Observe The Banana

As of May 2008, Owners of the Nintendo Wii game console can now download free game demos to their Nintendo DS game system at home just like the Download Service available at some stores. The service is available as part of the new free Nintendo Channel on the Wii. You can purchase the Nintendo Channel (for free) through the Wii Shop Channel. The Nintendo Channel features Wii game videos and trailers. To find the DS Download service you will need to agree to allow “Data-Sharing” service that sends data on what games you play to Nintendo. Then go to “Find Titles for You” and the bottom choice will be “DS Download Service”. If the option is grayed out as unavailable, then you have not agreed to the data sharing. Once in the DS Download Service you will see a list of available demos, some of which appear to be permanent, some of which seem to be available only temporarily. I have noticed the “Distribution Ends:” date they give is not always accurate . After you download a game you can keep it on your DS until it is powered off. If you want to save a demo to play the next day, just close the DS to suspend it without turning it off.

Since I have been unable to find a list on the web of what demos are available, I will post the new list on this blog as they change. Enjoy!

Click here for the current list of available downloads

October 2008 Wii Download Service Titles (Updated October 26, 2008)

Mystery Case Files MillionHeir – No end date
Crosswords DS – Crosswords Demo – No end date
Brain Age Demo – No end date
Brain Age 2 Demo – No end date
Flash Focus Demo – No end date

Crosswords DS – Wordsearch Demo – Distribution ends 11/02/08
Spectrobes: Beyond the Portals – Distribution ends 11/02/08
Brain Quest: Grades 3&4 and Grades 5&6 – Distribution ends 11/02/08
Ninjatown Demo – Distribution ends 11/02/08
MySims Kingdom – Distribution ends 11/02/08

I admit I only read this book because it was the featured book of our local library’s newly formed book club. The author describes it as a “history book disguised as a murder mystery” and that is really what it is. The pretense is that Sherlock Holmes arrives in western Minnesota in the 1880’s seeking the true source of the Mississippi river and is caught up in a local murder mystery and political battle over the location of the county seat. While I have to admit that as a murder mystery it is a little but light (admittedly it is aimed at 5th – 6th grade readers) but it does manage to work in a lot of local historical information about the Brown’s Valley area of West central Minnesota and the mystery keeps it all fun enough to keep reading. It is certainly worth a read to anyone interested in the history of the upper midwest, and makes an excellent educational resource for teachers in Minnesota. The author has generously dedicated the limited second edition printing to the victims of a 2007 flood in Brown’s Valley Minnesota. He has arranged for all proceeds (both his, his publishers and even book sellers) to go directly to the flood recovery fund.

Learn more and order your copy at his web site.

Nobel Laureate Leon Lederman sets up a table on a busy city street corner and offers expert answers to the public’s science questions.

Oh what shame, this senseless tragedy could have been easily avoided if only they had taken simple precautions. Just one little fence, that’s all it takes . . . oh the humanity. . . when will they learn?

Link ScienCentral via BoingBoing

I was introduced to Clifford Simak by the folks over at Dusty Loft, and after reading The Goblin Reservation I was looking for something else by him to read, and this is what I found first. It is collection of shorter stories gathered together in one book. I think that that often short story collections by science fiction writers are a way for them to do something with interesting pretenses that they have not quite developed into a full book. This book fits that pattern as a lot of the stories are not fully realized to their full potential, but are quite fun and thought provoking none the less. He seems to have a penchant for characters that are of the “simple country folk” variety. The inside front cover teases:

In the Worlds of Clifford Simak you will meet: Stinky, the beguiling, purring, tail-waving skunk who was a mechanical genius.

Lulu the lovelorn robot.

The Fivers, who turned war into a fun game in which no one gets hurt.

Captain, who thought he had no scruples but surprised himself with his own code of ethics.

Hiram Taine, whose back door suddenly opens to another planet.

And a host of attractive extra-terrestrials, aliens and just ordinary people caught in extraordinary circumstances.

A nice collection of good, fun “what if?” science fiction short stories.

I just finished reading Little Brother by Cory Doctorow.
As a regular reader of BoingBoing, I can not help but be a bit of a Cory Doctorow fan, but until now I had not read any of his works of fiction. This excellent book was a nice diversion from all the space science fiction I have been reading lately. W1n5t0n (Winston) is a cocky 17 year old who empowers himself with technology to overcome his schools surveillance systems. He thinks he has the system beat until he and his friends are caught in the wrong place at the wrong time immediately after a terrorist bomb attack in San Francisco. He quickly learns that the Department of Homeland Security is not like the police and don’t trouble themselves with the rules of the American justice system. Even though he knows it is crazy to fight such a large and corrupt system, he can’t seem to help himself and must take a stand for what he knows is right. With a lot a tech savvy and some creativity he decides fight back.

“My technology was working for me, serving me, protecting me. It wasn’t spying on me. This is why I loved technology: if you used it right, it could give you power and privacy.”

A wonderful tech geek adventure that hooked me from the first page with good characters, compelling story line and lots of techy goodness. You will learn a bit about internet protocols, cryptography and electronic security as well as a bit about what freedom and privacy is really about (wanting privacy doesn’t mean you are a criminal and treating everyone as a suspect doesn’t keep you safer). It is a well written, enjoyable read that I think is also, at the risk of sounding cliche, an “important read”.

I like to use my iPod nano to listen to fiction podcasts (like Escapepod!) when I go on longer bike rides for excercise. (I tend to not use it on short in town transportation rides). I first used it in my pocket, but that was awkward. Now I am trying out a Nike armband holder that works pretty well as long as I just let it play, but making changes or selecting something new to listen to is real hard since I can’t see the display.  I am wondering if this new iBikeConsole would be a good option? It claims to be “not just another iPod bike mount” and features a weather proof case and grip mounted wireless control pads to allow you operate your iPod without moving your hands. The most interesting feature listed is “Converts your Nano screen into a Cycle Computer display”. I am not sure how this works, but it looks like there is cycle computer electronics in the mount since they also say it will hold your ride information even when you remove the iPod. I guess it just uses the iPod for a display, like the Nike running gizmo, but it still is a pretty cool idea.  Priced at $76 on their web site it is not not more than a good cycle computer, but I am still not  going to rush out to order one just yet, since I already have a good computer. It does merit watching though to see if they raise the features or lower the price.

iBikeConsole product page (warning: main page attacks you with awful flash music and graphics display. Why do web designers make their pages so hostile to visitors?)

Demon by John Varley
After her fallout with Gaia, Cirroco has gone from being the Wizard to the Demon. With a whole race dependant on her survival, she spends her life alone, running, hiding, surviving. When Robin returns with her daughter Nova, and new son Adam, the time has come for Cirroco to step up and take action against Gaia, who now seems to be losing her grip on her sanity. While Gaia wallows in her self indulgant love of old earth movies and begins grooming her new Wizard, Cirroco Jones begins her transformation of human society on Gaia, and starts raising an army to try to put an end to Gaia’s rule once and for all.
Another great epic that, although slow at a few points, kept me eagerly turning pages to see where the story would lead.

Not long ago I wrote about an interesting way to apply math to predicting the future. Now I have come across an interesting article called Welcome to the Future by writer Gavin Edwards on his site Rule Forty Two which summarizes nine future predicting authors, and how well they have stood up to the test of time. It is quite thorough and covers a lot, and he evens ends with some predictions of his own. Be sure to get down to the part about David Goodman Croly (1829-1889), “the greatest prophet you’ve never heard of” with an accuracy rate of 75%

Most of the futurists I read focused on the rise and fall of governments, and especially, the progress of technology and the sciences. The future of art and literature got short shrift, as did sex and religion. At first, I thought this was because too many of the predictors considered their readership to be drawn from the business community. But that didn’t wash: an accurate prediction of fashion trends, or societal attitudes towards sex, would be immensely valuable to any savvy investor or corporate type. Would-be prophets avoid arts and entertainment because they seem too difficult to pin down, too trend-driven. Science provides the illusion that progress occurs in an orderly fashion…

As I immersed myself in futurism, I waded through promise after promise of electric cars, unified world government, and videophones. (For decades, certain favorite predictions have been coming along Real Soon Now.) But before I burned out on days of future past, I resolved to grade leniently. If a prediction seemed to be mostly correct, even if it mangled some details, I gave the futurist credit. If they correctly described the effects of a technology but misunderstood the mechanism of it, that was accurate enough for me.

Welcome to the Future

Addition:

One often overlooked future prediction comes from rock star and writer Pete Townshend. His failed and then reborn 1970’s rock opera project Lifehouse featured people living in a world where pollution is so bad they are forced to stay in Lifesuits and obtain all their experiences and social interaction by plugging in to “The Grid”, a huge global computer network not so unlike today’s internet and social networking sites.

Commenter Bobbie Dawn adds a reference to writer Orson Scott Card and asserts his prediction of blogging in Enders Game makes him particularly relevant to bloggers. I looked him up and, admittitly not having read Enders Game, could not find information on his predictions. I instead found him described as a right wing Bush war supporter and homophobe, not that that invalidates his writing, but it does make me less likely to want to read his work.

Wizard by John Varley
In this second book in the Gaia trilogy it is now many years after the Ringmaster first visited and Gaia has established a relationship with earth, joined the UN and allowed tourists to come and visit. She has also realized to protect her future she must make herself needed by earth and so she has begun offering miracles. Only 40 people per year are granted an audience with her, and those select few quickly learn that her miraculous cures to whatever ails them do not come without a price. Cirroco has found her long standing role as Wizard of Gaia to have its own heavy price that she did not fully understand when she accepted the job. We follow the adventures of two young pilgrims who come to Gaia seeking a cure for their diseases and soon find themselves trying to prove themselves on a grand adventure with Cirroco and Gaby trying to circumnavigate the ring of Gaia. The trip has a higher purpose than two pilgrims proving themselves. Not everyone will survive the experience, (though on Gaia that does not mean the end of their story) but those who do must face their own demons and learn to grow and change.
This is another gripping epic from Varley. Though in some ways very different than the first Gaia book, Titan, it nevertheless certainly has no trouble standing on its own as a great read.

As of May 2008, Owners of the Nintendo Wii game console can now download free game demos to their Nintendo DS game system at home just like the Download Service available at some stores. The service is available as part of the new free Nintendo Channel on the Wii. You can purchase the Nintendo Channel (for free) through the Wii Shop Channel. The Nintendo Channel features Wii game videos and trailers. To find the DS Download service you will need to agree to allow “Data-Sharing” service that sends data on what games you play to Nintendo. Then go to “Find Titles for You” and the bottom choice will be “DS Download Service”. If the option is grayed out as unavailable, then you have not agreed to the data sharing. Once in the DS Download Service you will see a list of available demos, some of which appear to be permanent, some of which seem to be available only temporarily. I have noticed the “Distribution Ends:” date they give is not always accurate . After you download a game you can keep it on your DS until it is powered off. If you want to save a demo to play the next day, just close the DS to suspend it without turning it off.

Since I have been unable to find a list on the web of what demos are available, I will post the new list on this blog as they change. Enjoy!

Click here for the current list of available downloads

September 2008 Wii Download Service Titles (Updated September 22, 2008)

Mystery Case Files MillionHeir – No end date
Crosswords DS – Crosswords Demo – No end date
Brain Age Demo – No end date
Brain Age 2 Demo – No end date
Flash Focus Demo – No end date

Crosswords DS – Wordsearch – Distribution Ends 09/28/08
Air Traffic Chaos – Distribution Ends 09/28/08
Spore Creature Demo – Distribution Ends 09/28/08
Arkanoid DS- Distribution Ends 09/28/08