Merged Photographs
December 23, 2005 | 3 Comments
I came across a great gallery titled “50 people see…” by brevity on the Flickr explore page.
The artist was not surprisingly influenced by Jason Salvon. I discovered his amazing Every Playboy Centerfold image about a month ago. It’s part of a larger series.
As a sidenote, I was exploring on Flickr in search of the Andy Rosen - “London Punks 1976 -1984″ gallery which was featured on Rocketboom. Another set of stunning images that are a must see. Which in turn led me to find a set of breathtaking black and whites of New York City in Hughes 500’s greyscale & Cutouts gallery.
Tags: digital photograph, flickr, gallery, hughes500, image, images, jason salvon, new york city, photo, photograph, photographs, photos, picture, salvon
World’s Longest Palindrome
December 22, 2005 | 4 Comments
Damn Interesting had a great article about The World’s Longest Palindrome. I figure this is a prime candidate for my World’s Big and Tall Series.
Peter Norvig is the person claiming to have created the world’s longest palindrome at 17,259 words. The palindrome is pretty much nonsense and based off an unimpressive dictionary. While I’m throwing out the critocisms, his algorithm also uses Python, which I think could definitely be improved on.
Damn Interesting also says:
Single-word palindromes are equally interesting. Finnish has the longest single-word palindromes, with two entries: “saippuakivikauppias,� which means “soap stone dealer�; and “solutomaattimittaamotulos,� which means “the result from a measurement laboratory for tomatoes.�
Tags: damn interesting, math, palindrome, palindromes, php, python, worlds longest, worlds longest palindrome
House of M
December 21, 2005 | 3 Comments
I just finished reading House of M.This was billed as the event in the Marvel Universe this year. Plus, it was written by Bendis, so obviously I needed to read it. The core of the title revolves around the X-Men, New Avengers, old Avengers up against Magneto and his children (The House of M). Another potential benefit was the Spider-Man: Houes of M mini series. I figured I couldn’t lose.
My expectations were a bit out of whack.
I actually think most people would benefit enough from just reading the core series or maybe just the Wikipedia article…
OK, so my first complaint is that there are a pile of titles related to this overall story. Iron Man, Mutopia, Spider-Man, Fantastic Four and more. However, there is no clear reading order published anywhere. In fact, I wonder if the side titles were even coordinated with the central title.
I started with House of M, read through the first 2, then it appeared the continuity jumped to Spider-Man: House of M, but that is where things really stopped making sense. For one, the Spider-Man title was written in way that was horribly out of character for Peter Parker, I know, it was an alternate reality, but I refuse to believe Peter could even have grown up to be as big a jerk as he’s portrayed as here…
OK, so once you jump into the Spider-Man series, there is absolutely no way to get back in the main title without breaking continuity. I’m here to say that is absolute crap. The title is authored by Mark Waid and Tom Peyer need to hang their heads in shame and hope they aren’t stripped of their duties at Marvel. OK enough on that, I’m clearly bitter…
Anyway, after the main title finishes lumbering along, it’s final 2 issues are in fact well done and justify reading this part. In fact the big revelations at the end are certain to have some lasting impact on a lot of the Marvel Universe. I do find it a bit weak that they basically protected all the A-list characters, but I guess that is to be expected.
I was re-engaged enough at this point that I took a stab at reading a couple of the other spin offs (Fantastic Four and Iron Man). Yeah, they’re wretched…
Tags: avengers, bendis, brian michael bendis, comic book, comic books, comics, fantastic four, house of m, iron man, Magneto, Mark Waid, marvel, marvel universe, mutants, spider-man, spiderman, Tom Peyer, x-men, XMen
I-Garment For Firefighters
December 19, 2005 | Leave a Comment
I found the I-Garment on Engadget. This sophisticated fire-fighting garment is being developed by the European Space Agency, Telecommunications devision (ESA). Since my father is both an emergency dispatcher and fire chief, the I-Garment seemed quite interesting.
According to their site:
The fire-fighting garment will be made with the latest and most sophisticated materials available to provided proper protection in hazardous situation, with special emphasis to user comfort and mobility.
Tightly integrated with the garment there will be an array of sensors, telecommunication, localisation, alert and processing hardware capable of collection the status and position of the fire-fighter and transmitting it wirelessly and in real time to a data collecting computer installed in local Operational Field Vehicles (OFV).
Tags: emergergency, esa, european space agency, fire, fire chief, fire fighter, firefighting, gadget, gadgets, garment, i-garment, igarment, technology
MooFlex
December 18, 2005 | 1 Comment
MooFlex is a CMS that may be interesting. What interests me primarily is their heavy AJAX usage. If this application is designed well, using modern web technologies, I am intrigued by its long term potential. As we look to find a CMS to convert our University to, we hope to have a great deal of flexibility in what we can accomplish. Some on our team have even gone as far as saying we want to create a Web 2.0 university site. We’ll see how close to that we actually get.
The company responsible for producing this is based in Italy and called mad4milk.
Tags: AJAX, cms, contend, content management, higher education, mad4milk, mooflex, university, web content, web development, web site, web20, web_20
Rocketboom, A Video Blog Worth Watching
December 15, 2005 | 9 Comments
A while ago Ken got excited about the prospect of vodcasting or vlogging or video blogging. He even tried one of his own (more in parody than earnest).
Yesterday he introduced me to Rocketboom which is an example of this technology. Finally I have a reason to be interested in video blogging. Amanda Congdon deliveres this technology heavy ultra modern vlog daily. Her delivery and expressiveness is quite engaging. She provides what I’d consider a video version of the types of things you may find daily on Digg or Slashdot.
Although, I’m pretty sure not everyone could pull this off. Certainly the fact that Amanda is easy to look at adds to the appeal…
Tags: amanda congdon, blog, blogging, digg, Newsy Goodness, rocketboom, slashdot, technology, video, video blog, vlog, vlogging, vodcast, vodcasting
The Sentry
December 14, 2005 | 5 Comments
After enjoying the first 6 issues of The New Avengers, I decided to read the next 6 part series collected in New Avengers Volume 2: Sentry. This story arc revolves around the mystery of The Sentry. In the first six parter he was involved in helping with the event that formed the New Avengers, but his back story was completely unknown to all the characters in the Marvel Universe. In the end, Bendis had me thoroughly intrigued about this character’s history.
I then discovered Sentry had originally been created in his own six part mini series by Paul Jenkins and Jae Lee in 2000. Bendis had merely resurrected this hero as an addition to New Avengers (similar to Spider-Woman and Luke Cage). So I grabbed hold of that hoping for more of the story.
The major difficulty here though is that Jenkins is no Bendis. The story was told in a way that is fragmented at best. This extremely hard to follow “origin” set Sentry up as a classic hero, older than the Fantastic Four, but forgotten by some trick. One major problem I have is that the trick doesn’t really match with the new continuity established in New Avengers. Without much surprise here, I like Bendis’ rendition better. Having heroes make heroes forget is a bad plan. Make a villain do it and I’m in. I also have some doubts about his lame sidekick and the secret serum that gives him his powers…
Anyway, the Jenkins story line does establish some interesting stuff. Sentry is arguably the most powerful hero Marvel has ever created. His powers set him up to be pretty much omnipotent. In a lot of ways this character is like DC’s Superman, but with less weaknesses. However, the man that is Sentry is somewhat humanized with a drinking problem. Another interesting tidbit here is the calming effect Sentry has on the Hulk. Apparently Sentry is able to calm Hulk and help him “evolve”. A Hulk that doesn’t mindless destroy everything certainly seems like an improvement to me…
In conclusion, Jenkins-Sentry is lame. Bendis resurrects with some success, but I still feel there is no place for the omnipotent hero in the Marvel Universe. For those interested in more about The Sentry, read his fairly detailed info on Wikipedia. As I continue reading New Avengers, maybe the guy will grow on me.
As a side note, it is revealed in the New Avengers arc that Spider Woman has some ability to emit pheromones that she can use to control people. A very cool ability for a resurrected character that is yet to see her full potential. Apparently Bendis is writing a Spider-Woman mini series that is due out this month. I guess I’ll need to read that for more of what he plans to due with this heroine…
Tags: avengers, bendis, cage, comic, comic book, comic books, comics, hulk, luke cage, marvel, marvel universe, new avengers, sentry, spider-woman, superhero, the sentry