Richy's Random Ramblings – Page 202 – Random ramblings and ravings of Richy B

Game: Hold The Button

December 10, 2002

Continuing the button theme from yesterday, here a little basic Flash game you can play. It’s called simply “Hold The Button“, and you aren’t going to be able to guess what you have to do.

Ok – I’ll tell you: You’ve just got to Hold The Button (don’t faint – it wasn’t that difficult to guess)!. Yep, how long can you keep your finger on the mouse pressing a poor defenceless little button? I managed 2hr 45mins before I needed the computer for something else – and even than I only “held the button longer than 50.2% of visitors”. No, I didn’t rest anything of the mouse to cheat like that: I can certainly say that the only thing to touch the mouse or my keyboard during that time was myself. But, then again, I did have better things to do with my time then just sit there pressing a button… I’ll leave you to guess how I managed it 🙂

Fun: Harry Potter And The Naked Quidditch Game

December 10, 2002

5 Comments

Originally published at 03.19am
Updated at 05:47am
Updated at 10:14am
Ok, ok, I still haven’t got round to doing my review of the film of Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets yet (I think I’ll have to watch it yet again to refresh my memory), but in the mean time – he’s a few things about HP that I’ve found on this ‘er internet type thing:

Thanks to Christine’s blog entry, I was laughing for nearly half-an-hour at the Naked Quidditch Match (written by Anya). Basically, it’s a series of emails (or, rather MMails: Magical Mails) sent between residents and non-residents of Hogwarts about an upcoming Quidditch game where the Gryffindor team have to play “in the buff”. Of course, a certain enterprising individual thinks it’ll be a good time to start the Unofficial Harry Potter Fan Club and the “Harry Potter Nude 2002 Calendar”…

If you can’t understand some of the terminology (or you are wondering what, exactly, Quidditch is), then you may find the Harry Potter Lexicon handy.

Oh, and before you start thinking “it’s all fiction” – it isn’t. The now grown up Harry Potter was kind enough to give an interview to E! Online last month.

[Update:05:47am]
It seems even Jakob Nielsen has got on the Harry Potter bandwagon – his latest Web usability column is entitled “In the Future, We’ll All Be Harry Potter” where he compares things like the Daily Prophet (the magical newspaper with movable pictures in HP) with the Microsoft TabletPC (or, I guess, any other PDA). He also includes the following memorable quote from Arthur C. Clarke‘s book “Report On Planet Three“: “any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” (there’s also a corollary to this ‘law’ which goes “Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced” – from Gregory Benford‘s “Foundation’s Fear“).

[Update:10:15am]
It seems the aforementioned Naked Quidditch Match has been made UserFriendly‘s Link Of The Day for today. Let’s just hope the folks over at Gryffindor Tower are ready for the onslaught of visitors!

Weird: Shutdown the Internet

December 9, 2002

1 Comment

[Don't push the button] You all know to shut down your computer properly at night/when you finish don’t you? Well – did you remember to shut down the Internet correctly when you had finished using it?

No? Well, next time – remember to take your Javascript enabled web browser over to Turn Off The Internet and safely shutdown the Internet when you’ve finished with it.

Before you do that, remember that Windows allows you to use Alt+F4 to close the current window…

(I actually have fond memories of a big red button – some ODP editors will probably remember a big April Fools joke that was played on us in 2001. I think we all learnt that when a sign says “Do NOT [Push] the Big Red Button!”, it’s advisable to NOT push it: no matter how much you are tempted. Following instructions is a good idea sometimes 🙂 )

TV: Granada Men And Motors

December 9, 2002

4 Comments

I’ve just spent a number of lazy hours watching TV and eating whilst idly channel “surfing”. During that time, I noticed the the ‘slightly adult’ Men And Motors channel from Granada Sky Broadcasting seems to give a stereotypical impression of part of the population. Basically, Granada (the TV station that brings you Coronation Street) is based “up” in Manchester – and the “Men And Motors” shows seem to just have “northern lasses” on the programmes (the Manchurian and Liverpudlian accents tends to be quite distinctive, but some of the girls actually state they are from the North and North West – whether it’s a “cost saving measure” to save the camera crew travelling around the country, I don’t know). The only thing is, most of the shows on M+M appear to me to be about strippers and their work.

Yep, you’ve guessed it – it seems to give the impression that only “northern lasses” strip (and the majority of them are actually blonde – but on most you can tell they are bottle-blondes). Oh, and it’s doesn’t really help the “stereotypical impression” about “Scousers” being a bit lacking in the intelligence department either when some of the women being interviewed (this instance from a catwalk show or similar) come up with remarks such as “It’s not just about the look, it’s about the whole package – the walk, the look. It’s about the package”. In other words, “judge me and my fellow women by the way we look and walk only”.

Oh – and girls, I’ll hate to disappoint you, but some blokes do find large breasts a big turn-off!

Sorry for the slight rant, but I dislike “stereotypes” being reinforced – but Men And Motors just seems to want to reinforce the “Northern Blonde Bimbo Who’s Willing To Take Her Clothes Off As Soon As You Ask” stereotype a bit too much. And if it wasn’t for NTL: forcing me to “take” ‘Men and Motors’ as a cable TV channel then I wouldn’t have this to rant about (NTL show “Granada Plus” [an enjoyable channel showing old re-runs] between 6am and 11pm, when it then “switches over” to Men and Motors).

(Disclaimer: I’m actually from the Midlands and as far as I know, I have no relations in or from the Northern part of England – so you can’t say I’m “defending” the Scousers because I am one – as I’m not! A! Now just calm down, calm down!)

Fun: Even More Lego!

December 8, 2002