Sophont

Union Label Weblogs : "Union Label is a group whose purpose is to promote trade unionism by displaying a union label on its members' weblogs. If every blogger who was a member of a trade union made that fact clear to their readers, it would generate excellent publicity for the labour movement. By displaying a union label on your weblog, you can help support unionism while tapping in to a network of unionist bloggers and their readers. Note: These weblogs are not necessarily related to the labour movement or politics. Any weblog run by a member of a trade union is entitled to participate. Associate membership: Bloggers who are not members of a trade union for one reason or another (unemployed, retired, self-employed, etc) but who support the principles of organised labour are eligible for associate membership."

Tapping the Grid: Interview with David Anderson :: Astrobiology Magazine :: Search for Life in the Universe : "For David Anderson, Project Leader for the SETI@home distributed computing program, one of his favorite quotes is from the German poet, Rilke, who describes how difficult it can be to see the future. 'As people were long mistaken about the motion of the sun, so they are even yet mistaken about the motion of that which is to come. The future stands firm . . . but we move in infinite space. How should it not be difficult for us?' When the screensaver project was conceived at a Christmas party in 1994, the future of large-scale, distributed computing seemed entirely unproven. In the ensuing nine years, their team's task was to prove it could be done. "

Josh Nimoy @ ITP - BallDroppings : "BallDroppings is an addicting and noisy play-toy. It can also be seen as an emergence game. My brother Marc takes this software seriously as an audio-visual performance instrument. Balls fall from the top of the screen and bounce off the lines you are drawing with the mouse. The balls make a percussive and melodic sound, whose pitch depends on how fast the ball is moving when it hits the line."

Compact-Impact Night 01 On 16th January Friday Night, TKNY hosts a ‘Compact-Impact Night' Party, first TKNY new concept event to promote and introduce talented creators, designers, artists, technologists and students. TKNY promises you will be impressed by young and powerful talents and enjoy their creations! -- 01.Ariel Churi, ITP Student. -- 02.Aya & Carlos, New Media & Interaction Artists. -- 03 Matthew Mohr, Designer & Adjunct professor at Parsons -- 04.Daniel Shiffman, Digital Artist. -- 05.Giles Hendrix, Video Artist. -- 06.James Clar, Installation Artist. -- 07.Josh Nimoy, Media Artist & ITP Student. -- 08.Rajeev Maddela & cynix, Sound Composer & Drum Set Artist. -- 09.Secret Agent Gel (Corey H Maass), Electronic Musician -- 10.Shoko Honda , 3D Artist. Date & Time : January 16, 2004 (Friday Night, 7pm to 1:00 am) Location : Event Space TKNY, 21 AVE B SOUNTH STORE(Btw 2nd & 3rdSt.) _________ Subway : F, V, D to 2nd Avenue, 6 ...

Infinite Monkeys : "This post is for all the ladies. Every man that you know, has a secret plan for having sex with you. I know what you're thinking: 'Every man?' Well every straight man. 'Well, what about Larry in accounts payable? He's harmless.' Well, I hate to break the news to you, but Larry has a secret plan to have sex with you. He won't admit it to your face, but he has it all planned out. Just to give an example. Take my co-worker N. I've worked with her for ten years. She's happily married. She has two kids. A house and all that stuff. And I have a secret plan to have sex with her. It involves us somehow getting stranded on desert island. And after a year of us being stranded-- and N. giving up all hope of ever getting rescued-- I have sex with her. Now, some of you might think that the odds of getting stranded on an island with N. is pretty big. And you'd be right. But the thing is, I have a plan if N. and I were stranded...

Ananova - Archaeologists mistake 1940s patio for Viking village : " Archaeologists have admitted to having been made to look 'very silly' after mistaking a 1940s sunken patio for a 9th century Viking village. Fife County Archaeologist Douglas Spiers says his team concluded the slabs found in the back garden of a Buckhaven home had originally been hauled by Norse settlers from a nearby beach. Even the discovery of a Second World War gas mask on the plot failed to deter them from their theory that this was the first evidence ever seen of Viking homes built on mainland Scotland, reports the Daily Mail. It was only when the site had been completely cleared, and all the stones exposed, that the truth became apparent. Mr Spiers said: 'We looked at the slabs and guessed they could have been part of a Viking settlement, considering the area has strong links to Norse culture. 'A bronze age burial chamber was found nearby in the 1920s so the region has some...

The Miami Herald | 01/09/2004 : "Cuba tightens its control over Internet, banning access over regular phone lines By The Associated Press HAVANA - Cuba tightened its controls over the Internet on Friday, prohibiting access over the low-cost government phone service most ordinary citizens have at home. The move could affect hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Cubans who illegally access the Internet from their homes, using computers and Internet accounts they have borrowed or purchased on the black market. Cuba's communist government already heavily controls access to the Internet. Cubans must have government permission to use the Web legally and most don't, although many can access international e-mail and a more limited government-controlled intranet at government jobs and schools. Now Cubans will need additional approval to access via the nation's regular phone service. Since few Cubans are authorized to use the Internet from home -- only some doctors and ke...

KRT Wire | 01/02/2004 : "KSC Director Jim Kennedy acknowledged in a recent interview that safety attitudes 'need to be changed.' But NASA is proud of its practices and suspicious that changes will trigger more problems. Its approach to safety reform has been tedious and in the hands of multiple review boards. As a result, 11 months after the Columbia accident, NASA has yet to reveal to KSC workers any specific changes that will bridge the expanse among enthusiastic workers such as McGregor, the Columbia board's criticisms and Deal's concerns. 'As far as new policies and procedures - zero,' said a line manager for shuttle servicing."

Grand Forks Herald | 01/06/2004 : "Cookie season is only a few weeks away and some Girl Scouts are being trained not to take no for an answer this year. To prepare for the two-month season, which begins Jan. 17, a few dozen scouts gathered Sunday at a church in Plymouth for the second annual cookie-sale workshop. Sales, marketing advice It was a full day of marketing and sales advice for the young salespeople. 'You're going to hear a lot of 'no's,'' warned workshop lecturer Bre-Anna Petrowske. 'I would just keep on truckin'.' Petrowske, of Forest Lake, is a senior at the Center for Sales Innovation at the College of St. Catherine in St. Paul. The scouts, mostly teenagers, learned about 'the surly customer,' the one who just won't say yes, and the best response to the customers who say they've already bought. Cookie sellers were coached to appeal to people's patriotism: You don't have to eat the cookie...

Ars Technica: A Jade Keynote: Macworld San Francisco 2004 - Page 1 - (1/2004) : Garage Band is . . . sublime. It is the music tool for everyone, pro-quality musical instruments, mixing 64 tracks, a thousand pro loops — all the buzzwords. What I think it might be is a revolution. Twenty years after bringing desktop publishing to the masses, giving everyone the power to create really bad brochures and church bulletins, Apple has done it again. Garage Band makes it possible for even the most computer illiterate and tone deaf individual to make horrible music through drag and drop simplicity and brightly colored icons, complete with incredible sample instruments that may very well be the first "clip art" of the 21st century. Rejoice and be glad — Music by the People! (There was some guy named Mayer there, dressed in that rough hewn cotton Matrix Revolutions look too)

Property Bureau : As an additional feature of its unique approach to online auctions, Property Bureau has established StealitBack.com, the nation’s only privately owned national registry of stolen goods. Private citizens are invited to register on StealitBack.com any items with serial numbers they have lost or reported stolen to their local police department. StealitBack.com will search its database, and if an item has been received from a participating department, will return the item to the police department where the theft or loss was originally reported so that it may be returned to its rightful owner free of charge.

.: Miss Digital World :. : "Miss Digital World is the first ever virtual beauty contest, strictly for the most beautiful and intriguing virtual models made using the most advanced 3D graphics tools. Miss Digital World is aimed at digital artists, advertising agencies, cinema production companies and videogame programmers who have created famous (or even not so famous) virtual models, following the success of videogame heroines such as Lara Croft, digital anchorwomen like Ananova and cloned actors, as in the third Matrix film, as the model in the picture courtesy by Beans Magic Co., ltd. The digital woman who, at the end of the preliminary rounds, has the highest number of votes from net users, will be crowned on the site www.missdigitalworld.com in a breathtaking, tear-jerking ceremony."

NEWS : "The 40-year-old Mr. Everett was raised in McLean, Va., with his sister Elizabeth, mother Nancy and father Hugh Everett III, a quantum physicist who in 1957 proposed a formal theory of parallel universes known as 'The Many-Worlds Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics.' 'Everett's work has boggled minds inside and outside physics for more than four decades,' reported Scientific American in last month's issue. Mr. Everett said his brilliant father wasn't communicative at home. When I asked him what the conversation was like around the breakfast table, he replied, 'There wasn't any.' 'Physicists and geniuses don't always make great family men. I lived with him for 18 years and I learned more about him from the Internet.' Mr. Everett's family was a heartrending source of inspiration for his most notable work, the 1998 album 'Electro-Shock Blues' (DreamWorks), written after his sister committed suicide and h...

faq * Q. What is the IRRF? * A. The IRRF is the International Robot Racing Federation. Its purpose is to promote revolutionary breakthroughs in Robotics technology, by using entertainment venues to promote its development. * Q. Who can join the IRRF? * A. Anyone. * Q. What is the Open Challenge? * A. The Open Challenge is the first in a series of events aimed at promoting robotics technology. The event is a 300 mile off-road robots only obstacle course race beginning and ending just outside of Las Vegas, Nevada. * Q. Where will this event take place? * A. Just Outside of Las Vegas, Nevada * Q. When will this event take place? * A. In September of ’04. The actual dates will be locked down pending negotiations with the City of Las Vegas, Clark County, and the Bureau of Land Management. * Q. Why is the Open Challenge so revolutionary? * A. The Open Challenge requires robotic vehicles to self navigate an obstacle cours...

Mercury News | 12/29/2003 | The Powell Pulpit : "As chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, he regulates a telecommunications industry that has virtually imploded in recent years. At the same time, he is shaping a regulatory framework for a new era of communications, one that includes Internet phone services, digital television, an explosion in broadband services and countless other innovations. During a recent ``field trip'' to Silicon Valley, where he visited Intel and Apple and some smaller companies, Powell met with Mercury News reporters and editors. Here are excerpts of his remarks on various topics" jaynote: wow, it looks like he is doing the right things, worth reading his remarks for a look at the future of communications

NIST Tech Beat - December 19, 2003 : Inside Hollywood’s historic Pacific Theater, engineers have set up a new tool based on technology developed at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to help the motion picture industry move more smoothly into a digital future. The relatively simple new NIST tool—dubbed a stray-light elimination tube—improves measurements of the contrast and sharpness of images produced with digital projectors. It also may help reduce errors in assessing other projection systems. Digital cinema should offer movie goers sharper, brighter pictures, but digital projectors currently are expensive and complex. Engineers from the Digital Cinema Lab, a project of the Entertainment Technology Center (ETC), are using the NIST-developed device as one of many tools to evaluate the performance of these new projectors. Part of the University of Southern California, ETC is funded by major studios and other organizations. The tool, which costs under $10...

Perceptual Interface Technology : "NouseTM basic - fully self-contained version of NouseTM which allows you to substitute mouse with the NouseTM - does not have any additional features - includes games. - All files needed to run NouseTM-based programs are included in the NouseTM installer. If you need a specific .dll file, find it here. - There is also ReadMe file with the instructions. - New demo version of NouseTM, which combines face tracking and blink detection, is now available in Section 2 for download. *** Download a free demo version of NouseTM (8Mb). NB: In order to run NousePaintTM, BubbleFrenzy, NousePongTM and Immersive Environment demo, you'll need to run NouseTM first. Download: NousePaint.exe (1Mb) to draw with your nose. Download: BubbleFrenzy (2.8Mb) to play an aim-n-shoot game with your nose. A user can play a well-known aim-n-shoot Bubble-Frenzy game aiming the turret by pointing with the nose. (Slight rotation of head al...

TNG : "Almost eighteen years have past since our first idea and concept of telexistence was proposed, and it is now possible to telexist in the remote environment and/or virtual environment with a sensation of presence. We can have feelings that we are present in several real places and can work and act. However, those people in the place where someone telexists using a robot see only the robot but they can not feel that the person who presents. It is useless to use TV display on board the robot to show the face of the user. It would be just comical and far from reality. Figure 1 illustrates the proposed method of mutual telexistence using X'tal vision based HMP (Head-Mounted Projector) in order to solve the above problem, i.e., to make a telexisted robot look like the user of the robot. A human user 'A' uses his telexistence robot 'A' at the remote site where another human user 'B' is present. The user 'B' also uses another telexistence robo...

Center for Narcolepsy : "Download* a movie of various narcoleptic episodes in both human and animals. Note that both sporadic, dogs and human patients are hypocretin/orexin deficient. The early onset case was found to have a mutation in the preprohypocretin gene. Familial canine narcolepsy are due to mutations in the hypocretin receptor2 genes. Download* a movie of a 3 year old narcoleptic weimaraner with hypocretin deficiency. Download* a movie of a narcoleptic mice. The mice model is a preprohypocretin knockout mice (courtesy of Dr. Yanagisawa, Texas, USA, 14Mb) Download* a movie of a narcoleptic Doberman (Hypocretin receptor-2 mutation) and a narcoleptic Dachshund (sporadic hypocretin deficient dog) (34 Mb) "

macintouch : "In the Digital Cameras Report King Shy inquired about online print services. I sent a set of 10 JPEG's that had been worked up in Photoshop to Ofoto, PhotoAccess and Shutterfly for 4x6 prints plus one larger JPEG of a color test file for printing at larger size. I then did blind rankings of the prints in two different ways. The first way was to rank each set of three according to how 'pleasing' it appeared. Ofoto took last place in every case. In the absence of a reference I preferred the PhotoAccess prints over the Shutterfly (7 to 3). However when ranking the prints for color accuracy by comparison to the on screen photo using a hardware calibrated monitor, the color accuracy of the Shutterfly Prints slightly edged out the PhotoAccess prints (6 to 4). Again Ofoto came in last. Neither Shutterfly or PhotoAccess are perfect, but I think that while Shutterfly is more accurate overall, in the all important flesh tones the slightly pink cast of the flesh ...