don't see this
latest comments:
while performing my job the other day, i happened across an obscure simpsons item: a tiny head of homer simpson, divided into eight pieces, much like a rubik's pocket-cube. the top of his head was cut into four quadrants, as was the bottom. together, each portion could be rotated, just like the pocketcube; in vain, i tried to put it together but could not, and so i thought i'd try to figure out a mathematical solution to the problem (rather than reading all the web-literature out there, of course!); after thinking about it long anough, though, the homer-cube is actually exactly like the pocket cube...despite the homer-cube's ability to project in 3 dimensions (opposed to the flat color shapes of the pocket cube), each physical property could be described by a color, resulting in the pocket cube. With the major problem out of the way, i'd still like to see an algorithm to help 'solve' the pocket cube rather than merely explaining the concept. any takers? if so, e-mail me at the sysop address at the bottom of the main page. to clarify...if an algorithm detailing every possible move were created, then i could slap together a svg page based on it, which would allow people to solve the pocketcube from any particular point, with the animation to show you how. so hit me!
posted at: 2002-06-10 07:51:35 with 1 comments man, i'm hurting; i'm only 16 minutes through the day and i just want to go home and sleep;
posted at: 2002-06-10 07:16:44 with 0 comments i'm now at work a full hour early. why? because i got up even earlier, at 2:30, to watch the us play south korea. the game was good, although the koreans dominated throughout. we managed to pull out a tie, despite being outshot 18-6. A brilliant penalty kick save was all that stood between us and disaster. i was reminded of the old football quote "the prevent defense prevents nothing at all" when, after scoring one goal, we shifted into defensive mode, despite there being over 65 minutes left in the game. we had a few more scoring opportunities, but couldn't convert. Now, if the portugal versus poland match goes in portugal's favor, we'll be in good shape for our final groud d match against poland. let's just hope we can light up the scoreboard more...
posted at: 2002-06-10 06:31:10 with 0 comments in the midst of retooling the site, i found this which is absolutely hilarious...you'll notice that we now have daily news summaries in the news section as well as the demise of the not-so-illustrious editorial section; it has been replaced with icing which will contain snippets of stuff to make you appreciate your dredwerkz meal more; i was puzzling a particular problem yesterday and realized that the website might be the best place to put it.
posted at: 2002-06-07 13:00:45 with 0 comments
much like electrons, romney can be in two places at once
why are you reading this? there's a war on!
new homeland security department: pay no attention to the woman testifying at the committee!
send in the blue-helmeted monitors. with riot gear, of course!
the president gets used to disasters
new homeland security department: now with extra terror fighting powder!
global warming isn't happening...just kidding!
posted at: 2002-06-07 09:44:25 with 0 comments
dc cops find chandra's shin: reaction
dc cops find chandra's shin
wye oak bites the dust
wilkins pins against, then attempts to sweep under table
small group of protestors angers the powerful Grover Norquist, forcing him to order his interns in to restore american way of life
washington times prints unfortunate headline for partisans
the district finally has a home depot; the dredwerkz rejoices!
posted at: 2002-06-07 08:00:16 with 0 comments there's some major new revisions in the works for the werkz...a new section, several new subsections, and two new features of the user interface; hopefully i can get this stuff done in the next two weeks; until then, you'll just have to be patient...
posted at: 2002-06-07 07:37:56 with 0 comments
pennsylvania avenue to remain closed
district unveils balanced budget
beer sold from local vending machine
students forced to suffer year-round
students forced to go on boat vacation, claim they are learning
local abused man defended, in hindsight, by uppity new-yorker
posted at: 2002-06-06 17:25:57 with 0 comments once, again, brad "i'm not a self-promoting whore" has failed to link to his own new pieces; this is dredwerkz blasphemy: check out his blistering review of 1223 and his much less derogatory review of felix. we may have a legitimate critic on our hands, as opposed to the psychotic idiots who live in the landscape now known as cultural criticism. at least he managed to get the links correct...
posted at: 2002-06-06 08:48:58 with 0 comments still not on the blog gravy train, especially when you realize someone might actually dig this stuff up years from now. i'm counting on the flood of information to thoroughly overwhelm anyone - if i can pulse info so fast that no group of humans could search it convincingly...
you think i'm joking, don't you. the concept is pretty simple - kinda like a pyramid scheme or a chain letter. the trick is to reach the threshold at which the information produces itself. in a way it resembles a virus replicating, except it is simply information being generated and passed on by other users.
there are actually advertisers who are making money on this concept already. essentially they take a cool, offbeat ad, and upload it to a few sites on the 'net, and let the users take over. funky, fun ads will get passed along as people find them - passed to other consumers, all not through force but through soft power. pretty sweet, eh?
my twist is that it would not be one ad, or even one piece of info, but rather a 'buzz' about someone or something. the rumors, spin, and half-truths should get people to create content, and then of course advertisers will get interested, and eventually people will blog about it or them. now it doesn't have to be me initially, but if i get myself pushed around like a commodity, then ultimately there will be so much crap out there, generated by common users, that no one will be able to wade through it all. i need density on all levels though - corporate and personal, so that someone couldn't just filter out crappy home pages. this thing has to be big.
where to begin? how about a test. my favorite cartoon is perfect. go dragonball z! now you do a search and start trying to backtrack just one piece of info. say, um, some obscure fact about one of the central characters (marginal characters facts get prime time - oddly. witness the 'fett' phenom in SW)
now that you're interested, i guess i should let you down. i was just testing to see if i could blog a link successfully. the idea is crap. but pass it and this site along to friends, and see what their reactions are! fun for the whole family - then you can write into the advice section and we will answer your angst. be seeing you...
posted at: 2002-06-05 22:47:43 with 0 comments1223 has got it all. there's the prime location (south of dupont on conn.) and the prime amount of money you gotta spend to get in. prime line? i wouldn't know, because after one trip i didn't really think i needed to return.
that is, until i become filthy rich and begin patterning my life like a well tanned european with money to burn. ooh...did i say 'eurotrash'? didn't mean to. well, maybe just a little.
the problem with MCCXXIII, or '23' as i would prefer to call it - is that there's no bang for your buck, or even a reasonable correlation. there are much better clubs, insanely better restaurants, and even mildly better lounges, so what is the appeal?
quite simply, money. MONEY. drinks are not cheap, and neither are the clientele. they are not, unfortunately, dc's hottest and youngest, but rather, dc's richest and ugliest. kinda like if you took the regular thirty something who goes to reef - put on too much cologne or makeup (or both?) and gave them enough money to buy the standard club outfit. for the guys, that's simple. dark shirt, dark pants, square shoes, and a dark tan. for the ladies - as always, it is up to you to set the standards, and 23-ites do their best to look like displaced new jersey.
enough bad vibes. the good stuff? great space. cool to eat, hang, chill, or even dance on the tiny floor. but it is definitely not cool enough. if only the people watching was good, but you have to stay up late for that, and at these drink prices - i'm heading across the street for some much better action.
ciao, 23. my german pants are getting tired of your pretension...
posted at: 2002-06-05 22:31:17 with 0 comments
it is not the newest, or the oldest on the block, but 'felix' definitely has its appeal. so you're in adams morgan on a saturday night, but you have a hankering for the sort of waiting-in-line experience that you would normally get downtown or near dupont.
yeah, felix is what you're looking for. bar/restaurant/club/lounge - the actual insides contain enough to satisfy anyone. theme? kinda sophisticated yet unpretentious, and it changes based on the room and time. looking for quiet? try the spy lounge just up from the north bar...early on thursday. its got good lighting, enough plushness to sink into a good conversation, and you can wax philosophically about the perpetual showings of 'goldfinger' and 'the pink panther' on the small tv/fireplace.
the north bar has more action, less privacy. great drinks, but the restrooms are placed inconveniently. over on the south side, you have a restaurant area, another bar, and another lounge. here things really heat up when a live musical act is playing - they've got quite a bit of diversity on the playlist, so check ahead if you have strong prefs.
upstairs? there's some funky hip hop on floor two + plus lounge/bar, and another lounge on the third floor. lots of lounging? you bet. a bit of a knockoff of eighteenth street lounge? um, you didn't hear it here first.
but it is not a bad rip. felix is calmer, less trendy, and more adams-morgan than the dupont scene. better diversity than most, but it still feels upscale (hey, its neighbors are bars, dives, and college dance clubs - what wouldn't be classier?) lines aren't too bad - even on saturdays, and it is worth it to have a decent martini and strike up conversation with someone who doesn't work on the hill.
keep lounging felix - we'll get there again soon...
posted at: 2002-06-05 22:18:35 with 0 comments that's right, everyone's favorite browser has finally notched the legendary 1.0.0 version number...despite being a day late and a dollar short, the mightly lizard has managed to produce a beast of a browser, managing to neatly support most of the w3 standards while still remaining fast and user-friendly. Best of all, you can get it with svg support embedded! their servers appear to be housed at the moment though, so go over here in a few hours when things have calmed down a bit. after several years of using IE as my browser of choice, mozilla has won my heart back.
posted at: 2002-06-05 14:49:29 with 0 comments yeah, that's right! we just won against portugal. a great win against a good team...arena's tactical decision not to play mathis seems brilliant now, and group d is going to be really shaken up. bring on the koreans monday morning (yes, it's going to hurt to watch at 2:30)! meanwhile, back in the real (i.e. non-world-cup-obsessed) world, almost all of the washingtonpost staff have witheld their bylines in an attempt to draw attention to management playing hardball with the reporter's guild. go reporters!
posted at: 2002-06-05 06:54:54 with 0 comments a blog, by its nature, is personal; regardless of whether one espouses progressive or moderate viewpoints, the blog itself is a reflection of an author's personality; by allowing multiple people to contribute to a blog, it becomes a collective, much like tapped. this reflects upon the shared nature of the people who contribute; being personal, however, should a collective blog include individual items? for example, i went up to a lake in new england over the weekend and got some sun and fun (props to ms. m for a delightful time!); if i had a personal blog, i might have mentioned this along with a requisite link to the lake but is this a good thing? i guess, in the end, that i think mixing what you ate for breakfast along with the latest political snafu makes things seem genuine...as if telling the truth about where i went over the weekend translates into truth about the other comments. the mind makes the intellectual jump, despite it being logically incoherent...penalizing stupid people in the process. i'm all in favor of stupidity traps.
posted at: 2002-06-04 12:10:39 with 0 comments everyone's been through it before: the new boss/neighbor/co-worker/friend's significant other/in-law whom you're meeting for the first time. you'd like to hit it off well, because you know you'll be seeing them for a long time. in the fbi's case, they'll be using the services of the cia to help them rebuild their intelligence analyzing and in general, to make less errors. so what happens next? well, the fbi promptly draws up a Cya document (the post nicely punned cya as "cover your agency") detailing how the cia messed up. in response, the cia leaked that they had, in fact, told the fbi the information it needed. besides the rather obvious idea that the fbi has no chance of reforming, they've manged to neatly tick off the very people they need to reorganize. here's what happens next. if this were your neighbor, you'd have to invite them over for dinner to make peace; sadly, i can't see this happening any time soon. the especially frustrating part of all of this is that time is being spent preparing documents and graphs to show who's to blame, not spent on improving things. if only we had a president who would do the right thing regardless of the political fallout, instead of resorting to tired cliches about what the american people say. if you read nothing else, read the last piece. it's a gem.
posted at: 2002-06-04 08:21:15 with 0 comments