Archive for 'technology' Category
2008.06.10
Electric Motorcycles
Obviously gasoline powered cars will eventually go the way of the Dodo. Motorcycles get tons better gas mileage than the most fuel efficient automobiles (on average; there are some gas guzzling bikes out there) but eventually it would be nice to have a motorcycle with the power, speed and handling of a petrol based engine but running off electricity.
Some of the attempts are better suited to scooters for all the power and styling they have. Yet Suzuki is working on something it calls the Suzuki Crosscage. Apparently it runs on hydrogen which would be great in a city where you can get the fuel delivered to your house and suck if you wanted to go on a road trip (unless you’re in Iceland where they promote it).
Some day…
No Comments | Catergorized: motorcycle technology2008.04.30
Anime On The Web
(Disclosure: I work for VIZ Media, a partner in this venture).
Almost a year ago Cartoon Network launched Toonami Jetstream, a website where you could watch certain anime titles for free. The problem was that you could only view them using a Windows computer.
Starting today, though, Cartoon Network has changed the format and now viewers from all platforms and watch anime on the web. Awesome! Current titles include Naruto and Hikaru No Go, both of which I recommend.
Congrats Cartoon Network, on being inclusive rather than exclusive. You’ve even added the ability to embed video from your site to ours. Awesome.
No Comments | Catergorized: anime rights technology work2008.02.17
Lame Architecture
Why is it that architects these days have “plans” to turn our cities into weird fantasy theme parks? Can’t they design buildings that conform to humanity instead of creatures from another planet? I mean, it’s bad enough that the design for the upcoming Transbay Terminal sucks. Now some firm called Iwamoto Scott (who I won’t link to because their site resizes your window and fucks things up just like their city plans) is fantasizing about making San Francisco look like… What is that? An alien civilization? A garden?
Dezeen has a few more pictures. Frighteningly this design won the History Channel’s San Francisco City of the Future award.
Seriously, if they are planning and hoping to make this into reality I will fight it. I know we have to make drastic changes in how we plan cities in terms of energy self-sufficiency, water usage, population increases, public transportation, recycling, etc, but that’s no reason to turn the look of a city into something so crappy.
2 Comments | Catergorized: grrr san francisco technology2008.02.10
Please Pardon the Outage
Hi. Alas last night my hosting provider crashed. I haven’t heard yet what was the cause but we were down for at least 12 hours. The latest back up was old so I’ve rebuilt the posts (aren’t RSS feeds awesome?) and put comments back in.
In the meantime, we are back, and will posting promptly about something not related to outages. Not that it’s any more exciting (you should have seen me freaking out late last night!) but it’ll be something beside this boring update.
No Comments | Catergorized: grrr site technology2008.02.09
No More Poloroid Pikchas!
Sad -yet not unexpected- news: Poloroid will be closing its instant film processing plants soon and Poloroid pictures will soon be used to gauge how old we really are. Before the age of digital photography and its instant gratification, Poloroids were the coolest thing going. I remember my Mom taking pictures at birthday parties. We’d pose for the camera and Mom would take the picture, then we’d run over and watch as our grinning faces slowly appeared on the distinctive picture.
I never had a Poloroid camera myself, but we had one growing up (my Mom still has and uses it) and I’ve been to parties where a Poloroid was passed around liberally. They were/are a lot of fun to play with and there’s something very satisfying (almost magical) as you watch the chemicals mix and form the picture right in front of your eyes.
If you have a Poloroid camera and want to use it going forward, it’s time to start hoarding all the film you can afford! For the rest of us we can enjoy the nostalgia of their TV ads and the pictures we have from our childhood.
1 Comment | Catergorized: geek photos technology2008.02.03
Domed Cities Becoming a Reality
Part of St. Petersburg in Russia will soon be under a partial dome. Perhaps when our climate goes to hell in a hand basket they could build domes with huge air conditioners. In the meantime happy shoppers in St. Petersburg will get to avoid the rain and cook themselves when the sun is shining under this proto-dome.
1 Comment | Catergorized: technology2007.09.10
The Giant Phallus Wins
Previously I posted about a contest to rebuild the San Francisco Transbay Terminal. I didn’t like many of the entrants. You can read my critique -such as it is- here. Today a jury chose its favourite and the winner is the design from Pelli Clarke Pelli. Here’s what I had to say about it.
The Pelli Clarke Pelli design looks like a giant vibrator or high tech phallus. Given that none of the buildings in the area are giant, reflective testicles this thing just sticks up in the sky pronouncing its penis inferiority complex. Put a giant SUV on top and the image is complete. Sadly the interior looks like it would be better suited for a rest home for insane persons than a bus terminal. Oh wait, it’s a bus terminal! Spot on design.
I’m happy to say that I’ve revisited the pictures of their design and not changed my opinion very much. The only addition I would add is this thing is the most boring, uninteresting, safest design I’ve seen in a long time. There isn’t even a unique feature on the tower. Just a smooth, smooth skin on a over-long, over-sized phallus.
The jury unanimously chose this thing. They loved it. Yet the park on the roof is not “a risky, daring move in neighborhood development,” as the jury would have you believe and the tower does not fit “beautifully as part of the urban form of San Francisco both from an aerial perspective and at ground level.” It is a dildo of epic proportions with a park at the bottom.
I’ve lived all over the world. I’ve seen people with tattoos of Prague Castle, of Sutro Tower, of Nam Dae Mun, of the World Trade Center, of the US Capitol, and many others. You may not like the buildings yourself, but they are distinctive and loved enough to get inked on bodies. If the sign of unique, distinctive and loved architecture is that people would be willing to get a tattoo of the thing, the Pelli Clarke Pelli building is doomed. Who wants to get a tattoo of something you’d buy in a sex shop? I can’t wait for Good Vibrations to start selling their special version…
5 Comments | Catergorized: grrr san francisco technology2007.09.01
The New Space Race
In case you’ve been asleep these past several years (decades?), the space race never ended and pressure is building right now as countries that were in no position 30 years ago to compete with America and, at that time, Russia continue to strive outwards. In 1969 America put a man on the moon which should have heralded a period of instant human dominance of space. Instead we pulled back. While America is still the strongest player in human forays into space there are plenty of players coming on strong. China, India, Japan, Europe and Russia are all pressing on while I get the impression America, despite its considerable successes, is losing its ambition. All the plans and rhetoric in the world won’t amount to squat if we don’t actually do something.
I have made no secret of the fact that I think getting humanity out in space and beyond the confines of Earth is a mandatory goal for the survival of the human species. Afterall, all it would take is an asteroid or two to kill us off. Further, I think it’s important to define the culture that will prevail as we push out. Will it be a culture that supresses its people (China, Russia) or one that believes in freedom and human dignity (America, Europe and a few others)?
Russia has just announced its intentions of building a permanent lunar base. They join China, India, Japan and others. Russia has been recently flexing its muscles and China recently successfully shot down a satellite. Combined with these country’s remarkable lack of human rights, clean democracies and abundance of crime and need to prove themselves on the world stage, I worry about them gaining a permanent foothold in space.
I know it seems possibly paranoid on my part to worry about these things, but once a nation dominates space, that nation’s culture will dominate the future of humanity simply by spreading their culture to new environments and worlds. Further, depending on their priorities, once established in space it would be almost trivial to prevent other nations from attaining a foothold in space through military actions. Ultimately I care about the survival of humanity beyond natural (ie. asteroid impact, etc) and human destruction (ie. global warming, resource depletion, catastrophic war, etc) of this world I also worry about the future culture of the human species. I think you should to. If it were possible to make space truly international I would be for this. Any student of history will see the difficulty (amounting to impossibility) of this ultimate dream despite best efforts. So in the meantime I choose us.
Other interesting articles I found while scouring for links in this post… A nice summary of the China/Japan space rivalry. Another article about China… Since America shut down their application to join the International Space Station they’ve decided to build their own. India and Japan plan on getting to the Moon and building lunar bases (which space faring country isn’t?). Finally, an interesting editorial ruminating on many things I touch upon above, but with wider perspective.5 Comments | Catergorized: political science technology
2007.08.20
How To Fix An Unlighting Zippo
A long time ago, about 14 years ago now, I was given a brass Zippo lighter from my coworker Zoka. Zoka was from Bosnia and had fled the warzone there when Yugoslavia was butchering itself. He and that Zippo had seen more than their fill of negativity and he wanted to give it a new life. So he gave it to me. I’ve been carrying it ever since and I hope I’ve given it a better life.
I thought I lost it once, and almost had it confiscated another time, but I still have it and it still works. Except it wasn’t. Somewhere in the past few months it seems the Zippo decided it didn’t want to light anymore. Strange given that Zippos are one of the most reliable devices of the modern age.
I was lamenting this fact to a current coworker, Zionvlad, and he recommended shortening the wick. Really? Something so simple? Sure enough I shortened the wick tonight and the damn thing seems to be working again. So if you ever find that your Zippo isn’t lighting when it should, try shortening the wick; you just might find that with simple devices, the simple tricks work best.
No Comments | Catergorized: life memories technology2007.08.09
San Francisco Skyscraper Proposals
So the proposals are in for buildings to replace the ailing and aged Transbay Terminal south of Market, and all three proposals suck. What the hell is up with architects these days? Bigger does not mean better except in A) personal income and B) portions of anatomy. Take a look at pictures of the three proposals then come back.
The Pelli Clarke Pelli design looks like a giant vibrator or high tech phallus. Given that none of the buildings in the area are giant, reflective testicles this thing just sticks up in the sky pronouncing its penis inferiority complex. Put a giant SUV on top and the image is complete. Sadly the interior looks like it would be better suited for a rest home for insane persons than a bus terminal. Oh wait, it’s a bus terminal! Spot on design.
Someone else has already pointed out that the Rogers Stirk Harbour building looks like the Tower of Barud Dur from the Lord of the Rings (and illustrated it!) so I won’t say much more than that the architects obviously played with an Erector Set when they were kids.
It’s hard to tell what the Skidmore Owings Merrill proposal really looks like in whole. Right now it looks like a giant shaft of light, all softly lit and white yet hard and long. Like the Pelli Clarke Pelli design, there is a distinct lack of testicles, though you could be sure they would be smooth, round and translucent.
Looking more at theSkidmore Owings Merrill I kind of like it but I have to say I’m partial to the Tower of Barad Dur. I love Tolkien! While the building is still at least twice as tall as it needs to be Sauron, being only a flaming lidless eye, can be forgiven for making up for his lack of other anatomy. I can’t wait to start calling San Francisco the Mordor of the West!
1 Comment | Catergorized: san francisco technology
