I’ve spent some today time browsing the website that posted about Tilt Scream Pong: Future Feeder. It’s a bit like BoingBoing but without all the Steampunk. There’s lots of good stuff there… one item that I thought was particularly interesting is this post about a Chinese artist called Xia Xiaowan and his peculiar glass art. Using many layers of thin panes of glass, his art has a unique, ethereal quality… see for yourself here.
Here is another reason why my MacBook Pro is better than your Thinkpad.
The gameplay revolves around two core principles:
- Tilt your macbook from side to side to move paddle
- Scream at your macbook to increase paddle size
This has to be the greatest invention since the seed drill, and it is open source.
A few months ago (here), I mentioned the fact that HBO might be making a TV series of George R. R. Martin’s “A Song of Ice and Fire”. This fan has matched each character with the actor he would like to see in the role (good call on the clerk from ER as the Greatjohn). Just looking through the lists I’ve forgotten half of the characters…hope I’ll be able to follow it when the fifth book, “A Dance with Dragons”, is released (probably later this year).
I had heard bits and pieces about somebody selling a vote for the Irish senate on eBay, and was surprised to see the coverage that it got in the Irish Times today.
Dan was disgusted:
I recognise that for a great portion of people the Seanad and all who sail in it are something of a joke, but the right to vote is a pretty basic idea that I would expect every citizen to have some respect for. I’m genuinely disgusted.
And I agree with him about the right to vote being a pretty basic idea. That is why I am disgusted by the fact that people actually believe this election should be taking seriously – a system that doesn’t allow your average working man to vote, but instead gives a voice to this guy:
All those of you who went to an Institute of Technology for four years, how does it feel to be inferior to him?
As Dan points out, every citizen, especially second class citizens, should respect this man’s right to vote. But seriously forks, I say fair play to dermotthegreat, protest votes making a mockery of this system are exactly whats needed here. But then again, the fact that nobody was even willing to fork out €1.62 for the privilege implies that perhaps the system is already a bit of a joke.
It has been over a year since thousands of French tourists caused havoc on our roads as they emerged like lemmings from Cork airport in their rental cars, driving on the wrong side of the road. As they spilled precariously onto the Kinsale Road dual carriagway, hurtling towards the oncoming traffic (which was already agitated by the chaos of the pre-flyover magic roundabout) they could only think of one thing: fromage. But if they had been able to think of anything else, they would surely have cursed the careless road sign maker who led them astray with explicit instructions to “Conduire a droite”.
As the seasons passed, the rogue sign makers slowly grew in confidence, knowing that the public would soon forget the former destruction. At last, they have returned, as John Finn presents evidence of more of their handiwork on display, down at the train station. Perhaps they are toying with our Dublin visitors who tend to struggle with their reading even when the spelling is correct. I recommend that you take a look at some of John Finn’s other photos, because he has some some great ones in there.
Anytime I slate a company for their incompetence, the staff usually agree with me. In fact, most Irish people I know will be the first to give out about the company they work for. I can’t understand how this happens after Damien Mulley criticises Sky Handling Partners. Who is this mysterious individual that would go so far out on a limb to defend his company’s honour? The poor guy thought he was being clever and funny when he signed Damien up to a load of dating sites as revenge, he didn’t realise the internet wasn’t anonymous.
Unmask the Sky Handling Phantom and we shall see that at which dogs howl in the dark, and that at which cats prick up their ears after midnight! Watch this space.
Thanks to the miracle of Google Maps’ new Street Level views of San Francisco (also available in LA, Denver, Miami, NY, Las Vegas), I can once again gaze upon the Shangri-La of the fast food world: The Cheese Steak Shop on Divisadero. Some day I will return. Caution: too many cheese steaks will kill you.
Head over to Irish Election for the latest updates as the votes are being tallied up. The site has really come into its own now, enhanced by technologies like twitter and mySay (allows you to phone up and leave a voicemail which will instantly be available on the web) which are made for times like this. Here are instructions on how to contribute.
Somebody called Stephen gave an update on Cork North Central about an hour ago, which you can listen to online here.
This is one way to pass the time on a long journey:
If you are sitting next to someone who irritates you on a plane or train…
1. Quietly and calmly open up your laptop case.
2. Remove your laptop.
3. Boot it.
4. Make sure the person who won’t leave you alone can see the screen.
5. Open your email client to this message.
6. Close your eyes and tilt your head up to the sky.
7. Then hit this link: http://www.thecleverest.com/countdown.swf
Faustov has written up a nice Mencoder tutorial to help QuakeWorld players make movies in Linux. I don’t think I’ll be making any QW movies in the near future, but I’ll bookmark this anyway, since I always struggle even with the basics of Mencoder.