Showing posts with label computers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label computers. Show all posts

Friday, October 12, 2007

10-12-07

Happy Birthday to my Mom & Sis!

DVRs for tonight:
6pm Flash Gordon
7pm Stargate Atlantis
8pm Ghost Whisperer & Blood Ties (Lifetime)
9pm Moonlight & Women's Murder Club (ABC - I'll try a pilot)
10pm Numb3rs & Men in Trees (ABC)

Nobel prize news:
Al Gore (along with a UN panel) has won the peace prize.
For the first time, a former Worldcon guest of honor (1987) has won the literature prize. Doris Lessing has apparently said that she didn't suppose this was for her earlier Science Fiction novels which people didn't consider proper 'literature', though she thought they were amongst her best work.

Sulu and Scotty have been cast for the new Star Trek movie. John Cho will be Sulu. I love John Cho, but I really don't see him as Sulu. This will either be weird or show a totally different side to his acting. Simon Pegg (Shaun in Shaun of the Dead) has been cast as Scotty. I was actually hoping that Paul McGillion (Dr. Beckett from Atlantis) would get the role, since I knew he was trying for it.

Fisher Stevens will have a recurring role on Lost this season.

5 hard drive companies are being investigated by the International Trade Commission for possible copyright infringement. They have 45 days to complete the investigation or come to agreements with the copyright holders or hard drives by Western Digital, Seagate, Toshiba, Hewlett-Packard, and Dell could be banned from the US. Can you imagine that? Talk about shutting down all PC sales in the US.

Scary article about bad information ("cascades of error") leading to fad diets in the US.

CNet has a photo gallery of "dinosaurs" today - computers from the 70s. Interesting.

New technique for making solar panels - from a liquid crystal solution. They think they can cut the costs too. If they can, there may be applications for LCD screens as well as solar panels.

New material designed for aircraft combines layers of aluminum and glass fibers in a lightweight crack-resistant composite.

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

10-10-07

DVRs for tonight:
8pm Pushing Daisies
9pm Bionic Woman & Private Practice (I really need to watch at least one of these)
10pm CSI:NY & Life (I still haven't watched any but have been told I should)

Apparently Pixar is planning not just one John Carter of Mars movie but a trilogy.

Japan's lunar probe has jettisoned baby satellites and has started taking pictures and studying the moon.

Using GPS to predict the weather? By measuring the change to radio waves sent through the atmosphere between GPS-RO satellites, scientists can get a very accurate view of our atmosphere (temperature, humidity, denseness, weather, etc.). Not all GPS satellites are the -RO models, but they are planning to launch more.

Researchers are working on a computer user interface that changes in response to the stress, overload, or distraction level of the user. I'm not sure I want my computer knowing that much about me.

The new Star Trek film has cast it's villain (Eric Bana) and may have found a young Kirk (Chris Pine, assuming he doesn't choose to make the George Clooney movie instead).

Subaru has a new electric car prototype they will be showing off this month. The article worries that with Subaru and Nissan developing electric cars, the new startups may not survive. As long as the cars get made (and not shelved again), then I don't care who does it. Hopefully the startups (even if they die) stay around long enough so that the big players don't abandon the technology.

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

Roundup for 8-31-07

It sounds a bit like friends having a joke together, but Kristen Bell and Clark Duke from Greek say they are forming a band. Well, we know they both can sing, let's just hope they choose better lyrics than that "Darwin Lied" song from Greek (and not quite as absurd as Reefer Madness).
http://community.tvguide.com/blog-entry/TVGuide-Editors-Blog/Ausiello-Report/Kristen-Bell-Hero/800021347?rssDate=12345678
http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2007/08/internet_tv_star_clark_duke_to_form.html#more

The skywatch alert for tonight is actually 830-9pm (much better than 130-6am for the eclipse). It is supposed to be a good time to see the Draco the Dragon constellation.
http://www.space.com/spacewatch/070831_ns_draco.html
However, there is another skywatch alert for early tomorrow morning: a rare meteor shower that could be amazing or could be a complete dud.
http://www.insidebayarea.com/ci_6768311?source=rss

Robot Chicken on the Last Unicorn. This is so incredibly WRONG.
http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/005567.html

Masi Oka commenting on the fact that Bittorrents were used to watch Heroes in France before the TV airdate.
http://torrentfreak.com/heroes-star-recognizes-benefits-of-bittorrent/

Great casting for the Royal Shakespeare Company, but potentially weird scheduling, delays or a new Doctor Who for season 5. David Tennant and Patrick Stewart are going to star in Hamlet next year. Afterwards, David Tennant will play in Love's Labor's Lost.
http://www.comicmix.com/news/2007/08/30/fanboy-meltdown-picard-meets-the-doctor/

XM Radio is going to start doing audio versions of classic books in 30-minute installments, starting with Fahrenheit 451. I don't know how many will be SF, but it probably doesn't matter since I don't have XM radio. :(
http://www.latimes.com/features/books/la-bkw-xmradiobooks30aug30,0,7607137.story?track=rss

Monday is the Kyle XY mid-season finale, and they promise it will answer some questions but have a cliffhanger. Of course.
http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php?category=1&id=43814

There are rumors of ANOTHER Dune movie. I think they've pretty much covered Dune, and I'd like to see them get to another book, but who knows.
http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php?category=7&id=43792

Rumors are that, schedules permitting, Zoe Saldana will be the new Uhura.
http://trekmovie.com/?s=zoe+saldana&searchbutton=go%21

NASA images are going to be archived online by the Internet Archive. This includes non-digital images like the Apollo moon landings they will have to convert, films, videos, etc.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/T/TECHBIT_SPACE_IMAGES?SITE=WIRE&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Anne McCaffrey's website has added a chronological order list. We should double check our BookCat entries for series order.
http://www.annemccaffrey.net/2006-Pern-Reading-Order.pdf

Preliminary schedule for Atlantis shows no midseason break. Only 4 weeks off during the season for holidays. This is too amazing to be true, I'm sure they'll change their minds. Possible spoiler warning: there are TV Guide level descriptions of the first 8 episodes.
http://www.gateworld.net/news/2007/08/preliminary_schedule_for_iatlant.shtml

Reminder, if you are interested, TOR is podcasting from Worldcon in Japan (which started today).
http://www.tor-forge.com/podcasts

Interesting new science development for preventing nasty diseases:
http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Science/2007/08/28/discovery_might_render_viruses_harmless/1552/

Really good interview with John Scalzi.
http://www.januarymagazine.com/profiles/scalzi.html

Something I bet we all need: Top 10 Ways to Clean Your PC
http://lifehacker.com/software/lifehacker-top-10/top-10-ways-to-clean-up-your-pc-294189.php

NBC won't use ITunes for its shows. I hope they provide a good alternative if you miss an ep.
http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/005573.html

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

8-21-07

Cool slideshow: Space.com's top 10 views of Earth.
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/top10_views_of_earth.html

Interview with Kristen Bell about Heroes, etc. Her "arc" will be at least 13 episodes. Sounds like a series regular to me.
http://community.tvguide.com/blog-entry/TVGuide-Editors-Blog/Ausiello-Report/Exclusive-Kristen-Bells/800020731?rssDate=12345678

Rumors are that Doctor Who is going to have a multi-Doctor episode in the 4th season (Peter Davison will appear).
http://www.gallifreyone.com/cgi-bin/viewnews.cgi?id=EElZVVZVpVFCFEHLuq&tmpl=newsrss&style=feedstyle

They will start a Doctor Who comic, based on David Tennant's doctor, next year.
http://www.comicbookresources.com/news/newsitem.cgi?id=11338

According to SFTV.org:
SciFi looks to be planning to repurpose NBC's Journeyman, Bionic Woman
and Chuck, but do not appear to have Heroes on their schedule. The last
week of September shows Journeyman airing at 7 pm on Thursday with
The Bionic Woman at 7 pm on Friday. On Sunday night, they have Chuck
scheduled at 11 pm with Journeyman at 12 midnight. Once Doctor Who
ends its run in the 8 pm Friday time slot, it may be that one of the
NBC shows will take over that time slot on Oct 11th.

They have cast James McAvoy as Scotty in the new Star Trek movie. (I've seen him in 4 roles, but strangely remember him best as the faun in Chronicles of Narnia).
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0564215/

Interview with Amanda Tapping, Michael Shanks and Christopher Judge:
http://www.scifi.com/sfw/interviews/sfw16718.html

They've made a term for the stuff clogging my mailboxes that I'll get around to looking at eventually: bacn. It isn't actually spam, it may be something you want, but you don't really want to read it.
http://news.com.com/8301-13577_3-9763146-36.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

Great article on using nanotechnology to make solar panels more efficient.
http://blogs.zdnet.com/emergingtech/?p=669

Wednesday, August 1, 2007

8-1-07

Joss Whedon and the BBC are finally working on the Buffy spinoff about Giles.
http://www.darkhorizons.com/news07/070731k.php

ABC Family has doubled the order for Greek (season 1 will now be 20 episodes instead of 10). I don't know when the Charisma Carpenter ep will be (#10 or #20).
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070801/tv_nm/greek_dc_1

Mickey might be coming back to Doctor Who. No mention of how this is possible when he's supposed to be in the parallel universe with Rose.
http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php?category=1&id=42951

Jack and the Beanstalk is the first of 10 live action low-budget family films being made by an independent studio. How they manage to be low-budget with the announced cast, I have no idea. The cast includes: James Earl Jones, Christopher Lloyd, Chevy Chase, Gilbert Gottfried, Katey Sagal, and Wallace Shawn (Vizzini from Princess Bride).
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070801/film_nm/beanstalk_dc_1
http://www.zap2it.com/movies/news/zap-jackandthebeanstalkcast,0,3684356.story?track=rss

New style of ergonomic keyboard, curving up at the edges for shorter pinkie fingers, is being made by Logitech. Laurel: I know you use ergonomic keyboards - would this help you? Anyway, it looks kinda cool.
http://news.com.com/2300-1042_3-6200140-4.html?tag=ne.gall.pg

It looks like Battlestar Galactica is going to keep Starbuck's return a mystery for a while.
http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php?category=2&id=42918

Closer has been renewed for a 4th season of 15 episodes.
http://www.zap2it.com/tv/news/zap-tntrenewsthecloserfor2008,0,4001487.story?track=rss

Small (family owned) Napa wineries are being sold. The article focuses on Stag's Leap and Duckhorn.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/08/01/MNFBRAN0I3.DTL&feed=rss.news

Lost is adding 2 new characters (as yet uncast). This post is the character description and a lot of speculation (especially over who should play them).
http://community.tvguide.com/blog-entry/TVGuide-Editors-Blog/Ausiello-Report/Lost-Introduces/800019665?rssDate=12345678