It's Earth Day, so let's all celebrate the great planet we live on, and do our best to take care of it while it's still around.  To celebrate the big blue marble in all its glory, Wired has a great image gallery of satellite and infrared images of various beautiful and unique locations on the planet.  Make sure you check it out.  The full-sized images are huge, so if you want to make prints or have some awesome wallpaper for your computer, your prayers are answered!

The ultimate in geek music, Weird Al Yankovic has been blending popular music, parody, geek culture, and the accordion for almost 20 years, and as popular music continues to get worse, he's only getting better and better.  "White & Nerdy" is Weird Al's first top 10 hit, on his first platinum album, and his first #1 video on the VH1 charts.  The song is a parody of the Chamillionaire rap song "Ridin' Dirty," and the artist was so impressed "White & Nerdy" was featured on his MySpace page!

The video is also a veritable warren of geek trivia, from Pac-man to Donny Osmond, to a shout-out to the fraternity from Revenge of the Nerds.  For a full run-down, check out the Wikipedia entry.  You'll be surprised at just how geeky the video actually is. 

It's Reader Appreciation Day, my faithful audience.  In the spirit, here's to you!  Without your subscribing to and reading this blog, and many other blogs, none of us would be here.  Thanks!

Well, okay, that's not true.  We'd still all be here, if by here you mean on Planet Earth, but none of us would be writing on the Internet, and none of us would definitely be getting paid for it.  A lot of bloggers would blog for free (and most of us do blog for free), but without people reading it then the whole process and point of blogging is meaningless.  Then it's just keeping a diary, or writing strange Kafka-esque rants about electronics in notebooks to be destroyed upon death. 

That's not nearly as fun as it sounds, so thanks to you guys for giving it a purpose.  Cheers!

Image:  turtles all the way down

H/T:  Home Ec 101

So, do you like science fiction at all?  I'm sure you do.  After all, you're here for a reason.  Science fiction and technology go hand in hand.

That's why I'm a huge fan of the website Paleo-Future.  It's a collection of all those old science-based projections of our future lives from the 1950's, 60's, and even earlier (all the way back to the 1880's!).  They're sorted by decade for easy browsing, and they're fascinating!  Just glancing over some of them you can see how far we've come, and how far we've yet to go when it comes to fulfilling the wild fantasies of previous generations.

We're behind schedule, to be sure, but we can still get to work on those personal helicopters.  We've already got computers more powerful than Babbage ever dreamed of, and we're hard at work on the social projections as we speak.  Check out the site.  It's a Rifftrax Guest of Honor, so you know it's got to be good! 

Have you noticed something weird with Google's new homepage?  It's all black, with white text, rather than the usual white and black you'll see at every other Google property on the Internet.  Very different, and very much easier on the eyes, don't you think?

The change in color scheme is in honor of Earth Hour.  Tonight, from 8:00 to 9:00 local time, every family on Earth is asked to turn off their lights for one whole hour.  Even though changing color scheme makes no difference in your monitor's consumption of power, Google's just trying to raise awareness.  Fortunately for Google, the new color scheme is WORLDS better than the eye-killing white background and black text they normally use.  Unfortunately for us, it's not a permanent change. 

Image:  Tasmedia

In my ongoing series of Valentine's Day-related geek goodies, I've got something out there for the ladies.  That's right, geekettes, your old buddy Ron hasn't forgotten about you, and he's got the one thing women everywhere go crazy for.

No, not money.

No, not free maid service.

No, no... I'm talking about chocolate!  Thanks to the geniuses at ThinkGeek, you've got your choice of actual chocolate in the form of some tasty gaming avatars, or some theoretical chocolate in the form of this chocolate brown Theobromin molecule teeshirt.  Theobromin is that molecule in chocolate that enduces all those feelings of relaxation and comfort that gobbling a chunk of cocoa bean extract gives you. 

Of course, it's probably not as good as actual chocolate, if you're trying to get back in your lady's good graces, but it sure can't hurt.

It's usually a shame when someone dies too early, especially when that someone is as talented as actor Heath Ledger, who was found dead this evening at his New York City apartment.  Ledger gained renown for his roles in "Monster's Ball" and "Brokeback Mountain," but his career was otherwise checkered and piecemeal, with a lot of appearances in generally awful movies.  His history with the sort of genre films that geeks everywhere embrace was, to put it mildly, concerning when Ledger was announced as The Joker in the upcoming Batman film, "The Dark Knight."   

I know I was one of many people to dismiss him when he was cast in the role, thanks in no small part to the six months of awful "Brokeback Moutain" jokes I had to endure.  However, the more I saw Ledger in the Joker makeup, and the more I heard him deliver The Joker's lines, the more I warmed up to him.  I think this trailer below is what finally made me stop with all the reservations and be finally, truly excited about the man behind the makeup. 

RIP, Heath.   

I just had a few minutes to check out the video about the Apple MacBook Air. I WANT it! I want it bad.

I have been a PC user up until now but am seriously considering converting just because the Air is so cool.

Super Sleek
Aside from the incredible thinness (0.16 to 0.76 inch- about the size of your index finger) and light weight ( just 3 lbs!) it also offers the advantages of a full size notebook. Like a full size key board that is back lit for ease of use in low light situations such as conference rooms and airplanes.

Impressive Display 
The glossy 13.3-inch, widescreen LED backlit display is the same viewable size as the screen on MacBook. The 1280-by-800 resolution gives you vibrant images and rich colors at full brightness.

Built In Camera
Unlike most other ultraportable notebooks, MacBook Air includes a built-in camera they refer to as iSite. The iSight camera along with iChat software makes video chatting easy anywhere there’s a wireless network.

Slim Battery
This impressively slim battery does not compromise power. It is said to provide 5 hours of wireless activity.

Touchpad Capabilities
Last but not least is the feature that I loved most. The oversized trackpad with multi-touch technology. This design is taken from the gesture based commands of the iPhone and Ipod. You can pinch, swipe, or rotate to zoom in on text, advance through a photo album, or adjust an image. It will recognize the difference between two finger commands and three finger commands.

The Dilemma...I know nothing about operating a Mac. I am a self taught PC user (other than the DOS class in high school many moons ago) and would not consider myself highly techy. But this machine is so sexy I feel like I must have it. But I am trepidatious. Is the conversion too hard to tackle for an ole gal like me? You know what they say about teaching old dogs new tricks. Will I feel lost and therefore less productive? I certainly dont have time to be less productive. These are the questions that I ask myself.

Of course the Apple Store offers free tutoring and classes that I can take, but again thats just more time invested that could be spent elsewhere. So what do I do??? I ask you Shak-ers that are Mac converts; will I regret it? Let me know what you all think so I can make the right decision.

I'll eagerly await your vote...To Mac or not to Mac, that is the question.

It's hard to keep up with all those social media websites out there.  Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Flickr, Digg, StumbleUpon... for most people, it's just a bunch of compound words and spelling errors, but for the geek, it's a lifestyle.  That's why you might want to pick up one of these Web 2.0 teeshirts.  It lists over 20 of the most popular user-generated websites and allows you to use a marker to check off the ones you're a part of!  It lends you immediate geek cachet, so head over to Spreadshirt and pick one up for under $13!

H/T:  Gizmodo

Image:  Massively

It’s hard to believe that Apple Computers is older than I am.  The company has undergone some radical changes in its time (they’re not even really a computer company anymore), and this excellently geeky tee shirt from Insanely Great Shirts is a good indicator of the Apple time line in gray cotton glory. 

The first computer I ever saw was an Apple computer, sometime in the mid 80s.  Like everyone else, it was in a public school computer lab, where the mighty Apple was used for Number Crunchers and, if you were lucky, a game of Oregon Trail you could get halfway through in your 30 minute computer period.  They were big, ugly, square, beige things (beige box is the attack apple uses against PCs these days, though most PCs look worlds better than any aqua blue G4 or desk space eating, massive silver heat grated G5).  Back then, Macs were the cheap computers used by public institutions and PCs were the expensive, high end things you looked at in magazines. 

Of course, because everyone else moved to standardized parts made on assembly lines years before Apple scrapped the low-powered, yet scaldingly hot, PowerPC processor platform, PCs dropped in price while Apple continued to dutifully charge more for an underpowered computer.  Consumers were able to pick up computers more powerful than the mighty Mac for a third of the price, schools finally realized that they could do the same thing but cheaper by buying in bulk.  Those looking for raw power for gaming or heavy applications could turn to niche PC builders who use higher quality, bleeding edge parts (like an Alienware, Velocity Micro, Falcon Northwest, or a VoodooPC) with similar price points and sexier packaging than the mom friendly pastel Apple. 

Now every classroom has at least one or 2 computers in it, the local library branch has at least 10 computers in it, and Apple has become a consumer electronics company thanks to the iPod turning Apple from an also ran popular among lazy graphics professionals who don’t want to learn the slightly different short cuts to do Adobe work on a PC or Mactel to a fad laptop for hipsters.  Apple Computers now sells anything but, selling itself as an idiot-proof, virus-safe computer alternative that is also somehow hipper than the competition. 

They spent years bashing Intel, then they sell out to Intel when PowerPC processors become too valuable to the video game industry to use for boutique computers.  They spend years developing the Macintosh OS, then scrap it all and co-opt BSD for OSX (I’ve maintained that Vista should’ve been a fresh reboot, with an XP emulator like DOSBox for legacy program support like Apple’s Rosetta and the former Classic mode for PowerPC Macs).  They stay on proprietary parts for years, then slowly migrate to the same guts as any Dell or HP (without lowering prices).  They run Steve Jobs out of town, then they snuggle back up to him when he sweeps in to save to company.

If anything, you have to give Apple credit for corporate chutzpa.

H/T:  TechDigest.tv   

Blade Runner is the most influential science fiction film of the last 25 years.  Yes, I'm including Star Wars (which I love) in that list.  However, there's been a small problem with the film:  Blade Runner was never properly finished.

The studio constantly interfered with the shoot, which was long, expensive, and unpleasant for everyone involved.  But now, 25 years later with the release of the massive Final Cut edition, this seminal science fiction classic is FINALLY ready and Ridley Scott can finally say he's finished with the film.  The film has seen a limited re-release in theaters, which my colleague at Den of Geek, Sean Hogan (not related to me, though I love his last name) reviewed here.

I'll be ordering mine from Amazon shortly, and if there's enough interest I'll review it here, but if you 're wanting to know what's been changed from the 1982 version you know and love (or any of the three other versions that are included in the new boxed set), check out Martin Anderson's in-depth review of the changes made here. 

For the record, I do write at Den of Geek, but I'm not linking these columns because of that; I'm linking these because Martin's the most passionate Blade Runner fan I've ever seen and Den of Geek has the most coverate of the new Blade Runner release on the Internet right now, including an interview with Vangelis.  You expect that sort of passion from Star Wars or Star Trek fans, but apparently there's at least one Blade Runner fanatic out there.

Geeks are a unique bunch.  We're not really, you know, able to relate to people very well in the real world.  Well, okay, I don't relate to people that well in the real world.  I'm shy, awkward, and I make a living out of second-guessing everything I say or do when I'm involved in meatspace.  It makes dating incredibly hard.

Hence, Datecraft.  That's right, someone finally launched a dating service for WoW-loving geeks like myself.  Just think.  Have a first date overlooking the beautiful hills of Stranglethorn Vale.  Second date?  Raid The Black Temple.  Propose with The Rock.

Would I try it?  Never say never.  I'm skittish about online dating services in general, but if anyone has a hook for me, this one might be it.

H/T:  Wonderland

If you need a little help buying products for the geek on your shopping list, the Atlanta Journal Constitution has a list of handy stuff that might just tickle that hard-to-please technobuff in all the right places.  Some of them, like the Wi-Fi detecting shirt, we've talked about here.  Others are, in my estimation, too expensive for normal gifting.  But there are some goodies on the list, like Amazon's new e-book reader, the Kindle.

Do you have any geeky gift ideas you're going to pick up while out tomorrow?  If you're going to be out near a Best Buy, would you like to buy me a Nintendo DS Zelda bundle?  I'll pay you back, I promise!

Image Credit:  MSNBC

Gizmodo has the scoop on this bit of geek chic:  it's a teeshirt listing 79 social/Web 2.0 sites that you can check off using a marker to signify your membership in said group.  It's telling I recognize, at most, 6 of the ones visible in this picture, but at least I'm not as snarky as the Gizmodo folks are.  Here's what they said: 

The latest addition to the chic geek's wardrobe has got to be this web 2.0 T-shirt. The classy bit of kit contains a list of 79 social networking sites, all followed by tick boxes. Tick the ones you belong to and wear. By adorning your scrawny chest with this garment outdoors, you are able to reveal to aesthetically pleasing members of the opposite sex, how much of disturbed social recluse you really are.

We were surprised to learn that 79 social networking sites even existed; our hearts lie with Facebook and our minds know that there are a few others that generally make our heart rates slow out of complete boredom. If you belong to web 2.0's army of heathen social sites, there are three empty boxes to fill in with whatever you please. Prices begin at $16.90, and as my mental arithmetic is so hot, I can tell you that means the shirt costs less than $1/networking site listed. My mental arithmetic is not hot enough to hone that figure to a more accurate number, but I have no time to work on that aspect of my life, I must keep up to date with menial Facebook happenings...ooh look, Bobby's joined fat fighters; he's got a fat fighters album up. Gosh, these pictures are hilarious.

Ouch!  I know that's what they do and all, but they're basically a glorified gadget blog, so they've got no business making fun of anyone for lacking a life.  Those who blog in glass houses shouldn't throw stones, after all.  For a nicer version of what the shirt's about, check out the official website.

I want my Web 1.0 back.

Hat Tip:  Massively

The Information Week article title, "Google Gives Drivers A Hand At The Gas Pumps," is slightly misleading.  I thought it was something akin to, say, a gas price monitor for local users, like an iGoogle widget, but it's not.  It's almost as good, though.

Google is bringing its Google Maps service to Internet-capable gas pumps from Gilbarco Veeder-Root.  While you can't Google your friend's house and find your way from a strange gas station, it's still useful for those of us who prefer our dumbphones to fancy new smartphones.  Plus, when you're out with friends and everyone's hungry, it settles the old argument of 'What is there around here to eat?'

The service, unveiled at the National Association of Convenience Stores conference in Atlanta, is part of Gilbarco's Applause media system, which has been incorporated in its Encore pumps with color screens and Internet connections. Applause is an extension of Gilbarco's SMART Merchandising system that retailers can use to display promotions and advertisements, and offer coupons through the pump's receipt printer.

Gilbarco plans to begin testing of the Google service early next month, company spokeswoman Lucy Sackett told InformationWeek. The company hopes to roll out the service later in the month to about 3,500 pumps across the United States.

The Google service will be very limited initially. Using the pump's touch pad, drivers will be able to choose a category, such as restaurants, hospitals, hotels, or landmarks, and then pick a listing and print a map to the location. Retailers will choose the listings.

I'm not crazy about the "Retailers will choose the listings" part, but it's better and cheaper than driving aimlessly around for 30 minutes looking for something to eat that isn't McDonald's. 

Image Credit:  Big Red's Place

Google is not content with merely dominating the Internet and buying up all the old analog television signal space. Oh no. They’ve got their eye on conquering the Moon, using the X Prize as bait.  The Google Lunar X Prize, a cool $20 million, goes to the first company to land successfully land a rover on the moon. 

Google partnered with the X Prize Foundation for the moon challenge, which is open to companies around the world. The Santa Monica-based nonprofit prize institute is best known for hosting the Ansari X Prize contest that led to the first manned private spaceflight in 2004.

The race to the moon won't be easy or cheap. Teams have to raise money to build a roaming spacecraft that will be tough enough to survive a landing and have the smarts to complete a set of tasks. Each rover must also be equipped with high-definition video and still cameras to document the journey.

The rules call for a spacecraft to trek at least 1,312 feet across the lunar surface and return a package of data including self-portraits, panoramic views and near-real time videos. Participants are also responsible for securing a launch vehicle for the probe, either by building it themselves or contracting with an existing rocket company.

Whoever accomplishes the feat by the end of 2012 will receive $20 million. If there is no winner, the purse will drop to $15 million until the end of 2014 when the contest expires. There is also a $5 million second-place prize and $5 million in bonus money to teams that go beyond the minimum requirements.

Check out the full press release here.

While it’s a nice idea to offer an incentive, something tells me the sort of person who can undertake the research needed to build a lunar module capable of streaming a gigabyte of information back to earth, complete the tasks required, and not break upon landing doesn’t exactly NEED $20 million. They probably have money to burn. Still, it’s pretty cool, and will no doubt really improve the quality of the already-cool Google Earth.

Next stop, Google Mars!

(Hat tip:  Jade)

Are you ready for Advertising Week 2007?

For the fourth year in a row, the ad world’s best and brightest are getting together in New York City to celebrate their industry from September 24-28, and you can be a part of it.  No, I don’t mean go to school and learn to do advertising, then get a job in the industry (though you’re welcome to do that too).  I mean a much more democratic sort of involvement. 

Every year, two advertising slogans and two corporate icons get elected into the Madion Avenue Advertising Walk of Fame, and you’re allowed to pick which ones have impacted your life the most and who deserve enshrinement in this most prestigious of honors!  But be warned, the competition is fierce this year, as it is every year.  Do you like the Geico Cavemen?  Perhaps you’re a fan of Orville Redenbacher and his home-spun delicious popcorn.  Do you eat breakfast every morning with Snap, Crackle, and Pop?  Pick who goes onto the walk alongside Colonel Sanders, the Kool-Aid Man, and my personal hero Juan Valdez, whose coffee allows me to function on a daily basis.

As for the advertising slogans, do you go with the generation-defining “I want my MTV,” or do you stick with a classic like “Good to the last drop!” or “Time to make the doughnuts?”  And no, I haven’t had my coffee yet this morning, which is why I’m talking about every coffee-related entrant into the Walk of Fame pool.

On a personal note, I’m going to stump for the Doublemint Twins.  I believe, (and I could be wrong since there’s no big list of Doublemint actresses) that the Doublemint Twins were played by Julie and Chandra “Shawnie” Costello at one point in history.  These two blonde beauties were former dancers on “The Man Show,” contestants in the WWE Divasearch contest in 2004, did a guest-shot on “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” and both played basketball at my tiny alma mater, Lindsey Wilson College.

You know what to do.

It’s summer, and the kids are getting ready to go back to school, if they haven’t already. I hope you’ve all had time to rest and relax, and go on a nice vacation. If you haven’t, though… well, there’s still a little time, and I have just the destination.

Pack up the kids, pack up the SUV, pack up the rocket ship, and take a vacation in space!

Well, okay. You can’t go there next week. You probably won’t be able to go there until 2012, but for the low low price of $4 million for a 3-day stay, you’ll be able to live la vita cosmonaut without all the hassle of bribing the Russians to go up and hang out on boring old Mir.

Just check out the activities you’ll get to do:

The hotel, "Galactic Suites," will allow adventurous travelers to enjoy a spectacular starry view from their hotel rooms, see the Sun rise 15 times a day and take part in scientific experiments while they're not using Velcro suits to crawl around their pod-room walls.

Just think about it, all the fun of living in space without all the pesky stuff like ‘spending years in training,’ ‘getting a Ph.D.,’ and ‘logging thousands of hours of flight time.’ Finally, mankind’s oldest dream is within reach of anyone, provided they can find a few million dollars.  I think I’ll start saving up now.

There are many levels of geek, dork, nerd, or your pejorative term of choice for people who are smart and good at things most people don’t even consider doing. Those of us in that community understand that we’re ostracized. We’ve been this way all of our lives. I’m no exception; I’m just fortunate enough that my special geek ability is with words and not, say, electrical engineering (or unfortunate, given how much engineers make and how little English majors make).

Then, there’s a guy who has the ubiquitous Windows “Blue Screen of Death” message tattooed along the length of his arm.

At first blush, it’s very impressive that someone is so geeky that they’re willing to have their body decorated with a horrifying error message. However, he’s got a whole other arm that, as far as I know, has no computer error messages tattooed on it. Might I suggest the “Gray Screen of Panic and Disarray” screen from Mac OS X, or the iconic old school “Sad Mac” icon familiar to every 80’s public school child?

So many Screens of Death, so little available body space! Ain’t technology grand?

"Citizens of me! The cruelty of the old Pharaoh is a thing of the past! Let a whole new wave of cruelty wash over this lazy land!” Bender, Futurama episode #49, “A Pharaoh to Remember”

Hi boys and girls, my name is Ron, and I’ll be your new host here at Shaktronics. This is my first day, so try to cut me a little bit of slack while I indulge your curiosity about just who and what I am. You’ll find out more about me as time goes on; consider this a bit of a self-promotional ice-breaker.

I contribute articles on geek-friendly movies, TV shows, comic books/regular books, and games to the website Den of Geek, I write about sports issues and indulge in sports satire here, and I maintain a general blog. As if I wasn’t busy enough with all that stuff and a full-time job, I couldn’t resist the urge to write about another one of my horribly nerdy passions, consumer electronics and related goodies. Expect a lot of weird gadgets, funny inventions, geeky humor, and of course, gadget reviews (hopefully I can get my grubby paws on a flexible keyboard, steampunk keyboard, and hopefully stuff that isn’t also a keyboard to play with).

I don’t know about you guys, but I’ve about had it with the iPhone and its hype machine (though if Apple wants to send me one to play with, I wouldn’t complain). It’s enough to make me, and Wired Blogs gadgeteer Rob Beschizza, throw away the electronic leash and resume a way of life unencumbered by roaming, daytime minutes, two-year contracts, and constant availability. So when he presents his list of ten reasons to discard that power-sucking brick stuffed into pockets nationwide, he’s preaching to the choir in this case.

What I do is passive-aggressively let my cell phone constantly run down so I either have to turn it off to preserve what little life remains in its shiny black carapace or let it die and dole out the well-known, “Sorry, my phone was dead” excuse, otherwise known as numbers 4 and 6 on the list of 10. This is after I fought tooth and nail against the urge to buy a cell phone up until last year! What do you guys do when you need to break free from your digital overlords? How do you get off the grid for some much-needed R’n’R?

If you remember as child, either winning a gold fish from a fair ground or in fact buying a gold fish from pet stores. Then you are going to this product from the Spoon Sisters, they have put fish shaped soap into bag!

Well that is what may think they are at first! However this is in fact a vegetable based glycerin soap with a small plastic fish embedded into it, but it does look like a pet, and everyone else will think so too.

Makes a great gift, and will please anyone who receives it. Even though the soap has no scent at all.

Priced at $6.95.

The folks at Designboom have actually been inspired by teenagers to come up with, what I think is a fantastic idea, a little "out there" but still fanstastic, the Wave Chaise Lounge Chair. They're saying you can "wear" this chair by the way it is designed to meet all the needs of today's teenagers. I love the CD section and the flat panel TV set up. This is so cool.....

"Imagine a furniture to wear... then dress it with an innovator design, intense colors, ergonomics and technology appeal. Like in fashion, the point is to unify beauty, comfort, and functionality. Whether your desire is to watch TV or DVD, listen to your favorite CD, read, talk on the phone, or even study, take a nap or browse the internet, you got it close, in a multifunctional chaise-longue. This concept is inspired by the values and personality of a today's teenager and the standards generated by a global hi-tech culture of facilities, where the access to technology is cheap and easy."

OK, so I bet if I tried really hard, I could fit into this too! If you're looking for more cool furniture ideas that can accommodate all your home electronics, check out Shakinstyle, and if you need installation instructions, Shakhammer would be a good place to go.

via cribcandy

A St. Louis student, from the University of Missouri at Rolla, has stepped in to an entrepreneurial role by starting his own social networking service.  Benjamin Roodman, a senior in computer engineering, has developed a service that is a combination MySpace.com and text messaging.  For example, users can log on, create a profile for themselves that is based upon their musical likes and other interests.  By using mobile technology, users can post photos in real time from concerts, parties, and other events, and write reviews of those events. This generates text messages, with lists of those events that are happening, for other users in that area. 

Currently there are several hundred users in his local area, but he hopes to be nationwide by March 2007. Although the bloggers at Mashable are usually quite skeptical of mobile social networks, they think ImThere is actually pretty impressive and "can see how they would attract a decent number of users." 

According to the St. Louis Post Dispatch, Roodman believes 2007 to be the year of mobile technology, and he would like to be on the forefront.  It sounds to me like he is definitely there!