Eventyr

Fighting Developer Abuse

Matthew has learnt that no one comes when he wants to pair...

An entertaining recruitment advert from the ever-present ThoughtWorks.

Loud Noises

You are about 20 years old

The teen repellent will no longer foil you, but you can still hear some pretty high tones. The highest pitched ultrasonic mosquito ringtone that I can hear is 16.7kHz

Find out which ringtones you can hear!

First Life Questions

Got First Life Questions? We've Got Answers
Are five senses enough?
What's this body thing, and what do I do with the dangly bits?
Why can't I build a dirigible with my mind?
Penguins, spoons and you -- what's life like among the the flightless?

Get a First Life

Old Games

The oldest backgammon in the world along with 60 pieces has been unearthed beneath the rubbles of the legendary Burnt City in Sistan-Baluchistan province, southeastern Iran.

Iranian archeologists working on the relics of the 5,000-year-old civilization argue this backgammon is much older than the one already discovered in Mesopotamia and their evidence is strong enough to claim the board game was first played in the Burnt City and then transferred to other civilizations.

Iran Oldest Game, "Backgammon" (via Boing Boing)

Which therefore clearly beats go in age.  However the title of oldest known board game still probably goes to Senet.

Agile Fun Night

My 'Agile Fun Night' appeared to manage to be true to its name, and generally seemed appreciated by the people I ran it for. 

I facilitated a version of 'Extreme Hour', with a warm up of 'pair drawing'.    Photos here. 

Tom summarises it very well.  I certainly enjoyed myself.  I wish that there had been more time for reflection on the process, interaction and achievements for both activities, but hopefully I will draw that out next time I run the session.

Of course, it just makes me increasingly tempted to set myself up as a consultant to help pay for my existence as a student...

Silent Sound

Along the length of the strip is a pattern of fine ridges or lines. Run your thumb nail along the ridges, and the tape speaks. However the sound needs to be magnified, so that you can hear it. One method is to hold one end of the strip between your teeth. Then, when you run your nail along the strip you hear it talk, but no-one else does.

Want.  Reminds me of my love for playing the oven shelf, and the joy of sound that only one person can hear.  (via Boing Boing)

Writing Gender

I'm curious about the algorithm which predicts gender based on writing style.  The Gender Genie doesn't seem too sure about my gender much of the time.  Must use less lists and more personal pronouns it seems.

Sometimes it's hard to be a woman (From the g):

Given the Gender Genie's hopeless record in identifying the sex of the Guardian's women columnists, it is tempting to write it off as a piece of rubbish. But it's not quite possible to do that, for its guesses have proven accurate in 72% of cases, which may be less than the 80% claimed, but is quite impressive all the same.

Maybe it just shows that Guardian women do not conform to the stereotypical perception of the differences between male and female uses of language. Maybe it shows that this newspaper's women columnists, unlike the women columnists on other publications, are not mainly interested in personal relationships. In My Fair Lady, Professor Higgins sings with exasperation, "Why can't a woman be more like a man?" If he had only met a few of the Guardian's female writers, he might have found that a woman can be just like a man when it comes to the matters that interest her.

Armoured Cats

Cats and Mice. Armoured.

Urban Lewes (Dead)

For the less dedicated, or less wealthy, there are games such as Urban Dead, a free, low-tech, text-based MMORPG, in which roughly fifty thousand characters, half of them human, half of them zombies – you can be turned from one to the other by being either killed or ‘revivified’ – struggle for control of a post-apocalyptic city called Malton. What sets these games apart is that the environment is defined not so much by a set of predetermined parameters as by the sum of the behaviour of the other players. In addition, the game’s mastermind – in the case of Urban Dead, someone from Lewes called Kevan Davis – is able to fine-tune the rules in response to player activity. A few months ago, for example, a large number of disgruntled zombies, who felt they were getting a raw deal compared to the humans, went on strike. They stopped attacking people and headed for a park in the centre of Malton where they held a mass demo. The high concentration of characters in one place caused problems for the server, and the refusal of so many to play – the strike received a huge amount of support, from zombies and humans alike – threatened to sink the game. Kevan (everyone’s on first-name terms in Malton) responded to their demands by improving the zombies’ lot; the strike came to an end; and, to celebrate, the zombies went on a rampage round the city, attacking each of the shopping malls in turn, in a campaign that became known as Mall Tour ’06, and once again significantly changed the dynamics of the game. It’s perhaps noteworthy that the zombies tend to have a much better sense of humour than their more po-faced human counterparts.
Thomas Jones: Diary.  Fabulous.  (Via James)

Process Indications

Q: How integral a role can the Device play in my secret plans to take over the world?             
A: The Device can be used for good or evil. Please only use the Device for good.

The Device (via Bifurcated Rivets) has the potential to be the best feedback device ever.  It could even beat the new nabaztag.