[Nottingham] [Talk] *Tomorrow* Wed 02/06/2010 Fun Stuff!

[Martin]

On 01/06/10 16:04, Martin wrote:
> Folks,
> 
> And now for something a little different!
> 
> 
> A roundup of some fun stuff for the holiday week...
> ===================================================
> 
> 
> Most people must have stumbled across:
> 
> http://www.google.com/pacman/
> 
> and the considerable "wasting of time" thus perpetrated!
> 
> Just what the economy didn't need - Google Pac-Man
> http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/andrew-clark-on-america/2010/may/25/google-economics
> 
> 
> So what stuff is there that makes computing fun? And what have been
> perhaps the worst culprits for people idling away their hours?
> 
> What's your favourite way to idle some computer time?



And a very fun evening was had. All the more impressive was how well my
little Linux Acer Aspire One (with 1.5GBytes RAM ;-) ) survived the
various time-wasting abuse...

Good to see a new face with the select grouping. A good welcome to
another Martin! Hope all concerned managed the sprint ok to catch the
last bus home!!

Next event is a foodie social at Antibos (pizza) on Wed 16/06/2010.



And now for a few links of fun and time:

*Note* I've not checked all the links so all at your own risk for your
health and the health of your browser!


I'll start with a bit of a show-stealer with some Animusic:

Amazing Animation Sound Machine
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YD_o09sih8

... and there's quite a few of 'em!

(For those in a rush, the really amazin' stuff is at the end...)

A small selection are:


Ball Machine Animusic
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Etha6NJtX0s

Animusic 2 - Fiber Bundles
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AoUtUxY81fM


An example of robo Taiko Drummers:

Animusic 2 - Gyro Drums
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=381IrDcy1S8


There's an Animusic 3 DVD soon to come out this year:
http://www.animusic.com/previews/animusic3.php


Slightly different on the same theme and with superb attention to detail
yet with clever simplicity is:

Harmonic Balance
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWEnK12Yeis


Anyone got a load of Meccano to dedicate to this one?

"Drum Machine Set" - Animusic.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=af3w8LornUY


And for something a little rustic:

"Resonant Chamber" - Animusic.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toXNVbvFXyk



Even more amazing, these are for real!

One Man Band 2 - Animusic 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PTh509wFOo

Arno Fabre Electronic sound installation Dropper 01 at Gaudeamus Music Week
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UoTeIeG76z4

Take 5 - the Pat Metheny orchestration
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDj1H3TzUY4

Pat Metheny - The Orchestrion EPK
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VymAn8QJNQ



More of a computer interactive nature, there are the old classics of:

Steve Ballmer sells... Reversi! (Yep, he's selling just a game with
add-ons!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGvHNNOLnCk

Which then lead onto the most famous of all with computer solitaire,
minesweeper, and others...

Other 'biggies' have got to be:

Pacman

Did you waste time playing Pac-Man on Google?
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/blogs/2010/05/25/did-you-waste-time-playing-pac-man-on-google/

http://www.google.co.uk/pacman/


And Tetris:

http://www.freetetris.org/

This version gives a very interesting twist to the game:
http://firstpersontetris.com/

For a human angle watch:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0LtUX_6IXY

And the history behind the distributing of Tetris is rather
unfortunately turgid:
http://www.atarihq.com/tsr/special/tetrishist.html


There's always the classics of 'unintended fun' with examples such as:

http://www.funny-games.biz/pictures/1948-admin-at-work.html


Or creative fun with:

The mouse fights back!
http://www.funny-games.biz/pictures/1664-mouse-tank.html

Steampunk! (Do those pipes do anything?)
http://www.funny-games.biz/pictures/1333-interesting-pc-case.html


And unwanted 'fun'?

http://www.funny-games.biz/pictures/188-spot-computer.html


There's far too many 'fun' surveys to try:

Are you a Computer Geek?
http://www.nerdtests.com/ft_cg.php

(See at the end for my scary score[1]. The geek stats are quite
interesting also...)


There's loads of glib 'guides' such as:

How to Have Computer Fun
http://www.wikihow.com/Have-Computer-Fun

How to Have Fun on a Computer Without Using the Internet
http://www.wikihow.com/Have-Fun-on-a-Computer-Without-Using-the-Internet

And there's various other guides about not wasting time that pretty much
exclude the suggestions in those previous guides...


There's a few giggles with:

Hidden Settings
http://www.funny-games.biz/pictures/698-hidden-settings.html

Computer Crazy
http://www.rudyh.org/computer-crazy-funny-silly-jokes-quotations-quotes.htm


For more serious fun there is:

Welcome to cs4fn : the fun side of Computer Science
http://www.cs4fn.org/

Distributed Computing Projects (Usefully use your CPU idle time)
http://distributedcomputing.info/projects.html


And for trivia:

Top 10 Free Time Wasting Sites on the Net
http://freebies.about.com/od/710/tp/timewasting.htm

A Complete Waste of Time! Warning! Do not read if you have work to do!
http://www.marktaw.com/blog/ACompleteWasteOfTime.html



And then there is always getting lost in the vastness of Wikipedia!

Human multitasking
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_multitasking


And there's lot's more!!



So, anyone manage to dive through all of that? How long later??

*Reminder note* I've not checked all the links so all at your own risk
for your health and the health of your browser!


Have fun!

Cheers,
Martin




[1] Quite scary really! (Or does that site tell everyone that?...)

Your Score Summary

Overall, you scored as follows:

0% scored higher (more computer geeky),
0% scored the same, and
100% scored lower (less geeky).

Compared to those in the same age group as you:

0% scored higher (more computer geeky),
0% scored the same, and
100% scored lower (less geeky).

What does this mean? Your computer geekiness is:

Step aside Bill Gates, Linus Torvalds, and Steve Jobs... You are by far
the SUPREME COMPUTER GOD!!!

http://www.nerdtests.com/images/ft/cg.php?val=0848


Aside: For the rot13 question, I used the bash script:

function rot13 { echo "$@" | tr a-zA-Z n-za-mN-ZA-M }

See my bash hints 'n' tips from long ago!


-- 
----------------
Martin Lomas
martin at ml1.co.uk
----------------