I just wanted to let you know that I’m still chugging along on “High Concept”. All the principal artwork is done, I just need to record a little more audio and start animating. I’m pretty excited about it. Happy New Year everybody!

High Concept – Episode 1 – 20 second excerpt from Daniel D Lindmark on Vimeo.

Just a taste, to prove that I still love you, infernet.

By understanding the technical breakdown of great works that have come before us, we can expand upon that experience and project greatness into the future.

Beat Sheet Central [via wikipedia while trying to figure out what goes on in a treatment]

Florida gators license plate holder. Confederate flag magnet. Puerto Rican flag. Navy sticker. The piece de resistance? An upsidedown american flag sticker.

So what we’re talking about is a states rights, anti american, naval officer who wants to annex the PR, while watching florida sports teams.

This is 10 times better than some kid with his mom’s volvo peppered with punk band bumper stickers.

Warning: He claims to be the most photographed man, next to the president.

It’s also not good when that event is preceded by a webpage redirecting to a crap website and your antivirus software giving up.

Luckily Windows has a malicious software removal tool. That can catch a few things after your antivirus bites the dust.

I was also previously unaware that there is a Network Monitor 3.3 to look at your network activity. Watch those ip requests fly by.

From their own mouth:

“We here at Cheapass Games are aware of two basic facts about games: they cost too much, and they are at some level all the same.

If you ignore the clever shapes they come in, the cheap little plastic pawns are an interchangeable part of most of the board games in your house. So are the dice, the money, the counters, the pencils, and just about every other random spare part. These generic bits and pieces can account for as much as 75% of a game’s production cost, and that cost gets handed to you.

If you had your choice, you’d probably invest a little bit of money in one good set of gaming paraphernalia instead of twenty crappy ones, and then just buy the new part of every “new” game. Yet most companies insist on selling you the whole package every time; it’s like bundling a can opener with a can of beans.

Cheapass Games come with the bare essentials: boards, cards, and rulebooks. If you need anything else, we’ll tell you. And it’s probably something you can scrounge from a game you already own, or buy at a hobby store for less than “they” are charging you for it. Heck, if you need to, you can even buy the parts from us.

And once you’ve assembled your collection of generic small parts, you can use them for every new Cheapass Game. We’ve standardized our designs so your gaming toolbox will last. If that sounds pretty good, page through our website and check out all the cool things Cheapass Games has to offer you.”

Essentially, they are servicing the long tail. I can’t wait to rent “Liquid Sky” which was not available at either Netflix or Blockbuster Video.

Rent videos by mail

They are closing down shop. It’s the end of an era. You will still see me at pitchfork this year, but read the press release for more details.

From their press release:
“After six years and nearly twenty shows we are giving DEPART-ment
a big kiss goodbye.

DEPART-ment has been an interesting learning experience for
all of those involved from organizers to makers to buyers.
We envisioned, created, and ran an innovative model (together
for new economy) for an arts and crafts fair heralding in a
new era of makers across the US and further.  We are proud to
have been a part of the beginnings of new generations of indie
DIYers that include slews of other arts and crafts fairs,
organizations, magazines, and web presences such as DIY
Trunkshow, Renegade, Constructor, Handmade Detroit, MAKE,
Craft, Readymade, Etsy and so forth.

The short of it is that although DEPART-ment’s model was
innovative, it was also an incredible amount of work and time
particularly for the organizers.  For the most part we have
broken even but sometimes we have even lost money on shows.
All of our work was on a volunteer basis.  Still we stayed
committed to our original intent of creating an arts & crafts
fair that was low risk for new makers to be involved, that
didn’t necessarily require the same time commitment for the
maker to participate in, and was set up like an actual store
with departments.  As a result we have had well over 1000
makers involved and we have seen folks go from not being a
maker to having a successful business as a maker.

Since 2003, lots of things have changed in all of our lives.
We now live in Indiana, Ohio, Belize, Oak Park & Chicago.
We all have our own businesses, some of us are back in grad
school.  Though we all have been committed to the DEPART-ment
model, none of us really have the time, effort, or finances
currently to continue and hence we kiss DEPART-ment goodbye.

That said, we would like to thank everyone who has stepped up
to participate by helping us run shows, by participating as a
new maker, a seasoned maker, a shopper or otherwise has
supported a coming together for new economy.  We have met and
worked closely with literally hundreds of area, national and
some international makers.  We have drawn much inspiration and
friendship from it.  We wish you all well in your pursuit of
creating, making, re-purposing, and inventing your own goods,
businesses and lives as we continue to do so in our own lives.

This year the arts and crafts fair at Pitchfork Music Festival
(in the tennis courts by Chirp Record Fair) will be run by a
new entity, Coterie Chicago.  Coterie Chicago will be a bit
more in the traditional arts and crafts fair mode (not set up
like a store as DEPART-ment was).  See the website for more
information and to sign up for Coterie’s email list:
http://www.coteriechicago.com

Take care and may health and happiness follow…
from the organizers of DEPART-ment”

Some times, my special lady friend would like to watch satellite TV. I get tired of schlepping the video games to the other room. She gets tired of avoiding watching her shows when I just want to shoot some hookers.

Behold! The TV Remote controll Extender:

Read on to see how it’s done.Just to be clear, this is an entry level hack, done with ghetto-ass implementation. I wanted something quickly, and I didn’t have the right tools. Those who pursue a higher level of aestheticism will either refine my techniques, or buy some hardware that will do the equivalent (like an IR blaster, or another receiver). I realize that my techniques should be obvious to someone with a hint of common sense and basic electronics.

Supplies:

1. A remote that you don’t care about breaking. Before you start, verify that the remote works and your batteries work. This will save you time when you are troubleshooting your shoddy workmanship later.
2. A soldering iron. Solder.
3. Insulated wire.  I used paired 18 AWG. This is overkill.
4. Alcohol.
5. (optional) Some Music. I recommend either TV theme songs,  or something with some heavy metal vamping.
6. A camera, piece of paper, or a photographic memory to document taking apart your remote so that you can put it back together again.
7. Screwdrivers. Phillips, and flathead.

Theory:

Your electronic device (TV / satellite receiver) can listen to your remote control, through the magic of Infra Red Light Emitting Diodes (IRLED). Imagine a pulse of light that is invisible to the human eye. I have no idea the specifics of the encoding, but it’s a series of on/off patterns that presents a binary pattern. If I had to guess, it would be pulse width modulated, just like your CD players, only with an incredibly smaller data frame. PWM works by keeping your ons or offs steady for an amount of time proportional to the data you are trying to send. If it’s on for 10 ms, then maybe you mean 10. If it were on for 1 ms, maybe you mean one. Now that I think about it, it’s equally likely that they are using a steady data frame, and each time position is the bit value. What do I look like, wikipedia?

Also, since we’re on the subject, why don’t modern cell phones have an IRLED so you can control electronics? It would put the universal remote assholes out of a business, but I’ve never really cared for them either.

So, let’s say you’re watching TV. A sexy lady comes on and you can see a bit of her cleavage. You say to yourself, “I’m a heterosexual man, and like seeing the female form. It would be a crime for me not to see that again.” Now, the television and the remote, both do not have a button or command for “Jump back so I can rewatch the naughty bit again.” Maybe it should, but for the sake of this tutorial, it doesn’t. You have to speak remote-control-ese. You then press “jump back 5 seconds”. That is translated to a series of numbers, which are pulsed through the airwaves, received by the television, and you are able to reenact your manly desires through the miracles of modern technology.

But, I digress.

Procedure.

Start with a remote control:

Use your monkey brain to figure out how to take it apart. Remember, just because some asshole with no education was able to put it together, does not mean that you can take it apart without breaking it.

Once you have it apart, bask in the glory of evolution. Not only have we invented a way to capture a visual image of something that happened in the past, and not only have we captured a series of images so that you can watch them in sequence, but you can watch them on your fat lazy ass, and not have to get up to change to a different sequence of images. Aren’t we clever monkeys!

I’d like to point out a few things about this circuit. It is extremely simple.

1. There are pads for connecting a circuit for when the button is pressed.
2. There are two IRLEDs,and a driver circuit.
3. There is a power regulation circuit where the batteries are connected.
4. There is a tiny microprocessor that is sitting in the form factor of the older microprocessor that it replaced. They gooped shome shit on top of it (see bottom) in order to make sure you can’t tell what the micro processor is. Not that it would be hard to replace this remote via reverse engineering.
5. Oh yeah, a switch, to change modes.

Oh geeze, writing this procedure is getting old. Document how the IRLED is connected. If you accidentally connect it backwards, you could ruin your remote. Snip off the IRLED and leave a small amount of the metal leg so that you will be able to solder onto it later.

Cut your wire to length (I used 30 feet) and strip the ends. Solder one end to the legs where the LED used to go. I used pipe solder and a shitty 40 watt soldering iron. I’m sure you can find better and do a better job. There is a little plastic window where your LED can wave to the television. Make sure you snake your wire through the hole.

Solder the other end of the wire to an LED. I used an ohm meter to make sure I was connecting the cathode and anode to the correct legs.

Put it all back together. It will probably not fit anymore, because you did such a shitty job, so use some gaffer tape or glue to get it all back together.

I cannot stress this enough: Use strain relief. It should be impossible for the end user to separate the solder joints you made.

Viola: a remote control extender. Now go eat more cheesecake.

Google Image Result for http://botropolis.com/wp-content/uploads/change-into-a-truck.jpg

via [someone's facebook avatar icon]

I just love the description. Two guys playing tennis on the back of kodiak bears with a lit bundle of dynamite instead of a tennis ball.

TopatoCo: Most Dangerous Game Shirt

It simultaneously satisfies my retro game itch, as well as introduces interesting game play.

Mostly you are a few blocky pixels adventuring across disapearing chasms, ropes, snakes, and hot lava. The bosses are fun to fight, and the “second half” of the game exploits the namesake.

Play [Don't Look Back]

“When a bearded, bespectacled Joaquin Phoenix appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman February 11, he gave bloggers across the world the biggest Valentine they could hope for. What to say about this, that hasn’t already been pounded into oblivion by everyone from your neighborhood blogger to Ben Stiller? Movie star goes on talk show, exhibits possibly affected eccentricity; talk show host fires back with lighthearted but emphatic barbs; audience and blogosphere go nuts. It seems like most people are in agreement that Phoenix is taking the piss on this one. But there remains the chance that Phoenix isn’t faking it, and that he really thinks near-incoherence and a rap career are good ideas. Even if probability leans toward this being a commentary (albeit a ham-fisted one) on the culture of fame — or a Punk’d-esque documentary directed by Casey Affleck — with the amount of press Phoenix has been getting as a result of this appearance, who’s to say he’s not right either way? Of course, he wasn’t the first — nor will he be the last — celebrity to mangle a media moment. From inebriated monologues to sportscaster throw-downs, from coke to couch-jumping, here are the Twenty Weirdest TV Interviews of All Time.”

[MOAR]

On the list:
Simon’s – great dive bar. You can order food from the neighborhood and have it delivered here.
Charlie’s Ale House – decent food. A little pricey, but great booths
Hamburger Mary’s – A drag queen themed hamburger joint. Awesome.
Hopleaf – This one isn’t on the “list” but I don’t really understand the point or concept of an “organized” pub crawl. If a bunch of zombies show up to a bar with money, they will be served. The hopleaf has an amazing selection of beers from all around the world.

This pubcrawl will knock your socks off.

Drop us a line if you want to rub elbows at the crawl.zomb

Chicago Zombie Pub Crawl 2

I  have to get a transcript of this. They do a great job of sounding exactly like a kowtowing electronic-interest piece.

via [user submitted video]

Listen to the original version of tainted love. I like the pictures of 1960s computers. Thank you infernet.

1) I love full bodied women. Actually, I love all sorts of women. My standards are pretty low. I can’t really understand really picky men.

It’s like food. Some of it’s amazing. Most of it’s good. Some of it’s bad, but you eat it anyways because you’re hungry. Overall, I can’t imagine turning down food, and I definitely can’t imagine not trying new things, or enjoying food for what it is. Same thing with dames. But I digress.

2) I just lost 25 lbs. It was actually, really easy. All I had to do was put my mind to it and dedicate.

3) Women of shape are hot.

4) Some of the women are a little ditzy and victimish.

5) Naked women with curves.

Warning, it’s mostly talking:

via [googling video for "burlesque"]