| Something | | "Friends may be merited, or they may be bought. But true, unquestioning, unswerving loyalty, that is something only money can buy." |
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| Levenshtein-Distance | Levenshtein-Distance Calculator: enter two strings to compare, then click "Compare!".
Difference: 0 |
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| Copywrong | 
They're are plenty of better things to copy than this site. Also, I wanted to have my own overly-cute mutilation to one-up the OS folks and their copylefts.
Seriously, everything of mine in this site is under the
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. |
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This blog has moved!
| My site has moved to michaelb.org.
This website is only kept because I'm too lazy at the moment to try to port the MySQL databases into files for Planet Mongo (the vastly superior content manager that I now use). Thus, it is just really just kept as an archive. This website will not be updated. However, the website linked to above, will be updated.
Again, my site has moved to michaelb.org.
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| a blog by michael b
I have already taken over the world, only I have
done it so skillfully, nobody knows about it.
I have done it so cunningly, that it still remains
a secret that I am supreme despot of the entire
globe. After I took over the world, I decided to
start my own blog. It's quite difficult to top
conquering the world, however, maintaining your
own blog comes pretty close.
email me at michaelpb no spam [at] gmail [dot] com
if you can't figure out what to do with the "no spam"
and the [at] and [dot], then its no big loss
if I don't get your email.
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New Content Manager, New Site
Posted by: michaelb on Sunday, May 28, 2006 - 02:11 PM
internet
|  As you probably noticed, my site in postnuke is no more. That is because I am switching to the content manager that I wrote, called 'Planet Mongo'.
Hopefully, I'll be more dutiful in updating...
Click here for my new site.
| Viewed 2894 times | 24 Comments   |
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Ashkelon: Legend of the Isthmus
Posted by: michaelb on Saturday, December 31, 2005 - 08:01 PM
programming
|  Ashkelon is the current name of a game that I am writing in Java. It will be (hopefully) released for both the PC and Palm OS. It will be a strategy RPG and will probably be under the GPL (unless another open source license seems more apt). It will use the FABLE ruleset. The FABLE ruleset features a "fluid time" mechanic that abolishes rounds, assigning a time integer to each action. It also boasts fifteen character classes and five races. First, I plan to release an "arena" mode which will consist of you leading a small party into a monster-infested dungeon with some sort of "capture the relic" style mission. Later, I will release a story mode, which will be more what you would expect from an RPG: a semi-linear game path and several characters that you build up as you play. However, I plan on making it fluctuate from classic RPG gameplay to massive turn based strategy style battles. I have so far programmed its scripting language, which will allow users to effortlessly create their own maps, enemies, and items. FABLE Scripting Language was created with human readability and performance in mind. I plan on having as much as possible be written in FSL, right down to base mechanics such as moving your units or the attacking formulas. This allows people to customize it as drastically as possible without the need of compiling the game or needing to know any Java. Ashkelon has been most influenced by games like Knights of the Old Republic, Grandia, Battle for Wesnoth, and all the classic SNES RPGs.
| | Viewed 1370 times | 8 Comments |
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Wikipedia Found to be More Accurate than Encyclopaedia Britannica
Posted by: michaelb on Thursday, December 15, 2005 - 10:17 PM
internet
| I usually try not to sound like a /. (<-- I'm like so with it) faucet, but I couldn't help but blog this. By an independent source, Wikipedia was found to be nearly three times as reliable than Encyclopaedia Britannica. Click here for the Wikipedia follow-up on this article. This is one of the first attempts to compare Wikipedia to Britannica, and the results are astounding. Wikipedia is not only a reliable first-source, but it also is a reliable final source, arguably even more reliable than Encyclopaedia Britannica. However, one thing that this article did not take into account is the subject matter: from personal experience, Wikipedia seems to stronger in the area of science (the area studied) and computers, but weaker in historical, geological, and biographical data. Nonetheless, I feel even more confident of it than I did before.
| | Viewed 1221 times | 6 Comments |
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Will the Music CD Expire?
Posted by: michaelb on Wednesday, November 23, 2005 - 05:35 AM
internet
| Are USB Flash drives going to replace CD's?
Check this out. I wont be too startled if more music will be sold in this format: although I have no interest in the band, it is a pretty good deal when you consider the amount of music you are getting (roughly two cd's worth) and the fact that the USB drive is reusable (copy the music to your hard drive, and now you have a nifty 128 meg USB Flash drive to use!).
Although I do think music CD's are near extinction, I think that online services, paid or otherwise, will replace them, as opposed to a new sort of media.
| | Viewed 1184 times | 7 Comments |
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Zymotic
Posted by: michaelb on Tuesday, November 22, 2005 - 04:48 AM
videogames
|  Zymotic is an open source single-player FPS project that's based on the DarkPlaces engine, which is the engine that runs Nexuiz (if you haven't seen Nexuiz yet, go there now: it's an awesome multiplayer FPS which is entirely open source (free)). I might be making part of the soundtrack and audio bits for it! You can see its website here at AlienTrap's website. The two screen shots posted are very promising.
| | Viewed 1382 times | 7 Comments |
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Of all the worthless things...
Posted by: michaelb on Saturday, October 29, 2005 - 05:13 PM
computers
|  This may very well be the king: it not only is worthless, but it also has a $1600 USD price tag. I have to admit, it is a novel idea. But... why? Isn't the purpose of VSTi to take advantage of the flexibility of software? Who would pay 1.5k for a re-packaged computer that only houses plug-ins?
Answer: Terry Lawless, U2 keyboardist. Figures.
| | Viewed 1322 times | 7 Comments |
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Halo Movie... with PJ?!?
Posted by: michaelb on Sunday, October 09, 2005 - 11:52 AM
movies
|  Well, unless you have been living in a cave, or have been using drugs--or AOL--or both--you probably have heard something about the next tragic attempt at a game inspired movie will feature the most loved and hated game among gamers: Halo. Let me first come out of the closet: I like the game Halo. It has excellent gameplay, good level design, and some really solid good ideas. Yes, it's very very mainstream and practically a household-name, and yes, it is over-marketed, yet it still is an excellent game. Well, Microsoft decided to milk the Halo udder even more and make a movie. Or maybe ruin a movie. But then I heard something that nearly made me puke with nagging apprehension and suspicious hope (wow, I'm poetic today): Peter Jackson (the man behind Lord of the Rings) is going to make it. Yes, PJ is making the Halo movie. Here's the question I'm asking: will it spoil both Halo and PJ, or will it be mediocre (notice I didn't even consider giving the possibility of it being good)?
(click "read more" for some cited articles and more juicy gossip)
| | Viewed 5668 times | Read more... (5432 bytes more) 4250 Comments |
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GP2X - It's Beautiful...
Posted by: michaelb on Saturday, October 01, 2005 - 02:40 PM
computers
| In case you weren't aware, the GP32 (Game Park 32) was an awesome, open-architecture hand-held equivalent. It was essentially a pocket computer system that could run programs off of SD cards. The original had a plethora of original games, many of which were free. It also sported several emulators for just about anything you want, and several awesome ports such as Doom, Quake, and Duke Nukem. Unfortunately, it's four years old, and is fairly dated compared to modern handhelds. Guess what? They're making a new one to compete with the PSP and Nintendo DS, set to be released... this month!
(click "read more" for full specs and awesome pictures)
| | Viewed 1540 times | Read more... (1315 bytes more) 8 Comments |
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Get Double the Prizes!
Posted by: michaelb on Monday, September 26, 2005 - 06:16 PM
PostNuke
|  Every other person who wins a prize as one of my Blingo referred friends will get the extra prize mailed to him or her! If you don't already have a Blingo account, get one now. Blingo is no different from Google: it is simply the Google search engine with a special skin. It doesn't even have more ads. However, Blingo randomly gives away free prizes such as IPods or PSP's. It's a contest that you enter simply by Google searching!
(click "read more" for more information on how this works)
| | Viewed 1166 times | Read more... (1628 bytes more) 8 Comments |
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Is PalmOS Dieing?
Posted by: michaelb on Monday, September 26, 2005 - 05:38 PM
computers
| The next Treo (Treo 700w) will use a Windows opperating system. Is Palm giving up? Are they going to become just another hardware manufacturer? Is this the end of all things Palm? I believe that this is an experiment. They are testing the market -- to see if the Windows OS will make them more money. If it does, then expect the Palm OS to whither away.
(click "read more" for more reasons to beat yourself with a spiked bat)
| | Viewed 1269 times | Read more... (1560 bytes more) 7 Comments |
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Want some space?
Posted by: michaelb on Sunday, September 25, 2005 - 12:56 PM
internet
| If you have a good site, I can let you piggy-back on my hosting account.
You can have
- one or two MySQL databases with automatic script installation
- FTP account 100 meg of space and occasional backups
- 5 gig of transfer per month
- For free with no ads or forced link-back
If you're interested, just email me at the address found above.
| | Viewed 1163 times | 7 Comments |
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I have been lied to!
Posted by: michaelb on Tuesday, September 06, 2005 - 06:11 PM
programming
| SQL is a shortened version of the word "SEQUEL". It doesn't stand for "Structure Query Language"! O the humanity!
That's all. I feel worthless. This post is worthless. Everything is worthless.
| | Viewed 1391 times | 7 Comments |
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Wil Wheaton
Posted by: michaelb on Saturday, August 13, 2005 - 04:44 PM
internet
| I must be outrageously out of the loop. Apparently, Wil Wheaton (Wesly Crusher on Star Trek: the Next Generation) now writes in a rather fresh blog found at WilWheaton.Net. It certainly beats singing about hobbits and the occasional narrational appearance on the History channel. For the geek-savvy, here's his geek code:
-----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
Version: 3.1
GPA d-- s+: a C+++ UL+++ P+>+++ L+++ E--- W+++ N+ o+ K+++ w-- O---- M+ V--
PS++(+++) PE Y++ PGP++>+++ t++@$ 5++ X+ R+ tv- b++ DI+ D++ G++ e h----
r+++ y+++
------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------
One of the few geek codes instances that can mark "I get paid for this" in the Star Trek section.
| | Viewed 1414 times | 12 Comments |
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In it for the Money
Posted by: michaelb on Friday, August 12, 2005 - 05:46 PM
graphics
|  Ray Beldner, a modern artist, has several interesting series of sculptures and other pieces of artwork made entirely from US currency! Some of his stuff is pretty good.
You can see photographs here:
Rey Beldner's Art
| | Viewed 1438 times | 8 Comments |
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Bad monkey! No bananas!
Posted by: michaelb on Thursday, August 04, 2005 - 03:48 PM
internet
| The unwary Greasemonkey user is remarkably vulnerable. Apparently, a security threat could enable a malicious website to run a variety of powerful scripts on the victim's computer, just by visiting the site with the outdated plug-in installed! Scary!
(click "read more" for some cited articles)
| | Viewed 1483 times | Read more... (4294 bytes more) 7 Comments |
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Web Programmers Needed!
Posted by: michaelb on Sunday, July 24, 2005 - 12:25 PM
computers
| Want to get your name out there? Want to produce something?
I am starting a free webdesign company whose purpose is to provide people with costless freelance services. As it is still new, I'll be needing all the programmers and talents I can get. If you have any sort of creative talent, especially in flash, graphic arts, javascript, and other computer tasks, it would be greatly valued if you were to signup.
http://freedomdesign.org/apply.php
note: this is an updated URL
(click "read more" for some more tasty spam)
| | Viewed 1484 times | Read more... (1673 bytes more) 7 Comments |
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Two New Tracks
Posted by: michaelb on Sunday, July 17, 2005 - 04:58 PM
PostNuke
| I just finished two new songs which are available in the Music section (just click the link on your left entitled "My Music").
"Retake" is a chilled, symphonic Big Beat track.
"Impitation" is another 'wonderful' Imp track by Sir Henry the Compos(t)er.
Have fun!
| | Viewed 2065 times | 6 Comments |
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It's Easter Time Again...
Posted by: michaelb on Saturday, July 16, 2005 - 05:01 PM
internet
| I just now discovered (it's ok, you can call me slow. I don't mind.) the host of Easter eggs found in the Palm OS. The Flaming credits found in OS 5 is actually pretty nice looking, although the Taxi is more unusual.
Check 'em out here:
MorePalm Easter Eggs
| | Viewed 1299 times | 13 Comments |
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Deer Park
Posted by: michaelb on Friday, July 08, 2005 - 05:44 PM
internet
| I was in an experimental mood the other day, and decided to go hunting at Deer Park. It has been remarkably uneventful. So far, the insect population has been remarkably sparse. In fact, I've had no need for mosquito netting or Off! If you want to go hunting at Deer Park for yourself, just click the link below:
http://www.mozilla.org/projects/firefox/
| | Viewed 1601 times | 7 Comments |
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Let there be music!
Posted by: michaelb on Saturday, July 02, 2005 - 06:55 PM
PostNuke
| My music section is up and running! Just click "My Music" in the "My Sites" box to your left.
From there, you'll have access to over 80 megabytes of free, original sounds. Although there are several names listed, they all refer to me (hey--at least I'm not as bad as Aphex Twin aka Gak or Afx or Alex Blackford or Brad Strider or Power Pill or...)
Whether you like twisted darkstep jungle or pensive strings, you should find something you enjoy. Also, while you're at it, you should check out the unique palindrome music: while many others have created palindromes in which the notes are reversible, these tracks (to my knowledge) are the only tracks in which the entire waveform is perfectly reversable.
Check it out while I still have bandwidth left!
| | Viewed 1420 times | 7 Comments |
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Rot13 Oddities
Posted by: michaelb on Tuesday, June 28, 2005 - 04:42 PM
mathematics
|  I'm not sure if anybody before have dabbled in writing phrases that simply say something else in rot13. If nobody has before, then I guess this is a first. Otherwise, it's probably terrible compared to what other people have done. Anyway, to cut the chase, here we go:
bar berb is one oreo
Also, gnat tang is not only a palindrome, but it also makes tang gnat when rot13'ed. (which, of course, is also a palindrome)
__
Edit: Well, it turns out that people have been into this before, and those words I "discovered" are already well known. Oh well.
| | Viewed 1344 times | 6 Comments |
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Some Random Site Statistics
Posted by: michaelb on Monday, June 27, 2005 - 06:17 PM
PostNuke
| I just was browsing over the statistics generated by that indispensable program Advanced Web Statistics, and I thought these were fairly interesting (at least interesting enough to write an article on it).
(if you want to take a look, click "read more")
| | Viewed 1250 times | Read more... (906 bytes more) 6 Comments |
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The Adventures of Sir Henry the Seefairer: Episode 1
Posted by: michaelb on Monday, June 27, 2005 - 03:48 PM
PostNuke
| A humorous shortstory by michaelb (aka Sir Henry):
The Adventures of Sir Henry the Seefairer; Or, More Simply, the Many Adventures and Various Incidents that Sir Henry the Seefairer Experienced During his Voyages as the Ship’s Cardiographer on the Piratish Ship Nautiwus Upon the Great Sea, Which Are Often Entwined With Various Other Stories Contained in Elongated Parenthetical Paragraphs.
I still haven't added the poetry & prose section to this site that I have been wanting to add, so this will have to suffice for now. Enjoy!
Click here for the PDF.
| | Viewed 1746 times | 8 Comments |
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PeerFlix
Posted by: michaelb on Thursday, June 23, 2005 - 12:45 PM
internet
| What an interesting concept! PeerFlix is a p2p (peer to peer) equivalent of NetFlix. Unlike p2p systems such as Kazaa, PeerFlix PHYSICALLY transfers DVD's between members! Since no copies are made, it remains completely legal.
(click read more for the rest of this article)
| | Viewed 1277 times | Read more... (1345 bytes more) 8 Comments |
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ETS Outdid Themselves
Posted by: michaelb on Tuesday, May 31, 2005 - 12:10 PM
internet
| As you may or may not know, ETS (Educational Testing Service, a.k.a. College Boards) has installed a new section into their horribly inaccurate placement test, the SAT. The SAT by no means measures "achievement" or "scholastic aptitude". ETS has long seen the countless flaws with their tests. In fact, most colleges are aware of the flaws also, and are gradually putting less and less weight on the SAT and ACT. In order to "fix" the test, ETS has added an essay section. And they certainly did fix it, just as Lucas "fixed" the original three classics before porting them to DVD. ETS misses at point-blank range once more.
(click read more to read the rest of this article)
| | Viewed 7782 times | Read more... (7069 bytes more) 22 Comments |
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I Prefer Pi: Palindrome Music
Posted by: michaelb on Monday, May 30, 2005 - 07:06 PM
mathematics
| This is my first song that is a perfect palindrome. That is, the music is the same backwards or forwards. The melodies not only are reversible (for the most part), but the actual waveform is perfectly symmetrical! I'll post some of the techniques I used in subsequent articles (Unfortunately, I'm out of time right now).
(click read more for a link to an MP3 and a jpeg of the waveform)
| | Viewed 1726 times | Read more... (126 bytes more) 16 Comments |
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Carmack on Cellphones
Posted by: michaelb on Saturday, May 21, 2005 - 01:41 PM
videogames
| John Carmack recently posted an article worth mentioning on his blog. (not that any other of his articles aren't worth mentioning...)
It looks like he's turned his creative mind to cell-phiddling (I just coined a new word!), after being angered by the crappy java games that plague cellphones nowadays.
(click read more to read the rest of this document)
| | Viewed 13336 times | Read more... (1362 bytes more) 8714 Comments |
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Secret of Monkey Island Play!
Posted by: michaelb on Thursday, May 19, 2005 - 06:32 PM
videogames
| Why didn't they invite me! Fools!
I found this while bumping around MixNMojo (a Lucas Arts fan site). Unfortunately, I couldn't find it at baltimoresun.com, so I was forced to resort to a Google cached page.
(click "read more" to read the rest of this article)
| | Viewed 148743 times | Read more... (4693 bytes more) 140038 Comments |
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| Past Articles |
| Friday, May 13 |
| · | To Kill a Tivo (8) |
| Wednesday, February 16 |
| · | Cellphone Viruses: Coming to a Cellphone Near You (7) |
| Thursday, February 03 |
| · | A Very Small Keystroke Logger (7) |
| Monday, January 31 |
| · | Student Suspended Over Suspected Use of PHP (19) |
| Saturday, January 29 |
| · | Top 10 Copyrights (6) |
| Friday, January 28 |
| · | SQL Interjection Attacks (7) |
| Saturday, January 22 |
| · | Biobay (6) |
| · | Star Wars: Revenge of the Fish (6) |
| Tuesday, January 18 |
| · | Atari Age (7) |
| Monday, January 17 |
| · | An Awesome Half-life 2 Case Mod (7) |
| Sunday, January 16 |
| · |
Henrik Wann Jensen (8) |
| · | The Ring Thing (6) |
| · | Welcome to the Internet (6) |
| Saturday, January 15 |
| · | New WikiMedia Projects (6) |
| · | Anarchy Online is Free! (6) |
| Wednesday, January 12 |
| · | I did it... (7) |
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