U3 vs. Portable Apps
Posted 07 Jan, 2009 at 22:19 by kael in /Technical | Permanent link
Odds are you've got a USB memory key AKA thumb drive AKA memory stick. Odds are you only use it to shuffle around data. Fortunately, there are portable apps available now, designed to actually be run off of memory sticks, rather than being installed on a computer. In fact, there are two different formats avalable: PortableApps and U3.
Both of these platforms are Windows-centric, but the former does offer WINE compatiblity for those who are allergic to products from Redmond. The former seems to be limited to Open Source Software, though. The latter requires a specially formatted memory stick to be usable as such.
I'll let you know more after I try them both out.
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Brett Spiel Welt
Posted 07 Jan, 2009 at 22:18 by kael in /Games | Permanent link
Brent and I were catching up over the holidays, and one thing that came up was how we used to like playing board games. No, not Monopoly--games like Carcassonne and Settlers of Catan. Turns out games in that vein are actually available for play at a German website: BrettSpielWelt.de. It's a web interface, but there's also a java client available which can cash content for you, so that you don't have to repeatedly reload images for games that you tend to play over and over again.
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Old School Strat + Open Source = Wesnoth
Posted 05 Jan, 2009 at 13:48 by kael in /Games | Permanent link
Battle for Wesnoth is a pretty sweet old school single player strategy game, in the vein of games like Battle Isle, or the combat system for Civ, but with a fantasy motif, and plenty of campaigns for a single player to play it with.The "official" campaigns range in difficulty, and many have selectable difficulties, which can be good, because it gives the campaigns some decent replay value.
The game scenarios are written in Wesnoth Markup Language, which makes the game very customizable.
All in all, excellent replay value, nice scalability, and excellent production values for open source.
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Updated Xmas Stories
Posted 25 Dec, 2006 at 19:27 by kael in /Words | Permanent link
Updated Xmas stories.Comments (0 comments so far)
Math + A Capella
Posted 02 Aug, 2006 at 22:20 by kael in /Music | Permanent link
If you're a mathie, you'll like this.
If you're a music lover, you might like this.
If you belong to the intersection of those two sets, you'll likely howl at this.
[P.S. this is one of those cases where I wish I could double categorize a post.]
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Is your home wired enough?
Posted 22 Jul, 2006 at 17:40 by kael in /Technical | Permanent link
Your laundry machines beg to differ.
(From wired.com)
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Airplane Boarding Algorithms
Posted 10 Jul, 2006 at 00:30 by kael in /Math | Permanent link
Ever wonder what the most efficient algorithm is for arranging passengers boarding an airplane? You're not alone! This paper is a mathematical analysis of the topic of airplane boarding algorithms. Well, two of them.
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Nice Bed
Posted 03 Jul, 2006 at 22:48 by kael in /Science | Permanent link
I try not to talk about $WORK[0] on here anymore, and this sort of qualifies, but in an interesting way.
And I love the 2001 reference.
[x-posted to my LJ.]
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Looks Like I'm Moving....
Posted 19 May, 2006 at 12:51 by kael in /Social | Permanent link
I don't normally post personal stuff on here anymore, on account of I have so many friends (and privacy controls) on LiveJournal, but since there are a lot of you that read this that don't read that, I thought I'd let you all know:
My application for a transfer came through. I'll be moving to Calgary. If I wanted to, I could apparently get out there at the end of June. As it is, I'll probably aim for the end of July.
Since I don't intend to move out there permanently (a green in a sea of blues is not something I could endure forever), there'll probably be a few things I might ask people to hold for me.
More later, first I've got to mow the dandelions.
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Felton's Law
Posted 01 May, 2006 at 13:25 by kael in /MovingPictures | Permanent link
I found this post while looking for a link about Goodwin's law for my personal blog. It's about a law in the copyright domain, related to Goodwin's law, which is being dubbed "Felton's Law" (link 1, link 2).
The interesting touch is the apparent position reversal that takes place by so many parties when copyright policies intersect with pornography.
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Words and Names
Posted 26 Apr, 2006 at 23:04 by kael in /Words | Permanent link
I found this site while stumbling around the web this morning. It's a great site describing the evolution of names.
Amongst other things, it explains (to me) why the Hungarian word for orange is what it is (it's much closer to the word's root than English, as it turns out).
It also shows some provocative changes in meaning of words (as in 'brave' originally meaning 'cowardice', and 'girl' originally meaning 'a young person of either gender').
Shiny!
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Hooked on Firefox....
Posted 04 Apr, 2006 at 23:35 by kael in /Technical | Permanent link
I've been contemplating reverting back to Opera as my default web browser. It's not that Firefox is feature poor. It's just that it's bloated. Compared to Opera, it's pretty slow to load and has a big footprint.
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MMRWGs
Posted 27 Mar, 2006 at 10:49 by kael in /Games | Permanent link
This might provoke some discussion about MMORPGs.Shamelessly ninja'd off of here. I especially liked the ganking bit for some reason.
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Elvish
Posted 16 Mar, 2006 at 16:21 by kael in /Chatter | Permanent link
Here's a site that lets you get down to writing in Elvish right quick.
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Valentine's Day Love
Posted 14 Feb, 2006 at 20:28 by kael in /Technical | Permanent link
In the Toronto Star today, there's an article about a couple who implanted themselves with RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) chips. This isn't exactly superbionic. Think of it as a quickpass injected in to your hand.
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Happy V-day!
Posted 14 Feb, 2006 at 08:05 by kael in /Chatter | Permanent link
For those of you desperately searching for cards, and with access to colour printers, you might want to try something from the following for your special someone:
- Dilbert
- Firefly Set 1 and Set 2
- Law and Order: Special Valentines Unit
- Some random, Design Contest cards
- And last, but not last, Penny Arcade (Okay, so it's not a card)
So, for all of you, have a happy smoochie sickeningly sweet Valentine's day!
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Calling All Browncoats
Posted 07 Feb, 2006 at 00:05 by kael in /MovingPictures | Permanent link
A survey to see what the best method of distribution of a seconds season of Firefly would be.Comments (4 comments so far)
Reading Economy: January Report
Posted 21 Jan, 2006 at 22:10 by kael in /Books | Permanent link
My reading has apparently been more scattered than what Matt's been reading lately.
What I've read recently:
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Apparently I've Been Getting Around
Posted 21 Jan, 2006 at 20:39 by kael in /Social | Permanent link
I've been really tired lately. Partly because I've been really busy lately. Then I saw a certain movie I'm not supposed to talk about. It made me think, so I checked up on myself, and I've really really been busy:
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pr0n
Posted 14 Dec, 2005 at 23:30 by kael in /Chatter | Permanent link
Someone who's been trying to be helpful has suggested this site to me.
<rhetorical>It really makes me wonder whether people think I have a fetish for this stuff.</rhetorical>
For the record, I don't.