30 December 2008

29 December 2008

HDestruction

OK -- I've seen this clip before, but never to the tune of "Great Gig in the Sky" -and- never in YouTube HD.

For some reason, YouTube is not allowing a direct link to the HD version -so- I want you to click on the following, then immediately locate and click the "watch in HD" link below the bottom-right corner of the video:

26 December 2008

24 December 2008

19 December 2008

Yay!! Android Update Coming in January

Developers are getting a peek at the next branch of Android code (codename: cupcake). It's scheduled for release after the Holidays -and- looks like it's gonna fix a lot of little annoying things. Almost all the ones that have been annoying me, as a matter of fact.

Including: IMAP deletion, Android Task List (hopefully with an [End Task] button, Stereo Bluetooth, SquirrelFish, Nov2008 Webkit, proper Cut-n-Paste within the browser (using shift key or track ball to select text) - ahh - Good stuff!

... as well as a couple things I'd never considered: Video Recording and VoiceDial now supports the "open app" command.

Now, if only they'd let me hang-up the phone using the click-button on the headphones -and- the folks who make batteries would get their shit together.

Cupcake Roadmap -> http://source.android.com/roadmap/cupcake

14 December 2008

(C)ongressional (O)versight (P)anel

[n] [e] [u] [r] [o] [n]

I'm remembering a psych class on perception at The Ohio State University during the late-80s. I read of researchers who (IMHO) tortured kittens from birth in the name of science. And by torture, I mean keeping them in complete darkness for the first several months of life.

Eventually, the subject would emerge from darkness -- harnessed into a strange scientific carnival ride. The thing was an enclosed carousel designed to present vertical black-and-white stripes to the poor kitty's fields of view. Of course, the kitten's brain was loaded with sensors -- wired through the skull -- so all the excitement could be recorded. The signals indicated an alternating pattern of black and white stripes -- stored physically in the cat's visual cortex. All kittys, we were assured, shook-off the effects of these experiments in just a few weeks and went on to "normal" happy kitty lives. ( r i i i i i g h t )

Several years ago, researchers demonstrated that cat vision is dominated by the edges and lines it sees. A formula was discovered and the signals processed from a cat's brain were used to generate this image on a nearby computer monitor:


The images along the top row are what the cat was actually seeing.
The bottom row shows the processed signal from the cat's brain.

When I first saw the above picture, I shed all squeamishness harbored against these folks torturing kitties for science -and- had to admit, this was pretty damn cool stuff. OK -- So all of that is amazing enough, but now I'm presented with the following image:


Japanese scientists presented the letters in the top row to human subjects, then used an MRI and some fancy math to read their minds and recreate the bottom row on a computer screen.

So: Who's strapped to the carousel now?

(? Taiwan Independence Day 2009 ?)

06 December 2008

Enough wit da Guns

OK ... I just realized I've been on a bit of a subconscious gun theme lately -so- I'll shake it up with some cute from "The Pile":

(i wonder where he's going)

Solid!


MGS4 "Silver Wolf" Rubberband Gun
(not yet in production -- grr...)

but these are: