Monthly Archives: March 2010

This Is How To Turn A Jay-Z Song Into A Geek Anthem [Humor]

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Some think of "The New Dork" as the "ultimate geek/dork/tech-junkie's anthem." I think of it as one of the more amusing parodies of Jay-Z & Alicia Keys' "Empire State of Mind" and love the geeky shout outs crammed into it.

Not only does it have references to TechCrunch, Mashable, Valleywag, Geekologie—and yes, Gizmodo—but this video also appears to have scenes that were filmed in the Wired building. Yeah, that's pretty dorky.

If you want to sing or rap along, here are the lyrics:

Now I'm in the blogosphere,
Now I'm in the twitterverse
Fans get so immersed, But I'm a nerd forever
I'm the new Zuckerberg, And since my website
I been cookin dough like a chef servin killa-bytes
Used to be the basement, Back at my mom's place
Buildin web traffic so that we could sell an ad space
Make way for the, One man businesses
Bail outs finished with, White collar criminals
New sega genesis, Entrepreneur time
Makin big plans, To dominate the online
Yeah, I'm on YouTube, this is one man
Sharin' google revenue, With songs on my webcam
Science is the new art, Databases day to day
Geeks spreadin' sheet smarts, Hustle, make the data pay
I could be in Valleywag plus Geekologie
Tell from my avatar, That I'm most definitely

The New Dork,
Social networks - what dreams are made of,
There's nothing you can't do
Now you're the New Dork
This V.C. money is brand new, The geek is now damn cool
Let's hear it for new dorks, new dorks, new dorks

Catch me up in Techcrunch, Right on the homepage
Hell, I'm on Gizmodo, In a photo bout a phone craze
And Im up in Mashable, weekend trip to New York
Bar pitty, 1oak, parties full of New Dorks
Now I'm pitchin business plans, From the backs of napkans
Micro-lend to Africans, Monetize Kazakastan
Catch me up on linked-in, Dog, C.E.O.
You can see where I be, With the I.P.O.
Now I'm up in skinny jeans, Now a hipster's lurkin'
Used to be a reject, But now I'm steady jerkin'
Now my glasses mainstream, Now the girlies eyein me
Popular kids copy me, The new swag is irony
Comin' from the small time, Girls couldn't find me
Now I scale models, Like I climb on top of Heidi
Start big trends, with tweets that I pass on
You should follow me, cuz I'm friends with Ashton

CHORUS

Oh, and if you like this video, then you might want to keep in mind that the folks behind it are who brought us the somewhat awkward "I'm on a Mac" parody and the somewhat awesome Mac or PC rap. Have a listen.


Centrifuge Tests ‘Would a Lava Lamp Would Work on Jupiter?’ [Science]

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"A strong wind is produced as the centrifuge induces a cyclone...The smell of boiling insulation emanates from the overloaded 25 amp cables. If not perfectly adjusted and lubricated, it will shred the teeth off brass gears in under a second."

That's Neil Fraser's description of his 10-foot centrifuge he used to induce 3x gravity onto a lava lamp. And even though the lava lamp succeeds (doesn't explode all over the place), the test itself is still a worthy watch. It's not often you see the world from a centrifuge's POV. [Neil Fraser via Digg via Neatorama]


Google’s Testing a TV Search Service [Google]

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Google meddles in just about everything on your phone and computer—think Google Voice, searches, Chrome, and all that jazz. Now the search engine company might hop over to your TV with a programming search service it's been testing.

According to the WSJ, Google's been testing their "television programming search service" for about a year. The project is a partnership with Dish Networks and the testing of it "could be discontinued at any time." This doesn't sound too optimistic, but a discontinuation of testing could mean many things. In the meantime, information about the project itself is also pretty scarce:

Viewers can search by typing on a keyboard, instead of using a remote control. Google hopes to link the service up with its nascent TV ad-brokering business, allowing it to target ads to individual households based on viewing and TV search data.

Google and Dish Network spokespeople did not comment on the matter so it's hard to tell what is going on and whether Google is going to pursue this particular search service further. I hope they do though, 'cause I want an "I'm feeling lucky" button for TV programming. [WSJ]


Earth Doesn’t Follow Man’s Rules

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“We need to acknowledge that there is nothing more important than
preserving the viability of planet Earth. Nothing.”

Photo: Regis Duvignau | An aerial view shows flooded houses and streets in L'aiguillon sur Mer, southwestern France, southwestern France, March 1, 2010, following a major storm named Xynthia.

The Earth has its own set of rules
Our view of nature is based on our human desire for more, and that economic model is broken.

March 02, 2010|By B.E. Mahall and F.H. Bormann

Early in our history it didn’t make any difference how we viewed our environment. We could change it, and if we didn’t like what we did to it, we could move and natural processes would soon obliterate whatever we had done. Over the years, models of our relationship to the environment have been based on religious views, with the world provided for us to dominate and subdue as described in Genesis, and philosophical views, seeing wisdom and virtue in nature as described by Thoreau.

But by far our most prevalent view of nature derives from a rudimentary human desire for more. This is the basis of the economic model that currently directs our relationships with one another and with our environment. It has produced stupendous human population growth and dramatic, deleterious effects on nature. Recognizing these effects, efforts have been marshaled to change the self-serving economic model with notions of Earth “stewardship,” eloquently advanced decades ago by then-Interior Secretary Stewart Udall, and, most recently, to infiltrate the economic model with “ecosystem services” by assigning monetary values to functions performed by the Earth that are beneficial to people.

All of these views are fundamentally and dangerously flawed, because all are anthropocentric. They begin and end with humans. This isn’t the way the Earth works.

The Earth has its own set of rules, solidly grounded in laws of physics and chemistry and emergent principles of geology and biology. Unlike our economic model, these are not artificial constructs. They are real, and they govern. Earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, hurricanes, tornadoes, 100-year floods, massive wildfires and disease epidemics are dramatic examples of parts of nature, neither all service nor all harm, creating and destroying, and governed by rules that are indifferent to humans. Our anthropocentric economic model for interacting with the world ignores and is proving to be incompatible with Earth’s rules, and is therefore on a direct collision course with them.

To achieve a more accurate model of our relation to nature, we need to see ourselves as part of nature, governed by nature (not economics), beholden to nature for ecosystem services and subject to nature’s disturbances.

We need to view our existence in nature as dependent on numerous functions we are unable to perform ourselves, and without which we couldn’t survive. And we need to recognize that we now have the power and the reckless inclination, driven by shortsighted anthropocentrism, to disrupt these functions to [...]

The Chameleon’s “Ballistic” Tongue Is Still Lethal When It’s Chilly Outside | 80beats

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chameleon-tongueHot, cold, in between, it doesn’t really matter to chameleons: They’re going to snare their prey anyway, according to findings in this week’s Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. That’s because their elastic tongues are designed like ballistic weapons.

Chameleons fire their tongues at breakneck speed, says study leader Christopher Anderson. “A chameleon’s tongue travels at accelerations exceeding 400 meters (1,312 feet) per second squared, or about 41 Gs of force,” he added. To put that into perspective, a space shuttle only develops about three Gs of force when it takes off [Discovery News]. Given that muscle performance diminishes when it gets colder, and that these lizards are ectothermic (cold-blooded), one might think their tongue prowess would trial off sharply as temperatures drop.

Not so, Anderson says. He and his team filmed veiled chameleons (Chamaeleo calyptratus) eating crickets, and controlled the temperature as they watched. For other cold-blooded creatures, the researchers say, an 18-degree Fahrenheit drop in the temperature causes a 33 percent decrease in muscle speed, and an even more dramatic drop-off in the speed of tongue movements. But the chameleons had tongue snaps that only slowed by about 10 to 19 percent … with the same temperature decrease [Scientific American]. The chameleons’ tongues also extended to their full glory despite the temperature change.

Chameleon1The key is how the chameleon launches its collagen assassin. Measuring twice the creature’s body length, the tongue stays coiled inside until needed. While a muscle must initiate the tongue’s unfurling, momentum takes over after that impetus. “This ‘bow and arrow’ mechanism decouples muscle contraction temporally from tongue launch and thereby allows kinetic energy to be imparted to the tongue at a rate far exceeding that possible via direct muscle contraction,” the team writes. That also explains why the chameleons’ tongue recoil speed, which depends on muscle contraction, was much slower when the temperature dropped, slowing between 42 and 63 percent.

According to the study authors, such a flexible feature helps chameleons thrive in a variety of environments. There are more than 100 different chameleon species on Earth, some of which inhabit locations where temperatures climb above 39 degrees Celsius [102.2 F] or dip below freezing [Scientific American]. Since these creatures all eat in a similarly sly manner, Anderson says his study’s findings should apply across the board, to chameleons living in the desert and those residing in rather frostier locales. Salamanders and toads, too, have ballistic tongues that may be similarly resistant to fluctuating temperature.

Related Content:
DISCOVER: How Animals Suck: 9 Creatures That Slurp Creatively (photo gallery)
80beats: Madagascar Chameleon Makes the Most of a 4-Month Life
80beats: How All-Female Lizards Keep Their Genes Fresh Without Sex
80beats: Extinct Goat Tried Out Reptilian, Cold-Blooded Living (It Didn’t Work)

Images: Christopher V. Anderson


Nick Popaditch for Congress, importance of Fighting for Freedom

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Marine Veteran of the War in Iraq talks of the sacrifices of his fellow Vets for the freedoms and liberties we enjoy as Americans. Now Popaditch is making a sacrifice of another kind, challenging a longtime entrenched Democrat Congressman in a southern California district, for Congress. (District 51 - El Centro to El Cajon to suburbs of San Diego). Popaditch is a staunch Pro-Defense libertarian Republican.

PopaditchforCongress.com

133 Photos Lit By a Single Candle [Photography]

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For this week's Shooting Challenge, I asked you to capture a photography by the light of just one candle. Your response, as always, was remarkable.

Most Meme


"Taken with a tripod mounted Canon XSi with a Canon 50mm f1.8 and an extension tube. Exposure was f/2 @ 1/50s, ISO 320."
[Ed note: Close call, given the Portal shot in the galleries.]
-Adam Carlson

Most Clever


"This was "shot" using my Canon 7D with the 50mm f1.8 prime. Tripod, ISO 800, 1/6 shutter, f2.8. The only light in the image is from a taper candle inserted into a disassembled MAG-Lite. To keep the flame from melting the reflective lens of the flashlight, the setup was aimed up and the final image rotated."
-Christian Shaffer

Most Fiery


"The shot was taken with my Canon S90 @ F8, ISO 400 and with a 15sec exposure on a tripod. To achieve the blur, I adjusted the head of the tripod downward and back to it's starting position quickly at the start of the exposure."
-Jesse Oliveri

Favorite on Film


Camera: Mamiya RZ67
Lens: Mamiya-Sekor 110mm
Film: Kodak 160VC
Shot at: f2.8 at 1 sec
Reflective metered with a Sekonik L-508
Scanned at a low resolution
-Gabriel Padilla

Winner


Canon 5dMark II
Sigma 70-200mm EX
ISO 100
F 2.8
Shutter speed 2.5
"I hung the statue upside down to make it appear that the light was coming from up above. Using long term exposure I quickly moved the candle to light the side of his face."
[Ed note: This image subverted my expectations completely, re-imagining soft candle light as a crisp backlight. Also, I have a soft spot for The Incredibles, silhouettes and the color red.]
-Felix Mendoza

Note: there are two galleries this week for the sake of our back end:

If participants proved one thing this week, it's that a single candle is more than apt for photography by modern dSLRS. Well, that, and they're all gluttons for punishment. Nice job, everyone.

Now cheer* on your favorites in the comments!

(*Just be sure to do so without, you know, being a dick to other participants. Also, for anyone wondering why the lead shot didn't win, it was taken last summer making it ineligible for competition.)


The Sum of Our Google Fears [Google]

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Look, this video plays pretty loose with the facts. But there's no question that it speaks to those deeper concerns about Google: that it's so big, so invasive. And when you add it all up, the final picture's a little scary.

It's not that any one thing Google does is beyond the pale, despite serious concerns over Buzz and the EU's recent Street View intervention. But with as many businesses as Google's involved in, and as much information as they have access to, the real problem might be that the cute mantra of "Don't Be Evil" suddenly feels more like a necessary reminder. [The Business Insider]


Math Puzzles

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From me to CR4, a nice math puzzle for everyone :

Complete the sequence:

5, 8, 12, 18, 24, 30, 36, 42, 52, _____

Bonus Question:

How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? (Please Make Sure Your Answer is in Units of Cords)

Good Luck!

Seeing The Littlest, Cutest Voltron Of Them All Made Me Melt [Image Cache]

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If I ever have a daughter, I'm letting her wear any costume she wants. But—in the name of all that is sweet, sugary, and adorable—I hope she wants a Voltron one like this. Update: Now with how-it-was-made pictures!

I wonder what this little girl is thinking in that picture—aside from "Thanks, dad!" [Albotas via Kotaku]

Update: Thanks to Twitter user Nelson, we've found pictures of how this costume was put together by "Grim Hammer," this cutie's dad:

More photos and comments on how the costume was made can be found here.


Why Can’t My Xbox Be A Windows 7 PC And Vice Versa: Industry Insiders (And A Gizmodo Writer) on Windows’ Future [Microsoft]

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How can Microsoft keep Windows relevant? Technologizer decided to approach journalists, bloggers, and industry insiders to discuss just what they think needs to happen in future versions of the operating system.

Hit up the link to see what Kara Swisher of All Things D, Microsoft Employee #77, tech columnist Ed Baig, our own Matt Buchanan, and others had to say. [Technologizer]


MSI Wind U160 Netbook Claims Aggressive 15-Hour One-Charge Power [Msi]

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MSI has updated their netbook line once again. While the U130 and U135 already packed Intel's latest Pine Trail processor, the U160 is throwing down the battery gauntlet. Fifteen hours on one charge? That's nuts.

Of course, it's not really fifteen hours, since actual battery life is never anywhere close to listed. And the claim only applies to when the netbook is in "Eco" mode, which undoubtedly requires a significant performance trade-off. But even if the U160 can achieve 60% of its claim during normal usage, that's as impressive a netbook battery life as we've seen.

The $380 price tag also includes a 10-inch LED display (1024x600), the Pine Trail's standard 1GB RAM, and and Windows 7 Starter. But you'll have to make do with a 160GB HD and an island-style keyboard, which on a netbook doesn't leave a lot of room for error. But—especially if the battery life claim holds up—you could certainly do worse for more money.

MSI North America Announces Availability of the 2010 iF Product Design Award Winning Wind U160
Stylish new netbook features Pine Trail Platform, 15-Hour Battery Life, and Windows 7

CITY OF INDUSTRY, CA – March 08, 2010 – MSI Computer, a leading manufacturer of computer hardware products and solutions, is proud to announce the availability of the 2010 iF Product Design Award Winning Wind U160. The U160, MSI's second netbook to feature the new Pine Trail platform, is powered by the Intel® Atom N450™ Processor. The incredibly efficient and Energy Star compliant U160 boosts a 15 hour battery life when running in MSI's exclusive ECO mode. This allows users to get through a full day of work or school without having to bring their adapter.

Abandoning the traditional clamshell form, the Wind U160 ushers in a new era of netbook design. From the illuminated MSI logo on the netbook's outer surface to the power button placed on the U160's cylindrical hinge, the newest Wind model sports a slim new footprint. Just 0.98 inches at its widest point, the U160 is the thinnest Wind model to date.

The units' raised chiclet keyboard and seamless wide touchpad increase both accuracy and comfort while typing. The U160 is available in a fashionable sparkling gold or a more formal black, and its Color Film Print finish gives it a sleek stylish new look.

The newest edition to the Wind family will also ships with 10-inch backlit LED display, 1 GB of DDR2 memory, a 160GB hard drive, a 6-cell battery, Bluetooth connectivity and Microsoft's Windows 7 Starter. MSI also included its user friendly EasyFace facial recognition security software to help U160 users protect their information.

The MSI Wind U160 costs just $379.99 and is available now at Fry's (Fry's product number L1600) and online at Newegg and Buy.com.


Nanotubes + Waves of Heat = A Brand New Way to Make Electricity | 80beats

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nanotubesCarbon nanotubes have shown the potential to help us take better x-ray images, make cheaper hydrogen fuel cells, and replace silicon in computer chips. Add another possibility onto the pile: MIT researchers report this week in Nature Materials that they’ve used carbon nanotubes to create thermopower waves, a system they say could put out 100 times more energy than a lithium-ion battery.

Michael Strano’s team coated the tubes, which are only billionths of a meter across, with a fuel. This fuel was then ignited at one end of the nanotube using either a laser beam or a high-voltage spark, and the result was a fast-moving thermal wave traveling along the length of the carbon nanotube like a flame speeding along the length of a lit fuse [Environmental News Service]. That wave travels 10,000 times the typical speed of this chemical reaction, and the heat blasts electrons down the tubes. Voila, electric current.

This previously unknown phenomenon opens up an entirely new area of energy research, Strano says, and the technology’s potential applications are exciting. Strano envisions thermopower waves that could enable ultra-small electronic devices, no larger than a grain of rice, perhaps a sensor or treatment device that could be injected into the body. Or they might be used in “environmental sensors that could be scattered like dust in the air,” he says [Environmental News Service].

In Strano’s experiments, the process actually created more electricity than their calculations predicted, probably because the system creates the phenomenon called electron entrainment. The thermal wave, he explains, appears to be entraining the electrical charge carriers, either electrons or electron holes, just as an ocean wave can pick up and carry a collection of debris along the surface [Environmental News Service].

That could make thermopower waves extremely useful in the future. Densely packed nanotubes could also lead to ultracapacitors capable of storing far more power than today’s capacitors [Greentech Media]. Strano says it might also be possible to make the wave oscillate, producing the kind of alternating current used in so many modern technologies. For now, though, the team is focused on making the waves more efficient by reducing the amount of energy lost as heat and light.

Related Content:
DISCOVER: Future Tech: The Carbon Nanotube Grows Up
80beats: Carbon Nanotubes Could Replace Platinum And Lead to Affordable Hydrogen Cars
80beats: Nanotubes Could Provide the Key to Flexible Electronics
80beats: Unzip a Carbon Nanotube, Get a Nanoribbon, Revolutionize Electronics?

Image: iStockphoto


AT&T Doesn’t Allow Non-Market Apps On Android-Based Motorola Backflip [Motorola]

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Apparently AT&T is struggling a bit with the whole idea of Android, a somewhat open mobile OS. Instead of embracing it and giving users a full experience, they've decided to cripple it and not allow the installation of non-market apps.

From the sounds of it, the Android OS allows for the installation of apps "purchased on alternative markets and beta apps like Swype" by default. It's a bit of a mystery why AT&T would choose to take this option away from users, but it certainly makes AT&T's first Android-based phone even more of a letdown. [XDA Developers via Android and Me via Engadget]


Redshift – for Bill

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You hear the terms “redshift” and “blue shift” in astronomy talking about the velocity and direction of travel of celestial bodies.  This isn’t a difficult basic concept to understand, but it’s a little bulky to explain.  Also, like everything else in science, it gets more difficult as you go along.  The least difficult is the Doppler redshift.

You know about the Doppler shift in sound as an object approaches you or moves away from you.  The pitch of a train whistle seems to change as it approaches and passes you.  You know the sound doesn’t actually change in pitch at the source (the train), but due to the movement of the train the sound waves are compressed or lengthened, changing the pitch you hear.  In Doppler redshift, the visible light waves are compressed or lengthened depending on the velocity and direction of the source relative to you.  I say “relative to you” because if the source is moving away from you, the visible light shifts to red.  If it’s moving toward you, the visible light shifts to blue.

Doppler redshift - Image Ales Tosovsky, All Rights Reserved

That, in a nutshell, is Doppler redshift.

From there it gets more complicated and bulkier to explain.  For example, you have cosmological redshift (or Hubble redshift) which deals with the expansion of the universe; the relativistic Doppler effect, which deals with time dilation of objects traveling at near light speed; the gravitational redshift (or Einstein redshift) which handles redshift in a gravitational well (i.e., near a black hole).  Each “complication” tells you something new, exciting, and different.  For example, the Hubble redshift applies to objects far, far away – in the neighborhood of 13 billion light years away.  That’s creeping up on the time of the Big Bang.  Anyway, scientists know these objects are that far away because the Hubble redshift tells us that the further away an object is, the larger the redshift.

Red and Blue Shifting - Image, WikiPedia user Anynobody, All Rights Reserved

Redshifting tells us how far away an object is, how fast it’s moving, in what direction it’s moving.  It gives us ideas about what the object is and how old it is.  We get information about black holes, exoplanets, and the nature of the universe itself.

Pretty great, right?  Also, when you get caught speeding on radar… you can blame Doppler redshift.