Aiya Iluvatar

Autotuned Sagan and Hawking

This is simply one of the most cool remixes I have ever seen - clips from the famous Cosmos series that was formational for me as a kid. Brings back a lot of good memories. Thanks to Mental Floss for pointing this out.

Technorati Tags: YouTube, science, hawking, sagan, cosmos

Hobbit Holiday

From TheOneRing.net

“On September 21, 1937 The Hobbit was first published in Great Britain to great success. In fact, it was so successful it took J.R.R. Tolkien a bit by surprise. In a letter to his publishers the following month he commented: “At the moment I am suffering like Mr. Baggins from a touch of ’staggerment.’ Staggerment, indeed! Little did The Professor know the millions of lives he would touch with his little story about a simple Hobbit who rushed out of his door one day without any money or a handkerchief. Happy 72nd anniversary to The Hobbit! ”

First Jewish Service on Nazi Soil

And a shana tova umetukah to my Jewish Friends.

David+

Thanks to Daily Office Online for the video.

Technorati Tags: worldwar2, Judaism, military history, history

Tolkien Trained as Bletchley Park Codebreaker

Evidently, according to an article in the Telegraph, J.R.R. Tolkien did some initial training as a Code Breaker at the top-secret Government Code and Cypher School. He ultimately declined a job at Bletchley. Interesting to think of the alternate history of Tolkien working on the Enigma codes with Turing. Excerpt following:

JRR Tolkien trained as British spy 
The novelist JRR Tolkien secretly trained as a Government spy in the run up to the Second World War, new documents have disclosed. Tolkien, one of his generation's most respected linguists, was ''earmarked'' to crack Nazi codes in the event that Germany declared war. Intelligence chiefs singled him and a 'cadre' of other intellectuals to work at Bletchley Park, the codebreaking centre in Buckinghamshire. Its staff - which included Alan Turing, the gay codebreaker - would later decipher the 'impenetrable' Enigma machines. This saved Britain from German conquest by allowing the Navy to intercept and destroy Hitler's U-Boats. According to previously unseen records, Tolkien trained with the top-secret Government Code and Cypher School (GCCS).

So Turing broke “Gay Codes?” I’m not going to even speculate on those....
David+
Thanks to Tolkien Studies.

Technorati Tags: tolkien, enigma, cryptography, worldwar2

My Indispensable iPhone Apps

These kinds of posts are always just a little too self-gratifying. A good question is, “Who the heck cares what iPhone Apps David Simmons uses?” I still don’t have an answer to that, but it’s my personal blog, so there! With the addition of iTunes 9.0, you can rearrange your apps in iTunes instead of having to drag them around on the iPhone, so for the first time, my apps are arranged in a really useful order. It seems logical, therefore, to look at the first two screens of my iPhone to find out what I use the most. Of course, I’m not going to cover built-in apps. Here’s screen one:

The Launch bar at the bottom contains the four apps I need access to the most . The only 3rd pary app is Evernote, which I consider my most useful. Evernote allows you to add text, voice and picture notes which are uploaded to the Evernote servers and can be accessed through a web interface or through desktop software for Mac or Windows. Thus, any note I make while “out in the field” (outside my office) is waiting there on my desktop when I return. I find this especially useful for inbox items to go into my GTD workflow and for voice notes for pastoral care. I can then work them into GTD one by one upon getting back. A bonus is that Picture notes are analyzed at the Evernote servers with OCD software and can then be text-searched on your desktop. The desktop software can be a bit buggy at times, but it really is an integral part to my workflow.

Other useful apps on page one:

• AppBox Pro, which is a swiss-army knife of apps with a flashlight, tip calculator, converter, level, etc.
• A web link to Google Reader.
• RedDelicious, which manages Del.icio.us bookmarks
• Google search app
• Facebook
• PageOnce Assistant Pro, which shows balances and payments due on many of my financial accounts
• Tweetdeck, which is my current favorite Twitter client due to its multi-column setup.
• Password Wallet, which is my password manager and has a Desktop client as well.
• Meditate - the best meditation timer available (I think i’ve tried them all) for my Still Prayer and Tai Chi.
• TheBike - a bike computer. I put the iPhone on my handlebar mount and track my rides with the GPS. TheBike uploads its data to evertrail.com

Page two:

• Bump - for transferring contacts and pictures
• A web link to DailyOffice.org
• DocsToGo - for creating and editing Word files
• Our Groceries - the only grocery list manager that syncs between multiple iPhones
• Kindle Reader - ALWAYS have a novel with me
• Instapaper Pro - for reading longer web articles Later
• FileMagnet - Best reader I’ve used for PDFs.
• Accuweather - Great weather app
• iBCP - Always have a Book of Common Prayer with me
• CCEL NRSV - Ditto on a NRSV Bible
• IM+ - Great IM client
• VitalsView - Track my Blood Pressure
• Remote - Control iTunes playback
• G-Park - Where the heck did I park?

As far as games, my three favorites are Civilization Revolution, Fieldrunners, and iMech. And of course, I keep a lightsaber for unexpected duels, and That’s What She Said Pro, because you never know when that’s going to come in handy. (That’s what she said...) Actually, a strange thing about TWSS Pro is that one of the voices sounds dead on like mine - I’ve had several friends comment on it.