There have been countless times when friends or family have asked me to help them setup their home network. Something that comes in extremely handy is a list of default passwords for a huge selection of routers—hopefully including theirs, without which you might actually have to read an instruction manual.
Name Games
I’ve come up with a few more versions of the “name the provinces/states/countries” game. I’ll list them all here :
- Australian States
- Argentine Provinces
- European Union Member States
- Canadian Provinces and Territories
- African Countries
Have fun, don’t be shy, and let me know what you think and how well you did.
Nintendo Entertainment System Documentary
It’s hard to believe that the Nintendo Entertainment System was released 21 years ago. Last year, GameSpot sponsored a documentary celebrating the early years of Nintendo.
I particularly enjoyed the demonstrations of how to make your Nintendo cartridges run. I recall that for the first few years of Nintendo playing at our house we never had to blow on the games, I guess it was only in the later years (early 90’s) when games weren’t babied so much that dust was allowed to collect on the exposed circuit boards, and the ritual of blowing on games before you loaded them began.
Here it is, Flashback NES:
Hit play or watch fullscreen at Google Video.
Lunar Eclipse
On Saturday and Sunday we, the human population, had an opportunity to see the moon completed blotted out by Earth’s shadow in one of those rare events known as a Lunar eclipse. Personally I’ve always thought solar eclipses to be the more interesting variety and so I never even bothered looking for the moon over the weekend.
However, thanks to the power of modern computing, here is an animated version of the entire phenomena, for those like myself that want all the reward without any of the effort.
I have to admit, the orange glow that appears on the moon during the middle of the action is kind of cool.
Stop and Go Snickers Ad
Here is an interesting use of camera tracking, 3d animation, and possibly some motion capture: Snickers Stop and Go ad. It scores points for being new and different, but as Matt Haughey observes, “the message is: nothing makes me hungrier for a Snickers bar than beating the piss out of someone within an inch of their life.”
Uploaded by Razorbuzz
Hit play or watch at Daily Motion.
Name 50 States in 10 Minutes or 13 Provinces and Territories in 2
Can you name 50 US states in 10 Minutes? Here’s a hint, if you get stuck think about the property names in Monopoly. I got 32 out of 50 on my first try.
I hope no one minds, but I converted the 50 States in 10 minutes game into a Canadian version: 13 Provinces and Territories in 2 minutes.
Update: See my list of other versions of the game.
Ira Glass on Storytelling
Ira Glass bequeaths the tricks of the trade in four YouTube videos that are extremely interesting, whether or not your are in the publishing/podcasting/video making business.
… It is your job to be kind of ruthless and to understand that either you don’t have a sequence of actions — you don’t have the story part that works or you don’t have a moment of reflection that works and you’re going to need both, and in a good story you’re gonna flip back and forth between the two like to be a little bit of action and someone will say something about it and then a little more action and someone will say something and it and that’s really like a lot of the trick of the whole thing you know is to have the perseverance that if you’ve got an interesting anecdote that you also uh… can end up with an interesting moment of reflection that will support it and then the two together interwoven into three minutes or six minutes or however long your story is will make something that’s larger than the sum of its parts.
(Via Kottke)
Jason Scott on Wikipedia Editor Essjay
Jason Scott has written a great article on Wikipedia’s latest controversy.
A popular editor of Wikipedia was hired by the Wikia company and in doing so revealed that he wasn’t a guy with some college degrees but in fact was a 24-year old kid from Kentucky. This made a lot of people unhappy, and in the ensuing discussions, Jimbo Wales and strongly alleganced Wikipedians have tried to downplay it, mostly because that position’s always worked before. It’s not working as well this time.
As an aside, I should mention that Jason’s site, ascii.textfiles.com has become a favorite of mine lately and I enjoy pretty much everything about it.
Update: Jimbo Wales has asked Essjay to step down. Jason Scott has a great follow-up.
Link rot. Here is the post from the Wayback Machine.
The Danish Poet
Please enjoy the beautiful Oscar winning animated short, The Danish Poet. It’s done in a very traditional Canadian animation style and has a storyline that will melt even the coldest of hearts.
The Danish Poet, Torill Kove, provided by the National Film Board of Canada
Richard Dawkins’ Nice Guys Finish First
When I was enrolled in University, one of the classes I wanted to take was Philosophy of Game Theory. Unfortunately, disillusioned by my lack of interest after taking the introductory class (a prerequisite) I decided that Philosophy wasn’t for me after all.
Game Theory (Wikipedia) however, is still a very fascinating topic. Couple that with an interest in biology, sociology, and economics and the short documentary, “Nice Guys Finish First“, by Richard Dawkins becomes a tremendously interesting look at how selfish and altruistic behavior can be the greatest benefit or harm to the individual—and consequently also to the group.
Hit Play or Watch at Google Video.