Cheese and Rice!Eight hours of Battlebots on Sunday, 2/25! Comedy Central, starting at 1pm Central.
No Tofu! None, nada, nix on the Tofu!So the guys and I went to a Thai restaurant tonight. Thai restaurants are supposed to be good for people with gluten intolerance since there isn't, from what I've read, a lot of wheat in Thailand; hence their use of rice instead of wheat in things like noodles and soy sauce.
That being the case, and despite "rice noodles" being written right there on the menu the (Thai, I assume) waitress seemed to think that the noodles were made of wheat. She also didn't understand the concept of the word "no." For example, the phrase "no wheat" provoked only a quizzical look. Furthermore, the phrase "no tofu" apparently means "extra tofu."
Pressing on, I ordered the Pahd Thai noodles anyway. They arrived in short order -- with lots of tofu I had to weed out -- and I'm happy to say that I haven't suffered any, shall we say, abdominal distress.
Them noodles were mighty tasty, I gots to pick me up some o' them at the grocery store.
All your base are belong to us!This is worth installing Shockwave: AYB Rock Video. (pilfered from memepool)
It is, apparently, based on some old WWII poster, or hack job on said poster. For lots of crazy, insane fun with WWII posters check out this thread at Something Awful. [Parental guidance suggested]
Beware The Wombat of Justice!
Et tu, Fox? Et tu? -or- look at the dust, pinhead!Good News!
Despite Fox's conspiracy show about the moon landings being faked there is ample evidence to the contrary: Bad Astronomy.com. Not to mention the fact that the "hoax geeks", as RedZero calls them, are generally clueless when it comes to things like Physics, Optics, Thermodynamics and probably lots of other "icks."
The show never got around to explaining the existence of hundreds of pounds of Moon rocks, the corner reflecting mirrors, the "hammer & feather" gravity test in a vacuum, etc. Or the fact that they're all idiots and/or liars.
It's pretty bad when a conspiracy site debunks your conspiracy theory!
Needless to say, NASA refutes these claims; which is what they want you to believe! :) I hope your faith in NASA has been restored.
But, my friends, before you go join the Moon hoax "debate" raging in the forum on the Fox website, there is a more sinister conspiracy which should concern you -- I give you, the duck!
Google Rocks! (um... what's a google rock?)I, allergy guy, was just doing an advanced search on Google for hypoallergenic shampoo (should shampoo make me sneeze?) and noticed something interesting at the bottom of the page: topic-specific searches.
The interesting bit is that the categories are: Macintosh, BSD Unix, Linux, The Man, and Universities. (Note that there isn't a topic for Windows. Ha!)
There is also a page detailing how to make Google your browser's default search engine, which even includes Sherlock Plug-ins. Rock on!
From the Universities page one can even search the Minnesota State University System, but for the life of me I can't imagine why anyone would want to.
I used to think I was cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs, but eventually we drifted apart and I started seeing other cereals. Now, though I fondly recall the days I spent with Cocoa Puffs, I find I can either take 'em, or leave 'em.
Hey neat! Fun with a Rocket Car.
To the Moon, Alice...Invention Week, Day #7 3D VR Stock Market Visualization. If you're the impatient sort, who doesn't mind blocky, low-res graphics that don't tell you much, check out Map Station. If you want the good stuff, read on! (Note that MapStation isn't Mac compatible)
First, you need to have a 3D VR headset (or Holodeck!), so you can immerse yourself into the scene -- to get up close and personal with the stocks, as it were. And actual high-res rendering with light sourcing, so it doesn't look like crap.
Next, a shape to represent an individual stock that is a bit more descriptive than a big cube. I suggest a rocket... like the kind that Coyotes on rollerskates strap to their backs when chasing Roadrunners. Little red Acme rockets.
Am I on drugs? No, but sometimes my allergies don't let me think clearly. I shall continue, regardless.
The rocket has a nose cone, on top of a cylindrical body with some fins, a "thruster" cone at the bottom, and (when lit) a flame.
So what the hell does this have to do with stocks?
Suppose that the height of the nose cone is defined by the P/E ratio, so a higher P/E ratio gets you a taller, "pointier" nose cone. The diameter of the body is determined by the market cap of the company; big market cap = big fat rocket. The length of the body could be earnings per share. The size of the fins could indicate group strength. The size of the flame could show relative price strength; big flame = stronger stock. The color of the flame could be some measure of momentum, ranging from a dull red glow for the laggards to a bright orange for the real movers. Then, of course, the overall distance above the ground would be price, or percentage change.
So, in your Holodeck, you're standing in a dark room, on a wireframe grid (like graph paper), looking at a bunch of rockets suspended in air. The ponderous big cap companies hang there like giant ICBMs. Stocks that aren't doing much of anything useful, will look like stubby little rockets that aren't doing much of anything useful. The small caps with great P/E ratios and wonderful EPS will be all slender and pointy and look like they're headed for the Moon.
I think it'd be neat to play with the angle of the rocket, relative to the ground, to indicate price trends. Stocks that are really moving would be aiming up, stocks that are idling along will be going sideways, stocks that are tanking will look like those failed rocket launches, augering into the ground.
This is all, of course, driven by real-time stock market data, and animated. It would be entertaining to watch "the rocket" of a stock morph into different shapes as you pumped historical data through it: "I'd like to buy your stock, but I've noticed that your nose cone is getting smushed, your flame is going out, and the rocket is heading for the ground at a 45 degree angle."
There you have it. Find a good OpenGL programmer, load him up with Jolt, and turn him loose for a couple of weekends. (This is assuming the VR headset option, not the Holodeck version.) Maybe license the Quake III engine; remove stocks from your watch list by blowing them up with the BFG. :)
The downside is you have to give your stock screens names like: ICBM, ACME, Model Rocket, and Scud!
Invention Week, Day #6 Gestural remote control.Here is something close, but they still use a data glove -- and it's not meant for controlling a TV -- but they get bonus points for including a Douglas Adams reference!
Aha! Argus is much more like it! Some video cameras for tracking hand movements, it uses gestures to control lights, stereo, TV, etc.
I'd put the cameras near the recliner, pointing up from the floor. Instead of fiddling with a bunch of remote controls to run your home entertainment system, just stick your hand (or hands) out and make a gesture or two to change the channel, volume, fire up the DVD player, etc. Run your whole automated house with hand gestures and speech recognition!
BTW, in case it isn't obvious, you probably wouldn't want to control your A/V system exclusively with speech recognition, even assuming you used noise cancelation mics so the TV couldn't change its own channels. Just think how much channel surfing would suck if you had to sit there saying "next, next, next, next..." Much better to just wave your hands around like a maniac.
(damn, just had a college roommate flashback from that "next, next..." bit. At least a couple of people reading this will know exactly who I mean.)
What I want is the TV from "Back to the Future II," which was voice-controlled, with some extra gestural control capabilities added. That TV was cool because it could be one big, wide-screen picture, or six smaller pictures. Now that's some serious channel surfing.
Oh yeah, I am aware of the work that IBVA is doing with brainwave control. That'd eliminate physical activity entirely, making it even easier to turn into a lifeless lump of flesh on the sofa!
In the meantime, here are lots of links for further research. Knock yourselves out.