8-bit Memories

I uncovered this picture while going through a pile of old 5.25" disks. It's my old Apple //e clone, circa 1984-5 on a mountaintop in Taiwan. Check out the bitchin' boom box!

I do see a couple interesting things on the right hand side: a map of either Bard's Tale or Wizardry, and my "hacking notebook", which contains entries like Adjusting Disk Drive Arm Seek Delay Table, Sector Edit for Sundog: Frozen Legacy More Cash, and Castle Wolfenstein Subroutine List. Yes, I was a huge nerd, but living on top of a mountain will do that to you.

Happy Talk Like A Pirate Day!

Today is, of course, Talk Like A Pirate Day! It's a great excuse to run around saying pirate words like ARRRR and AVAST. My vocabulary in this regard is pretty limited, so I'm cribbing from the glossary posted on TLAPD's translators page. You can also translate entire web pages, if you want to make your Sunday browsing extra special.

Completely awesome is this WordPress 1.2 plugin by Dougal Campbell. The automatic pirate text translation is via that plugin. It even automatically activates on TLAPD, which is September 19.

UPDATE: The filter has been turned off. Sorry!

Desktop Manufacturing

Wired has an article on Fab Labs. The Fab Labs, a project from MIT's Center for Bits and Atoms, has "about $20,000 dollars worth of equipment -- a 3-D milling machine, a table-top laser cutter, a computerized system for cutting and shaping plastic and other materials, along with associated computers, software, small electronics tools and component parts."

The idea of being able to design and output working 3d objects at your desk is pretty damn cool. I wonder if MIT gives tours? They're just an hour from here.