Leon Atkinson's Blog, page 21

Huell Howser Died

You could tell the Huell Howser really was a nice person. His show, California’s Gold, was both useful and amusingly weird. Personally, his episode about the Golden Gate Bridge is forever part of me. Vicky and I laughed together while we watched it, not long after we’d met. And to this day we repeat our jokes about “now we are under the bridge” and “that’s why it’s the Golden Gate Bridge–because it’s orange”.

Huell Howser Dead: Beloved California TV Broadcaster Dies At 67 (UPDATES)

Huell Howser, host of public TV show “California’s Gold,” died in his home Sunday evening. Howser, who was 67, was a beloved TV personality who explored and showcased California’s history, traditions and communities.

Android and Linux racing to be next gen consoles

Here’s an interesting race being run in vendor-sport land. We have two serviceable but aging consoles (PS3 & Xbox 360) and a new me-too console from Nintendo (Wii who?) Maybe we’ll be talking about PS4 and Xbox 720 in six months, but right now there’s a bit of buzz around consoles built on Linux or Android (which is really Linux inside). I give the advantage to Steam and Linux. Compare the loud noise in Google’s Play market to Valve’s Steam market.

GameStick Android console is the size of a USB stick

PlayJam, a company that currently operates a social/casual games network for smart/connected TVs called The PlayJam Network, has spent the last 12 months developing “GameStick,” a dongle-sized Android gaming console that plugs directly into a television’s HDMI port. The device currently exists in several different functional prototype forms, but bringing it to market will require the aid of an ongoing Kickstarter campaign, which has recently surpassed its fundraising goal of $100,000.

Steam-Powered Mini-PC Gets Detailed At CES

It might not be the strongly-rumoured Steambox games console itself, but on the floor of the Consumer Electronics Show 2013 a physical prototype of a Steam-powered mini-PC has been on show.

 

Related articles

2013 – the year PC gaming disrupts the console business
2013: The year of the Android games console, with OUYA, Green Throttle and now GameStick
2013: The year of the microconsole?
Begun, The Android Console Wars Have.

Has the prison population gone down?

Probably not. Federal populations increased. State populations decreased, likely due to budget crunches created by the recession. We know about that here in California. A key line from the report: The majority (83%) of the decline in the correctional population during the year was attributed to the decrease in the probation population (down 81,800 offenders). Chalk this up as another effect of the bureaucracy.

The Prison Population is Down

After more than thirty years of constant increase, prison populations have leveled off and in the last few years have begun to decline (pdf). It’s a momentous change and Keith Humphreys argues that the story has been under-reported because few people want to play up the good news

Unrelated links

Links to stuff I found interesting recently, not related to each other:

New Year’s Resolutions: Improve Habits With an RPG | OCDevel
Why I gave up a million dollar consultancy for products
25 Useful JavaScript Libraries And Tools
Ebooks of “The Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs”
‘Atheist Church’ in London Will Hold Its First Service This Weekend
How I Found an Ounce of Freedom in an Unfree World

Rollins radio interview with Full Metal Jackie

It’s good to get a check-in from Rollins. I’m sad to read that he’s “stopped thinking lyrically” and has no plans to make more music. Everything he does is entertaining.

BLABBERMOUTH.NET – HENRY ROLLINS: ‘I Like Stress; It Keeps Me Rockin”

I’d rather give and get respect in that I’ll respect you as a default in that I’ve never met that person, you’re going to get my respect and you’ll go in with 100 points — all you can do is lose. Start a relationship with me and a man on the street and that person will get 100 percent of my respect. All that guy can do is lose, in that he can maintain the level of respect by respecting me and if I can’t get his respect, if he doesn’t seek my respect by giving me his well then he can have some fear instead. So when you are getting walked on or good-natured and just being trotted upon, maybe you should have brought a little more fear to the table, pal. So let me give you a starter course in fear and here’s a teaspoon that you know have coursing through your system when you see my face and there’s a lot more we can bring. If you want to go back to respect, I’d much rather comport this relationship in that way and so when someone says, “You’re a pretty scary guy,” I know that I’m not, and you know that I’m not, but I’ll let that ride [laughs] until we can shut that application down because you truly have nothing to fear from me. I’ll be the first in line to help.

SAE – Amiga Emulator in your browser

The Amiga emulated using HTML5. Works best on Chrome. This is really impressive.

SAE – Scripted Amiga Emulator

This site is a demonstration of the project ‘SAE‘, an experimental Amiga emulator in pure javascript and HTML5.

For details, please see the description.

Free Guy Kawasaki Books

Very cool! And if you want an epub version of The Macintosh Way, log into Ownshelf, the best way to share ebooks across devices.

Guy Kawasaki – Google+ – To celebrate the New Year, you can get four of my books for…

To celebrate the New Year, you can get four of my books for free. Please spread this link as far and wide as you can.

http://www.yousendit.com/download/WUJZZUNndWNlaFRMYnRVag

The books are: What the Plus!, The Macintosh Way, Database 101, and The Computer Curmudgeon.

Happy New Year!

Angry with Facebook but OK with Washington?

Perhaps you are so angry with Facebook and not the government because, as Molyneux has argued, the government is the  parent who can do no wrong and Facebook is the sibling you’re trained to hate.

Why Are People More Scared of Facebook Violating Their Privacy than Washington? – Hit & Run : Reason.com

This grasp of managing outrage is what makes our government’s lack of transparency so insidious. Even though the government has admitted that it has violated the Fourth Amendment at least once in its warrantless wiretapping, the outrage is limited to privacy and civil liberties circles precisely because the secrecy keeps the public from even knowing what these violations actually mean.

Big Words Make The Baby Jesus Cry

The Dead Milkmen have a new 7inch for you to buy. I also discovered a bunch of free music on Joe Jack Talcum’s site. Time for a musical Charles Nelson Riley orgy.

New 7inch Single! Big Words Make The Baby Jesus Cry

Our new single featuring Jesus, snow, and mistletoe! The second in the series of new limited edition (500 only) vinyl 7 inch singles from the Dead Milkmen is now available in the online store!

Each vinyl single cover is hand-stamped with big words by the band and is unique in design. Vinyl single package contains a download card to get the MP3 versions of the A and B sides as well as a third digital only bonus track.

Plus – more diorama art from Rodney on the “Arts ‘n Crafts” page!

Futuristic Predictions That Came True in 2012

The story about a guy in a coma telling his doctors he’s not in any pain via fMRI is awesome.

The Most Futuristic Predictions That Came True in 2012

Yesterday we told you about the biggest scientific breakthroughs of 2012. But now we turn our attention to those developments that make us realize just how futuristic things are quickly becoming.

And the past year provided no shortage of futureshock. We watched a cyborg compete at the Olympic Games, and marveled at the news that NASA was actually working on a faster-than-light warp drive. It was also a year that featured the planet’s first superstorm, the development of an artificial retina — and primates who had their intelligence enhanced with a chip. Here are 16 predictions that came true in 2012.