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Wednesday 27 March 2013

The inside of a website

The inside of a website




Usually one of the first things you learn when you start programming is “Hello World”. “Hello World” is simply a small application that outputs the words “Hello World” onscreen. 

The masochists at mycplus.com wrote the famous “Hello World” application in 300 different programming languages! 

It is quite an accomplishment and you have to wonder where they got the documentation to do the code in obscure languages such as Fjölnir and MUF.

I suppose I can Google it, but there is no way that I am Googling MUF on my work PC. Stupid joke out of the way, let’s continue. 

Relevant to this blog would be the three languages HTML, PHP, SQL and possibly Java Script. 

When somebody types http://DigitalLiquorRSA.blogspot.com in their web browser their web browser sends a request to the Blogspot server for the website called Digital Liquor. 
 
How a web request flows through the Internet.
 

The Blogspot server will then use the SQL language to query their database to get the content of my site. They will then use PHP to build the website and send it back to the web browser that will then use HTML to display the website on your computer. Java Script will then handle your interactions with the page such as clicking on buttons. 

There! Easy! Anybody can do it. 

For the full list of programming languages go the My CPlus article.

Tuesday 26 March 2013

Help the fight against cancer

Help the fight against cancer


Cancer Research UK


I have previously written about Community Grid, the gigantic network of computers that crunches numbers day and night to help fight cancer. What makes the grid so powerful is the fact that anyone can add their home / office computer to the grid. When the computer is idle, the computer will request work from the grid servers and help with the data processing. 

Every day the grid process so much data that one computer on its own would have taken many thousands of years to process.

Following in the footsteps of the Community Grid, charity organization Cancer Research UK has also turned to the internet for help.

Clinical trials for breast cancer research have produced tons of valuable data. Only problem is, there are simply too much data for the scientist to analyze!

At this point you might wonder – “I don’t even have a white lab coat! How can I possibly help?!

It is not very complicated and anybody can help the scientists analyze their data! The data consists of millions of images of tumors. Each image may or may not contain cancer cells. If the image does, all you have to do is guess plus or minus the number of cells that have been stained yellow and then give an estimate on their brightness. You don’t have to be spot on; ball park figure is all they are looking for.

Cancer Sample
 
They yellow that you see is the level of the oestrogen receptor protein present in the cell. This will give scientist an idea of how well a certain patient responded to their cancer treatment. This in turn will help doctors to give personalized treatments to patients.

With nearly a million images analyzed, the project is a big success but there is still terabytes worth of data to be analyzed. So jump in and go and analyze some images to help make the world a better place!


Monday 25 March 2013

Play Arcade Classic Asteroids

Play Arcade Classic Asteroids



It’s no secret that games are becoming more and more complex. Every generation needs new and more powerful hardware to run.
 
Although, technological superior and very advanced, I don’t feel that you need all those bells and whistles to have fun playing a game. Nowhere is it more evident than with the game Asteroids.
 
The original game only used 2 colours and a handful of different sound effects. The entire game was 8 kilobytes big. In comparison, the game God of War 3 is 35 gigabyte! If Asteroids is a tennis ball then God of War is Africa.
 
That said Asteroids is still just as much fun as the day it was released by Atari in 1979! Asteroids was such a good seller that Atari could barely keep up with the demand.
 
Give the game a change and soon you will find yourself unable to stop playing. My highest score so far has been 10 630. Not very impressive if you consider that the world record is 41,338,740!  It took John McAllister two and a half days of playing to get that score!
 
How long will you last?

Friday 22 March 2013

Extreme Friday Time Waster

Extreme Friday Time Waster 


Most Extreme Elimination
 

Takeshi’s Castle is an insane Japanese game show. People are forced to run an obstacle course from hell for a shot at the prize. Only nine people ever have won the prize, but, if you don’t die during the show – consider yourself a winner. 

Fall
 
While we laughed as someone crushed his neck by falling off a spinning mushroom, somewhere in the world somebody sat up and said: “not crazy enough!”

That's how we got Most Extreme Elimination Challenge. Someone took the already crazy Takeshi and ramped up the crazy another 1000 decibels.  

Using footage from Takeshi, the creators, shuffled the scenes and provided their own audio for the show. What was already balls-to-the wall insanity is now a work of art. The fact that they have not won the Noble Prize for Literature is a travesty! 

 Not knowing the word 'Prize' Google's spellchecker will also not be winning any prizes soon.

Sit back and relax as these brave souls risk head and spinal trauma for your entertainment!

 

Monday 18 March 2013

Play Ghosts'n Goblins


Arcade Games

O man, I forgot how hard these old skool arcade games were! We are really spoiled these days, what, with out check points, save games, cheats, armor, etc. Ghosts'n Goblins reduced my to tears in just a few short minutes.

This classic arcade game was developed by Capcom in 1988 and now thanks to the magic of HTTP and TCP/IP you can play it for free online. Special thanks go to ClassicArcadeGames for providing such an awesome service to the world!

How to play the game:
To play the game press Enter. To move use the arrow keys. Use Z and X to jump and attack.
    

Friday 15 March 2013

Friday time waster

Friday Time Waster

The 80’s were a simpler time. Kids didn’t know drugs. Kids didn’t know crime. Kids didn’t know being inside a house on fire is a bad thing.
The good people at Hasbro Toys made a series of Public Service Announcements using G.I. Joe’s to tell kids to not be inside a house on fire. Then the internet age came along and the good people at Fensler Films reedited those PSAs to tell kids that being inside a house on fire is freakin’ hilarious.
Needless to say, Hasbro did not like the new edits and sued the pants of Fensler. They managed to get Fensler to remove the offending cartoons from the Fensler website. What they forgot, however, is that this is the internet, and what happens on the internet, stays on the internet. For ever.
When the script was written for a live action G.I. Joe film, the producers tried to include a reference to one of the most famous Fensler films – “Pork chop sandwiches”. When Hasbro’s legal team heard about it, they summarily put a stop to it. Despite the best efforts of their lawyers, the spoofed cartoons can still be found all over the internet to this very day.
I now proudly present to you “Pork chop sandwiches”, the cartoon that made some high priced lawyers shit their pants:
 
(WARNING: Please note the language in these cartoons is very NSFW!)
 
Some more delicious nonsense from the Fensler crew. 
 
Some more insanity with G.I. Joes:
 
 
For more of these cartoons, doing a quick YouTube search will get you loads more.

Wednesday 6 March 2013

Gears of War TV Advertisment

Gears of War TV Advertisment



The new Gears of War game called Judgement will be released in March.

This time around the iconic Marcus Fenix is not featured, instead it follows the adventures of Cole and Baird and the trial of their Kilo squad.

The game takes place just before the event of Gears of War 1. It is just after Emergence Day, the day that the Locust hordes swarmed up from below the surface of the planet and Baird and co is accused of treason.

A bonus feature of the game to unlock is the Aftermath mode. In Aftermath mode we get to see what Cole and Baird did during Gear of War 3 while we where busy following Marcus Fenix and Dom.

See more of the Aftermath mode here:


 
Personally, I am not too crazy about games where they mess around with the time lines. I want to see what happened after the last game, not what happened at some point in the past. I want to see them move the story forward. That being said, the lucky bastards at Lazy Gamers have already played the new GOW and they say it's fucking awesome!

For their thoughts on the game visit their website.
 

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