General

Wow.LiquidMetal Technologies has developed a metal alloy that is harder than steel or titanium but that, when heated to 750F, melts to an amorphous tar than can be molded like plastic.

Watch out, John Connor!

A while back, I had an idea about how to keep thieves from stealing my CD player: Craptastic Faceplates (R)(TM).

The Craptastic Faceplate would look just like the front of an old beat-up 8-track player, a Radio Shack AM/FM-only receiver, or best of all, a Sparkomatic tape deck with one knob missing. They would be completely non-functional, but would fit the faceplate slots for most high-end car stereos. That way you could easily swap out the real faceplate with the decoy when you had to park your car in some unsavory neighborhood [like where Robert lives].

This holiday season, buy your loved one something that shows you really care about her [or him].

In case anyone has trouble with PayPal, here’s a list of contact information for the company:

PayPal’s toll free number is (888) 221-1161

Another toll free number is (800) 836-1859

Yet another toll free number is (877)672-9725

Their NEW regular telephone number is: (650) 864-8000

Their regular phone number is: (650) 251-1100

Their fax number is: (650) 251-1101

Their mailing address is:

PayPal

P.O. Box 45950

Omaha, NE 68145

Their corporate offices are at:

I am here to Eat Brains!

It’s hard to be an addict.

While on vacation a few weeks ago, I signed up for an AOL dialup account so that Laura and I could suckle from the Internet’s great digital teat. Since I no longer need the account, I decided to cancel it today. This should’ve been easy. Instead, it’s very similar to cancelling a membership to a nation-wide gym.

First, it is quite impossible to find any customer-service contact number via their external website, www.aol.com. I suppose they never planned on people having alternate connectivity. I actually had to ask someone who used AOL to locate the number for the Cancellation Hotline, which in turn was very well-hidden.

Yesterday, I found a highly interesting analysis of Microsoft’s Palladium. The original article, in German, is located [here][1].

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One of my favorite [read: “only”] childhood Nintendo games was Capcom‘s “Section Z“. Section Z was like the poor-man’s version of Metroid: guy in a space-suit killing things in order to kill a bigger ‘Brain’ thing.

The one important thing about this game was that it taught me how to non-linearly map things. I was used to pen-and-paper RPGs, so I was used to drawing areas that had rooms that lined up. After a few days of frustration trying to map Section Z, I realized that it didn’t matter where I put the rooms on my map. At the end of each room there were two teleporters. The key to mapping [and beating] the game was to note where the teleporters took your character. By the time I was done with the game, I had dispensed with graph paper, and just had a list of section names and where their ‘up’ or ‘down’ teleporters took me.

Even the monkey loves Mac OSX.

As seen on Slashdot, the L33t Sp34k “L0rD’s Pr4y3R”:

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