108: That's A Solid Three-er, with ignignokt

September 9, 2015 4:17 PM

This episode of Best Of The Web covers features special guest host ignignokt, chatting with Jessamyn and me about Metafilter, twitter bots, video games, and a bunch of neat stuff from MetaFilter. We cover August 3rd through September 8th, and the episode runs about 2 hours.

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Misc
- Vaporwave is not Vaporcake
- nor is it cake batter or chicken and waffles vape juice
- some nice cool weather
- Wikipedia's Timeline of the far future
- Jessamyn as a giant pekingese
- Wade Boggs' Big Bog Body Bangarang

Projects
- Vilanelle Bot by avoision (MeFi post)
- Space Stories by EndsOfInvention
- ignignokt's updated The Disappearance of N
- HOW many eggs? by exceptinsects (look at this thing!, MeFi post)
- Algorithmically Generated Poetry by new arrival bboston
- an unofficial Vernon, VT website made by beagle
- The Ephemerides, by aparrish

MetaFilter
- maximize your Chipotleism
- An Australian man builds a tile-roofed hut from really, really scratch
- Anand Prasad says take better selfies, fellas
- what the fuck is scrundle
- that duck vine
- men, suicide, and social perfectionism
- how not to make a Mario level
- Wes Craven, RIP
- a new class of tileable pentagons!

Ask MetaFilter
- maximize a Saturday job
- that screaming iphone guy vine
- colormatching an oooold guitar's paint job
- what the fuck is scrundle this purple blobby thing
- finding a lost cat (spoiler: they found the lost cat)
- what to do with sweet red peppers?
- Facebook changed my name!
- Getting Social Security to change my name
- Axl Rose == Oral Sex?
- DIY bottled water flavor
- Parents of kids, what do you like/hate about your house?

Music
- Be What You Want by chococat
- Proto Man: An Empty Home by jake
- Las Cuevas Hacen Eco En Sacromonte by the cydonian

Metatalk
- Happy B-Day Jessamyn
- It's Everybody Can Post To The Front Page Month

posted by cortex (staff) to MeFi Podcast at 4:17 PM (35 comments total)

I am super psyched that both ignignokt and scrundle made the podcast.
posted by griphus at 4:22 PM on September 9, 2015 [4 favorites]

Holy shit you are fast
posted by ignignokt at 5:24 PM on September 9, 2015 [3 favorites]

Did that start with mathowie saying "cortex"?
posted by jessamyn (retired) at 5:37 PM on September 9, 2015 [2 favorites]

Fast and late: the best combination.

Did that start with mathowie saying "cortex"?

Heh, no, that's me; I did a last minute intentionally terrible punch-in job because someone had joked about it previously. If I were ahead instead of behind schedule this month, I was going to crank out another new theme, but, well.
posted by cortex (staff) at 5:38 PM on September 9, 2015 [3 favorites]

Fine and dandy, but where's Out Of The Blue?
posted by Going To Maine at 9:04 PM on September 9, 2015

Ha, I'm excited that Vaporcake was mentioned! Follow us on twitter for future ephemera. Who knows what's next.
posted by naju at 10:41 PM on September 9, 2015

Domains that cortex lets expire: larptrek.com
posted by infinitewindow at 10:52 PM on September 9, 2015 [1 favorite]

Fine and dandy, but where's Out Of The Blue?

In progress! Turns out all that moving to Alabama for the summer and then back again stuff was pretty distracting, but I've got an episode on the way, talking to Jess Zimmerman about the whole Emotional Labor thing.
posted by cortex (staff) at 11:04 PM on September 9, 2015 [10 favorites]

OH SHIT I GOT MENTIONED ON THE PODCAST OMG
posted by EndsOfInvention at 2:51 AM on September 10, 2015 [4 favorites]

I love the way jessamyn asks "who is this user?" like she's in Tron.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 4:02 AM on September 10, 2015 [9 favorites]

PS - thanks to ignignokt for initial inspiration to get into bots, and for reminding me to post in Projects!
posted by EndsOfInvention at 4:39 AM on September 10, 2015

I think a thread about domain names we've let lapse would be fun. I'll start :
cuttleflesh.com (cephalopod porn maybe?)
posted by DigDoug at 6:45 AM on September 10, 2015 [1 favorite]

I like how the discussion on Facebook and Social Security name changes led into the thing about Axl Rose's name. That was some good segue.

I am also day-making proud that "Has Axl Rose ever commented on the fact that his stage name is an anagram for "oral sex"?" is the thing that got me mentioned on the podcast.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 6:45 AM on September 10, 2015 [5 favorites]

Going To Maine: "Fine and dandy, but where's Out Of The Blue?"

Right here.
posted by Chrysostom at 6:55 AM on September 10, 2015

The music was really great and all, really, but… *sigh* No shawm.

WHAT HO, MODS and guest!
posted by wenestvedt at 7:00 AM on September 10, 2015

I think a thread about domain names we've let lapse would be fun.

http://proscri.be
posted by jessamyn (retired) at 8:39 AM on September 10, 2015 [2 favorites]

My own projects post is pretty ignignokt inspired, also.
posted by Artw at 12:30 PM on September 10, 2015

It is genuinely neat idea, and I'm glad you posted it!
posted by ignignokt at 1:27 PM on September 10, 2015

Can I change my username to "Reformed Stander"?
posted by bondcliff at 2:01 PM on September 10, 2015

domain names we've let lapse

http://porneranian.com
posted by moonmilk at 2:29 PM on September 10, 2015 [1 favorite]

and blowpup.com - both inspired by a very dirty minded pomeranian dog I had.

Also idiotbullstation.com

Oh, and canadianhouseofpizzaandgarbagehangoutspot.net

I may have a problem
posted by moonmilk at 2:34 PM on September 10, 2015 [2 favorites]

I think a thread about domain names we've let lapse would be fun. I'll start :
cuttleflesh.com (cephalopod porn maybe?)

That would be cuttlefetish.com
posted by Going To Maine at 2:47 PM on September 10, 2015 [2 favorites]

Hey, idiotbullstation.com at one point became a Japanese page about passing a tax accountant exam!
posted by ignignokt at 4:16 PM on September 10, 2015

Woo-hoo! This had better be a good 'un or I'm gonna need my money back!
posted by comealongpole at 7:01 PM on September 10, 2015

Vaporwave previously on Metafilter.
posted by ardgedee at 8:02 PM on September 10, 2015 [2 favorites]

The origin of idiotbullstation
posted by moonmilk at 3:04 PM on September 11, 2015 [1 favorite]

Ignignokt's description of Anne of Avonlea is perfection.
posted by exceptinsects at 1:47 PM on September 14, 2015 [2 favorites]

Listening to your description of a Boltzmann brain and that giant number of years- to me it doesn't sound like it's unlikely to spring up- it's that it's totally 100% going to happen by that time an extremely long time from now, which is exciting. Random Chaos Space Brain is a thing. maybe.
posted by Secretariat at 7:28 PM on September 14, 2015

Yeah, it's weird how probability over time just doesn't make a difference in so many regular life cases (e.g. buying a lottery ticket every day, wearing a rubber suit to defend against lightning strikes), but when you work with a basically infinite scale, blaow! Those longshots will happen!
posted by ignignokt at 8:14 AM on September 15, 2015

OH SHIT I GOT MENTIONED ON THE PODCAST OMG

This. B-)
posted by the cydonian at 12:08 AM on September 16, 2015 [1 favorite]

Random Chaos Space Brain

Great band name/Culture Ship name there.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 2:12 AM on September 16, 2015

Wikipedia highlighted the Timeline of the Far Future page on its Facebook feed yesterday. Coincidence? I think not.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 4:20 AM on September 16, 2015 [1 favorite]

With regards to emulation accuracy, there is/was a problem with a number of emulators for games and it has less to do with the CPU and more to do with the video and support hardware.

Getting the timing right for an 8 bit micro on a modern system is easy. You've got close to 1000 cycles to burn per instruction and if you can't get that right, you're doing the wrong job. Also CPUs were extremely well documented and the docs are readily available.

What isn't there in as great quantity is documentation for any ASICs (application specific integrated circuits) that were made to compensate for a crappy 8 bit micro.

For example, Williams electronics had a "special chip" which was designed after Stargate in order to take some load off the CPU for slinging pixels around. The problem in the case of the Williams chip is that when it is requested, it halts the CPU so it have have unfettered access to the address and data buses. Getting that timing exactly right is a real hassle when you don't have docs.

MAME had it wrong and the difference was notable (although this has been fixed since) - playing Robotron on a real game and MAME was a different experience for me.

A guy called JROK put together some hardware that does the game with a high degree of accuracy for a couple of reasons. First, it uses an actual 6809 (the CPU of many early Williams games) running at exactly the clock rate. Second, JROK built an FPGA from the schematics of the games and put in the special chip as well. He benchmarked his FPGA against an original chip for timing and it was microsecond accurate.
posted by plinth at 5:52 AM on September 17, 2015 [1 favorite]

Yay, the "September is First Post Month" banner is up on the front page!
posted by Secretariat at 3:58 PM on September 17, 2015 [1 favorite]

Thanks, plinth! I think my friend was trying to explain some of that to me, but I only absorbed "there's a big difference between original hardware peripheral response and USB ports and LCD screens."
posted by ignignokt at 7:30 PM on September 17, 2015