Dots and Lines

This Planarity Flash Game will probably make some of you cry. Then there's me (and geeks like me).... I love spacial games.

I got through level 7 with a score of 11567 level 8 with a score of 23088 before I forced myself to stop.

Later: After level 11 (Score: 199554 -- It took 21.5 minutes for me to do that one!) the ActionScript caused a prompt in FireFox giving me the option to cancel because it was running so long. Te-he!

Even Later: Level 12 took almost half an hour (Score: 402599), so I think it's time to give up the chase.

Gotta get on the ball...

By Accident or Design, Selling T-Shirts Is Big Business on Web

Today the online and print newsletters have flopped. But the shirts are pulling in up to $3,000 per month, as Mr. Mowry joins the growing ranks of entrepreneurs profiting from an improbable but lucrative Web business model: selling T-shirts.

All over the Web, bloggers, artists and entrepreneurs are unexpectedly finding that T-shirts are more reliable moneymakers than the original ideas that brought them to the Internet.

I keep having ideas for t-shirts, but I fail to execute.

I still love my Double Cut Bastard design, though. (I do wish CafePress would offer black tees, however.)

Double Crap!

Cambodian Troops Quarantine Quan'sul

After death, this parasite is able to restart the heart of its victim for up to two hours after the initial demise of the person where the individual behaves in extremely violent ways from what is believed to be a combination of brain damage and a chemical released into blood during “resurrection.�

We got trouble, right here in River City, and that starts with T and that rhymes with Z and that stands for ZOMBIE!

Ack!

(Yes, this is totally a hoax, btw. It still messed me up a bit, though. After all, it's not a far leap from mermen to zombies, right? ;) )

Getting Lost at 10,000 Feet

Actually, it would be way higher than that, but whatever... Factor in the zoom. So, I mentioned the new satellite images incorporated into Google Maps. The new trend is to find cool stuff, demonstrate human impact on the world, or most fun of all, map out your childhood neighborhood.

I can't do it.

When I look at my old hometown in Tennessee, I get completely lost. I blame the fact that they don't have the resolution to support a close zoom. It sure is pretty with all that green, though.

But then, they do have fairly good resolution on the places I lived in Massachusetts. I recognize the area immediately surrounding the first house we had there. At first view, I could find any good landmarks, but on further review, I have since located the Quincy Quarries where Hanh and I (and others) used to go climbing (pretty sure that's them... they look strange, though) and the Barnes & Noble where we could go afterwards for mochas and backgammon. The B&N is also notable for being the place where I stalked wooed my wife. (Her house is in this shot.)

I was also able to locate my apartment in Framingham, MA, but there wasn't really much noteworthy in that area to look for... You can (and I did) follow Route 9 to anohter climbing spot, Hammond Pond. It was there that Miracle Ed "caught" Hanh in his arms (after effectively plucking him off the rock).

Good times.

I just wish there were better shots of Rogersville.

Bonus: The Wife's brother, Chris, and his girlfriend Kate just got a house right around here. We're dying to go see it.

God Bless teh Internets

Why is it so hard to balance in the dark? Someone asked MetaFilter and got an awesome answer:

I spent 10 years post doc working on this very problem. The balancing process is quite complicated, as noted by others above. There is a hierarchy of sensory inputs that are used to maintain one's balance. The most compelling is peripheral vision. In fact, the primary role of the vestibular system (organs of balance) is to stabilize the eyes during head movement so that a steady reference to the horizon is visible (personal discovery).

Ask MeFi is probably my favoroite part of the MetaFilter community simply because of stuff like this.

Tabula Rasa

So, yeah. My old host is gone, daddy, gone:

Our main commercial network has been compromised and we are no longer able to continue providing service due to a large scale hack. After looking at the damage and after alot of soul searching I am sorry to say that we are closing our doors.

Or to put it another way:

So over the years Acta Divina (a semi-large hosting company) has been doing really bad on the business side of things, and even worse on the security side. They were recently hacked, badly, and it was going to take weeks to get back on their feet. But instead of wasting more money, they decided to shut down and leave everyone in the dust.

Super. My rotten hosting luck continues. Here's hoping I've found a good one now.