Archives for: December 2006

12/31/06

  02:59:44 am, by Nimble   , 102 words  
Categories: Distractions, Games

Spore

I can't believe that I didn't come across mention of this game. It's been in the works for a little while, and there's an extremely cool video from 2005 demonstrating the capabilities at that time. The video from the next E3 in 2006 lacks some of the… more »

12/28/06

  03:31:43 pm, by Nimble   , 622 words  
Categories: Journal

Replacing a Waltec 12

When our bathroom spigot started dripping a little, we were slightly nervous. When it started dripping a lot, we got anxious. After all, we do not yet have a good relationship with a plumber. That said, we have some minor D-I-Y capability here, so the… more »
  12:56:02 am, by Nimble   , 225 words  
Categories: Announcements [A], Thoughts, Science

Forums

I have gone ahead and added some forums, since Halton Arp's site has been offline for "maintenance" for an awfully long time. It may come back, it may not. In the meantime, it's a decent excuse to experiment with new forum software. I had a tough time… more »

12/26/06

  02:58:47 pm, by Nimble   , 389 words  
Categories: Reviews, Movies

A Scanner Darkly

I missed this in its theatrical run, to my dismay, but it works just fine on the small screen. Here is a movie that is perennially confusing up until close to the end, where the plot does actually get pulled together. It's based on a Philip K. Dick… more »
  02:31:18 pm, by Nimble   , 349 words  
Categories: Reviews, Movies

Sidekick

'Tis the season for movie rentals over Christmas and Boxing Day, where there is either too little to do elsewhere, or there are boxing day sales, the likes of which mortals are not prepared for. This movie was surprisingly interesting. It's a Canadian… more »

12/24/06

  01:09:41 am, by Nimble   , 666 words  
Categories: Thoughts, Travel

Africa In Retrospect

Now that I've had some distance in time away from the trip to East Africa, it's a nicer recollection. I remember some of the bad toilets, but the memories no longer affect me viscerally. I remember the nice people and the annoying people, and it's cool… more »

12/21/06

  09:39:55 pm, by Nimble   , 170 words  
Categories: Reviews, Programming

Photo Acute

A friend of mine had pondered putting together a program where you could take a lot of photos of the same scene, with a tiny bit of movement in-between, and then you could do some interpolation and get a sort of super-resolution that your camera could… more »

12/20/06

  11:49:46 pm, by Nimble   , 143 words  
Categories: Internet

Alt Keys in Firefox 2.0

Since I am running this blog on b2evolution, and since the built-in editor has a lot of ALT key shortcuts that I really like, when I upgraded to Firefox 2.0, it drove me nuts. The shortcut keys for italicizing and making links no longer operated. Well,… more »
  11:42:28 pm, by Nimble   , 307 words  
Categories: Announcements [A], Thoughts, People, Science

Calling All Yumans

Today is the 10th Anniversary of the death of Carl Sagan. Joel Schlosberg has organized a Carl Sagan Blog-A-Thon. Nick Sagan has a very nice retrospective of his own, providing some interesting, and nice, views of Carl Sagan as a father. There is also… more »

12/19/06

  10:52:37 pm, by Nimble   , 1141 words  
Categories: Reviews, Books, Science

The Long Tomorrow : Michael R. Rose

The full subtitle: "How Advances in Evolutionary Biology Can Help Us Postpone Aging". This was a good book, although almost too simple in spots. Since aging is a topic I follow (and, apparently unusually, since I was fairly young), the impact of the… more »

12/18/06

  07:29:53 pm, by Nimble   , 616 words  
Categories: Announcements [A], Thoughts, Programming

My Software's 10th Birthday

My software turned ten today. I had mentioned that my software would turn ten this year to a coworker of mine, and he watched the date listed in the header of my oldest source code file like a hawk, or an egret, and sent out our traditional birthday… more »

12/16/06

  06:36:50 pm, by Nimble   , 192 words  
Categories: Distractions, Thoughts, Common Sense

The Attraction of Bus Exits

Over the past few years, on the buses I take to work, I've noticed more and more that teenagers seem very, very attracted to standing or, in some cases, even huddling by the bus exit. In many cases, it's not even a matter of lack of available seating.… more »

12/14/06

  06:35:51 pm, by Nimble   , 750 words  
Categories: Thoughts, Ethics, Internet, People

Sock Puppetry/Happy Esperanto Day!

Sxtrumpetmarionismo/Felicxa Esperanto-Tago In honour of Esperanto Day, December 15, I am also translating this blog entry into Esperanto. I'm sure it's quite an awful translation I've done! Honori Esperanto-Tago, la 15(dek kvin)a de decembro, mi… more »

12/11/06

  07:37:00 pm, by Nimble   , 1178 words  
Categories: Thoughts, Science

Crossovers, Mutations and Assortment

Something someone wrote today reminded me that in the discussion of biology and evolutionary theory, everyone looks at mutations, mutations, mutations, but they miss out the extremely powerful silent partners, chromosomal crossover and its most… more »
  07:16:45 pm, by Nimble   , 97 words  
Categories: Distractions

Cthulhu Christmas

A disturbing selection of Christmas songs, all in the style of H.P.Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos. They even have downloadable score music, from such classics as Death to the World! Such wonderful songs as: It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Fish-Men… more »

12/10/06

  12:37:13 am, by Nimble   , 1120 words  
Categories: Reviews, Toys

Prodikeys DM

I couldn't resist the ProdiKeys. Part typing keyboard, part musical keyboard. I had to have one. When my birthday/Xmas cheque from grandma arrived, it was just the perfect excuse. Actually, ProdiKeys are much harder to find than I was expecting. There… more »

12/09/06

  10:42:14 pm, by Nimble   , 1135 words  
Categories: Distractions, Thoughts

Making A Card Game

I don't know how far I can go with this card game I've put together, but it might actually be worth pursuing publication. Without giving away too many details, a short history... more »

12/07/06

  02:15:37 am, by Nimble   , 420 words  
Categories: Announcements [A], Thoughts, Politics

Ed Stelmach is In

My wife and I went down to our local polling station at the sportsplex, bought a Progressive Conservative party membership for $5 apiece, and voted. more »

12/06/06

  03:22:59 pm, by Nimble   , 261 words  
Categories: Announcements [A], Thoughts, Science

Moon Bases and Dribbles on Mars

Today's big announcement from NASA was more signs of possible water on Mars. Not that this will turn out to be any guarantee for life on Mars, or indeed whether the effect is caused by water, but with all the liquids we have been finding around the… more »

12/05/06

  07:46:35 pm, by Nimble   , 346 words  
Categories: Distractions, Thoughts, Science

Vacutainers

There is a certain fascination to getting blood drawn. No, I don't even really like to watch it being done, but phlebotomists are rather interesting and slightly nerdy folks, and there are interesting pieces to the process. Only from a phlebotomist are… more »

12/03/06

  02:17:46 pm, by Nimble   , 127 words  
Categories: Distractions, Thoughts, Religion

Hot Chick Tracts

I must admit, I like this idea. Jack Chick tracts made into video, under the title "Hot Chicks". Well... I must admit, I only like the idea with the intentions of parody aforethought. The art of parodying Jack Chick reminds me of the wonderful… more »
  01:08:52 am, by Nimble   , 211 words  
Categories: Distractions

Tradekey

I was checking up on how the LED projector revolution was coming along, when I ran across a site that connects exporters and importers. Normally, that wouldn't seem like a very exciting place to look around on, but a great many of the sell offers are… more »

12/02/06

  11:50:55 pm, by Nimble   , 441 words  
Categories: Reviews, Restaurants

Edo Ichiban

We actually went out to vote in the PC party leadership elections today, which made us feel pretty good, actually. Afterwards, it was time for an extraordinarily late lunch, so we decided to pop into the Edo Ichiban restaurant on 32nd, not too far from… more »
  04:36:34 am, by Nimble   , 361 words  
Categories: Thoughts, Internet, Programming

Forum Software

It's been a while since I've run a forum. I used to run a gardening forum, a couple of hosts ago. I ran the forum under the fairly popular phpBB forum software. It was pretty easy to install, but some of the features made it hard to maintain. A dearth… more »

12/01/06

  12:19:24 am, by Nimble   , 443 words  
Categories: Reviews, Restaurants

Nando's Chicken

We first encountered Nando's, strangely, in Nairobi. It was at the gas station near the Indaba campsite, with a grocery store and a pizza place. We didn't have the chicken there, but we did have some of their sauces with the pizza we ordered from… more »