It's a burning gas ball, not a person
My how we like to anthropomorphize things. The headline for
this article reads "In space, scientists can hear the sun scream." It's talking about an observation that solar storms produce radiation in the audible frequency spectrum. It's actually pretty cool. I find it amusing, though, that we (and I'm as guilty as anyone here) like to personify so many things. It's too bad they didn't include an audio sample in the article. Sometimes those recordings sound like the background effects in
The Forbidden Planet.
So no I'm off to listen to an old CD called O3 by
Sunscreem.
If you don't get it, just move along...
There are two types of people in the world: 1) those that can extrapolate from incomplete data
Ultimate Custom Keyboard
How much would you pay for a keyboard? Personally, I'm only in for about $30 if it has a ton of features, and I'm happy to use the $10 special. But of you're technologically insane and you like throwing away money, there is a keyboard out there for you. For just over $1500 - that's right, $1.5K - you can get the
Optimus Maximus. You can fully customize the layout of this keyboard, create custom maps for games, languages, programming, writing, etc., and store them on a flash drive. Each key has its own LCD screen that you can program with any image you want. I'd love to have one, but there is no way I'd drop that kind of coin.
Strange Maps
Here's a site with a collection of
strange maps. Some are real, some are fiction, all are interesting - if you're a map nerd like me.
All Google All the Time
I refer you to
Simply Google, a web page with links to Google's various sites, searches, and blogs. If you are as much a Google fanboy as I, you'll like it as a reference page of Googly goodness.
Ubuntu Studio 7.04
I'm guessing professional audio and video editors will find some of the features lacking, but if you want to experiment with that kind of application, but don't have the cash to shell out for pro apps, then
Ubuntu Studio may be a good choice.
HowtoForge has an install guide if you want to play with it.
From the article, the included applications are:
Audio Programs
- Ardour2 - Free software hard disk recorder and digital audio workstation application
- Wired - Audio creation program, helps to compose, record, edit and mix sounds (similar to Apple's GarageBand)
- Hydrogen - Advanced drum machine
- Rosegarden - Advanced MIDI sequencer
- TerminatorX - Scratch audio files like a DJ does records
- BEAST - Modular synthesis and composition
- JACK - Audio connection kit for Linux
Graphics Programs
- GIMP - Free software replacement for Adobe Photoshop
- Blender - Program for 3D modeling, animation, and rendering
- Inkscape - Vector graphics editor application
- Agave - Intuitive color schemer
- Scribus - Desktop publishing and page layout
- Synfig - Film-quality 2D vector animation
- FontForge - Postscript font editor
Video Programs
- Kino - Free digital video editor
- Cinepaint - Frame by frame retouching tool
- Pitivi - Linear video editor
- Stopmotion - Create stop motion videos
More info can be found here.
