Category: Random Ramblings

Anything that catches my fancy as a topic I want to cover. Truly random crap.

Cat abuse is entertainment?

A cat piano designed in the 17th century makes “music” by poking trapped cats in the rear.  And why would one create such a device (aside from the desire to be cruel to cats, of course)?

In order to raise the spirits of an Italian prince burdened by the cares of his position, a musician created for him a cat piano. The musician selected cats whose natural voices were at different pitches and arranged them in cages side by side, so that when a key on the piano was depressed, a mechanism drove a sharp spike into the appropriate cat’s tail. The result was a melody of meows that became more vigorous as the cats became more desperate. Who could not help but laugh at such music? Thus was the prince raised from his melancholy.

For more on the inventor, Athanasius Kircher, check out this article.  (via boingboing)

[tags]Cat piano,  Athanasius Kircher, cat abuse[/tags]

What are the lessons of MMORPGs today?

Lessons learned from MMORPGs.

  • You never, ever, ever change jobs. If you want to, you probably need to die.
  • You can be the best in the world at your job.
  • But so can everyone else.
  • And you will all do it exactly the same way.
  • Many, if not all, wild creatures are highly aggressive and will attack on sight.
  • Evil is not redeemable; good is not a choice. Your morals are innate.
  • Killing is the only real way to gain people’s admiration.
  • Well, you can make stuff too, but you won’t earn the same kind of admiration.

There are tons more. Read the whole list. (via BoingBoing)

[tags]MMORPG, lessons learned[/tags]

Spore video

Here’s a half hour video in which Will Wright talks about his current gaming project – Spore.  This looks to be one of the most fascinating games ever, as much as that sounds like hyperbole.  After just watching a few minutes, I find myself extremely curious about this game.  I haven’t kept up with anything about the game prior to watching this, but I’ll have to go back and find what else is known about it, now.  About 8 minutes in, you get to see the subject of the demo facing a bigger, and presumably tougher, opponent.  Wisely, Will Wright moves away rather than challenge this new opponent.  (via Dubious Quality)

[tags]Will Wright, Spore, gaming[/tags]

The biggest carnivore

We’ll probably continue to get these kinds of updates for a few more decades until we get to the really hard to find giant dinosaurs, I suppose:

Take the report last month that Spinosaurus is now officially the biggest carnivorous dinosaur known to science. This two-legged beast actually strode onto the fossil scene in 1915 when a specimen was described by German paleontologist Ernst Stromer. He figured this theropod (defined as a two-legged carnivore) was bigger than Tyrannosaurus rex, but the original Spinosaurus bones were destroyed by Allied bombs in 1944. So the T. rex reigned as the king size, carnivorous land beast for decades.

[tags]Dinosaurs, paleontology[/tags]

Study reveals unsurprising result

Let’s cut right to Newswise the article:

If women want the best possible service at a clothing store, they had better be looking fashionable and well-groomed before they hit the mall.

A new study found that well-dressed and groomed women received the friendliest and, in some cases, fastest service from salesclerks.

So, women who dress better are more likely to get good service. Am I crazy to think this is an expected result? Much like when my wife and I go to dinner without out kids, we usually get better service than when we go to dinner with the kids.  The unfortunate reality of the world is, better dress does tend to indicate a tendency towards better manners, better verbal communication, better tips (in interactions where tips are necessary), and a generally better experience for consumer and provider.  Sure, there are exceptions, but over time, I suspect that most service people learn to expect a certain behavior from customers based largely on appearance and maybe initial verbal communication.  (via The Consumerist)

[tags]Customer service[/tags]

Genius criminals

Wow.  This is brilliance at work, really.

Polk County investigators said Kimberly Du, 36, faked her own obituary and forged a letter telling a Polk County judge she was dead.

. . .

The case began to unravel when investigators said Du was stopped for another traffic ticket in January, which was a month after the obituary was dated.

Handy tip of the day – if you are going to fake your own death, make sure never, ever to get caught for any wrongdoing for the rest of your life.  (via The Consumerist)

[tags]Dumb crook news[/tags]

How to read color coded resistors

My father was an electrical engineer.  This is the kind of stuff he knew.  I remember once learning this, but it was probably 20 years ago, so I’ve forgotten how.  Guess I should use the information to bone up on my knowledge I don’t actually use for anything. (via MAKE blog)

Resistors are coded with colored bands in its shell, usually four colors but sometimes you can find five. Each color represent numbers which you can decode to get the exact value. The first three colors are the resistance values and the fourth color represents the tolerance.

[tags]MAKE, resistors, DIY electronics[/tags]

The TCP/IP guide

Sure, 1648 pages is a heck of a lot of reading, but I suspect “The TCP/IP Guide: A Comprehensive, Illustrated Internet Protocols Reference” will be considered the new must have networking book.  Not that I’d give away my Douglas E. Comer or W. Richard Stevens networking books (The Protocols (TCP/IP Illustrated, Volume 1 is still great), but I’d like to have this alongside those.  And O’Reilly books are always great.
[tags]TCP/IP, O’Reilly books[/tags]

MAKE blog link dump

So many interesting projects that I can’t write up an article for all of them. Check these out for some pretty neat projects.

Now that’s a lot of reading for you to catch up on.  And me, too.  I’m so far behind on my techie/geek reading.

[tags]MAKEzine, MAKEblog, MAKE, link dump[/tags]