There lies our hope, if hope it be. To walk into peril to Mordor.

Wednesday, October 19, 2005

15:51 ~ gaze at the moon

Other things on the Gadget Show.

Juice Bag - It was 200 pounds, which works out to.. $353.11!!!! o.O Anyway, if you've got 200 pounds to throw around, this is awesome. It has a solar panel. So while you're walking around, you can be charging your electronics.

15:41 ~ gaze at the moon

Watching another Gadget Show. Here's how to fix your electronics after you've jumped into a swimming pool.

* Take out the batteries (if you can).
* Take it apart as much as you safely can. At least try to improve airflow inside.
* Use a Q-tip as much as you're able to sop up the water.
* Put it under a hot desk lamp. Don't blow dry it.
* Leave it for at least 24 hours.

Then put it back together and have a go.

If it's been in the ocean or a chlorinated pool, you'll want to rinse it first in filtered water to get rid of the salt or other nasty stuff.

The Ipod Shuffle wouldn't be dismantled, so it remained dead for the guy on the show.

Monday, October 17, 2005

16:35 ~ gaze at the moon

Epinions

I'm on the top list for Most Popular Reviews in Education in 2005. I'm #4! So everyone go check out my review of Capella University and bump me up even higher! I'm still not sure when and how the most popular rankings make it onto your profile page.

While I'm at it, here's my most recent reviews:

How to Catch The Salmon of Doubt
The Fishy Events of The Ersatz Elevator

Saturday, October 15, 2005

13:18 ~ gaze at the moon

There's another show I watched called The Gadget Show. Only one episode so far, but it was so chock-full of stuff that I couldn't bring myself to delete it after I watched it.

Sony HC1 - An HD camcorder that looks really light-weight and easy to use. With a retail price of about 1000$.

They went to Wired's Nextfest in Chicago and the rest of the stuff is from there.

Immersive video games - A step above being able to snowboard. He demonstrated a fighting game where he was holding an actual physical weapon and beating up characters on the screen with it. It's about time they've gotten around to this. People should be getting more exercise soon. And I'd love it if it wasn't just a fighting game with some unrealistic aspects, but a tutorial. It could teach you beginning karate or kendo or something. Think of making all those exercise videos obsolete.

Digital rocking horse - Okay, now this was cool! You sit yourself on the rocking horse and rock your way across the landscape. This is an example of thinking beyond macho fighting games. It was cute and fun and cool! You change direction by turning the horse's head.

Brain ball - Okay, this was a bit creepy! You and your opponent have your brains wired up and try to push a ball onto your opponent's side of the field. The way you do this is by being more calm than they are. Not only is it sort of freaky that it's reading your mind (in a sense), but it's sort of the opposite of how you approach most games. Aggressiveness won't win the day here.

Human Pac-man - I would call it more... Live Action Pac-man. I'm using the word cool too much probably, but this is cool! You put on your VR headset and backpack and play Pac-Man anywhere! Balls appear in front of you in the corridor, or sidewalk, or wherever you are, and you walk through them to eat them. You play with other people who are also Pac-Men, or ghosts. The outfit looked a bit cumbersome to run around in, but I'm sure they'll improve that. Right now it looks very much like a walking game. You wouldn't want to fall on your butt and break your equipment.

Intelligent Paving Slabs - I'm not sure I can explain this as well as just watching it demonstrated would give you, but I shall try. You're standing on one paving slab and you start walking. The others come around and get in front so you step from one to the next. Not necessarily in a straight line. In effect, you're walking, but not actually changing location. Like walking backwards on a moving sidewalk at just the right speed. The whole point of this is that you can be in a VR world walking around without bumping into your RL furniture.

Philip K. Dick Android - This was just freaky, especially with half its skull removed to show the innards. It was rather crappy for an android too. Just as well, I don't like PKD.

Other Robots - The other robots were cooler and cuter. They had one doing all sorts of yoga-esque stunts to show its balance and movement. Pretty cool. Did I say cool already?

Invisibility Coat - I didn't quite get the explanation behind this one. When you looked through a screen, it was invisible. But.. well, anyway, as I said, I don't get the explanation or why it's supposed to be cool or useful. Just thought I'd throw it in there.

XRay Specs - Well, not really. It was taking an IR image of the veins and things in your hand and projecting it back on top of your hand. So it certainly did look like you could see through the skin to watch the blood moving around. Sounds useful.

Self-healing Polymer - When it's broken or cracked, it repairs itself. 'Within the material are microscopic capsules'. They have liquid inside that's released and then hardens. It takes several hours to work though. Still, it's the start of something.

Fog Screen - I think you get the idea. Images projected onto a mist you can walk through. Great for advertising.

Dolphin Vehicle - This looks cooler than it sounds. It looks and acts like a dolphin in the water.

And that's it. Leave a comment. Which sounds the coolest? :)

Friday, October 14, 2005

19:21 ~ gaze at the moon

Picking up where the reviews left off. These are Lemony Snicket books.

The Miserable Mill is Superb, A Word Which Here Means Not Too Shabby
Dare to read The Austere Academy, you cakesniffers!

Thursday, October 13, 2005

09:49 ~ gaze at the moon

I've been watching a lot of British shows. One of them I started getting into is Click Online. This last episode was at a technology fair in Tokyo. Here's some of the cool things.

Tivo to the Max - Sony's got a new system that will record 8 channels simultaneously and can store up to 3 weeks worth on those 8 channels. So you don't even have to remember what you want to record. Just pick your favorite 8 channels and remember to watch it within 3 weeks!

Dual View LCD - Watch television on the right side of the room while your friend games on the left. You each see a different thing on the same screen. Of course you'll need to either play your game without sound or get a pair of headphones.

Fuel cells instead of batteries - When your laptop or Ipod is low on power, you just pour some more methanol into it. Would airlines let bottles of methanol on the plane? Hrm.

Wednesday, October 12, 2005

15:31 ~ gaze at the moon

K's covered some things pretty well, so I don't feel a need to rehash everything.

Friday

First Panel - Sharyn November, if I have her name right, was the panel moderator and an editor. She was amusing. They were all pretty amusing, actually. They gave us some good insight into why some authors are always thanking their editors in their prefaces. SN would point out an author when they came into the room to listen to the panel.

Quest - We got stuck trying to find a unicorn. It certainly seemed like we were at the right place. I still have no idea where the right place was. But I'd been suffering some sleep deprivation (reference torn up roads in K's blog) and some lack of food because I hadn't been feeling well the day before. So we were stuck and I wasn't feeling so hot (well, feeling quite hot, actually). And I'd actually totally forgotten there was an option to call in and get hints. I don't regret stopping, but I do want to know where that unicorn was! Someone leave a comment and tell me. I saw in the newsletter the next day that the girls behind us won, so I'm glad. Much better than it being the annoying guy.

Second Panel - I missed a fair bit of this because of the food run, but.. free books! Some more interesting writing discussion, though I'm not sure I could say I remember any details. Of note, one chick in the audience tried to ask a question of Sharyn November, who wasn't on this panel.

Book Fair - Almost tempted to buy the Diane Duane wizard book that I'm missing, because I have the next one and I'm interested in reading it, but I was frugal. I have a number of gift cards I should use for new books.

History of Magic Trivia - It wasn't such a long wait until the trivia was supposed to start, so I figured I'd wait. It had to be better than the Borders version. About twenty minutes before we were supposed to start, a Prefect or two showed up and started making a list. Only 20 teams could participate. I got on the list. Eventually a lot of other people showed up and so teams started getting larger and larger. The winner would get (we were told) 10 points for their House, so it was in your best interest to team up with House members. (Oh yea, I was Ravenclaw.) We were told it was a written test and the highest team would get the points, or if more than one team got the most, then all of them would get points. It wasn't timed. Anyway, 7pm arrives. No quizzes. Prefect calls. They're 'on their way'. From the Waterfront. A half hour bus ride away, at the minimum. So, we wait. And wait. About 7:45 we're told there was a mixup and they thought it started at 8. So, okay. So then 8pm comes and they're still not there. A Prefect starts going around making up stupid trivia questions like the name of the Malfoy's house elf and awarding points to 'teams' (just groups of people sitting near each other). Finally at 8:30 the quizzes show up. Neat little packets with the quiz and a sharpened pencil. Okay, maybe not that neat. 10 questions. On the History of Magic. Not HP. Not Binns classes. Not Rowling's world of magic. On the literal history of magic. Like 'who was the wizard who went in search of the Fountain of Youth' or 'What was the name of the Centaur who helped Asclepius (sp?) do something or other'. And 'What year was Nicholas Flamel born?'. Anyway, I totally guessed and I'm sure I totally scored a 0. It was 2 house points for each correct answer. Upshot, it was totally not worth waiting around for and nothing in the booklet indicated it wasn't HP trivia, and everyone waiting around assumed it was.

Concert/Dance - Harry and the Potters and The Weird Sisters were giving a concert or a dance or something at 9. I swung by there a few minutes before, but they totally weren't ready, so I went to bed.

15:20 ~ gaze at the moon

Here's The Witching Hour in the news:

Yahoo News/AP - Profs Discuss Harry Potter in Salem, Mass.

Interesting fact in that one is that 90% of the attendees were women. I first noticed this on the shuttle to pick up our registration packets. There were perhaps 2-3 guys on the bus other than the driver, out of 70-80 people. That's a higher ratio than Shoujocon. It's kind of bizarre, because I got the impression from our MUSH that there were more guy fans than that. I wonder what the difference in our demographics is. Certainly age is at least partly a factor.

If anyone has links to more articles, let me know.

Some Witching Hour official info and pictures are here. Be sure to check out the Quidditch pics.

Saturday, October 08, 2005

22:49 ~ gaze at the moon

So, got the old files. All the old comments should be here, obviously the adwords are back, and also *wai!* my 2005 book list. I need to read one more this month to tie where I was at the end of October last year. Forty more in the next 3 months to reach 100. Don't think that's too likely. That's more than 3 a week, which isn't impossible, but, as I said, isn't too likely.

Maybe I'll write up Witching Hour stuff. Maybe I won't. But for now you can check out something a fellow attendee showed us in the 'living room' area of the hotel.

Hogwarts Dancers - Link is to the zip file on Mugglenet's site.

Tuesday, October 04, 2005

11:32 ~ gaze at the moon

On Cereal

Kellogg's Raisin Bran tastes better than Post Raisin Bran, but Kellogg's has bits of husk or something that are impossible to chew and probably more impossible to digest.

There were Yogurt Cheerios at the store on sale because they were new, so I got the Strawberry kind. It's pretty good. I guess sweeter than I expected. The 'normal' cheerios are shiny and sweet rather like Honey Nut Cheerios. This means they don't get as soggy as regular cheerios anyway. The strawberry yogurt flavor is a glaze on some of the cheerios. It was really high in some minerals and stuff that are good for chicks. Iron and Folic Acid and whatnot. The Iron was quite impressive at 50%! I believe the regular price is over 4$ for a relatively small box though, so.. suck.

Monday, October 03, 2005

11:17 ~ gaze at the moon

Following up on Jun's, here's mine. This is quite possibly more posted about me than in a long time! Oh no. Now you know who I am. Or something.

You are a
Social Liberal
(66% permissive)

and an...
Economic Liberal
(23% permissive)

You are best described as a:

Democrat

You exhibit a very well-developed sense of Right and Wrong and believe in economic fairness. loc: (62, -100)
modscore: (14, 40)
raw: (1837)

Link: The Politics Test on Ok Cupid
Also: The OkCupid Dating Persona Test

This comment is to see if anyone actually reads below the included test results. Hey, look, I'm almost a socialist. Sounds good to me.

02:07 ~ gaze at the moon

So, yes, anyway. Server got hosed (or at least infinitely unreachable) in Rita. K had my old files from a couple years ago. Wayback machine and Google caches had a bit more. So right now what's broken is there's no book list for this year :( and the Google adwords aren't up.

I might've started from scratch and did up a new template and everything, but since this is pretty much working now, I probably won't.

Oh yea, and if you left any comments earlier, they're gone too.