So, they’re using the Pixies’ Where is My Mind to advertise the Kinect.
Hmmm, given that it’s a Microsoft product I would have thought Trompe le Mond was more appropriate…
Kinecting the Dots
Take that Bill!
Category: Geekery
I still got it!
Anyone recognise the formula?
I just spent 20 minutes converting the formula…
d = M-((M/2)+7)
…into…
M = 2(d+7)
I still got it baby!
(Even if it would have taken me about a 10th of the time back in high school :))
The steps are…
d = M-((M/2)+7)
M = d+((M/2)+7)
M = d+7+(M*0.5)
M-(M*0.5) = d+7 (This one took me ages)
0.5*M = d+7
M = 2(d+7)
Now, does anyone recognise the base formula?
Warehouse 23 13
Yeah, like I’d actually call her…
Caught a couple of episodes of Warehouse 13 last night for the first time.
I’ve been meaning to check the series out for a while, it’s been getting a fair amount of good press online and hence has been sitting in the back of my head as something to watch out for. So when Channel Seven announced (with a slight amount of fanfare) last week that they were putting it on at 8:30 Sunday nights I jumped at the opportunity (sorry Spielberg, Terra Nova is quite good, but not quite enough for me to obsessively reserve its timeslot).
So, having watched two episodes last night, I have a number of questions…
What’s with starting with episodes 8 and 9 rather than 1 and 2?
The most likely explanation of course is that they’ve quietly played the previous 7 episodes in some graveyard slot and all they’ve done now is promote the show up to the top rank by moving it to Sundays, but it’s a bit disconcerting to have all these ads promoting this great new series only to drop new viewers right in the middle of the first season without warning.
Why was the pre-credits teaser cut from Episode 9?
It would have been a lot easier to understand the episode if we’d seen the intro. Was it a typically pathetic attempt to run the two episodes together into a continuous “Movie Length Episode”, or just general incompetence?
Why did the Studio 54 Mirror Ball play generic disco music rather than I Will Survive?
Yeah, I know, probably a syndication licensing thing…
What – if any – is the connection with Steve Jackson Games and their GURPs Warehouse 23 from back in the 90s?
It’s exactly the same idea with a different number.
Why are the Communicators called ‘Farnsworths’ rather than ‘Logie-Bairds’?
Zing! 🙂
Where can I get Allison Scagliotti’s phone number?
😉
All that aside, I found the show quite entertaining – even if the science was abominable – and will keep tuning in for as long as Seven deign to air it at a reasonable hour – which will probably be for about two weeks at which point it won’t have beaten Terra Nova in the ratings so they’ll swap it out for So You Think You Can Juggle Chainsaws America or whatever their next guaranteed ratings winner is.
Here we go, here we go again…
Aaaaaand after a weekend of my computer working (or at least working as well as it ever does) it decided to crap out on me this morning. Again.
I’ll run the startup repair process again tonight and see if that fixes it. It only took three hours last time…
Good News Everyone!
I am happy to report that I’ve been able to get my PC to boot into Ubuntu via a live CD and am in the process of backing up all my important data to an external drive. This means that – hopefully this weekend – I’ll be able to drop the box into a repair shop for a complete overhaul without worrying about some clueless keyboard monkey accidentally formatting the hard drive.
(Cue the comments asking my why I don’t just install Ubuntu and be done with it. Hey, do I tell you how to run your life?)
(Oh, I do. Fair enough)
Disaster
Cruelly ripped from the digital teat.
My PC died this morning 🙁
While it’s in the shop I’ll have limited access to email and (far worse) the net. If I survive I’ll announce my return to online existence in a blogpost.
Wish me luck.
The Worldwide Leman Russ Bitz Shortage
Someone doesn’t want me having a Eradicator…
So, a while back I placed an order on eBay for some Warhammer 40k bitz – including two Leman Russ turrets – from a seller that I’ve dealt with many times before without problems.
My order arrived a few weeks later – minus one of the turrets.
I emailed the seller politely asking where the second turret was, and they apologised profusely, saying they’d send it immediately.
Not long after the first order I placed an order with another seller (again whom with I’ve happily dealt in the past) that included a Leman Russ Nova Cannon. My order arrived a few weeks later, sans cannon.
I emailed the seller to point this out, and they apologised profusely, immediately refunding the cost of the cannon.
Today a parcel arrived from the first seller. It contained five 40mm bases that I never ordered, and no Leman Russ turret.
Call me paranoid but this is getting suspicious…
11/11/11
It occurred to me late last night that Plastic Bertrand’s Ca Plane Pour Moi and Sigue Sigue Sputnik’s Love Missile F1-11 share the same beat and chord progression (or at least the same something, I’m no musician…). This means that you could make an awesome mashup!
Think about it!
US bombs cruising overhead!
There’s goes my love rocket red!
Multi-millions still unfed!
Psycho maniac interbred!
(Wooo-oo-oo-ooo!)
Now shoot it up!
Shoot it up!
Shoot it up!
Shoot it up up up up up up!
Now shoot it up!
(Wooo-oo-oo-ooo!)
Shoot it up!
Yeah, I’ll shut up now 🙂
PS: Boo yah! Plain Packaging legislation has passed. Take that Tobacco industry!
Slip of the Keys
Ohhhhhhhhhhhh crap…
Thanks to a simple typing error I just bid $450 for a handful of plastic 40k gubbins on eBay.
I cannot see how this could end well…
Inevitable
If you play Warhammer 40k, it’s inevitable that sooner or later Games Workshop will completely screw you over.
In my case this happened a few months back. I’d figured out a strategy that I reckoned would – if not actually defeat Fabes and his Spess Mehreens at least give them a run for their money. I even spent some money purchasing models to do it all proper and official like. Then Games Workshop changed the rules and invalidated the entire thing.
Dang.
(I’m not going to say what the strategy was as I’m sure Fabes would be interested in playing a game using it just to see what would have happened…)
And this month Games Workshop have done it again with the release of the new Necrons Codex.
Of course they haven’t screwed me over games-wise – I’m an IG Treadhead not a Necronphile. They’ve instead completely offended my stylistic sensibilities by changing the Necrons from a ruthless, emotionless killing machine serving the omnicidal agenda of millenia-dead star gods into a bunch of bickering empire builders who no longer want to harvest the galaxy, just rule it with a living-metal fist. The latest White Dwarf even features a conversation between a couple of Necrons. A fething conversation!
And the C’Tan! Now it turns out that the Necrons overthrew the C’Tan and split them into “shards”. Shards? What pantheon are we talking about here?
The Necrons used to represent an important aspect of the grimdarkness of the 40k universe – make deals with things more powerful that yourself and you’ll lose everything. Now you can apparently make deals with things more powerful than yourself, overthrow them, and walk away with cool metal bodies covered in bling. That’s not 40k. That’s not even close to 40k. But I suppose it does mean Games Workshop can sell a bunch more cool looking models, which is the main thing*.
Oh well, time to invoke the MST3K mantra….
* Yes, of course selling models is the main thing, it’s always been the main thing, and if Games Workshop wants to alter their IP to sell more models they’re perfectly within their rights to do so. It just hurts to have it shoved so obviously in our faces, that’s all.
