Category Archives: Nerdy

All things nerdy that I am interested in

Softmod of Wii Successful

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Recently, Yeye decided to jack her niece’s Wii and bring it home for us to play with. Apparently her niece doesn’t use the system enough to noticed that it disappeared. So I took this opportunity to softmod the thing and put the Homebrew Channel on it for a little more…control. Well first off I’ve never softmodded a Wii before so that was a big thing to learn. This was only compounded by the fact like everything else Korean, things just don’t work the same as everywhere else. So I had to go through some special steps that weren’t always well documented to get the Wii into a state where I could alter it. Totally pain in the ass. Anyways whatever, it’s done and now I have a functioning softmodded wii. I feel lots of old school games are in my future! SWEET!

Old Addictions: Zelda

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Insignia of Hyrule

Insignia of Hyrule

So Jake recently bought a Wii and along with the unit came Zelda: Twilight Princess and needless to say I’m hooked. Bring back the old days where I spend hours most of my free time playing a game. I’m fucking loving it! Oh how I missed the days of blazing through dungeons and trying to find every little collectable item in the game. Looks like I’m doing this just in time to, because this week we see the release of Zelda: Skyward Sword. Looks like December for me is going to be all Link-tastic.

Also I don’t know who created this art piece, but I love it. You’ll have to click this link to see it because it’s gigantic. The artist made a mural depicting most of the major characters of the Zelda Universe. Good stuff.

Jaipur: Jantar Mantar

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Since I’ve got sometime to kill today I thought I should start getting back on posting old (now they are old) pictures of India. Here are some pictures of Jantar Mantar in Jaipur. This place was awesome! Here is a little excerpt about it from Wikipedia:

The Jantar Mantar is a collection of architectural astronomical instruments, built by Maharaja (King) Jai Singh II at his then new capital of Jaipur between 1727 and 1734…It has been inscribed on the World Heritage List as “an expression of the astronomical skills and cosmological concepts of the court of a scholarly prince at the end of the Mughal period”.

Basically Jantar Mantar is a badass place chockfull of awesome, giant astronomical devices. Like samrat yantra the world’s largest sundial which is 27 meters tall and accurate down to 2 seconds. This place was a nerds playground. While I was there I wished 2 things…1) that my Uncle could have been there to explain to me how the hell you use most of the instruments and what they measured, and 2) that it wasn’t so F’in hot that day so I could have played longer before melting. Pics now…

Faster than light

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I know you probably have already heard the news that scientists have found neutrinos traveling faster than light. I hope there is no errors in this discover because it is just too damn exciting! The idea that Einsteins relativity might get turned on it’s head after standing for over a 100 years is fantastic. Anyways here is a groovy news article about it and an awesome picture of the Super-Kamiokande neutrino detector in Japan.

Super-Kamiokande Neutrino Detector

Super-Kamiokande Neutrino Detector

Interesting thing about color

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I remember a few years ago talking to my old coworker Kailey (I’m 90% sure it was her, I have a terrible memory) in South Korea. She was telling me that she was frustrated that her students kept insisting that sky blue was not blue and she just couldn’t get it through to them that sky blue is just a shade of blue. I remember thinking that was really interesting at the time. Colors are one of those things that I just assumed were pretty standard across the peoples of the world. So I was stoked to run across this video on Reddit that shows how different peoples develop different words to describe colors differently than we do in the West and how that actually changes the way they perceive color. Might be to nerdy for some to watch, but after teaching language for a few years I find it terribly interesting.

BBC Horizon: Do you see what I see? “The Himba tribe”

Korean’s don’t like Google

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At least my Korean friends seemingly can’t stand Google. This made me curious since I conversely can’t stand Daum or Naver the Korean equivalent. Well actually I can’t stand much about Korean Web Design. To much flash, horrible browser support (honestly does anyone but Mr. Camp like IE?), activeX on every site, and a totally painful attachment to a security protocol that doesn’t conform with the rest of the world.

So wondering about the Google thing I ran across this article on Reddit the other day, here is an excerpt about Google:

Koreans do not use Google. Though there is a Korean version of Google (which works just fine), almost all Koreans use Korean search engines, Naver or Daum. Interestingly enough, most Korean search portals do not crawl web pages automatically. Instead, the search databases are based on registration and payment from websites. Because of this, most Korean websites don’t seem to be too concerned with search engine optimization, much less Google at all.

So I guess, one reason they don’t dig Google is because, well, Google can’t find whatever it is they are searching for. Silly since almost all of the Korean phone manufactures are producing smart phones featuring Google Android; which obviously has native support for Google web solutions.

Nerdgasm

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I’m having a minor nerdgasm at the moment. I just discovered an iTunes radio station that plays nonstop covers of music from Legend of Zelda (stations called World Zelda Music Radio). Also, I’m reading a book that talks about cryptology, networking, programming, and features cameos from Alan Turing and Einstein. Just to boot, it also uses Tolkein’s hobbits and dwarves to explain the relationship between academia and the real world, the book is set in Northern California and place I’ve been to in Asia, and is attempting to explain the impossibly complex interwoven nature of Philippino families.

My fellow nerdy friends will appreciate. The nerding out shall continue…just wanted to share.

These statues look like those moving ones from Legend of Zelda...just encased in dicks

These statues look like those moving ones from Legend of Zelda...just encased in dicks