tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19586850707813343862012-01-29T17:09:59.799-08:00Rob Van Dykhttps://profiles.google.com/117160442474222001988noreply@blogger.comBlogger195125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1958685070781334386.post-43055103683996784602012-01-22T15:57:00.000-08:002012-01-29T17:09:59.807-08:00

This post is to describe a variation of chess that can be played by two people. As you undoubtedly know, chess is a fun, turn-based game, but it's a perfect information game which means to win you absolutely need to best your opponent intellectually. Suffice it to say, this aspect of chess makes it a big turn-off for most people. Therefore, this might be considered an improvement because an

Rob Van Dykhttps://profiles.google.com/117160442474222001988noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1958685070781334386.post-15681914468310335402012-01-21T14:52:00.000-08:002012-01-21T14:52:21.352-08:00

My wife and I picked up her brand new bike today. It's a 2012 Woman's Felt Cafe 7 in the "lemongrass" color. As a bonus, we ordered it with a basket on the front and sexy white fenders for riding in the rain. It turned out real nice. It also comes standard with a "coffee cup holder" which is pretty awesome. And it has a "kick-stand" which is incredibly plebeian and much less awesome than my

Rob Van Dykhttps://profiles.google.com/117160442474222001988noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1958685070781334386.post-38491013260216396332011-12-13T19:31:00.000-08:002011-12-13T19:31:56.067-08:00

This post is a listing of games I have bought through a nifty program called Humble Bundle. The Humble Bundles are usually 5-7 small games that are available for Windows, Mac, and Linux. Humble Bundle #1 - Bought on 5/11/2010 World of Goo - 2D Boy Aquaria - Bit Blot Gish - Cryptic Sea Lugaru HD - Wolfire Games Penumbra - Frictional Games Samorost 2 - Amanita Design secret link Humble Bundle

Rob Van Dykhttps://profiles.google.com/117160442474222001988noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1958685070781334386.post-26913676661257914062011-11-27T16:41:00.001-08:002011-12-13T18:57:11.207-08:00

[written on 11/27, posted on 12/13, silly me] Jen and I have our Christmas tree! We will decorate it tomorrow. We also got pretty white snowflake stockings and a matching tree skirt. For the second year in a row we've selected a short five-foot-tall tree. It looks nice. In other news, Kitty joined us at mother's house for Thanksgiving. Strangely, he *never* left her living room... despite

Rob Van Dykhttps://profiles.google.com/117160442474222001988noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1958685070781334386.post-60681178053146526662011-11-17T18:19:00.001-08:002011-11-17T18:19:40.556-08:00

Jen just left for a midnight showing of some werewolf movie. Weird. Right?

Rob Van Dykhttps://profiles.google.com/117160442474222001988noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1958685070781334386.post-69191624251595122812011-11-03T13:58:00.000-07:002011-11-03T13:58:56.390-07:00

I think a fun activity with little ones would be to find an interesting Wikipedia article everyday and talk with them about it.  You could even constrain the search by only choosing articles that were linked from the article from the previous day.  I think this would be much more educational and intellectually stimulating than (for instance) reading the cover story on the daily paper.  As a child

Rob Van Dykhttps://profiles.google.com/117160442474222001988noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1958685070781334386.post-9002550883576082152011-11-01T05:24:00.000-07:002011-11-01T07:37:58.559-07:00

Hundreds of thousands in the Northeastern US are powerless. No lights. No hot water. No heat. Just flashlights, cold showers, and blankets. I - however - am not one of them. I'm blessed by living in a new building where nature can't hold me to its wraith. I don't even shovel snow when it comes since we have somebody who handles that for us. In some ways, this is a charmed life. In other

Rob Van Dykhttps://profiles.google.com/117160442474222001988noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1958685070781334386.post-58604727354639926302011-10-13T19:31:00.000-07:002011-10-13T19:32:28.323-07:00

Imageless Season 1 archive is complete. Season 2 is about to kick-off soon. Lots of inspiration has already been lined up.

Rob Van Dykhttps://profiles.google.com/117160442474222001988noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1958685070781334386.post-16424511651832431832011-09-14T17:29:00.000-07:002011-09-14T17:29:31.926-07:00

I want to get into the education field, though I fear the pay wouldn't sustain my costs of living.  I think I'd be a good educator.  I think I'd be really good at developing a curriculum and then iterating and improving upon it year after year.  I think there are several subjects ranging from Engineering to Writing that I could do (the secret to engineering is to always be looking for a better

Rob Van Dykhttps://profiles.google.com/117160442474222001988noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1958685070781334386.post-75647057719741506402011-09-07T19:08:00.000-07:002011-09-07T19:10:02.493-07:00

My favorite season is here again. Football and cool breezes and colored leaves. Football means drinking beers. Cool breezes mean layered shirts. And colored leaves are just pretty. Good times. Imageless is going to come back in a month or two for "Season 2". I've got a bunch of images lined up, and just need to bang out a batch of stories. The main thing holding me up is that I'm

Rob Van Dykhttps://profiles.google.com/117160442474222001988noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1958685070781334386.post-31056682194428333592011-08-10T18:19:00.000-07:002011-08-10T18:19:51.074-07:00

Jen and I recently got ourselves some shiny new furniture. One purchase was a nice, new coffee table. The key feature of this table is that it's open underneath (no extra shelf or drawers). This was important for us because we reasoned we could sit on the ground at the table and play Magic: The Gathering. It was actually Jen who pointed out this insight. I love my wife, and I really like our

Rob Van Dykhttps://profiles.google.com/117160442474222001988noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1958685070781334386.post-48128997095672545782011-08-08T15:24:00.001-07:002011-08-10T18:40:06.126-07:00

There is a saying that goes something like, "Make it as simple as possible, but no simpler". This translates to many different mediums if you substitute specific things for "it" or various types of measurements with "simple". You could say, "Reduce government spending as much as possible, but not so much as to cause measurable harm". The thing is that much government spending is

Rob Van Dykhttps://profiles.google.com/117160442474222001988noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1958685070781334386.post-21685193047527228652011-08-02T04:04:00.001-07:002011-08-10T18:20:53.262-07:00

Sometimes it's appropriate to think of Congress as a group of silly circus/zoo/aquarium performers. They do a trick and get a fish. In this case, though, the "trick" was pandering to their campaign contributors and the fish was the cash they need to get re-elected. Unfortunately, seals put on a more interesting show than the Congressmen. To make the analogy work better, seals would have to

Rob Van Dykhttps://profiles.google.com/117160442474222001988noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1958685070781334386.post-20983733780601332562011-07-25T15:31:00.001-07:002011-08-10T19:05:45.639-07:00

I got unique presents for groomsmen, younger brothers, and dads at my wedding. These people helped out and generally serve as individuals who I can depend on in a crunch. Unique needs clarification. I didn't by cigar cases with their initials and a date engraved on it. I think that's closer to the opposite of unique to the point of being cliché. Actually, unique means 'not typical for the

Rob Van Dykhttps://profiles.google.com/117160442474222001988noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1958685070781334386.post-67132609333687972302011-07-12T15:16:00.001-07:002011-07-12T15:16:07.302-07:00

Hypothetically, how different would it be for cars in urban areas if pedestrians could throw hammers at vehicles driven by obnoxious assholes. The analogy where cars are like stompy Mario and pedestrians are like poor Goombas is somewhat fitting. You bet your bottom dollar that Mario acts more safely around Hammer Bros. than when encountering a pack of harmless Goombas. If violence was

Rob Van Dykhttps://profiles.google.com/117160442474222001988noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1958685070781334386.post-12360266214474844042011-07-11T15:20:00.001-07:002011-07-11T15:20:16.091-07:00

My wedding was a few days ago on Sunday, July 3rd. Things went very well. All of our planning paid off. I can't shake the quote from The Office where Andrew Bernard says, "Every little boy dreams of his fairytale wedding." In any case, it was a good time and now Jen's family is forever joined with mine. Woot!Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.8

Rob Van Dykhttps://profiles.google.com/117160442474222001988noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1958685070781334386.post-44149438410788647932011-06-29T18:25:00.001-07:002011-06-29T18:25:01.182-07:00

And I think to myself, "That surface is portalable".Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.8

Rob Van Dykhttps://profiles.google.com/117160442474222001988noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1958685070781334386.post-82120063420653892482011-06-18T10:20:00.001-07:002011-06-18T10:20:03.223-07:00

I'm writing this hear instead of somewhere more appropriate because I am on my phone and lazy. On a day in the future, there will be a practice session for my wedding. R, (2) J, M, (4) T, J, (6) S, B, (8) M, P, (10) B, G, (12) M, C, (14) Y, S, and (17) J (w/ R, S (19), A, A (21)). The current incarnation of the plan is to convene at something and a half o'clock and be done with the practice

Rob Van Dykhttps://profiles.google.com/117160442474222001988noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1958685070781334386.post-80638587655100425442011-06-17T15:31:00.001-07:002011-06-17T15:31:04.126-07:00

I think repeatable patterns are a good thing. Benefits of specialization mixed with the ability to take any amount of creativity out of the equation (or at least minimize it). There is something to be said for having a small list of options that are dictated from things that are familar. An explosion of options, on the other hand, is suffocating. Too many choices of things that are foreign

Rob Van Dykhttps://profiles.google.com/117160442474222001988noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1958685070781334386.post-2755579587447536322011-06-14T04:47:00.001-07:002011-06-14T04:47:50.399-07:00

The Massachusetts Bay Transit Association is actively trying to desencitize its passengers to the placement of gigantic packages with signs that says "It's never this obvious". This is the modern day equivalent of a Trojan Horse except with less effort for the attackers and a comforting announcement that amounts to "This is not a bomb". Word to the wise... a giant box with a sign that reads

Rob Van Dykhttps://profiles.google.com/117160442474222001988noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1958685070781334386.post-38188968130445784372011-06-09T15:30:00.001-07:002011-06-09T15:30:40.167-07:00

I think it's hard to define what individual people's passions are. Some people are passionate about music and art. Some are passionate about their favorite sports teams. Some are passionate about religion and others are passionate about food. I think a good measure of somebody's passions would be expressed by their reaction when other people talk about stuff they've done recently (or stuff

Rob Van Dykhttps://profiles.google.com/117160442474222001988noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1958685070781334386.post-63821154965272264912011-06-08T06:18:00.000-07:002011-06-08T06:18:39.710-07:00

IBM's lovable computer wizard is practicing medicine. My thoughts: Watson was designed to interpret and contextualize digitized, written human language including (but not limited to) subtle nuances. They removed all picture, video, and audio clip clues from Jeopardy, so it's unlikely that Watson will become involved in "reading charts" or "interpreting scans". I think A LOT of diagnosis from

Rob Van Dykhttps://profiles.google.com/117160442474222001988noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1958685070781334386.post-2346024373869557192011-05-19T14:03:00.001-07:002011-05-19T14:03:41.109-07:00

There should be different prices based strictly on how tech-savvy a person is or not. Tech savvy? Less frustration, lower prices. Not tech savvy? Higher annoyance factor, higher prices. This isn't how things work, though. It seems like everybody pays (and charges) the same prices no matter their level of technical ability or incompetence. Unfortunately, teaching people who are not

Rob Van Dykhttps://profiles.google.com/117160442474222001988noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1958685070781334386.post-42548456516431354372011-05-19T04:00:00.001-07:002011-05-19T04:00:34.108-07:00

I am convinced by the weather forecasting combined with my umbrella carrying schedule that God has the same sense of humor as the jerk you knew in high school who would quickly, in a low tone, rattle off the phrase "A spincter says what," and even though it's not a question the jerk raises his voice at the end to indicate he expects you to respond. Why does it never rain when the forecast

Rob Van Dykhttps://profiles.google.com/117160442474222001988noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1958685070781334386.post-13516838049934785122011-05-11T15:14:00.000-07:002011-05-13T13:53:30.492-07:00

This whole Playstation Network thing presents an interesting question concerning the rights of companies versus the rights of individuals. Sony is essencially making the claim that companies have no responsibilities beyond providing some service that is sufficient to some percentage of their customers. What I am refering to is the fact that Sony deleted support for OtherOS from their

Rob Van Dykhttps://profiles.google.com/117160442474222001988noreply@blogger.com0