08.22.08
Guitar’s New Hero
Crazy:
The Moog Guitar can sound—and feel—like anything from a banjo to a synthesizer
Read more: Guitar’s New Hero
06.09.08
iPhone If Only
I’m glad I haven’t bought an iPhone (yet):
“If I’d spent that original US$599 on Apple stock instead, I’d be able to buy a new iPhone 3G and have about US$599 in assets to my name.”
05.13.08
Social Networking
Myspace and LinkedIn and Facebook, oh my!
I set up a myspace page probably 2 years ago. Then I got around to creating a linkedin page. And a few weeks ago, I finally drank the kool-aid and joined facebook.
Of course getting in touch with old friends and keeping it touch with new ones is nice. But what’s been really interesting is discovering the ways that my friends know each other. I’ve already had a handful of experiences now where I’ve been shocked to discover that “friend A who I met in college and friend B who I met at a summer camp met each other on the other side of the world, and now they are friends.” I can’t imagine how else I would have ever discovered these random connections.
The world is getting way too small.
01.31.08
Ben Stein: Expelled
Ben Stein takes on the scientific establishment.
“In my experience, people who are confident in their ideas are not afraid of criticism.” -Ben Stein
12.31.07
Sitting out the DVD Format Wars
Count me among the bench warmers.
“Despite the increasing variety of programs on the Blu-ray and HD-DVD formats, most US consumers are staying out of the DVD format war. This is a wise decision, the article states, because the two formats are essentially at a stalemate.”
Slashdot: Most Consumers Sitting Out The High-Def War
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12.05.07
Self-tuning Guitar
Okay, at first I thought “no real musician needs this!”
Musicians of the world are getting a new kind of artistic freedom with technology that eliminates the challenging chore of tuning.
But what’s really cool is that you can lock in preset alternate tunings! Okay, this would actually be a nice feature. The bummer is that the technology adds $900 to the price of your new axe! They say the technology would be great for beginners, but I don’t know many beginners who would buy a $2,500 Les Paul in the first place, much less when you add $900 to the sticker.
Maybe the tech will get cheaper with time. In the mediate period, I’ll just stick to using my Kyser short-cut capo for quick alt-tuning options.
Gibson shows new self-tuning guitar
Update: of course I just realized that I posted about a self-tuning guitar almost four years ago!
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10.15.07
Drew Carey, Libertarian
- Ever wonder what gives the government the power to just take away your family’s home?
- Ever worry that the medicine that keeps you alive might be declared illegal by the Feds?
- Ever think that the government doesn’t always know best?
Check out reason.tv
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09.25.07
Doolittle Proves You Can Fly Blind
The Doolittle Family: a history of innovation.
From Wired:
1929: Aviation pioneer Jimmy Doolittle demonstrates that instrument flying — i.e., “flying blind” — is possible from takeoff to landing.
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09.24.07
Why You Need More, Scratch That, Less Sleep
So what do the “experts” recommend regarding sleep? See for yourself, but all I know is that I don’t think I could survive on only 7 hours of sleep over a long period of time.
Popular Science Blog - Why You Need More, Scratch That, Less Sleep
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08.01.07
Sanity on the Ethanol Craze
Wow, Rolling Stone magazine gets it right on Ethanol.
In Brazil, ethanol made from sugar cane has an energy balance of 8-to-1 — that is, when you add up the fossil fuels used to irrigate, fertilize, grow, transport and refine sugar cane into ethanol, the energy output is eight times higher than the energy inputs. That’s a better deal than gasoline, which has an energy balance of 5-to-1. In contrast, the energy balance of corn ethanol is only 1.3-to-1 - making it practically worthless as an energy source. “Corn ethanol is essentially a way of recycling natural gas,” says Robert Rapier, an oil-industry engineer who runs the R-Squared Energy Blog.
Finally, a cause on which right and left can agree.
Read more: Ethanol Scam
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07.03.07
From the John Madden School for the Obvious
Amy and I have a running joke that when someone states the obvious that they are making a “John Madden” observation. It’s not that I don’t like John Madden, but often his commentary is a simple regurgitation of the patently obvious (”after a play like that, you just have to pick up the ball and keep pushing forward”).
So in that spirit, I want to know why we needed researchers to tell us this:
Video Games May Divert Kids From Homework: Playing video games may mean spending less time reading or doing homework, according to new research on video games and children.
How is this newsworthy? Did we really need scientific research to prove this? Is John Madden now performing scientific research?
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06.04.07
Imagining the Tenth Dimension
Back in grade school, I remember enjoying Madeline L’Engle’s books. The whole concept of time travel and space folding was such a mind bender (still is). As if 4 or 5 dimensions weren’t enough, now physicists are conceptualizing ten of them.
Warning: this may make your head hurt.
Welcome to the Tenth Dimension
Check out the Flash based version of the site and navigate to “Imagining the Tenth Dimension” for an eleven minute presentation that will blow you away.
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05.31.07
Google Street View
If you haven’t yet heard about Google’s new Street View feature, where have you been? Here’s the view from Hyde and Lombard in SF.
Here’s an article on how they are accomplishing this: http://www.boingboing.net/2007/05/31/google_maps_zoom_her.html
Update: Google Streets has certain brought out the Orwellian/Huxleyan conspiracy theorists. But maybe we actually have something to worry about. I decided to follow that little red car from my Lombard Street link above and found that the car’s license plate is easily viewable. Is a line being crossed? Are we moving into a world where “as long as you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear?”
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05.30.07
Surface Computing
Wow.
Microsoft unveils revolutionary device
“New top-secret ‘Surface’ will change the way we look at computing”
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01.02.07
TriPong Anyone?
At a recent retreat with some class-mates, I was reminded just how much I stink at ping-pong (though I still enjoy playing). Now someone has invented 3-player ping-pong, so I can get beat by two people at once!
Inventor creates ping pong for three
But the more interesting part of the article gets minimal treatment:
His spatial relativity theory involves the String Theory, the Big Bang theory, quotes from Albert Einstein and something Boyd calls the “elemental particle.” It is, he contends, the smallest possible piece of physical matter in the physical universe.
He claims that if he could break down space into these basic particles, they could be used for electricity.
. . .
Boyd is seeking investors to build a prototype spatial energy converter to test his theory, which he said could have energy, medical and military-industrial applications.
“This should be easy to disprove,” he said, “But if we are correct, we’ve revolutionized physics and the electric grid as we know it won’t be needed anymore.”
Now that could get interesting. But I can’t find anymore information on this guy or his theory. Probably junk science anyway. Oh well.
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11.15.06
My New Phone
I am loving my new phone.
I highly recommend acquiring one.
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11.02.06
Machines will rule if we don’t curb surveillance
The Daily Mail (a British news magazine) is waking up to the sadly obvious: ‘Machines will rule if we don’t curb surveillance’.
The Information Commissioner stressed that while much of the current data collected on individuals was “fragmented”, the real danger to individual freedoms would come if all this information was gathered under a “Big Brother” regime.
“Two years ago I said ‘are we in danger of sleep walking into a surveillance society’. Our report commissioned from external experts really says we are already there. We are waking up to a surveillance society,” he said on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
George Orwell may have been off by a couple of decades (1984), but his prophetic tellings appear to be coming true. And in the very country he anticipated this happening.
Huxley’s dystopia is revealing as well: brave new world.
Let’s hope it isn’t too late to prove Orwell and Huxley wrong.
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06.20.06
The Food Revolution is Coming
What do you know about where your food comes from? Do you care? While most of us want to personally know our doctor, mechanic and housekeeper (okay, as if I could afford a housekeeper), how many of us actually know the person growing and producting our food?
For some people, reconnecting with the source of their food is a powerful idea.
Read More: No Bar Code
04.28.06
Light Speed in Marina del Rey
Wow.
Multiband, a residential provider of voice and data systems, said this week that it plans to deliver 45-Mbit services to homes and condominiums in a ritzy Southern California suburb.
SoCal Suburb To Get 45-Mbit Internet Service
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04.12.06
Statism vs. Libertarianism
The immigration debate that is raging across the U.S. right now is leading to the production of some great philosophical discussion. A major component in how people view this debate relates to foundational suppositions regarding the role of government. I appreciate Arnold Kling’s treatment of these issues. Here’s an excerpt:
I do not expect the world to move toward transnational libertarianism in the foreseeable future. Right now, other ideologies predominate. Islamofascism, an ideology of tribal domination, is very prominent. Transnational progressivism, which favors world government and socialism, is the opposite of transnational libertarianism. And then there is statist collectivism, which is far more popular than transnational libertarianism.
I am cautiously hopeful that the trend might be away from statist collectivism and toward transnational libertarianism.
So are you a statist collectivist? A transnational libertarian? An Islamofascist (how cool it would be to actually have an islamofascist reading my blog!)?
Read more and be enlightened: TCS Daily - Tribal Politics
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02.10.06
The Way of the 8-track
While I’m not big on computer gaming, I recognize that gaming trends are huge drivers of technological innovation. So, when a person like Peter Moore (corporate vice president of Microsoft’s interactive entertainment business) has something to say about the direction technology is heading, it’s time to listen.
“Let’s be fair. Whether it’s five, 10, 15, 20 years from now, the concept of driving to the store to buy a plastic disc with data on it and driving back and popping it in the drive will be ridiculous,” Moore said. “We’ll tell our grandchildren that and they’ll laugh at us.”
I’m already waiting for the shock factor when my kids are old enough to understand that there was no “Internet” when I was their age. Imagine, however, the incredulity of my future grandchildren when my kids try to explain “DVDs” and “CDs.” Wow, I’m already starting to feel like an antiquated dinosaur from the last millennium.
Read more: Industry icons get connected
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02.09.06
Asteroid Mining
If rocket launches become more cost effective, and less regulated, perhaps a new industry will spring up: space mining.
The Near Earth Asteroids offer both threat and promise. They present the threat of planetary impact with regional or global disaster. And they also offer the promise of resources to support humanity’s long-term prosperity on Earth, and our movement into space and the solar system.
Asteroid Mining: Key to the Space Economy - Yahoo! News
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