If I Could Take it With Me

In the past humans were buried with items, or people, that might be of use to them in the afterlife, or were among their favorites.

My Logitech Harmony One universal remote is coming with me.

I'm in the process of upgrading my home AV setup - moving to a true HTPC system - with all the lovely PITA issues that come along with mucking about with hardware setups that have been in place in a room and your habits for years.

But plug the Harmony into the USB cable and you can change its settings via a pretty nice web page interface. It's lovely. Now, if I could find the genius who designed my Sony CD player remote with no on/off button...

Atom Smasher 1: Whiners 0

All of you hoping that technology will continue to be the savior of the human race -- Behold. I give you the artificial leaf. 

If you've finished marvelling, I remember something my esteemed co-blogger once said when irked by some whining about the depletion of the Amazon rainforest. "Fuck it. If we wanted to, we could just build another one." 

I know this artificial leaf doesn't create oxygen, but I suspect that's just a matter of time.

Rampant Gadgetry

Stepped into the 21st century yesterday - got myself one of them fancy smartphone thingies. Shiny! One of these days I'll figure out how to use it.

I will have to say that of all the new tech that's emerged in the last decade, it's the casual and robust configurable touch-screen UIs that truly floor me.

15 years ago they were a fantasy from ST:TNG, now it's in my pocket.

Baby's First iPod

So, because no one makes boomboxes anymore, and I need an MP3 player thingie to listen to my RiffTrax, I got my first iPod this week.

Pretty neat. These things might catch on.

Readings Are Off My Scale, Captain.

Computer virii.

Don't get 'em, people. And if you do, go here and do exactly what they tell you to do.

Trust me.

From The Thou-Shall-Not-Trifle-In-God's-Domain Desk

Just got this news alert from the WSJ:

"Scientists for the first time have created a synthetic cell, completely controlled by man-made genetic instructions, which can survive and reproduce itself, researchers at the private J. Craig Venter Institute announced Thursday. Created at a cost of $30 million, the experimental one-cell organism opens the way to the manipulation of life on a previously unattainable scale."

Umm. Holy shit.

This Was Definitely the Droid I was Looking For

By the way, I just have to show off one of Xmas presents I got for myself.

I now have the BEST PC CASE EVER running in my office.

My digicam is kaput so the product pics will have to serve, but it looks as good or better than the pics there. I've been looking for a non-custom case styled like this for years, and stumbled on this one a week or so before Xmas. It took all of five minutes for me to blow my Xmas budget and click "gimme!". It fits the internals I use, has plenty of room for airflow, and the quietest fan I've ever had. Plus it's the coolest case on the planet. So Fat Max (my big wheeled aluminum floor case that I've used since I bought this place in 2001) got retired to the basement to get some new insides cobbled together from piles of spares.

Did I mention it looks really awesome? Especially since I've painted my office red and hung the Giant Art I bought this summer in there?

Sending Androids To War

Its Facebook Mobile for soldiers:

Google's mobile operating system Android has won plenty of adherents among cellphone makers and gadget manufacturers since its 2007 debut. Now defense contractor Raytheon is preparing it for a more urgent mission: saving lives in places like Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Using Android software tools, Raytheon engineers built a basic application for military personnel that combines maps with a buddy list. Raytheon calls the entire framework the Raytheon Android Tactical System, or RATS for short. Mark Bigham, a vice president of business development in Raytheon's Intelligence and Information Systems unit, says the company selected Android because its open-source nature made developing applications easy.

Every part of RATS is tailored for use on a battlefield. A soldier could make an unmanned plane a "buddy," for instance, and track its progress on a map using his phone. He could then access streaming video from the plane, giving him a bird's eye view of the area. Soldiers could also use the buddy list to trace the locations of other members of their squad.

RTWT.

Then, in the comments tell me what you think Corporal Jones of the USMC should do when his fireteams won't stop texting each other or updating their Facebook status.