Mason Tech Beat

"Science Is Magic" is LIVE

2009-05-01T16:39:00.002-04:00

YAY, my new blog is ready to rock and roll. Blogger, it's been fun, but once you go WP you never go back.

Science Is Magic.com

Don't forget to switch your RSS feeds too! The new feed can be found on the right sidebar of Science Is Magic.

Jimmy 2.0: Moving On

2009-04-29T18:00:00.000-04:00

With the advent of my next academic step (University of Maryland's PhD Program in Microbiology) it is time for Mason Tech Beat to transform into something less Masony and more sciency. For that reason....(drum roll)....I've registered:

scienceismagic.com

It combines my love of science with my newer love of the magical arts! Also, it sounds kinda nifty too.

If you go there now (as of this posting) it will probably just be a parking page, but eventually I should have a wordpress blog up and running. I will probably just leave all these articles over here so they don't lose their value and break links, but eventually you'll see a big "go here instead" link on the top post of this blog.

Thanks to all my readers, whoever you are, and I hope you'll follow me over to the new blog as soon as it's ready to rock and roll!

Swine Flu is the Talk of the Town!

2009-04-27T17:35:00.000-04:00

Today I published two new articles for Yan over at Geeks Are Sexy. Both of them were on the potential swine flu epidemic. It's been all over the news so I figured it would be a great new installment of my "Science is Sexy" series (playing off the GAS name).

Both of these articles went up today, but the first one actually got picked up by Neatorama, a notable blog in the top 15,000 sites on the internet (according to Alexa anyway). I love getting my stories promoted to impressive front pages and on my 4th day back, give or take, this is a great start!

*Also, by the time you read this I'll probably have recieved my 300th follower on Twitter! :)

Back from Hiatus?

2009-04-24T19:20:00.005-04:00

Hey, so it's been a little bit but I'll try to make this update short, simply because it's the SECOND ONE IN A ROW!!!

Essentially I've been super busy working on school and furthering my magic hobby. Nothing terribly interesting has happened to me other than the few I'll list here:

First off, I got into the Microbiology PhD program at the University of Maryland - College Park. I'll be taking classes, teaching classes, and working in a lab...all at the same time when I enroll in the Fall. It's gonna be a 4.5-5.5 year process so wish me luck!
I just attended Magi-Whirl, which is a conference for magicians in the DC area. It was FANTASTIC and one of the lecturers (and the headliner) was Jeff McBride, who is a wonderful magician and all-around great guy. They're already advertising for next year, if you're also into magic (and the show for the public was AWESOME too, so bring your mom!).
That's about it I guess...

I just wrote my first freelance blog post in a long while, so if you want to see if your ideas about cancer are correct, head on over to GeeksAreSexy.net and read about the cure for cancer. You'll even get a link to one of my favorite webcomics...

Let's get you caught up...

2009-01-23T14:18:00.000-05:00

Hey all! If you've noticed that I only have like 2 articles up for the entire month, there are some reasons. I hate letting a blog go slack, but life's been crazy. If you wanna get caught up on ME, here it is.

First of all, I'm in the process of applying to graduate schools. I'm looking at PhD programs in Microbiology and Immunology and I've already shipped out 6 apps. They took me forever to fill out because some of the schools have the MOST CONVOLUTED APPLICATIONS EVER!!!! Some were actually very well organized, but others just drove me crazy. I'll let you know where I applied and who I heard back from in a future post, just for the sake of clarity. If you REALLY wanna know more, bother me on twitter.

That aside, the ThinkGeek post/video really went wild. It took a long time to get everything straight and we were plagued by audio problems when uploading to YouTube (which is why it was originally on Vimeo). Between all the video locations and syndications, we got over 150K hits on that video. It's very exciting to make something that prolific.

What else? Well at the moment I'm taking two steps back from my freelance blogging, just because I think I needed a little breather. It's not hard to write good stuff, but it's hard to do it consistantly. At the moment I'm only a contributor to MakeUseOf (was a staff writer before) and I'm still working for Yan over at GeeksAreSexy. Hopefully I'll remember to keep this blog going with the lighter workload.

My other main hobby, performance magic, has become bigger and bigger recently. I have done some small shows for parties that I've been to and my karate school in Richmond. Now I'm even beginning to work on some mentalism, which is a whole lot of fun.

Lastly, I'm in my last semester of classes here at Mason. I really wasn't expecting my courses to be that much fun because they are mostly stuff I had put off, but I have been surprised by the quality so far...

Hope everybody has a great end of winter/beginning of spring. Keep checkin The Beat for my random stuffs. Also, a new blog should blossom out of this one later in the year (leaving Mason heralds the end of Mason Tech Beat), so look for the eventual post on that too.

Makin' It to the Big Leagues: Diggnation!

2009-01-13T15:34:00.003-05:00

Well it looks like my blogging career has taken another huge step forward. A couple months ago I was excited about getting onto the front page of Digg for the first time. Now it's happened 4 times, but better yet, one of my stories made "Top of the Day" and was noticed by none other than Kevin Rose of Diggnation! You can find my story at timecode 32:15.

Their analysis was a little critical, but actually most of the things they mentioned have already been planned out by Google and thus, I didn't mention them. The article was really just stuff that Google hasn't fully agreed to do. Also, my bad, spellcheck is in there, it just doesn't automatically work in some text boxes like those in Wordpress.

Overall, I'm super psyched to have gotten on a top podcast like Diggnation! This post is a little late because I've been behind on my subscription and didn't know I was featured until weeks later.

EDIT: Sorry for the autoplay it should be fixed now...

Reflections on "ThinkGeek: The Interview"

2009-01-04T20:15:00.008-05:00

If you haven't been listening to my rantings on Twitter and [insert social network here], I've been working on a very special interview for several months now. While many of the top websites have been contacted by the press and had their guts spilled all over the internets, one of them has been all but silent to the world: ThinkGeek.

This is not entirely by happenstance. ThinkGeek has a pseudo-policy of shunning the world, partly because they want to maintain an air of mystery about themselves and partly because that's really what geeks do, shun the world. In any event, this stance has made them into a fairly mysterious company and getting in an interview was tricky. I, along with my campus news website, tried to contact them several times, but their desire to remain an enigma ruled the day. Then, I got a break...

One of the sites I write for, GeeksAreSexy, published an article on one of ThinkGeek's new toys, the Van De Graaff Levitation Wand. This thing is kind of amazing and I pause here for a video of this awesome toy (I promise this is not just geeking out, it's also relevant to my story).

As it turns out, our story was picked up by Reddit and we sent over 40,000 hits to ThinkGeek's video. After this, Yan, the owner of GeeksAreSexy, contacted Shane, from ThinkGeek's PR and Marketing Department. Shane was happy with all the free publicity and Yan mentioned that he happened to have a "field correspondent" going to school not 3 blocks from ThinkGeek HQ. Yan asked if it wouldn't be too much trouble to get an interview. Shane said it would be his pleasure.

That "field correspondent" was me.

Now on my end, I had long been aware that ThinkGeek was based in Fairfax, VA (and cruelly close to my University), but I had never been able to get in for any reason. The Mason news website, Connect2Mason, where I have done some freelance work, had been trying for many months to get in contact with ThinkGeek for some kind of interview. Unfortunately, where the major tech press failed, so did our puny student organization (luv you guys!).

One day, back in November, I recieved an email from Yan. His message was actually a forwarded note from Shane that filled me in on all of the publicity we had created with the Van De Graaff video. It also included Shane's permission to do an interview (which could be video-based if we wanted). I just about fell out of my chair!

For the next month or so, I played tag with Shane to get this thing worked out. I made a deal with Yan to cut in Connect2Mason in return for their A/V support: namely beautiful cameraperson Natalia. She's been behind the camera for all my Jimmy Chows Down videos, so I figured if we were gonna do an interview, she should be my wingman...or winggirl...or wingwoman...or whatever.

Finally, the date of the interview arrived. Natalia and I packed up our gear (most of it borrowed from the school's A/V repository) and headed a couple blocks down the road to ThinkGeek World HQ. The building itself, as we would later learn, was an old elementary school, so there is a playground and baseball diamond right behind it. It's not exactly an imposing sight from the exterior [pictured above].

Upon entering the building, we were met with quite a few "No Place Like 127.0.0.1" doormats and some cardboard cut-outs of Boba Fett. There beyond, it becomes hard to describe. ThinkGeek items are absolutely everywhere - not in a disorderly mess, but in a well-organized arrangement. This isn't their warehouse, so everything is either in use by the staff (for testing or for playing) or is a return waiting to be dealt with.

As we prepped our equipment, Natalia informed me that we had absolutely no audio! After changing batteries on things and trying out multiple headphones, we decided to call it a day and apologized profusely to Shane. We had to go back to Mason with heads hung low, planning to come back next week. Even so, both of us were afraid that our hard work would never pay off and that this interview was doomed.

We did go back though. The audio problems, which we did not experience again, were probably fortuitous - the staff was much less busy on our second trip. The first thing we did was take a little tour of the offices. Each little room was different. The T-Shirt Gals had their own area with tons of t-shirt designs on the wall. There were customer support, tech support, and the areas for getting and testing new products. On one of the office windows there was a huge idea space, where the staff collaborated on the next blog post. On another wall, Darth Vader reigned unchallenged.

The crowd was by and large fairly camera shy, so we decided to settle down with one of the friendlier geeks, John Frazier, a ThinkGeek buyer. He was deemed the best man for the job because he actually procures the company's awesome products. John was extremely enthusiastic about our little project and really bent over backwards for us. He's also a Jedi model (for ThinkGeek anyway). That's him on the left!

John's interview made up most of our final video. He answered questions about the ThinkGeek "origin story," where they get their products from, and what it's like to there. Some of the stuff that didn't make it into the video was also very interesting:

-John used to work in a computer store with the guy who now runs the group inside of Google that manages Google's infamous white board (containing their master plan).

-During the taping of my interview questions (we only had one microphone), John still gave answers (fake ones) but they mostly involved how most of ThinkGeek's ideas and apparel come from homeless people. Dumpster diving also appears to be a large portion of his work (hopefully this will find its way into a blooper reel some day).

-That funny flashy thing in the video is a coaster that blinks differently depending on whose drink it is.

At the end of our interview, John took us on a surprise tour of the rest of the building. We got to see where they make the ThinkGeek videos and photograph the products. He also introduced to a lot of the ubergeeks up in the office that manages the site's backend. One of the coolest places was the break room, where just about everything screams geek. The refrigerators are labelled "Can Haz" and "Can Not Haz," the cutting board is actually a Space Invader, and there is an original Tron: The Video Game cabinet in the corner. We taped for about 20 minutes in there, but sadly, not a lot of it got into the final cut for reasons of length.

Overall, it was an awesome experience. I hope everyone will enjoy the video, but I wanted to write up this account to share some of the excitement I have about the place. It's probably, as John says, "a whole lot of work" in order to keep things going, but I'll bet it's also one of the coolest places you could ever work.

Bonus Video:

After a long day of walking around and taping the geeky wonderland that is ThinkGeek, then coming back and reviewing said tape, Natalia and I needed to take a mental break. What follows is the result of that break:

It's been a great experience making "ThinkGeek: The Interview." Make sure you check it out over at GeeksAreSexy.net on January 6th, 2009!

Rickrolled IRL - I Think Reality is Collapsing...

2008-12-26T19:46:00.009-05:00

The most rediculous thing just happened to me. So I went out to get the mail today...and I got an oddly wrapped package from my friend Andrew (@mcandre on Twitter). When I say oddly wrapped, I mean it was a media mailer very heavily bound in packing tape. I knew the package was coming because he asked my address last week, but he told me it wasn't a gift requiring reciprocation. That made me curious...

Now if you have ever tried to pull packing tape off of shipping plastic, you know it's no picnic. I pulled out the kitchen scissors and after quite a bit of wrestling, I arrived at...more wrapping. This time it was festive wrapping paper. From the size and shape of the package, I could tell it was a CD case of some kind and I made quick work of the final layer.

Before I even got it totally out of the wrapping paper, I realized what it was. I could see this logo [see left] very clearly and I felt a feeling I had felt many times before while surfing the web. One of dread...I had just been Rickrolled.

This was not just any Rickroll though, this was a Rickroll "IRL" or "in real life." I've heard of such things happening, but really, in my own mailbox! What is this world coming to?

I have enlisted the help of the bear on my desk to help me document this crime against the memedom.

Here you can clearly see that this is the album that included "Never Gonna Give You Up" as the top track.

If you have suggestions on how I can get Andrew back, leave a comment or message me on Twitter. I cannot allow this kind of behavior to abide!!!

Big New Post Coming Soon...

2008-12-22T15:28:00.000-05:00

It's been a while since I updated. Never fear! It's all because I'm working on a big post about something awesome. Wait for it....wait for it....(keep waiting until your RSS reader says otherwise ;) )

The Ender Saga Fills a Plot Hole Nicely [Ender in Exile Review]

2008-12-12T17:16:00.001-05:00

If you've been reading my stuff at all, you know I love sci-fi. Specifically, older sci-fi novels have a special place in my heart. A little while ago, I gave in and read Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game and was BLOWN AWAY by the story. From there I read all of the other "Ender's Saga" books as well, starting with Speaker for the Dead.

Well finally, another book for the series has come out, and boy is it a doozie! Ender in Exile is a direct sequal to Ender's Game. That being said, you pretty much HAVE to read all the other books that have come out already because there is a great deal of assumed knowledge. The story happens primarily as Ender is leaving Earth and going to out the new colony he's to govern. Essentially Card felt that there was a missing story between the end of the war and the beginning of Peter's time as leader of the united world. Plus, we get to find out what happens to Bean's last missing son.

I have to say, I really liked this book. It's told with exactly the same tone that Card uses in all of his Ender books and lets us once again into Ender's beautiful mind.

Speaking of the book...I didn't actually read it. In fact, I haven't ever read one of Card's books. I listen to audiobooks :) Here's a link to the Ender in Exile Audiobook if you're like-minded. It has the same cast of voice actors as in the previous books so you will feel right at home. I wish it wasn't so expensive, but until audiobooks get cheaper, there's not a lot you can do.

Also, speaking of newly released content that's really great...the Dr. Horrible DVD is OUT!

A Special Honor

2008-12-01T18:33:00.003-05:00

This week I am exstatic that I have been chosen for "Worth the Follow" on Julia Roy's Tweet Week. I had no idea I'd been picked until several hours after the post went live. This is mainly because I had a post go up on MakeUseOf today that netted me a lot of followers on Twitter. Many of those followers turned out to be from Tweet Week. What a pleasent surprise!

Here's Tweet Week #5:

Thanks so much to @JuliaRoy and all of her fans :) - then again I'm one of her fans so thanks to me too!

P.S. - If you can spare a Digg, please help my Twitter article get on the front page!

A Switch To Chrome

2008-11-29T23:58:00.009-05:00

Well I'm finally biting the bullet and switching to Chrome. I have been a loyal Flock user for a very long time now, but I just can't handle it anymore. The constant crashing, the corrupted profiles, the sticky add-ons, and the general incompatability with everything but the most basic web tools. I know it's a firm shake-off, but I've been with it for a long time and it's generally been a very stressful existance.

I stayed with it through all the bugginess primarily because the extra features were really compelling. Long before Firefox had the "Awesomebar," Flock was mixing your history and your favorites and guessing your destination. Of course this was more in the search bar and less in the main address bar. Also, the RSS reader was ahead of its time and that is one of the things I have not had luck in finding a replacement. That being said, the RSS reader hasn't been upgraded for quite a long time and in terms of features and interface is miles behind Google Reader, which I am currently using for my many feeds. Thank God for OPML exporting!

My switch to Chrome (with Firefox as a backup for incompatabilities) went smoother than I expected. I'm keeping Flock around to make sure I don't lose anything I thought I had already, but I'm pretty sure all my exporting and importing is done. The browser experience on Chrome is superb (as I indicated earlier) but I am missing a few things. For one, the download manager is aesthetically pleasing (and similar to Download Statusbar) but does not offer as many options in where and how to download. Also, videos viewed on the web play by default in the browser using some plug-in instead of allowing me to move it to an external player. Note that I mean file-based videos, not YouTube vids, which obviously play fine.

The performance difference between Flock and Chrome is unbelievable. I feel like I'm using a completely different computer. I probably have 24 tabs open right now, which is fairly typical for me, and I'm experincing no lag and no serious drain on my system resources. It also doesn't get worse over time, it just equalizes at one level and stays there. Hopefully my profile will not gunk up (which is still possible), but I don't feel like Chrome is as gunk-upable.

If you have any questions about how I'm getting along, please let me know. I want this to be a resource for others making the big leap. I haven't played around with some features, like the Application Shortcuts, so there is still a bit more for me to test out.

Good night and good luck!

[Image from SiliconRepublic.com]

Finally, Christians Can Play Guitar Hero!

2008-11-22T09:00:00.000-05:00

As most of you are aware, Christians have been suffering for many years now as other faiths and the non-religious enjoy the game Guitar Hero. The lyrics are obviously too dark for they ears of the Faithful, so much of the nation has experienced an increase in hand-eye-coordination while Christians fall behind. Well no more! Now there is Guitar Praise!

Satire aside, let's look at the name first...Guitar Praise? Personally if you were going to rip-off and re-purpose the game, wouldn't you pick something that is at least slightly original? Or at least go with Praise Hero, which sounds a lot better to me...

Here is the ad for the game, which was originally posted on GeeksAreSexy by Casey:

Are you serious? This is an incredibly inferior game for obvious graphical and platform reason, but on top of this, it illustrates how backward some people are. The ad is clearly for people who have somehow never been exposed to Guitar Hero and are generally new to the idea of a guitar controller. This isn't just some new fad...it's one of the most popular game control systems in use today. Truly you must have been buried in some hole (and consequently buried your kids in that hole with you) to be in the dark about this game.

It's hard for me to express my aggravation with groups that have to digest and rebrand everything they use in order to ensure it fits with their own way of thinking. Ironically, the parents of modern parents would probably see all the tracks on Guitar Praise as works of the devil.

Jimmy Chows Down - Eli's Deli Becomes "Best Deli"

2008-11-21T09:00:00.001-05:00

It's true, Eli's Deli is under new management and will henceforth be known as "Best Deli." It was quite a shock to my system as a long-time Eli's fan, but times change I guess. Anyway, here's my review of our local deli:

I hope you enjoyed our recent video...I feel this one came out especially well! Also, notice I'm wearing my Epic-Fu shirt...it's fabulous and you should get one too!

Books and Movies on My List

2008-11-16T23:11:00.002-05:00

Sorry for my low number of posts this month...I've been preoccupied and somewhat uninspired to do much blogging (still much more than normal humans, but not much for ME). Anyway, I thought I'd post some books and movies I'm planning on reading/viewing in the near future.

Currently Reading:
Cryptonomicon - I have to say I'm kind of not enjoying it. As crazy as I was about Anathem, this Neal Stephenson book isn't holding its own at the moment. Basically it seems like "just another" convoluted war story with some crazy philosophy/concept worked in. Hopefully it will get better...otherwise it may have to go back to the library.

Upcoming Books:
The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer - Yes, I'm on a Stephenson kick...get over it, he's a fantastic author. This book sounds pretty intriguing so I'm gonna give it a shot. Basically it's about a girl in a weird nanotech-driven future who learns all kinds of stuff (how to think for herself, most importantly) from a book she finds.

Ender in Exile - It's another book in the Ender's Saga series...do I need to say more? If you're a real geek, consider the cost of the book part of your membership fee in order to maintain your geek status. For those interested in knowing what it is before they buy...it's a DIRECT sequel to Ender's Game. I'm really hoping it doesn't suck...and also that it will be AMAZING!

His Dark Materials Trilogy (The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, The Amber Spyglass) - I don't know too much about this book set, but I saw the first movie and it shows promise that it will elicit some thinking on my part. I don't really like books that don't make me think at all. All I've got for that one.

Memoirs Found in a Bathtub - This is a neat sounding story about a secret agent and a future where all the paper of the past was destroyed, save some small remnants. It is the pick of the month for Sword and Laser, so I figured I'd give it a try if I get a chance.

Upcoming Movies:
Quantum of Solace - I haven't seen it yet, but I hope to on Friday. I hear it's amazing. Personally I'm very excited by this new set of Bond movies! I really like that they are based on the original stories by Flemming (the link above is actually for the series of short stories, not for some time-defying Amazon listing).

Who knows which of these I'll actually read. I promise this isn't turning into a book blog...they're just more in my consciousness recently.

[Edit: Somehow forgot Ender in Exile until 2:30PM (see above)]

Book I Haven't Read: Experimental Heart

2008-11-08T23:30:00.003-05:00

You may have seen my Anathem book review. I've been trying to read a lot more and that's what happens when I read good books...I talk about them. Another book that I hope to read sometime in the future is Experimental Heart, by Jennifer Rohn. It's an interesting look at the life of a fictional biotech researcher who begins to fall in love with a vaccine researcher. She disappears...the plot ensues.

The reason I bring up this book is that it's actually kind of difficult to find a book that really looks at scientists and takes them on as more than simple plot tools. Instead, scientists are often pidgin-holed as geniuses with a master plan or dithering lab techs. We're real people too and need love and attention the same as everybody else.

This is not really a recommendation, as I haven't read the book, but it looks interesting and if you have read it (or buy it through the wonderful link above), please let me know how it reads!

[via io9]

I Owe You a #wotw2 Explanation

2008-11-01T16:10:00.006-04:00

If you've been reading The Beat regularly you might have been a bit surprised by my posts yesterday. Here's the scoop:

On Halloween day, I participated in War of the Worlds 2.0. If you remember hearing about Orson Wells' first on-air reading of The War of the Worlds, you probably also remember that it didn't go so well. People though it was REAL because they came into the broadcast after the show started. Well, a fellow named Kris Kowal decided that this year we should pay homage to that first reading by re-enacting the whole thing on Twitter!

Now unlike the first reading, few people were probably frightened by the imaginary attack. It was also a bit different in the delivery. Instead of one story, there were literally hundreds of stories because each user who chose to participate added updates to Twitter that were relevant to their story.

Here's how it worked:

The orchestrators of the event planned it out on a Google Doc that you could get access to if you wanted to help (which I didn't).
Then they created a Twitter account named wotw2 that served as the timeline marker...to keep everyone on the same chronological page.
Finally, everyone posted their updates in line with what was "happening" and tagged them with the hash code, "#wotw2."

How did the whole thing stay together? Well, you could search Twitter in a number of ways (I used Twemes) for the special hash code. In doing this I saw SO MANY other people on the network. It was a ton of fun and I met a lot of new Twitterers!

Specifically, one of my Twitter friends did a great job posting updates and I want to congratulate her on the great work! Here's a post summarizing her activities yesterday. If you want to see all my antics, just check out my Twitter feed and scroll back to Oct. 31st.

[Image from the wotw2 repository]

GMU is GONE! [#wotw2]

2008-10-31T21:43:00.002-04:00

Finally got a signal again. It's been a very long day. After the tripods - as they're now being called - left, they were engaged by the military at some of the big city centers. I hear DC is pretty much a crater. It looks like our troops lost because they came back in a big sweep to blow the hell out of everything!

Specifically in Fairfax they came and promptly knocked the spire off of the JC....and then took out the rest of it too! My housing area got flattened and I barely got out with my laptop, cooling fan, charger, headphones, and external drive...in tact. I've been hiding out in Ike's Diner because I was able to hack together a wireless network off the hard line and they have a freezer full of food that's still good (someone was smart enough to close the freezer door before taking shelter elsewhere).

To any other survivers, good luck!

-Google #wotw for more information if you're interested.

All Hell is Breaking Loose!!! [#wotw2]

2008-10-31T15:38:00.002-04:00

I thought today was going to be a boring Halloween, but after class today I heard about giant cylinders that came down last night and landed all over the DC area. A couple even landed on campus!

I wandered over to the one that was sitting in the quad and all of a sudden a bunch of steam and smoke started coming out of it and seams started making their way up the cylinder. After about a half an hour, the segments became legs and pulled a sphere to the top...like a walker of some kind. 3 legs!

Several people - students, campus police - started to get near it (still pretty hot from atmospheric entry I guess) and the were VAPORIZED by a laser. After that we all ran for cover...they're going wherever they want and taking out anything in the way! Nobody knows much at all. CNN claims Obama is willing to negotiate without preconditions according to innismir.

I've been trying to get a better grip on the situation through Twitter...getting a lot of updates from sea_dot and jaxxonxx.

Got to go...just grabbed some wifi before the network goes down...details later! Follow my tweets or Google the tag in the title if you want more info!

Plurk Themes Can Make Your Profile Look Awesome

2008-10-30T11:39:00.003-04:00

A while back I was surfing through the interwebs and happened upon Gino Carteciano's blog, Plurk Customized Themes Emporium. Gino makes Plurk themes for users who have enough karma to upgrade their profiles with a custom CSS theme. As I just got to Plurk Nirvana (>80 karma), you better believe I have enough karma for just such an upgrade. I asked for something neat and techy and here's what he produced: Metal Power.

It's a really nice looking theme (though the updates on the left are a tad dim on the black background) and it is a pleasant diversion from the overtly "happy" theme of a normal Plurk profile. Thanks a bunch to Gino for making this for me! You can get it yourself here and never fear, the install is automated, just push the "install" button and you're off and running! If this theme is too dark for you, Gino has lots of themes on his blog, so I definitely suggest you check them out.

If you want to see it on MY profile, click the "Come Plurk Me" button on the left column of my blog. I can't promise I'll have it up forever, but I'll definitely hang onto it for a while!

Anathem Rocks My Socks [Anathem Review]

2008-10-26T21:21:00.006-04:00

"Have you ever read a book that completely changed your view of the world?" I posed this question at a dinner with several adults once and their response was a unanimous "No." This surprised me a great deal, as you can imagine, but when I elaborated with an example, they softened their reply with "Oh, well maybe when I was your age." This tells me one of two things. Either my fellow diners were less deeply philosophical people than I first thought, or my mind will not always be as malleable and thoughtful as it is now. Whatever the answer, I hope that you have not already reached this sad point in your life. This latest book is proof that I haven't, that's for sure.

Anathem is a novel by Neal Stephenson that I recently finished reading. Finishing it is a fairly weighty statement, as Anathem is more on the "tome" side of the book world. At over 900 pages, it can be a bit intimidating. Despite this, I was excited to read it for two reasons. First, I have read Stephenson's Snow Crash and found it a thrilling example of the cyberpunk genre. Second, the book just came out in September and was immediately selected as the feature book for the Sword and Laser podcast. I'm not a very active member of this book club, but I do pay attention to their SF selections (they alternate between science fiction and fantasy novels) and have found their analysis and background fairly helpful.

Anyway, I was fortunate enough to receive some birthday money from my friends in the blogging world, so I went out and grabbed myself some serious tree-matter. It happened to be very cheap on Amazon that day so I lucked out, but sadly the price has risen steadily since I purchased it (it's now around 20 dollars, which is still a pretty good deal if you get the free shipping). Once I got it in the mail, I could tell it was something special. The hardbound version was very tastefully decorated, with gold leaf adorning the spine and the "N.S." on the cover. Inside, the pages are separated into separate books with finely illustrated pages depicting Mathic architecture.

So with all this literary foreplay, how did the book turn out? To say the least it is my favorite book at the moment. While going into the plot and even the set-up might be too much of a spoiler, here's what I can tell you. The story is set in a timeline that is actually very similar to our own. This is deceptive because the part of the world we live in ("the Saecular world" as it is known in the book) is largely irrelevant to the overall story. They have largely gone through the same cultural, scientific, and philosophical advancements that we have, but the process has been streamlined (mostly to simplify a complex system).

The protagonist, Erasmas, lives in "the Mathic world," which, over a thousand years ago, segregated itself from the rest of society. Those that live in these scientific monastaries only come out and interact with Saecular society every 1, 10, 100, or 1000 years, depending on the level of commitment they have chosen to devote themselves to. A book describing this kind of scientific monasticism would probably be an interesting read unto itself. Fortunately, Stephenson delivers a large chunk of it initially and then sprinkles it throughout the rest of the ensuing adventure.

Beyond the bizarre lifestyle of the monks, there is an underlying philosophical and cosmological argument being formed throughout the entire book. To go into it would probably weaken the way that Stephenson himself introduces it to the reader, so I will simply suggest that you be patient with his "teaching method" and enjoy his brilliant fusion of modern multiverse theory and Platonic forms (just let that one sink in for a bit).

Overall, I loved the book and I am going to lend it to just about anyone who will let me impose it upon them. It may also make up a significant portion of my Christmas gifts to others. Originally I reviewed the book (having only half-finished it) on GeeksAreSexy.net. I've also actually written a bit of fanmail to Mr. Stephenson, so I feel this post is the last bit I can do to plug the book.

Here are some extra resources (watch out for spoilers):

I hope you liked my review of Anathem. If you plan on buying the book (or any of Stephenson's other books) please uses the widget below and support my blog!

I Love a Good Woot-Off

2008-10-22T01:53:00.003-04:00

I haven't been to Woot in a while, but they decided to leak the fact that a Woot-Off was occuring tonight so I, in turn, decided to check it out. This was the first thing I was greeted with (click for larger view):

Yes, what would we do without Woot?

Science and Publication

2008-10-19T21:23:00.003-04:00

To follow up on my previous post, the poster session and grant competition went very well but unfortunately I went home without one of the prizes. I'm a little disappointed, but I feel I held up the reputation of my lab very well and all of the winners had very impressive work behind their presentations. This also gets me out of having to present again in the Spring to the Virginia Academy of Science (which would be after I had already finished doing lab work).

This week and weekend have been full of an enormous number of ups and downs for me, many of the downs in my personal life. That being said, I had a fun little surprise on Friday that makes me happy. I received my 3 authors copies of the 14th Volume (Issue 4) of The Journal of Commercial Biotechnology, which hold within its pages my review of Welcome to Biotech Nation by Moira Gunn. [Note: it's not viewable online for free unless your institution subscribes to it through a database.]

It is my first publication in anything reputable and I am very proud of myself for it. Hopefully I will eventually gather some publications related to what I'm doing, but until then, a book review isn't too shabby for an undergrad.

Here's to better days ahead!

Off for the Weekend - Science Time

2008-10-16T17:33:00.002-04:00

This weekend I will be traveling to my hometown of Richmond, VA (Henrico County to those in the know) and visiting my parents, getting a haircut, seeing friends, etc. While I'm there I'll incidentally be...spending all day Saturday presenting a research proposal for the project I'm working on.

I'm a bit apprehensive about it because I'll be going it alone, without the aid of professors or fellow students, but as long as I can actually get my darn poster made, it should all work out fine. Wish me luck! There's a $500 grant for five of the presenters this weekend!

Tech for Obama Talks About the Tech Issues this Election Year

2008-10-13T17:50:00.007-04:00

If you're interested in technology and the future of the internet, check out this promo for Tech For Obama. They're a group of tech overlords that see fit to endorse a candidate for his stance on technology infrastructure and other important internet issues.

Personally this was one of my first reasons to go with Sen. Obama because he really gets technology like few politicians do. His team's use of the internet and social networking has been fantastic for them and I think it is because they understand what the web is. Compare this to Sen. McCain, who really doesn't use the internet beyond maybe a basic level.

[via Gizmodo]