Meador Manor

Anything But Horrible

Posted on October 4, 2008 by Granger Meador

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog

Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog at Amazon

I have only passing familiarity with Joss Whedon’s work in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Firefly, but I can certainly recommend the three-part show he created during the writer’s strike and has been showing on Hulu and selling via Apples’ iTunes. Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog has some marvelous singing and acting by Doogie Howser Neil Patrick Harris, a touching performance by Felicia Day and a fun over-the-top Nathan Fillion.

Perhaps this is reflected in his other work as well, but the ending was darker than I expected, giving the episodes greater weight and pathos. I’ve bought the videos, the soundtrack, and have spent much more than that assembling a tribute costume for Halloween this year.

Posted in funny, music, video, web link | 1 Comment

Google Sat

Posted on October 2, 2008 by Granger Meador

Google Satellites

For years I’ve used satellite tracking software in my physics classes, showing students how we can track the thousands of orbiting objects around Earth. We usually calculate the orbit of the space station or space telescope and confirm our results online. Now the fun and free Google Earth application has added satellite tracking.

There is a post about this in the Google Earth Blog where you can load the Google Earth plugin into your browsers and play with the application. You can also watch a YouTube video of the new feature.

If you have the Google Earth application loaded onto your computer, load the Analytic Graphics Incorporated KML file to give it this capability.

Of course you can also stick with NASA’s online J-Track 3D for fancy satellite tracking, or track the Hubble Space Telescope and International Space Station.

Posted in physics, technology, web link | Leave a comment

Instant Paper

Posted on September 27, 2008 by Granger Meador

InstaPaper website

I’m still thoroughly enjoying my Amazon Kindle and Apple iPhone 3G, and there is a great website/application that helps me capture online articles for them: Instapaper.

I installed their shortcut into Firefox and now, whenever I see a lengthy article I would like to peruse later, I click Instapaper’s Read Later shortcut up in my menu bar. The article is saved and later I can visit the Instapaper website on my Kindle or use the Instapaper application on my iPhone to quickly access and read it. There is an option to show the article in text-only mode, which is useful for the Kindle.

The Instapaper website also has a Give me something to read link where interesting articles are collected – I found several of interest. But for me the richest mine for great articles has been the books article archive at Salon.com. I once was a paid premium member of that service, but gave it up because the gems were too few for the cost, but lately the service has been free and accessible. Another source of lengthy and interesting articles is The New Atlantis.

I still find the Kindle far preferable to the iPhone for this sort of thing, since it has a much bigger screen and the E ink technology is easier on the eyes. One simply has to scroll too much and too often on the iPhone when reading a long article.

So, if you have a Kindle or an iPhone or just need an easy way to save online articles for later viewing with your computer’s browser, I highly recommend Instapaper.

Posted in technology, web link | 1 Comment

Hot Air

Posted on September 25, 2008 by Granger Meador

Hydrogen Hoax?

I enjoyed the article The Hydrogen Hoax by Robert Zubrin in The New Atlantis. He debunks the concept of hydrogen-powered cars. But I am far less sanguine than he about ethanol fuels as an alternative.