Archive for November, 2005

Arrested Development Nears Its End

// November 13th, 2005 // 1 Comment » // My Stuff

Since the beginning Arrested Development has appealed to my slightly offbeat humor. After seeing the first episode, I was sure this was on Fox’s short list of shows to cancel. I was happily amazed when it managed its way through a first and second season. With it’s late start this season, I was sure it had finally saw it’s demise.

I was happy to see it return to TV for a third season last week with back to back episodes.

However, that was short lived according to this CNN article. Apparently the viewership was down and Fox has decided to omit Arrested Development from November sweeps. It will then return in December to finish out only 13 episodes this season. Fox is not renewing past there.

A sad end for an entertaining, Emmy award winning show, that was a welcome departure from the similarity amongst most other popular network shows. It’s this thinking that killed Firefly and will continue to kill shows with small loyal followings. Each will be replaced with generic mindless dribble of bad writing and bad acting.

Other stories about the cancellation:
Arizona Republic: Fox bails on superb ‘Arrested’
Reuters: Fox pulls ‘Arrested Development’ for November sweeps
EOnline: “Arrested” Going to “Heaven”?

tv, television, sweeps, cancelled show, show, arrested development, fox, comedy, firefly, bluth family, portia de rosi, jason bateman, david cross

Related items

Google Maps API: Risk

// November 12th, 2005 // 1 Comment » // My Stuff, Technology Bits

Mike D recently pointed me at GMRisk by TehDiplomat. This interesting use of the Google Maps API created a fully playable version of the game of Risk played on top of the satellite view of the world provided by Google’s Maps.

Unfortunately, you cannot play this multiplayer across multiple computers. If you want to play an actual game here, you need to huddle a pile of friends around a single computer for hours to play. With this in mind, I find the idea interesting, but the implementation short of actual fun. There’s no AI available, so you can’t play by yourself either…

I’m also not sure what playing on an interactive actual map gains you other than novelty. There isn’t any real great reason for zooming in or panning around. If there were new innovative features that too this into account that would again make this a lot cooler.

google, google maps, games, google maps api, api, maps api, map, risk, boardgame, gmrisk

Related items

Electronics Projects

// November 12th, 2005 // 1 Comment » // Technology Bits

Jon has recently been excited about electronics projects he’s been finding in MAKE Magazine. In reading about Pad2Pad, I found them linking over to Electronics Lab which has all kinds of fun electroncs projects.

However, more interting is Electronic Kits. Of particular interest there are these:
– Electronic 500 in 1 Lab
– Clear Stereo Tape Player
– Classic Video Pong
– Cola Powered Digital Clock

These amongst others seem like fun. I need more money, more time, or better excuses to play with this stuff.

electronics, clock, audio, video, project, projects, digital, electronic, transmitter

Related items

Damn Interesting

// November 11th, 2005 // 1 Comment » // My Stuff

I discovered Damn Interesting this week. This is a blog apparently run by a bunch of guys who seem to post very regularly. I started skimming the homepage and can’t help but be drawn in. The topics they are gleaning from headlines are truly, damn interesting. Here’s a list of my favorites so far:

Tin Foil Hats Proven Ineffective
Selling Body Bits
Vatican Sides With Darwin
New Fuel Source Claims to Capsize Quantum Mechanics
I’ve Got the Same Combination on My Luggage!

I’m sure they have more, but this is just a great blog, with consistently well written posts. More importantly, they seem to be writing about topics I’m interested in. Having read quite a bit there, I can tell they read Wired and watch The Daily Show. I’m going to go read some more of their older posts.

blog, blogging, vatican, body parts, fuel source, damn interesting, darwin, quantum mechanics, tin foil, hats,fuel, fuel source

People who looked at this item also looked at…

Related items

Design Your Own PCB

// November 10th, 2005 // 5 Comments » // My Stuff, Technology Bits

Alan recently pointed me at Pad2Pad in response to my article about eMachineShop.

Pad2Pad is a way to get custom PCBs manufactured and delivered. You download the software, design the circuitry you’re looking for and then order it up.

Why is this fun and interesting?

Lately Jon, Al, me and others have been repeatedly involved in various electronics projects. Hacking a couple different consoles, building a magstripe reader to find out what identity information is encoded on the cards in our wallets, and planning some new projects. In the meantime Al has become crazy good at soldering increasingly complex things. We’re looking for more challenging projects.

We recently designed a device for building a switch controlled array of LEDs to attach to your office door. This would have a red, yellow, and green light so our administrative assitant could easily tell how busy we are without asking. Her idea, seemed like fun, but we never actually built it…

Now Jon is planning a new-fangled binary clock which should be way cooler than the one on ThinkGeek. Anyway, with these electronics examples you can see why a bunch of guys like us might like the idea of getting custom designed PCBs.

After using the downloadable tool, the one complaint I have is there is no simulator to test your logic. I’ve used LogicWorks a bit, and that is one of it’s strongest features.

electronics, Alan Baker, thinkgeek, pad2pad, emachineshop, solder, soldering, hacking, hack, magstrip, magnetic stripe, PCB, PCBs, binary, binary clock, clock, LED, LEDs, console

People who looked at this item also looked at…

Related items

PSU Professor Endures False Accusations

// November 7th, 2005 // 3 Comments » // My Stuff

I heard about this a while ago when Daryl Browne resigned, but the full story was published today in the Citizen: Plymouth family shaken by theft accusation. By BEA LEWIS. My experience with Browne was that he was well liked by students and an enthusiatic instructor. I wish him the best.

Related items

Defining Unix Load Average

// November 7th, 2005 // 4 Comments » // Technology Bits

Went looking for a simple definition of load average in Unix, but alas, simplicity is not in the nature of load. I read UNIX® Load Average Part 1: How It Works by Dr. Neil Gunther who breaks load down into much appreciated, yet excruciating detail.

In short it is the average sum of the number of processes waiting in the run-queue plus the number currently executing over 1, 5, and 15 minute time periods.

It’s calculated like this: load(t) = load(t – 1) e^(-5/60m) + n (1 – e^(-5/60m))
(at least in Linux)

From Gunther’s PDF Guide:

Most sys admins tend to refer to and use the m = 1 minute load average For queueing models we want the steady-state average [...] that suggests the m = 15 minute load average is more useful for capacity planning

So load is useful but complex.

Casey experienced some pretty sever load numbers recently…

definition, dr. neil gunther, gunther, LA triplets, linux top, load, load average, monitoring, performance, performance monitoring, solaris, unix

People who looked at this item also looked at…

Related items

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »
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