Some Facebookery
Here are some brief items of interest that I have accrued as a Facebook user.
There is a Facebook application called “My Questions” which allows you to…ask questions. Your friend can then…answer the questions. I hope you don’t need more explanation than that.
Anyway, I posted a question, “Explain this picture in 25 words or less” with the following picture:
My brother, ever the clever one, posted the following explanation. By jingo, I think he got it!
Shortly after that, I was challenged to a quiz about Ashley Tisdale by my sister. Who’s Ashley Tisdale? Beats me, but I accepted the challenge. The writer of this quiz is either a non-native English speaker, brain damaged, or possibly both. Here’s the last question on the quiz, for instance:
So, here’s what I now know about Ashley Tisdale:
- She likes to do shopping
- She does not likes to go to the beach
- She does not likes to singin’ in the house
- She does not likes to ride the car (who does, really?)
- She has no friends (or she doesn’t likes them)
Why she is quiz-worthy remains a mystery to me.
Open Tuesday Tube
Missed the last Tuesday Tube? Head over to the tag search for ‘tuesday tube’ and browse through the archives.
In this week’s Tuesday Tube, I reach a whole new level of laziness.
Instead of dictating what Tubes that you should enjoy this week, I’m instead asking you to share a Tube or two of your own.
That’s right, just paste the URL of a link to YouTube, LiveLeak, Google Video, etc. into a comment with a short, witty description.
I’ll post an example comment to get you started.
MatthewKGroves.com is now live
The site that Ali & I created for our son (due on May 1st, 2008) is now live and functional.
If you are interested, I direct you to MatthewKGroves.com.
If you aren’t interested, you’ll be glad to know that 90% of news regarding my son will be relegated to that site.
Also, I’m trying to figure out what picture to put in place of the rubber duck on the top left. Once Matthew is born, that will be a picture of him, of course. Until then, an ultrasound picture doesn’t really look right in that spot. Any suggestions?
Weekend Update: Jan 25-27
This is the Weekend Update for the weekend of January 25th through January 27th.
Missed the last Weekend Update? Check out the Weekend Update archives.
Ali & I spent a lot of time this weekend “catching up” on movies. We watched Cloverfield, I Am Legend, and Juno. As I type this, Ali is watching 27 Dresses, a movie that I refuse to watch on the grounds that it might kill me.
Cloverfield was pretty good. I Am Legend didn’t seem to have a lot to offer beyond other zombie movies like 28 Days and what not, but that doesn’t mean it’s bad. Juno is a movie that is just sopping wet with clever dialog. This movie is about and indy and pretentious as anything else. The soundtrack can be very trying, but it probably won’t get on your nerves until the very last scene.
As for 27 Dresses, well, the less said about it the better.
I watched all these movies courtesy of the new DivX/XviD capability of the Xbox 360, which I couldn’t get to work before. The problem turned out to be completely my fault, but I think I shall also blame it party on the usuability faults of the Xbox 360 dashboard, which I have railed against in the past.
I read this incredibly awful case for a marketing class. It’s an HBS case, which are usually bearable, but this one was just tripe. It’s about this ridiculous Dutch consulting company that’s so bohemian, it makes Apple look like Philip Morris. (Chew on that metaphor for a while, and if you don’t enjoy it, please return the unused portion). Anyway, the main problem with it is that there’s about 1 page of interesting stuff in with about 5 pages of bunk. I don’t know, it’s probably fine, but it put me in a foul mood for whatever reason.
Okay, now I just watched Superbad, which is very much like Super Troopers (especially the two cops), except much more vile. It had some very good laughs.
Now I’m about to watch Spiderman 3. Nothing but movies and homework this weekend.
Speedlinking, January 25th, 2008
Speedlinking is yet another tool of the lazy blogger. Basically I smash together a bunch of interesting links that I collect every so often, and write a sentence or two about them.
- Having a baby soon? I know I am. Here are some helpful tips about raising a child.
- Dragon Quest Swords looks like my next must-have Wii game. In other news, the video is totally corny, but does a good job of showing off the game and gameplay.
- World of Goo is an interesting looking title for the Wii. It reminds me of goofy but addicting flash games.
Dramatic software tools
Finally, actual technology has caught up with movie technology.
You can now run a dramatic, visual traceroute courtesy of a Google Maps mashup at YouGetSignal.com.
Now all we need is a tool to enhance low-res surveillance cam footage to high-res 10 megapixel images (with a frantic keypressing interface) like so:
Detective: Let’s look at the security cam footage.
Police computer guy: Okay. Instead of using a mouse to pull it up, I will type entirely too much.
Detective: I think that’s him right there. Can we zoom in?
Police computer guy: Okay, let’s zoom in on his face using more typing. Apparently, I know a lot of keyboard shortcuts.
Police computer guy: Here’s a close-up of his face.
Detective: Hmm. Can you enhance that image?
Police computer guy: What a great suggestion. How stupid of me not to realize that this blocky, zoomed image is worthless. Let me type a little bit more to enhance that picture. Here you go:
Detective: Can I get a “hard copy”, which is computer guy lingo for “print out”?
TV producer: This show sure is hip and high-tech!
People are a problem
“One of the many major problems with governing people is that of whom you get to do it; or rather of who manages to get people to let them do it to them.”
“To summarize: it is a well-known fact that those people who most want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it.”
“To summarize the summary: anyone capable of getting themselves made President should by no means be allowed to do the job.”
“To summarize the summary of the summary: people are a problem.”
Today, Fred Thompson has quit the presidential race. Maybe someone will pick him up as a VP candidate as a token gesture to the real conservatives. Or maybe Obama will pick him us a VP candidate to truly express his “post-partisan” politics.
*Sigh*
Game King-II update
Here is an update on the Game King-II.
Thanks to many loyal mgroves.com readers, there’s a lot of new information for this enigmatic device.
First, I’d like to list all the previous Game King-II posts, in order of oldest to newest:
- PMP Game King II
- Game King-II: First thoughts
- Game King-II: A full review
- Game King-II: Emulation
- Game King-II battery mod
So, if you haven’t read all of those, go back and review them. Your question might have already been answered! Also, check out the Game King-II Wikipedia page and also the Game King-II Wikispaces page (created by TKF15H, one of the very helpful mgroves.com readers).
Note that most of this information comes from commenters on this site.
- The Game King-II does not work with a Mac. To get around this, you can
use an SD Card and then copy data from the SD Card to the internal storage. - If you have lost or didn’t get the disc that came with the Game King-II, you can
download the movie converter software here. Please note that while
I have been using this program for some time now that I do not promise that the
software will work and I do not promise that it won’t turn your computer into a
smoldering heap. You have been warned. - Someone posted an “unboxing” video of the Game King-II on YouTube.
It’s very entertaining and informative. Thank you kinglager, whoever you are. - There are at least two models of this specific Game King-II: the black and the white one. SkyFire2001
somehow managed to find the manufacturer: Fujiyama.
Bizarrely enough (is anything not bizarre with the Game King-II), there’s a whole different fake screenshot
in their stock photo, and it’s the black model. - There’s a whole website dedicated to “MP4″ players: MyMxPlayer.org.
- Besides posting the above link, MNintGamer posted a list of SNES ROMs that (according to him) play okay
on the Game King-II. For the full list, check out his comment. - jnjy posted some great pictures of the insides of the Game King-II.
His pictures were the impetus for me to do the battery mod. - According to DJ, a 4-gig SD card will work (albeit a bit slow).
- NGF makes an exciting claim that the Game King-II can connect to your TV. Basically,
he claims that you just stick a standard Y-adapter (picture below) into the headphone jack of the Game King.
Then, just use RCA cables to connect “red” on the Y-adapter to “yellow” on the TV and “white” on the Y-adapter
to “white” on your TV. I haven’t tried this yet, so do so at your own risk.
- There are all kinds of sound bugs with the emulator. For instance, to get sound to work on a GBC game,
open an NES game, increase the volume, then load the GBC game (TKF15H). - Some Game Kings apparently have some games that ship with them. I wasn’t able to play these
games for some reason, but Luke was kind enough to post some of
these “32-bit Sunmedia” games if you want to give it a try. - To access the firmware, plug the USB cord into the Game King while it is off. Hold
down “esc” while turning on the device. Now you should have access to the firmware. If you are going to
do this and mess with the firmware, MAKE A BACKUP. Also, if you have a version other than “SDK-1.56″, there
are a lot of interested people who would like a copy of your firmware. You can upload it here
or email it to me at webmaster@mgroves.com. - TKF15H wrote a program that allows you to change the start-up screen on your Game King
once you have access to the firmware. The speed at which he wrote it worries me, and I think maybe he needs
to get out more. (Just kidding, dude!) You can get his C++ source
code for the program at the Wikispace he created.
Phew! I think that’s everything. Feel free to add omissions or new information to the comments below.
As you can see, there’s a scrappy, but thriving community of Game King-II enthusiasts. Maybe it’s time for you
to join our ranks!
Tuesday Tube: non-themed
Missed the last Tuesday Tube? Head over to the tag search for ‘tuesday tube’ and browse through the archives.
This week’s Tuesday Tube videos are interesting and funny. I’m really struggling with getting a “theme” Tuesday Tube recently. Oh well. I guess that makes me a bad writer.
This next video is a triumph. I’m making a note here: NSFW.
Doc Ock rocks the block.
This next guy is 7’7″ and plays basketball. I am 6’5″ and I do not play basketball. The next person who asks me that, I’m going to ask him if he is a jockey.
data="http://www.liveleak.com/player.swf?autostart=false&token=dcb_1200881104">
This is an example of “good casting”, but not much else.
This is an example of “terrible dancing, music, and costumes”, but at least it has Raquel Welch.
Thanks for watching. I’ve actually got a very good Tuesday Tube theme brewing, but
it will take a lot of work. Until then, just enjoy these grab bags.
Buy my book!
