Quickie Twister

Start this one off with a creative hack: tim.kerby sent in just that: using a tortilla as a bread board when your local radio shack is out. Future creative hacks may involve i4u's link to camborg which tracks wearable cameras. Ant found cats and robots. You can practice by playing Kitty Lick 3, an FPS you play as a feline (thanks bjorky) But If cats aren't your pet of choice, how about pigs? Rookie sent in linkage to a story about a one in first class that you'll swear is fiction (but it isn't). radiator sent in a hilarious parody: first aid for a dying dot com. Some auctions worth noting: drDugan sent a picture autographed by Linus being sold on eBay (and donated to charity). Dirty Yanni noted that Metallica/Napster parody t-shirts are for sale on eBay. And the last auction (but not on eBay) is Spock's original ears from the original trek. Oh, and how about t-shirts mocking the MS breakin & source code theft? CArnesen noted that Anime Expo 2001 has been scheduled for this summer. I'm seriously considering going. Mothy notes that famed Rubber Chicken vendor Archie McPhee is now selling the Linux Voodoo Penguin (however the ad features a "Sysadmin" wearing a tie! Have to much free time? Ant does! He sent us a reflex tester (I've managed a .24) but thats nothing compared to Am I Hot or Not which is fun for hours on end if you're the type that amuses easily. And finally, tshell noted that that now that there is a complete O'Reily ate my balls site, the Internet is now complete. You can all go home now.

Comments

Other Photos

[Coward, Anonymous]

A lot of people are bidding on the Linus autograph linked in the article, but the seller has 4 other photos which as of right now have significantly lower bids ($31 to $60 vs. $255), you can see the list here.

infrared critter detection

[Booker]

Infrared LEDs & gutted quickcams can be great for night shots of critters (like the robot/cat thing).

I had raccoons coming in through my cat door, and wreaking havoc with the cat food and water. SO... I took the IR filter off the webcam, hooked it up to some motion detection software, and got some cool pics.

Of course, that didn't solve the problem... but first, you have to know your enemy! :)

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Re:infrared critter detection

[ucblockhead]

You wanna have fun? Don't just hook up a camera, hook up a hose, too!

(And that will probably solve the problem.)

Hot or not?

[ucblockhead]

Hey, that site's so old it has already been parodied.

Oh, Please...

[ewhac]

The reflex testing page is written in JavaScript. Gimme a break. JavaScript is a slow, interpreted language found inside slow, bloated Web browsers. The measurements this program offers are highly suspect.

Let's work it out:

• JavaScript thunks out to OS to get current time, converts to internal format and stores it,
• JavaScript thunks out to Web browser (which thunks out to the OS) to repaint the current page with a new background color (this takes a long time),
• User clicks mouse, mouse driver generates a signal,
• OS captures signal and builds an event packet,
• Windowing system further interprets event packet, assigns target window/pane/button, sends to application,
• Web browser receives event, where it rattles around for a while figuring out what to do with it,
• Web browser calls back into the OS to render the button in the depressed state,
• Web browser invokes JavaScript function handling that button,
• JavaScript thunks back out to the OS again to get the current time,
• Calculates the "delay" and presents the results.

Question: Which bit of this sequence involves high-performance, low-latency software components? If you said the mouse driver, and OS and windowing system event dispatchers, you're right. Everything else is dog-slow.

I wouldn't trust this thing to be accurate to finer than 80 milliseconds or so.

Schwab

Trapping cats...

[mwalker]

For a computer engineer it did not take long to think of a solution involving a robot.

For a computer scientist, it did not take long to figure out that you trap cats by putting a big pile of catnip on the floor, watching them eat it, and then carrying them outside, stoned out of their mind.

the robot is cool too, i guess. (:

Re:reflex speed

[atrowe]

I've found that my score on the reflex test is directly proportional to the number of beers I've had.