Steampunk Keyboard

Oh, how i would like to have a keyboard like this! Here is an instruction on how to build one, but having two left hands i can’t be bothered to try.

This is a huge hint for all those keyboard manufacturers: This keyboard would sell like mad, i am quite sure…

Toribash – Turnbased Martial Arts

Contract, extend, release or hold the various joints of your fighter, to hit, throw or even dismember your opponent. It is unbelievable how much fun a turn based beat’em up game can be. Toribash is no wild button pushing orgy, you will have to think hard about how to achieve an effective combat move, test and retry a lot.

I have only tested single player, and until now it is difficult enough for me to fight against a passive opponent. Sounds strange, i know, so give it a try! Multiplayer will cost you some bucks.

Here is a short film of some Toribash action to give you an example:

 

Use your GMail space with Gspace

If you have a Google Mail account, you are given over 2 gigs of space for your emails… thats a lot of emails! Would be nice to be able to use this space as storage for files you want to access from different computers. Ever had this thought? You use Firefox? Then Gspace is for you.

This Firefox extension installs into your browser and uses your GMail account to store files on the web. The interface looks much like your usual ftp client. Inside GMail saved files look like a mail you sent your self. With the right filtering these mails will not even clutter up your inbox.

I use Gspace to save my ThinkingRock xml datafile to GMail at the end of the day. Next day it does not matter from where i work, i will have access to the file given internet access.

Kickstarting my GTD

I decided a couple of days ago to use the Getting Things Done (GTD) methodology to optimize my time management. During researching about GTD i found this blog entry, that lists the 10 key behaviours a beginner in GTD should adopt to get going.

Nothing really new on this list, but as a beginner it is good for me to check this list a few times a day, so that i realize where i have acted against the methodology in the last couple of hours. This still happens again and again, especially “Read every email only once” is hard for me to do: I see the benefit of this rule, but old habits die hard!

As mentioned before, i use ThinkingRock to help in my endeavour, and it works great for me

Getting Things Done with ThinkingRock

Perhaps you have heard about Getting Things Done, or short GTD, an action management method by David Allen. If you haven’t, you should: it is worth your time. If you have no time for it, you need it!

There are a gazillion of tools out there that support the GTD methodology to different degrees. After some time looking around, i chose ThinkingRock to investigate further, and i have to say: i love this tool. No, not every aspect of GTD is handled (yet), but it is good enough to get going.

It is implemented as a java application that is lightweight enough that you can even carry it around with you on an outdated and thus small usb stick. Or just put the datafile somwhere on the net, where you have access to it from all your computers.

The application is freeware and very stable; further development is under way, and there are some features in the pipeline i am really looking forward to. Someday in the future it might cost a few bucks, but i think it would be worth the investment.

So if you want to use GTD and are looking for a supporting tool, or if you don’t like the GTD tool you use, take a look at ThinkingRock.

May the Force be with us

I just stumbled over this post: It states, that the graphics engine used to create the following Star Wars video will be used in an actual Star Wars game. Being an anachronistic but proud owner of a GameCube (told you about it here) you will guess that i do not own a Wii. But the prospect of playing a game like this with the new Wii Controlers has a certain thrill to it!

In addition i have to say that i am a fan of the Star Wars universe and a lot of the games that use this background. So i really crave playing this game…

Tan was so nice to provide the link to the official lucasarts site for Star Wars – The Force Unleashed.

My doom: G major

My guitar lessons have proceeded and now i am given the task of learning to play G major without the use of my index finger: E – ring finger, A – middle finger, e – little finger.

Wow, that is difficult! With about ten seconds of sorting my fingers out, i can grip the chord and it sounds well, but forget all about quickly changing from any other chord to G major! After ten minutes of trainig this chord with the given fingers my wrist started to hurt and i stopped. I will pick up trainig this evening, but i have a feeling of impending doom when thinking about this chord. I know, it would be so much easier to grip the chord in the following way: E – middle finger, A – index finger, e – ring finger. But our teacher said this way has it’s own problems when changing to other chords later on. So i am somewhat eager to learn it the right way!

Any tips on learning to play G major would be greatly appreciated. But i fear the only real answer will be practise, practise, practise…

Another little Flash game…

It’s called Flash Element TD, that does not sound like much, but it’s actually fun. Each level a group tougher and tougher of monsters runs down a road, you build towers that fire at these monsters. Your towers are upgradeable, there is a tiny research tree for more potent defense towers, and you can keep the towers you have built in earlier levels. Sounds easy, but the higher levels make you pay for mistakes you made in the game early on.

I read about it here first!

Shut Up ‘N Play Yer Guitar

Tonight is my third guitar lesson. Until now we did learn 3 songs, using 3 chords (E minor, D major, A7) and some very simple rythm patterns. As my guitar is already 2 years old, and i used some of that time to teach me some chords without help of a teacher, the lessons have not been too difficult for me, but that will change with the advent of some of those more complicated chords and/or rythm patterns. I am quite excited when this will be and hope i can manage to scrape together enough time to train in between lessons.

By the way, my son loves when i play the guitar! And he loves it even more when i grip some chords and he strums the strings and sings to it… kind of.

Got the fever

This morning my son has 38.5° Celsius of temperature. I doubt that there is any connection to yesterday’s ox-gal soap episode. More probably it is just another tooth breaking through or another wave of growth.