Read This First.

Okay.  So you’ve come across this blog, probably from one of the fora I frequent or because you know me from IRL (read: in meatspace), like CTY or school.  Or you’ve stumbled on here from a Google search.

Here are a few things you should know about my blog.

1. This blog and all original content in it is proudly licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial Share-Alike 3.0 Unported License, unless specifically stated otherwise.  In other words, you are free to do what you want with this blog, as long as you:
   1. Attribute the work to me.  Something like “This work is based on the blog Meta-Thoughts by lietk12 at http://lietk12.wordpress.com” would suffice.
   2. Only use it for non-commercial purposes.  If you do wish to use it for commercial purposes, you should contact me first.
   3. If you do modify, alter, or build upon this blog or something in this blog that is specifically made by me, you should license your work under an equivalent license (e.g. the license I use).
2. If you get offended by something in this blog, please don’t take it personally.  This blog is mainly meant to be an attempt, however lame, at humor.  Again, don’t take it too seriously.
3. You can personally contact me here.
4. My about page is here.
5. My incomplete list of links is here.

Hiatus

I’ve been really busy, so to the 2 of you out there who read my blog regularly, I’ll be on hold until sometime in the summer.

Mirrorboard

Or, how to type with just one hand (I am typing this post with just one hand).

Mirrorboard was an idea that Randall Munroe outlined on his blog.  Go read it.

After looking around on the web for a suitable way to have this on Windows, I stumbled across this topic on the AutoHotkey forums.

(AutoHotkey is a scripting system that allows for making keyboard shortcuts to do various things)

Basically, it was an implementation of the mirrorboard system on windows.

You can get it here (no installation of anything necessary–just run the code).

To temporarily turn it off (if you type very quickly and sometimes have a slight temporal overlap between the space bar and the other letters), press Ctrl+Space.

Nigerian Scamming via Skype

I don’t know who took this screenshot, but it sure is hilarious.

The MAFIAA, sans kneecap-breaking

The children ultimately became recruits of the RIAA and dealt death unto all that spoke out against the RIAA. Almost like those dogs from George Orwell's book "Animal Farm".

Rainmeter

Rainmeter (not Rainlendar) is a desktop widget system.

Why do I use it?  It’s very lightweight, and allows for HUD-like functionality–as if all data (e.g. time, date, weather, CPU usage, memory usage, swap usage, etc.) is part of the background.

Dandelions not included.

This was made using some random (possibly Mac-originated) background, some icons, and Rainmeter.  I used the 10-foot HUD, Enigma, and HUD.Vision configs.

The New iPod Shuffle

The new iPod Shuffle is pretty cool–it’s extremely small, but it’s very attractive (almost delicious!) and definitely in line with Apple’s minimalism.

It has a new feature called “VoiceOver” in which the iPod Shuffle reads aloud the names of songs and playlists.

I wonder if this would be good for the blind…

It’s also very cheap ($79 for 4 GB!).  Technology progresses so quickly (I remember the good old days when $60 got you a 256 MB flash drive.  I now have a 16 GB flash drive for $20…)!

I wonder if Apple’s going anywhere with the new advertisement design:

For comparison, here’s the album cover for U2’s newest album, No Line on the Horizon:

Is it just me, or does Apple’s ad resemble the album cover?

Safari 4 Public Beta

Image by macewan via Flickr

Safari 4 Public Beta is out.

It is a significant improvement over Safari 3, especially in the user interface.

Safari 4 now resembles iTunes in its design elements, etc.  For example, it now has cover flow for your bookmarks–a somewhat useless feature, unless you like seeing your bookmarks (I don’t really care).

In other news, I think Apple is ripping off Chrome:

Image by Lawrence R.Y. Li via Flickr

It seemed like a good idea at the time…

This is what happens when I get deprived of my sleep…

Note to self: *NEVER* again shall I stay up on the computer until 5:00 AM, even if it is just to re-read xkcd. I will become incoherent and brain-dead to the point of stupor.

On the Origin of Darwin

Today is the 200th birthday of Charles Darwin, originator of the theory of evolution!

Happy birthday, Charles Darwin!

IdleRPG

IdleRPG is an IRC game at #IdleRPG at irc.foonetic.net.  In order to reach those places, you will need an IRC client (e.g. Chatzilla).

Here’s how it works:

1. You level up by staying idle.  The longer you stay idle, the more levels you gain.  This means no talking, leaving, or nickname-changing, or you will be penalized by having to take longer to reach the next level.

2. All you do is stay idle.  As you level-up, you may pick up items and battle people.  However, this is chosen semi-randomly.  All you do is stay idle, and the game does everything for you.

3. There’s a website at http://idlerpg.foonetic.net/ that talks about how it works and gives instructions about how to start.  The website also has pages of the players, and a map of all players.  I can be found here.