Apocalypse Now
Another really excellent commentary on the making and themes of Apocalypse Now.
Jump starter review
The new style of jump starters that use rechargeable battery packs are amazing – but not created equal. It’s worth doing your homework first.
You don’t need to pick locks
A reminder that things are only as secure as the absolute weakest link – and that is often the doors themselves.
Pump up the jam
Mad Mex Gobblerito
Mad Mex in Philadelphia has brought back a traditional favorite: the Gobblerito.
The popular combination of Thanksgiving dinner staples wrapped in a tortilla. The burrito is a Thanksgiving dinner wrapped in a tortilla including turkey, black bean mashed potatoes, stuffing and corn that’s drenched in gravy and served with a side of cranberry sauce.
The Gobblerito has grown in popularity each year, said Big Burrito Restaurant Group president Bill Fuller.
I made one myself – and with a little Cholula hot sauce – it was AMAZING:
Motorcycle chariot racing
McDonald’s Lost Nintendo DS Training Game
Finding prototype and undistributed copies of retro games has turned into a modern day treasure hunt. Finding such a gem can result in your copy selling for thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars.
Here’s the story of a long-lost Nintendo DS game that was finally found and given away – for free. It was called eCDP (eCrew Development Program) and was distributed to various McDonalds throughout Japan to help train employees. Follow the fun adventures Nick Robinson had tracking this down, buying it, and then finally playing through it.
Or, if you want, you can download a copy yourself and play it on a DS emulator. I applaud Nick’s values of not seeking profits first, but preservation by offering copies for free.
Links:
The Husbands of Target
Charlie Berens has a very Midwest style of humor that speaks to me.
Hooking 2 modems together without an active phone line
Land lines are getting hard to find these days. Almost as hard to find as old modems.
Back when I was a kid, I wanted to play a network game between two computers in my own house. I achieved this by hooking the modems up in a daisy chain. One modem plugged into the phone line like normal. On the ‘out’ port of the modem, I ran another line from it to the IN line of the 2nd modem. I then had the 2nd modem call our home phone number – which caused our phone to ring, the other modem picked up, and they made their normal connection sounds and connected! I could then unplug modem 1 from the phone line and the computers stayed in contact without issue.
At the time, I thought I needed a dialtone generator or line generator. Little did I know, I could have done it with a simple 9 volt battery and the right sized resistor. Skip along to 8:25 to see how to wire them together.
360 VR Spheres
Nova is an “untethered VR motion simulator,” making virtual reality games and training programs feel more real by rotating in any direction. Their 5.9 foot diameter sphere, which has been compared to a “human-sized hamster ball,” weighs about 1,100 lbs and simulate vehicles of all sorts by being able to move 360 degrees in any direction.
These units are too expensive for the home gaming market, the company leases each Nova unit with ongoing maintenance and upgrades, at a cost of $150,000 US Dollars per year. Eight360 is working with defense forces, mining and forestry industries, where vehicles cost millions of dollars, accidents are a very big deal and training needs to encompass tilt angles.