Randumb Cap

Blue Ball Machine...

2011-07-21T23:50:00.008-05:00

If you've ever seen the pictured animations online of the 'blue-ball machine,' you'll know it's like a big Rube Goldberg machine, where a long chain of objects react to perform a simple task. These online animations [two of which I found here, and here (click the 'here's) are similar in that they transport several blue balls around a map of arbitrary contraptions, and though no goal seems present like a Rube Goldberg, it is a continuous chain of events to move the balls. It's fun to follow a ball as it travels through the picture, but it's pretty disappointing when they roll off the screen (EDIT: Now I get why they roll on and off screen in random places - they are made to be tiled, so the gifs above are tiled and look a lot smoother like this . You can find others by just googling 'blue ball machine' or something).

Now to the reason I was posting this, YouTube user freddiew (who's videos have been posted here before) uploaded a real-life video to YouTube of a blue ball machine, and it was quite entertaining but short.
See it below.

-Abdul

P.S. We should have tumblred.

Lol what a joke.

2011-07-09T21:32:00.001-05:00

Take two.

Top 4 Grossing iPod and iPhone games this week

2011-03-28T20:28:00.001-05:00

The following are the top 4 grossing iPod Touch and iPhone games of the week:

1. Angry Birds Rio ($0.99)
Angry Birds Rio is a joint operation by game producer Rovio Mobile and Fox Motion Pictures. It is an adaption to the original Angry Birds game. In the Angy Birds Rio edition, the birds are now taken to the city of Rio de Janeiro, loosely following the plot of the upcoming Fox movie, Rio. The game utilizes the many capabilities of the iPod Touch including the iPod shuffle.

2. Tap Zoo (Free)
Tap Zoo is a game where players create and manage their own zoo. The basic premise is to grow your "island from a one animal zoo to a world-class safari park." The game allows you to choose from more than 50 animals and even allows cross breeding to create your own unique animal breeds. What's more, you can build restaurants and other attractions and even visit your friends' zoos.

3. Angry Birds ($0.99)
Angry Birds is an extremely popular physics-based game. The basic idea behind the game is that you use different types of birds--each with different abilities--to destroy the castles of pigs.

4. Tiny Wings ($0.99)
Tiny Wings is a physics game in which your are a small bird that has difficult flying. Therefore, you must hit the vastly created hills with perfect timing in order to increase momentum.

Thumbtack

2011-03-23T08:11:00.000-05:00

Thumbtack is a great new web service that I recently discovered. Within minutes of hearing about it, I was able to create a profile and an advertisement for my digital services. The interface is clean and efficient and I was able to get what I wanted onto the website in no time. If you are looking to build your web present, either locally or all over the place, Thumbtack is a great option. Check it out today!

Motion Graphics

Santa Sessions

2010-12-24T21:57:00.000-06:00

Filmography 2010

2010-12-17T07:30:00.000-06:00

Marcel the Shell with Shoes On

2010-11-18T00:46:00.004-06:00

I Met the Walrus

2010-11-16T20:58:00.000-06:00

A LIFE ON FACEBOOK.

2010-11-11T11:53:00.000-06:00

Learn 2 Read

2010-10-31T13:38:00.000-05:00

Aye Aye Lemur - Talking About Quantum Physics

2010-10-24T23:04:00.000-05:00

Justin Bieber Found To Be Cleverly Disguised 51-Year-Old Pedophile

2010-10-11T19:11:00.000-05:00

All New Macbook - No more keyboard?

2010-09-15T22:43:00.005-05:00

@Chad. Amazing.

BP Spills Coffee

2010-09-06T17:55:00.000-05:00

Aimbot

2010-08-04T16:05:00.000-05:00

Longest Basketball Shot?

2010-08-03T14:48:00.008-05:00

They claim that their shot was the longest ever, but it may or may not be... It's pretty impressive, apparently about 198-222 ft, and took about two hours to get. Real or fake? Judge for yourself.

Yahoo article talking about it.

Article about it's controversy.

Instant Oil Spill

2010-07-25T23:34:00.000-05:00

Why does BP get to have all the fun? This website aims at raising awareness for the oil spill by allowing users to create an oil spill on any website.

Instant Oil Spill

Star Wars Subway Car

2010-07-14T10:34:00.001-05:00

Short, simple campaign for Thankr

2010-07-01T20:46:00.000-05:00

Visit Thankr

The Best Movies Map

2010-06-24T12:56:00.002-05:00

Idiots Amaze Me

2010-06-23T23:55:00.006-05:00

Idiots amaze me. What is more, the damage that a few drunk idiots can do, simply dumbfounds me. Recently Gen. McCrystal and his band of idiots made the president of the U.S.A. look like a fool (I'm very sorry if that offends anyone, I didn't know how to sugarcoat it). And it only took about half an hour. You have to be amazed by that, you really do. President Obama is highly educated, and whether you agree with him or not you have to admit, very smart. And it took only a few drunk idiots make make him look bad. That is incredible.

What is even more incredible is these idiots completely self-destructive nature. Did they thing that they were going to keep their jobs? Did they thing that some guardian angle was going to fly down and save them? Seriously, you would thing that those genes would have died out by now. Guess not, life would be much simpler if that were true. I have yet to figure out what made them think getting drunk with a reporter and slandering the white house was a good idea.

What I have to end with is how scared these idiots make. And you have to give me a few moments to gather get ready to admit this, because for some reason the idea of this terrifies me. I haven't been this scared since I heard one of then candidate Palin's interviews in which she talked about demanding Russia get out of Georgia (I know that this is not a quote or completely accurate, its about 12:00 PM), and realizing that she had no idea that what would happen was a war in-between us and Russia, and that she had no idea how many people would die from that. And then I realized that we was very close to gaining the kind of power need to do such a thing. I almost ran for the hills. The fact that such blatant idiots get so close to gaining power, or in McCrystal's case gain such power is terrifying, the fact that my life is in these people's hands is terrifying.

You know what's BS?

2010-06-17T18:14:00.012-05:00

A series of mildly entertaining and comedic rants.

Note: These videos contain somewhat strong language...
There are these videos of a guy ranting about random things (that's as detailed as I can get)... topics ranging from printers to penguins to temperature and more. You can probably get through them all in about 15-25 minutes because they are all about 1-3 minutes, with the exception of one. They are quite outdated now (especially the earlier ones), but still funny. Don't stop watching because you don't like one, you'll probably find one you like...

There are more episodes, they can be found by clicking on the video above.

Internet 'killswitch'?

2010-06-17T16:01:00.016-05:00

Presidential control over internet.

Wait, what? Presidential control over the internet? Yeah, a new senate bill proposes that the president has a sort of 'killswitch,' the ability to control or turn off parts of the internet, and block any traffic as well. With the bill, "any private company reliant on "the Internet, the telephone system, or any other component of the U.S. 'information infrastructure'" would be "subject to command"." Essentially, the president would be able to "declare a cybersecurity emergency," and have the "power to "order the disconnection" of certain networks or Web sites." (That was a brief summary, read more to find other articles)

So it may not seem like much now, 'so what if he can control it'? It adds up, though, as we add more radical and liberal ideas like this our thoughts will change. For example, right now some of us may not think this is very big, but eventually if this is passed we may soon see an implementation of even more radical ideas. If we give control over the internet away, the leap between the control over the internet and the control over something else (perhaps Cell phones or personal devices) won't be as great. It's like if you went to the store planning to buy a shirt for $15, then you see a better one for $16 and decide to buy it instead, since it's only a dollar away from the other one. Then you see one for $17 or $18, then you end up with one for $20. Whereas, if saw the $20 at the very first moment, you may not have considered it because it was too much compared to the $15 one, but after all the little steps in between, you end up at a place far from your initial intentions.

The bill claims that the killswitch is for times needing 'emergency measure or action....' When in the past have we had such a disaster affecting the nation and its cyberspace in a way that would require government regulation or shut down (seriously, comment if you know of any). Won't the internet aid in states of emergency? It now literally is an 'information highway,' and in times of emergency, many people will look to the internet for help and possibly even more importantly, for communication. How similar is this to China's internet censorship? How similar/close is this to an absolute rule? How much will be given up before people begin to question what is really going on, and even then, will it be too late?

So here we are. Nearly one step closer to dystopia, "1984, anyone (Chad)?" Orwell said this would happen.

More info is pending, but what do you guys think?

See this article on huffington post, or this article on CNET for more details.

Media Violence and its Effects on our Youth

2010-06-16T17:43:00.005-05:00

On Tuesday, April 20, 1999, two seniors killed 12 students and 1 teacher at Columbine High School. The event sparked much controversy over the effects violence in the media has on its viewers. While the massacre can be traced back to a number of triggers, it becomes ostensible that the violence the two shooters were subject to caused a distorted reality which eased the conscience about what they were planning to do. As violence in the media grows, we can see the disastrous effects it has on society: media violence is to blame for the manipulated realities of our youth and in turn the atrocities they commit.

The reasons why we are attracted to violence pay tribute to the distortions violence creates. “These violent delights have violent ends And in their triumph die, like fire and powder, Which, as they kiss, consume.” (Shakespeare) A handful of college students were asked why they were attracted to violence in the media: violence gives a sense of power and control and we have been cultured to have an appetite for it. It seems that people are attracted to violence because they are satisfying a desire for excitement--perhaps in a life that lacks it. And while the drive to find excitement is perfectly humane, the means to the end is not. It is against seemingly all morals and basic instincts to long for violence. So where did this “unnatural desire” come from? A prominent--and controversial--European film director explains why he uses violence in his films. “It’s simply that violence...[is] the part that frightens us most when confronted with it.” (Haneke) This could explain why the media turned to violence in the first place: it frightened and intrigued its viewers. However, media violence has evolved into something that is expected by its audience and even necessary to have; and it’s rapidly spinning out of control.
Young exposure to media violence has negative effects on emotional development. The media is often credited with introducing our youth to the most basic emotions: happiness, sadness, grief, anxiety, and fear. This could be considered a positive thing: it takes the burden off of parents to introduce and explain the specifics of each emotion. However, it has been shown that children spend more time watching a screen than they do playing outdoors. Combine this fact with the earlier established idea that much of our media involves violence and one can see the paralyzing effect media violence can have on emotional development. With the inclusion of violence in media, young people are coerced into believing that fear and anxiety are common emotions and will become accustomed to feeling those emotions, and possibly go seeking such emotions throughout their lives.
Young exposure to media violence has negative effects on social development. In a child’s favorite movie, TV show, video game, or even song, the chances are high that the protagonist or some other character will use violence or physical aggression as an entertaining solution to their problems. As explained by the Social Cognitive Theory, when a child sees this method of solution work, as it most likely will in the media, they conceive this notion that violence is a viable, or even the best, solution to problems they will come across.
The emotional effects of exposure to media violence can be extremely detrimental when brought back to real life. Some experts call desensitization the most serious effect of media violence. Desensitization to media violence is the process of stopping violence from affecting oneself. Viewers numb themselves to the violent images because they “cannot afford to get involved, for if they did, their emotions would be shredded.” To compensate for the desensitization of its viewers, the media increases the level of violence. The cycle repeats itself endlessly, with no apparent end in sight. This process of desensitization and over-exaggeration of violence leads to a complete disregard for violence in the real world. When one sees a character do some terribly violent thing on the screen, a less violent act done in the real world will seem minute in comparison. This idea also applies to a desensitized person in contact with violence first hand. If they have seen a character get through far worse unhurt, they may act inappropriately to the situation, getting themselves hurt in the process. Media violence also affects learning: monkey see, monkey do. We have all seen the do not try what you are about to see at home. And while it may be painstakingly obvious to some that the events are far too dangerous to attempt, others may be less aware of the danger. In one study, 22% of juvenile criminals admitted that they learned how to do their crime on TV. Had these individuals not seen the act on TV, it is not difficult to assume that they would not have known how to do the crime and therefore not have done it. Is the media responsible for the crimes committed?
Media violence is not difficult to find: the amount of violence in the media today is staggering. 61% of television programming contain some form of violence (characterized as physical aggression towards another human) and 75% of violent scenes on TV feature no immediate consequence as a result of the violence. The statistics continue beyond just television: children spend an average of 53 minutes playing video games per day, with 74% of families owning video game equipment. Add that statistic to the 89% of top 100 video games containing violence and you have a terrible combination. Violence is far too easy for our youth to get their hands on.
Some would argue that media violence has no considerable effects on our youth. They believe that people are able to distinguish the world in the media from the real world. However, a considerable amount of evidence disproves this theory. For instance, one study found that children, particularly boys, committed 7 violent acts for every 1 they saw on TV. Surveys like these unquestionably prove that media violence has negative effects on our youth.
From the points made in this essay and the multiple news headlines stemming from media violence, it is difficult to ignore the negative effects media violence has on our youth. From the reasons why we enjoy violence to the point of views the images create, we can see how media violence can alter the morals of our youth and we have seen what such distortions have caused. The worst part is that it shows no signs of stopping. The next generation will be exposed to even more violence and at a much younger age. With the media getting at them so early, the development of these children will be so altered that it is easy to assume that they will be capable of doing unthinkable things. Pull out the ear buds. Take away the controller. Turn off the TV.

Nike Football (Soccer) Commercial

2010-06-16T14:23:00.004-05:00