When Toys Get Supersized

When we listed James May in our top five sexiest male geeks in Britain, we noted he had been working on a very special toy project. Some of that work has now aired on TV in James May’s Toy Stories, and it’s geek to the max.

The concept of the show is that May (who has previously presented traditional documentaries about the history of popular toys) takes a toy from his childhood and then, with the help of enthusiasts and the local community, brings it back to prominence on a spectacular scale.

The first episode dealt with Airfix, a range of plastic kit models which the owner would then assemble and paint until they had a scale model of a vehicle, usually of military origin. May decided to enlist a group of schoolchildren to make their own Airfix model of a Spitfire… in 1:1 scale.

The biggest difficulty proved to be the wings: the plastic alone was too flexible for such a size, but metal supports made them too heavy to support themselves. One solution involving polystyrene proved a failure after it was rotted by the glue used to put the kit together, but some lightweight wooden slats did the trick. To cap the project off, the pilot in the plane was produced by taking a full skull cast of May.

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Episode two looked at Plasticine, a modelling clay best known in recent years for its use in the Wallace and Gromit animation series. The project was to build a full-size garden entirely from Plasticine and display it at the Chelsea Flower Show. I found this episode a little disappointing as there were no real engineering feats involved: it was “merely” a case of thousands of people working very hard to make the models. The judges at the show were unable to give a traditional award to May thanks to the minor technicality that his garden had no real flowers in it, but did award a special Plasticine medal.

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Next up was Meccano, (or Erector in North America) a brand of small metal components which can be used to create genuine working models of pretty much any engineering project you can imagine. May’s idea for reviving the project was to go to Liverpool – the city where Meccano was originally made – and build a 23-meter bridge across the canal. An engineering firm won a contest to design the bridge, with their entry a combination of a tilting bridge which reached halfway across the water, where it activated a swing-bridge to the other side (the concept being that once the pedestrian stepped onto the swing bridge, the tilting bridge returned to vertical, making it a one-way journey.) Engineering students from a local university then built the bridge, complete with more than 100,000 parts, and May successfully walked across it without it collapsing.

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The final episode for the moment looked at Scalextric, an electrically-powered motor racing game. The concept this time was to build the largest ever track, running the 2.5 mile length of Brooklands, a full-scale racing track which was the world’s first purpose-built motor racing venue.

That would have been impressive in itself, but there was another problem. Brooklands closed in 1939 and parts of the original route now house a residential street, a business park and a pond. That didn’t prove a deterrence, with May and his assistants coming up with solutions including a ramp over a 14-foot fence, a foam and plywood support for a floating track and a vertical spiral track to raise the track by a full story inside an office complex. The track then played host to a race between Scalextric enthusiasts and local residents.

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The remaining two episodes, covering an attempt to make a 10-mile long model railway on a disused track and a full-sized house from Lego bricks, will be shown at Christmas. However, the full series will be available on region 2 DVD on 7 December while a book is available in both the UK and US.



Wednesday Geeky Pics: Geek Families

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, which means that – for those of you in America anyway – many of you will be having the great joy of (or coping with, depending on how you feel about them) having some quality family time. And the family that geeks out together stays together… so here’s a few examples of some happy, geeky families.

Are you a PC or a Mac? Sometimes it’s decided for you from birth! worldmegan (CC)
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How to be a Thankful Geek

How to be a Thankful GeekThanksgiving is just about to dawn here in the US, and that means one thing: everyone’s obsessed with Black Friday sales. And it’s no different for the geeks, all striving to get the best deals on hardware, gadgets, movies and games.

I’ve always hated the juxtaposition of Thanksgiving and the crazed Black Friday sales. I mean, it really eclipses the whole concept of Thanksgiving to turn around, still bloated from eating so much turkey and trimmings that you practically roll out the door at 6am, and bolt for the department stores the next morning. Wait, what? Weren’t we just talking about all the things we’re thankful for having? And now we’re going out and getting more stuff?

Sure, your money is your prerogative. I’m not going to lecture people about how they spend their money, or who they should spend it on. All I’m asking is that we think about letting the thankful season linger a little longer.

So before we all skip out to Tiger Direct this weekend, here are a few geeky ways to be thankful for what you’ve got, with the hope that the warm, fuzzy feeling might linger a little longer than 24 hours.

Be thankful for a piece of old technology that still works. If you really like it, send a letter or an email to the company. In my case, it’s an old cell phone I own that predates my son, the Sony Ericsson W300i. No, I know this is no smart phone–but I do have an iPod Touch for all the fancy stuff. For whatever reason, the little Sony phone just works with my brain and I’ve been loathe to replace it, even as parts of it are starting to fall off (it’s over four years old, and my primary phone). I actually replaced it once with a Motorola Razr V3 to complete failure. The Motorola had the worst UI I’ve ever encountered, and it’s now dormant in a drawer (more on that later). So, if you’re out there, Sony: thanks for that rad little phone!

Watch a movie that brings you back to your childhood. Movie marathons have become a huge staple of the holiday season, but why not make your own? Instead of groaning at yet another showing of Transformers, why not watch the original Star Wars, or Tron. (My personal choice this year just might be WarGames.) There’s something about nostalgia that can really bring about a feeling of thankfulness; I mean, really—it’s a good time to be a geek!

Do something really nice for someone in game. Whether it’s giving out a free enchant, whipping up a batch of those Rhino Dogs, or just being extra courteous, it’s pretty easy to make someone’s day in-game. Too often geeks and players in general are just absolutely rude to one another. So while you’re questing and gaming, take the time to be nice. If you can’t find anyone to be nice to, consider thanking your guild leaders. Or, if you’re really adventurous, thank a GM!

Donate some tech time to a family member… without grumbling! Yes, we know. Just because we’re geeks, everyone seems to think we can magically fix and repair every electronic device. We take for granted the language of technology, and sometimes it’s quite apparent to those around us that, well, they have no clue and we have much better things to do than help them install Windows 7 again. So, to spare the anxiety, plan ahead. Do it with a smile. You’ll really make someone’s day.

Donate your spare cell phones to a shelter or to the military. What might be useless to you could make all the difference in a person, especially those in the armed forces and many women escaping abuse in shelters. To get started, check out Cell Phones for Soldiers and Shelter Alliance. Not to mention, recycling your cell phone is good for the environment, too.

cplogoDonate to Penny Arcade’s Child’s Play Charity. Really, it doesn’t get much better or geekier than this. My husband and I have been donating to Child’s Play since it started, even when we had very little to give. Our son was hospitalized for ten days after he was born, and we spent a good deal of time at the PICU at UNC Hospitals. Our son went home, but many children never get to. The experience was sobering for us, but also gave us the desire to give something back. I’m thrilled that such a powerhouse as the PA duo are behind such a fantastic charity.

There are lots of other ways to be thankful—for yourself and for others—this season: volunteer at a shelter, cook a meal for your neighbor, or just get rid of stuff you don’t need and bring it to the Goodwill. Whatever you do, keep it thankful. Aside from traffic jams, long lines, and rain checks, there’s a whole lot in this world to be thankful for that can’t fit into a shopping bag.

[Photos: Top – CC Jacob Enos]



Awesome Cylon Birthday Cake

Yes, a Cylon birthday cake… with a shifting, glowing red eye. Now how awesome is that?

[Via Neatorama]

Apple’s Schiller approves of app approvals

150px-PhilSchillerA senior Apple executive has refused to apologize for problems with the approval process for applications with the iPhone app store. That’s despite a combination of developers complaining that perfectly good apps get delayed or rejected, and some clearly inappropriate apps make the cut.

To recap some notable decisions, Apple has said “yes” to a game in which you shake your iPhone to put a crying baby to sleep, a fake branded watch display and a $999 screensaver, but “no” to an official Nine Inch Nails audio collection, an e-reader (because it might be used to access the Kama Sutra) and a rude sounds tool which promised the audio of “wet farts” (though it was then approved once this was changed to “big toots”.)

In an interview with Business Week, Apple’s senior vice-president for worldwide product marketing Phil Schiller (pictured) says around 10,000 apps are submitted each week. He doesn’t reveal what proportion of these get approved, though with “only” 100,000 apps getting the thumbs up so far, it’s clearly a big chunk. Of those which get rejected, Schiller says:

  • 90% are rejected because they don’t meet the technical requirement and thus aren’t reliable enough;
  • 10% are rejected over content issues; and
  • 1% are rejected for previously unforeseen reasons such as gambling-related apps which specifically aid the user in illegally cheating.

(Having trouble adding up percentages? There’s an app for that.)

Schiller notes that the firm has now added parental controls over apps as well as tightening up its rules over applications which could breach trademark restrictions.

The big problem with what he says is that the interview seems to be mainly about defending the principle of pre-vetting apps. But I’ve not come across anyone who’s put forward a serious argument that the app store should be an unvetted free-for-all. Instead developers seem to be more upset by a perceived lack of consistency over content issues, along with a lack of information about how approval decisions are made and how quickly they can expect to hear back from Apple with a yay or nay.

To some extent Apple can afford to play by its own rules as the iPhone is still by some distance the most desirable market for app developers to reach. But with Android handsets now making up 20% of the US smartphone market (and rising), and virtually every operating system now having its own app store, it might not be long before developers find it is feasible to make a living without putting too big a priority on getting through the Apple process.

Gamers get a very special warning

Emergency Alert

Earlier this year I worked as proofreader on a novel (Frantic Planet volume 2 by Stuart Millard) in which the protagonist’s descent into isolation begins when he finds he was the only person unaware of a major terrorist attack on his city, having missed all media coverage because he’s been too busy playing World of Warcraft.

Fictional that may have been, but there are surely many people who’ve found themselves detached from mainstream media and communications while engrossed in gaming. That’s certainly what officials in New York state believe.

They are now testing plans to extend the emergency warning system – which interrupts TV and radio broadcasts when there is a situation such as a natural disaster, or security incident – to online gaming. The plan would involve Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo displaying the warning messages to players using their online networks.

The system would be used for messages issued by the state’s Emergency Management Office, usually about local incidents. That’s separate to the national Emergency Alert System, which exists so that the President or a national representative could address the nation in an emergency on less than 10 minutes’ notice.

Information Week quotes an official as saying the plan makes sense given that many  young people spend much longer playing games than they do watching TV or listening to the radio.

Of course, it’s another disadvantage to those who’ve recently found themselves unable to play games online. Even critics of game piracy would have to admit that missing out on a tornado warning is quite a price to pay for modifying a console.

If the plan does take off, it’ll be interesting to see how the games companies and officials make sure the message gets through. Given that warnings will hopefully be so rare as to be unfamiliar, it could be quite a task to find a display format which gets the message across immediately without many gamers assuming they’ve stumbled across a particularly realistic game feature.

(Picture courtesy of Flickr user Perfectance.)

AOL Previews New Rebranded Ugliness

New AOL Logo

You knew it was coming. Or chances are you didn’t, because the likelihood of you using AOL and reading Geeks Are Sexy are kinda slim.

As Gigaom reports, and about fifteen people might have noticed, AOL is rebranding. Yes, another dinosaur of the early internet boom is going for a redesigned look, in a rather vain and, dare I say, slightly pathetic attempt to get hip.

Or something.

No, rebranding isn’t always bad. As much as design and advertising get under my skin, I can’t deny that—especially in our era of online economics—it’s important to get logos right. But at the same time, I also am aware of the crapload of money that goes into research when revamping a logo and, really AOL? This is the best you could come up with?

According to AOL’s official press release, they were going to for something really, uh, cutting edge:

The new AOL brand identity is a simple, confident logotype, revealed by ever-changing images.

I am in hearty agreement with Om Malik on the subject, who said in the review:

The minute I saw the logo (and its various interpretations), my first reaction was simple: lame. It is ambiguous at best, and as sexy as the obese, shapeless humans living on Axiom, the flagship of the BnL fleet in Pixar movie “WALL-E.”

It’s so lame it’s almost insulting. I mean, it’s hard to even read some of the logos, let alone “get” whatever it is they’re trying to say. Except…huh, you know what? Wait a second… AOL is like, totally throwing the devil horns there. I’m totally going to give it another chance! I mean, back when I had dialup, AOL was awesome. Right? These logos have totally changed my mind, just like AOL is ever-changing and…

So, yeah. In spite of the fact that AOL has, in fact, been making strides to cast off its terribly square reputation—as Malik points out—this rebranding effort really feels like backsliding. Between the squiggles, the smears, and the gelatinous masses, I’m really scratching my head here, folks.

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A Virus Walks Into a Bar… and Other Science Jokes

In the following video, science comedian Brian Malow jokes that a virus is “the ultimate David and Goliath” when compared with humans. He then rattles off a series of hilarious science-related jokes. Enjoy!

[Via BoingBoing]

Amazon’s Black Friday Sale Starts Today!

Amazon Black Friday

With retailers moving the start date of the shopping season earlier and earlier each year, Amazon.com has just launched the Black Friday section of their site today, helping you save hours of precious time better spent in the comfort of your own home. Who likes to be trampled by a horde of stampeding shopper who all wish to get their hands on a deal that’s only available in limited quantity anyways?

Some Interesting Deals:

[Amazon.com Black Friday Deals Week]

Earth’s Weather as Seen from Space

NASA has just release this amazing video showing Earth’s weather from August 17 to August 26, 2009. The clip was filmed at a 7-kilometer resolution with NASA’s GEOS-5 atmospheric general circulation model.

The GEOS-5 atmospheric model was developed by NASA Goddard’s scientists. It’s based on the Earth System Modeling Framework, an open source project “for building climate, numerical weather prediction, data assimilation, and other Earth science software applications.”

[Via TechEblog]