Captain's Share

Last year, I wrote about Ishmael Wang's blossoming career on the ships within Nathan Lowell's wonderfully realised future universe of inter-galactic trading.

We last heard of Ishmael when he'd made it to full share and there's been an excrutiatingly long silence as we wait to hear more of his story. But Nathan was on a promise - it was coming!

I must admit I was wondering whether the latest installment would keep up the high standards that Mr Lowell has set for realistic, humanist, hard sci-fi. But now that I've started reading ("listening") to Captain's Share, I know my worries are for naught.

If you think it is remotely possible, I'd say that Nathan Lowell has met and exceeded the standards of story-telling that he set with the earlier books in the saga.

If you are not familiar with the Age of the Solar Clipper, I heartily recommend you start way back at the beginning and work through the series - you won't be disappointed! Not only does Nathan deliver intriguing hard science, but the situations into which he places his characters are model studies of human behaviour (and even management science)... not to mention the few culinary tips I've picked up along the way!

Here's the series (so far) in it's entirety:

• Quarter Share


• Half Share


• Full Share


• (an interlude [side story] South Coast)


• Captain's Share

All of these stories are wonderfully available for free download in audio format from podiobooks.com: read by the author in an utterly engaging way that only the creator could muster.

When I say "so far" I really mean it: Nathan Lowell has created an alternate universe/future so compelling and detailed that I can imagine (and eagerly await) many more stories drawing from the rich canvas he has created. So many more possibilities than even the Star Trek and Star Wars franchises ... and probably more in the league of the Dune and Foundation sagas ...

Ubuntu - Linux for Human Beings (and Bears)

Sunshine is one of our pimped PCs. After replacing a totally stuffed hard disk (seriously, it growled like a bear), time to install a real operating system. Sweet!

Top 10 Twitter Trending Topics in your City (or not)

Tweet: "How to Find the Top 10 Twitter Trending Topics in your City on a Google Map http://bit.ly/19rAOR #twitter"

It is actually pretty amazing - see the screenshot below for what was trending just now in Manila.



But, aren't we missing a whole lot of information? Apparently nothing has been trending recently in the whole of South East Asia. Despite the fact I just watched a bunch of tweets from friends in Singapore/Thailand/Malaysia/Indonesia just scroll by. Hmmm.

It is a nice experiment, and a good start, but big gaps like this will inevitably raise the question whether any of the information can be trusted.

TechnoDjango - The Lost Fingers Pump Up The Jam

NPR Fresh Air made me wish I was at the Montreal Jazz festival this year. The Lost Fingers' take on hits from the 80's are great fun, and great listening.

Just noticed their album is currently available for pre-order on amazon (out 1-Sep-2009).
Pump Up the Jam You Give Love a Bad Name You Shook Me All Night Long Incognito Touch Me Part-Time Lover Fresh Billie Jean Careless Whisper Tainted Love Straight Up Black Velvet

Fail Whale

too good to pass without note.. (more about showing the whale here)

Rocket Ship Galileo - Apollo 11 40th Anniversary

Houston, Tranquillity Base here. The Eagle has landed -- 20 July 1969 The 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing has been getting quite a bit of coverage, but the coolest initiative has got to be the addition of the Moon in Google Earth. Quite coincidentally, I just read Robert A. Heinlein's "Rocket Ship Galileo" (well, actually listened to the audio version brilliantly narrated by Spider Robinson ).

Heinlein packs this atomic moonshot adventure with just about every Boy's Own plot twist possible and tells a rollicking ripping yarn. What's amazing is the detail of the hard science throughout the book - especially given the fact it was written in 1947.

All the shucks, gee willikins is quaintly pre-baby boom, while the embracing of atomic power with such wild abandon is frightening in retrospect. Altogether, it's a great - if dated - story; a true testament to Heinlein's genius and imagination.

On atomics: it is possible the tide of opinion may be swinging back to nuclear. The ABC Science show just featured a story on the safer and cheaper generations of reactors coming online (transcript, audio). Today's generation III reactors, and the generation IV on the horizon offer even cheaper, safer and cleaner power (literally eating the waste products of earlier designs). All well and good, but it would be a concern if "new atomics" became the quick and easy fix that sabotages the head of steam building up behind the true clean, green renewables (like solar nanopillars).

Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll

Heard that the movie Sex & Drugs & Rock & Rollhas just started production. Probably shouldn't hold my breath, but I can't wait to see it.

It's based on the life story of Ian Dury, IMHO the best lyricist/poet who ever got a gig. And Laughter was the best album I ever bought as a teenager. I still have the cassette tape at home, even though the ferrite oxide has long rusted and worn away.

In what could turn out to be a masterful bit of casting, they have Andy Serkis playing Dury in the movie. I can well imagine Serkis doing a great Dury. Having done mega-blockbusters with Peter Jackson, Andy seems to be picking up quite a number of intriguing, not-so-mainstream roles. I guess he can afford to;-)

I also realize there's an obscure connection between Dury and Serkis. Dury is well known for having created and performed a version of the Bus Driver's Prayer, which ends with the line..

For Iver and Iver ... Crouch End

Which is - at least according to wikipedia - where Serkis now lives. So Andy is picking up from where our dear departed Ian Dury (RIP) left off...

OK, so that's a stretch. Time to reminisce over the Blockheads and wait for the movie to come out..

Oh boy, got to get one ...Zimplistic Rotimatic

This sounds great, and congrats to the winners of Start-Up@Singapore 2009 for the Zimplistic Rotimatic.

But I want to know ... can it also do the perfect prata?

Chapati or roti is a staple in Indian diet. Yet it can take over 30 minutes to prepare a simple meal of roti. Repeating this at least three times every day is a cumbersome process.

Zimplistic’s invention is an elegant automatic roti-maker set to be the rice cooker of India. With a push of a button, the roti-maker can mix, make and bake rotis from just the addition of water and flour to the machine.

Zimplistic’s founder Pranoti Nagarkar Israni is no stranger to product design. Only in her 20s, she left her job at a leading electronic manufacturer to start-up on her own. She graduated from NUS and majored in mechanical engineering. Zimplistic aims to go one step further by developing more innovations such as the roti-maker, to make every meal more convenient to make and consume.