I love underdog stories. When it comes to browsers, Google’s Chrome web browser is definitely the underdog as compared to Firefox and Internet Explorer in terms of popularity and market share. But in terms of JavaScript speed, Google’s got them all beat. Case in point: Someone has written a pure JavaScript NES emulator that runs very well in Google Chrome and very slowly in Firefox and not at all in Internet Explorer. I expect to see good things coming from the Google camp in the browser wars.
Google does … just search for time. Personally, I trust Google’s answer on the simple question of “What Time Is It?” But then they start weirding me out a little when they tell me where I am. They list the city and state right by the time display which is cool but how accurate are they in locating my actual position? My guess is that they use the IP lookup and resolve that back down to the ISP. Does anybody out there know the inside scoop on this technology?
When I was growing up I loved playing games in the local arcade for hours on end. There were always a great variety of games and with just a few dollars I could play a whole bunch of them … and then Nintendo came about. Once that wonderful system hit the market I spent hours on end in my basement playing the latest 8-bit games and never really looked back at the video game arcade scene.
Now that I am “all grown up” I get to play games with my kids on the Nintendo Wii. It’s a great system and you can download most of the nostalgic games and reminisce whilst sharing 8-bit glory with the kids … but it’s just not the same as playing them in front of a six foot tall video game arcade box! How in the world can you recreate this beloved memory of old school arcades for yourself and share it with your children?
Well, if you want spend a whole bunch of money you could actually purchase these arcade machines and designate a room in your house to truly make a real deal arcade of your own. On the other hand, you could follow the wonderful instructions from this Instructable and make your own miniature/portable arcade box that could emulate all of the games in one box. Genius!
They mentioned that The Register reported on Richard Egan killing himself (a.k.a. committing suicide) with a shotgun blast to the head. First off, this was mentioned at Slashdot because Mr. Egan was quite a techie who worked on the guidance computer system for the Apollo operations and went on to co-found the company EMC which was a leader in electronic data storage. Quite an impressive sounding individual … so why did he kill himself?
Well, back in May of 2009 Egan was diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer and he was already suffering from a list of health issues. So, on August 30th, 2009, Dick Egan decided to end his life on his own terms instead of letting the cancer slowly take his life away.
This story begs of talking about health care reform in the United States and what we can do on issues such as what Richard Egan was facing and his options on dealing with the matter. Given such grim circumstances and his personal view on life I can understand the choice that he made but there should be much more civil or humane options available for an individual. In a time when technology in the information world is screaming into the future our ways of dealing with policies and true ethical matters we appear to be stuck in medieval times.
Basically, a guy walks into a green screen room and is rendered on the fly as polygons with textures and then placed into whatever 3-dimensional environment desired. Ok, that’s cool. Then they go on to show that this not-too-shabby rendering of a person can interact with with this virtual environment by kicking over some vases and beating up a clone of himself. Now that’s pretty darn cool. I wouldn’t say amazing yet but still a rather neat accomplishment.
I would say that amazing would be when the virtual world can start to interact back with the real world. For instance, if I could enter the virtual world with that other guy and pick up one of those vases and throw it at him … and he would feel it hit him. Now that would be awesome!
September 11-13 marks the 27th Anniversary of Hampton Bay Days this year with special musical act Bruce Hornsby Grammy Award winning musical artist and local Williamsburg native. Come and join this local festival in downtown Hampton full of special activities for the kids, funnel cake, fried fish, burgers, music and rides, fun for the whole family.
I will be playing in a sand quads volleyball tournament today down in Va Beach. I have never been to the East Coast Surfing Championships before so it should prove to be a fun experience all around. Wish me luck!
Then you should be rather happy because the next release of SketchUp will provide much better support for the COLLADA format. According to the SketchUp blog:
In our next release, we’re going to make COLLADA an official first-class format for all modelers. You’ll be able to import and export COLLADA models, as well as COLLADA models wrapped up in the KMZ format for Google Earth, with any version of SketchUp.
Sounds like good news to me as an open standard is being support more fully by a great free tool like SketchUp.
I heard Mark Schultz on KLove last night sing this song live and it was absolutely amazing. Personally, I don’t know how someone can make it through a song like this without welling up. Mark definitely has a knack with his lyrics and vocals and they pack quite a punch with a moving message.
What a good idea! Instead of buying new replacement boards for your deck why not check out the flip side first? The boards are probably just as good looking on the other side as when they were first purchased … and with a little effort (ok, maybe a bit of effort) you could turn that frown upside down by putting the good side right side up!
Update: I heard from a source that this might not be the best idea after all. The thought is that you should lay the boards with the curve of the grain pointing up because over time the boards may cup and hold water when it rains.
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