wordbit » geeky

Three amazing new technologies that will blow your mind

Antoine — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 00:54:51 +0000

I've been thinking about the future and what it might bring. In my last post I talked about a 1988 school project that accurately predicted the dawn of the tablet age. Well, here are three emerging technologies that are quite simply gob smacking. You have to see these videos to believe.

Quantum Levitation

You know that magnetic forces repel and attract, but did you know these laws can be bended so an object stays fixed in empty space? Check this out:

Holographic Interface:

You know the holodeck on Star Trek? Maybe it isn't so far-fetched after all. Using the Microsoft Kinect, these guys have created a holographic interface where you can interact with holographic objects as if they were real:

Dream Recorder:

Researchers have used Youtube as a massive database to analyze imagery and hooked it up to a brain scanner to correlate brain patterns. This data was then used to literally display the thoughts of the subject as they dreamt. What the hell? Minority Report anyone?

Netflix steps it up

Antoine — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 04:24:54 +0000

There was some good news on the Netflix front yesterday as the company announced a deal with Paramount Studios. This brings some serious cool to the Canadian version of Netflix, which has a astonishingly meagre library compared its big brother in the States. We now have Iron Man 2 – and the USA doesn’t – I mean, how awesome is that. But just when you thought the awesomeness was over, Netflix delivered another boon to Canadians:

Starting today, watching movies & TV shows in Canada will use 2/3 less data on average with minimal impact to video quality. For example, watching 30 hours of Netflix movies & TV shows will only use 9 GB of data, well below most Canadian ISP data caps. Previously, 30 hours from Netflix typically used 31 GB. Why the change? We know that many of our Canadian members have monthly Internet data caps. This new default account setting will significantly reduce the amount of data Netflix delivers to you each month.

Way to stick to Shaw and Telus. I welcome our new Netflix overlords. Keep the cool coming guys.

Firefly: My review

Antoine — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 20:57:54 +0000

I recently finished watching the complete Firefly series on Netflix. That sounds like a lot of TV watching, but it only ran for 14 episodes before it got cancelled due to low ratings. Most geeks agree, however, that this show was a little gem, was poorly marketed by Fox, and should never have died so early. After watching it, I would have to agree.

I guess this show falls into the space-western genre, and with plenty of horses, bandits, prostitutes, and bounty hunters, I’d say it falls more into the “western” part of the spectrum. The CGI is a bit dated, but not bad for 2002. What really drives the show are the terrific characters, with particularly strong female leads, and wonderful camaraderie among the crew.

With a liberal sprinkling of romance thrown in, I can see why both genders enjoy this show immensely. The creator, Joss Whedon, played with several sub genres throughout the too-short series, with suspense, horror, adventure, and comedy providing a different mood for any given episode.

On the negative side, I’d have to say that the acting and the overall story arc is not as good as the crazy-good Battlestar Gallactica – but it would be hard for any Sci-Fi to come close. Given a chance, this show could have blossomed in its maturity. Too bad it was axed in its infancy. I will definitely be watching the follow-up movie, Serenity, which the fans basically demanded into being. A lot of questions were left unanswered, so I’m looking forward to some closure. Recently there was some talk of resurrecting the show independently and putting it out on the internet. Probably not going to happen, but there’s always hope.

Tools of the trade

Antoine — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 19:02:52 +0000

I work on a computer all day for my writing job – it’s a plain old generic desktop with a 2.66Ghz CPU, 2.5GB of RAM and a 100GB hard drive. I have dual 19-inch monitors, which is nice. I have windows XP installed. But what I really love is the new computer I have at home. It was a birthday/Christmas gift. I made the switch to apple after being a PC/windows user my whole life.

Now I have a 27-inch iMac with a 2.8Ghz quad-core CPU, 4GB of RAM, and a 1 Terabyte hard drive. It has an ATI Radeon HD 5750 graphics card with 1GB memory. It came installed with Snow Leopard and iLife ’11. I have to say it’s been fantastic so far. The screen feels gigantic at first, but after a while you couldn’t imagine using anything smaller. My previous screen was a paltry 17 inches.

I’m learning to play piano using the included Garageband lessons and the USB midi keyboard I also got for Christmas. I’ll have to post some recordings of my progress.