The Great Geek Manual

Decoding and interpreting signals, packets, gestures etc. is what we call communication. Since the birth of the computer, that viral mechanism has established a symbiotic relationship with their creators, to the point where humans cannot longer function as a society without them. As we merge and augment our senses, our machinic self takes over a majority of functions that we once considered essential for survival, including memory, the control of vital organs and appendices. Carbon and silicon, en route to the next evolutionary stage, collaborate to bring about the inevitable transformation. Telecommunications and the internet have become mobile. We are the nodes, the packets and the modems. We are still the storytellers, and we wish to share the magic around the digital fire. As we pull the curtain we discover that the Wizard is Us.

- “The Wizard is Us: Symbiogenesis by Networking Part 1” by Arturo Sinclair.

Resources

DocStoc is launching a customized document viewer today, allowing anyone to create easily embeddable, branded document viewers. The new feature is open to all DocStoc users and offers the ability to customize the logo, buttons, links, and color of the viewer.

Duck Duck Go – Bills itself as the most private search engine on the internet, which might be a nice thing to have bookmarked. Here’s why.

Google Reader Play – Google’s done it again. They’ve quietly rolled out yet another great feature.

K7.net – K7 provides users with a free access to voicemail and fax messages through their e-mail.
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Art

• Irrational Games features a gallery of the monsters from BioShock that might have been.
• National Post has an inexplicable gallery of Babies dressed as Evil Historical Figures.
• Threadless is selling these Tron Police t-shirts for just a few more days.
• Tor has just released the cover art for the re-release of Robert Jordan’s Lord of Chaos.

Comics

• News: Judd Winick Taking Over ‘Power Girl’

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1474
The Republic of Venice passes the Venetian Patent Statute, the first patent law of its kind in the world. It declares that “each person who will make in this city any new and ingenious contrivance, not made heretofore in our dominion, as soon as it is reduced to perfection… It being forbidden to any other in any territory and place of ours to make any other contrivance in the form and resemblance thereof, without the consent and licence of the author up to ten years.” The law is intended to stimulate the economy by attracting inventors to Venice.

1800
Alexander von Humoldt and Aimé Bonpland capture the first specimen of Electric eels (Electrophorus electricus) during a five-year expedition through the jungles of South America. Humboldt will later write about his discovery in an article entitled, “Observation on the Electric Eel of the New World” in 1808.
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1952
A patent for the Electrical Integration Circuit is issued to William “Willy” A. Higinbotham. (US No. 2,589,807) The circuit was conceived in the early forties for the Eagle radar bombsight. Six years later, Higinbotham will develop one of the first video games, Tennis for Two.

1953
MGM, which has been working on its own wide-screen system, becomes the first studio to adopt CinemaScope. So as to create an industry standard and justify exhibitors’ commitment of investment in equipment, other major studios agree to adopt the Fox system as standard. Warner Bros will join later in the year after the release of The Robe but Paramount prefers to back developments in 3D.

1954
Howard Hughes buys RKO Pictures for US$23,489,478.

1955
The initial trial installation of electronic telephone switching for Morris, Illinois is announced. Recorded announcements of disconnects and changed numbers will be used in some small dial offices.
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The truth may be puzzling. It may take some work to grapple with. It may be counterintuitive. It may contradict deeply held prejudices. It may not be consonant with what we desperately want to be true. But our preferences do not determine what’s true.

- “Wonder and Skepticism” by Carl Sagan, Skeptical Enquirer, January/February 1995.

Art

• Books on Mars has a gallery of Pulp Magazine covers from Amazing Stories.

Film

• Interview: SciFi Wire interviews Jeff Bridges about Tron Legacy.
• John Scalzi explains Why Hollywood Always, Always Gets the Future Wrong.
• Missions Unknown! offers alternatives to film remakes in Scrap the Remakes and Film These Books Instead.

Internet

• GeekDad offers these Top 10 Geeky Excuses For Missing MegaCon.
• James Bowen is offering a free, downloadable tabletop wargame called Flipit. You can download the rules, fold up the 3D paper models, and play a game for next to nothing next time you’ve got a day to kill.

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Here’s a great parody of “Empire State of Mind.”