Hillary Lipko: Frustrated Bunny

GTACM officers with Ben and Richard from Engadget HD

Richard and Ben of Engadget HD dropped by to give a short talk and a long Q&A session with Tech students and local Engadget readers. They’re in town for the CEDIA Expo (which I’m hoping to drop in on tomorrow–we’ll see). The talk was held in the Klaus computing building at Georgia Tech and was sponsored by GTACM.

During the informal talk, Ben and Richard chatted about what it’s like to write for Engadget HD, how the writers only ever actually see each other at trade shows, and a range of other topics from sound systems to emerging entertainment technologies to working 20 hour days at CES. I’m still sitting in the talk as it’s winding down, and it appears that they may have brought some friends from the expo who have some fun giveaways. Before the talk began, I snagged a pair of Z-Buds earbud headphones, which admittedly, I’ve never heard of, but they’re pretty nice looking, and they look like they might actually be comfortable. I’ll give them a try and report back.

The talk continues, so there should be more to come!

Edit (9:30 p.m.): Ben and Richard chatted some more with the audience before we called it a wrap, including a couple of funny anecdotes about how the supposed rivalry between Engadget and its competitor Gizmodo doesn’t really exist. Then some representatives from ZAGG (the guys with the headphones) had a few more giveaways, including some $25 gift cards. They seemed to have enough for everyone who wanted one, so I snagged one myself so I can see what they’re all about. (Hey, give me a break. I’m a grad student without an assistantship during a hiring freeze. I’ll take all the free stuff I can get!)

Ben also offered to post links to the blogs of the people who attended the talk, so it’s entirely possible that the fragile little server this blog is sitting on (along with my internet connection) could come to a screeching halt very quickly. I’m self-hosted, so please be kind! Will blog for better hosting.

There is curently a mirror of my blog located at http://lamenta3.wordpress.com. I have created this mirror because the box that normally serves this (and all of the content above me in the domain) to you is having some serious cooling issues stemming from a dying heatsink fan. Never fear: the site has been backed up locally and is being served from another box, at least for the time being. That said, if you notice anything hinky, let me know–all of the server settings might not be quite right.

However, I went ahead with the mirroring anyway, as the above is served from Wordpress’ boxen, not mine (or Andrew’s…whatever), and has significantly better uptime overall. The drawback is that there’s a lot less flexibility with what I can do with the blog, which is why the mirror is, well…kind of ugly. That’s also why it doesn’t have all of the same fun widgets on the side, etc. etc. And the importing messed up my tags, and I’m too lazy to fix it.  So in the end, I’m willing to put up with slightly diminished availability in exchange for being able to make Wordpress do things that its mommy told it, it should never do.

All that said: if anyone knows how, other than doing it manually, to make the mirror update automatically when I update this version of the blog, I’d appreciate if you’d share the secret with me. There are ways to make this page update when I update the mirror, but that hardly makes sense to do under most circumstances.

We get space shuttle flyovers before our football games.

Three Georgia Tech grads will have the ultimate nosebleed seats for pre-game activities before their alma mater’s big football game with Miami tonight.

They’re aboard space shuttle Endeavour, which is scheduled to be above Atlanta about 6:10 p.m., according to the school.

The shuttle will track from southwest to northeast and look like a very bright moving star.

From the center of campus, look kind of in the direction of the CRC (southwest) and trace up toward the direction of the Coliseum (northeast). If you’re in Home Park, looking toward the intersection of Northside and 10th will be southwest for most residents, looking toward the 17th St. bridge is northeast.

Photo: Endeavour STS-126 launch on November 14, 2008. Credit: Josh Hallett

In 2006, the Office of Policy Analysis and Research (OPAR), a small department within the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI), piloted a conference that brought together researchers, businesspeople and legislators to discuss a handful of issues in the domain of science and technology that was of interest and consequence to the state of Georgia. I was among the small group of interns in OPAR that helped launch this event. The format has essentially remained the same: five or six state legislators, typically associated with Assembly leadership or S&T committees, sit on a panel moderated by a notable research professional from within the Georgia Tech community. OPAR sets the agenda via a handful of policy briefs that provide the framework for the topics discussed by the panel.

Each year, the event has been fine-tuned; repeat panel members seem to have become more comfortable with the format, as have repeat attendees, resulting in a much more interactive (and much more interesting) experience. New to the mini-conference this year, a number of companies with products, services and ideas within the areas of discussion were invited to set up exhibits. The combination of these elements resulted in what I think is the best roundtable event that OPAR has done yet.

This year’s panel was moderated by Dr. Mark Allen, Senior Vice Provost for Research and Innovation at Georgia Tech. The panelists, all members of the Georgia General Assembly, included Sen. Cecil Staton, chairman of the Senate Science & Technology committee; Rep. Amos Amerson, chairman of the House Science & Technology committee (a committee I used to work for, might I add); Rep. Hardie Davis; Rep. Kevin Levitas and Rep. Jimmy Pruett. This year’s discussion topics included the use of virtual worlds (like Second Life) in education, particularly as how it relates to increasing and maintaining interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM); state-level legislative analyses of community wireless, innovation and biotechnology; and renewable energy portfolio standards. Many of the topics flowed well into others, which helped the discussion move naturally. Dr. Allen did an excellent job in facilitating this and keeping all of the panelists as well as members of the audience involved in the discussion. (more…)

Some days I don’t have anything substantial to talk about. Ok, most days. But I still find things that are interesting. I usually share them on Twitter (and my latest tweet is always on the left side of the page), but Twitter moves fast. So today, I bring you two links that are merely coincidentally related.

The Return of Clinton Futurism?

The last time the Democrats controlled the White House and both houses of Congress, Gillian Anderson wore pants. There were two Star Trek series at once, which promoted women and minorities and looked at the dark side of the Federation. Cyberpunk reigned supreme. The future was a shiny place — but with dread lurking just beneath its polish. Now that the Democrats have finally scored another grand slam, are we going to see the return of sunny-but-questioning science fiction?

Obama Positioned to Reverse Bush Actions

Transition advisers to President-elect Barack Obama have compiled a list of about 200 Bush administration actions and executive orders that could be swiftly undone to reverse White House policies on climate change, stem cell research, reproductive rights and other issues, according to congressional Democrats, campaign aides and experts working with the transition team.

To provide just some brief commentary, both of these notions excite me. To be honest, I’d love to see another Star Trek series, myself–perhaps the upcoming film will breathe some new life into a franchise that has been flailing about since the cancellation of Enterprise. However, I suppose that’s neither here nor there when it comes to the bigger picture of truly thoughtful and intellectual science fiction that is still wildly popular and entertaining, something that there’s been a sore lack of “new blood” in these past several years.

I am equally, if not more excited over the prospect of an administration that values scientific opinion again. I have never much cared for anti-intellectualism, particularly among those who are supposed to be our leaders. I am also delighted that the incoming Obama administration seems to have a better grasp of the executive’s Consitutional powers. President-elect Obama is a Constitutional scholar, after all, which gives me great hope (if you’ll pardon the expression) that the highest law of our land will again be viewed as the foundation of our leaders’ goals rather than as a hinderence to them.