Category: Miscellaneous

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It’s a Big Ad – file under successful viral marketing.

This morning I came across a collection of reworked “Super Mario World” music. I was skeptical at first but these songs are fun to listen to and they bring back the nostalgia.

The complete soundtrack to Super Mario World, covered by one man using dozens of instruments. Roughly in game order, faithful to the originals, with some bizarre artistic license thrown around. A private hobby made public. Dedicated to Koji Kondo. –XOC

Playing them reminded me of a Super Nintendo contest I was in a few years ago (a few being somewhere around 15). It was held at the Medicine Hat Mall. Four different Super Nintendo consoles were setup to play the brand new Super Mario World.

When the contest started the rules dictated that the winner would be the player that was able to “get the farthest” in the game within a short period of time. Each of the four consoles would be run as if it were it’s own contest so even if you got the second farthest in the game, it was possible that the person who got the farthest could have done so on the same console as you and you would still lose.

It didn’t take long for the organizers to realize that in a game like Super Mario World, where the map is a kind of maze that requires backtracking and allows warping it was going to be pretty hard to figure out which player actually made it the farthest. So after about 4 or 5 people had played attempting to get the farthest, they changed the rules. Instead of distance traveled, the decision would be based on high score. Players with the highest score on their own console would win a free Super Nintendo.

My turn was just about to start, and let’s face it, I played a lot of Nintendo as a kid. I subscribed to Nintendo Power and I even scored the occasional blister from marathon sessions of Super Mario World. Not only did I possess a lot of game playing experience, but I also had a secret technique and I really wanted to win.

I raced through the first level in record time. Then instead of moving on to the next level, I re-entered the same level and picked up that famous first empty turtle shell and sent it flying through the 8 or so live turtles running up incremental runs of points: 100, 200, 400, 800, 1000, 2000, 4000, 8000, 1Up! Then came my secret: start followed by select. It was documented right in the instruction manual, (who reads video game manuals anyway?), pressing Start and then Select on a level you have previously cleared will bring you right out to the world map. So that was it, kill 9 turtles in one go, rinse, and repeat.

I totally clobbered any previously imaginable high score. It was insane! After about 5 minutes of running up my score the “judges” decided that what I was doing wasn’t fair to the people who initially thought they had to get as far as they could through the map so they told me to stop doing my trick, that I had obviously won and that now I should just go for distance.

My instructions were to go right. When I tried to go for the block palace (left) they told me that I had to go right. I think they might have thought I was going back into the first level. Anyway assured that I had won the contest, what did it matter?

I never won the contest. I had the second highest score of the day but I would not be going home with any of the four Super Nintendos. Apparently some other smart fellow did my trick as well and on the same console as me. The judges insisted it was all fair because they only let him do it up to the same amount of points that I did it for. Of course after he was done he went to the block palace and got the high bonus points for completing that level.

The lesson to be learned from all of this? Video game contests in the early 90’s were rarely fair. Judges always seem to be changing the rules mid-stream and they didn’t really know what they are doing in general. It doesn’t really matter that I didn’t win a Super Nintendo – I already had one, but still I felt ripped off. If you ever run a contest, try and be as fair as possible by deciding the rules ahead of time, thinking about what could go wrong by actually trying the game yourself and once the contest has started stick to your plan.

My day included:

• Cashing two cheques! (yay)
• Paying off my summer class tuition (boo)
• Browsing Chapters (meh – nothing to interesting)
• Shopping at the brand new Superstore that opened today and having my mom buy me food (yay)
• eating corn on the cob with my parents (yay)
• cleaning the house and spilling a bucket of mop water all over the floor (boo)
• Trying not to think about you know who (meh – breaking up still sucks)
• Blogging about my day (yay)

Well that’s about it. Hope you had a good Friday. Here is your moment of zen: Redneck montage.

It’s been a long week. My job at the University is done and now I’m just sort of coasting until the Fall Semester starts in September. I’m in Medicine Hat for a few days for a family reunion. I’ve been taking a few pictures and this afternoon I went golfing at Paradise Valley. The photo above is one I took of my sister’s son Ryker. What a cutie.

This is another piece of artwork that I have been working on, now and then, for the last couple days. Feel free to let me know what you think.

According to TheDamnBlog you can hack an elevator by pressing the door close button and the floor of your choice at the same time, then the elevator will whisk you to your floor without stopping at any other floors.

From the site:

“The designers of some elevators include a hidden feature that is very handy if you’re in a hurry or it’s a busy time in the building (like check-out time in a hotel). While some elevators require a key, others can be put into “Express” mode by pressing the “Door Close” and “Floor” buttons at the same time. This sweeps the car to the floor of your choice and avoids stops at any other floor.
This seems to work on Most elevators that I have tried! Most elevators have the option for this to work, but on some of them the option is turned off by whoever runs them. This is a rather fun hack, so the next time you are on an elevator, give it a try, you have nothing to lose, And this concludes Hacking Elevators 101!

Elevators that have been tested and worked on:
Otis Elevators (All But The Ones Made In 1992),
Dover (Model Numbers: EL546 And ELOD862),
And Most Desert Elevators(All, But Model Numbers ELD5433 And ELF3655) “

Next elevator I ride in, I’m totally trying this.

(via Kottke)

In a move to prevent communication between it’s employees and their union leaders, Telus blocked subscribers’ access to a Web site set up by an employee labor union intended to publicize the union’s views about its dispute with Telus. As a result Telus also blocked access to at least 766 additional, unrelated Web sites.

What a terrible and ridiculous thing to do! Telus is playing very dirty. Why do we stand for it? This is inexcusable: imagine if Telus chose to block all calls into union headquarters. Then ask yourself how is this any different?

So I decided instead of just whining about it, I would actually try and do something by lodging a complaint with the CRTC. What I discovered on their website kind of surprised me:

You may not be aware that the Commission does not regulate the rates, quality of service or business practices for Internet Service Providers and cannot pursue complaints on these matters on your behalf.

The CRTC doesn’t care about business practices for ISP’s, and unless what they are doing is illegal, there doesn’t seem like there is much you can do.

Illegal actions fall under the Criminal Code of Canada or other federal statutes. Consumers concerned about possible illegal actions should contact the appropriate enforcement authorities.

I’m not even sure if what they are doing is illegal, and it’s not like I’m going to call them on it if it is. I should probably get a backbone and show my disapproval of their actions by switching providers.

Just now I stumbled upon Robert J. Lang’s amazing origami site. Robert creates the most fantastic things out of paper.

Having been working with vector shapes a lot yesterday, I was getting pretty frustrated when trying to switch between tools quickly. Though it’s not in the menu commands or tool tips within Photoshop, I found this table of helpful hints in the help file. I realize that for most people it’s going to be pretty boring content, but for me, it’ll be a handy resource for vector art (and most likely easier to find than looking it up in the help file).

Result	Windows	Mac OS
Select multiple anchor points	Direct selection tool + Shift-click	Direct selection tool + Shift-click
Select entire path	Direct selection tool + Alt-click	Direct selection tool + Option-click
Duplicate a path	Pen (any pen tool), Path Selection or Direct Selection tool + Control + Alt-drag	Pen (any pen tool), Path Selection or Direct Selection tool+ Command + Option-drag
Switch from Path Selection, Pen, Add Anchor Point, Delete Anchor Point, or Convert Point tools, to Direct Selection tool	Control	Command
Switch from Pen tool or Freeform Pen tool to Convert Point tool when pointer is over anchor or direction point	Alt	Option
Close path with straight-line segment	Magnetic Pen tool + Alt-double-click	Magnetic Pen tool + Option-double-click