The end is nigh!

... the end of the year, at least.

The year is done, 2010 drawing to a close, and as I look back over the year I think it went pretty well. We've had some great successes, and most of the problems have been smoothed over (or at least swept under the rug). All things considered, I'd like to give a round of applause to my friends, family and fellow South Africans: Thanks for a good year. /cheer.

I'm not going to bore you with a recap of 'my favorite things from 2010'... if you're really interested, you can read through the archives to see what I favored ^^

Also: the astute amongst you will also notice that I've changed the formatting of these posts a little. I've separated the 'In the News' and 'Word of the Week' sections into distinct posts... moving forward you will be able to filter on just those bits using the categories drop-down on your right.

Thanks for reading, and commenting, and telling your friends about this awesome blog. And now that I've thanked you, you have to do it. Have an awesome New Years, and I'll see you all next year.

-Odd

"The third-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking with the majority. The second-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking with the minority. The first-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking" - A. A. Milne

Word Of The Week

Eschatological - Adjective

1. Regarding last, or final, matters, often of a theological nature


2. Regarding any system of doctrines concerning theological endings, such as death, the Judgment, the future state, etc.

In The News:

New solar fuel machine 'mimics plant life' - it's amazing how often our great scientific discoveries are blatant plagiarisms of nature.

Top 10 Video games of 2010 - not sure how much I agree with this list... but it's still cool

Real life 'Frogger' ends in tragedy - BAKA! Bill Hicks would be jumping for joy.

Space weather forecasters looking for big activity - Our Sun is about to go into a very energetic period, apparently... who's been giving him Red Bull?

AI to transform the web - this according to a Russian tycoon... at least they won't Troll.... right?

Getting into the spirit

Wow.... Christmas has really ninja'd me this year, I'm left working till the end of the year and not having finished any of my gift shopping. Oi-vey!

If you're expecting a gift from me this season, don't be surprised if you get an I.O.U. ... but then, if you're a friend or relative of mine, you probably know me well enough that you don't need that warning, do you?

I'd like to wish everyone a happy festive season and urge you to experience the holiday in it's true meaning. So instead of spending all of your time stressing about presents, family politics or getting the house 'just right' for visitors: take a step back and enjoy being with your family and friends. You can't have quality time with someone if your mind is a thousand miles away running through a department store trying to get those last minute presents.

In The News:

Microsoft kills Office anti-piracy program - they've realised that irritating their customers isn't a good thing? ..... nah.... must be another reason.

US Army considers giving all soldiers a smart phone - Are you at war? There's an app for that.

North Korea warns that any conflict with the south would go nuclear - freaking scary.

Japan's low-cost space program is pushing boundaries - Sugoi! big ups.

First measurement of the magnetic field in the earth's core - of course, measurement is only the first (very small) step towards understanding.

Word of the Week:

Mephitic - Adjective

1. poisonous; foul


2. foul-smelling; putrid

Happy holidays everyone.... have fun, but be smart! Don't drink and drive and watch yourselves on the road... I insist that you all are alive next year to keep reading this blog... so if you get yourself killed, I'll never talk to you again!

-Odd

"The Supreme Court has ruled that they cannot have a nativity scene in Washington, D.C. This wasn't for any religious reasons. They couldn't find three wise men and a virgin." - Jay Leno

New horizons

Since I'm doing the hand-overs, I guess it's ok if I break the news here. With the coming of the new year, I'm going to be starting a new job.

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank everyone at NetsurIT for the opportunity, training and comradeship. This is a truly awesome company and I'm going to miss everybody. Having said that, I am really excited about the new opportunities at IS Partners and I can't wait to get stuck into the new year.

I'm going to be doing much the same work (SharePoint administration and configuration), but IS Partners' clients are a in a bit of a different space from NetsurIT's. I think the corporate maturity will be a bit higher, so I'm looking forward to having some configuration briefs that are a little more complete. I'm also looking forward to working with the SharePoint team that they've got setup, and getting into configuration for the BI and Content Management that they are so strong on.

In the News:

Using bionic legs to rewire stroke victim's brains - an interesting new use of modern prosthetic technology

NASA solar sail gets lost - this awesome piece of tech that I told you about a little while ago is now floating off into space unnoticed... bummer

When computers go wrong - an interesting article on some of the worst digital screw-ups

Worlds smallest battery - nano-batteries might not sound like a big deal, but it's a cornerstone piece of tech.

Researchers build self-healing plastic - now if only they'd build me an ADSL line that would fix itself after it's been struck by lightning

Word of the Week:

Farouche - adjective

1. Sullenly unsociable or shy,


2. Fierce

Another week, another post. The April archives are in too, so you can have a look at those. As always, tell your friends and leave a comment. Peace.

-Odd

"Thus the metric system did not really catch on in the States, unless you count the increasing popularity of the nine-millimeter bullet." - Dave Barry

The Censorship Trend

We all know about how the Chinese government censors the Internet, and the problems it has caused for Google and by extension the US government. Only a terrible dictatorship like the Chinese could possibly want to filter the Internet, right? WRONG! It could be that they're the only ones who can pull it off.

Australia has been trying to push through a similar filtering scheme (although they probably won't stop words like freedom and democracy), but they've been forced todelay the implementation.

This should make us all wonder about our governments and what they have in mind for us. If they didn't tell us that they were filtering our Internet access, would we even notice?

In the News:

Japanese Consortium Projects a Humanoid Robot On the Moon By 2015 - That's just 5 years away.

Robots In Space - NASA has plans for a space robot... And they're calling it R2... I'm seriously geeking out... it's so cool!!!

FDA Approves Vaccine For Prostate Cancer - Not 100% effective... but it's certainly a start

More Energy in Less Space with New Ultracapasitor - power is always the biggest problem for small devices, this should help.

NASA Announces Wednesday Media Teleconference About Search For Extraterrestrial Life - wish I could attend ^^

UK Docs Perform First Remote-Control Heart Surgery - early days still... but it's a fully successful test of a technology that will let the top specialists to save lives all over the world.

Whew... just made it.... almost didn't get a post out this week... it's been hectic at work (despite the public holiday). But I did make it, and you're reading it... so it's all good ^^ Have a great weekend.

-Odd

Instrumental

 

WebComics vs. WebManga

You might not realise it, but there has been a debate raging around certain nodes of the internet. Namely: what is the difference between WebComics and WebManga. There have been panels about this at numerous conventions, blogs and rants by cartoonists, writers and fans... so what's it all about?

WebComics seem to follow a more western style, both in artwork and composition, something like the Sunday newspaper cartoons: each strip has a limited number of panels (usually 3 or 4), is usually self contained (doesn't have a story-line that must be read to understand the comic) and will most often provide one joke per strip. Some examples of WebComics would be ThreePanelSoul, MacHall, RealLife and AppleGeeks.

WebManga, on the other hand, follows more of a Japanese theme, with Manga-inspiredartwork and a complex story line. This is where it gets a little confusing, because if we want to avoid a third category called WebGraphicNovels, we must add the comics with a western drawing style and complex stories to the WebManga group. Examples are stuff like MegaTokyo, the Order of the Stick or ErfWorld.

So that's my definition: WebComics are a joke a strip, while WebManga have more complicated stories... but that's just my two cents, what do you think?

In the News:

Iceland Volcano's Ash Grounds European Air Travel - I'm sure you all know about this... it's insane what a huge effect it's had.... there are dinosaur extinction theories that start remarkably like this.

Using Your Thought-Controlled iPhone to Dial Home - sugoi!!!! told you it was coming.

China hackers stole key Google program - Google's single authentication code was stolen... supposedly by Chinese hackers... they've changed the code, but it's still a massive worry for your privacy.

Fatal Flaw Discovered In Invisibility Cloaks - aw... :( that sucks.

SETI To Release Data To the Public - the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence tries crowd-sourcing... cool ^^

And there you have it, another week, another post. Tune in next week: Same geek time, same geek place.

-Odd

"You know what they call a quarter-pounder in France?"

Violent Video Games and human nature

Steve Napierski over at Dueling Analogs posted a strip this week about a report by the world health organisation saying that video games are a contributing factor in child obesity. Steve sees it as another extension of the bad press around video games, specifically violent ones.

I've never really weighed in on the subject, so I thought I'd give you my two cents: Human beings are predators, we evolved with forward facing eyes and aggressive tendencies so that we could hunt our food. As Cormac McCarthy said, "War was always here. Before man was, war waited for him. The ultimate trade awaiting its ultimate practitioner." We're a violent bunch, if we weren't playing video games then we'd be watching an action movie, boxing or going out the roman circus to see gladiatorial combat.

What I do find troubling is the small number of games that are creative rather than destructive. The few that are around, like Guitar Hero, Farmville or Tamagochi (remember those?) seem to do very well. Maybe we should be encouraging the positive games rather than declaring war on the negative ones... that would seem to be far more consistent to me.'

In the news:

Book Review: The Warcraft Civilisation: Social Science in a Virtual World - sounds like a really cool book ^^

iPhone finally gets multi-tasking - it took you long enough....

Aussie Army Trains With Fleet of Robots On Segways - so cool! I want to have a run.

South Korea Announces Daily MMO Blackouts For Youths - very interesting since South Korea is one of the worlds  most technologically adoptive countries, and that they've got a HUGE market in neatly free MMO's.

Power Beaming For UAVs and Space Elevators - it's getting closer and closer, the Stage1 prize was taken at last years Space Elevator Games, lets hope for some more breakthroughs at the competition this year.

NSA Develops USB Storage Device Detector - and big brother sees just a little bit more than he did before.

First Pulitzer Awarded To an Online News Site - welcome to the digital age....

My post last week was a little weak ^^.... so I've added a couple pics to it so that you can all get a glimpse of Matt and Ian's awesomeness. Hope you enjoyed the post, as usual - tell your friends ^^

-Odd

Zeus most glorious and most great, Thundercloud, throned in the heavens! Let not the sun go down and the darkness come, until I cast down headlong the citadel of Priam in flames, and burn his gates with blazing fire, and tear to rags the shirt upon Hectors breast! May many of his men fall about him prone in the dust and bite the earth!
- Homer (The Illiad)

WebComics: MacHall and ThreePanelSoul

It's been a heavy news week, with offensive songs, the murder of a beloved Spielberg character and a tragic motor accident. All of which is depressing, so I'm not going to talk about it. Instead I'll introduce you to two of the internet's most talented residents: Ian McConville and Matt Boyd.

Ian and Matt are two of the biggest and most loved players on the WebComic scene, starting out with MacHall when they were both in college in 2000. MacHall chronicles the lives of a bunch of college students living in res at Bowling Green State University. The geek factor in the humor is high, and even though the comic stopped posting in September 2006, the archives are well worth the read. Seeing the evolution of Ian's artwork and Matt's scripting is truly something special. 

One of MacHall's later strips

Both Ian and Matt have long since graduated and moved on to be successful members in their respective fields, obviously this puts a large amount of strain on one's free time and they've switched their WebComic energies to ThreePanelSoul. TPS is a very different format, having only three panels in each strip, which provides a very different flavor to their earlier offerings. The strip's humor is matured, clever and completely unique (and yes, i know 'completely unique' is redundant... give me a break, will ya?). 

Awesome example of Matt's brilliant sense of humor

So have a click through to MacHall and ThreePanelSoul the next time you're looking for something to do online, it's more fun than harvesting crops, I promise you.

In the news:

Supersonic Freefall - this dude is going to attempt to break the sound barrier in free-fall i.e. without a plane.... I think this is possibly the craziest (read stupidest) thing I can think of.

Researchers develop a robot that folds towels - it might not sound like much, but this is a huge breakthrough in robotics, read the article to find out why.

After 27 years, a New High Score For Asteroids - I can't believe people are still playing this... competitively yet.

Solar cells: UQAM researcher solves two 20-year-old problems - heralding a new age for cheap, renewable energy.  I definitely think it's time for sunny South Africa to take advantage.

Synapse on a Chip - a new kind of computer memory that mimics brain neurons (yes i know there isn't another kind). Soon to bring big advancements to a peripheral near you.

Transhumanism and Superheroes - possibly the simplest, most concise explanation of post- and trans-humanism I've read. Great stuff, give it a read.

And there you have it... another post. It's April, but I'm still looking for my hill.

-Odd

"Everything is funnier at 2am."

The cataclysm is here

... and no, I haven't turned into one of those crazy guys on the side of the road with the big placard forecasting the end of days. What I'm talking about is World of Warcraft: Cataclysm.

I spent Monday night in line outside BT Games at Greenstone, waiting for the midnight release of this, Blizzard's latest expansion to the world's most popular MMORPG. It was really great to see all the players that share my fascination with this fictional world. We chatted about what we were expecting from the new areas, how cool it is that the dragon Deathwing has wreacked the old world and swapped stories of our epic victories (and defeats).

Blizzard has really made this game a fantastic success: the game-play is fun, it's visually stunning, the story and lore are engaging and the people it attracts are (mostly) friendly, helpful and fun.

If you haven't given this a try yet (and don't have anything else to sink 20+ hours a week into), then ask a friend for a trial key... it's the only game you'll ever need.

In The News:

US showcase a new firearm - and this thing is some SERIOUS hardware.

Study suggests that being too clean can make people sick - ... makes alot of sense once you think about it.

Iranian nuclear scientists admit Stuxnet attacks - ... they did get nailed by the Stuxnet worm.... makes you wonder who first created this virus and why.

Scientists reverse ageing in mice - and so we're getting closer and closer to being immortal ourselves... somehow I don't think our society will handle it very well.

NASA launches Solar-sail propelled satellite - This is still very much a test of the technology, but it's so awesome to see the stuff that I've been reading about in SciFi for years actually start to come out IRL.

Just in time for the holidays - the UK are selling the HMS Invincible... ya... selling an aircraft carrier in an internet auction... it's a weird world we live in folks.

Word of the Week:

Impetrate (verb)

To entreat; ask for.

And so we're another week down. March's archives have been ported across too, so you can give those a re-read if you're strapped for something to do... or check out the links section. As always: Tell your friends, and post a comment if you've got something to say. Thanks.

-Odd

"I like to play blackjack. I'm not addicted to gambling, I'm addicted to sitting in a semi-circle." - Mitch Hedberg

The Large Hadron Collider does it's thing

Yesterday saw the greatest moment in science since Einstein came up with general relativity... did you notice? I guess not, so here's the lowdown:

The worlds largest particle collider the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) has it's first full power collision yesterday, and it was successful. They've been accelerating some light beams around the gigantic machine for the last few months, reaching 99.99% the speed of light... hard to grasp that sort of figure, isn't it? An article over at the Sydney Morning Herald equates the energy of this light beam with a train traveling at 144km/h .... Let me say that again... a beam of light that will hit you as hard as a train.

With the experiments run off this collision, Scientists are exploring what the universe was like at the moment of the big bang, hopefully providing us with a better understanding of how our reality works and finding the elusive God Particle that is supposed to give mass to everything.

So... no black holes, no giant crater in Europe.... it all turned out well, despite the court cases and miscellaneous doom mongering.

On another topic, I challenge all of you to click through to the link in the news section called Fixing Reality with Online Games. This is a truly exceptional program... and one I hope we can all get behind. Do it! It's good karma.

In the News:

First Anti-Cancer Nano-particle Trial on Humans a Success - tiny machines designed to hunt down and kill cancer cells... how cool is THAT?

Fixing Reality with Online Games - What can I say? This could very well save us all from ourselves... READ IT!!!!!!!!

Hubble Builds 3D Dark Matter Map - Our first detailed schematic of the universe?

A Samsung Robot In Every Home By 2020? - How South Korea is getting it right... a lesson for all of us in SA perhaps?

Zero carbon, zero waste city being built in Abu Dhabi - an ambitious project that I'm fully in support of. Great thinking.

Australia reveals prototype 'bionic' eye - History is going to look back at this century as the century of the cyborg... very cool.

Study shows chocolate reduces blood pressure and risk of heart disease - I can already hear you saying, "see, I TOLD you it was good for you".

...And there we have it, another week, another post. Hope you enjoyed it.

-Odd

"As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain; and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality" - Albert Einstein

 

On violent protests and censorship

This week has seen a continuation of what seems to be a national theme for those of us in South Africa: the violent protest. The latest has come from students down in Durban, protesting for better bus transport and food at the university, but my personal favorite was a couple years ago when a group protesting against poor public transport burned trains and buses... it's utterly fantastic... I find that I'm simply not able to grasp the mentality that would be capable of such dark humor.

At first I thought that a stronger police action was needed. Break up unregistered protests before they turn violent, deny protest permits to groups or organisations that have a history of violence and come down HARD on anyone who does get violent. Sounds good, doesn't it? Well... maybe not.

Violence, as Asmiov wrote, is the last refuge of the incompetent, but sometimes it may be necessary. It can be argued that for a long time in South Africa it was necessary, and so it will take a long time to filter out of out society. What worries me is that it's the youth that is getting violent... far more violent than their preceding generation, this has to be a failure of education... which imperils our fragile outlook for the future.

On the other hand, we have the case of Google vs China. The search mega-corporation has finally stood up the dictatorial state, redirecting all users in China to the unfiltered search of their Hong Kong site. China has since censored these results, blocking searches or results as suits them. Did the Chinese students embark on a violent protest to reclaim their right to information (which, personally i think is far more important than an earlier bus ride or easy access to sandwiches)? No... there has been, as far as I can see, zero reaction from the Chinese public.

There must exist some reasonable middle ground somewhere between the mob ruled chaos and the Orwellian government control, but how do we judge? And once we've found the blueprint for such a prefect society, we need to introduce it to the single greatest problem facing good governance..... people.

In the news:

First Flight For SpaceShip Two - Virgin Galactic's new spaceship did it's first atmospheric test flight on Monday... we're getting close to the fabled commercial space flight.

Does This Headline Know You're Reading It? - the building of Text 2.0, where whatever you're reading can tell where you're looking and add video, sound, translation or explanation as needed. It also raises some question about how much we really want our computers to know. Cool article.

Has Emily Howell Passed the Musical Turning Test? - WOW!!!!!! you have to read this, and listen to the music! An AI computer program that creates wholely original, beautiful music!

NASA Mars Rover Getting Smarter as it Gets Older - a great application of AI.

To Mars and back -- as real as it gets - a group of astronoughts do a full scale simulation of a mars mission.

Hey... I managed to post before friday, Woot! I haven't done much work on the Necromunda board, and my internet connection at home is down (thank you telkom), so I haven't been playing wow.... missing my gorgeous lady.

-Odd

The three laws of journalism are:

1) Inform the public of matters of public import.

2) Entertain the audience, when it does not interfere with the first law.

2) Sneak in puns when it does not interfere with the first two laws, unless it's a really good one.

-Mat Boyd (http://www.threepanelsoul.com/)

It's been a busy time...

Hi All,

It's been a pretty hectic month, and a busy week for me... which is the excuse I'm giving to explain why this update is only happening on Friday ^^.

I don't really have any super-cool tech ideas to share with you this week, so I'll just clue you in on what's happening in my life: My gorgeous girlfriend is leaving me in Joberg and going on a two week holiday in Egypt with her family... awesome for her, lonely for me... so what have I got planned? You might think i'm off to a frenzied round of poker games, strip shows and all night parties.... if you didn't know me.

I've got two goals for the upcoming weeks:

1 - hit 5000 GearScore for my W.O.W. character, Adaephon (if this doesn't make sense to you, you don't want to know)

2 - finnish my super awesome, modular, multi-level gaming board for Necromunda. When I'm done I'll be posting lots of pics and a full tutorial... it's going to be epic ^^

So thats the plan... along with working (really hard), studying, blogging and (of course) missing my lady. Lame? maybe... but I enjoy it.

In the News:

SETI is 50 Years Old: No Sign of ET - the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence has been drawing a blank for 50 years.... but they've got some new plans.

From Ian: The Bedazzler - how to replicate a multi-million dollar US weapon program on the cheap

The State of Robotic Surgery - happening more often than you'd think.

Scottish Wave Energy Plans Move Forward - a big step towards large scale green energy production

The Geek's Guide To Getting Girls - finally, they've come up with a manual... RTFM!

Invisibility Cloak - they're getting VERY close to a complete, working, production ready version.

And there you have it... it might not have been much of a post, and it might be late in the week... but it's here, and it's on time (mostly)....

-Odd

"Only Robinson Crusoe had everything done by Friday"

 

Facing Eternity

It might not be immediately noticeable, but modern medicine has greatly increased the human life span. Sure the most drastic extension is available only to the privileged minority, but even the lower classes have benefited greatly advancements in treatment and medication.

Doctors and researchers aren't the type to just sit back, so medical science is always pushing the envelope further, developing or adapting all the cutting edge technologies from robotics to material science. What does this mean for us? Well, because the rate of technological advancement is exponential, there will come a time when treatments can stave off death long enough for the next technology to be developed, which will keep people alive until the next one, and the next, and the next. The end result? Immortality.

I'm not talking about cutting peoples heads off and getting struck by lightning, being bullet proof or completely immune to disease, but the fact is that death from aging will become (for some) a thing of the past. How we adopt these technologies is, however, a completely different question.

Any new technology always starts it's commercial life as an exclusive product. Only the richest people can afford the huge price tag associated with the cutting edge, but because capitalism runs best on the volume game, new technology quickly becomes old technology and gets cheaper and cheaper. So, we start off with a elitist class of immortals... but pretty soon everyone can afford it... then what?

Do we allow anyone and everyone to walk through the eons? It's been shown that the lower we go on the social scale, the more children we have. What happens when we've got 300, 400 years worth of fertility? The earth is already overpopulated with people that barely scrape a century of life... I doubt it can cope with an immortal population that breeds and acts as we do.

What I find exciting, worrying and scary is that the Longevity Turning Point is not as far away as you'd think... I've read articles that posit it in the next 50-100 years... thats us or our children as humanity's first immortal generation... and I, for one, don't think we're ready for it.

Don't believe me? Go ahead, Google it...

In The News:

Caltech Makes Flexible, 86% Efficient Solar Arrays - Finally! we can kick escom out the house.

Chilean Earthquake Shortened Earth's Day - not by much... but I hadn't thought it could have such a global effect.

Long-distance quantum communication - getting that much closer to reality. This is a very important technology for our plans for space travel... communication that doesn't take days, months or years to reach other planets? Brilliant.

Skinput turns your arm into a touchscreen - this is COOL! watch the video.

One in four Germans wants microchip under skin - very interesting poll done in Germany... raises all sorts of ethical/anthropological questions.

Your Personal Memory Device - brain scans, networking and data-centers could turn us all into perfect recall, telepathic cyborgs... I'd sign up.

The World's First Commercially Available Jet-pack - watch out for those Nazi's (5 points to anyone who gets this reference)

Google's Computing Power Refines Translation - getting closer to a perfect universal translator... awesome.

New Phone Allows Bosses To Snoop On Staff - whoa... I REALLY don't like this... too Orwellian for me.

Work's been heavy this week... hence the late week post... but there it is, hope you enjoyed it.

-Odd

"Who wants, To live, Forever...."

 

Damn you fox!!!!!

I got some terrible news this past week. News that has me contemplating serious violence against a major American TV station. There's no easy way to say this, so I'm going to give it to you straight...

DollHouse has been canceled.

That's right. Fox has canceled Joss Whedon's latest masterpiece. I really don't get it, DollHouse is the best show to be aired since... well... since FireFly (which the bloodless corporate drones also cancelled), amazingly imaginative and thought provoking Sci-Fi, challenging scripts pulled off by incredible acting by a talented and diverse cast. I suppose we should be glad that Joss was allowed to do two seasons instead of the one that FireFly managed... but i'm not!

One thing I guess we have though... if DollHouse does follow FireFly's career path, we've got a kick ass movie to look forward to in a couple years.

In the meantime, if anyone wants to sponsor a flight to the US and a couple tons of Hi-Ex.... fox hunting season is open.

In the News:

Video Game Weapons - a cool article about the real world equivalents of our favorite devices of destruction

Cell Phone Data Predicts Movement Patterns - this is a little too big brother for my comfort

Triumph of the Cyborg Composer - a computer program that composes original (and actually GOOD) classical music... brings up a lot of questions about creativity, beauty and humanity.

Saturn Moon Could Be Hospitable To Life - we might have found our first extraterrestrial colony site. AWESOME!

Copernicium Confirmed As Element 112 - time to update your periodic table of elements... I know you all have one... nerds!

Project Offset Creates Graphical Magic - CGI quality graphics rendered in real time, on a home PC... sounds too good to be true... but there it is.

Google Buzz - a little article with various comments and tips

Intelligent people have 'unnatural' preferences and values that are novel in human evolution - just to remind you... my name is Odd... as in strange.... ^^

Water replant material - a new invention for a militantly water-proof surface

Cannibal star is devouring a planet - you don't get more epic than this.

An electrifying discovery - a new material that will harvest electricity from body movement.

BlackBerry Bold Tops Radiation Ranking - told you it was a crappy phone.

Email me now to join the Fox hunting party (not joking).... hope you enjoyed the post.

-Odd

"There are three flowers in a vase. The third flower is green."

 

Archives coming in

Ok... the old posts from January and February are here... expect the rest when you see them.

-Odd

"If you believe everything you read, better not read." -Japanese Proverb

Science Fiction and Science Fantasy, The difference.

Right, so this might be a boring topic for some, but I think it's an interesting distinction, so I'm going to talk about it anyway. People who don't read sci-fi lump whole sections of literature under that one title (often including heroic fantasy, if you can believe that), like some sort of horrible mutant chimera. In reality there are some very clear distinctions in the genre.

Science Fiction as a genre includes such gems as the works of Issac Asimov, or the new Joss Whedon show Doll House. So what categorizes these as science fiction? It's actually fairly simple: The major element in any Science Fiction story is the science. What a science fiction writer does when developing a story is to choose a particular type of technology and then extrapolate it into the future to see how people will react to it. Because the science is the major protagonist in the story, it has to be very well thought out and communicated, there is always an in depth explanation on how and why this technology works.

Science Fantasy (also sometimes called a 'space opera') on the other hand doesn't rely on science for the story's direction. This sub-genre includes epic pieces of story telling like Star Wars (personally I'm referring to IV, V and VI when I say this) and Joss Whedon's amasing FireFly. While these stories might be set in the far future, and so require space-ships and lasers and the like, these things are more incidental to the story that the writer is trying to tell and so we don't get a lot (or any) explanation of how the science works.

To simplify the difference: Science Fiction is a story about people's reactions to piece or type of technology while Science Fantasy is a story that just happens to be set in a place or time with futuristic gadgets. Both genre's are very cool and lots of fun to read (or watch), but for completely different reasons.

In the News:

Robots To Clear the Baltic Seafloor of WW-II Mines - Our metal friends helping out again

Can He Make The Dancing Hexapod Robot Happy - Another cool article on the development of AI

Is Hyperlongevity Immoral? - an interesting exploration of the ethical ramifications of our drive to immortality

Blind people use both visual and auditory cortices to hear - interesting goings on in our brains.

Scientists solve ageing puzzle - "who wants, to live, forever?"

US military to make jet fuel from algae - the jarheads are going green, it seems.

New results confirm standard neutrino theory - some results to back up quantum theory.

Google demonstrates phone that translates text - a step closer to a universal translator

Switzerland peruses violent game ban - big brother steps in against electronic mayhem... it'll sure be boring if they pull it off

Lego Robot Solves Any Rubik's Cube in 12 Seconds - this thing is COOL! check out the vids

Robot Soccer Getting Better - news from the Robot World Cup

Minority Report Interface Is Real, Hitting Mainstream Soon - awesome gadget... I want one!!!

Nanodiamonds Produce 'Game Changing Event' for MRI Imaging Sensitivity - Nano technology doing cool stuff.

Oil droplets can navigate complex maze - scientists have taught oil droplets.... teaching inanimate objects? WTF?!

So there we are... another post down. If you enjoyed it, leave a comment, follow and tell your friends. Or tell me... I'd dig to know if anyone actually reads these things. ^^

-Odd

A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. A robot must obey any orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law - Asimov's 3 Laws of Robotics.

 

Evolutionary Politics

The State of the Nation address that our bold leader Zuma gave last week was a joke. I haven't heard a single person who was happy with it. A reiteration of ANC dogma was NOT what the thinking people of South Africa were looking for in this troubled time. I for one was hoping for something a little more concrete, not load of promises about how our government will create jobs, fix the economy and bring us all breakfast in bed, I wanted to know exactly how they planned to pull it off.

In South Africa we are all afflicted with the curse of Revolutionary Politics... as I see it, this means that the people who fought for freedom, having achieved it, have no idea what to do with it. Instead of actually working for the betterment of their country, government officials seem content to make empty promises and fill their not-so-empty pockets. This won't change until the electorate gets fed up enough to stop voting as if we were still under apartheid... until they realise that, while the ANC has done great things in the past, they don't have the capability or the motivation to lift South Africa to a more prosperous future.

It's not all the ANC's fault though, the opposition hasn't exactly covered itself in glory either. Where are the alternative plans? Where is the mass educational drive that will teach the disadvantaged masses about the real power of the vote and how democracy is supposed to work?

Still.... I suppose it's better to have a government that does nothing, rather than one that actively goes out of it's way to screw things up. As long as they keep that kid Julius muzzled, I'll be content (if not happy).

In the News:

How long till human level AI - a nice article about a survey of industry leaders, asking when they think we'll take the big step

Six-legged Robot Teaches Itself to Walk - a neat new robot ^^

Appeals Court Rules On Internet Obscenity Standard - The californian courts have set a worrying precedient with this one.

Where's Your Flying Car (and Your Jetpack)? - apparently... they're nearly here... Cool!

Fall Into A Black Hole At the Speed Of Light With New Simulator - a couple scienctists have developed a graphic simulation of what happens at the event horizon of a black hole. Nice.

Mixing Man and Machine - the world's first cyborg (now ex-cyborg) talks about artificially enchancing the human race.

Digital/Real World cross over - A huge step in Augmented reality, you HAVE TO watch this! it's a very different approach, and I'm seriously considering trying to build a similar rig. This guy is my new hero.

Brain Surgery Linked To Sensation of Spirituality - quite troubling if you're the religous sort (or maybe not... depends on how much of a control freak you think God is, i guess).

Scrapheap Transhumanism - this dude is seriously whacked... I, for one, would not have the balls to do this.

In an unrelated matter, I had an Epicly Awesome weekend... I officially have the coolest girlfriend in the world... so sorry for the rest of you guys ^^. Hope you enjoyed the post. As always: If you've got a comment post it, and if you enjoyed it... click the link on the right to follow... and tell your friends ^^

-Odd

"What do you mean I could be the president, of the United States of America? Tell me something, it's still WE, THE PEOPLE right?" -Megadeth, Peace Sells.

Hello, my name is Odd and I'm a bibliophile

I recently bought the 25th anniversary edition of David Gemmel's masterpiece Legend (and, being the raging geek that I am, bought one for my gorgeous girlfriend so that she has to read it too ^^), and it got my thinking on my reading habits.

I'm not a huge fan of non-fiction (besides textbooks, i don't touch it) or even real world fiction, my textual consumption consists entirely of Heroic Fantasy and Science Fiction... and some people have a problem with that. It would never have crossed my mind that some would find my reading habits frivolous and wasteful, but I spend a fair amount of time reading in coffee shops and I'm often randomly accosted (usually by business types) asking why I'm wasting me time reading whichever novel I happen to be engrossed in.

Usually I just send them politely on their way... they're much to busy and self important to actually listen to any sort of rational (which begs the question, how do they have time to give me greif?), but occationally I do put down the book, set aside the caffinated ambrosia and try educate the unwashed masses.

I think that Heroic Fantasy and even more so Science Fiction are the most important genres that the combined genius of humanity produces. Heroic Fantasy (the good ones at least) open and expand the mind to a degree that non-fiction and real world fiction just can't match. It introduces us to ideas, worlds and situations that (while not physically possible in this reality) mirror, exemplify and extrapolate everything in the world around us.

Science Fiction is an even greater necessity for the modern world. Every piece of technology, scientific theory and every gadget that has integrated so seamlessly into our lives were (at very least) influenced by the work of a SciFi writer. They are the true visionaries of our age, and we can only benefit from tapping into their genius.

So, next time you're in a book store... be expansionist in your thinking: visit the Fantasy/Sci-Fi section... and if you happen to see me in a coffee shop, brain deep in a novel bigger and more complicated than a V2 rocket manual, have a thought before wrenching me back to reality to tell me I'm wasting my time.

In the News:

Europe's LHC To Run At Half-Energy Through 2011 - The LHC is still a long way from full operation.

Dune Remake Could Mean 3D Sandworms - Hope they do a good job on this one, it's one of the greatest Sci-Fi series ever written.

Patient presumed vegetative communicates via brain scan: study - I can think of nothing scarier than being stuck in my own head with no way to communicate... thankfully, science is making progress.

Stanford's robotic Audi to brave Pikes Peak without a driver (w/ Video) - Self driving cars are getting closer and closer

Carbon Based Chips May One Day Replace Silicon Transistors - A new technology that could keep Moore's Law going.

Hello Robotnaut: Nasa, GM introduce latest humanoid robot - NASA joining the race with this cool new robot.

Artificial intelligence: Can AI crack the conundrum of consciousness? - a great article on AI, how it's evolving and how it can tell us about ourselves.

Virus-Detecting "Lab On a Chip" Developed At BYU - great medical breakthroughs with nano-tech

Google Shooting For Smartphone Universal Translator - totally SciFi technology from my favorite evil corporation.

New Material Transforms Car Bodies Into Batteries - a new meta-material that could change the automotive industry and go a long way to making all our lives the little bit greener.

And there you have it, another week of looking into the excuse I call a mind. ^^ hope you enjoyed it.

-Odd

“Never violate a woman, nor harm a child. Do not lie, cheat or steal. These things are for lesser men. Protect the weak against the evil strong. And never allow thoughts of gain to lead you into the pursuit of evil. Never back away from an enemy. Either fight or surrender. It is not enough to say I will not beevil. Evil must be fought wherever it is found.” - The Iron Code of Druss

 

Modern Robotics

Of all things sci-fi and techie, robots are probably the most easily explained and recognisable phenomenon. They’ve featured in numerous sci-fi books and movies, mostly as grossly overpowered machines of human extinction, but also occasionally as sensitive, thinking, feeling companions to mankind. Today, I will give you a few brief insights into how modern science is trying to realise the promises of those epic sci-fi stories.

The definition of a robot (in this case taken from Wikipedia) is anautomatically guided machine, able to do tasks on its own. Another common characteristic is that by its appearance or movements, a robot often conveys a sense that it has intent or agency of its own. “Automatically guided” is an important distinction, as a lot of machines that people consider to be robots are actually not.

The US military has a number of these typesofthings, but currently doesn’t have any real robots. That will soon change, with DARPA giving out a $32 million grant to the company responsible for the very (very, very) cool Big Dogrobot. This handy (fully automatic) machine is going to be used as a robotic pack mule, lugging around supplies for a troop of soldiers travelling through rough terrain. Big Dog has some really advanced movement systems, so much so that it can come across quite creepy to some people (I think it’s WAY too cool to be considered creepy, but maybe that’s just me ^^).

Thankfully, the military are not the only ones exploring Robotics in its true form, the civilian sector might actually be well ahead. South Korea in particular is making a big push to be the world leader in robotics, having made the very ambitious promise to have a robot in every home by 2020. They could even make the deadline, with awesome tech like Honda’sASIMOrobot and thismaid robot. These civilian robots are still a far cry from C3-P0, only able operate in a very limited set of environments and actions.

So the robots are coming! And with showcases like the Robotic Soccer World Cup, and constant advances in computers allowing us to evolve the software to run the robots, it’s only a matter of time.

Lots of news this week:

Twitter Developing Technology To Thwart Censorship – Twitter taking up the challenge of opposing despotic countries. Brave.

Scientists Produce Unprecedented 1 Megajoule Laser Shot, Step Towards Fusion IgnitionLevitating magnet may yield new approach to clean energy – The biggest “laser beam” built yet, Dr. Evil would approve.

Apple Ipad – various views from industry commentators.

China Is Winning Global Race To Make Clean Energy - Who would have thought?

The BCI X PRIZE: This Time It’s Inner Space - A new X-Prize being setup to advance the electronic/brain interface. Sweet.

New adhesive device could let humans walk on walls - I want to be spiderman!

Scientists Discover New Species of Tyrannosaur - Pretty cool ^^

India Objects To Google Book Settlement - Google having more problems with it’s Books program

Super Strong Metal Foam Discovered - New meta-materials are always cool

Another week, another post. Hope you found it interesting. Peace.

-Odd

“You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one”

 

On Augmented Reality and how it will change our lives

There is a branch of philosophy that argues that what we experience is in fact reality…. This is debatable (every thing is, when you get right down to it), but it’s a particularly interesting viewpoint if we look forward a few years to a new technology that is emerging, Augmented Reality.

Wikipedia defines Augmented Reality (AR) as “a live direct or indirect view of a physical real-world environment whose elements are merged with (or augmented by) virtual computer-generated imagery - creating a mixed reality”. Basically, you have some sort of computer overlaying digital images over the real world.

It gets really interesting when you combine these with something like this and the networking capabilities of a modern cell phone. What they all combine to do is give you a real-time, internet connected, digital overlay of everything you see, navigated by your thoughts alone.

Want to know what shops are in that mall over there? Easy. How about looking up the specs for that sweet car behind you in the traffic? All you have to do is think about it. How much do those shoes cost? How the $%^# do I get home from here? What’s the traffic like on the M1? The possibilities are virtually (no pun intended) endless. Think what it would be like to have easy and constant access to knowledge sources like Google or Wikipedia. These are all fairly basic continuations of services we already have in place, but this kind of always on AR also opens up a whole new world of weirdness.

We could have digital tattoos, for instance, a simple signal broadcast to AR devices around you tells them to overlay a given picture (or animation) over a part of your body. Why stop at tattoos? When the imaging resolution gets advanced enough (and it will), we could portray an entire appearance that is drastically different to, but indistinguishable from, ‘reality’. Soon you’ll be sharing the sidewalk or bus with elves and vampires. This technology could also have an impact on architecture; we could digitise facades for our buildings, creating epic and physically impossible views and spaces.

Possibly the most exciting, and dangerous, use of this technology would be it’s integration with social networking. Have you ever thought of how useful telepathy would be? To be able to simply think at someone and have them respond? Of course, there’s a darker aspect as well, stalking is already rampant on sites like facebook or myspace, and it can only get worse when we can pick out someone’s profile just by looking at them.

The benefits of this technology are too numerous for any but a Luddite to even consider boycotting it, but it will have profound effects on how we interact with each other and the physical world. It’s going to be interesting to see how people adapt.

Who knows? In a few years we might have to completely redefine what we consider as ‘Real’.

 

Aaaand in other news:

Get Naked: It’s Good for Your Brain – Here’s one to send to your girlfriends (or boyfriends) ^^

AI/Nanotech Breakthrough? Transistors That Work Like Our Brains Do – A really interesting research track, and one that (if it works) could produce the first sentient computers.

NASA Prepping Plans For Flexible Path To Mars – NASA’s coming up with a new plan to be productive during the recession.

Ursula Le Guin's Petition Against Google Books – One of my favorite authors has organized a petition against Google’s terms and conditions in their Google Books program… I’m at a loss over who to support.

Uranus and Neptune May Have "Oceans of Diamonds" – more of our solar system’s wonderful weirdness.

SETI Founder Outlines Ambitious Future Plans – the search for extraterrestrial intelligence continues

Dinosaur Feather Color Discovered – I never thought they’d be able to work this out… I’m really glad they did… SUGOI!

How Cyber War is Heating Up – the new face of warfare.

 

And there we have it… another post… and I haven’t missed a deadline yet (probably because I haven’t really set one ^^). Hope you enjoyed it, and if it’s got you thinking I hope you’ll post a comment with your thoughts. Tune in next week for more of the same.

 

-Odd

“What we have here, is a failure to communicate”

 

In the news this week:

There’s been a lot of interesting developments in the news this past week, so I’m just going to give you a rundown of those and do a proper post some time later in the week.

 

NASA Mars Rover Opportunity Grinds "Cool" Rock – Nasa’s mars rover ‘Spirit’ has been having some success, coming across a rock that must have been made by volcanic activity. This gives scientists more insight into the red planet.

Scientists To Breed the Auroch From Extinction – life imitating art, with shades of Jurassic Park, a group of scientists are going to resurrect the giant buffalo-like creature from extinction… cool!

2-D Avatar To Be Pulled From Theaters In China – China bans the movie ‘Avatar’ for promoting anti-authoritarian dogma.

NASA Designs All-Electric Personal Flight Vehicle – Maybe NASA is trying to produce something that's usable by more than just astronauts? I want one!

Correlation Found Between Brain Structure and Video Game Success – I think working for the scientists who did this study could very well be my perfect job. ^^

NASA Will Crowdsource Its Photos of Mars – NASA has put out the call for opinions on the internet, want to see a specific piece of the Martian landscape? Give them a call.

Pope Urges Priests To Go Forth and Blog – The pope is trying to bring the church into the modern world? Then what about his stance on gay marriage? A tad hypocritical if you ask me.

A Case For the Necessity of Science Fiction – I knew it all along.

Colliding Particles Can Make Black Holes After All – experiments similar to those being conducted by the LHC could actually cause a black hole and swallow the earth. But don’t worry… it’d have to be A LOT larger.

 

There you have it, all the cool tech news from the last week. Check back in a couple days for a post on how Augmented Reality will soon be changing the world as we know it.

-Odd

“just because you’re paranoid, doesn’t mean they aren’t really after you”

 

The Technological Singularity: A brief explanation

The phenomenon that is being called the ‘Technological Singularity’, if or when it happens, will change our lives in a drastic and fundamental way, so what is it exactly?

Scientists use the term singularity to refer to a question to which they don’t have any answers, such as what happens beyond the event horizon of black hole or the condition of the universe before the big bang. We simply don’t have the tools or knowledge to describe these things, so we copout and say that it’s unexplainable.

But technology is explainable, surely? We’re the ones who built it the first place, yes? Well… no, not really. The Technological Singularity will happen when we create a self improving computer system that is ‘smarter’ than a human, even just fractionally smarter. The system then works on itself, improving exponentially until (in a relatively short period of time) it becomes a super-intelligence, vastly more complex and powerful than a human mind. As the super-intelligence will be so far beyond us, or anything we can imagine, we simply can’t predict what sort of impact it will have on our world.

Can you imagine what sort of answers we could get out of such a system? A unifying theory of the universe, perhaps? Faster than light drive technology for our spacecraft? Unlimited clean energy? Or (knowing what we’re like) weapons capable of ever greater destruction? Will the super-intelligence even bother to talk to such limited beings as humans?

A lot of these questions cannot be answered, and others depend a lot on the environment that the singularity arises in. I think we’d all prefer that the singularity gets kicked off by a group of independent scientific researchers rather than a belligerent military and thankfully there are some people working towards that. The Singularity Institute is a forum of scientists working towards speeding up the Singularity and getting it started under peaceful conditions.

Even given the best possible scenario for the Singularity, it will still have a drastic effect on our society. A lot of people are already having problems adapting to the incredible pace of technological change, what will it be like when the Super-Intelligence puts it foot on the gas? We all need to ask ourselves if we’re ready for this, because it is coming… whether we are or not.

In the news:

Options Dwindling For Mars Spirit Rover - NASA’s having serious problems getting it’s little robot friend out of a ditch… a call to AAA (alien automobile association) might be in order ^^

Wii Balance Board Gives $18,000 Medical Device a Run For Its Money – A fine example of gaming making technology more accessible to everybody. Go Nintendo!

Google Phone Could Drive Apple Into Allegiance With Microsoft – for a company with the motto “Don’t be Evil”, Google seems to be leaning towards the dark side quite a lot. First it was the whole drama over China and it’s censorship laws and now they’re pushing Apple into cooperation with the borg? Not cool, guys!

Legend – The first book written by David Gemmel is out in a 25^th anniversary edition. If you haven’t read this yet, do so!

 

Well, there you have it… another post down. If you found it illuminating, entertaining or even just irritating, please use the link below to post a comment.

-Odd

“I'll be more enthusiastic about encouraging thinking outside the box when there's evidence of any thinking going on inside it.” – Terry Pratchett.

 

First Post.... Woot!

Hello world,

Those of you that know me, know that I’ve tried this blogging thing before and that I’ve failed miserably… hopefully this time will be a little more successful ^^.

The reason I’m starting this blog is that at my company (Netsurit) runs a ‘dream workshop’ where we are encouraged to come up with a list of dreams and goals and then work towards them in a structured manner. It’s really quite a cool idea, and it makes the whole corporate drag a little less 1984 and a little more Band of Brothers. Anyway, one of my dreams is to write a book (or a couple books actually, I’ve got a few ideas) but I’m suffering from ‘blank page syndrome’, and I thought that if I can just get into the habit of writing, I can pull it off…. So I’ll be publishing this on OddThoughts and the corporate intranet… hopefully around once a week.

What am I going to be rambling on about? Well…. Whatever I happen to be thinking when I sit down to write, but I should warn you I am the Lord of Geeks, so if technology, transhumanism, quantum mechanics and games of all sorts bore you… you should stop reading now ^^.

Aaaand in other news: (these are snippets, I’ll probably blog in more depth about these topics when I’ve got nothing else to ramble about).

Robotics Prof Fears Rise of Military Robots: I don’t know how many of you keep up with advances in robotics technology, but it really is getting scary (or exciting, depending on your point of view). The US army already have lots of UAV’s and it’s only a matter of time before advances in AI make autonomous robots a reality…. SkyNet anyone?

Turning Work into Play with Online Games: This is a cool idea…. Although, judging by my slow rate of leveling in WOW, I think I’ll stick with a conventional promotions model ^^.

How to Print Living Tissue: A lot of scientists have recently been talking about a longevity tipping point, where the technology to prolong our lives starts advancing faster than we actually age… would it surprise you to know that some estimates put that date at around 20-30 years from now? We might be the human race’s first immortal generation. This article is about another piece of the puzzle.

Augmented Reality To Help Mechanics Fix Vehicles: Just a new use for AR… the line between the digital world and the ‘real’ world is getting blurrier and blurrier every day. Already I think I might live more in the digital realm than I do in so called ‘real’ life… my brain certainly does it’s work there, so it’s going to be interesting to see what effect this sort of cross-over has on our lives.

Ok… that’s it for now… I think that went pretty well, don’t you? I’ll hopefully see you again next week. Same geek time, same geek place. ^^

-Odd

“Peace Sells, but who’s buying?”