Decomposing Train » nerds

Wheeee, I can ride a bike and type at the same time…

Rick — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 06:06:51 +0000

I’m typing this while riding on my recumbent exercise bike. I’ve modified an old art table so that the main chassis and pedals of the bike fit underneath, and added slats across the top of the table to hold my laptop and external keyboard and mouse steady.

It was inspired by the treadputer featured on Lifehacker awhile back, and I see that they also featured something called the Geek-a-cycle ™. It’s a little tricky remembering to keep the legs working while concentrating on typing, but hopefully this will help me achieve my daily exercise goals a bitter easier. I’d post some pics, but really, it’s just a table high enough for me to sit underneath and pedal without knocking my knees on the underside.

One thing I’ve noticed is that my spelling ability really takes a hit when using this. The keyboard is a little too high and off-center to hit the keys properly at the speed I normally type. Ah well, at least the WASD keys are comfortable for gaming. Now, to try and burn a few hundred calories in Oblivion…

UPDATE: Well, I didn’t get around to playing Elder Scrolls IV, but I did manage to trawl through my daily reading list. End result: 54 mminutes, 10.24 miles, 542 calories.

Creepy Hans Digs Up Corpse

Rick — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 07:24:04 +0000

I’ve been following the Hans Reiser trial and conviction for the murder of his wife, via Wired.com’s Threat Level column.

I was a little bit shocked to read (very early this morning, thanks in part to the huge iced coffee I drank earlier combined with tummy trouble caused by a plate of tasty-but-damaging General Tso’s Chicken) that he’s finally led the police to the corpse as part of a deal to broker a reduced prison sentence. Asperger’s Syndrome, my ass. The guy is a freakshow, and so are the other people (well, one other person) involved. I predict there will be a movie deal soon.

At least the Linux-geeks have something new to giggle about.

The thing that struck me most about the digging-up-of-the-body is that, apparently, one of Reiser’s lawyers was handcuffed to him while he searched for the shallow grave and when Reiser found it, he and the lawyer dug up the body together. Do they tell people in Law School, “Someday, you might have to dig up a corpse.” I wonder what the billable rate is on that?

Happy Mother’s Day, MC Frontalot!

Rick — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 00:49:51 +0000

My good friend Rydell is at Nerdapalooza right now, and somehow managed to con MC Frontalot into calling me to wish me a Happy Mother’s Day. It is July 5th. To my credit, I answered the phone by screaming “Happy Mother’s Day” into it first.

Gary Gygax is dead.

Rick — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 13:10:17 +0000

I can’t say that I was ever that connected to him as anything other than a name on a book cover… Yeah, I played AD&D when I was a kid, but I branched out to other (and better, in my opinion) games quickly after getting introduced to role-playing games as a concept. I knew who he was only vaguely, in that he had “invented” Dungeons And Dragons… but it is much the same as Noah Webster = Dictionary, at least for me personally. He was highly regarded by a lot of people, though, and Websnark does a fair job sumarrizing Gygax’s impact on popular culture here.