Thanks to some help on #donationcoder I created some animated GIFs to use as indicators that the computer was doing stuff. A percentage progress bar was not appropriate. So I created some spinning thingies to show the computer wasn't dead. Any way, it turns out AutoIt doesn't do animated GIFs, but it does do AVIs and with Auto3Lib I can do a multi-threaded splash-screen with an AVI. That would do what I need. So, I am looking for your choice for tools to do animated GIF to AVI conversions.

BaboViolent 2: This is a fun one!! 

Very similar to Bloodmasters in spirit, though i think it might be a little more "manageable" in terms of the chaotic overload quotient of your brainstem.

It has some fun capture-the-flag games and the servers seem nice and fast.  Comes with a free server too! Someone start up a server and let's get a DC game going!!

BV2 is a top down shooter where you control a "Babo," a red or blue orb that rolls around the screen with one of six weapons attached to it. The intuitive keyboard + mouse interface helps you get into the thick of the action as quick as possible. It's as simple as joining one of the many active servers and hitting 'F'. You are immediately dropped into the action and start tossing grenades and molotov cocktails at anything that moves while firing to stay alive.

http://www.rndlabs.ca/bv2/about.php

This post draws attention to the ambiguous scoring and large amount of work for a small payoff, among other things.

Amazon's Mechanical Turk is a machine that harnesses the work of hidden humans. It's a service that attempts to match people to small, bite-size units of work that are unsuitable for machines.
As of this writing, there are 128 Human Intelligence Tasks available via the Mechanical Turk task page. The reward for these tasks ranges from $1.00 to $0.10, skewing heavily toward the bottom of that range. Almost 100 of the 128 tasks are $0.10 each. Here's a quick sampling of the available tasks:
    * Transcribe a 9 minute, 2 second podcast ($2.31 w/bonus)
    * Write a review of a blog ($1.00)
    * Make ten 2-3 sentence posts in a fansite forum ($0.50)
    * Write a 2-3 paragraph blog entry ($0.50)
    * Provide 3-D and 4-D ultrasound pictures of your baby ($0.40)
    * Send unsolicited junk faxes from California companies ($0.25)
    * Say 6 phrases in Turkish ($0.10)
    * Write a short plot description of the movie "Black Snake Moan" ($0.10)...

http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/

Another thought provoking article by Paul Ghraham:

A few days ago I suddenly realized Microsoft was dead. I was talking to a young startup founder about how Google was different from Yahoo. I said that Yahoo had been warped from the start by their fear of Microsoft. That was why they'd positioned themselves as a "media company" instead of a technology company. Then I looked at his face and realized he didn't understand...

http://www.paulgraham.com/microsoft.html

Here is a very nice graphical representation of sizes and numbers that are difficult to conceptualize readily, if at all.

We are able to view all entities, from the microworld to the universe, from a single perspective. By setting them up against a scale, we are able to compare and understand things which cannot be physically compared.
Today, using the electron microscope and astronomical telescope, we can see the objects which we have not been aware of its existence before. Are you able to fathom, or even roughly grasp, these sizes?
See our Universcale and experience the sizes of various objects.

http://www.nikon.co....verscale/index_f.htm

Wow. Go to this website. You can either play the game or just listen to the music!!!

Boomshine is an addictive Flash casual game. Click the screen to start a chain reaction and try to explode as many dots as needed to pass a level. The game contains 12 levels ranging from the easy to the hard (only 3.97% of games pass level 12). Over 3 million games have been played by over 100,000 different players.

http://www.k2xl.com/games/boomshine/