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I have one now and I wish to thank whoever it is that offered me the invitation to buy.  It is a privilege to have an early chance to preview and try out what may well prove to be a major technological advance.

That said, I still don’t find this to be a useful device.  Here are my difficulties, many of which are specific to me:

1. Right now it’s only for people who see well.  I kept on wanting to put on my (non-Google) glasses to view things through Google Glass.  That doesn’t work.  I also find it involves eyestrain and discomfort to look up into that upper right corner.  That’s probably my defect rather than Google’s, but in contrast I know I am high quality enough to use their search engine and probably their driverless car as well.  (Gmail remains a toss-up but I fear I am failing at it, even though I use it only for storage.)

2. I would do better if the small screen were above the left eye rather than the right.

3. It works through wireless, which means either a) I can use it at home which is exactly where I don’t need it, or b) I can carry around a WiFi device, which indeed I do have, but at some point it all stops being so easy, and furthermore there are then two battery lives to worry about (4-5 hours for Glass, I am told by various sources), two things I need to turn on and off, and higher carrying costs.  There is by the way a Bluetooth method for running them through (some) smart phones, I am not sure at what difficulty or expense.

4. I tried to prime its connection to two wireless systems (home, and the mobile WiFi device) and each time I required the services of the help desk.  I wouldn’t call it buggy, but it doesn’t have the seamless, intuitive ease of use that we are growing to expect from new devices.

5. Glass is comfortable enough to wear, but when you take it off there is no easy and safe way to fold it up and put it away safely.  It’s non-wear carrying costs appear to exceed its liquidity premium.

6. The timeline seems to get crowded — but with what? — and getting out of the timeline and into other functions is not intuitive.  In general the shifting around across functions involves awkwardness.  There is the tap, the multiple tap, the forward and backward finger slides, and movements of your head, all of which need to be somewhat learned and coordinated.

7. Perhaps my biggest worry is that my iPad does most of what Glass is supposed to do, at least as far as I can tell.  I find that my carrying costs for the iPad are quite low, especially since I am usually carrying around a bag of books anyway.  When using Glass, I feel I first have had to grab an iPad, shrink it a good amount so I can no longer easily view it, tape it to my upper right forehead, and start tapping on it and sliding it instead of using the keyboard.

8. I do understand the “hands-free” point, but it does not benefit me much.  I wouldn’t use Glass when driving, don’t need it when cooking, and don’t wish to take photos when doing that other thing.

The pluses are that the voice recognition seems to work pretty well and the photos and video are decent quality, on top of the remarkable fact that the device is possible at all.  Wearing the Glass is extremely light and relatively comfortable.  The help line is open on Christmas day and involves no wait time at all.  It’s remarkable, when you first open the device, how little there is to the whole thing.  You keep on thinking “so where’s the rest of it?” and there is no more, a small band encased in light plastic performs all of these remarkable functions and Glass brings us yet one step closer to a future world of pure seamless magic, albeit a magic for acrobatic eyes only.

I still feel Google Glass has remarkable potential, but for me it is not yet something I wish to use rather than analyze.

Here is one useful review, more positive than my account, and here is another review.

kellysue:

(via She Wants The Destruction of the Patriarchy | HUMAN)

H/T to @laurennmcc by way of @xtop

Over in Locus, there's a must-read essay by God's War author Kameron Hurley, about how to talk to your friends and family who don't "get" science fiction and fantasy books. A big part of it is getting over your urge to dismiss your own books (or favorites by other authors) as "silly." But there's also a crucial secret.

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submitted by scrodd [link] [30 comments]

A scientific mission ship, trapped in dense pack ice off East Antarctica, is still awaiting rescue after a Chinese icebreaker failed to reach it. The Snow Dragon icebreaker was itself stalled by heavy ice, officials say.

The Guardian

A&E Reverses Decision on 'Duck Dynasty' Patriarch ABC News "Duck Dynasty" patriarch Phil Robertson will return to work on A&E's reality show despite his comments about gay immorality, the channel said Friday, reversing its decision to suspend him after facing a boycott backlash. In a statement Friday, A&E said it was ... 'Duck Dynasty': GLAAD responds to Phil Robertson's returnLos Angeles Times A&E calls Phil Robertson back to 'Duck Dynasty' after anti-gay flapReuters Canada Phil Robertson returning to 'Duck Dynasty' after A&E kills suspensionSan Jose Mercury News WWL -WGCL Atlanta all 977 news articles »

News10.net

Utah will ask Supreme Court to stop gay marriage during appeal News10.net Same-sex marriage, twice on the Supreme Court's agenda this year, will get another federal look as Utah asks the justices to halt gay marriages in the state until it can exhaust its legal appeals. Utah's Attorney General said it would ask the U.S. Supreme Court ... Utah to appeal same-sex marriage ruling to U.S. Supreme Courtfox6now.com all 102 news articles »

Politically Bankrupt China Dare Not Tolerate Freedom of the Press:

Journalist Chen Yongzhou, arrested after alleging corruption at a state-owned construction company. Photograph: Reuters TV/REUTERS

From The Guardian.

This is life in a one-party state, a running battle between a party apparatus fearful for its legitimacy and journalists whose craft necessarily involves disclosing information that the party would rather nobody knew. The practice of journalism in China, a country where 30 practitioners are in prison, has never been easy. During 2013, it has become a great deal harder.

A new anti-rumour law makes spreading “defamatory” information on the internet that “harms the national interest” punishable with three years’ imprisonment if there are more than 500 re-posts or 5,000 internet viewers. Ren Xianliang, vice-minister of the State Internet Information Office, declares that the control of “rumours” has been “quite effective”, “slander” is in decline and the flow of information is more ” orderly”. He is creating “cyberspace with Chinese characteristics”, he helpfully explains.

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Fallen

Do it yourself

Move over, Delorean. Only one car was futuristic enough to have traveled the streets of Back to the Future, Gattaca, and Battlestar Galactica, and that car was the Citroën DS, circa 1955.

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French artist Martin Woutisseth has created Twin Peaks Illustrated, a series of illustrations based on characters from the television series Twin Peaks by David Lynch. Martin spent three-and-a-half months creating the artwork and compiling it into a great animated video. Prints are available to purchase online from Society6. Previously, we’ve written about Martin’s Breaking Bad, Tim Burton, and Stanley Kubrick illustrations.

The universe of Twin Peaks is so rich that I always wanted to add more symbols, transitions, details… I based my character illustrations on pictures found on the Internet, and put them in a different backgrounds with different light. Kind of like the opening of The Simpsons, I wanted to introduce the viewer to the town of Twin Peaks and its residents by going from one place to another place with soft transitions, instead of the famous Twin Peaks opening titles.

Laura Palmer

Leland Palmer

Special Agent Dale Cooper

Margaret Lanterman (aka “The Log Lady”)

Twin Peaks Illustrated – The Man from Another Place

images via Martin Woutisseth

music by Silencio – “A Dream in Blue,” “A Minor Montage,” “Cannibal’s Vamp”

via Welcome to Twin Peaks, Nerdcore

For many science-fiction fans, Star Trek is one of the best series about stellar adventure. The series showed that the first civilization to make contact to Human is the Vulcan. Vulcans were noted for their attempt to live by logic without emotional interference based on the Surak’s teachings. Some interests arise from the Surak’s teachings because it shows similarity with Buddhism.

Monte Cook Games released the not-open license for Numenera as well as fan guidelines for usage. The Fan Guidelines merit a read, but the heart of the license is that you pay $50 per product, you can’t crowdfund, and your total sales must stay under $2000. Over $2k, you must negotiate terms with Monte Cook Games (MCG).

Twitter / hexican: @rianjohnson's BRICK is leaving Netflix streaming. If you're that 1 person that hasn't seen it, you got a couple days left to do so!

Velcroman1 writes "Fearing rapidly plummeting sales of traditional laptops and desktop computers — which fell by another 10 percent or so in 2013 — manufacturers are planning a revolt against Microsoft and the Windows operating system, analysts say. At the 2014 CES in Las Vegas, multiple computer makers will unveil systems that simultaneously run two different operating systems, both Windows and the Android OS that powers many of the world's tablets and smartphones, two different analysts said recently. The new devices will be called 'PC Plus' machines, explained analyst Tim Bajarin. 'A PC Plus machine will run Windows 8.1 but will also run Android apps as well,' Bajarin wrote. Another analyst put the threat to Windows bluntly: 'This should scare the heck out of Microsoft.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Remember this Atlantic Monthly cover from the mid-movie montage in Ghostbusters? The Awl's Michael Phelan does, and he's written an entire essay as it might have appeared in the magazine circa late 1984. The results are period accurate, and amazing. (Found via boingboing.)

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Since 1932, UNESCO has maintained a database called the Index Translationum. It is an international bibliography of translations—that is, a list of all the books in the world that have been published in translation.

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	Courtney shared this story from heart of hearts:
	Merry Christmas.

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sagansense:

Mars’ potato-shaped moon Phobos will be receiving a fly-by of ESA’s Mars Express spacecraft this Sunday! Zipping by 28 feet above its surface, the spacecraft will be traveling too close and too fast for any photo ops, but the science collected from this fly-by will provide the most accurate details yet of the 27 x 22 x 18km moon’s gravitational field, which in turn, will enable us to better understand its internal structure.

"At just 45 km from the surface, our spacecraft is passing almost within touching distance of Phobos…we’ve been carrying out maneuvers every few months to put the spacecraft on track and, together with the ground stations that will be monitoring it on its close approach, we are ready to make some extremely accurate measurements at Phobos." stated Michael Denis, the Mars Express Operations Manager [source]

As the spacecraft nears Phobos, it will be pulled off course by the moon’s gravity, altering its velocity by a mere few centimeters per second. As these measurements are sent back as radio signals from Mars Express, Earthly scientists will then translate them to determine the mass and and density structure within the moon. This data will assist in addressing questions of origin pertaining to Phobos’ planetary sibling, Deimos, as well.

How does this work? Mars Express possesses a high-resolution stereo camera which has been taking photos of Phobos against the background star field in the previous weeks leading up to this 35 hour tracking sequence: before, during and after the close encounter with Phobos. In addition to researching obtained toward its gravitational field, Mars Express will take measurements on the influence of solar wind on the moon’s surface.

"By making close flybys of Phobos with Mars Express in this way, we can help to put constraints on the origin of these mysterious moons…Mars Express entered orbit around the Red Planet exactly ten years ago this week – this close flyby of Phobos is certainly an exciting way to celebrate!"
- Olivier Witasse, Mars Express Project Scientist at ESA [source]

Phobos’ relative size compared to the Alpes and town of Grenoble, France.

Not so lumpy now, eh?

Excerpts and information from the Phys.org article 'Mars Express heading towards daring flyby of Phobos'. For further details on this marvelous spacecraft, ESA put together a 10-year video montage of Mars Express highlights, providing insight into the sophisticated equipment on board, which you can accompany with the 90-minute replay of ESA’s Mars Express conference from June 2013, which highlights the key scientific discoveries of the mission along with a new mineral atlas created to chart the geological history of Mars.

This is an amazing technical and scientific achievement and if they pull this off just holy cats.

28 feet. 28 frickin’ feet over Phobos.

Stunning.