A Queen for all Egyptians

Interview with Justin Ma (of FTL fame)

Interesting interview with Justin Ma (one of the guys behind the game "FTL"):

To be perfectly honest, it was maybe a few weeks before the release of the game that was the first time I was actually able to beat the game. We were designing it for people who would be really good at it, which is a weird thing to shoot for. We wanted it to have around a 10% success rate even if you know what you’re doing. That was the goal in terms of difficulty

Free DNS services

I'm in need of a DNS hosting service, if possible free of charge. In the past, I had used xname.org and they worked out fine for my needs. However, when I tried to configure a zone with them a few days ago, it just didn't work. I waited 2-3 days to give them enough time to update their records, but still no luck. Their nameservers are definitely up, but it seems like they just don't update their records:

$ host -t NS mydomain.org. ns0.xname.org
Using domain server:
Name: ns0.xname.org
Address: 195.234.42.1#53
Aliases:

mydomain.org has no NS record

Maybe they stopped accepting new customers, I don't know.

So I looked around and found a few alternatives:

mybind.com
CloudFlare
FreeDNS
EntryDNS
PointDNS

Update: I tried mybind.com and CloudFlare and both worked like a charm for what I needed to do (define a few A-name, CNAME and MX records).

Empty America - Seattle

This is part of the Empty America series by The Thrash Lab, which also include videos of Washington D.C., San Francisco and New York City.
They have the making-ofs on their YouTube channel as well.

Additional content for Portal 2 (unofficial, but good)

From the website:
"Designed for Danger is a Portal 2 Campaign that offers eight new levels and 1 to 2 hours of play time. In the campaign, you assume the role of Chell during an early part of Portal 2. This time however, things turn out differently. The actions of a rogue force will set you on a new path through Aperture Laboratories."

12 Angry Tests is another good map-pack worth checking out.

Downtown NYC after Sandy

Commercial fail GIFs

(click for a gallery with more)

Venom / Halloween makeup

(click on the photos for source)

Cute Owl

Slow Loris

(via BoingBoing)

Raspberry Pi

The Raspberry Pi has recently been upgraded to 512MB RAM. When the Pi was initially announced, I thought "I'll order one right away", but since it was hard to get at the beginning, I waited and then ended up forgetting about it. This time I'd like to get one (or two) for sure, so I placed an order and I guess it'll be shipped sometime in a few weeks or months.

I ordered two cases (this one from Adafruit and this one from Built-to-spec), power supplies and got 2 SD cards.

Some useful links:

There are some nice tutorials at http://learn.adafruit.com/ and also on RaspBerryPiBeginners' YouTube channel.

Setting up VNC on the RPi

The Retropie Project - an interim report - Retro gaming / emulation on the Raspberry Pi

I heard good things about the book "Learn Python the hard way" (available as a free HTML-online-edition or as a book for purchase).

"Getting started with Raspberry Pi" (O'Reilly book)

Unrelated, but fun: "Getting started with Dwarf Fortress" (O 'Reilly book) :)

99 hacks to make your life easier

There are some incredibly useful and clever ideas in this!

My life as a spyware developer

Breaking Bad Stencils

Hilarious memoirs from the HR department

Health Tip #253

Journeycat

Also: The Gamercat - Journey

Safecracking

People with unusual jobs: Ken Doyle, safecracker

Q: Do you ever look inside?

A: I NEVER look. It’s none of my business. Involving yourself in people’s private affairs can lead to being subpoenaed in a lawsuit or criminal trial. Besides, I’d prefer not knowing about a client’s drug stash, personal porn, or belly button lint collection.

(via BoingBoing)

Tracking a stolen computer

Another reminder that using a backup service can be really helpful:
How tracking down my stolen computer triggered a drug bust

BMW 3series E46 AUX input kit

I was looking for an Aux input kit to add to a E46 3series (2004 330i, in my case). Found the part number here as well as a link to a how-to with pictures.

Also:
BMW E46 @ Bimmerwiki
Remote key initialization (in case your key's remote stops working)
E46 3 series tickes & tricks
What to look out for when buying a BMW

Gangnam style

"Gangnam Style" by Psy

Related analysis:
Gangnam Style, Dissected: The Subversive Message Within South Korea's Music Video Sensation

It's for science!

The current state of password security

Great article on arstechnica.com: Why passwords have never been weaker—and crackers have never been stronger

The most important single contribution to cracking knowledge came in late 2009, when an SQL injection attack against online games service RockYou.com exposed 32 million plaintext passwords used by its members to log in to their accounts. The passcodes, which came to 14.3 million once duplicates were removed, were posted online; almost overnight, the unprecedented corpus of real-world credentials changed the way whitehat and blackhat hackers alike cracked passwords.

The Dark Knight Rices

The war on drugs

"Don't ever think it's a war on drugs. It's a war on the blacks. It started as a war on the blacks and it's now spread to Hispanics and poor whites… it was designed to take that energy coming out of the civil rights movement and destroy it," says Ed Burns, co creator of The Wire, who is interviewed in the program.

(via BoingBoing)

E-violin

Daddy Skills

via biggs.cc

Lost wormhole

Portal gun poster / print

Finger Breakdance

The creator of this video has a whole lot more of them on her YouTube channel.

Skateboard tricks at 1000 frames per second

Cat walking down a fridge

Portland time-lapse video

(via @wrenthereaper)

Diablo 3

Since Diablo 3 is coming out on Tuesday, I've been doing some reading about the mechanics and watched some videos to learn more about the game.

This here is a great article by David Sirlin (sirlin.net / @sirlin) about the ability system of the game.
And here is a great post from the Blizzard Forums about character customization, with links to interesting Q&A videos with Blizzard's developers.

And, as a side-note, I found an unboxing-video of the collector's edition.

Teaser for upcoming adventure game "Stasis"

The game is currently in development by Chris Bischoff (@StasisGame on Twitter). It's a one-man-project and it looks very promising.
More infos, screenshots and a dev-blog can be found on the game's official website, www.stasisgame.com.

Longboard ride down a mountain

The post I saw this video in said that it was probably taken in Maryhill, WA, which is also home to a Stonehenge-replica! How cool is that?

Cat uses doorstopper as alarm clock

A lynx in the snow

A lynx using a wildlife overpass to cross the Trans-Canada Highway in Banff National Park (via BoingBoing)

Aperture: Lab Ratt - Portal fan film

(found via Kotaku)

Codecademy

Note to self:
Get back into coding, maybe codecademy.com can help.

Also:
http://hackerschool.org/DefconCTF/17/B300.html
http://work.hackerschool.org/DOWNLOAD/
http://money.cnn.com/2012/03/05/technology/hacker_school/index.htm
http://insecure.org/stf/smashstack.html
http://arstechnica.com/business/news/2012/03/googles-chrome-browser-on-friday.ars
http://www.skillcrush.com

Insane downhill bike race in Chile

Indie Game - The Movie

Twitter - The company that couldn't kill itself has finally turned a corner

YouTube trend manager: Why videos go viral

Ben Her - Tattoos

Kotaku has a nice article about tattoo artist Ben Her, who went to Japan to become a tattoo-apprentice.
(Photo found here and here)

Keyboards

I've got the keyboard-bug.

It started a while ago when I started reading about mechanical keyboards (sometime last year when I was looking for components for a new PC). Back then, I was debating whether I should get a Das Keyboard Ultimate or a Razer Blackwidow Ultimate. I opted for the latter and am using that at home right now.
A couple of weeks ago, I decided to buy a Das Keyboard after all and use it at work. I went with the "Ultimate Silent" model (blank keycaps and quieter brown Cherry MX switches).
Both keyboards are a delight to type on.

I discovered geekhack.org, a forum for keyboard-nuts. It's crazy what's out there!
Some pics: [pic 1] [pic 2] [pic 3] [pic 4] [pic 5] [pic 6] [pic 7]
(most of these have custom keycaps, meaning some of the original keycaps were switched out for different ones)

Many years ago, a friend would often have visitors from Asia over at his house. When I saw their laptops, I loved the Chinese characters that were printed on the keycaps underneath the latin characters. I was reminded of that when I saw a picture of this keyboard on Geekhack. This one is sold in the US, but, of course, without the Chinese characters. And all the shops I checked only had it with Cherry blue switches (a Cherry red version supposedly exists as well). Luckily, someone going by the name of "qtan5370" runs an online-shop (he also sells on eBay) where one can get the Chinese version of that keyboard. Ordered! :) (with black switches)

Some helpful links / online-shops:

- The ultimate keyboard and switch guide
- Cherry-compatible keycaps on eBay (cheap and OK-ish quality, but nothing fancy)
- Elite Keyboards
- WASD Keyboards (custom keyboards and keycaps)
- Deskthority (another forum)
- Keyboard Lover
- Pimp My Keyboard
- Fentek
- Keycaps Direct

On the watch-list:

- KBT Race 75%, with white LEDs and black or red Cherry switches
- Vortex Pure 60%
- Happy Hacking Keyboard Professional 2

Monk and tiger share a meal

inkredibl piktchr.
(found via BoingBoing)

Gunpoint

I've read about the game "Gunpoint" (by Tom Francis) a couple of times already and it seems very interesting. There's a preview on BoingBoing.

Money and the App Store

Article found on Gamasutra:
Money and the App Store: A few figures that might help an indie developer

Sleeping Dogs Teaser

From what I've seen so far, this is going to be an open-world game, GTA-like. The combat seems to be a bit more complex than in GTA, maybe comparable to Arkham Asylum, with some Parkour-elements sprinkled here and there. "Sleeping Dogs" is not going to revolutionize the genre, but it may be a neat little game.

Anonymous' attack tools

Article on arstechnica.com: High Orbits and Slowlorises: understanding the Anonymous attack tools

Mohamed Ali vs. Ryu

Source picture (small resolution, unfortunately)

(via Kotaku)

Blackmill feat. Veela - Let it be

Emperor workstations

These are some really nice workstations made by MWE lab, called "Emperor 200" (45000 USD, yes those are three zeros) and "Emperor 1510" (6200 USD).
I'm looking into getting an Rseat or Obutto workstation soon. Not as fancy as the Emperors, but definitely more affordable.

Coding tutorials

Learn to Code in 2012 with Free Weekly Programming Lessons from Codecademy (lifehacker.com)

also: Plan Your Free Online Education at Lifehacker U: Spring Semester 2012

Music creation on portable devices

Found 2 nice articles on dubspot.com:
Portable Music Creation Tools | Nintendo DS: Korg M01 + GlitchDS
and
Dubspot - Beaterator Tips

Best & Worst games of 2011

Gaming's biggest joys—and most bitter disappointments—of 2011 (arstechnica.com)

iGlide - Castle Walls

Amazing moves by iGlide (member of the Remote Kontrol dance krew)
The track is "fAux's Dubstep remix" of "Castle Walls" by TI feat. Christina Aguilera made by DJ Auxiliary (Soundcloud, YouTube). (The remix is available for free, download-link is on his Soundcloud)