The Cool Cam - Worse Than Failure

The Cool Cam - Worse Than Failure: "Tim's 'cool cam' saved European Air War. It went from a money-leaking embarrassment to a top-tier release for MicroProse. The weekly meetings got easier, more developers were brought on, and the team managed to put together one hell of a game. It reviewed well after its 1998 release and is still a popular game for history buffs. And it probably wouldn't have been released if not for a programmer that knew what the project needed most; the cool cam."

AT&T Yahoo! Help - Home

AT&T Yahoo! Help - Home

Dynamist Blog: The Nature of Objectivity

Dynamist Blog: The Nature of Objectivity: "The always-interesting historian of science Peter Galison, author of Einstein's Clocks, Poincare's Maps and Image and Logic, has a new book called Objectivity, co-authored with Lorraine Daston. Examining scientific atlases from widely diverse fields, they trace the overlapping histories of three different scientific ideals: 'truth-to-nature' (representing the underlying type of, say, a particular species of plant), 'mechanical objectivity,' and 'trained judgment' (finding patterns and 'family resemblances' in many samples). Objectivity, they argue, only emerged as an ideal in the 19th century:"

ABC News: Overweight? Standing May Be Solution

ABC News: Overweight? Standing May Be Solution: "The problem, they say, is that all the stuff we've heard the last few years about weight control left one key factor out of the equation. When we sit, the researchers found, the enzymes that are responsible for burning fat just shut down."

Airport Extreme Configuration with SpeedStream 4100 DSL Modem

Airport Extreme Configuration with SpeedStream 4100 DSL Modem
also:
SpeedStream 4100 - Siemens Gigaset Provider Portal Home
2.4 Efficient 4100 modem Ameritech - SBC FAQ - dslreports.com
UPG Update - Siemens

libev

libev: "A full-featured and high-performance (see benchmark) event loop that is loosely modelled after libevent, but without its limitations and bugs. It is used, among others, in the GNU Virtual Private Ethernet and rxvt-unicode packages. Features include child/pid watchers and periodic timers based on wallclock (absolute) time (in addition to timers using relative timeouts), as well as epoll/kqueue/ports support, fast timer management, time jump detection and correction, and ease-of-use. It can be used as a libevent replacement using its emulation API or directly embedded into your programs without the need for complex configuration support. A full-featured and well-documented perl interface is also available."

7 Incredible Natural Phenomena you've never seen

7 Incredible Natural Phenomena you've never seen

macosxhints.com - Speed internet browsing via a local domain name server

macosxhints.com - Speed internet browsing via a local domain name server

[HOWTO] - Speed up DNS lookups in OSX - macosx.com

[HOWTO] - Speed up DNS lookups in OSX - macosx.com: "This will explain how to speed up DNS lookups. This is useful for contacting servers much quicker than normal, plus not waiting around forever before a lookup fails. I would just like to note at the beginning here that this will not load web pages any faster, or let you download anything faster, but it will contact web servers & such much, much quicker than the default."

The Paul Smith Foundation Home Page

The Paul Smith Foundation Home Page
The original ascii artist!

A "Psychological" Optical Illusion

A "Psychological" Optical Illusion: "The influence of culture and environment can have an effect on our visual perception. This theory was first explored by Robert Laws, a Scottish missionary working in Malawi, Africa, during the late 1800's. Take a look at the picture below. What you see will largely depend on where you live in the world. After you have examined the picture, scroll down for a more detailed explanation."

surberpictures: Congress

surberpictures: Congress: Pro Forma session, complete in 46 seconds!

Chain Factor

Chain Factor: "How to Play: Use your mouse to drop discs into the grid. The Main Idea: Whenever the number on a disc matches the size of the row or column that disc is in, it will disappear. See if you can clear the board, or just try to survive as long as possible before filling the grid."

ez_setup.py

: "Bootstrap setuptools installation"

Stratolab > MakeBot - Computer Courses for Kids in New York

Stratolab > MakeBot - Computer Courses for Kids in New York: "For my Lunar Repair Yard course, I needed an IDE for students to use which was intuitive and quick to learn. The command line works well once you know how, but I wanted to have the absolutely shortest learning curve possible so my students could get to the fun stuff right away. "

PsyBlog: Why We do Dumb or Irrational Things: 10 Brilliant Social Psychology Studies

PsyBlog: Why We do Dumb or Irrational Things: 10 Brilliant Social Psychology Studies: " Like eminent social psychologist Professor Philip Zimbardo, I'm also obsessed with why we do dumb or irrational things. The answer quite often is because of other people - something social psychologists have comprehensively shown."

Irby Smith - Awards

Irby Smith - Awards: "Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures for: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)"

macosxhints.com - Record OS X screen activity to a Flash movie

macosxhints.com - Record OS X screen activity to a Flash movie: "Instructions for setting it all up are at the end of this message, but here is the basic usage. To record actions from your local computer, start X11 and start the vnc server with the OSXvnc program. In a Terminal, type the command vnc2swf -nowindow -startrecording output.swf localhost:0. Now just perform the actions you want to record. When done, return to the Terminal and type control-C to end. You can play the resulting Flash file in QuickTime, or in any web browser that has the Flash plugin. "

vnc2swf - Screen Recorder

vnc2swf - Screen Recorder: "Vnc2swf is a cross-platform screen recording tool for ShockWave Flash (swf) format."

Slashdot - One SimCity Per Child

One SimCity Per Child: "More SimCity links, courtesy of Don Hopkins"

Tcl on slashdot... - comp.lang.tcl | Google Groups

Tcl on slashdot... - comp.lang.tcl | Google Groups
Messages from Don Hopkins, Alan Kay, re. Tcl, SimCity, OLPC

ESPN - Man, machines send squash aflying

ESPN - Man, machines send squash aflying: "The 52,000-pound trebuchet made of steel and red oak traveled here, to the First State, on the bed of a tractor trailer. Its wheels, weighing more than a ton apiece, are cut from an oil drum 10 feet in diameter. Hanging above its base is a swinging counterweight freighted with several tons of railroad track."

Comparing yahoo and google pages over the years

Comparing yahoo and google pages over the years.

Silicon Valley Users Guide: How to coast to a writing career

Silicon Valley Users Guide: How to coast to a writing career
"As the only Valleywagger who writes for the Wall Street Journal, I get lots of email from readers who want to know Sweet, how can I land that gig next time you're busy? Careful what you wish for. Freelance writing is hard work. Unless, that is, you follow my easy guide to slacking your way to the top -- well, not really the top, but sort of near the top. Which is the whole idea."

ECB Mods

ECB Mods: "THE SUPERMODIFIED ECB!

* Modification 1 - Improve accessibility to the firepan.
* Modification 2 - Improve firepan airflow
* Modification 3 - Improve accessibility to the water pan
* Modification 4 - Improve temperature indication

...and some of my own mods:

* Modification 2a: - Improve fireplan airflow even more (charcoal rails).
* Modification 2b - Add vent covers.
* Modification 5 - Improve cooker airflow (top vent & foil).
"

ECB -- El Cheapo Brinkman

ECB: "Brinkmann Smoke & Grill - aka: Sportsman, Cajun Smoker, ECB (*affectionately* El Cheapo Brinkmann).

The Brinkmann water smoker is an inexpensive tool which can make some excellent barbecue. It is sometimes referred to as an ECB on this mail List (El Cheapo Brinkmann). Don't let this moniker fool you however. The ECB makes some mighty fine barbecue right out of the box. However, there are several modifications which can improve its performance, ease its use and therefore enhance your enjoyment."

YouTube - Arrogant Worms - Carrot Juice is Murder

YouTube - Arrogant Worms - Carrot Juice is Murder: "An awesome music video by the Arrogant Worms"

The Cool Cam - Worse Than Failure

The Cool Cam - Worse Than Failure

What's your cool cam?

"With all of the bugs he could get started on, he decided it was necessary to add a new feature instead. He developed a camera system that would focus on anything "cool" happening near the player. For instance, one plane shakes another with a delicate evasive maneuver. Or it'd mount to a bomb right as a B-17's bay was opening, following its descent onto the earth. Or it'd follow a plane being shot down, ablaze and spiraling toward the ground, engines sputtering.

The "Cool Cam" was cool. But it didn't change the fact that the game was almost completely broken. Brand wanted to confront Tim about bug priority and all of the code he was toiling away to debug, but held his tongue. No one could save the project at this point anyway.

At the next week's meeting with management, the air felt heavy. With each passing week the execs were seeing money hemorrhaged into a dying project that they'd had a full team on for four years. Tim started up the game and played carefully to avoid the obvious bugs. Getting a double whammy of tough questions ("How overbudget is this project?" and "Why shouldn't we cancel this right now?"), Tim made sure his plane was level and flying evenly and let go of the joystick and hit the cool cam button.

Brand sat there silently, watching the monitor. Tim turned toward the execs, about to stumble through an answer they probably wouldn't accept. The room was silent, save for the steady hum of the plane's engines coming out of the computer speakers. Suddenly, the camera zoomed in on an explosion, following a flaming plane barreling toward the earth, then the focus moved slightly to another plane quickly evading the flaming shell. Tim took the controls again when the execs lobbed another tough question about bugs they'd made no progress in fixing. Again, Tim leveled the plane and hit the cool cam button. And again, he didn't have to answer because everyone was fixated on the screen.

Tim's "cool cam" saved European Air War. It went from a money-leaking embarrassment to a top-tier release for MicroProse. The weekly meetings got easier, more developers were brought on, and the team managed to put together one hell of a game. It reviewed well after its 1998 release and is still a popular game for history buffs. And it probably wouldn't have been released if not for a programmer that knew what the project needed most; the cool cam."

Chew On That � Blog Archive � Pankegg!

Chew On That � Blog Archive � Pankegg!

"After watching a particularly good episode of my favorite (now ended) video blog The Show With ZeFrank, I knew my life would never be satisfying until I followed the instructions he gave me (watch til the end):

“Put a little oil in the pan, but make sure you add some butter. That’s where the flavor is. Coat it, and then pour yourself a nice, big pancake. Now watch it. See those tiny little holes? Those are bonding holes, and they have a purpose. As soon as you see enough bonding holes, pick the pancake up and crack an egg under it…”

Success!

The mix of flavors and textures works really well. The cooked egg white combines with the pancake to make something exquisitely fluffy, and the runny yolk fills the role normally occupied by syrup.

EDIT: There’s been a request for egg-in-the-basket instructions as well, and since it is a valid alternative to the Pankegg, here they are: take a piece of bread. Butter it. Cut a circle into the center of the bread; eat the circular scrap that results. Put the bread buttered-side-down in a skillet, crack an egg into the hole, and break the yolk. Allow one side to cook, flip the bread, and lightly cook the other (to insure the whole egg white has been cooked)."

the show with zefrank

the show with zefrank: "pankegg" -- at the end of the video.

Twenty Sided � Blog Archive � DM of the Rings I:The Copious Backstory

Twenty Sided � Blog Archive � DM of the Rings I:The Copious Backstory: "Lord of the Rings is more or less the foundation of modern D&D. The latter rose from the former, although the two are now so estranged that to reunite them would be an act of savage madness. Imagine a gaggle of modern hack-n-slash roleplayers who had somehow never been exposed to the original Tolkien mythos, and then imagine taking those players and trying to introduce them to Tolkien via a D&D campaign."

One Show - Paul Rand Tribute Film (2007) 4:00 (USA) | Adland

One Show - Paul Rand Tribute Film (2007) 4:00 (USA) | Adland: "A 4 minute short about Paul Rand created for his posthumous induction to the One Club Hall of Fame in 2007."

Megan McArdle (October 29, 2007) - Vouching for vouchers (Education)

Megan McArdle (October 29, 2007) - Vouching for vouchers (Education)

"11) There's no way to assure the quality of private schools Ha. Ha. Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha. Seriously? The problem with private schools is that they can't match the same level of quality we've come to expect from our urban public school system? And what else have you learned in your visit to our planet?"