BigDog
Pretty impressive.
Thursday, June 24, 2010
049 Best RO ever!
This is a very, very cool video of a robot developed by Boston Dynamics for military application. This video has been around for a while, but I just couldn't help myself and include it in here ... For fun.
BigDog
Pretty impressive.
BigDog
Pretty impressive.
Monday, June 21, 2010
048 Fandemaniacs
I was in Dallas y'all.
Went to Dallas on business last week. In addition to the usual meetings, we had a fund raising Thursday night and a breakfast fundraising on Friday morning. 50 million dollars was the goal. Dallas was hot and humid, but people were just so very nice, as usual.
I started getting nauseous on Thursday only a few hours after getting there. I have a couple of problems with the food. Quantities and Qualities. Too much food and really heavy stuff. By Friday afternoon I was just spending my time trying not to throw up. Difficult to do in the plane, when across the aisle, one kid throws up on take off and another throws up on landing. Just beautiful. It has been said that I am so used to breathing the beachy-smogy LA air, that if I leave it for too long, I start dying little by little ... "That's just crazy talk." My theory makes way more sense: I think I might be allergic to the Lone star state.... Damn.
Back in LA, dude.
After an 11hour sleep night, I felt a little better. Went to work again in the morning and got sick again that night. Just delightful. Trying to book Palm Springs next week for some R&R. I already feel guilty about taking off when we have yet another gigantic deadline.
Fandemonium: "I like it alright!"
Since I had so much time to read [with all the plane rides and all ...] I downloaded a few books on my phone.
A few weeks ago, I discovered Fandemonium. A friend of mine had been talking to me about it, suggesting I read them "For research purposes." So, I obliged and picked up "A Matter Of honor"[Part I} which was quickly followed by "The Cost Of Honor." Great stuff. The self-imposed research became a guilty pleasure and I quickly realized that I liked it ... A lot. I am gong to have to read all the SG1 and SGA books. I did hear that some were not so good and since I started, I have noticed that it is the case, I just don't care. I am, however not such a fan of the ST:E series. The stories and the characters don't always feel right and Trip is taking over most of the stories. And where the hell is Archer? Anyway, I could talk for hours about that. Maybe I'll get into STNG, I wouldn't mind getting some fresh Picard stories.
Anyway, I am glad I started reading the books, the initial skepticism is gone, I am now a true believer. I have however also come to the conclusion that I am not necessarily interested in branching out in that realm. Too many restrictions for my taste.
The soooo so good:
It's actually pretty incredible when you think about it. Usually, when reading a book, everything is visualized entirely from the author's description of things; Context [architecture], people's physical attributes and behavior ... Everything is only as clear as you can imagine it with the help of the one who wrote it in the first place. In the case of Fandemonium, it's completely different. the stories are more vivid, the action feels more complete and there is a certain depth in everything that is happening in the story simply because the reader already has a very good idea of what things actually look and sound like. So the leap of imagination it takes to actualize the story has already partially been made by watching the shows. That's definitely the good part about reading these kinds of books. Of course it's never going to be "High Art" and the quality of the writing and the plots varies tremenduously from author to author. But as pure entertainment, just like the shows are, I think it makes sense and apparently a lot of other people think so too. Is it harder to write? Yes, I think it is.
The not so good:
The biggest problem I have with this type of "novelization" is that since we already know all the characters so well, the moment the author makes a mistake, whenever something is off, it immediately disrupts the whole flow of the story.
I think I've only experience this twice on SG - Once with Daniel and I think once with Rodney. I was so annoyed by it that it took me a while to get back in the story. the good side of this is that we finally get some insight into the mind of characters that are usually not explored as much as they could be. And because we know EVERYONE so well, it's absolutely fun to read while actually seeing it in your mind, I mean, we already know what most of it looks like.
Next time, I think I'll have to post a very raw, very short synopsis of the next story I am working on. I think it's going to be good. Although it the second installment in the series [the main characters are already developed], I think that the Intro. is setup in a way that the reader doesn't need to know who they are. But whatever.
Hopefully, I get some time this summer to finish the story. That would be quite a miracle, wouldn't it?
Went to Dallas on business last week. In addition to the usual meetings, we had a fund raising Thursday night and a breakfast fundraising on Friday morning. 50 million dollars was the goal. Dallas was hot and humid, but people were just so very nice, as usual.
I started getting nauseous on Thursday only a few hours after getting there. I have a couple of problems with the food. Quantities and Qualities. Too much food and really heavy stuff. By Friday afternoon I was just spending my time trying not to throw up. Difficult to do in the plane, when across the aisle, one kid throws up on take off and another throws up on landing. Just beautiful. It has been said that I am so used to breathing the beachy-smogy LA air, that if I leave it for too long, I start dying little by little ... "That's just crazy talk." My theory makes way more sense: I think I might be allergic to the Lone star state.... Damn.
Back in LA, dude.
After an 11hour sleep night, I felt a little better. Went to work again in the morning and got sick again that night. Just delightful. Trying to book Palm Springs next week for some R&R. I already feel guilty about taking off when we have yet another gigantic deadline.
Fandemonium: "I like it alright!"
Since I had so much time to read [with all the plane rides and all ...] I downloaded a few books on my phone.
A few weeks ago, I discovered Fandemonium. A friend of mine had been talking to me about it, suggesting I read them "For research purposes." So, I obliged and picked up "A Matter Of honor"[Part I} which was quickly followed by "The Cost Of Honor." Great stuff. The self-imposed research became a guilty pleasure and I quickly realized that I liked it ... A lot. I am gong to have to read all the SG1 and SGA books. I did hear that some were not so good and since I started, I have noticed that it is the case, I just don't care. I am, however not such a fan of the ST:E series. The stories and the characters don't always feel right and Trip is taking over most of the stories. And where the hell is Archer? Anyway, I could talk for hours about that. Maybe I'll get into STNG, I wouldn't mind getting some fresh Picard stories.
Anyway, I am glad I started reading the books, the initial skepticism is gone, I am now a true believer. I have however also come to the conclusion that I am not necessarily interested in branching out in that realm. Too many restrictions for my taste.
The soooo so good:
It's actually pretty incredible when you think about it. Usually, when reading a book, everything is visualized entirely from the author's description of things; Context [architecture], people's physical attributes and behavior ... Everything is only as clear as you can imagine it with the help of the one who wrote it in the first place. In the case of Fandemonium, it's completely different. the stories are more vivid, the action feels more complete and there is a certain depth in everything that is happening in the story simply because the reader already has a very good idea of what things actually look and sound like. So the leap of imagination it takes to actualize the story has already partially been made by watching the shows. That's definitely the good part about reading these kinds of books. Of course it's never going to be "High Art" and the quality of the writing and the plots varies tremenduously from author to author. But as pure entertainment, just like the shows are, I think it makes sense and apparently a lot of other people think so too. Is it harder to write? Yes, I think it is.
The not so good:
The biggest problem I have with this type of "novelization" is that since we already know all the characters so well, the moment the author makes a mistake, whenever something is off, it immediately disrupts the whole flow of the story.
I think I've only experience this twice on SG - Once with Daniel and I think once with Rodney. I was so annoyed by it that it took me a while to get back in the story. the good side of this is that we finally get some insight into the mind of characters that are usually not explored as much as they could be. And because we know EVERYONE so well, it's absolutely fun to read while actually seeing it in your mind, I mean, we already know what most of it looks like.
Next time, I think I'll have to post a very raw, very short synopsis of the next story I am working on. I think it's going to be good. Although it the second installment in the series [the main characters are already developed], I think that the Intro. is setup in a way that the reader doesn't need to know who they are. But whatever.
Hopefully, I get some time this summer to finish the story. That would be quite a miracle, wouldn't it?
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