I’ve been intending to write about this since the day it hit, but like most any new malware, the scene surrounding it changed almost minute by minute, meaning that anything I did try to write, if I had, would have been obsolete information by the time I published, so I sat back over the weekend …
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Space Shuttle Columbia: Second Flight – 1981 NASA Film on STS-2
On November 12th, 1981, the Space Shuttle Columbia was launched on the second flight of the Space Shuttle Program, a flight which also marks the first re-use of a crewed spacecraft – one of the key goals of the Shuttle Program. STS-2 marked the first use of the Remote Manipulator Arm (the “Canadarm”) , and …
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Angry Video Game Nerd Episode 13: A Nightmare On Elm Street – Episode Review
Following immediately from the Friday the 13th episode, the Nerd looks into the 4 player capable horror classic that is A Nightmare on Elm Street on NES.
The Computer Chronicles – Computer Music (1983)
I would imagine when most people think of “computer music” these days they still think of the beeps, boops, and blips of the Atari and early computer systems of the late 70’s and early 80’s. Even by 1983, however, music from computers had come quite a long way, and we were just on the verge …
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Facebook And That Little Flower Reaction
Ya know, I thought people had better memories than they seem to. This past week on Facebook, I noticed people talking about a little “flower” reaction, alongside the usual heart, laugh, cry, anger, and all that. This, as you probably know by now, is the “Thankful” reaction, which was introduced last year, just a little …
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The Strange Story Of Sonic The Hedgehog 3 And Michael Jackson
A decade ago, while browsing the then relatively new website called YouTube, I found a video that discussed something I never thought I would see: A theory that Michael Jackson was involved in the music for the 1994 video game “Sonic The Hedgehog 3.” “What? How? Why? Huh? How did I not learn about this?” …
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Angry Video Game Nerd Episode 12: Friday The 13th – Episode Review
It’s Halloween 2006; what better of a time for the Nerd to look at Friday the 13th on the NES!
Apollo Digest: Testing Apollo – 1966 NASA Film
Here we have a quick, 5 minute film clip from 1966, produced by NASA to provide a status update on the Apollo Program. In 1966, as you may recall, we were finishing up the Gemini Program, and the Saturn V rocket was nearing testing completion for it’s first flight, in late 1967, as a test …
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The “Sound” Of Cassini’s Trip Below The Rings Of Saturn
This video from JPL and NASA shows what the “sound” of the space below the rings of Saturn is like – more correctly, what the particle and magnetic sensors on the craft detect, indicating the vastly different environments outside and inside the ring zones around the gas giant. Again, this is what happens when you …
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Game Player’s Gametape Vol. 1 No. 3
Getting back to the Game Players magazine Gametapes, we now hit volume 3, which is actually the 4th tape we’re covering here (5th if you count the “Power Glove” tape we covered many months ago). In this tape, we get hints for the NES games Castlevania 2: Simon’s Quest, P.O.W., Strider, Thundercade, and WWF Wrestlemania, …
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Cassini’s First Dive Past Saturn
I’ve been delayed on sharing this, but hey, better late than never. This video clip from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL, as you may have seen it listed before) and shows the path Cassini took over Saturn during the first dive of the Grand Final. The clip speaks for itself, really, showing the cloud tops …
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A Weekend Away From Things
I took the opportunity this weekend, though not by original intent, to work on other things, away from Xadara: namely the day jobs, and just going out and enjoying some things. I’m well beyond behind on articles, and video making, but that’s fine; the previous few articles have trended quite well, for what they are, …
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Bits And Bytes – Program 5: Communication Between Computers
Alright, finally we’re getting to something that will feel familiar to everyone: networking! More correctly, the pre-internet computer networking methodology known as BBS’s, via literally dialing a number and putting a phone on the modulator-demodulator – a modem, if you are old enough to remember those kinds of things! This episode shows our friend Billy …
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Ariane 5 Launches Koreasat-7 and SGDC
Yesterday evening, from the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana, an Ariane 5 rocket successfully launched 2 large communications satellites into orbit, one for Brazil and another for South Korea. Ariane 5 is the European Space Agencies heavy booster, using 2 solid rocket motors for the bulk of liftoff thrust, and a core engine burning Hydrogen …
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The Classic Utility Bill Scam Is Back In Memphis
One particular type of scam that’s rather common are ones involving your utilities, mainly electricity, where they claim you owe a large amount on the bill and you have to pay now. Thing is, you can’t pay with your bank card, they only take cash at an undisclosed location or, to make things simpler, you …
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