Daily Photo

Unlike the various lice and weevils commonly referred to as “bookworms,” millipedes seem to prefer to linger on top. Getting a feel for the words. (The slanders of children’s books notwithstanding.)

That’s actually the photographer’s pet millipede — one of the smaller species, though the African Giant Millipedes look interesting. (Even though the earliest millipedes were six feet long and two feet wide. Presumably called the African HOLY CRAP Millipede.)

I think I’d stop there, though. And one or two would be quite enough kthx.

Photo: “The Geek In Him” by Emuishere Peliculas, January 15, 2007, CC by 2.0. Taken with an unspecified model of Olympus and a macro lens.

I’m short on witty and appropriate lines from Episode II or Episode III with which to lolcat this. (Here’s my first attempt.) Your suggestions would be most welcomed.

The stormtroopers are the Lego figures. (I see they have a keyring too … and even a shadow trooper.)

We do have the official Star Wars Yoda as a kitten, and a pile of Star Wars lolcats. And here’s a one-off from the Laugh-Out-Loud Cats.

For your own back yard cat wars, I’ve found the ultimate weapon.

Photo: “The Clone Wars” by Piutus, 19 May 2008, taken on a Canon EOS 400D. CC by 2.0. Keep on with the force, don’t stop. Don’t stop ’till you get enough.

To protect against your computer being afflicted with viruses, spyware, back doors, Trojans and other forms of computer-borne toxic waste:

1. Always run an antivirus scan on email attachments before you open them, even if they seem to be text files or are from people you know.
2. Always scan disks and USB sticks before use.
3. Run a scan on every new program you install.
4. Use a firewall.
5. Beware unnecessary macros in documents.
6. Don’t open files received via instant messengers without a virus check.

Alternately, you could stop using an insecure and unsecurable platform like Windows. (By the way, this laptop’s battery runs 50-100% longer doing exactly the same things under Ubuntu Linux rather than Windows, and I blame (a) the antivirus (b) the need for the antivirus.)

Photo “anti-virus” by LuChOeDu, April 29, 2008, CC by 2.0.

When illustrating basic Boolean logic, mechanical demonstrators are not only useful but fun. And score you geek points. Here’s a half-adder, which adds two binary digits to produce a sum and a carry, implemented in string, pegs and nuts.

(A full adder, which can also add in the carry digit from a previous adder, is just a bit more complicated. But would make a marvellous Heath-Robinson device in nuts and string.)

Propella also has several photos of the device’s construction on their stream and a whole set showing how to build a cardboard-based logic demonstrator.

(Dr. Adder has nothing to do with Boolean logic, but I could hardly pass up that title.)

Photo: “P1050370″ by Propella, CC-by 2.0. Taken 23 November 2008 with a Panasonic DMC-LS1.

There’s robotic nudity. There’s fembots and robotrixes. (”Studbots” are, of course, something else entirely.) Then there’s the more minimalist approach.

Conskeptical has a whole set of shots of his Meccano Man, in a variety of poses with a variety of props.

(Meccano is the ultimate Transformer. When will Megatron put on pants and stop corrupting the minds of our children with mechanical crotches? It’s a moral failing. I shall contact the Daily Mail and Georgina Baillie about this.)

(I must admit, this sort of thing never occurred to me playing with Meccano as a child, either the old-style plastic stuff or the small metal stuff.)

Photo: “artistic nude” by Conskeptical, 2 February 2006. CC by-sa 2.0.

A knitted crocheted Atari 2600 Video Computer System console with knitted CRT screen and knitted joysticks, playing Activision’s Pitfall!, as displayed at the 2nd Annual Bay Area Maker Faire, San Mateo, California, Saturday 19 May 2007. For those who love their old consoles and want to hug them and call them “2600″ — you know you’ll never get a cuddle like this out of an XBox 360. (Though you might get a warming workout if you throw it out the window.)

(Or the same idea in reverse: a video knitting game, from [adult swim]. Not a real game, sadly.)

More knitted videogame stuff. More links most welcomed!

Photo “Knitted Atari 2600 Console with CRT” by jm3, CC by-sa 2.0. Camera: Nokia N73. It’s not the camera, it’s what you point it at.

Update: Jellibat corrects me: the console is crocheted, not knitted.