Damien's Irishperson in Exile Diary

Links for 2008-08-12 [del.icio.us]

Wed, 13 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Games Without Frontiers: Fun Way to Lose Weight: Turn Dieting Into an RPG
Clive Thompson compares the Weight Watchers system to a role playing game and ponders other areas of drudgery that could be improved by turning them into games.

Links for 2008-08-06 [del.icio.us]

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0500

TVScout - Home
Metadata fetcher for TV shows, to be used with Sam Saffron's VideoBrowser plugin for Windows Media Center

Write on

noreply@blogger.com (Damien) — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 17:14:00 +0000

Rob Caron points to a great post from Dumb Little Man, a Lifehacker type blog.

If only it could be enforced before anyone is allowed to write anything.

Links for 2008-07-23 [del.icio.us]

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Visual Studio Team Server Tutorial Videos
Visual Studio Team Server is big. REAL BIG. Needless to say there is a lot of information to learn, and the following videos, produced by LearnVisualStudio.NET should help get you moving in the right direction. These are SHORT videos that address specifi

Links for 2008-07-21 [del.icio.us]

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Tomato Firmware
Tomato is a small, lean and simple replacement firmware for Linksys' WRT54G/GL/GS, Buffalo WHR-G54S/WHR-HP-G54 and other Broadcom-based routers.

Links for 2008-07-16 [del.icio.us]

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Sodium: The Motion Picture
A group of boffins from Nottingham Uni is about to launch an entertaining short video guide to the periodic table - apparently designed to give them the chance to chuck sodium into water with unrestrained glee.

Links for 2008-07-10 [del.icio.us]

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Rainbow's End -Vernor Vinge
Rainbow's End is a near-future post-cyberpunk novel about an attempt to institute mass mind control and a man's journey to become human again after Alzheimer's.
Blindsight - Peter Watts
Blindsight is the story of a group of radically modified human explorers and their vampire commander traveling to the Oort cloud to intercept a vast alien artifact that refers to itself as Rorschach
Don't read me a bedtime story. | Ask Metafilter
What are some exceptionally well-performed audiobooks?
The Eagle Has Landed
Two operatives seize the road: The alternate universe of Cheney and Bush

Links for 2008-07-09 [del.icio.us]

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0500

THE OLAF STAPLEDON ONLINE ARCHIVE

How can so much awesomeness exist?

noreply@blogger.com (Damien) — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 16:23:00 +0000

Joss Wheedon, Neil Patrick Harris, Super Heroes, Super Villains, and a theremin.

This only way this could get any more awesome would be if it tied in with How I Met Your Mother.

Yeah boyee

noreply@blogger.com (Damien) — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 15:59:00 +0000

From our US correspondent:

So, in a bar in Millbrae (town next to SFO) a visiting drunk guy (DG) was waxing lyrical about the fact Obama will be the democratic choice. Conversation with drunk local guy (DLG) went like this:

DG: This is just what America needs!
DLG: I hear ya bro
DG: To have a black president will be momentous, unreal!
DLG: Sho' fuckin will! Imagine that motherf*cker gettin' all up on that podium with the clocks and shit screaming "Yeaaaah Boyeee!"
DG: That's exactly the crap we need to get away from
DLG: Whatever dude, "Yeeah Boooyeeee!!!"
DG: There really isn't a need to do that
DLG: Flavor Flav in da HOUSE!
DG: Fuck you
Rest of bar: desperately trying not to titter.

The Original Sims

noreply@blogger.com (Damien) — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 16:03:00 +0000

Alter Ego was a video game released by Activision in 1986. The brainchild of psychologist Dr. John Favero it allowed players to play out an entire lifetime as if it were a Choose Your Own Adventure novel by playing out events based on hundreds of interviews conducted with people about their lives. Now you can play a very faithful reproduction online.

A Brief History of Meme

noreply@blogger.com (Damien) — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 11:55:00 +0000

Weezer are known for their inventive videos, from Buddy Holly (which was included as part of Windows '95 to show off its multimedia capabilities) to Islands in the Sun.

The video to Pork and Beans the single from their soon to be released Red Album contains a potted history of some of the more pervasive internet memes. If you're having trouble finding them all Fox Australia has a nice little cheat sheet.

A Screen that Ships without a Mouse Ships Broken

noreply@blogger.com (Damien) — Thu, 08 May 2008 22:25:00 +0000

Clay Shirky's talk from O'Reilly's 2008 Web Expo points out just how much free time we actually have to "waste" on social participtation projects. The next time you roll your eyes at someone for editing Wikipedia or Musicbrainz or for playing about on Facebook remember, at least they're doing something rather than contributing to the billions of hours of free time spent in front of the latest reality show.

"And then they bring out Maria..."

noreply@blogger.com (Damien) — Sat, 03 May 2008 12:21:00 +0000

Angharad has been going to the gym for a couple of months and in some sort of masochistic way has been enjoying it. Of course when one enjoys something the first thought is to share it with your friends and loved ones which is why the little darling gave my name and phone number so I could have a free trial.

I found out about this today when Roberta, the peppy Spanish fitness instructor, called me to bully me into going down.

Me (confused because my phone is ringing on a Saturday afternoon): Hello?
R.T.P.S.F.I: Hallo Mr. Ryan, this is Roberta from L.A. Fitness. You have been referred by a friend who thinks you need to go to the gym. How about a free session to see what you need to do.
Me (battered by the combined attack of peppiness and Spanishness): Uhm. Yes. That sounds like a good idea.
R: Great. Can you come down in five minutes.
Me: Woah there lil horsey. I can come some time next week.
R: I don't think that's enough motivation, why don't you just skip along right now.
Me: No. Really. Next week.
R (Showing her true alien side, for all fitness instructors are from a dying alien planet come here to steal our hard earned flab): Now really Mr. Ryan, don't you want to be fit. It's in your best interest to come down tomorrow.
Me: But it's a three day weekend. I'm being lazy!
R: That's not good enough. You have to make an appointment now.
Me (starting to sob): Okay okay. Tuesday evening.
R: That's better. We'll see you at 6pm on Tuesday. Don't forget, we know where you live...

Help.

We shall overcome

noreply@blogger.com (Damien) — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 13:08:00 +0000

Forget Obama, forget Darfur, forget upsetting world-travelling flames, this is a grass-roots movement I can get behind.

----------------
Now playing: Mattafix - Boulevard Of Broken Dreams

Doomed to repeat its mistakes

noreply@blogger.com (Damien) — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 10:20:00 +0000

Never one to pass off the excuse to post without writing anything substantial, I give you the history meme:

history|awk '{a[$2]++} END{for(i in a){printf "%5d\t%s\n ",a[i],i}}'|sort -rn|head

   105  p4
    51  cd
    39  ls
    30  perl
    30  lastfmfpclient.exe
    29  for
    28  grep
    10  export
     9  wget
     9  python

Skins in its present form had its final episode last night. True to form it was a rather stylised presentation of an A-level results day with some smashing music and a hard hitting performance from Larissa Wilson. Next year's series will feature a while new cast of rowdy teenagers with Sid and Cassie popping in occasionally. I'm not sure how it'll work as, for me, it was the characters that made the show, but I'm prepared to give it a chance.

----------------
Now playing: Malvina Reynolds - Little Boxes

All Roight Moi Luvvers?

noreply@blogger.com (Damien) — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 13:54:00 +0000

In lieu of any proper content, have a gallery of images from our recent trip to Cornwall. Included are Tintagel (the alleged birthplace of King Arthur), Land's End, and Goonhilly Earth Station (site of the first parabolic antenna in the world).

In other news, the RSS feed for the site has changed. Please update your readers to point to here.

Godwinned

noreply@blogger.com (Damien) — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 16:06:00 +0000

Wikihistory is a wonderful short short story which portrays time travel as a Wikipedia edit war.

Happy Easter folks. I'm off to Cornwall.

Elbow Patches, Redux

noreply@blogger.com (Damien) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 21:35:00 +0000

This is the time of the year when the excitement of a new set of books and a new course with the OU fades with the onset of the first Tutor Marked Assignment. For the past couple of years, I've been leaving these to the last minute, which has ended up with me writing all night before it needs to be in and trying to buy time travel delivery from the local Post Office. This year, however, I'm trying to be grown up so I've decided to get cracking a week and a half early. I've used Mind Maps before when taking notes so tried this open source application. I've managed to create my entire outline in the time it's taken the boss to have a bath. Maybe I won't be sneaking envelopes through my tutor's door this year.

Bob the Angry Flower tells you how it is

noreply@blogger.com (Damien) — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 13:17:00 +0000

Required reading for anyone who intends to write on the Internet.

You Don't Sing me Love Songs

noreply@blogger.com (Damien) — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 12:13:00 +0000

Has the magic gone?

Even Stevphen - Drinking

noreply@blogger.com (Damien) — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 14:03:00 +0000

Her indoors thinks I have a new drunken twin. Who agrees?

Home, home on the range

noreply@blogger.com (Damien) — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 12:56:00 +0000

My Mini City allows you to create a little hamlet which will grow as people visit it. Please click through and make my empire grow.

Update: Now we have an unemployment problem. Please open a factory by clicking here.

Update 2: The transport network is creaking. Please donate some roads.

Happy 2008 to you all.

Little Boxes

noreply@blogger.com (Damien) — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 14:18:00 +0000

Which one are you?

Judy is a Steampunk

noreply@blogger.com (Damien) — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 13:56:00 +0000

Pretty soon all our airship dreams can come true. Advanced Technologies Group plans to open helium balloon link between Oxford an Cambridge. Will it be in time to make The Golden Compass feel more real?

Crazy Christians

noreply@blogger.com (Damien) — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 09:14:00 +0000

Always first on the scene to exploit a crisis for their own gains, American Christians were there six years ago.

Track four is particularly creepy.

Final Fantasy the History

noreply@blogger.com (Damien) — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 15:35:00 +0000

This history of one of the most well known RPG franchises is a fascinating look at the development Final Fantasy through the years. If only I could complete FFVII.

Excellent nosh

noreply@blogger.com (Damien) — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 10:20:00 +0000

Newsflash: Eighth Harry Potter book announced.

Oh frabjous day.

Triumph Rocket III - 21st Century Motorcycle Manufacture

noreply@blogger.com (Damien) — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 12:07:00 +0000

I never wanted to get my motorcycle license until now.

Sanctimonium

noreply@blogger.com (Damien) — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 09:39:00 +0000

I heard about this case on the BBC Newspod podcast yesterday afternoon and it just seemed like so much American-style Christianity. Sanctimonious, full of hubris, and an almost sociopathic belief in the rightness of only one opinion. But it seems that while the case is being brought forward as a human-rights issue, the real reason is something more sinister.

According to research carried out by the Ministry of Truth blog, Lydia Playfoot's family is involved in a business franchise promoting the sale of these purity rings and it could be imagined that they are more worried about losing their client base than about any real religious reason.

Have your own beliefs if you want to, but don't try and use religion in order to sell what amounts to something Elizabeth Duke wouldn't even stock.

Pictures of your momma...

noreply@blogger.com (Damien) — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 11:48:00 +0000

An old friend from college has decided to start a photography blog, check it out. Welcome to the 20th century, Chris.

Danny Boy

noreply@blogger.com (Damien) — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 12:46:00 +0000

And now I'm feeling homesick.