Oooh, shiny!

In commemoration of the 17th anniversary of the Hubble Telescope's launch, a number of new images (including this panorama) have been released.   Beautiful!

Geek man

Well, if you can have "action figure Librarian," why not?

Really, though. It should talk.  And talk, and talk.....    :-)

ScienceScouts march on!

Now, with more badges!   Mine include:

The "experienced with electrical shock" badge (LEVEL III)
In which the recipient has had experience with the electrical shocking of himself/herself.

The "I bet I know more computer languages than you, and I'm not afraid to talk about it" badge.
It could get ugly when two or more of these recipients get together.

The "my degree inadvertently makes me competent in fixing household appliances" badge.
Not necessarily a good thing.

The "non-explainer" badge (LEVEL I)
Where the recipient can no longer explain what they do to their parents.

...and you'll never be able to go back to decaf again

Yet another sighting in the category "kitchen appliances that know better than you do". 
Previous members include the 'fridge that keeps buying broccoli every time you throw out the old ones,
and of course the Nutrimatic machine.  :-)

James Pappas, JL Hufford Coffee and Tea's Product Manager, believes that the technology enabling an appliance to learn and react to its user's preferences, so-called "ubiquitous computing", is already both available and affordable. "The software for a basic [artificial intelligence learning algorithm is currently available and quite inexpensive", says Pappas, whose store specializes in "super-automatic" coffee machines.  "This is simply the next logical step", claims Pappas.

What will it be like to use such a machine? "For the first several weeks, the machine learns the drinking patterns of its users. Then it adapts. Every Sunday afternoon, it's French vanilla cappuccino time. Each weekday morning, it starts brewing a triple espresso at 7:00 am. After dinner, it does up a creamy decaf café au lait." How does it know where you are or at exactly which moment you'll be ready for your drink? Pappas is tight-lipped about this aspect, the crux of his invention, but he hints at GPS tracking or existing RFID technology. What is certain is that some machines, like the Jura-Capresso Impressa F9 already have ports which could be connected to a computer. Once the computer is networked, the possibilities are many.

- milan

"Conspire with the garbage disposal all you'd like, Frigidaire, I'm still not eating that Broccoli you're buying."

Mnemonic

 Just in case you need to remember a certain number to a very large precision....

Now, all you need to do is to figure our a mnemonic to help remember the mnemonic.

Fwd: Who says web sites are hard?

1) Author is told they ought to have a website to promote their forthcoming book
2) Author does not know HTML, HTTP, Javascript, etc etc
3) Website proceeds to be created, using alternate means

Keep clicking along, as it gets better and better....

Painted buildings and 3D wall murals

To make up for todays clouds, high winds, and driving rain, here are some brightly painted buildings to brighten your day.
I'm particularly taken with the 3D murals and their trompe l'oeil effects.

Yuri's Night 2007

What?  There's an annual, geek-related, anniversary celebration that I didn't know about?  For shame!

From GMSV:

On this day in 1961, 27-year-old Yuri Gagarin lifted off the launch pad in Baikonur, made a single, 108-minute orbit around the Earth, then rode his capsule to a parachute landing on the Russian plains, becoming the first human to venture into space. There is obviously only one truly appropriate way to mark this historic event — tech rave! In cities around the world tonight and tomorrow night, Yuri's Night '07 will be celebrated in parties that will be mashups of science and art.

Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo

It's a perfectly grammatical sentence, and now it's a cartoon.

Next up:  Policing the Police.

"Who polices the police?" The police police. Then, who polices the police? "The police police police police". So, who polices the police police? "Police police police police police police."

Stories about a face that only a robot can see

A rare thing for "high concept" art -- Both the presentation of the book on the web and the book itself are quite attractive.

-----------------
From Benjamin Rosenbaum's blog:

So that art project that Ethan Ham and I did has shipped!

It's the first in a series of art objects produced by The Present Group, which says it's "like a mutual-fund that produces art instead of profits".

Ethan created a robot that trolled Flickr looking for his face. In the process, it found a number of "faces" that we wouldn't call faces. I wrote a series of interconnected stories based on those images.

So, stories about faces that only a robot can see.

There's a signed, limited edition of eighty handmade book-boxy things that subscribers to The Present Group got (you can still get one as a back issue). I signed 'em. With this special archival pen. It was a weird feeling, since I'm used to art that you make as many as you can of, not art that you constrain to a specific number of instances.

You can see what the book looks like here. (Keep clicking on it and it will unfold itself).

And the text of the stories I wrote is online here. (You have to click the little >> at the upper right to go to the next page).

The little green box with a line in it on each picture, shows where the robot found a face.

They also recorded me reading the stories, interviewed me and Ethan, comissioned a critical essay on the work, collected links to related works of art, and made sure the physical object will last for a century .

The audio and the text are CC'd, so you can redistribute them freely (and remix the audio), noncommercially and with attribution.

These people go all out.

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Top office pranks

A day late, but good none the less