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RIP Al Jaffee. You made the world a MADder place

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Wordable as the little used opposite of "ineffable", an opposite I was thinking about awhile back.

Just because you're accurate doesn't mean you're interesting.

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new office goals... hmmm

One day, some system will run on code older than all living humans

The reddit thread is worth checking out for folks who geeks on about old computers.

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I only had the first sourcebook and never played Warhammer 40,000, but I kind of dug the grimdark world building - less crazy about some of where they went with it (the harlequin clowns especially, and the faux-egyptian terminator robo-zombies ) but still it's kind of interesting...

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Anselm of Canterbury's ontological argument doesn't work on programmers because we know what a broken pointer is.

The other day they posted some of the first photos of the area around a black hole:


My first thought was, maybe the Mother Brain in Metroid was using mini-black-hole technology for defense...

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What we have is a tangled mess of ad-hoc opinions, constantly sliding past each other in search of a position that favors itself the most, like a 5 gallon bucket of earthworms.

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The rules for marriage are the same as for a lifeboat. No sudden moves, don't crowd the other person, and keep all disastrous thoughts to yourself.

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transition...
Been grinding through the new Zelda (sometimes 'til like 3AM, which isn't all that wise.)

I gave the game a shot last summer on Wii U, but it didn't stick; I got anxious and irritated with the way all weapons wear down and break, with the seemingly fiddly cooking system, with the difficulty of some of the "Test of Strength" battle shrines.

Listening to the Watch Out For Fireballs! podcast on it helped my second try on Switch go better - especially one of the casters joking how sometimes when he got to a "test of strength" he'd be like Grandpa Simpson walking into the 'burlesque house': take off his hat, see Bart at the desk, U-turn, put on his hat, exit, whistling all the while.

Historically Zelda and Metroid, with their "from chump to champ" arcs, have never resonated for me the way Mario and GTA have - the protaganist of the latter two games is, from a play-control perspective, about the same dude at the end as the beginning, and that's always felt more true to my Fixed-Mindset intuitions - new skills might be practiced but the intrinsic core is unchanging.

So right now I'm trying to parlay my enjoyment of Zelda -- the satisfaction of growing a character, returning to an area where a terrible frustrating enemy is now a cakewalk, the ok-ness of leaving a challenge alone for a long while and (maybe) coming back to it later, the games lovely sense of how there's often more than one way to do it -- into a life lesson.

For instance: Right now I'm frustrated as hell at how hard it is to apply my html-ish mojo into writing standalone apps for iphones and android devices. There's "PhoneGap" that seemed the most promising but not only has the iPhone-part of their "hello world" entry been removed from the app store, the version for Android doesn't seem to work on modern device. So it seems like probably a different approach is required, and I should come back to this later, or enlist a cheat sheet (like I do with the game), or I should try a different approach.

Of course, the Zelda-to-real-life mapping is terribly imperfect. In video games progress is quantified, consistently immediately rewarded, and back-sliding doesn't really exist... all factors missing from actual learning in life.

Anyway, fun game. Actually, startlingly gorgeous in parts, and with a does of bittersweet melancholy.

2 Years ago I joined in a little amateur GoPro promotion film entry...

In retrospect I'm not surprised it didn't win, it's rather long and also the percussion impacts visibly overcome the anti-shake features of the camera.

At a Best Buy I saw some DELIGHTFUL footage of headmounted (but facing back at the wearer, so you could see the expressions) of people on some sort of water slide / chute that would throw them way up into the air before splashing down... closest i could find with a few minutes of googling was this

When in 1904 Lou Andreas-Salomé wrote a floridly sentimental poem about how she would like to live a thousand years, even if those years contained nothing but pain, Freud commented wryly, 'One cold in the head would prevent me from having that wish.'

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I think this video's suggestion of Adult Swim as the MTV of a later generation is about right:
I'm not saying I have a James Harvey "problem" but I just got my wooden (!) iPhone case with a custom Alien Bill commission he did as a sweetener on our collaboration, to go with my "Sgt Pepperella" Tyvek wallet I had custom printed the other month. (And I had that same Alien Bill printed up on large ( 30" x 21") canvas for a blank piece of bedroom wall I ran into.)
The wooden (maple) case is pretty keen. It's warm, relative to the plastic one (imporinted my other James Harvey Alien Bill, see http://alienbill.com/ ) and along with the nice smooth black rubber edges it has a terrific organic heft to it. I don't think I laid it out perfectly; I wanted to get the "Alien Bill" text at the bottom, but the text is too hard too see, so the visual balance isn't quite right, a bit high. Still, I dig it.

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It also means you have an excuse for not tidying away your reference books, a consideration not to be lightly cast aside in this office, where books are used as bookmarks for other books.

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All the child proofing in the world won't stop your toddler from running straight into the wall.

I admit I kind of want a phone that looks like this:

And a UI that moves like this:

indirectly via Mininally Minimal The footage for todays "One Second Everyday" came out rather nicely...

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We are born into a box of time and space. We use words and communication to break out of it and to reach out to others.

(I will be on a Roger Ebert quote kick for a week or two.)

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Logic is what other people use to prove that you're wrong.

--Every jump of the Dukes of Hazzard "General Lee". Man, it used to drive my folks nuts, how much I loved this show as a child...

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Good rule of thumb: only have kids if it's your DREAM to have kids.

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Texts from my Dog I laughed. --excerpt from this limited run poster Trexels -- (too big to put here without reducing and losing the pixel wonderfulness.) It's amazing how identifiable so many of these are, with so few pixels to work with!

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#lifehacks

say 'did i just say that out loud?' after not saying anything

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Friend in Japan says they're raising to Chernobyl-level warning. To paraphrase the emperor, the reactor situation has developed not necessarily to Japan's advantage.

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Sad how Outlook 2010 is trying so hard with discussion threading, and failing. A search should show you results, not hide stuff in threads!

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New in iPhone OS 4: The Full App-by-App Breakdown - not much interests me except for folder for playlists and the homescreen, and FINALLY maybe the option to have an SMS character count. Still no sign of a "Ctrl-F"-style search in page feature for Safari.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/11/weekinreview/11giridharadas.html - interesting NY Times bit on 3rd world use of the "humble" cellphone. --via cmg

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Huh... my Uncle mentioned that once he got in big trouble with HR for giving a pre-employment test; that to prevent discrimination, every kind of pre-employment test (except typing) is banned in the Commonwealth, including technical questions (which makes some kind of sense in an anti-discrimination kind of way; a prejudiced interviewer could ask more difficult questions for people they disliked). This goes against pretty much every interview I've had in the past decade... I've googled some things that indirectly support some unusual MA restrictions, but nothing concrete. Anyone in HR in MA know?

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UI FAIL: long lists that use Ajax to refresh... but you don't see most of the refresh because the "More..." button was at the bottom.

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Facebooking w/the guy who, after our high school English class read Brave New World, pinned me as "Alpha-Plus Semi-Moron"- perfect summary, I thought.

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Nearly every modern auto is a tribute to the old god Janus, the face with the bright white eyes in front, and the softer red eyes back. It felt like Spring was suddenly upon us yesterday!

Suddenly, the Boston Common was full of people!


Alright, not the best photo for showing the extent of it. Also, trees are still skeletal.

Plus sunrise seems so late now! I love it. Bummer that the weekend is going to be all wet.

Still, it seems like there's a good half of the year, and a bad half of the year. Is the contrast good for my soul? Or should I just go to where it's closer to being good all year round?

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Monolog of the Moment

To quote a wise person, "Kindness is my true religion." But when I look back on my past I know my compulsion to help others is more than that... You know, it's fascinating how our experiences shape who we are in so many ways! Something happened in my past! Something I've never forgotten! I have a story to tell you! It's really not out of the ordinary to look back sometimes! We're all in the same boat, really! I'm not alone when I say that something happened in my childhood that shaped who I am today! I usually don't speak about my past, because I like to live in the present! But you asked where I get my compulsion to help others, so I'll tell you a story! You know, I wasn't always as you see me today! Remember, things are not always what they seem!

I'm not sure if it says more about Mary Worth the comic or about serialized comics in general, that have two or three panels to both advance the story and remind people where the story is at. The existence of the Mary Worth and Me blog points out that this strip is particularly odd. Yay Red Sox!

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Promotional Item of the Moment

--A clever flexi-straw advertisement for a yoga school, from a page of Creative Advertisements Around The World. All physical stuff, some very smart

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Exchange of the Moment

[On a tube of "Airborne" tables sitting my desk]
Jonathan: "That stuff's like crack..."
Kirk: "Not crack, more like... voodoo, to ward off colds. 'See? That fizzyness is the magic working!'"

Video of the Moment
I think it's a "viral" marketing campaign for the camera, but Bad Quality Office Chairs is worth a giggle. If you check the behind the scenes shots...that's a pretty high quality light truck it looks like they have there. Plus it seems a little odd to be advertising a high-def camera with compressed quicktime video, but still.... the Superglue video is also done well but a bit predictable, and the Hydraulics one is just kind of pointless. (Thanks Mr. Ibis!)

Giggle of the Moment

People of the United States! We are Unitarian Jihad! We can strike without warning. Pockets of reasonableness and harmony will appear as if from nowhere! Nice people will run the government again! There will be coffee and cookies in the Gandhi Room after the revolution.

(via Bill the Splut-- I've been grabbing a lot of stuff from him lately.) So last night I met up with Sawers and Cordelia and went to see Grand Opening's annual amateur porn event "You Oughta Be In Pictures". It was...eh, ok. Some of the videos were pretty amusing, especially this one particularly intimate and zoomed in banana-meets-jelly-donut one. Also there was a neat one where this older cowgirl lady gets it on in the barn with her guy pal, and in a culture that seems to act as if sexuality ends at 27 or so, it's cool to see people enjying themselves.

The weirdest thing is that they make a big ceremony about destroying the tape after; it's weird because A. no one except the participants is really that concerned about doing that (though I guess there might be a 'once in a lifetime film' spin they're trying to get on it) and B. I don't know what video editing process went on to assemble the different videos, but I assume there could easily be scratch edit copies of everything floating around whatever studio they used.

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Quote of the Moment

Due to circumstances beyond your control, you are master of your fate and captain of your soul.

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Article of the Moment
On this Easter Sunday, why not check out this Slate piece on the many images of Jesus. I have to say, I've never seen a poster quite like this... Link of the Moment
Pretty amazing Flash work Nobody Here...it's like a huge bunch of HTML and Flash toys in one, and in thought provoking arrangements. I've only barely scratched the surface on the amount of content here.

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Quote of the Moment

"Give a man a fish; he'll be surprised. Teach him how to fish; he'll be slightly afraid. Use him as bait; he'll cack his pants."

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Article of the Moment
Slate.com had an insightful article on how there are and always will be lingering questions about the final result of the war, that it isn't the simple pure and obvious victory that the celebratory Hawks want to pitch it as. They also had another good read basically asking how did our armed forces get so good?.

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Geekery of the Moment

"Some kinds of waste really are disgusting. SUVs, for example, would arguably be gross even if they ran on a fuel which would never run out and generated no pollution. SUVs are gross because they're the solution to a gross problem. (How to make minivans look more masculine.)"

That's a tangent from him speculating on computer languages 100 years from now, and thinking that Java might be a bit of a dead end, in terms of not leaving descendents. (Though what is Microsoft's C#, then?) Yeesh, kisrael.com has been on cruise control for a while, huh? One link, one quote a day. All well, guess I might be haunted by that whole unemployment spectre. (Boo.)

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News of a Previous Moment
A February 24 commentary on an older gentleman who was kept at a security gate because of the suspicious, rather pointy pointy metal he had on his person. The catch? It was the guy's Congressional Medal of Honor. OK, not that I would recognize one at first sight either, but the thing has an explanation engraved on the back. Better watch out, though...those 86 year old retired generals would probably be able to turn that thing into an incredibly dangerous projectile.

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FAQ of the Moment

Q: Is The Simpsons better than South Park?
A: According to Matt and Trey... yes

Matt and Trey are the creators of the show. Recent big news there is that Kenny is dead, more or less for good this time. (Yeah yeah yeah, "They killed Kenny" "You bastards!", yada yada yada) Anyway, I appreciated this answer. Glad to see the the crew of the spy plan is coming home, though they still have the plane itself. Before news of that came out, but there was news of the hot dogging Chinese pilot hitting our plane which was on autopilot I thought maybe we could work up this apology to China:

WE'RE VERY, VERY SORRY WANG WEI DIDN'T KNOW HOW TO FLY HIS DAMN PLANE.

Good thing I'm not a diplomat, huh? When I hear about China all I can think of is Kevin Kline in A Fish Called Wanda saying (in a tone of pure idiot malice) "Apologize... Apologize!"

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Quote of the Moment

Twas brillig, and the slithey toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe; All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe fifty basis points.