Seeing loud and clear
Posted: Wednesday, September 19, 2007 2:11 PM by Will Femia
Virtual worlds open up to blind - I scoffed at this at first, thinking it was the latest Second Life gimmick but it has some cool thinking at its root. In some cases they're talking about overt verbal descriptions of objects in the virtual world, and I can't think of any way around that. But more is the use of 3D audio giving the feeling of a sense of place. I know we've talked about 3D audio before but I couldn't find the links. Thankfully a couple of them are at the bottom of the Wikipedia entry. Remember this one with the shaking matchbox? Or the hair cut? Remember to use headphones.
So this is how it ends:
One thing is for certain: there is no stopping them; they will soon be here. And I, for one, welcome our new alien overlords. I’d like to remind them that as a trusted media personality, I can be helpful in rounding up others to toil in their meteor craters.
Police kick some jerk's butt video of the day. No taser in this one. It may be time to establish an official accepted practice for dealing with disruptive jerks. Zapping them with a taser feels a little extreme. In this case, no matter what he said to the cop, that kind of butt kicking looks more appropriate to a bar at 3 a.m. UPDATE: The video appears to belong to the local NBC affiliate. Find it, and the story, there.
Next time I'm out in Seattle I'll definitely want to look into spending time on the SLUT.
"Today, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) released its third annual report on the most corrupt members of Congress."
Speaking of corruption in Congress, "It's not every day that a witness admits in open court to having bribed a sitting U.S. Senator..."
Speaking of not being terribly proud of Congress, here's a quick round-up of indiscretions (and worse) committed by members of Congress. Could this really be true? I wonder if there's an annotated version with the names attached. UPDATE: My skepticism was well founded, as pointed out in the comments, this is bogus.
"The * * * you'll see all day" - It's a wild card Google search so you get matches that fit that format.
Here's that clip from The View showing a new co-host who's not sure if the world is flat. Ridiculousness layered on top of absurdity served on a bed of morning talk show. (Not to invoke Godwin's Law but my mind did drift to The Illustrated Road to Serfdom I'd seen recently (slide 16).)
"LucasArts announced today that Krome Studios is developing a version of the game for the Nintendo console, and players will finally get to use the Wiimote for its intended purpose - as a lightsaber!" I'm not sure how you have a saber duel when there's no physical resistance but I'm open to the possibility of this being really cool.
Speaking of things of video games helping you live a fantasy, how about a double backflip coffin?
"Viewdle is a facial recognition powered digital media platform for easily indexing, searching & monetizing video assets." This is the page that gives an idea of what the tool does. It looks at first like the app just runs on top of live video but instead the diagram makes me think the facial recognition is part of the indexing process. After a bit of digging I found the answer to my next question: "Indexes a blinding 55 frames per second."
Here's another one of those videos of finding little batteries inside a big battery. I don't know why I have such a hard time believing it's this easy and you don't come away with chemical burns.
Part 2 in Michael Totten's Ramadi series is up. I don't think I'm going out on a limb to say that this is why some people want the U.S. to stay in Iraq longer.
Google Docs is a new way for groups to collaborate on documents. I haven't tried it yet but it sounds like an easier alternative to creating a wiki. The explanation video is pretty funny.
Kaltura sounds like the same idea only with video.
Folks online have been watching closely as the Canadian dollar is getting closer in value to the American dollar. I always thought the reason books and magazines have separate prices printed on them had to do with the difference in the value of the currency. If the two become equal (and really, they basically are at this point) will Canadians still have to pay more? Will we see Canadians at the border coming to the U.S. for Barnes & Noble as Americans go in the other direction for prescription drugs?
Today is Talk Like a Pirate Day.
This is a neat photo, but more interesting is what the photographer wrote underneath.
I never heard of Active Undelete but it sounds borderline miraculous.
"By opting to go chairless, I increased my productivity and improved my relationships with my staff." My father recently tried this set-up and swears by it. I'd love to work standing up instead of hunched over at the machine. I'm setting up a new workspace/home office and I plan to use a counter-height desk.
On the equinox it is possible to balance an egg on its end, but a week or so before that equinox the same can be done with a baseball bat.
Trent Reznor: "Steal My Music!" NOTE: Contains rock star curses.
Speaking of music's legally gray areas, "Winamp 5.5 (PC-only) will be released sporting two new and potentially controversial features: support for mp3 blogs and the ability to stream your music collection over the Internet..." It's coming October 10th.
A whole bunch of "a guy walks into a bar" jokes.
Burning Man '07 seen from above.
Digestion Time Of Foods - Just a list, but the information seems important - like something I should already know.
