Pipe Wrench Fight

EDIT: I didn't order this, in the end I decided not to - and it was a gift from a friend, with no identifying info on the box. Freaking awesome. Pipe wrench fight for the win.

-iRob

Master the Grid

If you've seen Tron, you may agree that the best part of the entire movie was the light cycle sequence.



The entire sequence is just over 2 minutes long, but it's the part that stuck with me for a long time afterwards. I also think that it was the first time I had seen CGI. Although it is possible to do this using old-school (really old-school) tech.

Tron
by freres-hueon

For years I wanted my own light cycle, possibly the coolest vehicle ever conceived.

My father once found me a shareware game for my Tandy 1000SX that was exceptionally cool, but it didn't have any AI built in and was strictly a two player game. It took a simplified top down view of two lengthening lines and threw in some random obstacles which for the time was pretty slick. I don't recall what it was called and can't find it now but it was very similar to Flash Tron which you can play within your web browser. A similar (but not as good) game is BMTron,

Another game of a similar feel is Tron 2.0 for the Gameboy Advance. The light cycle part is simply a minigame included with the main game but for my money it's the best part. (Click through the gallery here for a look.)

I hadn't thought about these much for a long time until recently when browsing the iTunes app store. I came across the free version of LightBike, which is pretty much what I had been hoping for when I was nine. It's fun but doesn't have a lot of staying power. I upgraded to the paid version in the vain hope that someday another of my friends will happen to have it as well so I can try multiplayer, but until then it's a nice diversion.

It did get me curious however to see if there was any other newer 3D cycle games out there. I had heard Tron 2.0 included a light cycle part but due to lag concerns it was 1-player only, which is never as fun. It turns out that there is a huge variety of games out there, most of which are free for the taking and community supported.

I tinkered with a few but the best by far was Armagedtron Advanced. It is incredibly fun, fast paced, addictive, and free. It comes in Linux, Windows, and Mac versions and runs extremely well on my home network. I tried it on my 7 year old Compaq (Win XP, 1.9 Ghz, 768Mb Ram) with a 6 year old video card (Radeon 9600 Pro, 128 Mb), and it works amazingly well with all of the graphics options cranked. On my ancient Dell laptop (1ghz, 256Mb, embedded crappy video, Ubuntu Linux) it runs smooth as silk (so long as all of the graphics are set to the absolute minimum).

You can play several people on one computer split-screen, or multiple people over a network / the internet, or any combination of these. You can customize anything you like, including creating maps, custom cycles, game physics tweaks, etc. So far the only changes I've made include decreasing the default cycle speed and making the computer controlled opponents really, really stupid. Even so, it's still blindingly fast and very hard. The trailer below captures a lot of the feel, but trust me when I say that it's a lot faster and significantly more intense when it is you making the turns.



Some more videos showing gameplay details are here (try to ignore the narration), and here.

I think that this would be an excellent choice for a LAN party. No weapons, no advantages, just reflexes, strategy, and picking a bike color (harder than it looks). So seriously, go download it and give it a try. And if you like it let me know, and meet me on the grid.

-iRob

"You've enjoyed all the power you've been given, haven't you? I wonder how you'd take to working in a pocket calculator." -Master Control Program, Tron

Recorded Live - Now Found

Craziness! - The short film that haunted my dreams for years in my childhood has been found! Special thanks to Dr. Haggis for succeeding where I failed. Check out the video on YouTube here.

Oddities and incongruities: I was 100% certain that this was a Canada Film Board project, but that appears to be incorrect as it was rather an HBO short. Also, while it is clearly the film I watched, my memories do not match. I remember the story and most of the imagery, but the point of view, the layout of the set, the order of events and timing all do not match what's in my noggin. Clearly I'm remembering the 3 years of dreams that were based on the movie, and the director there must have used some creative license.

The up-tempo piano jazz was certainly a surprise as well.

-iRob

"We are born charming, fresh and spontaneous and must be civilized before we are fit to participate in society." - Judith Martin

National Film Board of Canada - Now Online

When I was young my mother would take me to the library on the weekend where we could watch films that played for free. The National Film Board of Canada (Wikipedia) is a publicly funded film producer and distributor, and a part of our cultural heritage.

They have just recently made their archives available online - This is more than 700 films, many are excellent. Of course many are bad, and many more just bizarre.

There's one in particular that I have vivid memories of, but so far haven't found on the archive: A person receives a videotape in the mail with a note from a friend recommending that he watch it. But the video tape eats him, and writes a note to another friend, and mails itself, etc. I think it gave me nightmares for three years. If I find it I will post a link, once I'm done hiding under my bed.

-iRob

Flicker Interest

This is a photo I took of our old smoke detector after we lost our apartment in the Lakeview fire some time ago. It was made a 'favorite' by a flicker user who I don't know. All of his favorites are other smoke detectors. Very odd.

-iRob

iJenn

Made this at faceyourmanga.com, same as this one. (So cute.)

-iRob

Avatar

Made this at Faceyourmanga.com. Idea courtesy of Dr. Haggis.

-iRob

Go track something.

During my last week at Dell, I had finished all of my main projects and my work had been entirely transitioned to the rest of my team. Unless they had a question I didn't really have anything to do, and they didn't have many questions.

This was not as much fun as you might imagine. People with actual work to do were less than receptive to my wandering up and trying to chat. So I decided that I needed a hidey-hole to quietly wait out my sentence.

We had about 18 bankers boxes of old files that we were sending into deep storage, but they weren't really in any sort of order, and the contents weren't always known. No-one really cared much, but everyone agreed that in a perfect world we would know which files were in which box in case we ever needed them again. (They were terminated employee files. You need to keep them but you never actually need them.)

So I 'volunteered', which I will admit was pretty slick. I managed to turn watching DVD's on my laptop in my own private office into 'working hard getting things in order' before I left. To be fair I actually did make a spreadsheet and sort all of the boxes, and I did a good job. But I also watched about 30 movies in between playing air hockey in the break room.

To read this comic at the end of that week was pretty amusing. (Click to enlarge.)









DILBERT ©Scott Adams/Dist. by United Feature Syndicate, Inc.

-iRob

Bristlebots!

I'm gonna make me some Robots!



It turns out that you can't buy these motors locally so I ordered some online. The most expensive part was the shipping, so I figured I'd buy a lot. I have a dozen coming which is overkill, so if anyone wants one or two let me know.

Hey, if I make some and you make some... if only there were some sort of competition that you could have between different objects to see which are fastest. Some sort of distance-over-time measurement, with a marked 'start' and 'end' points.

(I'm looking at you Dr. H.)

-iRob

Merde! Il pleut!

In my apartment.



This really bites. We were forced to move out of our wonderful apartment in Lakeview after the fire. We had been there six weeks.

We couldn't be choosy as vacancy in Calgary was at an all time low, so we looked at five places and took the best we could. The view is gorgeous, as we are on the 14th floor. However, this being the top floor, and with the roof problems, well...

It has been leaking intermittently since we moved in last August. That's nearly a year, for anyone who is keeping track. Not only outside our door, but in our bathroom as well.

Blah. We need to move. Again.

-iRob

Friggin' telemarketers

Hello sir or ma'am my name is state your name and I am calling today to see if you are happy with your long distance plan because right now we are offering a two for one deal on all extended warranties with purchase of a new timeshare in beautiful Laughlin Nevada which comes free with a twenty year subscription on many of your least favorite magazines so I will put you down for an order of thirty ok?

-iRob

Uncultured Swine

WARNING - The below contains spoilers for The Golden Compass. and the Lord of the Rings movies. You have been warned.

I went to see this last night with friends. Being the uncultured swine that I am, I hadn't read, nay, had not heard of this story until I first saw the previews some time ago.

Similarly, several years ago I knew of the existence of 'Lord of the Rings' but I was not familiar with the story, or that the three books were one continuous story arc, etc. So you can imagine the understanding slowly creeping into my brain when I had been in the theater nearly three hours and Sam and Mr. Frodo were getting ready to enter the mountains. And Sam and Mr. Frodo (Sir) discuss all they have left to do and the trials ahead.

I don't want to ruin anything for you but I will tell you at the end of this movie you do experience a "Mr. Frodo Situation" as I have taken to calling it.

Someday I would like to see a movie and wonder if they might make a sequel.

-Rob

P.S. I did like it, but let me make sure I have this straight - Russians and the Catholic Church are bad, Gypsies and the British are good?

Fruit!

I ate an orange yesterday. It's the first one I've ever eaten. I liked it.

I'm not really a fruit fan. Or a vegetable fan. O.K I don't really like much of anything. But this was good. I had another today.

-iRob

"Last night I stayed up late playing poker with Tarot cards. I got a full house and four people died."
-Steven Wright

Best Rock Band Names

I need to get Rock Band for my PS2. More to the point, I need to play this with friends. (I'm looking at you Dr. H.)

Top band names currently in consideration:

• Pocket full of mustaches
• Caffeine addiction situation
• Hopeless Situation Warriors

What am I missing?

-iRob

"Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities. Truth isn't."
-Mark Twain

#$%^.

Crap.

So here I am, browsing Xkcd when I come across this comic. I laughed out loud, and had a sense that it was strangely familiar, but I'd never been to the site before so I dismissed it.

Then I noticed that they use the Creative Commons license, so I started reading up on it. I learned the rules and decided it would be a good idea to post it here.

Then I realized why that sounded like such a good idea. (Sorry, Dr. H.) I have the memory span of a flea, apparently.

So as my self prescribed atonement, allow me to present a Tribute to Slashboing. Here is that blog displayed on every piece of hardware I own that is capable of surfing the net, all at once:


Clockwise from top left: My home computer system (WinXP, Firefox), My Nintendo DS with Opera Browser, My laptop running Ubuntu Linux and Firefox, and my Motorola RAZR V3c Cell Phone (Openwave Mobile Browser).

P.S. It's not my fault Slashboing has ten letters and therefore is not a perfect square.

Peace out, yo.

-iRob

"When a Wizard is tired of looking for broken glass in his dinner, he is tired of life."
-Terry Pratchett

All quiet on the Northern front

Hey,

Lately I haven't felt as though I had anything worth saying. So I haven't.

Cheers,
-iRob

"Genius may have its limitations, but stupidity is not thus handicapped."
-Elbert Hubbard

Memeage - courtesy of Good ol' Rae

If you comment on this entry...

1. I'll respond with something random about you.
2. I'll challenge you to try something.
3. I'll pick a colour that I associate with you.
4. I'll tell you something I like about you.
5. I'll tell you my first/clearest memory about you.
6. I'll tell you what animal you remind me of.
7. I'll ask you something I've always wanted to ask you.
8. You must post this on yours.

-iRob

"Sex at ninety is like trying to shoot pool with a rope."
-George Burns

iCat v. 2.0

We have a new kitten! His name is Casey.

I'm not really sure how we made the transition from 'We won't have another cat after Princess" to "Let's buy a kitty!" but it was fairly rapid. Mostly now that we are both working full time we wanted someone to keep Princess happy, but I'm happy without a justification.

He was a Pets For Life rescue cat. An orphan at a very young age he was looking for a good home. Of his litter he was the one that was the most cuddly with the other cats and we sort of fell for him.

Of primary concern was how well Princess would adapt. Initially there was much hissing (on her part), but gradually they became friendlier and two weeks later they are hanging out together and playing. It's really a special sight. (We were very worried about the level of hostility she was showing, but it will be O.K.

He's a pretty unusual guy - He's black on top but if you brush any of his hair in any direction you can see that he's white underneath. Completely white, with only the tips of the hair actually black. When he's wet he looks like an angry sock.

So of all the cats in this world we managed to get two low-fidelity screeching whiners. I've never seen such vocal cats before and now we have two of them. He's not shy about demanding what he wants (food, attention, freedom) and asks at all hours. (That's why he sleeps in another room.) It makes for a large commotion.

We didn't really work out all of the details in advance - (Princess can only eat special food) and it's a challenge to keep them separate. As far as we can figure, Casey has never been alone before - In addition, there has never been anything he can reach that was not his to play with / eat / poop in. 'Boundaries' are proving to be a difficult concept.

So far I think I've figured out a few "Casey" concepts:

1. Mine?
2. Mine!
3. A litter box seats two comfortably.
4. Stuffed mice are not toys.
5. Coathangers and electric wire are toys.
6. Mommy's hair is a fun place to nest.
7. Mine?!

-iRob

Making Soup

Said by me, to J, in the kitchen a few minutes ago after some drama:

"Have you considered the advantages of running the blender with the lid on?"

-iRob

Kitty!

Casey, Day 1
Originally uploaded by Maximum Occupancy

So that kitten we played with ended up becoming family. We've had him for a week now and he's a handful.

I'll write more on this subject later but for now: Kitty!

-iRob

"2 is not equal to 3, not even for large values of 2."
Grabel's Law