I have tried to keep blogging over at Spandex Justice, which is the repository for my comic book reviews, as well as my general thoughts on popular entertainment. I just posted a review of the movie Eragon, for example.

Next year, I’ll figure out what to do on this site. Probably more of the same ramblings about science, toys, etc.

"Rupert Sheldrake, whose research is funded by the respected Trinity College, Cambridge, said on Tuesday he had conducted experiments that proved that such precognition existed for telephone calls and even e-mails."

I guess he’ll be entering James Randi Educational Foundation’s Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge any day now. Or not.

Just a cursory reading of the article tosses up several problems. One, the test subjects got to choose what relatives would participate, so they already knew who could be calling. If phone telepathy works, then why not have them choose from a hundred random callers? Why would this only work with relatives and friends? Seems to me, having the ability to know what telemarketer is calling would be much more useful.

Also, since only a few of the subjects were apparently monitored, all the "evidence" becomes anecdote.

Technorati Tags: bullshit, pseudo-science, telepathy, skepticism

I’m often reminded of my favorite quote about atheism by Stephen Roberts:

"I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours."

Here’s a nice list of more quotes about atheism.

I’m also reminded of a time when I was eavesdropping on a few women on the escalator in front of me, who were apparently teachers. One was mentioning that her class was learning about the Greek and Roman gods and one of the students had mentioned that "If all those people believed in Zeus, and now nobody does, won’t the same happen to God?" They all laughed, with the inference being "What a silly question." I chuckled, thinking "That’s a smart kid."

Technorati Tags: atheist, atheism, skeptic, James Randi, Carl Sagan, Stephen Roberts, religion

So I took a chance and bought Buffalo Tech’s Ethernet Converter (despite their site’s lack of a defined background color). I’m not sure why they don’t call it a bridge, since that’s what it is, but hey, I’m not a marketing guy (at least not until the lobotomy). It worked perfectly, so I picked up another.

Of course, you’d think with the amazing speed of Pre-Draft Wireless N, I’d be living the high life. Not quite. Though I picked up D-Link’s Wireless N Notebook Adapter, it doesn’t work very reliably: my connection would drop constantly, and when my laptop would go into suspend mode, the card would never reconnect.

Anyhow, I’m pleased: so far, the router has been rock solid (though it does take a little time for it to reboot if it does have problems), and everything is working as it should.

Technorati Tags: networking, wireless, D-Link, Linksys, BuffaloTech

"Test yourself on the following questions. In each case, it is 1991 and I have removed from you all knowledge of the past 15 years.

"You have to design a global computer network. One group of scientists describes a system that is fundamentally open – open protocols and systems so anyone could connect to it and offer information or products to the world. Another group – scholars, businessmen, bureaucrats – points out the problems. Anyone could connect to it. They could do anything. There would be porn, piracy, viruses and spam. Terrorists could put up videos glorifying themselves. Your activist neighbour could compete with The New York Times in documenting the Iraq war. Better to have a well-managed system, in which official approval is required to put up a site; where only a few actions are permitted; where most of us are merely recipients of information; where spam, viruses, piracy (and innovation and anonymous speech) are impossible. Which would you have picked?"

Let’s see, in 1991, I would not have had to pick, since the Internet already existed at that time. I hate it when people think that the Internet did not exist until the World Wide Web came around. Sorry to break it to you, Financial Times, but folks were FTPing, Gophering, Telneting and the like long before the Web. The Internet != World Wide Web.

Time Machine

I can see the utility, but it isn’t something I’d use. I don’t tend to delete much, but when I do, it’s usually for a reason. But it seems useful for those folks who might be careless.

Mail

I like the integration with "To Do" lists and iCal, but I don’t use the Mail app currently, and I don’t see that changing. I’m not fond of giving users even more freedom to embed useless photos and HTML into email.

iChat

Again, another application I really don’t use, but looks like some solid improvements with file sharing and presentation abilities.

Spaces

Ah, a virtual window manager. This should be quite useful and is a long time coming. I’m sure to use this.

Dashboard

More widget making fun. I wasn’t a big fan of the Dashboard when I first bought a Mac, but it has been growing on me. The improvements in Leopard should make it even more useful.

Spotlight

I’d admit it right now: I don’t use Spotlight. I haven’t build up a lot of data yet, so it isn’t all that useful to me. Being able to search multiple machines, though, might make me actually fire it up.

iCal

Yet Another Application I Don’t Use. And I don’t see anything that will change my behavior.

Accessibility

Some good stuff here: new voice that sounds a little more human, some more hooks in to programs. Some solid advances here.

64-Bit Applications

Whoop-de-64-shit. Anyhow, it’s nice, but doesn’t do much for me.

Core Animation

Mmmm. Pretty. But just more eye-candy.

Overall, it’s sort of "eh" to me. Some nice improvements, to be sure, but nothing is really knocking my socks off.

Technorati Tags: apple, leopard

Now, I do have a Mac Mini that I’ve been using as a server for the past year: it’s a great little workhorse, pulling duty as a file server, the music server, the on-and-off Ventrilo server, etc. But I never really used it for much beyond that. But with the MacBook, I find that I can take it almost anywhere: it boots quickly and is fast and responsive.

Originally, I figured I’d have to spring for BBEdit to get a good text/HTML editor, but good old Joe told me about Textmate: an editor for Mac OS X written by a UNIX geek. And lo, it was good. I’ve only spent a short time with it, but it’s already one of my favorite editors. It’s got nifty “bundles” which allow users to extend the functionality of the editor. Currently, I’ve been playing with the blogging bundle, which let’s me create, edit and post blog entries via Textmate. Very useful for on the road blogging.

Unfortunately, it’s also rekindled my love for Nethack. I should probably install Larn, too, for even more dungeon crawling fun,

Technorati Tags: textmate, apple, macbook, blogging, nethack, larn