Modd3d

You might be wondering where all the articles went.  I got tired of having NucleusCMS break stuff all the time so I’m porting everything over to WordPress.  Don’t worry, the articles will come back as I get them moved over to WP.

Update: Okay, I’m mostly finished moving everything over.  Some articles didn’t make it because half of the content mysteriously disappeared and not all of them were cool enough to dig through SQL backups to recover (shock, I know…).  Also, there doesn’t seem to be an easy way to transfer comments, so they’re all gone.  The good news is that the comment notifications will probably work now and I’ll quit ignoring you!

It’s been bugging me for months. It seemed like every time I go to a site that’s running ads there is a picture of a delicious looking pile of- something? Are they tiny pastel-colored hamburgers? Are they soap? I hope not because they look like I should be eating them. Clicking the ad only takes me to the Groupon sign up page.
The other day I was poking around in Flickr and I saw a picture of some of these mystery items that someone had taken. I clicked on the picture and the caption held the answer; they are French macaroons.

I feel better now that I know what they are (and also that I didn’t have a strong desire to eat soap).

I’ve been giving the new Tron soundtrack by Daft Punk a listen the last couple days and I have to say it is rather awesome. I would describe it as a unique blend of ambient and orchestral; definitely way more on the symphonic side than I was expecting. I think I need to quit playing it though because all it’s doing is making me wish the new Tron movie would hurry up and open.

If you’re looking to get the soundtrack, be warned that the US version is missing a few tracks. It only contains the following:

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The Micromoog was Moog and friends’ solution to making synthesizers affordable to poor starving musicians. It has a fraction of the features (and 1/3 of the oscillators) that the Minmoog has, but still has quite a few of its own. A multitude of rotary and rocker switches provides flexible routing options without making it difficult to operate. Even though it’s only got 1 oscillator, it has a variable doubling control that divides it down one or two octaves for extra Moogy phatness.

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The secret code hidden in Wii Sports Resort has been cracked!

When you are playing the island flyover in the game, as you fly by the lighthouse (called “The Candle”) you can hear Morse code beeping in the background. There are two different pitched beeps, so it appears to be a conversation between two parties. My code skills are a bit rusty, but I finally managed to translate it. There are several messages that play, and I’ve found 3 different ones so far:

Why does anyone use Morse code anymore?
Good question.

Morse code takes forever.
It sure does.

Does anyone out there know Morse code?
Sorry. Use your radio.

If anyone copies any other messages, let me know. 73′s!

Does everybody remember the Afterburner? That was the frontlight mod for the Game Boy Advance that was produced by Triton Labs in response to the GBA’s noted lack of screen lighting. The Afterburner kits are no longer being manufactured, but just in case you happen to find one behind your couch or at a garage sale, I decided to post the installation manual. Even if it’s no longer useful it’s still a fun trip down memory lane.

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It’s been interesting reading the comments that have been posted ever since I put up the series of videos showing various Game Boys and Nintendo DS’s being overclocked with a GBAccelerator DS chip. Most of them fall into the category of “this is totally fake because…”. I’m posting this article as a one-stop source addressing the most common overclocked DS conspiracy theories.

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Over at tifr.us there are some pictures of an AT-AT made of bacon. I mean AT-ATs are cool and bacon is cool. A bacon AT-AT is cool beyond the sum of its parts!

Choosing a new smartphone can be tough as I’m finding out. Even before you can figure out exactly which model to get you need to decide which OS you want to run. Windows CE / Mobile / Phone or whatever they’re calling it this week has come a long way. iPhones have that shiny Apple logo on them that people get very excited about and there are tons of fun aps for it. Android is quite powerful, provides multitasking, and has an ever expanding app market as well. Palm WebOS is an interesting experiment in cloud computing. These are some of the bigger ones but they’re not the only choices by any means.

Thesearethedroids.com has a 3-part series of articles comparing these phone operating systems to each other. Well, the site is Android-biased so they compare them all to Android, but they do a good job of presenting some of the pros and cons of each. They’re definitely worth a read if you’re trying to find your new favorite smartphone.

Choosing a Smartphone, Part 1: Android vs. Windows Phone 7
Choosing a Smartphone, Part 2: Android vs. Palm WebOS
Choosing a Smartphone, Part 3: Android vs. iPhone

It’s kind of a minor hobby of mine to try to figure out where samples in songs originally come from and what instruments the artists use to make certain sounds that I find interesting. The other night I was searching for the famous “James Brown is Dead” sound and I found a sweet article at synthmania.com that listed the origins of a bunch of famous synth sounds. It also listed several organs, loops and other fun things and provided sound samples for most. You should go check it out.