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The Holidays are here! What does the GEEK in your life want? Well take a look at this collection of Links to get you thinking…
Gifts for the Road Trip Master (Gizmoto)
Aldebaran Robotics announces Nao Next Gen humanoid robot (Engadget)
Holiday Gift Ideas from ThinkGeek
105 geek gift ideas (and counting)
Have a link we should add? let us know!
Source: Gizmodo
When cat owner Chris sent his HP Elitebook in for repairs, he received a nasty surprise—not only weren’t his repairs covered by his warranty, but his cat was to blame. HP claims the computer was furred to death.
The Consumerist reports Chris’ sad story:
The supervisor I spoke to started with “So, you have a long haired-cat?” I in fact have a short haired cat. He then said “Wow, I’m surprised that fan turns at all.” I scoffed, and told him he was crazy, and that all the hair in the computer (the very tiny bit in there) was what I sent it in with.
…
Then he gets back on the phone with me and says that the supervisor said that there was SO MUCH cat hair that it’s considered a biological hazard. That’s absolutely ridiculous, and he wouldn’t even give me the number for his supervisor or transfer me to him (why not?).
Now that’s a very creative way of screwing your customer! I’ve owned many a cat in my time, and while some of them do shed like hell, and while that hair does have a propensity to attach itself to computers, I’m not aware of any thermal properties that would destroy a computer—especially given the tame amount HP photographed on Chris’ circuitry. It’s not like he filled his computer up with sawdust. Still, with the volume of PC business HP does, I guess they can get away with booting the occasional customer out of their warranty for no reason, and without recourse. Classy!
Source: Gizmodo
The European Space Agency’ Mars Express spacecraft has discovered “large volumes of water ice” hiding only 65 feet underground the red planet’s surface, in the Phlegra Montes mountain range. It could be used by future human explorers.
ESA claims that the images show lobate debris aprons that have been moved down the mountain slopes over time, just like the debris covering glaciers on Earth. According to the ESA, their finding is backed up by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter radar data, which “shows that lobate debris aprons are indeed strongly associated with the presence of water, perhaps only 20 meters underground.”
The Phlegra Montes is a smooth system of “gently curving” mountain and ridges. Planetary geologists believe that it was formed by tectonic forcers, not volcanic activity. Some of the shaping of those ridges were created by the compression of snow deposited in ancient craters. ESa believes that “over time, the snow compacted to form glaciers which then sculpted the crater floors.”
According to ESA, everything points out at the presence of large underground glaciers in this mountain range. They believe that, if confirmed, this water could be used in future human missions.
This is excellent news for the exploration and colonization of our neighbor, as water would be one of the crucial elements to keep the bases and colonies alive.
Until someone discovers the giant nuclear fusion machine left there by an ancient Martian civilization in order to turn all that ice into a new atmosphere, that is. [ESA]
Star Trek Online will be going free-to-play on January 17, 2012, Perfect World Entertainment has announced.
Perfect World Entertainment first announced the change-over to the free-to-play model in an earnings call, stating the studio was in the process on working on the new model.
The January launch is slightly later than initially stated by CEO Kelvin Lau who said the change would happen by the end of the year.
Perfect World Entertainment has announced plans to turn Star Trek Online into a free-to-play MMO by the end of the year.
“And also Star Trek Online, after the acquisition, in fact Cryptic is working on the free-to-play model for Star Trek Online,” Perfect World Entertainment’s CEO Kelvin Lau explained in a recent earnings call.
“This is going to be launched by the end of this year as well. So I think free-to-play model we have a bigger potential in US market and also in China market.”
Star Trek Online’s developer Cryptic Studios recently teamed up with Alienware Arena to offer a giveaway of 60 days of game time to recipients. <—- link for more
Had a great time with my family at the model train fair. There is just something about these tiny and highly detailed sets that bring me back to my childhood. Take a look at the LEGO set as well.
Going through airport security is hell in a hole. We all know that. What is this liquid that’s two ounces too heavy? Is that really a teddy bear?Apparently, some people don’t care and think they can sneak a gun through security checkpoints. Seriously! On a typical day, the TSA confiscates four to five guns from passengers.
How in the hell? What are these people doing with guns at an airport? I don’t even want to whisper the G-word or the B-word (bomb) when I’m near those stiff TSA pricks. You’ve seen what happened to Harold Lee and Kumar Patel! The TSA says that most people claim that they just forget the weapon was in their bag (the entire South just nodded their head) which I guess is no harm no foul. But sometimes, it’s heavy artillery, a passenger at Dallas-Fort Worth Airport had a carry-on bag with two pistols, three magazines, eight knives and a hand saw. That guy was arrested.
The TSA isn’t perfect, they’ve let a gun accidentally board an airplane before, but weeding out four to five weapons a day makes me feel a little better about taking off my shoes.
Dippin’ Dots isn’t dead. But it’s dying—the company filed for bankruptcy today in federal court. It’s a sad day not just for you and for me and for minor league concession stands. It’s a sad day for the future.
There’s still a more than decent chance that Dippin’ Dots come out of this bankruptcy filing okay; they have more assets than liabilities and sales are up. But the move forces our imaginations to conjure up a world without the chilly little nubbins. One that’s far worse off for it.
Your parents grew up in a world without Dippin’ Dots. And you may have, too, hard as it is to imagine; the company wasn’t founded until 1987, the year that microbiologist Curt Jones applied his use of cryogenic encapsulation to dessert, concocting perfect little spheres of bliss. Twenty-four years ago, Jones called his creation The Ice Cream of the Future. And in every way that matters, it still is.
Dippin’ Dots are delicious, yes, okay. But beyond just taste, they’re one of the most tangible symbols of progress in the last thirty years. Dippin’ Dots are everything you love about ice cream but without the slop, the bovine slobbering, the compulsion to eat faster before you get creamy melted muck all over your hand. They’re fastidious in the way our best visions of the future are fastidious, a pre-apocalyptic snack for a world in which our robot butlers haven’t yet turned on us.
There’s the old joke, or platitude maybe: How long until we acknowledge that if Dippin’ Dots had ever been the future, they’d be on every street corner by now? But that’s silly, especially if we believe in the future as aspirational, as the fulfillment of potential. Dippin’ Dots are a symbol of the future in the same way as anything that’s equal parts practical and exotic. Motorized fans. Dry-erase boards. Jeff Daniels. Touchstones, all, of a mode of living that we should strive for but won’t ever achieve. Glimpses of hover boards in our everyday lives.
Dippin’ Dots aren’t mainstream because the future isn’t mainstream. The future is a place where everything is magical but still works, somehow. Like flying cars, or laser guns. Or little pellets of ice cream that don’t melt.
If Dippin’ Dots goes under? Nothing tangible changes, not really. Instead of bumping into a Dippin’ Dots stand three times a year you’ll do it no times and not notice the difference. But what it says is: this one small corner of the future is no longer aspirational. It’s commoditized. Congealed. We’re not barreling towards a better life. We’re just slowly melting away.
Source: io9
Many of science fiction’s most rosy ideas of the future seem less and less likely, or they’ve already failed to materialize on schedule. But the future could still be a beautiful place.
There are still plenty of optimistic science fiction stories that haven’t been disproved yet. They don’t involve science that’s been debunked, or events that were supposed to have happened by now. If you need something to believe in, here are some positive science fiction stories that could still come true.
Top image: Monosquare by Sparth.
Nowadays, it feels like a lot of science fiction is focused on apocalypses and dark challenges. Meanwhile, a lot of the older, more upbeat science fiction is already expired. We didn’t colonize Mars by the year 2000. The Eugenics Wars didn’t happen. A lot of magical technologies, like faster-than-light travel, are seeming less and less plausible. We seem no closer to eliminating war and famine and other scourges.
So what positive, hopeful science fiction stories could you still believe are real — or at least make a case for? Here are some suggestions.
What it’s about: This is probably the most classic utopian future that everybody has seen. It’s the year 2062, and everybody’s living in middle class paradise. It’s apparently a post-scarcity society. American manufacturing is alive and well, and George only needs to work nine hours a week to provide for a stay-at-home wife, his two children, and a dog. There don’t appear to be any poor people — in the Christmas episode, which is ostensibly a lesson about “giving,” Spaceley only learns to “give” George more time off, not to give to the poor. Still, we have no idea what sort of post-apocalyptic mutants might be inhabiting the surface of the Earth in this universe — we never see what’s happening on the ground, so it could be a zombie-strewn wasteland down there.
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