brainwagon

The BBC is reporting that the FBI has arrested thirteen individuals who are part of a massive film piracy ring. They claim that these individuals may account for half of all pirate video in the U.S. Wow. That’s major. The article goes on to say that film piracy costs the film industry $18 billion each […]

As pointed out by Robert Scoble, blogger Peter T Davis questions whether podcasts are an efficient means of content delivery. He says: But, it begins to seem to me that this is an inefficient means of receiving information. In the time I can listen to an average podcast, I could have caught up on my […]

According to this article on blogcritics.org, June 26 is recognized as “Kooks’ Day”, a day dedicated to all things crazy and loony. This holiday was established by the denizens alt.kooks.usenet on the anniversary of the passing of Earl Curley. Who? I didn’t know either, so I took the time to look him up. He may […]

Friday night, the A’s stole a game with late inning heroics. Yesterday, the Giants returned the favor when Ray Durham hit a three run homer in the bottom of the ninth against Huston Street to win. Today, the deciding game, and through the generosity of Carmen, we’re going to the game. Update later. Addendum: The […]

Ah, the occasional benefits of working at Pixar: UC Berkeley researcher Cynthia Bruyns is coming by today to give a technical seminar on her work in creating software to simulate the sounds of virtual percussion instruments of varying shapes. Here is her website. A somewhat interesting mathematical question is “Can you hear the shape of […]

Courtesy of the Bad Astronomy blog, check out these amazing pictures of Saturn’s moons taken by the cameras aboard the Cassini probe. [tags]Cassini,Saturn,Astronomy[/tags]

I’m on a bit of a robotics kick lately, so this article on the possibility of using inkjet printer technology to “print” robots was very thought provoking. The idea is that specialized printer technology could make printing batteries, logic circuits and display devices possible. Neat! [tags]Robots,Inkjet[/tags]

I missed three. In every case, I attributed statements to Adolph Hitler that were in fact actually made by Ann Coulter. In this respect, it would appear that Ann Coulter actually is even more loathsome than I thought. [tags]Politics,Quiz,What’s up with Ann Coulter?[/tags]

Sorry if I’ve been a bit distracted lately: there are a number of factors which are conspiring to keep me from updating my blog as often as perhaps I would normally otherwise. One cool reason is that we started a new mail alias at work. Well, that normally wouldn’t be news, but in this case, […]

Courtesy of Dan, I’m now subscribed to we hates software. Reading it is like group therapy for all that is frustrating with computers. Addendum: In a similar vein, try The Daily WTF.

Megabyte is a robotic whirling dervish of destruction. I’ve seen him obliterate many a robot, throwing tires, axels, body armor in all directions. But I have never seen him do this. A very nice demonstration of what I suspect is an unplanned failure mode. Incidently, it took a bit of doing to figure out how […]

Here are my photos from Robogames 2006 as a Flickr photoset. Later, I’ll get all of my video files uploaded onto YouTube (they are much cooler, saw some great sparks and general robot destruction yesterday!) Carmen and I are going back today for even more. Stay tuned. [tags]Robogames,Robolympics,Robot Combat[/tags] Addendum: We took a break in […]

It’s getting to be the time of year when cold icy drinks are the ticket to bliss, and I just found this recipe for lemonade, which is very similar to the method that I use when I make real lemonade. You know, real lemonade. Made from lemons. That you squeeze yourself. No, not from concentrate. […]

Today Carmen and I are celebrating our sixth anniversary! Thanks for putting up with all my crap honey! And now… a musical interlude. We are off to watch the Robogames today (oooh, romantic, I know) and maybe catch some delicious food at some as yet unnamed San Francisco restaurant, maybe drop in on a BBQ, […]

Interesting report from NASA (with video) of a meteoroid striking the lunar surface. These are one particular type of transient lunar phenomena: temporary changes in the appearance of the moon. [tags]Meteoroid,Moon,Astronomy[/tags]