Babbage Engine

Sunday, May 11th, 2008

Charles Babbage designed computers in the mid-1800’s - though operating with gears, many were effectively digital. He designed (yet never successfully completed building) the “Difference Engine no. 2″ - designed to do complex polynomial equations (necessary at the time for navigation reference tables, etc.).

In 2002, the “Babbage Engine no. 2″ was finally built (London Science Museum), and in March 2008 a second one was built, and as of today the second one is on display at the Computer History Museum (Mountain View, CA) for the next year. Went to the opening event today.

Bonus Round: Babbage Groupies


(photo courtesy of Dana Chrisler)

This is an actual Ada Lovelace tattoo (a mathematician and colleague of Charles Babbage) - perhaps the only one of its kind in existence. Its owner was at the exhibit opening today.

Parade

Tuesday, May 6th, 2008

PLAY THIS SONG FOR AT LEAST 3 MINUTES - you’ll thank me.

 
icon for podpress  John Linnell - Nevada: Play Now | Play in Popup

Last Saturday was the 86th annual Palo Alto May Fete.

It’s a parade.
But it may be one of the only parades in the world where you can see Brownies, Imperial Stormtroopers, Kung Fu schools, highschool bands, go-carts, and a street cleaner.

It’s awesome.

Maker Faire 2008 is ON!

Saturday, May 3rd, 2008

Oh man . . . my creativity gland is sore from spending the day at the 2008 Maker Faire. I don’t even have the energy to make a video of it; below are some photo highlights.

If you live in the Bay Area: GO!
It’s happening tomorrow (Sunday) also.
GO! . . . and be crafty.

Bonus Round: Hacker Mullet!

Events Calendar for the Rest of 2008

Tuesday, April 29th, 2008

Bookmark this post - we will be updating this schedule as events appear

Here’s a working list of upcoming bitchin’ stuff, mark your calendars:

MAY
May 1 - The Breeders will make an appearance at Amoeba Music, San Francisco.

May 2 - The film Iron Man opens.
May 2 - The (limited) opening of the film Son of Rambow.

May 3-4The Maker Faire, San Mateo County Fairgrounds.
May 4 - The Japanese Nikkei Matsuri Festival in Japantown, San Jose.

May 6-7 - Flight of the Conchords play the Town Hall Theatre, NY.

May 9-11 - The 37th annual Stanford Pow-Wow.

May 16 - Actor/author/director Henry Winkler speaks at the Menlo Park library. Coool! ‘The Fonz.”

May 17 - The Blogadilla 1 year anniversary!!

May 22 - The long-awaited film Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull opens.
May 22 - The Yard Dogs Road Show hobo cabaret plays the Rio Theatre in Santa Cruz, CA.

May 23 - The (limited) opening of the John Cusack film War, Inc..

May 24-25 - The Morgan Hill Mushroom Mardi Gras, Morgan Hill, CA.

May 25 - The Neil Diamond cover band SuperDiamond plays Golden Gate Fields, Berkeley.
May 25 - NASA’s Phoenix Lander will land near the north pole of Mars.
May 25 - The Crucible in conjunction with NASA present a Mars-themed show “Fire and Ice,” Oakland, CA.

May 27 - Flight of the Conchords play Hob Hill Masonic Center, San Francisco.

May 29 - Flight of the Conchords play Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco.

May 31 - The Neil Diamond cover band SuperDiamond plays Harrah’s, Lake Tahoe.

(more…)

Maker Faire 2008

Tuesday, April 29th, 2008

This Saturday and Sunday (May 3nd - 4st) is Make Magazine’s third annual ‘Maker Faire’ - a festival of DIY and all things hacker.

At the San Mateo County Fairgrounds, adult day pass $25, student $15, child $10.

Here’s a video I made of last year’s Maker Faire:

Ben & Jerry’s ‘Free Cone Day’!!

Tuesday, April 29th, 2008

My three favorite words: FREE CONE DAY

No, it’s not a joke - today is ‘Free Cone Day’ at Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream Stores, to celebrate their 30th anniversary of dairy loving.

(via Isabel - thanks!)

“And YOU KNOW WHAT Leslie . . . ?!”

Sunday, February 17th, 2008

I usually could give a flying F$%# about celebrities.
Other than making fun of them.
Go Fug Yourself has a great drunken Lindsay Lohan and Sharon Stone dialogue - this is some brilliant comedy writing.

(via Susan)

Phlyers

Tuesday, February 5th, 2008

A spectacular gallery of old school rap/hip-hop party flyers.
This is like an archaeological record of the early history of hip-hop.
Also, they make great laptop wallpapers.

Santa Clauses Are Coming to Town (Run For Your Lives)

Sunday, December 16th, 2007

What is red and white and barfs all over?

Last night (December 15th), several major world cities were hit with flash-mobs of thousands of Santa Clauses. Christmas is near and once again Santarchy / Santacon has arrived. Last night, San Francisco was swarmed with drunk and festive Santas wearing cheap suits and drinking cheaper alcohol.

Flickr photoalbums of Santacon / Santarchy, San Francisco 2007:
On Tipsy!,
On Shoutey!,
On Barfey and Sh!tzen!

Video from 2006

To the Big Ramp in the Sky…

Friday, November 30th, 2007

Three days after settling a law suit against Kanye West, Evel Knievel has left us. The man certainly didn’t lead an easy life.

I’m putting the brakes on my proclivity towards discussing the love/hate relationship with Kanye that haunts my every thought as well as the handful of half baked conspiracy theories that have amassed in the old brain basement.

Instead, please enjoy this beautiful tribute to Evel.

Live Nude Dinosaurs

Thursday, November 15th, 2007

If there is one thing the history of evolution has taught us - it’s that animatronic dinosaurs will not be contained. Animatronic dinosaurs break free, expand to new territory, and crash through barriers . . . painfully . . . maybe even dangerously.

Walking with Dinosaurs: The Live Experience.

Oh man . . . ROBOTS and DINOSAURS!! Two supercool things in one place (much like bacon and chocolate). On tour now, the Bay Area venue is the San Jose HP Pavillion, December 26-30.

The Walking with Dinosaurs website video.

Dead Show

Friday, November 2nd, 2007

The Latin American holiday Dia de los Muertos “Day of the Dead” is today, November 2nd. It is a Precolombian celebration to honor deceased family and friends . . . and Frida Kahlo. This year Redwood City made a great first attempt at a city-sponsored Dia de los Muertos celebration. Traditional dancers, sugar skulls, Oingo Boingo album artwork, pan de los muertos ["bread of the dead"], taquitos de los muertos ["little tacos of the dead"], Chihuahuas de los muertos ["lapdogs of the dead"], churros de los muertos ["breadsticks of the dead"], and tons of enthusiastic dead ancestor fans.

Well done, Redwood City.
Now please make the rest of the year in Redwood City suck less.

EARTHf*&%ingQUAKE!!!

Wednesday, October 31st, 2007

This evening we had an earthquake here in the South Bay Area.
Magnitude: 5.6.
Location: San Jose-ish.
No big deal.

A list of lame things to do during an earthquake

•Duck-and-cover beneath your 100 gallon fishtank.
•Play Jenga.
•Find shelter underground: a deep parking garage or an old mineshaft.
•Get a tattoo.
•Climb onto the roof of your 7 story apartment building so nothing will fall on you.
•Wait for FEMA to bring help.
•Trim your eyelashes or nose hair.
•Seek shelter in a greenhouse or a cactus nursery.

Halo 3 Prelaunch Party

Wednesday, September 26th, 2007

When?: September 24th, 2007
Where?: The Microsoft Hall of Doom, Silicon Valley
What?: The HALO 3 Prelaunch Party
Who?: Blogadilla “reporter in the field” - James
Why?: ’cause it’s cool.

Here’s James’ report:
“This last Monday evening, I was lucky enough to be invited by Microsoft to the longest commercial I’ve ever been privileged to partake in. The interesting thing about it being that everyone there was already going to buy the damn product they were hocking. I speak of course of Halo 3, that dastardly game that has taken over the airwaves (as well as the inter-tubes) for a few weeks now, and is at this very moment hogging precious time on beautiful HD TVs the world over.

I attended a pre-launch party for this game-of-games, and it was an… interesting experience. First let me say that after having looked at some coverage of other pre-launches around the world, this one kinda sucked. There was some delicious food, and even more delicious beer (thank you Tide house, even though your bartender did try to sell me on it. Why the hell would I ask for an Ironwood if I don’t already like it?), but none of the huge excitement of the others. Sorry for the bad quality photos, my phone was having a bad day; please bear with me. Here (A) is what it looked like when I walked up. (click to enlarge)

This line carried a few dozen back, and took about 5 minutes or so to get through. Obviously we’re not talking the standard late-teen to college crowd, but rather the Silicon Valley tech geeks we all know and love.

(more…)

Mark your calendars.

Friday, September 14th, 2007

September 19: Talk Like A Pirate Day. That’s right around the corner. Mateys.

December 8: Pretend to Be a Time Traveler Day. If you’re stumped, the Web site offers many helpful suggestions about how to carry this off:

  • Walk up to random people and say “WHAT YEAR IS THIS?” and when they tell you, get quiet and then say “Then there’s still time!” and run off.
  • If you go the “prisoner who’s escaped the future” try shaving your head [Contributor's note: This one would work really well for fellow Blogadiller timbotron] and putting a barcode on the back of your neck. Then stagger around and stare at the sky, as if you’ve never seen it before.
  • Take some trinket with you (it can be anything really), hand it to some stranger, along with a phone number and say “In thirty years dial this number. You’ll know what to do after that.” Then slip away. 

I can hardly wait to see who actually observes these…holidays.

2007 MTV VMA’s

Monday, September 10th, 2007

If you missed the MTV VMA’s last night, which is totally understandable if you did because, well, MTV sucks; you should at least check out Sarah Silverman’s opening bit which followed a less than amateur performance by Britney Spears. Silverman’s comedic style is so well suited for hosting award shows because she’s great at creating an awkward setting and is not afraid to call out certain “celebrities” for being stupid people in “real life.” Overall the show seemed to lack any genuine excitement. I’m not surprised. There is something about today’s American pop-culture that is disgustingly reminiscent about high school to me. Whatever…I’m blogging about it, which is what they want, right? Anyhow, watch the clip. You’ll feel pleasantly uncomfortable.

Sarah Silverman VMA’s

Hunka-Hunka Peanut Butter and Banana

Thursday, August 16th, 2007




Thirty years ago today (August 16th), Elvis Aaron Presley “left the building” forever. In an odd yet brilliant marketing move, Reese’s (Hershey’s) released the commemorative limited-edition Peanut Butter and Banana Creme cup (Elvis was fond of peanut butter and banana sandwiches [recipe]).

Best Elvis movie of all time: “Bubba Ho-tep”

Hail to the King, Baby.

Something Dippy This Way Comes

Saturday, July 21st, 2007

Location:
Kepler’s Books in Menlo Park, CA. In a sea of thousands awaiting the new Harry Potter book.

Local Time and Date:
11:30PM, July 20th, 2007. 30 minutes until we find out what happens to Harry! OhMyGod!

Local Mood:
Compared to the premier of the iPhone, there are actually less people dressed like Harry Potter. And more Yodas. I can understand the 2,000+ costumed kids at this literacy cluster-f***, but the hundreds of dressed up 20- and 30-year-olds reek of a Dungeons & Dragons convention.

My Mood:
Do I personally care? No. Haven’t even seen all the movies. No robots or nudity. Don’t get me wrong - any author who can get millions of children excited to read while simultaneously pissing-off the religious right is a national hero. But when there is a 45 year old man running around in a cape pushing his way to the front of the line to buy a book, we’ve moved beyond literature - J. K. Rowling has invented crack for geeks (or the antidote for sexiness).

‘What Is It?’ of the Week: The 7 Wonders of the World

Sunday, July 8th, 2007

[Note: yes, I know this is technically a "What Are They?," but I'm trying to be consistent with the title.]


On July 7, 2007 (7/7/07), the New 7 Wonders organization announced the results of their global election to nominate the New Seven Wonders of the World, which will “represent global heritage throughout history.”

The newly elected Seven Wonders of the World are:

•The (insanely touristed) ancient Maya site of Chiche’n Itza’ in Yucatán, Mexico.
•The Christ the Redeemer Statue overlooking Rio De Janeiro, Brazil.
•The Great Wall of China - “Keeping China Mongol-free since the 5th Century BC!”
•The ancient Inca citadel of Machu Pichu in Peru.
•The Palace Tombs of the ancient Nabataean city of Petra in Jordan - the apparent resting place of the Holy Grail in “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.”
•The Roman Colosseum in <duh>Rome</duh>.
•The Taj Mahal in India.

Among the many losing candidates are: pretty much everything else in the world that is not those seven things.


The original/traditional list of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World comes from Greek Poet Antipater of Sidon (~140 BC). All are destroyed except for the Great Pyramid at Giza:
•The Hanging Gardens of Babylon (at present day Al Hillah, Iraq).
•The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus (at present day Ephesus, Turkey).
•The Statue of Zeus at Olympia (at present day Olympia, Greece)
•The Mausoleum of Maussollos* at Halicarnassus (*where the word mausoleum came from) (at present day Bodrum, Turkey).
•The Colossus of Rhodes (at the present day Greek Island of Rhodes).
•The Pharos (Lighthouse) of Alexandria (at present day Alexandria, Egypt).
•The Great Pyramid of Giza (nearby present day Cairo, Egypt).

Even more exciting: the Seven Wonders of Canada.

The 4th of July - A Holiday for Pyromaniacs

Thursday, July 5th, 2007

Every Independence Day the residents of Santa Cruz, California pay homage to this nation’s founders by blowing up beaches. Behold the fury: