October 31, 2007
Enable Technoratic Claiming
I'm finally in the process of setting up my Technorati blog claims ...
http://technorati.com/people/technorati/cavrak
Posted by sjc at 6:08 PM | Comments (0)
October 25, 2007
Theo Jansen - Kinetic Sculptures
Theo Jansen, of the Netherlands, designs and buiids animari - large kinetic sculptures constructed of light materials resembling beach animals. After a firm push, the wind takes over, and the animals gracefully walk the beaches.
Continue reading "Theo Jansen - Kinetic Sculptures"
Posted by sjc at 7:55 AM | Comments (0)
October 20, 2007
CBS 2.0
CSI: NY Second Life Virtual Experience [Zuiker]
Check out a first look at the upcoming CSI: NY Second Life virtual experience. Don't miss the episode everyone is talking about on Wednesday, October 24 at 10pm et/pt only on CBS.
Posted by sjc at 10:49 AM | Comments (0)
Flash Mob Prayer Service
At precisely 1:25 on September 25, 2007, in response to a text message virus, 3,500 Purduvians appear at the Great Engineering Fountain to pray for success in Calculus 1.
Continue reading "Flash Mob Prayer Service"
Posted by sjc at 10:22 AM | Comments (0)
October 6, 2007
LEV and Thumpbot Play "Crazy"
Lev, the theramin playing robot, and his friend the percussionist, Thumpbot, play Gnarls Barkley's Crazy.
More Crazy stuff on YouTube ... http://youtube.com/watch?v=19RJEnNUg1I
Posted by sjc at 4:11 PM | Comments (0)
October 4, 2007
Beep, beep. Don't blame me.
Beep, beep. Don't blame me. Blame Google.
The satellites made me do it. They're talking to me. They told me --
Blame Richard E. Parent. "Holy Crap,' he started it.
Blame Paul Martin, He started it first, and he keeps doing it.
Blame the Russians. If it weren't for them, there wouldn't be satellites, and none of this would have started.
Beep, beep. Don't blame me. Blame the Russians.
50 years ago today, Sputnik 1 was launched into outerspace, signaling, on one hand, the beginning of the space age ("astro-geopolitics") and a new era in the cold war ("geopolitics").
I don't remember the details of that day, but I do have several impressions of it.
The first impression was of the people in the neighborhood standing around in their yards after dark, looking up at the sky. My mom, my dad, my sister and I were outside. Mext door, the Braco family was out, Nono and nana Braco, their daughter and her husband, Mr. and Mrs Rattica, and their granddaughter Joanne were out also.
Would we be able to see it? What would it be like to see it? Would we even know it if we saw it? We didn't see it, and I don't think we ever saw it. (The US satellite Echo was the first one we say - it was a giant balloon in outerspace, designed especially to be easy to see. You couldn't miss it.)
We never did see it. The next night I was the only one outside. A couple of days after that, I gave up.
The closest I got to sputnik was with my Hallicrafters Shortwave radio. I was able to pick it up several times. I remembered the frequency as something like 21 Mhz - an easy band to listen too - generally clear of static. (A web search today identified the frequency as 20.0005 Mhz, just a notch about WWV, the standard time station.) [1]
Beep, beep. Don't blame me. Blame Sony and the RIAA
While looking for Sputnik sounds, I came across a great site that preserves old sounds.
Signals from Outer Space. Actual recordings of the Signals Broadcast by the first Earth Satellite. October, 1957.
Side A features the satellite signals. When I first heard them, I just thought that they were strange. Later, working in the predecessor of UC Berkeley's Space Science Lab, I recognized that they were "telemetry signals." (I'm sure that somewhere on the web is the signal decoding algorithm that would turn the noise into data.)
Side B features a radio-dramatic re-enactment of the Sputnik launch, done in appropriate 1950's news feature style. The countdown is in Russian. The tagline recognizes that this is a step "for mankind."
The narration maked me wish for Jean Sheperd's telling of this story, but google failed me.
Beep, beep. Don't blame me. Blame Unix
Beep, beep. Don't blame me.
I don't try to drive my car, eat an egg mcmuffin, and chat on my cell phone. At the same time. Ever.
Continue reading "Beep, beep. Don't blame me."
Posted by sjc at 7:09 PM | Comments (1)
September 8, 2007
Puppy Robot Gets a New Head at the Robot Head Store
Puppy Robot is a Nokia 770 internet tablet robot who gets his head upgraded to a Nokia 800. Thanks to the built in video camera, Puppy Robot can now shows us the world from a dog's eye view.
The Puppy Robot Project Group ((Jari, Keijo, Markku, Marko and Satu) have documented their adventures at https://garage.maemo.org/projects/robot/
Posted by sjc at 11:07 AM | Comments (3)
July 2, 2007
Norwegian kids make a roller coaster loop using train tracks
Posted by sjc at 10:32 AM | Comments (0)
June 2, 2007
Google introduces Street Views
Google Map's Street View is a more human oriented alternative to the "Birds Eye View" from Google Earth. Now you can see how many tables there are at that sidewalk cafe.
Posted by sjc at 6:26 PM | Comments (0)
April 17, 2007
Hai, Irasshai, doozo.
"Hai, Irasshai, doozo" is "Nice Guy Jin's" musical rap adventure based on the familiar Japanese shop greeting; in this case, we're visiting a sushi shop and asking for various menu items, most of which are not available. This particular clip is from Fuji TV's program "Kochi Kame".
Posted by sjc at 9:27 AM | Comments (0)
January 18, 2007
The First Kyosho Athlete Humanoid Cup (Tokyo, December 2006)
The First Kyosho Athlete Humanoid Cup was held in Omodate Hills, Tokyo, Japan in December 2006. The competing robots are all based on the Manoi AT01 humanoid robot kit and featured both stock and customized robots. The competitions, watched by standing-room only crowds, included 5-meter sprints against the clock with both R/C and autonomous divisions, plus two minute demonstrations/performances scored by an expert panel of judges. The article by Lem Fugitt on BotMag.Com contains a detailed description of the comptition as well as a video clip of the robots in action.
Continue reading "The First Kyosho Athlete Humanoid Cup (Tokyo, December 2006)"
Posted by sjc at 6:09 PM | Comments (0)
January 7, 2007
Casta Diva 2046
This is a music video trailer for Wong Kar-Wai's 2046. Snippets from "Casta diva" often appear as in film sound designed to cover over a heated disagreement in the manager's apartment. (The manager is a classically trained tenor, his headstrong daughters often test his patience.) The aria is sung by Angela Gheorghiu and the London Symphony Orchestra is conducted by Evelino Pidò.
Continue reading "Casta Diva 2046"
Posted by sjc at 10:13 AM | Comments (0)
November 28, 2006
What's Next ?
As the markets swing into the Christmas buying spree, folks are beginning to think about what's instore for next year ... especially the MacExpo coming up in January. A possible "iPhone" continues to generate the major buzz, and was the first suggestion posted to the Keitai List.
This mockup was created by Christopher DeSantis who described the project on his blog at the http://christopherdesantis.blogspot.com/2006/07/italk-mania_07.html . His original video is on Google; the version here is from YouTube - because it makes a nicer blog entry :).
Posted by sjc at 9:30 AM | Comments (0)
September 26, 2006
Wood Frog Freezing (Ecophysiological Cryobiology)
Continue reading "Wood Frog Freezing (Ecophysiological Cryobiology)"
Posted by sjc at 3:48 PM | Comments (0)
September 20, 2006
The Return of Morizo
Asahi http://www.asahi.com/photonews/NGY200609190002.htmlMorizo was reintroduced ...
Posted by sjc at 11:33 AM | Comments (0)