techno-culture

OK, I get the nice, 30th anniversary of Star Wars idea of sending Luke Skywalker’s original light sabre prop into space on the next NASA space shuttle. But the rest of this sounds like a parody from The Onion.
Before it can make its trip to orbit though, the lightsaber will first fly to Houston, Texas, [...]

Now you can have your dry cleaning sorted online in Ireland — and have it collected and delivered for free. Woo hoo! My kinda service.

Imagine — I never knew that men’s skulls across Europe went from long to round in the medieval period, then back to long. Seems it was men only, so could not have been due to an influx of fresh genes from, say, Vikings marauders. Apparently male bones are more susceptible to the effects of climate [...]

I can’t believe someone took the time to do this. But I wouldn’t mind owning that!

I just love the COSAC security conference, held each year at Killashee House in Naas. While it typically sells out, attendees are almost entirely NOT Irish for some reason even though every year I learn more here (and laugh more) than at say, the RSA data security event or any of the Irish security events. [...]

Ok, we all know we should be really annoyed with Google as they gradually take over the world — then there’s that China business, and the spooky potential of that Doubleclick deal. But dang it if they don’t always come up with some more spectacularly cool free stuff just when you want to slap them. [...]

I’m currently trialing a new Nokia N95 — the anti-iPhone. Outside of being a disconcerting brown (what an odd colour!) I really like this handset. Great screen, clever slider design, 5 megapixel camera (that’s better than my regular Sony), and maps and GPS that I haven’t yet figured out how to use yet. The downsides [...]

On his anniversary today, the King lives on. But Irish Times weatherman Brendan McWilliams has a few complaints:
… But Presley’s output is greatly disappointing for the meteorologist. Elvis seems to have had a strange preoccupation with romantic love, be it anticipated, surprisingly discovered, lost, or simply requited with ingenuous enthusiasm, and he neglects almost completely [...]

New research has revealed that the mediaeval city of Angkor in Cambodia was the largest preindustrial city ever, with an urban sprawl similar to present day Los Angeles (115 sq miles!), a population of a million people, and technology that enabled them to divert a river and run it through the city centre.

Very interesting article today in the San Jose Mercury News (from the software section of their regular venture capital survey) on how the VC environment is changing in the Valley as entrepreneurs benefit from Web 2.0 technologies and open source software. Many startups these days are quite frugally run and don’t need the big dosh [...]

This wonderful writer and conversationalist will be in Kilkenny speaking this evening at 6pm, Parade Tower, Kilkenny Castle. If you are within driving distance, highly recommended. White writes the most beautiful, haunting prose and has been an elegant and eloquent and politely immovable apologist (if that’s the adequate word) on gay issues and gay life [...]

Still a bit groggy this morning after the long return journey from Korea, but much the better for 8 hours of sleep.
The Irish students from Maynooth and DIT really shone and did the country proud in Seoul. The web development team of Marouf Azad and Mohammed Al-Tahs took a fantastic second, with $4,000 in [...]