Around age 23, most men realize they'll be stuck in normal—work a normal 9 to 5, buy a normal house and lift heavy objects with normal strength. But at least we can stay warm, dammit. [HotTopic via Geekologie]
This week's image:
Be sure to vote for your favorite caption!
Thanks to stevem for submitting this image.
What's the best way to fix a broken-off power port on an Acer Extensa? If you said "glue the sucker back in there," you might just work in Office Depot's repair department. You're also, in that so-painfully-obvious-it-hurts-my-face way, real wrong.
When Consumerist reader Scott sent his under-warranty laptop into Office Depot for a repair, he noticed that they'd used glue to fix his power port problem. Okay, that's bad enough, since the glue melted to the power port and caused a serious burn hazard. But when Scott sent his Acer back in for round two, well:
"I detailed the issue to the Office Depot Warranty operator, and he
specifically wrote "Problem: AC port loose. glue melted from last fix.
AC adapter gets extremely hot" on the work order. I again sent the
laptop off hoping the problem would be fixed. My hopes were too high.
Turns out, glue the power port so it is usable is a masterful fix when
compared to the attached photo. As you can see... again the service
people glued the power port back into "place." Though this time it is
glued in off center, and can not be plugged in. Obviously whoever
office depot sends their laptops off to for service does not even
check to see if their "fixes" are functional. An added bonus is that
my expansion slot cover is now missing. So not only do I receive a
broken laptop, it also has a part stolen."
So, in brief: don't try to fix your laptop with glue, definitely don't try to fix it with glue twice, and definitely definitely don't trust Office Depot with your valuables. [Consumerist]
The San Andreas. Credit: Reuters
Reuters has a very interesting story saying tidal forces parallel to a segment of the San Andreas Fault could be causing non-volcanic tremors, and a study published in Nature Magazine say the tidal forces are the tug of the sun and moon. These tremors could possibly used to predict earthquakes.
From Reuters:
Low-level tremors have long been associated with volcanoes, because they often warn of impending eruptions.
A study published in the journal Nature says these tremors beneath the San Andreas Fault could provide similar clues about earthquakes.
The researchers say the faint tug of the sun and the moon on the fault causes tremors well below the level where earthquakes occur.
The finding suggests that rock far underground is lubricated with pressurized water, allowing the rock to slip easily and weakening the fault.
“If you could go down there and push the rock with your hand you would cause a tremor,” said researcher Amanda Thomas of the University of California, Berkeley.
Thomas and colleagues analyzed nearly 2,000 tremors detected over eight years in the Parkfield segment of the San Andreas Fault. They also looked at micro-earthquakes in the same area and calculated the stresses produced by the Earth and ocean tides.
The study says they found a strong correlation between non-volcanic tremor activity and extremely small, tidal stresses parallel to the San Andreas Fault.
Thomas says studying tremors could help seismologists better understand and, perhaps, predict earthquake activity.
“They’re looking at tremor as kind of an indicator of large earthquakes as tremors signal the buildup of strain below the fault zone,” Thomas said. “So we might be able to use tremor to tell us something about when the next large earthquake will happen.”
Reuters editing by Maggie Fox and Sandra Maler.
So you've got your 7,000 metric tons of puddling iron, your unruly 19th-century French construction crew, your Michelin starred chef and a Rosetta Stone French DVD. Today, finally, you have the final piece: Blueprints!
They're less precise than the perfectly-modeled CAD renderings people rely on now, but equally, they're more beautiful; and perhaps not coincidentally, so are the results. So get to it, fauxrchitectes. [Kottke]
This proposed subterranean London hotel is going to put all 200 guest rooms beneath the surface of a former golf course. Sorry, CHUDs: it's time to gentrify the soil.
The hotel, designed by ReardonSmith Architects, aims to preserve the verdant appeal of its Green Belt location while at the same time offering a full range of luxury spa, hotel, and golf accommodations. If they're able to blend it into the scenery as seamlessly as the spec art indicates, it's going to be a beautifully unobtrusive bit of five-star property. [Inhabitat via io9]
Is there anything out there I could use to grip a round tube and mechanically rotate it with high torque.
I install screwpiles using a torque motor which attaches to the end of the pile with a collar and pin system. This method nessitates the pile to be in short pieces (ie. around 2mtrs long).
We all know the whole Snuggie thing is idiotic. But this comic really boils the idiocy down to its pure essence. Magnifique. [Chainsaw Suit via The Daily What]
Marc's note: NASA Watch will be updating only on a limited basis until next Monday at which time we will resume our normal schedule until New Year's Eve.
From New Year's Eve until Monday, January 5th we will once again only be publishing on a limited basis.
We wish everyone the best during this holiday season and please do be careful during your travels!
Happy Holiday's
My brother worships two things: God and Subwoofers.
We were raised to be quiet, well-mannered Lutherans. But for Erik, there was nothing quiet about the gospel. In church, he sang as loud as he could. He didn't care what anyone else thought – he was reaching out to the Lord and it was our problem if it made our ears ring.
One Sunday, the rumbling bass and baritone voices in the choir sang, "What a Friend We Have in Jesus," and Erik felt God's presence. That rattle and boom was God's voice literally vibrating his heart. We were still young but it decided everything: he would do the Lord's work and it would be loud.
He enrolled in seminary as soon as he could, spent some time in the Holy Land and discovered that a low-end 25 watt sub could not adequately convey the genius of either John Paul Jones bass work on Led Zeppelin IV or the sermons of that other John Paul. Both required an upgrade to a 125 watt Miller & Kreisel MK II sub.
God understood.
My brother must not have mentioned his acoustic theory of divinity when he was ordained because the Bishop assigned him to an elderly congregation in rural Washington State. The greeting committee could hear Pastor Erik coming from miles away – the sound of a booming bass floated across the raspberry fields and through the apple orchards. Things didn't quiet down after he parked his car in the church's gravel parking lot. Erik rejects silences with a roaringly good-natured laugh and a voice that would feel at home in the Super Dome. The senior citizens responded by permanently notching down their hearing aids.
Pastor Erik didn't mind - he just spoke louder and pointed out some immediate problems with the pretty, white steepled church. First, the 20 year old sound system was not up to the task of conveying God's word.
"This is the Word of God we're talking about," he said. "It needs dignity and a high power 12-inch subwoofer with a neodymium magnet and a vented enclosure."
The Church Elders blinked. Pastor Erik was not like their other ministers.
This young whippersnapper wanted to take this flock in a new direction. It didn't matter if they needed walkers, dialysis or a hip replacement to get there– they were going to hear and feel God's word.
He met any resistance with an out-pouring of Lutheran wisdom. Why spend thousands of dollars upgrading the sound system for a congregation of only 80 people? Because in 1541, Martin Luther himself said, "Next to the Word of God, the noble art of music is the greatest treasure in the world." Pastor Erik watched his congregants closely and asked if they were willing to run the world's greatest treasure through a dusty old sound board that muddled the low range? Would Martin Luther want that?
The Elders decided to approve a budget of $9000 and Pastor Erik set to work.
His first move: bring in Jim Hall, an acoustician who has spent 42 years installing commercial audio systems in the Northwest. Hall and the Pastor huddled near the altar and laid out a battle plan. Hall wanted to deploy a four speaker TOA HX-5 variable dispersion system above the altar to ensure speech clarity. It's what he typically recommended for small churches.
"But it won't rock, will it?" the Pastor asked.
Hall was a little surprised – most churches were content with the HX-5 system. But this minister was sharp. He knew the HX-5 couldn't deliver the low end. The Pastor was asking Hall to push himself, to dig deep and that could mean only one thing: the FB-120B.
The 120B is a crunk-ready 600 watt sub guaranteed to strip the paint off the steeple of any church silly enough to order it. It's exactly what Pastor Erik was looking for.
The system took eight hours to install. They added a 16 channel Mackie 1604 VLZ3 mixing board, an EAW CAZ 1400 dual-amp for the HX-5 and an additional CAZ 800 amp interlaced with an Ashly cross-over for the sub. The final touch: two 1 inch tweeters over the choir.
"It's got to be the best system for a church its size in the Northwest ," Jim Hall says.
To test it, Pastor Erik grabbed the nearest CD he could find: a copy of Veggie Tales left behind by a pre-schooler. He pressed play and the voice of Larry the Cucumber boomed across rural Washington as if Abraham himself had just come down from the mountain to tell the world that he had a new hat and it was made of lettuce.
Pastor Erik heard the music and it was good. It didn't matter what the Cucumber was babbling about. The tune sent its shock waves through his bones and brushed across his soul like a divine wind.
Now and truly, God was in da house.
Joshua Davis is a Contributing Editor for Wired Magazine who wrote about deep sea cowboys and the world's largest diamond heist. (Both of which are being adapted for film.) He's also the lightest man to ever compete in the US Sumo Open.
I've spent a considerable amount of effort trying to convince you to get an HTPC, and nettops like the AspireRevo R3610 are a big reason why. It's affordable at $330, and it delivers a quality HD video experience.
Play HD Video
Like it's predecessor, the R3610's handling of HD video is impressive for such an inexpensive machine. I watched plenty of downloaded 1080p video and playback was generally smooth. This is where the AspireRevo really shines.
Casual Gaming
This isn't a system for serious gaming, but for casual gamers that don't need the graphics cranked up to the max, the AspireRevo delivers thanks to the inclusion of NVIDIA Ion. With the settings set at a low but acceptable 1024x768 resolution, I was able to play World of Warcraft with no problems at all. Of course, the game is five years old and designed to be easy on the graphics.
Networking
The AspireRevo features 802.11b/g/Draft-N connectivity, so it does a great job of streaming media. If you need more storage than the 160GB on board, you can easily connect the Revo to a network-attached storage device if you decide to go that route.
Ports, Ports and More Ports
So yeah, six USB 2.0 ports on this thing. It also has HDMI, VGA, a media card reader, eSATA and S/PDIF. Basically, everything you need and then some.
Multitasking
The R35610 has a beefier processor this time around (Dual Core Atom 330), but let's not kid ourselves into thinking that this nettop is going to satisfy the hardcore crowd. I experienced some sluggish loading times—especially when multiple programs were running.
Play Blu-ray or DVDs
If you want to play Blu-ray movies or DVDs, it ain't gonna happen without a built-in optical drive. You will have to buy that separately.
TV Tuning
There is no TV tuner or CableCARD on board, so you will need a USB adapter for DVR functionality. Fortunately, you will probably have a free port.
Internet HD Playback
Until Adobe releases Flash 10.1, which includes support for NVIDIA Ion graphics acceleration, you are going to have to deal with some choppy video from sites like Hulu and YouTube. It's a massively annoying problem, but only a temporary one. I'm impatient, so I went ahead and downloaded the 10.1 beta, which seemed to remedy the situation quite well.
Web Surfing
The AspireRevo R3610 isn't the kind of computer I would rely on for power web surfing. I encountered problems with web pages sticking, choking or freezing altogether. On several occasions, the whole computer seemed to lock up. I could still control my mouse, but there was no response to clicks or commands. Sometimes this issue resolved itself, other times I did a hard reboot out of frustration.
However, things improved after I loaded Flash 10.1 and lessened the load on the GPU by disabling the Windows 7 Aero interface. Browsing seems a bit snappier and I haven't experienced the mysterious lock up issue since, but it's still not perfect. Chrome seemed to run the best when compared to IE and Firefox, but I still experience hiccups. For example, Google Wave is almost unusable on all three browsers (Yes, I actually use Google Wave).
If you are looking for a budget desktop computer, the AspireRevo R3610 will do the job as long as you are not pushing its limits. However, it's best to play to the strengths here and use it as an HTPC. The R3610 is small enough to tuck behind your TV, it handles HD video admirably, and the inclusion of Flash 10.1 will get the most out of NVIDIAs graphics acceleration, thereby overcoming the problems you will experience out of the box with streaming internet video.
The Windows 7 experience is decent, and you will be able to enjoy all of the benefits of Windows Media Center, but you may need to sacrifice graphics features like Aero in order to optimize performance. Still, I would say that the AspireRevo R3610 is a definite "buy" for anyone looking to get an HTPC on a budget. [Acer]
Vladimir Nesov on Facebook:
Atheism (not believing in fairies) and transhumanism (not believing that you should do what's bad for you) are good sense about how to live our lives in general, part of what you aptly termed rationality+
Vladimir introduces a different way of thinking about h+: rather than as an addition, a cherry on top of human life, we should think of it as the absence of a specific set of mental disorders that cause people to strive for things that are ultimately bad for them.
It's understandable that Apple stock is doing well—they've had a very, very good year. But after a huge rally this morning, their stock it at its highest price ever. See, yesterday, something magical happened.
A few minutes before the NYSE's 4:00 EST closing, at 8:18 PM GMT (3:18 EST), the Financial Times published a rumor: Apple will make a major product announcement on January 26th in San Francisco. That was it! But in the context of the increasingly frenzied rumors about an Apple tablet, this could only mean one thing to tech followers. And, apparently, to investors. I'll spare you the strained metaphysics of a full Santa/tablet analogy, but trust me, it's there, somewhere.
A small part (read: all) of me wants this whole thing to be a joke, and for Steve Jobs to take the stage in January to announce the long-awaited followup to the iPod Hi-Fi, and a new capacity option for the iPod Classic. There would be no bitterness. Just respect. [Reuters]
Predictions and Wishes, Wayne Hale's Blog
"Sir Arthur C. Clarke Law"
"When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong."
A lot of people wrote about the V-Screen 3D kit for the PSP when it was announced. Jokes may have been made! But now Ars has actually tried one, and their results are surprising: It's not perfect, but it works.
According to Ars, the V-Screen uses an old trick, popular with flight sim devotees, whereby a fresnel lens—at a size slightly larger than the device's screen—is placed a short distance away from the display. This magnifies the image a bit, and more importantly, adds a sense of depth. For 3D games where depth in important, like racing games and FPSes, the effect is apparently "more compelling than it sounds on paper," to the point that "it's going to be hard to back to playing the games on a standard screen."
There's no doubt that this is a faux-3D setup, but it's also fairly cheap—$40, to be exact, which might not buy you honest 3D, but it'll buy you the sensation. Like a Fleshlight, for your eyes! Yes. [ArsTechnica]
OK, this is it. Last day to buy stuff in a panic before Christmas. What to do?
I suggest the bookstore. Who doesn’t like books? And it just so happens I have a few to recommend.
Death from the Skies!
You may not know this, but I wrote a book. Nothing says holiday cheer like a trillion ton asteroid barreling down on the Earth at 45,000 kph. And it has a happy ending! The entire Universe dissolves.
This book may not save Christmas, but it might save your life. All your friends need copies. Even strangers. Buy 50.
Don’t Be Such a Scientist
This book, by Randy Olson, is a primer for how scientists and science-types should communicate with the public. As someone whose job it is to do that, I found it readable, funny, and of great use. I chuckled a lot reading it, seeing many people I know being described in its pages. Not specifically, of course, just in general.
At first I was thrown a bit by his comparison of science to Hollywood, but it soon became clear that the lessons Olson learned in Tinseltown really do need to translate to the way we talk about science, at least on TV and in movies. Books are still books, and blogs still blogs, but if we science supporters want to reach millions of people all at once, then we could do a lot worse than heed Olson’s advice when we’re on camera or in front of a microphone.
And if his name is familiar, it’s because he created the mockumentaries "Flock of Dodos" and "Sizzle, A Global Warming Comedy". If you’ve seen those, you know what the book will be like! If you’ve ever been in a conversation with someone and you’ve tried to explain something scientific, this book is a good one for you.
Unscientific America
Speaking of communicating science to the public, my Hive Overmind co-bloggers Chris Mooney and Sheril Kirshenbaum wrote Unscientific America as a call to arms for scientists everywhere. This book doesn’t complain about how the public doesn’t get science, it actually has advice — good advice — for how people can take up this charge.
It’s aimed at science lovers, but also at scientists themselves. Chris and Sheril are careful to show just where things have gone wrong: a public with a short attention span, media all too willing to make that worse (and to screw up science every chance they get, through ignorance or greed), antiscience promoters, but also scientists themselves. I see a whole lot of scientists trying to communicate science, but honestly not that many are good at it. That should be self-evident, even to scientists themselves; some are theorists, some experimentalists, some field workers, and so on; the point being we all have our areas of expertise. Not everyone is good in front of a camera, and we need to find the ones who are and groom them.
Chris and Sheril took a lot of heat from scientists about this claim, most of which I found ridiculous and unfair. Scientists need to accept our share of the burden of blame for where we are in America right now — we do own part of it, folks — and we need to shoulder that blame and do something about it. Also, there is a section in the book taking the so-called "New Atheists" to task for fanning the religious flames in America. Although the situation is pretty complicated, I think there is truth to what Chris and Sheril wrote, and I also think that this part of the book should be read by skeptics and atheists very carefully. I won’t go into details here — I’ll save it for a lengthier post sometime — but I think what they’ve written is salient and should be considered by everyone.
Atheist’s Guide to Christmas
Speaking of which, this is a good book for the non-believer in your circle of friends and family. I’ll simply point you to my previous exhortations about it and remind you that all proceeds go to the UK HIV charity Terrence Higgins Trust, a secular group that provides information, advice, and support for HIV positive people in the UK.
[UPDATE: The outspoken ZOMGitsCriss has put up a video plugging Atheist's Guide, and says very nice things about my essay in the book. Thanks Criss!]
Why Does E=mc2
Regular readers know about my friend Brian Cox, a particle physicist with CERN who has dastardly plans to destroy the Earth using the LHC is charming, funny, and an excellent spokesman for science. This book is a wonderful explanation of relativity, one of the best I’ve read. It was inspired by his awesome wife Gia, who asked him the title question one day.
You’ll need to think while reading this; it’s not a breezy beach thriller. But I found it to be a very enjoyable and fascinating primer on, exactly, why energy equals mass times the speed of light squared. It explains things in ways that hadn’t occurred to me before, and I found myself nodding my head as I suddenly understood concepts that had always bugged me (like, why do massless particles travel at the speed of light, and just why is that the ultimate speed limit of the Universe?). It’s a great book, and I highly recommend it.
7th Son
J. C. Hutchins is a science fiction writer and podcaster. He’s among the new group of writers who serialize their fiction and give it away as audiocasts. Once an audience is built up, they can then turn their serialization into book form. I won’t give away the plot of the book, but it’s an engaging read involving some fun science fiction concepts. My only complaint is that he needs to write the sequel yesterday. Too bad it’s not a time travel book!
If you’re curious, Hugo-winning author John Scalzi has a blog post up about J. C. and the book that’ll entice you, too.
There are lots of other books I could recommend, but I’ll cut it off here. Do you have ideas? Post ‘em in the comments! I’m sure we all have books we love and would recommend. Tell us!
Passing of Stan Lebar, NASA Goddard
"Stan Lebar, who led the Westinghouse Electric Corporation team that developed the lunar camera that brought the televised news images of Neil Armstrong stepping onto the moon to more than 500 million people on earth, died on Tuesday, Dec. 22, 2009."
"During his long and distinguished career, other camera programs he managed for NASA included the Apollo Color TV Cameras, the Skylab series of TV cameras, and the TV cameras for the Apollo-Soyuz Test Program (ASTP)."
You waited. Then you waited some more. And now it's Christmas Eve. You should be finishing shopping right now, but you're sitting lazily at your computer. Luckily, with our last minute gift guide, such limited exertion is not a problem.
Netflix/Gamefly Subscription: Anyone who wouldn't appreciate a year's worth of unlimited game or movie rentals is not someone worth buying a gift for. And the great thing about Netflix/Gamefly is that you can't possibly buy them this subsciption from a physical store. In other words, you won't look lazy when their gift announcement arrives in eCard certificate form. Starting at about $100/year. [Netflix/Gamefly]
Nook: How can you possibly buy someone a Nook for Christmas when it's been delayed until February? Exactly! Order a Nook today and then say, "Sorry, I ordered it for you well before Christmas, but those darned manufacturing delays for this highly anticipated product seemed to have spoiled my plans." $259 [Nook]
iTunes album/movie: In case you wanted to go a bit more personal than an iTunes gift card (and you are too lazy to leave the house to buy one, even though that just means running to the drug store), gift an album straight through the iTunes Store. It's easy, just right click on the buy icon and select the gift option. All you need is an email to send a friend an album. Also, you can always print it out, too. $10ish
Magazine Subscription: Every time I receive a copy of Chicago magazine in the mail, I think about how my mother-in-law kindly gifted it to me. But you know what? She could have ordered that subscription AFTER she handed me a symbolic copy on Christmas morning. Spice things up a bit by buying a magazine that's hard to acquire. My best recommendation? Edge, the best-written, most beautifully laid out gaming magazine in the world. $76 [Edge]
Zune Pass/Last.fm: If you've never used an unlimited music service, you've missed out. It's basically radio on demand without a $1 charge every time you want to listen to a song. And while subscription fees might keep you from buying it for yourself, this is a gift, so the recipient need only enjoy. Zune Pass and Last.fm are both excellent options for unlimited tunage. Zune $15/month Last.fm $3/month Note: I'm fairly certain you can gift Zune Pass online, but didn't go through the whole process. [Zune/Last.fm]
Burned Disc of Torrentz: I wouldn't recommend this for mom or grandma, but for a friend you casually meet over the holidays, why not just burn them a copy of something valuable you...err...procured online. Your favorite music, a movie that hasn't left theaters yet, a bootleg of Windows 7 Ultimate—whatever—just make it something you know they'll like, and be sure to stick a bow on it $$=FREE
Bacon of the Month Club: 12 months. 12 different artisan bacons. Need I say more? $315 [Grateful Palate]
Don't Buy a Star: There are a countless number of stars in the Universe. And you know what? When we're traveling the cosmos, no one plotting star charts is going to acknowledge Mark Rox Bacon 2009 as the official name of some red giant on the verge of engulfing the first intelligent life we encounter. Or, even worse, the star's name will be acknowledged and your love's name will go down in infamy. Smooth move. [Star Registry]
For years, astronomers have been puzzled by the fact that our solar system is crossing a cloud of interstellar hell. One that shouldn't be there at all. Intergalactic plot to keep us isolated or cosmic event? Voyager got the answer.
Using data from Voyager, we have discovered a strong magnetic field just outside the solar system. This magnetic field holds the interstellar cloud together—"The Fluff"—and solves the long-standing puzzle of how it can exist at all.
The Fluff is much more strongly magnetized than anyone had previously suspected. This magnetic field can provide the extra pressure required to resist destruction.
The Voyagers are not actually inside the Local Fluff. But they are getting close and can sense what the cloud is like as they approach it.
At least, that's what NASA's Heliophysics Guest Investigator from George Mason University Merav Opher says in the December 24 issue of Nature. I lean to the intergalactic plot to keep our primitive world from entering the Federation of Advanced Civilizations. That, or Ming of Mongo trying to crush our puny asses.
It's ironic how the whole thing works. Earth's magnetic field and atmosphere protects us from the Sun's magnetic field and radiation. Then, the Fluff is not destroying us thanks to the Sun's magnetic field and the solar winds, which is what form the 6.2-billion-mile-wide heliosphere. So my question is: Who protects the Fluff?
I will leave you with that. Go think, my little Earthlings, go. [NASA]
Yesterday industry publication Web Host Industry Review reported that UK-based hosting company DediPower had been selected to host the Virgin Galactic web site. The announcement made it sound like Virgin was expecting a wave of traffic to come to the site in the future: it mentions that DediPower would provide a hosting solution “capable of handling the large volume of traffic expected for the site” and it was providing custom solutions “to accommodate the traffic volume”.
Other data, though, hasn’t indicated overwhelming demand for the site in the past. The ranking service Alexa gives virgingalactic.com a traffic rank of 79,1000 as of Thursday morning; the rank is based on a combination of average daily visitors and pageviews. The site did see a spoke in activity on December 7 for the SpaceShipTwo rollout, when it got into the top 5,000 or so of sites, but that traffic ebbed in the following days. Looking at two years’ worth of data, there have been a few similar, predictable spikes in traffic: the unveiling of the design of WhiteKnightTwo and SpaceShipTwo in January 2008, the rollout of WhiteKnightTwo that July, and the groundbreaking of Spaceport America in June of this year. However, there hasn’t been any sustained, heavy demand that would keep the site regularly in the top 100,000 sites on the web.
However, the Virgin Galactic site has undergone a redesign in recent weeks, shortly before the SpaceShipTwo rollout, with a greater emphasis on interactivity, such as the ability for visitors to post comments on press releases. That, couple with increased visibility as SpaceShipTwo goes through its flight test program and heads towards commercial service, might indeed leave result in increased traffic on the site in the future.
