Feb
21
2008
Last week I just released with a couple friends the v1.0 of ChopShop Racing on Facebook. It’s better than all the other racing apps.
Why?
Because it has a visual race viewer - you watch cars progress throughout the race (no coin flips).
Because it is based on Physics - heavier, faster cars aren’t always great around the turns.
Because it has technical tracks - we build track data based on the severity of the turn, lengths of the segments, etc.
Because you can race people who aren’t your friends.
Because you don’t have to invite people to play the game!
I’ll let the rest of you fill in the blanks after you go play.
http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=7900548411
no comments | tags: chopshop, facebook, game | posted in asides, cool stuff, software
Jan
5
2008
Need a C# native client API for Sphinx Search to use in your C# or VB ASP.NET projects? So did I, so I wrote one.
Yesterday, I found Sphinx Search and decided to try implementing it in place of the (horrid) MySql Fulltext searching for my Photocore project. After downloading the binaries and indexing a couple million rows of metadata, I was amazed at how well it performs. It indexed all my data in less than a minute (compared to the 30 minutes required by MySql Fulltext) and I haven’t come up with a search that takes longer than 0.005 seconds. I was hooked immediately. So I needed a .NET API because I didn’t want to patch my database server to use the Sphinx plugin.
Source download after the jump.
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22 comments | tags: api, free, search, source, sphinx | posted in software
Feb
27
2007
good show tonight. Cradle of Filth had some weird stage setup though with palm trees and camo netting… but you still have to respect a black metal band who manages to incorporate an opera singer :-) and Nymphetamine always hits the spot. not sure what the keyboardist was doing but i’m pretty sure the keyboard music wasn’t quite synchronized with her fingers hitting the keys. hrm.
it’s unclear whether The 69 Eyes take themselves seriously… but it’s emo-metal from Helsinki… so it’s pretty much awesome either way. if you count HIM among your guilty pleasures, you’ll like The 69 Eyes too. if you need a quick primer, buy their best-of album titled Framed in Blood.
and finally our friends to the north have produced something definitely worth listening to in 3 Inches of Blood. if you’re not familiar with them, their Advance and Vanquish album covers the important metal topics (orcs, medieval war, naval power, and futuristic robots). their new songs sound cool, but they’re a bit more prog than previous albums i think. prog rock pretty much started in the great white north with rush, so why not have some prog metal from 3 Inches? one song actually reminded me of mastodon’s blood mountain album - if you discount the vocals. which isn’t a bad impression to make. i only wish they had gotten more songs in.. they were the opening act and only did 7. (and this was the band I most wanted to see)
next week - Killswitch Engage and Dragonforce!
no comments | tags: concert, metal, music, review | posted in music
Feb
24
2007
It’s an old post, but I just found it and I quite like it. Nerd Attention Deficiency Disorder. I am definitely stricken. I enjoy the content fire hose.
no comments | tags: nerd | posted in asides
Feb
23
2007
ok, Top Gear is a sweet show. but this time they’ve outdone themselves. found that last night and wanted to toss it up on here before i forgot about it. they also did a shootout between a Lotus Exige and an Apache attack helicopter in one episode. i need to move to england…
no comments | tags: cars, top gear, video | posted in asides, cool stuff
Feb
22
2007
Starting to ramp up for licensing photocore and I decided it was time for (another) company to handle all that business stuff. And thus critical axiom was born… And yes, my primary reason for saying something here is to get some links going on to get the site indexed :-)
1 comment | tags: criticalaxiom | posted in asides, photocore, tech
Feb
5
2007
The Logitech Revolution MX mouse is worth every single one of the rather large number of pennies it costs. I’ve had it for a week now and I liked it initally, but today I upgraded to SetPoint 3.3 (the config software) and now i’m totally hooked. The mouse has two scroll wheels and three buttons. The normal scroll wheel up top scrolls vertically, leans left and right and clicks. Then it has a thumb wheel that scrolls horizontally and clicks. It also has the usual Forward-Backward browser buttons.
The way I set it up, the top wheel scrolls documents like any normal mouse and the left-right clicks are set to do Prev-Next in my iTunes playlist. The thumb wheel is set to do volume up-down and click to mute. Then it still has the browser back button, a middle click for tabbed browsing and an interesting Search button where you can highlight text and press it, then it opens a google search on that phrase. Cool. Very cool.
no comments | tags: mouse, review | posted in tech
Jan
31
2007
I’ve seen some cool smoke and fire photography before, but these really are impressive even knowing the color is all photoshop. Unlike some, I don’t take issue with people using photoshop for artsy purposes as long as they’re not deceptive about it. In related photos: Ariel also has done some cool stuff with matches in the past.
no comments | tags: photography | posted in asides, cool stuff
Jan
31
2007
Earlier today Microsoft released the source code to the AJAX 1.0 release System.Web.Extensions library. I was in the apparently unique position of needing to modify parts of the code for a special case application, so I downloaded the source right away ready to modify, compile and deploy.
I guess I was pretty naive to think that it would be that easy. The distribution doesn’t include some pretty important parts. A .csproj file for one. The entire Resources class for another.
So I had to work my way through the process of getting a compile-able version of the library ready to replace the official System.Web.Extensions binary in my project. The server code Reference License prevents me from simply providing the project to you, but here are the high points if you need to do the same.
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9 comments | tags: .net, c#, source, tip | posted in software
Dec
28
2006
I was sitting here working, listening to 3 Inches of Blood and decided to start this list of some of the coolest first lines/phrases in music. I wish there was a better way to present these but I don’t think there is. They’re in no particular order, but tend to be loosely grouped by artist.
Bolded lines are the ones where I _really_ like the song itself or the line.
How many do you know? Did I miss any wicked awesome songs?
In the year four thousand fifty five, Wykydtron came to life
Just a small town girl, livin in a lonely world, She took the midnight train goin anywhere
Mama take this badge from me, I can’t use it anymore
Here in your bedroom, I can turn my head off
Im broke but Im happy, Im poor but Im kind
I want you to know that Im happy for you, I wish nothing but the best for you both
On the floor of Tokyo, Or down in London town to go, go
Hey little sister what have you done, Hey little sister who’s the only one
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5 comments | tags: music | posted in music