Yet another shining example of what will happen when geeks rule the world.
Unfortunately (or fortunately) this makes total sense to me. And, keeping it all in the family, my lovely daughter works for BB&T, so she will probably figure out how to cash it. (From tiny pic).
I started out as a skeptic, but I’ve become a big fan of my nike+iPod gadget set. My wife 
got me the gift box set for Christmas which has an iPod Nano, the Nike+ sensor that goes in or on your shoes, and a receiver that plugs into the bottom of the iPod (just like the docking or power cord). The product has been out for a while, but has gone through some improvements, particularly on the nike+ web site.
The best characteristics of the product are the motivation, the real-time feedback and the record keeping (see below for one caveat on the record keeping). (more…)
I don’t live too far out in the boonies, but I do have a septic system. I’ve had it for eleven years (since we built the house) and we’ve never had it cleaned out. Before you septic knowledgeable experts give me grief, it’s been inspected every quarter as required but has never needed it.
Until yesterday. (more…)
I have almost every album Rush has put out…on LP, including a pristine 1975 Fly By Night. I have signed copies of several albums now considered “Classic Rock”, including a Black Sabbath Album signed by Ronnie James Dio (the singed who took Ozzy’s place, and led Rainbow…remember them, kids?), plus copies of albums that are hard to find on CD or iTunes (remember Riot’s album Narita?).
As of last night, I have my old Fly By Night album on my new iPod.
And I am slowly but surely getting many of my LPs moved to MP3 and onto my iPod, through a USB Turntable and software called Audacity, one of the coolest geek gifts my wife has gotten for me. The turntable is from ION; setup and use is a breeze; this type of technology has been around for a while, but because of how simple this configuration is, I highly recommend it. (more…)
The teams I’ve worked on have managed some incredibly large data centers. But I have
some serious geek envy for the dudes running the computing and network infrastructure for CERN’s Large Haldron Collider.
In case you’ve been sleeping in a scientific vacuum, you know that that the Large Haldron Collider (LHC) is where big bucks meets particle physics. To says that it is “big” is using small words for, well, big things:
I’ve been reading this book for a while. Non-fiction books (except history books) always take me longer, as I like to check the facts, absorb the ideas…yeah, I know, it reminds some of you of schoolwork.
Dr. Lloyd’s book is full of ideas worth absorbing, the main one being that the universe is a continually running quantum computer. His book is an excellent mix of computer science, quantum mechanics and information theory, three subjects that can get quite difficult to explain separately, let alone combined. Dr. Lloyd does an excellent job of laying out the groundwork of past and current science, then using that foundation to theorize his ideas. It is a short (211 pgs, PB) little book that is dense with concepts and ideas. (more…)
SFSignal is running their Tuesday Mind Meld feature with the question: are we headed for
a Technological Panopticon?
My response is there, along with the august company of Vernor Vinge, Charles Stross and David Brin (none of whom I believe are Vulcans either).
I’m not sure that technology alone will allow the little guy to fight back, but innovation, ingenuity and man’s sense of self-preservation will.
A panopticon is a prison where everyone can see you; in the case of privacy it’s a voluntary prison, one of choice. Given such a choice, some people in the world will not worry about it, some will believe it is inevitable; people are proving this today as the herd mentality brings acceptance of national security cards, CCTV cameras, the poorly named “Patriot Act” and other privacy intrusions.
Read the introduction article here. 
As we pass the anniversary of Y2K, a techno-phobe’s thoughts turn to the many other ways in which technology could accelerate the end of the world. Even though our mass of old computer programs did not rise up and crash on 1/1/2000, that does not mean that robots, AI, nanotechnology and the like are not worrisome for our future.
Some of you (and you know who you are) are thinking: the three laws will protect us. (more…)
With the end of the Mayan calendar looming in a scant five years (December 21, 2002 give or take), there is a seeming
increase of talk, movies, articles and general water cooler chatter about the end of the world these days. Most of it I find quite entertaining, some of it ridiculous, and other parts simply in need of a good thrashing. And the public at large believes more of what they see in a Will Smith I Am Legend movie than what they should be able to think through with their own brains (I will admit that whatever Mr. Smith says is alright by me, but, let’s face it, he’s no George Clooney).
A lot of people are thinking about the end of the world (we know that every human wants to think that something BIG is going to happen during their lifetime, that NOW is the most important time to be alive…it’s part of our genetic makeup, I suppose). Some are even thinking about avoiding it. But the vast majority are so busy that unless we send them a message on their Blackberry’s or iPhones, I’m quite certain they might miss it.
In spite of being politely asked to leave the Boy Scouts (or the WeBlows) at an early age, I do believe in being prepared. We’ve got five years to plan and prepare so might as well get a head start, right?
So, in doing my part, I present this compendium; (more…)
In the December Global Intelligencer, I’ve got an article which takes everyday items like cell phones and TVs and equates them to the theoretical physics of the Standard Model and the Grand Unified Theory. Read it and leave comments in the forum, or leave comments here.
