The Tlog - a technology blog » Fun stuff

Avast, ye landlubbers! Shiver me timbers!

Pedro Timóteo — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 13:38:09 +0000

Yes, today is International Talk Like A Pirate Day!

Ahoy there, and all that.

Twitter

Best video game title ever?

Pedro Timóteo — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 20:45:59 +0000

Ah, the eighties.

For the Portuguese-speaking paranoids out there…

Pedro Timóteo — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 22:11:16 +0000

… go read this post of mine (including the comments).

You’ll never look at a blog that hasn’t had any new posts for a while the same way again.

Second level on Dante’s Inferno. Not bad. :)

Pedro Timóteo — Sun, 10 Jun 2007 21:16:13 +0000

The Dante’s Inferno Test has banished you to the Second Level of Hell!
Here is how you matched up against all the levels:

Level	Score
Purgatory (Repenting Believers)	Very Low
Level 1 – Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers)	Very Low
Level 2 (Lustful)	Very High
Level 3 (Gluttonous)	High
Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious)	High
Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy)	High
Level 6 – The City of Dis (Heretics)	Very High
Level 7 (Violent)	High
Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers)	Moderate
Level 9 – Cocytus (Treacherous)	High

Take the Dante’s Divine Comedy Inferno Test

“Lustful”? Moi?

Dealing with a PHB

Pedro Timóteo — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 14:02:37 +0000

Dilbert (unlike, say, Wally) tends to be quite naive from time to time, but for once he achieved true genius.

Twitter

Pedro Timóteo — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 12:24:52 +0000

I know, I know, Twitter is last week’s news, so I’m late. Sue me.

Twitter is a system where you can tell, easily and quickly (for instance, by instant messaging, or cell phone), what you’re doing. You can also “follow” other users.

Anyway, I just joined. My username is “Dehumanizer”; feel free to add me (I like to convince myself that people are actually interested ).

Twitter, at first glance, looks a little fun (it’s a new thing, after all), but completely useless, and even a bit self-masturbatory. However, looking at how other people use it, I’ve found that it’s not just for telling the world about useless stuff like “I’m going to the toilet”. People are using it as a mini-blog of sorts – with quick 1-2 line posts. Unlike a “normal” blog post, a Twitter post is so short that you can simply write something you’ve just thought or done, without interrupting your normal flow.

It’s also a way to, in a way, keep in touch with people, even if you don’t usually talk to each other, such as former co-workers.

Anyway, we’ll see if I keep using it or not. I probably will, but not “religiously”.

Click on the Blue E

Pedro Timóteo — Tue, 27 Jun 2006 15:06:22 +0000

Unix and Windows admins

Pedro Timóteo — Wed, 14 Jun 2006 15:45:00 +0000

“A Unix admin needs to be root. A Windows admin needs to reboot.”

(seen as a Slashdot sig)

Computers and the Internet according to "normal" users

Pedro Timóteo — Tue, 04 Apr 2006 16:30:39 +0000

Yes, it’s a new mini-site! This time, with a bit of humor to it (reminds me of the “Customerese-Portuguese” dictionary I wrote when I worked at IP Global).

So, here it is: Computers and the Internet according to “normal” users.

To give you a taste…

Computers get slower and slower with time; this is perfectly normal, and the only thing to do is to go to the store, and get them to format and reinstall everything (which isn’t a problem, because other than Windows, Office, all those cool toolbars and that nice purple ape buddy, there isn’t anything installed).

Computers ask “Are you sure?”, and similar questions, all the time, because they’re made for idiots. Since you’re an intelligent and educated person, you know that you can always simply click on “Yes”, without reading. It certainly saves time.

…and I shall DESTROY THE WORLD!!!

Pedro Timóteo — Wed, 29 Mar 2006 10:24:26 +0000

I absolutely loved this guide on how to destroy the Earth. From the intro:

This is not a guide for wusses whose aim is merely to wipe out humanity. I (Sam Hughes) can in no way guarantee the complete extinction of the human race via any of these methods, real or imaginary. Humanity is wily and resourceful, and many of the methods outlined below will take many years to even become available, let alone implement, by which time mankind may well have spread to other planets; indeed, other star systems. If total human genocide is your ultimate goal, you are reading the wrong document. There are far more efficient ways of doing this, many which are available and feasible RIGHT NOW. Nor is this a guide for those wanting to annihilate everything from single-celled life upwards, render Earth uninhabitable or simply conquer it. These are trivial goals in comparison.

This is a guide for those who do not want the Earth to be there anymore.

Long, but a great read.

UserFriendly on blogging

Pedro Timóteo — Mon, 06 Mar 2006 18:42:02 +0000

Blogging tips #8: Configuring the RSS feed

Chess

Pedro Timóteo — Thu, 23 Feb 2006 14:31:35 +0000

I love chess. I’ve loved it since I was 10 years old or so. I’m not a great player, mostly due to laziness, and have never played in any competition, nor been a part of any club. And , sometimes, I stop playing for months, even years.

But I still love the game. It relaxes me, and keeps my mind “in shape”

These days, I mostly play on GameKnot, because 1) it’s web-based, and 2) it’s not in real time (it’s more like “correspondence chess”), so I can just make my moves whenever I’m online, and not worry about them when I’m not.

Unfortunately, I know, personally, very few people who like chess, and yet it’s more fun to play against people you know (even if just from “the Net”) than against total strangers. So, if you’d like to play against a 1250-1300 player, feel free to go to GameKnot (it’s free, though there are some extras available to paying subscribers) and challenge me – I’m “dehumanizer“, there.

See you on the chessboard…

New Portuguese Nintendo DS forum

Pedro Timóteo — Thu, 29 Dec 2005 12:25:24 +0000

For Portuguese-speaking readers: I’ve just created a new phpBB forum, Nintendo DS – Portugal.

It’s still in the beginning, but I hope it’ll be successful – and I hope that I don’t own the only Nintendo DS in Portugal.

So, if you speak Portuguese, and have a Nintendo DS or are considering buying one, you’ll be welcome there.

Geek humor: from the OpenBSD mailing list

Pedro Timóteo — Thu, 15 Dec 2005 17:15:20 +0000

Original post:

OpenBSD 3.8:

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sd0c bs=1024k

6MB/s

Linux 2.4:

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=1024k

53MB/S

Any clue about the difference? Of course I’m also interested in different ways to do this but the difference is what puzzles me.

And one of the replies:

They have a superior /dev/zero

The White House’s robots.txt

Pedro Timóteo — Tue, 13 Dec 2005 15:21:05 +0000

Take a look at it.

“Crawlers? We don’t want no stinking crawlers around here!”

(seen on BlogSEO)

Mouse 1.0: Escape to Windows

Pedro Timóteo — Sun, 11 Dec 2005 11:14:10 +0000

I have to admit, Mouse 1.0: Escape to Windows, a flash game, is quite fun.

Saw the link on Mário Lopes’ blog.

New blog: "The Games of my Life"

Pedro Timóteo — Sat, 15 Oct 2005 15:05:55 +0000

I’ve been in the mood to write about computer/video games – including old, 80s games. But I don’t want to innundate this blog with those posts, so, I’ve created another blog (hmm, that’s a subject for a future “Blogging Tips” article…): The Games of my Life.

In it, I’ll write about games. A lot of nostalgia, but there’ll also be new (or even future) hits. I’ve been a gamer for 25 years, so I think I have a lot of material to write.

Sid Meier’s Civilization IV

Pedro Timóteo — Thu, 13 Oct 2005 12:49:59 +0000

It’s almost out… about one week remaining. Here’s the new Civilization IV web site.

And a screenshot:

If it’s as addictive as the first 2 Civs, or as Alpha Centauri… I foresee unslept nights ahead.

Attack of the Mutant Zombie Flesh-eating Marios from Mars

Pedro Timóteo — Wed, 12 Oct 2005 22:51:21 +0000

For some reason, I found this page absurdly funny. Saw the link on The Tao of Mac.

Try to identify as many of them as you can. Or find them by name. Have you found the Spock Mario yet? The Kill Bill Mario? The Vampire Mario?

OK, I’ll stop now.

Software I like #6: Spectrian

Pedro Timóteo — Sun, 09 Oct 2005 12:02:03 +0000

(NOTE: this is part of the “Software I like” series)

Spectrian is a ZX Spectrum emulator for Symbian (Series 60 and UIQ) mobile phones.

There’s not much to say, since it works perfectly. Among its features, it emulates almost every Spectrum, from the 48k to the +2A (not the 16k or the +3, though), at full speed, including the Speccy 128k’s sound chip. It’s really like having a Spectrum inside your phone. There are thousands of games freely available at World of Spectrum. And no, I don’t work for them, nor is this an affiliate link.

Pokey has Unternet

Pedro Timóteo — Fri, 23 Sep 2005 15:21:06 +0000

Pokey rules!

(It’s not obvious, but in the 3rd panel, the Little Girl speaks before Pokey.)

Zombie Infection Simulation(s)

Pedro Timóteo — Tue, 13 Sep 2005 14:22:29 +0000

New category: “Fun stuff”. And, to innaugurate it…

It’s a little old, but I only found out about it yesterday: the original Zombie Infection Simulation. It’s in Java, and it simulates an outbreak, beginning in a city with hundreds of humans and one zombie. Humans are faster, and those who see the zombie panic and flee in terror; those the zombie catches are infected, and turn into new zombies.

That simulation is quite fun to watch. However, it’s a little limited, because it always ends up the same way: 100% zombies, zero humans.

And so, here is the improved Zombie Infection Simulation: “zombies fight back” version!

In this version, the humans may decide to fight back (but mostly panic and run, as before), and if they do so, they have a 50% chance of killing the zombie. That chance increases as the number of humans diminishes (supposedly, the few remaining humans are now well aware of zombies, and how to kill them). This creates some interesting scenarios: sometimes the outbreak is stopped at the beginning, sometimes humans get extinct as before, and you can end up with short groups of “zombie hunters” in an undead world, who kill a lot of them before they die.

Really fun to watch. To me, at least.