Terrible Analogies

Is it just me, or does the new Iomega external hard drive look an awful lot like a flask?

All right now…if you’re going to show off your phone, at least shell out a few extra bucks for a hand model that doesn’t suffer from occupational dermatitis.

In one of the more anticipated chats at All Things Digital, Palm Executive Chairman Jon Rubinstein showed off the Palm Pre and talked about several features of the smartphone for the first time.

Yikes!  Those are the hands of Palm’s Executive Chairman?  Now, I know that Palm has hit hard times recently, but come on Jon, spring for a bottle of Jergens.  It’s called “moisturizing”, and it’s nothing to be ashamed of…

I love games.  Board games, video games, puzzles, crosswords, cryptograms…I love them all.  As it happens, my favorite magazine is Games magazine.  I’ve been reading this publication since high school, and Karin ensures that my subscription is kept up to date.  During the weekends one of the things I most look forward to is lounging in the backyard, feet up on the patio table, a tall glass of soda slow dripping with condensation by my side, and a Games magazine opened to the current month’s The World’s Most Ornery Crossword puzzle.  Hard clues, thankyouverymuch.

My current puzzle obsession, something that’s taking up far too much of my time as of late, is a Nintendo DS game called Picross.  Now, this puzzle shows up in Games under the moniker Paint By Numbers, but I’ve never really paid it much mind.  I always dismissed it as a simple time waster, but this DS incarnation has shown me how addicting this puzzle really is.  

The objective of Picross is to determine which blank squares within a matrix are to be filled in, with the ultimate goal of revealing an image.  Squares to be filled in are identified using numbers that have been placed along the outside of the grid.  These numbers tell you, in order, how many squares are to be filled in, how they are sequentially laid out, and how many spaces there are between sets of shaded squares.  With each incorrect move the game penalizes you a set amount of time which eats into the 60 minute time limit you have to complete each puzzle.

The obsessive compulsive part of me is fascinated with this game.  It makes for a nice break between Rubik’s Cube sessions and memorizing movie monologues.