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Neuro-Branding
2008-03-14 16:35:00
On the Sword and Laser forum for the current cyberpunk novel Neuromancer by William Gibson, a question was brought up about the reason for using product brand names in the novel. Many found this to detract from the story, and here was my response:There is the possibility that Gibson was saying something about branding and our culture by purposely mentioning them. Needless to say, it's a pretty bleak (if not interesting) portrayal of the world. People spending more time out of reality than in it, and when they're in reality, they are busy killing each other or taking enough drugs to forget about it (sounds pretty close to the truth to me). People are unhappy with themselves to the point of grafting machinery into their bodies in order to overcome their inadequacies. To me, in a future like this...I mean, like that...branding holds a lot of weight.This is not distracting to me, I think it strengthens the setting. More distracting (and not Gibson's fault) are the lopsided technolog...
More About: Branding

Google Calendar
2008-03-13 15:41:00
Google Calendar has a new-to-me feature of being able to sync with Microsoft Outlook.You can choose to sync both ways, Outlook appointments to Google Calendar, or Google events to Outlook Calendar. You can also choose how many minutes should pass between syncs. I tried it out (syncing Google Calendar with Outlook appointments), and was disappointed to find that it only synced with appointments that I had created, not ones that I have been invited to and accepted. So, I quickly uninstalled it. Though I wouldn't suggest using the sync application, a good feature that I did discover (not in any way connected with the sync application) is that if you invite your Gmail account to an appointment while setting it up, it will automatically add the event to your Google Calendar.Find out more about Google Calendar Sync
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There and Back Again...or Not
2008-02-12 18:45:00
The AP announced today that the Tolkien Trust and HarperCollins are suing New Line over the Lord of the Rings trilogy movies that were released in 2001, 2002, 2003. The Tolkien Trust was only paid $62,500 instead of the contracted 7.5% of gross revenue. If my trusty calculator works properly, 7.5% of $6 billion (worldwide gross revenue) is roughly $450 million. The Tolkein Trust's suit is for $150 million, an unlisted amount in punitive damages and the termination of any rights that New Line may have over Tolkien works.The Tolkien Trust is a registered charity organization in the United Kingdom established by the Tolkien estate. They have given nearly $8 million to charitable causes in the past five years. Up to this point they have tried to settle the conflict out of court to no avail. A successful court battle will certainly put a lot of food on hobbitses' plates around the UK.A side effect of the lawsuit is that it might put an end to the production of The Hobbit, which wa...
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American Gods
2008-02-06 16:48:00
Neil Gaiman's American Gods is a unique fantasy presented in modern times. The concept is that all of the gods that throughout history people have brought brought to America exist physically as well as metaphysically. These old gods have slowly been displaced by people worshiping the modern gods of TV, Internet, et al. Things are coming to a head and the unlikely ex-convict character Shadow takes the readers along for the ride.I was very much looking forward to American Gods after reading all of the hype on it but felt let down. It's not an issue with the writing, which I enjoyed, but the plot and characters. Gaiman certainly shows diversity and creativity, but to what point?I have put thought into Shadow as a character and come to believe that he was written flatly in order to believably accept all of the hurdles that were thrown at him. But, in the end this left me not very invested in the main character of the story, and feeling like he was a gimmick. All the the support...

The Next Generation of Solar Cell
2008-02-05 19:25:00
Conventional solar cells are expensive to produce and inefficient. They are produced with silicon and exotic materials which attempt to boost their effectiveness. In truth, the typical solar cell captures only about 20% of the potential solar energy and, obviously, are completely ineffective after the sun has set.A group from the National Idaho Laboratory is attempting to change that. Their new solar cell design is made up of tiny spiraling antennas printed on a thin film. Each "nanoantenna" is about 1/25 the thickness of a human hair, and made up of common materials. The result is a thin, flexible and cheap solar cell that is 80% effective and can collect energy for hours after sunset.The solar cells collect energy through resonance, the same way a television antenna picks up a signal. The difference is that the nanoantennae is designed on a scale to capture infrared waves. The key is that as the Earth heats up, it gives off infrared waves which can be collected by the anten...
More About: Solar , Cell , Solar cell , Generation , The Next Generation

Only 37,000 Years Will Tell
2008-01-25 21:27:00
AP reported today that an asteroid, "2007 TU24" which is between 500 feet and 2,000 feet long, will pass by Earth at around 300,000 miles away. Though this sounds like a large distance to us puny humans, if you look at it on a galactic scale, that is a near miss—1.4 times the distance of the moon from the Earth. As a matter of fact, an asteroid of that size passes near Earth every 5 years, and strikes Earth once in about every 37,000 years. Luckily, no known asteroid of 2007 TU24's size or larger is expected to pass this close to Earth again until 2027.Supposedly the asteroid will be viewable in dark and clear skies with amateur telescopes of 3 inch apertures or larger, so keep your eyes to the sky on January 29th at 08:33 UT.For more information, read this Discovery News article.See an interactive illustration.Another asteroid is projected to pass Mercury the following (Earth) day. This one is to pass within 16,000 miles of the inner-most planet. Early models showed a 1 i...
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Greener Gadgets
2008-01-24 14:56:00
Friday, February 1st, 2008, CEA, inhabitat and other partners are sponsoring the first Greener Gadgets Conference at McGraw-Hill Conference Center in New York City. The intent of the conference is to bring visibility to designing for sustainability, product life cycle management, take-back and recycling programs, energy efficiency, greener materials, and green lifestyle and product marketing. The conference will also showcase a prototype green office and exhibits from leading green technology companies.Engadget is giving away 5 tickets to the sold out conference. You can register here, but Engadget claims that they are going to verify that you can actually attend before giving away the tickets. So, make sure the date and place is doable before signing up. The deadline is this Sunday, the 27th.Join me in signing up, we could all use a little more knowledge when it comes to going green.

WiFi Everywhere?
2008-01-23 19:01:00
According to an Ars Technica article today, American Airlines is adding WiFi Internet access to their transcontinental flights. This will be achieved by three antennas attached to the plane that receive the signal from nearly 100 cellular towers across the United States. The signal will then be evenly dispersed through the plane's cabin by access points installed on the cabin's ceiling. The service is expected to cost ticker holders $10.This kind of news makes me feel warm all over. There is nothing more depressing than being unable to access the Internet when you're sitting around doing nothing. Although it has been years since I have regularly flown, I am very familiar with WiFi withdrawal. Now, if only Casco Bay Lines would get on the ball an install a similar service for commuters.
More About: Wifi

WTT Epic Loot for Cold Cash
2008-01-16 19:37:00
As the popularity and demand for Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs) continues to skyrocket, interesting niches have come about along with some interesting issues. One of the largest of these new niches is the abundance of auction houses and stores for purchasing virtual gear, gold, or leveled players. With this virtual economy come issues that spread beyond the game. Mainly cheats, exploits and phishing. But, as the new book Exploiting Online Games points out, players are going out of their way to covertly make money off of the game software itself. This is certainly nothing new, but it is getting to point of becoming serious as developers don't have he infrastructure in places to pick gamers that are using exploits or bots out of the crowd of millions. It appears that the infrastructure that allows gamers' PCs to connect to a persistent world hosted on a server is also the source of this conundrum.For more information, read this Security Focus article.
More About: Cold , Cash , Epic , Loot

Quill and Quillion
2008-01-15 21:28:00
Let me introduce my Ning network, Quill and Quillion. This social network is intended for fantasy writers to use as a support system for their writing. It consists of different groups which focus on different aspects of fantasy and writing. There is the Town Square which is an area for discussing fantasy writing mechanics; The Forge, for receiving help on story lines on which you are stuck; The Arena, for matching writing skills with other writers; The Alchemist's, an area for sharing story ideas; and The Tavern, for miscellaneous discussions. As time goes on, more groups will be added. My hope is to create an area for writers to go for help, and to use as a source of motivation.

Lit to Split
2008-01-15 11:44:00
When I began this blog, I never considered addressing the audience with an aside. My intentions were to be as formal as possible while hopefully invoking some thoughts in the readers and providing interesting links to more information. Yet, lately I have been silent in my blogging and wanted to let the readers know I haven't given up. Christmas was closely followed by finals for me which took away my free time. In my career as an amateur writer I have stuck closely to the idea of writing everyday for ten minutes. Even if it is the same word over and over again (what a great blog that would make), it is important to keep on writing. That was part of the point of LiTechSci; to write a little everyday and keeping it within my greatest interests to make that easier.So, going forward I am going to try to stick to that mentality. But, in order to do that my posts are going to be briefer to help make the frequency more possible. My focus will be to bring up an interesting subject, ...
More About: Split

Desk-Potatoes Are More Engaged
2007-12-27 05:26:00
MediaPost reported the other day that viewers are 47% more engaged in ads streamed online than on traditional television. The article was a result of a year's worth of research by Simmons, a company with over 50 years of experience studying television ads. The research also showed that WebTV viewers are more involved with the shows they watch and enjoy ads from Web sites they visit more often.My scientific mind wonders what this data actually correlates. Is the effectiveness of the ads dependent on the medium? That is the conclusion that the MediaPost article implies. To me, there are more variables at play. Some examples:People are more accustomed to lounging on their couch and sitting up and aware at their computersMost online software marks the location of advertisements on the video's scrubber and has a timer on the length of the ad, making ads more bearableIt's much easier to surf channels on television; location would be lost online if one browsed to another siteTel...
More About: Engaged , Potatoes , Desk

An Embuggerance
2007-12-14 14:26:00
Yesterday, fantasy author Terry Pratchett came out with news that he is suffering from form of Alzheimer's disease that attacks at a comparatively young age. The author of the Discworld series refers to the disease as an embuggerance and that he'd like things to stay cheerful. He thinks that he can come out with several more books before the disease makes writing too difficult.This is at least the second blow that Fantasy literature has suffered this year. In September we lost author Robert Jordan to amyloidosis. Jordan was unable to complete his extensive series The Wheel of Time, though the final book, A Memory of Light, will be completed by author Brandon Sanderson.We all hope that the 56-year-young Pratchett will be able to continue writing for many years to come and gets to a place he feels happy with in the Discworld series. Pratchett is known for his contemporary satirists and for being named Officer of the British Empire for services to literature in 1998. He has s...

Paradigm Shift
2007-12-03 05:40:00
Coming summer of 2008, EricNorcross.com will be launching a sister site with the intentions of broadcasting original and innovative science fiction and fantasy stories. Although he's quite a ways away from the initial launch (he's still negotiating the domain and finalizing the basic layout), in celebration of this concept, he will be offering his new novella, free of charge, to everyone who subscribes by May 1, 2008.All you gotta do? Shoot him an e-mail [eric(at)ericnorcross.com] with the subject line: SUBSCRIPTION. That's all! You don't even have to type a message... it's all automatic. Then, from the first week of May to the end of June, one chapter per week will be sent out to all subscribers in PDF format. If this works out, this will be the first of many other "internet novels" as he is coming to refer to them.As always, the literature will also be available for purchase in print through various retailers and Internet sites. If you have any feedback, feel free to give hi...
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Technocrati
2007-11-29 14:50:00
Technorati Profile

Destination Mars
2007-11-29 14:11:00
Yesterday, NASA released information about a manned trip to Mars in 2031. Although much of the information will surely change before the mission actually begins, this BBC News article contains interesting information about the planned mission.Some of the key points are:The mission will last 30 months, including 16 on MarsCargo and living quarters will be sent separately, and a few years ahead of timeThe shuttle will be powered by 3 or 4 Ares V rockets fueled by cryogenic fuelThe astronauts will be supported by a closed-loop habitat system which will recycle their air and water and allow fruits and vegetables to be grown on-boardThe mission will cost anywhere between 20 and 450 billion dollarsOverall, this is very exciting news. Few will deny that space exploration is important to our future, though many doubt anything useful will come of it. To me, the chance of being able to habitat elsewhere in the solar system is worth the extreme cost. Even if such a mission is a complete fai...
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MagLev
2007-11-27 01:12:00
Growing up, I was always enthralled by the perpetual motion machine paradox. It's one of those things that just nags at you, convincing you that there must be a way. In my mind I always envisioned a perpetual motion machine that was designed similar to a Christmas Carousel, except instead of powered by the heat from candles, powered by magnets below and on the turbine blades angled to repel. In actuality, this would not be considered a true perpetual motion machine, as the magnets create an electromagnetic field, which would be an external energy force powering the perpetual machine. Eventually, I figured this out and my dreams of winning the Nobel Prize in Physics was shattered. Yet, an article on Inhabitat reminded me of my childhood scheme.The MagLev is a giant wind turbine suspended in air by magnets. The beauty of this design (okay, so its massive size probably bashes all hope of beauty) is that very little friction slows its spinning. Really, it is only susceptible to a...

Maroon Canned Goo Good for Urinary Tract Too
2007-11-14 19:21:00
I thought this would be a good to post on, since Thanksgiving is just around the corner.At the annual meeting of the American Chemical Society, a group of researchers from Worcester Polytechnical Institute released information on the effects cranberries on E. Coli. They found that tannins found only in cranberries prevent E. Coli bacteria from attaching to cells within the human body, a necessary step for E. Coli to cause infection.Cranberry prevents infection in a couple of ways. Cranberry juice creates a barrier that keeps the bacteria away from urinary tract lining and causes the tendrils on the bacteria to shrivel, making it harder for the bacteria to attach itself. To further demonstrate the effect of cranberry on E. Coli, bacteria grown in cranberry juice cannot produce biofilm, which is needed for infection.Early results show that the more cranberry products you consume, the stronger their effects are on E. Coli. So, make sure you get an extra serving of the maroon canned...
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The Road
2007-11-13 01:00:00
It's not often that I will pick up a book with Oprah Winfrey's seal of approval on it. Regardless, I hurried to the library in which I volunteer to pick up Cormac McCarthy's The Road as soon as a friend described it to me. It's always hard for me to judge something as the best, or my favorite. I would be hard pressed to deny this book of either of those titles.The Road is a haunting tale of a father and son traveling south in a world that no longer lives. Almost all humans and every other living thing in the world is dead; the world is a desolate and ash-covered wasteland. The son's innocence and the father's anguish is almost too much to bear in contrast to their sterile surroundings. The story is told in short vignettes comprised of elegant prose. The suspense created by the duo dodging cannibalistic survivors, and their own hunt for nourishment makes the novel read almost too quickly. I will leave you with one of my favorite lines from the book."Borrowed time and bor...

I am a TWIS-Minion
2007-11-09 19:16:00
I decided that my first Science post should promote my favorite source of sciency-goodness. This Week in Science is one of my favorite podcasts; I make sure I listen to it every week. TWIS is a show on KDVS (8:30-9:30am Tuesday, on 90.3FM for anyone in the area and interested), the radio station of the University of California, Davis. It is hosted by the brilliant Dr. Kirsten Sanford, and the master of alliteration, Justin Jackson. Together they create a formidable team; Kirsten with her deep knowledge of science, and Justin with his witty spin on topics.Every week, Kirsten and Justin discuss the latest news in all science fields. They often have top scientists in their respective fields as guest speakers. More recently they added a segment called the Weird in Washington, where Dr. Michael Stebbins explains some of the more controversial developments in D.C. which may impact science research or the environment. The also play stories submitted by their listener-base, called TW...

MESDA's 15th Annual Conference
2007-11-08 20:11:00
MESDA’s 15th annual conference began with an announcement that MESDA is being renamed techMaine as it now encompasses more than just software development. Another interesting note from the opening remarks was MESDA’s placement in Google searches, such as being the second result when searching “technology events” (in actuality it is the first result as the one before is a sponsored link).The Keynote speech was given by Frederick Hayes-Roth, former Chief Technology Officer of Hewlett-Packard. The Keynote was entitled: “Getting Ahead of the Avalanche.” It discussed the rapid growth of information technology and how more intelligent techniques of filtering will be needed to parse relevant and material information out of the avalanche of incoming data. Some relevant and material information from the Keynote was: Due to Moore’s Law, by 2040 a person will be able to purchase a computer with the processing power that exceeds the combined processing power of all human brains fo...
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Is the Gphone dead, or converted into an Android?
2007-11-06 14:05:00
Technophiles alike gathered online yesterday at noon to receive word on the conference call put forth by Google and others about the upcoming, open source, mobile-device operating system, Android . Personally, I hung out on Engadget, refreshing their "live" feed from the conference call.One thing that was made clear during the conference call is that there was no Gphone in development. It had been rumored for months that Google was developing a phone to compete with Apple's iPhone. The average speculation was that the hardware would be built by a third-party, the software would be developed by Google and comprise of their many online applications, and that the service would be ad-based resulting in a low cost or an all together free device.Well, now that the Gphone rumor has been squashed, what will this Android do for you? Android is the operating system and bundle of software that Google has been developing for mobile devices. It is linux-based and open source. Most open sour...
More About: Dead , The G , Vert

The Sword and Laser
2007-11-05 15:24:00
What better way to begin my own journey in the blogasphere then by pointing out a blog which supports an online book club started by the personalities from one of my favorite podcasts, CNET's Buzz Out Loud (how's that for mashing technologies?). As the point of this blog is to express my outlook on news and information in the literature, technology and science circles, it is only fitting that my first post is a mash of literature and technology (you might even be able to squeeze science into that mash, when considering Science Fiction books).The Sword and Laser is an online book club dedicated to Fantasy and Sci-Fi books, with the intended audience of nerds. Being an avid reader of Fantasy, as well as a nerd, the potential for this site excites me. I'm glad that I discovered it early (thanks to this week's episode of TWiT, which included Veronica Belmont of Mahalo and formerly of Buzz Out Loud), and I am looking forward to catching up the first book being discussed: The Golden ...