Category: Gadgetology

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Gadgetology

Podcasters podcast about podcasting (addendum)

HEADPHONES ONI recently put in a brief appearance in an all-star edition of Rob O’Hara’s You Don’t Know Flack podcast, in which Rob and a rather stellar selection of fellow podcasters (of which I’m pretty sure I’m the most small-time of the bunch!) talk about the process of podcasting, from picking a topic and format to the actual technical side of getting the thing made. I originally rambled for about 11 minutes and then realized I was rambling, and then went back and redid it in about 5-ish minutes. (If I can’t talk about my five-minute podcast in five minutes, there’s a problem.)

The perversity of the way my luck runs, the very day that Flack posted this installment (which brought more attention to the Escape Pod than I’ve been able to do myself since the initial launch), I started a new job and promptly fell behind on my supposedly daily podcast. I’m working on that as we speak. Oops.

Anyway, here are some additional sleeve notes for the Escape Pod, for those interested. … Read more

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Gadgetology Gaming

Convention update: GlitchCon video game history panel

OdysseyI’m going to be at Glitchcon in Springdale next month, showing off the various fruit that falls off of the multifarious branches of theLogBook.com – the books, the DVDs, the podcast, the ‘zine, the site itself. Heck, you can probably talk me into letting you hear some Kasatochi. I’ll have a table in the vendors’ room – drop by and say howdy! (Fear not, there are faaaaaaar more interesting things than me to see, including Steve Downes, the voice actor behind the helmet of Master Chief in the Halo games, sneak-previewing something perhaps Halo-related at his panel.)

I’ll also be hosting a panel of my own, though it’ll be unconventional to say the least. I’m going to do an early-history-of-video-gaming panel, and allow everyone to get their butts out of their seats and try stuff out hands-on. … Read more

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Gadgetology

Next…?

I was in a car wreck over the weekend, which has knocked the wind out of my sails a bit. I was the only person in my car, and I walked away from it, so as sore as I am, I think I rolled a good saving throw against Getting Smooshed. The thing that sucks is that it was a pretty good weekend, marred by one big bone-jarring BOOM. But let’s focus on the positive (yay), which brings me to my big purchase of the weekend…

Nextbook … Read more

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Funny Stuff Gadgetology

The chat in the hat

I recently installed a LAN instant messenger program on our PCs at home. Once Little E is in bed, it’s typical for me to retreat to my room to try to squeeze a little more writing or copy editing out of my day. This way, my wife can sit in bed with her laptop, where she’ll often browse the web or watch something before bedtime, and can ask me questions like “Why haven’t you let the dogs back in?” And she gets helpful replies like… this.

(10:26:53 PM) Haven’t heard them at the door.
(10:29:17 PM) Haven’t seen them on the floor.
(10:29:28 PM) Haven’t smelled them, what’s the use?
(10:29:34 PM) Wow, I sound like Dr. Seuss!

😛… Read more

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Gadgetology Music

That sounds familiar

I CAN'T HEAR YOUInternational Space Station astronaut Chris Hadfield has posted a really interesting sound file or two on Soundcloud. In response to a Twitter question about what it sounds like aboard the ISS, Hadfield posted a recording of the ambient sound of constantly-running life support/air conditioning and a few dozen computer fans. You can hear it here.

Kinda sounds like home to me. I’d be the last person to trivialize spaceflight or anything related to it, but that wall of computer-fan-and-A/C sounds an awful lot like… … Read more

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Cooking With Code Funny Stuff Gadgetology

Yes, I am that much of a geek

I recently got a new phone (way before Black Friday, mind, so no, I haven’t taken part in any retail stampedes), the first one I’ve had where the whole thing’s basically a touchscreen. It’s ridiculously customizable as far as caller images, wallpapers, event sounds, etc., so I’ve been, as they say, geeking out.

If you’re actually in my contact list, then believe it or not, you’ve got one of these graphics with your name on it:tomb of the unknown caller
tomb of the unknown caller

Hey, my cat calls me a lot. 😆 (It’s pretty quick work to apply the individual name to the basic template. I may have had some free time on my hands today, but not that much.)

I whipped up a couple of geek-a-licious animated wallpapers as well; suffice to say, they’re in the same “universe.” I’ll show them off another time.… Read more

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Critters Funny Stuff Gadgetology

Man’s best friend(s)

Romana and K-9I’m not the most social animal in the world, but a quick inventory of the Twitter accounts I follow has revealed that nearly half of them are robots operating on or near other planets. I just like the company of cats (on this planet) and robots (on other planets). (I also like dogs on this planet, just for the record. Soviet-era Russia launching live dogs into orbit and never bothering to return them home in one piece: not OK. Poor Laika.)

I’m sure psychoanalysts would have a field day with that.… Read more

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...And Little E Makes 3 Funny Stuff Gadgetology

Any other answer and we would’ve had to have a long talk

WiringOne of my beloved Samsung LCD monitors bit the dust today: dead lamp. This is the first dead lamp I’ve had in over 10 years of not doing CRTs (except as TVs that sit across the room – still haven’t made the leap to HD yet, despite the whole forced-obsolescence thing – my brother’s 23″ Zenith color TV that went to college with him and back is still working, thank you very much). This is a pain-in-the-butt loss because the Samsung screens had baseband (RCA) video and audio inputs as well as VGA – they were pretty dandy for hauling to OVGE and hooking old video games up to.

Also, it was a pain in the butt to unplug everything and grab another monitor to put in its place. The cable leading to the monitor’s AC adapted fell behind my desk into the veritable Sargasso Sea of wires and cables, and I needed to retrieve it somehow. My son has a “grabber” (the same thing they market to old folks and disabled people) that he inherited from my wife, who uses it at work (but not because she’s old or disabled). He inherited it because it didn’t quite work the way she needed it to for work purposes. I asked him if I could borrow it.

ME: Can I borrow your grabber?
E: I lost it. [he says this a lot]
ME: Can you find a stick that I can get this cable with?
E: A stick?
ME: Yeah. Even better if it has something on the end so I can hook this cable.
E: I don’t have a hooker, dad.

Good thing too, son. You wouldn’t be getting an allowance for chores anymore if you did.… Read more