Real racing simulator

Who needs GT5 with a Logitech G25 and racing seat? This is the real simulator with the best game! Turtle throwing sim to come.

Video Gamer-lite

I've accepted the fact over the past few years, that I'm not quite the gamer I used to be. I thought once I got a job, I'd have all the systems and a nice setup, but truthfully other things are more important. This top 11 shows that I'm part of this category. I think I fell into more than half of this list.

Day of the Golden Eagle

This post has been translated into English from its original form, a series of bleats and baas called out into the wilderness.

To our faithful goat audience — do not let this scare you away! It is only a vision [no equivalent for "movie" in goat parlance —ed.] ... Turn the young ones' eyes away, but teach them the story. The mighty death bird [Golden Eagle] is to be feared! See this vision of its air walk ending the life of your babes in a most horrifying way:



[via Waxy]

Terminator Company's first steps

More on Cyberdyne's HAL suit. Increased human strength demo at ~3:20 in the video.

What Plastic Recycling Symbols Mean - Earth Day was April 19

The Daily Green offers this handy guide on the various types of plastic:

Number 1 Plastics -- PET or PETE (polyethylene terephthalate)

* Found In: Soft drinks, water and beer bottles; mouthwash bottles; peanut butter containers; salad dressing and vegetable oil containers; ovenable food trays.
* Recycling: Pick up through most curbside recycling programs.
* Recycled Into: Polar fleece, fiber, tote bags, furniture, carpet, paneling, straps, (occasionally) new containers

It poses low risk of leaching breakdown products. Recycling rates remain relatively low (around 20 percent), though the material is in high demand by remanufacturers.

Number 2 Plastics -- HDPE (high density polyethylene)

* Found In: Milk jugs, juice bottles; bleach, detergent and household cleaner bottles; shampoo bottles; some trash and shopping bags; motor oil bottles; butter and yogurt tubs; cereal box liners
* Recycling: Pick up through most curbside recycling programs, although some only allow those containers with necks.
* Recycled Into: Laundry detergent bottles, oil bottles, pens, recycling containers, floor tile, drainage pipe, lumber, benches, doghouses, picnic tables, fencing

HDPE carries low risk of leaching and is readily recyclable into many goods.

Number 3 Plastics -- V (Vinyl) or PVC

* Found In: Window cleaner and detergent bottles, shampoo bottles, cooking oil bottles, clear food packaging, wire jacketing, medical equipment, siding, windows, piping
* Recycling: Rarely recycled; accepted by some plastic lumber makers.
* Recycled Into: Decks, paneling, mudflaps, roadway gutters, flooring, cables, speed bumps, mats

PVC contains chlorine, so its manufacture can release highly dangerous dioxins. If you must cook with PVC, don't let the plastic touch food. Never burn PVC, because it releases toxins.

Number 4 Plastics -- LDPE (low density polyethylene)

* Found In: Squeezable bottles; bread, frozen food, dry cleaning and shopping bags; tote bags; clothing; furniture; carpet
* Recycling: LDPE is not often recycled through curbside programs, but some communities will accept it. Plastic shopping bags can be returned to many stores for recycling.
* Recycled Into: Trash can liners and cans, compost bins, shipping envelopes, paneling, lumber, landscaping ties, floor tile

Historically, LDPE has not been accepted through most American curbside recycling programs, but more and more communities are starting to accept it.

Number 5 Plastics -- PP (polypropylene)

* Found In: Some yogurt containers, syrup bottles, ketchup bottles, caps, straws, medicine bottles
* Recycling: Number 5 plastics can be recycled through some curbside programs.
* Recycled Into: Signal lights, battery cables, brooms, brushes, auto battery cases, ice scrapers, landscape borders, bicycle racks, rakes, bins, pallets, trays

Polypropylene has a high melting point, and so is often chosen for containers that must accept hot liquid. It is gradually becoming more accepted by recyclers.

Number 6 Plastics -- PS (polystyrene)

* Found In: Disposable plates and cups, meat trays, egg cartons, carry-out containers, aspirin bottles, compact disc cases
* Recycling: Number 6 plastics can be recycled through some curbside programs.
* Recycled Into: Insulation, light switch plates, egg cartons, vents, rulers, foam packing, carry-out containers

Polystyrene can be made into rigid or foam products -- in the latter case it is popularly known as the trademark Styrofoam. Evidence suggests polystyrene can leach potential toxins into foods. The material was long on environmentalists' hit lists for dispersing widely across the landscape, and for being notoriously difficult to recycle.

Number 7 Plastics -- Miscellaneous

* Found In: Three- and five-gallon water bottles, 'bullet-proof' materials, sunglasses, DVDs, iPod and computer cases, signs and displays, certain food containers, nylon
* Recycling: Number 7 plastics have traditionally not been recycled, though some curbside programs now take them.
* Recycled Into: Plastic lumber, custom-made products

A wide variety of plastic resins that don't fit into the previous categories are lumped into number 7. A few are even made from plants (polyactide) and are compostable. Polycarbonate is number 7, and is the hard plastic that has parents worried these days, after studies have shown it can leach potential hormone disruptors.
Sources:

* The Daily Green March 31, 2008

A Day At The Cube For the Cube Competitions

On Saturday April 19 2008 the Discovery Science Center in Santa Ana funded in part by Taco Bell once again held "Rubik's" cube competitions. It is called The Cube since its most prominent feature is a very large black cube on the outside.

There's going to be a competition at Disneyland. Date Unknown. And a competition in San Diego on May 24 2008.

About 32 people competed. The final times were computed from the average of 5 solve times dropping the worst and best time.

All competitors are given a scrambled cube, scrambled the same way for everyone, and up to 30 seconds I think to view the cube before starting their solve.

The winning times in minutes:seconds.hundredths of seconds were:

3x3x3 one-handed 23.17 (best time 21.10)
3x3x3 blind-folded 4:11.56 (this year only one person completed a solve)
3x3x3 13.79 (best time 11.84)
4x4x4 1:03.12 (best time 59.18)
5x5x5 solution-1 41.31 (best time 30.00)
5x5x5 1:56:04 (best time 1:44:18)

Solution-1 is a cube shape when solved but changes shape as it is solved. It was released by Rubik's and is now being made by other people. The patent period has run out on the original 3x3x3 cube.

People are making their cubes. One made a 2x2x5 out of four 4x4x4 cubes using a single 4x4x4 core and all edge, middle and corner pieces. No center pieces.

oo

You'd Better Wait For The 2nd Marshmallow - But Read This NOW!!!

This is from a comment posted to a blog entry about Dealing With Information Overload

A study of emotional intelligence and the ability to wait as an illustration on how this ability to wait could be used as a stronger predictor of the future success level than IQ - all because a 4 year old could wait for the 2nd marshmallow.

Walter Michel of Stanford created a test to determine how well a group of 4 year olds could control impulses and delay gratification. Each child one at a time went into a room with a one-way mirror. The child was shown a marshmallow. The experimenter told the child he had to leave and that they could have the marshmallow right then, but if they waited for the experimenter to return from his errand, the child could have two marshmallows. A single marshmallow was left on a table in front of the child. Some children grabbed the marshmallow within seconds of the experimenter's departure from the room. Others waited up to twenty minutes for the experimenter's return. In a follow-up study (Shoda, Mischel, & Peake, 1990), the same children were tested at 18 years of age and comparisons were made between the third of the children who grabbed the marshmallow (the "impulsive") and the third who delayed gratification in order to receive the enhanced reward ("impulse controlled"). The children who were most impulsive at four years old scored an average of 524 verbal and 528 math. The children who waited patiently scored 610 verbal and 652 math.

google the STANFORD MARSHMALLOW STUDY for more info.

Ken Lee by Valentina Hasan

Mariah's response to the video was, "I applaud anyone who can perform in front of an audience."

Miss Hasan got better though:



The original version was so popular, you can support it here.

Arris Cable Modems and Wireless Routers

Henry's Transcoding MKV/OGM to MP4 tutorial is the most popular entry on our blog, since many people find it via its Google search results position, so I thought I'd try to increase my practical post count in hopes of dethroning him solving people's problems.

Here's one I came across in helping some family friends with their home networking troubles ...

Having trouble getting your Arris telephony cable modem (used for digital phone and internet) to work with your wireless router, while it works fine with your PC?

The solution is to press the reset button on the back of the Arris device and make sure that the router is the first thing you plug in to its Ethernet jack afterwards. Just unplugging it and plugging it back in — the method Kyle Broflovski used to fix the giant Linksys Wi-Fi router we call the internet — won't work.

In my friends' case, it was a model TM502 modem from Time Warner Cable and a Netgear wireless router, but I think the same solution applies to TM402 models, Comcast or Cox cable, or other wireless and non-wireless brands of routers (e.g., Linksys, Belkin, Apple AirPort).

The Arris modem remembers the MAC address of the first device it connects to and won't work with any other device (even another computer) until it's reset. I suspect that the cable companies like this feature because they can instruct their installers to connect the modem to your "primary PC" and then force you to either pay some kind of extra "home networking fee" or at least pay for a service call to have someone come out and "upgrade" you.

Guaranteed to not get arrested

Tagging in 3d virtual space.

Mario Car

http://view.break.com/487616 - Watch more free videos

Wow.

The Original Running Man

English band Utah Saints reveals the origin of everyone's favorite dance move in its Something Good '08 video:



The part where the whole dance floor is doing a synchronized running man to the fast beat of the song really throws my mind for a loop!

[via Kanye West's Vimeo page via Kottke]

Update: the original embedded video was no longer available, so I swapped in one from YouTube. You can also watch a QuickTime version via the director's portfolio.

Phoenix Wright spinoff

The prosecutor with a past tie-in to Phoenix Wright, will be getting his own game, Perfect Prosecutor. Apparently the detective work done in the attorney games, will now have a walking character where he can interact with the scene for the detective work. This game will also co-star Dick Gumshoe, the friendly but down on luck detective from the Ace Attorney series.

New Audio Recording Processing Technology

There's a video on Melodyne Direct Note Access with commentary from Peter Neubacker the inventor of Melodyne along with four pages of technical info and a Q & A page and a media page with other presentations.

Blood, Sweat, and Bears

Some videos to pass the time:

• Here, Kitty, Kitty, Kitty ... of death!


• In America, you hit tennis ball with racket. In Soviet Russia, racket hits you! (apologies to Yakov Smirnoff)


• Kids, don't miss out on the hottest new dance craze that's sweeping the nation — do the Bear! (plays after a short ad)


• Keep those Rock Band skills sharp, my friends; you never know when your musical talents will come in handy. (read the linked Wikipedia page too, if you have the time)

Professional badminton

Somehow when I got back to the office from lunch, I was thinking about Yonex tennis racquets. Reading up on the company taught me that they are quite popular in badminton racquets. I had never seen a professional badminton match before, which led me to below.