Highpoints

Sun - October 21, 2007

Do You Love Cthulhu?

If you love Cthulhu, you can proclaim it with a new t-shirt design by Stan!

Posted at 03:46 PM

Tue - September 25, 2007

Why no UK Pics?

So, I was planning on doing a long report on my UK visit, including pictures. Well, I'm waiting on a few (me in armor!), and truth to tell, this whole upper back injury has somewhat taken the wind out of my sails. But, I still intend on providing a visual tour of my trip in the future. Here's a pic of me in Avebury. See, I do have pictures! More hopefully to follow.

Posted at 02:36 PM

Mon - July 30, 2007

Jott

If you're like me, remembering all the things you want to do and when you want to do them is a challenge.

Often, I'll be somewhere without paper or access to a computer and an idea will strike me, or I'll see something I want to followup on, or my wife will ask me to remind her of something.

In the past, most of these things were simply forgotten. But now, I've got an account on Jott. With a speed-dial button my cell-phone, Jott takes down my voice messages, transcribes them to text, then emails me the content.

It's almost like having a personal computerized assistant. I think that's why I like this service so much. It is on the right track, helping me organize my life. Of course, what I do with my inbox is where all this could potentially break down, but at least once something hits my email, I'm far more likely to file it, put it in my calendar, or act upon it.

Posted at 11:51 AM

Tue - July 10, 2007

Nice Surprises

Our Vizio flatscreen TV stopped working a month or so ago. And, it was about 6 months outside of warranty. But, I contacted Vizio customer service looking for some troubleshooting tips. Long story short, Vizio sent out a tech to my house within a week, who replaced a component which fixed the TV. No charge--they repaired it under warranty. Thanks Vizio, you rock!

I picked up Peter Watts' Blindsight and loved it so much I'm going to buy all his previous books I've never read (most prominently, The Rifters Trilogy, about which I know nothing). Blindsight is a fantastic read, and if you enjoy science fiction, give yourself a treat and pick up a copy. Thanks Pater Watts, you rock, too!

Posted at 08:39 AM

Mon - June 25, 2007

Podcasts about the Future

I've added a couple new podcasts to the stable, Futures in Biotech and Escapepod. Both deal with the future, though from different sides of your brain.

Futures in Biotech is 45 minute segment where the hosts interview a prominent biotech researcher about the latest cutting edge research. It is scary how quickly things are changing in that field. A lot of basic stuff I did when I worked in the field until '95 is now ancient history--we used to be hard pressed to make an artificial strand of DNA that was even 70 base pairs long. The latest episode, which I haven't yet listened to 'cause I'm still catching up, is the evocatively titled Biotech Singularity.

Escapepod is an honest-to-goodness "SF magazine podcast" that pays authors for the rights to read their SF (as well as some fantasy and other harder to classify genre) short stories, one a week. This is, in essence, another paying market for weird stories. Free to download, but if you love it as much as I ended up loving it, you can donate, once, or $5 a month, to support its continued publication and author payment. Recently, the podcast included several Hugo nominated shorts, as well as Asimov's classic Nightfall short story. (Thanks Monte for telling me about this one.)

Posted at 03:44 PM

Mon - April 16, 2007

Step 23

My friend Juan sent along these directions; give them a try.

1. go to http://www.google.com
2. click on "maps"
3. click on "get directions"
4. type New York in the first box (the "from" box)
5. type London in the second box (the "to" box) & hit "get
directions" on the same line
6. scroll down to step #23

Posted at 11:18 AM

Wed - February 7, 2007

I've Ordered A Dinosaur Costume For Halloween

I actually ordered several different costumes, so I have a selection to choose from. Looks like the folks at the dinosaur workshop are working hard towards completing my request. Take a look:

Posted at 12:50 PM

Fri - February 2, 2007

Sweet Music Pricing Structure

UPDATE: I removed the auto-player so you're not serenaded every time you load my page. Cute at first, annoying over time.

How great is this--a place that prices music based on its popularity? Amiestreet does just that, offering music from 0 cents to 98 cents, depending on how many time a particular song has been donwnloaded. Check it out:

-http://amiestreet.com/viewProfile.php?id=3861

Posted at 03:25 PM

Sun - January 21, 2007

Maria Bamford

Maria Bamford is a fantastic comedienne. Give this clip a listen. For some reason, it strikes my wife and me as particularly hilarious.

Posted at 12:56 PM

Tue - January 16, 2007

Visions of Tony Stark

Could you use this suit to fight crime and super villains? It is a composite of anti-ballistic plastic and ceramic, and has several nifty features built in.

Posted at 07:39 AM

Tue - December 19, 2006

My Power Is Back!

Yes! Thank you tireless linemen who worked 40 hours on and 8 hours off, repeat, to get my power back. Next time, I hope to have at least a generator, and eventually something even more robust...

In my last post I indicated I wanted to install a hybrid solar/wind/battery system to supplement my reliance on the grid. My initial research has unearthed this information of a customer of such a system who weathered four days of no power pretty well.

The system consists of SIEMAN photovoltaic panels (the kind on an arm that track the suns progress across sky works best); a TRACE/Zantrac power inverter and the wind system is a WHISPER 900. They have a 24V system and have 12 batteries. The batteries are just now starting to falter in holding a charge. So that’s a 5 year life span on a system that runs a whole house. Total cost back then was in the neighborhood of $5,000. They also added a generator since the NW does not always provide enough sun and/or wind and it’s nice to charge the batteries. This system runs the whole house, dw, micro, laptop, laundry, refer & Christmas lights!

Apparently this happy customer worked with Sunwindconcepts at http://www.sunwindconcepts.us/ to find an contractor for the installation.

Posted at 05:17 PM

Wed - December 13, 2006

A Brief Detour Back to the 80's

Hey, man, is that Freedom Rock?

Posted at 12:28 PM

Wed - October 18, 2006

ASCII not for whom the pixel tolls...

This is fun to play with:

-http://www.typorganism.com/asciiomatic

How would my wife look in ASCII?

ASCII-O-Matic : Generate HTML


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++++++++++++++=szhhhhhzhhhhhzzzzzhhzzzzzzzs=+<<+++++++++++++
+++++++++++++=szzhhhhhzhhhhzzzzzzhzzzzzzzzzs=<<<++++++++++++
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+++++++++=hhhhhhhhhhhhhhzhhhhhhhhhhzszzzsssszzzs=+<+++++++++
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++++++++zhhhhhhhhhhhhhzzzhhhhhhhhzs==+=sszzzzszzzs++++++++++
+++++++=zhhhhhhhhhhhhhzzzhhhhhhhhzsss=+=szssssszzs++++++++++
+++++++shhhhhhhhhhzhhhzzshhhhhhhhzzss=+=sss==sszzz++++++++++
+++++++zhhhhhhhhhhzhhhzzshhzzzzzzzzss=++sssszzszzz=+++++++++
++++++=zhhhhhhhhhhzhhhzzszhzzsssssssss++=zhhhhhzzzs+++++++++
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+++++=zhhhhhhhhhhhhzhhzzsszhhhzzss==ssss=++<<<<<<=hh=<++++++
+++++szhhhhhhhhhhhhzhhzzsszhzzss==+=sssss+<<<<<<<<zhs+++++++
+++++szhhhhhhhhhhhhzhhzzzszzsss=++++=sssss++++<<<<shz+++++++
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<<<<+zzhhhhDhhhhhhzhhzhhzzzsszzsssszzzzs=+<<<<hzs=+zhzs<++++
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Posted at 01:35 PM

Fri - October 6, 2006

Dinosaur Blood

(via Contrary Brin):

When scientists found a massive Tyrannosaurus rex thigh bone in a remote region of Montana a few months ago, they were forced to break the bone in two in order to fit it into the transport helicopter. This act of necessity revealed a startling surprise: soft tissue that had seemingly resisted fossilization still existed inside the bone. This tissue, including blood vessels, bone cells, and perhaps even blood cells, was so well preserved that it was still stretchy and flexible.

Posted at 08:37 AM

Tue - June 27, 2006

20 Year High School Reunion

This weekend I'm attending my 20 year high school reunion back in South Dakota. I'm really looking forward to spending time with the old gang, as well as the wider circle of classmates who moved in other cliquies. I was surprised and happy to discover all those old cliques meant very little at my 10 year reunion, so it'll be interesting to see who I bump into this time around. Even among my old gang (only 5 of 6 of us will be able to attend), most of us have seen so little of each other lately that I'm looking forward to seeing what the others have been up to.

Posted at 11:04 PM

Philosophy Talk

Hear Pi

Bruce Visits Springfield

Calvin and Hobbes Searchable Database

Try Leading Edge Kickboxing

Search Leonardo's Notebooks Online

What's Up with the Sun?