Author: admin

Today Meta unveiled project Orion, the research version of next generation mixed reality glasses. And I am very happy with what I saw.

For the first time, somebody is showing a prototype that at least approximates a reasonable version of an everyday mixed reality future. The graphics display has well over twice the area of Snap Spectacles. The linear pixel density is about half that of a Quest 3 (very impressive, all things considered), and the neural wristband means you can do hand gestures even if your hand is by your side. And it even has gaze tracking!

I know that Orion is far from being a commercial product, but this is a real existence proof that all of that capability can indeed be packed in a glasses-like form factor. I am feeling hopeful about this.

And Orion happens to be my favorite constellation. So there’s that. 🙂

When the former guy gave a speech in Pennsylvania yesterday, he told the women in the crowd that “You will be protected, and I will be your protector.” Something about this seemed familiar.

Then I remembered why. There is a point in Nabokov’s novel Lolita where Humbert Humbert says “I intended, with the most fervent force and foresight, to protect the purity of that twelve-year-old child.”

This is the familiar logic used by all abusers everywhere. The person who wants to take away your freedom tells you that he is the only person who can protect you.

As Mae West once said, “Every man I meet wants to protect me. I can’t figure out what from.”

There are stretches of my day when there is really nothing to do except wait around. This happens at the Post Office, or when I’m waiting in line at the pharmacy to pick up a prescription, or just standing on a subway platform waiting for the A train.

Recently I have gotten into the habit of using those opportunities to memorize stuff. I will load something on my phone, maybe a favorite poem, or the lyrics to a song I like, or some particularly awesome speech from a Shakespeare play.

And then I will practice silently, aiming to get the words exactly right, going through the work in question until I can say it perfectly without looking at my phone. And for any given poem or speech or lyric, I will continue doing that for a few days afterward just to make sure I’ve got it nailed down.

I can’t say with certainty that this is the best possible use of my time. But it has turned out to be an extremely pleasant little hobby.

Maybe it’s really none of my biz
But I’m unnerved by a thing Wikipedia does
While you’re living it always describes you with “is”
When you die the word suddenly changes to “was”

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A canonical technology from the Star Trek universe is the Holodeck. You and I walk into a room together, and we are suddenly somewhere else.

A key point here is that we are physically together. It is only the room around us that changes.

A canonical technology in the Star Wars universe is the Jedi Council. You and I are having an immersive face to face meeting, and yet we are actually far away from each other, perhaps many millions of miles apart.

A key point here is that we are not physically together. There is an illusion that we are in the same room, but in fact we are not.

In a sense this gets to a core difference between the two universes. Star Wars is largely about having the power to transcend the laws of reality. Star Trek is largely about hanging out together.

Paul Williams, who turns 84 today, is one of my favorite songwriters. His lyrics are deceptively simple, sometimes nearly childlike, but his songs invariably get to the heart of the human condition. Forthwith, one of my favorite lyrics (and there are so many to choose from!):

Why are there so many songs about rainbows
And what’s on the other side?
Rainbows are visions, but only illusions,
And rainbows have nothing to hide.
So we’ve been told and some choose to believe it
I know they’re wrong, wait and see.
Someday we’ll find it, the rainbow connection,
The lovers, the dreamers and me.

For years one of my favorite songs has long been Mickey Dolenz’ Randy Scouse Git. He wrote it in 1967, and it appeared on the Monkees’ Headquarters album.

Just today I listened to that song, and then to another one of my favorite songs, El Paso written and recorded by Marty Robbins in 1959. Since I didn’t know any other songs by Marty Robbins, I looked him up on the Wikipedia.

I learned there that one of his other most popular songs, also written and recorded in 1959, was called Big Iron. I had never heard of that song, so I went over to YouTube to hear what it sounded like.

And I discovered that the main melodic line and rhythm of Randy Scouse Git is an exact copy of Big Iron. From a musical perspective, it could almost have been the same song with an alternate title.

Now I am left wondering several things. Was Mickey Dolenz consciously aware of Big Iron (it was released only eight years before his own song), or was this a case of unconscious copying?

And just how often does this kind of thing happen?

It must be challenging to be a supporter of the current Republican candidate for U.S. president. For months you’ve been led to believe that your candidate is strong, in command, on top of things.

And then you somehow need to reckon with your candidate spouting nutty conspiracy theories about Haitian immigrants eating cats and dogs, weirdly obsessing over crowd sizes, talking about having “concepts of a plan” for health care, and claiming that newborn babies in the U.S. are being summarily executed right out of the womb.

For months your candidate has been telling you that his opponent is “dumb”. Yet you witness that opponent in a debate not only articulating clear policy positions, but also effortlessly running rings around your candidate. Watching her was like watching Cassius Clay in his prime putting away a washed up old boxer.

It must be difficult, under such circumstances, to keep the faith. Faith can be hard to sustain in the face of cold hard evidence.

At a Whole Foods that I sometimes frequent, more than half of the magazines for sale at the checkout lines have generally featured Taylor Swift on their cover. That is not at all surprising, considering her popularity.

I went to that same Whole Foods store today, and noticed a remarkable change since my last visit: Not a single magazine that the store had chosen to sell at checkout featured Taylor Swift. It was as though she didn’t exist.

I wonder why that is.