Technology
« Older Entries | Newer Entries »Beyond the Uncanny Valley of the Robo-Dolls
[ Comments Off ]Posted on June 26, 2008 by admin in Lifestyle & Culture, Technology
Thursday, June 26th, 2008Welcome to the Uncanny Valley, where things are getting creepier every day.
Welcome to your creepy robot future. The ACM-R5 Amphibious Robot Snake pictured here is not a CG effect created for the next Alien
Screw Vanity Fair, Gimme Some Vanity Press
[ Comments Off ]Posted on June 24, 2008 by admin in Popular Media, Technology
Tuesday, June 24th, 2008MagCloud lets you start a magazine with nothing more than a PDF file and a PayPal acount.
I’ve always been a bit of a magazine fetishist. Over the years, some favorites have included rags like The Face, I.D., i-D, Wired, Surface, and many more. Lately I like Radar. Although they got a little too fanboy/fangirlish sometimes, they present some pretty amusing skews on pop media. All of our magazine content frustrations are now over, though, thanks to MagCloud. If you can create a PDF and setup a PayPal account, you can start a magazine. They take care of the printing, mailing, and subscription management. The profit model is based on the same idea as services like CafePress. You design the product and (over)price it, they manufacture, bill, and ship. Pretty cool. They’re still in Beta, but don’t be surprised to find a print version of Dissociated Press for sale soon. Read the rest of this entry »
Building a PC-Based Studio for Less Than $100.00 (Part 1)
[ 1 Comment ]Posted on June 22, 2008 by admin in Music, Technology
Sunday, June 22nd, 2008Part 1 of a series in which we attempt to set up a usable home recording environment using discarded equipment and free software.
As a musician and former soundman, I’ve typically had mixed feelings about the available PC-based software & hardware for music production. Since I’ve also worked in the business world a lot, my Windows-based computers have often been in the perpetual twilight of late adoption, i.e.: the latest software that finally incorporates features I want is so power-hungry that my system can’t run it. Ultimately, I’ll buy some quad-processor monster with terabytes of RAM and drive space, but in the short-term, I thought I’d try a little experiment: Set up a basic home-recording environment for less than a hundred dollars. Read the rest of this entry »
Flea Circus Origami
[ Comments Off ]Posted on June 20, 2008 by admin in Technology
Friday, June 20th, 2008Using really big expensive medical machines to make really amazing little origami swans.
No, the man pictured here is not having his brain sucked out by our alien overlords. He’s using Intuitive Surgical’s da Vinci® Surgical System, a Minimally Invasive Surgical method that allows much smaller incisions to be made while performing sophisticated procedures. The system features “wristed instruments with seven degrees of freedom, three-dimensional, intuitive visualization and ergonomic comfort”, which basically means the surgeon’s hand motions are replicated by eensy-weensy robot hands, and he gets to see the work in Hi-Def 3D. Check out this video on YouTube in which the system is used to fold a teeny Origami swan. Your flea circus will never be the same.
Bloggers to Associated Press: “You can’t fire me, I quit!”
[ Comments Off ]Posted on June 17, 2008 by admin in Popular Media, Technology
Tuesday, June 17th, 2008Bloggers boycott Associated Press for being foolishly selfish buttheads.
Apparently the Associated Press is setting guidelines for how bloggers can repurpose their content (ironically, you’ll need a New York Times log-in to read that link). This has some bloggers in a bit of a tizzy. Enough of a tizzy, in fact, that some bloggers are trying to start a boycott and petition the AP. It all started with DMCA takedowns filed against Drudge Retort . Am I getting obscure enough here for you? Let me sum it up for you quickly: basically, bloggers will use excerpts from AP articles and then link to the article. The problem (from the AP’s point of view) is that this constitutes “hot news” misappropriation, and is a violation of copyright law. Patently absurd, in my opinion, and I don’t even rely on AP news feeds directly for content. It smacks of the continuing tendency of large, established organizations (the RIAA & MPAA spring to mind) that are used to monopolizing an industry suddenly figuring out that those weirdos on the intra-nets are actually having an impact on life, commerce, and the world in general. I’m not actually supporting the boycott, but I found it amusing that the same week I bought the domain dissociatedpress.com for personal & parody usage, Read the rest of this entry »