Dangling Conversations

Colour commentary on the world we live in

From The Balcony

Posted 27 Jun, 2005 at 07:28 by blue in /MovingPictures | Permanent link

So... movies.com have enllisted the muppets to do their movie reviews... and who better than Waldorf and Statler to do them?

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You Whores

Posted 27 Jun, 2005 at 07:09 by blue in /Chatter | Permanent link

Got something you want to sell? Looking to buy?

There is a new site set up for people like you.

(be sure to read the black stars to get the most from the experience)

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Life at Low Reynolds number

Posted 26 Jun, 2005 at 10:06 by wendy in /Science | Permanent link

Here'a a lovely transcript of a talk given back in 1976 about how the world works if the medium you're moving through is more like molasses than air or water. Life at low Reynolds number

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DDR Frog Style

Posted 24 Jun, 2005 at 07:17 by blue in /Games | Permanent link

Like the Crazy Frog? Hate the Crazy Frog? Now you can play DDR Crazy Frog Style.

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Sveerz

Posted 23 Jun, 2005 at 08:47 by blue in /Games | Permanent link

A little game for you to try. It's kind of a neat take on Simon Says.

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What can you learn from Beyonce's Bottom?

Posted 22 Jun, 2005 at 10:44 by blue in /Music | Permanent link

This article here trys to explain it: What can you learn from Beyonce's Bottom?

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There once was a strange dictionary…

Posted 21 Jun, 2005 at 13:40 by matt in /Words | Permanent link

The goal: a definition of every word in the Oxford English Dictionary -- in limerick form.

The project: The OEDILF.

A sample:

A person whose gullet's constricted
Can't mention with what he's afflicted.
If no one takes note
Of him clutching his throat,
Then a terrible fate is predicted.

They're going in alphabetical order, for the sake of thoroughness, and have made it as far as the Ba- words.

Be afraid.

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Cool Photos

Posted 21 Jun, 2005 at 07:15 by blue in /Chatter | Permanent link

So, I came across this site recently that talks about a Coolpix 990 camera which, after an accidental submerging in water, and some interesting resurrection techniques, takes ver cool pictures now.

Owning the model of camera, it almost makes me want to find a pond and try it myself.

However, just as no two pictures are the same... I somehow doubt that any two submergings would be the same either :(

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Why don't you...

Posted 20 Jun, 2005 at 12:26 by blue in /Social | Permanent link

...get a haircut, and get a real job.

Maybe if I had a place to get my hair cut like they do in Salt Lake City I would.

Am I the only one that finds it somewhat entertaining that this place exists in the heart of Morman territory?

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How to survive in prison

Posted 20 Jun, 2005 at 12:19 by blue in /Social | Permanent link

Not that I'm intending on going there any time soon (...or am I? Mwha-ha-ha... er.. ahem).

But if I was I would want to survive... as this article points out, there is more than one safe profession in the slam (just incase you don't like meat popsicles)... you can become the Prison brewmaster!

Of course, I suppose if you were gutsy you could enjoy your creations yourself, however I'm content to shell out my hard earned cash for stuff that will make me go blind instead of making my own.

Anyone ever tried this?

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Subways of The World

Posted 16 Jun, 2005 at 12:19 by blue in /World | Permanent link

Here is a little something kind of neat. It's a collection of to-scale drawings of the world's subways systems. Obviously a little out of date as Toronto doesn't have the Sheppard line on it, but interesting none the less.

Though Toronto's system is much simpler than many... it's also upon reflection one of the largest across... leading one to ponder about the urban sprawl that would force the development of the system like that instead of some of the other larger cities.

Any interesting observations?

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Blizzard software presents: Chess!

Posted 16 Jun, 2005 at 10:47 by matt in /Games | Permanent link

Patch 1.04: The Rook units are severly underused, only coming into the game late or, in some games, never. In order to rectify this, we have given the Rooks a special ability. From now on, given that a Rook and the corresponding Rook Pawn have not yet been moved, a player may simultaneously play P-R4 and R-R3. This should get the Rooks into play and restore balance to the Chess units.

See the rest of the timeline.

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Zork Wiki

Posted 12 Jun, 2005 at 21:04 by wendy in /Games | Permanent link

If you've ever played Zork, or any other text based adventure game, these fine folks have created the Zork Wiki. For those unfamiliar with the concepts here, a wiki is a website which is editable by anyone, all you need to do is click a button and you're allowed to modify the text. If you've never played a text based adventure game...this one won't make much sense, but wikis in general are very cool.

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Rendezvous by Claude Lelouch

Posted 10 Jun, 2005 at 14:52 by blue in /MovingPictures | Permanent link

Fastest tour of Paris ever... count the traffic infractions.

While I'm sure this was probably well planned and the film sped up... I can't help but wonder if she's surprised he's alive at the end.

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On Learning

Posted 09 Jun, 2005 at 13:54 by blue in /Chatter | Permanent link

Two types of learning... and I'd like to think I excel at both.

What about you? No clue what I'm talking about... check it out!

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Real Life Mech Warrior

Posted 07 Jun, 2005 at 12:12 by blue in /Games | Permanent link

This is really more for a couple of people I know that read this board but... I suppose it was only a matter of time until people started building their own mechs. This is obviously a pretty light-weight one with minimal firepower... but it does work which is in some ways impressive enough.

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The Swap-o-matic

Posted 07 Jun, 2005 at 10:10 by blue in /Social | Permanent link

This is kind of a cool idea. What do you think? Is there any merit to it? Would it be successful?

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Revenge Of The Brick

Posted 06 Jun, 2005 at 21:19 by blue in /MovingPictures | Permanent link

A little something for those fans out there (like me) who love both Lego and Star Wars.

Using the force to pull the ship apart and back together again is great!

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Black Hole Anka

Posted 06 Jun, 2005 at 21:09 by blue in /Music | Permanent link

Everyone remember when Johnny Cash did a great cover of Nine Inch Nails' Hurt? Well, Paul Anka has done a version of Soundgarden's Black Hole Sun apparently. I have yet to be able to track it down to listen to it... but has anyone else heard it? I hear it's supposed to be good in a Sinatra sort of way...

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Monkeys & Money

Posted 06 Jun, 2005 at 14:29 by wendy in /Science | Permanent link

A couple of economics researchers are busy teaching Capuchin monkeys about money, basically giving them silver coins which they can trade in for food. It seems they also, accidentally, set up the first ever incident of one monkey paying another monkey for sex...

Go check it out, just the fact that monkeys can be taught to deal with money is interesting, but they definitely seem to have grasped the concept: article

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Concerning programming languages

Posted 05 Jun, 2005 at 16:18 by matt in /Technical | Permanent link

Prompted in part by clevermonkey's latest post, I've been reading up on some non-traditional programming languages lately. (Well, non-traditional if one feels that the mainstream of programming languages is the family tree that starts with Algol, but that's an argument for another day.)

Back when I was young and foolish (i.e. a frosh), I was a computer science major. I gave that up fairly quickly, but one thing that I sort of regret was never having the opportunity to take the fourth-year class in programming languages. My interest in this is principally anthropological, actually; I don't care about know a bunch of computer langauges so much as knowing how the different structures affect how the developper thinks about their task.

So for those of you who actually program on a regular basis & have picked up multiple languages along the way, a question: how much difference does choice of language seem to make to coding decisions? Do you actually think differently in different languages, or is your style more or less unchanged as you hop between, say, C, Java, and perl?

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Who we are

Blue has been known to toss a disc around a field from time to time, and thinks that you should as well. He lives either on the Internet or in Toronto, depending on your perspective. Ask him no questions and there's a good chance he'll tell you no lies. [Site]

Brent hosts the box from which we dangle our conversations, for which we are all eternally grateful. Gratitude is most easily expressed in small bills. Formerly a pawn of the Evil Empire (or maybe a Knight), he has gone over the wall and now toils at a small computer game company in Alberta that no one except for ten million gamers has ever heard of. [Site]

Kael occasionally gets called "Mike"; mostly by people who don't know him. He cooks, he cleans, he maintains Unix servers... what else could you ask for? Currently a slave to the Man, by which we mean retail sales. He has secret plans, but we can't tell you about them. In fact, we've already said too much. [Site]

Lisa is a recreational therapist without a cause. She entertains dreams of ruling over an empire of scrapbooking. Has a well-deserved reputation for enthusiasm, common sense, and tiredness. Ask her about her teapots, but don't touch them.

Matt is just this guy, you know? A mathematician by training and a layabout by inclination; he currently has an Urban Commuter Campus in the American Midwest convinced that they should pay him for plying these trades. The designer and administrator of this site, which means in a sense this is all his fault. [Site | E-mail]

Sky is a salesman during the day. At night he doesn't bother: his words are like unto those of a god, and you can agree or you can be wrong. Lives in the World of Warcraft, with a sattelite office in Toronto. Known to play games on occasion.

Wendy has never run away to join the circus, but pursuing graduate work in medical imaging is perhaps just as good. She didn't choose her current abode on the basis of proximity to a Toronto Public Library branch, but we wouldn't put it past her. Married to one of the other authors here, but you'll have to read the archives to find out which one. [Site]

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