All posts by benheck

A Study in the Use of “Irony”

An old man turned ninety-eight
He won the lottery and died the next day  -Could be ironic if we established he had been playing the lottery his entire life, and never won until now
It’s a black fly in your Chardonnay  -Gross, but not ironic. Would be ironic if you were drinking a grasshopper, or mead
It’s a death row pardon two minutes too late  -Unfortunate, not ironic
And isn’t it ironic… don’t you thinkIt’s like rain on your wedding day  -Unfortunate, not ironic
It’s a free ride when you’ve already paid – Ironic!
It’s the good advice that you just didn’t take -Need to know nature of advice and consequence of not taking it  to judge irony
Who would’ve thought… it figures

Mr. Play It Safe was afraid to fly
He packed his suitcase and kissed his kids goodbye
He waited his whole damn life to take that flight
And as the plane crashed down he thought
“Well isn’t this nice…” -Sort of ironic, more of a coincidence
And isn’t it ironic… don’t you think

It’s like rain on your wedding day
It’s a free ride when you’ve already paid
It’s the good advice that you just didn’t take
Who would’ve thought… it figures

Well life has a funny way of sneaking up on you
When you think everything’s okay and everything’s going right
And life has a funny way of helping you out when
You think everything’s gone wrong and everything blows up
In your face

A traffic jam when you’re already late  -Unfortunate, not ironic
A no-smoking sign on your cigarette break   -Unfortunate, not ironic. Would be ironic if you worked at Phillip Morris.
It’s like ten thousand spoons when all you need is a knife -Ironic!
It’s meeting the man of my dreams
And then meeting his beautiful wife  -Unfortunate, not ironic
And isn’t it ironic…don’t you think
A little too ironic…and, yeah, I really do think…

It’s like rain on your wedding day
It’s a free ride when you’ve already paid
It’s the good advice that you just didn’t take
Who would’ve thought… it figures

Life has a funny way of sneaking up on you
Life has a funny, funny way of helping you out
Helping you out

 

Ben Heck “Steam Box” Concept with AMD APU

 


My idea of a “Steam Box”

Last winter I built several projects for AMD to highlight their new line of APU’s (Accelerated Processing Units) which are combination CPU’s and graphics card on a single die.

Most of the projects used concepts from AMD, but for one showcase item I got to build “whatever I wanted” so I took a crack at my rendition of a living room PC that could function as a “Steam Box”. Please note this isn’t associated with Steam/Valve, rather it’s my own concept of how a living room “Steam Box” could be put together.

Click below to see the making of!

 

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Xbox One Thoughts

God this thing looks huge. That's what she said.

A photo of the Xbox One, stolen off the internet

After a record long console generation (8 years, double the 4 between Xbox and 360) we finally get word of the new Xbox One. The first impression is that nobody in MS marketing knows how to count. We went from 1, to 360, to 1 again. Of course, no first console is called “One” in its lifetime but for the first time ever the numbering goes backwards? Reboot perhaps?

Find how to test hair for drugs.

All jargon aside, the only, and I mean ONLY reason the 360 was called such was because in the battle-that-never-happened of Xbox 2 versus Playstation 3, which sounded better? Remember, consumers are stupid (see the Twilight films). This time around, I think they’re going for a play on words, ie, Xbox One sounds like “Xbox WON”, some sort of subliminal advertising. As Red Letter Media would saw “You may not have noticed, but your brain did”

Click below to read more of my impressions.

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