Category: Geek Stuff

Geek Month in Review: July 2015

by Administrator, posted in Geek Stuff, Guest Authors, Movies, Science

By JB Sanders

Fireworks!

Touching Holograms
Remember that scene in Iron Man or Avengers where someone moves holograms around like they’re real, physical objects? Yeah, we’re not that far away from having that.

Star Trek Bluetooth Communicator
So sure, it’s nothing more than a bluetooth headset in a weird form, but it does look freakin’ cool. How odd is it (for those of us above a certain age) to see something like this and think “that’s retro-future nostalgia tech”.

TWA Terminal in Time Capsule
It’s a view back to the Jet Age, when the wealthy travelled by jet airliner and smoked in their designer finery. It’s like a posh version of the Jetsons.

Super Camper Van
Planning an expedition to the arctic? Or that trackless wilderness that hides a pyramid? Then this “camper van” is your ideal companion. It’s something the company in the movie “Congo” would have bought. It has everything.

Blade Runner Prop Photos
See the miniatures created for all the effects in Blade Runner. You know, because there was a time before CGI.

Underground Drone Video
Not just for high-level aerial footage anymore — now drones are flying around the tunnels under London.

LEGO Queen Mary
Yup, an ocean liner model made entirely of LEGOs. It’s 25-feet long, has over 250,000 bricks, and weighs 600 pounds.

Giant Arrows from a Bi-plane Age
Obsolete infrastructure can be found all over the place — just look out the train window in the Easter US and see the telegraph cabling. There used to be arrows all over the US guiding early flyers to the nearest airport.

Healing With Ultrasound
Scientists are working to heal wounds with ultrasound, sci-fi style. Not instantly, mind you, but the technique appears to work on chronic wounds which won’t otherwise heal normally.

Plastic Roads
Like giant LEGO(tm) bricks, Plastic Roads are being developed in the Netherlands, and are designed to be modular.

The Tree That Bears 40 Different Fruits
Yeah, really. It’s not some weird genetic hybrid that might have tentacles if someone slipped a digit somewhere, this is straight-up ancient-as-hell hybridization. Or more specifically, grafting. Some joker grafted 40 different varieties of fruit-bearing tree limbs onto one tree, and then repeated the idea in several dozen locations. The article has a link to a map, if you want to see these trees in person.

World’s Largest Vertical Farm
Kickin’ it scifi-style in New Jersey with the indoor, sunlight-free, aeroponic farm. The facility will be capable of producing 2 million pounds of produce a year when it’s finished, and it doesn’t use nearly the resources of regular farming.

EM Drive May Actually Work
When it was originally announced, the EM space drive got a lot of scorn. Thrust from “nothing” (no reaction mass)? Yeah, lots of doubt. However, several independent scientists have now tentatively confirmed that there is something going on there. Space travel, ahoy!

Quietest Rooms in the World
Soundproofed, shielded from electromagnetic noise, and isolated from pretty much any odd earth movement, these rooms in Switzerland are great places to mess with particle physics.

Lamp Runs on Sea Water and Metal
Two Phillipine geniuses (genii?) have invented a lamp that can run on salt water and electrodes that only need to be replaced once or twice a year. It even has a port to charge cell phones.

http://www.upworthy.com/a-brother-and-sister-in-the-philippines-invented-a-lamp-that-runs-entirely-on-metal-and-salt-water?c=bl3

About John:
John’s a geek from way back. He’s been floating between various computer-related jobs for years, until he settled into doing tech support in higher ed. Now he rules the Macs on campus with an iron hand (really, it’s on his desk).

Geek Credentials:
RPG: Blue box D&D, lead minis, been to GenCon in Milwaukee.
Computer: TRS-80 Color Computer, Amiga 1000, UNIX system w/reel-to-reel backup tape
Card games: bought Magic cards at GenCon in 1993
Science: Met Phil Plait, got time on a mainframe for astronomy project in 1983
His Blog:http://www.glenandtyler.com/

Geek Month in Review: June 2015

by Administrator, posted in Geek Stuff, Guest Authors, Science

By JB Sanders

Summer!

The 20-year-old Cleaning Up the Oceans
That’s not hyperbole, either. Boyan Slat has two major projects underway right now to do just that. The first one starting in August will collect more data in three weeks on the plastic floating in our oceans “than anyone has in 40 years”. In 2016, he’s deploying a device to collect plastic out of the ocean which will be the longest floating structure around (2,000 meters). I think he’s giving Elon Musk a run for his money. The guy’s only 20!

Flying Tricycle in Prototype
Technically, it’s a “coaxial, Y6-layout tricopter”, but if that confounds you — no worries. If you’ve seen Return of the Jedi, you’ve seen a flying motorcycle much like this. Yes, there’s video.

James Bond Cars Through the Years
Cool website that shows all the James Bond cars. Nice effects and cool art. Plus hot cars.

Magic, Light, and Quadracopters
Art and science meet, produce a wonderful dance. Done only with lights, lampshades, and some well-programmed quadracopters.

3D Printed Bridge
These crazy Dutch engineers/programmers/scientists have created prototype robots that are going to 3D print a bridge in place and kind of mid-air. Scifi in Action folks!

Gustav Eiffel’s Secret Tower Apartment
Built into the 3rd level of the Eiffel Tower is a secret apartment that the builder had put in over 100 years ago. See pictures of (more or less) how it looked back in the day.

Lexus Makes a Hoverboard — For Real!
It is 2015 after all, the year Marty McFly DeLoren’s to in Back to the Future. It had to happen sometime. Even if the hoverboard in question requires a metal surface to work.

3D Color Images of 1850’s Japan
No, it’s not the result of time travel, it’s stereoscopic photography during the time it was invented. It’s been converted for your convenience into animated GIFs.

Tactile Tablet
It’s like an iPad, only it creates a raised surface for braille, contour maps, or whatever.

Creepy Writing Doll
What is even creepier is that the doll in question is over 240 years old. Nothing quite like 18th century clockwork automatons.

About John:
John’s a geek from way back. He’s been floating between various computer-related jobs for years, until he settled into doing tech support in higher ed. Now he rules the Macs on campus with an iron hand (really, it’s on his desk).

Geek Credentials:
RPG: Blue box D&D, lead minis, been to GenCon in Milwaukee.
Computer: TRS-80 Color Computer, Amiga 1000, UNIX system w/reel-to-reel backup tape
Card games: bought Magic cards at GenCon in 1993
Science: Met Phil Plait, got time on a mainframe for astronomy project in 1983
His Blog:http://www.glenandtyler.com/

Geek Month in Review: May 2015

by Administrator, posted in DIY, Geek Stuff, Guest Authors, Science

By JB Sanders

May flowers!

We Are Truly in the Future
Let Pancake Bot draw whatever shape you want your pancakes in, then cook them for you.

What Do Tree Rings Sounds Like?
Oddly ethereal. See scientists take tree rings and treat them like they’re special long-playing vinyl.

The Forgotten Pyramids of Meroe
Along the Nile, in the Sudan, there are some 200 pyramids left — not by the Egyptians — but by the Meroitic Kingdom. They’re not as big but they are very cool looking. In fact, I suspect some of the artists drawing tombs in various fantasy games over the years saw these.

Cube inside a Cube inside a Cube
Which is not not the remarkable part — no, because any idiot with a 3D printer and the right file can make one of those. This guy did it with a block of aluminum, some hot glue, and a lathe. Not a CNC reduction machine. No! An honest-to-Pete lathe — spinning in circles, crank-controlled, and computer-free.

Artificial Lava
Want to experiment with lava flows, but live in upstate New York? Melt some basalt and make your own!

The Quiet Zone
Imagine a place with no cell phones, no radio broadcasts, not even any microwave ovens (unless they’re in a Faraday cage). That place is the Quiet Zone, an area of 13,000 square miles that is forbidden by law from having any radio interference.

3D Interactive Map of the Universe
Yup, time to break out your holoprojectors. It’s a full 3D map of the known universe and you can monkey around with the view.

Hyperloop Test Track in the Works
The Hyperloop is a train, set in a near-vacuum tube, which — if the theory proves correct — could travel faster than an airplane. Yes, Elon Musk, super-villain in training (or a hero using the villain playbook, which one is unclear) is making another of his wacky ideas a reality. Giant pneumatic tubes could some day criss-cross the country, or even under the oceans. If you’re wondering why anyone would want to use or build something like that, let’s lay down the travel times: Los Angeles to San Francisco in 30 minutes. Yeah. Anyway, they’re actually building a test track now.

How to Make Stackable Edible LEGOs
Want to build amazing structures or spaceships (spaceships!)? LEGOs. Want to be able to eat them after the inevitable fiery comet of doom? Look no farther.

Micro-Living Pod
It’s a super-tiny house that can accommodate up to 2 people, runs off wind and solar, and even collects its own rain water in a cistern below the living space. Looks like a futuristic egg, but the interior is actually kinda cool. Coming in 2016.

Wait, the thing has its own website:

About John:
John’s a geek from way back. He’s been floating between various computer-related jobs for years, until he settled into doing tech support in higher ed. Now he rules the Macs on campus with an iron hand (really, it’s on his desk).

Geek Credentials:
RPG: Blue box D&D, lead minis, been to GenCon in Milwaukee.
Computer: TRS-80 Color Computer, Amiga 1000, UNIX system w/reel-to-reel backup tape
Card games: bought Magic cards at GenCon in 1993
Science: Met Phil Plait, got time on a mainframe for astronomy project in 1983
His Blog:http://www.glenandtyler.com/

Geek Month in Review: April 2015

by Administrator, posted in Geek Stuff, Guest Authors, Science

by JB Sanders

Spring flowers!

World’s Largest Airship Nearly Ready for the Skies
The airship is set to return to the skies (with helium!), now in an industrial capacity.

Fiction to Invention: Timeline
Great infographic on the time it took for something that appeared in science fiction to turn into fact.

All the Best Supervillains Have Them
Elon Musk made a twitter post that seems especially appropriate.

Chinese Farmer Builds Transformer Figures
Doesn’t sound all that exciting, does it? Did I mention that these “figures” are life-sized (as in 20-feet tall)? And made out of car parts? They look pretty awesome.

I Think There’s a Movie In This
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management is looking to find people to live in an abandoned mining town that has a reputation for being haunted. You should totally do it! All the cool kids are. And I’m certain that nothing would ever go wrong with living in a haunted ghost town. Definitely.

Wanna Buy a Village?
Speaking of abandoned properties, there’s a little village in Connecticut — all 64 acres of it — that is up for sale again. It was a mill town, then the mill burned, then it was a Victorian recreation village, and then it was planned to be a created community.

The Invisible Infrastructure
Really fascinating visualization of all the airplanes going into and out of the UK airspace in the course of a day.

Ancient Computer Festival
Marvel at the vacuum tubes! Wonder at the giant cabinets! See the original iMac doorstop. All this and more at the Vintage Computer Festival East.

Chernobyl Fox Makes Sandwich
Yup, we got us some mutants. No doubt.
Note: auto-playing vide

GM Futureliner — the Car of the Future, In the 1950’s
They just don’t make ‘em like that anymore — because they NEVER made them like this. A vehicle both huge and odd-looking, it does have the whiff of a 1950’s future. They were put together by General Motors as traveling exhibits to showcase GM tech. And they are monstrously big: 33 feet long, 8 feet wide, and 11’ 2” high.

The Internet of Cows
Researchers in San Francisco are attaching special pedometers to cows. They’ll track all sorts of data about them to help dairy farmers with their herds.

About John:
John’s a geek from way back. He’s been floating between various computer-related jobs for years, until he settled into doing tech support in higher ed. Now he rules the Macs on campus with an iron hand (really, it’s on his desk).

Geek Credentials:
RPG: Blue box D&D, lead minis, been to GenCon in Milwaukee.
Computer: TRS-80 Color Computer, Amiga 1000, UNIX system w/reel-to-reel backup tape
Card games: bought Magic cards at GenCon in 1993
Science: Met Phil Plait, got time on a mainframe for astronomy project in 1983
His Blog:http://www.glenandtyler.com/

Geek Month in Review: March 2015

by Administrator, posted in DIY, Geek Stuff, Guest Authors, Science

by JB Sanders

Snow, snow go away…

Jurassic Park Computer System
So, there’s this website out there that simulates the computer control system in the original Jurassic Park movie. Give it a whirl.

Low-Tech Old-School Secret Drawers
Lovely antique small writing desk, with a TON of secret drawers and hidden compartments.

Oldest Surviving Movie Footage of New York City, Annotated
Great video showing what appears to be the oldest movie footage of New York City, from May of 1896. Annotations show a map of the current NYC on the left. Pop-up highlights over the video call out landmarks and other points of interest. There’s movie footage from 1896 to 1906, going backwards in time from newest to oldest. Fascinating stuff.

Geek Makes Secret Door Into His Home Theater
But that’s not the best part — the awesome thing is that it’s a secret door, modeled on the secret back entrance in Moria. Yes, that Moria — as in, Mines of Moria, Tolkien, Lord of the Rings, etc. It even — oh, but I won’t spoil it. Suffice to say it has features.

That’s Not a Table! It’s a Machine!
Watch this crazy complex table go from a small size to a larger size simply by turning. It’s based on an 1835 patent.

Easily Build a Hidden Safe
Ok, it hasn’t got a TON of room, but it’s got the nice benefit of being difficult to spot. Plus who doesn’t like hidden drawer-type-things that you can do yourself for $3?

Zombie Infection Simulation
Watch as zombies spread out from the point of infection, in hour-by-hour time, until they engulf the US. You can even slider-bar the parameters to make zombies faster or slower, and more or less infectious. Science!

Comic Book Cartography
Some 4-color plates of famous geography from yesteryear. Browse the contents of the Bat Cave, or the hidden secrets of the Baxter Building.

About John:
John’s a geek from way back. He’s been floating between various computer-related jobs for years, until he settled into doing tech support in higher ed. Now he rules the Macs on campus with an iron hand (really, it’s on his desk).

Geek Credentials:
RPG: Blue box D&D, lead minis, been to GenCon in Milwaukee.
Computer: TRS-80 Color Computer, Amiga 1000, UNIX system w/reel-to-reel backup tape
Card games: bought Magic cards at GenCon in 1993
Science: Met Phil Plait, got time on a mainframe for astronomy project in 1983
His Blog:http://www.glenandtyler.com/

Witches of Echo Park

by Administrator, posted in Books, Geek Stuff

If you’re like me, you’re a fan of Amber Benson because you loved the character Tara from the television series “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”. Once the show went off the air, she kind of fell off my radar. Well unbeknownst to me, while I’ve been sitting around letting my butt get wide Benson has been building an artistic empire. An empire I tell you!

She’s written, directed, and produced a few independent films. She has her own production company, Benson Productions. Not the most exciting name, but still. She worked on the Tara and Willow comics that were done for the “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” comic book series. With Christopher Golden she straight created a fantasy franchise, “Ghosts of Albion”, that started as a BBC online movie that now has a couple of books with it, an anthology, and a roleplaying game based on the setting. Bam! And now I also learn that she’s written a bunch of other books besides those! It’s one of those books that brings us together today.

Once again, the good folks at Audible.com have brought an interesting book to my attention, “The Witches of Echo Park”. As their summary is nice enough to explain:

Unbeknownst to most of humankind, a powerful network of witches thrives within the shadows of society, using their magic to keep the world in balance. But they are being eliminated – and we will all pay if their power falls… When Elyse MacAllister’s great-aunt Eleanora, the woman who raised her, becomes deathly ill, Lyse puts her comfortable life in Georgia on hold to rush back to Los Angeles. And once she returns to Echo Park, Lyse discovers her great-aunt has been keeping secrets – extraordinary secrets – from her. Not only is Lyse heir to Eleanora’s Victorian estate; she is also expected to take her great-aunt’s place in the Echo Park coven of witches. But to accept her destiny means to place herself in deadly peril – for the world of magic is under siege, and the battle the witches now fight may be their last…

And who, oh who, would narrate this book? Duh, of course Amber Benson. Here’s a taste of what that’s like:

To learn more about this title, visit Audible.com.
To see just some of the stuff Amber Benson has been up to, check out her Wikipedia page.

A Boy and His Comics

by Administrator, posted in Books, Geek Stuff, Messages from Rebecca

Ugh, my right hand and wrist are killing me. I just spent hours scrolling through Amazon.com’s comic and graphic novel sale and then their selection of DC comic graphic novels. My faux nephew Jacob’s birthday is at the end of the month and along with the stuff I know he wants, Nerf guns and/or Pokemon cards, I have my mind (or probably more accurately my heart) set on getting him a graphic novel. For those of you who don’t know, a graphic novel is a collection of comics bound together into a book. It usually covers a story arc.

Now the sticky wicket of course is that Jacob is still young and most of the comics I read are definitely adults only. It’s on days like this that I miss my old comic book store. Both owners were insanely knowledgeable and I have no doubt they could have taken my taste in comics and cross referenced it with Jacob’s age and the next thing I know there would be several graphic novels on order. With them out of business, I’m left reading online reviews and making judgments based on cover art. If you have a good local comic book store, support them!

There I am, scrolling through the DC comic category of the comics and graphic novels of Amazon.com. So many memories surface scanning through the titles. The first comic I read was the graphic novel “Sandman: Preludes & Nocturnes” and it’s still available and came up in the search. “Watchmen”, which was the book Jim gave me to read while we were dating. I saw the first Batman graphics that I read. “Preacher: Gone to Texas” and “V for Vendetta” that a customer loaned to me when I worked in retail. The list goes on. I was surprised by how many emotions just remembering the books evoked.

But perhaps not this Batman for the boy.

And eventually those are the feelings I want for Jacob. The DC universe is often criticized for being relentlessly dark. Sadly, in many ways, that is the real world that my faux nephew is growing up into. People are right, the DC universe is populated with crumbling utopias, corrupted paradises, and realities coming apart at the seams. Often the heroes in these worlds are mentally unstable billionaires, fallen angels, humans that court demons, animated vegetable matter, stage magicians, orphaned aliens, and fairy book characters on the run.

Yet despite how messed up the world is, and how screwed up they are, they always find something worth saving in the world, and something worth saving in each other. There’s a beauty in that. It’s that kind of shit that helps a boy become a man.

The Geek Month in Review: February 2015

by Administrator, posted in Geek Stuff, Guest Authors, Movies, Science

by J.B. Sanders

Stupid groundhog…

RC Millenium Falcon
So, build your own flying Millennium Falcon model. No, really.

No Big Bang. Universe Is Forever.
So these quantum physicists, always at the crazy end of the physics spectrum, have come up with a cosmological theory that the universe has no beginning and no end. We’re not talking just spacially here, as in an infinite physical universe, but also in time — no beginning, no end. Thus, no Big Bang. Read the mind-bending details in the article.

Viewmaster for the Modern Day
Instead of getting fun 3D images via circular photo disks, the modern Viewmaster is instead a plastic holder for your smartphone. Grab the Viewmaster app, and then point your head at the new “Experience Disks”, which are basically triggers for content. It’s better if you watch their movie to see what I mean, but it does seem ultra-cool.

Tesla Model S Easter Egg
Fun little visual easter egg in Tesla’s Model S onboard controls.

The Overlook Maze
Ever wonder what a scale model of the Overlook Maze, from the movie The Shining, would look like? Or how hard it would be to build it?

12 Optical Illusions Based on Color
In case you weren’t over color-based tricks of the eye.

Over-the-top Clockwork Hidden Drawers
For all you steampunks out there, this one’s for you.

Watching Aliens with 11-year-olds
Great article by a guy chaperoning a slumber party full of kids watching Aliens for the very first time.

About John:
John’s a geek from way back. He’s been floating between various computer-related jobs for years, until he settled into doing tech support in higher ed. Now he rules the Macs on campus with an iron hand (really, it’s on his desk).

Geek Credentials:
RPG: Blue box D&D, lead minis, been to GenCon in Milwaukee.
Computer: TRS-80 Color Computer, Amiga 1000, UNIX system w/reel-to-reel backup tape
Card games: bought Magic cards at GenCon in 1993
Science: Met Phil Plait, got time on a mainframe for astronomy project in 1983
His Blog:http://www.glenandtyler.com/

The Geek Month in Review: January 2015

by Administrator, posted in Geek Stuff, Guest Authors, Science

By JB Sanders

Frigid, frigid January…

Flying Cars of Future Past
So where are all our flying cars, anyway? See illustrations of what folks in 1862 thought we’d be flying around in come the year 2000.

Star Wars Concept Art
From the first three movies, starting with New Hope. Seriously cool 1960’s style scifi artwork.

Consumer Electronics Show (CES) from 1960’s to 1980’s
See the evolution of what has become (or perhaps now was) the largest electronics (then computers) show in the world.

New Uses for a PowerGlove
Remember that failed attempt at “virtual reality” that Nintendo came out with? The one where you wore a clunky glove thing on your hand to control on-screen games? Yeah, it’s back and doing stop-motion animation. Bonus points for video of the taking-apart phase of the conversion.

Microsoft’s Virtual Reality Assisted Holographic Interface
Really feels like the future when we can write headlines like that, right? Microsoft introduced a set of tools for creating programs with augmented reality elements — in holographic form. They require the use of Google glass like headset, but not quite as obnoxious. For those familiar with the previously linked NASA program that let you interact with virtual versions of their various rovers, this is like the big boy version of that.

More detail and a hands-on overview:

Elon Musk — Supervillain or Science Hero?
Is it just me, or is the resume of engineer-billionaire Elon Musk starting to look like the CV of a Grade A super villain? Dude got his start helping to make e-payments possible, then went on to revitalize electric cars (almost single-handedly), and now he’s got his own commercial space company. Also, he wants to build a city on Mars, and he’s going to pay for it by putting 4000 satellites into orbit, and provide internet connections wirelessly to anyone (who pays) anywhere.

About John:
John’s a geek from way back. He’s been floating between various computer-related jobs for years, until he settled into doing tech support in higher ed. Now he rules the Macs on campus with an iron hand (really, it’s on his desk).

Geek Credentials:
RPG: Blue box D&D, lead minis, been to GenCon in Milwaukee.
Computer: TRS-80 Color Computer, Amiga 1000, UNIX system w/reel-to-reel backup tape
Card games: bought Magic cards at GenCon in 1993
Science: Met Phil Plait, got time on a mainframe for astronomy project in 1983
His Blog:http://www.glenandtyler.com/

Listening to DemonWars

by Administrator, posted in Books, Geek Stuff

Fantasy fans! Roleplaying gamers! Geeks! Lend me, and Audible.com, your ears! For I have news people!

Some of you may have heard of author R.A. Salvatore, well known fantasy writer perhaps best known for his “Forgotten Realms” novels (which is a setting for the roleplaying game Dungeons & Dragons). If not, now you have. He’s kind of a big deal in certain circles. Well keep following me. He also wrote a series of books referred to as the DemonWars Saga. It’s two trilogies bridged by a single book, “Mortalis”. The Saga is Book 1: “The Demon Awakens”; Book 2: “The Demon Spirit”; Book 3: “The Demon Apostle”; Book 4: “Mortalis”; Book 5: “Ascendance”; Book 6: “Transcendence”; Book 7: “Immortalis”. The Saga has an accompanying roleplaying game called “Demon Wars”. It’s hard to summarize 7 books so here’s the link to its Wikipedia entry if you’re interested.

Now the big news is that recently there has been the release on Audible.com of “The Education of Brother Thaddius and Other Tales of DemonWars” by R.A. Salvatore. These are three stories that surround the DemonWars Saga. According to Audible.com:

“Mather’s Blood” takes place before the start of the DemonWars Saga and tells of the ranger Mather Wyndon, uncle of Elbryan, a central figure in DemonWars.

“A Song For Sadye” offers new insights into the life of the bard, Sadye, who plays an important role in the second DemonWars half of the DemonWars Saga.

“The Education of Brother Thaddius” picks up the DemonWars story immediately following “Immortalis”, the last book of DemonWars, and opens the door for the next saga in the world of Corona. First printed in the DemonWars: Reformation Core Rule Book, “The Education of Brother Thaddius” highlights the troubles in the in Abellican Church, battered by the De’Unneran Heresy and struggling to survive in a world ravaged by wars and demons.

And in case you weren’t excited, guess who is reading these? Wil Wheaton and Felicia Day! If not THE King and Queen of Geeks, they are certainly our royalty. I know what you’re wondering. What does THAT sound like?

“The Education of Brother Thaddius and Other Tales of DemonWars” is for sale now on Audible.com.