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Things Get a Little Weirder on teh Intartubes
Jesuit academic Antonio Spadaro has suggested that Second Life would be an excellent place to go do missionary work. (Really!) Although it’s supposed to be a humor column, the latest Alt Text actually makes some excellent points about the weirdness that is Ministering to the Avatars: However, some sins seem to be sins even if…
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The Coolest Thing You’ll See All Day
BoingBoing posted this article about a building made from walls of water, but the way they titled their post (“Building made from water walls”) suggests that they aren’t focusing on what seems to me to be the coolest part of the whole idea. At first glance, this seems pretty straightforward: Researchers at MIT are designing…
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The Doo-Dah News Generator
This isn’t even tangentially related to science fiction, other than the fact that it uses a computer and illustrates the vast power of the Internet. As nearly as I can tell, the vast power of the Internet is more or less entirely centered around conferring unlimited opportunities to be silly. The Doo-Dah News Generator monitors…
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Think Artificial
Here’s a neat blog I just stumbled across, devoted to AI, robotics, and “exciting technologies.”Link
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New Computer Virus Targets Calculators
Now it’s official: everything is infectible. Wired’s Threat Level blog reports that two new “proof-of-concept” computer viruses* target the TI-89 graphing calculator. They obviously can’t spread to another calculator directly, but instead wait for the user to move an infected file through the TI-89’s serial port, which can connect to a PC or directly to…
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Good. Evil. I’m the Guy with the Search Engine
The SciFi Tech blog has an interesting take on the monolith that Google is fast becoming. I trust Apple with my computer needs and Poland Spring with my water needs, but since the days when I wore Gap clothing exclusively, I’ve never felt quite so comfortable with–or reliant upon–a company than I do Google. Link
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Countries Opening Embassies in Second Life
The Maldives opened Second Life’s first virtual embassy on May 23rd, beating the upcoming Swedish embassy by eight days. The Philippines and Macedonia are also looking into establishing diplomatic missions, as Second Life’s role as a means of low-cost communication becomes increasingly evident.I’ve blogged about Second Life a couple of times before; I think I…
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It’s all a matter of faith
Another answer to those irritating door-bell ringers. HA! Link
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The Gender Genie
Here’s an interesting quasi-AI toy: Inspired by an article and a test in The New York Times Magazine, the Gender Genie uses an algorithm to predict the gender of an author. (I’d be somewhat more impressed if every single piece of writing I submitted wasn’t identified as being written by a man.)Link
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Read This Number, and an Angel Loses its Wings
The word going around the Intartubes is that this an HD-DVD decryption key. As you might imagine, some folks at the MPAA are upset that it’s been made available. That’s unfortunate. So if you see this number sequence, just look away and do not spread it around or tell anyone. (via Wil Wheaton)