Only a mediocre person...

Ten technologies + ten years = world changed.

1. Everything (not everyone) on teh interwebs.
2. We're creating 1 zettabyte of data per year now - imagine the future. (91% of internet data will be video by 2015.)
3. One third of all data will pass through the cloud.
4. Home networks that are faster by a factor of 3 million.
5. Smaller world.  (Hum the Disney tune now.)
6. Must have more (electrical) power.
7. 3D printing.  For realz.
8. By 2020, robots will be physically superior to humans.
9. Grow your own replacement organs and other spooky medical stuff.
10. Borg = you.

I have a few invitations for Google Music Beta.  Post a comment if you'd like one.  (This is not necessarily an endorsement - I haven't had much time to do anything with it.)

Don't tell me you've never wondered how the electromagnetic spectrum was allocated in the USA.  For example, maritime navigation beacons are at 300-325 kHz.

OK, maybe radiation doesn't blow your dress up.  What about photos of dinosaur feathers found in amber?

You gotta see this video of an animated water fountain in Osaka Station in Japan that tells time, draws graphics, and sends messages.  It's been a while since I've had the pleasure of visiting Osaka and I don't recall seeing this during those visits.

Proof #38 that innovation is not dead.  Burn calories and keep the pounds off with MXP Calorie Shaper Underpants as demonstrated by a dancing effeminate Asian Lando Calrissian look-alike.

My Buckyballs drive me nuts but these new Buckycubes aren't probably any easier.

The gallery at SpaceCollective.org is pretty trippy. You could get lost in there.

<programming>

The three pillars of object oriented programming are:

1. Encapsulation - each type or class should be discrete and self-contained.
2. Specialization - new classes are derived from existing classes.
3. Polymorphism - the ability for a single type or class to take many forms.

One man's list of the ten technical papers every programmer should read twice.  Included in the list is one paper that ties to the previous paragraph: On Understanding Types, Data Abstraction, and Polymorphism.

Programming isn't just for programmers anymore.  Engineers will need to become programmers.  Not in the sense that they'll need to be writing software all the time.  Rather, it needs to be part of an undergraduate curriculum like solid mechanics, fluids, thermal, labs, etc. to give engineers some basic skills and more importantly and appreciation for the process and its limitations.

Although it may be taking the "...without borders" moniker a bit too far, Mouse without Borders is a project from Microsoft that lets a single mouse and keyboard control multiple computers including drag and drop.

Bubble Boys talks about kids at Stanford, programming for fun and profit.

Everyone and their brother-in-law wants to write an iPad app (and become rich overnight).  Perhaps they should start with this template for app development, iOS Boilerplate.

</programming>

A Vim cheat sheet for programmers, available in many sizes, resolutions, and color schemes.

Wanna try editing with vi online?  Web vi is a browser-based implementation in Javascript.  (Unfortunately, the first thing I tried ("O" to open a new line above the current position) didn't work.)

While reading this (rather long) article on best practices for Outlook, I couldn't help but be reminded of David Allen's Getting Things Done.  

STAR.ME is the latest experiment from Ze Frank, the man who brought you The Show and How to Dance Properly. (The Show was his 1-year, daily video blog that is absolutely brilliant.)

NASA's proposed Space Launch System (SLS) is designed to explore beyond earth orbit with first flight targeted for 2017.

Here are some cool custom wingtips/winglets for a small jet.  They were designed using T-Splines and tested at the Reno Air Races. 

I've been wondering why I've been feeling so calm lately and leave it to science to know why: men who embrace their receding hairline are less stressed.

Once more to the rescue, science shows us how watching SpongeBob (who lives in a pineapple under the sea) is bad for kids (in terms of their attention, memory, and problem solving).  Thank god I grew up with solid intellectual viewing like Banana Splits and Lancelot Link.  Damn kids today.

BFF, where the "B" doesn't stand for Best.  source

Everyone jokes about a beer for breakfast (hair of the dog, filling, carbs, etc.) but seriously?  Rogue's Chipotle Ale with bacon and eggs?

Introducing the most complicated infographic I've ever seen.  But it is illustrating the big bang.

Am I as fit as a WWII GI?  I'm not as fit as a 5th grader.

Photos of cigar feet.  (I should've known there were names for the ends of a cigar.)

The article forty sounds that built pop music identifies the source of characteristic sounds that define popular music.  #12 is the Fender Rhodes piano as exemplified by a favorite of mine, Babylon Sisters by Steely Dan (who my wife can't stand).  For #23 the authors cite the vocoder with Kraftwerk as an example.  However, when I think of vocoders the first thing that comes to mind is Peter Frampton's Do You Feel Like We Do? The article also mentions Phil Collins' work with Brand X in the context of another sound and every time someone mentions that portion of his catalog I feel good despite the fact that his later work is often vilified.

Check out artist Todd McLellan's photo series Disassembly.  (It's under New Work.)  It's nothing more complicated that taking things apart and then photographing the pieces.

Since 1965, artist Roman Opalka has been painting the numbers from 1 to infinity.  I shit you not.  In July 2004 he reached 5,500,000.

You've always wanted to play with a cubic Bezier curve, right? 

Browser fun - make waves with sliders.  (Chrome only, otherwise you just watch a video of the effect.)

Don't ask me what wocu1 is.

falling falling represents the feeling you have after reading this blog.  (And it's one of the coolest things I saw this week.)

...is always at his best. ~W. Somerset Maugham