Mr. X was asking about his favorite DOS-based pinochle program again. I was unable to get it running under Windows XP Professional SP2. Not surprising, since I wasn’t able to run it under Windows 2000 Professional either. If I remember correctly, the older versions of Windows actually ran under DOS, so the DOS shell worked. I think Windows 95 was the first version that didn’t. I don’t know - Windows 95 was so unstable that I skipped it entirely. Hung in with Windows 3.1 and the 8.3 filesystem until Windows 2000 came out, and then I bought Windows 98, not 2000. Paranoid, eh?
So here it is, 3AM, and DPIN is running under Windows 98 in a VMWare virtual machine.
Do you know the fellow who wrote this software? I would be interested in an updated version. There are some similar programs available, but Mr. X really likes this one.
Incidentally, Kubrick looks hideous in a 640×480x16 window. But it was usable enough to enable me to write this post.
The children of Frank “200 Motels” Zappa and Jim “The Muppets” Henson are collaborating. It is likely to frag the underpinnings of civilization, if not the very fabric of the universe.
Were you as confused as I was as a child by the [tag]TV show[/tag] Fraggle Rock? It wasn’t much better than the truly horrific Banana Bunch but was marginally less traumatizing.
[tag]Ahmet Zappa[/tag] is getting together with [tag]Lisa and Brian Henson[/tag] to resurrect [tag]Fraggle Rock[/tag]. Why, I don’t know. Preliminary information is that they will be attempting to recreate the entire 98-episode Fraggledom in one Epic Film.
“It’s a complete ecosystem,” Zappa said of Henson’s idea to show children how living creatures need each other.
Part of my [tag]engineering[/tag] curriculum was a very fun hands-on robotics course. A [tag]robot[/tag] like this one can move so fast that you don’t have time to get out of its way. Factories that use [tag]robotics[/tag] will have black-and-yellow danger lines on the floor around around each workstation and flashing lights on top of the robots. The factory floor looks like a crazy Christmas show, expecially when the lights are low.
A workstation ideally is defined as the maximum reach of the robot, not the extents of its motion in a given job, so that if there is a mechanical failure or a glitch in the program nobody gets surprised.
For the clueless, there are also multiple emergency stop switches. I can’t tell whether the fellow twirling around on the robot-ride [tag]end effector[/tag] in this video has an emergency stop switch within reach. I kind of doubt it. Not that he’d have time to actually use it.
You’re an intellectual, and you’ve worked hard to get where you are now. You’re a strong believer in education, and you think many of the world’s problems could be solved if people were more informed and more rational. You have no tolerance for sloppy or lazy thinking. It frustrates you when people who are ignorant or dishonest rise to positions of power. You believe that people can make a difference in the world, and you’re determined to try.
[tag]QASHQAI[/tag] Car Games is a fun site I found while surfing google videos. The premise is that the kids who used to do bicycle stunts graduated to using abandoned cars instead. Now that the sport is popular, Nissan has created a special car for it.
I almost didn’t want to spoil it by saying up front that it’s actually a spoof site promoting the tiny Nissan Qashqai. I don’t use computer sound unless I have to, but I think they’re advertising it as a miniature urban assault vehicle.
The newly-released “[tag]Snakes on a Plane[/tag]” DVD finally arrived yesterday. In case you didn’t see the movie in theaters, it is just exactly what you would expect: snakes, snakes, Samuel L. Jackson, and more snakes. There’s a hint of plot, some hot simulated sex, and a bit of dialog, but mostly it’s about the snakes.
The extra features alone were worth the price of the DVD. There’s a short feature on the snake stars of the movie called “Meet the Reptiles.” Jules Sylvester, the snake-handler for the movie, worked on the “Born Free” TV show in the ’60s. The snakes are named in the script - the 17-foot Burmese Python called “Kong” in the movie script is named “Kitty” in real life. You are what you eat, I suppose.
If you’re a hard-core “Snakes” fan, there’s even a puzzle book, “Snakes on a Sudoku.” If you’re a sudoku fan, you have to try these. Instead of squares, the puzzles have snake-shaped areas. You’ll love it.
They’ve done merchandizing out the wazoo. A music CD, a 2007 calendar. Hmmm, I haven’t bought a calendar yet. And don’t miss the official Snakes on a Plane Treo with the genuine snakeskin case.
VMWare
virtual machine
pinochle
kubrick
” Zappa and Jim “
Qashqai
