General

[qrcodetag]If you can read this, then welcome to West Karana![/qrcodetag] [qrcodetag]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CueCat[/qrcodetag] I’ve been trying to think of cool ways to punch up the look here at West Karana. Professional color schemes? Meh! An enlightened sense of design? BORING! I had just the solution! What we really are all craving here in the 21st century are more BAR CODES! YES! I read a LOT of science fiction when I was a kid. One thing that was mentioned again and again, more than flying cars and weekend rocket trips to the Moon, were bar codes. Gotta have them. On the skin of our wrist, or on our home bots, or on the slips of paper the company Compu-Tron used to answer the deep questions, like, what is the exact value of ‘pi’. Just before it spitzensparken and blew up. Blowing up was ANOTHER of those cool future things that happened. ...

I think I missed a few weeks on my TV recaps. Well, tonight’s is a good one – Mod Squad’s first episode. Set in 1968 (though the novel on which it is based was set in the 50s), Mod Squad follows a mod, a cool cat and a hippie chick as they narc on their friends for Johnny Law. Richard Pryor and a very young Harrison Ford have cameos. ...

My Dragon Age: origins replay has been sucking away all my free time. But, that’s done with, for now, so I just have to write about it. Also, I changed the blog theme. Not 100% sure I like it, but I knew it was time to do something. You’ll notice (perhaps) that the XFire plug in has been replaced by a Raptr widget; I’ve moved to Raptr for reasons I’ll probably write about at some point.

I never saw this show on television. But I heard about it. All over – because of its theme. The first time I remember hearing the theme was when I saw “The Blues Brothers” movie for the first time. Duhduh duhduh duhduh DUHduh duhduh duhduh duhduhDUHduh – then the piano comes in, and then the lazy, brassy saxophones. During the end credits, “The Theme from Peter Gunn” was the only title I didn’t recognize. ...

Hulu’s most enduring legacy may well turn out to be the treasure trove of classic American television from the 50s, 60s and 70s that tell tales of a world far different than ours. I loved Irwin Allen’s kid-friendly science fiction shows; Lost in Space, Time Tunnel, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and the effervescent Land of the Giants. I hadn’t seen Land of the Giants since I was a kid. Hulu has the complete run. I’m happy to present after only 42 years, a recap of the pilot episode, “The Crash”. ...

I’ve been a big fan of my Asus netbook for a couple of years now, and last week I got my grubby hands on one of Apple’s new iPads. How do the compare? Is there any reason to have a netbook when you have a shiny new tablet? Or is there a purpose for an underpowered, single-tasking, locked down device when you have a free and open universe available to a netbook? ...

Today, the XKCD webcomic page goes black as it simulates a Linux shell. Here are a few things you might want to try: `$ make me a sandwich $ sudo make me a sandwich $ shutdown $ sudo shutdown $ help $ cheat $ quit $ wget http://google.com $ man $ cat $ man cat $ look $ go south $ light lamp` or my favorite (from Internet Explorer): $ sudo apt-get upgrade ...

Okay, I think this has gotten a bit out of hand. This is MY blog, and I DO moderate the comments. Syp, if you and your minions insist upon spamming my blog with your negative comments, I’m just going to delete them. West Karana is a safe, supportive site for people who love MMO games and the people who play them – not some sort of weird gathering place for people who are only allowed to think as you do. ...

It’s not that I don’t agree with everything Syp of Bio Break says, or stands for. Well, I DON’T agree, but it isn’t JUST that. If I said LEFT, he’d say RIGHT. If I looked up at the sun and said it was bright, he’d swear from here to Sunday that it was the blackest night he’d ever seen. He just can’t stand seeing me be right about anything. Well, that ends now. Because I AM right. About EVERYTHING. ...

I’m driving to Virginia today to visit my son. So I’ll be gone a couple of days, but the Adventures in Monopoly crew have been playing Scrabble, and came upon an interesting board position. So while I’m gone…. What was the last piece placed? In what order were the legal plays made? If Bear moved first, who won? See you Wednesday! (Update: a couple possible answers in the comments)