babeling

you know what's awesome?
google translate.
you know what's not so awesome? receiving someone's rejection letter.

that sucks for that guy. i certainly know how it feels to be rejected. and i know what it feels like to not get important emails.  what is up with people doing all job communication through email?? hiring and firing should be done with voice contact.

but back to awesomeness. google translate has gotten so good. i haven't checked out all the other translate sites, but i imagine they are all pretty good now. i remember trying to use one of these the first time i got a misdirected danish email --with a name like "dideriksen," the "smith" of denmark, this happens more often than you'd think. the first time i used one, the english translation was pretty pathetic so i can only imagine how bad my english to danish response was.

the best part is we can't be that far away from a true babel fish. i want one of these so bad. if i could have super powers, one of my top 5 would be the ability to understand and speak any communication. i mean how cool is that? you can go anywhere with that.

it's gonna happen. voice recognition software is getting better and better. and hearing aids are getting better and better. the technology will merge one day fo sho. and with biotechnology the way it is, i wouldn't be surprised if the eventual technology is a living creature. i hope it happens in my life time.

South Africa in focus

This is the short film "Alive in Joburg" which is the basis for District 9, opening this weekend. I am super excited about this film. Shot with an relatively unknown cast in south africa, the film uses the arrival of aliens for an allegory of apartheid. The film is getting stellar reviews. Despite more scifi or scifi-ish films being produced of late, most of these have substituted CGI sequences and action for the thought-provoking critique that good scifi writing includes. Philip K Dick, Octavia Butler, Ursula K LeGuin- their stories subtly, and often not-so-subtly take on society, race, classicism, our very definition of humanity- just to name the most obvious.

If you have an art house nearby, check out Moon, starring Sam Rockwell and Kevin Spacey's voice, currently out. One of the few recent scifi films I can recommend. Partly an homage to classic scifi like 2001, the film goes farther and is a thoroughly entertaining original film.

a sad note on a day of joy

i make no secret of my geeky love of all things sci-fi, the high and the low brow. the murky inner workings of my brain are certainly colored with the creations of philip k dick, octavia butler, asimov, le guin, and gibson. so it is with regret for all the stories he had yet to write that i read today about the passing of Michael Criton

for me, his stories have always had a great balance of science (real or skewed) with fantasy that make you believe in the possibility of his words. that's why i love science fiction, it makes you think and forces you to imagine the consequences of how we live, naturally and artificially. his final book, "Next," deals with biotechnology and is one of his best.

one of my favorites, though, is his non-fiction book "Travels." i appreciate the wanderlust we shared.