Month: October 2006

Slow swimmers

Here’s a comic I got from a co-worker.  I don’t know where he got it.  If someone points the way, I’ll be glad to throw out a link to the original location.

slow_sperm.jpg

[tags]Slow swimmers, How much further, Are we there yet?, Just past the tonsils[/tags]

I voted today

My wife and I forgot to update our voter registration when we moved last year.  Today we went to do that, and since the early voting polls were literally across the hall, we went ahead and knocked that out.  I had to skip some categories, because I simply didn’t know anything about the people on the ballot.

[tags]Early voting, Make sure to vote[/tags]

Tetrahedron rotation symmetry group

No, I don’t actually know what it means. Yes, I have the words to accompany it. No, they don’t help me understand it. Yes, I understand the words individually. No, I don’t comprehend the words in the sentences given. Yes, I posted this because it’s shiny.

250px-Tetrahedral_group_2.svg.png Symmetry is a foundational concept in several sub-disciplines of mathematics, particularly geometry and abstract algebra. The rotation symmetry group of the tetrahedron (shown here) associates the 12 different orientations of a tetrahedron with two kinds of spatial rotation that rearrange those orientations: a 120° rotation around each of the 4 vertices (reddish arrows), and 180° rotation through opposite edges (blue arrows). Diagrams illustrating the symmetries of a mathematical object in this format are called cycle graphs.

Oh, and yes – it is something I picked up from Wikipedia – possibly the greatest resource in the known universe.

[tags]Tetrahedron rotation symmetry group, Shiny picture with mathematical explanation[/tags]

Burning Crusade delayed

News to exactly zero of the people who have ever waited on a game from Blizzard to ship is this release that World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade has been delayed until January 2007. Over the past 17,000 years, Blizzard has shipped, I believe all of NO games on time. I could be wrong about that, but if any have shipped on time, the number is a sufficiently small percentage of their releases to be considered a statistical sampling anomoly and not an actual indication that Blizzard can ship games at a date in the vicinity of the announced ship dates.

Blizzard Entertainment(r) today announced that the release date for World of Warcraft(r): The Burning Crusade(tm), the highly anticipated expansion for World of Warcraft, will be in January 2007. By adding a few extra weeks to the development cycle beyond its original target date, Blizzard will be able to extend the closed beta test and further refine the new content that will ship with the game.

Oh, and throw in a couple of TMs or Registered trade mark, or some other fancy legal symbols up there in my post. I’m sure someone somewhere might think for just a moment that my posting about the company Blizzard, which has produced mediocre console games, excellent PC games, and a number of vaporware titles over the past 20 or so years, will somehow be mistaken as talk for the company Blizzard which I own or some crap like that. Likewise for the game title – it ain’t my game, so throw in some official looking legalese markers of some sort there. Bleh.

[tags]Oh surprise – Blizzard delays a product launch, Burning Crusade delayed[/tags]

PS3 gets FCC approval

Well, the PS3 has received FCC approval. This means all that stands between you and a PS3 on launch day is, well, having the $2500 it will take to buy one off ebay, since I’m sure you’re not one of the lucky (fewer than) 500,000 in the US who got a pre-order in on time AND who will actually get their pre-ordered product on release day. But at least there isn’t a regulatory issue holding up the product now. (via Kotaku)

[tags]PS3 gets FCC approval, PS3 meets US electronics safety requirements – gets approval for release[/tags]