stuff i find on the internet

2010-06-05T05:33:00.000-07:00

First impressions with a new technology are important.

Whether you call the device on the kitchen counter a "toaster" or a "house burner downer" really depends on how your first experience with it went.

You say "Microwave" I say "Food Exploder".

2006-02-26T12:29:00.000-08:00

Marley

We got a puppy! Her name is Marley and she is 4 months old.
Erica and i went for a hike in Anacortes last weekend and met her in the parking lot at the trail head. We jokingly told her owner that we wanted to take her home, and the lady said "Oh! We're looking for a good home for her!" and we decided to take her then and there. The lady who gave her to us was very nice and gave us her contact info and said if we changed our mind that week we could give her back, but we've decided to keep her.

2006-02-16T07:52:00.000-08:00

Flexible Ballistic Protection

A futuristic flexible material that instantly hardens into armour upon impact will protect US and Canadian skiers from injury on the slalom runs at this year's Winter Olympics.

Although the exact chemical ingredients of d3o are a commercial secret, Palmer says the material is synthesised by mixing together a viscose fluid and a polymer. Following synthesis, liquid d3o is poured into a mould that matches the shape of the body part it will protect.

The resulting material exhibits a material property called "strain rate sensitivity". Under normal conditions the molecules within the material are weakly bound and can move past each with ease, making the material flexible. But the shock of sudden deformation causes the chemical bonds to strengthen and the moving molecules to lock, turning the material into a more solid, protective shield.

2006-01-29T11:35:00.000-08:00

Apple Commercial Intel iMac Ad Side-by-Side Postal Service Music Video Compare Comparison

Ben from The Postal Service says:

It has recently come to our attention that Apple Computers’ new television commercial for the Intel chip features a shot-for-shot recreation of our video for ‘Such Great Heights’ made by the same filmmakers responsible for the original. We did not approve this commercialization and are extremely disappointed with both parties that this was executed without our consultation or consent.

Daring Fireball says:

There are, obviously, some very similar shots, but I don’t see how anyone could look at these two pieces and consider the commercial a “shot-by-shot recreation”.

I think most people who look at the side by side comparison in the title link will arrive at a very different conclusion.

2006-01-29T10:51:00.000-08:00

Giant octopus attacks mini sub

Salmon researchers working on the Brooks Peninsula were shocked last November when an octopus attacked their expensive and sensitive equipment.

Now we need footage of giant squid attacks.

2006-01-18T07:38:00.000-08:00

AJP M555N

The M55N is the PC MacBook Pro! I wonder if these are available in the states?

Specs are:
Intel Centrino Core Duo T2400 processor
a gig of DDR2 RAM
a 100GB SATA hard drive
15" widescreen @ 1400 x 1050
integrated graphics card with 128MB of dedicated VRAM
built in 1.3 megapixel digital camera
802.11 b/g
10/1000 Ethernet
modem
4-In-1 card reader
FireWire
S/PDif
3x USB2.0 ports
DVD-RW

2006-01-08T12:43:00.000-08:00

Optimus Keyboard on sale Feb 1 2006?

Please be true! I want to buy an Optimus Keyboard next month.

2006-01-07T17:20:00.000-08:00

Nearly 100, LSD's Father Ponders His 'Problem Child'

When he first created it in 1938, the drug yielded no significant pharmacological results. But when his work on ergot was completed, he decided to go back to LSD-25, hoping that improved tests could detect the stimulating effect on the body's circulatory system that he had expected from it. It was as he was synthesizing the drug on a Friday afternoon in April 1943 that he first experienced the altered state of consciousness for which it became famous. "Immediately, I recognized it as the same experience I had had as a child," he said. "I didn't know what caused it, but I knew that it was important."

When he returned to his lab the next Monday, he tried to identify the source of his experience, believing first that it had come from the fumes of a chloroform-like solvent he had been using. Inhaling the fumes produced no effect, though, and he realized he must have somehow ingested a trace of LSD. "LSD spoke to me," Mr. Hofmann said with an amused, animated smile. "He came to me and said, 'You must find me.' He told me, 'Don't give me to the pharmacologist, he won't find anything.' "

2006-01-05T08:48:00.000-08:00

Dell 3007WFP

Now shipping!
$2199...

Better and cheaper than the apple 30".

2005-12-30T19:06:00.000-08:00

Attacked By Thugs!

Hillarious! An entry from Maciej Ceglowski's Idle Words: brevity is for the weak.

2005-12-21T09:53:00.000-08:00

Seagate says to buy Maxtor for $1.9 bln in stock

Interesting. Maxtor has really turned themselves around over the last few years, so i hope this works out for them. Maxtor went from a company that i wouldn't even consider buying from in say 1998 to one I generally feel pretty positive about now (and I'd hazard to guess that folks like wiggy and splicer would say the say the same).

2005-12-21T09:46:00.000-08:00

3007WFP official release date

Looks like 12/21/05 was a little optimistic. Still no word on pricing. I'm guessing $1999.00 on 1/5/06.

2005-12-17T13:47:00.000-08:00

Senate fails to reauthorize Patriot Act

The Senate on Friday refused to reauthorize major portions of the USA Patriot Act after critics complained they infringed too much on Americans' privacy and liberty, dealing a huge defeat to the Bush administration and Republican leaders.

Nice.

2005-12-13T23:36:00.000-08:00

Honda ASIMO

Every time i think i want an Aibo, i check out the Asimo sight and realize i need to wait for a robot that looks like a midget astronaut.

The price is right for Robosapien V2, but it's articulation and sensory capabilities seem sort of week. Maybe v3 will get 802.11 and a video camera.

2005-12-11T19:08:00.000-08:00

Is it fascism yet?

SAN FRANCISCO--A federal appeals court wrestled Thursday with what seems to be a straightforward question: Can Americans be required to show ID on a commercial airline flight?

Seems strait forward enough, but this case seems to be taking a rather Orwellian twist:

the Bush administration claims that the ID requirement is necessary for security but has refused to identify any actual regulation requiring it.

"How do we know there's an order?" Judge Thomas Nelson asked. "Because you said there was?"

Replied Joshua Waldman, a staff attorney for the Department of Justice: "We couldn't confirm or deny the existence of an order."

The Justice Department has said it could identify the secret law under seal, which would be available to the 9th Circuit but not necessarily Gilmore's lawyers. But any public description would not be permitted, the department said.

Could this possibly be true?

2005-12-10T12:15:00.000-08:00

Bush: "It's just a goddamned piece of paper"

GOP leaders told Bush that his hardcore push to renew the more onerous provisions of the act could further alienate conservatives still mad at the President from his botched attempt to nominate White House Counsel Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court.

“I don’t give a goddamn,” Bush retorted. “I’m the President and the Commander-in-Chief. Do it my way.”

“Mr. President,” one aide in the meeting said. “There is a valid case that the provisions in this law undermine the Constitution.”

“Stop throwing the Constitution in my face,” Bush screamed back. “It’s just a goddamned piece of paper!”

I can't wait to hear the damage control on this come Monday.

2005-12-04T11:51:00.000-08:00

The Dell 3007WFP

2560 x 1600
14ms response time
400cd/m2 brightness
700:1 contrast ratio
support for HDCP
built-in 4-port USB hub and 9-in-1 multimedia card reader.

and should hit North America on December 21st!

Guesses as to how much this is going to cost? I'm thinking $2k to start with discounts getting down to $1700 by march.

2005-11-22T12:20:00.000-08:00

Asus offers no-noise graphics card for Xmas

Nice. With the new dual core AMDs over clocking so well, it might be time to take another look at building a quiet desktop box.

2005-11-16T22:15:00.000-08:00

Charlie Brown Pathetic Tree

I need to get this for my office.

2005-11-15T10:45:00.000-08:00

Ready2005.Com ?

Wow. Just... wow.

2005-10-27T08:07:00.000-07:00

Does Visual Studio Rot the Mind?
Ruminations on the Psychology and Aesthetics of Coding
By Charles Petzold

Right, so on the one hand we now have hyperactive Intelisense, and code spitting visual designers making even the most lazy developer pretty darn productive. But on the other hand, due to simple human nature, even really good developers are starting "fuzz out" and cary less and less detailed information in their heads. You could make the argument that, with 60,000 methods in the core framework alone, developers are, by necessity, moving to the higher level of abstraction. Is this a good thing? Charles Petzold doesn’t think so.

I’m not sure I fully agree with him, but looking back it does seem to me that ever since intellisense became very accurate I have found that even with the startling increase in my own productivity Visual Studio’s emphasis on rapid development has only increased my dissatisfaction with my speed. It’s as if my performance doubled, but my expectations were simultaneously raised by an order of magnitude.

2005-10-04T11:23:00.000-07:00

Sony VAIO type X Living VGX-XL70S

runs on Pentium D 820 processor (2.8 Ghz), Upto 1 GB RAM, Intel 845G Express chipset, NVIDIA GeForce 6200 TC (256MB), Upto 1 TB Hard Drives and DVD±R/RW drive with DVD+R DL. It has Analog and digital TV tuners which can record upto 87.5 hours of high quality terrestrial digital video and 250 hours of analog video on it's 1 TB of hard drives. It has USB 2.0, Firewire, Wifi 802.11b/g, Gigabit Ethernet and 6 in 1 card reader. It measures 430 x 400 x 129mm, weighs approx 10.8 kgs and runs on Windows XP Home Edition. It will sell for approximately 179,800 Yen ($ 1,500).

Nice!

2005-10-04T11:19:00.000-07:00

Sony Vaio Type F

Sony presents F-type computers in 4 flashy colours like white, pink, green and blue.

Splicer seriously needs the green vaio.

2005-10-01T16:26:00.000-07:00

PC Mac Mini knock-off

Taiwanese computer maker AOpen says it will release its Pandora's box, inspired by Apple Computer's Mac Mini, later this year. AOpen is selling a Linux-based version for $399 or a Windows-based box for $499

Mine!

2005-09-23T18:33:00.000-07:00

start.com

Somewhere between my.yahoo.com and www.a9.com. I dig it 'cause its ad free.

2005-09-23T06:24:00.000-07:00

Seagate Momentus 7200.1

Since all my computers use notebook drives, i should probably be paying more attention to this stuff. When did the 7200.1 come out? This looks like a pretty slick drive.

Model Number:ST910021A
Capacity:100 GB
Speed:7200 rpm
Seek time:10.5 ms avg
Interface:Ultra ATA/100
Cache buffer:8-Mbyte

2005-09-17T10:18:00.000-07:00

2005: Volkswagen Eos

Golf V/Jetta V-based folding hard-top convertible. Powered by either a 200hp 2.0T FSI or a 250hp 3.2l VR6 FSI for the U.S. market. Arrives in May of 2006 on the North American continent and is expected to be priced just below $30,000.

Nice. I hope they offer this in 4Motion. Might have to trade in the Jetta for this.

2005-09-13T21:40:00.000-07:00

Unicorns L.A.

Wow. Just... wow. Someone spent a WAY more than an hour on this. And then they put it on the internet.
I'm not sure why.

2005-09-07T23:11:00.000-07:00

Gem Sweater

This is... well... something.

2005-08-29T21:44:00.000-07:00

Wakamaru Robot to Take Care of Things

I love this.

2005-08-24T21:41:00.000-07:00

The Sith Sense

This is awesome.

2005-07-17T15:54:00.000-07:00

For Science!

Guess what? Most people can't drink a gallon of milk in an hour. But only Splicer is crazy enough to try to drink a gallon of WHOLE milk!

And, like so many of our adventures, this one ended with puking.

So the deal was, drink a gallon of milk in an hour, and keep it down for 5 minutes and you win $100, keep it down for an hour and you win a free iPod.

7 people tried, 0 people suceeded, 6 people puked.

Only Dr. Wiggy knew his limits.

2005-07-12T22:17:00.000-07:00

Suunto n6HR SPOT & Heart Rate Watch

While i have a hard time with the idea of a watch that i have to:
1.) pay a monthly fee to keep sychronized,
2.) recharge every night

i really dig the idea of a smart display on my wrist. Someone needs to make a watch that has no real brains in it, but gets all its data from the phone/pda in your pocket via bluetooth. Glancing at your wrist in response to a silent alert seems WAY less rude than digging around in your pocket to turn your screaming cell phone off.

2005-07-12T18:48:00.000-07:00

Logitech Products > Logitech Wireless Headphones

If these were $50 i would buy them. It's a shame that bluetooth is begining to deliver on its wireless promise just in time for wireless USB to come along and kill it.

2005-06-28T23:28:00.000-07:00

Wired News: Rejected TV Pilot Thrives on P2P

Oh, right... The reason i was linking to a wired artical from 2004... A wired artical from 2005. I must be feeling nostalgic or something. Maybe i'll go read some fast company or business 2.0 next. Then i could get "A sales force that Rocks!"

WOOHOO! BUNGIE BASE JUMPING TO THE MAX WITH THE ACCOUNTS RECIEVABLE POSSE!

2005-06-28T23:23:00.000-07:00

Wired 12.10: The Long Tail

Less is not more. More is more. Or something like that.
I'm not sure i'm ready to drink the "it's better 'cause its like DIGITAL and stuff" kool-aid again just yet, thanks.

2005-06-25T16:30:00.000-07:00

Solstice Roadster
5-speed, cloth-top convertible with rear-wheel drive for $20K.

Is it just me or did Pontiac finally get something right?

2005-05-29T21:56:00.000-07:00

Royal de Luxe

I need to move to France. I want to be part of a culture that asks itself the important questions. Questions like "what would it be like if a young giant and her pet elephant crashed her wooden rocket ship in the middle of our city?" Lesser cultures would reach for the guns and the tanks, but in France they recognize that with a few hot chicks, some grapes, and a Sherlock Holmes body double, we can get past all the fussin' and the feudin' and have a parade!

And in the end, the nice man and his pet fish met the president.

Also, i could wear cool goggles.

2005-04-30T14:02:00.000-07:00

Innovation

2005-04-20T21:10:00.000-07:00

AVERATEC AV6200

This one is for Wiggy. Cheap widescreen laptop with decent specs and a PCMCIA remote.

Mobile AMD Athlon™ 64 Processor
Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition
Instantly watch 3 DVDs on a single battery charge with AveraPlay™ Extended Technology
Listen to 7+ hours of Audio CDs or MP3’s
Built-in Dual DVD +/- Burner
Includes Wireless Remote to control the DVD/Audio function
Solid notebook base, built with Magnesium Alloy for ultra durability
15.4'' XGA Wide Screen
802.11g Wireless LAN
512 MB DDR, Up to 80 GB HDD

Mobile AMD Athlon™ 64 Processor 3000+
Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition
15.4'' WXGA
Dual DVD +/- Burner
80 GB Hard Drive
512MB DDR
802.11g
USB (4x) 2.0
Dimensions 13.98" x 10.04" x 1.18"
Weight (lbs.) 6 lbs.

1" thick and 6 lbs? Magnesium alloy case?
This sounds like the PC powerbook i've been looking for!
Not too bad for $1200.

hmmm... i might need one of these.

2005-04-19T07:21:00.000-07:00

Sony VAIO T150P/T

The tiny burgundy and silver VAIO is fully awesome.

2005-03-30T13:09:00.000-08:00

Onliner gamer stabbed over 'stolen' cybersword

Qiu Chengwei, 41, repeatedly stabbed Zhu Caoyuan after discovering that Zhu had sold the "dragon sabre" for 7,200 yuan (£464). Qiu had lent his friend the cybersabre last February, later reporting it as "stolen" when he learned of the transaction. Police, however, told him that - as the disputed weapon was virtual property - he had no recourse to law.

And this wasn't some misguided youth. This is a 41 year old man. Crazy.

2005-03-28T20:13:00.000-08:00

Welcome to Hado.net

This is awesome. Dr Masaru Emoto believes that labeling water affects the way it crystalizes when frozen. Also, water speaks Japanese!

2005-03-28T14:12:00.000-08:00

Momitsu MS-R5 1TB / 1.6TB Media Server

Momitsu steps up to the plate in a big way with its addition of the MS-R5 1TB / 1.6TB media server, capable of RAID 0 / 1 / 5. Previously the company introduced the V800N network DVD player, which can playback just about any digital file format you can throw at it (seriously) including DVD VOB files and DivX. But now Momitsu has married the two products to form a compelling solution for any networked home (see suggested configurations). However, people will most likely use the MS-R5 as a central file server, and possibly a media server, for streaming media files to PCs, wireless handhelds, and media adapters.

Momitsu gave the MS-R5 line all the power of an enterprise-level file server, like FTP access and LAN print serving, and shrunk it down into a shoe box sized device packed with all the storage most people will ever need. Each MS-R5 includes 4 SATA hard drives, 2 USB 2.0 ports (for print serving or daisy chaining more storage), and is wired (100/1000 Ethernet) or wireless (via a wireless 802.11a/b/g bridge adapter) network ready.

So let me see if i got this right. $3350 gets me a DVD player that plays back every audio and video format you can imagine (including raw VOBs) and 1.6TB of data in a shiny aluminum case?

So who do i make the check out to?

2005-03-25T15:12:00.000-08:00

Patches by Kelly Vivanco

If you haven't seen "Patches" by Kelly Vivanco you are seriously missing out.

2005-03-24T13:44:00.000-08:00

Scientists recover T. rex soft tissue

A 70-million-year-old Tyrannosaurus rex fossil dug out of a hunk of sandstone has yielded soft tissue, including blood vessels and perhaps even whole cells, U.S. researchers reported on Thursday.

Mr DNA says "let's clone us some dinosaurs!"

2005-03-16T17:48:00.000-08:00

Apple de-socializes iTunes

Once again, 'digital' is proving to be a synonym for 'crap'.

Digital has been a marketing term that used to have a certain kind of cachet. Digital society! Digital sound! All kinds of magical things were possible. Now, after the backlash against digital TV (with its infernally more difficult HI, a greater choice of poorer programs, all delivered with an unreliable transmission and flakey image), 'digital' actually means that you're getting less than you had before across the board. This is no way to sell technology, and it's only a matter of time before people find this out, and stop buying.

werd.

2005-03-14T18:37:00.000-08:00

XBox 2 to Enable Micro-Transactions

I watched the J Allard segment of GDC today, and i find that the bit about enabling micro-transactions within games to be simultaneously horrifying and exciting. On the one hand i don't dig things like "The Sims" so i am unlikely to get sucked into a money pit where just keeping my player alive requires me to get a second job. On the other hand, i do like RPGs and i am extremely lazy, so if a developer where to give the the opportunity to buy "ultimate sword of extreme ass kicking" for say $10 in a game i already paid $50 for (plus the $12 strategy guide/walkthrough)... i'm probably going to bite. And who is to say that wussing out and basically buying a cheat code is a bad thing?

Take real time strategy games. When ever i get a new RTS, i spend the first week playing "fair". But as day 9 (the second Sunday) starts to wane, i realize that work isn't really going to dig me leaving at 3pm all next week to continue playing this thing and its time to wrap it up. That's when the cheat codes come out and i start making real progress. And what's the harm? I had fun, i got my money's worth, and i got to see the ending. Everybody wins. Not to mention that in replaying my favorite RTS games, i find it a lot of fun to sit down some Saturday afternoon, enable all the cheats, and lay waste to the opposition, but that could be a personal shortcoming.

What i worry about is that game studios are going to abuse this and start making purchasing in game items practically, if not actually, necessary to finish the game. While there is a lot of good, fun, and valuable things that game developers will be able to do (like allow players to order delivery without leaving the game), there are a lot of not-so-cool things that studios will do, not because it makes the game better, but because they see it as a way to nickel and dime users into paying $200 for a $50 game.

2005-03-02T12:28:00.000-08:00

At least they wont starve

Evercrack addicts now have access to pizza.

Way back in the early 1990s, the first stories about the commercialization of the internet included the idea of using the web to order pizza. So it struck a chord when Sony introduced the idea of being able to order pizza while you are playing the online multiplayer game, Everquest II.

Players can just type /pizza when they are in the game and are led to the online ordering section of Pizza Hut to place an order. Shortly, you'll be able to pay for these orders via your monthly gaming bill.

Saddly, players will still have to get up off their asses to answer the door.

2005-03-02T11:22:00.000-08:00

Sony Ericsson W800i

2MP digital camera, mp3 player, still looks like a phone...

This could be a credible convergence device... but then i thought the MPx220 was going to be a convergence device.
I'm really hoping sony/ericsson gets this right.

2005-02-26T17:31:00.000-08:00

Apple Store - University Village

We went to the Apple store today!

Splicer got a Mac Mini:

And Wiggy got an iPod Photo:

Unfortunately now i need a 30" cinema display...

2005-02-26T17:20:00.000-08:00

Dual Link DVI Switcher

$700 is what it will cost you for the privilege of sharing your $3000 30" apple cinema display with another computer.

2005-02-25T12:52:00.000-08:00

Hamster

The kids who built this like to think of it "Borg v1.0".

Personally I think it's more along the lines of "teaching hamsters to use an overly-complicated remote controlled food dispenser"

Basically it works like this:
There are little hamster powered hamster-mobiles that are used to gather energy to power the food dispenser. As i understand it, the hamsters don't do any steering, they are simply providing the raw hamster power the little robot needs to position itself under the light source in order to charge its solar cells, then move to the other side of the environment where it uses the accumulated electricity to power the hamster pellet dispenser.

So it seems that everyone is happy. The little robots get to live up to their highest ideals (the noble pursuit of charging up a solar cell and then discharging said cell into a pellet dispenser) and the hamsters that power the robots locomotion are compensated by the dual reward of "getting to run in a little wheel" and "getting fed". Which pretty much sums up hamster heaven.

Where i come from we call that "Win/Win".

2005-02-22T14:55:00.000-08:00

FCC Overstepped Authority on Digital TV

A U.S. appeals court on Tuesday said that regulators had overstepped their authority by imposing a rule designed to limit the copying of digital television programs.

"You crossed the line," Judge Harry Edwards told a lawyer for the Federal Communications Commission during arguments before a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

"Selling televisions is not what the FCC is in the business of," Edwards said, siding with critics who charge the rule dictates how computers and other devices should work.

This is suprising.

You can read more about the broadcast flag here.

2005-02-19T13:54:00.000-08:00

Wikitravel

This is a sort of "the hitchhiker's guide to Earth"... I seriously dig this.

2005-02-15T15:29:00.000-08:00

Ripping off Napster

Gizmodo said it best:

You know, if you sign up for Napster-to-Go and don't realize that your music is going to disappear when you stop paying them money, you're not a victim of the bloodsucking media barons—you're a tard. Once, I payed the cable company $50 a month, but then I stopped paying them, and they turned off my cable! Fortunately, I was smart enough to record all my favorite episodes of That's So Raven, which was against the rules of the contract that I signed up for, but hey! Tough shit.

So here's a way to record music you're getting from Napster-to-Go into WAV files, to be burned to CDs or re-encoded to your compressed music file of choice. But you're not asserting your rights to culture; you're ripping off Napster. I mean, I don't care, I steal plenty of music, but let's be legit about this: If you have a problem with copyright laws, don't think that breaking the rules of a company that's working with the RIAA is actually changing anything except the amount of money you're giving to artists (or at least scum-sucking middle men).

Napster is going to have a pretty hard time taking the moral high ground here since we're talking about a company that started with the businessmodel of "let's enable music piracy and hope that we can find a legal loop-hole that leaves us unaccountable!"

2005-02-14T09:33:00.000-08:00

Dell 2405FPW - 24" Widescreen Monitor

24" Viewable Image Size Largest available viewable image size in Dell's Flat Panel Monitor Portfolio
1920x1200 Native Resolution Provides gamers and graphics professionals with best in class image detail.
12ms (typ) Response Time Enables crisp clear images when using the display for fast motion video such as gaming or video editing.
Dual input support Digital (DVI) or Analog connection allowing for max versatility.
CE Inputs S-video, composite and component inputs allow for CE connectivity.
P-I-P (Picture-in-Picture) Users can and view alternative source video from a CE device with a touch of single PiP (Picture-in-Picture) button. View both your PC content and alternative source video at the same time.
Easy to access 4 port USB Hub and 9-in-1 card reader allowing easy access for your favorite peripheral devices

This looks like it's gonna be a very nice monitor. Gizmodo is guessing $1000, i think it will list at something like $1399 and available for about $1000 with enough coupons.

2005-02-13T20:10:00.000-08:00

Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai

Living by the samurai code is not easy. Evidently writing about the samurai code is not easy either:

It is not a book of philosophy as most would understand the word: it is a collection of thoughts and sayings recorded over a period of seven years, and as such covers a wide variety of subjects, often in no particular sequence.

A collection of structureless thoughts with no sequence? So basically its an anchient samurai blog. Cool.

2005-02-07T12:02:00.000-08:00

Alliance touts holographic disc 'revolution'

According to Optware, an HVD is the same size as a single-layer DVD but holds 200 times as much data - more than 1TB. The information can be read at over 1Gbps - 40 times the speed of DVD, the company claimed. Optware is backed by Intel's venture capital operation.

TC44 hopes to have specifications drawn up by the end of 2006, a year after the hardware and content industries begin selling and promoting blue-laser optical disc systems to the public. In December 2006, the specs will be submitted to the ISO.

Between HD DVD, Blu-ray, and now this, it sure looks like there are a lot of good options for storing a lot of data on a standard sized disc. My real question is what format the content of that disc will be in...

2005-01-31T16:41:00.000-08:00

Freedom of what?

When told of the exact text of the First Amendment, more than one in three high school students said it goes "too far" in the rights it guarantees. Only half of the students said newspapers should be allowed to publish freely without government approval of stories.

I sure hope this is some insanely skewed result due to small sampling in some screwed up backwater of the country. If this is actually representative of what young people think right now I’m getting the hell out of this country before they start voting.

2005-01-30T19:07:00.000-08:00

Invincible (2001) (TV)

Who do you get to play Keanu Reeves in the "made for TV knock off of The Matrix?" Billy Zane! But first you make him shave his head.

Actually, i don't remember this being that bad.
I love how the DVD for Invincible is available on Amazon for $18 but can you buy the only season of "Action"? No.

2005-01-29T18:28:00.000-08:00

Beyond Good & Evil soundtrack

The music from the Beyond Good & Evil soundtrack, written and performed by Christophe Heral, is incredible. It has haunting ballades, adrenaline-filled anthems, and even some surprisingly good French hip-hop. It was praised unanimously in reviews as one of the best parts of the game.

Unfortunately, you can't buy it anywhere. Due to a flood of fans clamoring for it, though, Ubisoft has released it on Nintendo Insider as a collection of 31 freely downloadable mp3s. 256kbps bitrate, no less! Very classy move on Ubisoft's part.

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Beyond Good and Evil is one of the best games I've played in a long time.

2005-01-29T11:08:00.000-08:00

Authentic is the new black

Wiggy and I were driving back from Tequila, a small but surprisingly tasty taqueria, "Man, that was good," I said, "It's amazing how much better a place like that can be than Azteca, which always does me wrong."

"Then why do we always go?"

"I have no idea."

"That's another really good place", said Wiggy pointing as we drove by a little street side hole in the wall with a dingy awning. The place seemed busy, and a number of college girls with dreadlocks, tattoos, and meticulously casual outfits were gathered just outside the door talking and laughing while having a smoke.

"Must be pretty good to have all the hipster kids hanging around," I laughed.

"Well, it's authentic," replied Wiggy, "and you know how it is with hipsters, authentic is the new black."

Flickr

2005-01-22T19:30:00.000-08:00

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

2005-01-19T18:36:00.000-08:00

Lifli Software - iBlog Product Page

Perfect! Blog editor that posts HTML to your .mac account. This is EXACTLY what i want.

2005-01-19T17:16:00.000-08:00

Jib Jab's Second Term

This one sort of sucks.

2005-01-15T17:54:00.000-08:00

Syncfusion: Products

A $500 edit control that should be part of the .NET framework.

2005-01-15T17:38:00.000-08:00

Monoppix - Basic XSP (ASP.NET) and Monodevelop Walkthrough

The Monodevelop walkthrough...

2005-01-15T16:50:00.000-08:00

IWILL Global Site

I saw this on wiggy's blog. The thing that caught my eye was this:

and

Now where have i seen those icons before? Oh yeah, in my OSX dock.

and

2005-01-13T08:04:00.000-08:00

Griffin Technology - FireWave

The Griffin FireWave gives you what you have been missing in your Mac experience - Surround Sound. FireWave has Dolby Digital™ processors to bring Surround Sound to Macs for gaming, DVD players and iTunes.

2005-01-12T17:45:00.000-08:00

MegaRAC K1

AMI's brand new class of KVM features a zero-U, standalone digital KVM over IP solution that attaches to a PC, server or analog KVM. This instant, clutter-free, space-saving and non-intrusive management solution oversees a computer system and gives system administrators complete KVM redirected and associated control over a server from anywhere in the world.

$900 is a lot of money, but this little device lets you administrate the noisy mess of servers in your server room (or garage) from the serene comfort of your home/office. The K1 also emulates USB 2.0 mass storage, so you can even do full install/reinstall from a remote drive over the network! I mean really, how can you put a price on that?

2005-01-10T20:32:00.000-08:00

Shuttle XPC Pentium M video player pictured

Nice... I like the fact that this is both slim and upgradeable. Unfortunately i'm thinking this is going to be full of tiny loud fans.

2005-01-10T18:16:00.000-08:00

AMD's Personal Internet Communicator

Aimed at Latin and Indian nations where the dollas ain’t so heavy on the intake, the PC features a 366MHz AMD Geode x86, 128MB RAM, 10GB drive, USB, 56k modem, a host of Internet-centric software, and Windows CE with XP-extensions (for XP app compatibility), which apparently enables the little sucker to boot in 25 seconds...

Don't say AMD never did nothing for the peoples!

2004-12-17T16:28:00.000-08:00

A Singular Christmas

This season, as a present to friends worldwide, our system listened to as much Christmas music as it could handle. When it was done it synthesized these sixteen new timeless classics.

Please enjoy "A Singular Christmas."

Neat! Don't get me wrong, this doesn't sound good, but it's still neat...

2004-12-09T19:27:00.000-08:00

Samsung to build tallest building

South Korea's Samsung Corporation has won the contract to build the world's tallest building, the Burj Tower in Dubai.

The concrete and steel tower will be part of an $8bn(£4.2bn) 500-acre project in the United Arab Emirates.

Workers have already started to clear the ground for the 800-metre high, 160-floor skyscraper and it should be completed by November 2008.

Construction work on the Burj tower will begin in January, and when completed it will be taller than the world's current highest building, Taiwan's 509-metre TFC 101 building.

So in 2008 mankind will build the first 1/2 mile tall building. Any guesses as to when the first 1 mile tall building be built?

$8 billion is a lot of eggs to be putting in a single basket.

2004-12-07T10:56:00.000-08:00

The iPod flash?

An iPod with no display? Isn't 99% of the ipods percieved value is in its easy to use UI? Then again, how do i use my current 256mb flash player? I just put one long list of songs on it and listen to it while in the gym. start, stop, forward, backward, volume up and volume down are really all i need. The only thing i use the little back lit screen for is to check my battery life, and for that, all you would really need is an little LED that goes on when the battery gets down to say 20%. So yeah, it could work.

Now if apple wanted to seriously shake things up, they woudl update the ipod software so you could plug your full sized ipod into your ipod flash and copy over songs.

2004-12-06T21:37:00.000-08:00

Microsoft IntelliMouse Explorer for Bluetooth

The bluetooth mouse i've been waiting for is finally here.

2004-11-14T23:26:00.000-08:00

qaswa and the experience engines

I don't really know what this is, but i'm pretty sure i like it.

2004-10-31T10:45:00.000-08:00

Winter Reading List

One of the many nice things about my job is that at the end of the year I end up with a lot of vacation time in a "use it or loose it" situation. I usually end up taking 4-5 weeks off (starting around the week of Thanksgiving and returning after recovering from my New Years Eve hang-over). Since most of my friends have more forethought than I do and space out their vacation time throughout the year, after the first couple days of mindless slacking I end up needing a project to fill the time.
This year I will be working on getting through:

A New Kind of Science

Swarm Intelligence

Reasoning about Rational Agents

I’m planning to split my time between the PC and the Powerbook (using this as an oppertunity to become familiar with Mono on OSX). Should be good fun.

2004-10-30T18:31:00.000-07:00

The Poor Man: New Bush Ad

2004-10-22T18:58:00.000-07:00

The Capitol Steps Home Page

The Fourth Debate

2004-10-22T08:57:00.000-07:00

Modern radiators

I have radiant heat in my house... why do i have ugly wall plates instead of attractive and multifunctional devices like these? And what does cost to correct this situation?

2004-10-13T22:13:00.000-07:00

MacWireless 11g Antenna Booster

So when your AirPort don't treat you like it useta, this kicks in like a turbo boosta!

Respect.

2004-10-10T09:36:00.000-07:00

It`s Good to Be in DC

All new Jib-Jab!

2004-10-07T23:41:00.000-07:00

Bush administration cons cable networks into airing an hour long free campaign ad for George W. Bush

Yesterday, the White House announced that President Bush would be delivering a "major policy address" on terrorism today. The cable news networks broadcast it live and in full. Yet the "address" turned out to be a standard campaign stump speech before a Pennsylvania crowd that seemed pumped on peyote, cheering, screaming, or whooping at every sentence.

The president announced no new policy, uttered not one new word about terrorism, foreign policy, or anything else. He did all the things he wanted to do in last Thursday's debate—accuse his opponent of weakness, bad judgment, vacillation, and other forms of flip-floppery—though this time without a moderator to hush the audience, much less an opponent to bite back. And Bush loved it, smiling, smirking, raising his eyebrows, as if to say, "How 'bout that zinger?"

You have to admit it takes some serious gall to tell news stations that you're going to give a major policy address, and once they're all committed to a live feed, take that as a free hour to bash on your political opponent.

I guess the administration had to do something to fix their numbers. Splicer likened the Bush/Kerry debate to the Tyson/Lennox fight "a tall man beating the shit out of a dangerous retard" was, i believe, his exact quote.

Read the speach and see if you can honestly call this a "major policy address".

2004-10-07T22:14:00.000-07:00

Sun & Kodak settle

Looks like Sun is gonna write a check after all.

2004-10-05T09:55:00.000-07:00

Cray X1 Supercomputer

The prefered Supercomputer of the NSA.

2004-10-03T11:19:00.000-07:00

Kodak wins patent lawsuit against Sun

Good luck trying to squeeze $1.06 BILLION out of Sun, they only have a $14.01 B market cap. Where are they gonna get that kind of cash?

The real question is what will Microsoft do when Kodak comes a callin' should Sun fail in their appeal? My guess is that MSFT wont be cutting a billion dollar check, but at the same time Microsoft is sick of being in the courts. I suspect the Microsoft patent lawyers have already taken a little look see through MSFT's patent position and have compiled a list of of MSFT patents that Kodak appears to be violating. These will be used to convince Kodak to sign the standard 10 year non-agression pact. At which point Microsoft doesn't have to sweat the Kodak patent portfolio, and Kodak gets Favored Techology Partner status in Longhorn + 1, so everybody wins... except Sun.

UPDATE 10/04/2004:

Splicer has another take on this. He points out that Microsoft licensed these patents from Wang back in 1992 for $90 million and Microsoft gave Sun over $1 billion dollars in cold hard cash not too long ago. He postulates that since Kodak is far more immune to a patent war with IBM than Sun or Microsoft that this could be a case of "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" where Microsoft pays Sun to take a fall so Kodak can go put the hurt on IBM over Linux. Seems way too complicated (and for all i know illegal) to me so I suspect the truth is far more mundane, but still an interesting thought...

2004-10-02T12:32:00.000-07:00

Zeppelin Nt

A few years ago i read that Airlifter Cargo was trying to develop a modern zeppelin cargo ship capable of trans-atlantic/trans-pacific travel, i've been thinking that my ultimate retirement would be to convert one of these huge cargo ships into an opulent flying condo in which i could tour the world in leisurely style.

Looks like Neiman Marcus is offering a smaller version for $10 mil. Sadly the NM model has a maximum range of 24 hours, which makes this more of an "air go-cart" than an "air ship"

2004-10-02T11:51:00.000-07:00

Sony DSC-U40

The U40 is awesome. It's the perfect "carry with you all the time" camera. The thing i like best about this camera (besides the fact that it's so small), is that it turns on and is ready to shoot in under 1 second. Some people complain about a lack of zoom. These people are idiots. The whole point of this camera is to take quick and casual pictures.

2004-09-23T01:22:00.000-07:00

IOGEAR: Expand Your Connectivity

Mini mouse with 64MB flash... Almost clever. If only it was bluetooth...

2004-09-22T19:55:00.000-07:00

Sony Ericsson T637

Considering that my phone didn't actually function as a phone, and the Motorola MPx220 has been pushed out to sometime in January, it was pretty clear that i couldn't put off replacing my cell phone any longer. So now i have the T637.

I like its screen. I really like how well it syncs up with the PowerBook. The camera is fast, easy to use, and completely worthless. The picture quality is staggeringly bad. But the most important thing about this phone is that unlike the unit it replaced, it actually works as a phone.

So i now rejoin the rest of the civilized world with a working phone that, thanks to iSync, includes a basic calander/task list, and address book.

Wiggy keeps telling me i need Salling Clicker and while i agree that this is incredibly interesting and novel software, i'm not sure exactly WHY i need to control my computer with my phone. I suppose if i used AirTunes a lot and wanted to make sure that music playback would pause whenever i answer the phone it might make sense...

2004-09-22T16:41:00.000-07:00

Kenwood VRS-N8100

Home theater receiver with networking capability.
Streams audio, video, and still images from your PC via a Wi-Fi or wired network
Handles the following file formats:
• MP3, WMA, WAV, and Ogg Vorbis audio
• MPEG1, MPEG2, and XviD video
• JPEG, BMP, GIF, and PNG digital photos

This looks interesting. I wonder what the UI looks like?

2004-09-17T19:57:00.000-07:00

15" PowerBook G4

I've been wanting a PowerBook for some time. More and more of my friends rave regularly about how much they love their Macs, I finally broke down and got one. It's pretty slick.

2004-09-15T12:58:00.000-07:00

A9.com > Company >A9.com

Tivo for the web or just annotated online bookmarks?
Only time will tell.

Meanwhile MSN.com is fighting yesterday's war today by turning into USA Today.

2004-09-13T16:44:00.000-07:00

PocketMouse(TM) Bluetooth

Pocket optical bluetooth mouse with scroll wheel!

2004-09-11T16:49:00.000-07:00

Carbon Cannibal: Breaking it down for the hard drive

Ripping the 5GB compact flash hd out of the Rio Carbon for use in your digital camera.

2004-09-11T13:29:00.000-07:00

HST Wallpaper

Helix Nebula

Cat's Eye Nebula

Wheels within wheels

wow.

2004-09-10T22:28:00.000-07:00

Sir, there's no basement in the Alamo

While i think nothing of ripping off the bandwidth of large companies to make these little posts look vaguely interesting, i am not completely without scruples and because I don’t think it’s right to embed an image hosted on some guys personal website you're are just going to have to follow the link if you want to see what the caption means. I wont spoil the surprise, but yes, that is a Pee Wee Herman reference.

2004-09-10T20:33:00.000-07:00

Averatec - 2400+ Notebook/ Portable DVD Player

A notebook with remote which is not that special...

But a notebook with built in dock for remote that is only $1050 after mail in rebate is kinda slick.