{"id":10105,"date":"2014-05-08T16:01:17","date_gmt":"2014-05-08T21:01:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/blog1\/2014\/05\/07\/"},"modified":"2014-05-08T16:01:48","modified_gmt":"2014-05-08T21:01:48","slug":"geek-month-in-review-april-2014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/blog1\/?p=10105","title":{"rendered":"Geek Month in Review: April 2014"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By JB Sanders<\/p>\n<p>April showers!<\/p>\n<p><Strong>Invisible Car<\/Strong><br \/>\nNo, really! And it\u2019s being used to help drivers navigate their giant-assed SUV\u2019s, not avoid those bad-guy spies. Check out Land Rover\u2019s video of their prototype. Watch the hood of the car vanish, and show you the road beneath the car. You know, so you don\u2019t run over any bunnies or peasants. Unintentionally.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"373\" height=\"210\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/6TRGwLDLRp8\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><Strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/technology-27021291\"target=\"_blank\">Glow-in-the-Dark Roads Now Here<\/a><\/Strong><br \/>\nThe Netherlands has painted the first road with special glow-in-the-dark paint, eliminating the need for streetlights, and supposedly greatly enhancing driver safety. Bet it looks cool, too.<\/p>\n<p><Strong><a href=\"http:\/\/gizmodo.com\/a-pyramid-in-the-middle-of-nowhere-built-to-track-the-e-1562753133?utm_source=feedburner&#038;utm_medium=feed&#038;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+gizmodo%2Ffull+%28Gizmodo%29\"target=\"_blank\">Giant Pyramids in the Middle of Nowhere &#8211; Modern Edition<\/a><\/Strong><br \/>\nThe US military, paragons of strange architecture in the middle of the wilderness, built a strange pyramid building in the 1960\u2019s as part of the antiballistic missile system. It\u2019s weird looking.<\/p>\n<p><Strong><a href=\"http:\/\/whenonearth.net\/11-fake-european-towns-landmarks-made-china\/\"target=\"_blank\">European Towns Recreated in China<\/a><\/Strong><br \/>\nIt\u2019s weird, but it also seems like someone should be making travel plans and taking photos in \u201cEurope\u201d, to fake out all their friends. I\u2019m waiting for someone to shout \u201cchallenge accepted!\u201d Anytime\u2026<\/p>\n<p><Strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.retronaut.com\/2014\/04\/the-general-plan-of-mr-babbages-great-calculating-engine\/\"target=\"_blank\">Babbage\u2019s Great Calculating Engine<\/a><\/Strong><br \/>\nIs it just me, or does the plan (in the link) of Babbage\u2019s Calculating Engine look kinda \u2026 fractal?<\/p>\n<p><Strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.instructables.com\/id\/Secret-door-bookcase\/?ALLSTEPS\"target=\"_blank\">How to Build Your Own Secret Bookcase Door<\/a><\/Strong><br \/>\nYup, step-by-step instructions and photos included. It looks fairly easy. You\u2019ll need your own bookcase, nook, tools, and DIY skills, though.<\/p>\n<p><Strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.messynessychic.com\/2014\/04\/22\/the-secret-symphinic-stage-forgotten-35-feet-below-a-local-piano-shop\/\"target=\"_blank\">Acoustically Perfect Below-Ground Theater Unused for 70 Years<\/a><\/Strong><br \/>\nRight below a piano store in Boston, the theater closed in 1942 and never re-opened. For a cool $6 million you can probably get it back up and running.<\/p>\n<p><Strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/technology-27141201\"target=\"_blank\">Warhol Works Recovered from 30-year-old Amiga Disks<\/a><\/Strong><br \/>\nDid you know that Commodore Computers commissioned Andy Warhol to produce works for the release of the Amiga 1000? Yeah, neither did I. Handy folks have recovered copies of the work from 30-year-old disks, in what is apparently an \u201cobscure format\u201d. Probably something like AmigaPaint files (or whatever that program was called).<\/p>\n<p><Strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.retronaut.com\/2014\/04\/behind-the-scenes-of-2001-a-space-odyssey\/ \"target=\"_blank\">Behind the Scenes: 2001, a Space Odyssey<\/a><\/Strong><br \/>\nSee Kubrick smoking at an acute angle (rotating set), guys in monkey suits (the ape kind), an obelisk, a moonscape set, and more!<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/blog1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/john1.bmp\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/blog1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/john1.bmp\" alt=\"\" title=\"\" width=\"272\" height=\"240\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-2629\" \/><\/a> <strong>About John:<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>John&#8217;s a geek from way back. He&#8217;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&#8217;s on his desk).<\/p>\n<p><strong>Geek Credentials:<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>RPG:<\/strong> Blue box D&#038;D, lead minis, been to GenCon in Milwaukee.<br \/>\n<strong>Computer:<\/strong> TRS-80 Color Computer, Amiga 1000, UNIX system w\/reel-to-reel backup tape<br \/>\n<strong>Card games:<\/strong> bought Magic cards at GenCon in 1993<br \/>\n<strong>Science:<\/strong> Met Phil Plait, got time on a mainframe for astronomy project in 1983<br \/>\n<strong>His Blog:<\/strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.glenandtyler.com\/\"target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/www.glenandtyler.com\/<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>See the abandoned streets of Paris in China!  Look through the hood of a Land Rover!  Gaze upon Warhol artwork brought to you by Amiga!  All this and more brought to you by JB Sanders!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[31,11,34],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10105"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10105"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10105\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themagicalbuffet.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}