I was just reading this article about two fairly-new TV-over-Internet startups, when my mind stumbled over this paragraph and fell flat on it’s face: The company is eschewing the vogue for user-generated novelty and signing up real talent. The latest name to be revealed is movie director Spike Lee, who will make an exclusive video …
From the you’ve-got-to-be-joking division, by way of Boing Boing, comes this story of a man who’s had three amputations (both arms and a leg) and still out-drives police in car chases. Yes, as in more than one of them. I triple-checked my calendar, and we’re nowhere near April Fool’s Day.
Great Britain has apparently decided not to switch over to the metric system, or at least not just yet, saying that it would be harder to sell things to the US if they did. As my friend Don tells it, there’s only one reason why the US isn’t solely using the metric system like almost …
I love laptop computers. My first x86-compatible system, way back in the dim recesses of time, was a 4.77MHz portable from Radio Shack with two 720K 3.5″ floppy drives and a sixteen-grayscale CGA LCD monitor that flickered very visibly. The battery, a huge nickel-cadmium brick that made up a good portion of both the size …
Continue reading ‘“Manganese electrode could double lithium ion battery capacity”’ »
I saw an interesting article on Boing Boing a little while back, about human violence today and across history. “A deep look at the history of violence seems to reveal that modern culture may be making us less violent over time, not more.” That matches the impression that I’ve gotten from my history readings too, …
My company is presently doing consulting work for a company in another country. It’s great… I get the holidays from my country, and the people I work with aren’t at work on the holidays in their country so I get those too. [1] I’m trying to figure out how I can get holidays from other …
One of those little technologies (mentioned in SF novels in passing) that has always fascinated me is self-cooking foods, or food packaging that automatically cooks the food it contains when it’s opened. That’s why I was delighted to see this story on Boing Boing just now. Geek heaven! Now, if they can just do the …
I stand in awe and amazement at the announcement that CNN will release all of their Presidential debate coverage “without restrictions at the conclusion of each live debate.” As far as I can tell, that means that anyone is allowed to post pieces of it on the ‘net, cut and remix it, publicly broadcast it… …
Continue reading ‘“CNN: No restrictions on presidential debate footage”’ »
We had a pair of unusual visitors this morning. Older men, dressed in three-piece summer-weight suits, one gray, one brown. I can usually classify unexpected visitors within a second of opening the door, but these fellows didn’t match any group I’d seen before. One of them remained silent the entire time, standing a little ways …
Okay, I admit it. I broke down and went to see it this afternoon. I knew it would be mobbed this evening and all weekend, and I just didn’t want to wait. I don’t want to spoil anything, so I’ll just say that the changes (that I could detect, anyway) are few and fairly tolerable, …