Month: October 2007
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Whoops
Unstuck the post feed. It turns out when you tell WordPress to publish stuff in 2008, it doesn’t go ‘no, he probably didn’t mean that’ and publish them anyway…
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Another step for our Robot Overlords
[Olympus is releasing cameras that detect when you’re smiling](http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/digital-cameras/olympus-fe-series-cameras-have-smile-recognition-other-fun-features-up-to-12-megapixels-292473.php). Of course, because it’s an Olympus it will then take a further three seconds to actually *take* the photo. But it will be **exactly** three seconds after you smiled…
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Election07: Five weeks to go
Another quiet day following a quiet-ish opening week to the campaign. Only two major announcements this week: the tax plans of the two parties. And only one major non-policy issue, the debate debate. John Howard and Kevin Rudd meet for the debate tomorrow night, and we still have an incredible five(!) weeks until this is…
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Cute Wars IV: A New Hope
[Super deformed Star Wars plush figures](http://www.thinkgeek.com/geektoys/plush/9405/). [Super Deformed](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_deformed), in case you don’t know, is the art style where the character has a very big head, which started in Japan.
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Private flight on the moon?
[TV personality Robert X. Cringely is leading an effort for a private moon flight](http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/2007/pulpit_20070927_003043.html). Given his previous efforts to [build a plane](http://www.amazon.com/Plane-Crazy-3pc-Gift-Set/dp/B00003A9RW), I greatly look forward to this one.
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The man who saved the world
[Chilling story of how close World War III came in 1983](http://www.overcomingbias.com/2007/09/926-is-petrov-d.html). And the man who saved us all. I’m with [Megan McArdle](http://meganmcardle.theatlantic.com/archives/2007/09/spasebo_stanislav_petrov.php): Why is there not some kind of prize for this man. Possibly some kind of prize for creating peace?
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A year in design
[The American Institute of Graphic Art Year in Design selections](http://designarchives.aiga.org/) Hours and hours of clever graphic design here.
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Oh, I say, Jolly Good Show
[John Cleese to start podcasting](http://tpn.thepodcastnetwork.com/2007/09/27/john-cleese-to-release-new-video-series-in-conjunction-with-the-podcast-network/). While I’m talking about The Podcast Network, I should mention that their [Napoleon 101](http://napoleon.thepodcastnetwork.com/) podcast is superb.
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Election07: Roulette wheel edition
*Annoucements*: The ALP [rolls out its tax policy](http://alp.org.au/media/1007/msloo190.php). $31 billion, plus $3 billion in education and health expenditure. *Polls*: Big day for polls. [Galaxy](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/10/20/woz120.xml) ALP 53-47, [AC Nielsen](http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/10/19/2063636.htm?site=elections/federal/2007?WT.srch=1) ALP 54-46, [Morgan Telephone](http://www.roymorgan.com/news/polls/2007/4229) ALP 55.5-44.5. Thirty six days until we see where the roulette wheel lands.
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How little things change
[A film projector from 1958](http://www.shorpy.com/project-management-1958). Having been involved in a film society, I can tell you that it looks pretty much (with a few small things only) like the ones in the back of small cinemas today. Still, I suppose when you’ve basically just got a big lightbulb, a shutter and a lot of film…