Category Archives: Gaming

Geeky Fun with Google Charts

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The google charts API is a blast:

Pac-Man Chart

Pac-Man's Enemies

Star Trek Away Team chart

Some more text I found that I had written about google charts:
Something you might not know and I just fully realized the potential/fun in these….

Google has a nifty tool for creating on the fly charts/graphs called the Google Charts API. The cool thing is it’s all done in the URL – no server side includes, or programming or anything is needed and it’s pretty easy to do. You can totally customize how it looks and they have MANY different types of graphs and charts.

here is the URL for the chart below:
http://chart.apis.google.com/chart?cht=p3&chs=500×200&chd=t:72,20,8&chl=Chocolate|Sour|Gross&chtt=Top-selling+Types+of+Candy

candy

Might be really useful to liven up a post every now and then. Do you think this idea is:

http://chart.apis.google.com/chart?chs=250×125&cht=gom&chd=t:90&chl=Awesome

or is it:
http://chart.apis.google.com/chart?chs=250×125&cht=gom&chd=t:5&chl=Terrible

terrible

You could make some pretty funny graphs/charts if you wanted. Think of a celebrity blog post about Britney:
http://chart.apis.google.com/chart?cht=p3&chs=500×200&chd=t:74,5,15,5,1&chl=Crying|Shaving+Head|Eating|Singing|Wishing+she+had+K-Fed+back&chtt=How+Britney+Spends+her+Day

Britney

Xbox Media Center for only $25

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xbmc

So, with our new arrangement of furniture and the incoming big-screen plasma/LCD, I decided I need another Xbox running XBMC – one will stay upstairs hardwired to the network, the other will be connected to the LCD/plasma and be hooked into the network wirelessly. My first one I used a modchip, but the art of softmodding has come a long way so I thought I’d try it. Since I already had a working Xbox, I went looking for a “broken” Xbox whose DVD drive didn’t work. I could just swap my working one in, do the softmod, and then just use it as a networked media center.

I posted on Craigslist looking for a “broken” but bootable XBox and found one for $25 which included all cables, 2 wired controllers, and one wireless controller. What a deal – though I did have to drive 18 miles both ways to pick it up. The softmod requires an original version of 007, MechAssault, or Splinter Cell so I asked a coworker (whom I know owns an Xbox) if he happened to have one of those games and he has two of them! I borrowed those and off I went.

I downloaded “Softmod Installer Deluxe” which contained the softmod installer and the hacked savegames. You’ll also need the Action Replay software for Xbox so that you can get the savegames on your Xbox. Along with that, you need a USB adapter that goes in your Xbox controller port. Luckily, my modchip came with one so I didn’t have to hack a controller and make one.

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