THIS JUST IN

Think Geek has announced the following new products this years April Fools!
Included on the list of new items is a pair of shirts for an imaginary 100 dollars that offers the portal technology from GlaDOS. The shirt has an LCD display and a wireless camera to emulate the effect. Ha ha ha, I love this Holiday so much!
Among other things they also have released a USB pet rock.
Visit the site, today only!!

April Fools

Hey all, it's April 1st and here it is. The most foolish day of all!
In Australia it's already tomorrow, or at least it's been tomorrow for a bit longer. They've put on a prank concerning a football with a GPS unit inside. Actually not that unlikely, but that's the deal with these pranks is that they blur the line between fantasy and possibility each year to confuse us.
CADIE is also quite awesome, Google is really making me laugh tonight.
Anyway, the only other folks worth mentioning who are celebrating today is the pirate bay.

Tomorrow, Think Geek should have some fun stuff on their site.

Ray Kurzweil

I saw his first TED talk at around Christmas/ New Years time this year online. Some of the stuff I learned from that talk really shaped my understanding of technology evolution as a natural process. I have always understood that technology has a crescendo to reach eventually, but Ray really helps identify what that will be. What the objective is at the other end of this vertical wall of exponential growth we're looking straight up at in history. A wall with a mural of every conceivable possibility painted upon it.

The first thing I'd like to point out is that without TED I wouldn't have learned from Ray as quickly. It is through TED that these terrific ideas finally get mass audience. It's almost like an ad agency for the scholars. I would not have learned about several movers and shakers had it not been for the Technology, Entertainment, Design seminar series. So, firstly, thank you to the minds responsible for TED (and also FORA while I'm at it).

Secondly, I recently acquired a copy of Ray's most recent book. It is full of some of the most amazing predictions I have ever read. This man is painting one of the most amazing pictures in my mind and I plan on using this blog in the future to reflect my own thoughts in contrast to some of his own.

Ray, and his ideas will be featured in an upcoming film called the Transcendent Man, which according to it's IMDB page was released 2 days ago.

Anyway, it's a highly recommended watch/read/surf. Please visit the film's website for more information.

Wasting away in Margaritaville

Ok, so I just wanted to express how entertained I was by last Wednesday's episode of South Park. The episode focused on the current recession. Randy Marsh somehow manages to lead the people of South Park to avoid needless spending.

The people of South Park quickly fear the economy and Kyle, the Jew, restores their faith. Really, really funny stuff.

More than that though was a truly original B-Story of Stan trying to return Randy's Margarita maker. It was reminiscent of The Divine Comedy and the various circles of Hell.

See for yourself :)

The First Telescope

What is civilization? In our time it is knowing that Copernicus was correct and that the Earth is not the center of the universe, among other things. In the 1600's it was almost the exact opposite.
Starting April 4th, the telescope spyglass, the only one preserved, will be leaving the country of Italy for the first time in almost 400 years since it was built by the craftsmanship of Galileo.


Thanks to Ryan from the Times for the picture, but because it will be at the Franklin Institute this spring and on display for the entire summer I doubt seeing this will be something I pass up, and therefore Ryan I'll use my own pictures when I talk about this next time.

True Lies: The Play!

So I didn't post a review for Mother Courage from February. I didn't post a review that I had prepared for Urine Town at Hart House.
With that aside I'd like to offer a review of the performance I observed most recently.

This was the lovely True Lies rendition produced for the stage. It was done by the York Theatre program in the Greene Theatre in the fine arts building. Maybe there's no 'e' at the end of Greene.

Anyway, it was a lovely adaptation. Quite comical and I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed it. Not much makes me laugh, but this qualified.

It was part of the playGround series, which is similar to New Voices at Ryerson in that it showcases new talent from the students and playwrights.

There were a few things that I really enjoyed in this production.
The first thing that I thought was quite original was the Fox Searchlight sequence that airs before most Fox films was some-what replicated for the stage.

This was done by fading and raising various lights on the tubes, and playing the fanfare in sequence. The only thing from lighting designer M. Anderson hooked up that stuck with me. The other cues were also fantastic but the overall show was completely controlled by the actors.


Speaking of which, I have to say I enjoyed not only my good friend Ray Mackenzie's performance, but also the writers ensured to include the very memorable strip-tease sequence performed by Jamie Lee in the original film.

the last thing that really stuck with me was the wardrobe the production team chose for Simon. Oh that shirt! It really captured the feeling that Simon brings out. He's the pathetic under-achiever in all of us. And that shirt is probably hanging up in my closet.

reconsidering...

So, a moment ago I was furious with the unacceptable variety of platforms for communication that we are forced to use and I have to say: at least Google is in my corner. I have no doubt that Google will be a good teacher for the kind of teaching I'm trying to express. Thanks!

Trip Plan #1

Ok, so I've been planning this backpacking/ road trip for a few months now. The plan has been either go before interviews for theatre programs, or go after these interviews are done before work picks up again.

Here's something that just kind of piqued my interest as I was looking more into the Media Lab at MIT. When I discovered MIT had been working on developing an opera that's pretty amazing from the production value perspective. Robot-controlled self aware actors.

Anyway, that got me thinking: could I get tickets? The answer is no. I don't think so. In any case, Boston isn't very warm during this time of year so I'll wait and see what comes up in the summer.

I was looking at what kind of events CalTech would be putting on when I'd be around there. It doesn't look like there is that much available though.

How about UCLA? They have an event page here and it looks slightly more promising.

Finally, what about Stanford events?
There seems to be alot offered here too, but this one caught my attention the most. Cosmology seems pretty interested and I imagine the physics faculty is one of the most renowned (Stanford ranks in the top 10 along with Harvard and MIT). Hopefully over time I'll look at these a little deeper and make a choice from there.

FRUSTRATIONS

Ok, here is a really quick and unedited rant about how users and platforms need to start getting along.
I am sick of Microsoft and I'm sick of Apple. I don't want these platforms that have sustained the average user since 92 but have been been reanimated year after year with no real promises of future abilities. I want my windows platform to be more stable. I don't want to constantly be thinking of what features are missing and that's all I do.

Someone asked me: "John I want my AspireONE to use my Toshiba Satellite LCD as a second monitor." I don't want to Google this and come up with solutions like: make a virtual second screen through emulation and then use VNC over a network. There's no reason I need to multiply my video controller requirement by 2. I keep searching. I find Intel's cross platform display technology. It's on the same web page as their wireless power technology. Sharing information across platforms is nothing new, why is there no solution to this?

Why is there a Sony console and a Microsoft console and why is that no one is capable of distinguishing which is more capable? Why is it I can't install Open SUSE on my Lenovo netbook without understanding linux more than I ever will? Why is it that using the internet my communication is limited to skype or IM software. Why isn't there a more universal system? Why is it that if I'm looking at a platform to build a home theatre on there's a chance it will be obsolete after less than a year?

Why is it technology is in a corporate rut? Sure, on the one hand it wouldn't achieve this rate of evolution if there wasn't that oh-so important element of greed coming from Philips to be the first with an E27 LED bulb or Sony to have the first commercially available 4K OLED TV. But on the other hand, there independent accomplishments are always struggling to get to the end user. ALWAYS.

Why is it if I want to do anything on a new platform. Such as the mobile broadband platform I have to struggle with such a breadth of solutions.

Why is gesture recognition still a year and a half away? Why is it there will be no winner in the next wave of intelligent devices? Why is it the iPhone is still the number one platform and yet limited like someone with Parkinson's? Why is it that when the newest forms of augmented reality are made available they will have no support for different users?

This process needs to end, there needs to eventually be government intervention so that the people can co-exist with technology and tools they need without bending to the will of the corporations. I wish I could code like some people in linux, but I can't. It's a skill I'm not likely to ever develop as well as I would like to. It's a skill most users don't have and that's going to change.

Windows users have a history of being older people with zero skills. In 10 years that's going to shift and the new uni-platform will reveal itself. Because it will be what appeals to the market. A wider and wider availability of tools. And tools to improve the tools we use. Couple this with artificial intelligence in design and TED 2020 looks very promising for the things I have problems with today.

The bottom line is that we can't expect that technology is going to be everything we want it to be.

Rev3 Survey

So, I was browsing the Rev3 site to see if there were any live Diggnation events in the next month or so that I could crash while I'm traveling after my Ryerson interview. While I was doing that I found a link to a survey. It was a pretty easy survey, hopefully I skewed the results a bit. Anyway, at the end of the survey is a video. Here's a link. It's a preview of a new show they're working on. I know some people that will admire the jump into a new, non-technology related discipline. I for one, will pass.

RealD and Sony deal

Ok, so I'm looking up some info on home theatre set ups and I found this piece on engadget.

The article talks about producing a bridge between digital 3D and the currently existing array of technology. Do you set up a projector now or wait for it to be 3D capable? 1080P or 4K?
A panel display or a projector?
LCD or LCoS projector?

:)

Lenovo S10e

So, new computer time of year. This time the purchase is squarely aimed at a somewhat equipped netbook. This Lenovo is full of suprises and still only a few days old. So far I'm very pleased with it's performance. and the price was unbeatable. Here's a demonstration of what happens with the three indicator LED's on the front panel during a boot. Lenovo really knows class.

I bought this machine because of my terrific experience with the T61 that I used professionally at IBM last year.

Moon Mission is one more step closer...

So, this piece of news just surfaced on Digg.
the article is about Obama getting the NASA budget into order and I think this is HUGE news. Sure, the new moon mission has been in the minds of NASA and everyone that speculates on the future of the space programs of the world (and aren't fully satisfied with the ISS).


This is the link. Interesting intent. I mean it's one thing to say things about it, but it's another to actually be successful. It would seem that Obama is really making his intents known with the budget news that's coming out. The possibilities that can stem from this decision is quite stunning. This news coupled with what's already been announced RE: tech in the stimulus package suggests that the trends being established today will continue the rate of change they've been experiencing since 2000. Obama has priorities straight. It seems his boldness is impacting things here.

I was listening to CBC Radio one and heard some people talking about what was being passed currently in parliment regarding the creating of a smart energy system. Essentially a system that is able to control variable load better by introducing intelligent machine into the control system. It's a very important investment. So, if we can prioritize that we'll stay on track.