Author: AMH

No I don’t know how fast I was going….

By AMH

There are a lot of “know your rights”/”how to deal with the police” videos floating around the internet, some of which are entertainingly cheesy with enactments of possible scenes. While a bit longer and less dramatic, Boing Boing recently linked to a nice team lecture by a law professor and a cop about why you should never talk to the police, even if you are innocent. The law lecture component has nice historical and legal context about the fifth amendment, but also a really nice explanation of why you should take advantage of your fifth amendment rights even if, or … Continue reading No I don’t know how fast I was going….

Boom!

By AMH

Everybody knows that Minesweeper is addictive, but I don’t know how it took so long for somebody to create multiplayer Minesweeper. It’s a standard online Flash game with rooms to play in a chat windows alongside your standard Minesweeper grid. It works exactly as you would think – you and a handful of other players work to clear the grid. The interface is pretty nice – you can see the shadow of other players’ pointers so you can avoid clearing the same cells. If you click a bomb, you are given a penalty – a timeout during which you cannot … Continue reading Boom!

Reentering the competitive knitting circuit

By AMH

I did not do as well in Sock Wars as I would have liked, in large part due to its unfortunate timing in the midst of finals (what time I gained in knitting while proctoring I lost working against the deadline for final grades). So I was excited to see that there is also a Hat Attack competition, which conveniently starts September 16th, which tends to be as much of a slow spot in the academic semester as you are going to find. Plus, hats are way quicker to knit than socks.And in this competition last knitter standing wins $500 … Continue reading Reentering the competitive knitting circuit

Happy Blogiversary to Me!

By AMH

Ten years ago today, back in 1998, I decided to legitimize my procrastinary websurfing with a “web journal” chronicling the interesting things that I came across online. At the time I’d never heard the term weblog and to the degree that I was aware of any community, it was the online journaling community. Since then, I’ve enjoyed getting to know and be part of an exploding weblogging (or, I guess I can finally, begrudgingly, give in and call it blogging) community. While sadly a combination of work and personal commitments have caused my posting to be sporadic, I’ve never seriously … Continue reading Happy Blogiversary to Me!

Too many projects

By AMH

My goal for the summer is to end it with fewer projects, not more, but there are so many cute crafty projects out there that I keep running across. You can never have too many fun summer dresses, and I really like the shape on this jersey swing dress. The pattern is a bit vague though – I need to print it out and think about it before I try it. I like patterns that are more guidelines in theory, but there is something nice about the pin and cut on the lines types. If you aren’t the sewing type, … Continue reading Too many projects

R2D2 Seating

By AMH

There are a lot of creepy uses for RFiD tags, but these robotic chairs that follow the tag in your library card to follow you around while you browse to provide anywhere seating is pretty cute [via Digg]. Watch the video for the example of using the same technology to easily put together group seating areas. There are tons of other neat applications for this – conference rooms or classrooms or really any large meeting space could benefit from easy chair (and table?) rearrangement. What about walking into an airport and having a tag in your boarding pass allow you … Continue reading R2D2 Seating

No really, lettuce soup????

By AMH

I like to try to go to the local farmers market in the summer when I can, and it makes it easy to identify and buy locally grown produce, but it also makes it easy to identify what is currently in season locally. This is much more of a mystery at the food store, which makes the “peak-season” map at Epicurious of what is in season by region each month a nice tool. Besides learning that right now I ought to be focusing on asparagus, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, lettuce, peas, spinach, and summer squash, I can also look up recipes … Continue reading No really, lettuce soup????

Squeak…

By AMH

I am a pack rat when it comes to dead or outdated electronic gadgets. I have a box full of stuff in my storage closet that I figure one day I’ll rip apart for parts – or more likely give to students to use for projects. I am not very discriminating, though. I just thrown everything in there and figure I’ll sort out someday if it has anything useful in it or not. I think I have a few mice in there, though, so I’m thinking of working through this Hack-a-Day on how to scavenge a mouse for parts. As … Continue reading Squeak…

I make an amazing flying squirrel

By AMH

I do not remember where I first read about Skyrates, but I am totally obsessed with this game right now. It is essentially a steampunk version of Escape Velocity – you captain an airplane and fly from “island” to “island” trading goods and completing missions and shooting down pirates. You can upgrade your ship or buy entirely new ones. As you gain skill points, you can learn new flying maneuvers or open up access to more of the map. The good thing is, this that obsession does not turn into an excessive amount of playing time, because the game is … Continue reading I make an amazing flying squirrel

Summer? Yes, please!

By AMH

The vagarities of life have made me fall very far behind in my websurfing and weblogging, but here are a few things that I have been enjoying as I have been catching up on my RSS feeds: The Pre-Ninja Program – a proposal for a new academic track by a community college administrator Writers Against Piracy – the Improv Everywhere people take on your local public library Girls watching Sneezing Baby Panda – it’s just layers on top of layers of adorable (here is the sneezing panda video the girls are watching) I have no need for a 1470 piece … Continue reading Summer? Yes, please!