The 13th Annual Interactive Fiction Competition is underway. There are 29 games this year, quite a manageable number for once! Hopefully among them will be a few gems. Get on over there and grab ’em. In previous years, these have been some of the best game experiences to be had, because they actually engage you… Continue reading IFComp 2007 is on!
Month: September 2007
Another Library Book Sale
On Friday night, Mrs Elbeno remarked to me: “There’s a book sale tomorrow!” Luckily she had read about it in the paper, because I had forgotten it, even though I received the reminder by email from the mayor. So on Saturday morning we headed down to the library at about 9.40 to trawl through the… Continue reading Another Library Book Sale
UPC scanning
Well, I’ve finished with the easy bit. I’ve written code to grab a frame from the webcam and do a bit of postprocessing. The postprocessing looks like a good step towards making barcode recognition easier. I’m only working on this at nights so far, so I figure coping with the poor lighting I have in… Continue reading UPC scanning
Internet People
A memix of blasts from the recent past. How many do you remember? (Did I just coin the word “memix”? Meme + remix!)
New PC
I’ve acquired a new PC from the office flea market at the knockdown price of $50. With an Athlon 2200, GeForce 4400, and 1.5GB of RAM, it’s going to be my MAME machine. A significant step up from my previous MAME machine (Athlon 800, GeForce 3, 0.5GB of RAM). My only dilemma is whether to… Continue reading New PC
Open barcode database, anyone?
Delicious Library is a non-free Mac application that catalogues your library of books, movies, CDs, etc. It does this in an inspired way: apparently you simply hold up the item to your webcam (or iSight as the Mac people call it) and it will read the barcode and discover what the item is automatically. Clearly,… Continue reading Open barcode database, anyone?
A bit wider
(or 1200 bits wider, if you like) The more observant among you will notice that this blog column has become slightly wider. This is because the default WordPress theme has a 450 pixel wide column, whereas the “medium” size photo on flickr is 500 pixels wide. To prevent photo squashing, I did some CSS hackery… Continue reading A bit wider
Secret questions and two factor authentication
You’ve seen them. They’re cropping up all over the place now, and not just for online banking. I’m talking about those so-called “secret questions” that are supposed to authenticate you if you ever forget your password. They are (sort of) based on the principle of two factor authentication. Except they actually make the system less… Continue reading Secret questions and two factor authentication
Panoramics!
I’ve uploaded some panoramics to flickr. Sydney Opera House, with its delicate lines, is a real challenge for stitching. I used hugin and enblend to do the jobs, and I’m happiest with the second one of Narooma harbour.
Oz Report – Part 21 – The Journey Home
Monday. We had no troubles getting to the airport with plenty of time to spare. Sydney’s tunnel system once again proved useful. After dropping off the hire car, we checked in, and this time we were prepared to make sure our car seat was smoothly approved. The checkin agent remarked that we were very organised… Continue reading Oz Report – Part 21 – The Journey Home