Scientists take the effort out of moving objects

A team led by scientists from Edinburgh University has succeeded in objects move remotely and with no direct physical effort.

America is now free to get lazier. If that is possible.

...read more

Also from the article...

However, nanotechnology is not without controversy. Although the Prince of Wales publicly denied reports last year that he thought the world could be reduced to grey goo by an army of self-replicating nanobots, he has remained cautious about the technology.

Sounds like A_B isn't the only one worried about the mainkinds impending doom at the hands of technology.

SLC Punk

Howdy from fabulous Salt Lake City. Courtyard Marriott is a pretty nice hotel and it has free high speed internet in my room. Not a bad deal. My buddy, Peter, and I are here for a few days to attend dealer training for Control4. The training should be good, but the big deal is that they are shipping out my product so I can pimp out my house. Automated living, baby.

We flew in and got to the hotel about 9:20pm and headed to the restaurant next door (Iggy's) for a quick bit to eat and a drink. In case you never plan on visiting Utah, let me explain how the laws work here when it comes to alcohol. Needless to say, Eventine wouldn't do well here.

A bar is a club. You have to have a membership to one of these private clubs in order to just go to a place for drinks. Anywhere else you drink is considered a restaurant and you MUST order food in order to drink. All draft beer is only 3.2 alcohol by volume, but you can get bottled beer that is normal beer. If you order a drink with hard liquor in it, you can only have one drink on the bar at a time. The waitress actually stood at the bar holding our second drinks, looking at us expectantly, while we held our drinks and looked confused. If you drink beer, you can have one hard liquor drink at the same time, but only one additional drink.

The best part was when the waitress was taking the time to explain to us all of these rules. We asked why Budwieser would want to produce special beer just for Utah. She told us that it wasn't really specially brewed beer because everywhere else gets kegs from the same place. The difference is that most states have their kegs measured by weight but, in Utah, their kegs are measured by volume.

We both started at her trying to figure out how that makes a difference in the alcohol content... She then mumbles something about alcohol content by volume and wandered away.

It was confusing to say the least...and our first big adventure in Utah.

IM not sure I care

The internets are abuzz with talk of Google's entry into the instant messenger playfield. Of course, Google could leave a booger on the underside of a desk and the internet faithful would trip over each other trying to get at it. And, I am guilty. I downloaded it and Google Sidebar this week as soon as they were available..

The problem is...I'm not sure I care. Instant messaging is obviously a very popular form of internet communication but in discussing the phenomenon with Chad this morning, I realized how little I care about Google Talk or IM, in general. Studies say that among youth on the internet, they greatly prefer IM to email and view email as old fashioned and out of date. I suddenly feel like there is an internet generation gap beginning to develop. For quite a while, you either were on the internet or you weren't. Of course, there are levels of interest in the web and web enhanced products (if this post pops up via RSS in your Google Sidebar, you, my friend, not only have great taste, but are part of the top echelon of internet users).

Broadband vs dialup is a huge dividing point but that largely falls to two main factors. Availability and interest. You either can't access a broadband connection or you aren't that into technology. What seems to be developing now is an age separation and maybe I am simplifying it by assigning it to age alone, but it seems to be the dominant contributing issue. My sister, who is five years younger than I am, is part of the IM generation, yet I am not. She went through her developmental years of adolensence with IM as a huge part of the way she and her friends communicated.

I, on the other hand, got my first computer when I was about 8 and was logging onto BBS on a 2400baud modem. I also recall that when I was in high school and developing the majority of my social skills (or lack thereof), e-mail was new and cool. It became part of my language.

Another thing that I actually am a little bitter about when it comes to instant messaging is the pushiness of it. Cell phones are bad enough. I don't like feeling like I have to get back to someone at this very instant. I don't like the pressure of responding quickly and often feeling forced to do so. I like to organize my thoughts and edit my ideas before sending them out for ridicule to the cruel world. I like the fact that I can ignore an e-mail for a couple hours (or days) before getting back to it.

So, screw you, instant messaging. Sure, I have Google talk installed, but I do it in slight protest and only because I still love Google (mainly for Earth, Maps, and Mail.) Although, A_B is right, they do seem to be sliding towards overbearing.

And one PS...is it just me or is the sidebar kind of ugly and unoriginal. I uninstalled in about two hours and moved to Desktop Sidebar.

I wish it was only a PennyArcade.

We have a pretty good sized room in our house that has become the de facto game room. It has a small bar, 8 foot pool table and a dart board. What it needs, is this.

I can dream can't I? Filled with MAME games and ready for action. I just need to figure out how to get an online money raising campaign started. After all, if this guy can get $5000 for a stupid G5, I can get $3500 for a kick ass arcade machine from hell, right?

Tommy Lee Goes to College

I can't believe I am typing this, but we caught Tommy Lee Goes to College last night on NBC and it is really pretty good. There is a large contingency of people who tend to write off the reality tv genre as a whole and to them, I say, bite me. RealityTV, like anything other genre, is only as good as the concept and the personalities involved. This show has a pretty unoriginal concept (Back to School, anyone?), but Tommy Lee is the perfect personality for it.

He has the laidback, stoner vibe that is perfect for college life at the University of Nebraska. Instead of a fish out of water, he is the big tuna in a pond filled with chicks, parties and fun. The thing that amazed me the most about the show is the fact that Tommy actually seems to be taking it pretty seriously. When he gets a question right in his Horiculture class you literally want to cheer for him. And when he tries out for the marching band and sucks, I really felt for the guy.

Surprising, I know. But check it out if you don't believe me. You know you want to.

Big Thanks!

A big thanks to Ei-Nyung (aka eingy) for the help with getting my new header into the template correctly!

You recieve the first annual zeropointDigital Coding Wizard of the Year award. Congratulations!!

10 MPH Movie Trailer

The movie about 2 guys who crossed America using just a Segway just released their movie trailer.

So, this seem like an interesting concept. Drive across America on a Segway scooter. That must have been one LONG extension cord.

...see trailer

To see more awesome photos from the talented
photographer that shot this picture - click here.

Custom Header

I have a custom header idea for this blog and have the complete set of Photoshop skills to put one together (a link should be here to the Seppo World Tour thread on TGF) but I have no IDEA where to stick it in my template in order to get it to show up. Any Blogger fans have an idea?

And please make sure the obligatory "stick it in my template" jokes are well thought out and hillarious. Thanks!

Technology - solving mysteries for mankind

I found this quote on the internets today and thought this was appropriate.

Computers are like bikinis. They save people a lot of guesswork.
-Sam Ewing

SCORPIONS!!

SCORPIONS! Not live world wide, but live in my living room. I got up this morning about 7am and while my lovely wife was getting ready for work, I made some coffee and settled into my office to start the daily online search for newly posted jobs. About five minutes in I hear a screech from the other room and run to investigate.

When my wife and I moved to Phoenix over five years ago, she was excited about the move with two massive reservations named, rattlesnake and scorpion. Of course, I reassured her that, although they are here, she would most likely never see one and not have to worry about it. Even after quite a few mountain hikes, we have yet to see a rattlesnake (there was one close call though, we were hiking in the South Mountain Park one hot, early summer day and as we were approaching the peak another young couple were coming down the trail and made a passing comment about watching out for the snake on the trail ahead...needless to say, we didn't make it to the top).

Scorpion sightings have been kept to one time at the Arizona Mills Mall when a lady found a scorpion in her kids stroller while standing in line at the Gap...until this morning.

Back to the scream. Scorpion on the wall in our living room. This freaks me out a little bit, but Rachel, yikes, she actually cried. She tried to tell me that because it was small, it was a baby and they must be mating in our house and they were going to be everywhere. I did my best to reassure her that they are small naturally, which they are. Now what to do about the scorpions...

Browncoat fever

It's said to say but I almost feel like I should be required to turn in my geek card. Every self respecting nerd in the continental United States has seen and adored Firefly at this point and somehow I have managed to avoid it. Maybe it has to do with my aforementioned aversion to chasing the crowd, but sometimes, when the crowd is small and well trusted, (here is where I would include a link to one of the discussions about the show on thegamersforum.com, but, alas, it appears to be entering it's twilight) I should just chase after the thing in question.


So, maybe you have been living under a large rock on the internet for the past two years and somehow have avoided the call of the browncoats. You know who you are (Lance). Firefly was the new show put together by Joss Whedon (if you need me to tell you what else he has done you may need to buck up and resign yourself to the fact that you, sir, are no geek.) Anyway, he put together half a season of the show and handed it over to Fox for air and they managed to make one of the worst mistakes in recent history when it come to the handling of a TV property. If they had canceled Arrested Development this year, I would say they are completely incompetent but it appears that at least someone who knows what they are doing over there.

So what makes Firefly so great? Well, I happen to love the sci-fi/western mashup, but it's not really the most original idea in the world. I seem to be drawn to things mixed with westerns, as The Dark Tower is my favorite book series and it combines western and fantasy. In fact, the show really borrows from Star Wars and reminds me a bit of Cowboy Bebop. The writing, of course, is the star of the show and the time that it takes to develop real, meaty characters is excellent. The special effects while kept to a minimum (think A New Hope, not Attack of the Clones) are really well done for a television budget.

You may be wondering why am I talking about a show that has been canceled for two years and is never coming back (/reverse psychology). Because of the movie, Silly. When the resulting DVD set sold a quarter of a million copies in the first couple of weeks, Universal Sudios took notice and greenlighted a film based on the show called Serenity It opens on September 30th and should be great. So, as I specialize in being so far behind the curve it is almost laughable, check out the show on DVD (or on the Sci-Fi Channel that is running the series on Friday nights right now) and don't miss the movie.