I was just told about www.spokeo.com, a new “white pages” service costing (I believe) $2.95 annually. For free, I accessed my own name, approx. age, address, map location, house photo, phone number, and family members’ names (two of them, anyway), as well as how long I’ve lived in my house. If I were to pay the … Read more
I understand that technology can be a trap into which we fall. That said, this video, “Future applications of graphene,” is really amazing. [video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YbS-YyvCl4 635×355] Graphene, as some of you know, is a monolayer of carbon molecules: transparent, stronger than steel, and amazingly conductive. Incredibly neat stuff!! Having a single device be a watch, phone, … Read more
After much deliberation I got Chippy an inexpensive phone from AT&T (20$ after rebate). Since he is now walking home from school a sizable distance, I wanted it for safety. With the AT&T phone I purchased the Smart Limits program (5$ per month) that gives parents the ability to limit texting, downloading, etc. However, I … Read more
Every time my inner paranoid thinks it can take a little break, something like this comes along: New York State Assemblyman Richard Brodsky nearly lost his daughter, Willie, at 4 years old when she needed a kidney transplant, and again 10 years later when her second kidney failed. “We have 10,000 New Yorkers on the … Read more
A couple of weeks ago, I posted a fascinating/disturbing video from Stargate Studios that revealed the increasingly unrecognizable use of CGI and digital backlots in TV and film production. (“Don’t worry. No reality was harmed in the making of this film. In fact, I’m not even sure any was used.”) Now, courtesy of /Film, here’s a … Read more
For the last several years, I’ve been keeping a wary and mistrusting eye on Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackon’s secretive attempts to turn the work responsible for some of my fondest (and, I would have thought, least cinematic) childhood memories into a motion picture. I speak, of course, of the long-gestating, mysterious, almost-impossibly challenging The Adventures of … Read more
My latest aimless meanderings through the mind-sucking wastelands of The Ultimate Timewaster have produced yet another unusual time-laps YouTube video for me to share this Friday afternoon: I’m fascinated by this sort of animation, partially because I have never been (and, sadly, will never be) this imaginative. And partially — OK, mostly — because I cannot … Read more