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retro futurism
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retro futurism
server architecture
Nestled among the towers of midtown Manhattan is a new housing development made entirely of prefab houses (top) that look like rack-mounted computer servers (bottom). In fact, these houses are intended to be mounted and stacked in giant racks that can be built in days. Soon, all of New York City may look like a giant Google server farm. Check out the rack server house being built below.
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Our Homes Have Turned into Server Farms
Nestled among the towers of midtown Manhattan is a new housing development made entirely of prefab houses (top) that look like rack-mounted computer servers (bottom). In fact, these houses are intended to be mounted and stacked in giant racks that can be built in days. Soon, all of New York City may look like a giant Google server farm. Check out the rack server house being built below.
More »
retro futurism
Meet Your Mate With Operation Match, the First Computer Dating Service (1965)
In 1965, two enterprising students from Harvard, Jack Tarr and Vaughan Morrill, dreamed up the idea of a computerized dating service. Aided by David Crump and Douglas Ginsburg (in 1987 he withdrew his name from nomination to the Supreme Court after admitting to—gasp!—smoking pot in college), they put their idea in motion and created "Operation Match." Clients paid $3.00 and filled out a 110-item questionnaire that, in addition to the usual statistics of age, height, weight, sex, included questions like the following . . . More »
triviagasm
The Victorian-Era Supercomputer And The Genius Who Created It
The London Science Museum finally completed work on the Victorian era's greatest supercomputer, the Difference Engine No. 2, 120 years after the death of inventor Charles Babbage. This five-ton machine is currently traveling across the pond to San Francisco, and will go on display in America for the first time starting May 10th at the Computer History Museum. Find out everything you wanted to know about Charles Babbage and his wonderful engines in today's triviagasm. More »
special effects
Now your computer can simulate the movement of light through fog in a way that will easily fool the untrained eye. Using new "photon mapping" algorithms that map how light would bounce off water particles in the air (i.e. fog), UC San Diego computer scientists can now whip up a quick, realistic fog world for a videogame or movie without a lot of expensive computer power. Compare the photon mapped image above, with what the same amount of computing power would have produced without the algorithm, below.
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Light-in-Fog Computer Simulation Is Ultra Realistic and Cheap
Now your computer can simulate the movement of light through fog in a way that will easily fool the untrained eye. Using new "photon mapping" algorithms that map how light would bounce off water particles in the air (i.e. fog), UC San Diego computer scientists can now whip up a quick, realistic fog world for a videogame or movie without a lot of expensive computer power. Compare the photon mapped image above, with what the same amount of computing power would have produced without the algorithm, below.
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doctor who
In 2025, Doctor Who Will Merge With Its Own Video Game
Screw this American seven-years-and-out model. The BBC's new Doctor Who series can run for another 20-plus years, just like the original version, says producer Russell T. Davies. The key is taking an occasional pause, like in 2009, when the show will only have three one-hour specials. Also, it wouldn't hurt to bring in fresh writers — and has Davies heard that Stephen Hall, author of the Clarke-nominated memory-eating psychic shark novel Raw Shark Texts, is foaming at the mouth to write for the show? Meanwhile, the new show has earned the ultimate badge of success: a new PC game, in development from EIDOS.
design
Flower Vase Made of Human Fingerprints
The bumps and ridges on this vase are created from a real human fingerprint. Made with rapid-prototyping tech that "reads" your prints and converts them into a 3D object, the vase is designed by Kris Lovett and called "Embossed." The process for creating it is actually fairly simple, and you can get Lovett to make one out of your own fingerprint too. More »
my body, my computer
Turn on Your Computer By Hyperventilating
Hyperventilation may be the new power button. Scientists developing brain computer interfaces (BCIs) for disabled people have had great success with EEG interfaces that allow brain signals to guide the cursor. But they couldn't solve the boot-up problem — the EEG interface just wasn't able to translate "turn on" thoughts into a command. Now researchers in Austria think they've got it solved with EKG heart monitors that can convert human heartbeats into a "power up" signal. More »
iron man
Marvel Comics has made some high quality wallpapers from the upcoming Iron Man movie available on the web, and we won't argue that they are spiffy, shiny, and gorgeous. However, did they really need to brand the things four times? In the shot above (mega-version here) you've got an awkwardly placed Iron Man logo right under Tony's fist, along with the release date. Do you really want a release date on our computer's desktop? Check out what else is wrong with this picture inside.
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Marvel Really, Really Wants You To Know Iron Man Is Theirs
Marvel Comics has made some high quality wallpapers from the upcoming Iron Man movie available on the web, and we won't argue that they are spiffy, shiny, and gorgeous. However, did they really need to brand the things four times? In the shot above (mega-version here) you've got an awkwardly placed Iron Man logo right under Tony's fist, along with the release date. Do you really want a release date on our computer's desktop? Check out what else is wrong with this picture inside.
More »
The Robotic Courtroom of Tomorrow
It's been 12 years since the Los Angeles Times speculated that we'd have robo-bailiffs, floating cameras, virtual reality goggles, computerized judges, and some kind of weird red vs. blue lightsaber battle in our courtrooms, but we're no closer to having this than we are the flying car. Hell, we'd commit a minor crime just to check all this stuff out if it existed. Robo-bailiff, FTW! Just wait until the Judge 044227 comes on Court TV, too.
It's been 12 years since the Los Angeles Times speculated that we'd have robo-bailiffs, floating cameras, virtual reality goggles, computerized judges, and some kind of weird red vs. blue lightsaber battle in our courtrooms, but we're no closer to having this than we are the flying car. Hell, we'd commit a minor crime just to check all this stuff out if it existed. Robo-bailiff, FTW! Just wait until the Judge 044227 comes on Court TV, too.
found footage
With the recent unveiling of the new Knight Rider car and a new TV movie on the way in February, we delved back into the mists of time to come up with the sadly forgotten Automan. Automan was television's bastard child answer to the movie Tron, and featured a sentient crime fighting computer program with a Lamborghini. More »
Knight Rider + Tron = Automan
With the recent unveiling of the new Knight Rider car and a new TV movie on the way in February, we delved back into the mists of time to come up with the sadly forgotten Automan. Automan was television's bastard child answer to the movie Tron, and featured a sentient crime fighting computer program with a Lamborghini. More »
art
Fragile little guys in their gym clothes dangle just above the curve of the Earth in this computer illustration of the Columbus laboratory module. Space Shuttle Atlantis will install this module on the International Space Station soon after tomorrow's launch. Image by ESA/AP.
Accidental Space Station Art
Fragile little guys in their gym clothes dangle just above the curve of the Earth in this computer illustration of the Columbus laboratory module. Space Shuttle Atlantis will install this module on the International Space Station soon after tomorrow's launch. Image by ESA/AP.
news blast
Speed Racer Will Be All Fake Except The Monkey
- The Wachowskis' Speed Racer movie backgrounds will be all greenscreen like 300, says star Emile Hirsch. All except for Chim Chim the monkey, which is real. And presumably flung its poop at the pristine green walls. [Empire]
- Dave "Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius" Eggers collaborated with director Spike Jonze on the script to Where The Wild Things Are, Jonze's next movie. Wild Things will mix live puppeteering and computer animation. [Hollywood Reporter]
- The Mist took ninth place in the holiday weekend box office, behind more obvious holiday movies Enchanted, This Christmas, Bee Movie and Fred Claus. But Beowulf, American Gangster and Hitman also blew The Mist away.
