Category — Gadgets, Geeks and Gaming

It looks like some clever scientists have developped what could be the next big optical storage medium.  Their new format – which has yet to be branded with any ridiculous marketing labels – can hold up to 1.6 TB on a single disk!

How did they do it?  Well, I told you they were clever.  On current-gen optical storage disks, data is stored in one long spiral, which the read laser follows, reading the data bit by bit as the disk spins.  With this new format, data can be read in parallel, because each position along the read line of the disk contains information encoded in several different ways – by wavelength, polarization, and layered into the depth dimension of the disk.  This means that the read head (probably a combination of several different lasers – it’s still in development) will read several different pieces of info at any given point on the disk – from different layers, at different wavelengths, and at different polarizations.

Sounds to me like a handy way to store data for parallel processing!  The data is stored in different ways, apparently including gold atoms and nano-rods made of… well, I’ll have to get back to you on that (carbon atoms?  Some kind of semiconductor?).

Don’t go throwing out your Blu-ray players and PS3s just yet.  This is till early in development, and I personally doubt this format is going to find its way into the realm of personal entertainment.  Even if it becomes economically viable to produce these disks (not to mention the players), by then we’ll have all joined the download/streaming revolution, and individually purchased multimedia disk units that gather dust on shelves will be a thing of the past!  I can hope, right?!

What I wouldn’t give to be a kid growing up in Osaka right now.  Not only is it the gourmet capital of Japan (mmm, sushi), their education board recently decreed that ownership of a Nintendo DS is now mandatory for all elementary and middle school children.  The handhelds are to be used as teaching tools in the district’s schools, with (I believe) the ministry footing the bill.  Hold your snide comments about Brain Age for now; while we may only see a few dubious educational uses for the DS on this side of the ocean, the Japanese market is filled with a much broader range of educational ‘games’, including writing and speech coaches.  The DS’ touch screen is not a bad interface for these kinds of applications, and it wouldn’t take much investment by the educational powers that be in Osaka to develop more specialized programs for different classes.

There’s also nothing stopping these kids from playing Epic RPG XVIII on their brand new school-sponsored DSes the second they leave class.  Lucky brats.  (Check out these links to English and Japanese versions of the article)

It’s rare that I bother to see a movie while it’s still in theatres, and even rarer that I go to a movie while there’s still a buzz and a crowd to speak of.  The last movie I remember seeing within a week of opening night was Snakes on a Plane, and as with everything surrounding that movie, my enthusiasm was at least a little bit ironic.  So when I lined up (LINED up!) to see Watchmen and it was still fresh enough in the theatres to attract cosplaying geeks dressed up like Rorschach, it was an occasion! (and before anyone asks, it was far too cold for anyone sane to attempt a Dr. Manhattan ‘costume’)

I could attempt to review the movie outside of the context of the book, but what would be the point?  This film will only stick in the minds of those who’ve read and loved the original; as a film it doesn’t stand so strongly on its own merits that casual moviegoers will tumble head-over-heels into Watchmen fandom.  The movie certainly has its high points, and does some things very very well, but overall it had the feeling of being stuck in the middle, as if the producers were caught between replicating the book in its every detail and appealing to casual movie-goers.  I didn’t hate it, and I didn’t love it.  A few moments gave me the fanboy shivers, and others had me wondering if the scene director was attempting a parody.  Keep reading for a more in-depth assessment of the movie’s faults and triumph’s.

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Anyone who grew up in a Christian household is probably familiar with the tradition of giving something up for Lent.  In my family it was never a big deal, but each of us usually gave up something we enjoyed for those 40 days, my contribution generally being a reduction in the time I spent playing video games, or a swearing off of sugary cereals.  Despite the fact that I started losing my faith and skipping church pretty early on, I kept celebrating Lent because I recognized it as a useful exercise in self-restraint, and since it was my decision what to give up, I could use it as an excuse to curb bad habits and build new ones.

Of course, those of you who grew up in the Catholic Church might look back it on a bit differently.  I attended the United Church as a child, probably the most laid-back, de-centralized, worship-in-your-own-way version of Christianity out there.  I was never told what to give up for Lent, or even that I had to give anything up at all.  I’m guessing that for some kids in the Catholic Church (centralized, top-down, worship-as-we-say) Lent was a dreaded period where they were denied that which they desired the most, be it a toy or a favourite candy or extra time outside to play.  While I’m lucky to look back on Lent as mostly self-imposed period of personal improvement, Catholic kids may well look back on it with dread (and feel guilty for seeing it that way!).

Well, it looks like the Catholic church is trying to scare off the last of those who still practice Lent by making unreasonable demands, with certain dioceses calling for a ban on text messaging on Fridays during Lent:

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Last week, I had the privilege of hearing one of my favourite authors speak. Neal Stephenson was in Toronto promoting his latest book, Anathem – another gargantuan effort on his part.  The event was organized by This is Not a Reading, and I really have to thank them because it’s refreshing to attend events like these where the author does more than just read a passage from their latest book, and maybe answer a few questions.

Neal Stephenson is one of those authors that got pigeonholed early: his first novel to draw a lot of critical acclaim was a brilliant work of cyberpunk.  Ever since, his books have been shelved in the Sci-fi section, even though many (myself included) would argue that his last few books are so expansive in scope that they defy any attempt at categorization.  I suppose they have to go somewhere, but anyone who’s read Cryptonomicon or (especially) The Baroque Cycle will tell you that his work doesn’t fit very neatly onto any particular shelf; his work is truly baroque, in the sense that it displays a rich amount of detail (some might say an excessive amount) and draws from many sources and traditions all at once.  Anathem bucks this trend a bit, landing definitively between Sci-fi and Fantasy, but is still far wider in scope than most traditional entries in those genres.  For myself, I loved it, and if I can find the words to properly encapsulate all the ideas presented in the story, I’ll try to write a full review.

Upon entering the auditorium, I immediately noticed the music being played; it sounded like Gregorian or Byzantine chants.  This seemed appropriate, as there’s a monastic group of theorists portrayed in Anathem that uses this type of music to extol their appreciation for the beauty and order they perceive in the mathematical and philosophical ideas they devote their lives to studying.  Only later in the evening did I learn that the music was from a CD made by a musician friend of Mr. Stephenson’s who’d taken the musical concepts from the book and applied them to some of his favourite mathematical concepts.  One chant encoded the decimal expansion of pi, another was generated using cellular automata, and a third described a quantum spin network of some kind.

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