Tag Archives: Off-Topic

The Greater Dalmuti Commands You To Check Out These Links

It’s been quite a while since I’ve managed a links post like this, but it’s been a pretty good day for finding random awesomeness, so I’ll begin:

Funagain Games Item Entry: The Great Dalmuti

We’ll open with quite possibly the best news I have seen in a good while. Hasbro/WotC have decided that it is within their good graces to reprint The Great Dalmuti, which has been unbelievably, incomprehensively out of print for a good six or seven years, to my knowledge. This is, quite possibly, one of the best pure games I have ever played. It is simple to learn, plays quickly, gets people interested and involved easily, and is a great deal of fun.

It also leads to spontaneous insults and derision of fellow players. This is a good thing. You have a responsibility to order three copies of this amazing card game immediately.

K2

This is an “upgraded” version of the Kubrick base WordPress theme, intended to be easier to use, edit, and twist into your own creation. I believe I will be using this to shift around my themes to something I like a bit more. The default is eh, and my updated theme I was using is a little behind in support for a few of the things I like in WordPress. Ah, well.

Respublica – Up close and personal etiquette

When I was at Concordia Seminary, they made us take a course with Ruth Ann Johnson, who was the wife of the Seminary president. It was a kind of briefing into etiquette and the kinds of things people should know before they go out into polite society.

Trust me when I say that people who are students at the Seminary need this sort of information. Honestly.

Amanda and I wondered what they were going to do with this meeting once President Johnson packed up and left for browner pastures up at our alma mater. Well, apparently, they hire an outside etiquette expert, as well as some people from Men’s Wearhouse to show these guys how to dress for professionalism.

Who knew?

Wikipedia’s entry on “leet”

Anything and everything you ever wanted to know about perhaps the most irritating fad on the modern Internet – leetspeak. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, perhaps you should read this article and find out. And be scared.

If you do know what I’m talking about, you should definitely read this article for a frank discussion on the origins of leetspeak and linguistic features of such a strange medium.

And a quartet of links from MAKE:

MAKE: $14 SteadyORB
MAKE: Ethernet-controlled LED lamp
MAKE: $6 homemade pop filter
MAKE: LED dining table

There’s some fun stuff here that wouldn’t take a whole lot of time or effort to make (or money, except for the LED dining table), and I wouldn’t mind doing some of this myself. LED projects are all over the place now with costs coming down, and some of them are downright awesome. These two are no exception.

The Demise of Apple is Greatly Exaggerated

From John Gruber’s Daring Fireball blog:

The iPod Juggernaut

A very insightful look at the portable music player market and Apple’s stranglehold thereof. He’s right on all points, of course: as an iPod owner and user and general Apple evangelist in my geek life, I’ve heard many of the arguments against the iPod, and this pretty much takes care of all of them in many of the same ways I’ve thought the truth must lie.

Gruber is often extremely right and very keen in his analysis of Apple and their business, and I believe this is no less so.

I’ve always just said that anyone who rips on the iPod just wishes they had one.
Continue reading →

That Depends on What You Mean By “Open”

From Daring Fireball:

There’s a line in The Usual Suspects where Kevin Spacey’s character Verbal Kint says, “The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.”

The greatest trick Microsoft has gotten away with is convincing the public that the Wintel PC platform is open.

Great defense to the number-one defense Wintel PC users use to defend their platform against the Macintosh.

Those Shoes Really Are That Expensive, Trust Me, I Know

Now you too can dress like The Steve!

The best part is the link in the lower-right-hand corner:

Click here to sue, please.

Classic.  But in the meantime, if you want to go around clothed like the most understatedly fashionable CEO in the business world, you be my guest.

It’s Funny Because it’s True

If you have ever worked with a corporate mindset, been interested in marketing, or are even just a geek in general, you owe it to yourself to check out this link.

Found via digg.

I will say for the record that this is exactly what I expect when we get around to shopping for Windows Vista, seeing as how it’s going to be available in six different SKUs.