I’m quite delighted to have read that Sierra County, New Mexico has approved a 1/4 of 1 percent gross receipts tax increase to fund the building of Spaceport America. They’re working on getting all the other approvals they need to operate the spaceport, as well as a deal with Virgin Galactic.

There’s just something about seeing commercial space travel make progress that’s really exciting to me. I figure it comes of having a space-crazed father and reading quite a bit of science fiction.

Or perhaps I should say… super vision? Looks to be on its way.

A contact lens has been designed that can have circuits in it. It could display things superimposed on what you normally see.

The uses for these could be practical as well as fun. They’re talking about how pilots could use the technology as well as how it could be used in virtual reality games.

Of course, we all have to wait to see what actually comes of this technology. It can’t do much yet.

My sister and her husband gave me a very nice Christmas present this year - their spare TiVo plus an annual subscription. They say if I like they can just renew it each year for me rather than buying a present. Not a bad deal, but I told them I will think on it.

You see, I already have Media Center on my computer. But TiVo was the version I first tried out, back when it first came out and one of my other sisters had it. And I’ve long thought that I like it best.

Don’t get me wrong. Media Center is nice. It came with my computer that I was buying anyhow, and all I had to do was get the tuner card so that it could receive cable channels. No subscription fees.

Each one has some advantages and disadvantages.

TiVo Advantages:

• Designed just for the television.
• Great operating system. Easier to interact with in many ways.
• I like watching my shows on the television.
• Makes suggestions of shows you might like to watch, and records them. This can be turned off if/when it drives you nuts.
• I think the picture quality is better in my experience.

TiVo Disadvantages:

• Subscription fees.
• Watching a lot of television on the television means I work less.
• If you just want to record, for example, the 9:00 showing of a show every week, you can’t just type in the name and tell it to do it. You have to go by time and channel for this. Otherwise the subscription will go for all showings. This is a pain if it’s on a channel that does a lot of reruns, such as the Discovery Channel.
• My own problem - living room is really not set up for an internet connection or telephone connection, so we have a cord running through the house to the nearest phone outlet. We hope to eventually do wireless internet, but it’s not in the budget now.

Media Center Advantages:

• No subscription fees.
• Sometimes it’s nice to watch television on my computer monitor.
• Add on for the computer. Designed to deal with much more than just recording and watching television.
• Could be set up to work with the television if I cared to do it. They’re in separate rooms, so it’s not happening for me.
• When you decide you need to program in a show you’d like to record, what you are currently watching appears in a small screen near the bottom, so you don’t stop watching completely.
• You can choose the airtime of shows you want to record, so episodes run at other times do not record.

Media Center Disadvantages:

• Add on for the computer. Designed to deal with much more than just recording and watching television. Yes, good and bad.
• Watching a lot of television on the computer means I work less.
• I’ve always felt the picture quality was poorer.
• Took a very long time to figure out how to change show priorities. You have to go to the Scheduled recording section, then switch to series before you can mess around with recording priority on anything other than a case by case basis.

All in all, it’s interesting having both. I don’t know if my preferences will change or not over time. One plus to having both that I’ve already noticed is that my husband and I can more easily enjoy our preferred shows separately and together. With Media Center on my computer, not his, he hasn’t always been able to watch his shows as easily as I could watch mine.

Technorati Tags: tivo, media center, television, dvr

With Christmas approaching, I have fun wandering sites thinking about what I might get for various people for Christmas. Since I know none of them read this blog, I’m going to mention some. But I won’t say who they’re for, just in case I’m wrong about that. And I’m not promising that any will actually be purchased.

Great Geysers Kit

I know too many people who want to do the Mentos & Diet Coke thing.

Bi-Color LED Blow On-Off Candles

Not quite as romantic as real candles, but no worry about fires. Seems pretty nice to me.

USB Microscope - QX5

Rather like the Eye-Clops that is so popular right now, but for the computer. I kind of like that better. It also looks to be more flexible, with 3 different magnifications available.

Geeky Wrapping Paper

More to wrap with than to give, obviously. I especially like the ChristmasBots paper.

R2-D2 Laundry Baskets

Ok, I’ll admit it. I’m thinking of this for my son. He’s 2, he’s not going to read this!

No, I will not fix your computer t-shirt

More to give my inlaws a scare than anything. You don’t want to know how often I’ve fixed their computer for them.

Inconceivable t-shirt

A lot of Princess Bride fans in my family….

I love technology. I don’t buy nearly as much as I admire, since I don’t need it and can’t afford it. But practical electronics interest me too.

Humidifiers, for example. With the school year in full swing, a good humidifier is a must. How else to keep the kids as comfortable as possible during the inevitable colds?

There are a lot of great places to buy electronics, such as Abt Electronics. They offer some of the things I look for when I shop online, such as free shipping on some products. Their selection looks to be pretty good too. They have both practical and fun electronics.

Looking over their site does remind me that it’s time to check over my humidifier and maybe get a second… two kids, two roooms, after all. You probably know how often kids will get sick at the same time, and that little bit of added comfort can really help them and me sleep at night.

You’ve probably heard the bit about how we only use 10% of our brain, an idea I’ve long thought was nonsensical.

ZME Science points out how some research was most likely misinterpreted to come up with that idea. The research found that rats could relearn tasks even when parts of their brains were removed is one of the possible areas where such a misinterpretation could have occurred.

I’ve never understood how people can so easily believe that so much of the brain is just wasted. Even if you assume they’re talking about simple information processing and not including autonomic processes.

As the article notes, brain scans show activity in all parts of the brain. Not a huge dead area.

Certainly many people don’t use their mind to its full potential. We get lazy and don’t learn new things sometimes. It’s been shown that keeping the brain active throughout life has a benefit in old age. But sometimes it’s easy to be lazy and not try to learn new skills or work on things that make you think a little harder than usual. But once you get into the habit, it’s fun.

And certainly uses more than 10%.

Technorati Tags: brain, brain use, thinking