Friday, May 21, 2004

in my day we just peeled off the stickers & rearranged them

There is a remarkable thing here about a Lego robot machine that solves the Rubik's Cube.

There's even video from that Screensavers show to go along. This is the kind of science I wish I could do. Why can't I have a homemade robot that solves the Rubik's Cube?

A few things learned from watching video:

1. You can lubricate a Rubik's Cube.
2. There's a Swedish Rubik's Cube champion (paging Joss Whedon; get this on TV immediately).
3. Saying you're going to make a Lego robot dedicated to solving the Rubik's Cube is received by your friends like saying you're going to quit smoking.

So, wow. Have you guys ever made anything like this? What's the neatest/most obscure/most robotic thing you've ever made?

Tuesday, May 11, 2004

Naughtiness Quotient: It had to be done

This is just brilliant -- after doing the obvious Misty (half-dog, half-porn star) and Katya (wow, what a dirty bitch), it seemed only fair to see how the names of the withbootsers score on the NQ. (Some images in these links EXTREMELY unsafe for work.)

"Richard" has a negative NQ. Though that David Hasselhoff as Night Rider motorcycle guy has some kind of quotient going.

"Christopher" is also ranking pretty low on the NQ, but gets some minor half point for having an image from mostbeautifulman.com.

"Gavin", surprisingly, has a NQ of 2, plus there's a marching duck toy and I'm not sure how to score that.

"Kelly" is nearly off the NQ meter, with possibly an 8, possibly a couple less or a couple more depending on whether naughty looks with extreme chin pointiness count or not.

"Karen" ranks a 7, plus a picture of a golden shoe.

"Alan" has nil on the NQ, but Alans appear to have more fun.

"Ted" is also clean and clear, though I suggest you go see the cool eye patch guy! (Possible extra pirate points?)

"Gwenda" has a NQ of 1, plus lots of pictures of hurricanes and one lovely horse.

"Barb" seems to score a solid 5, though one of those pics is a headless person and I'm not sure that counts.

"Kristin" turns out to be the name of really pretty, flirty girls the world over -- more teasing than naughty, but the latent naughtiness in some of these pics would put "Kristin" around a 3 in my opinion.

(Yes, I know a couple of these people haven't signed on yet, but I am an optimist and NQs are fun. They're already with us in spirit.)

Feel free to quibble, as the NQ is an inexact science as practiced by me.

Monday, May 10, 2004

let's get meta

John Klima's posting about talking about movements and the other group blog has raised the issue of funny/awful/sad/beautiful names. Surely, we have a rebuttal for these things at the ready, no?