Sci-Fi Brain Pry -- 3D Printing & Far Future

A few years back the concept of 3D printing came to my attention. Maker's Faire 2008 really drove home some possibilities for use. There were Makerbots and large rapid prototypers on display. Since then other ways to use the technology have developed, food printing, house building, and flesh printing.

Printing out body parts on demand really makes my head explode. Bre Pettis, founder of Makerbot Industries, was on Makezine recently showing off his awesome low-cost invention. A few minutes into it a thought hit me, 'This is the first step to Star Trek replicators and transporters.'

A replicator is an obvious use. As it is right now some assembly would be required and not all materials are usable, but carbon nanotubes and similar innovations will probably be game changer for 3D printing. Scaled properly you may be able to print your next home or your next car.

If brain-taping, copying a person's brain/mind/personality/skills, becomes a reality think of the possibilities combined with 3D printing. Brain transferring is another technology benefited by 3D printing. Your body is horribly damaged, pop your brain into a freshly printed body. Your previous body could even be recycled to make the new body. This could be a form of immortality.

If you need a specialty body this opens up possibilities too. By this I mean a body better adapted for a harsh environment or for a specific task. I'd expect gender-swapping or gender-neutral and designer bodies to be the early uses. Clothing could be optional when what we hide under them aren't present in fashion bodies. Plastic surgeons could combine with 3D sculptors to add a new industry. Now you really can be that Klingon or orc you've always wanted to be.

A copy of your mind could be held in back-up in case of death or if your skill set is important. A colony on another planet could benefit from copied scientists and other successful terraformers. Where would physics be if Einsten was immortalized this way?

Inspirations: Star Trek the Next Generation, Brainstorm (movie) The Matrix (movie), Surrogates (movie), Judge Dredd (comic), The Thirteenth Floor (movie), and A World Out of Time (Larry Niven novel).

Thift Store Score! 8-Tracks are Far Out...What a Concept

Now, I didn't really grow up during the 8-Track days. My music came via vinyl or cassette tape. But the hulking monstrosity that is 8-Track is appealing. It almost seems like a toy or housing for something more than music. They are fairly close in size to 8-bit NES cartridges after all.

The first time I ever made use of an 8-Track was when my friend discovered his parent's collection of disco music. Apparently they used to compete and win at disco competitions. Either way we benefited from their youth and fell in love with Disco Inferno by The Trammps. My friend's mom even showed us some moves when she found us listening to the classic. I remember and enjoy the song, but sadly I forgot the moves. Of course I'm sure the cloud could re-teach me.

This all leads to another thrift store score. Normally I find music in all forms, but 8-Track. Today was special because not only did someone donate their 8-Track collection they also gave up their spindle carriage and the first thing that caught my eye was an 8-Track entitled Far Out. The next one to sell me on picking up 8-Tracks was a Robin Williams stand-up recording.

When I showed my mom she asked, 'How are you going to play them?' 'Tis unimportant,' I replied as I plunked down 2 bucks for the 2 oddities.

Far Out looks like its part of a larger series. It lists 20 songs on the front, but the back shows only 4 from the list.
It's a Miracle by Barry Manilow
Lady by Styx
Do Your Thing by Isaac Hayes
Who's Making Love by Johnny Taylor

Hopefully you check out all the songs. I've been a fan of Styx since I was little. Manilow and Hayes should be known by everyone too. Known not loved necessarily. I've never heard of Johnny Taylor, but now that I've had a listen I want more. Wow, who knew a random retro buy combined with an internet search could result in the discovery of such awesome. I might have to make this a new thing. Dig around old vinyl and such and see what pops up on the electronic highway.

I know not everyone is a Robin Williams fan, but I grew up with him on Mork and Mindy and am still enjoying the Koolaid. This is the audio from the 8-Track Reality...What a Concept. The jokes are certainly dated, but his talent is still as strong today. Even if I didn't get his humor I'd probably still like his performances in movies. He's friends with my favorite author, Harlan Ellison, and word is he plays tabletop miniature games. Robin Williams scores all sorts of points in my book.

So, I did find a way to listen to my 8-Tracks, just not directly.

I'm thinking the 8-Track housing would make a cool iPod dock, dice holder, or travel game case. What do you think?

Illness leads to the Mercury Men

Mercury Men is a fun little series I watched today. The episodes are about 8 minutes long, so it only took about an hour and a half to watch. It's about an office drone being caught up in an alien world destruction plot, oh and there's a Buck Rogers-type thrown in for god measure.

I don't care much for the 'reality' shows on SyFy, but tend to really enjoy the fictional series they put on. Despite the quality of the show I wonder if there is room for it to become a 30 minute show. I wonder how much background was written for the show. I've seen a few shows fail because they started off with a good premise, but the writers/producers didn't spend enough time fleshing out the world.

Mercury Men has steampunk elements, which is great, but the last show I can think of really showcasing that style was The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne. Before that Briscoe County Jr. We're seeing steampunk show up more often in movies, Sherlock Holmes, Pirates of the Carribean, The Three Musketeers, and Hugo (The Invention of Hugo Cabret), so it wouldn't be a stretch that it comes back to TV.

Check out Mercury Men even if you're not a steampunk enthusiast. It's set in the 70s and shot like a noir serial. Here's the link to their main website.

After I wrote this I came across The League of STEAM. It looks fun too and I may have to do another blog soon.

What does everyone else think? If you have more I should see in the steampunk genre let me know.

I just realized after writing and posting that Mercury Men is really pulp era, though it still has a steampunk sensibility. I think steampunk and pulp would mash-up greatly. I must be way sicker than I thought.

George Foreman SEO genius?

While George Foreman is famous for boxing and his grill he's also famous for his child naming convention. He has 5 sons named George, 4 daughters of mixed naming, but he does have a daughter Georgetta. When you Google his name mostly you'll find information about him. What happens if one of his children named George Foreman become famous or Google-worthy? Will the name, George Foreman, help his sons, will his son's fame help him, or will it break search engines?

Considering his children were born before search engine optimization it's difficult to say he was able to foresee this possibility, but name checking has always been around. What says, 'My dad is famous,' more than having his name? There's such a genius to this I think everyone should change their names to match the famous. Even the infamous would work.

Though a rash of people changing their names to match serial killers might be a bad idea.

A Strange Benefit of Lying

I think Gordon Ramsay is an interesting fellow. My mother loves watching his shows and I will sometimes watch them with her, especially his new travel show. He was in Asia helping a family with their business and one of the menu items was shark fin. He tried the dish and said it had no flavor. There was nothing spectacular about the dish. He asked why they serve it when some sharks, specifically the great white, are on the endangered species list. The answer was tradition and prestige. Basically the delicacy started as a dish only for royalty and is now a high priced item sold to the wealthy.

Sharks need a dorsal fin to live. The fact that a dish involving an endangered animal that has no flavor is even worse. That tradition is so powerful it demands a lack of integrity.

I'd much rather a dish involve a mineral, say gold. There is at least a return on investment later on.

From an economics stand-point I don't see the need to use shark fin when the dish has no distinction. Chicken or even tofu could be used in its place. Sure, you'd be lying, but you'd pocket more money in the long run and an endangered animal gets a little longer to live.

Matthew Broderick and Marlon Brando were in a film called The Freshman . In it an endangered (I believe last of its kind) animal is going to be served to the rich. *SPOILER ALERT* In the end it turns out the animal is sent to a refuge and the rich are served a gourmet dish of chicken. The point is there was no way to know how the meat tastes so they could have been fed nearly anything, but the value was based on what they thought they were eating. Side note: people tend to value higher food they spend more money on, so these dinner guests would fool themselves into thinking the dinner was amazing.

Something that wasn't in the movie, but I thought about later was something of a prisoner's dilemma. The dinner guests wouldn't be able to talk about the dinner except with other guests because it was illegal.

I wouldn't put it past someone to think Canned Unicorn Meat is really made of unicorns, but since unicorns don't exist is it really a crime to tell someone they're eating shark fin soup when it's really catfish?

Coffee is the closest thing to magic for my brain.

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The question was posed the other day if the cost of a coffee maker was worth it. I think it is and here's how my logic circuit works.

If you're 3 cup a day guy like I am that equates to about $6 at your average coffee house. I haven't tried fast food places recently because past experience taught me that gagging shouldn't happen when consuming something I like.

Your average pound of coffee at the grocery store costs $12. Yes, Peet's and Starbucks are pricier, but then again did you ever notice that their pound is 12 oz and not 16 oz. I measured today that the 4 oz difference is the equivalent of 12 cups of coffee missing. Instead I recommend grinding a pound at the store. Often the coffee is good (your taste buds are your own, so try a few out to find the one you like), you can get a real pound aka 16 oz, and to rotate stock the price often drops to less than $10 per pound.

Taking the $12 average per pound I figured out that about 2 oz makes roughly a 10 cup pot of coffee. I'm a 3 cup guy so 1 oz will do. This means 16 oz lasts about 16 days. (I say about because some days I use a scoop or 2 more for added richness to flavor).

This means I spend $1 a day instead of $6. Which means a $30 coffee maker is paid for in 6 days. More expensive coffee makers are paid for by way of the $5 difference per day. So, yes, making your own coffee is way better.

Someone might say I forgot the other costs like filters, coffee mug, and electricity. I didn't. Those costs are so minor to be negligible. Filters cost about $2 for hundreds. Who doesn't already have a coffee cup? (BTW, mom has an Etsy shop with beautiful mugs ) As long as you don't leave the pot on 24/7 (ewww, burnt coffee) you'll only pay pennies a day for that.

Besides when you make your own coffee you get a chance to try blending your own beans. Or adding new flavors directly to the pot. I like adding cocoa powder and cinnamon to the coffee before brewing.

Jaws still scares me.

I just had a mini-Twitter conversation with a friend about the craptastic shark movie, Great White. The poster art still sends chills down my spine. Then the subject of Jaws came up, as it naturally would, and there was that chill again.

I realized I was probably lucky I didn't see Jaws on the big screen when I was a kid. It scared the hell out of me on the boob-tube. I'd probably need a straight jacket if I saw it larger than life.

Nearly any imagery of sharks make me antsy, but it's not like I can't watch Jaws or or other shark related media. In fact I admire sharks their survivability. But I also respect their awesomeness too. I don't hold Jaws responsible for this. I probably could have seen any shark movie, even a zombie fighting one, to know they are worthy of giving a wide-berth.

Which is why I'm fine letting a poster scare me. I don't need to go back to the water.

Yes, I crochet and I like it!

I love to crochet. There I said it!

I opened my Etsy shop to sell my creations. There I said that too!

When I was around 9 my babysitter showed the lot of us how to crochet. My hands need to be busy as much as my brain does so I fell in love with it. Sadly, I stopped crocheting when I was about 12. Then a few years ago I got antsy. I needed to create something with my hands. I started going down the list of things I like to do (LEGO, sculpting polymer clay, writing) and it dawned on me I hadn't crocheted in a long time. I discovered amigurumi and fell in love with the designs I saw. When I was a kid I never knew you could make something more than a granny square with crochet.

It was such an eye-opener I started devouring video after video of how-to's on youtube. I've made a few dolls, which I enjoy doing, but I really enjoy making fun scarves to show off the quirks in my personality. I also want to incorporate my love of movies into my scarves.

So, this is the start.

When I can figure out hats expect more insanity then.

My Etsy Shop.

Yo yo as a sport, yo!

I always think Duncan when it comes to yo-yo, especially yo-yo competition. Looking at video today it seems there are quite a few sponsors for the sport.
See the awesome here.

More interesting is the caliber of action from the competitors. I'd much rather watch this than celebrity dance competitions. Especially celebrities who can't dance. It's also more interesting than watching cup stacking competitions, but not as much as X-games. I do consider yo-yo a highly concentrated physical sport, but with fewer broken ankles and backs.

Despite what Piers (from America's Got Talent) thinks about yo-yo it's a spectacle to behold. This kid made it fairly far in the competition. I don't think yo-yoing is made for Vegas, but he put on a good show.
Ian's final attempt.

I'd only try tricks with the yo-yo if I had insurance. Seriously, flinging what amounts to a rock attached to a string near my face is not appealing. But it looks like fun. I might not have the cajones to yo-yo, but I'm glad talented people and not-so talented people do.
He does a yo-yo slam two-fer.
Adding an exercise ball doesn't help.

I suppose this also means if you see me with a yo-yo I've lost my mind and am not afraid to break a face or anyone else's.

Thrift Shop Score! Nintendo Gameboy ?!

I'm something of a thrift store junkie. I never know what I'll find. This week I got the best score yet-- Nintendo stuff. This time around the swag consists of Nintendo Gameboy Advanced SP, Game Boy Color, and 3 original Gameboy games, Pac-in-Time, Donkey Kong, & Qix. About a month ago I scored the original pee green screen Gameboy. Now I realize this won't sound very exciting to some who absolutely have to be first in bleeding edge tech, but these machines are awesome.

I grew up mostly in the 80s, but I never had a Gameboy. I did have an Atari Lynx (fine machine, early color portable sickness), but I wanted my Nintendo in portable form. In fact when I was 14 I was close to talking a friend into saving money with me to afford one. I think he blew his money on Call of Cthulhu RPG books so that never happened. It was one of the few things I couldn't trade comics or gaming material to acquire. And I'm the guy who traded a few Magic cards (nothing spectacular) to get a guitar and amp.

When Pokemon came out I finally got a Gameboy from a friend. He jury-rigged an AC plug to play it. I guess he hated using batteries. Eventually that device gave out on me. It was tedious needing an outlet anyway.

So finding all this was nerd treasure.

I've been playing the crap out of Qix. This is a game I discovered at the Magic Scoop arcade when I was about 7. Loved it. I love the idea of being a little spark using lines that when completed in a box-like shape fills in to cause a segmented snake-like creature to slowly lose space to move. If it catches while your in the middle of shaping you die. Oh, and other enemy spark come out to follow your lines. There's something desperate and abstract that really tickles my brain. I like it way more than the Light Cycle segment of the Tron game. And I love the Tron game overall.

Anyway there are two benefits to having the Gameboys around. My young niece is occupied by them and considering I paid about $10 for both I don't have to worry about her rough hands. The second use involves chip tunes. I may not be musically trained, but I am inclined to learn and something about incorporating music from my favorite games in a non-game environment really charges me up.

So, yeah consider me in a tiny spot of Nerdvana from a quick visit to my thrift store.

An afternoon with Vicci Martinez

Seattle is putting on a series of concerts this summer and Vicci Martinez of The Voice fame performed today. It was a lot of fun. She's something of a rock folk blend and has a terrific voice. When she was on Team Cee Lo we voted for her. Not just because she's a local, but because of her talent.

I went to the show with my mom, sister, and nieces. I don't think my nieces were too into her. Then again they are still into Lady Ga Ga and whoever the latest hip-hop sensation is right now. I'm not blasting their music preferences, it's just an illustration their current mind-set. The music was excellent, but it also provided me a moment to explain how media works to my oldest niece (16).

Me: Would you have come to this if you hadn't seen Vicci on The Voice?
Niece: No.
Me: So, does it matter that she didn't win on the show?
Niece: No, I guess not.
Me: Cuz look where we are and we're about to buy a CD and DVD from her when the show is over.
Nice: That's cool. i never thought of it like that.http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

Later on I told her that one doesn't have to be on a reality show to let people know who they are. It just takes a bit more effort.

Here's a link to my youtube channel where I posted video of the event. I'm a noob at video. My second oldest niece and I are learning though. Subscribing is welcome.

Two cameras, one girl.