Wired Indiana

Roadside America

July 8, 2008 – 8:53 pm by Ryan Dillman

Roadside America is a guide to offbeat tourist attractions, which you can search by attraction name, town, or state.  Visitors to the site can add their own info and photos about local oddities.  I was a bit disappointed to find that there are very few listings for the Indianapolis area and many of those are duplicates.  We have a lot of weird and wacky places, people and things in Indiana, so if you know of some, please visit this site and add them.

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SNIFF your Facebook friends

June 27, 2008 – 3:17 pm by Ryan Dillman

Fortunately, this has nothing to do with smelling your friends over the Internet, as many of my friends tend to be unwashed computer geeks. No, SNIFF stands for Social Network Integrated Friend Finder, which is a service that allows you to use your cell phone or other portable devices equipped with GPS to track your friends’ locations in the real world (with their permission). The idea is that your cell phone would alert you when one of your friends was nearby, so that you could meet up with them. You wouldn’t even need to call them to ask them where they are, as you’d have a map directly to their location. While the concept is interesting, I have to wonder if people would really want their friends tracking their movements or knowing where they are at all times. One application I could see this being used for, however, is by parents wanting to keep tabs on their children.

Jun. 3 - The Social Network Integrated Friend Finder is a permission-based service that allows friends to find each other in the real world.

The service is billed as a safe and convenient way to connect with online friends in the offline world. But do people really want their friends to SNIFF them?

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Nintendo DS goes to school

June 27, 2008 – 3:02 pm by Ryan Dillman

Japanese schools have the right idea. Rather than punish our children for their interest in handheld video games, why not take advantage of their interest and produce games that are fun and educational? I’m sure many adults from my generation have fond memories of learning geography and history from the Carmen Sandiego series of PC games. There’s no reason why that concept wouldn’t be valid today. The games should be tested by parents first, however, because if parents find them boring, their children will find them intolerable. We shouldn’t force children to endure anything we wouldn’t inflict on ourselves. The whole idea is to make learning fun. Cable networks like Animal Planet and The Discovery Channel have mastered this but educational video games are much more hit and miss in the entertainment department.

June 27 - Nintendo games are banned in most Japanese schools, but its DS console is becoming the latest Japanese teaching tool.

Teacher Motoko Okubo uses the handheld DS and textbook software and says after years of Super Mario Bros. and other games on the prohibited list, students weren’t expecting Nintendo in class.

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Japan robot scales Grand Canyon

June 12, 2008 – 6:21 pm by Ryan Dillman

The machines continued their slow climb to total world domination and human annihilation last week when one of their own managed to scale the Grand Canyon in 7 hours powered by two AA batteries. Meanwhile, work continues on the robot-proof bomb shelter under my house.

June 2 - It may be a Great Wonder of the World, but the Grand Canyon could not stop a determined 17-cm robot and a pair of AA batteries.

After a few returns to base camp, a carbon-plastic robot powered by Panasonic’s Evolta batteries made the 530-m rope climb in under seven hours.

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Incredible Hulk is sort of a sequel to Iron Man

June 12, 2008 – 6:06 pm by Ryan Dillman

On Monday, I saw an advanced screening of The Incredible Hulk. As a long-time Hulk fan who was disappointed by the 2003 film, I figured this one could only be better than that Crouching Hulk, Hidden Plotline disaster from Ang Lee. The previews looked promising, so I was even starting to look forward to this one.

Fortunately, I was not disappointed. The film is definitely superior to the last movie, with better acting, a better script, an actual villain for the Hulk to fight, and even better CGI and special effects. Yes, the CGI Hulk still looks a little cartoony, but he’s definitely an improvement over the Hulk of 5 years ago, with more texture to his skin and muscles. It should be easy for fans to suspend belief and enjoy the movie.

Without giving too much away, I would recommend watching Iron Man first, as in some ways this film is actually a sequel to Iron Man. Stark Industries military technology is used to fight the Hulk, among other references, and as all Marvel fans know, these films are dropping hints left and right about Marvel’s upcoming Avengers film.

There was also a reference in Hulk to Captain America that not everyone might catch. The Abomination, the villain that the Hulk eventually fights, was originally given his powers using a form of the Super Soldier Serum, which was developed back in World War II to give Captain America his powers. Since there’s a Captain America film on the way and he’ll also appear in Avengers, this was just one more way to tie all the films together.

I think it’s nice to finally see super hero films that cross-over and reference each other, which Marvel could never do when they were licensing their properties to multiple studios. You’d think there’d be more cross-overs from their main competitor, DC Comics, as all of their films are produced by parent company Warner Bros. Yet, Warner can’t even get their Justice League film together or even the long-planned Superman/Batman team-up flick.

Anyway, if you’re a fan of the Hulk or super hero films in general, you should enjoy this film. If you thought Iron Man was great, I doubt you’ll be disappointed in the latest film starring his fellow Avenger.

The Incredible Hulk - Exclusive PremiereTrailer

Posted in Random Thoughts | 1 Comment »

Monkey controlled robots to take over world

May 29, 2008 – 8:44 pm by Ryan Dillman

It was reported yesterday that scientists have developed tiny microelectrodes that can be implanted in the brain in order to control robotic limbs.  The long-term practical application of this technology would, of course, be to provide artificial replacement limbs to humans that function as normal limbs would.

One impractical application would be to give perfectly healthy humans extremely strong cyborg limbs for combat or industrial purposes.  You could even combine lab animals and robotic limbs to create deadly (and cute) cyborgs with robotic strength and animal reflexes ala the comic book series WE3 (soon to be a major motion picture).  Personally, I welcome our new monkey cyborg overlords and plan on buying up stock in Chiquita just in case.

May 28 - A monkey has been able to control a robotic arm using brainpower.

With tiny microelectrodes implanted in its brain, the monkey could direct a robotic arm to pluck a marshmallow from a skewer and feed itself.

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Are jet packs a reality?

May 19, 2008 – 8:13 pm by Ryan Dillman

Well, the year 2000 has come and went and still I have no flying car or jet pack to use to get to the office every morning. I had almost given up hope of this happening in my lifetime until I stumbled upon a video of a Swiss man demonstrating a prototype jet wing that he flew for 10 minutes at speeds up to 186 mph. One of those bad boys could really shave some time off my daily commute.

May 14 - Known as ‘Fusion Man’, a former pilot has stunned crowds by flying a jet-propelled wing for nearly ten minutes at a peak speed of 300 km/h (186 mph).

Yves Rossy, a Swiss former military pilot and Airbus commander for Swiss airlines completed an official demonstration on Wednesday (May 14, 2008) in the Swiss Chablais region, where he was released from a plane at 2438 metres (8000 feet) with his wing folded.

He deployed his craft after a short free-fall and began his flight. After a flight of almost ten minutes, he deployed his parachute, folded the wing and landed at the Bex airdrome.

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Zilok.com, a site for peer-to-peer renting, officially launches today

May 19, 2008 – 7:58 pm by Ryan Dillman

Zilok.com, a San Francisco-based peer-to-peer website designed to allow users to rent goods to each other, officially launched today. Whether you’re looking for camping gear, computers, cameras, party supplies, tools, gardening equipment, sporting goods, or dozens of other rarely used items, Zilok is hoping you’ll consider renting rather than buying. They give the example of a power drill, a tool that only receives an average of 12 minutes of use in its lifetime, as one item that may be more economical to rent rather than buy. Zilok claims that there are thousands of other items that people often buy to use just once. Besides being more economical to rent, the site claims that it’s better for the environment as well.

While I find the concept interesting, I’d be nervous to rent out my hundreds of dollars worth of camping gear, for example, without a significant deposit and some sort of legally binding contract. The site seems to have a much larger potential for scam artist abuse than even auction sites like Ebay. I suppose you could ask for a deposit equal to the value of your items to protect yourself from loss, but this would make it unlikely for anyone to rent from you. Still, it will be interesting to watch Zilok and see if they become the Ebay of peer-to-peer rentals.

Read the rest of this entry »

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E-mail spam turned 30 this month

May 7, 2008 – 8:37 pm by Ryan Dillman

On May 3, 2008, spam turned 30. For those confused by this, as the web in its current form wasn’t around 30 years ago, this is possible because the first spam actually predates the Internet. It was sent via Arpanet, a U.S. government computer network that was the predecessor of the Internet we know today.

The first spam message was advertising a new computer that had Arpanet capabilities built into it, and partial text of that message can be found below:

Mail-from: DEC-MARLBORO rcvd at 3-May-78 0955-PDT
Date: 1 May 1978 1233-EDT
From: THUERK at DEC-MARLBORO
Subject: ADRIAN@SRI-KL

DIGITAL WILL BE GIVING A PRODUCT PRESENTATION OF THE NEWEST MEMBERS OF THE DECSYSTEM-20 FAMILY; THE DECSYSTEM-2020, 2020T, 2060, AND 2060T. THE DECSYSTEM-20 FAMILY OF COMPUTERS HAS EVOLVED FROM THE TENEX OPERATING SYSTEM AND THE DECSYSTEM-10 COMPUTER ARCHITECTURE. BOTH THE DECSYSTEM-2060T AND 2020T OFFER FULL ARPANET SUPPORT UNDER THE TOPS-20 OPERATING SYSTEM. THE DECSYSTEM-2060 IS AN UPWARD EXTENSION OF THE CURRENT DECSYSTEM 2040 AND 2050 FAMILY. THE DECSYSTEM-2020 IS A NEW LOW END MEMBER OF THE DECSYSTEM-20 FAMILY AND FULLY SOFTWARE COMPATIBLE WITH ALL OF THE OTHER DECSYSTEM-20 MODELS.

WE INVITE YOU TO COME SEE THE 2020 AND HEAR ABOUT THE DECSYSTEM-20 FAMILY AT THE TWO PRODUCT PRESENTATIONS WE WILL BE GIVING IN CALIFORNIA THIS MONTH. THE LOCATIONS WILL BE:

TUESDAY, MAY 9, 1978 - 2 PM
HYATT HOUSE (NEAR THE L.A. AIRPORT)
LOS ANGELES, CA

THURSDAY, MAY 11, 1978 - 2 PM
DUNFEY’S ROYAL COACH
SAN MATEO, CA
(4 MILES SOUTH OF S.F. AIRPORT AT BAYSHORE, RT 101 AND RT 92)

A 2020 WILL BE THERE FOR YOU TO VIEW. ALSO TERMINALS ON-LINE TO OTHER DECSYSTEM-20 SYSTEMS THROUGH THE ARPANET. IF YOU ARE UNABLE TO ATTEND, PLEASE FEEL FREE TO CONTACT THE NEAREST DEC OFFICE FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE EXCITING DECSYSTEM-20 FAMILY.

You can read more about the history of spam by checking out Brad Templeton’s article on the history of the term.

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Investing in domains as if they were stocks

May 6, 2008 – 3:41 pm by Ryan Dillman

For an enterprising few in the late 90’s, buying and selling domains eventually led to millions in profits. Those with enough foresight to register and sit on one-word dictionary domain names received huge payouts once the rest of the business world caught up with the web and realized they needed great domain names to compete.

Today, most of us couldn’t afford a one-word, high profile domain, but thanks to a new site called Fusu.com, we can buy shares in high dollar domains in order to profit when those domains are eventually sold. Fusu works like the stock market, with domain names replacing traditional stocks. You can sell your shares at any time, and they go up or down in value, just like on the stock market.  Or you can hold on to your shares until the domain you are investing in sells, and then you’ll get a percentage of the sale price, which could potentially be a large profit (or loss).

It’s an interesting concept, but whether it will catch on with domainers or not is hard to predict. I do like the fact that you can make a small deposit to the site via Paypal, which allows those of us with Paypal funds from other online ventures to experiment without giving the site our credit card number or withdrawing funds from a bank account.

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