We are Not Back to the Future Yet

Great Scott! It is the Future!!

Hold your horses there McFly, that image above is a simple but apparently effective photoshopping of the time console in the Back to the Future DeLorean. It is fake. Just like the one someone made two years ago that had everyone calling 2010 “The Future”

Yesterday, this image was littering the internet and social media sites. As people realized this was the date illustrated as the destination that Marty McFly and Doc Brown travel to in the future, comments like “Where’s my Hoverboard, Flying Car, and self lacing shoes!” were soon to follow.

But it is just not true.

The image spread like wildfire, but fans of the film were quick to shoot it down.

Fans who have paid attention to the popular franchise already have parties bookmarked for October 21, 2015. This is the REAL date they go to in the Future. 2012 is never mentioned in any of the films.

With the exception of October 21, 2015 – where Doc says Marty has do to something about his kids – the only other forward date ever used was 1985. But as for the screenshot we never actually SEE the console when their trip to the future date is entered, so even if the date was right, it would still be an edited image.

So we still have three years before they have to change the Marlins to the Gators so the Cubs can win the World Series, video games will have to be fully hands free, and there will have to be 15 sequels to Jaws.

Oh, and flying cars and hover skateboards. While these things are technically in the works, they are far from mainstream technology.

Did you fall for it?



Farewell Minitel, France’s forerunner to the web

This weekend, France will close Minitel, a service that has allowed people to access information on computers at home since long before the World Wide Web.

The service was the most successful example of videotex, which uses dial-up modems to send information to and from a monitor or television screen. Minitel was launched in 1982 by the government controlled agencies that provided telephone and postal services.

The most basic function of the system was to replace printed telephone directories with an online, searchable directory. The business model worked by the government giving away terminals (which combined monitor and keyboard in one unit) but charging a per-minute fee for accessing any information other than the phone directory.

This other information came from third-party providers who were quickly attracted by the large audience, which at one stage was made up of almost half the population. Companies providing “premium” information services (which included text based adult chat) could make cash by taking a commission from an increased access fee. It was also possible to sell goods and services through Minitel, with users able to link a credit card to their account.

Most of the types of information and communication that can be found on the web today featured on Minitel in one form or another, though pages were only available as monochrome text, meaning the market for Flashturbatory developers simply didn’t exist.

The BBC notes that French officials found a creative way to attract newspaper groups to providing services, despite their initial fears that Minitel would be a competitor. The government simply made a rule that only newspaper owners could offer Minitel services. Once the existing newspapers had taken advantages of this monopoly and begun offering enough services to make Minitel worthwhile for customers, the government simply relaxed the rules so that new providers could register themselves as starting a newspaper, but never actually need to print anything.

Perhaps predictably usage dropped once accessing the Internet on a PC became more widespread, particularly when per-minute access fees and then later phone call charges were replaced by monthly subscriptions, leaving the Minitel service appearing grossly overpriced.

Amazingly an estimated 600,000 Minitel terminals are still being used. It seems to be most common in rural areas where farmers use it for contacting officials and agricultural service providers. One farmer told the New York Times that the Minitel, while hardly a design classic, was sturdy enough to survive in an animal barn unlike modern devices.

(Image credit: Wikipedia user Tieum under Creative Commons license)

What Keeps Nuclear Weapons from Proliferating [Science!]

Bill explains that the hardest step is making the proper type of uranium. Weapons and power plants require uranium that contains a greater amount of the isotope uranium-235 than found in natural uranium, which is mostly uranium-238. He outlines the key difficulty in separating the two isotope: They have nearly identical properties. He explains the two key methods for separation: Gas diffusion and centrifuges.

[Via]



Oh The Places You’ll Go – Best Grad Gift Ever

I love stories like this because while I am kicking myself for not thinking about it first, it is an incredible effort by a very caring father.

An otherwise standard story of a teenage girl about to graduate high school while her loving father watched proudly. At the end of the ceremony congratulatory offerings of goodwill were exchanged among friends and family and dad gives the girl a gift.

The girl received a whimsical but thoughtfully fitting present of Dr Suess’ “Oh, The Places You’ll Go”. But that wasn’t the best part. Once opened, the girl then discovers letters of encouragement sprawled in the open spaces from every teacher she had for the last 13 years.

This is amazing and very touching. Her entire elementary and secondary school experience crowned with the well wishes of every educational professional she was influenced by.

More incredible is that the father kept this little project secret for 13 years. He didn’t track them all down in the weeks before graduation in hopes that they would remember this little girl. At the end of each school year, he would share the project with her teacher and have them leave a message of hope.

Just incredible.

Via

OMG THIS IS BRILLIANT: The Star Wars That I Used To Know [Gotye Parody]

An hilariously awesome parody of Gotye’s Somebody That I Used To Know based on the Star Wars movie franchise.

Thanks Eddie!

[teddiefilms]

That’s not Fair: A Rock/Paper/Scissors Robot With a 100% Win Rate [Video]

From the Ishikawa Oku Laboratory at The University of Tokyo:

In this research we develop a janken (rock-paper-scissors) robot with 100% winning rate as one example of human-machine cooperation systems. Human being plays one of rock, paper and scissors at the timing of one, two, three. According to the timing, the robot hand plays one of three kinds so as to beat the human being.

Recognition of human hand can be performed at 1ms with a high-speed vision, and the position and the shape of the human hand are recognized. The wrist joint angle of the robot hand is controlled based on the position of the human hand. The vision recognizes one of rock, paper and scissors based on the shape of the human hand. After that, the robot hand plays one of rock, paper and scissors so as to beat the human being in 1ms.

[Ishikawa Oku Laboratory]