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Planet Dave! Monday, February 28, 2005
The Adventures of Baron Munchausen
You've seen the movie, you've played the game, now read the book! (You have seen the movie and played the game, haven't you?)
Busty Mousepads
It looks like the punch line to a joke. But these things are real. Well, silicone, I assume. Man, this is only going to fuel stereotypes about the geek's love life. And I, for one, think it's a disservice to all-... Hey, they're pretty reasonably priced...
Virtual Mr Toad Ride
From Boing Boing, "When Walt Disney World's Mr Toad ride shut down to make way for a Pooh ride, diehard fans were heartbroken. One fan set out to recreate the entire ride as a 3D computer-generated environment. That project is bearing fruit now, with amazing ride-through videos of parts of the ride appearing now. This is very promising indeed."
Autonomous Model Glider Flies from 60,000 Feet
From /., "A couple years ago we read about a telemetry laden balloon launched to 80,000 feet single-handedly built by a laid-off engineer. Here's an even more elaborate one built at around the same time: A balloon launched model glider taken to about 60,000 feet that autonomously finds its way home. It had an auto-pilot and elaborate mission control system. Also impressive is the extensive testing done before launch."
White Guy Does the Robot
I'm not sure what's scariest about this video. The fake afro, or the fact that he's really good.
Saturday, February 26, 2005
Thoughts on Penny Arcade
I saw a bit in the blog section of Penny Arcade that I wanted to share. It's a quote from Tycho, "I'm absolutely surrounded by Mikes pretty much all the time, they're closing in, and one of them asked me if I was familiar with The Order of the Stick. Me. Asked me if I knew about it. Motherfucker, my balls have twenty sides. Nothing escapes my gaze. Don't get in my face with your tabletop trivia unless you want to save for half." Yeah, they take RPGs to a whole new level.
Darth Tater!
This was sent to me by a number of people including, but not limited to, Marty and Jacob. It's... pretty much what the name would imply that it is.
Winners of the "I Look Like My Dog" Contest
Near as I can figure, this was sponsored by a dog food company. It's, uh, something else.
Comic of the Day
Yet another example of a comic strip solen from my life. (I'd be the one on the left.)
Physical Security Failure (Parking Gate)
Stupid Security has a post about an ineffective security measure.
News Flash: Gamers Are Human
/. points out a study that concludes that gamers are people too. ... Man, people are stupid. I just love how actively playing a video game makes you sedentary, but passively sitting in front of American Idol makes you normal. I guess it's sort of like pot and alcohol. One is more socially acceptable than the other. Just a few weeks ago, Scot referred to my video game hobby as "a sickness." Eh. Relatively speaking, gaming is a new pass time. Give it another generation or so and we'll probably have moved on to something else to stereotype.
How to Move a 747
The J-Walk Blog pointed this one out to me. So how do you move a 747 to an airport without a big enough run way to land it there? Float it.
Slashdot | Too Much Gaming, Anyone?
From /., "A wired story about too much gaming and how sometimes a few too many hours of gaming can cause your mind to blur some lines. For me it was Tony Hawk- I played so much that I started sizing up curbs for grinding while driving home from work. Katamari Damacy has been a problem too. I'm fairly certain my car is large enough to pick up the railings on the overpass near my house. I'm even more certain that these thoughts are bad." I'm sure it's no suprise to anyone that I've got a few stories like this. In the first Jedi Knight game (first person shooter) there were these land mines that would make a very distinctive series of beeps about a half second before they exploded. That gave the player just enough time to jump away from it before being vaporized. After playing this game for many weeks, I was walking through the mech lab at work when I heard something in there make almost exactly the same sequence of beeps. I was walking by a window at the time. I just barely kept myself from diving through it.
Monday, February 21, 2005
Panic!
Damnit! I forgot my cell phone! What if someone calls? What if someone needs to tell me about... well... Well if I know what they needed to tell me, they wouldn't need to call me, would they!?!
Wednesday, February 16, 2005
Where Dave's Been
Ok, so recently I did the last thing that I needed to do. I picked up another hobby. I found a web site that shows how to braid bullwhips. I thought to myself, "that doesn't look too hard." I tried duplicating it with some leather boot laces, and it turns out that it really isn't that hard. I also determined that 6' boot laces won't even get you a 3' whip. So I ordered 100' of leather and braided myself a 6' snake whip. I was expecting a first attempt to hardly make any noise at all. But it's REALLY loud. Looks cool too! I'll post some pictures when I get around to it. I'm already about halfway through a 10' snake whip, and I already have variations I want to try for my next two whips. (Next I want to make a 5' snake whip with a 2' fall. For indoor performances, that'll be handier than my current whip which is 6' with a 3' fall. And I want to make it with a plaited under belly. (My first two have cores of leather strips. After that, I want to experiment with putting a rigid handle on a whip.) So that's one of the things I've been doing when I haven't been updating PlanetDave.net.
I also picked up a copy of Myst IV, so video gaming has become a priority that it hasn't been in a while. I'll probably have more time for a proper post on Sunday. But no promises!
Monday, February 14, 2005
Friday, February 11, 2005
Turducken Explained
If you've been living under a rock somewhere and haven't heard of this chimeric beast, here's everything you need to know. (Got this from Kelli.)
Census Bureau Humor
The J-Walk Blog pointed out an example of Census Bureau humor. A small out of the way lake near Seattle, Bevis Lake, now appears in Bureau records as... Butthead Lake.
Stunning little $100 automatons
This post over at BoingBoing.net has a link to a really cool video of an automaton archer. Just unbelievable.
Millau Viaduct
From this article, "The Millau viaduct, newly inaugurated by President Jacques Chirac, is now the world's tallest road bridge... The bridge is made of a four-lane steel-built roadway stretching across 2460 metres. At its highest the roadway is suspended 270 metres above the Tarn River." The photos are really incredible. Go check 'em out.