eye in the sky

While it's certainly done its part to make my desktop wallpaper cooler, it's really made me appreciate science and NASA. Am I talking about Bill Nye? No, I'm talking about the Hubble Space Telescope. Harvard Magazine has an appreciation of its many accomplishments.

floaters

My friend Andy especially will be thrilled to find out airships are making a comeback. The article says that they probably won't ever be used for mass transit again, which is a shame, because I wanted to travel like Indiana Jones...when he was cool and not fighting space aliens.

take my website...please!

Instant Rimshot is one of the most pointless web pages I've found in some time. I also find it insanely funny for some reason. My spousal unit looks upon this as direct evidence on how easily amused I am...but it's a fascinating misuse of technology.

on this date in history

On June 10, 1943, the Biro brothers patented the ball point pen. If this isn't a reason for academics to celebrate, I don't know what is.

making us dumberer

It seems the rite of passage for every single new medium to be blamed for the great decline of intelligence, culture, whatever. And while the internet has certainly been blamed for this kind of stuff in the past, there's an interesting debate over on Slashdot about an article about a book that claims that Google makes you stupid. Follow all the links, and then experiment by inserting "Wikipedia," "video games," "television," or create your own!

there's gotta be a way to use this while teaching

A friend of mine was trying to convince me that there are sounds only teenagers can hear. I suspected this "friend" was just trying to make me feel old (which, incidentally, should be an Olympic sport). However, it's true. So to what use is our Freedom and Liberty country folks putting this knowledge? Some mad scientist/fascist has developed a device that emits this teen-only sound for use to drive away teenage loiterers. Yes, fascism wins again.

we can rebuild him...

English doctors have successfully implanted a bionic eye in a few of their patients.

I find this really cool...but the closest I've gotten to being a cyborg is when I got my first cavity filled.

to the front of the line...

Kevin Kelly is indeed the man. Here's a cool article on "Turing'd" individuals as early adopters of high technology. If you don't know what it means to be Turing'd, then trust me, you don't want it to happen to you.

does it last longer?

PhotoshopDisasters is a blog dedicated to when people retouch photos digitally and screw up. It's a good reminder that everything you see is altered in some way. Photos are now no longer reality.

Strange world, eh?

so bright...where are those sunglasses?

The most fun thing about futurism is how off the projections can be. Witness this Mechanix Illustrated article from 1968 called "What Will Life Be Like in the Year 2008?."

We're pretty jaded about the tremendous impact of the technology we do have. Right now, I'm sitting on the couch, typing this in, having it beamed to my router and then sent out to the world. Pretty amazing.

Required reading: Warren Ellis's Doktor Sleepless.

retro gaming fun!

Todd Levin is writing a fun series called "Consoles I Have Known," a personal narrative of his video game history. Well written, and it will send you down memory lane.

designer life

Ever wonder what it's like to write software? Here's a pretty cool piece about the life of a software engineer, with some good ruminations on coding and art.

the next shot in the tech wars

The New York Times has a very cool article analyzing Microsoft's bid for Yahoo. In short, this bid, the article argues, is "a tacit, and difficult, admission that the company did not get its online business right" and is thus really Microsoft taking on Google. It goes deeper than that, of course.

I wonder how much in a panic Microsoft really is. Vista is regarded in many circles as a bust, and Word 2007 inspires more loathing than any piece of software I can recall seeing. On top of that, Apple largely spanked Microsoft in the music player war, and the Zune ain't gonna get them caught up. Microsoft might very well be panicking, looking for some line of business to enter when their software dominance finally dries up.

And their software seems on the ropes, getting smacked around by open source. Firefox is undergoing significant market share growth. More and more students are turning in papers using OpenOffice. And the signs of Linux's entry into the public consciousness are growing. Hell, even I now have an Ubuntu machine.

This should get interesting. Stay tuned.

helpful technology

Popular Mechanics has a cool article by Mythbuster Jamie Hyneman on his pet peeves with technology. Lots of good stuff here...most of all, the recognition that many producers of consumer goods have "ease of use" as the last thing on their minds.

Journalism 2.0

A while back, Warren Ellis posted a link to Journalism 2.0: How to Survive and Thrive (as a pdf). Ellis calls it “digital literacy guide for the information age”...and who are we to argue with him?

Tom's unknown advantage over Jerry

Korean scientists have developed (is this the right word?) glow in the dark cats. The video is very creepy, although it's not as scary as glow pigs....hey, isn't that a Black Sabbath song?

Soviet space dreams

Baikonur was the Soviet Union's version of Cape Kennedy...only theirs was shrouded in secrecy and did not officially exist. How's it doing nowadays? Check out PhysOrg's story on Baikonur to find out.

theology in video games

Some churches are using Halo 3 in church youth groups. Killing for Christ! This has never happened before...