Must admit I’ve never thought of the problems presented by having sex in space, but thankfully the brains at NASA have already done the calculations. We can’t figure out world peace, but we can figure out how let astronauts make love in space.

photo credit (CC): computerhotline

NASA studied sex in space over 11 years ago according to an article in the guardian.co.uk:

Twenty positions were tested by computer simulation to obtain the best 10, he says. “Two guinea pigs then tested them in real zero-gravity conditions. The results were videotaped but are considered so sensitive that even NASA was only given a censored version.”

Doesn’t sound like we’ll be seeing the instructional Astronauts Do It On The Moon hitting store shelves any time soon. Now if only Paris Hilton had been on the moon, we’d know all about this stuff. Forget the mile high club, that’s for amateurs.

Seriously, I wonder if in my lifetime I’ll have the opportunity to travel into space? Sex would be one of the last things on my mind up there but I can understand how astronauts having to be up there for weeks and months would think about these things.

Where am I going with this post? I’m ejecting now, Houston.

Keep looking at the following pictures of the iSeePet360 product (Japanese) and thinking: wouldn’t your dog just tear this thing up?

I’ve seen and had dogs tear through things like strong cables with their teeth that would make the iSeePet360 look like a candy cane. Once your pet realizes this thing is its next meal, how long is it going to take for it to go all Cujo on it?

via walyou:

The ISeePet360 grants you the remote ability to take care of your pet’s feeding habits while away from it! Having another option that would grant us more flexibility and freedom would be great. The ISeePet360 is an advanced dry food feeding bowl that let’s you control the feeding time using your cell phone or PC.

Also comes with a webcam so you can “watch your animal while s/he eats” — really? I understand loving your pets, but do pet owners really want to use a webcam to watch them eat? I understand some legitimate health uses, like if your dog hasn’t been eating, but wouldn’t an empty bowl or plate give you this important information? Do one really need the equivalent of a Slingbox for pets? Maybe they offer a version sans webcam?

I imagine when IPv6 fully arrives and everything has an IP address, we’ll see many more of these type products.

If you’re interested in this product, it will only set you back 50,000 Yen, or about $444 USD at conversion rates as of this writing. We don’t have any pets currently, so not applicable for our home. For pet owner readers, would you consider buying one of these? Seriously?

Got my exercise in for the month opening the anti-theft packaging for Nintendo Wii Super Mario Galaxy.

Watch Hmmcast

Hmmcast #179 downloads
Windows .wmv (1480×1080 HD) PSP .mp4 (480×272) iPod .mp4 (640×480)

How does Super Mario Galaxy look with component video cable on HDTV?
A friend asked me to check out how Super Mario Galaxy looks on an HDTV with a component cable connection to the Wii. In one word: TERRIBLE. Maybe I have something set wrong, but here’s the setup:

- React component cable for the Wii
- 40″ Samsung LCD HDTV
- Nintendo Wii + Super Mario Galaxy

I’ll shoot some comparative video of other Nintendo Wii titles and then compare to Super Mario Galaxy in a future Hmmcast. I don’t think I’ve ever complained about graphics in a popular title, but I’m very disappointed in what I’m seeing. At worst it’s like looking at an overcompressed JPEG, at best, it’s still noticeable.

I doublechecked in the Wii options that the TV Resolution was set to 480p (it’s worse at the default 480i, naturally) and it’s not nearly as sharp. Maybe I should have left it on the old analog TV. The Wii stuff looks good on there. Or maybe I’m spoiled by the 720p and 1080p PS3 and Xbox 360 titles.

Today various publications are reporting Marvel comics online at marvel.com for $9.99/month or $59.95 a year with some freebies. Only problem? Marvel servers are not protected by their own superheroes.

Funny seeing Spider-man on a cell phone. Who does Spidey call for server help? The Geek Squad? Incredible Tech Support? Wonder Admin?

To help sell the experience to an audience unaccustomed to paying for content, Marvel will offer a free sampler of 250 titles. Asked why people would pay for superheroes when newspaper websites have been unable to charge for content, Buckley says, “You can get the news anywhere. We’re the only ones who have Spider-Man.”

Caveat: when we can handle the load. Seriously, being a fan of Iron Man and Incredible Hulk comics, I’ll be coming back to check this out. Would like to see how this looks on the Tablet PC in particular.

Break time waster: try parking a car as a man and woman in this totally sexist Flash game. I don’t know if women will laugh, but men will.

For the record, I think the whole stereotype about women being worst drivers is BS. There are plenty of lousy male drivers out there. Still, it was a woman who hit my son and wife in the middle of the crosswalk four years ago.

The Crunchies? Please tell me they aren’t going to do this.

I’d say no offense before launching into this rant, but I’m still laughing as I type. It’s so crazy, I can’t stop laughing. The Crunchies? The Crunchies!

Om Malik could be the nicest guy in Sillicon Valley for all I know, haven’t met him but will take Mark Evans word. I have met Richard MacManus and Michael Arrington who both seemed like pleasant chaps in person, but the idea of these three along with Venturebeat teaming up and comparing the small start-up world awards to the GRAMMYs is laughable. The combined readership of TechCrunch, Read/WriteWeb, Gigaom and Venturebeat barely dents the number of albums James Blunt’s first CD sold.

Gotta love the comment from cweeb: “Come on Om, don’t bend over to techcrunch everyday.”

Malik contends that “the community will have a lot to say here.” Now this is something I have to see. Voting on the internet can so easily be gamed that I’m extremely cynical of any web system ever being fair and I’m a programmer.

The real reason sites offer awards
I understand the giving out awards at a site — or in this case from multiple sites. This has been happening for many years on the web and they usually mean one thing: more exposure for the site running the awards.

A lot of award sites require or strongly encourage entrants to link back to them and promote to their audience — vote for me, vote for me. It’s a guaranteed proven way to manipulate traffic to the website(s) behind the award. On the eve of Google penalizing sites for selling text links, contributing to link farms and link schemes, The Crunchies team needs to be very careful about how they promote their awards.

And let’s not forget that even a worthless program can get a five star award out there. The Crunchies team has a lot of swashbuckling to do in those chilly awards infested waters, arrr!

Will the Crunchies be the Crappies? We’ll have to wait and see when the details of the awards system are published, but they’ll at least be worth a laugh. Imagine what the award will look like? A bowl of Captain Crunch, maybe? Priceless! Thanks for the morning laugh guys.

Design UI dangers of using only automated text:

Hmm, which System of a Down should I choose? Maybe that’s the million dollar question. Flip a coin? I chose the default selected. Conversely, check out the design of the System of a Down CD mentioned above:

Looks just like a ripped CD. Bet it sold fairly well.

This morning I learned Rick Springfield turned 58 years old on August 23 of this year and has returned to playing Dr. Noah Drake on General Hospital. When he last appeared regularly on General Hospital in the eighties he also had some success on the guitar and singing. And then he went off radar until 2005.

What do you know about soap operas? I know a little bit and have a secret to tell.

(drumroll)

In the ninth grade in Wisconsin I used to ride my bike home for lunch, microwave a burrito and watch Days of our Lives. There was this Roman is a slasher plotline that hooked me. That’s my only time watching or following any soap operas. How about you, have you ever watched any soaps? Be honest now or the blog demons will get you!

A honey-do on the schedule tonight with the arrival of Rick Springfield in concert? My wife told me yesterday, “You better take me somewhere this weekend,” — and then added that she would like to see Rick Springfield.

Marriage involves sacrifices and concessions and it’s not like going to a Springfield concert is akin to bathing in sulfuric acid. Also, the opposite sex scenery — IE. the other women lusting after Springfield in attendance — probably won’t hurt my aging eyes either.

Hope I don’t lose my rocker edge by admitting I kind of liked Springfield’s hit song, Jessie’s Girl. Beyond Jessie’s Girl, I barely recognize any of his other greatest hits. We saw Air Supply live when the Emerald Queen had acts on the boat and both enjoy seeing live acts, so maybe Springfield will surprise me. That’s if we get tickets, as we don’t have any yet and the Ticketmaster ticketing system is down as of this writing. We’ll probably just stop by the casino later today and buy them. $35-55 each, about the going rate for a concert these days.

There is something scarier than the prospect of seeing Rick Springfield live in concert: answering this nightmarish question:

(shudder)

Smile, it’s Saturday.

Trick or treat? Treat: Phonespelling looks like fun.

Our business line number is 253-843-6283 which is also TDavid on Skype. I kind of like Ale-then-Bud, but then my ale lager of choice is Budweiser (Update 6:17pm PST: I’ve since been corrected in the comments below that Budweiser is a LAGER, not an ale, now you know why I’m not a brewmaster). Or does the phone number reefer (!) to that other bud? Haven’t touched that stuff in years, sorry to disappoint the stoner crowd.

ALE = 253
THEN = 8436
BUD = 283

Slick, huh? I also like: 253-THEN-ATE, 25-DUG-EM-CUE (could be a call to digg something?)

On a serious note: please always include the numbers when spelling out your phone number. Not cool when people only include the name without the actual numbers and force us to work it out on the keypad.

Does your phone number spell anything memorable?

My wife came in the office this afternoon and asked me if I wanted to go buy Guitar Hero III and Leopard. Didn’t have to ask me twice, where are the keys?

She went out with a girlfriend tonight so maybe it was some sort of quid pro quo. I’ve been staring at the Leopard box for awhile and am becoming increasingly impressed. Haven’t removed the shrink wrap yet, just looking at it and the faint holographic glow behind the black X.

I started to think about some of the other operating system box art I’ve seen and bought over the years. I remembered the red from Red Hat and the green from SuSE and of course the boring Microsoft Windows boxes through the years. Must admit the box style for Vista is attractive. It isn’t really a box, it’s sort of a cross between a clamshell and container with rounded edges. I like the shape of the Vista box better than the square OS X Leopard box, but that’s where the designers left at Microsoft and the Apple ones got busy.

That purple space looming behind the X — I’m transfixed. Maybe I’ll just leave it up there for the whole work week and keep staring at it. Or is it staring at me? I can’t be the only person who bought Leopard who is so fascinated by the box that they don’t … open … it. This box is the kind you don’t throw away, it’s kind of like the Apple store bags. Apple designers are brilliant. Haven’t even gotten into the OS and I’m visually impressed.

And with that, the pillowgate to dreams beckons. Night.