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Tuesday, 31 October 2006
Hubble Update
So, yeah, HSM-4 is Go.So there you go.
Send Your Name To Space
If anyone's interested, there's a couple of those send-your-name-to-space opportunities out there now.One of them's been going on for a while, but the deadline is coming this weekend. You can send your name to the asteroid belt on NASA's Dawn spacecraft, scheduled for launch NET June 21.
In addition to Dawn, you can now add your name to a DVD that will be flown on the Phoenix lander, which will launch for Mars in August.
"The Problem Is Even Too Big For Batman"
Per The AP:So many bats have infested the town's historic district that the sky turns black with each sunset and the neighborhood is calling on Batman to come to the rescue.
That's what the local bat remover goes by. George Perkins often makes public appearances in the caped crusader's costume and drives his own Batmobile — a retro-styled Chrysler Prowler with bat emblems. Callers to his office in Eufaula, Ala., known as Bat Cave 1, or Union Springs, Ala., known as Bat Cave 2, hear the "Batman" TV show theme while on hold.
Another Tutor Post
Turns out you're in good company, Chris -- Forbes agrees that it's time for the iPod to go Bluetooth. (Or, more to the point, not that the iPod is ready for Bluetooth, but that Bluetooth is now ready for the iPod.)I still say, "Eh."
Monday, 30 October 2006
Hubble Update
So the Hubble mission Go/No Go announcement will be made tomorrow. Rumors are Go, but those are just rumors. (And that I'm hearing from outside sources, I should be quick to note.)
CG TOS Update
So it turns out the new effects scenes for TOS are being created in widescreen. However, showing the episodes in that format would mean cropping down the original footage. It's funny -- I've always been a big advocate of letterbox movies because they didn't do that. Now, as somebody with a widescreen-aspect-ratio television, I can see the appeal of having the shows fill the screen, but, still, I don't know if I'm comfortable with it.Fortunately, I've already got my copy of TOTOS -- The Original The Original Series -- on DVD, so if they later release the suped-up versions on DVD (or, I guess, more likely Blu-Ray and/or HD-DVD), I don't have to choose that over the real thing.
Supes IV Mark II
Per Newsarama:As he as much as announced at the San Diego Comic-Con, Bryan Singer has signed on to direct a sequel to this summer’s Superman Returns, this according to Variety - confirming rumors that were flying at the end of last week.
The sequel, though not greenlit by the studio, is expected to be released in summer of 2009, although, according to the trade, there is no script or budget as of yet.
...
Warners has an option on Brandon Routh for the sequel, which, according to Singer when speaking at Comic-Con, will be more action-oriented, as the director said that while Superman Returns allowed him to introduce the cast, the sequel would allow him to, “Go Wrath of Khan on it." While Singer didn't name any particular villains that would be in the sequel, he teased - more than once – of an alien threat.
Fourth And Eh
OK, I guess this is mainly for Joe, but in the Ole Miss-Auburn game Saturday, the last time they punted, it seeme to me that they really should have gone for it. There were only five minutes left in the game, and when they turned it over, the odds that they would get the ball back with enough time to do anything were pretty slim. If they had gone for it and not made it, it wouldn't have mattered -- they were losing anyway -- but at least they would have had a chance to win.It reminded me of the Georgia game, when they made a decision near the end of the game that almost certainly cost them a chance at victory.
It's like Ole Miss gets down to the end of the game, sees that they have a shot at winning, and decides, "nah."
Friday, 27 October 2006
W&N
How White and Nerdy Are You?
And that was being pretty liberal with it.
The Terrific Secret of Space
I didn't pay a whole lot of attention to this story at first -- "Al Gore disagrees with elements of Bush policy" just really isn't that big a newsflash.But then Lain pointed out an interesting aspect of the story:
LAS CRUCES, New Mexico—Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore has called for better use of the "space resource" to battle Earth's climate crisis, enlisting entrepreneurial muscle to help solve global issues that threaten the planet's habitability.
Gore said he has long been a fan of faster, cheaper, better approaches that allow the private sector to exploit the space resource "in a responsible and creative, and cost-efficient way."
...
"We ought to learn that lesson and apply it to space," Gore said. "Because of the environmental climate crisis, we need to speed up the introduction of private companies into the creative exploitation of the space resource."
...
"It has the potential, down the road, to create the kind of fuzzy thinking and chaos in our efforts to exploit the space resource as the fuzzy thinking and chaos that the Iraq policy has created for us in Iraq," Gore explained.
...
"We need to avoid putting in place a set of policies that end up creating chaos and new obstacles for the creative exploitation of the space resource," he added.
Oooooh, "the space resource"! What exactly is the space resource? (Dun-dun-duh!) Mysterious!
Thursday, 26 October 2006
Lock, Stock and Apparel
Not only to we have a topical new Hatbag for you to enjoy this week, but there's a whole metric tonne of Easter Eggs hidden away this week.As always, please vote Hatbag. Thanks.
And, since apparently a bunch of ATW readers don't follow the weekly Hatbag link, I thought a brief explanation might be in order -- Hatbag is a weekly webcomic Lain and I create. If you read ATW, take a few extra seconds to go read Hatbag. Please? Please?
1,000 Sols
It's been more than three months since Spirit passed it's original target mission length by two orders of magnitude, and another milestone has been reached -- 1,000 sols on Mars!Not bad. Not bad at all.
Lost Discussion Post
If anyone actually wants to discuss last night's Lost, I'd be glad to do so, but since that rarely happens, I'm not putting any work into this post.
Go! Buy!
My brother has set up a Cafepress shop, so those of you with kids, or who know people who have kids, go buy something.
Wednesday, 25 October 2006
Whew!
Good news, folks! If, in fact, it were determined that an asteroid were going to hit the Earth, Russia would save us with their mighty rockets, rockets that could "repulse asteroids threatening Earth."There. Now you can all sleep soundly at night. Doesn't that make you feel safe?
Trek Cruise
Eh, I just don't know that I like the idea of Tom Cruise in Star Trek, even if it is just a cameo role.
Tuesday, 24 October 2006
The Party
OK, I almost didn't post this when I realized it didn't fit with any of the category tags I've set up for ATW, which are generally pretty useful in keeping myself on topic.Nonetheless, since it combines Alabama and Libertarianism, here's this story from the AP:
MONTGOMERY, Ala. - Loretta Nall, the Libertarian Party's write-in candidate for governor of Alabama, is campaigning on her cleavage and hoping that voters will eventually focus on her platform.
"It started out as a joke, but it blew up into something huge," said Nall, a 32-year-old with dyed blond hair.
Her campaign is offering T-shirts and marijuana stash boxes adorned with a photo of her with a plunging neckline and the words: "More of these boobs." Below that are pictures of other candidates for governor — including Republican incumbent Bob Riley and Democratic Lt. Gov. Lucy Baxley — and the words: "And less of these boobs."
To Fly Or Not To Fly
So it all comes down to this.No more robotic servicing mission. No more new options. NASA will either fly a shuttle crew to Hubble to service the telescope one last time, or it won't.
And the decision will be made soon. Engineers and managers will be meeting Friday to review the situation, and administrator Mike Griffin is supposed to announce his decision not long afterwards.
Shuttle safety is the primary concern. Unlike with space station missions, there's no "safe harbor" option; abandoning the orbiter and staying on ISS until another shuttle can come bring the astronauts home. Rescue would involve having another shuttle ready to launch almost immediately if there were a problem, and determining whether there was almost immediately in the mission. Otherwise, they're flying without a net.
It will be interesting to see what is decided.
Apple-T
I generally don't buy front-design-only t-shirts, and these are also a bit pricy for being one-sided, but a couple of these Insanely Great Tees are kinda tempting.
Monday, 23 October 2006
Bellen book!
Wanna buy a book that may or may not have some Hatbag in it? Get the Bellen collective! We submitted a guest strip a while back, and even gave revised version of the art formatted for the book, but I haven't heard for sure if it made the final cut. That said, the book can be sent to your home for a total of only seven bucks, including shipping, so how far wrong can you go?Of course, if you prefer your books to be guaranteed to be chockfull of Hatbag, may we recommend Bagged & Bored? Or possibly A Canticle for Leibowitz?
More Apple Bits
A few interesting notes from TUAW.com:- Another bit from the Q4 call that I hadn't heard. Apparently Steve said 2007 will be "one of the most exciting new product years in Apple's history." And, you know, it's possible. (On the downside, that means that some of the rumors like the TViP and the iPhone probably won't come to fruition this year.)
- Someone's recreated the old flying toasters screensaver for the Mac. Think I may give it a try.
- Kevin Smith's talking at MacWorld SF. Nice bit of Dave-synergy there.
Also, from elsewhere, apparently Zune is a very naughty word in Hebrew.
Start It Up
OK, it would be pure Mac-centricism to assume Microsoft was running scared from the news that they want to prevent people from using the home version of Vista in virtualization.I mean, I'm sure there's some other really valid business reason for wanting to limit the number of computers your software could be installed on other than just not wanting people to be able to run Vista and OS X side-by-side and get a sense of how they compare. And it wouldn't make sense for them to want to defuse another advantage Apple has over other software manufacturers, since we're talking about people installing Windows on the machines anyway.
So there must be another reason other than just not wanting people to be able to experience both systems.
I just can't figure out what it would be.
Happy iPod Day
Happy fifth anniversary to the iPod!
And congratulations to Apple to dominating a market for five years without figuring out a way to screw it up.
If only I could find some way to celebrate.
RIP Spock's Mom
Jane Wyatt died Friday at the age of 96.While various sites remember her for various things, at ATW she'll always be Amanda Grayson.
Friday, 20 October 2006
Further Instructions
Thoughts on this week's Lost, which I just got around to watching last night:- Decent episode. Main story was interesting, though, despite their promises, I'm no closer to knowing what happened with the hatch than I was beforehand. Flashback was disappointing; first one this year where I didn't really feel like I learned much.
- I'm simultaneously impressed and annoyed that they still haven't revealed how Locke ended up in the wheelchair. Impressed that they've managed to keep something that big in their pocket for two years without using, annoyed that they've been teasing us with it for that long.
- Yay! Polar bear!
- OK, the thing with Desmond and Locke's speech at the end -- that's just freaky. No clue what's going on there.
STS-117 Update
OK, the first update for STS-117, the first flight of 2007, to say that it's been delayed about a month.In fact, there have been several changes in the schedule, so I've gone through and updated the left-hand sidebar. A lot of delays in the early part of the schedule, but some of the later flights have actually moved to the left, so that's cool.
The full current manifest can be seen at that link.
Spaceflight Training
Here's a bit of minor news that I thought captures how spaceflight is changing:For those who may not know, NASA doesn't hire people on as astronauts. When someone is selected by NASA, they come on board as an Astronaut Candidate. Only after an extended training period -- that includes such things as neutral buoyancy diving, flight experience on a trainer jet and weightlessness on a parabolic-flight aircraft -- does that person earn the full title of astronaut. At that point, though, the rookie spaceflight is still years away.
In the future, though, ASCAN training for spaceflight may include, well, spaceflight. NASA administrator Mike Griffin said in a talk at the X Prize Cup that the agency has given some thought, once the suborbital commercial spaceflight business is up and running, to hiring out seats for candidates as part of their training. Rather than simulating the experience on an airplane, ASCANs would essentially experience what Shepard and Grissom did on the first U.S. spaceflights. As training. That's just kinda cool.
Um, OK
I could understand, back in 1997, before the iMac, before Steve became iCEO, during the dark ages, how Wired could have their number one recommendation on how to save Apple be to get out of the hardware business, to sell the OS for use on third-party machines, like Windows does. Apple was struggling, and, let's face it, while their machines may have been a bit higher quality than some other manufacturers' at that point, they weren't anything special -- ugly beige boxes not unlike all the others. Even then, I thought Wired was wrong, but I could understand where they were coming from.But to say the same thing with a straight face in 2006? A wee bit less convincing. Particularly to have the ill fortune to come out when it did. "Market share up 32 percent? Sales beating expectations? Stock price on the rise? Let me tell you what you're doing wrong!"
The truth is, Apple's success has as a lot to do with style, from the car window stickers to the packaging to, of course, the hardware design. Sure, there's substance behind hit, but the style is so clean and original, and the substance so solid ("It just works"), that the latter is often taken for granted, overshadowed by the former.
Sure, divorced from the hardware, the Mac OS would still be a strong piece of software. But would anyone notice?
Thursday, 19 October 2006
Apple Round-Up
Sheesh, I miss a week, and there's viruses on Apple hardware (In answer to your question, Chris, yeah, I think Zune will be able to get viruses), a huge jump in marketshare, a new RED nano, and a giant jump in stock price that I missed out on, since I'm an idiot.
Colonel Panic
Yeah, yeah, I still need to get back to blogging. I'm trying to get caught up, I really am. In the meantime, though, there's some new Hatbag for you to enjoy.As always, please vote Hatbag. Thanks.
And, since apparently a bunch of ATW readers don't follow the weekly Hatbag link, I thought a brief explanation might be in order -- Hatbag is a weekly webcomic Lain and I create. If you read ATW, take a few extra seconds to go read Hatbag. Please? Please?
Monday, 16 October 2006
For Great Justice.
Sorry for the disappearing act, folks.I left Thursday for Stennis Space Center and was gone all weekend. A really impressive site, by the way, with some great stuff going on. Very exciting to see NASA coming full circle there: a big banner on the building where I spent most of my time commemorated the 40th anniversary of the first engine test there -- of the J-2 moon rocket engine. Elsewhere, they just stopped testing the shuttle main engine on one of the pads, so they could convert it -- for testing of the J-2X moon rocket engine.
Today, I reported for jury duty, and will likely spend a good chunk of the week on that.
So, sorry for the lack of blogging, but my responsibility in determining a man's fate has to come first.
Thursday, 12 October 2006
ATW Comic War: Round Two, Fight One
The latest All These Worlds War continues: the ATW Comic War! Characters from twenty comic strips will be pitted against each other in one-on-one combat, and you pick the winner. All you have to do is vote for the character each battle that you think would be most likely to win.OK, let's eliminate some folks. This is the first fight from the loser's bracket, so the person who loses goes home -- if they live that long!
The Yellow Kid's already been bested by one military man, Doonesbury's B.D. Now he faces another -- Beetle Bailey's Sarge, sent to the loser bracket by Lucy, from Peanuts. Let the battle begin!
Cast your vote for the character you think would win:
Sarge (4 votes)
The Yellow Kid (2 votes)
Just Forget It
This being Thursday, the week's new Hatbag is now online. Also, we've finally got around to posting about our Wikipedia entry experience last week, if you haven't seen it.As always, please vote Hatbag. Thanks.
And, since apparently a bunch of ATW readers don't follow the weekly Hatbag link, I thought a brief explanation might be in order -- Hatbag is a weekly webcomic Lain and I create. If you read ATW, take a few extra seconds to go read Hatbag. Please? Please?
On The Ballmer
So, Steve Ballmer says that Microsoft won't lose money on the Zune at $249, though they won't make much, either, and basically concedes that Apple set the pricepoint for the Microsoft player.I found this quote rather revealing as well: "There are cases where software gets monetized through hardware. That's what an iPod is. iPod is a software thing. You just happen to collect the money on the hardware." That's a logically Microsoft approach to things. Microsoft is, after all, traditionally a software company, so, of course, they would see it as being about the software. Jobs doesn't see it that way (in fact, if anything, Jobs traditionally has been more about the hardware, but I think he learned his lesson about that at NeXT). It's the total package -- the pieces have to fit together, neither more important than the other, or both suffer. So, yeah, Ballmer, tell yourself it's not about the hardware. That's probably why Zune is so ... inelegant.
Also telling -- With that "software" comment, he's talking about the music, isn't he? I mean, they're not making money off the OS or anything. Steve Ballmer thinks digital media is "software." Wow. Say, have you heard the new Dylan software? Another huge cultural difference -- For Jobs, getting into music was all about the music. There was real respect on his part, and that's why artists like U2 respect him in return. I'd love to hear Bono's response to a call from Ballmer explaining how much Microsoft has enjoyed monetizing U2's software.
A couple more quotes that are less telling, but that amuse me:
- Ballmer concedes that it's the "guys who can touch us in multiple places" that are seen as Microsoft's top competitors rather than those "guys who can touch us in any one place."
- "I want to squirt you a picture of my kids. You want to squirt me back a video of your vacation. That's a software experience."
The Glass Ballerina
OK, the official Lost discussion post for the week, for anyone who's interested.The spoiler-free version: Again, I liked it. The flashback, once again, actually provided a bit more info, and the main story forwarded the plot at least somewhat.
That said, I'm looking forward to next week.
Nine?
Out of curiosity, anyone out there watching The Nine?
Wednesday, 11 October 2006
"True" Rumors
So Engadget is saying they hear rumors that the true video iPod is coming before the end of the year.Their lousy mock-up aside, I can easily believe both sides of rumors here. In fact, what if all of the TViP rumors are true?
Going way back, Apple is preparing the video iPod in 2005. We know this much is true, because they released a video iPod last fall.
It needs a little more time, and Apple wants to take advantage of the Christmas shopping season, so they make a quick minor upgrade to the existing photo iPod, and release that so they can make use of the video infrastructure they've developed, to wit, TV shows on iTMS, etc.
So the video iPod is released, but the "true video iPod" remains a rumor.
Rumors then reported that it was close to completion in early 2006. On the surface, that seems unlikely, since we still haven't seen it. But what if it was? Sales are good of the "fake" video iPod, so there's no reason not to capitalize on the investment they've already made. In addition, the major focus at Apple is on the Intel transition, so they can enjoy 5G iPod sales in the background while moving the Mac back to the spotlight.
With no reason to rush the TViP to market, Apple decides to take the extra time to tweak it a little bit, adding some more ambitious technology -- the touch-free interface, wireless connectivity, all, neither, something else entirely. Take your pick.
The end of 2006 rolls around, and the improved version of the TViP still isn't ready, and really needs until a little into the next year to be ready. MacWorld San Francisco is looking like a good time for an announcement.
But 2006 is completely different from 2005, because Apple finally has a serious contender in the portable player market -- Microsoft. Against anyone else, the 5G iPod would be enough. Its superior features, cultural awareness and market momentum would carry it through the Christmas season, and then the TViP would pick up at the beginning of the year. Maybe it wouldn't be the best Christmas ever, but Apple could easily weather it.
With Microsoft, though, things are different. With Microsoft in the competition, their player is almost irrelevant. You're not competing against their product, you're competing against their deep pockets, and the pressure they can put on other businesses. Just ask James Barksdale.
The trick is, you have to stop them from getting a toe-hold. Apple can't afford to let Zune be the focus of this Christmas season. They have to relegate it to a footnote. And even if the 5G could weather the season, even if it could dominate the Zune in sales; just letting the Zune be the news focus, the latest and "greatest," gives Microsoft advantage for the coming war.
So, even though the TViP needs until MWSF to be ready, Jobs says it has to be ready for Christmas. He may even have raised his voice once or twice, or said something that wasn't very nice.
If Engadget's right, someone's been burning the midnight oil in Cupertino.
Tuesday, 10 October 2006
STS-116 Update
It's official -- Discovery is cleared to launch at night.Launch remains scheduled for around 9:38 p.m. EST on Dec. 7.
Well, Wiki What We Have Here
My first appearance on Wikipedia -- in an entry about Hatbag -- was deleted, but I'm back!My name appears, for the moment at least, in an entry about the invaluable (albeit, apparently, "of low importance") collectSPACE Web site. Check it out.
Used tags: collectspace, hatbag, wikipedia
Shatner As Kirk Again
In case you haven't seen it on TV, Shatner's donned the red uniform again to play Kirk in a DirecTV ad.Also, in more Trek video online news, here's the intro from the European version of Star Trek IV, in whichh Kirk pauses to reflect on his last two
Also also, here's some missing footage from Where No Man Has Gone Before.
iDesign
From Woot: How would Apple rebrand existing companies?(I like the design at right, but the one I really want to see would replace the blue circle with the Apple logo. That would be cool.)
Saturday, 7 October 2006
Coo Coo Cachoo
Finally got a used copy of Simon and Garfunkel's Concert In Central Park on CD, which I've been looking for for quite a while.And, you know, I'd never really thought about it before, but, really, who puts their cupcakes in their pantry? I mean, honestly.
Yo Again
Greetings from the Apple store in Atlanta.But not the Apple store in Atlanta from whence I normally offer greetings. A different one.
And not the different one where I posted a little while ago. A different different one. (Think Different Different, says I.)
Yep, I've completed a hat trick of Atlanta-area Apple stores. (For, I think, like six total, but I may be missing one.)
(Still like the one at Lenox Mall best of the Atlanta ones.)
STS-116 Update
As of tonight, it will be two months until the STS-116 launch.Unless, you know, they delay it. But what are the odds of that happening?
Yo
Greetings from the Apple store in Atlanta.But not the Apple store in Atlanta from whence I normally offer greetings. A different one. (So far, I like the other one better, but I just walked in and came and did this. Maybe it'll get better as I go further back.)
Shoe User
To be honest with myself, these Tron shoes are not really me, but these shoes just about make me wish I was somebody else so they would be.
The Lost Year
To be fair, I'll admit up front that I was watching the second showing of last night's BSG premiere, so it was on from 11-1 EDT.That said, I found the third season premiere to be, in a word, long. I was really disappointed in it -- I'm asuming they were trying to capture the mood, to reflect how things had changed in the lost year, but really, I would have been just as happy if they had crammed the next-to-nothing that happened in the episode into half the time.
Anybody else have any thoughts on the episode?
Friday, 6 October 2006
Picture Of The Day
The Mars rover Opportunity, as seen by MRO in orbit.
ATW Comic War: Round One, Fight Six
The latest All These Worlds War continues: the ATW Comic War! Characters from twenty comic strips will be pitted against each other in one-on-one combat, and you pick the winner. All you have to do is vote for the character each battle that you think would be most likely to win.Somehow I skipped number six when numbering the battles, so I'm calling this one fight six. Also, this is the last battle of Round One. All characters have now been introduced. And, one other item of business before getting down to the fight -- would y'all prefer this be a quicker single-elimination war, or a double-elimination with more combinations?
Anyway -- the fight. Mark Trail versus Janis (as in Arlo and..). Let the battle begin!
Cast your vote for the character you think would win:
Mark Trail (1 votes)
Janis (3 votes)
SUPER BIG MOON!!!!!
Tonight's full moon will be like 12 percent bigger than some this year. So go check it out.The story has an explanation and some other info, though I imagine my wife will disagree with that last strange moon fact.
Sick Zune?
Tutor mentioned this as a possibility a while back, and I didn't take it seriously then (sorry, Chris), but he may have been right:Cult of Mac today has a post about the potential for malware transmission via Zune.
Thursday, 5 October 2006
ATW Comic War: Round One, Fight Ten
The latest All These Worlds War continues: the ATW Comic War! Characters from twenty comic strips will be pitted against each other in one-on-one combat, and you pick the winner. All you have to do is vote for the character each battle that you think would be most likely to win.OK, here's a combo: B.C.'s The Fat Broad (It's shocking to me that in this day and age she still apparently doesn't have another name) and Bloom County's Steve Dallas. And, for the purposes of the entire ATW Comics War, this is classic Steve Dallas from the early days of the strip. Let the battle begin!
Cast your vote for the character you think would win:
The Fat Broad (6 votes)
Steve Dallas (3 votes)
Thus Seth Some Guy
OK, for longtime and nitpicky readers of Hatbag, there's a stunning development in this week's strip, and for the rest of the audience, it's kinda funny in its own right.As always, please vote Hatbag. Thanks.
And, since apparently a bunch of ATW readers don't follow the weekly Hatbag link, I thought a brief explanation might be in order -- Hatbag is a weekly webcomic Lain and I create. If you read ATW, take a few extra seconds to go read Hatbag. Please? Please?
A Tale Of Two Cities
So, for the Lost folks in the audience, any thoughts about last night's episode?Without getting into spoilers (but please feel free to do so in comments), I thought it was a pretty solid episode. The main story moved things forward a bit and the flashback actually added something I was interested in knowing. The reveal in the very beginning was great, and with the cage and tank it was nice knowing that they really hadn't forgotten about some of the early details we saw that have never been mentioned again.
Wednesday, 4 October 2006
ATW Comic War: Round One, Fight Nine
The latest All These Worlds War continues: the ATW Comic War! Characters from twenty comic strips will be pitted against each other in one-on-one combat, and you pick the winner. All you have to do is vote for the character each battle that you think would be most likely to win.Today's fight hardly seems fair. For the first in any ATW war, we're allowing a team of two characters to enter the battle on the same side! Facing the duo of Frank and Ernest in combat, though, will be none other than Funky Winkerbean, who brings the mighty advantage of being named Funky Winkerbean! Let the battle begin!
Cast your vote for the character you think would win:
Frank and Ernest (2 votes)
Funky Winkerbean (3 votes)
Today In History
4 October 1957 -- The Beep Heard 'Round The World
Cosmic Log has an article about the other space race born on this date two years ago.
Hyper Card
TUAW has a picture of Woz's steak-cutting business card. Wonder it it's intentional that it looks so modern-day Mac. I've found it interesting that the iWoz book cover (and title) are so tied in to the current Mac zeitgeist, but figured that might just be a marketing thing. The business card could just be coincidence, I guess, but it seems unlikely with the combination of brushed metal, cheese grater and font choice.
Bluetutor Update
So, Chris, turns out Bluetooth is totally obsolete. Or something.
Tuesday, 3 October 2006
For Better Or For ... Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh!!!!!!!
Go to the For Better Or For Worse official Web site.
You can look at today's strip, or go back in the archive.
And just stare at the strip for a while.
You'll know when you can stop.
It'll be when the fear takes a hold of your heart that will never be released.
That is all.
Thank you.
ATW Comic War: Round One, Fight Eight
The latest All These Worlds War continues: the ATW Comic War! Characters from twenty comic strips will be pitted against each other in one-on-one combat, and you pick the winner. All you have to do is vote for the character each battle that you think would be most likely to win.Today, we've got, in one corner, Dilbert, and, in the other, Get Fuzzy's Bucky Katt. Let the battle begin!
Cast your vote for the character you think would win:
Dilbert (5 votes)
Bucky (5 votes)
Devested
I now no longer own Apple stock.
I just sold it all. The plan is that it's not a permanent situation. The stock rose after the iTV announcement, and has stayed high since then. The last few days though, it's been dropping, and I've lost $20-$30 since Friday.
My bet is that it's going to continue a downward trend for a little while before plateauing. So I've sold, with an idea at buying it back at a lower price. With the fees I have to pay, it only has to drop $1.40 to break even, any more than that and I make money.
Of course, if Apple announced the true video iPod tomorrow, then I miss out on a huge surge.
But that's how the game is played, right?
Bluetutor
This post is for Tutor, who has an irrationally devoted love for the Bluetooth:Why Doesn't Mac OS X Support Bluetooth Headphones?
Oh, Steve
I don't really have anything to say about the whole story about "DVD Jon" selling his own version of FairPlay that will let other companies produce iPod/iTV compatible media.But I do love this bit from the story: "Jobs apparently warned that while Apple was not a litigious company, other tech firms might not take kindly to whatever DVD Jon might be up to."
Oh, Steve, that's great! I bet he even said it with a straight face, too. I mean, I love Apple truly, madly, deeply, but what, in Steve's opinion, would be a litigious company, then?
And running through his mind as he said it: "And one more thing: I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my DRM. And you will know my name is Jobs, when I lay my vengeance upon thee!
"Boom!"
Contest Roll Out
AICN is completely geeking out about this, but I find it a horrible, horrible idea -- the Transformers movie crew is holding a contest to write a line of dialogue for Optimus Prime.People will be able to vote, and the top ten vote-getters will be recorded by Prime voice actor Peter Cullen. All of those will be posted online, and the producers will choose one of those ten to be included in the movie.
OK, let's just get the contest out of the way right now. Here's your winner: "Let's get these #$@#$)(&)&* Decepticons off this #$&)(*@#&)(*# planet!"
X-3 had a similar moment, where there was a line that was inspired by the Juggernaut redub clip that was all popular on the internet at the time. The audience roared when it was spoken in the movie, but I found it kind of cheap. Fortunately, though, it was only cheapening the Juggernaut, so, eh.
Snakes on a Plane, of course, went a bit further with the fanboy catering (though still no contest) with disappointing results. That, to me, should serve as a cautionary tale for things like this.
The thing is, to me, this just doesn't really accomplish much. It strikes me that the people who are most likely to enter a contest like this are exactly the people who would be interested in seeing the movie anyway.
OK, and I realize I'm waving the geek flag full on here, but I'm really uncomfortable with this being done with Optimus Prime. If it were Starscream or Ironhide or something, yeah, OK, that's one thing. I just cringe at the idea of Prime delivering some fan service dialogue mid-movie. Hopefully, there are enough serious Transfans who geekworkship prime that he'll end up saying something appropriately classy, but I just see where this could go horribly, horribly wrong (Snakes on a Robot That Turns Into a Plane -- SOARTTIAP).
Monday, 2 October 2006
ATW Comic War: Round One, Fight Seven
The latest All These Worlds War continues: the ATW Comic War! Characters from twenty comic strips will be pitted against each other in one-on-one combat, and you pick the winner. All you have to do is vote for the character each battle that you think would be most likely to win.OK, this wouldn't be a proper ATW thread if I didn't take the opportunity to pimp one of my friends when the opportunity arises. Today's battle features Claire from Lucky Cow by Mark Pett, a real-live syndicated cartoonist who lives in Indianola. Battling Claire will be "Nancy" boy Sluggo. (And, uh, I used to have a picture of Nancy's aunt Fritzi, who got Barney-Googled out of her own strip, wearing a B.B. King t-shirt, so the Indianola connections abound.) Let the battle begin!
Cast your vote for the character you think would win:
Claire (1 votes)
Sluggo (1 votes)
Beginning The New Era
The first hardware for the first launch of a test version of the Ares I crew launch vehicle has arrived at Kennedy Space Center. The first stage SRB aft skirt is now at the Assembly and Refurbishment Facility.
Along those lines, Stennis has made the final Space Shuttle Main Engine test on its A-1 test stand, which was the site of the first SSME test back in 1975. (SSME testing will continue on the A-2 stand.)
A-1 SSME testing is stopping so that the stand can be converted for use testing the Ares J-2X engine.
A!
I have a lot of respect for Neil Armstrong.I've never met him. In fact, of the nine men alive today who have walked on the moon, he's one of two that I've never had the opportunity to see in person, and, to be honest, I'm fine with that. There's a part of me that would like to, of course, but there's another part that likes not having that level of reality. Despite having had personal interaction with other moonwalkers enough to appreciate their just-a-guy-who-did-something-incredible humanity, I like the idea of Armstrong as a near-mythological larger-than-life figure. From a historical perspective, he's possibly the most significant person to have lived during my lifetime, and so it seems fitting that he should be a little bigger, a little less "real" than other men.
The respect that I have for him primarily stems from how well he's carried that burden. It's hard to find a single complaint against him. He's had to embody perhaps the greatest success of a century, and has managed to keep his own humanity from impinging on that legacy. No one's perfect, but Armstrong's public profile comes pretty close, which says a lot in this modern age.
That out of the way, I say with all love and respect, I have a hard time buying that he didn't flub his line on the moon, even despite the new supposed computer analysis finding of the missing "a" in "one small step for (a) man."
I mean, I'd love for it to be true, though it doesn't make me think any less of him if he dropped the word. I'm fine with it either way. And, given my above comments about liking him to be larger-than-life, I do find appealing my layman's understanding of why it sounded like he skipped the word -- that Armstrong spoke the line 10 times too fast for human ears to be able to hear the word "a". OK, now it makes sense -- I have no trouble believing that the problem was Neil's superhuman abilities.
But, it all comes down to this -- listen to the line. Ignore whether you hear the "a"; you're not going to. But pay attention to the timing. Is there enough of a gap between "for" and "man" for another word, even a one-syllable word? Even one spoken at superhuman speed?
For me, the new "evidence" is wonderful, and I like that it provides more counterevidence to the conventional wisdom that he skipped the word, but, for me, the mystery remains open.
And I'm fine with that.
Justice League Federation
It's well-known (well, in Trek-geek circles) that Spiner and Logan, the duo that brought the world Nemesis, had an idea for the next Trek movie. They'd also hinted that the idea would have been an all-star multi-generation cast. Now, though, Spiner has pulled back the curtain:"One of the ideas that John Logan and I had about what the next film would have been was a Justice League of Star Trek. Something would bring all the great Star Trek villains together, from Khan to Shinzon, and Picard is the only person who could stop them and he actually has to go through time and pluck out the people he needs to help him. He goes back to the moment before Data blows up and takes him back to get Kirk and Spock, and go even further back and get Scott Bakula's character Archer. The problem with that more than anything is cost - how do you pay for that?"
Sure, there's a visceral fan boy reaction that comes immediately -- cool! But, then upon thinking about it for, oh, two seconds or so, wow, that would be a bad idea. OK, first, the fact that Spiner's duology of the great Trek villians is Khan and Shinzon makes me kinda worry (Particularly considering that this would have been coming out right after Shinzon totally bombed in Nemesis, though that wasn't entirely because the character had no potential). Second, if they're using Khan, would it have been wheelchair-bound much-older-than-when-he-died Khan, or would they have recast? (My preference would be the former -- even crippled, continuity-defying Ricardo Montalban Khan would still be the coolest thing in Trek for many, many years. Oh, crap, now I do want to see that. New Voyages people, get on it immediately!)
So, thoughts on the idea? And who would be in your list of "Trek's greatest villians"?
And, In The End, They're Friends!
Following up on an earlier post, apparently, instead of trying to put pressure on studios to crush the new iTunes Movie Store, Wal-Mart may be ready to work with Apple instead of against it, in a move that reportedly could have substantial impact for iTS. (The stories report that it could give Apple access to more movies, but whether that means Wal-Mart could actually somehow give them movies, which is how it sounds, or just that Wal-Mart supporting rather than fighting iTS would studios more likely to play ball with Apple, which is more likely, I didn't see.)As I recall, something similar happened, albeit more slowly, with Netflix, with Wal-Mart initially trying to start a competing service, but then deciding it would be easier to get a piece of the action from Netflix, which was a "hey, free money" situation for Wal-Mart, but also help seal Netflix' position as the leader of the market (the market which Apple is now trying to make obsolete).
Georgia On My Mind
My chief question is whether you were pleased or disappointed with the game. Also, though, we only caught the very end of the game, but on the radio this morning, the game was being cited as an example of lousy officiating. Didn't anybody else see that, and was it pro-us, anti-us or just all-around?
Tuesday, 31 October 2006
Hubble Update
(Read Entry)
Send Your Name To Space
(Read Entry)
"The Problem Is Even Too Big For Batman"
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Another Tutor Post
(Read Entry)Monday, 30 October 2006
Hubble Update
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CG TOS Update
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Supes IV Mark II
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Fourth And Eh
(Read Entry)Friday, 27 October 2006
W&N
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The Terrific Secret of Space
(Read Entry)Thursday, 26 October 2006
Lock, Stock and Apparel
(Read Entry)
1,000 Sols
(Read Entry)
Lost Discussion Post
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Go! Buy!
(Read Entry)Wednesday, 25 October 2006
Whew!
(Read Entry)
Trek Cruise
(Read Entry)Tuesday, 24 October 2006
The Party
(Read Entry)
To Fly Or Not To Fly
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Apple-T
(Read Entry)Monday, 23 October 2006
Bellen book!
(Read Entry)
More Apple Bits
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Start It Up
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Happy iPod Day
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RIP Spock's Mom
(Read Entry)Friday, 20 October 2006
Further Instructions
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STS-117 Update
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Spaceflight Training
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Um, OK
(Read Entry)Thursday, 19 October 2006
Apple Round-Up
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Colonel Panic
(Read Entry)Monday, 16 October 2006
For Great Justice.
(Read Entry)Thursday, 12 October 2006
ATW Comic War: Round Two, Fight One
(Read Entry)
Just Forget It
(Read Entry)
On The Ballmer
(Read Entry)
The Glass Ballerina
(Read Entry)
Nine?
(Read Entry)Wednesday, 11 October 2006
"True" Rumors
(Read Entry)Tuesday, 10 October 2006
STS-116 Update
(Read Entry)
Well, Wiki What We Have Here
My name's on Wikipedia! (Read Entry)
Shatner As Kirk Again
(Read Entry)
iDesign
(Read Entry)Saturday, 7 October 2006
Coo Coo Cachoo
(Read Entry)
Yo Again
(Read Entry)
STS-116 Update
(Read Entry)
Yo
(Read Entry)
Shoe User
(Read Entry)
The Lost Year
(Read Entry)Friday, 6 October 2006
Picture Of The Day
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ATW Comic War: Round One, Fight Six
(Read Entry)
SUPER BIG MOON!!!!!
(Read Entry)
Sick Zune?
(Read Entry)Thursday, 5 October 2006
ATW Comic War: Round One, Fight Ten
(Read Entry)
Thus Seth Some Guy
(Read Entry)
A Tale Of Two Cities
(Read Entry)Wednesday, 4 October 2006
ATW Comic War: Round One, Fight Nine
(Read Entry)
Today In History
(Read Entry)
Hyper Card
(Read Entry)
Bluetutor Update
(Read Entry)Tuesday, 3 October 2006
For Better Or For ... Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh!!!!!!!
(Read Entry)
ATW Comic War: Round One, Fight Eight
(Read Entry)
Devested
(Read Entry)
Bluetutor
(Read Entry)
Oh, Steve
(Read Entry)
Contest Roll Out
(Read Entry)Monday, 2 October 2006
ATW Comic War: Round One, Fight Seven
(Read Entry)
Beginning The New Era
(Read Entry)
A!
(Read Entry)
Justice League Federation
(Read Entry)
And, In The End, They're Friends!
(Read Entry)