Good to see Paul Krugman weigh in with his thoughts on the TV adaptation of Asimov’s Foundation series: “Foundation” might seem unfilmable. It mostly involves people talking, and its narrative inverts the hero-saves-the-universe theme that burns many acres of CGI every year. The story spans centuries; in each episode everything appears to be on the… Continue reading On Foundation
Author: John
Novels
I bookmarked this piece by Clive Thompson but didn’t get round to reading it until now, but it’s still worth reading for the sense of perspective he brings to the topic: [Whenever…] I’m tempted to be a little too pessimistic about modern digital media, I spend some time leafing through the big media panics of… Continue reading Novels
Surface Duo (one more time)
Continuing my obsession with Microsoft’s Surface Duo, interesting to read the thoughts of someone who took the plunge after a sharp price reduction: When turned on, the Duo greets you with two separate displays, and that is exactly what you are meant to see. Unlike Samsung’s Fold series that gives you an iPad-ish display when… Continue reading Surface Duo (one more time)
Overthinking it
I should have linked to this when it was originally posted, but never mind: I like it when Randy Milholland shares some parenting wisdom with his audience.
Apple Sounds
If you’re a frequent visitor to the Apple ecosystem, the first minute or so of the introductory video for this week’s Apple’s “Unleashed” event is comfy and familiar, a tribute to the way the sound of Apple’s devices have shaped our experience of modern technology. I wasn’t watching the event, because I’m unlikely to buy… Continue reading Apple Sounds
Flight
Watching videos of moths taking flight at 6,000 frames per second turned out to be exactly what I needed on a lazy Sunday morning. I never thought of moths as cuddly, but how else can you describe these? Seeing how ungainly some of those take-offs looked, I couldn’t help but think of Douglas Adams on… Continue reading Flight
Foundation
And so it begins: Influential sf sequence by Isaac Asimov (whom see for fuller discussion), initially a trilogy beginning with Foundation (May 1942-October 1944 Astounding; fixup 1951; cut vt The 1,000 Year Plan 1955 dos), in which Psychohistory predicts the fall of a Galactic Empire and points the way to a newer, more stable organization… Continue reading Foundation
Uncle Clive, R.I.P.
The news that Sir Clive Sinclair has passed away makes me sad, like a few million others who got the chance to own a microcomputer of their own for a ridiculously low price in the 1980s. Sad that a quick search of the text in that obituary doesn’t even find a single instance of the… Continue reading Uncle Clive, R.I.P.
Tough enough?
Watching a feature film on commercial TV with ads earlier this evening – not something I do all that often these days – I was interested to see Samsung’s latest ad campaign referring to their new phones as : “Our toughest foldables yet.” Not the highest bar they’re setting themselves there, I thought. Then I… Continue reading Tough enough?
Visions
So, how does Star Wars: Visions stack up when you compare it to The Animatrix? A difficult question at this stage, before we’ve got to see what their stories involve. Clearly this will require further, in-depth study. [Via The Verge]