While most GWC denizens are sci-fi/fantasy geeks, there’s a healthy number of us that have fallen in love with the musical TV show Glee. Something about awkward high school misfits belting their hearts out in the face of overwhelming unpopularity speaks to anyone who’s ever sat at the wrong lunch table. But if you’re still not convinced to trade your phasers for a high F, let me introduce you to a musical that might help get you in the right mood.
Years before he peeled his face off in The Last Starfighter, Robert Preston charmed and connived his way through my favorite musical, The Music Man.
Continue reading »
Aren’t SMART phones fun? It seems the unofficial SMART phone of choice for most GWCers is the iPhone. However, for those of us that have carriers other than AT&T, there are other choices available. Personally I have the Motorola DROID through Verizon. And even though I can’t wait for Verizon and Apple to finally unveil/announce the Verizon version of the iPhone, I do love my DROID’s features. I can use the phone to navigate, see what stores are in buildings, read my daily Dilbert, keep track of workouts, download and listen to podcasts on the run, use it as a wireless card for my laptop, check out the weather and local radar, play Sudoku, use it as a flashlight, pinpoint stars in the night sky, watch YouTube videos, tweet away on Twitter, use it as a Tricoder, and post on the GWC forum (thanks to Tapatalk).
Continue reading »
Junior at the Spiderman Movie Opener
I’ll be the first to admit that Shooter Jr is not really “Junior.” He’s not a mini-Shooter or a cloned version of me, and his real name has nothing close to Junior in it. Admittedly, though, the Junior tag has grown with both of us ever since the GWC Indiana Jones podcast arc. But Shooter Jr has his own interests, his own personality, and his own preferences that are similar but separate from my own. Likewise, neither of the Shootettes will like every single thing that I find fun and interesting. However, as with any family, there are interests of mine that I’ve been passing along to the kids.
Just came across this AP article describing how NASA Engineers are currently troubleshooting a software glitch on Voyager 2, which recently caused the probe to send its scientific data in an unreadable format. While reprogramming extraplanetary probes is nothing new (we’ve been doing it for years with the Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity), there’s a few reasons why this particular problem is so interesting:
- Voyager 2 was launched in 1977, making the software over 33 years old
- Communications sent between Voyager 2 and Earth take over 13 hours at a rate of 160 bits per second – for comparison, at that speed, the podcast would take over forty days to transmit.
- At a distance of 8.6 billion miles from the Earth, this is likely the farthest away anyone has performed troubleshooting on a computer.
The Voyager team may be able to reprogram around the error, or find a way to decipher the format the probe is transmitting, but for now they’ve told the probe to stop sending the faulty data while they attempt to find a solution. Possible causes for the error are being investigated, but they don’t believe the age of the spacecraft is related to the problem. Voyager 2 has had a long mission, performing flybys of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, and is currently headed into deep space to perform some of the first observations from outside our solar system, and is expected to operate for another decade.
Let’s hope this glitch gets sorted out quickly, I’m not sure the Nerd Herd can do an on-site support call for this one.
Two years ago this month a game arrived in an overly saturated market that changed the gaming landscape forever — and my perception of first person shooter games. That game was Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare from Infinity Ward. It was the third game of the series and a quantum leap up from Call of Duty 2. Modern Warfare combined a great story, great graphics, and an addictive RPG-like structure with multi-player gaming. More importantly, it changed the way I felt about the feel of firing a weapon in a video game.
Morning. Coffee synthesizer on the fritz. Again. I ask myself for the twentieth time why I hadn’t spent the extra cash for a Mac iBrew. Maybe I can grab a cup at work. I dress slowly, pulling on my jumpsuit, buckling the belt. Shuffle to the bathroom, where my shaved head stares back at me from the mirror. I look much better with hair, but hey, it’s the future, and that’s the law. I grab my transit pass and head out the door for the short walk to the E Station. The gathered crowd waits silently, avoiding eye contact. Looks like E-Tran’s running on time for a change! Preceded by a rush of air, the car approaches, stops, and as the doors open we enter, resembling a school of bald, colorfully jump-suited fish. The doors close, and we’re on our way. Fifteen thousand miles straight up. Yawn. Just another boring office commute…
- Ares I-X Test Flight; Oct. 28, 2009
In the wake of the epic Cosmos podcast arc, it seems fitting that the discussion about the future of space flight has come into the forefront of the news. With the Space Shuttle program due to be retired in 2010, NASA has taken a page out of the Apollo mission playbook in laying out the foundations for our next generation of spacecraft, seeking to take us beyond the boundaries of Earth’s orbit, back to the moon, and farther.
Yeah, auto-tune’s become all the joke lately, with enterprising folks applying T-Painery to everything from cats meowing to Mr. T. But the above video is no joke. It’s pretty darn bad-ass. And it’s significant when you consider that we’re just a few weeks away from taking a fun look at Cosmos.
There are so many reason we love this show. The acting. The writing. The effects. The mythology.
But it sounds like BSG did something a lot bigger than win an Emmy. Evidently, the UN will no longer use the word “race” as a cultural determinant. We will all be considered a part of one race: the human race.
That is truly past awesome.
Thanks to G4 for the heads up!
Also, for fans of Caprica – Jan. 22, 2010, looks to be the premiere date for the series.
The formal part of the birthday party had finished. Most of the boys went home; only a few of us stayed for the sleepover. We ate our hot dogs, drank our soda, and sat down to watch a movie on the VHS.
“What are we watching?” I asked
“Some movie called Tron” the host replied.
…and I was never quite the same again.
To those of you who don’t already know: Grant Imahara and the gang at Mythbusters will put the theory of the Gorn cannon from Star Trek TOS to the test on next season’s Viewer’s Special episode. Mr. Imahara’s July 8th tweet announcing the event:
“YesssssKirk!!! It’s official. #Gorncannon is a go for next season’s Viewer’s Special. Thanks to all fans 4 your help!
”
Grant appears to be very excited. He also tweeted that he’s ordered a science-blue Starfleet uniform for himself and that Buster will be wearing (appropriately) a red shirt. Read on for details on the original Gorn cannon — and a serious look at the science involved.
Hulu’s relatively new desktop app turns your computer into what you wish your TV could be: a massive source of on-demand television content easily managed via remote control. And if you’re one of the few who’s slung a PC or Mac off your LCD or Plasma TV, you now have the ultimate on-demand set-top box.
GWCers on Flickr
Recent Blog Comments
on #42: Juan Chooses a Tablet { Looking forward to the reasoning behind the Ipad, in a similar position but so far I can't justify the price + data contract despite a... } – May 09, 4:26 PM
on #321: Avengers Pt. 4, Thor { First off - it is great to be back. I have been away for a couple years. I was listening during the original run of... } – Apr 24, 7:23 PM
on #28: Nyan Nyan Nyan Nyan Nyan (Cat) { I would like at least one episode where Audra doesn't try to "beat" along with the intro. It gets old. Thanks. } – Apr 21, 12:50 PM
on #31: Sight Unseen { The episode commentaries seem to becoming less about the show and more about everything else. You guys get off track easy, and tend to stay... } – Apr 04, 11:19 PM
on #37: Draw Something/360 Cloud Sync Fail { I was sick too! You and I might be carrying around each others germs. } – Mar 29, 6:39 AM