Yay!

afaik_ianal writes "A working reconstruction of an ancient Greek computer, the Antikythera mechanism, which was found at the bottom of the ocean in 1900 has been unveiled and is on display at the Technopolis museum, in Athens. The device is believed to have been used to calculate the positions of various celestial bodies including the sun and the moon on any given date. While some guesswork was required in the reconstruction, the bulk of the design is based on updated X-ray photographs of the device."

Slashdot: News for nerds, stuff that matters

Straight From Slashdot!

daria42 writes "The much-hyped Flock, a new browser based on Mozilla Firefox and integrating features like RSS feeds, blogging tools, the del.icio.us social bookmarking and Flickr photo sharing services has just launched a public developer preview to the world. Flock is being driven by a team of developers being led by Bart Decrem, a well-known open source developer who co-founded the ill-fated Eazel project back in 1999 and has been involved with both the Mozilla and GNOME foundations. On his blog this week he says Flock won't be forking the Firefox codebase."

Slashdot: News for nerds, stuff that matters

Go google, fewls!

An Idiot's Guide to Anime

...Being a tale of series.

• Nadesico: Anime for wimps. The series follows a sci-fi plot with all the elements that make up a classic Anime, just watered down (apparently an intentional move on the part of the creators, it being part spoof). Yes, there ARE big robots with guns.
  
• Evangelion: Absolutely marvelous. THE Anime against which all others are judged. The viewer is exposed to an extraordinarily intense plot that twists around epic battles, brilliantly portrayed characters, Judeo-Christian symbolism and big robots with guns. This WILL crush your soul.
• FLCL (Furi-Kuri): A rather short (six episodes) series that will befuddle and confuse you until the very end (and even then, questions are left unanswered). Despite the seemingly random sequence of events, however, this mini-series is definitely worth watching for the fantastic story-telling, the great art and the exceptional music (a note on the music: the soundtrack for the series is done by a Japanese rock band called the Pillows, which I am now rather fond of). The latter is rather important as the series is, thematically speaking, deeply involved in music, especially guitar symbolism (the creator of FLCL is, I gather, a bassist). It's a great ride - and yes, there ARE big robots with guns (though quite different from the standard mech type found in Nadesico and Evangelion. These robots come out of cranial cavities - don't ask, just watch). Do I sense a theme?
• Kino's Journeys: (Have not finished watching) My favourite non-combat-oriented Anime. Follows a traveller and her motorcycle through country-after-country, each episode illustrating some theme or concept. It's a quiet kind of Anime, with a greater emphasis on cognitive imagery rather than action. Rather endearing about the series is the style of art used to portray scenes: there is a lot of emphasis on lighting, especially with what I might term 'overglows' - the effect obtained by the filling of a scene with light that seems to exude from every point. Also prevalent is a fascination with early-to-mid 20th Century technology, a fascination that I share - the motorcycle is absolutely gorgeous. So far, I rather like it.
• Gunslinger Girls: Just two episodes down, but I have this to say: no big robots with guns here. Instead, this show features little girls with guns. Hallelujah.
  

Here endeth the lesson.

My Room

Rostic, one of my roommates, has just obtained a new camera. So, without any further ado, my room!

What Dan Newman Does in His Free Time

Sodomy in the ranks!

Yes, that IS a duct tape whip. How geekily erotic.

 

A Day in Boston

Well, I didn't get myself a record player today. No sirree, I went hunting for different game. My brave band of hunters and I set out at the second stroke of the clock after noon, slipping through the urban wastelands, striding from train to train, platform to platform, pursuing a single objective with almost fanatical determination.

And then, we found it.
9 Dollars later, I became the proud owner of a rather nice jacket. I love second hand stores.

For anybody in the Boston area with a few dollars to spare and a will for a jacket (or shirt/pair of jeans/dress), check out the Garment District on Broadway in Cambridge. Lots of cheap, good clothes. There is even one section with clothes just lying around in piles on the floor, where you purchase by the pound (at the rate of a dollar a pound, I believe). An interesting place, if nothing else.

Pick of the Day? Zack found a Brandeis sweatshirt on one of the racks, which Katherine then bought (partially for posterity, but primarily for her boyfriend).

We then left the store with our spoils and went in search of fine dining, which we then found at Bartley's Burger Cottage in Harvard Square, where we enjoyed large burgers and a multitude of fries. This glorious culinary experience was topped off with a visit to Harrell's Ice Cream, where rather scrumptious feats of icecreamage can be obtained.


What happens now? Well, plans are in the making for a Halo party soon - or rather, several Halo parties. The first will be small - only two Xbox units linked up - but we hope to have a rather large 16 player bash in the foreseeable future.
Humayun - come here and we'll hold one in your honour.


Also being planned is an authentic DnD game in our hall (Rags will be proud). I have decided to be the cleric or the mage, having the most necessary attribute for the job (namely, Intelligence - well, according to Morrowind, at any rate). We were supposed to start tonight, but our Dungeon Master was called away on urgent business (i.e. he abandoned us, the fewl).


My kingdom for a record player!

Note: Ravi Shankar concert tomorrow. Also, my mom is now officially one year older.