First some credits on the video:
Alicia Gibbs: Camera Woman
Adam Mayer: Sound and Special Effects Engineer
Raphael Abrams: Hacker 2
Charles Pax: Hacker 1
Matt Joyce: Himself
Special thanks to Nick Farr, and NYCResistor for their continued support
Mike liked it.
Don’t know if anyone likes my reviews yet, but in light of the LCROSS, and LRO NASA projects currently orbiting our celestial ornament, I think this particular work is applicable fodder for my errant scripture. Oh and of course meeting Buzz Aldrin didn’t help any.
In 1966, Robert A. Heinlein one of the great science fiction writers of the age released a work that he hoped would eclipse all of his prior established works. Some consider this to be his literary coup de grâce. Personally, I’m not quite sure. Despite my enjoyment of the work, there is something more primal in the way he expresses social commentary in works like starship troopers that really rob this work of any real controversy. That being said, this work may yet be seen as a harbinger of real events yet to come. Though, I’ll try to spare you the spoilers.
Get your tuber on! Introducing the first multiplayer, competitive potato reproduction-simulator to grace the internets. This game lets you compete head to head with a friend to see who’s potato can reproduce the most. It’s multiplayer only, and supports same-computer, TCP/IP, IPX, modem and null-modem. Win95 or higher required.
/I love making useless things
Buzz Aldrin visited NYC on Tuesday night. I wandered by because Buzz Aldrin is a fairly awesome guy. Buzz was part of the first manned flight to the moon. He was second to ever touch lunar soil. And he’s an all around amazing guy. In the Korean war he shot down 2 MiGs. He has a doctorate from MIT. And he’s worn a hell of a lot of hats and helmets in his life. But when it comes right down to it, he’s got a real first person memory of having walked on another celestial body. Only 12 men have ever experienced that.
That’s a long title. I know. But filled with awesome. Fatman and Circuit Girl is an internet video series that is the culmination of the combined efforts of the indomitable Jeri Ellsworth, and the 8-bit era superstar Fatman (George Sanger). Earlier this year Fatman and Circuit girl did a live show at Notacon. I was running a hackspace at Notacon with the help of Mitch Altman (who is a hell of a guy). However, the night before Notacon we were running into some problems with our mode of transportation to Notacon. Our man with a van so to speak was without the proverbial van. So I called everyone I knew who wouldn’t mind a call at 11 at night and might be willing to shuffle off to Cleveland at a moments notice. This basically was a very very short list. But as luck would have it… Nick Farr came through with a car ( a now infamous vehicle known amongst the hacker world as mr black, though very nearly mr pink ). We still needed a backup driver. So I called Noah, figured this sort of event would be right up his alley. And sure enough he was excited to go. So he joined NYCR members Rose and myself on a trip to overcast Cleveland. We had a great time, and Noah was able to show off his augmented reality rig at Fatman and Circuit girl’s live show. Anyways this is the video from that event.
Oh the stories we have… and the videos that follow.
Rich Gibson is visiting New York City from his normal digs in California (he works for the Intelligent Robotics Group at NASA-Ames/CMU-West). NYCR has asked him to give a public talk about the work he’s been doing on the Gigapan project (http://www.gigapan.org) — and you’re all invited!
Gigapan photographs are gigapixel panoramic images, composed of many (sometimes hundreds) of individual photos taken with an ordinary consumer camera using a robotic unit that simplifies the process of capturing the images and later stitching them together. The result is explorable panoramas of astonishing depth.
Rich will start at 7pm with a short slideshow and talk, then shift to a demonstration of the hardware and software that makes the whole thing possible. We look forward to seeing you!
There is now a July laser class on the schedule, hooray! These classes fill up fast, so grab your seat now.
This is the first of possibly many book reviews, or possibly the last of them.
MythOS is the fourth installment in the masterful Web Mage book series written by Kelly McCullough. Here at NYCR we are no strangers to this series, and anyone who has ever spent considerable time in our bathroom is well acquainted with the books. Blending ancient Greek mythology with modern technocracy has produced a profound work of literature that finds a balance in classical interpretation of drama and tragedy with the common parlance of our times. As true today as it was two millennium ago, the Greek’s hallmark style of story telling and character development has inspired Ms McCullough to craft a masterwork in the genre of science fiction. The primary character is Ravirn, or Raven. We are taken through a roller coaster love affair with Hellenic age foes, and divine heroines whose allure wafts from the pages like a fine perfume. As you are introduced to this magical world of web goblins and code spells, you find yourself gripping the pages like the last stable purchase holding you to your mundane reality and saving you from the adventure within. But you wish for nothing more than to let go.
The Simple Serial Display is the result of a quick hack that I put together with Hilary Mason one April evening after a run by the river in Manhattan. Hilary and I were discussing ways of keeping an eye on long-running processes without constantly squinting at a computer screen from across the room. This slideshow was presented at barcampNYC4. Continue reading »
So during the Thursday craft night we received a request from one of the hackerspace folks for some time lapse videos of the space over a 24 hour period. They are working on a project that will no doubt be stupendous and magnificent. However this spawned a quick project.