Max: Wow

The Moon orbiting Earth, as seen from 5 million km away.

Max: Australian Coverage of the Apollo 11 Launch

Watch it here.

Max: Another Pawn Falls To Canadian Propaganda

Max: Toto - Africa

Max: Demon Spider Mecha From Hell

I like.

Max: Going to 11

Natty G interviews the greatest guitarist history has ever known.

Of course, History hasn't known that many guitarists. I mean, there have been a lot of guitarists, but History has only met a few personally. History had the chance to go see Hendrix in a small club in London, back when the Experience had just formed. History doesn't even remember what it did instead. But that's how it goes.

Max: It Doesn't Suck

I learned today that in 1983, a metre was redefined to 1/299,792,458 of the per second speed of light in a vacuum.

Max: Martian Lander of Science

Jericho: The Geek Choir of Angels

For four minutes and thirty five seconds in February 1985, the "keytar" was cool.

Heck, this wasn't just cool - this was pure, uncut, whole grain awesome!

I remember watching this part of the Grammy awards that year. I hated award shows (still do) - they were usually boring. But, they kept saying Thomas Dolby, Herbie Hancock, Howard Jones and Stevie Wonder were going to perform. These were four artists I admired the hell out of, even at the tender age of 13. I wasn't aware they were going to perform together.

I watched this performance in gape-mouthed awe. The stacks of synths, computers and who knows what else, the colorful players, the music! My fascination with electronic music and jazz was sealed whether I knew it or not.

Today I heard a song from Howard Jones and thought about this performance. I felt an odd pang of regret that I didn't have a recording of this. But, then my brain kicked in and said "Duh! You Tube?" ... and of course You Tube delivered like Dominos! Could I love You Tube more? No!

Looking back, this performance isn't significant as a work of art - it's for an awards ceremony after all. Its significance flows from the fact that it was a cooperation of four great performers and it was a ton of talent on one stage. This is something that formed a bit of who I am and I'm happy to be able to share it with you all.

Max: My Goals

For no particular reason, I decided to write down as many goals as I could without stopping to think about what "should" be my goals.

My Goals

Attend BNC reunion camp
Attend Bass Boot Camp
Attend Bass @ The Beach
Become a better bassist
Get in better shape
Learn Japanese
Learn Algebra, Calculus, Trig, higher math, etc
Learn more about philosophy
Get better at applying logic to my daily life
Learn C
Be able to build my own customer Linux distro
Be able to build my dream bass
Be able to build neat electronic gadgets
Go to Tokyo
Go to Antarctica
Learn to write well (grammar, punctuation, spelling, economy of words)
Go back to London
Go to Paris
See Victoria Falls
Hike Kilimanjaro
Learn more about science
Be more comfortable making conversation
Be more calm, especially in stressful situations
Be more focused, especially on activities that can lead to achieving my goals
Learn to cook healthier meals

What I spend most of my time on does little to nothing towards reaching most of those goals. Hmm.

Max: Tor

Did you know that Tor Books is giving away a free eBook every week? Now you do.

Max: William Shatner - Ham and Human

One morning, shooting a Star Trek movie in the desert, I had a very early call.

So I told the wardrobe girl: "Give me my uniform and I'll put it on at the house so I don't have to come in any earlier for wardrobe. I'll just wear it to the set."

So at 4am I was racing across the desert to our location. I was way over the speed limit, figuring there wasn't another car on the road in the entire state.

It turned out there was one other car - and it had lights and a siren.

I got out of my car, dressed in my uniform. The police officer looked me up and down, frowned and asked: "So where are you going so fast at this time in the morning?"

I told him the truth: "To my spaceship."

He sighed. "OK, go ahead," he said, before adding the Vulcan blessing: "Live long and prosper."

From the Daily Mail's excerpt of William Shatner's autobiogaphy, Up Till Now

Max: Snique Pique

New Futurama is acomin'

Max: Mandelbrot

This video zooms in on the Mandelbrot Set. The image doubles in size 315 times. To show the whole set once we finish zooming in would require a display bigger than the entire Universe.

Neat.

Charles W. Howard: How To Pick Your Pen Name

From the ever New and Weird Jeff Vandermeer

So, what’s your literary pen name? THIS IS THE OFFICIAL FORMULA (as created by, um, me):

(1) Use the first name of your favorite writer as your first name.
(2) Use the name of your first pet as your middle name or for your middle initial (if your pet had a separate last name…you’re a freak).
(3) Use the first or last name of your favorite character in fiction–your choice–as your last name.

Thus, I would be Vladimir Tiko Ahab…er, or not.

Max: Groovin' on the Enterprise

KAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Max: Charles Darwin Online

The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online

This site contains Darwin's complete publications, thousands of handwritten manuscripts and the largest Darwin bibliography and manuscript catalogue ever published; also hundreds of supplementary works: biographies, obituaries, reviews, reference works and more.

Max: This Made Me Chortle

Max: Monzy: kill -9

Max: TED Talks

TED Talks, where smart people shove their thoughts into your headmeat.

Max: Daily caffeine 'protects brain'

Daily caffeine 'protects brain'

Coffee may cut the risk of dementia by blocking the damage cholesterol can inflict on the body, research suggests.

The drink has already been linked to a lower risk of Alzheimer's Disease, and a study by a US team for the Journal of Neuroinflammation may explain why.

Max: Frank Herbert Describing Dune

Max: Free (for now) Ebook

Whatever » The Big Idea: Scott Sigler


Infected is officially released next week — but until March 31st, you can get a PDF of the book to sample it for your very own, for free (how? Buy clicking this link, that’s how {PDF}). Check it out, and remember, if you like it, show your love at the bookstores.

Now here’s Sigler to explain how his book’s Big Idea involves lots of very tiny things, with some nasty ideas on their single-cellular minds.

SCOTT SIGLER

The Big Idea, Short Version: What would it be like if a tiny, sentient creature could terraform the human body, hijacking natural processes to change our bodies into an environment more suited to them?

The Big Idea, Long version: Animals are basically biological machines, capable of growth, self-repair and design modification based on changing environmental stresses. All of the processes used for those things should be able to be controlled in the human body, if we had the technology. For Infected, that technology is there, but humans are not the ones using it. The story is taking the concept of a virus, hijacking the human body’s natural processes to make copies of a simple organism, and extending that to building highly complex organisms, organisms with a pre-programed purpose and an evil, evil plan. We are a walking planet to the bacteria and arachnids that cover our body

...

Max: Bender's Great X 4000 Grandfather

Max: Text Support

Max: Preacher

Unshelved, a neato keen comic strip, mentioned one of my favorite comic series, Preacher.

No, I don't know why you should care.

Max: 21st Century C-64

21st Century C-64

I thought about designing something like this once. Jericho shot it down, as I recall.

Jericho: The Dungeon Master is Dead

For those of you that don't know, yesterday, March 4th, Gary Gygax died.

I've been a Role Playing Gamer for many years. I started off in 7th or 8th grade, some twenty two or so years ago. I've been a gamer for two thirds of my life. My first game, like most role players, was Dungeons & Dragons. My mom bought me the red D&D box for Xmas after I had begged for over a year. Funny, to this day when I think of the intrepid adventurer facing the imposing red dragon standing on top of a pile of gold coins, the image that adorned that boxed set - it still gives me a zing of excitement.

Gygax was not the only person responsible for D&D, but he is the one most associate with it. He worked very hard to see his vision continue in the right direction. Because of his work and his vision, I have had hours and hours, probably months of hours, of fun. Time spent thinking, conjuring up entire worlds out of pure imagination. Then, I got to share those worlds with my friends. Instead of going out and drinking or partying with my friends and then regretting my excesses the next day, I sat around a table with my friends and enjoyed their company and helped them help me tell a great story of adventure and action and excitement. I cannot think of a single night of gaming I regretting the next day. Gygax is in part responsible for that.

I slipped away from D&D to play other games. As did many gamers. Eventually I even came to criticize the game. Now, looking back, reading what happened at TSR and what happened to Gygax, I see some of the reasons that I criticized the game were valid. And, maybe, had TSR and, later, Wizards of the Coast, listened to Gygax, maybe the game would have been better. Now, we will never know.

No matter. We gamers have all lost something irreplaceable. I and many gamers like me owe a good portion of the fun we have had in our lives to men like Gygax, Steve Jackson and Kevin Siembieda.

Gary, we will miss you. Good Journey.

(This post will be cross posted on my gaming blog: DustyDice.com)

Max: Pretty

If I ever do anything with my filmish ideas, this will be in my gear shack.

Max: iBand

Max: Pretty

Max: Anonymous

Modern life is science fiction.

Max: The Wonderful World of Early Computing

Neatorama » The Wonderful World of Early Computing

Max: Tru Geek

	I received 79 credits on The Sci Fi Sounds Quiz How much of a Sci-Fi geek are you?
Take the Sci-Fi Movie Quizdigital camera ratings

Max : eee

If I only had money this plus this would keep off the streets and out of trouble.

Max: MC Frontalot: Bizzaro Genius Baby

Max: Science FTW

On this day in 1859 On the Origin of Species, by Charles Darwin was first published.

Max: Bliss in the Midst of Desperation

After I was fired last week, I was in a daze. I felt lost, hollow, detached from my physical self. My body was on autopilot while my brain tried to sort out what had just happened, how often it had already happened and what the hell I was going to do.

The next thing I knew, I was pulling into the parking lot of one of my former employers, Guitar Center. It had been one of the few employers I had parted with voluntarily. It was probably the last place I should have gone. I was in no position to add to my bass collection so all I could do was torture myself by looking at all the cool axes I would likely never own. Well, just because I wouldn't own them did not mean that I could not play them. I futzed around on several nice basses before I noticed a rather gorgeous Peavey Cirrus BXP, quilt maple with a tiger eye finish. I had long lusted after the high end -that means expensive but worth it in bass speak - custom Peavey Cirrus. The BXP - the much less expensive, mass produced retail version of the Cirrus - that was hanging on the wall was the closest I have ever come to a Cirrus. It had to be played.

I plugged it in, twiddled to tone controls and started the play. I realized immediately that this was the best feeling, best sounding bass I had ever handled. I played. I kept playing. Time passed unnoticed. The reality of what had just happened to me, of another job lost, faded to a low level buzz in the back of my mind. Eventually I looked down and saw the rather large, blood filled blister on the tip of my index finger. I had been playing longer and harder than I ever had before. I'm not sure what time I started, but my best guess is that I had played for 90 minutes.

I turned off the amp, hung a bass I would love to own but likely never will, headed out the door and headed home to tell Laura that I had lost another job.

Max: LS9

How about petrol made from bacteria?

LS9

LS9 combines core competencies in industrial biotechnology and synthetic biology to design, develop, and commercialize industrial bioprocesses. Industrial biotechnology is the application of biocatalysis for the large scale production of chemical products. Synthetic biology is the state of the art of bioengineering, and refers to the design, construction, and improvement of biological machines at the molecular genetic level. Bringing experience in industrial biotechnology from Cargill, Codexis, Genencor, Kosan, Cubist, and Verenium (formerly Diversa) and synthetic biology from Harvard, UC Berkeley, MIT, and Stanford, the LS9 team is uniquely suited to design, develop, and commercialize the next generation of biofuels.

To replace fossil fuel with a cost effective and renewable surrogate, LS9 has first looked to nature. The components of petroleum have biological counterparts, and the biological mechanisms for their synthesis are useful tools for the creation of new industrial processes. Employing the tools of biochemical engineering, LS9 has identified the key components of a cost effective process and defined which are best controlled physically, chemically, and biologically. Using synthetic biology, LS9 has reached into nature and accessed the required biological tools, engineered them to function under industrial conditions, and is optimizing their performance to meet our economic objectives. In this way LS9 is rapidly bringing its Renewable PetroleumTM technologies out of the lab and into the world.

Max: Looking Back At Big Brother

Many a paranoid Luddite have predicted that all our connected gadget are going to turn into a sort of telescreen, the monitoring devices used by Big Brother in 1984. That may happen to the lusers. But some of us pwn our tech.

GPS-based tracking devices don't just help you figure out where you are and where you're going, they might also help you avoid a speeding ticket. Shaun Malone of California is contesting a speeding ticket in that state by arguing that his GPS-based tracking system shows that the officer's radar gun was wrong.

Max: Everybody Needs a Hobby

Via Wired

"Look," Shannen Rossmiller says, pointing at her computer screen. She's in an online chat room, and the name Terrorist11 has just popped up. "He's one of the more popular guys."

To get here, she signed onto alfirdaws.org. Then she clicked into the Paradise Jihadist Supporters Forum. The site is in Arabic, so she turns on the basic Google text translator that renders the discussion into clumsy phrases.

"Take a charge with caution," warns one jihadist posting, "this thread is monitored." Meanwhile, Terrorist11 is praising the 2004 Madrid train bombings and posting videos of the dead for other jihadist wannabes to enjoy. Old news, terrorism-wise. Rossmiller flips her blond hair. She looks bored. "They are just flaming, ranting and raving," she says. "Do you want to see some blood and guts? Let's go find it."

In her small, one-chair home office in Montana, I sit beside Rossmiller on a little tiled table normally reserved for a lamp. Outside, the vistas stretch across Big Sky Country to the Elk Horn Ridge Mountains. Inside, Rossmiller shows me what she does as perhaps America's most accomplished amateur terrorist hunter.

Max: Pretty

Samsung Solid State HD.

Max: Nerd Score

A mere 93? I need to get back in touch with my inner nerd.

Max: Get Edjumacated

"Attend" UC-Berkley classes for free at their Youtube channel.

Max: FOSS FTW

[A] GtkPod developer has cracked the checksum and successfully tested the new database format support on two devices. Those who are already locked into Apple's ecosystem will now be able to continue using the software of their choice with their iPod.

Of course Apple could still choose to turn this into an arms race.

Although Apple's iPod lock-in attempt has been thwarted today, Poettering reminds us that it might not be possible to thwart in the future. Apple's willingness to make these kinds of changes to the database format should be taken as a warning that unsupported third-party compatibility options may not be viable in the long term.

via Ars Technica

Max: MC Frontalot - It Is Pitch Dark

Max: My Nipples Are Hard

Max: Geek Rocks His Synth

Jericho: Someday the Internet will make me rich ...

Ummmm ... yeah. Whatever! :)

I love the Internet and I love blogging. I keep hoping I can find a way to at least make a normal living off my love of blogging. We'll see ...

In the mean time, I have started a new blog: DustyDice.com. The site is aimed at role playing game enthusiasts - like me! I want to share my thoughts and feelings on the subject in a more focused manor than what we do here on IWDC.

I've bought it for a year. We'll see how it goes. I'm always excited about the new project, leaving other unfinished projects in my wake. Believe it or don't, I have twice started blogs with a porno theme. I keep stopping because I don't have much confidence in my ability to write erotica.

This new site will be geek porno. Go have a look when you get the chance - there's not much there but there will be more to come. Have fun!

Max: Jerichomazon

Sweet.

Thank you!

Max: Data Mining Done Right

CBC News: Data mining

Using some sophisticated software and hardware they started overlaying crime reports with other data, such as weather, traffic, sports events and paydays for large employers. The data was analyzed three times a day and something interesting emerged: Robberies spiked on paydays near cheque cashing storefronts in specific neighbourhoods. Other clusters also became apparent, and pretty soon police were deploying resources in advance and predicting where crime was most likely to occur.

These cops used their brains and used their tech to figure out how to protect some of the most vulnerable people from violent crime and they got results. Meanwhile, the Shrubsters use their tech to randomly listen in on phone calls and email instead of, say, figuring out where IED's are likely to show up in Iraq.

Max: A gentlemen's duel

Video A gentlemen's duel - short

Max: Death Match - To The Death

Voldermort vs Yoda.

Who wins?

Jericho: Sci-Fi Channel Rant