Clicked : Games

Are suckers born or made?

Will Femia — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 07:08:00 GMT

Last night I was reading this piece and its related links about the rise of "alternative medicine" and corresponding compromise of actual science based medicine. Then I saw Bob in the office today. He was booked to go on the air to talk about new credit card scams and the fact that hard economic times make people more susceptible to scams. After he came back to his cube we chatted about the psychology of suckerness and how interesting it is and then, waddayaknow, tonight I come upon this summary...(read more)

Helping the holiday slowdown

Will Femia — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 17:06:00 GMT

I had a great time last night playing Draw My Thing with total strangers. I didn't register or sign up for anything and it all loaded pretty quickly. Surprisingly, there were no trolls or jerks either. More in the mood for an old fashioned time killer? I lost most of a Saturday night to Body Ladder. I don't think the scoring system works but there are levels to strive for. For all the time I put into it, I never got past the axe level but it's the kind of game that makes you think that with just...(read more)

Some quick gems

Will Femia — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 21:46:00 GMT

In no particular order today: What I'll be doing tonight while I listen to the debate on TV: the eyeball game. My first try was a 4.08 but I had a couple of 11s that were just dumb mistakes so I know I can beat it. If tonight's debate leaves you unfulfilled, consider trying out your own third party candidate. Literal A-ha is actually better than original I think. Dark Knight trailer by way of Toy Story. Apparently Iceland is having a hard time with this credit market freeze. I thought Iceland...(read more)

Magnets and air or smoke and mirrors?

Will Femia — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 19:20:00 GMT

The cool thing about a magnetic air car isn't that it is (or would be if they built it) air powered. It's cool because it's got a magnetic motor. I'm not sure what that means exactly but I read last week about free-piston engines that use magnets so that's where my head is going. UPDATE: I read more of the magnetic air car's press material and they insist it uses no fuel. There's some suggestion that the magnets produce electricity which produces heat to build air pressure but it seems like...(read more)

I regret to inform you of the death of your day

Will Femia — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 14:26:00 GMT

I hope to have a real post up today, it's been a busy week, as you know. But I had to share this game that absolutely crippled any chance of post-work productivity for me last night. Fantastic Contraption - I could not get past level 16 last night. NOTE: On levels that took longer to complete I did see some browser lag. At first I closed the browser and it thankfull remembered me - even when I switched from Chrome to IE - but then I clicked the "light graphics" button and that worked too....(read more)

Three things I meant to mention, an update, and a game

Will Femia — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 15:58:00 GMT

I have installed Twhirl and it makes a world of difference in using Twitter. Essentially it turns your Twitter account into an instant messenger. Different people feel comfortable with different interfaces but for me, perhaps because of my chat background, I like IM so this suits me well. Twhirl isn't new but Dropbox is and though I haven't tried it I plan to install it on both my home and work machines. I've mentioned before the problems I have with doing work on my home machine and then coming...(read more)

Map thyself

Will Femia — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 22:06:00 GMT

Am I crazy or does the alligator in photo number 6 look kind of happy? I actually tried to use the Bird's Eye View in Live Maps over Gilchrist, Texas to see if I could find the house in photo #11 but I can't make it out. I did learn from a colleague where Jeff Ranieri was standing when he shot this video. If you've got two monitors you can pan Google street view at the same time he pans his camera for a before/after perspective. Speaking of using Google Street View to explore the real world,...(read more)

Twilight of the blogs

Will Femia — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 17:45:00 GMT

It's been fun to see all the new ideas and technologies roll out to the trumpeting of tech heralds but a theme of making it easier to express oneself online has created a moment of reflection in some parts of the blogging community. If maintaining a blog is too much trouble for you, you can try a Tumblr blog (tumblelog) which is just like blogging but easier. Still too much? Just use Twitter, it's only 140 characters at a time. Can't be bothered to Tweet a sentence? Friendfeed will collect the feeds...(read more)

All in all, another brick

Countdown — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 16:15:00 GMT

Folks who've spend any amount of time on a basketball court understand a brick to be a non-scoring shot that thuds awkwardly into the rim. I think I've heard "brick" used to describe particularly and unfortunately unintentionally dense bread. And "brick" or "bricked" is becoming an increasingly common term for gadgets that for one reason or other don't work. Previously I'd heard the word using mostly in connection with tampered-with gadgets. People would try to tinker with the software on a phone...(read more)

Summer light

Will Femia — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 14:57:00 GMT

I'm away from Clicked this week but I hate to let it sit idle and obviously I'm still going to poke around the Web so hopefully I can do a few light updates this week.I lost some time this morning to Star Fighter. It's interesting how it doesn't need an instruction mode because the control keys are labeled in the screen readouts. The one bit of advice I didn't realize until my second game is that you want to shoot like crazy with the space bar, not selectively.Portable Autonomous Sentry demonstration...(read more)