Some Profiles
Fresh produce from the face farm:
Bricksmith Custom Categories
Here is a hack to add new categories to the Bricksmith part browser. The part catalog is normally organized into categories based on the type of each part (such as brick, plate, or tile). However, if you’re building a model based on a real set, it’s just as useful to present the parts from that set in one category.
Adding a category from a Peeron inventory
To create a category consisting of the parts from set 4891, enter 4891 and click Peeron Inventory:
The script will retrieve the corresponding list of parts and populate a new category containing them:
Adding a category from a file
To create a category based on an arbitrary group of parts, save a list of part file names, like this:
3005.dat
3004.dat
3003.dat
3001.dat
Then enter a name for your category and click From File. You’ll be prompted to select the list you just created.
The script will add the listed parts to the named category:
Limitations
The script is awfully slow. AppleScript’s property list commands are not well suited for making many changes.
Parts listed in the file or inventory which are not already present in your part library will not be included in the category.
New categories are not visible until you restart Bricksmith. (I recommend quitting Bricksmith before running the script anyway.) Custom categories are lost when you reload the part list from Bricksmith’s Parts preferences.
No feedback is provided while the script is running.
Errors are not handled particularly well.
Mac OS X 10.5 is required.
It’s really slow.
Download
Bricksmith Catalog Custom Categories 26.4 KB
Mis Bicicletas
I bought an old road bike for $9 last week. I've enjoyed tuning it up and thinking of new missions for it and my other bike.
The basket on the red bike is neat because it can be unclipped and carried around like a regular shopping basket. Quite practical! I'll upload more pictures to my bikes set as the fleet evolves. I expect a rack and further repairs may be in store for the blue bike.
A New Study Suggests That...
My friend Dan has authored a study which has received considerable press coverage this week. It is about the circumstantial advantages of ADHD. Articles about his paper have appeared at Scientific American, Slate, The Economist, New Scientist, The Daily Telegraph, and elsewhere.
It’s all in a day’s work for Dan, but it’s nice to see such widespread recognition for his research. He’s given me many insights into the evolutionary elegance of the world around us, and now the world has a chance to consider his insight.
Unnatural Selection
As you may know, the runner-up at this year’s Kentucky Derby, Eight Belles, was euthanized shortly after the race due to ankle injuries she sustained just after crossing the finish line.
Interestingly, Eight Belles and all of her Kentucky Derby competitors were in part descended from Native Dancer, an accomplished racehorse whose career was eventually curtailed by a “recurring foot injury” and whose bloodline has a reputation for “producing fragile horses”.
Selective breeding leads to the inheritance of desired traits like being fast and light. When taken to extremes (as with the inbred pure-breeding of some Thoroughbreds, arguably), it’s not too surprising that narrow emphasis on a few traits breeds animals that may otherwise be unfit to withstand aspects of the stress they’re expected to endure.
But then again, Kentucky is home to the Creation Museum. Maybe if they ask nicely someone upstairs will just intelligently design a stronger racehorse.