Rockets, Robots & Rayguns

Infinite Bagel

 

Moondance

 

E.T. iphone Home

I've had the iphone jones for sometime now, but my foray into the universe of 4G touch-screen geekery is probably down the road a bit. Still, that hasn't stopped me from admiring all the cool Star Trek flavored apps available for the iphone like the TNG LCARS interface,

or the tricorder app.

 

But by far the coolest is the app that turns your phone into a virtual Original Series communicator.

TOS Communicator App for iphone

As you can see in the video, you can activate it with a flick of the wrist, goggle at the cool graphics and play communicator sound effects and voice clips. You can even punch up an old style keypad should you want to use your phone as... you know, an actual phone. Pretty cool, huh?

Well, instead if sitting around waiting to drop my current phone in the toilet or for my contract to expire, I decided to add a bit of Trek flavor to phone I have now. It is a pretty cool little phone-- a Sony Walkman with it's own set of apps and features like an MP# player. (It is a Walkman, afterall.) But it doesn't support any of the groovy cutting edge stuff like Apple's does.

About the only thing I could do was Photoshop a TOSesque background image to use as wallpaper or a screensaver. And so I did.

The first attempt is a pretty good homage to the original prop. The black window on the bottom is for the clock and date display. Unfortunatley, the clock, which can only be in one of two sizes, and only in orange text, didn't fit right. There wasn't any other formatting option either.

So, after a little piddling and revision, I came up with this:

These are both just simple animated GIFs, but you can set them as wallpaper and as the screen saver, which is only on for about 3 seconds before the phone goes to sleep, which seems rather pointless, but whatever... The aggravationg thing is that the GIF is displayed in wallpaper mode with a white border around it making the text along the edges hard to read. Sigh... Guess I'll just learn to live with it if I want my blinkies!

 

Interviews with Lawrence Reynolds & Joe Corroney

I know I'm late getting these posted, but here are my interviews with two outstanding Trek/comic/sci-fi artists, Lawrence Reynolds and Joe Corroney. Both attended the (not so) recent Star Trek Fan Days in Plano. I talked to both of them prior to the convention.

 

10-19-10 Lawrence Reynolds 11.46

First up is Lawrence Reynolds whose online gallery lives at Vivid Fury. Lawrence is a master (yeah, a JEDI Master!) of both realistic illustration and a looser, more painterly style, perfect for capturing the frentic quality of characters like the Joker. He works professionally in print and TV advertising. He's also a very nice guy.

 

10-19-10 Joe Corroney

Joe Corroney illustrates for Lucasfilm creating artwork for books, games, trading cards, comic books, posters and magazines. He's done work for the Star Trek, G.I. Joe, Doctor Who and Bukaroo Banzai franchises among many others. He's currently doing cover art for the True Blood comic series. Joe was lot's of fun to talk to, but we encountered a few technical difficulties. He sounded as if he was transmitting from V'Ger. I'm afraid the audio is pretty squonky. (A technical radio term.) I tried to clean it up, but it is what it is. Give it a listen though, Joe gives some great insights to his work.

 

 

War of The Worlds

 
Today is the anniversary of the 1938 Orson Wells broadcast of "War of The Worlds" that caused a bit of a panic when a few people thought it was an actual newscast and that Martians had really landed in Grovers Mill, New Jersey.

This is what I listened to last year while I was building the Little Sprout's robot suit.

War of The Worlds Original 1938 Broadcast

 Click the bar above to stream the original broadcast

In fact, I listened to the original as well as a couple of new performances, including one done by a group of Star Trek actors, including Leonard Nimoy.

 
So in honor of both Orson Wells, the genius performer, and H. G. Wells, the brilliant writer, I give you more "War of The Worlds" Resources than you can shake a slimey tentacle at. Sit back and listen to the 1938 broadcast streaming here, or click through the links to explore in depth. Either way, enjoy-- and Happy Halloween!

Oh... And of course, we must pay tribute to the 1953 George Pal motion picture adaptation of the "War Of The Worlds," My absolute favorite Sci Fi movie as a kid.

 

 

 

Pluto by The Moving Sidewalks

 

Supernova A-Go-Go: sci-fi burlesque at Comic-Con

Produced by the "Pe-Tite Barnum of Burlesque", Penny Starr, Jr. SuperNova A Go-Go brings burlesque, live music, comedy and sideshow performers in a tribute to science fiction, fantasy and horror. Past performers have included Kitten de Ville, Blaine Capatch, Venus deMille, Vernon Wells (Wez from THE ROAD WARRIOR), the Poubelle Twins and Lux LaCroix (Lucha Va Voom)

via itsachick.com

Here's another story on Supernova A-Go-Go. (An Expose, if you will...)

My geekiest fantasies come true! Sex and sci-fi, what could be better than that? They have a new DVD out in September. Ought to be as hot as Summers on Tattooine...

Speaking of which-- How about Three Leias?

And finally, this Kirk/Kahn rendition of "I Will Survive," is pretty funny too.

 

 

The First Tweet From Space and Other Twitter Firsts - PC World

The First Tweet From Space and Other Twitter Firsts

JR Raphael, PC World

Jan 22, 2010 5:07 pm

Tweeting is no longer only an earthly phenomenon.

A NASA astronaut made Twitter history on Friday by sending the first tweet from outer space. Flight Engineer T.J. Creamer broadcast the following message directly from the International Space Station:

"Hello Twitterverse! We r now LIVE tweeting from the International Space Station -- the 1st live tweet from Space! :) More soon, send your ?s"

Take that, Neil Armstrong.

via www.pcworld.com

No Place To Hide

The original un-aired "Lost In Space" pilot. No Robot, no Dr. Smith, just the Robinson family and Doctor, not Major, Don West. Note, the Jupiter II is called the Gemini XII in this episode. Of further note, the familiar, haunting score is Bernard Herman's masterpiece from "The Day The Earth Stood Still."

The first pilot was built on a foundation of adventure, as was the second pilot, which featured the addition of a sinister Dr. Smith and the iconic robot. So went most of the first season, with none of the camp that became a hallmark of later seasons. And while Trekkies cast the Flaming Eye of Scorn upon the short sighted CBS execs who passed on Star Trek in favor of L.I.S., the first two "Lost In Space" pilots hold up rather well against "The Cage" and "Where No Man Has Gone Before."

I'm not suggesting that either episode of "Lost In Space" is better than its NBC rival. I'm just saying that with a solid start and nothing but potential ahead of it there was no way to know which show would be better, smarter, or more successful. If Irwin Allen had followed followed the early track of the program rather than to try to out-camp "Batman" which it was opposite, then perhaps we'd hold "Lost In Space" in the same esteem we hold "GOOD TV Sci-Fi" like "Star Trek," and "Twilight Zone," instead of as a guilty little pleasure. But even the elites have their skeletons in the closet. "Spock's Brain," anyone?

Moller Skycar to finally crash and burn? • The Register

 

Moller Skycar to finally crash and burn?

Desperate last-gasp spin: 'Virtual flight tests' start

By Lewis Page • Get more from this author

Posted in Science, 23rd November 2009 15:19 GMT

Free whitepaper – Dell PowerEdge servers 2009 - Memory

(In)famous flying-car firm Moller International - whose four-decade quest to produce an Everyman aerial ride has seen no aircraft delivered and a 2003 fine from the SEC for selling "fraudulent unregistered stock" - has now announced "Virtual Test Flights of [a] New Flying Car".

It seems that Moller has "created a full-featured flight simulator package for use by all who have been eager to operate the Skycar, the Company's unique 'roadable' aircraft".

So not a new flying car as such, then: the Skycar has been "in development" for many years. Still, simulations and modelling are serious engineering, aren't they?

Not this time. What we actually have here is a plug-in for Microsoft Flight Simulator (version 2004 and FSX). But hey - 7,000 downloads almost right away is impressive-ish, indicating at least some interest by wannabe pilots.

Well, it would be if it weren't for the fact that Skycar flight sim plug-ins have been available since at least 2003, and the most recent update to FSX (Flight Simulator 10) was put online nearly a year ago. Last week's announcement of "virtual test flights" didn't relate to any actual event at all.

In fact that may not be quite true. The spurious announcement of "test flights of [a] new flying car" came one day ahead of the firm's 10-Q quarterly report, in which we learn that:

Moller International has an accumulated deficits of $45,525,462 and a working capital deficit of $11,376,885 as of September 30, 2009. MI currently has limited recurring revenue-producing products and is continuing its development of products in both the Skycar and Rotapower engine programs. Successful completion of product development activities for either or both of these programs will require significant additional sources of capital... These factors raise substantial doubt as to MI's ability to continue as a going concern.

Historically, funding was funded by certain shareholders, including, Dr Paul S Moller ("Dr Moller"), the majority shareholder, in the form of short-term notes payable. As of September 30, 2009, amounts outstanding to Dr. Moller total $3,170,979. In addition, Dr Moller has granted MI a deferral on the payment of rent for the office building. The total deferred rent, including interest owed to Dr Moller at September 30, 2009 amounted to $3,089,563. There is no assurance that MI will continue to receive funding from shareholders in the future or that funds from other sources will be sufficient to provide MI with the capital needed to continue as a going concern.

It also appears that Dr Moller himself has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. It would seem that the final long overdue death-rattle for Moller International and the Skycar can't now be long in coming.

That might sadden those like us who find the idea of personal air vehicles exciting - but it shouldn't. The main contribution to flying cars by Moller International has been to blot up tens of millions of investment without result and so tarnish the idea's image as to make things much harder for other inventors and developers.

Anyone who actually wants a flying car - or would like to see such craft fly one day - should be happy to see the Skycar go. ®

via www.theregister.co.uk

Update to my flying car round up:

I guess we know why the Moller Skycar was not included on the list of flying cars I blogged about earlier.

Damned scammers... They promised us flying cars!