Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Space Invaders - The Google Wave Gadget

So, because I don’t waste nearly enough time doing unprofitable-but-obsessive nerd stuff, and (thankfully) because my Mafia Wars OCD has finally run its course, I have written a Google Wave Gadget.

Not just any gadget, mind you, but in fact a Space Invaders Gadget (patent pending) that you can drop directly into any Google Wave, share with your many Wave friends, and compete for high scores.

That’s correct. I have somehow managed to tap the incredibly lucrative market that is the intersection of the billions of Google Wave users and those who can’t get enough mini Space Invaders implementations embedded (for some reason) in a communications medium.

You can get the installer or the gadget here:

http://www.compuglobalhypermeganet.biz/si/

Screen shots:






Thursday, March 26, 2009

My Ironically Circular Irony

Earlier today I did a Google search on the words “Brent” and “ironic” with the assumption that my blog would be the first link, only to discover that my blog is the third link, with the first two being to archives of my blog at iterasi.net:
http://www.google.com/search?num=100&q=brent%20ironic

Archive of the Google search:


Perma-link to the archive of the Google search:
tiny: http://sqrl.it/?68afq
long: http://www.iterasi.net/openviewer.aspx?sqrlitid=mv6p13mfpkackhlo0hpanq

“So where’s the irony?” you may be asking. Well,
1) I work at iterasi, and I manage the iterasi.net website. We developed the technology that allows the archive to get a higher ranking than my original blog.
2) We periodically get take-down requests (which we always honor) from people who are displeased that our content is ranked higher than theirs (which I am), despite being a dated archive with attribution back to them.

I wondered how circular the references would get before Google would reprioritize my blog above the archive of my blog. So, I embedded two links to iterasi archives of the Google search and a link to the original Google search into this blog entry; like pointing a couple of mirrors at each other, creating an infinite recursion of references. Let's watch.

Extra references just for fun:

My personal website, that redirects to this blog:
http://www.brenttucker.com/

An archive of this blog entry:

tiny: http://sqrl.it/?f5axk
long: http://www.iterasi.net/openviewer.aspx?sqrlitid=7xemrmucok2cehqw1fkahg

PDF file of the post in case something falls apart somewhere:
http://www.brenttucker.com/MyIronicallyCircularIrony.pdf
archive: http://sqrl.it/?l19p9

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

My First 3D Self-Portrait

This is my first successful attempt at a 3D image of me. To see the 3D effect you need the promotional glasses popularized by Super Bowl XLIII (2/1/2009). If you threw yours away before watching a special 3D episode of “Chuck” then you made the right choice, but you won’t be able see any 3D in my picture. I watched that episode of “Chuck” with the glasses on. It was terrible. 3D did not help it at all.


If you are wondering where I am in this picture, I am standing in front of my wife’s 15 linear feet of hanger space in our closet. And that’s only half of it. Not pictured here: my 3 feet of space lodged in a corner behind the dresser. I have to move luggage to get to my suits, but I’m cool with it.
The significantly larger original is here:

Friday, January 16, 2009

Proofreading and sanity checks are overrated

Verizon FiOS, which I use as my ISP at home, has been a bit of a mixed bag for me. The speed is amazing, but reliability has been on the sketchy side. Verizon also did about $500 damage to my garage while installing the hardware, which they refuse to reimburse me for unless I give them my social security number since I apparently functioned as the “primary contractor” when I had it repaired. But that’s a different story.

Today my home network is completely offline; a problem Verizon acknowledges is on their side, and promise to repair by 6pm tonight. While awaiting the completion of the repairs I received an amusing email at work that I think sums up Verizon’s ability to identify with their customers, the first half of which is pictured here.

To sum up: The next time I can’t connect to the internet I should consult their website, which conveniently has a web page that will help me diagnose my problem, which I can’t access while not being on the internet.