Saturday, May 31, 2008
Friday, May 30, 2008
Download Day
Apparently Firefox 3 is going to try to set the record for most downloaded software in 24 hours.
You can pledge yourself here or just keep an eye out on the progress...
I'm definitely going to give a try. Firefox 2 has been great to me and some of the new features seem interesting (I already have some ideas for the full zooming options). But I think it will ultimately come down to if it starts up/loads pages faster than Firefox 2 or not, at least for me...
You can pledge yourself here or just keep an eye out on the progress...
I'm definitely going to give a try. Firefox 2 has been great to me and some of the new features seem interesting (I already have some ideas for the full zooming options). But I think it will ultimately come down to if it starts up/loads pages faster than Firefox 2 or not, at least for me...
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
When I'm gone... (Part 1/2)
A new Centron story at long last... This one deals with the disappearance of Centron during one of the game sessions (Centron is played by me in an ongoing Mutants and Mastermind campaign). For those not in my group reading this (I'd be surprised if there are any...), the campaign deals with a group of super heroes in your typical super hero filled world.
The reading were off the charts, so much for the South Pole being a safe and quiet location. The rest had gone out to investigate the source of the strange occurrence but I'd stayed behind to make sense of it all. There was something going on and I was going to get to the bottom of it. And just when things couldn't get any worse, an alarm sounded. A security breach. Then everything went dark...
The next thing I knew I was lying in a bed. Not just any bed but my bed. At least it used to be my bed a little over a year ago before I got trapped inside a robotic body and was thrown into the world of super heroics. But everything was different, I could feel, smell and hear just as I used to. No static, no scanning lines, nothing. And when I closed my eyes I could actually feel my heart beat. I was human again.
Is this a dream? Or could it be that the past few months were the dream? Then my cupboard growled and shook. I jumped out of the bed and took cover behind it. The cupboard doors shook widely clapping in and out, making a banging noise each time. Through the cracks in the door I saw the silhouette of a large beast, eyes glowing and steam rising. The growls grew more menacing and each time the cupboard seemed to grow until it took in most of the room. I closed my eyes and the entire room shook. Then it became quiet...
When I opened my eyes again I was alone in a ball room. I could see my reflection in one of the many mirrors. It was true, I was human again and I was in my old body. I was sharply dressed and a little younger then I should be. This would be a dream if it wasn't a nightmare in disguise. Then I heard a voice behind me.
'I've finally got you, you're mine now'
I turned around and saw a young guy sitting on the great steps into the ball room. He was pale and thin, had green hair and several piercings. But other than that he was dressed in a tuxedo, with a high hat and cane. The combination made it look like he had just stolen someone else's clothes.
'Who are you, what do you want with me?'
The man grinned at me, showing off a set of yellow teeth.
'Who I am is not important. But know that this is my domain and that I am God here'
He snapped his fingers and a hint of music started to play.
' You hacked in to my positronic matrix, you exploited my global link with the radio waves to gain a connection. If you know what's good for you then you stop this at once.'
The ill-dressed man laughed.
'Good, they told me you were smart. You were something else. I've never seen a human mind written down in code before. It was a challenge to get the algorithms right and now you are nothing more than any other computer system to me. I have control over everything, with a simple double click.'
And with that, the scene sprang to life. People started dancing around us and the music grew intenser. I recognized it now, I was here many years ago at the Sirianni company ball with Sarah. It was the night of the accident, in a few hours...
And then it all disappeared and I stood in a dark forest. Again I heard his voice, but saw him no where.
'I giveth and I taketh away'
'I've got friends and once they find out what you've done, they'll come after you'
'I wouldn't count on it. I parked your body in a corner somewhere and activated that little robot you had been working on to let your 'friends' know that you had to go somewhere and they shouldn't worry. If you don't mind I named it Crux, a fitting name for your substitute.'
'They'll figure it out what you did...' I wondered here who I meant by 'they'. Most of my present company wouldn't know to use a differential or an integral to calculate the surface under a curve if their mortal lives depended on them.
The forest grew darker and darker until the entire world was black.
'What are you going to do to me?'
'Oh, just some reprogramming'
The reading were off the charts, so much for the South Pole being a safe and quiet location. The rest had gone out to investigate the source of the strange occurrence but I'd stayed behind to make sense of it all. There was something going on and I was going to get to the bottom of it. And just when things couldn't get any worse, an alarm sounded. A security breach. Then everything went dark...
The next thing I knew I was lying in a bed. Not just any bed but my bed. At least it used to be my bed a little over a year ago before I got trapped inside a robotic body and was thrown into the world of super heroics. But everything was different, I could feel, smell and hear just as I used to. No static, no scanning lines, nothing. And when I closed my eyes I could actually feel my heart beat. I was human again.
Is this a dream? Or could it be that the past few months were the dream? Then my cupboard growled and shook. I jumped out of the bed and took cover behind it. The cupboard doors shook widely clapping in and out, making a banging noise each time. Through the cracks in the door I saw the silhouette of a large beast, eyes glowing and steam rising. The growls grew more menacing and each time the cupboard seemed to grow until it took in most of the room. I closed my eyes and the entire room shook. Then it became quiet...
When I opened my eyes again I was alone in a ball room. I could see my reflection in one of the many mirrors. It was true, I was human again and I was in my old body. I was sharply dressed and a little younger then I should be. This would be a dream if it wasn't a nightmare in disguise. Then I heard a voice behind me.
'I've finally got you, you're mine now'
I turned around and saw a young guy sitting on the great steps into the ball room. He was pale and thin, had green hair and several piercings. But other than that he was dressed in a tuxedo, with a high hat and cane. The combination made it look like he had just stolen someone else's clothes.
'Who are you, what do you want with me?'
The man grinned at me, showing off a set of yellow teeth.
'Who I am is not important. But know that this is my domain and that I am God here'
He snapped his fingers and a hint of music started to play.
' You hacked in to my positronic matrix, you exploited my global link with the radio waves to gain a connection. If you know what's good for you then you stop this at once.'
The ill-dressed man laughed.
'Good, they told me you were smart. You were something else. I've never seen a human mind written down in code before. It was a challenge to get the algorithms right and now you are nothing more than any other computer system to me. I have control over everything, with a simple double click.'
And with that, the scene sprang to life. People started dancing around us and the music grew intenser. I recognized it now, I was here many years ago at the Sirianni company ball with Sarah. It was the night of the accident, in a few hours...
And then it all disappeared and I stood in a dark forest. Again I heard his voice, but saw him no where.
'I giveth and I taketh away'
'I've got friends and once they find out what you've done, they'll come after you'
'I wouldn't count on it. I parked your body in a corner somewhere and activated that little robot you had been working on to let your 'friends' know that you had to go somewhere and they shouldn't worry. If you don't mind I named it Crux, a fitting name for your substitute.'
'They'll figure it out what you did...' I wondered here who I meant by 'they'. Most of my present company wouldn't know to use a differential or an integral to calculate the surface under a curve if their mortal lives depended on them.
The forest grew darker and darker until the entire world was black.
'What are you going to do to me?'
'Oh, just some reprogramming'
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Television Tropes
One of the best wiki sites I've ever seen, featuring articles such as:
Dis Continuity
Sci Fi Writers Have No Sense Of Scale
Dis Continuity
Sci Fi Writers Have No Sense Of Scale
Monday, May 19, 2008
Saturday, May 17, 2008
DnD Character or Skin Disease
Being a bio-engineer kinda helped with this, but it was still surprisingly hard...
Friday, May 16, 2008
Galaxy Quest
Never give up, Never Surrender!
Apparently they're making a comic sequel of the movie Galaxy Quest.
Read more about it here
Thursday, May 15, 2008
New quote
With or without religion you'd have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, it takes religion.
- Steven Weinberg
- Steven Weinberg
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Thursday, May 8, 2008
Quote
All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.
Arthur Schopenhauer
Arthur Schopenhauer
Friday, May 2, 2008
Einstein’s chauffeur
When Albert Einstein was making the rounds of the speaker’s circuit, he usually found himself eagerly longing to get back to his laboratory work. One night as they were driving to yet another rubber-chicken dinner, Einstein mentioned to his chauffeur (a man who somewhat resembled Einstein in looks and manner) that he was tired of making speeches.
“I have and idea, boss,” his chauffeur said. “I’ve heard you
give this speech so many times. I’ll bet I could give it for you.”
Einstein laughed loudly and said, “Why not? Let’s do it!”
When they arrive at the dinner, Einstein donned the chauffeur’s cap and jacket and sat in the back of the room. The chauffeur gave a beautiful rendition of Einstein’s speech and even answered a few questions expertly.
Then a supremely pompous professor asked an extremely esoteric question about anti-matter formation, digressing here and there to let everyone in the audience know that he was nobody’s fool.
Without missing a beat, the chauffeur fixed the professor with a steely stare and said, “Sir, the answer to that question is so simple that I will let my chauffeur, who is sitting in the back, answer it for me.”
Thursday, May 1, 2008
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