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Dr. Samuel Says
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Rants
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Written by Dr. Samuel Centralia, Ph.D., D.D.S., Esq.
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Monday, 11 August 2008 |
Got into a long discussion the other day with my good friend Mark, about how MP3 and digital revolution is changing the experience of listening to music in a truly fundamental way. Mark, a rabid audiophile and the smartest music writer I know, is managing editor at Pitchforkmedia and gets paid to think about these kinds of things long and hard.
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Last Updated ( Monday, 11 August 2008 )
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Arts & Science
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Written by Dr. Samuel Centralia, Ph.D., D.D.S., Esq.
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Friday, 08 August 2008 |
As loyal readers are aware, Uncle Doc has held down a great many professional jobs in his life. Nothing too special, and most of the pedestrian variety befitting a man with several dozen advanced degrees. Associate Chair of the Physics Department at Yale. Operations director at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. NHRA owner/driver. Head of Israeli intelligence. This sort of thing.
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Last Updated ( Friday, 08 August 2008 )
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Smart Design
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Written by Dr. Samuel Centralia, Ph.D., D.D.S., Esq.
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Tuesday, 05 August 2008 |
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With the notable exception of the Wii, exactly none of my favorite gadgets and gizmos require anything from me in the way of physical exertion. Which is fine by me, except that, since retiring from active espionage fieldwork, I just don't get the regular exercise I used to. Nothing gets the blood pumping like evading Stasi agents in the labyrinthine tunnel systems under East Berlin, I'll tell you.
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 05 August 2008 )
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Bidness
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Written by Dr. Samuel Centralia, Ph.D., D.D.S., Esq.
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Tuesday, 22 July 2008 |
If you're wondering what to get me for my birthday, and I know you are, my current tech fetish obsession is for a device that sadly does not yet exist. The concept is simple, the execution -- not so much, evidently. So check it out, and let the notion percolate for a while: iPod with satellite radio. Glorious, no?
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 22 July 2008 )
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Bidness
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Written by Dr. Samuel Centralia, Ph.D., D.D.S., Esq.
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Thursday, 17 July 2008 |
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When digital file-sharing via the Internet first made its tenuous inroads toward mainstream consumer acceptance, I did what I normally do in these situations. Extrapolated wildly on the potential application of such technology taken to extremes. I pictured a global cultural datasphere of all of our planet's film, music, books and art accessible by anyone, anywhere, at any time.
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 17 July 2008 )
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Weirdness
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Written by Dr. Samuel Centralia, Ph.D., D.D.S., Esq.
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Thursday, 26 June 2008 |
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Counted them up today, and realized I now have four PCs and three Macs
in the main office here at Dyscern World HQ. All are in various stages
of decay and disrepair, and some are quite old indeed. The real
artifact of the collection is a Macintosh 128K, which still works,
barely, and which can still occasionally beat me at Risk.
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 26 June 2008 )
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Arts & Science
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Written by Dr. Samuel Centralia, Ph.D., D.D.S., Esq.
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Wednesday, 25 June 2008 |
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I've been monkeying around in the lab this week, looking at backlight options for several new gadget initiatives here at Dyscern World HQ. Backlighting is one of those humble little technologies that you never really notice, but tend to miss it considerably when it's not working. Like the illumination on your watch or iPod. Or the dashboard display in your car. Or time machine. Once, due to a dim backlight, my trip to 1973 dumped me in the Precambrian era. That sucked.
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 25 June 2008 )
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Arts & Science
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Written by Dr. Samuel Centralia, Ph.D., D.D.S., Esq.
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Thursday, 12 June 2008 |
I can safely say that this short film clip is not something I ever expected to see on the corporate website for Philips Electronics. Um, I'm going to have to use some words here that may strike you as incongruous in a consumer technology blog. Let us steel ourselves. The film is rather sensual, rather erotic, rather beautiful. Click over and I think you'll agree.
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 12 June 2008 )
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Arts & Science
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Written by Dr. Samuel Centralia, Ph.D., D.D.S., Esq.
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Wednesday, 04 June 2008 |
Some fascinating new research published in the journal Nature this week. Like most Dyscern readers, I suspect, I like to keep a stack of scientific journals in the kitchen for light reading over breakfast. In the study, researchers used location-tracking data from cell phones to monitor the movement patterns of that fascinating species, the Modern Urban Denizen.
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 04 June 2008 )
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Bidness
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Written by Dr. Samuel Centralia, Ph.D., D.D.S., Esq.
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Wednesday, 04 June 2008 |
Here at Dycern World HQ, Research and Development Division, we pride ourselves on our catholic tastes. We track news and trends that might appear, at first glance, to wander far afield of personal consumer electronic concerns. But it is here that we often find stories that turn out to be the most telling indicators. (Our prescience is enhanced, we must concede, by the platoon of genetically modified, precognitive rhesus monkeys we keep in Lab B.)
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Last Updated ( Monday, 09 June 2008 )
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Weirdness
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Written by Dr. Samuel Centralia, Ph.D., D.D.S., Esq.
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Thursday, 29 May 2008 |
A couple of update items this week. You will remember our discussion from a few months ago regarding monkey-controlled robots. Well, believe it or not, they're back in the news. This time, in an apparently unrelated study, researchers at the University of Pittsburgh have once again attached electrodes to monkey brains and wired them up to robots. Must be an emerging field.
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 29 May 2008 )
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Bidness
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Written by Dr. Samuel Centralia, Ph.D., D.D.S., Esq.
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Thursday, 22 May 2008 |
Experience is a stern taskmaster, and over the years I have learned from my many mistakes. There are, in particular, three things I simply do not do anymore. I don't use ammonium nitrate as an oxidizing agent, I don't pay attention to Sports Illustrated's preseason baseball picks, and I don't bet against Bill Gates.
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 22 May 2008 )
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Weirdness
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Written by Dr. Samuel Centralia, Ph.D., D.D.S., Esq.
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Thursday, 22 May 2008 |
Clicking around, looking for various solar powered gadgets (they make lovely gifts during the wedding season), it occurred to me that one could easily operate an entire retail store offering only solar powered equipment. I figured I ought to google this up before jumping into another hastily-considered entrepreneurial project. Good thing I did, as several dozen such stores already exist, most in the Southwest, predictably.
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Last Updated ( Monday, 02 June 2008 )
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New Toys
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Written by Dr. Samuel Centralia, Ph.D., D.D.S., Esq.
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Tuesday, 20 May 2008 |
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I finally talked the Powers That Be here at Dyscern World HQ into
springing for a Wii console. I'd been doing some hand-eye coordination
experiments with the rhesus monkeys, and wanted to see if they could
actually play a round of virtual golf. Turns out that, not only can
they, they're averaging 6-under-par for 9 holes. Those are PGA Tour
numbers, and if I play my cards right, we're all going to retire fat
and happy.
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 20 May 2008 )
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Smart Design
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Written by Dr. Samuel Centralia, Ph.D., D.D.S., Esq.
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Friday, 16 May 2008 |
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In NYC this week, for the International Contemporary Furniture Fair
(ICFF ). All the best designers congregate here every year to show off
their latest offerings -- chairs, tables, cabinets, this sort of thing.
I kind of have a thing for contemporary design. You might think a
furniture maker convention would be a boring crowd -- not so. These
guys can party, and the Russian studios always have the best vodka.
Also, the most fashionable couches on which to pass out.
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Last Updated ( Friday, 16 May 2008 )
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