Author: John

TWiT is Dead, Long Live Net@Night

net@night Sweet! I was a bit annoyed when I found out that my favorite podcast, er, netcast, ‘This Week in Tech’ (TWiT) had been put on hold because no one was available. Thats burn out, pretty sure of that. Anyway, Leo Laporte is back! He and Amber MacArthur will be doing a tech review show so we can still get our dose of Leo. I’ll miss the grumpy Dvorak but maybe he will be back as a guest. The cool think about all this is the show will be netcast’ed live so people can call in. I love that! That to me is the one big dynamic thing that podcasting, er, netcasting (I’ll get that right someday) has been missing. Radio call in shows have been doing it for decades but that works because of the serious money used to get phone lines, equipment, and hardware. If this software they they are using (Talkshoe) works then this could be the start of a true revolution in Internet entertainment. Think if Sirius used this during their regular Internet radio broadcasts?

Amber and I are proud to announce the first live TWiTcast. We’re reinventing Inside the Net, and renaming it net@nite. You’ll still be able to listen to the show as a podcast every Tuesday, but you can also listen live as we record it Sunday nights. Even better, you can participate.

Web 2.0 on TWiT 2.0

Vista Home Basic is a Lemon?

Microsoft Vista

Ok, so I’m asking myself how is this news? I mean, what do you expect from a company like Microsoft? If you don’t pay for the gold you only get brass. It’s like if you buy the standard version of Office, you get Word, Excel, Outlook and Power Point. That’s at a suggested retail price of $399. Now what you don’t get is Access, that’s their database application. If you want that you have to buy the pro version and that’s another $100. Life would be so much better if they included Access with their office suite, people do the worst things in Excel just because they don’t have a good (read any) database app. Man! Well, ok this post was about Vista so I had better say a little bit about it. I have a copy (legal, Bill sent it to me himself) of RC1 at work and it runs OK. I don’t have a *&%$ expensive graphics card to power the system so the Pentium 4 3GHz with 1 GB or RAM is only benching at a 2.2. Geeze! That’s some heavy software! The ‘Aero’ components remind me of the transparent Linux windows from about three years ago so nothing big there. The Widgets or Gizmos or whatever the hell they call they desktop cycle wasters are OK but dated. Other than that it’s much like working on my Mac but has more a Windows feeling. That means the OS treats me like child and offers advice and won’t let me see all the goodies until i much with the settings. I’m sticking with XP, I can’t afford paying $200+ for a un-crippled version of Vista.

"The new [Vista] experience you hear of, if you get Basic, you won’t feel it at all. There’s no [Aero] graphics, no Media Center, no remote control."

Vista Home Basic is a lemon

Halloween Way Back When

Halloween2000

Back in 2000, in another life when I lived in a house and had space, I set up a quick and dirty haunted laboratory for the local kids that came around to trick or treat. I had lots of black lights, party gels (the red lights), green glow sticks, dry ice, a Jacobs ladder (15KV at 30mA), and my home brew Tesla coil (output about 50KV). The kids loved it! I had a ball firing up the Tesla coil on the un suspecting kids. The spark gap on that monster is LOUD! I was the only house in my neighborhood that did any thing close to this and my attempt was pretty half assed. I’ll say this, once I get another home I’m pulling out the stops and doing this again.

Halloween 2000 on Flickr

The Landmaster

LandmasterAny science fiction fan worth their salt knows what your talking about when you mention the word "Landmaster". Arguable one of the most recognized vehicle ever created for a movie (Damnation Alley), this monster of a futuristic super survival truck was built to last and actually be practical. Meaning that it’s not just for show but it actually works. The Landmasters most noticeable feature is its odd tri-star wheel arrangement. Twelve wheels, all powered but only eight are in contact with the road, are set into four triangular mounts that will rotate over large obstacles. This gives the Landmaster the ability to go through deep mud, over big rocks, and pretty deep water. Turning this beast is done with an articulated joint in the middle of the vehicle. Did I mention that it floats? Yeah, it floats. It’s amazing that such detail was given to a prop in a move. It’s a tribute to the skill of Dean Jefferies, car master and artist. He built loads of cars that appeared in films in the 60’s and 70’s like the Monkees, Logan’s Run, Green Hornet, The Great Race, and even Diamonds are Forever. In fact, if your in the Hollywood area you might see the mighty Landmaster parked next to Jefferie’s auto shop on Cahuenga boulevard. This page has loads of info and photos on the beast. I hope to see it in another film soon, it’s got a few more miles left on it for sure.

Damnation Alley Landmaster Page