Flash, clouds and time
This house is filled with “game” machines that I don’t use. I don’t know how, I don’t intend to learn and I tolerate them in much the same way a cat “tolerates” people that aren’t in the small circle of friends. The word for today is “disdainfully”. However, they are computers, so I have a drive to “improve” them, whenever and by whatever means arises. Parts are my thing, I guess.
One of the simpler machines is the Nintendo DS. This microconsole seems to have two roles; dog training and memory testing. Other than that, it doesn’t appear to do anything resembling useful; when a friend mentioned that there was an active hacking community, I was intrigued. When he showed me a special chip that allowed people to “do cool stuff”, I had to have one. Even if the machine isn’t mine. With some careful research and through international commerce, the necessary pieces for the puzzle arrived today. For those who wish to follow, I purchased something called an EZFlash V. After some time in a related wiki, and after the “eyes clenched closed moment” where the device could have (but hasn’t) been bricked, I can report that a DS is a decent MP3 player. There.
Among the hundred of widgets available for a WordPress blog, one that seems interesting is a “cloud generator”. The prerequisite “tags” didn’t exist as of this afternoon, so I found a plugin that generated in excess of 1400 of them. The software runs your posts through a filter somewhere else in the universe, picks out key terms and adds them to the database. Then, the “cloud generator” produces this. Has to be useful for something.
I’ve figured out how to “spend” my accumulated overtime hours at work; from now until the good weather arrives I’ll stay home one more day each week. Given that it snowed again this morning, that should see me through a couple of months. Let’s see, one more day each week… no matter, my “coach” will find something for me to do with all that time.
