Cool Website of the Moment: Michael Komarck Illustration

This is the website of Michael Komarck. I've seen his stuff before on different gaming books and whatnot but ran across his website today. Cool style. It's a refreshing change from a lot of the art styles out there (not that I don't like, say, Todd Lockwood, but variety is good).

No More Anonymous Posts

After getting a huge barrage of spam this morning, I've turned off anonymous posting in comments. You can still post, but you'll need to have a Blogger account.

I realize that's a pain (not that many people comment here, but they do on occasion), but I'm not going to waste any more time than I have to on spam. Used to be I'd get the occasional burst of 3 at a time, which wasn't a huge deal, but this morning they just kept coming and coming. So, no more anonymous posting.

Stop Stealing Bandwidth - Use Imgred!

Not that you are, necessarily, or intentionally. But if you want to embed an image from another site, use "imgred". It's a pretty cool service. Basically, just put "http://imgred.com" in front of the URL of the original picture. Imgred gets a copy of that picture and hosts it on its own servers so you aren't using up someone else's bandwidth.

The URL of the service should be obvious. Not sure what they get out of it, but it beats the hassle of copying the images to your own site or Flickr or wherever. And it's certainly better than using the bandwidth someone else is paying for.

The Proper Use of Serial Commas

Ha! As this site asserts, I've always been right!

About what? You do put a comma after the item that precedes "and" in a list, like so:

John bought eggs, fish, chicken, and a sandal.

Journalistic guidelines say otherwise, but as the site above says, they're wrong. Journalism is untrustworthy these days anyway.

So, take that, Jim!

Escher in Lego

Cool pictures (warning: these pictures are safe, but the site may be considered NSFW):

That one with the waterfall.

The stair one.

Capuchin Catacombs of Palermo

This site discusses and displays photos of the Capuchin Catacombs of Palermo, a very interesting - and very creepy - place in Palermo, Italty.

My New Favorite Website

I actually found Askaninja before I started seeing references to it on the Web, so this isn't a bandwagon post. More like "Hey, I knew about this about 18 hours before everyone else thought it was cool!"

Come to think of it, I thought ninjas were cool before the whole Ninja Bubble of the mid-1980's (followed by the subsequent Ninja Crash of the late 1980's).

Anyway, check it out; it's funny.

If You Use IE, Upgrade to Version 7 When it Comes Out

It'll make my life a hell of a lot easier since that version is supposed to support alpha transparency for PNGs.

I'm currently re-vamping my website and a number of my graphics are PNGs with an alpha channel. It really makes it easy to blend something in that has, say, a modest drop shadow if the browser will just render it for you on whatever background you have. Firefox supports this, Opera supports it, and a whole bunch of browsers for Macs do as well. Guess which major browser doesn't support transparency with PNGs? Big hint: If you're a PC user, you're probably using it right now (if so, I really recommend switching to Firefox, but that's a discussion for another time).

Now, I can use transparent PNGs with IE, but it's a bigger pain-in-the-ass than it should be. All the other browsers just support the functionality so you just drop your graphics in with the standard img tag. Redmond's browser of choice, however, requires a convoluted process which will also give you a warning about running "unsafe content". Using the exact coding that Microsoft describes on their website. Every day I think more and more about switching to Linux or even one of them shiny Macs...

Fortunately, IE 7 is supposed to support transparent PNGs, so I should be able to use one codebase for my pages rather than having to check what browser someone is using and then write the appropriate HTML then (Note: IE will display PNGs, but it won't handle their alpha channels, if they have any).

Fun Internet Toy

This page serves no real purpose other than wasting time, but it's still cool.

(Found via Tech Support Alert's newsletter).

A Update on the Site

I haven't posted in awhile so I figured it might be a good idea to summarize what's been going on around here lately.

Mythosa Chronicle #11: This was originally supposed to be posted six or seven months ago. Well, I was busy. In any case, the rough draft of this issue is done and once the editting is finished it will finally be posted. I'm hoping to get back to doing one each month, but I'm not sure how likely that is. The Chronicle will continue regardless, but probably at a more irregular pace.

TableSmith: Development on version 5 keeps humming along, albeit slowly. Everything is pretty much ready except for the "Archives" functionality. Once that's in, TS5 will go into beta and eventually will be released. Probably as a commercial product, though; I can't afford to keep doing it as a fully-featured shareware. Not enough return for my time and effort investment.

MMORPGs: I decided that Guild Wars is to World of Warcraft as methodone is to heroin. Or however those drugs work. I still play both but I together I play them less than I previously played WoW, which is a good thing. I'm not sure how much longer I'll be playing WoW, though. I've decided to focus my efforts on my rogue, even to the point where I've started putting together her blue armor set. But only two of the eight pieces can be gotten without having to make the raids into Scholo and Blackrock and wherever. Part of the end game which, as I've stated before, doesn't appeal to me. So, while WoW is a fun game I think it may have run its course for me unless I want to be a hardcore, 30+ hour/week raider.

Site Redesign: Yes, I'm thinking about re-doing the site again. Not in a major way, but just making things a bit nicer. I'll probably stick with the existing design and layout for the most part.

That's all for now.

Hoody Hoo!

This website got mentioned in the latest issue of Knights of the Dinner Table. Two paragraphs even! The Summon Web Scryer column, which looks at Internet gaming resources every month, discussed a variety of software tools available on-line and said some nice things about TableSmith and some of the other tools on the utilities page. Very cool.

If you're not familiar with KoDT, head over to the Kenzer and Company web page and check it out.

Some Cool Links to Things from the Past

Here's a couple of cool links I ran across recently:

R.I.P. Films - This is a collection of old film shorts, things like war reports, industrial propaganda, educational films from the 50's, etc. Many are humorous by today's standards, and I've seen at least one of the films I downloaded on Mystery Science Theater 3000 a few years ago. Still, an interesting glimpse into a part of America's past.

Bound for Glory - Wish I could remember where I found this (Slashdot? Uncle Bear? Don't recall...). Anyway, it's a bunch of pictures from around the US circa 1939-1943. Not a big deal in and of itself, except for the fact that they're in color. Not something you generally see in pictures that old.

Bustin'...um...a Move...like...Hobbit-style. Um...yo.

The Unicorns LA video made me want to have a bleach eye-wash, but I kind of like the LotR video from Lords of the Rhymes.

Um, yo.

On a related, negative note, WTF is up with Apple requiring you to install iTunes now if you want to install QuickTime? And then the asshats at Apple break one of the Cardinal Rules and put the goddamn QuickTime icon in your Quick Launch bar without asking you for permission. You never put something in someone's Quick Launch bar or the root of "Start" or on the desktop or in your bookmarks/favorites without asking first. Yeah, I'm looking at you, too, AOL (a new version of Winamp? Great! Now let me track down the goddamn artifacts you bastards scattered all over my PC). And Sierra - they used to be notorious for that. Look, if I want to install the goddamn Sierra Utilities I'll make the request - you don't do it for me! Of course, those things are mild compared to a company like Sony installing a damn rootkit on your PC!

I swear, Microsoft isn't going to be the one to push me off Windows onto Linux; it's going to be all these other corporations screwing around with my system because they assume I'm a moron, a criminal, or both.

Sorry for the rant...

The Zombie Scenario Survivor Test

Normally I don't pay attention to those "What kind of XXX are you?" or whatever quizes on the Internet. But we all know how important it is to be ready for the coming Zombie Apocalypse. Therefore, this quiz is rather important.

My result:

Official Survivor Congratulations! You scored 75%!

Whether through ferocity or quickness, you made it out. You made the right choice most of the time, but you probably screwed up somewhere. Nobody's perfect, at least you're alive.

My test tracked 1 variable How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 34% on survivalpoints

Link: The Zombie Scenario Survivor Test written by ci8db4uok on Ok Cupid, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

Cool Resource: Metal Weights Calculator

Looking for a calculator to determine the weights of metals? Try this.

DM: "The solid gold pillar is 2 feet in diameter and 15 feet tall."
Player: "I'll throw it over my shoulder and carry it to the entrance door of the hall."
DM: "Make a STR check against DC 75 to see if you don't rip your arms out. It weighs 57,000 pounds."

Cool Web Site: The Invisible Library

The front page of the site says it all:

The Invisible Library is a collection of books that only appear in other books. Within the library's catalog you will find imaginary books, pseudobiblia, artifictions, fabled tomes, libris phantastica, and all manner of books unwritten, unread, unpublished, and unfound.

Cool Resource: Terminix Insect Database

While researching a bug I found among some sawdust in our family room (to determine if it was problematic or not), I found a pretty nice resource: the Terminix Pest Library. Granted, it's a corporate site, but don't let that scare you away, hippies! Good, basic insect information.

A number of gaming ideas for fantasy insects...

Cool Web Site: BrickQuest

"Cool Site of the Week" lasted about two weeks, so I figured something that didn't commit me to a timetable made more sense.

Anyway, this is pretty amusing: BrickQuest.

Cool Site of the Week: Zombie Infection Simulation

Zombie Infection Simulation

This site has a Java app that simulates how a zombie infestation would spread in a randomly-generated city. It's a very cool little toy.

Of course, the coming Zombie Apocalypse is no laughing matter. This simulator shows just how quickly we could be overrun. The lesson here is: Be prepared. There is time. We can survive the inevitable zombie plagues. But only if we start planning and training now.

Cool Site of the Week: Dwarfstar Games

Dwarfstar Games

This site features a collection of 2-player wargames (and one solo fantasy game) with fantasy and sci-fi themes. They're all in PDF and JPG format and best of all - they're free. The rights to the games are owned by Reaper Miniatures, but they have permitted the games to be posted. The games available include: Barbarian Prince (solo), Demonlord (fantasy), Goblin (fantasy), Grav Armor (SF), Outpost Gamma (SF), and Star Viking (SF).

I'll post an update in the future once I've had a chance to play any of them.

Cool Links

Here's a handful of cool links I've run across recently:

• The ZOOMQUILT: It's hard to describe, but very bizarre and very cool. Check it out.
• A home-grown gelatinous cube: Posted at Cool Mini-or-Not. I particularly like how the hand of the poor bastard inside the cube hasn't been digested yet.
• #develop: If you want to develop with .NET but don't want to shell out the $$$ for Visual Studio, check this out. It's a free, open source IDE for Microsoft .NET which allows you to create C# or VB.NET programs. I've been playing with it for a little while and it's pretty impressive. I've started coding version 5 of TableSmith with this and so far it's working pretty well.

I'll post more in the future as I find them.

Take THAT, Image Thieves!

Where'd my text go? Friggin' Blogger...

This is the second time this has happened.... I'm not going to re-type all of that. Just know that if you've been remotely linking to the images on my site, you should probably stop if you don't want your links to break periodically.

If you want to use an image file from this site:

1. Ask me for permission first
2. Copy the image to your site, so your bandwidth gets used
3. Make sure you credit me as the creator/author/whatever

That's all I ask. Not too demanding to be calling for fairness.

Links, Links, Links

I was running my Links page through the W3C's Link Checker (something anyone who has external links on their site should do regularly), when I got to thinking - does anyone really care? Used to be that a "Links" page was kind of a big deal, but that was before massive portal sites and search engines like Google (and I'm not going to take the time to put a link into that - if you don't know how to get to Google by now...). Linking to personal web sites is sketchy because they often disappear before long (not always, though the links I have to personal sites continue to decrease due to sites going away), and is there a point to linking to major or well-known companies like Reaper Miniatures? You don't need to "find" them through me - and do you really care that I think they're a cool enough company to link to?

Perhaps those pages are useful, and I'm simply approaching the matter from someone who's been using the Web for years and is rather computer-savvy - a common failing among people like me.

Hard to say! A Links page is probably better used to alert people to things they might not normally run across, particularly in forums or e-mail lists, which I assume is how most people find out about neat new stuff. I'm debating whether to even continue to have a separate page for that. When other people link to me, I feel it's only appropriate that I return the favor. But if not for that, I'm not sure what the utility of the page is...though maybe I just need to approach it differently.

Along the same lines, I removed the "awards" part of the Links page, since there are no valid links there anymore. The originated pages have long since disappeared. And while I appreciate the folks that gave me those awards originally, I don't know that anyone actually cares about whether a site received an award or not. If you have content that interests them, they'll bookmark your site. If you don't, it wouldn't matter who gave you your awards. And honestly, I don't know if anyone's giving out awards anymore anyway. That seemed to be a big thing early on in the Web, but nowadays it's about as meaningful as the Grammys :) Or the Origins Awards (does anyone care about those other than a handful of game writers? I've never bought anything on the basis of whether it won an award or not - see my comment about "content" above).

A Matter of Perspective

Years ago, when I first set up a Web site (for Mythosa - though a version different from what I have now), I set up a web counter and used to check it daily. Subtracting the totals from my own visits, I remember how excited - yes, I'm a geek - I got the first time I had 10 hits in a single day.

Looking at the web stats for my site (I do that about once a month), my average daily hits over the past year are in excess of 1,900. Not Amazon, but not bad for a little gaming website. My hits would be higher but I've been leaning towards stored information more in downloads, particularly PDFs, rather than HTML pages. Over 36 GB of files have been downloaded over the past year...

Za?

I don't know why, but I find this to be hysterical.

Oh, "XP Tracker" should be available soon. Need to update the Dungeon index too, since I finally got issue #111 in the mail.

Editted: I remove the link since the target picture keeps changing; doesn't make sense to keep it any longer. The original was a picture of a bunny with a pancake on its head, with the caption: "I have no idea what you're talking about, so here's a bunny with a pancake on its head."