Silicon Valley's secret military history

The psychedelic history of Silicon Valley is well-told in two recent fantastic books, John Markoff's What The Dormouse Said and Fred Turner's From Counterculture to Cyberculture. But there's another somewhat darker parallel history too. In this video from a 2008 talk at the Computer History Museum, Steve Blank explores the shadowy military roots of the Bay Area's high tech hub. "Secret History of Silicon Valley" (Thanks, Jacques Vallée!)

It's long so kick back and relax...

Real or Unreal,. that is the Japanese Pop question...

This is Eguchi Aimi. She’s the latest of the Japanese pop group AKB48 and a very lovely girl. But Eguchi Aimi is not what she seems. This Sunday, she shocked all her fans revealing her dark secret. You’ve to watch this.



This is Eguchi Aimi. She’s the latest of the Japanese pop group AKB48 and a very lovely girl. But Eguchi Aimi is not what she seems. This Sunday, she shocked all her fans revealing her dark secret. You’ve to watch this.

Look at this video closely. You can see the seven members of AKB48 advertising some Japanese candy. Among them, centre stage, is the lovely girl that you can see in the gallery and on top, Eguchi Aimi. She looks just like the others, all big eyes, juicy lips, perfect cheeks, cute chin, blinding smile and angelical look. Look at her sing. So cute.

The great pretender

The fact is that yes, she looks exactly like the others. Literally. The big eyes, the juicy lips, the perfect cheeks, the cute chin, the blinding smile and the angelical look belong to the other six member of AKB48. Eguchi Aimi is not a real person, she has been composed in a computer using parts from the humans in AKB48. Her fans, who are legion, just learn about it this week, when this shocking video demonstrating the process, was published in YouTube:

The synthesis and post-production that have gone into Eguchi is simply uncanny. Taking 150 gigabytes of memory, she’s the perfect example of the world we are going to head, in which men and machine, “reality” and “reality” will collide in a new way that would make humans blend into the digital world and the digital world come into the flesh and bones.

And while the Eguchi Aimi phenomenon may be just anecdotical, the fact that a synthetic creation has been able to make their fans to have crushes and feelings without them never realising she was a figment of someone’s imagination, a digital mutant mix, is not a simple anecdote. That’s very real. When people perceive such a being as real, and that being causes an emotive response in them, then that makes that character part of reality.

The fact is that all this is not science fiction anymore. It’s science. And just a matter of time before there’s a huge jump that puts together synthetic lifeforms out of the screen and into the physical world. “A new world of machines and possibilities!” as Dalí said in his futurist manifesto.

And, as we walk into this new world, I can’t help but to ask myself: Would I be able to fall in love with a synthetic being? Would you? And what will happen then, when humans and digitals collide and merge?

It’s been the subject of movies and books for most of the 20th century. But literature and film is one thing. Watching it happening right in front of you is quite different. [Singularity Hub]

New Official ‘The Hobbit’ Photos of Bilbo Baggins and Gandalf the Grey

Thank the elves that Peter Jackson is doing another Tolkien movie. I’m already feeling the hype for The Hobbit after already watching The Fellowship of the Ring extended last week and The Two Towers extended this past week in theaters. Next week is going to conclude with the debut of LOTR Trilogy on Blu-ray and Return of the King extended in theaters on Tuesday, June 28th.

Finally, our first look at the official photos of Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins and Ian McKellen as Gandalf the Grey. Each image for The Hobbit contains Peter Jackson’s comments.

”He fits the ears, and he’s got some very nice feet,” Jackson says of his Bilbo. ”I think he’s got the biggest hobbit feet we’ve had so far. They’re a little bit hard to walk in, but he’s managed to figure out the perfect hobbit gait.”

”He’s in fantastic form,” Peter Jackson says of McKellen. ”In a way, his role in The Hobbit has more technical difficulties than Lord of the Rings did, because he has scenes with 14 smaller characters — obviously the dwarves and the hobbit are shorter… I remember saying to him [laughs], ”Look, this isn’t Waiting for Godot or King Lear. This is The Hobbit. This is the real thing.”

”There’s no way you can pace yourself for shoots like these,” Jackson says. ”When we were going through the schedule for The Hobbit, I felt a terrible drop in my stomach when I saw that we’d be shooting for 254 days. We’re only 12 days short of The Lord of the Rings even though we’re only doing two movies. When I saw that, I had to sort of pick myself up off the floor and carry on.”

The Hobbit hits theaters on December 14, 2012 and December 2013.

Source: EW

Thin film coating makes everlasting energy a piezoelectric possibility

Let's be honest, it's no big secret that we're running out of dead dinosaurs to fuel our lives. And with recent natural catastrophes proving atomic energy isn't what you'd call 'safe,' it's a good thing the researchers down at the RMIT University in Melbourne have been hard at work figuring out how to turn you into a self-sustained energy source. Marrying piezoelectrics with a thin film microchip coating, those scientists Down Under have for the first time identified just how much energy your pressure can generate. This is certainly not the first time the tech has been put to use -- Orange UK's been doing something similar, albeit bulkier, for the Glastonbury fest each year. What are some practical uses, you ask? Imagine a gym powered by a sea of workout-hamsters, each producing significant energy from the soles of their feet. Curious for more? Try a pacemaker that runs solely on blood pressure, or a laptop charged by banging out Facebook updates. Who knows, maybe even RIM can put this to use in its next Storm. Just sayin'.

Link to RMIT

Link to source article

Is The Rise Of Wearable Electronics Finally Here?

For decades I’ve wanted interesting, beautiful, and (sometimes) functional electronics on the most personal geographies of all, myself. When I think of “living in the future”, it’s what springs to mind: subtle LEDs, lots of polished metal.

Here are some milestones, mistakes, and projects in the world of wearable electronics. From geeky watches to wearable music players – I’ve always wanted to utilise my wrist real estate to my shoes for electronics of some kind. Many of the “wearables” I’m going to share are from my project archives, some are now “real,” and others are products that are out now. I think we’re finally entering an era where wearable electronics can look good and work well.

Top image via Jlndrr on Flickr

As my friend Bryce recently said:

As the price for enabling components drops, always-on connectivity in our pockets and purses increases, and access to low-cost manufacturing resources and know-how rises we’ll see innovation continue to push into these most personal forms of computing. From pedometers to cufflinks and from connected ski goggles to connected watches the rise of the wearables is upon us…

Now, this is a long article so I won't post it all here now.. check out the full thing here.

Link Invades Minecraft In Zelda Adventure

We've posted a ton of Minecraft mods since the remarkable game's inception, but this is the first that really resembles a game. Minecraft modder Gary520 has crafted a world inspired by The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time and A Link to the Past, complete with memorable locations, weapons, and of course, Link.

Gary520 says we can expect over 10 hours of gameplay, 8 dungeons, and tons of secrets. Check out the trailer below:

Merge 3000 Photos Of One Single Sport Event?

That’s what Peter Langenhahn does. He goes to a sport event, takes about 3,000 photos, and then picks around 300 to create a 100-gigabyte image over the course of three months. The results are fun and very neat.

Peter says that when you combine all those photos together—all taken from the same point of view through the whole event—you get very unique perspective that complete erases the time variable. People from different points in time sharing the same space, interacting with each other in the funniest way.

Someone should do this with super-high definition video. Pronto.

Link to the original article and here's Pete's site

Scientists Create First Memory Expansion For Brain

Imagine you can insert a memory card in your brain and go all Keanu Wow, I know Jiu-Jitsu! Reeves. It’s actually not that far away: Scientists have created a chip that allows rats to instantly know things. It’s amazing.

After studying the chemical interactions that allow short-term learning and memorisation in rats, a group of scientists lead by Dr Theodore Berger – from the University of South California’s Viterbi School of Engineering – have built a prosthetic chip that uses electrodes to enhance and expand their memory abilities. The chip is capable of storing neural signals, basically functioning as an electronic memory, allowing rats to learn more and keep it in the devices.

Dr Berger’s description is almost frightening:

“Flip the switch on, and the rats remember. Flip it off, and the rats forget [...] These integrated experimental modelling studies show for the first time that with sufficient information about the neural coding of memories, a neural prosthesis capable of real-time identification and manipulation of the encoding process can restore and even enhance cognitive mnemonic processes.

The team’s experiments – which have been in a paper called “A Cortical Neural Prosthesis for Restoring and Enhancing Memory” – could lead to the development of devices that may help people affected by Alzheimer’s disease, stroke or other brain injuries. In fact, they are already working on the next step: Reproduce the same result in monkeys.

As someone who has had family affected by Alzheimer and other diseases, I really hope they succeed. As someone who would like to have the entire IMDB in his brain, I really hope they succeed too. [PR Newswire]

Terry Pratchett initiates assisted suicide process

This is a very sad time for MonkeyM's all time favorite author.... we here at Tapemonkey send our best thoughts to The Arch Archchancellor of British Fantasy.

Beloved science fiction and fantasy writer Terry Pratchett has terminal early-onset Alzheimer's. He's determined to have the option of choosing the time and place of his death, rather than enduring the potentially horrific drawn-out death that Alzheimer's sometimes brings. But Britain bans assisted suicide, and Pratchett is campaigning to have the law changed. As part of this, he has visited Switzerland's Dignitas clinic, an assisted suicide facility, with a BBC camera crew, as part of a documentary will include Britain's first televised suicide. Pratchett took home Dignitas's assisted suicide consent forms.

He said: "The only thing stopping me [signing them] is that I have made this film and I have a bloody book to finish."

But he stressed that he was as yet still undecided whether he would eventually take his own life.

He said he changed his mind "every two minutes" but added that if he did choose to die would prefer to do so in England and in the sunshine.

Sir Terry, creator of the Discworld novels, was 60 when he was diagnosed with terminal condition and has since campaigned passionately for a change in the law to allow assisted suicide in Britain.

Source...

Another Peek At BioShock Infinite Explains How Everything Went To Hell On Columbia

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By Michael McWhertor on June 17, 2011 at 8:20 AM

One of the big brains behind next year’s BioShock Infinite walks us through the back story of this layered, alternate history shooter, another chance to (at the very least) see more footage of this exciting BioShock spin-off.

Irrational Games’ Ken Levine explains the war between the Founders and the Vox Populi, the factions that have turned the once glorious flying city of Columbia into a globe-trotting disaster. Irrational peppers in some footage you might not have seen before, moments culled from our pre-E3 walkthrough of BioShock Infinite.

If you prefer your developer diary things a bit more action packed, perhaps you’d like to learn more about BioShock Infinite‘s skylines?

We’re still at least five months and change from the release of BioShock Infinite on the PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, so you’d better settle in for a slow drip feed of content from next year’s game.

MonkeyM666's Cosplay Party

Henchman 21, Zoidburg, Luigi Costumes and the rest all showed... Costumes a go go.

E3 2011: New Nintendo Console Announced the Wii: U

This years E3 coverage is already pretty hardware heavy and with the expected announcement of the Nintendo's new console, the Wii: U. Check it out...



and hands on baby...



Even though in the tech demo there are some amazing looking games, it seems that America president Reggie Fils-Aime has told GameTrailers that the footage – of games like Ghost Recon and Darksiders II – was instead culled from the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of the games.

Launches: 2012

Size: Approximately 1.8 inches tall, 6.8 inches wide and 10.5 inches long.

New Controller: The new controller incorporates a 6.2-inch, 16:9 touch screen and traditional button controls, including two analog Circle Pads. This combination removes the traditional barriers between games, players and the TV by creating a second window into the video game world. The rechargeable controller includes a Power button, Home button, +Control Pad, A/B/X/Y buttons, L/R buttons and ZL/ZR buttons. It includes a built-in accelerometer and gyroscope, rumble feature, camera, a microphone, stereo speakers, a sensor strip and a stylus.

Other Controls: Up to four Wii Remote (or Wii Remote Plus) controllers can be connected at once.
The new console supports all Wii controllers and input devices, including the
Nunchuk controller, Classic Controller, Classic Controller Pro and Wii Balance
Board.

Media: A single self-loading media bay will play 12-centimeter proprietary high-density
optical discs for the new console, as well as 12-centimeter Wii optical discs.

Video Output: Supports 1080p, 1080i, 720p, 480p and 480i. Compatible cables include HDMI,
component, S-video and composite.

Audio Output: Uses AV Multi Out connector. Six-channel PCM linear output through HDMI.

Storage: The console will have internal flash memory, as well as the option to expand its
memory using either an SD memory card or an external USB hard disk drive.

CPU: IBM Power-based multi-core microprocessor.

Other: Four USB 2.0 connector slots are included. The new console is backward compatible
with Wii games and Wii accessories.

Itty bitty 3D printer

High-quality 3D printing at home has just come one step closer. Researchers at the Vienna University of Technology in Austria have presented the smallest 3D printer to date. At the size of a carton of milk and weighs 1.5 kilograms, it currently costs around €1,200 but the makers expect the price to drop quickly.

E3 2011: Minecraft coming to XBOX 360 & Kinect

Now you can actually punch trees to gather wood!

Despite the presence of an imitator or two, indie hit game Minecraft has remained where it started - on the PC. At Microsoft's E3 2011 press conference, though, the Xbox 360 maker announced that Mojang's building-block phenomenon would be coming to consoles exclusively for Xbox.

Minecraft would also support Kinect's motion-control system, said Microsoft. Presumably gamers will be able to use gestures to get a workout digging holes into the earth, building homes and palaces, and running the hell away from Creepers before they blow up.

We've already seen Kinect hacked into Minecraft, so it really shouldn't be surprising to see it happen the other way around, either.

Of course, Sony isn't totally screwed by the Minecraft devotees - the indie smash hit will be making its smartphone debut on Sony's Xperia Play.

Read our E3 2011 Microsoft liveblog here.Thanks Escapist...

E3 2011: Playstation 3D TV! Sub $500US with all the trimmings...

Want a 3D display? How about a 3D display with PlayStation logo on it? Today at Sony’s E3 press conference, the electronics giant unveiled a PlayStation branded 3D display.

The 24-inch display is specifically developed for PS3 owners, and according to Sony, it is perfect for dorm rooms and family rooms. Thanks to stereoscopic glasses, the display can show two different images to players, instead of split screens.

The monitor is bundled with 3D glasses, a 1.8m HDMI cable and Resistance 3 – over $US150 in value just for the accessories, Sony said.

The bundle is priced at $US499, with extra 3D glasses retailing for $US69.99. The PlayStation 3D display will go on sale later in the year.

Source article...

E3 2011: HALO 4 ANNOUNCED!

Out of the blue and totally expected (but maybe not this quickly) Microsoft have announced a new Halo game. Check it out!

Strangest and most fun game weapon of all time...

With the new Red Faction game out and about it time to check out one of the strangest weapons in gaming existence. Please welcome Mr Toots!!


and it's getting so popular that some very cool fan vids are being produced as well.