Localoaf

sometimes I make t-shirts

mcd — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 23:38:48 +0000

Here’s one about “information.”

Yip Yip plays Jug Hero at Maker Faire

k7lim — Wed, 07 May 2008 20:29:39 +0000

Now we just need pink and blue to play a game together.

More about Jug Hero.

Thanks to clickfarmer for taking the video!

It’s true…

hannes — Wed, 07 May 2008 01:00:55 +0000

So I was looking at my YouTube comments today…

… and I realized that xkcd was right all along!

(Thanks, xkcd!)

Japan Imports the American Godzilla

k7lim — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 18:33:43 +0000

Japanese fans initially had some trouble with the 1998 American movie “Godzilla.” The monster looked totally different from their iconic monster, and the film just didn’t fit in with their established lore. However, instead of wholesale rejection of the foreign knock-off, famous Japanese film studio Toho welcomed the Hollywood Gojira into the universe they manage. Newly dubbed “Zilla” (other candidate names included “Fraudzilla”), several Godzilla movies suggested that American scientists had mistaken it for the original Godzilla.

Japanese filmmakers re-created the American Zilla for a short battle with the Real Deal Godzilla in the 2004 film “Godzilla: Final Wars (Gojira: Fainaru uozu)”

How to turn your HP printer into a marquee display

hannes — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 22:41:57 +0000

Remember the hack to change the “READY” status message on your HP printer over TCP/IP? Well, that was fun (”PC LOAD LETTER” and “OUT OF CHEESE” being the classics). Unfortunately, the display isn’t long enough for some messages (like Twitter’s 140 characters vs. 2×16 on your LaserJet 8100 DN. So I wrote a little script that scrolls your string through the printer display. The lounge lacking a wall-mounted plasma screen, we initially planned to port iSchoolWhatsup to the printer, but meh.

scroll.py
from socket import * import time


# Find your printer’s IP address by printing a status/test page (it’s usually a menu item somewhere).

address = ”
def scroll(msg):

	length = 16

	i = 0

	while (i < len(msg) - (length - 1)):

		print msg[i:i + length]

		send_printer(msg[i:i + length])

		i += 1

		time.sleep(.15)

	time.sleep(4)

	send_printer(”ready”)

def send_printer(msg): # myHost = ‘128.32.226.104′ myPort = 9100 s = socket(AF_INET, SOCK_STREAM) # create a TCP socket s.connect((address, myPort)) # bind it to the server port s.send(”"”\x1B%-12345X@PJL RDYMSG DISPLAY = \”"”" + msg + “”"\”\r\n\x1B%-12345X\r\n”"”) s.close()

Oreo Speedwagon

k7lim — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 21:08:01 +0000

NOTE: I’m trying out Flickr’s “Post to Blog” feature. So far, so good. Feels weird typing a post outside of the ‘oaf. Thanks to Raymond Yee for the the encouragement.

I am having an imagination block. I can’t, for the life of me, imagine what supermarkets were like prior to the “choice explosion.” What did that even look like? Was the shelf real estate currently dedicated to all 12 types of Oreos full of just plain-jane Oreos (and perhaps Double Stuf)? Or maybe grocers are packing it in tighter now, while 80’s Safeways just had fewer products visible? If someone could show us photos of old supermarket shelves, that would be great.

A while back, I watched Malcolm Gladwell’s TED talk, “What We Can Learn from Spaghetti Sauce,” in which Gladwell traces the root of this choice explosion. He noted that we’d all rate products higher if smaller taste clusters were allowed to have their own niche product (spicy v. chunky sauce).

One noticeable product that has failed to produce many wacky spin-offs is ketchup. Gladwell himself points that out here in the New Yorker: http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2004/09/06/040906fa_fact_gladwell

Microsoft released Vista in some complex combinatoric matrix. Where does hyperchoice become more stressful, and how can I get out of the store without spending many minutes deciding between “Free Range” and “Omega-3 Infused” eggs?

UPDATE: Flickr and the ‘oaf’s stylesheets aren’t playing nice. Can’t get the image to show.

The Bubblegum Sequencer!

mcd — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 18:34:06 +0000

Since Ken-ichi put us to shame, posting the wi-fi divining rod so quickly, Hannes and I worked hard this week to make the video of the Bubblegum Sequencer extra special.

Built in the same course at the Berkeley iSchool, the Bubblegum Sequencer is a physical step sequencer that lets you create drumloops by arranging colored balls on a tangible surface. It generates MIDI events and can be used as an input device to control audio hardware and software. Finally, people can’t claim anymore that electronic music isn’t handmade.

Curious? Watch the video.
Love the video? Spread the word!

GPS != Sense of Direction

k7lim — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 08:15:15 +0000

A Silicon Valley computer dude turns right when that sexy GPS voice says to. Fiery Crash (mp3 link).

http://thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080103/NEWS01/801030409

How can we encourage the creation of technology that augments existing senses, or that encourages us to improve underdeveloped skills?

Fill Your Mind With Meat

Ken-ichi — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 02:04:57 +0000

Spam is one thing, but toast animations warm my chilly little heart.

Via Drawn!

Burgers, Part 2: Oscar’s in Berkeley

k7lim — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 22:42:13 +0000

Oh. The. Joy. To eat an Oscar’s cheeseburger. As mcd has said, it’s a little bit of red-state red meat in a sea of lefty veggie hippy yuppy. The burgers here are just so flavorful and simple.

Their burger-smoke chimney has stained the sign. Yum. It ALWAYS smells like Oscar’s within the next few blocks. My dad used to tell me a simple Chinese proverb: “One home grills meat; three homes smell it.” I’m not sure what the proverb means (I’ve emailed my dad asking). My guess is that it’s about the positive externalities of life, and inadvertent benefits to your neighbors.

The big star. Their fries are kind of mediocre here, so focus on this.

What a view!

These are my images, found at my Flickr.