March 31, 2006

Bagley Cartoon

From the Salt Lake Tribune

Study fails to show healing power of prayer - Yahoo! News

Study fails to show healing power of prayer - Yahoo! News: "A study of more than 1,800 patients who underwent heart bypass surgery has failed to show that prayers specially organized for their recovery had any impact, researchers said Thursday."

March 30, 2006

The Emperor Has No Votes

Inspired by this
Once upon a time, things were peaceful at Castle Dale. Every few years, just before Election Day, the people would gather in Ward houses to find out whom they should vote for. And every year, Bishops across the land would gently remind the faithful that there wasn’t really a CHOICE to make, just a correct answer to indicate. And the people were happy, confident that their votes would be counted equally when sending off their representatives with super-majorities.
Then one day a swindler arrived from the far off land of Diebold, promising that their magical machines could offer the most magnificent elections ever seen. Not only were there no messy ballots to keep track of, but the machines had the added virtue of keeping their votes invisible to anyone stupid or faithless enough to doubt them. “What a splendid idea, and what a useful device” the emperors’ thought. “If we had such a machine, we could know at once which of our people is too faithless or independent for his post. Not wanting to appear quaint, and ever mindful of the need to appear progressive, the emperors gave the men from Diebold 27 million gold coins, and they promptly returned with their magical new machines.
Over the months, one elections official after another began to look at the new machines. They didn’t know how the machines worked, and even when they tried to look closely, they still couldn’t see the votes. But no one wanted to appear stupid or faithless, so they all said “these machines truly are magnificent!” Until one day, a simple and honest official named Bruce went to work to prepare for the upcoming elections. Bruce had been doing his job for most of his life, and he loved sorting out a contested primary, so he thought it strange that his shiny new machine seemed to have an old memory. Bruce was confused, but he didn’t want to appear faithless, so he quietly summoned patriots from a distant land that could help him understand his machine.
News of the patriots’ arrival spread quickly, and the men from Diebold swooped back to Castle Dale. They reminded the emperors that only those with the digital Urim and Thummim could look at the machines without sin. So they were whisked away for exorcism, and Bruce was made to stand day and night before the inquisition until he resigned his post.
Eventually Bruce returned to his job, his skepticism washed clean with home teaching, and Castle Dale returned to normal. At last, (primary) Election Day arrived. The people finally got to see the new machines, and even push their shiny buttons. The polls closed, and the men from Diabold came to peek into the magical boxes. People gasped when it was announce that LaDell Smith had defeated LaVron Smith, even though LaDell jr. had returned home early from his mission. A few people even started to wonder if their votes had really counted, but Bruce’s kids were still having a hard time in seminary, so the skeptics kept their concerns to themselves.
Once upon a time, things were peaceful at Castle Dale. The people were happy, and they still are, fairly confident that their emperors magical machines from Diebold will count some of the votes when sending off their ‘representatives’ with super majorities.

March 24, 2006

AVR Butterfly MP3

AVR Butterfly MP3: "The main goal of this project is to create an open design for a portable MP3 player, in both hardware and software. The secondary goal of this project is to make it as simple to construct, and as cheap, as possible."

March 21, 2006

Keyring Kite

Keyring Kite - I Want One Of Those

Little Red Schoolhouse

Little Red Schoolhouse: About: "Teachers tell us about children showing up the first day of school without any supplies. Dressed in inadequate or ragged clothing, they often avoid school activities because they are embarrassed to be seen. Not having paper to take notes, or crayons to contribute to the class pool, may seem small, but to kids who are already struggling, having the basic supplies and clean, decent clothing can make a HUGE difference!"

March 16, 2006

A Tight Squeeze: The Making Of Accordion Hero

Gamasutra - Schadenfreudian Slips Postmortem - "A Tight Squeeze: The Making Of Accordion Hero Our beautiful Black Forest region is known for fine cuckoo clocks, delicious cake, and accordion music (most of you will probably only be familiar with the cake). Like wearing socks with our sandals, accordion music is part of being German. Most of us here at Schadenfreude Interactive studied accordion as children, playing in the school band, at the local beergarten, and on streetcorners at night in return for spare pfennigs (at least this is what Lothar did, as his parents were very neglectful). Our sound engineer, Alex Voll mit Aalen, is a professional accordion player who has toured with The Titisee-Neustadt Children's Orchestra, Ratte-Salat, and Bavarian-Turner Overdrive. Plus, everyone knows that accordion players get all the girls (I assume this would hold for the ladies as well, as accordion playing calls attention to the bosom in a delightful manner). We wanted to bring this experience to gamers everywhere."

March 15, 2006

Edge: WHY GORDIAN SOFTWARE HAS CONVINCED ME TO BELIEVE IN THE REALITY OF CATS AND APPLES

From Edge: "Wouldn't it be nicer to have a computer that's almost completely reliable almost all the time, as opposed to one that can be hypothetically perfectly accurate, in some hypothetical ideal world other than our own, but in reality is prone to sudden, unpredictable, and often catastrophic failure in actual use?"

March 08, 2006

Simple Skype VoIP analog adapter

GRYNX � Simple Skype VoIP analog adapter: "It’s a very cheap Skype/VoIP interface to your wired or wireless phone."

March 07, 2006

reputation economies

The Escapist - Game Design in the Transfigured World: "new reputation economies will pervasively reshape culture as dramatically as the invention of money. Entirely novel kinds of human interaction will spawn new social classes, power structures and lifestyles. Reputation economies will be abstractions of relationships, in the same way that money abstracts material wealth and labor."

Why Looking for Venture Capital is Like Picking Up Girls

Funny: @costik.com