The imaginary landscapes of Myst and Uru

 Computers  No Responses »
Mar 112014
 

The computer game Myst is best known as the first “killer game” of the early CD-ROM era. A game that became the reason for many to purchase CD-ROM drives for their computers. A game that was played not just by geeks but by users who never touched a computer game before. Myst remained the all-time best-selling PC game for the better part of a decade.

Myst spawned its own mythology, and a series of three books. It also spawned five sequels, among them Uru, the company’s flawed yet hauntingly beautiful attempt to create a massively multiplayer online game. The final game in the Myst series was Myst V: End of Ages.

The other day, I pulled out my copy of Myst V, mainly to look at the wonderful worlds (or Ages, as they are called in the game) that I visited as a player. Perhaps the most breathtaking is the age called Todelmer. The player lands on top of a massive spire, towering high above the lower atmosphere of what appears to be a moon orbiting a ringed planet. Puzzles involve bringing some of the machinery back to life, reconnecting pieces of an ancient astronomical observatory.


Todelmer seems as beautiful as it was when I first saw it. Too bad it only exists in the imagination.

 Posted by at 7:22 pm

Believe it or not, smelloscopes are real

 Society, Technology  No Responses »
Mar 112014
 

So there was this whimsical invention in Futurama, the Smelloscope, created by the eccentric Professor Farnsworth.

Who’d have thought that something like this would ever enter the realm of reality.

But it did.

Apparently, police are now using smelloscopes, pardon me, nose telescopes, er, I mean, olfactometers (sounds more respectable, doesn’t it?) to sniff out cannabis. Or, to be more precise, to measure the pungency of the smell of cannabis plantations, as it has apparently become a nuisance to residents of Denver and other cities.

smelloscope

Life imitating fiction, I guess.

 Posted by at 4:51 pm

(Not just) Windows Updates

 Computer Security, Personal  No Responses »
Mar 112014
 

Second Tuesday of the month. Not my favorite day.

This is when Microsoft releases their monthly batch of updates for Windows.

And this is usually when I also update other software, e.g., Java, Flash, Firefox, on computers that I do not use every day.

Here is about half of them.

The other half sit on different desks.

Oh, that big screen, by the way, is shared by four different computers. Fortunately, two of them are Linux servers. Not that they don’t require updating, but those updates do not usually come on the second Tuesday of the month.

 Posted by at 4:07 pm

Total electrical failure on MH370? Un-bleeping-likely

 Aviation  No Responses »
Mar 112014
 
777rat

Boeing 777 Ram Air Turbine

So here is the latest speculation from CNN, now that the missing Malaysian jetliner is presumed to have turned around: it may have suffered a massive electrical failure.

Except that the 777 is a fly-by-wire aircraft. That means that if there is no electricity, the airplane just cannot fly.

And precisely because it is a fly-by-wire aircraft, it also has a beefed-up Ram Air Turbine (RAT). It is capable of generating 7.5 kW of electricity, sufficient to power the most essential systems of the aircraft like, well, its flight control systems and, I presume, its transponder and a radio.

But then, how can I expect informed discussion on CNN? Just as I am writing this, they were discussing the next topic: why did passengers not phone anyone using their cellphones.

Because there are no cellular towers over the open sea, stupid. And even over land, when you are flying 10-12 kilometers above the cellular towers at a velocity of nearly 1000 kph… good luck linking up with a tower long enough to get a call through.

 

 Posted by at 3:03 pm

28

 Cats, Personal  No Responses »
Mar 042014
 

Our sick kittycat, Szürke, is a little less sick today.

Make that a lot less sick, actually.

Anemia is measured by what is called the Packed Cell Volume (PCV), basically the percentage of the volume of red blood cells vs. the total volume of blood. For a cat, the normal range for PCV starts in the mid-20s. When we thought we were saying good-bye to Szürke back in October, his PCV went down all the way to the incredibly low value of 7, which for all practical intents and purposes is a near-death experience. It was equivalent to trying to breathe on top of Mount Everest.

Today, Szürke’s PCV was 28. This value, an increase of about 4.5 since six days ago, was achieved despite the fact that we discontinued the erythropoietin hormone treatment that is supposed to stimulate his bone marrow and help with red blood cell production. This means that Szürke is back in the low normal range.

We shall see how things unfold in the coming weeks. The vet warned us that as the erythropoietin wears off, his red blood cell count will likely start to drop again. But if we can maintain it at a healthy level with continuing hormone treatments…

Time will tell. For now, we celebrate Szürke’s astonishing recovery.

pcv

 Posted by at 6:56 pm

Sarah Palin was right. Now I am officially scared

 Politics  1 Response »
Mar 012014
 

In October, 2008, when she was speaking as the Republican vice-presidential nominee, Sarah Palin said the following:

“After the Russian army invaded the nation of Georgia, Senator Obama’s reaction was one of indecision and moral equivalence – the kind of response that would only encourage Russia’s Putin to invade Ukraine next.” [emphasis mine]

The very respectable Foreign Policy magazine described Palin’s suggestion as an “extremely far-fetched scenario”.

Fast forward to March 1, 2014, when Putin just asked the Russian parliament to authorize the sending of troops into Crimea, ostensibly to protect Russian nationals and help normalize the situation.

In a world where Sarah Palin’s geopolitical concerns come true and respectable foreign policy institutions are eating crow, everything is possible.

And now, I am officially scared.

 Posted by at 10:01 am

Clown crisis

 Culture, Politics  No Responses »
Feb 192014
 

Serious news on CNN: the United States is suffering from a clown crisis. Being a clown is just not cool anymore, and the number of clowns is dwindling. Some areas may soon be altogether without clowns unless these alarming trends get reversed.

CNN did mention that there may be an ample supply of qualified clowns right there in Washington, in the form of the U.S. Congress. In the same vein, when my wife saw the images from some U.S. clown convention, she wondered aloud if these might in fact be pictures from a Tea Party gathering.

Who knows. Or perhaps the clown shortage is simply due to the fact that many of them found a more lucrative profession: manufacturing telescopes with concave lenses.

 Posted by at 1:55 pm

No invasion after hours, please

 History, Politics  No Responses »
Feb 192014
 

The Swiss are a proud people. Their country has been peaceful and prosperous since Napoleonic times. Several years ago, when I was in Bern, Switzerland, streetcars bore German-language signs advertising 200 years of safety and security. This was made possible, in part, by a strong and effective defense force, which would make any invasion too costly for a would-be attacker.

Or so I thought. Until yesterday, that is, when in the wake of the recent hijacking of an Ethiopian airliner, which eventually landed in Switzerland, the CBC helpfully explained the reason why the airliner was escorted by French and Italian fighter jets. You see, the Swiss Air Force operates only during normal business hours. Invading armies should take note: Switzerland is closed after 5 PM, so if you are late, you might want to reschedule your invasion plans for the next business day.

 

 Posted by at 1:48 pm

Concave telescope

 Physics  No Responses »
Feb 182014
 

I don’t normally comment on crank science that finds its way into my Inbox, but this morning I got a really good laugh.

The announcement was dramatic enough: the e-mail bore the title, “Apparent detection of antimatter galaxies”. It came from the “Santilli foundation”, who sent me some eyebrow-raising e-mails in the past, but this was sufficiently intriguing to make me click on the link they provided. So click I did, only to be confronted with the following image:

What’s that, you ask? Why, a telescope with a concave lens. Had I paid a little bit more attention to the e-mail, I might have been a little less surprised; they did include a longer title, you see, helpfully typeset in all caps, which read, “APPARENT DETECTION OF ANTIMATTER GALAXIES VIA SANTILLI’S TELESCOPE WITH CONCAVE LENSES”.

Say what? Concave lenses? Why, it’s only logical. If light from an ordinary galaxy is focused by a convex lens, then surely, light from an antimatter galaxy will be focused by a concave lens. This puts this Santilli fellow in the same league as Galileo; like his counterpart five centuries ago, Santilli also invented his own telescope. But wait, Santilli is also a modern-day Newton: like Newton, he invented a whole new branch of mathematics, which he calls “isodual mathematics”. Certainly sounds impressive.

So what does Einstein’s relativity have to say about all this? Why, it’s all a “century of scientific scams by organized interests on Einstein […] to discredit opposing views”. It’s all “sheer dishonesty and scientific gangsterism”. But it is possible “for the United Stated of America to regain a minimum of international scientific credibility”. All that is needed is to “investigate the legality of the current use of public funds by the Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation on research based on the current mandate of compatibility with Einstein’s theory” and the US of A will cease to be bankrupt.

Oh, and you also need some telescopes with concave lenses.

 Posted by at 10:22 am

Fanni Gyarmati

 History, Hungary, Poetry  No Responses »
Feb 152014
 

One of the many victims of fascism in Hungary was the poet Miklós Radnóti, murdered in November 1944 while serving in a forced labor battalion.

Radnóti’s wife, Fanni Gyarmati, survived the Holocaust and continued a quiet life in Budapest, in the couple’s old apartment, which bears the name of Dr. Miklós Radnóti on its front door to this day.

Astonishingly, Fanni Gyarmati lived for another 70 years following her husband’s tragic death. She passed away today, at the age of 101.

May she rest in peace. May those who were responsible for her husband’s death never find peace. Nor those who are busy whitewashing Hungary’s history as racism and anti-Semitism are once again on the rise in the country of my birth.

 Posted by at 9:42 am

Yutu is alive!

 Space  No Responses »
Feb 122014
 

China’s first rover on the Moon (and only the seventh rover in the history of space exploration) may be alive.

The concern was that two weeks ago, as the robot was about to retire for the lunar night, it did not properly process commands that were supposed to place it in a night configuration to prevent critical systems from freezing up. It was quite possible that we would never hear from the robot again. But here it is… a signal, strong and loud. I guess in the coming days, the Chinese will reveal what, if any, damage the rover suffered during the long, cold lunar night.

 Posted by at 10:00 pm

Comrade deer at the border

 Biology, History  No Responses »
Feb 032014
 

According to Radio Free Europe, there are some remarkably law-abiding deer living along the one-time Cold War border between the former West Germany and Czechoslovakia.

The border (barbed wire, complete with electric fences, heavily armed guards, watchtowers and whatnot) is long gone. Yet the deer are still reluctant to cross, and this behavior is passed on from one generation to the next.

Remarkable. I am sure it would meet the approval of those comrades who came up with the idea in the first place that the primary purpose of a nation’s borders is not to keep enemies out, but to keep their own reluctant citizens confined inside.

 Posted by at 9:47 pm

IQ test

 Personal  No Responses »
Jan 222014
 

The other night, I was tired and needed a distraction. I happened upon on online IQ test and decided to take it out of curiosity.

I scored well. How well exactly, I do not know because once the test was over, there was another, bonus question: they asked for my credit card number as a means to pay for a detailed report.

I realized that this really was the last of the intelligence test questions.

I passed the test. I did not pay good money just to get a report about how intelligent I am.

Boy, I am ever so smart!

 Posted by at 9:29 am

What? No Golden Globe for Tatiana Maslany?

 Television  No Responses »
Jan 132014
 

There are few things (OK, well, apart from most sports) that interest me less than Hollywood awards.

Nonetheless, tonight I was rooting for Orphan Black star Tatiana Maslany, who pulled off an incredible feat in this remarkable sci-fi series, playing as many as seven (eight, by some count) totally different, fully developed characters.

At least she lost to an actress that I also like and respect, Robin Wright, known as Jenny from Forrest Gump, among other roles.

Still… I am upset.

 Posted by at 12:29 am

Silence of the Labs

 Canada, Politics, Science  1 Response »
Jan 102014
 

For the first time in, well, eons (at least in my personal experience), the CBC was like the old CBC again. The Fifth Estate had an hour-long report entitled Silence of the Labs, on the Harper’s government’s assault (there really is no better word) on the integrity of federally supported science in Canada.

There was very little in the report that I have not previously read about, but then again, my interest in science policy is probably not that of the average viewer. Which is why I am glad that the CBC did this, bringing awareness of what is going on to a broader audience.

No doubt what they did will be denounced by the Harper government and their supporters. And, as the program mentioned, technically they have a point: federally employed scientists do not have a legal entitlement to speak their minds or indeed to complain if research they happen to like is no longer funded.

However… as a citizen, I would like… no, scratch that, I demand that my government uses unbiased, factual science as its guide and that they do not muzzle honest scientists who try to bring these facts to the public with no government minder present.

This is a very significant reason why I hope that Mr. Harper will be defeated in the upcoming elections. Just to be clear, I don’t dislike Harper… how can I dislike a fellow cat lover? I also have no reason to doubt his personal integrity. However, I dislike his policies and his autocratic style of government. I sincerely hope that our next government will undo at least some of the harm that this government inflicted upon us.

 Posted by at 11:27 pm

One less likeable Republican

 Politics  No Responses »
Jan 092014
 

Why is it that the one Republican I found really likeable, NJ governor Chris Christie, turned out to be a petty little vindictive bastard just like the rest of their ilk? Exactly what kind of an idiot do you have to be to come up with the idea that screwing up traffic near one of the world’s busiest bridges is appropriate “punishment” for an unruly mayor who wasn’t willing to endorse your candidacy? I guess listening to too much Rush Limbaugh or watching Fox News too often is really bad for the brain cells. Someone ought to do a clinical study.

And no, I do not believe for one moment that Christie did not know what was being done by his senior staff.

 Posted by at 8:20 am

Reading papers in Elvish (or Dwarvish)

 Books, Weather and Climate  No Responses »
Jan 082014
 

I just stumbled across some new research by climatologist Dan Lunt, who applied modern climate models to the geography and topography of Middle Earth. Yes, Tolkien’s Middle Earth, where hobbits, elves, dwarves, dragons, ents, orcs and other creatures live.

Prepared for possible interest by non-human readers, Lunt (writing under the pseudonym Radagast the Brown… or may be he *is* Radagast the Brown?) helpfully provided translations of his paper into Elvish and Dwarvish.

I couldn’t help but notice, though, that the list of references is missing from the translations.

Also, I wonder… does Google Translate know Elvish and Dwarvish?

 Posted by at 2:39 pm

I need a new battery

 Personal, Transportation  2 Responses »
Jan 042014
 

This is what my car told me this morning:

Yes, it needed a new battery. It just wouldn’t start.

The irony is that my car is a hybrid. Which means that when you turn the key, it usually just comes to life, like any decent electric motor would. And behind the back seat, there is a 144 V NiMH battery with enough juice to light up my house. But when the outside temperature is low, the engine computer decides on its own that the engine should be cranked like a low-tech gasoline engine… from the 12 V battery, using an ordinary starter motor. And when that happens in the dead of a Canadian winter, with a battery that was last replaced about six years ago…

Thank goodness for Canadian Tire.

The video, by the way, is a scene from Return to Zork, the first multimedia sequel to the classic Zork series of text adventure games from the early 1980s. The graphics may be a tad dated, but the game is still quite good and entertaining… and plays well in DOSBox.

 Posted by at 6:15 pm
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