Bloggranddaughter Mrs. Who of House of Zathras complained of being out of toilet paper.

On a whim, I Googled "virtual toilet paper".

Found this.

I tell ya, we live in an age of miracles. Celebrate it.

Posted by: Harvey at 10:32 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I was curious what a good typing speed is for two thumbs on a full-qwerty phone keyboard, because I figured it'd be WAY slower than 10-finger.

Apparently not.

These guys are doing 35-70.

Huh.

Anyway, if you want to learn how to touch-type on your phone keyboard, here's a nice tutorial that promises to get you up to speed in 2 weeks, assuming you can already touch-type on a normal keyboard.

Posted by: Harvey at 07:44 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Squeez-Bacon

[Hat tip: Lynn of Violins & Starships]

Posted by: Harvey at 07:58 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Via wRitErsbLock of Pereiraville, I've become aware of Etsy, which is essentially Ebay for handmade items.

Now, I don't do scrapbooking or quiltmaking or needlepoint, and I generally prefer to have my candy manufactured in inadequately ventilated factories by underpaid illegal immigrants. However, I realize that this site might have some appeal for those readers who have crafty inclinations, so I'm spreading the word.

Stylin' Doggies has a store there, so you can ask Quality Weenie about it if you're curious.

Posted by: Harvey at 07:19 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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[Via Shamus of Twenty Sided] The rock band Weezer released a halfway decent song called Pork and Beans, the video for which contains references to 28 popular internet meme videos.

I've seen 16 of them before.

Score that a solid 57%, and I think this means my geek street cred is now somewhat in question.

Although to be fair to myself, I'd actually been tempted to click a link to Chocolate Rain before, but deliberately chose not to.

Posted by: Harvey at 09:30 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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The 10,000 Page Coloring Book.

Abstract line drawings that you can print out and crayon to death.

[Hat tip: Lynn of Violins & Starships]

Posted by: Harvey at 08:36 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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I spent this weekend being sick, so I was either sleeping or waking up with a Nyquil-over the whole time.

So I blame the Nyquil for following Lynn of Violins & Starships's link to B Movies.com, where you can watch streaming video of second... make that third... rate movies.

I actually squeezed in "A Boy and His Dog", mostly because I've read the Harlan Ellison story upon which it was based. They did a better job than I expected, but worse than I'd hoped. It runs 90 minutes, mostly because it spends 30 too many of them letting you gaze in boredom at the low-budget post-apocalyptic scenery, which doesn't need NEARLY that long to made its point.

Still, Harlan's dialogue does what it can to make up for it. Acerbic sci-fi is this man's untouchable forte, after all.

Anyway, go ahead & rummage around the site. Might find something to watch over a bowl of burnt popcorn.

Posted by: Harvey at 04:46 AM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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1 Hope you feel better, Harvey! I always put myself in a Nyquil induced stupor until it's over... I just popped over to B Movies to see that Santa Claus conquers the Martians is the 'feature'! Now that's a BAD movie...

Posted by: pam at December 11, 2007 06:39 AM (l6NIn)

2 No. I refuse to. I will not waste that time, I need that time! And if I get sick from you after visiting here... well, then I'll go there because I'll have nothing else to do.

Posted by: Ogre at December 11, 2007 11:48 AM (oifEm)

3 sorry you've been feeling puny. get well soon.

Posted by: at December 11, 2007 12:17 PM (92r08)

4 dang - I hope you are feeling better!!

Posted by: Richmond at December 11, 2007 06:28 PM (J0cwf)

5 omg - I love the movie "A Boy and His Dog". I concur that parts of it move at a snails pace - but it is well worth the watch, at least one time. I think the ending is fantastic! Harvey - if I do not get another chance, let me wish you and yours a Merry and Blessed Christmas and Happy, Healthy New Year.

Posted by: dave drake at December 12, 2007 05:25 PM (S83Pv)

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Neat little 2D flash game version of "Portal".

I gave up at level 9 because the game started moving very slowly. Must have hit a bandwidth chokepoint or a bad piece of code.

That, and my puzzler hurted.

[Hat tip: Twenty Sided]

Posted by: Harvey at 11:11 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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Thought I'd pass this along to the folks who like original series Trek and wish it wouldn't have been cancelled.

Star Trek: New Voyages' producers/crew feel that Kirk, Spock, McCoy and the rest should be treated as "classic" characters like Willy Loman from Death of a Salesman, Gandalf from Lord of the Rings or even Hamlet, Othello or Romeo. Many actors have and can play the roles, each offering a different interpretation of said character. Though the character is the same, the interpretation of the actor is what's in question. We feel that the crew of the Enterprise has more to teach us about life and each other than has been explored to date. We also feel the new actors can add to the legend in a believable and contemporary way. Yes, some may have a problem separating Shatner from Kirk - all we ask is that you give it a try and see whether Kirk and the crew still have something to say to you.

This isn't just your normal crappy fan fiction webcast. They've actually got some of the original series cast members to play along.

Worthwhile to download if you have hi-speed.

Posted by: Harvey at 09:21 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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(A paid review)

Via ReviewMe.com, I've been asked to review the site/services offered by DailyGames.com

Topics addressed in this review:
WHAT THEY DO
WHO THEY ARE
HOW'S THEIR REPUTATION?
IS THE SITE USER FRIENDLY?
HANDY FEATURES
CAVEATS
IMPROVEMENTS I'D LIKE TO SEE
WOULD I USE DAILYGAMES.COM?
CONCLUSION

WHAT THEY DO

DailyGames.com is a website that hosts over 3000 Flash, Shockwave, and Java games that can be played in your web browser.

WHO THEY ARE

From what I could dig up, it's an English-language offshoot of the Spanish game site JuegosDiarios.com. The site is registered from Spain, and its archives stretch back to 2002 (well, the very first game is dated 2002, but the next earliest date listed is 2004).

HOW'S THEIR REPUTATION?

Essentially non-existent on the web. The only significant reference I found was a single ReviewMe.com-paid review (which was positive) that was posted on three different sites.

On the bright side, McAfee Site Advisor said "We tested this site and didn't find any significant problems", so you're not likely to pick up any adware, spyware, or malware from Dailygames.com. My own experiment with running Spybot before and after visiting the site seems to confirm this.

IS THE SITE USER FRIENDLY?

Quite.

First, unlike a lot of game sites, the layout is clean, orderly, and not befouled by dozens of annoying, blinking ads. The few ads on the page are from Google, and are contextually relevant. They're usually plain text, although there are occasional animated ones.

The search feature - which is prominently displayed above the fold - searches both title and description, giving you a better shot at finding what you're looking for.

All games posted in the last month were functional. I found a few broken ones while randomly poking around in the archives, but they seem to be few and far between. Even links from the very first page of the archives were all functional.

All game links open in a new window, and again, the new page only features the Google ads - usually text.

The main page has links to the three applications (Flash, Shockwave, and Java) that you might need to play the games, which is a convenience.

If you're using Internet Explorer, the game window is resizable. Sadly, this feature is currently unavailable in Firefox.

HANDY FEATURES

One of the best features on the site is the ability to add games to your "favorites list" (see right sidebar, above the fold) with a single click. Removing them is an equally convenient single click away.

The Top Games Section (above the fold, right sidebar) gives you the ability to have the top 15 and top 100 games listed by either player ratings or frequency of being played.

Games are listed in reverse-chronological order on the main page, with the newest ones on top. And when they say, "new games added daily", that's exactly true. I checked the last 30 days, and it's been pretty much three new games every day, with rare, sporadic bouts of two or four. Random archive spot checks show the same pattern.

If you're interested in adding links to the site's latest games in your sidebar, there's a page that gives you the code to do so. The image size, number of links, text color, and background color are all customizable, so it can be made to match any decor:

[full disclosure - scrollbars aren't customizable in the form. I had to do a simple code-tweak for that, i.e. set scrolling to "yes".]

They have a large and descriptive category listing, which should pretty much be all you need to figure out where to start browsing:

2 players
Ability
Action
Adventures
Animations
Bloody
Board games
Cards
Cars
Classics
Fight
Football
For girls
Infantile
Logic
Multiplayer
Platforms
Puzzle
Shooting
Sports
Starships
Strategy
War

Finally, in the rare event that a game doesn't work, you can click the handy link at the bottom of the main page and notify the webmaster. I did that Tuesday evening (June 12th), for the game Terminate (which worked for me in IE, but not Firefox) but haven't heard back yet. I'll update if/when I do.

CAVEATS

Games aren't always in English (for example, Operation Tomato is in Spanish; Red Fighter is in Japanese) but they're usually intuitive enough to play anyway.

Speaking of language issues, the game descriptions are obviously written by someone for whom English is a second language, as they are lightly sprinkled with typos and grammatical near-misses. Depending on how healthy your sense of humor is, this can be either slightly annoying or ironically hip & amusing, in an Lolcats kinda way. For example, this description of Othello:

Board game very ressembling to the ladies in which it wins the one that has more crads from the same color over its board.

However, this is merely a translation issue. The site is otherwise competently run, neatly organized, and well-designed.

IMPROVEMENTS I'D LIKE TO SEE

There are no major usability or functionality issues with DailyGames.com. There's nothing about the site that would drive me away.

However, if the webmaster would like to polish this gem, I can suggest the following:

* At the bottom of the individual game pages, the phrase "¿Do you like DailyGames?" does not need to be prepended with an upside down question mark.

* On the individual game pages, in the box that pops up from clicking the "Recommend game" link, the "You forgot your password?" link opens up a dialog box that's in Spanish, not English.

* Consider adding a game window zoom control button that will return the window to it's original size. Also, it would be to your advantage to make the zoom controls functional in Firefox, as the browser is rapidly gaining in popularity.

* At the bottom of the main page, add a link that will either take the visitor back to the top of the page, or to the DailyGames.com home page. I know that DailyGames.com is linked at the bottom with "online games", but that's not obvious to the casual user.

* Make the top banner on the main page clickable, and linked to the home page. It'd be handy to be able to get back to the home page easily after multiple sessions of browsing categories or search terms.

* Consider having a full, alphabetical, linked listing of all games at the bottom of the front page, under everything else. Your competitor, OnlineGames.net, does it and it looks pretty handy. I also like that they list the number of games that are included in each category - something else you might want to try.

* Offer an opt-in mailing list for people who would like to be notified as to what new games have been posted.

* Currently, only the 11 most recent games are listed on the home page. Consider bumping this number up to 21 so that those who only browse on weekends don't have to click around to see what they missed. Remember, the more games you list on one page, the easier it is for visitors to find something they like and click on it.

* Include the "There is a Game that doesnÂ’t work!" link on each individual game page. The easier that link is to find, the better chance you have of having your visitors help you keep all your links functional.

* Make obvious knock-off games easier to find with the site's search feature by including the similar and more popular game name in the description. For example, use the phrase "like Othello" in the description for the game 3-D Reversi.

* Consider adding a PayPal or Amazon donations box. Folks who find a great game at your site might be grateful enough to supplement your ad income. Doesn't hurt to ask.

* Host a discussion board for players to discuss strategy, hints, and tips.

WOULD I USE DAILYGAMES.COM?

Not only yes, but HELL yes!

They have a great selection of fun little time-wasters for those moments when I just don't feel like doing what I'm supposed to. For example:

Spaced Penguin - launch a penguin through space into his spaceship, taking changing gravity into account.

Pac-Xon - sorta like Qix.

Last Stand - kill zombies!

Electrocity - a PC, enviro-nut version of Sim City. Personally, I like to maximize pollution levels and scare all the hippies away.

Power pong - realistic-ish 3-D ping-pong game.

New Blackjack - pays 3 to 1 on Blackjack - Woo-hoo!

Clean your ass - an animation showing how to do the job in Sheryl Crow's "one square world" (warning, animation contains explicit cartoon poo)

The Hanged One - play Hangman while being heckled by a smart-ass Kangaroo.

Anyway, that's enough for starters. Best way to find more is click your favorite game category & just start browsing.

CONCLUSION

DailyGames.com is an excellent source of online games and a perfect way to waste otherwise unproductive time either at work or at home. Updated daily, so visit on a regular basis.

Definitely worth bookmarking.

Posted by: Harvey at 07:16 AM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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Kinda disturbing, yet I can't deny that there's definitely an unfulfilled need for this product.

Hotdoll: The Sex Doll for Dogs

[Hat tip: Bloggranddaughter VW Bug of One Happy Dog Speaks for sending me the link]

[and yes, her blog's name IS particularly amusing when juxtaposed with the content of this post]

Posted by: Harvey at 06:08 AM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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Besides linking me, there are two other reasons.

1) Some of the best cursing phrases ever.

Äitisi nai poroja - "Your mother copulates with reindeers"

Päässäsi tekee paska patoja ja kusi puroja - "In your head, shit builds dams and piss runs in rivers."

Pissaliisa - "Whorishly-dressed teenager" (literally "Pee Alice" - comes from the fact that often drunk, whore-looking, teenage girls pee on the streets during weekends.)

and plenty more I daren't post here.

2) Star Wreck - A series of Star Trek fan films of varying degrees of quality done entirely in Finnish, with theoretically accurate English subtitles. Most of these can be found by searching YouTube.

Star Wreck VII: In the Pirkinning, however, is another matter entirely. It's got something very much resembling plot and dialogue, it's feature-film length, and the special effects are as good as any in the actual Star Trek movies. Visually dazzling - especially the epic space battles.

But still, there's only one real reason to see it - for the inside jokes.

The basic premise is Star Trek vs. Babylon 5.

If you've seen every ST:TOS, ST:TNG, and B5 episode, then you MUST SEE THIS.

If you haven't...don't worry about it.

And yes, you can download the entire 550MB thing for FREE from the Star Wreck website. Or buy it on DVD if you're on dialup.

Now get going before I shoot you with twinkle beams and light balls!

Posted by: Harvey at 09:30 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Because you'll be playing Boomshine, with its deceptively simple gameplay, pretty colors, and soothing music.

Curse you blogson Contagion of Miasmatic Review!

Anyway, for the later levels (10,11,12), try starting vertically centered and about 1/3 the way from either the left or right.

Posted by: Harvey at 09:53 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Blogdaughter Michele of Letters From New York City posted a well-reasearched piece on the significant numbers related to 9/11. Most of these I've never heard before.

Odd that the MSM considers them less important than the body count in Iraq, since some of these numbers are also trickling upwards.

However, I'm here to make a tangential point. One of the footnotes in Michele's post says:

Some of the information was culled from Wikipedia and the NY Times (which I will not link to as it requires membership and means being subjected to lots of spam mail for you and me).

I've mentioned this before, but it bears repeating. The NY Times registration spaminator (as well as other compulsory registration sites) can be bypassed by using BugMeNot.

This site provides usernames & passwords for sites that require FREE, compulsory registration (they WON'T hand you the keys to pay sites, so don't bother asking). Just paste the URL of your target site in the search box and click the "Get Logins" button. You'll be sent to a page with several possible combinations of usernames & passwords.

Also, if you have a login you'd like to share, you may submit it to BugMeNot.

Finally, I should mention that Firefox has an extension available that allows you to automatically retrieve a login from BugMeNot by right-clicking on a login box and selecting BugMeNot from the context menu. I have it, I've used it, and it works great.

So the next time you want to send folks to an article that requires registration, you can rest easy, knowing that they can use BugMeNot to get the information without the spam.

Posted by: Harvey at 09:29 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Full auto Glock 9mm.

With twin drum magazine.

[via Frizzen Sparks, comment #6]

Posted by: Harvey at 09:58 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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1 Sweet! That could just about get me back to 9mm again... And,yes, it was good for me too...

Posted by: Laughing Wolf at March 29, 2007 10:16 AM (qRGD4)

2 Eh. It's still a glock. I'm one of the minority who are underwhelmed with the glock (give me a Colt 1911 any day), and a full auto handgun just seems like a quick way to waste ammo firing rounds over your target. Now these... these I could have waaaaay too much fun with

Posted by: Graumagus at March 29, 2007 10:43 AM (pjAgG)

3 Sadly enough Grau almost took what I was going to say word for word. Yea, it's neat, but not very accurate and more to the point, not good versus zombies. It does look neat, I just think I'd rather have something with some balls behind it, not just the sack.

Posted by: Contagion at March 29, 2007 04:44 PM (T4WRc)

4 Accurate or not, it seemed pretty stable with the attached stock. Hmmm, wonder if my Glock 23 can do this (it would kick the crap outta ya' though).

Posted by: TJ's Anti-contrarian Blog at March 31, 2007 07:13 PM (Luhuc)

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Contagion's gonna hate me for this.

Remember that fun little time-waster where you build towers to destroy creepy monsters as they shuffle their way through a small maze?

There's now a desktop version.

In the sense that the page it's on has a picture of the top of a desk as a background.

It's basically the same game as the other one, except that there's no maze. You have to make that yourself with the towers. Figuring out a good placement strategy should keep you busy for a little while.

[Hat tip: Shamus of Twenty-Sided]

Posted by: Harvey at 07:31 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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When there are all these toys to play with (by the way, I've forgotten where I found some of these, so if you're on my blogroll and you've posted a pointer, feel free to take credit in the comments because it was probably you):

Splash Back - if someone figures out an actual strategy to this, please post on it. Although I made it to level 16 without one.

Monty Python's Silly Walk Generator

Crashdown - sorta like an inverse Tetris.

Pretty much anything on TrueNuff TV - watch out for language, though. Someone posted a link to one of their videos. Who was that?

Line Rider - make sledding hills for the little dude. Via I Hate My Cubicle!!!

WickedAwesomeFilms is pretty decent. Except for the language in spots.

Encyclopedia of Sex - VERY nasty. Don't even THINK about hitting this one from work. If you already know all these terms, you are a disgusting person. And I'm jealous.

Almost 2000 amusing cat pictures. It'll take about a month if you're on dial-up.

FamousIdiot.com - stupid things famous people are saying.

From 2003 - a list of signs that blogs have become mainstream. Re: "When a character on a sitcom has one" - See "How I Met Your Mother". Barney mentions his all the time.

Star Trek New Voyages - Think of it as Season 4 of ST:TOS

Via Graumagus of Frizzen Sparks - Tanks.

Via Shadoglare of Refractional Darkness in the comments to the above post - Scorched 3D. Yes, it's worth the 40 Meg download. Especially the game's Apocalypse option. Ah... the lovely screams.

Also, this list of things soldiers aren't supposed to write home about if they want to maintain operational security - I notice that the MSM does a LOT of them on a regular basis, especially #7

MIA blogson John of We Swear (who needs to fix his server or something) pointed me to the Tiddy Bear. Thought I saw this somewhere else, too. Anyway, buy one now for the woman in your life who's lacking in the Tiddy department.

Now go waste some time.

Posted by: Harvey at 03:57 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Via Blogson Contagion of Miasmatic Review, an annoyingly addictive time waster:

Build some towers, shoot some monsters, try to make it through all 38 levels with a better score than 5925.

Only took me 5 tries to make it all the way through.

Helpful hints in the extended entry... more...

Posted by: Harvey at 06:24 AM | Comments (9) | Add Comment
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What a blogmeet at Straight White Eric's place is like?

It's a lot like this.

[Hat tip: bloggranddaughter VW Bug of One Happy Dog Speaks]

Posted by: Harvey at 10:40 AM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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Go to YouTube and search for Star Wars Holiday Special. Someone currently has it loaded in 10 parts (see the "Related" section at the site for the other parts). You can download them via KeepVid, if you want.

Better hurry. Lucas has his stormtroopers looking for this stuff.

And while we're at it, let's not forget the Star Wars guys on The Muppet Show

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

No guarantee on how long those links will be good.

Posted by: Harvey at 07:09 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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