Jim McGee: MostlyMcGee

SodaPlay Java-toy

Thu, 12 Dec 2002 03:24:06 GMT

Utterly hypnotic Java-toy. SodaPlay is an incredibly fun Java-toy -- sketch out skeletal, jointed constructions, tweak the physics of gravity and friction, and set it in motion. It jiggles and clatters and bounces in a way that I find utterly hypnotic. Link Discuss (Thanks, John!) [Boing Boing Blog]

I had forgotten about this toy. Thanks for pointing it out again!

Attention to detail in LOTR

Thu, 12 Dec 2002 02:32:17 GMT

LOTR's armorer and obsessive attention to detail. Rhys sez: "The Journal of Metallurgy interviews Peter Lyon, sword- and weapon-maker for The Lord of the Rings films. Possibly the only academic journal in which you'll find a discussion of the material properties of Ringwraith weaponry."

So for four years, in an on-site foundry, Lyon focused his skills on Middle-earth weaponry. From artists' drawings he crafted swords that were designed to reflect their own histories. Those that had seen many battles were forged, then aged by applying acid and other chemicals to create a pitted, corroded effect (Figures 2a and 2b). The damaged surfaces were cleaned to give the appearance of an old blade that was still cared for. Swords used by elves were elegant and curved to represent their more evolved culture (Figure 3). Orcs who were barbaric fighting creatures, carried crude, chunky weapons...
Such details—the metalsmiths hand-forged more than 10,000 buckles for the Orcs alone—pass by so quickly they are nearly impossible for the average viewer to notice.
"Unfortunately, so much of it isn't actually seen in the film, and so people would argue, why do it then? Why on earth would you go to that trouble?" Taylor said. "Because the real world has a level of subliminal detail that supports a cultural inheritance through graphic design that gives you the feeling that what you are looking at in the present is predated by a huge cultural influence that goes back hundreds, if not thousands of years. . .Therefore, every single actor, every single character, had a different buckling system, a different belting system, a different level of cultural integrity built into the variety of detailing on the armoring, to emulate the feeling of this process."

Link Discuss (Thanks, Rhys!) [Boing Boing Blog]

Interesting to think about in terms of our ability to detect what is real from what is not.

Thought for the day

Wed, 11 Dec 2002 15:01:49 GMT

Science and Awe. Pascale: "Actually, every single scientist I've ever met ~ and I've been lucky enough to meet some of the very best ~ was a scientist precisely because of a well-wrought sense of "awe and wonder." They think the universe is a beautiful, marvelous place, and they want to understand it." [Seb's Open Research]

Masticating in public

Sat, 14 Sep 2002 22:36:30 GMT

I so enjoyed Mad Magazine when I was in high school. It's a bit sad that we can continue to count on too many people taking the bait in this kind of satire.

I Love the Internet. When I wrote about niggardly and denigrate the other day, I remembered a Mad Magazine lark that used outlandish sounding words to seemingly implicate the opponent's character.Well, I did a Google search and easily found it. It was written by Bill Garvin in December 1970. Entitled 'Guaranteed Effective All-Occasion Non-Slanderous Political Smear Speech' it is still a hoot. Check it out. One of my favorites:

Let us take a very quick look at that childhood: It is a known fact that, on a number of occasions, he emulated older boys at a certain playground. It is also known that his parents not only permitted him to masticate in their presence, but even urged him to do so. Most explicable of all, this man who poses as a paragon of virtue exacerbated his own sister when they were both teenagers!

[A Man with a Ph.D. - Richard Gayle's Weblog]

Tue, 10 Sep 2002 14:23:44 GMT

Physics Books for the Novice? [Slashdot]

Tue, 10 Sep 2002 14:20:15 GMT

Hands on Science Learning [Slashdot]

Sun, 08 Sep 2002 17:15:26 GMT

Harry Woodman Republished. Scale Modeling is a fairly modern hobby, originating as a commercial industry in the latter half of the last century. The scale model hobby and industry has been a dynamic area for the appropriation of new technologies, information and methods into the improvement and advance of the hobby. This undoubtedly comes from it's scratch building origins. In scale aircraft models, one of the most influential modelers of the mid 20thC was Harry Woodman, who published his idea's and methods in "Scale Model Aircraft in Plastic Card". This work has been out of print for 30 years until recently when the book was web published by Peter Leonard. The republication continues the history modelers have for adapting new affordable technologies to the promotion of scale modeling. [kuro5hin.org]

Computer humor

Sat, 07 Sep 2002 14:19:50 GMT

Laugh-Out-Loud Computer Humor [Dan Gillmor's eJournal]

Thank you Dan. A great way to start the morning.

Fri, 30 Aug 2002 17:06:18 GMT

Best Site of the Day!!!.

Single Best Site of the Day!!!!

Things You Wish Your Computer Had:

http://www.tobynopoly.com/wish/computer.html

[The FuzzyBlog!]

Tue, 27 Aug 2002 21:53:03 GMT

An investment banker was at the pier of a small coastal village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked. Inside the small boat were several large yellow fin tuna. The banker complimented the fisherman on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them. The fisherman replied, "Only a little while." The banker then asked why didn't he stay out longer and catch more fish? The fisherman said he had enough to support his family's immediate needs. The banker then asked, "But what do you do with the rest of your time?" The fisherman said, "I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take a nap with my wife, stroll into the village each evening where I play guitar and sing with myfriends. I have a full and busy life."
The banker scoffed, "I am a Harvard MBA and I could help you. You should spend more time fishing and with the proceeds, buy a bigger boat. With the proceeds from the bigger boat, you could buy several boats, eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling your catch to a middleman, you would sell directly to the processor, eventually opening your own cannery. You would control the product, processing and distribution. You would need to leave this small coastal fishing village and move to a big city where you will run your expanding enterprise."
The fisherman asked, "But, how long will this all take?"
To which the banker replied, "15-20 years."
"But what then?"
The banker laughed and said that's the best part. "When the time is right, you would announce an IPO and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich. You would make millions."
"Millions...Then what?"
The banker said, "Then you would retire. Move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take a nap with your wife, stroll to the village in the evenings where you could play your guitar and sing with your friends." - Mikey's Funnies

[On The Mark]

Jesus FAQ

Thu, 22 Aug 2002 17:15:27 GMT

Jesus takes your calls - actually he doesn't have time for that, so he just put out an FAQ, which you might want to look at.

[Ernie the Attorney]

Thu, 15 Aug 2002 20:55:28 GMT

Crossword Clues [ResearchBuzz]

Sat, 03 Aug 2002 19:26:39 GMT

5 minute IQ test [Joe's Radio Sandbox < Daypop Top 40]

Neeto... did better than I thought I would. [jenett.radio]

Sat, 03 Aug 2002 16:59:32 GMT

I just saw Gary Taubes, author of "What if it's all been one big fat lie" take apart (not merely mild sparring -- literally decimate) two doctors on Charlie Rose (who is recovering from heart surgery). One of the doctors was the head of the American Heart Association. Personally, I believe Gary. It has always been my contention that eating high fat makes me feeeeel better. It also helps me keep off the pounds and keep my "numbers" in the excessively healthy category (I remember sitting in a room of extremely fit people in a mandatory "health" program at USAFA and getting my numbers disclosed to the class -- the doctor said, and I quote verbatim: "you have the worst diet but you are the healthiest person here. This is really strange." [John Robb's Radio Weblog]

Earthviewer

Sat, 03 Aug 2002 16:56:25 GMT

EarthViewer.

One of the facts of life for a state CIO is that much of the information you deal with has latlong coordinates associated with it (all the other records have social security numbers). While I was in Colorado this week, I had an opportunity to spend a few hours talking with John Gage, the Chief Scientist at Sun.

John showed me a piece of software called EarthViewer. If you like maps, even a little, you'll love this program. The program uses Keyhole satellite data to give you a view or anywhere on earth. The software allows you to fly over the landscape. Type in an address and you "fly" there in seconds. I had fun going from where I grew up in Idaho to my brother's house in Virginia. If the target point is in a metro zone, you can see things with 1m resolution.

Dave Lorenzini, the CEO of Keyhole, Inc, makers of EarthViewer, has been great in getting me hooked up and talking to our GIS folks. We have data layers for everything. Putting them in this system would allow police to fly over an area and become familiar with it, find manholes, utilities etc. and even enter buildings based on plans all as part of a simulation with real live data. We could make it as detailed as we want. In a disaster, you could take reconnaissance pictures of the area and then survey the damage area in as much detail as you like from a safe distance. Of course, you could do those things before, but the EarthViewer makes it accessible to people without training in specialized GIS tools.

[Windley's Enterprise Computing Weblog]

Sat, 03 Aug 2002 14:14:17 GMT

Celtic MP3 Heaven.

What the Major Labels Don't Want to Hear: 2,000,000 Celtic MP3s Downloaded Free

"The two millionth MP3 was downloaded from Austin's Brobdingnagian Bards' MP3.com website on Thursday, July 25th. This landmark achievement makes them one of the Top 15 bands out of over 200,000 one the world's largest free music portal. It also shows that the Celtic musical tradition of The Chieftains, Clannad, Enya, The Corrs, and countless traditional and not-so-traditional bands is no passing fad. It is the wave of the future.

While record labels are struggling to stay afloat while fighting the growing number of illegal downloads, the Brobdingnagian Bards adopted a more innovative method by giving away over two million downloads advertising 'Download One Free Celtic CD' from their website. While this may seem outlandish considering sluggish record sales, The Bards see it as a means to an end.

'I love giving away music,' begins Marc Gunn of the Brobdingnagian Bards. 'Not only is it rewarding to hear the response of 1000s of people every month, it also sells CDs. Sure we only sell maybe sixty CDs a month online, but that's a hell of a lot more than most bands! If we didn't would we still sell as many? Maybe, but at least were building a solid fan base in the process.' " [MP3.com]

Guess what else The Bards Crier is doing? In addition to giving away free MP3s, Marc Gunn is also putting together a free ebook about how to sell CDs effectively online.

[The Shifted Librarian]

Thu, 25 Jul 2002 21:50:11 GMT

Tech-Interview Riddles [Slashdot]

PopTech

Thu, 25 Jul 2002 18:21:52 GMT

PopTech

The last two years I have been going to what I think is the best conference in the country, i.e. PopTech.

Robert Scoble and I are going to create a PopTech weblog that will begin shortly, using Rick Klau's weblog template, and which should be jammed with great stuff about PopTech, the speakers and Camden, Maine. But to give you a sneak preview....

This year's PopTech website is at ...

http://www.poptech.org/home.jsp

The Weblog that we did last year is at ...

http://poptech.manilasites.com/

Last year ' s site is at ...

http://www.poptech.org/CTC_2001/Public/home.cfm

And if you really want a sense of the excellence of the content streaming video of last year is at ...

http://learnonline.umaine.edu/live/

You can also take a virtual tour of Camden at

http://camden.villagesoup.com/Tour/

I have been telling all of my friends about it, and the good news is that there are 500 seats, the bad new is that they go fast.

PopTech this year is Oct. 18-20, the weather is usually wonderful, with leaves in full color, Camden is a picture perfect town, and the whole experience is over the top.

After you have been once, you will probably think it's the best thing you have ever done.

I hope you can make it, as I would love to everyone there. Also, we are going to try to figure out how to hold a blogging event in conjuction with PopTech, so stay tuned for bulletins, and if you want more specific information, let me know.

[Buzz Bruggeman's Radio Weblog:]

Buzz keeps encouraging me to put this on my calendar. It's tempting.

Perseids

Thu, 25 Jul 2002 00:12:37 GMT

Perseid Meteor Showers, August 12-13, 2002..

Anita Rowland says:

It's not too soon to start planning your Perseid Meteor Shower viewing expedition. (BrainDan, I promise it won't be as cold as last fall!)

"This year the shower peaks on August 12th and 13th. Experts say it should be remarkably good. The Perseids have been strong in recent years--a promising sign for 2002. And the moon sets early in mid-August; lunar interference will not be a problem. Sky watchers can expect to see dozens to hundreds of meteors per hour."

Science at NASA:

The best time to look for meteors is when Perseus is highest in the sky--between 2 a.m. and dawn. On August 12th, set your alarm for 2 o'clock in the morning. Go outside; lie down on a sleeping bag or a reclining lawn chair with your toes pointed northeast; and gaze upward. Soon you'll see shooting stars racing along the Milky Way.

[aka events]

[a klog apart]

Sat, 20 Jul 2002 01:43:34 GMT

Science Made Stupid. A very funny site, called Science Made Stupid.

Newton's Laws
Isaac Newton also used direct observation to formulate his laws. Newton was in government service for many years. His first law states:
* A body at rest tends to remain at rest, while a body in motion at a constant velocity in a straight line tends to continue in that motion.
Clearly, this law is based on first-hand observation of a bureaucracy in action.
One night, Newton became engaged in a heated argument at a local bar over a question of epicycles, leading him to punch his opponent in the nose. After being thoroughly worked over, Newton contemplated the results and announced his next law:
* Every action has an equal and opposite reaction.
In a well-known story, Newton discovered gravity when he was hit on the head while sitting under an apple tree. This tale is, of course, fictitious. It was actually a fig tree, and the result was his best-known theory:
* I bet you could make a swell cookie out of these figs.

Link Discuss (Thanks, Stefan!) [Boing Boing Blog]