Charles Stross discusses the influences behind The Atrocity Archives and the rich seam of existential horror from whence they are mined:
There’s nothing terribly funny about “A Colder War”: I was groping in the dark for a way to express the alienating horror of nuclear annihilation that I’d grown up with, and Lovecraft’s monsters came perfectly to hand. The existential dread they evoke is not so alien to those of us who lived through the original Cold War.
With the wind firmly in the sails (lolwhut?) of hybrid cars auto giant GM is to get into the electric battery business:
The company also plans to increase its in-house battery development by building a 31,000-square-foot battery lab and hiring hundreds of battery engineers. GM is also working with a battery-engineering program at the University of Michigan to train new engineers. The lack of qualified and experienced battery engineers in the United States has been one of the big challenges facing battery startups such as A123 Systems. Most advanced battery production takes place in Asia, and this could hold back a switch from conventional vehicles to electric ones in the United States.
Technology Review have also created an interesting infographic of how a hybrid car works.
An ongoing trend in design tools and techniques lies in finding ways to make CAD more intuitive by using pen-based interfaces, from Physorg:
Because thinking about a new product shape by sketching is more expressive and more intuitive for engineers than the traditional mouse-and-menu-based design interfaces, the new system gives users more freedom to be creative and a shorter learning curve for use.
By providing greater freedom in conceptual design phases and alleviating costly redesign issues, the new technology will have an immediate impact on a multitude of industries, Carnegie Mellon researchers said.
This sounds similar to the ILoveSketch software tool, demonstrated in this video:
[ILoveSketch from Seok-Hyung Bae on Vimeo][via Bruce Sterling]
The inevitable New Year’s Resolution wear-off has begun: I resolved to write more and spend less time procrastinating by (amongst other things) surfing the web.
As ever things haven’t quite worked out like that but whilst procrastinating on Lifehacker I saw this article from Cory Doctorow, science fiction writer and Internet panjandrum, on how to avoid getting distracted by teh webz whilst writing:
Researching isn’t writing and vice-versa. When you come to a factual matter that you could google in a matter of seconds, don’t. Don’t give in and look up the length of the Brooklyn Bridge, the population of Rhode Island, or the distance to the Sun. That way lies distraction — an endless click-trance that will turn your 20 minutes of composing into a half-day’s idyll through the web. Instead, do what journalists do: type “TK” where your fact should go, as in “The Brooklyn bridge, all TK feet of it, sailed into the air like a kite.”
It’s all good stuff.
Now if only I could make good on my resolution to end all blog posts with a snappy and/or incisive comment…
Fun and games from the Consumer Electronics Show with Mindflex, a toy that uses theta waves to move balls around (see video here):
Focusing on the ball causes a fan in the base of the game — called Mind Flex — to start up and lift the ball on a gentle stream of air. Break your concentration and the ball descends.
Once a player has the ball in the air they need to try to weave it through hoops, towers and other obstacles.
“It’s a mind-eye coordination game,” said Mattel’s Tim Sheridan. “As you relax you’ll find that the ball drops.”
Mind Flex relies on EEG technology to measure brain wave activity through a headset equipped with sensors for the forehead and earlobes.