Oddments

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Assorted items (which I've entirely lost track of the provenance of; thanks to all who pointed me to them, and sorry not to credit you):

  • Things you might overhear if you had a Klingon on your software development team. I coulda sworn I had linked to this before (or something else a lot like it), but a search of my journal doesn't turn it up.
  • A graph of the number of books Asimov published each year. Nearly 45 in 1989.
  • Scotch transparent duct tape. (I'm told it's not completely 100% transparent, but it appears to be at least mostly transparent.) As someone asked, can transparent aluminum be far behind?
  • Opinion Duel features a senior editor from The New Republic engaged in an extended debate with a senior editor from National Review.
  • Fictionwise provides a free downloadable copy of Jay Lake's Hugo-nominated story "Into the Gardens of Sweet Night." I imagine that most of the other Hugo-nominated short fiction will be available for free online soon. (Hey, FW is also featuring an electronic edition of Elizabeth Moon's newly Nebula-winning The Speed of Dark for $10; I've heard so much good about this book that I'm tempted to buy it despite my vast backlog of unread fiction.)
  • Upcoming new reality show: American Candidate, "in which the American people will identify a People's Candidate that they would like to see run for President of the United States." Competitors on the show aren't allowed to declare actual candidacy during the show; it's up to them whether to declare after the series ends (which won't be until October). Sadly, the application deadline has now passed.
  • The Ambient Orb is a softly glowing ball that changes color based on whatever stream of incoming numeric data you set it up to interpret. For example, by default it's set to display information about the Dow Jones Industrial Average: it glows green to indicate the DJIA is going up, red to indicate it's going down, and it will "pulsate" if the market goes up or down by a lot. The data streams arrive by means of a "national wireless network" (which I assume means radio stations?); you can subscribe to "premium content" channels, such as "local weather, pollen count, or IM buddy watch." All this for only $150! (Plus extra costs for the premium content.) See Wired article for more.
  • Sony and Toppan are developing a new type of DVD-like disk made of a paper-like material that can hold 25GB of video data. (The material is actual "paper pulp with plastic soaked into it," a description that reminds me oddly of Pykrete.)
  • Bunnies hatelisting, apparently for people like Anya who hate bunnies. "If you hate/dislike/afaid of bunnies, this is the place of you."
  • Excerpts from generic template for 9/11 hearings.
  • An economic approach: how much would it cost to steal an election by influencing electronic voting machines? The analysis leaves out some of the most important numbers, but it's an interesting idea anyway.
  • A new substance called Sapphire "looks like water, but it's not." It has the firefighting properties of water, but doesn't get things wet.
  • A lovely collection of old photos of NYC.

More soon.

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