Talking heads

I just love this video. Talking heads as DJ instruments.

That is so.... as they would say in the hood.... 'buuuuck!'.

83 days of unrepeating audio

This is how far storage of information has come. Prepare to have your mind boggled. Consider that you ain't seen nuthin' yet. I predict that within 5 years, you could store every song ever recorded on one portable hard drive.

Which brings me to my post title. A modern iPod can hold 83.3 days' worth of unique music, yet a modern radio station can't avoid playing the same songs every day. The reality of every mp3 player intuitively knowing what kind of music you want to hear at any particular moment is just around the corner. Once that happens, radio is doomed. What about the news? What about the weather? Done and done - on my phone - when I want it.

Sir, can you spare just a bit of CPU power?

Remember how you could lend the spare processing cycles of your computer over the internet to do things like help SETI analyze the signals coming from space to look for signs of intelligent life? You can still do that.

But now there are many more causes vying for those spare cycles...... if you're willing to spare them.

Wow. Just wow.

An Idaho-based startup, Solar Roadways will build a prototype roadway composed of panels of solar cells and glass. The captured energy could be used to both light the roadway and provide electricity to the power grid.

The 12' x 12' panels cost $6,900. Each panel generates an estimated 7.6 kilowatt hours of power each day. If this electricity were pumped into the grid, a four lane one mile stretch of road would generate enough power for 500 homes. Covering the entire US interstate highway system could theoretically fulfil the country’s total energy needs. The company estimates that this would take 5 billion panels, but could produce 3 times more power than the US currently uses. It gets better.

The panels contain embedded LED lights that paint the road lines from beneath to provide safer nighttime driving. The LEDs could also be programmed to alert drivers of detours or road construction ahead, and can even sense wildlife on the road and warn drivers to slow down. The roads could also contain embedded heating elements to prevent snow and ice from forming. Plus, in the future, fully electric vehicles could recharge alongside the roadway and in parking lots, making electric cars more practical for longer trips.

If enough resources could be brought to bear on this type of technology and bring the price of manufacturing these panels down, it could revolutionize roads.

Another BK bites the dust

Another Burger King just closed in Calgary. That makes two that I know of (MacLeod Trail and 16 Ave NW near Motel Village) in the last 12 months. Are there more?

What is it with Calgary and Burger King? They just don't have a very good history here.

What is it? - edition 9

This edition of 'what is it?' feels more like my game of 'where is it?', but I'm looking more for the 'what' than the 'where'. So I pose this question to my eager readers: What exactly are those black rectangles? Sorry - no close-up. For a sense of scale, the area with the black rectangles is just over 2000 feet (600m) wide.

[Clue #1] Before anyone starts with 'ponds of black toxic sludge', it's not liquid.

[Clue #2] All that black stuff is there because nobody seems to want it anymore.

Sci-fi movie inspired tee-shirt designs

It would be fun to wear a tee with reference to your favourite sci-fi movie and see if anyone noticed.

Ummmmm....... never mind

Two examples of people who in hindsight, might have done better to keep their mouth shut.

One, a California assemblyman doesn't realize his microphone is live while going on about his sexual exploits with lobbyists and others. He resigned today.

Two, a Republican heckled Obama during a health care reform speech yelling out "You lie!". This representative's Democratic opponent suddenly received over $100,000 in donations in 24 hours by outraged citizens.

Come on meet the elements

The band They Might Be Giants made a video about the elements. You know..... Hydrogen, Helium, all that stuff? It's kind of fun. Could this become the new nerd anthem?

"Like a box of paints that are mixed to make every shade,
They either combine to make a chemical compound or stand alone as they are"

Time will tell.....

Note: The video is embedded within a boingboing video, so the actual video starts 0:23 in.

I'm missing Ze

I used to love watching Ze Frank's daily video clip (The Show with Ze Frank) he was putting out years ago. It's what inevitably led my friend Bernie and I to create what amounts to fan / tribute videos of the original hosers called Great White North II.

Well, if you're suffering Ze withdrawal like I am, there's always these few shorts he made at Time.

A story about rights

Here's the trailer of a new movie coming out this fall:

Scene: A dark, narrow street in London. Present day.

Two plain clothes police stop a 43 year old man, his 11 year old daughter and her six year old friend. They confiscate the man's USB thumb drives, cell phones, digital camera and CD. They make him stand in front of a CCTV to be photographed and then they search and photograph the children. They never tell the man where he can go to get his property returned. They never return it.

Oh wait, sorry. That's not a movie. It's real life.

Number nine.........

I just noticed..... today is 09/09/09.

It only took me until 5pm MST.

In a somewhat related story..... the Beatles music catalogue was released today in a completely remastered version (English: sounds better).

Number nine........ Number nine........ Number nine........ Number nine........

Not a coincidence

Now you know why it's called 'pie' errrr.... 'pi'.

I don't know whether to be in awe or go to the kitchen.....

Very Sci-Fi-ish

Someone took footage of a toy at the Googleplex called the Google Holodeck.

[Prediction] Some day, hi-def web cam feeds will be integrated into this type of application and you'll even get to see events in real time. That will be something.

♫ Lies lies lies yeah ♪

"The British Government's official figures on the level of illegal file sharing in the UK come from questionable research commissioned by the music industry."

Pfff! Come on..... That would never happen.....

Tucows speaks on the copyright debate

The supposed 'public' consultations the Canadian government is having are about to come to a close. There have been accusations of interference, from online public submissions being altered (which the government vehemently denies, to stacking the deck of town hall meetings with bias in favour of the entertainment industry.

Meanwhile, various stakeholders are weighing in on their feelings and ideas regarding how Canadian copyright law should evolve, unfortunately, the average Canadian likely won't get a chance to read or hear it before a law is drafted.

Except for this one. Tucows will be making a submission to "focus on the role of service providers and how they are being miscast in this dialogue" and will include a brilliant article by David Weinberger discussing the fundamental misconception in linking copyright to creativity. An excerpt:

"Whether it's Walt Disney recycling the Brothers Grimm, Stephen King doing variations on a theme of Bram Stoker, or James Joyce mashing Homer up with, well, everything, thereís no innovation that isnít a reworking of whatís already there. An innovative work without cultural roots would be literally unintelligible. So, incentives that require overly-strict restrictions on our use of cultural works directly diminish the innovativeness of that culture."

The article itself starts right after the title: Copyright's Creative Disincentive.

More on how you can have your voice heard before it's too late.

Results of submissions so far.

Get a taste of the greatest performance art

If you've ever wondered what it's like to perform improvisational theatre, now you have a chance to try it out for a very reasonable fee. Chinook Learning Services is offering, for the first time, an improvisation workshop for absolute beginners. No experience of any kind is necessary. It doesn't even matter if you've never tried acting before. Participants will spend a total of 9 hours over 3 Monday nights learning the basic elements of improvisation. The environment will be fun, friendly and safe and will employ games and exercises. Improvisation skills have a secondary benefit, as they help with self-esteem, team work and thinking on your feet. After this workshop, you will probably have a better idea if you'll want to take it to the next level.

This course is only running once this semester, starting October 19th. So even if you're just curious, register now. Here's your chance to learn the very basic elements of improvisation. Yes, I will be facilitating this workshop.

Here's what you paid for but won't get to use

I was away from the internets when this story broke (yeah, I know..... it was horrid), so I apologize for the lateness of this story and applaud my friend Ernest for bringing it to my attention.

Canadian Industry Minister Tony Clement scrapped a taxpayer-funded online tool that helps consumers compare cellphone plans. Allegedly this happened after lobbying by the wireless industry. The tool was apparently shelved just weeks before roll-out after government officials met with representatives from the mobile phone lobby. Michael Geist weighed in on his blog on Monday.

Some enterprising individual posted a glimpse of said tool (be sure to view it full screen to read it). Wonder how long before it's pulled down?

[Update] Ernest alerted me to a story about how the UK have their own mobile rate calculator, that includes data plans as well.

Thanks Ernest.

Because we don't get enough advertising....

You know what a captcha is right? Those online security quizzes that ask you to type in what you see to prove you're a human, not a programmed online 'bot'. Microsoft (those cheeky monkeys) are applying for a patent to embed advertising into captchas, in a manner similar to what's pictured here.

Look! It's the chicken lady!

Are you a fan of The Kids in the Hall? Did you know they are currently filming a new movie ummm correction.... 8 part TV series? OK, did you know that they're providing updates on their own Facebook page?

Make sure you look at all of their pictures. There's some wicked first looks at new characters and the kids look awesome.

Voice activated remote control. Why do we not have this yet?

I've already blogged about this subject before, but I felt like revisiting the topic after talking to my friend Ernest.

I'm certain that there is a substantial segment of the population that just can't navigate the complexity of their audio and video system components with the supplied remotes. Although friends have suggested alternate universal remotes, I don't think the perfect universal remote has been invented yet. Why? Because it still requires you to press the right combination of buttons.

What we need (and certainly have the technology to pull off) are remotes that respond to voice commands. You might need a techno-savvy individual to set them up, but once that's done, operating your gear should be as simple as ordering "Turn the TV on!" There are so many technically challenged folks out there (not their fault), people who can't see the buttons well along with any other handicaps that prevent the successful use of remote controls and voice command would solve most of these issues. The remote could even ask for confirmation when it interprets a command that could be potentially annoying if obeyed by mistake. Example:

User (U)"Turn everything on."
Remote (R) "Do you want all components to be turned on?"
(U) "I just want to watch TV."
(R) "I will turn on the components necessary to watch TV."
Later....
(U) "Louder."
(R) "Is this loud enough?"
(U) "That's fine."
Later still....
(U) "11 O'clock news."
(R) Switches to the channel most watched at this time, further narrowed down based upon scanning online TV listings for news broadcasts. "Is this the right channel?"
(U) "Yes."
After midnight....
(U) "ZZZzzzzzzzzzz." (snoring)
(R) Slowly adjusts volume down to zero. Waits one minute, slowly turns down TV picture brightness. Waits 5 minutes, then turns all components off.

Another example:
(U) "Watch TV"
(R) Switches on the components necessary to watch TV.
(U) "Start surfing."
(R) Switches every 3 seconds to the next higher channel
(U) "Faster!"
(R) Switches every second to the next higher channel
(U) "Stop!"
(R) Stops changing channels immediately.
Phone rings...
(R) Automatically mutes sound to allow user to answer phone.
Call is finished...
(U) "OK, I'm done, put the volume back up."
(R) Re-adjusts volume back to previous level.

This remote could be programmed to respond to a variety of commands natural to the user while also learning the viewing habits of the user to more intuitively interpret their spoken commands. This might create some comedic situations if the user is drunk or otherwise under the influence, but then the user likely doesn't have much success with regular remotes in this situation anyway. Hopefully there isn't an issue with people who yell at their TVs in response to what they're watching, like a hockey game for instance.

(U) "Awwww geez! That net was wide open!"
(R) "What?"

P.S.: I think we could fix that - preface every command with the word 'remote'.

No cats?

Wednesday, September 9th, I will participate in 'no cats day' by not posting anything cat related. I cannot predict what kind of effect this one day cat ban will have on subsequent days however.

Obama to brainwash the kids (no - not really)

What's funnier than a Republican administration? When the Republicans are attacking the administration, of course.

Take this case for example. Obama plans to make a televised speech to American students on September 8th, encouraging them to "work hard, set goals for their education and take responsibility for their learning". This is totally un-American (a private joke for Mitch and Carla) and has the Republicans accusing Obama of trying to "indoctrinate America's children to his socialist agenda." They're encouraging good right wingers to keep their kids home from school that day so that they aren't polluted by Obama's evil influence.

See? You can't make up funny shit like this even if you tried.

[Update] We now have the transcript of the speech. Looks pretty amazing to me.

Even the name is fun

While in Spokane, I found a neat little novelty shop called Boo Radley's, down by Riverfront. This shop has kitschy and unusual gifts. For adults with a sense of humour and nostalgia this is nirvana. It's a browsing kind of store where you should take your time and explore every nook and cranny. I saw Star Trek action figures, retro metal lunch boxes, fun books, zombie and robot comics, wind up toys and so much more.

What a fun, eclectic little store.

Hey internets! You iz old.....

Did you know that the root of the internet turned 40 this week? S'true!

Here's a video of Leonard Kleinrock describing the first inter-networked connection. For more real internet porn (totally safe for work), here's the same guy showing off the world's first packet switch (what we call a router today). That device is shown at the left.

Then why do we have them?

Remember how the medical community had us believing the appendix had no purpose? Wrong! It's actually useful supplementary material at the end of a book, article, or document.

I kid. I'm a kidder. I was really referring to the one in your gut. Turns out they are useful after all.

Just breathe

In the not too distant future, a doctor may be able to tell if you have lung cancer through a special kind of breathalyzer. This would allow cancer to be detected at a much earlier stage, which could save many lives.

Online kid's stuff

If you have kids, you are likely very protective about what they do online. There are some amazing sites just for kids though and this article highlights a few of them.

Like the Crayola page (seen here).

Yes I drew that. Yes, I am 6.

Making pedestrians safer

While we were in Kirkland Washington (near Bellevue), we noticed that they take their pedestrian crosswalks very seriously. More than 60 of the crosswalks have yellow flags on either side of the crosswalk in little buckets attached to a light post. You grab a flag before you cross to help drivers see you better. It's called PedFlag. These same crosswalks also have in-road lighting that lights up and flashes to make the crosswalks easier to see when folks are using them.

Anything that improves crosswalk visibility is a good thing. Calgary could learn a lesson or two from this.

Nice ride

Check out this nice bike we saw in Kirkland Washington. Posted for all you bike fanatics out there.