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There are a number of titles on NES that I can think of such as Empire Strikes Back which only look correct on CRT or anything that does proper NTSC color artifact emulation. (and actually sonic games on genesis too!) I've written a game editor for Apple // graphics which uses NTSC artifacts as part of the editing experience -- and also part of the image dithering/conversion algorithms -- and believe me: It makes a huge difference when you are designing graphics with a 6-color palette where you actually get an extra handful of extra "fringe" colors when using some combinations. If you are still unsure, use an emulator with NTSC emulation (Blargg's is great) and then switch over to plain RGB. There is a huge difference. Also, a final note on this (Caveat: I am an emulation author and this information is in a very well written wikipedia article on Y'UV if you want to fact check me...) You will NOT EVER get the same colors from RGB than you get from a CRT. The color spaces are different. Emulators can simulate (and in some cases very well) what an analog display does, but it only goes so far. In the NTSC-to-RGB conversion process you wind up having to transform from one color system (Y'UV) to another (RGB) using some rather simple math but then you also have to alias the results to fit the values (which are often outside the 0-255 range). There are colors in the Y'UV spectrum (I'm talking about the Apple colors but there are some on Atari and NES too) that are so saturated that they look completely neon, and those colors actually don't exist in the RGB spectrum at all so you wind up with a rather muted look compared to the real thing. A scan doubler is okay I suppose for this, but really if you want it to look old school nothing beats the real warm glow of a CRT. If you want to play retro games on an RGB screen, just use an emulator. They're cheaper, and if done correctly you're lucky to ever really notice a difference. :-) I think that you can take a Raspberry Pi and make a dedicated emulator solution for 20% the cost of this scan doubler solution and be just as happy if not happier.

Linux users could use the Gnome-shell-timer extension, which is perfect for Pomodoro. Of course cell phone timers work well. My most productive weeks look like this: 1) Spend the first hour of the day going through the list of to-dos. If anything is too vague or undefined, I either need to set aside time to research it, or if I break it up into small measurable pieces. These are key because crossing them off later lets me know I'm not a total f**k-up. 2) I keep this to-do list in a very simple editor called "Focus Writer" which occupies the full screen when it is active. This prevents me from getting immediately distracted. 3) Once I get the tasks listed, I prioritize them. Usually the ones that are absolutely important go to the top (criteria: If I skip this will the customer or my boss yell at me?) 4) I stick to the list. I really should try pomodoro because I too get way overly distracted. You're not alone. Damn internet. My core non-web programming tasks get done faster. Why? Because when I'm testing non-web apps, I don't have a browser open. I don't have to google how to solve basic javascript problems. I just get stuff done. But when I'm dealing with a quirky browser behavior with extJS or jQuery.... yeah, where did the time go? And why am I reading TheOatmeal again???

I don't see how someone reinventing the wheel should get /. coverage. WorldEdit, a very popular plugin, already has javascript integration. Also, check out GroovyBukkit for groovy integration that is incredibly easy to use. I did one-liners in Groovy to, say, lay rail tracks wherever you're standing if you are holding a rail in your hands -- that way you just walk and the tracks follow you. I have a 100-line bot named "David" (named after the Prometheus character) which helps non-op people obtain things without having to bug me all the time -- it's basically a switch statement and a lot of regex. Anyway, back to the point: It is extremely trivial to write a minecraft mod if you know how to code already. Writing a mod that is actually useful and doesn't crash the server -- that's another story. My only advice is to learn how to manage threads (so that uncaught exceptions don't crash the main server thread) and write watchdogs into your code to avoid infinite loops. :-D -B