I am not going to go through the entire Popsci article, but if you picked up on the usage of “prediction” instead of “tracking” then you are progressing nicely. Remember the hockey puck system that was around that made the puck glow? Well this is nothing like that. This system actually uses a ton of trajectory calculations along with doppler radar to predict the ball path. The system is really impressive, and can even calculate home runs before the ball leaves the field.

If they would just add more technology like this, and shorten the game to about 5 innings, I might actually start watching.  I actually even threw in a picture from Wrigley Field, the only actual stadium I have been to.

(Via Popsci)

Here is a great write up about how hacking in movies is usually over the top.

It brings me great joy to see what Hollywood thinks they can get away with when it comes to computer hacking. Usually in the movie the hacker is using some beyond versatile software that allows him or her to easily turn off the city’s power grid or change traffic signals with either a click of a button or a few easy key strokes. Granted, Hollywood has to do this because computer illiterate viewers may not be able to keep up with what’s going on if they aren’t given something easy to follow. Plus, watching someone type out everything via command line could kill the pace of the movie and frankly is not very exciting or compelling to watch. Conversely, there are the times when the hacking is so over the top that you simply can’t turn away from the absurdity. With that said, here’s a retrospective of hacking in film.

The full article has a great list of movies with some “righteous” hacks. Including my favorite Hackers

(Via FilmRoster)

Here is sadly a not so good pilot trying to takeoff. What I really want to comment on is the guy making the video. Talk about having same balls! I mean here is this plane coming at you, with a large blender on the front of it. Any closer and he would have been fish bait!

Getting a non tech person to download a product that they already have is a challenge. My mom probably can’t tell the difference between OS X and Vista, yet you want her to download o new version of IE? Oh and from a special website? Yeeeaahhhh, it COULD happen, but only if it comes at the end of a video showing a dangling kitten while it installs 30 different viruses.

One piece of the effort is a charity push in which Microsoft will donate meals to a food bank for each person that downloads IE 8 via a special “Browser for the Better” Web site. Technically, the company is donating $1.15 per completed download, up to a maximum of $1 million.

Although Microsoft is also pushing out Internet Explorer 8 over Windows Update and including a version of it with Windows 7 (except in Europe), the company is trying to build awareness of the latest version and spur active usage.

The software maker has seen its browser share–which once topped 90 percent–continue to decline, with Mozilla’s Firefox having gained considerable ground. The company also faces competition from Apple, Google and others in the browser arena.

You know how you get people to get on the bandwagon? You push the porn privacy mode. That would get people on board REAL quick.

(Via CNET.)

Tube.  I love the latest trend of making online video more accessible to tv.  My tv capture card is pretty much obsolete now thanks to Hulu.  Not that I’m complaining or anything.  There are certainly worse things in life, like a 4 book series about some dumb high school girl, some vampires and werewolves. The only thing worse than that, is that story made into a movie with untalented adolescent retards trying to act…. I’m sorry that was mean.  I didn’t mean to offend retards.

Youtube XL looks like it’ll make it even easier to waste hours of my life but in full screen and with a remote. 

Hot on the heels of Hulu’s remote-control friendly desktop application, YouTube introduces its own TV-sized interface called YouTube XL.

At the beginning of the year Google unleashed an optimized interface for the Wii and PS3, but YouTube XL appears to be the next step in that progression. The new and improved YouTube XL (presumable the XL stands for extra large) boasts a better interface than the old “YouTube for TV,” though it lacks a few of the features available on YouTube proper. (Namely comments, which is arguably a positive.)

via Lifehacker

I wonder what ever happened to when they used to take the shuttle up on the 747 and drop it and let the astronauts land it? I mean I am sure it cost a fortune to do, and probably was a big risk, but it was really neat. Anyway, here is a pretty neat video of the shuttle catching a ride back to Florida. Sadly they do not just light the rockets and set a speed record for sub-orbital-powered-flight (yeah, I made that up). Since I saw this on Giz I will post their story:

I’ve seen the shuttle pulling a Moonraker with NASA’s modified 747 mothership before—like in this spectacular zenithal shot of Endeavour—but it never ceases to amaze me to see the two of them taking off.

This is Atlantis returning home from California after mission STS-125—the riskiest ever—where astronauts played Katamari Damacy, fixed Hubble, and made astronomers and space aficionados everywhere smile again.

It just seems impossible that the 747 can lift that gigantic spacecraft. The trip from Edwards Air Force Base back to Florida will require several stopovers for refueling, taking at least two days of rain-free weather travel to reach its final destination.

(Via Gizmodo.)

and if the MTV Movie Awards are any indication of how our children will turn out, it’s going to be a depressing one.  I’m not saying Twilight was a bad movie, it’s just that if I had a choice of watching that movie or licking feet, then take your socks off and pass the Sriracha. Seriously, I’ve seen better acting from cardboard cutouts.

Teen vampire drama Twilight may have dominated the podium at Sunday night’s irreverent MTV Movie Awards, but edgy British comedy actor Sacha Baron Cohen stole the night with a skit that sent rapper Eminem storming out of the ceremony.

Director Catharine Hardwick’s adaptation of Twilight, the first in the forthcoming movie series, snagged MTV’s golden popcorn trophy in nearly every category for which it was nominated. Winners are chosen through public voting.

Fetching young stars Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart were among the strong Twilight contingent on hand to pick up the movie’s five trophies, including best movie, best fight, best kiss, breakthrough male performance (for Pattinson) and best female performance (for Stewart).

via cbcnews

I have wrote before about ditching DirecTV for internet TV. Mostly this was possible with software like Vuze. Which had you downloading torrents. We loved the option of adding Boxee to the mix, but then Hulu kicked them in the balls. So in attempt for you to forget about Boxee, Hulu released their own desktop software.

I would love to insert a great review here for it, but we forget until we leave home, it only works in the US. I am not sure why, the people that would steal the content can still get to it through proxies. But never the less I sit in Canada today, with a box telling me I am not welcomed here. So much for watching my reruns of “Doogie Howser, M.D.”

One of the other things they are working on that looks to be promising is ‘Time Based Browsing.” Allowing you to look pretty much at a tv guide of when the shows came on and click to play them. Once they get a few more networks onboard Hulu will be taking off even more.

Check out this video of some chick speaking in tongues. Apparently she also has a condition where her left hand is permanently attached to her head.  Poor thing covers her mouth as if to fight the demons inside.

We have had a good run, but I don’t just see making a lifetime commitment to you. It is scary and sad to leave someone you have been with for a long time. Fear of being alone, will you really ever find a replacement? But it is a decision that came after another TiVo in the house died.

There are tons of articles covering the legal, and illegal, ways of transitioning from broadcast television to broadband television. Once I found the world of Vuze and Boxee the only thing that concerned me is my four year old son. How to replace hours of cartoon network and Disney shows.

Most of the reason of the switch has to do with convenience. This is the world I live in, I want things to work together, easily and quickly. When I am on the road I want to be able to watch my shows on my iPhone. When I am at home i want to be able to watch my shows on my TV. Honestly Vuze I have found to be the best fit. Not only can I subscribe to the RSS feed of my show so that it is automatically downloaded, but it will convert it and put it on my PS3 or my iPhone. Giving me the mobility I need.

But how to keep my son from loosing his shows? It was actually an easier task than I originally thought it would be. Boxee is a great media platform for the Mac that you can run on the Apple TVs. With it’s interface with Hulu I was set. Thankfully my son is obsessed with classic cartoons such as The Pink Panther, and those are shows that are in abundance on Hulu.

Needles to say the extra $75 a month I save is nice, but don’t think it doesn’t have it’s drawbacks. Such as a lot of live events that you can’t find streamed on the Internet. I don’t watch the news, so that wasn’t a problem normally, but what about in extreme weather.

All and all, so far it has worked out well. Even with wife not being very tech savvy, she is happy with the free HD content found online, most without commercials. It is all about ease of use, and most of that thankfully comes from Vuze.

UPDATE: I just found a piece from The Washington Post over this same thing almost.