Doctor Who Of The Day – Wilfred Mott

Benjamin SchollnickNo Comments

Okay, I understand that some people want or need to post every day… Heaven knows that I have a goal to post something every day on the Matrix… But it\’s a goal, I only try to post useful information, or comments that I know I would like to see… (eg. The Steam Weekend deals, etc).
But here\’s a Comment, that I just don\’t understand. Is this a serious question, or just a prod to try to get hits?

Doctor Who Of The Day – Wilfred Mott: \”In The End of Time, when Wilfred is trapped in the radiation chamber, why couldn\’t the Doctor fetch a teleportation device, some means to repair the chamber, or even a radiation suit of some kind?
This post started off on my blog – http://lifetheuniverseandcombom.blogspot.com – there are so many features on there that are not in the newsfeed, or posted elsewhere, you really need to check it out! Thanx!\”

While the End of Time (Parts 1 & 2), are by no means the best story ever… This comment makes little sense… The Doctor did not have 2 – 3 hours, and probably not even 15 minutes… Sure he can do a lot, but the script was written that the Chamber was going to fail within moments… And that touching any of the controls would trigger the failure immediately.
So, he simply didn\’t have the time… And the script said he didn\’t. It\’s as simple as that…
Sometimes the duck, is just a duck.

(View the rest of the article at Doctor Who Of The Day – Wilfred Mott)

Producer: Live-Action Evangelion Project Still Active

Benjamin SchollnickNo Comments

Halo Legends/Ex Machina\’s Joseph Chou: film may \’start moving even next year\’
\"evangelion-live-action-movie-poster-2.jpg\"
Ohayocon attendee Chris Adkins has been in touch to inform us that the studio discussions and fight for final rights of the Evangelion adaptation properties are in the midst of taking place, with everything still going ahead given the success of that other big robot movie, Transformers. Joseph Cho is in charge of the the Gainax/Studio relations and Matt Greenfield is hoping for some official announcements sometime in the next 9 months.
Chou discussed the difficulties of selling the concept of the film to studios in Hollywood, due to the complexity of the story. However, Chou said that \”right now we\’re with a producer and a studio that really understands beyond the whole mecha impact.\” Chou added, \”They\’re really looking beyond that, and really looking at drama, human elements, even to those elements that appeal to otaku.\”
Chou also said the reason the movie stopped moving forward was due to the anime market crash. Chou said \”the reason it stopped in its tracks was not because [John Ledford, co-founder of A.D. Vision and ADV Films] wasn\’t paying attention to it … he actually amassed a considerable amount of money, financing, for the film … but then I think he just needed to stop, because the whole market was falling apart at that time,\” and as a result the movie \”fell on the wayside.\” At that time Chou took over the task of presenting the film to Hollywood producers and studios. Chou mentioned that Ledford is still a part of the project.
The project was first announced at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival as a joint project between Gainax, Weta Workshop, and ADV Films. At that time, Ledford had given the project an \”aggressive timetable.\”
(View the rest of the article at Producer: Live-Action Evangelion Project Still Active)

Why does the gunslinger who draws first always get shot?

Benjamin SchollnickNo Comments

\”n Western films, the gunslinger that draws first always gets shot. This seems like a standard Hollywood trope but it diverted the attention of no less a scientist that Niels Bohr, one of history\’s greatest physicists. Taking time off from solving the structure of the atom, Bohr suggested that it takes more time to initiate a movement than to react to the same movement. Perversely, the second gunslinger wins because they\’re responding to their opponent\’s draw.
Now, Andrew Welchman from the University of Birmingham has found that there\’s something to Bohr\’s explanation. People do indeed have a \’reactive advantage\’, where they execute a movement about 10% more quickly if they\’re reacting to an opponent. Of course, ethics committees might frown on scientists duelling with the pistols in the name of discovery, even if the people in question were graduate students. So Welchman designed a laboratory gunfight, played out using buttons rather than guns.
Two opponents faced each other and had to press a series of three buttons as quickly as possible. To begin with, they held a central \’home key\’ with their trigger fingers and they had to wait for a short spell before before starting the round. The point where they were allowed to begin varied from trial to trial and the players weren\’t told how long it would be. There was no starting pistol or countdown. Either player could start the race but if they went too soon, an alarm would sound to signal a false-start.
These button-mashing duels revealed that, on average, the players completed their sequence 21 milliseconds faster if they reacted than if they initiated. That\’s an improvement of around 9%, and most of this advantage came at the very beginning, when they pressed the first button. It\’s an interesting result and like all good scientists, Welchman systematically considered and ruled out several possible explanations for it.
Read the rest of this post…

(View the rest of the article at Why does the gunslinger who draws first always get shot? [Not Exactly Rocket Science])

Apple Releases iPhone OS 3.1.3

Benjamin SchollnickNo Comments

Apple today released a minor update for the iPhone and iPod touch. The update which weighs in around the upper 200MB mark depending on device seems to deliver just bug fixes according to the attached release notes.
iPhone OS 3.1.2 Software Update
This update for iPhone and iPod touch contains bug fixes and improvements, including the following:

  • Improves accuracy of reported battery level on i
    Phone 3GS
  • Resolves issue where third-party apps would not launch in some instances
  • Fixes bug that may cause an app to crash when using the Japanese Kana keyboard

The update can be obtained using iTunes.

A Review of the Smarthome 2413U…

Benjamin SchollnickNo Comments

Speed.  It\’s all about the speed, and reliability.  Ah hem.  It\’s all about two things, speed, and reliability.  Certain things reduce the Wife Acceptance Factor (WAF) more than a flaky home automation system, especially if it is just a single device that is erratic…
The 2413U solved that for us, along with a small timing tweak in a particular AppleScript…

Why?  What makes it different from the 2412U or 2414U?

First let\’s back up, the 2413U is a \”Powerline Modem\”, used for Insteon Home Automation.  In particular, I use the Indigo software package to manage and control my home automation…  This, the 2413U, is the computer interface for this powerline / RF mesh home automation network.  Currently there are three different PLM controllers available, the 2414U & 2412U, which are powerline only.  And the 2413U which support the powerline and RF mesh network in a single controller. Continue reading →

Let Doctor Who Explain This Supernova To You [Afternoon Reading]

Benjamin SchollnickNo Comments

Astronomers witnessed a supernova in progress, observing jets of material moving at relativistic speeds: up to half the speed of light. Scientist Megan Argo wanted to explain this exciting discovery to the public, so she wrote a Doctor Who story.

As the highly technical press release explains, scientists were able to detect \’relativistic outflow\’ in a supernova for the first time, thanks to unprecedented cooperation between radio telescopes using Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI). They discovered that one narrow bipolar jet of material was moving at half the speed of light.

But Argo, working at Jodrell Bank, came up with a much cooler way to explain this discovery to the public, the story called \’Doctor Who And The Silver Spiral.\’ David Tennant\’s Doctor, accompanied by Martha, visit this supernova up close and personal, and get caught up in the very same shock wave that astronomers just discovered. Argo does a great job of capturing the Tennant Doctor\’s verbal tics.

\’You see that one?\’ he said, pointing to a large red star to one side of the cluster. \’It\’s just one ordinary star doing what it does but, any minute now, for a tiny fraction of time, it will become brighter than this entire galaxy! The explosion will be visible in the skies of thousands of species across hundreds of galaxies. To most of them it\’s just another transient star, but not you humans, oh no! Scientists on your planet point as many telescopes as they can at it. They even give it a name: 2007gr.\’

She grimaced.

\’No, not very poetic really,\’ he admitted. \’Logical though – because they discover it in 2007. You lot, all you\’ve got to understand the universe are the photons you collect, those tiny little pathetic scraps of energy that travel on through the universe until they hit something. And yet you know so much! That\’s what I love about you humans, always curious, always trying to understand, study and catalogue the universe, and, even when you don\’t know all the facts, always blundering on…\’

\’You can talk!\’ retorted Martha.

\’Yeah… gets me into trouble,\’ he said with a grin that stretched from ear to ear, \’but that\’s half the fun!\’