This unusual triumph of kids over grown-ups suggests that the brain’s capacity to consider the context of visual scenes, and not just focus on parts of scenes, develops slowly, say psychologist Martin Doherty of the University of Stirling in Scotland and his colleagues. Even at age 10, children lack adults’ attunement to visual context, Doherty’s team concludes in a paper published online November 12 in Developmental Science.
Nov 30, 2009
Images in context – Adults vs Children
Nov 29, 2009
You will be eaten by a monster. Srsly.
Nov 26, 2009
Lego Matrix
After around 440 hours of work, and just in time for the 10th anniversary of the original movie release,
we are pleased to present to you our Lego version of the famous Bullet Time dodge scene from The Matrix.
Nov 26, 2009
Router/Row-ter/Root-er?
If you’re looking at getting a new thing-that-powers-your-internet, then you’ve come to the right place. Warcom has an amazing selection of high-quality routers available, and all of them will get the job done (and no, I’m not just saying that). Here’s a quick breakdown on what sorts of technologies you’ll be diving into.
Post on Warcom blog by yours truly.
And that’s all I have to say.
Nov 22, 2009
Star Wars: Episode III, Backstroke of the West
a couple of years ago when i was living in shanghai i bought a revenge of the sith dvd off the street. it came with hilariously mangled subtitles that ranged from somewhat close to what the actors were saying to far, far away….
via winterson.com: episode iii, the backstroke of the west redux.
a quick pause in the caption commentary. for a while i couldn’t figure out how the captions got so mangled- i thought maybe it was done by computer, but in some cases like this one the captions make sense but have no relation to what is going on. general grevious is actually saying, “just as count dooku predicted”…
But wait, there’s more!
As usual, hit the link to read the full article, or just follow mine to see highlights…
Nov 22, 2009
“I’m kind of a BIG DEAL, alright?”
Finally, a third blue t-shirted tossrag comes to patronise me further. ‘Just leave it with us’ he says. No. Then he says oh, if it’s the HDD, we dont have them in stock. You will have to wait till next week.
I call bullshit. This is APPLE. People. APPLE.
So I ask if there is any alternative. Could I bring in a drive to be installed? No. Could I take it to another store for a faster resolution? No. Clearly the whole I AM HAVING A BABY VERY SOON part wasnt relevant here. Driving to Doncaster and back 7 times is a JOY.
via A Week At Apple — sunrisesister.
For those of you that didn’t bother to click the link and read the whole story, it goes a little like this:
Customer brings computer in to be fixed for dead graphics card (which results in logic board replacement). Not in stock, so customer waits.
Waits for quite a long time in Doncaster, noting that the seats aren’t made for pregnant women. So she stands for the 4.5 hours that she waits for. Apple are late for their appointment.
Anyway, logic board replaced, but as soon as she gets the machine home, she finds that the hard drive has died. Calls Apple, explains that she is, and I quote, “EXTREMELY PREGNANT”, and Apple aren’t helpful as they could be.
Continue debacle at Apple store, where it turns out her second appointment hasn’t been made. Manager asks for her to wait – which turns out to be an hour or so. Finally, you enter the crazy scene above, in which a guy tells her the bad news – machine needs to be left with them, hard drive not in stock, and so on.
As much as I respect the person who wrote this particular blog post, it’s stuff like this that shits me to tears – people who think that the world revolves around them, as much as it should do.
Working in retail exposes you to some fairly scary people – the loonies, the downright insane “I WANT IT DONE THIS WAY AND I WANT IT DONE NOW” people, yes, even the crazy ones. Some of these people aren’t satisfied with your work, no matter how much you try to please – nothing’s ever going to be good enough, fast enough, or cheap enough to satisfy their consumerist hunger.
Notice how many times I mentioned that she made a big deal of how she was EXTREMELY PREGNANT? That’s exactly the attitude I’m trying to get at, because to Apple, you’re just another faceless wannabe, someone that they couldn’t care less about, just another brick in the wall (apologies to Pink Floyd).
You’re pregnant. You’re elderly. Your right index finger was shot off in the war. Thanks for serving our country, reproducing, and living a good life, but if you think this entitles you to any special treatment, you’re wrong, no matter how pregnant you are, no matter how elderly, or how index finger-less.
FFS, just get over yourself already.
Nov 19, 2009
Why doesn’t Facebook look like this?
The home page features many new benefits: the publisher toolbar enables users to post content from any page within Facebook, saving time in navigating needlessly through profiles; the streams’ two-tiered filter (content type & content contributers) also creates a more coherent structure with the core elements retaining their position throughout most of the site; and the live feed displays a constant stream of all content posted in a users network, which expands upon mouse over.
via Facebook Facelift – Home & Profiles on Vimeo.
Oh – that’s right, because there will be 1000000 people complaining that they liked it how it was, and 100000 new groups saying to “change it back”.
FFS. Progress, people.
Nov 18, 2009
Have you ever seen one this big before?
Really? Have you?
Solo can there to prove just how massive this gargantuan light-switch is.
No really, it’s THAT huge.
Nov 18, 2009
Modern Warfare 2: Unleash the Hounds
Hounds indeed.
I’ll admit that the Spec Ops mode certainly tempts me. By all accounts, it sounds completely *awesome* – and if were released as it’s own mini-game (akin on Crysis Warhead or similar), I’d buy it in a heartbeat.
It’s a shame the rest of the game doesn’t quite stack up.
Lag? You bet. Within a matter of minutes I’d been fragged by a bouncing avatar that transported itself across the map, and that doesn’t include the noticeable banana bullets that occur just too frequently to ignore. Based on this, it’s fairly clear to see why they’ve limited the game to nine per side, I’d hate to see what it looks like with Modern Warfare’s original 64 player limit, presumably like a very tedious slide show from a trip to Borneo. It’s of absolutely no interest to me how well the rest of the developed world can play this title online, if it’s a miserable experience for Kiwi players then Infinity Ward have dropped the ball, plain and simple.
[...]Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 for the PC is simply a next-gen console game with mouse support, in-game text chat and rudimentary graphics options. Infinity Ward have made it pretty clear that as a PC gamer, your platform advantages don’t count, and neither does your community, your history and your considerable modding skills.
via Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (PC) – Gameplanet Review.
Ouch.
To say multiplayer MW2 is flawed would be like saying water is a little wet – an understatement if I’ve ever seen one.
GameArena says:
We’re massive fans of Modern Warfare here. Even though purists and elitists may sneer, we had no problem in awarding a 10/10 for Call of Duty 4, because it was such a terrific effort on console AND PC. If you told me three months ago we would be suggesting PC gamers hold off on buying Modern Warfare 2 I would have thought you’re crazy. But if you are buying this game mainly for multiplayer – especially if you’re contemplating serious competitive play at a high level – that’s exactly what we’re saying. The single player story is great, and if your idea of multiplayer is a quick zap with mates maybe an hour or two a week then by all means – it’s great for your purposes. However if you’re a Counterstrike, Battlefield, ETQW or even a COD4 player looking for a serious competitive platform to move to – best wait. Wait and see if Infinity Ward can implement dedicated server support; failing that wait until early next year to see how Battlefield: Bad Company 2 turns out.
via BigPond GameArena – Modern Warfare 2 Reviews.
Don’t get me wrong – from what I’ve read, it’s a great console FPS – fantastic, even. It’s just a huge shame to see the PC side be so neglected, disowned, that it kinda makes you think Infinity Ward have shunned the PC community, Big Time.
It’s not all doom and gloom for us PC players, though – the single player is excellent, and as I’ve mentioned before, Spec Ops will keep you entertained for a decent number of hours after you’ve finished the relatively short single player campaign (roughly 6-8 hours).
It’s current price on Steam is laughable – a cool US $90 for us Aussies, compared to $60 for the same game? Right. I know I can buy it from Steamerica for cheaper, but that’s not the point, is it?
The point is, Infinity Ward have seemingly screwed over PC players.
I think it’s only fair that they get screwed over themselves – but one can only dream…
Nov 18, 2009
10 Things You Need to Know About WordPress 2.9
oEmbed, as described at oEmbed.com, is a specification that allows media providers like Flickr, YouTube and others to provide data for consumer applications like WordPress about media. So by including an Embed (Use the File uploader and choose “From URL” and paste the link to the page that contains the media, not the media file itself) in a post or page, WordPress can retrieve the relevant specs on the media file and formulate a properly formatted embed accordingly.
via 10 Things You Need to Know About WordPress 2.9 — Technosailor.com.
You know, I probably couldn’t care less about oEmbed. So I can embed media from different providers, great. Sarcasm intended.
The thing is, I don’t work with media that much. Sure, I’ll stick in the odd YouTube video here or there, and I’ll also use pics once in a while to illustrate a point, but in those cases the standard tools just don’t cut it.
For example, I’ll Press something from a cool YouTube video, and while WordPress will automatically fetch the embed code for me, it’s usually miniscule and doesn’t represent the content I want. By using the custom embed options available to every embeddable video on YouTube, I get to customise things like the border, related content, and size – you’ll have noticed that videos seen on this website will have a grey border, show no related content after the video finishes playing, and, most importantly, are bigger than the normal YouTube size.
From what I understand about oEmbed, it won’t let me customise these options at all – “…and formulate a properly formatted embed accordingly.”
I’d say more about customisability and WordPress, but that’s for another time. 
Nov 14, 2009
Poker Face – Parody (“Outer Space”)
The sunglasses, head orbiter, and mirror mask are all hand-made. (I’m an arts & crafts nerd.)
[...]*And in response to the comments about the way I sang this: It was not suppose to sound good. I was playing an eccentric, odd alien. It was not dissing Lady Gaga’s voice though, as I know she sings well. But this is a PARODY of her extraterrestrial self. [...]
I actually really respect Lady Gaga and really love her music. So this song was a fun spin on her outrageous style… which I actually admire about her.
via YouTube – Lady Gaga – Poker Face – Parody (“Outer Space”).
If anything, she’s prettier than Lady Gaga.
Also, have you seen any of Lady Gaga’s video clips? They’re so out-there that it’s hard to describe what they’re actually doing – interpretive dance would be easier to understand…
Nov 13, 2009
Modern Warfare 2- Knifetastic Ricochet Kill
We are working on our review of MW2 single and multiplayer and its taking longer than expected because there is so much to do and unlock. In the meantime we thought you’d like to see DeFranco’s latest trick where he puts his A in geometry, to good use while playing with his Riot Shield and knife setup.
**Note**: If you can’t tell, the knife bounces of the wall and stabs Phil’s victim in the neck for an instant kill.
**Double Not
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