Archive for April, 2008

China has been spying on us through Microsoft products » Computer intruders targeting pro-Tibetan groups, U.S. defense contractors and government agencies slipped in through previously unknown security holes in Microsoft Office, prompting Microsoft to issue a flurry of patches to the popular software suite in 2
Nanofibers Heal Spinal Cords » Injected directly into the spinal cords of paralyzed mice, a new material restores use of the animals’ hind legs.
Drug protects mice, monkeys from radiation damage » An experimental drug helped protect mice and monkeys from the damaging effects of radiation, researchers said on Thursday, in a finding that may lead to less toxic cancer treatments or an emergency treatment for radiation exposure.
TOP500 Supercomputing Sites »
NVIDIA Promises Powerful, Sub-$45 Processing Platform to Counter Intel »
The Martian Express » One of the more intriguing theories to fall out of the early gravity-assist research was a hypothetical spacecraft called the Cycler, a vehicle which could utilize gravity to cycle between two bodies indefinitelyâ�� Earth and Mars, for instanceâ�� with li
The Difference Engine Arrives in Silicon Valley »
The Handler » Afraid to touch things in public restrooms, or anywhere public for that matter?
Dyslexia Differs by Language » Dyslexia affects different parts of children’s brains depending on whether they are raised reading English or Chinese.
Self-Cleaning Underwear Goes Weeks Without Washing »
Virtual Psychotherapy Works Better Than Live Doctors »
"V" Remake Aiming for Theaters, Plus Sequels »
Color-blind gamers: common. Developer awareness? Minimal »
Super Mario in 14kB Javascript »
Phobos HiRes images »
Flickr now supports video »
NOTEPAD++ » notepad laternative
PeaZip » free RAR 7Z ACE PAQ TAR ZIP archiver utility
Eraser » Free secure data erase tool to wipe files on your hard drive
Firefox Extension Development Tutorial »
DonorsChoose.org » Give to students and schools. Stephen Colbert has a straw poll for Pennsylvania schools to determine support for Clinton or Obama.
Ping.fm » update twitter jaiku and other microbloggers at once
Google App Engine » Run web applications on the Google infrastructure. Jaiku will be the first ap released on the Google App Engine.
IGN: Gauntlet DS Preview »

Wiki Article of the Day – Hedy Lamarr

Apr 10

Posted by rosicrux in movies, science | No Comments

Wiki Articles of the Day. My attempt at making the wikipedia chain addictions into something (anti-)productive for you, the reader! (Henceforth tagged as WAOTD.)

Hedy Lamarr – Talk about a Renaissance woman. Not only a gorgeous and celebrated actress, but also an award winning scientist.

Hedy Lamarr (November 9, 1913 – January 19, 2000) was an Austrian-born American actress. Though known primarily for her great beauty and her successful film career, she also co-invented an early form of spread spectrum encoding, a key to modern wireless communication.

I may slot these into the extrinsic posts instead.

Tags: invention, science, waotd

GladOS in bondage

Apr 8

Posted by rosicrux in gaming | 3 Comments

Portal was a game that went beyond the actual playing. It is one of the few action games with a great story and atmosphere supporting it. In fact, as good as the puzzle play was, it was eclipsed by the game’s wonderful personality. I enjoyed Narbacular Drop immensely, but the idea really came into it’s own with Portal.

The ending sequence was an oddity. The rest of the game had funny, sometimes subtle, nuance to everything the character did, and the reaction provoked from GladOS. Then we get to the end and it seemed like a cut-and-dry end-boss robot battle. Abruptly changing the gameplay from the rest of the game. It was hard to believe, and although I wanted to understand and try to study the physical form of GladOS… the fact that you only have a few minutes to kill “her” kinda puts a damper on smelling the roses.

I have replayed many of the levels, but I honestly never felt an impulse to replay the ending scene. But a the game-ism blog has stumbled on something that rings true. As I had not replayed the end sequence, I had not heard the developer commentary within it. It reveals that Valve tried to give GladOS a female form, but not exactly which. Game-ism proposes GladOS wanted you to find her all along, to free her from her bondage.

Tags: bondage, portal, valve

extrinsic

Apr 7

Posted by mayberosi in Uncategorized | No Comments

You Have To Burn The Rope » my current favorite flash game
Blue Smoke BBQ » Indirect Grilling and Hot Smoking Barbecue Recipes for Smoking Meat
New Atom CPU marks Intel’s baby steps into embedded world » Intel’s low-power Atom processor (codenamed Silverthorne) launched today in a frequency range from the 800MHz Z500 ($45) to the 1.86GHz Z540 ($160).
Sony BMG’s hypocrisy: company busted for using warez » The Business Software Alliance, however, believes that up to 47 percent of the software installed on Sony BMG’s computers could be pirated.
Plant fire causes laptop battery shortage »
Micro Smotion » Create stop-motion animated gifs with your webcam
Piterwilson » webcam stop motion thingy
Anxiety Culture »
New Team Fortress 2 Content Scheduled for Mid-April » Includes Goldrush map, New Medic Weapons, Meet The Scout
Sci-fi films are as dead as Westerns, says Ridley Scott »
Scientists aim for origami space flight » Japanese scientists and origami masters hope to launch a paper airplane from space and learn from its trip back to Earth.
Telnet Starwars »
Children of Men: The Television Series »
lastnightsparty »

Original Voltron not kid safe

Apr 5

Posted by rosicrux in general | No Comments

That which Americans know as Voltron was originally a Japanese anime called “Go Lion!”. To make it into a kid’s early morning cartoon in the US, it was… heavily modified. Go Lion! was much more… bloody. Hilariously so.