The Great Geek Manual

Click to Enlarge

It’s been a full month, and I can’t stop playing! My thumbs have started twitching in my sleep.
Read the rest of this entry » » »

1833
The first issue of the daily newspaper in the US, The New York Sun, is published by Benjamin H. Day. By 1836, the penny paper will have a circulation of thirty thousand papers, the largest in the nation.

1860
The Mercury arc lamp is demonstrated for the first time on the Hungerford suspension bridge in London, England by Professor J.T. Way.

1941
NBC’s KYW in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania becomes the first television station outside of New York to come on air.

1972
The first USA-Japan Computer Conference is held in Tokyo, Japan.

1976
The unmanned spacecraft Viking 2 spacecraft lands at Utopia Planitia on Mars. Its mission is to analyze the soil and climate and return the first close-up photographs of the planet. The lander houses instruments to examine the physical and magnetic properties of the soil, analyze the atmosphere and weather patterns of Mars, and to seek out evidence of the presence of life, be it past or present. The site will later be used as the fictitious setting of the Federation’s ship yard in the science fiction series Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Read the rest of this entry » » »

In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice.
But, in practice, there is.

- “What Computing is all About” by Jan L. A. van de Snepscheut, 1993.
Quoting Yogi Berra, baseball player and manager.

Art

• Check out this awesome gallery of a girl posing in various outfits, wearing a Storm Trooper helmet.
• Josh Keyes is an artist whose ecological artwork straddles the line between thought-provoking and surreal.

Comics

• Den of Geek lists the Top 10 Superman Stories, but its highly debatable. I mean, who can really narrow seventy years of work down to ten must reads?
• The Los Angeles Times runs down the Top 10 list of Superman References in Pop Music.

Film

• Entertainment Weekly takes a look at Twenty-one Horrible Sci-Fi Futures.
• Heckler Spray runs down a list of the Top 26 Bad-Ass Action Movie Babes, but Angelina Jolie gets waaay overrated at number one.
• If the film turns out to be as good at these photos of the set, Prince of Persia is going to rock.
• Mystery Man on Film features an interesting comparison of “The Dark Knight” script and screenshots.
• Photos of the upcoming James Bond film, Quantum of Solace, have hit the net.

Internet

• The Paperback Reader has a gallery of Geek ink.

Literature

• Free Fiction: the short story “The American Dead” by Jay Lake is free at Apex Digest.

Television

• Fox is generally letting it be known that, in the next season of Terminator, one of the major characters is going to bite the dust. My guess? The mouth uncle smacks of a noble sacrifice waiting to happen.

Video Games

• The New York Times takes a look at the science behind the upcoming game Spore.
• Warning! These Top 5 Best Diablo Clones may prove addictive.

Writing

• All of literature can be boiled down to a handful of plots.

Frequent chatter? This tutorial on How to Write Your Own IM Bot in Less Than 5 Minutes is helpful.

Google has launched its new Chrome web browser, but Mozilla isn’t worried.

Invent Your Own Computer Games with Python won’t actually teach you to invent anything, but it’s a nice Python tutorial.

LifeHacker, one of the best DIY sites out there has rounded up a list of their Top Ten How-To Videos.

The World’s 10 Most Expensive Watches for you to gawk at.

These Nine Amazing Firefox Add-Ons will save you time as you surf.

This gallery of the Twenty most Gorgeous College Campuses in the US is worth a look, even if you can’t afford to attend.

WebDesignerWall has posted a well-selected directory of Javascripts for Modern Web Design.

Speak softly and carry a big stick
- you will go far.

- An old African proverb first quoted by Vice President Theodore Roosevelt
September 2, 1901 at the opening of the Minnesota State Fair in Falcon Heights, Minnesota.

Read the rest of this entry » » »

1837
Professor Daubeny, Professor Torrey, and Alfred Vail attend a demonstration of Samuel F. B. Morse’s telegraph at New York University. Vail becomes interested. Vail and Morse will be the first two telegraph operators on Morse’s experimental line between Washington, DC, and Baltimore

1890
Guglielmo Marconi demonstrates radio transmission at Three Mile Hill in Salisbury Plain, England for officials from the General Post Office, the Navy, and the Army present.

1930
The first non-stop airplane flight from Europe to the US is completed by Captain Dieudonne Coste and Maurice Bellonte of France when they arrive in Valley Stream, New York, aboard the Question Mark after a thirty-seven hour flight.

1963
The CBS Evening News becomes US network television’s first half-hour weeknight news broadcast, when the show is lengthened from fifteen to thirty minutes.
Read the rest of this entry » » »

Art

• Gate-To-Nowhere is a Deviant Art user who has create a beautiful gallery of planetscapes using Terragen.

Film

• Geeky Movies to Raise Your Kids On.
• The Top 10 Sci-Fi Prisons of film.

Internet

• The 15 Hottest Couples in Science Fiction.

Literature

• Are Asimov’s Foundation novels dated? Yeah, but what would the future be without a few damsels in distress?
• Free Fiction: “The Dragon of Wantley” by Owen Wister has been posted at ManyBooks.net.
• Free Fiction: Dunesteef is the latest audio zine on the block and its not bad, though the titles might throw you at first. Try listening to “How The Tooth Fairy, Like, Totally Scammed The Boogeyman” by Derek J. Goodman.
• Free Fiction: “Forgotten Dragons” by David McGillveray is online at FeedBooks.
• Free Fiction: “Robots Don’t Cry” by Mike Resnick is now available at Escape Pod.

Television

• HBO has canceled the Preacher television series based on comic series, saying it would be too dark.
• Head up! BBC One is launching a new thirteen-part fantasy mini-series, Merlin. Watch a trailer on YouTube. It doesn’t look great, but hey, you take fantasy wheres you can gets it.
• On September 9th, the National Geographic Channel will air the documentary on evolution with Will Wright, creator of the upcoming game Spore, entitled “How To Build A Better Being“.
• The Sci-Fi Channel has smeared Heroes season premiere spoilers across their site. Read with care. There’s little enough reason to watch.

Video Games

• Den of Geek remembers the top Ten Forgotten Platform Game Heroes.
• Halo 4 is being developed by Gearbox.