January 25, 2008

Because, you know, I need this...

I posted the movie poster to the new Indiana Jones movie last month, but now I've got something even better.

LEGO Indiana Jones.

LEGO Indiana Jones

Oh yeah. Four sets. And yes, there's a LEGO Ark of the Covenant.

But wait—it gets even better:

LEGO Indiana Jones The Video Game

LEGO Indiana Jones: The Video Game.

Holy. Crap.

Want.

Posted by jon at 11:39 PM : Comments (1)



April 10, 2007

jawdropping

(Pure geek post.)

This is sick (not in the gross sense): 6502 compatible compiler and emulator in javascript.

In JavaScript.

If you don't know what any of this means, that's okay. I can't hardly get my head around it either.

Via JWZ.

Posted by jon at 11:59 PM


August 28, 2006

Commodore 64 emulator... in Flash

Okay, geek levels are off the charts on this one: FC64, a Commodore C64 emulator for Flash. And it's open source. This is just mind boggling...

...because, among other things, what this means is that I could embed a Commodore 64 emulator, games and all, right here on my blog. Because it's in Flash. And Flash in installed on nearly every browser these days.

So not only could you play C-64 games here... if you know BASIC, you could write and run your own programs for it. So then I wonder if those are saveable? I bet that would be easy to hack... Talk about a community project: everybody writing programs for everybody else to run without having to install software or trade files at all. Hmmmmmmmmmm...

Posted by jon at 11:46 PM


June 20, 2006

Wonka

Okay, tell me this guy doesn't look totally cool:

Guy at the Bite of Bend dressed up like Willy Wonka!
Photo thanks to Simone at Emerald Bay Photography

This guy was with the fire dancer troup that performed Saturday night at the Bite of Bend. We decided he looked like Willy Wonka, though now I'm also thinking the Mad Hatter. Watching him, I also think he had a Johnny Depp thing going on. Anyway, I begged and pleaded with Simone for a picture of him so I could post it... how could I not? That guy rocks. Seriously.

Top hats are cool.

Posted by jon at 3:45 PM


May 4, 2006

Bill Gates' house

Bill Gates' house: Found this on Wikipedia's Unusual articles page. Pretty amazing stuff; some things that jumped out at me:

  • Assessed values (as of 2002) of $113 million, with over $1 million in annual property tax
  • 66,000 square feet
  • The wood columns from main floor to roof in entry area are over 70 feet tall.
  • Some of the interior passage doors weigh over 800 lbs, but are balanced for easy use.
  • The roofing is stainless steel.
  • Hidden cameras are everywhere, including the interior stone walls.
  • Gates insisted on saving a 40 year old maple adjacent to the driveway. The tree is monitored electronically 24 hours per day via computer. If it seems dry, it gets just the right amount of water automatically delivered.
  • All woodwork is flawless. Much of the woodwork is of various rare types from all over the world - imported especially for this house.
  • The theater (underground in a concrete shell) is the most state of the art theatre in the world according to specialty contractor.

Picture? Of course!

Bill Gates' house, aerial view
Photo from Flickr

More photos can be found on this Flickr group.

I'm not sure I can even get my mind around a place like this. Some of the photos look like a Disneyland attraction.

Posted by jon at 7:16 PM


November 16, 2005

Geekiest. Music. Ever.

Okay, this will permanently brand me as the geekiest dork ever (I fully expect a "geek" comment from Shannon), but perusing WinAmp's SHOUTcast Radio list today, I found the ultimate station:

...wait for it...

Commodore 64 remixes. From SLAY Radio.

Yes, you read that correctly. Commodore 64 remixes.

I've been letting it play in the background. It totally kicks ass.

This strikes me as being a real Long Tail kind of thing.

Posted by jon at 3:28 PM


November 10, 2005

Dancing Transformer goodness

I had to link to this video just because it's so cool. ("Cool" in a geeky way.) Not because of the dancing part, but just the transforming effects are so good that if I didn't know better, I'd swear it was for real. If ever there's a live action Transformers movie, I'd hope it's this good.

Via Gadgetopia.

Posted by jon at 10:34 AM


May 11, 2005

20 questions

Okay, so I must be easily impressed. From this post on Boing Boing I found the 20Q.net site and began trying to stump the system. I can't do it. No wonder; the guy that created the neural net (a type of artifical intelligence software) started it back in 1988, and it's been "learning" ever since, entirely by people playing 20 questions with it. Crazy.

I remember having a 20 questions "A.I." game that came with the Logo programming language for the Commodore 64 (way back in the day). Same deal, it was preprogrammed with maybe three items, but as you played it, it remembered every new item you fed it and got "smarter" each time it played. The only drawback was that on a Commodore, you couldn't really save the state of the program, so it would "forget" everything each time you started it up.

Funny part is, I remember the first time I played it, I figured I'd stump it with "osterich." I just about fell out of the chair when, after about five questions, it says, "Are you thinking of an osterich?" I was hooked, but ultimately didn't fully capitalize on that for another few years... at the time, I simply considered it to be an exotic toy. Now I write software for a living. Go figure.

Posted by jon at 12:21 AM


October 28, 2004

Grand Theftendo

Via Slashdot tonight, this is totally amazing and cool: Grand Theftendo, a port of Grand Theft Auto III to the original Nintendo Entertainment System (an 8-bit machine!). ("Port" is a bit misleading; it's all original, from the graphics to the dialogue to the code—it's probably more of a tribute.) What's more, the guy is writing the thing in assembly. Using an assembler and compiler he wrote himself to do the job.

Did I mention this is just a hobby that he works on in his spare time?

I stand in awe, and am half-seriously considering giving up this computer thing to become a potato farmer or something.

Posted by jon at 11:17 PM