Oddments
Devolution, a parody of the Dove Evolution film (via kwc).
People have been talking about Microsoft's Surface, which appears to be some sort of mult-touch, table-based computing thingy.
What gets me when it comes many of today's whiz bang demos is, for example, the disheveled pile of digital photographs. It's a little amusing if you consider how much order it requires to create the visual chaos that is magically animated into order right before one's eyes. It makes me wonder if software is moving beyond solving problems into mesmerization. Up next: "Tantalizing HCI" by David Copperfield.
While you're contemplating that, why not go back to the mid 1980s and enjoy an old Big Audio Dynamite video?
In the spirit of multi-tasking, more of my "reading" is coming in the form of the audiobook, which is easier to combine with exercise than a paper book. I recently finished Dawkins' God Delusion, which I unfortunately don't have sufficient time to discuss. One fascinating part of the book is the story of Kurt Wise, which Dawkins also published in Free Inquiry a few years ago under the title Sadly, an Honest Creationist (link). It's an amazing example of what a powerful force an religious upbringing can be, and it's more than a little disconcerting in an age when fundamentalism often leads to nefarious acts.
On the audiobook front, I've been listening to some of the public domain recordings freely available at Librivox. After sampling a few, I settled on P.G. Wodehouse's My Man Jeeves, which is nicely done thanks to the effort and voice of Mark Nelson.
Simply Audiobooks is sort of a Netflix of audiobooks. I'm going to give that a whirl too. Walster Isaacson's Einstein... is at the top of the queue.
Mike Judge's Milton cartoons were the inspiration behind Office Space. In this one, the manager tells Milton he needs to move his desk back (via Edward Champion).
People have been talking about Microsoft's Surface, which appears to be some sort of mult-touch, table-based computing thingy.
What gets me when it comes many of today's whiz bang demos is, for example, the disheveled pile of digital photographs. It's a little amusing if you consider how much order it requires to create the visual chaos that is magically animated into order right before one's eyes. It makes me wonder if software is moving beyond solving problems into mesmerization. Up next: "Tantalizing HCI" by David Copperfield.
While you're contemplating that, why not go back to the mid 1980s and enjoy an old Big Audio Dynamite video?
In the spirit of multi-tasking, more of my "reading" is coming in the form of the audiobook, which is easier to combine with exercise than a paper book. I recently finished Dawkins' God Delusion, which I unfortunately don't have sufficient time to discuss. One fascinating part of the book is the story of Kurt Wise, which Dawkins also published in Free Inquiry a few years ago under the title Sadly, an Honest Creationist (link). It's an amazing example of what a powerful force an religious upbringing can be, and it's more than a little disconcerting in an age when fundamentalism often leads to nefarious acts.
On the audiobook front, I've been listening to some of the public domain recordings freely available at Librivox. After sampling a few, I settled on P.G. Wodehouse's My Man Jeeves, which is nicely done thanks to the effort and voice of Mark Nelson.
Simply Audiobooks is sort of a Netflix of audiobooks. I'm going to give that a whirl too. Walster Isaacson's Einstein... is at the top of the queue.
Mike Judge's Milton cartoons were the inspiration behind Office Space. In this one, the manager tells Milton he needs to move his desk back (via Edward Champion).
posted by metamerist at
6:46 AM
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