Category: Etc

Do you know Dust Puppy?

Sohaib Athar2 Comments

userfriendlyI remember it very clearly – it was 2001 when I discovered an easter egg in Quake III Arena (a game that has claimed many hours of my life) featuring Dust Puppy – a character from the geeky comic strip at UserFriendly.org. I was curious and visited the website, and was hooked for life.

The strip has been running for 10 years now, and although it is not mainstream and certainly not as popular as Dilbert, but it is funnier than Peanuts IMHO, and documents the evolution of computing in a way that Dilbert simply does not. I can praise the strip for hours, but just go check it out yourself.

Here’s where it all started [click to go to the website]:

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and this strip is one of my personal favorites (as I am turning into a dinosaur myself):

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I have not seen the strip covered on any of the blogs I read – and I hope I manage to contribute to the Userfriendly.org mission of “Impairing productivity” by this post. Let me know how you like it in the comments 😀

Two Great Stress-Relieving Flash Games

Sohaib Athar

So I installed Gears of War last week, but it turned out that my laptop (Dell Inspiron 9400/2GB RAM/Go 7800 etc.), like its owner, is almost obsolete. So if you are like me, here are two excellent games to get rid of your gamer’s itch (and get back to work so that you can buy a new laptop) – Quest for the Crown and YHTBTR. Don’t miss the credits on YHTBTR!

Lots of Leftover Links from March 2008 – Part One

Sohaib Athar

As time passes, the bookmarks that are supposed to be individual posts wither away in my "TO BLOG" folder and shrink to single-sentences. It happens every month so I will go with the flow and publish them in this one big post for your viewing (time-wasting) pleasure. Here goes:

howitshouldhaveended.com has an interesting collection of alternate endings of popular movies – here’s the one for LOTR

and here’s a “Chat Version” of LOTR

and here’s the interview that Arthur C. Clarke gave on his 90th birthday

and DarkRoastedBlend.com has a collection of designer barcodes that should have been in use all over the world by now.
Fun Barcode Designs

and if you don’t have any good music to listen to, you can listen to the sound of the Antarctic Ocean – live – here. It was raining there yesterday, and its more fun than silence (I guess).

and graphjam.com is a new website from the creators of icanhascheezburger.com that you will enjoy if you think in graphs (like most geeks).
funny graphs
see more funny graphs

and here is something that I wish no kid has to face in a spelling bee

and more goodies to follow in part 2.

Whirled – SecondLife in 2D

Sohaib Athar

Whirled – which is an interesting mix of casual games, social networking, online role-playing and user created content by Three Rings (the people behind Puzzle Pirates) went public beta a couple of days ago. It was in closed beta for more than one year (I got an invite through my Puzzle Pirates mates pretty early). Check it out – I will update this post later.

Rumor of a Bomb Found at National University / FAST Lahore

Sohaib Athar5 Comments

I was just told that a bomb (or something that looked like a bomb) was found at the reception of National University (aka FAST) Lahore a couple of hours ago, and they will keep the university closed for four days. I haven't verified the news from another source yet, but if this is true, then at this rate, this generation of kids will either graduate a few years late, or will have a degree that does not actually cover the required years of study. On the other hand, the distant learning market looks like an attractive business option.

UPDATE: I just got the verification from two more people – there were phonecalls about two bombs, and apparently the institute has been receiving threat calls the whole week.Surprisingly, there is no news yet about the incident online (its been three or four hours now). The calling party demanded to close the college for a week – I do hope it is an early April's fool joke.