86 Words

Tags: Retro, Reference, Make, Geek, Collections, Gadgets, Geek Stuff, Software, Cool Sites, General by Jai
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Every once in a while, you run across something… Unusual for sale on Ebay. This is one of the more interesting.

It’s an auction for a complete, hand-typed copy of the entirety of Moby Dick that the author typed himself… On toilet paper.

Apparently there was a bet involved, and the seller won.

It’s probably unique, I’ll give it that!

This is how many rolls of toilet tissue it takes to hold the entirety of Herman Melville’s Moby Dick - now you know.

So I have to wonder, what did the guy do when he had typos and such?.

In case you were wondering, here was the final results of the auction. The bidding started at $200 with a reserve, but it was never met.

- Original Post on Geekologie -

Tags: Weird, Retro, Reference, Current Events, Net Life, Geek Stuff, Art / Visual, General by Jai
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Windows 8.

It seems to have a lot less "grapevine" activity than previous Windows versions.

Is the creeping influence of OS X and/or Linux? 

Maybe.

Apparently Windows 8 has some pretty close ties to the upcoming Windows Phone 8.

 Which was, in turn, influenced by Windows Phone 7.

I don’t know what I think of all this.

Decide for yourself (and feel free to let us know!).

This is the "Retro"…  I mean "Metro" UI on Windows 8. Is it cool? Maybe…

This is a, presumably human heart, and presumably that of the patient in the article.

And here’s a shot of the current Windows Phone 7 Metro (should look pretty familiar by now). I really can’t decide what I think - maybe it’ll be easier with some hands-on experience…

- Original Article on TechCrunch -

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Tags: Current Events, Retro, Reference, Gadgets, Art / Visual, Geek Stuff, Software, General by Jai
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Yes, there really is a new game coming out in "early 2012" for the venerable Atari 2600 video game system.

Actually, new games aren’t really uncommon on the forums, but this one was recently featured on Retro Thing, so I owed them the link!

This particular game is a sequel to the massively popular A2600 game from the 70’s, Adventure!

I now present, Epic Adventure for the A2600!

This is the "legend" of the game characters (this was a common thing back in the day)!

One of the, presumably early, game screens - it’s very reminiscent of the original Adventure!

And here is the requisite picture of the inevitable (for those who knew the original game) maze scene!

- Epic Adventure Forum Post on Atari Age -

 - Original Post on Retro Thing -

Tags: Just Cool, Retro, Reference, Video Gaming, Gaming, Geek Stuff, Software, Links, General by Jai
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How awesome is this?

Transcripts of every show from Star Trek, The Original Series!

That’s all three seasons, PLUS the animated series!

I found these while verifying that I correctly remembered Spock’s comment to Bones just after he went blind in "Operation: Annhilate!" (The quote was "An equitable trade…", and yes, I had remembered it correctly).

Now I want to watch the shows again…

This shows only season one (though all three seasons AND the animated series are covered). It shows the title, production order, and original air date. Click on the title and you will be taken to the transcript.

Here’s an out-take from Space Seed (the episode where Khan first appeared) to give you an idea of what the transcripts look like.

- Star Trek: The Original Series Transcripts -

Tags: Collections, Retro, Reference, Just Cool, Links, Geek Stuff, Cool Sites, General by Jai
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The New York Public Library has collected 40,000 stereoglyphs (double-picture photos that were so popular through the early 1900s) and added an app to let you create your won StereoGram (moving 3D image) or Anaglyph (Red-Blue glasses image)!

There’s even a gallery to view the conversions done by others  (some of whom will NEVER do this work for a living, or at least not successfully!)

Check it out, it’s very, very cool!

This is an example of a stereoglyph - two images taken from slightly different viewpoints (If you can do the cross-your-eyes thing to see those dot-stereograms, it works for these too, you just need to be fairly close or enlarge the image)

This is an anaglyph - an image viewable in 3d by using those red-blue glasses.

And this is a stereogram - two images alternated (in an ani-gif in this case) to give the 3d feel. Note that I think this was a HORRIBLE choice for the site to use to demonstrate! See below for a better one.

I think this is a much better example of the 3d feel a stereogram can give than the one above. Just like using the old stereoglyph viewers, some images were great, some okay, and some really not well suited for 3d.

- Stereogranimator App on New York Public Library Site -

Tags: Virtual, Gadgets, Current Events, Collections, Reference, Retro, Just Cool, Science, Software, Geek Stuff, HowTo, Cool Sites, Art / Visual, General by Jai
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Yes, today (Aug 6, 2011) is my wife’s birthday (Happy Birthday, Honey!), but it’s also the 20th anniversary of the very first web page ever made (by the "creator" of the web, Tim Berners Lee).

If anyone ever asks, the web started on Aug. 6, 1991.

Happy Birthday, WWW!

A screenshot of the web on the day it was born! Isn’t it cute?!?

- Historical Duplicate of Baby Web at the w3 site -

Tags: Weird, Retro, Reference, Just Cool, Net Life, Geek Stuff, Links, General by Jai
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Make no mistake, this is an action game! You get a bit of adjustment time to start, but after that, it’s massive scramble!

There are a lot of cool things about this game, including very cool, 8-bit style graphics (I don’t know why that’s cool, but it is!).

Let me ’splain.

No, it’s too much; let me sum up.

CHECK THIS GAME OUT!!!

As I mentioned in the write-up, the graphics are styled after 8-bit graphics; they add a lot to the feel of the game. It works, man!

One unusual feature is that playing other character types beyond your starting wizard are rewards you earn through play. It sounds limiting, but like everything else in this game, it adds to the quick-play aspect (you’re in and playing in under a minute - including registration!).

While there are (many) other players in the game, the play style almost discourages being part of a group. The one place you’ll see A LOT of people is in "The Nexus" - the starting area (city) where you choose which realm you want to explore (the gray/black portals in the screens hot).

- Realm of the Mad God -

Tags: Virtual, Just Cool, Weird, Retro, Reference, Net Life, Art / Visual, Geek Stuff, Software, Gaming, Video Gaming, General by Jai
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(Or maybe a Godel prize - see "An example of a new type of cosmological solution of Einstein’s field equations of gravitation" if you don’t get the reference but really need to!)

The pictures below are three of the nine available on the link site - they’re super heroes/villains ’shopped into WWII photographs.

I hope they do prints of them, cuz they’re EXCELLENT!

(Gee, where can I find a few more extremely positive adjectives?)

This is my favorite of all of the pics - it just feels right!
And also, I’m Batman.

This one feels pretty right to me as well, but Spiderman just doesn’t seem as World War Two-ey as Batman… I guess.
And also, if I didn’t mention, I’m Batman.

Okay, what happened here? This one actually looks kinda cheesy to me. This seems odd since Captain America was, you know, created to support patriotism in WWII (see pic below)!

(In ref to the previous pic) See? This comic from 1941 (his first appearance, actually) shows Captain America beating the snot out of Hitler. I’m just sayin’.

- Original Post on Toxel.com -

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Tags: Collections, Retro, Reference, Weird, Virtual, Geek Stuff, Art / Visual, Just Cool, General by Jai
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[This article was suggested by Danny Ashton - Thanks as always, Danny; sorry I’m so far behind on my emails!]

This is a pretty straight forward geek post; a list (and short write-up) of the top 20 deadliest robots (based, presumably on the author’s opinion and / or childhood horrors).

Note that, as mentioned in the headline, three of these horrific death dealers are REAL ROBOTS (all three used by the U.S. Military - big shock there, huh?).

Look and be horrified! Terrified? Annoyed? Uh… Amused?

I couldn’t miss an opportunity to post a Matrix robot, could I? Fortunately, no, this is not one of the real ones!

She gets included for being the hottest ‘bot on the list, though surprisingly, this is actually arguable…

This is Max(imillian). I used to collect tarantulas (yes, for real). Max gave my largest with a terrifying 7 inch leg span) her name. That is the impact this robot had on me as a child!

- Here’s the original article! -

Tags: Scary, Retro, Reference, Collections, Gadgets, Geek Stuff, User Submissions, General by Jai
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