Well, I am pretty sure no-one Really Important reads this, but I just can't be bothered signing up for yet another site and seeing my post at no. 220 in a long list so here it is.
Call it a modern problem.
What I am referring to in the title is the new version of Mac OSX, "Yosemite". I always look at the websites that talk about this stuff, partly for the improvements, but mostly for self-defence.
"Updates" are not always improvements, you see.
This one is definitely not: Apple has gone further in removing all aesthetic pleasure from their OS imagery and that alone is just plain stupid . . . if you look at your computer screen all day you want it to look at least pleasant - but Apple seems to be going backwards toward Windows 3 ugliness.
Of course, if there were features in the new version that made it essential or even desirable to get despite the ugliness I would reconsider but there aren't any, or at best none that I need.
Here I partly refer to iCloud. I have tried to find a way to take my iPhone's music off iCloud but it isn't there. So far OSX does not force you to use iCloud for all your files but it may be coming.
Apple does not want anyone to make interface "improvements" or "skins' for their OSes so you can forget about "personalising" your OSX either.
At one time I had such and it was excellent, but that was back in the OS9 days, long, long ago - so we will once again get a new version with uglier interface and more features we didn't want (I mean iCloud. I don't care if other folks like it, I just want the choice to NOT use it. I don't do anything criminal, but I like looking after my own stuff rather than hoping that the net and Apple will always be there.)
Don't get the idea that I will be sailing off to another OS any time soon though: you think they are better? Take a look at Windows 8: they had to bring out 8.1 because so many users had trouble using 8 because it didn't have a Start Menu. I won't go into any more now, just remember that everything is imperfect and sometimes making thengs better isn't the only element of the story.
Thursday, July 24, 2014
Saturday, July 5, 2014
All Trekked Out
Once upon a time there was a teevee show that appeared courtesy of Desilu and some guy name Rodenberry: it was originally supposed to be "covered wagons in outer space" - or so the rumour goes, that was how it was sold to the TV Execs . . . . . . but it was a whole lot more than that.
Okay, it was good: In the world of crappy sixties television, it was freakin' amazing.
Around that time when I was about seven, BEFORE Star Wars existed, I tried to make my own spacesuit out of cardboard. I stopped when I realised what people would say when they saw me walking around in it . . and because it was really, really hard to do too for a seven year old from a poor family. . but it was not a copy from some teevee show or movie, I just did it from my own imagination. There was a whole lot of boyhood in there too but that is beside the point here. . . .
Now . . . . . . in the last few months I have seen not one but two fan-made remakes of the original Star Trek series appear. First, there was Star Trek Continues, and now there is another, Star Trek Phase 2.
Present things in a different setting or way to get people thinking in ways they wouldn't otherwise!
Oh, riiight, and I guess maybe I don't get the idea of fandom either: it's really about Big Commercial Operations that are only too happy for kids to dress up and promote their products at their own cost.
Sigh. Well, I've got to get back to work making my own little ORIGINAL comic/graphic novel.
Okay, it was good: In the world of crappy sixties television, it was freakin' amazing.
Around that time when I was about seven, BEFORE Star Wars existed, I tried to make my own spacesuit out of cardboard. I stopped when I realised what people would say when they saw me walking around in it . . and because it was really, really hard to do too for a seven year old from a poor family. . but it was not a copy from some teevee show or movie, I just did it from my own imagination. There was a whole lot of boyhood in there too but that is beside the point here. . . .
Now . . . . . . in the last few months I have seen not one but two fan-made remakes of the original Star Trek series appear. First, there was Star Trek Continues, and now there is another, Star Trek Phase 2.
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Am I the only one who thinks all this is way, waaay over the top? Guys, WHY CAN'T YOU COME UP WITH SOMETHING ORIGINAL? Sure, it was good in a cheesy-effects-cardboard-sets-sixties kind of way but hey, that was fifty years ago ! How the frack did so-called sci-fi get so CONSERVATIVE?
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I don't pretend being original is easy, heck it takes more work, but shit, if you are doing Sci Fi stuff the essence of Sci Fi is to go outside the borders of boring old Earth life and explore NEW ideas !Present things in a different setting or way to get people thinking in ways they wouldn't otherwise!
Oh, riiight, and I guess maybe I don't get the idea of fandom either: it's really about Big Commercial Operations that are only too happy for kids to dress up and promote their products at their own cost.
Sigh. Well, I've got to get back to work making my own little ORIGINAL comic/graphic novel.
Tuesday, June 24, 2014
Science is now magic
Back in the eighties I bought a mailorder book of "free energy" patents and other inventions from the US and included was the Howard Johnson patent for a purely magnetic motor. I didn't have the time or money to attempt a replication of it but the idea has always been there. I have messed with my own relatively primitive ideas of magnetic devices but had no success since I didn't even have the equipment to make proper machines let alone the right principle unlike Howard.
I have never seen a video of it working before though and that always created a sense of doubt . . . . .
Here it is, from Mike at Quanta Magnetics. His more recent efforts are very, very interesting too. If I had the money and time I would have built one of his Resonance Generators already.
How do I know this stuff works?
First, lots of background experience: as a child, mucking around with electric motors, batteries, magnets, etc. etc. It seems that nowadays there are too many children who don't get to experiment with real stuff and so don't have a real grasp of physics - so they equate it with magic.
They might get a computer program that simulates electronics instead and think that will tell them what it is really about . . . . scary.
Then there is the understanding of science, what it is, and just as important what it is not: much of science research is done in the pay of corporate or industrial concerns to improve their devices or at least improve their bottom line, NOT for the benefit of people in general and not for the discovery of new or different ways of doing things.
Finally, there is a clear understanding of reality: science can only discover what is real, and the real universe does not change simply because someone wants it to.
There are an endless series of fake or fail "free energy" vids on YouTube, but this one is not. It is easy for people who have not spent the time and energy to claim things are fake because they could not make it work in their garage - but that does not make it a fake. How many people could make a working electric motor in their garage from raw metal and wire? It really is not as easy as you might think to make devices that work, let alone work long term.
I would point people here to the Mythbusters TV show and specifically the "Gorn Cannon" episode: modern people attempted to make a gunpowder cannon from raw materials, and these were not stupid people either - and they could not even get gunpowder that exploded. It really is not easy unless you have the knowledge, experience and the right resources.
It is painful for me to point this out but I am spelling it out because I am fed up with people who have so little idea of science that they equate it with magic.
The main problem as I see it is that too many humans get all caught up in how great they are rather than giving due credit to the long, hard work of others who have come before. It has been known since at least as early as the fifties that the oil WILL run out, that the environment is getting damaged by all our pollution and that we need to do something about all this or we will end up like Venus - and solutions have been found, but where are they? The only ones that have been put into practice so far have either been half-done or have made little difference because huge powerful interests don't want to change things. Batteries that don't run out don't make profit for that manufacturers so if they were invented they would swiftly disappear.
Have a go: build yourself an electric motor that actually works, just a couple of AA batteries will be enough power - get some real world experience of physics and you might just be able to find something other have missed in their rush to make a fast buck while ignoring the future consequences of a half-arsed invention. But don't expect millions of dollars or public acclaim.
I have never seen a video of it working before though and that always created a sense of doubt . . . . .
Here it is, from Mike at Quanta Magnetics. His more recent efforts are very, very interesting too. If I had the money and time I would have built one of his Resonance Generators already.
How do I know this stuff works?
First, lots of background experience: as a child, mucking around with electric motors, batteries, magnets, etc. etc. It seems that nowadays there are too many children who don't get to experiment with real stuff and so don't have a real grasp of physics - so they equate it with magic.
They might get a computer program that simulates electronics instead and think that will tell them what it is really about . . . . scary.
Then there is the understanding of science, what it is, and just as important what it is not: much of science research is done in the pay of corporate or industrial concerns to improve their devices or at least improve their bottom line, NOT for the benefit of people in general and not for the discovery of new or different ways of doing things.
Finally, there is a clear understanding of reality: science can only discover what is real, and the real universe does not change simply because someone wants it to.
There are an endless series of fake or fail "free energy" vids on YouTube, but this one is not. It is easy for people who have not spent the time and energy to claim things are fake because they could not make it work in their garage - but that does not make it a fake. How many people could make a working electric motor in their garage from raw metal and wire? It really is not as easy as you might think to make devices that work, let alone work long term.
I would point people here to the Mythbusters TV show and specifically the "Gorn Cannon" episode: modern people attempted to make a gunpowder cannon from raw materials, and these were not stupid people either - and they could not even get gunpowder that exploded. It really is not easy unless you have the knowledge, experience and the right resources.
It is painful for me to point this out but I am spelling it out because I am fed up with people who have so little idea of science that they equate it with magic.
The main problem as I see it is that too many humans get all caught up in how great they are rather than giving due credit to the long, hard work of others who have come before. It has been known since at least as early as the fifties that the oil WILL run out, that the environment is getting damaged by all our pollution and that we need to do something about all this or we will end up like Venus - and solutions have been found, but where are they? The only ones that have been put into practice so far have either been half-done or have made little difference because huge powerful interests don't want to change things. Batteries that don't run out don't make profit for that manufacturers so if they were invented they would swiftly disappear.
Have a go: build yourself an electric motor that actually works, just a couple of AA batteries will be enough power - get some real world experience of physics and you might just be able to find something other have missed in their rush to make a fast buck while ignoring the future consequences of a half-arsed invention. But don't expect millions of dollars or public acclaim.
Friday, May 16, 2014
More fun stuff
As stated in my previous post I have been watching a lot of Anime vids lately, mostly from YouTube: I got a treadmill and it is almost essential to me to find something to watch lasting twenty to twentyfive minutes while I stomp and sweat: it is so much easier to make it to the twenty plus minutes when you have something to distract you.
Mel also made Blazing Saddles, Young Frankestein and of course the Get Smart series with Buck Henry.
Mel has always been at his best taking the mickey out of racists and bigots, while making us laugh about it: we need more poeple like Mel around.
And now for something completely different:
Mel Brooks
I stumbled on to this vid recently that does not appear in his movie "The Producers" (although it looks like it could) but it is so fabulously awful I just can't resist linking it here. Disco and rap as you have never seen it before . . . . . .Mel also made Blazing Saddles, Young Frankestein and of course the Get Smart series with Buck Henry.
Mel has always been at his best taking the mickey out of racists and bigots, while making us laugh about it: we need more poeple like Mel around.
Thursday, April 17, 2014
Anime Top List No.1
I have spent some time looking at Anime recently and there are a lot of bad ones so I thought I might offer a few that are really good (as in more than just machines blowing each other up or superteens with giant eyes and 5 yeear old personalities).
Of course this list has a general sci-fi flavour to it but that's just my preference.
***** Mobile Suit Gundam - The 08th MS Team (Series) : This is
excellent. It has gundam battles, sure, but it also has a well
written story and some really good scenes. Unlike any of the other Gundam
videos I have seen. I wish there were more like this.
***** Un-Go (Series) Actually not scifi, more spook-fi or something like that but it didn't matter: it is so well made that it kept me watching until the last episode, and after I was still hoping that more would turn up. Make sure you watch episode 0 (zero) first.
*** Galaxy Express 999 : An older movie, a boy's adventure during which he attains wisdom.
** Space Battleship Yamato : okay, this one is just plain weird in places, you wonder if it will make sense but in the end it does. Why Yamato? I guess it is something very Japanese . . . . it does look great flying thourough space though. My only question is what the extra bridge underneath the ship was for. (You need to see the movie to get the reference I guess)
**** No. 6 (Series) Post- apocalypse story set in and around an artfifcially perfect city called No.6.
Due to copyright restrictions I could not see the last four minutes of the final episode but that's okay I guess - if you really want the whole thing, buy it.
All of these were what I could find for free on YouTube. I have no intention of supporting piracy or copyright violations - I am just saying these are great. More when I find them.
Of course this list has a general sci-fi flavour to it but that's just my preference.
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***** Un-Go (Series) Actually not scifi, more spook-fi or something like that but it didn't matter: it is so well made that it kept me watching until the last episode, and after I was still hoping that more would turn up. Make sure you watch episode 0 (zero) first.
*** Galaxy Express 999 : An older movie, a boy's adventure during which he attains wisdom.
** Space Battleship Yamato : okay, this one is just plain weird in places, you wonder if it will make sense but in the end it does. Why Yamato? I guess it is something very Japanese . . . . it does look great flying thourough space though. My only question is what the extra bridge underneath the ship was for. (You need to see the movie to get the reference I guess)
**** No. 6 (Series) Post- apocalypse story set in and around an artfifcially perfect city called No.6.
Due to copyright restrictions I could not see the last four minutes of the final episode but that's okay I guess - if you really want the whole thing, buy it.
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 |
| Mobile Suit Gundam - The 08th Team |
Wednesday, March 5, 2014
Overstepping Artifacts
Here is a video that is really surreal: it is all 3D fractals made in a program called Mandelbulb.
I always thought this sort of shape (solid fractals) would be ideal to make using a 3D printer (well, actually you could not really make them any other way!) . . but of course it is completely useless and I am not exactly sure if you can call it "art" since it is all done by computer, the only artist input is choosing the formula for the program to express. . . . . but hey, who cares, it looks awesome.
Overstepping Artifacts (Sorry, Blogger won't let me embed a vimeo. huh?)
I always thought this sort of shape (solid fractals) would be ideal to make using a 3D printer (well, actually you could not really make them any other way!) . . but of course it is completely useless and I am not exactly sure if you can call it "art" since it is all done by computer, the only artist input is choosing the formula for the program to express. . . . . but hey, who cares, it looks awesome.
Overstepping Artifacts (Sorry, Blogger won't let me embed a vimeo. huh?)
Tuesday, March 4, 2014
Moral Hazard
This post by Cory Doctrow is so good I just could not avid posting a link to it: it points to a common fallacy, one often used by the bullying types to justify getting rid of anyone who does not agree with their views. Thanks Cory !
Cory Doctorow: Cold Equations and Moral Hazard
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