2010 Hugo Nominations

As I noted last year, the Hugo is one of the two major awards given in the world of science fiction and fantasy writing (the other being the Nebula). This year’s nominees were just announced, and the winners will be announced at Worldcon in September (held this year in Melbourne).

As always, these nominations are usually a great reading list, especially if you’re interested in short fiction. There are some familiar names on the list, like Nancy Kress, Mike Resnick, and John Scalzi, and quite a few I’ve never heard of. The only novel I’ve read from the list is Boneshaker by Cherie Priest – which I highly recommend, especially if you like steampunk and/or zombies.

There are also categories for graphic novels, films, and television shows. And in typical fashion, Doctor Who dominates the latter category (with Dollhouse and FlashForward also represented). As far as movies go, maybe Avatar will pick up a Hugo to make up for the Oscar snubs (though as far as writing goes, I think maybe Star Trek would have a better shot with the Worldcon crowd, or even Up).

Internet One-Up-Manship: Squirrel, Dog, Cat and Alpaca

One lucky cameraman happened to catch an unusual aquatic daredevil.
What you’re about to see is a Channel  News exclusive.
His name is Nutty the Squirrel, and he’s three years old.
How ’bout that? That squirrel can water-ski.

– Man, that’s hilarious.
– Yeah, that’s good.

–Anchorman

The world of the Internet is one where the bizarre and unusual just isn’t enough. We’ve all seen that waterskiing squirrel from Anchorman, being pulled by a remote controlled boat. We’ve all seen Tillman, the famous skateboarding bulldog who then learned how to surf. But was that enough? No, next we see Peruvian surfer Domingo Pianezzi teaching his cat to surf.

Now this leads to the logical question…what animal could possibly trump a squirrel, a dog and a surfing cat? Why a surfing Alpaca of course!

This my friends is a surfing Alpaca Llama!

[Link]

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Computer pioneer Ed Roberts: 1941-2010

The man who arguably inspired the creation of Microsoft has died at the age of 68. Ed Roberts launched the Altair 8800, one of the earliest home computers, and gave Bill Gates his first big break.

Roberts and his company Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems marketed a series of electronics kits in the early 1970s, including electronic calculators. In 1974 MITS launched the Altair 8800, a computer kit which started from $439 at a time when comparable machines cost thousands of dollars.

The machine featured on the front cover of the January 1975 edition of Popular Mechanics, an edition read by a man named Paul Allen who then showed it to his friend Bill Gates. The pair believed the cheap machine could spark a mass audience for computing which would make software a profitable outlet and offered to develop a programming language for the machine, known as Altair BASIC.

Roberts agreed to distribute it under license and it proved successful; it was also widely copied by hobbyists, prompting an infamous letter from Gates accusing them of theft. Gates and Allen formed “Micro-Soft” to take care of the business side of the licensing deal, and the rest is history.

In 1977, Roberts sold MITS and began studying medicine before becoming a doctor in Georgia for the rest of his working life.

Gates and Allen said today that “Ed was truly a pioneer in the personal computer revolution, and didn’t always get the recognition he deserved. He was an intense man with a great sense of humor, and he always cared deeply about the people who worked for him, including us. Ed was willing to take a chance on us – two young guys interested in computers long before they were commonplace – and we have always been grateful to him. The day our first untested software worked on his Altair was the start of a lot of great things.”

Butterfly Rampage- Qualcomm Marketing

It has been revealed that that a number of videos that popped up recently of Butterfly attacks are the responsibility of Qualcomm and their new IMOD display that uses biomimetrics to bend light like in butterfly wings.

This shocking revelation of responsibility came from  an “Emergency Press Conference”. During the conference, it was revealed that Mr. Lewis and Mr. Dodgson stole prototypes using this new technology, and were promptly set upon by swarms of angry butterflies.

They presented Mr. Mascup, an entomologist to attest to the safety of Qualcomm devises. While proclaiming the Mirasol to be a safe device, with his rabbit Terrance in hand, he recounts the bloodthirsty savagery of these heartless butterflys. Since he is rugged and Australian, we should take him seriously, he encourages you if a butterfly lands on you, not to fight it off but to “assume a fetal position and wait for it to lose interest in you.”

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Featured 3D Short: Meet Meline

Exactly 1 year ago yesterday, we wrote about Meet Meline, a fabulously well animated 3D short produced by one of our longtime reader, French filmmaker Sebastien Laban. I just received an email from Sebastien this morning announcing that the movie was finally available online! It goes without saying, since last year’s trailer was absolutely fantastic, I wasn’t expecting any less from the short, which is as fabulous as I was led to believe. Check it out:

Merci Sebastien!

World’s First Inflatable Laptop

Introducing the world’s first inflatable laptop — the Toshiba TubeTop. Want to experience true mobility? Answer your emails while relaxing in the bath, share photos and videos while taking a dip in the hotel pool, or update your status on your favorite social media sites while in the jacuzzi? Now you can thanks to the amazing Toshiba TubeTop! Check it out! :)

Wow! Now this would go along nicely with some state of the art floating surge protection:

Important notice: Just to be on the safe side, please be sure to never, ever do something like this with a power bar. this is extremely dangerous and could actually kill you.

[Via [H] | Official Product Page]