Religious Programming

I realized a long time ago that people, developers in particular, are fanatic about the way they practice their professions. Programmers especially tend to be religous or dogmatic about the particular tenets of their programming language or development methodologies.

This article kind of brings into focus, plus it's funny if you're a nerd.

Creepy music aside...

I came across this post from Engadget the other day and just barely found time to pass it along.

It's about an "OS" that replicates the interaction made famous by the movie "Minority Report".  There's also a pretty in depth video to go with it, although the music that's used in the background is a little too esoteric.

It's pretty impressive. I would install it as an add-on to just about any operating system out there, if it were available.

g-speak overview 1828121108 from john underkoffler on Vimeo.

We can all have our own Nuclear Reactors!

Okay, maybe we can't have our own reactors, but a neighborhood or two could all pitch in on one.

This new design from Hyperion Power Generation could be the ticket for cheap, local power.  Plus it's "fun" sized.

A car that makes me wish I had to drive more often...

This may be the smallest version of the Batmobile that I've ever seen, but it's definitely worthy of the name.  This is one of the cars that was on display at SEMA 2008.

Click on the image below if you'd like to read the original blog entry.

Thanks to Rich for finding this gem.

Should the people who are successful be treated fairly, too?

I suppose I can't let this election go without posting at least one interesting politically charged topic go by.

One of the proposals out on the table, I won't mention who is championing it by name, is that we tax people who make more than $250,000 more heavily.

I found this article, on the Fortune Magazine's website, that gives a perspective on who these "rich" people are.

I'm always worried when plans that come up that make those who work hard and excel pay extra for working hard and excelling. Don't they deserve fair treatment at the very least?

You should also look closely at the chart of the distribution of the amount of taxes paid by the higher income brackets. Taxes are already largely disproportionately paid by the upper brackets.

Crib Safety Recall

This actually has nothing to do with the theme of my blog at all, but I figure that sometimes it's good break with tradition.

I saw this video on Hulu about a recall on some hazardous baby cribs. We don't have one in particular, but if any of you do, I'd rather have this video out there at least one more time just in case it saves even just one person some grief.

The New Star Trek Movie

I found this post on the upcoming Paramount release of the Star Trek Pre-quel:
http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2008/10/15/exclusive-new-star-trek-movie-photo-with-kirk-spock-sulu-and-the-uss-enterprise-bridge/

It seems to me like the cast look reasonably like their older selves. I couldn't get a good enough feel for the visual quality of the film from the photos, but they do give a good idea of the general look of the movie.

They're had better be a lot of explosions in space and aliens. Any science fiction movie with out explosions and aliens automatically gets low marks from me.

The Greatest American Hero

I know this post is linked to an older post from another blog, but I just found it today.

It has some pretty good info about a Greatest American Hero movie set to begin filming in 2009. In conjunction with the film, some animated episodes and "comic" novels will be release towards the end of this year.

It's kind of fun when the people, who were kids at the same time I was, decide to make movies based on stuff that was cool when I was a kid. It's like getting to live my childhood over again, except I can drive. Legally, that is.

http://tvseriesfinale.com/articles/the-greatest-american-hero-ralph-hinkley-to-return-in-comics-animation-and-movie/

So who wants to get free stuff?

Microsoft is getting on the free stuff bandwagon with the SearchPerks program.

All you have to do is sign-up, let them watch you via small application (assuming you don't mind that sort of thing), and you get "tickets" as a reward for each search. Up to 25 tickets per day.

This kind of like Skee-ball for searching.

I think I'll test try it out. More on what I find later.

* You will have to use you IE 6+ to participate.

Robots should be useful...

I found this very in depth video on a new robot.

It rides a unicycle.

That's it.

I can't figure out why anyone would want want of these. I think it would be far cheaper and healthier to buy your own unicycle.

On my "cool electronic lawn mowing dog" scale, this gets a low 1.5, because it does almost nothing to further the dream of the electronic lawn mowing dog.

Cool Anti-"Pork" Website...

I was watching the Presidential Debate yesterday, and Senator McCain mentioned a website that lets you know what people in the Legislative Branch are adding the most line item spending items (a.k.a Pork Barrel Spending).

The site lets you sum up the amount spent in each bill by individual, state, party, or the entire legislative branch. The numbers are astronomical.

I recommend you look over what the people who represent you have been doing with your money.

Here's the link: Citizens Against Government Waste

It's good to have competition...

At long last, T-Mobile has brought out a good competitor to the iPhone.

It's called the G1. It's based on the Android OS by Google, and looks to have a good set of features that makes you actually want to use the darned thing.

It's designed to let you decide what you want to put on your phone, not what Apple wants you to put on your phone.

Oh yeah, and it's hundreds of dollars less than the iPhone.



If you want a lot more information, you can watch the press conference. It's boring, but it still has the most info on the G1 out there.

Wowee!

Well, you know I can't resist an entry about a cool robot.

This one is kind of like a Roomba, only useful.

It can wander around your house, has a camera that you can adjust the vantage point and allows you to command and get telemetry from a web browser.

It's called the Rovio, and it's really going to be quite affordable ($299 U.S.).

I'm one step closer to the Electronic Lawn Mowing dog...except this one doesn't mow the lawn.

For those who want a Mac, but not a "Mac"....

I saw this post on a product that allows you to attach a USB Dongle to your relatively new Intel x86 machine and install the retail version of Mac OSX.

I've always said for years that if Mac would sell OSX it would start to take a bigger chunk of the personal computer market.  But does Mac listen to me, nope!

Now their operating system will start to take more market share with or without there blessing:

http://www.engadget.com/2008/09/17/os-x-installing-efi-x-now-shipping-for-155/

The Japanese are smarter...?

The Japanese apparently aren't keen on the iPhone.  Apple has sold about 1/10th of what they've sold in the United States.

This makes me wonder if they're smarter than we are, have already cooler stuff, or just don't get the sublime nature of the iPhone.  I'm thinking it's one of the first two personally.

Here's an interesting article on how well it's been selling over there.

The Mathemagician

There's a web site that posts lectures called TED.com.  It's goal is stimulate ideas:

"TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design."

One of the lectures is by a guy named Arthur Benjamin.  He can do some pretty amazing math in his head. If ever you need someone to figure out what the tip should be, he's the guy for you.

I think this qualifies a really nerdy, but I'll post it anyway:

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/arthur_benjamin_does_mathemagic.html

For more about TED you can read up here: http://www.ted.com/index.php/pages/view/id/5

The numbers don't count, sort of...

I know it shouldn't matter who's got the most medals, but it's nice to have the most of something.

Olympic Medal winners at NBC Olympics.com!

This should be an event, too.

I don't know if there are any plans to add this to the Olympic games in the future, but there should be.

I can only think that these guys don't have any small children roving around looking for things to smash. At my house whenever I just stack two pillows on top of each other, my children knock it over like a heard of Godzillas.

So here's a link to some guys with kids older or more incarcerated than mine:
Lego Olympics

Really makes you want one....

Okay, I feel it's my duty to post really cool robots that relate to Star Wars.

Star Wars isn't even my favorite Sci-fi franchise, but there is so much cool stuff out there based on its lore.

This one I would have to say is the one of the best uses of R2D2's image.

Marketing actually makes a difference...

I don't like being the M$ cheerleader. But I've been using M$ stuff like Office, Windows, SQL Server, Visual Studio, etc., for years.

For the most part I've been pretty happy with their stuff. Sometimes there are bugs, sometimes it's missing something that I'd really like to have. If it's bad I go looking for an alternative. Usually M$ catches up with the curve.

I found this site today, and wanted to say that sometimes a product is as good as its marketing.

The Anti-Vegan Keyboard

In a stunning example of luxury run amuck, Kazuharu Sakura crafts an amazing and somewhat strange keyboard.

If you get one of these, you'll never get to take your keyboard out into the rain:

http://crave.cnet.com/8301-1_105-9970190-1.html?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=Crave

The man that inspired it all....

Long before Inspector Gadget and MacGyver, was Maxwell Smart.

Some think that James Bond had all the world going for him, but I think that really imaginative inventions were really from Agent Smart's arsenal of "electronic" goodness.

The gadget of his that started it all was the shoe phone.

Request Day...

I've recently had a request for something not tech or internet related.

Chrystie has requested to see the interesting pictures that I have of Preston.

Thery're really more of a look into the past. A view of the way we were, or rather the way Preston was.

They're not really even incrminating or particularly embarrassing. At least not that I can tell. But I've been holding to these pictures for a while now. They should be enjoyed by all.

Without further adieu:

This one is a two-for, because it also has a young spry Jason in it as well.

To Twitter or not to Twitter...

I actually finished my Twitter experiment about 3 weeks ago. I haven't had a chance to write about it until now. I bet you've all been on pins and needles.

Here's the poop:

Pros:
If you want to really get to know someone and how they really spend their time, this is definitely a good way to do it. If they're faithful to the motto "tweet everything", then you'll be able to enjoy the ins and outs of their lives.

You also have the ability to get the stream of consciousness of large segments of people. Be they friends or your target market. I liken this to the band with a loyal following of fans who might want to see an impromptu performance be it a local club or online web cast.

Cons:
If you don't have a piece of technology that you keep with you all the time, you won't really get the full effect. I found that the mobile interface was great with my smart phone. But my wife pointed out that if you weren't tethered by something that had ready access, you weren't apt to go out of your way to tweet about the minutia.

It's also quite hard to decide whether to tweet before you go do something or after. Is it important to get the play by play or the synopsis of the thing you just did?

There's also the concern about privacy. You have to be careful who's following your tweets. For example you want to tweet that you're going out for the night. If you've left enough info about yourself lying around you may have a complete stranger decide to steal your stuff, because he knows you're gone. (I know a paranoid viewpoint, but stranger things have happened.)

Also, the Twitter web site/backbone seems to get "stuck" sometimes. It seems to get bogged down and unresponsive during peak usage. Only I'm not sure when that is, because it happened sporadically.

In total:
I stopped using Twitter after the experiment, because I ran out of stuff to tweet about. Nobody really wanted to know when I went to the bathroom. However, the things I learned about the people I was following was pretty neat. It was eye opening to see the rhythm of their lives.

I would also like to give special thanks to Brookie & Janae. They were kind enough to test it out with me, and it made it a much more worthwhile experience.

Okay, so I've been a little remiss about posting. I've been a little busy.

But to make up for some of it, I found this extra good post.

If I had 3 months to kill, I'd sign-up in a heart beat:
NASA Offers $5000 a Month For You to Lie in BedPublish Post

I'd like to build the world a printer, in perfect harmony.

I'd like the printer to print itself, a make another copy.

That's the song this company sings, let the world copy away.

A song of a printer that never goes away.

Facebook follies...

In my experimentation with Twitter I've created a Facebook account (gave into peer pressure). It's actually be a pretty good experience. I've found a lot of family/friends with relatively little detective work involved. It's like you're supposed to find people on Facebook or something.

It's also worthy to note that you can use Twitter on the Facebook page to update your whereabouts. I'll post something more in depth on both Twitter & Facebook in a short bit. I just want to make sure I give both sites/services a proper run through.

Hello All,

I've come across this service called Twitter. It's kind of like a way to mini-blog your life.

The idea is that you send 140 character (maximum) updates on your whereabouts, activities, and day dreams. People can "follow" you and you can "follow" others. And hopefully along the way people get to know you better by what you decide are important activities to twitter (not sure that should be a verb) about. Then you get to know what affects people in a daily unobtrusive way.

I'm trying to decide if it's technology that makes life better or noisier. I'm going to experiment with when and how to twitter and whether or not it's only useful for someone in high school.

In attempt to be fair about it, I'm going to try using it for 2 weeks and report back on the experiment.

Here's where I need your help. I would like to follow and be followed. It would be nice to have other experimenters try it out. And since following myself would be weird, I was hoping a few of you would like to see if it's worth the trouble to catalog your lives.

Below is a video that describes Twitter. At the very least it's a well produced and interesting video.

If you like it go to twitter and sign up. My twitter page is: http://twitter.com/hpractv

Afterwards I'll report the pros, the cons, and any meaningful observations. It's either a 2 week test run of an interesting idea or a cool way to get a play-by-play of people's lives that you care about, but don't get to hang out with all the time.

Another reason to go back to school...

You ever wonder where students come up with money to do these things?

I was always worried about where my next Whopper was coming from, or how I could get the gasoline in my car to magically reproduce so I could make it to class on time.

These students in Israel must be in a whole 'nother class of their own, if they can focus on these kinds of socially ground breaking technologies:

TAU student develops software that ranks facial attractiveness

Something you wish you could teach your kids...

I know that training your kids to do interesting party tricks is a favorite pastime of parents, but if you could teach your kids to be this obedient, the world would be a more civilized place.

I must have this thing for robots lately, but they seem to be what pop up most in the articles/news that I've been coming across.

This kind of stuff is making me want to move to Japan:

The creepiest universal remote. Ever.

Who knew the Postal Service was that cool?

You know I can' resist posting gems about Star Wars or the crazy stuff that comes from it.

This is another one of those less that practical applications of Star Wars imagery.

I'd also like to point out that R2D2 seems to be the most used icon when it comes to making stuff.

Make an R2-D2 mailbox out of paper

Almost as good as the electronic lawn-mowing robot dog

I think if I had some involved shopping task, I would try this out:

Robot babysitter keeps kids occupied in Japanese store

If it didn't threaten to crush my children, or maim them permanently, I would feel comfortable with letting technology keep an eye or cam on them.

The economic solution for your stun gun needs.

For the those of you with both a frugal and a paranoid personal safety side, this is the ideal solution for you: 950,000 volts in a 'Runt'

I don't personally jog alone, at night, in dangerous places, but if I did, you can bet I have one of these little bad boys with me.

To give you and idea the amount of power you'll be packing, the average police grade Taser packs a 50,000 volts.

So rest assured your potential attacker will be nicely incapacitated.

High tech and it's increasing role in our lives...

I came across this article and realized that there are a million uses for our everyday technology that we haven't even begun to tap into.

Why don't we live in a constant state of MacGyver-ness?  Is the everyday ballpoint pen being used to its fullest potential? Are you sure you can use your shoe laces as some sort of grocery carrying device?

I think we short change ourselves when forget that the items we use everyday can transform into something extraordinary.

The guy in this article does: http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/18/german-trucker-uses-mobile-as-ear-warmer-court-believes-it/

Time in a bottle...or etch-a-sketch...whatever...

This is probably the best use of free time I've seen in a while.

If this guy could make the electronics a little smaller and refined, I'd try to talk my wife into buying one.

Etch A Sketch clock automatically draws, redraws time

For those of you who know me well, you know that I have dreamed of one day owning an electronic, lawn-mowing dog. Nay I even daresay that I've prayed for one.

For 2 reasons:

First, how cool would that be? No muss, no fuss and a great looking lawn all the time.

Second, how cool would that be?!!!

My dream will come to fruition. The next step towards that dream has arrived.

Here's the latest: Husqvarna introduces pricey solar powered Automower

If only I had the disposable cash to make this wish a reality.

This article is pretty funny: Thai monks told to behave on networking Web sites

I'm not sure if being a monk is like being a priest, but I would venture to guess that similar rules apply.

It also begs this question: If a monk could do that sort of thing, where would he take his date?

Lately, I've been trying to get in shape-ish. I've been exercising and trying to eat reasonably.

I've come across this "exer-cycle": 'HyperBike': Godzilla on two wheels

I can only believe that this would work if it made you want to get out of the public eye faster. I suppose it's possible to burn calories out of embarrassment.

I should have thought of projects like this one while I was in college: MIT students simulate life on Mars

I would have gotten to go on vacation on the school's dollar all in the name of science.

I could have simulated effects of low-gravity environments by staying at luxury hotels where they do everything for you.

If I only knew then...

Plug-in bouncer...

I found an interesting Do-It-Yourself project:  Homegrown security bot heckles vagrants, longs to be a real cop

I'm tempted to try it myself, but I don't think my kids will appreciate being the subjects.

I think he could market and sell these things as "Bar-bots".  Kind of catchy, eh?

Star Wars stuff is always cool...

I'm not sure I can think of anything to say about this one, that hasn't already been said.

But, I will say that I would be too amused by this desk to ever get anything done:  "Carbonite Desk"

I found this article on a giant "action figure" on eBay: Towering Gort

I can actually only think of one person of all that I know who would really want this.

In fact he's the only guy I know who even recognize who Gort even was before this article.

Fear the Elmo

I was reading through some news and found this almost disturbing video of a robot "toy" Elmo:

 

I just saw this documentary on the future production of food crops. It's an eye opener. Large seed companies have patented genetically altered strains of common food crops and then sued independent farmers for patent infringement when strains of the altered crops appear in the farmers fields. You won't look at corn the same way again. Here's a link to the movies site: The Future of Food

My wife found this: Hillary Obama

It's a little disturbing, but it's pretty funny.

I don't usually endorse a movie unless I think it's really well done, or has some sort of interesting twist or aspect to it.

We recently watched Amazing Grace (2006). It's a movie about William Wilberforce, who was a British abolitionist from the late 1700's.

It was really well acted, and written. I expected this show to be somewhat boring as I don't usually go for historical movies, but this one was pretty engaging.

I highly recommend renting it.

Yay!...Telemarketers are still at bay.

I just saw this post: Congress bars 'automatic removal' of Do-Not-Call list numbers

Always check the to...

I came across this funny article that demonstrates that sometimes e-mail is too easy:

Lilly's $1 Billion E-Mailstrom by Katherine Eban

Placebos...

As part of a project I worked on, we had to document clinical study drugs.

Often these studies included control & test medication.  The control drug is usually a very well documented drug like aspirin or ibuprofen.  Sometimes it's a placebo.  Placebos are not usually accepted as a standard practice for treating medical maladies.

Here's an interesting news article where a VA doctor actually prescribed a placebo: Gulf War Veteran Gets Placebos Instead Of Real Medicine

It's definitely incentive to check the ingredients in your prescriptions.

Something Nice…

I've been watching all of the show Sliders. In the 4^th season there's an episode called "Roads Not Taken". They had a poem that I liked. I found it on the net of course. Here it is:

Sudden Light by
Dante Gabriel Rossetti(1828-1882)

I HAVE been here before,
But when or how I cannot tell:
I know the grass beyond the door,
The sweet keen smell,
The sighing sound, the lights around the shore.

You have been mine before,—
How long ago I may not know:
But just when at that swallow's soar
Your neck turned so,
Some veil did fall,—I knew it all of yore.

Has this been thus before?
And shall not thus time's eddying flight
Still with our lives our love restore
In death's despite,
And day and night yield one delight once more?