Little Yellow House

Looking to the future

2011-01-01T23:46:00.004-05:00

After hearing just a peep or two while being hacked to bits with a 'lightsaber' about our robot overlords and wars over water, I thought that the latter parts of this article might be of interest. Warning: The early sections of experiments are all about medical atrocities, but the later research regarding AI and physics inevitabilities is what I thought y'all might be interested in. The future holds many things, but one does wonder why certain avenues are being pursued. Why are we even looking for the Hicks Boson particle?

How old do you want to be?

2010-05-13T23:59:00.002-04:00

The original article about this guy, the one which describes the way he can drink pint after pint while eating only 2 cheese cubes in 12 hours and theorizing the whole time, is currently unavailable online. Nonetheless....how long are we all really going to want to live, and will we all have to have Rip Van Winkle beards?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aubrey_de_Grey

Turing Machine in Dwarf Fortress

2010-04-15T20:34:00.000-04:00

Epic.

Woman's blood alcohol content topples state records

2009-12-30T17:53:00.002-05:00

Dementia, perhaps someday you'll meet someone who breaks this record, but I think it's going to be a long wait. ;-]

Subaru pulls out a truck stuck in the snow

2009-12-23T16:41:00.001-05:00

S at work :P

2009-11-01T14:46:00.002-05:00

http://cubehacks.wordpress.com/

S at work :P

2009-11-01T14:46:00.000-05:00

http://cubehacks.wordpress.com/

What every American should be made to know about the IG Torture Report

2009-08-25T07:50:00.001-04:00

You really should read this, although it's not pleasant.

The "Birthers" on Capitol Hill

2009-07-28T19:52:00.000-04:00

You gotta watch this:

Memristor Minds

2009-07-11T17:32:00.001-04:00

This article in New Scientist is hard to summarize, but is well worth a read.

Oklahoma Highway Patrol attacks paramedic

2009-06-16T19:22:00.001-04:00

Dementia, be careful out there.

It's oh so quiet...

2009-06-14T22:34:00.002-04:00

...so I thought I would share this editorial from today's NY Times, which neatly sums up our failed war on drugs and includes a quotation from one of the members of LEAP that Dementia had posted about previously.

High school teacher's story of being dosed

2009-02-05T12:21:00.000-05:00

This is a highly entertaining read.

A different perspective...

2009-02-02T02:21:00.002-05:00

on the wallstreet crash

on perspective

the worst people of 2008

erotic chat

First post of the new year!

Bruce Lee Plays Ping Pong with Nunchucks

2008-11-25T18:56:00.000-05:00

Fallout 3

2008-11-19T21:27:00.002-05:00

If anyone is looking for me, I'll be here for a while.

We need to support these guys

2008-11-05T10:54:00.001-05:00

LEAP: Law Enforcement Against Prohibition.

2008-11-02T09:27:00.001-05:00

ahhh... the good ol' TSA

The Campaign as a D&D Session

2008-10-23T18:39:00.001-04:00

Brilliant

2008-10-18T16:50:00.002-04:00

the jafproject. a bunch of interesting and cool images.

the long lost pincipia discordia available in all it's glory online.

Stayin Alive

2008-10-17T11:57:00.002-04:00

Doctors have found the Bee Gees 1977 disco hit "Stayin’ Alive" provides the perfect rhythm for CPR.

grrr.

2008-10-12T07:51:00.002-04:00

sorry for the link-heavy post, but this has been on my mind for a bit.

"Rev" Phelps needs to be beaten, drawn, quartered, then tortured... hopefully at Gitmo. His latest crusade took him to Maryland to protest at the funerals of the troopers killed in the helicopter crash. Having ridden with the troopers earlier this year, I'm a little bit too close to this for comfort.

But I have a plan. I need a photographer (looking at you, E) and about 20 people. We show up at the next protest organized by Phelps. We have a bunch of signs saying the usual ("God hates Fags", &c.) and join up with the idiots. Then, while the protest gets up to a frenzy, we pull off the paper cover on OUR signs to reveal the real message "God Hates Phelps" and the photos ensue. Anyone in?

The little critters:)

2008-09-27T18:13:00.011-04:00

Here are some of the small critters that lurked in our garden this year. There was this one Praying Mantis that flew it's way into the house! Sean was very patient in trying to lead it outside, but the little fellow was stubborn. With a little coaxing the Mantis returned to the garden and feasted on the aphids and mosquitoes. The caterpillars just kept chowing down in the garden till they got to be too big to be supported by the plants branches. I believe that maybe a few of them became a tasty treat for the hungry birds. In the end I hope that a few of the caterpillars had the chance to complete their life cycle:)

Strange Bedfellows

2008-09-18T11:13:00.003-04:00

That's how Schneier puts it while describing how the NSA and China are teaming up to create a standard for traceback of IP addresses. He also rightly points out that traceback would do nothing to prevent malicious users, but would make it easier to monitor users en masse. Good times, good times.

Get them savings!

2008-09-14T01:19:00.003-04:00

"I've already filled up four gas cans. I figure while the savings is there get the savings!" How true, my friend, how true.

"Sexual relationships with prohibited sources cannot, by definition, be arms-length." Thank you, master of the obvious.

"I need to know if she thinks dinosaurs were here 4000 years ago...that's an important...I wanna know that, I really do, because she's gonna have the nuclear codes."

Amen, amen.

Large Hadron Collider

2008-09-11T15:30:00.005-04:00

Just in case you're feeling nervous about LHC, now you can monitor it via webcams. If you prefer textual status updates, there's always hasthelargehadroncolliderdestroyedtheworldyet.com.

2008-09-09T17:13:00.000-04:00

Toetools of Infamy

2008-09-06T17:56:00.004-04:00

[Dementia, I blame you for this newfound addiction.]

This being the diary of Dodók Kuletber, pickmistress of Ninlòr Sedish, "Toetools of Infamy"

25th Felsite, 202, Late Spring

I suppose I should begin keeping a diary of this place now that it seems we're here to stay for a while. The twenty-four new useless migrants who just moved in during our second spring here at Toetools seem to ensure that much. It's a good thing we seven original prospectors cleared the nearby forest for wood when we moved in, before that damn kobold made off with our only steel axe, else there wouldn't be enough material to create beds for all these louts. Still, I suppose we should keep our just-arrived soap and cheese makers, millers and tanners, rangers and animal vivisectionists happy while we force them to do real work. I mean, we have no milk, so what the fuck do we need with a cheese maker? Stone detail for you, my lass.

At least there was one miner amongst the rabble, Vabôk ónlevud, and he brought his own pick. Of course, soon after settling in he scurried away from the hard work, claimed himself a mason's shop, and busied himself building a limestone armor rack. A limestone armor rack. We have not a lick of armor in the entire damn fortress, but no one had the heart to tell him that. I've recently got him back digging with me and Libash as we build a new underground farm plot to feed our hungry mouths. Libash has been a bit full of himself since I named him sheriff to watch over the newbies, but he's been solid enough since we set out for this godforsaken pit. I need to keep a close watch on him, though. Recently he asked for, all but demanded in fact, his own office and dining room. I'm the fucking leader of this comedy of manners and even I don't have an office. Then again, perhaps it's not such a bad idea.

Our mechanic Zefon Allaskol has been abed since autumn following his harrowing encounter with an angry goat. I mean, it's a fucking goat, right? Still, there's no rousing him. If he's still asleep come next autumn I'm going to be forced to deny him water so his bedroom goes to more productive use. I've conscripted the new woodworker as a mechanic for the time being, but at the pace he's going we'll be lucky to have a single stone-fall trap in place this year.

We're running dangerously low on meat, and the alcohol supply isn't looking great either. I'll have to lash the brewer to the still and round up those dogs that've been breeding like rabbits in this place. Give the animal dissector something to do at any rate. Gods help us come winter.

the Innernets is broken

2008-08-27T11:09:00.002-04:00

A bigger issue than the recent DNS vulnerability has been discovered that would allow an attacker to reroute traffic with a specific destination to themselves and then silently pass it to the legitimate destination. Lots of people are probably reevaluating industrial espionage as a career path right now...

Math Pr0n

2008-08-27T10:17:00.002-04:00

Extreme Ironing

2008-08-25T16:43:00.003-04:00

From the Bureau of the Absurd. No, that's not Extreme Irony, there is no typo. This should dispel any misconceptions about what this is about:

We're all winners!

2008-08-24T01:57:00.001-04:00

Via Boy on a Stick and Slither.

We're Losing Soil

2008-08-21T17:42:00.002-04:00

Great article in National Geographic about why we're losing soil, techniques to fight that trend, and why those techniques could go a long way toward reducing poverty, starvation, and global warming.

The only thing they forgot to mention is the effect of transubstantiation on all this. The Eucharist eats too many atoms!

CIA 12020 Sunset Hills Rd Reston VA Eyeball

2008-08-21T12:19:00.001-04:00

I always wondered about this building when I used to commute from Burke to Dulles.

What Kind of D&D Character Would McCain Be?

2008-08-21T11:00:00.002-04:00

Wired's Threat Level blog wants to know.

How Many Atoms of Jesus Do You Eat Every Day?

2008-08-18T18:19:00.002-04:00

Find out here. Also note that because of transubstantiation, the world will be made entirely of Jesus in ~4.91 billion years.

2008-08-16T00:38:00.002-04:00

Long story about the rise and fall of a "Dwarf Fortress" city.

2008-08-06T19:35:00.000-04:00

Schneier on the DNS vulnerability

2008-07-29T10:38:00.001-04:00

http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2008/07/the_dns_vulnera.html

2008-07-27T18:33:00.001-04:00

Frank Bullitt's chase scene set to google maps.
And not two minutes later, I see the Lalo Schifrin was on NPR. Talk about convergence.

Locksmiths Hate Computer Geeks Who Learn Lockpicking

2008-07-17T14:51:00.003-04:00

Oh, yes, they hates us, precious! Interesting tidbits in this article:

Hobby groups throughout North America have cracked supposedly unbeatable locks. Mr. Nekrep, who maintains a personal collection of more than 300 locks, has demonstrated online how to open a Kensington laptop lock using Scotch tape and a Post-it note. Another Lockpicking101.com member discovered the well-publicized method of opening Kryptonite bike locks with a ball-point pen, a revelation that prompted Kryptonite to replace all of its compromised locks.

[Via Schneier]

List of unsolved problems

2008-07-17T14:08:00.002-04:00

In case you find yourself bored and want to help humanity, you might checkout Wikipedia's List of unsolved problems in chemistry, cognitive science, computer science, economics, linguistics, mathematics, neuroscience, philosophy, physics, and statistics.

I mean, how hard could they be?

Techno Kittens Chaser

2008-07-07T12:07:00.001-04:00

In case anyone is having a bad day/week/month:

Project Wish

2008-06-28T01:54:00.003-04:00

I've joined Project Wish as a story team member. Apparently my writing for the never-yet-played Mikeno'Sedhr saga was enough to win a spot (although I'm still not entirely happy with some elements of it). Wish me luck!

A few more wonder-vids

2008-06-25T20:05:00.001-04:00

Great telemarketer prank
Great parking job

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

2008-06-23T16:44:00.002-04:00

You know it's bad when The Associated Press reports, "Everything seemingly is spinning out of control"

And I highly recommend Yeats' The Second Coming for those who've never read it.

Children by Mail!

2008-06-20T00:33:00.003-04:00

dementia, V, we can babysit for you now...er...a hundred years ago we could have, anyway:

This city letter carrier posed for a humorous photograph with a young boy in his mailbag. After parcel post service was introduced in 1913, at least two children were sent by the service. With stamps attached to their clothing, the children rode with railway and city carriers to their destination. The Postmaster General quickly issued a regulation forbidding the sending of children in the mail after hearing of those examples.

For gearheads with a liberal arts degree

2008-06-19T20:43:00.001-04:00

IMDB's car cousin.

Ahh, Richmond

2008-06-16T21:30:00.003-04:00

Besides being just awesome to work in, Richmond is a wealth of weirdness:

Richmond DMV prank 1 & 2

RAF Bombs Hashish

2008-06-14T19:24:00.002-04:00

I don't quite know how to feel about this:

A DRUGS haul unearthed by Afghan commandoes, working with their British counterparts in the Special Boat Service, was so large that RAF Harrier jump jets were called in to bomb it, it emerged yesterday.

Zebra Crossing Guards in La Paz

2008-06-10T11:31:00.003-04:00

Genius.

Big Buck Bunny

2008-06-07T19:29:00.004-04:00

A film produced using the open source 3D tool Blender.

Big Buck Bunny from Blender Foundation on Vimeo.

Incredible Mural Animation

2008-05-19T11:43:00.001-04:00

MUTO a wall-painted animation.

Some thoughts, lately

2008-05-07T19:42:00.003-04:00

two mockingbirds are
teaching each other new tunes
in the quiet air

having lost a limb
on its east side in the wind
the tree now grows west

my favorite band
not worth sitting outside for
while it rains sideways

The Memristor is Discovered

2008-05-03T12:32:00.002-04:00

A fourth fundamental type of passive circuit element, the memristor, thought to exist in theory since the 70s, has been proven to work. This is a big deal for digital technology, having the potential to replace transistors and allow for far greater chip density. It will also likely replace RAM and current hard-drive technology, since accessing a crossbar latch (don't ask) built out of memristors takes one tenth the time it takes to access current DRAM technology, and HP has already prototyped a crossbar latch memory that can fit 100 gigabits in a square centimeter versus the 16 gigabits held in the highest-density flash memories on the market today. As the Wikipedia article notes, the memristor has been lovingly, and somewhat appropriately, nicknamed the "flux capacitor" by some.

2008-04-29T17:13:00.003-04:00

So, this probably only will make sense to dementia, but as license plate scanners (something envisioned in William Gibson's novels) become prevalent, it only makes sense that SQL injection attacks be created to test their security:

Link to full post (en Español)

2008-04-18T23:09:00.002-04:00

a moth brushes me
seeking the light from above
as i read the news

reminder to look
at the cherry tree in bloom
under the streetlight

i turn the light off
and sit down to write these words
inhaling all this

Another assault...

2008-04-18T10:33:00.002-04:00

A good reason to have a septic system: sewage tests
And yet, they can't keep drugs out of the Potomac...

Condoms for flashdrives

2008-04-17T22:51:00.003-04:00

So, a peace corps guy got annoyed because he kept picking up viruses just by using his flash drive in public computers. Guys, can you fix this problem? And can that make us rich? Just wondering...we now return you to your regularly scheduled, weird-but-cool content...

Oh, and if you're interested in an American's travels in Madagascar-

http://www.joeinmadagascar.blogspot.com/

The Blogging Barrage Continues

2008-04-17T17:19:00.001-04:00

Someone stop me before I post again...

A tizzy of stuff

2008-04-16T11:32:00.002-04:00

For the pleasure of your internets:

Just so the CIA doesn't feel left out...

2008-04-15T19:01:00.002-04:00

Wired's Threat Level exploited a cross-site scripting bug on cia.gov to inject their own content. Don't you feel safe now?

Oklahoma Leaks Tens of Thousands of Social Security Numbers, Other Sensitive Data

2008-04-15T18:31:00.001-04:00

This is just asinine. Be glad you don't live in Oklahoma, where the idiots program on the plains.

2008-04-14T01:04:00.002-04:00

Sean, this might be sidebar stuff: www.crainium.net
Go to the photo archive, it's chock full of amazing, funny, or otherwise unique photos. And the design isn't half bad.
Also led me to Flex Your Rights.

I laughed, I cried...no wait, laughed some more.

2008-04-12T03:09:00.004-04:00

It was better than cats. Evidently I went and started working at high-school without even know it. I'll post the details of the letter later, suffice it to say for now that I won a two week vacation from my work for being insubordinate to the time-clock computer. Apparently, the comments sections is not to be used for disgruntled utterances. The real beauty of the situation is that they sent me home on Friday, the busiest day of the week, when we were already short medics! I was told that I still had my job at the end of the 'suspension' if I wanted it, but I had better have a different attitude. I'm thinking apathy is a new attitude. I need a new job.

Update on Tax Day:
So here are some of the comments that earned some time off:
"Another day, another reason to hate the world"
"A great day, Yipee!" (I actually meant that one...)
"I don't get paid enough to care what I write here"
"I'm too tired to be disgruntled"
"If we run more calls than the counties and charge more for service, why do we pay so damned poorly?"
And my favorite:
"I'm the weasel in the pants of management"

Interestingly, comments that I'd expect to cause a stir didn't make the list:
"Another day, another $0.93 (adjusted for inflation)"
"Great, I got a 3% raise in a time of 4% inflation"
"meh"

It's interesting that I got a worse "punishment" for expressing my feelings to a purely internal system that's really only seen by the scheduling manager than I would have for cursing at facility personnel, letting my certs lapse, or giving the wrong medication to a patient...

Now this is a trick pool shot

2008-04-10T18:44:00.001-04:00

2008-04-07T18:38:00.002-04:00

So Sean pointed me to www.worldmapper.com, and I started looking at the maps that caught my fancy... like the preventabe deaths. I noticed that the US is small, but visible, while Canada is GONE! Weird.

Third Annual Movie-Plot Threat Contest

2008-04-07T17:59:00.001-04:00

In case ya'll are feeling squirrelly:

"For this contest, the goal is to create fear. Not just any fear, but a fear that you can alleviate through the sale of your new product idea. There are lots of risks out there, some of them serious, some of them so unlikely that we shouldn't worry about them, and some of them completely made up. And there are lots of products out there that provide security against those risks.

Your job is to invent one. First, find a risk or create one. It can be a terrorism risk, a criminal risk, a natural-disaster risk, a common household risk -- whatever. The weirder the better. Then, create a product that everyone simply has to buy to protect him- or herself from that risk. And finally, write a catalog ad for that product."

I love the BBC

2008-04-07T17:54:00.002-04:00

Holy Hurling Hedgehogs!

Aussie's take over WV Or vice-versa.

How not to win elections

Proof that the Iraq campaign is floundering?

And one more from Down Under...Adding injury to... well, injury.

Venting

2008-04-04T10:57:00.002-04:00

One red paperclip

2008-04-03T23:37:00.002-04:00

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_red_paperclip

Did someone already post this a while ago? It seemed familiar when I read it, but I couldn't find it on the blog..So, without further ado..This guy takes the concept of barter to a whole new level. Good stuff!

Happy All Fool's Day

2008-04-01T18:24:00.003-04:00

For your pleasure on this riotous day, may I humbly present The Extraordinary Astrologer Isaac Bickerstaff

This might be more de-motivating...

2008-03-28T07:23:00.002-04:00

I did a quick check for demotivators on amazon.com after getting a perfect shirt. Then I saw Managing for dummies. I can't think of anything more de-motivating than the existence of this. I want the cover on a shirt, now.

Are We Giving Robots Too Much Power?

2008-03-24T12:29:00.000-04:00

2008-03-16T17:27:00.002-04:00

Sean, I'm waiting for something like this the next time I come over.

Coffee designs

Leet-speak Manamanah cover/machinima video

2008-03-07T16:29:00.002-05:00

A Tribute to Gygax

2008-03-07T09:33:00.002-05:00

Pour some dice on the curb for my homie...

2008-03-05T12:58:00.001-05:00

Gary Gygax died....

2008-03-04T21:40:00.002-05:00

Whoa... What? Did a search for "wireless broadband" and this was the second non-sponsored link: Google TiSP. Sean? Any comments?

The Recursive Escalator

2008-02-08T18:27:00.001-05:00

A question...

2008-02-08T15:55:00.001-05:00

If only life were this straightforward...

2008-02-04T23:12:00.000-05:00

Three guys recreate the storming of Omaha

2008-01-24T15:30:00.000-05:00

My Tiny Life

2008-01-18T21:29:00.000-05:00

I just finished reading My Tiny Life by Julian Dibbell, a free PDF of which can be found here. The prose is sometimes pompously pretentious in a precisely preposterous kind of way, but it fits well with the writing styles of many of the MUDers that the author chronicles. If you've never read the first chapter, "A Rape in Cyberspace," first published as an article in the Village Voice, I highly recommend perusing it. Who knows, you may find yourself drawn into the tinylife of the LambdaMOO as I myself did. :]

Starry Night

2008-01-11T13:27:00.000-05:00

This video of a Second Life (re)construction is beautiful:

New Bush Coins!

2008-01-10T14:38:00.000-05:00

This video will educate you on our new petroleum-backed, Bush coins:

Succession!

2007-12-20T13:48:00.000-05:00

Lakota Natives Withdraw Treaties with U.S.

2007-12-20T00:45:00.000-05:00

MMW is releasing a kids album Let's Go Everywhere. More importantly, All Things Considered considers them a "well known jazz trio". 'Well known' might be a bit of an overstatement, but they made the list for kids music that won't drive the parents crazy.

Let's Game

2007-12-07T12:51:00.001-05:00

I think I told all of the contributors to this blog that I intended to build a "virtual tabletop" for roleplaying. Well, I was researching this small niche of the software world when I ran across a tool that does much of what I want from such a package. An internal monologue ensued:

"Great, now I have something to use as a benchmark for my own application."

[some time passed]

[some brain cells woke up]

[a neuron or two fired]

[a tiny carrier pigeon was seen to fly urgently into my ear]

"Huh, maybe we could just use this tool instead of me writing another one."

And so I proudly link to MapTool, a Java-based tool for roleplaying games. To be clear, this tool isn't quite what I wanted to build, in the sense that, well, it's in Java, but it's close enough for government purposes. More importantly, it gives us something to test the viability of remote gaming. I would like to propose the following plan, please kindly respond in comments or via email with ways of improving upon it:

We should schedule games via Google calendar. Since everyone has (or can easily get) a Gmail account, this seems kind of a no-brainer to me. It's perhaps arguable, but I also happen to think that adding thing to a calendar makes them more likely to occur. ;]
We should use MapTool and Skype in conjunction with one another and test it out prior to the first actual game.
We should fix on a date before the end of next week.
We should game before the end of January.

There's my manifesto. My challenge to you, dear readers, is to game, to GAME!

[ Uh, and I'll GM if no one else wants to. :]

Pop-up Market in Bangkok

2007-12-03T12:28:00.000-05:00

If my wife happens to see this...

2007-12-03T11:53:00.000-05:00

I'd love a subscription to Mental Floss. I mean, really, our blog is just as eccentric, but they have a magazine. How cool is that.

Also, there's been some rumors (I'm staring at you, Sean) that there's a decent 3d online roleplaying game. We could use this as a bridge to real late-night-in-the-basement-drinking-coffee-and-generally-carousing type gaming? No? No meaning yes? Try it out. It's not Sauerbraten, I promise :)

The 9 Most Badass Bible Verses

2007-11-28T13:20:00.000-05:00

Good lord is this funny.

Geek Aquarium

2007-11-28T12:04:00.001-05:00

Japanese Internet Monkeys from the future

2007-11-27T12:38:00.000-05:00

I know you bastards are excited about this shit. I am wary, not as wary as I am about flying cars but still very wary. In the future even my legs could have an IP address.

Tesseract

2007-11-26T11:23:00.000-05:00

Check out this new "bike" I love the name and it looks like it could be fun.

More Layoff Humor

2007-10-31T12:32:00.000-04:00

The folks at AOL France decided to one-up the US team. They didn't just make some Photoshopped t-shirts to commemorate the layoffs, they made a music video. Frickin' hilarious if you speak un peu francais.

Fuck Tasers

2007-10-26T19:04:00.000-04:00

This is so sad.

Deadly cricket...

2007-10-25T06:29:00.000-04:00

So who knew a cover up would be so easy?

Woop Clan Fragfest

2007-10-22T16:21:00.000-04:00

I joined the Woop Clan's Fragfest a bit late, but I had a blast playing with some of the best names in the game (including the two primary programmers for Sauer, eihrul and Aardappel!). Even managed to score myself a victory in capture the flag (this picture from Drakas' screens of the fest):

Links of the day

2007-10-19T13:31:00.000-04:00