Haibane.info

Author: fledgling otaku

  • Line Rider redux

    All you Apple devotees rejoice – Line Rider is coming to iPhone and iPod Touch:

    The new version of Line Rider will be available on iTunes for $2.99 and will feature the ability to upload and download tracks on the web at the official Line Rider Web site http://www.linerider.com. Created in September of 2006, Line Rider was an immediate online sensation with millions of players worldwide and thousands of videos posted on YouTube.com showing off users’ “custom” Line Rider tracks.

    “We have over a million visitors to LineRider.Com every month and our strong and vocal audience has been asking for an iPhone(TM)/ iPod Touch(TM) version of Line Rider ever since the touch interface was introduced,” said Brian Fargo, chief executive officer of inXile entertainment Inc. “Line Rider is a natural fit for the iPhone as mobile users will be able to share their tracks and ride the lines almost anywhere now.”

    I am still amazed at the sheer artistry and artisanry of the Lineheads. When does the Wii version come out? Or the DS?

  • grumble

    is it just me, or does the otakusphere seem filled with political posts these past few weeks?

    I am not knocking anyone’s choice of blogging subject material, but I am finding it harder to use the otakusphere as my release valve for the bitter and divided one-sidedness of the poli-sphere (left and right alike). I am not above that fray – in fact I am actively and proudly a partisan myself – but one of the great things about the otakusphere is that it is one of the few common grounds left on which we can meet our putative idoelogical opponents on without acrimony.

    At any rate the solution is simple; if you don’t like what others are writing about, don’t read it. But I am looking forward to this election season being over so we can all go back to discussing the important things.

  • NTT DoCoMo rates

    I am aghast with sheer envy. Not just at the rates, but also at the concise use of descriptive graphs to assist you in choosing a cell phone plan:

    NTT DoCoMo handy chart for cellphone plan rates
    NTT DoCoMo handy chart for cellphone plan rates

    the rates top out at 14,600 yen, equal to $133/month. Thats really not bad, considering you also get a handset that is superior to the best of the US-based handsets in just about every way. Can you buy a coke with your iphone?

  • engineering a debate

    Steven was previously mulling about a change in his comments policy, and today just pulled a post because it (apparently) triggered some rather heated debate. I’ve noticed that Steven in particular tends to attract a lot of this sort of comment abuse – perhaps a better term for it is “signal saturation” because unlike spam or trolls, this isn’t a noise problem, it’s too much signal.

    One thing I’ve noticed is that these incidents always tend to occur in the context of an engineering discussion. Whether it’s the scalability of solar energy or the relative merits of liquid vs solid fuel for rockets, it always boils down to numbers. In contrast to engineers, we scientists tend to have less of an attention span, ending up on wild tangents rather than being able to focus on one topic long enough to disagree on fine details such as these. I wonder if these predilections are hard-wired into our career profiles.

    At any rate, it’s because I don’t have people crawling over every word I post with rebuttals and counter-factuals that keeps my blogging fun. If I were in Steven’s shoes, I’d probably close comments entirely. As it is, I am thankful that my comment threads are pretty tame and invariably filled with interesting things and perspectives rather than nitpicking galore.

  • gravitational induction

    Faraday’s Law is that a changing electric flux induces a magnetic flux. Now, physicists working under an EA contract think they’ve empirically observed the gravitometric analogue:

    Just as a moving electrical charge creates a magnetic field, so a moving mass generates a gravitomagnetic field. According to Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity, the effect is virtually negligible. However, Martin Tajmar, ARC Seibersdorf Research GmbH, Austria, and colleagues believe they have measured the effect in a laboratory.
    […]
    Their experiment involves a ring of superconducting material rotating up to 6 500 times a minute. Superconductors are special materials that lose all electrical resistance at a certain temperature. Spinning superconductors produce a weak magnetic field, the so-called London moment. The new experiment tests a conjecture that explains the difference between high-precision mass measurements of Cooper-pairs (the current carriers in superconductors) and their prediction via quantum theory. They have discovered that this anomaly could be explained by the appearance of a gravitomagnetic field in the spinning superconductor (This effect has been named the Gravitomagnetic London Moment by analogy with its magnetic counterpart).

    Small acceleration sensors placed at different locations close to the spinning superconductor, which has to be accelerated for the effect to be noticeable, recorded an acceleration field outside the superconductor that appears to be produced by gravitomagnetism. “This experiment is the gravitational analogue of Faraday’s electromagnetic induction experiment in 1831.

    The accompanying graphic really explains it much better:

    gravitometric induction
    gravitometric induction

  • happy birthday, Shamus

    the old geezer is 37 years old today. Luckily I am not so decrepit as that – I was in kindergarten when he was a big scary 3rd grader. You gotta respect the heroism of that greatest generation.

  • surfing FTL

    In scifi, FTL is achieved by jumping around spacetime, because accelerating to light speed would require infinite energy (as per Einstein’s Theory of Relativity. Gamma is not your friend). However, now some physicists have theorized a way to accelerate to c and beyond, by “surfing” on a wave of space-time:

    In theory, the universe grew faster than the speed of light for a very short time after the Big Bang, driven by the dark energy that represents about 74 percent of the total mass-energy budget in the universe. Dark matter constitutes 22 percent of the budget, and normal matter (stars, planets and everything you see) makes up the remaining 4 percent or so.

    Strange as it sounds, current evidence supports the notion that the fabric of space-time can expand faster than the speed of light, because the reality in which light travels is itself expanding.

    Cleaver and Richard Obousy, a Baylor graduate student, tapped the latest idea in string theory to devise how to manipulate dark energy and accelerate a spaceship. Their notion is based on the Alcubierre drive, which proposes expanding space-time behind the spaceship while also shrinking space-time in front.
    […]
    Cleaver told Space.com, “The dark energy is simultaneously decreased just in front of the ship to decrease (and bring to a stop) the expansion rate of the universe in front of the ship. If the dark energy can be made negative directly in front of the ship, then space in front of the ship would locally contract.”

    All you need to do is manipulate the 11th dimension. And it doesn’t even require infinite energy. Just a Jupiter mass or so. Simple!

  • Amazon primed

    I find that increasingly I turn to Amazon over Newegg for even electronics purchases. I just ordered a few items for around the house (a surge protector, a spare handset for our landline, a USB hub, etc) and I got my items the next day, even though I had specified two-day shipping (with Amazon prime, you get 2-business day shipping for free). In general, order fulfillment seems to be unbelievably snappy with Amazon and always seems glacial with Newegg. Maybe it’s partly because I pay for the Amazon Prime service – Its a feedback cycle in which I find myself ordering more and more from Amazon just because the convenience of free shipping is so addictive. I’m thinking of going the Amazon grocery route for restocking diapers, cereals, etc as well – it reminds me of the PeaPod service that was all the rage about 10 years ago but fizzled out. The funny thing is I don’t think I’ve bought a book, CD or DVD from Amazon in years.

  • Stargate: Universe

    I wonder if this will be what Star Trek: Voyager should have been:

    After unlocking the mystery of the Stargate’s ninth chevron, a team of explorers travels to an unmanned starship called the Destiny, launched by The Ancients at the height of their civilization as a grand experiment set in motion, but never completed.

    What starts as a simple reconnaissance turns into a never ending mission, as the Stargate Universe crew discovers the ship is unable to return to Earth, and they must now fend for themselves aboard the Destiny.

    The crew will travel to the far reaches of the universe, connecting with each of the previously launched Stargates, thus fulfilling the Destiny’s original mission.

    I never got into either SG-1 or Atlantis, but this seems well-poised to recapture some of that epic feel from the original movie.

  • Death Note

    Escaflowne is over, and I’ve got disc one of Death Note ready to start. I also am savoring Shinkai’s 5cm, I watched the first section and want to review it before I watch the others, to capture the emotional progression.

    I have to admit that my interest in Death Note has spiked now that I’ve seen this.

    UPDATE – also Tweeny Witches and Petite Princess Yucie are on my next-up list, thanks to Nick and Steven.