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When will they support the Accordion for real? I'm sick of mere online versions.

http://www.phobe.com/sfi/accordion.html

Accordian Hero is oooooold...

Or Schadenfreude Interactive's earlier Accordian Hero.

All my spare cycles are working on Yeti@Home

Furby Doll while microwave humming:

'Glub Glub Blub - Oooh wii hee hee Aaahzzzz z Pssttssss ZZZZZzz ... Pop pOp POP! sssst....'

Of course, you will need to do a Furby Post-Mortem.

(Once the flames are out.)

For all of those who are attracted to participating in SETI@home, there is always YETI@Home which deals with issues closer to, well, home.

"Of course, I'm waiting for a project that hits closer to home, YETI@home. Damn, those things are elusive."

Don't wait another minute! Rush to yeti@home and offer your support now!

The truth is out there :)
http://www.phobe.com/yeti/

Accordion Hero: Mad Polka Beats

You think you're joking, don't you?

Schadenfreude Interactive's Accordion Hero --- Gamasutra's post-mortem report on the development process

Here

These are the Schadenfreude Interactive guys.

For those who don't know... well, the name of their company is awesome. Schadenfreude is a German word that describes feeling joy over someone else's sorrow (literally "damage joy," if I recall correctly). Imagine the feeling of watching a gaming opponent fail miserably. It usually has a negative connotation.

Except when you use it to sell Cthulu Karts. That's frickin' awesome. Better than sharks with laser beams.

These are the Schadenfreude Interactive guys.

I'll let you come to your own conclusions about Mr. Hasselhoff's schedule keeping abilities.

It's too bad. I really wanted to license that German Deathmetal song.

Ja! Ja! I eat vermin
Yeah! Yeah! Taste them squirmin'
All alone or on a cracker
I am a maggotsnacker
Die! Die! Die! Die!
Ja! Ja! Ja! Ja! etc.

That's nice and all, but is it compatible with Accordion Hero?

Here...

Check out the Direct X Specs on it. http://www.phobe.com/sfi/cthulhukarts.html

Is this game a joke?? Oh, it's made by Schadenfreude Interactive. They must have just made it so they can laugh at their customers.

This is all a big joke. It's a pretty funny one, though. Check out http://www.phobe.com/sfi/sigmain.html so you can see their other "titles" like "secret weapons over neverland" and of course their epic racing title, "need for speed underhill".

Actually, if you google age of ornithology, several things pop up, least of all this: http://www.phobe.com/sfi/ornithology.html

Nevertheless, he would be pleased.
http://www.phobe.com/s_cat/s_cat.html

http://www.phobe.com/s_cat/s_cat.html

http://www.phobe.com/yeti/

From the website:

YETI@Home is a scientific experiment that harnesses the power of hundreds of thousands of Internet-connected computers in the search for giant ape-like creatures (YETI). We, the YETI team members who founded this experiment, are experts in the field of cryptozoology (the study of animals that do not exist). You can participate in this historic study by running a free program that downloads and analyzes video & sound captured from your very own backyard.There's a small but captivating possibility that your computer will detect the faint footsteps of a hairy monster.

Yeti@home has yet to yield conclusive results.

Did you try the Furby Autopsy?

What tipped you off? The YETI@Home project?

Warning: this game contains violent behavior and representations of very old furniture. It may not be entertaining for anyone under the age of 35.

Hmmm... I really believed this was a real game until I looked at the bottom of the page and the first link I saw was Nazgul Thunder http://www.phobe.com/sfi/nazgul.html

Yes, loosely that's our plan. Take Yeti@Home for example.

Getting the address wrong really diminishes your punch line.

For a good time call http://www.phobe.com/yeti/

So, you say D&D is 30, whether or not the reader has observed the BEB article. This, however, implies no interaction between observer and observed. Schrodinger's Cat would disagree... if it weren't too busy trying to lie down on my copy of the DMG while I was reading it.

The joke's been done independently countless times. We think it's kinda funny that our particular incarnation keeps showing up, and apparently still fools people 15 years later. Certainly we can't claim we ORIGINATED the idea for joke by any means, it's an old old idea. Just that we happened to have written that one particular version that keeps circulating, and that it was an independent invention for us at the time.

The version eric posted to rec.humor.funny in 1990 is the original text as it appeared on the UCSC flyer in 1988 or 89, at least as far as either of us remember. We wrote that off the top of our heads mostly, I don't think we even pulled out the textbooks. We haven't updated it since. We actually mostly forgot about it, but the rest of "the coaltition to ban dhmo" picked up the ball and put it up on the web and continued carrying the torch, etc. We're glad they've kept the joke alive long after Eric and I forgot about it...

Personally I've gone on to other stupid-web-joke-memes like the (blatant plug) Furby Autopsy and Yeti@home ...

Larz

The joke's been done independently countless times. We think it's kinda funny that our particular incarnation keeps showing up, and apparently still fools people 15 years later. Certainly we can't claim we ORIGINATED the idea for joke by any means, it's an old old idea. Just that we happened to have written that one particular version that keeps circulating, and that it was an independent invention for us at the time.

The version eric posted to rec.humor.funny in 1990 is the original text as it appeared on the UCSC flyer in 1988 or 89, at least as far as either of us remember. We wrote that off the top of our heads mostly, I don't think we even pulled out the textbooks. We haven't updated it since. We actually mostly forgot about it, but the rest of "the coaltition to ban dhmo" picked up the ball and put it up on the web and continued carrying the torch, etc. We're glad they've kept the joke alive long after Eric and I forgot about it...

Personally I've gone on to other stupid-web-joke-memes like the (blatant plug) Furby Autopsy and Yeti@home ...

Larz

The first and easily the best known is SETI@home, which since 1999 has enlisted half a million people to analyse data from the Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico, looking for signs of alien life.

Better than Seti@home and BOINC: Yeti@home.

When they get a whole computer going, the first thing I want to know is if that danged cat of Scrodinger's is alive or not.

No, you're quite right. Here's a good description. However, for the purpose of explaining thought experiment, the contraption actually does not matter. The cat could simply die of starvation. The primary point is that there is nothing more than a probability of the cat's life or death situation. One cannot state with 100% certainty that the cat will be alive or dead once the box is opened.

Interesting.. I think maybe cats are the answer to all of lifes little mysteries. Electricity storage, Quantum Mechanics--ever heard of Shrodinger's Cat?

Maybe we should be putting a little bit more research into Cat Dynamics.

...I can't help but start thinking about some of the Fun-But-Eevyl Things that one could do with this kind of hardware. The hack already done to the now-infamous 'Billy Bass' (or was it 'Boogie Bass?' I never was too clear on that) comes immediately to mind, as do the electronic surgical procedures performed on hapless furbys.

For example: I seem to recall that several of the parade floats have wireless receivers for the purpose of playing parade music through onboard speakers. I think it would be great fun to find what frequency they're on, use a transmitter powerful enough to override Disney's signal (FM does have that nice 'capture' effect), and broadcast a nice, juicy belch right in the middle of the event.

This idea took on new meaning with my recent (somewhat unwilling) exposure to the big parade at the Orlando park. Every time the stupid narration told the audience to yell "Pixie Dust," I found myself wondering how much effort it would take to substitute the words "Angel Dust!"

Same thing applies to Lucky. I'll bet that, with some creative tweaking, he could be made to do all kinds of things that would be, shall we say, less than politically correct?

All I can say is that I hope someone does it when the press is around to report it. ;-)

I'm working on the trash-talking furby, i swear. The basic idea is this: there's one motor inside which runs a series of cams for the eyes, ears, mouth, and butt. Roughly, there's 180 degrees where the butt doesnt move, and the other 180 it goes up and down as the motor rotates. Now, each of those is split for, say, mouth movement: in the ranges 0-90 and 180-270, the mouth moves- if you want it to talk and tilt forward you use one range, if you want it to sit still and talk, you use the other. And it keeps getting subdivided into smaller ranges so you pick the angle range where the appropriate body parts move, and run the motor back and forth in that range.

But i digress. The cool part is that the motor, home switch, and encoder just unplug from the motherboard, so it's not hard to plug them into your handy HC11 eval board and write a little controll algorithm. The fact that i haven't done this yet only speaks to my superior lazieness. But i will soon. Once i have a furby connected to my computer, i just cat whosyourdaddy to /dev/furby and i'm set. (and maybe i can get i posted and hose my website when i do :-)
Check furby autposy for more info, or just pick one up for $5 and cut it open.
Anyways, check out

A Yeti, of course.

I know it isn't all that involved, but trust me, there will be times when you're trying to get your mind around the concept that it just zaps your brain.

GTRacer
- Technically, Michael Schumacher may have won or lost the race. You never know until you look.

Cheers,

--fred

At least one person who did a Furby Autopsy was not very impressed with the construction of the system.

Some possibly nicer robot kits are available in a number of places, including the Robot Store, Probotics, and Arrick... Of course, there are also the cool Mindstorms, the relatively expensive Aibo (Some hacking info on it can be dug up from the Aibo Site), and the companies listed in this part of the robotics faq

However, Hacking the Furby does give you a relatively inexpensive talking robot with IR input, etc. and ought to be fun... While not the most well constructed system, it does give you some decent features (detects light & sound levels, tilt/inversion of the furby, Infrared and RS232 comms (when upgraded), and some touch sensors on the back, front, and mouth) - especially nice if you get one used, cheap...

It is nice that the reprogrammability kits are being made available, particularly for parents of autistic children (since children can relate to a Furby better than a "regular" hobbyist-grade robot)...

Also, check out the open-source Rossum Project

And in other news, someone has just worked out how to cut up a furby.


---

Is it just me, or did they just alienate a large group of people who would actually use their product? Shouldn't the fact that the programmer worked in support for their server be a good thing? That's the intent isn't, basically selling "advertising space" on their servers, so if I'm reading my issue of Linux Journal and see a product I want more info on, I can scar the barcode in the ad and my computer will take me to more info.

I wish they put some thought into it first. Like, hey...we just got support in a new operating system, and we didn't have to pay to develop the drivers or anything. Wow, neat!

What they're actually seeing is: Oh no! Now someone can use our product for something other than we intended for.

Well, nobody got a cease and desist order for Furby Autopsy, or various Tickle Me Elmo and Barney mutliations. Maybe Matel should have come after me for hanging my action figures infront of a space heater. I tell you, those He-Man action figures looked really cool while they melted!

BMW doesn't care when James Bond drives his brand new car off the top level of a parking ramp. Boeing doesn't complain when yet another disaster movie shows a 747 crashing down. You think that would hurt the pockets more than someone writing a driver for a simple bar-code scanner...

Autospy of a Furby
Posted by michael on Friday August 18, @3:43PM
from the deja-vu dept.

Vladinator writes "Ever wonder what it's like to take apart a Furby? I don't, because I saw this on Slashdot two years ago, but I needed some karma so I submitted it anyway. Fawking trolls!" Those of who you started reading Slashdot this week may not have seen this page yet, so I'm re-running this classic for you three newbies.

( Read More... | 1 FIRST POST! )

Only 1 first post? I'd have expected atleast 15. :)

( Read More... | 768 comments | Your Rights Online )

Miniskirt-clad girls save universe
Posted by CmdrTaco on Friday August 18, @08:25AM
from the roketto-ga-sugoi dept.
AnimeNewsNetwork.com is reporting that earlier this morning in Tokyo, five girls in color-coded blouses and miniskirts transformed into scantily-clad superheroes. The five girls then screamed, hurled glowing balls of energy, and screamed some more at a thirty-tentacled monster. Still no word on whether this is connected to the large humanoid robots spotted battling last week in Osaka.

( Read More... | 168 comments )

Slashback: Frisson, Sesquipedalianity, Responsitivitiness
Posted by timothy on Tuesday August 08, @10:45AM
from the beware-the-froomious-bandersnatch dept.
It was a dark and stormy night. In a salutiferous octastyle basement, an ultracrepidarian man was hermtically hunched over a piperaceous desk beneath a ornate mazarine, typing furiously away on an obumbrate keyboard. Meanwhile, in a meandrine corner of the world, several setose seeds were being entrenched in the muculent minds of the hoi polloi.

( Read More... | 9235 bytes in body | 214 comments )

Traffic Cops' "Justice" and Napster
Posted by JonKatz on Friday August 18, @11:30AM
from the post-hellmouth-world dept.
Just as Shadowrun predicted, The Corporate Republic took another step in assailing geeks today by handing Shawn Fanning a $L00 speeding ticket. This narcissism is harmful because it shrinks the creative universe of media workers and disconnects them from the new global conversation taking place online. Hubcaps have sparked a cultural and economic revolution that is just beginning to be understood. Will we see an increase in the number of Chickdrivers receiving "closed" traffic tickets as well, or will the Edge power a paradigm shift to "open" community-based traffic laws?

( Read More... | 598235 bytes in body | 657 flames | Features )

Ask Slashdot: Are Corporations Trying To Make Money?
Posted by Cliff on Friday August 18, @1:25PM
from the yet-another-article-from-the-something-to-think-ab out dept.
www.sorehands.com writes: "Today I visited Yahoo and was shocked to see a banner advertisement - I thought I'd managed to block every form of advertisement possible with Junkbusters. After thinking about it some, I realized Yahoo was probably running advertisement in a crass, commercialized attempt to make money off of my web-surfing habits! Could there be any other corporations out there engaged in similarly devious practices?" An interesting question here: Are some companies attempting to turn a profit, and, if so, what can we do to prevent it?

( Read More... | 3082 bytes in body | 345 comments )

Autospy of a Furby
Posted by michael on Friday August 18, @3:43PM
from the deja-vu dept.

Vladinator writes "Ever wonder what it's like to take apart a Furby? I don't, because I saw this on Slashdot two years ago, but I needed some karma so I submitted it anyway. Fawking trolls!" Those of who you started reading Slashdot this week may not have seen this page yet, so I'm re-running this classic for you three newbies.

( Read More... | 1 FIRST POST! )

Interstate Highway Boycott Planned
Posted by emmett on Friday August 18, @6:25PM
from the fight-the-power dept.
Bowie J. Poag writes: "You guys are idiots and VA sucks, but being the nice guy that I am [Update: 08/18 11:11 AM by CT: Further investigation reveals that he isn't ] I thought I'd let you know that know Wired is reporting that a boycott is being proposed against the interstate highway system for its treatment of Shawn Fanning. The interstate highway sucks almost as much as anime! PROPAGANDA RULES!!!!!" It's good to see that some people are taking the battle for free (as in Willy) highways into their own hands.

( Read More... | 218 comments )

Holland Convenience Store Switches To Linux
Posted by Hemos on Friday August 18, @9:33PM
from the key-victory-for-open-source dept.
Today while visiting my local 7-11 in Holland, MI, I noticed that their inventory computer was running Linux! Best of all, a representative from the store assured me, due to complaints from Bruce Perens, that the store may consider GPLing its inventory "sometime in the future." Looks like another business has finally "got it" and adopted the tenets of the free software movement.

( Read More... | 164 comments )

Napster? Napster Napster
Posted by CmdrTaco on Friday August 18, @11:25PM
from the napster dept.
Napster Napster Napster. Napster, Napster Napster Napster! Napster Napster (Napster) Napster Napster Napster, Napster Napster Napster. "Napster Napster Napster," Napster Napster. Napster Napster, Napster Napster Napster.

( Read More... | 304 comments | Napster!! )

I mean, all these years, and no conclusive evidence. I'd say that's pretty successful. cot

Is anyone actually surprised at this? I mean, your average Linux hacker and hardware guru would hack a furby and run Linux on it, if it were possible!
--
"You take a distribution! Rename! Stamp CD's! IPO!"
- CmdrTaco, Geeks in Space, Episode 2 from 6:18 to 6:23.

For those who haven't seen it: go check it out

http://www.phobe.com/furby/guts.html