Acetio | Blogma

Some terrorist groups are getting increasingly sophisticated in the use of technology.

The CIA wants to get position sensors inside the terrorist camps, and since much of the computer technology used in the Middle East comes from the U.S. or its allies a plan is formulated to have an American agent pose as an exporter willing to sell computers, satellite phones, etc. to nations where there are currently sanctions.

Unknown to the terrorists the equipment actually has GPS beacons that relay their position back to the U.S.

Initial Sound idea - hearing the components of a sound rather than just its 'meaning'.

Listen to these sounds.

When really slow they sound musical.

Glass Breaking - normal speed
Glass Breaking - half speed
Glass Breaking - quarter speed
Glass Breaking - eighth speed

I was in Italy this past week and a half, so I got to miss out on all the freezing cold. I was in Florence, looking at museums and stuff. It was okay. Being in a town with thousand-year-old buildings was the best part.

I like traveling, except for the actual travelling part. Being in new places is great, but getting there isn't half the fun - it's none of the fun.

Kluge is German for 'intelligent' or 'clever'.

Kludgie is old Scots for 'outside toilet'.

Not as cohesive or comprehensive as Homestar Runner, but still pretty good. (Some of it is dirty! and offensive!)

ExtraBad includes

• We are Robots
• White Bread Blues
• The Bad Life
• Hell on Earth
• Off My Lawn!

Other than human beings, I suppose, pretty much everything worth caring about can be categorized using two mutually exclusive rubrics: that which is funny and that which is cool. Some things are cute that are neither funny nor cool, but I don't care about those.

Some cool things are:

• Robots
• Outer Space
• Medieval Warfare
• Explosions

Another cool thing is cryptology and encoded messages, especially those that don't require a computer to be solved.

A recent find by archaeologists put the first north Asians in North America 30,000 years ago.

The weird thing is that they used weapons made of ivory - in Siberia.

There used to be wooly rhinoceroses up there, you know.

The main European influx came after 1492, but most know of the Vikings centuries earlier.

It's interesting to actually read the sagas of Erik the Red.

I like to analyze things, but just as the oyster needs a grain of sand around which to produce a pearl, I need some structure to focus my ramblings.

When I was a kid I played Dungeons and Dragons a couple of times.

The game was okay, but the parts I enjoyed were coming up with characters and drawing maps.

Appropos of nothing, how would a robot do if it landed in D&D land?

Characters in D&D have six attributes that define their health, strength, etc.

The values can range from 3 to 18, by rolling a die three times.

After finishing The Name of the Rose, and a year or so since putting time into my attempt at a novel, I have a game idea that takes ideas from both (mostly from mine).

Imagine a post-apocolyptic world, with all the cliché's that entails.
However, this is also after all the Matrix- and Terminator-type stories of technology taking over, and humans are back in charge.

Daily life, though, is similar to 14^th-century Europe, where things are run by the church, but this time the Devil has a name, and it is Technology.

December 31, 2003

Conspiracy Laid to Rest

I did something today.
I made coffee from previously-used grounds.
Experts say this would yield sour, bitter, terrible coffee.
In fact it was fine. It was weak, but not bad.
The idea came to me from having used a French press for my coffee for a long time. Often I leave the grounds swimming in water for up to 15 minutes before I depress the plunger.
Drip-coffee is based on the premise that coffee should have as little contact with water as possible.