Two Cool DIY Projects
Posted by Ray @ 5:00 pmThese two made my day. First up, we have the mouse mouse. Literally:
I’d love to have one of these on my desktop! Disturbing and cool at the same time. Plus the cat would go crazy. The mouse mouse is furry, pocket-sized, and perfect for your laptop too, so you can bring it to the hip cafe down town and use it to pick up chicks… or at least, use it as an interesting conversation starter.
Too bad I splurged on a Razer gaming mouse.
The other project is the spider mobile. Some guy built a full-sized, steampunk, 8-legged walker for about $15,000. It’s somewhat scary if you’re an arachnophobe, but no one can deny it’s uber coolness:
And that made my day.
Gamer Gals
Posted by Ray @ 2:35 pmGamerhelp has a picture-heavy article up on Girls who Play, featuring - you guessed it - hot gamer girls.
Great. This is just another way of putting some random cute attention-whore posing seductively next to an XBOX, implying that yes indeed, hot nekkid chixxors do play games. This shameless exploitation of women, this crass cheap attempt at selling sex, this
…
..
I’m sorry, what was I saying again?
Kingdom Hearts II Fanart
Posted by Zeng @ 11:54 pm
My fanart of Sora.
Final Mix is out in japanese….tempting….
really love the animation quality put into this game. :)
My Doom Approaches
Posted by Ray @ 4:22 pm
Alanis Morissette Covers My Humps
Posted by Ray @ 10:09 am Blame VA Shootings on Videogames, Part 1
Posted by Ray @ 4:12 amWell, I can’t say I didn’t see this one coming. Riding high on the coat-tails of the terrible tragedy of the VA Tech shootings, our dear Jack Thompson is once again pointing the finger at videogames.
I love how the Fox News guys introduce him. Jack Thompson is an expert on school shootings! They must have a course for that in Florida, somewhere. For a complete breakdown on all his lies, check out Kotaku’s post on the matter.
He does say some things that make sense, though. Like how he feels his kids aren’t safe. Like how he prays for their well-being. But all that is overwhelmed by the un-eraseable impression that this guy just wants some air time, and Fox News is willing to give it to him and call him a friggin’ expert on school shootings.
The Japanese Art of Relationships
Posted by Zeng @ 12:29 amA hilarious “video workshop” on dating in Japan.
A short film showing how u can apply all those theories youve seen from above!
Rabbits are pussies
Posted by Ray @ 2:17 am I know the comic navigation system is borked
Posted by Ray @ 9:24 pmPlease give me time to fix it. I’ve assignments due!
And c’mon, readers. If you can’t navigate the comics, tell us! E-mail us or write something in a comment box somewhere. I had to hear about it from Zeng, who heard about it from some other dude, who told him in person.
Update: ok I fixed it. This is what happens when your host upgrades PHP and you sit there lazily thinking your deprecated code will work.
Yes, money does matter
Posted by Ray @ 10:38 pmA study on dating was done by Gunter Hitsch and Ali Hortacsu of the University of Chicago and Dan Ariely of MIT. Their results are fascinating not because they tell us what we don’t know, but because it precisely quantifies just how much your height and looks are worth. Now, granted these are numbers for American couples, but people are people, and this looks to be a good baseline to judge your worth by.
Men, listen up.
Height versus Income:
A 1.82 metre tall fella earning $54,500/y…
= a 1.78m man earning $86,500/y
= 1.72m, $200,500/y
= 1.68m, $237,500/y
= 1.62m, $283,500/y
So me, I’ll have to make about $150,000 more per year than Mr. Tall before she’ll spread her legs before me. Zeng, that lucky bastard, can afford to make less. Bloody tall arse.
Looks versus Income:
A 9-10 out of 10 hunk…
= an 8-9 dude + $25,000/y
= 7-8 + $37,000/y
= 6-7 + $86,000/y
= 5-6 + $128,000/y
= 4-5 + $143,000/y
= 3-4 + $151,000/y
= 2-3 + $159,000/y
= 1-2 + $169,000/y
= 0-1 + $186,000/y
So me, I”ll have to make… well, gee, I’m not sure how to rate myself. Probably between $86,000/y and $128,000/y more than Mr. Hunky.
I’m not sure if the study says whether the numbers are cumulative, or if looks are correlated with height. I wish I had the time and the brains to pick it apart, but I’ve assignments due… so I’ll leave you guys with the last findings I could make sense of.
Ethnicity versus Income:
An asian man wanting to date a white woman has to earn $247,000/y more than his white counterpart…
…whereas a white man wanting to date an asian woman can get away with earning $24,000/y less than his asian “competition”.
Ah, c’est la vie.
And I Thought Singapore Airport Security Was Smart
Posted by Ray @ 11:33 amSeveral days overdue, I know. But just when you thought the US was the only country with airport security personnel staffed by primary school dropouts, we get this little gem (via tomorrow). Excerpt:
I entered the Immigration gantry at about 7.15pm with my daughter (Belle Lee, 13 yrs old) to have our passport scanned and our hand carry luggage checked whilst my husband (Lee Ming Chong) stayed behind with my son (Caius Lee, 8 yrs old) at the ticketing counter to sort out my son’s visa. After having mine and my Belle’s passport scanned, we proceed to the security gantry to have our hand luggage and our bodies scanned… A lady officer asked me to remove my boots for scanning, and I did as told immediately and put my boots inside the basket provided, for it to be scanned together with my hand luggage… Belle then asked casually “Mummy, why do you have to remove your shoes?” Whilst putting on my boots, I replied her and said that “they (the security officers) are afraid that we might keep bombs in our shoes (which is why I need to take it off to have it scanned)”.
Immediately, a security officer standing at the conveyor belt (Stephen S Naidira) who was standing in front of me said with a very rude tone “repeat what you just said”. I clarified with him what he meant - is it for me to repeat what I had told my daughter? He said loudly again, to repeat what I had just said. So I did exactly what he told me. I said to him that “my daughter asked me why I need to take off my shoes, and I told her that you guys (the security officers) are afraid that we will keep bombs in our shoes.” He immediately asked me to stand aside and said that he had to report it to his superior that I said the word “bomb” twice.
Oh noes! Mother used the word “bomb” while explaining to child why shoes needed to be scanned! Stop her, TEH TERRORISSS IS COMING!!!11oneone1
I was supremely curious to know which terminal this incident occurred in. Predictably, it was the budget terminal. Well, you know how Singapore works. International travellers? Wayang until win award. Local travellers? Take broomstick, insert into anus (just make sure you are of the opposite sex, no homosexual sodomy allowed in good, clean Singapore). For added effect, patronisingly inform victim it’s for his own good (in this case, security).
The New Paper article is a highly spun version of the actual facts. It makes airport security sound so reasonable, and Mrs Tan sound so… guilty. But do any of the people in the security detail actually know of this thing called context?! A comment on the livejournal post says it perfectly:
Security: Where are you going?
Ms Wong: Bombay
Security: Repeat what you said!
Ms Wong: BOMBAY
Security: You are under arrest for saying the word “Bomb” twice!
Ms Wong: ?????!!!!!!! But but Bombay…you know mumbai?
Security: What? What? What?, Bombay still got BOMB word, Mumbai is mumbai!
Ms Wong:!%$@^^&*(*
Supervisor: I can not make a decision on this, must check what BOMBAY means. Hello…. got dictionary? Anybody?
…
This… demonstration, nay, exhibition of imbecility reminds me of a story. During a telecommunications law seminar, the lecturer mentioned that using the word “bomb” in an SMS would make you liable to jail time and a fine of up to S$50,000.
Don’t believe me? See Telecommunications Act (Cap 323, 2000 Rev Ed Sing) s. 45(a):
Any person who transmits or causes to be transmitted a message which he knows to be false or fabricated shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction… in the case where the false or fabricated message contains any reference to the presence in any place or location of a bomb or other thing liable to explode or ignite, to a fine not exceeding $50,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 7 years or to both.
Yes, my fellow Singaporeans, that is indeed the law. A friend joked that we could get jailed for SMSes like “There’s a sex bomb in Holland-V!”
The class laughed, of course. But it doesn’t seem so funny now.
The Beginning of the End of DRM
Posted by Ray @ 3:49 pmEMI and Apple announces the availability of high-quality DRM-free music on the iTunes store.
I was holding off posting this because I suspected it was an April Fool’s joke (the perfect joke!). But now major news outlets are reporting this, so I guess it’s either a very good prank, or it’s real.
256kbps, AAC-encoded goodness, at just $1.29 per song.
If you own the low-quality $0.99 version, you pay an extra $0.30 for the high quality version. And you have the option of doing a one-click update of your ENTIRE EMI song library, for $0.30 more per song.
Holy shite!
Now I want iTunes in Singapore more than ever. Why, oh why do we not have iTunes here (yet)? Instead we have this hilariously bad thing called SoundBuzz (don’t click if you’re running anything but Microsoft’s Internet Explorer on Windows) and Play (something EMI and Starhub worked out that’s also Windows only and DRM infected). Ugh!
Let’s hope the retards over at Universal, Sony and Time-Warner pay attention.