Tag Archives: tech

Thoughts on Gun Control

The horrid events a few weeks ago in Aurora Co have revived discussions on gun control, both nationally and among family and friends. Since I have never been shy about sharing my opinions I see no reason to be a wall flower on this subject.
There are numerous and serious problems in trying to solve this problem by some implementation of gun control. First off the focus is all wrong way around, looking at the tool and not the user. In an unproduced screenplay I authored quite a few years ago I had a line that I think is applicable.
“You mortals always fear the wrong things. You fear the bomb but not the soul that would use it.” Continue reading →

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Another General Posting

The frequent eye strain headaches have made the desire to sit and compose blog posts rather rare of late. After spending 8 hours at the computer for my day job I am disinclined to spend much more at home. Even bumping up the font only helps so much. However on Wednesday I had my annual eye exam, discovered that the axis of my astigmatism had shifted quite a bit. So while my visual acuity is about the same, I still require new lens. They have been ordered, 7-10 days which is like something from the last century, and when I get them I should be back to my old happy self.

Having just finished the Book of Job, I’m about halfway through my reading of the Old Testament. God has finished making he transition to a spirit above and encompassing the world, quite a change from the wrestling guy in Genesis or the dude who appeared, wrapped in smoke and flame like a Balrog, above magic boxes. I’m not sure if I will finish this read, it has been sucking up a lot of my time and I really shouldn’t waste too much.

Today, 5/25/12, the Dragon spacecraft docked with the International Space station, opening a new era for spaceflight. Space X is going where only governments have gone before, and while I cheer this achievement should we consider where other corporations might go if given the chance? Is this is herald of a bright off-world future or the sign that the cyberpunks might have been right?

Paging Dr. McCoy, your hypo is ready.  Speaking as someone who despises the needle, I can’t even watch one on the movie screen, I truly cheer this invention.

The three day weekend is nearly upon us. I have plans, but hardly anything extravagant. Sadly I will not be going to BayCon this year. It was a choice between BayCon and WorldCon and in that contest WorldCon always wins. So tonight will be D&D, where I am a player. We’re in the middle of a fight, outnumber and fighting under hampered conditions. So far the gamemaster has been holding back, but we’ll see if this is the last game for my Arabic Paladin, Alladin. Tomorrow and Sunday will be board and card gaming with friends and my sweetie-wife, must resist buying the Game of Thrones board game, and on Monday I will be going toDisneyland. Sadly by myself, my dear friend who was going to go is under the weather health wise and that has caused quite a bit of financial stress. I already had paid for my ticket, so alone I go. I shall have fun in his honor.

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Thoughts on owing a NOOK

It’s been a couple of weeks since I purchased a NOOK, in part with early birthday funds from my sweetie-wife, and here are my early thoughts.

I bought a NOOK tablet because I wanted an e-reader with a wider range of capability than what I was getting from my ezreader pro, but I felt I didn’t need to the full functionality of the more expensive iPad, and I think I made the right call.

I downloaded a few public domain texts, transferred ebooks from my Adobe ereader software, moved a few personal files, and subscribed the SF magazines ANALOG and ASIMOV’s as tests for the tablet. I can happily report that in all these tests the NOOK performed quite well and the reading experience was easy and comfortable. The most vexing issues dealt with personal files and learning how to transfer them so they were accessible, once that was achieve they worked fine.

I had missed having subscription to SF magazine, but I detest the way the physical magazine piled up and I was generally loath to throw them out. Having an e-subscription is the perfect solution for me and it was quite pleasurable to be reading new SF authors and shorts. (Though I admit reading some of those stories makes me wonder what’s going on in short story writing these days. I mean, shouldn’t a story be about something?)

The battery life seems quite serviceable, and while the net surfing on it is less that optimal, I did not buy it as a net device, thought it will serve in a pinch.

 

Over all this has been a pretty good purchase and a nice birthday gift.

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Back from Vegas

Had a really good time in Sin City doing very little sinning. (Mainly eating too much and I gambled away $2) I’ll post more when I am not so tired.
After the cut is a cool video of a rocket launch. It looks like every other rocker launch but stay with it until about 1:53 and experience the cool
Continue reading →

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Nook tablet vs. Apple iPad

I purchased a couple of years ago an ebook reader, the EZReader Pro. It worked fine, but I discoverfd I adopted too soon and the device while perfectly functional doesn’t meet all the needs I have for a good portable reader.
I know that one day I want to get myself a tablet, the question is which one? Continue reading →

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“This is the voice of World Control…”

For the last five or six years I have been using an iBook made in 2001 as my laptop computer. This little machine is gleaming white and has primarily been used as a writing platform during my breaks at my day job, running gaming software during my D&D game (3.5 thank you very much), and allowing me and my sweetie-wife access to the internet while away at conventions. Given the machine’s coloration and gaming duties when I had to name it for my network the natural choice seemed to be Gandolf. Continue reading →

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Our science-fictional world.

Two weeks ago researchers UC Berkley reported a breakthrough in understanding human speech, a breakthrough that could someday shatter many of our social conventions. The scientists, studying the patterns with varies subjects’ brains, were able to determine what words the subjects hearing by the brain’s activity alone. It is a small step from there to deciphering the unspoken words thought by a person. The researchers are developing this technology to medically help people with severe brain injury and disease. We could even learn just what is going on in a person who is in a persistent coma state, breaking through to these terribly isolated people. Continue reading →

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