Science Friction

I'm dreaming ...

It's Christmas morning. I'm looking out the window at SNOW. It's a white Christmas. Merry Christmas everyone.

'Tis the season

I'm an avid reader of the magazine New Scientist. It's a habit I picked up while at University and over the last 20 or so years since I graduated I've missed only a handful of issues. My favourite is always the Christmas double issue which is usually filled with interesting yet slightly quirky features. I remember one year an article by Robert L. Forward describing what sort of life forms might evolve on a neutron star. What fascinated me was that he was basing the article on life forms he described in his debut novel Dragon's Egg.

This year's issue contains articles describing a flight on the Vomit Comet, the aircraft that simulates zero G, Elgar's music and secret codes, the mathematics and juggling and a fascinating piece by Simon Singh on the "Harvard Starlets" a group of women who were hired by the Harvard Observatory during the late 19th and early 20th centuries because they would accept lower pay but work more effectively than their male counterparts.

Northern Ireland bank robbery

The Irish Times today leads with a denial from the IRA that it was involved in any way with the rencet £22m bank raid in Belfast. I seem to remember the IRA making a similar statement about the murder of Garda Gerry McCabe. What will they say next week? That the raid was actually carried out by its members but that the operation wasn't sanctioned? And the week after that? That it was a sanctioned operation after all and that they perpetrators should not be imprisoned because they would only qualify for release under the Good Friday agreement anyway?

Perfect timing

My car has broken down again. I was driving to a friend's house on Tuesday night for Christmas drinks – soft drinks only for me – when it stalled but started up immediately. I thought nothing of it until this afternoon when it stalled again but started up. Then this evening as I was driving round to my parents' place to deliver presents, it stalled again. This time it took a few minutes before it would restart. I manged to travel another mile or two until it stalled again and this time wouldn't start. Of course, by the time the AA man arrived, it started perfectly, but the AA man agreed with me it would be foolish to continue. Since i was closer to my parents' place than my one, he towed me to Donnybrook. Fortunately, my father has lent me his car for the weekend. But it's the timing. The last time the car broke down was over Octocon weekend when I really needed it. And now Christmas. Any other weekend, it wouldn't have mattered so much as the buses would be running.

Pokah! (again)

My drive to become an adequate poker player continues. Last night at the Fitzwilliam Card Club weekly Sunday freeroll (i.e. free entry tournament) I made the final table and actually placed sixth.

Irish 419 solicitation

It's finally happened. I've received a 419 letter purporting to come from someone at the AIB Bankcentre in Ballsbridge. I won't give the name in case there is someone by that name actually working there. In fact I might just ring Bankcentre and find out.

Did anyone else get it, or am I the only one?

Wired News: Vaporware Nominees: Bring 'em On

Yep, it's that time of the year again when Wired compiles its annual vapourware – sorry vaporware - list. As the site says:

Some products promised to hit the market in 2004 were no-shows, like flower-tossing mobs of Iraqis (and WMDs, of course, but that was 2003's theme).

Now in their sixth year, the Vaporware Awards celebrate all those long-awaited games and gewgaws that were delayed, ditched or discontinued. (And, of course, those that were never more than a vision from on high.)

And so once again, we ask you -- the esteemed Wired News' readers -- to nominate whatever games, gadgets and miracle cures you most looked forward to, but were cruelly denied.

Nominations can be sent to vaporware2004@wired.com and you should include the name of the company and product in the subject line as well as in the message body. You are also invited to include appropriately acerbic comments that may or may not appear in the write up.

MarsEdit 1.0 Released!

I've been using the beta version of MarsEdit for posting here for some time. Now, however, developer Ranchero has launched the first complete version. Mars edit "makes weblog writing like writing email, with each post edited in its own window, the ability to save posts as drafts, spell-checking, and a familiar Mac OS X interface.," says Ranchero

While designed to be easy to use for new webloggers, MarsEdit also includes features power-bloggers need: support for categories, text filters, trackbacks, custom templates, AppleScript, and more.

Other MarsEdit features include image and file uploading, a bookmarklet that lets you send a page from your Web browser to MarsEdit, and custom tags.

MarsEdit works with a variety of weblog systems, including Movable Type, TypePad, Radio UserLand, WordPress, Blosxom, and many others.

It also works with NetNewsWire and other newsreaders for OS X that include a post-to-weblog feature. The newsreader’s post-to-weblog command can be used to send a news item to MarsEdit, where it can be commented on and then posted to a weblog.

MarsEdit costs $24.95 for a single-user license and $19.95 per person for a multi-user license. It’s available bundled with NetNewsWire 2.0 beta for $39.95.

If you bought (or will buy) any NetNewsWire 1.x version, MarsEdit 1.0 and all MarsEdit 1.x releases are free."

(Via ranchero.com.)