Stormcaller.net

Saturday, February 28, 2004 - "It's never to late to reinvent the bicycle."

> Science/Tech

Who's to say we aren't already living in one of these? [Details]
Scientists get the closest look yet at a neutron star and its accretion disc of gas swirling around it. This page has a good explanation with some nice artistic renderings and an animation. [Details]
Hitachi's new holographic display can scan an object and display it in 3D in real-time. Very cool. [Details]
Can we really have lighter-than-air aircraft powered only by buoyancy and gravity? The cheesy American inspirational video on the site alone makes a good case. [Details]
Did you know that you can measure the speed of light using chocolate and a microwave. It's one of those "erm, I think I might have heard that once, but I can't remember any details" type things if you're interested in that sort of stuff. [Details]
You can launch a loved one's ashes into space or to the moon for a small (large) fee. Now we just need a service that will blast people into the sun while they're still alive! [Details]
> Geek

I have a tri-monitor system (see picture). I have, in total, zero games that take advantage of this fact. Why is this? [Details]
"Counter-Strike: Condition Zero" is to ship on March 23rd. You get a free set of trading cards if you pre-order, apparently; it's not like they needed a gimmick to sell it, but fair enough. I'm annoyed by the fact that they've dropped the "Half-Life" name from the title (and why not "Counterstrike" instead of two words? Copyright issues, perhaps?), but I would be. [Details]
This is what tech support is really like. Whenever you need help with your software or you're having trouble connecting to the internet, this is who you're talking to. It's a scary thought. You'll probably have to watch a short advert to read the story, but it's worth it. [Details]
We know the peer-to-peer traffic is doing a good job at paralysing a lot of the net - but what can we do about it? Let Kazaa's founders profit off of the problem they've created, apparently. [Details]
Porn: driving technology since... the Internet. [Details]
Some guy made a Borg cube computer case, using 60 metres of steel wire and taking nine months to complete it. Pictures mirrored here: [Details]
A bunch of tiny but very useful freeware utilities. [Details]
> Stuff

Slashdot debates war. Read the discussion. [Details]
Leap day this Sunday! The first for eight years - some sort of celebration is surely in order. Unfortunately, it equates to an extra day of work. [Details]
B3ta found a fantastic advert for Nutrigrain bars. Go watch! [Download - 10.59MB]
They should get kids to play these at school instead of Top Trumps with superheroes or football teams: instant elimination of smoking in the upcoming generation. [Details]
Never mind politics, the Iraq war or what a bitch Clare Short is - we should be preparing our defences against millions of Stalin's monster crabs invading from the North! [Details]
Who said Starbucks was taking over the planet? Someone has come up with a better business model. [Details]
First we have Snowflake the white gorilla, and now this. Someone's taking the piss. [Details]
Normally I'd make a joke about the parking space being more expensive than the car, but with anyone mad and rich enough to pay a hundred grand for a parking space that's probably not true. [Details]
Satanic messages in "Stairway To Heaven", eh? He makes a convincing argument. [Details]

Posted by Stormcaller at 4:46 PM GMT [Link]

Wednesday, February 25, 2004 - "Hello. My name is Arthur - and this is my Ninja army."

> Stuff

It's a computer language manual - but not like any other. A guide to Ruby. With foxes. [Details]
Continuing the 'odd learning' theme - lacking slightly in some of the better explanations, but done beautifully nonetheless. General Relativity - in words of four syllables or less. [Details]
Traveller from another time. [Details]
If there's a climate change, there might be a famine? A war? A collective "No, duh."? [Details]
Actually, I find that playing in virtual worlds causes pain. But to each their own and all that. [Details]
The zoology dragon. Nyessss... Blode it aint. [Destroy]
So much seems to cause legal controversy these days. Still, I give it a week before this state starts sending spam. [Details]
Counterpoint. The patriot act is not a horrible abuse of rights and an attempt to establish an authoritarian regime that will never die. And Mister Blunkett is a saint. [Details]
I'm writing short stories for kids. How nice. How crappy is it? [Details]
Anna. A story about a flower. In quake3. (Warning, slashdotted.) [Destroy]
You draw the line wherever you please. There is nothing magical about 'life'. [Details]
It's like the first decades of astronomy meets new discoveries meets public transport. Animals underground. [Display]
> Real Stuff

A computer is merely an interesting string of sensations. "Trust us" say politicians. "No!" says populous. "Yay!" says Peter Molyneaux, "I got a mention!" [Details]
Racist divisions alive and well in England. And not just in Oldham either. [Details]
ADSL is crap. Officially. [Details]
You'd have to look hard to find a more legitimate reason for murder. Or a more screwed up society. [Details]
> Gaming

I'm pouncing butterflies! Butterflies? They're invisible! Galaforce. [Download]
You know the tribes engine was released to let people make games? Guess what game got made with it first. [Download]
> Comics

Always know what you want. Those Destined. [Display]
Biased much? Funny though. Tom the dancing bug. [Display]
Insane dreams. Slow wave. [Display] [Display] [Display]
The things are also people. Ozy and Millie. [Display]
Hatt baby! Friendly Hostility. [Display]
Pandimaniacs. [Display]
I'm linking far too many comments purely for their last panel quotes today. 8bit Theatre. [Display]
Sick and twisted. You can't help but love it. Voices in my Hand. [Display]

Posted by Vitenka at 6:52 PM GMT [Link]

Saturday, February 21, 2004 - "I'll find me a soapbox where I can shout it."

> Science/Tech

A fixed-fing Mars explorer aircraft? Now that's movie science fiction come to life. [Details]
An impressive example of a star being ripped apart by a black hole. [Details]
No Skynet jokes, I promise. Not for another 20 years or so, anyway. [Details]
Ten billion trillion trillion carats - as Bob and Headache so succinctly noted, that would be "Sex forever. With her and her sister. And all her friends.". [Details]
Slashdot mentioned this Professor who teaches physics based on comic books. It even works, apparently. [Details]
I'm pretty sure I've read something about this emerging technology in the last year or so. The plan was to literally 'print' small biological components such as blood capillaries for use in surgery using an inkjet system, if I recall correctly. Interesting stuff, and apparently not vapourware - this article suggests "within a year". [Details]
Did you hear about the Rosetta project, to land on a comet? [Details]
Anybody want an F/A-18? [Details]
Quite right too - flat panel monitors are loooovely, though they really need to come down in price. [Details]
> Stuff

"I Love Death - how boring can life be?" It had me glued from the title. Excellent. Great music, too. [Destroy]
Also on the same site, and in the same vein... [Destroy]
Japenglish for the mentally disturbed. Must-watch. [Details]
Monkey vs Tiger. Guess who wins? Hint: You'll be surprised. [Download - 9.01MB]
Psychological/brain quizzes and things. [Destroy]
No particular reason for this link, other than the fact that Muse are my favourite band and that I love the tagline: "Rock for Clever People - intimidating, eh?". [Details]
Some righteous American crusade against... something. [Details]
They're surely joking - cumin and masala flavoured KitKats? [Details]
Don't live in the UK? Go on, import yourself some genuine British chocolate or other snacks. [Details]

Posted by Stormcaller at 6:41 PM GMT [Link]

Wednesday, February 18, 2004 - "Canticle of the Confections - Down with Gravity!"

> Stuff

I advise the low quality torrent - I have a seed running for that. It's very very very well done, and exceptionally amusing. [Download]
Any misdeed up to and including multiple genocide is forgiveable if you're cool enough. [Details]
Has anyone noticed ... that all the good new swearwords seem to come from England? [Download]
Useful superpowers evolved? [Details]
SciFi shorts. [Details] [Details] [Details]
Firefox. The verb, the noun. (Warning! In joke detected!) [Download]
Post-it notes.. for the soul. [Download]
Oh yes, let's all risk this. [Details]
Wow. The outside world has no clue what is available, does it? To rebut. Firefox or opera, agree on thunderbird, no idea may try that one, Open Office, AVG, Tiny pfw, Notepad+, dunno will try those and winamp 2.9 (Library? I just found this, what the heck is it! New things scare me!) [Download]
> Humour

La mort L'Amour! [Details]
What the heck is with all this media interest. It's a diet. Whoo. [Details]
I'm sure I've linked the giant list of CRPG cliche's before, but it's still funny. [Details]
... Really? Cool! [Details]
Your mind is not ready for timecube. But this guys mind most definately is. [Details]
Speaking of timecube, the world is not a cube. It's a pentagon. [Details]
> Games

Massive Assault (demo) - fighting tanky things. [Download]
Proof that even with story writing skills like these you can make a fun sounding game. [Download]
Painkiller. It's like a mindless first person shooter, only.. .um, well, it's a mindless first person shooter. The forums like it. [Download]
Make sure you have your sound enabled. Now play! Crack insane much? [Destroy]
> COTD

Pocky! This is one seriously demented online game. Gunbound meets .Hack//Sign meets me on sugar. I want in. [Display]
It's death Jim, but not as we know it, not as we know it, not as we know it, It's death Jim, but not as we know it... Zombie Jim, ZOMBIE! [Display]

No particular strip, just an interesting and well drawn series. [Display]
[Insert matrix tagline here] Um, actually kinda interesting and definately an amusing look at people just like people I know. [Display]

Posted by Vitenka at 4:47 PM GMT [Link]

Saturday, February 14, 2004 - "Harmless Schadenfreude."

> Science/Tech

A basic introduction to space flight and deep space exploration, from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. [Details]
Sure, why not. Save the Apollo launch tower - it should be a national monument. [Details]
"Kludge" being the given technical term for the state of modern (and ancient) astronomy. [Details]
Another step towards the Second Renaissance. [Details]
Shouldn't this article have been written in 1998 or something? [Details]
> Geek

You really have reached the end of the Internet here. Well, one of them, at least. [Details]
In case you've been living in a cave this week, a gaping hole in Windows' security has been found. No news there, then, but get yourself patched anyway. [Details]
Anyone want a free USB Pendrive? U.S. only, I'm afraid. Let's see if we can get some before they realise that they're being far too generous and retract the offer. [Details]
The answer to Internet piracy, as with so many things, is more porn. [Details]
Recording industry organisations are acting more and more like the Mafia, drug cartels or prohibition-era American gangsters. [Details]
"Unreal Tournament 2004", anyone? [Details]
Don't ask. Funny, though, and surprisingly clever. [Destroy]
Electronic zombies attack Spanish village! [Details]
Yes, "Star Wars" finally comes out on DVD. Had to happen eventually. [Details]
> Stuff

I linked this a while ago, but I didn't really give it the credit it deserved. What a fantastic game, for free online! Cee and I were having a lot of fun playing this. It takes a while to get used to controlling your plane, but after a while you'll start pumping... little yellow bolts of light into those enemy ships as if they were about to destroy your Mars base. Which they are. [Destroy]
Pictures of the recovery of the U.S. Cole. This is pretty awesome (ignoring the MIDI music) - I had never considered flooding a transport ship to get it under another ship, then pumping out the water to raise it to the surface again. [Display]
B3ta, badgers and biscuits. Disastrous. [Details]
An awesome game, even if nobody can work out what it is. [Destroy]
We really should do something awesome to mark Leap Day. Not sure if this is the thing I'd suggest myself, but it's a good start. [Destroy]
This seems to be the only way I can ever find one around the house. [Destroy]
Multi-monitor wallpapers, if that's your kind of thing. [Details]
Completely changing the subject, The Pixies have announced that they'll be reforming for a comeback tour, including a couple of gigs (instantly sold out, unfortunately) in London. [Details]
How can "Return Of The King" be below "Harry Potter" in the box office stakes? Ridiculous. [Details]
Have I mentioned lately how annoyed I am by the American media? [Destroy]
Whose idea was it to give Germans tanks anyhow? [Details]
How odd. [Details]
A "Simpsons" movie - WHY? [Details]

Posted by Stormcaller at 4:13 PM GMT [Link]

Wednesday, February 11, 2004 - "The snorkel was free"

> Stuff

Maybe I'm overly cruel, but I find the idea of literally throwing workers to the lions hilariously appealing. [Details]
Tired of entering text the boring old reliable way? Fancy letting the computer do it semi-randomly for you? Dasher! [Download]
You might want a spellcheck. this one integrates with notepad and everything else. You can even tell it not to. It works. [Download]
Taiwan and China are at it again. Let's take a not terribly serious look at the history of the problem, shall we? [Details] [Details]
Hmm.. If piracy advocacy groups are creative, and we steal their stuff, is that irony? [Destroy]
CSS. It's evil. But if you want to use it, you need to know a good thing to do with it. Or, to be short, pick some colours that don't make your viewers want to kill you. [Destroy]
> Gaming

Street hacker. A decking adventure with nothing to do with german towels. [Download]
Monkeyball ripoff [Download]
Linked purely for the mindboggling 'they made what? WHY?'' of the title. Anime tennis. [Download]
Old old link. Still, you might want one. [Download]
"That tetris anxiety" [Destroy]
Another adventure in the slime forest [Download]
A whole bunch of game awards. Some saner than others. [Download]
> COTD

In time for you to print it out, stick it to some card and send it out [Display]
A new golden age of comic? [Display] [Display]

Posted by Vitenka at 8:33 PM GMT [Link]

Sunday, February 8, 2004 - "The difference between thinking and talking is that talking is the expression of thought."

> Science/Tech

International Space Turkey? Hope not. (free NYT reg req'd, use slashdot_coward as un/pwd). [Details]
I'm bored of posting links about Hubble being scrapped or saved, so I'm just going to link savethehubble.com. [Details]
In this week's edition of "What James Cameron Is Up To", our man is planning missions to Mars. For real. Second link is to pretty visualisations. [Details] [Display]
They've been talking over the last few weeks about this new type of matter discovered recently. They've finally settled on a name, it seems. "Fermionic condensate". [Details]
Captain Jean-Luc Picard himself is against space travel. [Details]
Australia has announced a huge defence spending increase, including a squadron of unmanned drone aircraft, Global Hawk UAVs, to patrol the vast coastlines of the continent. [Details]
Yes, Internet users being able to ping a moon-bound spacecraft is interesting, but how about this "Lunar data haven" subplot? How exciting. [Details]
Hmm. Why not? [Details]
Some of the many things in this world that need to be killed off. Quickly. [Details]
> Geek

"TEH INTARNET SI BEING OVERWEAHLMED!!1" scream SCO, just before committing ritual hari-kiri and taking down www.sco.com. Meanwhile, in the more sane part of the Net, Netcraft point out that everything's actually pretty much ok.
The major impact of the MyDoom virus turns out to be causing SCO to be the butt of yet more humour. [Details] [Details]
I know a lot of my friends read this. Take note: I will help you ONCE with any given computer problem, after which you are required to get a clue. [Details]
Learn to defraggle the cute little 1s and 0s in your data machine. [Details]
You'd think that Adobe would be pleased that people are using words like "photoshopping", but you'd be wrong. People using "to photoshop" as a verb synonymous with "to graphically edit" means that people associate graphics editing with their product. Do the terms "brand recognition"/"brand loyalty" mean nothing to them? [Details]
It's fairly amusing, but Google are right, really. Booble's claims that they are a parody won't really hold up, given that they're leeching off Google's fame to generate their own revenue. [Details]
Microsoft's High-Definition TV (HDTV) showcase. Awesome. [Download]
Google - power of life and death over servers... [Details]
...and people, too? Ish? [Details]
Things to do with a webcam - visual recognition! Soft all kinds of wheat from lots of different chaff. [Details]
Oh yes, games. "Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow" to be precise, another ridiculously named Tom Clancy sequel. "Even more stealth!" - is that some kind of wierd inverse hyperbole? [Details]
Remember "Half-Life 2"? It's now "this summer". [Details]
> Stuff

I'm into Orkut! The elitism is obviously getting diluted by the legions of lowly bloggers than invitations are filtering down to[, especially now I've been on it for a week]. Reckon you deserve an invitation? [Details]
After we got talking about Orkut and he invited me, I enjoyed reading Duncan's weblog - well-designed and with some interesting links. Check out these slow motion videos he linked recently, for example. Looks like he's got a good taste in DVDs too - I like the graphics down the side. [Details]
I can't believe that anyone who tunes into a show about ~~a) Jordan's breasts~~ and ~~b) Johnny Rotten~~ would complain about bad language (hooray to the Guardian for actually printing it, incidentally). I don't blame John for walking out. I dislike the general public. [Details]
...but not as much as I dislike the American general public, who are suing Janet Jackson for baring her breast at the Superbowl on the grounds that they were "injured" by the performance, and are seeking "billions of dollars". Serious injury, don'cha know. People should be put down at birth. [Details]
I haven't linked anything Farscapey for a while, so this is as good a place to start as any. [Details]
One is rather ticked off with the Americans. [Details]
Trailer for "Troy", shown at the Superbowl. [Download - 4.40MB]
16.4 seconds. Then I got bored. [Destroy]
Hours of entertainment, if you honestly have nothing else to do, which I can hardly believe. [Destroy]
Poor Bill Shatner. Boldly going into television advertising. [Download - 2.68MB]
I can think of several people who would move to Ontario right now. [Download]
Parodies are starting to get quite good - Frodo! [Download - 1.70MB]
The Valentine's cheesy commerciality starts. [Details]
Funky lighters - green flames and blue LEDs. [Details]
Aiii, my poor brain! [Destroy]
My poor... sanity! [Destroy]
My poor, uh, head. Here, have a headache-on-demand. [Display]

Posted by Stormcaller at 10:46 AM GMT [Link]