Wednesday, April 01, 2009

Leverage 2: Welcome to the Future

First week of prep for Ep. 201 -- we laugh at the need for a hiatus. And a writing staff. Once I get the blue pages in on the season premiere, we should be back to regular postings.

But in the meantime, this is cool.



I was on Skype so I could give notes on a production meeting in Portland, thru Dean's computer. I had to change offices, so I yanked my Macbook Air off its power cord -- pain in the ass to unplug it under the desk -- and wandered down to the conference room, still talking while I did so.

Using a computer thinner than a deck of playing cards, unplugged and on wifi, I was looking at and participating real time on video with a roomful of people in a different city. While going down a set of stairs.

Hey Warren, where's my goddam jetpack?

66 comments:

  1. I LOVE stuff like that.

    You actually don't even need a featherweight computer, either. When my daughter Skypes me with her 1 year old son in her lap, I yank my 5 pound Dell off it's power cord - because, yeah, it's a pain to reach under the desk - and walk over to wherever my 85 year old mother is in our home to show her the baby, talking all the way.

    And this past summer, we just set the computer on the sofa and let my granddaughter in Las Vegas chat with her little cousin across the country until the battery was almost dead. They showed each other toys and dolls and clothes. One was 5 1/2 and the other was 3 years old. And they just accepted this as something fun, not at all amazing.

    It's definitely great for work. But it really makes it a lot easier when you're away from family, as well.

    What I'm really waiting for, though, is to be able to start doing this on our cell phones. I hear we'll finally be getting devices with 2 cameras that have been available in other countries. One of the cameras will be the equivalent of the webcams on our computers. Just. Can't. Wait!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous12:26 AM

    Louis C.K.is right. We have to stop our whining.

    "Hey Warren, where's my goddamn jetpack?"

    The same place as my sonic screwdriver, on back order.

    ReplyDelete
  3. David Whitehead5:21 AM

    "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

    And just think: we find this stuff amazing now. What tech advances will that 3 & 5 year old have at their fingertips when they get to be 'our' age? I'll be 65 and telling them to get their hoverbelts off my holodeck, I'm sure. :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrFgRAcr0jg

    An IBM commercial with Avery Brooks that just about sums up the response to "where's my (insert random flying cool thing)?"

    ReplyDelete
  5. Flying cars are keen, sure, but I happen to like that my future means that I can carry around this tiny little gadget that not only holds a huge chunk of my music collection, including some killer acts I only found out about via the web (Kutiman, K'Naan, AR Rahman etc) but also entire seasons of some of my favorite TV shows.

    "I'm tired of this album... how about watching that episode of Monty Python where..."

    Besides I don't have a driver's license ;)

    ReplyDelete
  6. @ Richard Jensen:

    Sucker. My sonic screwdriver shipped yesterday from ThinkGeek.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I'm a Skype n00b, but my mum loves the video chat--she says it's like living in "Star Trek" but it always sends me to a "Max Headroom" place. However, I still ned to find a good plug-in to record calls so I can sue it to do international phoners. It's all a grand experiment at the moment.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I'm jealous! Just looking at the computer while walking down stairs is too complicated for me!

    ReplyDelete
  9. The wife and I use Skype pretty often to keep up with her family in Spain. A wondrous time we live in, to be sure.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I was looking at and participating real time on video with a roomful of people in a different city. While going down a set of stairs.

    Soooo, not one of the days you started off with Bushmill's then?

    ReplyDelete
  11. Dave,

    the Bushmill's was probably downstairs - hence the need for travel

    ReplyDelete
  12. Bah, you kids and your new toys.

    Why, in *my* day ... Antique Tech In My Lifetime

    Still, where the hell *is* my jetpack, dammit?whirta

    ReplyDelete
  13. Anonymous6:11 PM

    @ Mary Sue.

    "Slaps Head"

    Damn, I thought it would be faster to order directly from the factory at Gallifrey.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Dave T7:12 AM

    Every day in Toronto I avoid being crashed into by some self-important mouth-breather on a cell phone. Sereral times. If fact, the cell phone isn't even a requisite.

    Every. Single. Day.

    I DO NOT want these people to have the ability to navigate in three dimensions when most of them haven't even mastered two.

    The idea of flying cars scares the crap out of me.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Back when I did customer tech support for Apple, ranging from iPhones to iMacs, Macs, and Macbooks, we got ahold of a Macbook Air, just before release, and it was awesome to mess around with.

    One of the Macbook Airs had a Solid State Drive, so we decided to hit the trailer site on Apple.Com and play a trailer, via WiFi, while spinning the Air on a tabletop....it was so cool, not a skip or an issue, just a trailer player as it spun.

    Silly, I know, but damn fun. Plus, you can toss the thing back and forth, which is insanely cool, too.

    ReplyDelete
  16. when my wife was in China we used Skype constantly and my creative partner was in Germany when we began work on our comic book. We did the lion's share of the work virtually. Skype was and remains a major component.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Managing to photograph yourself while participating real time on video with a roomful of people in a different city while going down a set of stairs is also not too shabby.

    Another fun "what has the IT revolution wrought" story.

    Last night, a bunch of us were boozing on at beer garden attached to very popular hotel. We got hungry but the main menu was was on a blackboard in the very crowded and busy bar and so we’d all have go in and read it and then queue to place our orders.

    “Nah, why don't you just photograph the menu with your camera, bring it back out and when everyone’s decided what they want, we’ll email ‘em.”

    Worked a treat.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Anonymous7:32 AM

    Doesn't look like Skype. Looks like iChat.

    ReplyDelete
  19. >>>The idea of flying cars scares the crap out of me.

    Depends on who has one.

    Alberto Santos-Dumont: First Flying Carwivestr

    ReplyDelete
  20. Jon H9:14 AM

    "so I yanked my Macbook Air off its power cord -- pain in the ass to unplug it under the desk"

    Use the fat cable that comes with the computer. Run that to the power jack under the desk. Keep the transformer block on top of the desk.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Anonymous9:37 AM

    From a commenter at Talking Points Memo, suggesting that TPM upgrade its weekend service because while..

    "...this weekend I was hanging from a harness on Yosemite's Half Dome, but I had a fair bit of free time belaying and a strong 3G signal (coverage is very good in the valley, the RV/diesel generator crowd would stand for no less)

    I guess if you go to the trouble of blog reading while hanging from a rope on a cliff in Yellowstone, you want to make it worth your effort.

    ReplyDelete
  22. What scares me is that the inset picture (of what I'm going to assume is Rogers) does not appear to show him using a camera or any other device to snap the picture and, thusly, I am assuming it's a POV shot taken WITHOUT A CAMERA.

    HOW DID YOU GET BRAIN IMPLANTS, ROGERS? AND WHAT DO YOU HAVE THEM PLUGGED INTO?

    It's times like this that I actually prefer Warren Ellis; at least his brain-melting future devilry is explicit, not hiding in the dark, readying to shoot you in the back with concentrated nanomites.

    Yes.

    I am afraid.

    ReplyDelete
  23. When does shooting start?

    ReplyDelete
  24. I freaking LOVE apple. We use macs or, awkwardly on a tiny iphone screen, in our production meetings as well, and it's awesome.

    Are there any programs/apps that you just couldn't live without?

    ReplyDelete
  25. Wa Wolves is on SCIFI CHANNEL tonight.

    It should have particular resonance for LEVERAGE fans.

    ReplyDelete
  26. Penyakit kencing nanah bisa disebabkan oleh beberapa faktor seperti seks bebas, penularan, virus hpv, lingkungan, gaya hidup dan lainnya, Maka dari itu kita harus waspada dengan penyakit kencing nanah ini, karena penyakit kencing nanah sangatlah berbahaya, Namun untuk anda yang menderita penyakit kencing nanah, maka anda tidak perlu khawatir,

    ReplyDelete
  27. Bukan hanya pengobatan medis saja tapi ada juga pengobatan rumah alami yang dapat digunakan untuk menyingkirkan penyakit kutil kelamin ini. Intinya, karena kutil ini muncul di daerah yang sensitif, maka anda harus mencari pengobatan yang terbaik pada kulit Anda dan jika diperlukan juga dibantu dengan tenaga medis yang professional. Sebab dokter akan menjadi sumber informasi yang baik untuk mengobati penyakit ini.

    ReplyDelete
  28. Bukan hanya pengobatan medis saja tapi ada juga pengobatan rumah alami yang dapat digunakan untuk menyingkirkan penyakit kencing bernanah ini. Maka anda harus mencari pengobatan yang terbaik pada penyakit Anda dan jika diperlukan juga dibantu dengan tenaga medis yang professional.

    ReplyDelete
  29. penyakit yang ditularkan melalui hubungan seks : vaginal, oral dan anal. Juga dapat menular melalui persentuhan kulit dengan daerah yang terinfeksi.

    ReplyDelete
  30. Sebelum kita membahas tentang pengobatan ambeien, dalam kesempatan ini
    saya ingin menjelaskan sekilas tentang ambeien, agar kita semua bisa
    memahami benar apa itu penyakit ambeien

    ReplyDelete
  31. Anonymous2:36 PM

    Penyakit kulit adalah penyakit infeksi yang umum, terjadi pada orang orang dari segala usia. Gangguan pada kulit sering terjadi karena ada
    faktor peyebabnya, Antara lain yaitu iklim, lingkungan, tempat tinggal,

    ReplyDelete
  32. HELLO, I JUST WANTED TO SAY THANK YOU FOR THIS ARTICLE

    ReplyDelete
  33. But also there are a lot of similar services, for example

    ReplyDelete
  34. I appreciate your quality stuff, that was really so useful and informative.

    ReplyDelete