Monthly archives: February 2006

Over here, the coders will be put in jail

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Australia has effectively banned a computer game– Marc Ecko’s Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure. The Classification Review Board refused to classify the game, meaning it cannot be sold, demonstrated, hired or imported.

From the Amazon manufacturer’s description-

In a world where graffiti has been banned and freedom of expression has been suppressed by a tyrannical city government, an unlikely hero rises to win back his neighbourhood and become an urban legend of the city of New Radius. In Mark Ecko’s Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure play as Trane, a toy (beginner) graffiti artist with the street-smarts, athletic prowess and vision necessary to become an All City King, the most reputable of all graffiti artists. In your quest to become a legendary graffiti artist, you realise that an oppressive Mayor has a stranglehold on the city of New Radius, and you must use all of your high-wire graffiti talents to expose him and set the city free.

via Slashdot

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The ones that got away

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The Top Ten Sci-Fi movies never made.

Yes, The Matrix was always conceived as a trilogy. Specifically, the Wachowskis originally pitched a prequel (showing the machines’ war with humanity) and a sequel (showing the downfall of The Matrix).

[….]

Here’s the thing. The prequel, it’ll never happen. We’ll have to be happy with The Second Renaissance. But the sequel… I’m pretty sure if you give me Reloaded and Revolutions and a knife, I can cut you a lone, 100-minute Matrix sequel that would flatten your balls.

Maybe I’ll go do that now.

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He who treats the database as a flat-file repository of data is doomed to burn in Hell. It's true, I asked.

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Things Everyone in IT Should Know. I really do some of these things, which is surprising because I sometimes think of myself as an amateur who’s just waiting to be found out. I really need to learn this one though-

If the Solution Seems Too Simple, Use It

All this eventually breaks down to a 0 or a 1, true/false, left/right, up/down, black/white, whatever/whatever else. Most basic fact in the universe: is or isn’t.
So why do so many technologists opt for the cool, complicated, “only 10 people in the world…” solution? Because they’re stupid and they’re scared. Too stupid to appreciate the sophistication of simplicity; too scared that, if it’s that simple, anyone can do it. Juniors go complicated, seniors go sophisticated.

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Airdome

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I want to go to Canada.

Summer Gravity Camps (SGC) at Whistler Blackcomb will introduce a new 10,000 square foot, covered mountain bike facility this summer. The Air Dome features a foam pit, resi ramp and trampoline. Located at Base II on Blackcomb Mountain, and scheduled to open this summer, the Air Dome is the first mountain bike training facility of its kind in Canada.

Summer Gravity Camps

via Blue Collar Mountain Biking

i really should be at home

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Note This post was e-mailed from my phone at about half past three on Wednesday afternoon. The one below it was sent some time after that. Sometimes mobile e-mail is a little freaky like that.

I still haven’t been able to make changes to the database. It’s a ten minute job but i’ve now been waiting a day and a bit for people to get their arses in gear. I should be at home working on cool stuff.
For instance-
I’ve come up with an idea for a domestic rain water buffer. It would sit at the bottom of the downspout and hold water for its built in plant pot. The pots would reduce run off and improve air quality, and they could be made from mostly recycled items such as old car tires.
There are companies in the uk who will do 3d printing from supplied files. I need to look into this as a method for prototyping models and other stuff.

Praise God and pass the Semtex

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I may take the piss, but I’m actually really worried by this “Glorification of Terrorism” law. What exactly constitutes glorification?

Basically, I remember enough of the eighties to know that if this law had been around then Maggie would have had hundreds, if not thousands, of people locked up. Blair, Brown, Clarke and any number of the others who championed the bill would likely have been rounded up for their support of the ANC or the Sandinistas or for questioning the shoot- to- kill policy in Northern Ireland.

How long will it be before some documentary about Iraq is pulled because the producers are told their attempt to understand what drives the insurgents is somehow “glorifying” them? How long after that until an author’s career is ruined because they dare to show a freedom fighter in a sympathetic light? What if someone finds that blog post I did about shooting Tony Blair?

I’m not about to change the nature of the stories I’m planning. But I think I should start setting aside some money for a good lawyer for when my time comes. I wonder if I can get Cherie Blair?

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Glorification?

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I don’t know how far the proposed law against glorifying terrorism will go. Might it catch all sorts of popular culture? All it would take would be a few people saying that V for Vendetta is an allegory of the resistance in Northern Ireland/ Palestine/ Iraq and we could see Alan Moore and David Lloyd, and the Wachowskis now the film’s due out, going to jail. The Wachowskis are repeat offenders, because what else is the Matrix trilogy but a long elegy to the noble sacrifice of “freedom fighters”.

And don’t get me started on Asterix.

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Let loose the mosquitos of War

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The Nazis in Italy released malaria carrying mosquitos in an attempt to halt the Allied advance, it is claimed. If true this would be the only known instance of biological warfare in Europe during WW2. Invading troops had been given anti malaria drugs and didn’t succumb, but cases of the disease soared amongst the civilian population.

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SkyRide

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It gets cold in Minnesota at this time of year. Even the normally hardy mountain bikers want to come into the warmth. But it doesn’t have to stop them riding.

Fifty mountain bikers participated in the first Red Bull SkyRide, racing between office buildings on the “skyway” network that lets pedestrians get around downtown St Paul without venturing outside.

Even the mayor of St. Paul — accompanied by his 11-year-old son — took a spin through the course before the hard-core racers started pedaling.

Bikers snaked through about fifteen blocks of carpeted and tiled pathways that sported wickedly sharp turns in tight hallways padded with big blue bumpers. There were even a couple of stairwells for riders to negotiate — though organizers required racers to dismount on the stairs, in one of the less gnarly aspects of the competition.

But the race was by no means watered down. Riders sucking dry office air reached breakneck speeds heading into 90-degree turns on marble flooring. A few guys bit it only to hop right up and keep trucking. Some taller riders barely cleared under door frames as they zipped through automatic sliding doors held open by volunteers. One guy even took a wrong turn into the dining room of the ritzy University Club.

I want to do this in the Arndale, or even the Trafford Centre. Who do I ask?