March 28, 2008
Selling Heroclix
I am selling my LEs.
Just FYI.
Posted by sgowell at 07:40 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 05, 2007
Best Game Ever...
Posted by sgowell at 07:50 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 06, 2007
Not surprised one bit...
Your programmer personality type is:
DHTB
You're a Doer.
You are very quick at getting tasks done. You believe the outcome is the most important part of a task and the faster you can reach that outcome the better. After all, time is money.
You like coding at a High level.
The world is made up of objects and components, you should create your programs in the same way.
You work best in a Team.
A good group is better than the sum of it's parts. The only thing better than a genius programmer is a cohesive group of genius programmers.
You are a liBeral programmer.
Programming is a complex task and you should use white space and comments as freely as possible to help simplify the task. We're not writing on paper anymore so we can take up as much room as we need.
Posted by sgowell at 04:27 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 27, 2006
A dinner to remember
Myself, My Brother, Stewart Butterfield, Paul Graham, Jamis Buck, Vinod Khosla, Joel Spolsky, Steve Wozniak, Douglas Coupland, Reiner Knizia, Cory Doctorow, Phil Torrone, Ben and Mena Trott, and Ze Frank.
But what would we talk about?
Posted by sgowell at 10:57 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 23, 2006
New geekiness....
Posted by sgowell at 08:34 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 14, 2005
Mr. Flibble *faint*
One of my favorite sub-characters from Red Dwarf is finally being mass-produced.
Posted by sgowell at 03:50 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 08, 2005
I love cheesy Steven Seagal movies...
Posted by bmckay at 12:51 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 04, 2005
Ray shot the Sheriff
Bang! was played during lunch today at work. Josh was the Sheriff, I was the Outlaw, and Ray was the Renegade. Now although 3 player Bang! is nothing compared to 5-7 much fun was had. The Renegade finished me off first then a heated battle between the Sheriff and Renegade began. Eventually the Sheriff took his final bullet, and the Renegade assumed his position as new Sheriff.
*post #500*
Posted by sgowell at 02:45 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 01, 2005
We're not using the Zed word.
Zombies 5!!! - School's Out Forever
A new expansion to Twilight Creation's Zombie Series.
Coming Early 2006.
Posted by sgowell at 07:55 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 27, 2005
*cough* NERD *cough*
It looks like SJgames has been busy with their Munchkin Franchise.
Munchkin Bites 2: Pants Macabre
Super Munchkin
Munchkin 4: The need for steed
Stupid ... O.C.D.
Posted by sgowell at 09:11 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 29, 2005
Posted by sgowell at 11:46 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 14, 2005
Expect more pictures soon!
Posted by sgowell at 02:49 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 12, 2005
Mozilla Migration
Step 1 - Mozilla from Microsoft
* Firefox (check) [replaced Internet Explorer]
* Thunderbird (check) [replaced Outlook Express]
* Sunbird (check) [replaced Calendar functionality of Outlook]
Step 2 - Portability - Jacob Haller's Portable Mozilla Apps
** Run Apps from a USB/Flash Drive
* Portable Firefox
* Portable Thunderbird
* Portable Sunbird
Step 3 (optional) - Scalability
* Convince Apple to upload that data (Address Book, Calendar from ThunderBird & Sunbird) to the iPod
-or-
* Write an app that translates and copies the files into a format that iTunes will handle.
Posted by sgowell at 09:09 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Putting in my 2 cents regarding an article linked on the following website:
Saying that women don't know about technology is unfair. It is macho bullshit and it is unnecessary. I thought we becoming a more tolerant society, and if we are gonna make it anywhere we need to get passed all of this.
There are geek girls, and nerd girls, and thinking anyone can't do something because of race, gender or whatever is just plain stupid.
</RANT>
Those Women, They Just Don't Get Tech
Excellent Rebuttal
Posted by sgowell at 03:19 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 09, 2005
7 reasons I am considering switching...
1. iLife (iPhoto,iTunes,Garageband) - http://www.apple.com/ilife/
2. etherPeg - http://www.etherpeg.org/
3. xCode - http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/xcode/
4. Dashboard - http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/dashboard/
5. subEthaEdit - http://www.codingmonkeys.de/subethaedit/
6. Delicious Library - http://www.delicious-monster.com/
7. Expose - http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/expose/
(Windows Equivalents or as close as you can get)
http://www.etherwatch.com/
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
http://www.picasa.com/
http://www.apple.com/iTunes [only true equivalent]
http://www.konfabulator.com
http://www.trillian.cc + Notepad
http://www.eclipse.org
http://www.dvdprofiler.com
MacOSX on X86 Perhaps
Posted by sgowell at 10:54 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
June 20, 2005
Posted by sgowell at 09:51 AM
April 14, 2005
h2g2 - April 29th, 2005
Well, I haven't posted about it, but I am following production and media review quite heavily for "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" motion picture.
I am a large fan of not only the novels, but both the BBC Radio and TV productions as well. I truly hope that this movie will live up to Mr. Adams' vision.
FYI, the soundtrack is now available on iTunes for $10.
Posted by sgowell at 04:51 AM | Comments (0)
February 18, 2005
Mad Lab Rabbit?!?
Just wanted to let everyone know, that I have added some new header graphics into rotation. All of the new headers have Board Game themes and feature photos from BGG. I also removed the "2004" pic, as it is already a month and a half into 2005.
Oh, in case I hadn't mentioned it to anyone in person, I am know a Mad Lab Rabbit for Looney Labs. Not a job, but just a volunteer deal. IM me, leave a comment or shoot me an email if you are interested in participating.
"Big things" this year.
Posted by sgowell at 01:03 PM | Comments (0)
January 13, 2005
My mom has been talking a lot of smack!
So, I have been playing Carcassonne with my Mom for the past couple of days, and she has beat me 3 out of the 4 times we played.
Ever since she has been giving me a real hard time, relating anything (even remotely related) back to her "kicking my ass".
But then again, I didn't have to pay $185 dollars in order to (*maybe*) get "my" citizenship renewed. *zing* Though I am sure Mom would be happy to show me her reciept.
Posted by sgowell at 01:09 PM | Comments (0)
November 18, 2004
Come out in the "Wash"
Dear Word Detective: I have always been led to believe that the meaning of the phrase "It will always come out in the wash" meant more than just once it's been in the tub or washing machine it will disappear. There's a belief round where I live, the eastern side of England to the north of the region known as East Anglia where a certain part of the North Sea forms into a huge bay that a number of rivers flow into, that it meant just that. Anything caught up in that effluence will end up literally in the Wash! Perhaps it's just a local hijack of an older meaning phrase? Maybe it alludes to the wash of a boat, meaning that anything that is tipped overboard (or drained from the bilges!) ends up round the stern of the boat? -- Godfrey Waller, via the internet.That's an interesting question, but before we begin a little clarification is necessary. The place where rivers flow into the sea, called an "estuary," often includes areas known as "washes" which are covered at high tide and exposed at low. In some places, however (and this seems to be the case where you live), the entire estuary is itself known locally as "the Wash."
So the question is whether the phrase "to come out in the wash," meaning "to be made clear or to be resolved," refers to this kind of "wash," reflecting the fact that anything dumped in the river upstream will eventually turn up down in the estuary.
"Wash," of course, is a very old word, and, not surprisingly, comes from the same Germanic root as our modern word "water." Over the centuries, "wash" has acquired a slew of secondary meanings, from the "wash" where rivers join the sea (based on the surging action of the water) to the "wash" (surging turbulence) of a boat's wake.
But the primary meaning of "wash" has always been "to clean with water," and when we say that something "will come out in the wash," as we have since at least 1903, we are referring metaphorically to stains or soil being removed in the washing process.
Another interesting use of "wash" is to mean "failure," as in "Harry's plan to train squirrels as pizza deliverers was promising, but proved to be a wash." Again, the underlying metaphor is cleansing, in this case an of idea that did not survive the turbulent "washing" of reality. "Wash" in this sense is probably a shortening of the more established slang term "washout."
gleaned from here
Posted by sgowell at 03:16 PM | Comments (0)
November 17, 2004
Square 1 TV
"1 Million is Big, 1 Billion is Bigger, 1 Thousand times 1 Million, that's 1 Billion!"
Square 1 TV. The GREATEST Math show in the history of Television.
See the site here
Posted by sgowell at 02:05 PM | Comments (0)
October 06, 2004
DodgemBall
DodgemBall is a cross between Dodgem Cars (aka Bumper Cars) and Dodgeball. It is being developed by me, James Allen, for EECS 494 at the University of Michigan, to fulfill the assignment of "Make an arcade game."It is built on the DXFramework, a set of open-source classes and example code (not written by me) for programming DirectX in a very object-oriented fashion. If you're interested in making a game without worrying about a lot of the low-level junk that you need to know to make DirectX work, then I highly recommend checking out DXFramework.
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~jmallen/eecs494
Thanks Jim!
Posted by sgowell at 10:11 AM | Comments (0)
September 29, 2004
radioSHARK has been released
Griffin Technologies (maker of the Powermate - see posts here) have released their radioShark (USB Radio Tuner). I had been looking at this a while back and thought that is was only going to be released for the Mac (or at least the drivers).
I really want one of these, but I am going to wait for the reviews to come in before I even consider getting it.
Posted by sgowell at 12:02 PM | Comments (0)
September 08, 2004
6 Gmail Invites
Comment with a funny story or joke and I will send you an invite.
Posted by sgowell at 11:04 AM | Comments (1)
July 13, 2004
The Spine was released today...
I've got my house surrounded
I know I'm in there
Come out with both my hands up
And don't make me come in and get me
Don't make me come in and get me
I can't hide from my mind
Though I try, try, try
I can't hide from my mind
And you know why
get it here
Posted by sgowell at 02:31 PM | Comments (0)
June 30, 2004
Item one fifty-one on today's glitch list
I am totally unappreciated in my time. We can run the whole park from this room, with minimal staff, for up to three days. You think that kind of automation is easy? Or cheap? You know anybody who can network eight Connection Machines and de-bug two million lines of code for what I bid this job? Because I'd sure as hell like to see them try.
Posted by sgowell at 11:18 AM | Comments (0)
June 18, 2004
Coming in at #91 its GMAIL!!
So ... thanks to Tom Bridge, I now have a Gmail account.
All it took was a little joke :)
Thanks again Tom!
Posted by sgowell at 03:34 PM | Comments (0)
May 19, 2004
"You're Money .... You're So Money"
I came in 2nd in the Heroclix Draft Tourney at the Fortress. Only 6 players total, so we started with 2 3-player Free-for-alls. I drafted really well (pulled a unique).
I pulled "Ronan the Accuser" as my unique, then pulled a Rookie Kraven, then Experienced Nebula, then a Veteran Interagency Agent for a total of 289 build points.
For coming in second, I got to pull a booster from the wall. I ended up pulling a Flash Hypertime pack, which contained (in this order), Rookie Gorilla Grodd (with no head), Rookie Black Manta, a Unique Batman, and an Experienced Booster Gold.
Posted by sgowell at 11:15 AM | Comments (1)
April 26, 2004
Au contraire, mon frère
They Might Be Giants - Indestructable Object EP c/o iTunes
Au Contraire -
David Bowie came to town
Flying overhead
"Don't you dig my chops?" he cried
This is what they said
Au contraire, Dave
Quite the opposite, in fact
As it happens, au contraire
Au contraire, mon frère
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Knew not what to do
"This tie clashes with my hat," he cried
"Don't you think that's true?"
Au contraire, Delano
Hate to rain on your parade
I need to tell you au contraire
Au contraire, mon frère
Jodie Foster held two pair
Bach had three of a kind
Gandhi said, "With my full house,
I will blow your mind!"
Au contraire, Mahatma
Hate to contradict you, but
As it happens, au contraire
Au contraire, yes au contraire
And au contraire, you square
Wash that notion from your hair
If you're still there, I must declare
That au contraire, mon très
Bon frère
Right on! Right on! Right on! Right on! Right on! Right on! Right on! Right on! Right on!
Right on. Right on.
Right on!
Posted by sgowell at 06:55 PM | Comments (0)
April 19, 2004
It's not on there, but you get the picture
I bought Activision Anthology for my GBA SP, and it is so much fun. It comes with over 50 games on 1 cartridge. Ahh... the good old days of Stampede and Kaboom! I'll get you Black Angus!
image c/o pvp
Posted by sgowell at 03:32 PM | Comments (1)
March 09, 2004
I need a TiVo
Why, might you ask would I need one? Three simple words ... "I'm getting old". Now I know that I am only 22, but I am still starting to feel old. I am generally asleep by 10:30 and I am missing a world of great programming. What follows are a list of shows I would TiVo due to my now oldie sleep style.
Good Eats, Adult Swim (ATHF, SeaLab, Harvey Birdman, Brak, Space Ghost), MythBusters, American Chopper, West Wing, Futurama, Pirates of Dark Water, Sky Commanders, and the Starz Saturday Movie.
All Commercial Free.
Posted by sgowell at 08:54 AM | Comments (3)
February 19, 2004
You hold the bucket.
I finally played Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles, and I was very intrigued by the whole dynamic. Playing in a group of 3, all with our GBA SPs we went through the first 2 or 3 missions with little difficulty. We quickly split into roles as Bucket Carrier, Fighter, and Healer before too long and it really helped to smooth things out. Though we were constantly checking our GBAs to see who had the "good" map and where the secret things were. I think if we had continued playing for any length of time we would have fallen into a better groove.
Music: 8.0 (Catchy, Instrumental - The stuff everyone whistles)
Gameplay: 7.0 (Tight, Varied - Be sure you know your role, and set up your Command List Early)
Video: 8.0 (Clean, Colorful - In game engine handled all video with no jerkiness)
Replay: 9.0 (The games many character options allow for a finite, but large amount of disparity between your Caravan's characters)
Overall - 8.0 (Buy it)
Posted by sgowell at 08:46 AM | Comments (1)
January 29, 2004
You remember Balki, Right?
I am such a geek.
[15:38] Andy: any thing going on?
[15:38] Me: trying to figure out how to build a search engine ... that is not greedy but can find general or specific if not both
[15:39] Me: I have a database with 4 fields as searchable + 1 field of categories
[15:39] Andy: ah
[15:39] Me: so I need to create 3 stored procedures (hopefully not on the fly, that will be able to handle searching categories, or keywords, or both)
[15:40] Me: fun ... but its testing my mettle
[15:40] Me: not to mention that I suggested something totally stupid because I forgot the wildcard was different in mySQL (what I am particularly familiar with) vs MSSQL
[15:41] Me: so ... p00p
[15:41] Andy: heh
[15:41] Me: I also have to account for multiple word terms, and multiple term searches
[15:41] Me: like men, children, smoking or 'smoking men', children
[15:42] Me: not too difficult, split the string on the delimiter ... but if they have 20 terms and I only account for 5
[15:42] Me: sure ... they are greedy but still.
[15:47] Me: greedy searches ... not greedy users ... well ... maybe both
[15:51] Me: I was told that I don't have to account for Boolean Operators ... *does the dance of joy*
[15:52] Me: Die, Die, Die, Die, Die Die , Die Die Die Die, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey, HEY!!!
[15:53] Me: whoops ... one to many heys ...
[15:54] Andy: :)
Posted by sgowell at 03:59 PM | Comments (0)
December 15, 2003
"They" will be home for Christmas
Leo .... all I have to say, is Wow. Leo from TechTV developed a system for Dial-a-Song using Linux and Perl and the whole nine yards. It is so cool.
"I've been working here and there on setting up a Linux based Dial-A-Song answering machine for They Might Be Giants. I promised it to them in April, really buckled down in October, and I'm finally (almost) done today. If you want to follow the saga read my previous posts explaining the project and detailing some of the issues.I did finally find a voice modem that works with vgetty - an old US Robotics external Voice/Fax/Data modem. After some trial and error I discovered that if I resampled the MP3s to 16-bit, 8Khz, mono sound files they'd work with the modem. It was such a thrill to dial up and hear a TMBG song on the other end.
The basics of the shell script follow - minus the extensive error checking code. If an error occurs anywhere (no CD, can't read the disc, etc.), the script falls back to a default message stored on the hard drive. "
Leo ... no matter what anyone says ... You sir, are a badass!
Posted by sgowell at 09:07 PM | Comments (0)
November 26, 2003
Uh ... I'm the guy behind the keyboard
195 .... D'oh
Posted by sgowell at 10:43 AM | Comments (4)
Uh ... I'm the guy behind the keyboard
195 .... D'oh
Posted by sgowell at 10:43 AM | Comments (4)
November 24, 2003
Found today while in reading ./fortune
Character Density, n.: The number of very weird people in the office.
Posted by sgowell at 02:04 PM | Comments (0)
November 04, 2003
Well....
Have you ever, while pondering the ways of the morn,
Thought to save just a bit, just a drop in the horn?
To pour in the evening, or late afternoon,
Or during the night, when we're shining the Moon?
Have you ever cried out, while counting the snow,
Or watching the tomtit warble "Hello":
"BREAK OUT THE CIGARS! This life is for squirrels
We're off to the drugstore to whistle at girls"
my apologies to the Johns
Posted by sgowell at 12:57 PM | Comments (1)
October 24, 2003
New Wireless Phone
"Hello, my name is Scott, and I have a lame cell phone."
When I was going to school, my parents thought it would be a good idea for me to have a cell phone (being 7 hours away with a 10 year old car can worry the folks), and so they signed up and got some Verizon Wireless service. Now, they(Verizon) had said that their nationwide plan would cover service into the UP but the Statewide plan would not (without incurring roaming fees). I didn't really want them to outlay a lot of money, so I opted for one of the free phones which at that time was the Nokia 5190 (5100 series). Bad default ringtones, ok games, and no way to get new ringtones. So my parents signed up for (and paid) for a 2 year service agreement, and although service was complete ASS up at school, I had found where my phone worked well, and was able to use it. Now I am out of school, and my parents (trying to save me money) have still been paying for my Cell phone (unless I go over my minutes, I have always paid that), but I want to get away from that.
I have never had a problem with Verizon while down state, so I think I am going to stick with them when I start footing the bill (ASAP) [which should hopefully be when my folks get back from the East Coast]. And I wanted to get a cooler phone.
I had been looking at the Motorola T730 and V60p, but I think I might have to go for the LG VX6000.
*update* I went with the T730
Posted by sgowell at 09:09 AM | Comments (1)
October 23, 2003
ITMS / Blogging Tool Lazyweb Request
O Great Lazyweb I implore you.
My idea is:
A plugin for winamp, Windows Media Player, w.bloggar, zempt, iTunes or whatever - not dissimilar from the one for w.bloggar (which generates a "Currently listening to: Band Name - Song" string) - that will parse the id3 tag of a given song, and using the ITMS link maker generate the HTML for a blog post that links the song you are listening to, to its counterpart on iTMS if available.
Posted by sgowell at 01:04 PM | Comments (1)
October 15, 2003
Say it with me.
long story if you don't get the reference
Posted by sgowell at 09:16 AM | Comments (0)
August 12, 2003
Rimmer: We're not getting out of here in one piece, or if we do, it'll be one big flat piece.
Ok ... so my favorite TV show currently is Red Dwarf off of BBC. It is so great, I had to get the DVDs last weekend of the first 2 seasons. They are some of the funniest shows ever, and the extras are worth the cost of the DVDs alone. That and I got a deal at Best Buy. They are making a Red Dwarf movie, but I would be happy with just some more episodes of the show.
Rimmer: We can't afford to take any chances. Jump up to red alert.
Kryten: Are you sure, sir? It does mean changing the bulb.
Lister: This is crazy. Why are we talking about going to bed with Wilma Flintstone?
Cat: You're right. We're nuts. This is an insane conversation.
Lister: She'll never leave Fred and we know it.
Cat: Why don't we drop the defensive shields.
Kryten: A superlative suggestion, sir. With just two minor drawbacks. One, we don't have any defensive shields. And two, we don't have any defensive shields. Now I realise that technically speaking that's only one flaw but I thought that it was such a big one that it was worth mentioning twice.
Cat: Good point, well made.
Song of the Moment: The Streets - Stay Positive
Posted by sgowell at 07:26 PM | Comments (0)
June 20, 2003
ThinkGeek Gone Wild
ThinkGeek has put out about half a dozen Tees this week that I want to pick up.
I think this one is fitting for my friend Suz though :)
Posted by sgowell at 09:13 AM | Comments (3)