Things I am interested in…

Wow…  I want one!

What is the semantic web I hear you ask?

 Well here are two articles that can help you, from the creator of the world wide web, Tim Berners-Lee:

• Scientific American article
• a slightly more technical article regarding how it could acutally work

Here’s hoping that this all happens sooner rather than later…

This time a steam powered robot, because the world needs steam powered robots…

Link here.

Beware Microsoft… Quake in terror Yahoo… Your ends are nigh!

After a brief hiatus due to an unexpected problem with my site’s web hosting service, I’m back.

Here is a weird picture (found at Boing Boing):

 

(click image for large view)

…and here is another:

(click image for larger view)

Do these objectify women?

Here is a video which explains this concept:

Ah, the power of plugins - I can now post a blog merely by sending an
email to my “secret” address.

I think?!

Ah… Spider-man!

Ah… The Ramones!

How peculiar…

See here.

Bonus track:

They’re taking the hobbits to Isengard!

On “the continuing controversy over online file sharing”, and non-scarce resources:

•  Piracy Is Progressive Taxation by Tim O’Rielly.
•  Giving It Away and Ebooks: Neither E, Nor Books by Cory Doctorow.

It will be interesting to see how this pans out.  It looks to me like the entertainment and media companies are getting pretty worried, but they do punch above their weight with the legislative bodies in the good old US of A.

(will take over the world)

 Not really going to happen any time soon.

 However, to see an intersting video of a modular robot that can convert from a snake to a hoop to a spider and back again, go here.

Well it’s always good to have one’s horizons expanded…

Here are two sites I have come accross recently that connect quite well with my own personal set of interests.  To expand on this - I am a doctor, currently training in the speciality of psychiatry.  Both of these websites have a connection with psychiatry, though I have to say in my opinion most things do.

 So, without further ado:

• an anti-aging blog
• another blog, intriguingly titled “Neurophilosophy“

(excuse the pun!)

 Just heard on a podcast I was listening to while walking to work (Scientific American Science Talk) that the fourth Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has finished this week.

 Here are some interesting factoids from this:

• Internationally, scientists are 90% certain that the increase in mean global temperature of 0.75 degrees centigrade since recording began during the Industrial Revolution (1850) is due to human activities, as is the ongoing rise in temperature
• Eleven out of twelve of the most recent summers have been the warmest on record (again, since 1850)
• The global atmospheric concentration of CO2 has increased from a pre-industrial average of 280 parts per million (ppm) to the most recent measurement of 379 ppm in 2005
• The rate of increase of atmospheric CO2 has been larger in 1995-2005 (1.9 ppm per year) than it has been in the 145 years preceding (1.4 ppm per year on average)
• If all human CO2 production were to freeze at current levels tomorrow, the mean global temperature would rise about another 0.5 degrees by the end of the century
• If things continue in the worst possible way, with unabated greenhouse gas production, then scientists are predicting a further rise in mean global temperature of about 4 degrees by the end of this century
• If that is the case (i.e., worst case scenario) then two to four billion people will face water shortages by the end of the century, and a further 170 million person’s homes will be under water due to the 0.4m seea level rise

According to the podcast, this is a very conservative report - it had to be so that all of the governments involved would agree to its publication.

 I personally think this is food for thought…

There is a nice photo of my partner Jen holding my niece Katherine, that will go here as soon as I track it down…

Those crazy Germans and their innocent double entendres…

Three German children’s games of some popularity have slightly suspect translations in English.

 The games are:

“See You Soon In The Woods” (Bis Bald Im Wald), “My Dear Beaver” (Mein Leiber Biber), and ”Put It In There” (Rein Damit)

Apparently in German these titles are quite innocent, and no one would think twice!

(from The Dice Tower - “Real men play board games”!)

My brother, Nick, is going to Dubai in the UAE very shortly, to work as an architect in the construction boom they have going over there.  His wife, Ange, and Rowan (my nephew) will be joining him a couple of months later.  They will be away for three years.

 It seems to be the season for friends and family to leave NZ…

Anyway, here is a picture of Dubai (taken at the time of the 2000 Millennium celebrations):

(click on picture for large view)

This is the blog profile of our friend Ethan (eT).  He is leaving for the UK tomorrow on Kiwi OE v2.0.  Check out his blogs…

Further to the last post on free-to-air satellite digital television in NZ - I have just found a link that shows all the channels available so far:

freeviewshop.co.nz/channels

It looks like it is updated regularly.

[I have been told to write that.]

Below are two pictures of my newborn niece, Katherine Cronin-Turbott (courtesy of her mother, and my sister, Abby Turbott):

Expression

Happy Waking

 Click on pictures for larger image

In NZ the government has decided that our television transmission standard has to be changed from analogue to digital over the next few years.  This process has already started, and from the middle of last year a geostationary satellite (currently the Optus 4) has been beaming TVNZ signals down to earth, and all who can receive it.  This is called FreeView.

 The advantages of FreeView over other satellite broadcast systems (like Sky) are:

1. It’s FREE!  Once you have purchased and installed the satellite dish and the decoder there are no more bills… ever.
2. It’s government sponsored, so it is very unlikely to go out of business.
3. The number of channels is being expanded all the time - at the moment there are seven (TVNZ One, 2, The Maori Channel, Bloomberg, Deutsche World TV, CCTV-9 (Chinese), and TVNZ widescreen).  Next month TV3 and Prime are coming online, and by the end of the year there are expected to be about 18 channels available.
4. Did I mention - it’s FREE!

The previous owners of our house had Sky, so a satellite receiver dish and cabling were already in place.  Our friendly neighbourhood aerial guy installed a set-top box, and instantly we had the best reception I’ve experienced in years.  Our previous flat was in the reception shadow of a local mountain, and had shoddy television and cellphone reception.

 I must admit, I’m sold on digital satellite television, and even Jen, who is a bit of a sceptic about these sorts of things thinks that the ability to watch Antiques Roadshow in perfect reception is great.

And best of all… it’s FREE!

A Topfield PVR

These are two of the best from DoCopenhagen’s Best Music Videos of 2006 website:

OK Go - Here It Goes Again

M. Ward - Chinese Translation

Another silly video, this time featuring the Dark Lord of the Sith.

Weird Belgian farting pig cartoon - for children no less!

…and here are idiotic hamsters (Tic & Tac)

Like many other people I have an account with del.icio.us, a browseable web-based bookmarking system with tags and means of ranking items by popularity.

My del.icio.us bookmark page is:

del.icio.us/turbotta

This might give an idea of what I am interested in…

Run your own country the way you want it to be.

This is a game I find quite amusing (though it can get repetitive after a while).

Check out my three countries:

nationstates.net/turbotania

nationstates.net/lingalonga

nationstates.net/phaeochromocytoma