Wednesday, January 09, 2008

Joe Mathlete Explains Maramduke

marmaduke
Marmaduke has finally died, thus completing the 2006 American Icon Yuletide Expiration Hat-Trick that James Brown and Gerald Ford kicked off several days ago. It remains uncertain whether he committed suicide, was murdered by his owner-girl (who did a fantastic job at making it look like an accident), or simply lost his balance in one of his frequent auto erotic asphyxiation binges.

Like any comic strip that reached its nadir about two decades ago but whose shambling bulk nevertheless marches on zombie-like through newspapers world-wide, Marmaduke is ripe for a send-up. Joe Mathlete combines just enough sarcasm, dry wit, and profane, disturbingly sexual content to make you remember how badly this sucks, and why doesn't God just let it die already. Now if he would only do the same for Family Circus, Garfield, and Dennis the Menace, he could probably quit his job. I'm sensing the beginning of a cottage industry here.

Link

Sony's Aibo is Returning

aibo
That's the rumour, at least. Aibo was always a neat looking toy -- maybe a little too cute, but hellishly robust in features: camera, visual recognition, wifi, voice recognition, and a solid AI. Now, according to the totally reputable Stuff magazine, Sony is going to give Aibo another chance and have it interface with your PS3 and PSP.

The old Aibo was totally drool-worthy for anyone with an interest in robotics -- the new Aibo, with redesigned, cooler body and proposed interface options, is even moreso. I mean, it's no voice-command R2-D2, but that's only because I have a real dog.

Link to story on Engadget
Link on Wikipedia to more Aibo sites

Splashback

splashback
This is one of my favourite games, and it's strange it didn't manage to get posted sooner. Maybe because I was never really any good at it, I don't know.

You start the game with 10 drops of liquid and a board filled with blobs. You can click in any square to add a drop of liquid to a blob. Too much liquid and the blob will explode, sending a drop in all four directions and adding an extra drop of liquid to your tank. The object is to clear all the blobs from the screen.

I find this game interesting because there's often a chance for good strategy, adding drops in such a way as to get the largest chain reaction. It's also fun to watch the screen clear as blob after blob explodes. I'm not sure about the whole alien and little girl thing, though. She's got this kind of knowing look on her face like we're down with something. Are we supposed to be down with the alien? I'm not. He's got a gut like my old man.

Link

Shuffle

shuffle
In Shuffle, both you and your opponent start with a row of marbles, with the object being to knock your opponent's marbles off the board. Each round you win shortens your supply by one marble and moves you a step toward the center of the board. The first person to win four rounds wins the set.

Anyone good at pool will be good at this game. I'm not good at pool, and lasted only ten rounds before finally getting clobbered.

Link

Poloroid-o-nizer

poloroidonizer
Nothing but a fun little utility that takes an image from the web and turns it into a poloroid.

I have a friend experimenting with poloroid film right now, so this is a little more topical than I thought it would be.

Link