Monthly Archives: September 2013

Unknown's avatar

Greetings!

by

To whom it may concern,

I have been invited to host while your regularly scheduled program is interrupted!  Allow me to introduce myself!  I am the Spiciest Cupcake, though mostly only because it was in opposition of Candy-Coated Bacon and also decidedly an equally gross flavor combination in the making.  I am tragically and boringly uninterested in the finer points of coding and have been invited to speak of anything else that may take my fancy.  Currently leaning towards a couple of rants about how we encourage poor behavior and a lack of creativity in our society, or maybe just a lovely jaunt through cell-phone land!  My level of whimsy and rage will be the deciding factors.

Always yours,

The Spiciest Cupcake

Unknown's avatar

Keep the place aired out

by

Ideally I’d like to average better than 1 post per day.  Unfortunately, I will be missing for the next few days on account of a wedding in the family, and preparations for said absence prohibit me from sitting down and composing a post with the attention it deserves.

So I’ve hired some help.

If by “hired” you mean “contacted a good friend who has already expressed interest.”  Sometimes being allowed to contribute is its own reward.  So say hello to Spicy CupcakeSpiciestCupcake, she’ll be keeping the place from stagnating while I’m gone!

Unknown's avatar

Fun With Procedural Images

by
Screenshot from Farbrausch's "The Product" 64kb demo

Screenshot from Farbrausch’s “The Product” 64kb demo

Many, many years ago, a German group known as Farbrausch created a rather impressive piece of software, known as The Product, a 64-kilobyte executable which produces, without the aid of a network connection or any additional files, a short, real-time rendered music video advertising all of the great things “The Product” can do.

The really cool thing is that at 64 kilobytes, the file itself is almost smaller than the download request, and it’s old enough that virtually every (windows) PC available today can run it flawlessly.

Continue reading →

Unknown's avatar

LASER IS NOT DIFFICULT!

by

I was inspired to start here partly because of Shamus Young, owner of the entertaining and informative Twenty-Sided Tale blog.  Seriously, go check him out.

Shamus is a good programmer, and like any good programmer, when he gets bored, he likes to write little experimental coding projects.  Currently he’s working on a game called “Project Good Robot,” which is shaping up into something I would REALLY like to play.  The cool thing about Shamus is that when he does these coding projects, he posts about them.  It’s all very educational, and a lot of fun to read, and Shamus really has a talent for explaining high-level technical stuff in a way that anybody can understand.  Reading through his earlier projects would really be a good way to gain some solid practical knowledge for beginning programmers.  Or anybody who would like to be a beginning programmer.  Or anybody who’s curious about the arcane arts of “Computer Science” and would like a peek behind the curtain.

Continue reading →

Unknown's avatar

The Craving and The Fix

by

At rest, the human body consumes around 1300 kilocalories per day.  That’s what it takes just to keep your body running.  If you can eat less than that, you can actually lose weight by channel surfing on the couch!

Your brain weighs about 3 pounds.  For the average adult male, that’s about 1-2% of your body weight.  For something so small, it consumes a gluttonous 260 kilocalories every day.

That’s a lot of energy.  Going to have to replenish it somehow.

Continue reading →