Just came back from a few days at E3, the massive video game conference that happens every year in Los Angeles. As usual, it was an experience in sensory overload that left me exhausted and slightly depressed by the end.… Read the rest
Month: May 2005 (Page 2 of 2)
Looks like Clara, who took a Sharper Image robot vacuum I was reviewing to preschool for show & tell, isn’t the only kid who loves to play with Roomba. And why not? Roombas are cute, unpredictable, a little bit scary (but not too much), and they’re vacuum cleaners–an endless source of fascination for many preschoolers I know.… Read the rest
Clara’s musical interests have shifted to Aretha Franklin — and now it’s “Respect” that she wants to hear, over and over again. “I want respect!” she says. Most of the time I’m able to bite my tongue, but once I couldn’t help myself: “Respect has to be earned, Clara.”… Read the rest
Only a few days late here.
… Read the restShe was born in the Midwest in 1933, when her dad earned $12 a week and movies cost a dime. It was the Depression, but she didn’t know it. …
My mother used to sit in the den of our house in the San Fernando Valley chain-smoking Kents and reading the L.A.
According to the editors of Analog, circa 1984.
Lee H. Pappas: Star Raiders Commander Level: Star Commander Class I, no shields used the entire game, 54 Zylons destroyed. April 20th, 1984. That’s it, that’s all.
Twenty years from now, will people be laughing about Mobile just as much as we are laughing at Analog?… Read the rest
Entertaining toys for anyone who might be contemplating a new child in the near future (and I know a few of you):
Baby Name Wizard’s Name Voyager is an amazingly entertaining Java app that lets you see how the popularity of various first names has changed over the decades.… Read the rest
A few years ago I was working on a story about copyright law for a magazine. For a factoid in that story, I spent an inordinate amount of time trying to figure out what proportion of the film industry’s revenues come from theater showings vs.… Read the rest
It’s not often that people who love and want to preserve wild land and wild species get to enjoy unmitigated good news. Every battle won is only a temporary win, while battles lost are permanent failures. Today’s wildlife preserve might be tomorrow’s oil field, but a housing development is never going to turn back into a habitat.… Read the rest
I wonder if it has to take time-outs when it malfunctions?
Japan Today – News – Sony’s Qrio robot attending nursery school in California
… Read the restWhile the children were at first apprehensive about Qrio, they now dance with it and help it get up when it falls.
Robert Rodriguez’s inspiring 1995 book, Rebel Without A Crew, makes a convincing case that anyone can make movies–all you need is chutzpah, a few friends, and the ability to previsualize the entire movie in your head, so you can do everything in one or two takes and edit it together in a few weeks by yourself.… Read the rest