Ex Kay See Dee [xkcd Web Comic]

There’s not too much to say about the web comics over at xkcd.com other than I think they are quite funny. You’ll need to understand some concepts of computer programming, mathematics, and a general knowledge of Internet memes in order to understand the majority of the comics. I believe myself to posses this knowledge, though admittedly, I occasionally find myself stumped and have to let my programming guru friend walk me through it.

Here’s two recent selections, and one random selection of xkcd comics by Randall Munroe: (click for full size)

Time Wasters Mixed with Complex Programming

I can’t remember how I found this site, but I’ve had it bookmarked for years. Arkitus.com (by Seyed Mohammadali Eslami) looks simple on the outside, but the programming behind it is fairly complex. If you know anything about programming, you’ll have a greater appreciation for the site. The site is split into two separate sections: a blog and a “playground.”

The blog is self explanatory, but the play section is the interesting part. The (currently) 25 pages are each different experiments presented in a playable flash form. A lot of the experiments are simple and show a proof-of-concept or the results of a basic function that can be built upon. However, some of Arkitus’s more interesting experiments are playable and will have you wasting time before you know it.

Some of my favorite experiments / games:

• Ball Collision (#15)
  • Here, the balls realistically bounce of each other and their boundaries. The user can click and hold to grab a ball and move it. The plus and minus on the users keyboard will increase and decrease the size. Apparently increasing the size too much will crash your browser.
• Curtain (#16)
  • I enjoy this one because of how smooth the object recognition (ball) is by the environment (curtain).
• Line (#18)
  • Probably one of the bigger time wasters, this one provides physics, collision detection and user options.
• Angular V1 (#20)
  • Described by its creator as his first real game, this one bears some resemblance to Asteroids. However, instead of a triangle ship shooting large floating rocks, there’s a computers controlled (and a heck of a good one, too) ship shooting back at you!