Something Awful Fashion Swat, Halloween Edition
"Halloween is the delightfully spooky time of year when ghouls and ghosts come out to haunt the night! But things much more dire than any goblin or bloodthirsty poltergeist are lurking in a costume store near you. Today we're taking a look at some of the worst costumes available this year." Probably NSFW. I think I like the sad Statue of Liberty best.
Tags:
halloween,
halloween costumes,
costumes,
humor
Troyis: Flash Chess Puzzle
Here's a cool little flash puzzle:
Troyis.
The rules are simple: race the knight around partially filled chess board, hitting every square before the timer runs out. (Tip: You can revist a square, but of course that works against getting a best time.)
Tags:
puzzles,
flash games,
chess
Jumping Pandas game
Sorry about the lack of posts, but I've got the blogging blahs. In fact, this entry is here mostly just because I'm getting freakin' sick of seeing Tom Delay's smug face at the top of my blog. Check out
this cute Flash "Jumping Pandas" breakout style game instead.
Tags:
flash games,
panda
Thomas Dale Delay mugshot and warrant
A little late, I know, but I promised it to TBerz, so: the
Delay mug shot and
the Delay arrest warrant. Here's a bonus
"more authentic" Delay mug shot, too.
Tags:
delay,
politics,
crime
My latest eBay craze.
I've been selling a bunch of old Star Wars Lego kits on eBay. It takes a surprising amount of my creative energy to write up the descriptions, so that's why I've been on a blogging lull for the last few days. Prior to this latest craze, I had used eBay a few times, but now that I'm becoming a regular user, I've discovered two things:
Tags:
ebay,
usability,
usps,
post office,
shipping
Gmail contacts searching
My "Contact Information" system used to work like this: whenever I got an email from someone containing a phone number, an address, directions to their house, or a pointer to another email address, I would slap a "contact info" label on the mail. It was infinitely flexible but still searchable, allowing all sorts of random pieces of "Contact Info". But at some point, Gmail upgraded their built-in "Contacts" section, and I think my system might be obsolete.
The interface to enter contact information is now very flexible: there's a notes section, you can add as many other sections as you want, give the sections arbitrary names, and enter arbitrary data in the fields (the phone number can be "foo@bar.com", for example.)
But the best part is the fields are all searchable. Want to know how many of your friends live in the "805" area code? Search for "805". I'm going to start entering tags in the notes field, and I'll have my very own folksonomy of friends. Don't piss me off or you're getting slapped with a "loser" tag!
Tags:
gmail,
gtd,
google
The most beautiful "Computer Graphics" girls
"3DM models creation is an information resource on Computer Graphics, and animation, hottest news, interviews and high-end 3D design." The site is hosting their second annual "
The most beautiful CG girl" competition; it's a beauty contest between virtual women completely generated in programs such as Photoshop, 3DS Max, Bryce, and Maya.
The entries vary in quality, but
some of the images are simply stunning. Some entries are moderately NSFW.
Tags:
art,
technology,
computer graphics
I/O Brush
"I/O Brush is a new drawing tool to explore colors, textures, and movements found in everyday materials by "picking up" and drawing with them. I/O Brush looks like a regular physical paintbrush but has a small video camera with lights and touch sensors embedded inside. Outside of the drawing canvas, the brush can pick up color, texture, and movement of a brushed surface. On the canvas, artists can draw with the special "ink" they just picked up from their immediate environment."Cool video; I especially like the fact that there's a time component to textures, and the "paint" is animated.
Tags:
art,
technology
200GB iPod Nano
Upgrade your iPod Nano to 200GB.Pros: 50000 songs!
Cons: Battery life decreases to 6 minutes; size increases by a factor of 15 (measured by volume: 25.543 mL v. 386.022 mL).
Tags:
ipod,
nano,
ipod nano,
hack,
humor
Fishkill
I recently traveled to
Fishkill, New York on a business trip.
As it turns out, Fishkill isn't a violently named town;
"kill" is Dutch for "creek". But a few years back,
PETA attempted to get them to change the town's name anyway.
Tags:
fishkill,
peta
Jet Blue Flight 292 landing gear photoset.
Flickr photoset of the failed landing gear from Jet Blue Flight 292.EDIT: Turns out these are not from flight 292, these are from some other Jet Blue flight.
Tags:
jet blue,
flight 292,
destruction
Top Ten New Design Patterns
In 1994, the "Gang of Four" published the book "Design Patterns" and the ideas in the book quickly spread throughout the software engineering community. If you're not familiar with design patterns, this quote sum up the concept nicely:
"Design patterns are recurring solutions to software design problems you find again and again in real-world application development." (source)
One of the things I always liked about the book was the collection of pattern names the authors chose; things like "Flyweight", "Memento", "Singleton", and "Abstract Factory". I decided that I wanted to come up with my own list of Design Pattern names:
- Hedge Maze
- Interloper
- Dumbwaiter
- Tattletale
- Understudy
- Slaughterhouse
- Prevaricator
- Fluffer
- Mishmash
- Parasite
Some of these may be
antipatterns.
Tags:
design patterns,
programming,
humor
Space: Above and Beyond
I watched
Serenity last night, and I thought it was a great followup to the television show. As I discussed the movie with a friend, we agreed that Fox killed the original series with inept marketing and a terrible time slot.
That discussion reminded me of
Futurama, another science fiction show that Fox eventually killed with inept marketing and a terrible time slot. (The show was pre-empted so many times that they ended up with a enough extra shows to strech four seasons out to five seasons!)
But before Firefly and before Futurama, there was
Space: Above and Beyond. Fox killed it with inept marketing and a terrible time slot. If you didn't see the show (not many people got a chance), it was very similar in scope and tone to the new Battlestar Galactica series. Fortunately, it's being released on DVD in November, so if you're a fan of the genre, you should check it out.
Tags:
movies,
film,
television,
serenity,
firefly,
scifi,
sci-fi,
science fiction,
futurama,
space: above and beyond,
fox,
battlestar galactica
Hike up Ladyface Peak
Today, I climbed up Ladyface Peak to get to the "God's Eye Cache." I posted
a photoblog of the trip to Flickr; go read it! I almost died! The view at the top is amazing; you can see parts of Thousand Oaks, the Conejo Valley, the San Fernando Valley, and even a little of the ocean! I also took a few shots of the Chatsworth fire damage.
(Download the
Google Earth KMZ of the hike here.)
Tags:
hiking,
conejo valley,
agoura hills,
ladyface,
ladyface peak
