One of the first magazines I can remember subscribing to (apart from Cricket and Ranger Rick) was Creative Computing. I started getting this magazine about 1980, after I fell in love with the neighbor’s TRS-80. It astounded me that he could have a computer sitting right there, on his desk, completely self-contained and no bigger than one of the TTY machines that we used at the University to talk to the mysteriously distant mainframe.… Story continues … “Creative computing.”

bali_water_temple_statue,
uploaded by crderivative.

Listened this week to an amazing talk by anthropologist Stephen Lansing‘s talk on Bali at the Long Now Foundation‘s seminar series. (Thanks to Jon Udell for linking to it.) Lansing’s talk is an account of how Balinese rice farmers managed to create a system for sharing water and coordinating rice planting schedules in order to optimize the harvest for everyone.… Story continues … “1,000 years in Bali.”

Not exactly for dummies, actually, but for beginners: Next week I’ll be hosting a webcast on how to select and set up an HDTV set. Two of Ziff-Davis’s top HDTV gurus, Robert Heron and Loyd Case, will be explaining everything you need to know.… Story continues … “HDTV for dummies.”

Here’s a 5-minute video showing what happens when a laptop battery ignites: It sets off a chain reaction, where successive battery cells ignite, each one releasing more heat and increasingly big jets of flame (up to 6 feet high). Amazing and scary.… Story continues … “Laptop batteries on fire.”

This is kind of cool: TextMarks is a service that lets you create your own custom SMS quick-response codes. People enter the code and send it to the TextMark short code (41411), and then they get the text that you specify, in return.… Story continues … “Instant haiku.”

Not because of my bluegrass banjo-pickin’ talent, but because I’ve just been selected to go take part in The Climate Project’s next training session, Dec. 1-3.

Along with about 200 other volunteers, I’m going to get trained by Al Gore, so that I can go out and give presentations on the global climate crisis and what people can do about it.… Story continues … “Going to Nashville.”