Pages

Monday 28 February 2011

Steeeeerike.

Hey guys.
Today I'm going to lift the veil a bit. Give you an insight on how to milk the very best stuff out of the internet.
This is primo information, so don't go spreading it around. I had to put in 10 years hard graft in the HTML mines for this.

Ok, here goes... There are videos of cats on the internet. That's right. Cats. Just drink that in.

Oh you knew? You've seen the videos of Maru in the box? The cat failing to jump a gate in slow motion? The one that plays the bongos on a baby's head?*

Well check THIS out:



Yeah, that's why I'm an internet maven and you aren't.

*These are all real videos by the way. Oh yes.

Sunday 20 February 2011

Seed Of Doubt.

Morning all.

Not really sure how to classify today's plink. It's a game in as much as it is technically interactive, but all you really do is click and watch events unfold.

In online gaming circles, things like this are called webtoys. Cute, right?

This one, named Mitoza, is a particularly polished example. It starts with a seed (well, technically it starts with an adorable loading screen) and offers you two choices. A flowerpot or a bird. Clicking one will cause something to happen to the seed, it will grow into a plant or get eaten by a robin respectively. Anyway, you keep making choice after choice and eventually you'll end up with a company of flies performing Hamlet or an ice cream stand inside an egg run by a devilish aubergine. Inevitably, you always revert to a single seed and the process begins anew.

There are so many permutations that I'm still discovering new ones. Give it a try and report back with your discoveries.

Mitoza.

Monday 14 February 2011

Lurve.

This blog post goes out to all the ladies out there.



Aw yeah.

Tuesday 8 February 2011

The Ascent Of Van.

I don't know quite how to explain today's offering. I've just found it and I am somewhat taken aback.

Put simply, it's a program someone has written which shows the realtime evolution of a car.

Now, I don't mean it shows the stages of a car being built, or how a certain model of car has changed over the years.

No. This is a genetic algorithm enabling the selective breeding of randomly generated vehicles. Each one is spawned and then its progress is recorded. The ones that get the furthest in the fastest times live on to 'reproduce' and pass on their strengths to a new generation.

This is one of the weirdest posts I've ever had to write. Thinking about it is making my head hurt. I think it is best if you just see for yourself. If you can handle it.

BoxCar 2D.

Let it run for a while. See how some are more successful than others? Through subsequent generations, you'll see tweaked versions of those cars as they literally evolve. It's strangely heart-warming. I found myself really rooting for certain scrappy little racers and being emotionally crushed (well, a bit) when one of them spawned upside down. Removing itself from the gene pool by dint of pure dumb luck.

I still don't fully understand the finer points of this program, but I am finding The FAQ pretty useful.

The theory of Evolution applied to cars. THAT is why I love the internet.

Tuesday 1 February 2011

Doing Your Swede In.

You've probably already had your dinner by now. If you haven't though, and you're at a loss for what to eat, why not consider some delicious Swedish meatballs?

Cooked the traditional Swedish way, of course. For reference, please watch the following video.

Note, this is like that time I linked to the German Forklift Driving Instructional Video, the video is much better than it sounds. Enjoy!



Give this man a prime-time cooking show.

Goodnight!