Moving…again

Okay…it looks like I’ll be moving again, but this time (hopefully) will be the last. “What’s the new URL?” you ask avidly, drooling over the thought of more nerd tech stuff. Well, I’ve dropped the Simplicitas title and decided upon CliftonSnyder.net. Original, no? Look there for future posts, because this bird has flown the coop!

(Thanks to WordPress.com for setting up this excellent service, and WordPress.org for the dirt-simple blogging software powering both WordPress.com and CliftonSnyder.net!)

 

Einstein: A Student of Latin?

Who knew? (Thanks M. Liang Liu!)

 

Who do you want to meet before you die?

I would be willing to wager that everyone is asked this question at least once during their lifetime. Having been asked several times – and having asked it of myself on more than one occasion – I was intrigued when I ran across The Six Thousand this morning (thanks, BoingBoing!), self-billed as:

6000 intriguing people you want to meet online before you die. Who will make the list tomorrow?

While I obviously recognize the general application of the concept, this is posted in “Nerd Stuff” because, at present, the list is almost entirely populated with people that nerds would want to meet.

On the list, Xeni Jardin, in particular, is one person that I’ve wondered about meeting recently. Two additions that I would like to see to The Six Thousand (disregarding the “online” part of its description) are Stephen Hawking and Jim Gray. Luckily, I was (serendipitously) included in a group discussion with the latter of the two. (Check! Only 5,999 to go!)

Personally, I would probably also have to add Linus Torvalds and Richard Stallman, despite their reputation (or at least Stallman’s) as something of an “acquired taste”. I’d better cut it short there, as I could probably continue in this vein all day. So…can you name 6,000 people you want to meet before you die?

 

Nerd Literature

A friend of mine has had an idea for a fantasy novel (think “Dungeons & Dragons”, not “Fabio & Bodices”), and he recently decided to begin publishing it – one piece at a time – here. Unfortunately, he’s decided to reserve all rights, as opposed to publishing under Creative Commons (or something similar), but it was difficult enough to get him to start blogging so I’ll let it slide. I think it’s fantastic that he’s publishing it online, and I’m excited to see what kind of comments it generates and where it goes from here. As of right now, the prologue is the only thing that’s been posted, but there’s more to come (hopefully soon).

Another interesting example of fiction being posted online in a “bloggy” format is Cory Doctorow’s new novel Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town. Mr. Doctorow has decided to publish the entire novel to teh Intarwebs as an RSS feed under a Creative Commons Developing Nations license. (Actually, I did a bit of poking around and found out that it’s also being released for download in just about every format known to man; more information here). It’s an interesting experiment, and I’d be curious to see statistics on sales vs. downloads, etc., etc.

Both excellent projects; check them out! (And don’t forget to leave Joe some comments!)

 

More Widescreen Deliciousness from Dell

There’s certainly no dearth of widescreen LCD displays on my Froogle Wishlist, but this one certainly takes the cake. Or…that is, it will take the cake…when it comes out on the 21st.

Update: Apparently, this isn’t going to be released until January 5, 2006. (Thanks for keeping us posted, Engadget!)

 

Geographic Location Resolution

I’ve been thinking about using Google Maps for a couple of projects that I’ve had kicking around in the back of my mind. One of the things that I want to do will require the ability to resolve an IP address to its approximate latitude/longitude. So, I fired up Google and found GeoBytes, which is powered by the same company’s GeoSelect. This tool has the ability to provide quite a bit of useful geographic information about an IP address, including the latitude/longitude, country, state, city, and even the local currency. It also gives the level of certainty with which it is providing that information.

Perhaps the best part about the whole thing is the demo, complete with cheesy superhero and impossibly-proportioned cartoon females randomly bursting out of your browser – whose location we are able to determine using this service, natch…in addition to the city names written across the front of their ample bosoms. To sum up: a useful and simple-to-use tool that’s only $49 (for a developer’s license)…with a hilarious demo video. I might just have to sign up!

 

Bread and Circuses

Throughout the course of history, the entertainment industry been responsible for driving a significant portion of the technological advances made by man. Architectural feats such as the Roman Colosseum and its modern-day equivalent – the football stadium – are constructed for watching “gladiators” do battle. More powerful (and less traceable) drugs are created so that athletes can be bigger, stronger, faster.

Why does PC video card technology increase at such an alarming rate? Because the video game industry puts so much effort into creating monstrously huge textures and complex algorithms to make their games more visually stunning. How did DVDs and DVD players become commodity items within a few years of their introduction to the public? In large part because the porn industry saw the potential for a cheaper medium on which to distribute a better product to their customers. (“You mean, I can jump to any point without waiting for the fast-forward/rewind? No blurring when you pause? SOLD!”)

Essentially what I’m getting at here is that the instant a new technology is created, the first reaction is something like, “Sweet! Now how can I use this for games or get and watch porn on it?”

Enter Google Maps. While the porn industry has yet to find a way to use geolocation and satellite imagery for their purposes (I’m sure they’re working on it, though), one enterprising young man has realized – correctly! – that Google Maps provides an excellent platform for bringing an element of realism to the classic board game RISK. That’s right, folks: Google Maps Risk.

Aside: I feel for this guy’s server…he’s already been dugg, slashdotted, and BoingBoinged . (Has that last term been coined?)

 

More Late Halloween Goodness

Kate finally got some pictures online. The first gallery: Halloween!

 

Belated Halloween Content

I meant to post the above on (or at least before) Halloween, but with everything that was going on I ended up not being able to. Thanks, Monster Name Decoder!

 

Meet the Flockers

…or rather, the “anti-Flockers“:

Fighting the Web 2.0 revolution is important.
It’s about less hipsters on the Internet.
It’s about getting real and less hype.
It’s our blog.

I can’t quite figure out why this guy is so angry about Flock. He’s laid down some pretty fierce invective speech, ranting about topics from fonts on the Flock website to the Flock source code:

…when you break Flock into parts in terms of file size, it is 85% Firefox, 7% of colours matching pink and 2% of the Flock GPL license and 6% percent of .js files. Now isn’t this awesome?

Note that if you are under 18 (or overly sensitive to language consiting of an approx. 75% mix of rather naughty words), you shouldn’t click on any of the above links (save perhaps the one to Flock itself).