Haibane.info

Author: fledgling otaku

  • high-def DVD format madness

    Meet quad-layer DVD, the third high-def DVD format after Blu-Ray and HD-DVD:

    UK-based New Medium Enterprises (NME) has developed the Versatile Multilayer Disc (VMD), a new optical-based format capable of storing 20GB of data.

    Unlike HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc, VMD is a red-laser technology that achieves its storage capacity by using a greater number of layers. VMD is precisely the same size and thickness as DVD. However, while DVD technology utilizes two layers of a disc, VMD technology has conceived multi-layering, where up to 5GB can easily be stored on each layer.

    Naturally, new DVD players will be required. Had enough? I think I’m going to sit this format war out. I’ll just BT anything I can’t find on old DVD. The concept of fixed physical media is so 20th century oldskool anyway.

  • topicality

    As you may have noticed, the category list here keeps on growing 🙂 I just find that there are many things I am interested in, things that I appreciate that I want to share. I certainly am as surprised as anyone else who knows me to find that “Art” now ranks among those things – I never fancied myself much of an art critic. And yet, Art is a broad enough term that I can interpret as I see fit. I suppose I am excluding music from the definition since I already have a Sound category; likewise with food. Those are arbitrary delineations, but meaningful to me. At any rate, I am a dabbler; this blog is my canvas. Let the psychoanalyses begin 🙂

    For the record, as of this writing, Meta posts every other category. Obviously, I like blogging about blogging more than everything else 😛

    {democracy:1}

  • Strange statues around the world

    A picture gallery of weird statues around the world. Warning: many are not work-safe.

    Among my favorites: The man who measures the clouds by Jan Fabre, Belgium

    man who measures the clouds

  • Wii-sabre

    Old news, but still:

    During an extended technical demonstration for a new, unnamed Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 Star Wars title, LucasArts staff have confirmed to Gamasutra the company’s intense interest in creating a Wii lightsaber game, if not yet its explicit existence.

    At the end of the demonstration, Gamasutra inquired as to whether the company planned on creating a lightsaber game for the Wii, after many commented on he suitability of the system to the concept – especially after an internal speaker was revealed in the controller being used to demo the concept.

    This question produced a number of knowing smiles around the room from LucasArts employees, followed by the comments: “We know” and “We are looking into it”, as possible concepts for the game were discussed. However, the firm has not yet made any official announcements regarding planned Wii titles.

    UPDATE: This seems relevant. Imagine: me in my living room, you in yours, and we engage in a duel. I’m toast.

    Soon we will all be able to unleash our inner Star Wars Kids… (more…)

  • Trek X

    The more I learn about the new Star Trek “reboot” the more excited I get. Look at how Batman Begins and Casino Royale essentially breathed new life into abused franchises; now comes a hint that the original Star Trek continuity and canon itself might be ditched, which is really good news. Via AICN, a panel at the WONDERCON in San Francisco revealed a lot of tidbits:

    (more…)

  • The Zoom World

    I was looking for an excuse to inaugurate my Art category! This flash-based mural “Zoom Quilt II” is simply hypnotic. It’s a series of nested pieces of art, where zooming into one seamlessly expands upon the other. Just click the link and you’ll see what I mean.

    (h/t Brian).

    UPDATE: Here’s the original Zoom Quilt. It’s more artistic and less surreal, but just as compelling.

  • what the heck is nanotech?

    So, it seems that 80% of the public has no clue what “nanotechnology” really is, even though 90% of them have an opinion about it. But is the fault of the public or the nanotech evangelists? Case in point, later in the article at TGD about this, they say,

    Nanotechnology is typically defined as the ability to measure, see, manipulate and manufacture things usually between 1 and 100 nanometers. Among others, the microprocessor industry has entered the nanotechnology space several years ago: For example, Intel’s 90 nm processors were introduced in 2003.

    If the Intel 90nm process counts as nanotech, then we’ve had nanotech for a lot longer than 2003 – only, we called it “biotechnology“. The above is a useless definition because it’s way too broad.

    A more rigorous definition of nanotech comes from Foresight, which has been the Slashdot of the nanotech world for over a decade. They describe nanotech in terms of fabricating devices and materials to atomic specifications – ie, single-atom manipulation. The classic text on nano is Drexler’s; the classic science fiction is Diamond Age – those are the benchmark by which we should evaluate the concept.

    I don’t see Intel CPUs running out of control and turning the planet into a gob of gray goo.

  • engaging

    Ever wonder what the cast of Star Trek did on those fancy sets between takes? Ever wonder just how much of a freak Patrick Stewart really was off-camera? Ever had the urge to break into Paramount’s lot to sneak onto the Bridge of the Enterprise D?

    (h/t Moe. Who will suffer for this, I promise.)

    (UPDATE: I’m brown, but otherwise yes, guilty as charged.)

  • Scientists trying to read your mind?

    Did anyone else see this article? I came across it on msnbc.com – “Scientists Try to Predict Intentions: using brain scans to read minds before thoughts turn into actions” (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17464320/)

    I haven’t read anything Dr. Haynes has published in peer-reviewed journals on the topic (I’ll see what I can find) but this seems like another case of popular media grossly over-estimating (or mis-estimating?) the significance of the research. Take this excerpt:

    But scientists are making enough progress to make ethicists nervous, since the research has already progressed from identifying the regions of the brain where certain thoughts occur to identifying the very content of those thoughts.

    Although I think my favorite part is the opening paragraph, where the author writes:

    At a laboratory in Germany, volunteers slide into a doughnut-shaped MRI machine and perform simple tasks, such as deciding whether to add or subtract two numbers, or choosing which of two buttons to press.

    They have no inkling that scientists in the next room are trying to read their minds — using a brain scan to figure out their intention before it is turned into action.

    Um…I think the first “inkling” that something is amiss is when these evil scientists ask you to step inside their big shiny machine. Perhaps I’m overly-critical. I still think articles like this are amusing, but it makes me cringe when I think that this is the public’s view of MR research. Any other opinions?

  • Luminous beings are we

    not this crude matter:

    I have always found this scene to be deeply insightful, in ways that transcend the mere plot and apply to reality and life. In many ways, the quote itself is fundamental to why I am devout. But it has just as much secular meaning as it does spiritual. George Lucas is often derided for creating a “new age religion” (and in fact in E4:ANH a character actually insults the Jedi as a “religion” to Vader’s face) but I appreciate the deeper universal truth he is describing here.

    If we are just bags of meat, then all we strive for simply doesn’t matter. Only if there is something beyond does it begin to have any meaning or purpose. What shape that Beyond takes; be it Paradise or Transhumanism or something else entirely, is mostly a matter of simple taste.