Went to see A Passage to Ottawa (pics don't seem to work on webpage) on Friday. It's a story about a boy named Omi sent from India by his ill mother to live w/ his relatives in Ottawa. His adventures in search of a super-hero to take back to Indian to help his mother see him and his cousin sneaking around w/ the captain of a tour boat on the Rideau Canal. The story is simple yet interesting, and the acting a little rough as it's a low budget production. I really dug all the images of familiar Ottawa turf, and the musical score was great. A decent feel-good flic.
Checked out the airport and went "planespotting" -- very cool! Worked on the robot: it's getting there . . . and toured Ottawa's "industrial heritage" on a Saturday morning saunter.
Energy de-reg in full effect tomorrow -- yikes!
16:43 |
2002/04/29
16:29 |
2002/04/26
OCAD Sumo Challenge
The Sumo Challenge has been forced to change venues due to the current Ontario public service strike. The competition is now being held at:
Marc Garneau Collegiate Institute
135 Overlea Blvd., Don Mills
It's too bad, as I was really looking forward to competing in the Science Centre -- I haven't been there in years!
16:26 |
2002/04/25
All your smurf are belong to smurf! The hilarity continues!
Ever burn ants w/ a magnifying glass?
Interesting article comparing Tesla and Edison.
16:18 |
2002/04/24
Went biking in Pinhey Forest -- part of Ottawa's greenbelt -- yesterday to kick off the season. It was my first time biking through the area, and it proved to be quite diverse, with one area best described as a wooded desert! The trails weren't overly technical beyond some rooty sections, but the challenge remained in navigating -- at a half decent pace -- the tight trails snaking through the foilage. The trails were certainly more plentiful than imagined, so I'll definately be returning.
Between the Forest and the 'mountain' dEb and I discovered in Kanata on the weekend, we've been recently finding some fun terrain to frolic on!
Links
Cookie Monster has arrived! Elmo appears before Congress . . . Friendly muppets and monsters should make more public appearances -- it might make the world a happier place.
They sure don't make jungle gyms like they used to.
A computer case fit for the 40's. It looks like it should serve coffee!
Somebody finally orders some Segways.
Segway inventor Dean Kamen has said the scooters increase the distance a pedestrian can trek and fills a needed gap between walking and driving a car.
The unfilled gap between walking and driving, eh? How about a bike, unicycle, scooter, skateboard, or rollerblades? And then there's always running.
16:31 |
2002/04/23
The Ottawa has many hydro and flood-control dams along its 1,300-kilometre length and many of those affected are blaming the authorities for bungling the release of water from upstream reservoirs.
Dogs attack. Solution? Don't let people breed and keep dogs that can be used as weapons. You don't see me bringing a pet tiger to the door when the girl guides come to my house selling cookies. Or, you can always kick the dog.
For fans of Dahl's Danny, the Champion of the World, here's an instructional site on making your own candle balloons!
Flash mini-putt! (Brings back fond memories of the PACE Mini-Golf Tournaments, and of playing Beavis and Butthead mini-golf back in school.)
Yatta, anyone? Irrational exerburance, amongst other things . . .
16:34 |
2002/04/22
Hey, it's Earth Day today. Who knew? I rode my bike all last week, but today I took the bus. Bad timing, I guess.
iSatire.
Weekend
Good weekend. Played outside on Friday night, and saw The Human Body -- great IMAX film, visually anyway, a little cheesy and idealized plot-wise. Worked on robots, made a bit of progress. dEb had a BBQ: good food and a long (obviously) game of Risk.
Today the weather is wintery, cold w/ flurries. I guess it makes up for last week's summer temperatures approaching 30degC.
16:23 |
2002/04/19
Rubber baby buggy bumpers! Say that five times fast!
Electrica is an interactive sound lab, dedicated to the sounds and images of electricity. Pretty neat! (Heavy Flash.)
The unofficial Kinder Surprise web page (here) has an Ask The Expert section, and per yesterday's ponderings about Kinder Surprise toy designers, I wrote them asked about the designers and design openings. Here's what they had to say:
We do not know anything about the designers of Kinder Surprise toys...sorry... Perhaps if you contact Ferrero, the makers of Kinder Surprise eggs they will be able to help you.
Nuts! The only Canadian contact info I have is a snail-mail address, so I'm no further along :|
Peanut Butter Jelly Time gets a facelift. I think I preferred the original.
16:07 |
2002/04/18
Interesting advertising angle. According to this site, amateurish ads have been appearing on US campuses advertising purple lightsabers, vacations in Kamino, and zen-seeking Jedi masters. Each ad has tear-offs for a web address, and there's a trailer for the new Star Wars movie at each site. Of course, all three sites are registered to Lucasfilm Ltd., so the whole thing is just an 'underground' campaign for the new movie directed at college kids.
More ninja hype, this time of the DIY variety.
Interesting article about the history and future of magnetic disk drives suggests we won't be able to fill the drives of the future.
Good discussion about Lynch's Mulholland Drive on MeFi, which points to Salon's informative article about the movie. (Note: linked articles contain spoilers.)
16:39 |
2002/04/17
Went to Babylon last night to see Wayat from Invisible Cinema spin some tunes. Unfortunately, we didn't actually get to see him, as things didn't want to get started until well after 23h30, and that's when dEb and I took off. The 9-to-5 thing can really hamper a night out during the week, and Babylon seems to consistantly have good shows on Tuesday night, but which start later than I care for. I think I'm going to try and have a night there, and I'll call it "An evening for 9-to-5'ers, from 5 to 9."
11:48 |
2002/04/15
Instead, dEb and I went to see Atanarjuat, The Fast Runner. It was a long movie, that told a long story, to the same level and depth that a good book provides, but many shorter movies cannot. Similar to Himalaya in its slow pace, but for such movies set in barron landscapes where time is marked by increments much larger than is needed in our urban environment where every minute counts, it seemed appropriate. The premis lay in two neighbouring clans' attempts to get along over the years in a resource-scarce environment, and the movie's themes showed that primary human personalities and characteristics are pretty much universal.
Checked out a jazz festival on Saturday night. Kept missing most of the bands as our arrival at various venues was out of sync w/ the performances. It was a good time nonetheless, as I hadn't been down to the market in quite a while.
Made some progress on the robot. Successfully linked some sensors to the motor control circuit, and demonstrated some simple behavior; though there's still tonnes to be done.
Everything computer-related was s-l-o-w today. Computers suck.
Links
Art installation mimics human digestive track -- including the end product ;)
I'm sure everyone's heard the hilarious call between John Kimble and the computer support girl. Well, here's a site w/ soundboards for your own creative calling. (Tonnes more via Google search.)
Who needs trucks when seven wheels each, front and back, will do just fine? Flowlab 'snowboard' fer the streets . . . man, I wish I could afford my toys!
LED moving sign for your bike wheels!
16:09 |
2002/04/12
What a bunch of pigs . . .
16:30 |
2002/04/11
Is Bert evil? According to this site, yes!
Came across this site today: www.kuro5hin.org, looks like another Slashdot / MetaFilter variant. Had some interesting articles -- including reader comments of various views -- on budgeting (part 1, 2, and 3).
Got the motor control circuit (h-bridge) working for the robot w/o too much fuss last night. If I can get the microcontroller up and running, we'll be able to start bringing all the pieces together . . . I looking forward to the point at which baby steps turn to leaps and bounds!
Man, this week is l-o-n-g!
16:19 |
2002/04/10
12:20 |
2002/04/09
Mmmmm! Prison loaf!
More litigation. A widower sues American Airlines for the negligence that failed to prevent 9/11 attacks.
Still more litigation, this time on an international scale. Brazilian Mayor sues Fox over negative representation during the Simpsons' Brazil visit.
Poll finds Ottawa citizens happy to be here, but the common thread of discontent is work:
People say the biggest reason their lifestyle has improved is a better job. However, we rank satisfaction at work behind everything else . . . Although the poll didn't probe any deeper, it's still clear we work to live around here. Not the other way around.
Here, here!
A cool article about the perils of cool ;)
16:14 |
2002/04/08
Ahh, the usual weekend write-up. Perhaps I should change the name of this site to 'the post-weekend review blog' or something equally stupid. Regardless of my boredom in writing about it, it was a good weekend.
Went to Zuni Grill on Friday night: dug the food, dug the atmosphere; one of those great, hidden little treats. After dinner, it was off the theatre! We saw T. Findley's The Stillborn Lover at the Kanata Theatre. How aristocratic! Sarcasm aside, it was a good play, well acted, and well produced. The synthy soundtrack was a tad cheesy, and the allusions to the game Go were interesting, but a little weak, imo. Great set, too.
Some slow progress on the robot was made on Saturday and Sunday, and the remainder of Sunday afternoon was spent frolicking around the Arboretum.
Links
PINO is an open-source humanoid robot project. Apparently, the public has access to all the spec's (mechanical, electrical, software); it's just too bad they don't provide the actual hardware! Oh the perils of the great hardware/software divide . . .
Another step closer to 1984? FDA rules that implant chips used for non-medical purposes don't require regulation, which means VeriChips can start shipping:
"We'll start the rollout with people who want it for medical concerns and Generation Y people who want to get chipped because they think it's cool," Silverman said.
Circuit implants b/c it's cool!? I just don't get it . . . What a bunch of (attention hungry) losers.
16:38 |
2002/04/04
Lots o' interesting links
Litigation gone too far: a US inmate hangs herself, and leaves instructions in her suicide note for her lawyer to file a law suit against the prison for failing to prevent her suicide.
Lego Serious Play: a series of workshops designed to use Lego play sessions to "enhance business performance." See, Lego is getting bigger! (Previous posts here, here, and here.)
Ahh, technology. Special glasses keep track of how much beer is left within, and signal a receiver to alert staff that it's time for a refill.
Coca-Cola and The Oliver Garden would prefer that you don't drink tap water in restaurants.
US sixth grader wipes her mouth on the flag.
Since OC Transpo employees wage war on the road and off, it only seems fit that a retired air force general was commandeered to whip everyone into shape after the 1999 masacre. Groan ;) Here's the article; the Ottawa Citizen is doing a short series in light of the upcoming anniversary of the 1999 shootings.
Carbon dioxide machine + big vacuum = $800 mosquito killer.
LeBreton Flats is getting a make-over, and now there's plans for the City Centre. 'Mechanicsville' is undergoing some interesting changes . . . I have mixed feelings about all of it.
16:23 |
Here's an article about e-mail's evolution to fee-mail. How many people would really pay for Yahoo or Hotmail service? I certainly wouldn't, but I do have alternatives; however, I know a lot of people who don't, and I'm curious to see where all of this will lead. Maybe at least to a decline in bad forwards (in order to comply w/ shrinking inbox capacities).
Sometimes, just sometimes, I wish they'd cut of my internet access at work . . .
Maxim tells you what you want to hear . . . along w/ the guys in the next town over:
"We just couldn't bring ourselves to tell the Southies in Boston that they weren't No. 1," Heidenry said, "or the people in New York that they weren't No. 1. So like a guy juggling different girlfriends, we told them all they were No. 1."
How pathetic. The big macho magazine didn't have the guts to name one top city.
09:03 |
2002/04/03
A four-day weekend past. Wish there were more of those . . . Went home for the first couple of days, and had a nice Easter w/ the fam, and got to hang out w/ Rich, Duff, dAn and Jenn, etc. Quite a good time!
The 'Kids in the Hall' show on Sunday night was hilarious! They were all a little older, and a little heavier, but still very funny. They had a bit of new material, but it was mostly classics, including 'Surprise!' the corporate birthday party gone wrong. Kevin and Dave made a fine mess of Sir Simon Miligan and Hecubus, which made the Pit of Darkness sketch all the more amusing. And of course, I can't forget to mention the head crusher's attack on the audience. The whole show seemed to fly by so fast that a lot of it's a blur, and I'd write more if only I could remember all the particulars. I guess you just had to be there ;)
Went to see UpRoc at Babylon last night; got a chance to catch up w/ John K. from school.
The usual links
This site is part of the Anti-Squirrel Coalition web-ring, but there seems to be plenty of happy stuff for pro-squirrel and pro-chipmunk people alike.
Robot DJs: dj-i-robot, and sratchrobot. Neat, but what does it all mean? Will we eventually turn the job of night-life entertainment over to "intelligent agents?" Or is all this kind of stuff just a result of the broader interest in dj'ing over the last few years?
A Rant
Gettin' pretty frustrated w/ browsers. My host 'upgraded' their web-mail interface, and now I can only read my messages using IE. Blogger's been crapping out on me this week, and here I am on IE, just cruisin' along w/ no problems. I don't like having to switch browsers just so certain sites will work >:| Hey web people, design for NETSCAPE PLEASE! Some of us don't like MSIE!
09:21 |
