Yeah…I’m a geek

This has got to be one of the coolest display technologies I have seen in awhile.   As soon as this is higher resolution with interactivity, it will be a killer technology…

A really interesting infographic visualizing the requests that governments request Google to remove certain pieces of information. Nothing really surprising here, but it definitely gets you thinking…

Thanks to the good folks at Good for this… http://awesome.good.is/transparency/web/1007/google-requests/flash.html

iPad + Velcro from Jesse Rosten on Vimeo.

The future, it seems…is now. Nanotechnology has been one of the most promising areas of research for years now, but seemed as though it was years away from anything all that revolutionary. Well, it looks as though there has been some really substantive leaps forward recently, with this being arguably one of the most important…

Although this doesn’t look like much, it’s actually an image describing a process whereby four nanotech “robots” are actually building a microscopic device.

The implications of advances in this space could be geometric in scale. From health care, to research and development, to manufacturing and exploration, these kinds of advances get me giddy with all of the possible opportunities and possibilities.  I can’t imagine how excited I would be if I actually understood it beyond a very conceptual layer;)

A piece over at Nature tries to break it down in language most of us can understand:

Nadrian Seeman and colleagues create a nanoscale ‘assembly line’, in which DNA walkers move past programmable DNA machines that can deliver ‘cargo’ (gold nanoparticles) to the walkers. In addition to four ‘legs’, the DNA walkers have three ‘hands’ that accept the cargo. The assembly line has three DNA machines, each of which holds a different type of cargo, and can be set either to transfer its cargo to the walker, or to withhold it. In this way, the nano-assembler can be programmed to produce eight (23) different ‘products’, all with usefully high yields.

[University of Wisconsin chemist] Lloyd Smith notes that the assembly line of Seeman and colleagues marks a milestone in DNA nanotechnology, in using ‘systems of nanomachines, rather than individual devices’ to perform an operation.

Thanks to the guys at io9 for sharing it: io9

Death and Taxes” is a large representational graph and poster of the federal budget. It contains over 500 programs and departments and almost every program that receives over 200 million dollars annually. The data is straight from the president’s 2010 budget request and will be debated, amended, and approved by Congress to begin the fiscal year. All of the item circles are proportional in size to their spending totals and the percentage change from 2009 is included to spot trends and disproportion. Courtesy WallStats

This gave me nightmares last night…

This will not be an exhaustive review of the C-200, but more of a high level overview of my experiences with the unit in my first two weeks.

First off, this is my second NMT, my first being the PCH-A110, which was good but not great (heat, speed, on/off, form factor…etc.). In terms of form factor, the C-200 is a nice looking box that blends fairly well into a HT setup. While not pretty, it is vanilla enough to not stick out. Before starting it up, I added an 8X Samsung BD-ROM drive and 250GB WD 2.5″ drive. These installs were dirt simple thanks to the case design and available room. The Sammy drive blends well enough, but unfortunately has an annoying blue tray LED (need to pull the cable on it sometime soon). The build quality is an immense departure over the hard-drive enclosure-based A-110 and is definitely a much better fit aesthetically in my rack than the 110.

From start-up, I could see immediately the speed difference the 600MHz processor made over the PCH-A110. I currently have the C-200 streaming media from my HP MediaSmart server to a dedicated HT. I am using YAMJ, YANFOE and AEON, which have been near flawless in rendering my collection of 800+ movies. I have to say, the rockstar developers (like Omertron, Russell, ejp…etc) that provide programs like this are one of the best reasons to purchase a device like this. PLEASE support them so that they can continue to provide great solutions…

I have a PS3 for BD playback, but was interested in using the C-200 to allow for HD-audio bitstreaming to my AVR, which seems to work very well with the 3 or 4 titles I have tried.

I haven’t played much with the photo or web capabilities at this point, but hope to in short order. Although the lack of web-apps is disappointing at first glance.  As well, the interface of the C-200 as of this writing is pretty poor.   A new interface has already been announced (preview here).

Overall, this device is doing exactly what I wanted it to (stream a large collection of networked stored movies in MKV, ISO, and play BD’s).  I am eagerly awaiting a firmware update that will allow HD-audio from signle file sources.

This has become one of critical pieces of gear in my home theatre.  I would recommend it to anyone with at least mid-level technical ability looking for a robust networked media centre. 

YIAG Rating: 9/10

Very cool demo of Wired’s new iPad application.  Once you get past the Creative Director’s monotone and completely disinterested manner (think Ferris Bueller’s teacher…Bueller, Bueller…), the video really shows off some cool features.

My favourite quote is from Chris Anderson…”…people may actually want to pay for it…”.

Don’t ask why…just bask in the geekiness that is the augmented reality tattoo…